On Saturday, 10th February 2024, after we woke to our first beautiful Caribbean morning as we’d experienced in a past life; sunny skies, dotted with puffy white clouds, and a light breeze out of the northeast, we weighed anchor and set a course for St Lucia.
By the time we anchored in Rodney Bay after enjoying a fabulous sail back to St Lucia from Martinique, we’d fallen in love with our sailing lifestyle all over again and we were back in the groove!
Once we were satisfied that the anchor was secure, we dinghied ashore to complete the officialdom processes. Being a Saturday we’d expected to pay overtime, but not quite as much as we were charged. Regardless, we were content to be in a far more protected and comfortable anchorage, having bounced around in St Anne’s for two weeks.
A coffee at Café Ole followed. This was an establishment we decided to try once more after the unpleasant experience we’d had when we first arrived back in St Lucia in December with the ARC 2023 rally, but decided to take the recommendation from Pete and Jeremy, off Chiron, when we unexpectedly bumped into them in St Anne’s. To our surprise, we discovered our first experience had indeed been an exception. We’d no sooner got back to Paw Paw, though, when the heavens opened again.
With the torrential rain continuing unabated all night, we nonetheless, continued with our evening plans; a barbecue while blaring out our favourite tunes; nothing was going to dampen our spirits! We were certainly back in the swing of things. We were also definitely grateful for the freshwater rinse Paw Paw got from all the rain.
The 10th February 2024 also kicked off the Lunar New Year with the Year of the Dragon, the fifth of the 12-year cycle of animals that appear in the Chinese zodiac, based on ancient Chinese mythology. This holiday is also known as the Chinese New Year or Spring Festival and is filled with rich culture and tradition, centring around the hope for good fortune and prosperity in the coming year. It reaches its peak with the annual Lantern Festival. Each year, the exact date differs as it's based on the cycle of the moon, although it usually falls between the 20th January and 21st February on the Gregorian calendar.
Fireworks, music, fairs, lanterns, dragon and lion dancing fill streets across Asia and SE Asia as locals begin their celebrations. For us, the Lunar New Year in January 2020 will remain a highlight of our circumnavigation as we celebrated it in Penang, Malaysia. Sadly a few short weeks later the world was in lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a time in our lives, like most people, won’t easily be forgotten, especially since we still see destinations barely recovered from the devastation it caused.
Sadly, though, It seems the world learnt nothing from the experience; succinctly summarised by the statements of the UN (United Nations) Chief, Antonio Guterres, when he recently remarked to the General Assembly that the world has entered "an age of chaos" and indicated that the UN was more dysfunctional than during the Cold War.
He went on to say: "For millions of people caught up in conflict around the world, life is a deadly, daily, hungry hell” and that we’re seeing the results of chaos in "a dangerous and unpredictable free-for-all, with total impunity". Additionally, statements included: "After decades of nuclear disarmament, states are competing to make their nuclear arsenals faster, stealthier and more accurate. New potential domains of conflict and weapons of war are being developed without guardrails, creating new ways to kill each other – and for humanity to annihilate itself.” He indicated that the UN Security Council, the primary platform for brokering global peace, was "deadlocked by geopolitical fissures" and, although this was not the first time the council was divided, it was the worst; "today's dysfunction is deeper and more dangerous.”
He said the UN was founded on peace, but, around the globe and across the range of issues, "peace is the missing piece”, going in to say: “There is so much anger and hate and noise in our world today. Every day and at every turn, it seems it’s war; terrible conflicts that are killing and maiming civilians in record numbers; wars of words, turf wars, culture wars” and “so many peddling the perverse math that says you multiply support by dividing people," adding that this was especially troubling in a year when "half of humanity will go to the polls".
On a separate subject, he called on member states to "make peace with the planet," by reducing emissions and phasing out fossil fuels, adding that "humanity has waged a war we can only lose: our war with nature; it is a crazy fight to pick.”
Case in point as it pertains to cultural wars; young people in Cambodia were urged to avoid "losing dignity" on Valentine's Day, a day people with more traditional, socially conservative beliefs view as a foreign celebration that threatens the country's Buddhist culture, adding that the occasion was "not the tradition of our Khmer nationality" and to use the day "in line with the beautiful Khmer tradition for the sake of one’s honour and dignity".
Cambodia is not the only country where the 14th February has caused controversy in the past. From 2008 to 2019, religious police in Saudi Arabia banned the sale of Valentine's gifts, including red roses, as authorities considered the celebration un-islamic. In India and Pakistan, religious groups also protested in past years against Valentine's Day celebrations, saying they are an insult to hinduism and islam.
Wouldn’t it be nice, just for a change, if the world designated Valentine’s Day to be a day of universal peace and love as apposed to nations bickering amongst themselves about a day celebrating love. Preconceived ideas and fixed paradigms must truly be humanities greatest enemy!
More worrying, though, are the statistics on recent defence spending and policies. A record 18 member countries of NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organisation) are set to meet the defence alliance's target of spending 2% of their economic output on defence this year. Additionally, German Chancellor, Olaf Scholz, declared recently that his country would have the "highest defence budget" in Europe and would maintain the 2% target "in the decades to come... for safety and reliability". Germany's projected spending is set to climb to the equivalent of $73.41bn according to German press agency DPA and the number of countries expected to allocate 2% of economic output on defence this year was "another record number and a six-fold increase from 2014 when only 3 allies met the target", adding that overall, European nations and Canada will have spent an extra $600bn on defence since the 2% target was set 10 years ago. Estonia has already said its defence budget will surpass 3% of its economic output this year, and that 0.25% of GDP will be provided in military aid to Ukraine.
