So we’re back on dry land, and I’ve finally got my thoughts together. It became difficult to keep blogging for a while aboard Beannacht, mostly as life got busy in St Martin, but also because we’d ran out of money and were having tough conversations about what to do next. I’m sure if I’d been on it there would be fertile blog posts in there, but at the time I wasn’t.

St Martin was fun, but our expectations of well paid work for the two of us proved to be unfounded. I think in another year we both would have found great jobs, but this year and the previous have been lean due to the wider economic delights. I did find work in a great little bar called Lagoonies in Cole Bay, and enjoyed about 2 months of bar tending and kitchen duties – fish and chips was my domain. Keli did some massage work in the anchorage also, but after a few weeks it became very clear that whilst we could make our expenses, it wasn’t possible to save money. This prompted us to reflect on what we were accomplishing and what our goals are.

‘Our goals’ is difficult to pin down, not least because we have different ones, but ‘a goal’ that we’re both agreed upon is a Pacific crossing from Panama via the islands to New Zealand. That one was not being served by minimum-wage work in St Martin, some intervention was required. We spent two weeks considering our options in Ireland and Canada, as well as an option in Haiti which didn’t transpire. In this time it became very obvious that Ireland, and Europe in general were in worse financial condition than Canada, and that if earning was the priority then Vancouver was the smartest move.

So on the 11^th May we boarded the first of three planes, Anzuelo at our feet in his carrier, and journeyed back to YVR, surely the most beautiful airport in the world. Vancouver had the winter olympics earlier in the year, and Canadian banks are much more conservative than their UK or USA counterparts, and by all accounts the job market in Vancouver is quite buoyant.

Dennis and Pat met us at the airport, very pleased to see us, and not so much Anzuelo! This is mostly because Kel has exhibited a tendency to bring cats home that never leave, although she usually does. We settled into Kel’s old room (another problem with Belfast is that Tom and Hazel got rid of my room about a month after I left home in 1997), and got down to fitness group and coffee the next day, established routines that we very much enjoy.

Since I last put pen to paper Beannacht has taken us from Little Harbour to St Martin/St Maarten, back to Tortola, on to guadeloupe, Grenada, and finally to Trinidad. We decided to store the boat on the hard (out of the water) in Trinidad because it is south of the hurricane belt, and less expensive. $320 storage per month is about half of what we would pay in the BVIs or St Martin, and a third of storage costs in Seattle, where we are today.

Last night we celebrated Bob Liston’s birthday with the wider family in Seattle, before heading to Michelle Ford’s wedding today on the Bainbridge Island ferry. It’s a treat to be able to drop down across the border to see Michelle again and be present as Jon and her get hitched. We’ve missed out on a few friend events since we’ve been away, and today Kellie Turtle and Stu also get married in Ireland… if we were omnipotent we would be there also, as well as in Steve Jobs’ office, or someone’s kitchen wall or something.

We skimped on the Windward Islands. Three nights in Guadeloupe, skipped past Dominica, Martinique, St Lucia and St Vincent and the Grenadines before landing in Grenada. Before Guadeloupe we’d also missed Saba, St Kits, Antigua and Barbuda. In Deshaies we received pain au chocolate and fresh pain each morning for a couple of euro. In Grenada we enjoyed amazing cooking in Joan’s restaurant overlooking Clarkes Court in Woburn Bay. Both places gave us a real taste for the Caribbean islands, a flavour that isn’t present in the more touristed Leeward islands.

Prior to making this rapid descent to Trinidad we returned to Tortola to attend a small ceremony in the British Embassy at which Keli was presented with her certificate of naturalisation in the UK. We had completed a rigorous anti-swearing ceremony (not the four letter kind) on the boat that morning to undo any royal allegiances required to attain said certificate, the normal procedure includes loyalty to Madge and all of her descendants – I mean Harry, come on – but no such oath was demanded on this occasion. Keli estimates the whole process cost somewhere in the region of £3000+, and 6 years, so to have the piece of paper is a huge relief. Of course we promptly lost it, and then found.

