Vessel Name: | Flamingo |
Vessel Make/Model: | Knysna 480 |
Hailing Port: | U.S. Virgin Islands |
Crew: | Owners: Capt. Tim Mahoney + Admiral Susan Mahoney +Jeff Philliips |
About: | Owners are excapees from the States. Crewman Jeff is a Retired ex Census worker Currently unemployed and adrift and missing his wife back home. |
Hello! We are currently anchored in Rodney Bay, at the North end of St. Lucia. Since I last posted, we left Bequia and headed for Blue Lagoon, St. Vincent to meet with the Barefoot Charter people to discuss putting Flamingo into charter. We had a very informative meeting and will definitely keep chartering as an option. Blue Lagoon was very small, it is actually pretty much dedicated to charter boats that are kept on moorings. From St. Vincent we motorsailed up the leeward (west) coast of St. Vincent. It is a beautiful island with dramatic mountains and beautiful beaches. After a rainy, cloudy afternoon we arrived at Soufriere, the southern anchorage in St. Lucia. This area had been hit pretty badly by Tomas at the end of Oct. and the town was still suffering from the damage. We had a beautiful mooring right at the base of the Pitons. Our friends Babbi and Ronnie (from Puerto Rico) arrived on their cat and moored right next to us. We had a wonderful dinner together and lots of laughs as we shared catamaran mishaps and adventures. We let go the mooring early the next morning and motored up the coast of St. Lucia. We had very light winds with heavy rain clouds all around - we even saw a water spout a few miles away (yikes). By the time we anchored in Rodney Bay the rain started in earnest and we had heavy rains the rest of the day. This island is far more developed than any of the others we've seen and has a stronger tourist infrastructure. Rodney Bay is a wide open bay with easy access to the large marina, stores, fuel etc. Once we are able to fix our @#(R&%^#&$@&@# generator, we will be off North again. Depending on the weather we plan to stop in Marintique next. Until then.....Cheers
Hello Everyone! I have finally overcome my tech fear and have figured out how to post again! Tim & I are heading North from Grenada now after spending the summer awaiting the end of the hurricane season. We began our trek last Thursday leaving Grenada for Carriacou's Tyrrell Bay. It was an uneventful but pleasant sail and we were happy to find our friends, Ted & Honey there on their ketch, Patron. They are very experienced cruisers of 12+ years having left Vancouver Canada, Mexico and then the South Pacific for a number of years. They actually made the Atlantic crossing about the same time we did and had a similar of light winds, long trip, etc. We moved Northward to Mayreau and anchored in Salt Whistle Bay. Unbelievable! It was quiet and we did a lot of swimming beach combing. Our friends, Guy and Christine on a Knysna 440 were there with their dog, Princess and we had a wonderful dinner on their boat, Princess of Tides. Off we went in the morning to Bequia, Admiralty Bay. The winds were averaging about 15 knots and we zoomed along at 7-9 knots, arriving about mid-day. Bequia is a pretty little island and the people are pretty savvy towards yachties. We saw friends Tim met over the summer, Ronnie and Bobbie from Puerto Rico on their Catana 47 cat. They have so much info about PR that we'll have to have a spaghetti dinner on Flamingo tomorrow night to get it all. Then we will leave on Tues to go to St. Vincent. We are curious about the Barefoot Charter people and if that will be a possibility for us in the future. St. Vincent does not enjoy a good reputation among cruisers due to theft, etc. We will only stay a day or two and then head on to St. Lucia.
Hello Everyone! I am so sorry we have not osted for a long time. We were trying to post thru sailmail and after a few weeks we got all our blog entries kicked back. Couldn't really diagnose what the problem was so I'll just bring everyone up to date now. We had a slow crossing with light winds and with [...]
Departing tomorrow (Saturday, Mar. 13th) towards St.Helena after a fuel up and a service call and replacement of our Garmin radar (hurrah for warranty coverage!). Kevin and Rika from Knysna Yacht Company have been terrific throughout the build and sea trials from Knysna to Capetown. We have had a wonderful visit to Capetown but look forward to our crossing. We also want to acknowledge the help of John Titherton (sp) from multihulls4us for his genorous time and sage advice on the crossing as well as helping to get our airmail system up and running through Single Side Band RF.
Departure to Capetown will likely be Saturday, March 6th.
Still at Harbor going through another week of fine tuning and fitup. Pictures were taken of all sail configurations and will be posted later this week. Workers from Knysna Yacht Co. will be on the boat all this week. Hopefully we can get the generator up and running (fuel line needs to be bled). Once that is done we will be able to communicate to the blog more often. Departure to Capetown will likely be the first weather window after Feb 23rd. Mast reset with an adjustment to the furling rig will take place in Capetown as well as a Garmin software upgrade then it is on to St. Helena. Ciao for now!