the adventure begins

Vessel Name: Flamingo
Vessel Make/Model: Knysna 480
Hailing Port: U.S. Virgin Islands
Crew: Owners: Capt. Tim Mahoney + Admiral Susan Mahoney +Jeff Philliips
About: Owners are excapees from the States. Crewman Jeff is a Retired ex Census worker Currently unemployed and adrift and missing his wife back home.
20 November 2010 | Rodney Bay, St. Lucia
14 November 2010 | Bequia
01 May 2010 | Grenada, WI Clarkes Cove Bay
12 March 2010 | Cape Town, South Africa
25 February 2010 | Knysna
08 February 2010 | Knysna Harbor, South Africa
01 February 2010 | Knysna, South Africa
05 January 2010
Recent Blog Posts
20 November 2010 | Rodney Bay, St. Lucia

St. Vincent and St. Lucia

Hello! We are currently anchored in Rodney Bay, at the North end of St. Lucia. Since I last posted, we left Bequia and headed for Blue Lagoon, St. Vincent to meet with the Barefoot Charter people to discuss putting Flamingo into charter. We had a very informative meeting and will definitely keep chartering as an option. Blue Lagoon was very small, it is actually pretty much dedicated to charter boats that are kept on moorings. From St. Vincent we motorsailed up the leeward (west) coast of St. Vincent. It is a beautiful island with dramatic mountains and beautiful beaches. After a rainy, cloudy afternoon we arrived at Soufriere, the southern anchorage in St. Lucia. This area had been hit pretty badly by Tomas at the end of Oct. and the town was still suffering from the damage. We had a beautiful mooring right at the base of the Pitons. Our friends Babbi and Ronnie (from Puerto Rico) arrived on their cat and moored right next to us. We had a wonderful dinner together and lots of laughs as we shared catamaran mishaps and adventures. We let go the mooring early the next morning and motored up the coast of St. Lucia. We had very light winds with heavy rain clouds all around - we even saw a water spout a few miles away (yikes). By the time we anchored in Rodney Bay the rain started in earnest and we had heavy rains the rest of the day. This island is far more developed than any of the others we've seen and has a stronger tourist infrastructure. Rodney Bay is a wide open bay with easy access to the large marina, stores, fuel etc. Once we are able to fix our @#(R&%^#&$@&@# generator, we will be off North again. Depending on the weather we plan to stop in Marintique next. Until then.....Cheers

14 November 2010 | Bequia

Heading North

Hello Everyone! I have finally overcome my tech fear and have figured out how to post again! Tim & I are heading North from Grenada now after spending the summer awaiting the end of the hurricane season. We began our trek last Thursday leaving Grenada for Carriacou's Tyrrell Bay. It was an uneventful but pleasant sail and we were happy to find our friends, Ted & Honey there on their ketch, Patron. They are very experienced cruisers of 12+ years having left Vancouver Canada, Mexico and then the South Pacific for a number of years. They actually made the Atlantic crossing about the same time we did and had a similar of light winds, long trip, etc. We moved Northward to Mayreau and anchored in Salt Whistle Bay. Unbelievable! It was quiet and we did a lot of swimming beach combing. Our friends, Guy and Christine on a Knysna 440 were there with their dog, Princess and we had a wonderful dinner on their boat, Princess of Tides. Off we went in the morning to Bequia, Admiralty Bay. The winds were averaging about 15 knots and we zoomed along at 7-9 knots, arriving about mid-day. Bequia is a pretty little island and the people are pretty savvy towards yachties. We saw friends Tim met over the summer, Ronnie and Bobbie from Puerto Rico on their Catana 47 cat. They have so much info about PR that we'll have to have a spaghetti dinner on Flamingo tomorrow night to get it all. Then we will leave on Tues to go to St. Vincent. We are curious about the Barefoot Charter people and if that will be a possibility for us in the future. St. Vincent does not enjoy a good reputation among cruisers due to theft, etc. We will only stay a day or two and then head on to St. Lucia.

01 May 2010 | Grenada, WI Clarkes Cove Bay

Grenada

Hello Everyone! I am so sorry we have not osted for a long time. We were trying to post thru sailmail and after a few weeks we got all our blog entries kicked back. Couldn't really diagnose what the problem was so I'll just bring everyone up to date now. We had a slow crossing with light winds and with [...]

12 March 2010 | Cape Town, South Africa

Departure out of Africa

Departing tomorrow (Saturday, Mar. 13th) towards St.Helena after a fuel up and a service call and replacement of our Garmin radar (hurrah for warranty coverage!). Kevin and Rika from Knysna Yacht Company have been terrific throughout the build and sea trials from Knysna to Capetown. We have had a wonderful visit to Capetown but look forward to our crossing. We also want to acknowledge the help of John Titherton (sp) from multihulls4us for his genorous time and sage advice on the crossing as well as helping to get our airmail system up and running through Single Side Band RF.