Now that we’re in Vancouver I have an appointment with an immigration lawyer to explore applying for residency in Canada. I have a feeling the Canadians will be nicer about the whole thing than the Brits, but immigration is a hot topic in both places at the minute. I had a small altercation at the US border a few days after we arrived as we were travelling with Kel’s uncle John down to his boat in Point Roberts, just south of the border. Apparently the standard visa waiver programme requires that you exit the US, Canada and Mexico before you can get another, and that because I haven’t been ‘home’ (wherever that is right now) since my last waiver I was flirting with the law. In the end it was fine and yesterday at the border was easy because I have a current waiver, but both Kel and I feel its becoming increasing difficult to travel when you don’t look ‘conventional’. I guess my answers to where to you live, what is your employment status, and when are you leaving Canada (on a boat, haven’t worked in years, don’t know when I’m leaving) don’t give them warm fuzzy feelings.

But we’re in nonetheless, and in a hour we see Michelle again, before driving back to Vancouver tonight. Job hunting for Keli continues, and through an amazing connection with Ruaidhri and Ursula, a beautiful Irish/Chilean couple from Connemara I’ve started working selling products online. I’ll cover that another time, but essentially I spend my day playing on the computer while Keli goes out to work – what’s not to love!

Enough for now. Good to be back.

      

The Berry Islands felt like something of an arrival on this journey. We left West End at 6pm on Tuesday and arrived at Devil’s Cay at about 2pm on Wednesday, motoring all night into 20 knot winds that weren’t forecast to arrive until late on Wednesday afternoon. Somewhat uncomfortable, but Beannacht coped really well.

Pulling into the narrow channel it was hard to work out where the anchorage actually was, I kept looking at the chart and then looking at the land around me. It took a minute or two for me to adjust to the scale of the islands – they’re tiny. We were aiming for a protected spot that was between seven islands, but when I looked at the scale four out of seven were the size of houses, and the other three were smaller than rugby pitches.

We got in the channel, dropped anchor, and got our snokel gear out straight away. Kel’s inital impulse was a need to check the anchor, which we did, but we then spent an hour inspecting the seabed for signs of life – and signs of fish to be caught in my mind.

There wasn’t much to the Berry’s in terms of marine life, at least not on the inside of the islands, and the seas were too rough to snokel the outside while we were there. [Kel - I think that there were loads of marine life : small conch, a big barracuda, beautiful yellow and purple coral, parrot fish, yellowback fulsilier fish, fairt basslet royal gamma, sea urchins and sea biscuits and loads of others that I haven't found in the book yet!] Conch (pronounced conk) is one of the staple foods of the Bahamians, large shellfish that are essentailly underwater snails. We’ve read about how to harvest them, a tricky extrication from the shell aparently, and were on the lookout, but there were only a few juveniles in the anchorage. Later talking with Jay and Susan cruisers on Elixir we discovered that fishing crews come out around the islands with one mothership and lots of tenders. They move through the cays (pronouced Keys) clearing out all the adult lobsters in one swoop.

So fishing was not on the todo list this time, sadly. We did have one bit of luck on the way to the Berrys. A flying fish – a strange Darwinian quirk perhaps – flew straight onto our deck and we put him in the pan for breakfast. Kel actually saved another on her night watch hearing him flapping on the deck – bloody animal lovers, I’m hungry and she’s throwing them back.

On our second day in the Berrys we met the Jay and Susan. We were on our way to the beach for some snorkelling and saw Jay on deck so headed over. We spent a couple of hours chatting and hanging out and then arranged to head over to the Blue Hole for an explore later that afternoon. Blue hole is self-explanitory – a large crater inland that’s filled with sea water. It’s about 80 feet deep aparently and we had a customery cliff jump into the deep before swimming around exploring the marine life. Ragged rocks razor sharp on the feet and sandstone eroding in the baking sunlight.

