S/Y Irony

Latest News

2011-10-12T18:35:00.005-04:00

We have rejoined Irony in Trinidad at Peakes. For our latest news and blog posts visit www.ironylondon.com

New blog sites

2011-09-03T18:35:00.000-04:00

We are currently visiting family and friends in London and Ibiza. We fly back to Trinidad on 10th October to rejoin Irony.

For blog postings from 26th August 2010 go to http://www.sailblogs.com/member/irony

From May to September 2011 we were sailing on Spiip from Trindad to the Society Islands in French Polynesia. To see pictures and read about our adventures visit: http://sojournonspiip.blogspot.com

VICTORY!

2010-09-20T14:02:00.002-04:00

A very welcome day off on Sunday brought fun and games on Hog Island.Gypsy Blues organised a Kayak tug o' war competition off the beach by Roger's bar. Teams of 2 (one in the dinghy, the other in the water) fought it out, trying to pull the opposition's kayak across the anchored marker, a rather fetching decoy duck. Rules were loose and cheating obligatory, leading to kayaks being turned over and the duck being moved! Three heats later, we actually managed to win, mainly due to Nic's deadly tactics in the water. I just kept madly paddling in the kayak until the whistle blew.
Today work has been rained out; will we ever get these jobs finished?! I am looking at the brand new paint I applied this morning to various spots in the scuppers which are now immersed in a river of rain water, not ideal but it's a welcome opportunity to fill the tanks.
We have also pulled the dinghy out to re-glue it yet again. Thanks to the incredibly kind Gypsy Blues, we won't be boat-bound for days this time, they have generously lent us their spare dinghy to use.

SOME PROGRESS

2010-09-15T14:00:00.000-04:00

We are feeling far more positive today...the final coat of paint has gone on the coach roof (my hand is aching from 2 days of stippling non-slip paint!) and the generator is working (hooray, back to normal cooking on more than one burner at a time!).
On Monday we motored around to the marina in the next bay, Le Phare Bleu, to fill up with water and to enlist further help from Mike of Palm Tree Marine. After a compression test he established that we have an injector problem. The offending injector has been cleaned and we have power. It really needs replacing but that requires specialist tools for the installation that are not available anywhere in the Caribbean. We are keeping our fingers crossed that Nic can keep it going until we get up to the States next year.

ON, ON!

2010-09-12T13:59:00.000-04:00

We enjoyed a brief respite in the work schedule and joined the Grenada Hash House Harriers for a hash in Sauteurs on Saturday. After convening on the beach, a huge group of walkers and runners set off on the course which took us up steep, muddy slopes but afforded spectacular views north to Carriacou. The crowd quickly dissipated in all directions following circles of shredded paper. Everywhere around us we could hear calls of "On, On" to confirm we were on the right track and not one of the false trails culminating in a paper X. The cold beers and bbq were very welcome at the finish. As "hash virgins" we were given certificates and ceremoniously sprayed with beer as we sprinted through the hashers. A very kind Haitian couple gave us a lift back to St Georges despite our beery, damp state!

SUNSET SPECTACLE

2010-09-11T13:56:00.000-04:00

Grenada has the most spectacular sunsets of anywhere we have been in the Caribbean, maybe it's something to do with its position??? Nowhere else are the colours so intense, especially the deep blue, or seen on such a majestic scale. Friday night outdid itself and gave us a full arch double rainbow. My photos couldn't do it justice but the memory lives on.

WORK, WORK, WORK!

2010-09-09T13:52:00.003-04:00

We've finally finished stripping the coach roof and have got a few layers of paint on. The weather is not cooperating...a torrential downpour stopped work yesterday and it has been raining continuously today. Open bolt holes cause us to have plastic trays under the ceiling in the saloon to catch water coming through!

We've also started work on the decks and, just to make life more difficult, had to take off a pulley which had not been installed properly. This entailed dismantling part of a bedroom cupboard (my clothes are now sitting out) and emptying part of the saloon storage. The disruption expands daily! Nic had just removed a couple of bolts before the deluge began yesterday and within seconds we had water pouring in from the river running along the scuppers.

The generator parts arrived and Nic installed them but we still have the same problem so investigations are ongoing with no solution in sight. We've been here a month now and haven't yet even started a single job that we came here to do. Very frustrating!

Trials and Tribulations

2010-08-27T13:46:00.015-04:00

Our maintenance programme seems to be expanding. We began to prepare the coach roof for painting. Just a few tiny cracks and rust spots to grind and prime before putting on a couple of coats of paint. Then one of the hairline cracks suddenly opened up and the paint started coming off like wallpaper. That was last Friday and since then we've had to strip the whole area which involved taking off lots of deck equipment, which meant taking down some of the ceiling in the saloon so that it could be unbolted. And, and, and...

Fortunately we paid for an extra hand on the first day but our helper was not prepared to put in a second day! Unfortunately we had just finished the stripping and treated the whole area with rust converter when we had a torrential rain shower. As a consequence all the chemicals on the roof were being slowly washed off onto the windows so we were out trying to mop them off endlessly. The rain continued through the night and at 4am I went into the saloon to find water dripping from the ceiling, it was making its way through the bolt holes. the next day was the wettest we've had since arriving in Grenada and ensured the bare metal rusted nicely!
The big blow came yesterday. The messy wire-brushing, angle-grinding etc was over and I was putting a complete coat of paint over the whole coach roof. Finally we were seeing light at the end of the tunnel. Nic had a niggling concern about the paint we are using and telephoned the paint manufacturers in the USA. We've applied the wrong primer for the area and all of it has to come off again. (It wasn't a light it was a train!) Some of the earliest sections we've done have 3 coats of fresh (costly) paint and it's going to be incredibly difficult to get it back to metal again. It will be several gruelling Groundhog days before we reach the same point again.
On top of that hurricane season is starting to become more active. Hurricane Danielle is out in the Atlantic, thankfully predicted to miss us, and Tropical Storm Earl behind it is expected to become a hurricane this afternoon. Another more worrying tropical depression is still near the Cape Verdes with an 80% chance of developing into something. Generally our local weather has remained settled but hot and very humid. A boat in our cove was hit by lightning the other night, Nic actually saw it and we were deafened by the crack. It fried their electronics but thankfully no one was hurt. The forces of nature are a powerful thing.
To keep us on our toes we've also been fighting the local wildlife. Apart from flies and mosquitoes finding their way to the boat we've had a stream of hornets visiting and discovered they had built nests in the curtains. The last two nights we've had squid committing seppuku on the deck, not before spraying everything with black ink. How do they leap so high and why?!
Lack of wind and sun is challenging our power supply. With the main generator broken and no parts arriving until the beginning of next week, we're having to run the very noisy portable generator for hours every day, our poor neighbours! Oh yes and I forgot to mention the dinghy is leaking again so will need another long glue session very soon.
Oh joy!

Carnival fun

2010-08-11T16:36:00.002-04:00

We're still recovering from carnival celebrations here in Grenada! After and excellent party on Sunday night we headed into the capital of St George's for J'Ouvert (pronounced "jouvay")which started to get going about 3am and peaked as dawn rose over the picturesque harbour. Everyone wears home-made costumes (or old clothes) and smears themselves and each other in paint, oil and chocolate. For such a Bacchanalian event, the atmosphere was very friendly and unthreatening. We were incredibly impressed with how well-behaved the crowds were throughout the carnival festivities despite reasonably cheap drinks available everywhere. The police were around but certainly not high profile as one would see in Europe.Amidst the socialising we've been working away on Irony trying to get through our long list of maintenance jobs. Additionally our generator has chosen to break down, yet again, so we're sourcing parts.

Gorgeous Grenadines

2010-08-04T18:31:00.004-04:00

Light winds forced us to motor part of the way to Bequia. We anchored at Princess Margaret Beach to do our check in, stayed for a couple of nights and then headed down to Mayreau. Salt Whistle Bay sounded appealing but when we reached there it was full of boats and we carried on to Saline Bay. The next morning we had an interesting walk around the entire island. We didn't find the locals very friendly; not unfriendly, they simply didn't acknowledge our presence at all, an unusual experience in the islands here!

Tobago Cays beckoned and we anchored once again off Horseshoe Reef. We were there for 4 nights and joined by Morning Star. The captain, Juergen, gave Nic his first kite surf lesson. Conditions were very windy and rolly so although we had some great snorkels with the turtles and saw a shark (very close-up), visibility was less clear than our last visit and the currents stronger.

Next stop was Union Island where Nic had further kite surf instruction off the reef bordering Clifton harbour. He's really enjoying it and hoping to do some more down in Grenada with Juergen's excellent tuition.

Tropical storms developing out in the Atlantic forced us to check out earlier than intended and attempt to sail down to Trinidad. Our aim was to fill up with cheap fuel before heading up to Grenada. The promised winds didn't materialise and after struggling for the day we gave in to Aeolus and diverted to Grenada. We arrived into Clarkes Court Bay and anchored off Hog Island just before midnight. We were lucky to have our previous GPS track to follow in through the reefs. We are now here for at least a month doing some much needed maintenance on Irony. And it's Carnival next weekend...

Leaving St Lucia

2010-07-23T09:43:00.002-04:00

It's hard to believe we have been in St Lucia for a week already. We had a great night in Gros Islet for the Friday night Jump Up, visiting our favourite rum shack there. Although it was Carnival we gave it a miss this year, the thought of listening to hours of soca music wasn't to appealing! Most of the time has been spent on chores and repairs including renewing one of our roller furling mechanisms (which turned into a 4 day job as these things can on a boat). We plan to check out today and sail overnight down to Bequia.

Back in Martinique

2010-07-13T11:39:00.001-04:00

Our sail down to Martinique was far better than anticipated – hard on the wind but no tacking. We anchored overnight in Ste Pierre at the north of the island and made our way down the coast the next morning to Marin. We are here to stock up on wine, beer, cheese, pate etc and to renew one of our French-made roller furling systems which failed as we left St Martin.

We decided that this was the last chance to replace our fridge freezer. We have a European domestic appliance, now 7 years old, and if we keep to our current plans, this is the last island we will be able to purchase a 220 volt replacement. When our existing fridge breaks down we will be faced with an expensive and time-consuming re-build of the kitchen to install a boat fridge or an equally expensive import.

