Thursday, May 31st ; position 19º 43.078 N, 62º 06.850 W

We left Ange de Colombier, St Barth around 20:30 UT after spending a beautiful day in a more beautiful bay. We thought to at least have one lazy day before setting sail for the Azores.
It wasn't all lazy however. It turned out the alternator wasn't working. After an hour or so we found the problem, a simple fuse .. :-*
I also tried to mount my new tricolor. However, when one bolt of the old one would not come off, I  decided to leave it. I didn't want to break something on the day we planned to leave. Still, working at the top of the mast, I just touched the propeller of the wind speed meter and it come off right away, completely dried out.. So all information on wind speed is an educated guess :-)

While Frits and I were checking the alternator, Arie and Eline prepared dinner, so we didn't have to cook the first night under sail.

We took off with a very nice breeze, around 16 kts, and had e wonderful sail! It pretty much stayed  the same so far, giving us a great speed. So far we do over 7 kts most of the time, except for the time we were dragging a fishing line with a couple of buoys.. Luckily I  could cut the line quite easy.
The night went smooth and fine. I decided to work with the 4 on 4 off watch system to start with, so that there would be 2 on deck all the time. We all felt more confident since it's a new boat for the most of us.
The sailing so far is very close to perfect!!, Nice breeze, sunny with some occasionally clouds, running close reach at NE course and all enjoy it very very much!!

Sunday, May 29th , still in Bobby's Marina, St Martin, but afloat again :-)

So far so good! We're having a good time and we get along very well. Arie and Frits did a very good job in getting the AIS running, but is was a challenging job. It took them hours, it was hot and there wasn't much room to work and they had to solder very tiny parts. Anyway they got it done and it works perfect.

In the mean time Eline and I went to the supermarket to do the shopping. However, the one we wanted to go to was closed Sunday's and the next one the taxi drove us to was extremely expensive.

So we decided to wait until Monday.

Andy and Rene did a good job in fixing a new hull through fitting but when they wanted to mount the sea cock, there wasn't enough room to make the turns. So they went back to Budget Marine to get a straight connector and fixed it.

In all it took way more time to get back in the water. Not that that is a problem, we all are fine with it, it's just what it is and we're not really in a hurry or something. We talked about the plan this morning and decided not to rush, we're not obliged to leave today and also we don't have to go to Antigua, which is 90 Nm straight upwind :-*

We still want to do a first short trip before the crossing so instead of Antigua we will go to St. Barth, that's upwind too but only 20 Nm :-)

The anchorage looks very promising and it would be nice to have a real tropical swim before we leave :-)

Marie, Andy's wife drove us to the supermarket this afternoon. They really are very friendly and helpful. But then again, Andy is a sailor too. He crossed the Atlantic about 60 times, 3 circumnavigations and a lot of racing.

Doing the shopping was fun. The four of us together with Marie went over to CostUless. Everybody was collecting stuff. Eline, who was in charge of the list, wasn't getting anywhere :-) So every 25 minutes or so we had to stop and give her a chance to check the list again. Anyway, we got everything quite easy and Marie was really a great help in driving us.

When we finally got back to the boat it was about happy hour and a great dinner at Curry in a Hurry's.

This morning we got all the stuff delivered and got all the remaining things done, filling up the water and fuel tanks, go over to immigration and lots more.

At 4:30 pm we'll finally be off then for our first leg to St Barths :-)

Sunday, May 27th Bobby's Marina, St Martin

The trip was long but okay. At Antigua they surprised me by having my luggage labeled through. to St Martin. I was told to pick it up there and have it checked in again since the last part was with a different airline. When the luggage belt stopped and my bags weren't there I immediately went over to the desk because the plane was going through to Tobago, with my bags still on board ??

The lady looked at my baggage tags and told me I should pick it up at St. Martin. I didn't really believe her but there was nothing else I could do … But it all went well and I could see them unload my bags when we got to St. Martin. Eline was already there, she hes landed 10 minutes earlier, arriving from Curacao, right on schedule. She was a bit emotional... coming back after so many years :-)

Together we got a taxi and went over to Bobby's Marina. Getting on board was quite a surprise!!

When I went down I stepped in the water... salt water. That was not the idea, not at all !!!

I took off my shoes and went looking for the leak which obviously was there. It didn't take long to find it. The sea cock that I had fixed in Brighton hadn't held after all Water was coming quite fast.

When I wiggled the sea cock, it snapped completely and now water was really coming in …

Luckily the plug I have hanging at every sea cock did fit and I was able to stop the leak.

