Carriacou - 22nd-24th May 2009

A great short sail (about 2 hours) from Tobago Cays to Carriacou, an island north of, and part of Grenada. We stayed the night in an idyllic spot very aptly named “Sandy Island” (photo) just off Carriacou, before moving round to Tyrrel Bay the next day. Shopping in the capital of Hillsborough is “interesting” – bakery is in someone’s back yard, eggs sold in a plastic bag (don’t stand a chance in the dingy!), 5 different stops to buys 2 small bags of groceries. Remember we can only buy as much as we can carry back to the dingy….

Jimmy had seen an article in the cruising papers that the Carriacou Yacht club was collecting for the local school fund. We did a big sort out and gave away a lot of Charlotte’s books and toys to them. We were very proud of her also that she let her scooter go without any fuss – we were sure some of the kids on this small island would benefit a lot more from some of these things. Along the way and at the end of each year we do a clear out of Charlotte’s stuff and try to give it to people that need it (often restaurant, hotel or marina workers will take it back to their villages) In general a lot of the Caribbean is very poor and the children don’t have a lot.

Sunday 24th May we had a nice sail from Carriacou down to Grenada - about 4 hours, 30 miles with perfect conditions - apparent wind angle 90 degrees 15 knots which gave us some great speeds. We even managed to sail (rather than motor) most of the way down the leaward coast of Grenada. We anchored just outside the capital of St George's, and then headed off to Grand Anse beach to look for children for Charlotte's birthday party the next day....

Life on Board

Life on board continues with the daily routines, the biggest now being homeschooling for about 2-3 hours each morning. Over the years we have sorted out our respective “jobs” on board and now Charlotte is also starting to have her role - turning the engines on and off, turning the lights breakers on and off in the evening and morning, helping Jimmy with anchoring (using the remote to get anchor up and down), laying the table to name a few.

I’m sure a lot of you think we have been sitting here drinking Pina coladas under a palm tree …. (not quite…) I figured that the less exciting parts wouldn’t make for good reading but some people say we should let you know “the bits we don’t write about” – blocked toilets, sleepless nights in bad weather, dragging anchors in the middle of the night, wet dingy rides, …. Living aboard continues to have its fantastic sides and also, in comparison, it’s more difficult sides.

Fantastic sides – sunsets, great anchorages, beautiful places, ability to move around, meeting great people, magic sails (when the wind is in your favouor). The prevailing winds are from the east (trade winds). With the island chain running north to south, it makes the Eastern Caribbean a sailing paradise.

More difficult sides: time to do everyday chores – shopping, with no car takes on a different meaning! (only buy what you can carry!!) Our dingy is our car – dingy to shore! Next, to actually find out where to go for shopping (laundry, boat parts, mechanics, clearing in, restaurants bars etc). When things go wrong on a boat and it’s not as easy as calling out the local fix it man, you definitely need to be self sufficient. Managing your power and water needs – unlike a house, when turning on the water faucet or electric switches, we also have to be responsible for how we get it in the first place – filling up water tanks and keeping batteries well charged (running the generator, ensuring the solar panels are not shaded by the boom …). We also have a water maker and collect rain water. Whilst it’s nice to live with nature, it’s not always as convenient!! (and makes us appreciate little things a lot more when we move back into the apartment). And of course there is the ever present home schooling that takes up about 2-3 hours each morning.

Tobago Cays 21st-22nd May 2009

The Tobago Cays is a group of small deserted islands protected from the sea by Horseshoe Reef. Boat boys come round from neighboring inhabited islands, selling fresh bread in the morning, plus ice, lobsters and T shirts. When anchored in the Cays, you are not in the lea of any island (only reef), so if the winds are blowing, it’s very windy there!

This is where Charlotte had her 4th birthday party, two years ago, on the beach, on an island 50 yards long – on the way there she asked me if the children who had been at her party would be there again.

A lot of effort has been made recently to make Tobago Cays a Marina Park. Part of the anchorage, where the sea grass grows, is sectioned off as no anchoring, to attract the turtles back. Charlotte and I went snorkeling and saw 2 big sting rays and a few turtles including a mother and baby (see pictures), (not to mention all the normal smaller fish).
One stingray kept following us and Charlotte got a bit nervous, especially as we were only in about 4 feet of water and the stingray kept swimming right below us.

We are Sailing…. 21st May 2009

We picked up anchor and headed out of Bequia just after Mick and Sue on Breathless. Both heading in the same direction, we had a rare photo shoot where we took pictures of each other’s boats under sail.

It took us about 4 hours to get to Tobago Cays. All of the sailing through the Grenadines is relatively protected short sails (although not to the extent of the BVIs).