After a reconnoitre in Lamentin via bus and hitchhiking we found a suitable candidate for under 300 euros but the delivery was going to be 45 euros. We returned to Marin and rented a car (43 euros for a 5 door hatchback) so that we could collect the fridge freezer and also deliver our still-working old appliance to a new owner (the parents of our helpful and friendly car rental woman, Gladys). It all went very smoothly except for crunching into a lot of road closures due to the Tour de Martinique cycle races taking place this week. We definitely attracted some attention transporting fridge freezers back and forth to shore with our dinghy!

Now replete with booze and goodies, repairs done and new fridge freezer installed, we are on our way down to Rodney Bay, St Lucia in the next couple of days.

Decidedly Different Dominica

2010-07-11T18:28:00.011-04:00

Dominica (pronounced Domineeka) has a very different character to other islands we have visited in the Eastern Caribbean. Covered in dark green rainforest, it has 9 potentially active volcanoes (one of the most highly concentrated areas on earth), tall mountain peaks rising to 4,700 feet, a reputed 365 rivers and over 30 waterfalls and gorges. One’s own transport is essential to explore its many attractions but the roads are terrible, pot-holed and often unpaved, so a 4x4 is definitely recommended. We used Island Car Rentals (Darren in the Portsmouth office was incredibly helpful).

We were delighted to find we could do a simultaneous check in/out with customs for a maximum 2 week stay. They also welcome the use of online ESea-Clear. Unfortunately, the ease of this was negated by the fact that a cruising permit is required to visit other anchorages and this can not be obtained at check in, only the day of moving! There is no charge for this, it’s just paperwork. When will officials get in touch with reality?

On arriving in ramshackle Portsmouth (a more protected anchorage than Roseau in the south), boats are greeted by numerous boat boys offering Indian River trips and other services. We were taken under the wing of “Lawrence of Arabia” who was honest and not overly pushy. He rowed us a mile up the river – picturesque with a canopy of overhanging trees, crabs scuttling amongst the tangled roots and herons on the mudflats – to a jungle bar. For us the experience paled in comparison to the Gambia; the island’s interior is far more rewarding, however it does provide local employment and all the licensed guides provide interesting information on wildlife, flora and fauna.

We walked to Cabrits National Park after torrential rains, along roads bordered by spontaneous water and rock falls. After exploring the partially restored, late 18^th century Fort Shirley we enjoyed along a pretty hillside trail running with water like a stream. By car we explored north of this area, driving through the centre of a volcano with a stop at Cold Soufriere , bubbling pools of cold sulphurous waters. On the east coast we stopped to visit Chaudiere Pool, a beautiful and var

ied walk through both rainforest and farmland with a welcoming swim at the end in cool, clear waters. It was on this walk we saw the colourful native parrots flying across the valley. Along the way we gorged ourselves on fresh mangoes which carpeted the roadside and tracks.

The scenic east coast drive, devoid of many other vehicles, winds through charming villages, abundant with flowers and tropical plants, and into the Carib Territory, 3700 acre home to the only remaining tribe of native Indians in the Caribbean. We took the Horseback Ridge trail and, stopping to admire the spectacular views on each side, had the privilege of meeting Charles Williams, an ex Carib chief who has travelled all over the world campaigning for these indigenous people. It was an unexpected and interesting interlude in our day. Another stop and a short but steep walk took us to the Escalier Tete Chien, a lava formation that resembles steps coming out of the sea, awash with Atlantic rollers.

Dominica has a plethora of magnificent sites and we were very lucky to have most of them to ourselves since our visit was during hurricane season. We swam in the Emerald Pool, at the bottom of a 40 ft waterfall. Even more striking was the twin 200ft Trafalgar Falls, where a cool amongst enormous boulders is followed by a bath in hot sulphur pools which look like they have been landscaped they are so beautiful. Another memorable site was Titou Gorge, a long cleft of steep lava rock through which one can swim to a series of cascades.

The hikes on the island are extensive and some are quite arduous but very rewarding through verdant rainforest of tall hardwood trees engulfed in vines and creepers. Iguanas, lizards, snakes (non-venomous), birds and a variety of land crabs populate these areas. I was also lucky to catch what looked like a wild pig racing through the undergrowth on the Syndicate Falls Nature Trail, possibly a manicou (type of opossum). The rainy climate can make some of the steep trails and rock climbs hazardous and the gorges and riverbeds are subject to flash floods. A 2/3 hour round trip accesses 275 ft Middleham Falls, another breathtaking spot with the promise of a swim under cascading water.

Nic employed a guide (Graeme 276 2122) to visit the Valley of Desolation and Boiling Lake, the Caribbean’s ultimate hike to a 270ft wide bubbling cauldron through a moonscape of white-hot sulphuric rocks. Regretfully I didn’t join him after a hiking guide described lots of steep, slippery climbing – my fear of heights getting the better of me – but this was not the reality Nic experienced. The highlight of his day was a hot bath with a natural jacuzzi from the warm waterfall, he made his guide wait half an hour over this indulgence! On the way home Nic gave a lift to Stanley, an ex-guide scarred with burns from falling into the Boiling Lake. We met him again the next day as we drove though the mountains and he sold us some vegetables. Our delicious fresh salad that night was spoiled by the hot chillis I chopped into it on Stanley’s promise they were mild seasoning peppers!

As a general rule, we didn’t find the Dominican people overtly friendly or welcoming but with some effort on our part they warmed up. Of the many locals we gave lifts to around the island only one woman offered a thank you. They are, for the most part, very impoverished and the island is the most noticeably poor of any we have visited with minimal signs of development or investment. There is little sense of national pride although one local we met boasted that Dominica recently ranked in the top 10 most beautiful natural sites in the world, the only listing for the Caribbean. Sad then, that for a country of such astonishing beauty, far more rubbish is evident than most other islands - the modern scourge of plastic. Sailing south we saw many illegal dumps visible along the coastline.

Fruits and vegetables are plentiful, spring water readily available and Dominica grows its own coffee. Eating out can be expensive for very basic local fare. We recommend the Tomato restaurant outside Portsmouth, run by a Canadian couple (wish we could recommend a local-run establishment), the food is superb.

The few negatives aside, Dominica is a fabulous island and a “must” stop on any Caribbean tour. We are only sad that we haven’t visited before but those hot sulphur pools are definitely calling us back sometime soon.

Heading south

2010-06-23T13:55:00.006-04:00

Hurricane season is well and truly upon us and the buzz is that this year will be an active lively one. We were anxiously watching the development of a tropical wave out in the Atlantic last week with predictions at one stage that it had a 60% chance of developing into a tropical cyclone. We made the decision to stay in St Martin until it passed rather than be caught sailing into it on our way south.

We were hoping to explore the two Dutch islands just south of here, Saba and St Eustatius, but the weather hasn't cooperated - too much rain and cloud combined with heavy seas has made them unfeasible as they have a reputation for being uncomfortably rolly to visit.

A small weather window of easterly winds finally opened up on Monday and we decided to set off for Dominica before the winds turned more southerly. It all started out well but, as we approached St Kitts around lunchtime, the winds turned south easterly and remained so for most of the next 30 hours. We battled our way upwind in high waves cursing the weather reports inaccuracy - where were the F4-5 east winds and 1-2 metre seas predicted? The only thing we could be grateful for was the lack of rain we were expecting on Tuesday.

We haven't quite made it as far as Dominica, we pulled into The Saintes, south of Guadaloupe, yesterday evening, exhausted and salty. It seemed a better plan than trying to anchor in an unknown bay in Dominica at 1130 at night.

Torrential rain washed off the salt last night and continued through this morning but it has cleared up a bit this afternoon. We had a wonderful snorkel here, typically without the camera, moray, drum fish, 10/12 flying gurnards all together, a colour-changing octopus and a striped burrfish with irridescent green eyes.

Back to St Martin

2010-06-19T13:39:00.002-04:00

I have to admit we did not abide by our 12 hour departure limit from Virgin Gorda. The weather wasn't cooperating for a passage back to St Martin so we moved up into the reefs of Eustatia Sound, a stunning spot, and waited a couple of days. We were joined again by Argo Navis and had a fond farewell dinner together before we head off in opposite directions.

On Thursday we set out for St Martin with trepidation, knowing we would be fighting our way against the prevailing winds. In the end our passage was far better than expected, we covered 130 miles instead of the direct 70 and it took almost 24 hours but the weather was good and Irony performed incredibly well with the barber hauler that Nic rigged. She seemed happiest to steer herself at around 40/45 degrees to the wind without the intervention of the autopilot and without any input from us on the helm!

We are now in St Martin to pick up some parts we have ordered and to collect Nic's birthday cards and presents sent here for the 1st May. They hadn't arrived in time due to the appallingly unreliable postal service and the added problem of the Icelandic volcano interfering with flights in April. Although not the prettiest Caribbean island, St Martin is a good stop for provisioning and services and a great place to meet other yachties. The trick is not to get stuck here, as we did last year, we know too many people pulling in here for a week and not leaving for months!

Continuing to enjoy the BVIs

2010-06-07T18:39:00.004-04:00

From Tortola we sailed across to Sandy Spit off Jost Van Dyke - it's a picture postcard island of sand surrounded by turquoise water -busy during the day, but empty at night. It is inhabited by some very aggressive birds who dive bomb anyone walking on the island - and has made for some very funny video footage! Then we moved to Guana Island - the very rocky bottom has stripped our chain of its last galvinising but it's a beautiful spot. Next we spent a couple of nights off Little Camanoe anchored in sand but with fabulous coral gardens to snorkel on. After an overnight stop in The Dogs (possible due to very calm conditions) we are now back on Virgin Gorda in Savannah Bay.

Nic has been working on our dinghy for the last 2 weeks, trying to glue it back together and it will only be ready to go back in the water tomorrow. (We've been very lucky to be travelling in convoy with friends who have ferried us back and forth.) We swam to shore today to walk into Spanish Point to check out - hoping to leave in the next day or so for St Martin. We discovered, from some extremely sullen and unfriendly officials in the Port Authority office that you are only given 12 hours after checking out so we are supposed to leave the Virgin Islands at first light tomorrow morning.

