Voyage of the Solstice

Solstice Ashore

2011-11-26T15:05:00.013-05:00

We're back in San Francisco, not still in Houston. Actually, we've been back since the end of June, but we've been incredibly busy with no time for a last blog entry. I started work at a new job on July 5th (technical writer at SilkRoad technology working on the HeartBeat product), and we immediately started looking for a place in the city. We had thought we would rent first, but rent is so

Wrapping up

2011-06-19T11:45:00.003-05:00

We've been in the Houston area (Seabrook) for 2½ weeks now. We arrived the day after the previous blog post. I came up for my 6-9 a.m. watch that morning to find that the lovely blue water of the gulf had turned brown and our speed had dropped below 3 knots. We went from thinking that we'd be early to hoping that we'd make it before dark. Most of the day was spent in the Houston Ship Channel,

Dodging ships and drilling platforms

2011-06-01T19:45:00.000-05:00

So far, we've had a lot of variety on this leg of our voyage: from Isla Mujeres to Galveston. We started out sailing along nicely and averaging 5.5 knots. One night the wind and waves kicked up, and we had to put in a couple of reefs in the dark, very dark. The next day the wind dropped off, and we found ourselves motor-sailing at faster than 8 knots for several hours thanks to a strong current

Back in Isla Mujeres

2011-05-25T13:42:00.001-05:00

We made it! It took nearly as long as our Atlantic crossing from Cape Verde to Barbados, but we finally arrived at El Milagro Marina on Isla Mujeres, Mexico, yesterday morning. Whew! We made another fuel stop at Grand Cayman, just to be sure we could make it across the channel to Isla Mujeres. It's a good thing we did because we had to run the engine the whole time. It was that or go so slowly

Adventures in re-fueling

2011-05-18T13:35:00.003-05:00

Our chart said this place (Port Morant/Bowden Harbour) had fuel. Of course, it also said that there was a resort/marina here. Our free cruising guide said that the coast guard had taken over the facilities of the now-defunct marina, but that we could tie to the dock for free. It didn't say anything about fuel, but it only mentioned fuel once in the whole document anyway. So we came into the Coast

Sailing to a schedule

2011-05-15T08:35:00.002-05:00

We avoided it as long as we could, but that's what we're doing now. More accurately, we're motoring to try to keep our schedule. Since we broke the jib halyard and tore the jib, we've been behind. One or two weeks in Antigua would have been plenty, but with waiting for repairs, it was closer to three. We skipped the islands in between in order to say good-bye to Liat and Assaf at Sint Maarten and

Visiting friends on St. John

2011-05-03T06:39:00.000-05:00

When we first set out on our voyage, we promised our friends Blake and Terri Parker that we would visit them at their new home on St. John when we were in the Caribbean. We made it just in time this week since they're planning a move back to Iowa. They have a new granddaughter there, and Terri has a new job, so we were lucky to catch them. We got to see their house, which they're keeping, and

Sint Maarten & St. Croix

2011-04-30T08:17:00.001-05:00

Based on the recommendation of a couple of charter captains, we decided to go to Philipsburg in Dutch Sint Maarten rather than Simpson Bay. The primary motivation was to avoid the anchorage fees, but I also wanted to stop in at a Dutch-speaking island. There are Dutch-speaking people in Philipsburg, but the lingua franca is English with French a close second, followed by Spanish. And we spent

Good-bye, Antigua

2011-04-25T09:03:00.002-05:00

And good-bye, Chris. Last night we said farewell to our friend Chris of Avocette of Portsmouth. We've been traveling the same direction with occasional meet-ups since we first met in Gibraltar in October, and it seems strange to think we won't be looking forward to seeing him again at the next port. We've really enjoyed our time with him, and of course, we've exchanged invitations to our

Enjoying the Classics Races

2011-04-15T16:47:00.003-05:00

We've been enjoying seeing all of the classic yachts here in Antigua. And in our spare time, we've been working on photo pages for the web site. For the latest, look under Latest Additions on our Photos page.

Life in Antigua, so far

2011-04-10T11:17:00.002-05:00

We came into the anchorage with a long list of things to accomplish here: jib repair, halyard replacement, new glasses for John, laundry, water tank fill, Tot Club, and so on. So far, we've managed most of these, or at least gotten them started, but we haven't explored very much, at least not scenic places. There are lots of yacht services where we are in the English Harbour/Falmouth Harbour area

On to Antigua

2011-04-08T11:04:00.003-05:00

Although we anchored at Bourg des Saintes overnight, we found it rough in the anchorage with marginal holding, so we decided to leave without going ashore and try our luck with Deshaies on Guadeloupe proper. We had a great sail across the passage, punctuated by a downpour, and were doing 7 knots easily with only the jib. It was really fun. The fast sailing continued most of the way along the

Indian River and Island Tours

2011-04-03T14:24:00.005-05:00

Our Cobra water taxi driver, Jack, picked us up a little after 7 o'clock yesterday morning for our Indian River tour. On the way to the river we picked up another American couple, David and Rorie from Aurora, and two French Canadian couples joined us too. Cobra himself was our guide, and he was very impressive. While rowing us up the river (no motors allowed), he told us stories about the history

Martinique to Dominica

2011-04-02T21:36:00.010-05:00

It rained every day we were in Martinique, really rained, and not just a little. Oddly, we liked it there anyway, and it's on our list of islands to explore more next time. On our way north to St. Pierre, we passed a lot of little beaches where you could anchor a boat provided the swell was from the east, which it was at the time. And by next time, one of us will have learned more French. That

“You should write a book.”

