Cruising on "ARITA"

IN THE SPIRIT OF LOVE AND TRAVEL ......

2012-01-02T14:21:00.055-05:00

Yes, ...... Here's a toast to "The "Spirit of Love and Travel" as we celebrated the coming of the New Year in Spanish-speaking CULEBRA, Puerto Rico ..... Elsewhere in the World almost everybody celebrated also, either the New Year or the passing of the Old Year ...... Ours was probably no different, except that it was very different from the ones we've had previously ....... This time, we were surrounded by other people's families, young and old together, and dancing in the street and on the ferry dock amongst lights, lanterns and music from several live Latino bands ...... Great atmosphere, lively songs and everybody dressed 'to kill' ....... You know what I mean .... We know this because the police were all wearing bullet-proof vests ....... "Anyone you know?" ......" Si, la Reina de Florida "

One huge street party with hundreds of people, including those still racing their Christmas toys, and only five toilets (inodoros) for this huge crowd ....... And to scare you away from using them, they would light all the fireworks right outside the door of each one ......... Even 'KENNY', of that hilarious Australian portable dunny movie of the same name, would have said ' Now that's not right, mate! .... That's just not on .... Fair go, mate" ......

Everybody dancing in the street to the music ....... Even Mark and Willie from our new sistership " LIAHONA" .......

And amongst the dancing couples was this guy with a deadly serious look on his face, who did an incredible salsa with his PVC partner ....... PVC stands for 'procreation-free vinyl companion' ......... She was bare-footed with a plunging neckline and wore an exquisite burgundy chiffon evening negligee with black silk see-through trim and wore no jewelry to achieve that 'natural' look .......

It was enough to make all your lights shiver and shake, and 'Old Jose' on his porch was right in the middle of things with people stopping by to sample from his plates of Puerto Ricon delicacies ....... We bet he's seen it all before ......

On a much sadder note was the VHF radio call we overheard a few nights before, from a vessel in distress calling the US coastguard on Channel 16 ...... " Mayday, mayday" ....

Apparently the yacht "Morning Mist" had taken off from St. Thomas USVI, at about 6pm to sail to San Juan, in Puerto Rico ...... As best as we can make out, they were sailing in very strong winds and big seas and presumably on a compass course and no electronic chart plotter ....... The vessel must have made considerable lee-way for which they probably made no allowance and they ended up on the outer reef at the island of Culebrita, about thirty degrees off-course, with not a clue where they were ..... (We heard the whole conversation) The 911 operator was able to triangulate their cell phone and give the Coastguard their exact position ....... Eventually about midnight, the Coastguard helicopter airlifted them off ..... Their vessel drifted free again during the night and was eventually stranded on another reef ...... These photos were taken by someone else on the following morning ...... A sad reminder of how quickly a dream cruise can become a nightmare, although in this case it was not gear failure but navigation errors that led to the disaster ........ A simple GPS chart-plotter would have prevented all of that ...... Even a hand-held one and obviously the ability to use it .... As little as $120 could have prevented this .......

Too scary to think about ....... The yacht's owners are currently negotiating with 'Seatow', the salvor, to get their vessel back .... Meantime as we walk on the 'Wild Side' we have to show you some of Culebra's wild iguanas ...... Not sure about the 'wild' bit anymore .....

There's this little restaurant called " Mamacitas " where the owner feeds the critters salad for lunch ....... They scare the patrons, which in turn causes the waitress to run them off, into the mangroves ...... This only last a short time before they surreptitiously slink back beneath the tables to get at the lettuce, thereby scaring the patrons even more, when they slide beneath the chairs ......

I mean, you are sitting there having a quiet bite to eat and a little something to drink and this 'Jurassic Park' situation occurs right next to you or under you.......

And then you realize that 'you' are nowhere near as tasty as the lettuce put out by the owner of 'Mamacitas' ........ In fact, that iguana is giving Laurie the look that says " Don't even think about touching my lettuce!" ......

Just look at that face, with its almost purple scales ....... Could be 'Jurassic Park', you know .....

In and out of the water at lightning speed ....... Great swimmers ...... Faster than you can focus the camera .......

Then a little of that " How's it going, Mama?" .... "Will I see you up in the mangroves a little later, Honey child?" ........ And just like that all you're left with is the tail end of what could have been 'A close encounter of another kind' .........

FELICIDADES .......WISHING YOU ALL A HAPPY NEW YEAR AND A WONDERFUL 2012 ........ FROM ISLA CULEBRA, PUERTO RICO ..... AND PLANNING TO STAY IN 'THE SPIRIT OF LOVE AND TRAVEL' .......

BEYOND THE "QUEEN's BIRTHDAY" WEEKEND .......

2011-12-27T12:42:00.055-05:00

Now the "Queen of Florida and the Bahamas" having a birthday is no ordinary event .... After all, when we had the same event last year, all the details appeared in the October 2011 issue of 'Latitudes and Attitudes', a sailing magazine for genuine nautical escape artists ..... Well this year's event lived up to it's reputation ...... "ARITA" was suitably decorated with flags above the waterline, numerous dinghies on the waterline, and a clean bottom below the waterline ..... So nice to have so many fellow cruisers on board in the safe and calm anchorage at CULEBRA in the Spanish Virgin part of PUERTO RICO ..... And it lasted well into the night ....

Just look at the way her 'Highness' was surrounded by well-wishers ......

Don't remember doing the dishes ..... Then again, perhaps I didn't do the dishes ..... But isn't a little wine a most wonderful way of stimulating serious and totally debilitating conversation ....... Can't remember any of that either .....

'Downtown' CULEBRA ..... Let me re-phrase that ...... The middle of the little town on Culebra has a waterway through the middle of it, with a few waterside restaurants and quite a few iguanas that kind 'hang-out' over the edge of the bulkhead lining the channel ....... Fearsome looking, but totally harmless and so is the town ....

But the waters surrounding the island and the enclosed bays are beautifully clear and wonderful to swim in, even in the winter when the temperature here rarely dips below 80 degrees Fahrenheit ........

And anchored behind us was this beautiful 28 ft wooden cutter "OSPREY" that had been sailed all the way from MAINE near the Canadian border to PUERTO RICO ...... Tiny, but oh-so-quaint ........ A true classic Bristol Channel cutter with bronze winches .... The Captain called it a "wet boat", ..... Not hard to see why .....

And barely had the days passed when we hit "Christmas" and we invited our near neighbours over for breakfast, most of whom brought something for the table ...... The near neighbours became eleven, and while there was no 'egg-nog' there certainly was everything else, including the 'Spirit of togetherness' at a time when most of us have families very far removed from the anchorage in CULEBRA ..... A tranquil time, a thoughtful time and a celebration time ...... A tropical Christmas .......

Kind of hard to equate "Christmas time" in the Northern Hemisphere with the climate that we are in, where such beautiful flowers are in bloom ..... Still, we have managed to adjust without any problems ........ Suffering from sunburn instead of frostbite ...... Then again, someone has to do it ........

And four hundred miles to the West of us in CURACAO, our dear friend TIMO is hard at work building his new yacht, after losing his previous one to the rocks in Los Aves, VENEZUELA (refer: Older Postings) ...... Now his construction method is radical, although he says it is 'rational' ........... Each cedar piece is glued and screwed to the previous one, and eventually the hull is covered in cloth and epoxy resin before being turned over and having the keel added .......

Full marks for ingenuity and perseverance ........ For 'rationality' and 'radicalism' ....

Some of that radicalism obviously occurred in Culebra at some point, for these relics sit quietly on the beaches ..... Reminders of past follies or perhaps training exercises for future follies ...... Sadly they sit on one of the most beautiful beaches in Culebra, Flamenco Beach ..... A haven for visitors and campers from the mainland ....

Laurie and Linda went to explore this beach and came across the 'ultra-modern' shower tent with laid-on water and a drainage sump ...... Now that's "STYLIN' ......" .... And so is the town, for there is no shortage of vibrant colours ..... No shortage at all .... The "Queen" fits in just perfectly .....

Fearsome colours ...... Severe colours ..... Enough to knock you out cold ..... even if you are wearing them .......

And you would think that in your senior years there would be smoothness, calmness and serenity and pale pastel shades of Sahara sand and dapple gray ....... Hell no, not in CULEBRA ........ This is Jose, who carves little ships for the tourists and is heading for a glorious ninety and doing just fine ....... Then again aren't we all heading for a glorious ninety plus .......

The place is just plain colourful .... I mean, here's Laurie and Linda asking the bus driver how many 'Johnny Walker's' he's had already .... But he says he's fine .... "Si, puedo pasar un examen de corducir boracho.." .....And he does that Captain Morgan stand ...... Now you have to be quick to win an argument with a drinking bus driver, but pointless to even begin to do so in SPANISH ... What he said translated to "Yes, I have passed the drunk driving test" ..... Ah, well .... They made him drive real slowly ...... Yes, CULEBRA is definitely different ....... And New Year's Eve is just around the corner with a huge street party in the planning ...... We needed a break from boatwork and we are certainly getting it ........

But as soon as the New Year celebration is behind us we're back to VIRGIN GORDA and bringing "SOUTHERN COMFORT" back to tie her alongside "ARITA" and the serious renovation stuff can begin ..... Right here in CULEBRA .... After all, we have Mark and Willie on "LIAHONA" anchored right behind us ...... Now what could be better than that ..... Hard to beat the 'resource' of a couple who have owned a sistership for more than fourteen years and who know every inch of the design ..... In any case, CULEBRA is that 'Pot of Gold' right beneath the rainbow or maybe it is the yacht "KRILL" with friends Michael and Ursula, who we first met in the Dominican Republic several years ago ........ I'm telling you, this place is COLOURFUL ............

P.S. ...... "ARITA" is still for sale .... Check out www.stthomasyachts.com and look under 'ALDEN CUSTOM' .....

CRUISING AGAIN .......YAHOO ....

2011-12-17T07:15:00.077-05:00

We paid the marina bills, let go the lines on "ARITA" and headed out to sea to do some sightseeing and sailing through the VIRGIN ISLANDS, on our way back to PUERTO RICO where we intend to do all the major stuff on "SOUTHERN COMFORT", our future 'Home on the Seas' ........ Now the BVIS, (That's British Virgin Islands) have some spectacular locations like these granitic boulders on the beach at "The Baths" ...... And there are many beautiful things to be found on the beaches, particularly at this time of the year, when to the north of us there is snow and ice in the U.S. and Canada ...... Brrrrrrr ..... Don't know how they do it ......

First though, we sailed around to North Sound on Virgin Gorda and spent the day swimming and beach-combing and seeing the tall ships at anchor loaded with tourists out to enjoy the sunshine and the blue water ...... Met up with Steve, Ruth and Heather on the yacht 'Clear Day', whom we hadn't seen since the Bahamas two years ago ..... A beautiful 'Hylas' sloop .... That's "ARITA" not "CLEAR DAY" in the photo above on the right ......

And around the bay are little islands with hide-away resorts, the sort that are perfect for private honeymoon getaway ...... And a little further around the corner is 'Necker Island', Sir Richard Branson's little bit of Paradise ...... Rentable at royalty prices, or at least for a couple of oil wells a week ...... We get the same views for free, every time we anchor .... Now who wouldn't want to go cruising ...... Which reminds me to remind you, that our beautiful yacht "ARITA" is now 'For Sale' and fully equiped and cruise-ready, and we are not looking for an oil well in exchange ..... You can step on board and we'll step off ..... Just like that ....... Our email addresses are down below and all the pictures are on www.stthomasyachts.com ........ Meantime, we'll sail some more and keep working on the new boat ......

A day later we sail around to "The Baths" and show our friend Linda the sights ...... By now you have obviously realized that "The Queen of Florida and the Bahamas" is perfectly at home in a swimsuit ....... And loving it .....

And so is Linda ......... And I specifically asked them for some 'Hollywood Catwalk Poses' ..... And got it ....... I wonder if they walk like that in Beverly Hills ? .......... Must be hell on the pelvis .....

Not everybody is there in swimsuits ........ Doesn't mean you can't enjoy it just the same ...... These boulders really are spectacular .......

Most of the islands are volcanic with fine-grained basaltic type rocks exposed and weathered, with deep bays all around that provide poor holding for anchoring, but here at 'The Baths' there is an outcrop of coarse-grained granite, that over time has exfoliated and the layers have shed like onion peels and left these sculptured fragments and rounded boulders ...... The granite weathers to white sand and that makes this place, with its white sandy beaches and clear blue water, even more exotic ...... A kid's paradise for exploration, and adults don't do so badly either ...... Just caught a glimpse of a pidgeon feeding on sea-grapes ...... Such smooth feathers ..... Almost not real ...... Tried to get a photo from a different angle, but each time I moved he moved also, so as to be fully enclosed by the branches ....... Clever pidgeon and well camouflaged ......

And on to 'Road Harbour' on the island of TORTOLA, but not before spending the night anchored off Marina Cay ..... Look at all the wrecked ships in the harbour when hurricanes two years ago took a swipe at the island, while only five miles away our " SOUTHERN COMFORT" sat high and dry above the ground and sustained no damage at all ....

That cruise ship with the high stern we thought was the World's largest cruise liner .... Some phenomenal statistics not worth repeating ...... But it turned out to be another ...... We saw most of the passengers in town where we went to clear Customs and Immigration so as to officially leave the BVIs and enter the USVIs ...... That's an imaginary line a couple of miles outside the harbour ...... You could sail out there in the afternoon and cross that line a dozen times on a good tack to windward ....... "So which country are we in now"? ..... "Don't know and don't care" ......

But it sure is a colourful 'mecca' for tourists, who may be short of a T-shirt or two ..... Even this rooster doing his aerobics in the middle of the stalls is uniquely colourful .....

Back on board "ARITA" life is peaceful and tranquil unlike the cruise ships where it is hyper-active, day and night .......

Beautiful anchorages in a place where celebrating "Christmas" is almost an enigma ...... The best they can do is hang some coloured lights on a palm tree .... We actually had a wonderful dinner out on 'Bellamy Cay' at a restaurant called 'The Last Resort' .... A really special treat, something we rarely do as cruisers for we are on a cruising budget ......

