Nevis

After Saba and Kitts it was on to Nevis. Some pictures to show the route.

who's driving ?

Laundry day... Where is the machine ?

Because the islands are volcanic they have hot springs

Notice the guy in the background taking a bath... We only washes our feet :)

Joseph told me to get ready, he was going to take me on a tour of the island... 3 bucks later we were on a public bus riding across the island :)

 Either way great views.

Yahoo or barracuda ?

Dinners are not all simple... Spiced orange chicken... We love Chinese:)

St Martin ... Jan 2015

So after the crossing it was time to return to the boat, and join Joseph on the second half of the trip. We spent a few days enjoying St Martin and even made a few friends. The guy below used to swim by every evening wondering what was for dinner... we never figured out what it was ... maybe we were better off :)

On one of our trips through the lagoon I took this picture.. St Martin was hit by a late hurricane and this is one of the many results... believe it or not the owner was still living on board ... not sure how.

 Finally the Captain and I decided it was time to get moving again, Saba, a small island 20 plus Nautical Miles from St Martin was the plan. It's always hard to leave port, especially when you have been in port for so long and other than the wish to see new places there is no real need to leave :) But we were off.

A view of Saba from Zimbabalooba. This island is a magically place. Not overly visited by cruisers or for that matter anyone as it doesn't have much infrastructure. Originally they believed they couldn't even build a road on the island, but now they have an airport.
The night was no the best, very rolly as there is little protection from the Atlantic swell that rolls you around all night long. They have great mooring, but it never feels good to leave a boat that exposed.

The Island of St Eustatius was the next island as we were now on route to St Kitts and Nevis where we planned to spend a few days. St Eustatius was also a volcanic island and the green was beautiful.

 

Anne always up for a photo opportunity. The welcoming sign in St Kitts is a little special as the picture shows. St Kitts was fun and the people were fantastic. We stayed just out side town at anchor for a few days and then moved a little to the south to a beautiful bay. They are currently building a new high end marina and we had the pleasure of anchoring outside in a beautiful bay ...sometimes almost alone and other days with a few others. The swimming was beautiful and we saw some of the biggest puffer fish we have seen anywhere in the world... Sorry no pictures ... hadn't an underwater camera ready :)

The rest of the story ... the crossing begins Part 4

The first evening on a beautiful sail...Pondering along with the sunset ... we had many and they were all different. As you can see from the photos, the sea, even the Atlantic can be calm. The first few days we had light winds and we needed for the first time in our ownership of Zimbabalooba to fly a spinnaker. The big colourful sail pictured below.

The spinnaker sailing for the first time on  Zimbabalooba! We had a sock made so it was easier to set and take down... and it proved most helpful. The biggest issue is that the sail is light weight and so the max usable wind speed was about 18 kts. After that we reverted to the 130% jib.

 The third day was Christmas !!!  Marcus and Emma got into the swing of things and dinner was the most important part of the day. Marcus wanted to make it a memorable meal. Perhaps he was got a little off guard in the photo ... The Swedish meat balls were great :)

 

Anne, before she left had prepaired Christmas Stockings for each of us and Emma was put in charge to make sure we opened them and what a nice treat it was. It was time to call Anne and wish her happy Christmas ...

 

A friend joined for a little piece of the trip... Emma dispatched him fast ... needed to lighten the boat to go faster :)

One of the best things about crossing the Atlantic was going to be the fishing. Open ocean means big fish. The picture below is of a Dorado ... Rarely would I say that somethings are to beautiful to eat I am Iish and love free food ... but this might have been one of those times.

While the sailing is effectively down wind and relatively easy, nature has it's way to remind you that you need to be on your game. Below is a squall, a small one these local low pressure systems tend to travel in groups and usually start late afternoon and continue until morning ... we had a few that made life interesting, but for the most part we tried to avoid them when ever possible. The rainbow was a nice touch.

One advantage of these lows is rain, something you don't see otherwise. We all took advantage of this and showered with fresh rain water.

Marcus was always the last one to get up. The boy loved his rest! Here he is sleeping in the best bed in the house. The port side pilot berth. Emma usually slept through everything ... her unicorn wasn't so lucky.

The weather overall was a little strange. We had swell from both the NE and from the SE, and this made sleeping a little uncomfortable at best. Usually in the open ocean the swell/waves only come from one side and maybe change over a period of days... we were not so lucky. The picture below shows us sailing along under main and jib ... the same tack and direction for 13 days or more. Another sail boat we met half way across and almost 1.5 times our size was struggling with the waves. They had had a few break over the stern (back of the boat) and now were sailing along with just a para sail.

