20th July 2007 Trinidad
We are constantly watching for ‘weather waves’ (not
the water kind), which come off the coast of Africa and have the potential to
turn into Tropical Depressions, storms or hurricanes. We knew there was
one on the horizon, so when I woke yesterday morning at about 5am to the sound
of rain it wasn’t unusual. However the boat felt a bit rocky and I
assumed that the tide was turning (there is about a 3ft tidal height here in
Trinidad). As I put my head through the companion way I saw our neighbour
sitting watching the dock and, unusually, I looked down on the slip number we
are tied to. At high tide the number is usually about level with the rear
exit (see photo). As I lifted my head and looked over the dock the sight of the sea
was not it’s usual calm self. It was in fact very very angry! I
looked to our neighbour who said, this is not good, the weather is coming from
the south and this will cause large surges, it’s not too bad at the moment but
when the tide changes and the sea level drops it will become very bad. I
turned to get David up, no more sleeping beauty for him this morning.
There are about 30 boats out in the anchorage
beyond our dock, there is our neighbour, Billy to our port side, an empty
30 something ft boat on our starboard side with 2 slips in between, we are on
the inside of the dock in a little marina with about 60 ft between us and the
beach. On the seaward side there are 2 other boats tied to the
dock. The state was very strange, it was coming in swells/waves of up to
6-8ft crashing towards us and the dock.
Luckily the dock was breaking
most of them before they reached us, but “Nauty One” was being lifted aft and
stern right out of the water. Alhambra was being yanked
and jerked fore and aft pulling on the lines attached to the dock, she was also
rocking violently from side to side. David checked that all the lines
were secure and I moved all the fenders to the relevant places.
The guys on Nauty One across the way were not even
up and the rear of their boat was in danger of crashing onto the dock.
Billy went and woke them to reset their lines. The sky was dark grey and
there was no sign of change in the weather. David went and checked the
weather sites on the internet and explained that we were on the edge of one
storm that had generated in Venezuala and there was a much bigger one coming up
from the south of Trinidad which was tracking north and we would probably get
the edge of it, if we were lucky. The infrared imagery was bright
red. Not good.
Around 8am we heard a call on the VHF that there
was a boat adrift and heading towards Peakes Dock, yep, that’s where we
are. We rushed up stairs to see a flat bottomed barge type boat heading
towards the dock with another sailor in his dingy trying to steer it into our
little bay. It nearly crashed into the edge of the dock, then nearly hit
Billy’s boat, which he fended it off of. He shouted that he was going to
beach it and leave it to it’s own devices, if the owner couldn’t be bothered to
secure it, tough! Nice attitude. Billy shouted that he was going to
tie a line to his boat, David rushed to the dingy, started it up, went and got
the end of the line and followed the barge, once catching it trying to tie the
line to it. The sea was throwing him all over the place. The guy in
the dingy kept saying, just leave it. Well if we had just left it, when
the tide turned it would come straight back towards our boats, and, as Billy
said, “I am a sailor and I am not going to let someone else’s boat smash to
pieces if I can do something about it, help us get a line to it”. A row
ensued, I was screaming to shut up and work together as I could sea David
struggling to get the lines attached, eventually this guy just drove off in his
dingy, apparently he made a complaint about being abused in our dock later that
day…..
Once David had the first line attached, Billy and
the guys from Nauty One ran around the dock with another line which David took
to secure to the barge, then a third was tied around a palm tree and also
secured to the boat. The first line, still attached to Billy’s boat was released
from his boat and securely tied to the dock. Once the barge was secure
David then went to help Nauty One sort their lines out as they were bouncing
into the dock. All this while I am on Alhambra making sure we don’t crash
into something, monitoring our lines all the while. Slowly the tide
started to turn and our neighbour was right, the bouncing and yanking got much
worse.
Watching the boats out at anchor was interesting,
although they were bouncing and swaying, they basically moved with the water. We
agreed that it was probably one of the best places to be, keeping an eye on any
boats that drag or come away from their buoys. Anyway we were where we
were and we couldn’t move from there as we would just crash straight onto the
beach, or into the barge. The strange thing was that there was no wind,
well very light, maybe only 5-10 knots at most.
We watched as the next
storm came through, we watched as a couple more boats went adrift and everyone
helped each other out. I then watched in amazement as the biggest boat I
have ever seen in among yachts came into the bay. Apparently it was an
oil/gas rig support vessel, fully loaded with helipad on the front.
Again, check the photos. I can’t imagine what the yachties thought when
this thing came through them right in the middle of a storm. To our right
is a large commercial boat being repaired, the workers just came to work as
usual as this thing didn’t move!
Slowly as they day went on the weather passed and
most things returned to normal by the middle of the afternoon, it was a bit of
a waste of a day, but a huge lesson. It wasn’t scary, it was
hectic. The manger of the barge came along, the owner of the marina came along,
none of them said thank you, no beer arrived in thanks, so that peeved us a
little, but what do you expect.
This morning we woke to a calm beautiful day, so we
went to the supermarket! I’m sure it won’t be the last storm we
encounter, but it was our first real storm, not just a squall. We are now
trying to organise having the boat taken out of the water for a month so we can
get the bottom painted to stop all the nasty stuff sticking to her.
2nd August 2007 Trinidad
A nuclear submarine has arrived. After
it had sat in the dock for a week they decided to let everyone take a close
look before they headed off. Apparently this was a Los Angeles Class Fast
Attack Boat (LACFAB to the uninitiated….). Speaking to one of the ‘very
nice young men’ on duty to ‘answer all your questions M’am’ they normally go on
6 month tours, surfacing twice in that period for about 10 days. There is
no
What, in my opinion, was more impressive was the
oil rig support vessel that arrived a few days later which made the submarine
actually look small.
As we sat one evening we commented
on how calm and peaceful the night was as sun was setting. We both slowly
turned to look towards the inside of the bay and had our retinors burnt out
with 1000 watt(?) halogen lighting system they were using for security.
We would sit looking through our binoculars watching the armed guard on the top
of the sub, wondering whether he was watching us sitting with our armed Gin and
Tonics…
We have now moved from our spot in one of the
marinas to out on a buoy (the anchor holding here is not very good). The
anchorage itself is fine but when the tide changes (even more so at new and
full moons) there is a big swell that comes in a rocks us from side to side,
but looking at the marinas we think it’s probably worse in there. We’ve
still not managed to get out and see the place on any tours (they seem to be
quite expensive if there is just the two of you, so we are trying to get a
bunch of people together). I particularly want to go to the Caroni Bird
Sanctuary which is the home to the national bird, the Scarlet Ibis.
Apparently these birds head off to Venezuala during the day (11 miles away) and
return at dusk to spend the night in the trees overlooking the
swamplands. Apparently the sight is fantastic with an array of colourful
birds at the bottom of the trees which are then topped by the Scarlet
Ibis. Will report back when we’ve been.
It is a beautiful bay with a small beach which is
only accessible by boat. The only problem is that the world and his dog
go there at weekends with their jet skis, banana boats etc. We also
noticed that all the sailboats from the anchorage were there so we decided to
have lunch and a swim, head back to the anchorage and go out for a beer after
dinner. When we got back the anchorage was nearly 50% empty.
We have finally sorted most of the things on
Alhambra which need doing. We have a guy turning up tomorrow to measure
for our new sprayhood and bimini. We have just bought the new fridge unit
to be installed. This will allow us to have a fridge (with a small
freezer unit) which is run by battery power and not engine power. This
will save us having to run the engine twice a day to keep the fridge
cold. This will eleviate the wear and tear on the engine being run at
idle for 3 hours a day. We have also finally arranged for Alhambra to
come out of the water on 30th August to have her bottom
painted. So all
in all it’s been an expensive time in Trini but well worth coming here to get
everything done.
10th August 2007
Today we ventured into Trinidad’s Capital, Port of
Spain. The following is a passage from Lonely Planets “Caribbean Islands”
to give you some idea.
“Not designed for tourists, Port of Spain, the county’s capital and commercial
centre, is a bustling metropolitan hub. Crowds fill the streets, drivers
disregard lanes and honk frivolously, and streets suffer poor signage.
Add hot, muggy air and a confusing public transit system, and navigating the
city can be a nerve-fraying experience. The best way to approach Port of
Spain is to ride it like a wave or a roller coaster. Go for the
experience and trust that the tracks beneath the train will keep you from
flying away.”
We stood outside Chaguaramas’ marinas and waited
for the maxi-taxi, a bit like the buses in Greneda but a little bit more
sedate! We paid our 50p each and climbed aboard. The journey, about
45 minutes, takes us through both rich and poor residential areas, past brand
new shopping centres and finally into the bus terminal, opposite the cruise
ship port, on the outskirts of Port of Spain. We have done our research
and are looking for specific places; Frederick Street for fabric, Charlotte
Street for plastic goods (particularly wine glasses!) and Henry Street for
electronics (we need a new speaker for the cockpit). We have our map
(which we have read on the bus) and know where we are going – we think!
We head east along Independence Square (not really
a square but two roads with a sort of pedestrian area in between), past various
known and unknown stores (Courts Furnishings and KFC, but they are everywhere
in the Caribbean). At the end of Independence Square a hugely imposing
Spanish looking church stands, the Cathedral of The Immaculate Conception, a
Roman Catholic Church dating from 1836. Its appearance is so out of place
that you just sort of stand and look, not really sure what you are looking at.
We take a left turn into Charlotte Street and are
immediately drawn into the first of many ‘variety stores’. Most of these
are a cross between a shop in a garden centre and a pound store. You
think it has useful things until you take them home and realise not only is it
worthless toot, you don’t actually need it or like it. Along the road on
either side are numerous vegetable vendors selling every sort of fruit and
vegetable you can imagine, some we know and some we have never seen and are not
sure what you would do with. Unfortunately on this occasion we are on a
mission and there is no time for me to go off and investigate. We
continue further along Charlotte Street becoming more despondent after every
shop. All I want is some nice acrylic wine glasses (oh well Scottsdale’s
or Lewis’ here I come). Finally succumbing to the realisation that
we neither want or need okra or cheap earrings we turn left into Park Street
and then onto Frederick Street – home of the fabric shop. After a couple
of stops we finally find what we are looking for and head off to find Henry
Street. Luckily the whole of Port of Spain is on a grid like system and
if you think you’re lost you just turn left 3 times and end up where you
started! Having no success in Henry Street we are advised to head for
Chacon Street, having stood and argued (us, surely not) about which way Chacon
Street is a couple of very nice street vendors intervene and give us
directions. As we head along the south side of Woodford Square, we
‘stumble’ upon a wonderfully majestic church, The Gothic-designed Anglican
Trinity Cathedral dating from 1818 and seats 1200 people and was apparently
modelled on Westminster Hall. Finally we reach our final shop and have a
result in finding a new cockpit speaker for the grand total of 80p!!!!!
We decide to find somewhere for lunch and in
amongst all this hustle and bustle you find various small, modern, shopping
centres mixed in with buildings dating from every era and every state between
beauty and dilapidation. We found the ‘Eatery’ and had a Chinese for
£3.80, for the both of us.
Heading back to the bus terminal you can start to
take in your surroundings more clearly, as the guide says, this is not a
tourist place, it is a busy working environment. As you walk from one
street which resembles an Indian market you turn into another street which is
the business banking sector, where you watch Trinidadians of every age, smartly
dressed either going about their business or going to work in a very modern air
conditioned glass façade building which resembles the City of London. You
turn again and are greeted by a 17th century cathedral which stands
in front of the Emperor Valley Zoo! There is nothing straight forward
about Port of Spain, it hustles and bustles but its people meet and greet you
in a way we have rarely seen in a city. Trinidadians want you to love
their country and go out of their way to help you and befriend you. If a
shop keeper does not have want you want, or he thinks someone else has a better
deal, they tell you that you should go to the other business and give you
directions to get there.
We were quite clearly the ‘odd ones out’ in this
metropolis but you sort of feel at home before you start. It is like
every other city you go into; you have to be aware of where you are and who is
around you. Crime is rife and it is not a place, you are advised, to
visit after dark, but then there are places in the UK I wouldn’t visit after
dark either. If you keep your whits about you and understand you are in a
City you should be OK. The everyday folk of Port of Spain made us feel
very at ease. No-one is trying to force you to buy their wares; they are
just trying to make a living like everyone else.
If we have time we want to go back again, there are
areas in the north of Port of Spain, Queen’s Park Savannah that are supposed to
be fascinating to see, they are known as the Magnificent 7. It is a line
of 7 eccentric and ornate colonial buildings constructed in the early 20th
century, a college, the bishop’s residence, the Law Association headquarters, a
private residence, the Catholic Archbishops residence, the prime ministers
office and finally Stollmeyer’s Castle, built to resemble a Scottish Castle
complete with turrets. That’s next on the list to see…
As you can see this trip is not all about palm
trees and beaches and I hope that we get to see more of the real Caribbean as
we continue our journey.
