Finally!

Vessel Name: Katahdin
Vessel Make/Model: Cambria 44
Hailing Port: Cape Elizabeth, ME
Crew: Larry and Cathy Clough
About: We have been cruising Maine waters for 30 years on a Pearson 26, an Ericson 34, and now a Cambria 44
Extra: On our first journey south we left Maine in early September of 2011 to travel to the Caribbean and back over 9+months. Now we've begun our second trip, taking it at a bit more leisurely pace.
18 May 2016
25 March 2016
09 March 2016
21 February 2016
26 January 2016
05 January 2016
18 December 2015 | Jolly Harbor, Antigua
06 December 2015
21 November 2015
17 November 2015
13 November 2015
19 June 2012 | Portland Harbor
16 June 2012 | Provincetown, MA
12 June 2012 | Great Salt Pond, Block Island, RI
Recent Blog Posts
25 May 2016

Hashes, Hikes, and Hauling

Hashes, Hikes, and Hauling

18 May 2016

Grenada

At the end of March we sailed along the east coast of Grenada from Carriacou to the bays at its southern end. Since we were not sailing in the lee of the island we took a precautionary seasickness pill, Stugeron, which is not available in the US but which, as a non-prescriptive medication, can be purchased [...]

06 May 2016

Carriacou, Grenada's Grenadine Island

I'd like to fire myself as a blog writer. I have no excuse for waiting a month before writing about one of the most enjoyable islands we've been to. In my defense I'd say that to start writing about Grenada and its islands is to acknowledge that the incredible sailing adventure we've experienced would [...]

25 March 2016

The Grenadines

The Grenadines

09 March 2016

St. Lucia

St. Lucia

21 February 2016

Martinique Sud, and a Sample of our Daily Life aboard Katahdin

Today is February 21st. We left St. Pierre on the 8th and meandered our way down Martinique’s west coast to St. Anne at the southeast tip of the island. Along the way we overnighted in 3 anses (anse is a Creole word for bay), with decent snorkeling and hiking, 2 nights in the yachting center for [...]

Martinique Sud, and a Sample of our Daily Life aboard Katahdin

21 February 2016
Today is February 21st. We left St. Pierre on the 8th and meandered our way down Martinique’s west coast to St. Anne at the southeast tip of the island. Along the way we overnighted in 3 anses (anse is a Creole word for bay), with decent snorkeling and hiking, 2 nights in the yachting center for the region, Le Marin, then around the corner to St. Anne for a more peaceful stay.

St. Anne has it all. There is a seaside trail around the peninsula south of it where there are various bays and beautiful beaches. And there are trails cutting across the peninsula. For 2 days we rented a car for a longer hike around the Caravelle peninsula in Martinique’s northeast coast and for a visit to (another) rum distillery, Clement.

If the above events sound familiar, they definitely are. I think that a change of pace in this blog would be welcomed, even by me. So, the following gives a view as to what our daily life aboard Katahdin is like while we are at anchor.

First of all, no day is alike. Sometimes we have no idea what we’re going to be doing until well into the day. I can’t say that we’ll ever be totally content without some focus for some of the time while we are aboard. However, we are getting better at not planning until we see how we feel, what boat projects we have to get done, etc. This is especially true if we know we will be at anchor in a certain area for a while.

Normally we get up around 6 and Larry turns on the single side band (SSB) radio for work or weather related emails. SSB accepts signals that originate anywhere and which bounce off the ionosphere down to a receiver onboard. As the sun rises its solar particles cause more havoc in the ionosphere so Larry has to get onto SSB early enough to receive undistorted signals.

Then, while drinking our hot beverage of choice, we check our gmail accounts. Four years ago it was much easier to have WIFI reception on our boat; we would purchase a pass for a specific amount of time from either a restaurant or an Internet store ashore and the signal strength would be sufficient to reach us at anchor. Well, the retail trade suffered a bit from us and other boaters not going in to dine while using their internet so the signal is not boosted outward. Now we have to resort to another device.

