A very long journey

As you know, my dear Nikon D70S had taken a tumble and stopped taking pictures a week or so back. I had just purchased a new memory card on arrival to BVI and was ready to take some really great shots of the islands. Alas, it was not to be.

'Nikon' has travelled with me on vacations to South Africa, Egypt, Jordan, Kenya and Thailand amongst other places. She has traveled through the deserts of Oman and UAE and has explored Turkey with me. Nikon is a well travelled camera and has crossed the Atlantic so many times over the past 11 years, I can't begin to count.

I decided the best place to have her fixed was back in Canada so she went along with Antje and travelled back via Puerto Rico, New York and Toronto before landing up in Huntsville. From there, Antje passed her over to Scott who took her back to Barrie and handed her over to Diane and Dad. They took Nikon into Camera Works in Barrie where Bryan Russnell took her in and repaired her. I would recommend Camera Works to anyone looking for a place where you can trust they will do a good job at a fair price. We have used him before and have not been disappointed.

So now Nikon has been handed over to Michelle who will accompany her to Curaçao where we will meet in a weeks time. I can't wait to see Michelle and will be very happy to have Nikon back again. I can start taking some 'better' pictures to share on the blog. I know I will never see my photos published in National Geographic, but I get a lot of pleasure taking them and sharing them with you.

Such a long journey ... But well worth it.

Catching up with a few photos

A beautiful rainbow to welcome us to Bonaire

A few photos from St.Martin. The lovely Segwun, leaving St Martin, and St Eustatias off in the distance.

And, of course ... A sunset

St Martaan to ....

Day 1, February 23. The freezer is fixed (or so we think) and the weather window looks Iike it might be a good time to cross the Caribean sea. We have decided to head directly to Curaçao and forgoe the Leeward islands of Martinique, St Lucia, Grenada, etc. We have been rushing from port to port and this will allow us to spend a week or more in one spot. We had decided to stop the marathon and turn down the speed a little.
We left Marigot, St Marten at 14:30 headed West to the turn Southwest toward Curaçao. The sun is setting on our first night at sea with the island of St Eustatis visible just off the port side and St Martaan still visible behind us. The wind is favoring us coming on our backs and the waves or swells are coming to our side. We are travelling at 6 or so knots and making good time, we are a little more prepared this time with food ready to assemble and our minds ready for at least four nights at sea. So far, a good start.
Day 2, February 24. It was an uneventful night. Still good winds, sunny days and fairly large swells. No land in sight . Strangely enough, we see a few birds. We did a bit of fishing, but no luck. I think we can probably call it even now. We have all placed our bets as to when we will arrive at our way point which Jens put in which is just to the north of Curaçao.
Day 3, February 25. We are now just over half way there. The wind is still good. Because the waves are coming from the side, it makes it rather rocky and rolly. It is starting to get a bit tiresome. Last night the winds increased and Jens was getting ready for the worst. This means getting the life raft ready to deploy, getting our panic bag ready, etc. our little boat seems to like the winds and waves and just keeps on going.
Oh, yes. Forgot to mention. The DAMN freezer has given up on us. And for some strange reason the genset won't charge the batteries.
Happy Birthday Mary Lou! We will have a toast to you when we land and can crack open an ice cold beer! Enjoy the cruise.
Eric and Liz baked a chocolate cake. What a wonderful treat for our afternoon snack. Yes, imagine. In all the rocking and rolling of the boat they came up with a delicious cake with icing. We do enjoy our small pleasures.
Day 4, February 26. It is Sunday morning. More of the same. Water, wind, waves, rocky boat, not enough sleep. We are all a little tired but we know we are almost there. Eric is the winner of our bet guessing we would reach our waypoint by 8 pm on Sunday.
And we decided to pop into Bonaire for a visit on our way. We arrived in the dark and picked up a mooring just off shore. Got a good nights rest and are ready to explore the island. Since we'll be around the same place for a while, we are open for visits.

St Martin /St. Martaan

We left BVI yesterday around 10:30 and arrived to St Martin at 02:30.motored all the way but the ocean was quite calm and the stars were shining bright.

Bad news is, our freezer has quit on us again. We have someone coming to take a look at it today. It might just become a beer cooler if we can't get it fixed ... Which is fine with me, but it also means relying on more canned foods during our Pacific crossing. Hmmmm. I think I could pass on the cold beer given a choice.

Oh yes,and our experience so far on the French side (St. Martin) ... I don't like to be negative, but it won't take much for the Dutch to impress us. Or is it just that I had too little sleep and am not my normal patient happy self?

Cleaning up and getting ready to go again

It's time to move on. We have spent the day doing laundry and cleaning the boat inside and out, changing oil and taking a last bit of sun and fun at Nanny Cay Marina. We want to be in Panama by March 16 to drop Eric and Liz off as they plan to head up to Costa Rica to meet up with some friends from Canada.

