We’ve been in Sint Maarten now for over two weeks and most of it has been devoted to boat projects. Getting our electrical system sorted took quite a bit of time – and lots of money however, during the process I finally tracked down a major flaw in the generator’s electrical circuits which had been causing it to intermittently shut down. There was a group of wires that had fused together, probably during the lightning strike and I happened to notice them arcing when just as the generator cut out. Chance in a million of spotting it – I guess our luck is good!!

We also spent a ton of dough on a new car – OK dinghy – but it’s a car for us. This is now our 5^th dinghy of the year and we’re basically back to where we were at the beginning of the year with a hard bottom’ed Aluminum rib dinghy with a 15HP Yamaha two stroke. She goes like stink but is rather more squirly than the old Caribe due to being much lighter. We’ve relegated out Achilles inflatable to the lazarette – as a backup and if we need a good rowing dinghy…

Sint Maarten has it’s plusses and minuses. For getting boat work done, I don’t know of a better place. The chandleries are plentiful, huge and with great prices and there is technical help all over the place. It’s a great socializing spot too with loads of cruisers in the Lagoon and an active VHF net each morning run by Mike Shrimpy. We managed to sell our little 2.5HP outboard on the VHF net… There are bars and restaurants all over the place, so plenty of opportunity to meet other cruisers.

Arrival Beverages at the Yacht Club

Another OCC gathering

New Year’s Dinner

New Year

There are a bunch of OCC boats here and we have had several evenings out with them. New Year’s was great – with 6 boats at a very good Indian restaurant, Lal’s – good food at very reasonable prices. After dinner, we returned to Toodle-oo! to watch the fireworks which were set off from a barge just a couple of boats away from us. A bunch of Salty Dawgs have shown up in the past couple of days and we’re hoping to get together with them over the course of the next few days.

The down side is that the lagoon itself is nasty water with sewage all over. Toodle-oo! is now sporting a green beard at her stern – all of which has grown in the past 2 weeks. When we get out of here I’ll have to set to, cleaning the bottom. Another drawback is that it’s waaay too easy to spend a bunch of money! And finally, we’re right underneath the flight path for Sint Maarten Airport! Every time a jet goes over, conversation must be halted…

Waiting for the next plane

Here She Comes!

Big Bugger!

On the other hand, one of the most enjoyable days here was heading to the beach and bar on the other side of the runway – the jets come in really low with the start of the runway just yards from the beach. When they take off, the jet blast at the end of the runway has to be felt to be believed – the hot blast of air really tries to knock you off your feet… The local jets make a point of running up their engines before takeoff for way longer than is probably necessary!

We got to tour the island with Peter and Patty from Serendipitous – another Outbound 44 that was also on the Salty Dawg Rally from Virginia. We stopped in Philipsburg for a beer and to stock up on sea sickness meds and then had a great barbecue lunch in Grand Case.

The Beach!

Shopping Opportunities

Good Tastin’ BBQ

“Polar” Splash – Sint Maarten style!

Yesterday we decided to go out of the lagoon in search of a good beach. Initially we tried on the dinghy, but the surf was such that beaching her was rather too daunting so we gave up and walked to the beach instead. We had a very relaxing afternoon of people watching and swimming in clear water!

Welcome 2017! No more boat repairs please!!! The last part of 2016 was a series of boat repairs on top of boat repairs and upgrades. Enough no more!!

So, if you’re wondering where we’re headed next, what follows is our schedule such that it is… Our schedule is developed in the sand at low water – and normally is out of date by the end of the day! However, we think that give or take a week or so, we’ll probably follow a schedule like this as we head down island:

Port / Arrival Date

Leeward Islands
St. Martin / Now
St. Barts / 4-Jan-17
St. Martin / 11-Jan-17
Anguilla / 14-Jan-17
Saba / 16-Jan-17
St. Eustatius / 17-Jan-17
Barbuda / 19-Jan-17
Antigua / 21-Jan-17
Montserrat / 29-Jan-17
Antigua / 31-Jan-17
Dominica / 13-Feb-17

Windward Islands
Martinique / 13-Mar-17
St. Lucia / 20-Mar-17
Barbados / 27-Mar-17
Bequia / 10-Apr-17
Mustique / 15-Apr-17
Canouan / 20-Apr-17
Tobago Cays / 25-Apr-17
Union / 30-Apr-17
Carriacou / 5-May-17
Ronde / 10-May-17
Grenada / 15-May-17

