SV Sandpiper - Captain Tom & First Mate Amy's Log

Its Official!! We have a new home!

2009-06-01T14:44:00.005Z

On Mooring Cruz Bay
St John Island
U.S. Virgin Islands
USA!
18'19.9N/64'47.7W

Its Official!! After four years traveling over 28,000 nautical miles, 30 countries and 5 continents on a near circumnavigation, Team Sandpiper has found their new home!!! We signed the papers on Saturday morning with Captain Ben and Romeo (a whippet/pitbull mix), his agent B.J., Arthur the lawyer and with one simple signature we have taken ownership of the charter boat Sadie Sea.

To celebrate we loaded up the Sadie Sea this morning with Captain Ben and a boat load of friends and took Sadie over to St Thomas for 'bottomless' Bloody Marys and Mimosas at breakfast keeping Sadie tied up in a marina. After copious drinks and many toasts to the end of Captain Ben's tenure aboard Sadie and Team Sandpiper's new beginning, it was a short run back home. With a wave and blow of the horn Captain Ben departed with a tear in his eye and Amy and I took Sadie back to her mooring for the first time by ourselves.

We have a busy week ahead already with just about every day booked for trips and we are looking forward to this new chapter in our adventures. We have been busy these last weeks trying to get all the paperwork associated with running a business processed and it has been a bit challenging since this is our first time at owning a business. There are tons of paperwork that must be filed and people to pay. I have my 100 ton USCG Captains License that I received just before we departed California in 2005 and it is required to drive the Sadie Sea as she carries a max load of 37 passengers in U.S Waters, and 12 passengers on international voyages (BVI's).

A new requirement for any personnel working in a U.S. port is to carry a Transportation Workers Identity Card. I went over to St Thomas and filled out all the forms and had my picture taken, then paid $150.00 and am now just waiting for them to contact me once they get my new card processed.

We have formed a corporation that Sadie Sea will be listed under for tax purposes, and now have applied for approval from the Lt. Governors Office for permission to use the trade name 'Sadie Sea Charters'.

I have turned in a background check to the St John police department that must be approved before we can obtain our Virgin Islands business license. There is quite a process to this whole procedure and with everyone on island time it takes a bit of time. One great thing about St John is the town of Cruz Bay is so small all the offices we need to go to are just blocks from each other.

With the sale of Sadie Sea to us along with the boat we also took ownership of Sadie Sea's mailbox, cell phone, dinghy and outboard, website, and of all things a Jeep! After 4 years we will have to learn to drive again, and on the left side of the road!

St John has grown on us quite quickly and has a real sense of community. People are quite friendly and after just a short amount of time we have met most of the island. There are no rescue services on the island and all land and sea rescues are done by volunteers. Even the U.S. Coast Guard will not respond to a distress call from St John. There are no garbage trucks for picking up trash. So large dumpsters are placed around the island that everybody puts their refuse in for free. There are no mail trucks and anyone who wants to get mail has to have a P.O. Box in town.

While sitting at one of the many open bars it is common to see chickens running about and large iguanas on the prowl. On the Coral Bay side of the island wild donkeys stroll thru town and stand out on business' decks overnight.

For some reason there are many people on the island with the same name. So everyone gets a one word description added to their names. For example; There is "80's' Matt" who is a great bartender at JJ's bar and has turned out to be a friend of ours. There is "Jew Matt" who well, is Jewish. And there is "Maintenance Matt" who does maintenance in rental houses.

Flights to the Caribbean are quite cheap right now and we expect to see you here soon!!

Team Sandpiper/Team Sadie Sea
Tom and Amy

P.S. Here's out new contact info;

(340)514-0778
SadieSeaCharters@gmail.com

P.O. Box 459
St. John,VI 00831

Welcome the Sadie Sea!

2009-05-26T12:00:00.002Z

Team Sandpiper Update 26 May 2009
Anchored Cruz Bay
St John Island
U.S. Virgin Islands
USA!
18'19.9N/64'47.7W

It is finally here, May 26, 2009 (Happy 45th Birthday Sister Janice!!). The end to our countdown and the revealing of our big announcement. We have received several emails and a few comments on the blog from our loyal followers speculating what the news could be. A few of our favorites have been, "Are you having a baby?" or "What bar did you buy?". Thanks for the laughs, but the answer is NO to both of these.

Crazy enough, we have decided to purchase another boat. Not just any boat, but the USVI famous Sadie Sea. She's a shiny red 40' Lindsey Trawler with shaded seating downstairs and a sunny upper deck. Mechanically she is a lot less complicated than the 'Piper so we feel confident the work can be done between the two of us. The business side of the boat is where the challenge will arise for us seeing as how neither of us have any experience in running a small business. Since the boat has been in operation for years on island, it is somewhat of a household name and legend that we plan on carrying on for several years to come.

The current owner, Captain Ben, has been nothing short of amazing to work with on this deal. The boat has been in his family for over 20 years and has always been operating as a charter. He's not only let us job shadow himself and his crew Kristi these last two weeks, he's been a great friend to us since day 1 of our arrival. We have shared several drinks and meals swapping sea stories and he's even let us use his shower!

The boat runs half and full day charters around the island taking in some of the beautiful beaches and crystal clear waters where the snorkeling in our opinion, is the best in the Caribbean. Since St. John is two-thirds Nation Park, one of the most popular tourist activities on island is hiking. The National Parks run a 'Reef Bay Hike' anywhere from 1 to 4 times a week with a maximum of 37 people down the 3 mile trail and the Sadie Sea is there to greet you at the end where we will run everyone back to Cruz Bay. This trip is so popular and with a 37 passenger limit there is constantly a waiting list during busy season. When you come to visit us be sure to book this St. John 'must do' well in advance.

She also does a lot of work with VIERS (Virgin Islands Environment Research Station). These are usually school groups of all ages, scout troops, and environmental enthusiast groups. They can book the boat for a half or full day charter where we take them to some of the great snorkel stops on island.

Today we helped with an Arawak trip, a 5 day kayak trip from the BVI's back to the USVI's. Sadie Sea was loaded up with kayak's and gear bags and off we went to West End, Tortola to check all passengers in to customs. Then just a few miles from there we drop them off on a sandy beach with their gear and guide on Peter Island, BVI, where they will camp and paddle thier way back to St. John with a few other stops in between.

It is definitely still a learning process for us seeing as how we don't know all the exciting history and secret spots just yet. But we have been busy picking Ben's brain on a daily basis. One lesson we have learned thru this process is 'island time' really does exist. We were hoping for today to be our first official start day. But 'island time' has pushed this back just a few days and we are now shooting for June 1st.

With us now busy being workin' folk, our blog posts won't be as often as previous. But we do plan to still keep it up and running. We also plan to put the Sandpiper back on the market. So if you are looking to buy the World Famous Sandpiper, she is available.

Be sure to check out the Sadie Sea website and start making your plans to come and visit us.

One Love
Amy and Tom

Countdown: 1 days to go

2009-05-25T13:59:00.001Z

1 day till a major Sandpiper announcement!!! (tomorrow May 26th)

Countdown: 2 days to go

2009-05-24T14:11:00.001Z

2 days till a major Sandpiper announcement!!! (May 26th)

Countdown: 3 days to go

2009-05-23T13:08:00.001Z

3 days till a major Sandpiper announcement!!! (May 26th)

Countdown: 4 days to go

2009-05-22T12:56:00.001Z

4 days till a major Sandpiper announcement!!! (May 26th)

Countdown: 5 days to go

2009-05-21T13:00:00.001Z

5 days till a major Sandpiper announcement!!! (May 26th)

Countdown: 6 days to go

2009-05-20T14:06:00.002Z

6 days till a major Sandpiper announcement!!! (May 26th)

Countdown: 7 days to go

2009-05-19T15:01:00.001Z

7 days till a major Sandpiper announcement!!! (May 26th)

Countdown: 8 days to go

2009-05-18T13:51:00.001Z

8 days till a major Sandpiper announcement!!! (May 26th)

Countdown: 9 days to go

2009-05-17T18:50:00.001Z

9 days till a major Sandpiper announcement!!! (May 26th)

Countdown: 10 days to go

2009-05-16T20:04:00.001Z

10 days till a major Sandpiper announcement!!!

Dragging our feet

2009-05-15T16:42:00.003Z

Anchored in Cruz Bay
St John Island
U.S. Virgin Islands
USA!

18'19.9N/64'47.7W

Hello All!! As mentioned in past entries during out stay here in St John/U.S. Virgin Islands, we have severely been dragging our feet in making our departure for Charleston, South Carolina in time to be stateside for hurricane season (start 01-June). We had planned to leave just last Wednesday morning for a 400nm run to the Turks & Caicos Islands, then run up the U.S. east coast from there.

But Tuesday night a MONUMENTAL decision was made affecting Sandpiper's plans. Stay tuned for a MAJOR announcement on this site to be released 26 May 2009!!!!!

11 Days and Counting!!!!!

Tom and Amy

Island Time

2009-05-08T12:00:00.006Z

Anchored Coral Bay
St John Island
U.S. Virgin Islands
USA!
18'20.1N/64'40.5W

1189nm to Charleston, SC

Well... it is Friday and our last update stated we would be making a decision if we should stay or go. But alas, no decision has been made yet. We are actively pursuing purchasing a small turn key charter business that has been in operation for the last 18 years. But we are running into several obstacles along the way.

With last week being Carnival in St. Thomas, many working folks were off to a slow beginning early this week. So Monday was a wash.

Tuesday our contact at the bank was in a meeting all day. And since we don't have a local phone it makes it a bit hard for any communications to happen. St. John doesn't have an internet cafe on the island. But it does have a small business named Connections where they have a few computers that are available for internet, a few phones for local calls, postal service, message taking, a great community bulletin board with job listings, and rental listings for the island. Connections has been Team Sandpiper's official office for the week.

This week we have had the true experience of 'island time'. With us trying to decide our future in less than a week, it is hard to get everyone else on the same page as us. The government building on St. Thomas said it would take over 2 weeks just to receive the charter business' old tax information.

We finally made a bit of progress yesterday when we were in contact with the bank and it wasn't the news we were hoping for. When we went in last week we walked out of the office feeling confident that this was all going to work out for us. But slowly we are loosing this confidence and talking more about getting our act together and making northbound tracks.

This bums us out. We were trying for a small business loan called 'Patriot Express Small Business Loan', a business loan for military personal. We were hoping that the down payment on a small business loan would be less than a boat loan and would also have a lower finance rate. It turns out we still need 20% down and the finance rate is the same, so there is no real advantage. This mystifies us since we are not asking for that much money. How does anyone come up with 20% down for a larger loan for a first time business?

Since we are both keen on staying here in St John we are still trying to make all this work. Tom is busy making phone calls while I continue to use the power of "The Secret", picturing us at work doing something together and that makes us happy. Wish us luck. If you have any further suggestions or words of wisdom for us we are all ears. Or if you would like to donate/loan us a large sum of cash, then that would help too.

Still in St. John,
Amy and Tom

Coral Bay, St. John

2009-05-03T12:00:00.008Z

Anchored in Coral Bay
St John Island
U.S. Virgin Islands
USA!
18'20.1N/64'40.5W

1189nm to Charleston, SC

First a big shout out to Mom Larson who is home recovering from knee surgery. We hope you are up and mobile soon!!

We left St Thomas motoring up the west coast and returned back to St John for a short 5 mile motor upwind to Maho Bay on St Johns east coast. We grabbed one of the National Park's mooring balls and spent the afternoon swimming off the white sand beach and explored inland. Maho Bay is just a quarter mile south of Cinnamon Bay where we had been moored weeks before on our last trip around St John. And most the island's east coast is part of the National Park.

This coast is very unique as the bay is lined with white sand beaches and not a resort in site! There are many turtles to be spotted and porpoises swimming by to say hello. Just down the bay at Cinnamon Bay the National Parks have a campground. There are camp sites, tents, and tiny cottages just feet from a perfect beach. And is one of the cheapest places to stay in St John.

Just off where we were moored is Maho Bay Camp , a private eco lodge which has 114 tent cottages on platforms on a steep wooded slope. All the cottages are connected by stairs and walkway's and walking around involves going either straight up, or down. We did manage to climb the 118 steps for a cold beer from their small store.

Our motor from St Thomas was not all drama free. When we motored out the engine was sounding louder then normal and the temperature gauge was reading a bit high. So after a good nights sleep I climbed into my favorite space in Sandpiper... the 'engine room'. I pulled off the impeller plate and found only two fins left on the sea water pump's impeller, and the broken off fins were jamming the intake. In the last four years I have become quite an expert at rebuilding this pump all over the world as it seems to love to self destruct quite randomly. Once finished we ran the engine and all was well, so we cut loose our mooring for a seven mile motor sail upwind around St John's east coast to where we are presently anchored in protected Coral Bay.

Along the way we tried to catch dinner, but ended up with a four foot barracuda. Once we got our lure back, it was released. We were in Coral Bay over a week ago, but only had the chance to stay one night. We are hoping to spend the next week here to check out this end of St John. Cruz Bay where we had been staying on St John's west end, and is just a few miles away. But compared to Coral Bay, it is in another world. Cruz Bay is where all the islands' ferries arrive, and is the main city on the island. Coral Bay is more like out of some salty sailors novel.

Most all the boats in Coral Bay are on moorings permanently and there are many colorful characters living out on their boats. We are a bit of an oddity here as most the boats here have never even left St John. They would consider a trip to the BVI's, just a few miles away, a major passage. Many of the boats here are as old as the people that live aboard them and I am sure only a small percentage of them could ever leave the harbor under their own power. But Coral Bay does have its charms. Ashore by the dingy dock is Skinny Legs bar/restaurant where the bar is full of boat people getting their daily tot of grog. And the people working behind the bar are the boat people that have jobs.

One of the cast of characters you are guaranteed to find perched at the bar is 'Pirate Bill'. Bill looks something out of 'Pirates of the Caribbean', being about 80 years old with long white hair and a beard. Pirate Bill wears a necklace of five Spanish doubloons he proudly wears and told us when he was younger he swam down and found them when he was working salvage in his younger days. Pirate Bill asked Amy where she was from and after she told him we were from California, he said "I used to live in California in the forties." He then stated to us he hadn't worn shoes in over twenty years!

In the evening when business slows down everyone stops talking and all watch the bar's TV before heading back to their boats. Skinny Legs is more of a cruiser family room than a bar for the local folks. But even if you are just dropping in for their famous burger, you are more than taken care and instantly part of the family.

Sandpiper's plans are to stay here at least till Friday where we hope to have decided what we are doing next. Hurricane season is rapidly approaching.

Stay Tuned!!
Tom and Amy

Charlotte Amalie, USVI

2009-05-01T12:00:00.003Z

Anchored off Charlotte Amalie
St Thomas Harbor
St Thomas Island
U.S. Virgin Islands
USA!
18'20.1N/64'55.7W

1179 nm to Charleston, SC

After a night at anchor wondering if the engine was going to start in the morning we woke up early to see what would happen. The day before we had changed out all the engines filters and thoroughly cleaned everything out. I cracked the injectors and had Amy crank the engine over to run all the water out of the injector pump. Once diesel started squirting out, I tightened the injectors back down and she cranked right up like nothing ever happened. We ran the engine for about 30 minutes to make sure there would be no drama once we upped anchor. Then we motored over to the fuel dock at Yacht Haven Grande Marina just in front of us. We took on 40 gallons of diesel and filled both water tanks.

H2O is quite scarce in the Virgin Islands and many parts of the islands rely on rain water collected off their houses roofs for their annual supply. We paid 20 cents a gallon for water! With this extra fuel we should not do not need to refuel for a very long time as the last time we refueled was in the Canary Islands, 2780 miles from here, and we still have a full port tank.

Once topped off we re- anchored as close to Yacht Haven Grande Marina as possible so our dinghy commute is as short as possible. Ashore we made contact with Piper followers Carl, Penny, and their daughter Lacey. We found out they had planned on meeting us that day instead of the day before where we had thought we had stood them up. So we hopped a Safari Taxi to the port of Red Hook where we had been unable to anchor the day before.

The Safari Taxis in St Thomas are large flatbed trucks with bench seats in the back covered with an awning. They make loops around the island and is a cheap way to get around, costing only 2 bucks to get where we were going. When everyone climbs aboard they greet everybody seated with a cheery "Good Afternoon". Since the diver is up in a truck cab and cannot hear his passengers when one is approaching their stop, there are doorbell buttons above the passenger seats that when pushed alert the driver to stop.

After we jumped out it was just a short walk thru a park and we were back at Latitude-18, the cruiser bar where we had been the week previous to scope things out. We met Carl, Penny, and Lacey who had just flown in from snow filled Montana and were quite pleased to be in the warmth of the tropics. At home in Montana Carl and Penny both sell real estate while their 15 year old daughter races dog sleds in the winter. She competes in the Junior Ididarod with her assortment of 23 sled dogs to choose from. They were out here not only to enjoy the warm sun, but were filming a High Definition point of sale DVD that will be released sometime soon called 'Travelers in Paradise'. Team Sandpiper will have a short cameo in this soon to be famous film, and we were even wired up for sound for our interview. Very professional!

Carl, Penny and Lacey plan on traveling through the islands filming and interviewing as many people as possible on their 2 week Caribbean charter aboard a catamaran, stopping all along the British Virgin Islands. Later that night at Lat-18, cruiser favorite Eric Stone, appeared and played two sets of acoustic guitar that will be featured on their film as well. We wish them well on their Hollywood fame and a great thanks for a night out!

If it seems like we are dragging our heals while in the Virgins Islands it is because we have a few things brewing here. We cannot stay too long as hurricane season is fast approaching. But we plan on staying here in the U.S. Virgin Islands as least one more week. If what we got brewing works out, then you readers will be the second to know!

We plan on an early start tomorrow morning to motor back upwind along the east coast of St. John hoping to be in Coral Bay by Sunday.

More Down Island,
Tom and Amy

St Thomas Harbor, USVI

2009-04-28T12:00:00.003Z

Anchored Charlotte Amalie
St Thomas Harbor
St Thomas Island
U.S. Virgin Islands
USA!
18'20.1N/64'55.7W

1179nm to Charleston, SC

Drama...

We should have read the signs last night when we returned to the dinghy dock in Cruz Bay, St. John that things were going to go wrong today. We arrived to the dinghy dock to find our dingy trapped under the dock with the bow sticking out one side, and the outboard sticking out the other. When the tide was low it must have floated under the dock bow first. Then when the tide came up it trapped the dingy under the dock. Amy stood on one end and I stood on the other, but it was stuck good. We took off the outboard and opened the air vents to deflate it enough to pull it back under the dock. Once we got it out, we pulled it up on the dock trying to figure out how to re-inflate it so we could get back to the Piper.

Amy heard a guy with a leaf blower above us on the ferry dock cleaning off the pier and persuaded him to come down to where the dingy was. He asked "What's the problem Mon?" I grabbed the end of his leaf blower and inserted it into one of the dinghy's inflation valves, and in one pull he had it started and the dinghy was back to its original shape. With the outboard back on and a beer to our new friend we were back on the Piper.

We had plans to meet a couple who are fans of our blog in St Thomas today at a salty cruiser bar called Lat-18, just across the channel from St John. To save the ferry fare of going back and forth we decided to take the Piper over and anchor in front of the bar to save 20 bucks. The winds were cracking straight into the anchorage in front of Lat-18 bar and all the boats anchored there were rolling all over the place. So we decided to try the next bay over where we could walk over from. That bay was even worse, so we continued on to the next bay that promised a Mangrove swamp that was very protected. After motoring in we found is extremely shallow and even ran aground right in the middle of the channel that leads into a marina. I have no idea how the boats in the marina ever get out of this place. We applied full throttle and powered our way off the mud bottom.

Trying to figure out what to do next, we decided the best idea would be to return to Cruz Bay in St John, now miles away straight upwind in 25 knots of wind. I had not anticipated doing this much motoring and Sandpiper's engine had been running off our starboard fuel tank, which we have not refilled since the Canary Islands back in December. Due to a boner move on my part months ago in Barbados, our port fuel tank had water in it. I thought I had been able to filter the water out with our portable filter. So we dropped the hook right in the entrance of the bay we were in so we could transfer fuel before motoring back to St John. Once we transferred 5 gallons we lit off the engine and headed out, beating into 25 knots of wind back to St John. We were only making 2.5 knots and having flashbacks of our Red Sea passage. We made it about one mile, then a giant slug of water that I had thought I filtered out shut the engine down just as we were very near some large rocks along the shoreline.

So we made a quick 180 and headed downwind, trying to figure out what to do next since we had no engine. We decided the safest thing to do would be to sail downwind a few miles to where we are presently anchored, off St Thomas' main harbor. We sailed along with just a double reefed main through the harbor and called the marina to see if they could assist us in pulling into a slip so we could make repairs. They suggested calling 'Vessel Assist' to tow us in. We quickly declined, imagining paying $400.00 just to be towed in to a marina that was going to charge us $50.00 a night to stay one night.

So we decided to sail into the anchorage just past three large cruise ships. With Amy steering us in through the anchored sailboats we found a spot in the middle where we threw out the hook and dropped the main sail.

We thought that we would have to tow ourselves in to the marina so we could hire someone to polish our tanks to get the water out. But after looking at the tanks we decided we can do this ourselves while at anchor. Luckily, before we left on our four year transit, I installed an electric fuel pump in the engine's fuel system so that in an emergency we could prime the engine. Using this pump I was able to pump all the water out of the tank into an empty fuel jug. Then I changed both pre filters and cleaned everything out. I think we are back in business because as I type this post, we are running the generator to see if there is any water left in the tank. It has been running for the last hour with no problems.

Tomorrow we are going to pull into the fuel dock to buy some clean fuel to put in the starboard tank and all should be well. All this just to save a $20.00 ferry ride!

One positive note: Our good friend Paddy Berry is in St. John on his new catamaran that he bought in Venezuela. We look forward to hanging out with him once we are back in St John. We met Paddy in Mexico in 2006 before we crossed the Pacific and enjoyed sharing many different anchorages in the South Pacific along the way until he headed to Australia where he sold his boat S/V Zafarse. We are looking forward to checking out his new ride, the S/V Chat Beaute, this next week. You can also check him out yourselves under 'Friends of Sandpiper'.

More very soon,
Tom and Amy

St. John, USVI

2009-04-25T14:33:00.004Z

Mooring Ball Cruz Bay
St. John
U.S. Virgin Islands
USA!
18'19.9N/64'47.8W

1184nm to Charleston, SC

Since Shannon's departure we have been busy trying to figure out Sandpiper's next move. We have been seriously thinking of staying here on St. John and finding work. Our days consist of a short dingy ride into town from our much appreciated free mooring in Cruz Bay to the wonderful Deli Grotto where we connect to free wifi or use their computers. This town seriously needs an internet cafe! There are several turn-key business's on the island for sale that we think would be an exciting adventure for us to own and operate. The problem we are running into is that we can't find a bank willing to give us a loan since we haven't worked in 4 years. We haven't given up yet and will continue to try for at least one more week. After this week we will have to continue to move north since the official start of Hurricane season is 1 June.

One Love
Amy and Tom

British Virgin Islands Rum Report

2009-04-24T12:00:00.001Z

This is the fifth installation of the Rum Report. Updates will be given from islands in the Caribbean which Sandpiper stops at that have distilleries.

During Sandpipers stop in Tortola/BVI we got the opportunity to stop at the oldest and smallest distilleries that we have had the opportunity to visit in the Caribbean. Once we made our way ashore, we smelled our way to Arundel Estate where the smell of distilling rum was in the island breeze. This distillery has been in operation for over the last 400 years and was in operation when we arrived. Unlike other distilleries that use molasses, the Arundel Estate uses raw sugar cane that is crushed behind their building with machinery that was shipped over from England several hundred years ago. The cane crusher used to be powered by donkeys, but according to our guide he said it was a time consuming process because they had to keep beating the donkeys to keep the machinery going. So now the crusher is powered by a small diesel engine with a long belt that rotates it.

Once the cane is crushed the cane juice is then boiled in open copper pots using the dried cane stalks as fuel for the fire. It's then put in barrels to ferment for 18 days naturally without adding yeast. After fermentation the fermented cane juice is poured into a copper still pot and a fire is lit. Coconut husks, scraps from local construction sites and tree limbs are burnt to distill the fermented wine. It takes all day to boil the alcohol from the ancient still where a pipe runs from the top of the still to inside the building where we could see the pure rum dripping into a well in the floor.

The rum is then hand ladled into large extremely old hand blown glass jugs where it is kept till it is ready to be bottled or barreled to age. This tiny distillery makes only 25 gallons of rum a day. White rum from the glass jugs is diluted and bottled as 80 proof white rum. Or it is barreled and allowed to age for 4 years. Or their top of the line is aged 10 years. This is the only licensed distillery in the Eastern Caribbean that uses a single pot still. Too cool!

There are several other rums around the BVI's such as Pussers Rum that still uses its original recipe from the 16th century. Pusser was the official rum for the British Royal Navy. Each man aboard was allowed a pint a day. But a pint a day is quite a bit to drink and still function. After general disorder and dysfunction throughout the fleet in 1740 Admiral Edward Vernon ordered the ration to be diluted with two parts water, sugar, and lime juice. It then become known as Grog. This tradition continued for over 200 years till 31-July-1970 ("Black Tot Day") when the last Grog was drunk aboard her Majestys Ships.

Pussers Rum is a blend of six different Caribbean rums and now is marketed in Pussers restaurant/bars around the world. We got the chance to visit one of these shops on our stop in Gibraltar before our Atlantic Crossing.

Other rums sold in the BVI's are Foxy's Firewater Rum that he sells at his beachside bar in Jost Van Dyke. It's not bottled in the BVI's. Instead it is a blend of rums bottled in Trinidad and then has his label added to the bottle.

Another rum bottled in Trinidad and labeled in the BVI's are resort blends that are labeled with whatever resort wants to have their own labels.

Stay tuned for the next issue of the 'Rum Report'!!

Tortola, BVI

2009-04-18T12:00:00.009Z

Anchored Cane Garden Bay
Tortola
British Virgin Islands
18'25.7N/64'39.5W

1185 nm to Charleston, SC

After a morning swim ashore Team Sandpiper up'd the hook and headed south 5 miles to where we are presently anchored. We are in yet another white sandy bottom anchorage in crystal clear waters along a picture postcard beach. There is just a small town here with a few shops and a laundry. Mostly there are small beach bars/restaurants that line the beach right off where we are anchored with beach chairs full of tourists getting burned red.

We wandered ashore and found the tiny Callwood Rum Distillery that has been in operation for over 200 years and is still in operation with its original equipment. We were given a short tour and got to see this tiny distillery in operation, then we partook in the mandatory rum sampling that followed. Check out the new 'BVI Rum Report' when it comes out and you can get all the juicy details.

