Final chapter
Meeting new friends in the BVI’s.
During our last weeks in the BVI we had a wild social time, well the girls did and we were dragged along with them. Waving good bye to Barnie and Family at the airport anchorage we met a USA family on a dolphin Catamaran, they turned out to be travelling with a British ( a little bit welsh too)
Family on Rosy and a Brazilian Family on Calva Marinio. Sienna decided that the little Brazilian boy, Raffell was going to be her boyfriend whether he wanted it or not. We had a lot of fun over the following two weeks, with the BBQ on the beach and various rum punches for the adults. We were sorely tempted to continue with our new found friends and sail on to Venezuela for another season. But, we decided to stop while we were ahead.
Leaving the BVI’s.
We finally arranged for a delivery skipper to sail wind Belle back to France, I am sure you are all thinking what a wimp Jonny is. Actually I didn’t want to do it without a crew I knew and I had promised Sophie I would take her to Disney land, (and the Girls) on our way back.
Our delivery skipper was Damian, a nice Irish guy who also does yacht charters. He has to use walking sticks on land, due to a previous back accident, however once on board he bounded about and we were most impressed, so if you need a skipper look at ().
So finally we left for the ultimate capitalist venture, Disney land, where a million dreams come true and a million dollars are made every day. The funny thing was after 10 minutes the girls wanted to leave. My personal belief is that they found it all to crowded and manufactured after the wonderful experiences of the last year. They just wanted to play in the cupboard in the little house we had rented. In a rather ironic way Sophie and I were rather proud of their reaction, despite spending all the money on what was going to be one of the highlights of our year.
From Disney we went to Itchenor to spend a few weeks waiting for the boat to cross the Atlantic. Fortunately or unfortunately they had very little wind so it took some 5-6 weeks.
Back at Itchenor.
Arriving back at Itchenor was surreal, nothing changed, except that all the kids had grown by a foot or so. I bumped into my brother Jack, and didn’t even recognize him until he said “hello” in a deep gravely voice.
Once back were reunited with our dog Sinbad, he wasn’t that excited to see us, until we started to feed him which just proved to us that he was only loyal to the hand that fed him.
Also at the club we saw the redevelopment which is great, Jean Pudney was totally involved in the renovation.
Sadly Jean and Dad also announced there separation which made our return only more timely. We also saw many friends and enjoyed being back.
Back to the boat.
The boat finally arrived back in Port Carmargue (some 6 weeks after we had left it) I was very glad not to have spent the time crossing. The skipper and crew had had extremely light winds and spent a great deal of time motoring. When we saw the boat it had 20x20 litre diesel tanks strapped to the deck.
It was great to be back on the boat, at the place the whole adventure started. The girls wasted no time in finding their toys, going to the beach and bouncing on the trampoline.
Last sail
It was decided that the best place to sell the boat would be Canet –en –Roussillion which is near Perpignon the boarder of Spain. This is also where Catanas are built. It was about 70 nm from Port Camargue to Canet.
We set of at 6am to a gorgeous sun rise, and light winds, the wind built to about 10 knots, by breakfast, we were going very well and we were all enjoying being back on the water, at about mid day the wind died and we started to motor, when we saw the flick of a tail. Not a whale but a dolphin that made us all drop everything and jump on deck. This was soon followed by more dolphins that played in our bows. We ended up with 50 dolphins swimming with us, playing in our bow waves.
The girls were in heaven and so were Sophie and I, finally we had to head in a different direction, but we all felt that the dolphins had come to say goodbye until next time. The dolphins did a final flip in the air and headed off east while we headed of west.
Canet-en Rousiillon
In Canet we ended up mooring in the development zone, which was basically an empty dock. Near us was an 87 foot Catana, still being built. We met the owner a South African who was off around the world.
Moving.
We had to get our stuff back from France, so we arranged over the internet for a truck on a return run from France to pick up our stuff. When the truck arrived we found out it was a “road train” which is a huge truck and trailer. ( see photo). Our stuff only filled a tiny space. Even though we had 56 boxes of stuff, 3 bicycles an Opi, Canoe.
Final; thoughts
Was it worth it are we going to do it again?
We loved the year. We will go again but when the kids are older and perhaps out of school. We will only do it on a catamaran as we are convinced that this is the only way to do it.
Best bits.
