My previous Caribbean cruise took place from Nov. 2008 through March 2010 and convinced me that I wanted to go for it all and sail into the Pacific.

After arranging to lease my house and selling the old mono-hull, Broad Reaching, I am back to cruising again with my new boat partner, Rixzene Ayers.

Even though, or perhaps because, we had both previously owned and cruised aboard mono-hull ketches, we agreed that cruising aboard a catamaran was what we wanted. We purchased a Leopard 47 from the Moorings in Tortola, BVI. In February, 2011.

The boat was named Star Eyes and had been in charter service since being built in 2004. She was equipped, like all bareboats, with adequate equipment for island hopping short distances for short periods of time. We knew we had to make substantial additions to prepare the boat for long range cruising

We loaded far too many personal belongings, boat items and consumables into a container and had it shipped from Fl to Tortola. We were very fortunate to have one month at a dock in Tortola, courtesy of the Moorings, to load the contents of our container ( a 20ft x 10 ft x 8 ft truck body) onto the boat and to accomplish the most important installations of equipment.

The first task was to add an arch at the back of the boat to carry six 130watt solar panels. This would enable us to power all our electrical needs without running the diesel generator, nor the engines. We agreed the existing generator as well as the three air conditioners were items we would have no use for....little did we know.. The arch is huge. It is sixteen and one half feet wide. It was fabricated in Fl and shipped in the container and it did not quite fit the boat...

The next change was to re-insulate the refrigerator / freezer compartments and to replace the engine driven compressor with a 12 volt system.

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Meanwhile Rixzene was tackling the installation of a new mainsail and stackpak ( a glorified sail cover that makes dropping the sail and putting it away, a lot easier.)

It was very warm and very humid during this period and we worked long, long days getting as much as possible done while we were tied shoreside.

The next effort was to install the solar panels onto the arch and to install the solar controller.

At exactly this time our month long, free dockage was over and we were on our way to St. Thomas to provision the boat. St. Thomas have had a few unpleasant things said about it, but it is a great place to do provisioning while in the islands and I always enjoy my time there.

After a week in St. Thomas we sailed overnight to St, Martin. I learned two things that night.

The first thing is, catamarans really do BANG when in anything but small waves and the only way to live with it is too say, “If it breaks, it breaks. I’m not worrying about it.” So for perhaps the first fifteen minutes of our overnight trip I was concerned about the loud BANGING caused by the waves slamming up into the underside of the boat and then.... I ignored it. It was a great sail and we never had to tack.

The second thing is, nighttime crossings of 70 to 90 miles are silly and unwarranted. That distance can be covered easily by leaving at perhaps 4 a.m. and arriving well before dark the next evening. Somehow a lot of us cruisers have got it in our heads that sailing from the Virgins to St Martin, etc. or from Grenada to Trinidad is best done overnight so we will have adequate daylight when entering the new harbour. Hogwash! Leaving at 4 a.m. and knowing there will be daylight in an hour or so is far better than leaving at dusk and spending all night sailing in the dark. My friend Richard on Snowaway pointed that out and I want to thank him for it.

St. Martin was a “non event.” We bought some boat items and in a few days moved on to Saba.

Saba was very nice. We sailed / motored/ sailed as the wind never did quite figure out if it wanted to blow 20 knots or hide. We went by the north shore along the high, vertical face of the mountain. I wish now I had taken the boat in much closer. Rixzene was struck by how much it reminded her of the Marquesas in French Polynesia. It really is an impressive sight. Saba was not done with that display, however. We took a mooring ball near the only “port” in Saba and dinghied ashore. The port here can be quite rough coming in by dinghy, but we had a particularly calm ride in and were greeted by a quite remarkable sign. Rixzene makes it a point to take pictures of somewhat bizarre signs she comes across and this warranted a photo session.

Insert pic of sign

We took a taxi ride up the island. Usually I would say “around the island” but in Saba you go “up” the island. It is very vertical and beautiful. There are more photo ops per mile here than anywhere I have been. Saba is worth the stop...for sure!

We then sailed to Nevis. Montseratt, Guadaloupe, Iles de Saintes and Dominoca in rather short order, before stopping in Dominica for an extended period.

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