After that it was back to the boat for a swim and back into town to see what happens around here on a Friday night. We stopped at one of the beach bars for their 2-for-1 happy hour and 50 cent chicken wings. After that we had a very tasty dinner at Quito's restaurant bar that has a nice upstairs that looks out over the anchored boats and the lights of St Thomas off in the distance.

At 10pm the downstairs bar opened up with a kickin' Reggae band that played till about 1am, followed by a DJ that was spinning Soka tunes till about 4am. Just like the other islands we have visited, the white charter boat tourist crowd stayed till 10pm then vanished back to their boats leaving the place to 'Team Sandpiper' and the locals. We represented well making it till about 3am returning to the Piper being able to hear the music out in the harbor just about as loud as it was in the bar.

Today's plans are to swim around a bit and then motor-sail 8 miles to Coral Bay on the south end of St John.

More Later,
Tom, Amy & Shannon

Jost Van Dyke, BVI

2009-04-17T12:00:00.004Z

Anchored in White Bay

Jost Van Dyke

British Virgin Islands

18'26.5N/64'45.7W

1181 nm to Charleston, SC

Hello all. This is a 'Sister Shannon' update. I'm 'living the dream' with Amy and Tom this week.

After a nice snorkel trip around Cinnamon Bay yesterday The 'Piper was off again. We motored-sailed over to the British Virgin Islands to have a nice lunch at Foxy's [caution: the Foxy's website has loud music]. Foxy's is a famous bar that Kenny Chesney sings about. So being the Kenny fan that I am it was a fun little place to see. It wasn't exactly what we all thought. More of a tourist trap than anything else. The waitresses were rude and talked on their cell phones while we waited to order food and drinks. After Tom got beers from the bar we finally had a chance to order food. Tom and Amy did decide that the conch fritters we had were the best that they have had.

After lunch we boarded the 'Piper and set off around the bay to White Bay Beach. It is filled with charter boats and people everywhere. The water was warm and the beers were cold. We walked around the beach checked in at a few of the local bars and did some people watching. We headed back to the Soggy Dollar Bar where Tom and Amy had a couple of the famous Painkiller drinks, which is like a rum eggnog drink with nutmeg. After beers and cocktails on the beach we headed back to the 'Piper for dinner and a movie.

Today we're headed over to Cane Garden Bay for more snorkeling.

More Later,

Shannon, Amy & Tom

Note From Ron: Here is a good article about Foxy's bar turning 40 last month.

Cinnamon Bay, Virgin Islands National Park

2009-04-16T14:43:00.004Z

On Mooring Ball

Cinnamon Bay
Virgin Islands National Park
St. John
U.S. Virgin Islands
USA!
18'21.2N/64'45.4W

1185 nm to Charleston, SC

The Piper is sitting in Cinnamon Bay on a National Park mooring ball while turtles are swimming around the crystal clear waters. Cinnamon Bay is part of the Virgin Islands National Park that takes up a large part of St. John Island. We picked up Amy's sister Shannon at the St Thomas Airport on Monday after hopping on the ferry to Charlotte Amalie.

The night before we had met with Capt'n Ben from the charter boat Sadie Sea at one of St Johns watering holes. He hooked us up with a mooring buoy next to his boat that he owned. This was a big relief as we had tried to anchor in Cruz Bay. The harbor is very tiny, with ferry boats running in and out all day long, and the waters just inside the channel markers being less then 5 feet deep. We had anchored our first night, but did not feel comfortable leaving the boat as we were so close the edge of the channel. We now have our own mooring ball any time we go back to Cruz Bay. Too cool!

St Thomas is just 2 miles from Cruz Bay and is little America with all of Americas large corporate stores all over the place. Our first stop after grabbing sister Shannon from the airport was Big K-Mart. The other newly arrived tourists in our taxi van that were all heading to their resorts looked at us a bit strange as we got out of the van, but I assured them that we were not staying in K-Mart.

After loading up with as much American stuff that we could carry we hopped back on the ferry and made our way back to the Piper in Cruz Bay. After a night with Cap'n Ben in St. Johns watering holes we left Cruz Bay for a short 4 mile motor around St. John's coast to Cinnamon Bay where the National Parks have mooring balls set along its beach. There are 3 different bays next to each other here to choose from and Cinnamon Bay has park facilities ashore. There are camping areas along the beach and small cottages that the park rents, along with a restaurant/bar, sailboat rentals, and beach chairs.

We spent the day yesterday on the beach and met up with friends Lindsey from S/V Buxom that we sailed on in the Classic Yacht Regatta back in Grenada. Also there was Lindsey's good friend Gracie, and new friends Mike, Will, and Kiley.

Today is another perfect Caribbean day... sunny, warm, 10 knots of wind, and boats all over the place. We are setting off today for a 5 mile trip over to the BVI's for a bit more fun.

More Soon
Tom, Amy, & Shannon

St. John, US Virgin Islands

2009-04-13T14:29:00.003Z

Anchored Cruz Bay
St. John
U.S. Virgin Islands
USA!
18'19.9N/64'47.8W

1184 nm to Charleston, SC
6 Hours Till Amy's Sister Shannon Arrive!!

Happy Belated Easter!

We have made it to our second stop on American soil, St. John. We had a wonderful 35 mile sail from St. Croix yesterday to where Piper is now secure on a free mooring ball. Our last two trips the sailing has been so wonderful, probably some of the best sailing in the last few years. And we sure hope it continues like this all the way up to Charleston.

Upon our arrival here in Cruz Bay we checked in with the US Customs and Immigration, by far the nicest Customs and Immigration offices we have ever been in. Then we did a quick tour of the waterfront looking for a place to grab a beer. As you can imagine, a busy tourist destination like the Cruz Bay, St. John waterfront is lined with restaurants and beach bars. It has been our experience that the majority of these bars is where the tourists go, and so the prices are a bit higher.

With that said, we like to search out a bit of some more local flair. So last night we found our new hangout 'Larry's Landing', a friendly, helpful, informative local hang-out where you pour your own drinks. I stuck with the beer but Tom helped himself to a nice size rum and splash of Coke (Tommy Style) for only $3. Another great reason to stop here is the walk-up restaurant next door... 'G-Spot @ Larry's Landing', a good old heart clogging American grill with really good eats.

And one more stop before heading back to the dingy, "JJ's Texas Coast Cafe". We were told that the captain/owner Ben from the charter boat 'Sadie Sea' may be in there. Ben runs a 40' trawler around the island doing various snorkel and hiking trips that our friend Chris from S/V Christa worked on for a short stint. BTW Chris. Ben wants to know if you want your CD's back? We had a nice chat with Ben and hope to take part in his guided parks tour later this week. He even hooked us up with a free mooring ball to keep Sandpiper secure in this tiny crowded harbor.

This morning we are taking the ferry over to St. Thomas to pick up sister Shannon and bring her back to live the dream with us for a week.

One Love
Amy and Tom

St. Croix, US Virgin Islands

2009-04-10T20:30:00.004Z

Anchored Christiansted
St. Croix
U.S. Virgin Islands
USA!
17'44.8N/64'42.3W

1214 nm to Charleston, SC
3 Days Till Amy's Sister Shannon Arrive!!

Back in the USA!

We rounded the east end of St Croix (the easternmost point of the United States) at 9am after a rare pleasant 300nm sail from St Lucia. Just outside of the channel for the port of Christiansted where we are currently anchored is Buck Island National Park where we stopped for an hour to snorkel around. The water was crystal clear off a white sandy beach where the national park has put picnic tables and BBQ's. On the windward side of the island is the best snorkeling where there were several charter boats anchored full of tourists splashing around. Just where the Piper was anchored we saw two barracuda, many large conch living amongst the sea grass, a ray, and a large reef fish.

One purchase we made in St Lucia was a brand new folding dive ladder that hangs off Piper's side making it much easier to get aboard. Once aboard we fired up the engine and made our way through the reefs outside Christiansted and found a small spot to drop the hook amongst a bunch of boats, all on mooring balls, behind Protestant Cay. This small island is in the middle of the harbor and provides a lee from the trade winds.

Once the dingy was pumped up we made our way ashore to explore town and set our feet on U.S. soil. The U.S. Virgin Islands are made up of 3 islands. The other 2 are to the north, 30 miles away, with St. Croix being the largest. Christiansted is a picturesque town filled with many of the original Danish buildings that have been restored. There is an old fort (Fort Christiansvaern) on the town's waterfront. Its a bit surreal being back in the U.S. after being away for so long. It is strange things like getting U.S. dollars out of the ATM's, not having to do any mental arithmetic trying to convert foreign currencies into U.S. dollars, drinking Coors Light at the waterfront bars, seeing U.S. post box's on the sidewalks, everyone speaking great English, and watching U.S. television at the bar.

We had hoped to do a trip over to the Cruzan Rum distillery for our ongoing rum research but found to our dismay that it was closed early for the Easter weekend and that today (Good Friday) it would be impossible to buy a beer until 4pm.

Sandpiper's plans are to leave here tomorrow morning if the winds cooperate and sail 30 miles to the north to St. John where we plan on staying for a week or so to visit with Amy's sister Shannon who is flying in to 'live the dream' with us for a week.

More As Soon As It Happens,
Tom & Amy

2009-Ape-08 Noon Update

2009-04-08T12:00:00.003Z

Up-Island Caribbean Crossing day #2
Noon Position 16'34.5N/63'23.3W

98nm last 24hrs
206nm from St. Lucia
97nm to St. Croix
Winds E 10-15 Knots, Seas NE 1ft
1324nm to Charleston SC

Just like they sing about...Today is one of those rare absolutely perfect days for sailing with 10 knot winds right off the beam giving us an average of 4-5 knots. Being down below typing this the Piper is hardly making any movement at all and feels like we are at anchor. The winds last night died down resulting in a one hour motor till there was enough winds to fill the sails and have been sailing since.

No traffic last 24 hours and think we must be on a route less traveled. Just heard on our reactivated Sirius radio that Somalian Pirates had taken over the U.S. crewed container ship Alabama, and now the 20 American crew have taken the ship back over. These American crewed container ships are part of a fleet of ships that run American supplies from the U.S. to the troops in the middle east. We got to spend a night with the crew of one of these ships all named after a different U.S. States on our brief stop in Oman while we prepared to transit the Red Sea. In a very salty Oman port bar full of mariners from all over the world these guys filled us up with many free cocktails. Once we discovered that they were heading up the Red Sea we asked their captain if they had room for us on deck, but alas they had no cranes. Way to go Alabama!!

Sandpiper's plans are to make landfall late morning at St Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands. This will be the first time the Piper has been back in America in four years!! We plan on a short snorkeling excursion off Buck Island Marine Park for a few hours before we head into the anchorage to check in with America.

More once the hook is wet,
Tom and Amy

07-Apr-2009 Noon Update

2009-04-07T12:00:00.000Z

Up-Island Caribbean Crossing day #1
Noon Position 15'24.2N/62'12.6W

108nm last 24hrs
108nm from St. Lucia
195nm to St. Croix
Winds E 10-15 Knots
Seas NE 3-4ft
1414nm to Charleston SC

Sandpiper is back at sea eating up the miles northbound! Sunday night we had one last dinner at Jambe de Bois with Captain Chris from S/V Christa. Sitting next to us having dinner oddly enough was Chris Doyle, the man who wrote the guide book we were using the sail thru the Windward Islands. He was in town with his boat working on updates for his next edition of his guidebook that just about every boat in this area has aboard.

Early yesterday morning we upped anchor and motored from where we had been anchored off Pigeon Island and dropped the hook inside the tiny lagoon off Rodney Marina. After one last breakfast ashore with Cap'n Chris, clearing customs and immigration, spending our last EC dollars on groceries and a movie from a guy who sells bootlegs out of the back of his car, we were ready to head out.

Sadly we had to say good bye to Cap'n Chris who we have been good friends with for many years. But we were most fortunate that our schedules worked out so we could spend the time anchored together in Rodney Bay. Chris is southbound for hurricane season (Starts 01-June) stopping either in Grenada or Venezuela while we are northbound for Charleston, SC.

Once we cleared the harbor we had perfect winds right off the starboard quarter in a nice rare Caribbean easterly blasting the Piper along at 7 knots. We were estactic that we would be making this speed all the way to the U.S Virgin Islands. But once behind Martinique the winds dropped slowing us down to 2 knots. We were hoping with this leg to St Croix being more then 20 miles offshore the Windward Chain that the islands would not block the winds, but even this morning being 40 miles off Guadeloupe Island we were in the wind shadows, causing us to do a few hours of motoring.

One bummer is that the new part that Amy's mom brought us for the autopilot did not fix the problem. After about 12 hours it gave out, resulting in us having to hand steer when motoring. So while under sail we are using 'Haywire', our wind vane, to steer us along.

One exciting new development is that before we left St Lucia we called Sirius Radio and had our account reactivated after a 4 year freeze. We we are now just starting to back into their satellites footprint. Sirius and XM have merged, but Sirius' satellites have a larger footprint to the south and we are just on the edge. The last time we had a connection was 4 years ago when we were west bound across the Pacific from Mexico. Just another sign we are getting closer to home.

While in St. Lucia we updated our photos and videos so what are you waiting for, check em out!!

Rodney Bay, St. Lucia

2009-04-05T19:43:00.007Z

Anchored off Pigeon Island
Rodney Bay
St Lucia Island
Caribbean Sea
14’05.4N/60’57.8W
(Click On Photo To Enlarge)

100 feet from SV Christa
300 nm to St Croix, Virgin Islands
1521 nm to St Charles, SC USA

Busy. The one word Tom and I both used to describe our last week.

Our last entry reunited us with old friends Chris and Sam. Sam’s visit went by too quickly. He is a great boat guest who quickly regained his sea legs his first night at anchor with a very uncomfortable swell rolling into the anchorage. Chris on S/V Christa is still anchored off our stern and guaranteed to bring a smile to our faces at least once a day with his excitably active personality.

We added two more guests to the week with Mom Sherman and her boyfriend, Dr. Bob. Bob had planned this trip for a surprise B-day trip for Mom months back and it couldn’t have worked out better. We were able to leave the boat at anchor just minutes from their all inclusive resort, which we were fortunate enough to take full advantage of for the very low price of FREE. It was hard to tear ourselves away from all the activities…pool side bingo, Hobie cats, swim up bar, and several different restaurants to choose from. But we managed to escape one afternoon to tour the St.Lucian Distillery, Rhythm of Rum tour. Read Tom’s rum report.

We also wanted to show Mom and Bob our favorite hangout on the island, ‘Jambe de Bois’. Jambe de Bois means ‘wooden leg’ and is named after the French pirate that used the island as a base for raiding passing Spanish ships in the 1550’s. The restaurant has a cozy cabin feel with good cheap eats, dingy dock, wifi and a friendly personal staff.

We also pulled into the Rodney Bay Marina for just one night this week where we filled up on water and a few provisions, charged all the gadgets, and purchased a few must needed items from the duty free chandlery. That night we were fortunate enough that Mom and Bob could come down to the boat and get a better look at what has been our home for the last years. Mom has been aboard 3 years ago in Mexico just before we left for our Pacific Crossing. But Bob had never had the pleasure of stepping aboard the famous ‘Piper. His response was a shake of the head with amazement and bewilderment and assured us that ‘he wouldn’t do it’.

Our time flew by with them but look forward to being closer to home soon when our visits will be more frequent. Thanks so much to the both of them for bringing us 22 pounds of loot and spoiling us all week.

Our current plan is to check out of St.Lucia tomorrow, hoist anchor in the afternoon and make tracks for the United States Virgin Island of St. Croix where we hope to be able to visit the Cruzan Rum Factory. Then, a 40-mile jump up to St. John where we will have the pleasure of spending a week with Dad and Shannon Sherman.

Amy

St. Lucia Rum Report

2009-04-04T20:18:00.005Z

This is the forth installation of the Rum Report. Updates will be given from islands in the Caribbean Sandpiper stops at that have distilleries.

During our stay in St Lucia ‘Team Sandpiper’, along with Cap’n Chris from S/V Christa, Mom Sherman, and Dr. Bob piled in a taxi-van and headed south to St. Lucia Distillers Limited. This distillery has been in business since 1972 and produces 30 different liquors. Sugar cane used to be grown in St. Lucia to supply the distillery until the sugar prices crashed and St. Lucia changed its agricultural base from sugar to bananas. Raw molasses is now imported from Guyana in South America in bulk where it is poured into open concrete tanks to ferment for a week. It is then piped into a large copper continuous distillation column where the alcohol is extracted. The ‘rum’ is then either bottled directly or aged in oak barrels. Like other distilleries around the Caribbean these oak barrels are imported from the U.S. because U.S. law only allows bourbon distilleries to use their barrels once.

The tour of St. Lucia Distilleries was interesting and the tasting room was just a long table where we were told to drink as much as we wanted from the 30 bottles laying around. Our cab driver seemed to drink out of all thirty bottles before jumping back in his van, stating he was ready to drive us back.

St. Lucia Distilleries makes all kinds of different liquors such as strong rums, blended rums, coffee and peanut flavored liquors, and a rotgut wine that is much like Mad Dog 20/20. The most popular white rum is know locally as Denros Strong Rum. Its one of the strongest rums in the islands at 160 proof! It’s good rum to use in a rum punch as one bottle lasts forever. The best selling rum they produce is Bounty Rum that is a blended rum and caramel in color. There top of the line rum is Admiral Rodney Extra Old Rum that is aged in oak barrels. This rum was a gold medal winner at Rum Expo 2001. This was not available at the tasting table, but we were able to snag a bottle from the gift shop before we departed.

St. Lucia Distillers is the only distillery on the island. But wondering around the town market in Castries, many of the venders sell their own home made Spice Rum. This Spice Rum is white over proof rum that is added to an old bottle that they fill with all kinds of different fruits, spices, barks, tree branches, and whatever else is laying around. They also sell the bottles empty with the spices in the bottle. So all you have to do is add your favorite rum when you get home. Many venders sell over proof white rum in used bottles. But we are a bit wary to try this rum as we have no idea what is really in these bottles.

Stay tuned for the next issue of the ‘Rum Report’!!!

Note From Ron: I've discovered that their Admiral Rodney Rum was named after British Navy Admiral George Rodney. He was based in St. Lucia and is best known for defeating the French Navy at the Battle of the Saintes in 1782 during the American Revolution. The French were supporting the American rebels against the British. This battle, which took place in this part of the Caribbean, was an effort by the British to push the French out of the Caribbean and keep islands like Jamaica from falling into French or Spanish hands.

Grenada Rum Report

2009-04-02T16:13:00.006Z

This is the third installation of the Rum Report. Updates will be given from islands in the Caribbean where Sandpiper stops at that have distilleries.

Grenada has no lack of rum. That is what I have determined after our 4-week stop at this rum soaked island. Production techniques vary around the island... from pot stills capable of making just a few gallons, to modern two-column stills yielding several thousand gallons a day. Sprits are made from sugar cane juice, cane syrup, or molasses.

There are many distilleries around the island. Not having the time to visit them all, we picked one. We decided to visit the River Antoine Estate as they are one of the few distilleries that still operates with its original equipment from 1785. That is just 9 years after America’s Independence!

Sugar cane that is grown on the estate is hauled down to the water-powered cane mill that they claim is the oldest working water mill in the Caribbean. It is then hand fed twice into the roller press that turns when river water is let into a sluice that runs the large water wheel. The goal is to extract as much cane juice as possible. The fresh squeezed sugarcane juice flows down a wooden sluice to the boiling house, where it is cooked in open cast iron pots over an open fire of dried cane stalks and wood. After the juice has boiled a few hours, the thickened liquid is ladled into another sluice that directs it to the fermentation tanks. There, yeast is added, and in 8 days it turns all its sugar into alcohol. This ‘wash’ is then directed to a copper pot below where a fire is built under the pot. Vapor from this boiling wash is condensed and piped to the sight glass on the ground floor of the still house.

After the tour we were given small samples that were more then enough. Rivers make Strong White Rum, and just one small sip is so strong that is absorbs right onto one's tongue.

Grenadians say one either loves Rivers Rum, or one hates it. I have to say it’s a bit overpowering, and it costs twice as much as other rums on the island. But the tour is ‘One Of A Kind’! I was a bit surprised how close we were allowed to get to the open topped fermentation tanks. And I was even more surprised when a German tourist stuck his finger into the tank and then into his mouth.

Another small distillery is the Dunfermline Estate, which has as very small distillery making their labeled Dunfermline Rum and Spicy Jack that is three years old. I never did see any of these bottles for sale around the island. So I think one must go to the estate to purchase bottles of their rum.

One of the larger distilleries on this island is Westerhall Estate Ltd. who dates back to the 1800’s. Their top selling rum is Westerhall Plantation Rum. It is quite tasty and comes in a distinctive bottle with a wax seal over its cork stopper and a hand written batch number on the label. They also produce Superb Light Grenada Rum, Strong Rum, and Jack Iron Rum. Their Jack Iron Rum is not the same Jack Iron that is produced on the neighboring island of Carriacou, but it is quite strong at 140-proof (70% alcohol).

The biggest distillery on the island is Clarke’s Court who is part of the Grenada Sugar Factory that was built in 1937. Tours are not given here and it is a very busy factory with over 500 cane farmers growing and harvesting for this facility. This factory produces 100,000 gallons of rum annually at 96% alcohol. That’s a lot of hangovers! Clarks Courts principle product that most Grenadians drink is Clarks Court Pure White Rum, 138 proof (69% alcohol). This rum is about $5.00 a bottle and is the best selling rum in Grenada.

They also produce regular strength rums such as Kalypso White Rum, Superior Light Rum, and their Clarks Court Special Dark Rum that is aged for six months, and then colored with carmel to give it its brown color. This dark rum turned out to be one of our favorites as it has a pleasant taste and is inexpensive.

One other interesting rum in Grenada is Tradition Specially Spiced Rum. It is a strong white rum that when bottled has spices, barks, nuts, herbs, roots and extracts floating around in the bottle. I never had a chance to taste this interesting rum, but I do have a bottle on board for one lucky Sandpiper Shore-Side Supporter!

A large part of Grenada’s economy comes from tourism and there is a big difference between ordering a rum drink in a tourist bar and ordering rum from a rum shop. Grenadian’s like their rum strong. They drink the white strong rum because it is cheap and you get more for your money. At the tourist bars you will not find the strong rums. As reported to us by a bar tender “The tourists cannot handle themselves when drinking strong rum.” Instead they serve them Clarks Court Special Dark Rum, or upon request a bit more expensive Westerhall Plantation Rum.

Most these Strong Rums are not exported off island and are consumed locally. During Piper’s haul out one evening at the boat yards bar I spied a large jug among the other liquor bottles. It was was filled with leaves, tree branches, and all kinds of other stuff. I asked the bar tender what it was and she told me it was ‘"Under the counter rum". So I ordered a shot of this very strong rum and the bar tender got a bit flustered as I think I am the first white person to order this there and they did not know what to charge me. It was a bit strong and tasted more like tree branches. I am not sure that I can recommend the ‘Under the Counter Rum’.

While among these islands I have been perfecting my rum punch recipe. There is a big difference between a rum punch that is ordered at a bar and a real rum punch. The rum punch’s ordered at a bar are just a fruit punch with rum and are consumed by tourists. Locals drink the Strong White Rum straight up with a bit of water as a chaser. A real Rum Punch recipes goes like this:

One part sour (lime)
Two parts sweet (sugar, or cane syrup)
Three parts of strong (rum)
Four parts of weak (water, juice, or nectars)
Five drops of bitters and nutmeg spice
Serve well chilled with lots of ice!!

This all means to squeeze lime juice into a glass along with some sweetener. Then add one shot of white rum, a bit of water or juice, and mix. Then top this with five drops of bitters. The original bitters comes in a small bottle that is produced in Trinidad and claims to be the original recipe from 1824 by Dr. J.G.B. Siegert.

Then the last step is to take a nutmeg nut and small grater. With this grate a dusting of nutmeg on the top of this wonderful concoction and enjoy!!

Rodney Bay, St. Lucia

2009-03-28T14:24:00.003Z

Anchored at Pigeon Island
Rodney Bay
St Lucia Island
Caribbean Sea
14'05.4N/60'57.8W

50ft from SV Christa!!!
Mom Sherman & Dr. Bob arrive tonight!!!
Sam from Utah aboard!!!

Let the reunions commence! We have finally met up with Captain Chris from S/V Christa! It has been nearly three years since our last round up in Mexico. Since then most of you know that Chris has retired from the Coast Guard and has been solo sailing on his Westsail 32. It was many years and many miles ago that Christa and Piper were side by side at the Presidio Yacht Club in San Francisco. But it feels just like yesterday.

Upon entering Rodney Bay we had radioed Chris to tell him we were in route. Chris met us half mile out in his dingy, our old dingy, with a long awaited familiar smile and warm welcome. It was just like old times and the boys instantly fell back into the old routine of hazing each other. The night continued with good food and lots of catching up.

The next day we headed in to check out town and Reduit Beach. I personally was disappointed in the beach scene. It is a steep beach and the water clarity is not that great. We kept our hand-held radio close to us all day in anticipation of hearing our friend Sam's voice. Sam is another long-time Coast Guard friend of Tom's who currently lives in Utah working as an aircraft mechanic for Sky West Airlines. Some of you may remember that Sam was our savoir in Turkey for getting us home first class style using his Delta buddy passes.

Just as we were about to loose Chris to an episode of A.D.D we heard Sam's voice calling out for Sandpiper. Another happy reunion with hugs all around and we were off back to the Piper to kick back and catch up.

Yesterday we moved the boats to our current anchor location just off Pigeon Island and the Jambe De Bois Café. Our plans for the next few days don't include too much, sun, swim, more catching up

Amy

Tom Note: We have had a lack of internet connection since being in Grenada and that and being with friends and family, we have not been able to get up to date on our postings. As soon as we can get a connection with good bandwidth we will get postings, photo's and videos up to date.

Marigot Bay, St Lucia

2009-03-22T15:15:00.003Z

Anchored Marigot Bay
St Lucia Island
Caribbean Sea
13’58.0N/61'01.6W

85 miles from SV Christa!!!
6 days till Mom Sherman & Dr. Bob arrive!!!
1 day till Sam from Utah makes a guest arrival!!!

We left the friendly fishing village of Anse La Raye yesterday morning for the short 1.5 motor up to where we are currently anchored off the entrance to Marigot Bay. We had been looking forward to coming here as all the travel magazines have photos of this small bay and our guidebook states “Marigot Bay is a spectacular anchorage”. And other books state that this is the best anchorage in the Caribbean.

