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
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.
Be On Guard!
Apparently a British couple, Roger and Margaret Pratt, had been anchored in Vieux Fort, St. Lucia. According to the police report, officers responded to a report of robbery aboard sailing vessel “Magnetic Attraction” . Within minutes of the robbers fleeing, the wife had gone topside in search of her husband and found him floating face down in the water. Police are holding suspects in custody.
Writing on her blog in the hours before the attack, Mrs Pratt told how bureaucracy thwarted their attempts to leave that part of the Caribbean.
She said: "On Thursday morning the plan was to clear out from Soufriere, then to travel south and use up the 72 hours before we had to be away. But bureaucracy intervened. HM Customs and Excise in Soufriere told us that exit had to happen within 24 hours of clearing out; and that anyway, we couldn't clear out of Soufriere that day because the Immigration Officer hadn't come to work(!!)
"So here we are in Vieux Fort, the most southerly port of clearance in St Lucia, having to wait until Monday to clear out.”
It’s the type of story that many sailors fear could happen. What brought it close to home for us, was considering that Vieux Fort, St Lucia is the anchorage where Moby and I generally stop to pick up guests flying into St Lucia. It has a bad reputation as a high crime spot. Unnerving to think that Moby had stopped there 3x in November when he was sailing singlehandedly.
I realize that if you tried to avoid EVER putting yourself in danger, you’d probably never leave the comforts of your home.
However, we decided it’s still a good idea to come up with safety precautions we could take if we were ever to face the same situation as the unfortunate couple from the UK.
Looking for ways to be able to lock ourselves in the cabin, leave lights on, use pepper spray as a deterrent, anchoring near other boats, staying joined at the hip, and altogether avoiding even going near any high crime spots.
Any other suggestions to add to the list??
