Tianelle

30 May 2016 | Falmouth Harbour
31 December 1969
31 December 1969

The voyages of Tianelle

30 May 2016 | Falmouth Harbour
Nick
These are the voyages of sailing yacht Tianelle (Oyster 575).
We are currently anchored in Falmouth Harbour, Antigua, and plan to cruise to Guadeloupe for the next few days.

Guadeloupe

31 December 1969
Posted on 31/Mar/2016 @ 01:30:28 UTC

After a summer hauled out at Nanny Cay, Tortola BVI to avoid the hurricanes followed by a sail down to Antigua from the BVI we were all very busy getting to know the boat and we had not cracked the communications angle.

But we have fixed that now - all it takes is a bit of time and of course money - and here we are again.

We are now in the beautiful bay of Des Haies, Guadeloupe having had a brisk sail down from Jolly Harbour, Antigua, and we have had a great day around this quaint little town.

Heading off to Iles des Saintes early tomorrow so, assuming this post works ok we will be making entries regularly from now on!

Our First Blog!

31 December 1969
Posted on 18/Jun/2015 @ 00:19:41 UTC

Ok here we go ..... At this point we dont have much time so I am uploading a chunk in one go....... photos later I hope...

Tuesday 26th May 2015

After lots of frantic arrangements between Ipswich, Guernsey and Tortola Legend IV is finally ours and I place an order immediately for the decals for the new name, Tianelle, which was the name of our first boat now living in Sweden. I just need Jeannette here now to complete the picture.

Saturday 30th May 2015

Big day – Jeannette arriving. I whip round the boat to tidy it up and went to the airport to meet Jeannette at Beef Island. Unfortunately the Liat flight was cancelled and Jeannette had to catch the last flight of the day which landed at 10pm.

Sunday 31st May 2015

Our first full day on the boat together, still berthed in Nanny Cay. We start to unpack and stow our gear. We planned to take her out for an inaugural sail on Sunday afternoon but we couldn’t start the engine and by the time we had investigated lots of things we found that the engine cut off switch had been inadvertently been switched by Barry the engineer who had been investigating a plumbing issue the previous day. Too late to go out so spent the rest of the afternoon emptying the saloon lockers and cataloguing the abundance of spare parts that Alan had left on board. Went out for celebration dinner at Peg Leg’s.

Thursday 4th June 2015

Set sail for Trellis Bay to pick our first guests, Nick and Von. We have a glorious sail up Sir Francis Drake Channel, reaching speeds in excess of 9 knots. Pick up a mooring in Trellis Bay, had a problem with the dinghy davits and more importantly discovered that we didn’t have any fuel for the dinghy. Dropped mooring and went to Marina Cay for fuel and then returned to Trellis Bay. Picked up third mooring ball of the day! Went for dinner at De Loose Mongoose whilst waiting for Nick and Von to arrive. Sauntered over to airport from beach to find plane had arrived very early and Nick and Von were already through customs and Immigration! We had a debate whether we could get four of us plus all luggage that was weighed down with all the stuff that Nick and Von had very kindly brought for us. Managed to get all on board and had celebratory G&T!

Friday 5th June 2015

We wake up to find that Nick and Von were already up before us as they were still on UK time – this would prove to be the first and last time that this happened. Breakfast on deck and Nick and Von gave us a lovely boat warming present of a cocktail set engraved with name and date we got Tianelle. We motored over to Marina Cay and went for lunch on the beach. Too tired to do anything so lazed on board until cocktail and went for a Painkiller on the beach.

Saturday 6th June 2015

Rob and Nick went across to Marina Cay restaurant where there was good WIFI so that Rob could set up the YB tracker unit and that is where our tracks starts from. Short sail to Leverick Bay in Gorda Sound where we picked up a mooring ball and went ashore for some provision and 2 Painkillers each during Happy Hour. Returned to Leverick Bay to have dinner- we all ate Roti and Nick and Von spoke to Louise on Skype video– that’s how good the WIFI was!

Sunday 7th June 2015

Dropped the mooring at 9.30am and had a brisk sail in 20 knots to Anegada. Arrived off Anegada at approximately 11.20 and the wind was blowing in excess of 20 knots from SSE. Due to our draft we could only anchor at the west end outside the reef and decided that this was going to be too uncomfortable as we couldn’t get in any closer to get any shelter. So, we decided to turn back at 12 noon and had a long beat back to The Bitter End picking up a mooring ball at 16.15, having covered 34 miles. We took the dinghy to Saba Rock for a well-deserved Painkiller!

Monday 8th June 2015

Visited the Bitter End Yacht Club and climbed up to take the view from outside the accommodation. Nick bought the first of many (many) T-shirts as he didn’t have room to bring many clothes due to all the flags Rob had asked him to bring!

Dropped the mooring ball at 12.20 and sailed down to Peter Island picking up a mooring ball in Great Harbour at 15.20. We had 20 knots SSE all the way and had a brisk sail. Picking up the mooring ball was quite tricky due the gusts coming down off the hills into the harbour.

We went ashore for dinner at Oceans Seven and we were the only people there. We should have made a reservation for dinner we were told. We did, however, have a good dinner and as soon we left they switched the lights out!!

