After four going away parties, it is finally time to say good-by to Texas. We decided to take a long leisurely sail down the Texas coast to Port Aransas prior to making the Gulf crossing. The plan is to relax in Port Aransas, have one more going away party and waiting for a good weather window. Then make the 7 day crossing non-stop to the Dry Tortugas, followed by a stop in Key West for some fun, see friends in Marathon, and end up in West Palm Beach to start a major refit on the boat.
Once we arrived in West Palm Beach we immediately started the boat projects. The list is long including: new teak decks, bow thruster, rewiring the whole boat, watermaker, granite counter tops, new rigging, rewiring the mast, new exhaust valves. The list seems endless but we are making progress.
We never expected to take so long to get all the boat projects done, but we are really enjoying south Florida. So we thought we`d share a few pictures of what we`ve been doing besides working on the boat.
After way too long and way too many projects, We are done! Or at least as done as we`ll ever be. We`ve taken a 3 week test trip down to the Keys and everything worked great! So, after a few more projects we are ready to set sail. We`ll keep updating the website now that things should get a little more interesting. But we thought you might enjoy a boat tour to see what we`ve been up to.
After way too long it is finally time to leave. Our plan is to depart West Palm Beach for the Bahamas and spend just a few days there. Then we`ll head east into the Atlantic until we can turn south for the Virgin Islands. That should be about a 9 day voyage. We`ve met some really nice people during our stay in Florida, so as usual it`s kind of hard to leave. It was an absolutely beautiful evening for a Gulfstream crossing and we arrived at Great Sale, Bahams about 4pm the next day. Then on to Green Turtle to clear customs. We also stopped in Marsh Harbor and Great Guana Cay overnight.
We are tuned in! We have been lucky enough to be asked by Carson Cooper of Radio Margaritaville to phone in reports as we sail. Radio Margaritaville can be heard on Sirius Satellite channel 31 and also on the internet at www.radiomargaritaville.com. We give reports about 2 times a week. We cant tell you exactly when the spots will air but so far it has been during Carson Coopers Buffett buffet show, Tuesday thru Sunday between 12 noon and 2pm, We are really having fun with this and hope youll get a chance to check it out. They have also put a link to our website on the Radio Margaritaville homepage.
Two days into the passage from the Abacos, we decided to make an unplanned stop in San Salvador. The winds were not cooperating so we motored more than we liked. So we decided to make a fuel stop and are we ever glad. Steve had surfed here over 25 years ago. San Salvador is one of the eastern islands in the Bahamas. Supposedly, this is where Christopher Columbus first made landfall in the New World in 1492. The island is about 12 miles long by 6 miles wide. The water is absolutely beautiful here, some of the clearest we have ever seen, so we got some snorkling in. And of course we checked out the local restaurants. The Riding Rock Inn has a bar called the Driftwood which serves a drink called the Hurricane Lili since that hurricane formed here in 2003. We stayed for just a couple of days but really had a great time.
After 6 days and 4 hours at sea we are now in the British Virgin Islands. The British Virgin Islands consist of three main islands with about 22,000 people: Jost Van Dyke(500), Tortola(15,000), and Virgin Gorda(3000). It is a huge charter boat area with 1000`s of boats. The sailing is great. Provisioning is convenient and they have most everything we like. The official currency is U.S. which makes things very easy! We`ve been here 10 days relaxing, having some fun, and getting some boat projects done. As expected a 1000 mile passage brings a couple of surprises. So we decided to do a couple of repairs before heading for Trinidad. Our insurance still requires us to be in Trinidad, which is below the hurricane belt, by July 1. So we`ll be moving on soon.
On leaving the British Virgin Islands, we made another unplanned stop in the island of St. Christopher, commonly known as St. Kitts. We came in at night and anchored in a nice little cove just at dark. While listening to local FM radio the next morning we heard that our timing was great. The 10th annual Caribbean Music Festival started that night. So we decided to move into a marina for a few days, enjoy the festival and wait for another weather window to keep moving south.
Another unplanned stop and we are anchored off the village of Deshaies on the island of Guadeloupe. This just happens to be where we came on our honeymoon 25 years ago, making a surprise hop on a charter sailboat and Voila! We were hooked! Guadeloupe is one of the larger islands in the Caribbean with a population over 330,000, about 20x30 miles in size, and shaped like a butterfly. One side of the butterfly is very mountainous with rainforests and volcanos. The other side is much flatter. Keep mind that this update is being done in a French internet cafe - the keyboard is laid out differently and all commands in French!
Now we`ve arrived in Martinique which is part of the Windward Islands. We are getting further south and within short striking distance of Trinidad which is required for our insurance during hurricane season. The weather has not been cooperating so we decided to stay here for a few days. Tropical waves have been coming through almost daily with some rain. But Fort de France is a great place to spend some time. We were amazed that the French do not charge anyting to come to the island - its free! The day we arrived, France and Italy were playing in the world cup. A huge tent with a big screen tv was set up in the public park - free! We don`t know anything about soccer but we sure and fun. And we just happened to hit the festival of Fort de France so there was a band playing in the waterfront park every night - free! Our favorite band was the salsa - we need to learn a few new steps.
