Yacht Larus

A slow circumnavigation

Vessel Name: Larus
Vessel Make/Model: Slipper 42
Hailing Port: Southampton
Crew: Tim Chapman and Nancy Martiniuk
About: Sailing together since 1988
Home Page: Http://www.sailblogs.com/member/yachtlarus
18 June 2016
03 December 2015 | Nanny Cay, Tortola, BVI
03 June 2015 | Antigua
19 October 2014 | Trinidad
04 July 2014 | Bequia
02 March 2014 | Chaguaramas, Trinidad
25 February 2014
24 January 2014 | Bequia
18 December 2013
09 December 2013
23 October 2013 | Port de Plaisance, St Martin
05 September 2013
11 June 2013
11 June 2013
Recent Blog Posts
18 June 2016

Blog is moving

There is no perfect blog site for those of us who have almost permanent internet challenges, however we're moving from Sailblogs now to a new blog site. The posts here will remain but all future posts will be at;

21 February 2016

Every cloud has a silver lining

It came to light during the Boat show that the boat's insurers were insisting that the delivery skipper had an Ocean endorsement on their Yachtmaster ticket. Tim doesn't have this. He's had his Yachtmaster for over 20 years and in those days Yachtmaster Offshore was the highest level of certification. [...]

04 February 2016

Best laid plans and all that.

Belated Happy New Year to all.

03 December 2015 | Nanny Cay, Tortola, BVI

Blog 78 - Cruising once again

Having just reread our last blog, I'm pleasantly surprised to find that it was pretty much spot on.

03 June 2015 | Antigua

Work, Work and more work.

It is an awfully long time since our last blog and we really haven't been doing much other than working.

27 October 2014

On the hard Chaguaramas and crusing in Tobago

Spring this year, April to July, found us working pretty hard. Summer found us spending our hard earned gains treating Larus and ourselves to some TLC. While Tim and I visited friends and family in Canada and the UK, we left Larus on the hard in Coral Cove Marina, Chaguaramas, Trinidad in the care [...]

19 October 2014 | Trinidad

New paint job

Couldn't resist painting the boat at Trinidad prices. Looking gorgeous in a slightly warmer shade of white. Also rolled on 4 more coats of Coppercoat for good measure.

04 July 2014 | Bequia

We’re still here!

And by ‘here’ I mean, Guadeloupe, St Vincent and the Grenadines, St Marten and the British Virgin Islands. We have been working quite a lot over the last few months, and are currently in the Grenadines doing nothing but looking after Larus and pleasing ourselves.

02 March 2014 | Chaguaramas, Trinidad

The Run Up to Carnival

Trinidad is obsessed with Carnival. I've read that between Carnivals, the Trini's are either reminiscing about the previous Carnival or planning for the next.

25 February 2014

Trinidad

With our week long charter in the BVI completed we headed back to Bequia. Again, we had a great time and many laughs with our guests on 'Faith.' We also celebrated our Captain's birthday with cake, candles and, most importantly, ice cream.

24 January 2014 | Bequia

Charters and Bequia

Both Tim and I have been out on charter. I worked for two weeks in Guadeloupe on a 70' Flagship catamaran while Tim got called out to a short notice charter in the BVI.

Reflection of a skipper

18 December 2013
Tim
So it's about time I made a contribution to this weighty tome.
Nancy and I have now owned a boat for 25 years and have been full time cruising for 19 months. Finally we are living the dream that was germinated on a Greek island in 1986, (but that's another story). So is this life all it's cracked up to be? Well I guess the answer to that depends on what you left behind, I don't believe either of us have every looked back, although we always had a good life back in England. We do look back with a lot of happiness at everything that has happened since 2nd May 2012 when we cast off from our boatyard that had been home since 1987.

Everyone dreams of blue Caribbean skies and warm seas, we've got that in abundance now; however I miss the early months in Europe and the constant feeling of excitement and anticipation that we had then, every day we were learning something new, we still learn but not as much as in those early days. At the time we decide to push on west into the Pacific that healthy fear of the unknown will hopefully return.

