S/V L'ORIENT

Serena 2015 Cruisers will tell the uninitiated that offshore sailing is statistically safer than golfing.....which strictly speaking, is correct. However, any offshore sailor who tells you he/she hasn't thought about the unlikely yet terrifying scenario of being caught in a storm far from help......is just full of shi*. In 2012, we met a number of wonderful people and made several close "cruiser-friends". We follow these people through e-mail, blogs, and by meeting them from time to time in the islands. In 2012, no friends we made were closer than our Finnish friends, Arja and Henti (they appear in our posts from 2012). Serena (their boat) was a sturdy Malo 50. Arja and Henti themselves were very experienced sailors, having sailed Serena from Finland to the Caribbean, a trip certainly not for the feint of heart. Arja and Henti, 2012 In the Spring of 2013, Arja and Henti began the long trek back to Finland in Serena, with two family members as passengers. Seren...

Carriacou The question, delivered in a West-Indian patois, burned through me like a hot knife. "Excuse me?" "You put the boat name in the wrong place" was the retort from the fat, lethargic functionary at the Customs and Immigration Office. To be 52 years of age is to be self aware. There are lots of people I've met who based on their superior intellect (if not superior manners) could justifiable inquire as to my level of intelligence. I didn't, however, include this fleshy oaf among that group. Kirstin, while seemingly friendly to all in her midwestern way, is quite protective of her husband. When provoked, she can be surprisingly aggressive in these situations. So, I quickly gave her that pained smile that said (in our own unspoken, microwave communication) "Sweetie, let that one go". We subsequently found out from talking to other cruisers that this woman seems to think everyone who walks through her door is stupid.  So,...

To us this is gold - toilet motor As we approach Grenada and the end of our 4 month sailing segment, "the list" becomes important to maintain. As we spend most of our time anchored in front of the third world islands of the southeast Caribbean these days, we need a lot of things. Kirstin and I dream of a fully stocked chandlery and hardware store where we can buy things like wire, insulation, and diesel engine oil. Here at Union Island, the only wire available is inside that broken TV rusting next to the cinderblock hovel on the hill. While fruit is plentiful, our boat projects and never ending effort to accumulate spare parts must pause for a while. We have become binge consumers of boat parts, which is probably why we spend so much time on the phone with credit card security staff........no activity for 2 months, then bamm.......a big shopping spree from a different country. We've also learned to take pictures of everything we need..........our cell phones, in...

Tobago Cays, Grenadines With a few notable exceptions, the further south you go in just about any geography, the less signs of obvious wealth you will see. The Americas, Europe, Asia are examples of this.........as is the Caribbean. Since November and our departure from Miami Beach, we've headed slowly southeast and have seen our beloved Patisseries in St. Barths turn into sketchy fish mongers selling you long-dead (and dirty) fish of suspicious provenance. Turtle preserve - Tom with dinghy But the southeast Caribbean is truly rich in one aspect, and that is scenery. Kirstin and I have become so used to a life where we have a 360 degree view of turquoise waters, sea turtles, and brilliant blue skies that we sometimes get concerned that we take it for granted. Even the storms have a beauty......the deep slate gray flat clouds, the jolts of 30 knot cold winds, and the sideways rain. Mayreau To stay reasonably fit (and to justify our wine consumption at Happy Hour), mo...

Sailboats don't have tires, but our equivalent is our genoa. Our forward most (and largest) sail provides most of our power when we're moving, so when it rips it's a big deal. It weighs about 250 lbs and is obviously quite awkward to take down and put up, being the height of a 6 story building. So we were quite disappointed when ours started ripping during a period of time where the wind never went below 15 knots. So, we decided to "just do it". Quite a few hours later (and lots of profanity later), Kirstin finished re-sewing our sail and we put it back up. After this effort we went to bed early and slept for 11 hours, totally exhausted. Of course, right after we raised the sail in howling winds, the wind dropped to 5 knots........Neptune having more fun with us.

"Hello" "Anyone home" Tom- "shi*". We needed visitors like we needed additional holes in our heads. I had the galley torn apart rebuilding the refrigerator. Kirstin was sewing a bedspread in the rest of our space. I went out to dispatch our visitor. "Oh, hey Ralph". Ralph is actually a good guy so my annoyance dissipated. He invited us to a 4th of July party at a restaurant here in beautiful, but third world,  Bequia (Grenadines). It was easier to say yes than no so we agreed. Our fellow cruisers all brought board games. Ugh. It seems they like to play at parties.....so, we went along. As we drank beer and got into the games it became apparent (and quite funny) that our American cruising brethren were not the sharpest tools in the shed. Be it math, word association, or even a basic understanding of English, they fell woefully short........like 80 IQ small yellow bus short. They couldn't even follow directions, and nobody had more than ...

Yesterday as we rode our dinghy into the gas station, all we needed was a black flag and we would have been the ISIS navy. We had no fewer than 7 empty fuel containers.......both diesel and gasoline. The trip back to L'ORIENT is a bit more hazardous as we now have 400 lbs of explosive liquids. The last thing we need is more freight. Of course this is the moment the fruit guy arrives. This local guy makes a living trolling the bay selling cruisers fruit from a dugout canoe festooned with flags, a thatch canopy, and looking like he lives in it. This guy never ceases to arrive at the most inopportune times so I was fearing this event. As I paid for the gas, Kirstin shopped for fruit, my task of driving the dinghy now complicated by the constraint of not spilling the juice from the coconut which the fruitman thoughtfully decapitated. Fruit, diesel, and gasoline all arrived safely. Hey, it's not the Greece crisis or the Middle East, but it's news in our world.

L'ORIENT being an Amel means that the design conformed to Henri Amel's view of the world.......and he apparently thought wood was stupid on the outside of a boat. Kirstin and I have pitied the many sailors we see sanding teak decks in the hot sun for weeks. Well, our comeuppance was this week. We had to repaint our faux teak deck. The heavy lifting is painting the thin black lines between faux teak deck panels. Its basically a pin stripe. But, because our boat is 53 ft long, with 9 lines on each side and more in the cockpit......its 2/10 of a mile. Imagine painting a pin stripe this long on your hands and knees and you will understand this project. How bad is sanding teak ? We prefer our project to that. Using my German pin striping tool (like all machines from Germany.....expensive but worth it) we have knocked this out in about 4 days. And truth be told, we weren't doing anything anyway.