And it therefore required some special grooming from my personal barber who removed 'inches of excess' ...... Now not everybody gets the benefit of a barber in a swimsuit, though I'm sure many wish it were so .......

A nice little sail to 'Coral Bay' on the island of St. John in the USVI, where the girls swam, snorkeled and shampooed with great delight ..... Just look at the symmetry of this exo-skeleton of a sea urchin ............. Nature is just awesome .....

Then another nice sail along the lee shore of St. Johns island all the way past St. Thomas to the Port of 'Charlotte Amelie', where by now the wind is gusting well in excess of 20-25 knots ...... Blustery and rainy, but we make it ashore to see the sights and buy a little wine for the "Queen's Birthday" coming up soon ...... And yes, this was our dinner out at ' The Last Resort' .....

We've tucked ourselves right into a corner of the bay so as to avoid those gusts that sweep down from the mountains ....... Linda's visit has been good for both of them and they have thoroughly enjoyed each other's company ......

Just have to show you some more tropical flowers in case you thought we lost our touch ......

The same goes for these French and Canadian visitors who admired "ARITA" but did not leave us with a cheque ...... We are likely to see them again next year in PUERTO RICO ......

And sometimes you can't believe what you see .......... Even from far away ..... it was the crew standing on the underwater 'wave-breaker' ........

Just as we were leaving the harbour in St. Thomas this seaplane came in for a landing only to divert at the last moment to avoid hitting our masts and do another circle before landing over the top of us .... These photos were taken on the second time around ...... This time we had warning ..... His approach is through the gap between two hills with limited vision .......

And it all looked pretty calm for a good sail over to CULEBRA in PUERTO RICO, the final leg, but by the time we hit the open ocean, the swell generated by the last few days of stormy weather had left some sizeable waves in various directions ............ Not fun ..... Dropped the mainsail and sailed along under half-a-genoa and still did 8.3 knots ..... Sleigh ride ..... I'ts a Christmas thing, I guess ...... Very bumpy and very, very lumpy ...... But a wonderful feeling to re-enter 'Bahia Honda' in Culebra and to see familiar yachts and wonderful friends ....... One of the many pleasures of cruising ....... Before we left VIRGIN GORDA on this week's little cruise we needed to clean the bottom of the dinghy .... Amazing how much slime and weed can become attached in just four weeks ...... Oh, and I thought someone had painted a blue bikini bottom on the boulders at "The Baths", but it turned out to be just a bit of sky ........

ALL THE 'PREPPING' IS DONE ...........................

2011-12-11T06:21:00.032-05:00

After four grueling, dirty, smelly weeks of labour in the bilges and under the floors, "SOUTHERN COMFORT" is relatively clean, dry and functional ............. The Ford Lehman 120HP engine purrrrrrrrrs like a kitten and the bilge pumps are all working ...... The hull has twenty-six through-hull fittings, now all checked and working ........ We are exhausted and ready for a break .........We'll do some more sailing on " ARITA " ........ Going to miss her heaps when we sell her, but ....... This could well be a last cruise if a buyer calls in the near future ........ You can see the 'For Sale' details on www.stthomasyachts.com ....... Working in the boatyard has been fun and very interesting ..... Just look at that rainbow over the yard with its amazing array of yachts left behind here for the hurricane season ...... But in the last week more than a hundred have been launched for winter time in the Caribbean is sailing time and all the 'snowbirds' from the U.S.A. and Canada have returned to claim their yachts ......

And not only snowbirds return here in the winter ....... We saw what we thought were these 'sanderlings' which are actually 'Ruddy Turnstones' on the dock, who were willing to share breakfast with us ........... Not scared at all ....... Though we think that these birds live here all year round ...... (Thanks Richard) ....

If it is not raining then the sunsets are the reward for each day's labour ....... To be shared of course, with the charter guests that come in to the marina each day...... New neighbours every day .......Our very own 'Alzheimers' test ...... "Didn't we see you here this morning?" .........

The last section to be cleaned out on "SOUTHERN COMFORT" was the dungeon at the back ..... The 'lazarette', where the generator and all the oils are housed ...... Add ropes, fenders, parts, cables, spares and crap ......... We are taking the old generator out and replacing it with a new one ..... A ton of degreaser is needed to clean this room ..... Everybody has to have a shed or a garage, I guess ...... Even boat owners .... Still, when I come up for air the view is worth it .........

Now you need to focus on two things, here ....... The first is the newly painted boot stripe in green and brown, which is now much straighter than it was ........ Not perfect but much better ...... And the second is that fill-in piece between the keel and the rudder that is now finally finished and primed ......... O.K., now you can focus on other things .......

Painting the boot-stripe was a real challenge ......... And if you look closely you will see the 'Supervisor' keeping his eye on me from the end of the orange jack-stand screw handle .... Cute little lizard ......

But no matter how exhausting the work, our walk back to the marina has its own reward .......The fragrance of the frangipanis and the visuals of the marina entrance are just some of the delights .....

The German couple who own this radical yacht were docked next to us one night and the following day had their yacht "MANATEE" hauled out until they can return for the next work break ......... This yacht is fast, just look at the underbody ......... The husband and wife team are in the airline business and anything under 500 knots is probably 'not moving' in their eyes ...... Believe it or not but it is a HUNTER, the company reknown for its absolutely normal fiberglass yacht designs ...... They only made five of these and thousands of their normal designs ......... Now this would be sailing 'on the edge' ...... Just look at the mast supports at the gooseneck .....

And speaking of 'on the edge' and 'walking on the wild side', we joined the street festival and Christmas celebration in front of the marina complex in SPANISH TOWN ... Little colourful stalls and plenty to eat ...... Our friend Linda has flown in from Florida to join us for ten days of sailing on "ARITA".......

All the flashing lights and knick-nacks are a delight for the local kids ...... Virgin Gorda is not big, so an event like this is great for young and old ...... The street is blocked off and the bands play all night long ...... All night meaning until at least three AM, and there is no volume button to adjust anywhere in town .... It is full-on ..... ......

We discovered a 'Prince' on board, clinging to the green canvas ....... Actually he clung to my leg first ..... Maybe it was a Princess? ..... Do Princesses also turn into frogs? .......Still trying to work out where the frog came from ......

Tomorrow we set sail on "ARITA" for North Sound, VIRGIN GORDA to do more than a week of sailing to some of the beautiful spots in the Virgin islands and slowly head back to PUERTO RICO for Christmas and the New Year ..... And after that we'll catch the ferry back to the boatyard and bring "SOUTHERN COMFORT" to PUERTO RICO for the big renovation that should take many months .......

WORKING HARD IN THE BOATYARD .......

2011-12-02T19:16:00.043-05:00

Awesome sunsets as we finish each day in the boatyard on VIRGIN GORDA in the BVIs while working on the new boat "SOUTHERN COMFORT" and sleeping on "ARITA" tied to the dock in the marina .......... We came alongside the fuel dock and off-loaded at least a ton of stuff including equipment, sails and anchor chain, and there's lots more sitting in CULEBRA in Puerto Rico .....

We have been at it for almost three weeks ...... Cleaning, washing, scrubbing, de-greasing and are only now getting to the technical parts of the engine ...... Installing new fuel lines, remote oil filters and sorting out the electrical wiring trying to figure out what works and what doesn't ........ "SOUTHERN COMFORT" has been sitting on the hard for almost three years ....... Boats here are packed in like sardines by using this hydraulic 'lifter' that then drives beneath the travel lift which picks up the yacht in its slings and does the final launching ....... There's a definite 'graveyard area' here where they park the yachts whose owners have never come back ....... Ours was on the edge of the 'graveyard' ...... Rescued just in time, although the outstanding yard bill had reached well over $20,000 .....

Mark and Willie on our sister-ship "LIAHONA" arrived from ANTIGUA to lift our spirits and help us no end, with all the technical stuff ........... If we get lucky this is what "SOUTHERN COMFORT" will look like when she finally floats again ...... But that is still some way off ...... At least we have the engine turning over .... not running, just turning over ..... Small steps, but all forward ....

Surely this must be the most beautiful boatyard in the world in which to get filthy dirty ...... Surrounded by magnificent flowers like these 'bougainvillea' and the 'frangipani' we change clothes just to eat lunch ....... Dirty work in paradise ...

Now this may take a bit of figuring out because there are mirrors here but in the aft section there are two double cabins separated with a bulkhead ...... Well, that bulkhead will shortly be gone opening up the aft section into one huge cabin with a double bunk on either side ...... One of the bathrooms will become a hanging closet and the vanity, a writing desk ...... That work we will do in CULEBRA ...

The mid section is the lounge leading to the middle cabin on starboard and the galley on port ........ The middle cabin sleeps three and has access to the engine and to the 'pump room' ....... Never knew a yacht could have so many pumps .......

Forward of the salon are two more cabins with vanity and shower, separated by a hanging closet ..... Lots of doors ....... that's all going to go and become a single cabin with one head and a shower and will sleep six ...... The woodwork is in wonderful condition after almost thirty years as a charter boat .... Lucky us ....... Being in a marina, and seeing the daily fleet of charter boats arrive, we can tell you 'stories' about how to 'never rent out your boat' to someone who doesn't own one ......

Finally forced to put another opening into the engine room to give access to both sides of the engine ....... The lid will go snugly back in and be locked into place ..... But it is so easy now to change out the starter motor, work on the alternator and fit the new through-hull fittings for the A/C water pump that is buried down there .... That new opening is 'torso' size ..... Just barely ...

With Mark's help we managed to get the steering working again ..... It is all hydraulic and you need to know just where the by-pass valves are in order to 'bleed' it ............ The same champion helped us fix the anchor winch ......... Yes, bit by bit everything is beginning to work again ............

By the time we get back to "ARITA" each day, the day is done and we are filthy, exhausted, sore, but jubilant ........... We lived in fear of buyer's remorse for a while but after three weeks we are counting our blessings ....... I mean, just look at how nicely the 'fill-in' turned out between the keel and the rudder skeg ....... Still not finished, but getting there ...... And what's so nice about "SOUTHERN COMFORT" is that the interior, with its all wood finish, is so very similar to the ambiance of "ARITA" ....... We kid about the 'tennis court' on the bow and the 'heli-port' on the lido deck ...... Not true, but it definitely is bigger .....

Somehow the boot-stripe, that painted line just above the anti-fouling takes a nose dive underwater towards the stern....... That line is completely crooked ...... Sanding and re-painting will give us a new and even waterline ..... We hope? .... It has to be done prim and proper, after all, this is one of the bastions of the English Realm ...... And all that, Eh what! .....

Talk about a walk in the garden on our way home to "ARITA"........

Meantime back in CURACAO, our dear friends Timo and Annemieke are just as busy, doing their new boat construction that is making amazing progress ....... The strip-planking in cedar is now forming the first curves of the hull ..... Each strip piece is expoxied in and screwed ...... Radical water-level construction ..... Go Timo, go .... Now there's one Antillean sailor who would die if he didn't have a yacht ...... This is all of National importance for check out the Curacao flag flying high above the project ......

We were invited for a drink on one of the 'Barefootcharter' boats after getting back from the boatyard ..... Met the seven people on board, but it soon became twenty-seven in that cockpit...... I remember Jack, David, Ben and the host Tom, but the rest of the names became a Tequila blur ...... They had all escaped from Washington, D.C. .... I mean who wouldn't ......

Three weeks have flown by ......"ARITA" sits quietly in the marina as we trudge off to work each morning, like regular workers ..... Interestingly, the entire marina and boatyard operation, employing a great many people in day and night shifts, is run entirely by V.I.Ps. (that stands for Virgin Island persons) ........ Not a white person anywhere, other than the tourists and charter guests ..... We have seen boatyards before, but this is probably the most efficient operation we have seen anywhere in the Caribbean ..... Not only that, but it is clean, safe and secure ..... And all those 'little people' on the right are not boatyard employees, or at least not yet ....... Those 'little people are on a pre-school outing to look at the boatyard together with parents and teachers ....... If they had seen me in my 'bio' suit they would have run for cover ....... That anti-fouling paint is highly toxic and really burns your skin when you are sanding ....... Actually, it's the perspiration mixed with the dust that sets off that 'tingling sensation' of TNT ... And if you thought that the previous sunset was stunning, then check out this one after a rainy Sunday ........

While we are still cruising on " ARITA " as we complete the work on the new boat, she is now officially " FOR SALE " ..... All the details are listed on www.stthomasyachts.com ...... AND OBVIOUSLY VISIBLE BY CLICKING ON 'OLDER POSTS' ..... ENJOY ....

THE FIRST TIME IN THREE YEARS .........

2011-11-24T04:17:00.010-05:00

Yes, it is the first time in three years that we have taken a slip in a marina ....... And only because the cold front that has found its way down to the BVIs has set up a swell that has made staying in the anchorage outside simply untenable ..... Normally no big deal, but the swell curls around the headland and the throughs and ridges are in line with the wind direction, and so with each roll there is a good chance you'll be thrown out of bed ............. Don't let these sunny photos fool you .......... It can get nasty ........ But it is so nice to be docked in peaceful surroundings and to be able to just walk to the boatyard each morning past bougainvillea and frangipanis that are all in full colour .... Colours so bright you need to put your 'shades' on .............

This then is the new boat "SOUTHERN COMFORT" ........ All of 62 feet long, with a draft of 5'6", a beam of 16ft. and a displacement of 26 tonnes .......... That may change, as we begin loading her with new stuff, although in the last ten days we have removed at least a tonne of 'stuff' in the process of cleaning ........ Oh, and that is not a left-over 'halloween' costume that Laurie is holding ..... No, she did not go disguised as a 'paper-clip' ......... No, that's an additional frame to be added to the davits to support the new solar panels ..... We have already begun bringing items ashore now that we are 'docked' in the VIRGIN GORDA YACHT HARBOUR ..... Everything comes with a price ........

Some things though, are simply "PRICELESS" .................

Like the 100-yard walk to the boatyard, with a glance over your right shoulder to see the Classic Schooner "The Spirit of Massachusetts" out on anchor, just beyond the reef with the island of TORTOLA in the background ....... For people who like to charter, there is no finer stretch of well-protected blue water than the VIRGIN ISLANDS .....

