Quartermoon

2010-02-05T12:05:00.000-08:00

New Blog Site: www.thearchersadventures.blogspot.com

New York , New York

2010-02-05T10:28:00.000-08:00

When trying to book flights back to South Carolina, it worked out much cheaper to fly from London to New York and then catch the bus ( for 20 hours ) down to our new home...so we decided to have a few days and nights in the big apple..

It was brillant and we were so lucky that it snowed again....it was really wicked to see all the sites, but there is no way we could live there, it was way to hectic and smelly!!

Good start to Syms healthy new years diet!!

On the boat to go and see the Statue of Liberty

Me in Times Square

Symi loving Central Park

The three days we spent there were jammed packed full of doing all the sites,,, and being preggers and all at the end I was absoltely Knackered - I had to keep stopping every afternoon and having a nap in the hotel before going out in the evening!!
We went to go and see Chicago on Broadway...which costs us 200 quid and was so all that good really!!! We were expecting it to be a little more impressive!!

At the end we were glad to start our new adventure and get back home - it is the longest we have ever been on land in abour 4 years!!!

The new year, new boat and new BABY!!!!

2009-12-25T08:03:00.000-08:00

Again, im sorry for the lack of updates going on....

Just to let everyone know we are safe and sound and are in South Carolina on our new boat. Im just in the middle of setting up a new blog site so ill save the link on here - for those who are interested.

Last trip out on Quartermoon and we see Dolphins.

Theres been loads of changes going on!!! After selling our beautiful Quartermoon to Sammy and Mike, we fly to the states to have a look at our new boat. As soon as we see her we fall in love, and put a deposit down straight away!!! Talk about being impulsive and rushing into things...but thats the way we have always been i suppose.We rush into everything and think of the consequences later!!

After lots stress and trouble with the banks we have to personally fly back to Britain to sign paperwork in order for them to release my money to pay for our new boat....

We spend a good month at home visting everyone at christmas and see all my family and friends in Wales and then over for a week with Syms family in Birmingham to spend New Years Eve...totally different from last year when we spent it out at sea on the Atlantic Crossing!! But it was soo lush to see everyone!

Me and Little lils

Little Lelya and mummy abs

Syms Daughter Lauren and her boyfriend Lewis (looking all grown up)

And yes we have a new baby on the way for those who dont know...IM PREGNANT!! and we are both mega happy. Christmas was a very weird one for me to say the least...and it was the first time ever i have woke up without a hangover on christmas day..and no im not like other people who say - dont you find it funny when your sober and everyone is drunk...This is not funny at all - in fact quite the opposite!! its quite painful to say the least and you realise how bloody ridiculuos everyone is, aswell as how much crap people talk when there drunk!!
haha!!!

Although very sober, we all had a awesome time and im glad my sym won joint first prize in the fancy dress competition - it went towards the 120 pound he spent on his costume....I was angry for weeks.

Check out these pics..

We were really lucky to have so much snow when we were back home...but after a while we were praying for warmer whether...

Baby Jenson in the snow

How quick Sym lost his lovely tan -

Quartermoon Sold

2009-10-30T09:05:00.000-07:00

After a week or so of stress and trouble with our first buyer we finally accepted a deposit on her...Very Sad but very exciting at the same time.

Basically the guy who said he wanted her from the start...asked if we would deliver it to costa rica for him. After organising all the paperwork, paying over a thousand dollars and getting her booked in the cheeky git...EMAILS...not phones and says to to finacial reasons he has to pull out...and check this out..this was on the morning we were due to to leave for the canal and we even had all the tyres on the boat and the lines ready... to top it off Debs and Alex had flown in the night before to help us be line handlers..

We were soo gutted, but at least we had a deposit kept by the brokerage and emails stating that any monies we paid for the canal were to be given to us in the unlikely event that he pulled out. WELL WHAT A LAUGH THAT IS...its now the new year and after months of dispute and us scanning the offical receipts of monies paid he has basically said no...what a twat??? the brokerage cannot realease the money to anyone unless this dispute is resolved.... his argument is we could of forged the receipt...even though it has the agent offical stamps all over it..Anyway enough of that...

The happy side is that a lovely British couple flew over to Panama staight away once they found she was back on the market , put a depoit down on her and arranged to pick her up from Shelter Bay Marina on the 19th November!!!

Quartermoon with her new owners Sammy and Mike ... they plan to take Quartermoon to Australia this year, so im sure they'll have a blog to follow, when i get it , ill post it on her...Me and sym were so chuffed and we could not of wished for her to go to a nicer couple. Congrats guys.

Shelter Bay Marina, Colon

2009-10-17T08:27:00.000-07:00

We booked to have Quartermoon taken out the water the day after we arrived there. We were not at all happy when they made us sign some paperwork saying they take no responsibility for the boat if any damage is caused during the lift out. What the hell is that all about, thats the first marina we have ever heard of with such a thiing. Obviously we had no choice in the matter and so the whole time i felt like i could not watch....i was so worried of her falling out the cradle and crashing on the floor.
Oh well, thank god that did not happen..

Check out these pics of Quartermoon being hauled and lifted.

Sym spent the next few days sanding and preping the hull ready for the sprayer to come and spray her...

Quartermoon with her new paint job

When she was put back in the water me and Symi speant a whole day making her look dreamy. Symi spent the day before in Colon at a car graphics shop designing her go faster strips....

Check out Quartermoon in her new livery...

Finally an Update !!!

2009-10-05T18:02:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone, really sorry for the rubbish and lack of updates going on. Hi to everyone else who was wondering where we are. We are safe and we are currently in Shelter Bay Marina, in Colon Panama.The last few months we have been so busy with working and selling Quartermoon i have no had much time to keep you all entertainted.
Any hows life is still brillant and we ve seen and done loads, so here goes the last couple of months:

Boco De Torro

2009-09-25T08:00:00.000-07:00

The 100 odd mile sail ended up taking us 2 while days, can you beileve that...it was a complete diaster..we had two - two and a half knots of current the whole journey and there were head winds all the way. We were maiking about 3 knots and nailing it flat out under engine.At one stage in the night we went down to 1.7 knots...it was so painfully slow. Of course the winds were not forecast and current this strong was never mentioned in any pilot guide.

A little bird that flew out to Quartermoon and slept on the bbq all night long until sun rise.

We finally arrived and Boco which was definately a cool place but very touristy. There were lots of restarants and bars all on the sea front. We docked up in the marina for the first time in since europe which felt so weird being tied to a pontoon after being at anchor for so long.

We had some good nights out and were gutted when we had to leave because it would of been nice to spent a few weeks there and go round some of the anchorages. Alan and his business partner came and viewed her and speant all bloody weekend on the boat.They were going to buy her for chartering out of their hotel that was being built in Costa Rica. We took them out for a sea trail and it all went well, but i had a really gut feeling about them that they were messing us around. They said they would get back to us to let us know, so we sailed back to Shelter Bay Marina a tadge gutted to do some maintenace and take her out the water....we decided it was time to re spray her as the hull and get her looking tip top

Back in Cartagena

2009-09-16T07:26:00.000-07:00

Nights out in Cartagena

Sym with his new ginger hair do, courtesy of Debs

Back in Club Nautico we checked our mail and we had three people wanting to come and view Quartermoon around the same time, so this guy Alan was first so he wanted us to take Quartermoon to Boco Del Torro where he could view her. He made us a good offer and said that he definately wanted her he just needed to check her over and go for a sea trail. We were really chuffed as you can imagine so we planned to do our last backpacker run to Pamana and then sail the two days to the Bocos for them to have a look.

In the meantime in Cartagena, Al proposes to Debs...Congrats you guys.It was brillant, me and Sym winch them up the top of the mast on Quartermoon and then he pops the question, haha...it was so funny, cos debs was not really sure whether she wanted to go up or not and half way up she was saying, oh i dont like it guys,get me down and me and sym were like, no way get on with it...Hilarious really. But she said yes and they live happy ever after where they plan to get married back home next year after their trip.

The Happy Couple....

Debs and Al finally depart and the next day we leave for Panama with a group of five Aussie lads and a American girl.

Another squall with lots rain and thunder and lightening

after a wicked few days we drop them off and head to Bocos...and what a bloody nightmare that turned out to be

The guys bought this sea snail from the Kunas, its was possibly the sickest thing known to man kind. They all had a bit and nearly puked.I wisely opted out

Sailing with our new crew Part Two

2009-08-25T18:41:00.000-07:00

It was so nice to have our mates on the boat and they were loving it too. We chilled in the beautiful San Blas islands for a few days where we went snorkelling swimming , had bbqs and drank loads of clos ( Clos for those who dont know is the best wine we have found yet. Its only 2 dollars and 15 cent a litre and its good tasting. We stocked up on a load in the city as the wine in Cartagena is pretty pricy.

One tree island: As you can see , we are very imaginitive with the names,

The boys spent a whole afternoon snorkelling with their spear guns and nets trying to be hunters and catch some fresh fish for the ladies,unfortunatly they took lots of wine with them in the dingy and came back with nothing apart from red clown lips, tipsey and no fish.

This resulted in buying a freshly caught King Crab from the Kuna Indians for only 5 bucks.

We then sailed the 200 miles back to Cartagena, Columbia. The trip was going really well and debs and Al both got their sea legs..Alex even cooking lunch for us on the way which was wicked, cos even now after all these miles i still can feel quesy down below if its rough!!I decided to have the first watch and go down below. Come 2 ish in the morning i come up to relieve Sym so he can get to sleep and a big squall comes in. 50 knots winds with thunder and lightening that went on for over an hour. It was quite scary to say the least, so Captain Frank took the helm and Me and Alex tried to stay dry under the cockpit. Debs popped her head up now and again worrying that we had hot a rock and were going to sink ( it was the thunder which was so close i shit myself). She told me later she kept thinking not to worry we would all be laughing about it when it was over. Lol. I can imagine though, it was bad enough for me yet alone some one who has never been on a boat before.

Anyhow it only lasted an hour or so and the rest of the trip was fine. These bloody squalls at this time of year are quite hairy to say the least, but we arrive that day safe and sound in the crowded anchoarge of Cartagena.

San Blas and Cartagena with Dirty debs and Baby Frank

2009-08-15T18:09:00.000-07:00

This seems like a life time ago but our friends back home from Wales are currently on a voyage back packing around the world and informed us they were in Costa Rica. We planned to meet up with them and they could come and stay for a few weeks on the boat. It was absolutley lush to see them, the last time being at our wedding over a year ago. We decided to leave the boat in Puerto Lindo for the night and get the bus to go and meet them in Panama City.
Panama City rcoks, it was wicked. In all fairness we did not get to see much of it
(sight seeing wise) as we were having too much of a party. Can you beilve the first night away from Quartermoon in over a year(hoping for something speacial accomodation wise) and debs goes and books us a hostel where we have to share the room with six other people. Oh well, it did not really matter as were we wasted by early evening and cant really remember much of it. We met up with some other friends, Oliver, and Ricky Martin and Makayler to celebrate olivers birthday.
Me and debs ended the night in the shared toilet being sick from too much booze and sym and alex ended up partying without us till five o clock in the morning. Alex on the first night nick named Sym Frank the Tank ( all will know if you have seen the movie Old School ) if you have not , thats not a bad things, cos i am extremtly gutted to be married to a middle aged, unfit loser - like off the movie. Anyhow the nick name stayed and i have gorwn to love it.

Some pics of our first night in the city

Frank and Baby Frank giving Oliver the birthday bumps:

After a rough hangover we had to go and get the bus back from Panama city to Puerto Lindo which was bad enought the day before when we were feeling good. It took over 3 hours being squished on the chicken bus , including a stop off to get another one. We decided it was well worth the 70 bucks to share a taxi home between the four of us and god how much we appreciated the air con.

The following day we decided to take them to monkey island. There was no way i was going back on there after the last time, so i waited in the dingy while the rest went ashore. Can you believe it, but the sly little buggers were so sweet. (And alot smaller than the last time in remember ) They were eating out of everyones hand!!! I am so jealous...but i still did not trust their tempermental attitude!!

Alex getting ready to leg it after hearing our stories about these ferocious beasts!!lol

Moral of the story , never ever trust monkeys!!!

Quartermoon in the San Blas

2009-07-30T16:34:00.000-07:00

Puerto Lindo, Panama.

2009-07-13T16:00:00.000-07:00

We drop of the lads and go and have a beer in the local restaurant, which is so cheap. 75 cents for a bottle of beer, how good is that. Even better the owner Hans and his wife have a Toucan called ‘Toucey’. It is amazing and so tame it’s unbelievable. It basically is free to fly off in the rainforest whenever it likes as the cage is open, but it chooses to stay in the restaurant most of the time, where he is feed fruit and rice. He is wicked!! But a bit of a piece of work and like to peck on your hand, twisting his mouth with all his strength – but it does not hurt whatsoever.

We chilled out for a few days there and went to go and register with Hostel Wunderbar. Within a couple of days Silvia had found us some backpackers to come back to Columbia with. We had 5 in all, one couple called Bart and Mary Ann from Holland and a Canadian women called Steph and her to children called Ariel and Jordon.
We had a couple of days to chill out and get the boat ready before our departure date so mistakably we went to go and visit the uninhabited island of Monkey Island

Attack of the monkeys…

I don’t know what it is with animals lately but they seem not to like us very much. Anyway Sym persuaded me to come to visit this island of Monkeys, so we took a bag of cornflakes with us so we could feed them. Sym filled my mind with false images of little monkeys sitting on my shoulder (like baboo off Aladdin) was how he described them ...............................

Well we tie the dingy up to the dock and go onto the island, within two minutes we had three monkeys swing down from the tree( full teeth / LARGE teeth showing) hissing at us. One monkey comes up from behind me and he comes to my shoulders in height!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I crapped myself to say the least, they looked so bloody aggressive… baboo my ass!!

I backed off slowly edging myself back towards the safety of my dingy. Sym on the other hand thought he was well hard and at one with nature and told me to chick over the food, he then kneels down and starts to feed them (I actually just got goose bumps when writing this remembering how frightened I was). Then the monkeys gather round closely and trying to grab the bag of him, showing them their teeth and waving their arms at him. Sym chucks the bag and within a couple of seconds he has two monkeys dangling off his arms biting into him. JESUS CHRIST… all I heard was Sym screaming and then he starting to make monkey noises back at them! He shouted to me to run, but I don’t think he needed to…I was already legging it as fast as I could…I jumped a mage distance. Something I did not think I was capable of (way over 15 ft) and landed into the dingy with such sheer force I had friction burns up all my arms and legs! Sym makes it in just after me and the bloody vicious monkeys had bitten his thumb down to the bone.

Picture of them starting to get a bit heavy!!!

Biten to the bone!!

We were quite worried, of course not knowing what diseases there were carrying and so we went to find a doctor. Bearing in mind we were in the middle of no where. Hans told us there a type – of nurse (not sure what qualifications that would entail) in the local village. He was drunk as it was Sunday and apparently everyone gets drunk of a Sunday! Anyway we were very grateful to here that the monkeys did not have any infectious diseases like Rabies and he gave Sym a jab – free of charge, can you believe that!

Anyway, I would highly recommend no one visits that island ever again

Trip to San Blas

2009-07-05T13:20:00.000-07:00

When the weather passed we left the anchorage in Cartagena and motored out to sea. The guys we all pretty excited and no of them had done much sailing before. The sea state for the two days was as flat as a pancake with no wind so we have to motor the whole way to the San Blas. To top it off we were going into about 1.5 knots of current the whole way ( hence it taking two days to get there) as we were only averaging about 4 knots, which is mega slow for us. Anyhow it was so nice and we had plenty of time to cook good food and relax. The guys one by one were a bit sea sick for the first part( apart from one of them ) – but by day two they were all fine!!

We saw some dolphins on the trip and managed to catch a fish. When we finally reeled it in, it was a bloody shark, only a baby one about 2 ft, but Sym said it was so strong and holding him down was really difficult. We or should I say Sym (I was standing well back on deck - you should of seen the size of his teeth – they were like a great white) managed to get the hook out of his mouth, chuck him back in the sea - Unharmed!! We also stopped the boat in the middle of the sea (2000 metres) while everyone dived off and went for a swim. I stayed aboard gladly!! There is something about swimming in such mega deep water that makes me feel a tadge uneasy…I was on shark patrol!
We also saw what we think were a pod of fin whales. Sym decided to follow but when they turned around and came towards us...sym legged it!!!

