Sapphire Sailing Adventures

Vessel Name: Sapphire
Vessel Make/Model: Bristol 41
Hailing Port: Rochester, NY
Crew: Moby & Caroline Burton
17 April 2019 | Laying out 200' of chain on deck
16 April 2019 | Prickly Bay, Grenada
16 April 2019 | Prickly Bay, Grenada
13 April 2019 | Tyrell Bay, Carriacou
12 April 2019 | Admiralty Bay, teaching William about reading music
11 April 2019 | Admiralty Bay, Bequia
10 April 2019 | Pink Sunset off Bequia
10 April 2019 | Papa's Restaurant overlooking Admiralty Bay, Bequia
09 April 2019 | Winfield applying coat #6 of Epiphane Varnish to Sapphire's coaming
08 April 2019 | Tennis Court behind the Gingerbread House, Bequia
04 April 2019 | Floating Beach Bar
04 April 2019 | Bequia
03 April 2019 | Admiralty Bay, Bequia
03 April 2019 | Center Hatch on Sapphire
02 April 2019 | Admiralty Bay, Bequia, The Grenadines
02 April 2019 | Sailing past St Lucia across from the Pitons
28 March 2019 | Anse de Salines, Martinique
28 March 2019
28 March 2019 | Sapphire's Cockpit
24 March 2019
Recent Blog Posts
17 April 2019 | Laying out 200' of chain on deck

Haul Out Day

"I always feel like The Ghost from Christmas Past when we do this exercise of hauling the heavy chain out on our side deck to rinse it and let it dry." On our primary alone, we have 200' of chain and 120' of rope. Then our secondary anchor has 200' of rope and 30' of chain.

16 April 2019 | Prickly Bay, Grenada

Getting Ready to be Hauled Out

We enjoyed a lovely leisurely couple of days sailing down to Grenada from Bequia, arriving on Palm Sunday.

16 April 2019 | Prickly Bay, Grenada

Grenada's Cruiser's Net

The cruiser’s net in Grenada is always very lively. On Safety and Security this morning we heard that a sailboat coming up from Trinidad had a boatful of eight ‘Venezuelan looking’ men trying to overtake them. The sailboat was able to get away,. but the hull is riddled with bullet holes. They [...]

13 April 2019 | Tyrell Bay, Carriacou

New Way to Clear into Customs

How do you clear in to Customs, when you arrive at a port and don’t feel like blowing up your dinghy?

12 April 2019 | Admiralty Bay, teaching William about reading music

Teaching William some Notes

I realized that if I set up my piano early in the morning, then I can play before there is too much sun in the cockpit.

11 April 2019 | Admiralty Bay, Bequia

Paddling around Bequia

As my buddy Joan Dwyer would say, “the goal in paddle boarding is to avoid looking like a little old lady pushing a Wegman’s cart.” Actually, I’ll be doing that soon enough as we are heading home in a week.

Haul Out Day

17 April 2019 | Laying out 200' of chain on deck
Caroline Burton
"I always feel like The Ghost from Christmas Past when we do this exercise of hauling the heavy chain out on our side deck to rinse it and let it dry." On our primary alone, we have 200' of chain and 120' of rope. Then our secondary anchor has 200' of rope and 30' of chain.
Haul out went smoothly , so now we are in a race with the clock to check off everything else on our "Putting Sapphire to Bed" list before we fly out tomorrow. Everything gets washed and stored away in vacuum tight bags with dryer sheets to try to keep the mildew at bay.
We leave the fans running all summer, powered by our solar panels, to keep the air circulating. Cupboard doors are all left open with mattresses standing on end. Tinfoil covers ever hatch and port light to attempt to keep the interior a little cooler during the hot summer months ahead. If we get it looking like a cyclone has torn through, then we have pretty much accomplished our purpose.
By the time we were finished and lugged all our stuff back to the apt, we were dead tired. Moby just lit the gas stove and happened to leave the box of matches IN the oven. And when doing our wind down crossword puzzle together, I said " Oh , I've got this.... Sonny & Cher song _____ You Babe" I tried writing in, "It ain't You Babe!" Moby, even in his exhausted state, had to laugh..."That's got to be one of the all time great love songs.. "It ain't you Babe!" Try "I've Got You, Babe" .
Now I can't get "It ain't You Babe out" of my head."
Thoughts on leaving: As much as I try to live in the present, I'm always looking ahead to the next adventure, the next occasion that we have to look forward to. I've missed my workout buddies, tennis friends, my family and especially my sons. Happily, my eldest son, Nick, is flying home for Easter weekend, and Tyler will be home too, so we will all be together again, at least for the weekend. Nice homecoming. Lots to get done in the one week we'll be home before I take off with my League team for our tournament down in Kiawah