Bequia (17th-21st May 2009)

Bequia is another of our favourite islands. It is part of St Vincent and the Grenadines (a group of islands stretching over about 30 miles), about 2 miles by 4 miles, 7 square miles with a population of about 6,000, very peaceful, small, laid back, safe, hassle free, nice beaches with some nice restaurants. Not surprisingly a lot of cruisers spend time there and at this time of year, a lot of boats are passing through, heading south before hurricane season starts.

Again the nuances of shopping in a small town – the bakery doubles up as a shoe shop!? Also the local baker comes around in a dingy each morning with fresh bread, rolls and great banana bread. Small yellow barges (“daffodil marine”) come round to deliver fuel, water, ice etc and collect / deliver laundry. You can buy lobsters, fish, pineapple etc from the boat boys (who seem a lot more organized, friendlier and less forceful than some other islands).

While there Charlotte got another new pet (see prior log) – a baby Portuguese Man of War is not the regular child’s pet, but I guess Charlotte is not leading a regular child’s life…. We also went snorkeling (on a different day to catching the jelly fish) a short swim from the boat.

One day the fisherman decided that the fish were all in a spot close by to Sue and Mick’s boat Breathless and proceeded to throw all their nets out, just by their anchored boat. Needles to say, the winds turned, as did their boat and by the time they came back from ashore, nets were all caught up under the boat… The fisherman made peace with a bucket of tuna (they gave one to us and I made sushi that night). There were literally hundreds of small tuna which they loaded into a fishing boat and whisked off to sell in St Vincent (literally a “boat load”). Here I am eating some of the freshest tuna ever!

We had a nice 4 days in Bequia, and then it was time to start heading south…

Charlotte's new pet

On a boat Charlotte does not have the regular pets like a dog or a cat. Her new pet today is a baby Portuguese man of War jelly fish. Previous pets on board have included a lizard (found under the bed) and crabs. One crab died after Charlotte tried to experiment to see if it liked fresh water instead of sea water - a good science lesson!

We are currently in Bequia. Life on board continues the usual pattern of mornings taken up with home schooling, repairs, jobs and maintenance. Later on in the afternoon, its playtime - including cruising round the bay on our new 2 man Kayak.

St Lucia: 22nd April – 17th May 2009

We stayed in St Lucia for 3.5 weeks – the longest we had stopped anywhere. St Lucia is the largest of the English speaking Windward Islands, is mountainous and lush, with many beautiful white sand beaches. Tropical rain forest covers the steep slopes of the centre. It is 27 miles long, 14 miles wide, with a total area of 240 sq miles and a population of 160,000. This was where Jimmy celebrated his 60th birthday last year, when about 25 family/friends flew in.

We arrived into Rodney Bay, (north St Lucia) from Martinique, in time to clear into customs and immigration, get our favourite chicken rotis in the Caribbean, and have a swim in the marina pool. We soon bumped into people we knew. By May, most boats have either headed north already, to USA/Europe, or like us, heading south to Trinidad or Grenada before the start of hurricane season 1st June. May is always a month for meeting up with a lot of cruisers again. Islands like Antigua are very quiet by this time of year.

Soon our social calendar was getting busy: Thursday sunset cocktails on Mick and Sue’s boat Breathless, Friday, all off to Happy Hour at the Landings Hotel, Saturday everyone over to us for lunch and Sunday lunch at the Yacht club! Although we had met Mick and Sue over the years, this trip to St Lucia we got to spend quite a bit of time with them which we enjoyed.

On Tuesday Hilary flew in from London for a week. We rented a car and did a tour of the island on the way to and from the airport, (in the south of the island). We stopped at Ladera, a beautiful spot between the Pitons. Along part of the west coast is one of the most mountainous roads you could imagine.

Jimmy flew up to NY for 3 days, so we took the boat into the marina to make things easier.
On Friday, Hilary, Charlotte and I did a day trip on Endless Summer – the same boat that we had rented for Jimmy’s birthday week - a great trip sailing right down the coast and stopping for a 3 hour land trip –waterfalls, drive through sulphur volcano and the coco-plantation for lunch. On the way back a stop for swimming and snorkeling and also a walk through the picturesque Marigot. Hilary also got a chance to see Charlotte waterskiing behind the dingy – especially funny when she tried to show off to kids on another boat by going no handed (the skis are also attached to the rope) – she waved and then promptly fell flat on her face!

On Jimmy’s birthday, Mick and Sue kindly offered to have Charlotte over for a sleepover, so we had a nice, rare, dinner out for 2! Finding babysitters in the Caribbean is not easy.