And from the top of the hill on Virgin Gorda, the view is spectacular and appropriately named ....... Still everything is relative ....... Million dollar views, but every item has to be imported and usually triple shipped, so there goes that first million if you want to build a large house here ......

We have opted for a larger boat so as not to have to buy a house when we finally reach Australia ........ A larger boat with accommodation to fit friends and family and the luxury of air-conditioners, a large generator and a washer/drier .... Tropical 'Southern Comfort' you might say ...... But we have a long way to go before we get there ...... One small step at a time, like "The Queen of Southern Comfort" hoisting a battery on board using the halyard winch, or the 'boatyard boys' using a plank as a lever to straighten-out the bent davit frame, that will hold the dinghy and the solar panels ...... The 'boatyard boys' are a mutually-beneficial admiration society made up of boat-owners 'living the dream'........

Now you shouldn't mess with a designer's plans ..... But, this design has difficulties in reversing or steering at low speed, so we have heard from others, thus a little tweaking here and there is worth doing ........ Like fill-in that space between keel and skeg ..... Stops catching fishing nets with the prop and will certainly improve linear flow over the rudder blade ...... And, change out the cut-less rubber bearing on the propeller shaft while she is still out of the water ......

Two more of the 'boatyard boys', Angel and Michael ........ And here's a huge 'improvement' the designer forgot about ........ Fit a bronze through-hull to drain the bilge ...... It is sheer unadulterated pleasure to be able to flush the hull and remove all the built-up 'crap' in the bilge ...... Thirty years of accumulated 'muck' that is in an impossible place to get to and is generally the cause of bilge pump failure ....... Those bolts holding the fitting are through-bolted ....... Held the nuts on a sticky '5200' finger, then pushed a wrench through the little hole and held it in place with string and a magnet ...... ' No 'Darwin' award, but worth something at least, when the bleeding finally stopped .......

This is Frank or better known as "KIWI" and one of the 'boatyard boys'.......... A man with an amazing memory of people, places and events ....... A powerhouse of knowledge nautical, who has spent his entire life 'messing with boats' ...... He has five of them sitting in a lagoon in the US Virgin Islands for no other reason than 'He loves his boats' ....... The biggest of them is a 78ft cutter-rigged sloop that he has sailed single-handed around the World ..... He has met and knows Dick McIlvride, the builder of "ARITA .... He has even met Bert Munroe, the owner of "The World's fastest Indian" that wonderful KIWI movie starring Anthony Hopkins ..... The list of characters and people he's met is endless ..... There are moments in life when you listen and become enthralled in other people's stories that make you wish you could share that with everyone ..... "KIWI" is the genuine article ....... A real adventurer/seaman/delivery skipper/old salt with a life well-lived ........ 'Goodonya mate' ........ Keep it going ...... "ARITA" is also a KIWI of course, having been built in New Zealand back in 1958 ......

Years ago the ABC TV channel in Australia featured a documentary about the spaghetti pickers in Victoria showing them standing on ladders carefully snipping and harvesting the noodles from the branches on the trees, and then carefully handing them to fellow workers who laid them in boxes ...... Anyway there was this huge outcry from the public long before serious 'punking' was invented ........ We are still undecided on the issue ........... And you can make up your own mind .......

But one thing is for sure ....... Chickens love spaghetti ..... They will sit under your chair just to get some ....... This mother hen and her brood of seven has joined us each day for lunch ..... Kids don't seem to mind at all ...... Now that's 'free range' ......

CLEAN, CHECK, KEEP OR CHUCK .......

2011-11-14T05:51:00.045-05:00

Each day we opened up our crate in CULEBRA, Puerto Rico,and took out more stuff to take with us to the VIRGIN ISLANDS in preparation of getting the new boat "SOUTHERN COMFORT" ready ........ Load it all in the dinghy, take it to "ARITA" and try not to sink her ...... We think we loaded maybe an extra ton with batteries, tools, inverters, water-maker and just stuff .....

Further to the north of us, the cold and snow is on its way while we 'rejoice' in these beautiful temperatures and where frangipanis bloom all year round ....

And to the west of us are Annemieke and Timo in CURACAO, having their 'WOOD FOR WOOD' sculpture exhibition to raise the funds to replace the loss of their beloved yacht 'BLUE MARLIN' ..... Very well attended and an absolute success story ............. The sculptures sold like 'hot cakes' ......

Incredibly talented to create these brilliant oil paintings out of washed-up driftwood ....... Even a reporter from the local newspaper gave the venture the 'Thumbs up' .....

And Timo is not slow off the mark either ......In no time at all, he has his floatation raft completed on which the new plywood/epoxy yacht is to be constructed ..... She is to be called "LAZY LIZ" ...... (Strange for there is nothing lazy about either of them) ...... This platform's buoyancy was worked out to carry the weight of construction without going under, but then finally being submerged in order to launch it, when she is rolled over .....

Talk about 'Thinking outside the box' ....... What a classic way of constructing a yacht .......

But despite Timo's enthusiasm and ingenuity, someone still has to keep an eye on him .......

We departed CULEBRA and cruised through the US VIRGIN ISLANDS like a 'knife through hot Brie cheese' ........ Anchored between St. Thomas and St. Johns in Christmas Cove and took the dinghy ashore to meet with the broker who sold us "SOUTHERN COMFORT" ...... Yes, the deed is done ..... We have put "ARITA" officially on the market .......... You can take a sneek-peek at www.stthomasyachtsales.com .. Look under 'John Alden Custom' ..... And when we got back to "ARITA" in the late afternoon there was this beautiful rainbow ...... Both ends visible on the water .... Isn't that supposed to mean something 'rich and wonderful' ........

And in the morning, we moved south to the British Virgin islands and straight to VIRGIN GORDA ......... Motoring through a headwind of twenty knots ......

These beautiful volcanic islands lie right in the path of the Caribbean 'hurricane alley' and are very steep-sided with poor holding, and very little natural shelter ...... The local marinas kind of bury the hulls during haul-out time or as in this case simply build a concrete well to hold the keel and rudder but it helps keep the yachts low-down during the terrible winds of the summer season .... Most other yachts move out of the hurricane zone south to Trinidad or further north to the USA .....

But VIRGIN GORDA is beautiful .... Even the dock where the cargo ferries land is nice ....... And only a mile away are those famous granite boulders called " The Baths " ....

That''s "ARITA" anchored out on the far right in the rolly swell and we come ashore in the dinghy to begin the real appraisal of what we have purchased ...... This is the moment of true reality ...... Our own reality show without cameras ..... And at the end of that first day, covered in sweat and 'sheizen' we are ecstatic .... "SOUTHERN COMFORT" is truly beautiful ....... No less so than "ARITA", but just a different kind of beauty...... Laurie has this necklace made of 'sea-beans' ...... She wondered, what with all the perspiration, they might just sprout ....... "Don't call me sweetheart", .... "Try sweatheart ...."

We found at least twenty pairs of fins and snorkels on board, skis, wakeboard and floaties ....... All the toys you can think of, for charter guests young and old .... We donated it all to Micheal Beans on the yacht "Mangele" next door, for his "HAITI Good Samaritan Foundation" ..... You remember(maybe?) that Micheal Bean is the talented musician that runs the pirate show at Leverick Bay in Virgin Gorda Sound during the sailing season ..... We are keeping the kayak though .....

What a beautiful place to work in ..............

But what are we going to do with fifteen life-jackets ...... Let's see if the cruise ship anchored out needs some more .....

We are now up to our eyeballs in work .... Cleaning, scrubbing, sorting, chucking, polishing .... The boat has been closed up for more than two years, and in the tropics you can kind of figure what that means ........ And in the engine room there is an accumulation of water, diesel and oil that goes back well beyond the last two years .... Not that we're complaining, after all when the day is done and the body has recovered, the sunrise is pure 'inspiration' to do it all again ...... Even though we have dirt and crud up to our elbows before showering at night, we are 'Still living the dream' ............. And if we seem to use that word 'BEAUTIFUL' far too often, it is because it is all true ..........

And Yahoo News mentions something about 'HOME DEPOT's improved fiscal outlook ...... Well, we know why that is ..... We hit HOME DEPOT in Puerto Rico only last week, several times .....

ANOTHER ALL-NIGHTER .....................

2011-11-04T07:30:00.038-04:00

It has taken us just on three years to sail from Jacksonville, FLORIDA all the way around the Caribbean and past Venezuela to Curacao then back up to PUERTO RICO ...... Now you probably remember that crate with all the goodies in it for our new yacht SOUTHERN COMFORT, well, it was put on board a ship in Jacksonville late friday afternoon and was sitting in a warehouse in San Juan, PUERTO RICO, by Monday afternoon ready for collection........ Now that is just disgustingly efficient ....... Three days what has taken us three years ..... We've chosen the island of CULEBRA in the 'Spanish Virgins' to do our refit and change-over to the new boat ..... A little out of the way, being about 18 miles east of FAJARDO, but the laid-back island has wonderful clear, blue water with sandy beaches and a delightful ambience ....... You will see SALINAS on the map above, low down and in the middle ...... That's where we left ARITA when we rented a car to drive across the mountains to SAN JUAN ........ Parked it and rented a box truck ...... You have to understand that in PUERTO RICO a three-lane highway has therefore enough space to fit five cars ...... And they do ...... Driving a box truck means four and a half cars ...... And they do ..... We found that industrial park where our crate was located, but not before marveling at the semi-trailer drivers and their dexterity in putting trailers alongside each other with only inches to spare ......

We will soon be putting our beloved yacht "ARITA" on the market ....... Really sad and hard to do but no-one can sail two yachts, and the idea of making a large Polynesian catamaran out of both of them is out .......

We have trouble just backing up a small garden trailer, let alone a 'big box' like these containers ..... And these drivers seem to do it so easily .......

And here's another thing ........ We walked into the warehouse office and the lady at the desk said "Is this you?" ..... Showing me the packing slip ...... "Sign here" and hands me the pen, and tells me to take it to one of the forklift drivers ............. Now anywhere else in the Caribbean it takes a ton of paperwork, a full day of running around and several days for Customs to release it, after hefty payments, of course .... We love PUERTO RICO .....

This is all self-explanatory ....... This is a normal disaster in the making ..... The pallet idea is soon abandoned, and a second forklift pushes the crate into the box-truck .............. Mind you, at the other end we will only have ONE forklift .... We'll cross that bridge when we come to it .....

We ring through to the ferry service and book the truck for the crossing to CULEBRA ....... They tell us that loading starts at 3AM ..... Pointless in getting a room for the night ...... We drive through to FAJARDO, have an early dinner and then hit Walmart ..... We see they have a new security guard on watch in the parking lot ..... They'll do anything to keep the prices down ....... We do every single aisle in the store, up and down, and buy nothing ...... We have six hours to kill, WALMART is open 24 hours and we are sure that we are being watched on the security cameras ........ We picture the conversation they must be having ..... " Two hours fifty minutes and still the cart is empty? ..... "Keep watching them" ..... "Something is going down" ...... By midnight we return to the truck and wait out the last three hours at the dock ..... Then the real fun begins ..... Backing up the little truck in the dark onto the ferry ......

We drive off the ferry at CULEBRA still in the dark, but the sun soon rises and at 9AM we are outside our new warehouse where the box will be stored ............ The ONE forklift has longer prongs and is just able to lift and balance the crate while I move the box truck forward ........ We are at our destination and all is intact ...... WHOOOPEEE ... By midday we return on the ferry to FAJARDO and back to San Juan ..... Return the truck, pick up the car and drive back to SALINAS ........ A very worthwhile ALL-NIGHTER ......

The crate contains good anchors and navigation equipment, as well as a new generator and solar panels for on-board electricity ........ This is what happens if you don't pay attention or have good ground tackle ....... Someone has rescued what remains of this steel yacht and tied it to the dock..... And back in SALINAS when we reach ARITA, the rain is coming down in sheets ..... A gentle reminder that hurricane season is far from finished ....... But while it is raining outside, down below on "ARITA" it is wonderfully cozy ...... Not sure if 'cozy' is the right word when it's 90 degrees and suffocatingly hot ....... At least we have the tent over the open forward hatch that allows the breeze through ....

The front cabin ......... Yes, we do use bed sheets but they we all rumpled, so we took them off for the photo ........ In fact, we moved most of the "stuff" from one place to another in order to take these shots ...... They do the same things for all fashion shoots, don't they ...... OK, you caught me doing the blog entry at the chart table ....... Aren't laptops and wifi just awesome .........

It is a wonderful front cabin with 6" foam mattresses and storage lockers underneath and just under the book shelfs are these swing-out pieces on which sits the portable TV or the laptop to watch movies in bed, just like normal people ..... Last night we watched "Catch and Release" with Jennifer Garner ..... Very cute ....

Plenty of reading lights and plenty of fans on both sides and there is a 9000BTU air conditioner installed that keeps us cool on the worst nights in the summer if there's no breeze at all ....

The 'nav' station and the 'head' ....... That would be the 'chart table' and the 'bathroom' for the non-nautical types ...... Most of the voyage planning takes place in either of these two areas .......

This is the middle cabin and is also used for storage ........ Beneath the double bunk is where most of our dry goods and food tins are stored ....... Again there's lots of storage higher up and space for more books ...... Sailing and cruising gives you ample time for reading .......

Opposite the middle cabin is the galley ....... Double deep sink, instant hot-water system, a two burner stove with broiler and oven and a top-opening freezer and fridge ...... And underneath is storage for pots and pans .......

And the salon or as some would say, the 'saloon' ....... OK, Laurie, let me help you put all the 'stuff' back where we normally put it .......

But rain soon gives way to sunshine and we head for the 'Marina de Salinas' to fill 'ARITA' with diesel fuel and water and to top up the dinghy tanks with gasoline ....... And then we're off, first to CULEBRA by yacht this time, and then on to St. THOMAS in the USVI and then to VIRGIN GORDA in the British Virgin Islands to begin work on prepping 'SOUTHERN COMFORT' for the voyage back to CULEBRA ....... It's got all the hallmarks of 'going back to work' ....... Fun work ...... And in the tropics ....... Ok, forget I mentioned 'WORK' ....

