Covering the Caribbean and North Atlantic between Grenada and Anapolis, Maryland in 2008?
LAND HO !!!
Our journey from Annapolis, Maryland to the Virgin Islands is almost over. We have spotted land ahead after nearly 6 days at sea since the Turks & Caicos Islands. How nice it will be to sail the calm waters of the Virgins.
This 5-day sail was carefully timed to take advantage of a short lived ENE wind. It helped us minimize our tacks to the SE. We ended up having one 12-hour tack to the north but otherwise made it all the way in one shot. Never the less, it was a tough sail, tight to the wind the entire time. It's very wearing to be healed over at 45-degrees day after day without a break.
This was a really nice fast sail across from St Martin to St Barth in December of 2007. Our goal was to anchor in St Barth for the holidays and be amongst the rich and famous. Possibly become one. We discovered that "rich and famous" is not a learned behavior.
The sailing around the US and British Virgin Islands is not as wild as this so don't let it intimidate you. But for us, sometimes its fun to go for a ride.
Colleen and I did some major work on YOLO's hull in May of 2009. I sanded the entire bottom, then we applied a fresh coat of primer. The final step was two coats of a very pricey bottom paint. That took three gallons at $275 per gallon. The repainting of the bottom is necessary at least once every two years. It's really fun, so if anyone is available in June of 2011, let us know.
We spent several days on the beautiful island of Provinciales, in the Turks and Caicos. We loved this island. It seems to have it all. The locals are friendly and it has just enough commercialization to keep you busy.
Colleen is approaching a small Conch farm where locals and their children grow and serve Conch at the Conch Shack.
Hard to imagine the incredible beauty of the blue water of the Bahamas. This island was San Salvadore. It turned out to have pretty much nothing to offer. The grocery store was a tiny one room shed. We literally had only a few dollars in cash and there were certainly no ATM machines. We stayed one short night for rest and then sailed on.
THE U.S. EAST COAST "INTERCOASTAL WATERWAY" Not the surroundings you would expect to see from a 46-foot sailboat. What a treat though to have done this. Maybe someday I'll do it again in a houseboat or a pontoon. The waterway would make a great one week vacation experience.
Anchor duty wasn't a glamorous job, particularly along the Intercoastal Waterway. We typically dropped anchor in shallow muddy water. Colleen, alias anchor monkey, usually got the morning job or retreival. She found it best to wear a raincoat and safety glasses. She never knew what might come up with the anchor. Hopefully it would just be the typical thick, heavy, smelly, sticky mud, we referred to as; river muck
We could hardly believe the broad experience of the Intercoastal Waterway. The waterway provides a more protected route from the Chesapeake Bay, all the way down to Miami. We left the waterway near Charleston, South Carolina.
This particular stretch was very commercialized and busy. We felt like we were on our home turf of Twin Lakes, Iowa. Boaters, waverunners, water skiing, was going on all around us. We felt totally out of place as we slowly motored our way down.
This video was taken in April of 2009 at the beginning of our long journey from Annapolis, Maryland back to the Virgin Islands. We started the trip with nighttime temperatures in the upper 30's.
This was no picnic. We were not prepared for the cold temperatures and had to improvise for warmth. We actually only brought sandals for footware. We packed old clothes (Goodwill worthy or less) for layers with the plan to discard them when they were no longer needed.
Enjoying an afternoon at the Tobago Cays which is a part of the Grenadines. Colleen and I had our kids down for a week for non-stop fun in the sun.
St Lucia proved to be a great place to Zip Line. This is Calli Giametta of Kansas City who sailed with us on YOLO in March of 2008. The Zip Line tour took us down 8 legs of a St Lucia rain forest. It was a ton of fun and gave us a view of the island that we hadn't seen before.
We spent a couple days on Marie Galante during Carnival season. This is a small island to the south of Guadeloupe. This parade ritual is a daily thing during the Carnival period on an otherwise very quiet island.
Our great friends from Des Moines shared this experience with us. Marie Galante is not a major tourist spot so we felt a bit out of place at times. What a great island with super friendly people.
This is Shirley Heights on the island of Antigua. Every Thursday brings large crowds from all over to swap vacation stories and listen to local music.
This was my first trip to the Caribbean island of Saba. It's basically just a big rock but very lush. Definitely not a beach stop. We climbed to the very peak of the island and were fortunate enough to have a clear day. It's normal to be in the clouds.
Le Select, a very popular hamburger joint on St Barth for 60-years. Jimmy Buffett has made this a regular stop whenever he's in the Caribbean. His pictures are all over the walls inside. I've missed him twice by two-weeks. I've always wanted to meet him under this venue. I've been told that he'll show up unannounced with his guitar and just jam with the locals.
I guess it's confirmed that Jimmy will be there November 7, 2009 for the Le Select 60th Anniversary. Will I make it??
One near miss was the owners 80th birthday party in June of 2003. The original, and current owner is seen in this video with a hat and sunglasses, short sleeved shirt and long pants.
This video was taken at 8200 feet above sea level while Captain Neil enjoys his second most favorite hobby, Powered Paragliding.
If you think I'm really hanging out there, you should see the precarious position my cameraman had to attain in order to get this video.