We are usually in St Lucia when the Jazz festival is on. This year we made it to the Saturday and Sunday shows, that started at 2pm until about 10pm – a good day of entertainment in a lovely park type setting on Pigeon Island. Artists that we saw included James Ingram, Michael McDonald, Jeffrey Osbourne, Shaka Khan, Patty La Belle, (many I knew their songs rather than names ……..) and for us the highlight was Chicago – it was great seeing a group of aging men having a good time and exhibiting a lot of talent with their versatility in all the different instruments each could play, and switching who sung lead. I would not have thought of Chicago as “jazz” but with their 6 piece brass band, I changed my views. They surpassed our expectations and put on a great show. Even Charlotte enjoyed it!! The only shame was that they did not play my favourite hit “If you leave me now”.

We missed Friday night’s performance, where Amy Winehouse lived up to her reputation by falling over on stage, forgetting lines, appearing stoned, told the audience she was so bored, then to F*** off and finally left the stage before her act had finished! She later blamed it onto the rain but that hadn’t stopped all the other performers. She had been hanging out in St Lucia for a couple of months and gained the nickname “Amy Wino” with plenty of stories of all her antics flying around in the almost daily “Wino Report” – how she exposed herself in front of tourists, puked in the breakfast buffet, at least 2 trips to the hospital, including burning all her leg with pasta, walked around in the same dirty shorts for days on end etc etc… Such a shame to see so much talent wasted.

It’s also entertaining watching all the Martinique’s sailing down to the Jazz Festival on rental boats - the norm is for about 20 of them to rent a catamaran similar size to ours and then party all weekend – usually one person on the boat might knows a little about sailing…. Whilst entertaining to watch, it’s a nightmare for someone with their boat in bareboat charter to watch! This year Jimmy saw them tie a catamaran up to the small dingy dock!

Hilary commented on how a lot of people seemed to know us – I guess that’s one of the advantages of spending some time in the same place. The marina staff haven’t changed in years, so the dock guys always welcome us back. Even Shane at the fuel dock asked after my niece Claire (the long legged “blond”) from 4 years ago! I guess we tend to stand out a bit more than the regular cruising couples – not many 60 year olds with a 5 year old child!! Tom the fisherman, who we swopped a bottle of Bermuda rum for a tuna a few years ago, caught a massive marlin the day we arrived, hanging over both sides of his boat – we weren’t planning on swopping anything for that! Maggie, who worked at the marina, came over again and helped us give the boat a good clean and also braided our hair. The guy that owns/works at the roti restaurant welcomes us back, the Endless Summer crew remember us…..

After 3 weeks in Rodney Bay, we finally pulled up the anchor and headed down the coast where there are some lovely snorkeling bays. Charlotte and I saw lots including some sea snakes. We spent our last 2 nights on a mooring between the Pitons – one of our favourite anchorages and probably one of the top 10 most beautiful anchorages in the world.

Sunday 17th May, at 6am, we left St Lucia to do the 50 miles sail to Bequia. We had a good sail across the 30 mile passage between St Lucia and St Vincent – winds 15 knots on the beam. Only one squall, when we are reminded how quickly conditions can change – I was on watch, relaxing listening to my ipod, perfect sail – saw some darker skies off to the side and within about 5 minutes it looked more like a scene from The Perfect Storm, as the winds shot up to 35 knots, and we were soaked. Once we got to the lea side of St Vincent, as expected the winds dropped to almost nothing, due to the influence of the mountains. Sails down, motor on, down the coast. The last 8 mile stretch across the Bequia Channel, the wind was on the nose so we just continued to motor, no sailing.

St Vincent is not a good or popular stop due to crime – we read of many incidences of boats being boarded at gun point there. We arrived Bequia at 1.30pm. Mick and Sue had left the day before and they were there to welcome us onto the anchorage (a popular stop with over 50 boats).

Fast Track to St Lucia – Saturday 18th April - Wednesday 22nd April

We left Antigua about 10am Saturday 18th April. Winds forecast 10-15 knots out of the east, seas only 3-5 feet, which was perfect for a nice trip south. The plan was to head south to Guadeloupe (about 40 miles passage between the islands) and then stop the night at Pigeon Island. It was about a 50 miles trip and we should make it there before dark. Then some snorkeling the following morning on the Jacque Cousteau reserve before heading off again. The plan was to be in St Lucia in about a week.

We left Jolly Harbour, heading south down the west coast of Antigua, only to find that the winds were coming from the south (weather forecasts are not an exact science…), on the nose, which would not be such a pleasant trip. However, once we got to the bottom of Antigua, the wind moved to the east, as predicted. It often happens that the land can impact the wind direction. Soon both engines were off, fishing line out, and we were enjoying a perfect sail (made up for the last not so great ones from St Thomas, to St Martin and then to Antigua). By the time we reached Guadeloupe, the wind was from the NE giving us a great wind angle for sailing. The wind angle and seas make such a difference for a nice trip. The conditions were so good we decided to take advantage of this and carry on, through the night. The only downside was that this would mean bypassing one of our favourite stops, Les Saintes.