But not before the rain returns with a golden bit of sunshine thrown in for good measure ................

By leaving early in the morning from SALINAS and motor sailing all day long we made it to CULEBRA and 'Ensenada Honda' by 7pm that night ........... A wonderful journey along half of Puerto Rico island ....... The 'green' island ...... And just before entering the harbour on the Spanish Virgin island of CULEBRA, we were treated to this magnificent sunset formation with an almost full moon ........ This will be our new 'workplace' for many months to come ......

And somewhere under those clouds is VIRGIN GORDA in the BVIs, where "SOUTHERN COMFORT" is waiting for us ....... But now that the anchor is down, we'll just have a little 'southern comfort' of our own, with coke and ice of course .... Goodnight ... Or as they say here .......Buenos Noches .....

ACROSS THE CARIBBEAN SEA ...........

2011-10-29T07:12:00.031-04:00

And out of nowhere appeared this beautiful 'weather window' with winds predicted to come out of the west, which in CURACAO is more or less unheard of ....... With hurricane season almost at a close, we made the decision to 'grab' that window with both hands ....... Just too good to be true ....... Our computer weather programs allow us to download wind strength and direction, rain precipitation, barometric pressure, wave height and cloud cover some seven days in advance, and generally it is fairly accurate .....

Our friend TIMO has been busy getting the frames of his new yacht built on his floating workshop ..... If you recall he lost his beautiful yacht " BLUE MARLIN " in the Venezuelan islands of Los Aves ....... But with guts and determination he is moving forward ....... ANNEMIEKE, his artist wife, is equally busy doing her magnificent driftwood sculptures for an exhibition to be called "WOOD FOR WOOD" ..... She will sell her painted driftwood sculptures and buy plywood to build their new yacht ...... The ultimate creative 'win-win' with a sad touch of recycling thrown in ......

It is wonderful to see TIMO at work in this open-air workshop with million dollar views of this enclosed harbour of 'Spanish Waters' in CURACAO ....... His little homemade runabout holds a portable generator that allows him to use table saws, jigsaws, and drills, but mostly it is all hand made glue and screw stuff .....

The man's got a plan ....... Drop the lead-filled keel in the water first, then float a platform over the top of it on which he will construct the hull with its frames .... When that's done, sink the float down over the keel and bolt the hull and keel together ..... Yes you have to hand it to him for ingenuity ..... TIMO is definitely a one of a kind 'hombre' ....

Meantime back at 'our ranch' we have an engine running hotter than normal ..... Which we thought was due to the intake being blocked with all the weed scum, but now that we are clean it still stays hot ...... By disconnecting the outlet hose from the exhaust system we notice that there is no appreciable difference in the salt water pressure when the engine is run momentarily ...... That means the the water pump's rubber impeller is 'kaput' ....."Not good", as they say .... The impeller is in an impossible position under the engine and to get it out is simply unprintable ......... Laurie took this photo from an angle where you cannot lip-read ...... But once you know what the problem is, it is no longer a problem, not so? ..... And shortly after it was replaced, we took off to begin the 400-mile crossing to PUERTO RICO (see that black line on the map above) ..... We motor-sailed till the middle of the Caribbean Sea when the wind finally filled in ........ Filled in from the East again, which meant hard sailing, and hard on the wind, hoping we could still lay our course for at least the middle of the island, and not get pushed West into the waters of the Dominican Republic .....

Really beautiful sailing with the winds somewhere between ten and twenty knots and fortunately with a very flat sea left over from the oil-like calms of the previous days .... No ground swell, no waves, a good six knots and in the right direction .........

Smooth sailing and the 'Queen of Florida' down below learning how to do 'crochet' now that she has a brand new grand-daughter "Sophie" who used to put her fingers in her eyes and nose, but is now in the bassinet making 'gangster' signs .....

This is probably boring, but days like these, with trade-wind clouds and smooth seas are a rarity during the Caribbean hurricane season which is not finished yet .... We just downloaded the weather on our satellite phone and there's 'welcome to two more in the making' picture out there ....... Another day or so and we'll be in Puerto Rico if the wind holds steady .......

We arrive in SALINAS at 0600, having done the journey in just under three days ..... We crash and sleep for a few hours, before making the call to Customs and Immigration ..... We need to get to PONCE to do the clearance and we rent a car at a wonderful $20/day to do clearance, shopping, sightseeing and getting a new phone, but not before coming to terms with this screeching green parrot with a nest full of young screechers in a palm tree ..... Incredible the noise they make ...... Way worse that Sophie with a nasty diaper ....

CULTURE SHOCK ....... As we drive into San Juan in the early morning with lanes and lanes of traffic at a standstill ...... If there is a depressed economy out there, we must have missed it ....... Every man and his dog is out there buying, selling, shopping and having a good time ...... The malls are packed and business is thriving ..... Oh, and everybody is driving .......

But the anchorage at Salinas is peaceful enough ...... Beautiful mornings with a magnificent mountain backdrop ....... The surrounding mangroves provide ample protection even if a late hurricane was to give us a passing blow ......

School curriculum also involves paddling a canoe, for on Friday we saw a bunch of school kids on the water doing paddling exercises, while at the same time learning about eco-systems and estuary habitats ..... Wouldn't mind going back to school just for that, but it is all in Spanish ....... Fast rapid Spanish .....

And when class is done, well, just hook on and the teacher will tow you back to shore ...... Oh, and we also discovered this secret door in a breakfast restaurant that leads to the kitchen ..... If you can't find it, just look for the door handle ......

Coming back to PUERTO RICO is also a 'culture shock' in another sense, for here Spanish is spoken with such volume, passion and speed, as to leave you reeling ...... Ask somoeone "Is this the way to SAN JUAN" and back comes this torrent of Spanish, with arm and hand gestures and comical facial expressions, which if you are smart like we are, means "YES" ................. Now this is completely different from, say, Northern Scandinavia, where very few words are ever spoken for fear of freezing your tongue to your gums ...... One reindeer herder was heard to say to another "I love my wife so much, I almost told her" ..........

WHO ARE YOU LOOKING AT? ...............

2011-10-12T17:30:00.034-04:00

While we were busy in the boatyard in CURACAO, doing all that dirty work of cleaning and repainting the bottom of "ARITA", young "GEICO" here, decided to jump into a bucket and see what he could find in the bottom ......... One of the things he soon discovered is that he couldn't get out ............. The yard manager Mikey, handed him to Lauren, where he is now able to survey a whole new world from up high, and then gives us this incredible cheeky 'look' that more or less says " Who are YOU looking at? " ......

"GEICO" continues with his nonsense, and lets us know he is not really happy about any of this ............ When he finally takes off, he literally flies in his attempt to get away ....... Cute little lizard ...... "GEICO" is actually a baby iguana .......

The boatyard is full of lizards in all shapes and sizes, including a whole bunch of iguanas doing their head-bopping thing to attract someone's attention .......... "Now if I get on to this green pipe they might not see me!" ...............

They tell us that this lizard is called 'Blou-Blou", meaning 'blue-blue' in Papiamento, the local language here in CURACAO ......... Very original name, that one ...... He is also not shy, for every time we sit down to have a drink of cold water, he is right there looking for a hand-out ......... He promptly polishes off several biscuits ..... No trouble at all ...... Wouldn't be at all surprised if he followed us over to the Curacao Yacht Club, that thatched clubhouse that runs the marina and the haul-out yard, and where they really do serve 'cheeseburgers-in-paradise'....... Yes, 'Blou-Blou' is a character alright ....

We found a seam in the fore-foot that stays moist after the hull has dried out which indicates some trapped moisture beneath the antifouling paint ....... The seam is first opened up. old caulking cotton removed, the joint between the planks is painted with primer and new cotton caulking is hammered into the joint ........ Dirty work, but the only way to keep a beautiful wooden yacht in great shape .... There is a special mastic sealing compound that gets troweled over the cotton ..... Cotton swells with the smallest amount of moisture and therefore doubly seals the joint .....

Back at the houseboat, our friend TIMO is busy drafting out the plans of his next yacht ...... Smaller than the last 'BLUE MARLIN' but just as beautiful he assures us ....... He gently lowers these 'floating Lotus creations' into the water to ward off would-be visitors to this fragile end of the houseboat ..... Many have come to give TIMO and ANNEMIEKE their condolences over the loss of their yacht ....... By dinghy, of course ...... Note the cryptic warning sign that didn't work ........

Exhausted at the end of each day, we dinghy back to our temporary apartment with its wonderful creature comforts and its 'Hollywood' shower ....... A short walk past beautiful flowers and palm trees brings us to our private gate .........

After four solid days of hard work the job is done and she is ready for the water once more ............. You feel like taking a hundred photos, but what's the point .... All that beauty of the fine lines and curvature of the hull with its wine-glass shape is under water and no-one's going to see it ...... More like a red-wine glass we think .....

At least with a house you get to see all of it from every angle ......... Nice neighbourhood, don't you think? ......... We splash "ARITA" and spend one more night in the apartment, for we are too weary to clean up the boat and put all the tools and paint away ....... We'll do all that tomorrow ......

We finally said our goodbyes to Peter and Jutte from the yacht "FREYA", who shared the journey from Grenada to Curacao with us ..... They sail on to Colombia and ports beyond ..... We will also say goodbye to our 'Birthday boy' GEORGE, who together with his wife ANJA, provided us with a fabulous apartment, and certainly know how to throw a good party ........ We will be back again to CURACAO with the new boat "SOUTHERN COMFORT" to stir them all up again, when we will follow in FREYA's wake and head for the Panama Canal ......But that's all in the future ......

Rumours abound now that we have returned from Florida to Curacao, one of which comes from people who are now in Cartagena, COLOMBIA ..... " We had heard through the rumour mill that Laurie was having a baby and you wanted it to have US citizenship, so slipped away in the night, but you can't believe everything you hear...

TRANSITIONING ............................

2011-10-09T09:54:00.026-04:00

What a wonderful summer month in FLORIDA ......... The perfect birth of Lauren's grand-daughter, the peaceful passing of her mother (that's Lauren's mother, not baby "Sophie's" mother), the accommodating weather and the absence of destructive hurricanes and the peacefulness that came with knowing that our yacht "ARITA" was safely anchored in CURACAO under the watchful eye of Timo and Annemieke, notwithstanding that they lost their own yacht "BLUE MARLIN" in Los Aves, VENEZUELA ....... A tragic loss in pride, but their ever-buoyant spirit is alive and well, for there is already a new yacht on the drawing board ............ And surely a new-born baby engenders the same feelings as this beautiful Caribbean frangipani flower (Desert Rose) we saw as soon as we flew back to sunny CURACAO .....

On our drive down to MIAMI from Jacksonville in Northern Florida, we spent a night with Laurie's sister in MICCO, and had a quick visit with Lynette and Richard in VERO BEACH where we had spent a summer tied to their dock two years ago ........... Here's living proof that coconut trees really do come from coconuts ............. Not that you doubted that?

During that stay in VERO we felt sure we had killed their long stemmed single frangipani tree with the construction of their bedroom pergola, but lo-and-behold it is alive and well and flowering ...... Miracles of nature .... On to MIAMI, and another great night with Dudley and Becca and then on to the airport .......... You have to board a driver-less train that whizzes you all over the place and drops you at your terminal ...... All indoor and air-conditioned ......... You don't get to breathe fresh air until you land in CURACAO ............. I guess that's fresh ..... Certainly was 'warm' .... Maybe more than warm .......

We had left "ARITA" with a stainless steel chain wrapped around the backstay and hanging in the water as a sort of 'lightning dissipator' ......... Well take a look at the growth on it, after only one month ....... Like we said, it is warm .......

Less than 100m away from where we are anchored is the CURACAO YACHT CLUB, where we planned to haul out ....... It is a cradle on a set of railway lines ....... This kind of haul-out is always fun to watch ...... And just as scary as a travel-lift ..... A diver pushes and shoves the keel more or less into the centre of the cradle while his assistant slowly winds the cradle out of the water .... In our case ARITA started to lean seriously to port on the way up, so they reversed and did it all again ...... Even asked me if I thought 'she' looked level? ........ Meantime, the "QUEEN of FLORIDA" stayed on deck ........ Ever tried pacifying and kissing a shaking 'stuttterer', who has just been through a 30 degree lean and been yelled at "Don't move lady" .........

But "ARITA" came out perfectly and perfectly filthy ...... Scraping the weed off was like shearing a sheep ......... Slabs of crustacea-laden weed and slime, with very few barnacles and in no time at all she was ready for pressure washing ........ Their unit is industrial size, and shoots you backward like a fire hose ........ Oh, and just a reminder that we are back in the beautiful Caribbean with magnificent flowers like this purple Bougainvillea .....

And this blue Plumbago ........... We even saw that ocean going fishing boat "Baby Love" being hauled away for repairs ..... It seems that she has a bad leak and that the last time we saw her, when she was barely above water, was not due to a full load of fish after all ......

So here we are, barely three days after getting back to Spanish Waters in CURACAO and we are fully into cleaning and repainting the top-sides and the bottom ...... The old girl looks 'Just Grand' ...... And the hull is in perfect shape ...... We should be done in a couple of days and we can start looking for a 'weather window' to sail across the Caribbean Sea back to Puerto Rico ..... You probably noticed that this railway is at somewhat of an angle ..... Sleeping and living on board is somewhat out of the question ......

Interesting things are taking place all around us ........ Take this nice piece of machinery trying to lift an engine out of a powerboat with only inches to spare on the boom ....... Everything is controlled by the man whose hands are playing with a small keyboard near his 'nether region' ...... To get it out they slowly lift then drop the rear hydraulic supports and with it the back tyres springs, and then move the vessel forward, or at least that's the plan .......

Well, to offset our 'sleeping predicament' whilst hauled-out, Timo and Annemieke have put us in touch with a couple who have a wonderful 'little' two bedroom/bathroom/lounge/kitchen 'to-die-for' humongous down-stairs apartment, with A/C, mod-cons and everything, and even its own garden pathway access ..... All we can say is ....... AWESOME ...... Then again, though their canvas over the patio is the 'right' colour, it is still a 'poorly-designed yacht that is permanently anchored ....... Tonight, upstairs they are having a birthday party and we have been invited ........ Cruising and being hauled-out is really, really tough ..... Do I hear any 'AMEN' to that, anywhere?

