AL SHAHEEN -
Nova Scotia
Saturday 24th June 2006
What a difference it makes when the sun shines! The fishing harbours of Maine look quaint and pretty instead of gloomy and grey, and suddenly there are lots of little sailboats out testing their summer wings.
The launch of Al Shaheen at Bass Harbour went as expected: well, but frustrating! The multitude of little jobs that need to be done was compounded by a host of additional hassles after having had the mast down for 9 months over the winter.
Head lining in the main cabin that wouldn’t stay up, a drip that appeared from nowhere, sealing that hadn’t been resealed adequately. And some more serious stuff, all of which meant much extra money spent at West Marine! So far we’ve replaced the wind anemometer, the wind generator blades (which had survived Hurricane Ivan but got smashed in the Morris yards!), put in a new water pump, replaced the gas solenoid and right now John is doing some quiet cussing about the motor belt which has been “adjusted” and is far too loose! General feeling about taking the mast down for winter storage is – Don’t! It seems to cause more problems than it solves.
We motored round to South West Harbour (scene of our unexpected wedding last year!)
and met up with some of our old cronies. We're moored back in the same spot, and
it feels as if we'd never left. Micah, the dockmaster, regaled us with some recent
activities -
Waiting for our new bimini (oh yes, we now have a bimini on Al Shaheen, and new cockpit
cushions and – wait for it guys – a new dinghy!) we did a short shake-
The immediate plan is to go to Nova Scotia & Newfoundland for the summer. We set
off on 22nd, final preparations done, final goodbyes said. Weather reports showed
favourable SW winds, and we planned to sail way out past Cape Sable to miss all the
gnarlies, and head for Shelbourne as our first stop. The only dissenting weather
voice was Chris Parker – but as we heard him only after we’d been at sea for almost
5 hours, and he operates out of Florida, a long way away, we somewhat overrode him.
We should have listened! He was right – it was SSE winds all the way, hard on the
nose, and even close-
It was freezing cold and the wind and wet was miserable; despite thermal underwear and 4 layers of clothing, we were both totally ‘nithered’. So after some 50 miles, we decided to treat this as a training cruise, turned tail, poled out the genoa and headed back for the comfort of South West Harbour again!
Sailing is supposed to be fun, and I think it’s too early for summer in Nova Scotia yet! And Micah’s birthday was Friday, and a big lobster bash planned for the dock side – couldn’t miss that! We’ll live to sail another day, as they say.
Friday 30th June 2006
Foggy, foggy days – they must have written the original song here in South West Harbor,
Maine! We have sat encapsulated for the past week, some days unable to see the boat
moored ahead of us, some days getting an excitingly tantalising peek at Sutton Island
at the mouth of the harbour – but the upshot of it all is, we’ve stayed! Two Norwegian
boats left on Tuesday, all hands on deck wrapped to the gills in very heavy weather
gear, expecting the worst out at sea – they had a deadline to meet, needing to be
in Scotland by mid-
We’ve spent the time most productively however, John getting the website totally
up-
Blonde little 3 year old Jake (the dock manager Micah’s son) hurtles around the deck in a big electric car, and got stopped by the police the other day.
"Son," the policeman asked, "may I see your licence please?"
Quick as a wink, Jake handed him a piece of bubblegum paper.
"Hmm," said the policeman. "I think you need a new one. Let me see you drive."
So Jake did a tight turn around the deck, then pulled up smartly in front of him.
"You pass," he smiled and gave Jake a South West Harbour police sticker.
No flies on Jake though. "I need two," he said. "One for me and one for the car!"
Lucien (owner of big sports fishing boat Mighty Mouse) is also an avid model airplane
builder, and every now and then the marina buzzes as his red and white single prop
fighter plane strafes the burgees and stays of the yachts lying at the docks. It’s
great fun to watch an unsuspecting boat come tentatively into the marina to tie up,
only to be dive-
Carl runs a Friendship Sloop as a charter boat, making 2-
“What’s he doing?” asked my somewhat bemused skipper.
Turned out he was helping his client scatter her husband’s ashes in the bay!
And Chris – well, Chris is something else. 15 years old, he has his own little lobster boat, puts out 150 lobster pots, and pulls up about 100 of these every day in the same season – and has been doing this on his own since he was 11 years old. (He caught the lobsters for our wedding last year!) Astounding!
Most parents worry about their kids crossing the road still at that age, and here’s this young boy out there in the deep ocean, fog or no fog, weather or no weather, pulling up lobster pots! Chris can be seen on the right, leaning over the railing.
Of course, no conversation about South West Harbour is complete without mention of
Mary, the lady who holds the whole thing together! Mary and Ed Dysart own Dysart’s
Marina (where we’re loosely based), and every day in Mary’s life is an event – if
it isn’t, she’ll turn it into one. Even Jake at 3 knows that. When told we’re going
to Mary’s house, his reaction is, “Why, is that where the party is?” And a casual
invite to, “join us for dinner” always turns into a group of 10-
We even climbed Cadillac Mountain one day – all 1530 feet of it! Rated as the highest
peak on the eastern Atlantic seaboard, the guide book calls it “a gentle climb” –
Ha! I guarantee it equals the Grouse Grind in Vancouver for cardiovascular exertion!
By the time we’d got up the north face (2.2miles constant uphill), stopped for 5
secs to click-
So, it’s been a week of preparation and consolidation, as they say – forecasts look good to leave Saturday for Nova Scotia, so that’s the immediate plan.
Sunday 9th July 2006
There are some passages that are always discussed in tones of either hushed horror or relieved braggadocio, and The Bay of Fundy is certainly one of them! Two weeks ago I wimped out and convinced John to “please go home” – it was too wet, too cold and too miserable to continue. This last Saturday, we did the crossing, and it was an absolute pleasure: South West Harbor, Maine to Shelburne Harbour, Nova Scotia (and yes, Nova Scotians do spell the correct way!) in 27 hours of fantastic sailing, great wind, great sun, great seas. Amazing difference.