We are now in Grenada and only 90 miles from Trinidad. We feel comfortable that if anything tropical pop`s up, we can get to Trinidad quickly, as required by our insurance, . Grenada is a wonderful island which grows all kinds of spices and the flowering red immortal trees. There are waterfalls, rainforests, mountain rivers, and some nice bays. We are currently anchored in a quiet little bay called Prickly. Restaurants and a major boat store are within a quick dingy ride. An independent democracy, Grenada`s population is about 100,000. Grenada experienced some lively recent history in 1983 when the U.S and other Caribbean nations launched a rescue mission to restore order after a left-wing coup. After 50 storm free years, hurricane Ivan hit in 2004 and caused devastating damage. But the people and the island are very resilient and we have really enjoyed our stay. We`ve added a few new pictures so take a look. We are hoping to head to Carriacou, about 40 miles north, on Tuesday for the wooden boat regatta. We are keeping a very close eye on the weather.
We took a little sail about 40 miles north of Grenada to a little island called Carriacou(pronounced Carry-A-Coo). We wanted to see the wooden boat regatta and participate in the yacht activities which raise money for the local school children. Carriacou`s population is about 7000 and we found it to be a wonderful, beautiful island. The water is so pretty, you can see the bottom at night in the moonlight. And the snorkling was very nice. The wooden boat regatta was 4 days of non-stop fun, with races everyday, shore activities, and nightly entertainment. The fundraising was a huge success and we met many new friends.
Weve returned to Grenada for our first Carnival and our first visitors. Carnival is 5 days of non-stop fun with a Calypso show, Panarama steel drum competition, Soca contest, Jouvert, Parade of Costumes, and Parade of Bands. The whole island shuts down to participate. Our good friends from Florida also arrived for a short but wonderful visit
We`ve decided to stay here in the Grenada area for hurricanse season and purchased an additional rider from our insurance company to allow us to do so. We`ve taken a few weeks to do some maintenance on Liward since we hadn`t done anything since we left Florida. So that`s why we haven`t updated the website for a few weeks. Currently we are anchored in a very quiet nice bay called Hartman on the sourth coast. We`ll stay here a few more days and then plan to sail to the Tobago Cays, about 50 miles north.
Currently we are anchored in the beautiful Tobago Cays which are part of a group of islands called the Grenadines. These islands are completely deserted so we brought everything we need. In the last two weeks weve celebrated Steves birthday and our 26th wedding anniversary.
Weve spent a week in Tobago, the furthest south and east that weve been so far. Tobago is one of the more out of the way Caribbean islands, so we wanted to check it out. We had a great overnight sail from Bequia, clearing customs in Charlottesville, Tobago. Then we moved down the island to Mt. Irvine Bay, home of a great wave! A little surfing, pan music, and Sunday School we loved Tobago!
Steve has been surfing in Barbados for over 30 years, and has always dreamed of visiting in his own boat. So here we are. We had a great sail from Tobago and tied up in a really nice marina, since we knew we`d be running around the island alot. Barados is the furthest east island in the Caribbean and made of limestone, not volcanic, like the other islands. The east coast is raw with great surfing. The west coast is beautiful with great offshore reefs. Here`s a few pcitures from our first few days here. We`ll add some more in the next few days.
We are taking a little intermission and heading back to the U.S. for a few days. We`ll feel like fish out of water since we`ve been gone 6 months. How about driving on the right side, fast food, and television! Then we catch a flight to Argentina and Uruguay where we are participating in the Brotherhood of the Coast World Zafarancho for two weeks. This is a worldwide sailing fraternity with an international gathering every four years in a different country. So we`ve hauled Liward out of the water in Grenada to get her annual bottom paint job while we are gone. This is a must in the tropics since the marine growth is so bad. She looks like a fish out of water! We`ve been working very hard on the boat doing some projects before we leave. Crusing is not fun 100% of the time! We`ll be back on the boat December 3 and then get ready to head up to the northern Caribbean to visit the islands we missed on the way south.
Every four years the sailing fraternity, Brotherhood of the Coast(BOC), gathers for a World Zafarancho. This year it was in Argentina and Uruguay. We really enjoyed catching up with old firends and meeting new ones. So we hauled Liward out of the water for a new bottom paint and safe keeping. We flew to Florida for a few days, visiting family and friends and buying way too much at the boat store! Then on the Uruguay for five days to start the Brotherhood fun. In Uruguay we toured Montevideo, ate beef, visited Puente del Este, and walked the old town of Colonia, Then we took the ferry across to Buenos Aires, Argentina (Bs As for short). In Argentina we ate more beef, visted a ranch for Polo and Gaucho events, saw an incredible outdoor opera with horses and folk perfomers, took a boat ride in Tigre, shopped for leather, and went to the Tango. We had an absolutely fantastic trip. We stayed on a few extra days in Bs As after the event and really got to know the city. It was hard to pick a few pictures but here`s a selection. And thanks to the friends who provided some outstanding pictures to include! Now we are back on the boat and working hard to get her back in the water very shortly!
We are back on the move after a quick haul-out, fast trip by air to the U.S./Argentina/Uruguay,and a quiet hurricane season We had a beautiful 3 day and night sail north to St. Barths. St. Barths is part of the French West Indies and a beautiful island. With only about 8000 full time residents the population swells during the holiday season and now we understand why! Columbus named the island after his brother, Saint Bartholemy, but the island goes by the name of St. Barths. The island is pcitruesque with aqua water and arid hills. We have found excellent french food and consistent surfing. St. Barths is very different from the other Carribean island, because its history was not based on sugar plantations because the land is too dry. It is very popular with the jet set and is known as the St. Tropez of the Caribbean. We plan to stay in the northern Caribbean for the next few months and visit all the other islands that we missed on our quick trip south last spring.
It`s time to do an entry totally dedicated to surfing. So for you surf hounds, have at it. And if you are not interested in surfing at all, just skip this one! After two more awesome swells we`ve updated this entry to include surfing in the British Virgin Islands. So take a look. Photo credits go to M-pie Morris and Dom. Thanks for joining the dawn patrol!