With high hopes we entered the channel to be greeted by the usual boat boys that lurk at every harbor entrance in this part of the Caribbean. They offer to tie you off to their mooring ball for $15.00 U.S. per night. Since being in the Windward Islands this is the usual scam for arriving charter boats. They assume that they must take a mooring and fork out the cash. But everywhere we have been there has been plenty of room to anchor for free. We feel more secure using our own anchor as we have no idea what the mooring ball is connected to. And there is a good chance that our own ground tackle is stronger then what is under the mooring ball.

I am sure in years past that being anchored in Marigot Bay was a highlight of one's travels through the Windward Islands. But much has changed. Boats are no longer allowed to anchor in the small bay and now must pay for a mooring buoy. There are so many mooring balls stuffed in the harbor that there is nowhere to anchor. Charter boats that are based out of here and large yachts take up most the moorings in the harbor. The only place to anchor is right were we are located, just outside the channel entrance to the north where holding is poor.

There are several resorts inside the bay that we explored. And being resorts, they make prices for everything quite steep. From our short stop here this seems like a place that cruisers do not visit. As I am typing this out we are the only cruising boat here. All of the others are charters and mega yachts. I think this has to do with all the mooring balls and a lack of secure space to anchor. Also, the only facilities ashore belong to the resorts, with the exception of a couple restaurants.

We did make it over to the north side of the bay to Doolittle’s restaurant, hotel, and bar for happy hour and had a few drinks with English owner Dave who has owned the business for the last 15 years. He was one of the first businesses in the bay and has seen it go from an idyllic setting to the overbuilt, mooring ball infested bay that it has become. He was looking forward to the sale of his business very soon so he can take delivery of a brand new sailboat that he was planning on sailing around the world.

For all the hype about Marigot Bay, I give it a big ‘thumbs down’ unless you have lots of cash and are on a charter boat. Amy gives it a middle thumb because it is so picturesque.

Plans are to move up the coast about 12 miles to St Lucia’s main shipping port of Castries where we plan to get some grocery shopping done before we proceed up to Rodney Bay to meet up with Capn’ Chris of the S/V Christa. Friend Sam from Utah got held up and should be arriving in the next couple of days.

More when up island,
Tom and Amy

Note From Ron: The restaurant "Doolittle's" is named after the the 1967 film "Dr. Dolittle" starring Rex Harrison. They filmed the giant pink snail on the beach scene at Marigot Bay. But I'm not sure why the restaurant name is spelled with two O's instead of one. The official name only has one.

Anse La Raye, St Lucia

2009-03-21T17:32:00.004Z

Anchored off Anse Cochon
St Lucia Island
Caribbean Sea
13’56.4N/61'02.7W

85 miles from SV Christa!!!
7 days till Mom Sherman & Dr. Bob arrive!!!
1 day till Sam from Utah makes a guest arrival!!!

We left Soufriere yesterday morning and made the short 6 mile motor up the leeward coast of St Lucia and dropped the hook in a small bay off the even smaller fishing village Anse La Raye. We had read that there was a street party and fish fry every Friday so we decided we must attend. There was only one bit of drama on this passage when one of my flip-flops flew over the side and we had to make a recovery.

St Lucia’s leeward coast is all a marine sanctuary and they have set up mooring buoys all down the coast. The down side to this is that it is quite expensive when saying more then one day. Because of this we look for the limited areas where anchoring is allowed such as this small bay that has a nice sandy bottom.

We paddled ashore at sunset and the party was setting up all along the main street on the waterfront. The town of Anse La Raye is only a couple streets with many small houses all crammed together. Many of the houses are just boards and tin roofs. On the beach were several large backhoes that had been digging large holes with small Japanese men in white hard hats scurrying about. Turns out that Japan has donated 15 million dollars and engineers to rebuild the waterfront for the fishermen. They will have a new jetty and places to store their boats along with a market to sell their fish.

It all looks nice of Japan to do this, but then comes what they want in return. They want St Lucia’s vote in the U.N. so they can resume whaling, and they want access to St Lucia’s fisheries. It is nice that Japan wants to help the fishermen here. But it makes no sense for St Lucia allows Japan to fish their waters because there will be no fish left for the fishermen to bring back to their new waterfront facility.

There were tables all along the street with ladies cooking all different kinds of seafood in open barrels full of burning charcoal. Also every table had many bottles of different liquors and beers where you can buy a drink and walk around. We quickly discovered that the beer prices were double what they should normally be, so we popped our head into a small store that sold just about everything. It too was a small bar with a large TV showing American Wrestling. The 88-year-old owner who claims to have 15 children. He told us he loves watching wrestling, and he sold us the cheapest beers we have had in the Caribbean, making his store our new favorite spot.

Bus loads of tourists arrive early, eat all they can, then are out of town by 9pm leaving us with all the locals drinking beer in the streets At each end of the main street are DJ’s spinning tunes out of a massive stacks of speakers. They compete to see which end of the street people favor the most. Our favorite Rasta DJ, Richard, aka ‘Sharkin’, on the south end of the street was quite pleased when Amy starting requesting some popular island dance hall songs we hear on the radio. He didn’t have one of the songs requested then a local walking by said he had the song on his cell phone. So he hooked his phone to the speakers and had the whole street dancing.

Sharkin told us his boss wanted him to play country music figuring it would draw the tourists down to his end of the street. But picturing this Rasta Man spinning out country songs seemed a bit bizarre to us and we told him if he started playing country music we would go hang out with his competitor down the street.

My favorite spot was in town a bit where a lady had a karaoke machine set up on the sidewalk. It was quite exciting watching the inebriated local men belting out Elton John and Laura Branigan hits at the top of their lungs while dancing around.

We are very glad we made the decision to come to Anse La Raye and we were the only boat in the anchorage, which is quite rare in the Caribbean. This gets our vote as a ‘very cool town’ and is one of the rare towns where there are only islanders living here. Everyone is very friendly and all wave hello as we walked around. If you are in St. Lucia on a Friday night, make sure you stop by!

Current plans are to motor up the coast 1.5 miles to Marigot Bay where we will be spending the weekend waiting for the arrival of friend Sam who is flying in for the week from Utah. Then we head up to Rodney Bay to meet up with Cap’ Chris on S/V Christa.

More later from the next bay,
Tom and Amy

Note from Amy:
Sharkin introduced us to a few new artists, my new favorite being ‘Busy Signal’ from Jamaica. Check him out

Port of Soufriere, St. Lucia Island

2009-03-19T14:18:00.009Z

Anchored off Hummingbird Resort
Port of Soufriere
St Lucia Island
Caribbean Sea
13’51.4N/61'03.7W

90 miles from SV Christa!!!
9 days till Mom Sherman & Dr. Bob arrive!!!
2 days till Sam from Utah makes a guest arrival!!!

We made it! And better yet, we did not break anything!!!!

Tuesday morning we got the boat squared away and made one last Skype phone call to my Mom to sing Happy Birthday.

In case you have not heard or do not remember, our autopilot took a dump when crossing the Atlantic. We thought we had it fixed but she just was not working 100%. We had a Raymarine technician come to the boat when we were hauled out and needless to say he was of little help. It is very frustrating when we ask for help and they do not listen to what all we have done, and they continue to do all the same things and just repeat to us what we already know. It is a waste of time. We ended up ordering the part directly thru Raymarine and my Mom will be bringing it next week.

Anyways, we were quite pleased when turning the corner of south Grenada, we were able to shut down the engine, hook up the wind vane, and not hand steer. The last time we pointed the boat north was when we were leaving the Suez Canal 9 months ago. Around 2:30am the winds shifted, so the engine came on and we were hand steering. With the wind on our nose, even though they were predicted it to be coming from the east, we were slow going, averaging 3.5 knots most of the trip. We pulled into Soufriere Bay just before sunset where two boat boys exclaiming "Welcome to Paradise!" greeted us.

Soufriere is a small town between the towering twin Pitons, a landmark so prominent it is on the country's flag. The boat boys guided us in and helped us tie our stern line to a coconut tree ashore, for a small fee, where we are currently anchored. This area of St. Lucia is part of the Marine Management or SMMA. It is patrolled by park rangers whom collect a small fee and regulate all anchoring, moorings, diving and fishing.

I think our current location in front of the Hummingbird Resort is better than some of the moorings as we have a spectacular view of Petit Piton. Waking this morning to the sound of singing birds, roosters crowing, and the fresh smell of lush surroundings more than makes up for the unpleasant trip here.

Our plans today include a trip to the customs and immigration offices to check in and then explore the flora and fauna that surrounds us.

One Love,
Amy and Tom

True Blue Bay, Grenada

2009-03-15T21:54:00.005Z

True Blue Bay
Grenada
Caribbean Sea
11'59.9N/61'46.1W
300 miles from S/V Christa
(Click Photo To Enlage)

Still in Grenada…The winds we were hoping that would veer to the east still have not shown up. So Amy came up with the brilliant idea of motoring out of Prickly Bay where we have been for the past couple weeks and motor over to the next bay to anchor in front of the True Blue Bay Resort and crash their facilities. After a short phone call to ask them if it was OK, they told us "No problem" and we could do whatever we wanted in their facilities. So we cranked up the engine and steamed out of Prickly Bay for this short one-mile passage.

It has been our experience that our shortest passages are the worst and this proved to be true once again. As soon as we cleared the reefs outside Prickly Bay and were turning right to enter True Blue Bay the engines temperature gauge started rising quite fast. This threw me into a panic as we were motoring right through the reefs at the bay entrance, and we had about a half mile more to go to get to the anchorage. As our normal drill, Amy grabbed the helm and I ran into the engine room trying to figure out what had happened. The water was boiling over and we could not shut down the engine till we got into the anchorage straight upwind. So all I could do was pour cool water into the engine's reservoir until we got inside the bay enough to drop the hook and access the situation.

I thought I had it fixed. So we picked up the hook and started into the anchorage. And once again the engine temperature started rising quite fast. So we got behind the nearest boat, threw out the hook, and shut the engine down before the anchor even hit the bottom. Once again I went inside the engine room where I determined that the impeller that pumps the fresh water through the engine had decided to tear itself into shreds. What to do next? We could have stayed aboard all day pulling the pump off to make repairs. But we decided the best course of action was to paddle to the resort and jump into their pool instead.

True Blue Bay Resort is not exactly a resort, but more of a grouping of bungalows with a bar right on the water where we parked our dinghy-‘510’. We spent the day splashing around in their pool, and Amy got out of the pool long enough to get a one hour massage, her first since Thailand. We decided the next best course of action would be to hit happy hour at the water front bar where beers are 2 for 1.

During our one hour beer fest we met Mr. & Mrs. Gary Alexander who are from Seattle. He is a mystery book author and was on the island doing research for his next book. We asked if we could be guest characters in his next book and he said sure. So lets all make sure to buy his next book!

The next morning I took the engines water pump off and found the fresh water impellor in shreds as I had suspected. And I found that the seawater impeller was starting to crack off as well. Although as inconvenient as it was to have this fail where it did, we are quite happy it happened here in a calm anchorage before our next leg north. We have a ways to go and this would have been very inconvenient to attempt repair at sea.

A lot is happening with Friends of Sandpiper. Links are over to the lower right, so check them out!

S/V Blue Sky has almost completed a very difficult passage from Malaysia across the Indian Ocean to the Maldives and hopefully will be anchored safely in the calm clear waters there before this posts.
S/V Shiraz has just done an extended land adventure across Turkey, and then through Syria to Jordan. It reads as quite an adventure.
S/V Camelot has just departed the Galapagos Islands on their Pacific crossing. That is the longest stretch of ocean in the world between landfalls. We took 28 days to get from Mexico to Marquesas in French Polynesia, which will be their first landfall on this passage.
S/V Moorea is getting ready to transit the Panama Canal on March 24th & 25th and you will be able to see them via web cam.
And lastly, S/V Christa is southbound thru the Windward Islands where we are planning a grand reunion in St. Lucia just weeks away. Our two boats have not seen each other since being next to each other under the Golden Gate Bridge many years ago when Cap’n Chris and I were both active duty with the U.S. Coast Guard. We also had the pleasure of each others company in a very small stateroom on USCGC Morgenthau were we both served as Chief Boatswains Mates for several years.

Sandpiper’s current plans are to stay anchored just feet away from True Blue Bay’s dinghy dock/bar for one more day and splash around in their pool till first light on Tuesday. It is predicted, amazingly for the first time since we have arrived in the Caribbean, that the winds are going to lay down a bit and come from the east, versus the normal northeast.

Once last note, since arrival in Grenada bandwidth has been very slow. As result we have been unable to update photos and videos. We are hoping St Lucia will have better connections so we can make updates.

Hopefully Next Entry Is From St Lucia!!
Tom and Amy

Prickly Bay, Grenada

2009-03-11T13:35:00.002Z

Prickley Bay
Grenada
Caribbean Sea
11'59.9N/61'45.6W
368 miles from SV Christa

Grenada Wrap Up.

After a very successful five day haul-out last week we put the 'Piper back in the water late Friday afternoon and motored a quarter mile to anchor just off Prickly Bay Marina.

For the last six months the outboard for our dinghy has given us much grief seemingly to fail at the worst possible moments. We have brought it in to two different mechanics, one in Malta and another in Bequia who both charged us a fat fee and never fixed what was really the problem. We finally figured out for ourselves that the outboard's coil that makes the spark for the engine was shorting out. Finally! This has completely failed leaving us to paddle everywhere we go. Because of this, when we enter an anchorage we look for the dinghy dock and then see how close we can anchor to it. We are hoping that we could get this coil for the outboard motor in Grenada. But as luck would have it, there are no Suzuki parts on the island.

We are anchored just a mere 100 feet from the marina in an anchorage with at least 40 other cruisers. Sitting here at anchor after her short haul out, the 'Piper is looking quite shiny with her new paint and buffed out sides. One last project was to get the pilothouse painted. So Saturday morning while at anchor we rolled out a new coat of blue, making her paint job complete. One downside to the new paint as anything that we did not paint stands out in contrast to the new paint. So we will just have to keep on painting and varnishing till everything looks brand new.

Prickly Bay Marina has just a tiny dock that holds about 8 boats. They have a large dinghy dock that about half the boats in the anchorage use. The other dinghies tie up in front of the boatyard that we were in last week. At the marina there is a small grocery store, customs office, restaurant and bar. The bar has a happy hour where they ring a large bell at 5pm and cruisers come racing in on their dinghies for cheap drinks. Since the bar is right next to the customs office, it is also a second stop for cruisers that have just arrived and checked in.

One thing about cruising and being in a salty sailor bar is no matter what kind of boat you have, or how much money your boat is worth, everyone is hanging out together. From low budget cruisers to millionaires all hanging out together having a great time.

I saw one gentlemen that looked quite familuar but couldent place where I had seen him. He looked at me from across the bar and said “Hey! We tied up down from you in Almeria, Spain hiding from that nasty storm that had sprung upon us." He is from France and took on paying crew of 4 with him from the Canaries to the Caribbean, 1000 Euro’s each!! Why didn’t we think of that? We could have slept the whole way across while having everyone else do our work and pay us to do it. Smart Frenchman!

Just outside of Prickly Bay there is a large American medical school. Some of their students trickle down for happy hour. This is the school that in 1983 Ronald Reagan used as a justification for the U.S. invasion of Grenada with 12,000 Marines. Ronnie cited the risk to the safety of the students when a leftist coup, backed by Cuba and Russia, had taken over the government and then decided execute their current leader by firing squad.

Since we have been here in Grenada we have been anchored in 3 different bays. The south end of the island has a large assortment of great anchorages and some boats stay here at anchor for years. Grenada is technically out of the hurricane belt, so many boats anchor in the assorted bays to wait out hurricane season. In September 2004 hurricane Ivan slammed into Grenada, catching many people unaware with 120 mph winds ripping off roofs, downing trees, and leaving the whole island without electricity for months. Many boats were lost or damaged. The boat yards hauled out as many boats as they could, but the stands the boats were put on were not up to the task and many boats just fell against their neighbors, knocking them down like dominoes. As a result both the boat yards located in Grenada now have four point tie downs and stronger stands incase there is a ‘next time’.

When we have had a chance we have done as much inland exploring as possible. Several weeks ago, along with friends from S/V Luludu, we rented a car and did a lap of the island. Grenada is quite mountainous with very narrow curvy roads and lots of trees between villages. All along the mountaintops we could see the damage Ivan did to all the trees that still have not recovered. On the north side of the island we saw several venders next to a graveyard selling cold beers. So we made a mandatory stop for a cold one. I asked what was going on. All the locals were standing around on the side of the road, drinking beer, and dressed quite formally. The beer lady pointed at the grave yard and said “Funeral Mon.”

Sandpiper is currently waiting for the northerly winds to veer to the east so we can make a 160 nm passage to the island of St Lucia where we will be meeting up with Amy’s mom Pat and boyfriend Dr. Bob who are coming for a visit. They are also bringing with them much needed boats parts, the coil for the dinghies outboard so we will not have to paddle anymore, and a new gear drive for the autopilot. The winds look like they will go east on Saturday or Sunday and we are hoping we can sail this passage so we can let Haywire (wind vane) steer. But it is more likely we are going to have to hand steer for this passage. Yuk….

More, hopefully soon from the north of Grenada!!
Tom and Amy

On The Hard- Spice Island Marine, Grenada

2009-03-05T20:58:00.007Z

Prickley Bay
Grenada
Caribbean Sea
12'00.2N/61'45.9W
Altitude 20ft
368 miles from SV Christa
(Click On Photo To Enlarge)

Greetings All! Hope this finds everyone happy and healthy.

This week we have been busy at the Spice Island Marine in Prickly Bay, Grenada. We had the boat hauled out at 9:30am Monday and have been busy these last few days sanding, polishing, and painting. Once Sandpiper was hauled out the yard hooked us up with a steady ladder, which is very important since I am not a fan of ladders or heights. So a steady/solid ladder is always a good start. We were also hooked up with scaffolding, water, and power. So we instantly started on jobs.

My official job title in the yard is ‘Parts Girl’. My first assignment was to try and find a condenser for our outboard motor at a nearby chandlery. I wasn’t even half way there when I fell down a gravel road and tore up my leg. You would think an island that is only 20 miles long and 7 miles wide would be easy to get around. But no. It is actually easy to get lost here because nothing is marked, which explains why I walked right past the chandlery. Two hours later, in the blazing sun, I made it back to the boat yard empty handed, dehydrated, and with blood running down my leg.

Since leaving California we have hauled the boat out every year to repaint her bottom. Last year in Thailand we raised the water line a few inches. Even though the rest of her bottom paint was looking good, the waterline itself was not. This year we paid special attention to her waterline and gave her an extra bit of sanding and primer. The paint should last longer this year.

Even though I keep saying "we", I am actually referring to two guys we hired from the yard to do the bottom work. It took them less than two days to do all the work, including two coats of bottom paint. If we had done the work it would have taken us much longer. And it is hard to pass up cheap labor.

We did keep ourselves busy with a long list of other projects, including; sanding and painting the blue stripe on our haul and stern, buffing and waxing the haul, fixing a sea-caulk in the head, replacing zincs, cleaning the propeller and wind vane, scrubbing the dingy and fenders, washing the inside and outside of the boat, and endless amounts of laundry.

Our overall experience here at Spice Island Marine has been terrific. The crew was fast and friendly. And the yard has been clean and convent. The folks at Budget Marine, a chandlery located just outside the gates, have been very helpful as well. It is also convent having ‘De Big Fish’ restaurant just outside the gates for the end of the day cold beer.

We plan to splash her back in the water tomorrow afternoon and then hang in Prickly Bay at least through the weekend. We signed up for internet for the week so if you see us online give us a shout.

Have a Bless Day!

Amy and Tom

Hog Island, Grenada

2009-03-01T16:18:00.006Z

Anchored at Hog Island
Clarkes Court Bay
Woburn
Grenada Islands
Caribbean Sea
12'00.3N/61'44.2W
368 miles from SV Christa
(Click On Photo To Enlarge)

Sandpiper is anchored off the north end of Hog Island in Clarkes Court Bay, off the southern end of Grenada. We left St David's Bay five days ago after the Classic Boat Regatta concluded. It was a rough three mile motor sail to where we dropped the hook in front of Clarkes Court Bay Marina. We were hoping they would let us use their showers, but with no luck as the facilities are for marina residents only. After we filled ourselves full of burgers at their "Cruiser Burger Night", which they have every Wednesday, we moved up to where we are presently anchored.

We are off the north end of Hog Island. Hog Island is where most the boats from the Classic Yacht Regatta had anchored just a quarter mile away from the marina. Since we had been drinking lots of rum with this lot of crusty sailors for the last week we decided to have one last big hurrah before all the boats headed off in different directions. Seeing as there were 8 people from five other boats getting together, and there was no way all these people would fit on one boat, we decided to make a 'Buxom II Sandwich'. Sandpiper dropped her anchor off Buxom's port bow, then backed down till just off her side making her mooring lines securely along Buxom's port side.

Phil on S/V Blues Traveler had planned on leaving that morning. But after we stuffed a few beers in him we were able to convinced him that it would be more fun to stay one more night made off to Buxom's starboard side. This is the first time we have rafted up Sandpiper overnight and we were a bit unsure how we were going to ride with the wind ripping thru the anchorage and how we would swing with the other boats around us. After a few rum cocktails no one on our boats seemed to care anymore. That is except for the gnarly looking naked Austrian man on the boat off Piper's port side standing on his bow with his hands on his hips hoping we would notice him.

Once the boats were secure then Jack, a crusty single-hander, paddled over along with friends Matt and Sue, where much rum, wine, and food was consumed. This was good for the Piper as we are hauling the boat out on Monday and have to eat everything in the freezer before we are hauled out of the water. Sandpiper's fridge is keel cooled, so we will have to shut it down.

Everyone brought a bit of everything, and Team Sandpiper BBQ'd up a large bag of Wahoo that we had caught on our Atlantic Crossing from Cape Verde to Barbados. Sandpiper has earned quite a reputation amongst the boats that were participating in the Classic Yacht Regatta because we are the only boat around that has come as far as we have. And this is among some really salty boats.

Just a 'salty' break down of these boats and their crew that took part on last weeks Classic Yacht Regatta:

S/V Buxom - a 1939 gaff rigged Tahiti Ketch who is skippered by 29 year old Colin and 25 year old firstmate Lindsey. They work in St Johns in the Virgin Islands while living aboard on a mooring. They are both on a short vacation from their jobs so they could come down to Grenada for the Classic Yacht Regatta to race Buxom II. Their boat is so salty that the only electronic items they have aboard is a VHF radio, a hand held GPS and one reading light. They have no fenders as they have not been on a marina in over 2 years. They hand steered all the way down and have to wear swimming suits when they are on the helm because there are always waves coming over their low stern.

I got to sail on Buxom II during the Regatta. When we saw a boat on the horizon that we could not identify, Cap't Colin whips out an old nautical brass telescope. I said to him "You have to be kidding me..." He then told me that last summer, while grinding on his boat, a metal sliver got in his eye and he almost lost sight in one eye. "Great.", I said. "The eye patch would have completed you."

I found out later that they had contemplated buying a washboard to do laundry but were afraid to tell me as I was always slack jawed whenever they told me about how they do things on their boat. This morning they headed out of the harbor tacking back and forth because their engine only runs for about 15 minutes at a time before shutting itself down. So they have to sail in and out of port. That is salty!!

Then there's Phil aboard S/V Blues Traveler, a 50 year old 34 foot ketch. He sailed down from St Lucia where he her. His boat has been completely refurbished during the last year and there is not a single blemish anywhere. Phil sailed down for the Classic Regatta and entered his boat. Technically his boat was old enough to enter. But the Regatta was only open for wooden hulled boats. So they allowed Phil race along with them and he won the best dressed award for wearing a nice French beret. If he won this for just wearing a beret then you can only imagine how all the other crusty sailors were dressed.

Phil has been in the Caribbean for over 20 years on several different boats. When not sailing his boat around he is a skipper on mega yachts traveling all over the world.

Then there's Jack aboard his 40 foot 1970's ketch. He has been sailing all over the world for the last 30 years. Jack is just as salty as his boat and loves his rum. Turns out he is great friends with Edward Hamilton who wrote the book 'Rums of the Caribbean' that I have been using as a guide for the 'Rum Report' on our passage thru these islands. Ed Hamilton is the self proclaimed 'Minister of Rum' and Jack is the self appointed 'Ambassador of Rum'. Jack had a good story about his trying to get his sailing dinghy back to his boat after a night together with the Minister of Rum.

Jack leaves on Monday for Trinidad.

Then there's Matt, Sue, and dog Cappy on S/V Luludo, a 47 foot early 1900's British built ketch they purchased in Florida over 20 years ago. They have been sailing while hand steering around the Caribbean working odd jobs along the way since. This is another classic boat with very few luxury items, such as self steering or depth finder. They have lived here for the last year working. They were even here when Hurricane Ivan blew though here devastating most of the island. For Hurricane Ivan they hauled the boat out the night of the hurrican and rode out the storm in a hotel room. But they have ridden out 2 other hurricanes while at anchor.

They were going to sail in the Classic Regatta. But upon seeing the 25+ knot winds they decided to crew on other boats as they did not want to damage their floating home. A wise move as the boat I was racing on Sunday, a 50 foot classic ketch, sprung a few of her hull planks and we had water right up the flywheel on the engine. The bilge pump was running full bore when we crossed the finish line. Luckily the owner of the boat works at the boat yard and had his boat hauled out of the water as soon as we got back into the harbor.

So that is it for the Salty Sailor Wrap-up. With everyone heading off in different directions Sandpiper is moving 2 miles to the west tomorrow to Prickly Bay where we are planning on having the Piper hauled out to make her bottom pretty again.

More later from the nutmeg island,

Tom and Amy

Saint David's Harbor, Grenada

2009-02-24T13:10:00.010Z

Anchored Saint Davids Harbor
Grenada
Caribbean Sea
12'01.1N/61'40.6W
300 miles from S/V Christa
(Click Photo To Enlarge)

It has been a few days since our last posting which has a lot to do with us not knowing what day it actually is. We finally recovered from all the initial excitement in Tyrrel Bay, Carriacou and made it into the big city of Hillsborough. We thought it would be a nice walk to town, and it was. But we also thought we would be following the coast. The island is just too wet for a coastal road. So the road goes up and over the island. After two hours we made it to town, checked in with all the proper authorities, enjoyed a great chicken roti lunch, and checked out a few of the small markets.

Carriacou (carry-a-cou) is a quiet and laid-back island where not much is ever going on. Tom was gung-ho about finding this ‘real’ Jack-Iron Rum so we jumped aboard several buses to the town of Windward. I’m still not sure why he thought we would find it there, but I was excited to add on a walk while out there. The bus dropped us off at the trail head which was clearly marked on either side with conch shells all the way to the beach. I was a bit hesitant walking next to what the sign read was ‘black swamp’ but the end reward was a beach full of shells. Yippee!

