CHAPTER 2 FROM IPSWICH

After a very pleasant stay in Ipswich we locked out and headed down river, picking up a mooring south of Woolverstone Marina, at Pin Mill.   On the way down the Orwell,   we were passed by an un-crewed  yacht drifting toward the lee-shore.  Fortunately a VHF call to Ipswich Port Radio resulted in a call-out to the local inshore lifeboat (if you are not a member of the RNLI then join now!!

Just click on http://www.rnli.org.uk/how_to_support_us .  We make not apologies for this blatant advertising;   just have a look at the fantastic work these volunteers do and go ahead and support them.

Anyway, back to the story.  The inshore lifeboat arrived in minutes, recovered this drifting boat and took it to a safe mooring.   We, on the other side of the river,  picked up a mooring and got our heads down in preparation for an early start. 

Following morning,  slipped and proceeded at 0400 to catch the tide down through the Thames Estuary, arriving alongside Queenborough at about 1430 ish.   Local advice to us was to leave Queenborough at LW Queenborough and run up the Thames on the flood tide, arriving at Tower Bridge around HW London Bridge.    We did this, arrived promptly and then spent 2 hours hanging around on a waiting buoy right outside St Katharines Dock Marina.   A bit of buoy rash to polish out from the westerly wind and the last of the flood tide,  coupled with the wash of the high speed ferries who don’t seem to care too much about their wash.   Anyway,  we locked in,  backed into a nice corner spot for the week,  and bimbled down to the ‘Dickens’  for a few well-earned beers.

The 2 reasons for going to St Katharines were: to do some London sight-seeing,  and to attend a ‘Breakthrough to Success’ seminar at Earls Court.    We did a bit of the breakthrough thing and decided that it was not for us right now, so we used the extra time to do more sight-seeing.

Mike,  a great friend of ours, came to stay with us and  Sarah came up too.  Sarah had to depart on the Friday to get home to do important stuff,  and Mike stayed on.   

The thot plickened a bit here.    Our sone Tony and his partner Carly were expecting a baby;  around the time we arrived in St Katharines Dock we received a call telling us that Carly was in hospital with complications over the unborn baby.     Tony wanted his mum to come and help, so Barbara hopped on a train and went to be with them.

Mike and I departed from St Katharine’s  on the Tuesday and sailed round to Ramsgate for the night.

The following day took us around Dover and some lumpy sea,  passed Dungeness and on into Eastbourne for the night.   The next day,  with  SW/S  5-7 forecast we decided to run deep south of Beachy Head and around toward  Brighton or Shoreham.   The 5-7 got up to 8-9 and a very lumpy sea.    4 ½ hours later  after tacking down to almost the traffic separation zone and back up, we made a bee line for Newhaven.    At this point I should add that Mr Fonz,  our ageing moggy, was lounging around gracefully in the wheelhouse as if nothing were happening,  while we were bracing ourselves at every bounce.  The little  g1t;   when ‘mum’ was onboard, the slightest movement had him meeeowing to be picked up and cuddled.   With mum gone,  and only 2 blokes onboard,  Mr Fonz became Mr Macho Mog and was hanging loose where once he had been a right pussy.

We arrived in Newhaven around 1430 to be met by the marina guys who had been watching us through binoculars for a while.  They agreed that it was not too nice out there – understatement of the trip.     A few beers brought us back to reality and Mikes lovely lady Viv came down and collected us, taking us up homers for the night.

0830 the following morning the sea was as smooth as a baby’s    whatsit and there was the merest hint of a breeze from the south.   A pleasant days motor-sail took us back to Island Harbour/

Great trip.   I think we are heading west next, in a week or two perhaps.

I promise I will get some pictures up on here...............

http://www.sailblogs.com/member/thetravellingwhites/

Give this a try folks,   we are planning on shifting over as this current one is very tight on pic space.

love

S and B

On our week off…………….

We had a superb 2^nd charter last week and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves;; we did, however, find that we were both absolutely knackered and we were not sure why………….. until we did the sums and worked out that we had been going flat out since Hannah’s graduation in October – 2 months solid, plus all the stuff we had crammed in during the summer.  This week is the first time we have actually sat and enjoyed the sun and the stars for a bit.

