Chikununga and the family visit in St. Lucia

 We finally left Marina du Marin and anchored at St. Anne’s for a few days in early March.  Felt like we were cruisers once again.  The last time we had been at St. Anne’s anchorage was April 2007 and our log book reflected that the anchorage was much too rolly so we stayed only one night.  Then weighed anchor and scurried on into the much more sheltered (and extremely crowded) anchorage on the far western side of the bay at Le Marin.  This time, St. Anne’s anchorage was lovely.  Calm and beautiful; no rolling motion whatsoever.  However, the weather prediction called for conditions to strengthen and we did not want any delays for the short passage down to St. Lucia to meet family members.  So we hurried down to Rodney Bay Marina based on a weather prediction which turned out to be much ado about nothing.  That ‘heavy weather’ never materialized.  Oh well, going early afforded us a few more days at St. Lucia before our family arrived.  This turned out to be beneficial because Bill came down with chikununga.

 

Bill had been unusually physically active on our final afternoon at St. Anne’s and his shoulders and legs began to hurt that evening.  We attributed the pain to the unusual activity and figured it would dissipate in three days like muscle soreness often does.  But by the third day the pain was worse rather than abating.  On the fourth day he awoke with a bright red rash covering his entire body and with slightly red eyes.  Extreme fatigue; extreme joint pain; mild fever; red rash; red eyes.   Hmmmm…all those signs posted around Martinique and St. Lucia list these symptoms as being common for Zika.  Time to visit a doctor.

We visited a medical clinic in Rodney Bay that morning.  The doctor felt that this was Chikununga rather than Zika; but it also could be dengue.  All three viruses are transmitted by mosquitoes and all three are common throughout the tropics and sub-tropics.  Martinique has been hit especially hard with Chikununga for the past three years.  Since we had been at Martinique since 29 January and had only arrived in St. Lucia three days earlier, this meant that Bill definitely had gotten bitten at Martinique.  The virus has a 10-day incubation period before symptoms manifest, so there was no doubt this came from Martinique.  Lab work was performed to determine which virus but all that does is make someone a statistic – the treatment is the same for all three viruses.  The doctor gave us scripts for pain meds, a super-strength antihistamine and Prednisone (steroid).  Bill opted to stick with the over-the-counter two 650mg Acetaminophen every 8 hours for pain rather than take the prescription pain med ordered by the doctor.  He saw no reason to take codeine based meds unless absolutely required.  By the fourth day on these three medications, Bill was feeling almost normal once again.  The fatigue lasted a couple of weeks.  Thank goodness he had such a mild case of this virus.  We later met up with Austrian friends Herbert and Teneta on Kali Mera and learned that she got dengue at Martinique, but she had a more severe reaction and was hospitalized for 5 days at Fort du France.  We counted Bill very lucky to have suffered such a mild case.  By the way, he does not remember a single mosquito bite; but obviously one did bite him.  And it takes only one.

Bill was feeling almost normal by the time Trey, Kristina and Zachary arrived.  It had been a full year since we last saw them, and that is way too long to go without seeing family.  Zachary is now 15 years old and much larger than his grandfather.  Zach now is 6-feet 1-inch tall and has shoulders about 5-inches wider than Bill.  Zach still has a long way to grow to catch up with his dad who is 6-feet 6-inches tall, but he towers over his short mom and his not-so-short grandmother.  They grow up so fast!

Kristina, Zachary and Trey swimming at Rodney Bay

We went out for a short sail the day after they arrived and anchored out in Rodney Bay so Zachary could swim; then back into the marina for the night.  Sleeping in air-conditioned comfort was nice for everyone.  (kept mosquitoes at bay)  




Monday was a day for shopping and a follow-up at the medical clinic for Bill.  Our HP printer/scanner which was purchased in Australia in mid-2009 finally chose this morning to completely die.  Lucky that it died on a day when we were at an island that sells 230v electronics.  Bill found a new HP printer/scanner – this is a requirement for cruising boats.

On our final night in the marina we met up with Stuart and Sheila on S/V Imagine.  What a surprise!  We had lost track of them several years ago, and it was really nice to see them again.  Last time we were together was in 2007 somewhere in the Caribbean.  They followed us through the South Pacific and then completed a circumnavigation going under South Africa.  They arrived back in the Caribbean in May 2015 – departed the Caribbean a year later than us and returned more than a half-year before us.  They plan to head back to North Carolina soon, finished with cruising.  Seems that most of the folks we met cruising 10 years ago are now calling it quits and moving back to be landlubbers.   

On Tuesday we departed the marina for the final time and again anchored in Rodney Bay for swimming.  Sleeping at anchor was comfortable enough – cool enough that Trey and Kristina actually had to close the hatch in their forward cabin during the night because they got cold because of the high NE wind.  Feeling cold does not happen often in the Caribbean.