The wind dropped a lot along the west coast of Guadeloupe, due to the very high mountains, so we motor-sailed most of the way down the coast in calm seas. We rolled in the jib as the wind moved to the south, (influenced by the mountains). It started to get dark, as we were nearing the bottom of Guadeloupe. I took the fishing line in – yet again we had caught nothing! Jimmy prepared everything for the night sail (grab bag, harness etc) and then took over the watch at about 6.30pm, while I went and watched High School Musical with Charlotte, and then got her to sleep.

Once we were past the bottom of the coast of Guadeloupe, the winds picked up again. We rolled the jib out, motors off and a great sail again for the passage of about 20 miles between Guadeloupe and Dominica. At 9.30pm, I took over watch from Jimmy. We were just passing one of Les Saintes Islands, a favourite stop of ours – a group of quiet little French islands just south and part of Guadeloupe. Jimmy went and got some rest while I took over the watch, sailing on to the top of Dominica and then down the coast of Dominica. Again, the winds dropped going down the coast as we were in the lea of some of the highest mountains in the Caribbean, so engines back on and jib rolled in.

The radar was well used as there seemed to be quite a bit of boat traffic down the coast of Dominica and it’s often difficult to gauge distances in the dark. There were about 4 cruise ships (which you can see even before you spot them on the radar!) Interestingly I saw 2 lights from boats that looked similar. However, one was a cruise ship about 15 miles away and the other a sailing boat about 4 miles away! I avoided another “blip” on the radar, presumable a boat but even passing at about half a mile, I could not see anything. It’s amazing how many boats travel at night with no lights (usually to save battery power....(very dumb))

With a mixture of drinking tea and listening to the iPod (and watching the lights and the radar!) I managed to last a 5 hour watch, which let Jimmy get some sleep. By 2.30am we were just at the south end of Dominica. I woke Jimmy as the winds began to increase again, and move back to the east, so that we could roll the jib back out (we had the main sail up the whole time). Then I left him to do the 25 miles passage from Dominica to Martinique. I came back on watch again at 7.30am, after Jimmy’s 5 hour stint. We were now just starting our way down the Martinique coast and Jimmy had taken the jib in and put the engines on. I hopefully put the fishing line out again...

Unfortunately there had been a problem with the port engine – the oil pressure gauge had dropped right down and when Jimmy went to check, the whole engine was covered in oil! So we were now down to one engine (one advantage of a catamaran versus a mono-hull is that you still have an engine if one goes wrong). I took over watch while Jimmy tried to sort out what the problem was. We made the decision to stop at the south of Martinique in Le Marin / St Anne’s, where there are lots of boat parts and mechanics. Charlotte woke up but was happy to watch another High School Musical for a while. Jimmy fixed the problem, cleaned up the mess in the engine room and we were back to 2 engines for our final hour of motoring into the wind, past Diamond Rock, to the anchorage.

By midday, Sunday, we were anchoring up in St Anne’s bay (and had yet again reeled in an empty fishing line!) . We had sailed 180 miles in 26 hours – all in all it was a perfect trip south. We had averaged about 7 knots. As a friend of ours always tells any visitors, “sailing is the slowest mode of transport invented (except walking, just)” – although often, with the wind in your face it can fell like a lot faster, with the apparent winds being over 20 knots.

Jimmy managed to sort out all the engine problems, without the need of any assistance or any additional parts. Both tired, we decided to head to the beach, in the hope that we could get some sleep under a tree while Charlotte played happily in the sand with all her beach toys. It didn’t quite work out this way but we had a relaxing afternoon. We seemed to be the only English speaking people on the beach – everyone else French. We came back to the boat, had an early dinner and then Charlotte and Jimmy took a quick dingy ride into St Anne’s to get an ice cream – however, none of the shops would take US dollars and Jimmy had no Euro on him. This is a definite change from a few years ago – the Euro shop keepers no longer want the US peso. By the time they got back to the boat I was already in bed and we were all in bed by 7pm!

We stayed in St Anne’s / Marin a couple of days, and on Wednesday, left to do the last 20 miles to St Lucia (a short hop!). Because St Anne’s is in the SE corner of Martinique, the reward of the 1 hour motor east into the wind just before arriving at St Anne’s, was a better wind angle down to St Lucia (especially as the winds were now out of the NE). The winds and seas had increased quite a bit, but with the winds now coming off our port quarter, we had a great, fast sail, reefed main and full jib, and made it to St Lucia in about 3 hours. We put the fishing lines out again for the trip but needless to say, caught nothing.

