Kincsem Adventures

Le Marin, Martinique

Mon, 16 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0000

The last four weeks have seen a whirlwind of activity on Kincsem. I arrived at Grenada on November 14 with a to do list a mile long, both for me and for several service providers: SIMS, the boat yard, Turbulence, the rigging shop and others. Kincsem survived hurricane Beryl in June completely unscathed but nonetheless, there was a lot to accomplish before she was ready for the World ARC in January.

When I arrived, one week before the scheduled launch date, much of the work to be done by SIMS and other service providers had not even begun. Worse, two days before launch the SIMS team had not started to polish and hull and deck – a job that typically takes at least three days! Not unusual in the boating industry, but still a bit disconcerting. But then I’m a semi-professional “baby sitter”, very experienced and skillful in cajoling reluctant service providers into action! So all got done eventually, but it required a five day stay at the SIMS dock after launch to permit the work to be finished.

Jonny, the SIMS foreman, steering the launch cart around other boats with Kincsem on it

At the SIMS dock; note no sails ….

I had my own to do list, of course. I wanted to take a scuba course and get PADI qualified as an open water diver. Done!

Waiting for my first dive lesson at Scuba West Indies

And then there was the long list of boat work I needed to tackle myself. For example, when I left the boat all sails and running rigging was taken off and all moveable parts on deck were taken off and stowed below. I was very happy that my friend Iain Wright arrived a few days after me to help me getting Kincsem ready and sail her to Martinique for more Amel spa treatment.

One serious problem emerged quickly: I had ordered new sails from Incidences Sails in France and before I left Grenada in May, I had asked a local sailmaker to take away the old sails and dispose of them: big mistake! Even though the new sails were paid for in June and supposed to get to Grenada no later than October, they had not arrived at SIMS when I got there mid November – in fact, the ship on which they were loaded had not even arrived in Grenada! But as luck would have it the local sailmaker had been unsuccessful selling the old sails and delivered them back to the boat! As I am writing this on December 15, the new sails have finally arrived in Grenada and are in the hands of the SIMS shipping agent after spending 3 full weeks in the port waiting for customs to empty the container. They are scheduled to arrive in Martinique by air freight on December 23 and supposed to be installed by the local Incidences loft before we all get back to the boat on January 3 …….

In spite of all the hard work Iain and I did since arriving on the boat, there are still some additional, significant items on the to do list before the start of the World ARC on January 11, including the following:

· The water maker didn’t survive the layup well – the membranes need to be replaced. Charles Egbert in ST Lucia has agreed to do this on January 7 when we arrive in St Lucia. He worked on the water maker last year after the ARC and did a good job on time. So fingers crossed!

· The primary autopilot acted up during the sail from Grenada to Martinique – the seals in its hydraulic ram need replacing. Pochon in Le Marin are on the case!

· Amel is servicing all the furling gear for mainsail and mizzen – no problems expected here!

· Amel is reinforcing the fiberglass stringers for the davits – again, they have done this before on an Amel 55 and know how to do it.

Well, I’m quite confident that all of this will happen in a timely manner and Kincsem will be ready come the start of WARC on January 11.

All the challenges with the boat notwithstanding, Iain and I had a great sail from Grenada to Martinique. We were curious how the islands we were going to visit had faired in hurricane Beryl which scored a direct hit on Carriacou and Union Island. Our first stop was Sandy Island off Carriacou where we had stopped in May before Beryl. Luckily, the island is still there albeit with a lot less vegetation than before.

Sandy Island before Beryl

and now

We even had dinner ashore at a restaurant that was completely rebuilt since Beryl – the owner said it was the first restaurant on Carriacou to open again. The customs office at Tyrrel Bay on Carriacou survived the hurricane well – although the umbrellas on the tables outside have lost their tops!

Union Island, where we checked into St Vincent and the Grenadines, is quite another story. It seems time has stood still for long since Beryl and recovery is still very much at the beginning. A lot of roofs are still missing and only one store is open in Clifton – without refrigeration and without any bread on sale. Some people still live in tents. Where all the fruit stands were in May there is now a big field of grass.

Clifton town square before Beryl

Clifton now

We had a great time in Tobago Cays which seemed largely unchanged. The snorkeling is still awesome with turtles, rays and thousands of fish on display. Mandy Man’s lobster barbeque has opened again, although Mandy Man’s boat now is much smaller then in May.

Kincsem at anchor in Tobago Cays

Bequia was again our favorite like in May. There is little evidence of Beryl’s destruction and the islanders seem cheerful and are back to work. We climbed Mt Peggy in the early morning – a challenging climb as much of it is straight up a steep river bed. We were rewarded with the best views of the island.

Amazing views of Bequia from the top of Mt Peggy

Some wildlife we encountered on the way to the top!

A little restaurant next to the ferry dock in Bequia

We also met another WARC boat – the Amel 50 Pelican with owners Dave and Susan from Boston. They plan to do the entire rally without stopping with varying crews – 15 months around the world – while we intend to break from the rally in Fiji in July of 2025 to visit New Zealand.

We bypassed St Vincent and from Bequia sailed directly to Marigot Bay, St Lucia. Marigot Bay is as pretty as ever although the moorings are in disrepair. Nothing to do with Beryl, I think, but we anchored safely outside the inner harbor. Regular readers of this blog will recall the challenging customs officer we encountered in May. I encountered a different officer but he was also challenging. If you check into St Lucia and leave within 24 hours as we had planned, one is supposed to be able to check in and out at the same time. So I told the officer that this was my plan to which he replied sternly: “I will be the judge of that”! The selection criteria for customs officers in Marigot Bay seem to include an offensive personality and the ability to forego any smile for hours! Well, in the end I got my stamps and off we were for Martinique!

