Here we go again

With Kilkea II sold at the end of November we had some serious concerns about how we were going to adapt to life on land again after the last eleven years sailing. Well within a week of being home we received a call from our friends Mike and Ann. We had sailed in company with them for a few years in the south pacific and Asia, and shared some adventures. Mike asked us if we wanted to sail with him on s/v Callisto, an Amel 54, from Lagos Portugal to the Caribbean. Well guess what the answer was!!

So after seven weeks of not being on a sail boat we found ourselves back in Portugal getting ready to set sail across the Atlantic. We arrived in Lagos, where we had been in Kilkea II in 2007, and spent a few days getting the sails up and the boat provisioned. It was fun to be back on the Algarve again and to enjoy walking around the town and out to the cliffs looking out towards Cape St Vincent and wondering what the heck we were doing. After all we had planned to spend a year away from sailing to see if we had the passion for it or not as well as building a new house etc. Anyway here we were just Marian and I and Mike ready to set sail.

We left on January 16th and set sail for Las Palmas in the Canary Islands which was 640 miles away. We had light winds and did some motoring sailing for part of the way which was a much better better way of getting our sea legs back than heading out into some major winds and rough seas. We arrived in Las Palmas on the 20th in the late afternoon and anchored up for the night. We managed to move into the marina the next morning as we were having troubles with the batteries not holding their charges. Some running around for Mike finding replacements. The new batteries arrived on Monday which we helped install. One thing that is nice for us is not owning a boat and having these problems to deal with and the associated costs!

So on Tuesday morning at 0700 on the 20th we left for Martinique. We had to sail south offshore, by a hundred miles or so, of the African coast with the wind behind us so as to pick up the trade winds down towards the Cape Verdi's. This we did for the first few days and once the we started picking up the trades and the butter, in our case the icing on the cake, started to melt we set course for Martinique. Almost all the way we flew the gib and the balloner sails set off the fore stay in the Amel fashion which is just fantastic. We had the winds straight behind us most all the way and other than running the generator to charge the batteries we never had to use the engine until we arrive in the anchorage in St Anne's Martinique. We arrived on the 10th of February, a Friday, after seventeen days at sea and did 2904 nm sailing. Not too fast but very comfortable and we didn't break anything! Now Callisto is up for sale as Mike feels it will sell better in the Caribbean or the US. It seems most all of our sailing friends have or are selling their boats and moving on in life on land.

We sure didn't think we would be back here again so soon but it was a lot better than the weather we missed in Vancouver. We helped Mike clean up the boat and his wife Ann arrived on Tuesday and they kindly had us stay onboard for a few more days to enjoy some time together. We left on Sunday the 19th for Montreal and then to Vancouver on the 20th.

Looking back it was a wonderful experience to sail across the Atlantic again, this is our fourth time now, and we are still not sure if there will be another time or another boat but who knows?? For now we are home for a few days before we head up to the interior of BC to get started on building a new house which will keep us busy for the rest of the year. After that who knows what we will be doing?? Maybe some more sailing.

Swallowing the anchor

 Back in July we had an interest in Kilkea II which after some twists and turns we have just completed. The new owner Paul is from New York and she will be registered in the US.

We returned to Trinidad on November 2nd to relaunch Kilkea II. It was hot and we had the new owner who wanted to know how we did things as well as have his surveyor fly down to do the inspection out of and in the water. We launched on the 8th and went to Cruise Inn for the next few days and waited out a weather window to move up to Martinique. We motor sailed 230 miles and arriving in time to clear customs etc and set up for Amel to do a couple of small jobs on the boat. Having done that we sailed over to St Lucia to Rodney Bay where we spent a couple of nights at anchor and then moved into the marina. We tried our best to teach Paul how to operate the boat both for sailing, which is the easy part, and the operation part which is a lot more involved. Dave and Chis did this for us when we bought Kilkea II in 2006 and we appreciated it very much.