My Nikon is headed home with Antje for repairs. It fell in the cockpit the other week. Hopefully it will be repaired and on its way back to me soon. In the meantime, I am using my trusty Sony Cybershot. I am borrowing Eric's camera kit he bought for the iPad so I can download the photos to my iPad since my Mac is still out of commission. It looks like I'll be able to get that fixed in Panama with some help from a good friend Fredrik. In the meantime I have a very cumbersome work around solution for updating the blog. I had to download (and pay for) an app called blogsy. This allows me to import photos from my iPad and write my blog. The I can publish my blog from there. However, I have not yet figured out how to put captions on the photos. And without my Mac I can't edit my photos. You are getting them raw and untouched.

Tonight we will prepare food for the sail tomorrow. Heading out early to St. Martin / St. Maarten. We expect it will take us around 20 hours of sailing/motoring depending on the wind.

The Cleaning Brigade

Friends from far

 We have had a wonderful two weeks in BVI and it is soon time for us to move on.  We had a great time with Peter, Bettina, Jaspar and Lone from Denmark, Stefan and Anna who are here on SY Ayama (photo below) and our on board guest, Antje.  Antje is heading back to Canada with a nice tan and a few bruises.  Well, I guess I have to explain the bruises.  We all have a few, especially at the beginning when we are still getting used to the movement of the boat and the small spaces.  I think, other than the bruises, she has thoroughly enjoyed her vacation,

 We had a farewell BBQ aboard 'no drama' with the Danes at Great Harbour on Jost Van Dyke island.

 This is the rum distillery at Cane Garden Bay which is supposedly still in operation.  It is a little doubtful to us, but they say they produce several thousand gallons of rum per year.

The sunsets at Cane Garden Bay are said to be the most beautiful in the BVI.  I would tend to agree.

Nothing like an early morning in the marina. The roosters are crowing, the sun is just coming up and the marina is slowly coming back to life. I am sitting with my iPad catching up on email watching the early risers heading to the showers bleary eyed and hair mussed up.
We had a nice dinner with our Danish friends. We're hoping to meet up with Stefan and Anna today. It seems they have finally found their way to BVI!

Captain is happy and first mate is feeling good.

Island hopping in BVI

 We have had some really great days Island hopping, snorkeling, enjoying beautiful sunsets, and of course the island tradition of happy hour with rum punches and painkillers.  Don't ask me what is in a painkiller, but the way they mix drinks here you only need one!

We have seen a great variety of fish snorkeling around.  The cutest is the hermit crabs who love to take ownership of old conch shells.  Eric brought one up to the boat for a visit.
 We also got some nice conch and with a little determination and help from some you tube videos, Eric and Jens got them out of the shell and made delicious conch salad.  A couple of the shells were given to Benitta and Antje and the rest were donated to the Hermit crabs.

We had a great day exploring the rocks at The Baths on Virgin Gourda.   Really interesting rock formations.

The cruise time between islands is usually under an hour. We just sit back and enjoy the scenery.
Antje is having a great time.  Luckily the seas have been very calm and the journey gap has been pleasant.

Tonight we will have a nice dinner at a restaurant.  I'm looking forward to a juicy steak with a nice baked potato.  I love fish, but we haven't had steak since Christmas... !!!

Leverick

BVI Feb 7 to 10

 The British Virgen Islands experience ...
Definitely a paradise location and ideal for the casual sailor.  The distance between islands is quite short, the scenery is beautiful and the water is a lovely 27 degrees Celsius.
We spent the first two nights at the Nanny Cay marina.   It turned out to be an excellent choice.  They had a large Budget Marine store for Jens and a lovely beach and pool for the rest of us.
We left from there dat before yesterday, went through the Sir Francis Drake  channel around Beef IsIand and across to Monkey Point.  We met up with Peter and Bettina, friends from Denmark who are here on vacation.  We snorkeled and swam before heading out to Scrub Island where we took a slip at the new posh marina and resort. The prices were a bit extravagant so we cooked on the boat and partied on Peter's boat till the wee hours.  Let me tell you what I think expensive is.  The small grocery shop was charging $4.95 for one liter of milk and $1.50 for a can of coke.  That would be $14.50 for a 12 pack compared to $5.99 back home,
The next day we headed out to "the dogs" for some snorkeling.  Great variety of fish and corals.  Then we scooched over to virgin gourda island to moor for the night.  We took a cab ride up to Hog Heaven for lunch today and saw the view from one of the highest points of the islands.  Gorgeous view, great ribs and it feels like it is now time for a wee nap. 
Living in paradise can make one a little tired.

Some new pictures

Our new crew member.

Antje has joined the crew of SY Segwun yesterday, appropriately sporting her Segwun t-shirt. She will join us for 10 days of Island hopping. A quick note to Gordon... We don't have your email address, so please send us mail at sy.segwun@gmail.com. Antje has arrived safe and sound and thanks Monte for the gift. (very funny, we hope we don't encounter such a situation). :).

BVI at last!

Hi everyone! It's been a while since I last posted on the blog. A lot has happened. I will give it to you from three perspectives. The captain's, mine and the crew.