Marigot Bay from the customs dock; Kincsem anchored outside is just visible

Here we are overtaking another Amel 55 – Tatiana from Russia; his sail trim is terrible and he has too little sail up; he did not respond to our VHF calls

The Le Marin marina is always a good place to be. For one, there is the bakery for fantastic baguettes and croissants and several great French restaurants, all right at the harbor. And then one always meets other Amel 55 owners. This time, among a sea of older Amels, there was Dan Simoncini’s Amel 55 Santo, just in from crossing the Atlantic. I have communicated with Dan a lot in the Amel 55 owners group over the years and it was great to meet in person. It was also interesting to see all the modifications he’s done on his boat. And the Amel 50 Pelican came in as well – everyone is getting work done by Amel like we are. The hiking was a bit challenging though – we couldn’t get to the lookout point Iain had scoped out on the first try and Iain tried again by himself using a different route only to find that the lookout was closed in the early morning!

After a few days in Le Marin, I’m now back at home in Marin County/San Francisco for the holidays. I will be back to the boat on January 3 for the great adventure! Stay tuned!

Spice Island Marine

Thu, 16 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000

I just closed up Kincsem for the hurricane season. She is as well prepared as she can be. The last hurricane that caused significant damage in Southern Grenada was in 2004 – Hurricane Ivan and before that, Hurricane Janet in 1955. I asked the office lady at Spice Island Marine Services how the boatyard fared in Ivan. The answer was that there was a lot of destruction and it took months for boats to be able to be untangled, repaired and relaunched. But: in those days, boats were not on steel cradles – rather only supported by standard stands which can work loose from the vibration. Also, there were no tie downs to concrete blocks like there are today. So there is hope, even in a direct hit.

Getting ready for the haul; the topping lift of the mizzen boom had to come off

Powerwash of the bottom; after that, the water supply for the whole boatyard shut down because Grenada is in an acute water shortage currently

Impressive steel cradle with 5 supports on each side; there are also additional stands on each side

It was a grueling nine days getting Kincsem ready for the hurricane season. I have a long list of “decommissioning” items that involves things like taking the sails, halyards, sheets and all other removable items on deck off, flushing the engine, generator and AC with fresh water, pickling the water maker, putting on winter covers for the masts and winches, etc etc. But then there are always the special items like vacuuming and cleaning the engine room, treating all rusty items on the engine and generator with rust converter and repainting them in the nice white Volvo paint, derusting and repainting the hooka (the dive compressor I use to clean the bottom of the boat), etc, etc. This year there was also the service of the Amel drive which involves taking off the prop, emptying the oil in the drive, pulling out 3 lip seals around the shaft and replacing them and filling up with oil again. And a long list of other "special" items.

It is done! The oil is out of the Amel Drive and I’m now pulling out the bronze piece on which the three lip seals run. Next: coax the old lip seals out with a screw driver, install new lip seals and replace the bronze piece.

And then there is a parade of helpful men whom I have to instruct what to do during my absence. At SIMS, unfortunately I had to cancel a bunch of the work because the helpful men seemed clueless what to do and how to do it. However, many of the important items seem to be in good hands and for the rest, there is always Amel in Martinique!

The cabin as I left it. Dehumidifier is running. I can monitor the batteries and the dehumidifier remotely.

So after launch in December, Kincsem will sail to Amel in Martinique for some final items to be dealt with before the big adventure: Kincsem Around the World 2025-2027! Initially, we will participate in the World ARC, an organized rally. The start is in St Lucia on January 11. The plan is to split from the rally in Fiji and end up in New Zealand by the end of 2025. Stay tuned!

Here are some stats for the 2024 season:

Distance sailed: 1,466 nms

Number of days under way: 61

Caribbean Islands visited: 28

Number of Friends and Family who shared the fun: 19

I hope everyone enjoyed the time as much as I did!

AC cooled air hits the Grenada air – no cause for concern!

Flying into SFO over the California coast near San Gregorio

Tour of Grenada

Thu, 02 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000

We took a taxi into St Georges, the capital of Grenada to do some shopping and sightseeing.

Nicely done waterfront includes many placards explaining the history of Grenada

Some impressions of St Georges.

We also booked a tour of the island by taxi for the next day which was very enjoyable. Grenada is an island that has it more together than many other independent islands. It has a relatively stable democracy (since the US invasion in 1982) and seems to have a broad middle class that is educated, can afford to go out and lives in nice houses. And the local chocolate is excellent!

Wild monkeys at Grand Etang Lake

The old airport which was used for the US invasion in 1983

River Antoine Rum Distillery – the driveway

Here is where the sugar cane goes into the press

Sugar cane – this is what it looks like!

Here is where the sugar cane is pressed to extract the sugar sirup

The distillery also distills sugar cane provided by others – and they get back the gallons of distillate shown on this board

Here is the actual distillation process

Here the rum gets put into bottles – very much by hand. They have two grades: 75% alcohol for locals and 72.5% alcohol for export to the US. To get from 75 to 72.5%, just add water!

The Admiral preferred the 72.5% rum – the bottle (on the left) is just plain prettier! I asked whether it is safe to consume this rum undiluted. The answer was absolutely! Since it is made without any additives, it might knock you out but when you wake up, you’ll be fine! We didn’t give the theory a try!

At the Belmont Estate chocolate factory – here is a selection of tropical fruit

Cocoa pod pulled apart revealing the beans

Cocoa beans before and after initial fermentation

On the drying board – only women get to turn the beans with their feet on these boards where they are typically 10 cm high. These boards are on rails and can be pushed below the building if it starts to rain

Sorting the cocoa beans by size – by hand!

Here the chocolate is aged

And here chocolate bars are packaged – not an industrial process to say the least!

Last stop in our tour of Grenada – Concord Falls

Le Phare Blue Marina, Grenada

Sun, 28 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Once the kids had departed, Nicki and I could have a little time to relax and do some sightseeing before my cousin Rainer and his wife Almut arrived for the final leg of the 2024 season. We explored Fort de France and visited the Jardin de Balata botanical gardens close by.

Hotel de Ville, Fort de France

The Admiral on the high wire!