Most alarming is that, according to NATO figures, in 2023, the US and countries bordering Russia, such as Poland, spent the highest proportion of their national incomes on defence.
On all counts, we have to agree with the statements of the UN (United Nations) Chief, Antonio Guterres, and, while some might prefer to be ostriches, these matters are, in fact, impacting us more than we originally realised.
We definitely did not expect to struggle to sell Paw Paw and definitely did not prepare ourselves for the possibility, but, after reading these statements and statistics, coupled with the recent announcement of which countries are indeed in recession, the continuation of the high interest rates, with certain countries even considering further rate rises and others indicating that cuts won’t be occurring anytime soon, it’s little wonder!
It has become abundantly clear to us, after having Paw Paw advertised through a yacht broker for a month and not having one single viewing or a smidgen of interest, selling her is probably not going to happen anytime soon! A chat with the broker cemented our thinking that people are looking at the state of the world in general and deciding to keep their status quo versus rushing out to spend money on a luxury item, like a yacht. That said, though, it could just as easily go the other way if people decide “to hell with this malarkey, we’re buying a yacht and going sailing!”
Regardless, what does all this mean for us?
Having complete our comparisons of various yacht insurers and resolved the associated yacht insurance logistics, as well as resolved the medical care logistics for Elaine, to some degree, we’ve made the only decision we can make; settle back into our sailing lifestyle and take the opportunity to visit pastures new. In other words, we’re not going to sit around anymore waiting on a sale! Life goes on as we prepare for our imminent departure from St Lucia.
To this end, we’ve spent some of our time and effort on chores, errands and yacht maintenance, the latter including a replacement of the watermaker membrane, re-gassing the fridge and freezer and cleaning the waterline. Having eventually been able to refill our propane tanks since leaving Türkiye, Roy also reverted our propane system back to its original configuration. In between all this activity he managed to buy Elaine’s favourite chocolates for Valentine’s Day; you’ve got to go a long way to find these in the Caribbean; Lindt and Ferrero Rocher.
A minor inconvenience was discovering that our email facility to post to our website has become obsolete, which is forcing Elaine to now make updates directly; a real pain actually!
Besides continuing with our Irish lessons and being entertained by the goings-on in the anchorage, Elaine also put together a high level itinerary, with input from Roy of course, and which includes a haulout, all of which should keep us occupied for the remainder of this year.
The activities around our contingency planning have continued in the event of Paw Paw not being sold by the time the hurricane season rolls around. This has required contact with numerous yacht insurance companies to obtain quotations, as well as to obtain their stipulated exclusion zones, thereby allowing us to then research possible destinations of where we could spend the hurricane season, but still have insurance coverage for a named storm, since our current insurance, as it stands, presents a number of problems for us.
While prices have varied wildly, so too have the exclusion zone criteria, where most aren’t actually offering any coverage in the Caribbean, although charging a small fortune for the privilege. The end result, however, is that we’re down to a handful of options that don’t necessarily enthral us; one is having to sail up the east coast of the US to get north of 35N, which is completely out of the question for us, as Elaine cannot get medical insurance coverage at all and certainly not for the US; one major incident could bankrupt us! Another is returning to Europe via Bermuda and the Azores; not a favourite option either. The third is sailing to the Bocas del Toro region of Panama to get below 9N. The last option, offered by only one insurance company, but has other terms that are most unfavourable, would allow us to stay below 12N, opening up the possibilities of Grenada as well as the ABC islands of Bonaire, Curaçao and Aruba. Regardless, we could be caught between a rock and a hard place come April this year when the decision has to be made. What is most surprising and quite frankly, baffling, though, is that, since listing Paw Paw with a broker, we haven’t had one viewing or any positive interest, compared to when we were advertising her privately, even after dropping the price with the broker, although she is being advertised on the crème de la crème of websites, which are only assessable via a broker.
On the upside, though, getting these matters sorted out now at least puts the control back in our hands and eliminates any urgency for a sale, plus we have the added bonus of continuing a lifestyle we have both thoroughly loved for a little longer.
We’re not altogether sure we can say we’re enjoying our stay in Martinique, however, primarily because we’ve spent almost two weeks bouncing around in a very uncomfortable anchorage as the winds have consistently blown out of the southeast, when they’re usually northeast and the leeward sides of most Caribbean islands have had the seas churned up by a deep low pressure system that’s been sitting over Florida, the cold front of which was forecast to pass over us on the night of Thursday, 8th February 2024, bringing with it the associated winds and rain. Well, we got the winds, but not the rain, although we would have appreciated the latter to wash the decks. The winds, however, were strong enough to warrant Roy doing anchor watch at the height of the blow, while Elaine slept through it all, completely oblivious.
Although sleep deprived from consecutive uncomfortable nights bouncing around in the anchorage, we have been keeping ourselves busy by spending as much time as we can ashore during daylight hours, albeit that getting ashore has been too precarious most days, resulting in us having to bounce around onboard all day too.
