So Long Sweet Saralane

I spent a little (too much) time looking back over our blog posts as I thought about what to write in this post and a few things occurred to me in the process. 

First - without question, the best thing about our years of sailing Saralane are the friends we've made along the way. I'm tempted to write about all of them and include links to previous posts to revisit some of the times we spent together, but that would make for a REALLY long read. Beginning with our friends who waved us off the dock in Newport in the fall of 2010... to the friends who helped us get Saralane up and going again after Hurricane Irma in 2017... and all the friends in between, we feel so fortunate to be a part of this community. Some are settled back on land; some are circumnavigating and are on the other side of the world. Some we talk to weekly and some are gone forever. There are too many memories to count.

Second - we've had an ridiculous amount of fun. Lots of adventures and lots and lots of fun. What began as 'let's take a year off and go sailing' quickly turned into 'hey, this is really fun... let's keep going!'. And so we did.

Third - we were (relatively) young when we started this! The 'kids' (aka: anyone younger than us) we meet out sailing would roll their eyes to hear me say that, and our 90+ year old friends laugh when we say we realize how much older we are now. It's just the continuum of life and we are grateful to still be moving along it. That being what it is, we decided we were ready for a change.

With that bit of an intro I'll tell you that we've sold sweet Saralane. We hauled her at Independent Boat Yard in St Thomas in April and decided it was time to move on to something else. We spent lots of time spiffing her up before listing her and she was looking good when we left her with a FOR SALE sign on the bow rail.

Saralane for sale in St Thomas

It's so bittersweet. She's been ours for 15 years and we literally put our blood, sweat (Skip) and tears (me) into her. She took good care of us too. She was 'Expectation' when we bought her and she became 'Saralane' for us. I don't know what her new name will be but I hope she has more adventures with her new owner. 

The 'boat' key ring I got Skip when we bought Saralane in 2007

And yes, we have moved on to something else. Something else being a new (old) boat! Skip and crew sailed her to St Thomas and arrived this past weekend. I have decided to be true to my fair weather sailing self, and will fly down to join him. I haven't yet decided about continuing the blog since we'd no longer actually be "Sailing Saralane". But, there are sure to be more adventures and more visits to Barbuda on the new boat and I know you want more Barbuda photos. Right?!

Let me introduce you to the new boat... she's a beautiful Little Harbor '54 that we've named 'Wildflower'. We'll spend the season on her in the Caribbean and plan to bring her north in the spring. If you see us around... come say hello! 

Wildflower in the Chesapeake

'You belong among the wildflowers, you belong on a boat out at sea...
Sail away, kill off the hours, you belong somewhere you feel free'

Wishing all a happy and healthy new year.....

Rerigging Saralane

It’s been a long time since I (Skip) have contributed to the blog, so I’ll go over the re-rig/re-commission process that we went through several years ago.

You will recall that we spent the winter and spring of 2018 mastless and looking quite sad. Luckily our trusty Kubota diesel never missed a beat and we spent our time frequenting our favorite haunts in the BVI, finally hauling for hurricane season at Nanny Cay, BVI.

Stern to in Little Harbor, with half a mast

In November 2018 I delivered an Outbound 46 from Newport south and used the opportunity to put items aboard that were needed to complete the re-rig process. Namely a new furling system and a new stove. The old stove was original (1979) and the oven portion had given up the ghost and we found that a nice Eno three burner would fit nicely. Upon arrival, I found Saralane just as we left her 5 months prior – free of mildew, odors and bugs. While on the hard, I removed the old stove, painted out the space, fashioned new blocks for the gimballs, and dropped the new Eno in – perfect!

     

Post Irma, boat builders and marine suppliers were backlogged due to the sudden demand. This was true for Selden Mast, and potential shipments were many months out. We opted to wait until the 2018 hurricane season was over before installing a new mast and coordinated shipping with the local Selden dealer, who was also importing several masts. I had also arranged for several other masts to be sent to Virgin Gorda and the combined orders were put in a shipping container and delivered to Tortola. The local dealer, Wickhams Cay Rigging, took care of all of the import duties and handling on Tortola. Ultimately, the container arrived at Nanny Cay about a week after I did. With the help of the Wickhams and Nanny crews, the masts were unloaded and inventoried. Selden is a Swedish company and uses containers to move mast components. The maximum length is 40’ – the length of a container – so our mast (58’) was in two pieces and needed to be spliced. The Selden office in Charleston is very professional and completely assembles the masts in their shop, then disassembles and preps them for shipping. At the end of the day, all went well. The most difficult part was lining up the two sections on rickety, uneven sawhorses and pulling the two parts together – by myself. After a few starts, it all came together.

