Kincsem Adventures

Le Marin – encore !

Sat, 27 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.

Bas du Fort, Guadeloupe

Sat, 17 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0000

From Martinique, we headed North to Dominica, the “Nature Island”. It is endowed with spectacular scenery. The handbook recommended that we go to Roseau to explore the best of it and that’s what we did. We took a mooring there with Sea Cat, one of several mooring providers who offer tours of the island and booked a tour for the next day. But before that could happen, I had to check Kincsem and crew into Dominica at the cruise ship dock, a good mile away by dinghy. This checking in requirement seems kind of unnecessary but one has to remember that most of the Caribbean islands are separate nations, and so is Dominica. First step on many islands is to fill in an online form on Sailclear and upload all passports and ships papers. But then one still has to go to customs, immigration and often the local port captain. In Roseau, I waited to dock my dinghy at the customs dock for ½ hour for some fishing tour boats who apparently have first dibs at docking. Then I stood in line for another hour behind some cruise ship passengers although I had arrived before them. But then, I was finally in front of a big, old black lady with a serious demeanor, inspecting our passports and paperwork. There is an incorrect passport number written down here, a no no! A correction gets made in the paperwork, in triplicate. EC$100 (about US$40) please for overtime check-in – it’s Sunday after all! Well, after all the stamping was finished, a smile escaped from her lips and all was good!

Waiting at the customs dock

Clearance papers in hand, it’s quite a ways back to the boat. Big dinghy motor is a must!

At 0900 the next day, we showed up at the docks of Sea Cat and met our tour guide Albert, a hulk of a man. He informed us that first, we had to go to the car repair shop and replace the brake pads on his van. He said he had noticed yesterday that they were a bit down so better safe than sorry. Well, maybe he could have replaced them before he picked us up this morning? Be that as it may, we stopped at a parts dealer to get the new pads, and then at a garage to replace the pads!

Well, we were on our way in no time and Albert did a great job showing us the sights. At least he tried because the weather surely did not cooperate.

Mammoth tree which flattened a car in hurricane David in 1979

Mammoth tree in the botanical gardens, consisting of hundreds of small stems

Well dressed gardneress in the Botanical Gardens

Morne Bruce Monument

Trafalgar Falls

The highlight of the day was a 4 hour hike to Middleham Falls, a tremendous waterfall. The hike felt for most of it a bit like walking in a river! Albert looked like he was in no shape to walk for 10 minutes much less hike for 4 hours, but he changed into sensible shoes and was a good sport dealing with the steep, slippery terrain!

Roseau rush hour

We needed another stop in Dominica to check out with customs – Portsmouth was the choice. Having accomplished that, we departed Dominica and reached Les Saintes, a charming group of little islands that are FRENCH. Everything is cute, the houses are fixed up and painted, the bread in the boulangerie is PHANTASTIC, and lovely French restaurants await. Great place to be for a day or two!

On the way to check-in; note the chain to secure the dinghy. Necessary everywhere in the Caribbean unfortunately.

Checking in at Les Saintes – French keyboard and all!

View of Terre de Haut, Les Saintes, from a hike up to the Le Chameau tower, 300 meters above the harbor

Well, the next day we had a great sail to Guadeloupe, where we docked in Marina Bas du Fort. A pretty well maintained, large marina, with many local boats but also some large superyachts – witness the Perrini Navi on the cover page!

St Pierre, Martinique Jan 27, 2004

Sat, 10 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0000

When I first got back to the boat in January, there was quite a bit of work to be done by “helpful men”, which is always a cause for concern as we are dealing with the boating industry. But I shouldn’t have been too concerned – there are learned mechanics in the Caribbean that get the job done for a reasonable price. Egbert, the mechanic in St Lucia who was to take apart the watermaker membranes and fit new end pieces and interconnection tubes, turned out to be a fabulous guy who not only completed his job quickly and well, but also helped out with a little issue I’ve had for a while with the generator. Fabien the refrigeration mechanic in Le Marin in Martinique found some little issue with our refrigerator and freezer but led us to finally adjust the lid for the freezer so that it no longer produces unwanted frost on the plates. Ludovic, the Volvo mechanic, completed the timing belt replacement on the engine in record time. Even Bruno, the slow yet methodical mechanic at Pochon in Le Marin, completed the fix of the autopilot hydraulic pump although he managed to mis-program both autopilots in the process so that we had to return to Le Marin for another round! And the diesel leak got fixed – but I’m getting ahead of myself.

