We had to prepare the ship by taking of all the sails, halyards and sprayhood and leaving nothing outside on the deck.
On the appointed day, the Schippersgracht sailed into the bay and put down the anchor. Then the Gwelan was the first boat to be lifted on deck, so we had the chance to see how this went- quite scary! You place the boat alongside the big ship, they place two slings and check the position by diver, and then the boat is lifted while you are still on deck! Not for people with a fear of heights.. Then the boat is placed on a cradle which is welded to the deck. At that point we noticed that the propeller was very loose, this needed to be repaired before the boat went back into the water!
Unfortunately, we could not get a ride on the Schippersgracht back home because they did not have a spare cabin, so we had to take the good old airplane. It felt weird to be back home with the boat still underway but we used the time wisely to buy a new car.
When the boat arrived in Amsterdam, Gerard and Pieter had about one hour to see to the loose propeller; after replacing some parts it was better but not perfect; at least we were confident we could go back to Hindeloopen!
When the boat was dropped in the water there was another problem; the engine did not start... thank God Gerard had a jumpstarter! This totally saved the day and we could continue our way to the Amsterdam Marina. There we put up the sails and sprayhood, and had fantastic steak at Loetje. The next day, with no wind, we motored back to Hindeloopen.. choking up a little bit because these were the last miles of our voyage...
but it is very good to be home again with our friends!
After our short visit to the Netherlands, we were back in Glen Cove at our boat. To recover from flying and living shortly in a different time zone, we decided that we had to explore New York a little bit further. A short train drive brought us to Penn Station. During that week the Clipper Race was in town and we were invited on one of the ships. The boat is a kind of Volvo Ocean Race boat with a shorter mast and normal keel. They do not avoid storms during a trip. In 60 knots they still bake a birthday cake. But Gerard is always looking at the technical state of boats and found a broken linchpin on deck on the chain plate. Where did that came from…..work for the maintenance crew to find out. Further Gerard noticed that the fuel filter was clogged…. So after giving the master of the ship these to-dos, we learned a lot more from him about the things they had to manage. One of the things was that a turnbuckle of the forestay slowly was splitting (metal fatigue). They solved it on all the boats with Dyneema rope. That solved the problem of fatigue!
Impressed with their stories we left for the Metropolitan, the enormous museum in Central Park. We started in the Medieval paintings and soon lost each other in the maze of rooms which lead to a long game of hide and seek through the whole museum, which has horrible cell phone reception! We also went to the Guggenheim museum, the spiral shaped museum that is best visited on roller skates from top to bottom in 2 minutes.
Being in New York also gave us the opportunity to reconnect with our friends Rick and Leon, who we met two years ago in the Galapagos and who are now the proud fathers of little Noah. They have an awesome apartment in a trendy neighbourhood bordering Central Park. We had dinner with them and it was great to catch up with these guys! We’re sure to visit them again whenever we are in New York in the future.
Saying goodbye to the Big Apple we sailed into Long Island Sound. The first stop was Port Jefferson where we were on a mooring. A mooring is a buoy with a block of concrete on the sea bottom, you can just pull up the line and attach it to your boat. We use this a lot in New England because they are everywhere, much cheaper than marinas (you are lucky to find a marina that is less than 200 dollars per night, just to sleep in your own bed!) and you don’t have to worry about dragging anchors…
Port Jefferson is a cute town where we had a very scary thunderstorm in the afternoon (apparently an almost daily occurrence in the summer) and a great dinner ashore in the evening. We thought it was kind of touristy but later realised this was only the beginning…
We sailed on to Fisher’s Island, which is a very, very quiet place with only a few boats at anchor and a few very grand houses on the shore. We stayed there for 3 nights with very sunny weather and no wind.. we are kind of ashamed to say we never left the boat in those 3 days and just sat in the sun and read. When we left we had to wait for the fog to clear up…we left too early and were treated on a blind sail navigating on radar and chart plotters and sounding the horn. The mist was so thick, that we could not see the front of our own boat. And then in a bottle neck in the channel there were multiple sport fishing boats without radar reflectors…. All the big sport fishing boats and other big motor boats have due to their shape no reflection on radar when they approach you. So in the fog you hear the big engines and then suddenly they blast pass you with 20+ knots. Probably they see us very clearly on their radar as we have a radar reflector, but with their fellow motor boats they have the same problem as we have. Irresponsible! Another big issue in New England is lobster traps. If you know the ones in the south of England, just multiply by 50 and you get the picture! New England is very famous for both the fog and the lobster traps, and the combination is just perfect as you zigzag between the traps in 20 meters of visibility…
The fog cleared eventually and up was Newport where we treated ourselves to a spot in the marina and did some grocery shopping. It was the 4th of July so in the evening there were fireworks everywhere! We loved Newport, it has a great yachting atmosphere, nice shops and restaurants but we did not stay long because we will come back here when the boat is shipped back to Europe.
