Octopus

Summary of our Atlantic Circuit

noreply@blogger.com (Beth and Chris) — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 08:40:00 +0000

Many people thought we were crazy. Perhaps we were! We sailed across the Atlantic to the Caribbean and back. We completed the circuit in ten months, from the taking delivery of the boat until dropping anchor back home in Lamlash Bay. Incredibly, we set sail to cross the fearsome Bay of Biscay in early October, only three weeks after picking up Octopus, our beloved Lagoon 420 Hybrid catamaran -our home for the next ten months. Even more incredibly, we completed our crossing of Biscay in a flat calm. Renowned for the ferocious equinoctial storms, Biscay should be crossed before the end of August, people say, and if you make the crossing later than the end of September your insurance will be void. We were very lucky!

Apart from our late start to our Atlantic circuit, everything went according to plan. Although the weather was generally less favourable than we might have reasonably hoped. Light winds dogged us all the way to the Canaries. We enjoyed the coastal hops down the Portuguese coast, but had to hurry to make up for our delayed start. We spent two weeks in Gibraltar, installing all the equipment we hadn't managed to fit before our hasty departure from England. At this point Katie and Justin, our crew since West Bay, had to leave us. We were sad to say goodbye, but happy to welcome Chris' brothers, Mike and Brian, as crew for the trip to the Canaries. The children really enjoyed getting to know their uncles as we motored down the West African coast. Yet again the winds deserted us for much of the passage.

Mike and Brian returned home to chilly England and we were joined, instead, by Rob and Ruth to crew for the Atlantic passage. Rob and Ruth instantly established a rapport with the children and proved to be ideal crew for the long Atlantic passage.

We set out from Lanzarote heading for Barbados, but a stomach bug forced us to abort our first crossing attempt after twenty four hours and head in to Santa Cruz, La Palma. The five day delay this incurred, allowed time for a fierce tropical storm to pass through. The Atlantic Rally for Cruisers (ARC), that had left The Canaries a week before, were not so lucky and had a very rough crossing. Our crossing was very relaxed and gentle by comparison.

The worst thing that happened to us on the crossing was when the inverter, that supplies 240AC electricity, burned out. This meant the freezer defrosted and we had to eat the contents before it went bad, so we had to have Christmas dinner three days early. Apart from that, everything went very smoothly. The winds were adequate, but not ideal, so our passage was comfortable, not fast.

Our arrival in Barbados was perhaps the highlight of our trip. After dropping anchor in Carlisle Bay, we all jumped off the boat and it began to dawn on us just what we had achieved.

Island hopping up the chain of islands in the Caribbean was paradise. We went from Barbados, to Tobago, to Grenada, to Carriacou, to Union Island, to Bequia, to Martinique, to Dominica, to Les Saintes, to Guadeloupe, to Antigua and finally completing our island tour at St Maarten. It was particularly good to welcome aboard Chris' mother, Margaret, in Martinique.

Our return trip to the UK was much tougher than the outward trip. We were joined in St Maarten by Phil, who was to be our crew for most of the return trip. Phil settled in quickly and soon proved his competence. This was good, because we soon had need of his experience. We encountered two gales with Phil aboard, the first on the passage to Bermuda and the second on the passage to The Azores.

Phil left us at Horta, to be replaced by friends, Alan and Gaynor with their grown up son Andrew. The final leg back to the UK also treated us to another gale. After dropping Alan and Andrew off at Fishguard in Wales, we headed up the Irish Sea to our home on the Isle of Arran. Unbelievably, we were treated to yet another gale. None of these gales troubled us, as we had great confidence in Octopus, but we were tired and keen to get home, so we a bit fed up with the weather Gods by the time we dropped anchor in Lamlash Bay at 1:30a.m on Sunday 6th July. The thing we found hardest to bear during the return trip, was the almost total lack of sunshine and the dropping temperature. What a contrast with the Caribbean!

We returned to the worst British summer on record. Within five days of getting home, Chris had to leave for the grim reality of work, whilst Beth had to restore order to a cold damp house, left in chaos a year earlier. The children, however, were happy to be home and excited at the prospect of returning to school and renewing friendships.

Beth and Chris both fulfilled a lifetime's ambition and the children had an amazing experience. What a great year!

Gale Force Winds

noreply@blogger.com (Beth and Chris) — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 06:14:00 +0000

We encountered five Force 8 gales on our voyage back from the Caribbean. Octopus rode the waves well and we were never uncomfortable or frightened.
The camera doesn't do justice to the conditions and the children scarcely noticed, but the grown-ups certainly noticed when battling to put in a reef or two.

DON'T PANIC WE HAVE RETURNED

noreply@blogger.com (Beth and Chris) — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 08:03:00 +0000

We arrived back on Arran two weeks ago and have been very busy unloading Octopus and moving home. BT have only just got their act together and put the phone back on! We are now off camping in Dorset for two weeks and will be in touch with friends on our return. I will write up on our Horta - Arran trip when we return and find time to look at all our photos and hopefully put some more on the blog.