We finally arrived in the San Blas and went into our first anchorage called Swimming pool bay and BBQ Island. Wow, it was amazing. The islands are by far the best we have ever been to, and what was so great and unique about them was there were only a few boats there.

We spent the last few days hopping around different islands, swimming and snorkelling. We found this amazing wreck on Dog island which was the best ever. The ship sank in the fifties and the Captain tried to beach the boat in order to save the cargo, but hit a reef near shore and sank. The wreck is so shallow you can stand up at the bow of the ship. It’s fantastic.

We bought some Molars (traditional hand stitched overlaid pieces of material to create intricate patterns and pictures) off some of the Kuna Indians who paddled out to our boat in their traditional dug out canoes made form one tree. They also sold us some fresh fish and lobsters for very cheap prices!

The Kuna Indians are an ancient tribe of people who have managed to live on these Islands throughout the years without having to change too much. They have no main water or electricity supply. Or that is what we are led to believe!!The amusing thing was they came over and asked if we could re charge their mobile phone in exchange for a coconut!!! CAN YOU BEILEVE THIS!! I was gutted, they live in huts and live off rice and fish and yet they have a bloody mobile phone!! Jesus! LOL

We went to check into customs and spent an afternoon on inhabited islands of porveiner where the Kuna Indians live. What an amazing place. It’s not beautiful to say the least, lots of rubbish and sticks a bit etc but definitely a good cultural experience.

Some of the huts they live in

A pic of the school

We sailed up the Panamanian coast to Linton the last day where we hit a 50 knot squall with thunder and lightening.
I used to be so scared of sailing when I saw lightening in the distance, but now I am so desensitized to it. Its so common in this area…so many nights we have woke up to a crackling of lightening, looked out the hatch and we can see the bolt of lighting a couple of hundred metres from the boat! Quite frightening to say the least. We have even put all the electronics in the microwave it was so close one evening. So I have learnt not to worry about it now cos there is no point!!
We stopped for an evening in Isla Grande and then moved a mile to Linton the following morning when we dropped the guys off. What a wicked bunch of lads, they were really cool guys and it was a pleasure to have them on the boat!! Good luck with the rest of your travels and hope you find some good waves soon.

More Columbia

2009-06-24T13:14:00.000-07:00

After a few days of partying with our friends, we had a few quiet nights on Aliisa and Quartermoon….. Yeah right!!

We were just about to head to the marina to sort out our new business, making up some cards and going to the hostels when we met four blokes from Australia who were looking for a ride to San Blas and Panama. How Convenient!! They wanted to leave within a two days so it left us with only a day to sort stuff out.
Firstly we had to sort out the boat, as it was a bit of a mess after all the sailing and try to make some space for all the food. Then it was to the supermarket to stock up with all the food and drink - as the San Blas islands are mostly uninhabited although the local Kuna Indians come around offering fish, crabs and Lobster for a wicked price!! After refilling with Diesel and stocking up the water tanks we were all fit and ready to make a move. The last job was to meet up with Manfred (our agent) the day before to check us all out of the country with Customs and Immigration.

The charter includes a five day trip - two of which are sailing non stop 200 miles to the San Blas Islands. Then the guests have two / three days sailing around the San Blas before dropping them off in Linton, Panama. The price includes all fees for clearance and food and drink for the five days!! What a wicked job a???

We left on the 26 the June and set sail for San Blas. A squall came in just before we left with heavy rain and thunder and lightening and once again there was a fair amount of boats that dragged in the anchorage. (Not us thank god!!)
We have never known an anchorage like this. One American guy we met in the yacht club who has been living here for a few years said that a few times a month in hurricane season you get some bad squalls and as soon as you feel the air go cold run back to your boat. We were like whatever (we’ve been anchored in 40 odd knots winds b4 and she has not budged!! BUT the grounding in this anchorage is soooo poor and the bottom is a soft mud so many anchors just slide right through when the wind picks up. A bit of digression but,anyway one day we were in the bar when we saw a squall coming in and everyone legging it back to their boats. The following evening some plonker had anchored right next to us, way too close and his tender was actually touching our boat. Anyhow we thought we better go back and low and behold this idiot has dragged and was smashing his boat into the boats at the marina. He had just missed us thank god, but we could hear these people from their boats screaming at the captain because he was banging into their boats- they all had their fenders out trying to prevent the damage and he was walking around the boat so slowly without a care in the world! Obviously it takes a lot for this guy to pick up his pace. Anyhow it takes him so long to turn on his motor and bring his anchor up that he ends up getting ropes from the boats in the marina wrapped around his props( both of them – it was a cat) and we then have to move our boat as he needs to be towed off and help re anchor by a fishing boat from the marina. Good entertainment though I must admit!! That day 12 boats dragged anchor – they were popping out like flies.

Our first wedding anniversary!!

2009-06-21T11:15:00.000-07:00

What a lush place!! Years ago I would of felt a bit dodgy about going to Columbia because of the media about gangs, drugs, murder rates etc!! but this place is awesome, it is so safe and we have not felt uneasy once. Its quite well set up for yachties here and I was so surprised how many boats are here…way more than I thought it would be. The yacht club has quick wifi with all the other facitilies and a large cheap supermarket about a 3 min walk( and the meat is so cheap). STEAK oh how we have missed it…its been chicken for so long I would not care if I never had chicken again as long as I live. You can buy a really good quality steak there for about $1. Oh god it was wicked, we had steak every night for the first few days, even when we went out to eat. We also celebrated our first year wedding anniversary in the old town. We met up once again with our long lost friends Lauri and Annina and of course partied hard for the first few days.

Doing a bit of site seeing on our way to the old town!!

A few drinks in a wicked bar in an old fort - overlooking the water!!

Sym taking arty photo(or so he thinks)

A group of school kids(probably doing some traditional song and dance we think????)

Arrival in Cartagena!!!

2009-06-18T11:05:00.000-07:00

We checked out on the 14the June and headed 326 miles to Cartagena in Columbia…and what a mega fast sail. We had quite strong winds but they were behind us so we were sailing at about 7 odd knots average. We made 160 nm the first day and 166 on the last days. The seas were pretty large and we were happy that we were going downwind rather than the other direction – it would have been a nightmare!! We had an aeroplane flying down sooo close to the mast, I crapped myself and thought it was going to crash into us. A helicopter also came down to check is out – both were the coastguard. They radioed through asking all types of questions about the registration of the ship and next destination. We heard that they monitor the area thoroughly because of the drug smuggling that goes on.

We could see Cartagena from about 10 miles away and the city looked amazing. There were so many sky scrapers it looked like a mini manhatten! I was so excited to get there and be able to go to shops, bars, and restaurants. We have been on little islands for so long now it was such a change to be heading for a big city on the main land. We arrived at about 5.30 pm, dropped the hook in the anchorage outside Club Nautico and went into town for well deserved beer!!!

Our first night with our new friend Fernando!!

Bonaire

2009-06-14T11:00:00.000-07:00

What a beautiful island!! The people were so friendly and the atmosphere was quite relaxed. The people speak papa pimento, which is a mixture of Dutch, French and Creloe. It was quite amazing that these people spoke four languages fluently. They were taught papa Pimento in school, but at home and amongst friends they spoke Dutch. They could also speak Spanish (being so close to the Spanish speaking South America countries) and English! How amazing is that really! The water was amazing and Bonaire is well famous for its diving. We went off Snorkelling for an afternoon but it was quite windy, making the sea state a bit choppy. We only stayed for a couple of days before heading off to Columbia. We may of stayed a few days longer for a break before setting off, but you could not anchor in the water, you had to use one of the marina’s mooring buoys which was 13 quid a night so we thought we would give it a miss.

Columbia here we come baby!!!!

2009-06-11T10:55:00.000-07:00

We were not really sure about what to do next when our friends Lauri and Annina called us to tell us to come to Columbia. There was work there with boats taking backpackers on trips to and from Panama and Cartagena. It sounded awesome and so being where we were we did not take a lot of persuasion to move!! Columbia here we come. We only stayed 2 days in Trinidad before checking out and sailing 800 miles to Cartagena, with a plan to stop off for a break half way in Bonaire – one of the ABC Dutch Antilles.

Checking out of Trinidad was a bit of a pain. It is the only countries where when you check out you only have 4 hours before having to leave. Every other place we have visited the day before is quite alright. The guy was customs was so rude and said that we would have to come in the morning we were leaving (which just happened to be a Saturday) where we would be payable for overtime charges. It worked out quite expensive (around 30 US Dollars for immigration and about the same for customs so we decided to leave that afternoon. The guy asked why we did not want to pay the overtime charges as it was chicken feed to us. What a cheeky git!! Then he had the nerve to ask how much our boat was worth!! What really frustrates us about the Caribbean Islands is all the locals think we are millionaires just because we live on a boat and if we don’t want to by something off them, we are of course being tight and the attitudes can sometimes stink. For all this guy knew we could have just sailed here on a 10 ft boat worth a couple of hundred dollars!! They don’t seem to grasp the idea that we are on a budget and do not have a endless pit of money…we were actually going there to find work because we were skint. Anyway sorry: enough of my ranting.

We headed off from Trinidad to sail a 465nm trip to Bonaire. I was a bit worried about this trip as its so close to the Venuzalen coast and there is a lot of trouble with pirate attacks on vessels. Just only a few months ago a 34 foot boat was shot at a few times and not so long ago some people were killed. We decided to head north of our rhumb line and sat well off the coast. Anyway what a brilliant trip we had. The weather was completely mixed ranging from no wind to gusts of 42 knots…boiling hot sun and then torrential rain. We made our top speed of 12.2 knots surfing down the waves, it was a really quick passage. We also saw some dolphins in the first time in a while and we caught a tuna fish ( black fin ) the evening before we arrived.

Attack of the killer bees

2009-06-09T10:46:00.000-07:00

A couple of days after our family had gone home we decided to clear out and head for Trinidad which was about 65 miles away. We left at around 4am in the morning so we could make it there by day light. We were having a really fast sail and everything going really well until about 11.30am when we starting getting attacked by the vicious psycho bees. I know can you believe it. We are out at sea (at least 10 miles of the coast) minding our own business when a few bees flew into the cockpit. At first we thought nothing of it, but they were a bit scary cos they looked a bit nuts and were flying around very frantically. A few more landed on the boat so we started to kill them by rolling up and newspaper and squishing them. All cool we thought, until an hour later and we were running up and down the boat, shit scared, killing bees left right and centre. We killed way over 100 bees. It was absolutely horrible. I’m really not fond of them anyway to say the least but there were so many. They kept landing on us and going crazy. A couple flew up Sym boxer shorts and landed on his go- nads and one piece of work flew down my bikini bottoms and stung me and my ass cheek. Sym went down stares to get us some protective clothing and came up with the tightest spandex shorts he could find…he looked hilarious. We can still not figure out what they were doing out there so far from land, but i'm just grateful we starting killing them when we did, otherwise we would have been completely swamped. Shackles was not much help wither she was just lying there watching us getting stung! It sucked really and turned an enjoyable sail into hard bloody work.

Anyway our ETA was after 4pm so we decided to anchor up in Scotland Bay instead of going into the main anchorage t avoid paying overtime fees in customs and immigration which are quite expensive. The anchorage was amazing. It was so picturesque. There were only a couple of boats and we were surrounded by the rainforest, it was so peaceful and quiet expect for the howler monkeys you could hear in the trees. It was the first time we could hear them and they were so noisy it was unreal. They sounded like were wolves or something in that mean, run for your life category. We spent the afternoon fishing on the boat and then were accompanied by these massive bats circling the boat in the evening. At first I was quite frightened, but I learned to respect them as they were doing me a favour and eating all the horrible million of mosquitoes and bugs that were driving us crazy.

The next morning we departed and motored on round to the chaguramas where we did our usual check in stuff. The anchorage was rubbish: really windy and choppy and the water was crappy. We decided to go the bar with free wifi and suss out the scene. We made friends with the local bar maid who told us that her brother got murdered a few month back because his son was bullying another mans child so the father came over to his house and shot him in the face. Can you believe that, over something so stupid? I mean things like this happen between children all the time – its part of growing up but to murder someone over that is crazy.

Sym wanted to try and get some work working on peoples boats, but after chatting with the locals we found out that things were so quiet there and there was no work going around!!

Take Two Holiday with the Archers

2009-06-05T10:31:00.000-07:00

Yet again I can only apologise to my poor mum and family who have not a clue where we are. It’s been over a month since I last updated and as usual all plans have changed. We are now working between Panama and Cartagena in possibly the coolest job in the world.

Well here goes, lots of backdating to do. The last week spent on holiday with the Archers (seems so long ago now) was great apart from the fact that Sym, Bev and poor Jenson took in turns being ill for a few days. We ended up calling the doctor out and they all has a chest infection and were put on antibiotics, but after a day they were drinking cocktails by the bar again. We hired a car for two days and did a tour of the island which was beautiful. The first day we drove through the rainforest and trekked through a nature reserve to get to the waterfalls. They were wicked and me Sym and Brandon climbed up to the top tier and hung about in the first bit. The waterfalls were so powerful you could not put your head under for very long without feeling like your back was going to break.

Sym and Bev bonding on the Kayak

Flukey shot by wmah of them falling off!!

We also took the car to Englishman bay (which was possibly the nicest beach in the world) where we went snorkelling. We went out for some good food and spent the last few days chilling by the pool and taking out the little catamaran boat that they hire from the hotel. It was my first time on a tiny sail boat, and I loved it!
Bye guys love you and miss you loads!!!!

Sym and I had planned to sail down to Trinidad next where we were going to stay for the rest of hurricane season and try and look for some work. I can’t express how much I was not looking forward to it. One reason because I knew how hard it would be to find work and secondanly the fact that the maid in Tobago told my sister in law Lisa to prey for us cos we were probably going to get murdered or raped if we went there!! NICE!!!
Apparently the homicide rate over the past few years has tripled and aside from Jamaica has the highest homicide and violent crime rate!
I know that when some people talk you should take things with a pinch of salt, as in every large city there is lots of crime, for example you want to go out to Bridgend where I am from on a Saturday night or Cardiff and that’s rough as anywhere, with people getting slaughtered and beefing each other up. Anyhow whenever anyone asked where we were going and we told them they would say, ‘stay well away from there’ so as you can imagine I was not entirely looking forward to it.

Take one Holiday with the Archers

2009-05-25T11:12:00.000-07:00

We decided to catch the bus and go to meet them from the airport - although Sym could not find where their flight number was so we were not too sure which flight they were on - as it happens they were delayed five hours so we got there in enough time. We arrived in the hotel later in the evening so we had a few drinks on the beach and parted till the next morning cos everyone was a bit jet lagged. It was so lush to see them, and the kids had grown up so much just in the last year it was unreal. We made it over to the hotel around late morning to find them all in the pool on about their 8th cocktail (all inclusive rocks) walking up to the bar so freely, we would have gone crazy!!! We chilled out by the bar drinking and catching up for the rest of the day. Can you believe by the end of the day (apart from baby Jenson – who was wearing factor 40 odd) I was the whitest there…. The bums had only all gone and cheated, they had been on the bloody sun bed for weeks before they came and were bronzed up already. Cheating Rats!!

Sym and his nephew Brandon messing in the pool!!

Baby Jenson looking cute as ever!!!

We went to the restaurant with them that evening and had a meal out! It was quite expensive really, but the only option was ‘All you can eat buffet style’ so Sym took advantage and had, a whole rack of ribs, three steaks, two breasts of chicken and that’s not including all the rice, salad pasta and desserts (so I guess it was worth the dosh really) it felt really good to eat steak again, it was amazing!!!

The next day we decided to take them out sailing on the boat. We did not go far just around a few bays down to Grafton Bay were there was a gorgeous beach. The boys all went snorkelling round the rocks while Lisa, Jenson and I chilled out on the beach.

It was such a wicked day, the weather was gorgeous and Brandon loved the water and snorkelling, he picked it up really quickly considering it was his first time and he loved it on the boat…proper sea dog. Baby Jenson was a little bit poorly for the next few days. So we decided to chill out around the pool and on the boat until he was better before hiring a car to do a tour of the Island.

