Mike, Kylie and Meggie...There and back again.

3 years aboard Meggie

2009-07-27T10:56:00.000-07:00

We chased our dreams for 2 ½ years while we restored Meggie, our 1964 Cheoy Lee Bermuda 30. Only by saving every spare dime, selling off most of our belongings and severing all financial ties, did we then gain the freedom to slip the dock lines and venture away for as long as we wanted or at least as long as we were having fun.
We kept our boat simple, both safe and easy to sail, also free of any major electronics and expensive systems. We put all of our trust into Meggie’s hull design and heavy timber construction. Our best efforts went into restoring the youth within Meggie, this was essential because she would not only become our home but also carry her devoted crew of two on an epic voyage through the blue waters of the Atlantic and Caribbean Sea in search of adventure and tropical paradise.
In July, 2006 we quit chasing and started living as Meggie sailed out of Thornbury’s harbour and although she gracefully approached her vintage years, Meggie was likely never more fit for sea.
We sailed through the great lakes to the Hudson river, then past the statue of liberty in NYC harbour. As we rounded Sandy Hook, New Jersey, Meggie felt the Atlantic under her keel for the first time. When the stiff ocean breeze filled her sails, Kylie and I also felt the spray of the Atlantic for the first time. It was here that a bond was formed and off we sailed as a team of three. We visited 18 countries and sailed 14,000 nautical miles in our 3 years. We faced many challenges and created many memories along the way, some of which I would like to share, however these only scratch the surface of the memories that remain etched in our minds.
We made it all the way to the bottom of the eastern Caribbean island chain in our first season. The reason being, we had hurricane season hot on our tail. To achieve this we sailed thousands of miles to windward along the thorny path, south bound to the West Indies where we spent 5 wonderful months in the beautiful country of Grenada.
We then sailed north to let Meggie show off her “Yar” among the big classics of the Antigua Regatta. Here she took an impressive 2nd place in her racing class and 3rd place in Concource d’Elegance for best privately maintained boat.
A few months later we found ourselves sailing fast and quietly under the cover of a moonless night with all lights off to escape the pirate waters of Venezuela, bound for the beautiful off shore islands, here we spent an incredible six weeks.
We then had a glorious run with quartering wind and seas clear across the Caribbean Sea from Curacao to Jamaica, and then on to Honduras covering twelve hundred nautical miles with a 14 day break in the middle. Meggie logged regular noon to noon runs of 125 to 145 nautical miles. Meggie always takes care of us and we found her to be a great little passage maker.
We never tire of watching dolphins play with Meggie s bow wave, or scanning the sea surface hoping to spot a whale. We marvel at the many species of interesting birds, Pelicans, Frigates, Egrets, Terns, Boobies,(famous for steeling our top water lures) Ospreys, Scarlet Ibises, Ocean Gulls, and oh yes, Wild pink Flamingos.
We have weathered countless storms, including two tropical depressions, three tropical storms, and one full fledged Cat 1 Hurricane named Felix. We were on board and well anchored for each one, with no problems.
Our worst storm while at sea lasted for thirty hours, the rigging screamed with steady thirty-five knot winds and higher in gusts, the seas became on average one full storey in height. This storm hit us while 300nm offshore in the waters south of the Cayman Islands, called the Cayman Trench, it is known for being the deepest part of the Caribbean Sea…the bottom being twenty-five thousand feet below the keel. Little Meggie rose her stern to each approaching wave as it hissed and roared but never let a single wave on board.
We will never forget the Christmas we spent on the Island of Guanaja, or the remote jungle anchorage of the Honduras main land surrounded by the wild cries of the howler monkey and the magnificent birds of the jungle. We had this place all to ourselves.
We spent a wonderful month in Guatemala. We took Meggie up the mystical Rio Dulce, where we explored parts of the mainland including the ancient temples of Tikal.
We spent an exhilarating five days blazing along at six knots through the shallow protected waters inside the barrier reef of Belize. The next day in the open sea Meggie set her quickest noon to noon run of 174 nautical miles, due to the fast currents setting north through the Yucatan channel.
Kylie and I have become very passionate about fishing, and more importantly eating fish. We have enjoyed countless cockpit dinners of either deep sea fish or reef fish and lobster, that we caught by ourselves.
Above all, the pleasure of spending the last three years together, watching the sun rise and set everyday aboard our little boat has provided us with memories that will last a life time. Also, now our team of three has gained the confidence and the ability to sail off, bound for distant shores, just two people aboard our little boat, alone on the high seas. This makes the horizon but our only limit.
Although we have to return home for now, our hearts assure us that Meggie has not finished leaving her invisible tracks across the beautiful and seemingly endless blue waters of the world, just yet.

The last leg.....

2009-06-24T18:38:00.000-07:00

Usually I start our blogs with “Where should I begin?”, this time as I write the blog I’m wondering where should I end? This is our last blog of our adventure, however we will be posting 1 last one upon our arrival home.
Almost 3 years ago to the date, I sat in Tobermory’s harbour and commenced writing a journal of our travels to share with you all. Not knowing where the journey would take us, and with more uncertainties than certainties, we left our home waters of Georgian Bay to escape the “everyday". Not knowing what we would find or even what we were looking for, I now know we found it.
So, now Meggie sits in the comforting harbour of Tobermory once again as I write my last entry of our adventure. As we rounded Cape Hurd this morning and entered into Georgian Bay we both felt a sense of calm and beauty that we had missed (unbeknownst to us). These waters of Georgian Bay are littered with picturesque island after island with beautiful clean clear water surrounding them. It did feel like coming home, now that is not to say we’re not missing the life we had grown accustomed to, or the locations we were used to. To sum it all up, it’s bitter sweet.
The last blog seems a very long time ago, way back in Norfolk. We left Norfolk with a decent weather window to head on the outside to Cape May, NJ. The sail was uneventful (which is always a good thing) and upon reaching our destination of Cape May, I thought I would check in with our weather guru Chris Parker and see if we would be getting out of Cape May and into NYC in the next day or two. We had wanted to meet Mike’s brother Martin there for our last ocean voyage, but wanted to get underway again quickly. Chris gave it to me straight up…”If I were you, I would get in and out of Cape May today and head straight for NYC as a cold front will be approaching and hitting the NJ coast pretty bad. If you don’t go today or tonight, you’ll probably be there at least a week, if not more.” And I was so looking forward to a good nights sleep. So, we passed the inlet to Cape May and continued on for another night to NYC. Another uneventful night (which is always a good thing), but as the sun rose the next day to reveal what was in store, we didn’t like what we saw. Nothing! We couldn’t see ¼ mile in front of us. Dense, dense fog surrounded us and here we are entering NEW YORK CITY harbour of all places. Stress level…8 (well for me…for some reason Mike has been staying very calm in stressful situations…I’m taking this as a good thing).
So I put our position on channel 16 on the vhf radio every ½ hour or so, and pretty soon we spotted a green buoy (after dodging a couple of boats, as the tanker approaching honked his horn), and as we continued in the channel the fog lifted enough for us to see our way to a safe anchorage.
The next day brought a clearer sky and a nice sail into NYC harbour where we anchored behind the Statue of Liberty to await our crew. Martin and Harry (Mike’s brother and our nephew) joined Meggie as we sailed past the Statue of Liberty up the Hudson river to the 79th Street boat basin. Thinking we were going to have a fantastic sail, we sort of forgot about the extreme current that was against us and to make it even more interesting we had the wind against the current, and to top it off, there were heaps of boats in the harbour making huge wakes which added to the already wish washy waves. All of that aside, it was great! Harry loved when the wish washy waves came over the bow and soaked the decks (all Mike could think was “I really hope we latched down the hatches”). He would exclaim “Awesome” every time we hit a big one. We were flying down the Hudson, on a broad reach until we noticed the anchored Coast Guard boat in front of us and he wasn’t moving…and neither were we, in fact I think we were actually going backwards, due to the strong current. We were smack dab in the middle of the Battery at max ebb….oh boy. So on with Stg. Major and a slow slog up the Hudson. We had some good times and lots of laughs so it was definitely worth every wish washy wave bash.
Martin and Harry spent the night aboard, which was a great way to catch up and spend some quality time together. It was nice to see the Shaw boys together again.
Our time in NYC passed too quickly and on up the Hudson we began. In no time we were in Castleton taking the masts down to transit the Erie Barge Canal.
Not much excitement for the next week. If you remember from our previous passage through the canal, there was a lot of bad songs getting stuck in your head for days at a time, no exercise, long days and cold mornings.
Pretty uneventful, except for the 37 locks. At this point we were both feeling the last few legs of our adventure were feeling more like a chore to get the boat home. Moving everyday, rain or shine, hot or cold. Finally we were at the end of the canal in Buffalo and ready to put the masts up. There is one place to do so and they charge $6US/foot of mast. So Meggie is ketch rigged, so we have almost 60 feet of mast…you do the math. Out of the question. So our only other option was to motor to Port Colborne on the Canadian side of Lake Erie and put them up there for $100 (CND), so off we went to Port Colborne. Luckily the wind was zilch and there were no waves and we had Megs up and running in no time. We were in Canada!
Before we left the confinement of the canal, we had a visit from our Antigua crew, Paul and Leanne. It was a short visit, but a great one nonetheless. We were also excited for a visit from Mike’s sister, Marie and her boyfriend Doug who were planning to meet us in Port Stanley, where we were going to take a much needed couple of days off.
After a long sail around Looonnnnngggg Point and a beat into Port Stanley we tied Meggie to the dock for 3 days for a much needed rest. It had been over 3 years since we had seen Marie, so big celebrations all around were in store. We had a great weekend with her and Doug. The weather was gorgeous and we got to spend 2 solid days together just catching up and chillin. They treated us way too much, but all the same it was much appreciated. It was really nice to see Mike have some one on one time with both his sister and his brother that month. And, it was nice to stop….did I mention that?
So, onto Erieau, Leamington…done Lake Erie. Up the Detroit river (no mishaps with the spreaders this time), cross Lake St. Clair, up the foul current infested St. Clair river, stop in Sarnia for 2 nights for weather, sail to Bayfield in Lake Huron, overnight from Bayfield to Tobermory. Phew, and pretty soon Thronbury, and then that’s it.
So we’re enjoying the last of it. We’ll anchor in Wingfield basin, a sweet little anchorage for a couple of days before we make our last run to our home port.
Plenty on our minds, mixed feelings, mixed emotions, but it is all good. We’re in a beautiful place and the best you can do is make the best of every situation and place you are in, otherwise what is it all about?
I want to take this opportunity to thank everyone for their constant support over the past 3 years. To our new friends we met along the way, our destinations wouldn’t have become experiences without you. To our cruising friends, may you always be safe, we will be living vicariously through you now, so make it good. The memories we have stored in our minds and hearts will last a lifetime. I know this isn’t the end of Mike and Kylie’s excellent adventures, but it is the end of a wonderful 3 years spent together sharing a different world we didn’t know 3 years ago. It is the end of this chapter, but another is about to begin. Sniff sniff.
Live your life now,
Be well,
Kylie and Mike

2009-05-20T10:08:00.000-07:00

Oh my…where do I begin. I guess I’ll begin where I left off! I have to first admit that the last couple of months seem a blur and a lot of happenings all mashed in together. So lets begin.
In case you haven’t realised, we are back in the land of; loud traffic, your every convenience at your finger tips, way too much indulgence and materialistic everything that we don’t necessarily need! Yes, we are in North America and have finally begun to overcome our shock. My first outing in the grocery store in Marathon, Florida was just a bit overwhelming. I didn’t know what to buy! I wandered the isles in awe of all the “things” I could buy, but did we really need Tostitos Spinach dip in a jar for our chips??? And what kind of chips???…there was only about 100 kinds to choose from, and what? No plantain chips? We bought a quart of cold real milk and chugged it as we left the supermarket, and finally found good cookies. One thing I did noticed was the produce. I said to the Publix man stocking the shelves “what on earth do they do to the green peppers around here?” They were the size of my head, and looked beautiful but once I got them home they were practically tasteless. I’m used to buying green peppers so green that are the size of a small fist from the local farmers that are so jam packed full of flavour you can’t believe it. Don’t even get me started on the pink tomatoes and oh….the colorless yolks in eggs. Organic, here I come.
I must admit that some conveniences are nice. Wings and cheap beer, English speaking everywhere I go (although I do miss my Spanish with strangers), and people everywhere we go are so considerate and accommodating to boaters. We don’t remember much “good” things about Florida, but this time ‘round people have been fantastic, and not just in Florida, but everywhere.

Anyway, enough about that. I believe I left off with quick visits from our families in Mexico. Oh Mexico, how I miss thee. Anyway…after the families left, Mike and I chilled out and continued to enjoy the lovely island of Isla Mujeres with many new friends, many meals at our favourite “ma and pa” restaurant “La Negrita”, and nice warm sunny temperatures, but eventually it was time to get a move on. We monitored the weather and with the “go ahead” from the weather guru we rushed around like mad people to clear customs, get fuel and last minute items before sailing out of the harbour and the Caribbean for our last time. We had a weather window of 15 knots from the SSE (south, southeast) for most of the 300 miles to Dry Tortugas moderating the last 16 hours or so. So, off we went and our first 3 hours were great, then we entered the gulf stream. There was a north opposing swell to the north setting current (of 3 knots) and we had wind from the SE with a pretty good wind chop, so the seas were “confused” as we made our way east. We pushed east so we wouldn’t get pushed too far north by the current, and as the sun set the wind increased to 20-22 knots making the wind chop bigger, but by evening the north swell had diminished a bit making things a little more comfortable. I wasn’t feeling great due to the wishy washyness from the motion of the boat in the confused seas, but Meggie was a freight train averaging 8.5 knots for quite a few hours. Mike had to do a sail change at 2:00 in the morning as we were overpowered due to a squall that hovered overhead, once that was done, it was smooth sailing all the way to the Dry Tortugas. We actually set our fastest 24 hour run…180 nm. By the time we got into the lee of Cuba, the seas had moderated to a smooth swell and light chop and by morning the wind was light, and by the next evening there wasn’t a breath. By the 3rd morning we had a steady 13 knots on our beam and we had picture perfect sailing all the way to the anchorage at Fort Jefferson in the Dry Tortugas.
We were in Florida. Yet, it didn’t quite feel like it yet. We lingered in the turquoise waters of the Dry Tortugas for a couple of days and meandered through Fort Jefferson and had a good look at the Cuban refugee rafts that had landed in the Dry Tortugas while we were there, but ignorantly…we didn’t even know until afterwards. Amazing, if a Cuban raft touches the sand of the U.S. of A. they are welcomed into the country with open arms, but if found on the water….well, it’s a different story. Strange.
So from the isolated Dry Tortugas, we had a beautiful sail to the Marquesas Cays where we anchored the night…one more night in isolation before we reached the civilization of Key West, and enjoyed our fresh catch of the day, a nice sized mackerel. Next day it was Key West where we would wait out a cold front and upon arriving realized there really was no good anchorage for weathering such a thing, but we managed to wiggle Meggie into the protection of an island and waited out the front. We were reintroduced to strong currents and wakes from big power boats, making our stay in Key West anything but pleasant…however the town of Key West is a sweet little town, an old fishing village touched by tourism with beautiful homes and with busy shops and restaurants lining the main street.
We were having a bit of a problem with an oil leak from the engine, so we really wanted to get the problem sorted as we knew we had the Erie barge laying ahead of us, and lots of motoring. So as soon as we could, we left Key West and sailed to Marathon, Florida the hub for boaters in the Keys. Unbelievable! 200 sailboats on moorings!!! We took a mooring as we had to pull the engine to fix our problem. So, we got to work. Mike rigged a system to pull the motor off it’s mounts and let it hang until he could have a good look at the oil seals and fix the problem. This meant we had to take the 100lb flywheel of the engine, which along with the starter I sanded down and repainted. Mike found that the transmission bolts were loose about ¼” and obviously needed to be retightened as the oil was just falling out, but he couldn‘t have found the problem unless the engine was lifter. So thankfully that problem was solved. Anyway he tightened the bolts in 2 different spots and we got the engine back together and put in place looking better than it had in months. However, as soon as we pull into the Thornbury harbour, the first thing we want to do is to pull the engine right out of Meggie and do a complete rehaul of the engine and the engine compartment. Mike can’t wait! Seriously.
Ok, so that done we left the next day for Miami, a quick overnighter, well sort of. There was some serious squalls from a cold front forecasted for the next morning and we wanted to get in before that so we left early and arrived in Miami at 3 in the morning. We only agreed to arrive in the dark as we had been in the open wide cut before and somewhat knew it. Otherwise…big no no. We had a uneventful sail, hooking up with the gulf stream to push us along. Mike managed to catch a small mahi mahi (perfect size for us), and after a bit of a nerve racking night entrance hrough the Government Cut, we dropped anchor at 3am and slept like babies, and we did get quite a few nasty squalls the next morning!
While we were in Marathon I booked a flight home. My first flight home in almost 3 years. One of my dearest friends was getting married and I had decided that if we made it to Florida before she was wed, I would fly home (if it was reasonable). I found a return flight from Miami for $220.00USD so booked it. I left the day after we arrived in Miami. My trip home was filled with kids, family, friends, laughter, alcohol, tiredness, hot baths, ice cream, fresh clothesline hung sheets courtesy of Mom, more laughter, lots of food, a wonderful beautiful wedding and lots of hugs.
It’s truly a blur, but a good one. I saw people at the wedding whom I haven’t seen in years, and I got to see all my closest girlfriends in one place at one time which was fantastic. I got to see my niece and nephew whom I’ve missed terribly, and of course my family.
So back on the plane and back to Meggie. We provisioned the boat and left the next day for anywhere north. We landed in Fernandina Beach, Florida just at the Georgia border where we waited out 25 knot winds and then jumped back out again up to Charleston, South Carolina. Our first 330 nm run was pretty uneventful, light to moderate winds with good sailing and then no wind, but we made good time and managed to time the tides right in St. Mary’s inlet where we cruised into the inlet doing 8 knots! I talked to the weather guru as we were heading out the St. Mary’s inlet again to head north and he warned us that we might encounter 30-40 knot squalls on our next run north (destination unknown at this point…hopefully Beaufort, NC). We listened to the WX weather on our VHF radio courtesy of NOAA weather and all day they had been sending weather watches for severe thunderstorms, and before we knew it they were sending out weather warnings for severe thunderstorms with high winds and 2 really severe cells that were parallel on land to where we were on the ocean. I tried to track the cells and figure out if they were going to get us or not or if we could avoid them by going slower. As I listened to the 6pm update they had included the coastal area out 20 nm miles of where we were in their warning, with warnings of tornados on land.
They warned of high winds in excess of 60 knots winds (64 is hurricane force) and all mariners should take cover, turn bilge pumps on, all passengers to get their life jackets on etc…I was freaking. Now the WX weather tends to be a little bit cautious, but as I came up from down below to tell Mike we might encounter some pretty nasty weather he just looked at me and said “yeah, I know” and pointed to the west of us. There was the cloud. Yes, the one in the previous blog picture. Mike took control as I tried to remain calm, which I realized I don’t do very well.
Anyway, he took the big jib down and set our storm sail, put 2 reefs in the main and 1 reef in the mizzen. He said “be ready and when I say turn up into it, do it”. So as the beast approached us and finally lay over top of us and Mike yelled turn. I did so, and he came back and got Meggie into the “hove to” position. Basically “hove-to” gets the boat into a position that she can’t get out of. You use the sails against each other so the boat is confused and sits still. Anyway…we lay hove-to for about 45 minutes as the squall blew 40 knots with gusts to 50 and Meggie did exactly what she was supposed to do…sit there. She healed to the gusts, but never wandered out of her hove-to position. We’ve hove-to before, but never in gusts of 50 knots. So…it was a learning experience and we both feel more comfortable knowing how Meggie reacts to this wind. I was freaked…but soon felt eased as Meggie was great. So after 45 minutes we set sail and continued on our way, but only to Charleston, South Carolina. We didn’t encounter another squall the rest of the trip, but that beast was enough for me to endure.
From Charleston we made our way up the ICW to Oriental, North Carolina where we love, and met with new and old friends as we took a short break from moving. From there we continued on sailing in the Arbemarle sound into the Dismal swamp (where the weather was truly dismal...another cold front, and it was freezing) to Norfolk, where we now sit. We will leave on Friday for the 160nm run to Cape May, NJ where we hope to acquire new crew (Mike’s brother, Martin) for our last ocean voyage of this adventure.
So…that was a bit of a novel eh? People say we don’t sound like Canadians because we don’t say “Eh”.
Ok, well that is the excitement of our lives at the moment. I’m desperately missing clear warm water, warm sand on my feet, wearing my bathing suit and speaking my horrible Spanish, but we’re excited also to return to Canada and get on with it!
Pretty soon we’ll be in the Hudson, Erie barge, Lake Erie, Lake Huron and finally Georgian Bay. We still hope to be in Thornbury harbour by the beginning of July…so we will see. So far, so good.
So until next time (probably the last),
Hasta Luego, Eh.
Kylie and Mike

This guy was packin' 50 knots!!

2009-05-09T18:07:00.001-07:00

Oh dear! Stay tuned...lots more to come.

The last hoorah!

2009-03-16T15:16:00.000-07:00

Ok. I know it’s been a bit too long, but time has again escaped me. It’s been another busy month or so and Guatemala seems like it was months ago, but the impression Guatemala left on us is one that won’t soon be forgotten.
After arriving back to the boat after our trip to Tikal, we began getting ready to head away again for a couple of weeks inland. We wiped the boat down with diluted bleach to keep mould at a minimum, covered any holes with netting so no bugs could get in, made sure our lines were secure and she wouldn’t rub the dock in a NE wind, covered her as best we could to protect her from the sun, and with all this done we were ready to get underway.We took the launcha (water taxi) to Fronteras, where we caught the early morning bus to Guatemala city which would carry on to Antigua, a beautiful colonial city just 1 ½ hours from Guat city. On the way we met a young Aussie cruising couple who were also heading inland with their 2 gorgeous little girls and who had been cruising as a family for 3 years. It always amazes us to see couples cruising with their children and I always marvel at the experiences the kids must be having. Anyway…we also met a backpacker travelling alone who happened to be from Toronto, but who spent quite a bit of time in the Huntsville area just north of Thornbury.
Before we knew it, we were beginning to see signs of colonial architecture and soon were approaching the beautiful main square situated in the middle of Antigua. Beautifully placed in the highlands and surrounded by Agua, Acatenango and Fuego volcanoes, Antigua feels like you’ve stepped out of Central America and into Europe.
The city has a wonderful feel to it, surrounded by little shops selling mayan treasures and restaurants tucked away in every corner, with elegant squares and beautiful churches surrounding the main square. You can walk for days around the streets and not see it all and never get bored. Mike and I developed a quick friendship with our new Canadian friend Yasmine and together we walked the streets in search of a posada to spend our nights in Antigua. We came across “Casa Amarillas” which is more of a hostel type accommodation, but for $17.00/night we got a large room with a TV, shared bathroom and huge breakfast…now how can you beat that? Being in the highlands, when the sun goes down for the day, we were met with cold temperatures. Our first cold temperatures since the mountains in Venezuela, and once we dressed properly, it was soooo nice to be cool. Our first night the 3 of us enjoyed the ambiance of a beautiful restaurant that was host to an Andean flute band, which was very lovely to listen to.
The next day we decided to do a hike to an active volcano. Unfortunately you have to have a guide to do the hike which we are unaccustomed to, having done all our hiking on our own. A group of backpackers from all over the world and us 3 Canadians packed into a van and headed up to Pacaya volcano. We decided to do the afternoon hike so we could watch the sunset on the volcano and the other reason was that there is live lava flowing and we thought it would be cool to see the lava at dusk. We hiked about 3 miles up up up, but was strange for us hiking with a group at different athletic levels. We had to stop a lot, and to our surprise we met quite a few other groups on the trail. We finally arrived at the top of the volcano where you start to walk on the hardened lava. We were shocked at the amount of people on the volcano.There had to have been 100+ people wandering around…people heading off the trail and walking on untouched sections of the hardened lava, people everywhere. Now this…we are very unaccustomed to. To us this sort of thing is a sacred area and shouldn’t be treated like an attraction, but it clearly is. And, unfortunately unbeknownst to us, the lava wasn’t running this particular week, so all we saw was a little tiny stream of lava running deep in the crevices. It was still a cool thing to see, but the amount of people that were there was a bit shocking and took away from the experience.
The next day we had decided to carry on to Lago Atitlan as we had much to see so we wanted to get a move on. I woke up feeling not right and by the afternoon was committed to the toilet, garbage can and bed. Originally I thought I had a bit of food issues, but must have picked up a bug as I had aches, pains and chills accompanied by the other fun stuff that comes along with being sick. By the next day I was feeling better and we decided to continue on.
We arrived in Panajachel, the main town at the north end of Lago Atitlan and checked in to a room, and by that night I was feeling more like myself. Ol’ iron guts Mike continued to put hot sauce on everything he ate and didn’t get sick, this…must have been the key! Panajachel is a unique sort of town, a large amount of foreigners have decided to call this village home dating back to the 60’s. It was a prime hippy hang out in the 60’s and 70’s, but back then received a bad reputation as the gringo’s had introduced drugs into the otherwise quiet mayan village.
There is still a large gringo community, but the locals and gringo’s have developed a relationship that works and the village has a nice, relaxed, hippy type feel. Pana was probably the best place to shop with the streets being lined with mayan treasures and local shops with weavings, huipiles (mayan blouse), leather goods, hammocks, hand woven blankets and pillow, bags and on and on and on. A bit pushy but a “No gracias”, is usually sufficient and you are usually left alone, however I have never said “No gracias” so much in my life!
As I said, Pana is the entrance for most people to explore Lago Atitlan. Lago Atitlan is said to be the most beautiful lake in the world, as it is surrounded by volcanoes and deep valleys and is host to some of the most traditional Maya villages in all Guatemala. When you first set eyes on the beauty that surrounds you it indeed takes your breath away. You can’t believe how beautiful and peaceful the Lake is. Now as for the most beautiful in the world…they obviously haven’t been to Canada!!!
We boarded a launcha to take us across the lake to the village of San Pedro La Laguna, where we would spend almost a week. A cross between bohemian, mayan and hippy, this little village was a great place to stop and settle down to stage ourselves for day trips around the lake and to the surrounding villages.
The village is mellow and very chilled out, with an abundance of cheap yet classy restaurants, backpackers filling the hostels and posada’s, travellers living with local families while enrolled in Spanish classes, coffee beans drying along the trails that surround the village, local mayan markets and local cayuca’s fishing in the surrounding waters. It was a very peaceful and lovely place to spend our time. We found a little posada just off the main area and down a quiet street for $10 a night. Yes…let me say that again, $10 a night, for the both of us, not each. It was large, very clean, nice pillows (a good find in Guatemala), a private bathroom with hot water (another good find in Guatemala) with a nice view of the volcano and lake from our balcony that we could admire while we swung in the hammocks hung outside our room. $10.00 A NIGHT!!!! So, this inevitable made up our minds to stay there.
San Pedro was very cheap.We had some of the best meals we’ve had our whole time out and that would give restaurants in North America a run for their money for so cheap you can’t even believe it. It was just what we were looking for.
One day we hired horses and a guide to ride part way up the volcano which offered great views of the surrounding volcanoes and the lake. We visited the other villages that border the lake and went to many local mayan markets. But our favorite day was when we hired a motorbike to ride to Chichicastenango. “Chichi” has what is considered the largest mayan market in Guatemala and the quiet day to day life falls apart come market day. The market attracts commercial traders and mayan weavers from all around the central highlands, and was one market that I didn’t want to miss, so why not hire a motorbike to get there.
We began our day around 8am which would give us lots of time to get to Chichi and give us lots of time to wander the market as we didn’t have to have the bike back until 5 or 6. Having a proper road map may have helped things, but there was a map in our guide book that was from 1999 and we figured that it was good enough. It looked like there was a road that extended from San Marcos, one of the villages on the NW corner on the lake that would “T” into the main highway and would save us time to get to Chichi. The beginning of our ride was beautiful as we wove our way along the road making our way to San Marcos. We got lost in the second village we came to and rode back and forth along the streets trying to find the way out while little mayan women giggled at us as we did so. Finally we were forced to stop and ask how to get back on the main road. Once again our ride was beautiful, however just short of San Marcos the road turned to gravel/sand with huge ruts in it. Oh well, we were almost in San Marcos, so we continued on and the road became somewhat paved again and we stopped at a little stand and got a drink while asking where the road to the main highway was. We got our directions and were on our way. The road became not paved again and as we headed towards the little bridge we saw a local look at us and kind of laugh and shake his head. We didn’t think anything of it at the time, and carried on. We crossed the bridge and were back to the gravel/sand rutted road except it was more like small boulder/sand rutted road that began to climb. The road got progressively worse and we started to really climb to the point where we were doing switch backs every 100 yards, like full on Baja style.
We got to the point where I got off the bike and began hiking up while Mike tried to get the bike to stay out of the 1 foot ruts while trying to get the bike to climb. We were now well above the small village below and we still had a long way to go up, and we couldn’t see the end. I finally saw 2 young boys coming down on a bike a little smaller than ours and asked them how much further to the main road. They said it was about 20 minutes more, but that the road got worse, with huge boulders everywhere and steeper with deep sand. They got to Mike and just shook their head at him. Basically they told us that you can’t go up…only down! We were on a mountain access road that was not traversed by vehicles or bikes only by foot. However Mike was the determined guy we all know and took 3 runs at the same corner that was obviously too steep to traverse. By this point it was 10am and we were only about 10 miles from San Pedro. Now we had to get the bike turned around and get it back down. Mike did a pretty good job of manoeuvring the bike in the ruts, dodging the boulders and not going over the 1000 foot drop. Finally we got on less steep ground and were both able to get back on the bike. We crossed the bridge again and the same man laughed at us and shook his head at us again. We stopped at the same little stand and got another drink while the school children all gathered around the bike giggling at us as we drank our cokes. So we asked the little stand man where the real road was, and he said we had to back track back to the first little village where we had got lost. So off we went back tracking through the little village we had got lost in and made it through without problem and ended up on a nice paved road. The road was filled with switch backs that took you up up up, but was such a beautiful ride. The higher we got the more beautiful the view got. Finally we were on the main road to the highway that would take us to Chichi. We only got lost one more time on our way, but didn’t get to Chichi until 1:30pm.
The market was outstanding. I realized we should have been there hours before as it would be impossible to fit it all in, but we tried. Unfortunately I didn’t get nearly enough time to wander, but it was still successful. We didn’t want to be on the road when it was dark, so at 3:30 we had to pack it in and head home.
We didn’t get lost once on the way home and it only took us 1 ½ hours to get back to San Pedro. The whole thing was very comical and we had a good laugh about our mountain/motor biking over a beautiful cheap dinner that night.So we met some great people while in Lago Atitlan and had some very memorable times. We thoroughly enjoyed our time there. I had originally wanted to get to Todos Santos which is quite a bit further to the west, but we just couldn’t fit it all in with the time we had and if we had of tried we would have spent half the time travelling on a bus. So I concluded that we will have to return! We headed back to Antigua for another couple of days before returning to Meggie. We were getting anxious to get back to Megs and make sure everything was all right and of course it was. We spent the rest of our time in the Rio Dulce hanging out with a couple of cruisers, checking out Fronteras and the surrounding areas and getting the boat ready to head back to sea. We spent Mike’s birthday with 2 other couples from the marina and we headed to a really cool restaurant that we took Greg’s launcha through a narrow waterway to get to the restaurant that was lit up by candles in the middle of nowhere in the jungle. It was pretty cool and we enjoyed a wonderful Swiss meal (believe it or not).
So Mike celebrated in style including a winnie the pooh birthday cake (not much choice in Fronteras…it was either Pooh or a ballerina).
Meggie was anxious to get back to the sea, so we left the Rio Dulce after spending 1 month in this amazing country with the most beautiful and kind people.
We had a hard beat from Livingston (Guatemala) to Tres Punta where we would stage to head to Placencia, Belize the next day. We had a hard beat the next day to Placencia, but only the first part of the trip was uncomfortable as we were soon tucked behind the barrier reef. We moved quickly through Belize, but enjoyed anchoring on our own at some beautiful islands in behind the reef, and enjoyed eating the big Mackerel we caught along the way.It was a bit surreal to be close reaching along at 6 knots in 6-10 feet of water with no waves and lots of wind….very fun sailing! Pretty soon we were at the north end of Belize and ready to make the jump north to Mexico. We left San Pedro cut and headed for Hut Point just 40 miles south of Isla Mujeres. We did an overnighter that was our fastest sail to date. We did 180 nautical miles in 25 hours. That is averaging 7.3 knots!!! For those of you who don’t know what that means….it’s fast. The current was ripping between the mainland and Banco Chinchorro giving us our fastest sail. It was great.
We waited out a cold front in Hut Point, which is just an anchorage behind a reef, but it was a nice place to hang out for a couple of days before heading to Isla Mujeres. We had another hard beat to Isla and were really really glad when we arrived. We checked the weather as soon as we got here to see if we could move to Florida straight away or if we would have to check in and wait a bit. The weather held consistently NE and we knew we wouldn’t be able to go anywhere for at least a week, so my mom came to visit. She had her flight booked in a day! I think she was ready for a vacation. We had a great time and got to explore the island together which was lots of fun. We took her out for a sail which she loved and she steered Meggie most of the time, until we had to tack.