Exploring the Virgin Islands

2010-05-30T13:47:00.009-04:00

Our next stop was The Baths on Virgin Gorda where huge volcanic granite boulders, the size of houses, have created caves and pools along the shore. At sunset we basked on the rocks heated by the day's sunshine. It's a very special place and should not be missed despite the influx of tourists and charter boats during the day. it was an excess of charter boats that made us bypass Manchioneel Bay on Cooper Island and continue on to White Bay, Peter Island together with our friends on Argo Navis. It's a beautiful bay with wonderful snorkelling, we saw a nurse shark, barracuda, turtles, etc. There is a hot walk over the hill to the resort where we could have a cold beer and check our emails in comfort.

It was then on to Norman Island, visiting Benures Bay for peace and quiet (apart from very vocal birds including a brightly coloured parrot) and The Bight for a sunset walk up to the helicopter pad and a few too many drinks at the Willy T (a schooner moored in the bay and infamous for debauchery although we didn't see any crazy antics there).

We are now on Tortola, anchored in Cane Garden Bay for the music festival.

Close Encounters of the Unwanted Kind

2010-05-19T14:42:00.004-04:00

We set off to another anchorage yesterday and, as we were going through some reef areas, I was positioned on the bow as look out. It was all going well and we thought we were in fairly clear water, free of dangers when became fixated on a couple of snorkellers in the water ahead, not wanting to run them over. Unfortunately I didn't see the small, lone, uncharted coral head until we were on top of it. Panicking, I didn't give Nic clear instructions and we managed to hit it. Groan, I feel like such a twit! We now have a scrape in our relatively new antifouling and the coral managed to dent and choke up the water intake for the port engine causing some exhaust problems that need repair. Poor Irony - thankfully she's steel and can take this abuse from her owners!

Workout walk on Virgin Gorda

2010-05-18T14:51:00.000-04:00

On Sunday we set off for an afternoon walk to explore the island. Our dinghy is leaking and glueing it back together has to wait for the current high winds to die down and rain to go away, so we swam to the beach. After a quick rinse-off from a bottle of fresh water and a change into t-shirts and shorts, we headed up to the road behind the beach here. It was a long, hot, uphill walk but provided wonderful views across the island. We reached the entrance for the Virgin Gorda National Park and a track took us up to the peak at 1,370 feet and a lookout platform with spectacular views marred only by the rain clouds drifting past our heads. It was a lovely trail fringed by huge rocks enveloped in tropical vines and we saw brightly coloured hermit crabs (why so high up?), pretty stripy butterflies and at least 5 snakes slithering away. As we left the park, we continued on the road looking over North Sound and spotted some good anchorages to go to next. We passed some stunning houses with fabulously landscaped gardens - flowers seem to be in abundance everwhere. We finally arrived back in Pond Bay as the sun was setting, reflecting bright orange and gold in the wet sand, and swam back to Irony. 24 hours later we knew by our aching muscles that we had covered half of the island!

Up to the BVIs

2010-05-14T16:41:00.001-04:00

Two weeks seemed to evaporate in St Martin and a lot of our dollars! It is such a good place to pick up spares etc and we also got a very good deal in Philipsburg on a new mini laptop and new phone. As a jumping off spot for boats heading either north or south for hurricane season, it was very busy socially. It was lovely to catch up with old friends. We even made it to the cinema (for the first time in well over a year) to see Avatar in 3D which was fantastic.

After a slow and rolly downwind overnight passage we are now in the British Virgin Islands. We had a painless check in at Spanish Town on Virgin Gorda and are now anchored in Pond Bay. Surprisingly there is only one other boat here and the beach is deserted – not at all what we expected from the BVIs.

Landmark Birthday

2010-05-07T10:16:00.002-04:00

The 1^st May ushered in Nic’s 50^th Birthday! To ease the trauma of embarking on another decade, I booked us into the Hotel Marquis in Anse Marcel. It was a real luxury to have unlimited water for 24 hours. Nic was also spoiled with 2 hour-long massages. Now we are trying to take advantage of the big chandleries and services here in St Martin before we explore the British Virgin Islands.

10 fun-filled days with Andrea

2010-04-30T10:15:00.001-04:00

Andrea arrived on Monday afternoon sadly missing the last of the racing in the morning. On Sunday we watched the gig races and enjoyed a cream tea on the lawns of Admiral’s Inn in English Harbour. The next day we rented a car and toured the island ending up at Shirley Heights for its spectacular sunset view across both English and Falmouth harbours.

Our next stop was Deep Bay where we snorkelled on the wreck seeing lots of angelfish, a turtle, barracuda and a ray. We were plagued by mosquitoes at sunset and dawn so were relieved to sail up to Barbuda and anchor on the stunning Cocoa Beach. We then moved around to Low Bay and had a great beach BBQ with another boat, Belle.

After a long walk along the 11 mile beach we hired Clifford to take us by boat across the huge lagoon to do our check out. This involves 3 stops, the one for customs is actually in someone’s house! Clifford is definitely the man to use for this if you are planning to visit Barbuda – 25 EC for 3 of return and he helpfully escorts you around all the offices. He also does visits to the frigate bird sanctuary.

Our sail the next day to St Barts was a slow one. We arrived after dark and anchored in Baie Colombier to avoid the swell running in Gustavia. Under the full moon we could clearly see the bottom as we dropped the hook in 7 metres of water. The next day we snorkelled with the many turtles and had a lovely walk to Baie Flamands before motoring around to Gustavia for drinks and dinner. It was then up to St Martin in readiness for Andrea’s flight out on 30^th April - another passage with no wind necessitating employing the iron sails. We went through the the 17:30 opening of French bridge into the lagoon.

North again

2010-04-19T10:14:00.000-04:00

On leaving St Lucia we managed to sail up the coast of Martinique before we lost the wind. We had to press on because we needed to be in Antigua to meet our guest arriving on 19^th April. After a night of motoring we dropped anchor in the Saintes, islands just south of Guadaloupe. We only had a short time in Terre d’En Haut but loved it. The water was fantastically clear in our anchorage at Pain de Sucre and we had a hot but interesting walk into Bourg des Saintes, the pretty “town”. We left wanting to return and spend some more time exploring these islands.

Since the winds were still either non-existent or against us, we decided to head up to Pointe A Pitre in Guadaloupe and traverse the island via the Riviere Salee, a saltwater mangrove channel through the centre of the island. We had to anchor near the first bridge ready for its only daily opening at 5am. The dark and early start was not improved by heavy rain showers which severely limited our visibility and made the short transit somewhat unpleasant. Dawn broke as we left the last bridge and made our way towards the north of Guadaloupe where it was impossible to eyeball navigate through the reefs to our chosen anchorage at Ilet a Fajou. We had instead to rely on our chart software, never a comfortable feeling but as we monitored it for accuracy through the buoyed channel we decided it was worth the risk.

The anchorage was stunning despite the grey skies and continuing rain. We stayed overnight waiting for some more favourable winds and were ready to sail up to Antigua the next morning. It was a fast passage and we arrived in time to anchor and head in to the Yacht Club party for Classic Week. It was a night to catch up with many friends all there to participate or watch the racing.

In-between St Lucia and Martinique

2010-04-14T10:07:00.007-04:00

With some commitments in St Lucia we have been sailing in-between there and Martinique. We had a great time (and a lot of rum punch) at the Friday night "Jump Up" in Gros Islet with friends from a couple of other boats. We also went Sunday night jazz at Jambe de Bois on Pigeon Island which is always worth a visit.

Back in Martinique we did part of the Trace des Caps walk along the southern coast which was spectacular - varied scenery, stunning beaches and no development.

We head up to Antigua today to catch the end of Classic Week.

More of Martinique

2010-03-20T12:07:00.002-04:00

Rather than the expected white van, we happily ended up with a car although the passenger window didn't work. We drove out of Fort de France up into the Pitons du Carbet on the Route de La Trace (opened by the Jesuits in the early 1700s) and stopped at the Ancienne Station Thermale d'Absalon, where we enjoyed a wonderful 2 hour circular walk in the rainforest. Steep paths laced with tree roots took us through luscious tropical greenery and exotic flowers populated by brightly coloured hummingbirds. At the end we climbed down into the gorge and had a refreshing swim under a waterfall.

On day 2 we visited Habitation Clement near Francois, a rum distillery with a beautifully restored Creole plantation house. Taking the coastal road up the Atlantic side of the island we investigated the Caravelle Nature Reserve and then had a spectacular drive up to Grand-Riviere on the very north of the island. Along the way we managed to collect a bucket full of fallen mangos which we are now gorging ourselves on.

On a more commercial note we also took some time to visit the myriad of massive shops and malls in Le Lamentin - there was no sense of being in the Caribbean, it was like being back in Europe, everything is available!

Exploring Martinique

2010-03-18T10:15:00.003-04:00

Our first stop after Le Marin was the little village of Ste Anne, still in the same enormous bay towards the south of the island. The long white sand beach there is buzzing on Sunday with large crowds of locals picnicking under the trees. Joined by our good friends on S/Y Scorch, we had a delicious three-course lunch in town at Le Sud, which we would highly recommend to anyone.

A pleasant downwind sail took us to Fort de France, the capital, where we anchored under the imposing fortress of St Louis. The town has a very French feel to it and offers some good shopping and a number of interesting buildings. The most striking is Bibliotheque Schoelcher, built for the 1889 World’s Fair in Paris and then shipped to Martinique; it is still in use today. Disappointingly there is a dearth of street-side cafes in the town centre where one can enjoy a coffee or a cold beer and watch the world go by.

We moved on to Trois Islets (confusingly the name of an area and a small village). The anchorage feels very rural with the sound of birds, crickets and some very vocal cockerels. Bourg of Trois Islets is charming and was the home of Princess Josephine up until the age of 16. There is a lovely stuccoed church and a plethora of fish-scale tiled buildings. We walked across the peninsula to see Anse Mitan which was a complete contrast – very touristy and rather naff.

Finding a rental car has been a challenge, there simply aren’t any! Apparently after the strikes of last year, the rental agencies divested themselves of much of their stock. Now, in high season, they don’t have enough cars to go around. We finally managed to find a 2-seater white van to rent and are picking that up tomorrow to explore more of the island.

New GPS

2010-03-10T12:38:00.001-04:00

We sailed up to Martinique from St Lucia last week and took our ailing GPS to Jacques at Diginav Electronics in Le Marin. It took several visits over a few days for him to determine that, it was uneconomical to repair. Jacques gave us a fantastic deal on a new Furuno 32 which is now installed and running.

At the moment we are anchored off Ste Anne but we plan to spend the next couple of weeks exploring Martinique before returning to St Lucia for 22^nd March.