Petite Piton ( the northernmost Piton)

Next we sailed down to the moorings between the Pitons for a couple of nights.  One of the boat boys met us north of Souferie and accompanied our boat all the way to a mooring between the Pitons and helped us attach to a mooring.  Honestly, we could do this without any assistance; but the local men make their living acting as boat boys so we felt kind of obligated to utilize their assistance when possible.  We had no interest in any of the land tours they tout (and make commission on) but we could at least pay him for assisting us onto a mooring.  Since this guy had come so far with us and wasted so much of his time with us, yet we would not do any of his tours, Bill paid him 50 EC$ for his time and assistance.  That is $18.60 USD.  Other cruisers might not agree, but we feel that he deserved that much for his time spent with us.

Grand Piton (the one just to the south of Petite)

Zachary tried out our new dinghy and outboard engine.  The old 15-hp Mercury was on its last leg and we had been afraid to let him go anywhere by himself because he might get stranded if the outboard conked out.  The new one is a 10-hp Honda 4-stroke.  The new dinghy is a 3.1 meter 3D brand, manufactured in France.  It is PVC instead of Hypalon, but it is German PVC and not Chinese PVC.  We hope it will last through our remaining years of cruising.  Bill did a lot of research before buying this one and learned that the US Navy and US Coast Guard no longer specify Hypalon when purchasing tenders.  He also read that AB apparently no longer manufactures Hypalon dinghies.  Fingers crossed that this 3D dinghy lasts 3 to 5 years; that likely is the maximum time we will continue cruising before selling BeBe.

Winds swirled pretty aggressively between the Pitons so Zachary only got to drive the dinghy for one short spin around the bay.  But I think he will enjoy it if he visits us again someday.

Narrow entrance to Marigot Bay, almost hidden from sea

After a couple of nights at the Pitons we sailed/motored back north to Marigot Bay and docked at the nice Capella Marina.  Trey and Kristina treated us to a delicious dinner at an Indian restaurant located there.  I have forgotten the name of this restaurant but it was rated as the #1 restaurant on St. Lucia by TripAdvisor.  I enjoyed this very much.  Sheila on Imagine had told me that we should try this restaurant if possible, and she was right.  It is worth a stop in Marigot just to eat there.

Looking out from our berth in Marigot Bay at Capella Marina.
This is a beautiful and very small bay worth visiting.

Trey and family had arranged a taxi to collect them at Marigot marina for the ride to the airport at the southern tip of St. Lucia.  They left around noon and I spent the rest of the day doing laundry.  All those sheets, mattress protectors and towels added up to 7 loads of laundry; so my day was filled with housekeeping chores.  Lucky that I did all that laundry on Sunday because rain started overnight and continued for days.  We were glad that weather had been good during their visit.  By the way, they were treated twice to the infamous Green Flash during their week with us at St. Lucia.

After St. Lucia we needed to visit Martinique once again to collect some minor Amel parts which we had ordered.  The Amel Service Center had emailed us that these parts had been received after we had left Le Marin.   It was a rollicking sail north back to Martinique.  Weather forecast called for high NE trades for minimum of a week, so we took advantage of the least windy day to get back north that short 24 miles.  Even on the least windy day, winds were solid 25 knots and gusting 35 knots; and the boat was heeled over at 25 degrees, sometimes 35.  Actually was nice by our warped sense of good sailing conditions.  Upon checking into Marina du Marin we learned that the weekly rate would be 475 euro and the monthly rate only 559 euro, electricity included.  That was an easy choice! I have a number of small housekeeping projects and sewing repair projects to keep me busy while docked for a few weeks.  Even though we planned to be here only 2 nights, we paid for a full month.  We can come and go at will from the marina, although probably will be berthed in a different spot each time we return.  As soon as winds die down again we will sail back south to St. Lucia for shopping (love those American brands sold there!) and return back to Martinique.  These islands are so close together that sailing between them takes no more than 4 hours.  What a big change from how we have been sailing for years.  Loving the short distances in the Caribbean. 

While we wait for winds to lie down, we are enjoying restaurant dinners and visiting with new friends.  We are berthed on the ‘Amel service’ dock and have met several fellow Amel owners, a couple of whom are very new to cruising.  We each will be heading in different directions in the next few weeks; us heading south, one boat crossing the Atlantic, one boat going to Curacao for hurricane season, and one boat going north.  The four boats are not likely to meet up again any time soon, so it is nice to have this opportunity to enjoy new friends.

6 Weeks in Martinique

 4 March 2016

Marin Marina in Martinique is quite the bargain.  Jimmy Cornell had advised rally members that this is the least expensive marina in the Caribbean, and we believe he is correct.  Rally participants received 1 week free berthing upon arrival, including free electricity and water.  We inquired by email while still at sea and were informed that the rate for one month for our 16-meter boat would be 595 Euro, including electricity, plus metered water at 9 Euro per ton (1,000 liters).  What a deal!  Sign us up for a month, please.

Thus, we spent 5 weeks berthed in the marina, thoroughly enjoying sleeping in cold air-conditioning at night.  There are numerous restaurants within short walking distance and a supermarket right across the street from the marina, plus many well-stocked chandleries. This is a nice place to hang out and relax.  I was mentally ‘tired’ and needed to reset internal batteries for Caribbean vibes and put the Med countries and Atlantic crossing into memory.