From Newport, you can do a shortcut through the Cape Cod Canal (this needs good timing with very strong currents!) to go to Boston. After almost being hit by a Air France Boeing we tied up on a mooring in the middle of the city, very weird because the subway runs underneath the moorings and you can hear the trains passing under your boat! Just one minute with the dinghy to shore and you are in the middle of Boston. Boston is a great city to walk around in, which we did but it was pretty hot and humid so by the end of the day we were always happy to be on the boat watching the Boston lights come on. Also in Boston, Gerard had a horrible haircut…
Our plan was to go to Maine, so we hopped from Boston along the coast to Boothbay. First stop was Gloucester. Gloucester is known from the movie The Perfect Storm and Discovery’s Wicked Tuna. When we approached Boston, we already saw a lot of lobster traps, entering Gloucester was a maze. But the traps are well maintained and their visibility is excellent. Just after we left Boston, a Minke whale swam past us. More would follow in this part of the US.
In the cute little town of Portsmouth, we were in one of the best marinas so far; this one had two “courtesy cars”! There are quite a lot of marinas that offer a car on loan for shopping trips, but when we got to this car it was an enormous, brand new SUV that probably cost more than Margriet’s Audi. So we stocked up really well. We also had a dangerous job to do; to change a seacock that had become damaged. If you change a seacock in the water, it means the water comes flooding into your boat as soon as you pull the old one out…. So we had a plan; to pull a flat cushion under the boat where the inlet would be, so the water could not come in. We tried this for 3 hours; position the cushion, check position with the GoPro on a stick under water, reposition again…we never got it in the right position, so in the end we had to give up and do it the scary way; just pull it out and push the new one in quickly . This only took 2 minutes with maybe 2 liters of water entering the boat. Then we had a well deserved beer.
We hopped past “Smuttynose Island” to the real Maine coastline, with lots of small rocky islands. We spent a few nights in Dolphin Marina between the islands, where the dockhands bring you warm-out-of-the-oven blueberry muffins every morning! Also, Gerard had the best lobster roll here. Just before we left Dolphin, an American boat came in for drinking water and we got to chat with them; they had just met another Dutch boat and heard that this boat was also being shipped back from Newport at the end of August! Not even half an hour later we were sailing to Boothbay harbour and this boat, Gwelan, showed up right next to us on the AIS (as always we were sailing in dense fog). They were also going to Boothbay so we met up there and compared notes on the coming shipping plans.
After Boothbay we went back south because we were still waiting for Sevenstar to give us information about the shipping dates. (Jacky X gets a break from sailing all the way back to Europe, and will be brought back very comfortably on the deck of a bulk carrier!) The first possible date was August 15 so we wanted to be close to Newport in the beginning of August. We took the same route back via Portsmouth, Gloucester and Boston but we also took the time to visit Portland this time, which was a very nice surprise! It is not a large town, very laid-back atmosphere, but it has a reputation as a “foodie heaven” with many excellent restaurants.
After Boston, this time we went east to Cape Cod on a terrific sailing day, had to do a few tacks but that is no problem… We were on a mooring in the bay outside Provincetown and felt like we were back at home because it looks exactly like Terschelling! We went to check out the town the following day, we had heard that it is “gay-friendly” but that is an understatement; the main street is like Amsterdam on Canal Pride day, and every bar has a drag queen show.. great fun to walk around. After 3 days we left “Gay Terschelling” on a windless day to go around the outside of Cape Cod (again an exact copy of the north side of Terschelling) and here we met our own Moby Dick!!! A humpback whale just a few dozens of meters from the boat! It just sat there blowing spray for 10 minutes and then slowly dived down.
