Tucanon - It rained on our parade

Sorting through the boat cleaning products, it was possible to throw away a bucket full of rubbish making room for 5litres of heavy duty boat cleaner, purchased while in Durban. The original container had been squeezed into the generator locker and pressure had broken the screw top, causing the very expensive contents to escape and damage other items. Decanting it into two smaller vessels did the trick. We found Clarks Court Bay yachting community to be very friendly and accommodating but it was time to move on so, after returning to the boat from the Tuesday mini bus trip to the mall, we departed.It was pouring with rain on the morning of the 12th April which didn’t bode well for a shopping trip, less so for the five mile passage round to the bay where Grenada marina is located. read more...

Tucanon - Chilling out in Grenada

We stayed with Ian and Anna at their house on Sion Hill, Barbados until 6th April. There was a lot to talk about; a lot of catching up to do. Since we had last seen them, they had both retired full time, Anna had survived an aneurism and her elder daughter had become engaged.When we returned to the airport at the appointed hour, the car was not allowed to drive into the area; there had been a gas leak notified and the airport had been closed since 3pm. We were supposed to check in at 17.30 but none of the appropriate staff were present at the desks and nobody seemed to know what was happening. Luck was with us and at 6pm, the check-in desks were opened, we handed over our baggage and wandered through to the departure lounge. The fifty seat plane arrived and left on time. Grenada was just. read more...

Tucanon - On our own again

While we were moored next to Jeannius at Port St. Louis, it was an ideal opportunity for Moe and Bev to move most of their luggage from our boat to the boat they will sail on to St Lucia. Bev’s father is going to cruise to St Lucia, with Mike and Jean and naturally Bev wanted to spend that time with him. Because the crew also used the spare cabin for all their stuff, we had been unable to accommodate an extra person. As Jeannius settled lower in the water by a couple of inches, we now floated higher.On the 27th March, we, with 30+ other World ARC participants took the island tour. Because there were too many of us to get into the large coach, a mini bus was also provided. Leaving the marina at 9am we drove along the road above George Town with its lovely Colonial style property. We. read more...

Tucanon - We all reach Grenada

We continue the passage to Grenada. A motley bunch, two of the catamarans with broken mainsails and the other dismasted. Nothing further has manifested itself and Basia appears to be stable. Unfortunately, after the second refueling, one of our crew broke off the AIS antenna so we no longer had the advantage of identifying other vessels. We could also no longer use the standby VHF, available should the main VHF not function, as this was supported by the same antenna. Unfortunately, the main VHF is very poor now with a range of less than three miles, always assuming that the equipment, to which we are communicating, is powerful enough to pick up our transmissions. If sailing within a mile of us, Jeannius can hearus. We cannot pick up intelligible transmissions from Basia unless we. read more...

Tucanon - Mayday fo Basia

Three times, during the first three days out of Recife, I spotted dolphins. On one occasion, the dolphins were small with pink bellies. On the two other occasions, the dolphins had white bellies and didn’t frolic out of the water very much at all.One of the white bellied pods had been swimming with us for 15minutes before Bev took over the watch, thus giving her the opportunity to spend the next twenty minutes with her movie camera, filming the beautiful creatures.By the afternoon of the fourth day at sea, we were sailing on a close reach and the only way to make any progress at all was to make passage directly towards the equator, rather than diagonally, NNW. During the night, a strop on the new North Sails mainsail came adrift and fell off and disappeared. The strop had been. read more...