So after ten years and ten months since we agreed to buy her and 65000 miles under her keel we left her with hopes that she will be as much fun and joy to her new owners as she was to us.

We still do now know how all this will work out and what we may feel in a years time but for now we will start on some new adventures with plans in the works to build another house as well as using Kilkea, the motor boat, up and down the BC coast.

We have had the most wonderful adventure sailing around the world and feel so blessed to have been able to do it. The best things are all the people we have had the privilege to meet along the way both on the land and on the seas especially all the other yachties out there who have become our second family. We look forward to meeting many of you again in the future.

Fair Winds to All

Back Home

We spent three days in St Lucia. Two at the marina and one at anchor for the last night there. All was good seeing us leave on Sunday at 0530 and set off on a 220 mile sail back to Trinidad. It was good to be back at sea away from the land with the ocean swell and the familiar sounds onboard. There was no moon that night and the stars were just so bright that we could see very well. The sail took us just 31 hours and we arrived at 1300 on Monday in Trinidad. After clearing in we tied up at Crews Inn for the next three days. We managed to get the sails down and had the jib up at the shop to have some sewing done on the ultra violet strip and and a thorough going over. All was well and on Thursday morning we hauled out at Peakes marina and are parked very close where we were last year. It took the rest of the day to put up the cover over the boat and the next few days to finish off all the jobs that need to be done when putting the boat away. It was very hot work with the temperature between 27-35C and high humidity. One drinks a lot of water and it just sweats out!

On Sunday evening or actually on Monday morning at 0110 we flew up to Toronto and then on to Vancouver arriving here around 1600 in the afternoon. We managed to stay up for awhile and then crashed. All is good here and it seems that we have only been away for a couple of days as we just slide back into the land life. Now we have been home for a week and have been busy reading all the mail and gardening plus visiting with friends and family. Next for us is to visit Calgary this week. It will be busy with the grandsons and Emma who is five months old now. Actually we do see lots of them and they us on Skype so other than the hugs we are pretty much up to date on their lives.

Today's plan for Kilkea II is to go back to Trinidad and relaunch in mid October and then move up the islands to Martinique where we may just leave her for December and January and see if the brokerage (Caribbean Yacht Sales) can find a buyer for us. Right now the hurricane season is about to start running from June until November so we don't expect to have anyone looking at her until then. If that doesn't work we will have to have a new plan which could be anything. I am still not really sure that we want to sell or keep on sailing? Anyway for now we are looking forward to summer up here with more boating west coast style catching some salmon, crabs, and prawns etc. Yea life is just so tough!!

still afloat

classic boat racing in Antigua

on the start line with little wind

good to be out in the dinghy but not so good for sailing

another day overlooking the classic boat regatta

one of the old classics although some are reproductions and are new

We have been busy doing a whole bunch of nothing which is sort of what cruising is all about. The life here in the Caribbean is not so much about sailing as it is about visiting fellow cruisers up and down the islands much the same as we do when we cruise up the west coast of BC. The distances between the islands are only about twenty to thirty miles apart so it is very easy to go from one to another. This makes it easy for anyone who wants to boat here as you never really need to do an overnight passage let alone weeks of passage making.

Our travels took us from Dominica up past Guadeloupe to Antigua. We met up with s/v Infini whom we had met a number of times in SE Asia and around the world so it was fun to meet up and go out for dinners etc. We also met up with the Oyster boat group who was having their annual regatta around the island. I sailed in it in 2009 on s.v Seamist, which is my only experience of racing sailboats, and it sure is different than cruising them. We had met a few of the Oysters on the way up through the islands so had fun visiting with them and feel we have made some new friends who we hope to meet again in the future.  

 We went with them up to Barbuda an island belonging to Antigua with very few inhabitants and spent five days watching turtles swim by the boat and swimming ourselves.  It has miles and miles of pink sand beaches with no one there so rather a south pacific feel to the place. We were last here with L&G in 2009 and nothing has changed which is nice. We sailed back to Jolly Harbour and then around to Falmouth harbour where we met up with s/v Imagine again and spent a week watching the classic boat race week. Lots of fun to see these old boat with all their sails up. Unfortunately there was little wind so they were sailing very slowly but it did give us the opportunity to go out in the dinghy to watch the start of the different classes start their races. This went on for five days and there were a lot of parties at night which the crews of these boats really enjoy!