Love to everyone; hope to see some of you in
September.
Michele and Dave
10th
August 2007
Hi everyone, hope you are all keeping well and the
weather is finally beginning to improve.
Today we ventured into Trinidad’s Capital, Port of
Spain. The following is a passage from Lonely Planets “Caribbean Islands”
to give you some idea.
“Not designed for tourists, Port of Spain, the county’s capital and commercial
centre, is a bustling metropolitan hub. Crowds fill the streets, drivers
disregard lanes and honk frivolously, and streets suffer poor signage.
Add hot, muggy air and a confusing public transit system, and navigating the
city can be a nerve-fraying experience. The best way to approach Port of
Spain is to ride it like a wave or a roller coaster. Go for the
experience and trust that the tracks beneath the train will keep you from
flying away.”
We stood outside Chaguaramas’ marinas and waited
for the maxi-taxi, a bit like the buses in Greneda but a little bit more
sedate! We paid our 50p each and climbed aboard. The journey, about
45 minutes, takes us through both rich and poor residential areas, past brand
new shopping centres and finally into the bus terminal, opposite the cruise
ship port, on the outskirts of Port of Spain. We have done our research
and are looking for specific places; Frederick Street for fabric, Charlotte
Street for plastic goods (particularly wine glasses!) and Henry Street for
electronics (we need a new speaker for the cockpit). We have our map
(which we have read on the bus) and know where we are going – we think!
We head east along Independence Square (not really
a square but two roads with a sort of pedestrian area in between), past various
known and unknown stores (Courts Furnishings and KFC, but they are everywhere
in the Caribbean). At the end of Independence Square a hugely imposing
Spanish looking church stands, the Cathedral of The Immaculate Conception, a
Roman Catholic Church dating from 1836. Its appearance is so out of place
that you just sort of stand and look, not really sure what you are looking at.
We take a left turn into Charlotte Street and are
immediately drawn into the first of many ‘variety stores’. Most of these
are a cross between a shop in a garden centre and a pound store. You
think it has useful things until you take them home and realise not only is it
worthless toot, you don’t actually need it or like it. Along the road on
either side are numerous vegetable vendors selling every sort of fruit and
vegetable you can imagine, some we know and some we have never seen and are not
sure what you would do with. Unfortunately on this occasion we are on a
mission and there is no time for me to go off and investigate. We
continue further along Charlotte Street becoming more despondent after every
shop. All I want is some nice acrylic wine glasses (oh well Scottsdale’s
or Lewis’ here I come). Finally succumbing to the realisation that
we neither want or need okra or cheap earrings we turn left into Park Street
and then onto Frederick Street – home of the fabric shop. After a couple
of stops we finally find what we are looking for and head off to find Henry
Street. Luckily the whole of Port of Spain is on a grid like system and
if you think you’re lost you just turn left 3 times and end up where you
started! Having no success in Henry Street we are advised to head for
Chacon Street, having stood and argued (us, surely not) about which way Chacon
Street is a couple of very nice street vendors intervene and give us
directions. As we head along the south side of Woodford Square, we
‘stumble’ upon a wonderfully majestic church, The Gothic-designed Anglican
Trinity Cathedral dating from 1818 and seats 1200 people and was apparently
modelled on Westminster Hall. Finally we reach our final shop and have a
result in finding a new cockpit speaker for the grand total of 80p!!!!!
We decide to find somewhere for lunch and in
amongst all this hustle and bustle you find various small, modern, shopping
centres mixed in with buildings dating from every era and every state between
beauty and dilapidation. We found the ‘Eatery’ and had a Chinese for
£3.80, for the both of us.
Heading back to the bus terminal you can start to
take in your surroundings more clearly, as the guide says, this is not a
tourist place, it is a busy working environment. As you walk from one
street which resembles an Indian market you turn into another street which is
the business banking sector, where you watch Trinidadians of every age, smartly
dressed either going about their business or going to work in a very modern air
conditioned glass façade building which resembles the City of London. You
turn again and are greeted by a 17th century cathedral which stands
in front of the Emperor Valley Zoo! There is nothing straight forward
about Port of Spain, it hustles and bustles but its people meet and greet you
in a way we have rarely seen in a city. Trinidadians want you to love
their country and go out of their way to help you and befriend you. If a
shop keeper does not have want you want, or he thinks someone else has a better
deal, they tell you that you should go to the other business and give you
directions to get there.
We were quite clearly the ‘odd ones out’ in this
metropolis but you sort of feel at home before you start. It is like
every other city you go into; you have to be aware of where you are and who is
around you. Crime is rife and it is not a place, you are advised, to
visit after dark, but then there are places in the UK I wouldn’t visit after
dark either. If you keep your whits about you and understand you are in a
City you should be OK. The everyday folk of Port of Spain made us feel
very at ease. No-one is trying to force you to buy their wares; they are
just trying to make a living like everyone else.
If we have time we want to go back again, there are
areas in the north of Port of Spain, Queen’s Park Savannah that are supposed to
be fascinating to see, they are known as the Magnificent 7. It is a line
of 7 eccentric and ornate colonial buildings constructed in the early 20th
century, a college, the bishop’s residence, the Law Association headquarters, a
private residence, the Catholic Archbishops residence, the prime ministers
office and finally Stollmeyer’s Castle, built to resemble a Scottish Castle
complete with turrets. That’s next on the list to see…
As you can see this trip is not all about palm
trees and beaches and I hope that we get to see more of the real Caribbean as
we continue our journey.
Love to everyone; hope to see some of you in
September.
Michele and Dave
14
August 2007
Hi everyone, I hope you are all well. We have
spent an interesting and thought provoking day in last Sunday in Chacachacare
which is an island 6 miles away and used to be a Leper Colony…here's the
history type bit.
Chacachacare is one of the "Bocas
Islands", which lie in the Bocas del Dragón (Dragons' Mouth) between
Trinidad and Venezuela. One reference states that it was originally named
El Caracol (the Snail) by Christopher Columbus because of its shape and in
another it states "Christopher Columbus discovered the island in 1498, but
stayed close to shore when his crew was attacked by wild monkeys. Mistaking
them for wildcats, he named it "Puerto de Gatos" - Port of Cats - and
swiftly cleared out." In its history it has served as a cotton
plantation, a whaling station, a leper colony and finally a place to
visit. The discovery of an effective treatment for leprosy in 1982
combined with the realisation that leprosy was not a particularly communicable
disease (roughly 90% of the population is naturally immune) led to the decline
of leper colonies around the world. The last patients left Chacachacare
in 1984 and were moved to Port of Spain Hospital.
Due to the 'weekend teenagers' who race their
daddy's speedboats around the anchorage causing more waves and wakes than we
can bear, we try to escape to the nearby islands at weekends. Knowing
that it was a new moon and the reported meteor show would be visible we and our
friends, Brian and Val, on Meander II decided that Chacachacare would be a good
anchorage as the bay is wide and we would have a good view of the night
sky. Brian and Val headed off to the bay early in the morning whilst we
had some provisioning to do (no food for the BBQ!). We set of 11.30 am
and arrived about an hour later; watching as the skies filled with rain behind
us in the anchorage, hoping it would not reach us here in the bay.
The bay is quite wide across and I started to read
the guide as we followed the coast around. The bay is full of derelict
buildings that were once the leper colony. When the patients and nurses
left, they literally 'left' there and then. Apparently for years there
were patient's notes, prescriptions, clothes and shoes just left lying around,
pots and pans left on stoves. They literally 'left'. Finally the
authorities realised that the personal details of the patients needed to be
removed and now there are just the buildings. As we entered the bay you
see what used to be the two doctor's houses at the edge of the shore
line.
I won't bore you with the details of the anchoring,
dare I say it took us both a while to find a spot that we were happy with for
the night. Whilst trying to get the anchors to set we saw in the distance
a group of really large dolphins heading straight for our boats (see the photo
site). They were definitely here to play, there was someone from another
boat already snorkelling and he swam within 3-4 feet of them. They would
come close then swim away as they saw another boat head their way and start
spinning out of the water.
The general area is full of locals who go to the
island for the weekend for BBQs and to 'get away from it'. As we venture
ashore we were met by 4 ladies who took great care to introduce themselves,
shake all our hands, explain to us who they worked for and what they did, as
well as asking us for the same information. We were then 'jumped' on by
Max who was quite clearly slightly worse for drink, or something, who insisted
on showing us how to get round the island.
We had set the dinghy down was just by the
Church. The main structure is still standing but the interior is looking
very sorry for itself and the roots and branches of the rainforest are becoming
the users of its interior now. Sadly many people have sprayed graffiti
over most of the walls and only rays of sun shine through the once glass
windows. No pews or prayer books remain, only the stretchers that were
used to move the sick or dying remain on the dusty floor. Outside lay the
embers of a fire that the locals have cooked their lunch on, while they played
in and around this sacrosanct place.
As we walked back to the dinghy Val said she was
uncomfortable with the place and was not happy being there.
We decided to look around the rest of the island by dinghy. As we chugged
around the coast line you start to see what were clearly terraced gardens laden
with lush flowers and trees. Clearly too 'organised' to be the work of
nature, but obviously the work of either a patient or nurse. We turned
another corner and found a purpose built dock with stairs reaching up through a
terrace. We all got out and started to look around. At the top of
the steps was a big house with intricate woodwork on the porch, rotting away
with time. Again Val was uncomfortable and went back to the dinghy.
As we went back to our boats we all sat in a
strange quietness. Back on Alhambra David and I spoke about
Chacachacare. To me it is a beautiful island with an odd feel to
it. On the one hand it feels wrong to be walking around what was once
someone's home, church and possibly their grave and feelings of guilt and
sadness waft over your senses. Then from somewhere deep inside I felt a
sense of happiness as I knew that those who were still suffering left this
place to be cured and be with their loved ones again. It has a foreboding
feel that doesn't quite leave you, yet a joyous feeling all at the same
time.
Around 7.30pm we headed over to Meander II for a
BBQ on board. During the previous 2 hours we watched as all the 'day
trippers' left and were glad to see that we were the only 2 boats left in the
huge bay. Unfortunately the sky was cloudy as the sun set but we had a
really good time. We all sat up until just before midnight watching as
the sky cleared to see if we could see the meteors that we had been
promised. We saw a couple but knew the best time would be around
4.00am. We headed back to Alhambra and set the alarm clock.
4.30am we woke, took our cushions and blanket up on
deck and laid back to watch the show. Even without the meteors the night
sky was something to behold and just stare at. We found The Plough,
Pleiades, Cassiopeia among the thousands of stars and streaking across the
skies between these pinholes in the velvet night were meteors, a couple at a
time, leaving streaks behind them as they burnt through the atmosphere.
We stayed there until about 5.30 as the show began to slow down so we went back
to bed. Not being able to sleep, we rose again at about 6.30 and decided
to head back to the anchorage (our man to fix the sprayhood was coming at
9.00). We said our farewells to Meander II who are staying away for a
couple of weeks and slowly motored around the edge of the bay. The
morning air was so still and quiet and behind the ridges of Chacachacare the
majestic hills of Venezuela rose high above. With not a ripple on the water
we listened to the morning chorus of the kiskadee birds and watched as the
pelicans caught their breakfast.
Our hour long journey back across the Gulf of Paria
was as still and calm as it could be, broken only by the swell of the ocean as
we pass by the various islands of the Bocas. As the sun rose above the
islands it shone down on the calm inky water and reflected on the dismantled
door that had been discarded and was floating past. This is the most
dangerous part of this journey, avoiding 'stuff' floating in the water.
As it is the rainy season, when the spring tides rise and the heavy rain falls
it washes everything down from the hills and drains. The water in the
anchorage is a disgusting mess of garbage, bamboo and oil, not a place you get
to go swimming in; but that's why we 'escape and go away for the weekend'.
Not sure what next weekend will hold, we'll just
have to wait and see.
Cheers to you all
Michele and Dave
30/9/07
Back in Trinidad
Hi
everyone
Just
a short note to let you know that we have arrived safely back in Trinidad after
2 long days of travelling. We had a whistlestop tour of New York, which
was amazing. We got back on Alhambra at about 10pm on Wednesday night.
Thanks
to everyone who looked after us while we were back home and it was great seeing
those we managed to see. Sorry to those we didn’t get to see, but the
time just went so fast, we’ll have to see you guys next time.