25 February 2010 | Knysna

Departure to Capetown Soon

Departure to Capetown will likely be Saturday, March 6th.

08 February 2010 | Knysna Harbor, South Africa

Flamingo Fine Tuning

Still at Harbor going through another week of fine tuning and fitup. Pictures were taken of all sail configurations and will be posted later this week. Workers from Knysna Yacht Co. will be on the boat all this week. Hopefully we can get the generator up and running (fuel line needs to be bled). Once that is done we will be able to communicate to the blog more often. Departure to Capetown will likely be the first weather window after Feb 23rd. Mast reset with an adjustment to the furling rig will take place in Capetown as well as a Garmin software upgrade then it is on to St. Helena. Ciao for now!

St. Vincent and St. Lucia

20 November 2010 | Rodney Bay, St. Lucia
Hello! We are currently anchored in Rodney Bay, at the North end of St. Lucia. Since I last posted, we left Bequia and headed for Blue Lagoon, St. Vincent to meet with the Barefoot Charter people to discuss putting Flamingo into charter. We had a very informative meeting and will definitely keep chartering as an option. Blue Lagoon was very small, it is actually pretty much dedicated to charter boats that are kept on moorings. From St. Vincent we motorsailed up the leeward (west) coast of St. Vincent. It is a beautiful island with dramatic mountains and beautiful beaches. After a rainy, cloudy afternoon we arrived at Soufriere, the southern anchorage in St. Lucia. This area had been hit pretty badly by Tomas at the end of Oct. and the town was still suffering from the damage. We had a beautiful mooring right at the base of the Pitons. Our friends Babbi and Ronnie (from Puerto Rico) arrived on their cat and moored right next to us. We had a wonderful dinner together and lots of laughs as we shared catamaran mishaps and adventures. We let go the mooring early the next morning and motored up the coast of St. Lucia. We had very light winds with heavy rain clouds all around - we even saw a water spout a few miles away (yikes). By the time we anchored in Rodney Bay the rain started in earnest and we had heavy rains the rest of the day. This island is far more developed than any of the others we've seen and has a stronger tourist infrastructure. Rodney Bay is a wide open bay with easy access to the large marina, stores, fuel etc. Once we are able to fix our @#(R&%^#&$@&@# generator, we will be off North again. Depending on the weather we plan to stop in Marintique next. Until then.....Cheers

Heading North

14 November 2010 | Bequia
Susan
Hello Everyone! I have finally overcome my tech fear and have figured out how to post again! Tim & I are heading North from Grenada now after spending the summer awaiting the end of the hurricane season. We began our trek last Thursday leaving Grenada for Carriacou's Tyrrell Bay. It was an uneventful but pleasant sail and we were happy to find our friends, Ted & Honey there on their ketch, Patron. They are very experienced cruisers of 12+ years having left Vancouver Canada, Mexico and then the South Pacific for a number of years. They actually made the Atlantic crossing about the same time we did and had a similar of light winds, long trip, etc. We moved Northward to Mayreau and anchored in Salt Whistle Bay. Unbelievable! It was quiet and we did a lot of swimming beach combing. Our friends, Guy and Christine on a Knysna 440 were there with their dog, Princess and we had a wonderful dinner on their boat, Princess of Tides. Off we went in the morning to Bequia, Admiralty Bay. The winds were averaging about 15 knots and we zoomed along at 7-9 knots, arriving about mid-day. Bequia is a pretty little island and the people are pretty savvy towards yachties. We saw friends Tim met over the summer, Ronnie and Bobbie from Puerto Rico on their Catana 47 cat. They have so much info about PR that we'll have to have a spaghetti dinner on Flamingo tomorrow night to get it all. Then we will leave on Tues to go to St. Vincent. We are curious about the Barefoot Charter people and if that will be a possibility for us in the future. St. Vincent does not enjoy a good reputation among cruisers due to theft, etc. We will only stay a day or two and then head on to St. Lucia.

