Ur Beatha an Cheap Bhreatainn

 

Mom and Dad and the monkeys joined us in Baddeck, on the island of Cape Breton, Nova Scotia on July 10th. The Baddeck marina has good facilities (and good internet so we could watch the football finals) and we all stayed together on the Pjotter.  After a joyful reunion (Seb and I have not been apart from the kids for more than a few hours in months) we took a nice walk through the town and along the boardwalk before settling in cosily on the boat.

Probably Baddeck’s best known resident ever was Alexander Graham Bell.  Having become wealthy from his successful invention and marketing of the telephone, he and his wife Mabel undertook a sailing vacation in 1885 along the coast of eastern North America. Along the way, they were impressed by Cape Breton's Bras d'Or Lakes and constructed a house and laboratory there named Beinn Bhreagh. Some of his most notable accomplishments at Beinn Bhreagh included the first manned flight of an airplane in the British Commonwealth (the AEA Silver Dart) in 1909, and his HD-4, a hydrofoil boat that set the world watercraft speed record (71 MPH) in 1919, which remained unbroken for many years. On our first morning in Baddeck we visited the Alexander Graham Bell Historic Site which includes exhibits of his life, his inventions and a life size model of the HD-4. Not only is it an extremely interesting museum depicting the life and accomplishments of an amazing person, it also has a really good kids room and child friendly activities.  We were therefore easily able to tag team kids room and tetrahedron making supervisions and all get the most out of the museum. 

Nova Scotia, and Cape Breton in particular, has a very strong ties to its Gaelic past brought from its Scottish settlers and much of the culture and music in the area can be traced to these roots.  Ceilidgh is the Gaelic word for a gathering.  It refers to any time that people get together, frequently involving music or storytelling.  In Baddeck there are daily ceilidghs in the parish hall and we headed there on the 11th at 1930 to take in a little local music.  Macsen unfortunately had little patience for the fiddler and pianist and spent much of the time climbing the banister outside the hall but the rest of us enjoyed ourselves.  

The Irish boat the Northabout was in the harbour and two of the men from the boat were in attendance and gave us a couple of Irish songs as well.  They invited us over to the Baddeck Yacht Club after the town ceilidgh for another more informal ceilidgh with the rest of the crew.  One of the performers from Baddeck came along as well and we sat in a small and cosy ring and enjoyed an exchange of Cape Breton (mostly Scottish influence) and Irish musical and dance styles.  Amongst the Irish performers from Northabout was Matt Malloy, who plays in the band The Chieftains, and is considered one of the finest Irish flute players playing today.  Their music was wonderful.  I sang as much as I knew of two Nova Scotia songs and we promised to learn a good Dutch one before we met again.  Seb and I toddled back to the boat in the wee hours of the morning marvelling at our luck to be able to take part in such a wonderful gathering. 

Baddeck is located on the Bras D'Or lakes an area with immense and easy cruising and gunk holing potential.  We took the Pjotter across the bay to a place called Iona to visit the Highland Village Museum located there.  This is a living history museum recreating an early Gaelic settlement. The six of us spent close to three hours wandering about, learning about the old days from the extremely knowledgeable staff, gazing at the huge workhorse named Mira, playing with and marvelling at the old barn tools (including a dog powered butter churn), and learning to bake bannock bread (Emma was the only one who actively tried her hand at this). My parents drove back to St. Andrews on July 15th.  Emma and Macsen in particular were sad and a bit disoriented to see them go but we all find it easier knowing that will see then again in September. 

SPOT

Since a few weeks we have a device called SPOT on board which reports our current location via a satellite connection. These updates can be viewed under 'position' or by clicking here.

Staying in touch

We are currently sailing in Newfoundland and have no coverage for our Dutch cell phone number. We do have limited coverage for our local Canadian number at +1 902 579 1186. Also internet access is very limited so we prefer email via Sailmail. Hope to hear from you. Pjotter standing by..

----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com

Welcome to Nova Scotia

Seb and I sailed the Pjotter out of the St Andrew's harbour on July 28th, leaving the monkeys behind to take care of their grandparents for a few days.  Our destination was Halifax, Nova Scotia and we expected to have a nice wind of 12-15 knots and take approximately 48 hours to get there.  Ohh, the folly of our optimism.  There was not a breath of wind, the fog was even thicker than pea soup and the waves were large enough to keep the boat pitching about in a most uncomfortable manner.  This coupled with the chugging engine wafting diesel fumes in our faces resulted in a long and nasty trip of 57 hours.  We arrived in the protected harbour of the Royal Nova Scotia Yacht Squadron at midnight on the 30th and tumbled into our finally still beds with relief.

In Halifax we met up with some good friends Chrick and Beth who generously lent us their car to travel back to St. Andrews for HonGu's birthday and to run our many errands.  Our two visits to Halifax were spent doing some very efficient repairs and upgrades to the boat (including the installation of a new heating system) and taking advantage of the well stocked chandlers.  Our evenings were spent having cosy dinners with Chrick and Beth and on one occasion we took a short sail with them out into the Halifax harbour to enjoy the evening wind.  It was nice to use the boat for recreation for a change rather than our usual (and still very enjoyable) practical application of getting from A to B.  

