06/29/2009, Prince Rupert Bay, Dominica
Hi Everyone!
We are in Dominica! What a beautiful island full if jungle, rivers, flowers and high Mountains dripping with GREEN. The locals all seem friendly and after a 3 day offshore sail our kids are glad to be here.
When we left St Thomas we sailed to St Johns and then on to the BVI's where we checked out Jost Van Dyke and then Virgin Gorda. The kids loved the Baths at Virgin Gorda. They wanted to stay for a while but Wandering Dolphin had to hit the high seas for a few days to make it south. We sailed to Dominica with a lot of tacking and a lot of miles doing less than 4 knots. It has been great to sail all the way down here only running the engine to enter an anchorage.
As I told you all before we have no auto pilot... our intention was to hand steer all the way, alas... necessity is truly the mother of invention... I was on my very first half hour hand steering into 6 foot swells out of Virgin Gorda when I remembered Joshua Slocum sailing around the world by balancing his boat with his sails and tieing off his helm... I thought... "well it's worth a try..." Within an hour the boat was sailing along with only a little piece of string as it's auto pilot. Rebecca took over on her watch and proceeded to fine tune my system into a workable tieng arrangement that allowed us to adjust the helm upwind or down wind with the movement of the string on the wheel spoke. LOL we sailed the whole way just like we had an auto pilot... and best of all it uses NO power at all!!!!
We will come in in the next few days and add some more stories from our passage. Thanks for praying and keeping us in your thoughts. We are all well and safe.
God Bless,
Captain Tofer
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06/19/2009, Last Night at Honeymoon Bay
Some places are easy to leave... you just pull up the sail and look forward to the next spot, but there are a few others that, for whatever reason grab your heart and feel a lot like home. Oriental was really our first time feeling that way. I mean we liked a lot of other spots like Charleston and even a few places in the Bahamas, but Oriental was the first place that we felt tears in our eyes and as a family we wanted to stick around. Honeymoon Bay on Water Island has become that too. Mostly for the kids this time. Rebecca and I like it here too but the kids have developed friendships with a whole gaggle of water island and boat kids here.
We plan to be back next winter to work again but again all cruising plans are made in jello.
Tomorrow we will pull up the sails with an end destination of Trinidad in mind but no real daily plan for how to get there. We don't have an auto pilot right now so we will be hand steering our way south. We like to do this but it limits our comfortable passages to about 24 hours or just a little more. We will be island hopping our way south.
The boat is all packed with provisions and water and fuel (the first time we have filled the tank since Boqueron, PR.) It should last us another year if we continue our new pattern of actually sailing everywhere we go rather than motoring.
Becky's sister and niece will be joining us in Trinidad for a while. The last time we saw them was back in Charleston when Becks Mom and cousin came to see us too. They are very special to us as they are the only family that actually comes to see us on our travels. My Wyoming family must be a little intimidated by the whole ocean thing... bunch of landlubbers.
We will update the blog as we get wireless conections on the way.
Hauling Out the Jib,
Captain Tofer
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06/06/2009, St Thomas
It is official, I will be delivering a Bavaria 49 called Saga Tiba to Trinidad. I leave on Sunday. The trades are really howling this week so it will be a rough ride but it's work not pleasure for me.
We are planning to set sail in Wandering Dolphin when I get back and after the trades calm down a little. We are checking with our insurance... believe it or not it looks like we are covered in St Thomas but not in Grenada... is that goofy or what?
We spent a few days up at the guest house as a family. It was fun to kick back with the kids off the boat and eat junk food and watch movies.
Island View Guest House is a GREAT spot on St Thomas and I would recommmend it to anyone coming here who wants to have a more personal experience on the island instead of the same old big hotel tourist trap experience. Ron and Beth are great and Ron makes the best steak I have had since Dante's in Great Falls, Montana. If you are cruising in the USVI and have family coming this is the best place for them to stay. Check them out at www.islandviewstthomas.com and tell them the folks on Wandering Dolphin sent you.
Sailing on Sunday,
Captain Tofer
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