Home. At least seven months and 10,000 miles of land and ocean stand between me and home. I’ve been thinking about that more and more this last week. God knows I’ve had the time to think about it. 4 hour-long night watches on a small yacht in a big ocean ensure […]
The Atlantic
Four weeks in the waiting, I am finally on my way. Through the wonderful assistance of John and Rich at The Moorings Yacht Brokerage in Road Town, Tortola, I have tracked down a captain taking a boat up north. Captain Debbie is her name, and she is a delivery captain […]
Day 487 – THE CARIBBEAN (BRITISH VIRGIN ISLANDS): A reluctant ...
If you come to the Virgin Islands, make a stop at Aragorn’s Studio. There you can see the famous Gli Gli Carib Canoe, and local artwork from the Caribbean. Trellis Bay is all rather photogenic…
Day 484 – THE CARIBBEAN (BRITISH VIRGIN ISLANDS): More of ...
Aragorn Dick-Read is an artist with close links to his heritage as a Tortolan. For most of his adult life he has been cultivating the West Indian heritage of the people that live in the Caribbean. Today I had the privelage of helping him transport an important part of that […]
Day 483 – THE CARIBBEAN (BRITISH VIRGIN ISLANDS): Mission: Accomplished
Time to get out of the British Virgin Islands. That’s not to say that I don’t like the place. What a great place this is. I have spent the last week staying in Trellis Bay on Beef Island, at the western most point of Tortola. I have slept in Aragorn’s […]
Day 481 – THE CARIBBEAN (BRITISH VIRGIN ISLANDS): Time to ...
I never dreamed that I would get this far around the world. I didn’t even know where the British Virgin Islands were until I was told that that was where we were going on the boat. But here I am. Stuck. But what a place to be stuck. My VISA […]
Day 455 – THE CARIBBEAN (BRITISH VIRGIN ISLANDS): Getting there…slowly
I do not know where the last few days have gone, but I know that they have been filled with many new developments… We arrived in Sopers Hole bay in Tortola, the British Virgin Islands, very very early on the 5th of October. It was dark, of course, and we […]
Day 443 – THE CARIBBEAN (BRITISH VIRGIN ISLANDS): Back in ...
Total distance sailed: 1060 NM Midnight GPS position: N 18.05 W065.30 Wind: Variable Light Sea state: Flat Click the image above for a video of the latest trip; The Bahmas to The British Virgin Islands by sailboat. At long last, the sea has flattened off, and we are able to […]
Day 439 and 440 – THE CARIBBEAN (PUERTO RICO): Cruising
Total distance sailed: 768 NM Midnight GPS position: N 19.31 W069.30 Wind: Variable and light Sea state: Calm I walked briskly towards the marina office, hopeful that everything would be sorted out concerning my visa card. Without it, not only would we have no money for extra fuel to get […]
Day 438 – THE CARIBBEAN (DOMINICAN REPUBLIC): And it all ...
I forgot about my credit card, and now the ATM has swallowed it. “I’m sorry sir,” the phone said. “We cannot retrieve your card, because the machine automatically destroys it.” We officially have no money. We handed over our very last Peso and dollars to the marina office to clear […]
Day 437 – THE CARIBBEAN (DOMINICAN REPUBLIC): Ocean World maddness
Distance sailed today: 113 NM Total distance sailed: 691 NM Midnight GPS position: N 19.49 W070.44 Wind: ESE Wind Force 2-3 Sea state: Calm to slight Patience is required in the game of delivering yachts. Well, at least when you have a thumping great big headwind and a strong swell […]
Day 436 – THE CARIBBEAN (DOMINICAN REPUBLIC): Grinding, grinding, grinding…
Skipper Steve is not a happy skipper. The weather forecast promised north west winds of ten to fifteen knots. Instead we are slogging into headwinds spawned out of somewhere near Hades, which appears to be south east of us – the direction that we are trying to go. And to […]
Day 435 – THE CARIBBEAN (TURKS AND CAICOS): Grinding it ...
We have found the root cause of all our grief over the last 48 hours – a very clogged diesel intake pipe. Again most of the day was taken up with recovering from the sleepless two days of sailing from Emerald Bay Marina in The Exumas to Turks and Caicos, […]
Day 434 – THE CARIBBEAN (TURKS AND CAICOS): Fixed
The night of Day 432: Waves of nausea attack me as I struggle to keep grip on the handle of diesel-soaked screwdriver handle. I curse myself for absently wiping the back of my hand under my nose to wipe away the sweat that is flowing in droplets down my face. […]
Day 432 and 433 – THE CARIBBEAN (THE BAHAMAS and ...