The RNSYS is the starting point for the Halifax-St Pierre race and there were several interesting race boats in the harbour with us, including a former Volvo Ocean Race boat and an Around Alone boat (Spirit of Canada - Derek Hatfield).  Another boat that caught our eye was not taking part in the race but looked as though it had been through some interesting times.  This was a 49 foot aluminium boat from Ireland named NorthAbout.  We wandered over to have a chat and learned that this boat and its crew had completed two of the toughest cruising expeditions ever attempted, the Northwest and the Northeast passages.  Duly impressed, we bought a copy of their book, had a little chat and trying not to look too star-stuck, said we hoped to bump into them again in Baddeck in Cape Breton.   

St. Andrews, More Birthdays and the big Pjotter

 Macsen's birthday on June 6th was celebrated with an outing to the aquarium to watch the daily feeding performance of Loki and Snorkel, the resident seals. In addition to the seals, we admired the striking Delft blue coloured lobster and learned how slowly lobsters grow (they are still only 1,5cm after a year), that starfish have eyes at the end of their tentacles and that scallops are the only bivalve mollusk that can propel themselves about (and squirt Seb in the face). To complete the fish theme,  Nana and I made a bright orange clownfish cake with two candles.  HonGu joined us for dinner and presents and all in all I think Macsen had a wonderful 2nd birthday. 

Kees and Mart from the big Pjotter arrived in St. Andrews a few days prior to our arrival.  They had spent some time already with my parents and were enjoying the local people and scenery immensely and ended up making many friends and good memories while they were there.  We spent some lovely times sharing meals, ideas and plans with them and generally enjoying their delight in this lovely little piece of Canada.  The next time we see them will probably be in Curacao in February 2011.

On June 21st, the Seren (my parent's boat) and the Pjotter convoyed 30 nautical miles for a short visit to Grand  Manan Island. Grand Manan is a beautiful little island with rugged coasts located in the middle of the Bay of Fundy.  I spent many happy days there staying at my friend Hannah Grant's summer house when I was little.  The Grant's were in residence when we visited and treated us to a yummy dinner and a couple of bags of the most delicious ginger cookies from the local pastry chef.  Although there was little wind and rather thick fog for much of our sail we did see an exciting amount of sea life including both harbour and gray seals, porpoises, and minke, finback and sei whales (one curious one swam within 2 metres of our boat)!  

Emma's birthday, on June 25th was celebrated with a visit to Kingsbrae Gardens to see the alpacas and play in the many playhouses - viewing the gardens was strictly a nice to have on this visit.  Emma received a digital camera for her birthday and happily clicked both still life scenes and action shots.  Balloons and presents followed and the evening culminated in the blowing out of candles on the mermaid cake (Nana and I again) and a very happy four year old girl toddling off to bed with her new camera in her hand.  

In addition to these events, we spent almost a month in St Andrews enjoying lovely weather, eating extremely well, getting things fixed on the boat, attending some amazing concerts, going to the local pub, seeing friends and relaxing with my parents and enjoying ourselves immensely.  A perfect time and it was difficult to drag ourselves away to move on.

 

Homecomings: The Ultimate Goal

 The distance between Bristol, RI and St. Andrews, NB is 350nm.  Our plan was to sail up as quickly as weather and mood would allow in the hopes of arriving in time for Macsen's 2nd birthday on June 6th.  Apart from a five hour stop in Southwest Harbour we managed to move pretty quickly.  The stop was necessitated by a blown fuse in our radar.  Thick fog all along the coast made travelling without radar not only unpleasant but downright stupid/dangerous.  In addition to the fog (and accompanying rain and cold) we also had little wind and were forced to motor much of the way.  This was doubly unpleasant as there are thousands of lobster pots dangling along the coast (even in 100m deep waters) and there is a great danger that the lobster lines will get caught in the propeller rendering the motor useless.  To prevent this Seb and I spent the night switching between hand steering the boat and standing on the bow watching out for lobster buoys.  An unpleasant and unrestful night.

The unpleasant night was forgotten however as Grand Manan Island came into sight.  The fog and the lobster pots thinned in unison and the lovely coastline of the Bay of Fundy came into view.  Breathtaking in both its beauty and its significance for our voyage. As we passed through Letete Passage and into Passamaquoddy Bay we hoisted our homecoming flags (guest flags from the 21 countries that we have visited so far) in the forestay.  My parents and some other close friends were waiting on the dock (the wharfinger even brought my mother out in the skiff to meet us). I simply cannot describe how great it was to finally arrive here in beautiful St. Andrews after more than a year of anticipating this day! 

