Location: 13° 15.8 N 59° 38.7 W
Sunday 21:00, 05.28.2006

The Schooner Maggie B moved up the West Coast of Barbados to 13° 15.8 N 59° 38.7 W today. The holding in Bridgetown was just too loose for moorings, anchors, or anything. I€™m afraid that the Maggie B may have abused the welcome of the Barbados Yacht Club by inadvertently dragging some of its moorings around a bit.

Now we are in a new, artificial harbor called St. Charles at a so-called Mega Yacht dock. This harbor is Six Mens Bay on the chart, but probably the developer was named Charles. The beach is lovely, the turtles are close and the coral is very healthy.

We are here until June 5th, when our sixth crew member arrives. He is Max Hoffman, 30, from England, an experienced Blue Water racer. I will have his full bio soon, but suffice it to say that we are dragging him away from rebuilding a 1950 Bentley engine, which shows that he is either mechanical or nuts. For those of you who are keeping track, you will notice that he is neither French, female nor 25.

Getting ready for the passage to Brazil, one of the first things we thought about was water. (OK, coffee and chocolate came first). While I€™m enormously encouraged that we can make water on our own, and I expect to catch rainwater, we have to set up the discipline and understanding of our limits. We carry tankage for approximately 350 gallons of fresh water. If you assume 20 days to Brazil; no rain; no water maker; six people; and 50% extra, convert it to liters so everyone understands, you get about 7 liters per person per day. For cooking, drinking, showering, laundry €” everything. Today I went around with all crew to show how fast you can use a liter. In the shower it is 11 seconds. All were impressed. We have a salt water tap in the kitchen for rinsing dishes and to add to soups. I am also going to rig a tarp with a hose tap so that we can efficiently get water in the tanks in the inevitable rain showers in the ITCZ (Inner Tropical Convergence Zone).

Tomorrow is Memorial Day in the US. We all salute the military, especially those in Iraq and Afghanistan. With English (soon) French, Hungarians, and Americans aboard, in an area long fought over (the Caribbean), tomorrow will be a nice day to consider the steps towards reducing the need for fighters.

All is well.

Location: 13°05 N; 59° 36.7 W
Saturday 21:00, 05.27.2006

The Schooner Maggie B is now in Barbados, in Carlisle Bay at 13 degrees 05 North, 59 degrees 36.7 West. We arrived May 25th after a fast (130 NM in 18 hours) overnight run. Carlisle Bay is right off downtown Bridgetown. There is a long lovely beach that is well used. We are on a mooring associated with the Barbados Yacht Club, which has been very welcoming.

The bay and the beach is lovely fine, soft sand. Terrible holding conditions. The mooring gives some appearance of safety, but we can’t really tell just what is under the sand holding us. Some of the moorings around us (visibility is about 200 feet!) are huge ancient anchors, one with 10 foot flukes. Near us there is a protected area where new scuba divers dive on a variety of wrecks. Hmmm, what can the prudent mariner deduce? Abandoned anchors, wrecks, terrible holding conditions? We are going to check out a new artificial harbor on the NW side of the island in St. Charles, which might be more appropriate.

I mentioned that the Barbados Yacht Club has been very kind. One odd thing is that most all of their program is in small boats, launched from the beach. The Yacht Club has no dock, no wharf. One arrives by dingy through the surf. Thank goodness one doesn’t have to dress for dinner anymore.

Swimming around we have seen lots of turtles, who are entirely blase. There also have been some fascinating fish, called, I believe, Flying Gunards. They are about a foot long and rather boxy. They root around along the bottom with two fins that work as hands to scrape at the bottom. If alarmed, they spread other fins that are about the length of their body that look like an iridescent blue cape, with the effect of the Phantom of the Opera taking his departure.

During our swims we have been rubbing off the little marine growth that accumulated in the rather “bio rich” water of the Cul de Sac des Marins marina. We’re keeping the Maggie B a clean machine!

Our strategic planning for Brazil is somewhat complex. A direct route puts us right against an adverse current (up to four knots!) that runs along the Guyanas, and once we cross the Convergence Zone, a strong head wind. Our current thinking is to head East as best we can, with whatever we can get of Northerlies, perhaps as far as 5N/28W, cross the Zone, probably motoring, and then loop back into South America in the SE’erly trades. There is relatively little current out in the middle. Recife is about 8S/34W, so we have 21 degrees of Southing and 26 degrees of Easting to do. From Lunenburg we have done 31 degrees of Southing and only 5 degrees of Easting.