Distance sailed today:297 NM Total distance sailed: 297 NM Midnight GPS position: N 23.20 W074.33 Wind: SE Wind Force 2-3 Sea state: Calm to slight …self assured and adventurous. Hmmmm. Yes. That’s what I’m looking for in a woman… …marine eingineer? Perhaps in that line of work I could go […]
Day 431 – THE CARIBBEAN (THE BAHAMAS): A bumpy ride
Some good news, and some bad news this morning. The good news is that it looks as thought the tropical storm that is forming in the Atlantic is heading directly north, so will probably miss us. The bad news is that despite a good solid day of fault finding, we […]
Day 430 – THE CARIBBEAN (THE BAHAMAS): Emerald Bay Marina
Contrast. Calm and shallow: Deep and rough: I was on full alert last night on my night watch. This boat has a draft of 2.1m. Most of my watch, we were sailing through 3m of water. That means that the very bottom of the boat was clearing the bottom by […]
Day 429 – THE CARIBBEAN (THE BAHAMAS): The Exumas
Distance sailed today:17 NM Total distance sailed: 17 NM Midnight GPS position: N 24.59 W077.10 Wind: E Wind Force 2 Sea state: Calm The marina at Marsh Harbour consists of lots of poles sticking up out of the water. If you want to moor up, you go along side the […]
Day 428 – THE CARIBBEAN (THE BAHAMAS): Sailing through the ...
When I awoke, the small prop plane was nose-diving at an angle so steep that the steward was half hauling himself up the aisle in a rush to get back to his seat. Before the flight on the tarmac at Miami International Airport he was jovial. “Welcome aboard,” he said […]
Day 426 – THE CARIBBEAN (BAHAMAS): Abacos Island
I find myself once again thrown into a mad rush of dizzying proportions. I am now in the USA. In Miami. But tomorrow I won’t be. I will be in the Bahamas on Abacos Island. Confused yet? So am I. Basically, Reliance Yacht Management (www.reliance-yachts.com) have been really great and […]
Day 425 – THE CARIBBEAN (kind of): Tortola to Miami
Well, we are all done. The boat has been inspected by the Catamaran Company (www.catamarans.com), the company to whom we were delivering, and we given a glowing report for the clean state of the boat. The rest of today was spent lounging on the beach. Just what I needed to […]
Day 424 – THE CARIBBEAN (BRITISH VIRGIN ISLANDS): Nanny Cay ...
Well we have finally made it. We are safely in Tortola, in a marina called Nanny Cay. We thought we would be handing the boat over today, but no such luck. It will be inspected tomorrow, and we will be handing it over then. (click on the image above for […]
Day 423 – THE ATLANTIC and THE CARIBBEAN: Day Twenty ...
We made a late afternoon departure out of St. Martin, and we are now heading towards Tortola, the biggest island in the British Virgin Islands. We hope to arrive tomorrow morning at around 9am. Today consisted only of cleaning and prepping the boat for handover in Tortola. Washing the decks, […]
Day 422 – THE ATLANTIC: Day Twenty Seven
Total distance sailed: 2769 NM Midnight GPS position: N 18.03 W063.00 Wind: Variable Sea state: Calm Well, I didn’t think we’d make it on the diesel we had left, but due to some crafty diesel saving plans by Skipper Steve, we made it. We arrived at Captain Oliver’s Marina on […]
Day 421 – THE ATLANTIC: Day Twenty Six
Distance sailed today:118 NM Total distance sailed: 2658 NM Midnight GPS position: N 18.16 W062.15 Wind: E Wind Force 1-3 Sea state: Slight Generator hours: 17.1hr We are short on diesel. With only 40 miles to go to St. Martin Island, it is touch and go as to whether we […]
Day 420 – THE ATLANTIC: Day Twenty Five
Distance sailed today:134 NM Total distance sailed: 2520 NM Midnight GPS position: N 18.54 W060.15 Wind: E Wind Force 3-4 Sea state: Slight Generator hours: 20.2hr The boat cleaning has begun in earnest today in anticipation for arrival in Tortola in a few days time. We are delivering a new […]
Day 419 – THE ATLANTIC: Day Twenty Four
Distance sailed today:113 NM Total distance sailed: 2386 NM Midnight GPS position: N 19.40 W057.46 Wind: E Wind Force 2-4 Sea state: Slight Generator hours: 7.3hr When I awoke at midnight to begin my four hour graveyard watch, it was smooth sailing. I was taking over from Steve. “Very nice […]