Birthdays and Homecomings

Arrived in the harbour of Bristol, RI on the morning of the 29th and threw out our anchor close to the Toad.  Toad is the sail boat that my brother and his wife lent to us to cruise down the coast of Maine for our honeymoon five years ago.  Jen and Rhys (sister-in-law and nephew) came down to the dock to greet us and we practically danced the five minute walk up to their house.  Emma and Macsen were thrilled to be on land and Ems was particularly excited to spend some (long long awaited) time with her cousin Seren.  Seb and I were pretty chuffed to have made it to one of the key places that we had been targeting for a year (some people travel more slowly and less directly than others) and were looking forward to some quality hanging out time with Booh and Jen.

 My parents arrived on the 30th and we celebrated my birthday on the 1st with a combined super present-festival for all four of the kids (and quite a few for me too).  Whew...that was a lot of excitement for everybody and it was all concluded with surprisingly few tears and a lot of laughter and squeals of excitement.  

After and excellent week we packed our bags again for a flight back to Amsterdam for Jop and Miriam's wedding on May 21st . Our 2,5 week visit passed in a flash of gatherings with family and friends (and some less pleasant but useful administrative sorting).  Seb and I took full advantage of the happy grandparents and left the kids to celebrate and see friends in Amsterdam.  Wow, Amsterdam can really be fun when you have no responsibilities and no job. Jop & Miriam's wedding took place at her family home The Bockhorst in Spankeren. This was a beautiful location and Seb, as best man, and I were honoured to be included in three days of family activity surrounding the wedding.  It was a wonderful wonderful wedding and super gezellig to spend so much time with the newlyweds, family and friends.  Being back in the Netherlands felt very natural and we were surprised at how easy and comfortably we picked up our old lives.  Seb and I stopped  to visit our house in Amsterdam and had a nice chat with the family who is renting it.  They have done wonderful things with our garden (especially the ponds).  It was sad once again to say good bye to family and friends.  

Our next stop was a visit to my Gu in Hereford, UK.  She took excellent care of us an stuffed us with three three hot meals a day (plus elevenses and tea).  We had good chats and solved some more of the worlds problems.   We were also lucky enough to catch “Great” Uncle Owen and Aunt Jenny and two of my three English cousins who are both starting families of their own.  

 

Photos of the US and Canada online

Click here to view the US photos (from Florida to Maine). And click here for the photos of Canada (New Brunswick).

Birds and the Big City

Departed Norfolk in settled weather expecting some cold and rainy conditions on the 3-day trip North to New York. The conditions were indeed very cold and we had our first thunderstorms, accompanied by 30+ knots of wind.  Not close enough to do any damage but close enough to make us feel very uncomfortable and nervous.  And this on Seb's watch in the middle of the night. For the entire way the wind was coming from the wrong direction or was light and the waves were large and uncomfortable...the worst kind of weather for sailing. The rest of the trip was spent in two layers of foul weather gear huddled under the dodger peering through the very grey, misty, rainy space around the boat (if you were unlucky enough to have watch) or entertaining the kids inside with books, music, games and treats (yes, we did succumb to using the occasional bribe). 

Three little birds joined us along the way, one of which flew in and huddled on the stairs of the cabin for the night, its feathers puffed up into a ball.  Sadly, although they lived through the night they all died within a few hours of one another in the morning of our second day, frozen and exhausted.

At midnight on April 26th we hooked a mooring buoy in Sandy Hook and slept for four hours before starting the engine again to catch the incoming tide to New York Harbour.  The sun was just rising as we sailed past the Statue of Liberty on Ellis Island and the city skyline was rather impressive from our little boat.  After dodging through the ferry boats in the harbour (NY harbour is one of the busiest in the world) we tied up in a marina in New Jersey.  The marinas on the NY side of the harbour were unprotected and were pitching boats about so we chose the less romantic side.

Our visit was to be a short one so we bundled ourselves up and headed down town.  We spent a fabulous day showing the kids the sights and soaking up the now unfamiliar city feel (neither Emma or Macsen had been to NY before).  They both had a great time going up the Empire State Building, poking about in FAO Schwartz, shopping and lunching at Saks, before we closed off the day by taking a taxi to Churrascaria, a
great Argentinian steakhouse on west Broadway. 

The following morning we threw off the lines at 0700 for a 24h sail to my brother's house in Rhode Island. Fortunately our calculations of the tidal currents were correct and we shot through Hell's Gate at 11,9 knots and out into Long Island Sound.

 

The Lady States: Georgia, Carolinas and Virginia

We met up with a Dutch boat called the Brandaan in Cape Canaveral and agreed to sail together from the North of Florida.  Toine and Mira and their two daughters Eline (10) and Marinthe (8) are travelling around the Atlantic for a year on their 40 foot Halberg Rassy.   They needed to be in the Chesapeake before April 25th so our rapid schedules matched and we travelled together in and out of the ICW and the Atlantic until Norfolk, Virginia, mile 0 of the ICW. 

A stop on Cumberland Island in Georgia,  well researched by Mira, brought us to a lovely anchorage.  We dinghied into land with the Brandaan family and took a path over  to the ocean side of the island through amazing gnarled and interwoven oak trees draped in Spanish moss.  Sadly, we did not catch a glimpse of the feral horses, wild boars or armadillos that roam the island but the children collected handfuls of tiny starfish washed up on the beach and we enjoyed the immense stretch of sand and the crisp cool ocean air. 

