Category Archives: Rancho Relaxo

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 !

‘The Saints’ couldn’t hold us very long. We spent another day at the beach and had a really nice dinner in the little town. Next day we already prepared to leave again. Oh. And I forgot: The windlass was already prepared before breakfast. Guenther wakes up early and instead of idling around, he found the broken cable and replaced it quickly.

We actually do a lot of repairs these days. An electric cable of one of the solar panels was corroded and got replaced, and while I’m writing this, Guenther and Bruno try to glue our outboard engine together. It was broken at the mounting piece and we’ve got a special metal epoxy to fix it.

The Saints are really worth a visit. Nice, small islands with beautiful beaches, lots of goats, chickens and iguanas. But we’d like to visit Barbuda and stop vor a visit in Antigua, the birthplace of sailing in the Caribbean.

The ride towards Antigua wasn’t any special. In the lee of Guadeloupe we didn’t have any wind and had to run under engine but the rest of the trip was quite fast with the wind coming from the east. At four o’clock in the morning we dropped the anchor in English Harbour and ate the remaining cookies, Julia and Oliver made for us. (Thanks ! But next time, we need more. Let Guenther pay for the extra baggage !)

Now we’ll try the dinghy engine to clear in and visit the harbour to take a few pics of the mega yachts that are at anchor here. Maybe we’ll meet Taru and Alex, they should be around here somewhere…

It was difficult to leave St. Lucia but at sunset we put to sea and sailed up north. Again a day of saiing hard on the wind but this time the angle is not that bad as last time, it’s gonna be a bit faster…

Our friend Guenther is steering the Rancho Relaxo and makes her race through the waves. Soon we’re past St. Lucia and pass Martinique by night. Next day we also pass Dominica.  We would have loved to visit those islands as well but there’s not enough time… Our goal are the Isles Les Saintes just south of Guadeloupe.

In the night we enter the archipelago and thanks to the moonlight and our GPS we manage the passage between the little islands. Soon after we find ourselves in the large bay of Terre de Haut. But the water is quite deep (17-20m) and all the other ships use mooring buoys. We can’t find a free one and decide to drop the anchor.

And that’s where our difficulties start: The water is about 10m and we should put about 40m of anchor chain. But the anchor drags and we’ve got to get it up again. But the windlass suddenly doesn’t work and the captain has to pull up 24kg anchor and 40m of 10mm chain by hand. And it takes another THREE tries until the anchor finally takes hold. We still don’t trust it too much and despite being completely wrecked, I am awake for quite some time to listen for any sound. But everything’s find.

Not so much for our neighbours: During the night, Guenther awaks and sees the neighbour-yacht going adrift. He tries to wake them by using a large light he flashs into their cabin but no one awakes. The ship slowly drifts into the bay…

Next day we take a picture of the SY Twizzle, go to discover the island, eat croissants for breakfast, rent bicycles to to go to a near beach. And that’s what we’re gonna do right NOW.

We made a little mistake. I don’t know how it really happend but we intended to go to Marigot bay and somehow ended up here. But as Soufrière would have been the next stop it was great to save the time we would have spent going in and out of Marigot bay.

So here we are. We are moored to a buoy about 200 meters from the famous Piton. Yesterday we were in the little village that’s 10 minutes away with the dinghy. We cleared in and out again and the officer of the immigration showed us the way to a nice bar where he had a beer and where we also met the officer of the customs. Ha !

In the bar we had lunch and met Jamalai, a local musican who wrote a song dedicated to the LosLocos. We got a few groceries and speeded back to our ship where we met Michel. He wanted to sell us something but as he didn’t have anything at hand that we wanted, he promised to organize a hike for the next morning to the top of Piton. More on that later !

To sum up – we had an amazing first day on St. Lucia. And there will be two more before we leave for the next beautiful island in the Caribbean.

The Blue Lagoon Marina in St. Vincent was a good place to repair our ship but we didn’t want to spend too much time here. So we filled up the tank and put to sea. (Last time we took Diesel was in Mindelo, approx. 3000 nautical miles ago.)

In the early afternoon we started our trip to Bequia with nice wind from behind and a current that was pushing us in the right direction. Yeah, that’s definately the right direction to sail to. A pity we’re going north tomorrow…

Having arrived in the Admiralty Bay we took a buoy and rode toards the Frangipani-Bar in our dinghy. But we didn’t want to go there and walked towards the ‘town’ instead.  We had to get money and buy a few things for the next days. Afterwards we enjoyed the sunset in a Bar at the beach.

Back at our dinghy we met the crew of the SY Ninita. We last saw each other in Mindelo, Cabo Verde. So we invited our friends on bord and had a few cold drinks and a lot to talk about.

(For the non-sailor: 1nm = 1 nautical mile = 1.852km)

What wouldn’t we do for our friends ? First we put Guenther on board our friends ship the SY Tamora because we couldn’t make it to Martinique in time and Guenther had to take a plane to St. Vincent. It also was very hard to leave our friends in Carriacou. And then there was the weather – or rather the wind. It came from NNE and that was exactly the direction we would have to sail !

We departed from Carriacou at sunset and already knew that this trip wouldn’t be exactly a nice one. Despite being very short – only 45nm it would take long – that was sure.

And it was exactly as we expected it: it took us 26 hours to do the 45 miles distance (sailed distance: 99 miles !!) And we had to fight for every single mile against a wind with 6 Beaufort and a nasty sea. And to make it not too easy, the current also was against us.

Sometime during the night a wave tore the Genoa and we had a nice hole at the foot. No wonder as we sailed with a heel of 35 to 40 degrees. Ouch !

But we’ve made it and it was worth it. Because now we’ve got Guenther on board. And he’s a really old friend of mine and the one who introduced me to sailing about 13 years ago !

Of course he came with bags full of presents including cookies from great-grandma and grandma, letters, spare parts for the ship. Everybody got something. Right now the capitana together with Viola will go to the immigration in Kingstown and Guenther, Bruno and me will replace the broken Genoa. Yay.

Right as we (Tim, me, Viola and Bruno) come back from clearing out, Claus and Gui arrive from their fishing trip. They got picked up by local fishermen in the morning and took the harpoons to catch two fish, mussels and 9 (in words: NINE) Lobsters !! Those we’ll have tonight for dinner.

This means we’ll soon leave the beach bar to sail towards Saline Island. From there we’ll take the dinghy to White Island where we’ll sleep at the beach and prepare our catch at a bonfire at night.

Tomorrow we’ll sail to the north to pick up Guenther in the Blue Lagoon on St. Vincent. So you’ll probably not hear from us until the 28th of jan…