First port of call was Shelburne Harbour, and we moored off the Yacht Club. Word
of warning – always try to check what you’re picking up as a mooring! In 30 knot
winds that afternoon, Isle of Skye broke the mooring chain, and hit the rock harbour
wall bow on, doing some nasty damage to her caprails and bow-
Shelburne Harbour Yacht Club is terrific – friendly people, a great clubhouse (free
wifi, showers and coffee, an excellent cafeteria, the usual pub, fuel and water for
the boat), and a small marina with the above-
And Shelburne itself is a very picturesque little town, lots of lovely olde buildings
dating back to the 1700s when the Loyalists first set up home here. Not a wealthy
town, definitely working-
Talking of old skills, we visited with some “real” fishermen, watching and chatting while they were getting their boat ready to go out. They offered us a trip, and John was very keen to go – but the sight of all that rotten fish hooked on long lines and coiled into tubs ready to be released overboard, and the thought of all those guts and entrails splattering all over the deck for the next 4 days – well, we both decided we had other things, other places to do! Again, a dying breed of people though.
Despite their broad Scot/Irish/Cornish/Canadian accents, they were great to listen
to, and told us how difficult the government was making their lives with licences,
the quota system and regulations. I found it astounding that the licence allowed
them to catch only one kind of fish – so if you have a line out and catch 4 kinds
on your line, the other 3 have to get thrown back, even if they’re dead! And once
you’ve reached your quota, everything else has to get turfed – seems very non-
SHYC is port-
These two salts sailed this mean machine, sans any ‘luxury’ items like proper berths or galley or shower, minimum weight on board (“unnecessaries” like an extra pair of jeans gets dumped, and all food is weighed and discussed before being loaded) from Hampton, Mass. to Bermuda and then to Shelburne – just to participate in a fun run! Their grocery shop before leaving for their home port again brought back 5 apples and 4 bananas for the 2 day run home.
Sadly we left Shelburne on Friday, and motored some 43 miles up to Carters Bay in
Port Mouton (pronounced Muh-
Had a late lazy start to Saturday, and motored (again not a breath of wind) to the
Le Have Islands for the night, only 33 miles this time. As you can see, we’re not
exactly moving fast this season! Here we attempted to tuck into Baker’s Gut for the
night, narrow little cut between two islands – however, at 2 metres below the keel
we decided to turn back, only to have the depth alarm screeching its head off – we
had 0.2 metres under the keel as we turned! John was a pale shade of white as we
very very gently edged out! So we anchored just out of the Gut, in a wide sweeping
bay, surrounded by pine-
Today (Sunday) we left early, ahead we hope of bad weather coming through. Again a motor job, aiming for Lunenburg 16 miles away, and we got into the entrance to the harbour just as the rain started. Still, we’ve had no fog, and that’s been my big worry all along – so far, so good! We’ve picked up a mooring here, opposite the Fisheries Museum and Waterfront, in company with the famous Bluenose II schooner. We’ll wait till the rain stops before going ashore, but by all that we hear, this is quite a town – World Heritage Site because of all the historical buildings!
Saturday 15th July 2006
Lunenburg is a great little town, very picturesque, lots of delightfully painted
olde buildings and historical sights -
Still, nice to move on, and after a fantastic sail out on Tuesday, we spent the next night tied up to a fishing boat in Sambro.
O Patricia is owned and manned by Homer and Donny, two old timers who had been sitting
waiting for a weather window for 4 days -
Left the next morning in fog, that everyone said would be lifting. Ha! Don't believe
those weather forecasts when it comes to fog!! We sailed the whole day, across Halifax
entrance and all the shipping lanes, in fog so thick I couldn't see the buoys 100
metres to the side of us -
We were aiming for Jeddore, to meet fellow OCC member John van Schalkwyk -
He offered us an OCC mooring in front of his house 'The Ark', up a long and winding
channel to the head of the western arm of the Jeddore. He did say there were some
shallow patches (mud and grass), so sent specific way-
John and Heather have a lovely home up on the hillside, and couldn't have been more
welcoming -
It was a beautiful sunny day when we drove around, so it all looked very harmless:
it fact, we sat for 2 hours waiting to see the world-
Halifax is the biggest Nova Scotian city, all 380 000 people strong. It was almost
flattened back in 1917 when a Norwegian ship hit a French ship carrying a top-
We've had a great time here, but we're both suffering from bugitis -
Saturday 22nd July 2006
This has been a week of fog, rain, with the occasional day of glorious sunshine to
negate all the previous -
So often here at this time of year, the fog appears to lift: enough to get John's
itchy feet moving and his Cap'n voice calling out the orders, "All hands on deck!"
That was the case when we left Jeddore; the fog had cleared as far as we could see,
so despite the glowering band on the horizon, we weighed anchor and took off. Of
course, as soon as we got out to sea, it closed in immediately, and we motored for
the next three and half hours in pea-
The next day (Tuesday) was much the same, with the fog in the bay lifting enough
to get everyone excited -
Wednesday morning the sun came out, and we discovered we'd anchored in the most beautiful
big bay, totally surrounded by high wooded hills and little islands. Couple of houses
dotted the hills, and we hadn't been up long when a chap in a dinghy rowed over to
chat. Chris Griffiths, ex Brit who has been here since 1979, is just retiring, and
has plans to build a yacht club facility on the sea-
The Nova Scotian folks -
We left Siteman's Cove earlyish Thursday, and had a fair-
Initially we thought we'd anchor just inside the river mouth, but continuous warnings
coming from Halifax Coastguard about Tropical Storm Beryl hitting us the next day
decided us to go all the way up the river to Liscomb Lodge -
So Friday saw us scooting up to the Lodge early to get laundry done (and I had not
only a shower where I could allow the water to run rather than do the 3-
Dinner at the Lodge tonight? That'll be good!
Saturday 29th July 2006
Bras D’or Lakes! I had begun to believe they were as illusive as that gold nugget
or the pot o’gold at the end of the rainbow – but on Thursday we actually motored
through St. Peter’s lock, and entered into the Lakes – into sunshine, warmth and
bliss of all blisses, no fog! You could feel the wall of heat as we came down St.
Peter’s canal – so much so that by the end of it I had shed not one, but two layers
of jersey and jacket, and was in my shirt-
We had spent Saturday, Sunday and Monday stuck up the Liscomb River (wasn’t that the name of a song? Oh no, sorry, that was the Swannee!) in either heavy rain, or thick fog, or a combination of them both. All in all, a thoroughly uncomfortable few days, although I suppose if you’re going to be stuck anywhere, this was as good as spot as many. John did take the opportunity to do some of the inevitable maintenance work, and at some stage to go biking, but I stayed warm and dry, doing some editing/reading on board.