When we have been able to get ashore, activities have included walks on the beach, eating ice-cream, browsing around the very few boutiques that are still in business, visiting the Saturday morning market, although it is tiny compared to what it was years ago, and enjoying a few delicious lunches at the various establishments we found, including Bao Beach restaurant and Basilic Beach restaurant, as well as frequenting an old favourite, Mango Bay in Le Marin. Finding other favourite restaurants completely destroyed has been very sad to see though. We did, however, have a lovely surprise of bumping into friends off Chiron, Pete and Jeremy, during one of our outings, who just happened to be having lunch at the same restaurant we had chosen; what are the chances having said goodbye to them in St Lucia as they headed south to Grenada. Another lovely surprise was discovering that Mango Bay restaurant served coffee and French pastries for breakfast; at last we could enjoy one of our favourite pastimes on a French island.
Aside from the usual chores, yacht maintenance and some minor repairs, to keep occupied onboard on the days we haven’t been able to get ashore, we’ve watched movies, continued our Irish lessons; something we hadn’t touched since leaving Türkiye, caught up with family and friends, baked and enjoyed swims off Paw Paw’s stern to cool off; the heat and humidity has been brutal. Being in direct contact with the grandchildren now is lovely, but heartbreaking at the same time, especially when Elaine receives little messages from William saying: “Grandma I miss you” or “I love you Grandma, goodnight” or Carter sending a voicemail saying: “Grandma can you please FaceTime me”. They all, however, join the banter on the family chat group which is lovely and it’s great to see their sense of humour. Sadly, moving back to the US to be closer to them is unfortunately not an option at all, for reasons beyond our control.
One yacht task, which Roy had wanted to do since arriving back in the Caribbean, was to give the watermaker a service, which included replacing pumps, piping and switches, as well as getting a new membrane, to be sure, to be sure! The latter required another dinghy trip into Le Marin to purchase the new membrane, but allowed us to enjoy a delicious lunch at Mango Bay; a deep fried Camembert starter to share, followed by a goat cheese puffed pasty salad and smoked mussels. Can’t fault the French on their cuisine!
It’s fair to say, though, there is barely a day when Roy and I don’t shake our heads at the world we’ve returned to. We’ve concluded that it’s more striking and evident to us because we haven’t been immersed in the “boiling the frog” syndrome, but rather we’re seeing the stark contrast, and indeed changes, following our abrupt return from our blissful bubble after 10 years. This was first noticeable to us when we arrived in Europe, but it has resonated with us in the US and the precious few Caribbean islands we have visited again thus far, primarily relating to the culture of the people we’ve encountered. There are so many instances that we look at each other in dismay, knowing the behaviour would never be witnessed anywhere in the South Pacific and Southeast Asia. It’s definitely taking a lot to reintegrate.
In a similar vein, the changes in weather have been just as striking, but explained by an article reported by the BBC recently: “For the first time, global warming has exceeded 1.5C across an entire year”, reaching 1.52C of warming according to the EU's Copernicus Climate Change Service, giving rise to the floods, droughts, heatwaves and wildfires we’ve seen all over the world. The world's sea surface is also at its highest ever recorded average temperature. This is rather disturbing at all levels, considering a landmark UN report in 2018 said that the risks from climate change, such as intense heatwaves, rising sea-levels and loss of wildlife, were much higher at 2C of warming than at 1.5C and still the world faffs around the edges, like getting consumers to drive electric vehicles, instead of tackling the major polluting industries around the world.
Regardless, this morning, the 10th February 2024, we woke to our first beautiful Caribbean morning as we’d experienced in a past life; sunny skies, dotted with puffy white clouds and a light breeze out of the northeast. Once breakfast was enjoyed in the cockpit, we dinghied ashore to visit the boulangerie and to clear out; we were heading back to St Lucia and what a fabulous sail we had. On a beam reach in a 10-12 Kt breeze, under a single-reefed mainsail and a full headsail, we enjoyed a SOG (Speed Over Ground) of 7.5-9 Kts. It doesn’t get much better than that!
With that it was goodbye to Martinique; for how long, we have no idea, but we will miss the myriad of turtles that kept us company in the anchorage.
Needless to say, pandemonium erupted with Roy rushing to secure the dinghy and Elaine grabbing the wheel to turn Paw Paw into the wind to slow her down. With a line installed to secure the dinghy, we limped back to Rodney Bay, anchored and replaced both shackles, to be sure, to be sure!
By the time we were underway again we’d lost two hours; so much for our early morning start, but we weren’t in any kind of a hurry anyway, other than to take advantage of the slightly better weather forecast for the morning. This, of course, didn’t materialise, leaving us to battle the elements all the way; 20-25 Kts of wind on the nose and 3 metre seas as the Atlantic Ocean tried to squeeze through the gaps between the islands into the Caribbean Sea, causing a leeway of 30 degrees, not to mention squall after squall. It was delightful for our first sail of the year! Not!
Regardless, by 1300 we were anchored off Sainte Anne’s; Elaine’s second “happy place” in the Caribbean behind Bonaire. Well, that was until we dinghied ashore to clear in after lunch. We did, however, have a large turtle come up to greet us as we arrived and could see a beautiful rainbow arched over the anchorage, this after having just as beautiful a rainbow the evening before in St Lucia. Nature was certainly showing us both sides of the same coin!
After more than 8 years since we were last in St Anne’s, change was expected, but we were very disappointed to see that the change was not a positive one; the pristine little seaside village, with its colourful flower boxes and inviting cafés, restaurants and boutique shops looked economically depressed, bordering on dilapidated.
