Here we go again, Tropical Storm Chantal is bee lining through the Caribbean and it's a wake up call for the crew of Independence. Time to head north to our bolt hole in North Carolina! We did our last charters last week, a great Independence Day on Independence and one last go with repeat guests on Saturday so we leave with memories of great Virgin Island sailing.
Our big family news is the wedding of our son Paul to Jessica, we definitely gained a great daughter and think her family feels the same way about their new son. There big day, June 26th, dawned overcast and rainy, thunder claps and lightning and lots of wind made for an interesting trip over to St. John, us on Independence and the rest of the guests on the big catamaran Kekoa. The ceremony was to take place on the beach at Hawksnest on St. John with the reception at the Oppenheimer House on the other end of the beach. Paul and Jess must have pull in the right place because the sun came out just at the optimum moment and everything went off without a hitch or a rain drop! Check Paul Stoeken's Facebook page for some pictures, note the very cute little girls blowing bubbles, they would be Marisa and Lea our grand daughters and they were bubble (not flower) girls!
This season has been so much fun, I was sad to see Leah leave at the end of last season and we were delighted to welcome her aboard again, this time as a guest visiting from San Diego where she and her husband have settled for the time being and she is teaching. Andy Roberts signed on right after we got back and has been wonderful to work with, he has promised to come back next season unless he gets lured back to Africa where he has worked in the past. Fingers crossed that won't happen!
We have had quite a few of our guests write wonderful reviews of their day and post them on Trip Advisor, it is awesome to get the feedback and to know that we are providing some great memories and equally as awesome is the number of inquiries we get from those posts, so a big THANK YOU to everyone who took the time.
We are planning, weather permitting, to leave St. Thomas on Sunday, July 14th, and should be at sea for about ten days. We will have no internet until we get to our berth at Wilmington Marine Center in North Carolina so if you don't get an answer to a question about sailing with us or you just want to check in I promise to get back to you as soon as I can. We will be in North Carolina until the end of September and then plan to spend October in Bermuda and be home and sailing in St. Thomas again before the middle of November.
Have a great summer and come on down next season and come sailing with us on Independence, we'd love to have you aboard!
Monday, July 8, 2013
Thursday, November 15, 2012
Independence is back in St. Thomas
We are back. Actually we sailed in from Bermuda on Election Day so got to watch the results on late night television! We have been very busy getting Independence out of cruising mode which means taking off the wind steering vane, radar reflectors, safety lines and harnesses and electronic navigation gear and getting back into day sailing mode. That means a good scrub to get rid of
all the salt we accumulate after six days of offshore sailing and then putting all the extra life jackets, snorkel gear, floats and the back bench with cushions and awning as well as the galley equipment we need to serve our guests and keep them safe. That is all done and last week we signed on
Andy Roberts as first mate for the season and we have just finished our first week of charters. He did a great job and I am looking forward to working with him, there are so many little things that go into making a day sail work well and he is a quick study.
We spent over three weeks in Bermuda this time. We had planned a shorter stay but Tropical Storm Rafael delayed us a week and then just as we thought we were good to go along came Hurricane Sandy. She was just too big and troublesome to ignore so we hunkered down on our storm mooring in St. Georges all ready for the worst and we got lucky. There were quite a few boats waiting with us and the highest gust anybody recorded was about 40 knots and we were so land locked that we did not get any of the wave action. We were horrified to hear of all the damage in the Northeast, it's hard to imagine New York under water and now they are dealing with the aftermath of the Nor'easter and it is COLD up there. We have been in hurricane recovery mode in St. Thomas a couple of times so understand the hardship but cannot imagine doing it in freezing temperatures so we hope the power comes on for everyone soon and we will also keep our fingers crossed for a mild winter.
Sandy affected us more as we headed out to sea on Halloween Day with absolutely enormous seas, the wind was down and we motorsailed for the first 24 hours but it was not comfortable and neither Pieter or I had much appetite and I certainly didn't feel like cooking! Fortunately, the second day saw seas laying down and a little wind came in and life at sea got a lot better. Four boats left on the same day all bound for Red Hook so we formed the Red Hook Regatta and had regular radio check ins which helped to pass the time. One boat had engine problems so there was a pool of technical expertise for them to pull from and it only took a day for them to get things sorted out. We had a small visitor, a little yellow and brown bird, maybe blown out to sea by Sandy, he stayed with us for about a day and seemed to enjoy the sail not to mention the bananas and fresh water we put out for him!