Those few days involved me and Lisa having a massage by Jackie on the beach ( highly recommended to anyone who goes there) which was the best ever….chilling out sunbathing and drinking lots of Pina Coladas….oh yeah not to forget to mention that me and Lisa being threatened on the beach. This local guy scared the shit out of us…calling us lying dogs and saying he was going to kill us. He was a complete nut job – One evening there was a turtle on the beach so he came to tell us and then demanded money…. We said no and he went all nutty. Oh well Sym and Bev went over and had strong words with him, but there was no reasoning with the guy so they went and called the hotel manager who said he is crazy and he would sort it out with the police. In all fairness we were a bit worried at first but that man never bothered us for the rest of the holiday…we only actually saw him once, cos I think he peed off all the other local guys cos they said its really bad for business…one guy even threatened to chop his arm off…NICE!!

Part Two Tobago

2009-05-20T15:07:00.000-07:00

A few days before they arrived we met some South African people off a few boats which had just travelled up the coast from Brazil. They were really nice people and we met up for sundowners on their boats for a few nights. We absolutely fell in love with their boat. The owner of Alley Cat used to own the company and the boat is called an Island Spirit. Really beautiful and spacious Catamarans and made us excited about getting one.

Option 2 for when we sell Quarter moon is to fly over to South Africa and build this boat. You buy them as a complete mould (hull, deck and bulkheads, even all the internal moulds such as the heads and galley and berth) and then all the rest is the easy fun stuff!! Well that’s easy for me to say. The guys were from Cape Town and said it was beautiful there, so you never know…South Africa or Australia. I love the whole part of not knowing where you will be in a years time – what country will you be in and what you will be doing? I suppose it all depends on when and we sell Quarter moon. We have had loads of interest now over the last few weeks and an offer, so fingers crossed one day soon!!

We spent a few days in the anchorage Store Bay and just of Buccoo Reef ( which is apparently the third best dive site in the world). We went snorkelling on afternoon and it was lush there, got to see a turtle again but the only downfall was that it was a bit choppy and it was quite hard work swimming in it. We made our way a couple of days before and anchored in the designated anchorage of Plymouth.
What can I say, we were hoping for it to be really sweet there, just like the two previous bays a couple of miles down the coast. Well the first 24 hours was bloody horrible. We anchored ok with good holding and decided to use the tender and moor on the public pontoon to go and have a look around and check out the hotel. What a relief: Lisa would be fine and the place was really nice, wicked pool and the hotel right on the beach , we checked out the drinks menu which was not too bad either!!

Anyway when we got back we found that the bollard we had tied our rope to had been smashed off – Thank god we actually locked it as it was hanging on by the metal wire . God it made us so angry, whoever did it was no content with just un tying us to make a point we were not welcome there, but to go to the trouble to smash off a concrete bollard – What a twat!!
Then the following morning we are awoken to the fishermen pulling a net right across the boat, he was so close he was holding onto our anchor. We asked him if he wanted us to move… and where can we move to so we wont be in the way - of course we did not mind, if we are in the way its no problem for us to re anchor, but the ignorant git totally blanked us then starting making gestures with his hand to move…..but the idiot by this point had his net running alongside the boat and so we could not pick go forward to pick up our anchor. All we could do was let out more chain and drop back a bit! We were really shocked of the total arrogance of this guy…but what could we do. To top it all off that evening when we were swimming we noticed that our boat had been damaged. Can you believe this – all this is just over 24 hours. It says in the pilot and cruising guides that Tobago is a real treat to visit because not many yachts come compared to the other islands and it is well worth the trip…..well this anchorage was by far the worst we have been to and we have never felt so unwelcome in a place as of yet. We picked up our hook and drove round o the next bay which was only a five minute tender ride form Turtle beach . The reason its called turtle beach is every season between June and Nov these massive turtles walk up onto the beach and bury their eggs in the sand then go back out to sea, when the baby turtles hatch and run straight for the ocean and do not return until they are adults and lay their eggs on the same beach they were born…. Mad really, don’t you think.

Check out this pic of a tiny little turtle that had just hatched…it was so cute.

Scarborough , Tobago

2009-05-15T14:29:00.000-07:00

Sorry i've been so slack on the blog for the last few weeks….I know your all dying for an update because my writing is sooo entertaining!!!. Our family have arrived and gone again. (So Sad) It was so amazing to see them …but Sym was wiping away his tears when they left for their flight yesterday.Lol

Anyway... we arrived a week or so before they were due so we went to check in in Scarborough, which was probably the longest procedure in customs and immigration yet!! Sym went to go on his own and he was gone nearly all morning and then came back cos I had to be present as well. Bloody typical (the first time I don’t go with him) but we had a KFC as a treat so it was well worth it!! Not as good as back home mind – the skin on the chicken was like the popcorn chicken we get back home…quite dry and crispy – certainly not my cup of tea!
Our first impressions of Scarborough were really nice. The people all seemed friendly and we noticed there was a massive amount of Indians here. We met this nutter of a boat called “Cariad” which means “Love” in Welsh, which I thought was such a lush name for a boat. (Even though he was from New Zealand). We think that our next boat that we buy we are going to call Carried for sure!!
This guy Watty was on his own on the boat and tried to persuade Sym to sail down to Trinidad with him. He has never sailed on his own and the crew he took with him on the Atlantic crossing wanted to get off in Tobago and so he has been stuck in this grotty harbour for months now. He managed to upset one of the locals because when he went to fill up with water on of the local guys stopped him, being a bit of a bully I think cos he is quite old man (as no one said anything to Sym when he went to fill our tanks) Anyway, after a bit of beef, he tells him to go back to Africa where his ancestors come from…can you believe this….the guy and all his family were bloody born here for god sake!!! Well unsurprisinly the guy goes a gets a knife and threatens to chop him up!! I was so shocked!!

When I mentioned earlier that the harbour was grotty, it was not really dirty or anything I just meant it was a big commercial harbour with a massive fast ferry going in and out a few times a day (Oh yeah and every morning at 5.30 am he would sound his horn 3 times and he was less than 100 metres away..Can you imagine how load that was…we shit ourselves with shock every morning we were there) It was built up and industrial compared to anchoring off a luxurious sandy beach in clear waters, what we are used to.

Heres a pic of the t& t cat theat woke us up every morning!!

The next day a barge comes in and ties up really close to where we are anchored. Sym rows over to ask if they want us to move, but they ignore us…or can’t be bothered to answer, either way rude unhelpful bastards. Then they take a line to the shore right past our boat….well every time a gust came it rode right up the side of our boat, so Sym kept having to jump in the tender and move us away with the engine….so unprofessional really…im sure that would never happen anywhere in Europe (or the majority of the world comes to think of it)
Sym ended up radioing through to ask when they were going cos we could not keep doing that every five minutes- a strong gust and it could have done some serious damage, like rip our guard rails to pieces!

Anyway enough of my moaning now, after a couple of days we moved on. We thought we would check out some of the bays on our way up to Turtle beach, where the Archers were staying. We planed to get there a few days before they arrived cos we wanted to put Lisa’s mind at ease and check out what the hotel was like. Lisa, bless her is possibly the fussiest person for cleanliness I have ever met in my life!! She usually brings her own pillows to hotels just in case, haha, so we had our fingers crossed she was going to like it.

A view from their apartment at sun set

Quartermoon anchored up in Turtle Bay

Sailing to Tobago

2009-05-11T08:22:00.000-07:00

Since Syms birthday we have been waiting for a good weather forecast to sail to Tobago to go and meet Bev, Lisa, Bran man and Baby Jenson, who are coming to stay at Turtle Beach in Tobago. Jesus Christ….how come every time we want to sail to meet family and friends the weather turns crappy and the wind goes in the wrong direction to what we want. We have been checking everyday for the last two weeks and have been waiting for the wind to have a slight North to it, or even a bloody straight and normal East will do...but no everyday has got a bloody south in it… Can you believe of all the five odd months we have been here, its always east or north east.

Anyway , enough of my ranting, we get the best we can get before leaving it too late and head off on the 10th May. The forecast is east (maybe some south east but not too much)and about 13 - 16 knots. We leave the anchorage in Prickly Bay at about midday and head 82 miles to Scarborough, Tobago!! Our plan is to sail as close to the wind as possible and prob do a far bit of tacking. So more or less we are expecting a choppy sail. We plan to do an over nighter and get there for the following morning. We reckon we could make that distance just within daylight hours, but we are going to be sailing into 2 or so knots of current so the daylight option is out of the question. One nighters are always horrible. We hate them for the simple fact that it always takes a a day or two to get into the rountine and we can never sleep comfortably on the first night,hence we always end up awake for most of it and completly knackered the time we arrive!!

Well the whole day and night is horrible( for me anyway). In all fairness the sea conditions were great and we managed to sail it hard to the wind all in one tack…how amazing she sailed - we were going about 5 to 6 knots the whole way (This may be because Sym spent the previous two days scrubbing the hull of the limpets, fish and weeds we had living on our boat. We also had no water and not much fuel so she was light as chips!!
The only bad point was that I felt sick as a parrot the whole way. All these sea miles under my belt and I go and get ill on a one day sail…perhaps its cos its our first sail in about 5 months ( well anything over a few hours) and I had to get my sea legs all over again..
Feeling queasy on a boat is possibly the horriblest thing known to man kind, you feel so helpless and sorry for yourself and you are a complete waste of space. Anyone who has been sea sick knows exactly what im talking about. Sym did all the cooking and making drink while I just stayed on deck all night keeping watch.

Finally we arrived at first light and sailed slowly around into the Port of Scarborough. By then I was starting to feel better and I got cheered up by catching yet another Tuna fish… We are becoming the kings of fishing now!

Syms Birthday

2009-05-04T07:27:00.000-07:00

Sym trying to cover up his greyness!!!!

I bought Symian a Leathermans knife for his 38th birthday which he really loved as the Gerber I bought him the year before had all rusted up and the quality was absolutely cack. I would not recommend any one to buy the crappy Gerber. We went to the little bar by the customs office for happy hour for 5 – 6pm which worked out sooo cheap. It was less than a quid for a rum and coke but the measure was massive….easily over a double with the tinest amount of coke. I think Sym managed to squeeze in six beers in that hour…so we were quite tipsy by the time we went out for our meal.
Its been ages since we had a meal out so we decided to go for a Chinese, which we figured out has been over 6 months since we have had one. Not like our days in Gosport where we went for a ‘ All you can Eat’ and a litre of red nearly every friday night.
The food was lush and, especially because ive been on a series diet for over a month now and if I ate one more salad it was gonna kill me. Being on a diet seriously sucks, but it was called for considering ive been eating and drinking like a beast since we left England, alongside not much exercise…ive turned into a Hippo!
We ended back in the bar after our meal and carried on with more drinking on Quartermoon,followed by diving off the boat skinny dipping until the early morning….bet the neightbours loved us!!!

Sym giving it large!!!

Prickly Bay, still Grenada

2009-05-01T09:16:00.000-07:00

We spent a few evening with Alissa and then they departed for Trinidad. They plan to go up to Cuba, Jamacia and through the Panama and we plan to stay in Trinidad for the summer to find work so we may not see them for some time. Goodbye Guys… see you soon! Have a safe trip…Vita Multcar Baby!!

We met up with some other friends Curly Sue and Nick from Yacht Ayesha from England. They had been stuck in Antigua for four months waiting for a new mast to be delivered cos the poor buggers got de - masted on the Atlantic crossing 500 miles off shore. We went over with a bottle of rum and had some drinks aboard Ayesha where we compared whose boat was the best varnished. I think Quartermoon has won hands down in all fairness…. You guys had four months… we did ours in less than a week… and the outcome, well lets say our is still better!! Ha Ha! Nick cooked up a yummy curry and we all had a good evening. We took the camera with us to take some pics, but got a bit pissed and forgot to take any pics... it’s always so annoying when that happens...
Anyway… we are all alone again now… all our friends have departed, gone either up north or back home! Good luck with the crossing Boo! That’s great though cos it gives us time to work on the boat until our family come see us in a month. Can’t Wait!!! You know what it like when you have too much of a social life, nothing gets done no matter how much you promise yourself.

Anyway, we left the hot sticky horrible water anchorage in St Georges and we are now in Prickly Bay… where it is windy and the water is semi good - swimmable ( if that’s a word ) . At least we are not having to out the engine on every day to charge the batteries… now the wind charger can do its job.

The Beautiful beach next to where we are anchored!!

Our new Ensign… hand made by a cute little local man from St Georges.. Our old was looking so old and tatty. Sym was so proud of it; he kept staring at it for hours (weirdo) until I pointed out a couple of holes in it!! We had a bbq the night before and some of the flames had burnt small little holes in it. Sym was soo upset,

Take Two

2009-04-28T10:33:00.000-07:00

Next stop Bubbler took us to the chocolate factory / zoo. It was a brilliant little place. It was where the Cacao beans are laid out, dried and turned before being exported to other countries. The Cacao bean is one of Grenada largest exports

There were only a few animals there including some tortoises, goats, but best of all was a parrot that actually did speak. I could not believe it, perhaps im naïve and know nothing about parrots but I thought they would say a few ‘hello’ a few more words and that’s about it!! Well , this Polly was absolutely brilliant, he was reeling off sentencing ranging from Polly wants a cracker to far more obscene language to rude to say on here. As you can imagine this is where we all spent most of our time.

Next Bubbler took us to a famous site called ‘Leapers Lane’. This spot was where the Caribs jumped to their death rather than surrender when the French were invading their country. Poor buggers, they must have been bricking it so bad to jump from that height.

Finally the last stop was another set of waterfalls and I think we were all ready to go home.. apart from the fact it was past four pm and we had not eaten all day , I was starting to get butt cramp from being sat down for so long. The last waterfalls were great, they were only small but you could dive off and swim around.. they were fab…

Check these out

Tour of the Island – Take One

2009-04-14T10:37:00.000-07:00

We decided to hire a tour guide / taxi driver on Easter Monday and have a day off from working on Quartermoon. Jesus it has been a real killer this week, all this work is making me crazy. We have been getting up at a normal hour and working at least 6 hours a day.. Ha ha, I know you are all thinking that’s quite lame and you all could do way more, but id like to see you do physical work in this heat… you sweat like a beast just getting out of bed in the morning.

Anyhow the trip worked out quite reasonable. The tour guide charged 50 EC and hour which are about 13 quid, but there were four of us altogther so a whole six hours cost less than 40 quid for the two of us and we got to see loads.

First of all Bubbler ( our taxi driver) took us to one of the waterfalls. It certainly was not as good as the one in Dominica…. But it will take a lot to top that, unless we go to Niagara Falls I suppose. Anyway it was raining quite heavily so none of us were that keen to jump in and Bubbler said we would be visiting a better waterfall towards the end of the day... so that was cool.

On our way back this local kid stopped the van and showed us the coolest thing ever.. it was a tattoo ( which is some sort of armadillo) The tatoo are eaten by the locals and are a delicacy over here. I cant imagine how they can taste good…they look so weird, but I wont knock it until ive tried it. I was quite jealous cos Sym got to touch it and I did not, I was too far away in the van and Bubbler drove off before I got chance. I was not that impressed to say the least. Anyway take a look at this...

Next Bubbler decided to take us off the beaten track and drive to a beach on the northern side on the island. As it was easter there was a massive party going on where thousands of locals had gathered together. The atmosphere was crazy there.. there were mega loud speakers all of the place banging out loud music,there was food stalls and beer stalls and the people were dancing and getting wasted everywhere and it was only mid day.

As we were driving through we got stopped by the police, who were stopping and searching all the vehicles for armed weapons before entering... we were all quite shocked.. how can a small island warrant so much security and policing ... and the weapons.. it was nuts. Anyway the police seemed nice enough, but i can imagine it could get quite out of hand towards the end of the evening.. thinking about it no different really to Cardiff at 2am on a saturday night( apart from the guns)!!!

Grenada - Spice Island

2009-04-13T10:12:00.000-07:00

We are still anchored up in the lagoon of St Georges and have been for a couple of weeks now. We plan to leave tomorrow and head south of the Island to some of the other anchorages (ones with beautiful clean water and some of them are marked with diver’s sites!) We are really getting excited now cos our family are coming to visit us in less than a month in Tobago, so we will be sailing there in a couple of weeks. Can’t wait, it s been over a year since we last saw the Archers (I will once again have the chance to show off my brown body to all the whiteys)

The past couple of weeks have been really good: we are so close to the town, right next to the chandlery and the supermarket, so it’s been so easy for us to pop over and buy whatever we need so its been a good place to start some work on Quartermoon.We have both spent the last week working and partying with Lauri and Aninna

We have spent time sanding and varnishing ( what has felt like a million times) which is bloody horrible in the heat ( but hey it needed to be done) The kitchen looks amazing now and all our hard work has paid off it looks brand spanking new!!