Sailing into the Charleston Harbour in South Carolina on April 17th, we experienced a unexpected and rather royal welcome.  The Blue Angels air show was in full swing and the harbour was full of boats filled with people staring at the sky.  The show was really quite impressive from the water and we gazed in awe at the speed and precision of the planes zooming back and forth (and around and around). 

Seb's birthday (April 18th) was celebrated in style with a visit to the Charleston aquarium,  a second impressive air show, a wander along the old streets admiring the churches, parks and old houses and ending with dinner and birthday cake (artistically decorated by Emma and Macsen) on board with the Brandaan crew. 

One of our favourite sounds as we drifted along the ICW was “Emma clear! Standby on channel 67.”  Emma has developed her own VHF radio-speak and we heard this at least eight times per day. Her favourite time to pull out this particular line is just before bedtime, setting Macsen off into peels of laughter.  She has taken enthusiastically to VHF communication and uses the radio to call up the Brandaan several times a day as we motor next to them.  “Brandaan, Brandaan, this is the Pjotter” pipes out over our agreed channel 77 before she launches into various descriptions of what she has seen, played with, eaten, smelled or thought;  closing each line with a proper 'over.'

Norfolk is a pretty but very industrial port city and was quite a shock after the stillness and beauty of the ICW.  Here we bid goodbye to the Brandaan as they entered the Chesapeake Bay and we headed out onto the ocean for a 3-day journey to New York.  

Entering the Intercoastal Waterway

Our hope was to arrive in Bristol, RI on or before April 29th so that we could celebrate my birthday on May 1st with my brother and his family.  On April 10th , we were still in Cape Canaveral and thus needed to travel approximately 1200 nautical miles in 20 days to make it in time.  We knew that this would be possible if we took the outside route and were able to sail at night but a number of depressions moving through the area forced us to take the intra-coastal waterway for much of the journey.  The Atlantic Intra-coastal Waterway (ICW) is an inland route that spans from Key West, Florida to Norfolk, Virginia.  Due to the shallow waters and many bridges with limited opening hours we were not able to travel along the waterway at night and were thus limited to a maximum of 50 miles per day.  

We entered the waterway in Cape Canaveral and in our first day we crossed through 2 sets of locks and under 12 bridges (10 of which needed to be opened for us).  The ICW in the south of Florida is a pretty and narrow channel with occasional shallow bits.  In the swamps along the way we saw many dolphins, alligators, eagles, ibis and many other birds and beasts.  Sadly, we did not see any manatees but the area is well known for them and there are several signs along the way to ask boaters to take care of them.   

Another attraction along the route are the many boats grounded and trying to free themselves from the ever-shifting muddy bottom of the ICW.   Techniques range from rocking the boat, putting out the anchor and dragging yourself to deeper water,  hoisting a sail, waiting for high tide and sitting and swearing until the tow-boat comes to pull you out.  It is a very good thing that the ICW is so lovely as one of us needs to be behind the tiller at all times to follow the narrow channel and avoid other boats.  The charts are frequently inaccurate (or the dredging situation has changed) and we have been grateful for the guidance from other boats who have warned us against travelling in the middle of the buoyed channel (generally the advisable route) in specific areas after having run aground themselves.  This makes for highly interesting, entertaining and slightly nerve racking days.  We ran aground five times on the ICW (each time in the middle of the channel) but were able to free ourselves without external help each time, using a variety of the techniques outlined above.

Houses along the waterway have enormous mosquito netting structures attached to them to cover up a porch, tennis courts, the swimming pool and sometimes great portions of the garden. We were glad to be in the area in the early spring and not in the warm summer months when the mosquitoes reach legendary size and number. 

Our only other city visit in Florida (other than Cape Canaveral) was a stop in St. Augustine where we spent 2-days wandering about the old streets and enjoying the superb services of the St. Augustine marina.  St. Augustine was founded in 1565, making it the oldest permanent European settlement in the United States.  The old quarter of St. Augustine offers quaint 'Spanish' galleries, cafés, the oldest schoolhouse in the US and a tiny well-preserved Spanish village/ museum offering demonstrations from the blacksmith, carpenter and musketeer as well as a very good herb and vegetable garden.  This was all greatly enjoyed by the monkeys although Macsen was quite startled by the musketeer.

Interview for the Courier: Home at last - Jun. 11, 2010

BARB RAYNER
barbrayn@nbnet.nb.ca
(click on image above to view original online article)

ST. ANDREWS – Just more than a year ago Rhiannon Davies and her husband Sebastiaan Ambtman set sail from the Netherlands for Canada with their two young children – and they finally arrived in St. Andrews Friday.