When in Antigua we met up with other boats that we have not seen since we were in the Caribbean in 2009 so it was lots of fun reconnecting with them all. We even met up with s/v Unicorn who we sailed with in the EMYR in Turkey in 2007. The sailing community is really very small and that is what we will miss most if we sell Kilkea II but as of now we plan to move ahead with our cruising plans as if she does not sell.

After leaving Antigua we started to head south and stopped for a day in The Saints which are a small group of islands on the south end of Guadeloupe and are a meca for day trippers coming from the main island. After they all leave in the late afternoon the place takes on a completely different feel. From here we did a four hour sail to the Sunset Bay Club which is on Dominica and has four mooring buoys which are free to use. The owner, Roger, invites yachties to use the pool and all the facilities of the resort which we happily did. Their specialty is lobster, lots of lobster! It was almost all we could do to eat it all along with a nice bottle of wine and a beautiful sunset with Kilkea II anchored out in front. This was our second visit and if we are ever back this way we will be sure to stop in again.

The next morning we were slow to get going so we just sailed to St Pierre on Martinique.  We just spent the night and then sailed to St Anne and with the winds not favorable we had to do a number of tacks before we could drop the anchor. Again a short night and in the morning we moved back into Le Marin marina as some folks wanted to view Kilkea II. We had ordered a couple of parts in from Amel and have installed one and will do the other in the next day or so. There is a manifold in the engine room that distributes sea water to a number of systems on the boat and as it is made of copper we have misgivings on its integrity so have organized to have a new one built this time out of  stainless steel. It will take a week to do this so we will just hang out here and with the a/c running onboard it is very comfortable. One of the nice things here is the country being French you have all the good breads and cheese so not too tough.

Once we get things fixed up we will go to St Lucia for a couple of days and fill up with duty free fuel. Then we will make the decision if we are going to go directly to Trinidad or hop through the islands. It is not very far being just over two hundred miles away so we can easily sail it in a day as long as the winds are ok. We do want to get home and see all the family and friends. In Trinidad it will take us a week to put the boat away with taking all the sails down and putting up the canvas cover once we are back on the hard.

Hanging out in the islands

We are online so can bring everyone up to date of our journeys. We left Martinique and moved up to Dominica and have been here for just over a week. This island or as I should say country, is sort of the old type of Caribbean island with very friendly people and a slow way of life that is very attractive. We arrived up in at the north end of the island in Portsmouth bay and met with the original owners of Kilkea II Dave and Chis. We had three days hanging out with them and had a great time with so many stories of past times as they helped us out by staying for three weeks and giving us our only sailing instructions which seem to have worked out pretty good. We even had a couple of old 2003 wines that we had bought in Florida in 2006 and opened them up and found to our surprise that they were still very good. So those bottles have traveled sixty thousand miles and have gone around the world shaken and bounced and are still good. Amazing! It was good to see them and their new boat called Platina II which they are now getting organized to do a circumnavigation with. We wish we were just starting out again as it was just so much fun.

We did some tours around the island and today did a seven mile backtrack to a little bay with a resort called the Sunset Bay Club which is noted for its lobsters. Well we had lunch which went on for most of the afternoon and when the sun set there was no way we could eat any dinner. It was a great meal and anyone coming this way should stop by. I think a couple of pounds of lobster is more than enough.

Tomorrow we will head north again and as we here the islands called the Saints off the south end of Guadeloupe is really crowded with charter boats, We will move up the west coast and spend a night then move on the next day for Antigua where we think some of the boats we have met around the world may be hanging out.

On the boat sale front nothing other than a few inquiries but we will leave that to the sales team. We would be surprised if anything happens as this is the end of the sailing season for the Caribbean and will not start to get going again until the end of October so maybe then?