We didn`t get to spend much time in the Virgin Islands on our trip south because hurricane season was approaching. But we`ve returned. Our friends Kari and Jerry flew in to meet us for a much anticipated visit. We loved the BVI. This area has awesome sailing, snorkling, and surfing. It is a very popular place for sailboat chartering and now we understand why! And by the way, Jerry takes great photos so he gets credit for this entry!
Anguilla was on our list of places to visit, but when we heard that Jimmy Buffett was doing a charity concert there we set a course! The concert was held at the Dune Preserve with only 3500 tickets available. We havent entered an update since February so heres a little catching up. We made a 2 week visit back to the U.S. to celebrate Steves Dads 90th birthday in Lakeland. It was great fun with the whole family there. We also made stops in West Palm Beach, Houston, and Fernandina Beach. Whew, we covered a lot of ground! So we flew back to the boat in March and sailed for Saint Martin, then after a couple of days we sailed for Anguilla.
Every year St. Barths holds the Bucket Regatta, a race for sailing yachts over 100 feet in length. So we planned to be there! It was three great days of beautiful boats. And we were lucky enough to get to crew aboard one of the yachts on Sunday. Being around all those beautiful boats was absolutely fantastic and we hope the photos give you some insight. Thanks to our new friends, Paul and Nancy on Aurora for sharing some of their photos. Weve gotten a little behind on our website updates so here are two entries, so be sure to also check out Anguilla- Tunes on the Dunes.
We sailed from St. Barths to Antigua just in time for the 20th anniversary Classic Yacht Regatta. What an event! Over 60 classic traditional style yachts all in one place. And we were lucky to crew for four days aboard the beautiful Nordwind! So heres some great photos of the racing week as well as a few from our last days in St. Barths.
Its past time for a new update! We ended up staying in Antigua for over 5 weeks. We tied up Liward in a marina for a week so Steve could make a quick trip back to Florida. His father was the guest speaker at the University of South Florida Lakeland Campus graduation ceremony. So Steve definitely wanted to be there. Lili stayed with the boat enjoying the nice marina. Complete with grocery, restaurants, hair salon, and casino! On Steves return we checked out some of the other beautiful anchorages in Antigua and there are many! Then we sailed on south to Guadeloupe and the Isle de Saintes. Heres a great mahi-mahi we caught on the way!
When Columbus discovered Dominica he described it to Queen Isabella by crumpling a piece of paper to show its terrain. It has valleys, gorges, and volcanic peaks that are covered in lush green vegetation. It claims 365 rivers, 29 waterfalls, and 8 volcanic peaks. We loved the island and really had a great time exploring the rainforests and mountains. If Columbus returned today it might be the only island he would recognize, because Dominca has kept its natural beauty with very little development. We took lots of pictures and had a hard time narrowing down the ones to include. So this entry has lots of shots!
We have fallen in love with St. Lucia! This island has all the right ingredients: several good protected anchorages, great music, colorful culture, hiking trails, rainforests, nice groceries, and not to mention, a few good surf spots. We sailed in just in time for the Carnival festivities and joined the party! St. Lucia is 27 miles long and 14 miles wide with about 160,000 people. Fought over by the French and British St. Lucia changed hands 14 times. So it is sometimes called the "Helen of the West" after the much fought over Helen of Troy! The island is an Independent Nation of the British Commonwealth but there are stong French undertones with the locals sometimes speaking a French Patois.
We left St. Lucia and did a little island hopping to Bequia, Mustique, Carriacou, and wound up in Grenada. All these islands are within a 9 hour sail of each other. Bequia has a pretty good mexican food restaurant which is run by a couple of Californians. We were missing our Tex-Mex and Margaritas so we filled up. Mustique is an island that we saw on the charts and decided we`d stop for a quick look. Then on to Carriacou to meet up with friends for a fundrasing event. Now we are in Grenada where we will stay for a couple of months through the hurricane season.
We are spending this hurricane season in Grenada again this year. We have been here for 2 months and we`ve been busy! Two tropical storms have threatened, but did not cause any problem. We still get prepared, none the less. Dean passed about 180 miles north of us but we didn`t even get any wind. Felix passed about 30 miles north and brought 67 knot winds and we were also fine. In advance of the storms we pulled into a marina to tie up. We stayed a while, taking advantage of being at a dock to get some projects done. Things like varnish, stainless polishing, waxing, and adding two more solar panels. September is also a special month for celebrations. Steve`s Birthday is on the 17th and our anniversary is on the 27th. We also decided to use this time to do our annual bottom paint job on Liward. So it has been a busy two months of work with a little fun mixed in!
As always happens, our boatyard work in Grenada took longer than we planned. So we got the boat back in the water and had to immediately sail east to Barbados. Of course the conditions were not great with 6-8 feet with 20-30 knot winds. And yes, the wind was from the wrong direction. So we ended up sailing 240 miles to go 130 miles and it took 41 hours. But we got there just in time for Steve’s old surfing buddies to fly in for a nostalgia visit, and for Lili to catch a flight back to Florida for a quick visit. We spent 3 wonderful weeks in Barbados. Now we are sailing to St. Lucia to meet friends flying in to celebrate Lili’s BIG birthday. And you guessed it…..the seas are 8-10 feet with 20-25 knot winds! We know sailing and schedules don’t mix, but spending time with friends is worth a little bit of uncomfortable sailing!
