SCAPPATELLA: SailBlogs

The Beginning of the End

Sat, 20 Mar 2010 16:30:22 -0500

Well, here we are back in Antigua again. We started our 36-hour sail with the wind behind us and a gentle sea. During the middle of our trip the wind died and we had to motor. And then - of course - it got up to 20 - 25 knots on the nose! So we bashed and puked our way into Antigua, where we are now...recovering. Actually, we're undergoing the somewhat overwhelming process of figuring out how, when and where to sell our beloved Scappatella. Yup, it's "final" - we're heading home. Stay tuned...Scappatella may be coming your way! (View Post...)

Some French Culture

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 16:27:38 -0600

Yeah - we finally made it to Martinique and all the wine, cheese, and foie grois your heart could desire. And rum...let's not forget the rum! We rented a car for the day and drove from one end of the island to the other, visiting 3 rum distilleries along the way. One of them, Le Clement, is what originally sparked my interest in "sipping rums". Last year, we sipped quite a few glasses of a fine, aged Clement rum on a little French boat named Lararina, and ever since then I've been in search of fine rums. Interestingly, Le Clement is the meeting site of ex-Presidents Bitterans of France and good ol' George Bush, following the end of the Persian Gulf war. Unfortunately, Le Clement doesn't break out the good stuff for you to try, but we did get a sampling of the fine rums and an awesome tour of the Depaz Distillery up north. After tasting all the rums they would pour, we ended up in the little town of "Le Precheur" where we treated ourselves to a wonderful French-Creole dinner at a little seaside restaurant. It was close to 11:00 before we made it back to the southern end of the island, dropped off our car, and dinghied out to Scappatella...quite the day! (View Post...)

4 Countries in 5 Days!

Sat, 20 Feb 2010 16:23:34 -0600

Remember how I talked about the challenges of visiting us on Scappatella? Well, cousins Laura and MaryAnn got the full experience of that! Let's see...they took a red-eye from San Francisco to New York & connected to a 4-hour flight to St. Lucia. Then, it was a 90-minute cab ride to their hotel on the other side of the island, followed by 6:00am puddle jumper flight to Barbados. After a quick stopover, they continued on to the teeny little island of Canouan, where we finally met them - but not their luggage. Well, not Laura's luggage anyway. Many hours and several rum punches later, it arrived. Not bad, considering. (Continued...)