A calm sunset to the left.

Afternoon napping in the cockpit. We all took turns. While the autopilot drove the whole trip our job was easy, stay on board .. eat and sleep and watch out for other boats ...

About one third of the time we had a little more wind than we needed, but the surfing was fun, sometimes as much as 14 kts, 8 to 10 was more common... the noise as the boat surfs down a wave is beautiful ... Zim wanted to take off at every occasion... we held her back.

Another beautiful sunset.

Sometimes the wind was really behind us and so to keep the jib flying we used the spinnaker pole to stop it from collapsing. This also helps to increase the effective sail area. The nice thing about this is that you can still furl (roll up) the jib.

One afternoon and when no one was expecting it, Emma spotted something in the water. She had hoped to see whales the whole trip and finally her dream came true. First one and then a second. These guys swan for over an hour with the boat. Swimming like dolphins of the bow. At one point they were within 10 feet of the boat. Beautiful creatures but a bit concerning so close to the boat.

You could watch them surfing inside the waves it was amazing to watch, so big and so graceful

 

The pictures don't tell the full story. Then they were gone.

Two days later and without warning they reappeared. Again they swam for an hour of so and were off again.

While fishing off the back one afternoon as I brought the lure in, I looked up and it was staring me in the face a whale the size of a double decker bus, 15 feet off the back. While beautiful I was always worried one of these guys might hit us ... there is no triple A in the Atlantic. During the whole crossing we saw only three boats and a few more on AIS(Automatic Identification System) that never got close enough. One afternoon we talked to a boat 250 miles away and saw boats 400 miles away on AIS. 

We had left Dec 23rd at around 4pm and then as fast as it all begun it was over... first St Barts appeared and finally St Martin.  Jan 8th 2015 we made land fall at 8am. 15 days and some hours later :)

On that cold wet November day in 2006 after spending three days in the cockpit on a friends boat while crossing to Bermuda from Newport RI, I realized that there was to be no greater adventure than to captain your own boat across an ocean. I spent many hours, days, and weeks learning to sail for just this trip. It wasn't all plain sailing... the boat and crew during it's many small trips learned the week spots and how to improve. The shore team was also great. Regular emails to let us know the weather and all the other stuff that's important when your hundreds of miles from land. Thanks to everyone.

Below is the track across the Atlantic

St martin at anchor ... do you see Zim?

The rest of the story ... Teneriffe to Cape Verde ... last chance to bail .... Part 3

The winds were perfect 25 kts from behind. Seas too were nice 3 feet and less. Look at the speed, top left corner... 8.8 kts this was the average surfing speed, it also shows you our route ... a straight line ... only 342 miles to go. The last few days flew, and before we knew it, the island of St Vincent was in sight and that night we dropped anchor in Mindelo harbor. I guess you expect something from a place called Cape Verde.  It was not like anything we could have imagined  The place was beautiful, green and not unlike any of the other harbors we visited. The water was turquoise.

In the morning we agreed to go into the marina to get fuel and dock so we could finalize our last few jobs on the list before the Atlantic crossing. One of the main ones being to figure out how to use our sat phone system. This is how we would get weather updates while crossing and keep in touch with everyone.(Anne)

 Long side is the sign at the entrance to the marina... Cape Verde is Ebola free... lets keep it that way !!

 Some pictures of the town... it was like all the rest, I guess they have a lot of European influence !

Family photo on a night out. All ready to party... got to get the priorities right :) Not a bad place to have a meal out...

In the morning I put Anne in a taxi for the airport. It was hard to say goodbye but I know she made the best choice to go home for Christmas and avoid the Atlantic. The kids and I took the boat out into the bay to make water and do our final checks as fast as we had arrived we were off... the journey of a life time!!!

A view from the plane as Anne flew over head... and she was gone... a totally different adventure...home!

The rest of the story ... Los Palmas to Teneriffe Part 2

The trip to Tenerife was fantastic, Emma took the first shift and then Marcus. The winds were lively, and we made good time. The marina was a little tricky to enter in the middle of the night, and the charts not so well documented, but we made it in and without disturbing the other neighbors in the marina. A nice guy on another boat offered to get us bread and then we all went to bed :)
Once we woke, Aunty Maureen was the first call. We rented a car so that we could make some of the jobs a little easier. It's hard to shop for four with out a car. Just think of the toilet paper :)
Aunty Maureen was so excited to see us and show us her pad... it was a lovely place. And of course everyone knows her ... lady Maureen is famous !!! She had planned a great night of partying .. dinner first and then Karaoke.