Horta in the Azores

noreply@blogger.com (Beth and Chris) — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 16:16:00 +0000

We arrived in Horta on the 18th of June after a two week passage from Bermuda. We had a grim first week, running into two gales and having strong winds in our teeth for several days. The first two days were spent motor-sailing North in calm winds to try to find the wind and then, when we found it, it drove us South, losing all the Northing we had gained. One day we had 40 knot winds and we ended up sailing with just a bit of the jib out and still managing to surf down the waves at 14 knots. We had huge waves, the rain was lashing down and the Seatalk network that controls the autopilot decided to fail just at that moment. Phil and I were left to take it in turns hand steering in the pouring rain while Chris tried to fix the problem. Luckily water had only got into the connections which were soon fixed by drying them out and spraying on some good old WD40.

After our second storm the wind started to head us for a couple of days, which was very frustrating. We had a night of thunder and lightening, this of course is not good at sea when your boat happens to be the tallest object for hundreds of miles. I spent my watch, looking out as it circled around us for two hours watching flashes of lighting zigzag down into the sea.

We had our most damage to date on this passage, the jib ripped again, lower down this time, just under the new repair we had done in St Martin. The third reefing point failed and the second reefing point ripped off the main sail. The spinnaker halyard snapped nearly dumping the Gennaker over the side and sprang off two of the lifelines as it went, the lazy bag ripped and two lazy jacks broke. We ran out of gas for the first time on passage (not that this really matters as we cook by electric as well).

Octopus performed well in the strong winds and big seas. The children, oblivious of the bad weather, sat watching DVDs and had to be persuaded to look out at the storm. Their response was “Oh, yes” and then went back to their film.

The second week we had good winds and fine weather, but still didn’t see much of the sun.

Horta is a great place for repairs and we are all set to go again. In fact, Horta is just a great place, everyone here is so friendly and the whole place is organised around the yachtsperson. We have been lucky enough to meet up again with lots of sailing friends here apart from Norn who very sadly left the morning we arrived. The whole of the marina, dock side and breakwater is covered in pictures painted by passing crews. It is considered unlucky to pass here without making your mark. I spent a couple of days painting our daub for Octopus, I ready enjoyed doing it, partly because I have been waiting and hoping to come here and paint my picture for nearly twenty years!

Alan, Gaynor and Andrew arrive here this morning as our new crew. We plan to do a few last minute jobs, a walk about Horta so they can look at all the paintings and then enjoy a meal at the ‘Peter’ this evening before making an early start tomorrow on our passage back home to Arran. The Peter, also known as Café Sport, is a very well known pub in the yachting world.

Bermuda

noreply@blogger.com (Beth and Chris) — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 17:09:00 +0000

We arrived safety in Bermuda on the 27th of May after a week at sea. Chris and James both had their birthdays at sea, Chris’ being a calm day and, by comparison, James’ birthday was very wet and wild, with winds gusting up to 40 knots. Octopus handled the weather very well and so did ‘George’ the autopilot, so we were able to look out from the salon rather then get soaking wet in the squalls. We had the wind against us for the last two days of the passage and had to sail close-hauled with the engine to help us keep on the wind.

With only three adults onboard, we are doing three hour watches at night and four hours during the day. The children are now watch-keeping for an hour each day, in pairs, and apart from the very bad weather where they retired to the cabins for the day, they have been doing well. Phil has fitted in well and is a natural with the children, who seem to have adopted him.

Yesterday we went on a bus and ferry ride around Bermuda. We stopped at a lovely sandy beach but just paddling in the sea was cold, I’m glad I had my last swim in the lovely warm Caribbean sea, if only the sea around Arran could be as warm, I will miss it and I know the children will. Bermuda seems a pleasant island with lots of very friendly people; it is really a collection of small islands joined together with bridges and causeways. It’s a very flat island dotted with lots of brightly coloured houses and unfortunately few large empty spaces apart from the beaches.

We will be leaving here on Monday or Tuesday and heading for the Azores which will take about two weeks. There we will take on-board our friends Alan and Gaynor and their son Andrew who are joining us for the sail back to the UK.

Heading for Bermuda

noreply@blogger.com (Beth and Chris) — Mon, 19 May 2008 16:42:00 +0000

Leaving St Martin

We are now anchored on the French side of the island and leaving later today for Bermuda. Some of the warranty work has been done on Octopus; some parts have still not yet arrived. The G2 upgrade has been done and we will be interested to see how it has improved the motor’s performance once we our on our way.

The radar is now operational and the AIS is up and running, which will make night watches easier.

We have a new crew member called Phil who has settled in and already feels like a member of our family.

I will write again when we next reach land…..I must now go and have my last swim in the warm Caribbean Sea.

