A LONG OVERDUE CATCH UP ON THE LAST FEW MONTHS BACK IN THE CARIBBEAN!

A new friend

I have been very remiss at writing the blog so it is time to give a brief update of the last few months. Arriving at Jost Van Dyke the first stop after customs was of course Foxy’s for a well earned rum punch. We must have looked somewhat shaken as the man himself bought us one on the house! With the mammoth task of drying out the inside of the boat we stayed in the bay for a few days and of course had to treat ourselves to dinner and a bop in the above mentioned venue, rude not to!

Virgin Gorda

We moved around the BVI’s for a couple of weeks visiting some of our favorite spots, whilst fighting a battle with the continuous rain, to dry the boat out. I took every cupboard apart and spent much time putting things out to dry and then hastily throwing them down below. However by the time we left Virgin Gorda Sound for St. Marten we were pretty ship shape below decks, now just the spray hood to sort out.

After an overnighter we arrived on the French side of St. Marten and set off to pick up the track for the Spray hood that I had managed to source.  The French islands are definelty the place to go for spare marine parts. It took us two days to

wrestle the track into place. We were very pleased with ourselves to have the boat pretty much sorted, bar a few electric problems that would need a trip back to the UK for parts.

In the middle of all our shopping trips the skipper had the brilliant idea of buying a plastic hook and line to attach the dingy to the back of the boat. I did question its ability to do the job, so was not too surprised to see it floating out to sea mid track repair. I was flabbergasted to watch its second departure! Two long swims for Andrew and much smirking from me, particularly as we then realised we had the answer all along in the form of the towing rope, enough said!

Andrew and Jeremy Laser sailing in Deep Bay

We treated ourselves to lunch at Catherines

We had planned to spend some time in St. Barts but the weather forecast persuaded us to head straight for Antigua stopping there just for a few hours sleep en route.  Arriving the next evening after dark, after a long upwind sail, we made land at Deep Bay feeling comfortable with the lay of the land. We were delighted to find Mary & Jeremy in residence with their friend Sue who all came out to see us before breakfast. We had a very jolly evening with them in their villa, enjoying having company for dinner for the first time in five weeks!

 





We spent a week around the island doing a few jobs and re sealed our two large saloon windows, which was quite a job. It kept raining whilst they were out and I felt a tad silly standing on the sofa with a golfing umbrella protecting my nice dry interior! No idea where the brolly came from.

Laying the boat up in Jolly Harbour for three weeks we went home for Christmas and had an excellent time with family and friends. Returning early January we had time to provision and then set off for Guadeloupe to meet Sally and Kevin, much excitement all round! I will let Sally tell the tale, but suffice to day we had a fabulous time with them both exploring the Island and the Saints which are really beautiful.  Sally taught me how to swim long distance front crawl properly and Kevin did eventually get in the water!

A word from Sally

Sally and Kevin January 2017

Left the Uk on dark freezing January to travel to Guadeloupe to visit Andrew and Julia on Hullaballoo. Kevin and I were like excited teenagers as this was the first holiday together without the children in 14 years. We arrived at Dehaies on the island which is where they film Death in Paradise and it was somewhat surreal to jump out of taxi to see Andrew waiting on the dock to whizz us out to Hullabaloo where Julia was waiting with wine and beers and a made to order sunset!

Birthday bunting

We had a wonderful time sailing around Guadeloupe and the Saintes islands. The sailing was amazing not least because we had some big breeze and some tacking upwind something Andrew tries to avoid! Epic sail to Marie Galante and only shame we could not make it to the rum distillery there. The Saintes were a highlight as the islands are so quaint and like time forgot and we had unforgettable birthday meal overlooking the harbour. Julia and I all got all glammed up to go out only it for to chuck it down as we hit the shore in the rib and we entered the restaurant like two drowned rats.  Some beautiful anchorages and a great fun night at a shack of bar with our local friend “ La Lune La Lune”! We all loved the fact because Guadeloupe and The Saintes are part of France the wine and food was superb.

Kevin in command

 Highlights include being part of the support and coaching staff to prepare for Julia’s Olympic trials for Tokyo in the open water swimming category. Loved training with her every morning and promise I will be ready to take up my role again when you are back in UK. Even more impressive was Kevin’s wish to get into the water at every opportunity. Not a moment went by when he was not badgering me incessantly to go for another swim and in the end Andrew had to have words and suggest that he enjoyed more time on deck reading his book!!!! 

Kevin loved every minute not least in the many hours spent chatting to Andrew about everything under the sun and of course sailing! I can only apologise Andrew but he was in seventh heaven.

