NOVEMBER 2013
Cat-and-mouse game
The fall pattern is well established now and so we start to play cat and mouse with the weather, that is to say, we have to pick a weather opportunity to leave the East Coast of USA with favorable conditions to cross the Gulf Stream and then head South-Est toward the islands. Cold fronts are now crossing the coast every three days on average, so you know for sure one or two of these will hit you anyway, but you don't want to be in the Gulf Stream when that happens. Patience is the key, choose the wrong time, when a strong wind is out of the North blowing against the current, and you’ll find this a dangerous place to be. Contrary wind in the Gulf Stream produces steep and short waves that are not pleasant to sail thru. Unfortunately some years the weather is not cooperating as we wish and in the past we had to change our plans and work with what mother nature gave us. For now it looks like it will be one of these years, and instead of crossing the Gulf Stream from Norfolk we already had to continue by the coast to Beaufort, and now it looks like we will take us further south by the coast, rather than crossing right away. Oh well, something lost, something gained, Beaufort is very pretty town definitely worth visiting, if you can. Hopefully we will still sail offshore to Puerto Rico - our next destination.OCTOBER 2013
We are still alive and kicking
Why silent for such a long time? Well, until just few weeks ago there was nothing much to write about, as it was basically work, work, and more work, making Vanille not only ready and reliable (hopefully not for heavy seas!), but esthetically pleasing as well. The first task we tackled was quite a challenging labour done in a typical summer weather here in Annapolis (hot and humid) and took us several weeks, stripping Vanille's headlining and replacing it with a new one purchased last year in France. Then the windlass motor had to be changed for a stronger one. While one contractor replaced all canvas outside for better sun protection, another took care of all cushion covers in the boat seating as well as replacing some of the foam, and still another one made us new carpets. Meanwhile Jean-Pierre installed a marine sanitation device system to one of the toilets to make us legal in United States (and probably elsewhere as well), he installed few additional fans, renewed all motor hoses on the Perkins motor and checked the heat exchanger. Amel head sail furler had to be exchanged for a new electric one from Harkens, and as an unexpected surprise we had to order a new HF radio and tuner since the old Furuno suddenly gave up. We also installed a new fridge before the old one would get a chance to fail us. And as part of the normal annual maintenance we hauled-up for an antifooling paint and some waxing and polishing as well. All in all this was a total refit and we think we will be under way around the mid October and will get going, depending on what kind of weather the mother nature brings us, in this almost like new sailboat!. And just to let you know this hasn't been only work and no play, we had our annual visit with the family, and played tourists when my sister Marcella flew here for a visit. With her we finally managed a proper visit of Annapolis as well as its surroundings and toured Washington city to see where all the US tax money gets spend! - we managed to visit before all the government mess and were lucky to have all these interesting museums and parks open to explore!!
MAY 2013
“You can go to heaven if you want. I'd rather stay in Bermuda,” Mark Twain
We spent some time in the sparkling,
crystal blue waters of Antigua, before sailing to St. Maarten, where
we waited inside the lagoon for a sailing window towards Bermuda. At
this time of the year these two islands are full of many beautiful
classic yachts (wow! wow! the shine and the sparkle!) getting ready
for Antigua Sailing Week, the #1 regatta in the Caribbean and one of
the top ten in the world. St. Maarten, the Dutch side, is often
referred to as little Las Vegas, with more casinos than gas stations
and 400+ restaurants! Finally on May 8 we crossed the lagoon and
departed from St. Martin, the French side of this tiny island and
arrived to Bermuda some 800 miles and eight days later. This passage
took much longer than anticipated, we had to heave to (stop and
drift) for approximately 40 hours on two occasions to let nasty
weather and confused sea pass by. We detoured about 120 miles to
avoid the worst of a depression passing by Bermuda. Now we are back
in North Atlantic, the temperatures dropped down, gone is the
humidity! This island deserves kudos for being exceptionally clean,
garbage cans every few steps, and everything is extremely well
organized, you feel the British discipline imposed since the
beginning of this outpost. This is one of the most expensive islands
we have been to so far, for example, two small beers, one soup, one
burger in an ordinary restaurant at lunch time = $54, not exactly a
bargain. The median income here is about one and a half amount of USA
but the rental cost is about $2,000 a month per room! So even with a
better salary closing the budget in the positive is a challenge, to
purchase a house here is a seven figures affair. At the moment the
criminality rate on the island is twice that of England and much
higher than USA. Everything is imported and the cost of food is very
high, and yet, just traveling around, the poverty is very well
hidden, all the houses look beautiful, painted in pastel colors, the
lawns cut to perfection everywhere, parks and streets spotless, the
locals very friendly and still adhering to some old-world customs not
seen in many places. We love the business men in their national
uniform – a salmon pink Bermuda shorts (no shorter than six inches
above the knee), a pair of dark long socks, smart shoes, a tie and a
dark jacket – looks very chick!. Our next stop will be Chesapeake
Bay where we will spend the hurricane season and finish upgrading
Vanille in preparation for the next season. Have great summer
and see you soon!