Tuesday 9th June 2015

Another lazy morning and dropped the mooring at 11.20 and motor sailed to Pelican Island so that Rob and Nick could snorkel at the Indians, which are some rocky outcrops which are good for diving and snorkelling. Von and I did NOT go snorkelling!! Picked up the mooring ball at 12.10 and left at 14.15 heading over to the Bight on Norman Island. We remembered to make our dinner reservation at the Pirates Bight. But before dinner went to the Willy T’s for more Painkillers and dancing on board. Jeannette has video footage of Von dancing to Sweet Child of Mine which is available for a small fee!

Dinner at the new version of Pirates Bight was very good – we all had Jambalaya which was excellent. Our server told us that the old place had been burnt down a couple of years ago and the new place is very smart indeed.

Wednesday 10th June 2015.

Rob and Nick went snorkelling at the Caves just outside the Bight. We left at 14.10 and motor sailed to Soper’s Hole at the West End of Tortola. Very picturesque village with lots of colourful houses and shops. More T-shirt shopping for Nick, one from Latitude 18 and one from Pussers. More Painkillers during Happy Hour although Von wimped out and only had a beer to our 2 Painkillers. There was a heavy squall before we set off for dinner. We booked dinner at Scaramouche, which is a relatively new restaurant in Soper’s Hole. Had an amazing dinner served by a girl from Stockport! Food and drink definitely recommended. Very heavy rain storm and strong winds during the night.

Thursday 11th June 2015

We had an early start as we had to leave at 8.30 to dinghy over to the ferry dock to catch the ferry to St. John in order to enter USVI on our ESTA’s. After some minor worries as Rob and I did not have paper copies of our ESTA’s we were able to satisfy the ferry office that we did have current ESTA’s by showing the confirmation on my iPhone. We set off on a very old and noisy ferry for Cruz Bay on St. John and after the usual formalities at Customs and Immigration we were free to explore Cruz Bay. Our first stop was for a second breakfast where blueberry pancakes and French toast was the order of the day. We found the extremely well stocked supermarket which we intended to return to at a later date. Lunch at a café on the beach was of gargantuan American portion size but washed down with only water!

We returned to Soper’s Hole and Customs officials were very helpful and gave us some tips about where to visit on Jost Van Dyke. We planned to eat out that night but had another huge rain storm so Von whipped up a Thai Green Curry with Shrimps (large prawns for English viewers) which was so hot I had to smother it with mayo to cool things down. Hot sweats all round during the night! However, it wasn’t Von’s fault as the curry came out of a packet.



Friday 12th June 2015

We got up early again as we wanted to provision as soon as the shops opened at 8 am and we set off at 9.20 for St. Thomas in USVI. We ran out of water so had to make water en route for Charlotte Amalie – lesson learnt about the need to make water every day! We had a good sail going through a very narrow passage of St James’ Island where we all held our breath. We anchored off the Yacht Harbour Grande – it was very rolly but the anchored held in the conditions. Getting to the Customs office proved very difficult as there is no dinghy dock anywhere near the office. We had to moor the dinghy at the far end of the bay and walk back to the Customs Office. More fingerprints were taken and we were then free to find a bar for a beer. We found a nice bar in Palm Passage and had a couple of beers before strolling round the shops. We hailed a barge taxi to take us to K-Mart. Patrick, the taxi driver was very helpful pointing out places of interest on the way. He agreed to pick us up for the return journey and gave Rob his number. Bought loads of stuff in K-Mart and tried to call Patrick but couldn’t get through. Luckily for us Simon was on hand to take us all back in his car complete with dry-cleaning hanging in the back and shoes in the footwell!

This was definitely not a taxi and we think Simon had just seized the opportunity to make a bit of money out of some tourists! Thankfully we arrived back at the harbour in one piece and paid our money and made a swift exit!

Dinner was in the Green House Bar and Restaurant and Friday night was Lobster night! Superb lobster dinners all round, washed down by some very nice White Beaujolais. Jelisa, our lovely server, gave us some tips about where to visit on St. Thomas.



Saturday 13th June 2015

Today is the Sovereign’s birthday as recognised by the BVI but as we are in USVI we didn’t dress overall! We set off at 10.15 and sailed round to the north of St. Thomas and had lunch on the way. We anchored in beautiful Magen’s Bay. There were just 3 other yachts there and they seemed to be on permanent moorings so it was very quiet anchorage but there was a party going on at the beach so it was pretty noisy. We took the dinghy to the beach after Rob and Nick had scoped out the landing and walked about half way along the beach when we were stopped by an officious Life Guard who told us that we were not allowed to land the dinghy on the beach as they wanted to keep the clear for walkers. So in a fit of pique we decided to return to the boat and AH (the Life Guard) could stick it. Sadly, this affected our memory of St. Thomas until we remembered how nice Jelisa had been!

Rob and Nick had Dark and Stormies whilst Von and I had G&T before Nick cooked wonderful Rib eye steaks for dinner, washed down with some very nice red wine.

There were some amazing houses built around Magen’s Bay in some precarious looking positions –it was hard to believe that they could get cars to the properties.

Sunday 14th June 2015

Rob and I got up at 7am (yes, there are 2 x 7 o’clocks in the day!) to catalogue the contents of the lazarette. Nick and Von were still asleep. Unfortunately I dropped a piece of paper overboard and Rob had to jump to retrieve it – an early morning swim whether he wanted it or not. We worked until 9.30 or so before having breakfast prepared by Nick and Von. Von was the galley slave as she also prepared lunch which we were going to eat underway.

We set off at 11.00am bound for the National Park on St.John.

More to follow, Painkillers permitting! ……..
Vessel Name: Tianelle