2011-04-01T16:55:00.002-05:00

When friends tell me this, I say that there are already enough books about sailing. Here's a link to a new one that was written by Larry Jacobson. He's the guy we bought our great dinghy from. We really enjoyed our visits with him, and he has become a friend. (When you're out cruising, you make friends quickly.) Larry has something to add to the cruising genre, and I look forward to reading his

Sailing to Martinique

2011-03-28T09:00:00.001-05:00

We had a fun, fast sail Saturday from Rodney Bay to Cul-de-Sac du Marin. Once we cleared the point at Pigeon Island, we killed the engine and sailed for the next three hours until we reached our turn into Le Marin, which was directly into the wind, of course. Somehow the squalls along the way passed in front of us or behind us, and we threaded our way through the maze of anchored boats into the

Rodney Bay, St. Lucia

2011-03-25T11:17:00.007-05:00

Upon our arrival here we were pleasantly surprised to find free wireless Internet that reached us in the anchorage. The disadvantage is that we spend less time exploring. Still, we have a pleasant view from the boat, and the breeze is nice here. (I took the following pictures this morning between squalls.) The closest shore with Sandals Resort in the background and Aquarelle in the foreground The

Wallilabou Bay, St. Vincent

2011-03-21T18:04:00.004-05:00

This bay is where some of the scenes of Pirates of the Caribbean were filmed, and it's one of the anchorages on the west of the island where you can stop over on the way to St. Lucia. We were met here, as warned, by a welcoming committee of boat boys (some men, but all call themselves boat boys) to help us tie to shore and sell us things. We'd heard of the Caribbean boat boys, who can be

Bequia

2011-03-20T17:14:00.003-05:00

Bequia is the little island just south of St. Vincent. Its charm is legendary among cruisers, and we certainly weren't disappointed. It was a bit of a slog against the wind to get to Port Elizabeth and Admiralty Bay on Bequia, so it was almost sunset when we arrived. We spotted Salt Dragon immediately and anchored nearby, but no one answered our hail on the radio, so we had a quiet evening and

Tobago Cays

2011-03-11T08:56:00.003-05:00

Despite my worries, we had no problem getting into a nice anchorage in the Tobago Cays via the southern pass. Kathy's waypoints and our Navionics electronic charts did the trick. The cays are a huge reef system and marine park east of Union and south of Mayreau islands in the Grenadines. Except for a few visible low islands, it looks like you're exposed to the whole Atlantic Ocean to the east,

Union Island, SVG

2011-03-07T12:57:00.007-05:00

Nothing went the way we thought it would here. First, we were going to tie up at the water dock and top off the tanks while I did the check-in, which was going to be easy because I'd set everything up on eSeaClear. And we were only going to stay one night, just to clear in before going on to the Tobago Cays. But it was pretty windy and there were lots of boats around, so we decided against

Heading to Saint Vincent and the Grenadines

2011-03-05T07:35:00.007-05:00

Sounds like a good name for a rock band to me, and it's a lot to type, so I'll be calling it SVG. I'm excited to be going to a new country, even though it's less than 12 miles from where we are now, even taking into account the reefs that we have to go around. Here's a map for those who haven't looked it up on Google yet. (I found it on World Map Now.) (Click the map to open it in a size you can

On to Carriacou

2011-03-04T07:42:00.010-05:00

It rained almost continuously the first four days after my return to Grenada. Then the forecasts called for northeasterly wind of 15-20 knots and 8 to 11-foot waves. Since Carriacou, our next destination, lies northeast of Grenada and our prepaid 30 days at the Grenada Yacht Club (GYC) hadn't expired, we decided to stay put and wait for a little less wind against us. Finally, Wednesday looked

Shirlee's time ashore in Portland, Oregon

2011-02-24T12:32:00.010-05:00

On Saturday, January 29, John took me to the airport to catch my flight to Portland to visit family for a few weeks. My flight (flights, actually) was pretty interesting. Flying over the Caribbean was beautiful. I tried to recognize various islands, but really I couldn’t. And I was kind of surprised how long it took: four hours to Miami, where I cleared customs and immigration and changed planes

Exploring Grenada

2011-02-11T13:12:00.008-05:00

Time flies when you're having fun, and there's a lot to catch up with. I'm visiting family and friends in Portland, Oregon, right now, but John and Märzen stayed behind in Grenada on Solstice. John sent me photos, though, for this post about Grenada. After we dropped the sail on our approach to the anchorage at Prickly Bay, Grenada, we were wondering how we were going to find our friends among

Atlantic Crossing Revisited

2011-02-10T10:04:00.007-05:00

During the passage we crossed paths with the sailing yacht Alua. They took some pictures and video of us, and we also got some pictures and video of them. This photo op took place on January 4th near the midway point between Africa and Barbados. We were 1,145 miles east of Barbados and 1,277 miles west of Dakar, Africa.Solstice sailing wing on wingVideo of Alua

