http://www.sailblogs.com/member/thetravellingwhites/

Give this a try folks,   we are planning on shifting over as this current one is very tight on pic space.

love

S and B

On our week off…………….

We had a superb 2^nd charter last week and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves;; we did, however, find that we were both absolutely knackered and we were not sure why………….. until we did the sums and worked out that we had been going flat out since Hannah’s graduation in October – 2 months solid, plus all the stuff we had crammed in during the summer.  This week is the first time we have actually sat and enjoyed the sun and the stars for a bit.

We have gone part share on renting a bungalow at what looks like the highest point on Bequia.   I have just flashed up the GPS and for the Google Earthers among you, our verandah (oh how colonial!!!!!) is at position:

Lat  N 13 00.4884  

Lon  W 06113.7618

Go on, googleearth it, you know you want to J

The house has a red roof and a red concrete verandah around it.  We are only overlooked from the rear of the house and have wonderful vista views for the other 3 sides.   It is a 35 minute walk down the hill  (mega steep, makes Gibraltar look like a playing filed J) and a 10 minute taxi ride back (no, we are not daft enough to walk back up yet – that is a pleasure to come later I’m sure)

We had a tropical storm of biblical proportions come down on us last night and have discovered where the roof leaks.   By some quirk of fate I had moved an armchair last night to get a bit more comfortable. Yes, you guessed it, I found the site of the leak.   Armchair out in sun to dry, if the rain goes away for a bit.   

Rob and Elaine on ‘Joy’  and Micke and Maraid on ‘Galaxy’  are in the beautiful island of Mayreau as I write this. I called Rob yesterday and he reported a slightly bumpy night on the dock in Union Island on Tuesday night.   We actually felt chilly and had to pull a sheet over us during the night – unheard of!!!

We popped down the hill yesterday to check on Camille, to find a hoard of workmen all over her, dancing to the tune of my defect report that I emailed in on Friday.  It seems that if you report the stuff in, it does get fixed – a re-assuring thing.   The boss, Garry, and his wife Elaine are off to St Vincent this morning and we have asked him to get us a CD of real Christmas music for next week.   We didn’t think (dooooohhhh!) to bring those CDs with us from UK and all you can get on Bequia is ‘oh come all de faithful’ with a Caribbean hint going on (reggae/steel drums or both), which is nice but we find ourselves craving English Breakfast tea bags (just run out) and proper Christmas music.  Breaking news - Garry, our boss, brought us some real Christmas music on CD back from his trip to St Vincent.  Hoorah!!!

Well,  we are away on Charter from this Saturday until after the New Year. We hope to get an internet connection at some stage to call loved ones but if we fail, sorry.   Happy Christmas to you all and we wish every one all that is good for a prosperous, pleasurable and loving 2008.

Later dudes and dudettes………………………………

Hi  All,

Well................

We have just completed our second charter on our own and have had some very interesting guests with us.   Cruising around the Grenadines is simply fabulous.  We sail from Bequia on the Sunday morning and our first scene to enjoy are the ‘Moonholes’   This is a collection of houses made by the folks who live there and they are made out of only things they can pick up locally:   driftwood,  rocks, bits of tree etc.  The ‘Moonhole’ is actually a natural arch, inside which the first house was built and inhabited.   It is said that the house was considered untenable after an occupant in the upper bedroom woke up with a large rock in the bed alongside him.   That house now stands empty but is there for view.   

Next stop is the beautiful island of Mustique, where the guests take a tour of the island and we meet up with them at the famous ‘Basil’s Bar for sunset rum punches and music.   After that it is back onboard for a sumptuous dinner and a bit of partying.

The following morning sees us departing from Mustique and heading south to the Tobago Cays, where there is wonderful snorkelling to see the turtles and diving on the Horseshow Reef.   Just outside the reef is a tiny sand island called Petit Tabac,  better known as  'Johnny Depp Island'.  It was the island where Kiera Knightly burnt the rum in 'Pirates of the Caribbean.    A short sail from the Tobago Cays takes us in a westerly direction to Union Island for a 'Med Moor' on the dock for fresh water, supplies and a meal ashore with our guests.   Wednesday morning and we are off to Palm Island,  a private resort where we are allowed in.  We visit a French artist there who does wonderful underwater scenes in acrylics and oils.  Hi literally goes diving, sees something and then comes up and paints it.   We spend Wednesday night in Chatham Bay on the west side of Union Island and go diving in the morning, before heading up to Mayreau.    Thursday there, and up to Canouan for a stop and another dip, before returning up to Bequia and completing the loop.