Getting Ready to be Hauled Out

16 April 2019 | Prickly Bay, Grenada
Caroline Burton
We enjoyed a lovely leisurely couple of days sailing down to Grenada from Bequia, arriving on Palm Sunday.
“You know Moby, the winds in Prickly Bay are always howling. We could go ahead and try to get the sails down now.”
“That’s not a bad idea,” Moby responded. “It’d be pretty calm in Grande Anse.”
“Last year, if you remember, we practically sailed away at anchor when we were raising the sails so that we could drop them on deck and fold them up.”
Not an easy feat since our jib is 150%, which is huge. So to drop the sail and then fold it on the two foot wide side deck, while underway with our mainsail still up, was great to have behind us before we’d even dropped anchor.
Lots of work involved to get ready for being hauled. Moby spent yesterday removing halyards and putting away jib sheets and other lines, cleaning out the water tanks and doing other jobs too numerous to mention while I wiped down every inch of our interior teak and scrubbed the cabin ceiling with a vinegar/water solution to remove any mildew.
“Maybe I should be GoPro videotaping this,” Moby laughed as he watched me plop down on a ziplock bag filled with clothes to vacuum seal the pack.
“This is the Barbara Hufsmith method of packing.” I responded, “It is meant to be very efficient in saving space.”
Today we need to take down and thoroughly scrub the bimini and dodger and polish all the stainless framework. The To Do list is endless, but we are getting hauled out at 8 AM tomorrow, Wed, so we have to keep plugging.
As long as I still have time for my swim to the beach and back. That’s what I’ll miss most when we return to Rochester. The warm Caribbean waters.

Grenada's Cruiser's Net

16 April 2019 | Prickly Bay, Grenada
Caroline Burton
The cruiser’s net in Grenada is always very lively. On Safety and Security this morning we heard that a sailboat coming up from Trinidad had a boatful of eight ‘Venezuelan looking’ men trying to overtake them. The sailboat was able to get away,. but the hull is riddled with bullet holes. They are presently being debriefed by the Coast Guard.
This from CSSN:
“The pirates 40 ft. boat had 2 large outboards, was white/blue with an orange bow and approached from the east. The pirates fired warning shots into the air and indicated they wished the yacht to stop. It did not. Additional warning shots were fired as the helmsman attempted to use the VHF radio, which he did not. High seas prevented the piroque from successfully approaching and boarding as the yacht maintained full speed and began zigzag maneuvers. Additional shots were then fired at the boat and helmsman, damaging the hull and coach roof, but no injuries were sustained.”

Next on the net, a more heartwarming tale, there was the story about two dogs who had been on the beach at Hog Island for two days. The cruisers had been making sure the dogs had water. Everyday these friendly dogs swam out to a boat and tried to board it by climbing up onto the swimming platform on the stern. Finally one of the cruisers happened to notice a posting on Facebook that one of the locals had been missing their black and white spotted dogs for two days The owners, however, lived on the mainland and had no way to get out to Hog Island to retrieve their dogs. So here is Stan to the rescue, giving the pups a lift over to the mainland today to reconnect them with their owners. Sweet.

New Way to Clear into Customs

13 April 2019 | Tyrell Bay, Carriacou
Caroline Burton
How do you clear in to Customs, when you arrive at a port and don’t feel like blowing up your dinghy?
We were digging out all the pumps, and hoses in preparation to inflate little dinghy, only so that we could clear in, then come back, remove the engine, deflate the dinghy, and roll her back up on deck an hour later for the next days’ journey.
“Maybe you could just take the paddle board in, “ I suggested. “Seriously, it would make it so much easier.”
The catch is that this particular Customs office in Carriacou, does not allow you to enter wearing only a bathing suit. So fully attired..there he goes!

Teaching William some Notes

12 April 2019 | Admiralty Bay, teaching William about reading music
Caroline Burton
I realized that if I set up my piano early in the morning, then I can play before there is too much sun in the cockpit.
“It has always been my dream to be able to read music” William mentioned as he was sanding the toe-rail near where I was playing. William is Winfield’s assistant and has been diligently showing up every morning to sand the toe-rail, handrail, coaming…He is a huge help to Winfield.
“That’s funny,” I replied. “I’ve always wanted to be able to play by ear. THAT’s the real talent!”
“If I could just find someone who could show me how to read the notes, that would be so great.”
“Here, look” I offered, “this note here is Middle C and then you just count up, like the alphabet. C. D. E F G then it starts over. A B C. Each line and space represents a note. “ “Do you want to try it?” I asked William.
(Moby, by this time, was making background noises…”No Caroline. He does NOT want to try it. He has sanding to do.”)
“Sure,” William smiled.. “I’d like to..
Moby: “Maybe Caroline can do the sanding and you can play the piano, William”

Paddling around Bequia

11 April 2019 | Admiralty Bay, Bequia
Caroline Burton
As my buddy Joan Dwyer would say, “the goal in paddle boarding is to avoid looking like a little old lady pushing a Wegman’s cart.” Actually, I’ll be doing that soon enough as we are heading home in a week.
One of Moby’s and my favorite afternoon activities is to paddle board around, then swim to the beach, walk the beach and swim back to the boat. It is a delightful lead-in to our favorite sunset activity which involves settling down in the cockpit with a good book and your beverage of choice. However tonight, Moby needs to write a letter about the sailing courses offered at RYC, so in order to get internet, we are now about to dinghy in to Jack’s Beach Bar whereupon Moby will be forced to buy a bunch of beers so we can use their free internet.

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