Green, gorgeous, Guadeloupe. It’s hard to imagine there can be so many different shades of green. It was an instant love affair when we went ashore to the quiet little backwater of Deshaies (pronounced “Day-ay” – gotta love those silent French consonants -and if you imagine putting a G’ in front of it, then you’d sound just like a true blue Queenslander!) Continue reading “How Green Was My Valley (Guadeloupe)”

I think the guy on the end has to be bold (or have delusions of grandeur) to park his relatively small powerboat next to the giant superyachts on the dock at St Barthelemy (St Barts). It’s definitely the home of the beautiful people with mega-bucks to spend in the beautiful shops. We felt a little out of place…..! Continue reading “The Bold & The Beautiful (St Barts)”

We enjoyed a final get-together with our Salty Dawg pals for an early Thanksgiving pot-luck dinner on the beach last Wednesday, and then said our farewells. Our plan was to leave for the 90NM inevitable beat to St Martin early on Thursday morning, hopefully when the seas and wind had abated. Continue reading “Rich Man, Poor Man (St Martin)”

It’s hard to imagine a more perfect setting for our first landfall in the Caribbean. Continue reading “Happy Days (BVI’S)”

Just a few more images and notes from our passage south to the BVI’s from Hampton, Virginia. 11 days in total, and a slower than normal trip for most boats because of lack of wind or wind on the nose. Continue reading “Shake, Rattle & Roll Pt 2”

Yes we are trying to keep the theme going with those catchy titles, but in this case it is rather poignant. When we purchased Toucan we were aware that there was some work to  be done to ensure her seaworthiness and as we have already spoken about we were really naïve as to how much we needed to repair replace or just remove to make our objective. So after some four months of hard labour we felt that we were as ready as we would ever be. The war cry from Di before and during this period was “I don’t want to have the sea trial on the way to the BVI’s” and my answer was “I absolutely agree with you!”  So, how did the 1500 nautical mile sea trial go? Let me tell you. Continue reading “Shake, Rattle & Roll”