Quartermoon For Sale

2009-04-09T13:23:00.000-07:00

Yes that’s right – Quartermoon is up for sale. For some time we have been deciding whether or not to put Quartermoon up on the market. We still want to carry on our circumnavigation and will still be travelling, but as usual (for us anyway) our plans have changed. Although we love Quartermoon to pieces, she is a wicked boat and has got us everywhere safely (touch wood) we are thinking of changing back to a catamaran. We have decided that Sym is going to put his expertise together and build our second boat – a 47 foot catamaran. We have a few designers in mind but we are toying with the idea between Owen Easton and Bob Obram.

So that’s it really, she is on the market and we hope to sell her as soon as possible. The plans are to sell her here where we will carry on our usual travelling until she is sold…then once we have received the money we while buy a cheaper , smaller boat to cross the pacific next year where we will build the boat in Australia.

But you never know we could end up in South America building a new boat, or may not sell Quartermmoon for a few years. We’ll see. All we know for sure is we love this life and don’t want it to stop… we carry on our normal travels until she is sold and then make our final decisions from there.

Anyway here are a few pics of Quartermoon and if anyone is interested please contact us.

Good Bye Wolverine!!

2009-04-08T12:37:00.000-07:00

God there is loads of updating for me to do. The last couple of weeks I have been really slack, but lots of news for me to share.

After the Grenadines we sailed down to St Georges in Grenada, which was again a wicked sail – apart from the fact that Wolves was shitting it all the way. We dropped the hook in the lagoon area of St Georges. This is probably the calmest anchorage so far, but the downside is the bottom is mud and the water is absolutely gross. Not far from the standards of Gosport Marina. Usually we dive in first , but not this time( which im quite glad about because the next day I saw a dead bloody pigeon floating next to our boat( it was not one of the lovely plump pigeons either – it looked like our London Pigeons, deformed with no feet.)

We meet up with Alissa again and have a few drinks on the boat, where Annina decides to cook the best Mexican food ever. It was delicious.

We had decided some time ago that we need to get rid of Wolverine - get rid sounds a bit harsh but we needed to find him a new home, because it so cruel taking him sailing when he gets scared,. He would be so much happier in a house.

To cut a long story short this German couple motored up alongside Quartermoon when they saw out cats, and Rosi the wife instantly fell in love with Wolverine. We said we were looking for a good home for him, not expecting anything to happen really!! Just chatting. They already have a maine coon at their home in Germany.

Later that evening the German couple were knocking on the boat , saying they would love to have him and were willing to fly him home to their house in Germany. They were doing one last sail to Isla De Margarita off the Venezulan coast, leaving their boat there and then flying back to Germany. They explained how much they love cats and had lots of land so he can run around!! A much better home, but we were so sad.

It all happened so fast and the same time the following day he was all packed and on their boat. I cried for two whole days and felt sick. I know to all you readers you must think im crazy and nuts but I felt like he was part of the family, and it was very heart breaking, especially when we took him aboard and he tried to jump back in our tender and they jumped back into his bag.

Anyway bye wolverine, we will miss you, and shackles will to xxxx

Wolverine a few weeks old!!

Wolverine having his first bath after falling in the ocean in Gosport Marina

As you can see he was not very happy...

A few months old: we did not realise that the Maine Coon breed of cats can grow up to about 9 kg.We nearly had a heart attack - considering he slept on Syms pillow every night!!

Brighton Marina before we left.

Morpion Island

2009-04-05T09:52:00.000-07:00

The Smallest Island ever....

The following morning we motored five mintus and anchored up on Morpion island for the day. The small island was completed protected by a barrier reef with the tiniest entrance – just big enough to swim through.
It was paradise. The reef was great and we saw a ray aswell as a lobster( in reaching distance) we could so easily have caught him, but were not willing to take the risk cos it’s a nature reserve - if caught we would have been fined 5000 quid.
We spend the afternoon swimming and running around the island – the best birthday ever!

My Birthday

2009-03-30T09:21:00.000-07:00

We had a brilliant sail up to Petite Martinique. We were right into the wind so we had to tack a few times but it was 20 odd knots so we were making good speed at about 6 .5 knots. We arrived at the island and decided that the island next door Petite St Vincent looks far more luxurious so we decided to anchor there instead. So we ended up having to motor all of three three/ four minutes to get to the next island. It was beautiful. We went swimming in the clearest waters I have ever been in and anchored in 3.5 metres off the golden sandy beach. We spent the afternoon snorkelling and went for a walk on the beach

The whole of Petite St Vincent is a private holiday resort which cost mega bucks. So We were intrigued to know how much it would cost to stay in one of the cottages so when we googled it the results showed over 4000 quid each for the week not including the flights – this was just the resort. Ummm a bit cheap – we realised again how lucky we are to visit these islands for free!!!
After getting all dressed up we got on the tender and ripped over to the next island, which looked quite built up from a distance but we managed to find one small shack which was a menu of chicken or fish. We decided to give it a miss – Im bloody fed up to the eyeballs of chicken and fish so we decided we would go for a meal when we got down to grendada. We went back to the boat and My beautiful hubby knocked up a feast of crab cakes for starters followed by pasta.. yum yum

The Grenada Grenadines

2009-03-28T06:36:00.000-07:00

After checking out with customs in Union Island we sailed down to the Grenada Grenadines to the island of Carriacou. It was only 7 odd miles so did not take long.
We stopped off at Hillside anchorage to sign in with customs, but the anchorage was terrible. The wind was coming from the north that day and the swell coming in made the anchorage shit! I stayed on Quartermoon ( from fear of dragging and being swept onto the beach onto the leeshore, while Sym went to check in with the customs.
After a horrible 40 minutes we left to head further south to Tyrell Bay where we met back up with our friends Alissa again.

Tyrell bay is great. The anchorage was quite rolly down the south, but we hid ourselves to the north close to the mangroves and it was fine. It was a lot more windy there , but that was great for us because it kept us in power, so I got to use the internet all day.

We decided to go out for pizza one evening which Alissa recommended and it was delicious. We had a great night and the food was reasonable and beautiful, nicest pizza we had in ages. We spent a few nights on Alissa and Quartermoon taking in turns to cook dinner, which as always is great fun. I actually scored a 58 pointer in scrabble and won so that made my night cos Sym always is gutted when I beat him. We have had to resort to having a three minute timer on when we play, otherwise he takes forever.

Alissa were heading south for Grenada the next day, but we decided to head back up north ( only 6 odd miles ) to a little island called Petite St Vincent to celebrate my birthday

Pic of Wolverine and Shackles for Julia:

Canouan and Union Island

2009-03-25T06:20:00.000-07:00

After Bequia we sailed down to Canouan for a day. The anchorage was quite rolly but we had free wifi there and sym was intent on making me a sailing dingy from our tender for my birthday…. Check this out!!

Well my back was still quite bad, so I gave it a miss, but when finished Sym ( of course ) could not wait so went off to test it out. Three hours later he arrives back- sunburnt. The boat did sail , but as you can imagine not very well to windward, so sym used the oar as a keel / dagger board to come back. Even so it did the trick – not bad for using a old oar for a mast though!! haha

After a few days we sailed on down to Union Island. The sailing around this part of the Caribbean is definitely the best because the islands are amazingly lush and they are only about 7 miles apart. We anchored at the roundabout which is completely open to the Atlantic but is surrounded by a barrier reef. It was the first time we did this , but was brilliant. It was quite windy and you could see how choppy it was outside , yet our anchorage was flat as a pancake. We spend a few hours snorkelling , where I got to see my first ray.

Here is a picture of ‘Happy Bar’ which is build out in the reef

More Bequia

2009-03-20T09:15:00.000-07:00

The following evening I was respectable and well behaved. Oh Yes!! we had some drinks on Tallulah. Everyone else had already had a skin full by the time Sym and I arrived and he caught up quickly, while I surprisingly enough paced myself.

It was nice to see other people behaving in such a drunk and disorderly manner (he he Brendon) I have some brilliant video footage of you on Tallulah which I threatened to put on her for pay back for videoing me the night before – but after much thought I have come to the conclusion that there is far too much bad behaviour and swearing coming from your vile mouth and I have too many younglings and oldies who read the blog - and they would be mortified, so you are very lucky! Ha Ha!!

Anyways the next day Tallulah head back up north to St Lucia and we say our goodbyes!! It’s been brilliant catching up again. The next day me and Sym take the dingy away from the anchorage round the headland to a divers spot and do some snorkelling. We saw some brilliant fish; we spend the rest of the afternoon playing bat and ball on the beach!! Until….
I fell over and did my back in. Jesus Christ its hurt so bad. I lay on the beach in pain for about half and hour while sym was trying to get me up. I was quite surprised how many people are such uncaring shits!!!! Can you believe the beach was full of people and they walked past and did not even offer any help. Only one American lady did and she and Sym helped me into the tender and back to the boat. Thank you dear and piss off the rest of you bums!! It really upset me actually.

Anyway not much else to catch up on really. The last four days I have been lying down in the boat in pain. Got really frustrated and bored, but it is getting better. By day four I climbed in the water and went for a swim which made me feel loads better. We decided to move on down the coast 20 miles to Canouan - so Sym got his chance for a bit of solo sailing!!

Bequia - The Grenadines

2009-03-17T08:38:00.000-07:00

After arriving at the anchorage we radioed Tallulah a couple of times and no answer. The anchorage were so packed with boats that we could not find them. We have a quite night on our boat chilling , nout worth really mentioning. The following morning we go and check in and Jewels and Brendon pop over on the dingy. They had arrived yesterday, but they had been ashore in the bar( surprise surprise) and Tallulah was tucked with the other million cats where we could not spot her. Clearing in was pretty straight forward, no stamping of the passports and it cost around 20 US dollars for a months permit. We also paid some extras for a permit to Tobago Keys which looks amazing - cos they have turned in into a national park.( Anything that is a national park you have to bloody pay) But it was only pittance and the place looks well worth it!1 Cant Wait!!

We decided to re anchor close to the beach and Tallulah after checking in and after we dived in the sea and swam to the beach bar to meet them. The rum punches were to die for made with crushed up real passion fruits and mangos, with a really good local band playing some tunes. A couple of those in the sun and everyone were merry. We decided to have a bbq on Tallulah late afternoon so we went to the supermarket and picks up some steaks and burgers. After a few more bars on the way home it ended up being dark before we even lit the bbq and everyone was messy.
Don’t really remember much after that- it was not until the following day that Sym said I sounded more and more like Nessa from Gavin and Stacey as the night went on and that I had not realised they had a video recorder on the whole evening. GITS!! Don’t you hate it when people do that! I was obviously to embarrassed to watch it and put the thought to the back of my head! I thought everyone was as drunk as me , but it was not till the following day everyone revealed they were ok and I was by far the most out of control!
As usual the next day Talluah had been up and site seeing round the island all morning and had lunch before me and Sym even got out of bet. We are complete
lightweights.

St Lucia the Pitons

2009-03-15T15:34:00.000-07:00

The following day we had a really wicked sail down to St Lucia. We decided to skip Rodney bay and head to the south of the island where the Pitons are. It was about 35 odd miles so we left as soon as we woke up so we could spend the afternoon in St Lucia. Whilst in the channel we saw dolphins for the first time since we left main land Europe. They were brilliant and as usual were playing and swimming in front of the bow while sailing along. We also spend about half an hour bringing in a tuna fish we caught. It was quite small, about 5 kg but plenty for the two of us.
The pitons were beautiful, apart from the fact that because it was a nature reserve you were not allowed to anchor there so we had to get a buoy. Sym was not at all happy as apart from costing 30ec dollars he did not trust it as the rope attached to the buoy was all frayed and torn. Anyway it lasted us the day and nout bad happened. We spend the afternoon snorkelling and cooking our tuna fish ( skip Jack – according to our fish book ) on the bbq for dinner. It was absolutely delicious. I filleted it as usual ( as it makes Sym feel queasy) and there was enough to last us 3 days as well as feed the cats. We spend the evening looking at the stars and learning some of the constellations and planets off a program on the computer that Simon had copied for us. Nice One!

The next morning we left at first light and headed for Bequia in the Grenadines to meet Tallulah which was about 70 odd miles away. The sea state was brilliant, quite flat seas and about 15 knots of wind on the beam and we made good headway through the channel at about 8 knots. We arrived at Port Elizabeth about 4 pm and dropped the hook.

More Martinique

2009-03-08T15:28:00.000-07:00

After a really fast sail we anchored up south of the island in La Marine which was a big port with hundreds of boats ( mostly local French boats that lived there).
We went and checked in the following morning which once again was the easiest check in ever. It took two minutes to fill in their form on the computer and they did not even stamp your passport and it was free!! Job Done. Although the strike was still on the chandlery was open and so we finally got hold of the materials needed to fix Doris.

Well what a nightmare it turned out to be. We ended up spending six days there altogether cos the windows ended up being a complete head ache - instead of being able to smash out the old one and replace the acrylic the old ones were being re used and so getting them out with little damage sucked. Sym and Simon worked really hard all day outside in the heat so me and Kat decided to look after them by cooking in the evenings.

We had a few really good evening aboard our boat as well as Doris, but unfortunately most of the meals we cooked ended up being minging. We spend 3 hours all in all queing for this supermarket to open. Everyone was going nuts and pushing in and when we finally got in the shelves were half empty. We got our hands on some Turkey for a BBQ. Great!! It ended up being Turkey Wings which resulted in the foulest food I have ever tried in my life. It was like biting into a muscle. We also cooked some rock hard scones and some croquettes which defrosted the time we got home and so when fried completely dis intergrated into the fat. Yum Yum!! Whenever I try cooking for people I always mess up. Im leaving it to Sym from now on.

Still Martinique

2009-03-04T15:31:00.000-08:00

The following day we woke up to Doris shouting at us!! Our anchor had dragged and we were a couple of feet away from smashing into Doris. We shot up out of bed, what a nightmare. It was the first time ever we had dragged and could not really figure out why.It was only gusting 25 knots and our anchor had bitten fine like always the following day. Weve been in 50 knots before and she has not budged. Anyways a French guy tried to drop anchor the following day right on top of ours and we shouted to him to let him know he was dropping it right on where our anchor was. He got really pissed off with us and said something sarcastic and left. Maybe he caught our anchor - who knows, but it made me paranoid for a few days that we were going to drag again. I kept waking up every hour and sticking my head through the hatch to make sure we had not dragged!
That afternoon Sym went ashore to find that Leader Price the massive supermarket was open. Great!! Its been ages since we have had wine cos its so bloody expensive over here so we’ve been on the rum for months now.We spent a good few hundred quid and re stocked Quartermoon’s aft cabin with all the wine and beer we could fit in. Really chuffed.

Anyway, with the windows finally complete we decided to sail round to the anchorage called St Anns .It was beautiful, the water was so clear unlike where we just spend the last five days. So we spend the afternoon snorkelling and having a BBQ. That was the last evening we would see Doris as they were heading north for Antigua and we were heading back south to meet up with Talluah in the Grenadines. Bye guys and good luck with the crossing back to England!!! Keep in touch!!

Back in Martinique

2009-03-04T14:56:00.000-08:00

We tried for a few days to get hold of the materials needed for the job on Doris but we were completely out of luck and the order would take a few weeks for them to come in. Simon and Kat have limited time as they needed to be in Antigua for March 18th so worst case scenario we would have to sail back up to do the job up there.
After a few days Sym tried some chanderley in Martinique and low and behold they had some. Great news, it was only a days sail and so we both left the following morning to sail 25 miles back up to Martinique to pick.
The sail was brilliant, windy but the sea state was by far the calmest so far . We both took some close up pics on the way of each others boat which was wicked cos we have not got any pictures of Quartermoon actually sailing.
Well done Kat, check these out!

Heres a good one that Sym took of Doris..

continued....