We
are on the hard stand for another week and then back into the water. We
will be in Trinidad for about another month and, weather permitting, we will be
heading back north up the Caribbean islands we missed on the way down, then
heading to the BVIs for Christmas. After that we will be visiting Puerto
Rico, Turks & Caicos and then 3-4 months in the Bahamas. After that
we will probably heading further north up the east coast of the USA along the
“ICW” the Intra Coastal Waterway. This is a group of rivers, lakes and
canals that all connect and go all the way up through Florida, the Carolinas,
Chesapeake Bay and up the Hudson to New York.
Well
that’s about it for now. Please stay in touch.
Cheers
Michele
and Dave
17/10/07
Hi
everyone,
Just
a quick note to say that we have safely re-launched Alhambra today after 2
weeks of hard slog and lots of sweat. However she is looking better than
ever and we are really pleased with the new look. Some photos of her
during the stages are now on the website if you want to see the new look
Alhambra, I will put some of her in the water asap.
Hope
everyone is well, please keep the e-mails coming. We are going to be in
Trinidad until at least the end of October, hopefully of for a gorge or
waterfall hike next week. Will report back….
31/10/07
Birds and hire cars
Hi
guys, long time no e-mail so to speak. I hope everyone is will.
David and I are fine and are still bobbing along in Trinidad, we hope to get
moving around Monday next week. In the meantime we have taken a hire car
for two days with a couple of friends.
Yesterday
we went to the Asa Wright Nature Sanctuary. It was meant to be an
hour and a half drive but it took us nearly three as we got lost a couple of
times, yes I know a car with four navigators and we got lost. The trouble
is the roads here do not have road signs and when you come to an exit on a
highway it doesn’t tell which way each turning goes – brilliant! So you
can imagine the fun we had. Well we got there in the end by 12.30 just in
time for a bit to each before the tour started at 1.30.
The
centre itself is in a 100 year hold house built by and Icelandic lady and her
husband after he was taken ill and told to move to somewhere warm and
quiet. It is set right up in the hills along a single track road full of
pot holes and falling edgings winding right up into the mountains and the rain
forest, the views were stunning. When we arrived we went through to the
veranda where they have set up lots of feeding boxes with syrup in the bottom
and you are greeting with the most amazing array of coloured birds among them
about 8 different varieties of humming bird. The tour itself was quite
good if not lacking in wildlife as the birds and animals don’t really come out
when there is a group of 10 walking through but the guide was very well
informed and we learnt lots. Our friend even tried some termites as a
snack – rather him than me. The tour was along the ‘Discovery Trail’ and
took us right under the rain forest canopy. Among other things we also
saw a huge colony of cutter ants, you know the sort you see with bits of leafs
and stuff being carried back to the nest. Their trail went on forever it
seemed and one of the nests we saw was actually the length of half the trail and
was probably at least 10 years old so we were told.
However
the really interesting bit was back at the veranda where all the birds
congregate as there is food put out for them, every colour and size whizzing
around your head, especially the hummingbirds. As you will see on the
photo site I managed to get quite a lot of them sitting on trees and things but
am particularly pleased as I managed (by fluke more than judgement) to get a
reasonable shot of a hummingbird in flight (I might add this was hand held for
the photographers among you out there).
All
in all it was a really peaceful day (apart from the drive there) and we had a
reasonable journey back to the boat. Today we are heading back to the
north of the island along the North Coast Road (imaginative names they have
here for roads). We are planning to go to Maracas Bay which is meant to
be the best beach on the island and then we will follow the coast road all the
way back to where we went yesterday. We will then head off down the west
coast to the Caroni Bird Sanctuary where the Red Ibis (Trinidad’s national
bird) comes back to roost at dusk. You go out in flat boats that hold
about 30 people and was as the sky fills with these bright red birds return and
start filling the trees. This is something I have wanted to see since we
arrived, so will let you know what it’s like.
Other
than that we have recently been to a pan jazz festival which was amazing.
The first band were one of the national Pan Bands – Pantasy. A full range
of tin pans playing classic jazz mixed with local tones, excellent. The
second band were OK, but the third band, Fire Cane, blew us away. A band
made up of 4 cubans, 2 Canadians and a Trini. They were so good we bought
the CD. A real combination of keyboards, sax, trumpets, drums, bongos,
percussion and pans. The music was a mix fusion of Jazz and the music of
all the Caribbean. Just brilliant. The whole evening (incl taxi
there and back, dinner, beers, ice-cream and the band and the cd) for less than
£20 for the 2 of us.
Well
that’s all for now, just uploading the photos and then some breakfast before we
head off to the beach.
Love
to you all, please stay in touch.
Michele
and Dave
7/11/07
Alhambra Moving on
Hi
everyone,
Hope
you are all well. Just a quick note to let you know that we are finally
leaving Grenada and heading back to Trinidad after four months here.
Another boat (Aurora) is joining us for the trip back which will take about 14
hours. We then plan to stay about 7-10 days exploring the rest of the
South Coast of Grenada which we failed to do when we were there earlier in the
year.
E-mail
will probably be a bit more sporadic back up there as we have been fortunate
enough to have access from the boat every day down here in Trini. So if
you don’t hear from us it doesn’t mean we’ve forgotten you, just we’re not near
an e-mail connection.
Anyway,
will let you know we’ve arrived safely when we can.
Lots
of love
Michele
and Dave
16/11/07
Gentle winds and light seas...yeah right
Hi
everyone,
Just
a short note to let you know we moved on from Grenada yesterday and it was
probably our most challenging day sailing yet. We left Grenada at about
7am hoping to reach Union Island (in the Grenadines) by about mid
afternoon. The trip was about 35 miles so, working on an average of 5
mph, we should have been there by 2pm. The journey started fine with
small seas, bright sunny day and a steady breeze. The sails set and the
fishing line set behind the boat, ready for a really good sail. However,
after about an hour we started to catch up with some weather that had gone
through in the night, so we reefed the sails (made them smaller for those who
don’t know) and carried on. We watched the catamaran behind us turn around and
head back. As we continued to catch up with the weather the winds got
stronger and the seas bigger until finally we were in squall, big seas and no
visibility. As you can imagine this is not what it’s all about. At
this point the sails were in and we only had a very small bit of main out to
help with balance and so we changed course and headed into the island we were
passing. We were on time as it was already about 1pm and we only had
about 10 miles to go to our original destination. However, better be in
the safety of a harbour than out in that horrible stuff.
After
about an hour some friends who left Grenada about 2 hours after us called us up
to say they were just passing the island, the seas had calmed, the winds were
steady and the rain had passed. They had decided to continue to Union
Island. Based on this new information we lifted the hook and headed for
Union, arriving about 3.45pm. We quickly went ashore to clear Customs and
Immigration. What a fiasco. I won’t bore you with all the details
but here in the Caribbean they are trying to create a sort of European Union,
here it’s called Caricom. Apparently, each time we enter a new country
within the Caribbean we have to have filled in a form and e-mailed or faxed it
to the ‘Advance Passenger Information System’. That’s OK if you have had
access to a fax or internet when you left the previous country. So we had
to walk into town, find an internet café, pay them £2 for the privilege of
filling in the form, e-mail it to Barbados, give us a copy, we walk back to
Immigration who look at the form and give it back to us for our records –
Brilliant – another money making, paper using, time wasting scheme from those
in authority who never actually have to use the system. All they will
manage to do is stop people coming to their islands cos it’s a pain in the
neck.
Sorry,
rant over. Any way, we are staying a week in the Grenadines before
heading back up to St Lucia, where this time we intend to spend some time in
the rain forest.
Well,
that’s all for now, hope everyone is OK and keeping well.
Staying
touch
Michele
and Dave
1/12/07
Dolphins,
Johnny Depp, Wales, 1000 miles and french wine
Hi
everyone
Its
been 10 days since I wrote and we’ve been in three different countries.
As I left you last time we were heading to Wallilabou Bay on St Vincent which
was the home of the Port Royal scenes in all 3 Pirates of the Caribbean
films. We had avoided this bay on the way down as we had heard that the
‘boat boys’ are over zealous and can be rather annoying. However speaking
to some locals we heard different reports and decided to give them the benefit
of the doubt, it also gave us two days of 30 miles sailing rather than one of
60! On our way we were treated to a pod of mother and baby dolphins who
insisted on playing in the bows of the boat, they were really quite big and
stayed with us for a good 30 minutes. A real treat.
As
we arrived in the bay we were surprised at how small it is compared to how it
looks in the movies. We were, as expected, met by ‘Alex’ the official
boat boy of the Anchorage Hotel. Motoring into the bay you can understand
why Hollywood decided to use it; it is beautifully stunning, sheer cliffs
covered in fantastic foliage with a perfect sand bay at the end. What you
see as you arrive is what looks exactly like Port Royal from the films.
In fact we moored Alhambra right next to the dock that Johnny Depp steps onto
as his boat sinks in scene one of the first film. The sad thing about
this bay is that it is full of ‘Pirates’ film sets which the St Vincent
Government apparently decided that it was better if Hollywood built temporary
sets, rather than permanent. So each part of the set you go up to looks
perfectly real until you touch it and realise it is a plastic façade. Most
of it is now falling down or has holes in it where people have ‘thumped’ it a
bit too hard. In front of half of hotel there is still more façade of
Port Royal. It is very strange and surreal. The other very sad
thing is that this little bay/village which would have been full of ‘Hollywood’
people for months on end is now left with what could have been a great tourist
attraction but have no money or backing to advertise it, so no-one, other than
boaters, comes to see it. It seems to be a real opportunity missed.
However, the rest of the village is also very nice with a pleasant water fall
and pool which is only a mile walk out of the village. All in all we had
a really nice time there. The most amusing part was in fact the boat
boys, especially ‘Julian on De Surf Board’. He continued to tell us his
name every time he spoke to us, after buying rolls and bananas from him he
asked if I had any cookies for his 3 children (he only looked about 19).
After this he asked if he could come on board and help us sail and anchor, he
had a passport and everything. When I asked him who would look after his
children he realised he’d sort of burnt his bridges with the ‘cookies for his
kids’ line! Oh well, better luck next time.
We
had a really nice sail up to St Lucia and as we passed the southern end we were
greeted by a school of whales, we think with their calves. They were some
way off in the distance but spectacular all the same. We didn’t sail too
close to them for fear of frightening them, we just watched as they spouted
water high into the air as they swam passed us on their way to St
Vincent. Our initial plan was to go into Marigot Bay again, but the
welcome from the boat boys there annoyed us so much that we pulled up the hook
and motored another hour up to Rodney Bay. Upon arriving in Rodney Bay we
also passed our 1,000 miles on Alhambra target, which is quite an achievement
we think!
We
stayed a week in St Lucia which included hiring a car on Monday and driving all
around the island. It was a pleasant surprise as we thought that it was
going to be more ‘tired’ that it was. The island is particularly stunning
in the interior and in the South around the Deux Pitons which are still the
basis for some of the villages believing in Obeah, a form of Voodoo, and still
have a sort of medicine man who is allowed to extract the fat of a boa
constrictor and use it as a tonic for muscular pains! Boas are apparently
quite common in the rain forest. After a few days in the clam anchorage
of the Rodney Bay Marina we venture out into the Bay under the hills of Pigeon
Island which is a national park which houses the annual Jazz Festival in
May. It is also the home of Fort Rodney, where, it is said, that Admiral
Rodney perched himself to keep an eye on the French movements from Martinique
only 22 miles away. Having walked to the top ourselves, we can see why he
chose this spot. All in all we thoroughly like St Lucia and if anyone
were to ask I would say yes, take a holiday here, it was worth it.
Our
trip yesterday to Martinique was, to say the least, a bit of a rolly affair and
with a strong north wind and swell against us the 22 miles took at least 5
hours motor sailing. However, those of you who know us well will know
that arriving in a French island has put a big smile on our faces. Great
wine, great food and a certain ‘je ne sais pas’. We were only going to
stay a day or two but have decided to stay til Monday. We are currently
in Le Marin, a big marina for 600 boats and have taken the luxury of a marina
berth for 2 nights (at the cost of £25 for the two nights) so we fell like we
are on a bit of a spending spree. Tomorrow we head up to the capital Fort
de France and will stay in the little bay of Les Trois Islets which is were
Josephine was born and grew up, apparently the locals didn’t like her very much
as she wanted to continue slavery in order to protect her farm land! Then
we will head up to the town of St Pierre where in 1902 Mont Pelee erupted and
completely destroyed the town and all 30,000 inhabitants perished with the
exception of a single prison inmate. Apparently you can still see the
remains of the blackened ruins.
However
the best thing about being here is the cheap wine – 5 ltrs of rose for 10€ -
and the good French cheese. To cap everything this week, we arrived back
on Alhambra this afternoon (after visiting the Champion supermarche) and as we
arrived the whole dock, boats, dinghy, everything was rumbling. It went
on for a good 3-4 minutes, very strong and loud. Quite clearly a very strong
earthquake. All afternoon we have had no power and heard lots of sirens
going by, so not sure what the damage was to any of the buildings or if anyone
was hurt. All the same it was an odd experience watching the water ripple
uncontrollably for no apparent reason.