The two Christophs and I met on the boat in St Lucia and after Egbert had completed the watermaker job, we filled (or overfilled?) the diesel tank and left the marina. Our aim was the Pietons in St Lucia, a fabulous anchorage underneath the higher of the two Pietons near Souffriere on the Southwest coast of St Lucia. The handbook recommended taking a mooring from the local boat boy association rather than anchor – not just for convenience but also for security. There have been thefts and robberies in this area in the past …. So the plan was to take a mooring from that local association and we made a reservation for a mooring by phone. But five miles away a boat boy from another mooring area approached us, welcome us “to paradise” and obviously wanted us to rent a mooring from him. We didn’t want to stop at his area so we ignored him and motored on to the Pietons.

Approaching the Pietons

As we got to the mooring field, another boat boy approached, this time a member of the association. But low and behold, the first guy also reappeared at full throttle again asking us to hire him (for what??). A discussion ensued which we were not part of, and miraculously, the local guy (let’s call him Albert) prevailed and tied our bow lines to the mooring. The only problem was that the distance between the moorings was really not adequate for boats of Kincsem’s length so we were in danger of hitting the catamaran on the next mooring. But Albert took a long stern line to the shore which avoided the problem.

Spectacular mooring at the beach at the Pietons

Leaving the Pietons

Our next stop was Le Marin with a sporty crossing of the St Lucia channel in between. During the crossing, we first noticed a smell of diesel, then we saw diesel flowing in the walkway under the cockpit – not a good sign! Sails were furled and the flow of diesel stopped, with the boat no longer heeling to port. Our diesel tank is on starboard underneath the bunk in the walkway. It looked to me like we had an accumulation of diesel under the tank which poured out when the boat was heeling to port. But how did it get there? Another item for the to do list in Le Marin!

Collecting diesel in the passage to the aft cabins

Le Marin is a very efficient place in a way. If you own an Amel and have a problem, you have all the expertise right there and if you’re lucky, they will spring into action for you. We were lucky. While the autopilot and refrigerator repairs which I had scheduled were going on, Francois, the second in command at Amel spent an entire day trying to find the diesel leak on Kincsem! After replacing the gaskets on the two inspection ports for the tank, he pressure tested the tank and found no leak. So the verdict was: leaking inspection ports must have been the cause of the leak, which are now fixed. Christoph Huss and I now went to work to remove the diesel under the tank and the smell. Not a small task as the tank is completely built into the furniture and almost unaccessible. But with the help of a small electric pump usually used for oil changes and some small diameter hoses, we managed to extract the diesel, flush the space with H70, a degreaser Amel recommended, and afterwards flush with Ricard, a well known French aperitif. Why Ricard? A recommendation of Bruno Cotte, another Amel 55 owner whose boat was a few boats down from us at the Amel dock. It worked great!

In addition to Tertio owned by Bruno from France, we met another Amel 55 at the Amel dock, Be Love, which was owned by Bedo from Bulgaria. Both Bruno and Bedo sail with their wives and crossed the Atlantic with them in December. I have spoken with Bruno many times in the past by phone or email and met Bedo in Las Palmas before he took off for the ARC plus. Three of only 65 Amel 55s built in one place is a cause for celebration, which in this case lasted for three dinners. This is because Bedo insisted on paying for everyone on the first one. So Bruno and team Kincsem had to reciprocate ….. Of course interesting conversations ensued but the conclusion was: the Amel 55 is the best boat there is. The new Amels, the 50 and 60, are clearly inferior but then, they are superior to all other boats out there, like the Oysters (no Amel has lost a keel), Hallberg Rassys (lots, etc, etc. Everybody seemed to be happy with the conclusion and a good time was had by all!

After Le Marin, we continued sailing north along the West Coast of Martinique, which is quite dramatic. We stopped in a lovely bay called Anse Noir because of the black sand beach.

Anse Noire

Our last stop in Martinique was St Pierre, which was a bit of a shock. We had expected from the handbook to find a quaint little town but seen first at night, it looked unsafe and a dump, with emaciated old black men with long grey beards and dreadlock curls seemingly everywhere. The restaurant we had planned to eat at based upon the guide book was closed, so was every other one mentioned in the handbook except for one Alsacian place which one of the Christophs did not fancy. So off we were to the “supermarket” to get something to cook up on Kincsem. Another shady establishment yet we managed to grab the last dead chicken on the many empty shelves ….