We had a great sail to our first stop, Rodney Bay in St Lucia. The main purpose of stopping there was to check in and to acquire duty free diesel. At $1.34 per liter, this is the best price in all of the Caribbean and I didn’t want to miss that opportunity. Unlike in January when we wanted to fill up here as well, this time they actually HAD duty free diesel to sell. But Rodney Bay did not deliver on one front, albeit to no fault of Rodney Bay: I’ve been trying to get some Eastern Caribbean Dollars from an ATM for some time and again, the Bank of St Lucia ATM gave me another error message. Same for the card of the Admiral. So again, I called Wells Fargo who had previously told me all was fine with the card, it must be the fault of the local bank. This time, I told them specifically to check whether the ATM card was authorized for foreign withdrawals. After some back and forth, the agent reluctantly admitted that it was not and that all ATM cards the bank sends to customers, by default, are NOT authorized for use in foreign countries. Really? I tried to withdraw money again 12 hours later – again it didn’t work. Grrrrr! So we kept using the Bank of Koewing – Almut & Rainer had no problem getting money out of the ATM with their German cards.

The crew for the last segment of 2024, the Admiral, the Vice Admiral, yours truly and Rainer, the First Officer and Chief Mechanic

Our next stop was Marigot Bay on St Lucia. A beautiful bay full of moorings and a lot of activity. Here, I had to visit immigration. St Lucia permits you to check in and out for customs at the same time if you stay for less than 72 hours. I had done that in Rodney Bay. However, you still have to visit immigration for checkout and that’s what I did – by paddle board to boot. Immigration opens at 0800 it says on the door, but when I arrived at 0805, the door was locked. Someone told me to check back at 0830 and that’s what I did. There he was, the customs officer, sitting there in full regalia and questioning a poor soul from a German yacht. “When you arrived last night, why did you not come and check in? When you arrived there was another boat that arrived as well and they checked in right away. Instead, I saw you take on water when you came in. What did you do after you took on water?” Poor soul: “Well, sir, we went ashore and had dinner at the restaurant.” Officer: “Really? Going ashore before checking in is a US $5,000 fine!”

At that point, I was readying myself for a longish spectacle but the officer luckily interrupted the session with Poor Soul and asked me what I wanted. When I told him he said immigration wasn’t there today and I could depart without the stamp from them. I quickly left so missed the rest of the conversation with the German guy….

On the way to checkout at Immigration

The next island in the chain going South after St Lucia is St Vincent. It has a very bad reputation for safety although if you check the website of the Caribbean Safety and Security Net (CSSN) which reports all incidents involving yachts, it is no worse than some of the other islands, notably St Lucia. Dinghy theft is the key problem, like everywhere in the Caribbean. We tried to make it all the way to Bequia but it was just too far for the conditions and we had to stop at some port of entry on ST Vincent and decided on Wallilabou Bay. This bay is famous for having appeared in Pirates of the Caribbean and is truly spectacular. It is also a check-in point for St Vincent and the Grenadines, which includes the neighboring islands such as Bequia. We took a mooring rather than anchor to make sure that the locals would be favorably disposed to us and there were 3 other yachts on moorings. Nonetheless, we did not feel very safe but nothing happened and we had a quiet night.

The West coast of St Vincent is spectacular

Leaving Wallilabou Bay; someone is burning trash at 7 am!

The next morning had us leave early and head for Bequia. Interestingly, the cruising website Noonsite discourages people from visiting Bequia because of its poor safety record but again, if you look at CSSN, there is no apparent reason for this advice. When we arrived, the anchorage was quite full of yachts but we found a nice spot not far from the Princess Margeret beach. We really loved Bequia as it has a bit more to offer than the poorer independent islands. There are places where you can buy high end food items, there is an elevated walkway along much of the bay, the Princess Margret Beach is terrific and there are some good restaurants. And the water is clear and relatively calm for swimming. What’s not to like?

Arrived in Bequia! Rum punch is the staple …

We would live of Doris’ offerings for many days!

The Ocean Cruising Club of which we are members runs several Facebook and Whatsapp groups for its members devoted to specific regions of the world. On the OCC Whatsapp Group for the Caribbean I read that there are two places not to be missed between St Vincent and Grenada: Tobago Cays and Sandy Island on Carriacou. True!

When we left Bequia, we first headed for Charlestown bay on Canouan which was quite deserted. The few boats there seemed to have seen better days and were anchored very far apart. We went ashore and immediately felt unsafe. The whole place looked closed and run down. Another instance of the Doyle guide telling us about “charming town with brightly painted houses” which turned out far from the truth. We now call it the “Märchenbuch”, which is German for fairy tale book! We voted with our feet (or rather sails) and left for Tobago Cays where we arrived shortly before sundown. What a difference! After taking a mooring on the West side of Petit Rameau island in the evening, in the morning we moved to a mooring off the little island of Baradal where there is a turtle refuge. We could snorkel and watch the turtles and many tropical fish right from the boat. Phantastic! In the evening, we treated ourselves to a lobster feast which was spectacular!

At the mooring in Tobago Cays

Water taxi on the way to dinner

After Tobago Cays we had to sail to Clifton on Union Island to check out of St Vincent & Grenadines. We stopped first at another recommendation from the OCC Whatsapp page: Chatham Bay on the West side of Union Island. Quiet, calm waters and a lovely beach bar – we had such a good time that we came back for another night after checking out in Clifton which is not a place I would recommend.

Clifton on Union Island

Our favorite bar in Chatham Bay on Union

The island of Carriacou belongs to Grenada and Tyrrell Bay on Carriacou is the place to check into Grenada. It is also just a few miles from Sandy Island. The Märchenbuch said one had to take a mooring at Sandy Island but then none were available. So we anchored just like every other boat there over 45 feet, including an Amel 50 from New York. The scenery is really quite extraordinary and the snorkeling on the Southeast side of the island was excellent!

Sandy Island off Carriacou

The last sail of the season was a beautiful reach along the East side of Grenada to Marina Le Phare Bleu on the South side. The marina is located just two bays over from Prickly Bay where we will put up Kincsem for the hurricane season.