We were planning to go to Nantucket that night but there were no moorings and no room for anchoring so we hurried on to Martha’s Vineyard. Cape Cod, Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard are known as the vacation spots for the rich and famous (and yes it is all very expensive, if you want to spend a night in a marina you would pay at least 600 dollars! But we found a quieter part of the island where we were on a mooring for just 45 dollars per night). It was funny to see this is the top vacation spot in the USA where everyone wants to go if they can afford it, and it is exactly the same as our Frisian Islands…. Except that our beaches are better!
Now we had a very tricky technical problem.. just before we met Moby Dick outside of Cape Cod, the toilet broke down. In fact, Gerard was inside the boat checking the toilet when Margriet smelled something very unpleasant… and assumed it was the broken down toilet but it turned out to be the whale! Apparently they have quite a bad breath problem (rotting fish) and you can often smell them before you see them.
The toilet problem was just one small part that needed to be replaced but we did not have that part on board! We did manage to have it sent to us in Martha’s Vineyard within two days but it was two days of old-fashioned bucket use…
So it was back to Newport to wait for news on the shipping date, which was no hardship because Newport is certainly one of our favorite places in the US! It even got better as we met Gerard’s former colleague Hielke and his family Yolanda, Stella and Michiel. They are very familiar with this part of the US as Yolanda used to live here and sailed j-24’s.We had an excellent lunch and a night cap from 8pm until deep into the night.
No we are back on a mooring being actively lazy. But the Zwerver is approaching. We are really looking forward to catch up with them probably at Fisher Island.
If you think we are lazy, your are completely right. We are a little bit behind on our blog. But we had some wonderful times since the last time we wrote. As we entered the Chesapeake Bay, to be out of reach of any Hurricane that may develop, we cruised to Annapolis. Annapolis is a sailing city. Marina’s loaded with sailboats many of them j-boats, so we felt at home..
The best thing that happened is that our friends, Pieter Yvonne and Francesca, from the Netherlands visited us for an all inclusive cruise on board Jacky X. With Pat and Mat (Buurman en Buurman) reunited, we visited the Annapolis town, which was much smaller than we thought, except for the Naval Academy which is massive! Unfortunately, there were no cadets in Officer-and-Gentleman uniforms as it was already summer holiday…
Next day, we got into the rental car and first made a visit to Mr Trump. When we arrived we learned that he was not home, probably busy with firing or annoying people.
One important milestone of our trip for Gerard was to visit David in Washington. David is a longtime friend of Gerard, a friendship originated from the business they did together. We will not go into the nicknames they have for each other…..We had an excellent lunch somewhere in the suburbs of Washington. We hope to invite David and his family over the next time we will be with our boat in a special place.
After the lunch, we did a quick tour of Washington, seeing lots of famous places in a very short time as you can see in the photos… Buurman and Buurman still very well colour coordinated (see photos).
It was time to say goodbye to the Chesapeake Bay and go through the canal to the Delaware Bay. It is a 20 mile canal which was reportedly very busy with big commercial shipping, so we imagined the Kieler Channel but instead we were almost the only ones there, with only one large ship on the whole trip! The trip down the Delaware Bay to Cape May was all motoring and very foggy at the end, but we saw plenty of dolphins!
Cape May is a very cute little town with Victorian houses and a lovely beach, but unfortunately it was very cold and rainy when we were there. We took a nice long time to have a pancake brunch in a restaurant and happy hour arrived very early on board Jacky X that day… The weather had cleared up the next day, which was good because the marina had told us we would have to leave. There was a sharkfishing tournament planned, apparently this is a very big thing with semi-professional sportfishing boats going from tournament to tournament for prize money up to 1 million dollars! Buurman G is too chicken to go to the top of the mast, so Buurman P went all the way up to fix our wind indicator...
We were planning to sail through the night to the New York area, but is was so cold on the way that we took the comfortable option and went into Atlantic City for the night. This was certainly an interesting experience… we had been warned that it is quite criminal and this appeared to be so, we came into the harbour past a quay where people were smoking/selling/buying stuff from the backs of their cars and the casino/marina manager told us not to leave the terrain. So we had hotdogs on board and locked everything.
We survived the night and left early morning for New York for the 70 nautical miles to Staten Island. Fair winds along a boring New Jersey coast, we entered Lower Bay at dusk. We had beautiful views of the New York skyline! But then the coast guard called us on Channel 16. They asked a lot of questions and we had to spell everything in phonetic alphabet (home address, boat name, destinations, past port of calls). In the meantime we approached our marina in pitch dark. The marina has no lighted buoys and the channel is at low tide very shallow. So clenched buttocks all the way in..
