Yacht Aditi

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.                          

We sailed up to Montserrat but the 18kn ESE wind rounding the shoals in the north still kicked up a nasty swell round the leeward side so we couldn’t stay. Passing the 2 mile exclusion zone around the hot steaming volcano and crossing the edge of the larva flow was a sight. Hot gases at 1000 deg C can roll down the mountainside at any time we are told. The last photo is of the old airport and you just see a single building still standing and that’s all. Some of the boulders are larger than that.

Where yachts disappear during your lunch hour! A couple of fisherman dragged in a yacht that we thought had set sail a few hours ago. There was no sign of any crew onboard even as it entered shallow water. We had seen the two older gentleman owners earlier and thought that perhaps they had had a serious piracy issue. The yacht was towed up to the shoreline and out of our view. We were concerned at the mystery and things didn’t look right.               The mystery revealed itself when a cat appeared about 100m

I’ll take it as it is and bung it in the inflatable….