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| Christmas in Curacao |
The preparations begin...
The floating bridge is decorated ..
I'm sure there will be more to report as we intend to do more sightseeing when he arrives!
Until then I await news from home and friends far away to see what you have been up to this year!
Have a great Christmas where ever you are and stay safe please.
For those of you who were missed out somehow hear is the long awaited Christmas edict from the Captain - Enjoy!
ANOTHER YEAR IN THE SUN
– CHRISTMAS 2014
MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY AND
PROSPEROUS 2015 TO ALL OUR FRIENDS
Time again to bring you up-to-date with
what we've been doing over the last year.
After many years of famine in regard to
friends coming out to sail with us, this year brought a flood – 3
sets of visitors for a total of 8 weeks. It was great to be able to
share the joys of Caribbean sailing with them and a really enjoyable
time was had by all. As all the rendezvous were made in St Lucia,
this was the centre of our cruising ground for the year, as attested
by all the immigration stamps rapidly filling our passports! We
sailed up to St Martin and back via St Barts, Antigua, Dominica and
Martinique with Reinhard, down to the Grenadines with Gill and Paul
and then, later in the season, explored Martinique with Maria.
While our first two sets of visitors
were with us, we were accumulating the usual selection of mechanical
and electrical problems but thankfully, nothing for which we didn't
have a backup system, so our plans weren't interrupted. Then,
however, one of our engine batteries , which was less than a year
old, failed, so we decided to head back to St Martin to replace both
of them. Our biggest excitement of the year came when trying to cross
from the Dutch to the French side of the St Martin lagoon to go out
through the French bridge. This is a very poorly marked channel but
one we had used many times before. This time, however, we ran hard
aground and the combined efforts of 4 RIBs couldn't get us clear
initially. We sat there for a couple of hours surveying the
surroundings by dinghy then, using the wake of a passing motorboat,
we managed to get off under our own power. By this time we had missed
the bridge opening so we went back to anchor. We didn't want to risk
this channel again so decided to use the Dutch bridge the next
morning, as there's deep water all the way. However, when we came to
get our anchor up, we brought up half a wooden wreck. Luckily our
friend Lee from Allegro was close and together we managed to
extricate the anchor from it and, by the skin of our teeth, got
through the bridge before it closed. From St Martin, we headed to
Guadeloupe and then to Iles aux Saintes and Marie Galant. The latter
was our second “new” island of the year, after Dominica – very
peaceful and intensely agricultural, with animals working the fields
everywhere.
In late May, after Maria had left us,
we headed south again towards Trinidad visiting Bequia, Carriacou,
Petite Martinique and Grenada on the way. Petite Martinique was our
third “new” island of the year. Finally on May 28 we arrived in
Trinidad, after a very enjoyable season, during which we sailed just
under 2500 miles. This year, PIANO stayed in the water at Crews Inn
throughout the hurricane season, while we spent 8 weeks in England,
enjoying one of the best summers I can remember for a long while.
While there, we managed to catch up with quite a few old friends,
some of whom we hadn't seen for quite a time. Back in Trinidad, there
were plenty of jobs to get done, although nothing as major as last
year. One big purchase was a new mainsail – the original one from
Hood had done sterling service for almost 20 years but was now
deteriorating in a few areas. Its service isn't totally over though,
as the sailmaker arranged for it to be donated to fishermen in Haiti!
It wasn't all work, however, and amongst other things, we took the
opportunity to take part in Barts Bash on a friend's boat. This event
set a new Guinness World Record for the “Largest Sailing Race in
the World (Multiple Locations over 24 hours)”. We were one of
almost 17000 competing boats from 500 clubs in 60 countries.
Amazingly, Trinidad and Tobago Sailing Association achieved a turnout
of 46 boats, fairly evenly split between dinghies and offshore
yachts. Contrary to all expectations, the sailing conditions were
almost perfect and we had a great time, while achieving a very
creditable result according to the local results.
With virtually all the planned jobs
completed, we set off for Grenada on 9 October to start another
season. Although the wind was light, there was almost nothing in the
way of waves to disturb things, so the new mainsail was able to drive
us quickly and very comfortably to our destination. The plan had been
to spend just a day or two in Grenada before setting off downwind to
Bonaire to go diving for a month. However, a whole string of
equipment failures put paid to that plan. The biggest problems were
the generator, which stopped generating and the freezer, which
stopped freezing! We ended up stuck in Grenada for almost 2 months,
mainly spent waiting for the correct parts to arrive from the US.
Finally, on November 30 we were able to leave and reached Bonaire
almost exactly 3 days later after another very pleasant and
uneventful sail. There were more yachts than last time we were
there, so we had to take one of the row of moorings that is VERY
close to the shore. Luckily a couple of days later one of the outer
ones (an extra 30m from the shore!) became available. This one was in
a very good spot for diving and snorkelling, so we took full
advantage during our stay. One innovation since our last visit was
the provision of a free twice-weekly shopping bus to the island's
best supermarket (Van den Tweel). In Grenada, the range of provisions
available was often very limited – for example we only found fresh
tomatoes twice in two months – but here, on this much smaller
island, our eyes lit up at the range and quality of the food in the
supermarket. After just a week in Bonaire, we made the 8 hour hop
across to Curacao, where we will spent Christmas and New Year. Again
it was an almost perfect sail and soon we were safely tucked up in
the marina at Curacao Marine. This marina is in the large commercial
port area and, while not at all scenic, it is very convenient, being
just a few minutes drive to the house of our friends Otto and Esther.
This will be the third Christmas we have celebrated with them – the
first in Lanzarote, then Suriname and now Curacao! The Christmas
celebrations are just about to start in earnest as I write this, with
a Christmas Eve lunch at a beachside restaurant planned, so that's
all the new for this year.
If you have any plans to visit the
Caribbean in the coming year, do let us know and we'll see whether we
can meet up. We hope that, wherever you are, you have an enjoyable
festive season and a successful 2015.
Malcolm and Sue
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