The next morning we took the Staten Island Ferry to New York City and walked around Wall Street, Ground Zero and the new WTC, and Times Square. After dinner in Chinatown we went back to Staten Island to prepare for the sail into New York City the next day! We had very clear weather and some good wind and sailed all the way up to a mile before the Statue of Liberty, when we took down the sails for better manoeuvring. It is absolutely amazing to sail on your own boat in such an amazing place, you can sail to within 100 meters of the Statue itself and right up to the skyscrapers of lower Manhattan! So we cruised around for about two hours and took thousands of pictures… a great moment to share with friends! We still can not believe we did it, we sailed to New York!
We had made reservations in Liberty Landing marina, which is right across from the WTC on the New Jersey side of the Hudson. The view of New York City right from your boat is amazing, and the watertaxi takes you to the heart of the city in 10 minutes. We spent the next three days exploring New York, seeing all the big sights and walking a lot of miles…
A great ending to the New York trip with the Simons family was the cruise up the East River to the Long Island sound. In 20 miles, you pass under the Brooklyn bridge and other famous bridges, past the UN and Chrysler building out of Manhattan. Then there is a spot where two rivers meet which is called Hells Gate because the currents are 4+ knots and go around in circles, a kind of rollercoaster for your boat. A few miles on you suddenly find yourselves in the very quiet Long Island sound with pretty villages and very expensive houses. Although we got a bit of a shock when we arrived in the marina where we were planning to leave the boat for a week while flying back home; it was not nearly deep enough in our designated spot and we almost hit the bottom at mid-tide, but thankfully the harbourmaster found us another spot – still in the mud at low tide but acceptable. We had a steak dinner on board to celebrate the success of “Jacky X in New York” with our friends. Very happy to have made this trip together!
We flew back to Europe for a week to take care of some business and take another look at a boat that may be the next Jacky X, in the south of France. We were lucky that our friends Jet and Adriaan were vacationing in their summer house and drove to meet us for a great dinner! It was great seeing them again, and it reminded us that after all the adventures it’s also great to be at home with our friends. And Francesca passed her final school exams!
In Fort
Lauderdale, we had the boat on the shore for a few days for maintenance of the saildrive
(propeller gearbox). To reach the yard we had to cross through Fort Lauderdale-
“the Venice of the USA”- with a lot of canals and millionaires villas in
Mediterranean Renaissance style, the living is certainly easy down here! With
the boat ashore, we rented a car to see the Everglades. We were hoping to see
lots of alligators but because the lack of rain this season the water was too
salty for them and they had all gone on holiday to sweeter waters up north…
still fun to cross between the mangroves on an airboat!
After some more days on the beach it was time to move on to Cape Canaveral. We got a big push from the Gulf Stream, in combination with the wind on a tack course we were able to sail 8 knots in 5-6 knots of wind! We passed a motoring catamaran who called us on the VHF to congratulate us on the fact that we were still sailing: “you must be a J-boat!” We arrived in Cape Canaveral early morning. We were lucky with the timing; around the entrance of the harbour is a caution on the chart “beware of falling debris from launches” but no advice on how to avoid the falling debris… A SpaceX rocket went up the same day but the launch was delayed so by then we were in the marina, safe from falling debris.
We went to see Kennedy Space Center where we had been before in the early 90s when it was still a lot smaller than it is today. Now they have 3D movies and a launch simulator, but the most impressive was the Atlantis Space Shuttle, suspended from the ceiling in a big hall.
Apart from the Kennedy Space Center there is absolutely nothing to do for us in Cape Canaveral so our visit was short. We left the same evening for a 280 nautical miles passage to Charleston, a little bit worried because the weather forecast gave chance of thunderstorms – later we learned that they always forecast a chance of thunderstorms along this part of the coast…
Charleston was a very pleasant town, very cute and historic. They told us they are not allowed to change anything about the old houses, or build anything higher than their highest church, so it is not surprising that the place still looked like it did in 1850! The shopping and the restaurants were great and we found out how to use Lyft to get us everywhere- super easy! Everyone commented on our accents, so Gerard asked the ice cream lady whether she thought it was sexy but got a resolute “NO!!”. We stayed for a week in Charleston, waiting for a better weather forecast for the 400 nautical miles trip into Chesapeake Bay. They kept forecasting rain and -again- thunderstorms. Our Lyft driver told us they can’t forecast the weather even for the next hour so not to bother with forecasts anyway.
