Hope's and Howard's Sailing Adventures

I know you don’t need to be told because you can see for yourselves from our tracker page, but just in case you haven’t been there today, we are now back in Nanny Cay Marina, having had a most enjoyable broad reach back from North Sound in fresh 20 to 27-knot Easterlies with the sun shining …. what more could we ask for? We flew just the genoa most of.. Read More

In between our tasks, such as setting up an improved system for our preventer lines to avoid accidental gibes when in a sea, familiarizing ourselves with the Salty Dawg weather forecasting system (using Chris Parker) daily check-in via SSB and making sure they have links to our tracking system, we have explored some more of the Bitter End. The photo of the two of us was taken while hiking the.. Read More

In between our tasks, such as setting up an improved system for our preventer lines to avoid accidental gibes when in a sea, familiarizing ourselves with the Salty Dawg weather forecasting system (using Chris Parker) daily check-in via SSB and making sure they have links to our tracking system, we have explored some more of the Bitter End. The photo of the two of us was taken while hiking the.. Read More

Through various events, Happy Hour to celebrate Cinqo de Mayo and a birthday (Jackie’s) in the Bitter End Crawl Pub on Tuesday and Michael Bean’s pirate show in Leverick Bay yesterday, we are gradually getting to know the Salty Dawg fleet. They hail from many different ports, mostly along the Eastern seaboard of the US and Canada but there is also at least one boat owned by a Scottish couple… Read More

Thank you all for whatever you did to persuade the powers that be in Nanny Cay Marina to enable us to splash the boat back into the water on Friday afternoon. We did the final touch-ups that morning and made sure all sea cocks are functioning properly but we didn’t know the yard could fit us into their schedule until we were informed around 2:30 that the boat was already.. Read More

Earl and James have done a fine job of first sanding, then applying an undercoat followed by two coats of anti-fouling …. but the question is, did we choose a good color? The jury is still out here. We have it on authority that either red or black anti-fouling remains effective for longer than blue…. and it does go with our red stripe, so I guess it’s OK. New zincs.. Read More

Redundant crew will recognize this spot with the ‘best drinks on the island’. For the rest, we are currently back in Nanny Cay, where the boat is being hauled and the bottom painted. We are enjoying a day or two off and will have the opportunity to stay on dry land. The first time for a while where we will not be rocked to sleep by the motion of the.. Read More

We took a break from the preparations yesterday to join Sue, Ash and Clay (our dock manager) in a car ride over to Soper’s Hole where we hung out for a while on Warren and Vicky’s spacious aft deck. On the way we took a look at the Frenchmans’s restaurant and resort on Frenchmans Cay, which is the ‘island’ that forms Soper’s Hole. It would be a lovely spot for.. Read More

Back on the dock at Village Cay, we are making progress with preparations for our next adventures. On the ‘to do’ list was to give the captain a haircut … And in case you are wondering, no, I did not chop off his ear! We have decided to have the boat hauled in Nanny Cay Marina next week not only so we can put new (and hopefully more effective) bottom.. Read More

Having taken care of a few things in Charlotte Amalie and moving out of the main harbour to the other side of Water Island, opposite Crown Marina to join Sue and Ash, we are slowly making our way back to Village Cay in Road Town. We are currently on a mooring in the lovely Francis Bay, St John and will probably head back to V.C. tomorrow. We have some maintenance.. Read More