This update is definitely very late in coming. We had to go through a whole bunch of photos to select the ones to include. And we had trouble, so there are alot! On November 26 we sailed from Barbados to St. Lucia. We had a good overnight sail of about 100 nautical miles in 17 hours. We got to St. Lucia just in time to pick up our great friends Kari and Jerry who flew in from Atlanta to help celebrate Lili`s 50th birthday! We stopped in St. Lucia in June of this year and decided it was a great place to spend some more time. The island is very mountainous and lush green with numerous places to anchor. The people are very friendly, and they make good rum and beer! It is also the location of the famous beautiful Pitons. These peaks end right at the waters edge and we decided that climbing one would be a good activity to mark the milestone!
We sailed into St.Barths before Christmas and we are still here! Named after Columbus’s brother, the Isle de St. Barthelemy is part of the French West Indies, in the northeastern corner of the Caribbean. It is small, only a little more than eight square miles. Steep hills divide the island into several unique valleys which make it seem like a much larger place. There are fourteen beaches, one little port town of Gustavia, and a few villages. The population of about 8000 swells to over 10,000 during the season, when 100 megayachts arrive. With the designer shops, fine dining, and people, it is easy to think you are in the south of France. Add excellent surf, good food, and friends and we have found almost the perfect place. Our timing was perfect since we were here to enjoy New Years, the Annual Music Festival, and Carnival. This is our third visit to St. Barths so it is definitely one of our favorites!
We had a nice 13 hour overnight sail from St.Barths to Anegada in the British Virgin Islands. This island is very different than the other islands in the Caribbean since it is only 28 feet above sea level at its highest point and home to only about 300 people. Anegada is the world’s third largest barrier reef and surrounded by miles and miles of beautiful sandy beaches.
We`ve been bit by the racing bug! We raced a little in 2007 and wanted to experience the racing thrill again. And of course the parties aren`t bad either! This is a completely different kind of sailing than we are use to on Liward Things are moving fast and everything is loaded to the max. So this entry covers our fun in St.Barth`s for the Bucket Regatta and Antigua for the Classic Regatta.
Since we will be leaving the eastern Caribbean soon, we wanted to visit some of the spots we’ve missed. During the last two years we’ve sailed by the islands of Barbuda, Nevis, and Saba a few times, often tacking right offshore, but we’ve never stopped. All three of these islands are unspoiled so we looked forward to some great snorkeling and hiking and getting back to nature!
It’s been over three months since we’ve updated the website, so we have a lot of catching up to do! In May we were in Sint Marteen with a plan to head west to Puerto Rico to take on spares at the great marine store and make a quick flight back to Florida to visit family as well as have our annual physicals. Then, on to Panama. Plans are great but this sailing life sure teaches you how to flexible. And we made quite a detour! Lili was diagnosed with breast cancer and we have spent the last two months in Florida for treatment. Things are great now and we are back on the boat in Fajardo, Puerto Rico. We are excited about getting “Liward” put back together and going sailing again! We’ve just had a little bump in the road and now we are back on track!
Que Pasa ………the Spanish Virgins After a few weeks of putting the boat back together, surfing, and enjoying new friends we finally said “adios” to the big island of Puerto Rico. We have really enjoyed being here. It was a great place to leave the boat while we were in Florida and a good spot to jump back into our cruising life. The scenery is beautiful, the people are awesome, food is good, and supplies are extremely easy to find. And there is a great West Marine store! So we head over to the Spanish Virgin Islands of Culebra and Vieques. The Spanish Virgin Islands are very similar to the U.S. and British Virgin Islands but they have been left unspoiled. So we spent a few weeks checking out these wonderful little islands.
Bon Bini – that’s Welcome! in the creole Papiamentu dialect of Bonaire. We made the 418 nm sail from Vieques Puerto Rico to Bonaire and arrived in 78 hours. We’ve spent a week in Bonaire enjoying their beautiful water. The island is very different from the other islands we’ve visited. It is only about 20 miles from Venezuela but it is Dutch with a strong European influence. The locals speak Dutch, English, Spanish, and Papiamentu which is a creole combination of all three! So you almost think you understand since about every third word sounds English! All the signs have things repeated in three languages. The terain is dry and rocky with cactus and low trees. The water is absolutely beautiful. Bonaire is about 24 miles long and 3-7 miles wide with about 13,000 people. The flat water and constant breeze make it a great stop. It is extremely deep very close to shore so the marine park has installed moorings for the yachts right off the main town of Kralendijk. No anchoring is allowed to protect the coral. This is the place for diving so we did some exploring underwater and on the land!
This update will cover a lot of ground, about 500 miles worth. This, in Liward sailing miles, is a long time. We started December in the Dutch island of Curacao. Our plan was for a quick visit just long enough to stock up at the great grocery stores, but, as usual weather had another plan! So we spent about two weeks in Curacao and enjoyed seeing the island. On December 12 a good weather window arrived so we made the trip to Colombia. This passage has a reputation of being on the list of five worst passages, but we didn’t do too badly. Our first stop in Colombia was a place called Five Bays where we spent five days. A great place to get a feel for Colombia. Then we made quick stops in Roadadero and Punta Hermosa before arriving in Cartagena just in time for Christmas. We’ve been here for over a month now so it`s time to get the website updated!
We sailed from Cartagena, Colombia on February 4 after a wonderful 7 weeks there. Our first stop was the beautiful Rosario Islands which are just 24 miles away, but a whole other world! After spending a short week there we made the passage west to Panama, Central America. That passage can be a very rough one but we picked our weather well and arrived in 26 hours at the San Blas Islands of Panama! Or as the Kuna Indians call it – Kuna Yala. So far we have visited 5 islands in Kuna Yala: Isla Pinos, Mamiatupu, Tupile, Tigre, and Yandup. Every island is unique and we have loved getting to know the Kuna people and their culture. Be sure to check out the Movie section for two slides shows from the island of Mamitupu.