A walk through the town revealed that the boulangerie, where Elaine had previously enjoyed the most delicious chaisson pomme, was still in existence, although closed at the time. Its café area on the beach, however, looked like it had been replaced by a separate restaurant. Nevertheless we made plans to get up early the next morning and return to the boulangerie to enjoy our breakfast of café au lait and chaisson pomme.
During our wanderings we also found the little fish market, but it too looked like it hadn’t been used in years. The most striking change, though, was the huge pier, where we used to tie up the dinghy, was completely absent and had been replaced by a smaller, less serviceable dock, with precious little facilities to secure the dinghy and a few stainless steel ladders to help one disembark. Saddened by what we found, we returned to Paw Paw. St Anne’s was simply no longer one of Elaine’s “ happy places”!
The following morning, full of anticipation, we were up early to dinghy back to St Anne’s to enjoy a breakfast at the boulangerie , only to discover that the bakery was under new management, the pastries didn’t look nearly as good as we remembered and coffee was no longer being served. With that, we decided to try our luck in Le Marin instead, but this too was just as disappointing, not to mention, our very uncomfortable dinghy ride, soaking us both in the process as standing waves in the channel splashed into the dinghy; it was definitely not the best day to have undertaken this trip.
This excursion, however, also left us empty handed when the boulangerie there was closed. Resigning ourselves to the fact that we probably weren’t getting café au lait and chaisson pomme for breakfast, something Elaine had been dreaming about for months prior to our arrival back in the Caribbean, we settled for a coffee and pain aux chocolat at a rather grubby “restaurant” in the marina called L’Annex.
This entire area was just as economically depressed with fences falling down, roads in a complete state of disrepair, buildings unpainted or boarded up and very few shops and restaurants open. Another massive change was the size of the marina and the number of yachts in the bay; it looked like something had “vomited up” yachts everywhere. The same was true for St Anne’s, which made it all the more baffling as to why these popular destinations could be in such a state of neglect.
Deciding that our focus needed to shift to enjoy our beautiful natural surroundings instead, rather than the disappointing manmade environments, on Sunday, 28th January 2024, we woke to our first sunny, rain free day in weeks and stayed onboard, enjoying a relaxing day, including breakfast in the cockpit and a swim off the back of Paw Paw. It’s fair to say the latter was very refreshing and a lovely break from the heat and humidity, exacerbated by all the rain that has plagued us for weeks. Seeing our friendly neighbourhood turtle popping up continuously throughout the day definitely helped us to refocus, acknowledging that we were definitely struggling with a completely different phase of our lives, one that didn’t involve a particular goal to achieve, other than playing the waiting game of getting Paw Paw sold and reestablishing ourselves on land.
When we worked we were always striving towards some or other goals. Prior to our retirement we were striving towards our goal of sailing around the world. When we were sailing around the world, we were always planning the next passage to get to the next destination safely and within a certain timeframe. Then, all of a sudden, it was all achieved, it was all completed! It is the first time that there’s no plan per se and no particular destination to get to within a certain timeframe. In essence we’re just floating out here aimlessly and passing time! It’s the first time we just have to be!
Our Zoom family get-together and activities such as yacht maintenance tasks, baking, swimming, hiking, picnics on the beach, afternoon naps and coming up with contingency Plans C and D, in the event that Paw Paw is still not sold before the commencement of the hurricane season, are helping to pass the time and keeping us in the moment. In many ways it feels like our time through the COVID-19 pandemic, where we had no choice but to bide our time while waiting for something to happen. Needless to say, once that something does happen, there’ll be a flurry of activities again, no doubt.
As January drew to a close we returned to Le Marin under far better conditions in light winds and flat seas, making for a more pleasant dinghy excursion. We had a few errands to run and it provided a good excuse to stop for café au lait and crêpe au nutella at Marina du Marin, although the service was appalling. With the boulangerie still closed, we had only one choice of venue, L’Annex again, but decided that that was to be the last! We’ll have coffee onboard to save ourselves the frustration. We’re starting to wonder if the French are subtlety decolonising by closing down all the boulangerie servicing coffee and pastries!
Today, 1st February 2024, we’d like to wish Luke, Elaine’s nephew, a very Happy Birthday and to wish our readers a Happy St Brigid's Day, marking the first day of Spring in Ireland.
St Brigid is the second patron saint of Ireland, second to St Patrick, but the traditions associated with Brigid, both the Goddess and Saint, are linked with women, renewal, fertility, healing, land, agriculture and food production, particularly dairy. Brigid was also very much associated with the beginning of the Celtic Season of Light and was known as the Goddess of the Dawn, her feast time being a signal of the beginning of Spring.
Born in the 5th century, she epitomised the attributes of the Spring Goddess: a quintessential Irish woman in her power and strength, standing up for herself and those who needed her guidance.
She was born at Faughart near Dundalk, Co Louth, the daughter of Pagan Chieftain of Leinster, Dubhthach and his christian servant woman Brocca, also known as Broicsech / Brocessa. She was raised in the Druidic tradition, but lived at the time of St Patrick, who it is said she met and who converted her to christianity.
Most of St Brigid’s traditions are indeed pagan in origin. The myths and legends of this Irish female patron saint range from spreading her cloak over the plains of Kildare to weaving her iconic equilateral cross of reeds, known as the St Brigid’s Cross. The stories regarding the cloak involve a pagan king who agreed to award her the amount of land that her cloak would cover to build a convent, which then magically grew in order to cover a vast amount of land. This story is preserved all around the country to this day.