When our son Andrew visited us during Christmas he used a Nexus phone that was tied into Google Fi, a beta operating system paired with Android. He could connect to any cellular carrier in 120 countries and be charged $10 for one GB of data with a $20 monthly fee and no contract. For voyagers such as us it seemed perfect. Larry’s sister Kathy brought down this new phone 3 weeks later and we use it to tether our devices to it. We have purchased 5 GB a month but if we end up not using it all, we get a credit back. Learning how to use an Android-based phone has been a bit of a challenge but it has certainly been worth it.

After a breakfast of either yogurt with cereal or eggs and bread/croissants, we tend to do chores aboard. There’s always something to be done. For instance, yesterday, we worked on scouring out the hose from the forward head sink that has been a slow drainer for a long time. There was a bit of calcium build-up within the hose but not enough to explain the problem. With a skewer I went under the boat and cleaned out the outlet while Larry worked on the leak from that thru-hull and the one next to it.

While under the boat I became disgusted at the amount of growth on the hull – barnacles, teeny shrimp, 1½ inch florets of some algae, etc. So, armed with a long-handled brush and a windshield ice scraper I went to work. After a bit I realized that what I scraped off was feeding a small school of 8-inch fish underneath me – what fun. This scraping is to be repeated, we’re sure, in a few weeks time as our bottom paint needs a new application to keep things from growing too fast as the warmth of the water and the incessant sunlight speed up growth.

Meanwhile, Larry took the dinghy and sped 2 miles into Le Marin, visiting 4 chandleries before purchasing the correct sized O-ring to finish the thru-hull work.

Chores down, it was time to have fun on land. We took the shore-side trail to a stunning beach where we ate lunch at a beachside restaurant and took in the scenery. It’s not often that we people-watch but, when in France, do what the French do, and we did. It was highly entertaining. On the walk back we swam for a bit, read from our Kindles, then, back onboard, relaxed, read, had dinner, read, then to bed by 9. Most of the relaxation time on Katahdin we spend in the cockpit, using the sun shades which attach to the bimini so we’re not dealing with too much sunlight.

What is it like to be at anchor among 167 boats? (Yes, we counted them one evening.) It is even more interesting than people watching on the beach. There’s a lot of movement going on, coming and going, either with dinghies or boats. The one aspect of being at anchor where we can get quite anxious, even upset, is when catamarans move near us. Somehow they don’t judge their anchor placement correctly and end up far closer to us than is comfortable. They can also steam through mooring fields, weaving between boats at anchor, in a way that makes us suspect that the captain is either showing-off, has limited experience piloting a super-wide boat, or, probably, both. Many of these cats are chartered boats and Larry has had to ask a few to re-anchor for the safety of Katahdin when the wind direction changes. And don’t get us started on the lack of scope (anchor line length) these chartered boats put out; how there are not more damaged chartered cats is mind-boogling.

In general terms, then, outside of some luncheons, we usually eat aboard but take day trips ashore, either to purchase items or to hike. There is always swimming though not always snorkeling. We do laundry every 3 weeks, get water and fuel at least every 3 weeks, purchase ice and food as needed, and look through our guidebooks regularly for our current or up-coming locations. We have tans, but never a burn. It’s time, though, for another haircut which will happen at our next stop, St. Lucia.