Our plan is to leave Barbados about June 3rd, full of food, water and diesel. We have about 1000 miles of fuel and 350 gallons of water. Yesterday’s exciting system news is that I finally got the water maker going and the water was sweet and clean. It can make about six gallons per hour.

All is well.

Antigua Classic Yacht Regatta | 04.20.2006

Watch for Maggie B in the Antigua Classic Yacht Regatta coming up May 20th, 2006.

Photos by Tim Wright

Check out these gorgeous photos by Tim Wright — a well-known marine photographer.

Backing down your boat is a necessary skill in European countries

Most marinas in these parts don’t let you lie alongside a dock, you toss your anchor out and back in a narrow slot between two other boats, or there is a mess of buoys/moorings and you somehow put a line on one as you back past, which is snubbed up just before you crash into the dock.

The Maggie B doesn’t have a bow thruster and I simply don’t know yet her characteristics backing down at full speed (speed is your friend?). Also, while we have a big rudder and the propeller plays right on it, she is 62 feet long and 35 tons and sort of hard to spin. It looks as if I’ll have to find some peaceful spot with a few buoys and practice my reverse skills. Any joke about French tanks having only reverse gears is inappropriate.

Location: 14°28.06 N; 60° 52.02 W
Wednesday 21:00, 05.17.2006

Today we moved from the bay of Fort de France about 20 miles down the coast of Martinique to the charmingly named “Cul de Sac des Marins.” Our coordinates are 14° 28.06 N, 60° 52.02 W. This is certainly the sailing center of Martinique, if not the Caribbean. There was just a forest of masts as we came in. It is a big charter center, but still there must have been at least 500 sailboats. Falmouth in Antigua is empty in comparison and wasn’t this full even during race week.

We somehow ripped out a cringle on our fore sail during the sail from Antigua to Guadalupe. North Sails has representatives everywhere and had a guy on the dock here to evaluate the problem, pick up the sail (actually it took four of us to lift it) and it will be on a plane to Guadalupe tomorrow and back fixed by Saturday. Just in time for a promised Northerly (yes, sometimes it blows from the north here) to take us to Barbados.

Lots of boat work in the next few days and then on to Barbados!

All is well.

Location: 14° 33.4 N, 61° 03.5 W
Tuesday 21:00, 05.16.2006

The Schooner Maggie B is currently at anchor in Martinique, off of a beach called Anse Miton, across the bay from Fort de France. Position 14° 33.4 N, 61° 03.5 W . We had a nice reach down from Isle des Saintes today, needing just 12 hours to do the 90 miles. The wind was finally a proper stable Easterly Trade, blowing 10-20 and pushing us along at speeds up to 9 1/2 knots. We sailed under main with one reef and the jib.

A look at the Google map will show that we slid past Dominica on the way. That island country has very impressive mountains, going up to 4000 feet. Even though we were well offshore, we did get some interesting wind shifts. It felt bad to go past without stopping. Next time….

Coming into a new port at night was a bit of a challenge, especially a complicated one like Fort de France. Needless to say, the wind piped up a lot when it was time to take in the sail, but the crew (Bori, Nadia, Mounira and myself) got everything stowed efficiently, and anchored in a nice protected spot without any particular fuss. One piece of equipment was very useful — the “overlay” function on the Furuno radar/GPS. It made sorting out the buoys and boat traffic easy because it overlays the radar picture on top of the electronic chart, so you can compare chart to “reality.”

Last night at Isle des Saintes, we got introduced to “boat visiting.” A nice couple from an 80 year old, steel, Belgian former tug, now schooner (really!) named Orion, from California, invited us over together with another boat. Hors d’oeuvres, a nice bottle of wine and great conversation, without too much sailing/technical. There had been lots of boats around in Antigua, but it was so crazy, there really wasn’t a chance to make friends. We are going to do more “see a nice boat, row over and say ‘hi’ and ask them over.”

So another lovely day’s run, but Bori and I, off the top of our heads, came up with a list of 15 things that we should do to/for Maggie B while we are here in Martinique, before our next leg, to Barbados. Work, work, work.

All is well.

Location: 15° 52.04 N, 61° 35.21 W
Monday 12:00, 05.15.2006

The Schooner Maggie B’s noon position on Monday, May 15 is in the lovely Bay of Bourg des Saintes, in Les Saintes. We are at 15° 52.04 N, 61° 35.21 W. We are just south of Guadaloupe, just north of Dominica. We expect to take off tomorrow for the approximately 90 mile run to Fort de France, Martinique.

Isle des Saintes, besides being lovely, and a fine bastion of France (good croissants, great cooking and inexpensive wine) has quite a number of iguanas. Very astonishing, even when you are expecting them. The people here are largely Breton, and the architecture reflects it.