Barbados to Grenada

2011-01-23T18:19:00.006-05:00

We planned to stop in Barbados for just a few days, but ended up staying more than a week. The extended stay was partly due to wind and wave forecasts, but largely because we were enjoying ourselves. Upon arrival (the day before John’s birthday), we found several boats who had left Mindelo a week ahead of us, and while we were there, several who crossed at the same time arrived. Our speedy 14-day

Arrived in Barbados

2011-01-11T16:14:00.002-05:00

We have arrived after 14 days and 2.5 hours to cross the Atlantic. We estimated 17 days and with the weather routing provided by Herb on Southbound II net we did very well on the crossing. We have some minor repairs to make here in Barbados along with a rum and island tour. Now it's time to catch up on some sleep.----------radio email processed by SailMailfor information see: http://

Things break

2011-01-10T17:25:00.002-05:00

Passage to Barbados, day 13. On a boat something is always breaking. When you're in port or cruising the coast, it's annoying. On a passage it's that plus challenging. Can you fix or replace it? Can you rig a temporary repair? Can you work around it? Is it something you can continue on without?We've been pretty lucky this passage, and breakage has been minor. First, the boom vang broke, but John

Reefed

2011-01-09T18:23:00.002-05:00

Passage to Barbados, day 12. Around noon today (UTC) we put a reef in the main sail (shortened the sail) because Herb's forecast called for winds a little greater than 20 knots during the day. Although we've seen a few higher gusts, the wind has stayed about 15-20 knots, but we haven't slowed very much by adding the reef. Unfortunately, we're still zigzagging a little because the wind is directly

Continuing problems with Yotreps

2011-01-08T17:53:00.002-05:00

Passage to Barbados, day 11. We've had a couple of position reports rejected by Yotreps in the past few days. We don't know what they changed on their end that caused the problems (nothing changed here), but we aren't the only ones having difficulty. It's really too bad because there are a lot of people crossing the Atlantic right now, and Yotreps has been a service we've all counted on to keep

Changing time

2011-01-07T18:27:00.001-05:00

Passage to Barbados, day 10. For this passage we decided not to change our clocks as we pass through time zones. The Canary Islands are on UTC (Universal Time Coordinated), and that's also the time used for our various radio check-ins, so we decided to keep it. Now, more than halfway across the Atlantic, that means that the time on our clocks is out of sync with the sun. I used to have the

Sea state

2011-01-06T17:29:00.002-05:00

Passage to Barbados, day 9: One of the conditions that boats include in their daily check-in to the Rum Runners Net is the sea state. That and wind are the two most important factors in any passage. In the Mediterranean we learned that even moderate winds of 20 knots could make the sea state extremely uncomfortable with high waves very close together. The oceans are a little different. Here in

Past the halfway mark

2011-01-05T16:46:00.002-05:00

Passage to Barbados, day 8. Today we passed our halfway point on the crossing. Our route from Mindelo to Barbados was nominally 2,010 miles. The distance to our waypoint marking the approach to the anchorage at Bridgetown, Barbados, is now just 930 miles away. We've been making really good time the last couple of days. In fact, day 8 is our record best 24 hours. We covered 171.9 nm for an average

Go, Speed Racer!

2011-01-04T16:33:00.004-05:00

Passage to Barbados, day 7. Sceptres (the kind of boat that Solstice is) are classified as performance cruisers, meaning that they're supposed to go pretty fast for as heavy as they are. We haven't seen much evidence of this with Solstice until this passage. But until now we haven't been going the same direction and maintaining contact with a lot of other cruising boats. Today we caught up with a

End of zigzagging

2011-01-03T16:45:00.003-05:00

Passage to Barbados, day 6. Today we took advantage of slightly less wind and perhaps reduced swell to pole out the jib and start sailing wing-on-wing. (I think our British friends call it goose-winging.) This means that our foresail, the jib, is held out by the pole on one side while the main sail is on the other. The configuration allows us to sail more nearly straight downwind, which is the

Wahoo!!!

2011-01-02T16:51:00.002-05:00

Passage to Barbados, day 5. This afternoon John landed his first wahoo, a big tasty fish that he's been after since Mexico in 2007. (This occurred after the technical end of day 5, but it's too exciting to save for later.) We had planned to eat mahi-mahi for dinner, but had to try the wahoo instead. It was excellent! We may have enough fish for the rest of the passage. Certainly we have enough

Happy New Year from the mid-Atlantic!

2011-01-01T15:06:00.002-05:00

Passage to Barbados, day 4. The Rum Runners Net this morning was full of New Year's best wishes, and we know at least one person on each boat was awake to see the new year in regardless of time zone. Both of us were up because midnight is watch change.Today we saw and talked with another sailboat. Transcendence is an Irish boat with a multi-national crew. We've been hearing them on Rum Runners

We're not alone

2010-12-31T15:18:00.004-05:00

Passage to Barbados, day 3. Within hours of the end of day 2 John spotted sails behind us and quickly got on the VHF to make contact. VHF radio has a range that is essentially line-of-sight. The boat was Saba, one we didn't know. They left the Cape Verde islands about when we did, but they're headed to Martinique. We agreed to call them again after we got weather from Herb since they don't have