Rhiannon is the daughter of Huw and Jessie Davies, who live in St. Andrews, and she said they had an amazing reception when they arrived in the harbour as wharfinger BB Chamberlain took her mother out to greet them. Dutch friends who have shared part of their journey have also been impressed with how well they have been treated since arriving in St. Andrews and have already made many friends. The couple, who live in Amsterdam, left Den Helder May 19, 2009 with son Macsen, now two and then only nine months old, and daughter Emma, now four, in their 37-foot Breehorn Pjotter and have visited 20 countries along the way. “We have both always loved sailing and the kids are at an age where it is fantastic to spend time with them. We agreed to take a sabbatical and combine spending a lot of time with the kids and living an adventure we had always dreamed of,” said Davies.

While they both grew up doing a lot of sailing they had never tackled long distances before – it was mostly day trips – although they spent their honeymoon five years ago sailing from St. Andrews to Rhode Island and have sailed in Croatia and Norway. They purchased their boat with the intention of eventually doing a longer trip. They were actually at sea about 20 per cent of the time, said Davies, with the rest of the time anchored in a harbour or on a mooring. Among the countries they visited were England, Spain, Portugal, Morocco, the Canary Islands, Cape Verda Island, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago. 

The couple said the children have been great and although everyone was a little queasy during the first 24 hours at sea they soon found their sea legs. The longest time they were ever at sea was the two weeks it took them to cross the Atlantic. There is no freezer on the boat for storing meat, so while at sea they would try to catch some fresh fish and landed some tuna, barracuda and wahoo for their meals. As Ambtman pointed out, you couldn’t find anything fresher. Her greatest fear, said Davies, was the weather and safety and her second was how they were going to keep the children entertained on the long Atlantic crossing — but everything worked out fine. “We were very careful about how we structured the day. We kept it quite full of activities and they had a wonderful time. Fortunately the weather was beautiful.” Thanks to modern technology they were able to keep in touch with her parents – which was a great relief to them – via e-mail and they updated their blog every day (www.pjotterpassages.com)

Everything didn’t always go smoothly, said Davies, and they had a tough trip between Portugal and Morocco because of the winds but they coped with this as well as other setbacks such as problems with the pump which left them with a flooded living room and an oil leak on the first day of their Atlantic crossing. Before they left, Ambtman said they took a weather course and additional navigational training, obtained a radio licence and learned some sea survival training. He stopped work three months before they left in order to get the boat ready for the trip.

Both quit their jobs in order to make the trip. Davies is an engineer but was responsible for global logistics for Danone while Ambtman, whose background is in finance, had been working in the internet industry for eBay. They plan to start looking for new jobs a few months before they return to Holland and feel confidant there will be opportunities. They will spend most of June in St. Andrews then plan to travel to Nova Scotia, PEI and possibly Newfoundland. They are still working on their plans after that but their goal is to cross the Atlantic again next summer so they are home by August 2011 as Emma is due to start school in the fall. “Our initial plan was to go for a year but we have had such an amazing time and we are already on our way now. We may as well make the most of it now,” said Davies. She said they expected others making such long trips would be mostly retired but they have met five other families with young children who have become firm friends and their children have had other youngsters to play with.

For her the most interesting part of the trip was the Gambia. Going up the river, she said, they came across little villages that don’t have road access and the people were incredibly friendly so they felt really safe. Ambtman said he particularly enjoyed the Atlantic crossing when there was just the four of them on the boat together in the middle of the ocean and they were so far away from land.

Looking back on the trip Davies said it was really different from what they had expected – and better. Their preference was to sail at night when the children were asleep and they would take it in turns to keep watch. “I thought it would be a real time to think and discover ourselves but we were incredibly busy. I couldn’t believe how much there is to do on the boat and raising the kids is a full time job.

“We have seen some amazing things and the kids have been flexible and they are aware of different things. We have learned an incredible amount about the boat, sailing, weather and navigating.”


Barb Rayner/Courier
Sebastiaan Ambtman and his wife Rhiannon Davies, with their two children Emma,4, and Macsen, 2, arrived in St. Andrews Friday after spending more than a year at sea.

Link to the article on the Saint Croix Courier website.

Sailing to America and Space

This was our first long sail of undetermined destination and length and our first voyage of more than three days that we had undertaken since our early-January sail from Suriname to Tobago . Our intention was to see how far we could sail before the weather forecast suggested that we head into harbour. Our minimum target was approximately three days towards the West to Great Abaco in the Bahamas and our maximum included a turn to the North after the Bahamas, destination Cape Fear, North Carolina for a total estimated trip of eight days. Unfortunately, weather forecasts suggested that a cold front was moving into the area on our 5th day and we decided to pull into Cape Canaveral, South Florida, rather than chance the northerly route.

The trip was relatively uneventful and we arrived at the Cape Marina as dark was falling on the 7th of April. We were welcomed near the entrance to the channel into Cape Canaveral by an incredibly frisky humpback whale that breached an amazing 20 times or more in the distance. The other member of our welcoming committee was an enormous Disney cruise boat with Mickey Mouse ears which unfortunately seemed to impress the children even more than the whale.