She got a taste of dealing with a cold front and stayed aboard during the windy cold conditions. We were sad to see her go, but not too sad as we’ll see her in a few months. In the meantime we were checking weather and realized we still couldn’t go anywhere so Mike’s dad and step mom came to visit! They too, had a great time. We again got to explore the island with them and enjoyed walking the entire length of Isla. We took them for a sail as well on Tony’s birthday, which was great. We really enjoyed our time with them and I’m pretty sure they will be back on their own someday.

The day they left a window opened up. We figured we could leave on Friday, but it was Friday 13th and sailors have a funny superstition about setting sail on a Friday let alone Friday 13th. So we figured we would leave on Saturday. We rushed around Thursday and rushed on Friday and then we stopped and said “Why are we rushing?” We didn’t feel quite ready to leave. It had been a busy couple of weeks and the boat wasn’t ready and to be honest I don’t think we’re ready to get to Florida and the mainland just yet.
Life as we have known it will be over once we get to the mainland, so what’s the rush? Anyway…we’re still anchored in beautiful Isla Mujeres, Mexico and will take the next weather window. We just want to linger in the Carib for just a bit longer! Can you blame us??
So….in a nutshell this is what has been happening. I tried to keep it short, and left out quite a bit, but I think you get the picture.
Pretty soon now, we’ll be back in North America and on our way north….yikes! I’ve just clued in to what a big adjustment it will be to be on land again and honestly am not sure I’m ready. But this was the inevitable and there is not much we can do about it. It will be a new chapter in our lives, but it might take a bit to readjust. More than anything, I can’t believe Meggie will be out of the water and still for 6 months…this makes me sad. However I believe more now than ever that we will head out again. I just read an article by a cruiser that has been all over the world and that we both really enjoy reading. In his article he talks about how devastating the financial crisis is, but it is essential that we don’t give up on our dreams. You might have to adjust your dream accordingly, but never give up on them. One quote in the article stuck with me and it is a very simple motto for life “Live while you’re alive”. Pretty simple. If you want to read the whole article, check it out in the February 2009 issue of Cruising World (also check out the article on p.84 by yours truly!).
Anyway, blah blah blah. Enough already.
I will write about Mexico next time, but for now….
Hasta Luego amigos
Kylie and Mike

Soon....

2009-03-15T10:41:00.000-07:00

Update coming soon...promise!

2009-01-18T12:35:00.001-08:00

It’s been a busy month! We’ve made some decisions that have been hanging over us for some time. While we were in Jamaica and the excitement of crossing the Caribbean Sea began to wear off, we seemed to be in somewhat of a “funk”, not really knowing where we were going or what we would be doing once we got there. The “recession” doesn’t help matters as we were constantly hearing stories of lay-offs, closures and losses. Truth be told…it is a good time to be away from it all on our sailboat, however the time had come we realize, where we have to begin to build our future which inevitably means building our finances. Although working while sailing keeps us going, it doesn’t get us ahead. So…decisions, decisions. After being gone close to 3 years, and with the way of the world, the things that matter most to us at this time we’ve discovered is being close to those we love (our dear friends and family). So after weighing our options with all considered, (and for me….along with some heart to hearts with Mike, my sister and my friend Lieran), we came to the decision to return to the place we had left. We hope to arrive in Thornbury harbour in July 2009, exactly 3 years after our departure. Mike to stay with Meggie in the harbour as he has a job lined up and me for a short time before heading to France or Fort Lauderdale to work on a mega yacht for 6 months (although this could change). We feel good about our decision. It’s bittersweet as one chapter will close and another will begin.When we left we didn’t really know what to expect or where we would go, but we always hoped to make it to South America and we’ve accomplished what we set out to do. We are so fortunate to have been able to take this time and experience all that we have. Sometimes I can’t honestly imagine not living aboard our small, intimate, comfy boat we call home, to enter back into the land of reality and all that comes along with it, but we’ve grown individually and together and have learned a lot about one another and ourselves that will accompany us and our lifestyle on land. And, I must admit….I’m due for a really good shop and I can’t wait to get on my bike and my snowboard. As for Mike…he could sail forever and ever, but he does miss his tools!
Meggie is great…we couldn’t ask for a better boat. We are excited to be able to address issues in which we won’t be rushed to fix and improve her as she enters into her vintage stage.
Whew….now with all of that said, it could be because time is ticking down, but the last couple of months have been incredible…some of our best! We left you just before Christmas in Guanaja, one of our most favourite islands.The Christmas pot luck was a huge success, complete with turkey, gravy, all the fixins and sunshine. We cruised the 2nm up to the beautiful Josh’s Cay where diving, swimming, fishing and chillin’ filled our days before new years where we celebrated on a palm fringed island complete with good music, good people good times.
January 1st, we weighed anchor and headed west, leaving a wonderful place in our wake. As for Roatan….we were there 3 days, not much to say other than not really our cup of tea. Nice beaches, good diving, but nothing special. So…onto Utila.
Utila is a bit of a backpackers island for divers. Cheap accommodation, cheap restaurants, cheap beer and a cool relaxed atmosphere…perfect! We hung out in Utila for a few days, but I had the Guatemala itch and couldn’t wait to get there.
We stopped along the mainland of Honduras to break up our passage to the Rio Dulce as we had wind on the nose and the wind chop was anything but fun. Thank God we stopped! We entered between the jungle lined hills that create the cut from a confused sea to the flat calm of the anchorage. Once anchored, you could hear the commotion of jungle life as the day came to an end. We were anchored in Luguna el Diamente which is a national park so there is nothing but jungle around you. We found a trail that meandered along the peninsula that first led to Bahia Escondido and then continued into the jungle that led up, up and up until we were at the highest point of the peninsula and were rewarded with a stunning view and a howler monkey chillin out. It was our first encounter with the howlers, so we were pretty excited. We descended and took another trail that was soon filled with rustling noise above us. We looked up and there in the crux of a tree was another howler making a motion with his arm and a low grunting noise… we looked to the left and there were 6 more! I’m sure we was warning them of our presence. 5 adult howlers and 1 baby played in the branches above us, showing off swinging from limb to limb and hanging from their tails. It was quite a show. As we began to leave them, the “Bid Daddy”(who didn’t move from the crux the whole time) let out his “big daddy” howl and now we know why they’re called howler monkeys. That noise reached right inside out, enough to make your heart stop. I’m not sure if he was saying “Thank you, come again” or “Don’t come back now…ya hear”. In any case…it was pretty amazing.
With a forecasted easterly wind, we set out for a 60nm run to Cabo Tres Punta, only 9.5nm from the gateway to the Rio Dulce. We hung out in Tres Punta for 2 nights as it was the weekend and we didn’t want to get charged double by the customs, but come Monday we were off, and after beating into fresh westerlies in the pouring rain for 9.5 nm we arrived at the gateway.
We cleared into Guatemala in the bohemiafunked town of Livingston before we began our way up the cliff lined gorge of the Rio Dulce. As the mist hung off the cliffs that lined the gorge we motored our way fighting a 1-1.5 knot current up the river. There is nothing but green that surrounds you as you make hairpin turns that wind deep into Guatemala. Because we weren’t travelling with another boat, Mike had rigged up a “system” where he got in the dinghy and I dropped him back about 200 feet on our extra anchor rode so he could take pictures of Meggie along the way. It worked great until I had to winch him back in all 200 feet!
We watched Mayan children paddle along the river in their dugout canoes, called cayucos and watched others cast their shrimping nets from these narrow little boats.
We finally arrived at our destination marina where we will keep Meggie tied to the dock as we travel inland.It’s a nice marina…not what you think when you think marina, but it does come complete with hot showers! I couldn’t wait, so after 2 days securing Meggie and getting her set we took a short trip to Flores which lies only 1 hour from Tikal National Park.
Our bus ride to Flores was typical…the driver had his wife and small boy sitting in the front with him, so he spent more time playing with them than he did looking at the road. I somehow got the last seat, while Mike sat on a cushion on top of the engine compartment, while about 40 other poor people stood in the aisle, and of course….there was a chicken, but I was assured that this wasn’t “the chicken bus”. Then about 1 hour left to go, the bus had a bit of a break down for about 30 minutes, but “no problemo” we got going again. It’s all about the adventure not the destination!
Flores is a sweet little village. An island connected by a causeway is completely different to it’s neighbour town of Santa Elena. The next morning we grabbed one of the many shuttles to the park. The weather was gloomy, but this kept the tourists away and the park wasn’t very busy at all. For those of you who don’t know what Tikal is, aside from being a protected haven for many species of flora and fauna of Guatemala, it is one of the largest monumental cultural and natural reserves of the Republic of Guatemala.
It is a glimpse of the Mayan culture that dates back as far as 700BC, with some temples towering 40-57 metres high. We climbed one temple in particular, Temple V at 57 metres, and although the steepness made my feet tingle, as you sit atop this temple over looking the central acropolis and the Gran Plaza, you try to envision what this lost ancient city was like soooo long ago. You’re sitting above the jungle canopy and the only sounds are those of the jungle, and it truly is magical. We had just seen the movie Apocalypto, so visions of the Mayan city in the movie were fresh in our minds. It’s hard to describe Tikal…it’s something that should be experienced. The history that surrounds you is astounding. It is truly a magical place…it’s just so unbelievable to be looking at something that has so much to tell. Mike said at one point as we gazed at the Gran Plaza….”If only walls could talk”. Then the next group of loud tourists comes along and you’re snapped back to reality.
The rain held off for 5 hours as we toured around the large park taking everything in.
We went back to Flores for the night before returning back to Meggie.
We plan on heading inland again for about a 2 week trip which will take us to Antigua, Chichicastenango, Lago Atilan, Solola and Todos Santos….and I am very excited. You can’t believe the color and the fabrics and the weaving by the Mayans…it’s unbelievable.
So in a big nutshell that’s it. Now that I’ve written a novel, I’m going to sign off.
Hasta Luego,
Kylie and Mike

Christmas in Central America

2008-12-21T10:25:00.000-08:00

Mikes passage notes.
As Meggie swings quietly to her anchor in the beautiful Island of Guanaja, Honduras, Kylie and I are not only overjoyed about what a picturesque and remote place that we have sailed into but also about the fact that we have just sailed clear across the Caribbean sea via two stops along the north coast of Jamaica. The first stop at Port Antonio and then a rough as hell 96 Nautical mile overnight run west ward to Montego Bay.
Curacao to Honduras via Jamaica was a total distance of 1145Nm, or 1315 road miles, or 2175km. This was in less than a month. The passage from Jamaica to Honduras wasn’t quite as easy going as Curacao to Jamaica was. We certainly saw the seas many different faces during our 4 nights and 4 days at sea. We left Montego Bay in the evening only to find a rough and confused sea due to the wind blowing against a counter current, nice start eh!, but once off shore and away from the coast the sea settled into its own rhythm. The next night brought something unexpected as we had to motor sail in less than 10 knots of wind for 12 hours. The third morning we watched uneasily as a giant dark and nasty cloud bank gained on us, constantly increasing in size and gaining strength until we were surrounded. Inevitably the system caught up to little Meggie and unleashed its fury. It was noon and we were 300Nm off shore. We quickly dropped the pole and secured the Yankee (outer head sail) to the bow sprit, as we were running down wind at the time. We then altered coarse, broad reaching to the north west, this tactic helped us not to loose any miles but would also keep us on the outer fringe of the storm system. This was an exhilarating hour or so as we had 25 - 30 knots of wind and a favourable current. With sails reefed right down Meggie carried 7 - 8 knots and once hit 10 knots of boat speed. Soon the seas grew too large and we were forced to bare off, running before the wind heading west, southwest once again.
It was not long until we were running under double reefed main sail alone trying not to sail too fast and keeping things in control. The system lasted all night and by 2:00 am the seas had grown to a height of one full story, that’s 10 feet or so from trough to crest pushed by 25 - 35 knots of wind. Oddly enough, we felt like someone was watching out for us because there was often a clear patch of sky right above Meggie. All things considered, Kylie and I were rather comfortable, often saying the odd ”holy S*%!” look at the size of that one eh! . You cant expect to get perfect weather while passing through the middle of the Caribbean sea. But this was no problem, it was nothing more than a rough night at sea, and above all a great chance to test ourselves and our little boat in the big tank. Meggie s hull design is very impressive, her (reserve buoyancy) and raked transom allowed her to lift her bum to each passing wave as it roared and hissed white and phosphorescent sea water towards her. She then cut and flared the waves away with her mid ships and bow section as the waves over took us. She never let a single wave enter the cockpit only a little spray. Timmy, our wind vane also did a great job of steering, only occasionally needing a little help to bring her back on coarse in the gusts and on certain waves. (this may have been my own fault as I didn’t switch to the heavy weather vane) It is extremely difficult and tiring to steer in those conditions. The rest of the passage was fairly moderate with 20 knots and comfortable sailing allowing us to catch up on some sleep. We made land fall on Tuesday afternoon in beautiful Guanaja. Very happy to be in Kylie made a nice curry dinner and we finished off the last of our Jamaican red stripes. The only tragedy was no fish were caught.
Mike.

Hi everybody. This is Kylie now. So there is no need for me to go into any detail about our sail to Guanaja. I was really glad to get here. Not only does this mean no more longer passages until we leave Mexico for Florida and that’s only 250 miles, but we are now in Central America which is ours to discover.
Our last day on the sea, we were pushing Meggie as we needed to get into Guanaja before dark as you have to enter between reefs and it‘s not somewhere you want to mess around in the dark…if we hadn‘t of made it, it would have been another night at sea going nowhere!!!! We sailed her hard and entered through the cut in the reef around 4pm and we were both in awe at how beautiful this island is. We had no expectations upon arriving in Guanaja, we thought we would stop briefly and then carry onto Roatan. What a pleasant surprise Guanaja is and we are in no rush to leave. We anchored at the town, which I have to tell you about.This town must have started with a few buildings on a small island and as it grew the houses and stores were built upon stilts over the ocean floor. So as you wander the street you cross over canals and little bridges. Now I don’t want to mistakenly paint a picture of Venice, because it isn’t anything like Venice, not nearly as pretty, but as equally unique. Once we had finished checking out the town we carried onto a well protected anchorage, El Bight in time to hunker down for the approaching cold front. We haven’t had to deal with cold fronts since we were in the Bahamas over 2 years ago, so this was interesting. We were confined to Meggie for 2 days as the cold front passed, but it was a chance to catch up on some sleep and some cleaning up. In the time we were anchored at El Bight we were attracted to (the only) bar there. A bunch of excellent people were at the bar consisting of Germans, Americans, Hondurans and some Canadians and we were immediately drawn to these people and to this island. They invited us to a low key pot luck Christmas dinner/party, so we decided to stay! We’ll probably stay through New Years too, we love it so much. We met an American, named Gar from Alaska who has been here for 10 years and maintains some hiking trails, so he took us on a 5 hour hike to the highest peak in Guanaja, Michael’s peak standing at about 1400 feet. The views were unbelievable and because Guanaja is covered in pine trees, it really felt like we were hiking at home, except it was MUCH hotter and one other difference is of course there is NO SNOW!!! Heehee. Most of the pines were destroyed in the devastating Hurricane Mitch, 10 years ago. The cat 5 hurricane slammed Guanaja for 2 whole days! However the landscape has come back amazingly with new pines thriving well.
From El Bight, we sailed up to Grahams Cay, a whopping 2 miles east and as we dropped the anchor all alone in 7 feet of gin clear water, the sun displayed the numerous shades of blues and greens that surrounded us. Grahams Cay is protected by a barrier reef that is host to beautiful live coral and numerous fish, turtles and our new pets that hang around our boat…squids. The Cay also has an awesome little resort on it, very low key but very beautiful. An open aired bar that sits on the beach surrounded by palm trees and beautiful blue water as a little Spanish music plays in the background….awesome. The bartender is happy to give us free water, free ice, free laundry wash and free internet…what more could a cruiser ask for?
So now we are just hanging out, enjoying our surroundings and getting ready for our big pot luck on Christmas day. At least we’ll be together this year and if we can’t be with family, we’ll be surrounded by new friends.
We want to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and we hope the new year brings you nothing but good fortune, good health and above all absolute happiness!
Feliz Navidad,
Kylie, Mike and Meggie
PS...some animal buddies...

Go Meggie Go! (Mike's sail log, with excerpts from Kylie)

2008-11-19T13:22:00.000-08:00

Last we left you we were waiting to make the big jump from Curacao northward to Jamaica, just shy of 600 nautical miles. Well, we were certainly glad we gave the first favourable weather window a pass, as Hurricane Paloma thrashed its way out to sea, beginning to form just west of us in SW Carib. Paloma hammered Little Cayman and Cayman Brac as a strong Cat 4 hurricane just skirting Jamaica then hammering Cuba with a 25 foot storm surge. Finally she weakened over Cuba with her remnants dispersing through the Bahamas. Before we get into our run north, I should mention that we endured some exciting weather events in the ABC islands. Not only did we get a trade wind reversal at 2am while in Bonaire on a mooring ball (which isn’t protected AT ALL from any westerly winds)and only 1 boats length away from the shore where the waves curled before hitting the beach and climbed up onto the street in some spots. The best part was that I had taken the starter motor apart to clean up a bearing and then repaint the motor which seemed like a good idea at the time.
”Not“. Meggie was thrashing to the seas that raced in from a thousand foot depth to a mere 16 ft shelf in front of us. Kylie and I discussed whether to hoist reefed main and stay sail to claw our way off the now lee shore and out to open water but we had no room to lose…if we screwed up, we would lose Meggie. So at 4am, in the pitching surf I half climbed into the engine compartment and reinstalled the starter. Fortunately (well sort of) the paint was still tacky and stuck to my fingers, which made it easy to hang onto. Shortly after I finished, the wind eased off for a bit only to regain strength at first light still out of the southwest. The marina was full for the Regatta but luckily Kylie’s smooth talk`n got us a spot squeezed between two other boats. Perfect. We realized after we had docked that the force from the thrashing, broke Meggie’s snatch block (that wasn’t in use…just broke from the force of the mooring lines) we use on the end of the bowsprit for our anchor rode. Another boat that managed to find a spot in the marina, had a souvenir attached to their bow…both mooring balls and both lines sat on the deck of their bow. The force of their thrashing actually ripped the mooring lines, balls and everything! It was quite the event! Numerous other damages were reported, but nothing compared to the damages that Hurricane Omar inflicted only a week later.
By the time Omar came through, we had sailed to Spanish waters, Curacao where we weathered the winds from Hurricane Omar that passed 60 miles north of us. The anchorage is packed with boats from all over the place, and with designated areas to anchor, the anchorages resembled somewhat of a sardine can. We saw the wind reach 40-45 knots and not knowing what to expect from Omar as he still hadn’t veered north, we upped anchor (which was tricky: with no windless and 35 knots sustained winds, with a 64’boat about 20’ off our bow). Along with our good friends on Tyee and 2 other boats, we moved to a better anchorage (non designated anchorage…any port in a storm!!). We dropped our storm ground tackle, and were very relieved to be anchored on our own, away from the herd of all the other boats. So once happy with the holding we were able to get some sleep (I did at least…Mike here) as the wind screamed through the rigging for 2 days from the west. Yearly hurricane patterns would suggest that there is almost no chance of the ABC islands being hit. Aruba has gone 100 years without a hurricane, but guess what….times are changing.
On a lighter note, we spent one last day wake boarding and then sailing with the Tyee gang before they hauled her to fly home to Revelstoke B.C. The next day I had a great windward run with Harke who is from Holland on his custom 44 aluminium boat, Serendipity. We spent many evenings sharing many dinners and many drinks with new and old friends (funny eh, we have old friends out here now). We were so happy to see our “young cruiser” friends Kim and Scott on Anthyllide again. It was great catching up with them and fun to compare stories. We also met our old friends from our days back in Ol'St. David's, Grenada...Pete and Rosie on Green Coral. Pegasus (Maria and Mike from Amsterdam) whom we had met briefly in the Eastern Caribbean had a new crew with them this time we met….their daughter, Madelief was born just 7 weeks before we arrived in Curacao.
We were fortunate enough to cross paths with many new and interesting cruisers from all over. Our favourites: Cooee 2, Spanish Stroll, Mermaid of Carriacou and Tinto. Unfortunately we all point the bow off in different directions, but we hope we all cross wakes once again some day. So until then, we wish you fair winds and following seas.
Mon Nov 10th 11:20, we got under way.
Meggie’s Log. This is a log (summary) of our passage north. We thought you might find it interesting to see what it’s like underway.

Monday, Nov. 10th, 2008:
Noon: coarse to steer 310M, favourable current, S/E wind 14Knots, barometer 1010mb, conditions light, clear sky, sail set, all white canvas. 2hr of spinnaker.
Remarks: (from Mike)
Perfect conditions, quartering seas and wind, great to be underway, and on a new adventure.

Midnight: coarse to steer 330M, windward bow current, E wind 15-16Knots, steady bar, moderate conditions, clear sky, sail set, full canvas, reef main.
(Noon to Noon run 121nautical miles)
Remarks:
Fast through the night, 2 ships seen, we feel good, beam seas and wind, flying fish landing on deck, Dolphins swimming with Meggie at midnight until 2:00.

Tues. Nov. 11, 2008:
Noon: coarse to steer 340M, beam on current, N/E 16Knots, steady bar, getting rougher, patchy cloudy sky, sail set, full, reef main,
Remarks.
Caught 1 mahi mahi, Kylie seasick, she couldn’t eat the mahi dinner I made (her favourite), fast sailing, rolly and rough confused seas.

Midnight: coarse to steer 340M, beam on current, N/E 16+Knots, steady bar, 6ft seas, patchy clouds, sail set reef mizzen, reef main, stay sail
(Noon to Noon run 138 nautical miles)
Remarks.
Holding more north that west as N/E trades are forecast when we close on Jamaica, no ships seen , quiet night, more late night dolphins. And flying fish rescues, Great sailing, Kylie only sick for 6 hrs (this is Kylie...I didn't barf! Made and ate beans for dinner)

Wed. Nov. 12, 2008:
Noon: coarse to steer 315M, quartering current, N/E 16Knots, 1015mb, moderate conditions, sun/cloud, sail set main, mizzen, yankee,
Remarks:
Another small mahi, half way point, 2 ships seen, averaging 5.75-6 Knots boat speed, come BIG fish…the ice is lasting well.

Midnight: coarse to steer 315M, current strong, N/E 15Knots, steady bar, moderate conditions, clear sky, reef main, reef mizzen, stay sail.
(Noon to Noon run 140 nautical miles)
Remarks:
Nice clear night, fast sailing, spotted 1 ship, no dolphins and less flying fish?

Thurs. Nov. 13, 2008:
Noon: coarse to steer 315M, strong current, E/NE, 17Knots, larger seas, clear sky, sail set, reef mizzen, reef main, stay sail on the pole.
Remarks:
lighter wind forecast has us running fast down wind at 6-7+ Knots wing on wing with 105 square foot stay sail, reduce main and mizzen…go figure, I don’t know why but seas are inconsistent, average 6ft but some up to 8+. Oh well great fun Meggie’s running free, and steering is in the hands of Timmy the pilot who is in the groove.

