Ships passing in the night
During the course of travels I met quite a few wonderful people sailing around the same destinations. I regret that I didn't keep good notes or pictures but will make sure to keep this page up-to-date in the future!
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The Canadian family of Alison, Barry, Kayla and Quinn who purchased Solitaire from me. We travelled on identical paths for a while, then sailed off to different destinations only to to meet up again. Their travels can be followed on their blog. Update Jan 2011- The Blue Water Kids completed their year in the Caribbean and have since sold Solitaire to another happy owner and have returned to Canada. Barry had an unfortunate accident while mountain biking in mid 2010 and is still recovering as I write this, I wish him and the rest of the family all the best. |
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The Canadian family of Ziggy, John, Jennifer and Connor aboard Windancer IV were also cruising around the northern Caribbean islands and we met in St. Martin as well as in St. Barths during our trips. They, too, have a blog which can be found here. |
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The South African family of Sanne, Paul, Jona and Michael also started out in Nanny Cay in the BVI and our paths crossed several times including one long stay in Falmouth harbour on Antigua. |
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This was one of the Jeanneau 43DS models that I was interested in, it was purchased by Bruce, a Canadian single-hander who quite literally did sell the farm and go sailing around the Caribbean. Our paths kept on crossing in different anchorages and bars; we both ended up getting wind generators at the same time in St. Martin and without his help I probably would have lost mine overboard. We also spent much of the Antigua Race week together at different events around the island. We were both headed to Antigua when we parted ways in Guadeloupe when I had to return to Antigua and get on a flight in order to return to Europe for some work. |
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Dirk, a fellow German, had picked up his brand new Bénéteau in South Carolina and was sailing around the Caribbean islands by himself. He certainly did well on the boat name - on one sail from St. Martin to St. Barths he stayed ahead of me despite my over 10 foot hull-length advantage and it wasn't until the wind really picked up that I managed to sneak ahead. Dirk sailed around quite a bit more than I did, while I was restfully anchored somewhere he would decide to sail to Venezuela and back! |
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Dirk's new yacht, a Bavaria Cruiser 32, was commissioning in 2011 just a couple of months before Zanshin. The picture was taken in Holland, shortly before he headed south to Portugal and for the Caribbean in November. |
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I met Andy, the captain, and Jill, his companion and chef, at the Sunsail base in the BVI. They were taking a break and were working as a delivery crew (they'd just arrived from an Atlantic crossing in a new 50+ footer for Moorings) and for crewed charters in the BVI. Then, in January 2009 I was in St. Martin shopping at Budget Marine when we met again. In his typical British understatement he said he was now Captain on a yacht called Paraiso built by Alloy Yachts and I was welcome to come by that afternoon to take a look. I was more than impressed by the yacht when I did get the full tour - I've never seen anything up close that even came close to the quality and size of Paraiso. |
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Latifa is a Fife designed and built yawl, currently owned and sailed by an Italian gentleman called Mario. We were neighbours for quite a while in Antigua and his beautifully maintained classic boat is a beauty to behold. He sails single handed but the old boats are a lot more work and it takes him up to 3 hours to get underway (compared to 10 minutes on a new boat). All of the deck hardware is original (or reproduction) on Latifa, giving her a unique look and feel. |
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Oboe d'amore is a Dufour 49 foot Grand'Large owned and captained by Nigel. Oboe was my dock neighbour at Jolly Harbour in Antigua for several days while both us were getting our boats ready for extended stays away from the dock. In his case he had the boat meticulously cleaned and prepped for some charter work in the south. Nigel threw a grand “going away” party on December first for some of his friends and dock neighbours. |
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Carina and her German owners (Erika and Pfiff) were docked next to me at Nanny Cay in April 2010 and they were preparing to leave for Europe as I was putting the bits and pieces of Zanshin I together after storage. Carina is about 35 feet and has classic lines, I wish I'd asked what type of a boat she is. They departed in atypically hazy weather with a high off Florida and weren't sure if they were doing a Rhumb line passage or would end up going via Bermuda. |
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Pinta is owned by a fellow German, Heinz-Dieter, with whom I've been e-mailing back and forth for some time. He purchased an ex-charter Jeanneau 43DS (there must have been a gaggle of them in the BVI at one time) and had her refitted at Nanny Cay prior to going voyaging. We've since crossed paths in St. Martin and probably will meet up again during our slow voyage south in the Caribbean. |
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Arita is sailed by a couple, Lauren and Rob, and they are doing a slow circumnavigation as well and I'll certainly bump into them in other Caribbean and perhaps even Pacific anchorages in the future. |
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Sea Life is sailed single-handed by Mark, although initially he started his extensive journeys with accompaniment but they have since parted ways. While we initially made contact on an internet forum we finally crossed paths in St. Martin. |
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The name Palarran is the name of a mythical ship in the worlds of J.R.R. Tolkein and her skipper, David, was also an acquaintance from the ethereal WWW until we met in St. Barths. The catamaran is beautiful and incredibly spacious Fontaine Pajot Marquesas 56. |
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Tangaroa is the Māori god of the sea, his vessel is a Freedom 40 skippered by Paul and we met initially in the North Sound of the BVI. |
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Mau is the German alliteration for a cat's meow and is the home of my friends Carmen and Bernd as of June 2011. This entry is sort of cheating, as I haven't met up with the boat (as of this posting) but hope to do so soon. |
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Nakesa is beautiful 57 foot Swan, owned and skippered by Graham. We departed Annapolis and Norfolk at about the same time in December 2011, we were headed for St. Martin and he (solo) was headed for Puerto Rico. While we weren't in visual range we did stay in contact via VHF for the first 4 days and exchanged weather information. |
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Sanctuary is skippered by Captain Mark and we'd communicated online numerous times before we finally got to meet up and go ashore together in Grand Case, St. Martin in 2012. He's been sailing around the Caribbean for many years and is fount of knowledge of things out of the ordinary. |
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Leila is the newly acquired Beneteau of Audrey and Darren from the United Kingdom. They are friends of Mau and I met them upon their first real foray from the shelter of the Simpson Bay lagoon into bluer waters. |