For me the best bit has been spending time with the whole family, the focus away from the office politics and the pure brilliance of the days we have had.
I have also really enjoyed the sailing and the boat is fantastic, doing more than we could imaging. Top speed was 16.4 knots, but Imy has the boat going 14plus knots from Barbuda to St Berths.
We met great friends along the way especially those on Sunsets who made the trip extra special.
The wild life was great and the girls have seen things that I have never seen in 40 plus years, I only hope they remember them.
In the end we have become a closer family and have had a great experience during which we have all grown up (me especially). We had the odd scary moment but no life threatening moments. I always had plan B which was to drive the boat up the nearest beach and jump off with the kids.
Back home.
Now we are back home and our adventures continue….
The girls are going to a new school, I have to find a new job and Sophie has to get used to living on a house.
Wind Belle and the Puds sailed over 6000 nautical miles.
We spent over 300 days at anchor.
Top speed was 16.4 nm per hour
Top days run was 211 nm.
Top spots:
Bequia
Savanah Bay BVI.
Calvi Corsica
Cocoa Beach BARBUDA
Espigette Camargue France
As for this blog, well it might or it might not continue but for now bye bye.
Team Belles
Christmas in the Caribbean
Friday, July 25, 2008
Monday, May 12, 2008
Photos from BVI by yacht shots: http://www.digiproofs.com/ecom/product_select.pl?select=13986229&p=FtZsPH0
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
Northerly swell
While we were in the BVI it is quite easy to get a bit casual with the weather forecasts. However one day we were anchored in Virgin Gorda off Prickly Pear Island when we noticed some quite heavy winds and some big waves out to sea and across the reefs. The wave became so big that they were crashing clean over the bows of any boat trying to leave Virgin Gorda. It was only several days later that we heard this was one of the biggest storms of the year so far, sweeping down from the USA. When the storms come from the USA they bring with them huge swells that get into all the normally quiet anchorages.So we were rather lucky that were were tucked up in Gorda sound.
Following the swells we have 5 days of 35 knot winds. We tied up to a mooring buoy in Sopher hole and just sat it out. However we saw a stream of charter boats braving the elements only to come back into the harbour rather worse for wear.In the harbour all the moorings were full and the harbour was too deep to anchor, but the desperate charterers at the end of a hard days sailing still gave it a try, which resulted in mayhem and dragging. I spent much of my time jumping into the dinghy to assist some poor soul, including one case where the man was on the helm and the wife had locked herself in the cabin. They were so grateful for the help that they bought all the girls presents and me a bottle of very special rum.
Bartrams come to stay. We were so excited to have Lucy, Amber, Tommy and Sebby to stay on board for the week. There was non stop playing, and Amber even admitted she actually quite liked boats as well as ponies. Tommy steered wind belle excellently up wind for 2 hrs in 15 -20 knots.
During the windy week, the BVI regatta was scheduled, and I bumped into Stuart and Emma, with their Swan 70 Stay Clam and crew that included Neil and Lisa Mc Donald.(Lisa and Neil had their new baby with them and it was quite a sight to see Neil changing a nappy and being all googoo over his kid.) Of course he was also the consummate professional sailor and charming but still had time to show interest in the 14s and Itchenor.Any way they invited me sailing and we had great fun, in 30 knots charging along in the big swan. We were the only boat to put our spinny up and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. Stay Clam easily won the regatta.
Following the regatta, Emma and Stuart asked the whole Wind Belle crew to spend a day on Stay Calm cruising. Sophie really enjoyed the day off as Hamish and Helen (the crew) looked after us so well, while the girls really enjoyed playing with Amy and Jack who are the Stay Calm kids. I just enjoyed being on a beautiful boat like a Swan for the day. Following this, we spent a couple of really fun days cruising in company with the Stay Clam Gang, including a visit to the legendary Foxys bar in the poring rain.
Barnie and Amanda come to stay.
We had a great week with Barnie, Amanda, Anoushka, and Jack (the green rabbit). The kids played brilliantly together, with Sienna adopting Jack as her own real baby. true Hartley form meant that Jack projectile poohed across the boat. (see last June's blog when Hartley's stayed on the boat). Anoushka had grown up so much that she was really part of the wind Belle girls crew. Anoushka was so impressed with the colour of the sea water that she called it a swimming pool.
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