Midnight: coarse to steer 315M, current not as strong, N/E, 13-14Knots, calming down, steady bar., moderate/light conditions, patchy cloud, sail set, full main, full mizzen, yankee on the pole.
(Noon to Noon run 126 nautical miles)
Remarks:
Closing on Jamaica, light wind tonight, still sailing well, encountered a strange ship with “ET” type lights on it…no radio contact, squall off the Haiti coast forced us to get the pole down quickly and reef at 4:00 in the morning

Fri. Nov. 14, 2008:
Noon: coarse to steer 305Mag, slow current astern, N/E 10 Knots, steady bar, light conditions, clear sky, sail set, spinnaker, mizzen stay sail spinnaker set in mains place, full mizzen.
Remarks:
Jamaica in sight, very light wind, calm seas, dolphins every were you look, 40miles left, landed nice mahi…smiled at us (looked like he said "hey suckers...I'm going to jump back in the water in 2 seconds"), then jumped out of the cockpit and back in the water.

Arrival: Fri. Nov.14, 2008 Location: Port Antonio, Jamaica. 21:15. Motored the last 40 miles took 9 Hrs. Oh well. Entered at night (broke golden rule…but it’s a good entrance, good lighting, full moon, light conditions, no reefs)

In the morning we were greeted with smiling faces saying “Welcome to Jamaica, mahn…Welcome to paradise!!!!”And indeed it is a paradise. We’re on the NE corner of Jamaica where tourism is less prevalent than the rest of the island, and where cruising boats are almost nil (we’re the only one, except for 2 others who have been here for 6 months). We are very happy with our run across the Caribbean Sea and are happy with our little boat’s performance…man, what a great boat! We will hang out in Port Antonio until we get a decent window to head to MoBay (Montego Bay) before sailing the 500nm passage to Guanaja, Honduras. We hope to be underway sometime next week, but unfortunately the weather is looking a bit unsettled. Merging cold fronts coming from the north will keep us tucked away in Port Antonio for another week at least (but we’ll take the cold fronts over the hurricanes any day!)
We will leave it there for now, and will write more on Jamaica soon. We hope everyone is staying warm up north…believe it or not, but it’s a little cooler here in Jamaica too (only about 84F/30C)!
Until next time…We check ya later, mahn.
Mike and Kylie

Heading north bound

2008-11-08T08:42:00.000-08:00

We've been in Curacao for almost a month (wow...that went fast). Anyway, we've been waiting for the hurricane season to end, provisioning Meggie, doing some jobs on her and getting her ready for some longer passages. All looks good and it looks like we might actually get out of here on Monday, November 10th. Hurricane Paloma should be long gone by then and it looks like a good window to Jamaica.
So...next time we talk to you we'll be back in the land of Rasta's mahn.
Until then...
Kylie and Mike

Out Island Paradise

2008-10-04T09:31:00.000-07:00

So I guess I should begin by saying…sorry! When we arrived in Bonaire on the 1st of October, we had numerous emails with the subject, “WORRIED”. We told some people we would be out of touch for about a month, but obviously we should have told more, so we’re very sorry! However….we had an in-cred-ible month!
I have to first say Congrats to the new babies that have arrived in our world. We are very happy for all the new parents (and some second timers!).Ok…so I guess we left you in Medregal. Well…we’re back in the water, in case you didn’t catch that memo. We launched Meggie with dread as we thought she would leak like a sieve after sitting on the hard in the tropics for 2 months, but to our delight, she didn’t leak a drop. We were outta there. We headed to Cumana (the closest city) to provision the boat for a month, checked out of Venezuela and tidied up a few last minute details and we were off. Our first stop was Tortuga, laying 70 miles northwest. We had an uneventful night sail and arrived in the early morning hours and were met with gin clear water. We had forgotten how blue the water could be, and to top it off a beautiful white sand beach lined the turquoise waters. We rested up and moved to a reef enclosed anchorage, where you could snorkel off your boat and catch your dinner. One overcast day we sat in the anchorage and watched a storm pass north of and watch waterspout clouds try to form, but luckily they couldn’t quite touch the water (Thank God). Then we saw another funnel form one day in Los Roques…not a sight you welcome, but cool to see. We stayed in Tortuga for about a week, just playing with the fish and once we had a decent weather window we moved to Los Roques, Venezuela. We had a screaming over night sail of about 85 miles flying wing on wing the whole way, and by morning the wind was up to about 20 knots, so Meggie was flying. We entered the narrow cut behind the reefs and again were met with the most unbelievable blues you could imagine (I’ll probably write that a lot in this blog). Oh and on the way…we caught a perfect size mahi mahi. So we dropped the hook and had a great mahi lunch and then a great mahi dinner!
Los Roques is a protected marine park, so no spear fishing here, but the reefs are so alive with enormous fish swimming about feeling very safe in their protected environment. Los Roques’ eastern end is an enormous reef, with little islands and sand bars tucked safely behind it.
Sailing behind the reef means lots of wind, with only a small wind chop and no ocean swell. So we enjoyed meandering along in the perfect blues and finding a different anchorage alone every night, unless you wanted to be with people. We decided to anchor right behind the reef so we could check out the sea life, and we met with 3 Canadian boats whom we knew of. So we got more acquainted with these Canadians over a beautiful mahi dinner that Rene on Gypsy Blues had caught on their way from Tortuga. So John, Lucie and their 2 boys Theo and Simi on Tyee 3 a great family from Revelstoke, BC (whom we’re still travelling with), Chris on Spy Glass (a single hander from BC) and Rene and Cheryl on Gypsy Blues (from non other than Barrie, Ontario whose cruising grounds are the North Channel and Georgian Bay!!!!!). Great company, great food, great scenery…who could ask for more.
While in another anchorage we were able to catch up with another friend on Seredipity. Harke (from Holland) and his crew Joyce (from the US) were kind enough to host many dinners aboard Seredipity and as always great times were had by all. This was Joyce’s first experience cruising and it was fun to watch her taking it all in.
Los Roques isn’t quite as remote as it once was. Huge Venezuelan mega yachts cruise here on the weekends and holidays and there is one island that hosts quite a few posada’s, restaurants and little shops. At this point in our little adventure in the out islands we were pretty low on fruit and veg, flour, eggs etc…so the little grocery shop was a much needed stop.
Up until this point I was making pancakes from scratch, baking bread (that’s right mom…I was baking bread), baking morning sconces and trying to come up with different recipe’s to include our dwindling supply of food.
After a quick restock of some fruit and veg we headed to the central and western Roques. All anchorages were beautiful but Isla Cayo de Agua was the nicest in our opinion. Beautiful beach, protected anchorage, great diving, lots of turtles and of course great company with the new addition of Mustang Sally. Cayo de Agua has a little island that sits off it where you can see wild flamingos meandering about…pretty cool.
I’m going to sound like a broken record. Basically all the anchorages were beautiful, and the reefs were bursting with live coral, and an abundance of fish (all types of species…too many to count, and of course no underwater camera!), the beaches were white sand with numerous beautiful shells littering the shore, and an unbelievable array of blues I’ve ever seen. The water more clear than the Bahamas, dare I say.
We finally left the marine park of Los Roques and arrived in Aves de Barlovento where we wove our way through the reefs to the end anchorage behind the big horseshoe reef. The difference in the Aves is that you can spear fish!!! We geared up one day and dove on the outer reef in search for dinner, only to be chased back to our dinghy by a 6 foot barracuda (ok, maybe he was only 4 ½-5 feet but he looked unbelievably big under the water). Normally barracudas linger a bit, but don’t usually bother us, but as I was confirming my find of a nice sized grouper I felt searing eyes on me and I turned around to be face to face (well probably about 8 feet away) with this nasty looking monster. I’m a bit of a freak when it comes to barracudas as it is and I had wandered pretty far from the dinghy and Mike was half way between, so I had to pass the monster to get to Mike who was chasing a snapper ready to shoot. I bolted….turned around and he was following…like closely. I tugged on Mike’s fin and made funny gestures with my hands and yelled into my snorkel, but he already saw him behind me. I headed for the dinghy with Mike hot on my tail and launched myself into the dinghy (similar to the move that Mike made when he saw the reef shark in the Bahamas)…I looked back and Mike was turned to the monster with his spear aimed and ready to shoot and the barracuda was about 5 feet from the tip of the spear and coming strong. With a swift move, Mike turned and launched into the dinghy just as the nasty beast swam past the ding. AHHHH….We’ve never experienced such an aggressive barracuda before, and we did not like it. So we went back to Meggie and had spaghetti. That night we encountered for the first time in a long time a pretty good 40 knot squall that lasted for quite awhile (always in the early morning hours). It’s always a little scary even though we’ve had our fair share of squalls to deal with in the past, and being anchored with reefs all around isn‘t a comforting feeling, but Meggie held like a champ.
A cool thing on Isla Sur (Aves de Barlovento) is an shrine-like-leave-your-mark for sailors/cruisers who come upon this island. So Meggie’s name written on piece of coral sits amongst the others who have passed through this beautiful part of the world for years to come.
Aves Barlovento was great, but we were anxious to see Aves de Sotovento (20 miles west) and then carry onto Bonaire, so we up anchored and made the short hop to Sotovento.
We anchored off a white sand beach….again, and the next morning the gang on Tyee 3, Mike and I headed out to find dinner. At this point our shelves on board were looking pretty skinny, but with the help of some flour (and my new found baking skills…HA) and some long lasting cabbage, and of course rice and pasta we were doing ok, but fish would top it off nicely…but even better would be some lobster!
So by 8:30am we were in the dinghies heading out for the hunt. Probably the most diverse and alive coral I had ever seen yet was found in Aves Sotovento…absolutely unbelievable. I couldn’t even begin to name the different types of coral or the numerous species of fish, it was astounding. So armed with lobster snares and spears we searched the reefs for some sort of dinner and were not disappointed .
For two nights we were treated to a lobster/snapper dinner for 6, but only after being in the water from 8:30am-2pm for 2 days in a row. Believe it or not…it was exhausting (I know…tough life, huh).
So by the 1st of October our water tanks were almost empty, our fruit and veg had been eaten, the canned goods gone, all dry goods finished and our rum and beer depleted so it was time to leave the serenity of the out islands and finally say goodbye to Venezuela once and for all.
We arrived in Bonaire and headed out for a much welcome burger and fries dinner with an accompanying cold beer or two and a side of cold water with ICE!!!
What an incredible month. We really are spoiled to see and experience such amazing places as the ones we’ve just spent the last month in.
So, with our shelves somewhat stocked again, we plan to hang in Bonaire for a bit and take in some of the sailing regatta and then make our way to Curacao (only 35 miles away now) to prepare ourselves and Meggie for our 600 nautical mile sail to Jamaica at the end of the month. Bonaire is also beautiful and is considered the diving capitol of the Caribbean. We feel very safe again in Bonaire, and also felt safe in the out islands which is a nice change to always worrying about safety and security in Venezuela.

So anyway, not a lot to write about in this blog, but so much fun was had.
I’ll try to do a quick blog before we leave for Jamaica, so people know when we’re going and so I won’t get any “WORRIED” emails when we arrive in Jamaica! All the same, thank you all for your concern.
Cheers,
Kylie and Mike

Sailing on the hard, doesn't work!

2008-08-11T06:39:00.001-07:00

Oh wow, where to begin. So much to tell, but I don’t want to bore you with a novel so I’ll do my best to keep it relatively short.
Ok, Mike left you all with our arrival in Venezuela. Since then we made our way to the mainland, landing in Cumana before venturing east in the Gulfo de Cariaco to Medregal village where we planned to haul Meggie to replace the transom. We left Porlamar, Margarita at a good time, because numerous reports of theft and armed boarding’s among other incidents began occurring shortly after we had left. We were thankful to be out of there, but were concerned about our friends who were still there or who had just arrived.Venezuela is a wonderfully diverse country, but it comes with it’s risks if you want to explore it. I could get into the politics of Venezuela here, but it could take a separate novel to write about that, but while we hear we are learning from locals and travellers about the different aspects of this country, and the potential she has. As Mike puts it “If we didn’t expect some risk when we left on this adventure, then we should have stayed at home.” and he is absolutely right, and we are so glad that we came to Venezuela as the country side and people are incredible and our experiences so far have all been good ones. We left Porlamar and headed to Isla Coche for a few days and enjoyed the long white sandy beach and watching the numerous kite boarders that take advantage of the howling winds and flat seas. From Coche we made our way to Cumana, where we planned to stop to pick up some marine items in town before heading to Medregal. From Cumana we headed across the Golfo to Laguna Grande where we had planned to spend a couple of days. As we approached we were awed by the beauty of this anchorage. There are different water ways to choose an anchorage in which to stay, and any one you choose you will be hidden from all the other boats as the landscape is made up of big foothill like mounds covered in red clay like dirt creating an Arizona landscape feel. It’s breathtaking. We weaved Meggie through the waterways to the very end and dropped the hook in 11 feet of water in a little lagoon. I had mentioned before about the security issues in Venezuela, and it’s smart to anchor with at least one other boat, and unfortunately Mike and I tend to travel on our own and no one was with us nor were there any other boats in the Lagoon. We felt like we would be safe, but you just don’t know. So…we stayed for the day and had a nice lunch and at around 3pm made the call to head the last 15 miles to Medregal. We would come back to Laguna Grande on our way west.
As we came out of the anchorage the seas were flat and the wind was calm.We motored our way along the north coast of the Golfo and were met with sudden splashes in the water, then more, then more….Hundreds of dolphins were escorting us down the Golfo to our destination. They played at Meggie’s bow and rudder and showed off by leaping in the air. It was quite the show. They stayed with us for over an hour!!!It was unbelievable…they were everywhere. It was the most extraordinary sight…we had so much fun watching and trying to touch (but never did). Finally with about 3 miles to go, they disappeared. What and escort.
The next day we went ashore to find out about hauling Meggie. We spoke to the owner Jean Marc and it looked like Monday was the day…perfect. We were anxious to get started on our work as Meggie’s transom was looking worse everyday. Monday came and by 10am we were on the hard. The haul out went smoothly and the 3 Spanish guys took their time making sure the slings were perfectly placed and sure everything went just right.
With Meggie placed on her stands, Mike went to town tearing the transom off and by 5pm, he had the transom off and was ready to fit the new planking. It’s a long process of explanation of the new transom, so pictures will have to suffice (see at end of blog). By the 8th day (including 2 rain days) the transom was perfectly fitted and prepped for varnish. While Mike was doing the transom, I tore the boat apart and cleaned every inch and then wiped every part with bleach and anything that could be laundered, was.
Once the transom was ready for varnish, I applied 11 coats and once that was finished Mike proceeded to put the rudder and self steering back in place. We sanded and prepped then painted the topsides. We sanded and prepped the keel in preparation for antifouling and we were ready to go back in, but the lift was not! During our second week out the motor on the lift quit. We never thought it would affect us as we still had about another week worth of work. Well it did affect us. The motor had to be taken in for a full refit and believe it or not, we are still on the hard!!!! We were ready to go back in on July 28th and it is now Aug.10th and we’re still on the hard. Apparently, the motor is coming back on Monday or Tuesday and we’re hoping and praying we can get back in by the end of next week.It’s not a great position to be as our little wooden boat is drying out in the tropical conditions. We were already watering Meggie 3 times a day to keep some moisture in the planks. Needless to say, we’re a teeny bit disappointed!
Knowing we couldn’t get in the water when we had wanted, the boat was safe (at least from theft) so we arranged to have numerous people water Meggie for a week and headed inland.
We’re in the middle of nowhere so we had to arrange our departure and arrival to coincide with the little bus that goes weekly to Cariaco (the closest town…about 45 minutes away). So we left on a Saturday and bought our bus tickets to the city of Valencia, a 12 hour bus ride away. We couldn’t leave until 5pm, so we wandered around Cariaco for most of the day. We boarded our bus at 5:45 and headed on our overnighter to Velencia. We were warned that the buses were cold and that they have a contest to see who can get their buses the coldest, but we thought “We’re Canadians…we can handle to cold!” Either we’ve been in the tropics too long, or the bus was really freakin’ cold, cause we nearly froze. Thankfully we knew we were headed to cold climate and brought the appropriate clothing. We arrived in Velencia at about 6am and bought our tickets for the 12 hour bus ride to Merida, our final destination in the Venezuelan Andes. Unfortunately our bus didn’t leave until 11am, so we hung around the not so clean bus station until 11. We finally boarded our final bus and again it was really really cold.
After a long, but beautiful drive we finally pulled into the station in Merida at about 11pm. We caught a taxi and headed to find a Posada. Luckily we found one in about ½ hour and crashed for the night. In the morning as we gazed out our balcony we were met with the gorgeous view of Pico Bolivar, the highest mountain peak in Venezuela. We couldn’t wait to get acquainted with this area. Merida is a university city, and it seems as though the Government has put some money into the city, as the old buildings are in pristine condition. It was a breath of fresh air. Merida is considered “The Ecotourism capital of Venezuela”, with that in mind we were ready to get some hiking in, and with the surrounding Andes mountain range, the outdoor activity is endless. We decided we would ride the cable car to the top of Pico Humboldt, over 5000 metres high,(over 15,000 feet) then we would descend one stop to about 4500 meters (about 14,000 feet) to begin a 5 hour hike to the mountain village of Los Nevados which sits amongst the valleys and peaks of the Andes mountain range, or as some people say “ In the middle of nowhere”.
While we were waiting in the line up for the cable car, we met a great Dutch guy named Jeroen or “J” (which was easier to say). We asked him if he was going to Los Nevados and he replied “What’s Los Nevados?” So we told him of our plan and before we knew it he was off getting some boots and a pack to come with us.
Our hike began at noon, and after about 45 minutes of uphill hiking we were hit with the realization that we were at over 14, 000 feet high. Coming from 2 years at sea level, I could definitely feel the altitude and had to consciously slow down to keep from loosing my breath. J was feeling the same effects, but Mike plodded along as always. It was more an interesting sensation than anything, but after about 1 hour of uphill we began the gradual downhill to Los Nevados which sits at about 9,000 feet and once on the downhill I couldn’t notice the altitude. We hiked at a leisurely pace as the scenery was breathtaking. Mike and I have done lots of hiking in the Rocky mountains and although similar at 14,000 feet everything is covered in snow in the Rockies, but here everything was green with low sweeping valleys filled with mountain flowers.High above the green you could see the tips of the rocky mountain peaks and white streams of water cascading down into the valley’s below. It was one of the most dramatic and beautiful places I’ve even seen.
In the late afternoon sun, we approached a little village on the slope of the mountain.The village’s red tiles roofs and white stucco walls shone in the descending sunlight making the most spectacular view. We arrived after about 5 hours of hiking and found a little Posada at sat and marvelled at the unbelievable view from out side our room. Los Nevados is among the most tranquil places I’ve ever been. So quiet and serene.We enjoyed a good meal, a nice hot shower and a good nights sleep. The next day we poked about the village, chatting with locals and relaxing in the hammocks and taking it all in before leaving in our jeep to head back to Merida. We jumped in the jeep at about 1pm and began our 4 hour trip back to town…I’d heard it was quite the trip but I thought “”How bad could it be”.
Ok, let me tell you this…people who drive hummers and SUV’s in the city have NO idea what 4x4 is for. This “road” to Merida is about 10 feet at best with a cliff face to your right shooting straight up, and a cliff to your left plundering 2000 feet straight down and the road itself armed with 2 foot gully’s and valley’s of it’s own.I’ve never been on such a crazy road, even in Morocco which held the award for craziest roads and drivers. But our driver was a pro and handled his old jeep without any problems. It’s a good thing he didn’t speak English cause the “Oh my God’s” and the "holey s@%t" coming from me probably didn’t help things much. Mike and J on the other hand LOVED it…they were talking tires, motors, gears etc…It was fun nonetheless!
Finally we found paved roads that led to Merida and before we knew it Los Nevados was only a memory.
So after a couple more days, it was time to head back to Medregal and our boat. We boarded the long bus back and will leave out the dirty bus stations, long waits and cold buses. We arrived back at Meggie pleased to see she had been well looked after in our absence and please to also see our friends on Mustang Sally had arrived.
So, we’re just waiting now and are anxious to get in the water. We can’t wait to get to the out laying islands of Venezuela, but are remaining patient for now.
So, in a nutshell that is the last few weeks. It’s hard to include everything, but it gives you an idea of what’s been happening.
Hopefully next time you hear from us, we WILL be in the water! Oh and….I was incorrect in saying my article would be in the August issue of Cruising World…it’s the September issue! Also, Mike has an article that will be appearing in “All at Sea” a Caribbean based magazine, YAY.
Until next time,
Ciao
Kylie and Mike

South bound with a little west

2008-06-21T17:28:00.000-07:00

A little different layout this time. Mike has written the blog (and secretly I think it’s because he had sooo much fun sailing that he wanted to write about it). So here it is….Mike’s blog.
Well, as Meggie lays quietly at anchor in Porlamar, Margarita Venezuela, we feel we made a good decision to head farther south and then west to take the long way home, for many reasons. First off, Venezuela is rather inexpensive and it is also out of the so called “hurricane alley” of the eastern Caribbean islands. Those two reasons are perhaps the most important, but it’s also a chance to learn a new language and experience some new cultures. We have been away from any main land for 16 months now, but will end that once we land on the main land of Venezuela.
We plan to leave Meggie for a week or two in a safe marina and venture inland, most likely on a trekking trip into the interior mountains of Venezuela. But first she must be hauled out of the water in the beautiful Medregal Village located in the Gulfo de Cariacou. There we will give her some new paint, freshen her up and have material on board to replace her transom. With the eastern Caribbean behind us, most of our passages will be off the wind (a wind angle of 90’or greater from your desired course) also our passages will be a lot longer on average. In November we will go from Curacao to Jamaica a trip of about 500 nautical miles. If you grab an atlas, you will see what I mean and you may also notice that the prevailing trade winds are easterly (out of the east) and the equatorial current for the Caribbean basin is west to northwest setting. So for us, this means very fast and exciting sailing. We got a taste of this last weekend when we set sail from Carriacou at 1:00pm bound for the beautiful Los Testigos, some 115 nautical miles away. As we settled into our usual 3 hour watches throughout the night, we didn’t see any other ships all night long…just the way we like it. As we got clear of the southern tip of Grenada and into true air and open ocean the wind and following seas strengthened and settled in as did Meggie. With the wind on the aft quarter and full mizzen, reefed main and stay sail set we then handed the tiller over to our little buddy Timmy. (Timmy is our cap horn servo pendulum wind vane steering system) and we flew along between 5.5-7.5 knots all night long, never touching the tiller again. A steering system is vital on a trade wind route. I love to helm the boat to windward but in a fresh breeze and large following sea it is exhausting. Around 3:00am, Kylie woke me to say “Timmy doesn’t look right…I think he’s injured”. I found that 2 ¼” bolts had dropped out of the bottom and that his port side lower leg was dragging in the water. Funny enough in the stiff conditions he still manages to steer a true course. So with Kylie holding onto my ankles I was able to lean over the transom and jury rig it with rope until Los Testigos. I prefer to be awake at dawn as the sunrise is beautiful at sea and it’s time to set the fishing lines. Poor Kylie, no sooner had she gone to sleep when I called her on deck to help me drag 2 tunas on board. In ½ hour of dragging lines we had enough tuna to share with friends that we knew were in Los Testigos and 4 meals for ourselves. We make landfall at 10:00am in Los Testigos and wow…what a beautiful place, and guess what…..no sandals beach resorts or any development except a small village on one of the islands with a guardacosta (coast guard station). I met with the 23 year old port captain all dressed in full military fatigues. He spoke a little English and was polite and just a great guy. They only grant you a 3 day stay in Los Testigos unless it’s unsafe to leave, but unfortunately the forecast for a tropical wave prompted us to leave the next morning for Porlamar, Margarita. This was ok because the sailing was once again spectacular. We didn’t bother to fish as we already had enough. The weather was great a little off the forecast being strong winds at first and then lightening up in the afternoon. This time we ran down wind, wing on wing and covered 50 nm in just under 9 hours. (wing on wing is when the wind is pretty much behind you and you put your forward sail one side of the boat and the main sail on the other, therefore looking like wings). Our friends on Arctic Tern (Hunter and Devi) caught up to us during the sail to Porlamar and we were able to get some great pictures of eachother wing on wing. So once here we went about changing money, clearing customs etc… with no problems. A funny thing did happen though on the second day here. We walked a way before deciding to grab a cab into Plaza Bolivar, when a police officer stopped us (in a bit of a dodgy area) and said to get in “danger, danger” he said. So in we got and chatted (as well as our Spanish and his English allowed) and he drove us all the way to our destination…nice of him and a free ride.
We’re pretty sure he saw some mischief in the rubble we were walking by. Wow…I forgot what the hustle and bustle of a real city is like. People, cars, buses, shops and a lot of noise. One thing is certain… I much prefer the solitude of the sea and its islands with small villages! So I will leave you all with this lyric that I really like.
"Follow your heart, go out and play, don't wait until tomorrow it's too late, give it all you got today".
Peter Tosh, Jamaica

Ok then…there you have it our entrance into South America, and Mike‘s blog. We will write more once we arrive in Medregal village cause we’re gonna be there awhile! Until next time,

Hasta Luego
Mike and Kylie

Playing the waiting game in Carriacou.....

2008-06-10T14:13:00.000-07:00

Now…where were we. Ah yes, Antigua. With the regatta over, the Southern Caribbean was calling Meggie’s name and we couldn’t wait to get back to the south. First we had a job to do. We helped a wonderful lady named Jean with a refit of the deck on her 39’ Oyster. It was a lot of tedious, hot, sweaty work…but it went well and we made a great friend who we look forward to meeting again someday. So with that done….we were being beckoned to head south as our best friends arrived in less than 2weeks….Wuhoo.
The plan was to leave Antigua and head straight to St. Lucia (200 nautical miles) as we had some items to pick up at the marine store before heading off to Venezuela, however the wind gods had something entirely different in mind. We headed out of the harbour (that we’d been in for far too long!!!), and pointed the bow south. More of a boisterous sail than we had thought, but good nonetheless. As we approached the NW corner of Guadeloupe the wind proved to be way more southerly than forecasted. Hmmm…well this might put a kibosh on our plans. “WE NEED TO GO SOUTH”! So the options were…A: stay out all night beating into the (now southerly) wind and waves or B: tuck into the beautiful harbour of Deshaises, Guadeloupe for the night, get a good night sleep, top up on wine, cheese and baguettes and head out in the morning. Can you guess what we chose??? NO…not the bashing. We pulled into Deshaises and did all the above. Gorged ourselves on fresh baguettes, olives and mmmm 3 different types of cheese and then washed it down with a $3 bottle of wine. Nice! So up the next morning and continue onto St. Lucia, only 150 nautical miles. As we entered the channel between Guadeloupe and Dominica we were again met with southerly winds….UGHHHHH…I mean come on! Hello!!! We’re trying to head south here! Anyway, we were able to hold our course to Portsmouth (JUST!) and were faced with a decision. We could either A: stay out all night beating into the (still southerly) wind and waves or we could B: tuck into the nice calm anchorage of Portsmouth, Dominica and gaze at the beautiful mountainous scenery around us and get a good nights sleep. Hmmm….what do you think we did??? We anchored in the scenic Portsmouth, Dominica and sipped on some French wine (thanks to our stop the previous night) and marvelled at the beauty…oh and we got a good nights sleep!
So…up the next morning and sail the last 100 miles to St. Lucia. Well guess what????? The freakin’ wind was still freakin’ SOUTH. Ok but however we were able to hold our course to Martinique and as the sun sunk below the horizon the wind shifted to the east and we were able to lay St. Lucia with eased sheets. We caught a little bonito (tuna type fish) just in time for dinner, so that helped make up for all the southerly winds. We had one of those magic sort of night sails. Moon shimmering on the water, light winds and seas, no traffic. With a cup of herbal tea ( and a bit of European chocolate…again thank you to the first nights stop) I was happy as a clam in the cockpit during my watch. Meggie pulled into Rodney Bay around 2:30 am (don’t worry, it’s a super easy anchorage to arrive in the dark and we had been there like a hundred times…but this is usually a big no no). Up at 7 and into town to do the running around we needed and then back out to the beautiful anchorage of Pigeon island for the night and then up the next morning at 3am (really early mornings lately) and finally down to Bequia. We entered the channel between St. Lucia and St. Vincent shortly after sunrise and Mike decided to sail down the windward side of St. Vincent, which was a treat as the shoreline is brimming with more palm trees than I have ever seen in my life. I’m not joking…there are so many palm trees you can’t even imagine. Sadly I didn’t get any pictures…sorry!
By early afternoon we could see Bequia and the realization that we were going to see our friends in less than 5 days set in and we were thrilled.We pulled into Admiralty Bay after a quick sail through the 8 mile channel (flying downwind at 7.5 knots consistently and hitting 8 knots once for like a split second but still….) and weaved our way over to “our spot” dropped the hook in gin clear water and jumped in. We saw our friends Liz and Allan right away and caught up over sundowners the next night. We spent the next few days reacquainted ourselves with the tiny island.
We boarded the ferry at 6:30 (AM!!) on Tuesday morning to head over to St. Vincent to meet Jason, Tera and Aja at the airport. Before we knew it we were all sitting by the beach with beautiful surroundings eating roti’s (a local food), drinking cold Hiroun’s (a local beer)…except for Tera as she’s pregnant, and catching up on the past two years. We couldn’t have been happier! Aja quickly disposed of her pants and shirt and was happy running around naked.
The week flew by. Jason and Tera got a taste of island life and got a glimpse of our cruising life. They also got their fair share of sun and heat. We visited numerous beaches, ate great meals, hiked up countless hills (their rental house was on a really steep hill). Mike and Jason sailed and tried for some fish, we snorkelled, shopped at the Rasta market, relaxed etc… They treated us to way too many meals, but we were very appreciative and more than anything we were so happy just being around them and seeing little Aja and the little person she is becoming, and man is she cute! She couldn’t get enough of the water and seemed happy on Meggie.
(Side note here)…Jason did manage to get 2 tuna, but you’ll have to ask him how he caught them.
Sadly Wednesday approached all to quickly and it was time to say our goodbyes. Mike and I helped them with their stuff onto the ferry and were cheated of a real goodbye because the motor roared to life and the horn blew and we had to GET OFF.
So we hugged quickly and ran off the ferry blowing kisses goodbye. We sort of looked at each other and said “so now what do we do?” back to the boat, mix up some sundowners and relax with a book. Life sure is tough!
However the next day we were back at it. Get this, get that, fix this, fix that,
however it wasn’t all work as our friends Doug and Wendy arrived on Mustang Sally. We always love catching up with Doug and Wendy and this time was no different. We will be able to spend some more time with them this time as they are also heading to Venezuela aboard their 44'catamaran (which is available for chartering...see their websit www.sailmustangsally.com).
We had been throwing around the idea of heading to Carriacou, Grenada and leaving for Venezuela from there. I pulled out the charts and after some inspection we decided it was better to leave from Carriacou. So off we went via Saltwhislte Bay in Mayreau and now we’re here.
So that’s it…a brief summary of what’s been happening in our world. We’re in Carriacou (I think this might be my favorite..but I do love Bequia…oh I don’t know…) So we’re in Carricou getting a few odd jobs done before we head away. Unfortunately we just missed a great weather window as we’re waiting for some parts to arrive from Grenada and it doesn’t look like we’ll get outta here until maybe the weekend. Ahhh weather…what can you do. So next stop, Los Testigos, Venezuela. We are very excited to be embarking on new adventures and sadly we’ll say goodbye to the West Indies but we’re both ready to leave. Next time you here from us we’ll be in South America. So until then…..
Adios amigos
Kylie and Mike

Antigua Regatta, visits and more....