The only disappointment in this marina is the Wi-Fi.  It is agonizingly slow!  We paid for Wi-Fi on the boat and were berthed fairly close to the access point for this dock, but service was painfully slow.  I attempted to log into Facebook once and it took a full 15 minutes for the home page to load.  There are several restaurants with free Wi-Fi for customers, but I quickly tired of paying $20 to $35 for us to split a lunch just to be able to access internet.  Everything else about this marina and small town is quite nice except for the inadequate Wi-Fi.  We checked with Digicel about purchasing a sim and prepaid data service, but they sell data only in 1 GB quantities and that would not last any time at all.  Plus, they informed us that there are several different Digicel companies servicing the Eastern Caribbean islands, and this particular Digicel would work ONLY in the French islands.  With that knowledge, we opted not to buy Digicel 3G service for this season because we plan to head south from Martinique this time.

Cornell Sailing arranged several activities for the Atlantic Odyssey participants upon arrival in Martinique.  There was a full week of what seemed like whirlwind social activities; then most of the rally boats departed the marina to begin their Caribbean island explorations.  About a half-dozen of us opted to remain in the marina for several weeks or a month.  Almost everyone was gone by 1 March.  We will depart the marina on 5 March and finally move to an anchorage, probably St. Anne’s.  Our elder son, daughter-in-law and 15-yr-old grandson are flying to St. Lucia and we will meet them in Rodney Bay Marina on 12 March for Spring Break.  Who knows, maybe we will sail back up to Martinique with them.  We like Martinique much better than St. Lucia.

Rather elaborate rum tasting at Clement Distillery

Rally participants were treated to a couple of welcome cocktail parties hosted by the Le Marin Martinique Office of Tourism.  We also enjoyed a day outing on a large bus to the Clement Estate and rum distillery.  The grounds of this estate are impressive.  There are many sculptures and art displays on the grounds.  The home is restored and well maintained.  And the rum distilled here far surpasses any of the rum we have tasted at other distilleries throughout the Caribbean.  And it is priced accordingly!  

The better rums are always the dark ones.

The Clement top-of-the-line is a rum aged 15 years and it costs 90 Euro per liter at the distillery, 115 at other locations around the island.  We purchased a liter bottle of the 10-year-old rum for 37 Euro, priced 42 at locations other than the distillery.  Andrew (crew member for Atlantic crossing) also purchased a bottle of the 10-year-old rum for BeBe.  It was tasty and did not last long.

A typical slave home.  Our guide lady is wearing a typical slave
straw hat of those days.

Next trip for rally participants was a visit to the slave plantation near Trois Ilets.  Bill and I had anchored off Trois Ilets in 2007 but had not visited this re-creation of a slave plantation.  One thing I liked was that our tour guide at the site always referred to the slaves of yesteryear as “the people.”  If this were in the USA, she probably would have used the nouns “we” and “us” rather than “the people.”  

Our guide explaining how an old manual sugar cane
press operated.  She was very pretty.

By the way, Martinique has a very long history of mixed race peoples and the results are that the natives of this island are very, very attractive – both males and females.  I think the most beautiful women of the entire Caribbean live on Martinique.  And mostly they are gracious and friendly, even with those of us who do not speak French. 

Bill listening attentively to our guide explain the various
punishments for slaves who repeatedly escaped and
were re-captured.

Our guide was informative and we finally learned why some people consider the fleur-de-lis to be a symbol of slavery.  Apparently in the French islands this symbol commonly was used to brand slaves who had attempted to escape.  


The first time a slave escaped and was captured, his ears were cut off and his back shoulders were branded with the fleur-de-lis. The second time he escaped and was re-captured, his leg was cut off just below the knee. The third time he escaped and was re-captured, his head was cut off.  And then placed on a post within the slave camp to deter future escapes by others. There was a small museum on the grounds of the slave camp with several statues and carvings which depicted slaves suffering these various punishments for having escaped.

Rally members at farewell dinner at The Mango.  In dark
blue shirt center, is our crew member, Andrew Blum.

At the farewell dinner party for rally participants each boat was awarded a small plaque and presented with a bottle of rum from the Maison La Mauny rum distillery here on Martinique.  Some folks got white rum and some received dark rum.  Thankfully, our gift bag contained a bottle of the dark rum.  It is not as good as the 10-year-old Clement rum, but it is pretty good.  We do not care for white rums so were thankful that our gift bag just happened to contain the dark one.

Bill, Andrew and Judy receiving a gift of rum
from Pascal, one of the rally organizers.

Bill and I were surprised when one of the rally organizers announced to the group that the arrival of S/V BeBe in Martinique completed our 10-year circumnavigation.  We did not expect any special recognition by the rally for this 'accomplishment.'  By the way, I had mentioned to Jimmy Cornell that some folks think Bill and I should not use the term 'circumnavigation' because we shipped BeBe through the Red Sea because of the bad piracy situation the year we were in that area.  His response to my comment -- "Psshww! Nonsense!"

