Le Bateau France to the Caribbean

Merry Christmas for last year and a happy welcome to 2020 Jane flew into Barbados via Doha  and Miami and in her newly retired frame of mind 36 hours of actual flying was taken in her stride. The heat and humidity took a bit of a toll but being members of the Royal Barbados Yacht Club which sold cold beer and anchored in clean swimming water over lovely sand eased the pain. Reunited at Royal Barbados Yacht Club We then spent a week moving between different anchorages on the 15mile long West (leeward) coast. Very busy with charter boats, jet skis, swimmers and houses or resorts the whole way. But lovely water, a bit rolly in the anchorages, and easy access to the shore (except for the small shore break so wet crew occasionally).  The highlight was the friendly locals. All would say hello and happily engage in conversation. At first the thought was that they were after something but it became apparent that it is pure friendliness. Just happy to talk and this has co...

So here we are in the Caribbean, Barbados to be more precise. At the anchorage off Port St Charles The boys relaxing at a beach bar in Speightstown BUT back a few steps. We were ready to leave Santa Cruz La Palma on about Sunday, but a weather forecast suggested an earlier Friday departure would be very windy, but over the next week would be favorable and less potential for motoring in light winds. So against all yachtie wisdom we left harbour on a Friday, and with Bananas on board. 25knots of breeze leaving Santa Cruz As we cleared the Southern corner of the island we entered the aptly named Wind Acceleration Zone caused by the high island. Eventually 30 miles from land were clear of the Zone but in the zone experienced wind up to 35knots gusting 40. And then no wind and had to motor for an hour to again be in 25knots. Double reef main, handkerchief of jib doing 8 knots in 35knots One visit we had that afternoon was a little bird blown off course by the gu...

Nige trying to retrieve the rubber duck (not ours luckily) Nige turned up from England on schedule and we spent a few days exploring the sandy channels around Faro , and the occasional coffee shop or little bar. Then Russell flew in from Hong Kong and crew complete we sailed out to the entrance anchorage so Russell could catch a fish entree for us, and he did. The weather gods smiled and we set off for the 700 miles to La Palma. All downwind, 15 to 27 knots, and up to 3 metres of swell. The boat performed very well with the autopilot doing the hard work. Daily runs of 124, 135, 152, 154 nautical miles saw us in La Palma in 5 days. Only 2 hours of motoring and the solar panels kept up even with some cloudy weather. Couldn't have asked for better. Well less swell perhaps! Russell and Nige at Faro anchorage Russell doing a bit of steering And Nige relaxing Sunrise on typical 20plus knots Bad photo but one of the three Mahi Mahi we caught Fly...