2008-04-25T10:42:00.000-07:00

Well, it’s all over for now. The event we’ve been preparing for and working our butts off for has come to an end. Let me begin this blog by telling you about the Antigua Classic Yacht Regatta 2008 while it’s still fresh. Our “crew” (Paul and Leanne arrived on April 12th in style wearing the Meggie apparel consisting of bandanas and t-shirts sporting the “Meggie” logo. After putting them to work scrubbing the decks and getting the boat in ship shape we pulled Meggie into her position at the dock of the Antigua Yacht Club just in front of the famous Ticonderoga.
Now…Ticonderoga is a boat that Mike has dreamed about since we first started sailing. She is a 72 foot wooden Hershoff ketch famous for her magnificent beauty and racing skills and here is little Megs moored directly in front of her. We looked a bit like her sailing dinghy, as her bowsprit towered over our stern but were thrilled to be amongst such celebratory yachts. The next day was the judging for the Concours D’Elegance which is a competition between the yachts for best appearance, best maintained and with the best story. The competition is divided between the classes of boats and privately and professionally maintained. We really worked hard to make Meggie look her absolute best and really tried to pay attention to detail. So with flowers laid out in the cockpit and our new cockpit table glimmering with varnish, Meggie looked her absolute best. The 3 judges boarded Meggie with clipboards in hand and inspected every detail. After visiting below and getting the last few questions answered, they were off. So now that that was over we prepared for the racing, only after a night of good food, good drinks and great conversation as the harbour buzzed with excitement.
The next morning we awoke to beautiful blue skies and a nice steady breeze. The four of us prepared Meggie and headed out of the harbour, hoisted sails and prepared for the start. Before we knew it, the 5 minute gun had gone off and we were tacking and jibing trying to get the best start we could…then the gun shot and we were off. The wind held steady at about 16 knots and we had a great close reach to the first mark. As we rounded the mark and headed to the second we saw that the big guys(the J boats and all the huge classic schooners etc…) had started and were gaining on us. As they passed us we all were in AWE as the cameras came out and the racing subsided for a few seconds as we marvelled at the amazing company we were in. Some of the most beautiful and most famous boats in the world were sailing past us and we couldn’t have been in a better place. The rest of the race held steady with nice wind and calm seas and we headed back to our spot on the dock for the next party only after finding out we placed 3rd in our class in the 1st race.
Later that night,. Mike and I headed to the owners cocktail party / awards ceremony for the Concours d’Elegance and rubbed shoulders with the owners of yachts like Eleonora, Ticonderoga, Lone Fox and Whitehawk. Wouldn’t you know it…little Megs placed 3rd in her class in the Concours d’Elegance. All our hard work had been recognized and appreciated and we were so thrilled and pleased with Meggie and ourselves (and our crew for scrubbing and polishing). We collected our plaque with great honour.
So….the next day was race 2 and the conditions were picture perfect once again. We had a similar day like race 1 and ended up placing 2nd in our class!!! COOL. The next day our “crew” had to leave unfortunately, so after a saying our sad goodbyes, our replacement crew (our friend Anders from Elenor) boarded and we were off again for race 3. Would you believe that the 3rd race was a carbon copy of the 2nd and 1st…..picture perfect!!! This race was called the “cannon race” because the boats just reach out, reach back, reach out again then reach back again (reaching is the nicest point of sail for a sailboat)….and as you reach to each mark you pass all the boats with perfect photo ops. What a great day and again little Megs placed 3rd in her class. That night after meeting up with Mike’s dad Tony and his step mom Ann the sky opened up and POURED down all night and the next morning as all the boats hovered around the start line bobbing around with no wind and soaked to the bone…the race was abandoned. So with some disappointment, but with some relief we headed back to the harbour and realized Meggie had placed second overall in her class. Wuhoo!!!!
The last day (and before the closing ceremonies), Mike took part in the single handed race and did very well and as you had to have a second person with you (in case of emergency) he decided to take his dad who had a fantastic time. Mike took the podium at the closing ceremonies (on behalf of Meggie and her crew)and collected our trophy for second in Classic Class D racing.
Phew….so in a nutshell, THAT was the Antigua Classic Yacht Regatta 2008. I’m leaving out the numerous parties, complementary gifts and great great people we met and many contacts we made. A fun time was had by all and great memories will be kept in our minds and on our cameras!
Prior to the regatta my mom was able to sneak in a week long trip and although the boat was in somewhat of a chaotic state, mom was a trooper and we had a blast. After almost 2 years it was so great to see and spend time with her and we were able to do some hiking, snorkelling and eat some great meals. She spoiled us greatly and were so happy to have her with us in Antigua.
While mom was here we had the mizzen mast down and Mike laid a new cockpit floor with brand new marine grade plywood underneath with beautiful teak laid on top. The only problem now is that we want to do the rest of the decks. Along with a new cockpit floor we also put 2 coats of paint on the cabin top, numerous coats of varnish on the cabin trunk, masts, booms and combings. So we were busy little bees getting ready for the regatta, so the award in the Concours d’Elegance was really nice to receive.
Now, I believe I left you in Dominica in the last blog. After that we sailed to the beautiful cluster of islands known as Isles Des Saintes which belongs to Guadeloupe. We spent about a week wandering the quaint little village and shops that lined the streets and enjoyed way too much cheese, baguettes and wine.
After Les Saintes we headed to Guadeloupe again as we enjoyed it so much the last time we were there. We spent about 2 weeks in Guadeloupe and hired a car again for a day and enjoyed the many many beautiful hiking trails. Our main hike we wanted to complete was up to the premiere chutes (the first waterfall). The hiking was great. We had a moderately difficult hike to the waterfall and were not disappointed in the end. Again the lush rainforest amazed us both and we were thoroughly impressed with the hiking trails in Guadeloupe. The parks and recreation department have protected numerous acres of rainforest which makes Guadeloupe one of the best islands for hiking as far as we‘re concerned. After Guadeloupe we headed to Antigua and the rest is history!
Now we are visiting with Tony and Ann (Mike’s dad and step mom) whom we are very happy to see. The last time we saw them was just over a year ago way back in Luperon, Dominican Republic.
We have a bit of work to do in Antigua once they leave and then we will sail back down to Bequia where we look forward to having a great reunion with our dear friends Jason , Tera and their little one Aja. We’re super excited to see them and can’t wait to return to Bequia. After Bequia we will finally make our way to Margarita island in Venezuela.
So…again I apologize for the long blog and promise to keep up with the blogging much better now that the regatta is over.
We want to thank Paul and Leanne very very much for all their help during the regatta and for their constant support, and just for everything. We had such a great time with them and couldn’t have imagined the regatta without them.
Ok then. Until next time….
This is Kylie and Mike signing off.
PS...Here are some more photos to have a look at.
PSS...I haven't figured out how to add a link (DUH), so for some racing pictures check out www.photoaction.com

Hold On!

2008-04-16T05:41:00.000-07:00

It's coming, be patient. We're a day away from the beginning of the regatta and it's been CRAZY busy. Our "crew" is here and the work is almost done. We've had visitors, been hiking in Guadaloupe and will have full details of the regatta, so be patient.
Update soon to come.
Kylie and Mike

2008-02-28T06:10:00.000-08:00

The little island of Bequia tops our list of favourite islands. We spent 3 weeks in Bequia and were sad to leave. Not until we left and arrived in St. Lucia, did I fully appreciate how much I loved it there. We have to return to Bequia to pick up some teak we have purchased to replace the transom, and I can hardly wait to return.
We were fortunate enough to catch a couple of days of the Jazz festival being held on the island. We made our way over to Frangapini(a local restaurant/bar and hotel) along with our friends Kevin and Amanda from Solstice, the first night to enjoy the soothing sounds of the steel drums. There were a couple of different steel drum bands who played, but the one that sticks out was a 12 piece drum band that littered the night with their gentle sound. We also attended the Sunday afternoon event which was held at Lower Bay beach and the atmosphere reeked of party and as the sun shone and the people mingled we were accompanied with a jazz band mostly led by a saxophonist followed by a reggae/rock/hip-hop type of band from Barbados who were really really fantastic. They closed the jazz festival in style and had everyone on the dance floor dancing and grooving to their unique sound. A good festival, good company and good times.
Our friends Liz and Allan have purchased property on the island and we wanted to check it out so on a beautiful sunny, windy day we made our way over to the windward side to have a look. Along the way we stumbled into an old refinery transformed into a pottery studio and store. We wandered amongst the fabulous pottery and through the studio as we made our way to the beach. After checking out the property, we chilled out at the beach bar and watched Allan kite board off the beach and amongst the reefs.This beach on the windward side has to be one of the most perfect beaches we’ve come across and we were the only people enjoying it that day. A lazy but perfect day.
Unfortunately the weather window was upon us and it was time to leave Bequia. We up anchor at 3:30am and headed north to St. Lucia. We had an uneventful light sail to St. Lucia and were able to skirt the north coast of St. Vincent and get a good view of the plantation farms along the mountainside. The “farms” that litter the mountainside are ALL ganga (aka: weed, marijuana, pot etc..) and are found in abundance. It is known amongst the cruisers that if you visit St. Vincent the north part of the island is OFF LIMITS! When you look at the north part, there are no cars, no roads, no houses. The only thing you see are little tiny wee shacks scattered about the mountainside.
We arrived in Marigot Bay and had a chance to catch up with our friends Gary and Saba (2 local rastas who have become very good friends of ours) and Jeff and Jan (2 British who have moved from England to St. Lucia permanently). While anchored in Marigot we got a freaky west wind that not only brought west winds, but a west of north swell into the anchorage. This isn’t good as the anchorage is exposed to the west. Thankfully we were on board as the wind blew Meggie almost on to the beach. We up anchor quickly and took a mooring in the inner lagoon which is completely protected. We moved up to Rodney Bay and anchored at Pigeon island and waited for 2 weeks for weather. The wind blew 25 knots gusting into the 30’s for almost 2 weeks straight. We tried to leave at the beginning of the windy forecast as we thought we would be ahead of the building seas, but once we rounded Pigeon island we were exposed to 25 knots of wind and big waves...how big ??? but big. Meggie‘s decks were awash with spray covering the entire boat….hmmm….not exactly what we had in mind. The wind and waves were NE and we were headed N, so Meggie was bashing her little heart out until finally we made the call to tuck our tail and turn around. Meggie sailed comfortably down wind back to the anchorage at Pigeon island, and we got our spot back and hunkered down for the remainder of our stay. While in St. Lucia we mostly worked on Meggie and couldn’t wait to get the next window to move on. Finally after far too long we got a window and decided to head to Portsmouth, Dominica. We left St. Lucia and headed to St. Pierre in Martinique with a north of east wind at about 18-20 knots and about 8 foot seas. We had a quick sail to St. Pierre and were able to sail the lee side as well. Although we love Martinique, we wanted to spend some time in Dominica so the next morning we up anchor and had a beam reach for the total 55 miles to Portsmouth, Dominica. We again had about 18 knots out of the east in the morning with 8 foot seas out of the east as well, which built to 22 knots with the odd 26-28 knot gust and 10 foot waves. Meggie rode the waves beautifully as they were on our beam and with 1 reef in the mizzen, 2 reefs in the main and our small jib sail up, we cruised along at an easy 6.5 knots and were anchored in the beautiful Prince Rupert Bay in Portsmouth well before sunset. Dominica’s beauty is found in it’s simplicity and of course the lushness of the forests. The mountains are reams and reams of green that seem to go on forever. The towns are made up of simple box construction houses painted an array of pinks, aqua’s, blues and yellows where chickens, roosters and dogs roam freely. We left Portsmouth and headed to the capital Rosseau by bus, with the intention of hiking some trails in the Morne Trois Pitons National Park. Because there are only 2 buses that run up to the town of Laudat (where the trails all start) and we were in between buses we hired Fitz to take us up to the Middleham falls hike.. Once on the road we realized quickly why there was only 2 buses that drove this route. The climb itself is impressive, but to top if off the road is barely wide enough for 1 vehicle let alone 2 and before turning any corners Fitz would lay on the horn to announce we were coming through. We hiked to the falls though the dense forest and enjoyed the quiet amongst the trees. The water fall at the end was beautiful but a little disappointing as we compared it to it’s neighbour’s waterfalls in Guadeloupe. Just to be back in the wilderness was enough to make me happy and the local fauna is outstanding in itself.
We finished the afternoon off by wandering the streets of Rosseau chatting with the locals and finally boarded the small local bus for the 45 minute ride back home.
Saturdays bring a bustle in the little villages in Dominica. Like most islands Saturday means market day. From Meggie we can see the numerous colour umbrellas that clutter the streets, and the hustle and bustle market day brings. Once in the market you’re surrounded by all local produce and smells of accra salt fish, fritters and a bunch of deep fried “surprises“ cooking in the streets. Women and men pack their baskets full of fruit and vegetable for the week as they chit chat about the weeks events.
We poked through the market but always end up at our favourite fruit and veg lady down the street. Just to give you an idea how much we pay for local produce, we got: 1 papaya, a bunch of carrots, 3 green pepper, seasoning peppers, 1 cabbage, 2 cucumbers, cristophenes, 12 tomatoes, 3 mangoes, sugar cane, 6 passion fruit, bunch of bananas all for about $30.00 EC which is about $11.00 CDN. Not too bad huh!
From here we will sail to Les Saintes tomorrow and then carry on to another one of our favourites, Guadeloupe. The future “trend” for weather (so our weather forecaster says) is moderating trade winds and seas, beautiful perfect sailing conditions….so we’re holding him to that!
We’re enjoying being on the move again and enjoying the Caribbean sailing because once in Antigua it will be go time once again, all our attention focused on Meggie (but wait…isn’t that all the time anyway?).
Well I guess that’s all for now….hopefully March brings an early spring for everyone back home.
Ciao for now.
Kylie and Mike

The Great Grenadines

2008-01-19T07:55:00.000-08:00

It seems like it’s been awhile, and I do think it has been . We are anchored in the lovely Bequia island in The Grenadines. We have been here since the 10th of January after visiting the Tobago Keys. This place called “The Grenadines” is in my opinion the gem of the Caribbean. Likes stones tossed from above, the islands are separated by 5-20 miles and are yours to discover. The Tobago Keys host crystal clear water that is protected from the pounding Atlantic ocean with a fetch built up all the way from Africa, by a horseshoe reef. When you’re anchored behind the reef you feel as though you’re looking out at the end of the earth. The surrounding islands are mostly uninhabited with beautiful white sand beaches lines with perfect palm trees. The difficulty of “getting there” makes this wonderful part of the world less busy, well other than charter boats that it. Aside for the above, the snorkelling is fantastic with numerous under water life to look at. We were fortunate enough to swim with a HUGE sea turtle whom I found feasting on some sea grass near our boat. Both Mike and I swam with her for what seemed like forever, and she couldn’t have cared less. Her motions under the water seemed effortless, which seemed amazing for her size and the weight of her shell.
The Tobago Keys are a protected national marine park, so no hunting or fishing aloud which makes the sea life very abundant.
From the Tobago Keys we headed north about 20 miles to one of our favourite islands of Bequia, where we now sit.By taking a long walk this island (like our other favourite island of Carriacou) has the most beautiful views of surrounding reefs and islands. The feeling of the town isn’t touristy or catered towards tourism, it just has a very relaxed island flare and the locals (like the Grenadians) are very kind and respectful.
We frequently visit a local artist Chris, who makes hand painted Calabash bowls and crafts beautiful jewellery. His Rastafarian religion reveals itself upon his art in the colors he chooses..
We’re enjoying Bequia while waiting for the Christmas winds to die down and move from the northeast to east, so we can continue our way north to Antigua.
This is only what we’ve been up to since I returned home after my Christmas/New Year charter, and Mike’s sailing charter through The Grenadines.
Both went well, but the time away from each other, family and friends over the holidays was a bit sad and disappointing, however we both made the best of it. My charter was very busy, having to cross the Gulf Stream twice and being delayed upon our return due to 16-18 foot seas in the Stream…yikes. But the family had a great time while we were in The Abacos, and even though I wasn’t with family, I was with a great crew.
Mike’s charter also went well and aside from missing me…he had a great time with the family he chartered for and with his first mate, Dwayne. They had some pretty windy weather and some rather rough passages between the islands, but they still managed to catch a HUGE sailfish.Everyone was very happy.
Right before Christmas, I received news that Cruising World would like to publish my second article. So as we speak (or as I write) the process is in the works. I again am very pleased that they have considered my writing.
We’ve met up with some old and new friends and the graciousness of the people out here continue to amaze us. Life is good in the Caribbean and although we’ve been working on Meggie prepping her for her debut in Antigua, we’re really enjoying being back on the boat and having some great sailing and getting back into a routine of being a cruiser.
We’re hoping to have some visitors, but we’ve had no bookings yet (aside from Paul and Leanne who so kindly agreed to “crew” with us on Meggie during the regatta), but other than that…no takers, yet.
Anyway that’s about if for now. I’ve just finished making guacamole with locally grown avocados, tomatoes, onions and coriander to take to a friends boat for sundowners. So I must go.
We wish everyone a very Happy New Year and hope this year brings you all want you hope for.
Until next time,
Kylie and Mike
PS…Unfortunately Mike Shaw was not available to write this blog, however he will be back by popular demand.

A lesson from Mother

2007-12-16T08:34:00.001-08:00

Hi folks. This blog is in a different format. Mike has written this blog after a reality check from the cyclone that devastated Bangladesh.
The past month has been a bit of a blur. I was away working on the mega yacht for 3 weeks while Mike single handed through the Grenadines and up to St. Lucia enjoying some close hauled sails some of which in 20-25 knots of wind. He has been having a blast in my absence, but insists that he would hate to be a solo cruiser as he missed me..hmmm! I on the other hand was busy.My new favorite phrase is “Mike…someone has to work so you can enjoy this type of lifestyle”…it’s a good one, huh! We took the big boat from St. Lucia to Fort Lauderdale, having a 2 day charter for Thanksgiving in Eleuthra, Bahamas. I am now preparing to leave tomorrow for another 3 weeks in Abacos, Bahamas for another charter. Mike will keep busy as well while I’m gone, being skipper on a catamaran visiting the Grenadines for 6 days and a couple of other odd jobs. Life is busy at the moment, but we’re enjoying being busy in St. Lucia.
Once I return we’ll be on the go getting Meggie ready for Antigua and hopefully visiting with some friends. Anyway…here is Mike with his first blog and we’ll be in touch after the new year. We want to wish everyone a very merry Christmas and all the best in the new year.

On Friday November 15th, 2007 a tropical cyclone slammed into Bangladesh. Storm surge of 16 feet tall pushed along by 130 knots (250 km/hour) winds swept the streets, which are only 15 feet above sea level. I need not describe the aftermath, other than some 30 thousand people lost all that was dear to them if not their lives. Events such as this one hit close to home for me as all we have apart from each other, friends and family is our little boat Meggie, which at times like this makes us very aware of the forces of mother nature.
In addition to Kylie’s entry about our brush with hurricane season, we will always remember Felix reaching Category 1 status. This was just one more lesson we have learned and overcome out here. That is of course when mother nature or respectfully mother ocean wants to show her fury, her power or to prove who is really master out here. No man, woman, army or government can stop her.
Now…for the most part, life aboard Meggie for us has been absolute bliss. At times magical and at times stressful. These islands and waters are a privilege to spend time in, however it wasn’t for free. Against headwinds and seas we earned every mile to get here. And once again in doing so gained a real respect for the ocean along with ourselves and our boat. Certainly living and cruising for nearly a year and a half has changed the way we view life and what is important in the world and also the people within it. We have met so many beautiful and interesting people, I have lost count. Not just cruisers but people who live life completely different from how we live in the western world. During our 4 months in Grenada we learned how money, cars and houses just don’t mean much. Time spent with friends and family, peace and respect mean the most. My good friend Davis age 24, talented carpenter for instance, buys all the food for his family, works eight hours a day, has a 1 hour bus ride to and from work and also raises pigs and crops at home. He, always has a smile on his face! All of the friends we made in Grenada tell us the stories about the devastation of hurricanes Ivan and Emily and how they effectedtheir lives. All the leaves off trees gone, trees down, houses blown away and no power, an entire yard of cruising boats destroyed, most of whom had little or no insurance. But, the people came together in a time of devastation to help one another and to rebuild their beautiful country.
In Grenada the look on an old mans face is not one of old age, but of a slow paced lifestyle with simple pleasures and few daily stresses. I believe that in the great quest for progression and development in parts of the world, a lot can be said for simplicity and quality in one’s life. Slow down or speed up…enjoy it, be healthy and don’t let life slip by.
As for us we intend to keep on sailing. We want to see the western Caribbean after the Antigua classic regatta in April…of course Meggie will be looking her best for this event, as will her crew of Kylie, myself accompanied by Paul and Leanne Sandiford. Good times, no doubt. End of April, beginning of May, we intend to do a longer passage from Antigua to somewhere on the southern shore, perhaps Venezuela, Bonaire or Curacao stopping briefly and then carry on to Columbia or Panama where we intend to spend next hurricane season. Two things are for sure…great sailing and a whole new adventure. We are very well prepared both for sailing and for hard core anchoring for a major blow. The Caribbean is not without its risks, but is it worth it? Absolutely!
So until next time,
Mike and Kylie

The Wonderful Spice Island

2007-10-30T14:11:00.000-07:00

Ok...I'm going to keep this one short. I can't believe it's almost time to leave our wonderful Grenada. It's been almost 4 months since we first checked into customs in the beautiful island of Carriacou, the northern sister island of Grenada. We spent most of our time anchored in St. David's on the south eastern coast of Grenada. Mike kept busy helping the shipwright in St. David's and I kept busy keeping up with our boat and then flying off to stewardess on the 106 foot motor yacht up in St. Lucia.. While Mike was helping at the shipwrights, he was fortunate enough to help along side some great local guys, which allowed him to learn about the local life and about Grenada in general. We both kept busy including some engine work. We repainted our engine and Mike rebuilt the starter, but more importantly than keeping busy we were able to be part of a community in St. David's and ended up forming friendships that will last a life time.Let me briefly run you through our time in Grenada.
Mike had the opportunity to help deliver a 68 foot wooden schooner to Trinidad....he was in heaven! They had a lovely trip and aside from a 40 knot squall which healed the old girl over, they had a successful trip. Now, I won't bore you with the excitement we experienced with the hurricanes, but for those of you that don't know, 65 knots of wind is 120 km/hr winds. So enough about that. Another exciting thing we took part in, in Grenada was the hashing.
We were first introduced to hashing one Saturday afternoon after our friends on Adventure Bound raved about how great it was. Our first hash found us exhausted, covered in mud and super excited for the next one. We meet at the local rum shop of the location and then run a trail that has been laid out by one of the hashers that takes you through jungles, rivers, fields, up mountains, down valleys...everywhere you could imagine. Then and the end once your completely exhausted everyone meets for a beer and some bbq chicken. The interesting thing with the hash is that when you come to a circle on the trail this means there is 3 possible options for the correct trail and if you take the wrong one you have to turn around and head back to the circle and try another route...this of course makes things interesting! We travelled to Carriacou for one of the hashes along with 2 other boats and our friend Stokley from the local rum shop in St. Davids.Stokley had never been sailing before and unfortunately the motion of the ocean got to him!! However we arrived in Carriacou after a great sail and soon we were in the water for a quick snorkel and then we were off with our running shoes on and were scrambling up a steep incline in the race. After a 2 hour hash we all finished at the local rum shop which just happened to be on the beach and had a big beach bbq...great great day! So speaking of Stokley, we were fortunate enough to meet a fantastic couple in Grenada.
Ironically they own the local rum shop which also sold bread so we were there more often for the fresh bread, despite what you must think! Mary and Stokley were great...they introduced us to oil down (a local dish), salt fish sauté (another local dish), sugar cane, sugar apple, green bananas and also entertained us with great conversation and interesting stories of Grenada. The hardest part of cruising is saying goodbye! With sadness and promises of visiting each other in Canada and Grenada, we said our goodbyes only days ago.
Oh and of course we have Carnival! Now, Carnival isn't just one day it starts about a month in advance. The music starts pumping on the radio, and the locals begin dancing and singing and preparing for the famous Jouvier! All day long we listen to the beats of soca and calypso blaring from the radio and soon we were singing along with it.The actual parade of Carnival was full of color and music and sunshine and sweat and beer and dancing. It was great. The costumes and the dancing and the energy was outstanding. You can help but move your hips to the soca beat. One of the best parts was the steel drum band that won the Carnival competition…they were amazing. They looked like they couldn’t be having anymore fun…the whole thing was a fantastic experience.
So….I promised to keep this short, so I will keep to that and plus we’re in a beautiful anchorage in Carriacou with good friends and have a pizza coming…so I gotta go! I’m off on another charter from November 9th to around the 29th and then again from Dec. 20th to about Jan. 4th. Yes, I know….Mike and I won’t be together for Christmas or New Years, but I can assure you that Mike will be well looked after by the other cruisers…that’s just the way it is. I on the other hand will be serving Christmas dinner this year!
Ok guys…the heat has finally lessened (either that or were getting used to it) and life is good.
Adios for now and Thank you everyone for the birthday wishes.
Kylie and Mike

Meggie and the gang in print

2007-10-18T04:00:00.000-07:00

Well guys...apparently my article is on stands now! It is in the November 2007 issue of Cruising World. It's been changed some, but I hope you enjoy it.
I'll be in touch soon!
Cheers
Kylie and Mike