This job is full on and the worst bit to start with was sore feet. We are getting a bit stronger and we are both losing some weight too.  We have just gone 1/3 share on a house right at the highest point of Bequia and are going to try it out during this next week off.

I am looking at either starting another page on this site or re-hosting the blog again, as this site is a bit limited on space for pics,  AND I know you love to see pics

more later............................

Just finished our final training charter with Rob and Elaine onboard 'Joy' and we took over 'Camille' last night.  She has been in maintenance for a couple of weeks so today is going to be uphill all the way before our guests arrive this evening.

I promise to write a bit more often but life is a bit full on at the moment.

Comms is a bit limited at the moment, so please accept our apologies if we have missed any calls.  We are not going to use our UK cellphone as it is prohibitively expensive to make and receive calls.   I think receiving texts might be ok though.

We are not always connected out here, so apologies if messages dont get through.

Must dash but thought I would leave you with a picture of giant tortoises on the beautiful island of Mustique (we have to come here every week - yawn :-))

Well, here we are in the British Virgin Islands on the island of Tortola at the Trade Winds base in Hodges Creek. We were here to assist on Saturday with the 3 departing catamaran charters.  Chris and Ali on 'Turquoise Dreams' ,  Sean and Karen on 'Coral Dreams' and Danny and Lisa on 'Solitaire'.    The 4th catamaran ;Cool Cat'  went off to St Martin in the morning twilight of Tuesday on a logistics run, with Kev, the maintenance manager onboard.   We are staying onboard Kev and his lovely Trinidadian wife Naila's  boat instead of moving into a motel. 

It has rained every day since we arrived but the temperature is a very friendly high 70s in the day and low 70s at night, so all is comfortable.

We are off on another very early flight on Saturday to Bequia, via Barbados and St Vincent.  As soon as we arrive we are off on our final training charter with Rob and Elaine (owners of Rjinstrom, the barge in Island Harbour) to see how they do it.  The week after that it seems that we get to take over 'Camille' and operate out of Bequia until further notice.  The by word for Trade Winds is 'remain flexible'  so we will see what happens..................................

It is with great sadness that we returned to England to say farewell to my father, Douglas Roy George White,  who passed away at 0345z on Sunday morning 28 October 2007.    Dad had enjoyed a really full and loving life and a good retirement.   His funeral is on Wednesday 14th November 2007 at 1045z at St Albans Church, North Harrow.  The ceremony completes at the Breakespear Crematorium and is followed by a wake back at the church hall afterwards.   For those of you who knew Dad,  I hope you will remember him in your thoughts and prayers as a happy, generous and most loving man.   The family has asked for no flowers but for a donation to the RNLI should you feel inclined.  

For Douglas and for his comrades who gave their lives in the conflicts of the 20th Century and up to this moment:

They shall not grow old as we who are left grow old.
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning,
WE WILL REMEMBER THEM.

love

Steve and Barbara

Well,  we have now completed our first training charter week onboard a beautiful $1M catamaran called 'Justine' with skipper 'Yaya' and Mate Karen.  This charter was host to 2 lovely couples from Connecticut, who had an absolute ball and had tons of praise for the skipper and mate.   A great charter;  we circumnavigated the island of Antigua where the guess observed that they had a different view for each MEAL!!!!!  Lots of swimming and snorkelling and beach runs in the dinghy.  A couple of meals ashore as well as the wonderful food prepared by Karen.   A visit to historic Nelsons Dockyard in English Harbour was one of the many highlights of this wonderful week and we are both so very grateful to Yaya and Karen for their insights into the best way to run a TradeWinds Cruise Club charter week.

We flew home to UK on the Saturday night and I am sat in the back bedroom at 12 Merton Road as I write this.  We arrived at Gatwick around 1000 and my best friend in the whole world,  Mike,  picked us up from LGW and transported us up to Harrow.  Thankyou Mike, you saved a couple of weary travellers from serious jetlag damage.

Must dash,  lunch beckons (or is it breakfast?)..................................

Well, what a great time we had.   Bequia is a beautiful place to visit and the launch week for Tradewinds was a lot of fun.   the launch party ended around midnight last night and we were up at 0330 to catch a fast launch to St Vincent,  a plane to Barbados and then another plane up to Antigua.  We arrived in Jolly Harbour at around lunch time and as I write this,  Barbara is curled up on the couch (yes, these catamarans have couches - ish)  asleep.   It is hot but we have air conditioning (on a yacht?   yes!) as well.   I have to take a shower and then we are off to get some groceries and then a few beers and a meal.

The boat we are on this week is called Justine (last week it was 'Restless Spirit).