The next morning I had to go back ashore to clear out of Martinique with customs which was efficient and quick. I took the opportunity to buy some gas for our dinghy. I wondered initially why our 10 l gas container could be filled with 12.7 liters but then I understood ….. The whole place looked a bit better in daylight but I still wouldn’t recommend it. We would later confirm that our handbook, the well known Doyle guide, seems to have an overly rosy view of some of the localities one can visit …..

St Pierre by Day

Back in San Francisco

Thu, 21 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0000

It’s been a long flight and I’m just walking to baggage claim. How do I know where I’ve landed? Simple, there’s only one airport where I have ever seen this sign: San Francisco!

Kidding aside, we made it back to St Lucia from Martinique for the ARC prize giving. What a surprise that Team Kincsem won it’s division!! The results that had been reported ever since the start were not corrected for the handicap of the boats or the hours of motoring. Since Kincsem is quite a bit smaller than most of the boats that finished earlier, out time got corrected by a Time Correction Factor which shortened our corrected passage time vs. the corrected passage time of the bigger boats. Also, there was a correction for motoring: motoring time got added to the passage time and multiplied by a factor of 1.4. Since we motored much less than the other boats in the division, this gave us another advantage. But ultimately, the key for the win was good preparation and a phantastic crew that got Kincsem to St Lucia quickly. There were countless sail changes and the watchkeepers sailed the boat very well over the 17 days and 8 hours it took to get to the finish! Congratulations to all!

Here we are accepting the official trophy (the large glass vase which stays with the organizers) and a little metal pot (for us to keep) for winning Cruising A, the Prime Minister's class. I’m flanked by Almut (hardest working – crew, cook, chief provisioning officer, etc, etc) and Rainer (chief engineer) and Achim, our cruise director (who is NOT from Persia). The fellow next to Almut is the Minister himself. Daniel, who was crucial in so many ways to our effort, is missing as someone has to make some money so he returned home days earlier.

The last few days in St Lucia were a lot of fun with parties and unofficial get togethers, including one on Kincsem. The ARC organization has been great and we met a lot of interesting people many of whom we’ll likely meet again during the Caribbean season.

Here with some delay is our arrival photo with the complete Kincsem team where rum drinks are served shortly after the lines are tied to the shore in Rodney Bay!

Kincsem put away for a few weeks in Rodney Bay Marina, ST Lucia.

I’m due back on the boat mid-January and Kincsem will sail North to the British Virgin Islands by March and then back down the chain of islands to Grenada by early May. I’m looking forward to sailing with those of you who’ve signed up for this season! Meanwhile, I wish you all a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Kincsem over and out for the rest of 2023!

Le Marin, Martinique

Tue, 12 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0000

We have been here on Martinique for 3 days for one sole purpose: to get Kincsem back in top shape. We had a number of major breakdowns in the ARC: first, the watermaker started leaking, then the autopilot gave out, then the mizzen furling motor broke. We managed to keep going in the rally but these things need to get fixed. I’ve never been to Le Marin in Martinique but had heard that it’s a miniature La Rochelle: all you need for your Amel just 25 miles from St Lucia. There is an Amel base which told us that they had the mizzen furling motor in stock and could install it. They also told us that they could install the end caps and interconnection tubes for the watermaker which I had received from Dessalator in the Netherlands. And then there is a base here of Pochon, the provider of all things electrical and electronic to Amel. They said that they would try to fix the autopilot. So we sailed here last Sunday to get this all done this week.

The reality has been a little less positive. Pochon has been working on the autopilot for two days and on the afternoon of the second day – after some prodding from me to call Pochon La Rochelle - finally found the problem: they need to replace a part on the hydraulic pump that has to be ordered. Amel has in fact replaced the furling motor but they now advise that they will likely break some high pressure hoses when taking the watermaker apart and they need to order those hoses. So it appears that we will need to come back here in January for a few days to get everything completely done. Well, no great hardship. The sun will be shining …..

The last few days of the ARC were amazing sailing. On the 3^rd, 4^th and 5^th of December, we covered 220, 225 and 206 nautical miles, respectively – an average speed of 9.2, 9.4 and 8.6 knots! These are new records for Kincsem and we worked hard to achieve them. There were a lot of sail changes to get the best out of the boat and sleeping was a bit difficult, not just because of the high air temperatures in the boat …..