Kel and I spent another day exploring the beaches on Friday and did some good home baking. Food is of course a big part of the trip, not least the challenge of provisioning for longer periods away from grocery stores – M&S Food just round the corner was a bit of luxury in Irwin Ave. We’ve been cooking up some new concoctions with things that are on the way out, and baking loads of bread. Our appetites are a lot less because of the heat, although we’re still pretty thirsty, so we’ve been cooking one good meal a day and then snacking when we’re hungry the rest of the time. 

 

I’ve been working on our Ham radio for the last couple of weeks and on Friday Kel and I installed the copper ground foil for the antenna in the bilge – it’s the earth connection for our antenna and largely determines the performance on the radio. On Saturday morning we tuned into Chris Parker weather for the first time – he’s based in the states and provides weather for sailors in the Caribbean year round. Aparently one should really pay to receive such a service, but the beauty of radio waves is that they’re just out there. People who do pay get the added benefit of being able to talk directly with Chris for personal forecasts, but for us just tuning in is perfect. 

And  so on Saturday morning, having listed to Chris’ forecast, we set off for Nassau, capital of the Bahamas, and the nearest Apple repair store where I can get the DVD drive on the mac fixed. We sailed in past the cruise ships and dropped and anchor just opposite the marinas and off the shores of Paradise Island – a massive holiday resort and casino. 

It might be important to note at this point that we set off just behind two other boats heading to Nassau, over took them and beat them there by at least an hour, if not more. Maybe it’s not important, not sure? We were flying, over 8 knots lots of the time, averaging about 7.5.

We dropped our dinghy back into the water and went off for an explore in the afternoon. Nassau is kitted out for the cruise ships and everywhere you look there are tourist tat shops and tax free emeralds. We didn’t really plan to be here for very long, but today I’m heading to the Apple repair store and trying to find a repair shop for our Ham radio – dodgy tuner – so our stay will be dictated by repair times.

[kel - we walked up the queen's staircase and to a fort overlooking the harbour and then down to the old section of town and the straw market....stu forgets to mention these things]

Our first ocean passage complete, 300 nautical miles in 66 hours. We left Cape Fear on Saturday afternoon and arrived in St Mary’s at 9.45am on Tuesday with smiles of relief and achievement on our face.

Our first night was the most exhausting and challenging, with 30-35 knot winds gusting to 40 knots. We had two reefs in the mainsail, reducing the sail area to about 50% of its full capacity, and eventually rolled in our headsail completely. With this little canvas up Keli still managed 17.2 knots surfing down a wave – for a boat like ours that’s really fast. The sea was fairly big too, about 8-12 feet from midnight to first light.

We took turns to be on 2 hour watches while the other got some precious sleep, although at the worst of the weather we were both on deck for a couple of hours together. The first night was so taxing that Keli and I were both off-colour for the next 24 hours or so, and didn’t really feel totally back on form until Tuesday morning. Rather than seasickness it was really just exhaustion, with neither of us managing to sleep soundly due to the noise of the winds and the boat’s motion crashing through waves.

Early on Sunday morning I woke up for my watch to hear the Coastguard attempting to hail friends of ours Michelle and Jon who had called in a Mayday from their boat Audrey. We were pretty concerned about them as the coastguard had received their Mayday but couldn’t make contact with them to establish their position to coordinate a rescue. Audrey was about 75 miles north of us so we didn’t hear their transmission, but we listened to the coastguard relay attempting to hail them for over 2 hours. I hailed the coastguard and provided them with as much information as we had on Jon and Michelle, their boat, and their intended course. Yesterday we received an email from Jon to say that they were ok, but a little beaten up as their engine had failed and mainsail torn in the heavy weather that we had also established. Great news that they were safe, but a big disappointment as they were also heading for the Bahamas.

On Sunday morning the winds calmed to 10-15 knots, much more comfortable, and consistent with the forecast for the previous night – we were both surprised by the ferocity of the winds through the night. For the remainder of Sunday we made steady progress and in the end we clocked up over 150 miles in the first 24 hours.