When we set off we were paranoid about every cent that we spent. To be honest we should still be like that but it doesn't dominate our lives any more, (maybe that's why the bank account is heading south!). Eventually you manage your lifestyle to suit the money you have and if anyone asks me how much it costs to do this I tell them that its $1000 a month as long as you have a good boat that you can maintain yourself. Interestingly only a small part of that $1000 is for day to day living, the bulk of it is the irregular big ticket items like insurance, flights home, major repairs, new outboard etc. It's worth adding that we almost never use marinas or restaurants, I am lucky, not everyone has Nancy on board!

It's amazing how quickly your sailing confidence goes up in this life, not to mention your boat handling skills. On numerous occasions we have been in winds of over 30 knots and seas over 3m, they're still uncomfortable but they don't trouble us anymore. Having said that we try to be very conservative with the boat as we can't afford expensive breakages. Last week we had to beat into a gale and big seas for 24 hours, it was only after doing this I realised that the air vents leak unacceptably and the anchor locker doesn't drain fast enough, (every other wave broke over the boat). Amazing that you have a boat 15 years before you discover that. That one trip potentially has cost us $1000 as I now have replace the vents with ones that are dry and also the engine control panel was submerged in salt water and what is left working probably won't continue working for much longer. The moral of the story is in bad conditions if you don't have to go, don't.

The Caribbean ticks a lot of boxes for cruising sailors. The weather is predictable, the seas always around 30C and the air temp is always around 27-30C. Everyone's got their hands out for your dollars here but you can manage that with a bit of local knowledge. We don't use as much diesel as I thought we would as there is plenty of wind here, when we want diesel it's worth a trip to Trinidad and Tobago where it's 15p sterling a litre. One fill lasts me several months.

Larus has proved herself a worthy boat for what we're doing. She is admired wherever we go and is dependable when the weather deteriorates at sea. Nothings perfect and we really need more shade in the way of some kind of bimini over the cockpit, we'll get that eventually but it needs a lot of thought and planning even before you choose someone to make it. If I was to start out with a blank sheet and a blank cheque then I would have a boat of the same genre as Larus but with ability to carry a small rigid inflatable dinghy. We get by fine with our dinghy but a RIB would improve life as the dinghy is such a huge part of what we do. Because we have a generator and watermaker we think they're indispensable. I'm curious as to what we would think about those two things if we didn't have them.

Now we're working we're really becoming experts on all the islands in the Eastern Caribbean as we run the charter yachts through a lot of them. We do have our favourites but I think it's as much about familiarity as anything else. We are always drawn towards Antigua but maybe that's because it was the first island we stopped at after our transatlantic crossing. Incredibly we still haven't stopped in St Lucia even though we've passed it many times. I think now we've done as many miles in the Eastern Caribbean as we did getting here in the first place.

People often ask us, (and every other full time cruiser), 'what do you do all day?' To be honest most days we are busy, but not in the same frantic way that full time working back home was, (we don't have a garden to keep, our garden looks after itself). I probably spend up to half of every day on boat projects; time spent on checking and preventative maintenance pays handsome dividends and I have an ever evolving check list of things that need doing to a schedule. I've never read so many novels as since we left, it's a joy to have the time to do this. Occasionally we'll watch a DVD on the laptop in the evenings, cruisers readily trade movies with each other.

Working is not what we set out to do but it's worked out to be a positive step. The work, although brutally hard, is fun and rewarding. We have only met good people so far, both guests and colleagues and we've sailed in a lot of places that we might otherwise have not gone to. Part time working is ideal for us but I wouldn't want to do it full time.

We miss friends and family back home but have new friends and 'family' on the oceans now. As I write this the class of 2013 are arriving in the islands after their transatlantic crossings, that was us a year ago; some of the class of 2012 have gone back to UK, others have pushed onto Panama and the Pacific but a lot are doing what we're doing and have chosen to stay in the Caribbean for a few years.

We are delighted and flattered to have so many followers of this blog, both known to us and strangers. We wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year
Tim
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