Time flies when you are having fun! We’ve spent 3 months in Kuna Yala and have decided we could spend a lot more time! This is a great place for us. Beautiful islands, a friendly community of other sailors, crystal clear water, and an awesome culture. And most importantly, a great place to control our spending! There are over 300 islands and each one we visit quickly becomes our favorite.
After some difficulty, we finally have an update with photos! Hope you enjoy it! Sorry to those who visited while we were having problems.
Yes, it’s been way too long since our last update. We sure appreciate all of you who visit our website and we want to apologize for leaving it dormant for so long. Now we’ll try to do a little catching up. In Summary, we parked the boat in a marina in Panama in June and flew back for a USA visit. We ended up staying in Florida for over three months, returning to Panama in October. We are back on-board Liward, so now we’ll have more regular updates. We sure enjoy hearing from you, so leave a message on the message board. But remember we don’t get your email address unless you put it in the text of the message.
We’ve got Liward back in the water and she is ready to go! We are really looking forward to getting back to sailing again. We plan to head to Bocas del Toro which is an overnight sail. Hopefully we’ll have small seas and good wind since we haven’t been at sea in six months. We wanted to make a quick update to the website before we lose access to the internet. So we thought we’d share some photos from our time in the boatyard.
We’ve spent the last four weeks having a great time in Bocas del Toro, Panama. Bocas is only about 30 miles from the Costa Rican border on the Caribbean side. It’s a super laid back town located on one of six densely forested islands. It really reminds us of the Key West that existed about 40 years ago. Bocas originally started in 1899 as the location of the United Fruit Company, otherwise known as Chiquita Banana. Now it is a quaint town with plenty of bars, restaurants, backpacker and eco tourists, American ex-pats, and most importantly ----great surf! Bocas is an easy place to get stuck.
In March, we returned to the San Blas Islands of Panama. The San Blas are on the Caribbean side of Panama and home to the Kuna Indians. These people have preserved their culture and traditions. We really enjoyed this area last year and plan to spend two months here. With over 370 islands there is one for every day of the year. We have our favorite spots that we plan to revisit but also plan on exploring some new areas.
We’ve drug ourselves away from the beautiful islands of Kuna Yala, San Blas in Panama and have sailed to the island of Providencia. Actually, our 90 day immigration ran out in Panama so we had to go somewhere to renew! Providencia is about 200 miles off the coast of Nicaragua in the western Caribbean but belongs to the country of Colombia which is over 380 miles away. It has less than 5000 people and is truly a wonderful place to visit.
Here’s a quick update before we leave the boat for a three week driving trip to explore Panama. When we last made an update we were in the island of Providencia, Colombia. We spent a few more weeks there and it is truly one of our favorites…..but then we seem to find a lot of favorites! From Providencia we sailed overnight to the island of San Andreas also an island of Colombia. San Andreas is the “Miami Beach” of Colombia with plenty of hotels, restaurants and tourists. We spent about 10 days there and then sailed back to Panama. After parking Liward in a slip at Shelter Bay Marina we caught a flight back to Florida for a 2 week visit with 93 year old Dad and Steve’s 40th high school reunion. Upon our return to the boat we made a Panama Canal transit on a friend's boat. Now we are busy installing our brand new generator.
We’ve spent the last 18 months exploring the Caribbean side of beautiful Panama. This country is very diverse and there’s lots to see. So after installing the new generator in August, we left Liward in the marina, and rented a four wheel drive for a four week trip to explore the rest of Panama. Of course it is rainy season so that kept the trip interesting! We drove from Colon across the country to the Pacific, which incredibly only takes about 2 hours. We stopped along the Pacific coast at San Carlos for some surfing and then to Santa Catalina where the World Masters Surfing Championships were being held. Then up to Boquete in the mountains for coffee, river rafting, and hiking. Next stop was Volcan, the highest point in Panama. Back at the Pacific Coast we explored the Azuero Penninsula . Then back along the Coast to Panama City and back to the Caribbean side. Liward was waiting for us in good shape!
We are having some horrible weather in the San Blas islands of Panama! So we are taking advantage of being stuck inside the boat and making a quick update to the website. It’s a challenge to get a good enough internet connection thru the cell phone but time is something we have plenty of ! We have had lots of rain and high winds for days. So much rain, that Panama had to shut down the Panama Canal. The first time in its 100 year history! It’s a good thing we got a new Sirius antenna when we were back in the USA because we’ve been able to listen to the satellite radio all day! We’ve been jammin’! So here’s a look at our Tropical Top Ten List and a few of our favorite pictures from 2010!
Lili and Steve’s Tropical Top Ten for 2010
On January 7, we arrived in Bocas del Toro after a great two night sail from the San Blas Islands. Bocas del Toro is a group of eight major islands located on the Caribbean side of Panama and very close to the Costa Rican boarder. Christopher Columbus discovered this area on his last trip to the Americas and liked it so much that he named three areas after himself, Admiral Bay, Isla Cristobol, and Isla Colon. The banana industry came to this area in the 1800’s and still today over 80% of Panama’s exports are bananas. The population is a mix of “creoles” and the indigenous Indians called Guaymi. We visited here for 6 weeks in 2010 and decided to spend some more time. Now it’s April and we’re still here, which means there’s awesome surf. And lots of other fun too!