Monday could not have been more different; we were becalmed and drifting at about half a knot to the northeast, instead of travelling in our desired direction of southwest. At that stage we decided we needed to modify our plan and motor the remaining 60 miles to St Mary’s, instead of pushing to St Augustine. We waited another few hours as we didn’t want to arrive before daybreak, and to our surprise in the early hours of Tuesday morning after drifting for 12 hours, we got some fresh wind initially from the southeast, and later from the northwest, allowing us to sail to the mouth of St Mary’s inlet.

We’ve had a couple of days in St Mary’s recuperating, and this afternoon will move the boat out to anchor near to the inlet before sailing south to St Augustine at first light. We were delighted by Beannacht’s performance, and felt really safe and in control during the worst of the weather.

We’re also so grateful for the advice from Andy and Liza, Dave and Laura, and Humphrey and Claire, we heeded their collective advice to reef our sails early, and we left port with a one reef in the main already even though the winds were very light at that stage. This undoubtly kept us within safe parameters in high winds and despite breaking one of our battens because of an unexpected crash gibe, the boom swinging violently from one side of the boat to the other, the rest of our gear performed really well.

Here’s a little video of me out there (Kel was sleeping at the time, although of course my need for self-promotion is also greater)

Wednesday 21^st Jan

Leaving Oriental was once again a rushed affair, motivated by our need to arrive at a destination that felt like it was in the part of the story where things began to feel vibrant and exciting, the first chapter rather than the prologue. Neither of us imagined, naively perhaps, that we would spend two months in the States, but today marks that milestone. Equally we couldn’t have imagined that we would buy a boat that required such substantial work before we could leave the US, but that we did.

Our haste also led to our first significant mistake of our boating life, a little grounding in Adams Creek not 5 miles from Oriental. The entrance is narrow with shoals on both sides and a kink to the right. I lined Kel up with the next marker and was pottering about on deck when our boat speed went from 6 knots to 0 in an instant. The boat nosedived into the sand bottom and the engine droned as the prop struggled to plough a furrow. Kel immediately backed off the shoal and all was well, but it took us a few minutes of careful problem solving to see the marker that we had missed and tentatively move back into the channel. A frightening experience for both of us, and another little jab at our rushed departure, at the time we were pushing to reach the entrance to the ocean by sunlight and our haste made us careless. 

The sea brought us some comfort a few minutes later when our first dolphin interaction on the water happened. Dolphins love playing in the bow wakes of boats, but we hadn’t expected to see any in a creek as shallow nor one as far inland. Three beautiful big flippers playing at our bow and swimming under our keel chirping to each other the whole time. Kel and I whooped at them and they surfaced on their sides to get a better look at us and they would spray as we hung over the side of the boat. Stunning ocean forgiveness, all was well.

 

After groundings and dolphins we decided to check in with the weather and realised the wind had moved from a forecast NW into the south, making our SW course to Charleston a bit of a slog. We regrouped and decided to stop at Morehead and tie up at a local restaurant for the night as they only charge $10 for dockage if you buy a meal. Which we would have been happy to if they were open, which they weren’t, so instead we had that one on the house. Today is our second day motoring down the ICW killing time, and importantly making miles before the winds switch back and we can make our way out into the ocean.

The arrival of 350 kgs of gear also brings with it a world of storage problems to resolve. We spent all day Saturday and today emptying the boxes into cupboards and under the beds, and this evening a degree of order is emerging from the mist. We’ve had a lot of firsts in the boat so far, and I’m sure our first storage plan will prove to have as many flaws as the others, but it’s good to get it over with. We now have a short list of essential tasks to do before we sail to Morehead City, and into the ocean. The weather looks fairly good for Tuesday morning, and we should be able to sail for 48 hours or so without stopping, getting us down to the Florida border to there abouts.