Roaring along under double headsails and main

Two of quite a few boats we saw and overtook during the crossing

Daniel enjoying the air flow from the fan in the skipper’s berth; Kincsem needs more fans .....

Advent celebrations with raisin bread baked by Almut and her self made calendar

Land Ho!

We first saw land at 1240 on the 6^th but the wind and currents turned weird on us so it took a long time to get to the finish line on the Northwest corner of St Lucia. We finally crossed the line at 1700 sharp local time St Lucia. As we crossed the line as the 34^th ARC boat, the sun was setting and a rainbow formed to the East!

Stowing away the double poles

The finish line!

Achim and the rest of the crew getting the fenders and docklines out for the first time in a long time!

The welcome in the marina was also quite amazing. Lots of boats blew their horns, the ARC yellow shirts took our lines and immediately served us rum drinks! Luckily, we were right on time for Happy Hour at 1730!

We covered 3237 nautical miles in 17 days, 8 hours, at an average speed of 7.9 knots. This includes 13 hours 41 minutes of motoring at a speed of 6.2 knots. Not bad for a cruising boat! It seems the crew of Kincsem got into the regatta spirit!

The crew under the old Kincsem battle flag!

The days since finishing have been a bit of a blur with entry formalities, welcoming other boats and clearing up the boat but one of the highlights was the welcome party last Friday at the St Lucia golf club. The rum drinks were flowing, the exotic dancers were dancing, the steel band was playing, you get the drift! We and the crews of several other boats afterwards checked out the Rodney Bay street party, which apparently happens every Friday – amazing!

Another highlight was a tour of St Lucia which cruise director Achim organized and executed perfectly!

La Souffriere

In the rain forest!

Our plan is now to get back to St Lucia by Thursday for a few more parties before the prize giving on Saturday and our flights home on Sunday for some well deserved rest!

Less than 1,000 miles to go to St Lucia!

Sat, 02 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Life on board Kincsem follows a standard routine. We have 4 three hour night watches from 2100 to 0900 and three four hour day watches from 0900 to 2100 boat time. All five of us go watches by ourselves which maximizes the time that everyone gets to sleep - although sometimes someone needs to help the person on watch even at night. The morning watch from 0600 to 0900 is usually the time when the first crew members not on watch assemble in the cockpit and someone starts cutting up some of the surprisingly many fruits that remain. Then someone fires up the coffee and the serious breakfasters get down to business after 0900. By then we have downloaded the weather reports and the routing for the day is discussed. The first day watch is 0900 to 1300 and lunch is usually served around 1300. But the real highlights of the day start to happen in the afternoon: 1730 hours boat time is our standard Happy Hour.

Daniel the can crusher at work after Happy Hour!

This is preceded by Shower Hour for which we turn on the water heater for ½ hour before. For Happy Hour, we generally offer alcohol free and real beers – one per person only – as well as nibbles! Everyone is truly happy by about 1800 and preparations for dinner can commence. For that, the generator goes on to make water, fuel the electric stove and to charge the batteries. Dinner is then served at 1900 and after that and dish washing, much of the crew – other than the person on watch - generally retires to their quarters by 2000!

The last few days our routine has been pleasantly interrupted by a number of celebrations. First, there was the Bergfest – the celebration of being over ½ done with the race. Then there was the celebration of having sailed 2,000 miles, followed the next day with a celebration of having less than 1,000 miles to go. After 10 days plus with no or very limited alcohol, these days were duly celebrated with gin and tonics and other spirits but also phantastic Broetchen made by Almut for lunch!

Bergfest lunch

Dinner after the 1,000 miles celebration!

Now we are debating which will be the next celebration. There were voices advocating a celebration every 100 miles but then some thought that might impede top performance for the balance of the trip (which, as has been mentioned, is a race of some sort). So now the bidding has settled on there being just one more celebration before the finish – 500 miles to go. If all goes well, that will occur on Monday, December 4, with the finish celebration lurking around December 7!

But there has been another disruption of our routine: Daniel caught a fish! In a first on Kincsem since it was launched, Daniel caught a green/yellow 4 pound “Yellow Jack”!! With the expert help of Achim, it was duly brought on board and fileted. The consumption is scheduled for later today!