April 2013
Was Martinique, then Guadeloupe, today Antigua
Looks like we just skipped
one month – time flies when one is in a vacation mode. Visiting the
islands, happy hours on Vanille or friends' boats, reading,
swimming relaxing - just being two lazy bums - and we are not ashamed
to admit that once in a while doing nothing feels great, just like a
long vacation. Well, in fact, this is a long vacation called
retirement! The water is warm, even too warm, the air hot and humid. There
isn't much to write about this lazy period, except to report that rum
here is still as good as when we met here each other in the Caribbean
some 28 years ago, except now we don't consume as many Ti-punches
(white rum, sugarcane syrup,
lime) as we did then! Sadly most of the anchorages are
crowded, full of boats, for sure some 30 times more than then.
Restaurants and bars are in every corners along the sea front, and
unbelievably the internet services are the poorest we have encountered
in years...This is a tourist zone with all its good and also its bad,
just a question of what you are looking for.
FEBRUARY 2013
Relaxing in Martinique
Finally we were able to hit the trade
wind, thanks to a representative from the Amel Yard, who provided us
with his social security number and so the “overnight delivery”
package was shipped to us more than three weeks later! Incredible...,
but all this delay gave us an opportunity to visit Gran Canaria
island from the touristic seaside to the sinuous roads of the
mountains with some breathtaking scenery along the way. We left the
port January 15, Vanille's every inch of spare space
stocked-up with food, beer and wine. Some 200 miles from Cape Verde
we decided not to stop there, as the wind was blowing, the sun was
shinning, Vanille was flying....and 21 days later, by the
early morning we caught the first sight of Martinique's mountain
range, just as the sun was coming up. Overall, one third of the trip
we had a fine weather with occasional squalls, one third with very
uncomfortable cross sea and one third of the time we suffered through
light weather, changing sails all the time, trying anything and everything to move forward, even had to use the motor at times. Once some 15-20 dolphins entertained us for a good
hour, jumping, racing, playing with Vanille, another time
three whales, a family we thought, stayed with us for about four
hours and once we were lucky enough to catch a supper, although we
have tried on several occasions, but without any success. Now and than we
sighted a bird. Since February 5 we are anchored in the Bay of Ste
Anne, just enjoying the sun and the warm water. Life is not too bad
at the moment.
JANUARY 2013
Logistics, logistics....
Shortly after leaving Agadir our shaft
alternator started to show signs of fatigue and than stopped working
completely. So instead of heading south we changed our course 90
degrees west and before long arrived to Gran Tarajal, a small, sleepy
village with crystal clear water on Fuerteventura island. This island
has a desert-like appearance and what you don't water doesn't
grow. There must have been at least twenty very well done colourful
graffitis on various walls around the town, with some artists still
at work. What a talent! We were lucky the recommended mechanic was
able to get all the parts needed and the following week this 20 years
old alternator was rebuild with new bearings, new diodes pack and a
new regulator. Few days later with the perfect wind to bring us to
Cape Verde we got under way again and what a surprise!...this thing
still didn't output any current...we weren't too happy about that!
This is an important piece of equipment for us, as it supplies the
electricity needed to operate the automatic pilot, fridge, lights,
etc. We weren't ready to turn back and so, another course change of
90 degrees west brought us this time to Las Palmas on Gran Canaria
island, a big city, where after taking the alternator apart, this
time, an honest mechanic doesn't recommend us to try to rebuild it – the bearing housing is in a very bad shape and there is a
short wire in the coil. So without any fanfare this alternator is
declared dead and we order a new unit from Amel yard. The package is
sent from France (European Union) to ship to Gran Canaria Island of
Spain (which is also part of European Union), sounds like this is
going to get here without any glitch! What a mistake in our thinking!
The parcel is picked-up by the 21st of December and by the 23rd is in
Madrid. And that is where it stays, although this is send by the
International Priority Delivery, which is supposed to be 24-hr
delivery within Europe. Today we are the 2nd of January and the
parcel is still in Madrid! apparently needing to go through some
custom clearance...wait a minute...aren't we still in EU territory?
isn't this supposed to be 24-hr delivery? - well, looks like the
Canary Islands have a special status and custom clearance is needed.
By now it has been sitting there for the past 8 working days and we
had already spent several hours on the phone, e-mail and yet don't
know what it takes to get it here. Unless you experience EU working
methods, you don't realize, how efficient we are in North America.
Since June we have been dealing with lots of businesses here and now
understand, why there is a big trouble in this part of the
world...But as the saying goes, everything bad is good for something,
and so this frustrating experience provided us with an opportunity to
see some of the Canary Islands. It's beautiful here, the weather is
perfect as well, the shops are full of excellent, inexpensive cheese,
good wine – so what the heck are we complaining about? Happy New Year
to all of you!
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