We left into a weather gap which was sadly also a wind gap so it was mostly motoring into Chesapeake Bay. After 3 days and 2 nights we arrived in the largest Navy base in the world, Norfolk. As we sailed into Norfolk we passed a big navy ship which was totally invisible on Radar! Very weird when you can see small buoys but not such a big ship. We arrived in Norfolk after dark with an enormous thunderstorm with spectacular displays of lightning - luckily in the distance… We stayed 2 days in Norfolk and met up with our friends from Matenka, also participants in the ARC. We first met them in Las Palmas before the ARC start, and we have been crossing paths with them ever since but this was the first time we had some beers together!
We toured this impressive Navy base and the old US warship Wisconsin, which was in service during the Korean war up to Desert Storm. We have to fuel up with our boat every 25-30 hours of motoring; these air craft carriers and nuclear submarines, they can work 25 years on only one “tank” (=nuclear reactor) so we were jealous because we have to put jerrycans into the tank every day when we are motoring! There were three mega aircraft carriers which the Americans call “40 billion dollars of diplomacy” (all easily to be undone on Twitter).
From here on, we were in the Chesapeake Bay with only day trips to do. We stopped in Deltaville and Solomons Island, until we reached Annapolis to meet our friends Pieter, Yvonne and Francesca to join us for the next few legs into one of our milestones New York City!
The old
town of San Juan was a lovely surprise, it was very beautiful. Everybody came
out to the old Fort to fly their kites with the children. We had a great tapas
dinner on a street terrace! We love San Juan but we have to move on. There are
different routes to Florida: along the coast of Dominican Republic and Cuba or on
the Atlantic Ocean via the Turks & Caicos and Bahamas. Both routes mean at
least that we have to become active again and be on the ocean for 2 or more
nights. We choose the route via Turks & Caicos. Arrival should be in
daylight as the marina has a very tricky entrance. Therefore the marina offers
a pilot who will bring you in. We had a beautiful sail with a nice reaching
wind which gave us a nice average speed. We planned to be 3 nights at sea but the
ETA during early Thursday morning showed us arrival late afternoon. However,
the wind dropped so we arrived in the evening just before sun down. So we “borrowed”
a diving mooring bouy for the night, to get into the marina in the morning.
With the pilot boat in front of us, we felt very important suddenly…. Apart
from the pilot boat, we were also guided in by JoJo the dolphin who swam all
the way into the marina with us. JoJo is a very famous dolphin in the Turks and
Caicos, he is a real character. Lots of books and movies (this is a movie about JoJo you must see: https://vimeo.com/2220977
)……..
The Turks and Caicos Islands have the bluest waters we have ever seen. As the harbourmaster said: “we have never had anyone complain that it wasn’t blue enough!” The blueness of the water is reflected in the sky which give the clouds a very blue-ish appearance. We explored the island by car. First we took a wrong turn and ended up on a very sandy track; a good look at the map of the rental agency showed ”if you get stuck here, towing is at your own expense” so we quickly turned back! There is not much left of natural reef here so they built an artificial reef which is very weird to snorkel around, but the fish love all the little hiding places.
We had some wonderful evenings with a lovely couple from Arizona, Nancy and Curt of the Rum Tum Tiger. During our stay there was also dip in the weather, strong winds and even rain. We loved the rain as it cleaned our boat from all the salt gathered during the crossing. In de marina there were also a few American Sport Fishing boats. These guys were really successful in catching very nice fish. The fish were every night cleaned on the berth. In the Netherlands seagulls are waiting to pick up pieces of offal, here sharks were lurking around.
After 6 days we moved on to Nassau in the Bahamas, another big 400 mile step. A quiet passage, we used the engine quite a lot. Nassau was a completely different experience form the Turks and Caicos! We stayed at the Atlantis Marina which is part of a big resort. They have made the marina a part of the resort “atmosphere” so in fact you are paying to enhance the scenery! The resort is massive, with 2 very impressive aquaria (the pictures of sharks and swordfish and ruins are NOT from a snorkeling trip.. ) , 20 swimming pools, 19 restaurants, a casino… an interesting place, and nice to hang around by a swimming pool, but after several days we were also quite happy to move on (and also quite poor, this was a VERY expensive place to stay). Also here were big American Sportfishing boats. One came in with girls in string bikinis in the tower….the boat name was…….Lucky Dick!