We were the last to leave Bermuda but made good time and managed to be first in to St. Thomas, bragging rights until next year! Now we are very happy to be home and looking forward to a great season. If you are coming to the Virgin Islands either to stay a few days or on a ship we hope you will think of a day or a half day sail with us on Independence.
all the salt we accumulate after six days of offshore sailing and then putting all the extra life jackets, snorkel gear, floats and the back bench with cushions and awning as well as the galley equipment we need to serve our guests and keep them safe. That is all done and last week we signed on
Andy Roberts as first mate for the season and we have just finished our first week of charters. He did a great job and I am looking forward to working with him, there are so many little things that go into making a day sail work well and he is a quick study.
We spent over three weeks in Bermuda this time. We had planned a shorter stay but Tropical Storm Rafael delayed us a week and then just as we thought we were good to go along came Hurricane Sandy. She was just too big and troublesome to ignore so we hunkered down on our storm mooring in St. Georges all ready for the worst and we got lucky. There were quite a few boats waiting with us and the highest gust anybody recorded was about 40 knots and we were so land locked that we did not get any of the wave action. We were horrified to hear of all the damage in the Northeast, it's hard to imagine New York under water and now they are dealing with the aftermath of the Nor'easter and it is COLD up there. We have been in hurricane recovery mode in St. Thomas a couple of times so understand the hardship but cannot imagine doing it in freezing temperatures so we hope the power comes on for everyone soon and we will also keep our fingers crossed for a mild winter.
Sandy affected us more as we headed out to sea on Halloween Day with absolutely enormous seas, the wind was down and we motorsailed for the first 24 hours but it was not comfortable and neither Pieter or I had much appetite and I certainly didn't feel like cooking! Fortunately, the second day saw seas laying down and a little wind came in and life at sea got a lot better. Four boats left on the same day all bound for Red Hook so we formed the Red Hook Regatta and had regular radio check ins which helped to pass the time. One boat had engine problems so there was a pool of technical expertise for them to pull from and it only took a day for them to get things sorted out. We had a small visitor, a little yellow and brown bird, maybe blown out to sea by Sandy, he stayed with us for about a day and seemed to enjoy the sail not to mention the bananas and fresh water we put out for him!
We were the last to leave Bermuda but made good time and managed to be first in to St. Thomas, bragging rights until next year! Now we are very happy to be home and looking forward to a great season. If you are coming to the Virgin Islands either to stay a few days or on a ship we hope you will think of a day or a half day sail with us on Independence.
Saturday, October 20, 2012
Bermuda Oct.2012
Independence is in Bermuda, we arrived here after a very easy four day motor from North Carolina on October 8th. Most of our time has been spent preparing for Hurricane Rafael and then putting everything back together after he passed us by. Fortunately we didn't see any more then about 35 knots of wind and we were in a very protected anchorage so no seas at all. Our motto is to prepare for the worst and hope for the best, it worked this time!
The weather is perfect for boat projects now, lots of varnishing, stainless polishing and various other maintenance is happening and we should be in great shape for the upcoming season. There are a few other boats here now, all waiting for a weather window to head for the Caribbean so we are having fun swapping stories and weather info. It looks like there are a couple of systems circling around the Atlantic and Caribbean that might delay us but we are hoping to leave by mid week and plan to have all those projects finished and be full of fuel, water and provisions so we can sail the minute the weather gurus give us the go ahead!
I will be checking emails until we leave and then will be silent while we are at sea, probably about six days so if you don't hear from me just give me a knew days! We are really looking forward to getting back to St.Thomas and back to day sailing. If your plans bring you to St. Thomas we'd love to have you aboard Independence for a full or half day sail.
The weather is perfect for boat projects now, lots of varnishing, stainless polishing and various other maintenance is happening and we should be in great shape for the upcoming season. There are a few other boats here now, all waiting for a weather window to head for the Caribbean so we are having fun swapping stories and weather info. It looks like there are a couple of systems circling around the Atlantic and Caribbean that might delay us but we are hoping to leave by mid week and plan to have all those projects finished and be full of fuel, water and provisions so we can sail the minute the weather gurus give us the go ahead!
I will be checking emails until we leave and then will be silent while we are at sea, probably about six days so if you don't hear from me just give me a knew days! We are really looking forward to getting back to St.Thomas and back to day sailing. If your plans bring you to St. Thomas we'd love to have you aboard Independence for a full or half day sail.
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