We are struggling with persistent engine problems. In retrospect, it has to be said, actually ever since we set out with Mabul in September 2022. Only we hadn’t really noticed it yet and I kept fighting symptoms but never found the causes. In this and the following blog, the failures, misfortunes and breakdowns of the engine will take us through our journey from St. Maarten to the BVIs to the south of the Dominican Republic.
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In St. Maarten we were provided with a diving compressor from Bauer Kompressoren. For the first time we filled our tanks ourselves on board and then went into the water at Salt Island to have a look at the wreck RMS Rhone.
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With a delay of three days we reach the British Virgin Islands (BVI). Here Jan and Florian from Berlin visit us. Just like us, they are not aware of what Mabul is planning to do with us here.
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We have long awaited St. Maarten. Here is the Mecca of boat jobs, because really everything is available, reasonably priced and accordingly long is our To Do list. Here are the few beautiful moments off the bilge.
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Our journey from Antigua via Barbuda to St. Maarten.
On the morning of January 21, we leave Montserrat and set course for the neighboring island of Antigua. The distance to Jolly Harbor would be 22 nautical miles by direct route, but we have to tack upwind and that takes time. The waves are high and the ride is rough. We have one reef in the mainsail and initially one in the genua. Mabul rides the waves up and down so that the seawater flows over the bow and deck into the cockpit and from there back into the sea.
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Barbuda is the little sister island of Antigua and could not be more different. The beach paradise, at first glance pristine and barely built up, gradually turned out to be the new playground of the super rich. With them came excavators, fences, and lots of “Private Property” signs….
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Coming from Guadeloupe we have an easy crossing to Antigua. We drop anchor in Jolly Harbour and circumnavigate the island with stops in Falmouth Bay and Green Island in a good two weeks.
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A small, at first glance inconspicuous, island in the Caribbean away from charter tourism catches our attention: Montserrat. Two natural disasters have struck the island in the past 30 years, and now almost two-thirds of the entire island is off-limits.
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Our route does not take us directly to Guadeloupe, we first land in Les Saintes and soon sail via Marie Galante to the main island. Here are the highlights of our discoveries.
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«Ten, nine, eight…..one! Happy New Year! Welcome 2023!»
A new year, a new life, a new island. We celebrate the turn of the year on SV Take 5 of Suzi and Emmanuel, together with our Dutch-Indian friends.