Andrew and Julia were the most amazing hosts and nothing was too much trouble and they made us feel so welcome. To take some time out of the humdrum of normal life, the pressures of juggling children and work and to spend time together with such great friends on their beautiful boat was truly special. Thank you.

Proof that Kevin did get in the water

Tom and Rachel

We lingered in Guadeloupe for a few more days missing our shipmates before returning to Antigua, servicing the primary winches before we left. Delighted to find Tom and Rachel with their friends Roger and Jan in residence in their usual spot on Galleon beach. We took them all out for a very enjoyable day to Nonsuch Bay. We even managed to catch a Tuna to order for lunch.

A successful trip to the local hairdressers for us both, a re provision in Jolly and we were ready to welcome Louise and Nigel onboard. Much fun and frolics followed as we toured the Island, a couple of large hangovers, Petrol gate, Spice gate, Kettle gate and Watergate to add some drama and daily swimming with Louise to improve our front crawl. Very pleased with ourselves to have reached one hundred and twenty breaths in one go, that’s two hundred and forty strokes, we were thwarted of our goal on their last day of one hundred and fifty breathes by a large hangover. We had enjoyed an excellent lunch at Catherine’s, a party with the residents of Galleon beach and then several more rums in Falmouth. Fab to have the Bro and his wife onboard again, sad to see them go!

Spice gate

We didn’t have long to rest our livers before we welcomed Cindy onboard. Andrew’s parents Keith and Syggs were staying on the island as well so the next day they came onboard, despite my best efforts to tip Keith into the water out of the dinghy whilst transferring them on to Hullabaloo. Funnily enough no one seemed keen for me to drop them off on their beach later that day!

Giles and Jeremy at my birthday party

We had a lovely ten days with Cindy onboard and really enjoyed spending time with her. Moving down to English harbour to be near Keith and Syggs when they transferred to the Inn, there was also the added pleasure of the RORC 600 in town. I had an excellent birthday, Cindy had been so lovely and bought balloons and banners and I was very spoilt with lots of lovely presents. We had lunch in the beach bar with Sue and Eddie and then went to the opening party of the RORC 600, so nice of them to throw me a birthday party! Much rum, lots of dancing with my mates from the UK and a burger from Mumsy on the side of the road on the way home, marvelous stuff!

Pyjama day

After watching the start of the race and spending a lovely evening with the in laws at the Inn we scooped Mary up hoping to go to Barbuda for a couple of days, Jeremy was racing with Giles on his new boat Pata Negra. Unfortunately the weather had turned overnight and Anguilla no longer looked possible so we spent a fab two days in Non Such Bay. The same unheard of Westerlies played havoc with the race crews.  Day one we had a Pyjama day playing cards and games all afternoon, Day two the sunshine returned so water sports resumed, five hundred and ten breaths on the last swim of the day!

Keith and his offspring

We took Keith and Syggs back to Nonsuch the next day for another great day out and then said a sad goodbye to them. Another fun evening ensued at the RORC 600 finishing party, more sore feet the next day! Keen to have a quiet evening we sailed down to Willoughby Bay, only to be asked to a pop up on the beach by a very jolly South African called John, we couldn’t say no. Then on Cindy’s last day we had lunch with La, an old family friend who she hadn’t seen in over thirty years. All in all an excellent time was had by the Dallas family on tour!

We are now sitting in Jolly Harbour awaiting the arrival of James, Amanda, Susanne and Peter. I know they are on their way as there have been many excited whatsapps whilst I have been asleep! More happy days ahead…

NOVEMBER IN THE NORTH ATLANTIC

We arrived back in Charleston, via a night in New York, and were thrilled to find Hullabaloo in one piece with no hurricane damage at all!! A few boats had sunk and there had been lots of flooding, but we had been safely tucked up out of the water. There didn’t appear to be any cockroaches either, big smiles all around.

Stormy times ahead

We had hired a car so that we could provision before leaving America. On our first trip to Teeter Harris I nearly killed us trying to drive up the freeway the wrong way at a junction, lots of honking of horns and much yelping from my passenger, and me come to that! On my fourth trip things had improved and I managed to navigate my way there and back all on my own with no incident, and that despite hearing on the radio that Trump had won the Presidential election.

We filled the boat with food, beer and wine knowing that once we got back to the Caribbean there would not be the huge choice of fresh food.  We prepared the boat for sea, putting the sails and spray hood back on and then kept ourselves busy fitting new lights whilst we waited for a part for the generator that had been overlooked by the yard and then in turn the suppliers who forgot to ship it. The weather was quite warm in the day but freezing at night and we were itching to leave.