From Nassau, it is a little more than 24 hours sailing to Fort Lauderdale, we had to pick our window because there are a lot of thunderstorms in the area. During the night we were treated on nice lightning shows. Gerard bought some new lures and it was a success: 3 barracudas! We did not dare to eat them because of ciguatera poisoning, so they got lucky and got to swim away with nothing but a sore lip. Just before Florida we saw some very large dolphins, probably the same “false killer whales” that we saw on the Atlantic crossing. In Fort Lauderdale the marina is next to the beach and we finally got the opportunity to start running again preparing for Ameland, starting very slowly after all those months…
After the decadence of St Barth, we sailed the 12 miles to St Maarten to see a whole different picture. St Maarten was hit very hard by hurricane Irma and the damage is everywhere. Simpson Bay is a boat graveyard. Many boats are waiting for repairs or the scrap yard… very scary to see what a hurricane can do! Thankfully, the bars are open; we had some great times at Lagoonies, again with Kate and Graham of Barracuda of Islay. As planned, we left the boat here for several weeks to fly home to chilly Leeuwarden.
In the end of March we came back. The boat looked OK but suddenly the toilet wasn’t working anymore, so we had to spend two days to install another one!
Our next stop, the British Virgin Islands was 90 miles away so we left in the evening to arrive in daylight.. it was a weird night! First a whale passed us at starboard. There was not much wind for sailing but suddenly we saw lightning to the north, far away but still it looked scary. It came closer, then moved away again.. we spent some anxious hours but thankfully it went away without coming too close. Also that night we were surrounded by cruise ships, one of which had a big firework display planned so they had to manoeuvre around the rainshowers for a clear spot. We also noticed that cruise ships sometimes just drift for a while or move around in circles, maybe not to arrive to early at their next destination. Just before the BVIs we had to give way to a whale that was right in front of us! In the BVIs we found a spot in Road Town, Tortola. If anything this was even worse than St Maarten…. The boat next to us in the marina was another victim and it was more or less draped over the pontoons. We stayed two days to do some standard maintenance work on the generator. By then we were really looking forward to a quiet anchoring spot for some swimming and snorkeling! We went to take a mooring in The Bight, a beautiful bay on a small island, and took out the kayak for the first time to go snorkeling. The snorkeling was nice, it was good to be in the water again! Then disaster struck as we got back into the kayak and it capsized, dropping the underwater camera and snorkeling gear into the deep water. We were saved by an American guy who just happened to be there and had impressive freediving skills! He got all our stuff from the bottom and became the hero of the day.
The next day we sailed (motored) on to Puerto Rico. This is definitely sportfishing country! We were overtaken left and right by maybe 20 big sportfishers, going to the same Puerto del Rey Marina. On the same stretch Gerard caught 4 fish so the freezer filled up very nicely. We didn’t know what to expect in Puerto Rico because it was also hit very hard by hurricane Maria, but things look a lot better here! In the very large and luxurious marina, you had to look very hard to see any damage. We looked a bit out of place in the marina between all the fishing boats, everybody seemed surprised to see a sailing boat. Right now we are in the capital San Juan to do some sightseeing; in a couple of days we will take a long 400 mile passage to Turks and Caicos islands.
In Deshaies we stayed for several days because
the winds were very strong. It is a quiet little town with some nice
restaurants. We spent an evening with Martin and Hillary of Chardonnay of
Solent; we also met up again with Kjell and Kaya from Norway, who we had met on
the Spanish coast. Somehow, rolling about behind the anchor makes you very
sleepy (in combination with the booze), so therefore the term “sailor’s
midnight” which is 9 PM….
On February 16th the wind was much less and we went to Antigua. Definitely one of our favorite places, we had been here before by airplane and at that time we were saying to each other how cool it would be to sail into the harbour in your own boat… Nelson’s Dockyard is a historic place with lots of old buildings, and the boat is on the same quay where Nelson’s used to be! Getting in, however, was a bit of a problem; you go stern to the quay and use your anchor in front, with the wind from the side. At the crucial moment the remote control for the anchor winch went on strike. The harbourmaster gave us a temporary space alongside some superyachts and Gerard went in full MacGyver mode; half an hour later we had a remote made from a light switch and we got the boat neatly in the right place. In Nelson’s Dockyard our neighbours were Kate and Graham on Barracuda of Islay (Scots), and Paul and Connie (Germans) on My Lady. The three boats stayed a full week because of the very nice place and the strong winds, and we shared many drinks and stories… Martin and Hillary were anchored out in the bay and went up with us to the Shirley Heights party on Sunday night, where you have fabulous views of the Harbour and the sunset while you enjoy a BBQ and reggae band.