The next morning our plan was to relax on Paradise Beach. As we started to write a new blog posting I looked at the GPS and asked Tom "What!?! Today is the 18th? We have to go. We are supposed to be in Grenada tomorrow!’ So we quickly sprung into action and had a wonderful 40 mile sail down the windward side of the island to our current location of St. David’s Bay, Grenada.

We were invited by our friends from S/V Buxom 2 to help crew their boat in the Classic Yacht Regatta which started on the 19th. Buxom is a 1938 Tahiti gaff rigged ketch, complete with black haul and red sails. The race itself didn’t start until the 20th so we were able to relax for a day and meet some of the other boat owners. The winner of last year’s race is over 150 years old. For once, Sandpiper, at 33, is one of the youngest boats in the harbor.

The first day of the race the winds were too strong and they couldn’t get any of the markers set and nobody wanted to do any damage to their boats. So happy hour started early. I should also say that the night before the first race we had several large squalls come through bringing high winds. I did not have a good feeling about getting on a boat for fun.

Once morning came I still wasn’t feeling it but went over to Buxom anyways. After taking one last look out the channel I did the walk of shame and paddled myself back to Sandpiper. Yes, I have been living on a boat for 4 years. But the sailing part is still not one of my favorite things, especially when I don’t HAVE to put myself out there in 30 knots and 12 foot seas.

The winds have really caused the seas to build. So for the last two days the race courses have been modified. Tom crewed on Buxom yesterday and Apollonian, a 1955 sloop that almost sank, today.

I have been making myself comfortable on the boat. Thanks to free wifi I have found us a home for hurricane season. Our new home starting July 1 will be at the Charleston Maritime Center Marina in Charleston, South Carolina. Once there we will look for work and figure out what is next for Team Sandpiper.

For the time being we plan on exploring Grenada for the next couple of weeks until we shoot back up north to St. Lucia where we look forward to a visit from my Mom and Dr. Bob.

Love to all,
Amy and Tom

Update: The races have finished and I’m proud to report our friends Colin and Lindsay from S/V Buxom 2 swept the awards ceremony, taking home three awards. They won third overall for the racing, the perseverance award, and Lindsay won the spirit award. A good time was had by all.

A huge thanks to Sue and Fred from Bel Air Plantation Resort for all their hospitality this week!

Note from Ron: Nice photo gallery of Carriacou.

Carriacou Rum Report

2009-02-19T12:55:00.010Z

This is the second installation of the Rum Report. Updates will be given from islands in the Caribbean that Sandpiper stops at that have distilleries. The last island we were at that distilled rum was Barbados.

The Grenadine Islands, which we just visited, receive most their rum from St Vincent, where we had not stopped. In Edward Hamilton’s Book ‘Rums of the Eastern Caribbean’ he wrote about his experiences with ‘Jack Iron Rum’ in Carriacou. Carriacou is a small island of 9000 people that is part of Grenada just 6 miles to the south from here. Ed gives a great write up about Jack Iron in his book. But as hard as we looked around the island we never found one bottle! Although Jack Iron is distilled in Trinidad, I have read it is not sold there. Instead it is shipped to Carriacou/Grenada in barrels where the islanders bottle the rum in their own shops and add whatever spices they have laying around.

Jack Iron Rum out of the barrel is 99% strong and even has warning labels to keep it away from open flames.

The only Jack Iron we could find in the town of Hillsborough that was labeled was not the original made in Trinidad, but a knockoff made in Grenada or at least bottled there. The bottles that we did see when we asked around in the local grocery stores were old Mt Gay Rum bottles that had been used before and now filled with what they told us was Jack Iron Rum. We declined on a purchase as when buying rum in a bottle where the bottles seal had been broken sounded a bit sketchy. And we had been told by one of the locals that the stores water it down to make a profit. So our search for the king of strong rums (Jack Iron) in Carriacou was a bit of a failure.

But as in the other islands, when in a bar, we just order an 8th of rum, ice, and water, just like the locals do and your bar tab ends up being quite cheap. On our first night in town on Amy’s birthday at the Lambi Queen Bar, it was full of cruisers who were ordering up expensive beers, gin & tonics, and rum & cokes. We ordered up what the locals at the bar were having... just the small bottle of Grenada rum, ice, and water for only 3 U.S. bucks! We were told by the waitress in a quite voice not to let the other ‘white folk’ know we were ordering this as it was for locals only. More so they can make their money off the white folk who are willing to pay. I have no idea how they can make a profit off the locals at this low of a price. Just the cost of Coke is more then the rum here. So if one hangs with the locals drinking only the rum and ice, it is cheaper then drinking just a Coke alone.

We might be fortunate in that we never found the real Jack Iron rum on our stop here in Carriacou as the below letter printed in Ed’s book;

Dear May and George Willy,
We have known each other for some time now, but I want to apologize for yesterday and last Thursday. As you know when I am sober, I am a polite, kind, generous person. But when I am drunk, I turn into a horrible animal. For the sake of my family as well as yourselves, please do not serve me Jack Iron Rum or any other strong rum. I am witnessing this letter with the police to show my sincerity.

Notes From Ron:

There is a "Tourist Version" of Iron Jack bottled by Westerhall on Grenada that is watered down to 140 proof to comply with airline regulations.
Iron Jack Rum is reputed to be the only booze in which ice will sink! Actually, ice will sink in anything over about 120 proof.
Iron Jack is made in Trinidad by Trinidad Distilleries, Ltd (TDL), which is owned by Bacardi, and bottled on Carriacou and Grenada. It is distilled in oak barrels.
Each rum shop and grocery store in Carriacou and Grenada may have it's own label, or none at all. Here are some sample labels (warning... the site has loud steel drum music). The cheaper stores simply use recycled bottles from from other spirits.

Carriacou

2009-02-15T00:45:00.006Z

Anchored in Tyrrel Bay

Carriacou

Grenada

Grenada Islands

Caribbean Sea
12'27.3N/61'29.2W
397 miles from SV Christa

A Happy Birthday to Amy!!!

Check another country off the list. We left the anchorage in Clifton Harbor, Union Island last Thursday for a short one mile trip. We dropped the hook on the southern tip of Frigate Island, a very tiny island just a quarter mile off the southern tip of Union Island, where we had hoped to do some snorkeling.

Ever since arriving in the Caribbean the trade winds have been blowing very strong. On Thursday the winds had gone up to 30 knots, wrecking our snorkeling plans. Amy's birthday was on Friday and we awoke to one of the rarer days where the trade winds had dropped below 15 knots, making for one of the better sails we have had in years to the island of Carriacou. It is just a short 6 mile sail away and part of Grenada. The cool thing about sailing in these waters is that all the islands are so close and in sight of each other.

We dropped the hook amongst the 20 other boats by early afternoon. Then we jumped into the dingy to explore the mangroves and find the floating bar called 'Angels Rest' for a birthday beer. The floating pontoon bar was supposed to be moored in the middle of the bay and was owned by friends on S/V Buxom. After a bit of looking around not finding the floating bar we asked a local "Where is the floating bar?" He answered "I have some bad news for you. The bar floated away." I asked if it was full of people when it floated away, but was told that luckily it was empty when it blew out. It must be somewhere downwind, in Central America by now, where some lucky local must have found it.

We tied the dingy up in front of the Carriacou Yacht Club. It is not really a yacht club, but a bar and hotel next to a boat yard. After a few rum punches we walked down the road along Tyrrel Bay and found the 'Lambi Queen' restaurant and bar where we had heard they were going to have a steel drum band that night. Turns out that the band is made up of all ladies led by a somewhat famous local gentlemen who use to actually make the drums and now has a steel drum band school on the island. The band consisted of all sizes of drums, with two lead drummers on smaller sized free standing steel drums. The rest of the band had larger barrel steel drums backing them up. Along with the teacher on a real drum set there is a cow bell and set of bongos at the back. [YouTube video - loud!]

These ladies really had it down. You could see in their faces and body movements that they were having a great time. Most the bar was filled with cruisers, and there were locals lined up out along the street drinking rum, dancing around, and really enjoying themselves. Later in the evening Amy even got her own personnel steel drum 'Happy Birthday' played for her by the teacher and one of the lady lead players. Too cool!!

After the band stopped playing around 9pm and all the cruisers headed off to their boats to go to bed. That left Amy and I with all the locals for the rest of the night. After the 'Lambi Queen' closed we headed farther down the road with one of our new island friend Jason. We heard loud music playing down a dirt road and found 'Joann's Swampy Jo's Bar' empty with one man asleep on a table. Finding no one else around we called out "Hello!" loudly and heard some shouting from the back. Our new friend Jason poked his head in one of the doors behind the bar and then told us that the owner was gettin' busy in the back with a lady. And he added that the bar owner told him he still had awhile to go before he was done and wouldn't be able to serve any beer.

So we left the man sleeping on the table and headed farther down the road to Hillsborough Bay. The closer we got, the louder the music became. Along our walk Jason explained to us that everyone is a bit restless with Carnival happening soon. Amy is sure there will be an increase in births 9 months from now.

We found a bar that is open all night that plays ear splitting music with locals dancing all over the place. One thing we have discovered in the Caribbean is that is seems like everyone goes out every night, all night long. I am not sure how the small amount of work that is accomplished around the islands ever gets done with everyone staying up every night.

We made it back to the 'Piper just as the sun was rising. We will stay in Carriacou for a few more days before heading off to Grenada.

More Later From The Land Of Jack Iron,
Tom and Amy

Union Island, Grenadine Islands

2009-02-12T01:39:00.003Z

Anchored at Clifton
Union Island
Grenadine Islands
Caribbean Sea
12'35.8N/61'24.9W
392 miles from SV Christa
(Click Photo To Enlarge Happy Island)

Just a short transit through the reefs in Tobago Cays Marine Park. Sandpiper had a one-mile ocean transit to where Sandpiper is on the hook, sitting off the small town of Clifton on Union Island. This is our last stop in the Grenadine Islands.

Before entering the harbor, just across the channel, there is Palm Island which has a very fancy resort surrounded by white sandy beaches. We stopped there for an hour to take a swim. While snorkeling to shore and to the resort we found 3 conchs under the Piper that we quickly grabbed and threw into the dinghy. After a short stroll down the white sand beaches in front of the resort we jumped back into the water and returned to the 'Piper for the short 5-minute motor to where we are currently anchored.

Its been since I was a small kid since I have seen a conch cleaned. Once the hook was set we got the WiFi hooked up and watched Youtube videos on how to clean a conch. But it all looks so easy until one is faced with actually cleaning one. I did as instructed to get the conch out of its shell, but I could not get a grip on it to get it out of its shell. After about an hour I decided that I had had enough. So I grabbed the hacksaw started cutting the shell in half hoping no locals motoring by in their boats would see what I was doing and laugh at me. Minutes later I had 3 conchs out of their shells and Amy took on the job of pounding them out. That first evening at anchor we had a delicious meal of curried conch over rice.

Later that night we made our way through this very tiny town of Clifton checking out the local bars. We ran into Angelo, a local from Union Island, whom we had met on the beach a few days before in the Tobago Cays. Union Island and the town of Clifton are like a scene out of the movie "Captain Ron" and we love it here! The town is very tiny, lining the waterfront with colorful shops and restaurants. Most of the businesses cater to the charter boats that frequent here needing to re-provision.

Most white folks that come to Union Island are here to be on a charter boats. So most just arrive, get on a boat, and then head out for the Tobago Cays. This means that there are very few white tourists in town, which leaves lots of colorful locals that are super friendly.

There is a very tiny airport that is on the edge of town that that makes for afternoon entertainment. When planes land they have to fly very low, right over town, and then drop straight down in time to stop before they run out of runway and hit the water. Our friend Angelo told us that there were no runway lights. So if a plane had to land at night, or if there was a medical emergency where someone had to be flown to the nearest hospital some distance away to St Vincent, then all of the locals would line up their cars along the runway with their headlights on to guide the plane in.

Angelo then showed us his nightly hangout, the ‘Stressout’ bar, which has become our new favorite haunt. The Stressout Bar is more like a two story house where the upstairs is the bar. There are even couches in the bedrooms if you want to sit inside. In the living room area is the bar where there is a laptop hooked to several large speakers pumping our all kinds of Reggae music at mega decibels. The best part of the bar, other then the dirt cheap rum, hard core Rasta guys smoking, people dancing everywhere, dogs running around in the yard, and blaring music, is behind the bar is something that looks like an aquarium that early in the evening is empty. But as time goes by, it starts getting filled with fried chicken and toast from the kitchen hidden behind the bar! Its brilliant. Who would have thought that eating some fried chicken and toast after a few strong rums could be so delicious.

After being here for just a few days, and with the few days we were in the Tobago Cays, we feel like royalty in town. The locals know our names, and at the Stressout Bar we get all kinds of fist bumps as we walk in. Last night I was talking to the tallest Rasta man I have ever seen. I told him that he must be the tallest person on the island. He told me that there was one man taller, and then suddenly the slightly taller man walked into the room. This left me cracking up because this could only happen on an island this small.

This morning, having no plans, I was sitting in the cockpit having my morning coffee when our new friend Angelo stopped by with his boat. Angelo has a small powerboat that he takes to Petite Martinique, which is an island belonging to Grenada four miles away. There he buys cheap gas for his boat and sacks of live lobsters. He then spends his days over in the Tobago Cays, just a few miles from here, selling his lobsters to the charter boats anchored there. Sometimes he cooks them on the beach. He makes all his money during the charter season because once hurricane season starts there are no more customers until the next year.

Angelo tied up his boat to the 'Piper and announced that he was going to cook us a lobster lunch. There was a flurry of activity by Team Sandpiper... setting up the grill and getting ready for the feast. Angelo used our stove to boil potatoes, that once done he threw on the grill. Angelo then jumped into his boat and grabbed a sack he had hanging over the side. He pulled out three nice lobsters, which he then cut in half lengthwise. While climbing back aboard the 'Piper with his platter of lobsters he managed get a nice burn on his arm when he accidentally leaned against the grill. Then gashed his toe on one of 'Pipers cleats, dripping blood everywhere.

After we got him patched up and medicated with a big glass of rum to ease his pain Angelo cooked up a huge feast of buttered garlic potatoes and lobster. It was even better then what we had the previous days in the Tobago Cays, leaving us completely stuffed.

The remainder of the day was spent drinking rum while Angelo told us about the happenings on Union Island. Every once in a while a large Venezuelan fishing boat arrives in town that causes much excitement. After the boat arrives at port, they give the customs officers several cases of booze to not pay attention to them for a while. They then tie up on the waterfront and sell gasoline for $4.00 a gallon. The local price of gas is normally $8.00 a gallon. Gasoline is 5 cents a gallon in Venezuela, and they they can sell it for $4 dollars a gallon here. This makes them more money then fishing. Also, they sell cheap liquor and other powdery substances that are white in color…

After a whole day of drinking rum on the 'Piper, Angelo announced that he was going to take us over to Happy Island. Happy Island is located on the reef just off Piper’s starboard side. A man named Janti decided that he wanted to make his own island. So he had all the small speedboats in the harbor start hauling old conch shells that had been piled up in the harbor and dump them on the reef. After thousands and thousands of shells had been dumped he had his own island which he then topped off with hand mixed concrete. He then built a really cool wooden house over this foundation and planted palm trees around his tiny island. He then opened the Happy Island Bar and BBQ.

This is one of the coolest bars we have ever seen. It is really nice at night, sitting way out on the reef while sipping rum punch and looking out at the anchorage. He runs his bar all by 12 volt batteries charged by solar panels. They give him enough power to light up the bar at night, refrigeration to keep the drinks cold, and crank out reggae music. Afterwards we jumped back into Angelo’s boat and he just returned us back to the 'Piper.

Sandpiper’s current plans are to head out to Carriacou Island, just an hour’s sail away, in time for Amy’s birthday this Friday the 13th. Last year Amy spent her birthday on watch crossing the Indian Ocean. So we are hoping for a much better birthday this year.

More from the land of ‘Jack Iron’.
Tom and Amy

Crossing the Atlantic, the hard way

2009-02-09T17:40:00.003Z

From the "For What Its Worth Dept.":

Just after Tom and Amy sailed across the Atlantic from the Cape Verde Islands to Barbados, they were followed by 56 year old Jennifer Figge of Aspen, Colorado who opted to swim across. She left Jan 12, two days after Sandpiper arrived in Barbados. It took Jennifer 24 days, and she landed in Trinidad, just a bit southwest of Barbados.

Here is an article...

So sailing across with a wobbly mast ain't so bad.

Ron

Tobago Cays National Marine Park, Grenadine Islands

2009-02-09T13:41:00.006Z

Anchored Petit Bateau
Tobago Cays National Marine Park
Grenadine Islands
Caribbean Sea
12'38.1N/61'21.6W
391 miles from SV Christa
(Click On Photo To Enlarge)

Lunch with Wilma

Before I tell you about the wonderful afternoon we had yesterday let me brief you on our trip here on Friday. Normally we try not to leave on Fridays as it is an old sailors superstition that bad luck will ensue. However, this trip was only 1 mile. So we thought we would be ok. We waited an extra day at Mayreau Island hoping the wind would calm down some so the visibility might be better at the Cays. The main anchorage at the Cays is exposed, with the Horseshoe Reef just along the outside. We could see the masts from our last anchorage and thought it looked crowded. But once we rounded the corner we noticed the anchorage had plenty of room.

We had heard they put in moorings. And since it has just recently turned into a National Marine Park, they are charging even for anchoring. We didn't pick up a mooring and we actually only were charged for one night at $20EC (about $8USD) which I think is well worth it. I think we didn't get charged our second day because Tom got tight with the park Chief. It turns out they both had the same training in Yorktown, Virginia.

As soon as the hook was set we were off the boat and in the dingy to the outer reef were the snorkeling is suppose to be good. We hooked the dingy to a mooring specially for dingies and off we went. With the wind blowing 25 knots, and a current, it made the snorkeling a bit of a challenge. The visibility was still good but the waves were crashing over our heads. After about 30 minutes of viewing unimpressive reef and fish it was back to the dingy. Tom's comment was 'I thought there would be more color to the reef'. I quickly reminded him that we are spoiled seeing as how we have been to the South Pacific, Great Barrier Reef, Thailand, and the Red Sea.

We drifted with the dingy back toward the boat through a turtle reserve where we did spot a turtle, and that is always exciting. Even with the wind and an unimpressive reef I was still having a great time.

I had really been wanting to participate in a Lobster Bar-B-Q that I had read about in our Windward Islands Guide. Our guide written by Chris Doyle has been helpful in describing anchorages, restaurants, and local services. He explains in his guide how, when arriving in any of the Caribbean anchorages, most likely a boat will pull along side to help anchor, sell us bread, take our garbage, sell us t-shirts, or invite us to that Lobster Bar-b-q. I realize we have only been to three anchorages so far. But I think once these entrepreneur see the old 'Piper, they seem to turn away. Granted, we are looking a bit rough around the edges. But how am I going to get this lobster if nobody approaches us?

Tom and I went to explore one of the three islands after our snorkel. There we met Wilma, who not only sells t-shirts, jewelry and soda. But she also offered us a lobster bar-b-q. We quickly said "Yes", and "Can we do it tomorrow afternoon at 2pm?"

We noticed how nice the beach was where Wilma was set up. So we promptly made it back to the boat, picked up the anchor, and moved to our current location off the beach with a little more protection from the wind.

Friday night the wind picked up even more, and a dark, nasty storm rolled through. But on Saturday morning we had clear skies. We enjoyed a lazy morning and gathered up our snorkel gear to circumnavigate our little island. Our guide book suggested a good snorkel spot on the southern tip of the island. So we set off and we were pleasantly surprised at what we saw. We both agreed that the snorkeling here was better than at the outer reef. We saw more fish, fan coral, brain coral, and turtles too.

It was now time for our Lobster! We met Wilma on the beach and she introduced us to Elroy, our cook. Soon we had several plates of food in front of us. We had grilled jacket potatoes with a garlic butter sauce, a huge bowl of veggies, and a large lobster grilled to perfection. I instantly yanked out all the meat and set my shells on the other end of the table.

Lucky for us we were schooled by our friend Steve about the lobster. He said "They bring flies", and he was right about that. But he also said "Once you get the meat out, move the shells and the flies will follow." He was right about that too. Thanks for the great advice Steve!

Well we devoured every last bit of our lunch, and we highly recommend Wilma for anyone else that might be blowing through. We met that guy the author recommends and thanked our lucky stars we met Wilma as he was a bit too much for us.

Miss Wilma lives on Union Island, where we are headed today, 4 miles away. We have plans to meet up with her on Wednesday night at her house for Lambi, another name for Conch. For all those times that we were never adopted, like other cruisers in the South Pacific were, we are making up for it now.

Hope this entry of beautiful clear waters and lobster doesn't make you all to jealous.

One Love and Respect,
Amy and Tom

Mayreau Island, Grenadine Islands

2009-02-05T01:18:00.004Z

Anchored in Salt Whistle Bay

Mayreau Island

Grenadine Islands

Caribbean Sea
12'38.8N/61'23.4W
391 miles from S/V Christa

Party...Party...Party...

My goodness. Our initial impression of Bequia was "Let's get out of here", mainly because there are a ton of boats and charter people. We are extremely spoiled from our good times in Barbados... beautiful white sand beaches, beautiful people, friendly faces, and no charter boat folks. So from now on we only have that experience to compare with the rest of our travels.

I think the last we wrote we were heading out of Bequia on Monday. But due to meeting good folks, and running into old friends, we stayed a few more days. We hung out with our new friends off of S/V Buxom, a 1938 gaff rigged wooden ketch sailed by Captain Colin. With Lindsey and Grace as crew, they hail from St John in the U.S. Virgin Islands from where they had just directly sailed, direct hand steering for five days straight. They introduced us to US Virgin Island Rum and many sea stories about their adventures.

While kickin' it on the beach we also met a lovely group of folks from Canada where to my surprise I ended up, as Tom says, 'holding court'. It is just amazing to me that people actually want to hear about our adventures.

We also met Ken, from Pennsylvania, who comes to Bequia once a year for three months and told us Mayreau Island is a must stop for us. Big shout out to Ken because we love it here!!

Before leaving Bequia we finally heard from our friends, Tracy and Vytas off of S/V Sunshine Daydream, that they were going to arrive Monday. So we hung around to catch up with them again. It had been since the Canary's when we last crossed paths. And we really enjoy their company, so this was a must for us to spend an extra day waiting their arrival. Our reunion was short, but well spent. And we look forward to meeting up again with them soon.

The sail from Bequia to Mayreau was a short 20 mile beam reach. But as the usual for Sandpiper, the winds have been honking lately. So we had 20-30 knots off the beam with just a double reefed main and staysail out.

Upon our arrival to where we are currently anchored in Salt Whistle Bay we were pleasantly surprised to find a tiny, cozy, well protected anchorage surrounded with palm trees and a white sand beach for the 'Piper to drop the hook. I read all the books and guides along the way and you never know what your actually going to get until pulling in. What I have pictured is never what it looks like. But this is actually better then the books!!

I have been extremely spoiled from our previous stops throughout the years, and I know it. It is taking me a bit of time to get use to so many boats around us. But it's slowly growing on me as we are surrounded by charter boats anchored all around us.

Since arriving at Mayreau Island we have done nothing but relax and get back into our old routine of swimming, walking, and scrabble. We did a wonderful walk today from our anchorage in Salt Whistle Bay over to Saline Bay, it's a very small island and only took us maybe one hour with plenty of stops for photos along the way. We treated ourselves to an onshore lunch of lobster sandwiches and Creole conch for less than $25 US.

When speaking to the locals we asked "Where is everyone?" Their response was "With the US economy bad, it means bad business for us too." Everywhere we stopped we were the only non-locales (Whities) around, and the island has many bars and restaurants completely empty. This is a very small island of only 500 people, 7 cars, and only two hotels. It's slow moving, perfect for 'Team Sandpiper'.

We are anxious to move the 2 miles over to the Tobago Cays tomorrow if the winds die down a bit, as they are predicted to do. We want to explore the reefs and indulge in a beach bar-b-q.

Stay tuned for more tales from the Grenadines. Cheers!

One Love,
Amy and Tom

Bequia Island, Grenadine Islands

2009-02-02T15:10:00.004Z

Anchored at Tony Gibbons Beach
Admiralty Bay
Bequia Island
Grenadine Islands
Caribbean Sea
13'00.1N/61'14.5W
369nm from SV Christa...

Happy Super Bowl America!! Team Sandpiper has been anchored in Admiralty Bay for the last week. During this time we have completed a few boat projects and got checked in with customs and immigration.

One of the projects was the yet again repair of our troubled outboard motor. This motor has given us much grief during the past 6 months, seeming to fail when the wind is the strongest and night is darkest. When heading into town, upwind, we would paddle until another dinghy would motor by and we would stick out our thumb to get a tow into town. Late at night we had resorted to looking for the drunkest person in the bar when we were ready to go back to the boat and ask them for a tow home, then seeing them in town the next day with little memory of ever meeting us or remembering that they had towed us home. This technique works for our benefit because we can get multiple tows from them and every time they will think it’s the first time they helped us.

We carried the outboard to ‘Fix-It Man’, a retired Ferrari race car mechanic who now fixes yacht engines here in Bequia with his trusty helper Elvis. Elvis got straight to work replacing the spark wire. For now she seems to be running smoothly.

The harbor here in Admiralty Bay is crowded with many cruising yachts, charter boats, mega yachts, and ferries. All along the shoreline are small restaurants and bars that seem to be owned not by locals, but ex-pats whom have made Bequia their new home. On a recommendation we had dinner at Mac’s Pizzeria where we had a very nice dinner and Amy bought me my newest favorite dinghy item, a ball cap that has LED lights in the bill! Its quite sweet as it lights up the dark sidewalks as we walk around and is great for a light in the dinghy to get us home.

We got ashore yesterday (Sunday) and made our way to Tommy Cantina where we had seats reserved to watch the Super Bowl. The bar/restaurant is right along the shoreline where we watched the Super Bowl and the sunset at the same time. The sound of the blender making margaritas overpowered the sound of the game. Not sure what happened with the band ‘Journey’ while we have been gone. Maybe it is a sign of the state of the economy in America, but it appears that Steve Perry, the lead singer, had his job outsourced to a small Asian guy.

We watched commercials for things we have never seen, movies we have never heard of, and TV shows that were unknown. Seems like we are not missing to much.

Team Sandpiper’s current plans are to get Sandpiper ready to leave tomorrow morning for a 36-mile sail to Tobago Cays. This should be a nice trip and we cannot remember the last time we had a trip this short.

For extra reading assignment check out our last posting in the Presidio Yacht Club’s latest issue of the online ‘Porthole’ [click here to read PDF document]. Also check out the “Barbados Rum Report” below.