Trouble with SailMail

2010-12-31T13:18:00.001-05:00

Passage to Barbados, day 2. We continue to have difficulties connecting with SailMail, and when we do connect, the transfer rate is very slow. As a result, we are not picking up our inbound messages right now, not even the grib files that show the weather forecast. If you need to contact us urgently, please put URGENT in the subject. Otherwise, we'll have a lot of catching up to do when we get a

Fresh mahi-mahi restocked

2010-12-30T13:13:00.002-05:00

Passage to Barbados, day 1. John caught another mahi-mahi on his 9 o'clock watch yesterday morning. That was preceded by a small something yummy that we ate the next before and a small mahi-mahi that he let go. He still has a hand line out, but it's catch and release until he gets a wahoo. We need to eat some of the other provisions we stocked.End of day 1 (1500 UTC 12/29/10) we were at 15°26.544

Beyond Cape Verde

2010-12-29T09:17:00.001-05:00

Passage to Barbados, day 0. We left the fuel dock at Mindelo at 1440 UTC Tuesday with about 15 knots of easterly wind and higher gusts in the channel between the islands. That was a nice, fast ride. Unfortunately, the winds have eased considerably now so that we're probably only averaging around 4.5 knots. We're also heading south of southwest right now, so it's probably time to jibe pretty soon.

A mahi-mahi Christmas

2010-12-27T08:10:00.003-05:00

Tomorrow we continue our Atlantic crossing, heading to Barbados and then on to Grenada. Our week in Mindelo has been spent working on the boat, doing laundry by hand, and visiting with friends. Although we’ve wandered around town a bit looking for the best grocery stores, we haven’t done anything touristy. Christmas eve the crews of several boats went out on the town. It was fun to meet new

Arrived at Mindelo

2010-12-22T07:22:00.003-05:00

We arrived at Mindelo, Cape Verde, yesterday, but I had neither Sailmail or Internet, so couldn't post an update. It was lovely to make landfall on the solstice. As we motored through the anchorage here on our way to the marina, we passed close enough to our friend Jim on Orinoco to say hello. Then we moored right next to our new friends Mike and Linda on Aquila. This morning both of those boats

Passage to Mindelo: Day 7

2010-12-21T10:07:00.001-05:00

The stats for day 7 are the same as day 6: 133.2 miles, 5.55 knots average. Maybe that's because we had the same light wind conditions and motor-sailed almost the whole time. When we use the SSB radio, we have to turn the engine off, but then our speed has been less than 4 knots, not good enough to get to Mindelo before dark tomorrow, so we turn the engine back on. (Now on day 8 we finally have

Passage to Mindelo: Day 6

2010-12-19T15:11:00.001-05:00

If we're able to post this, I'll be relieved. Last night when we were trying to get new grib files, Sailmail refused our connection request. We hope whatever caused that will be cleared today. It's a reminder, though, not to worry if you don't hear from us for a few days.Last night we were able to sail much of the time, but this morning the wind really slacked, and what remains of it is too

Passage to Mindelo: Day 5

2010-12-18T11:26:00.001-05:00

We're finally actually pointing toward Mindelo again after almost three days of sailing south. Last night Herb advised us to go even further south--or even east--and we tried all night, but it was very slow. What little wind we had was directly behind us and not doing us any good since we aren't configured for true downwind sailing. Finally, this morning we decided to sail for awhile at 90

Passge to Mindelo: Day 4

2010-12-17T10:35:00.001-05:00

We just had a visit and show by a group of 50 or more spotted Atlantic dolphins. They arrived quite suddenly. John spotted one on the starboard side just as I noticed a bubble circle on the port, and then they were all around us with more racing in from the distance. At one point I counted 12 in our bow wake, but a minute later there must have been 20 or so. Meanwhile, along the sides and off a

Passage to Mindelo: Day 3

2010-12-16T11:22:00.001-05:00

In the past 24 hours we covered 122 nautical miles measuring in a straight line. That's an average speed of a little better than 5 knots (but we really went a little farther and faster because we had a course change as explained below). Most of that has been motor-sailing because the wind is light and still from the southwest.While dining on fresh mahi-mahi in the cockpit yesterday evening we

Passage to Mindelo: Day 2

2010-12-15T11:48:00.001-05:00

Day 2 ended with some excitement as John caught a keeper mahi-mahi just as I was doing the end-of-day log entry. Our dinner plans have changed; we can have pizza anytime, but not fresh fish.Our stats for day 2 were also good: 135 nautical miles for an average speed of 5.625 knots. Unfortunately for day 3's prospects, most of that speed was early in the 24-hour period when we sailed for hours at

Passage to Mindelo: Day 1

2010-12-14T14:38:00.001-05:00

The forecasts were good, and we had hoped to leave Las Palmas on Saturday for Mindelo, Cape Verde. Alas, we still had way too much to do, so we planned on Sunday. By Saturday afternoon, all the major chores were done and the provisions loaded on board, albeit not yet stowed, so I decided it was time to build our route in the chart plotter. Until then we had only looked at the big picture. But as

Las Palmas de Gran Canaria

2010-12-12T13:52:00.002-05:00

I started to write a post about Las Palmas almost a week ago, but then John wrote his thrilling tale, and that was pretty much the most exciting thing that has happened here. This stop has been all about getting the boat ready to cross the Atlantic, and that has meant that we’ve done a lot of waiting: w in line at the chandlery to find out what on our list they had—or didn’t have, waiting for