2009-02-28T14:31:00.000-08:00

The day turned messy from there on in. We ended up on a bender for 12 hours, where we all went back to Talluah for a break for a bit before heading to a cocktail bar for some drinks later that evening. Some of us left early ish too tierd to carry on, but Brendon and Jewels decided to stay and try out the pulling techniques. No doubt Brendon would have been doing his sexy dance to woo the chicks!!
Ended up being a brillant day and it was so nice to see everyone from back in Portsmouth.

We got awoken by a loud fog horn of them passing by early in the morning as they were heading off as bright as buttons to sail for the Grenadines. I cant believe it but none of them were slightly hungover, while me and Sym nursed a hangover all day long.

Sym had some work to do on Yacht Doris (as on the Atlantic crossing some of his windows started delaminating) and so we had to stay for a few extra days so Sym could fix them before heading down south to meet with our mates in the Grenadines.

St Lucia Part Two

2009-02-27T13:57:00.000-08:00

We get boarded early the following morning by three ghosts.Brendon , Jewels and Ian. Jesus I did not actually believe how brown I was ( being ginger and all- everyone is so much browner than me) but hey I stood out like a bronzed goddess

Andy of Talluah had a kite surfing lesson booked so we all decided to go to a beach on the windward side of the island and check him out. We were hoping for some good entertainment but alas there was not even wind.

That turned into a bit messy cos there were beach bars and so the rum punches started at about mid day. It was quite a quiet beach in the middle of nowhere and all of a sudden there comes Amy Winehouse and her disguised bodyguards. We had a little chat and some pics with her and Sym managed to piss her off. Nice one Sym he accused her of not being the real Amy Winehouse and a fake. She was not impressed to say the least

St Lucia

2009-02-24T13:36:00.000-08:00

We anchor in Rodney Bay and the water is terrible. There are so many boats at anchor; the crap must be emptied by the ton. I could not even see the boat when swimming right next to it. Really dirty which sucks cos we love swimming!!
We caught up with Doris and met Kat who invited us round for a curry, which was really good. We were surprised to learn that Simon has been baking bread and cakes and all sorts. Cheeky devil said he could not cook when we were in Cape Verdes so we took him under our wing and cooked him dinners aboard Quartermoon. We have come to the conclusion it was all lies and Simon was lazy and just wanted to be fed.
We’ll get you back Boo. Had a wicked evening on Doris where we met James and Freya from Otahi and Mat a single handed sailor who just crossed the pond in a 15 ft self built submarine style boat. We all managed to devour three litres of rum and woke up so goddam rough the next morning. To mine and Sym excitement when going to the customs to check in we discover the ultimate of hang over cures. BURGER KING. Oh yes western civilization felt good. We both ordered a whopper and it tasted the best. We were however a tadge gutted that we did not get a double whopper. Even so it the first fast food place we have been to in about 6 months. Next door was a proper big supermarket (like Tesco’s) full of everything we needed. We have not done a proper stock up for the boat since the canaries and since then it’s been buying odd and ends from tiny grocery stores which tend to be mega bucks.
The following evening we all go to the beach and have a bbq which again was a wicked night and decide to take it easy the next night and have a bit of a detox for the evening as our mates are due to arrive the next day which would end up being a large one.

More Martinique

2009-02-23T15:56:00.000-08:00

That day we swim over to the beach and do a bit of sunbathing which we have not done in ages and a couple of games of bat and ball until the ball split apart and we could not play any longer. That night we got home and syms head was completly red rore. The scalp had never been exposed to sun light before and it was like someone had cracked an egg over his head, it was all dripping with puss. NICE!!
The next couple if days it was flaking and falling everywhere. Check this out

The next day we had a brillant sail and made our way to a next island of St Lucia which was about 30 miles away. The weather was sunny with no squalls but windy enough for us to fly down the coast making wicked time averaging about 7 odd knots.
We drop the hook in Rodney Bay late afternoon where we meet up with Aliisa and our long lost matey Simon off Doris who we have not seen since Cape Verdes!!

More Martinique

2009-02-22T14:56:00.000-08:00

Finally we arrive in the calm, still, dreamy anchorage of St Pierre and by god it felt good to get there. We managed to arrive just before sun fall and we drop the anchor and sym goes ashore to see if there is anything open.
The strike that was in Guadeloupe when we were then had now spread to Martinique. Typical French. They obviously did not care that we needed to stock up on cheese and wine. It’s been ages since our wine stocks have run out and im sure all this rum we have been consuming in Dominica is not too good for us. We had been informed my Aliisa who were a few days in front of us that there was not much open and the shelves half empty but hero boy Sym manages to find a local shop and gets a few bottles of vino to chill out. What a hero, if any a time did we fancy a drink it was then.
The next day we sailed down the coast to the anchorage further south called Fort De France. Again a really windy sail of about 35 knots but the sea was fine cos we were in the lee of the island. Dreamy compared to the day before. When we arrived we decided to stay for a couple of days cos we did not have to be in st Lucias for a week.
We decided that it was about time to give Sym a trim as his hair was so long, he had not had it cut since Menna did it in Lanzarote. Instead of fussing around we went straight in and gave him a Bruce Willis grade 0 all over. He looked like such a hooligan, it was horrible.

Martinique

2009-02-21T14:33:00.000-08:00

We have friends arriving in St Lucia on the 27th February so we decided that it was getting time to move on further south so we set our course to head for Martinique.
We checked the weather before we left and it was the usual trade winds with some squalls but nothing too alarming.....
Well it turned out to be completly horrendous and was by far the worst sail in all my life. Intially I was so frightened i nearly started to cry. ( Umm lots of help am, well done). I had to think of sweet thoughts and try to block the black skies and confused seas out of my mind. Thank god Sym was there, he was great and helmed her the whole trip.
The wind was around 50 knots and the sea state was awful as soon as we got around the headland. We were in a massive violent squall which lasted the best part of our sail. Thank god it was only a short day sail. Anyway we survived and Quartermoon handled absolutley great.Looking back it was a really good heavy weather experience and next time ill be way more confident cos everything was fine really, but i do hope that im never caught in weather that bad again, expecailly for no longer than a day. At least next time i wont poop it so bad.
Sorry guys no pictures this time cos i did not fancy coming down below and rooting round the find the bloody camera. Way to much more important crap going on !!

More Dominica

2009-02-18T11:52:00.001-08:00

The next day we all decide to get up very early (which I know everyone back home is going to laugh at the sheer cheek of it) but 8 am is extremely early for my life now. I usually get up about 10 ish which suits me just fine.
Anyway Sym decides not to come because at Trafalgar falls he hurt his knee and throughout the night has swollen up really badly so he decided a morning of trecking in the rainforest would not be a great idea.
We drive for an hour and then go for a 40 min hike through the rainforest to Chauffeur Lake which was really beautiful. We found a really deep pool where you could dive in but the current was so strong I was swimming flat out and was not moving an inch! I must admit I wish I went there before Trafalgar Falls it was not half as great - not even in the same league!
We left to hike back about 11 ish cos we had to take the car back to the hire shop by mid day. The guy from the shop was really cool; he got out some rum and coke and gave us all a drink while we were doing the paperwork. How sweet is that!

The following day we all meet up mid afternoon and have a bbq on the beach which was fantastic. We made some Caribbean style rice and everyone bought chickens (the only meat readily available) and lots of rum punch. Sym, Marcus and Paul all played their guitars on the beach which for Sym was a milestone, because for the past 5 years he’s been saying he can’t wait to play my guitar on a sandy beach in the Caribbean. He felt really cool bless him!!

The last few days have been pretty chilled out cos both Veracity and Aliisa have gone so we thought it was a good time to re coop and give our livers a rest.

As im writing this Sym has just arrived back from the shop in shock. Check this out: on his way in there was a man who stopped and asked him for money which Sym said no politely and went into the shop. Next thing he can hear shouting and swearing and the man was in the shop, and behind the counter was a little old nanna about 70 ish. Anyway Sym starts to sweat cos he’s shouting at her saying he is going to throttle here so obviously he is going to have to help! There is one other man ion the shop that picks up a mop from the shelf for protection while he and sym move like thieves in the night to see what’s going on. All of a sudden the little old lady disappears and comes back and chucks acid in his face!!! OMG!! he starts going crazy and rubbing his face screaming and the old lady disappears again and comes back with a machetti for Christ sake! Sym is shitting himself thinking this is getting a tadge out of hand and the old lady runs after him hitting him on the back with the blunt end thank god. But then goes out back again and comes back with a sharp one screaming to the guy to get back and finish this. Some how we think the old frail nanna did not really need protecting after all. Sym waited in the shop for 5 mins before legging it back to the boat!! How crazy is that and yet all the people we have met are so friendly.

Site Seeing Part 2

2009-02-13T10:14:00.000-08:00

After Trafalgar falls we all decide to go into Roseau and go and get something to eat. We found a place on the outskirts of town in a little shac and the food was cheap and delicious, perfect.
Next Daniels whats us to take a quick trip to the national park where there is a sulphur river. Daniel claims that people come from all over the world to drink water from this river for some medical reasons. Anyway we all try a bit and it tasted like water with lime juice in it, weird, sym and I could not figure out whether we actually liked it or not.
We had to move on wuickly from this place because Daniel wanted to take us down to the southern tip called Scotts Head before it got dark. So Marcus nailed it all the way doinf a good job of not getting us killed. The road was full of looneys trying to get us killed. We finally make it and it was well worth the trip.

We climb up to the top and make it there just before sunset and to get some wicked pictures. We end up chatting to a sweet guy who lived in London for 25 years but decided to move back home and biuld a house here because he was sick of the cold.
We spend a few hours here before driving back to Portsmouth. What a brillant day!!

Site seeing, part 1

2009-02-13T09:33:00.000-08:00

The next day we hire our mini bus and head south of the island for Trafalgar Falls which is a couple of hours drive. We all arrive about mid day and a cruise ship has just arrived at the same time so the place was packed with Americans. The guides said that usually the place was so quiet and empty so i guess it was bad timing.

Anyway this place was amazing. We all climbed down a load of rocks, which was quite dangerous to be perfectly honest. There is no way we would of been allowed to do this back home because of Health and Safety. If you fell off you could so easily die. Sym fell down a slippery rock and twisted his knee quite badly. Im sure he is accident prone cos he tends to injure himself on a regular basis.

We arrive in the ice cold pool beneath a smaller waterfall and right next to it was another hot spring, which was so lush cos when you got to cold you could just jump into the hot one. All we needed was sparkling wine and someone feeding us grapes and it would of been paradise. Me and Sym could not help but laugh the whole time we were in there cos Jess felt that this amazing experience was being ruined because: there were a load of Americans pissed off their heads, drinking cans of Heiniken, smoking and flicking their fag buts in the water. NICE!!! We all could not believe it. Im not being one of those annoying ex smokers who preaches, but come on theres a certain time and a place. Check out the picture with the girl in the strippy bikini!!It was like something from Jerry Springer.

Next we climbed up to the main larger waterfall and swam in the pool underneath it which was great. It was so massive that being underneath was like being in a hurricane,the power of the water was immense, it was nuts.There was also 360 degree rainbows wherever you looked.This has been my highlight of the whole of the 7 months travelling so far. It was lush!!!!!!

Hot Springs in Rainforest

2009-02-09T10:52:00.000-08:00

After a evening on Quartermoon with Aliisa we notice our other friends Jess and Marcus have turned up on their boat veracity a purple lugger, they introduce us to a german couple aboard a aluminium cat and we get invited over for a few drinks that evening. We have been talking some time about selling Quartermoon to buy a cat and after a night aboard Baju Sym has already decided he wants to sell Quartermoon and build another boat in Australia. So who knows where we will be in a year or so
After we all leave the boat ( a bit drunk) there is a medical school party going on in the club the purple turtle just off the beach so me, Sym, Marcus and Jess end up in there dancing with no shoes on( i cut my feet on glass three times - not impressed). At 2 am I decide to tie the tender around my waist and we all swim back to the boat. Brillant Night!

Jess's dad used to live in Dominika for many years and so told us of a place to go into the rainforest where there are natural hot springs, so the next day (slightly rough)we put on our walking shoes and go treking into the forest. We follow Marcus's informative map which looks like it has been drawn by a three year old!
Thankfully Daniel a local builder sees us and kindly takes us through the forest to the hot springs. On the way he uses he machetti to cut down fruit from the trees for us to try, so we get coco fruits,coconuts and sym picks his own grapefruit and bananas!It was absolutely amazing. After about half an hour we arrive and all go for a dip in these natural hot springs. It was brillant, first time ive had a bath in seven months, i just wish i bought some shampoo with me! Everyone was really chuffed as it was completly off the tourist track and without Daniels help we would not of found it in a million years. We decide that the following day we will hire a mini bus for us all and do more site seeing with the company of Daniel and his friend!
Dominika is the best place we ve been so far!!

Portsmouth Harbour, Dominika

2009-02-06T09:48:00.000-08:00

It took a the whole of the afternoon to sail down to Dominika with yet again quite strong winds. There was a bit of entertainment on the radio on the trip with a french women and captain of a large cargo vessel having a massive arguement on channel 16. From what we could gather the ship did not give the sailing vessel right away and they got really close. She went crazy at him and starting calling him a rubbish sailor and a fecking idiot! She was nuts!

Late afternoon we arrive in the Portsmouth harbour which is absoultely beautiful.We are welcomed by Lauri and Annina who chilled some sparkling wine in the fridge. We all go out for a lovely meal in big pappas which was very expensive, but the food was great and very traditional with loads of rice, hot chicken, fried bananas and beans. Delicious. The next day Annina and Lauri arranged with Albert the local boat boy ( who looked the spit of Welsey Snipes)a trip up the Indian River.
This place was brillant, the guide rowed us through the river for the whole morning in the little boat and we stopped off in some amazing places where the second pirates of the Caribbean was filmed.The scence was where the crew of Black Pearl is rowing up the river at night to see the witch doctor lady. We also got to see an Iguana. At the end of the river we stopped in a little bar in the rainforest where sym bought some sugar cane and coconuts. On the way back the tour guide decided give us a test to see if we were listening to what he was talking about. I kept my head down!!
Later that afternoon we all went into the main street in town where the start of the carnival began and watched the contestants for Miss Dominika!

Les Saintes 2

2009-02-03T09:21:00.000-08:00

The next morning we motor up to the larger island of Ilet a Cabrit which only takes about 10 minutes. It was only a short stop cos we were leaving for Dominika the next day and we needed to clear out in town.
The town was fantastic. So pretty and full of cute looking bars and restaurants it would of been silly not to have a few drinks. Sym yet again ordered me a foul drink called Ti Punch, which he assured my was rum with fruit juice, it turns out to be a quarter of a pint of pure filthy strong rum with a lime and a spoonful of sugar. It took Sym four bottles of coke to wash it down.
We bought loads of french cheese from the supermarket and went back to Quartermoon and had some more rum and a party. Sym decided his hair was getting too long and decided to style it like Michael Douglas( as per photo)
As you can imagine the next day we head off to Dominka slightly hungover to meet our friends Aliisa

Les Saintes

2009-02-03T08:58:00.000-08:00

After leaving Guadeloupe we sailed 15 miles to Les Saintes which was a right beat to in strong winds where we were sailing 35 to 40 degrees to the apparent wind. On the short hop we again realised the pros and cons to having a catamaran when the charter cat that left before us had to tack twice across the channel to get to the same destination as us. We tacked once and got there way before him. The con side being where they were sunbathing out on the foredeck, we were soaking wet and healing like a bitch!!
Anyway we arrive and drop anchor on a small uninhabited island. As usual we dived straight in and saw another sea turtle. They are by far my favourites and it's so cool to swim right by the side of them. The next day we take the dingy ashore and go for a walk on the island which is beautiful. We saw a few humming birds which was cool, but they broke us down cos trying to get a picture was impossible they were so quick. There were loads of wild goats on the island and Sym tryed to get close to feed the baby and the dad was not having any of it. He followed Sym around for ages staring him out getting ready to charge. I just eased back slowly bricking it!!Did not realise that a goat could be so intimidating. The island were meant to be full with Iguanas but we were gutted we did not get to see them.

