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ATTENTION: BAHATI is currently listed with East Coast Yacht Sales and the broker of record is Spencer Drake. He can be reached @ 207-846-4545. Kudos to Mike at Brewers for his skillful and artistic work on the hull. New color scheme includes Whisper Grey with a green covestripe.... [...]orgeous! We added canvass to match 2 summer’s ago. Huge Thanks to Richard at Maine Canvass! We also replaced the old ProFurl in-boom system with a new lighter weight and safer Selden in-boom reef system and new mainsail built by Jan at Bayview Sails and Rigging. Lovely job!
We've also done some major upgrades on the mast and rig and will continue to refit and refinish down below. We are dreaming of a possible trans-Atlantic cruise during the summer of 2017. Our good friends aboard EMPIRE in Norway are calling us. We'll see what happens!
For this summer BAHATI will stay on the hard while we head over to Sydney for a 3 month job. We're looking forward to spending more time in this beautiful seaside city and will return to the end of summer in Maine around Aug 1. Meantime, if yr interested in visiting BAHATI she'd love to see you. She's parked right outside the paint shop doors at Brewers. Please contact Willie at Brewers if you'd like to get aboard and do a closer inspection.
Please see the latest issue (2014) of Ocean Voyager for our piece on voyage financing, "Cents and Sensibility", and watch-out for our book due out sometime in 2015 tentatively entitled "In Slocum's Wake", a "how-to" look at our circumnavigation.
Our Sailmail address has expired and we will not be renewing it, at least for the time being. If you want to contact us via e-mail please do so thru this blog or by using either my AOL or Gmail accts.... or Betsy's Yahoo acct. Tnx!
We "closed the loop" in March 2011 and just this March returned to our crossing point on Bequia in the Grenadines for a sweet reunion with old friends and a much-appreciated escape from what's been a particularly tough winter in Maine. After more than 4.5 years and 30,000nm sailing...from Maine to the Caribbean...from Panama to the Galapagos...from there to the Marquesas and French Polynesia, the Tuomotus, Cook Islands and Tonga and south to New Zealand.... north to New Caledonia and Vanuatu, then west to Australia and the Great Barrier Reef, thru the Torres Straits and on down to Bali, then up to Singapore, Malaysia, & Thailand and back down the Straits of Malacca to Bali again before crossing the Indian Ocean via Christmas Island, Cocos Keeling, Mauritius and Reunion Islands...on round the bottom of Madagascar and into Durban, So Africa! Thence round the southernmost African Cape Aghullas and into Simon's Town. Departing So Africa in Feb 2011, we rounded the Cape of Good Hope, sailed past Cape Town, (BAHATI's place of birth!), on up the So Atlantic with stops at St Helena and Ascension Islands and finally back to the Caribbean crossing our outbound path at the magical island of Bequia! We had 10 glorious days there on a Daffodil mooring walking the old trails to Hope Beach and other places we fondly remembered from our visit in 2006 and we discovered many new haunts as well.
From Bequia we sailed north thru the Windward and on into the Leward Islands and then jumped off from St Maarten for the nearly 1000nm hop to Bermuda. Our old friend and crew, Phil Worboys, and his girl friend (who are currently on their own global voyage aboard SEA MONKEY) joined us in St Maarten to help sail BAHATI up to their hometown of St George, Bermuda. Nat's bro, Ben, and his good friend, Jack Thomas, jumped aboard in Bermuda and, along with Phil, made the run back across the Gulf Stream and on up toward New England. After hitting 40knts on the nose coming out of the Cape Cod Canal, just ahead of some tornados and wild thunderstorms we arrived in Annisquam on a barely rising tide! Whew!
In Annisquam we attended the wedding of Betsy's nephew, Tyler Warren, and his bride, Sarah Cunningham...a gala affair with reception at the lovely and historic Annisquam Yacht Club. From there we sailed overnight home to Casco Bay with our old buddies, Pete Kovner and Jeff Brummer, aboard to help us find our way back into SoFreeMe. We were greeted at dawn by cannon fire from the decks of Jack Thomas' new lobster vessel, DARK 'n' STORMY, and likewise from Jim Harvie's gorgeous black Hinckley Pilot, MADRIGAL , the boat we had honeymooned aboard in 1977.
