Simply Sailing
From Panama I sailed north, bound for the island of Providencia. The voyage was a success insofar as I arrived safely, but not otherwise. In defiance of the forecast the wind swung round to blow from the north, and blow hard. The current flowed south too, and more strongly than the pilot book suggested it
From Colombia I sailed to Panama, arriving in late December at a place called Linton Bay. I spent Christmas and New Year there with the other cruisers, stayed for a couple of weeks, then moved on to Portobelo (which the locals spell with one L). The Spanish plundered a staggering amount of gold from South
I like tea. I drink a lot of it. As an Englishman I of course maintain that tea must be made with milk. But away from Britain fresh milk is not that easy to find. Dried milk actually makes quite good tea provided that it’s fat-free but even half-fat dried milk makes vile tea and
On the west coast of the island of Curacao lies Spanish Water, a large area of inland water that’s connected to the sea only by a narrow entrance. The protection from the sea is total and the surrounding hills provide some shelter from the wind. I went there for the 2017 hurricane season partly because
I have, at long, long last, completed the “About the Boat” page of this website. There, boat nerds will find all kinds of details about Moonrise. More normal people can just look at the pictures. Enjoy! James Cartagena, Colombia. 13 December 2017
It was great. But after months spent island-hopping around the Eastern Caribbean I really wanted to go to sea again. Properly. And having decided to leave, I left. The first dawn at sea was as special as they always are. The sun came up revealing a completely empty ocean. No land, no boats, nothing but
I like Bequia. The people there are friendly, move slowly and smile a lot. When I bought a coconut from a guy selling them from a barrow and mistakenly left it behind, he came running after me with it. That’s the kind of place it is. The anchorage is large, sheltered and free of navigational
Dominica looked stunning from the sea, with steep mountains from end to end all covered in lush green rainforest, so I broke my already fractured voyage to Martinique once more and took a mooring near Dominica’s capital, Roseau. I’m glad I did. Yesterday I walked to town to check-in with customs and immigration. On the
Well, that didn’t quite go according to plan. When I left Deshaises on the northwest tip of Guadeloupe this morning I knew I’d be in the island’s wind shadow as I sailed down its west coast but I didn’t expect the wind to be quite as fluky as it was. Seventeen knots from the south
I arrived at Barbados on 2nd March 2017, 21 days after leaving the Cape Verdes. So, how was it? How was this voyage, for so long anticipated, planned and feared? I’ve allowed a while to pass before writing the answer in case the passage of time allowed a longer view to emerge. But actually I