Last evening with Rainer und Almut at the restaurant at Le Phare Bleu

Martinique en Famille

Sun, 07 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0000

For a short week, Daniel, Marla, Sophie and Lucas visited Kincsem – and even the Admiral threw in an appearance! Kincsem was transformed into a playhouse in no time. Little shoes were dropped down the hatches to hilarious laughter, the swim platform was heavily used and Opa had to do “Speed Mode” on the dinghy often to get the crew to full shreaks! We probably spent more time on the beach than at any other week during Kincsem’s existence! Certainly more sand castles were constructed than in weeks before!

What a great game!

Thanks to fellow Amel 55 owners Bruno and Elaine Cotte for the sand toys!

I picked them up in Rodney Bay, St Lucia. Here we are sailing over to Martinique!

Keeping up with feeding 2 hungry kids on a boat is a big challenge!

Arrived in Anse Meunier, Martinique

New playgrounds are constructed everywhere in Kincsem!

Kincsem in beach trim

The anchoring process is very interesting for Sophie and Lucas!

Le Marin – encore !

Fri, 05 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0000

For Amel owners in the Caribbean, getting back to Le Marin is like an addiction: very hard to shake but usually a pleasure. So instead of going to Fort de France for picking up the Admiral and Daniel’s family, we’re in Le Marin for only one reason: repair facilities. This time the freezer 2 is getting a new evaporator to fix its leaks. Or should I say that is the plan?

A good week ago, Kincsem left Point a Pitre, Guadeloupe for the shortish hop to Martinique, which left us some time to explore places in between. Tom Struttman and I were joined by Iain Wright, a Brit who’s interested in joining Team Kincsem for the World ARC next year. Before departing the marina, we explored Point a Pitre a bit more, including a visit to the slavery museum Memorial Acte. Interesting factoid: there are 35 million slaves today, almost all of them in Africa!

Memorial ACTe

If you want to order this jacuzzi, contact me!

Multi-use church steeple!

Point a Pitre market

They take the dead seriously in Guadeloupe – they build them houses – with a view of the cruise ships if you look carefully!

Our first stop was Marie Galante, an island flat as a pancake just a few miles to the South East from Point a Pitre. To call it sleepy is a bit of an understatement and most of the places described in the handbook seemed closed. Nonetheless, and surprisingly, we did not get into the one restaurant that looked intriguing and was open without an advance reservation!

We found the one open bar in Marie Galante!

Next stop was Les Saintes, Marigot Bay. Another beautiful bay in the les Saintes islands – a winner.

Marigot Bay, Iles de Saintes

The West Coast of Guadeloupe is very dramatic and we wanted to hike the Soufriere Volcano, some 1400 meters high. So we sailed Marina de Sud, Bas de Terre, on the SW corner of the island. The anchorage is very tricky as it is very deep except for a very narrow shelf and the winds and currents push the boats around in unpredictable ways. With some difficulty we found a spot between other anchored boats and all looked ok. Yet the morning after when I made my usual espresso at 6 am and headed for the cockpit to enjoy it, I found that Kincsem was floating about 2 meters away from a somewhat delapidated, rusty steel yacht! The espresso was put aside and the engine was on in 5 seconds. The anchor came up in no time but of the 50 meters of chain down, only the last 10 meters moved the boat at all – the rest of the chain was obviously piled up below the boat! This time we anchored well away from other boats ½ mile away from the harbor. Nothing like peace of mind!

Hiking Soufriere on Easter Sunday was definitely an experience. Half the island of Guadeloupe seemed to be on the trail with only a very few tourists thrown in. At the top, we could view some sulfur fumes escaping from the Earth – but only briefly when the fog cleared.

When we were in Portsmouth, Dominica, in January, there was no time to explore. This time, we had some time and hired a guide – Lawrence of Arabia – whom Iain knew from his last visit her in 2017. Lawrence, whose name is not Lawrence and who’s never been to and has no relation to Arabia, unfortunately farmed out the land part of the tour to his somewhat speechless son who was not very forthcoming with information. Nonetheless, we saw a lot of the Northern part of the island, most of it spectacular.

Farmland in Dominica!

The mechanical condition of Junior’s van was on par with his skills as a tourist guide!

You guessed it: Red Rock!

At the end of the day, LoA showed up in person and rowed us up and down the Indian river. A phantastic excursion topped off by visit to the jungle bar!

Pirates of the Caribbean 2 was filmed here

Lawrence of Arabia

Easter Monday celebrations in Dominica

We visited Sainte Pierre, Martinique before, in January. What a difference this time! Last time, it appeared dark, and even threatening when we first set foot ashore in the dark of the evening. This time, we found our old friends Bruno and Elaine Cotte on Amel 55 Tertio already anchored there and arranged to meet them for dinner in the Alsatian restaurant we had spurned last time. The restaurant serves also as the check-in for Martinique so you can use the customs computer onsite while enjoying an aperitif! We had a great time and the food was excellent – even without Sauerkraut! Walking back to the dinghy in the dark, there was light in the streets and people around!

The next morning we explored the museum of the eruption of the volcano Mt Pelee in 1902 which was fascinating. Unlike the eruption of Soufriere in Montserrat which was slow and covered the island in relatively harmless ash, the eruption of Mt Pelee involved a violent explosion and a cloud of 600C hot gases racing down the mountain destroying everything and killing everyone in seconds. Some 28,000 people died in an instant!

Damage done by the volcanic eruption in 1902

Life is not all peachy in St Pierre …

Habitation Ceron, a botanical garden cum restaurant in the North of Martinique recommended by Bruno

Before Le Marin, we anchored overnight in St Anne, a lovely town right next to Le Marin with a popular beach and anchorage. Definitely better to anchor there than be at the dock in Le Marin …..

Bar boats in St Anne bay!

Back in Guadeloupe, Marina Bas du Fort

Mon, 01 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Kincsem is back in Bas du Fort and there is a surprise: the marina has no water, neither does the town and some seven neighboring towns. Apparently an act of vandalism destroyed the water main and they’ve been trying to repair it for 5 days now. Thankfully, we had made a lot of water recently so our tanks were almost full when we arrived. But a marina without water means no showers or toilets ashore, no deck washing, etc.

Bethanne, Tom and Ben joined Kincsem in Soper’s Hole, BVI, and we had a nice few days in the BVIs, swimming, snorkeling and exploring.

