Guadalope - April 2006

From Antigua we sailed to Guadaloupe. We felt that the French culture is still surprisingly strong there. We cleared customs in a small bay called Deshaies. The customs officer didn’t speak or understand a word of English, however, he kept a smile on his face, took the papers and stamped the passports.



In these French countries we have feasted on French pastries, baguettes, cheeses, pate and salami. Because the climate is getting more tropical, produce has been more plentiful and lovely. Communicating with the locals has, at times, been a challenge, but in general they try hard to help. Hence with one meal we ordered we really didn’t know what was going to arrive on our plate.
It was also Laurel’s birthday so she chose to spend it having a lazy day in the sun. Daryl nipped in to town first thing and came back with fresh croissants and a baguette. Ali made a surprise cake and presents – what more would a girl want??



Unfortunately we will also remember Deshaies for having the worst pina colada so far in the Caribbean, sampled at the Pino pino bar (we thought the name would have meant a guarantee of better).
We caught a local bus to Pointe A Pitre and had a great day. The spice markets were amazing. Spices were one of the most traded items in the Caribbean in the days of the tall ships. We were quite surprised at how well developed the city was (highways, electricity, apartment blocks, etc) compared with how simply the people live in the smaller towns.
Some of the locals said we should visit The Saints, a small group of islands in the south of Guadaloupe. So off we set arriving at a quaint little town, although quite touristy. There we hired a motor scooter to tour the island. Laurel needed a medal by the end of that day!! It was way out of her comfort zone. The roads were so o o… steep. Lovely views, when Laurel wasn’t too scared to look.



We are finding that a good way to get information about the local history and culture is to visit the odd museum or do the touristy thing and visit an old fort or two. We also now know not to believe everything you read in the 'lonely planet' book. It said that the road to the fort was suitable for any fitness level. You should have seen it. I think we would have had heart attacks, in that heat, before reaching the top!!!

Antigua - April 2006

We had nearly a week in Antigua.

The wreck dives still get Daryl excited, one of which he did in Deep Bay. We anchored in Falmouth Harbour and I had a short walk through to English harbor to check in. We found Antigua to have a lot of history which we enjoyed. Customs officials are found in the old buildings in English Harbour along with some very old yachts in pristine condition. We were there a few weeks before the big classic yacht regatta so we were treated to being amongst many beautiful classic yachts. In an old pub we met two couples from Hamilton. One of the ladies had been into Amanda’s work just days before. Isn’t it a small world!!

A highlight in Antigua was going to Shirley Heights at sunset to drink rum punches and listen to a world famous steel drum band. It was amazing.

Every Sunday night a Caribbean steel drum band plays music at the place called Shirley Heights at sunset. The band had 20 to 30 players and was an absolute delight to listen to. The views of English in Falmouth Harbour were also spectacular. Antigua race week was due to start in about two week’s time, unfortunately we will not be there to see it. If we were going to get through the Panama Canal in

early May we had to keep moving.

The British Virgin Islands -- 2006

After five days of sailing we finally arrived in the British Virgin Islands. The first island we could check into was Jos Van Dyke. We rounded Dog Pt. and went in to Great Harbour dropped anchor and went looking for the customs and immigration officer. We found them about two hours later sitting in a Cafe eating lunch. It all seemed a bit too relaxed to me.
After being at sea for a while it was nice to see other yachts and quite a few tall ships and super yachts, as well. The photo here shows Great Harbour which boasts several cruiser bars, including one called Foxy's place. After spending an afternoon there we decided it should have been called Poxy's place as Laurel got severely bitten by insects at the bar and both her legs came up in welts!!!!
The British Virgin Islands was a fantastic cruising ground with all the different little islands. There was a large number of yacht charter companies, including moorings, who seemed to have hundreds of catamarans. Everything seems very used friendly.

Just around the corner there was a place called Sandy Spit. There was one of those really nice white sandy beaches framed with a lone coconut tree.



As we got to know the British Virgin Islands we found all sorts of fantastic things to see. I was very keen to dive on the wreck of the HMS Rhone. Anchoring in the nearby bay, we headed around to where we thought the HMS Rhone was lying. The Rhone was a steamship that got caught in a hurricane around 1867 and steamed out to get away from land. Unfortunately the wind caught her and took her into a reef where she lies today between 20 and 70 feet of water. When the Rhone hit Black Rock, water came in and caused the boilers to explode. 123 passengers and crew died in the tragedy. You can still clearly see the rider and propeller and about 25 feet of water along with other debris of the wreck.
Not far from the wreck of the HMS Rhone there is a rock formation called the Indians. The coral on the Indians was spectacular and we spent many an hour snorkelling there.


