Going Home

Vessel Name: 38 South
Vessel Make/Model: Lagoon 380
Hailing Port: Melbourne, Australia
Crew: Meryn & Rick Cooper
About:
We are cruising our way home to Australia and started in 2015. we have been exploring the Eastern Caribbean on the way north through to Jacksonville Fl and to and from the Bahamas. Our last trip was West Palm Beach to Panama via Cuba and Jamaica arriving April 2024 in Linton Bay. [...]
Extra: The final destination is Melbourne Australia, via TBA.......
06 February 2024 | West End, Bahamas
29 March 2023 | Saint Augustine Marine Center
22 July 2019 | Melbourne Australia/St Augustine Florida
13 October 2017
10 April 2017 | Green Cove Springs
08 April 2017 | Reynolds Park Yacht Center - Green Cove Springs
06 April 2017 | Reynolds Park Yacht Center - Green Cove Springs
31 March 2017 | Port St Lucie via West Palm Beach
27 March 2017 | Alice Town, Bimini
21 March 2017 | Allens Cay to Nassau across the Bahama Bank
20 March 2017 | Shroud Cay to Allens Cay via Highbourne Cay
19 March 2017 | Warderick Wells Cay – Boo Boo Hill walking tour and then to Shroud Cay
18 March 2017 | Thunderball Grotto, Pig Beach then to Warderick Wells Cay
17 March 2017 | Staniel Cay via Bitter Guana Cay
16 March 2017 | Lee Stocking Island to Little Bay, Great Guana Cay
15 March 2017 | Georgetown to The Caribbean Marine Research Centre, Lee Stocking Island.
13 March 2017 | South Point Long Island to Georgetown, Exuma via Nuevitas Rocks
09 March 2017 | Aklin Island to Gordons Beach, Long Island
08 March 2017 | Mayaguana to Attwood Harbour, Aklins Island
Recent Blog Posts
06 February 2024 | West End, Bahamas

Its not all Palm trees and Margueritas

we are anchored in a small abandoned canal development near West End, Bahamas. The weather is not conducive to crossing the gulf stream to West Palm Beach, winds are expected to top 40 knots from the north today and not settle until later in the week. we chose to seek shelter in this anchorage which [...]

29 March 2023 | Saint Augustine Marine Center

Two weeks back on the boat

Well we arrived back to 38 South exactly 2 weeks ago and have been fully engrossed in cleaning and upgrades since then. It took at least 2 days to have the boat clean and aired out enough to live comfortably and from that point on it has been a matter of listing jobs in order of priority. There has [...]

22 July 2019 | Melbourne Australia/St Augustine Florida

It can't be that long between posts

I cannot believe it has been so long since the last post. We have had some highs and lows since we parked at Green Cove Springs in 2017.

13 October 2017

Maintenance Time

Just an update on the status of 38 South. September was an interesting month with Hurricane Irma's path to be right across the top of the boat. It meant a quickly assembled trip across to further strip and secure her for the pending bad weather. As it turned out it was a glancing blow and we received [...]

10 April 2017 | Green Cove Springs

Out of the Water

Well we are now on dry land. This morning the mast was removed and the boat lifted from the water. we have now been placed in our "spot" until we return. we have been continuing the preparations to leave. The motors have been run on fresh water to flush the salt water from the heat exchangers and [...]

08 April 2017 | Reynolds Park Yacht Center - Green Cove Springs

Packing up takes time

Well the packing up seems so huge. there is so much to do. we have been getting organised with bags and such and will probably leave most of our stuff on the boat, clothes and the like. there only seems to be the souvenirs and my dive gear that has to come home. Our suitcases are like the russian [...]

We are still here!!!