AND WHAT A MONTH ..............

2011-09-29T18:36:00.041-04:00

The memories of ARITA left behind in CURACAO and the sailing we did through the Caribbean Sea are all beginning to fade ........ We need to get back there real soon .... The hectic pace of city life is good for a while, but then it gets to be a little scary ...... The big event was the expected delivery of Laurie's grandchild, her first, a baby girl to be duly named "SOPHIE RYAN" ........

And right up to the very last Lauren-Anne was doing five mile walks and fooling around, doing the 'Captain Morgan' and 'Heisman Trophy' stances ..... Brave little trooper she is ...... All of this in good stead, for the baby popped out in record time, with only an hour and a half in labour .......'Kid on the run' you might say ..... A bit like a 'Drive-by, drop-off' type of thing ...... We were allowed into her room about 30 minutes after the event, to witness 'Princess SOPHIE' with dark long hair and mother looking like it never really happened.......... Amazing to see ....

The expectant mother and the baby never leave the room, once the baby is born, which is really neat ...... The hospital room looks like a suite in a fancy hotel with cable TV and music, and all the trimmings of a nice apartment..... Only the bar fridge was missing .......

And the proud father, young Tony, endured it all with grace and charm ......... And ever so glad it all went smoothly and painlessly ........

The 'Queen of Florida" meantime is now in an entirely different role ....... It is a giant leap from sailing in the tropics to suddenly being 'grandmother' ......... Still she gets to alternate between the two and that can't be bad, can it ? ......

Three days later and they are out and about .......... Right there is the magic of being healthy and staying healthy, and doing all that physical excercise before-hand ....... No need to go to extremes and do the rice-paddy thing, though ...... You know,.... Swing the babe on your back and go right on planting rice .....

And five days later, with her little bundle of joy curled up in her arms, the new parents are adjusting to life's new routines ......... Like the new catch phrase in one of the TV shows, as the husband rolls over in the middle of the night and says " I'll pay you a million dollars if you get up and change the baby's nappy ...."

I have been keeping 'out of harms' way' by going each day to my pal, Tommy White, the sailmaker, whose premises have slowly filled up with all the purchases for our new yacht "SOUTHERN COMFORT" ..... Mostly ebay purchases arriving daily to the loft .....
THANK YOU, TOMMY ...... He's a champion guy .....

Hundreds of bits and pieces like auto-pilots, mast rails, winches, filters, refrigeration compressors, all the stuff to do a complete overhaul and renovation of a thirty year old yacht ...... Should be fun, if it doesn't scare you half to death ......

The generator on "SOUTHERN COMFORT" is worn out so logically it needed replacing and so we purchased a new one ......... You know small, about 9KVA, enough to run all the goodies like fridge and freezer, microwave, four air-conditioners and the water maker ....... But what arrived was a unit big enough to power a small city ...... Somebody dropped the ball somewhere ...... We sorted it out eventually, and our new YANMAR GENERATOR is packed in our crate ready to be sent to PUERTO RICO, where we will do the renovation ..............

Even managed to get a specialist to weld the stainless steel exhaust pipe for the generator before putting everything in the box and screwing it shut ...... It will sit here until we first sail to Puerto Rico on "ARITA" .....

You remember those wonderful people Timo,the boat builder and Annemieke, the artist in CURACAO, with their houseboat and their beautiful yacht "BLUE MARLIN" ....... Well, Timo took a group of six young men for a cruise to the islands of 'LOS AVES' in Venezuela, a beautiful bit of paradise for a ten day sailing holiday ........ And early one morning a sudden squall came up out of the west with such force, that it dragged the anchor and put the "BLUE MARLIN" on the reef ......... And within half an hour she was a total loss ......... Our hearts go out to them, for we have seen the photos of the labour and the love that it took them to build this fine yacht ..... But having spoken to TIMO he is unperturbed ....." We will do it again and this time better", "We will go on and move forward" ..... What a guy, this boat-builder, this builder of mountain paths, this lover of life, this 'Island Man' ...... Good for you, Timo ...... Never say 'die' .... He is so inspirational ........ That's TIMO with the white cap behind the six 'buccaneers' as they were leaving Curacao .........

Speaking of 'dying' ......... Laurie's mother passed away the day before "Sophie" was born ..... Laurie's mother had been cared for in an Alzheimer's residence for years and her passing was really a blessing for everybody ...... So sad, to see a person virtually comatose day in, day out ....... And there's nothing anyone can do ......She was 83 ..... We took her ashes to the beach, a place where her happiest days were spent ........ For she and her late husband lived right on the beachfront in Jacksonville, Florida .....

This was a joint-family affair ...... For the siblings spread their mother's ashes in the ocean together with those of her late husband ....... A ritual that is probably as good as it gets, for now their remains are eternally together in an endless ocean .......

'For in water we are born and to water we should return' ...... And the ocean takes all comers ........

Anyway, you see what we mean by 'What a month we have had' ...... So, to return to a more even keel, here is a stainless steel horse ........ Bright and very shiny ..... Now in the past we may have neglected to polish our own stainless steel on board ARITA from time to time .... But in the future, whenever we do it again, both on ARITA and on SOUTHERN COMFORT, we will definitely think of this stallion, and whoever keeps it polished ...... We fly back to CURACAO on the 4th October .....WOW ..... What a month it has been ...................... Timo will pick us up at the airport ........ saying "Sorry, mate" just doesn't cut it ........

"SOPHIE" WATCH .........

2011-09-12T20:18:00.020-04:00

Nice flight from CURACAO, where we left " ARITA " with three anchors down, to the USA and to Laurie's home state of FLORIDA....... Made even nicer because for once we didn't have to do the usual, like "Take off your shoes and your belt, Sir" ... "Empty your pockets, .... Yes, take the laptop out of its case" ..... "Take your sunglasses off your head please, Sir" ..... "And your wristwatch too, please"... "Now step forward" ....... No, we had to do none of that ....... Amazing, and we were getting on an American Airlines flight too, direct for Miami ...... Thinking the whole time that Homeland Security had come to its senses at last, but ours was the exception and not the norm ....... The same stuff is still in full swing ........ Still we made it safely to Miami and stayed with Caribbean cruising friends Dudley and Becca who have the yacht 'ALTAIR' for a night of reminiscing and laughter, and a little wine ....... Or maybe it was the other way around ........ By morning we were on our way to collecting our brand new solar panels ....... Bit of struggle to get four big ones into the rented car but Laurie, the "Queen of Florida" found a way by folding the back seat down and sliding them in .......... Huge panels, that should give us a nice continuous 45-plus amps when the sun shines on our new yacht " Southern Comfort " ................

Great to see a whole warehouse full of solar panels ....... So many to chose from ..... And some as big as a dining table ............ Power for the future ....... Our four with piano hinges will fold out in a sort of parabola, to face the sun and fold in again if stormy conditions prevail .... The birth of Lauren-Anne's baby (That's Laurie's baby's baby) is the reason for our FLORIDA visit, but we might as well do some shopping for the new yacht " SOUTHERN COMFORT " while we are here ......... Lots of renovations are planned to modernize the systems ......

Our next stop was to spend time with sailing friends John & Marianne King who are also cruisers with an awesome yacht "PURA VIDA", a wonderful AMEL, one of the World's best designed cruising yachts ..... John now manages a very extensive edible fruit-tree nursery and our visit there sure made us take some wonderful pictures of palms, tropical fruit trees and early morning flowers .....

Now that's what we call " A pair of swinging mangoes " ........... You might need to back your truck up to the tree when loading these, once these are ripe ........ The whole tree in its nursery bag is only four feet tall ....... These are already bigger that the 'Queensland bullock-heart' mangoes that I grew up with, back in Oz ....... Classic genetic engineering ..... Hope they are sweet, as well as large .... We will be back in CURACAO when that happens ........

Succulants like these very small Aloe Vera and some more palm species to enjoy, like this 'bearded' palm ................

And how could we not share these beautiful 'Bird of Paradise' and these purple tipachina flowers with you .....

It is very hard for us not to share the beauty of that first Florida morning with you .... Like this magnificent 'Royal Purple' flower, a 'Tipachina' we think ....... But we need to drive on to Jacksonville in the north of Florida ...... Young 'Sophie' is busting to get out .......

Now here's the thing ...... Princess 'SOPHIE' is coming ...... That's obvious .... And in the closet are so many clothes in readiness for the great event that the 'Royal Wardrobe' simply defies description ........

We take a 'quick salt-water fix' to see the blue ocean again at Jacksonville Beach in Northern Florida, and the sea is beautifully flat ...... So are the beaches ............ Fun to see, and great to smell the ocean again ...... What a glorious summer's day ....... People are all a-gog at 'mother and daughters' on surfboards, competing for prizes .................." Sisters of the Sea " ..... Photographers out there to get the long distance photos ...... Florida's coast is shallow and waves break a long way out ........ They built a pier to get out there ....

Counting the days to "Sophie's" birth, and it is wonderful for Laurie to be here to share this moment with her daughter ............. The World's 7 billion population is about to increase by one ............... We know this blog is supposed to be about sailing, sunsets and palm trees and things, and we'll get back to that real soon ...... At least we managed to get the palm tree part in ............ And within a month we will be sailing right across the Caribbean Sea back to the Virgin islands ....... Hurricanes permitting ...... Currently they are marching through the Caribbean like a regular procession ............... NASTY BUGGERS .............. Don't go near them ........... Take our word for it .............

LATE UPDATE ................. September 17th ..... Delivery minus 18 hours or thereabouts ....

Husband Tony bouncing his wife Lauren-Anne around on the exercise ball ........ Is there such a thing as pre-child abuse....... Today looks like it is going to be 'SOPHIE DAY' ........ Now 'D' minus 17 hours .........

ART DECK-OH .......................

2011-08-31T06:45:00.068-04:00

ART DECK-OH ........ Now that's the art of painting a deck ........ We have not updated our blog for quite some time ....... Sorry about that ...... But we've been busy doing stuff on " ARITA ", like painting the deck with water-proofing CETOL that seeps right into the wood and seals those micro-cracks..... (Doesn't it look just terrific) ..... And painting the cabin top and the sides in gloss white, and both masts in chocolate brown....... And re-sealing the window frames ...... Now mast-painting is truly an 'art form' ........ Try dangling in a bosun's chair for hours, while attempting to paint a mast in 15-20 knots of wind, with the paint being torn out of your brush like a tornado ....... Anyone would say "Give it up, man", but every day brings the same wind force and therefore you would never get it done ..... So we have simply persevered .... Sad to say, but I end up with almost as much brown paint on me, as was put on the mast...... Oh, well, such is the life of a travelling cruiser ......And anyway a little thinners goes a long way ....... But for 'real art' we need only look ten yards away to our neighbours' houseboat where Timo and Annemieke jointly produce magnificent works of free form art ...... Inspiring sculptures first created by nature and then enhanced with oils ...........The collection of driftwood that Timo brings home from his sailing adventures are then made even more beautiful by Annemieke, the artist, who paints in glorious blues that depict the deep oceans surrounding CURACAO ....... And if you have never seen an 'outdoor studio' ..... Well, you have now ......

And what a studio to work in .................With the yacht " BLUE MARLIN " on one side, and their runabout on the other ............. Island living at its best .... Do a double-click on the art works below, and you will see what we mean .............

And these works are far from finished ......................

The water around the houseboat and in this part of Spanish Waters is beautifully clear for what is basically an enclosed harbour ............. Despite the wind, the waters stay relatively calm ..... A great place to anchor for the three months of hurricane season, for the permanent houseboat attests to that .......... " ARITA's " mast is just visible above the roofline ....

You have to be close to see the beauty of the creations, and you have to stand at the Ocean's door to get the full impact ...........

Timo took this group of four for an overnight sail to the island of "Little Curacao", and came back with a nice load of driftwood ............ Imagine sailing right up to your houseboat ........ Just awesome ...... And Timo took the two dogs with him for the trip ...... A yellow Labrador and a Cocker Spanial .... Do a double-click and you will see that 'bundle of yellow happiness' 'retrieving' the genoa on the foredeck ....

Needless to say 'Rakker' (rascal) and 'Tycha' (Goddess of Happiness) were so happy to be home ...... Dogs and boats, or at least sailboats, don't really go together ......

We have had a most wonderful time with our water-borne neighbours, including a Friday night trip to town to see the street musicians, art shows, and a little dancing in the plaza to some Latin music and salsa ...........

But then Monday morning comes around, and we dinghy into the fisherman's dock to catch the free bus to the supermarket ....... Not just the supermarket, but the marine stores, the laundromat (they call it the washerette) and the hardware stores ......... And while we wait for the bus to arrive, we watch and observe the fishermen's catch ........ I mean, how could you not .......

Shopping never takes long, but the supermarket has a great air-conditioned cafeteria with free coffee, and we mean 'good' coffee ......... We get an hour to do it all, and then the free bus takes us back again to Spanish Waters and the anchorage ......

Self-exaplanatory really ...... Get on the bus at 10am, come back at 11:30am ..... You've now managed to get off the boat, had a taste of A/C in the bus and in the supermarket, you've loaded up on a few non-essentials, dipped your spoon into some free coffee, walked a bit, and you can now face the rest of the steamy equatorial day once more ....... Not a bad run, really, ....... The free bus runs six days a week ......

Beautiful flowers are everywhere, including the cactus plants, whose flowers produces this fleshy fruit that is incredibly sweet to eat ...........

Overlooking our anchorage with "ARITA" just out of sight, as is the houseboat just behind the little coral outcrops ........ And we are not the only ones interested in the cactus fruit for here is an 'oriole' going to town on one of them ......

Beautiful days and glorious sunsets ............ And to the north of us, hurricane "IRENE" is passing through the Caribbean island chain, leaving more than a million people in Puerto Rico without power, as it smashes its way through Hispaniola and onto the lower Bahama islands ............