Well
that’s enough for me for another few weeks. We hope everyone is well and
looking forward to Christmas.
For
the Debdenites among you, enjoy Saturday, I will stand on a chair in a
bar somewhere and have a dance in your honour, if someone promises to do the
same for me!
Love
to you all, take care
Michele
and Dave
14
dec 2007
Hi
everyone, hope you are all fit and well and getting excited about Santa’s
arrival. We on the other hand have had a fairly ‘exciting’ (to say the
least) few days.
About
a month ago a read an article about a guy who believes that every yacht has an
imaginary ‘black box’ which keeps all the good luck that you need. You
gain good luck by looking after your boat, by tending to her needs and
polishing her, always putting things away etc. Then when you need to call
on the ‘black box luck’ as long as you have enough ‘points’ stored away you
will be OK…
Everything
started when we headed to Dominica expecting to enjoy the treats of this
undeveloped island. Having been sailing since 5am from Martinique we
arrived in Portsmouth, Dominica at about 2pm. We were met, as expected,
by an ‘Official Indian River Boat Boy’ (Raymond). We arranged with
him to go for a trip up the Indian River the next day and then would like to have
a tour of the island the following. The Indian River is a protected park
area where no motor boats are allowed. It is a winding river flanked on
either side by mangroves and tall trees. This is where the strange
‘Witch’ in Pirates of the Caribbean had her house. It is completely still
and peaceful and finishes with a drink in a new bar built along the bank, with
beautiful tropical gardens.
The
problem came on the evening of the 2nd night when there was all
sorts of confusion came about as to who owns the mooring buoy we are attached
to and how much it will all cost. Long story very short it sounds like
they are starting up some sort of ‘protection racket’ which the cruisers are
made to fund. Anyway, we did not get a warm feeling about the whole place
and decided to spend our money elsewhere, without going on our very expensive
tour.
We
left Dominica on Mon 4th heading for Guadeloupe, when we woke
another cruiser from Trinidad had anchored and was also heading for
Guadeloupe (Guadeloupe is an island of two halves sort of resembling a
butterfly.) Pat, a middle aged woman who sailed single handed across the
Atlantic, also wants to go through the ‘infamous’ River Salee which cuts right
through the middle of Guadeloupe and allows you to see the interior of the
island without having to sail all the way back down the island before going
around the island. After a night in the south islands of Les Saintes (all
very pretty and very French) we took the 22 mile sail up to Point-a-Pitre, the
capital. Again all very French, big new marina, lots of bars and cafes,
very much like the South of France. Unfortunately because of strong winds
and big seas were we stuck there for 5 days. The trip to Antigua is an
open channel across and always seems to have big seas to start with.
We
spent a couple of days researching the route through this very winding, in
places very shallow, river. We even took the dinghy for a trip up to the
first bridge to check things out. We plotting a route on our chart
plotter, we made a drawing of the river and marked all the buoys, headings
between the two, distances etc. We discussed at length how we would
tackle this reasonably tricky river. Finally, there came a weather window
on Monday. There are two sets of bridges, the southern opens at 5.00am
and the north 5.30am, which, apparently, gives you plenty of time to get from
one to the other. The river itself is only 3 miles long. An early
night, a charging up of the spot light, we anchored just off from the first
bridge. Everything is ready.
Still
in darkness, at 4am we get up, check the boat get ourselves ready (along with
Pat) and at 4.45am head for the bridge (they only open if the see yachts
wanting to go through). The first bridge is in fact a set of two bridges,
which are at different angles of course. We wait until we see that the
bridges are opening, I am at the front with a very bright spotlight lighting up
the flanks of the bridge, we go through the first with no problem, but we now
have to change course in a very small area, we can’t see any current and David
calls for me to look and check that the mast is clear…
…as
I look back all I can see is the stern of the boat heading straight into the
wall of the second bridge, I scream at David but he is already on the
case. There is no point trying to steer away as that will actually cause
the stern to crash on the corner. He recovers the situation as best he
can but now we are both having to fend the boat away from the wall as we go through
the second bridge, all we can hear is a screeching, scraping, smashing
sound. We can’t stop once we are through we have to carry on, searching
for the next six buoys leading us in darkness to the next bridge. Only
once through this bridge can se attach to a buoy and look at the damage.
I stand at the front of Alhambra and cry. I have no idea what the damage
is. David has looked with a small torch but we still hold our breath
until sun rise and we can take a proper look….
…I
can only say that we may have used all our ‘black box luck’ today. All we
can find is a black rubber mark (from the rubber bumpers on the inside of the
bridge) about 6 inches, no dent, no paint work missing, nothing. You
cannot, well you probably can, believe how thankful we are. Li’l (AKA
Hairy) Al has taken a battering as he got scraped around the corner of the
bridge, but no holes. Relief is the only word that can describe how we
both felt. And for those who know David really well will not believe me
when I say that not one swear word came out of his mouth, no Tasmanian Devil,
nothing. He realised there was nothing we could do, the current, which at
the time was invisible had complete control of Alhambra. That was a huge
lesson learned.
We
now had to work our way through a 2 mile reef system continuing to follow buoys
through a marked channel before we got to the open sea, where we had a 40 mile
trip to Antigua. We had for 4 days been avoiding 30mhp winds and big
seas, we were expecting 15-20 mph winds and 8-10ft seas. We got the 8 ft
seas but absolutely no wind at all, for 6 hours…As we arrived in Antigua, the
wind started to pick up. Pat, was no-where to be seen, but she is a much
slower boat. The bay is chopping and now very windy. It is packed
with yachts as there is an exhibition. We find a spot and anchor and go
and clear customs etc. Watching the skies we see that it is about to rain
and so we head back to the boat. Pat has arrived 2 hours later and we hop
on board to see that she is OK. She has had some strong winds in the last
hour or so…
…Over
night the winds and rain really got up. We were up every hour checking
the anchor, checking the boats next to us, checking everything, stopping the
noises if we can. During breakfast we listen to the local weather only to
find that have been sleeping (well not very much sleep) through Sub Tropical
Storm Olga, which the National Hurricane Centre failed to notice and didn’t
warn anyone about! So this morning we have taken all the water out of the
dinghy which has been enough to wash all the towels and a few other things with
water to spare, probably about 20 gallons in all. So today we’re not
doing anything, surprisingly.
We
will be here for about a week as the weather is staying rubbish and then we
will head to St Bart’s and the hopefully St Martin for Christmas.
Will
be in touch with hopefully less interesting news, but for now, please take care
and stay in touch.
Love
Michele
and Dave
19
Jan 2008
Hi
everyone and happy new year to you all and I hope all your new year resolutions
are still standing…
Sorry
it’s been a while but we have both had really bad colds and have been laid up
for over a week. We are still in St Martin and probably will be for
another week. The weather has changed again and the wind is getting
stronger and the seas bigger so we are waiting for a better weather window to
head off to the BVI.
Well
what have we been up to. New Year was good, albeit with strangers, none
of our sailing buddies had arrived (again the weather was not good for sailing
long distances). We had a few beers at the ‘yoof’ bar before heading to a
Mexican bar where the ‘Jukebox Heroes’ were playing. There was a good
party crowd and they gave free champagne at midnight which we took over to the
beach to watch the firework display. Life was quiet for a few days after
that and then our friends on Aurora (they sailed with us from Trinidad to
Grenada) arrived. We met them at the Yacht Club. Now the Yacht Club
has an interesting happy hour. Between 4pm and 5.30pm all beers are a $1
and wine is $3 (instead of $3 and $5 normally), so this makes for a cheap
evening. However that’s not the fun bit. At 5.30pm the bridge into
Simpson Bay Lagoon opens up and allows the inward bound boats to enter.
The lagoon, for those who don’t know is about 3 miles long but has some of the
biggest marinas around, housing boats up to 300ft long. I call them boats
but they are floating mega yachts/palaces. Each evening the crowd has
been getting bigger, watching this beautiful boats come through the bridge,
which to be fair is not that big. I’m sure we are all praying for a
professional skipper to screw up and hit the bridge. We cheer when they
come through and they blow their horns and everyone is happy. It sounds
like a strange way to spend a couple of hours but it is somehow very
compelling. (An example of one boat that came in last night was Esctasea,
280ft long, cruises at 40 knts and is owned by the Russian who owns Chelsea, it
was so wide that the fenders on each side were dragging along the wall.
It is 4 storeys high and has a water jet prop system at it’s stearn. It
was huge).
Then
there is Sunset Beach…this is a beach that runs along the end of St Martin’s
international runway (yes great for David). However they have not stopped
the traffic or people from walking across the end of the runway and there is a
great bar on one side where you can sit and watch the planes land. If
you’re really brave (or stupid) you can stand on the beach, just off the centre
line of the runway and wait for a plane to take off. This is fine if it
is a little one, but when an airbus or 747 takes off, the jet wash alone
actually picks these people up and blows them into the water. Some of
them hang onto the fence and actually fly in the jet wash. On one
particular Sunday I thought I would try and get a photo of the 747 landing, I
did get a good photo, I also got covered in sand as I face planted the beach
not realising exactly how low a 747 would actually be over my head when it was
just off the runway, about 15-20ft I would say. David thought I was a
complete wimp, I was still shaking when I got back to the bar – I didn’t see
him taking the photo.
We’ve
been out to dinner with Aurora to a great Argentine restaurant that has a
fabulous Argentine band, all salsa and Spanish. I even got up to Salsa
with a complete stranger last time, as you all know that’s most unlike
me…Earlier this week we moved out of the lagoon, we needed to get away for a
day or two. We headed round to Grand Case with 5 other boats. On
Monday night we were taught Mexican Train Dominoes (yes we know), Tuesday there
is a great Street Party in Grand Case, they close off the road and lots of
stalls set up and bands play in different bars. We met up with 3 other
couples (Paul/Nancy, Silvy/Brad, Diane/David), we had a drink and then went to
one of the Lolo restaurants (run by local Caribbean’s). They have big oil
drum bbqs set up and we had bbq ribs for £2 and coleslaw etc for £1. The
whole mean for the two of us including 4 drinks was £12!! We then all
went for a walk looking at all the stalls etc. All the girls agreed that
it was payback time to the guys for all the hours we spend in chandleries looking
at boat stuff (dull). Later on that evening they had a small group of
carnival dancers and musicians come through the street.
David
and I have turned very musical whilst we have been here. We have recently
bought a bongo drum (for £3, it's really a tourist one but I’ve always wanted
one. At the street fair I could have got a real one for about £10, oh
well). We also went off to a music store and bought the harmonica.
You can now find us an hour each a day practicing the mouth organ. It's
much more difficult than I ever thought it would be. We have downloaded
some instructions from the net and are now quite good at 'when the saints go
marching in'...
Aurora
and Sandcastle have now left and are in the US Virgin Islands. Wednesday
we went over to Eclipse (Brad and Sylvie. She's from Cannes, south of
France) for a Ti-punch party (Ti-punch is a french rum drink based on rum,
sugar water and a hangover the next day). There were 10 of us on board,
it’s a good job their boat is 50ft.
But
now we are back in the Lagoon. We have bought and fitted and solar panel
so the amp monster (AKA the fridge/freezer) is now being supplied a good store
of electricity for free. Amazing it cost us the same about as our
electric bill was for a year back home – eco friendly or what…Today we’ve been
checking out diving gear so that David can clean under the boat without
drowning and we are just about to head off for the Happy Hour at the yacht
club…
Please
stay in touch, it’s great to hear from you.
Love
Michele
and David
___________________________________________
Michele and Dave on board Alhambra
e-mail: dm.perrett@gmail.com
photos: www.flickr.com/photos/md_sailing
Skype: dm.perrett
28
Jan 08
Hi,
we hope you are all well and getting over all that Christmas and New Year
spirit…thanks to all of you who sent e-mail messages, it’s really good to hear
from ‘the folks’ back home as they say.
We
have now arrived in the British Virgin Islands (BVI) which we desperately
needed to do, 5 weeks in St Martin was too much time. We left St Martin
on Sunday morning at about 3.30 am ready for the 86 mile journey. We have
been waiting for this weather window for a while now. As it happens it
wasn’t a brilliant window as there was no wind whatsoever so our 13 hours were spent
under motor sail. This can be very tedious, noisy and a bit spelly from
the exhaust. There was a also large sea swell (about 9-10 feet), but they
were big long swells which actually give you a nice ride, a bit like a small
roller coaster and at the top of each wave you can see forever over the ocean
which is great when you finally spot land.
