Travel details for hurricane season copy
Welcome to the slow life. Life on a boat on an island is a bit different, so here are a few details about the boat and the life. About the boat The boat is small. At a total of 33' long, 10' wide,...
Travel details for hurricane season
Welcome to the slow life. Life on a boat on an island is a bit different, so here are a few details about the boat and the life. About the boat The boat is small. At a total of 33' long, 10' wide,...
St. David's Harbor, Grenada - Dec 2016
I’m back at Hog Island in Grenada after two weeks in Texas. The time in Texas helped me shake up things here in the islands. I had spent a couple of weeks anchored over at St. David’s Harbor near...
2nd Solo Sail
In his e-book on Sailing Tips for Singlehanders, Andrew Evans notes that the thing that sets singlehanding apart from crewed sailing is that you will break down and cry by yourself, but not with...
The hardest thing
When stuff on the boat breaks, I... - ignore it / do without it - take a look for anything super obvious - ask someone how to fix it - try to put it back together with zip ties and bungees And if...
Sailing friends
So far, meeting the myriad of characters who left normal lives behind to live on the ocean has been a highlight. All the non-retired folks out here have rejected a life of being rich for various...
First solo sail
Yesterday I did my first solo sail, and I feel slammed. Still, after a full day of resting, my body is exhausted. As a beginner, I really don't know how to anticipate sea and wind conditions when...
Varuna Sailing
https://youtu.be/ehaLV-W_ZAw https://youtu.be/KGQQ5an1wz4 Videos taken by Ed Carter.
Outboards and mangroves
I'm back in Grenada, and now the real tests start. The last month has mostly been on Bev's luxurious catamaran, serving as peon. The only real questions I've had to sort out have been: can I...
Isla de Aves de Barlovento, Venezuela
Here i am on the Island of Birds, Venezuela. It's a great place to explore by kayak, as I've had my own entourage of birds everywhere I paddle. On setting out this morning, I at first thought I...
Note @ Gran Roque
I'm in a hammock on the bow of a catamaran in Venezuela, anchored in turquoise water, looking at the milky way. This is a pretty special thing to be able to do. But I'm only able to do this...
Travel details for early planners, Nov-Dec 2016
Welcome to the slow life. Life on a boat on an island is a bit different, so here are a few details about the boat and the life. About the boat The boat is small. At a total of 33' long, 10' wide,...
Bev's Mahi
Bev finally caught a mahi on the handline. I think she kept the line a bit shorter, and caught it while not motoring. She used the green lure.
David from Brooklyn
You can't make assumptions about people. It's easy to arrive in an island where people seemingly don't have much money and lead simple lives, and assume that YOU are the traveler (the one with the...
Passage making and night sailing
There is a lot of water on this planet. I'm the second day into the 380 mile passage to Las Roques from Carriacao. We've been traveling around 4 knots (but now 5-6ish!), and we have 210 miles to...
Sunset and blue fish
The nights are the best. Relief from the heat, the day's work is done, the sun sets, the cooler winds blow, we pour some drinks, and dine on good foods. Today after dinner, we watched the tiny...
Sailing 101 and the trip to Carriacou
A few days in, and I'm still just at the foot of the learning curve. There are an amazing number of little things one needs to know, that I don't have a background in. For instance, as Bev was...
S/V Aseka
Moved aboard Aseka, a 38' catamaran. Bev cooked an amazing chicken dinner in a solar oven, and last night was wine, conversation with her, single handed sailor Silken, and Dudley. Now on an Aussie...
Grenada island tour
I can barely understand the Creole of the driver and his first mate. It turns out that they know the maze of twisty single lane island roads like no one's business, but they couldn't parse the map...
Sparkles in the toilet
My marine head (toilet) requires you to hand pump in ocean water to flush your business. Last night as I pumped, sparkley flashes lit the bowl. There must be some bioluminescent critters in the...
Folk boat
A friend of Bev's came over to my boat today and said that I almost have a "folk boat" -- a boat with a lot of character, similar to the Contessa brand of boat.. Not that I know anything about...
day 1
I'm a bit overwhelmed on how to get started with things, especially since I'm only in Grenada for a week before joining Bev on S/V Aseka to Bonaire. I don't have a functioning outboard. There's no...
I'm on a boat!
Reporting here from S/V Varuna. Since I was the last person out of the airport, my taxi man Rawl asked if he could stop by a hotel to pick up leftover slop that he feeds to his (28?) Pigs that...
Leaving Texas
It's been a whirlwind leaving the US so far. Picked up a car rental from Kansas city airport Friday at 6am. Stuffed almost all my belongings into the SUV. Went to work, and had my exit interview...
Going away gift from the nice guy at work
A lot of research went into the making of this pyramid. A bit woo woo, but I'll take it.
New SUP
Squid the Cat will only be able to dream what it's like to paddle my new SUP from AlfaSUP.com. I can't wait to try it out on the ocean. See my article about my first SUP on the local lake here
Papers and Services
Part of wandering into a completely foreign world is sorting out all the legal steps that have to be completed, and in what order. This is a log to date of some of the things I've learned....
What are these?
Here are some photos I took on my whirlwind visit to Grenada in early June, to scope out the boat. I was hoping to inventory everything on the boat, but I can’t ID some of these things. What are...
Varuna's engine
Sorting through (some very inadequate) photos I took of everything on Varuna, in order to make an inventory of what’s on the boat. Ran across this awesome photo of the engine control. This lovely...
Toilet kits vs Oru Kayaks
Since I'm doing this sailboat adventure on a shoe string budget, I'm being faced with the sometimes hard-to-swallow reality that I can't buy many of the things I'd like to have. Here are a few of...
To swim vs snorkel (and the hunt for insurance)
A singled handed sailor Aussie told me that she uses World Nomads for her health insurance while cruising. I've used World Nomads before for my various trips, so I checked out their rates for a 9...
Registration!
The US Coast Guard has opened a file for Varuna!!! Now only to wait, and wait. Here's hoping that the boat becomes official in the US before I decide to move aboard!
Beginning of the adventure
Here's the short list. [x] Buy a sailboat in the Caribbean Learn things [x] Learn to sail [ ] Learn to sail better [ ] Learn singlehanded sailing [ ] Learn boat maintenance [x] Buy a book on the...