After building her convent, St Brigid founded a spiritual community for both women and men in Kildare and she is the patron saint of babies, midwives, blacksmiths, scholars, crafters and nature-lovers inspiring poetry and the creative arts. Both the Celtic goddess and St Brigid are associated with the elements of fire and water. Her perpetual flame burned in Kildare’s Fire Temple for centuries, but was extinguished by Cromwell’s soldiers in the 16th Century. It was relit in the 1990s by the Solas Bhríde Sisters and is now tended to in their beautiful Solas Bhríde Centre near her healing and garden holy wells in Kildare; somewhere we’d like to visit after we’re settled in Ireland.
From unbroken traditions to first-time festivals, St Brigid’s Day is marked in quite a variety of ways after being declared the newest public holiday in Ireland, with some celebrations following ideas of Imbolc traditions which date back centuries and others focusing on modern-day interpretations. Regardless, the day always includes the tradition of fashioning a St Brigid’s Cross from rushes on the final day of January and then leaving it outside that night in order to receive Brigid’s blessing. The most commonly mentioned belief is that these crosses offered protection from fires. A lesser known use is that the previous year’s crosses are buried in the fields in order to bless the current year’s harvest.
Another tradition, which may no longer be practiced, was to leave out a rag on the final night of January for St Brigid to bless; it was important not to leave any other clothes out to dry that night. This rag was known as a “Brat Bhríde” and this tradition was observed in light of the power of her cloak. The rag was then rubbed on the afflicted area if someone had, for example, a sore throat.
Regardless of the myths and legends, it’s a tradition we are looking forward to partaking in at some point in the future.
The next day was a flurry of activity, though; getting unpacked, putting Paw Paw back in order after being left unattended, packing away the Christmas decorations, including packing the items we intend to take with us, then cleaning her, since we had multiple viewings lined up for that weekend. More importantly, before the week was out, we had a written offer and the buyer was flying out to St Lucia with the signed Sales and Purchase Agreement and the required deposit in hand. Our plans were coming together nicely!
In between all this activity we had the pleasure of meeting Frances, off Navillus, with whom Elaine had first corresponded when selling our courtesy flags and cruising guides. We’d initially thought we’d miss each other, but, as luck would have it, they had arrived in St Lucia for the start of the World ARC 2024/2025 rally earlier than first envisaged, which overlapped with our stay in St Lucia. A lovely chat over a morning coffee sealed a friendship and before long we’d met her husband, Brian, and had had them aboard for a barbecue. An afternoon tea was also enjoyed aboard Sofa So Good with Sharon and John, a couple we’d met during the ARC 2023 rally, who were also doing the World ARC this year. Drinks with Pete and Jeremy, off Chiron, whom we’d met through ARC 2023 as well, was squeezed in too, before they departed for Grenada.
In between viewings and all our socialising, we started to clear out our wardrobes, bed linen, towels, etc, taking advantage of the World Cruising Club’s presence back in St Lucia to make donations to their supported charities. Other items given away included Elaine’s sewing machine, picture frames, ornaments, a laptop, a myriad of spare sheets and halyards we had carted around the world, as well as managing to sell our paddleboards and a few electronics devices we weren’t including in the sale, but no longer needed. Alongside these activities, items we want to take with us were wrapped and packed. Paw Paw’s waterline was lifting by inches every day and she was looking a little bare.
Roy also took the opportunity to complete a few bits and bobs, including replacing the dinghy lines that attach to the davit lines, re-gluing some of the sticky feet on the dinghy sole, checking the dinghy engine to make sure it was still working as expected, marking the anchor chain again and fixing the blind in the port forward cabin after it suddenly got stuck.
Elaine occupied herself by cataloguing all our photographs taken since Sardinia and uploading these to our website gallery, as well as cataloguing the last of our blogs, before getting started on completing all our outstanding videos taken since Greece; these will definitely be a nice walk down memory lane.
In meeting Frances, Elaine discovered the first of many Irish traditions she wants to embrace; Nollaig na mBan, Woman’s Christmas, celebrated on 6th January each year to mark the end of the festive season and to thank woman all over the country for all their hard work undertaken over the preceding weeks. It suddenly became clear that we actually had yet another country’s customs and cultures to educate ourselves on and enjoy once we get to Ireland.
On the evening of 7th January 2024, however, a range of emotions swept over us as we listen to the steel band from afar that was playing at the World ARC 2024/2025 Welcome Drinks event taking place at the Rodney Bay marina, knowing we’d completed our circumnavigation and our days left on Paw Paw were numbered, although it felt like it was only yesterday that we were at our 2016/2017 Welcome Drinks event and excited about embarking on an adventure of a lifetime. It was still hard to believe it was all over.
On Saturday, 13th January 2024, while waving goodbye to our friends as the World ARC 2024/2025 fleet set sail, wishing them fair winds and following seas, sadly, the written offer we received on Paw Paw amounted to nothing when the buyer flew into St Lucia, but arrived empty handed, claiming they couldn’t get financing after telling us they’d been pre-approved.
Annoyed at the time that had been wasted and having returned from the US earlier than intended to progress this sale, we progressed with Plan B instead; list Paw Paw with a local Yacht Broker. Thankfully Paw Paw was already staged for the viewing, so photographs and videos could be completed that afternoon and by the Sunday evening she was listed. All we could do was now wait for an upstanding buyer.