Outside one of the hotels we saw these railway 'skips' used in the bygone days in the quarry that still mines limestone today ....... The company has been in existence for probably two hundred years or so, having begun with the excavation of the phosphate deposits of 'guano' known as 'white gold' from the little island of "Klein Curacao" in the 1800s ......

That hotel on the rocky shores of the inlet into SPANISH WATERS is huge, with beautifully manicured gardens with a topsoil of mostly gravel and rock ............ Extensive sprinkler systems keep it going and keep it green only because the hotel has its own desalination plant ..........

And the sand on the beach is really more of a coarse-grained coral strip on which selected plants seem to thrive .................

This being a calm day, we take a dinghy trip on the open ocean and see the island shore from a different perspective ....... Large limestone outcrops with sparse landing places in between, and the remains of colonial fortifications .......... After all, the harbour that lies just inside these hills was worth defending ....... Deep sheltered water in an area just outside of the huricane belt that could be easily defended was prime 'real estate' a century or more ago ......

We watched the fishing boat "Baby Love" come steaming into the entrance channel ...... Now they either have a boat load of fish on board, or someone needs to man the bilge pump real soon ........ And just outside is another one of those oil drilling rigs being repaired or perhaps waiting for another contract ........

Being an island first inhabited by fisherman, the tradition has carried on with little change in boat design all of which are locally built ..... A two-man operation with boats small enough to manage ....... The fishing is mostly in deep water with hand lines and just on dusk they all come steaming back in .......

Our friend Timo has shown us the fruit on this plant and pointed out the millions of lice clinging to the sweet oozing nectar ....... In a day or so, it will produce seeds with wings and parachutes...... And he proceeded to show us this cactus plant, playing 'hide-and-seek' with another, by hiding behind the street lamp post ...... The things you can see when you travel around CURACAO are just endless ....... Stick close by ..... There's more coming ..... But later ..... First there's more painting to do on "ARITA" ........ Toe-rails are next ............

And this is the next morning's entry as the seed sack for the photo above explodes and feather-weights go flying ........... A miracle of nature ........ We are off to Florida now for about a month to witness another miracle of nature with the "Queen of Florida and the Bahamas" becoming a grandmother and the birth of 'Princess Sophie' ........ We will keep you posted ........ Meaning, we will do another posting ......... Sort of 'foreign correspondent from the front' type posting ......... Could be fun ..... "ARITA" has three anchors down, and that should hold her even in a decent blow ........ Hope so! ......

TREASURES OF THE BILGE ........................

2011-08-14T08:40:00.068-04:00

Days are rolling into weeks, as we sit in our quiet anchorage in Spanish Waters, CURACAO ....... So named, for it was in this backwater that the Spanish first built their settlement back in the 1600s, while further down the coast, the Dutch took possession of the other narrow harbour entrance and first built the NASSAU fort to protect their settlement of WILLEMSTAD ...... That harbour opens into a huge deep water area, where today there are the oil refineries, the cargo docks and all the trappings of commercial trans-shipment of goods to Venezuela and other Caribbean islands. .............. Needless to say, the Dutch took final possession of the three islands of BONAIRE, CURACAO and ARUBA ............

Whenever a vessel approaches this narrow entrance at WILLEMSTAD, the foot bridge swings away and a vessel enters like this one, assisted by tug boats ...... A very careful maneuver with not too much room to spare ...... The fly-over bridge is so high, that even cruise ships pass easily beneath this four-lane traffic bridge ......

We took another drive around the island with Peter and Jutte from the yacht "FREYA" before they left, and came across one of the few swimming beaches available on CURACAO ...... Good swimming beaches are few and far between and this one was really crowded ..... Most of the shore line is rocky with significant cliffs ........

That's not necessarily bad, for it is always a thrill to jump from a cliff ......

Couldn't help but stop again to take another look at these wild flamingos ....... Just beautiful, in their pink and crimson regalia ....... Totally absorbed in their shovel-nose feeding routine ..... You have to keep your distance though, because they frighten easily ...... I would too, if I had to have breakfast, lunch and dinner with my head underwater ......

Must hurt their eyes to be underwater like that, in water that is so much saltier due to the evaporation, for these areas are former salt ponds and the edges are lined with salt crystals ..............

Back in the 'Spanish Waters' anchorage, there is an impressive mountain to windward of us ...... Now when we say to windward, we mean TO WINDWARD for it blows constantly at least fifteen to twenty knots, and always from the same easterly direction ...... This mountain is made entirely of limestone and is being mined and exported on a grand scale .... We have lined up that excursion for yet another day ..... Part of the open-cut quarry is visible on the right, if you do a double-click on the photo ...... Most of the island is limestone and marine fossils are clearly visible wherever you go ....... The bird-life is also beautiful despite the absence of significantly large trees, for most of the vegetation is acacia thorn-tree scrub, with cactus ........ And dry as a bone ...........

The few coconut palm trees that are found are all planted, and the birds seem to delight in picking at the young fruit, thus guaranteeing that few trees will ever naturally regenerate, unlike this one that is well protected ........

CURACAO turns out to be a huge European holiday destination for sun-baking, fishing, diving and other water sports .......... Our anchorage is daily filled with flying wind-surfers, kayaks and other sailing dinghies ...... Fun to watch, and to realize that people from Europe are in heaven here, with the constant blue sky, the warm clear water and the tropical ambiance of the island life style ......

Very close to us on "ARITA" is a delightful couple who sailed from Europe to CURACAO and then extended their stay by settling and building a house-boat alongside their yacht " BLUE MARLIN " ...... Now surely, that is the best of both worlds ..... Annemieke, is an artist and she does incredible aqua oil paintings, while her husband Timo, is a boat builder and has his own workshop, also on a floating platform ...... He is Antillean born and bred ..... And between them they have a golden 'Labradog' and a rust-coloured 'Cocker Spaniard' ...... O.K., .....Just checking to see if you are really reading this ............

Some time ago, TIMO and ANNEMIEKE decided to build this incredible nature trail to the top of one of the nearby mountains ..... Mostly to do with taking the dogs for a daily walk, and over time this trail-making has been extended, so that numerous beautiful nature walks now exist for all to enjoy ...... Trail-making tools hang on a branch as you arrive in your dinghy .....

We went with them last Sunday to climb the mountain, and one of the first things Timo pointed out was the 'Brazil' tree ...... This is the tree from which a very red dye is produced that the Indians valued as face-paint ..... It is the tree for which 'BRAZIL' is named ..... The other tree with its branches going in all directions was highly prized for making wooden donkey 'saddles' on which the bags of salt could be carried ....... This is one of the few trees that is adapted to 'breathe' through its bark, and not its leaves ......

Just look at the way the stem of this 'Brazil' tree inter-twines with itself .... Do a double-click on it and see this freak of nature or perhaps there is a reason for it ........ This 'skin and bones' tree ...... There used to be a prison in AMSTERDAM, Timo told us, that was known as the 'rasp-huis' in which prisoners were forced to rasp the bark of the imported stumps of the 'Brazil' tree to obtain the 'red dye' material .... The tree stem is already near bone dry and incredibly hard, and probably more so after an ocean voyage in the hold of a ship ..... Rasping, day-in and day out ought to make anyone think twice about their anti-social ways, don't you think? ......

A steep climb to see the fantastic views over 'Spanish Waters' anchorage ....... And as we near the top we come across the remains of some goat bones and the magical sculpture of a wooden 'drummer boy' ...... Timo, our tour guide, trail blazer, trail-maker, historian, and breathing-living ecologist, tells us that he placed it here after retrieving it from one of his home-renovation projects ...... He even lights it up with a secretly-hidden battery over Christmas .... Walking up in the afternoon to switch it on, and back up again in the morning to switch it off ........ We will talk to him about getting solar panels 'borrowed' from the parking meters in WILLEMSTAD ......

Even the bright yellow finches make their nests in the hollowed out cavities of the limestone, while certain parakeets dig out little caves in the termite nests ..... The marine fossils are clearly visible in the limestone that make up the island's terraces ..............

But the view from the top is spectacular ............ Just awesome ..... The drummer boy must enjoy it, no end ........ That's "ARITA" with the green sail covers anchored near T & A's houseboat and yacht the "BLUE MARLIN" that they built themselves out of strip-plank mahogany and resin ......... Two very remarkable people ............

You can definitely now see that it's a 'Drummer boy sculpture' because from down below it is not so obvious what he is doing ........ What, with all that arm waving, etc ........

And as we climb down the mountain we re-enter the cactus world, although the trail is beautifully clean and easy walking, and spiky-free ............

Still trying to find out the name of these magnificent orange and black feathered birds ......... Believe it or not, but this photo on the left is the stem of a cactus plant that has to be at least a hundred years old ....... Perfect place for a cactus ..... Dry and hot with an occasional shower .............

We mean, who is going to go near you with defenses like that .......

We did find a dead cactus plant and we saw the woody 'skeleton' beneath the outer thorny layer ........... All very interesting, if you are into this sort of thing .... You have to understand that we have three months to spend in CURACAO for hurricane season, so we need to get out and about ..... But it really is interesting to see a dead cactus like this ....... I mean, have you ever seen a dead one this big .......

With September just around the corner, TIMO gave me a hand with setting out a second anchor ....... This one we will leave behind when we depart in October/November ..... The 10mm chain is secured to an old car chassis ........ Still wondering how that car got there ....... Never mind .......

Oh, I nearly forgot to mention the thing about 'TREASURES OF THE BILGE' ..... But would you know it, the other day while looking for some cable ties beneath the bunks I came across some socks with bottles in them ...... And those socks contained none other than two bottles of that wonderful Bahamain Mango rum .... Two whole bottles .... Whatever I said in the last blog posting about being out of 'This nectar of the Gods' was obviously a lie ..... We now have some more .... Should last at least the rest of the hurricane season ........ We put drink bottles in socks to stop the noise when we sail .......Now as to the other photo,..... Well, there is this bar in WILLEMSTAD, that serves drinks ........ Do not ask for a 'shot' or a 'shooter' or you may just get more than you bargained for .............

THE BIRTH OF " ARITA " ........

2011-08-06T12:48:00.082-04:00

Please don't think that the "Queen of Florida" who has a very pregnant daughter Lauren-Anne, who is about to give birth to a baby girl is going to call her " ARITA " ...... No that's not it at all ..... She is going to be called " SOPHIE " ... That story will be told later .....O.K. glad we've cleared that up ........ No, this birth began at least seven hundred and fifty years ago in the north island of NEW ZEALAND ......We've told this story before, but just in case you've joined our blog lately, here it is ....... You see, that pine cone at the top, is the non-flowering seed cone of a real 'kauri' tree (Agathis Australis), indigenous to the southern Pacific Ocean and in particular to New Zealand where these giant trees stood since time immemorial...... They are now unearthing perfect trees from beneath the soil that have lain dormant for more than 30,000 years ..... So perfect are they that the cut planks are indiscernible from those freshly cut trees ...... You can have a 30,000 yr-old coffee table made if you want one ....Not that too many of the present 'Kauri' trees are being cut, because they are now mostly preserved ..... But back in the days ..... You know, back then, well it turns out that the very first product ever exported from the Colony of New Zealand was 'kauri' for ship's masts back in the late 1700s ......

These massive trees were felled and then cut into manageable pieces with a giant cross-cut saw, moved with jacks and then hauled away with bulluck trains ...... Incredible pioneering work in steep mountainous country ...... But what magnificent timber stands there must have been ...... Virgin forests in a timeless landscape .....

Most of it was brought to the coast and shipped to England for construction of housing and for ship building, because the wood has an incredibly straight grain, no knots and the first branch was generally found at least fifty feet above the ground on the bigger trees ....

There's a reason for showing you all these historical photos ......... These are circa 1780-1820, when men were men, and employment was hard to come by ....... Interestingly someone saw even then the commercial value of the kauri-tree resin (gum), and shortly thereafter New Zealand saw an enormous influx of Dalmatians (we're not talking dogs here) from Croatia, whose entire families came out to dig up the country side looking for buried gum, used in the manufacture of varnish and linoleum ........

In 1899 alone, 11,119 tonnes of kauri resin (hardened, buried tree sap) were exported for the value of 600,000 British pounds ...... You really didn't need to know all that, did you?

So back to the 'Kauri' tree story ...... To get these giant logs out of the impenetrable mountains a coffer dam was built to hold back the stream and thereby float the logs into a holding pond ..... Then, on a given signal, someone would pull the 'trip' wire (visible in the photograph) and the whole lot would go cascading down the mountain valleys ... Water, logs and all in a giant rush of boiling water ..... You can see the remains of the dam in the upper part of the photo on the right ........ Do a double click on it to enlarge it .............

Once the logs reached the flatter low-land areas, then a primitive railway or bullock trains would take over ........ And in later years trucks would do the same thing. For in the far reaches of the North Island logging was always the big money earner ............. In turn, the logging and the search for kauri resin yielded cleared pastures land suitable for diversified agriculture and grazing .......

By 1973 however, the NZ Government had banned the cutting of 'Kauri' trees and massive plantings had begun ...... Conservation is now in place and the few giants that remain have become tourist attractions .....You don't just replace a 700 year old tree and hope to see it reach the same age some day ...... However, back in the late 50's and early 60's there were some still standing and one of these became the ARITA TREE ..... Estimated to be at least 700 years old and perfectly straight ................ A GIANT tree ... Just look at the people standing beneath it .............

The 'ARITA' story is as much about the man, DICK McILRIDE as it is about the tree, for it takes an incredible amount of foresight, perseverance, determination and skill to build a yacht ........ Especially when your first step is with an axe ..... An axe to chop a tree down ...... A giant of a tree, but also a giant of a man ...... That's him on the right ... And this is probably 1956-7 .... That's 54 years ago ..... Dick is still alive and doing well ....... Like I said, a giant of a man .....

With the tree down, Dick and friends want to be able to cut at least 60ft planks from the log once they get it to the sawmill, but regrettable the logging truck jambs on a bridge and is unable to be moved and so three days later they are forced to cut the giant single log into two halves ............ Nothing wrong with 30ft planks now is there? ..... Try getting those at your local hardware store ....