Quick hike to the lookout over Soper’s Hole

Starlink satellites are lighting the night sky!

The SUPs still exist!

Our plan was to sail to Saba in the Dutch Antilles next, which is over 80 miles away from the BVIs in a Southeasterly direction. With only 12 hours of daylight, this is a long trip for Kincsem to make during daylight hours and impossible to do during daylight hours if we have to sail upwind. The general wind direction at this time of year is Southeasterly – straight upwind - so we needed a good weather window. One presented itself after a few days and we were off to Saba at first light from the Bitter End bay. The wind backed from East to Northeast and freshened during the day, the result being that we reached the Saba mooring field at twilight – just enough light to tie up to a mooring on the West coast of Saba, in a place called Wells Bay. Saba requires yachts to take moorings and the mooring gear is heavy and well maintained. I tested it with 1,500 rpms in reverse as I usually test the anchor if we are anchoring. No issue. More of an issue was the swell and swirling winds under the high cliffs of Wells Bay which meant that Kincsem often lay sideways to the swell and rolled quite a bit – making sleep a bit difficult. But the anchorage was spectacular with steep cliffs rising above us and just 3 other boats in sight.

Approaching Saba

The mooring field on Saba. Before the harbor was built, inhabitants had to climb a long set of stairs right above the life ring in this picture

To check into Saba, one has a 2 miles dinghy ride to the small harbor at Fort Bay on the South coast. Definitely a wet adventure in the swell! But when we got to the dinghy dock, the harbormaster on duty greeted us warmly and took our lines! Definitely a first in the Caribbean! The check-in with customs, immigration and the harbor office was efficient and we were soon off exploring the island by taxi. The highlight was a long hike along the West side of Mount Scenery, the highest mountain on the island.

The check-in dock at Saba

This friendly local invited me to take his picture

We saw lots of these snakes which apparently are harmless

Pet iguana

Saba is probably the best looking island we’ve been to in the Caribbean. The Dutch seem to pay a lot of money to maintain the roads and infrastructure. What makes the biggest difference, though, is that by law, all houses have to be white with dark green trim and red roofs. There are very few houses that do not comply or are in disrepair. No car wrecks on the side of the road in Saba!

Dutch government office in The Bottom, the smaller of two settlements on the island

A sea of red roofs in Windward Side, the other settlement on Saba

Ben, who used to own a gourmet pub, producing a lovely meal on the anchorage at Saba

Our next island was St Eustatius or short Statia, another Dutch island. Statia is less scenic and seems to benefit less from its relationship with the Netherlands than Saba. The North side of the island is occupied by a huge oil storage facility and there are always several huge tankers being loaded or unloaded by barges. The main town, Oranjestad, looks a bit ramshackle like many Caribbean towns and has little to offer the tourist other than an old fortress which was closed. Nonetheless, we had a nice hike in Quill National Park up to the edge of the volcano although we didn’t reach the top vista point as it was too steep for us to get there. I’m a hiker, not a climber.

From the fortress on Statia; lots of tankers at anchor

Nicer parts of Statia

Too steep!

These mountain crabs are very adept at blending into the surroundings

We got to talk at length to the owner of a little local restaurant in town who kindly kept the place open for us for a late lunch after our hike. He complained that there was very little tourism in Statia, with a big hotel on the North side of the island being almost empty most of the time. Cruise ships come and go but the passengers don’t spend any money in the town so cruise ships cost the island more than they bring in. The island is a dive destination but the divers only frequent the two restaurants right at the shore next to the harbor – the walk up to his restaurant is just too much after a full day of diving! So Statia is just a sleepy place without much going on. We didn’t think that was so bad!

Approaching St Kitts – hard upwind, of course

We were much looking forward to visiting St Kitts and Nevis next but St Kitts in particular did not meet expectations. It all started with check-in at Road Town which took over two hours – in addition to a good hour I had spent online completing forms before we went ashore. One form was quite amusing as it required the crew to check a box what the relationship was between them and me. The only option that made sense was “care giver”! So Joerg and his care givers ….

But the fun definitely stopped in the Immigration Office where a plumb, black woman answered my friendly “good morning” with a grunt and pointed to a board with a list of things we had to do for her. Her list included the completing the eAPIS form, an Excel spreadsheet which is used for cruise ships! We knew that form was discretionary because it wasn’t required when we entered Nevis in February – looked like she was putting us through the wringer just for the fun of it! Well, after an hour at Immigration, we were ready for Customs. The Customs office – published opening hours 0600 to 1900 - was closed – at 11 am on a Tuesday. The guard said that the customs officer had left to run an errand an hour ago and would be back “shortly”. At around noon, a customs car pulls up and the young officer jumps out. In response to my “good morning sir,” he asks “what do you want”?!!! No apology for his unexcused absence during business hours, just “what do you want?”! Well, notwithstanding that lovely intro, the process went reasonably quickly so the stamps started flying onto the pages within a few minutes – in triplicate, of course.

After customs only one more thing remained: walk over to the harbor office in the cruise ship terminal and give them a form from Immigration. I get there and ask a friendly police officer where the harbor office is. You guessed it: I find the door locked. The officer did not know where the harbor guy was but he opined: “You may have to pay something so you will have to come back at 5 pm when we will have a cruise ship coming in.” We, I was done with St Kitts: I stuck the form under the door of the harbor office and left. They can always come after me to collect their rubles!

When we had come ashore to clear in, Ben had left us to watch the England against France rugby match at a bar ashore. To our surprise, he was back early because he couldn’t find a place to watch it. His view was there was nothing to see in Road Town so we left and sailed to White House bay a few miles to the South. A nice open bay, good swimming – just what we needed after the Road Town “experience”. Unfortunately, the English team lost to France but Ben recovered after some additional Rose rations were dispensed!

White House Bay, St. Kitts. The marina behind the hill was deserted.

In Nevis we visited the very well done Botanical Gardens but otherwise mostly retraced our steps from February including a lovely lunch at the Golden Rock restaurant.