Hmm, when we had a closer look there was around 2 inches of water above the floor boards. That's a lot!! We started pumping, by hand since the bilge pump was completely under water, but it went better using buckets. When we got enough water out, the pump did the rest.

In the mean time I had called Mick, the supervisor of the marina, to ask him if he could lift me out. Since he had no one around to help him, he told me he would help us first thing tomorrow morning.

That was okay, the plug held fine so we weren't sinking any longer.

By that time Frits had called my, Arie and he had missed their connection in Miami. Customs and immigration had taken too long …. and they had missed there flight by 10 minutes. Oh well, I guess that wasn't too bad after all. The four of us might have been too many and we would have gotten in each others way.

Around 21:00 Eline and I had had enough and went out for dinner. The first place we could get to was ' Curry in a Hurry' what turned out to be a very nice local restaurant and the food was good too :-)

Next morning I went over to Mick and an hour later we were on the hard. Andy one of the engineers that was around on a Saturday, looked at it and told me he would be able to help me and replace the hull though fitting. It looked like a classic example of electrolysis that had completely eaten the fitting. Andy also checked all the other fittings and they were all fine. Since we were on the hard, we cleaned the hull. Enough came off to give us a knot or so more in speed :-)

Anyway, I guess we were very lucky after all. If we would have come a day later, the boat might have been completely sunk. Also this is not something you want to have happen mid Atlantic!!

Eline and I spend the day organizing the boat and fix the instruments I had taken home to repair. Nothing seemed to have been damaged by the water. Around 6 pm we went over to have diner and there I got a call from Frits that they had landed. It took them about an hour to get to the marina which is really a 4 minute drive,qa but anyway :-)

Well this was some arrival … and so much for the plan :-) Today we'll go and do some chopping while Andy will fix the fitting. Monday morning we'll be in the water again and off to Antigua.

May 14th, only 10 more days to go

<sup>I'm almost done gathering all the stuff that I need to take with me. Of course there were some last minute things I had to pick up at Vrolijk's, well, that trip ended very differently then expected!

After collecting my stuff at Vrolijk, I decided to walk over to the harbor and sat down at the Pasta Company. It was just the perfect day to sit outside in the sun and have a beer :-)
After a while a guy walks by and sits down at the table next to me, 15 minutes later two girlfriends come to join him. One of them asks if she could take the seat next to me so she too could enjoy the sun. We started chatting and for some reason, I don't know how or why :-), we start talking about sailing.

It turns out that Jantine is very much into sailing too and recently had been sailing up and down the East coast of Australia :-)
Of course I told her about my trip so far and my upcoming plans. She thought it to be really cool to cross the Ocean. Anyway, since I still had an open spot for the leg from the Azores back to Scheveningen, I told her she could join us if she wanted.

I didn't took the exact time but it can't be more then a few minutes before she agreed to come and join us! Wow, I guess this was just one of those special moments, totally out off the blue, but for some reason meant to happen :-) Life is beautiful when you live it!
So together with Monique and Willem Jelle we've got the crew complete for the last part to finish the trip around the Atlantic.
I guess it's time to go for it!

Next update will be from St Martin :-)</sup>

April 26th 2012, less then one month to go :-)

<sup>It's been 3 months now since we came back, leaving the True Companion at Bobby's Mega Yard at St. Maarten. I must admit, it wasn't easy to step back into the old routines :-o

I like my job very much but a trip like this changes the way you look at things. The different lifestyle and attitude towards life in general, especially in the Caribbean in a way opened my eyes.

Over there, people live with what they have and what life brings them and they make the most out of it, which sometimes isn't very much. Over here we're more focused on what we don't have and want to achieve, missing a lot of what we actually do have, which for most people is a lot [more].

On a trip like this you are where you want to be. If you don't like it, you move on. There's no real plan, you just go with the wind. Even with only the wind as variable it's not easy to really plan ahead where you'll be in a few days. At work you're supposed to plan ahead for sometimes up to a year while there are at least 15 variables you can't really influence, let alone control...

Anyway, in just less then a month I have to fly back to St. Maarten to pick up my boat again. It's hard, but bearable :-) Actually, although it'll be quite a different trip, it's really exciting to get in the planning mode again.

The crew for the sail back was one of the very first things set last year. However …. Andy and his family is moving to Thailand, both Marc and Clare switched jobs and can't take the time off.... so, I was back to square one...

Not for long though :-) when you put out the word, you soon get a lot of responds :-)

There are two different kinds of people that respond. Those who would like to join but have to think about it. Most of the time you don't here anything. The others are those who say: hmm, okay,... let me check some things and get back to you. They usually do so the next day and they're in or out.