In the same area there were some caves (also in the guide that we were using). Around the turn-of-the-century some locals swam into these caves and found actual pirate treasure. The treasure in these caves prompted Robert Louis Stevenson to write the book Treasure Island.

Being in the land of pirates, treasure and Spanish galleons, it only seemed right to drink rum. Pusser's rum is very well-known around the British Virgin Islands. It has been the official rum for the British navy for well over 300 years. Pusser's outpost is also a great place to have a meal.


The history of the British Virgin Islands continue to amaze us. Everything from black African slave trading rooms, Spanish galleon canons just lying on the reef and Sir Richard Branson's Island to mega yachts being serviced by helicopters. Unfortunately one of the mega yachts had helicopters coming in and out about every two hours which sort of broke the peace and quiet that the average cruiser is looking for.



I mean, how's a skipper supposed to get his beauty sleep???
We then sailed an overnighter to St Martin. We were amazed as we passed about five yachts and six ships on one night. Five of the ships were cruise liners and were lit up like Christmas trees.

St Martin -- 2006

We arrived in Philipsburg, St Martin to a beautiful blue sky and a flat sea. It had a lovely white long sandy beach with a city behind it. Nowhere had we seen so many duty free stores in one city. The restaurant 'Greenhouse' became a favourite haunt of ours, as the pina coladas were the best we have tasted so far. At happy hour they had cocktails at 2 for 1 so that was a bit of us. We found quite a few things at good prices in St Martin. onr of our computers had a hard drive failure and luck for us Blue Point Office Supplies were the agents for Acer computer. We were very pleased that they had the expertise to extract all our lost photos off the failed hard drive.
We had anchored in Grand Bailey, which was the same place as several American Yachts were anchored and used as tourist race yachts. It was also the main bay for all the tourist ships. At one stage there were seven cruise liners there, five on the tourist ship dock and two at anchor.
About half wat through the visit we decided to hire a car and drive around the island. It was interesting as half the island was Dutch and the other half was French, however there didn't seem to be any border patrols.
Our friend Stephanie from Fort Lauderdale had flown down to join us. She and her partner had sold their yacht so she came down join us to experience the Caribbean, snorkelling, swimming and generally cruising on the yacht for a few weeks. It was great to have five people on the yacht for a change.
Just before we left I decided it was time to give the crew lessons in tying knots, as our dinghy seemed to slip away from our yacht and have a mind of its own after being tied up.
From St Martin we decided to sail to St Kitts. So we headed out for another overnighter to arrive there during daylight hours.

Cruising life 2006

You know, it's a bugger of a life really. All that fishing you have to do. It takes hours to catch a fish, and then you have photograph them. After that it's on to sharpening the knives, getting the chopping boards out, bleeding, skinning, gutting, deboning and filleting. Then there is the mess to cleanup........
Is the fishing really that good? We did catch some nice Mahimahi and sailfish, as well as tuna and barracuda.
Of course then you need to know how to cook it. Luckily we had the proverbial world-famous in New Zealand 'Edmonds
Cookbook' on board. Yes, and it was left to the captain to sort out a good recipe. So here I was, sitting in the nav station, checking out the cookbook.



Meanwhile outside there was another one of those damn sunsets and if you can make out the shadow on the side of the boat it's Laurel. Here she is, chatting to our children back home on the satellite phone.










However, after all this, it is always nice to sit outside relax with a drink and sit down to nice fresh fish, anchored up and turquoise water, good company and another one of those damn sunsets............

Dominican Republic 2006

While the Dominican Republic was an unexpected stop, we had a fantastic time. We scheduled a stop of a few days, however two days turned out to be 11 days. We had heard about the famous Brugal Rum Factory tour and decided to make it one of our first stops. The Brugal Rum Factory was a modern plant in Puerto Plata and is one of the main exporters in the Dominican Republic. Around 80% of its total output of rum was exported. After a tour through the factory the guide spend time with us, offering us samples of the rum, and of course we had to buy some.