More Down Island,
Tom and Amy

Barbados Rum Report

2009-02-02T15:02:00.006Z

This is the newest exciting addition to Sandpiper's site. While transiting the Caribbean we will be sacrificing our bodies while we do in depth research discovering as many of the Caribbean’s rum distilleries as possible and reporting what we discover what the rum situation is like at each island. Not only is rum great to drink, it is a huge part of the history of these islands. From the very first settlers, it is still a major part of each islands economy.

We are using a book we recently discovered, ‘Rums of the eastern Caribbean’ written by fellow cruiser Edward Hamilton who sailed thru these islands on his boat, sampling all these delicious rums while he wrote his guide. He is also know as the ‘Minister of Rum’ by fellow cruisers as he has quite a supply of rum aboard and he holds tasting nights with fellow cruisers in whatever anchorage he happens to drop his hook in.

A brief lesson on where rum comes from and why it is so popular here in the Caribbean: Sugar Cane is grown throughout the Caribbean which is harvested and then run thru a crusher that squeezes out all the juice. The juice is then collected and made into sugar that is exported all over the world. What is left is molasses. This molasses still has a small amount of sugar left in it. It is left to ferment, then distilled into delicious rum.

Some of this is sold as white rum. Or it is left to age in recycled whiskey barrels from America, which turns the rum into a golden color. Once this is judged to be of proper age it is bottled as aged rum, or mixed with local spices and sold as spiced rum.

Barbados was established in 1627 and had 120 drinking houses in Bridgetown alone! Rum was first known as ‘Kill Devil’, a hot and horrible liquor. The largest distillery on the island is also the oldest in the world, ‘Mount Gay’, that started business in 1663!! We were fortunate to drop by the distillery for a tour and tasting while visiting the island.

There we learned that Mt. Gay is a sponsor of many regattas around the world. And if you’re a participant you receive a red Mt. Gay ball cap. This is the only way to receive their cap. If you wear your cap to the distillery then you are given a ‘special’ treat. Since we are already planning our next visit to Barbados, it looks like we will need to find a regatta first.

Barbados also has Cockspur Rum that was founded in 1884, West Indies Rum Distillery that was founded 1893 and several smaller distilleries.

Barbados is NOT for the recovering alcoholic as the island is covered with drinking establishments called ‘Rum Shops’. Some of these are large bars. But most are so small that only two persons can sit inside. Others are just small huts where one just stands outside. In order to be a true rum shop, the establishment has to have a rum number issued by Mt. Gay, as this is the official rum on the island. There are hundreds of these all over the island, and mostly this is where the locals come to drink. Most locals have a neighborhood rum shop near their house where they come to drink in the afternoons, much like a local pub back home.

Our favorite haunt, ‘Red Man Bar’, is just a short swim from Sandpiper. It is a bar for tourists from the cruise ships during the afternoons. In the evenings when the tourist have returned to their ships, it becomes a rum shop for the locals, ‘Team Sandpiper” included.

The most affordable way for the locals to drink at a rum bar is order a bottle of rum. You get a Coke bottle full of Mount Gay Rum, a large bowl of ice, and a pitcher of water. You then fill your cup with ice, as much rum as you need, and a little water. The code in the rum shops is that once you open your rum then it is fair game for anyone else to grab some of your bottle. Or if your bottle is empty and someone else opens a bottle, then you grab his.

While indulging in this local pastime one evening and sharing stories of our travels we had mentioned how much Australians love their beer. We were quickly schooled that this view needed to change. So now we say Bajan’s love their rum.

Barbados is a bit laid back when it comes to enforcing any laws for anyone whom has consumed too much rum and is running around in public. On one of our many nights at the Red Man Bar we met a large Barbados man that had spent his entire afternoon at the bar drinking rum. It was already quite apparent by his slurring speech. While he was telling us his many stories a couple of cruise ship tourists walk by. He yells out to them, much to our disbelief, “Need Taxi Mon??” He was on the clock with his taxi looking for passengers to take back to their ship. And he was having a hard time just talking to us, less drive some tourist safely back to their ship.

Luckily for them they declined the ride back. Laughing at the situation I asked one of my new friends if this guy was going to get in his car and drive around. He told me that there are no laws in Barbados against drinking and driving. There had been a rash of accidents around the island due to so many people driving around full of rum. So a group had been formed to force the government to take action. The Minister of Tourism gave a report on the front page of the Barbados newspaper saying that there was no way that they were going to let the police take action as it might cut into tourism!!!

The taxi driver then told me that drinking rum improves his vision, and that the more he drink, the better driver he is. This was confirmed to me weeks later in yet another rum shop where one of the local ex pats told me that the problem on the island wasn’t people drinking to much and then driving. It was the sober drivers that were causing all the accidents on the island because the sober drivers were out of sync with all the other drivers on the road.

Bequia, Grenadine Islands

2009-01-29T15:08:00.004Z

Anchored in Admiralty Bay
Bequia Island
Grenadine Islands
Caribbean Sea
13'00.6N/61'14.5W
369nm from SV Christa...

After a 24-hour run straight downwind with a night of heavy rainstorms we arrived off the north coast of Bequia Island at sunrise. A large cruise ship and cargo ship were our only traffic, passing a mile down our starboard side. Sandpiper averaged 5 knots with a double reefed main out to port all night and just a small part of the jib poled out to starboard. We were trying to slow down in order to not make landfall before sunrise. This was the first test of the 'rig' since putting the mast back on, and everything held tight.

The winds overnight kept changing direction every time a rain squall passed over. Sandpiper was rolling all over as the winds and swells straight off the stern, sometimes at over 25 knots. Once we rounded Bequia Island we entered Admiralty Bay where we had hoped that the high winds would lay down. But they seemed to get stronger the closer we got to the anchorage.

Arriving at Admiralty Bay, we found hundreds of sailboats all over the place, most being on mooring buoys. This left us little room to anchor. Being that we are now in the heart of the Caribbean, many of the boats around us are charter boats and are just here for a short time. So they have no problem paying to be on a mooring buoy at $20.00 U.S. a night. But for Sandpiper, after about 30 minutes of motoring around the harbor, found a very small area where we dropped the hook for free.

The winds honking over 20 knots made us a bit nervous being in the middle of so many boats. So as soon as we dropped the hook I jumped into the water to make sure that our anchor was set. We have not been ashore yet and will post updates as soon as we can. But after being in Barbados where we were the only 'cruising' boat around, we are a bit tainted being around so many other boats.

We were hoping to have internet on the boat at this anchorage for Skype and to update our very outdated pictures and videos. But it is a bit expensive for WiFi, so we are hoping to find a cheap internet ashore today. So keep on checking.

Also in the next few days we will be posting our newest addition to this site: ‘The Rum Report!!’

More, once we get ashore,
Tom and Amy

28-Jan-2009 Midnight Position

2009-01-28T00:00:00.001Z

Midnight Position
Caribbean Sea

43 nm from Barbados Island
50 nm to Bequia Island
Winds NE 15-20 Knots
Seas NE 3-4ft, Rain
413 Nautical Miles from SV Christa/Cap'n Chris

This morning I stayed aboard while friends ashore Tim & Sally took Amy shopping so I could finish last minute projects and get Sandpiper ready for sea. Sandpiper's bilge pump float switch had failed. We had been able to buy a new one in Barbados which I was able to installed and rewire before Amy got back. We then said a sad farewell to Doris and her cast of characters at the 'Red Man Bar', and to friends Tim and Sally that have taken such good care if us during out stop here in Barbados. Thanks Barbados!!

We were able to get the hook out of the sand by 1pm, one last wave to everyone on the beach, and then the Sandpiper was off for an overnight 96 mile sail to the island of Bequia. As the clock strikes midnight Sandpiper sailing straight downwind, averaging 5 knots through rain squalls. We are hoping to arrive off the coast of Bequia Island by late morning. We are planning to have the hook set and checked in with customs by early afternoon.

More When Anchored,
Tom and Amy

Barbados

2009-01-26T13:03:00.010Z

Red Man Beach Bar
Anchored Carlisle Bay
Bridgetown
Barbados
Caribbean Sea
13'05.4N/59'36.7
267 miles from S/V Christa
(Click Photo To Enlarge)

Wow! How time flies when you are drinking rum!

Yes, we are still alive, still in Barbados, and the Sandpiper is all back together. With our busy social schedule it is amazing we have gotten anything done. Since our last post we wrapped up our week's free membership at the Yacht Club with a great hot shower, a quick WiFi hook up, a few rum punches, and lunch.

Last Sunday we awoke early and got on a bus in Bridgetown for an hour drive up the east coast of the island to The Crane Hotel where we enjoyed the Gospel Sunday Brunch. A wonderful treat for us to celebrate a belated Christmas and New Year's. While enjoying the gorgeous surroundings and a cold rum punch we met two Germans, Erol Gurian and Wolfgang, who were doing a story on Barbados for a German travel magazine. We asked if they had visited a rum shop yet. They answered "No", so we invited them to join us down at the 'Red Man Bar' later in the week. To our surprise they showed up, got to interview Doris the owner, and got to experience the real Barbados. I think a good time was had by all.

That night we were kidnapped by Tim and Sally. We got to sleep in their guest apartment in a real bed.

In the midst of all these fun times we were able to get the boat down to the yard and pull the mast off. We had tried and hoped it was going to be an easy fix of only climbing the mast and inserting our new bolt. But it wasn't going to work like that this time. With the help of Willie's Diving and Marine Services we used their crane to lift the mast off. Then they called us a local fabricator to come down and make us a few new bits and pieces for the spreaders.

While observing the locals for the past week I have noticed their leisurely island work pace. I was a bit concerned that we would be without a mast all week. But I was pleasantly surprised when all was done in one day. Then it was up to us to put everything back together.

Everyone at the yard was super friendly and helpful. And it made it convenient to have an Ace Hardware store in walking distance from the yard. It was also convenient to have Tiami Yacht Charters next to us where Josh, a skipper for the boats, hooked us up with a free shirt and bottle of rum punch.

As I write this Tom is finishing up with tighten the rigging and wiring. A bonus to the mast removal was the fact we were able to fix our spreader lights. They haven't worked in two years!

The last two nights we have been graciously hosted by Tim and Sally and their comfortable apartment. The four of us along with their neighbors went out for a wonderful dinner at a restaurant called 'Shakers Bar and Grill', a bungalow house converted into a warm and welcoming family run business. The owners are a husband and wife team. Amy, the bartender/hostess/waitress/do it all, is from the east coast of the US. Her husband is a local Bajan who does all the cooking. They have an amazing and booming business and you must visit if your ever here.

Our week was topped off yesterday afternoon when we attended a Christening. Not your normal Christening for a baby, but a Christening for three new puppies who were added to the 'Red Man Bar' family. The party was complete with fish cakes, corn beef sandwiches, and cake, which Tom and I were given the honors to cut and now makes us honorary Bajan's. With the puppies in a box and wrapped in bows a few nice words were said by Doris. A few songs sang by all, and a rum toast to complete the party.

I know we say this a lot, but Tom and I are ready to live here. It's close to the US. The people are amazing. It is beautiful. And the economy is doing better than anywhere else at the moment. We just need to sell the 'Piper. Anyone wanna buy a boat?

As hard as it is to leave, it is time for us to move on. Our current plan is to be in Bequia by the week's end where I have read there is lots of WiFi so we will catch up on our emails and Skype calls.

Looking forward to hearing from you.

One Love,
Amy and Tom

Red Man Beach Bar

2009-01-17T16:54:00.002Z

At Red Man Beach Bar
Anchored Carlisle Bay
Bridgetown
Barbados
Caribbean Sea
13'05.4N/59'36.7
267 miles from S/V Christa

We got the bolt!! Our first week here and we have not gotten much father than the clear waters and white sand beach off our bow. After our extensive searching throughout Bridgetown's fishing supply stores we were given an address for a fastener store that had a replacement bolt. The one that sheered off on the mast holding up the lower shrouds.

It is difficult for us to get motivated around here because it turns out we are anchored just off the best spot along the beach, on the best beach of the island. We are sitting in front of the best bar.. 'Red Man Bar'. Its just a tin shack run by a young 80 year old Barbados woman named Doris whom has somewhat adopted us and even offered Amy a job in her kitchen cooking. We found out yesterday that no one really gets paid for working there, Instead, you just get all the rum you can drink while at work.

Every morning a new set of cruise ships arrives and Bridgetown swells up, full of pasty white tourists. Most of them make their way down to the beach were we are anchored. Doris has beach chairs with umbrellas that she sets up every morning, then she sells drinks to the tourists, whom all disappear by sunset to get back to their ships. So this leaves the beach and the Red Man Bar for just us and the locals to enjoy the sunset. Every evening there is quite a cast of characters and everyone is really friendly. Every time we drag the dingy up the beach everyone working in the 'Red Man Bar' will ask us "You got d' bolt yet mon?"

We met a super friendly couple from the Channel Islands, Tim and Sally, who have been extremely helpful to us. They actually drove us out past the sugarcane fields to find the Fastener Store for our bolt. They let us do a load of laundry at their house, and they gave us a west coast tour of the island. They live here half the year and are great to talk to about the island.

The Barbados Yacht Club is just down the beach. They have given us a free one-week membership. Its cheap there. They have hot showers, potent rum punches, and WiFi. But they don't have the interesting cast of characters from the 'Red Man Bar'.

Our days here have been flying by and we still have a few things on our list to check off. So perhaps we will be here one more week. Fingers crossed the bolt is easy to install.

Internet is quite expensive here. So we will be waiting until we get to our next stop to update our photo and video pages. They are now quite outdated, and we have lots of new material to post. So stay tuned!!

More before we go,
Tom and Amy

Bridgetown, Barbados

2009-01-12T16:14:00.005Z

Anchored Carlisle Bay
Bridgetown
Barbados
Caribbean Sea
13'05.4N/59'36.7

267 Nautical Miles from Cap'n Chris on the S/V Christa

Rum Punch + Landing The Dinghy Ashore = Drama...

It is official. We are in the Caribbean Sea!!

We kept tying to slow the Piper down but she was much to eager to get to an anchorage. The winds picked up over 20 knots right off the stern as we made landfall one hour before sunrise. The moon was full, making it very easy to see the shoreline as we rounded Barbados' north end. We arrived to the main port of Bridgetown at 10am where Port Control directed us to enter the harbor to clear in with customs, health, immigration, and the Port Captain. Once completed, we left the harbor. Once outside the jetty we anchored where we are now.

We dropped the hook right off a perfect white sand beach lined with beach bars. As soon as the anchor set under 20 feet of crystal clear water we both jumped in to celebrate. We then ventured ashore with the dingy and never made it father then the first beach bar closest to the dinghy. After sunset most the tourists laying around on the beach disappear and the bar was full of locals smoking funny looking cigarettes. Somehow on a perfectly calm beach we were able to flip the dingy twice after maybe too much 'punch'.

Our plans are to stay at anchor here in Carlisle Bay for the next 7-10 days before we make our way 90 miles to the west to the island of St Lucia. While we are here we will replace the broken bolt in the mast, then reattach the lower shrouds and retune the rig.

Since leaving Grand Canary Island we have used a total of 4 gallons of diesel. Nice!

More before we go,
Tom and Amy

10-Jan-2009 Noon Update

2009-01-10T12:00:00.000Z

Atlantic Crossing Day #17 and FINAL!!
13'26.4N/58'13.9W
North Atlantic Ocean

106 nm last 24 hours
1937 nm from Cape Verde
81 nm to Barbados
Winds E 10-15 Knots
Seas NE 3-4 feet
474 Nautical Miles from Cap'n Chris on the S/V Christa

The champagne is chillin' and we can almost smell the rum!! Last noon fix with 81 miles to go until we are no longer rolling side to side, secure in an anchorage after 17 days at sea off white sand beaches .

We had to put on the brakes a bit yesterday by dropping the staysail to slow down so we did not arrive off Barbados in the middle of the night tonight. So we have just a hanky piece of jib out, giving us an average of 4 knots. There is a full moon tonight which will give us a very bright sky. So if we approach land too early in the morning then we should have no worries.

We are planning on making landfall on the north end of Barbados by first light. Then once we round the north end we still have to go 20 miles south in the lee of the island to the anchorage off Bridgetown. This is the Capitol of Barbados and is where customs and immigration is located there, along with the Barbados Yacht Club that has our mail and more importantly hot showers.

The reason we picked Barbados as our first port in the Caribbean is that it is the most windward of all the islands by 90 miles, and is the closest to us. Most other boats, including the Atlantic Crossing Rally, skip Barbados and instead clear in at St Lucia. Because Barbados is 90 miles upwind from all the other islands very few boats make it out here. Usually they only get boats coming across the Atlantic, like us. Otherwise, boats would have to beat straight upwind against the Trades to get here. So we are hoping to be one of the few boats in the anchorage and have the place to ourselves.

I have added on our header "Miles from S/V Christa" as Sandpiper & Christa have not seen each other since being side tied together under the Golden Gate Bridge at the Presido Yacht Club years ago when we were both active duty Coast Guard. We are looking forward to meeting up and maybe Buddy Boating thru the Caribbean. Check S/V Christa out under 'Friends of Sandpiper'.

Since we are now on this side of the pond we are getting connected with Sailmail's stations in the Caribbean and we are getting great connections. If you have been holding on to an email for us because we said that Sailmail was not working, then please send away!! If you don't hear from us it is because we are sucking down rum punches and eating some flying fish sandwiches while listening to steel drums on the beach.

More When Anchored,
Tom and Amy

09-Jan-2009 Noon Update

2009-01-09T12:00:00.000Z

Atlantic Crossing Day #16
13'38.3N/56'26.2W
North Atlantic Ocean

113 nm last 24 hours
1834 nm from Cape Verde
189 nm to Barbados
Winds E 10-15 Knots
Seas NE 3-4 feet, 6 foot NE Swell

Another great 24-hour run with our little bit of sail out. Our rig is still standing, so all is good here. Not much to report today. No traffic or fish. Just beautiful blue skies and vibrant blue ocean surround us.

If you would like to send us a belated Holiday card or greeting I believe Ron posted the Yacht Club's mailing address where we will be able to receive mail. Just make sure you add 'S/V Sandpiper, Yacht in transit' in the address. We will most likely be in Barbados at least a week. Hope to hear from you!

More in 24,
Tom and Amy

08-Jan-2009 Noon Update

2009-01-08T12:00:00.002Z

Atlantic Crossing Day #15
13'50.4N/54'31.3W
North Atlantic Ocean

108 nm last 24 hours
1721 nm from Cape Verde
301 nm to Barbados
Winds NE 10 Knots
Seas NE 2-3 feet, 5 foot NE Swell

Fish On!!!! Right at noon today we hooked a 4 foot Wahoo that for once we did not throw back. We do not use fishing poles. Instead, we use a heavy drag line. Its a small, heavy, dark colored cord that has a 4 foot heavy steel leader attached to a large swivel with a colorful lure. On the end that attaches to the boat is a loop of bungee cord that acts as a shock absorber when the fish strikes. There is also a loop of line that is clothes pinned to the life lines so when a fish does hit the lure we can hear it snap, letting us know there is something on the line.

The main reason we use this and not a fishing pole is that it is to hard to slow the boat down in order to reel in a fish. The drag line we use is not very sporting because it drags the fish right up to the surface, giving him little change to fight.

We brought today's Wahoo up on deck after dragging him for a bit thru the water so he would tire out. Since the drag line gear is so heavy duty there is no need for a gaff hook. We just swing the fish on deck. As soon as the fish is on deck its Amy's job to get him drunk. We have an old bottle of rot gut berry flavored Mexican vodka that we have been carrying around the world just for this purpose. One splash of this through the fish's gills takes the fight right out of him. It is far messier trying to bash a fish on the head and getting blood is splattering all over the boat than it is to kill him with a little vodka.

The hard part is cleaning the fish because Sandpiper does not really have a good spot for doing this. We take the fish up forward of the pilot house to slice him up. Its a bit of a circus routine trying to hold the fish, bucket of water, bowl, knives, and pliers while trying to skin and fillet the fish. Its a real back killer.

As I type this Amy is frying him up for a late lunch. It doesn't get any fresher than this.

This morning while looking at the mast it still seemed like it was jiggling around in the middle. So Amy acted as safety officer while I climbed up to the spreaders using the mast's folding mast steps. I attached another sling to pull against the one I installed yesterday. These 2 slings are now functioning as the broken lower shrouds. And once both were ratcheted down, the mast is looking pretty secure.

We are still not using the main sail. But we are still averaging 4-5 knots without it using the poled out jib to starboard and staysail out to port. If we can keep making 100 mile days then we can plan on arriving at Barbados Sunday morning.

No traffic last 24 hours.

More in 24,
Tom and Amy

Barbados Mailing Address

2009-01-08T01:45:00.007Z

Our mailing address for the next 10 days will be:

Tom & Amy Larson
S/V Sandpiper, yacht in transit
c/o Barbados Yacht Club
Bay Street
St.Michael
Barbados

Tel:(246) 427-1125
Fax:(246) 435-7590

07-Jan-2009 Noon Update

2009-01-07T12:00:00.000Z

Atlantic Crossing Day #14
13'58.5N/52'41.6W
North Atlantic Ocean

101 nm last 24 hours
1613 nm from Cape Verde
409 nm to Barbados
Winds NE 10 Knots
Seas NE 2-3 feet

We still have a mast...

We were expecting 100 mile days as we are under a poled out jib to starboard, staysail out to port with the main furled and secured. And we made 101 nautical miles.

The weather has been very mild this last 24-hours, with 10 knots of wind right off the stern giving us an average of 4 knots. All through the night we could see the mast jiggling around. We kept tightening the running backstays to try to keep it under control.

This morning we looked up at the mast and could see it wiggling around in the middle right where the broken lower shrouds used to attach so I climbed up the mast to the spreaders and attached a sling around the mast. Then I attached a rope the sling and attached the other end to a come-along that was attached to the chain plates where the lower shrouds used to attach to the deck. Once this was all rigged I wrenched down on the come-along until there was a good stain in it. Now the mast is looking pretty secure.

We are making good time without the main sail, so this will be our rig until we get anchored. It looks like a simple repair as all I should have to do is replace the broken bolt through the spreaders. Then I need to re-attach the lower shrouds, then tune the rig. I do not have a bolt that long on board, so will have to find one in Barbados.

The downside is back where where the running backstays attach to the deck. One of the eyes has completely pulled thru the deck and the other has snapped in half. I do not think these attachment points were ever meant to support the whole weight of the mast.

One ship last 24 hours, one mile off our port side, heading SW. The weather today is very nice with a nice warm sun out and just a few puffy trade wind clouds floating around above us. It is also laundry day and showers. Yaaaa!

More in 24,
Tom and Amy

06-Dec-2009 Noon Update

2009-01-06T12:00:00.002Z

Atlantic Crossing Day #13
14'21.9N/51'00.2W

North Atlantic Ocean

113 nm last 24 hours
1512 nm from Cape Verde
509 nm to Barbados
Winds NE 10-15 Knots
Seas NE 3-4 feet

Near Disaster!

Late this morning, while basking in the afterglow of yesterdays momentous 141 nautical mile run, we heard a loud bang up on the mast. Looking up I saw that the bolt that runs through the spreaders and also secures the lower shrouds to the mast had sheered in half. This caused the shrouds to fall on the deck while the mast jiggled around with every new swell. Also, the shock of this breaking and the lurching of the mast snapped off the deck fitting that secures the running backstay to the deck.

The main sail was immediately dropped to take the strain off the mast while we decided what to do next. We were a bit worried that the whole rig was going to come down as there was so much movement in the mast. And there was a slight bend in the mast because the shrouds on the top of the mast were now holding it at different tensions.

The good thing about the Piper is she has back-ups for her back-ups. Most boats have a single backstay (the wire that goes to the top of the mast from the boats stern), which does not offer much side-to-side support. Luckily for Sandpiper she has 2 backstay shrouds, giving her twice as much strength and support. So we ran both running backstays aft. We usually only have them out when using the staysail. Once we tightened them, they seemed to stop most of the mast's movement. Then with adjustments on all the turnbuckles on the upper shrouds, we were able to straighten up the mast.

We also took the boom and made a support for it in order to take its weight off the mast. With a few more lines run to the top of the mast securing the bottoms to different parts of the boat, it seemed like we were back in business. So we rolled the jib back out and now are back sailing again.

For now it seems like the mast will be OK as long as we keep all the tension on the top of the mast and not in the middle. So we will be sailing with just the jib till we can get anchored in Barbados and make repairs. This has cut our speed down considerably and we are expecting to make 100 mile days at best for now.

The good thing is that this happened in the daylight when then winds were very light, under 10 knots. Of all times for this to happen it is amazing that it never failed when the winds were cracking. Instead it happened on the one morning when we have had the lightest winds. I think that this bolt might have gotten fatigued over time. And with all the rolling back and forth on this trip, plus the occasional accidental jibes, it just wore down.

One ship last 24 hours one mile off our bow heading south.

"If its going to happen, its going to happen out there"

...Cap'n Ron

Tom and Amy

05-Jan-2009 Noon Update

2009-01-05T12:00:00.003Z

Atlantic Crossing Day #12
14'33.3N/49'04.4W

North Atlantic Ocean

141 nm last 24 hours!!
1399 nm from Cape Verde
622 nm to Barbados
Winds NE 15-20 Knots
Seas NE 3-4 feet, 8 foot NE Swell

141 nautical miles in 24-hours!!! One of our best runs ever. For the last 24 hours the winds have stayed dead off the the stern blowing at 20 knots, gusting higher at times. With a beam reach the pressure of the wind against the sails keeps the boat from rolling back and forth. But with the winds/seas dead astern, like they have been for the last 13 days, there is nothing to keep the boat from rolling side to side. It makes for interesting sleeping when one's body is being pushed back and forth.

We still have the main out to port and jib poled out to starboard. When the winds become too strong we roll in the jib until we have control again. When the winds lighten up we unroll the jib back out.

Part of our daily routine is in the morning run the generator for about 30 minutes to make up for battery power consumed during the previous evening. We then run the water maker during the day when the solar panels are getting some of nature's juice, along with a little help from the wind generator. The water maker makes about a gallon and a half of fresh water from sea water an hour, and this gives us plenty of fresh water for drinking, showers, cooking and washing dishes. We run this till about 5pm when the solar panels are no longer making any power.

After sunset we run the generator one last time for about another 30 minutes to make sure the batteries are topped off for that night's use. Sometimes it is shorter depending on how much power the wind/solar panels are putting out.

There are flying fish all over the place out here. Usually in the morning we can find a couple out on deck. The other night I stepped on one that had landed in the cockpit in the pitch black night. Nothing better then a flapping flying fish between the toes.