Arrive St Maarten – Monday 28th April

noreply@blogger.com (Beth and Chris) — Fri, 09 May 2008 15:59:00 +0000

So far a don’t think much of St Maarten, not that we have been anywhere apart from the chandlery and a very small supermarket. We are stuck here until the work on the boat is complete. We arrived in the dark even after our 2am start; the winds got lighter as the trip went on and we were reluctant to use the motors until necessary. We sailed right into the anchorage and anchored just off the channel which leads onto Simpson Lagoon (the windlass is now working). The next morning we passed though the swing bridge and anchored as soon as possible in the Lagoon. We then went off in the rib to find a marina and make arrangements to get some work done. We have picked the wrong week, carnival is on today and tomorrow and St Maarten is closed until next week, not a good start. We end up mooring in Simpson Bay Marina. We spend a few days clearing out lockers and putting away all the kids clutter ready for the crossing. Octopus has her first good hose down for a long time and looks nice and shiny for it.

The Onan generator man came to mend the generator and finds the sender unit needs replacing; that should be an end to our problems. The jib has gone to the sail maker for repairs and the Lagoon dealer has now been in contact to do the warranty work. We will have to move to the French side of the island to get the work done and I am looking forward to leaving this place. The only plus side I can find is the Bar/internet café has a very small swimming pool that the children want to spend all their time in. Still no crew, I will look locally today, although I think James, Susie, Lizzie and Katie are more than capable to crew Octopus during the day, leaving Chris and I to do the night watches between us.

Wreck of Tirla, Green Island

noreply@blogger.com (Beth and Chris) — Fri, 09 May 2008 15:58:00 +0000

As we were approaching Green Island we could see a catamaran ‘anchored’ very near the reef. As we got nearer and the waves were crashing over her we realised she was on the reef. Sailing around here, a reef is one place you definitely don’t want to end up! When we arrived it took us a few attempts to get the anchor to hold in the soft sand and the two boats in the anchorage seemed a bit jumpy about their anchors, so we guessed there holding isn’t great. Is that why the catamaran is on the reef, we asked ourselves. Did she drag? But there had been little wind for the last few days?

The next day Chris went to investigate and met two men unloading stuff from ‘Tirla’, for the owner they said; the owner had apparently been taken off the boat the night before. Chris was on the outside of the reef and didn’t want to get too close so didn’t find out any more. Next day he took Susie in the rib into the lagoon behind the reef and then Kayaked up to Tirla. They discovered all the anchors on board were stowed and not used so she hadn’t dragged her anchor. Things on board her had been turned over and Chris guessed more things had gone missing. Slowly she was being pounded by the waves and being pushed farther onto the reef. A couple of days later Chris and Susie went back again to see if she had broken up any more. Chris wanted to rescue her; it seemed such a shame to let a good boat go to waste. While they were there the owner turned up on another boat with some helpers. The owner looked very sick, one of the guys said they had been sailing by in the night and hadn’t seen the reef. They were going to try and get her off the reef with floatation bags, Chris offered the use of ours and any help if they needed it. We never heard any more, later that day we saw them leave and when we left Green Island the following day Tirla was still sat filmy on the reef. Who knows if she will ever leave in one piece or if she will be pounded into little pieces as the weather changes?

Green Island

noreply@blogger.com (Beth and Chris) — Fri, 09 May 2008 15:57:00 +0000

We sailed to Green Island on the 21st of April. Green Island is a small private island almost surrounded by reefs with a couple of beautiful little anchorages. It is the sort of spot everyone dreams of, a few little sandy beaches with a back drop of tropical plants of all colours that look just like they had been specially planted, yet you know they weren’t, lizards running over the sand and hiding in the plants, a sea, warm and blue, with the odd turtle popping its head up to say hello. We could have stayed here a long time and it will be one spot I know will draw us back.

Tabasco arrived shortly after us and the children enjoyed getting to know one another again. The following day the other yachts in the anchorage moved on and for four days it is just the two of us. We decided to get both the kayaks out as this is an ideal place to let the children go kayaking on their own. We spent lots of time snorkelling over the reef; there are some beautiful corals and wonderful, colourful fish. On Wednesday evening we all got together on the beach for a beach Barbeque. The children had great fun playing with fire (supervised of course) and toasting marshmallows. On Thursday we all went over to Tabasco for August’s 6th birthday party, Lena had prepared a feast of sweet delights, consumed surprisingly quickly by all the children and helped by the adults. Our generator had been playing up that morning, Chris had changed the oil again and serviced it but it was showing low oil presser so we thought it was best if we leave the following day go somewhere more populated in case of problems.

Next morning the Generator was still being erratic and Chris had another look at it. We decided if we could run the generator long enough to give us the battery power to get out of the anchorage and passed the reef we could then sail all the way to Jolly Harbour and even anchor under sail if necessary. Everything was ready, off we go, or not, for some unknown reason the solenoid on the windlass had decided to stop working! We had a lot of chain out and I didn’t fancy bringing it up by hand. Chris shorted-out the solenoid, which meant Chris sitting down in the storage hold next to the junction box while Susie shouted out when to lift the anchor, while I took the helm.

The sailing became slower as we moved to the more sheltered side of Antigua. A few miles from Jolly Harbour we decided to try to motor-sail and the generator behaved its self all the way. We motored into Jolly Harbour as night fell with the main sail still up just in case and managed to pick up a buoy in the half-light, which saved messing about with the windlass.

