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.