Last night I turned on the flashlight to go aft to change 'Haywire's' course that he was steering. As soon as I turned on the flashlight a flying fish flew straight into the light and smacked my hand, landing in the cockpit.

No traffic last 24 hours.

More in 24,
Tom and Amy

04-Jan-2008 Noon Update

2009-01-04T12:00:00.001Z

Atlantic Crossing Day #11
14'55.2N/46'40.3W
North Atlantic Ocean

137 nm last 24 hours!!
1258 nm from Cape Verde
768 nm to Barbados
Winds NE 15-20 Knots
Seas NE 3-4 feet, 8 foot NE Swell

138 nautical miles!!! Our best day since 2 November 2006 on our crossing to Australia. And that was an easy beam reach. Spirits are soaring here aboard 'Piper as we anxiously get closer every minute. I already have my first few days planned out: sit on beach, walk on beach, swim, and enjoy cold rum punch.

No traffic or fish to report except the flying fish that end up on deck, which when we are down below you can hear struggling to fly back off the deck. We are keeping ourselves busy with books, pod-casts, and movies. Looking like tonight should be another perfect night at sea.

Cheers,
Amy & Tom

Note from Ron: Tom and Amy just crossed over the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, The longest mountain range on earth, most of which is underwater.

03-Jan-2009 Noon Update

2009-01-03T12:00:00.001Z

Atlantic Crossing Day #10
15'15.3N/44'20.4W
North Atlantic Ocean

129 nm last 24 hours
1121 nm from Cape Verde
900 nm to Barbados
Winds NE 15-20 Knots
Seas NE 3-4ft, 8ft NE Swell

Another great 24-hour run and the trade winds keep blowing!! During the day the winds stay steady about 10-15 knots. But around midnight the last few nights the winds increase to 20 knots and we have small rain squalls pass over us. They are not like the 'Night Squalls' that we experienced in the South Pacific. Here there is just a slight increase in wind speed and the rain is very light.

It does get a bit rolley at night as the swells pick up. And we have to roll in most of the jib to keep the Piper under control since the winds are dead off the stern, causing us to surf down some of the larger swells. We still have the main out to port with a preventer and the jib poled out to starboard.

'Haywire' is doing a great job of steering, keeping us from jibing. It has only needed minor course adjustments.

Not only do we have the NE trade winds pushing us along, but we are in the North Equatorial Current which gives us a 0.5 to 1.5 knots push. This is the same current that enters the Caribbean, wraps around the west end of Cuba becoming the Gulf Stream. It then heads north to Florida's east coast, up the Atlantic seaboard, and across the Atlantic ocean, finally slamming into the northern British Isles.

Passed one ship after sunrise heading in the other direction off on the horizon. Very clear night last night before midnight with lots of stars dotting the sky. Then clouds and rain squalls.

More in 24,
Tom and Amy

02-Jan-2009 Noon Update

2009-01-02T12:00:00.005Z

Atlantic Crossing Day #9
15'22.7N/42'07.4W
North Atlantic Ocean

129 nm last 24 hours
993 nm from Cape Verde
1028 nm to Barbados
Winds NE 15-20 Knots
Seas NE 3-4 feet, 8 foot N Swell

Hump Day - Half Way Across!!

Another respectable run, making 129 nautical miles last 24-hours. This morning we were visited by three Pilot Whales swimming along Piper's, side checking her out. Even before we saw them we could hear them through the hull whistling to each.

Only one ship sited in the last 24 hours. In the early morning, our C.A.R.D (Collision Avoidance Radar Detector) started chirping away. And sure enough, a set of ships lights popped up over the horizon. But it never got closer then 6 miles from us.

Not much new to report. Just living the dream...

More in 24,
Tom and Amy

01-Jan-2009 Noon Update

2009-01-01T12:00:00.002Z

Atlantic Crossing Day #8
15'35.6N/39'54.2W
North Atlantic Ocean

122 nm last 24 hours
864 nm from Cape Verde
1158 nm to Barbados
Winds NE 15-20 Knots
Seas NE 3-4 feet, 8 foot N Swell

Happy New Year Everyone Around The World!!

The Trade Winds are honking and Sandpiper is starting off 2009 with a respectful 122 nautical mile run this last 24 hours. The winds picked up to 20 knots overnight off the stern, causing Sandpiper to get a little frisky. So we just kept out the main sail and rolled in the poled out jib till there was just a small bit of if catching some wind.

Our New Years Eve party consisted of pop-corn and cookies for dinner with some sangria on ice while watching the last episodes of the "Office - Season 2" that we got for Christmas. We hope that we did not miss to many parties last night and next year will be on terra firma.

No traffic last 24 hours. We think we might be the only people for hundreds of miles around out here.

Sailmail is giving us some issues that last couple of days being so far from their stations. If we drop off line for a few days, then no worries. We just couldn't connect.

More in 24,
Tom and Amy

31-Dec-2009 Noon Update

2008-12-31T12:00:00.001Z

Atlantic Crossing Day #7
15'52N/37'48W

North Atlantic Ocean

105 nm last 25 hours
742 nm from Cape Verde
1279 nm to Barbados
Winds NE 10-15 Knots
Seas NE 1-2 feet with long 8 foot N swell

The trade winds are holding and Sandpiper is sailing along nicely. 'Haywire' has the helm, the main and staysail are out to port and the jib is poled out to starboard. This is the first time that we have had all 3 sails out on a downwind run. We are hoping for an even better 24-hour run tomorrow because the winds have slightly increased, giving us an average of 5-6 knots.

We had a hard strike on our fishing lure yesterday and when we pulled it in found out that our lure was gone. Whatever took it must have been quite large because we do not use fishing poles. Instead, we drag heavy lines behind the boat with large steel leaders that are very strong. So another night without a fish dinner.

No traffic last 24-hours, and a nice clear sunny day with a moonless star-filled night.

This will be the first year ever that 'Team Sandpiper' is not shore-side for New Years Eve. We hope that everyone has a great New Year Eve, wherever you are!! We will be thinking of you all as the clock strikes midnight in all the time zones you are all scattered throughout. This time last year we were in Thailand lighting paper lanterns and sending them skywards in hopes that the pirates in the Gulf of Aden would not see us. It must have worked.

30-Dec-3008 Noon Position

2008-12-30T12:00:00.001Z

Atlantic Crossing Day #6
16'06N/36'00W

North Atlantic Ocean
98 nm last 25 hours

637 nm from Cape Verde

1384 nm to Barbados
Winds N 10-15 Knots

Seas N 1-2 feet

Slowwwwwww. We advanced our clocks ahead one hour as the sun is coming up later every morning. That is why we made 98 miles over 25 hours. The last 48 hours has given us some weird weather. A mild low pressure system passed over us during this time and the winds over the last 48 hours have very slowly veered from the normal NE trade wind to east, south, and then yesterday afternoon west. Since west is the way we are going, this put the wind right on our nose. As soon as the wind went dead ahead, we entered an area of mild rain squalls.

We decided to run the engine to keep making forward progress. And at the same time run the water maker and top off the batteries for a nice full charge. We took advantage while motoring to steer away from the heaviest rain squalls and we only passed thru 2 of them. Three hours later the winds kept veering around. As soon as we cleared the rain squalls in the center of the low pressure system, we had winds off the starboard bow and were sailing again.

This whole 48 hours the wind was light and we were lucky if we were making three knots at times. By sunrise the winds were off the starboard beam, and now they are back to the NE and increasing. A complete 360 in 48 hours!

We have been trying our luck trying to catch the 'Big Daddy Tuna' and got a hit from a small Dorado. This same fish is also called a Dolphin Fish, or Mahi Mahi. The Dorado is a really cool looking fish when caught, with bright green colors all over. But once they die all their color fades away. They also mate for life traveling, with their life partners. So if you are dragging two lures then most likely they will both bite at the same time.

As we hauled in our catch yesterday we saw we had a small Dorado with its mate right behind him/her. The other fish followed the one we hooked right to the edge of the boat and was looking up at us wondering what we were doing with its partner. We felt pretty bad looking down at this now lonely fish swimming alongside us. So we threw its partner back and called it a day. No fish for dinner.

One ship sighted last 24 hours off the stern at sunrise.

More in 24,
Tom and Amy

29-Dec-2008 Noon Position

2008-12-29T12:00:00.001Z

Atlantic Crossing Day #5
16'15.0N/34'19.1W

North Atlantic Ocean

83 nm last 24 hours
538 nm from Cape Verde
1482 nm to Barbados
Winds S-SW 10-15 Knots
Seas S 2-3 feet

As you can see our last 24 hour run was a slow one, but comfortable. It's actually been such a comfortable ride since leaving Cape Verde we have been eating a lot more than we usually do and the fridge is getting empty. Hope the wind picks up soon so we don't have to eat spaghetti for a week, although Tom would love that.

Nothing exciting to report for the last 24 hours. We did hook another fish but they are so small we feel bad keeping them. We passed a ship yesterday, read our books, and the last few evenings have ended with watching a few episodes of 'The Office' season 2.

More tomorrow.

Peace. Out,
Amy and Tom

28-Dec-2008 Noon Position

2008-12-28T23:17:00.003Z

Atlantic Crossing Day #4
16'16'9N/32'53.4W

North Atlantic Ocean

99 nm last 24 hours
456 nm from Cape Verde
1565 nm to Barbados
Winds E/NE 10 Knots
Seas NE 2-3 feet

The winds are pooping out at bit and our 24-hours runs are getting shorter. We have had 10 knots of wind for the last 24-hours, right off the stern, with the main sail out to port and the jib poled out to starboard.

Our 'Says Rig' wind vane (courtesy of Cap'n Chris on S/V Christa who we are expecting to reunite with very soon) has been doing all our steering. It gets a little testy in light winds. We have given it the name 'Haywire" because it looks a bit crazy and steers a little nutty at times.

When we use our electric autopilot, it steers a straight compass course using a digital compass. So if there is any change in the wind direction, the sail trim changes. It is also very easy to jibe because even the slightest change of wind on a downwind run will back wind the main sail.

However, when 'Haywire' steers it uses the wind direction to tell the boat which way to go. So the sail trim never changes. But if there is a change in the direction of the wind, and one does not occasionally look at the compass, it is very easy to go way off course without even knowing it.

Also, with 'Haywire' steering in light winds, Sandpiper does a sort of a long "S" pattern through the water. But when the wind picks up, it steers a somewhat straight course. Another thing with 'Haywire': We have to lean off the stern of the boat to change course, and with the electric we can change course at the helm with only the push of a button.

Being out here in the middle of the ocean where steering a straight course not as important as keeping the sail trim correct, we like using 'Haywire'. But near shore and near other boats, we switch to the electric autopilot.

We have been fishing for the last few days but we only keep catching a very small fish, 1-2 feet long, and looks like a Mahi Mahi/Dorado. They must be a smaller species out here in the eastern Atlantic. So far we have caught about 6 of them and thrown them all back as we are still hoping for the big daddy.

More in 24,
Tom and Amy

27-Dec-2008 Noon Position

2008-12-27T12:00:00.000Z

Atlantic Crossing Day #3
16'21.8N/31'10.8W
North Atlantic Ocean

116 nm last 24 hours
357 nm from Cape Verde
1664 nm to Barbados
Winds E 10-15
Seas NE 2-3 feet

The winds have dropped a bit today and veered to the east right off the stern giving us an average of 4 knots. Although we have slowed down, the ride is smoother as the swells have dropped down.

Another large pod of Pilot Whales spent several hours acting like they were porpoises, swimming alongside, checking out Sandpiper's bottom. They were followed later by a large school of porpoises jumping all around us. Some of the Pilot Whales were over 20 feet in length and would swim sideways as they passed to get a good look at us.

No traffic last 24 hours. We do not expect to see any shipping for the next few days until we get to the N/S shipping lanes connecting the East Coast of the U.S. to South Africa.

We are just a little south of where in February 1982 solo sailer Steven Callahan hit something in the middle of the night in his small sailboat. As his boat sank, he jumped into his life raft. He drifted along with the trade winds for the next 76 days, surviving on fish he could spear from the opening in his raft, and grabbed a few birds that decided to land within his grasp. He finally was rescued by fishermen off the island of Marie-Galante in the Caribbean. If you have not read his book 'Adrift', then go get it and as it makes for a great read about what happens when you have to take to a life raft before the era of 406MHz EPIRB's. We are hoping the Piper can make a faster passage then his life raft.

More in 24,
Amy and Tom

26-Dec-2008 Noon Position

2008-12-26T12:00:00.001Z

Atlantic Crossing Day #2 (2nd 24-hours)
16'30.3N/29'10.2W
North Atlantic Ocean

116 nm last 24 hours
241 nm from Cape Verde
1780 nm to Barbados
Winds NE 10-15
Seas NE 3-4 feet

Happy Boxing Day!!! Day 2, and we are still making above Sandpiper average speed. So moral is high. The ride is comfortable. The weather still a bit cold with overcast skies, but no rain.

Yesterday we busted out our 'Sensei' Christmas CD's and had a most memorable Christmas at sea.

We had one vessel on the horizon early this morning around 2am. And we had a pilot whale show this afternoon.

More tomorrow,
Amy and Tom

25-Dec-2008 Noon Position

2008-12-25T12:00:00.001Z

Atlantic Crossing Day #1 (First 24 hours)
North Atlantic Ocean

16'42.5N/27'09.7W

125 nm last 24 hours
125 nm from Cape Verde
1896 nm to Barbados
Winds NE 15-20
Seas NE 3-4 feet

Merry Christmas to all!! As you are chewing your way thru a large juicy piece of turkey and mashed potatoes Sandpiper is back on the move due west for the next 2000 miles without anywhere else to go.

It was tempting to stay in Cape Verde thru the Christmas holidays. But the weather was looking good and it was time to go.

We had a bit of drama a couple days ago in the anchorage. We stayed aboard because the winds were so strong outside that we did not want to venture out in the dingy. It had two different painters secured to Sandpipers stern. I poked my head outside into the cockpit, between rain showers, to check out the anchorage. While we were getting nailed by 40 knot bullets of wind and I looked astern to see our dingy floating upside down. The wind had picked it up like a kite and then dumped it over, throwing my flip-flops and the dingy paddles in the water to float away. Also, it was soaking the outboard engine. We got the dinghy righted and the outboard motor off in order to clean it out. After a dousing of carburetor cleaner it seemed to run OK. But we will not know until we start using again on the other side of the Atlantic.

We left the anchorage at noon yesterday after opening our Christmas presents. We got the 'Piper secured for sea and took one last shower without the boat rolling all over the place. The winds were immediately blowing 20-25 knots which had us sailing at 7 knots, until we got behind the islands where the wind was blocked. Just a short 30-minute motor and we were back in the trade winds with just the main and staysail out, giving us an average of 6 knots all night.

Only one large tanker sighted, and an overtaking sailboat in the last 24-hours. We are very happy with the exhaust cutoff valves on the generator and engine. We now longer have to run the engines to keep the water out of them.

Tom: Merry Christmas To All!
Amy: And To All, A Good Night

The Missing Tangier Report

2008-12-23T20:45:00.000Z

Merry Christmas everyone!! Sandpiper is scheduled to reluctantly leave Cape Verde tomorrow morning (Christmas Eve) and continue on our second and final attempt to make it to Barbados. Cape Verde has been a surprise on how much we like it here and we are finding it hard to pry ourselves away. Everyone is so nice here.

By popular reguest here is our Tangier report that we held off on reporting for obvious reasons. Hope nobody had their hopes up to high.

Happy Holidays!!!!!
Tom and Amy

Porto Grande, Mindelo, Cape Verde Islands

2008-12-20T12:07:00.006Z

Anchored at Porto Grande
Mindelo
Sao Vicente Island
Cape Verde
North Atlantic Atlantic
16’53.0N/24’59.6W

Cape Verde has been a pleasant surprise stop for us. With our anchor securely set after an exciting 8-day trip from Grand Canary we were quite happy to not be rockin’ and rollin’. We celebrated with a victory beer and hit the sheets hard. The next morning we assessed all broken systems, and thanks to Tom’s mad boat fixing skills, everything was back to new by early afternoon.

The day before arrival we were able to get the engine started while at sea. Sailing into an anchorage is not something we like doing. So if we could get her back up and running then it was going to be a major relief. We figured that the walls (20 feet) of water that kept smacking the hull of the boat is how we got water in the engine. Since this was the roughest trip we have ever had in 3.5 years, we had no way to prevent the seawater from entering. We drained the oil, let her dry out, gave her some new oil, and finally she started. How happy were we to hear that sound again.

Thanks to our shore side support and friend Tom, we were able to fix the generator too. It turns out a plug blew out because water entered the engine of her systems too. So when we ran it at sea, the water boiled, and boom!, the plug exploded. We actually found the plug in the bilge, and with a little glue we are making power again.

The last project was the autopilot. We took the motor off and tested it to see if it had seized up. The electric meter read it was receiving 12 volts. So we cleaned out the motor, loosened the belt, and fingers crossed this works. We aren’t really sure what happened with the autopilot and won’t know if it’s fixed until we get out there. As Captain Ron says, "If it’s going to happen, it’s going to happen out there."

It was a huge relief to us to be able to fix all systems ourselves as trying to lug boat parts to shore and find a mechanic is never something we enjoy. We did however invest in two cut-off valves for the engine and generator exhaust systems. So while underway we won’t have to worry about water entering the systems.

With all jobs completed, we hit the town. Our guidebook mentions town as being poor, dirty, with little to no resources. But our guidebook was way off. Town is bustling with music pumping out of the central market place and locals enjoying the Christmas shopping. ‘Club Nautico’ is where all the sailors hang out and share their salty stories. They occasional have live music too, and has been a daily pit stop for us.

The last few days we have met some really great locals and have enjoyed our visit. A lovely treat we had not planned to experience.

Our current plans are to try to check out this weekend and head west…

Amy and Tom

Mindelo, Cape Verde Islands

2008-12-16T00:44:00.003Z

It is 1130pm and we just set the hook at Porto Grande, Mindelo, Sao Vinente, Cape Verde Islands.

15-Dec-2008 Noon Position

2008-12-15T12:00:00.002Z

Atlantic Crossing Day #8
17'35.7N/24'21.5W
North Atlantic Ocean

125 nm last 24 hours (3 days in a row!)
832 nm from Grand Canary
56 nm to Cape Verde Islands
Winds NE 15-20 knots
Seas NE 6-8 feet

Ahhh, the sweet sound of a 38hp Volvo Penta.

After another extreme evening and one more large wave coming into the cockpit, the weather has finally taken a break. It is giving us perfect trade wind sailing conditions, right off the stern.

This morning was another flurry of activity as we needed to make sure we could get the engine started today. Otherwise we were looking at having to sail into the anchorage at Cape Verde. Yesterday I had let the engine dry out the last 24 hours and changed the oil/filter. And I left the exhaust open to air out. This morning I bolted everything back together and we both crossed our fingers. The engine just kept turning over and not starting. We would let it sit, then try again. No luck.

I was starting to get worried about the engine's starting battery getting low. The engine was turning over slower and slower. So thanks to a battery combination switch I installed when rewiring Sandpiper, I was able to connect all the boats batteries together. After about 10 more minutes with no luck things were looking grim. I was thinking I was going to have to pull out the injectors to dry out the cylinders. This is a very labor intensive job and not exactly something I want to do when the boat is rolling all over.

We gave it one last shot, then it began to want to start. With much great excitement it started to try to catch, then finally it started. A bit rough at first, then purring along like nothing ever happened. We let it run for about 10 minutes and then shit it down. I went back down in the engine room and changed the oil one more time and cleaned out the filter. After that she started right up to us dancing in the cockpit. We let it run for the next hour to let the engine oil warm up and to charge the starting battery back up. Everything is looking normal again.

We are keeping the exhaust hose disconnected until we need to start the engine in order to prevent this from happening again. Hopefully, in Cape Verde, we can find some cut-off valves in a hardware store to install on both the engine and generator exhausts.

I still haven't tackled the generator, but will try while we are anchored.

What a difference 24 hours makes. We are on a nice sail, the sun is out, dragging a fishing line and hoping to drop the anchor at 10pm tonight. The harbor well marked and we have detailed electronic charts to the anchorage. So we are feeling pretty confidant in doing a night approach. If things so not look right then we will slow down and wait for the moon to come up at 2230h to give us a little light.

Today is a huge contrast from the last week and we are looking forward to being at anchor for a good night's sleep. The beers are in the fridge chilling as I type.

One last note: Our sailmail connection is really slow and we are limited to 10 minutes a day. Please hold off emailing us till things get better as we are expecting emails about boat parts/weather and cannot get to them as our inbox is so full. Especially do not send anything other the personnel text emails only. No forwarded emails as they jam up the whole system!

More later from the calm anchorage in Cape Verde.
Tom and Amy

14-Dec-2008 Noon Position

2008-12-14T12:00:00.003Z

Atlantic Crossing Day #7
19'33.2N/23'36.0W
North Atlantic Ocean

125 nm last 24 hours
707 nm from Grand Canary
177 nm to Cape Verde Islands
Winds NE 25-30 knots
Seas NE 8-15 feet, with 20 foot swells (Yikes!)

Through a series of errors on my part, the last 24 hours have been quite trying. When we began this trip I wrote that the generator had blew a plug out, and that it had poured oil out and all over the engine room. Thanks to neighbor Tom in Oakland (he used to be our next door boat neighbor there) for getting right on this and coming up with a probable prognoses. We think that due to Sandpiper's excessive side to side rolling and wave slaps on the side, that sea water came in thru the exhaust duct and into the engine.

I was running the motor in order to prevent this event from happening. I always run the boat's engine and the generator at least once every 24 hours to blow out any water that has entered the exhaust. We have had problems in the past when we just let everything sit until we needed it. On long sailing passages this can be weeks.

Anyway we think water got into the generator's engine. When the motor was running it heated up. The water trapped in the crankcase turned in to steam and blew out the plug in the side, along with all the oil. This would also explain why all the oil blew out instead of leaking out.

Although we have not run it since the accident, we think it will be OK to run after I find a way to seal up the hole where the plug used to be, and put some new oil in.

So yesterday I decided that since we were so far out at sea that I would scrub out the bilges. Even though Sandpiper was rolling all over the place and getting knocked around, I wanted to have this done before we pull into Cape Verde. That way I would not have to pump the bilges while in an anchorage. I took the sea water intake hose off the generator and put it in the bilge. Then I opened the through-hull value to let sea water run through the engine room's bilge. It is then pumped out by the bilge pump that is located forward amidships where Sandpiper's bilge is the deepest. I went up to the cockpit where I could watch the bilge pump indicator light to see when it was pumping.

It seemed to take a long time to switch on, and then wouldn't pump very long. So after a few minutes I went back in the engine room to see what was going on. The water level in the bilge was up to the bottom of the engine! And with every roll that Sandpiper took, thick oily water was sloshing all over the place, covering even more of the engine room with oil. It was making an even a larger mess, and not to mention that it was freaking me out as the water was right at the level of the engine.

I quickly shut off the through-hull value and went forward and pulled off the deck plate that covers the bilge pump. There was very little water there, and the pump would pump a few sips of water every once and a while. Back in the engine room the water was still at the same level, making more of a mess with every wave that hit us. I could not figure out why the water was not traveling forward. The engine room's bilge is under the engine and there is no way to see the bottom of the bilge.

I started thinking that maybe we had loaded up with so much beer, water, fuel, and other stuff before we departed, most of which is stored under the cockpit seats and nothing in the bow, that maybe the stern was sitting so low that the water in the bilge water would only flow aft. I was getting a bit concerned as the thought of taking on any more water into the boat, aft of the galley, would only collect in the engine room and not flow forward to the bilge pump.

So my plan was to wait it out and see if after a while the level would get lower. The more water that was pumped by the bilge pump would cause Sandpiper to sit down by the bow, thereby forcing more water forward. By midnight the level in the engine room had not changed. So the only thing I could figure was that we had too much weight aft. So I started moving all our bottled water, beer, and whatever else was heavy forward to in order to weight down the bow. I even stood in the head for awhile, hoping the added weight would get the water in the bilge to the pump out.

Amy woke up and asked me what I was doing. I said "Come stand in the head with me for a bit." An hour, later nothing had changed. So I decided to wait until daylight to figure out what to do.

Come sunrise I went to start the engine to make sure it was clear of water in its exhaust. I was too late. It would barely turn over. After a few minutes it would start to turn over, but no matter how long I tried, it would not start. So I pulled off the exhaust hose from the engine and water came pouring out. It had poured right into the engine.

I think between all of the water in the bilge, and all the waves smacking the port side of the hull last night, they drove this water right into the engine. I spent all morning pulling off the exhaust system. I changed the oil and filter. And am now letting the engine dry out. I am pretty confidant it will start up now. But want to let everything dry out in the cylinders. So I will try again in the morning. If it doesn't start, then it will make for a very interesting entrance to the anchorage tomorrow night.

After that fiasco I decided to battle the bilge water again as it was still at the same level. So I emptied out all the contents stowed below the galley sink where the bilge is located, just forward of the engine room. There was only a small amount of water, which made no sense because the other side of the bulkhead was totally full. So I stuck a shish kebab stick through the bottom of the bilge where it joins the engine room and found it was totally plugged up

With one more stab of the stick, water came gushing forward with much joy right in to the bilge pump and out over the side. I am not sure how much water was back there. But I am sure that it was weighing down our stern. And it is probably is what caused both the generator and engine to get water in their exhaust systems.

I had always thought about installing cut-off valves on the exhaust hoses. But I have been very reluctant to install them as serious damage to the engines can occur if they are started with these valves closed. But in hindsight, I now will install them as soon as I can find a shop that has them. Anyway, that's my rant for this trip.

The weather the last 24-hours is still a 'bit' extreme, with winds blowing a steady 25 knot and gusting higher when a squall blows over. Most the waves rolling under us are in the 8-10 foot range, giving us a not-to-bad ride because we are moving along pretty fast. We are doing 5 to 7 knots with a double reefed main and staysail out to port. 5 to 7 knots is pretty fast considering we have so little sail out.

Occasionally a set of huge swells that are at least 20 feet in height come rolling under. But they are quite wide and just pick us up really high. Today, while Amy and I were both standing in the galley, we got hit by a wave. The hardest we have ever been smacked. It hit so hard on the port side that water shot straight through the bolt holes that go through the hull to bolt the porthole to the hull. These holes are completely sealed. I know, I installed them myself. I can only figure we were hit so hard that the water didn't care where the sealant was. It just pushed it aside.

Our plans are to keep plugging along to Cape Verde, expecting to make anchorage sometime after 10pm. The harbor is reported to be well lit and we have detailed charts. So we will be making a rare night approach to anchor. Lets hope tomorrow is drama free.