Hello all, and so sorry that this update was so long in coming! This entry covers May thru July so three months worth of fun! We are still in Panama on the Caribbean side, and continue to explore new areas. There is just so much to see here. We stayed in Bocas del Toro until May enjoying good friends, the surf, restaurants, as well as some remote spots. In early May we made a two night sail back to the San Blas islands just in time for dear friends to fly in for a short visit. After they left, we spent six more weeks in the San Blas islands revisiting some of our favorite spots and also finding some new great anchorages. In June we sailed to Shelter Bay Marina where we have parked the boat in a slip for a few months. Now it’s mid July and we are in Florida spending some nice time with Steve’s Dad. So take a look at what we’ve been up to while “zipping” around Panama.
It’s been six months since we’ve made an update to the website so we are way overdue. This update won’t be filled with beautiful pictures of clear water and palm tree islands but you’ll find out what we’ve been up to. In the last six months we’ve made three trips to Florida and done some major work on Liward in Panama.
Again, we have let way too much time lapse between website updates. We really appreciate you continuing to check in. These last few months have been happy and sad. We’ll try to give you a quick update. We spent December and January in Florida and Steve returned to Panama in February. Lili joined him in March and we’re still here!
Well, we are still in the same place as we were for the last website update, but we have been busy! Big news is that Steve had a new surfboard made here in Panama which is an exact replica of his favorite 1970’s style pintail. We’ll show you some pictures of the whole process. We’ve also completed all the painting of Liward – YEAH - a huge project! Other things keeping us busy have been three coats of varnish, sanding the teak decks, changing the main engine crankshaft seal, repairing a fuel leak in the generator, installing a new high frequency radio, as well as a new VHF radio, and replacing the wind generator. Whew! See, cruising on your own boat is not all fun! When the painting was completed we made a 3 week trip back to Jupiter, Florida to enjoy the new condo. After all, we didn’t want to sit around watching paint dry! And yes, the Square Grouper is our favorite neighborhood bar! Now we are back on board Liward working away. We still have a pretty long list to complete before we can leave the marina. Like replacing our 26 year old freezer, installing a newer technology inverter and battery charger, finish up installing our new canvas, break-in our new dingy outboard engine, and a new fresh water pump. The biggest item still in progress is getting the new stainless bow pulpit delivered and installed. And why are we doing all this? Because in January/February, we plan to transit the Panama Canal and head to the South Pacific via the Galapagos. And in true Liward fashion we are replacing anything that we think might fail and adding some improvements. So we promise, the website should start getting a lot more interesting as we get back to cruising and fun!
Sea-Sun's Greetings from Lili and Steve!
Finally!!!.....we are ready to head through the Panama Canal! We have all the equipment back on the boat, we’ve been out for a test sail, and we are stocked up with enough groceries to last for months! Our canal transit scheduled for next week. Very dear friends are flying in to be our line handlers, so we should make some wonderful memories together.
Yes Liward has transited the Panama Canal and is now floating in the Pacific. Wonderful friends Tom and Sue, and Kari and Jerry flew in to experience the Canal with us and be our line handlers. Here’s a picture of all of us on the bow of Liward and ready to begin our transit. But which way to go? Our transit went off perfectly and we had a great 10 days together. Now we are in the Perlas Islands , about 35 miles off of Panama. We’ll relax here until we see a good weather window to head to the Galapagos which is about a 10 day sail away. Be sure to check out our new map at
http://www.sailblogs.com/member/liward/?show=map
We’ll update it often as we are sailing. You can also look at the Google earth view to see where we are!
We are in the Galapagos Islands of Ecuador! Truly amazing and very exciting for us. We remember studying these islands in elementary school, seeing picture in the National Geographic magazine and now Liward is anchored in Wreck Bay on the island of San Cristobol! Darwin arrived here in 1835 and gathered data that led to his theory of evolution and we can see why! The animals are incredible. And they don't seem to mind humans at all. There are 12 main islands with only five are inhabited with about 28,000 people. We've only been here 5 days but we've seen some really cool stuff and wanted to get some pictures up quickly!
We’ve spent the last 7 weeks visiting four islands in the Galapagos. We are convinced that this is truly a magical place where the animal life “owns the place”! The humans do their best to fit in with the smallest impact as possible. The Galapagos has 12 islands but only 4 are inhabited. We got a special permit for Liward that allows us to take our own boat to the four islands of San Cristobol, Santa Cruz, Floreana, and Isabela. So here’s our second update from the Galapagos. We need to get this uploaded with very slow internet access because we think we’ll be heading out for our long passage to the Marquesas in about 5 days. So be sure to check the map website to see our position updates as we sail along.
http://www.sailblogs.com/member/liward/?show=map
We did it! We have crossed the pacific. This update will cover our passage and our arrival in the Marquesas Islands of French Polynesia. This has been a dream of ours for a very long time. And now we are here!
We’ve really had a great time visiting five islands in the Marquesas over the last four weeks. Fatu HIva, Hiva Oa, Tuahata, Oa Pou, and Nuka Hiva. Now that’s a mouthful. We’ve seen beautiful scenery and met some wonderful people. So here’s a few pictures to give you an idea of how different this part of the world really is. We plan leave for the three day sail to the Tuamotu Islands in a few days. So I’ll get this uploaded while we have internet access.
We have internet once again so it’s time for an update. This update covers the Tuamotu Islands. These islands are very different from the Marquesas because they are coral atolls. Which means they are a ring of very low islets surrounded by a reef with a large lagoon in the middle. They were formed hundreds of millions of years ago when a volcano sank underwater and left the fringing reef. So we’ll share a few pictures with you of our 4 weeks visiting two islands in the Tuamotus.