Captain's diary.
My list of repairs continues to grow. Fridge and freezer are repaired and we have a reefing rope for the genoa. It isn't the right size rope and I'm not 100% confident that I can use it to reef the sail, but at least I can use the genoa. And I did a temporary repair on the water pump. It was a broken membrane so I patched it up with the bicycle repair kit. We left Domican Republic on Thursday morning with plans to sail nonstop to BVI. The first day was great. We saw some whales off the port side. Got around the eastern tip of D.R. And into the Mona Passage the next night. High swells and a strong wind coming in the wrong direction. I was just about to give it up. Turn around and just sail with the wind for once. Well, this was after I had broken the toilet and my repair on the water pump fell apart. Add that to the list, together with our broken stern navigation light. Oh, how do you break a toilet? When the waves come up to meet you, and you're heading down to sit on the toilet ... I was suddenly on the floor of the toilet with the bowl between my knees. What next. Oh, yes, forgot to mention that when we raised the stay sail, I noticed a seam coming apart. So, now I'm sailing with a genoa I can't reef, no stay sail, a toilet held together with duct tape, no runnung water and wind that just won't cooperate.

The wind changed direction and we were making good time again. I knew I would be motoring the rest of the way to BVI so we looked for a place to top up fuel. We headed into Ponce, Puerto Rico to find that they close at 3 pm on Saturday. We should have headed back out, but we were all a little exhausted from the bumpy ride during the last 48 hours. We moored up to the fuel dock for the night. Sunday morning we were all ready to go when we checked the weather. Not good. We waited till late afternoon hoping the winds would die down a little. All the other sailors in the port were going to sit it out till Thursday or Friday.

I found a marine store hoping to get a new toilet and rear navigation light and a repair kit for the water pump. We got ome out of the three. Good thing we have two heads on board. Now we had running water and fuel, but a small craft advisory. One more night in port.

We left Ponce Monday around 5 pm and got around the east cost of Puerto Rico in the early hours of Tuesday morning and finally got to Road Town harbor at 8pm. Thank God for the full moon and Eric's help, we secured a good anchorage for the night.

From The diary of the First Mate.
We have completed the last long leg of the journey to BVI. It was a tough trip, long bouncy days and nights at sea and my seasickness just doesn't seem to go away. I sit in the cockpit for most of the time, reading, doing crossword puzzles and soduku during these trips. It was great to see the islands. They are really beautiful. We arrived on the 7th and picked Antje up the next day. We are now settled in a really nice marina at Nanny Cay. Life is wonderful. We have a nice beach, small shops, and a really nice bathroom and showers for the marina guests. And free wife!

The captain has his list of maintenance. And I have mine. The memory card on my camera has given up. I guess I can't complain, as I've had it for coming on 11 years. But my biggest frustration has been with my Mac computer. Before Christmas, the hard disk crashed and I lost all the photos I had taken on our journey down the ICW. Now I have a problem with the screen going funny colors and worse still, it will no longer charge. I am doing the blog with my iPad now, which means slow going on the typing and I can't upload photos. Road Town Apple store don't offer repair services, but I was able to buy a new memory card for my Nikon.

Crew's perspective.
Finally we have reached paradise. Big smiles and happy times. The journey has been an experience, but we are both glad we're here.


Disclaimer...all of the above are my interpretation of the journey.

Lunch at Il Pasticcio

Lunch in the city of Santiago at a funky Italian restaurant

Time to go Again

We're off today hoping to reach Tortolla, BVI by February 7th!  We will likely not have internet along the way.
Yesterday we had a wonderful day exploring Dominican Republic.  Post and pics will come later.
Till then - hope you are all enjoying your February.  Remember, it's the shortest month of the year so make the most of every day!

Repairs are done - just waiting on the weather!

The Genoa laid out on the dock to get cleaned.  Liz and Eric are holding it down.

Folding the Genoa getting ready to put it back on the mast.  A little help from our neighbours on Kismet.

Eric and Jens raising the Genoa in the early morning when the wind is low.

Ok - I know there are a lot of questions as to "why did those ropes break"!!!  Jens believes the halyard was chaffing on the roller at the top of the mast.  There are three spare rollers, so when he remounted the halyard, he used one of the spares.  And why did the reefing line break?  More chaffing - this time it was chaffing against a block.  He has also adjusted that and we should be good to go.  He'll keep an eye on them both over the next little while.

We spent half a day scouring Puerto Plata yesterday looking for new rope.  We found some but it was a bit thinner than the old rope.  It will do for now but we'll replace it as soon as we get to BVI. And we'll buy some extra in case we run into further problems.

Oh yes, one more small problem.  The membrane on the water pressure has given up so we get a lot of air into the pipes which makes for a bit of an experience when washing hands ---  the water literally spurts out at you.  We can live with this one till we get to BVI as we doubt we'll find replacement parts here.  We hope the marine stores will be better equipped in Tortolla.

Our first month of "LIVING THE DREAM"

It's hard to believe we have traveled so far during one month.  We realize now that our plan has been a little ambitious.  Most of the cruisers we talk to are astonished at how far we have traveled.  They do the same, but in about 3 or 4 months!  Ah well, we live and we learn.