Our
first night was in Spanish Town on Virgin Gorda (named by Columbus as ‘the fat
virgin’. He thought the islands looked like a fat woman on her back when
you approach, which funnily enough they do…) We stayed on board as
Customs had gone home and had a reasonable night’s sleep to catch up on the day
before. Today (Monday) we have headed further north up to Gorda Sound
(Richard and Pauline we’re heading for the Bitter End tonight for their happy
hour, will have a drink for you…). This is a creek set among rolling
green hills on all sides, some have resorts and hotels other have little beach
bars and others just have a white sand beach. Today the sky is blue, the
water clear and the breeze cool. David currently under the boat in his
new scuba gear changing an anode or something (it’s a blue job, I try to do
only pink jobs).
Arriving
back here has brought back memories of many holidays. As most of you know
we first came to the BVI on a flying holiday and had a great time, our plan
then was to fly further south to St Martin and St Barts but we liked it here so
much we stayed. We then came back for our first solo sailing holiday in
May 2005 as part of our overall plan towards our final goal of living on
Alhambra and then finally we had another flying and sailing holiday which
brought us back here for a brief sailing trip.
As
we sat last night watching the sun slide gently behind the hills of Tortola and
St John, the sky turned from shades of orange through to violet as the stars
appeared, we wondered what we will experience this time. We will be
looking at the BVI with what I call ‘new eyes’. Eyes that have seen a
different lifestyle for the last 9 months and eyes that look at things in a
different way to ‘holiday eyes’. I think visiting a place that was once
our holiday destination now will bring a different view as we now visit places
in a different way. We no longer just have a fleeting visit to the ‘touristy’
sights; we can take our time and stay as long as we want. We also get to
see some of the ‘real’ sites of these islands as we go about our daily basis,
in the supermarkets and markets, meeting the locals who are trying to eek out a
living in this part of the world. We don’t spend our evenings in fancy
restaurants (although we sometimes treat ourselves) but we tend to head for the
local’s bars where you meet the real people of the islands (a bit like going to
the Plough rather than the main pub in town). Most of all we’re looking
to enjoy ourselves here. It has that real relaxed holiday feel about, I
think we’re just going to soak up the sun and chill for a couple of
weeks. Maybe I’ll get a bit more writing done and well get some more
photos and doing a bit of sight seeing.
Well,
I’m off to find happy hour at the Bitter End Resort, stay happy and please keep
writing.
Lots
of love
Michele
and David
___________________________________________
Michele and Dave on board Alhambra
e-mail: dm.perrett@gmail.com
photos: www.flickr.com/photos/md_sailing
Skype: dm.perrett
10/2/08
Hi
there, hope all is well and not too cold in wintery England…
We
have now arrived in the small island of Culebra which is part of the Spanish
Virgin Islands which belong to Puerto Rico. In fact Puerto Rico is just
20 miles west of Culebra and can be seen in the distance on a clear day.
Unfortunately we have not had many clear calm days for a good few weeks
now. The ’infamous’ (or fabled as some folk call them) ‘Winter Winds’
have been blowing since early January. Wind, I hear you say, is surely
great for sailing. Well under normal circumstances yes, but when there is
too much wind, coupled with high seas, its not such good sailing conditions,
especially if you are going across passages from island to island where you are
exposed to the Atlantic.
As
you will have read in my last e-mail we were going to have a ‘holiday’ in the
BVI, well it didn’t quite work out that way. We had a couple of nice days
up in Gorda Sound (The Bitter End Yacht Club is a high end luxury resort which
has immaculately maintained gardens, restaurants, pool and hillside cottages).
We even went along for their Saturday night entertainment of a live band.
They were good, unfortunately the wind blew up and the trip back to the boat in
the dinghy was a very wet ride home. We then headed to Marina Cay where
we knew of the Happy Hour entertainment. A one man band called Michael Beans
who plays guitar, harmonica, uses a crate with paper wrapped around it to
create a base drum and sings all at the same time. His speciality is
creating an atmosphere in which everyone joins in. There are all sorts of
shakers (maracas) on the tables and very soon everyone is joining in. The
basis for his set is ‘Pirates’ aaaarrrrr. Anyone who has a pirate tale or
says something ending in aaaarrrrr (as in Happy Haaaarrrrrr) is given a free
shot of rum. I managed to get quite a few shots of rum that evening
(which I did share with David) but somehow don’t remember leaving the bar,
getting in the dinghy, getting on the boat or even cooking dinner (which
apparently was a really awful omelette). Well we don’t do that sort of
thing very much these days. Luckily no hanger the next day.
That’s
when the ‘holiday’ ended. Well it’s when the toilet ‘pump out’ pump
sprung a leak. Now I won’t go into the gruesome details, but luckily we
discovered the leak sooner rather than later and the mess wasn’t too bad.
However, the tricky bit now is to a) find a new pump and b) work out how it
fits. This is what I call a ‘blue job’ (ie David gets to do it). We
headed to Road Town (the capital) and after a weary search around a few
chandleries we finally found one (double the cost of what it would have been in
St Martin, but can you put a price on a toilet pump out pump?)
Road
Town itself seemed much smaller than I remember and in the evening (when all
the cruise ships have left) it almost closes down, so we only stayed to fix the
loo. We moved onto Norman Island (The Bight). This is where I lost
one of my favourite shoes the first time we sailed out here (I must admit that
it was after a few G&T’s and it went over board as I was trying to get into
the dinghy and was not as adapt as I am now – ha ha ha – will I ever be adapt
at getting into a dinghy). From there we headed over to Jost Van Dyke,
Great Harbour to spend the evening dancing away in Foxy’s Bar to a live band.
Well I was dancing away with some locals and David was stuck at the bar with a
drunk who had bought us a drink, I didn’t leave him too long on his own.
The next day we headed to Soper’s Hole where the real fun starts.
In
order for us to take a UK registered boat into the US Virgin Islands we first
have to get a visa. So we hop onto a ferry ($40 each round trip, $5 each
departure tax) and go 30 minutes to St John where we ‘check into’ the States
and explain we want to bring the boat over in a couple of days. They
stamp our passport, give us a green visa waiver and send us on our way.
We wander around for an hour or so, ‘check out’ of the States and then hop back
on the ferry to the BVI where we ‘check back in’. We walk around the
corner to the customs office where we ‘check out’ of the BVI (another $5) and
have to pay $25 for the mooring buoy we had to pick up because Soper’s hole is
too deep to anchor. So, in order for us to visit the USVI it cost us $120
and we’re supposed to be allies…We went back to Normal Island for the night and
then left the next morning to go round the south of St John. St John is ¾
national park and you can’t anchor, you have to pick up a buoy at the cost of
$15 per night. Now, we don’t have a problem with that as they are
maintaining the pristineness of the island. What we did have a problem
with is the weather. The wind has been constantly out of the North with a
small ships advisory warning out as the seas are big and the winds
strong. This means that the north coast of the islands are untenable for
anchoring.
It
was then that we heard about the (3rd) water leak in our house back
home. (Yes we know, what is it with water and that house). Anyway
realising that we need to get to somewhere with decent internet (we have not
been able to get a signal on our mobile for over a week) we headed for St
Thomas and after trying every bay on the south side ended up in Charlotte
Amalie (the capital, otherwise known as Charlotte Anomaly) and had another 2
rolly nights there, but we did get the house problem sorted out.
Completely fed up with not getting any sleep we moved around to Lindberg Bay on
the South West of the island (next to the airport so David was happy). A
nice bay, only one other boat there and dropped the hook. It wasn’t rolling
very much to start and then it continued to get bigger and bigger to the point
of our galley windows were nearly in the water. “Right that’s it” says my
captain “we are putting out a kedge anchor” (to do this we have to get the 2nd
anchor out of the locker, lift it into the dinghy, tie the line to the cleat,
head off in the dinghy, drop it at 45 degrees to the boat, come back to the
boat and winch in the line to bring the boat round and into the swell so that
we are pitching rather than rolling. As you can guess, the first attempt
the anchor didn’t set, we did finally manage to make it set the next
attempt. The bay was nice, a great beach which had bar which had a
karaoke night so we stayed on board and went to bed early, ready for an early start,
completely fed up with these rubbish anchorages, we’re heading fro the Spanish
Virgins. Which is where we are now.
The
sail, or should is say pitching, rolling, down winding journey which was
luckily only 3 hours was an interesting one and one which I was glad when it
was over. (in the morning we had to do the reverse of the kedge anchor
and bring it back up and put it away, which is really good fun and I feel like
I’ve been to an all day aerobic session). However, the bay here is calm,
beautiful and NOT ROLLING! We met up again with Aurora and had a really
nice night out (we even treated ourselves to a pizza, followed by a live
‘band’, well not quite a band but two guys on 5 bongo drums, but my how they
could play them).
Culebra
reminds us very much of Alderney and in the true sense of an Alderney trip we
are going to get scooters out and go and explore. There is a small
airport here so we may even look into getting a plane for a hour…I won’t bore
you with the fiasco of the customs officer here, needless to say we’re thinking
of writing a book ‘Customs officers I have known and loved’.
Well
that’s about it for now, we’re doing nothing for a week. Look after
yourselves and I hope the weather starts to warm up soon.
Please
stay in touch, lots of love
Michele
and David
___________________________________________
Michele and Dave on board Alhambra
e-mail: dm.perrett@gmail.com
photos: www.flickr.com/photos/md_sailing
Skype: dm.perrett
19/2/08
For
those of you who have been fortunate enough to visit Alderney (Channel Islands)
I can safely agree with our good friends Nigel and Ilona in saying the Culebra
is ‘Alderney with sun’…and grey clouds and wind and rain…in fact very much like
the weather in Alderney we have had over the many years we have visited.
In fact to the point of we had to stay there 9 days because of lousy weather.
Lousy,
I hear you cry, but it must be glorious, you’re in the Caribbean. Well
lousy is a nautical term you may not have heard. In general terms it
means ‘don’t really want to go sailing in that crap weather’. A bit like
flying to and from Alderney, only then we used to HAVE to fly in it to get home
to go to work the next day. Here we could stay ‘stuck’ for 9 days.
As I said in my previous e-mail we decided to hire scooters, well scooter
actually. Yes, quite a sight, me perched on the back of a ‘one-man’
scooter, whizzing (we’re not sure how fast we were going as the speedo wasn’t
working, but hey, it’s the Caribbean) around the island. We were quite
impressed with this little machine and it’s ability to deal with very steep
hills around the island. Here, as in the BVI, the road builders have not
learned how to take a road round a hill, just up and over it! The island
has 3 roads, yes 3 and they all meet in the middle (no roundabout tho and
no-one really know who has right of way. We weren’t really sure what side
of the road they drove on either, mainly the middle). The 3 roads all end
at a beach, all stunning, all white with crystal clear blue waters, all with
crashing waves cos the wind is so strong at the moment. One however was
interesting…at the very far end was a Sherman Tank,
yes a Sherman Tank (and for those who are interested a WWII Sherman, David
tells me that it was the later one with the V8 rather than a Pratt &
Whitney Radial…what did you expect!) A local artist has carefully
come along and painted it with his own special island design…I’m not sure it
makes it better or worse. Anyway pictures on the website soon, I suppose
it makes for a good talking point at parties.
We
did plan to take a ferry (all of US$4 return) to Farjado on Peurto Rico but as
luck would have it we slept through the alarm (the ferry left at 6.30 am and
we’re not that good at 5.30 am starts these days) and failed to get
there. Some friends however, on another boat, did manage to make it
there. Our plan, as theirs was, was to hire a car and head up into the rain
forest (The El Yunka Forest) and spend the day wandering around etc. On
their return it turns out that you can’t hire a car without a local phone
number, so no rain forest. The main chandlery we were heading for (I
won’t bore you with the details of what we needed) is more expensive than
anywhere in the whole of the Caribbean and doesn’t have much stock anyway, and
the weather was rubbish…so all in all we’re quite glad we stayed in bed.
The weather in fact continued to be rubbish to the point of last Sunday could
have been described as a perfect day in the Channel Islands – it was grey and
rained all day, and we’ve watched all the DVDs we’ve got on board and similar
to Alderney everything is shut on a Sunday – so we read all day.
Today
is Tuesday and we are now back in the USVI and have spent the day checking in
with customs, doing the laundry and grocery shopping…you see how much fun
sailing in the Caribbean can be and talking of sailing yesterday’s journey back
here was only slightly better than the trip to Culebra a week or so ago, only
in reverse, this time the waves were on our nosing and poor Alhambra was having
to smash through them, which I must say she does with less complaints than are
from me, but she is built to deal with it, unlike me. Anyway, we’ve
headed back here to see if we can see the bits of the USVI and the BVI that we
failed to see previously because of bad weather, even though it sounds like
there will be not much let up in the chopped up sea until the weekend…at least
we found a nice spot to anchor, in a protected spot where it is nice and calm.
