Cornelius, North Carolina For the past two years, October has been a month packed with boat projects as we readied Berkeley East to make the passage south for the winter. While we had decided to take BE to the British Virgin Islands with the Caribbean 1500 boat rally again this year, and then sail across […]
Cornelius, North Carolina Berkeley East is doing well, resting nicely at the marina in Hampton, VA, while we enjoy some land time at our house just north of Charlotte, North Carolina. We keep an eye on the hurricanes and travel up to the marina regularly to ensure that the boat is doing well, but the […]
Hampton, VA With Berkeley East safely docked in Bluewater Marina, we began getting her ready for a restful summer. This involved a lot of washing, cleaning, polishing and unloading. We went through all of the outside lockers, getting rid of things we had not used in the last 12 months and making way for new […]
Ft Lauderdale, FL While we could have stayed in the Exuma’s forever, time was pressing and hurricane season was approaching, so we made tracks to Florida. Motor sailing across the Exuma Bank to Chubb Cay, then across the Grand Bahama Bank to Bimini, and finally through the Gulf stream to Florida. We arrived in Ft. […]
Exuma Cays, Bahamas to Ft. Lauderdale Florida It was difficult to leave the excellent snorkeling at Wardrick Wells, but we knew that the islands ahead where outstanding as well, so we set off across the banks on the passage to Shroud Cay (all of 20 miles). Shroud did not disappoint us. It is a cay […]
Wardrick Wells, Exumas Cays Bahamas We left Little Farmer’s Cay expecting the worst in waves through the cut, so we battened down the full enclosure and put on our harnesses, but were surprised to find seas as calm as a lake. Outside the cut, conditions were good, small waves and nice wind. We were on […]
Little Farmers Cay Bahamas As we wound our way through the reef into Elizabeth Harbor, toward Georgetown, we were shocked at the number of boats here. Last year Georgetown was quiet, all of the Bahama cruisers had already headed back north when we arrived in early May. This year, we arrived just after the Georgetown […]
Dominican Republic to the Bahamas Checking out of the Dominican Republic was as involved as checking in, but less expensive. Five officials (Navy, Customs, Immigration, Drug enforcement & the local Commandant) came to Berkeley East to clear us out of the country. It does not appear that many boats clear out of the country at […]
Cap Cana, Dominican Republic We left Bonaire headed for the Dominican Republic (DR), but with no specific harbor in mind. Crossing the Caribbean Sea is notoriously rough and there are strong currents pushing west, making our exact landfall uncertain. We wanted to make as much easting as we could, hoping to make it to the […]
Bonaire, Netherland Antilles Bonaire (part of the Netherland Antilles) and its two sister islands, Aruba and Curacao, make up the ABC islands. It is a quaint, clean island of about 12,500 people. Their main industries are salt exportation and tourism. And while there are other things to do on Bonaire, all we did was scuba […]