The plan is to stay in St Lucia for about 2 weeks.

Antigua April 2009

We arrived back to Antigua at about 5pm on Good Friday 10th April 2009, just in time for the Fore Deck Friday Happy Hour and the Easter Celebrations. Easter is a big weekend for all the locals to go out on their boats and/or go camping – it was just like the Cup Match holiday in Bermuda.

We spent the Easter weekend rafted up with Lewis and Eddy. Lewis had recently bought a big, powerful, loud, fast cigarette boat (Slingshot). About 1000HP and can go up to 80 mph!! He had recently driven it back from St Martin in 3 hours (beats our 14 hours!) He took us out for a ride on it – Jolly Harbour to Falmouth harbour in less than half an hour with roughish seas!! (versus our 3 hours!) – spot the ripples in Lewis’s cheeks from the wind/speed.

Easter morning Charlotte and Eddy did an Easter Egg hunt on the beach – Jimmy headed to the shop to get the real Easter bunny chocolate (no traditional chocolate smarty Easter eggs here – the closest is an Easter bunny or Cadburys cream egg.) We then headed up to Bird Island, on the NE coast, for a couple of days – Heat Wave 2.5 hours, Slingshot less than half hour…. Some of Eddy’s friends were spending the weekend there on boats. Many of the locals were also camping on Bird Island – complete with generators and the rumor is 42 inch TV!! All the tents reminded us of the Bermuda holidays.


We spent a couple of nights there – Charlotte and Eddy enjoyed all the swimming, fishing and ski-bobbing. Also went diving for conchs – amazing – we found about 5 around the boat in 5 minutes. One of the other boats collected about 25 conchs, and cooked them up into a very tasty conch curry – delicious but a lot of work getting them out of the shells, cleaning, pounding and preparing. Conch are very rubbery and tough and require a lot of pounding to tenderize them. Ours were thrown back in the water –Jimmy said he’d prefer to buy it than do all that work!!

Come Tuesday morning, the previously packed bay was now empty as everyone headed back to work. We headed back to Jolly Harbour after our 3 day vacation!!

Last Easter Charlotte had met and played a lot with Barnaby, also 5, who was on holiday from England. They had been emailing the last few months as he was coming out again over Easter. Unfortunately, it turned out they were leaving on Wednesday but we managed to catch up with Barnaby and his parents, Lucy and Jason, Tuesday night for dinner and then on Wednesday they came over to the boat – Charlotte took Barnaby out on her ski Bob – his words after were “That was Total Wicked!”

We then had a couple of days catching up on jobs (including schooling!). We went to check up on the geocache that we had hidden back in February, under the decking at the Fore Deck Bar, only to find that it was not there anymore! Scrambling on hands and knees under the bushes and decking, it was definitely gone. One person had logged a find of the cache in mid March, but that was it. On our last day we replace the geocache - hopefully this one will last a bit longer.

On our last night in Antigua, the Fore Deck Bar, at Jolly Harbour Marina, had a good band playing, with a packed crowd, but, as we were sailing the next day, we were sensible and were back on the boat and in bed before 10pm. By 10am the next morning we had left the anchorage and were heading south to Guadeloupe.

St Martin - 2nd-9th April 2009

We arrived in Simpson Bay in the early hours of Thursday 2nd April. One of the places we feel comfortable going into at night time - it's a big open bay that is relatively shallow til quite far out, so you can anchor quite far out before having to deal with all the boats anchored closer to shore. We also have our bearings for coming in at night time: the 4 white lights, next to the green lights off Kevin's dads house.....

Next morning we woke to find ourselves 2 boats away from Joe and Shawn on Libertas! - hadn't see them since leaving Barbuda.

Thursday was taken up with checking in at customs and immigration, jobs etc. Harmony came over to play with Charlotte later that afternoon.

Friday a nice leisurely lunch with Joe and Shawn before heading out for the weekend - over to Orient Bay - about a 2 hour motor-sail. Orient is probably one of the nicest beaches on the island, over on the French side, but hence has become very busy and a hot spot for the cruise ship passengers. We anchored off the beach and felt like we were on vacation!! On Sunday we even went to the beach for the day and rented chairs!! Despite what you may think, we hardly spend any time just sitting on a beach. Charlotte and I got our hair braided, we had lunch at one of our favourite restaurants Kon Tiki (that has been there for years) and then enjoyed a couple of rum punches relaxing on the beach.

Back to Simpson Bay Monday afternoon, after our weekend away!! Joe and Shawn were having a party on their boat that night and Charlotte had a sleepover at Harmony's.