BeBe dressed in the courtesy flags of all the countries
visited as we went around.  It is a tradition to dress
the boat in this manner when circle is complete.

Once again I would like to state that we thoroughly enjoyed participating in the Atlantic Odyssey.  This was our first rally and we were a bit apprehensive about participating in a group activity such as this because we usually do not like being committed to group activities and schedules.  But we think Jimmy Cornell has organized these rallies well and the price certainly cannot be beat.  You receive much more than should be expected for the minimal participation fees.  The fees for these Odyssey rallies are only about one-fourth of the fees for the ARC.  And, Jimmy is keeping these rallies limited to 40 boats per event.  It was fun participating with only 18 boats, and 40 boats would have been fine; but 280 to 300 boats like in the ARC is pure crazy in our opinions.

Andrew (our crew member for the Atlantic crossing) left BeBe on 16 February and joined another American rally boat named Wings which was sailing to St. Lucia.  We received an email from Andrew a few days ago and they were already in Bequia and planned to continue southward to Grenada.   Andrew was great as crew.  He chipped in and helped with both interior and exterior cleaning of the boat after arrival here.  He even kitted up and dived here in the nasty marina water and cleaned the water-line of the boat and scraped off all the goose-neck barnacles that accumulated under the sloped stern.  Those goose-neck barnacles always grow on the bottom of the stern on ocean passages.  They are easily scraped off if done immediately after arrival; but wait for just a couple of days and those things become hard as rocks and are very difficult to remove.  Many thanks to Andrew for doing this work for us.

Le Marin is the location of the Amel Authorized Service Center for the Caribbean.  This means that a lot of Amels visit this marina.  Bill has been very active in the Amel Owners’ Group online for 10 years and has developed somewhat of a reputation among fellow Amel owners.  Owners of a half-dozen Super Maramu yachts have arrived and dropped by to say hello.  It has been lots of fun sipping wine and sharing dinners with some of these folks.   Looking forward to meeting up with each of them again somewhere, sometime.

Crossing the Atlantic with 1 Sail and 20 Bimbos …and… OUR CIRCLE IS COMPLETE!

 2 February 2016

Rally boats departing Tenerife, BeBe on right.

All the ‘last minute’ things prepping BeBe for the Atlantic crossing were completed a couple of weeks  before the scheduled rally departure date.  Bill and our new crew member, Andrew, dropped the sails to remove a meter or so of the halyards to make sure there was no chafe.  They replaced the small lines attaching the heads of the sails to the halyards; nothing was wrong with the old lines but best to have new lines in place just before a long ocean crossing.  BeBe was as ready as she would ever be.  All that remained was for me to hit the supermarket for as many loaves of Bimbo as possible and to buy massive quantities of fresh produce at the very last minute in order to have the freshest possible at moment of departure. 

We did set the dual headsails but 90% of
the passage was under poled genoa only.

We have no idea what is in Bimbo breads (and do not want to know).  That stuff lasts for what seems like forever!  By the time I got to the supermarket the day before departure the supermarket shelves were nearly empty of Bimbo breads.  Seems like everyone knows this particular brand lasts for weeks (or months) and it was the brand purchased by all the sailors.  We ended up with 12 loaves of breads, plus 2 packages of hamburger buns and 4 packages of hot dog buns and 2 par-baked baguettes – all Bimbo brand and all with expiration dates well past our anticipated date of arrival.  About half-way through the crossing, Bill commented that someday he should write a book and entitle it, “How to Cross the Atlantic with 1 Sail and 20 Bimbos.”  Hence, the title of this blog posting.

Bill’s comment was based on the fact that the only sail we used most of the crossing was the genoa – poled out to port 90% of the time.  Take note that it is mandatory to have at least one spinnaker pole to cross this ocean unless you plan to gybe back and forth.  The wind was consistently from 180 degrees (directly astern) up to 150 degrees off starboard stern.  That wind angle requires a pole. 

The Atlantic Odyssey II rally departed Santa Cruz, Tenerife at noon UTC on Saturday, 9 January.  Jimmy Cornell had advised us at the skippers’ meeting the previous afternoon that he did not recommend taking either the rhumb line route which traditionally is the route used in January or the slightly longer ‘cautionary’ route to 20N 30W before turning westward.  Both of those routes normally used in January were not advisable this year because of a large tropical LOW which at the time of our rally departure was situated WSW of the Canary Islands.  He stressed that for liability reasons he was unable to provide any specific advice as to routing but he strongly suggested that we all head straight towards Mindelo, Cape Verde, before turning westward once reading the trade winds – the traditional ‘safe’ route.  Most skippers took Jimmy’s advice, I think.  We know of only 2 boats that opted to try the ‘cautionary’ route to 20N 30W – Jacqueline and ViVa – and both managed to avoid the increasing storm.  Lucky them!  ViVa later diverted farther southward while Jacqueline continued toward 20N 30W.  Jacqueline shaved at least 200 nautical miles off the total passage by going this route.  We took the longer route totaling 2960 NM.