We sail on Saturday for a cruise around the Antigua sailing and diving grounds, where Barbara and I are there to watch and learn what goes on while entertaining the guests onboard..   There is a good routine to the way things are run and it is up to us to learn the ropes.  We have a week ashore as well, next,  in the BVI, after which we are not sure where we will be going.  A mystery................................

Well, here we are and we are now getting into it all.  Jetlag leaves us behind once again as we find ourselves waking at normal times and getting tired when we are supposed to.  It has rained a bit since we arrived (well, it is getting to be 'winter')  and the temperature has dived to a chilly  86 degrees f.    Yesterday we started a series of briefings for this seasons launch.  Work stopped at noon and we took the tenders across to a beach the other side of this beautiful bay, where we had a BBQ and beer and swimming and singing and a lot of fun.  Its a tough life.  We managed to escape from England just before the first frosts arrived in our area.

We are here on Bequia until Thursday, when we fly up to Antigua and go sailing (training cruise)  with a seasoned team (Ya Ya and Karen).  After that, we are off to Tortola for a week and then who knows where we could end up after that.

This company operates 'cats'  from all over the Caribbean as well as Greece and very soon, the Red Sea as well.  They are looking to open up all over the world, so we will have to work to keep this blog up to date as to our whereabouts.

Must dash,  breakfast and work both beckon

Hi All,   BANG!!!!!!!   All of a sudden we in a pub in Chandlers Ford and then we were in the Caribbean.   We got here last night and the weather is something between brilliant sunshine and thunderstorms.   Bequia (pronounced Bekway)  is 21 square miles (7 x 3) and has a population (allegedly) of 5000 people. It is due south of the island of St Vincent and the Grenadines, which is due west of Barbados.

A 9 hour flight from Gatport Airwick and a 40 minute island hop and an equal length ferry run, got us here last night at around 2000 (local) or 0200 BST.  Of course, after a lovely meal in the local restaurant and we hit the sack.  We are accommodated onboard a 50 ft catamaran called ' Restless Spirit' with 3 other couples who are going throught the training as well.  The rest of the team went off for a dive this morning to a local reef.  We were too jetlagged to do anything this morning. The good news is that we have the afternoon off to watch the rugby.

We will get to take photos over the next week and post some here for you.

Must dash,  beer to drink and also Barbaras toe nails to paint.

later..................................

Well,  for those of you seasoned blogreaders, you will probably remember us this time last year, prior to heading out to Hawaii.  That seems like a lifetime ago and now we are off to do it all again, albeit to a different place to do different stuff.

Today is Sunday and Barbara is at Commodore Yachting doing her diesel maintenance course and Steve is round the corner at Clarence Yard, negotiating repair work to Sharkie's (our 6.5m RIB) engine. It seems her piston rings are knackered and need replacing. Hopefully a couple of navy guys, who help out at the Gosport Sea Cadets,   will be able to do the job for us and help get Sharkie back under way.  Our friends  Tony and Nikki are looking after her for us and will be 'exercising' her regularly for 2 - 3 years or longer, and hopefully getting a lot of fun out of her too.

Wight Mistress is almost ready to go to bed for the year. All the sails and running rigging are down and stowed and next week sees the engine room prepared for hibernation as well.  Our friends Ted and Kay and Nikki and David are looking after her for us

We would like to publicly say a huge thankyou to Tony and Nikki and Ted, Kay. Nikki and David for helping us with looking after the boats and car in our absence,  and to Jill for looking after our cottage for us.  We really appreciate your warm-hearted help in all of this,   thankyou.

Next Thursday sees Hannah receive her degree at Winchester Cathedral.  We are very excited.  We are all going out for a meal in the evening,  which happens to also be the night before Barbara and I fly off to the Caribbean to start the next adventure.

Busy busy busy....................................................

Well,  11 days before we fly out to the Caribbean and we feel like we are getting close to being ready.  The experience of this time last year is holding us in good stead for it this time and we are able to enjoy the anticipation a bit more. The house is pretty much running itself (inbetween odd defects that require the attention of the local tradespeople).   Barbara has done a major league sort out of her wardrobe and will be carrying very little with her.  Steve is under the same pressure - from Barbara.

One of the pre-requisites for this job was for Steve to qualify as a PADI Divemaster, in order to take certified divers away for dives while working.  This he completed on Sunday, after 9 full days (and 9 full nights of studying).   Needless to say, as Steve is a 'bear of little brain'  it was a tough thing to achieve.   It is nice when some experience from 36 years in the navy has relevance,  and the time spent as a ships diving officer has now paid off.   Steve is knackered and having a 4 day well earned rest, teaching RYA level 2 powerboat!!!!!

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaatrrrrrrhghgggggg!!

More later