Cristobal Colon

Cristobal Colon

We have now visited the four main points of the journey of the man we know as Christopher Columbus. We visited the Ambassador Room of the Alhambra in Grenada, Spain, where Columbus got support from Ferdinand and Isabella. We also visited the harbor of Cadiz, where he assembled his three ships before starting out. We spent about two and a half weeks in the Canary Islands, where he started his famous ocean crossing. And now, we have recently arrived at the place where he landed, San Salvador, in the Bahamas. There are actually two monuments on opposite sides of the island, both commemorating his first landing. One is a large cross monument on the west coast of the island south of our current anchorage. It is the more likely spot for the legendary navigator to have come ashore. The other is ridiculously situated atop a reef bound headland totally open to the prevailing winds, and probably with heavy breakers. If Columbus came ashore there, he either had a weird front or storm on his hands, or his boat went to shore in pieces. There is little chance that a great sailor like Columbus would have needlessly endangered his crew by anchoring on the wrong side of the island. The monument was probably put there by people who had zero knowledge or experience of the sea, and reasoned that if Columbus had been coming from the east, he would have landed on the east side of the island. Never mind the dangerous reefs and violent breakers that are capable of smashing any boat or ship of the time to bits, no, anyone can see that he would have come ashore on the east side. As if. Columbus was a legendary sailor, he would have come ashore in a nice, sheltered anchorage, not one open to Atlantic rollers.
--Orion Date
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Downtown Cockburn Town

After bumping plenty of elbows with other boats in the Virgin Islands, we seem to have this island pretty much to ourselves.
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The road Columbus must have walked

To clear customs and immigration at the airport.
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The Fore Cabin

The problem with Orion and I playing is that we don't have much room on the boat to do so. But, when it is not being used, we can use the fore cabin, the biggest bunk we have. It used to be V-berth, one bunk on each side, but we put in a trapezoidal piece of wood in, so now it is one big bunk in a trapezoid shape. Usually, Dad sleeps up there, but when we are on passage, he sleeps on my bunk when I'm on watch, and when I come of watch, the port settee. Anyway, the fore cabin is a good playing space, because it has an enormous hatch on the deck head, one of the biggest on the boat.

--By Rigel

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What Cristobal Colon saw, 519 years ago

San Salvador Island, Bahamas -- aka, India
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That @$%#ing Winch

That @%$#ing Winch

On the cabin top just to port of the mast, there is a smallish winch used for hoisting the staysail into the roller furling. Two days ago we lowered the sail to re-sew some of the seams. When we tried to hoist it back up, we found that the hoisting winch was frozen, no matter what we did, it wouldn't move. In addition, it was supposed to be a two-speed winch, yet the winch handle spun freely in the slow direction. When we took it apart yesterday, we found that a pair of pawls were nonfunctional, and that the interior was covered in corrosion. We tried to take the drum off, but it stubbornly refused to budge. We ended up having to tie a spinnaker halyard to the top of the drum, tension it, and beat on the underside of the drum with a hammer. When it finally came off after literally hours of banging, we discovered that the drum bearings were firmly corroded in place. Dad and I got most of the corrosion off with a flathead screwdriver and some sandpaper, and Dad greased all the gears and bearings inside the winch. When we put the drum back on, it required still more banging to get it onto the mechanism. When we finally finished, we came below to find the entire port half of the main cabin covered in a fine layer of dust from the cabin top.
--Orion Date
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The WWII-era tank

On Flamenco Beach. From the days of using Culebra as a training range for Pacific Theater beach landings.
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Oil change done,

Corroded staysail winch rebuilt -- time to go to la playa!
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Landing

Landing the dinghy on the beach was exiting before, but now it is so easy that it is not an event anymore. We do it just about it every day now. It involves this: Orion gets out of the dinghy when it is a foot or so deep, takes us in a bit, and then we all get out, and haul the dinghy about seven feet or so up the beach. When we get the dinghy back in, we pull the bow around until it is pointing at the water, then we pull it down into the water, get in, wait for it to drift out, then Orion lowers the motor in the water and starts it. Then Daddy says, "Engage" Picard-style.
--By Rigel
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At anchor in Ensenada Honda, Culebra, Puerto Rico