Well
that’s about it for a while, phone doesn’t work out here and internet cafes are
few and far between, so until next time. Stay in touch.
Take
care
Michele
and David
___________________________________________
Michele and Dave on board Alhambra
e-mail: dm.perrett@gmail.com
photos: www.flickr.com/photos/md_sailing
Skype: dm.perrett
1/3/08
Hi
there, hope everyone is OK back in Blighty. Just a quick update on our
‘non-movement’ for the last few weeks.
As
we have said the Trade Winds won’t let up and give us an opportunity to go
anywhere so we have been ‘stuck’ in the Virgin Islands, well to be precise the
BVI and we got totally fed up with the USVIs. The story of getting in and
out is a nightmare with US Customs.
As
I explained a few e-mails back, we had to get a US Visa to take Alhambra into
the USVI, which we had to do by ferry and then re-check in the next day.
Once we’d done this they ‘forgot’ to give us the paperwork we needed so when we
arrived in the Spanish Virgin’s (which is still part of the US and has US
Customs Officers) they didn’t know what to do with us and made us fill the all
the paperwork in again…they then charged us for a boat coming from non-US
waters into US waters which was $19 even though we had come from US Waters ie
the USVI to the Spanish VI (part of the US) – are you keeping up? (The
cost is $37 if you are coming from US waters into US waters!). When we
left to go back to the USVI there was another US Customs guy who didn’t
understand why we had only been charged $19 as we had come from the USVI and
should have been charged $37. He then proceeded to start to charge us a
further $37 as he thought we were arriving even though the form clearly stated
we were departing, so we didn’t actually have to pay. (as you can imagine
David was getting is ‘I don’t believe it’ hat on). He also wanted to see
our cruising permit (which the first guy had not given us), so he had to give
us a retrospective permit for the $19 (and not the $37 which we should have
paid). This all took about two hours… and they give these people guns (we
noticed that they were always pointing at their toes though).
Anyway
after the horrible journey back we only had 3 nights in the USVI as the
anchorages are really really rolly. We did leave to go to the south side
of St John (USVI) but after 2 hours in big seas we said s*d it and diverted
into the BVI where we checked in and went 5 miles up the north coast to Cane
Garden Bay. We spent 6 nights in a beautiful calm bay, the beach is
white, the backdrop is steep mountainous rainforest, the water is blue and the
beach has about 7 bars/restaurants so the beer is relatively cheap. All
the bars have live entertainment most nights. One guy in particular (MJ
Blues) was one of the best guitarists we’ve seen, his Hendrix renditions were
something to behold. We hired a car for one day and did the touristy bit
around the island and then headed up to Sage Mountain and did a 2 hour hike
around the rainforest, which was a nice way to spend a couple of hours.
After
that we moved over to Jost Van Dyke where we wanted to go into White Bay (this
is a fantastic little bay and is the home of the Soggy Dollar Bar – no dinghy
dock, you have to swim so your dollars get soggy). Unfortunately it is really
small and if you don’t get there early you never get a spot, and as it happened
the rough seas were making their way into the bay, so we went round to the next
bay, Great Harbour, where we have been before. However, the winds picked
the next day and we decided to spend a further night back in Cane Garden
Bay. Yesterday we tried to sail – ha the thought of sailing into 25knts
of wind and 6 ft seas – so we motored to Trellis Bay which has a little island
in the middle called Bellamy Cay. Here they have the Last Resort
Restaurant where the ‘Singing Chef’ plays at 9pm, after he’s finished
cooking. He’s a guy from the UK who we have seen play before and once
again he was an excellent musician, along with his piano playing partner,
unfortunately they give Tequila away in quantity and David had a bad head this
morning! Today we moved the fine distance of 1.6 miles across the bay to
Marina Cay (where you may recall the Pirate Micheal Beans gives away Rum, but I
don’t think we’ll be partaking of any of that tonight…)
Our
plans, as they stand, are to wait until the wind dies down before we go
anywhere and looking at the forecasts this could be a long wait…but at least
there are many and varied anchorages for us to go and explore. So far in
every bay we have been in here there has been at least one turtle swimming by.
Well,
that’s about it for now, hope you are all keeping well and please stay in
touch, we do love to hear from you, it keeps us in touch with the real world.
Love
to all
Michele
and David
___________________________________________
Michele and Dave on board Alhambra
e-mail: dm.perrett@gmail.com
photos: www.flickr.com/photos/md_sailing
Skype: dm.perrett
31/3/08
Hi
everyone, hope you are all well and didn’t eat too many Easter Eggs.
Unfortunately I couldn’t find Egg in St Martin! We’ve now been ‘stuck’ in
St Martin for nearly 3 weeks and still have another one to go before we get on
a plane and head back to the UK. For those of you who don’t know we are
coming back to the UK for a while in April (landing at Gatwick on the 12th
April).
On
3rd April we will have been away for a whole year, so what have we
achieved in that time (sorry to those Debdenites who have already read this in
the Pump)…
In
summary we have sailed Alhambra 1,830 miles on 86 days, totalling 397
hours and visited 15 different countries (most of which twice). In order
to visit these countries we have had to check in and out of customs/immigration
a total of 57 times. The longest sail was on March 12th from
the BVI to St Martin, a total of 103 miles, took 17 hours and included our
first ‘night anchor’ as we arrived at 8.30pm. The shortest was only a
third of a mile from Trellis Bay, BVI to Marina Cay BVI. We have
completed 2 and half night sails. We have stayed in beautiful, unspoilt,
deserted bays and also lived on board while Alhambra was in a boat yard where
the humidity was 100%.
On
our travels we have encountered many attitudes and differences among locals and
‘cruisers’ (as we are known) but most of our experiences have been very good
ones. Some of the sailing has been ‘a breeze’ and some of it has been ‘a
little bit on the difficult side’. We have had days of howling wind and
days with no wind at all. We have been ‘stuck in places for days, even
weeks, waiting for ‘weather windows’. We’ve had to speak English (of
sorts), French, Spanish and the local ‘Caribbean dialect’. We always try
to use the local transport, which in some places has been on very old fashioned
buses and in others in modern ‘pick up trucks’ converted to 18 seaters with the
loudest reggae you can imagine.
We’ve
been on trails, treks and hikes; we’ve been up mountains, through rainforest
and down rivers. We’ve been on beaches with hundreds of people, on
beaches with no-one but us and a beach with a WWII tank on it! We’ve been
on ‘turtle watches, had monkeys eat from our hands, and watched humming birds
sip sugar syrup right in front of our faces. We’ve swam and snorkelled
among rays, turtles and fishes (and that was just round the boat).
We’ve
shopped in all manner of ‘supermarkets’; the strangest was in the Grenadines
where they often had black plastic bags of ‘chicken parts’ in the
freezers. No, we never bought any so I can’t tell you what ‘parts’ are
included, but we have seen chicken feet and gizzards on sale! We have
been taught (verbally) how to catch, skin, remove the poisonous glands and BBQ
a form of Trinidadian rodent! We’ve had ‘dinner parties on board and been
to ‘pot luck’ dinners where everyone brings a dish to the pre-arranged
beach.
We’ve
managed not to get sunburnt, only had to find a local doctor once and have had
hangovers (but what did you expect). We’ve even learnt how to play
‘Mexican Train Dominoes’…
So
what’s next for Alhambra… you’ll have to wait and see. However, if we
didn’t get to see you last September we will definitely try and see you this
time as we back for a bit longer.
Looking
forward to seeing everyone soon.
Michele
and Dave
___________________________________________
Michele and Dave on board Alhambra
e-mail: dm.perrett@gmail.com
photos: www.flickr.com/photos/md_sailing
Skype: dm.perrett
11/2/09
…when
the Perrett’s go there and the PPS (Perrett Persecution Syndrome, for those who
don’t know) kicks in.
Everything
was going to plan, well nearly, but we were on track to have everything packed
up and ready to go. Then the first disaster struck, David’s front tooth,
which has been a bridge for years, fell out. He had been to the dentist
for the previous three weeks for other treatment and now this. Two days
later it was fixed. (Thursday – 5 days til we leave). David
finished work on the Friday (4 days til we leave).
We
put the sofa for sale on e-bay and someone bought it and agreed to collect it
on Sunday (2 days til we leave) and we had a weekend of final lunches, dinners
and drinks to say farewell.
Saturday
– having sold the car we needed to deliver it to they buyer who had kindly let
us keep it til Saturday.
Sunday
– no show from the e-bayer, why did this not surprise us.
Sunday
evening – David’s bridge falls out – again.
Monday
– worst snow in England for 18 years, and the UK comes to a stand still – we
were not surprised, it was all part of our overall plan…David called the
dentist who could fit him immediately if we could get there, and we weren’t
sure if we could, but we gave it a go and all was fine.
Monday
afternoon - we tried to check-in on line for our flight, but of course the
whole of BA’s system was down, we called and they confirmed the flight was OK
and we managed to book in on line later that evening.
With
everything finally packed away, the sofa in the garage so that Brad could let
the buyer collect it, we closed the door on the house at 9pm and stayed the
night with him (thanks Brad, that was a great help and the curry was good too!)
Tuesday
3rd February – D-Day – we left Debden at 5am, although our flight
was not til 11.20, but we had to take the hire car back and didn’t know what
the roads would be like – in the end they were fine and we were in Gatwick with
lots of time to spare, so we could spend it in the Security line. Even
that was fine. We had some breakfast, watched some planes and went to the
departure gate when it was time. When we arrived we were greeted to a
departure lounge of 50 or so teenagers (they all looked like they were fans of
High School Musical or Fame for the older readers). They all had the same
sweatshirts on with a theatre logo on the back and their names – a plane full
of teenage, singing and dancing hormones – and you just know where there going
to be sitting. We stated to board.
As
we got to the gate we were asked the usual questions – “how long will you be in
New York?”
“One
day” David replied.
“then
where are you going”
“St
Martin”
“For
how long?”
“About
6 months”
“Do
you have a visa?”
“No,
we’re on the visa waiver scheme, we’re only staying in New York for one night.”
“I’m
sorry sir, but that is not the case, under US law, if you go to the offshore
islands of USA, Canada and Mexico (ie most of the Caribbean) you have not
officially checked out of the US.”
Stunned
silence from both of us. I replied
“But
St Martin is part of France, it is a department of France, it is in the
European Union and I have a European passport. IT IS NOT part of the US”
“Doesn’t
matter, this is our law. You can’t get on this plane without a ten year
visa or a flight back home in 90 days.”
As
you can imagine this went on for quite some time. It was when he said,
“it’s all right for you to be jetting off all over the place, you’re not normal
people” that I completely lost the plot with him. “Don’t stand there and
judge my lifestyle, how I chose to spend my time is my own business and not to
be judged by anyone…” I tried to calm down, this wasn’t getting us
anywhere. I heard someone say they will have to take our bags off the
plane. We needed to do something, and quick.
“If
we change our flight so that it returns within 90 days, will you let us enter
the US?”
“Yes
Ma’am.”
We
asked a BA employee if they could do this (which of course they can and they
did so for no charge – this time) and we were finally let on the plane – the
last passengers. And yes, you’ve guessed it we were sat right in the
middle of High School Musical, the New York Special. And yes they were a
pain. Eventually, after David had been to the toilet, one of the
hostesses saw he was really angry and asked if we would like to move
(unfortunately not forward to Business, but right to the back and away from the
teenagers). We did and had an hour or so of quiet, and then they moved
and found some other friends around us to talk to. Finally the hostess
told them to sit down in their seats and brought us complimentary champagne –
it didn’t last very long.
Well,
to cut a very long and arduous story short, everything ended well. When
we left New York the next day, as we suspected, as we got on the American
Airline flight to St Martin, they removed our Green Visa Waiver cards, so as
far as they, and us, are concerned we have officially check out of the US
(because they, like most of the rest of the world don’t know about this law
that says the Caribbean belongs to the USA). Sorry, getting het up
again. However, it does mean that we have to change the flights back to
the original dates, which will of course cost us about £100.
Other
than that, the boat is fine, if not filthy, not much mildew, but rubber gloves
have been in use for a few days now. We are slowly bringing her back to
life. I think it will be another week or so before we get her back in the
water. When we got here there were 2 lots of friends from last year and
they made us very welcome – they even invited us for dinner on board so that we
could remember what it was like…
Well,
once again a huge thank you to everyone who helped out, looked after us, fed
and watered us over the last few months. It was great to be back to see
everyone, but we’re not sorry we’ve escaped the snow. Hope everyone is
well and as I have said, please write to us, we really do want to know what’s
going on with everyone.
Must
go, happy hour at the Yacht Club in ten minutes.
