Our trip is now nearly over. Sitting at the southern tip of St. Vincent, all that still awaits us are the beautiful Grenadines, and then our final destination, Grenada. It may sound like a lot, but in light of all the cruising we have done over the past two months, it’s really just a small…
Author: Andy
Heading south with Bini
After the kids departure we have a full week with my sister Bini. And what a wonderful week it is. The opening act is something special, even for us: a night sail. It is born out of a quandary. A massive winter storm system is passing eastward over the northern Atlantic. Its counterclockwise winds are…
Our stowaway “Tante Bini”
“She is here, she is here! Awwww, Bini!”, the kids exclaim as we approach JACE. Everybody is so excited. My sister Sabine, or Bini, is an absolute sweetheart and much adored “Tante Bini” by her niece and nephew. Her visit onboard has been highly anticipated. We carefully planned her visit to overlap with the kids for…
Exploring northern Antigua
The four of us haven’t sailed together in a couple of years. And our 5-month trip on “Towanda” lies almost ten years in the past. The kids where but 12 and 10 then and as lasting as the memories are, that adventure seems ages ago. Now we have two weeks with our two grown, independent…
Christmas afloat
They have arrived! After so much anticipation we are at the small Antigua airport. It is surprisingly busy with quite a few flights touching down in short progression. We wait patiently. Or not so patiently. Customs must be very busy and it takes quite a while. But finally we catch the familiar sight of our…
Shipshape
Over the past few weeks along our travels, we’ve kept a running list of boat projects. It’s quite amazing how many small and sometimes large jobs a boat like this creates for you. The small ones we often don’t mention in our blog. What you hear more about are the bigger, sometimes frustrating, problems, and…
Made it to Antigua
Antigua holds a special place in the pantheon of Caribbean islands. I always have wanted to see it. So when we looked for flights for the kids to visit us for Christmas, Antigua was the preferred fly-to airport and became the destination of our trip. That makes it a special moment for us as we…
Almost on schedule
It has been three weeks since we arrived on Grenada and we are still slowly making our way north towards our destination – Antigua. Our kids will arrive there on December 23rd. So far we are two days behind our “schedule”, but we have a few days to spare, so we will be fine. Still,…
Making our way up north
It’s been two weeks since we arrived in the Caribbean. It does not feel that long. More and more we settle into a routine and get into cruising mode. Our mood is a bit up and down; there are moments of bliss and happiness and being able to visit these islands feels like such a…
Getting into cruising mode
We are so happy we finally are casting off our lines. It’s a nervous moment when you leave port after such a long time. Did we think of everything? Will the boat work? Do we still know how to sail? The harbor master and his crew help us with the undocking maneuver and then skipper…