Wow! The Tobago Cays

2010-02-24T11:18:00.006-04:00

Our GPS has gone on the blink but we arrived safely through the reefs after an overnight sail into pretty Clifton Harbour on Union Island for a check in. In the afternoon we headed off to Horseshoe Reef in the Tobago Cays and remained anchored there for a few days. Coincidentally we anchored next to good friends on Scorch of Wessex and were later joined by other friends on Eiland.
The colours and crystal-clear water here is breathtakingly beautiful and the snorkelling is incredible; it's like swimming in a giant aquarium. There is a turtle sanctuary where one can swim with literally dozens of turtles in shallow water. We also sighted barracuda and sharks. We are wondering why we have managed to sail past this area so many times!
Too soon it was time to leave. On Tuesday morning we sailed up to Bequia to check out and have a late lunch. Then another night sail up to Vieux Fort in St Lucia and a sad farewell on Wednesday to our guest, Anna who had joined us for the last couple of weeks.
Wednesday evening we sailed up to Rodney Bay and will be here until Sunday. Then it's up to Martinique to see if we can get our GPS fixed.

Canival Continues

2010-02-19T10:33:00.006-04:00

The revelry continued for another 3 days. On Sunday we went in to Dimanche Gras, a big sellout event in the stadium. It was somewhat disappointing after an enormous effort to get tickets. There was a fantastic costumed depiction of the rainforest which was breathtaking but it was followed by hours of calypso performers, not our cup of tea (nor of most of the audience judging by their faces!). We got back to the boat for a couple of hours sleep before getting up at 4am to go into Port of Spain for J’Ouvert, dressed in our oldest clothes. From the French “jour ouvert” it’s a celebration of the darker elements of Trinidad’s folklore and history. The participants dress as devils or demons and bathe in mud and paint and throw away their inhibitions until daylight.

Unable to get a local bus we hitched and were picked up by the coastguard in a minibus. Sweetly they dropped us right in the centre of things. Along the way we saw crowds of revellers, covered in paint. In town we arrived just in time for the start of the parade. We stayed on well into the morning enjoying the friendly atmosphere and some really good steel bands.

Needing a break from Carnival we took the boat around to beautiful Scotland Bay where we could have a swim and relax for the night. On Tuesday we went back into Port of Spain for the last day’s big Parade of the Bands. The costumes were spectacular but there were few vantage points along the parade route where one could see the big groups in action. Once they had performed at the judging points the masqueraders seemed to give up performing.

We spent Wednesday re-provisioning and filling up with cheap fuel at $0.25/litre. Checking out on Thursday morning we had a brunch stop in Scotland Bay and then a very fast overnight sail to Union Island.

Carnival begins

2010-02-14T13:23:00.004-04:00

We had a very fast night sail to Trinidad arriving at dawn into Chaguaramas. After a long tedious check in we set off for Port of Spain to see the Junior Parade of the Bands (kiddie carnival!). It was incredible to see how young they were, some were being wheeled around in prams. The costumes were fantastic and the atmosphere very gentle, a good introduction to Carnival celebrations. In the evening we watched the beginning of the Steel Band Finals and managed to walk around the bands as they were warming up before they went into the big stadium. Sadly Anna had her rucksack sliced open with a knife and wallet stoled, a dampner on an otherwise good day. Short of sleep, we ducked out early and went back to Irony passing the start of huge parties (one with 20,000 people) on the way. More on Sunday!

On the move again

2010-02-12T12:19:00.000-04:00

I flew back into St Lucia with Anna on Wednesday, in the meantime Nic sailed the boat down to Vieux Fort on the southern tip of the island to be closer to the airport. We touched down just after 3pm and by 10pm we'd upped anchor and set off for Union Island in the Grenadines.
We arrived in Chatham Bay by lunchtime on Thursday and had a lovely day of snorkelling and a good night's sleep before setting off at noon on Friday for Trinidad.

Nostalgic Visit to Williamsburg

2010-02-07T13:45:00.005-04:00

This is an unusual post because I am not writing it from Irony. I am visiting my university town of Williamsburg, Virginia in the USA and a very good friend here, Anna. We both studied art history but she has made her career in that world. As a consequence, I've had a very cultural time, attending the opening of a Michelangelo exhibition at William & Mary's Muscarelle Museum of Art and even helping to hang an show in a local gallery.
We also had a wonderful dinner at A Chef's Kitchen, a very novel restaurant where one eats a delicious 5-course gourmet dinner while the chefs demonstrate the recipes.
It has been a nostalgic experience wandering around the historic town, originally the colonial capital of the United States. Always beautiful, it has been enhanced by the snowy weather we are having.

Passage to St Lucia

2010-02-01T13:36:00.001-04:00

After a few days stocking up and socialising with frends in St Martin we set off for St Lucia on Friday 29th. Winds were predicted to be northeasterly 15-20 knots, perfect for our 275 mile passage. What we encountered was rather different - an easterly to southeasterly direction meant we were sailing at 52 degrees to the wind the entire way. Just to make it more wet and uncomfortable we had winds gusting Force 8 and 3 metre waves. We nearly lost the dinghy from the davits and very sadly, Nic lost a watch he has owned since he was 21 to the sea. It was a wonderful relief to anchor back in familiar Rodney Bay on Sunday morning.

Beautiful St Barth

2010-01-24T13:15:00.005-04:00

We were joined in St Martin by Nic's mother, Chrissy, on 12th January. We rented a car and toured the island visiting its many lovely beaches. The Dutch capital, Phillipsburg, is lovely, despite being a major cruise ship destination. The next day, we sailed around to Baie Orientale and anchored overnight before sailing down to St Barth on particularly rainy, grey day.
The island has a unique character to the other islands we have visited; a St Tropez in the Caribbean with a very affluent European population. The port of Gustavia is dollhouse-sized and very picturesque. The beaches are stunning and remain largely undeveloped. We anchored in Colombier, snorkelled with the many turtles there and had a beautiful walk across to Flamands on the Atlantic side.
We stopped at Ile Fourchue on our way back to St Martin - uninhabited it has a desolate charm and good snorkelling.
Our time with Chrissy went all to quickly and we were sad to see her off on her flight back to Spain.

In St Martin

2010-01-11T16:50:00.000-04:00

We sailed up to St Martin last Monday, getting horribly dusted by the continuing eruptions from the volcano on Montserrat. We are now anchored in Simpson Bay Lagoon and looking forward to Chrissy's arrival tomorrow. We plan to take her on a cruise around this island, St Barts and, if there is time, Anguilla.

Happy New Year!

2010-01-02T14:03:00.002-04:00

After torrential rain dampened New Year's Eve, we enjoyed a lovely Carnival parade in Basseterre yesterday.

St Kitts

2009-12-28T10:43:00.005-04:00

We had a very "Mediterranean" sail from Martinique to Nevis - fickle winds from all directions! We checked in at Charleston, a very picturesque town and then sailed up to Frigate Bay on St Kitts the next day. Meeting up with friends, we spent Christmas Eve at the Shiggidy Shack with rum punch and limbo dancing. Since then unusual weather has ruled our schedule - we've had endless southerly winds which have brought big swells into all the bays and made anchoring very rolly and uncomfortable. It's Carnival here and we missed the big Jouvert celebration on Boxing Day but there's more going on over New Year. We can't complain too much, it's warm and we've had some fabulous snorkelling in White House Bay on a wreck.

Merry Christmas from Irony

2009-12-25T18:48:00.000-04:00

On to Martinique

2009-12-21T21:16:00.005-04:00

We had a fantastic long walk (4 hours +) across to the Atlantic side of St Lucia ending up at Cas en Bas Beach and then taking the coastline further north. It was a wonderful mixture of scenery and the weather was perfect, not too hot and a nice onshore breeze. It really is a stunning island.
Friday we checked out and on Saturday we sailed up to Martinique. Irony made good time and we arrived 4 hours later. After a lunchtime beer at a cafe we hit the supermarkets to stock up on French wines, cheeses and other European goodies. It's far cheaper on the French islands despite the bad exchange rate of £ to euro.
Our dinghy has once again sprung a leak and has had more tlc and glueing. Bad timing so close to Christmas as we are meeting up with friends in St Kitts. We sail off there tomorrow morning and hope to arrive by Thursday. We're not expecting a fast passage as the winds are predicted to be light.

On our way north

2009-11-30T12:41:00.004-04:00

We sailed up to St George's, Grenada and then on to Carriacou to see some old friends. On the way we stopped at Moliniere Bay to look at the underwater sculpture garden. We spent a night at anchor off Ile de Ronde which was fabulous if rather rolly. The water was crystal clear, the best we have seen in the Caribbean and the snorkelling excellent. Tomorrow we sail up to St Lucia.

Back in the water

2009-11-27T10:28:00.004-04:00

As week 7 of our haulout began on Monday we were working frantically in 2 days of torrential rain to be ready for our splash time of 9:30am on Tuesday morning. Having worked until after midnight we got up at 6am to find our charger had blown a fuse and our batteries would need a minimum of 4/5 hours charging to be full to go back in the water. We talked to another boat near us who were going to launch at 1pm and they very kindly agreed to swop the slot with us.
It was a tense time when they finally lowered us into the water but, after all the work and modifications on the shafts, we stayed afloat and went out to anchor in Chaguaramas Bay. What an incredible relief!
On Wednesday we finished our last errands and persuaded customs to allow us to check out and spend the night in Scotland Bay before setting off for Grenada on Thursday morning. We had a very enjoyable late lunch onboard Irony with our friends, Scott and Colleen from Argo Navis and set off. We were at anchor having our first swim off the boat in over 7 weeks by sunset (5:30pm here now).
We slowly got ourselves going on Thursday morning, getting the boat ready to sail again. We left Scotland Bay at 11am and arrived into St George's, Grenada at 11pm. We had a cracking sail, Irony clearly wanted to prove that all our hard work of the last few weeks was worth it! We averaged 7 knots, seeing over 9 knots at times. The weather was perfect and the night stunning.

Birthday Blues

2009-11-16T14:07:00.004-04:00

We had to cancel our splash today and so begins our 6th week out of the water. Today's launch date was already looking in doubt on Saturday as we still didn't have all the parts back Nic is having fabricated for both the keel mechanism and the shafts. He then discovered, in re-assembling the shafts, that they appear to be misaligned slightly. We decided that, with everything out and while we are in a place where we can get things sorted, it was best to tackle the problem head-on and make whatever modifications are necessary. So here we are and it's my birthday today - celebrations are deferred until we're back in the water!