New masts unloaded

Saralane's new mast

Several days later we launched Saralane and motored her around to the bulkhead on the reclaimed land to the east of Nanny Cay. 

Old mast = trash

Old mast

I hired a local crane operator, and with the help of a few cruising friends, the old broken stub of a mast was removed and the new rig stepped – all that I had to do next was make up the StaLok ends to the shrouds. Selden was reluctant to swage the new turnbuckles on to measured lengths, and so supplied the lower end of the shrouds cut, and the turnbuckles supplied with StaLok mechanical wire fittings. I temporarily stayed the mast with halyards and went to work on the StaLoks. The first was a little worrying, but once I got the knack – all went well. We stepped just before lunch and I had the port and starboard shrouds done before cocktail hour. We have a 7 X 19 backstay bridle that also needed to be swaged to length, so I engaged the capable folks at Wickhams Cay to swage the wire. 

New mast is in

StaLok fitting

The last component was the headstay/furling gear, but I had made a commitment to do another delivery south from Norfolk but it was early December by now and I was running out of time. In the past we have kept Saralane at a slip next door to Nanny Cay at Manual Reef marina, so I moved her there (sans headstay) while I was on delivery and away for the holidays.

Fast forward to mid-January 2019 and we were back at Manual Reef and on board Saralane. All was well on board, there was even ice in the freezer! After doing another cleanup, laundry and some provisioning, we began building the furling gear. Manual Reef has a nice level concrete apron and elevated section that was perfect for putting the furling foils together. Selden has an excellent video that shows how to build the furler step by step. As with the mast stays, the furler had to be made to length that involved another StaLok – but by now it was fairly easy. 

Nice work space, tools ready, Stalok prep, read the manual!

Stalok adjustment, tightening, more adjusting, final fitting

All was going perfectly until the final step when we discovered the feeder for the sail was the wrong size – and we couldn’t proceed without the correct one. Luckily, Wickhams Cay had one but it was closing time so we couldn’t quite complete the job the same day. We finished the next day, and with the help of a few marina mates, we hung the furler and got the jib on. We were a sailboat again!

Wrong size feeder

Drawing an audience on the dock

Even this little guy wanted to help

But wait! On our first sail we found that the new to us backstay hydraulic cylinder was weeping slightly as was the hydraulic pump. Wickhams Rigging didn’t have rebuild parts so we made arrangements to have Island Rigging in St Thomas do the repairs – we could live with the weeps for a while. We made our way to St John (as planned) where we met up with Rob & Ellen on Miclo III and Steve & Eva on Foreva. Also in Francis Bay were Dave & Helen on Allegheny, the boat I delivered back in December. Dave had made arrangements for new electronics to be installed on Allegheny (all of the old stuff had failed on the way down) and asked me to oversee the work in Red Hook. This allowed us to take a slip for a week in Redhook and use the time to get the hydraulics serviced. With this completed, Saralane was now  100% and we were looking forward to the balance of the winter/spring to enjoy the BVI and USVI.

First sail with the new rig

Goodbye to 2021

Hello? Anyone still checking in? Maybe you've given up on Sailing Saralane? I've almost given up on it since letting it languish for so long. I've most definitely given up on any possibility of chronology. I really hate to let an entire calendar year go by with no posts at all so I'll give it a go. No promises....

We were in Barbuda in early 2020 when news of the coronavirus became more persistent and unsettling. We stayed there for a while before sailing back to Antigua and making the decision to head home. Our first thought was to haul in Jolly Harbor where we'd been before, but they closed the Antigua airport leaving us no option to fly home. One by one all the islands closed airports and borders so we sailed to St John where we were at least in US territory. We weren't the only ones who had that idea so we had friends around and it was pretty comfortable being there. In April we hauled out in a small yard in St Thomas and flew home and we've been here since then. That's pretty much it in a nutshell. 