Trying to reason with Hurricane season

2007-10-07T11:14:00.000-07:00

Well we’ve almost been in Grenada for 3 months now which is hard to believe as time is flying by. Being hurricane season I have to admit that I don’t mind the time flying by as it only means that it will soon be over. First lets start with the not so good part of Grenada.
Hurricane season began on June 1st as you all know. June and July were quiet months but our attention was always captured by the weather. Early on in August we got word that there was something out there that had just come off of Africa that had potential to develop into a LO. The stages of a hurricane are as follows: weather system comes off Africa, develops into LO, then tropical depression, tropical storm and finally cat 1 hurricane up to a cat 5. We are currently located at 12 degrees north and 62 degrees west, so we are always listening for the tropical features to go north. Dean who wasn’t yet Dean, was sitting at 11 degrees north for way too long. Finally the feature was upgraded into a cat 1 hurricane and only once it was named did it start to move north, but not north enough to miss the Caribbean. We prepared as best we could. We took all the loose canvas off the boat, strapped down the sail covers, set another anchor and then waited. We knew we wouldn’t get a direct hit, but we didn’t know what to expect. Dean passed through the St. Lucia channel (between St. Lucia and Martinique) on August 18th, not 160 miles north of us. We, in Grenada, felt nothing but the lightest of winds as Dean passed from the Atlantic into the Caribbean waters, that is until the next day. As Dean passed it was upgraded to a cat 2 hurricane and as it was marching along the Caribbean sea the last remnants of Dean slapped Grenada in the face…just to wake us up. The next night we still had everything strapped down, just being lazy, but thank god we did. The wind picked up in the anchorage and Mike got up to have a look outside…seeing a distinct line in the sky and thinking it was the end of the little squall we were already in, I came out and had a look. I turned to Mike and said “That’s not the end…that’s the worst”. I threw his foul weather gear at him and put mine on and no sooner had we started the engine did the 60 knots of wind hit. Horizontal rain pelted down and the wind howled through the rigging. We turned our lights on and got on the radio and informed the others in the anchorage to do so as well so we could see where everyone was. Everyone was alert and took care of any dragging that was occurring and soon the wind was down to a steady 40 knots, then 30 and then 20 and then nothing. Very scary, but Meggie was a champ and held into the wind and waves without much strain.Well now that that was over….I prayed that would be the only one. Remember September…remember September had been running through my mind since hurricane season had started. September is notoriously known as the worst month for hurricanes. Remember September. So around the end of August we got word that something had come off Africa with potential to develop. Not again! My stress level since Dean had been high and I became addicted to the weather, watching and listening to every detail. We listened and check the satellite almost every couple of hours near the end of August. We went to bed on August 31st after checking the satellite imagery and feeling somewhat confident that the tropical feature and dissipated somewhat. We listened to weather guru, Chris Parker at 7pm that night and he wasn’t on the air. If he isn’t on the air, this is good news, it means there is no danger in the near future. That put our minds and ease and although things looked good for no further development, we still prepared as best we could, 2 anchors, strapped the sails down etc…
I didn’t sleep well that night. Not a ripple in the water and not a breath of air, but I still had an anxious feeling, almost like the calm before the storm. At about 3 am on September 1st, after dozing off I got up instinctively. Mike asked what I was doing and I said I thought we should get up. The wind had begun to blow slightly and I knew something was to follow. I got the foulies out and got mine on, I got out into the cockpit and waited. I didn’t have to wait very long. By the time Mike came out the wind had increased considerably. We turned the engine and our light on and I took the helm, just in case. The wind gusted violently, gusting up to 65 knots with sustained winds at around 55-58 knots. This time it didn’t ease so quickly. Unfortunately for us, the wind was coming straight out of the south (the only direction we weren’t protected from, except for 2 reefs). So not only did we have to deal with the wind, the waves in the anchorage were way too big for any anchorage. We heard our boat being called on the vhf, and learned that another boat was dragging and it was headed in our direction. We couldn’t see a thing even though boats were only about 100 yards away. The rain was so strong we couldn’t look out, so we hailed back and asked it D and Don could keep us posted on the location of the loose boat. The wind screamed for what seemed like forever and as day broke we began to feel a bit more comfortable as the wind finally began to subside. The boat that had dragged had snagged another anchor and was hooked up on it, but only after smashing into 2 other boats in the anchorage. Meanwhile a trimaran had dragged onto the beach and Nicoli in his little motor boat was trying to help get him off. A wave came over his transom and swamped his boat, and down it went along with him. Mike jumped our dinghy and began his way over but we finally saw his head come up and knew he was safe. While Mike was in the dinghy, I was on the radio to another boat who’s dinghy was sinking fast….So Mike went over to help them with their dinghy….
I tuned in to the 7 am weather report and Chris (weather guru) informed us that the tropical feature had strengthened in the over night hours (no shit!!) and had been upgraded into a tropical storm (almost skipping the tropical depression part completely) and had now been named Felix. The eye had passed only 10-20 miles south of south Grenada! There were reports that as Felix was passing Grenada it was upgraded to a Cat 1 hurricane. Hurricane force winds start at 64 knots and someone in the boat yard on shore where we are clocked 65 knots, so who knows for sure.
It was a crazy morning and by 9 am the wind had relaxed to about 30 knots and we felt comfortable heading to shore. The feeling on shore was one of relief. Everyone’s adrenaline was still pumping from the mornings adventures and instead of ordering coffee from the restaurant the majority of people ordered a beer.
Felix was a scary event, but again Meggie kept us safe and sound, however I feel it was too close for comfort. We’ve decided that if there is anything at all that looks remotely threatening we will seek a better harbour.. We went away for the weekend 2 weeks ago and before departing we hauled up the second BIG anchor that had held us during Felix.
It took Mike, myself and our friend Scotty 3 hours to get this sucker up! Mike had to dive down 25 feet about 8-10 times to rig up several systems to get the beast off the bottom. We now trust our anchor even more.
So now I’m wondering if I should leave it there for now.
We still have carnival to talk about as well as the hash (no…not drugs…hashing is known as drinkers with a running problem and we run all over the island…in jungles, rivers, mountains, fields you name it) and also delivery of schooners, and all the other things we’ve been doing in this wonderful country.
Grenada has treated us well. With its kind people and beautiful country, we will be sad to leave this place that has become home for the last few months.
So, I think I’ll leave it there and will not be too long with another entry.
This is Kylie in hot, hot, extremely hot Grenada signing off.
Happy Thanksgiving to everyone. And No…we won’t be having turkey….its too friggin hot!
Be cool (literally…I wish I was)
Kylie and Mike
PS...more exciting pictures next time...I promise.

Lots more to come

2007-09-20T10:34:00.000-07:00

I am apologizing! No news for quite some time, however I have good reasons. 1-we've been extremely busy, 2-we've had some technical difficulties (computers...ahhhh) and 3-did I mention the computer thing!
Stay tuned folks, don't give up on us...I've got a real doozie coming.
As always
Kylie and Mike

2007-07-31T19:06:00.000-07:00

Well folks…it’s been 1 year today since we left our little town of Thornbury to commence a voyage of uncertainty. Our 1 year anniversary finds us tucked away in the little anchorage at St. David’s, Grenada. We’ve been here now for about 1 month and unfortunately have been too busy to even explore the island.
I suppose the last I left you we had just arrived in Dominica, which seems like forever ago. Dominica is a beautiful relatively untouched island, but we were met by “boat boys” before we even had the chance to anchor. The boat boys are harmless guys who are just trying to make a buck by offering tours of the island etc, but because there are so many of them, they become a bit harassing and annoying in their competition. Thankfully for us we have a small boat and for some reason they don’t hassle us as much as the new 50 foot Beneteau next to us!!!
We didn’t spend much time in Dominica, as we were getting more and more anxious to get to Grenada. From Dominica we made our way to Martinique and had the most exhilarating sail while doing so. We left the anchorage under sail and rounded the bottom of Dominica where we were met by 18-25 knots of wind and about 9-11 foot seas.Everything, however was finally on the beam and Meggie rose up over every wave even when we were prepared to get swamped and kept us comfortable and flew along. We averaged over 6.5 knots that day and saw 7 knots consistently on our gps. It was one of the most exhilarating sails we’ve had….finally!!!! We realized that day that 11 foot seas on the beam are FUN, just as long as we don’t have bash into them!
We arrived in a beautiful little French town called St. Pierre. Although this anchorage was the most rolly anchorage we’ve ever been in, the town was great and very French!
While cruising along the streets I could swear I was in France (in Europe). The cobblestone streets were lined with little markets of fresh fruit and vegetables, and as the sun set and we drank the local beer at a local bar, and we couldn’t help but smile at the perfect day we had had!
With no time to waste, we made our way south and after another brief stop in Martinique it was off to St. Lucia. We pulled into Rodney Bay, St. Lucia after another great sail between the islands. We sailed right into the anchorage tacking our way across the bay and were met by a huge schooner leaving the anchorage.
We thought it looked familiar and joked that it must by the Black Pearl....and it was!!!! We later found it moored at the dock in Rodney Bay and the real name was Unicorn and also found out it was the schooner used in the first Pirates of the Caribbean. It was pretty cool. We decided the take a stay at a dock…unbelievable I know. We hadn’t been at a dock in about 6 months so we figured we were allowed, there was a special deal as it was slow season and we paid for a week long stay for a whopping $45.00. We had fresh water to wash the boat with and real showers for the first time in a LONG time!!! After 4 days we were sick of dock life and had to move back out to the anchorage to enjoy our privacy, I guess some things you just get used to!
We soon moved down to an area of St. Lucia called The Pitons, which are two sister mountains that plunge deep into the ocean on the Westward side of St. Lucia. We took a mooring as the whole area is a national park and were anxious to check the town and surrounding area out. We noticed there were a couple of tourists boats at the docks while we were dinghying into town. We were met by a mass of locals harassing us. First we were met by young boys wanting to tie our dinghy, then people who wanted to give us a tour, the taxi upon taxi, it just wouldn’t stop. We decided to take a hike out of town on our own to get away from the harassment. We had a beautiful walk outside the town up towards the Pitons. We came across an easy hike that led the way to natural hot springs and spent the afternoon soaking our harassing worries away. We stopped for a drink on the way back overlooking the Pitons and ocean and soon began to forget all about the harassments we were having.
As we approached the town we were ready for the mass, but nobody came near us. We were greeted with smiles and “Hey mon” everywhere. What’s going on, we thought. Then we noticed all the tourist boats were gone and it dawned on us that they now knew we weren’t the type that blast in take a few photos, buy a quick souvenir and then board the boat to head back to the hotel or cruise ship they came in on. We strolled the streets and meandered through the stores at our own leisure without any hassle. The difference was night and day! As we made our way back to the dinghy we were greeted by the young boy that wanted to tie our dinghy. He came up to us and said “When you locked your dinghy the lock didn’t clasp, so I moved it over here and made sure the lock was tight.” I felt awful for the way I had felt when we arrived at the dock. I said to him that I wanted to give him some coins but that I had to go back to the boat first to get them. Then I asked him if he would like something other than coins and he looked at me and said “I would like a coca cola”. That was it…a coca cola. So Mike and I brought him back 2 bottles of coke and a big bag of chips and he was a happy camper. It amazed me that all this 13-14 year old boy wanted was a coke, something all of us take for granted.
We left St. Lucia for a 50 mile run to Bequia part of the Grenadines. While on this sail we past the island of St. Vincent and saw the area where they filmed the 1st Pirates of the Caribbean. We didn’t stop in St. Vincent, but we both decided it was a must if we ever came back up. We arrived in Bequia well before sunset after another brilliant sail.
The weather gods were working in our favour and we had another beautiful weather window to head to Carriacou, an island just north of the main land of Grenada. We sailed all through the Grenadines, past the Tobago keys (which was a mistake and we’ve been kicking ourselves ever since for not stopping) and made our way to Carriacou after once again a brilliant sail. We didn’t want to stop, the sailing was so good. As a matter of fact we have only used 6 gallons of diesel in the last 600 miles or so (nautical miles that is)!
As we were passing Union Island we finally heard the line go taught. Mike started pulling in the line to reveal the perfect sized black fin tuna. Because we weren’t catching any fish, Mike began rigging up the lures with 2 hooks, thinking the 1 hook was too hidden. Lets just say a 2 hook lure works, but be ready for one hell of a mess. The lure was so imbedded in the tuna that Mike couldn’t retrieve it until he had filleted it. I said that I thought we should bring the other line in as I didn’t think we needed anymore fish and just as we started pulling it in, the line went taught again. Yup…another tuna. We again had so much fish we had to give some away twice once we got to the anchorage.
We spent about a week in Carriacou enjoying the slow pace of this beautiful island. Everynight we were met by Robert who would row by our boat and ask if we needed some oysters and although we didn't need oysters we bought limes and oranges from him. One night we had a left over burrito and asked him if he would like it. He looked at us with genuine gratiutude and said "Thank you so much for the wonderful supper". We watched him float away while he slowly enjoyed his burrito and realized that something so small could make someone so happy. It was a humbling experience. We continued to buy Robert's oranges and limes all week.
We circumnavigated the island by walking one afternoon (just to give you an idea of the size) and spent our days swimming, walking, exploring and researching information to haul Meggie.
We had another weather window and decided to finally make our way to Grenada via the windward side of the island as we heard the fishing was good. We didn’t catch anything but we had a nice settled sail to our destination of St. David’s in Grenada. While in Carriacou we did some emailing and found the prices reasonable to haul us in St. David’s and the fact that they could haul right away worked for us tremendously. Due to our lengthy stay in Luperon and the massive marine organisms in the water there, our antifouling on the bottom of our boat was basically gone. Sailing the boat didn’t help either, so we needed to haul immediately to get some paint on.

We were able to haul Meggie out after about a week and were able to get straight to work. In 8 days we sanded the topsides and bottom, prepped them for paint and applied 2 coats of antifouling to the bottom and 2 coats of paint to the topsides as well as interior cleaning including the bilge and Mike was able to pull the prop shaft and fix our stuffing box as well as a sea cock that needed to be fixed. We were also able to get one coat of varnish on the transom. Again not too bad for 8 days! So now Meggie is back in the water and she is a MUCH happier boat.
The day we launched Meggie I was radioed by a fellow cruiser who knew someone who needed some help on a boat. Before I knew it, I was meeting an Aussie couple who are captain and chef on a 110 foot motor yacht who needed some help.
The next day I was aboard this incredibly big boat preparing it for the owners to arrive for their charter. I spent 10 days aboard the boat as we travelled north to the Tobago keys and the Grenadines. It was definitely a different experience aboard this 110 foot yacht, but one that was good. I will be accompanying the yacht again beginning this Thursday for another 10-12 days travelling up to St. Lucia for the next charter. Don’t worry Mike is being looked after quite nicely by fellow cruisers who feel sorry for him, and have been feeding him in my absence. He too has been kept quite busy!!
So…lots going on. We haven’t even had a chance to really check out this incredible island, but the longer we’re here the more we like it, but I’ll write about Grenada next time.
Oh…here is a picture of our almost new crew member. We discussed seriously about bringing her aboard, but we found out she had an owner, whom I had a word with about the responsibilities of having a pet and to keep them treated for fleas and ticks(after removing about 15)!!! We even named her Mango! It’s probably for the best.
Ok well until next time….
Peace
Kylie

2 for 1 special

2007-06-16T13:39:00.000-07:00

It’s June 2nd today and hurricane season has officially started. We are currently in the BVI’s planning to head south to St. Martin or if the weather holds we’ll head straight to Guadeloupe or Dominica. It’s time to get south to Grenada and out of the hurricane belt. There has already been 2 tropical storms which doesn’t sit well with us as this is very early for them to start. However…we feel confident about our position and are still enjoying the wonderful places we’ve been.
The last I left you all we were just arriving in Puerto Rico. The western coast of PR is great…it feels somewhat like what I thought Puerto Rico would be like. Our travel mates, Double Bruyn and us rented a car to hit a Walmart if you can believe it and I was shocked when we arrived in Ponce (the second largest city in PR). After driving through some really amazing scenery and large ascents we descended into AMERICA….Walmarts, Walgreens, Kmarts, Publics, Burger King, McDonalds…seriously you name it, it was there. I guess I was really not expecting that at all. I found it difficult to feel the culture in Puerto Rico as it is so Americanized, that is not to say that there isn’t culture here, it’s just harder to feel as a visitor. The one thing I noticed about the Puerto Ricans is they LOVE their music and dancing. Everyone knows how to salsa and man, are they good. Us gringos step off the dance floor when a popular Latin song comes on and all the Puerto Ricans head to the dance floor. We try, but to save ourselves from absolute embarrassment we watch in amazement instead.Puerto Rico has some beautiful places to visit. When we rented the car we made our way to El Yuncae, a national rainforest park and also headed to Old San Juan. The five of us hiked through the rainforest and all took a moment to appreciate and enjoy land. There is nothing like the smell, the feel and the beauty of a thick forest. We then made our way to Old San Juan and wandered the cobble stoned streets.
Our route south took us along the southern coast of PR., and again straight into the winds and the only way to avoid bashing into it we had to use the morning lee before the trade winds would pick up.
So our sailing of the southern coast would consist of the following: waking at 4 am, hailing Double Bruyn on the radio making sure everyone was awake, pulling anchor in the dark, sailing with the land breeze arriving at our destination before 11am covering only short distances. This worked for the first few days as we were able to enjoy the day as our travelling was done early and the trades were a regular 20 knots so to bash it was out of the question. The last portion of the southern coast was a lot easier as the trades had moderated considerably and we were able to put more miles down.
While in a little town called Salinas, we decided to have new rigging put on the main mast. Nothing to severe, we just wanted to “beef” Meggie up a bit and we felt she was safer if we did the rigging. So with the rigging done and the boat provisioned again (thank you Walmart), we were ready for the next 500 miles or so to Grenada.
We left Salinas after a few days of work on Maggie (meanwhile our buddy brothers on Double Bryun were outfitting her and getting her ready to cross the Atlantic to Spain via the Azores). Once ready we headed on a short over night hop to the Spanish Virgin Island of Culebra. During our little overnighter I was awakened by Mike at about 1 am (just as I had fallen fast asleep after my watch). “Kylie, Kylie get up….there is someone beside us”. I looked out the hatch and there not 50 feet off our beam was a black speed boat with absolutely no lights who apparently had been tailing us for quite awhile and then sped up to us and slowed to our speed for what seemed like forever. Mike told me to get on the radio but I didn’t know who to call, so we just waited to see what would happen. A spot light accompanied the slow speed of the boat beside us so neither one of us could see anything and finally they sped away. Holy freaked out! I called Jon and Paul on Double Bryun right away to put it on the radio and to let them know. Navy, pirates, coast guard, drug runners???? We didn’t know. So we continued on and I did my watch and off again I went to sleep. “Kylie…they’re back!” I popped my head out again and sure enough 4 in the morning there is another black speed boat, no lights shining a spot light on us. They didn’t stick around too long, but long enough to freak us out again. So again on the radio I get. We later found out from some locals that it was the government. They see boats transiting at night and because they have such a problem with drug running they send boats to check it out. They must have looked at us looking like stunned deer in head lights and figured we weren’t druggies! An exciting night.
We arrived in Culebra just before noon the next day and were amazed once again at how beautiful these islands are. We pulled in and tucked behind a reef in pretty blue water once again. The island of Culebra only has 2000 people on it, but is a popular spot for Puerto Ricans on weekends and holidays (which happened to be Memorial Day weekend when we were there). I didn’t know that you could actually raft 15 power boats together in a very small anchorage, but apparently you can. It was crazy, but we had a good time.
We went out on the town Saturday night to celebrate Double Bruyn’s last night on land and to wish them well. We had been with them everyday for a month and we were going to miss them terribly (which we do). So Jon, Paul, Kim, Scott, Mike and I hit the hot spots. This is when we realized just how much we all needed some Latin dance lessons, and Jon and Paul assured me that they would learn by the time they reached Spain. So the 2 brothers will be Latin dancing somewhere on the decks of their boat in the middle of the ocean…quite the sight.
So from Culebra we’ve started our way east again via the USVI’s and BVI’s. We are now anchored in a place called Cane Garden Bay which is on the northwest corner of Tortola and has a palm fringed white sand beach, a protected anchorage and a beautiful reef to snorkel. The protected anchorage (with moorings which almost everyone is on except us as it is $25 US for a night). We’re really glad everyone is on a mooring because while we were visiting Jost Van Dyke island in the BVI’s we were introduced to charter catamarans. This is when a charter company hands the keys of a 47 foot catamaran over to anyone and everyone no matter if they have sailed or anchored. I know….scary huh. Well picture this….Meggie, a couple of other monohulls, a few chartered monohulls, and 27 chartered catamarans (all captained by college students), in a tiny tiny anchorage. The attraction to this anchorage is the famous Foxy’s restaurant and bar. Anyway….so around 4 or 5 in the evening just as your winding down with your rum, 27 chartered catamarans fly into the anchorage, drop the hook and start partying. I know….I may be sounding very old and cranky here. So 2 cats in particular anchored pretty close and as we watched from the bow of our boat they knew our concern but we gave them the benefit of the doubt. 4am arrives and a little bit of lightening starts so up we get as we know that a squall is soon to follow. Mike approached the cat that was hovering about 15 feet off our bow and politely asks if they are sober enough to deal with a squall…they assured us that yes they were. So the “squall” hits (which was more like a puff) and the 2 cats we were concerned about start dragging towards Meggie. Now…the one has people awake and aware, the other…not a soul around and it’s comin down on us fast. Mike hops in the dinghy and starts banging on the boat….nothing. He hops aboard and starts banging on the doors….nothing. Finally he opens the door and screams for someone to get the hell up and drive this (a bit of swearing here) boat outta here. So with about a dinghy’s length to spare the groggy drunk youngster (I know…sounding old) drives the boat away. Meanwhile the other cat we were concerned about dragged so much they were fending off another boat. About half of the cats dragged that morning n the so called squall. A bit scary, but mostly very entertaining. We’ve become anchor natzies and have been referred to as such by friends, but you have to protect your home. I wanted to add this next picture as it is a typical scene in an anchorage for us. I keep telling you that Meggie is always the smallest.
Anyway…lots of exciting stuff, but lots of beautiful places and people. We said our goodbyes to the brothers and hope they’re doing ok out there. Our plan is to just get south. We have a window to head to St. Martin early next week so that’s the plan for now.
As always, keep the posts coming…we love to read them and it gives us incentive to write the blog.
Ciao for now.
Kylie and Mike

KEEP READING.....2 FOR 1 SPECIAL!!!!!!!

Leeward Islands

Let me start this out by telling you some news that I am very excited about. Some of you know that I had written an article and sent it to Cruising World for consideration. Well, I found out in St. Martin that they want to publish it along with pictures that I had sent as well. Cruising World is an international sailing magazine and I am honoured that they have chosen to publish what I have written. I am not sure when the issue will be out, but once I know I will let you all know. I believe it will be within the next 6 months.
Well…I’ve decided to do a two for one special!!! I had intended to send the above blog a long time ago, but time and lack of internet was the culprit for no blogging. So, I left you in the BVI’s, a beautiful place with excellent sailing, but the charter boats….what can I say.We left Cane Garden Bay and were determined to sail to Lee Bay (without motor) and to beat the charter cat that was on our tail. As we rounded the north west corner of Tortola we were met with 20+ knots of wind on the nose, gusting stronger. We short tacked all the way to Lee Bay via monkey point channel, a narrow cut between Tortola and monkey point. We debated whether we could get through the narrow cut, but with the cat hot on our tail we sheeted in tight and made it in 3 tacks. A very exciting sail and we beat the cat to the anchorage.
Lee Bay is a beautiful little anchorage that isn’t very popular so Meggie got to anchor with only 2 other boats for the night. We snorkelled the surrounding reefs and played on the beach while retiring early for much needed sleep. The next day we made our way to Virgin Gorda sound to stage for the weather window that would take us across the Anaganda passage (also known as “Oh my God” passage). Before we could leave the BVI’s, we had to check out. The customs office was only in Spanish town and funny us thought we would just grad a cab. Well…a taxi to Spanish town from Virgin Gorda sound was $50.00 US there and back!!!!! Crazy!!!! So…we told the taxi driver we would just walk as that was way too expensive for us young cruisers. He sort of gave a funny laugh and then shook his head at us. So we started walking…..uphill. It was extremely hot and for some reason we just kept going up. We thought we had better think about hitching a ride because the road just kept getting steeper, it was never ending. Even though we were drenched in sweat and out of breath, we encountered a beautiful view of the sound.A taxi truck stopped us part way up an ascent and asked us where we were going. We told him Spanish town and he laughed and told us to get in. “No, no we can’t afford you”. “ Just get in, you can’t walk. I won’t charge you”. Thank the lord. So we got in the canopy covered bed of the truck, owned by a 25 year old local, who we believe thought he thought he was some sort of rally race car driver. Well…the truck continued up and up and up. We would have never made it. We would have first collapsed from dehydration if not from exhaustion. This truck was a little Mazda, manual about 20 years old and the gears and brakes sounded very worn and odd. After all the ups we had to go down and the brakes made very funny noises. I kept gripping the canopy and muttered “Oh my god….Oh my god” the whole ride. When we finally arrived in Spanish town I wanted to kiss the ground, but thought I would insult our driver. On the way back…we were picked up by a Jamaican woman named Jackie who insisted on showing us the “back road route”. A lovely woman who spent part of her day off showing a couple of Canadians the beauty of the island.
So with our head sail changed, our water tanks and diesel tank full, we headed out of the sound at around noon to cross the “Oh my God” passage. The passage started out OK. We were to have a current against us the whole way so our strategy was not yet decided. We started heading on our course and luckily we were able to hold a decent speed and the current was not noticeable. So the day started out not too bad, but as the sun began to set, the winds began to build. Because of the current and wind direction the seas were confused. It felt a bit like a washing machine, but we pressed on. We encountered 3 squalls, 2 not so bad and 1 with higher gusts. We were close hauled the whole way (something we are very used to now), and neither one of us got much sleep and I stayed down below too long in the confused seas and felt ill the whole trip. Meggie pounded into the waves, but performed great. She has been beating into the wind and waves so much on a port tack that the paint on Meggie’s starboard side is gone in places. A haul out in Grenada will be a welcome sight.
We had planned to stay in St. Martin for about 5-7 days to take a break and stock up on booze (as this is the best place to do so as it is cheap cheap cheap and duty free). The next morning after arriving in St. Martin we planned to check in and explore the island, but after listening to the weather guru via ssb, my decision was made. I told Mike we had to prepare and leave that evening by 7pm for a 130 mile sail to Guadaloupe. He was a bit shocked, but we have to move with the weather. It is very important at this point to take whatever window is available to get further south, even if you don’t want to. So we checked in, got some much needed items from the marine stores, stocked the boat with booze, cleaned and stowed Meggie, and had anchors up by 7pm. We had another close hauled sail to Guadaloupe and Meggie once again pounded into the seas and wind, but we were fast. We arrived much earlier than we had expected and anchored around 2am in Guadaloupe.
Guadaloupe is a French island and my French was tested right from our arrival. When I say it is a French island, I mean very French. Little English is spoken, but it is amazing how quickly all those French classes come rushing back. We spent about a week in Guadaloupe and while there we rented a car with Scott and Kim from Anthyllide. We had an amazing stay in Guadaloupe.
We first went to the Souffriere (the volcano). There is a hike that takes you up through the mountains to the top of a volcano. The hike is awesome. The higher you get, the more difficult the trail becomes, but an absolutely great hike. The visablitly at the top was very foggy and misty and very very windy. We got to the summit where the wind was so strong you could litterally lean your whole body into it.
While at the top we could hear what sounded like a plane, so I asked another hiker what the noise was and he told us to follow. He told us that if the wind switched that we had to get out of there fast. So we ducked behind the fenced off area and to our amazement we were approaching a live volcano. We didn’t even know it was there. The plane noise was the volcano spewing sulphuric gases into the air. Because of the wind direction we were able to sneak right up to the edge of the volcano.. It was lined with bright yellow rock and hot hot gas spewing out the top. The hiker that brought us here (who was a local) signalled that we should go as the wind was changing…and it changes fast. We ran back to the trail with mouths covered and eyes squinted as the gas was so strong. We couldn’t believe what we had just seen. It was sooo cool, we were ecstatic.
After the volcano hike we made our way to another hike. Although this hike was a bit more tame the end result revealed a beautiful waterfall amongst a landscape of lush rainforest. When we got back to the car we were met by a poet, that was just hangin out. He had just had his french poetry book published and he graced us with one of his poem from his book. It was very surreal.
We got back to the boats exhausted and content.
We left Guadaloupe yesterday and had a beautiful fast sail covering 42 miles to Dominica, an independent country between Guadaloupe and Martinique. 40 miles and a world of difference, but more on that next time. Dominica is where we’ll sit until the next window to head to Martinique, which looks like it will be Monday. So the next time I write I imagine it will be when we finally arrive in Grenada where we plan to stay for awhile.
Again as always, keep the comments coming.
Au revoir,
Kylie and Mike