Because that tropical LOW developed into Tropical Storm Alex and then increased to Hurricane Alex!   How about that!!  We had waited to cross in January rather than November because traditionally January is the better month for weather.  Jimmy Cornell was the founder of the ARC which has departed from the Canary Islands annually in mid-November for about 40 years.  He said that he never wanted the ARC to depart that early in the year; he has always felt that November is too early to cross the Atlantic.  It is possible for a late-season hurricane to develop in November.  Plus, the trade winds are rarely established in November; the trades usually do not fill in until after Christmas.  These reasons traditionally make January the better weather time for crossing.  But the ARC departs in November because so many people want to be in the Caribbean before Christmas.  However, due to our changing climate, this particular year a hurricane developed in January!  There have been recorded hurricanes (or, at least one) in January.  But this phenomenon is very, very rare. 

That LOW just west of BeBe is the one that turned
into Hurricane Alex.

Those 2 boats were very lucky Alex stopped tracking ESE and then began to move northward toward the Azores.   I had checked windyty.com before we departed Tenerife and saw that the LOW was predicted to follow the exact path that Alex did track; but the hurricane could just as easily have continued another 100NM to ESE before making that stop and change of direction.  Both boats arrived safely and never encountered any heavy weather, so no harm done; but it was rather ballsy in our opinions to chance possible intersection with a growing storm.  We instead opted to head straight toward Mindelo, Cape Verde.  After being sucked up into that storm in the Bay of Bengal in early 2011 and spending 5 days circling the eye, we were taking absolutely no chances of going anywhere near the tropical LOW, much less near a hurricane.

A mid-Atlantic full rainbow, left side.

We were plagued with frequent inability to obtain weather reports and emails during this crossing.  Even using both Winlink and Sailmail there were many days when we could connect with neither.  Bill pulled only one weatherfax file and that was for Tuesday, 12 January.  It verified that the LOW was still following the prediction we had seen on 9 January on windyty.com.  So we felt safely east of the storm.  Still…we were shocked when on 15 January we received a weather report from rally control stating that the LOW was now the first hurricane of 2016 and was named Alex.  In January!!!   Thankfully, Hurricane Alex was headed away from us at this time.

A mid-Atlantic full rainbow, right side.

We continued south toward Mindelo, postponing the decision whether to stop or not until we got there.  We did not need fuel and had no equipment failures or medical issues, so why stop if the trade winds had filled in by the time we got down there?  The passage between Tenerife and Cape Verdes seemed to take forever.  It was a very slow passage and I think we averaged only about 135NM daily.  Our slowest times…ever.

One day out of Mindelo we experienced wind squalls for the first time.  These were strange.  They were light gray and did not show up on radar at all.  These contained no rain but were packed with strong winds.  We could see these during daylight but had no idea where they were after dark since these were undetectable by radar.  We were lucky and had no bad experiences with these wind squalls, but 2 other boats were caught in a few.  Amakora got hit by several, the highest winds being gusts of 69 knots!  Kandiba saw 44 knots.  We never saw anything over 30 knots gusts and were very glad to leave those behind us.

Cape Verde westernmost island, 10 miles distant.

We sailed within 10 NM north of Mindelo in the Cape Verdes and found the westerly trade winds.   The 3 of us immediately decided to keep on trucking.  We were into the rhythm of the passage watches and saw no reason to stop.  Bill joked that we should stop for African pizza and beer but I said instead we could have Caribbean pizza and beer in a couple of weeks. 

Seaweed dinner.  Better catch a fish on the next cast!

As we finally changed course headed west, Andrew started trolling our first fishing line.  There was so much seaweed floating in large clumps which fouled the fishing line and lure that this effort was soon abandoned.  Others reported on the VHF radio that they were catching fish but we did not have the right kind of gear to weight the lures down low enough in the water to avoid all that floating seaweed.

Andrew with the only mahi-mahi caught across the
entire ocean.  Big enough for 1 meal for 3 people.

A few days later Andrew caught a small mahi-mahi.  It was the perfect size for dinner for the 3 of us.  The next day he caught a much larger mahi-mahi but it managed to spit the lure just as it came up to the boat and Bill was unable to reach it with the gaff in time.  That one would have fed all 3 of us both lunch and dinner for at least 3 days!  What a shame he got away!  The next day the same lure caught a small tuna but it also managed to spit the lure before being gaffed.  We were really liking this particular lure!  It was one that was designed to dive 15 feet and it avoided most of the seaweed and the fish seemed to like it.  

Put out the line; reel it in because fouled with seaweed.
That got old quickly.

Unfortunately, soon after something really large took that lure.  Awwwhhh….it was our favorite!  We had no more lures that would dive deep enough to avoid the seaweed and we had no weights to keep the line deep enough down, so that was the end of our fishing.  We are going to search for another of those type lures in Martinique; I saved the package and want to find on identical one.

A synopsis of our Atlantic crossing is short and simple:  way too much motion but needed only 1 sail and those 20 Bimbos.

We ate hearty meals on passage.  Meatloaf, mashed
potatoes with demi-glace gravy and steamed
broccoli was a typical meal.