Grenada

01 May 2010 | Grenada, WI Clarkes Cove Bay
Susan
Hello Everyone! I am so sorry we have not osted for a long time. We were trying to post thru sailmail and after a few weeks we got all our blog entries kicked back. Couldn't really diagnose what the problem was so I'll just bring everyone up to date now. We had a slow crossing with light winds and with just the 3 of us, we were conservative on sail setting, ie no spinnacher at night in case of squall, etc. our fuel and water tank gauges didn't work at all so we were not sure how much fuel we were burning when under power. It makes for a nervous time. We worked our way NW to the port of Cayenne, French Guiana. The tour book promised that you could tie up at the town dock and there would be good French wine, cheese, bread, etc. So imagine how we felt when we navigated up the river 6 miles, through tropical jungle to find a small marina with about 20 boats (many of which are never going to leave again!) at the edge of a muddy field. There was a container ship loading facility there and there were river dredges working all around but absolutely nothing else! Since we really needed fuel, I started asking around about the fuel dock. I kept getting shrugged shoulders and responses like "I don't think they have fuel here." Well, that is not that answer I was looking for so I kept going! We had 10 jerry cans that hold 23 liters each and I found out there was a Texaco station about 4 km away. We got out the cans and I hailed down some unsuspecting, very kind and nice fellow in a pickup truck and asked him to PLEASE take us to the gas station. He did and we had one round of diesel done. When we got back to the marina with our first load I noticed 2 fellows scurrying to their car with suitcases. Since Jeff needed to get to the airport to confirm his flight, I asked if he could get a ride. No problem! So Jeff went off and about 1 1/2 hr later arrived with a rental car! YEAH!!! We loaded the now emptied cans into the little car and Jeff drove back to the gas station. After filling the cans, he discovered that his credit card company had put a freeze on his account and he had no way to pay for the diesel! He ended up leaving his passport at the station and came back to the marina. In the meantime, I asked the guys on the boat we were tied up to if they had Euros we could buy and they did so we were able to retrieve Jeff's passport. We went into Cayenne so that we could change to Euros and pay back our neighbors as well as restock the boat for the final leg. The city itself is very central american feeling with very old buildings. The people are a mixture of African blacks, beautiful browns and caucasians all speaking French of course. Finally back to the boat with food and diesel tank full as well as 9 extra cans tucked away. Jeff left us the next morning for his flight and Tim & I got ready for the final push to Grenada - about 775 miles. We rested the next day and tried to leave the 2nd day but it was too squally and the ocean was kicking up pretty good so we tucked back up the river and waited it out another day. Rainy season there is 100% humidity and about 85 degrees. Nothing dries and I began to wonder if we would get sucked into the jungle like some of the boats there and just never get out! Silly huh? Anyway, we left the following morning in much calmer conditions and turned NW to finish the trip. The wind kicked up to 25-30 which wasn't so bad except the seas were slamming up against the beam of the boat and we went clunking along under jib. As the 3-4 remaining days went by, the wind got steadier and the seas calmed so it wasn't that bad. We were getting pretty tired with just the 2 of us spelling each other 3 on/3 off. The final passage was through the Galleon Straight, a passage between Trinidad and Tobago. This is quite near the coast of Venezuela and there are oil platforms, etc. all over the place as well as many tankers hanging out waiting to get loaded. Tim navigated through the Straight all night - I caught a few winks here and there - and once through the straight at about 12 am he hit the starter on the other engine and powered up both engined to 2000 rpm. We powered over to Grenada all night and arrived at Clarkes Cove Marina about 11 am. They were very helpful getting us into our berth and hooked up to water, electricity, etc. We went by taxi to Prickly Bay - a few miles along the coast to the immigration/customs office to check in. Then to the bank to change money and then to the grocery store.
Finally we are settled, getting ready to fly to Seattle/Spokane for Emma's graduation on May 9th. It'll be good to see everyone there - I've been looking forward to it for the whole trip. We don't know what our plans are yet from here on as we are awaiting word from our insurance company regarding restrictions on the location of the boat during hurricane season (June - Nov). Once we have word, we will make up our minds. Thanks for following us..I'll post pictures soon.

Departure out of Africa

12 March 2010 | Cape Town, South Africa
Jeff
Departing tomorrow (Saturday, Mar. 13th) towards St.Helena after a fuel up and a service call and replacement of our Garmin radar (hurrah for warranty coverage!). Kevin and Rika from Knysna Yacht Company have been terrific throughout the build and sea trials from Knysna to Capetown. We have had a wonderful visit to Capetown but look forward to our crossing. We also want to acknowledge the help of John Titherton (sp) from multihulls4us for his genorous time and sage advice on the crossing as well as helping to get our airmail system up and running through Single Side Band RF.

Departure to Capetown Soon

25 February 2010 | Knysna
Jeff
Departure to Capetown will likely be Saturday, March 6th.

Flamingo Fine Tuning

08 February 2010 | Knysna Harbor, South Africa
Jeff
Still at Harbor going through another week of fine tuning and fitup. Pictures were taken of all sail configurations and will be posted later this week. Workers from Knysna Yacht Co. will be on the boat all this week. Hopefully we can get the generator up and running (fuel line needs to be bled). Once that is done we will be able to communicate to the blog more often. Departure to Capetown will likely be the first weather window after Feb 23rd. Mast reset with an adjustment to the furling rig will take place in Capetown as well as a Garmin software upgrade then it is on to St. Helena. Ciao for now!

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