We have gone part share on renting a bungalow at what looks like the highest point on Bequia.   I have just flashed up the GPS and for the Google Earthers among you, our verandah (oh how colonial!!!!!) is at position:

Lat  N 13 00.4884  

Lon  W 06113.7618

Go on, googleearth it, you know you want to J

The house has a red roof and a red concrete verandah around it.  We are only overlooked from the rear of the house and have wonderful vista views for the other 3 sides.   It is a 35 minute walk down the hill  (mega steep, makes Gibraltar look like a playing filed J) and a 10 minute taxi ride back (no, we are not daft enough to walk back up yet – that is a pleasure to come later I’m sure)

We had a tropical storm of biblical proportions come down on us last night and have discovered where the roof leaks.   By some quirk of fate I had moved an armchair last night to get a bit more comfortable. Yes, you guessed it, I found the site of the leak.   Armchair out in sun to dry, if the rain goes away for a bit.   

Rob and Elaine on ‘Joy’  and Micke and Maraid on ‘Galaxy’  are in the beautiful island of Mayreau as I write this. I called Rob yesterday and he reported a slightly bumpy night on the dock in Union Island on Tuesday night.   We actually felt chilly and had to pull a sheet over us during the night – unheard of!!!

We popped down the hill yesterday to check on Camille, to find a hoard of workmen all over her, dancing to the tune of my defect report that I emailed in on Friday.  It seems that if you report the stuff in, it does get fixed – a re-assuring thing.   The boss, Garry, and his wife Elaine are off to St Vincent this morning and we have asked him to get us a CD of real Christmas music for next week.   We didn’t think (dooooohhhh!) to bring those CDs with us from UK and all you can get on Bequia is ‘oh come all de faithful’ with a Caribbean hint going on (reggae/steel drums or both), which is nice but we find ourselves craving English Breakfast tea bags (just run out) and proper Christmas music.  Breaking news - Garry, our boss, brought us some real Christmas music on CD back from his trip to St Vincent.  Hoorah!!!

Well,  we are away on Charter from this Saturday until after the New Year. We hope to get an internet connection at some stage to call loved ones but if we fail, sorry.   Happy Christmas to you all and we wish every one all that is good for a prosperous, pleasurable and loving 2008.

Later dudes and dudettes………………………………

Hi  All,

Well................

We have just completed our second charter on our own and have had some very interesting guests with us.   Cruising around the Grenadines is simply fabulous.  We sail from Bequia on the Sunday morning and our first scene to enjoy are the ‘Moonholes’   This is a collection of houses made by the folks who live there and they are made out of only things they can pick up locally:   driftwood,  rocks, bits of tree etc.  The ‘Moonhole’ is actually a natural arch, inside which the first house was built and inhabited.   It is said that the house was considered untenable after an occupant in the upper bedroom woke up with a large rock in the bed alongside him.   That house now stands empty but is there for view.   

Next stop is the beautiful island of Mustique, where the guests take a tour of the island and we meet up with them at the famous ‘Basil’s Bar for sunset rum punches and music.   After that it is back onboard for a sumptuous dinner and a bit of partying.

The following morning sees us departing from Mustique and heading south to the Tobago Cays, where there is wonderful snorkelling to see the turtles and diving on the Horseshow Reef.   Just outside the reef is a tiny sand island called Petit Tabac,  better known as  'Johnny Depp Island'.  It was the island where Kiera Knightly burnt the rum in 'Pirates of the Caribbean.    A short sail from the Tobago Cays takes us in a westerly direction to Union Island for a 'Med Moor' on the dock for fresh water, supplies and a meal ashore with our guests.   Wednesday morning and we are off to Palm Island,  a private resort where we are allowed in.  We visit a French artist there who does wonderful underwater scenes in acrylics and oils.  Hi literally goes diving, sees something and then comes up and paints it.   We spend Wednesday night in Chatham Bay on the west side of Union Island and go diving in the morning, before heading up to Mayreau.    Thursday there, and up to Canouan for a stop and another dip, before returning up to Bequia and completing the loop.