South America
Tobago / 31-May-17
Guyana / 12-Jun-17
Trinidad / 14-Jul-17
Bonaire / 27-Jul-17
Curacao / 10-Sep-17
Aruba / 20-Sep-17
Santa Marta / 27-Sep-17
Carthagena / 28-Oct-17
San Blas / 28-Jan-18
Panama / 23-Feb-18

We set off from the Bitter End to head to the USVI’s – but diverted just before we got there and went back to Jost Van Dyke again! Spend several days there at the Bubbly Pool – a rock pool with incoming wooshes of water! We enjoyed a lovely afternon there – and then went back the following day for a follow up!  We met a lovely couple there – who might help us through the Panama Canal when the time comes…

After nearly four weeks in the British Virgin Islands, we moved over to the American Virgin Islands, which is largely National Park and therefore they don’t allow anchoring except in a few places, so we have to use the mooring balls which are plentiful and low(ish) cost.

Saint John turned out to be our favorite stop so far with beautiful beaches and great walking trails. The difficulty we had was that they are rather strict about how and where you can land a dinghy – so we were forced to land on a beach and lift her to above the high tide line. All well and good – since our new dinghy’s sole redeeming feature is that she’s light – but the problem is sand and water… You can’t land on the beach in your walking shoes – they’d get wet, so we go ashore in sandals and they get wet and covered in sand, which makes for hiking in them rather tricky and a somewhat extreme exfoliating experience! I did give in one time and retrieved sneakers and socks – but really eliminating all the sand off one’s tootsies was not an easily accomplished task.

One walk we did was up the hill to view some ruins that we could see from Toodle-oo! That trail then continued up another hill so we followed it… Now as all Balme’s know, all good walks end at a pub. Unfortunately, this one ended at a bus stop in the middle of nowhere. All we could do was back-track all the way back down – at least that was easier than the up part in the extreme heat and humidity of the forest.

Another walk took us to a ruined sugar mill – it had been quite a large enterprise once upon a time. The whole of the Virgin Island group’s economy was based on sugar production – up until about 1800 – but you’d never know it now – not a sugar cane plant spotted once! Since this was a short walk, we decided to extend it and went via yet more ruins, right over the top of the island to Coral Bay on the other side – where fortunately a pub awaited! 3 pints and a burger later, it was a rather more difficult return walk!

The beaches in St. John are great – and the snorkeling too. I got some nice GoPro footage that I’ll try to upload – though unfortunately, when we went to the best spot, the battery in the GoPro had died…

We’d been watching weather for our passage across the Anegada Passage to Sint Maarten – and unfortunately our weather window arrived a little earlier than we would have liked – but the next opportunity to make the eastward passage would likely not show up until some time in January so we left Saint John on December 15^th and arrived in Sint Maarten the following morning, having motored almost the entire way.

We did do a little fishing and snagged this beautiful Mahi Mahi… We were looking forward to cooking him up but the process of preparing him requires bleeding him (hang him upside down in the ocean for a little while… well I managed to drop the slippery slimy thing into the water – no dinner tonight!

We are anchored in “The Lagoon” on Sint Maarten in just 8ft of nasty looking water, with 100ft of rode out, with wind gusting upto 35 knots and likely to remain like this for the next week! Not very relaxing!

The Mahi Mahi that got away!

Toodle-oo! from the Ruins (Far Left boat…)

Steep climb…

Cinnamon Bay

Our Beach – Cinnamon Bay

Lets climb to that Ruin!

Photogenic Bird!

Insect Home ( About 2 ft diameter mud ball!)

Sugar Factory

Pretty flower – Pretty Bug!

Toodle-oo! from more ruins

Money Grabbing Boobey

We’ve been roaming around the British Virgin Islands where we landed just over 2 weeks ago. The Salty Dawg Rally we came down with is centered at the Bitter End Yacht Club in Virgin Gorda – at the extreme eastern end of the islands and it was nice to arrive in amongst a group of familiar faces. However, we took off to explore some of the other islands and bays, initially stopping at Spanish Town where we managed to get a local SIM card for the phone

Long Swim in from the Parking Lot

and then we moved down to the Baths – a very interesting formation of granite boulders whose origin nobody can properly explain and anchored close by – right opposite a beautiful sandy beach – best beach I’ve ever been exposed to with lovely surf and wonderfully soft sand. In the morning we dinghied over to the baths – which proved interesting gaining access to as you’re not allowed to beach your dinghy there with a large area cordoned off by rope. The drill is you row the dinghy right to shore and drop anyone off that needs – along with electronic gear (cameras, etc.), then row back out about 50 yards through the surf to the start of the swim area, tie your dinghy up and then swim in. I’m not the best swimmer in the world – so it was all quite taxing! The reward however was a fascinating scramble through the piled-up granite boulders and rock pools.