However, the two things that have most marked this time away from the blog have nothing to do with the surreal turn the world has taken with the pandemic. 

On Christmas morning last year, we lost Skip's dad. It's hard to believe it's been over a year already. He died peacefully at home and we were fortunate to be with him during his last days. Warren lived a long and adventurous life and was in good health until the very end of his 97 years. He was a big presence and we miss him immensely. I hope he and Kathie are together somewhere...

Kathie and Warren on Saralane in St Croix

The other event that marked this time is the death of our friend Ellen Tischbin. She died last May after being struck by a dinghy while she was swimming in Falmouth Harbor in Antigua. It still feels shocking to realize that this happened. We became close with Ellen & Rob on 'Miclo' during the past few years, and along with Steve & Eva on 'Foreva', spent weeks at a time in each others easy company and had some of the happiest times of our cruising years.

We were introduced to them by our mutual friends Ed & Elizabeth from 'Skylark' and were lucky to have Ellen & Rob and Ed & Elizabeth visit us together in Newport the last summer pre-Covid.

I could go on about the time we spent together and what made Ellen so special but it would be impossible to know where to stop. People were drawn to Ellen for her deep kindness and thoughtfulness, her big laugh and even bigger heart. She had friends from forever ago and friends from the day before yesterday and she loved them all fiercely. She was epically proud of her New Jersey roots and in September we gathered in New Jersey with her family and friends to remember and celebrate her life. Ellen is gone much too soon and she is missed in ways beyond words.

Rob & Ellen, Skip & me, in Barbuda early 2019

Maho Bay St John: Skip, me, Ellen, Rob, Eva, Steve early 2019

I'll leave all the boat talk for another time. As I looked back through my photos I realized I hadn't even covered our re-rigging after Hurricane Irma, so all you detailed-boat-project readers stand by. Skip is getting his first look at Saralane in St Thomas this week so there's fodder/hope for the blog. I hope I haven't lost you all in the mean time.

Here's to a happy and healthy 2022...

In memory of Sue and Kathie

This past November we lost two of the most important people in our lives. My stepmom Sue died on November 2nd and Skip's mom Kathie died two weeks later on November 17th. Both were unexpected and terrible losses.

Sue hadn't been feeling well and tests revealed an especially aggressive metastatic cancer. After a short time in the hospital she came home; days later she passed away. It was very sudden and shocking and it's still hard to believe that she's no longer here. Sue spent time with her friends and all of our close family in her last days, and died with my father at her side. I miss her in ways I can't express.

Less than two weeks later, Kathie fell at home and broke several ribs. She was hospitalized briefly and though we hoped for the best, she was unable to recover from her injuries. She died surrounded by family. Two of her grandsons who spoke at her service remembered her for her quiet, steady presence and gentle kindness. We remember her for those things and so much more.

I could write pages and pages about Sue and Kathie, story after story about them both, but I wouldn't know where to stop. Instead I will leave you with just the news that they are gone and a photo of each from our visits in the Caribbean with them. May their memories be a blessing to us all...

Perry and Sue drinking rum on Saralane in 2011

Warren and Kathie in St Croix in 2011

Two years (plus) post Irma

Anyone still out there? I realize it's been more than a year since our last post, but I haven't abandoned you (or the blog). I even started a post once or twice but got tired of editing hurricane photos and set it aside; before I knew it more than a year had gone by. However.... it's October and I'm dangerously close to letting an entire calendar year go by without an update, so I'm co-opting the beginnings of a post that Skip started ages ago that picks up where he left off last September. We've got some catching up to do.

I'll start with non-sailing news and the absolute antidote to hurricane photos.... baby Hayden arrived in July of 2018! She's sweet and adorable and completely fearless.

Five day old Hayden, full of milk and happy.

Here she is on her first birthday, getting the hang of eating birthday cake with a little coaxing from Easton, who is quite experienced at it, having had two birthdays already. 

Celebrating Hayden's first birthday

Eating banana bread is much simpler.