We took a taxi tour around the island and took a long hike around to the peninsula to Falmouth Harbour, where the Caribbean 600 race started on Monday. The winds were still very strong which resulted in one third of the contestants retiring and limping back into harbour with all sorts of damage.
When things got a little quieter we went around to Jolly Harbour, and from there to Barbuda. It was hit hard by hurricane Irma last year, and the damage is still visible. Wildlife is not complete up and running and the water is still a bit murkey.
However, Barbuda is paradise. 11 miles of beach all to yourself! The island is flat and the pink beach is just a small strip between the ocean and the lagoon. See for yourself in the photo’s published on our website.
From Barbuda we went to St Barth which is an enormous contrast, the town is full of Louis Vuitton shops and expensive restaurants while the cruise boats are all outside. Anchorage is very rolly….
From Dominica to Saintes Iles, was a lovely sail of around 20 miles. Arrival was a bit stressful however, as we found every mooring buoy occupied and designated anchoring space over 20 meters deep.. Luckily we found a spot in a small bay on the southern island where we spent a quiet evening. We had been spotted on the AIS by our ARC friends Linda and Johan on Djualyn, who secured a mooring for us the next morning by hijacking it with their dinghy! Saintes Iles turned out to be a very pretty and friendly place, a perfect spot to spend a few days on the mooring. We had a very nice lunch and went snorkeling with Linda and Johan on a nearby island. The next day we decided we needed some exercise and planned to walk up an old volcano. We have a kind of volcano fetish. As soon as we see a volcano, we have to mount it; we have visited Montserrat, White Island in New Zealand, climbed “Mount Doom” in New Zealand, and Isabela Island on Galapagos… This one called Le Chameau, was a very small one by comparison but still quite a challenge, as we had not seen a gym in months. The real challenge was on the way down, we took a wrong turn and ended up scrambling around on the steep rocks and trees for half an hour and had no choice but to climb back up. This all in flimsy boat shoes.
The next day we hired an electric golf cart with Linda and Johan and explored the island. There was and old fort, and lots of beautiful bays and beaches. We had a nice lunch with view of our boats and went snorkeling from a beach, obviously the best snorkeling spot because is was very crowded! It was great to spend some days with Linda and Johan, before they left south while we went north.
After a rolling behind our mooring for a few days at Saint Iles, we set sail to Point-Pitre of Guadeloupe, to hopefully collect our mail……..It was a beautiful sailing day with a modest 18knots wind. We arrived at the marina to be welcomed by the harbourmaster who is of Dutch decent. His Dutch father has a snackbar at Saint Maarten and he recited the menu: bamibal, sateh, etc. So now we hunker for some real Dutch ‘vette bek’ (literaly translated greased mouth).
In Pointe a Pitre, we rented a car to climb another volcano (la Soufriere) to comply with Pippa’s expectations to keep fit. The weather was not ideal, it was mostly raining, but we came prepared with ponchos. Up on the top is was very wet and windy, as you can see in the photos… but is was good exercise and a nice way to do something else.
The mail, of course, did not come. The Dutch carrier promised within 8 days, changed later to 5-12 days, to 5-15 days and now 25 days transit time. If only we knew beforehand…So we left Pointe a Pitre again, to go to Pigeon Island. There was not much space to anchor so in the end we anchored in 10 meters on a slope which seemed fine at the time… then we spent a whole day inside reading and playing games because the rain kept coming down. In the following morning we took the dinghy for snorkeling in Cousteau national park. We were not really impressed by what we saw and went back early. This was very lucky because our boat was slowly drifting towards the Caribbean sea! We checked our sonar log and found out that we anchored on a small ridge with behind that a steep slope to deep water. We learned something that day. The anchor was dragging and we quickly jumped on board, put the anchor back in and decided to leave for Deshaies. The wind comes around the island here like a funnel, so during the 8 mile trip we had winds up to 40 knots. Thankfully there was space in Deshaies and we found a safe (non-sloping) spot for our anchor, next to our friends of the Chardonnay of Solent.
