After the storm comes beach

The storm passed by our area pretty quickly. Four hours of 25-40 knots of wind and our two anchors held us in place without any kind of problem. It was kind of a small storm after all and like Alex said; we've been through worse, and those times we were far from land and safe anchorages. The sun's now back here again and we're heading to the beach for some meditation time. Haven't slept much last night due to the screaming wind so a day on the beach is perfect.

By the way, as we don't moderate the comments ourselves any longer we don't get to see more than the comments that gets published here in the blog, but I just got the information that a few of you still insist on commenting anonymously. Please make sure to add your name to what you have to say, otherwise your comment/questions and wonderings won't go through. 

Have a great Sunday evening you all. 

Irene

Already in the early beginning of the year, when they announced this years names for the upcoming hurricanes of this season, I said to Alex that Irene would probably come our way. Not that I'm an expert in tropical storm developments or anything, it was just a feeling I had, most likely because Irene was the name of my beloved and very much missed grandmother and it is also my own middle name. So now it seems like I was right in my prediction. Irene is the ninth named storm in this 2011 Atlantic hurricane season and it is predicted to develop into the first real hurricane, sometime on Monday when it should approach the coast of Dominican Republic. Luckily, for us, the storm isn't going to reach those terrible and devastating hurricane forces before it has passed through the Lesser Antilles and moved on to the West, but nevertheless we are expected to get a good portion of strong winds, 40-50 knots, and the typical torrential rain that usually develops with these tropical depressions. Alex woke me up at 2.20 am a couple of hours ago and we have now set out a second anchor (using a Delta and a CQR) and more chain so let's now hope that the boat will stay firmly with this set up until the storm has drifted away. 

This is the first tropical storm in our lives, hoping it will be an experience not too powerful. It would also be amazing if Irene could hold herself as close to the coast of Guadeloupe as possible as she's now  supposed to hit land for the first time since she was developed into a storm. We're currently around 60 nm from the center of the storm. Click here for more info about Irene.

Exhausted

We have sailed around 1000 nautical miles in the past 30 days, that's very many miles let me tell you and I feel it in every part of my body. Now I hope for at least four-five days of non movement under my feet, no rolling, no banging into waves, no uncomfortable heeling and no more sleepless nights during night watches for a while. I know I'll get the lust back for getting out on the ocean again in approximately five days but until then I'm glad we're safely anchored up and with no intention to move from here for at least the following 96 hours.

J'adore St Barth

We were supposed to sail down to Antigua to fix some stuff down there for a few days but we got stuck in between on this amazing French island again. St Barth is dangerously close to St Martin where we supposedly will spend quite a lot of time this year, only a three hours sail away, and I can imagine that we will find many future occasions and excuses to jump over to spend some good times here. St Barth is an exquisite French island smacked into the most beautiful of the Caribbean waters and it is very easy to fall in love with the style, the vibe and the beauty of this place. Having major headache from last nights party but Alex has already forced me to change the sails so we're now on our way on the seas again. Hoping that the salt water and breeze will help me to recover.. 

One of those sunsets

One night at Buccament Bay resort, St Vincent.

Costs updated

I realize I forgot two important parts on our sailing budget that I showed you the other day.

Fuel: €75/month - We're cruising around the world with a sailboat and we hate the sound of the engine running so we try to keep the fuel cost at the minimum. We rarely spend more than this per month.

Laundry: €40/month - As we definitely have no space on the boat for a washing machine, and because we are extremely lazy and bored with hand washing, we leave our clothes for cleaning as soon as we get the chance in a harbor or town. We're washing maybe 4 machines per month and generally it costs €10 per machine and at least here in the Caribbean, you get your clothes back clean, dry and nicely folded for this price.

The new project

So here's a few more shots of our new boat. Everyone who sees her goes "oh wow, look at those elegant lines!!" and yes the lines of this classic yacht are indeed very beautiful but our focus have completely gone from that aspect and all we can feel right now is merely something like: Holy fucking shit, what have we done? How the hell will we ever have the time to make her ready to sail out into the Pacific before April 2012??