A week later we enjoyed a wonderful "Welcome Home BAHATI Pahty" at the Harraseeket Yacht Club complete with dancing music played by Sean Mencher and the Rhythm Kings....a truly fitting afair! Many friends and family joined us on the dock and under the tent to sample wonderful Flying Point oysters (Thanks Eric and Valy!) and the fine horsdouevres created and served by Jennie Gwylim and rhum punch mixed and served by Andrew Zeeb. Leavitt & Paris setup a couple of terrific tents for us to help hold-off the inclement weather. Huge thanks to all who helped us put this event together and pull it off so seamlessly and a special tribute to Cindy Drake and the HYC membership for generously allowing us to use the clubhouse! Molly and John would have been thrilled. It was lovely to reconnect with so many old friends and feel truly welcomed home at last!
We returned to the USofA in June 2011 clearing customs in New Bedford, MA where we had visited on our outbound passage in order to pay homage to Capt Joshua Slocum who left on his famous "round the world alone" trip in the late 1800's.
For the past two summers we've loved cruising the Coast of Maine again with stops at old haunts like Quahog Bay, Boothbay, Christmas Cove, Matinicus Island,Isle au Haut, the White Islands, Camden, Tenants Hbr, Linekin Bay, Yarmouth Island and home again. So great to see so many old friends and favorite places along this remarkable coastline. We always sail round Eastern Egg Rock in Muscongus Bay to say "Hi!" to the puffins who Mum and Dad loved so much.
Cheers all & have a good watch!
Nat and Betsy
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BAHATI Circumnavigation crew members:
Maine to NJ & Maryland: Bruce Brown &
Tom O'Reilly
Norfolk, Va to Bermuda: Bill Barton,
Jeff Brummer,
Ben Walker-Brummer,
Bob Wagner
Bermuda to St Maarten: Philip Worboys &
Art Edelstein
St Maarten to Auckland, NZ:
Josh Warren-White
St [...]
Lucia to Opua, NZ:
Michael Callahan
Antigua to St Lucia: Ben Fowler,
Sarah Haskell,
Mariah Warren
Guadeloupe to Cartagena:
Gareth Weis
Panama to Malpela & return:
Kirk "Kule" Jackman
Panama Canal:
Michal Rogers &
Jerry Gould
Balboa to Las Perlas:
Sarah Spaulding
Tonga to Opua & Opua to Tanna, Vanuatu:
Tim Barker
Tonga to Opua:
Hillary Gerardi
Opua to Auckland, NZ: Catherine Lambert
Auckland to Auckland: Julia O'Brien and David Merrill
Opua to Opua:
Sandra Bisset &
Wally Mallet
Auckland to Opua:
Nathaniel O'Brien-Merrill
Auckland-Weiheke:
Beth Coleman
Opua to Tanna:
Meghan DeWalt & Tim Barker
Auckland to Cairns:
Cameron Grillo
Cairns to Bali: Georgina Greville
Serengan, Bali to Lovina Beach: Jerry Knecht
Serengan to Point Nongsa, Batam: Oliver Ghelen
Point Nongsa to Puteri Harbor, Malaysia: Martin Lambert
Phuket to Phuket: Chris and Teo von Baeyer
Phuket to Langkawi: Christopher Blake
Singapore toward Bali: Tim Van Ness
Bali to Xmas Island: Josh Warren-White and Luke Newton
Bali to Cape Town: Ben Powers
Cape Town to Barbados: Susan Hoff, Weston and Sarah Haskell
Barbados to Bequia: Martha and Jim Burns
Dominica to Guadaloupe: Peter and Debbie Warren
Antigua to Antigua: Joel Bernstein and Ann Blackstock
Antigua to St Maarten: Betsy and Nat
St Maarten to Bermuda: Phil Worboys & Jenn Quinn
Bermuda to Cape Ann: Ben White, Phil Worboys, and Jack Thomas
Cape Ann to SoFreeMe: Pete Kovner, Ben White, Jeff Brummer and Betsy W-W
We are extremely grateful to these stalwart and courageous sailors who have willingly joined us to help-out on in this amazing adventure and we look forward to welcoming others as we slowly find our back home to Maine again!
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