We left St Martin at about 3.30am on Good Friday and arrived Antigua 13 hours later. We managed to get the jib out towards the end but most of the trip was a motor job as the wind was almost on the nose.

US Virgin Islands - March 26th - April 1st 2009

We had a lovely 4 hour sail from Virgin Gorda, down the Francis Drake channel, between Tortola and the small islands to the south, past St John's and into Charlotte Amelia, the main town of St Thomas. As we drove into the anchorage, we had a pleasant surprise to see Serephim - we had thought they were still in BVI's but it turned out they decided to take advantage of a nice weather window and get moving (they are heading up to USA). Charlotte was happy especially as we fixed up a play date for her the next day with Jack and James on their boat.


One of the main reasons for visiting St Thomas was because Jimmy's friend Wade was coming into Charlotte Amalia for the day on a cruise ship. He came over to the boat with his brother and sister-in-law for lunch - we got out the smoked salmon but don't think we were any competition for the food on the ship!! Thanks Wade for the slide show and video below:


St Thomas is much more built up and commercialised than the BVIs. Its owed by USA and with that came all the benefits, that we enjoyed - big stores, cheaper prices, more availability and choice, fast food, cheap fuel, .... You would never guess how excited we were to go and stock up at K Mart!! also 3 trips to Wendys and dinner one night "All you can eat Shrimp" at Hooters!!

St Thomas was the "Turn around" point, we had come as far north as were were going this year. On Wednesday April 1st we left St Thomas about 8am to sail back to St Martin, starting our journey back south. We had to motor all the way as the wind was on the nose, and arrived St Martin 16 hours later at midnight.

BVIs: Thursday 19th - 26th March 2009

We stayed in the British Virgin Islands for a week, after our sail up from St Martin. We had a nice couple of days up in Virgin Gorda Sound, where Charlotte got to enjoy playing with her friends on Serephim and Sea Walk and taking them on her ski-bob.

The largest sailing yacht in the world, the Maltese Falcon, treated us to a great sunset departure, under full sail through the Sound. It seemed like everyone in the anchorage had their cameras out!




Charlotte then said good bye to her friends on Serephim and Sea Walk, as they decided to take advantage of the south winds and sail up to Anagada. We then "bumped into" Bob and Betsy Bailey from Bermuda again in Virgin Gorda.


On Monday we headed to Road Town on Tortola to meet up with Shelagh who was visiting for a couple of days from Bermuda before delivering a boat back to Bermuda. We did a quick whirl wind tour showing her the sights - snorkeling at the Indians, over-nighting at the Bight on Norman Island - this is where the infamous "Body Shots" take place at the Willie Ts Pirate Boat. Having taken up the closest mooring to the Pirate Barge, Shelagh and I were all set for a night out, with Jimmy babysitting, but by the time we finished dinner, we both sheepishly admitted that we were tired and happier just enjoying a glass of wine on the boat, a chat and an early night!! Up nice and early the next morning - 2 hour motor up to the Baths and we arrived just in time to get one of the last moorings at 9am!! (we even had to race someone to it!)

By lunchtime we were in Spanish Town and Shelagh was dropping her bags off at Big Bear - the boat she was sailing back to Bermuda.

That night Shelagh had kindly offered to cook us dinner on Big Bear. We were in the anchorage just outside the marina - unfortunately, the weather blew up and strong winds started coming from the west (almost unheard off). As we were anchored not far off the coast, we ended up with engines on for a few hours to stop us turning round and onto the rocks. Finally, in order to get some sleep Jimmy hunted out the stern anchor (last used about 3 years ago!) and we set this to keep up from going up on the rocks. Unfortunately we were not able to leave the boat so had to cancel dinner. Throughout the night boats around us were pulling up and resetting anchors.

The next day we checked out of the BVIs and sailed to the US Virgin Island, namely St Thomas.

The Baths – Virgin Gorda

The day after arriving BVI, we went exploring The Baths with s/v Sea Walk and s/v Serephin. Charlotte was in her element leading the trail for the other 4 kids (ages 2,3,4 and 5). Despite have been to the Baths many times before, we are always amazed by the beauty of the rock formations. The Baths consists of huge granite boulders not seen anywhere else in the Caribbean. There are many pools, grottoes and caves, with a trail running through them – in many places the water rushes in and out like a natural hot tub. A beautiful natural child’s playground – and the adult love it too.

That afternoon we headed up to Virgin Gorda Sound with the other 2 boats. Perfect wind conditions for a nice comfortable sail. After arriving Charlotte made pina coladas for everyone (virgin of course). We saw the Maltese Falcon (largest sailing boat in the world) again sailing into the same anchorage - they must be on the same circuit as us!!