They're great kids and we're lucky to spend so much time with them. There's a pint sized  aquarium nearby where the kids can touch all kinds of sea life and like any kid worth their salt, they both love getting their hands on everything there. We're (not so) secretly prepping them to come to see us in the islands where they can see all kinds of sea life.

Very attentive at the aquarium.

Please touch!

Now that you've sufficiently oohed and aahed over our grandkid photos (right?)... back to Saralane and the islands.

Skip had enough confidence in the engine now to motor Saralane from Manuel Reef around to Trellis Bay to pick me up and that's when I got my first look at the damage there.  Battered boats covered the shoreline.

More than explicit warning

Boats littered the entire beach

As in most areas, the moorings in Trellis were still in place, but the Loose Mongoose had sustained damage and the Last Resort had been completely destroyed. The small market was still functioning though and the rotis were as tasty as ever.

From Trellis we headed over to Mountain Point to see how things looked. The goats were still there and in much bigger groups than before. Normally we'd see 6 or 8 together, but this time there were 30 or more in a group.

No goat yoga for this crowd

Underwater at Mountain Point was pretty bleak. We don't trust the seal on our underwater camera anymore so I don't have any photos but all the coral we'd photographed years back was completely white and much of it lay in pieces in the sand.

We planned to visit Clinton and though we'd had more than our fill of VGYH, we still wanted to say hello to Maurice, so we decided to rent a car out of Leverick Bay to avoid the rolly anchorage (and new dinghy landing fee) by VGYH. We motored to North Sound and did a quick tour of the Sound before anchoring off the resort in Leverick. 

There was some clean up going on at Saba Rock and from what we heard, it's been bought and plans are underway to rebuild. These photos are from May 2018 so a lot may have changed by now.... or not. Bitter End was still barely in the clean up stage at this point.

Saba Rock

During our drive around Virgin Gorda we gave a lift to a woman who was trying to get to work at Hog Heaven, which was up and running much to the delight of everyone who likes barbeque (hogs) and gorgeous mountaintop views of North Sound (heaven). 

The shoreline on the windward side was choked with sargasso; a problem several of the Caribbean islands have been coping with. You can see Clinton's house here; it's the second from the left and practically right on the beach. A fabulous spot when there's no hurricane coming. The red house is such a curious place... practically everything on the property was either red to begin with or has been painted red. I mean RED red, not just plain old regular sort of red. The house, the cars and trucks, the palm tree trunks, even the dog's house is painted red.

 
We got a look at Clinton's old boat La Boheme which had finally been lifted out of the water. She was a beautiful boat and it was sad to see her in ruins.

Top two - La Boheme, Bottom two - around Virgin Gorda

Clinton's house repair was still in the works but there was a lot of progress since we'd last seen it. Still a killer view.

A picture window will replace the sliding glass doors on the sea side

Simba - no longer a kitten but still feisty and loud

We said our goodbyes to Clinton and spent the afternoon roaming around the Coppermine and the beach at Spring Bay. We stopped in at the Top of the Baths where we were the only customers. 

Coppermine ruins

Palm tree and halo around the sun at Spring Bay

No need for open umbrellas at empty tables at Top of the Baths

 

Apropos of nothing... this was a mystery can still on board Saralane. We decided not to chance it.

Before clearing out in West End, we spent a few nights anchored in Little Harbor, Peter Island, an old favorite spot. We did the requisite walk up to the ruined house and got a good view of Saralane. I even found a flower or two to restart my flora (and sometimes fauna) photos.

Saralane with half her mast in lovely Little Harbor

Some things have improved at West End customs since I took these photos in May 2018. For one thing they now have a prefab building instead of a makeshift tent so the customs officials no longer have to weigh down their piles of paperwork with rocks and hunks of concrete to keep the wind from blowing it all away. Other things haven't changed. If you want to clear in or out here you still have to climb up the truck tires onto the dock. Nice.

 

We climbed the tires, cleared out, and headed for St John

For the first time since Irma, Saralane was leaving the BVI. We felt we'd come a long way since the day we spent watching the hurricane track over the islands and the days following when we scoured the internet for information, only to do it all over again two weeks later when Maria made a pass at the islands. 

I'll leave it here for now and pick up in St John next time. Sorry for the long wait for a blog post... thanks for sticking with me!