Comments
Katahdin's Photos - Main
We spent most of the last month of our cruise in Mt. Hartman Bay on the southern coast of Grenada. There is a wonderful community of cruisers in this and nearby bays, and we found plenty to do and new friends to make. What we particularly enjoyed were the hashes and hikes we did each week. Do ready the blog of the same name if you want to discover what a hash is.
19 Photos
Created 25 May 2016
Grenada is, if not our favorite, at least in the top three. It is a large island, the people are fantastic, and there is so much to see and do that we were too busy to consider posting a blog. But, now that we're back in Maine, we have no more excuses.
11 Photos
Created 6 May 2016
Petite St. Vincent (PSV) is part of its namesake, while Petite Martinique belongs to Grenada. They are both considered part of the Grenadine archipelago and are separated by perhaps 1/2 a mile. In fact, they are so far off the normal route that a boat can travel from one to another without having to clear customs on another island.
9 Photos
Created 6 May 2016
Carriacou is one of the Grenadine islands; St. Vincent owns most of them but not this one or Petite Martinique. It is an interesting island, hilly with a shipbuilding heritage. We especially liked it because of the large number of cruisers who anchor for a while in Tyrell bay on the southwestern coast.
9 Photos
Created 6 May 2016
The Grenadines are a group of tiny to small islands just south of St Vincent and just north of Grenada. With a few exceptions they are wonderfully welcoming and quite beautiful, though, because there has been a consistent drought throughout the past 10 or so months, there's not much greenery.
17 Photos
Created 25 March 2016
From Rodney Bay to the Pitons, and nothing in between.
9 Photos
Created 9 March 2016
On the way to our current anchorage at St. Anne at the bottom of Martinique we visited 3 other delightful bays along the way. We've been doing our usual hiking and swimming activities, but this blog also reveals what a "typical" day for us is like.
15 Photos
Created 21 February 2016
During our first visit to St. Pierre we didn't go far afield. This time we did and have a new appreciation for this area.
13 Photos
Created 21 February 2016
We had a fabulous time on this island, one of the poorest in the Caribbean. It has been blessed with fantastic beauty and we did our best to take it all in.
21 Photos
Created 7 February 2016
After visiting the Pigeon islands and La Soufriere we were looking for places not so popular, and we found them.
21 Photos
Created 26 January 2016
The photos are from two distinctive and well-known locations on this island. First, from the Jacques Cousteau underwater preserve at Isles des Pigeons on the west coast, and then from the hike up to the tallest mountain on the island, La Soufriere, a still semi-active volcano at almost a mile height.
16 Photos
Created 16 January 2016
The photos are from two distinctive and well-known locations on this island. First, from the Jacques Cousteau underwater preserve at Isles des Pigeons on the west coast, and then from the hike up to the tallest mountain on the island, La Soufriere, a still semi-active volcano at almost a mile height.
6 Photos
Created 16 January 2016
We spent most of the past few weeks in English Harbor which was an idyllic spot to celebrate the holidays with our family
20 Photos
Created 5 January 2016
These were our last stops in the Virgin Islands where we spent a whole month. It's a great place, and lots of people know that as there are lots of other sailors such as ourselves.
13 Photos
Created 18 December 2015
We're spending a few weeks lazily navigating around the numerous islands here, looking for great snorkeling and sunsets.
12 Photos
Created 6 December 2015
7 Photos
Created 21 November 2015
Katahdin ended up here after being a "passenger" on a freighter. We joined her on 11/15/15.
5 Photos
Created 17 November 2015
Katahdin makes her way south to St. Thomas, piggy-backing atop a freighter.
2 Photos
Created 13 November 2015
We arrived in Fernandina Beach on 4/11, and hope to be back in Maine sometime in the latter part of June.
1 Photo | 9 Sub-Albums
Created 12 April 2012
We expect to meander slowly northward through the Bahamas before we cross the Gulf Stream again.
1 Photo | 13 Sub-Albums
Created 17 March 2012
We overnighted to Luperon from Gilligan's Island in Puerto Rico, and spent a wonderful 5 days, having adventures out of the town.
26 Photos
Created 17 March 2012
We took our time in the Spanish Virgin Islands, but sped along the southern coast of Puerto Rico
1 Photo | 1 Sub-Album
Created 1 March 2012
We took our time traveling from Portland into the Chesapeake, enjoying some beautiful stops along the way
1 Photo | 8 Sub-Albums
Created 8 February 2012
Martinique is quite beautiful, and we've enjoyed our stay here. However, we will start heading back north in the next day or so.
20 Photos
Created 7 February 2012
These include Anguilla, St. Martin, St. Barts, down to Guadaloupe and Dominica.
1 Photo | 12 Sub-Albums
Created 18 December 2011
We arrived in Nanny Cay in the BVI on November 21, and will travel around the BVI and the US VI over the next month.
1 Photo | 7 Sub-Albums
Created 21 November 2011
The rudder leakage issue shadowed our first two weeks in Virginia; after the repairs, even the sunsets were more spectacular.
1 Photo | 2 Sub-Albums
Created 8 November 2011
An album of many of the places we visited through Chesapeake Bay on our way to Virginia
1 Photo | 7 Sub-Albums
Created 18 October 2011