Having heard dreadful stories about US Immigration procedures for foreign private vessels we set-off early on the 8th bearing all of our official papers, including the multiple entry visas obtained in Trinidad, and headed for the Customer and Border Protection office, now part of the Department of Homeland Security. Sounded scary. We were pleasantly surprised at the relatively informal reception that we received and extremely pleased to complete the entire procedure within an hour. Amazingly, they didn't even need to visit the boat! We then had the afternoon to spend at the enormous playground near the marina. This was the first real playground that the monkeys had seen since we left Gomera in the Canary Islands in October.

On our second day in Cape Canaveral we rented a car and made the obligatory trip to the Kennedy Space Centre. The space centre has become a bit of a tourist trappy theme park but it was still quite thrilling to be there and study the progress of space travel up close. The speaker of the day was James Lovell, who captained the Apollo 13 moon flight and coined the phrase “Houston, we've had a problem.'' (A common misquotation is “Houston, we have a problem'”but apparently the problem had been solved before the communication went out, hence the past tense). The monkeys had good fun as well and have now added 'space shuttle', 'rocket launch' and 'astronaut' to their vocabularies.

New photos online

Lots of new photos online. St Vincent and Grenadines, Dominica, St Maarten, BVI's and Turks and Caicos. Click here to view the photos.

Turks and Caicos

Lovely trip up to the Turks and Caicos although it took us a while to get into the rhythm of a crossing after so many weeks of lisland hopping. We kept our eyes peeled on the horizon the entire trip as Navidad Bank and the Silver Bank are a key mating ground of humpback whales and there are approximately 3000 in the area between January and March. In fact, our pilot stated that you would need to be extremely unlucky not to see whales at this time of year when crossing the banks. One small and curious whale came quite close to the boat and we saw another breeching several times. Amazing!

Our expectations of the T&C were a little different than reality. Arrived on Grand Turk and after careful analysis of the charts and our pilot book we dubiously anchored near the government dock. The surrounding area is a messy and industrial location next to absolutely stunning beaches and bright blue water. Took the dingy into shore and finally found the customs office in the back of a ramshackle warehouse in the middle of a incredible messy industrial-looking area. Everything was full of garbage and piles of broken building materials. As we stood in the cluttered little office the young and extremely informal but very friendly agent (who looked like he might be more comfortable in a garage band than a customs office) told us the mess all around was a result of Hurricane Francis (little seemed to have been done to tidy up since 2004). Taxied to the immigration and on to the grocery store. The whole island seems to be a rather sad place as the underlying natural structure of the island is gorgeous but everything looks downtrodden and broken.

On Salt Cay we found an absolute paradise beach, just as I had finished telling my parents the night before that we were tired of white sand and blue water (no we do not expect any sympathy). This, however was something special. We were the only boat that had ventured in through the reef inlet (a harrowing experience only to be attempted in bright daylight with the sun behind you so that you can clearly see the rocks). Took turns snorkelling on the reef and then continued in to the empty beach for a picnic. Seb erected a sun tent and we sat beside our own private natural pool and wandered about to marvel at the thousands of hermit crabs and colourful fish in the tide pools. This is paradise.

Carefully picked our way out of the reef the next morning after a very rolly and sleepless night and headed off towards South Caicos keeping our eyes peeled for more humpbacks.
South Caicos was an even greater surprise containing the most extreme and depressing poverty that we have seen to date. The fishermen on the wharf were very friendly and we were invited to look into the conch factory. This one room industry processes 1000 conch per day and ships them off to Miami, and this was the only industry visible on the island. Wandered around and stopped at an unmarked shop for an ice-cream and Macsen and Emma played with the local children, each amazed by the others hair. Overall, the island has stunningly beautiful nature but the streets are broken and the houses along them tumbling down, scrawny dogs sniff through piles of garbage and there is an overall mood of dejection and feeling that everyone has just given up.

The 50 nautical mile sail across the Caicos Banks is beautiful but nerve racking. Every pilot warns that this should never be done in winds higher than 15 knots and only with good daylight visibility. Understandable as in the flat waters we were travelling about 7 knots in depths of 2 meters (our draft is 1,90m). This shallow sand is speckled with coral heads that are not always exactly where the chart suggests. Fortunately, due to the incredibly clear blue of the water and the sandy bottom, the dark rocky or corally areas are easy to spot well ahead of time. It was am amazing and exhilarating experience, like sailing across a massive swimming pool. The water was so intense in colour that a white air plane flying overhead looked bright turquoise as the water was reflected off of its wings.

Arrived in Sapadillo Bay at 1330 and radioed in to the South-Side marina. Simon, the harbourmaster, gave us very detailed instructions with waypoints on how to get to an anchorage close to the marina and explained that we would have to wait until 1130 the next day to come into the marina itself with high tide. We followed the directions carefully but before long we were slogging through the sandy bottom and the depth sounder was registering depths down to 1,3m. Stukzitten. We thought back to the full moon of the evening before and realised that, of course, it was a spring tide, the highs are highest and the lows lowest. Our electronic charts were registering a deceptive (and erroneous!) 2,4 meter minimum! We threw out the anchor and Seb and I hopped into the water to look at the keel, strange to be standing next to your boat in the water. Rather than wait until morning, we waited until midnight and Simon and his wife, Charlyn very kindly talked us in through the rest of the uncharted shallows and met us at the dock. No damage done on the sandy bottom but we left a little more bottom paint than intended in the pristine waters.