One note: If you have written us an email, and you have not heard back, it is because we have a whole bunch of emails in our in box that I cannot download due to sailmails slow connections. Please hold off on emailing us unless we write that we are in an area that has a better connection.

More hopefully from a calm anchorage,
Tom and Amy

13-Dec-2008 Noon Position

2008-12-13T12:00:00.001Z

Atlantic Crossing Day #6
21'37.0N/23'01.9W

North Atlantic Ocean

125 nm last 24 hours
582 nm from Grand Canary
303 nm to Cape Verde Islands
Winds NE 25-30 knots
Seas NE 10-15 feet

Insane Weather...

Sandpiper 'and crew' went for a wild ride last night when the winds went up to 30 knots, then up to 40, and held!! Not much fun as all we can really do except to hold on. It took two of us to make sandwiches, trying to hold on to all the fixings so everything didn't fly around in the cabin. We did have a pot of broccoli dump upside down on the floor. And I had a cup of hot chocolate mix in a cup flip upside down all over the galley counter before I could get the water into the cup.

As you can see we are no longer headed to Barbados. We are now are heading due south for the Cape Verde Islands. There are several reasons for this. One is the weather for the last 24 hours. Today the winds have come down to 25 knots. But there are still some very large swells leftover from last night, with a few breaking against us.

Another reason is that there are diesel mechanics at the harbor at Cape Verde and I would like to see if I can get the generator fixed there. if I have to hire a mechanic, it might be cheaper there rather then in the Caribbean. And I would rather have a backup power system incase the engine fails on our crossing.

Another reason to stop happened today. The electric autopilot took a dump while trying to steer us through all this nutty weather. I think we either blew a fuse, or something is making the drive motor not engage. Not to worry though as we have our Says Rig wind vane courtesy of S/V Christa mounted on Piper's stern doing all the steering for us. It only works when we are sailing. And I have to lean off the back of the boat to change course. But it is steering like a champ through all these large swells.

We are looking forward to stopping for a few days just to pick up everything that has flown around the boat and try to fix the mentioned projects before we take off again. We still have 303 miles to go and anticipate being there the day after tomorrow.

One ship sighted yesterday afternoon smashing thru the huge swells northbound, some going right over his bow.

Hoping for calmer seas,
Tom and Amy

12-Dec-2008 Noon Position

2008-12-12T12:00:00.001Z

Atlantic Crossing Day #5
23'22.8N/21'48.8W
North Atlantic Ocean

116 nm last 24 hours
457 nm from Grand Canary
2235 nm to Barbados
Winds NE 15-25 knots
Seas NE 6-8 feet

The winds are honking! We have had another 24-hour run straight downwind to the SW and are still rolling all over the place. Still running with a double reefed main with a preventer out to starboard, and a hanky size part of the jib poled out to port. We are now confidant that we are in the NE trade winds and will spend one more 24-hour run to ensure that we are well within the trade wind belt before we swing west.

The problem with the broken generator has not been a problem as of yet. Between the wind generator and solar panels, Sandpiper has been getting plenty of nature's juice. We have been turning off the refrigeration at night and not using the laptop for charting, which have made a big difference in our power consumption.

We are back to using our Palm Navman for our electronic charting. We have not used it since crossing the South Pacific because it did not have the charts we needed. But now that we are getting back to this side of the world, we are back in business.

Normally we leave the laptop powered on for our electronic C-Map world charting program. But leaving this on uses a bit of power. The Navman is just a Palm Pilot with a GPS antenna attached that uses Maptech Charts. I like this setup because on long passages it mounts in the cockpit and shows our position along our track line along with course and speed. And it hardly uses any power at all.

No traffic last 24-hours.

More in 24,
Tom and Amy

11-Dec-2008 Noon Position

2008-12-11T12:00:00.001Z

Atlantic Crossing Day #4
24'.46.2N/20'20.4W
North Atlantic Ocean

124 nm last 24 hours
341 nm from Grand Canary
2328 nm to Barbados
Winds NE 15-25 knots
Seas NE 6-8 feet

A great 24hr run for the Piper! We are happy whenever we can make 100 mile days, and everything over that is gravy. The winds have picked up this morning. We now have the main down to a double reef out to starboard, and just a hanky piece of the jib poled out to port. We could put out more sail and make 6-7 knots. But the ride is very rolly, and there is a greater possibility of jibeing the main as we surf off a wave. We are averaging 4-5 knots right now with the wind right off the stern.

Only one ship sighted last 24 hours. It passed one mile off our stern on Amy's watch in the early morning.

A big thanks to everyone that emailed us to wish us well on this passage! If you are new to this site, we can email at sea using SailMail. We run the Sailmail software in our laptop. Th laptop connects to a modem, that is attached to our SSB Marine/Ham radio. We have to find a Sailmail antenna near us to make a connection, and the nearest one is in Belgium (in Europe). The next closest one is in Trinidad (Caribbean). Right now Sandpiper is right between them at over 2000 miles away. Sailmail works better the closer we are to a station. So this means that we might have connection problems until we get closer to Trinidad.

Why did I just explain all this? Just wanted to thank everyone that wrote to us here on the blog because we will not be able to write back until we are getting a better connection. Then we can send multiple emails.

Also, if this blog is not updated every day, then not to worry. It just means we are still sailing along, but cannot connect to Sailmail to broadcast an update.

More in 24,
Tom and Amy

10-Dec-2008 Noon Position

2008-12-10T12:00:00.002Z

Atlantic Crossing Day #3
26'04.8N/18'34.2W
North Atlantic Ocean

119 nm last 24 hours
217 nm from Grand Canary
2437 nm to Barbados
Winds NE 15-25 knots
Seas NE 6-8 feet

Rock and Roll!! We still have the winds right off the stern. We have been having gusts to 25 knots giving us a wild ride, rolling all over.

It is still cold here and we are hoping to get warmer soon. We are in pants, 2 shirts, sweatshirts, and jackets.

Just a few ships overnight, and two large fishing boats passing us. We did have a Spanish Search and Rescue plane buzz over us yesterday then headed off over the horizon.

A bit of drama today. The Ample Power DC Genset we bought new before departing The States has self destructed yet again. This has given us more issues then any other item on the 'Piper. This is the second ocean crossing where this has happened. This time all the bearings that hold the hand crank opposite the flywheel vanished, causing oil to spray yet again all over the engine room. If you are every considering purchasing anything from Ample Power, then think again.

We are looking at our options on what to do. So far the piper is not drawing much power sailing along. If for the next 5 days things stay charged, and we top off the batteries with the engine, then we should be golden. If so, then we will keep on going. If it looks like we are going to be having power issues, then we will pull into the Cape Verde Islands to try to repair this. We would feel more confidant having the genset running in case we have any issues with the engine on the crossing.

Better go, as the more I type, the more juice we are sucking off the batteries.

More in 24,
Tom and Amy

09-Dec-2008 Noon Position

2008-12-09T12:00:00.001Z

Atlantic Crossing Day #1
26'58.0N/16'35.7W
North Atlantic Ocean

98 nm last 24 hours
98 nm from Grand Canary
2551 nm to Barbados
Winds NE 15-20 knots
Seas NE 3-4 feet

Sailing in Christopher Columbus' wake...

After one last shower, saying goodbye to our dock neighbors, filling Sandpiper's water and fuel tanks to the brim, and paying our marina fees, we departed Grand Canary Island at noon yesterday. Once clear of the harbor we popped up the sails and have been on a downwind run ever since. Right now the main sail is secured with a preventer out to port, and 'Big Pole' is holding the jib out to starboard, giving us and average of 5 knots.

This crossing will be Sandpiper's second longest passage since we left in 2005. And we are copying Cap'n Columbus' crossing strategy from 1492. All four of his voyages for the "New World" left from Grand Canary Island. His two fastest passages were only 21 days. We can only hope to do as well.

Our current plans are to sail southwest from our present position until we are 300 miles northeast of the Cape Verde Islands. There we should find the winter trade winds which should be forming as we arrive. Once we get to the latitude of Barbados (13.0°N) we will hang a right and run due west right down the line of latitude for Barbados.

No fishing reports till we eat a hole in the freezer big enough to stuff a fish in.

More in 24!!
Tom and Amy

Las Palmas, Grand Canary Island (Farewell Europe!)

2008-12-08T00:08:00.007Z

Med moored at the Las Palmas Municipal Marina
Grand Canary Island
Canary Islands
North Atlantic Ocean.
28'07'9N/15'25.5W

It is official. We are leaving tomorrow, Monday, for our Atlantic crossing. The past few weeks we have been patiently waiting for a package of goodies from home. You may have noticed our Mylo fund on the blog. Thanks to our awesome followers, and my creative writing skills for Latitudes and Attitudes Magazine, we achieved our goal and purchased our latest gadget. We are still trying to figure out all the features, but so far so good. Thanks to everyone, especially my mom, Pat, for all her help.

Sandpiper is fully loaded with lots of food, water, beer, and wine. Tomorrow we will top off the fuel tanks. Since being in the city marina the last few weeks we have been able to check off a few jobs as well. It is quite funny when we think about how we prepared so much and for so many months for our Pacific crossing. If you recall we attended meetings months before departure. We traded paper charts, provisioned like it was the end of the world, and had endless discussions with many sailors about what to expect. I guess all these years on the boat we are finally comfortable, have a routine down, and just going for it.

The crossing should take us 28 days. It’s a long time to be on a small boat. But we have plenty of books, music, podcasts, and movies (thanks Ron!). While out we will celebrate Tom’s Birthday, Christmas, and New Years. So I’m hoping the days just fly by.

It looks like we will have good winds for the next few days. So we hope to put the miles behind us. We look forward to hearing from everyone through our Sailmail to help pass the days.

Happy Holidays to all!

More from the Atlantic

One Love,
Amy and Tom

Note From Ron: Amy and Tom failed to mention where they are going. Barbados, in the Lesser Antilles!

Media Page

2008-11-29T01:26:00.008Z

Here is a collection of media page about S/V Sandpiper.

"Current Magazine" - Carmel, Indiana (Aug 2008)
"Latitudes & Attitudes" [PDF] - USA (Oct 2008). A profile of the S/V Sandpiper on pages 44-47.
"The Porthole" - Presidio Yacht Club, Marin, California (Nov-Dec 2006)
"The Porthole" - Presidio Yacht Club, Marin, California (Mar 2007)
"The Porthole" - Presidio Yacht Club, Marin, California (May 2008)
"Latitude 38" - (Sep-2005) Baja Ha-Ha Profiles: Cover and Article.
"Latitude 38" - (Mar-2007) "Changes: Tonga is a breath of fresh air": Cover, article page 1, page 2, page 3.

You can also click on the tag "Media" to find all media posts.

Las Palmas, Grand Canary Island

2008-11-26T13:56:00.004Z

Med moored at the Las Palmas Municipal Marina
Grand Canary Island
Canary Islands
North Atlantic Ocean.
28'07'9N/15'25.5W

Happy Thanksgiving America! Here on Sandpiper we have our own dead bird of sorts to celebrate Thanksgiving with. While cleaning out Sandpiper's bow stowage area today Amy found our little 'feathered friend'. If you have been following us then you will remember that after leaving Malta for Gibraltar, during my 'mellow' morning watch, I was shaken by Amy screaming that there was a fire below. When I ran down the ladder there was a bird flying straight at my head. Due to my hearing loss, somehow what I heard was "Fire" what she had said was "BIRD".

Well anyway, we thought he had flown away after a couple attempts to get back inside Sandpiper. Today Amy found out that he was successful. Said bird had flown back down the forward hatch into Sandpiper's forward storage area and committed Hari Kari after deciding that he had enough flying around the ocean looking for land. Needless to say, he had been up there awhile in an area that we rarely access and was in less then stellar shape.

Last week Sandpiper left Lanzarote Island and all the naked Europeans at noon for a 90 mile overnight sail to Grand Canary Island to where Sandpiper is presently moored. An hour after leaving the anchorage we caught our mandatory Bonito, which as usual, we threw back. Then the winds picked up, giving us a nice beam reach sail. This lasted till 2am when the winds blew out and forced us to motor the rest of the way to Grand Canary Island.

We arrived just after sunrise to the harbor entrance to Las Palmas. Once inside the very large shipping port we found a crowded anchorage and dropped the hook. Las Palmas is a much larger city then we had imagined. It has a huge port with several marinas. There is just about every American corporate business here along with several huge shopping centers. There is a huge Carrefour grocery store with 'Roller Girls', customer service girls skating up and down the isles. There are several McDonalds and Burger Kings in town to get our junk food fix as well. The best thing about McDonald's in Spain is that you can have a beer with your Big Mac!

The anchorage is very protected and right off a beach where you can land a dingy and can be downtown in seconds. We spent several days at anchor waiting for the Atlantic Crossing Rally with their 200+ boats to leave on Sunday. The ARC Rally is a huge annual event where hundreds of fancy/expensive boats all gather here in Grand Canary and depart on their Atlantic crossings together. Some are racing, and others are just along for the ride. This event costs thousands of dollars to join. For 'Team Sandpiper' and every other boat we know, found no reason to join this rally.

It was fun the night before going out to the 'Sailors Bar' in the marina and seeing everyone new to cruising wearing all their brand new foul weather gear on (nice sunny day). All of us non-rally cruisers, wearing their dirty shorts and flip flops, where all drinking beer together. The rally members were celebrating their last night ashore. And us cruisers were waiting for them to leave so we could bring our boats into the marina.

Early Sunday morning we dinghied ashore and walked out to the harbor entrance to watch all the ARC Rally boats pass by as they left the harbor in matching outfits and nice shiny boats. There were thousands of people out along the shoreline to watch the start, and many boats just out in the harbor to watch the start. And just like that, all 200+ boats were gone, all heading west for St. Lucia in the Caribbean.

Since Sunday, once the marina was clear of all the ARC rally boats, cruising boats have been showing up from all over the place. Now the marina is filled up once again, but this time with much less shiny boats.

We pulled Sandpiper from her anchorage to her slip here in the marina where we plan on staying until Monday morning where we might be possibly leave the Canaries ourselves to the Caribbean. Sandpiper is pretty much ready to go, with only a few minor projects left to complete. And we need to load up the Piper with enough beer and wine to get us to warmer latitudes.

More before we go,
Tom and Amy

Naked Frisbee at Playa De Las Mujeres

2008-11-19T18:44:00.003Z

Anchored Playa De Las Mujeres
Lanzarote Island
Canary Islands
North Atlantic.
28'50.8N/13'47.5W

Naked Frisbee! That's right. Just off of Sandpiper's stern are hundreds of naked Europeans laying out on the beach, and 2 very overweight naked men running around playing Frisbee. It could be worse, at least they are not playing leap frog.

As attractive as a beach full of naked people sounds, the reality is somewhat less then attractive. I am not sure why, but on any other beach in the world, everyone lays around on their towels soaking up the sun. But on the naked beach behind us, everyone (mostly overweight men) just walks around with their hands on their hips. And every few steps, they stop, spread their legs, and starts up a chat with the next naked person they see.

We left Rubicon Marina after Amy walked into town to get groceries for the next week. We then motored a short one mile east to where we are currently anchored among 10 other boats. All the sailboats here in the Canaries are getting ready to cross the Atlantic. We are among many European boats that are just setting out on their cruising adventures. There are a very few that have come as far as the 'Piper, some of whom we have encountered in different ports the last 3 years. After all this time, we are anchored right next to each other.

Next to us is S/V Ohana Kai and S/V Moorea that we left Mexico with. Out of all the boats that left Mexico in 2006, only 3 boats that have come this far.

One reason that we are all anchored here is because the normal port for boats crossing the Atlantic to depart from at Grand Canary Island. Right now there are over 200 boats anchored over there getting ready to start their Atlantic crossing (The ARC Rally) this Sunday. So any boat not in the ARC Rally is killing time here at this island until this weekend when the Grand Canary Island anchorage clears out.

We have been part of several rallies in the past. But this one makes no sense. It costs thousands of dollars to join, and one receives very little in return. Most of the boats in the rally are from the UK and are quite large.

Sandpiper's current plans are to hang out at naked beach until tomorrow, and then head out for a 90 mile over night sail to Grand Canary Island to watch the ARC Rally depart. Then we plan to take one of their spots in the anchorage.

More later from our next stop,
Tom and Amy

Lanzarote Island, Canary Islands

2008-11-17T01:15:00.003Z

Moored at Rubicon Marina

Playa Blanca

Lanzarote Island

Canary Islands

North Atlantic Ocean
28'51.4N/13'49'0W

Sandpiper pulled up the hook and sailed south 30 miles to where we are moored at Rubicon Marina on the southern end of Lanzarote Island. It was a bit of an extreme sail as the winds were blowing 25 knots all along Lanzarote Island which is covered with lava. In fact, all the islands are. It was a bit unnerving to be sailing for 30 miles along jagged lava cliffs, and being only 1/2-mile away with large ocean swells smashing against them and winds wanting to push us towards shore.

We did not have much information about Playa Blanca other then an old guide book that made us believe that there was just a small anchorage with a small town. To our surprise we arrived in a new booming tourist development full of pasty white European tourists, most naked, laying all along the shoreline. Most of Playa Blanca has been built within the last 5 years, along with the ritzy Marina Rubicon that Sandpiper is moored in.

There is not much of an anchorage in Playa Blanca. So we decided to pull into Rubicon Marina to catch up on laundry and other boat projects as this might be Sandpipers last marina for a very long time.

We were also able to meet up with some other American boats. There is Don and Anne from "Redwood Coast" that we had met in Malaysia, and who helped us to fill our propane tanks in Gibraltar. Also, there is Veutus and Tracy from "Sunshine Daydream" who have hosted us on their boat twice since meeting them last week. However, after I brought the Tequilla the last time to their boat, it may be awhile before we hang with them again.

More if it happens,
Tom and Amy

Playa Francesa, Los Graciosa Island, Canary Islands

2008-11-13T00:13:00.003Z

Anchored at Playa Francesa
La Graciosa Island
Canary Islands
North Atlantic Ocean
29'13.0N/13'31.7W

Sandpiper has her hook buried deep in the sands on the southern end of La Graciosa Island, our first stop in the Canary Islands. We were not sure if we should heave to and await sunrise to make our approach to this anchorage. But the moon being so bright, and having confidence in our electronic charts, we decided to make one or our very rare night approaches to anchor. The moon has been so bright that its almost like being out in the middle of the day. When out on deck there is no need for a flashlight.

Once we got the hook set at 4am we cracked a cold beer then fell asleep for the remainder of the day. We awoke to find two other American boats anchored next to us that we had met in Gibraltar.

We are quite lucky to be here as once we arrived the winds have picked up and are blowing 30 knots offshore. Once again our weather planning has paid off and the 3 week wait in the in the Straits of Gibraltar has made this last ocean transit uneventful.

Today we pumped up Sandpipers dingy and went ashore for a bit of exploring. La Gracisoa Island is a small island that is all sand with several volcanic hills. It has one small town (Caleta de Sebo) that tourists come to visit on the daily ferry that pulls into the small harbor here. There is not much to see other then lots of sand, and the very small town that loses its population once the ferry leaves.

Sandpiper's plans are to leave tomorrow for a 30 mile trip to the southern end of Lanzarote Island where we plan to stay for a few days and rent a car for a bit of exploration if possible.

More soon,
Tom and Amy

Canary Islands

2008-11-12T18:31:00.002Z

The captain has decided full speed ahead. So out with all the sails, bring on the wind, we are pulling in tonight.

Hook is set at 4am!!

11-Nov-2008 Noon Position

2008-11-11T12:00:00.000Z

Noon Position
North Atlantic

29'58.2N/12'44.4W

90 nm last 24hrs!!
509 nm from Tangier
59 nm to Canary Islands
Winds E 5 knots
Seas FAC calm
1 fish caught, 1 fish lost

36 miles to go! It is currently 8pm here on the Sandpiper and we just finished dinner and a chick flick in the cockpit. We are smoothly sailing along at 3-4 knots, a flat sea and a large bright moon guiding our way. Overall this passage has been a lot better than we were anticipating, which is always good. It definitely paid to take our time and watch the weather carefully before leaving the Straits of Gibraltar.

We could have arrived last night if we powered thru with the engine. But we are not in any great hurry and it has been a nice, comfortable ride. I do however look forward to a hot shower, Canary Islands sunshine, and a laundromat. Washing clothes in a bucket with a plunger just doesn't do it for me. I just feel they aren't really clean.

Once we arrive at our first island we may hang for a few days and explore. We are looking forward to liberty.

Sandpiper clear,
Amy

10-Nov-2008 Noon Update

2008-11-10T12:00:00.000Z

North Atlantic Ocean
31'05.4N/11'36.1W

116 nm last 24hrs!!
419 nm from Tangier
150 nm to Canary Islands
Winds calm
Seas FAC mirror calm
zero fish caught

No wind at all, Booooooo...The winds blew yesterday 10-15 knots right off the stern till about 4am this morning when all the wind just went away. We have been motoring at low rpm's since, giving us an average of 4 knots and we have 150 miles to the Canary Islands so this mean that unless the winds really start cracking that we will not be able to make port tomorrow. The winds are forecasted to stay light. Unless there is a change, we might be under motor until we get the hook dropped.

Just a few ship sightings last 24 hours. We overheard 'SV Sunshine and Daydreams' on VHF this morning. We do not know this boat, but talked to them for a few minutes. They are 40 miles ahead of us and a U.S. boat, from Chicago, that are on their way to the Canaries to get ready to cross the Atlantic as well. Just about any boat crossing the Atlantic this year is heading to, or already is in, the Canary Islands getting ready to cross. The best time to leave for the Caribbean is late November to early January when the trade winds blow the strongest and there is the lowest chance of hitting any storms.

Once again our Ipod has decided not to work and has cut into our nightly entertainment schedule.

More in 24!!
Tom and Amy

09-Nov-2008 Noon Update

2008-11-09T12:00:00.001Z

Noon Position
North Atlantic Ocean
32'30.4N/19'03.8W

130 nm last 24hrs!!
303 nm from Tangier
266 nm to Canary Islands
Winds NE 15-20 knots
Seas NE 6-8 ft
1 fish caught/lost

'ALL HAIL BIG POLE' . Thanks to Sandpiper's beefy jib pole that we traded a case of beer for back in Australia. It has been poled out the last 24 hours and a 15-20 knot tailwind we have made one of our best 24-hours runs. Last time we made this many miles in 24 hours was 28-Feb-2008 on our transit across the Indian Ocean, Sri Lanka to the Maldives. Just as forecasted, the winds yesterday started increasing from the NE, right behind Sandpiper's stern gusting up to 25 knots at times. This gave us 6-7 knots average and is just what the 'Piper likes. With the swells coming straight behind us, and the main and jib being out wing-on-wing, it is a bit rolly. But we are enjoying the speed.

Still lots of ships heading N/S all around us. And small Moroccan long-line fishing boats that for some reason we only seem to see at night. All day yesterday we kept passing long-line fishing markers, but never saw any boats. Then at 11pm I hear a motor right off our side and see a 20 foot open boat powered by a single outboard go buzzing by 50 feet away down our port side. I never saw them until then as they had no lights on their boat. But as they passed they flashed us with a flashlight, so I flashed them back with ours. They were a couple hundred yards from one end of one of their long lines and think they were just zipping by us to say hello. I freaked for a second seeing 2 guys in a boat right next to us in the middle of the night. But we were only 30 miles offshore with a strong wind/sea pumping. We are always amazed when off 3rd world countries how far offshore their fishermen go out in very small boats only powered by a small outboard, I can only imagine how many of them never make it back.

We did hook a fish today. Once we had it along side it spit out the hook. Even with out fish books we never did figure out what it was. It had a body like a tuna, but was kind of brown in color. Any suggestions??

Winds are predicted to hold for the next 24 hours then start lighting up tomorrow afternoon.

More in 24!!
Tom and Amy

08-Nov-2008 Noon Update

2008-11-08T12:00:00.001Z

North Atlantic Ocean

34'05.6N/8'18.3W

77 nm last 24 hours
173 nm from Tangier
395 nm to Canary Islands
Winds NE 5-10 knots
Seas NE 1 foot
Zero fish last 24 hours

The winds remained calm yesterday just as the weather forecasters had predicted. Also, as predicted, after sunset the winds very slowly started clocking around from west to east putting the wind right off Sandpiper's stern at midnight.

We had been motoring all afternoon as what wind there was more like a puffy breeze making it impossible to sail at more then half a knot. So we motored till midnight at low RPMs, and when the winds picked up enough to fill the sails we killed the engine giving us an average of 2 knots of speed. All morning the winds have been filling in and by noon Sandpiper was averaging 4 knots straight downwind with the main out to starboard and the jib poled out to port. The weather GRIB's are predicting that these winds should hold for the next 48 hours. If we are lucky then we should have a couple days of straight downwind sailing on a mellow sea.

We have been fishing since leaving Morocco and only fish caught so far are 2 large Bonito that we threw back. We are hoping for a nice fat tuna. Sandpiper seems to have the 'curse of the Bonito' since we have never caught a tuna. Just lots of Bonito that we have never acquired a taste for.

No other sailboats in sight last 24 hours with N/S bound shipping passing occasionally.

07-Nov-2008 Noon Update

2008-11-07T12:00:00.001Z

North Atlantic Ocean

34'57.3N/7'09.9W

86 nm since leaving Tangier 11am yesterday
472 nm to the Canary Islands
Winds FAC
Flat Calm Seas, Mirror Smooth

As mentioned in our last entry, our stop for Tangier will not be posted for one month from now for obvious reasons once you read it. So stay tuned...

We cleared out with Moroccan police and customs by 11am yesterday after a very lengthy search of the port for the customs officer. When we cleared into Morocco at Tangier the harbor police took our passports and our boat documentation and issued us shore passes. To leave we went to the harbor police, who gave us back our stuff when we returned our shore passes. Next was a lengthy walk through the shipping terminal to find the customs officer to stamp us out. When we cleared in to Morocco, the Customs Officer came to the boat and told us to walk to his office in the port when we were ready to leave, and that it was easy to find.

I walked past hundreds of trucks that were lined up to be loaded on a ferry headed to Spain. I asked all of the police officers there where the Customs office was. None of the police officers spoke English. So I showed them my Customs form asking where the office was. Many men started shouting to each other in Arabic and then one told me to follow him thru the port.

Along the way he talked to about 50 other Customs officers, all shouting loudly in Arabic and waving their arms, pointing in different directions after looking at our customs form. After an hour long walk throughout the port, I was told to go back to the front gate and check there. So off I went.

Of course the office at the main gate was closed. At this point I was ready to leave Morocco without clearing customs. Then one of the police officers at the front gate told me to look in a warehouse nearby to see if there were any officers in there. I think the warehouse I walked into was stored all of the seized contraband items that they have collected over the years. There were things piled everywhere, and right at the entrance was a customs officer watching TV with a few of his friends.