Hell on the Hard

2009-11-09T18:43:00.008-04:00

Today is the start of our 5th week out of the water and we haven't had a day off. Working long hours in the heat and humidity is no fun at all. Irony seems enormous out of the water - it takes hours to paint the hull and it's had at least 6 coats of varying paints (more in some places). Just tackling re-antifouling would have been enough but we've also had the dent to sort out and issues to deal with on both shafts and the keel mechanism. Not only have we had the mess outside but a large part of the inside of the boat has been ripped apart and disrupted. The yard have been fantastic but progress is slow and we are completely exhausted. We are now booked to splash next Monday, if we manage to be ready then it will be my birthday present to be back in the water!

Clash of Steel

2009-11-07T18:31:00.000-04:00

No, we haven't crashed the boat! We went to a steel band competition on Saturday night called "Pan, Parang and Pork" at Queens Park Oval in Port of Spain! Parang is traditional festive music from Venezuela and provided our entertainment during a delicious dinner. Then the "clash of steel" began with 6 steel bands performing for the judges. They were excellent, one even managed a impressive rendition of the Hallelujah Chorus from the Messiah! Getting back to the boat at 2am did not make it an easy work day on Sunday.

Work, work, work

2009-10-23T17:19:00.011-04:00

Having hit some sort of underwater wreck over a year ago, we had a dent in the side of Irony and wanted this checked out. We have had to dismantle the saloon and remove one of the fuel tanks to access the area inside the boat so, although the surveyor thought it was safe to leave it, we decided to have the piece cut out and replaced. We are lucky that we are in a place accustomed to working on everything from small yachts to huge commercial vessels and there is no shortage of skilled, experienced professionals. We had a great team who arrived in the early morning and remained smiling despite having to finish the job after dark.
The mess and disruption is unimaginable inside the boat. We had screened off the area as best we could but, to keep down the heat and smoke, they had a huge industrial fan blowing all the dust and dirt everywhere. That combined nicely with several guys coming in and out all day with large boots on and a torrential rainshower in the middle of the proceeding turning the boatyard into a lake. Halfway through the cutting process we had a fire, put out fairly quickly but it filled the saloon with smoke.

The final blow today was finding out that it's going take 2 weeks and a small fortune to get some bearings for the props. Our two week haul out is now turning into four weeks.

Divali

2009-10-19T17:49:00.006-04:00

Saturday was a public holiday – Divali, the Hindu festival of light. It’s a huge celebration here as there is a large Indian population and we joined a group going to the village of Felicity in the central plains area of the island to check it all out. It was great to have a break from the work and change of scene.

We were invited to a temple where we were treated to dancers and Tassa drummers. After a delicious meal served on banana leaves, we explored all the streets of the village. Bamboo is used to create arches and huge sculptures of Ganesh, cobras etc. They take gloopy mud and stick little clay oil lamps along the constructions to light them up. Bamboo arches across the roads, strung with lanterns, had oil lamps inside. Prayer flags and millions of lights adorn all the houses and gardens. The villagers were dressed up in glittering saris and elaborate brocade kurtas; they generously plied us bags of traditional sweets and other gifts as we walked past. Alarmingly there were firecrackers going off everywhere and home-constructed fireworks of bamboo and kerosene.

and Moves!

2009-10-17T17:37:00.008-04:00

Well, it was quite a day yesterday. We got up at dawn (5.30am) to get to Port of Spain for Nic’s visa appointment at the US Embassy. We thought we’d allowed masses of time to get there and be able to seek out a coffee somewhere before the appointment at 7.30am. The capital is pretty ugly and soulless but there is the odd gorgeous Victorian gingerbread villa tucked away between the modern buildings; typically the embassy is a hideous fortress. When we arrived there were dozens of people already queuing outside, so no chance for some refreshment and I had to leave Nic as they wouldn’t let me in despite my US passport.
I returned to the boatyard to discover Nic had the keys to the boat with him! Then I was accosted by the yard manager who said they had to move us so they could get a trimaran out of the storage area near us. There was an hour or more of panic as I couldn’t get into the locked boat to prepare for going back in the slings. The travel lift showed up and they were about to go ahead when Nic ambled through the gate! He had to raise the keel and the switch chose that moment to die. To fix it necessitated dismantling some woodwork inside while everyone was poised for action. Then there was a torrential downpour soaking us all. By the time the whole saga was over it was midday and we were able to have our first food and drink since we got up. Then back to work until nearly 8pm.
So we are now in a new position in the working boatyard – very industrial and grim. Our hearts sank initially because we were sitting over mud and huge pools of oily water. A small tip to some of the workers produced a couple of loads of clean gravel which has made a more workable surface under the boat. Miles now to the loos and showers, thankfully we have a bike to use.

Lots of work to do. In addition to the antifouling, we have to do repairs on the props, shafts, keel and we have to take out one of the fuel tanks to inspect a ding we have underwater. This means the entire saloon is being dismantled - currently the back 2 cabins are piled to the ceiling with everything. That leaves us part of the cockpit (piled with paint cans, brushes, rollers etc) to eat in and yesterday it was dripping with all the rain we had.

Moves

2009-10-15T16:12:00.000-04:00

Just so you don’t think our cruising life is all “plain sailing” ...we were being moved to a new spot last Thursday morning and, although we were originally promised 4 days to work on the keel while it was down over the ditch, that gave us 2 days. So the pressure was on to get the inaccessible areas prepared and painted.

We started work at 6am Wednesday morning – grinding and sanding – and put the first coat of paint on at 5.30pm. That was all on an hour’s breakfast and an hour for tea. After 2 hours of painting we showered, had some dinner, then did coat #2 at 9.30pm which took over an hour. I should mention at this point that there was a BBQ going on under the trees beside us - just to torture us! A short sleep was interrupted by the alarm at 1.30am and coat #3. A little more sleep and up at 5.30am to do Coat #4. At 9.30am we started coat #5, hoping to get it done before the travel lift would appear. At 10am the travel lift manager came along and said he'd decided to leave us where we were!

In meantime we’re enjoying the fun of using communal showers and toilets in the yard although they are much better than the primitive offering in our last boatyard in Turkey. One of the first days I found a snake in them and subsequently had to go in with a stick to make sure the coast was clear! Any water used on board has to go out via a bucket down the ladder making washing up etc a pain. Nothing can go down our drains.

We have been the centre of attraction in the yard while we’ve been marooned on our island! Everyone is apparently talking about us – typical that we don’t manage to do a normal haul out!

Hauled out

2009-10-12T20:28:00.007-04:00

Well, we’re out and the work begins. The yard have been very friendly and professional, so far so good. It is blisteringly hot...nearly 35 degrees in the shade this afternoon. We have an unusual position in the yard - over a drainage ditch so that we can have our keel down - not so good for mosquitoes. We are a little island in the middle of the road near the gate to the marina and, as a consequence, we have attracted quite a lot of attention from passers-by. We’re banked by trees on either side and it’s nice to hear the bird song but they are already “making their mark” on the decks. We are only in this spot until Thursday to get the keel box prepared and painted and then we’ll be moved to a more normal place to finish everything else.

On to Trinidad

2009-10-07T17:12:00.008-04:00

During our last week in Grenada we spent a lot of time scraping the hull to prepare it for our forthcoming haul out. We decided it was far better to do it in a nice anchorage than on the hard in a dusty, hot boatyard. We combined it with some wonderful snorkelling and diving (below is a picture of a huge angelfish we saw) and really enjoyed beginning to get some use from our compressor.

The night before our departure we went to the opening of a jazz club in St Georges, Pebbles. The music was excellent and we had a great time. The next afternoon we set off for Chaguaramas, Trinidad and sailed overnight under a full moon arriving early the next morning. We experienced some incredibly strong currents which, at times, required a 25 - 35 degree course change.

Trinidad is quite a change from Grenada. The anchorage is a huge bay ringed with numerous boat yards and associated facilities, all very industrial. Our view out to sea is on to gas rigs and ships. It's extremely hot here and the water is far too dirty to swim in. We had a southerly come through the bay yesterday morning which caused panic as huge waves tossed the boats around and caused a few near crashes. We have been talking to the boat yards and come to an agreement with Peakes, all being well, we will haul out on Monday.

Crisis onboard!

2009-09-20T09:31:00.000-04:00

It was a major crisis...our big, brown teapot broke! Nic's shorts brushed it off its perch after breakfast. Considering that Irony is kept running by Nic who in turn runs on a constant supply of tea this constituted a life-threatening disaster. In the hopes of preserving what little sanity we both have left after over 7 years of life on the seas, I decided to set out on a mission to replace it.

Since our dinghy was sitting on deck after being glued again I had a challenge just getting on land let alone to a shop. Step 1 was to swim over 200 metres to shore with some clothes in a waterproof bag. Armed with a small bottle of fresh water to wash off the salt, I got dressed and stashed my wet things in the bushes. After a trek across some grassland I got onto a dirt track leading to a gated bridge across from the island where we are anchored. Having crawled through a miniscule hole under the locked gate, I then embarked on a long walk, having no idea where I was going to end up, through the countryside in the heat of the day to reach a road where I could get a local bus into town. I must have looked rather pink and damp because the Rasta’s at the roadside BBQ where I asked directions offered me a seat in the shade while I waited for the bus! Anyway, I finally got to a hardware shop and found a teapot. Then, of course, I had the long trip back including the return swim to the boat but I did make it back for afternoon tea!

To compound the lunacy, after relaying my adventure to Nic, we decided that the 10 mile round-trip walk was good exercise and set off again on Thursday to do it again together. It is a beautiful walk with millions of multi-coloured butterflies flitting over the bushes, white heron picking their way through the mudflats and horses, cows and goats grazing at the side of the track. The end of the walk reaches a village with characteristic Caribbean wooden houses in brightly painted colours engulfed by lush tropical plants. Some are little more than one room shacks with their inhabitants living incredible primitively with no electricity or running water but they are all immaculately clean and tidy.

The next day we did it all again, this time to meet up with some friends and go up north to Gouyave, the fishing capital of Grenada, where they have a fish fry every Friday. The locals block off a couple of streets, put up stalls and serve fish, fried plantain and breadfruit etc. Our return walk was in the dark under a ceiling of stars and the swim back to the boat was incredible with phosphorescence sparking off every finger.