Chester the marina manager, who’s done this job every summer for 28 years, is an absolute gem – nothing’s too much trouble. On Monday night he rushed out in the gloom in a little dinghy to rescue a small sailboat that had lost its engine and was now drifting towards the shoals on the elbow of the river. Sans any other help, he hauled her in, rafted them up to another bigger boat, and chugged off back to fix that portion of the dock that had broken away during Beryl – all part of the days’ work!
All in all though, it was with some relief that we left early Tuesday morning in clear skies, and a weak sun – no wind though. For some 6 hours or so we had a great motor in brilliant sunshine – and then guess what? The fog closed in! We’d been undecided as to whether to stop early in the afternoon, but when the fog arrived we both decided it was safer to stay out at sea than to attempt to crawl in on radar through rocks and shoals to some unknown inlet, so we carried on to moor behind the breakwater at Canso, right on the point of Nova Scotia, and the jumping off place for Cape Breton and the Bras D’or. Canso was originally a thriving fishing port with big fish processing plant, but now a quiet backwater. The plant’s closed down, very little fishing traffic, and it appears that most of the little houses are probably used as summer holiday lets. Still, it has a cheerful feel about it, not dilapidated like some of the villages.
Next morning it was across the Straits for that illusive Cape Breton – we could see
it 20 miles away, and it looked sunny! We took off like a cracker – a fierce 24 knot
wind put a reef in the sail, and we chased whitecaps behind a heeled-
It looks as if the canal and lock haven’t changed since the 1880s or so when it was built: we visited a gallery of photos by MacGaskill taken back then, and it was exactly the same, just a few more trees. For those of you who know locks, it was an easy one, with only a few feet change in depth between entrance and exit – but as usual, it takes some nifty footwork to cast off the last warp from shore and doing a running leap back on to the boat now moving away from the side of the canal – and you!
Wow! We tied up to St. Peter’s Marina, and a deluge of socialising hit us like a
bucket of cold water! The marina was full, and got fuller – and as each boat is only
two -
However, the marina (run by the local Lion’s Club) has all the mod cons; hot showers,
laundry facilities – and wifi! Great to Skype everyone again, catch up on happenings
all over the world family-
So, we’ve caught up with the necessities, re-
Monday 7th August 2006
Knew we’d got too far north when Santa himself stepped off the red boat next to us
on the dock! Big white beard, red t-
Solomon Gundy is the find of the decade. Little glass jars packed to the brim with
the most mouth-
But I digress. After going through St. Peter’s lock, we spent a week in the Bras
D’or Lakes, doing the ‘gunk-
Bras D’or was lovely – no fog, warm, flat water – somewhat fluky winds, sometimes
absolutely nothing, next minute 25 knots! It was interesting to see the different
community of boaters here – this was 99% local Nova Scotians down for their 2-
However, by the end of the week both John and I felt we’d spent too long here now;
it was getting boring! There’s something about an enclosed lake, even one with enticing
anchorages and what everyone here calls ‘gunk-
So, after exploring Dundee, Little Harbour (fantastic smoked salmon available from
The Smokehouse!), Maskells and Baddeck, we decided to turn round and head south.
Newfoundland is going to have to wait till next year – there’s a lot we that we missed
along the Nova Scotia coast, and we’d like to spend some extensive time in the Chesapeake
before making the jump south. At this point in time we’re thinking of doing this
by going from Hampton straight to Tortola – an ocean trip of maybe 9-
We’re now in Halifax, having roared in to the Royal Nova Scotia Yacht Squadron under
sail in a cracking wind yesterday. Very nice marina, lots of history – Prince Phillip
is the current patron, and they were given the royal warrant back in 1861, so members
can fly the blue ensign! All very smart. Talking of ensigns, had a lovely run-
On the way down from Bras D’or Lakes, we’ve stopped in at some of the places we missed
going up – very detailed chart-
Suffice to say that this Nova Scotia coast is a jewel waiting to be discovered by
the international cruising world, and I’m glad we’ve seen it before they mess it
up with coke-
As a bush person, I’ve been disappointed by the lack of wildlife, but we’ve seen
hundreds of seals, dolphins charging past us with some definite agenda to fulfil,
lots of ospreys, bald eagles – and jellyfish the size of dinnerplates by the zillions!
Apparently the unseasonal warm weather has brought them out, and you cannot anchor
anywhere without becoming surrounded by these pulsating purple-
The weather’s been good, we’ve sailed most of the way, in fairly big chunks of 30-
Wednesday 23rd August 2006
Bo Diddley concerts, Chester Race week, street puppets, mussel-
Taking the decision to leave the Bras D’or was the right one for us – we both felt
much easier and more at home once we were back out on the open seas, searching the
chart for a hidey-
But at the same time, it is good to get into civilisation every once in a while,
kick back and enjoy the finer things of life – like dinner out in Halifax, or a Bo
Diddley blues concert. I know, I also thought he was long pushing up daisies, but
no, Bo Diddley I can confirm is still alive and well and playing blues in Halifax!
Well, Dartmouth to be exact, but don’t let’s split hairs. GPJ (digress slightly,
for those who don’t know, GPJ does not stand for either Grand Pasha or Great Passion
– just GrandPa!!) and I mooched along to the Alderney Landing on a hot Friday night,
and in the shade of the ferry terminal and together with several hundred mad bikers
and grizzled Haligonians (note the age group please!), boogied to the sounds of Big
Daddy Bo Diddley! He showed his age when he had to be practically carried off the
stage by two buxom wenches in full-
However, on a more serious note, while in the stately environs of RNSYS, we realised our fluxgate compass was acting up – not just slightly off, but to the tune of between 3 and 90 degrees off! So, after trying to correct it by doing these 360° turns in the middle of the entrance to RNSYS with all supercilious eyes trained on us (Yes, I know he flies a red ensign, but do you really think he knows what he’s doing, Jason?), GPJ decided it needed some professional attention – we ‘cleared out’ of RNSYS and made our way to Dartmouth Yacht Club, up under the two Halifax bridges and into the Bedford Basin.
Now here’s a club of a different sort! Very much a working-
While in Halifax area, we arranged for a wheelchair for my mother in South Africa
– amazing what you can do over the internet these days! She’s 91 this month, and
is becoming increasingly less mobile with arthritis – the wheelchair guys were great,
even putting balloons and a birthday card on it for her. And had some more discussions
and worries over John’s 100 year-
Finally tearing ourselves away from the fleshpots, we trekked out to sea again, and spent the rest of the time exploring Mahone Bay. Loveridge’s Cruising Guide is unfortunately more than 10 years old, so we have found generally that what he describes as a pristine, uninhabited cove might not always be like that any longer! Rogues’ Roost, which was entered by motoring through a tortuous channel of rocks and shallows towards a solid rock wall, which parted at the last minute, to show a narrow entrance, had some 12 boats in it by the end of the evening. Not that it made it cramped, it just wasn’t solitude!