We had heard about the 28 waterfalls and being into waterfalls we thought we should pay them a visit. Our guide did not speak English so we just followed him to the bottom of the mountain and were told that we would have to walk up the river to get to the base. Luckily we had wore our swimmers.We became a little concerned when they handed out lifejackets and crash helmets. Dominican Republic being a Third World country aren't normally big on safety. We trekked up the river from about 20 minutes and found why we needed the helmets and lifejackets. We hadn't actually gone to look at the Falls but to climb up and then slide down over the edge.The water was full of lime and was warm, as it was a volcanic mountain. It really made our skin soft and smooth. To do all 28 waterfalls it was to take a day, so we managed to do seven of them which was an exhilarating ride. There was a donkey at the bottom of the last one. It was the ambulance and was needed, but luckily not for us.


Christopher Columbus was well-known in these parts and we had decided to go and see one of the historic sites where he lived. At La Isabella, just 20 km north of Luperon, we were able to walk through his house where it once stood and look over the bay that he had sailed in to. Christopher Columbus was not too popular with locals as he had brought disease, guns and had an eye for the local brown skinned woman. I was surprised that in the local museum they had a model of the ship and it was only 110 foot long.


Being in the Dominican Republic was like stepping back in time. Donkeys were still being used everywhere. The children seem to be very happy to have their photos taken. Fences were often made of cactus hedges. Honda 50 step-through motorcycles were still being used as the main transport for some families. The local bus was a Toyota van, 11 seater, but they managed to get 17 people in, after taking the steering wheel off and putting a pair of vice grips on to steer. More importantly everybody seemed to be happy, which was really great to see.

We picked a weather window, which meant we would leave with two other boats around 10 o'clock at night. Local fishermen had put drift nets in the channel unbeknown to us and we picked one up in the propeller. Luckily the weather was calm and we dropped anchor and stayed where we were. We waited till the morning and Dan volunteered to go over the side to clear the propeller. We then set off for the British Virgin Islands, a trip of around 316 n. miles. It was a pretty uneventful trip with the exception of a US helicopter flying out of Puerto Rico to take our photo.

Bahamas --Dominican Republic 2006

We sailed down towards Georgetown which we'd heard was a favourite yachtie haunt. We turned into the harbour and found over 400 yachts on anchor. It was really a sight to see. At night it was like a forest of masts with lights on. It was our first real experience with a big cluster of cruisers. There were a lot of activities being organised daily. We had arrived just in time for coconut week. We decided it steer clear of coconut activities but played a lot of volleyball and spent a lot of time getting to know other cruisers.
We also had a wonderful meal on a mega-yacht. The Kiwi crew had not seen Kiwis for a very long time and were delighted to entertain us with the owners leftovers.
Around mid-March it was time to move on. We arrived back on the yacht one afternoon and decided the wind was favourable, so we put up the spinnaker and said "let's see how far we can get with this wind". A couple of days later we were talking about pulling into the Turks and Cacos to check out of the Bahamas, only to realise that island did not belong to the Bahamas. We were too far down the chain to turn back, so decided that at the next port we would fill out our leaving documentation and posted back to them. A few days of sailing later the weather picked up and we decided we'd better to look for somewhere to go in. Out came the chart and we decided on a little place in the Dominican Republic called Luperon. We expected this to be a sleepy little backwater with a few fishing boats. However, when we came round the corner there are a hundred yacht in there. We had called another yacht to help guide us past some reefs and had given them our name. As we came round the corner we heard on the radio call "Cool Bananas Cool Bananas Stooooop"as we rode straight into a sand bar doing 4 kn . The cruiser guide we had been using was five years old and the sand bar had moved from one side of the channel to the other!!
We had decided to stay in Luperon from a couple of days while the inclement weather went past (turned into 11 days). Luperon boasted a small marina and a very new yacht club. It was very cheap to provision at and we found some cruisers who had arrived for five days were still here three months later. The picture with the rainbow was taken from the back of Cool Bananas and is a shot over the harbour. However it does not show the water's true colour. It was green.
Checking into the Dominican Republic was interesting. We had to see the Port Captain, the Navy, the meat inspector, the veg inspector, customs, immigration, and anyone else who they thought we needed to see.
One thing we did find was that the people there while quite poor, seemed very happy.

The Bahamas/ Hog Cay - February 2006

Part of being aboard is practising with the first aid and safety equipment. Ali decided that Dan needed a checkup. They are a lovely couple and we got on well. Dan was ex Merchant Navy and he and his partner Ali wanting to gain experience on the cruising yacht in the hope that has experienced would later get him a skipper's job on a yacht .