The Baths

Next we headed over to the east end of Tortola where we anchored in another rolly spot. We were here in order to drop the mainsail off for it’s second repair to the batten system. Wandering around the small town was interesting – but showed the poorer side of the BVI’s…

We then headed over to Norman Island – a major destination point for the numerous charter boats that ply the seas here. Willie T’s here is a converted old steamer – to a bar and restaurant – where people come to be rowdy and enjoy jumping off the back of the boat from the second floor. Had to be done…

Willy T’s

Our next destination was Soper’s Hole – and nice little harbor with quite a lot of activity. We were able to catch up on internet stuff here and make more inroads to our charging system woes. However, we didn’t stay long – instead heading off to Jost Van Dyke – the party island of the Virgins apparently.

The Soggy Dollar Bar

Soggy Beers

Ohh to be young again!

White Bay – Home of the Soggy Dollar Bar

We had a lovely stay in Great Bay for a couple of nights – with yet more pondering about the charging system. Lunch at Foxy’s was good and we had drinks at one of the numerous beach bars. We walked over to White Bay – home of the Soggy Dollar bar – arriving as complete sweat balls with sensible walking shoes on – with crowds of half-naked people enjoying the beach and the water. How clever of us to arrive at such a great beach without swimming trunks! Never-the-less we had a lovely afternoon there and enjoying watching all the young things strut their stuff!

We returned to Soper’s Hole in order to put Toodle-oo! on the dock so that we could re-charge the batteries properly – our whole charging situation is clearly a mess. We ended up staying there for three nights – getting fully charged and working out a complete solution for the situation. It turns out that the problem is lack of brains – in that I did not work out how serious our draw was compared to our charging capability.

Pelican Lunchtime

Hi Mann – you need a ride on my Ferry? Drive aboard – mind de Rocks!

This goes a long way to finally explaining why when we purchased the boat, she had so many hours on both the engine and generator – they must have used both simultaneously to charge up the batteries for hours each day. Hopefully we have a solution that will reduce the charging time – I just need to find someone sensible to confirm my idea before blowing the whole boat up!

Trellis Bay

View from BananaKeet’s

We’re now back at the Bitter End with the majority of the other Salty Dawgs – ready for a luncheon event today. After that, who knows where we’ll be heading! Our long term plans have been up in the air for quite a while, but if feels like we’re finally settling on a plan to head “Down Island” – to the Leeward islands and perhaps one or two of the Windward Islands, before heading across the Caribbean towards Panama… Another plan laid out in the sand at low tide…

A bit of a strange start to our first winter in the Caribbean – it’s hot and humid and the boat projects just keep on coming!

The warm water down here (80F+) is very nice for swimming, but plays havoc with our fridge and freezer which are cooled by means of “Keel Coolers” – bronze plates bolted to the underside of the hull. Up in New England and Canada, these work great – the water is 20+ degrees cooler. Down here, the compressors have to work double time to get the heat of the system and they are just eating up our battery supply. So much so that we’re having to run the generator for several hours a day. And of course, the generator is acting up too! Whereas I used to be able to run the watermaker and the battery charger at the same time, I can no longer do that… And water costs $0.25/gallon down here, so we could really use the watermaker!

On top of that, the head stinks! I’ve had to replace the one way “Joker” valve to prevent nasty stuff coming back into the bowl – and this joker valve was only 3 months old! I’m now out of joker valves!

We’ve also had to deal with a badly fixed mainsail repair – fortunately the outfit that did the repair in Virginia recognize their mistake, but they’re only going to assist to the tune of $100 with the new sail loft – in spite of them charging us $430 for the lousy repair!

Feels like we’ve been working harder than we did when we earned money – and now we’re spending money faster than ever thought possible too! Still, I’d rather be doing this than sitting behind that desk again!

It’ll inevitably get better!!!

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone – we’ll be sitting on the beach today having swum for our beers at the Soggy Dollar!!!

We arrived in Virgin Gorda on Sunday afternoon! 1320 miles sailed in 8 days, 8 3/4 hours – therefore an average speed of 6.58 knots through the water. Our planned route was 1295 miles – so we therefore managed to follow the rhumb line very closely – and our average “Velocity Made Good” was 6.45knots. Not bad!