16 December 2015 | Point-a-Pitre, Guadeloupe
Rick
I will have to jump a bit to catch up to where we are now. We have had a lack of internet coverage as our Digicel Grenada sim cards are incompatible with Digicel France so anywhere in the French Islands we are without access unless we can find a wifi hotspot somewhere and they are sometimes hard to find. By the way my favourite greeting in French is “excusez-moi, mon francais est tres mauvais” which roughly translated says “excuse me, my French is very bad (rubbish)” seems to be a great conversation starter, that way they don’t take me too seriously and expect too much.
On leaving Fort De France in Martinique we journeyed North to a small town at the tip of Martinique called Saint Pierre. A lovely little town with an amazing history. It sits under the edge of Mt Pelee which erupted around 1902 killing the towns 30,000 inhabitants. As history records there were 2 survivors in the town. One man was in his cellar and the other was a prisoner in a cell in the police barracks. It was estimated that the Toxic cloud that decended upon the town killed the inhabitants within minutes. That and the incredible heat and the blast that laid waste to the town turning it into a mass grave. Of the 12 ships in the harbour 11 of them sank and one limped away. I don’t think they included those in the survivors. The man in the cells was badly burnt and survived for days before they found him. His saviour was that the cell pointed away from the blast and was deep within the complex and had only a small opening, more a solitary confinement type cell. Anyway talking to a local he said the town never really recovered. It has around 5000 people living there now and I suppose after over a hundred years if it has not recovered by now then I doubt it will.
We sailed on from Saint Pierre across to Portsmouth in Dominica where we spent a couple of days. We took a boat ride up Indian River in Portsmouth with a local guide. Parts of Pirates of the Caribbean were filmed there, we had a walk around the witches hut portrayed in the film, I think it was the second one. Talking to the Customs Officer on checking out, he described the devastation earlier that year from the Tropical Storm that hit the Island. It destroyed a lot of infrastructure and cut them off from the rest of the Island. There were over 50 landslides on the road on the windward side of the Island and it washed out the main bridge to the capital in the south. The bridge had the Optic Fibre under it so they lost all comms with the rest of the world for a while. They were sending boats down the coast to get phone coverage to report on damage.
From Portsmouth, Dominica we sailed back into French territory to Guadeloupe. Our first landing was on the South Western corner at the capital, The town is called BasseTerre but is only a small town for a Capital City. We arrived on a Sunday afternoon and pulled into Marina Riviere Sens. We arrived just after 2pm and pulled up at the fuel dock which was operated by the service station next door. They close at 2pm so we just missed out. Turned out to be a good thing really as we just stayed there alongside overnight and had a free berth for the night. Saved us probably 50 euro. We fuelled up in the morning when they opened. We took on around 70 litres of diesel to top up both tanks and then headed for Point-a-Pitre. The country is shaped like a butterfly and the biggest town is Point-a-Pitre located on the south coast in the centre and is the main shipping and yachting centre. The left and right side of the country are divided by a small river, I would have liked to go north through the river and out the top but I don’t think we can get through due to our mast height.
The stitching in the foot and leech of the headsail is coming adrift so repairs are necessary before we proceed too far. If we don’t do this now we may be in for bigger costs if the sail tears later on. This is the reason for the trip to Point-a-Pitre. We found a sailmaker able to do the job but they can’t get it done for a few days. This means we are stuck here from Tuesday thru till next Monday. If it is not done by Monday we will head off “sans” headsail and they will deliver it to us in Deshaies (a small town on the north west tip) and our last stop before departing for Monserrat and St Kitts. On a side note we have been watching a series called “Murder in Paradise”, a BBC series that was actually filmed here in Guadeloupe. A little bit of research and we found that it was filmed around Deshaies. We will definitely be doing some “set” seeking, looking for familiar scenes from the series.
So here we sit just on anchor just outside the entrance to Marina Bas-du-Fort in Point-a-Pitre. Time enough for some sightseeing and to get some boat jobs done. We have replaced line and reconfigured lifting blocks on the dinghy davits to make it a bit easier to lift the RIB. We lift and lock the RIB on the davits each night and/or when we enter or leave an anchorage so it gets a bit of a workout.
That brings us about up to date for now. I have done the typing offline so I will load the laptop in the bag when we are ashore next and find a wifi hotspot to get everone up to date
Comments
38 South's Photos - Main
In the yard for maintenance and upgrades
5 Photos
Created 29 March 2023
13 Photos
Created 10 April 2017
13 Photos
Created 7 April 2017
12 Photos
Created 6 April 2017
9 Photos
Created 31 March 2017
5 Photos
Created 27 March 2017
8 Photos
Created 20 March 2017
Thunderball Grotto, Pig Beach and Iguanas
24 Photos
Created 20 March 2017
Piano and Mermaid
8 Photos
Created 16 March 2017
9 Photos
Created 15 March 2017
Soufriere hills volcano, Plymouth, Little Bay
No Photos
Created 25 December 2015
Basseterre/ Marina Rivere Sans/Point-a-Pitre/Deshaies
8 Photos
Created 25 December 2015
Portsmouth
3 Photos
Created 25 December 2015
The Pitons and Rodney Bay
4 Photos
Created 25 December 2015
Fort De France and Saint Pierre
6 Photos
Created 25 December 2015
Blue Lagoon
4 Photos
Created 1 December 2015
Admiralty Bay, A fantastic place, probably our favourite so far. And found a coffee to rival Melbourne
3 Photos
Created 30 November 2015
Overnight Anchorage and some snorkeling. A marine park so fees applied. Barbecue Lobster on the beach for dinner if you wish
3 Photos
Created 30 November 2015
We have now left Grenada at Tyrrel Bay and have checked into St Vincent and the Grenadines at Union Island.
6 Photos
Created 30 November 2015
Anchored on the western side of Ronde Island just west of Kickem Jenny subsea volcano. There is an exclusion zone around the Volcano in place.
4 Photos
Created 30 November 2015
Sitting on the "Hard" while doing some necessary maintenance before commecing the trip
2 Photos
Created 9 November 2015
On the pick and hauled for the season
5 Photos
Created 14 October 2015

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