We experienced no squalls; in fact, no rain whatsoever.  The nearest rain shower across the entire ocean tracked 7 NM north of us. And how we would have enjoyed having that fresh water rinse to wash off some of the heavy slimy salt which covered the entire boat!

The typical daily weather forecast from rally control included statements such as:

“24 hour forecast weakening cold front in a line south of XX and west of XX.  NE to E winds 20 to 25 KT.  Seas 9 to 11 ft in mixed N-NE and SE swell.  48 hour forecast E of a line from XX to XX winds 20 KT or less.  Seas 10 ft. in mixed N and S swell.”

If one eats those hearty meals and wants to maintain
physique, exercise is required.  100 push-ups.
Perfect form.

Don't know how he was able to maintain perfect
form push-ups on that rolling deck, but he did.

We still do not understand how swell can come from both north and south at the same time, but it does.  When converging swell would occur at our stern, BeBe would slide down those 3-meter turbulent swells at a 45-degree angle.  The trusty Autohelm ST7001+ autopilot handled it beautifully and recovered quickly to keep us on course.  We occasionally switched to the chain drive as a precautionary measure – to allow the linear drive to cool off.  The linear drive always worked perfectly but we did not want to over-task it.  The chain drive did not steer as easily and effectively as the linear drive in the heavier stern waves.

Having a third crew member aboard is really the only way to go.  We now strongly recommend having a minimum of 3 crew members for ocean crossings.  Those extra hands do come in handy.  Bill and I could have easily handled the crossing with just the 2 of us but it was nice to have Andrew’s assistance which allowed each person more sleep.  Having 1 additional person aboard required no additional work for meals or housekeeping and Andrew was a big help.  Having that crew member be of the same nationality, in our case all Texans from the same general area of Texas, contributed to the congeniality on board.

First glimpse of Martinique, a most welcome sight.

The first rally boat to arrive in Le Marin was Jacqueline on 28 January, one of the boats which had taken a more direct course rather than go so far to Cape Verdes.  The captain said they were about 195 miles NW of Cape Verde when they turned westward.  The following day 3 Amels arrived near the same time.  The first to arrive that day was Kandiba, an Amel 55 owned by friends Hassan and Zehrya who were accompanied by their niece Fatma and darling little dog Carlos Santana.  Next was BeBe and minutes behind us was ViVa.  BeBe and ViVa are sister-ships, Amel Super Maramu 2000 model.  There also was another Amel Super Maramu that arrived at the same time but that boat was not part of the Atlantic Odyssey rally.  Three identical Amels arriving at the same time kind of filled up the fairway near the fuel dock where boats are instructed to drift until the captainerie (marineros) arrive to assist docking each boat.

BeBe arriving Martinique near rally finish line.

Arrival at Le Marin completes the circle for us.  Our longest passage was 3,024.2 NM between Galapagos Islands and Hiva Oa, Marquesas.  That one took 19 days and 23 hours.  Crossing the Atlantic from Tenerife to Martinique was the second longest passage at 2,960 NM and took 20 days 5 hours.  The Atlantic took 6 hours longer and covered 64.2 fewer miles. 

Judy, Bill and Andrew with welcoming rum punch
on dock at arrival Martinique.

Over the past 9 years 9 months we have sailed a total of 34,989 nautical miles around the world.  That number does not include tacking back and forth as all sailboats do; it is the point-to-point miles of our sailing destinations.  We did not keep records of actual miles sailed but rather focused on the distances between anchorages or ports.  BeBe was transported aboard a cargo ship through the Somali pirates and Arab Spring violence during early 2011 for a total of 3,866 NM.  (We later sailed back south and farther east in the Med, so at least 500 of those miles transported were later sailed by us anyway.)  Including that transported distance, the total BeBe has covered is 38,855 nautical miles (plus all that tacking and gybing).  I have not yet counted all the countries visited but guess the total is around 53 or 56 or so.  We know this is not a mariner’s definition for a circumnavigation but we truly do not care what anyone wants to calls our round-the-world adventure.  Call it whatever you like: we have circled the world -- mostly via boat and a minor distance via airplane.  It has been a fantastic 10 years!

Time to relax and enjoy.  Rum punch was delightful.
Judy drank 4, and she never drinks rum punch.

And now very pleased to be back in the Caribbean where we will relax and enjoy the cruising life for several more years.  No plans and happy to have no plans for a change.

A month in Tenerife

31 January 2016

December and early January were slightly busy times and I was remiss in keeping this blog current.  Too much socializing and a bit of sight-seeing kept us occupied, plus a very enjoyable visit by a longtime friend…left us living life rather than writing about it.  Time to catch up.  I am writing this posting; however, we have no internet connection so publishing this posting must wait until we find a bar or restaurant with wifi.  The wifi in our current location is barely sufficient to access basic email.  I cannot remember where I left off at the last blog posting, so bear with me if things are repeated.