British Virgin Islands

The BVIs consist of the main island of Tortola, surrounded by many smaller islands. It is a British Colony, with its own government, and is a growing international offshore business centre (similar to Bermuda and Cayman Islands).

If anyone was looking to charter/bareboat a boat for a week, we would always recommend the BVIs. It’s probably one of the best cruising grounds worldwide, with steady easterly trade winds, great physical and geographical make up, numerous sheltered harbors, great diving and snorkeling. The sailing is not too challenging, with the outer islands providing some protection from the seas, and plenty of different islands to visit within a very short range. Day sailing can consist of a short one hour sail to another nearby island or a few hours sail to the other end of the island chain. Each time we get back to the BVIs it strikes us again how beautiful the islands are.

Sailing St Martin to British Virgin Islands –Thursday 19th March 2009

2.30 am the alarm went off and by 3.15am we were on our way, sailing out of the anchorage at Simpson Bay. Light winds so we put up the main sail before picking up the anchor. The bay was well lit, which made it fairly easy working our way though all the boats at anchor / moorings in the dark –Jimmy up front with a powerful light if needed (which it wasn’t), me on the wheel and us conversing though our headsets.

About 10-15 knots of true wind from directly behind (5-10 knots apparent) so we motor-sailed all the way, keeping up a good speed of about 8 knots. Unfortunately conditions weren’t quite right to fly the (A-symmetrical) spinnaker but we did get everything charged, made lots of ice and had a very easy trip! Two other boats that we had recently got friendly with (s/v Sea talk and s/v Serefin, each with 2 kids aboard), also did the trip that night, leaving at midnight – we thought we might catch them up but with no real sailing involved, not the case (more a question of how many revs on the engine!) however, we did have VHF radio contact with them on the way. The seas were relatively calm at only about 3 feet.

By 4am we were well on our way and started to take watches – I went on watch 4-6am so Jimmy could get some sleep and then he took over from 6am and I got a couple of hours sleep.
Night time motoring is mainly just a case of keeping an eye out for other boats. The cruise ships light up the horizon and are usually playing around, zig zagging back and forth, trying to kill time, when they have about 12 hours to do a trip from one island to the next, that would take them 3 hours or less. By looking at the navigation lights of the other boats you can work out which way they are going (and using the radar to see how far away they are, as it’s very difficult to judge distances at night). With the ipod playing in the cockpit, it’s quite a relaxing time (until Charlotte woke up at 5.30 am, coming up in time to see the sun rise). We passed about 8 boats going in the opposite direction during the trip.

The majority of the motor sail was in the daytime. We put the fishing lines out but as per usual, no luck again (although we did remember to take the cork off the hook this time!) Interestingly a lot of people (that do often catch fish) have mentioned about there being fewer fish around to catch this year. And we have definitely seen far fewer dolphins (none so far) than prior years (although Jimmy and Charlotte did see a whale about 50 feet from the boat on a prior trip.). Effects of global changes? – Definitely been cooler this year (I’ve been using a blanket at night, with the hatch close – normally it’s no sheet and hatch open).

Just over 80 miles later, we arrived 1.30pm into Virgin Gorda, about 10 hour trip and picked up a mooring at the spectacular Baths. Once again we were reminded how beautiful and spectacular the British Virgin Islands are. We took the dingy and cleared in at Customs and Immigration in Spanish Town, popped in to see our friends who had also sailed up, and were back at the boat by 5pm enjoying a sunset drink with the beautiful back drop of the Baths. By 8pm we were all asleep! It’s very dark here and so a fantastic star show.

Leaving St Martin

After two and a half weeks, we are leaving St Martin about 3am tomorrow morning (Thursday 19th March) to sail to the British Virgin Islands. It’s about 100 miles and this will give us the optimal daylight sailing time, whilst still ensuring that we will arrive before dark on Thursday. We are heading west so with any luck we will be able to fly the pink spinnaker tomorrow on one of our rare down-wind sails.

We are now doing the last bits and pieces before leaving:

• Jimmy is doing the regular engine checks before doing a passage;
• Relevant emails sent to the “emergency contacts” in case we have to abandon the boat (we have an EPIRB on board that, if set off, will notify the coastguard of our position to come and find us!);
• I’m doing the last bits on the internet (not sure how long before I get a decent connection again) – including trying to update this blog;
• Last bits of USA mail given to Paul and Leonor to take back to USA (to avoid the 6 weeks it took Jasmine’s birthday card to reach UK from here last year!);
• Last bits of shopping (prices and availability here significantly better than many islands in BVI);
• Charlotte is having a last play with Harmony, and we will soon head to the beach with some of the other kids she's made friends with.