The South-Side marina is located on Provo island, the most touristy (and wealthiest) island in the group. It is still, however, off the beaten track and as a result there is a tight community feel for all of the boaters that land there. Simon and Charlyn promote this feeling by holding informal gatherings to exchange stories every evening on the dock. Although tiny (and complicated to arrive) this is by far the cosiest marinas that we have stayed in. We stayed for two days to prepare for our trip to the US and felt like old friends when we left. Upon leaving the Turks and Caicos we provisioned for an indeterminate period of time. Our plan was to sail just North of the Bahamas and in towards the coast and as far north as we could until the weather forecast suggested that we head into land.

The BVIs Were a Nice Surprise

Left Sint Maarten on a clear evening with the wind behind us and headed with the Zilvermeeuw for a short overnight sail to Virgin Gorda in the British Virgin Islands. We arrived early in the morning on March 20th and picked up a mooring buoy just next to The Baths. The Baths are a natural wonder consisting of a huge park of huge boulders some on land and some underwater. Jeroen and Seb took the dingy in with the monkeys and Babette and I swam in stopping to look and the underwater wonders among the boulders and say hello to a ray swimming through. The bay became busy with charter boats as the morning wore on but remained a spectacular spot. We found a perfect cave with a natural whirlpool bath and a great view through the boulders and relaxed there for a while, just the six of us chatting about life.

Emma and Macsen are improving their swimming skills by the day and are both able to swim from the Pjotter to the Zilvermeeuw (Macsen on Seb's back but Emma using her Nana stroke to propel her along). We stayed on our mooring buoy for two nights and marveled at the fact that no one else seemed to dare to remain in the bay overnight and wondering why we had the entire beautiful area to ourselves. We later heard that the mooring buoys are intended by the park only for use during the day. Oops, we won't make that mistake again.

On to the North Sound between Virgin Gorda and Prickly Pear Island, a huge and beautiful lagoon. We expected the BVIs to be as developed as the rest of the Caribbean. Although there are a lot of charter boats there is a surprising amount of nature and beautiful untouched islands. We took an incredibly long wet dingy ride with Jeroen and Babette and anchored the dinghies in the Eustatia sound and had a wonderful snorkel. Amongst the sea life Babette and I also spotted the remains of two old cannons. Seb and Jeroen spent the afternoons fixing our motor (again) and installing ambient lighting (LED so it takes very little energy) in our living room. Babette and I headed ashore for an internet fix at the Bitter End Yacht Club. The only way we could describe the club was as a sort of adult's Disneyland or an on-land cruise ship full of nautically named boutiques and bars and restaurants all describing the activities and acts to be enjoyed in the evening.

Last evening with the Zilvermeeuw was spent in Road Town bay in the capital of Tortula, the busiest and biggest of the BVIs. Found an anchor spot near the massive cruise ships. We had a great lobster, shrimp ad steak dinner at The Pub restaurant near the boat, a run down little place with good character and reasonable tolerance for our busy monkeys.

After a morning spent prepping the boats and getting water we had a final lunch at The Pub with Jeroen and Babette before setting sail together in the late afternoon of March 25th. Took some great pictures of the Zilvermeeuw as they sailed off into the sunset on their way to the Dominican Republic as we headed off to the Turks and Caicos Islands. Dominican Republic is the last stop on the way North where you can obtain a US visa. They plan to get their visas there, have a quick explore and then head up to the Turks and Caicos and on to the US. We hope to see them again sometime in the area of New York.

Never Underestimate the Dangers of a Butterfly Farm

On Monday, March 8th we packed up the car and headed out for a day of discovery. We took our laptop with us as there was no internet in the apartment, this laptop is our working laptop with our navigation programs, current documents that we are working on and photos and movies of our trip.

Our first stop was at the was at Pic Paradis, the highest point on the island. A short walk through the woods brought us to some spectacular views of both sides overlooking the greens of the vegetation, black of the rocks and the bright blue waters of the bays. Our drive continued to cross the border into St. Martin where we stopped at a butterfly farm seen advertised from the roadway. The farm itself was small, located on a rather remote lagoon and consisted of one large screened area the size of approximately four tennis courts but containing over 55 different sorts of butterflies. A very knowledgeable guide talked us around the farm and just as he finished, while Emma and I were busy trying to coax one of the enormous blue morphos to sit on our fingers, we heard a voice say “Who is the owner of the grey Toyota van parked outside? Your vehicle has been broken into. We've already called the police.”