Guadeloupe Two

2009-02-01T19:23:00.000-08:00

The following day we took the tender over to the island to go snorkelling but this time it was really windy and the tender ride was bloody scary. I thought I was going to fall out. After a few hours on the island the wind picks up and gets much worse about 35 knots. There were loads of kayakers on the island stranded cos they did not want to risk going back in such bad weather. I cant say I blame them. We decided to make a go for it cos we thought this wind might be in all night. The ride back made the first one feel like a ride on a calm lake. We were bouncing up and down about 2 metres in the air off the waves and every time we landed I thought I was going to break my back. Anyway we survived. That night the wind in the anchorage hit 40 knots and three boats dragged at anchor, so it was not the most restful night sleep in the world.

The following day we pop to the supermarket to go and get some food and discover there is a strike on. One French guy we met told us that the strike would be on for another week, it had started a few days before but we were too busy having fun to notice. Everything was closed because they wanted the prices on fuel food etc to be cut down to the same prices as France in Europe. He explained the wages are far lower but the cost of living is so high people cant afford to live there.
Great we thought, typical French were so inconsiderate we had totally run out of cat litter and food and we can’t do anything about it for a week. That afternoon we went on the hunt for a substitute for litter and ended up taking some rubble from a builders type place. Anyway it was an emergency and the cats appreciated it!!

That afternoon we sail on a few miles down the coast to another wicked anchorage called Petite Anse. It was much smaller than the last few and by evening we ended up being the only boat there which was well tasty. We decided to sleep out on deck for the night which was cool still we had a squall at 3am and it starting peeing it down.

After a couple of days we decide to sail 15 miles to Basse Terre the main town, hoping that it would have somewhere open. We anchored up in our first rolly anchorage in months and went for a wonder around the town. Well it was nuts there, it was like a ghost town, everything was shut and the only people on the streets were tramps, drunks and weird people with only one leg. It was really rough with graffiti all over the walls and burnt out cars. We did not feel entirely safe so after finding a supermarket open with the shelves mostly empty, we bought what was available and made a quick escape back to the boat.
We moored our dingy up in the marina which was bazaar place as well. There we four half sunken boats and some rocks in the middle of the entrance on the way into the marina which had not been moved since the hurricane which hit last October. I was soooo glad we did not go into the marina cos we would have smashed our rudder and keel up on the way in no doubt.
As you can imagine we did not stay here to long and the next morning we head south for the small French islands Les Saints.

Guadeloupe One

2009-01-25T19:14:00.000-08:00

We finally decided to leave Antigua on Sat morning and head 40 miles to the French island Guadeloupe. We left first thing in the morning and had a really wicked sail, averaging about 6.5 to 7 knots the whole way. Well the sail was wicked but me we got really worried about Wolverine. His heart was pounding so quickly we thought he was going to have a heart arrack. We thought it may be heat exhaustion as he is so furry, we put him in the aft cabin with a fan over him and he seemed to get better, by the time we arrived at the anchorage he was fine. We had a few patches of rain but that was cool its not like the dreaded rain back home, you kind of look forward to it to cool you down, its really refreshing. Anyway we arrive at a really nice anchorage on the north west of the island called Deshaies. The anchorage was so picturesque and the water was far better than Falmouth Harbour. We decided to stay for the weekend and leave on Monday morning.

It felt so nice to be here. It was so quiet and peaceful, especially after the last two weeks where everything is busy and it’s full up with mega rich yachts. We spent the weekend snorkelling, swimming and chilling out. The snorkelling was the highlight, we followed an Octopus around for ages and a turtle swam lesuirly past the boat. We played a few games of Scrabble where Sym stuffed me. I was not impressed, he beat me by a whole 100 points. That’s what you call a real thrashing. We rowed into town and beached our tender on the white lush sand. The town was really quaint and as you can imagine everyone spoke French – no one could understand a word of English. Can you believe here of all places we found a Spar. We got some meat and had pork chops and salad for dinner. It was quite expensive though, as everywhere seems to be these days, at the mo the pound is terrible and buys us one euro more or less.

Monday morning we went to go and do the dreaded check in with the authorities. This process usually takes hours and tends to cost a lot of dosh. Well- it was by far the best one ever, the paperwork was done in about 10 mins,( one paged form ) no questions asked and top of all entirely free. Even the water and rubbish was free. So far way better than Antigua. We left the anchorage for a short 14 mile sail around the corner to what was described as “diver’s paradise”. We dropped the hook in amazing waters and as usual jumped in the water to cool down and check anchor and saw loads of star fish.

We decided to put the engine on the tender and hop over to the small adjacent island called inlet Pigeon and do some snorkelling. Well it was the most breath taking place in the world and the variety of fish was amazing. We saw loads of puffer fish one mad box one that Sym had never seen before, we saw loads of parrot fish, gar fish , a yellow trumpet fish, stone fish an octopus and the best of all a sea turtle. Well recommended to anyone who wants to go diving in the Caribbean. As it was a popular dive site for tourists the fish were used to human contact and so not prone to legging it off. It was really cool day. We have just arrived back at the boat and had a hot shower and a beautiful dinner. We decided to stay for a few more days and chill out with the fish

St Johns

2009-01-16T13:27:00.000-08:00

St Johns
After a few frustrating days of trying to use our ancient piece of crap computer we give up with it and search on line for a new one, wanting to spend as little as possible. Well it works out about 100 pound to send it from Britain and then we have to pay tax when it arrives. Despite how bloody expensive it is here we are left with no choice but to go to St Johns and buy a new one. St Johns is the biggest city on the island and is a really loud busy place full of character and definaley worth a visit. We end up eating fried chicken and rice from a local food place which was lush. a hi to Marlene from the store. Anyways we have a walk round, where sym goes to the shop unsupervised to get a bit of shopping and as he was leaving he picked up a couple of "free" newspapers. I noticed when he got back that they actually shouyld of cost 4 pound a piece. Sym lucky not to be arrested for shop lifting. We catch the lovely air conditioned bus back. The weather has been boiling here the last few days so hot that sym has rigged up our bimini to keep us in shade when on the boat. We finally managed to get a lap top and had a long chat with my sis on Skype. Is such a releif to have this, cos now we can chat as much as we like without spending a penny. Phonecalls has been so expensive since we left Britain. After a few rum punchs in the Mad Mongoose using the free wifi we go over to Aliisa where Aninna cooks beautiful chili potatoes and burn to a crisp meatballs. Ha ha. Well done Annina.We when got back to Quartemoon we took our bedding out on the deck and slept outside where it was lovely and cool, until early hours of the morning when it started chucking it down and we had to leg it in quick.
Caribbean life rocks!!!!

Shirley Heights

2009-01-15T11:02:00.000-08:00

We have spent the last few days relaxing and lounging around getting used to the caribbean chilled out lifestyle. Its amazing here and we are having not problem fitting in. We spent the last couple of days anchored up in English Harbour. We did not make to to sign in with customs on the first day we arrived cos as you know we were slightly hungover from celebrating our arrival. We were charged $50 for having to get a vet out and to come and visit the boat to check that the rabies certificate was legal. It was a bit irritating really because we have a book with all the countires and legal procedures with the cats, and it did say that there were no additional charges for Antigua. Well nevermind, i was surprised it was only that much considering how expensive the rest of the island is to buy things. We chilled out for a few days doing a bit of swimming and snorkelling and walking on the beauitfull beaches. The view from our boat was to die for. We bumped into some friends of us on Yacht Ayesha ( where we met them in Maderia) They had a really terrible crossing and their mast fell down, 500 miles off the coast of Antigua. Their Auto pilot broke aswell and they got caught out in a 10 hour storm of over 40 knots. Jesus christ, when i heard that story i realised how lucky we were, looking back our crossing went sweet. They have to wait three months for a mast to be delivered so by the time it comes it will be time for them to cross the atlantic again and head back to Britain.Poor buggers. Anyways we start the engine and motor round to Falmouith harbour which only takes about 5 minutes and we anchor by Aliisa.The amount of money here is crazy. We are anchored up by the richest yachts "mega yachts as they are called" in the world. We are anchored next to Maltesse Falcon, reommend you google it. It has computerised sails and its so big they measure the fuel in tons not litres.It costs about 300,000 pounds a week to charter it!Its the most expensive luxurious yacht ive ever seen.

On thursday afternooon we decide to go and do a bit of site seeing up at Shirley Heights, the pictures ill dowmload on here does not to it the full justice , but it was absolutley gorgeous and we had a view looking over the two bays. We end up having a wicked time drinking rum punch and decide to walk back down, ( quite merry ) and go on a bit of a pub / beach shack crawl. On the way we stumble across a man who on his way home from the pub riding a donkey. Pretty cool way of transport when your pissed up i suppose cos at least no one else is at risk. Me and Lauri could help but ask him for a go, and when i get my turn, i try and get on and the donkeys leg buckles and he falls down. Ummm nice, did not realise i was that heafty. Sym has been laughing about it for days now.We end up having a good meal in a local restaurant where i tried curried goat which was really surprisinly good and Annina had Jerk chicken. $100 later wqe decide to roll on home and hit the sac.

Arrive in Antigua / Paradise!!

2009-01-12T21:21:00.000-08:00

Well the last day the wind picks up so much we are travelling at about 7 knots with only a tiny amount of sail up. It looks like we are going to arrive in the evening which is not ideal. We found out on the way our paper charts ended just before Antigua begins! Great. We decide to heave to for the night a few miles off the coast and wait until morning. I was not mad for a night entry partly cos after travelling that far i really wanted to actually see the place, arriving at night is stressful and you miss out on eveything! If we had not of slowed up the day before we probably could of made it, but hey whats a extra day after a couple of weeks.

Well , oh my god this place is amazing.The sun is shining , the water is like amazing and we drop our anchor a few metres from a white sand beach with palm trees and hamacks. It looks like paradise. We are both so happy we cannot stop grinning. The first thing we do is dive in the water and then settle down for liquid breakfast. We have decided it does not matter what time of the day it is when we arrive after a long sail we always crack open bottle of sparkling!!Well it knocked me for six and i was pissed by 10 in the morning!! Well we totally deserved it !!

Our friends off Aliisa radio us in the morning and they ve got wine cooling waiting for us to arrive. Sweet!! It feels so good to meet up and see a familiar face after a few weeks.We row ashore and then find out how bloody expensive everyhting is here!! jesus we went and had breakfast and it was £7 for two muffins with poached eggs on top. We met up with Aliisa and had a wicked day.We ended up having a few drinks in this cool bar where we starting getting a bit roudy! The bar lady was so sweet and gave my the recipe for the lush cocktails i was drinking. The people here are so friendly. We leave the bar after few hours cos we figure that if we carry on drinking we will spend our budget for the month.
We go for a few drinks on Aliisa and row past these mega yachts hundreds of feet long worth millions. There is so much money flying aboutits unreal, i wish they would give me some. The distribution of wealth seems so unfair. We learnt that the captain of the boat is on 12000 dollars a month, pretty sweet a!!
We end the night back on Quartermoon where sym knocks up amazing chinese food for us all. Top quality.Then after that is a bit of a blur, i lost my memory after the whsikey and baileys shots !I wake up fully clothed on the sofa at 5 in the morning and the place looks like it been robbed!!!
Brillant night though. Gutted Aliisa are leaving in a few days to head north!!

Last few days

2009-01-12T20:27:00.000-08:00

Oh my god, this has definately been the slowest part of the trip. Because we are so close i keep checking the gps all the time even though i know roughly our progress. This I would not advise to anyone cos it makes the trip go so slow!! Day 14 we only had 160 miles to go , so we thought if we nailed it with full sails doing 8 ish knots we would make it the following day by sun down. Low and behold that evening the wind dies down and we are sailing at about 4 knots. It looks like the day after is more likley.
That night on shift sym wakes me up scream like a girl. He was lying down cat napping which he always does on his watch and something landed on his face. He thought it might be a flying fish so after the shock he touches it and it was fury and soft. He shines the torch and its a dead bird!!!!! it had only gone and flown into our wind charger, got minced up and landed on Syms head! That poor bird had to be the unluckiest bird ever, the chances of running into a boat in such a big ocean are so majorly slim. Im just glad it did not land on my face!! im laughing soo much writing this i have tears my eyes!!

Over half way!!!!!

2009-01-07T20:19:00.000-08:00

7th January 2009.
We now have only 615 miles to go, which is amazing news, it feels like we have been on this boat forever. We are so excited now, we figure we ll get to Antigua on Sunday or Monday at the latest.
It been a while since ive written in this blog for the pure fact that im really bored and nothing much worth while has been happening. We hit the half way mark a few days ago which was a good feeling, we had a bottle of bubbly to celebrate but the weather was a bit crappy. We were doing about 8 knots with showers for most of the day. As it turned out the following day was hot sunshine and no wind which was the first time in ages so it was really nice to get a break from it. I cooked Sym chicken ( which we bought from La Gomera and it was Vac packed so had a massive date on it - the chicken was a right scam at 5 quid for the size of a sparrow)) but it was well worth it. We wished we bought more!!We cracked open our cava and had a lush day.

The days all seem to role into one really. For example most days I get up about 10 ish we have breakfast, do some exercises ( 100 sit ups and jogging on the spot) which I must admit we have missed out a few times, cos its pretty damn difficult when it windy and the boat is all over the shop ) Anyway, we usually then have a shower on deck with buckets of sea water and then rinse off in the solar shower. Then the rest of the afternoon comprises of reading books, cat napping sunbathing and more reading till the evening, when we out the engine on for a hour to charge up the batteries and settle down after dinner and watch a couple of movies. Movies have been life saver on this trip cos it kills time and it’s the first time in the day when you forget your sailing and chill out ( I don’t know if that’s a good or bad thing ) either way we look forward to them. I must also say that im really surprised how well we have eaten on this trip. Sym is the master in the kitchen and we have been eating some delicious meals even in rough weather. He cooked Chinese last night, ( pork with onion and mushroom with fresh garlic, ginger and chilli, served with egg fried rice. Yum Yum. We ve had pasta with freshly made tomato base some Indian birani dishes. He s cooked a few cakes, fresh bread a few times and weve even had bacon and eggs sarnies for breakfast. We had pancakes wicked pizza baguettes!!Its been lush, but all this food and lack of exercise is turning me into a fat mother and a strict diet is in order when we reach the Caribbean.
We had our strongest squall today of 30 odd knots which is fine, I was expecting worse, but the trip is not over yet I suppose. The weather has been up and down , not much wind today but we are making good headway. Our mate from back home Jewels checks in every now and then with some updated weather information which is well handy and much appreciated. So all looking good so far. Tomorrow we will be about three quarters of the way there. Antigua here we come baby!!!!!!!!!!!!

New Years Eve

2008-12-31T20:14:00.000-08:00

This is our fourth day out at the sea and the furthest we have ever been away from land. To date we have only done 400 odd miles. Probably our slowest trip yet. The last two days we have been averaging about 3 knots, with certain points in the evening going down to about 1.8 knots. We have been more or less becalmed for a period, which in one way is really nice, because the sea state was so calm it was just like being on anchor - I don’t think the cats even knew we were sailing. Sym cooked chips and we have watched movies and its been really relaxing, but then another part of you thinks that we could of achieved about 600 miles in this space of time, hence a few less days at sea.
The wind finally picked up yesterday evening to about 10 -14 knots. We encountered our first squall, which was very surreal. We stripped off our clothes , lathered ourselves with shampoo and took full advantage on the downpour. We are quite fed up with fish now - we have eaten it for a couple of days but there is still mountains of the stuff left, I know its wasteful but sym chucked the rest back in the sea. We certainly wont be fishing for a few more days!
We are making really good progress today and are travelling at 6 odd knots, and the weather has been sunny, unlike the last two days which has been cloudy and raining. We lost contact on VHF with Doris yesterday which im quite gutted about, its always nice to have a chat with someone because its nice to know that other people are suffering to! Ha Ha!Last night we saw two boats for the first time in 400 miles.
Tonight will be the first time in my life I have not been drunk on new years eve, we have some sparkling wine in the fridge which we thought we might have a glass to celebrate, but the sea is quite swelly todday and im certainly not in the mood for drinking. At this point we have only 1600 miles to go ( urg )

Setting off across the drink!