On the move

2007-06-14T14:34:00.000-07:00

Bonjour mes amis. It is coming! We are on the move to get to Grenada before the end of the month. Be assured that there will be an update soon!
We are currently in Guadaloupe heading to Dominica tomorrow. We have lots to tell so keep checking!!!!
Au revoir,
Kylie and Mike

Oh...the dreaded mona

2007-05-11T06:54:00.000-07:00

It’s been another long time between chats and I’m sure this will turn into another novel, which I am apologizing for now. Last I wrote we had just landed in Luperon, Dominican Republic. What a fantastic country. Although Republica Dominican is a 3rd world country, the poverty is not evident throughout the area. Yes, the people do not have as much as most, but the Dominicans always had a smile on their faces and the food cooking in the little homes smelt like restaurants everywhere and of course the music was pumping from every street corner.
Motorconchos zip around you everywhere and it is apparent that this is the best way to see the countryside. So Mike and I rented a motorbike.
It was fantastic. We left the little town of Luperon and travelled on back roads to make our way to a town called Los Hidalgos. Along the way we biked through little villages where laundry hung out to dry on barb wire fences and the smells came from the smoke huts along the side of the road. Every village we encountered the people would look upon these 2 gringos and once we smiled and said “Beunas dias” we were returned with big smiles and big waves, it was great. We ascended a mountain pass and luckily the bike made it up and were rewarded with the most amazing view of the most beautiful countryside. We rode around for about 6 hours and put about 250 km on the bike…only an introduction to Dominican.
The harbour in Luperon is rated one of the best hurricane holes in the Caribbean so the calmness in the night was a welcome after spending a lumpy 3 weeks in G-town.
The harbour has a marina and a yacht club both of which proved to be a great spot for happy hour. We met some great people during our happy hours at the yacht club, people who have been in Luperon for years, people heading west to Jamaica, people heading north to US, and people heading east and south like ourselves. We were especially happy to meet the people heading east and south, and to our enjoyment we met 2 more “young cruiser” boats. Wuhoo! More young people. We met a couple from the states whom we had been told about and we also told that we HAD to meet them. So we finally hooked up with Scott and Kim on Anthyllide, and we also met 2 young kiwis, John and Paul (like the Beatles) and Laura who boarded ship in g-town with these two great guys to enjoy the adventure aboard Double Bryun. So needless to say the young cruisers were having mucho fun!
Once we arrived in Luperon we called our parents to assure them we were alive and eating well and bathing (moms huh!). When we called Mike’s dad he told us he and Ann we ready to jump on a flight and head south to see us. What a great surprise. Seeing how we haven’t seen family in over 9 months we were very excited. So a week after we arrived, Tony and Ann landed in Puerto Plata only 40 miles away. We were thrilled they had arrived and had a ton of activities planned. Tony informed us they had rented a car, so the options were endless. We headed out for Santo Domingo, the capital of Dominican Republic, with a stop in Jarabacoa a small place way up in the mountains. Our trip started out great…the sun was shining, the traffic wasn’t too bad and we were excited to see the country….then we got to Santiago. Let me just say that it is a wiser decision to hire a driver to take you into the big cities. The drive through Santiago was…hmmm…how do you say…..insane! The driving in DR is crazy….absolutely crazy. So we finally made our way through the city and again the road trip was good…little traffic, beautiful scenery and we were almost at our destination. Arriving in Jarabacoa was outstanding. We were able to rent a little room in a beautiful hotel, somewhat like a eco hotel in the jungle with a view of rushing rapids below. It was very beautiful. The next day we hiked up to the local waterfalls which were outstanding. Unfortunately the drive through Santiago sort off turned us off going to Santo Domingo which is a shame as I’ve since found out it is an amazing city. Next time>
Before we knew it, a week had gone by and it was time for Tony and Ann to head home. We said our sad goodbyes and began preparing for our long trip to Puerto Rico.
Finally the window arrived and we were anxious to leave the safety of the Luperon harbour and man…were we ready. As much as we love this country, the harbour is anything but clean. The water is brown and you don’t dare dip your feet in as you fear you may come out with extra toes. Because this is such a poor country, there is no money for a proper sewer system and /or garbage disposal so without going into detail you can imagine what the water is like. We anchored our boat near the mouth of the harbour so we could at least clean our prop as an inch of barnacles had grown on it in the 3 weeks we were there. Mike had the fortunate job of jumping in the water and cleaning the prop….ewww!
So our window had arrived to cross the mona passage from the DR to PR, a 270 nautical mile passage, a crossing I had been dreading for a year…no joke! We left the harbour at 6 pm and were greeted with much larger waves and way more wind (18 knots) than we had thought there would be. Normally we like wind, but when you are doing a windward passage (which means the wind right on your nose), you don’t want a lot of wind. Needless to say our 1st night out, we made very little progress and it was a real struggle just to average 2 knots….(which is very very slow). Finally by mid morning the next day the seas died down a bit and the wind eased off and we were able to put down some miles….UNTIL we rounded one of the capes. Cabo Frances is along the north coast of the DR and it took us 5 hours to get around as the wind picked up again (on the nose) and we were smack dab in the middle of a lightning storm…not fun. We were the tallest thing around us and with all electronics turned off we hoped it would pass quickly.
Finally we saw the light at the end of the tunnel (literally..the sun was setting). The sky cleared, the waves decreased and finally the wind switched to the south so we could actually sail! We had a great 2nd night and really began to put the miles down. Finally by the next morning we were off the tip of Cabo Samana (the north eastern tip of DR) and we were entering the MONA. To our delight we were able to sail for most of the day with light winds and small seas, and at about 5pm we felt the fishing line go taught….another mahi. We knew this guy was big. Mike hauled the line in by hand and after somewhat of a struggle pulled in our biggest mahi mahi yet. 50 inches from head to tail…he was sooo big. We looked at each other and wondered aloud what the hell we were going to do with all this fish. Mike filleted the fish and I cooked fish everyway I knew how to until about 10pm. Luckily our travel buddies aboard Double Bruyn weren’t far behind so we planned to share the wealth. We had another uneventful night under motor sail and by the next morning Double Bruyn had caught up to us and we did the “fish pass off” mid ocean style. They in return did “fresh pineapple pass off” mid ocean style. We were very happy to have our DB companions along the way.
You have to remember that we were out for 77 hours, so the conversation can begin to get a little bizarre, so it was a treat to tell jokes, play trivia and just chat with another boat over the radio (hopefully the coast guard didn’t hear our dirty jokes).
Finally after 70 hours on the boat Puerto Rico came into view and as the sun set and the night overtook, the millions of lights lit the mountainous country of Puerto Rico. By 11:30 Sunday night we had the anchor down in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico…77 long hours, 11 hours longer than I had calculated. We were all exhausted and excited, but exhaustion overtook and we were all fast asleep by 11:35.
I know…another long one. I’m sorry!We are now in a little town called Boqueron planning to head to Cabo Rojo today and then jump across the southern coast this week and hopefully be in the Virgin islands in 8-10 days.
As always…keep the comments coming and know that I will write again soon.
Thanks for listening…
Adios..
Kylie and Mike

Sailing the ocean blue...for real

2007-04-12T07:15:00.000-07:00

Hmmm…where to begin! Seriously…where to begin. Last I left you we were in Georgetown waiting for weather to leave for the DR. Little did we know that instead of waiting for 3 days like we had intended we would end up being there for 3 weeks waiting for the crazy weather to subside. Our plan was to provision the boat and pick up some last minute items and head out asap. We listened to the weather guru (Chris Parker) everyday on our SSB radio hoping and waiting for good news to head south. Everyday Chris would come on and chuckle as he said “anybody heading south…it’s not looking good.” Everyday…we had fingers, toes, arms and legs crossed in hopes the wind would change…and everyday the forecast was the same “25 knots gusting 30 out of the NE-E with chance of squalls”.
No hope for little Megs to get our of Georgetown…so we made the best of it. We were fortunate enough to meet some very special and great people while we were stuck in Georgetown (aka: hotel Georgetown…you can check out but you can never leave).
One day while checking my email in the little shack known as the internet café, I met two young fellers from Canada, Eben and Jordan aboard Laboris. Instantly we clicked and so an everlasting friendship began with 2 23 year old boys from the west coast of Canada who soon became like my little brothers. (To hear their story…which is hilarious, check out www.jordanandeben.blogspot.com)..Eben and Jordan were hoping to make the DR by April 1st, but with the weather being so horrible for heading south they had to unfortunately end their adventure in Georgetown where they hauled Laboris and we celebrated their adventure with a bonfire on the beach for their last night on the water. We also met a single handing Aussie (Michael) who had just purchased a 47’Catamaran who soon became like our father (or older brother!!!!) who hosted our dinners and drinks pretty well every night. Add Tashmoo, Cat Lady and Wee Beastie into the mix and we have an extended family with whom we spent many interesting and entertaining nights together.
We also met a great couple Neil and Stephanie aboard Rhapsody who were so kind and lovely to us and we enjoyed meeting them so much. I never actually told Neil this….but he really resembled the lead singer from the Beegees during the filming of staying alive. Now Neil…if you’re reading this…I would take it as a huge compliment…and never cut your hair.
During one of the interesting and entertaining evenings, while eating a spectacular dinner aboard Sommerset Cat, knowing there was a chance of squalls, Mike perked up and said “Something isn’t right…I’m going back to Meggie”. Before I could even stand up the dinghy was gone and Mike was back at Meggie, only about 100 yards in front of us. A couple of the guests aboard Sommerset Cat told us we were paranoid and everything would be fine, but Mike’s instincts are good and I didn’t doubt him going back to check. I proceeded to tell them that piece of mind is much better than wondering if everything was alright and that Mike would close the hatches and probably be back in 15 minutes. I poked my head around the side of the Cat and to my surprise the wind nearly blew my over. I turned to Michael (from Sommerset) and said “This is serious…we need to turn on the radio”. As soon as we did, the radio came to life with terrified shouting, angry voices and paranoid screams. We soon heard “Cat Lady is dragging and no one is on the boat and they’re moving backwards at 6 knots” meanwhile Cat Lady is sitting right beside me on Sommerset Cat. Eben dinghied Mike (from Cat Lady) back to his boat and they were able to save Cat Lady and the other boats in the line of fire. Meanwhile I am frantically trying to get a hold of Mike on Meggie to make sure everything is ok and ifind out f we were dragging or if someone was dragging around us. Finally Mike came on the radio and put my mind at ease that everything was ok…..
I finally got back to Meggie once everything calmed down a bit and Mike told me that the previous cold front of 42 knots was like a walk in the park compared to what just happened. He said Meggie’s rail was in the water about 8 times and we later found out that someone had clocked the winds at 59 knots!!!!!!!!! SCARY! BUT…Meggie held like a champ and we were ok. The anchorage was crazy with people dragging everywhere and we were a little unsettled for the rest of night, but Mike was most upset that he left half a plate of food and half a glass of rum unfinished aboard Sommerset Cat.
So we just enjoyed playing volleyball, beaches, rum and great people, but it was seriously time to go…big time! FINALLY…we got good news from Chris that the weather was going to calm down…and he promised. So we waited about 3 more days for the sea to subside to about 6 feet instead of 12 feet (YIKES) and we finally left hotel Georgetown…(also aka: Chicken harbour as people are notorious for heading back north instead of their intended route south). We pulled up anchor on Monday morning, April 2 at about 6:30am along with Tashmoo and another singlehander we met named Joe from Seneca. However Joe isn’t alone, as his first mate is his black lab, Leah. So we all headed out to the unknown in hopes we would make Luperon, Dominican Republic.
We first headed to Conception Island about 50 miles from our anchorage and although it was a long slog out the cut to the ocean we started out on a close reach but unfortunately we couldn’t hold our rum line (the line from point A to B) and we ended up having a brutal current against us, so at 4:30 with 10 miles to go we bailed out as we knew we wouldn’t make landfall before dark. So we headed the 12.5 miles to Calabash Bay on Long Island and once we turned the boat around we went from barely 3 knots to 7.3 knots…so we made the anchorage no problem and enjoyed a comfortable and relaxing evening. The next day we pulled anchor and had an awesome close reach sail to Conception. With the rail in the water almost the whole way (which is unusual for Meggie) we averaged about 6 knots to Conception and were able to enjoy one of the most beautiful islands in the Bahamas.
We went snorkelling and spear fishing with some friends and Mike and the boys were yet again scared away by another shark.
We were on a roll, so the next morning at 6:30 we had the anchor up again and were off to Rum Cay a short 20 miles away. Meanwhile, because we had turned around to Calabash Bay, Tashmoo and Seneca and another boat were a day ahead of us. We heard that night that Tashmoo had some problems and during their rough slog of a sail to Rum they had to dive into the ocean in huge waves and discovered their centerboard hanging loose and had to cut it from the boat. So all of a sudden their trip to the DR became a trip back to Florida. Needless to say they and we were totally bummed, but they made the right choice and they’ll be back out before we know it. Seneca, continued on to Mayaguana or so we thought.
So we had a lovely sail to Rum that day and arrived at the waypoint at around 10am. The conditions were good and the seas were calm so we thought….lets keep going. Our next stop was Mayaguana some 125 miles from Rum, 150 miles from Conception. So we just kept going. We had a beautiful 1st night under a bright beautiful moon and sky full of stars. The next morning we were closing in on our target, but unfortunately were going slower than we had hoped so once we reached Mayaguana it was 8:00 pm the second night and we didn’t want to land in the dark so we decided to keep going…next stop 60 miles away, landing in Turks and Caicos! During our second day, we saw groups of pilot whales and were fortunate enough to see a sperm whale who was only about 40 yards from Meggie. It was sooooo excited yet a bit scary as I thought it might think Meggie was a whale and try and mate, but that didn’t happen! We also saw huge dolphins thumping Meggie's belly, but they're harmless....we think!!As we continued to Turks and Caicos and the sun set on the horizon the waves became a little lumpier and the wind became a little stronger. Before we knew it we had 20 knots on the nose and the waves were building to 6-8 feet with the odd 10 footer just to keep us on our toes. We had 30 miles to go, but our guides say to arrive in the Turks in morning to approach the banks and at the rate we were going we weren’t going to make it. We had to sail way off our rum line and we were struggling to make 3 knots…not good. Should we bail and go back to Mayaguana a short 25 miles back the way we had come? What to do??? We were getting hit with squalls and we couldn’t battle the wind on the nose anymore and we were absolutely exhausted!!! All of a sudden at 4:30 in the morning the radio came to life and were heard “Braveheart this is L’Attitude”. L’ATTITUDE…..OH MY GOD…..(We met L’Attitude back in the Chesapeake if you don’t remember…we had Thankgiving with them and enjoyed crab night). Holy @#%*!!!! We were soooo excited we hailed them and sure enough there was Doug on the other end and they were heading from Peurto Rico to Mayaguana. Our minds were made we tuned back. Before turning though…we put 2 reefs in the main, dropped the storm sail and mizzen sail and flew at 7 knots back to Mayaguana. We pulled into the most uncomfortable anchorage but we didn’t care as we were soooooo tired and soooooo excited to see L’Attitude, we slept and then had easter dinner at the L’Attitude bar and grill…very suiting.
The next day we planned to head out around 6 pm to Turks and Caicos as the seas had settled and we would arrive the next morning as we had to fuel up. I listened to the forecast and we had the perfect window to head straight Luperon…some 185 miles away. BUT…we needed some fuel. The closest place to get fuel was the Turks….what to do???? On the radio we get to the other boats in the anchorage and we were able to scrounge 10 gallons…enough to make the trip to Luperon. Anchor up by noon out the reef surrounded anchorage and off to Luperon!

We had a uneventful motor sail the rest of the day and all night across the Caicos passage and pretty soon the sun was rising to unveil another beautiful day. We motor sailed for part of the day and soon the wind was picking up and off with the motor and we had a great beam reach for about 8 hours. Unfortunately as the day came to and end the wind began to clock around onto our nose and we were forced to turn Stg. Major (our engine) on again and buck into the waves…but we only had 45 miles to go!!! We had an uncomfortable next 5 hours and of course it was my watch…which sucked but we got though it and with 30 miles to go I could smell something in the air. I had read that you can smell the DR well before you see it, and I instantly called Mike out and told him to sniff. No question….we smelled the most fantastic smell… earth. There is no other way to describe it. It was the smell of lush earth, 30 miles away. With 15 miles to go (on Mike’s watch) we entered into the lee of the island so the waves and the wind died down and we cruised along at an easy 4.5 knots the rest of the way and by sunrise we had the most spectacular sight in front of us. Mike woke me up with a big smile on his face and told me to get into the cockpit. As I came out of the cabin into the cockpit I turned around and saw mountains. Mountains as far as the eye could see. After the Bahamas the mountains were a welcome sight. We carried on into the tricky harbour and as we entered we marvelled at the lushness of the trees, the blow holes that lay to our left and the sound of a kazillion birds singing. Suddenly we weren’t tired anymore and we had huge smiles on our faces and as we entered the rest of the harbour we were greeted by familiar faces like Grace, Allouette and Seneca. We were on a high and absolutely thrilled to be out of the Bahamas and entering a new beautiful lush fantastic country. Mike turned to me at one point and said “There is a fine line between cruising and sailing and for the last week we were sailors”.
I sit here now in the small tiki bar at the yacht club overlooking the harbour as Meggie sits in calm safe water. After covering over 450 nautical miles in exactly one week, she deserves a good rest in a safe harbour. We sit with presidente beer in our hands and watch the sun set into the mountains and can’t believe we’re here. We’re soooo happy. Another freaky crazy thing that happened…..The morning after we arrived we heard “Meggie….Meggie….Meggie” at about 8 am…I poked my head out the hatch and to my disbelief and surprise it was Kim and David aboard Amanzi. I know…your thinking who’s that. We bought Meggie from David and Kim almost 5 years ago and here we meet again in Luperon of all places. Needless to say we had lunch, drinks and then more drinks catching up and getting info from them about the different islands they’ve been to and discussing the work we’ve done on Megs. Pretty weird.
The people in Luperon are fantastic. We really feel like we’re a long way from home, but we’re so excited to keep going.
Seeing and being in these places makes all the downs we experience so worth it. We are now waiting to hear if Mike’s dad and step mom will visit and have plans to rent motorbikes and explore the mountains and coast as well as visit Santo Domingo and Santiago. Lots to do…lots to see.
So…I apologize for such a LONG blog, but lots has happened and I want to share it all with you. So until next time….
Hasta Lleugo
Kylie
Ps….Eben, Jord, Cindy and John: We wish you were here with us, but we know we’ll see you along the way somewhere, someday!

Sunny Exumas

2007-03-15T09:48:00.000-07:00

Well the last time I left you all, we were enjoying our travels along the exuma chain. We left you while we were in Compass Cay, one of the most beautiful cays in the Exumas. Even though this anchorage had a wicked current running through, the protection for the N - NE wind was relatively good and we were expecting a brutal cold front to come through with winds forecasted to be in the 30 knot range. We decided to hunker down and wait out the front. The winds started to pipe up in the early afternoon which meant the pre frontal winds had arrived, so we took everything off the deck, lashed everything down and got another anchor ready on deck just in case. Before we knew it a black line appeared on the horizon followed by an ugly sky. The winds proceeded to pick up and before we knew it the winds were blowing 30 knots steady. We sat in the cockpit and just waited and hoped our trusty anchor would hold. All of a sudden we saw a white line about 5 feet above the water moving towards us and all I heard was Mike say “Hold on…this isn’t going to be good. If the rode breaks I want you to take the tiller and I’ll drop the emergency anchor”. Holy crap…The white line hit us and we were in 42 knots of wind. For those of you who can’t relate 42 knots is almost 70 km winds. The 42 knots didn’t last very long but it was scary. At one point Mike asked me to pass him his snorkel goggles cause the rain was driving so bad into his face. Here we are dealing with gale force winds and I’m killing myself laughing at Mike who looked like an absolute dork with these goggles on. Yes people I got a picture! Our anchor did the job and held us through. Not too long after, we saw the other side of the front moving quickly south above us…a sigh of relief. The winds died down to about 20-25 knots through the night and everything was fine.
While we were in Compass waiting for the front to move through we did a ton of hiking and snorkelling and fishing. Mike was determined to spear something so we would make our way out in the dinghy for the afternoon in search for coral heads. We found a great head filled with snappers and school masters….Mike didn’t want to settle for the smaller fish, he wanted the biggest school master there. The school master toyed with Mike for about 45 minutes jetting in and out of holes in the coral. If the school master could talk he would be saying “Catch me if you can….come on…I dare ya”. What we didn’t know was that Mike wasn’t the only one who wanted the big school master. Out of the corner of his eye, Mike saw a silver flash. As he turned to see what it was he stared at a big black tip shark. I was in the dinghy and saw Mike quickly look up to see where I had parked the dinghy, then I saw flippers flipping as fast as I’ve ever seen flippers flip and before I knew it Mike shot out of the water and into the dinghy similar to a seal jolting out of the water. I thought maybe he had seen a barracuda (as these aren’t the most friendly creatures), but then he said “shark”. Normally I wouldn’t have believed him, but the way he swam to the boat, I knew he wasn’t kidding. Since then he has encountered another black tip and this time he didn’t bolt, he just slowly made his way back to the dinghy and the shark went the other way. Needless to say we weren’t the ones that ate the school master that night.
We were anxious to get a move on after waiting so long in Compass for the front to come through so the next day we weighed anchor and made our way to Staniel Cay Here we met up with Caretta again and we had made our way down with Hasten Slowly, so all of us went into Staniel and enjoyed a fundraiser bbq for the all ages school..
Staniel Cay was the first real civilization we had come across since we had left Nassau. We had just run out of toilet paper and were in desperate need of fruit and vegetables so Staniel was a welcome stop. We anchored in a great anchorage with many other boats and visited the beaches along the anchorage, one of which hosts wild pigs. Well…they’re not really wild as they’ve been somewhat tamed by the cruisers who feed them.
You think they’re kinda cute but man…they’re aggressive suckers. We took our little friend Steve from Hasten Slowly and had to abort the mission once we were out of food as we thought they were going to feast on Steveo.
Staniel was also the place that we were expecting a visit from Paul and Karen from Thornbury. We spent a couple of days getting used to the area and awaited the arrival of our friends.
We had a wonderful 9 days with Paul and Karen. The weather was superb and we were able to anchor in front of their cottage the whole time. We spent our days biking the island, snorkelling the grotto (from the James Bond movies “Never say Never” and “Thunderball”), eating great dinners, drinking lots of rum and luckily Mike and Paul were successful at fishing. The 2 boys went out in the 8 foot dinghy to try their hand at fishing (as they weren’t having much luck with finding lobster). After a brief engine problem in the middle of the inlet with the current ripping they finally were off fishing about 2 miles offshore (in an 8 foot dinghy!). The minutes ticked by as I waited patiently at the boat (as Mike had our only vehicle) and finally I saw the dinghy coming in. The first thing I saw was a huge grin on Paul’s face, so I knew it had to be good.
They pulled up to Meggie and held up a 10 pound Mahi. Mmmm dinner! On our way back to the cottage we ran into a German couple that were staying at the main house for the night. Luck would have it that Dominique was a pilot and he had a cesna on the island and offered us a flight.
So Paul, Mike and I went up in the cesna for about 40 minutes and had a beautiful flight over Staniel Cay and the surrounding area. We flew at only 250 feet over the islands and were able to see Meggie suspended in the most amazing water. During the flight I noticed something felt a little different and when I looked up front Mike had the wheel (or whatever it is). Yup, Mike was flying the plane. Dominique turns around and asks Paul and I if we want to fly. So there we are in this little tiny tiny plane and Mike and Paul are switching positions so Paul can fly. Finally we got repositioned and Paul was flying the plane. It was interesting! We invited Dominique and Brozenic (sp?) to dinner and had the best mahi dinner I’ve had yet.
What a day. Sadly the 9 days came to and end and we had to say goodbye to Paul and Karen. The time went so fast it doesn’t even seem real that they were here. We thoroughly enjoyed their visit and we thoroughly enjoyed Staniel. We hung out there for a couple of more days and said our goodbyes to the lovely people of Staniel and made our way to Georgetown, making a few stops along the way. We stopped in Cave Cay and waited out some NE winds until we could get out the cut and head to Georgetown. We had a great sail down the exuma sound, even though it was a bit rolly. We put our lines out asap in the hopes of catching another mahi and having dinner with Hasten Slowly once we arrived in Georgetown. Around 8 am the line went taught and Mike pulled in a huge mahi…however, once we got the fish to the side of the boat the wire holding the hook, snapped and we lost him. We couldn’t believe it…he was within our grasp and we lost him. We immediately put another line in but with no luck. The miles ticked down as we closed in on Georgetown but still no fish. Then with 5 miles left the line went taught again. This time we weren’t going to lose him.
We pulled in a beautiful huge mahi. This one had to have been 15-18 pounds. We hailed Hasten Slowly and enjoyed a great dinner once again.
Now we sit in the Georgetown harbour as the winds blow 20-25 knots yet again. This place is unbelievable. It is basically a summer camp for retirees. It’s a great place to meet people, reprovision, and source anything you need before making the jump to the DR, but a week is plenty for us. Some people arrive in November and stay all the way until April and May…it’s crazy. Once the winds subside we’ll make our way to Conception island , Mayaguana, possibly Turks and Caicos and then to the Dominican Republic. We have sourced the charts that we needed and we’re almost ready to go. The next leg of our trip will be more difficult than the last couple of months and the leg after that (the mona passage) will be even more difficult. Weather windows are key for a successful trip, but we want to keep going, so we’ll give it a go. We considered making our way north again but have both come to the conclusion that if we don’t do it now, then we probably won’t get the chance to do it again. So for now we’re preparing and waiting.
So until next (and I’m not sure when that will be, but please be patient).
Later mon
Kylie and Mike

da Bahamas

2007-02-11T06:47:00.000-08:00

Well…I’m sitting in the cockpit writing this. As I sit here, Meggie is suspended in liquid blue and aqua as the waves calmly break on the sand bar beside her. As I watch the sun setting, an unbelievable show of pinks and oranges unfolds again. I can hear the distant calls by other cruisers on their conch shells as it is a custom to do so as the day falls to an end. Mike and I sit in the secluded anchorage with not a soul around, Meggie is the only boat anchored here and the beauty that surrounds us is outstanding. (Really…I’m not kidding…it’s amazing out here). We’ve had the best month or so since we have left. We spent a few more days in Nassau and checked out the city and of course Atlantis resort (only visited…too rich for my blood!). We had a great time exploring the streets and markets of this bustling city. We also experienced the many cruise ships that arrive each day and after a couple of days we were ready for peace and quiet…with no tourists. We left Nassau and headed for the northern part of the Exuma chain. We decided to head for Allans Cay where the iguana resides. Apparently Allans Cay is the last island that these historic dinosaur looking reptiles reside. Once you go to the bare sandy shore, sure enough one by one the iguanas begin to emerge from the bush until the whole beach is full of them. Unfortunately they are looking to be fed by the tourist powerboat that arrives everyday with a boat full of people who jump off, feed the iguanas and then power back on the boat and head back to the mainland. All of this takes about 20 minutes. The iguanas know that the sound of an engine means food. Unfortunately Mike and I don’t have any food for them…we have just come to watch. Allans Cay is our first introduction to a Bahamian island and we’re thrilled. The islands are protective, clean, filled with sandy beaches and surrounded by great reefs. We spent our time there snorkelling the reefs and Mike getting used to his new Hawaiian sling (hunting for lobster), swimming and camp fires on the beach with friends. Allans was also the place that we met Caretta a 29’Bristol from Charleston (wuhoo…and they’re 30!!!!).
So Caretta, Hasten Slowly and Meggie amongst other cruisers have been making our way down the chain. Our next stop was Normans Cay. This semi famous Cay (pronounced key) was under the operation of a man named Carlos, and Carlos was a drug lord. Carlos had a very successful drug business running out of Normans Cay which included an airstip and everything (HAD being the operative word). Rumour has it that the D.E.A. used to hide out on nearby Wax Cay and watch the happenings on Normans Cay. A undercover marine biologist told Carlos he wanted to study the hammerhead sharks in the nearby Normans pond and was accepted to do so, and this is how Carlos was captured. So the island is very interesting needless to say with the main house, guest houses (for “the women”) are all still intact and up until the early 90’s police still maintained a presence on Normans. There is also a plane wreck that is most interesting to snorkel. We spent a few days exploring but with a cold front approaching it was time to move on to seek shelter from the N-NE winds that were forecasted to be 25 knots gusting 30...yikes. So off we went to Shroud Cay which is a whoping 5 miles south, where we were able to seek protection from the wind. Although we were protected from the wind, the swell rolled Meggie back and forth for 2 days straight. Not too comfortable but a good excuse to dinghy along the mangrove lined canals to the other side of the island (only accessible during high tide). We also were introduced to Barney at Shroud Cay. Barney was a 4 possibly 5 foot barracuda that decided to take up residence under Meggie’s belly. Barney kept us on our toes when we decided to take a swim. Shroud was our first stop along the Exuma land and sea national park, so no fishing or taking of shells etc. Once the winds died down we continued our travels to Warderick Wells Cay.
We had a fantastic sail along the exuma bank. Meggie reaching at an easy 6 knots in the 10-12 knots of wind, the sun shining, and the seas flat...it was a perfect sailing day. We arrived at Warderick Wells which is host to the headquarters of the park and offers mooring balls at an inexpensive rate which you can volunteer to work off, which is what we did. John, Erin, Mike and I volunteered our time and were given the task of sanding fibreglass on a boat they were repairing to use as their fuel barge. All of us had had previous experience with fibre glass but it was for a good cause, so we went for it. Warderick Wells is an amazing island.
None of the reefs in the park have been touched so the life surrounding them is truly outstanding, and the island itself is full of trails which offer surprisingly good hiking. Hasten Slowly, Caretta and Meggie spent a good 4 hours hiking the island. We also left our mark on BooBoo hill which is where travellers have left a piece of wood with their names on it. This is a custom that has been done for years, so now Meggie sits among the others.
From Warderick Wells we made our way to Compass Cay where we now sit. With just a taste of the island yesterday, I think it‘s the nicest island we‘ve come across. The island is full of trails and hosts a mile long beach and incredibly there are nurse sharks that hang out in the shallows of the small marina which is quite the site.
Tucker (the owner) was telling us that the sharks have been here for years, just hangin out and people can actually swim with them (just not at feeding time). So maybe on the next blog you’ll see a picture of me surrounded by lots of nurse sharks...hmmm...maybe not.
So just an update as to where we are and what we’ve been doing.
We’ll be in touch soon. As always keep the posts coming.
This be Kylie chillin in da Bahamas mon.