So when I got in touch with Frits, Dick and Arie, they all called or mailed me back the next day to tell me the very much wanted to join me :-) We met, talked things over and the click was there.

Unfortunately for good reasons Dick later had to decide he couldn't go after all. However, by that time I had met Eline. She also had to check some things and the day after .. she was on too :-)

So the four of us will fly out to St. Maarten by the end of May, planning to leave there the 28th .

In the mean time I also had some of the instruments repaired, got a replacement for the broken AIS, got the nautical almanac 2012 and other stuff like a knotmaster log. I guess we'll have to share the whole load or have to check in extra luggage :-o

Also based on a number of sights we took during the crossing to the Caribbean. Marc and I did our exam and upgraded our RYA qualification to Ocean Yachtmaster. It was a joy doing the exam and go over the whole trip again. That really triggered the planing mode again for me :-)

Anyway, this and not next [as I learned from Clare :-)] Saturday we'll have an all crew meeting and talk about the preparations, route planning, watch system and stuff. So from next week on, I guess I'll have to work real hard to stay focused :-)</sup>

Rijswijk, Jan. 25th. Back home again….

The flight back home was Okay-ish.

Coming home was weird… things have changed..

It felt really strange to sleep in a bed that doesn’t move…:-o

This week I’m still off from work so I can acclimatize, I guess I really need that.

Also a haircut might be a good idea J

Anyway, the updates will stop for now.

May 24^th I’ll fly back to St Maarten to prepare the boat for the sail to first the Azores and later back to Scheveningen or IJmuiden.

Of course I’ll then pick up the blog again to keep you all posted.

Cheers!!

Ron

Jan. 19th St. Maarten, our final destination in the Carribbean :-(

We didn't get to do much at St Kitts. The weather wasn't too good, lots of rain... :-o

Also there were 3 huge cruise ships at least as many tourists as inhabitants, so the train was fully booked and we didn't want to do a tour with a crowd. The train tickets would have been a cause fo second thought though. $ 115 US per ticket is a bit more then I'm used to :-)

So instead we took a taxi to the reggae beach bar at the South of the Island. The drive to there was kind of a tour itself and the driver stopped a few times to let us take pictures at the point where you can see the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic only a mile apart and to explain some things about the Island.

The beach bar was nice but about to close when we got there. If we ordered immediately, we still could eat there... it wasn't even 6 pm :-o The food was good but right after we finished, she brought us the bill and they closed the place. We walked over to the Spice Mill, another restaurant and had a drink there. We should have gone there in the first place... this was a really nice restaurant, but also closed at 10 pm.

Anyway, it wasn't too bad to get back to the boat early because next morning we had to get up at 05:30. The sail to St Maarten is about 50 nm and the bridge to get into the lagoon only opens 3 times a day. We wanted to catch the bridge of 5:30 pm and not miss it :-o

The sail to St. Maarten would be our last one before going home again :-(

It was a shitty sail, more or less like our first from Scheveningen to Harwich: a lot of wind and lots of rain, the whole day! We had to put in the second reef and I had to put on my sailing gear :-(

Anyway, we did make it in time for the bridge and got into the lagoon alright. This is the most sheltered place of the whole Caribbean and a good place to leave the boat until I come back.

However, today I'll have to find out what is happening, I booked a place at Bobby's Marina, but when I send them a mail to confirm my arrival date, they had never heard of me. It turned out that the woman I mailed and did the booking had left and obviously hadn't handed things over....

Anyway, the weather is okay again and the sun is shining :-) The wind has died and it looks like a nice and calm day to clean the boat and get it ready for the stay here.

The berth for the boat turned out okay. Bobby's Mega Yacht had one spot left which obviously was not for mega yachts since I just could get in with a draft of only 6 ft (1.8 meter) !

After securing the boat we took a taxi to Sunset's where we had dinner and a cocktail. This is one of the most amazing restaurants. It's right at the start of the strip of Juliana Airport, when a plane takes off, you could be bast away if you're at the wrong place. Also when a big jet is landing, you can actually see the pilot, that close by it crosses over.

Tomorrow Rutger is flying back and the day after Monique and I will fly back too. It feels a bit strange as if going home doesn't fit in the picture. I guess being on the boat for 4½ months has made it my home also. I'm so used to the motions that it might take a while to get used to a steady and solid place to sleep again …

Also the rhythm of life over here is completely different. The Dutch are considered to be laid back but we still can learn a lot from the people down here and I guess I picked up a few things :-)