Chris wanted to get to the Onan dealer in St. Maarten’s to sort out the generator as soon as possible. The winds were good for Monday and Tuesday, but then dropping to nothing for quite a few days so we knew we had to get going. We did a big shop on Saturday and decided to stick around on Sunday just in case ‘Norn’ managed to make it around, so we could all say our goodbyes. We ended up saying goodbye over the internet, but hope to meet them in the Azores. We left Antigua at 2am to sail to St Maarten.

Looking For Crew

noreply@blogger.com (Beth and Chris) — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 13:34:00 +0000

On Saturday we sailed back to Jolly Harbour for fresh supplies and so we could get internet access. We had to come right up into Jolly Harbour this time to get a good WiFi signal, so we picked up a buoy right beside all the little houses.

We are now looking for crew to join us on the leg from St. Maarten’s to the Azores, so please let me know if you know of anyone interested in joining us for this passage. We are looking for two people, ideally a couple. Friends are joining us for the leg from the Azores to Ireland and then onto Arran. We plan to leave St. Maarten on the 19th of May and sail to Bermuda for a week then on to the Azores arriving mid June.

Jolly Harbour and Deep Bay

noreply@blogger.com (Beth and Chris) — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 13:33:00 +0000

We sailed on to Jolly Harbour, a very large, but not unattractive, collection of little water-front houses, each with their own mooring. Outside the developed area is a very nice bay with sandy beaches all around. Anchoring here is very pleasant and it gave us the advantage of being able to dinghy in to use the excellent supermarket in the Harbour. We also found that if we took the dinghy up to the marina and then walked South for about a mile across a very touristy beach and over a headland, you could find a beautiful empty sandy beach that was full of all sorts of shells just perfect for collecting.

We stayed in Jolly Harbour for a few days, cleaning out lockers, doing odd jobs like scrubbing our bottoms (Octopus’s not our own). There is a lot of bottom on a cat and two props, she now goes ½ a knot faster. We then sailed to Deep Bay, another beautiful empty sandy beach we could anchor just off and swim to. We found yet another fort to explore with super views for miles around. While exploring the fort we meet up with a Swedish couple with three boys on a boat called Tabasco. Next day they came over for lunch and then we swam to the beach. Chris took various children out in the sailing dinghy. The children played happily together, despite the language difference.

Nelson’s Dockyard and Cades Reef

noreply@blogger.com (Beth and Chris) — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 13:30:00 +0000

We enjoyed Nelson’s Dockyard and its history, most of the buildings have been restored and are in use again catering to the needs of the tourist and visiting sailors. We walked along to Fort Berkeley, which used to guard the entrance to the harbour. Last Tuesday, as we left English Harbour, we went back in history ourselves; when we lifted our anchor we found we had picked up some of ‘Nelson’s Chain’. Back in the 1800s Nelson laid down several large gauge chains at various places across English Harbour, to stop his ships from being blow out to sea during hurricanes. We used a tripping line to free the anchor and were then on our way. Unfortunately, I missed the opportunity to take a photo. We sailed to Carlisle Bay along with Norn and had another afternoon playing on the beach.

The next morning we sailed to Cades Reef, it is a horseshoe reef about two miles off shore. We negotiated our way in slowly and anchored in the middle and took the rib over to the reef so we could snorkel. Susie found a conch shell and we saw lots of colourful fish. We went back to Octopus and had lunch while anchored in what seemed like the middle of the sea.

Antigua

noreply@blogger.com (Beth and Chris) — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 22:29:00 +0000

We had a very quick stop-over at Deshaies, the anchorage very crowded so we ended up anchored very far out in the bay with little protection from the wind. After two days we moved on to Antigua and had a very lumpy sail as it was a very exposed crossing and we had to sail very close to the wind which is not Octopus’ best point of sail. We arrived at Falmouth Harbour in Antigua in the afternoon. It is a beautiful spot but the weather has been just like at home, because of a big low in the Atlantic. We have had lots of wind and rain but thankfully is has now cleared up and we are back to lovely sunny Caribbean weather.

We went for a very long walk on Tuesday looking for a vet. Bosun is due to neutered, but trying to find a vet is a challenge. We took a mini-bus-taxi to the capital, St John’s; we were unlucky enough to be driven by the taxi driver from hell, and he must have had a death wish. He drove up the back of every car and loved over-taking lorries on blind hills respective of whether or not anything was coming in the other direction, banging his horn at anything that moved!!. We didn’t pick him for the return journey. On the way back we had a slower driver who was wearing so much ‘Bling’ on his fingers he could hardly hold the wheel.

On Friday we moved around to English Harbour and moored near Nelson's Dockyard. It was developed as a base for the British Navy the late 18th century and was greatly expanded by Horatio Nelson. Today the dockyard has been completely restored, and it is now the only Georgian dockyard in the world. We took the rib to the beach the next day, so we could all enjoy a swim and the children did some more shell collecting.