Herbert and Bill in Santa Cruz

We arrived in Santa Cruz on the island of Tenerife on 6 December, escorted for a short time by a short-finned pilot whale.  An Austrian friend, Herbert, was on his beautiful Santorin docked just down from BeBe.  Herbert joined us for a celebratory dinner the following evening for my 67^th birthday.  The next day he set off for Cape Verde.  His plans are to visit Brazil and we are headed to Martinique, so who knows when or where we again will meet up..

                     

Glenn and Judy on Christmas morning.  Lox on toasted
slices baguette with capers and champagne.

We walked around Santa Cruz most days to acquaint ourselves with the city but we saved sight-seeing for later in the month when our friend, Glenn Martin, planned to visit during the Christmas holidays.  We last saw Glenn when he visited us in Cyprus around November 2011 and we were looking forward to catching up once again.  A few more of the rally boats arrived at the marina.  And people on other rally boats flew back to their respective countries to celebrate Christmas.  I do not think any of us mentally could get into ‘crossing’ mode until after 1 January.

Our only Christmas decoration,
courtesy of Glenn.

On Christmas night the Puertos de Tenerife presented a free symphony concierto with opera and holiday music.  The stage was erected near our berth so we enjoyed the music from the comfort of our cockpit rather than deal with the 25,000 people seated in the stands..  It was very nice.  Fireworks at midnight completed the festivities.

Glenn and Bill on one of the pedestrian streets of
La Laguna

The following day Bill, Glenn and I found the ‘tram’ (light rail) and visited La Laguna.  La Laguna is the original capital of Tenerife; today the capital is Santa Cruz.  The light rail is extremely inexpensive and makes a trip up the mountain easy for tourists to visit the historic town.  It was quite blustery on the day of our visit and too cool for us to eat outdoors.  These Europeans are a heartier bunch than we of the more southern climes.  We found a nice restaurant and enjoyed a delicious indoor lunch.  Took us a few minutes to realize that we were eating in a Turkish restaurant!  Did not expect to find a Turkish restaurant in La Laguna.  It was great.

This Bethelem/nativity display covered an entire room.

While walking in Santa Cruz that day we visited the parliament building for the Canary Islands to see an exhibit presented on  the ground floor and open to the public.  This was a huge nativity scene.  It encompassed Bethlehem and included everything one might think of regarding the biblical story of Christ’s birth.  It was refreshing to see this common sense approach by a governmental entity regarding religion.  What a difference from the contentiousness in the USA regarding displays of religious significance in public spaces.  The Spanish approach is that the majority of the country is Christian so it is most appropriate to display Christian displays in public spaces.  Displays of other religions are also allowed; those are just not as common.  Presenting a display of acknowledgment of one religious belief does not diminish any other religion nor does it impose a connection between government and any religion.  We are so overly sensitive about this in the USA and it was refreshing to see this common sense approach here.

Bill and our temporary crew member for the Atlantic
crossing, Andrew Blum.

Our crew member for the upcoming Atlantic crossing arrived on 27 December.  Let me introduce Andrew Blum, a young fellow Texan from Huffman who wanted to add an Atlantic crossing to his sailing resume.  Andrew contacted us while he was still working at a yacht charter company in Thailand last summer.  At first Bill and I were not interested in taking a crew member; we have enjoyed our ocean crossings with just the two of us.  But upon further reflection we decided that two people nearing age 70 probably should have another person along.  If one of us became incapacitated for any reason, the other person would be left to single hand and neither of us is up to that task.  Therefore, we agreed that Andrew could join us for the crossing.  His arrival overlapped four days before Glenn’s departure and we decided to see the island together.

El Teide in background

We had been trying unsuccessfully to rent a car for a couple of weeks.  Finally we scored a car for two days only.  The first day we drove to the Teide volcano near the center of the island.  The landscape was unworldly!  Driving up through the national forest was so very different from the other Canary Islands we visited.  Views were spectacular!  Nearly an hour from the cable car we passed the observatory that friends had suggested we visit, but we continued onward.  Figured we would not see much at an observatory during bright sunlight hours.

Those little things are cars.  Looked small from this
elevation.  This 'valley' resembled a smaller version
of the Grand Canyon.

Turned out to be an excellent decision!  We arrived at the cable car parking areas and decided since it was so late in the day that we would drive past the outlying parking areas and try our luck right at the entrance.  Another car pulled out and we parked right at the entrance.  What luck!  We rushed to get in queue to purchase tickets.  The attendant closed the line right behind us!  Had we parked farther down the mountain and walked up then we would not have arrived in time to catch the last cable car of the day.

View from our cable car when headed up.

Teide is the second or third largest volcano in the world.  As previously mentioned, I do not have internet access at the moment and do not remember any specifics about Teide.  What I do remember is that it looked like we were driving on a narrow twisting road on the planet Mars.  Or maybe on the moon.  As I stated, it was unworldly.  I developed much respect for the guys who built that road through that terrain; it had to have been a most difficult job.  

Another volcano crater down lower.

The tippy-top of El Teide.

Bill at uppermost point that we visited.  Had patches
of ice and snow in crevices up there.  Very cold!

Each of us said that this was a place to which we would like to return for another visit someday.  Few places strike us like that, but this was so unique that it would deserve a second visit.