Another Gripping Cruising Tale

2010-12-06T04:46:00.003-05:00

Yesterday was head rebuild day. One must take it all apart and scrape out the scale that accumulates and restricts the proper functioning of the head. So I'm standing on the swim step banging a couple two-foot sections of hose together to dislodge the scale and one of the hoses slips from my grip. I have no replacement hose and the chandlery won't be open for two more days and we are in 25 feet

La Palma: repairs, tapas, volcano, and wine

2010-11-25T17:00:00.006-05:00

Happy Thanksgiving! At this point it still looks like we’ll be leaving La Palma in the morning, so I’d better write about this place before we go on to new experiences. We’ve enjoyed our time here, but haven’t done all that much. First, it took a couple of days to get together with the mechanic to fix our fuel leak. He found a couple of things and fixed them all, but couldn’t find a coolant leak

Madeira to La Palma: We’ve arrived!

2010-11-15T07:48:00.001-05:00

We made it! We arrived at Marina La Palma this morning in 20-knot winds and rain. Welcome to the sunny Canary Islands! It isn’t cold, just wet, and we’re glad to be here. In the pre-dawn hours yesterday our generator refused to start, so our passage became a little more tense because we had to run the engine a few times and lose fuel in order to charge the batteries and keep our instruments

Where are we going? The doldrums

2010-11-13T13:20:00.001-05:00

We were headed to La Palma, Canary Islands, when we discovered the fuel leak and then the wind died. At the moment we're less than 100 miles from La Palma and have a little wind. If the wind dies or changes direction, we may decide to go on to Tenerife where there are reported to be more yacht services. John thinks we can get the needed repair made at La Palma, and right now that's still the

Madeira to La Palma Day 2: Becalmed

2010-11-12T13:22:00.001-05:00

We left Marina Quinta do Lorde yesterday morning a little before 11 o'clock on our 250 nautical mile passage to La Palma in the Canary Islands where we will be meeting up with our friend Jim on Orinoco. The wind had more southerly in it than predicted (easterly was the forecast), but it wasn't bad, and we could motor-sail our rum line. In fact, at about 2 o'clock, I shut the motor down and we

A week in Madeira, so far

2010-11-08T12:24:00.009-05:00

Dinner on Avocette was great. What a beautiful boat! And excellent hosts. We were sorry to see them leave Tuesday morning, but we understand. They had already been here more than a week, and it was time for them to move on. Following Chris’s advice, we rented a car for three days of touring the island. It is spectacularly beautiful even in November, past the peak time for flowers. The first day

Rabat to Madeira

2010-11-01T12:44:00.002-05:00

People did give us quizzical looks when we said we were going from Rabat to Madeira. I don’t remember asking why not. If I did, they didn’t have an answer. Madeira is mostly west and a little south of Rabat, and the prevailing winds between the two are northerly. Before we left, the forecasts all showed northerlies, except for a few hours of light westerlies one day, with harbor-closing swell

Moroccan Intrigue

2010-10-27T06:32:00.001-05:00

Today is our last day in Morocco. We are setting out for Madeira. It should be a four to five-day sail to get there. What a time in Morocco we've had!We met another cruiser who was willing to look after Märzen, and that enabled us to make an overnight trip to Fez. The medina in Fez is a World Heritage site. They still make leather by hand using pigeon poo for the tanning process. It's an amazing

Fez: the big adventure

2010-10-27T05:30:00.006-05:00

Trains to Fez run about every two hours, so we picked the one that put us at our destination around noon for check-in at our guesthouse at 1300. It’s an approximately two-and-a-half hour trip, but it took us more like four hours. We never did find out what the problem was, but the locals in our second-class car were also getting impatient with all the delays. Second class, we decided, is OK for

Adventures in Morocco: Rabat and Salé

2010-10-26T15:37:00.005-05:00

While I’m doing laundry before our day-trip into Casablanca, I’d better start to catch up with what we’ve been doing since we arrived, especially since we’re probably leaving tomorrow. The marina (Marina Bouregreg) is on the Salé side of the river that divides Rabat, which is the capital of Morocco and relatively westernized, from the older, more traditional Salé. When we arrived, our pontoon

Gibraltar to Rabat, Morocco

2010-10-19T12:49:00.002-05:00

We thoroughly enjoyed our time in Gibraltar! After two nights in the anchorage, we went into town and stopped by Ocean Village Marina Bay to find out about their marina rates. They were reasonable enough, and they have free wireless Internet, so we decided to go in. Of course, with free Internet you usually get what you pay for, and that was the case there too, but it gave us an excuse to visit

Cartagena to Gibraltar

2010-10-10T05:34:00.001-05:00

Our almost two weeks in Cartagena were productive and relaxing. We got some boat things taken care of: John polished the fuel in the starboard tank, I washed the boat, and we hired a mechanic to replace two pumps that had been leaking (we had the spares). We also had Toldos Segado (www.toldossegado.com) do some repairs to our various canvas accessories and make us a sunscreen for over the salon

Back in Cartagena

2010-09-28T03:53:00.000-05:00

In all we spent three nights at the Marina Botafoch in Ibiza. When we first thought about stopping at Ibiza again, the idea was that we would rent a car and see some of the island. Instead John had to work on the boat. It seems that the fuel that we had so much difficulty acquiring in Sicily was dirty. At least, somehow the fuel in our tanks became contaminated, and we assume the batch from