Our big news is that we have decided that we will not be ready to leave French Polynesia when our 3 month visa expires. So we are planning to leave Liward at a marina in Tahiti while we fly back to the USA for 7 months. We will return to Tahiti in April 2014 and continue exploring the Society islands. We have found someone to stay on the boat while we are gone so Liward should stay in good shape.
Our last update covered the Tuamotus and had us arriving in Moorea. Well, we’ve covered a lot of miles since then! Right now we are in Florida. But we made that trip by plane. We spent a week in beautiful Moorea, and then sailed the 24 miles to Tahiti where we docked Liward in a Marina. Because French Polynesia will only allow Americans to stay in their country for 90 days we decided to leave by plane for 7 months and then return to Tahiti for another season. So we flew back to Florida in September to spend some time in the condo in Jupiter. We got really busy which explains why it took so long to get this update posted. So we hope you enjoy some pictures from Moorea, Tahiti and also what we’ve been doing in Florida!
We spent 7 great months in Florida while we qualified for a new long stay French Polynesia Visa. After much paperwork we were approved! So in April we returned to Liward where she was docked in Marina Taina, Tahiti. Emma took wonderful care of her and she looked beautiful. We had a few boat projects to complete like engine service, getting sails up, mast inspection, toilet replacements, new autopilot install, and outboard service. Then we provisioned up and were ready to enjoy Tahiti before sailing off to Moorea.We spent 7 great months in Florida while we qualified for a new long stay French Polynesia Visa. After much paperwork we were approved! So in April we returned to Liward where she was docked in Marina Taina, Tahiti. Emma took wonderful care of her and she looked beautiful. We had a few boat projects to complete like engine service, getting sails up, mast inspection, toilet replacements, new autopilot install, and outboard service. Then we provisioned up and were ready to enjoy Tahiti before sailing off to Moorea.
This update will cover our time in Moorea and Huahine. Two islands that are similar but also different. We also have a new plan. French Polynesia has just changed the law which allows foreign boats to stay for 3 years without paying import duty. So we are going to take advantage and keep Liward here the full three years until 2016. The immigration is still the same so we have to fly back to the USA when our 6 month visa expires and apply for a new one. So we’ll be back in the USA on October 8. Look at the pictures below and you’ll see why we don’t want to leave!This update will cover our time in Moorea and Huahine. Two islands that are similar but also different. We also have a new plan. French Polynesia has just changed the law which allows foreign boats to stay for 3 years without paying import duty. So we are going to take advantage and keep Liward here the full three years until 2016. The immigration is still the same so we have to fly back to the USA when our 6 month visa expires and apply for a new one. So we’ll be back in the USA on October 8. Look at the pictures below and you’ll see why we don’t want to leave!
We have spent the last 2 weeks enjoying the Heiva in Huahine. Huahine is an island about 90 miles from Tahiti. The population is about 6000 and it is really unspoiled. Heiva is a celebration that happens every July for about 3 weeks. It is sort of like an island Olympics with the 7 villages competing against each other. Each village wears their color. Here is the village of Fitii in purple. The competitions include all kinds of tradition and culture. We saw the first day and ended up staying for 2 weeks! So there are lots of pictures in this update because there’s lots to see. And we wanted to share it with you!
We’ve spent the last 6 weeks visiting the islands of Raiatea, Tahaa, and Bora Bora. These islands are very close to each other which makes for easy sailing. A picture, taken from the International Space Station shows the three islands from top to bottom: Bora Bora, Tahaa, and Raiatea. Tahaa and Raiatea share the same lagoon inside the reef. Tahaa is the only island with deep water all the way around so we completed our first circumnavigation……of Tahaa! Or as we say Ta Ha Ha Ha!
We thought we’d post an update to catch up on where we are. This one will cover hauling out Liward, some more fun in Tahiti and time back in Florida. So we want to wish everyone the best for 2015. Thanks for checking in. We return to the boat in Tahiti in March.
We flew back to Tahiti on April 9 after 6 fun months in Florida. We found Liward looking really good in Marina Taina. Heifara took excellent care of her. We had a few projects to complete. One was the engine that would not keep its prime. After a couple of tries, Steve figured it out and had the Bosch delivery pump on the side of the injection pump rebuilt. While he waited! Everyone is so helpful and nice here. Then we had to fix the wind generator which stopped working. We just happened to have the spare but of course the new model did not fit exactly! I am pretty convinced that Steve can fix most anything! Then we had to do some varnish work. The rainy season in Tahiti was pretty bad this year so the varnish did not get done like we hoped. So we spent 2 weeks with Heifara’s help and now Liward looks pretty beautiful! It has been over 20 years since we have varnished but we did pretty well. So we finally were ready to leave the dock and we sailed to Moorea for a week. Then we sailed 2 nights, eastward, to Fakarava! That’s where we are sitting right now and I am trying to update the website which is not easy because there is no internet! So here’s some pictures from our first 6 weeks back on Liward!
Our last update covered our first week in Fakarava in the Tuamotu Islands of French Polynesia. We spent two more weeks visiting four different anchorages in this beautiful atoll. Then we sailed overnight to the Tahanea Atoll and spent two weeks there. Next we sailed back to Tahiti to pick up an engine part and that’s where we are now. Internet is available so I’m making an update to the website!
This update covers July and August with 5 weeks spent in Huahine, 4 days in Raiatea, 3 days in Bora Bora and 10 days in Maupiti.
