Happy sailing - Mini refit, found Harry & heading to the Azores!

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!

Spot Cariad! Le Marin was rammed with expensive boats.

The legend owner of the rigggers who sorted us out last minute.

When we left Carriacou the wind had too much North in it so we pulled into Union for a night for some dinner and a snorkel!

Happy sailing!

Harry settling on on board!

We bought a kayak to use instead of a dinghy! Such fun.

Al giving us an electronics lecture!

We have packed so much food onto Cariad!!!! Lots of sardines.

Beautiful.

I will post in a few weeks from the Azores!

We are launched!

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!!

 

Cariad refit at Carriacou Marine!

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 earlier in the week from one of our debriefs. There is a process for the progress of the boat refit, a process of how we communicate, how we tackle a job...so many different processes. We debrief/couple debate over a beer on Tony's balcony most evenings after boat work to check the spreadsheet is on track and that we are working well together and communicating because without teamwork no adventure is possible! 

Someone definitely told me boating was a glamorous sport?!

Where are the G&Ts? Cleaning out our water tank. Tony retrofitted this and it's excellent, most of the time you can't get at the water tank on a yacht to clean it. #waterislife

Tony's beautiful balcony. Samuel has let us stay in Tony's house whilst we refit the boat. Its great to get away, reset and have a good nights sleep after a beer on the balcony.

InStiches in Carriaou, Andy is a great guy and is sorting us out after we found our spare jib is ripped and not reparable.

Gaaahh it is so annoying when paint gets somewhere where you don't want it haha

Our mast is ready to go up. Some new running rigging, new rigging wires and new tri colour light!

Measuring up...

Engine service!

Al's pit for the last week whilst he sorts out the electrics.

Randy is a bus driver that lives near us in Windward (Meldrum) and he regularly takes us about the place. His horn is very distinctive. 

Gus is an awesome guy. He has helped us so much over the last few weeks with odd jobs!

Al's Uncle Pete was an awesome workforce for the two weeks of the trip and really got us on track.

Flares as old as me!

Dead gas bottle....

Beautiful new bottles. Safety definitely first here kids.

Happy painting. Except when I am told I missed a bit :D

Happy that the beach is so close that I can cool off when I need to!

The stopcocks have been a nightmare! Finally sorted and rebedded. Vinegar works a treat!

Our commute to work - stunning.

 The Azores high is forming nicely. Hopefully, the jetstream sorts itself out so that the low-pressure systems stop being so aggressive, especially for the second part of the trip from the Azores to the UK! 

 

Crossing the Atlantic in Yacht Cariad - follow me & Al on this blog!

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 numbers would be high again after Christmas. So here we are in 2022 getting ready to fly out to Grenada and then catch a ferry to Carriacou. So the plan is to get out to the Caribbean and do a major refit. Al's Uncle Pete is flying out with Al in early Feb to help smash out part of the refit - legend. I'm flying out a week after that to give us an over lap because Al is doing two big expeds this year, the second one where in May he is climbing the Cassin on Denali in Alaska with our pal Ali Rose. 

Then if all is good and safe to go we will be setting off to Antigua in early April to do a big shakedown and test everything. We are then picking up our crew and pal for the first leg Harry!! We will then stock up with anything else we need in Antigua, then set off to the Azores for an exploration and holiday. 

My parents might come and say hey in the Azores, oh to be retired. With our extended leave (I have built up lots of leave over two years) Harry is then flying home and pal Emily Mulligan is flying in! Epic! If Al is getting stuck on time here if we get delayed, Al will also be flying home to go on his next exped. Then Azores back to the UK via Ireland to drop off Emily and swap her with my Dad and then sail Cariad back to Glencoe where there is a mooring waiting for us! 

Tony had a great friend called Paul who we got to know the last time we were out there, luckily he knows Cariad and is a surveyor so is helping us start the refit whilst we are stuck in the UK waiting to fly out. Cariad is out of the water, her hull has been pressure washed and an engineer Jeorg has checked out the engine. 

Cariad's rigging has been taken off and is being replaced. Yep, most of my savings are being used on this! When me and Al sold Yacht Xarifa (Sadler 25) that we used to own together (2017-2020) when I moved to Scotland and lived on her we are psyhed that Cariad is a Sadler 34 so the same make and big enough to stand up in woo. Al owns a percentage of Cariad so any work we are doing on her we are splitting on this epic adventure.

After all of this planning, I hope it all comes together and that we can leave the Caribbean and try and bring her home to Glencoe/Ballachulish and I will be smiling like in this picture!

We have had some epic spreadsheets, reading, and advice the last few years of planning this trip.

I can't go across the Atlantic without measuring something scientific. So after a great conversation with Laura who runs weswimwild and who I have been a waterlogger with and a microplastic "consultant" for the past two years, she has kindly donated some sampling kit...hopefully we don't find too much! The best bit is, is that I sampled from Glencoe source last year, so bringing Cariad back from the Caribbean to Glencoe we are going sea to source!!

Keeping in touch!

I will try and update this blog when I can! When we are on the two big crossings we will have a satphone which we will be using to track the weather and come up with some good routing. If you want to get in touch and email us a short message we will send out the email address nearer the time. The Fenton's have kindly let us borrow the RowAround Scotland spot tracker, so hopefully every day I will be updating our position from April! Thanks also to Goch for giving us loads of advice and helping us to buy some kit and also to Highwatersails who have given us some sail offcuts and other bits and pieces. 

Two skippers on a boat ...who are a couple...this is going to be some experience!! Don't worry we are going to be smiling just like this photo I am sure. :)