Kylie and Mike

Mini update: We're now in Staniel Cay and I've spent 2 weeks trying to send this blog, but it's proven to be difficult to download the pics. I will update soon as we've had a very interesting couple of weeks!!! Hint: enduring 42 knot winds, black tip sharks, more barracuda and visitors!

FINALLY...

2007-01-26T14:52:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone. Wow…where to begin. When I last left you we were headed to Stuart to spend Xmas. Well we made it to a little place called Manatee Pocket and dropped anchor for 2 weeks. We had been receiving emails from a guy we met in the Hudson river telling us that if we made it there to look him up. Just as we dropped the anchor we saw the familiar very red north star that we had seen 5 months earlier and standing in the cockpit was Marcell. We were thrilled to meet up again and so began not only a friendship but our family for the next 2 weeks.
Marcell, Gail and their 2 daughters visiting for the holidays made us feel welcome just like family over the xmas holidays, and although we were missing our own families at this time being with Marcell’s family made our Christmas. Between drinks and lovely dinners with the St. Onge family we worked like mad on Meggie. We were able to provision Meggie for the Bahamas with the help of the St. Onge van and managed to get the last few jobs on Meggie completed before heading across, small little things that we thought we would have done along the way but proved to have no time to do. We installed our second set of hand rails, fastened our dinghy tie downs to the cabin top, pulled apart the interior and javexed the whole boat and then filled it with a ton of food all wrapped in ziplock bags, but most importantly Mike installed our old but new to us Icom 720A SSB radio. We bought this radio and tuner from Doug in Oriental for $70, and it has been our new favorite piece of equipment. Having an SSB allows us to receive weather for all over the Bahamas and the Carribbean and also allows us to download weather faxes, not to mention it will also allow us to communicate up to 5000 miles away (pretty amazing). This is very important as you cannot receive extensive weather on VHF as you can in Canada and the US. It was a lengthy process to install but I cannot express the relief I feel having that piece of equipment on board. So…with the boat provisioned and our jobs completed we were ready to go…except we had to celebrated new years and why not do it with people we know and like! So the 2 girls and Mike and I went out on the town for New Years…Mike was a lucky guy that night not only did he have me as a date but 2 other beautiful women. We had a great time and although we made it back to the boat at 4:30 am we managed to wake up feeling relatively good.
Now that the holidays were officially over, and after listening to the weather constantly for the past 3 days, it was time to move on. We planned a hop from St. Lucie inlet to Miami, but were warned by the locals that the inlet was not a good idea to attempt and concern was evident. So we travelled via the ICW once again to West Palm Beach and anchored there with the intention of heading out that inlet to Miami. I should also mention here that Twice Loved and Meggie went separate ways just after new years. With Twice Loved’s time restrictions they decided that visiting the Abacos would suite them rather then heading further south to the Exumas. So off they went to experience a different part of the Bahamas, and we’re so glad to hear they’re there safe and sound. Once in west palm we waited 3 days for an east wind of 20-25 knots to subside, but to our disadvantage we had no such luck, so we made our way down to Fort Lauderdale. Finally the winds had subsided and we were able to jump our the inlet to Miami. We had a pretty good sail, but we were just thankful to be out on the ocean again. We entered Miami refreshed and ready to tackle the Gulf Stream. Once in Miami we met up with Snowday and were able to enjoy their company on the beach and although we had to wait for a weather window to cross we couldn’t really complain about our surroundings.We ran around Miami Beach getting the last few things done before our window opened and we were able to go. On our dinghy ride back to the boat one day we met a couple heading in to do the last minute rushes as well…we got to talking and found out they were from Newmarket and so began our friendship with our travel companions for the next week. Hasten Slowly moved to our anchorage and we began our preparations and discussion to head across the Gulf Stream, which always ended up being drinks on Hasten Slowly including another boat Surfer Girl. Both boats are Sabre 38’s, and luckily they excepted Meggie even though she’s only 30 feet long and slower..We planned a 3:00am departure on Monday morning and upon waking up discovered the wind was still blowing from the east instead of SE like predicted so we delayed our departure until 5:00am. We headed out the long Miami inlet and were only met with massive monstrous waves in the inlet. Meggie pounded her way out but we just were not making any headway. We radioed the 2 other boats and even though they were further out there was no change in the conditions….we made the call and bailed out. Hasten Slowly, Surfer Girl, and Meggie made our way back to the anchorage and were settled down again in our same spots before anyone around had woken up for the day. Ok…so our new plan was to wait for the wind to switch to SE and lessen so the seas had a chance to lay down and we would try again. It didn’t look like this was going to happen until around midnight. We really wanted this window because missing it would mean another week in Florida and we were desperate to get to Bahamas. Early that night we again sat on Hasten Slowly to discuss our plan…which only led to drinks. We caught an hours sleep and Mike and I weighed anchor at 10:30pm and headed out the long inlet again. It seemed better…we were going! The light from Miami lit the inlet for us but as we approached the end of the inlet and the open ocean it got very dark and it took my eyes awhile to adjust to the darkness. Finally we were clear of all hazardous buoys and we were in deep dark water. The waves had subsided and the wind was bowing SE at about 7 knots, not enough to just sail as we had to keep our speed up so the Gulf Stream didn’t send us more north than planned. We adjusted our heading to head more SE than the rum line heading of E as we had to compensate for the 2-3.5 knot current that runs north. As we headed out into the night my eyes adjusted and the stars lit the sky and we were having a great time. We were introduced to bio-luminescent, which are little organisms that sparkle in the wake of a boat…it was magical. We plotted our course every half hour to make sure we weren’t being pushed to far north and our course proved to be bang on.With a watchful eye for ships transiting the Gulf Stream we plodded our way along until finally the sun rose directly in front of us revealing the deep purple color of the water. Mike thought he would try the fishing thing again. On our way to Miami he did have something on the line, but whatever it was took all of our line as Mike couldn’t stop the drag and we decided that we didn’t want to know what was on the end of the line because whatever it was…it was BIG. So up until the Gulf Stream we had caught 0 fish. Mike put the line out and soon enough Mike told me to take the tiller. He pulled in the most beautiful looking Mahi..It was the most amazing color and it was quite a fair size. Needless to say Mike was thrilled as you can tell by his face in the photo. We continued on and finally saw land…Bimini, but we decided to keep moving along the banks. The water goes from 3000 meters to 40 feet just like that and the color change of the water is unbelievable. Before we knew it we were seeing the bottom in 40 feet…unreal. We travelled along the banks in calm weather and when sunset arrived we decided to drop anchor after about 20 hours. Now…anchoring on the banks…you have to understand that the banks are shallow waters with mostly sand bottom, but there is no land in sight…so you’re anchoring in the open. We dropped our hook and marvelled at the clear water, even at night you could see the bottom and the amount of stars was staggering. We anchored with Hasten Slowly and although the evening started out no too bad by midnight Meggie was bouncing around so badly it was hard to stay on the bunks….no sleep that night. By 5 am we were ready to go. Just before first light we pulled up our anchor and were off again. Our next stop Chub Cay. On route is where the banks meet the tongue of the ocean. We had a pretty slow day, wind on the nose but light. We made our way to Chub and anchored in the safety from the E winds.We knew it was only temporary safety as the S-NW is open to the open ocean…yikes. By midnight the wind had switch to SE and we could start to feel the swell bouncing Meggie around. By 2:00am the wind had switched enough to make our anchorage begin to feel uncomfortable. By 3:30am we had the anchor up and started heading out into the ocean again. We set sails turned onto our course and turned the motor off. We had one of our best sails. In the early morning darkness we sat in the cockpit drinking coffee and once again marvelled at how many stars existed. All of a sudden the sky lit up like a spot light and we were amazed to watch a comet falling turning a green color as it descended…it was truly amazing. I laid down in the cockpit to have a bit of a nap, and heard a thump on the cabin top and then in the cockpit…Mike and I looked at each other wondering who was the careless one that left something on deck…only to find a flying fish thumping around just by my feet….it almost landed right on me.We threw it back in the water and once daylight appeared began to see these funny little bird fish skimming across the ocean. The winds increased and Meggie sailed along at 6.5 knots and we made landfall 2 hours earlier than we expected and pulled into the Nassau harbour at 10 am. Finally….we were in the Bahamas…where we could actually go on land.We took a slip at a marina so we could check into customs (which didn’t end up being until 4:00pm) and finally raised our Bahamian flag. Once we were cleared we were thrilled to be heading into town with Maddy (aka: guardian angels).We had been keeping tabs on where they were and they spotted Meggie and came right over. It was great to see them after so long. We headed into Nassau and went by the market and down by the little food huts to have our first conch salad. Mike and I were invited onto Doc’s boat to watch the process of getting conch out of it’s shell. Doc was so fast at doing this and we felt privileged to have been able to witness it. We watched as the lady rubbed the raw conch meat with lime and chopped it up into the most wonderful tasting salad I’ve ever hadWhat a great introduction to Nassau. We wandered back to our boat satisfied, thrilled and exhausted.The wind is howling 20-25 knots and we were glad to be in the safety of the harbour….for now. So…again I apologize for the lengthy blog, but I was determined not to write until we actually made landfall in the Bahamas. So we’re safe and the long slog is over and we will begin our travels down the Exuma chain hoping to visit Paul and Karen from Thornbury along the way at Staniel Cay. I don’t know when I will be able to write again but please be assured as soon as I get a connection I will do so.
Ok…well this is Kylie in the Nassau Bahamas signing off.
Until next time….
Cheers
Kylie and Mike

Let it snow...just not here

2006-12-21T16:31:00.000-08:00

Aaahhh…warmth. Finally we’re in central Florida and it’s beautiful. Since we left Annapolis we’ve been waiting and hoping for warm weather and we finally have it. When you cross into Florida from Georgia you think you are going to cross an imaginary line where the weather goes from 30 to 75 and although this usually isn’t the case, we were very lucky and have experienced the warmth since we arrived in Fernandina Beach, Florida over a week ago.
When I last left y’all…we were planning a 100 mile jump off the coast from Savannah river to Fernandina Beach, Florida. We timed out tides and planned to leave on an ebb (the current going out), and planned our arrival in Fernandina mid morning the next day. We listened to the weather and can you believe it…gale force winds from the NE and then blowing NE to E for the next week….UGH! So we hunkered down and waited for the gale winds in a little river called Kilkenney creek, only after spending a day in Savannah and enjoying the deep history and lush scenery of this beautiful city. We ventured into the city with Twice Loved's crew and spent a beautfiful sunny day exploring the squares that make up Savannah. So once the winds died down a bit, we yet again continued our way down the ICW. Everyday we listened to the weather and everyday they called for NE to E winds. Although we had heard a few horror stories about the Georgia section of the ICW such as going aground all the time, you’ll travel east and west more than north and south etc…we found it great, HOWEVER...I'm not sure if you've heard out desparate cries to "let us out of the ditch". Apparently being an 'El Nino' year the weather has been for lack of a better word crummy and unusually extremely windy. The weather was extremely cold through Georgia, but the depths were good even though we had to deal with 10 foot tidal ranges, we had great anchorages and Georgia isn’t very long along the coast so we travelled through quite quickly. It just goes to show that you have to experience your own thing and make your own judgement about different scenarios which we’ve learned time and time again on this trip.
Finally on a clear blue day, with current running with us and the sails closed reached we crossed the line into Florida only after watching the wild horses play on the beach. From Fernandina Beach we made our way to St. Augustine and anchored for a couple of days to check out the city. This is a great city, with a real Spanish flare to it. The buildings are incredible and the history again is outstanding. While in St. Augustine we decided that we would plan another attempt at an overnight sail. 120 nautical miles separated us in St. Augustine from Cape Canaveral. I began studying the charts and making sure we had details of the inlets etc…The weather was to be overcast but bearable and the winds although blowing from the east still were only forecasted to be around 10-15 knots with 3 foot waves. Finally….a prime opportunity to go. You’re not going to believe this…..we woke up …are you ready….socked in with….yup…FOG. OMG….we couldn’t believe our luck. Now when I say fog…I mean like Olcott fog. We couldn’t see people anchored in front of us, behind us, beside us etc… So, we decided to wait for the next day. I mean how long could it stick around anyway, we’re in Florida…you don’t have fog in Florida. We wake up the next day….socked in again. We wait until noon, our departure time….fog. We find ourselves struggling with what to do. Do we go ahead anyway and hope it’s not that bad even though they’re calling for fog through the day, night and next day? Do we wait in St. Augustine and if so how long are we going to wait for, as everyday we wait, we lose a travel day. Do we continue down the ICW as the fog lifted enough for us to make our way? UGH…We don’t have radar, so to continue on the outside was risky. I didn’t want to wait and lose travel days, so guess what that leaves us with….continue down the ICW. We made the right call however, as that night the fog rolled in even more and we woke up yet again to 0 visibility, but our disappointment was difficult to mask.
Although we’re in the ICW it opens up quite a bit and we can actually sail without the motor. Not to mention it’s warm and anything is bearable when it’s warm. So we’ve actually had a great time sailing, meeting up with old friends, sunny days…it has been great.
We made our way to Daytona Beach, Titusville past cape Canaveral (Kennedy Space Centre) and to Cocoa Beach. While in Titusville we met up with Snowday a boat we met while in St. Catherine’s in Lake Ontario and were lucky enough to see manatees in the harbour.(aka: sea cows) Snowday discovered that they love fresh water and because they were at the marina had access to fresh water and secretly left the water running so our new friends would come and entertain us. They are amazing, HUGE animals. We saw a mama with her baby and then later saw the papa. Ok…so when I say HUGE, I mean like HUGE HUGE. I had no idea they were so big. They have a huge face and when drinking the water revealed the inside of their mouths which have no teeth just 2 big palettes as they only eat vegetation. They are a very slow animal therefore the state has posted manatee zones all over the waterways to deter high speeds. It was very cool to see them and we marvelled at their ways for about and hour and then we turned off the water, but I swear they would’ve stayed all day if the water was left on.
From Titusville we sailed to Cocoa Beach city. While here we took the bus to the beach and went to the famous Ron Jon’s surf shop. While Mike and I were shopping in Ron Jon’s we heard a voice say “Where’re y’all from?” And so it began. From that initiation we and Twice Loved spent 2 days and 1 night at the brand new Ron Jons water park resort for free. Yes…it was a time share promo, but for 90 minutes of our time (and in those 90 minutes that sales person clued in pretty quickly that we were not interested---Lieran…I thought about you the whole time), we enjoyed 2 days and 1 night free. Our suite had a Jacuzzi tub (in which I enjoyed a 2 hour long bath and refilled twice) a king size bed, living room, 2 TV’s and a kitchenette. They had mini golf, a 200 foot tall waterslide, lazy river, pool, hot tub, tiki bar, movie theatre, tennis, basketball, private beach access and it was right beside the Cape Canaveral entrance where we could see the launch pads for the space shuttles from the resort. It only cost us $6.00 for the room tax. Needless to say, it was a nice xmas gift to all of us, and we enjoyed it thoroughly.
We’re back at home on Meggie now and plan to head out tomorrow and head for Stuart, Fl to hopefully meet up with some other sailors that we know that are there and enjoy a quiet xmas.
So in a nutshell, this has been our life for the past few weeks.
We want to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and all the best the new year has to offer.
So…until next time
Feliz Navidad
Kylie & Mike

"Oh Carolina's"

2006-11-30T16:52:00.000-08:00

Ok…I know, it’s been way too long! But to tell you the truth to have access coincide with time, has proven to be very difficult. I would like to start this blog off by thanking everyone who helped us out in Oriental. For those of you who don’t know…we hauled Meggie out of the water in Oriental and because we live on a budget now, we had limited time to get everything we needed done on Meggie. We were bombarded with the friendliest, most generous and ever thoughtful people while in Oriental. A big thank you to sail craft, our neighbours Doug and Ann, our fellow wood boat owners John from Whompoa and Don and D from Southern Cross, Mike and MaryJane from our next favourite boat Hans Christian and last but certainly not least our good friends from bird of passage, Glenn and Ulrike who helped us beyond words. They made sure we were fed, had ice and sourced material we needed like only a cruiser with a truck and local knowledge could do (not to mention having a best friend as a machinist really helped us out as well…so another special thank you to Manfred for the use of his shop, the steel brackets, and the wonderful gift). Thank you to all of you, we cannot express our gratitude enough.
Ok..enough of that. Since I last wrote, yes…we hauled Megs. There were plenty of things that we wanted to, and felt we had to do to her before he headed any further. I’m not going to bore y’all (that the south coming out of me) with all the details but our list included such things as:
-build new beddings for the engine (which included hauling the engine out of the boat, and once done, revealed 5 damaged ribs that had to be repaired) this was the biggy
-engine overhaul (including injectors, degreased, painted, a overall thorough cleaning-which was unfortunately my job)
-varnish transom and rudder
-have our prop resized
-antifoul (which is paint below the water line and some really harsh stuff, so nothing will grow on the bottom)
-plug the keel bolts (this was to ensure that we did not encounter any toredos…which are nasty worms that like to enter into the end grain of wood and then eat your boat…so we didn’t want that!)
-and we wanted to check our keel to see if there was any damage done when we hit in Portsmouth

So….the above including 4 coats of varnish on both the rudder and transom, new custom built wood beddings with 3 coats of sealer (built by Mike…of course) completed in 8 days AND…we lost 2 days to rain. So needless to say we were pretty pleased with ourselves. We both worked like dogs to get everything completed (especially Mike…you all know Mike!!!). Anyway…it worked out perfectly because Twice Loved ( a fellow boat from Thornbury) showed up the day before Meggie went back into the water, and we are all now successfully travelling south as we speak.
So we commenced our travels again heading into the ICW once more. About 2 hours into our first day something made a funny sound…”Oh no! What was that?” Then these HUGE fish appeared on either side of Meggie…yes…dolphins. Beside the bow, beside the stern, at amidships….everywhere…huge. It was soooo exciting, I was screaming so manically I think I may have scared them away. Anyway…it was pretty cool, but because the water is so dark you couldn’t see them swimming under the water and no pictures cause they’re way too fast. So that was a great start to our travels once again.
We sailed past Beaufort NC and were reintroduced to the currents and within ½ an hour we went from 7.3 knots to 3.7 knots…it’s crazy. Just when you think you have the tides and currents figured out you realize you have no idea what the hell is going on. Anyway, we anchored in a little placed called Spooner creek as foul weather was approaching for the next couple of days and we wanted to be anchored somewhere relatively safe. Well…we anchored and although it was relatively safe, we had a huge concrete wall that surrounded the anchorage…yikes. We put two anchors out and endured 40 knot winds for most of the afternoon and into the night. Meggie rode it out pretty good, and although we felt confident with our anchor set, we did not feel confident with “the wall’’ 60 feet off our stern. Gerry (from Twice Loved) decided he had had enough and asked a homeowner if him and Meggie could tie to their dock and pilings…”Sure…you can plug in and use the power too’’. Thank you Gerry! So Twice Loved and Meggie made our way to their dock and enjoyed a night full of sleep. We awoke the next morning only to discover that our dinghy was almost submerged and flood warnings all over the radio due to the amount of rain we received overnight. We also discovered that we had all been invited to Thanksgiving dinner that night! Yup…2nd Thanksgiving dinner this year. Let me just get something straight here. The dock we were at belonged to 84 foot motor yacht (Meggie is 30 feet) which was not there as it was at their house in Florida. And… the 84 foot yacht belonged to a million+ dollar home (which by the way was their 3rd home) and the neighbours flew in that afternoon on a helicopter…yup…a helicopter. We were thrilled. Wayne, Ellen and their family were wonderful hosts…super nice people who laid out a spread like you would not believe. So with our bellies full we said adios and were off again.
North Carolina along the coast is breathtaking. For the next few days we enjoyed calm weather, sunny days and warm temperatures. So you remember how we didn’t get any pictures of the dolphins? Well…we were just cruising along and “What was that noise?” And there they were…2 fun loving dolphins playing underneath Meggie’s belly. They would go down under and appear on one side and then do the same thing and a couple of seconds later would come up on the other side. This went on for about 10-15 minutes. They were right beside the cockpit of our boat…you could practically reach out and touch them. This time we got some great photos. Every time they would come up they would freak you out cause you didn’t know when or where they would pop up, and when they did…they met you with a spray of salt water. It was a really surreal moment and when it was over we both couldn’t believe that it had happened. Now…I’m sure those of you reading this that have experienced this and have done so many times can recall the first time it happened to you and remember how magical the moment felt. Soooo coool.
So our days have been filled with sunny, warm temperatures as we travel down the ICW. Pelicans meander above and around us and Mike has confirmed that the males remind him of that tall white haired guy from M*A*S*H (neither of us know his name), and the herons stand like statues in the marsh acting as if we cannot see them. Although we have the sails up most of the time, the poor engine does most of the work and we find ourselves wanting to sail. It’s a catch 22 because if you head into the ocean, you’ll have a great sail and cover a lot of miles, but on the other hand you miss all the scenery. If you stay inside you see all the scenery but you don’t get to sail, you rely on the motor and it’s generally slower. To stay inside or go out? That is the question…well the question we’re faced with. So right now we’re planning a 100 naut.mile jump from Savannah river (Georgia) to St. Mary’s inlet (Fernandina beach, Florida). If the weather is co-operating we’ll make the jump off shore and miss Georgia. Weather. It’s what our life aboard revolves around.
So we are now sitting in the harbour in Charleston South Carolina, planning on spending the day here tomorrow. We were fortunate enough to have a taste of this beautiful southern city, with it’s incredible homes with a mixture of moss draped trees and tall palm trees. You really get a sense that you’re deep in the south in Charleston. And the best thing is the southern charm and hospitality, and that great accent!
We plan to be in Savannah, Georgia on Monday and then either hop out and down to Florida via the Atlantic ocean or discover the windy marshy trail of the ICW through Georgia and then to Florida. Either way it will be an adventure that I’m sure we’ll both enjoy.
Thank you to all of you who keep the comments coming. For those of you that we’ve never met, I hope you keep reading and sending your comments. You never know…we could meet in an anchorage somewhere someday.
So until next time…
Kylie & Mike

Meggie's a star in Oriental

2006-11-08T11:03:00.000-08:00

Something neat I thought some you would enjoy. Check out:
http://www.towndock.net/shipping/index.html

Kylie & Mike

Oriental at last

2006-11-05T12:39:00.000-08:00

We’ve finally left beautiful Annapolis (aka: Velcro anchorage). It seemed like we were there forever, although it was only 2 weeks, but when you’ve been on the move for 3 months non stop, 2 weeks in one place feels like a very long time. However….off we went. Our next destination was the Solomon Islands in Virginia, about a 50 mile sail. 50 miles usually isn’t a big deal to us, but the days are getting shorter and that means we have to have the anchor down a lot earlier now. We made it and were there for 3 days as the weather was blowing in the wrong direction for us to keep moving (and blowing 25 knots in the wrong direction). So we stayed and enjoyed this small fishing town, but were axious to keep moving. We then made our way down Chesapeake bay to Deltaville which was another 55 miles and luckily the current was in our favor and we had anchor down just as the sun was setting, only after pulling Meggie off the ground. That’s right…we went aground in Deltaville…which is not hard to do. However….they say “If you haven’t been aground, you haven’t been around”. The channel to get into the anchorage is actually quite amazing. It is a natural channel that winds itself right to left and the right again, but with high winds the sand is constantly shifting causing shoaling on either side of the channel. Our friends from Maddy came out as we were coming in the channel and just as Mike (from Maddy) was saying “Stay close to the red…” I was already too close to the green and before I knew it our depth sounder was reading 3.9 feet….oops! Luckily it was a very soft bottom and Mike and Debbie (from Maddy), pulled us off with their dinghy no problem. Funny how it was Maddy to the rescue again! I have come to the conclusion that they are some kind of guardian angels, always helping us out, when we need helping out. We were stuck in Deltaville for 3 days…noaa weather was sending out gale warnings (which is 35+ knot winds), so needless to say we just stayed and enjoyed Deltaville. We also secretly enjoyed watching 4 other boats run aground after trying to warn them on the radio of the shoaling. We hooked up with Jim and Amanda from Adventure Bound that we had met in Annapolis and had drinks with them aboard Adventure Bound one night. This is the first guy I’ve met and probably ever will that has a sub woofer on his boat….it was hilarious. We’ll know where they are in the anchorages just by the booming coming from their boat! (sub woofer; for those of you who don’t know….you know that boom…boom…boom sound you hear from that car that is driving down the main street and it is that teenager that must of JUST got his licence drinving????? Well….that boom, boom is a sub woofer).
We were anxious to leave Deltaville. We listened for weather and the next day they were calling 15 -20 knot winds from the NW…perfect. Well we woke up that morning and they had changed to 20-25 knots gusting 30+…but it was calm when we woke up and we thought….lets go. (Note to self….DON’T go when they’re calling 30+ gusts!) To top it off we had a foul current the whole way from Deltaville to Hamptom, which means that we didn’t have the current going with us at all, instead it was going against us for the whole day…which doesn’t help, however the 25 knot winds from the NW seemed to counter balance things. On the way to Hampton from Deltaville you pass a section called Mobjack bay, which is a series of beautiful rivers and creeks that all flow into the bay. When you have a stiff NW wind, all the rivers that start in the NW have a chance to build on the flow down into the bay, so needless to say the waves can build quite a lot…..BUT…to top that off, if you have a flood current (which is what we had) coming into the bay….that current runs right into the NW waves which creates, what they call stand up waves. Basically the two (current and waves) collide making BIG, BIG waves. This is what we encountered as we passed Mobjack bay to our starboard. Through that section we had an average of 8 foot waves that were confused and nasty…..old Jack gave us a run for our money.
That day I realized that Mike was truly the captain of our ship. He was great…this was my least favorite sail. We should’ve waited another day, but you live and learn and we made it to Hampton just fine and Meggie was a star in our eyes once again. Hampton was exciting to get to cause we were meeting up with L’Attitude again. They were preparing for the Caribbean 1500 (Norfolk to BVI’s), so we were excited to see them before they left. Mike helped Doug with some things for a couple of days and we just hung out with them and enjoyed our time with them as we wouldn’t be seeing them for a long time. Unfortunately the time came when we had to get moving. The wind was right and we were again anxious to get on the move. We said our goodbyes and were on our way.
We sailed through Norfolk (the navy capitol), which was quite interesting. We were sharing a narrow channel with HUGE navy battle ships and plane carriers, it’s quite a sight. We got to Portsmouth and officially entered the ICW (Intracoastal Waterway), and just as we were, we heard an awful loud BANG. Oh %$#& we hit something.
Engine in neautral, up with the floor boards, tear apart the v-berth, up with the engine hatch…phew…no water coming in, engine in forward…phew…engine works. We looked at the depth…45 feet.
We don’t know what it was (probably a submerged log), but it sounded bad, but when you hit even something small it usually sounds worse that it really is, needless to say we were a bit freaked out. Good to know our reaction time is fast.
Next our big decision was to do the dismal swamp or the Virginia cut. We had been ready to do the dismal swamp, but after the hit, we weren’t sure if we wanted to do the dismal. The dismal swamp is a narrow channel that connects the Elizabeth river in VA to the Pasquotank river in NC and is the oldest continually operating canal in the United States.
It was basically a ditch dug to transport logs from one river to the next. It is now only used for recreational purposes but supposedly only has a continual depth of 6 feet. We didn’t want the hassle of worrying about hitting something again, but just as we were at the crossroads we saw 2 larger sailboats turn in to the dismal swamp and we thought they’ve got to draw more than us…we’re doing it.
We never saw 6 feet…the shallowest part was about 7.5 feet and it’s a beautiful canal, which brought us into Elizabeth City. We pulled into a PACKED Elizabeth city. Every dock and empty spot was taken up by sailboats. A lot of the boats were from Canada….a lot! We managed to sneak into the last available spot (probably cause it was only 10 feet wide and no one else could fit into it as all the other boats were way too BIG).