This job is full on and the worst bit to start with was sore feet. We are getting a bit stronger and we are both losing some weight too.  We have just gone 1/3 share on a house right at the highest point of Bequia and are going to try it out during this next week off.

I am looking at either starting another page on this site or re-hosting the blog again, as this site is a bit limited on space for pics,  AND I know you love to see pics

more later............................

Just finished our final training charter with Rob and Elaine onboard 'Joy' and we took over 'Camille' last night.  She has been in maintenance for a couple of weeks so today is going to be uphill all the way before our guests arrive this evening.

I promise to write a bit more often but life is a bit full on at the moment.

Comms is a bit limited at the moment, so please accept our apologies if we have missed any calls.  We are not going to use our UK cellphone as it is prohibitively expensive to make and receive calls.   I think receiving texts might be ok though.

We are not always connected out here, so apologies if messages dont get through.

Must dash but thought I would leave you with a picture of giant tortoises on the beautiful island of Mustique (we have to come here every week - yawn :-))

Well, here we are in the British Virgin Islands on the island of Tortola at the Trade Winds base in Hodges Creek. We were here to assist on Saturday with the 3 departing catamaran charters.  Chris and Ali on 'Turquoise Dreams' ,  Sean and Karen on 'Coral Dreams' and Danny and Lisa on 'Solitaire'.    The 4th catamaran ;Cool Cat'  went off to St Martin in the morning twilight of Tuesday on a logistics run, with Kev, the maintenance manager onboard.   We are staying onboard Kev and his lovely Trinidadian wife Naila's  boat instead of moving into a motel. 

It has rained every day since we arrived but the temperature is a very friendly high 70s in the day and low 70s at night, so all is comfortable.

We are off on another very early flight on Saturday to Bequia, via Barbados and St Vincent.  As soon as we arrive we are off on our final training charter with Rob and Elaine (owners of Rjinstrom, the barge in Island Harbour) to see how they do it.  The week after that it seems that we get to take over 'Camille' and operate out of Bequia until further notice.  The by word for Trade Winds is 'remain flexible'  so we will see what happens..................................

It is with great sadness that we returned to England to say farewell to my father, Douglas Roy George White,  who passed away at 0345z on Sunday morning 28 October 2007.    Dad had enjoyed a really full and loving life and a good retirement.   His funeral is on Wednesday 14th November 2007 at 1045z at St Albans Church, North Harrow.  The ceremony completes at the Breakespear Crematorium and is followed by a wake back at the church hall afterwards.   For those of you who knew Dad,  I hope you will remember him in your thoughts and prayers as a happy, generous and most loving man.   The family has asked for no flowers but for a donation to the RNLI should you feel inclined.  

For Douglas and for his comrades who gave their lives in the conflicts of the 20th Century and up to this moment:

They shall not grow old as we who are left grow old.
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning,
WE WILL REMEMBER THEM.

love

Steve and Barbara

Well,  we have now completed our first training charter week onboard a beautiful $1M catamaran called 'Justine' with skipper 'Yaya' and Mate Karen.  This charter was host to 2 lovely couples from Connecticut, who had an absolute ball and had tons of praise for the skipper and mate.   A great charter;  we circumnavigated the island of Antigua where the guess observed that they had a different view for each MEAL!!!!!  Lots of swimming and snorkelling and beach runs in the dinghy.  A couple of meals ashore as well as the wonderful food prepared by Karen.   A visit to historic Nelsons Dockyard in English Harbour was one of the many highlights of this wonderful week and we are both so very grateful to Yaya and Karen for their insights into the best way to run a TradeWinds Cruise Club charter week.

We flew home to UK on the Saturday night and I am sat in the back bedroom at 12 Merton Road as I write this.  We arrived at Gatwick around 1000 and my best friend in the whole world,  Mike,  picked us up from LGW and transported us up to Harrow.  Thankyou Mike, you saved a couple of weary travellers from serious jetlag damage.

Must dash,  lunch beckons (or is it breakfast?)..................................