A bird, a fish, more than one squid, and the Italian coast guard

2010-09-20T16:04:00.002-05:00

What do these things have in common? All of them visited us on our 530 nautical mile passage from Sicily to Ibiza. It isn’t unusual for songbirds to hitch a ride on a passing sailboat. It’s very sad because usually they’re exhausted, but you don’t really want them pooping all over the boat. This little bird, a swallow, flew into the cabin a couple of times and had to be chased out before it

Between Sardinia and Tunisia

2010-09-16T16:07:00.001-05:00

As I write this, we're in the Sardinian Channel about halfway between Sardinia and Tunisia with less than 390 nautical miles to go to Ibiza in the Balearic Islands. We have no wind at the moment and calm seas, and we're doing a little better than the 4.5 knots we average using the motor. It looks pretty certain that we'll reach Ibiza early on Monday if not Sunday night. Our last morning in Mazara

Valley of the Temples

2010-09-13T06:53:00.002-05:00

We stopped at Porto Empedocle, Sicily, in order to make a little trip inland to see the Valley of the Temples near Agrigento. Sicily was part of greater Greece for centuries, and it still has a surprising number of Greek ruins such as the ones we saw at Syracuse. The Valley of the Temples is actually on a ridge below the town of Agrigento. The temples are in varying stages of collapse and

Syracuse and beyond

2010-09-08T08:45:00.005-05:00

We ended up spending almost a week in Syracuse. A couple of the days there were thunderstorms, and a couple of days we did tourist things. We wandered pretty much all over the old town, which is called Ortigia. It’s the first place, as far as we know, that we’ve seen papyrus growing. It’s a pretty plant.Papyrus in the fountainTemple of Apollo in downtown OrtigiaView of the fort and waterfront of

Heading west

2010-09-01T04:44:00.007-05:00

It’s hard to believe that it’s already September. Here in Syracuse, Sicily, it’s still quite hot, but the days are getting noticeably shorter, and it’s with mixed feelings that we’re heading west again. Greece was wonderful, and we can definitely understand how many cruisers find themselves staying there or coming back year after year. If we could figure out a way to do that ourselves, I think we

First week in Greece

2010-08-25T17:16:00.004-05:00

It’s hard to believe we’ve been here a week already. We arrived at the Gouvias Marina on the island of Corfu last Wednesday morning. We chose it because all the information we had said that was where we should go on Corfu to clear into Greece. Not true! The Customs and Immigration offices that were supposed to be at the marina aren’t there, so we ended up taking a taxi to the Port of Corfu to do

Another great week in Croatia

2010-08-13T10:30:00.011-05:00

It's only been about a week since my last post, but we've been very busy, so it's best to get caught up now before we forget. Trogir and Stomorska Trogir is yet another pretty, medieval town. I don't think we'll ever get tired of them, but we're feeling less compelled to visit each one we hear about. A highlight for us in Trogir was the excellent fresh produce market. Too bad it doesn't keep

Up to Iž and back to Trogir

2010-08-05T01:36:00.005-05:00

It’s hard to believe it’s been less than two weeks since we left Dubrovnik. Time just doesn’t seem very important here, and we sometimes have to look up the date in order to write our log entries. The weather is what we really pay attention to. It can change quite suddenly, and the Croatian meteorological service provides good forecasts, but you need to be sure to get the latest. I find an

Cavtat and Dubrovnik, Croatia

2010-07-22T08:58:00.007-05:00

Backtracking a bit from John's last exciting post, our passage from Brindisi to Gruž (near Dubrovnik) was uneventful and relatively fast. The seas were flat, and although we didn’t have enough wind to turn off the engine, we did get a boost of more than a knot in speed. The new moon set around sundown, so the night watches were very dark, but the nearest traffic was 20 miles away and the stars

Staying Put in a Gale

2010-07-18T13:24:00.006-05:00

The forecast this morning included a gale warning for scattered thunderstorms. We had seen thunder clouds form and disperse in the distance the last couple of days. Today was our turn for one of those little cells of wind. The first indication was building thunderheads in the distance followed by the rolling boom of thunder. Early this afternoon the wind starting picking up and stretched our

Leaving Italy

2010-07-12T11:20:00.005-05:00

Sitting here at the dock in Brindisi Marina, I realize now that it’s been a long time since we’ve had shore power. I have a lot of catching up to do in documenting our latest travels in Italy, and I’d better get it done because we’re leaving tomorrow for Croatia. Our last day in the Aeolian Islands started with John hoisting me up the mast at dawn so that I could reattach our radar reflector.

Stromboli, Vulcano, and Lipari

2010-07-01T11:40:00.007-05:00

Anchoring at Stromboli turned out to be an adventure in its own right. By the time it got shallow enough for us to drop the anchor, we were practically on the beach, and the little bits of ledge that showed on the chart were already occupied. We went further north to check out another possible anchorage, but the wind was really whipping around the island and through the anchorage there.