Generally we have been enjoying a relaxed time here in Grenada. There is a huge community of boats anchored here for the summer and a wealth of activities and social events to get involved with. We even volunteered for a
tutoring programme which is organised by some cruisers here to help island kids with reading and maths. We’re a bit out of practice but thought the kids needed some English accents rather than just American! They were lovely children of ages ranging from 5 to 14 and a couple of local women (with very London accents from previously living there!) run it so we hope the cultural messages being sent out by a group of white yachties doing this are not too negative.

Why we need to haul out soon!

2009-09-09T11:12:00.000-04:00

Carnival revisted

2009-08-19T19:36:00.007-04:00

We had a hot sunny day for Carnival on Saturday and enjoyed a parade of brightly coloured costumes, raunchy dancing and unremitting soca music - good fun but surprisingly smaller than St Lucia's parade, perhaps due to the postponement from last Tuesday.

We are investigating haul out possibilities here but it looks like it's going to be significantly more expensive than Trinidad so we are probably going to sail down there in a week or two to have a look.

The first named storms of the season - Anna, Bill and Claudette have developed. Bill is a category 4 hurricane but has fortunately tracked north of us here.

Washed out Carnival

2009-08-13T10:12:00.004-04:00

We sailed down from Carriacou to St Georges, Grenada on Sunday crossing over the underwater volcano, Kick 'em Jenny. It was a fast passage until we got off the coast of Grenada when we lost all the wind. We checked out the inner lagoon at St Georges but decided to anchor outside at the end of the 2 mile beautiful Grand Anse beach so we could swim. Monday/Tuesday was a holiday on the island for Carnival. We were looking forward to the big parade of bands and costumes through the streets on Tuesday afternoon but, very sadly for all the participants, organisers and street vendors, it was washed out by torrential rain. It will now be held this Saturday.

Yesterday we headed around to True Blue Bay on the south coast. Very few boats and reasonable snorkelling.

On to Grenada and Carriacou

2009-08-08T09:24:00.004-04:00

We have a fantastic fast sail down to Hillsborough, Carriacou yesterday and are now anchored in Tyrell Bay. It's full, full, full of yachts. St Georges, Grenada next stop for Carnival on Monday and Tuesday.

Great Snorkelling in Bequia

2009-08-06T09:14:00.001-04:00

On to Bequia

2009-08-05T23:06:00.009-04:00

We left St Lucia early Tuesday morning and sailed south, arriving in Bequia late that night. It was a great sail and we had a large pod of dolphins accompany us on our approach to St Vincent. Bequia is under the flag of St Vincent and the Grenadines. It's very picturesque, overgrown with lush tropical trees, vines and flowers and speckled with multi-coloured wooden gingerbread houses. We had a great snorkel this evening – dozens of schools of small fish, at least 100 strong, hanging out around the rocks near the shoreline. We've never seen so many in one place, there must have been thousands. The rocks were covered in Christmas tree worms of all colours. Sadly we didn't have the underwater camera with us.

Carnival

2009-07-23T10:14:00.008-04:00

We are back in Rodney Bay (to let our eardrums recover) after sailing down to Castries, the capital of St Lucia for Carnival. Not one of the major Caribbean Carnivals but a spectacle nevertheless. A bit of history...Carnival originates from early Roman Catholic Italy...it was the last bash before Lent when they stopped eating meat and was literally carne vale or "farewell to flesh". So it’s very much a colonial heritage.

Unfortunately the weather didn't cooperate - a tropical wave was passing through and brought torrential rain with it which dampened the parade a bit. But what a parade it was - skimpy costumes and some incredibly raunchy dancing - there's no touching with hands but a lot of bumping and grinding! Sadly, apart from some superb traditional bands from Martinique, the music all seems to come straight from the ghettos in New York - relentless and manic. Strange they have adopted that instead of building on their African, Caribbean heritage. There were no steel bands, no reggae, no calypso, no Senegalese music. We are really hoping that the Carnival in Grenada (in August and we’re hoping to visit) hasn’t changed since we were last there 10 years ago, it was brilliant. For more pics go to http://picasaweb.google.com/Ironylondon/StLuciaCarnival

Our other boat is in the background!!!!!!!

Back in St Lucia

2009-07-16T13:56:00.002-04:00

We sailed south to Martinique and stocked up on French wines and cheeses in Le Marin. It is still filled with hundreds of boats at anchor. On Bastille Day the local boats came out for a race and made a colourful scene with their huge sails. We're now in St Lucia and anchored off Pigeon Island in Rodney Bay. It's looking tropically lush with all the flame trees in full bloom. Carnival here on Monday and Tuesday so we are going to sail down to Castries to check it out.

Marigot Bay

2009-07-07T16:32:00.006-04:00

We FINALLY left the lagoon and went through the French bridge this morning. We are anchored in Marigot Bay. It's a day for scraping the bottom of the boat so we've had the dive compressor and bottles out. There are some very surprised crabs and mussels trying to find a new home! Check out tomorrow and then southwards.

End in sight!

2009-07-02T09:37:00.011-04:00

Nic finally got the generator going on Sunday afternoon. We also installed the 2 wind generators on the mizzen mast so Irony has gone green. Now we're putting the boat back together and will head south to St Lucia once the latest tropical wave moves through this weekend.

Still here!

2009-06-14T14:03:00.001-04:00

We're still in St Maarten and the generator is still not working. Ready to tear our hair out!

Ailing generator

2009-05-29T15:54:00.002-04:00

Still in St Maarten...we have had 2 deliveries of parts for the generator from Florida and are awaiting the third. We hope that, once received, we will be up and running again. All very frustrating.

Barbuda and on to St Maarten

2009-05-10T10:54:00.004-04:00

After a visit to Jolly Harbour to refill our water tanks, we returned to Deep bay for Nic's birthday. From there we sailed up to Barbuda - undeveloped with long beautiful beaches. We are now in St Maarten to stock up on paint and parts for our forthcoming haulout. The generator has also broken down so we are conserving energy while we wait for a part to arrive from Florida!

Velsheda and Ranger collide - Antigua Classic Yacht Regatta

2009-04-24T16:26:00.009-04:00

It's been an exciting week in Antigua - 55 beautiful yachts competing in a variety of races on the south coast of the island and the socialising to go with it! Nic went racing for 2 days on a lovely 64' yacht called Petrana (see picture below). Tina and I were in the chase boat for Petrana on the last day and witnessed the unbelievable sight of 2 J-class yachts colliding. We saw Velsheda on port tack and Ranger on starboard tack and thought we would get a great photo of them crossing. Before we knew it they were on a collision course. Their rigging hit first, then bow, then midship, then stern. We saw 4 crew leap into the water from Velsheda. It was a terrifying sight and we are only glad that no one was injured. We backed off as the chase boats rushed in to rescue the crew in the water. After all the boats had moved on we collected several large pieces of Velsheda from the water! It seems to have been a week of close encounters with Velsheda! Further information on http://www.dockwalk.com/MyDockwalk/Blogs.aspx?id=24372&blogid=46084&LoggedIn=true

We have now escaped up to Deep Bay to chill out and enjoy some more snorkelling on the wreck here.

Tina's visit

2009-04-17T16:20:00.003-04:00

Tina arrived last weekend and we spent a few days around Falmouth and English Harbour. On Easter monday we sailed around to Green Island and had a fantastic few days snorkelling on the reefs there. We returned to Falmouth Harbour this morning and hove to outside to watch the first race of Antigua Classic Race Week. We had an amazing view of the yachts positioning for the start. J-class yacht, Velsheda tacked a few metres away from us.

Arrived in Antigua

2009-04-08T10:51:00.006-04:00

We sailed past Dominica and Guadaloupe arriving in Falmouth Harbour, Antigua yesterday. We are anchored off Pigeon Beach and the water is turquoise and crystal clear. All the classic yachts are beginning to arrive for Classic Race Week on 16th April.

Martinique

2009-04-06T10:20:00.001-04:00

After a week in St Lucia repairing the dinghy and the generator, among other tasks, we sailed up to Martinique. We had a provisioning stop in Marin which was fantastic for French supermarkets stocked with delicious cheeses and pates! Our next stop was at the north of the island - Ste Pierre nestled under the Mt Pelee volcano. This erupted in 1902 killing nearly 30,000 people. It is a dramatic location and made for a spectacular sunset. We are now sailing north past Dominica to Guadaloupe and plan to be in Antigua for Tina's arrival on 10th April.

Anna's Visit

2009-03-23T16:02:00.007-04:00

We sailed down to Vieux Fort, at the southern tip of the island, to pick Anna up from the airport on Thursday. Friday we made our way around to the Pitons and since then have been enjoying some fantastic snorkelling. There are loads of fish from barracuda to little box fish and a great landscape of coral. Yesterday we had a long hike uphill (2 hours) to the Ladera Resort (check out the open air bedrooms - www.ladera.com/) which has the most spectacular view from its ridge between the Pitons. We also bought a lobster off the fishermen yesterday, nicknamed him Oscar, and barbequed him last night.

Rodney Bay

2009-03-23T15:52:00.003-04:00

We had a lovely time anchored in Rodney Bay sorting out the boat and enjoying the beautiful Caribbean colours and warm weather. We spent 3 nights in the marina catching up on laundry - 26 loads - I haven't been able to use the washing machine since we left Tenerife at New Year!

We have arrived!

2009-03-06T12:02:00.003-04:00

We have arrived in the Caribbean and are now anchored off Pigeon Island, Rodney Bay, St Lucia. We sailed 2656 miles in just under 18 days dropping anchor this morning at 0530 GMT. The sun is shining, the water is turquoise and the temperature is a delightful 27 degrees. More to follow when we have checked in and get on the internet.

From mid Atlantic

2009-02-23T05:20:00.001-04:00

We are at the end of our 1st week and in 7 days we have covered 1155 miles of our 2600 mile passage. We've had F4-6 winds and 3/4m waves and made great speed; Irony is taking it in her stride. Temp in low 20s but feels colder. The first 2/3 days we were both feeling queasy, not actually sick but I really wanted to end it all! That's gone now and we are acclimatised to the constant movement and routine of watches. It's strange never to get more than 3 hours sleep at a time and not be able to get into bed together! Nic covers 10pm-1am and 4am-7am, I do 1am-4am and 7am-10am (crossed a couple of time zones but sticking to GMT). We also try to grab a couple of extra hours during the day. Having a shower is quite a challenge when being thrown around. The advance cooking I did has kept things easy in the galley. We still are enjoying lots of Gambian fresh fruit and veg.