Lots
of love
Michele
and Dave
___________________________________________
Michele and Dave on board Alhambra
e-mail: dm.perrett@gmail.com
photos: www.flickr.com/photos/md_sailing
Skype: dm.perrett
25/3/09
Hi
everyone,
I
know it’s been a while since I last wrote, but we have been really busy in that
time. We have recently spent ten lovely days with our friends John and
Anne (from Debden) in the British Virgin Islands.
They
arrived with us after a really long journey, which culminated in them being
delayed over night in Charlotte Amalie (US Virgin Islands – we call it
Charlotte Anomaly), which is not the best place in the world to get
delayed. However, they arrived with us safe and sound a day later.
Unfortunately their delay was due to rubbish weather and despite our best
efforts, we failed to take them to a calm anchorage for their first night – in
fact the weather and water were so bad we didn’t even go ashore that first
night. After a few windy and rainy days the weather started to settle
down and we had some good sailing days, we also had some good motoring days
with some messy seas and wind in the wrong direction, buy hey, that’s
sailing. Some conditions were rougher than we would have liked, but some
of the beaches were better than we’d hoped and all in all we had a really good
time (well I hope they did too). As with all things typical, once they
had left the weather turned perfect and we had another four wonderful days in
the BVI. I hope the remainder of their holiday was just as sunny. I
have uploaded a small sample of photos from the BVI – nothing major, just
enough to give you a taster and will try to add some more in the coming weeks.
We
are now back in St Martin, having had a really eerie overnight sail. The
seas were very calm and there was virtually no wind. The lack of wind
meant there were no ripples on the water and it made the sea look like black
ink, it was also a moonless night so there was no distinction between the
horizon and the sky, which itself was overcast. This meant that the few
stars that were visible had almost no light and it made for a very surreal
night. It only took 14.5 hours (last time we did the same trip it took us
over 17 hours). We arrived, albeit a little tired, safe and sound in St
Martin at 6.30 am – exactly as we had planned.
Having
checked into St Martin we are now back in the Lagoon, which is not that nice as
you can’t swim in the water, but we need to be here to get the final items on
Alhambra completed (namely a radar which we had sent over from the UK, new
mattresses and a much bigger outboard engine for the dinghy, we really are fed
up with going slow). This will take a couple of weeks, but we have quite
a lot of sailing friends here and the time will pass quickly.
Finally,
after a lot of umming and errring we have made the decision that we will head
north to the USA. There are a number of sailing friends also heading that
way, we will probably travel together all the way up to Florida. We will
go back to the BVI, revisit the US and Spanish Virgin Islands before following
the south coast of Puerto Rico. Whilst on Puerto Rico we want to go in
land and visit the huge SETI radio telescope (Search for Extra Terrestrial
Intelligence, ET to you and me), apparently they do tours around the whole site
which would be really interesting. We will then head over to Dominican
Republic where we will take the north coast route. Hopefully we can visit
the parents of some friends (if they will have us). After that we will head
sort of north, up to the Bahamas where we plan to spend as long as we possibly
can – that was the whole point of this expedition in the first place. (I
can already feel the inspiration flowing already for my book, which has sort of
stalled for the last few months, but now I am back in the land of where the
book is set that should not be too much of a problem. Watch out top ten
best sellers, here I come…)
After
the Bahamas we will go over to Florida and start our way north along the East
Coast – here we are hoping to catch a shuttle launch at Cape Canaveral,
apparently there will be one in May and July. But as with all things
boating, this is just the plan, it can all change in a second, but I will keep
you posted.
The
Perrett Persecution Syndrome is still alive and well – yesterday David went to
fetch something from a friend’s boat, they were out at the time, so he tied the
dinghy to their boat with a new line we had put on. He had left the
engine running as he would only be a couple of minutes. Upon hearing the
noise of the outboard sounding a little different he looked round to see the
line had come loose and the dinghy was drifting away – out to sea. He had
the presence of mind to take his sunglasses and hat off, before he dived into
the water to swim after the dinghy – why he didn’t take his shirt and shorts
off too is beyond me. He met me ten minutes later, waiting on a dock,
soaking wet, but at least he saved the dinghy. We will be getting a new
line for it today.
Well,
that’s about it for now. As always, please stay in touch and drop us a
line from time to time, we do like to know what’s going on in everyone’s worlds
and until the next time…
Love
Michele
and David
___________________________________________
Michele and Dave on board Alhambra
e-mail: dm.perrett@gmail.com
photos: www.flickr.com/photos/md_sailing
Skype: dm.perrett
10/4/09
Hi
there,
Just
thought I’d drop a line to say that I have uploaded some photos onto the
website below (www.flickr.com/photos/md_sailing
). These, as instructed by my mother, include photos of David and me,
rather than just scenery. Somehow I think the scenery is more attractive,
but at least you know we’re actually out here doing stuff…on this occasion I’m
afraid we’re out celebrating a friend’s birthday and are on a beach with some
other friends, but I promise to upload some of us doing touristy things soon!
In
fact trying to do touristy things is what we are now starting to do. We
are back in the British Virgin Islands having had a very nice motor sail back
over here from St Martin. Unlike our night sail back (which was pitch
black and eerie), this was a quite reasonable trip. We left at 4am and
encountered our only bit of trouble. Half an hour into the trip there was
a sudden flapping, whipping noise from the engine (which David had checked
before we set off). The fan belt at snapped. So we switch off the
engine and then David has to clamber over all the provisions (another story) to
get to the locked cupboard in the back of the boat to find the spare (yes we
have two spares). It only took half an hour and would not have been too
much of a problem as we’d only gone a couple of miles off shore, so we could
have sailed back to the bay if we needed to. Other than that we motored
all the way here, arriving at 6pm. The seas were small, sometimes a bit
choppy but nothing untoward.
Our
last two weeks in St Martin have been very busy. The radar is up and
makes night sailing 100% easier as we now get other traffic ‘blipping’ on a
screen. It also has a MARPA function – which apparently stands for Mini
Automatic Radar Plotting Assistance – or in my words, Make A Route Pleasantly
Acceptable, but we’re not sure how it works yet.
Our
second NBF (new best feature) is our shiny new 10hp outboard engine for the
dinghy. This finally means that we no long get wet when we go
ashore. It’s a bit like a motorbike in that we’ve not fully opened the
throttle yet as it goes ‘a bit quick’. However, in order to have this
shiny new engine we also had to have our third NBF, which is a stainless steel
hoist to lift the outboard off the dinghy when we are sailing. Unlike the
5hp which we could lift by hand onto the stand on the pushpit, the 10hp is too
heavy. So, we had to move the wind generator pole from the starboard side
to the port side of the boat (which is where the stand for the outboard
is). The hoist was then fitted to this and we can lift the outboard with
ease – and swear words as the outboard sways towards the boat as the waves
knock the dinghy to and fro!
Finally
we went shopping – food and drink shopping. Although ‘provisioning’ is
not impossible further up the islands, it is much more expensive. So five
trips to various supermarkets and the boat is now full of food, wine, beer and
water. We have bought enough for at least two months. The good side
of this is that we won’t have to spend a whole day going shopping for the next
couple of months.
So,
as I said, here we are again the in BVI, currently sitting in Cane Garden Bay
(note to Anne and John: Capeye is no longer playing at Myetts…but we know that
Happy AAAArrggg is still going strong), with another couple on a boat called
Arto (Martin and Vicky). We will be here for about a week and then have
the arduous job of getting our US Visa Waiver cards. For those who were
around last year, you will remember the trip on a ferry from the BVI to the
USVI which includes checking in and out of each country a dozen times at great
expense so that we can take Alhambra in the USVI and Puerto Rico.
So
as we start our trip north, I hope to be able to bring you interesting updates
on the new countries we will be visiting and sailing passages we’ve not done
yet, which will hopefully go some way to gaining more inspiration for the book
(which is still going strong).
As
always, we’d love to hear from you all, although we are far away in miles, you
are not far away in thought and it is great to receive just a couple of lines
from you once in a while just to know that you are well.
However,
I will sign off now as we are off to the laundry – we are down to our last
clean clothes as I waiting til we got here because the laundries in St Martin
are rubbish. It’s a good job we only wear swimwear during the day on the
boat, otherwise we would have run out of clothes weeks ago…
Lots
of love and Happy Easter
Michele
(and The Skipper Dave)
___________________________________________
Michele and Dave on board Alhambra
e-mail: dm.perrett@gmail.com
photos: www.flickr.com/photos/md_sailing
Skype: dm.perrett
27/4/09
Hi
there
Just
a brief update as we have now reached the point we reached last year before
heading home for a few months – Culebra, which is in the Spanish Virgin
Islands, which are part of Puerto Rico, which is somehow part of the USA.
Please don’t ask me to explain it because I don’t understand the ‘ins and
outs’. However, I can say that Culebra is like a Caribbean version of
Alderney in the Channel Islands. Having come from St Thomas in the US
Virgin Islands, this is like stepping back in time. There is not much
here, a small supermarket, a couple of shops, bakery, post office and 2 or 3
bars. There are beautiful white beaches and it is very hilly. Last
year we rented a scooter to tour the island and it didn’t take very long.
However,
yesterday we took the ferry to Fajardo on Puerto Rico’s north east coast.
It was an hour and a half ride on a very modern, quite big, ferry and the
return price was $2.25 per adult (that’s about £1.55 return). Fajardo
itself has a couple of reasonable size marinas and a big beach with some high
rise resort hotels. But we didn’t go there for that, no we went to go
shopping. We had heard there is a big chandlery and a Walmart only a taxi
ride away. So, David and I and our friends Martin and Vicky dropped ourselves
head long into the world of Spanish – no longer does everyone automatically
speak English. Having checked the price of the taxi ride ($3 each, one
way for a ten minute ride…go figure) we headed off to the world of ‘out of town
retail experiences’. As retail experiences go, it was OK, we spent a lot
and we ate in fast food restaurants. In fact it was just like a day in
the UK. It was Saturday afternoon, it was raining and grey and we were
wandering around a shopping centre…
With
our bags full of goodies (new shorts and trousers for me, new sunglasses for
both of us, a new cool box for the boat and a new chart of Puerto Rico for
David – I think I got the best deal) we tried to find a taxi – a long wait and
a ten minute ride later he dared to charge us $5 each. However, no matter
how hard I argued in my best Spanglish voice, he would not budge. Back on
the ferry we were joined by what seemed to be the whole of Fajardo’s teenagers
who were off to Culebra for a weekend camping trip. Their first trip away
from home and their trip first on the ferry – which was a shame as it wasn’t a
very pleasant ferry ride. It was raining and the sea was quite
rough. For us hardened sailors, this was not a problem, but for some
squirmish 13 years olds, it proved to be a little bit too much and their
screams could be heard throughout the ferry.
We
finished the day with a huge Pizza at ‘Heathers’ which was so big that we will
be having the remainder for dinner tonight – mmmmm leftover pizza.
Our
plan now is to stay one more day here in Culebra – we are waiting for the wind
to drop as the crossing to Puerto Rico can be a bit rough so best to aim to do
it when the winds and seas are light. We hope to go over on Tuesday where
we will stop at Palmas Del Mar on the south east coast before heading along the
south coast to Salinas and then Ponce. Ponce is the second largest town
on Puerto Rico and is supposed to be a beautiful city, and houses a remnant of
New York’s 1939 World Fair. As you can see we are running a bit behind schedule
– nothing new there in the sailing world as we wanted to be in the Bahamas for
the first week of May and we still have some site seeing to do along the way,
in particular the SETI station at Arecibo on the north coast of Puerto Rico.
We
are now travelling with two other boats Arto (Martin and Vicky) and Psyche
(Debbie and Eric), which always makes for much nicer travelling.
Well,
another Sunday has gone, which I have spent studying by writing course and
David has spent watching his latest James Bond DVDs which he bought (did I
forget to mention them…) and it’s now time for happy hour at the Dinghy Dock
Bar followed by Pizza and a Bond movie, no doubt…
Lots
of love and stay in touch
Michele
and David
___________________________________________
Michele and Dave on board Alhambra
e-mail: dm.perrett@gmail.com
photos: www.flickr.com/photos/md_sailing
Skype: dm.perrett
2/5/09
Hi there,
We are now sitting in Salinas Bay, south coast of
Puerto Rico. Our journey here was in two stages; a 34 mile sail/motor
sail from Culebra, across the Vieques Sound to Palmas Del Mar on Puerto Rico’s
south east coast. We had planned to stay in Culebra for my birthday and
had found a nice restaurant, but when we woke on Thursday morning the weather
was just right for make this trip. The trouble with crossing the Vieques
Sound is that it is very uneven ground and causes all sorts of funny sea
conditions in certain weather states. Winds over 15 knots give choppy big
seas (or in the guide’s words ‘ferocious chop’), but winds less that 15 knots
means you are motor sailing down wind. However, we called Arto on the VHF
and suggested we leave after breakfast and had a good crossing arriving at
Palmas Del Mar at about 3pm. We had heard rumours that the anchorage had
now turned into a marina and so before entering the fairly precarious entrance
we called them to see what the situation was. The entrance is precarious
because it faces east and the swells are coming behind you causing them to
crash through the entrance. On this occasion it wasn’t too bad, but you
could see what it would be like if the seas were bigger.
