Sapphire Sailing Adventures

Vessel Name: Sapphire
Vessel Make/Model: Bristol 41
Hailing Port: Rochester, NY
Crew: Moby & Caroline Burton
17 April 2019 | Laying out 200' of chain on deck
16 April 2019 | Prickly Bay, Grenada
16 April 2019 | Prickly Bay, Grenada
13 April 2019 | Tyrell Bay, Carriacou
12 April 2019 | Admiralty Bay, teaching William about reading music
11 April 2019 | Admiralty Bay, Bequia
10 April 2019 | Pink Sunset off Bequia
10 April 2019 | Papa's Restaurant overlooking Admiralty Bay, Bequia
09 April 2019 | Winfield applying coat #6 of Epiphane Varnish to Sapphire's coaming
08 April 2019 | Tennis Court behind the Gingerbread House, Bequia
04 April 2019 | Floating Beach Bar
04 April 2019 | Bequia
03 April 2019 | Admiralty Bay, Bequia
03 April 2019 | Center Hatch on Sapphire
02 April 2019 | Admiralty Bay, Bequia, The Grenadines
02 April 2019 | Sailing past St Lucia across from the Pitons
28 March 2019 | Anse de Salines, Martinique
28 March 2019
28 March 2019 | Sapphire's Cockpit
24 March 2019
Recent Blog Posts
17 April 2019 | Laying out 200' of chain on deck

Haul Out Day

"I always feel like The Ghost from Christmas Past when we do this exercise of hauling the heavy chain out on our side deck to rinse it and let it dry." On our primary alone, we have 200' of chain and 120' of rope. Then our secondary anchor has 200' of rope and 30' of chain.

16 April 2019 | Prickly Bay, Grenada

Getting Ready to be Hauled Out

We enjoyed a lovely leisurely couple of days sailing down to Grenada from Bequia, arriving on Palm Sunday.

16 April 2019 | Prickly Bay, Grenada

Grenada's Cruiser's Net

The cruiser’s net in Grenada is always very lively. On Safety and Security this morning we heard that a sailboat coming up from Trinidad had a boatful of eight ‘Venezuelan looking’ men trying to overtake them. The sailboat was able to get away,. but the hull is riddled with bullet holes. They [...]

13 April 2019 | Tyrell Bay, Carriacou

New Way to Clear into Customs

How do you clear in to Customs, when you arrive at a port and don’t feel like blowing up your dinghy?

12 April 2019 | Admiralty Bay, teaching William about reading music

Teaching William some Notes

I realized that if I set up my piano early in the morning, then I can play before there is too much sun in the cockpit.

11 April 2019 | Admiralty Bay, Bequia

Paddling around Bequia

As my buddy Joan Dwyer would say, “the goal in paddle boarding is to avoid looking like a little old lady pushing a Wegman’s cart.” Actually, I’ll be doing that soon enough as we are heading home in a week.

Tyler's Graduation

12 May 2012 | LA at last!
Caroline
I was heading off to my youngest son, Tyler’s, college graduation. It was one of the biggest events of my life, long anticipated from the day he was born, and one that no mother would miss. However, thanks to a four-hour delay by American Airlines, I missed it.

I had managed to retrieve my checked luggage, got my seat moved up to be in position to be the first person off the plane. (Due to lack of storage space on Sapphire, no rolling suitcases are allowed on our boat.) So I then had to sprint two miles, lugging a heavy duffle and carryon. Zipped my way through security to find that my connecting flight had left six minutes earlier. It was the last flight out Thursday night, which meant there would be no possible way that I could make it to Tyler’s 8 AM graduation.
Tyler’s 2nd ceremony, for the USC Engineering School, was due to begin at 10:45 AM and the replacement flight that American Airlines had stuck me on, was due to land at 11 AM. En route, I noticed on the flight path screen that our plane was making all sorts of extreme detours.

“We apologize for the delay” our Captain announced. “Our President is at the LAX Airport saying goodbye to George Clooney, who has just made a significant campaign contribution. Anyway, the detour that you have undoubtably noticed, is due to the fact that there are about 100 planes out here, trying to avoid colliding. We will be back on course as soon as we are given the word that the coast is clear.”

I was still hoping beyond hope that I could somehow make it to USC before Tyler’s name was called to cross the stage. When we at last landed, there was still another delay, due to the malfunction of the flight bridge.

Despite all of the drama, my oldest son, Nick, saved the day. He had borrowed a car from Tyler’s roommate, picked me up and dropped me off at USC not 5 minutes before Ty’s name was called to cross the stage.  I was absolutely ecstatic.

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