Finally mobile

The transmission arrived on Monday and we installed it that afternoon. It didn't work. Yesterday morning I got to messing about with it and suddenly I had both forward and reverse gears. How cool is that.

The plan now is to leave at 0900 tomorrow for Statia. If you are following along on a calendar at home, you know that I will miss my 1700hrs flight out of Guadeloupe tomorrow. I have rebooked for February 5. That means I have to cram 3 weeks of visits into 6 days when I finally get to Halifax. After checking the Environment Canada website, that may not be such a bad thing.

Safe arrivals

Jim and Freda arrived here in St. Maarten on Tuesday evening. Not their original plan, but they are not shovelling snow. Yesterday we borrowed a car and did a tour (circumnavigation) of the island.

Today my repaired transmission arrived in Boston. The plan is to get it out of there and on the way to me by Fedex today. That means it will likely be installed on Monday and we will leave for Antigua on Tuesday afternoon. It's about 90 miles so it will be an overnight trip. Wasn't planning on one of those for quite a while. That will put us in Antigua on Wednesday and I fly home from Guadaloupe on Thursday evening. Thank you Uncle Visa. I think Jim is happy to be spending two weeks in Antigua and I can sort everything else out when I get back in late February.

More adventure?

If you have been following the Vendee Globe, you will know that Derek Hatfield on Spirit of Canada was knocked down in a storm and and broke two spreaders. He is out of the race. That is the boat that I helped sail from France to Canada this past spring. The boat is in Hobart right now with the mast out and repairs are being undertaken. Here is the big part.....I have been asked to crew the boat from Australia back to Canada. How cool is that? Trying now to figure out if I can do it. Rounding Cape Horn has been on my list of things to do in life for a long time.

Waiting, waiting, waiting

Yep, still in St. Maarten. The latest is my transmission was to be shipped from ZF in Florida to Foley in Boston on Tuesday. ZF will not ship directly to me, nor will they ship via air to Boston. That means I could have the gearbox as early as Monday. Foley will ship via air. I have changed my travel plans and am not flying home on the 22nd but waiting until the 29th.

Jim and Freda arrive in Antigua on the 20th, I think that is next Tuesday. I have suggested that they come straight here and we will head further south later in the week once the boat is fixed.

In the meantime, I will be racing again this weekend on the 50 footer that I sailed on in December. As always, it will be good to get out on the water.

Sandy Island

This week I made it to Anguilla. Ian, the owner of the first boat that I raced on runs a day charter business here. I bumped into him at the yacht club bar the other night and he asked me if I could help him out with a trip. Of course I said yes. No way I was going to pass on a day of sailing and free lunch.

We left St. Maarten and sailed around the north side of Anguilla to this place.

It's called Sandy Island. It is about 100 yards long and 30 yards wide and is a mile and a half off shore. There is a reef around it and a few mooring balls. We grabbed a mooring and I took the guests ashore in the tender. In the middle is a thatched roof beach bar. When we first arrived we were the only people there. Very cool. That's what I came down here for.

After lunch on the boat we sailed to the south of Anguilla and picked up a mooring at Cap Juluca. Cap Juluca has been voted best resort in the Caribbean at least once. Room rates start at $1000.00 per night and the villas go for up to $10,000.00 nightly. We just drove the tender up on the beach and jumped out.

All is quiet on.....

Okay, first the race. The fast 25 footer turned out to be an Open 750. 7.5 metres of carbon fiber fun. It is really a scaled down Open 60 with a massive sail plan and a retractable articulating sprit for the kite. Here is a link to their site if you want to check it out.

http://www.finot.com/bateaux/batproduction/amco/open7_5/750openanglais.htm

And here are a couple of pictures I stole from it. Picture a 25 foot Climax with twin rudders, a masthead kite and a fat head main.

The day went something like this. Get to bed on New Years Eve around 0200. Set alarm for 0530. Get up, pack gear, tender ashore and get picked up at the yacht club here at 0615. Drive to Philipsburg, meet the crew, rig the boat and sail to St. Barth's. Got there around 1100. Race start at 1200 and we sailed around the island. Upwind we were faster than some pretty big boats (think Swan 80). Close reaching they passed us again but down wind, despite the number of gybes we did, will stayed with them. Finished the race at 1400 and cracked some champagne. Sailed back to St. Maarten and had the boat put away by 1730.

New Years Eve itself was pretty quiet. Had drinks with Kevin and Renee at a beach bar and then went for Chinese food. Quick watch of the fireworks at midnight and the off to bed.

New Years Day was another beach day. Had lunch at the Sunset Bar and Grill again at Maho Bay. This time I managed to catch a picture of a plane landing. There is literally ocean, beach, road, runway.

This is Mullet Bay beach. This is where I spent the rest of the day. It is the nicest beach on this side of the island. Oh yeah, very sorry to hear about the latest blizzard.