Still, one of the boats gave us a full garbage bag of mussels they just picked, which
we proceeded to steam in white wine for supper, so there’s a pay-
After chatting with Merlin on the morning OCC net (so useful this net – we have had
invaluable assistance about anchorages, depths, weather and all sorts of other info
from folks), we decided to break the trip to Maine into bite-
Next morning we had to wait for Bruce to arrive so we could fill up with diesel,
and sat on the fuel dock meeting some other locals – the rather shifty fisherman
who sat at the other end of the dock and sent a go-
Once again a motoring job, this time around Cape Sable and over the tide rips and overfalls – quite an experience – round to Westhhead and into the harbour there, where we tied up to Maggie B, who was already tied up to a large fishing boat! A very busy fishing harbour, lots of fairly large fishing boats, not the usual little lobster boats that we’d become accustomed to seeing, these were big 50 and 100ft herring seiners. Being a Friday afternoon, I expected it to be quiet, but there was still quite a buzz going on, with boats preparing to leave and loading all sorts of ice and gear aboard.
There is a huge tide around the Cape Sable point, so we’d planned to leave the next
morning at a time to hopefully catch it to our advantage – we were a bit late, and
had 4 knots against us for quite a way. The slightly lumpy sea didn’t help the fact
that we’d definitely had far too much wine with Maggie B Mike over dinner – we both
had a slight green tinge most of the day! But we had a cracking sail! Shook the moths
out of the sails almost as we set out Saturday morning, and sailed in a constant
18-
Rockland is civilization again: huge anchorage with umpteen boats either moored or
at anchor, ferries and tugs bustling back and forth, town with all amenities close
by – and OCC Port officer Peter McCrea and wife Peggy on hand to provide any help
needed. Peter is a woodworker of note, and had John drooling over his workshop. Peggy’s
a water-
And on the other end, we met up with Jeff and Peggy off Moonstruck, new to the cruising scene, to whom we are the “experts” – well, John anyway, I just tag along and allow some of the reflected glory to brush off on me! All kinds of people are out there on the water, and it is such a privilege to be meeting them. What a wonderful life.
John has decided he needs exercise, so he’s off to climb Mt. Battie – I’ve decided
it’s far more important to sit on my butt doing computer work! He’s done some spade-
I have a new project to start editing, and GPJ’s been busy unfolding, folding and refolding charts, pencil between teeth, determining the next week’s strategy. All’s well on Al Shaheen!
Saturday 2nd September
Time zones and hemisphereal seasons – take some getting used to trying to decide whether it’s too early to call Vancouver or too late to call Perth!! The 1st was Spring Day in South Africa, it’s autumnal in the UK and decidedly chillier here in Massachusets.
We waited in Scituate Harbour, just south of Boston (pronounced I’m told authoritatively
Situite), for Hurricane Ernesto to become Tropical Storm status and blow out before
we took off through the Cape Cod Canal and into Long Island Sound. With great pre-
I spent a day in the Pomerantz’s house on the edge of the marshes -
We met Dave Pomerantz in Shelburne, our first port of call in Nova Scotia, when he very kindly lent us his Loveridge’s cruising guide to the area –without it we’d have had far less success dodging rocks in anchorage entrances.
So what have we done these past few days? I seem to have spent hours on the internet in Rockland Harbour Master’s office – I phoned my mother to wish her for her 91st birthday, and discovered she had been given 2 months notice from her little rented cottage in the retirement village as they plan to knock it down and build several new condos there instead! Have you ever tried to source accommodation for a 91 year old lady on one continent while sailing on a boat on another?? It’s not fun. Anyway, I have called in favours from all the family, and everyone is scrambling to sort things out.
From Rockland we moved to Portsmouth, and spent our first wedding anniversary having dinner with Greg & Debbie off Undine (PYC Commodore) and Gareth & Annie off Merlin – fellow Brits we’d been chasing all down the Nova Scotian coast. Greg produced a swordfish of note – not sure whether he caught it or bought it, but it was delicious!
Portsmouth is a very rolly anchorage – well, we moored actually, just off the point, but with the tide ripping through regularly and the lobster boats up and down all hours of the day and night, I seemed to sleep with one foot on the floor in case I rolled out of bed! But they do have a wonderful lobster place – you choose your lobster, they cook it and present it to you in a foil bag – we ate it in the PYC clubhouse in solitary splendour!
Might have been pure coincidence, but just about now our fridge gave up the ghost. “No problem,” John said, “it can only be one of three things, and I have spares for the xxx and the xxx.” Of course, it was the thermometer and no spare! Couple of internet calls later, Greg and John had found a replacement, and one more package was added to the list of spare parts to be dispatched to the Pomerantz household, our next mail drop.
The next day we had a long run to Gloucestor, a miserable drizzly day, horrible lumpy sea, but an incredible sail which kept the man of the home very happy. I crashed out below, and pretended I was not around. We pulled in just behind the breakwater, and anchored there for another rolly night. What is it with these lobster boats?? I was surprised at the number of yachts inside the breakwater – it seems a long time ago that we came through on the way up the coast, but I certainly didn’t remember that many.
But then we hit Marblehead! Gareth had told us there were some 2,000 moorings there, and we’d both laughed politely at the exaggeration. The laugh was on him – according to the Harbour Master, there are more than 2100 moorings in the narrow strip that makes up the harbour! Talk about a sea of masts! Not that there are lots available for visiting yachts, however. This is serious ‘home turf’ stuff here – I saw at least five yacht clubs (including the likes of the Corinithians) but we had to wait for some fifteen minutes while the Boston Yacht Club checked to see if there was something available for us. I think they were probably running a who’s who in the zoo check first – it was probably our Red Duster and the white ensign of the Tot Club that finally got us in – I don’t think they saw the defacing!
And everything’s done by the book here – at sunset it was like World War II as all
the various yacht club cannons went off and everyone snapped to attention to salute
the colours coming down – and lo and behold, at 8am the next morning it was the same.