Sunday night we walked up ‘Lookout Trail’, from the harbour through a forest of trees and cacti to Shirley Heights. Kristle, Ben, Amber and Ben’s parents (who are staying with them for a fortnight) joined us. We enjoyed the famous Shirley’s Heights Barbecue, the rum punch and steel band.

The guide book advises – ‘descending the trail is not advisable after dark or barbecue revelry’, but we made it down to the beach just as the sun was setting. Putting all the children to ‘bed’ on Octopus and retreating to Norn for a chat and a nightcap worked very well.

Les Saintes

noreply@blogger.com (Beth and Chris) — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 16:16:00 +0000

We are now at Terre-de-Haut; we spent a coupe of days at the main anchorage near a lovely little village called Le Bourg. We met up with Ben, Kristle and Amber again and had two lovely walks. We walked across the island to a picturesque beach which is almost enclosed by a circle of small joined islands with only a narrow passage through. Unfortunately anchoring is no longer permitted, otherwise we would have moved there. We went exploring Fort Napoleon, a beautifully restored fort and interesting Museum. The parapets have been made into a cactus garden and were full of iguanas.

Kristle baby-sat that night, so Chris and I had an alfresco meal out in a restaurant overlooking the anchorage. Yesterday we motored around an outcrop called the ‘Sugar Loaf’, to an anchorage with some super snorkelling. We swam over lots of different brightly coloured fish and unusual underwater plants just a few metres from the boat. We met up with an American family on another Lagoon 420 who Chris had been corresponding with on the internet. It was nice to meet them face to face and exchanged notes. Tomorrow we sail to Deshaies on Guadeloupe for a few days and then to Antigua where we plan to stay for about three weeks.

Dominica

noreply@blogger.com (Beth and Chris) — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 16:15:00 +0000

We arrived in Dominica on Tuesday evening and were surprised to see that ‘Norn’ was still there. Kristle and Ben introduced us to some friends of theirs from Scotland, Peter and Gordon, who are sailing in the same direction as us. They all came over for a roast lamb dinner on Wednesday and it turns out that Gordon used to sail Scottish Island class boats, the same class of boats as Chris’s father’s boat, Gigha, in fact he thought he may have sailed Gigha once.

On Thursday we did the Indian River trip with Peter and Gordon. The boatman rows you along a meandering river through rain forest for about a mile. He points out all the unusual trees and plants and we saw iguanas, blue herons and humming birds. It rained for a lot of the trip, which added to the tropical rain forest ambiance.

I loved the calm and peacefulness of the place. Even the children were quiet.

On Easter Sunday, the Easter Bunny hid lots of little chocolate eggs all over Octopus. The children collected them in baskets they had made the day before and shared them out before they all melted in the heat. The weather then became disappointing, very wet and dull and a large swell was coming into the bay, Norn moved on because of the rolling and even Octopus was rolling a lot, when she is usually very steady. We decided to move onto Les Saintes, a group of
Guadeloupe’s off-shore islands

Sinking of the Atlantis

noreply@blogger.com (Beth and Chris) — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 16:14:00 +0000

We left St-Pierre, Martinique on Tuesday the 18th of March and were only a couple of miles off when we noticed a ship that didn’t look quite right? As we sailed nearer it was obvious that it was some sort of catamaran fishing boat or ferry with one hull sinking. We had just stumbled on a real life rescue with a helicopter hovering and the lifeboat just arriving to transfer the crew and passengers off her to safety. Lots of local boats and another yacht were standing by to assist. Apparently two crew members had already been air lifted and while we were there the lifeboat was attempting to tow the ship to shallower waters. We circled around, at a distance. The children couldn’t believe their luck, a real sinking ship! We took a few photos and went on our way.

Granny Visits Octopus

noreply@blogger.com (Beth and Chris) — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 16:10:00 +0000

Margaret, who is 87 years young this year, flew all the way out to Martinique to visit us. She spent a week in a nearby hotel where we visited her for days on the beach and a ferry trip to Fort-de-France. The children enjoyed using the swimming pool at her hotel. She then moved onto Octopus for a week with us. We spent a couple of days at Anse Mitan with a day sail around to Trois Islets, a very pretty little anchorage between three very tiny islands. We sailed to Fort-de-France, the capital of Martinique, for a change of scene and to do some shopping, and then on to St-Pierre for a few days. St-Pierre was destroyed by a volcanic explosion in 1902 with only one survivor out of its 28,000 inhabitants. We took the children on a tour to look at the remains of the old city and meet a man whose grandparents lived in St-Pierre at the time, but were out of the city on that dreadful day. Margaret flew home on the 17th of March and we then sailed onto Dominica.

Bequia to Martinique

noreply@blogger.com (Beth and Chris) — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 22:23:00 +0000

We left Bequia on Monday the 11th to sail to Martinique. We hoped to sail close to St Lucia but the wind had other ideas and we decided to do one long tack away from St Lucia and then tack towards Martinique the following morning. Twelve miles off Martinique the wind died and we began to motor. At about five in the morning we slowed down and found we had picked up a bizarre collection of empty quash bottles and ropes around one of the rudders. We cut as much off as possible but it meant only using one engine and limping into the nearest anchorage at 1.5 knots. This took us eight hours to do twelve miles. We reached the pretty village of Anse d’Arlet in the afternoon. The children all went swimming and Chris swam under Octopus to free the tangle. We ended up with a black bag full of bottles and various coloured ropes which were wrapped around the rudder and occasionally had been getting caught in the propeller.