2008-12-28T20:08:00.000-08:00

Atlantic Crossing.
27th December. The day after boxing day is the day we finally leave. I am not as nervous as I thought I would be and Sym is mad for it. We cannot wait to get to Antigua, it feels like we have been planning this forever. Sym plots out course before we leave and the total mileage is 2115 miles. Wow, that’s our longest trip ever by far. We check the weather, the wind is great but there is a massive storm up north which is sending down five metre swells which im not to happy about, but still we cant wait forever.
We clear the Islands of the Cape Verdes in a few hours and get our first sighting of Simon on Doris. The wind is all over the place and the seas are a bit swelly, but its not too long after that they settle down and the down wind sailing begins. The weather is really cloudy though. By nightfall we catch Doris up. Making really good speed at about 7.5 knots which is wicked. A few hours after the sun goes down the wind drops off below 10 knots and the annoying sound of the sails starts slamming. It is enough to drive you so insane there were times i thought about lobbing myself in the water. Throughout the night we sail really slow with hardly any wind at about 3.5 to 4 knots, Sym catches 2 really bizarre scary looking fish which are black with big teeth like they just stepped out of a horror movie, he decides they don’t look to appetizing so hes throws them back in. Very poor sleeping going on, which is always the same for us on the first night, it takes some time to get in to a routine.
Anyways first day all well and good and make about 135 nm.
Day Two.
Far nicer weather today, few clouds in the sky and the sun in shining. The sea state has calmed down so its really quite flat and the wind had picked up to about 14 knots so we are making good speed. We can still see Doris in the distance and have been chatting on VHF. Today is wicked, we go up the front of the boat strip off and have a shower which was lush. Then I catch my first baby Mahi - Mahi , so I fillet it which im so chuffed about, thinking about having a beautiful dinner. Then Sym catches one - a 5 kg one, its absolutely massive.(Edwardo would be really impressed) It takes my ages to fillet. So now I think we have a few months supply of beautiful fish on board.
That’s it for today cos this staring at the computer screen is starting to make me feel queasy. It takes me a few days to get into the swing of things!

Xmas in Cape Verdes

2008-12-25T20:00:00.000-08:00

We ( Simon, Sym and me ) have a mad shopping spree in the town where we get all our provisions for the Atlantic crossing as well as all the fresh fruit and veg for Xmas. We finally find a butchers and they want £20 for a puney turkey. We decide to go for two small chicks instead. Everything so expensive here. We bought a kilo of Lemons which cost £5 from little old nana on one stall and then find out they are £2 per kilo in the supermarket. We cannot believe that we got scammed by a cute old nana! Where was her xmas sprit.
Whilst in the supermaket hunting for eggs( which are like gold dust ) we get hounded by this girl asking for ( yet again ) powdered milk for her baby. Sym has seen her five times this day, without the baby so god only knows!
Anyway Sym panics and tells her to wait outside. After 10mins she’s obviously getting inpatient and decided to come back in and pick up the milk for herself and try to put in in our basket. She picks up the biggest pack she can find. So I tell her to out it back and I get the smaller one! When we pay and give it to her, she does not even smile just holds her hands out and asks for more dosh- i could not believe the cheek of her. If she was that desperate, surely she would be more grateful instead of being so rude! This got right on my nerves!!
Me and Sym get back to the boat and decide to eat hot dogs and open a bottle of nice wine. Its our 5th year anniversary today- since we have been together. Sym makes a lemon cheesecake and we chill out waiting for xmas day. This must have been the first xmas eve I have not been wasted. Usually it’s a large session with my mates back home!!
Xmas Day!!
We wake up at 10 ish ( not as early as when I was a kid and used to set my alarm for 3 am )
Sym makes me bacon and scrambled egg which was a lush treat and we open a bottle of bubbley and have bucks fizz. I phone my family up and after I get quite upset! don’t know why, think I may have got a tadge home sick as it feels weird being away from Christmas, I would of loved to see my family, especially my nieces and nephew ( Layla and Oscar ) who were born a few weeks back so I have not even seen them and little lili my oldest niece who is so lush.
We go for a dip in the sea and take in the shampoo and have a wash. We then just rinse off with fresh water, it s so much better than just having a shower, don’t use a fraction of our precious water supply.
Simon comes around and we eat a wicked dinner ( cooked by my beautiful husband) he even made his own stuffing from scratch! It tradition to have piggies in blankies but we had to make do with little frankfurter, interesting( alot nicier than it sounds) As always after dinner , your two fat and sleepy to move, so the rest of the night was spent drinking wine and watching movies! Sweet Sweet!!! i love this cruising luife it rocks!

Cape Verdes continued

2008-12-12T19:54:00.000-08:00

It’s a few days after Aliisa go and we were still waiting for Doris to turn up. We were both starting to get worried as they were already three days over due. They really should of arrived after 6 days max but we were approaching the 8th day and still no sign. We decided that if they didn’t turn up by the next day we would have to contact Falmouth to see if they’ve activated their Epirb or something.
Anyways that evening thank god they finally turn up in the night and we guide them in with our flashing torch. They had been taking it easy and decided to go slowly - so then we felt a bit silly after thinking maybe they sank or something. Well happy we were that they arrived safe and sound with no damage to Doris.
We go into town to try and sort Lindsey a flight home cos she’s needs to get a flight to the other island Sal and wants to get home before Christmas. Luckily she gets one for the following day and leaves to go back to Britain. Bye Bye Linds.
Poor Simon is back to being a Solo Sailor again with no one to look after him and cook him meals. Me and Sym decide to adopt him. This means his Atlantic crossing will be spent eating biscuits and chocolates.
Anyways it only two days till Christmas so we decided to stay until then having a proper Christmas day and leave the day after boxing day. We would have left boxing day but as it happens it was a Friday and regrettably we have learnt that its bad luck to start a voyage on a Friday - I wish I never knew this !! So now we wait another day before setting across the pond!!
A big hands up to Simon as he is the one who helped us set up our web site, a massive help! So take it slowly with me everyone , ive got another four months of updating to do so give me a couple of weeks!!

Mindelo, Cape Verdes

2008-12-12T19:49:00.000-08:00

Our first week in Cape Verdes. 12 the December - 20th dec
The first day we arrive in Mindelo it is considerably different to what we expected. The pilot book tells us to expect to be hounded by the locals who board your boat without asking and never to let them down below on the boat because theft is a big problem.
Well our first morning me and sym are waiting to be hounded ,ready with our big fish to do a bit of trading and low and behold we don’t get a visit off anyone, we keep an eager eye out but no one is the slightest bit interested in us. Gutted!
The first day row into town and go to have a shower in club Natico which was quite crap, bet a hell of a lot better than smelling of grease and sweat and it only costs a euro so its well worth the dosh.
The mad thing we noticed throughout our stay was how poor the place is yet it is so expensive to buy anything. For instance the prices for food and drinks in the shops and restaurants were the same prices as the rest of Europe (some places we visited in Portugal were much cheaper) and yet we found out the average wage was about £100 a month. We really cant figure out how they can afford to eat!
We were approached by few of the local sharks on our first few days who were asking if we needed any services in return for dosh, but once you said no and walked off they seemed to get the picture! They did not continue to hassle us.
Day two our beloved friends on Aliisa turn up and we go out and paint the town red. We went to this bar where everyone in there seemed very wealthy and we nicely dressed. I asked for a gin and tonic and they bought it our in a pint glass with a quarter of it gin, I was drunk on my first drink. Lori gets talking to this local guy whom goes on to ask if he can buy him some milk powder, so off they go to the supermarket and Loir buys it for him. ( After spending over week here we get asked all the time for milk powder for baby twins but we never actually see a baby. Sym thinks it’s a scam and they re-sell it, while sceptical Simon thinks they use it to cut crack. Im not sure what to think, its seems a bit bizarre, it may be genuine!)Anyway we have a bit of a mad session and then we go out for a nice meal ( which came to 100 euros for the four of us) how expensive. We got told to be quiet by some idiotic up tight German bloke which was quite a shame really cos it riled us all up and the old singer dude was trying his best to get everyone up to dance and the rest of the restaurant were sitting there silently like muppets glaring at us. The manger came over to us and told us not to listen and to make as much noise as we wanted. We next needed up in Suzanne’s bar, which was a tadge rough ( lots of men with scars and broken nses ) who all said it was not from fighting but a bike accident. Ha ha
Turned out to be a brilliant night but very ill the following morning.
We spent the next few days chilling out waiting for Simon and Lindsey off Doris to turn up. We had some very entertaining nights aboard Aliisa, a big thank you to them! I was a little upset that to Finnish people managed to beat me in a game on English scrabble! Nice one !!
Aliisa leaves for the Atlantic crossing the following saturday so Sym cooks a Farewell dinner on our boat before they leave, where Annina wants to get pissed as possible as it may be the last time ever gets chance. Wolverine decides it’s a good idea to walk across the candle on the table. All of a sudden his fury belly is on fire and he legs it to the cockpit. Sym runs after him and puts the fire out and get black soot all over his hands. We think he may have been ready to jump in the water to cool down, anyways he ends up with syringed whiskers and he is very emotional the next day. Poor wolves. Ha Ha. We decide to wait for Doris to come and Syms got bits and bobs to do on the boat to get it ready for the crossing. I get on with all the important stuff like the Christmas preparations.

La Gomera to Cape Verdes

2008-12-06T19:41:00.000-08:00

We left La Gomera on sat the 6th December at about 5pm to head for the Cape Verdes Islands. It is our longest crossing so far at 800 miles which we reckon should of take between 6 and 7 days.
We stocked up with a load of fresh produce a few days before in San Sebastian and had a massive dinner of eggs and chips before leaving ( because we cannot cook proper chips out at sea - it would be highly dangerous and if sym does not have chips for over a week he starts to get moody and get the shakes!!)
We checked the weather before leaving and for the first four days it was going to be quite windy about 25 knots which about a 2 metre swell. We left behind our mates on yacht Doris cos they were still in the middle of doing their diving course and there was some quite bad weather coming in so we could not hold on any longer.
Our other friends Lori and Annina from Yacht Aliisa left early in the morning and were a good 50 miles ahead of us. We caught up with them by the first night and had radio contact which was pretty cool. We were travelling well quick between 7 and 8 knots making about 140 miles for the first two days We lost Aliisa on the radio by the evening of day two and for the rest of the whole trip we did not see another boat. It was eerily quiet, defo the quietest trip we’ve been on so far.
Sym did some fishing and on the third day caught us a bullet tuna fish which was so tasty we I chopped its head off and gutted him and sym cooked it with Garlic and Lemon. Then the next day he catches 2 dolphin fish. Firstly we were not sure what they were so had to check in on our mates Brendon and Jewels from back home to Google it to check out whether it was edible. ( so the satellite phone has come in very handy indeed)It ended up being an amazing tasting fish so we ate one and kept one hoping that we would be able to trade it for a lobster with one of the locals when we arrived (wishful thinking )
By the last day ( day five ) we could not wait to get there, id had enough of the swells and sea state. We would catch the odd wave that would send the boat flying and flood the cockpit. It got all our bedding soaking and the cats were not very happy when they got a spray . We saw our first load of flying fish on this trip and they were nuts little suicidal things. Every morning we would wake up and there was some in our cock pit. The cats did not seem that bothered by them though. The only thing they were bothered about the tuna( surprise surprise) they don’t half have expensive taste ( sym says they are posh pusses). Wolverine will only eat prawns if they are the king ones
We are both so excited about making landfall, primarily because its 800 miles further south than the canaries and we were looking forward to some sun, cos the last few days in La Gomera was overcast and quite chilly. Would you believe it if I was to say that it never rains in Cape Verdes, some years suffering with a massive drought problem, yet the first day we arrive its chilly and it rains. How nuts is that!
We finally arrive at Mindelo harbour and drop hook about 5 am. The trip into the harbour was not that amazing as some of the leading lights were broken and there were ferries anchored up in the entrance covering all the navigation lights .
Woo Hoo, we arrived to our destination after five - not so lush days at sea.

La Gomera, Valle De Grey

2008-12-03T13:39:00.000-08:00

Valle De Grey Anchorage.

After leaving the cram packed marina in San Sebastian, we decided to go and anchor on the west of the island with our friends Aliisa and Doris. We had to stay here and wait for a good weather window before our 800 mile crossing to Cape Verdes.
Bearing in mind we did not want to stay too long as we had just filled up with water and got a load of fresh fruit and veggies as we were not really sure of the situation in Cape Verdes. A lot of the pilot books we read said that it was difficult to get water there and terrible for stocking up, so we not really sure whether this had to last us a month until we got to the Caribbean.

Vale De Grey was a really beautiful anchorage with hardly any swell and with huge cliffs just on the edge of the water. When we arrived we had real difficulty anchoring and our anchor dragged three times before it bit. It is a real hippie town and we were anchored by a meditation centre full of naked people which was quite entertaining.

We had a really good view of the naked people walking from there along the path leading from the beach to town and what we found really bazaar was that they were walking in the nod, everything hanging out but were wearing hats aswell as socks and shoes, it looked soooo weird.

Anyways we had look round the town which was definitely the most unique out of all the canary islands. It used to be a bit of a mecca for the hippies back in the olden days and there are even some people still living on the beach since the 80’s. We had a Bbq on Quartermoon and went snorkelling a few times. We checked the weather on the intent and decided to leave on Sat 6th December for Cape Verdes.

San Sebastian

2008-12-01T13:44:00.000-08:00

As you know we love anchoring and find it a real pain when we have to go into marinas, partly due to the fact that the cats keep running onto other people boats. Most people really like it and welcome them in, but others cant stand it, e;g Shackles escaped into another boat and jumped on their spray hood, he did not know we were watching tried to pick her up to get her off, she bit him, and so he slapped her round the head. When he did spot us watching starting petting her and smiling. It was quite amusing. Another time we came back in the night and forgot the lock the cats in. The man next to us told us he did not have a very good sleep as Shackles jumped through his forepeak hatch in the middle of the night when he was sleeping and landed on his guts. I had to turn away to pretend to do something while he was telling Sym this to stop myself laughing.

Sorry a bit of a diversion going on then. So we had to go into the marina to fill up with water and do some washing. It was tiny. We had to raft up to three boats. We we finally sorted out all our rope and shore lines, then come and ask us to move to another space. Half an hour later we have pour own finger pontoon. We spend the next two days getting the boat ready and doing some stocking up in the supermarket and in the evening we had some Bbq s with Doris and Aliisa on the Quay wall. All the boys got their guitars out and had a bit of a jamming session that went on pretty late on night and we got told to shut up by a French boat. Anyways it was good to catch up with them all again as we had not seen them all since Playa Blanca in Lanzarote.

Gran Canaria

2008-11-28T13:46:00.000-08:00

We decide not to stop of at Las Palmas on our way to La Gomera as we have heard from so many people that it was a dive and the water water disgusting. We stop off on the north west of the island in a place called Puerto de las Nieves for a few days.

Well after being in Lanzarote for a month ( which is totally commercialsed ) it was so good to come somewhere quiet and beautiful. Unlike Lanzarote which was Baron, the island was lush and green and the anchorage was really nice. We went diving on the first day and there were loads and loads of wicked fish and the water was so clear. We went on ( what was planned a little walk ) and ended up on a few hour hike in between the valleys. The walk up hill took about two hours, but was probably one of the nicest walks we have ever been on, the scenery was to die for, ramblers would love it!! Anyway we found a secret way down, which got a bit hairy and low and behold it took about three minutes, how can that be possible ?

We decide to head off on the evening of Day Two and do a night sail so we can arrive in La Gomera first thing in the morning.

Last few days in Lanzarote

2008-11-27T13:56:00.000-08:00

We all decide to drive up to Volcanic mountains and go on a guided bus tour, which was cool, but I think Chris and Sym loved it a bit more than me and Jo .I think the hour was plenty, as there is really only so much volcanic mountains you can see without getting bored. What I found cool was the bit where they cooked chickens and other food over a huge hole in the ground, and the heat was immense. The chickens looked gorgeous.
We spend the last night in a really nice restaurant where Lili eats her favourite dish spaghetti. They all get ready to leave for their flight home, and we are sad to see them go. Hopefully they can come visit us in the Caribbean. The time Lili actually learnt my name ( calling Sym ssssssssssssss) it was time to leave.

Bad luck day

2008-11-24T13:51:00.000-08:00

After a few days we all fancied Chinese. We found a buffet style one, which im really not that keen on but it was cheap so we thought we’d give it a go. Well everything on our plate was cold, gross!! We complain to the staff and are left waiting for about 10 mins. Not that we mind cos at least we get freshly cooked food. Well at least that’s what we thought. The waitor came back with my plate of mushed up food which he’s just microwaved . We could not believe it, we said we did not want to eat that not to worry and asked for the bill which came to 16euros for three cokes.