Not that I saw the snap to salute from my bunk then, but John did jump up from the
early morning OCC radio net to put our ensign out!! Marblehead is a very quaint town
though: we were there for the Wednesday afternoon races and the hamburger cook-
From Marblehead to Scituite, then after the storm had passed and the seas died down,
we had a wonderful sail across the bay into Cape Cod Canal and down into Pocasset,
home of Stan & Julie Morton. We visited them last year on our way through, and it
is wonderful to be back meeting up with them again. Stan’s call-
And Alun & Margaret Thomas, old friends of John’s from Saudi Arabia, are also visiting, so the conversation is both fast and rich! Life is so good when there are people like this around. Once again, Al Shaheen is moored at the bottom of the garden – what a priviledge. And John has decided to get some exercise, so is out in Stan’s little rowboat – I have the ibuprofen/advil ready for his return!
We are still looking for a third crew member to travel with us USA to BVI, and also still trying to source new accommodation for my mother back in South Africa.
Life is never dull in the Franklin / Crickmore-
Sunday 10th September 2006
Short and sweet this week, as both John and I are feeling somewhat bedraggled. We’re
in New England Boatworks, Portsmouth Rhode Island waiting to be hauled out for damage
assessment and some serious repairs, after hitting the rocks -
John, Stan and Alun planned to take Al Shaheen from Pocasset to Nantucket, 40 something miles, through the narrow channel of Woods Hole, while the ladies did it the easy way by fast ferry from Hyannis. Stan has vacationed and lived in the area almost all his life, and is a very competent and experienced sailor, and very knowledgeable about these waters.
Woods Hole is known as a bad spot, but with lots of good advice and local knowledge from local salts, the men were well prepared. All the waypoints in, the tide and current tables studied, Stan was piloting with the chart in the cockpit, John at the helm and Alun enjoying the sun on the cabin roof when they came down the channel. The tide was with them, and was strong – they were doing about 9 knots over the ground, which in Al Shaheen is moving! The final leg is a Y shape, and they needed to take the right fork, and that’s where things went suddenly and quickly wrong.
Wrongly identifying the buoy, Al Shaheen left the channel just before the Y, and screamed from 17 feet to 3 feet under the keel in the space of seconds. She hit the rocks, bounced off, hit again, spun 360 degrees and hit again before the tide pushed her past the rocks and back out into the channel again. Alun flew off the cabin roof and hit the guard rails – thank God he didn’t go through them, as he doesn’t swim and there was no way they could have turned the boat to pick him up against the tide at that point!
Once he’d ascertained no-
She’s aluminium, and built like a tank, thanks to John’s insistence. So the next
day we left to motor across to Newport, Rhode Island, a two-
So here we are, waiting for surveyors etc. Bill the bilge pump is working like a champion – pumping out every 3 minutes or so. John’s estimated (lots of figures and calculations here!) that we’re taking on an average of 60 litres an hour – that’s a lot of water! Trust Bill continues, otherwise I’ll be developing a strong right arm on the manual pump!
Other than that dramatic news, we had an absolutely fantastic time in Pocasset with
Stan and Julie, and Alun and Margaret. Far too much really good food, a bed that
was so big I kept looking for John, and the best of all luxuries – a bath! And they
re-
Monday 18th September 2006
Interesting. Here I was, sitting working in the cockpit of Al Shaheen, high and dry
some 30 feet above the ground, between dozens of Farr 40s, Hinkleys, sleek mean-
Our actual repair work still hasn’t started yet, but all the paperwork has been done
– surveyor’s reports in, work estimates in, just the final insurance go-
Stan has been fantastic – lent us his car, been in to see us several times to check that all’s ok, gone more than the proverbial mile to make things as painless as possible. It’s wonderful to have such good friends.
And there’s always a silver lining. We spent Thursday at the Newport Boat Show –
mainly buying a new chart plotter – bit like bolting the door after the horse’s bolted
I know, but we had been talking about it for ages! So installing that has been added
to John’s already long list of maintenance jobs to be done while we’re out. I’m quite
happy to lounge around with a good book, but not this man! We finally decided on
a Raymarine C80 and will use it as a stand-
We also bumped into George & Nancy Marvin at the boat show – witnesses for our wedding in SW Harbor all those months back – great to see them again. Had a most entertaining dinner with them and 2 other OCC folks; well, Jeff Wisch is existing OCC, Suzie Homer is just being inveigled into joining. One of Suzie’s claims to fame is that she’s one of the original women allowed to join the CCA – she stormed those bastions and knocked them flat!
We heard the story of the boat sunk in the entrance to Nantucket (see left) – solo Brit who was forced onto the rocks by tide and wind (in the fog), threw out an anchor, and caught his leg in the anchor chain. Had to have his leg amputated, and the boat’s still submerged waiting for the insurers and salvagers to stop arguing. Stories like that make me realise anew how fortunate we were!
And the good news is that we have found another apartment for my mother, in the same village she was in, so no stress of moving. Met Barry this morning – he’s a guitar player and artist who lost his home and studio in New Orleans in the floods – was not insured – so is up here buying an old boat which he will sail back down the coast. Says when the floods come again, he wants a house that can float!!! That’s the sort of attitude I admire.
We took off for the weekend, as no work was going to be done at the yard – in fact, I think they’d all left by 3pm on Friday to go to the Boat Show! So we went off to the Herreshof Museum in Bristol, then over to Mystic Seaport for the day. If you’re ever in the area, make sure you hit both of these – they are both well worth going the extra mile to visit. And you can anchor off both, which makes them even more attractive.
The Herreshof Museum tells the story of two brothers, John blind from age 15, and
Nat, who created an incredible business out of designing and building yachts – including
6 entrants for the America’s Cup! Nat, the younger, was the designer, and everything
started from the half-
And Mystic Seaport is a living museum, with working shipwrights and blacksmiths and
restorers of old vessels, as well as two active Tall Ships – fascinating stuff! Suffering
from lack of exercise, John threw himself heart and soul into ‘manning the capstan’
and ‘heave ho-
We trust all the repairs will be completed this week – depending on weather etc! And hope to be on the water and off again by next week. That’s the plan – but as you know, plans can change!
Monday 25th September 2006
It’s been an interesting week! Promises of ‘we’re starting work Monday’ became ‘we’re starting work Tuesday’, and by the time Wednesday arrived we were both pretty fed up with sitting around waiting. “Still,” I kept saying to John, “they probably have to call the experts off another job, and better to wait for specialists than let any old bozo do the job.”
