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.
Our New Tennis Buddies
Bequia is full of well kept secrets and one of them is an old beat up concrete tennis court that probably used to be a sistern, located behind the Gingerbread House. It is full of cracks, surrounded by flowers and has a little one room school house up the hill. The elementary students used to watch us play during recess. In all the years we’ve been coming to Bequia, we’ve never found anyone else on the court.
“It looks like they are just getting ready to play.” Moby said.
“Maybe they would be up for doubles.” I suggested.
The man gestured us over. “Are you any good?” he asked.
“We’re ok, but rusty,” I responded.
“Perfect. You’re on!”
Susan and John are the Adventure Couple. They met skiing. Susan was a ski instructor. John raced, coached and took his ski team to Europe. Both widowed, they ski, play tennis, hike, bike, snorkel, golf and travel the world together. They travel the right way, too. Renting a house on Bequia for a month; taking the bike and Riverboat cruise through France; explored New Zealand in search of Susan’s Kiwi roots; went up to the Tulip Festival in Holland; rented a house in Provence,,,,, It’s pretty heartening that while so many of their friends are planning ahead and putting deposits on one floor living in gated communities, Susan and John are too busy planning their next trip.
Bequia is a tiny island so after our first tennis match together, we kept bumping into them wherever we went. So far we’ve been on the Island less than a week and have just played our 3rd tennis match against them, had them out to Sapphire for rum drinks followed by a hike up the hill to Papa’s for a lobster dinner a few nights ago and tonight at 5, we’ve been invited to their place “Sweet Mango” for a pool dip and barbeque.