We loved our time in America; we were overwhelmed by the friendliness’ of the natives and enjoyed learning about their culture and history and experiencing the vast differences between the different States as we worked our way up, and then back down the Eastern Seaboard. It almost felt like home. We will miss the ease of provisioning, particularly the rather splendid avocados; obviously all the bad ones get shipped to the UK. Slightly concerned about the huge chickens that are obviously roaming somewhere in the country… We will not miss the price of wine!

The forecast was for 20 to 25 knots for a couple of days and then it looked likely we would have to motor. As we left the harbour it was obvious this forecast was wrong as the breeze got up to 35 to 40 knots and we started to bash our way through a rather lumpy sea. Out came the seasickness watch, a couple of hours in and I was in my bunk, the skipper was not feeling a hundred percent either so dinner that night consisted of a chewy bar. Only nine or ten days to go.

Our journey across the Gulf Stream in these conditions was similar to being in a washing machine. There was no room for the boat to land between the waves that were battering us from all directions; it felt like we were being punched from all sides and the interior framework of the boat was creaking in the process. Lying in my bunk it seemed quite funny after a while, until water started pouring in through the dorades soaking the bed! We had been hit by a huge wave that had swamped us, it sounded like an express train as it rolled towards us and it managed to rip the spray hood off in the process. Andrew manfully wrestled it down below whilst I mopped up the aft cabin.

Unable to go on deck for long as we had nothing to shelter behind, we just sat below watching bucket loads of water pouring through the closed hatch, heartbreaking as there was nothing we could do to stop it. The forward cabin had suffered a similar fate to the aft, in all we were in possession of a rather soggy ship. The electrics were suffering too.

We had a couple of days respite from the weather and I managed to progress from Desert Island Discs to books and movies on my watch. We downloaded a new weather forecast and knew there was another front on its way but we were not concerned. However Andrew was edgy all day not liking the look of the clouds and the barometer falling.  His concern was spot on. We started to experience a few squalls and then the wind started to increase and we both went on deck to shorten sail as the waves just got bigger and bigger. It was after midnight so pitch black, we were both in lifejackets and clipped on and Andrew was having to helm with just a tiny bit of staysail out.  I went below to put on some oil skin trousers and was instructed to stay below and watch the radar to see if I could work out which way we should steer to avoid the weather.

As the wind increased to 52 knots the rig started to shake and peering out of the hatch Andrew looked tiny in comparison to the huge waves surrounding him. It is at times like that, two hundred and eighty miles out to sea, that you are very pleased that you have a skipper who has spent so much time preparing his ship, it gave me great confidence in her ability to survive the storm and I was also very grateful to be in a bobbing boat!!

After about two and a half hours the wind had subsided enough to put the autohelm back on and my very weary shipmate came down below. In the midst of all this we had heard on the radio that a catamaran had capsized thirty miles North of us and the US coastguard were looking for a vessel in the vicinity to go to the rescue of the three crewmen who were in the dingy. Luckily for us, and them, there was a super yacht nearby who could help them; heading back into the storm would not have been fun. Happily there were no casualties.

We had developed a knocking sound on the rudder, Andrew went aft to see if he could work out what the problem was, reporting back he informed me that he thought the rudder was coming loose, yes I said, I think so too.  Next question what might be the outcome, we would get swamped, best to pack the grab bag. I hadn’t been scared until now! Andrew was exhausted after his heroic stint on the helm and wasn’t going to be much use to me tired if it all went tits up so I packed him off to bed and set about packing the grab bag and talking myself out of my panic. The former took over an hour and was a lesson to us that we should have packed it before we left. I had a list to fill and one item was Personal Medicine, this I translated into Nicorette’s and HRT, as this would at least stop us from killing each other should we end up in the life raft!

Day light arrived and with it we were able to look more closely at the rudder, happily it was the autohelm connection that was making the noise, nothing we could do about it except cross our fingers crossed and hope it all stayed attached until we reached the BVI’s. So the good ship Hullabaloo continued on her way, popping my head through the hatch to check for traffic I thought she resembled a runaway train as she charged seemingly unaided through the sea. We were both very happy to reach Jost Van Dyke after nine days at sea; the sight of land was a very welcome one.