Cefalù and our first Aeolian Islands

2010-06-27T06:08:00.005-05:00

Cefalù is delightful. From the water you see all the resorts around it, but when you walk into the old town, most of the new development is hidden from view by the narrow streets. The buildings are stone, but the wooden shutters, doors and window frames are painted in bright colors. As we were walking down one little street we came upon a green grocer with a truck full of produce hawking his

Sicily so far

2010-06-23T11:40:00.004-05:00

We left Ponza a week ago and have been mostly on the boat ever since. Yesterday we did go ashore at San Nicolo L’Arena—twice. The first time was to go shopping, and the second time was primarily because I wanted to get off the boat again although we bought a few more provisions too: wine and biscotti. We didn’t explore beyond the main street of the little town, and although we would have liked to

Ponza anchor dance

2010-06-19T01:11:00.006-05:00

The Pontine Islands lie close off the west coast of Italy between Rome and Naples off Cape Circeo (named for Circe of Odyssey fame), and Ponza is the largest of these islands. I don’t think I’d ever even heard of it or them before, but Ponza looked like a good overnight stop between Rome and Sicily. Then an old friend (

Arrivederci, Roma

2010-06-12T14:01:00.007-05:00

Early tomorrow we leave Ostia for the very popular island of Ponza. The guide says that berth fees of 10€/meter are common in the high season (and that book is old), so we’ll be anchoring again, which we enjoy anyway. That means that we really do need to accomplish a few things on the boat today before we leave the dock, provisioning being just one. We did make it to Ostia Antica and highly

Our Roman holiday

2010-06-08T05:51:00.003-05:00

It does feel like a vacation because we’re doing the tourist thing. That’s pretty rare for us. We’ve decided to stay here in Ostia for a whole week, and we’re not sure if we’ll manage the boat chores we have on the list because we’re too busy playing. The commute to the city and back also takes a big chunk of each day, and getting Internet is time-consuming, too. Although they have wireless

Rendezvous with Islay Mist

2010-06-04T03:55:00.001-05:00

We met up with our friends from the Shetland Islands on Tuesday at the anchorage behind Isola di Porri. The wind was against us, so it was slow going the last 15 miles to reach the Tulloch family on Islay Mist (which we learned is pronounced "eye lay" not "is lay"), but they were a bit surprised to see us so early in the afternoon. The anchorage was beautiful but still windy when we arrived, so

Anchored inside jetties at San Teodoro

2010-06-01T11:37:00.001-05:00

We finally left Arbatax this morning after three nights. Although we had completed our run back to Cagliari for our mail, toured the surrounding countryside, and planned to move on yesterday, a weather system with big winds and rough seas was forecast, so we decided it would be prudent to stay put. Keeping us company at the dock was a Canadian boat, Whitestar, with Steve and Deirdre aboard.I

Fun in Arbatax

2010-05-30T16:53:00.000-05:00

We're having a great time in Arbatax, but we're without Internet; thus, no blog entries. But not to worry.----------radio email processed by SailMailfor information see: http://www.sailmail.com

Northbound on the east coast of Sardinia

2010-05-28T14:10:00.001-05:00

We left Cagliari yesterday at noon, a day later than originally planned, but we now have two mostly full propane tanks and two Camping Gaz tanks, one mostly empty and the other mostly full, so we're set for awhile in that area.On our way to our first anchorage, we had unexpectedly strong winds and were able to shut the engine off for a few hours and sail. We were making almost 8 knots for awhile

Cagliari, Italy

2010-05-26T05:06:00.003-05:00

Most of the boat chores are done, but we’re going to spend an extra night because our propane tanks won’t be ready to pick up until this afternoon. It’s supposed to rain today, anyway, although from the skies this morning, that’s hard to imagine. Still, one thing we’ve learned about the Mediterranean is that the weather changes very rapidly. The Marina di Sant’ Elmo has been a disappointment,

Two tuna and 53 hours later

2010-05-23T15:30:00.001-05:00

We're in Italy, well, Sardinia. For anyone else making the passage from Menorca to Sardinia: 7-9 p.m. seems to be dinnertime for tuna. That's about the time we got the hits, and I also noticed dolphin then. I guess John did a post about catching the first tuna, but I haven't seen it yet. The people at Marina di Sant Elmo are nice, so far, but it's a bit of a challenge communicating with them. It

Another Day Another Tuna

2010-05-22T14:08:00.000-05:00

Caught another tuna today. With less than half of yesterday's tuna eaten we will stop fishing for now. Should make Sardinia tomorrow afternoon.----------radio email processed by SailMailfor information see: http://www.sailmail.com

Fresh Tuna Pan Seared with Lemon and Soy Sauce

2010-05-21T14:42:00.000-05:00

We caught a tuna just before sunset today. Had a quick bite tonight. Tomorrow we'll have more. Good thing I didn't thaw the hamburger.----------radio email processed by SailMailfor information see: http://www.sailmail.com

Underway to Sardinia

2010-05-21T14:38:00.001-05:00

We weighed anchor this morning and headed to the fuel dock to fill our tanks. At 1 euro 19, this is the most we've paid for fuel so far. Good thing we've had free anchorages since we left Cartagena. By 10 a.m. we were heading out of the harbor toward Sardinia. We have a light breeze, so the jib is out to give the engine a boost. It probably gives us an extra know, or less, of speed. Although the

Underway to Sardinia

2010-05-21T14:38:00.000-05:00

We weighed anchor----------radio email processed by SailMailfor information see: http://www.sailmail.com