So once again I showed him my form. And he, not speaking any English, pointed to where I had just came from. He then pointed for me to follow him back to the shipping port, and once again we made another complete round of all the offices that I had just been to before.

After much more yelling, arm waving, and pointing, we finally found the one guy in the whole port that had the rubber stamp to stamp our papers. I think the Customs Officer that was walking me around was the head guy as he had a large gold star on his uniform and every other officer he walked by would hug and kiss him 2 times on each cheek. Lucky for me I just got away with a only a handshake.

After returning to the 'Piper is was time to leave. The moorings in Tangier Harbor are not like any marina we have been in before. When we arrived there were a few other sailboats with their anchors out and their sterns secured to the pier. So we just side tied to the last boat. During our stay, 3 other power boats tied off on our other side. To get out was a tangle of lines as we had to squeeze the 'Piper out while not casting loose all the boats tied on our other side. But we made it out, no problems.

Once in the Straits of Gibraltar we motored west for 6 miles. Sandpiper was at last in the Atlantic Ocean after more then 3 weeks of waiting for an agreeable weather window. Once we cleared the Straits we were able to put up the sails and sail south for the first time in years. We have not sailed south since heading down Australia's west coast to Sydney.

We were able to sail all night, with the winds slowly dying about sunrise, leaving us sailing about a 1/2 knots at times. We then fired up the engine and have been motoring since on a flat glassy ocean.

Still lots of shipping around. Last night we had a pack of other sailboats pass us. We are starting to fall in with all the boats that will be crossing the Atlantic this year. Everyone is heading to the Canary Islands to get ready to leave when the trade winds fill in. This also means lots of new boats from Europe that are just starting on their adventurous. Which also means lots of boats on there very first ocean passages.

Since we are not in a huge hurry to get to the Canaries we will sail if there is any wind at all. As long as we can keep moving, the auto pilot can steer us. Last night at times we were averaging only 1-2 knots while all the other sailboats that were passing us had their engines running.

It seems from all the different crazy light arrangements on their masts that they added more lights to their boats in order to be seen. But all this does it make things more confusing since it is very hard to determine what direction they are going if they do not have the proper navigation lights. The first boat to pass us had their spreader lights that pointed up and they were switched on. I think they did this in order to light up their sails thinking ships will be able to see his sails and give him the right of way. But from a distance these spreader light look like a masthead light. So this defeats the whole purpose and is also very confusing from a distance.

The next boat to pass us went by less then 50 yards off our port side. Even in daylight, in the open ocean, this is far to close to pass another boat. And at night, this was way too close. We were not sure if he even saw our stern light which was burning brightly. He just kept coming closer and closer. Since it was another sailboat, and we could see him, we just waited to see how close he would actually get.

As he pulled along side us he finally decided to look around and saw us right off his starboard side, within talking distance. He then completely freaked out and shut off all his navigation lights. We are guessing he was freaking because he was on the open ocean for the first time and was reading too many books on piracy ("Pirates? Been to Disney World one to many times Captain Ron??"). We started laughing really loud, but there is no way he could not have heard us. All he had to do was look forward and he would have spotted us. We then yelled at him to turn his lights back on. He then re-energized his lights and slinked off into the night.

The next light of interest was a sailboat with a flashing yellow siren type light that was mounted right above his cockpit. I think he thought he would add this light to make him more visible to shipping. But the light was so bright that there was no way to see his running lights, so only made his situation more confusing. The funny part was this light was so bright and flashing right into his cockpit we are not sure how HE could see anything. And would make me crazy in just a few seconds.

Sorry for the rant, but its been an interesting 24 hours. This was just our first night and we still have 472 nm to go. The weather is calm, but looking at weather forecasts we are hoping the winds fill in from the NE for the next couple of days. Hope this time tomorrow we are sailing!

More in 24!!

Tom and Amy

Birthday shout out to Steve on S/V Shiraz!

Tangier, Morocco

2008-11-05T16:55:00.003Z

Med Moored in Tangier Harbor
Tangier
Morocco
Gateway to the Atlantic, North African Coast
Mediterranean Sea
35'47.2N/5'48'3W

Sandpiper is currently Med Moored in Tangier Harbor with three other boats side tied to us. We checked the weather and its looking like we might make it all the way to the Canaries with the weather that is being forecasted. So we will be heading out tomorrow morning after checking out with customs and police.

Amy has written the update for this stop. But due to the sketchy circumstances here in the harbor we will be posting this entry one month from now when we are far from this port. So stay tuned...

Hopefully the next entry has us in the Atlantic!!
Tom and Amy

Tangier, Morocco

2008-11-03T23:36:00.004Z

Anchored in Tangier
Morocco
North African Coast
Mediterranean Sea
35'47.0N/5'47.7W

Sandpiper is currently anchored off a long row of hotels at the city of Tangier on the north coast or Morocco, Africa. We had spent the last several days hiding from the weather at Hercules Marina in Cueta, Spain, waiting for the westerly winds to die down so we can get out of the Med.

Spain drives me a bit crazy as it seems like every time we go ashore all the businesses are closed all afternoon. If we are lucky, they might open up at some random time for a few minutes, then remain closed for the remainder of the afternoon. About 9pm all the businesses open back up, and by midnight everyone is out shopping or having dinner. If you show up at a restaurant at 9pm, it is too early to have dinner. So you have to wait till later.

People seem to go out for dinner and shopping at 11pm and then stay out all night. I have no idea how Spain's economy functions. Saturday was 'All Saints Day'. So once again everything was closed, Then Sunday everything is closed again.

Anyhow, being in a marina in Spain when it is pouring rain and everything is closed all the time, we had to spend our time down below just trying to stay warm and dry. We have spent the last couple years living on the equator in shorts, and when we go ashore, maybe a shirt to look dressed up. Winter has been showing up with a vengeance and now when we leave the cabin we are wearing shoes, socks, sweatshirts, pants, and jackets. Our nice golden brown tans have faded away to a pasty white. All the Europeans here are walking around in full jackets with fur lining and boots. They stay warm by hiding in heated coffee shops.

We dug through Sandpiper and found the electric heater that we have not used since being tied up under the Golden Gate Bridge. And being in a marina, we were able to plug it in to keep the cabin warm.

This morning Amy went to the grocery store for some last minute supplies (it was closed when she arrived). We topped off Sandpiper's water tanks, then went to McDonalds to get lunch to go. We found that they too were closed. We tried to pay our bill at the marina office. That was closed. We pulled up to the fuel dock. That was closed.

By 1130 am the fuel dock opened up and we took on 100 liters of diesel, the headed west down the Straits of Gibraltar, skirting the shipping lanes and dodging fishing boats. We were hoping to be able to enter the Atlantic. As we approached Tangier the winds died down. We talked to the U.S catamaran 'Following Tides' who had just turned left outside of the Straits. They told us that winds were calming down. So we decided to drop the hook here in Tangier to see what the weather is doing tomorrow morning.

From here it is only 6 miles to the Atlantic Ocean. Once there we head south for 600 miles to the Canary Islands. We might wait here for a few days till we can be sure we are going to have good winds. If we do stay we will pull into a marina tomorrow morning. If not, then we will head out to hopefully sail.

More later, once we make a decision.

Tom and Amy

Is it Cash? Or is it Hash?

2008-11-02T20:09:00.006Z

Team Sandpiper Update 2 Nov 2008
Side tied at Tangier Municipal Marina
Tangier
Morocco
North Africa, Gateway to the Atlantic
35'47.1N/5'48.3W

Is it Cash? Or is it Hash???????

Let me set the scene for the evening: It is 9pm in cold, dark, wet sketchy Tangier, Morocco. We are side tied to a derelict boat. In fact, all of the boats in the harbor are derelict, except for the Sandpiper. We had a great day zig-zagging through the alleyways of the Casbah, poking our heads into shops along the way. We are now back on the boat, trying to keep warm and dry, enjoying dinner and a movie.

We have taken a few breaks throughout the evening to poke our heads up top and have a look around at what is going on in the harbor. Tangier is a dirty and busy harbor with thousands of stinky fishing vessels of all sizes moving in and out of the harbor at all times of the day and night. This last time we went topside we noticed the Harbor Police towing a large sport fishing vessel, and they appeared to be headed straight for Sandpiper.

Sure enough, moments later we have a 40-foot sport fishing boat tied off our starboard side. It is never good to have to be towed in. And to do so at night just adds to the drama of it all. So we stuck around outside asking our new neighbors "What went wrong? Why are you being towed in? Where have you arrived from?"

Soon after meeting the sweaty, nervous looking, talk a mile-a-minute, neck tattoo covered Captain we were privy to their story. It seems that this "gentlemen" and his crew, whom he had never met before this morning, have been hired to deliver this boat somewhere across the Straits. After they arrived on the boat, which by the way has no name or numbers on it, they got just a few miles out of the harbor when the engine died. The Captain also reports that his cell phone wouldn't work, claiming that it had no signal, this being only 2 miles from port. He thinks the police are following him and are intercepting his cell phone. This prevents him from being able to call his local 'boss' and he is now forced to deal with local authorities.

It is not until hours later that they give up on the engine and are in fact towed in by the local authorities and his cell phone magically starts working again. I should also mention that while he is sharing this info with us, he is downing shots of vodka like a loyal comrade. Their boat is currently secured next to us, and streams of officials are coming off and on it, which means they are stomping over Sandpiper too (here, everyone side ties to the last boat in).

This, of course, is all so fantastic to us and is the most excitement we have ever seen in such an exotic harbor. The movie will have to wait. While one official goes onboard, another arrives. Our new neighbor is getting antsy and sweatier, but he still managing to chain smoke, occasionally hack up a lung on us, and do more shots of Vodka. Baksheesh, a form of payment/bribe, is part of the culture here and a pack of cigarettes is the norm. He told us that one of the officials asked for cocaine as his payment. Interesting…

After the last official leaves the Captain says "I want you to know that people have been shot here in Tangier because of what you saw here tonight". This of course didn't stiffen my curiosity of what was going on over at his boat. So I started asking "What is the name of your boat? What kind of boat is it? Where are you going? Where's all your fishing gear if you're a fishing boat?" To which he looked at Tom and said "Your wife asks a lot of questions" as Tom is giving me the hand across the neck motion. Tom had figured out what was going on as soon as the boat tied up next to us. It had no name or numbers, and the captain not knowing where any of his boat's mooring lines were stored.

From the bits and pieces of what we could gather from the captain, it seems that he had just arrived this morning. He was hired to take this recently hauled out boat out of the country and deposit it somewhere else. With our minds racing, and few details given to us thanks to shots of vodka in the skipper, we gathered this vessel's recent yard work included hollowing out the insides of the boat, adding false compartments, and filling them with cash, hash, or who knows what?

Needless to say, it has been an exciting fews days here in Tangier. As we spent hours the next morning trying to clear customs we asked our new friend how he cleared out. He stated "It was taken care of..."

Cheers,
Amy and Tom

Ceuta, Africa

2008-10-30T18:00:00.006Z

Med Moored at Hercules Marina

Ceuta (aka Sebta)

Spain

North African Coast

Mediterranean Sea
35'53.3N/5'18.7W

The weather has been constantly getting worse day by day. After 24 hours of 30 knot winds at anchor, with boats around us dragging anchor, and not being able to leave the boat, we decided to move somewhere safer. Another low pressure system is supposed to blow through tomorrow and we do not want to be at anchor for this one.

When we woke up yesterday the winds had dropped down to 15 knots. So we quickly got Sandpiper secured for sea and picked up the hook. As we left the anchorage we kept getting calls on the VHF from the other boats we had been anchored next to asking where we were going. They did not want to be stuck in Gibraltar any longer either. We headed south, across the Straits of Gibraltar, 15 miles of dodging all the East/West shipping traffic to where we are currently secured in Hercules Marina in Cueta, Spain, in Africa.

One thing about 'cruising' is that we get an 'in depth' education about countries along the way. I had no idea that Spain had territory in Africa. But it does! Cueta is on the North African coast. It is a small Spanish territory along the Moroccan Coast just south of Gibraltar. It has been here since 1640. It is only 20 miles square, surrounded by Morocco. Cueta is a bustling town, right on the water with its preserved old city walls and navigable walled moat. Hercules Marina is a very convenient marina with everything we could need right across the street... grocery stores, a public market, Internet. There is even a McDonald's just a feet away.

We had hoped to be here just for a few days till this next low pressure system blows through tomorrow. But the weather forecast is not looking to good for us. The next 5 days predict winds coming out of the SW, the direction we need to go. There is a group of about 10 other boats between here and Gibraltar that we have gotten to know during the last several weeks. They are all more then ready to get moving to the Canary Islands.

If it looks like we are going to be here more then 2 days due to weather, then we are going to plan some inland travels to Morocco while the Piper stays safe and sound in Hercules Marina.

More later!!
Tom and Amy

Notes From Ron:

Ceuta is believed to be the location of of the African Pillars of Hercules. Hence the name of the marina.
Morocco has wanted Ceuta, Millina, and the uninhabited islands of Perejil transferred to them from Spanish control. In fact, Spain and Morocco got into a shooting war over the Perejil Islands back in 2002 when some Moroccan soldiers set up a camp there.

Still in Gibraltar

2008-10-27T15:11:00.002Z

Gibraltar

Gateway to the Atlantic

Mediterranean Sea
36'09.7N/5'21.8W

A week has gone by since our last update and I am sad to report we are still at anchor at The Rock. This past week has been a constant back and forth to land where we are able to check Internet and the weather. We have been receiving weather gribs on the boat as well. But with the strong winds predicted, it is better to use more than one resource.

In the midst of all the land trips we were able to get propane with the help of Don from S/V Redwood Coast and Tom from S/V Two Extreme. Once Tom and Don signed their lives away for two propane tanks, purchased an EU valve, and borrowed Tom's fitting things, things were looking up. The rig was hooked up with the full bottle a bit higher for the liquid propane to drain into our empty tank and so we waited. We weighed the tank every 30 minutes and... nothing.

A few hours have now passed. As our last resort, we look to see if Mr. Nigel Calder has written anything about this process. For those of you who don't know who Mr. Calder is. He is a boat electrician guru. And you can guarantee that every cruising boat has his books on board. We were in luck and found a mention in his book. Mr. Calder suggests pouring hot water over the full tank to heat up the liquid so it passes faster. [From Ron: Here is a way to transfer propane without hot water]

After moving the tanks up forward, securing the full tank, upside down, to the boom for more leverage, we then poured hot water on the tank. And just like Mr. Calder promised, we could see it flow. And with one tank full, and another half full, we are happy campers. It is by far the most expensive propane we have purchased because the store decided not to return our deposit. But, we are full.

Also this week our outboard motor has been acting up again causing us to have to break out the oars and row a few times. And with the heavy rain and winds here, rowing is no cup of tea. Last night was the straw that broke the camel's back because once back in the dingy we noticed we lost a oar, and the outboard decided not to run. With only one oar, and a flip-flop for the other paddle, it was a long trip home. We decided to take her apart one last time today, Tom spliced the wire to the spark plug and first pull, she started up. She's been doing good all day. So fingers crossed we don't get stranded again because we only have one paddle and the flip-flop didn't work so well.

Our trip into town yesterday consisted of us at the Internet checking weather once again. Last we saw it wasn't looking good for us to make the Canary Islands. There is talk of a nice marina in Rabat, Morocco (Africa) just 230 nautical miles from here. So if we could make that we would try. However, what we saw yesterday was predictions for the wind picking up today and tomorrow. Maybe a break on Wednesday for us to make the trip to Africa. But if not a nasty looking front is coming in over the weekend. So we may be here for another week. Of course we will keep you posted after our weather check tomorrow.

Cheers,
Amy and Tom

Gibraltar

2008-10-21T12:00:00.001Z

Gibraltar , Gateway to the Atlantic

Mediterranean Sea
36'09.7N/5'21.8W

Happy Trafalgar Day! Sandpiper is still anchored just under 'The Rock' waiting for favorable winds to blow us to the Canary Islands 700 miles south of here.

Since arriving we have been busy exploring the surrounding area and getting the 'Piper ready to leave. The only safe anchorage in Gibraltar is north of the runway that separates Spain from Gibraltar. Being on this side of the border (Spain), then crossing over to Gibraltar is a bit like crossing over to Tijuana. We go from one country where no one knows what we are saying to a country where everyone speaks English, our first English speaking country since leaving Australia.

Gibraltar is rich in maritime history. It is only two and a half miles long and barely a mile wide. Most of the country is an enormous rock that forms a peninsula. The rock drops from a hight of 1400 feet to sea level.

Gibraltar has been a part of all major wars for the last two centuries. For a little history... Gibraltar was used as a base during the battle of Trafalgar. And it is where the body of Admiral Nelson was brought ashore by HMS victory. Gibraltar was also a major base in WWII, used to block German shipping from entering or leaving the Med. And to try to trap German U-boats. You can see this in one of the greatest movies ever made about WWII called 'Das Boot'. Towards the end of the movie, after their brutal Atlantic patrol, they have to skip pass the Royal Navy at Gibraltar to try to get back to their base in France.

Since our arrival to Spain at our last stop in Almeria it was never clear where we were supposed to check in. So we never did, figuring we would do it once we got here. Now that we are here, once again no one can tell us where to go to check in. And it seems that no one really cares. When we walk across the border from Gibraltar the Spanish customs officers ask us where the stamps are in our passports. We explain that we can't figure out where to check in. So they say "That's OK. Don't worry about it." I believe that none of the other boats here are clearing in or out either since its to confusing on the Spanish side. And it is so busy here that they are not too concerned with the visiting yachts.

Storm Update: That storm that blew through here 2 weeks ago, the one we hid from in a marina in Almeria, Spain. That storm was only forecasted to blow 30 knots. Turns out that same storm was the worst storm Gibraltar has experienced in 40 years. Most people we talked to say they have never seen anything like it. Along with the broken ship on its coast, the storm caused much damage to the harbor, with both marinas being closed due to storm damage. [Video of damage]

One of the things we have been trying to accomplish these last 4 days is trying to get Sandpiper's propane tanks refilled. While this is always an adventure in every county we have visited, we have always found someone that had the right fittings to top our tanks. Here in Europe, everyone swaps their empty bottles for full ones. And it is illegal to refill tanks in Europe. We have only recently been educated on this after the last 4 days, one of the days walking around town with our propane tank behind us on a small cart only to find out that no one could help us. Sandpiper has to large propane tanks that have lasted us since stopping in Egypt. But are now they are almost empty. We are not sure that we want to leave on this next 700 mile passage with a chance of running out of propane en route. So we might be staying here for a few days until we can get this worked out.

We are working with another California boat to get the right propane fittings to fit the EU bottles. If that works, then we will just connect the European bottles to ours and fill them that way. Hopefully the next entry we will be at sea cooking something.

More soon,
Tom and Amy

Gibraltar

2008-10-17T15:13:00.004Z

Gibraltar, Gateway to the Atlantic

Mediterranean Sea
36'09.7N/5'21.8W

Sandpiper is securely anchored in Gibraltar, right under 'The Rock'. From where we are anchored, we are just under 'The Rock' and it looks just like in the Prudential logo "Get a piece of the rock". We made much better time from Almeria than anticipated and was able to set the hook before the sunset among about 20 other boats from all over the world.

I had said in my last update that we were not worried about a night approach to the anchorage here. But now that we are here, I take that back. I had not anticipated the amount of shipping underway and at anchor and at anchor. Gibraltar is a crossroads for mariners traveling to the Med or to the Atlantic, and most yachts stop here, along with a lot of ships.

As we have stated previously, the weather in the Med can turn bad in a very short amount of time. This is why we were quite happy to motor in windless seas. As we approached Gibraltar, right under the lighthouse were the remains of a ship that was pushed up on the rocks just last Friday in a major storm that blew through thru. The ship was at anchor and when the storm hit. They drug anchor right onto the rocks. Some of the crew was taken off by helicopter until the helicopter had to make an emergency landing due to mechanical failures. The rest of the crew was taken off by a crane that lowered a basket down to them from the cliff above. While this was going on, the ship cracked in half. When we passed yesterday there were salvors all around the remains mostly trying to pump the ship's fuel out. We passed thru some of the fuel in the water, and the main port was closed off with oil booms to protect the boats in the harbor.

When we approached the anchorage we stopped and talked to a small Canadian boat that had been here for the last week, after a transit from New York. They told us that they had been anchored there when the storm blew through, and they showed us where a section of the break wall used to be. The waves were so large that inside the bay that the waves tossed all the rocks off the middle of the break wall. This was the same storm that passed over us last Friday after our arrival to Almeria. Lucky for us we were no longer in transit from Malta when this passed over.

One note to add about this area. The border between Spain and Africa is wide open for smuggling, mostly people and cigarettes. We had one small inflatable boat with 3 persons onboard pass us, headed from Spain to Africa, when we were 20 miles offshore. These guys looked pretty suspect being so far offshore in a small inflatable.

Gibraltar is just a small piece of land that is self governed and is a territory of England. But the land just off our stern is Spain. After we got the hook dropped last night and had gone to bed we heard a small outboard and Spanish voices. I popped my head out and saw 2 young guys in a dinghy holding on to our starboard side talking into a hand held radio. I said "Hola", and they started pointing outside the anchorage and then at us saying "police". I was a bit confused. At first as I thought they were saying that THEY were the police and that we had anchored to close to the Spanish side of the border between Gibraltar and Spain, and were asking us to move.

They kept chatting into their radio. With my very broken Spanish, and a lot of pointing, they told me that they were smuggling cigarettes with their dingy between the Spanish shoreline and Gibraltar. I am not sure which way they smuggle the smokes. They told me they were hiding from the police who were out in boat looking for them, and a friend of theirs was on a radio telling them where the police were. Once the coast was clear they took off, saying 'Adios'. At least they were honest smugglers and told me everything they were doing.

Our current plans are to stay here till we get a good enough weather window to head south to the Canary Islands 700 miles from here.

More once we step ashore.
Tom and Amy

Notes From Ron:

The cigarette smugglers are bringing cigarettes in to Spain, via Gibraltar. Here is an article.
Technically, Tom and Amy are in Spain. They are anchored just a few yards north of the border.
Gibraltar is so small that the only road in and out of the country has to cross the middle of the county's only airport runway. Take a look.

2008-Oct-16 Update

2008-10-16T05:30:00.004Z

5:30am Position

36'21.3N/4'09.3W

Spanish Coast

Mediterranean Sea

90 nm from Almeria, Spain
60 nm to Gibraltar
Winds W 5 knots
Seas F.A.C. (calm)

After getting last minute hot showers, one last grocery run, and securing Sandpiper for sea we left Almeria, Spain at 10am for Gibraltar. The weather the next 48hrs is forecasted to be less then 10 knots from the west. So most likely we will motor the whole way to Gibraltar. For Friday the winds are forecast to go back up to 30 knots.

It is 5:30am and the sun is just about to lighten up the horizon. Since leaving Almeria we have been motoring along the coast up Spain averaging 5 knots. This is better then expected as we are supposed to have a current against us and so far we have not seen it. The seas have been flat calm with a light breeze off the bow, Right after sunset a full moon rose up right off Sandpiper's stern. It has been a perfect evening for motoring on a glassy sea with porpoises jumping around Sandpiper's sides all night long.

We are near the Spanish coast and clear of most shipping traffic with just a few ships passing us during the night. Right at sunset the Spanish Maritime Police ran down our port side at high speed out on patrol.

With only 60 miles left to go we are hoping to have the hook set before sunset tonight at Gibraltar. But if not, we are not to worried about a night arrival as there are no shoals in Gibraltar's harbor. And it is very well marked.

Hope next entry finds us with our hook set under 'The Rock'.
Tom and Amy

Almeria, Spain

2008-10-14T15:39:00.009Z

Med Moored at Club de Mar Almeria
Almeria
Spain
Mediterranean Sea
36'49.8N/2'27.6W
(click on photo to enlarge)

Since our arrival we have been enjoying marina living with all we can use power, high speed WiFi Internet, and hot showers. We now have a new U.S. phone number. So if you would like, give us a call at 317-608-2844.

Almeria is a city and is quite busy during the day, and at night there are restaurants and bars full of people everywhere. Several nights ago ‘Team Sandpiper’ decided to hit the town and see what happens during the evening hours. One great thing we discovered about ordering beers in Spain is ‘tapas’. Every time we ordered a beer we got a small plate of food from the bar. We were going to go out for dinner, but figured that we would just keep going to different bars, ordering beer, and by the time we were full of beer we would be full of dinner. There are many small bars all over this city all down different small alleys.

By midnight we were full of ‘dinner’ and decided to see what else was around. One thing about being in Europe is that people do not come out till late in the evening for dinner. If one walks around at 9pm there are no people anywhere. But at midnight, every business is packed. We stopped in one bar that had a very good price for ½ liter of beer in a plastic cup. Everyone was in black Metallica t-shirts and very young. I fit right in as everyone was in his or her early 20’s and smoking cigarettes and I am in my 40’s wearing my best white Mexican shirt. It was like drinking at somebody’s keg party back home in a dark basement.

After that, there were more stops at some very crowded bars, and one last stop at a bar that was full of hundreds of people all dancing to some very loud music. By the time we decided that is was time to head back to the boat it was 5 am and the skies were starting to lighten up. Once we stepped outside we saw a huge line of people waiting to get in... AT 5 AM!!

One reason we stayed here for the weekend was that we dropped off laundry to be washed on Friday and they were closed on Monday for a holiday. So we could not leave without our clothes. Also, we have had a few boat projects to complete before leaving.

We had a refrigeration technician visit and look at our system that has been giving us much drama. He figured the control unit was bad and that the unit needed more coolant added. Just like when we were in Turkey, this tech added too much coolant, and once he left after two hundred dollars out of our pockets the refer completely freaked out. Anyway, since I have been staring at this system for hours every day I figured out what was wrong as soon as he left. Since then we have been slowly bleeding the system back down and think that it is working once again! This means ice for our cocktails, cold beer, and food that we can keep cold on our Atlantic crossing.

I also had Amy haul me up the mast with some epoxy to secure Sandpiper’s lightning rod that had come loose on our last trip.

The weather here has been horrible since our arrival from Malta. We were very lucky that we were not a day later on our arrival as the last system that blew through last Friday was so strong it blew a ship off Gibraltar onto the rocks where it broke in half. The crew had to be rescued by helicopters.

We were going to leave this morning, but decided to put it off for one more day thankfully. Check out the video that blew through the marina on our You-Tube channel. The weather for the next 3 days is predicted to be very mild, so tomorrow morning we are heading west to Gibraltar, and we are hoping will do this all in one hop. It is 160nm to Gibraltar and seeing that the weather is going to be so mild we will probably be motoring the whole way. Check us out as we should be posting updates, Sailmail permitting.

Tom and Amy