Land Ahoy

I have to admit I was quietly pleased with myself that the initial panic quickly subsided.  I was very grateful that I had done a sea survival course so I knew what to expect and what to prepare for and of course I have been mentally preparing myself for the last thirty years for such a situation. And it is much easier for me as I am not the skipper and thankfully such a bad helm I got off lightly in the middle of the storm. Andrew was brilliant and very calm as he always is in a crisis. It was definelty the toughest sail of both of our lives so far and strangely it has given me the most enormous buzz. Sitting in my armchair in my dotage it will be up there as one of the highlights of my life, strange as that might seem…

Andrew meanwhile does not want to experience another storm!

A LAST FEW WEEKS IN THE US

The British Armada

In contrast to the Delaware river popping out of the canal into the Chesapeake was like stepping out into a whole new world. Think Beaulieu River and then magnify the scale by a few hundred, the most beautiful lush green landscape with lots of different rivers to explore. We spent our first night in the Sassafras river, a total contrast to the previous night, warm enough to swim in the brown water with a beautiful sunset watched from the balcony of the local clubhouse with Sandra and John. An excellent $6 burger and a few glasses of wine, magic.

Mel & Sandra

The following day we crossed to the Mogathy River and spent a quiet night at anchor and then we both set off to Annapolis to meet up with Mel and James on Blew Beyond. With three British boats moored in the harbour it was suggested that the British Armada had arrived. We had a jolly good knees up in the town and then a somewhat subdued brunch the next day with very sore heads! We really liked Annapolis; it is a very pretty town with a good vibe and lots of life.

The White House

The Vietnamese memorial

We had intended to take the boat up the Potomac River to Washington but with time running out we decided to leave her on the mooring in Annapolis, booked a cheap hotel room for one night and ubered into the capital. Arriving on a Sunday we spent our first day walking around the town. We walked past the White House, which is actually quite small, and then past all the monuments which were very impressive. Keen to see the Vietnamese Memorial, having been to Ho Chi Min and seen and heard their version of events, we walked to the curved wall which has the name of each American who lost their lives engraved on it, 560,000 in total, and thought again what a total waste of lives, all for nothing.

Arlington

We visited Arlington crematory where thousands of American Service men are buried, travelling around the grounds in a tour bus staring out at row upon row of white head stones stretching as far as the eye could see. We visited the tomb of the Unknown Soldier, actually three unknown soldiers from the two world wars and Vietnam, and watched the changing of the guard. This ceremony takes place every half an hour.  Day and night whatever the weather, hurricane or sunshine. Once again we got a sense of how patriotic the Americans are.

The town was very quiet that evening, walking to our very inferior Thai restaurant we came upon many tramps sleeping on park benches and a huge rat ran across our path almost running over my toes! The town seemed dead and deserted, a far cry from the hustle and bustle of most capital cities that we have been to.

Hot to trot!

We woke to torrential rain and resorted to walking around the city in our very smart plastic ponchos that we had purloined on our Big Bus tour the previous day. The height of fashion we turned many a head! We spent most of the day in the Capitol managing to join a tour of the old Senate and originalHouse of Assembly, which was fascinating. On being told by our tour guide how the British had destroyed part of the building in the early 1800’s I almost felt the need to apologise, how very unkind of us!  We then managed, to our great surprise, to gain entry to the House of Assembly and the Senate, the latter was sitting. The American’s have to gain access through the offices of their representatives, foreigners just have to present their passports at the front desk.  It seems a little unfair especially considering our past treatment of the building.

We arrived back on the good ship Hullabaloo later that evening to find we had an unwelcome guest, a rather large cockroach sitting bold as brass on the sofa looking at us as if we were the intruders! On the third attempt we managed to wrestle it overboard, amongst much high pitch squealing from the female crew. We prayed it had been an unsociable male and therefore not left us with any of its offspring or any of its friends.  

Pre dinner drinks in Oxford

We left the next day for a quiet night up the Wye River arranging to meet the Armada in St. Michaels the following evening. There followed a very jolly three days of travelling to the East Wye River and then the town of Oxford, each boat taking their turn at hosting dinner.  It was then time for us, to leave and go on our merry way alone. We had always planned to return to England in October, not being keen on spending time in the increasing cold and not being able to head past 30 degrees until 1^st November due to the risk of Hurricane. So we decided, in our infinite wisdom, that we would leave the boat in Charleston where we thought it would be warmer, hmm perhaps not the best decision we have ever made.

York Town you could almost be in England

Before we left the Chesapeake we had one more stop to make, York Town the site of the battle that heralded the end of the War of Independence and where the British were well and truly defeated. Although it is worth noting most the effort was done by the French!  Now a tourist destination the town has been preserved as it was and is like walking through a film set. We had a fantastic tour of the battlefields with the usual well informed and enthusiastic tour guide, and we kept very quiet not wishing to be rumbled as the enemy…

Always partial to a cannon...