We've been in radio contact with the Dutch couple we met in Gambia, they are 1000 miles south of us heading for Brazil, motoring for 5 days in the doldrums and extreme heat! Every evening at 8pm we radio "Herb", an amazing guy in California who's been helping yachts with their Atlantic crossings for decades, all for free. We give him our position and weather conditions and he tells us what's ahead and can warn of possible storms and advise on avoiding them. Incredible we can be in contact with land all the way out here.

We've had a few dramas...the vang (connects boom to mast)broke off the mizzen mast. Nic had to drill out the old rivets and re-rivet it on again. I've had to stitch up the bimini which was coming apart; it's taking a few waves over the top! Yesterday am, Nic woke me up from my precious 3 hrs because the autopilot had stopped working. I had to manually steer while he replaced the fuse which had blown after a couple of big waves hit us. We're relieved it was nothing more serious and we're not faced with being at the helm day and night for the rest of the passage; the autopilot gives us a lot of freedom. Other than that our greatest hazard seems to be flying fish which are constantly bombarding the windows, decks and cockpit.

We are now making for St Lucia rather than Martinique. We need some parts and there's a duty-free chandlery there, Martinique is euro zone and will be expensive for us. The call of those pina coladas on a palm-fringed beach is getting stronger.

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Departure

2009-02-14T08:39:00.002-04:00

They kindly gave us another 28 day visa on Thursday, it's tempting to head back upriver but the Caribbean is calling now! Now planning to leave tomorrow or Monday. Will post our position each day on www.yachtplot.com (login with boatname: Irony and password: onboard).

Photos

2009-02-11T13:36:00.002-04:00

http://picasaweb.google.com/Ironylondon/GambiaHighlights

Back in Lamin

2009-02-11T12:59:00.005-04:00

We are now back at Lamin Lodge trying to get ourselves organised before we sadly need to leave on Friday (our 28 day visa has run out too quickly!) In addition to provisioning for our Atlantic crossing we have to refuel (600 litres by jerry can) and fill up with water (in jerry cans by donkey cart from the standpipe in the village). Getting money to pay for it all is a challenge - it is only possible to get 2000 dalasi or about 60 pounds out of the bank at one go, so we have to keep feeding the card in to get bricks of money. The largest note is only 100 dalasi and fuel is 32 dalasi/litre!

Up the river

2009-02-05T13:34:00.002-04:00

We haven't had any internet available since we left Lamin Lodge. We have been having the most amazing time along the river - only one more croc but millions of monkeys and baboons, chimps, hippos, an enormous variety of the most spectacular birds and, unfortunately, quite a selection of insects. We are feeling very in touch with nature, both sights and sounds. More detail and pictures to follow.

Crocs and we don't mean the shoes!

2009-01-22T06:57:00.001-04:00

We saw our first crocodile today, basking on a mudflat in the the sun up Mandori Creek, where we are anchored for the night - no swimming planned! Although the river is still over a mile wide here, the creek is narrow. Once we were over the sand bar at the entrance it is surprisingly deep quite far up, fortunate as it is uncharted. We set out quite early this morning to take advantage of the tides and are now about halfway up to Georgetown, our final destination. It was only 14 degrees at 0730 this morning but 30 degrees this afternoon with less than 20% humidity, necessitating quite a wardrobe change during the day. There have been hardly any other boats in evidence and virtually no sign of human development of any kind; lots more dolphins though. The quiet tonight is incredible, only punctuated by bird and insect sounds and the odd fish breaking the surface of the water, it's magical. We are going a short distance tomorrow over to Tendeba where there is a camp where they serve bush pig!

On our way up the river

2009-01-20T18:41:00.002-04:00

We left this morning and started our journey up the river, accompanied by dolphins around James Island (a fortress used as a slave collection area and fought over by the British, French and Dutch from 1650 until it was abandoned in 1829). We are anchored at Bintang Bolon, a creek about 25 miles from Banjul - just us and the local wildlife - SO quiet, it's wonderful.

We had an interesting time at Lamin Lodge. On Saturday the President was visiting the local village and we went to see the celebrations. It was an incredible scene - everyone dressed up, music, lots of people in green batik costumes and millions of kids. The kids latched onto us, fascinated by the camera. They weren't a nuisance, just very open, friendly and chatty. Provisioning is a challenge, there's hardly anything available to buy. We had to get the local lads, Landa and Lennox, to drive us to a nearby farmer's market to stock up on fruit and vegetables for our trip. We heard from other boats that there's little to buy up the river.

Arrived in Banjul

2009-01-17T12:05:00.003-04:00

We left Dakar around 2pm on Thursday afternoon and had a pleasant overnight sail to Banjul with light winds and calm seas. It was the unlit fishing boats which kept us on our toes for the passage - a flashing light would suddenly appear in the inky night, followed by more and within minutes we would be sailing through a whole group of them! We were so close we even exchanged greetings and could smell their dinner cooking on their burning braziers. We navigated our way to "Stop in Time" bank and through "Schooners Gap" in the dark and made our way into the Gambia River to Banjul, anchoring about 9am at Half Die(so-named because half the people died in a 1869 cholera epidemic). Banjul itself is little more than an overgrown dusty village, everything has apparently relocated to the tourist resorts further along the coast.

After 4 hours of infuriating hassle, paperwork and walking around in the heat to do our check in, we motored up to Lamin Creek. We are anchored in front of Lamin Lodge, a picturesque log cabin nestled in the mangroves. It is incredibly tranquil here, no electricity so everything shuts down at dark and there is just the sound of the river and the birds. There are a couple of Dutch boats here and Bob & Liz, whom we know, on Yanina. Today has been spent cleaning the dust off Irony (worst ever in 6 years) and Nic has had to repair our anchor winch which decided to break as we anchored in Banjul!

A Taste of Senegalese Music

2009-01-17T11:41:00.000-04:00

We wanted to check out the music scene for which Senegal, and particularly Dakar is famous for ad had visited the premier live music venue, Just 4 U, on Wednesday evening. Unfortunately our timing was off and we arrived to find Ussou N'Dour (world-renowned) setting up for that night. We listened to the rehearsal over a couple of beers and met various people including his brother-in-law, but nothing was going to start before 10pm and we had to get back for the last water taxi to our boat. Not wanting to miss out we decided, on Thursday, to launch our dinghy and try again. Dressed-up and arriving at 9pm we hoped to have dinner and watch the concert only to find the entrance mobbed with people. We were told it was his last night and it sold out at 8am that morning! A doorman finally promised he'd get us in if we returned at midnight so we walked around the corner for a delicious Thai meal. Returning, we found it even busier and our doorman apologised but could do nothing. Nic saved the day by managing to buy a couple of tickets off a tout at a good price. We were in and it was well worth the effort. The club was packed with glamorously dressed Senegalese and the atmosphere was fantastic. Ussou N'Dour was joined for cameo performances by a variety of singers and musicians, all well-known to the audience. We returned to Irony at 3am, relieved to find our dinghy still tied to the wooden jetty! A great night out.

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Dakar

2009-01-12T17:41:00.004-04:00

We arrived in Dakar just after midnight on Friday. We had a great passage - 894 miles in 6.5 days - a good shakedown cruise for our Atlantic crossing. The only negative part of the experience was the cold - it was a surprise to us that this far south we were dressed innumerable layers and snuggling under blankets on our night watches.

We are anchored off a long stretch of fine, white sand and the Cercle de Voile "yacht club", a friendly place with a bar, showers etc. They provide a "water taxi" from the anchored boats to a rickety wooden jetty which one hails by blowing a fog horn and gesticulating wildly. This morning we hopped onboard and, before we reached shore, ended up being involved in the dramatic rescue of a sailboat which had broken its mooring in the high winds we have had for the last few days. The water taxi is a wet experience at the best of times but was made all the more exhilarating by towing the sailboat to a new mooring aided by a rib towing us! Our boat boy eventually had to leap onboard the renegade yacht leaving Nic to pilot his boat. All was saved and we finally managed to make our way into town to do our check-in with police and customs in the company of a lovely French couple from another boat. Our school French is being tested, no one speaks English here!

Dakar is definitely a culture shock after the Canaries - firmly 3rd world, it is quite shocking to see such an extensive degree of poverty in one of the world's capital cities. It's hard even to describe it as a city, more an overgrown, dilapidated town. It is really the people who make the place - very tall and slim, at first sight one can feel intimidated but as soon as they speak their faces light up and they are helpful, friendly and welcoming with a great sense of humour; a joy to meet. The women in particular are gorgeous and swathed in exotic colours. Nic had to visit at dentist here and is trying to find a reason to go back!

We took the ferry over to Goree Island, famous for being where the slaves were held and then loaded onto ships. It's a tranquil and picturesque place with 18th/19th century buildings. It is also where local artists show their wares.

Possibly departure for Banjul and the Gambia River on Wednesday or Thursday.

More pics at http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/Ironylondon/Dakar

On the way to Dakar

2009-01-05T03:54:00.000-04:00

We left Santa Cruz late on 2nd. We had to refuel in the fishing port to the north and by the time we were finished it was 7pm and dark. The wind had dropped and we thought it best to anchor for the night and set off the next morning. So, on the 3rd, we put the snow-capped peak of El Teide behind us and sailed south. We are now 260 miles south at the start of our 3rd day of the passage. We are off the coast of the Western Sahara but it has been a very cold passage and we are wrapped up in lots of layers. The winds have been fairly steady and we are finally acclimatising to our routine of watches and the Atlantic roll. Our fridge door decided to break yesterday but Nic has managed a short-term fix which we hope will get us to Dakar. We also managed to lose all our breakfast to the lurch of a couple of large waves - it launched off the table dousing us and the saloon in tea! I am posting our GPS position each morning on www.yachtplot.com (password: onboard).

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2008-12-29T11:45:00.000-04:00

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to everyone!

We are ready to leave Tenerife for Senegal but currently have adverse winds (what a surprise!!!). It looks like they should be in a more favourable direction on the 1st so we hope to depart then.