With the World ARC’s departure, the marina has been very quiet and we feel like we’re living in limbo now. To pass our days, we enjoy a walk then a morning coffee at the Corner Boutique and Café, where the staff have gotten to know us and simply bring our standard order to the table; a café latte for Elaine and a Turkish coffee for Roy. No baked delights on these occasions, though, after literally eating our way around the world! In truth, however, we have, on one occasion, taken a walk to the Hilton Hotel adjacent to the marina that has a Swiss Bakery, and enjoyed a delicious freshly baked delight there and on other occasions, to stave off the boredom we venture out for a gelato, the latter made slightly difficult with the terrible weather we’ve had since returning to St Lucia; continuous bands of torrential rain and high winds that have not abated at all and have kept us in the marina simply because we don’t feel like being at anchor and yacht bound with 30 Kts of wind howling constantly.
Highlights over the past few weeks have included our communications directly with the grandchildren after they each received electronic communication devices for Christmas. Thankfully none of these have occurred in the wee small hours of the morning with the time difference. Additionally, we had a pleasant enough day for each of our birthdays. Roy enjoyed his favourite breakfast of poached eggs and smoked salmon, prepared by Elaine, and a wood-fired pizza for dinner, while Roy baked Elaine a tres leche cake for her birthday, made soda bread, accompanied by crispy and bacon for her birthday breakfast and then we returned to Elena's Italian Restaurant, Café, Gelato & Pizzeria for a pizza dinner. Our respective days were filled with birthday wishes and phone calls and it was particularly special for Elaine to have both her parents sing Happy Birthday to her. What were the chances, given her dad’s poor health.
This past Sunday, given that it was the first bright sunny day without a drop of rain, we decided to enjoy a dinghy excursion out into Rodney Bay, where we snooped around the resorts, then dropped the dinghy anchor, jumped overboard and enjoyed our first swim back in the Caribbean Sea.
We are, however, definitely looking forward to our imminent departure from St Lucia for a change of scenery, enjoy some sailing again and to stave off “watching the kettle boil” syndrome we find ourselves in, while we await the sale of Paw Paw.
The Welcome Party, featuring a live band, Mardi Gras dancers, jelly coconut rum punches and a buffet, started the ARC 2023 events. Celebrations ahead of the prize-giving included evening sundowners with newfound friends, a steak and lobster dinner at Spinnakers restaurant on La Redouit Beach, numerous dinner outings at the various establishments in the marina and a beach day.
In between these festivities Paw Paw got a thoroughly good and well deserved cleaning inside and out, bilges and food storage areas were cleared and excess food donated to a charity the ARC 2023 organiser’s were supporting, interviews with various sailing magazines were conducted, viewings by potential buyers were undertaken and trips to the local doctor and laboratory for Elaine’s blood tests and checkup kept us busy. It’s fair to say, that the doctor was very pleased with Elaine’s results and commented on how well she looked for someone with her health conditions, the cocktail of medications she’s taking and having just crossed an ocean, suggesting that our lifestyle may well be the reason for such an amazing outcome. Definitely food for thought!
By Friday, 15th December 2023, Elaine and Justine had put up the Christmas decorations on Paw Paw and we’d enjoyed a dinner outing at the Seasalt Café, complements of Justine and Paul.
A lovely surprise occurred at the prize-giving event the following day when Paw Paw actually won a prize for the closest finish of twelve seconds between us and S/Y Anila, who crossed the finish line just ahead of us. Serenaded by a steel band, a fun night was enjoyed by everyone, particularly the abundance of free flowing rum punches and finger snacks. It was the perfect ending to a magnificent adventure.
By Monday, 18th December 2023, we’d said our goodbyes to Justine and Paul and had received an early Christmas present from Keenan; two tickets to the US to join the family for Christmas and New Year. Needless to say, that set off another flurry of activities as we hurriedly packed and readied Paw Paw to be left unattended.
Besides the lovely surprise of receiving the tickets, Garrett, a friend of Keenan’s working for American Airlines, made arrangements for the captains of each of our flights from St Lucia to announce our achievement of completing our circumnavigation. To a round of applause from fellow passengers, we commenced our family time on the best possible note. Our thanks to Garrett for his thoughtfulness.
Besides our Christmas and New Year’s celebrations, our family fun time included homemade pizza night, playtime at the various neighbourhood parks, dirt-biking, yo-yo competitions, family game’s night, bedtime stories, ice-hockey, touring the neighbourhoods to look at Christmas lights and the all time favourite; building forts. A special family Christmas Eve was enjoyed with Brooke’s parents, Kim and Bill, much to the delight of the grandchildren of having all their grandparents present and included an Arizona-style dinner. Downtime for us was enjoyed by way of a dinner outing with friends, Lisa and Joe, who spoilt us, once again, treating us to a delicious meal at the Buck & Rider restaurant.
As 2023 drew to a close, it was hard not to reflect on our year, a year in which we fulfilled our dream of becoming circumnavigators, while enjoying an adventure of a lifetime, but, sadly, had also forced us to plan our next chapter in becoming landlubbers again, far sooner than we ever expected. Regardless, while this reality inched closer, we simply enjoyed time with the family, leaving the uncertainty of it all for the new year.
New Year’s Eve was enjoyed at friends of Keenan and Brooke, Brittany and Matt, where a potluck affair provided the food and heaps of fireworks lit up the night sky to mark the occasion. It had been years since we celebrated New Year with Keenan and this was our first New Year celebration with Brooke and the grandchildren. Very special indeed!