Rainbow Gum Tree

For the trip from Charlestown, Nevis to the closest port of entry in Guadeloupe, Deshaies, the Southeasterlies finally caught up with us. No way to do the 65 miles in daylight so we decided to stop for the night in Montserrat without checking in. The anchorage in Road Bay at the border of the exclusion zone for the volcano was in black sand in front of a black beach. No other boats in sight.

Road Bay, Montserrat; the beach bar was closed ….

Stopping there also meant we could reach the Les Saintes islands the next day, which enabled us to skip Deshaies and check in at Les Saintes instead. Check-in at Terres de Hautes, Les Saintes took all of 5 minutes ….

Back in Les Saintes

Soper’s Hole, British Virgin Islands

Thu, 14 Mar 2024 00:00:00 +0000

As the Brunners left and the new crew flew in, a new order dawned on Kincsem: The focus was sharply recalibrated on gourmet food, swimming and snorkeling. Our old friends the Antonis from American Yacht Club were joined by their old friends, the Hoffmanns from Germany. Unbeknownst to me, Wolfgang Hoffmann is a gourmet chef who loves to cook and prepare food and his determination to have good ingredients for his cooking showed immediately. Shopping trips were not simply to a close by, convenient supermarket, no! First an excellent, but farther away supermarche was selected for the first basic run, then various gourmet stores followed for bread, cheese, pate and high end wines! As the new crew swarmed out to various stores, I was increasingly looking forward to this new segment!

The Antonis and the Hoffmanns

So Kincsem’s holds were well stocked when we left the marina for a first little sail to an island off St Martin called Tintimare which is blessed with a lovely anchorage on a white sandy beach. It is there where I first unpacked my snorkeling gear this year.

Leaving St Martin for Anguilla; picture taken by our old friend Martijn from SV Ocean Pearl

Our next island, Anguilla has taken a different approach to boat tourism from that taken by other islands like St Martin or the BVIs. There is only one anchorage on the entire island which can be visited for free: Road Bay. It is here where one has to check in as well and it is a nice spot. However, to visit the other, yet lovelier anchorages and off-lying islands all of which are part of the marine park, requires the payment of steep cruising fees which go up with the size of the vessel. For Kincsem these amounted to over $200 per day and a day starts at midnight! So to stay overnight in an anchorage requires the payment for two days! The result of this policy, however, is that one sees very few other boats in the park and the nature is quite unspoilt.

Road Bay, Anguilla; the card game never stopped even on a Monday

While in Road Bay, the ladies (both named Karin) took a little speed boat over to Sandy Island, which as the name implies, is a speck of sand. It is just a few miles from Road Bay and is surrounded by a turquoise sea and reefs teeming with colorful fish. There is also a bar on the island which should have swayed the men on the crew to join in, but alas, we missed it! The Karins much enjoyed the time off Kincsem it seems …..

Sandy Island

We splurged on two days of marine park which we spent on Prickly Pear East and Dog Island. Of those two, I liked Dog Island the best although it was difficult to land with the swell. The Anguilla authorities permit you to check out on day 1 of your park permit and leave directly from the park at the end of day 2 without going back to Road Bay for exit stamps. So we made our exit from Anguilla directly from Dog Island and sailed overnight to Spanish Town in the BVIs for check in there.

Prickly Pear and Dog Island

First stop in the BVIs was Bitter End which has now been rebuilt from the hurricane damage in 2017. But while the restaurant facilities seem complete, there are only 2 cottages for rent. All facilities look much improved and high end. While we enjoyed the restaurant, we also got in a nice little hike to the top of the hill!

Next scheduled stop was Anegada, the northernmost island of the BVIs. It is very low a surrounded by very shallow waters and many extensive reefs. I had heard from another Amel 55 owner that they had visited there a few weeks earlier so I thought it should be ok to go. As it turned out, though, we had less water under the keel than shown in the charts, probably because of the strong winds we were experiencing that day. The recommended anchorage also had us lie some 300 yards from the shore so it didn’t really feel like an anchorage and there was little protection from the wind chop. So when the echosounder showed less and less water and finally hit 30 cm under the keel, I switched on the bow thruster and turned Kincsem around. I did not want to risk turning Kincsem to the side of the channel as I did not know how much water we would find there. It was quite a relief when the soundings went up again!

Sporty conditions on the way to Anegada

Approaching Anegada

So we headed South to the St Francis Drake channel and Peter Island for a lovely anchorage in Key Bay. On the way there I was noticing that we were going slower than usual for the conditions. A quick investigation revealed that the bow thruster was not all the way down – some 30 cm seemed to be sticking out of the bottom of Kincsem, slowing her down. Although I had started the lifting motor after I had turned Kincsem around in the flats of Anegada, I had apparently shut it off accidentally before the thruster was fully withdrawn into the hull. That was quite a shock since the recommendation is to not use the bow thruster with more than 4 knots of boat speed and we had been going over 7 knots at times! So I was expecting a damaged thruster but it turned out all was fine: it still worked flawlessly. Apparently, with the thruster half way withdrawn into the hull, speed is less of a problem. This makes sense as the bow thruster is installed in a box that descends below the hull. With the box half way up, the box is supported by the hull which is not the case when it’s all the way down. But I had noticed earlier that the bilge pump was running for a while and I could not understand why since nobody was using any water onboard at the time. The half down bow thruster was the explanation since water can flow in through the opening and drain into the bilge! Another lesson learned!

Our days on Peter and then Norman Island were filled with swimming and snorkeling. The coral was in parts quite good – particularly at the Indians - and so was the fish population. We were told by people who come here every year that this year coral and fish seem to be better than last year. So the area seems to be slowly recovering from the hurricane – good news!

Soper’s Hole is a nice place for a crew change. The marina is located in lovely surroundings and is not too hot and there are a couple of decent restaurants to choose from. There is even a laundry that will wash clothes in a few hours! Heaven for a skipper who needs to get the boat set up for the next crew which arrives on the same day as the old one leaves!

Soper’s Hole from the top of the mountain opposite

Happy Hour aboard Kincsem with two OCC member boats: Tim and Kath Taylor from SV Pelagria and Tony and Lel Wells from SV Games Maker 2.