First it was Anne and Marcus ... then even Aunty sang !!! She loves Elvis :) We might have even danced to a few songs....

All good things eventually come to an end. We really enjoyed our time with Aunty, we got a few other small jobs fixed and then just like the other times, we said our good byes and headed for our next great African adventure... Cape Verde here we come.

Te rest of the story .. Lagos to the Canaries Part 1

With the furler fixed and Emma and Marcus on board we were finally ready to leave on what could only be described as a trip of a life time. The weather wasn't perfect and preparations had all taken a little longer than we hoped. In talking to a follow sailor, Pet on VMG, a cat bound for the Caribbean, it seemed we had to sit and wait... and lucky we did. Friends on Rehua had quite the journey the week before on route to the canaries... big waves and even bigger winds.

At this point we had done the shopping for the trip. Food for 6 weeks, with plans to top off the supplies in the Canaries.  This picture is of cured ham. Basically it's dried ham, hung for months and good for months.. a little time and effort is needed, but once you get the hang of it, it's a real treat when all other meet sources are exhausted !!!
Now it was finally our turn to leave. We chose to stop in Morocco, if for no other reason than to tick it off the list. The plan was to sail to Rabat, but quickly the plans changed and Safi was to be the new land fall. 

After almost a month tied up, the seas and motion got to everyone. First the crew, who suffered the worst. While we manged not to get sick, the crew were not so lucky and for a few days they became rail lovers. 

A little bit of fishing can take your mind off a lot of things. We had up graded the line before leaving Greece, and a good job we had. Almost with in minutes of putting the lure in the water, the reel went crazy. We slowed down and started the procedure to get the thing on board. 

First, we reduce sail area, usually this means furl the jib. Then start to apply tension to the line, slowly at first. And it jumped, probably a 300 lbs marlin, the biggest we had seen so far. I'm not sure we would have know what to do with it once on board. But none the less, we tried to bring it in. At first Anne taught it was a dolphin, but then the reality hit... we had a big one. While the line was strong enough, the lure was not, it was over, we had lost another one :(

And finally in the dark of the night, Safi appeared and we were in.  Safi harbour

Panoramic from the custom office

What an experience! Africa for the first time. People couldn't be more helpful, from the port officials who helped us tie up to the local fishermen offering advice on food and fuel. It was late when we arrived so we all decided to wait until morning to go exploring. 

The following day we organized fuel, food,  and a quick trip to the taxi drivers house... mainly to show his daughter that Americans do exist... and not just on TV... and then we were off. Canaries and more importantly Auntie Maureen here we come.

Every since our wedding, Auntie Maureen has been asking when we might arrive and given our planning skills it was always something like" soon" :) Next week or maybe two weeks... but now we could be more clear ... other than a quick stop to see old friends in Los Palmas, we would be there in a few days. The journey to Las Palmas was more than pleasant. With the crew aboard Anne got her shift off so the crew could be tested. All did a great job... crew proved they were worth the money and Anne got her more than desired rest. 

Sailing between Lanzarote and Fuerteventura we got phone service and Auntie Maureen was the first call.. we still had Spanish sim cards and the canaries are Spanish governed. She was more than excited to hear from us, but disappointed that it would still be a few days before we arrived. She was pulling the bacon out of the fridge and wanted to make sure it didn't want it to go bad before we go there.

In the morning we arrived in Los Palmas and anchored off for a few hours to do a little maintenance. Then before night fall we headed into the marina. Our friends were out sight seeing so there had been no rush to go to port. Now the marina office was closed early for another Spanish holiday, so we tied up and headed out for dinner. In the morning we were allocated a spot, right next to our friends on Rehua and spent most of the morning catching up. Then we got down to the repair list. First on the list was to replace one of the bulbs at the top of the mast with an LED one, to save power. 

Emma once again got the job. Up to the top it was. As with everything, Marcus and I got busy and things took longer than we hoped it might, so Emma hung out at the top for a while. I think she started to worry that she wasn't going to be let down and started to take pictures of exactly how long she was left at the top... first with the sun up and then as the sun went down. By the time she finally got down... it was dark.

With all the easy jobs done and a visit to a Doctor... I'm now really allergic to diesel, we said our good byes and were on the road again. This time, Aunty Maureen  knew we were on our way. Once we untied from the dock it was sure we would arrive no matter what, 10 hours or less.