That's Dick's seven-year old daughter on the right ....... The lady is now near 60 and it is through her searching that we were able to get these unique photographs of "ARITA's" history ....... Photos preserved, because they were taken as Kodachrome colour slides and put away in the attic for years, until she went looking for them at my request ...... And what a find to tell this story with .......

That little blue car is a VAUXHALL .... I remember those and the flat-bed truck too ....... So anyway the log is cut and the lumber is on its way to the boat shed ..... 700 hundred year-old planks .........

Now before we go any further you have to know the next part ......... You dig a hole in the ground, put in some nice form work and backfill it with a bit of concrete for strength ......

Now Dick and friends collect all the scrap lead they can find, like old casement window counterweights, batteries etc and place it in a giant copper pot ...... These pots were around in the sixties being left over from the whaling days for if the pot sprung a leak it had the potential to burn the whole ship down ...... So they were frequently changed out ...... The lead is now heated to liquid form and ready to pour out of the pipe spigot and down the sheet of corrugated iron and into the mold .........

Some holes are drilled and fitted with copper tubes that will eventually be drilled out to take the new stainless steel keel bolts ......... And 'VOILA !!!! ' We have a six-tonne lead keel ...... Shaped and perfect .............

By now you know the meaning of 'determination' because the 6-tonne dead-weight has to be moved first onto a barge to get it across the Inlet, and then onto a dolly to get it into the boatshed ............ Yes, Dick is a giant amongst men ......

That's Dick on the right in the photo on the left ........ The frames are cut from the 'Kauri' boards and assembled over the 'king-plank', that central longitudinal rib that runs fore and aft and has the six-tonne keel attached beneath it ....... First the frames and then the stringers are attached and all to a plan from the design board of 'JOHN ALDEN, naval Architect' ..... For "ARITA' is to become a ketch of 47 feet overall with a six-foot draft ......

Months and months later, with the hull now fully planked, sanded and painted she is ready for launching .............. The 'Kauri' tree is no more, but in its place is a beautiful 'Kauri' yacht, incredibly strong and built by a master craftsman to sheer perfection ...... Built to be Dick's own yacht for sailing around New Zealand and beyond into the vast Pacific ....

Floating high and without interior fittings, engine or fuel and water tanks she is taken to be hauled out on a gravel beach at high tide, where the slower work of finishing the interior can be completed and the boatshed is free once more for another yacht construction project ....

Dick seen coming up for air while installing floors, bulkheads, cabinets and bunks ..... All to make it a liveable beautiful yacht ......... A true Classic ....... For this is what she looked like in the early 60s, sailing in the Bay of Islands, NEW ZEALAND ..... A tribute to her designer and to her builder .......

Before long she is floating and the mast is up ....... Sea trials and sailing adventures ........ Grace upon the water ........

There's a Maori museum that records the history of the 'Island of the long white Cloud' in their own terms, and in it hangs this painting of how the 'Forests of the Giants' was seen by the original inhabitants ..... One of the remains of that same era is this tunnel cut out of the mountains to haul kauri logs out of the forest ........

By the time I had acquired this beautiful yacht in 1996 in Capetown, she had changed hands several times and had crossed two oceans, having ranged across the Pacific and across the Indian Ocean ....... In the strong south-easterly winds for which the 'Cape of Storms' is famous, she was hard to steer at times, so a bowsprit was added to move the sail plan further forward ..... It is hard to improve on a 'John Alden' design, but not that hard, and it has worked wonderfully well, for now she steers with a finger's touch even in the strongest winds ...... That's a historical photo of 'ARITA' in the late 60's, outside Table Mountian near the Cape of Good Hope, in Southern Africa .......

And who would believe that a single 'Kauri' tree would end being sailed many years later as "ARITA", in the beautiful waters of the Caribbean .......... A yacht at least seven hundred and fifty years old ........ And she will easily make it to eight-hundred and beyond ...... And it certainly will be heart-wrenching to part with her, as we sit here in CURACAO and plan the future, knowing that another couple, with a love of sailing, of wood and history, will buy her in a few months time, when she becomes available ...... Someone special, who will keep her spirit alive and keep her sailing to far away places that few may ever be privileged to see .... (go back to the previous blog post and you will see why)

My gratitude and appreciation go to Dick and Pat McILVRIDE who have built such a magnificent yacht that never gave us the slightest problem in all these years....... A yacht we have sailed with incredible joy and pleasure ....... People have dreams and aspirations, but surely nothing can be harder than to dream of taking a tree from the forest and then to build an entire yacht from that very same tree...... For when I first looked under the mattress in the front cabin, I saw this jig-saw puzzle of short plank pieces, only to discover years later, that it was all part of the master plan ........ ARITA was, and would remain all KAURI, the finest boatbuilding timber in the world .............. Ask anybody .....

Food for thought, as the sun sets behind " ARITA " ......... Now half a world away from that forest, in which that 'Kauri' pine cone once sprouted forth a new sapling so very, very long ago .............. Oh, and another thing ...... Those sun-downer drinks we normally have on the back porch of ARITA .......Well,.... They are no longer 'Mango Rum' ............ For, nowadays it is 'Southern Comfort with Ice', mostly to do with the fact that we are completely out of that magical Bahamian Mango Rum, and ...... Well, ....... 'Southern Comfort' is .. hmmmmmm ... .......

THE BEST DAYS OF OUR LIVES ........

2011-07-24T13:34:00.111-04:00

Three years of cruising on the yacht " ARITA " and no-one could possibly have told us of the incredible experiences that we would have ............ No two days have been the same, no sky has held the same clouds, no peek over the side in the morning, while sipping that cup of coffee, has ever yielded the same ocean floor .............. Nothing we could have said would have lived up to the treasure we have experienced in simply sailing from FLORIDA to CURACAO by taking the slow, long way around ....... Just island hopping and taking the time to see, to feel, to touch and to taste this life ....... And when all is said and done, we did no more and no less, than anyone else could have done ........... We sailed like we were campers on a floating home, but we experienced things fit for 'Kings and Queens' ........ Here are just a few photos to bring back those memories of the last three years .............. And we have now come to a momentous turning point, for we love this cruising life and the magic that it holds ....... This has been as close to a 'real paradise' as one can get, and added to this has been the pleasure of sharing it with all who have followed us on this magical journey ..... We will never forget when these pigs swam out to us seeking food ..... Talk about 'salted pork' ...... Our dinghy horsepower versus four pig power .....

Or the Maypole dances and Laurie caught up with the drummers of the 'Junkanoo' parade in Abaco, BAHAMAS ....

Of jungle trails and traditional sailboat building from local timbers in CARRIACOU

Or the beautiful beach in the Exumas, BAHAMAS or the way we crawled through the mangroves to see those very shy flamingoes in Virgin Gorda, BVI .....

Or the incredible views of life under water and above it ........

And how do you explain the awesome beauty of a single passion flower or the peacefulness of a sleeping boobie bird, home from the fishing grounds .....

Or the way we threw food packages in blown-up ziplock bags to the hundreds of fishermen in dugout canoes along the HAITI coastline till there was no more to throw and still they kept coming, with calls of "Give me, give me" .......

Or the wonderful 'uniqueness' of the intergration in MARTINIQUE ...... So very French .....

Or to read the 'hope' in the faces of these school girls in CUBA, and to see the contrasts on their roads ......

But it was hard to beat 'Carnival' in MARTINIQUE for sheer colour and art ....

Or to see a lone fisherman clean his catch of conch shells or to be anchored at the finish line of Island Regatta races in Georgetown, BAHAMAS ....

Or to be able to witness the incredible beauty of the 'Classic' yachts entered into the annual Antigua Classic Regatta ..............

Or to see a fishing boat built 45 years ago, entirely out of cement and chicken wire, and still floating and working in a CUBAN harbour, or to see eye to eye with a bright green iguana in PUERTO RICO .....

Those fabulous Bahamian races in crystal clear water ......... So hard to describe the spectacle ..... You have to be there to see it ....

And throughout the islands there is wildlife ... You just have to take the time to see it .....

And there's 'wildlife' on ARITA too, when the 'Queen of Florida' had a birthday ... Or to reflect on that 'ZEN' moment .......

So after three years of incredible sailing through the Caribbean, we have decided to make a change, a huge change ...... A profound change ...... WE ARE GOING TO SELL OUR BEAUTIFUL KETCH " ARITA " ...... Yes, it is really true, but here is the good part, we have bought another yacht already...... It will be hard to replace the grace and the history that is ARITA, but here's our reasoning ....... We love this cruising lifestyle and we want to cruise for at least another fifteen years ....... Each and every time we wanted to have friends or family come to visit, we simply did not have the space, despite the fact that ARITA is 52 ft long ............ Space enough for cruising, space enough for all the cruising supplies and space enough for the two of us, but not space enough for five or six people ...... So with grandkids growing, and distances likely to be longer as we head into the Pacific Ocean we decided to go BIGGER ...... Not more 'classic', just bigger .....

Well, like the rest of the world we went online and searched, discarding one boat after another until we found a 'possible' in VIRGIN GORDA' ..... A former charter boat named "SOUTHERN COMFORT" ..... Anyway the name seemed right, after all, we are heading 'southern' and the 'Queen of Florida' is southern and there's nothing wrong with 'comfort' ........ So if you look at the map and see all the little blue lines, you can be sure that we just about flew all of them to get to VIRGIN GORDA in the BVIs to go take a look at this yacht .........

Laurie doing a quick 'skype' to her daughter who is expecting a baby girl in September, while we wait anxiously for the highspeed ferry to take us across from TORTOLA to VIRGIN GORDA .......

OK, THIS IS HER ...... AND THAT'S THE "QUEEN OF SUDDEN COMFORT" SITTING RIGHT THERE ON THE AFT DECK .... You may have to do a double-click on this photo to zoom in .... We did say we were going bigger, didn't we .............Oh, and it has five heads ....... Definitely going to change that ....... And it is not built of wood but of 'fantastic plastic' and we can live with that, for at least down below it is all wood and really 'cozy' .............. And spacious enough for two wheelchairs .... You know, for later on ...... Might even put in an electric head ....... Our future 'handicrapper' ......

Lots of bunks and lots of space and lots of everything .......

Best we could do was put in an 'offer' to the broker ........... This is a huge step for us, and there's no turning back .......

We made the call to the yacht broker by using our computer and 'skype' and wait to see what will happen .... We take a walk to smell the water-lillies in the pond, but our senses are numb ... Wonder why .....

Our return flight to CURACAO is even more of those blue lines, and we end up arriving late at night in ANTIGUA having stopped off in St. MARTIN and St. KITTS...... Now normally you have to stay in the transit lounge till your next flight takes off ...... Not so in ANTIGUA ..... Though you are not officially in the country, they ask you to step outside the airport and do whatever you want ....... Our next flight is due to depart at 0500am ...... That's a six-hour wait ......

Those benches are hard and the mosquitoes fearsome ........ We have moved rapidly from potential 'two-yacht' owners to homeless people on a park bench outside the airport ...... Are we having fun yet? ...

Beautiful cloud formations in the morning as we fly south to St. LUCIA, BARBADOS and then TRINIDAD ....... We are on 'CLOUD NINE' .... It is over there on the right somewhere ....

We spend a night with wonderful Willie and Mark, on "LIAHONA" in TRINIDAD, the sister-ship to 'SOUTHERN COMFORT' that has inspired us all along, and an email arrives telling us our 'offer' has been accepted by the seller ..... THE DEED IS DONE ..... And on the way home to CURACAO, amazingly we fly over those very anchorages we were in less than two weeks ago, in Los Roques, VENEZUELA .... Just beautiful from the air ..... Which brings us full circle, in that our cruising experiences are just too beautiful to ever give up .......

Experiences like these magnificent tropical flowers ......

And the Carnival head-gear that surely was inspired by these same flowers ...... And we mean colourful ....

So it looks like the sudden 'Queen of Comfort' is going to become the " QUEEN OF SOUTHERN COMFORT" ....... What a title, and what a pleasure ...... We'll tell you later all the changes that need to be made .......

Emotionally, we will always be bonded to "ARITA", after all, we were married on the foredeck, but with a bit of goodluck there will be an adventurous couple who will be inspired by our travels ..... Who may want to follow in our footsteps and to sail her to far away places, for it is not everyone who has a 'Classic' John Alden ketch build from a single giant tree by a master craftsman, of beautiful 'kauri' wood, the finest boat-building timber in the world .....

Do a double-click on the photo of the 'Tobago Cays' and you will see "ARITA" anchored in the middle somewhere ............

Memories of three years of wonderful sailing and islands and anchorages all to ourselves ......

Of magnificent places few will ever see unless you come by sea .......

And of mountains and volcanoes we have climbed, of rock cleavages we have crawled beneath and estuaries we have explored ..... For this has been our cruising life ........ And the lifestyle we have chosen .... Nature's gift to all of us, and if you can't escape, then follow along with us on this magical journey some more .....

Of rocky outcrops and beach bars and palm trees that sway and sing .......

And of grotesque masks at Carnival, to scare the devil right out of you, and to see 'culture and pageantry' woven into exquisite art forms, that are both mystical and masterful ...... And all discarded after three days of Carnival .......

So did the birds do it first and the people copied their colours, or was it the other way around? .........

No, it is nature and its Creator that are the inspiration to us all, for look at the unparalleled beauty that is within so many things ................ Even those things created by man ..............

But our 'first love' will always be "ARITA", a magnificent ketch, beautifully crafted with so much history .............

But after three wonderful years on the water, it is all about the experiences and not about the boats............ It is what you go through each day and what you reflect upon during your shower at the end of the day and those memories just before you fall asleep ............ And of course there's a huge difference between " Hope in your soul ...... and soap in your hole "........... Goodnight !!!! .....

CURIOUS CURACAO ................