After one and a half week we left Le Marin. The mail did not arrive! PostNL will sort it out. We will now try to pick up the mail at Guadeloupe. But first sailing. First stop was a little bay just around the corner of the Le Marin bay. But no room for us so we ended up at the Marina at Fort-de-France. Here we decided based on reviews of other sailors and the positive feedback of Zwerver to make a stop in Dominica. There were some rumours that it was not safe after the hurricane which hit the island in September, but we heard from the other guys that they had good experiences in Dominica.
In the aftermath of Hurricane Maria, the people of Dominica were still in need of some basics. So we used the day in the marina to do some shopping of some clothing and basic medicine for the people of Dominica.
The weather in the Caribbean is of course very nice with nice temperatures and warm water. But….the crossings between the islands can be very rough, especially when you are the target of squalls. We were hit 4 times: strong winds, high seas and heavy heavy rain. But then we entered the bay of Portsmouth, Dominica. Warmly welcomed by one of the ‘boat boys’, we took anchor just outside the village. We already saw some of the destruction of Maria. The mountains which a normally green with trees were now looking like the face of drunk man with a beard of 3 days.
The boat boys in Dominca are organised in a group called PAYS. They arrange everything you need and look after your safety. “Our” guy, “Lawrence of Arabia” took us to the customs office; this went surprisingly fast and efficient! After this, we walked around the town. People are busy everywhere cleaning up and rebuilding, but basic stuff like foodstores, restaurants, banks are open and life is going on; you have to admire the spirit of Dominicans to just get to work and build everything up again! Just trying to imagine what would happen in The Netherlands if a hurricane passed over and took away all the power and water supply, and half of the roofs…
Lawrence arranged the next day a taxi tour across the island. The island is a paradise, even with all the destruction. 365 rivers, lush rainforests, waterfalls and great beaches. The island is much wilder and less crowded than Martinique, and more authentically Caribbean. Part of the island is still inhabited by native Caribbean Indians. We concluded the day with a nice dinner at Madiba Beach Bar. Next morning Lawrence took us up the Indian River, home of Calypso in the Pirates of the Caribbean movies. Before Maria the river was overcast with trees like a tunnel, this all has to grow back but it was still beautiful. Poor Lawrence had to row us all the way because they don’t allow outboards on the river!
In the afternoon we set sail for the Saintes Iles near Guadeloupe.
After we
said goodbye to Selene for their start in the World ARC, we sailed to Le Marin in
Martinique. We feel a little bit at home because this is officially France, so
we are in the EU with euros, working toilets and showers, and our own mobile
internet! In the bay are many many many yachts with at the end a marina with
very good sorted out chandleries. Further on there is a boat yard, so ideal for
us to have the boat lifted out of the water for check up and new antifouling. With
the boat ashore we spent 2 nights in an apartment close to the marina. The
Zwerver arrived also to have their autopilot checked by a specialist. During drinks
in a bar the girls were talking about needing some testosterone free
conversation….... The men happily advised them to go for a long hike the following
day. So early next morning the ladies set off to a 20 km route along the Atlantic
coast of Martinique, enjoying green hills, spectacular beaches, lava rocks, and
lots of girl talk. The men meanwhile occupied themselves with small handyman
stuff. We all met for drinks in Sainte Anne. The next day we went to see Jacky
X with a shiny new bottom dropped back into the water (always a bit scary to
see your boat hanging in 2 strips of fabric)
Next up was a “shitty” job…. Building a black water tank into the boat. Apparently the Americans are very fussy about this and will not allow a boat without a black water tank in their waters. We brought all the parts with us from home delivered by www.wagenaarwatersport.nl , like a lot of other stuff on our boat. The worst part of the job is not placing the tank, which is new and of course empty, but connecting it to the existing toilet drains! We are happy to say that we completed this task with great success and in a very harmonious manner.
Martinique is also a good place to have parts and mail delivered, so while we are waiting we used our time wisely by doing various jobs including installing a new Wifi booster (to steal internet from hotels and bars), installing fins on the outboard to improve stability, cleaning and de-rusting the deck and so-called inox (RVS) parts of the boat, airtightening the fridge door, replacing the anode of the propeller, and taking a haircut.
So, we are itching to go sailing again in a few days time. The next plan is to move up the west coast of Martinique, pass by Dominica which is still very much hurricane damaged, to Iles-Saintes and Guadeloupe. Thursday we will rent a car and go explore more of the inland of Martinique.