We set off early the next morning planning to go to Marin to catch up with our friends on ‘Norn’. We arrived at Ste. Anne and were just motoring up the channel to Marin when we notice the generator had stopped and we were low on battery power. Rather then negotiate winding through the reefs on low power we went and anchored off Ste. Anne. Just as we were setting the anchor we noticed the boat next to us had some familiar faces on board. Rob and Ruth, who crossed the Atlantic with us, were busy on the boat next to us getting ready for their next trip through the Panama Canal and across the Pacific. We invited the couple they are crewing for and them over to lunch and had a nice time catching up and hearing their plans for their voyage.

In the evening we took the rib up the channel to Marin and found Ben, Kristle and Amber on Norn who were beginning to wonder where we had got to. We spent a pleasant couple of hours exchanging stories of our trips from Bequia.

Next day we moved up to anchor next to Norn up at Marin, the girls could play together and we could go ashore and stock up at the big supermarket. The last few islands we have been to were a bit limited on supplies, so I was looking forward to all the French food and was not disappointed. Chris found that the generator problem had been caused by weed being sucked in and blocking the filter.

Over the weekend we travelled in convoy with Norn to Ste Anne for one night, then Anse d’Arlet for another and then on to Anse Mitan on Pointe du Bout. We arrived, as planned, in time for Chris’s Mum arriving. Margaret is in a hotel just twenty minutes walk away from our anchorage and we our now doing the touristy stuff again.

February has flown by….

noreply@blogger.com (Beth and Chris) — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 00:46:00 +0000

We have some very sad news; our little black and white kitten went rapidly downhill and got very poorly. The day after the twin’s birthday she died of kidney failure, we had been half expecting it as she has never thrived since we got her, poor little mite. Our other Kitten, Bosun, is doing very well indeed and just grows and grows and will be a tiger soon!!

Despite our ill kitten the twins enjoyed their birthday, we all went out for pizza and they got birthday money from us and my Mum which they used to buy a camera each. They both have grown up a lot in the last few months and have taken on a more responsible attitude.

The weather in the first two weeks of February turned very wet with strong winds. We moved the boat from Grenada to Carriacou and then on to Union Island, but couldn’t find any shelter from the strong North Easterly winds. All our passages were rough with the boat heading straight into the wind most of the time. Our last anchorage was so exposed we decided we shouldn’t attempt to go ashore. We now know that February can be a bit windy here but local people say it hasn’t been this bad for years, perhaps more signs of global warming??

In the end we decided to make a bigger jump then planned and headed straight to Bequia, where have now been anchored for a week. We are only 50 metres from a beautiful sandy beach and we are very sheltered from the wind. The mono-hulls anchored around us roll a lot in the swell, but we don’t feel a thing. The children are hardly out of the water, they swim to the beach at every opportunity; they are now body-board experts and have leant to dive under all the big rollers to save themselves being washed up on the beach!

We have now met up with lots of liveaboards with children, some going north (our way), and other sailing south. Our boat has become the best stop-off and drop-off point, as we are anchored so close to the beach. This means we are a good boat to tie a dingy up to and swim ashore.

We have made friends with a nice couple and their daughter, Amber, who have been on their boat for over six years. They plan to sail back to the UK this year and to settle in Brighton. We all got together with two American families and had a beach barbeque and bonfire. The children toasted marshmallow in the fire and had sparklers as it got dark.

We will stay here for a few more days, and then we will sail to Martinique. This will take us twenty-four hours so it will be an over night passage. We have heard that crime is so bad in St Vincent now and have decided it is not worth the risk of stopping. St Lucia is also reported to be getting worse, so we are missing out both islands. We are hoping Chris’ Mum will be able to join us in Martinique. We are also having an upgrade to the diesel electric propulsion system on Octopus while we are there. Lagoon, the boat-builders promise that this upgrade will improve the performance when motoring.

Sailing Away

noreply@blogger.com (Beth and Chris) — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 04:25:00 +0000

Grenada

noreply@blogger.com (Beth and Chris) — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 20:46:00 +0000

We have been anchored at St. David’s Harbour for five days. To date it is our most restful and peaceful anchorage, of course the other boats moored nearby may think their anchorage is not as peaceful as it was five days ago with six noisy children spoiling their peace! The furthest we have been is the beach and Chris and I have been enjoying sitting on the balcony of the local bar with a Carib while watching the children playing in the sea. The local boat yard has all our
requirements to do odd jobs on Octopus, it is amazing how many things break or need attention. After over 5,000 sea miles I guess we can expect the odd bolt to shear off and the odd undetectable leak to develop, so we should not be surprised at having to do a bit of maintenance.