Surprise, surprise! Wednesday morning two brawny Portuguese guys arrived, one with
a blow-
Still, the brawn stuff worked, and by Thursday morning by dint of much heating and much beating, we had a straight keel again. Then Mannie, the younger of the two, brought in the big tanks, and spent the next two days building up the keel again, little bead of aluminium weld by little bead. Quite fascinating to watch! Alternatively grinding and building, grinding and building, he recreated our smooth keel, then left the job to the fillers and fairers to put on the ‘cosmetic touches’. This should be finished today – 4 layers of primer, and then the bottom paint will go on tomorrow and as far as all that is concerned, we’re ready to launch.
In the meantime, John has cut an ‘inspection hole’ in the cabin floor near the heads (where the water came up into the boat) to check why it came in. There definitely is a small hole there. The thought is that it is an incomplete weld, so this needs to be sealed before going back in the water again – just in case we hit something again!! No way it can be welded, however, without taking the whole boat apart, so it needs to be an epoxy job somehow. As you can see it only by lying flat on your stomach and peering down into the bilge with a ‘mirror on a stick’, not quite sure how easy this is going to be.
The week was spent on boat jobs – John fitted the new chart plotter, which involved
much taking down of cabin headlining and rewiring and climbing into cockpit lockers
– and much **!!@!x!** language, and we have been practising and playing with this
before we get into ‘real time’ on the water. He’s put in a separate GPS antenna for
this, so it will act as a stand-
By Saturday we decided we needed a break from the yard, so took off for Martha’s Vineyard. As John says:
“We took the Fast Ferry from New Bedford, Mass. through Wood's Hole Passage to Martha's
Vineyard. It was a pretty foul day, rain, murk and 20 knots of wind. Yet this thing
did 35 knots, and didn't even slow down going through the rather tortuous passage!
It was weird to be re-
(The pic in John’s story of the accident shows the green buoy inadvertently left to port instead of starboard!)
Once we got there, we took a narrated bus tour as it was too miserable to walk around.
Drove past the front of Peter Norton’s house (of Norton anti-
Oak Bluffs, one of the three main towns, was an old Methodist Campground meeting place: for years the Methodists came out every summer and put up their tents for a week or two, to worship and pray.
Slowly the tents gave way to more permanent places, and there is now an absolutely
delightful village of small gingerbread-
Other than that, life ticks on merrily. Would be nice to be back on the water though!
Saturday 7th October 2006
Back in the water! We were re-
Once we stopped running down below every 10 minutes or so to convince ourselves the water was NOT bubbling up into the cabin again, it was bliss to have Al Shaheen back in her natural environment. No more climbing down 20ft ladders at 4am to go for a pee for us! And she took to the challenge like the proverbial duck to water – in her element: you could see her flicking her tail in joy as she danced through the waves!
The trip was interesting as always: good shake-
Then through New York, no problems going down the East River, overnight down the New Jersey coast playing with our new chart plotter, to anchor for a few hours just inside the breakwater at Cape Henlopen at the entrance to Delaware Bay. We’re obviously just getting used to this new piece of equipment, and it led to some serious tension! You probably know the scenario well – course all plotted out on the chart, little ship image now just needs to follow along the dotted line. Conversation coming in to Cape Henlopen (very shallow!!) went something like this:
John: “How are we looking?”
Me: “Ok, but we need to be further over to port, we’ve gone off the line.”
J: “Ok.”
Boat moves a few measly inches to port. John’s used to following his nose and his instinct.
M: “Go to port, sweetheart.”
Few minutes pass, no apparent action.
M: “Go to port, the plotter shows shallow water near the breakwater. I don’t think we should anchor here.”
J: “We’ll just go around the breakwater and see.”
As we round the breakwater, depth alarms scream.
J: “Ok, where did you say we must go?”
M: “To port, sweetheart! Like the dotted blue line says.”
Still, the chart plotter is wonderful – I can’t imagine how we ever managed to sail without one before!!
The trip up the Delaware River was not a pleasant one – we left at 10pm to catch the tide, and it was a perfectly horrid night. Lumpy sea, miserable weather, drizzling on and off, and lots of commercial traffic up the channel. I find it very disconcerting to have this huge body of water, but to be able to sail only along a very narrow channel along it because of the shallows on either side! And at night these big commercial vessels look frighteningly large when they power up behind you – how close can they come??
Anyway, we got to the C&D Canal without any mishap just after first light, and eased
along this until we reached Summit North Marina – pulled into a slip and crashed
for the first good sleep since leaving Fisher’s Island 4 days prior. The next day
we part motored, part sailed as far as the Chester River in the Chesapeake, dropping
the hook early just inside the mouth for a well-
By Tuesday we had reached the South River, and meandered down this to find Crab Creek, home of Wolfgang Rueter of Ru’ah fame. Wolfgang is one of these special hosts – his heart and his home have expandable walls, and nothing is too much trouble for him!
At the moment there are 4 OCC boats rafted up together at his dock, with another
2 in slips next to it, and a further 2 (including ourselves) anchored out! His home
has a constant procession of bodies wandering through to do laundry, use his well-
The reason for getting here was to go to the OCC dinner in Mears Creek on Wednesday
– and what a blast it was! Well organised, excellent food, fabulous company, some
very very interesting people. I find myself in open-
Pot luck at Wolfgang’s the other night hosted Gareth & Annie (Merlin), George & Nancy
(Trumpeter), Gus & Helen (Wings), Mike & Kate (Cutting Edge), Andrew & Denja (Niketti),
Mary & Pete (Noellia), as well as ourselves, Wolfgang & Gemma (Ru’ah), and several
other bodies as land-
Unfortunately the weather has turned foul, heavy winds and lots of rain, all of which
put a real dampener on the CCA Rally. And as always happens, the drama always takes
place in the foulest weather! Comfortably ensconced reading below, John looked out
to see Cutting Edge almost on top of us – she’d dragged her anchor badly, and was
now on the verge of collision with us. I grabbed their stern rail to push her off
(with Dunno their black Labrador licking my hand in joyful hello!) while John got
our engine started (we’d also dragged, but not as badly). We called Wolfgang (Mike
& Kate were at the Boat Show), and the next few hours were spent in re-
Most people (ourselves included) opted not to sail to the CCA rally Friday or Saturday,
but to simply drive across the Chesapeake River to join in the parties at the end
– can’t miss a good party, can you! The CCA group are somewhat different to the OCC
crowd, but as full of characters. Like John Hawkinson, who marked out his trees some
30 years ago, cut them down 10 years ago, air-
The plan from here is to join the OCC Rally in the Piankatank next week, and after that make our way to Norfolk and the beginning of the ICW towards Beaufort. Jeff Hardesty has agreed to join us on the trip across to the Virgin Islands at the end of the month, and we’re very pleased about that.