Meggie is always the smallest, and we’re always the youngest and if we have to motor…we’re always last, but if we can sail…we give those big boats a run for their money!
From Elizabeth city we made our way across the Ablemarle sonnd and into the Alligator river.
No…we didn’t see any alligators but they say that the river used to be traversed by different wildlife suchas wolves and bears until the alligators got them…hense the name. We anchored in the alligator river and at one point Mike turned to me and said “Like…where are we right now????” It’s pretty remote and we felt a long way from home…also Mike doesn’t do any of the navigation so he really didn’t know where we were other than in NC.

So…We’ve gone down a couple of different rivers and have had some great sails, and some long motors, but we’re in Oriental now where we plan to haul the boat to get some work done on her. It’s very cold now in the evenings when a NW cold front is coming through, but we keep our little heater going and we bundle up and it’s not too bad, having said that…we’re anxious to get south to the warmth. You must know that when we’re listening to the weather on the VHS radio, anytime a cold front is coming though it’s always from Canada….so all the american boaters are probably cursing Canada for sending the cold fronts…never do they say a cold front from the Artic!
Sorry for the long blog, but it’s hard to keep it short. Please keep the comments coming, it’s what makes me want to write the blogs.
Keep warm and until next time….
Kylie and Mike

Beautiful Chesapeake

2006-10-15T18:21:00.000-07:00

What can I say. We've spent the last 3 weeks in the beautiful Chesapeake. The Chesapeake Bay is a photographers paradise as well as a sailors dream. From Chesapeake city we sailed into the Chesapeake bay and made our way up the Sassafras river to Georgetown.

We anchored in the Sassafras along with L'Attitude (a catalina 40 from...get this...Penatanguishene on Georgian Bay)and enjoyed the calmness of this serene anchorage. We had a great time in the Sassafras and managed to get some much needed work on Meggie. We finally got some varnish done on her and a few odds and ends that needed to be tended to after long sails in the ocean. The Sassafras was a chance to relax after an eventful few weeks, but after a few days in the Sassafras we unfortunately had to say goodbye and make our way down to Annapolis for the boat show. We had some work to do and had to get a move on.
After a few hours we began to see the shape of a bridge...and then the more we looked around...the more sailboats we noticed heading in the same direction. At one point I counted the sailboats and I got to 100 and stopped.
It was amazing...everyone was sailing and the bay was full of white triangles everywhere. The closer we got to the bridge the more sailboats we saw. Not only were there cruisers out, but it was the weekend...and that means one thing in Annapolis.....RACE DAY. There were thousands of boats out racing, cruising, fishing...you name, there were boats doing it. It was an exhilarating sight and an incredible introduction to Annapolis, Maryland.

We entered the Annapolis harbour to find a zoo. There were boats heading in every direction, and we immediately headed down Spa Creek to hopefully find some sort of anchorage in this crazed zoo we had come upon. We were approached by one of the many dinghies zipping around and realized it was Doug from L'Attitude. He filled us in on the chaos down the river and we decided to take a mooring for the night and deal with anchoring the next day. We managed to run into another "new friend boat...Mike and Debbie from Maddy"
and Mike filled us in on a secret spot he knew of. You have to understand that this guy is a walking guide for sailing, cruising, anchoring, travelling and many more things. Mike and I are like sponges when we spend time with him as he is a wealth of knowledge and just a really great guy and not to mention his first mate is pretty great too. Anyway...we found the cream of the crop anchorage all the way at the end of Spa Creek where we anchored and still sit anchored right now. The next two weeks are a blur. We worked, we were almost hit at anchor (in our "cream of the crop" spot, and only thanks to Mike and Debbie, Meggie was not injured), we had crab night on "crab boat" later to become "turkey boat" (or AKA: L'Attitude), we had great dinners, drinks, happy hours, days at the show, days filled with spending $$$ on items we needed at the show (epirb, solar panels, anchors etc…), great walks, beautiful days, cold rainy days, and early mornings...very early mornings.
Ok...well let me tell you about "crab night". We were all supposed to catch crab one day and have a crab dinner one night. Mike and I however got busy and side tracked and didn't catch any crab...BUT...Doug, managed to catch about 15 blue crab right from the cockpit of his boat. It was amazing, and here's how it's done. It's called chicken necking...pronounced chick'n neck'n. You take a chickens neck (or leg) sold at the grocery stores for this purpose...you tie them to a string and you dangle them in the water and the weight of the neck weighs the line down. Then you gently pull up the line and if it feels heavy, you've got a crab attached. You pull gently until you see the thing hanging on having the meal of its life and then you net it. So...then you have to put the 15 crab in 2 small pots on the galley stove to steam them. This is the fun, sad and most hilarious part of the whole thing. The screams that came out of L'Attitude that night as the crabs were thrown into the steaming pot or dropped in the sink and trying desperately to get out, were hilarious...you would think someone was committing bloody murder. It made for an entertaining and very smelly evening. We were also fortunate enough to spend Thanksgiving with Doug and Wendy as well. We had a great dinner with all the trimmings and although we all missed our families at this time, we were glad we were together and could spend the holiday with great company.

The other attraction to Annapolis other that it's beauty, sailing, and in October the sailboat show, it is home to the Naval Academy of the USA. The grounds in the academy are amazing and it's a treat to see the freshmen’s all decked out in their full attire. We were fortunate enough to watch a ceremony in the main square and even though we had no idea what they were doing or why,
it was still pretty cool to watch. We cruised through the academy checking out the architecture and the amazing history. It’s quite a sight to see.
So..now we’re finished with our work and are ready to head south again as the days are getting cooler and we are using our alcohol stove almost everyday now. Annapolis has been a treat, but better than that are the friends we met and got to spend time with. We’ve got our woollies on and are ready to head out. So until next time…adios and as always keep the messages coming…they’re always fun to read.
Kylie and Mike

ocean blue

2006-09-24T17:25:00.000-07:00

Here we are in Chesapeake city. As I sit in the cockpit of our boat, I am surrounded by like minded travelers having just finished the sail up the Delaware Bay and have finally made it to Chesapeake City and the feeling around me is great. There is a buzz in the air as we meet boat after boat doing the same trip as us. Most of the couples and/or families we meet are doing this trip for the first time and some we meet are veterans, but it doesn't matter cause everyone is here and "living the dream".

As we sailed out of New York city and past lady liberty, it finally hit me..."Wow...we're really doing this...and this is the ocean that lay infront of us". A little nervous??? Sure. A little excited??? Definitely.
We waited a day for the right weather and made our way down the Jersey coast via the Atalantic ocean. We headed down the coast with a NW wind and we flew...we had a great first ocean sail. We saw schools of fish everywhere and were desperately trying to catch them from the stern of the boat (Mike has now spent a small fortune of fishing gear and has suddenly become Mr. Fisherman....it's quite funny). Anyway...we entered the inlet to a little fishing town to anchor for the night and found out what entering an inlet off the ocean was like. I don't quite know how to describe what it was like.

We had about 8 foot surf breaking on either side of the jetties and were breaking into the inlet and we had a swell pushing us in and the wind pushing us out...it was ummm...interesting. We made it though, and anchored for the night while about 20 knots of wind gusted all night, but all was well. The next day was pretty much a carbon copy of the next day except....the wind died 3/4 of the way through and we experienced a much calmer ocean, however with big swell (the southeast swell was coming from hurricane Helene, which was still 1200 miles off the Jersey coast, but her force was still bringing in the swell). It was a great day...my husband the fisherman was trying like hell to catch us dinner, but that night we had pasta...with no fish. We finally entered Cape May, just as the sun was setting. Thankfully we had a buddy boat ahead of us (Aunt Emma) that helped us through the darkening inlet. Cape May is the point the separates Delaware Bay and the Atlantic ocean and once here our next feat was to sail up Delaware bay. We took the next day off and enjoyed the lovely town of Cape May.
A huge fishing village that has catered to cruisers travelling via the cape may canal from the atlantic into Delaware bay. We had a great meal in the cape and anchored with some really great people and made the plan with another boat to leave the next day. 5:00am we were pulling up anchor ready to pass through the canal and enter Delaware. We had to leave early because we were told that if you time the tide, current, wind, waves just right...you'll never see your boat go faster. Hmmm...that sounded like fun. Well...travelling through the canal in the dark isn't a good idea, but we had to do it and our young eyes led 3 boats through safely. After that small feat we were introduced to 25 knot winds as we entered the bay...this was going to be an interesting ride. We had an uncomfortable, harry first 2 hours, but we were able to head off the wind a bit a before we knew it Meggie was flying. I don't just mean regular flying...I mean FLYING. At one point when a huge wave was carrying us and the wind was howling, and the current was maxing, I looked at the gps and we were clocking 10.3 knots. For those of you that don't know what that means...it means Meggie was going faster than she ever has and probably ever will. We had a double reefed main, reefed mizzen, and small storm jib up and we were blown away. Needless to say we had a great sail up the bay and entered the c & d canal and made our way to Chesapeake city. This is where I sit and write this in the cockpit of our boat, listening to the band on land play bob marley and enjoying watching the calmness of the Sunday night.
Well folks...there you have it...a very full detailed post of whats been happening. We're so pleased with Meggie right now, we can't really describe it. We gave her a good bath today and got all the crystalized ocean salt off and plan to anchor in Sassafrass river on the eastern shore of Chesapeake bay for the next few days and get some varnish and work done. Then it's off to Annapolis to hopefully find some work at the show.
As always...keep the messages coming as we love to read them.
Until the next adventure.
Kylie and Mike

2006-09-16T09:27:00.000-07:00

Well....we've made our way down the hudson river from Castleton-on-hudson to Manhattan New York, NY. I have to say the cruise down the hudson was a pleasant surprise. Both Mike and I were thinking the hudson was a dirty, boring river with lots of debris we would have to dodge, but to our pleasant surprise the hudson river was stunning, with quaint little towns, beautiful homes and a mountainous views. We had a glorious sunny venture for the most part, and managed to find a great protected anchorage in a small town in Kinston, NY where we enjoyed a quiet night filled with a kazillion stars and great music and enjoyed a great meal which is why I love anchoring. There is nothing like finding a great anchorage that has good protection and great view and you can finally sleep soundly without having to worry about the anchor dragging.

The next day we left Kingston only to find ourselves back at the town dock as we couldn't see a thing once we got into the channel due to an old friend called fog. So we waited it out and managed to head out against the high tide and work our way down. We are new to tides and tidal currents, so for those of you who know Meggie, you know she isn't the fastest boat built and doesn't like to motor so when you put a tidal current of sometimes 4 knots into the mixture, it's sometimes a very slow go. So needless to say, we try and catch the ebb (which is low tide heading out to sea), and when we catch the low tide at the right time we can really cruise and really cruise fast. However, the tidal current is very strong right now so timing is everything.

We made it to Manhattan with the help of some crew we picked up in a fantastic little town called Nyack. Our nephew Harry was aboard Meggie as we (unfortunately motored...not sailed) under the George Washington bridge and into the mooring field on 79 th street. We've had a couple of very soggy days in NYC, but managed to do a bit of sightseeing and went to the museum of modern art and have had a fantastic time with our hosts Martin, Gigi and Harry. We've been eating like crazy, because how can you not when you're in Manhattan. We woke up this morning to beautiful glorious sunshine.
We had forgotten what sun was I think. So currently Mike is attempting to surf on Long Beach and I get to go shopping with Gigi...but not too crazy, everything we purchase needs to be justified as to why it is taking up space.
We continue to meet great people and are fortunate to be in the 79th street boat basin as there are a few boats there heading the same direction as us and we can therefore travel together which is always nice, especially when you're entering the ocean for the first time.
Well...I have to go...the big city is calling and there is lots to do and see. As always, we love the comments and love to hear the news about whats happening with everyone's lives, so keep them coming.
Until next time (which by that time we'll be in the ocean)....
Adios
Kylie and Mike
ps...Sept. 22, 2006. We're in Cape May now and will head up Delaware Bay tomorrwow...I have a whole other page of stories to tell, but will have to wait until next time.

2006-09-10T06:57:00.000-07:00

It's been awhile, I know. Since our last post, we finished sailing lake Ontario, took our masts down, had a visitor, motored through the erie barge canal, entered the hudson river and have just put our masts back up.
Lake Ontario was a bit of a chore. We waited for favorable winds, but they never came, it was east wind everyday. We listened to the radio with the hopes that the monotone radio guy would say "south west wind blowing 15 knots", but instead all we heard was "flood watch from Ernesto, east winds 20-25 knots gusts up to 30" and of course our heading was 90 east. Not so good for us. So the winds actually weren't that bad it was just the waves we had to deal with, so we got to Rochester and waited a day for better weather, and slogged our way to Oswego. Oh...and we got great news in Rochester..

CONGRATULATIONS TO JASON AND TERA......WELCOME BABY AJA JANE TO THIS WORLD......

Ok...so once in Oswego, we took our masts down and headed south. My mom was lucky enough to spend a rainy long weekend with us aboard a demasted Meggie in a very very small town called Minetto with 1 bar (that we didn't go to as it looked like an old house that someone put a neon sign in and called it a bar), but even though it rained the WHOLE time and we were confined to the small cabin aboard Meggie, we had a great time and lots of laughs, which is what it's all about.
After our goodbyes, we headed south until we came to a crossroad (or river) that led us east all the way to Waterford, NY.
The NY canal system is basically just a river with locks along the way. The canal is very easy going and other than steer, we had to keep an eye out for debris.

The river experienced high flooding in June which led to the closing of many locks and fortunately all were open as we traversed. The damage to the locks was minimal, but the grounds and buildings around the locks were severly damaged.The river reminded me of different things...sometimes I felt like we were in the movie deliverence, and other times it was so beautiful you would think you were in the amazon river. I would periodically say "Mike...there's a croc...look out." or "I think I see some hippos over there." Let me just say that it's a LONG river and yes...I think I may have gone just a touch crazy some days. It's funny the things you think of when you have hours and hours to do nothing...and it's really funny the songs that get stuck in your head. I had skip to my lou stuck in my head for 3 days...how crazy!

Anyway....we made it to Waterford, where we were smack dab in the middle of a tugboat roundup celebration with about 30 tugs, so we stayed for a day to give Meggie a rest and to regain some sanity and be amongst other humans, before finally heading SOUTH.
So from now on our heading is south and only south.
We're now sitting in the Castleton-on-Hudson marina finishing up the last few jobs that come along with raising the masts and then we'll make our way to NYC and should hopefully arrive by the end of the week and spend a few days with Mike's brother Martin and his family.
So we'll keep you posted and don't give up on us even though I may be a bit tardy with our updates.
Keep well everyone, and until next time....
Kylie and Mike

FOG....ahhhhh

2006-08-29T14:55:00.000-07:00

Sorry folks, no pictures this time. Unfortunately our scenery hasn't been very exciting due to a very nasty thing called fog. This entry is mainly to thank the Olcott Yacht Club for their assistance in getting Meggie, Mike and I safely to a secure slip in the thikest fog I've ever seen. Under the careful instruction of Sue from OYC, we were able to safely come through the breakwalls and into the safety of Olcott's harbour. We somehow found a fishing boat out there that didn't come into view until it was about 15 feet off our beam, and we didn't see the HUGE red flashing light on the end of the west pier until we were about a boat length from it. Without Sue on the radio guiding us in, we don't know what we would have done. I wonder how much radar is???????
So thank you a million times to Sue(for your guidance...literally), Mike (for dinner, drinks and super hospitality), customs officers for not having to rip our boat apart for an inspection and thank you to the rest of the OYC members.
We're now in Rochester, NY and hope to head to Oswego where we get to experience the joy of demasting Meggie....ugghhh. Oh well, it's all part of the adventure.
So, just a quick update for now, when we have some more exciting news we'll let you know.
Ciao (and as always we love the comments, so keep them coming)
Kylie and Mike

Erie....an angry lake.

2006-08-26T10:36:00.000-07:00

Well...our sailing abilities have been tested by the angry Erie. Lake Erie is said to have an average depth of 68 feet, and because this lake is so shallow, as soon as the wind blows the waves become so steep and the distance between them is so short, that you get pounded around pretty good.
Our entrance into Erie was great...low waves, not too much wind, and an all in all nice sail to Leamington. (Let me just say that the reason I haven't written in awhile is because I had a feeling Erie wasn't going to be nice to us, so I just wanted to get it done, so we've been going like crazy, early mornings and late evenings.) From Leamington we headed east to Erieau (Rondeau bay) which was about a 9-10 hour sail. We were first introduced to the waves on this sail. We had a great wind and a all in all nice sail although we were outfitted in our foul weather gear and sailed through front after front after front. We arrived in Erieau exhausted and happy to be in port. The next day we wanted to head to Port Stanley. So we were up early listening to our radio weather channel, getting the updated forecast. They were calling for 15-20 knot winds, which sounded pretty good, and the wind direction was in our favor (and I don't know if I mentioned it before, but I really wanted to get lake Erie over with). So off we go to meet the weather for the day. No sooner had we left the harbour, and our foul weather gear was on again and we had a reef in the main and small storm sail up. Before we knew it we had 2 reefs in the main and a reef in the misen and small storm jib up and we were sailing close reached. Hmm...awfully strong 15 knots.
We heard 2 maydays on the water that day, and saw the hurculese airplane and coast guard chopper out looking for the mayday boats. We were tested and pounded by the lake that day. We were both very happy with Meggie's performence and if I must say myself, we were quite happy with our own performences as well. We soon realized that the piece of equipment we were really happy to have and have probably used more than either one of us thought, is our reefing system.
We finally arrived in Port Stanley just as the winds were calming for the evening. We pulled into the Squadron docks for the day and met by fellow sailors that filled us in on the wind speed for the day. They said that in the safety of the harbour they were clocking 28-30 knot winds and we were about 10 miles off shore, so they assumed that we were probably sailing in 30+ knots of wind all day. So, we thought that we were exhausted the night before, well that was nothing...We found the closest bar and after that day I said to Mike "I think I know why sailors drink liquor", and ordered myself a stiff drink.
We are constantly meeting great people. People who are excited for us, and we are constantly told by other sailors that we are living their dream, and we always have the same reply "You can still live your dream". Even though we've only been gone about a month, we have been so fortunate to have met some amazing people. Strangers that have lent us their vehicles, offered help, fed us both with food and liquor. Neither one of us ever expected to meet such great people.
So another 2 days on Erie..Ugghhh......
The next day was a long one. 80 miles to Port Dover, but the original plan was 65 to long point anchorage. Unfortunately the wind was not in our favor as we rounded long point and our new destination was Port Dover. We were on the water for 16 hours that day, so needless to say we crashed just after midnight in the safety of the port. We received great news the next day that we were going to have help through the Welland canal from our ever supportive friends from the harbour, Paul and Karen. We were thrilled and couldn't wait to get going the next day....because you know what the Welland canal means............the end of ERIE!!!!
To our pleasant surprise (well for a little while anyway) the lake was calm as calm could be. We never ever ever thought we would see Erie this way. Finally we arrived in Port Colbourne met by Paul and Karen and Wuhoo Erie was finished.
The next day we entered the Welland canal and proceeded downbound into lake Ontario.
None of us were quite sure what to expect, but to our pleasant surprise the canal was a breeze, and to top it off we followed a tall ship all the way through the canal (Mike was loving life).

Apparently going the other way isn't so much a breeze, so we'll avoid that for a looooonnnnggg time. So a big, huge, ginormous thank you to Paul and Karen who once again have helped us out beyond belief. Now we're taking the day off to catch everyone up on whats been happening and to have a bit of rest. So the next destination is Oswego...the beginning of the canal system which will dump us out in NYC.
As always...keep your comments coming as we love to receive them.
Until next time....adios
Mike and Kylie
PS...Tera, I found my pendant...inbetween the fabrics of my jacket...crazy.

St.Clair, Detroit,and the mishap with the mast

2006-08-18T19:28:00.000-07:00

It's been an interesting week, which feels like longer. Since I last wrote, we sailed to Goderich and spent a couple of days with Mike's dad and step mom, which was great. We had our first overnight guests aboard Meggie, and although it was a touch cramped we managed just fine. After Goderich we said goodbye and made our way to Bayfield, which is a fantastic little town! All the women who read this must go. We spent a couple of days there, just relaxing and enjoying the lovely town with the most amazing sunsets. From there we made our way to Sarnia. We were fortunate enough to be able to anchor in the St.Clair river, and enjoy the company of our hosts Mike and Monie Holman.
We were then joined by the rest of the fam and had a great weekend. Jason and Tera had a full weekend planned with showers and golf games etc...but we were able to spend some time together which was awesome,

and we even managed to create a new game called shot gun lawn bowling......enough said.
After we said our sad goodbyes to the Holman's it was south to St. Clair lake and then into the Detroit river. We had a fantastic sail across the lake amongst the "lakers"(who always let you know they're coming with 5 loud blasts on their horn) and a lovely cruise down the river passing the city of Detroit.

We spent the evening just outside of the city and were so happy to meet our new friend Ron. Great guy...and so welcoming and hospitable. Then to our surprise we ran into a boat that we had heard of that was doing the same route as Meggie back when we were in Tobermory. "Living the dream" is owned by Vicky and Mark Carey, and like us have been planning this trip forever. So up we go and stand on their dock until finally Mark appeared wondering what the hell these people wanted at 9:00 in the morning. That aside, we hit it off and spent the day with the Carey family including Mark's brother and his wife.

We had a great day, only to be followed by a not so great day...if you refer to the picture of Mike up the mast with a hole where the spreader should be, you'll know what I mean. We were leaving a dock in the Detroit river, and we had used these things called whips that keep your boat off the dock as we were on an outside dock. So, we're still not sure exactly how it happened, but the rear whip got caught up in the shrouds and ended up getting caught on the end of the port spreader on the mizzen mast...we looked at eachother in horror and then at the spreader and all we heard was C R A C K....I looked at Mike and he went white, and I began to panic as I looked at the spreader just hanging off the mast. We wheeled around and came back to the doomed dock and Mike was up the mast immediately. We were very lucky...the spreader didn't even crack anywhere and the screws didn't twist inside the mast...the main damaged was a major dent and a bent spreader tang. We were immediately surrounded by people wanting to help...first thing was first...we needed some douglas fir. Once that was found, Mike went to work chipping out a section of his brand new masts and putting a replacement piece in. We epoxyed it in, straightened the tang, applied a coat of varnish and in the morning put the spreader back on, and then we were off. (I almost put us aground about 5 minutes after we left the dock the second time, but I caught myself...I would have never lived that one down). So...that was the mishap with the mast, but you all know Mike and he did an awesome job and had the repair done in one day and everything is fine.
So now, Erie here we come.
Until next time...
Kylie and Mike

2006-08-07T12:34:00.000-07:00

2006-08-07T10:50:00.000-07:00

Well...we're in Kincardine now, where the phantom piper resides. Legend has it that a scot family headed out onto the lake to make their way to Kincardine, but when the day turned into night and the bad weather approached the family feared they may not find their way. The father began to play his bagpipes and hearing the pipes out on the water a settler in Kincardine grabbed his pipes and began to pipe back, piping the family all the way into the safety of the harbour. So to this day, upon entering the harbour at sunset, you will be piped by the phantom piper who stands atop the lighthouse at the entrance of the harbour.
So..we've seen the piper. Kincardine is a quaint little village with lots of shopping, and a great little asian food store, where I stocked up. We've had our first visitors in Kincardine (Steph and Andy), and enjoyed a quiet evening in the harbour visiting and catching up aboard Meggie.
For those of you who are wondering...we were safe in "the storm". South, north and east of us were hit pretty bad, but fortunately we were in the safety of the harbour in Tobermory and didn't seem to get much of anything, thank god. We have heard rumors of the wind reaching speeds of 70 and 80 knots. We're interested to know how the boats that were in the regatta faired in the storm. If anyone has any info please email us and let us know everyone is ok.
So our next stop will be in Goderich to return a gps lent to us by new friends that we met in Port Elgin after we had a small mishap with ours on Georgian Bay. From there we'll have a stopover in Grand Bend and then onto Sarnia to spend a few days with the Holman family. We've just received info that lock 10 on the Erie barge canal is closed and plans to open on labour day...so we'll have to look into that for sure.
Anyway, please everyone keep the emails coming, we've been fortunate so far to have been able to receive wireless connection in every port we've been to, therefore we've been able to update our blog and send emails.
So until the next port (or next time we get a connection)...
Ciao
Kylie and Mike

2006-08-01T19:10:00.000-07:00

So....we've finally left. Our departure date ended up being on July 31st, 2006. We were hoping to have left earlier, but we just were not ready and really whats another couple of weeks when you've got a life time ahead of you. So we're on our way. We've only been gone 2 days and are sitting in the Tobermory harbour on our boat enjoying the hussle and bussle of this small boating town. The sun has just set, the chechemaun has left for it's last run and the last of the boaters are heading in to the safety of the harbour. Life couldn't be much better.
We would also like to take this opportunity to thank everyone for all of their help and support over the last few months. There is no way to tell you how amazing people have been, it just totally blows my mind. Everyone at the harbour has been so supportive and helpful with their advice, wisdom and loaning of charts, books and other tid bits necessary to embark on this journey. I would list the names, but it would take 10 pages. Our families and friends are among the list of people who have shown us constant support and given us words of encouragement when we felt like the work would never end. So thank you, thank you, thank you. Oh and not to mention that great sail shop up the road from the Thornbury harbour...thank you to you as well.
So....our sails have felt the wind, Meggie's bottom is clean again and the crew has their sea legs...we're now officially ready (except for a bit of varnish still to do). As always...keep checking in on us as we love to read your comments.
Be well everyone....and until next time
Mike and Kylie

2006-06-30T04:42:00.000-07:00

2006-06-29T19:02:00.000-07:00

So we've had our yard sale, we've sold our belongings and stored what we absolutely could not part with, and we're ready to move aboard. Everyone has been so amazing to us, helping in any way they can and we've come to realize just how fortunate we are to be surrounded by so many great people.
So come July 1st, you'll be able to find us living on Meggie in the Thornbury harbour. We're so excited that the first step to our journey has begun, and our dream is finally becoming a reality.
We'll keep you posted as our journey progresses.