The spinnaker that we were given at the beginning of our trip gave up at the end of the Atlantic crossing and ripped in half; it was very old and the UV had got to it. I have now given it a new lease of life by cutting up the better bits and making them into sunshades for the cockpit and a brilliant tent for the foredeck. This gives the children a great space to play Lego, read or do school work in the shade and means we can keep the fore-hatches open when it rains – which it does (torrentially) here on a regular basis. A rain storm in the day is quite refreshing, but being woken up by a deluge coming through the hatch onto your bed is not so welcome.

More Photos of Tobago

noreply@blogger.com (Beth and Chris) — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 21:17:00 +0000

Store Bay Tobago

Views of Tobago

Barbados and Togago

noreply@blogger.com (Beth and Chris) — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 17:56:00 +0000

Barbados was great, we would have stayed for longer but we are keen to explore other islands. The music at the local night club ‘Harbour Lights’ never gave up it’s 11pm until 5am music three nights a week; everyone anchored in the bay just has to put up with a few disturbed nights sleep or move on to another anchorage. The Yacht Club were very welcoming during our stay, serving excellent food with a nice atmosphere. The landing in the dinghy was always very wet as the waves roll in at that end of the bay, in the heat here you soon dry out.
We hired a mini-bus to explore the island and were surprised at how green and beautiful the landscape is. We visited an animal park full of tortoises, deer and monkeys and watched them being fed and went to an old signal station to see how they use to communicate with ships and around the island 200 years ago.

We left Barbados on the 13th of January for a 26 hour trip to Scarborough, Tobago. We arrived at 4:30 spent an hour doing all the ships paperwork with Customs and Immigration. This was where our crew, Rob and Ruth, were to leave us. Immigration wouldn’t let us ‘sign-off’ Rob and Ruth, because they hadn’t got a plane ticket out of Tobago. This meant another visit to Immigration the following day, once tickets had been obtained. When returning to Octopus we had a ‘Caribbean’ meal out at the local pizza place – which made James very happy. We spent the evening worryingabout our turning circle, as we were in a very cramped anchorage. The next day Rob and Ruth got their tickets to Martinique to meet another yacht sailing through the Panama Canal and on to New Zealand. The three of us that went back to Immigration for a two hour wait to get them signed off as our crew. We were sad to see them leave us, but they were ready for their next adventure and we were ready for some family-only time. The extra cabin has given us a lot more living space and the children can spread their belonging around more!!

After two days at Scarborough we moved around the coast to Store bay. We are now moored off another lovely sandy beach; the music here is not so loud and ends at a reasonable time. We plan to hire a mini-bus on Monday to do a trip around the island and to go into Scarborough to clear out. We will leave very early morning on Tuesday to get to Prickly Bay, Grenada while it is still light.

Atlantic Crossing to Barbados

noreply@blogger.com (Beth and Chris) — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 15:23:00 +0000

Happy New Year to you all!

We have now arrived in Barbados and have had a good trip from the Canaries. We have now clocked up overt 5, 0000 miles.
Internet connection is internet café only here so we have been a bit slow getting around to updating the Blog, so far we have just been enjoying being here and recovering from our trip.

We left Lanzarote on the 30th of November to start the crossing unfortunately Chris and I had a bit of a tummy bug and all on board seemed out of sorts. We decided to stop off at Santa Cruz, La Palma for a couple of days. After deciding the fresh water at Lanzarote was to blame we emptied our tanks and filled up with good water. We left La Palma on the 5th of December to resume the Atlantic crossing.

Our first strange encounter was a radio message from a support vessel helping a rowing boat crossing the Atlantic. We realised there were more than one in the area and for quite a few miles we were extra vigilant. Later that night we passed a very slow moving small boat, which we assumed was another of the rowers. We didn’t see another boat for three days.

After having sailed nearly three thousand miles to reach the Canary Islands with the winds either too slight or against us, we finally had winds in our favour. Since leaving the Canary Islands the winds were with us most of the way. We tried various downwind sail settings, goose winging, twin fore sails and spinnaker. Mostly we sailed goose-winged with the genoa sheeted out. The winds rarely blew above a force six and Octopus was very easy to handle. Apart from the sleep disruption, the trip was very easy. Octopus is a very dry boat; apart from when Ruth and Rob risked leaving their hatch open and we were pooped soaking their cabin (twice).

We had a practice man over board in the middle of the Atlantic when Chris dropped the cat litter tray over the side. I brought Octopus up to it in a very lumpy sea but the tray sunk when Chris tried to grab it with fishing net, luckily we had a spare.

I love the night watches, especially when I no longer have to put on so many layers of clothes and wet weather gear. About two or three days after leaving the Canaries the difference in the temperature was very noticeable and it was great to be free of all the layers being able to get out of bed and just slip into shorts and t-shirt. Getting up is always hard at two, or four in the morning and I always set my alarm to wake me up fifteen minutes early to allow for getting dressed, cleaning teeth etc., and a look at the log to see what has been happening during the last watch. Before long I only needed five minutes to get ready because there was no need to fasten up all the zips and clips which goes with wet weather gear and I could spend ten minutes chatting to Ruth who I took over from at each watch.