Update: Monday 9th October 2006
We are now anchored in the Little Choptank River in the Chesapeake -
Wednesday 18th October 2006
Life is getting complicated these days! By mistake I left a top in Halifax, and Zak has tried to post it on to me – only to be told he needs a ‘certificate of drycleaning’ before it can go through the US mail system!!! What?
We’ve spent the last 10 days or so in the Chesapeake, and loved it, despite the shallowness
of the water here. Or maybe it's just that we're extra-
And there's an ongoing war between the sailors, the fishermen and the motor-
And am learning to watch my tongue -
The OCC has shown its party-
It’s been a great time to really get to know some of the folks though – one of the hard things I find about this cruising life is the fact that you meet and part so quickly – usually just as you’re starting to get really interested in the other people’s lives. Of course, it also works the other way – sometimes you’re only too delighted to say goodbye quickly – and trust you never meet up again! And it is very very good to come into some place, and see a familiar face, or hear a “Hello Al Shaheen!” across the water.
So we’re back in Norfolk again – last year when we were here, Lorrigray was anchored off Hospital Point, and John and Graham had a good old time gawking at the buxom wenches displaying the wares in Hooters Bar. This time we have Merlin, Trumpeter, Anju and William Barron for company, and the party has been far more sedate! Greta and Gary are wonderful hosts for a boating crowd, and the dockside here across from NOAA is a busy place with all of us rushing around replenishing stores (both food and spare parts).
Gary also acts as unofficial post office, and we have been able to receive several parcels here, including a new parachute sea anchor – for if we God forbid hit any really bad weather en route to the Caribbean. It all looks very dramatic – a neat little bag affair which gets turfed over the bow of the boat in a storm to billow out and fill like a parachute – the object is to keep the boat headed up to wind and moving very slowly, instead of screaming about the ocean at the mercy of the wind and waves. Hope we never have to use it, but it’s like a liferaft, nice to know you have it if you need it.
So, we’re off again today, to handle the myriad of locks, bridges and shallow channels of the ICW – the chart plotter SHOULD enable us to stay out of the mud this time! And of course, it just has to be foggy today!
THE CROSSING FROM BEAUFORT TO BVI
Wednesday 1st November 2006
Jenny, Jeff (our 3rd crew member) and I left Beaufort NC for the Virgin Islands Tuesday
noon and did about 145 miles by noon today. The weather gurus told us we'd have 10-
Friday 3rd November 2006
Well golly gee whiz, who conned me into thinking this was a lark??? I lost my dinner in the cockpit crossing the Gulf Stream first night out, and haven't recovered since! The seas are horrific, waves twice the size of the boat, one side of the boat under the water most of the time as we're heeled over so far, while the waves break over the other side and dump gallons of wet water right down your neck!
Had 'some bad weather' (guru term for ohmigod weather) yesterday that forced us to
heave to (first time ever for Al Shaheen) where she is officially stopped in the
water while the storm rages all around -
Currently at 32'30N and 070'43W, about 250 miles west of Bermuda. Hopefully nowhere
near the triangle. All things actually going well, if very uncomfortable. Jeff has
been an absolute star -
Saturday 4th November 2006
Survived another night, hove to again waiting for storm to pass. Horrid huge lumpy seas, gale force winds outside, boat heaving like my stomach. Wanna go home!! Had a cracking day's sailing yesterday all the same, did 118 miles from last email. ETA BVI Weds next week at the earliest. Oi vey. Jenny
Sunday 5th November 2006
Well, well -
I have to say though that yesterday was the worst day ever, nerve-
However, by today the pattern's changed, we're way past the dreaded Bermuda Triangle
(we made it Mom!), and I suddenly feel on top of the world. Breakfast bacon and eggs
were devoured by all, and we're making very good progress. I've decided the sailors
of yore were called 'old salts' not because they sailed the salty seas, but because
after months of being at sea they must have been absolutely encrusted -
We've made several adaptations to the interior -
Jeff is an absolute Godsend -
Tuesday 7th November 2006
Life on the ocean wave is a washing machine thing -
From the beaming email gleefully sent previously, things degenerated once again:
this frontal low pressure has stalled and is not going anywhere, which means we have
been sailing along it, in it, supposedly through it, then back in it again for days
now -
So winds regularly in the late 20s, gusting up to 35s regularly, (which I have learnt
is gale force on the Beaufort Scale of measurement!) we have sailed almost the entire
trip with 3 reefs in the mainsail (minimum sail area) and our until now previously
unused storm sail, and we're still screaming along at 7-
Never did get the auto-
Perseverance paid off, and we spent most of yesterday and the whole of last night
on the windvane -
Wednesday 8th November 2006
Finally, finally broke through the low pressure system late last night and woke this
morning to calmer more manageable seas and lighter winds. And we now have less than
200 miles to go. Am I pleased or what?? Of course, nothing is ever quite that simple
however. It appears the winds are going to fall off completely later in the day,
and we have not managed to get as far east as we needed to, so we will land up having
to motor the last 100 miles or so. This means we will have to hand steer for perhaps
a day or so -
Still, it could all be a lot lot worse. We monitored a panpan call yesterday from
a boat who'd just had an electrical fire on board and lost ALL their instruments,
were taking on water, and are on the edge of a 2-
The SSB radio has been an absolute blessing -
Thursday 9th November 2006
It's 7pm Thursday, dinner of pork tenderloin & rum prunes (bottle left in locker,
courtesy of Sheena!) over, Jeff's washing dishes, I've showered (yay!!), Cap'n John's
on watch -
Friday 10th November 2006
Have just finished a 40 minute shower, a huge bacon & egg breakfast, cleared in to
customs etc, and while the guys are cleaning up the boat I'm sitting on solid land,
typing this. Have to sit, or else take seasick tablets to cope with the lack-
All went well the last few miles, we managed to sail most of the way, the piece of
string held up, and we only had to hand-
My vivid imagination took over as a sudden squall hit and the heavens opened, and
I freaked! Kicked the motor back so we almost stopped dead in the water, and yelled
for the two sleeping guys. "Get up here now -
John and Jeff are already talking about the return trip to Nova Scotia -
Monday 10th December 2006
Is it Charlotte Amalie or the buying of rings that is the problem?? Feb 2005 John proposed to me here in the anchorage – and the next day we rushed out to the shops to buy an engagement ring. Two days later I was back on the plane to South Africa for an emergency. Now, November 2006, we anchor in the bay again, and John suggests it’s time to finally buy a wedding ring – which we do. Two days later he’s on the plane back to UK for an emergency! So what’s the moral of the story – don’t anchor in C.Amalie or don’t buy any more rings? This is a country of contradictions, to say the least!