Later on, we return to find that our tender and engine has been stolen. Great. It was actually the first time that Sym had locked it up with the padlock in ages. We go and report it to the police who claim that on an average per year 1 boat is stolen. Can you believe our chances. We have to Kayak back to our boat and go to be gutted.

The next day after spending hours sorting out insurance we are walking out of the police station when, I look over to the lake behind the police station and OMG its there. Our boat is moored up to a bloody buoy with all the local fishing boats. We could not believe the cheek of it, about 100 yards from the police station, and they had not even bothered rubbing our name off the side.Well we run down the jetty , wade through the muddy water and steal it back. The b******s had used all the fuel so we row it back a couple of miles back to Quartermoon.
We are so lucky to have found her and am so glad we did not have to fuss around getting quotes for the insurance, it would have been a major pain in the backside.

2008-11-20T13:49:00.000-08:00

My sister Joline, her hubby Chris and my beautiful baby niece Lili have booked to fly out to meet us on the 20th November in Puerto de Carmen so we leave Playa Blanca in the morning to sail around to the anchorage.
Well it ends up being a night mare. The supposed anchorages don’t really exist. There are no other boats to be seen and they are completely open to the sea. We ask this dive boat where we can anchor and he tells us to go just in front of the next beach. The water is so clear that when we are dropping the anchor, we see an Angel Fish as clear as day. It was wicked. We settle down, happy that we have finally found somewhere ( only in settled weather, if the wind picked up, we would be totally exposed and have to move ) when the police show up and tell us we have to move. Gutted. The only other option we are left with is to sail up to the capital Affecife where there is a proper anchorage. We get there just before nightfall and drop the hook.

We figure that we will stay anchored here for the week and hire a car or catch the bus to Puerto De Carmen to visit my family. After a bit of a crappy day its all worth it when we get to see our family. Its been 4 months since we’ve seen them in Britain, so we all go out to a restaurant for a nice meal and a good catch up. It was wicked to see Lili , I don’t think she remembered who we were but it did not take long.

We spent the following few days catching the bus in the morning, meeting them in their hotel and lounging around the pool. We were a bit paranoid at the start just in case we got thrown out , which would have been quite embarrassing, but after a few days we chilled out cos all the staff thought we were staying there full time. Ha Ha.
Lili was brilliant in the water, she actually liked being splashed and having her head ducked under the water, which I found nuts, but she has been taken to swimming classes since she was born so I guess she used to it by now. Every time we got out the water and settled down on the loungers she wanted to go back in the pool. It even had a Jacuzzi there which was lush.

Lanzarote Part Two

2008-11-09T08:06:00.000-08:00

Anchored up in Playa Blanca outside Marina Rubicon – Me and Sym quite smoking!!!!

After Menna leaving we decided to stay put for a few days to wait for my family to arrive. In the mean time Sym went to see the dive centre and booked in to do his first aid response course aswell as his rescue diver ( in order to complete his dive master to find work in the Caribbean )

During this week we met solo sailor Simon “Boo” from Yacht Doris from Brighton who introduced us to Lauri (Australia )and Annina (Finland) from Aliisa, and Marcus and Jess from Veracity from somewhere in England (sorry cant remember), and Simon’s mate Cool Crewey who came to stay aboard Doris. As you can imagine the next few days involved a lot of drinking and partying aboard everyones boats which ended up being great fun. We took in turns cooking food on boats, Tapas on Quartemoon and pancakes and fried rum bananas on Veracity and the famous Tuc biscuits and laughing cow on Doris ( Simon tried his best bless him but his cupboards only consisted of chocolate , biscuits and crackers ) so we did not get much choice. After chatting to everyone we decide to go to Cape Verdes and cut the Atlantic crossing into two parts instead of leaving staright from La Gomera.

Sym completed his course over the next four days and I made my self busy, cooking, shopping, sunbathing and snorkelling etc. We then decided to go into Marina Rubicon(which Sym really did not want to have to do cos the staff were so rude) to fill our tanks up with water.

While I was lifting up the anchor Sym decides to come up front to give me some advice of a different “ better” method of bringing up the anchor. Even though I was doing just fine!! One second later, oops blood everywhere, he had only go and crushed his finger under the chain and his finger basically exploded – it was gross. He was in so much pain, I surprisingly very cooley drove Quartermoon onto the fuel pontoon . Then Sym caught a taxi to hospital while I stayed aboard Quartermoon. Half an hour later he was back, fully stiched up and bandaged. The doc said he had to go back everyday for a week to have it dressed!!!! Nightmare!!!!

Arrival in Ile De Graciosa

2008-11-06T08:19:00.001-08:00

After our two day crossing we stop off at this tiny island for a day or so before heading to Lanzarote. We arrive third out of the three of three boats ( including Starblazer and Ayesha )and Sym goes on and on and on forever about how he did not trim the sails that’s how we lost!!

We arrive in the calm secluded anchorage, dive in the water and Me, Sym and Menna swim to Ayesha and have a liquid breakfast. After celebrating our crossing we go back to Quartermoon eat some Tapas and go and sun bathe on the beach. Poor Menna all she’s been wanting is a bit of Sun so she does not have to return to England white and we arrive and it’s overcast and drizzly. We came to the conclusion that Menna was jinked with bad weather because as soon as her plane arrived in Madeira it starting to rain and did not stop. This was the first rain we had since leaving England.
Anyways we decided to take the tender ashore and go and have a nice meal. Well in Menna’s opinion this was the worst night of the whole trip (even including the two days crossing she had just done). We had a shower and dressed up in our glad rags, and Sym takes us on the two minute tender ride. Ha Ha,It ends up taking 45 minutes, into the current and wind; the waves are crashing over our boat. Well Menna may as well of jumped in she was that wet and cold. We spend the next half an hour in the toilets drying off, thank god for the hand dryer. It ended up being a wicked night, had some really good food washed down with some lovely Rioja and the tender ride home was fine.

The following morning Menna decides we should leave for Playa Blanca as she is desperate for sun and the beach as she only had three days of her holiday left. We sail the 35 miles and drop our anchor in Playa Blanca.

We all spend the next few days chilling on the beach, and the weather is perfect. The beach is beautiful as well but by god it’s definitely the touristiest place we have been to in a while. We ended up craving for a fry up and there was so much choice. We sit in this place for breakfast next to a man with a pint in his hand covered in lovely tattoos; it was honestly like a scene out of the series “Benidorm”.

We went out for a wicked Chinese where we were given free shots at the end with porn in the bottom of the glasses. Classy I know, we were so surprised cos it was a family restaurant. I’m gutted I did not think of nicking them like our friends Aliisa.

We had a awesome time with Menna and we were gutted she was going, she adapted to the boating life really easily even though the sailing trip was not very nice at all she was brilliant.!! Menna left on the 9th and the day after we both decided to quit smoking. Firstly cos we’ve been wanting to for ages and also because we figured out that to do the Atlantic crossing we would have to go into a shop and buy over 3000 fags. How embarrassing!! So we are not officially non smokers!

Bay of Biscay Crossing

2008-08-21T08:23:00.000-07:00

We spent the last week or so hopping around the coast of France, visiting some really good places worth mentioning such as Concarneau and the Ile De Yeu. The weather has still been terrible but we are still having fun. Whilst hopping around the coast we got caught in 5 metre swells, which was really quite horrible, definitely the biggest seas we have encountered so far, but it was fine they we large swells so we just glided over the top. It was a brill experience.
The forecast was a force 6/7 SW and the sea state rough but we did not have much choice as the previous anchorage we were in in Audierne was completely exposed so we had to move on down the coast. I don’t know whether you can even call it an anchorage it is completely open to bay of Biscay and no matter where the wind is coming from there is a continuous swell. Sym has devised a plan where we put the boom right out and attach a sea drogue to the end of it. It is fantastic and works wonders, apart from the morning we woke up to find it soo rolly and go outside and the bloody thing had chaffed through and was at the bottom of the sea. Great 35 quid down the swanny. We are so fed up of exposed rolly anchorages, it fells like we have not had a decent night sleep since leaving Gosport. Cant wait to get to Espana.
Anyway, 21 st August we finally get a break in weather and we can cross the Bay of Biscay. The weather forecast is hardly any wind for the first day, but we jump at the chance, even if we have to motor the whole way its better than too much wind! We head of from Ile De Yeu and head for Giyon or Santander. The trip was so calm I could not get my head round it, it was like a lake. We saw our first set of dolphins and even saw a whale about 100 yards from our boat, sym had tears in his eyes. I might have to erase this if he sees this .This was quite scary, cos the amount of stories you read about Whales sinking boats must stay I was not ecstatic about it being so close.
The first night we had thunder and lighting, oh just our luck. Thank god it was calm though, the wind finally picks up the next day and we are able to sail the rest of the journey. We make good progress and the second night I get my first starry starry night that sym has been promising for so long!! I must admit it was soo beautiful!
We finally arrive in Santander at 7am and by god its lush. The weather is boiling and the first place we anchorage is just off a beach with golden sand and palm trees. We deserve it! We have finally done the dreaded Biscay and it was cool, now it the rest of the world to Conquer.
The anchorage is soo flat and well protected and the first thing we do is dive into the water ( still a bit chilly though )

Ouessant to Camaret

2008-08-12T07:07:00.000-07:00

We spent a lovely few days in Ouessant. We got boarded by Customs which was quite exciting. They went through everything on the boat, under our bed, food cupboards, even opened and checked inside our box of flares. They went as far as to count how much money we had on board! I think we must of looked a bit dodgy but they were very friendly and professional. I made the mistake our falsely alerting them there were drugs on board. When they were looking under the bed there was a strong smell coming from Syms tool box which had some Resin and matting / fibre glass. I told them don’t worry its just resin and their eye brows raised and called the other guys from on deck. They thought I meant I had weed on the boat. Quite embarrassing really, what an idiot I am. Sym had to come down and un wrap it all to show them what it was! Phew!
We went site seeing around the Island and went into Lampout where we ended up in a old basket ball court on top of a mountain where there was a fete going on. Quite bazaar really. We ate some frites and had a couple of bottles of wine, as you do! The wine was really nice and only a few euros a piece, which wound Sym up where he spent a few hours talking about the prices of booze in Britain ( slight exaggeration )We got soaking wet in the rain on the way home, where we had to walk through some woods in the pitch black. Sym starting worrying about were wolves and kept talking franticly all the way back to the boat to stop himself being scared!
We are still waiting for a good weather report to cross Biscay and still SW gales in. So we decided to day hop as much as we can, doing a bit of travelling until the weather changes to cross.
Following morning we lift up the hook and head along the coast to Caramet. Weather sunny but on the nose again. Nearly every trip so far has been beating to the bloody wind. Is only a 24 mile trip so we fly there in no time at all and sail into the anchorage( looking like pro’s)
We find an amazing supermarket where we stocked up the boat with lots of wine, cheese and beer. The only down fall was we had to walk the trolley on a main road for 10mintues, down a public slipway and load it into our little dingy, where we rowed back to the boat which took about half an hour cos of the wait of it all. Quite a palaver.
Woke up this morning a bit concerned as there was a force nine coming in and anchoring in these conditions was a bit of a nightmare. I nervously waited up on deck for a few hours cos I could not sleep and I saw a boat in front of us dragging!
Sym comes up and starts flashing a torch in their windows trying to wake them. They come up after what felt like half an hour and tried to take up their anchor. After a few failed attempts they just chuck out a anchor over the side of their guard rail and go back to bed, no thank you or anything. That really riled me up cos if they dragged again they would most certainly bash into Quartermoon.
As it happens we woke up in the morning and they were gone, whether they dragged and sank is another story!
Weather is still terrible so we sit tight and wait

The Channel Crossing

2008-08-11T07:01:00.000-07:00

For the last week we have been anchoring in Cawsand Bay, Plymouth just pottering around and waiting for a good weather forecast to cross the dreaded Bay of Biscay. Which I am sooooo nervous about that I just want to get it out of the way.
Originally sym thought it would be a good idea to leave from Plymouth straight across Biscay arriving in La Coruna - which we were all planned to do. I think he likes to chuck me in the deep end as the longest sail ive ever done is one day, now we plan to do five. A bit like the scenario when he told me that night sailing was so romantic with all the stars and I was going to love it. Then he takes me out in a force 8 head on into the wind across Lyme Bay ( on our previous boat ) and I honestly thought I was going to die, even the god damn fishing men were turning away.
Anyway a bit of a diversion there so ill get back to my point. The weather has been so shockingly shit - force south westerly for a week that we decide to take our chance and just cross the channel and get to France cos there was a break from SW winds for about 24 hours, so we decide to head of in quite windy swelly seas ( not ideal ) but long can you wait, good weather might never come we were starting to think.
Role on a different country, its only been a couple of weeks but we are getting so impatient and want to get going and I want this damn Biscay crossing out of my hair.
My first night sail was a bit daunting. I felt quite sea sick and the poor cats had not moved out of their blankets for 24 hours. We are starting to think this is very cruel!At the same time telling ourselves that we are at anchor 90 % of the time and fingers still crossed that they will get used to it.Plus Wolverine is so cute we cant get rid of him for selfish reasons.

I start to think to myself “what the fuck are we doing” and I go below to try and get some sleep, but my tummy is going nuts and I cant get to sleep. A few hours later I start to dread as I know its my turn on my own while sym gets some rest. When I come out low and behold there are bloody lights from boats everywhere and its rough as anything. Hopefully it will harden me up. Sym is soo good though, he looks after me on the whole trip.
Anyway it was not so bad on my own. The blessed sun finally comes up and we prepare to cross the busiest shipping channel in the world - where we did not see one boat!!
The cats are starting to come round and go down for something to eat We catch dodgy looking fish with a big beak, we end up chucking it back in the water cos I felt far too rough to be chopping of a fish head and gutting it all for the cats benefit, they can make do with dried biscuits tonight!
It feels good to be in France. We hoist up our first courtesy flag and the sun is shinning. We take off our British wintery socks and trainers and get the hats and shades out. A celebrating dinner of Moules and Frites me thinks, after all we really do deserve it!
Its funny how quick you forget the sea sickness and the pain in the arse its been and how scared you felt the night before. I thought to myself I was being such a pussey, it was not that bad and we survived!
Au revoir!

Lyme Bay

2008-07-31T05:09:00.000-07:00

Despite the getting up at the crack of today, today we both feel amazing. It feels so good to be out of the marina, even though we are only a few miles away the voyage has started and its feels soo good to have finished working!

There was not much wind today so we motor most of the way. Sym decides to go through the race, south of Portland Bill. It is worth mentioning that at the time we are aproaching was the perfect time accoring to the tides but "Jesus christ" it was very scary.We were all over the shop and i started to sweat a bit. I would not want to test this piece of water out when theres a bit of wind and tide going on.NOT RECOMMENDED!!

We catch five makeral on this trip and the cats absolutely love it. This is the second night we ve given them fresh makeral. We had to lock the fat cat Wolverine in the bedroom so Shackles could get her fair share.

The pusses spend alot of time sleeping but im sure ( well hopefully ) they will get used to it!!

Thw wind increases to force seven ( to Lori this means about 30 0dd knots ) and we get into Brixham earlier than expected. We spend the nezt day or so chiling out and reading books, getting used to this cruising life style, WE LOVE IT!

The day we leave Gosport and set sail

2008-07-30T04:41:00.000-07:00

After three years of preparation we are finally ready to leave Gosport marina. We wake early in the morning so we can get a early start but as usual Gosport Marina were lazy pieces of work and did not get their arse into gear till about 10am to get to the fuel pontoon.
Anyway we finally leave on a beautiful day and head for the Anchorage Lulworth Cove ( which is possibly the worst anchorage we have ever been to in our whole 4 years of sailing)

I am so nervous that i smoked 8 fags in half and hour waiting by the fuel poontoon.
It was a wicked fast sail and Quartermoon hit her record speed of 9.3 knots fully loaded with water and fuel, which is pretty quick for her.
Any person reading this we can recommed never to go to Lulworth Cove. The weather was probably as settled as you will ever get, but by god it was so rolly. We woke up at 5 am in the morning after a terrible night sleep and left in the dark cos we could not stand it a moment longer!! Cant wait to get to warmer climates, ROCK ON !!