While packing on Saturday we listened in to some Heineken Cup rugby Ulster vs Harlequins on the web. Jim Neilly at his finest, it was a laugh a minute, with crafted lines like “Rory Best’s got a grin on his face like a basket of chips” and “but we don’t care about the weather, this is Bondi Beach” It was fun to listen to some good old local radio, and amazing that Ulster are winning matches again. I’d be tuning into Gerry and Shaun for some more nostalgia if they weren’t on at 5.30am my time.

If we needed a reminder that we were not yet in the Bahamas and needed to pull the finger our, it arrived as our yard bill on Thursday. Sailcraft have been good to us, and the quality of their work is excellent, but boat yards are expensive places. There aren’t that many customers around at the minute and bored staff members discovering little projects for themselves on your boat is a quick route to bankruptcy. We’re taking the hint and getting out while we can still pay the bill we have.

 

One of the to-do’s that was completed on Thursday was the arrival our Donny the local sign writer with our new name graphics. Beannacht was finally born in PRESENT BOLD font. Keli has been working on a renaming ritual to appease the sea gods and prevent bad luck from coming our way, we’re going to enact that one at some stage before departure.

And now off to bed for some much needed beauty sleep. We’re both exhausted by 8.30pm most nights, this retired lifestyle really kicks it out of us!

After two failed attempts Dennis managed to take the boxes in two trips and clear them through customs himself – our hero! Until today it looked like we were going to have to buy all the stuff again which would have been a financial disaster, so we’re both relived to have cleared this substantial hurdle.

Such a contrast to the experience we had in Morehead trying to get our cruising licence. We walked in, explained our situation, provided papers that proved we owned the boat and were in Sailcraft getting essential repairs and they were very happy to work with us. I’d like to say that we’re both done with borders for a long time, but this is actually what we’ll be dealing with on a monthly basis for the entire trip. Not least when we reach the Bahamas in a couple of weeks!

Otherwise we’re plodding along slowly, but it’s starting to come together. Keli has been doing a beautiful job painting the bottom with anti-fouling to keep the little sea creatures off, and we’ve buffed the hull and waxed it to make it shine nicely. Our new prop shaft arrived today and will be fitted tomorrow. I’ve nearly reassembled the engine and will finish changing the fuel filters tomorrow and then move on to installing our new GPS and radar system. Not riviting news for the blog I’m afraid, but we hope to be back in the water on Thursday and aim to set sail towards the end of next week so things should pick up from there.

Our flights to Richmond were very straightforward, and we arrived at our hotel without event before heading across the street for some good old Southern cooking. Fried food is the local delicacy in these parts, and spicy fish is particularly good. Always one to stretch our culinary boundaries we even tried Budweiser’s new brew – a pale ale – which I’m almost ashamed to admit was really tasty!

Thursday was thanksgiving and we woke up to a ghost town, not unlike Christmas morning only one shop open on main street, few cars on the road. Realising that dinner prospects in Deltaville were almost non-existent we called ahead to the B&B and arranged some food there – lovely roast dinner as it turned out. A peaceful afternoon followed as we chilled in their lounge, walked along the docks, and reading cruising guides to the Inter Coastal Waterway and Bahamas. We tried to get to bed early that night to prepare for a big day, but we were both over-excited and lay awake chatting and pinching ourselves, and each other.

On Friday morning we headed to the boat yard at 9.15 to spend some time inspecting the boat before our surveyor arrived at 10 to head out with us for a seatrial. We were both really wound up, a mixture of complete excitement and anticipation, coupled with the memories of Rhode Island and an awareness that this boat also had the potential to disappoint. We met Jonathan and Ann, the husband and wife team who run the yacht brokerage, and got onboard the boat for our visual inspection.

Much to our relief the boat was great. We’re buying a 1985 boat, so it’s not going to be in perfect shape, but what we’re looking for is a robust platform from which we can build a boat that really works for us. Janus was just that. The electrical system, water and fuel tankage, galley (that’s the kitchen for all you landlubbers) and rigging were key areas for the inspection, and they all functioned well. The boat doesn’t have much by way of navigation systems or other electronics, a fantastic excuse for me to spend some cash, but the things that were there were adequate.

