Well, it seems the passage from the BVI to Sint Maarten (i.e. the Dutch side) was yet again to offer challenges to us. The forecast was for rather light east to southeasterly winds so we expected to have to motor quite a bit of the way to make headway into the wind. We set off from Virgin Gorda around 1:30pm on Tuesday in bright sunshine with a lovely light breeze.. Read More
Back to the BVI and heading to St Martin
We came back to the BVI on Wednesday, enjoying a short but exhillarating close-hauled sail from Francis Bay to Sopers Hole at the west end of Tortola. We even reefed the main en route due to gusts of ~26 knots and found it so much easier than it would have been on SW. However, the wind just didn’t let up so in light of a shortage of moorings due to.. Read More
Completing the circuit of St John
It has been a while since our last post and we have been exploring a bit more of St John since then while becoming more familiar with Timing’s systems and performance in various conditions, so there is a bit of catching up to do. From Coral Bay, we left Rams Head to starboard and headed west. There was a good breeze that day (as there has been for a couple.. Read More
Coral Bay, St John, USVI
We we have been in Coral Bay since Friday, thinking we would only have a short stop to visit friends, Ken and Sandy, but here we are, planning to stay a 5th night! You may remember Ken and Sandy are fellow Jeanneau owners whom we met in Nanny Cay. They have been so welcoming to us, introducing us to the local community, many of whom are musicians, sailors, artists or.. Read More
First sails on Timing
Second Wind Repairs Completed
Finally, the repairs on Second Wind were completed (it’s always the last little bits that take the time) and she departed Nanny Cay yesterday afternoon with all systems working well. We are pleased with the way the repairs turned out; they should be as strong as the original, if not stronger with a few improvements to prevent a recurrence of the issue and the cabinetry that was removed probably looks.. Read More
Life is looking up again
We did make it out of Nanny Cay but could only muster enough energy to motor across to Norman Island where we relaxed and enjoyed some wonderful Pain Killers onboard. Life is definitely looking up. Today we are in Peter Island but didn’t get the sail in that we had hoped for because for once there was NO WIND in the BVI; it was a showery, overcast day so not.. Read More
One boat finally leaving Nanny Cay!
We had quite a long list of items identified as insurance issues that needed to be addressed before Timing could leave the port restriction imposed by our insurance company. I’m pleased to report that we have checked them all off so we are now anticipating enjoying a bit of sailing on our new vessel. We plan to depart tomorrow morning for an anchorage not too far away where we can.. Read More
Moving On
So, we have been in Nanny Cay about a month now and have made a few tough decisions. We had SW repaired in early January and were heading to St. Martin when another incident occurred with the starboard bulkhead. This necessitated some major repairs, hence our prolonged forced stay in Nanny Cay; there are worse places to be marooned. As our confidence in SW has been seriously undermined we looked.. Read More
Sailing suspended
You may have been wondering why the silence and why we are not in St Martin yet? Well, we successfully picked up our mail and a new mainsail from Red Hook, St Thomas last week and then set off for an overnight passage to St Martin on Saturday afternoon. The wind was forecast to be SE going to SSE at 18 dropping to 13 knots and our course around 99.. Read More