The trip started really badly! 6:00am – still dark: At the dock, I unclipped the electric hookup and the heavy bale end collided with the latch on our monitor windvane gate mechanism and knocked it to pieces – with two critical components ending up in the water! Fortunately, I was apparently wearing my MacGuyver hat and managed to bodge it back together with two hose clams and we were ready to leave by 6:30. Leaving was not pretty – but we managed to extricate ourselves from the pilings we were between with just a couple of non-damaging bumps! We were one of the last  boats in the remaining 24 boat fleet to leave.

We motored out into the Hampton river where we raised the main in the building breeze and quite heavy chop. We’d just had the main repaired – with a new improved system to hold the battens in the sail – but on first hoist two of them broke out! What a waste of money that was! We ended up sailing without battens for the first couple of days and then managed to bodge something up once the seas had calmed.

The first couple of days were boisterous with big seas – and even though they were supposedly only 12-15 ft, that means we should expect some to come in at double that – seemed to us that most were coming in about 20 – 30ft! Toodle-oo! managed the seas with aplomb and we managed to get across the gulf stream in about 30 hours. Full foul weather gear was removed and replaced with shorts and tee-shirts.

We had a day or so of no wind and calming seas – so ran the engine which was a bit of a blessing since the generator had decided to quit working and we needed to charge the batteries – which were now being challenged significantly by the warmer water making the fridge and freezer draw considerably more power than normal. Without the generator, we also couldn’t make water – but that turned out to be a non-issue for us as we carried sufficient water for the entire trip.

The last few days we sailed – and were always in company with a couple of more boats from the fleet, or others that were part of the Caribbean 1500 rally – all rather reassuring. On one day, we had a deja vue experience in that like the time we sailed from the Azores to Ireland with great wind and the rest of the fleet were becalmed, on this day, we had good wind – 15 knots on the beam (perfect!) and boats that were within 5 or 10 miles didn’t have enough wind to sail! I couldn’t even blame it on the beans!

We fished the entire way – but caught nothing. I finally got Laurie to admit that our selection of lures was inadequate so with any luck, next time we’re near a fishing shop, she’ll let me loose! However! On the last day, we managed to bag 2 tuna! First a Bluefin – which sadly had been hooked without us knowing, so when I did notice about 20 minutes later, I just hauled in the drowned fish. I cleaned this guy out and prepared tuna steaks and then put the pole out again – and about an hour later we caught a Yellowfin – both of them were about 10lbs. We had enough Tuna now for a few meals!

Bluefin Tuna unimpressed by boxers!

Yellowfin Tuna

The last day was great sailing, but unfortunately we had to turn into the wind after rounding Anegada, so we took the easy way out and motored the last 3 hours and took a mooring at the Bitter End Yacht Club.

Arrival Virgin Gorda

It’s hot here! Really hot!

Too hot to clean the Inside of the boat, Laurie is already cleaning the hull!!!

The arrival beverages were good, strong and plentiful! We slept well!

We have a new Tracker – a DeLorme – which will allow us to send a satellite signal out giving our position. It was a requirement for the Salty Dawg rally we’re about to embark on from Virginia to the BVI’s – a roughly 10 day passage. We’ll be sending out positions every 4 hours once we start – probably Saturday morning. You can track us here: https://share.delorme.com/Toodleoo

Unfortunately, we’ve had our first abandonment… Ship’s cat Bella is headed back to Massachusetts, to new Staff. With our constant changing of schedules and destinations, it was proving impossible to have a cat aboard without risking the possibility of her being put into quarantine – or worse – and suffering potential high penalties. So, a very difficult decision made but Bella’s new staff Marie will undoubtedly take really good care of her – with routine visits to the groomers, etc. – and she’ll be with her sister, Lola. She will be sorely missed by her old staff, the crew of Toodle-oo! There’s not a dry eye on the boat.

Talented Cat!

Hanging Out

Climbing

Pretty Pussy

Toodle-oo! is on the go! It’s tough to keep the blog going while all sorts of things are going on, but will do my best…

We arrived in Port Washington on Friday where Jamin was moored and took up one of the other free moorings while it rained and poured. Unfortunately, the weather was set to turn even more bleak – with high winds forecast – so rather than enjoy ourselves in a relaxed manner, we had to take advantage of a lull in the weather – just as we were settling in for sundowners – to remove the main and stuff it into the cockpit so that we could affect some repairs later on.

The wind was up – 25-35 kts and in the shallow water, the surf was running. Never the less, we decided to make a trip to shore – Laurie had arranged a haircut and we got various little bits and pieces for the boat. The dinghy ride to shore was miserable but the ride back was just plain silly – with Jane watching our return with winds gusting to 36 knots!!! We were drenched!