The top cable car platform sits at elevation of 11,388 feet.  Consider that for a moment.  That is almost 1,000 feet ABOVE two miles above sea level.  That famous Colorado ‘mile high city’ has nothing on Teide!  And was it ever cold!  It was shorts and tee shirt weather down at sea level and it was winter coat weather up here!  We had debated whether to bring jackets or not because it was so warm and still at the marina that morning.  Thankfully, common sense prevailed and we had jackets because it was very cold even wearing those jackets.  Temperature was 32F or 0C and wind was blowing about 20-knots.

Another lower section of El Teide which we visited
with the bus tour.

For those more physically fit (and probably younger), it is possible to obtain a special permit from the national park service of Spain to hike to the very top of Teide.  I had looked into these permits when we first arrived at Tenerife but they were booked through 15 January.  I was glad that we had been unable to obtain the hiking permits because there was no way I would have been able to hike up there.  I found it difficult to breathe when merely walking level, no way I could have managed that steep incline to the top.  We stayed at the upper level for about an hour soaking up the cold.  

The observatory

Glenn and Andrew walked out a path but Bill and I stayed at the beginning of that path.  I was leery of walking very far because did not think I would be able to walk back.  Breathing was difficult and reminded me of our visit to Cusco, Peru and those high altitudes.  People with any cardiovascular ailments are warned not to venture up this high, and I could understand why.  My faulty mitral valve was causing my heart to pound just standing; any physical exertion (even walking on flat level) caused slight chest pain.  Take care visiting heights like this.

My favorite photo of the day.  The setting sun caused the shadow
of El Teide to cover part of the 'valley' below.  Loved the lighting
of the area at that time of day.

Our cable car ride back down the mountain was right at sunset.  The lighting over the scenery below was gorgeous.  It looked very different than it had in full sunlight and we were glad to have had the opportunity to see the area in both conditions.

Los Gigantes

The following day we drove the main highway to the southern end of the island and then up the northwest coastline to see Los Gigantes. Los Gigantes are very high cliffs that go straight down to the sea.  The views are gorgeous.   

After lunch in the seaside town we visited a Lidl supermarket to stock up on junk foods for the upcoming Atlantic crossing.   And found a dark rum that was manufactured by the Ron family which is branded only for distribution to Lidl.  It was wonderful!  Love the convenience of a rental car every once and awhile. We wished later that we had bought several cases of this particular rum, but without a car that was impossible since it is sold only at Lidl and the nearest Lidl was half-way down the island from our marina.

The western coast of Tenerife just south of Los Gigantes.
A somewhat rough 'beach'

The Ron family rum (the name of which I have forgotten) led us to research sugar cane and the production of rum in the Canary Islands.  We got curious because we had seen no sugar cane growing on any of the islands we visited. Turns out that sugar cane is not native to the Caribbean or the Americas.  Sugar originated in India and remained locally until the Arabs brought it to Europe, where it spread rapidly thanks to the normal human desire for sweet tastes.  Sugar cane arrived in the Canary Islands from Madeira, also thanks to the Arabs.  Columbus brought sugar cane from the Canary Islands to the Caribbean (Cuba to be specific) on his second voyage to the new world.  That sugar cane came either from Gran Canaria or La Gomera rather than from Tenerife.  Anyway, all that sugar cane in the Caribbean and the Americas originated from the Canary Islands.  Odd that this was never mentioned in our history lessons.

Glenn departed on 1 January.  We enjoyed his visit very much and look forward to him visiting BeBe again somewhere in the Caribbean.

Very different weather conditions on the day of the bus
tour than on the day we visited El Teide in the rent car.
Marina level was cloudy and drizzling rain.  Up above the
clouds, beautiful sunshine weather.

Cornell Sailing opened their offices at the marina for the rally festivities on 4 January.  The Port of Tenerife hosted participants for a cocktail lunch (fabulous!) and the Real Club Nautico hosted participants for cocktails again that evening.  They served the most delicious octopus we have ever tasted; many other delicacies too, but the grilled octopus was fantastic.  The local wine also was pretty darn good.  So good that we went out and bought a few bottles of that label.

The island of La Palma in distance.  Above cloud level.

Another day a bus tour was organized by Cornell Sailing for a trip to Teide for participants of the Atlantic Odyssey II.  Great!  We would get our second opportunity to see this unique landscape.  The tour guide stated that there are over 200 volcanoes on Tenerife.  I suspect that something got lost in the translation.  It is more likely that there are over 200 vents that can erupt from the single enormous volcano.  But we are not geologists and have no special education on volcanoes, so maybe the guide was correct.

Top of El Teide.  That tiny structure on the right is
the upper cable car station.  No way I could hike up
to that top!

Bill with El Teide and clouds
in background.

This area of Teide national park was called the Wedding
Cake.  This shows a small sample of the varying soils
and rocks in this area.

The Atlantic Odyssey II departed Santa Cruz, Tenerife on 9 January in very light winds due to a tropical LOW situated southwest of the Canary Islands.  Another blog posting will cover the crossing.