For the first time in nearly two years, there is no foreign ensign on our starboard flag halyard.
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Passing Sail Rock

En route to Culebra.
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Running to Jost Van Dyke

To avoid the squall.
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Four/Five Years Ago

Four/Five Years Ago

We have been in the British Virgin Islands, where we chartered a sailboat five years ago. We came again and chartered another boat four years ago. I have an easily explainable sense of déjà vu, especially here, in the bight of Norman Island. Norman Island is the island Robert Louis Stevenson used in his famous book Treasure Island. The bight is a large bay with a narrow entrance, and there is a floating bar/restaurant called the Willy T. where we went for lunch five years ago, and for drinks just an hour ago. Just outside the bight there are the caves of Norman island, which we visited five years ago. We have also been to Savannah Bay and Lee Bay, where we saw a dolphin four years ago. Everything is very familiar, but it also means that our fantastic trip is almost over.
--Orion Date
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Darth Rock

Darth Rock is a little cove near Lee Bay. We call it Darth Rock because it has a rock in the middle of it that, if looked at the right angle, resembles Darth Vader. We snorkeled there before when we chartered five years ago. But last time, I do not remember there being any jellyfish. This time, there was. Everywhere. Now, I am talking about these tiny little polyp-like jellyfish, not the big, pinkish kind. But soon, after we swam a bit, kept hitting them, but they did not sting. The simply just bounced off. We swam around Darth Rock for a bit, and when we went back to the dinghy, I saw this small tiny fish near the dinghy, not one inch long, with a tiny tail. Then it started to swim right at my mask. I made this scary gesture, and it went the other way, to join another one. We kept almost touching it, but it always missed. Once it nibbled at by finger, but it kind of ticked, as a tiny little fish cannot get any purchase on human skin. I even got a video of them swimming!

--By Rigel

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Lee Bay, Great Camanoe island

On our way to snorkel Darth Rock. One of our favorite spots from previous visits -- and some of the best snorkeling in the Caribbean.
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Savannah Bay, Virgin Gorda

One of the boys' first anchorages, back in bareboat chartering days. Still fairly undeveloped . . . But probably not for long. New condos going up as we speak. Er, write. Er, read.
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Last assignment, last subject, last day

Of eighth grade. Congratulations, Orion!

Next stop, high school.
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Our first time back in Great Britain since . . . Gibraltar!

In Virgin Gorda. Close enough to the US that we can receive NOAA VHF forecasts from Puerto Rico.
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Wait . . . How come it's totally flat here

And rolling like crazy on the Dutch side? Yup, we should have anchored here.
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Hah! I KNEW we could find a fort here somewhere

Even if it meant dinghying all the way across the lagoon to the French side.
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Our new neighbors

The elderly gents of Antiki. Get it? Antique-y?

Their raft pulled in the oh-dark-thirty hours this morning after sailing across the Atlantic.
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Antigua Through St. Maarten

Antigua Through St. Maarten

I liked our stay in Antigua. We hiked around a lot, to Shirley Heights, to Fort Berkley, and then most of the way to Pigeon Beach. I really liked Nelson's Dockyard, and the Dockyard Museum was very interesting. In my opinion, English Harbor was one of the most interesting places we've been to this trip. Mom came to see us recently, this was the cause for the lapse in blog updates. She arrived in Antigua, and left just yesterday. She helped us sail from Antigua to Barbuda, from there to St. Bart's, and from there to St. Maarten. Barbuda was beautiful, from the picturesque beaches to the frigate bird sanctuary in the lagoon. St. Bart's too had lovely beaches, and an interesting hike that, unfortunately, we did not have time to fully explore. We are now in St. Maarten, the Dutch side of the island. Mom flew out yesterday, and she will probably be able to visit us again in a month or so. She couldn't come for three months last time, hopefully that won't happen again. We are undergoing major provisioning here in St. Maarten, and will have to make an overnight passage soon, and Rigel and I will be standing our first night watch.
--Orion Date
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