Once up at the helm on my own I soon woke up, the ideal night was when the warm wind was blowing and the stars were bright. When you are at sea the stars are so much brighter and so many more of them; the moon seems larger and you begin to notice other planets rising or setting while you are on watch. When the moon is high and bright it can be as light as dawn, the clouds stop hiding and the horizon can be seen miles away and the moon casts a big pool of glistening light on the sea. Another night might be without a moon or stars and you could be any where, perhaps floating in the sky, totally disorientated by the blackness apart from the odd white crest of a wave breaking. All sense of distance is lost and there is no way of telling where the sea ends and the sky begins. Lean out over the side of the boat and the phosphorescence sparkles like fairy dust.

The flying fish are fascinating to watch, they spring from the sea and glide for well over thirty seconds before disappearing back into the waves glinting silver in the moonlight. Sometimes there are other shining lives in the sea, maybe jelly fish or sea monsters eyes, but they shine back at you and give you a comforting feeling to know there is other life out in the ocean. I have been lucky enough to be on night watches when the dolphins have come and played around the boat. Then I like to go to the bow of the boat and watch them playing off the bow. One black night it was so dark I knew they were there as I could hear them, but I couldn’t see them. I moved forward away from the dim light of the instruments and could only just make them out by the phosphorescence glow around them and trailing in their wake.

We had lots of flying fish landing on board Octopus; Bosun enjoyed eating them in the morning once we collected them off the deck and gutted the larger ones. I was woken up by the first flying fish, flying though the hatch and landing in bed with me, they are very fishy smelling and jump around a lot so it’s not a pleasant experience. Rob had to do better and managed to be caught by them flying through his hatch three times in one week, once slapping him on the head. We also had a half-beak land on board, they are related to the flying fish but they have a very long lower jaw. We saw lots of dolphins on our trip, two whales very close to the boat and a shark. We managed to catch some Dorados but didn’t have as much luck with the fishing as I would have liked.

Our daily routine when we were sailing the Atlantic revolved around the watches. Our watch system rotated every four days, three hour watches during the day and two hour watches at night. Depending on what time you were on night watch depended on how lively you felt the next day, some days it seemed to take a long time to recover from a night watch, especially if you had been called up again that night for some reason. We all spent a lot of time reading and sleeping and I spent a lot of time cooking while Ruth spent a lot of her time washing-up.
We ate well on our trip; we had a freezer on board and plenty of tined and dried foods and we found that the fresh fruit and vegetables kept better then we had expected. When our inverter broke half way we had to empty the freezer in about five days, we ended up having our Christmas dinner on the 20th of December. I made the bread on my night watches and Chris baked it on his, so we had a good routine going. We had Christmas day at sea, each of the children had a box full of little gifts and games from us and my Mum had given them each a board game, so we have been playing games on board ever since.

We arrived at Barbados on the 28th of December. I took over the watch from Ruth that morning at four and asked her if she had seen anything and just at that moment the first lights of Barbados appeared on the horizon. Over the next hour more and more lights appeared and as the sun came up it was good to see land. We reported into the harbour authorities at Bridgetown just after the Queen Mary and then we motored back along the coast to Carlisle Bay. We anchored just off the beautiful sandy beach among other yachts from the UK, France, Canada and Holland. It wasn’t long before we all jumped into that very inviting warm water. Of course now we can’t keep the children out of the water. They swim to the beach at least once a day and play in the water around Octopus most of the time. I like a swim in the early morning and when the children want to swim over to the beach I kayak over carrying all the buckets and spades etc. The only down side to our present anchorage is the loud music, it’s not every night but when it starts it goes on all night and into the morning. We are here for at least another week then we are off to Tobago. Ruth and Rob are then leaving us to go exploring and to look for another crewing position. We will miss them but it is nice to have time with just our family and it will give us more space for friends and family to visit.

Leaving Lanzarote 29th November

noreply@blogger.com (Beth and Chris) — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 07:45:00 +0000

We are leaving Lanzarote today, one day later than planned but with good winds forcast today. All the food is stored after a mega shop on Wednesday. Those of you who know us well will have seen our normal shopping and so can imagine the amount of food we now have on board for ten of us for a few weeks. We are hoping the passage will take no longer than four weeks but you must aways have food for at lease double that. Sorting fresh veg is not easy; we have rigged up nets at the stern of Octopus to store most of it.

The weather has improved over the last couple of days and we enjoyed a drive around the island sightseeing. We visited Fire Mountain, where they cook food over the still hot volcano vents, we went down some under ground caves made by the lava and we rode on camels.

The girls have made friends with a family with four children from Belgium on another catamaran; they will be following us in a few weeks, so we may meet them again.

Ruth and Rob have settled in fine and are a great help with everything. The children are already very fond of them.

We will not up-date the Blog now until we reach the other side of the pond! We would love to get there for Christmas but may not, so Happy Christmas to you all just in case we can’t send our greetings on time, hope you all have a good one! We will write again as soon as we can.

Camel ridding and views of Lanzarote