The gendarmerie arrived and handled the situation surprisingly efficiently and appeared to take the case very seriously. Three of the five cars parked outside the farm were broken into, although only we had been silly enough to leave anything behind. Three bags were stolen from our car containing our bathing suits, favorite toys for the kids and of course our working laptop with some photos and films that we had not yet copied. As the rather surrealistic process continued, including fingerprinting of Seb and his Dad (for exclusionary purposes) it slowly began to dawn on us what we had lost and how horrible and violated we felt about it. On top of this we felt incredibly stupid for leaving so many valuable things in a car in a place where we knew theft was rampant. The butterfly farm just looked so innocent. And theft is a very nasty thing to have to explain to a three-and-a-half year old who has just lost her new snorkel and swimming mask.
We were all determined not to let this incident spoil our time with Opa and Omi. That evening was a little gloomy and Seb and I spent much of the following afternoon making a statement at the police station. The rest of the week we referred to the theft only sparingly and really enjoyed ourselves. We bid goodbye to Opa and Omi on March 14th and although difficult as always the goodbye was a little easier as we know we will see them again in May.

The week after Opa and Omi left we stayed in Sint Maarten to finish some small repairs and of course to fix the engine and replace the start battery. We were lucky enough to meet up with Kees and Mart from the big Pjotter in time to celebrate her 60th birthday. As we were puttering about in the lagoon one morning Emma suddenly pointed and said “Look, the Zilvermeeuw!” As Zilvermeeuw is 'seagull' in Dutch we just patted her in the head and said “Good Emma, a seagull”. Then we noticed the sailboat Zilvermeeuw disappearing around a bend. Amazing that Emma recognised Jeroen and Babette's boat more easily than we did. It was thus a good Dutch reunion and we had some very welcome help with our 'klusjes' and good company for our 'borreltjes.'

Sint Maarten and a Reunion with Opa and Omi

Sint Maarten/ St. Martin that is the smallest sea island divided between two nations, France and the Netherlands Antilles. Some say that the borders were defined in 1648, when a Frenchman and a Dutchman set out from opposite ends of the island, the Frenchman with a bottle of wine and the Dutchman with a bottle of gin and they agreed to place the border where they met in the middle. The Frenchman made it much further than the Dutchman with his gin so the island is geographically 1/3 Dutch and 2/3 French.

Rodney Bay lagoon, on the Dutch side of the island, is an enormous body of water with the biggest group of the largest super yachts that we had ever seen. Row upon row of boats of over 200 feet, mostly motor boats (at least one with a 37 foot tender with a bow thruster) but with a few spectacular sailboats in between. The whole area is overrun with an unnatural opulence that is a little stifling but it is a real boaters community and is therefore a good place to stop to meet interesting people and get any necessary work done on the boat.

Opa and Omi arrived on a morning flight from Curacao and we took a taxi out to meet them at the airport. After 10 months, it was great to see them again and they marveled at the changes to the monkeys (particularly Macsen who has become a real person during that time). They had rented an apartment and a car for the week so we headed in for a little luxury. The apartment had enormous balconies, fantastic views of the ocean, two hot tubs, a pool and most importantly unlimited running water and air conditioning so we settled in quickly. The next couple of days were spent enjoying the sun, eating good food and having a good time together.

Mishaps on the Way to Sint Maarten

“Um, where is the dingy?” was not a question I expected to ask on the evening of March 2nd. Our plan was to leave Dominica at 2030 just after putting the monkeys to bed and heading out for the 200 mile sail to Sint Maarten to meet Opa and Omi (Seb's father and his wife). The monkeys were in bed at 2000 as planned and the boat was ready. The last thing we needed to do was deflate the dingy and stow it on deck. A short inspection outside, however, revealed that the dingy was no longer tied to the boat and in the darkness was nowhere to be seen. Our first thought was to call the big Pjotters for help in the search and to call the local dive shop to see if anyone had seen it. We knew it had disappeared between the hours of 1800-2000 and were quite sure that it had drifted rather than been stolen. Kees showed up in their dingy and a man from the dive shop drove up and picked up Seb and the two boats headed off in opposite directions to begin the search. After less than 15 minutes, Kees found the dingy and after a short thank you discussion with the local fisherman who had swum out to salvage it (and a huge thank you to Kees for finding it again) we stowed it on deck and were on our way.

During my first watch (2300-0300) I noticed a strange smell in the entryway next to the engine room and opened the motor room. The smell persisted so I turned off the motor and we sailed the rest of the night. The following day Seb attempted to diagnose the problem and realized that the start battery had blown out and we were stuck sailing the rest of the way, a gloomy prospect with the winds around 5 knots. In short the 33 hours that we planned for the trip became 42. On top of the time taken we narrowly missed getting becalmed just off the start of the professional race of the Heineken regatta...potentially horribly embarrassing. On the positive side, we were able to practice anchoring under sail in the Simpson Bay and that went well. Two kind gentlemen from the IGY marina came out to tow us in (for a rather steep fee) under the cheering eyes of crowds of Heineken regatta spectators watching from the clubhouse. Needless to say we were relieved to be in our marina slip.

Out of office

We have really enjoyed the Turks & Caicos Islands and are now on our way to the US.