Marigot Bay, St Martin

Sat, 02 Mar 2024 00:00:00 +0000

The requirement to check in and out of islands still controls our schedule. After Les Saintes we sailed up the West coast of Guadeloupe to Deshaies, among other things to check out with customs and immigration. Unlike Martinique, Guadeloupe doesn’t have an online checkout facility. The handbook said that we could check out at Le Pelican, a store with a customs computer, from Monday through Saturday and we got there on Friday afternoon. So I dinghied ashore and walked to Le Pelican. Desolee, Monsieur, we no longer have a customs computer – you will need to go to the white container in the commercial harbor, but they are closed weekends! The handbook, once wrong before, also said that on days when Le Pelican was closed, one could check out at the Municipal Police station. Unfortunately, the police station never opened that weekend. So we spent an unplanned 2 days in Deshaies.

Anchorage at Deshaies

If you are from the UK, Deshaies is well known as the place where the BBC detective series “Death in Paradise” is set. To us not being familiar with the series, there wasn’t much to do or see and the town is quite touristy. The exception is a very steep and slippery hike which Barbara and I dutifully completed. Luckily, we met another OCC boat, Carrick, owned by Simon Hutchinson and his wife who were accompanied by his 89 year old father. Simon and his father also did the 2023 ARC with us – his father being the oldest participant - and we spent a lovely few hours over drinks with them.

The hike to Gros Morne from Deshaies

The white container had a placard which said that customs opens at 8 on Monday and Simon and I showed up at 0750. A group of 6 or 7 boats was now forming but nothing happened at 8. No customs agent in sight. At 0815, I asked some guys who were getting a dive boat ready when we could expect the customs officers. The answer was: Thursday! He explained: Today is the day before Mardi Gras and nobody works. Mardi Gras, obviously, nobody works. And just as obviously, nobody can be expected to work the day after Mardi Gras! Well, the news did not go over well with the assembled group and resignation set in. But I remembered what the handbook said about the police station, so off we were to the Municipal Police which of course was closed. Hope springs eternal. Google said that it opens at 830 but a neighbor said not to expect anyone before 0900. At close to 0900, a police car pulled up and a young officer got out. We approached him whether he could check us out – the response was NO! Well, we persisted and got lucky – he relented. After another ½ hour filling out forms in triplicate and waiting for him to learn how to operate the copier in his office to make copies of our passports and stamp them, I was out of there and we were ready to leave!

Our next stop was Little Bay on Montserrat. Montserrat is a very steep island with only one “harbor” – a mere indentation in the Western coastline. One anchors in deep water in quite a bit of swell, just outside the thundering breakers crashing into the shore. The officials here tried to outdo their French colleagues in Guadeloupe but they did not succeed. Although the entire crew has to show up for check-in, it only took a good ½ hour to clear in, including dropping customs forms with immigration and the harbor captain and vice versa (all in the same building). Everyone seemed reluctant to admit us to their paradise as it was close to closing time, but we got it done nonetheless.

Check-in: Done!

Bonus: we got to lick our wounds at a lovely bar just 100 meters from the customs office, with a great view over the anchored Kincsem and the surf! There was only one other boat in the anchorage: Carrick with our OCC friends.

The anchorage at Little Bay, Montserrat

Montserrat is the home of the late George Martin, the producer of the Beatles who had a large recording studio there. Many well known bands such as Dire Straits recorded records (or CDs) in that studio. But Monserrat is better known for the fact that it experienced several large outbreaks of the Souffriere Hills volcano from 1995 to 2003. This resulted in the town of Portsmouth being buried in up to 12 meters of mud and more half of the population leaving the island with only about 4,000 remaining. We hired a guide to drive us to the Southern part of the island where the volcano is located. There is now barely any tourism – we didn’t see a single hotel. Lots of peoples’ lives were derailed when the eruption occurred and one really appreciates how lucky we are having grown up in a more stable natural environment!

Soufriere Volcano in the mist

Four story building before the outbreak ….

Two story building; there was no lava flowing, the volcano spewed ash that covered everything. With the rains, the ash turned to mud which flowed to the sea, extending the shore by over 200 meters in places.

View from the old town pier which survived but now is 200 meters shorter …. The volcano is still spewing something into the air

Nevis was our next stop. In many ways, it is similar to what Montserrat must have been like before the volcano eruption and there is quite a bit of tourism.

Our dinghy was well guarded at the ferry pier

Charlestown, Nevis

We had a lovely hike and experienced two excellent restaurants on two different former sugar plantations. One was at Golden Rock, a small hotel and restaurant beautifully restored by a NY based designer. The gardens were full of rare and unusual trees and bushes.

Golden Rock Hotel

The other, Hermitage Plantation Inn, was still housed in the old plantation buildings and the food seemed from that era as well except for the prices!

Just in case things get too tiring on the loo ….

Hermitage Inn

Next stop: St Bartholomew or short St Barts. To approach St Barts is an experience. The island itself is quite hilly but from a distance, it looks dominated by an accumulation of small cruise ships that are actually private yachts. When we arrived, there were 3 ketch-rigged sailboats where the smaller mizzen mast was still big enough to require a red light at night. The FAA requires a red top light for masts 150 feet or higher close to an airport – this is to warn landing aircraft! There were numerous motor yachts over 100 meters long! One of the questions in the online check-in was whether Kincsem had a helipad!

The reality for us small fry is a bit different. The anchorage is very crowded and not well protected so boats rock around quite badly. Luckily, Kincsem is relatively heavy and large but getting in and out of the dinghy was a challenge for Siegi and Barbara. There is even quite a bit of swell in the harbor and the pier is clad with approximately 1 meter long plates with small gaps. With the swell rolling in, the water squirts out of the gaps and drenches people in approaching dinghies ….. When we were there, things were so bad that 50 meter superyachts left the harbor because of the swell. Understandable if the drinks get knocked over by the boat moving.