2011-07-24T07:59:00.077-04:00

Definitely not the most beautiful island in the Caribbean Sea, but it does have its charm ......... Several hundred years of being under Dutch control has left its mark in language, customs, architecture and ways of doing things ......... Initially established as a 'trading center', nothing seemed to have changed in that regard ....... Warehouses and supply houses everywhere and the prices for most commodities are considerably lower than anywhere else in the eastern island chain ............ It certainly is a mega tourist destination for the Netherlands, for last night at a beach hang-out near one of the resorts, we were left with the impression that there must be very few people left back in Holland ..... Not exactly true, because those left behind are the ones who used to live in Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao, according to some tourists ............ The island of Curacao is predominantly made of uplifted seabed with huge exposed sections of limestone ...... Actually it was the sea level dropping that exposed the island, and in the process the island is honey-combed with caves ........ The photo above is not an aerial photo at all, but a close-up of calcite ridge formations found in one of the caves ....... Water perculates inside a cave forming minute 'rice-paddies' where the standing water evaporates and the dissolved lime builds the wall a little higher each time .......... Nature, even deep inside a dark cave, is fascinating and beautiful as are the nightly sunsets we seem to get ......... Do a double-click on the photo and you'd never guess what it was ...... Not ever ......

One of those cultural differences was lunch ............... Here we observed a whole bunch of people eating 'pannekoeken' ....... Pancakes done with batter, fried apple and raisins with a thin dusting of powdered sugar, and on the side a delicious 'croquette' a crumbed roll containing a paste made of chopped veal, lightly fried in oil .....Not the average lunch combination now, is it .....

We are in the anchorage of 'Spanish Waters' which is really shaped like a hand, in which the fingers are all deep water inlets and the wrist is connected to the ocean through a narrow pass ..... Very secure and safe, but far removed from town so that we need to catch a bus for a thirty minute ride .... Could be a lot worse ... Near the bus stop are all the little fishing dories that seem so fragile, but they hug the shoreline and troll for fish, sometimes with amazing results, one of which we saw was an 80lb yellow-fin tuna .............. The waters run deep very close to shore here .............

We teamed up with Peter and Yutte of the good ship "FREYA" once more, to do a little tour by car around the island and away from the industrial side of things, for there are huge ship repairs and refineries on CURACAO .... Just past the airport are caves in the exposed limestone beds, inhabited by tourists during the day, and by bats and iguanas the rest of the time .......... Initially these sub-subterranean caves were discovered and occupied by runaway slaves, but the lack of food eventually drove them to stealing food and subsequent capture ..... The blackened roofs of their fires have persisted in this very dry climate ...... For the several weeks that we have been here the wind has not moderated nor have we seen rain .............. But we have seen plenty of cacti and plenty of iguanas who love this climate ............

The tour guide to the caves gave his discourse first in Dutch and then in English ......... Echoes of both came out of the darkness ....... Photos were only allowed where there was natural light so as not to disturb the fruit bats that give the caves such a distinctive 'flavour' .......

The 'Madonna' statue, a stalagmite formation inside the cave, is the most arresting of the natural sculptures ...... The authorities have even broken off the stalactite to prevent further deposits on the lower part, despite the fact that it only grows 1cm every hundred years ..... That has to be the absolute, absolute ultimate record in 'foresight' anywhere on the Planet .....

The original 'Caiquetio' Indians who inhabited the island about 1500 years ago left some religiously-inspired carvings in the walls that have been preserved with synthetic lacquer to prevent decay by mold and air pollutants ....... Similar carvings have also been found in the Orinoco River Delta in Southern Venezuela, near to Guyana, from where those native Indians are believed to have come .....

Fenced off for protection, the hieroglyphics are difficult to discern and interpret .......

Typical of Dutch rural homestead architecture, this is 'Landhuis Docterstuin' now converted to a restaurant, with its display of historical items and furniture and caters for lunch ....... Interestingly, we were the only 'tourists', but the place was packed with at least 80 locals from Curacao ...... All eating, all talking in Dutch or Papiamento which is the local dialect, and all drinking local beer ..... All very well dressed and happy ...... Perhaps it is a tradition to eat out on Saturdays ...

Saw some others also eating out ....... The historical salt-flats are no longer worked commercially and are now home to migrating flamingos that move around to different flats on the island...... We were fortunate to see a few of them shoveling for the pink crustaceans that give their feathers the pink colour, though we were told that they are becoming white, because the crustaceans are becoming white ............ Have to admit that they looked pretty pink to us ........

Back in WILLEMSTAD, we once again grab some fresh fruit from the 'floating market'....... Floating market, because the fresh fruit comes from Venezuela by boat ..... Or at least it once did, for the stalls attached to the vessels seemed to have an awful lot of oranges, peaches, grapes and plums with California stickers on them ..... No doubt part of the America 'free-trade' Agreement .... Very colourful and very reasonably priced .....

Directly across the street from the fishing boats and the floating market are the residences of the merchants who have historically 'traded' here for Centuries .... You don't have to dig deep to find cobble-stones streets here and much of the traffic is one-way ....... For it has to be, since all lanes and alleys are exceedingly small ....... Donkey-cart small .....

We even saw the long floating foot-bridge swing open to allow a speedboat into the harbour ........ Even imported wine like this little beauty from Bordeaux, is very reasonable priced in the supermarket at Fl 10.00 (that's Antillian guilders) which equates to about $US 6.00 ........ Weak price for strong red plonk ......

Throughout the night our anchorage has been lit up by the construction that has gone on around the clock on this oil-drilling platform ............. Well, we finally saw it being towed offshore into Venezuelan waters ........... VENEZUELA is reported to have one the largest oil reserves in the World, and also one of the least reserves in common-sense diplomacy, but that may change .............. Certainly with such untapped wealth, the prosperity level of the people should be going ahead in leaps and bounds, but all we heard from Venezuelans was the opposite ........ VENEZUELA lies only about 30 miles to the west of CURACAO .......

A great day touring with Peter and Yutte ......... Thank you both ..... Now back to getting chores done, for there is always work to be done and now especially, for it is hurricane season and we will remain landlocked for several months ....... Things are not bad though, for we have an incredible plan in the making ........ Can't wait to tell you ...... Just don't know how to do that just yet ........... Working on it ......

At least we don't have the problem of this home-owner, whose gutters are due for a clean-out ............ Or maybe they just like it that way ............ Sort of 'one-up-manship' on the window flower-box theme ...... I wonder if the neighbours have 'cactus envy' ........

BONAIRE AND CURACAO .................

2011-07-12T04:12:00.023-04:00

Reaching BONAIRE and sailing around the end of the island brought us back into 'civilization', so to speak ...... Cars visible on land, high rise buildings, factories in the distance and houses on the hillsides ......So very different from the beauty of the reefs and atolls of LOS ROQUES and LOS AVES ...... Yes, we were back to communication and internet again, or at least we thought so ....... Customs and Immigration was warm and friendly, the friendliest and speediest we had ever had and free too .............. Saw some student artworks on a wall ... Brightly painted pieces of driftwood ..... Clever ... In KRALENDYK, the main town on BONAIRE, the sea water drops to 700 feet almost immediately along the shore and only by picking up a mooring can you stay there ....... Funny thing, that ..... 12ft deep at the bow and 50ft deep at the stern .... And 80 ft under the dinghy floating out astern ....

We caught up with Ray and Lea again on the catamaran 'EQUINOX II' and collectively all six of us went out for dinner overlooking the moored yachts ....... Ripped into 'ribs on the rack'..... Clearly we have all been meat deprived ....... We said our farewells once more and cleared Customs to do another 35 mile passage downwind to CURACAO ..... ARITA and FREYA side by side ........

But prior to that when we first rounded BONAIRE it was hard to miss the conch shell hills when we sailed close inshore, only this time it is not conch shells at all, but salt...... Mountains of salt, produced by evaporating sea water from the shallow flats .....

We sailed past this quaint house with what looked like a series of change rooms along a beach, all painted white and pretty .......... And then arrived in KRALENDYK only to discover that those quaint little buildings were former slave quarters for the thousands who worked and died in the salt mines ...... Manually hauling and racking salt that nowadays is done with machines ........ A torrid brutal past .....

Anyway, on to CURACAO, a much more developed island and our entrance into Spanish Waters through a barely discernable cut in the coastline ....... And so we waved goodbye to the last of the convoy, as "FREYA" sailed on further to get rigging work done in a marina in WILLEMSTAD ....

Inside Spanish Waters all is quiet..... Far too quiet and boring, for we are already missing the splendour and magic of LOS ROQUES and LOS AVES .... We look at the nearest hill and the oil platform anchored nearby in morbid fascination, fully realizing that with hurricane season now active in the Caribbean, we need to stay put and shut up ..... And yes, we also need to do Customs and Immigration again ........ We'll do that Monday, for it is blowing 25 knots at the moment, and a dinghy ride will be a wet one ...... Town and Customs is a 30 minute bus ride away .....

WILLEMSTAD is situated on another cut in the coastline, with quite deep water inside ..... Deep enough for cruise ships and town has a floating bridge that allows foot traffic access to both sides .... And when a ship approaches, one end of the bridge powers to the other side, dragging the bridge sideways ..... And if you are on the bridge you get to go sideways at no extra cost ..... Should the bridge stay that way for any length of time, then there are ferries that run you to the other side for free ...... all way too civilized, but very practical ....

We are still wondering why Customs is on one side, Immigration a mile away on the other side and the Port Office, where you pay $US 10.00 fee to anchor your vessel, is further away still .... Not only that, but the Port Office only works in US Dollars, while everything else in CURACAO works in Dutch 'Guilders', and the Dutch themselves in Netherland work in Euros ...... We have the whole hurricane season to work it out ...... Should be doable ....

Then again take a look at this fancy car parking meter box ...... Solar powered and the solar cells are still there ....... Amazing ...... Wouldn't like the chances if that system was tried anywhere else in the Caribbean ...... We saw the same parking meters everywhere in WILLEMSTAD ....... Free parking can probably be found where the parking meter is in a shady street ........ Hmmmm, a whole new interpretation for 'shady' .....

BIRDS OF A FEATHER FLOCK TOGETHER .......

2011-07-12T03:24:00.042-04:00

It is only 29 miles to 'LOS AVES' off the coast of VENEZUELA which is just long enough for a good sail and short enough to be able to navigate with the sun overhead and clear visibility so as to see the shallow reefs ....... This place, just like 'LOS ROQUES' takes your breath away for sheer beauty and splendour ..... And the skies are filled with swarming birds ......This is truly the 'LAS VEGAS FOR BIRDS' .......

Some local fishermen came by the next morning to do some "TRADING" ....... They wanted to exchange lobsters for snorkels and fins, and produced this 'ratty yellow and blue fin sewn together with string', and a painful expression of 'need and want' ..... Had the feeling that they may have been tutored by someone direct from HAITI ..... Anyhow, we handed over two extra sets of fins and two masks and snorkels to their great delight ...... Lobsters are nice, but they were definitely on the winning side of that 'trade' ....... Cruisers in BONAIRE later told us that the same 'ratty yellow and blue hand sewn fin' has done the rounds on all passing yachts, generally with the same beneficial effect ....... Never underestimate the 'pitch' of a fisherman or a horse salesman ....... The yacht EQUINOX II, part of our travelling convoy, had left earlier in the morning and missed out on the lobster fest ......

But what we had really come for was to see the 'BOOBIES' that nest in the mangrove trees ...... We took the dinghy to get a closer look ... Close enough for us to see the 'boobies' and far enough for the mosquitoes not to see us ...... BOOBIES in their various stages of growth from juveniles to maturity ........

When fully grown they are an ash-grey brown and all have bright red feet .......

In most cases we were only a few metres away from them, yet there was no fear or fright in the birds, who sat silently on their perches and were almost oblivious to us in our dinghy ..........

They are awesome to watch in flight, as they swoop low to the water level and scoop a fish up with their open beak ........ And the wing span is sizeable too ...... This is one place not to drag a lure behind your yacht, for you are sure to catch a booby, which under 'entirely different circumstances', might not be so bad at all .......

You should really do a double-click on these photos to see just how many boobies are roosting in the branches ........

Felt just a little guilty about not showing you what a home-cooked lobster meal looks like ....... Felt even more sad that Ray and Lea (EQUINOX II) were not there to join in, but the four of us made sure that there was nothing left to go to waste ...... Peter even took all the legs back to 'FREYA' to make a lobster bisque for the next day .........

Now we know that we are safely anchored in 12 feet of water well away from the shore, just like 'FREYA', even if our chartplotter shows us clearly to be on land ...... Up till now at least, the navigation has been accurate, but here in these remote atolls and reefs, far removed from normal shipping lanes, you have to do everything with eye-ball navigation and certainly never at night ..... But once you have your track recorded on the chartplotter, you are generally able to exit safely backwards along that same line, which kind of helps, if you need to get out of there in a hurry ........

Once away from the reefs and birds we dropped a fishing line in the water with some pretty quick results ....... A nice juicy 4ft long WAHOO, and far too excited to estimate the weight ...... Amazing how one can be so sensitive about fluffy birds and so totally insnsitive about bloody fish ... Now why is that so? .....

We anchored for the night in another part of 'LOS AVES' and invited another yacht from Argentina to join in our fishy feast ......... Sashimi appetizers, lobster bisque and grilled wahoo, served with chilled white wine .... I'm telling you ...... WAHOO ...... And in the morning we were out exploring, despite the strong winds at over 20 knots .......

The fishermen in this area have made their living harvesting conch shells ....... Mountains of them are lying bleached in the tropical sun ....... In fact, the highest part of the islands are the hills and heaps of conch shells, if you don't count the few struggling palm trees or a flagpole ...... These shells are not endangered, for their growth and reproductive rates are sizeable and the shallow lagoon environment is near perfect for sustainable growth ....... By far the greater danger lies in the trash and spilled oils that drift in over the barrier reefs ..........

Another passage is planned for the morning, this one about 40 miles heading for the Dutch island of BONAIRE ......... There is just FREYA and ARITA left of our convoy as we head west with the prevailing wind and sloppy seas behind us ....... At least we are sailing and that's always good ........ A good night's sleep and we will be off at 0700hrs and should arrive some six hours later ......

So nice to get FREYA to take photos of ARITA and vice-versa ......Getting photos of your own yacht under sail is never easy ....... Your hand just won't stick out far enough ...... And duct-taping your camera to a boathook gets you a photo of your boathook ....... And loses your camera in the drink ...... This method is much better .......