Yacht Aditi

Most of the big stuff has moved out and there are hundreds of meters of empty pontoons. But occasionally something new turns up. We think the motor yacht in the final picture is undertaking an oil change and it looks like the third or fourth container tank carrying old engine oil is being craned off.

The bridge into Simpson Bay Lagoon feels tight even when we go through it and we have nothing to be concerned about. Some of the superyachts inch their way through at such a painfully slow pace that they appear jammed never to move again. Lots of boats amble up to the bridge and they always miss the entry opportunity. When they complain to bridge control over VHF they unleash a torrent of abuse from the bridge. Sometimes it’s third time lucky. Standard Dutch practice and familiar to anyone that has passed through Holland. We used to get yelled at on

Mahoooooooooooo! Look over your shoulder….

It’s been raining for days. Heavy, continuous rain. The tender is our alongside paddling pool that has to be bailed every day. Shortly afterward it fills again. Sometimes it’s suspended and drains through the transom bung but as the wind is beam on it has a tendency to fly; it glides well but the outboard’s a worry. We have rail clips to tether it but it’s not taking much notice. Thoughts on getting wet? We’re Trintella people. We don’t do wet! Our rig is loose now the furler is off and it squeaks in the wind with every little movement.

So, Jim, is it looking Furly nasty? Yep furly. You can have some of your old unit rebuilt with parts coming in at around 12k USD and we have yet to hear about the expensive bits that haven’t been quoted. The leadtime is about a month (Oh Stuck!). But there’s the Reckmann unit and that’ll be about 25k USD (what is it with the boat inustry; a new 103 inch Harley v-twin engine at the dealership here is just 3.5k USD!). But your hydraulic unit does not produce the flow rate required (several week’s leadtime uh oh….Stuck!). A Selden hydraulic

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,