Leaving Nassau wasn't as easy as we thought. The generosity and hospitality of our new Bahamain friends was second to none and it seems that the Weather gods conspired to keep us there for one more night - which turned out to be a brilliant way to say goodbye to the Bahamas - with a home cooked feast at Geoffrey & Rosa's house, with the whole family coming over to say hello - a beautiful baked hog fish, home made coleslaw, banana fritters (whose name we cannot…
There are times in life when you feel like you need to pinch yourself just to make sure you're not dreaming. I am sore from pinching myself!! Since our last blog, we sailed off into the sunset leaving behind the beautiful Staniel Cay and the Exumas . An incredible downwind sail in calm waters, with the spinnaker flying and beers in hand. I had read that it's possible to anchor totally out of sight of land when conditions are calm and suggested this as an idea to…
G'day friends - Nate here. Goodbye Spanish wells, hello EXUMAS !! The day dawned beautifully as we set out from Spanish Wells on a rising tide scraping over the shallow entrance. After our usual strong coffees we set off early to make the most of the day as well as the wind which was predicted to die off in the afternoon. Spanish Wells Seafood shop We were greeted by a nice 12 to 18 knot wind and calm flat seas. Time for some nice sailing, a great…
Port Lucaya on Grand Bahama was a beautiful place, but having arrived there on a Monday morning and in the mood for some fun after our eventful crossing of the gulf stream, we were somewhat underwhelmed by the empty bars, quiet casino and lack of other revelers to party with. We did however meet some cool people like Rick Fleming (G'day Rick hope you've managed to get out of there and we will see you soon somewhere along the way!) who added to the experience of being…
Anyone remember Gilligan's island?? The weather started getting rough, The tiny ship was tossed, If not for the courage of the fearless crew The minnow would be lost, the minnow would be lost. Baptism of fire comes to mind - we sailed into what was meant to be a decent 20 knotter and ended up being a decent storm... Leaving our BIG friends behind - thanks for all the help - skies look clear! The skipper definitely had a slight hint of the guilts having had a…
What a week or is two weeks since I last wrote... The crew have arrived safe and sound and have gotten straight into living life aboard Squander. It's been one of those weeks where a lot of big jobs got done quickly and many quick jobs took a looooong time! The trusty Jeep has clocked up some miles running around town getting everything from new kiteboarding equipment for Dmitrij to essentials like rum and beer for all of us! Vacuum sealing the sirloin steaks. Squander looks tiny…
After a great Easter weekend, the week has kicked off with a longer then expected list of things to fix - I guess this is probably the beginning of a long chapter called "The things they don't tell you about sailing" - it's definitely the standout bit of feedback from cruisers (people who live aboard their yacht for extended periods of time cruising from place to place) - you do a lot more maintenance and fixing then you ever imagined! Back to the fun stuff - the…
Ten days ago I flew out of Sydney - destination "dream realisation!" I've had this idea to sail around the world for a while now, in fact I tried to work out when and how I first got this idea and haven't been able to crack it - the earliest confirmed mention of this was when I was 19... but I'm guessing it would have been born much earlier than that. Either way, it feels quite incredible to be on the eve of beginning to fulfill a…
Despite the best laid plans, research and determination to make this a smooth trip, it didn't quite work out according to plan and all I can say is... thank god for that!! The trip across the Atlantic ended up including 5 countries, two yachts, 2 quick plane trips and a multitude of great people that I wouldn't have met had it all gone according to the original plans. The research commenced back in March 2009, when I joined Crewseekers and findacrew in order to find yachts that…