We left the next day for an overnighter down to Beaufort in our quest for warmer weather, this turned into a very uncomfortable trip with thunder and lightening and rolly seas. The first mate definelty felt a bit queasy. There was some sort of naval exercise being conducted a few miles off the coast and they didn’t seem very pleased to have us around. Honking their horns at us and then escorting us many miles along the coast with 5 frigates.

However there was one memorable moment, finally back in deep blue water I caught my first fish! The skipper disappeared down below to get the knife and got distracted by the kettle, oblivious to my cries for help as I had spotted a small shark that also had its eye on my fish and was in hot pursuit of it.  I had to struggle gallantly on alone managing to land Lilly the Tuna and I have to admit to being very pleased with myself, a true hunter-gatherer! And how delicious she tasted! Even if she was a little smaller than Kylie the tuna caught by Andrew earlier in the day.

A quick dodge to Port

Arriving after dark at the entrance to the Bight we were not concerned as we had been there before. We therefore got quite a fright when we hit the bottom especially as we were well inside the channel marker; obviously there had been quite a shifting of sands during Hermione.

We took a day to recover enjoying the tranquility of the anchorage and then turned on Passage weather to plan the next part of the trip. To our horror we saw a familiar picture making its way up the east coast, a possible hurricane on its way all nasty green and brown swirls with a very pink center. Hurricane Mathew estimated to arrive in Charleston in about a week so we had plenty of time to get into port and get the boat sorted, but still a shock and a worry. Needless to say we set sail immediately arriving the following morning after another squally night.

We dropped anchor in the outer harbour and set about making plans for the oncoming onslaught. We had already been talking to the Charleston City Boatyard about leaving the boat there and having her bottom painted, which was fortuitous as they had a space penciled in to haul us out. They told us though that we had to get there three days hence as they had many boats to haul out before the bad weather hit.

The only place we could find a Marina in the meantime was up river away from town but we felt we needed to be tied to a pontoon in order to get the sails off, quite a job for the two of us. Three days followed of stripping her of everything as the news got worse and worse with potential winds of 120knots being forecast. The locals all seemed quite relaxed about the situation, used no doubt to many false alarms but as the days progressed they started to look more and more worried. Hurricanes move relatively slowly and there is no guarantee of their direction, so it is a nail biting time will it /won’t it hit? At least this time around we had a definite plan. One elderly gentleman who lived on a motor boat in the Marina and kindly took me into town one afternoon was very laid back and was just going to stay on the boat as he had two cats and he didn’t want to leave them incase they got frightened!!

In the midst of all this activity I decided to use their launderette to wash all the bed linen. Taking our mattress covers out of the washing machine I found three or four black plastic pellets amongst them, suspicious I took one back to the boat and discovered thanks to both Googles that these were infact Cockroach eggs!!! Hurrying back to the laundry to pull the washing out of the dryer I came upon the lovely Annie keen to chat Hurricane tales whilst I surreptitiously checked to see if there were anymore, feeling somewhat grubby and unclean!! I did discover more in the washing machine, which I had used after an interesting looking salty sea dog, were they from his washing or mine? There followed much frantic cleaning of the boat in the middle of all the other chaos. I did not fancy coming back to find the boat infested, if she survived the hurricane, from our friend from Annapolis.

Nothing more to do but wait

We arrived at the City Boat yard as instructed and were lifted in the dark. Standing in the stripped out cockpit with everything beautifully tied down or taped up by the skipper.   It did cross my mind that although it was all rather scary it was a lot more exciting than sitting at home watching the TV! The boys worked all night long, sleeping on the hard we could hear them going backwards and forwards with all the boats. They did a fabulous job and we felt the boat was in as safe a place as possible so there was nothing more to do but cross our fingers and worry, big time!! We had managed to get a flight out the next afternoon to New York but were advised to get to the airport first thing as the city was being evacuated and all six motorway lanes out of the city were to being made one way that afternoon.  So we spent six hours at the airport city by the empty baggage carousel, no one flying into Charleston that day.

We were lucky, by the time the Hurricane hit the gusts were down to 55 knots and although there were a couple of boats sunk and much flooding it wasn’t nearly as bad as feared. We received the happy news that Hullabaloo was undamaged and now I could go back to just worrying about cockroaches, which really didn’t seem so bad after all!!