On the way from St Barts to St Martin there is La Fouchure, a small private island where one can pick up a mooring or anchor which is quite attractive. We managed to grab a mooring for a few hours and quite enjoyed the swimming and scenery. Here is where we saw our first turtle but these things don’t spend a lot of time at the surface. So sorry, no pictures.

St Martin or Saint Maarten as the Dutch side is called is a very efficient place for a crew change. Our marina Fort Louis had an excellent supermarket close by, a laundry with a six hour turnaround a 10 minute bike ride away and then, even a cleaning lady. Unfortunately, while the cleaning lady did a good job throughout, after she was done the aft toilet kept pumping water into the toilet without the button being pressed. Coincidence or not? Be that as it may, it wasn’t a good situation as the running water empties the fresh water tank and when you pump it out, it fills the black water tank. That will start overflowing when it’s full (80 liters) and spill the contents of the black water tank (sh …t diluted with some fresh water) into the marina water. Not likely to make other marina occupants happy.

Well, I turned off the electricity of the toilet and decided to wait until the next morning. I knew I had a spare of the electromagnetic shutoff valve which I thought was the obvious cause. Although I didn’t even know where the valve was located, I was not concerned. Well, I started at 5 am the next morning, found the valve and had it replaced a mere 2 hours later. Only problem: it didn’t fix the issue! The toilet kept running. Time for some espressos and a chocolate croissant! Then I had an idea: could it be that the switches for the inlet valve were under water? I took apart, found plenty of water in and dried out the first of two. No difference. I took apart and dried off the second of two. Bingo! The water stopped running. The cleaning lady had obviously used copious amounts of water to clean and flood the switches! So no coincidence!

The offending switches in the aft shower all cleaned up; I now have a spare set – St Martin has wonderful chandleries!

I was so elated that I tackled another recent issue: the macerator pump making strange noises. Taking that apart revealed a bunch of extraneous material ……. All in the name of perfecting my boat repairing skills. So net, net, the cleaning lady was not a great time saver but it taught me more about the boat!

Anse Fideling, Les Saintes

Mon, 19 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0000

The Christophs departed in Pointe a Pitre, Guadeloupe, and Siegi and his wife Barbara a/k/a The Generalfeldmarschall, arrived. Siegi and Barbara are old friends from American Yacht Club in Rye, NY. The day of their arrival, I decided to clean my folding bike with salt water (insert smiley face here). To do that, I left the bike unlocked next to our gangway and trusted a gust of wind to do the rest. It worked! The bike was gone. I thought initially that the bike had been stolen but Siegi said that it had happened to him before that a bike was swept away by the wind. Hard to believe as I had leaned it against a solid stainless fence. But who knows? So I got out the chain hook I keep for clearing foul anchor chains and started fishing. The water was murky and about 5 meters deep at the dock but low and behold, I could feel there was something down there. Several attempts later, I hooked something and pulled the bike to the surface!

The wind was adverse when the Brunners arrived so we wanted to wait for a day or two but the marina would not extend our stay even by a day – this is the high season. So we moved to the anchorage outside in front of the massive Caribbean Center of Expression and Memory of Human Trafficking and Slavery, short “Memorial ACTe”. It was choppy and rolly there but we were close to the town of Point a Pitre, which we wanted to explore. A (wet) dinghy ride got us over to “yacht club” in the town center passing a couple of defunct live aboard sailboats anchored inside. Felt a bit like Richardson Bay in San Francisco!

The town is quite poor and many buildings are a bit run down. But public buildings seem to be in good shape and have recent paint on them. Luckily, after a while we found a little bistro that was offering the local rum punch and was in the shade of some massive trees. All was well after a few of the local offerings! Nonetheless we decided against going back for dinner in the dark …..

Statues welded from nuts and bolts

This is the one nice street we saw– that’s where they channel the cruise ship passengers!

More typical building substance ….

We wondered what was being transacted here ....

The courthouse is stylish and very large

Our sweet little bistro ….

Graffiti art is everywhere

Memorial ACTe by night. This building must be 300 m long and stands out like a sore thumb in a sea of wooden shacks.

The anchorage off the Memorial ACTe is very close to where the cruise ships turn. Now would be a good time for this guy to put the engines in reverse!

The next day we had winds from the South-Southwest – highly unusual for this part of the World. In the roughly 3 weeks I’ve been back on the boat, the weather has been acting up. In January and February, the Easterly trades are supposed to blow uninterrupted but they certainly haven’t for us. We’ve had a lot of rain, Westerly, even Southwesterly winds, cloudy conditions, you name it. As Nicki says, never as advertised! But that’s life, so we’re getting on with it, at least trying to!

We wanted to get to the West Coast of Guadeloupe, which with the Southerly wind made for an upwind sail to get around the bottom of the island. The sail was actually ok albeit somewhat sporty so there were some pale complexions on board. But when we got to Terre de Haut in Les Saintes for a well deserved dinner ashore all was fine!

The next day started early with a 7:00 run ashore with the dinghy to fetch some baguettes. The forecast this morning confirmed that the front that was long forecast to reach down to the Windward Islands was indeed heading our way with strong Northwesterly (!!!) winds if only for a few hours tonight into the early hours of tomorrow. The anchorage at Terre de Haut is totally open to the Northwest and there is only one alternative protected bay from the NW in Les Saintes: Anse Fideling on Terre Bas, the next island. So off were were to Anse Fideling at 0730. We were not the only boat of the roughly 200 anchored in Terre de Haut that had the idea to move to Anse Fideling, but we were among the quickest to act and secured a nice place in the small bay.

It was a bit rolly though which made it quite difficult to get off the boat and explore Terre de Bas. I managed nonetheless and found a sleepy island with only a handful of tourists on display.

Kids' playground in Terre de Bas

Mainstreet Terre de Bas

On the top of the mountain there is a building site where someone plans on building his or her dream house

But the road to get there is a bit difficult ….

Where I landed the dinghy in Anse Fidelin are remnants of the Pottery Fidelin built around 1760, which built clay pots for the sugar export. The sugar market collapsed in 1815 when Cuba undersold all the other islands. The pottery survived nonetheless until the end of the 19^th Century. Now there is an artist studio.