Sunday we stayed aboard all day and managed to get the necessary temporary repairs made to the sail.

Monday with winds still up, we ventured out to town for lunch where Mike and Jane fessed up that they were throwing in the towel and heading home. Such a shame after so much preparation and anticipation. Too bad… In the evening we met on Jamin with a couple of other boats – Jim and Louise (Salacia) and Jos and Erica (Endless Summer) – enjoyed a few beverages and discussed the weather… Jos and Erica are also headed towards Norfolk Virginia…

The weather forecast for getting south to Virginia was not really very good – with high winds set for Tuesday and no winds for Wednesday. We set off anyway and had a great sail past NYC and the Statue of Liberty

Empire State

WTC – Financial Center

Liberty!

and then out into the open sea where fortunately the forecast winds were somewhat lighter and we made great progress through Tuesday to the mouth of the Delaware. Not quite as good as Endless Summer however – they caught and past us! 🙁 Then the wind stopped and we ended up motoring basically for the entire day, finally reaching the mouth of the Chesapeake at about 1:00am on Thursday morning. We anchored (in the rolliest location!) and crashed for what remained of the night. Later in the morning we made our way to Hampton and have ended up in a very tight little anchorage in downtown Hampton. Really great! We also managed to drop off our main for repairs – which got rather larger on the way south, with both lower battens popping out of the sail. The restraining Velcro has apparently given up…

The Salty Dawg Rally puts on seminars in the week leading up to the rally – and this morning (Friday) we were anticipating a very useful talk from Quantum about sail repair. Unfortunately, he didn’t show up – so we instead learned how to fish! Actually quite interesting – we’ll see if we can hook some dinner along the way!

We’re feeling like our new life is about to start and are both really looking forward to the adventure.

Thursday, October 20th  –  Huntingdon, NY

Finally on Wednesday October 19th, 2016 we’re on our way. It’s been a while in the planning but here we go on the voyage of a lifetime!

Just a short first jaunt to Fisher’s Island in Long Island Sound – and unfortunately it was a motoring experience the whole way. Never-the-less, we’re now on our way. We anchored in West Harbor and settled in to watch the ridiculous 3rd debate between Hilary and Donald – with a weak TV signal augmented with the Radio!

Today, we got up at dawn – not that early this time of year – and set off with a fine forecast down Long Island Sound headed for Port Jefferson. With 20+knot winds behind us we were able to make great progress in the right direction and when the tide turned in our favor, we managed to make over 11 knots over ground at times while surfing down a wave! In the end, because we were making such good progress, we decided to change destination and instead headed a little further to Huntingdon on Long Island’s north coast, just 15 miles or so short of Port Washington where we’d be able to hook up with Mike and Jane on Jamin.

Unfortunately, along the way, with winds building and changing direction slightly we had to gibe and reef at the same time. In the process, we managed to rip the luff of the mainsail and break one of the batten attachments… We now had a  fresh item on the to-do list to attend to… We sailed the rest of the way with the main reefed to second reef – not really enough to power Toodle-oo! through the swells – but even so we ended up anchoring in Huntingdon, 71 miles away after only 10 hours of sailing! Not a bad average speed!

Tomorrow we head to Port Washington to meet Jane and Mike – and to enact some sail repairs.

Meanwhile, over the last couple of days we’ve decided a new cruising plan – instead of NY – Bermuda – Bahamas – Cuba – Panama, we’re thinking NY – Hampton – Salty Dawg Rally to BVI’s – Bahamas – Panama… Shame to miss out on Cuba but our insurance company is willing to insure us – but with a theft exclusion. Since Toodle-oo! is our only abode, this isn’t something we’re keen on risking – so unless things change…

Plans laid in sand at low tide…

It keeps getting worse…

After finally getting launched after 4 weeks living at the top of a ladder, I noticed that our freshly rejuvenated fridge was icing up at the compressor – is that right??? The folks that recharged the system dutifully came down to let a little out – and then we found that our freezer (complete with about $500 worth of frozen meat in it) was also on the blink…. Cha Ching… at least they we able to come to our aid quickly!

We finally departed from Portsmouth,RI on Tuesday October 18th – ready to start our circumnavigation. First stop? Newport Ri – Hailing port for Toodle-oo! and we had a nice meet with David and Leann on Moonshot, an Amel 53 they’d just purchased (first boat!) and had just completed their maiden sail… Good luck mates – I’m sure you’ll have an absolute blast!

Laurie’s brother Neal and Kathy came around for dinner – Confit de Canard no less – and we had a very jolly evening with them – as something of a final sendoff…