After 5 nice months in Florida we flew back to Liward in mid March. She was sitting in Marina Taina, Tahiti right where we left her and looked good. We’ve spent 4 weeks doing some pretty big boat projects and now we are ready to go sailing. But the weather has been pretty bad so we are waiting. We have brand new sails that we want to try so we’ll wait for a nice day. So here’s an update showing a little bit of fun that we’ve had while doing boat projects. There is a saying that "Cruising is...Working on your boat in exotic places". Sure is true for these four weeks!
We’ve done a lot of sailing so it’s time for an update. In April, May, and June we visited some of our favorite islands in French Polynesia: Moorea, Huahine, Bora Bora and Raiatea! Mid-way thru June we sailed 540 nautical miles to the island of Rarotonga, Cook Islands. Our time limit in Polynesia was up on the boat so we had to sail 5 days to the closest foreign country to get a stamp on our papers. Just so we could sail back to French Polynesia to stay another 2-3 years! It turned out that we loved Rarotonga so we spent 12 days. We arrived back in Bora on July 4th, just in time to see some of the Heiva competition traditional dancing! So there are lots of pictures in this update. Hope you enjoy!
This update covers a lot of ground, from late July 2016 to April 2017. We apologize for being so behind! We keep up the website to share our experiences with friends and family, but also as a reminder to ourselves. We like to organize our best pictures and write comments to document what we’ve been up to. We’ll probably really enjoy reading this website when we are older!!! So here goes an attempt to summarize 6 months. In July 2016 we were in the islands of French Polynesia. September found us returning to Marina Taina in Tahiti to park Liward. October 1, we flew back to the USA via Hawaii spending 2 weeks on the islands of Oahu and Maui. November 2016 thru March 2017 we spent enjoying our condo in Jupiter Florida. And March we are back aboard Liward in Tahiti! So this will be a pretty long update with lots of pictures.
We are way behind on our updates so this is a really long one. It covers our 2017 sailing season in French Polynesia. We completed a haul out in Tahiti, spent a few days relaxing in Moorea, sailed to the Tuamotus and visited Fakarava, Tahanea, Toau, Tikehau and then spent 3 weeks in our favorite island of Huahine. So take a look! And be sure to check out the movie tab for a short video that covers our time in the Tuamotus!
Thought we'd put up a few pictures to cover our time in the USA September 2017 thru March 2018. It helps us remember what we've been up to!
We love everything Polynesian so why not visit Easter Island which is the southeast corner of the Polynesian Triangle! By plane that is! So we decided to take a 787 and visit Rapa Nui, otherwise known as Easter Island, Isla de Pascua, l’île de Pâques, or Te Pito o Te Henua. The most remote inhabited island in the world! An easy 5 hour flight leaves Tahiti for Rapa Nui once a week and returns the next week! So off we went… much easier to take a 5 hour plane ride than sail 2000 miles to weather! Rapa Nui is inhabited by about 8000 residents, with 60% of them of Rapa Nui descent. About 80,000 visitors fly into Rapa Nui per yearly.
In 2018, we had some major projects to finish on Liward so we spent a lot of time in Marina Taina in Tahiti. Once those projects were completed, it was time to explore the beautiful islands. First stop was Moorea, which is only a 24 mile sail away. Then off to the Tuamotus which are the beautiful atoll islands to visit Tikehau, Fakarava, Apataki and Rangiroa to dive with the dolphins. We ended the season back in Moorea where we had incredible snorkeling with the whales! You have probably noticed that getjealous has changed the format of the website. Be sure to hit the see more button. Then you can click on any photo and it will appear and then use the forward arrow to scroll thru the photos with caption.
Our 2019 sailing season was planned for April thru October. The schedule included a haul out for new bottom paint, sailing to the Cooks Islands for a new custom’s permit for the boat, and sailing back east to the Polynesian Society Islands. But in cruising, the one thing you can be sure of is changing plans! Steve broke 5 ribs, we imported the boat to French Polynesia, spent months in Tahiti in the marina, sailed 24 miles to Moorea. Now we are anchored in Huahine after an easy overnight sail. So, check out the photos for a look at what we’ve been up to!
COVID had a profound affect on the whole world. For us, we just had to change our normal schedule of splitting time equally between Polynesia and Florida. Instead, we spent January thru August in Florida. When flights opened back up to Tahiti, we flew back to Liward at the beginning of August and spent just 4 months aboard. It was defnitely a different year We've included 29 photos to share our year and be sure to check out the movies tab. We've uploaded three new movies, a concert on the dock at our condo, whale watching, and Steve surfing. Be sure to click on the individual pictures to read a few words. Then you can scroll through.
In 2021 Polynesia was still dealing with COVID. So flights were limited and visitors were restricted. Plus we were not able to renew our resident cards and new VISAs were not being issued. That meant that we could only visit the islands for 90 days. We arrived in August and COVID cases were on the rise again so the Polynesian authorities implemented a lock down just 3 days after we arrived. Good thing we got to the grocery ahead of the lockdown and purchased food, alcohol and beer. During lockdown, only essential grocery visits were allowed, no alcohol sales, and exercise was allowed only within 1 kilometer of your home. The boat was not allowed to leave the marina. The original lockdown was 2 weeks but that was extended an additional 2 weeks. So our 90 days got cut to only 60 days of sailing. We decided to stay close to Tahiti and only visit the islands of Moorea, Huahine, Tahaa, and Raiatea.
In 2022, we managed to have our resident cards renewed, so we can once again stay in Polynesia as long as we like. This years season was from May through November. We did a major haulout on Liward and then visited the island of Moorea. After checking all our systems for a few weeks, we made the 2 day sail towards the east to the beautiful atoll islands of the Tuamotus. We visited Tikehau, Toau, and Fakarava. A really great season.