Decisions decisions,

Since last I wrote we have been up to Bequia which was very nice and we had a lobster dinner out with Stuart and Shelia. We did some walks around the island and enjoyed our time here.

Next we sailed up the western side of St Vincent to St Lucia and anchored between the Pitons which are two mountainous peaks which are very beautiful especially in the morning with the sun rising on them. The water was crystal clear and it was great to just dive in. The water temperature here is much cooler than in the southeast Asia and much more refreshing. We just spent the one night and then moved up to Marigot bay and tied up with Imagine on one mooring ball in the lagoon. Cleared Customs and Immigration which was very easy and went for a walk up the hill. Very calm and pretty spot where we spent two nights and finally enjoyed a great Indian dinner where the owner came over and did all the ordering of the foods. Good time with good company. We spent two nights and played bocchi ball where the girls beat Stu and myself.

We then moved up the coast maybe six miles or so to Rodney Bay. This is where we landed first after crossing the Atlantic from the Canaries back in 2008. We spent the weekend anchored out and did some clean up on Kilkea II as well as some walks and dinners out. On Monday Imagine had some new guests and we sailed in tandem twenty five miles to Martinique where again we cleared in and this time stern tied to the Amel dock in Le Marin. Today is Thursday and we have organized Amel to do some small jobs for us on the boat to make it 100% right. The reason for all this is today we have listed our home of the last ten years for sale. We really don't know if this is the right move but just hanging out in the Caribbean in the winter does not have the challenge that we are used to. Now, in a year we may think differently and if we do we can always buy a new Amel and go again but for now some time at home with our family and friends seems the right move. Mind you we were shown a new 55 Amel today by the company and it sure is a nice boat and we would love to buy one and are contemplating it depending what kind of deal Amel is offering. Who knows we both love boats!! We will be here for another week as everyone is very busy then we will move north and hope to catch up with some more friends in the next month or so. We really do not expect to have any offers on the boat right away so will keep on cruising.

Moving North

We ended up spending two weeks in Grenada and enjoyed just doing very little other than going for a walk and going for swims. We did enjoy a number of dinners out with friends and did some site seeing in town and also doing a drive around the island. Grenada is very friendly.

After a couple of weeks we left and sailed up to the island of Canouan which is St Vincent and the Grenadines. The sail was ok but the winds were again tight on the bow so lots of spray over the boat and a bumpy ride. Canouan is a small island of which half is private owned by Trump and friends. We did rent some golf carts and drove around the other half of the island which has some very pretty lagoons inside the reefs and the views from up high were beautiful. After clearing in with the customs etc. we sailed over to Tobago Cays.

Tobago Cays when we were last there in 2009 was very quiet with just four boats being in there and the winds were very light. This time what a difference there must have been one hundred boat in there, most of them catamarans of around 50 feet with at least eight to twelve people on board! The wind was blowing at 20k, which is what we have had now for the last month, so not much room to anchor and certainly not much fun to do some snorkeling. We did stay the night but left in the morning to go to Mayreau and Saltwhistle Bay which again was full of very big charter cats. On top of all this there were some cruise ships anchored out and sending in all their quests so just awful. Again when we were here last there were two of us in the bay.

After thinking on this the difference today is that the charter boat business has such big boats that hold ten or twelve people that there is no need of them to associate with any of the other boats and people where ever they are. These people who charter are only here for a week and really have no idea what they are doing. Luckily most of the bigger boats have crew so at least some know how to operate a boat.

So after a couple of nights of this we sailed back over to Canouan which has a big bay and very few boats so a nice place to have a swim and a quiet night. Yesterday we sailed up to Bequia which has a big bay with lots of boats anchored all around but not so close you have to worry. We met up with s/v Imagine which had a couple of mechanical problems that they have had fixed. Their company is leaving later today and we will sail with them on Tuesday up to St Lucia. That will give us three days here to explore the little town and surrounding area.