One interesting detail is that the sun is now north of us at noon. We are at about 16 degrees north and the sun is at about 19, so I guess that we are sailing into winter, though it certainly doesn’t seem like it.

All is well.

Photos from the Antigua Classic Yacht Regatta, 2006

Check out these great photos of the Maggie B taken by Tim Wright at the Antigua Classic Yacht Regatta, 2006. Just click the “Antigua Classic Yacht Regatta 2006″ link and search the list of boats for the Maggie B.

We hope to have these photos available on this site very soon — without the watermarks.

Location: 16° 18 N, 61° 48 W
Saturday 12:00, 05.13.2006

Schooner Maggie B’s noon position today is in the port of Deshaies (Duh - high), Guadaloupe, 16° 18 N, 61° 48 W. We arrived last night after an eight hour run from Antigua. As before, we anticipated the normal NE’erly trades, but got quite the opposite, namely a light SW’erly, and ended up motoring about half way.

Crew aboard is Frank Blair, Bori Kiss, Richard Francis, Nadia Mohammedi, and Mounira Alameida. An American, a Hungarian, an Englishman and two French. Henry Yung was to sail with us, but had to return to the USA for personal reasons.

The passage was mostly marked by the smoking presence of the island of Montserrat on our starboard, with the volcano still putting out steam and ash. We also had a marvelous school of about 30 dolphin greet us as we approached Guadaloupe. One individual specialized in belly flops near the boat.

Deshaies is a port of entry and we attempted to register with Customs (closed until further notice) or the Police (closed at 5 PM). A marvelous waterfront restaurant accepted our business for dinner, even though we were incompletely documented. There are about 40 sailing vessels anchored in the harbor, of all descriptions.

We hope to be off at about noon for the 30 mile run to Isle des Saintes. Iguanas and great beaches!

All is well.

Location: 17° 4.13 N, 61° 40.3 W
Friday 12:00, 05.05.2006

Well we are now where we planned to be two years ago. Anchored off “our own” little deserted Caribbean island. We finally kicked the last of the workers off the boat by noon today. Lot’s of great work by an Antiguan company called Woodstock. Chafe guards, fix ups for dings, and the first step in solving our centerboard mysteries. But enough of yards and having wood and stainless steel chaff on the decks.

The three of us (Frank, Bori and Henry) motored (OK, OK, 5-10 knot wind right on the nose) a hour and a half to Green Island, just on the south side of Nonsuch Bay on the Eastern side of Antigua. We are in 20 feet of water in a perfect cove with three little sand beaches, perfectly protected off a wild island where the “noise” is from tons of doves. It is so great to get out of Falmouth Harbor and the insanity of Race Week and dueling bands on the waterfront.

Our position is 17° 04.13 N, 61° 40.3 W. When we arrived, Bori swam, Henry rowed about and Frank tested the Bermuda rum. Tomorrow we’ll try out the changes to the fore and the main, to see what new complications the “fixes” have brought us. Maybe on to to Nonsuch Bay and Harmony House for dinner, maybe not.

All is well.

Back in the dock at Falmouth Harbor

The Schooner Maggie B is back at the dock in Falmouth Harbor. While I am sick of marinas, this is a big step forward as we were hauled out for the weekend around the corner in English Harbor. Marinas are bad, hauled out is worse.

We were hauled to repair some damage to the king post and rudder from grabbing the anchor line during Classic Race Week. Since we are wood covered with epoxy, it is really important to keep water out, and jump on openings.

When we hauled her, it was clear that we had to do a lot of work with the centerboard pin. Woodstock, a local repair outfit worked over the weekend which was great because Saturday was a big cricket match here and Monday a Holiday (May Day).

All was more or less finished this morning and back in we slid. Work continues on chafe issues. Ah, the smell of epoxy in the morning! We perhaps have another day or so in port to finish off the various fixes. There’ll always be more….

The crew has changed a lot. One high point was that Margo Blair was able to join the Maggie B for the last Classic Race. Besides being a skilled sailor, she is highly experienced in dealing with the Captain. Shamelessly, we took off for the weekend for Curtain Bluff Resort when the Maggie B was hauled.

Henry Yung has also joined. Henry is from Maryland and spent two and a half years in these waters in his own boat, much of it single handed. Besides being an experienced sailor with lots of local knowledge, he has a strong computer background and hopefully will get all our gear talking together (in Japanese, French and English?).

Next week Richard Francis of Maine will join. He is a carpenter, paramedic, modern art curator and great story teller. The four of us will take the Maggie B voyaging to Isle des Saintes, Martinique, Barbados and Trinidad.

All is well.