Upon entering we were informed that this was now a
marina and we would ‘taking a slip’. Oh well, sometimes you just have to
rough it! It was too bad, $1.25 per foot, and it was after all my
birthday. It mean long hot showers, no rolling, free internet and free
water (not’s not normally the case, it’s normally $0.03 per gallon, we’re used
to paying around $0.20 per gallon).
After checking the pool out and being presented
with a home made birthday cake from our friends on Arto we decided to take a
walk around the area, which is basically a ‘gated’ community of pretty holiday
homes and ‘condo’s’. There is a nice beach which is restricted as there
are turtles nesting through April –August. We checked out the restaurant
options and decided on a local restaurant in the Plaza a five minute walk
away. After showering and ‘pre-dinner G&T’s’ on board we headed for
the restaurant. Dinner was very nice, albeit we were the only people in
the restaurant and after dinner Martin had sneaked off and asked the restaurant
to organise the second of my birthday cakes. (Which was a very nice
chocolate slice which they added to the bill…). We left the restaurant
around 9.30 and walked back through the Plaza to go back to the boat. As
we turned the corner we saw a couple we had met on Culebra, who happen to live
in Palmas. He is a renowned Puerto Rican lawyer and she designs
jewellery. So we stayed at the wine bar they were at for a night cap, and
then the third birthday cake arrived, courtesy of our PR friends.
However, this was slightly more unusual. A pastry case, filled with
melted brie, covered in chopped apples, nuts and honey. It was delicious.
After a good night’s sleep in the marina, we set of
at about 9.30am, along the south coast to Salinas. Again it was a motor
sail, down wind with reasonable seas, which, by the time we arrived in Salinas
had disappeared to an almost calm sea, the likes of which we don’t think we
have seen anywhere in the Caribbean. The entrance to the bay is quite
hard to find as the area is small islands of mangroves and you cannot see the
entrance until you get directly opposite. Inside the bay there were about
40-50 boats anchored in a calm and tranquil bay. The hills of southern
Puerto Rico encircling the backdrop to this wonderfully calm anchorage.
Our friends on Debbie and Eric on Psyche were already here and told us of a
local BBQ they were going to for dinner. Once we were settled we all
headed ashore for a well earned beer and BBQ ribs. Debbie also pointed
out the laundry, supermarket and the fact that there are manatees in the bay,
so a good look is to be kept at all times to see if we can spot one.
We will be staying a few days here as we want to
hire a car and tour the island. Our plan is to get a car tomorrow and
drive to Old San Juan on the north coast (about 2 hours). This is a
UNESCO world heritage site and apparently is beautiful (I understand a bit like
Carcasonne). We will see if we can stay in the centre of the Old
Town. From there we will head along the north coast to Arecibo town and
then up into the hills to the Observatory of Arecibo before heading back to
Salinas.
I am trying to upload some more photos onto the
Flickr site, but as we are now using our new laptop I need to download the
software again, so bear with me.
I will report back when we’ve stopped being
tourists, so watch this space.
Take care and stay in touch.
Lots of love
Michele and David
On Alhambra, anchored in Salinas Bay
10/5/09
Hi there,
Mofongo is a Puerto Rican dish of mashed plantain
(green bananas which you can only eat cooked), with bacon and garlic, which is
then made into a bowl, filled with your choice of meat, fish etc. I had
it with huge king prawns in a Creole sauce. That was last night’s dinner
in Boquoron, our last stop in Puerto Rico. Boquoron is on the east coast
of PR and our jumping off point to the Dominican Republic.
Before heading along the southern coast from
Salinas, we hired a car and headed in land to visit the Arecibo Observatory –
the world’s largest radio telescope. To get there we drove for nearly
four hours through hills, lakes and forests, through some of the most beautiful
scenery I have seen anywhere in the Caribbean. Through Villalba (also
known as The Advanced City, as things such as electricity and telephone cables
came to Villalba first in PR). Here we drove through the Toro Negro
Forest and past two huge man-made lakes set admin the forest and rising
hills. Through winding roads we continued up and down mountain roads
until finally we came to Arecibo Observatory.
The following text is taken from the Lonely Planet
Guide. ‘The ‘dish’ is set in a 20-acre sinkhole between a cluster of
hills. The actual receiving and transmitting instruments, which rotate,
are suspended by cables 50 stories above the dish and weigh more than 600
tons. Among the various programs running from the observatory is the SETI
programme – Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence.’
I have uploaded some photos to the Flickr site
which, of course, do not do the mind boggling site any justice. From as
near as two miles away you have no idea it exists until, in the distance the
towers appear over the hills. Once you have parked your car, you have a
600 step climb to make before you reach the entrance. In front of you
stands the first of the towers, which you struggle to fit into one photo.
An entrance fee of $6 allows you all the time you need to spend wandering
around the exhibits, which is like a smaller version of the science museum in
London. A 20 minute film – albeit a bit ‘Mickey Mouse’ in it’s making –
shows you a ‘Day in the life of the observatory’, down to watching the
scrambled eggs being made in the staff restaurant!
However, until you get outside to the observation
platform you still can’t imagine the size of the dish below you or the dome
hanging above you. From the gantry hang the Gregorian Radar Dome which
houses the secondary, tertiary and other various reflectors and the radar
transmitter. The radar transmitter bounces a signal from the dome down to
the dish and then out to space. The reflection signal that is received
back is then used to create a radar image (via computers) of the object that
the radar was transmitted to, for instance an asteroid. Also on the
gantry is a long, thin antenna which receives radio waves generated from space,
such as pulsars. Unlike a conventional dish, which moves to look at a
specific point is space, the antenna and radar dome can be moved along the
gantry so that they point at a different place on the dish, and therefore a
different point in space. I hope you have all understood that – there is
a photo of an explanation plate taken at the observatory. This was on of
our ‘must sees’ on our list and we were really glad we took the time to
visit. Due to some jobs that needed doing on Alhambra we decided to miss
out on San Juan as we knew we were on our way to Ponce (Pon-Say), Puerto Rico’s
second largest city.
Between Salinas and Boquoron we visited two other
places. Firstly we went into Ponce, named after Juan Ponce de Leon who
arrived in 1508 after first seeing Puerto Rico from one of Columbus’
ships. Reading our guide book we were very much looking forward to
visiting this City. After a reasonable sail and four attempts at getting
our anchor to set we tried to head into town. The marina staff at Ponce
were rude and unhelpful (to the point of wanting $10 per person just to walk
out of their gates…). We eventually found a helpful policeman who called
a taxi for us. The ten minute ride into town was uneventful, along a highway,
into the main square, Plazas Las Delicias. Lonely Planet states ‘This
quintessential Spanish Colonial plaza lives up to its name which translates as
Plaza of Delights. Gentlemen playing dominoes and a string of cafes
circle the park. The Fountain of Lions, a monument rescued from the 1939
World’s Fair in New lights up pink and blue at night. Painted a soothing
blue and white, the twin bell towers that blaze silver in the midday sun of the
Cathedral Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe is in the centre. The Arabian-styled,
red and black brick striped building, Parque de Bombas, stands back to the
plaza and is the most photographed building in all of PR.’
For this read, nice fountain, pretty cathedral,
unusual black and red building. No cafes, shops full of really cheap
tourist rubbish and no atmosphere – very disappointed. Unfortunately the
boardwalk along the marina was also closed until the weekend. Even more
annoying was that the next day was full of thunderstorms and warnings to
marinas not to go out to sea. We were stuck in an unpleasant, unfriendly
marina with nothing to do because it was raining.
The next morning, we headed off as soon as we
could, our plan to go as far as Boquoron (42 miles). As it turned out the
although the weather was better, the seas were still quite rough – 5-6ft in
quick succession, running behind us, which makes for really a uncomfortable
ride. 17 miles along we ducked into ‘Gilligan’s Island’, just as the
showers started again. This was a very quiet, calm bay, with a hotel resort
and a small restaurant. However, having paid $27 for four drinks (3 beers
and a Vodka and Tonic) we decided to stay on board again that night.
Our final leg of the trip we made yesterday,
Friday. 27 miles along the south coast, around the south western tip and
up to Boquoron. This is a small town, which for some reason has a
multitude of street vendors selling clams and oysters for $3 per dozen.
And that’s all they have…we found Galloways Restaurant where I had Mofongo.
We have enjoyed Puerto Rico. It was much
spectacular than I had realised and the people have been very friendly and
welcoming. Looking at the weather, our next window to go across to
Dominican Republic will possibly be sometime Sunday to Tuesday.
So until next time I find an internet café, stay
well, be happy and write soon.
Lots of love
Michele & David
On Board Alhambra
email at dm.perrett@gmail.com
Photos at http://www.flickr.com/photos/md_sailing
29/5/09
Hi,
Puerto Rico to Dominican Republic – across the Mona
Passage – and this is what Wiki says about the Mona Passage:-
The Mona
Passage is a strait that separates the islands of Hispaniola and Puerto
Rico. The Mona Passage connects the Atlantic Ocean to the Caribbean Sea, and is an important shipping route between the Atlantic
and the Panama Canal.
The eighty
mile stretch of sea between the two islands is one of the most difficult passages in the Caribbean. It is fraught with variable tidal currents created by
the large islands on either side of it, and by sand banks that extend out for
many miles from both coasts.
Most cruising
boaters entering the Caribbean from the north do so via a stop at Samana in the northeastern part of the Dominican Republic, then continuing more than 380 kilometres (150 mi) across
the Mona Passage to Puerto Rico without stopping. Under sail it means an even
longer distance because of having to "tack" a zig-zag course into the
easterly trade winds. Add this to the twisted currents and seas encountered
while crossing and a haze
in the air in this region which often blocks visibility until only a few miles
from land, and you end up with a very dangerous sea crossing for almost any
boater.
And we did it twice. After 17 hours of some
of the worst conditions we have ever seen, following seas between 10-12 feet
high (yes that is about as high as the boat), in the dark, surrounded by
thunderstorms, rubbish (ie bamboo and palm trees) floating where you can’t see
it and the potential of whales hitting the boat, just about did it for
us. We looked at each other and decided not to carry on. We waited
until dawn and found a small bay – Punta Macao – to anchor in. We managed
to get three hours sleep before we were woken by the coast guard on a fishing
boat – he didn’t speak any English.
‘you not allowed to stay here, it not permitted’
‘but we are very tired and the sea is very rough,
can we just stay tonight and we will check in tomorrow?’
‘no, you must go, or may be possible to stay if you
make a present for El Jefe (The Boss)’ said the fisherman who was interpretting
‘how much of a present?’
‘you pay or your go’
We went. Back into the huge, steep seas for
another 5 hours, down to Punta Cana, Cap Cana Marina. The marina was
beautiful, a new 12 year project covering 5 miles of the east coast, with
hotels, spas, golf courses (5), casinos, marinas and beach club, all with free
transport between them. However, very expensive - $11 for a small glass
of wine at the beach club!
We stayed a week, waiting for the weather and
deciding what we wanted to do. Did we want to carry on, around the coast
of DR, up to Turks & Caicos and then up further to the Bahamas, and then up
even further to Florida and the East coast. We discussed and talked for a
week and then came to the conclusion that we didn’t want to do that, not for
just a month in the Bahamas. Our plans were in turmoil. We decided
to head back to St Martin and make our decision there.
So, back across the Mona Passage – into wind and
sea this time, oh what fun we had – back along the south coast of Puerto Rico,
into sea and wind, back to St Thomas, back to…no we stopped in St Thomas and
made or final decision…
…Alhambra is currently on a transport ship heading
to Portsmouth, yes Portsmouth in the UK, it will take 12 days for her to
arrive. We on the other hand are currently in a hotel in New York waiting
for our flight back to Gatwick…
…no we are not staying in the UK, we want to take
Alhambra to the Mediterranean. We want to take a slow trip down the
French canals and out into the Med, to sail around France, Spain, Greece and
all the other countries.
There is obviously a lot more to this decision than
just this, but that’s for another time.
So, a complete change of plan and a complete new
sailing area. We have some work to do on Alhambra when we are back in the
UK so we are not sure how long we will be in the UK before we head off –
probably via the Channel Islands, but we need to investigate all our plans.
We will keep you updated with our plans,
Stay in touch, lots of love
David & Michele
Not on Board Alhambra – she’s somewhere in the
Atlantic…
email at dm.perrett@gmail.com
Photos at http://www.flickr.com/photos/md_sailing
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