Sitting in the internet café the other day, I was somewhat taken aback to see the large policeman across from me – in uniform, nametag on his chest, butt overflowing the stool, intently flipping from port site to porn site! In the line of duty???
In direct contrast, I went over to Honeymoon Bay for hamburgers on the beach the other night. As the sun set, a sheet was tied between two palm trees, popcorn was passed out, and we settled down to watch Santa Clause 2 under the stars. An occasional squall chased us under the trees, but as soon as it was over, we were back in our seats again!
So, I’m sitting ‘home alone’ on Al Shaheen in Crown Bay Marina while John has rushed home to see to his aunt Va (almost 101 years old).
Life is a bit different when you’re a woman alone on a boat – the admiring glances
thrown at the boat suddenly take on another meaning, and the casual smiles you throw
around need to be definitely casual! But I’ve made fast friends with Lindi at Tickles
Pub at the end of the dock – and as soon as she sees some guy coming on too much
is quick to interrupt with “Hey, have a cold one, her husband’s coming back soon!”
Sort of mom-
The pub is made up of a lot of the usual group of boaties – some aging derelicts, some local workers, some visiting yachties, some young crew waiting to pick up some/any type of work. But the vibe is good, it’s a family sort of feel: all the waitresses smile a warm welcome and my virgin pina colada hits the counter before I’ve even sat down. Saints only know what would happen if I changed the order to a real pina colada.
Tickles has live music – well, it’s live anyway! Open mic night is an education – why do so many people think they can sing/play?? And on Saturday we had The Two Pop Tarts performing. Despite being dressed to fit the part, they were nice enough to be anyone’s granny, and the Pop part was more country & western without Dolly Parton! Tomorrow is the Anna Cheek Band – wonder what delights that will bring us?
Right now sitting working in the pub (cooler than the boat): on one side is a group
of civil servants having a working lunch discussing how necessary it is to get more
cruise ships in – 7 a day is not enough?? At the same time bewailing the fact that
crime is on the increase – something to do with the porn-
Stan, solo sailor who’s a retired hypnotherapist is waiting for a weather window to go across to Puerto Rico to meet a friend. We’ve spent some entertaining hours discussing the big issues of life – I think the first conversation covered religion, death, baseball, sex and Bush – what else is there to talk about now?
And we’ve done the tourist thing together – been to Bottoms Up pub in Independent
Boatyard (now there’s material for a people-
What can I say, people-
Tuesday 11th December 2006
It's the morning of the 11th, and John is back -
Va's emergency seems to be in hand, with Emma picking up a lot of the slack -
Needless to say, he's delighted to be back -
Friday 5th January 2007
Another year to get through in Paradise – not sure how we’re going to do it! Still, I suppose someone has to take on the job, and it might as well be us.
John’s aunt Va is recovering well after the unexpected upset. In fact, she’s already
making loud noises that the care-
Once John got back from his unexpected UK trip, we moved down island, taking a bit of a hammering first day out in short steep seas. The plan had been to make Antigua in one overnight passage, but after 20 hours we both looked at each other and said “this isn’t fun anymore!” So bailed out and crouched behind St. Kitts for a day to recover and wait for the seas to go down a bit.
Then sailed to Monserrat – first time I’ve ever sat directly below a volcano! Lots of steam and hisses from the active volcano, and the decks were covered with fine ash the next morning, but there was more excitement in the Miss Teen Monserrat pageant booming out across the anchorage – first prize was a weekend in Antigua, second prize I guess must have been two weekends!! And finally on into English Harbour, Antigua – oh dear, someone else has anchored in “John’s spot” opposite Catherine’s Café. Oh well, the water’s nicer for swimming in Freeman’s Bay, so that’s where we’ll be.
Not the most beautiful of islands, the British island of Antigua more than makes
up for this lack in its ex-
The Christmas/New Year period especially is one continuous saga that leaves your
liver damaged and your stomach distended – not to mention the fact that your hips
have increased! I mean, take Christmas itself: started with a hefty tot of rum with
the Royal Naval Tot Club of Antigua & Barbuda (always a bad start to any evening!!)
then a rip-
We did a lot of catching up in Antigua, meeting up with old sailing friends that we hadn’t seen for a couple of years – wonderful. Kate & Mike on Cutting Edge arrived battered from their trip from Beaufort to St. Martin – a month later than us, and they had had a really bad trip with lots of damage. Including Penny, their most magnificent Mainecoon cat, whose dignity and feelings were decidedly upset by being solidly doused by waves into the cabin! And it was great to spend time with John & Christine off Oriole with son Robert and girlfriend Dani – who very appropriately announced their engagement to us on 1st Jan! All in all, there were 9 OCC boats in Antigua during this period, and we all did our bit to keep the OCC flag flying high throughout all the festive activities.
And of course, don’t forget the Tot Club! Scene of many a serious gulp of rum (oi
vey, why people drink Pussers from preference is beyond me!). And we joined Mike
Rose on a “Rhum Run” – a trip out to visit Bushy at his post office. Bushy, a mid-
We sampled it – when you arrive, he plonks an open bottle on the counter and you don’t leave until it’s empty – and bought a gallon. We now have several bottles of unmarked dark liquid floating around in our bilges!!
Friend Carol Martin arrived from Cape Town on 29th and is with us until we haul out on 9th Jan for a short hop back to UK to meet Dan, John’s son from Australia. So it’s Green Island (pounding introductory sail for here), then down to Guadalope (another wet, spanking sail). Was supposed to be a couple of days, but the weather’s turned a bit nasty so we might be here longer than expected! Still, there are worse places to be, and the pain chocolat with café au lait each morning is worth the change in plans!
Eastern Caribbean