La Mola and the Fortress of Isabel II

2010-05-20T04:37:00.003-05:00

La Mola is the promontory on the north side of the entrance to Mahón harbor. Our anchorage is protected by it. What we can’t see from the boat is the huge fortress that sits atop La Mola. We knew it was there from our earlier exploration ashore, and we see it when we’re coming back to the boat from town. It’s open to the public, and yesterday we decided to visit it.Wow, what a fortress! We’ve

Still in Menorca

2010-05-17T06:34:00.005-05:00

The weather is settling a bit here in Menorca, but the forecasts for the Gulf of Lyon and closer to Sardinia are still for force 8 and 9 winds from the northwest causing “rough, very rough and sometimes high” seas between here and Cagliari, Sardinia, where we’re headed next, so we’re staying put in our nice, calm anchorage. (Beaufort force 8 winds are 34-40 knots with 13-20 foot waves, force 9 is

Cala Taulera, Menorca

2010-05-14T15:35:00.000-05:00

After our overnight sail, we slept most of yesterday afternoon. In retrospect, that may have been a mistake. Today we were awakened by a thunderstorm, and the forecast calls for scattered thunderstorms throughout the day. The long dinghy ride to town could be quite wet if one of those showers happens when we're out there.Late in the afternoon yesterday we saw that the people on the neighboring

Arrived at Mahon, Menorca

2010-05-13T09:58:00.000-05:00

When I have Internet again, I'll have to post a blog about our tourist day on Mallorca. The short story is that we loved the island and can understand why everyone speaks so highly of it.We weighed anchor at Soller at 5 p.m. yesterday and motored all night to reach Mahon, Menorca, this morning. According to the cruising guide, the yellow buoys in certain areas are for visitors. We found one and

Sóller, Mallorca

2010-05-10T07:30:00.004-05:00

When we set out from Ibiza, we thought we would find an anchorage on Isla Dragonera, just off the western point of Mallorca. However, as we motored past what was shown as anchorages there, it was clear that we would have to look further. Those “anchorages” were only slight indentations in the rocky shore and offered no protection from what had become an uncomfortable swell from the southwest.

Good-bye, Ibiza

2010-05-08T08:30:00.001-05:00

Well, the hippy market at Es Canar was a bust, but the anchorage was fine except for the occasional wake from a ferry or tour boat. We found something called Hippy Market, but it was closed at 11 a.m. Finally, we saw someone who appeared to have some authority and asked when the place was open. He replied, "It's always open. It's a hotel." "What about the hippy market?" we asked. He said it was

Lovely day in Eivissa

2010-05-06T03:44:00.001-05:00

What a difference a day makes! When we anchored here in Talamanca on Tuesday afternoon, it was chilly and rainy, so we opted to stay inside. Yesterday, though, the skies cleared, so we took the dinghy to shore and walked to the city. Along the way we passed the marinas that we hear would charge us €270/night and congratulated ourselves on our luck that the weather let us be comfortable in our

Voyage of the Solstice

Solstice Ashore

Wrapping up

Dodging ships and drilling platforms

Back in Isla Mujeres

Adventures in re-fueling

Sailing to a schedule

Visiting friends on St. John

Sint Maarten & St. Croix

Good-bye, Antigua

More photos posted

Enjoying the Classics Races

Life in Antigua, so far

On to Antigua

Indian River and Island Tours

Martinique to Dominica

“You should write a book.”

Sailing to Martinique

Rodney Bay, St. Lucia

Wallilabou Bay, St. Vincent

Bequia

Tobago Cays

Union Island, SVG

Heading to Saint Vincent and the Grenadines

On to Carriacou

Shirlee's time ashore in Portland, Oregon

Exploring Grenada

Atlantic Crossing Revisited

Barbados to Grenada

Arrived in Barbados

Things break

Reefed

Continuing problems with Yotreps

Changing time

Sea state

Past the halfway mark

Go, Speed Racer!

End of zigzagging

Wahoo!!!

Happy New Year from the mid-Atlantic!

We're not alone

Trouble with SailMail

Fresh mahi-mahi restocked

Beyond Cape Verde

A mahi-mahi Christmas

Arrived at Mindelo

Passage to Mindelo: Day 7

Passage to Mindelo: Day 6

Passage to Mindelo: Day 5

Passge to Mindelo: Day 4

Passage to Mindelo: Day 3

Passage to Mindelo: Day 2

Passage to Mindelo: Day 1

Las Palmas de Gran Canaria

Another Gripping Cruising Tale

La Palma: repairs, tapas, volcano, and wine

Madeira to La Palma: We’ve arrived!

Where are we going? The doldrums

Madeira to La Palma Day 2: Becalmed

A week in Madeira, so far

Rabat to Madeira

Moroccan Intrigue

Fez: the big adventure

Adventures in Morocco: Rabat and Salé

Gibraltar to Rabat, Morocco

Cartagena to Gibraltar

Back in Cartagena

A bird, a fish, more than one squid, and the Italian coast guard

Between Sardinia and Tunisia

Valley of the Temples

Syracuse and beyond

Heading west

First week in Greece

Another great week in Croatia

Up to Iž and back to Trogir

Cavtat and Dubrovnik, Croatia

Staying Put in a Gale

Leaving Italy

Stromboli, Vulcano, and Lipari

Cefalù and our first Aeolian Islands