Year: 2014

This place is called Maho; it should be renamed Maaaaaahoooooo! We had forgotten what an Atlantic squall was like so we lined up behind a 747 to get a quick reminder. We love aircraft and the opportunity to get this close is fantastic. We though we would start small and work our way up as we had no experience of jet blast. First out of the gate was a small private jet. That was fun and easy enough. Then the beach started filling and the dive masks went on as we got promoted straight into the 747 league. Since there

We saw the tall black mast moving around the lagoon so we raced down to the Yacht Club to wave goodbye to Alison and Volvo 70 Monster Project as they depart through the bridge for Bermuda. With a favourable wind on a good reach they could be up at around 20-25kn (so that’ll take a couple of days then). We expect to meet up again in Southampton Water. A couple of ordinary cruisers followed them out. We saw Axonite leave a couple of days ago so we are one of the last ARC boats to vacate the area. As the

News on the old furler is that the spares that are available will cost about as much as a new furler but then there are additional parts that need to be made which will cost far, far more. So we are furler shopping and trying not to bin our new forestay which is just 6 months old. We are a bit restrited as to choice as our hydraulic system delivers a flow of about 10 L/min whereas a number of furlers for our size require 15 L/min and up. The front runner is Selden which is a close match by

All sailors should be taught to avoid the code word for temporary abandonment of one’s vessel to technical fate. Teachers should educate kids that say they are stuck on their homework that the answer is going to cost them $4,000 usd and might be available next week, or perhaps not. Did I just write $4,000? Must be some zeros missing. Stuck in St Martin means the loss of Transatlantic momentum, waiting for parts, becoming bored whilst expenses rise rapidly and spending trends with it as the numbers in daily life seem so insignificant. Stuck is a condition. It starts slowly,

After three days in the lagoon Electec have done a deep dive on the generator and the headsail furler has disappeared into the sheds for a rebuild. That kind of progress was impossible to achieve  down south and the skills simply weren’t available. We are waiting for the results regarding both units….and time is pressing as we need to be out of the hurricane zone, way east of Bermuda, in reality in the Azores by July 1st. The headsail was cranked on the staysail halyard and lowered into the tender this morning. From there it went across the bay, through

This is it really, the end of the Caribbean and the beginning of our own ARC in reverse so we are starting to prepare to cross to Bermuda and to the Azores. But it is so hot from 8am through to sometime like 3am. The temperature changes by about 2 deg C but our hull becomes hot and we again hit about 34 deg C onboard. It’s sweltering and that’s not great when it comes to completing jobs. Doyle’s guide claimed the anchorage to be sheltered but with the east corner being full we had to drop back in the

We were greeted into Port Zante marina by Chuckie, probably the best harbour master in the world, do you know one that greets you with cold beer? We arrived in St Kitts as the calendar ticked over into May. Charlestown, the capital, was packed and lively. That is until the cruise ship warning horn went off. At 17.00 it was all aboard and by 17.30 the ship was gone. Now that it was nice and quiet we rolled up to a bar next to the marina and the  guys said that will be the last cruise ship this year. You

When snorkelling off Nevis in the crystal clear waters do you need a fish identity chart to help you keep up with all of the wonderful species that lie below? Or do you take a trip down to your local rubbish tip and learn to identify as many old and broken household items as possible? I did decide to venture out for a snorkel what with the beach looking pretty and the waters clear as even at 25 feet of water you could see the seabed. I came across a wide variety of stuff; many plastic cups, a wine glass,

Well not really. (Aka Land of the Flies). Firstly there is the issue of arrival arrangements whereby a yacht of under 80 feet is supposed to tie up to a yellow quarantine buoy until customs is cleared. We arrived at night and after crawling along parallel to the coast we did in fact find a yellow buoy and made fast. That was beginner’s luck for in the light of day we could see that we happened to have picked up not only the one buoy in the bay but it also happened to be yellow! And we had missed the

So it is with Karl’s boat anchored behind a 76ft cat. Karl single handed his 25ft boat across the Atlantic and keeps catching up with us as we head north. He was great fun to meet but we first spotted him about 200 miles ago in the Iles des Saintes where he stood outdue to the seriously small dimensions of his rig. We finally met at St Kitts and had a good laugh about his adventures.