With light winds a blue sky and a turquoise sea we are off to Hog Cay on the Great Bahama Bank. In no time we have the spinnaker up and are cruising along nicely at 6 kn. The Great Bahama Bank was largely unsurveyed, so it is always a constant lookout and the checking of the chart, which incidently had little information. Hog Cay is known to have a lot of iguanas. And this is going to be our first stop heading south.




Hog Cay was a small coral island with very white sand. We had anchored in between two Cay's and it was very calm and sheltered. There were about three other yachts there and it seemed every day one would go on another one would come. Early in the morning the iguanas would come down to the water's edge. We would get up early go in the dinghy and wander quietly around the beach. If you lay quietly the iguanas would come up very close to you, surprisingly friendly. Later in the morning commercial tourist boats arrived, all the way from Nassau. However, by the time they arrived a lot of iguanas had crawled back into the rocks to take advantage of the shade.

The sunsets were just gorgeous and they just came along day after day... after day....... We joked about whether we would actually get sick of them, but I don't think we ever will.

Cruising off - 2006 - Selby and Judy

My brother Selby and his wife Judy joined us in Florida and after a little bit of land-based activity we headed off to the Bahamas. Our first stop was Bimini to clear customs and immigration. From there we headed around to Concrete Ship Bay and spent a few days snorkelling on the wreck of the Soprano. The weather at this time of the year was little more cloudy and windy, so we decided to head up to great Isaac Island and do some snorkelling. We had found an unexploded bomb on the reef that appeared to be Second World War. I thought I would tie a rope on it and lifted up, then I thought "No, dumb idea", so it still sits there today. The wind got up in the night so in the middle of the night we headed down to Stirrup Cay where we found several cruise ships had made it their home. What we thought would have been a deserted anchorage was actually a stopover for cruise ships. There were jetskis, paragliding, canoeing, swimming, sunbathers and beach bars. Not us really.

Time to move on and we headed down to Frasers Hog Cay, about a 40 nautical mile journey. On the way down we found we were getting into some rougher weather and decided to hop in to Cabbage Cay to get out of it. As we got into the Cay we found two other boats there. They were very helpful and we managed to sneak in beside them. While we thought the weather wouldn't turn we still spent time putting out stern anchors, as we are in a small channel between two reefs.We ended up spending a few days there waiting for the wind to ease. Considering we were in the tropics that was quite cold. However once the sun came out we were back to barbecuing on the back deck. The next morning we had a good sail to Frasers Hog Cay.We had a couple of days there and then it was on to Nassau. The crossing over to Nassau was choppy, however we found the entrance through the reef to Lyford Cay Marina. It was a nice little Marina with several mega yachts. We watched with interest as one yacht had approximately 12 staff who got up each morning and cleaned the boat. After talking to the crew we were told it only goes out from about three weeks a year. Bizarre!! The Marina was reasonably upmarket and it was fun having the use of a golf cart to nip to the laundry or down the road to the supermarket.
A couple of days later we made the trip into Nassau to visit Atlantis. Atlantis was a huge development which was a conference centre and casino. It had a huge aquarium in the glass walls were probably 18 feet high. We were also going in to meet our new crew Dan and Ali who are planning to crew back to New Zealand with us. There was also my 50th birthday which needed to be celebrated.
A few days later Selby and Judy left the yacht and flew back to the States and Dan and Ali joined us on Cool Bananas. After a day for them to settle in we fuelled up and headed around the western end of Nassau and out onto the Great Bahama Bank.

Miami January 2006

We arrived back in Florida around the middle of January and decided to take a trip to Key West. It was a lovely day and we drove down through Miami which we found to be very Art Deco. This photo is typical of what we found in the area.



We travelled on through the Keys and across 7 mile Bridge. The Florida Keys are an amazing place. Every time there is a hurricane warning the whole place is evacuated. I was amazed to see that on Deer Key we actually had a deer walk across the road in front of us. While most of the Keys were reasonably modern we found Key West was an old character town with a lot of history. I was very keen to see Mel Fisher's Museum. Mel Fisher was the man who found the wreck of the Atocha. The Atocha was a Spanish galleon that sank in hurricane off the Florida

Keys. She was fully laden with gold and silver and other artefacts. Mel and his family searched for over 20 years before finding her. I would recommend you go to the Mel Fisher Museum and just see what they have to go through to find a glory wreck as magnificent as the Atocha.