Category Archives: LosLocos

It was late in the evening when we came back from shopping and had to move lots of beer and an enormous amount of little shopping bags into the dinghy. What once was a logistical nightmare is now quite normal and we managed to get everything aboard dry and safe.

Something quite mysterious happened while we were away from our ship: The stern of the Rancho Relaxo was full with dead bees. And the dinghy was full of them ! Hundreds, maybe a thousand dead bees, all cut in half or somehow else destroyed. We have no idea what might have happened but we’re quite lucky that we weren’t aboard when the massacre took place.

Next day we saw a beautiful tall ship in the anchorage and I immediately recognized her as the ship that we saw in Las Palmas in November. Back then it vanished before we could have a closer look but this time Bruno and me took the dinghy and entered immediately !

The first thing that amazed both of us was that they have cannons on board ! And not only that – we were greeted by two boys in full pirate costume – with real daggers. The second thing that I found quite astonishing: This ship is actually just two years old ! Has been built in Egypt and is now cruising the seas as a school ship that also takes charter guests. The vessel is running under the flag of the Czech Republic which is as uncommon as the austrian flag, hehehe. The friendly crew showed us around and we spend mazbe two hours on this beautiful sailing vessel. Nice !

We’re back in Bayahibe after two nights on the wonderful island of Saona. Tomorrow I’ll post more photos, right now just a teaser for you.

Not much going on here…. Once again I cleaned the bilge and made a few improvements to the interior of our home. Gui took Pinguin for a test sail. She’s now infected with the virus of Dinghy sailing. Yay !

Tomorrow in the morning we’ll leave for the Isla Saona to spend two or three days there before we’ll separate for a week. And I just found out that the Isla Saona “…is promoted amongst European visitors as the setting for the famous Bounty chocolate bar adverts…” Great !

After a wonderful trip of three days and roughly 350 miles we arrived in La Romana. We’ll post more pics and a little story tonight but first, we’ll have a shower and go to town…

We didn’t really arrive in Sint Maarten and we’ve gotta go already. No – that isn’t exactly true. We actually spent a whole week in the Simpsons Bay. But despite the chandleries and other ship suppliers I didn’t see much. We had kids-action, waved Guenther goodbye, bought lots of replacement parts and new stuff for the ship. I think this is one of the best aspects of Sint Maarten – you get pretty much everything. But otherwise the anchorage is rather bad. The water is murky and you wouldn’t wanna swim here which is a real problem. There are mosquitos and loud bars that take your sleep and it’s very expansive compared to Grenada or the Grenadines. The ‘city’ looks very much like the U.S. with everyone riding big cars, MCD, KFC, Subway and all the other big names along the streets. The bay itself is full of gigantic sailing and motorvessels but also many cruisers. Those I cannot really understand. It’s good to make a stopover here to get things done or bought – but why would you stay otherwise ?

So tomorrow we plan to leave. I’ve got to pick up the newly wielded davit and Gui is going to the supermarket but otherwise we’re pretty much set. At 1700 the bridge will open and we’ll leave for the Dominican Republic which is about 360 miles away. So we’re out on the sea for three days and pass the BVIs and Puerto Rico on the way. At last a longer trip again after all that short and exhaustive runs in between the islands.

“The idea is to remain in a state of departure, while always arriving. It saves on introductions and goodbyes.” – a quote from my favourite movie Waking Life.

It’s really hard to say good bye to Guenther who’s been with us for two weeks. We had a great time together and the days passed way to fast. So here we are in St. Maarten and we have to say good bye again.

The journey from Barbuda to here was nice downwind sailing again. A real treat after the upwind sailing of the past weeks. During the night we had a guest on Rancho Relaxo: a small seabird circled our home a few times and finally came to a rest on our outboard engine. We arrived at the Simpsons Bay shortly before sunset and sailed into the lagoon at 17:30 when the bridge opened for the last time that day.

Inside the lagoon we met our friends from the SY Express Crusader whom we had been in search for over the past weeks. And when we dinghied Guenther to the airport, we met Armin and Lutz from the SY Jaqueline. Haven’t seen them since Teneriffe. Heh.

The journey to the airport had a second goal: The landing stripe starts directly at the beach where there’s a nice little bar run by three beautiful girls. And this is where plenty of people stay to watch the planes come in or take off. Our friend left with the only 747 on that day and the police came right before take-off to ensure people wouldn’t climb any fences or try other funny things. The blast was enough to send a few towels and caps into the sea but besides that it was mostly just very loud.

The last days were kind of a rush. We were in Antigua, the starting point of all Caribbean sailing and home to the famous English Harbour. This is also where we were at anchor while we were around strolling in between mega yachts.

Quite fascinating the ships that are on display here. Most of them are deserted – only the crews that are cleaning day in and out can be met along the jetties. We had a fun night out and a wonderful dinner at ‘Sun Ra’. We arrived in the middle of the night and left at 04 hours in the morning to arrive in Barbuda when the sun is high up in the sky to see any rocks or whatever on the shallow beaches of that island.

Antigua was a LosLocos-style short trip and we wished we would have had a little more time. But it wasn’t exactly our type of island anyway.

Tomorrow I’ll post pics from Barbuda. You’re not gonna believe – this beach was crayz !