Life Beyond the Beaker

That is us heading to the Azores!  We completed a major refit in Carriacou. We then sailed to Martinique to pick up our pal and crew Harry. The 110 nm sail took 38 hrs and I was sick for 24 of them. During the sail, Al noticed too much forward mast bend so we got a second opinion. We ended up doing a mini refit at Le Marin. Luckily North sails managed to fit us in and fit our dodger windows which broke on the sail (thanks to Highwatersails for the contact) and then the riggers at Cariabe Marine fitted us into the dock and the righers worked over the weekend to fix our forestay and change all stagelocks!  The rest of this blog contain some random photos from the last few weeks because I am writing this as we head along the West side of Martinique to then head to the Azores! We have made Cariad our home! Rigging ready to go on...the moment the forestay was cut too short. We have had some chilled time to snorkel! S...

It has been a hectic few weeks. Everyone in the yard was as shocked as we were that we were ready to launch!  With stern gland getting bedded,the furlex, GPS, and a few other things that we had to fix it has been a hectic day!  Test sail tomorrow!!  

With Al’s Uncle Pete completing an epic two weeks of work on Cariad and me arriving during his second week we started to get through the job list. We have a long spreadsheet of jobs. We now have working electrics with the solar panels able to trickle charge the batteries, new alternator wired in and working, 3 lee cloths, sails are good with the main jib and storm jib getting check-in at InStiches, the hull was sanded back, epoxy added and two layers of antifoul added… There are so many other things like new anodes but now we are ready for the mast to go up and to get Cariad into the water. Hopefully, by the end of next week, we will be en route to Martinique to pick up our crew and pal Harry and also lots of yummy food. Fingers crossed that the job list stops getting longer and that it all comes together.  Grinding the rusty chain off the anchor chain! Safety first kids... Our hull made a beautiful abstract pattern...lots of expoxy use. "It's a process." A quote from Al ...

Two years ago my friend and mentor Tony died. He had cancer and decided not to take any treatment. My Dad Steve was friends with Tony for years and met through the flying world. When I was about 5, my Dad, Tony, and another family all bought a yacht together so that they could do their sailing qualifications and take family and friends sailing around Brixham and Dartmouth. Tony decided to go sailing around the world 15 years ago, so both families sold their share to Tony. Over the years we managed to sail with Tony. When he died we found out he had left Cariad for me in his will. The crazy chap. Tony is the one on the left, then my Dad, me, my brother Dan and my mum Mary back in 2012 cruising with Tony on Cariad. Tony going around the world! This happened in Nov 2019, so Al and I planned and booked to fly out to the Caribbean where Tony had set up a life for himself and Cariad in March 2020. Yep, you guessed it...COVID hit and we were locked down. We didn't try in 2021 as we knew n...