In between all this fun, we cleared out our storage unit, separated out the contents we no longer wanted, donated these either to charity or gave a few particular items to Keenan and Brooke, then repacked the remaining items ready for shipment to Ireland.
Before we knew, it was time to return to Paw Paw to finalise what we thought was a definite sale, but not before the grandsons helped prepare a celebratory dinner for Brooke, who had completed her first day at college after deciding to return to school to study. The delicious dinner was followed by our drive to the airport, accompanied by the grandchildren, leaving Brooke to complete her homework.
While the goodbyes were difficult as always, our wonderful family holiday was topped off with yet another pleasant surprise; flying in style with Delta One on our flight back to Paw Paw.
Stayed tuned for the next update, but, in the interim, we wish our readers a fabulous New Year and hope 2024 brings you health and happiness. Happy New Year everyone!
As a crescent moon hung in the night sky, dawn broke on the eastern horizon, giving way to a beautiful sunrise and our last day at sea; we were a mere 35NM from our destination.
Three weeks ago today, we set off on this, our final passage of our circumnavigation, crossing the Atlantic Ocean, with Justine and Paul for company and today, at around 1300 local time, we crossed our wake; we had become circumnavigators, after visiting the following destinations and sailing tens of thousands of nautical miles:
Columbia
San Blas Islands
Panama
Las Perlas Islands
Galapagos Islands of Isla de San Cristóbal, Santa Cruz and Isla Isabella
Marquesas Islands of Hiva Oa, Fatu Hiva, Tahuata, Ua-Pou and Nuku Hiva
Tuamotos Atoll of Rangiroa
Society Islands of Tahiti, Moorea, Huahine, Taha’a, Raiatea and Bora Bora
Cook Island of Surwarrow
American Samoa
Samoa
Tongan Island of Niuatoputapu and the Vava’u Group
Fijian Islands of Vanua Levu, Viti Levu, which included Roy’s “Happy Place” of Denarau, the Viti Levu Island Group, the Mamanuca Islands, which included Elaine’s “Happy Place”, Malolo Lailai, and the Yasawa Islands
North Island of New Zealand
Vanuatu Islands of Efate, Erromango, Tanna, Aneityum and Mystery
New Caledonian Islands of Grande-Terre, Îlot Maítre, Ste-Marie, Ile Ouen, Ile de Pins and the Loyalty Islands of Lifou and Ouvéa
Australian coasts of New South Wales and Queensland, including Thursday Island
Indonesia, including the Kai Islands, the Banda Islands, Wakatobi, the Islands of the Komodo National Park, including Rinca and Padar, Sumbawa, Lombok, including Gili Air and Gili Gede, Penida Island, Nusa Lembongan, Bali, Bawean Island, Belitung, Banka, Singkep, Lingga, Benan, Rempang and Batam, to mention a few.
Singapore
Malaysia Peninsula, including the Islands of Kukup, Pisang, Palau Besar, Palau Indah, Pangkor, Penang and the Langkawi archipelago
Thailand Islands of Phuket, Ko Tarutao, Ko Phetra, Ko Lanta, Ko Phi Phi, Ko Racha Noi, Ko Racha Yai, Ko Lon, Koh Tapao Yai, Koh Tapao Noi, Koh Rang Yai, Koh Rang Noi, Koh Naka Yai, Ko Naka Noi, Ko Yao Yai, Ko Yao Noi, the islands of the Phang Na National Park, including Phanak, Hong, Koh Tapu (aka James Bond Island), as well as the islands off Krabi and Raleigh Beach
Maldivian Island of Uligan
Djibouti
Suakin, Sudan
Egypt
Turquoise Coast of Türkiye
Greek islands of Castellorizo, Symi, Tilos, Astipalaia, Analfi, Santorini, Folegrandros, Milos and Elafonisos, then onto mainland Greece, stopping at Methoni, Katakola and Preveza, the latter after continuing through the Ionian Islands of Kafelonia, Maganisi, Lefkada, Paxos and Corfu
Italian south and west coasts, Sicily, the western islands off Napoli, Ischia and Ponza Islands and onto Sardinia
Balearic Islands of Minorca, Mallorca, Ibiza and Formentera
Spanish (mainland)
Gibraltar
Canary Islands of Lanzarote and Gran Canaria
and, finally, returning to the Eastern Caribbean island of St Lucia, where we started our circumnavigation with the World ARC on 9th January 2016; only taken us eight years!