Below are some pictures of our time in St Martin:

We had a good time in St Martin, although never made it over to the French side. Highlights included:

• Getting Charlotte’s cast taken off;
• a visit from Tommy, Lisa and Haley – always a lot of fun;

  From 2009-03 St martin

• Catching up with Paul and Leonor from NY, on their annual 3 week trip to their timeshare (we seem to always be here at the same time and almost feel part of their “timeshare” regular group!);

  From 2009-03 St martin

• Annual Heineken Sailing Regatta;
• Charlotte catching up with her friend Harmony and making new friends with kids on other boats (some also going to BVI tonight so will meet up again) – a favourite meeting place was the jungle gym at McDonalds (One of the few islands with McDonalds) – very good WiFi meant the parents could catch up on internet / banking etc while the children played. Below Charlotte with Katie, Haley and Harmony:
  
  

About St Martin

St Martin is an interesting, unique island as it is shared by two nationalities, using 4 languages, 3 currencies, 2 electric systems (110 and 220V), 2 governments etc. It is barely 7 miles in each direction, 37 square miles, with a population of about 75,000. There is a charming story, completely unsupported, that the French and the Dutch were so civilized that, rather than fight over the island, they had a French man armed with a bottle of wine walk in one direction and a Dutchman equipped with a flask of gin take the other. Where they met became the boundary and the French ended up with a bit more because the gin was stronger than the wine!

The “Treaty of Concordia” signed in March 1648 allows the free movement of people and goods across the borders. However, if you are on a boat you are officially meant to check out of one “country” and then into the other “country” if you decide to sail around to an anchorage on the other side of the island. In prior years not too much notice has been taken of this, but in the last couple of years they have become stricter on this, in particular the Dutch, who have started charging much high check-in and anchorage fees.

The fluxuating US$ / Euro exchange rate continues to cause mismatching in pricing within the island. The French side operates in Euro, the Dutch side on US Dollars (or the Dutch Naf which are linked at a constant rate). So how does a supermarket etc, that has stores on both sides, set their prices with the ever changing exchange rate!!?

St Martin is one of the most touristy islands, in particular with regards to the American market. (Due to lack of direct flights, there are few visitors from the UK, who tend to frequent islands serviced by BA and Virgin such as Antigua, St Lucia and Grenada). There are casinos, many condos and hotels, nice sandy beaches and is a duty free (well now 3%) shopping centre. St Martin is a favourite place for boaters to hang out for a while due to availability and pricing of boat parts, provisions and services. Some seem to never leave though …..

Slide shows - Pictures taken in Antigua, Barbuda and St Martin

Still trying to get to grips with this Blog stuff ....
Now I think I've managed to sort out slide shows of our photos.
Also been updating some of the prior logs so even if you've looked already, you may find some changes that i made today (Sunday 15th March).
We are still in St Martin and looking to head up to the British Virgin Islands towards the end of this week (about 100 miles) - mid week looks like a good weather window, although as it is a (rare) down wind sail, wind speed is not such an issue, as we will be going with the wind. With any luck we will be able to fly out (pink) spinnaker.

I have now moved all the slide shows to the relevant blog update.

Off at Last!!

The long awaited day finally came when the cast came off! 6weeks after the fatal fall!! Here is Charlotte, outside the clinic in St Martin, with her friend Haley who was visiting from New Jersey.
We had an X-Ray taken 2 days later, on the French side of St Martin and all looks OK

Arrived St Martin

Now anchored in Simpson Bay, St Martin, watching as all the boats arrive for the Heineken Regatta which starts tomorrow (Thursday). Had an easy passage from Barbuda to St Martin on Monday. Not too much wind so we motor-sailed - left 5.30am and were anchored in Philipsburg by 3.30pm - 10 hour trip.

Charlotte has already hooked up with Harmony again, her South African friend who lives in St Martin. This is the third season they have known each other and, despite the age difference, they play very well and enjoy each others company.

The winds on Friday are going to be 10 knots or less and on Saturday and Sunday its going to increase up to 25 knots so looks for an interesting weekend of racing, with very varied conditions.

Sitting down here its hard to believe about the economic downturn with all these mega yachts (200 feet plus) all around us.

On Thursday Tommy, Lisa and 6 year old Haley arrived for a 5 day visit. Charlotte enjoyed Haley's company and we are finally getting over Tommy and Lisa's company!! (all good!)

Home schooling







The Heineken Regatta was crazy as ever, lots of winds and swells - they kept changing the courses - 6 boats were dis masted, there was a couple of T bones, dozens of blown out sails. We had one boat drag down on top of us one night - no damage just a 3am wake-up call - Jimmy went ballistic with the guy.