2008-12-19T10:55:00.000-04:00

To see our pics from the Canary Islands go to
http://picasaweb.google.com/Ironylondon/LanzaroteGranCanaria
http://picasaweb.google.com/Ironylondon/GomeraLaPalma
http://picasaweb.google.com/Ironylondon/Tenerife

Still in Tenerfie

2008-12-19T10:16:00.004-04:00

The problems with our rental flat are still not resolved...it looks like we are going to be here for Christmas now.

We enjoyed our sightseeing tour of the island. The highlight was going up to the top of El Teide volcano. It's the highest point in all of Spain at 3718 metres and reached by a cable car up to around 3600 metres and then a climb up to crest of the crater. We were very lucky with the weather on the day we did it, we've had rain almost every day since.

Tenerife

2008-12-08T10:39:00.005-04:00

We arrived in Tenerife on 29th November and are moored in Santa Cruz. I have made a flying visit to London to have some treatment for the prolapsed disc in my back and to collect some boat parts. We are going to again rent a car for a couple of days to explore the island and do our last provisioning before Senegal.

Unfortunately we have a major problem in one of our flats so we can't set out on the long passage to Dakar (it will probably take a week) and be out of contact until we are sure things are being sorted out. Fingers crossed we can deal with it and get going.

On to La Palma

2008-11-28T10:03:00.006-04:00

It was a cold and rainy overnight sail to La Palma, not very pleasant. The cloud cover was so great that it was still dark when we arrived around 8am. We have spent a couple of nights in the new marina here which is horribly surgy. The boat is being thrown around all over the place and we've gone through a few ropes. The one benefit of the marina is free entrance to the Club Nautico here which has 2 outdoor pools, a huge indoor one and sauna, steam and jacuzzi etc. It has been the perfect antidote to the cool, wet weather.

The town of Santa Cruz is worth the visit. It's incredibly picturesque with pretty buldings in distinctive Canarian style - colourfully painted with lovely balconies. We hired a car and explored the island yesterday, exploring huge La Caldera crater and the smaller, more recent volcanoes from 1949 and 1971. We drove through acres of banana plantations and beautiful pine forests and ended the day with a delicious dinner in town.

We are leaving here this afternoon to return to Tenerife. We will be in the marina there to provision for our trip to Senegal. I am also flying back to London for a couple of days to pick up boat parts and have some treatment for my prolapsed disc.

A great day exploring in La Gomera

2008-11-21T13:54:00.002-04:00

We rented a car for the day and explored la Gomera. It’s a spectacular island of high mountains and lush, green forests. Many of the steep hillsides have been extensively terraced over the centuries with stone walls; it is impossible to grasp just how much hard work must have gone in to this. We went for a couple of walks in the stunning national park enjoying the contrast of an earthy, green environment to our normal surroundings at sea. The clouds gathering across the mountain tops in the afternoon added to the moody atmosphere. Our second walk was more ambitious than the first, ascending a steep mountain with the promise of returning to the car via a tunnel. Unfortunately when we got to the mouth of the tunnel we discovered it was narrow and totally unlit. There was no way we could use it as it is 3/4 km long so we had a long walk back up again!

Birthday and on to La Gomera

2008-11-19T16:21:00.005-04:00

I celebrated my birthday at anchor with a champagne brunch. It was a clear, sunny day and perfect for swimming and chilling out.

We sailed over to La Gomera on Tuesday. We had a gentle start to the passage, just lots of dolphin around us, but about 10 miles off the island we were suddenly hit with F8 winds gusting F9. They aren´t joking when they warn you about the wind acceleration zones in the Canaries!

We are now moored in San Sebastian (Columbus set off in 1492 from here) and plan to explore the island by rental car tomorrow. We had an interesting sighting in the marina here yesterday - a stingray (over a metre across) which apparently hangs out here and decided to check out our boat!

Fast sail to Tenerife

2008-11-14T19:22:00.001-04:00

We sailed over to Tenerife yesterday. After a couple of hours of motoring in no wind we were very suddenly in a steady F7 gusting F8/9 with the seas to go with it. It was a great fast sail (max 9.2 knots) but we were cold, wet and salty by the time we arrived! We had an incredible visit from about 20 dolphins who surfed the huge waves around the boat and were leaping out of the water, sometimes 4 or 5 at a time. It was an amazing sight.

On arrival at Los Cristianos, we were trying to get in all the sails before anchoring and found that a reef tie on the mizzen had knotted itself around the spreader. It took quite an effort from Nic to climb up the rigging and release it, involving the loss of a Croc shoe and a Man Over Board to retrieve it!

We are now a few miles up the coast at Pta de las Gaviotas. No tourist development here just a lovely sandy beach with clear water circled by some fantastic rock formations and caves, complete with trogladites! We even have a view of Spain's tallest mountain.

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Off to Tenerife

2008-11-12T13:03:00.002-04:00

Well, our instruments finally arrived today - posted "priority airmail" from London on 21st October, arrived in Madrid on 31st October and here 12th November!!!!!

We are sailing across to Tenerife, either tonight or early tomorrow morning.

Still waiting..

2008-11-03T11:53:00.005-04:00

Still waiting for our parts to arrive from England. We have been anchored in a bay on the south coast due to an westerly front coming through. Now back to Playa de Mogan hoping that the instruments will arrive, it's been 2 weeks.

Back at anchor

2008-10-27T14:06:00.003-04:00

Nic's back from his dental visit to Ibiza and we are now back at anchor. At the moment we are just outside Puerto de Mogan because we are waiting for some repaired Raymarine instruments to arrive for us here. In the meantime we are enjoying the lovely settled weather. Next stop Tenerife.

Puerto de Mogan, Gran Canaria

2008-10-22T14:08:00.002-04:00

London

2008-10-17T09:05:00.004-04:00

We are now back in Gran Canaria after our visit to London for Angela's wedding. The day after our return, Nic had a major problem with his teeth and flew to Ibiza yesterday to see his very good German dentist. I am here in Puerto Mogan until he returns next Thursday.

More pictures at http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/Ironylondon/AngelaPaulSWedding

On to Gran Canaria

2008-10-07T09:11:00.001-04:00

After 2 nights at anchor, we set off yesterday morning for Puerto Mogan in Gran Canaria. We arrived early this morning with a Guardia Civil escort into the marina; they obviously thought we looked dodgy! The passage was uneventful apart from a sunset show from a school of dolphins last night. We are now tucked into our marina berth and concerned about our departure next week as there is no maneovering room at all to get out, we can practically shake hands with the boats on the opposite quay; should be interesting! Our flight to London for Angela's wedding is tomorrow morning.

Canaries at last

2008-10-05T09:04:00.002-04:00

We left Rabat for Gran Canaria on 30th September. It was much later in the day than intended but various things conspired to delay us... We went to pay our bill in the office only to be told they didn’t take credit cards, the first we knew of it, which necessitated a long walk into Salé for a cash point machine (the bonus was a final stop at the patisserie shop there for some essential provisions! It was also the first day of operation for the new fuel quay which made for an interesting time but we were eventually following the pilot boat out into the Atlantic about 4pm.

After motor-sailing in light winds for longer than we had hoped, we finally settled into a good downwind sail. We had obviously been in the marina for far too long because it took me almost 48hrs to get used to the Atlantic roll, even Nic felt it a couple of times. With the sliver of the new moon ending Ramadan only briefly appearing, the nights were inky black but stunningly star-studded and the whitecaps were aglow with sparkling phosphorescence. The only downside was the cold which certainly didn’t feel like we were sailing south. I was wearing my ski trousers!
Frequently logging between 7 and 8 knots when I had passage-planned at 5, we made good enough time to make an unscheduled stop off the southern coast of Lanzarote on our 4th morning after covering 530 nautical miles.

We anchored off a series of lovely sandy beaches and coves in a nature reserve. A long walk ashore was very welcome as were a couple of indulgent ice-creams in the picturesque beach bar.

Still waiting..

2008-09-28T10:46:00.003-04:00

The weather finally looks like it will give us a break tomorrow or Wednesday. We have to be in Gran Canaria on 7th October for our marina booking at Puerto Mogan and our flights to London on 8th October for Angela's wedding. So, with over 600 miles to cover it looks like we are going to have to sail past La Graciosa, Lanzarote and Fuertoventura.

In the meantime we have been getting on with some work on the boat - new guardrails and 3 new instruments in the cockpit. No change with my back problem - not much pain but I am still limping - which is frustrating.

Waiting for weather

2008-09-21T11:03:00.002-04:00

Back in Rabat and itching to get off to the Canaries...unfortunately the weather is not cooperating. At the moment all reports are showing either headwinds or no wind for the next week due to some major systems circling around in the Atlantic.

5 days in Marrakech

2008-09-16T19:21:00.008-04:00

We spent 5 days in Marrakech visiting 2 spa hotels which we are very luckily reviewing for the Daily Mail, thanks to Anabel.

We arrived by train on Sunday afternoon and checked into La Sultana http://www.lasultanamarrakech.com/ a luxurious 5 star hotel with 21 rooms created out of 4 riads. We were given the "Tigre" suite with a bathroom much bigger than our cabin on Irony! On Monday afternoon we went down to the Spa to have a hamman (a traditional steam room) where we had 2 girls rubbing us down with fragrant soaps. I then followed that with a oil body wrap and we both had relaxing massages. It was a struggle that night to drag ourselves out to a restaurant, although Nic was entertained by some pretty bellydancers!

After 2 nights we moved to Dar Les Cigognes http://www.lescigognes.com/ smaller with 11 rooms and not quite so lavish (we planned it the wrong way around) but still great. Again we had a hamman and massage and sensibly had dinner in our hotel. It was specially cooked for us and we were alone on the roof terrace under a full moon, very romantic.

We managed to do some sightseeing although we are slightly od'd on carved cedar ceilings, tiled courtyards and ornate plasterwork, as beautiful as it all is. We hit the souks and did some present shopping. Marrakech also has some more expensive "designer" shops and I weakened in one! The famous Djema el Fnaa square was a little disappointing perhaps due to it being Ramadan. It is still quite a sight at night, packed with people and the storytellers and entertainers are there but it is very touristy and we had dry, tasteless kebabs from one of the foodstalls.

We returned by train to Rabat on Thursday afternoon, always an interesting experience as there is a distinct lack of signs or announcements so it's a guess where you are stopping and a challenge to get out at the right station!

Pics at http://picasaweb.google.com/Ironylondon/5DayTripToMarrakesh