We’d indeed had a magnificent adventure, met wonderful people, seen old friends along the way, enjoyed customs and cultures we never imagined, ate food we didn’t recognise, witnessed numerous natural wonders, including the “milky sea”, stood on the edge of an erupting volcano, enjoyed the splendours of numerous underwater paradises, including the “Aquarium” in Rangiroa, the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, the Makassar Reef in Indonesia and the Coral Gardens of New Caledonia. We’ve been surrounded in sparkles on a magnificent dark starry night as Paw Paw disturbed the bioluminescence, we’ve hiked to beautiful waterfalls through gardens of wild flowers, enjoyed majestic mountains and mountain streams set in lush forests, savoured exotic fruits, including guavas picked straight from the trees in Ua-Pou, drank coconut water from fallen jelly coconuts, made our own plates from palm leaves in Samoa, got tattoos in Niku Hiva as a constant reminder of the first ocean we crossed, the Pacific, had a mud bath in Fiji, explored by bicycle and on local buses, visited fascinating museums, castles and countless historical and ancient sites, including Olympia and enjoyed the opera, La Traviata, in the stunning setting of the ancient Roman theatre in Aspendos, Türkiye, encountered the Komodo dragons in Indonesia, saw breaching humpback whales in Tonga, New Caledonia and Australia, had hundreds of dolohins come to play in Paw Paw’s bows, saw the red-footed booby, swam with seahorses, dolphins, turtles and penguins, walked with giant tortoises and stepped around sea lions in Galapagos, swam with sting rays in Moorea and manta rays in Boro Boro, watched the dance of the golden rays in Ua-Pou, listened to a singing goat in Tonga, got up close and personal with the wildlife of Australia, experienced stunning sunrises and sunsets, moonrises and moonsets, unimaginable shades of clear, turquoise waters lapping beaches of every colour imaginable, “surfed” down monstrous sand dunes in New Zealand, paddled through the secret gardens of Thailand, known as “hongs”, spent four days anchored alone off the remote island of Surwarrow, visited the terraced rice paddies and magnificent Hindu temples of Bali, as well as the breathtaking temples of Malaysia and Thailand, stood in awe of the incredible craftmanship seen in the numerous churches we visited along the way, enjoyed some of the world’s finest resorts, as well as the best fish and fresh produce markets, returned to what felt like biblical times in Suakin, Sudan, explored Sofia, Bulgaria, cruised the Amalfi coastline and stopped for breakfast in Amalfi, ate a Napolitano pizza in Napoli, visited the mountain top town of Taormina, as well as the old city of Syracuse and the old town of Antalya.
We were hosted by villagers, met chiefs, warriors, princesses and natural healers, as well as graceful dancers in traditional costumes, who conveyed ancient stories through their hand and body movements, we witnessed traditional craftsman in action, like tattoo artists and woodcarvers, as well as villagers making traditional materials and prints from the bark of trees, we visited wineries and distilleries, we sailed under the Sydney Harbour Bridge, anchored next to the Sydney Opera House and joined the New Year’s Eve celebrations in Sydney Harbour; the list is simply endless, but it would be remiss not to mention the inexpensive, topnotch medical care which Elaine received, all of which helped us continue our adventure after her diagnosis in Australia. A great big thank you to all the wonderful doctors and specialists along the way, who helped us realise our dream against the odds.
A rainbow and land ahoy was spotted at around 0830 by Paul. After crossing our wake, we crossed the ARC 2023 finish line a few minutes later and by 1400 we were berthed in Rodney Bay marina and had received our warm welcome from the ARC yellow shirts, which included rum punch cocktails and a beautiful fruit basket.
This was the start of many celebrations to come, but first we enjoyed our champagne lunch onboard and received the beautiful bouquet of flowers from Keenan, Brooke and the grandchildren, before finalising all the officialdom activities of visiting the Health Authorities, Customs, Immigration and checking in with the marina office, then enjoyed a few more celebratory drinks, which included Elaine’s first mango daiquiri in 8 years! It was well worth the wait! This was swiftly followed by dinner and bed. It’s fair to say we were exhausted, but ecstatic, with a huge dollop of surrealism thrown in. We had actually made it! We were circumnavigators!
Mother Nature, however, decided to have a giggle and throw us a curveball today; during Elaine and Justine’s early morning watch this morning, squall after squall passed over us, having us reefing, un-reefing, re-reefing. We were up and down the helmstation stairs like yo-yos as the wind strengthened then weakened then strengthened again, as the rain started and stopped and restarted and as the waves and swell built and slammed into Paw Paw from every direction, including on her beam, the latter caused by swell propagation from the north to the northwest caused by a distant storm, making for rougher seas, but we soldiered on!
During Roy’s morning watch, with Justine standing in for Paul at the start of the watch, the mayhem continued, but by the time Elaine surfaced at around noon, we had sunny blue skies, moderate winds, the headsail was double-reefed and the starboard engine was purring away to help keep Paw Paw stable, instead of skidding down the waves sideways. Apparently at around 1000 the squalls and associated rain dissipated and by noon we had 150NM to go, giving us an ETA (Expected Time of Arrival) into St Lucia of around noon tomorrow.
A perusal of the latest weather forecasts suggested the stronger winds and higher seas would continue through tomorrow, so there was no respite in sight. We had hoped, with a bit of luck, that the forecasts would be wrong, as they usually are and we would get to enjoy a more peaceful night, our last of our circumnavigation. Sadly, that didn’t happened, but we still moved forward in the right direction.
Everyone, however, looked forward to our dinner tonight; fish and chips, complements of Roy, after Paul caught a reasonably sized wahoo yesterday evening. In the hours leading up to dinner, though, Elaine got to enjoy her quiet time this afternoon after everyone was fed and watered at lunchtime, then trundled off to catch up on lost sleep.
Her quiet time today, however, also had her thinking about what the future holds for us after completing our circumnavigation; will Paw Paw be sold quickly, will we have another sailing season in the Caribbean ahead of us, where will we be for Christmas this year, when will we get to see Keenan, Brooke and the grandchildren, will we be living in Ireland before the new year is out? There were definitely more questions than answers, but at least we knew what our immediate future held following our arrival in St Lucia; CELEBRATIONS, then giving Paw Paw a thoroughly good cleaning inside and out for a job well done, in keeping us safe and sound over tens of thousands of nautical miles!
Tonight, as our last night at sea progresses, Elaine and Justine enjoyed stargazing again, given that we had a relatively clear night sky and, with that, our penultimate day of our circumnavigation drew to a close.