The seatrial was where we got to see how the boat handled. Don joined us for this part, and we headed out of the marina with Jonathan at the helm – partly because we didn’t own the boat yet, and also because he had previously entertained us with tails of customers who had phoned 5 minutes after leaving with their new boat to say they’ve just run aground just outside the narrow channel!. Kel had her eyes peeled incase we had to do this ourselves in future. We got out into the Chesapeake Bay, a stunning cruising ground, and hoisted the sails to get moving. The sun was shining, we had 15 knots of breeze, and we our breathing had returned to normal. It was wonderful.

Then we got the bad news. While travelling on Wednesday I had received additional pictures of the boat by email, one of which showed a substantial amount of rust on the keel at the joint between it and the hull, something Don had noted this in his survey. This was a high priority during the seatrial, and as Don and Keli inspected the bilge as we were under sail it became clear that the boat was taking on water. Kel and I had suspected that the rust was more than just a surface issue, and Beneteau’s steel keels are prone to this problem. 

We motored in to shore having checked over the instruments, engine, water system, and the faulty keel; to sit with Don and talk through the rest of his survey. Overall the boat was great. A good price, a lot of boat for our budget, and a layout and accommodation that we were happy with. It was a simple platform to build from and had better sails than we had expected. Don left us to think things over and headed home to finish writing the survey.

Over the weekend, with help from our broker Ian, and Jonathan and Ann, we agreed to split the cost of fixing the keel with the seller and have bought the boat. It’s amazing news, and we’ve been beaming from ear to ear all day. Both of us were starting to get a little stir crazy in Vancouver, and the snail’s pace approach to boat buying had placed strain on each of us. We’re both quite action-orientated, so sitting at home talking about boats, instead of being out there doing boats, didn’t quite suit our style. We’re breathing easier today!

And so tomorrow marks the start of a new phase of our life, our first boat and one less excuse as to why we’re not in the Bahamas already. It will take a day or two to swap over the titles on the boat and transfer the money, but we should be floating home owners by Wednesday. In the meantime we’re going to be busy pricing the keel job and other maintainence in two boat yards in Deltaville and one in Oriental, deciding where we will get the work done, and getting moving.

It feels like the blog will at last have some worthy content, and we will have no legitimate reasons to feel lazy or bored! People get your diaries out and book your holidays, this puppy has twin aft cabins and sleeps 9. Nearly enough space for the Lowly Knights!

We’ll keep you posted.

Great news – On Saturday our offer on a 37′ Beneteau Idylle was accepted, subject to a marine survey (similar to a house survey), a mechanical inspection, and a seatrial. The boat is in Rhode Island, so on the 28th Kel and I are flying out to see the boat for the first time and do the necessary checks. We’re pinching ourselves! It’s really exciting, but it’s also a real relief. Sometimes in the last couple of years it has felt like all the boat talk was never going to lead to an actual boat… I think now we’re allowing ourselves to believe that we’re nearly there.

So one more week to go, and then a week of completing the deal. We’re planning to truck the boat down to South Carolina to get out of the winter weather and give ourselves some time to kit the boat out and test the gear onboard. There’s no question that we have no idea what we’re getting ourselves into, but we’ve also got some common sense, and a big network of support in Vancouver that we can draw on.

Dennis and Pat are actually away today looking at a boat near Boston that they’re buying, also a Beneteau – we’re going for some matching fleeces – so Kel and I are home alone and enjoying a bottle of wine tonight and some nice grub. We spent the morning developing a to-do list for the next three weeks, and got ticking some off in the afternoon.

Dinner calls, but tomorrow will be filled with great achievements. And some more blogging when I’ve come down off this little cloud.

Later…

PS> A little image for the road. Me thinking and writing at the desk in our bedroom, on my new MACBOOK PRO!!!! (I’m in geek heaven).

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