Atlantic · Caribbean Sea
Caribbean
Caribbean islands, Cuba, Grenada, Martinique, Tobago and passages between the islands.
Publications are arranged chronologically – from the earliest to the most recent. Select a title to open the full entry.
Passage from French Guiana to the Caribbean. Days 1–3
Passage from French Guiana to the Caribbean. Days 1–3 The channel of the Maroni River, which forms the border between French Guiana and Suriname, runs so close to the tropical rainforest …
Passage from French Guiana to the Caribbean, Days 4–5
Passage from French Guiana to the Caribbean, Days 4–5 Venezuela is abeam (directly off to the side). The weather is lovely: hot, with a swell, but almost no wind. We’re wallowing lazily, …
Passage from French Guiana to the Caribbean. Days 6–7
Passage from French Guiana to the Caribbean. Days 6–7 “If some crap can happen, it will definitely happen at night.” — This needs to be added to the list of Murphy’s laws for sailors... W…
Gone with the Wind—or How We Caught a Yacht in the Ocean
At the anchorage off the southern tip of Tobago there are six sailing yachts, three motor yachts and a couple of excursion boats. Some are anchored, some are on mooring buoys—and one has …
Is It Easy Being a Caribbean Father Christmas?
How to Help Father Christmas When You’re in Grenada 🙂 If Father Christmas didn’t have helpers all over the world, the old fellow wouldn’t last long. Is it easy, at his age, to fly around…
Tobago. From Repairs to Celebration
Tobago. From Repairs to Celebration If something important that holds your mast up has torn away in the ocean, thank God you made it :). Then get on with the repairs, watching for a weath…
The Past and Present of Pirate Island: Tobago
The Past and Present of Pirate Island: Tobago The history of its discovery, an ancient relict forest, a search for waterfalls, and the bay where an Englishman once lived and where the des…
Pirate’s Bay: Christmas, or Why Have an Accordion on a Yacht?
Pirate’s Bay: Christmas, or Why Have an Accordion on a Yacht? Pirate’s Bay—pirate-free for 200 years; how Swedish families live aboard a yacht. Cruiser get-togethers: it turns out Russian…
Caribbean Gallop. Grenada: Plans and Circumstances
Caribbean Gallop. Grenada: Plans and Circumstances Why, of all the ways to travel around the Caribbean islands, did we end up galloping? New Year in the West Indies: meet everyone. To und…
Caribbean Islands. Clearance
Caribbean Islands. Clearing In on a Yacht The most interesting yacht clearance procedure is in Trinidad and Tobago. On the other Caribbean islands, the formalities are fairly straightforw…
Martinique. Coffee, Friends, and Headless Joséphine
Martinique. Coffee, Friends, and Headless Joséphine Having arrived at the last French Caribbean island, Saint Martin, the whole crew fondly recalls our previous little piece of France—the…
Passage to Cuba. From the Lesser Antilles to the Mysterious Turks and Caicos
Passage to Cuba. From the Lesser Antilles to the mysterious Turks and Caicos. What people write and read on the open ocean, what big stupid fish will bite, and a little mathematics that t…
Turks and Caicos. Who’s Painting the Water Here?
Turks and Caicos. Who’s painting the water here if the island is uninhabited? Spearfishing, life à la Robinson Crusoe, and a not-quite-real picnic As we approach the first island in the T…
Passage to Cuba. Police Off an Uninhabited Island
Passage to Cuba. Police Off an Uninhabited Island. Waiting for the Wind with the Inhabitants of a Coral Reef Having worked out the number of days and stops remaining before Havana, the ca…
Cuba on the Horizon
Cuba on the horizon. A meeting on an uninhabited island. How we sailed over to visit some South Africans and stocked up on giant shells The boat rang with the captain’s joyful cry: “Laaaa…
The Plywood over Paris, or How We Sailed Right Past Cuba
The Plywood over Paris, or How We Sailed Right Past Cuba. How, on Dad’s special day, just before entering port, Lady Mary’s engine died in a stiff headwind—and where we ended up being car…
How We Received the Bahamian Border Guards
How We Received the Bahamian Border Guards With no engine, Lady Mary spent the rest of the night bucking through a strong close-hauled wind, making 3 miles an hour. The captain was consid…
Cuba. Clearing In by Yacht. Visa and Customs Formalities
Cuba. Clearing in by yacht. How we covered the final miles, what American aircraft ask Russian yachts, and who is interested in the crew’s body temperatures. . Repairs and provisions So, …
Cuba. First Impressions
Cuba. First Impressions When, while completing the formalities, we said that our young sailor’s name was Lada, the inspector beamed: “Oh, like the car!” We did not yet know why they knew …
Cuba. A Second Look
Cuba. A Second Look. How a planned economy affects digestion, what the shops, cafés, ice-cream parlours and public toilets have to offer, and why, after her first walk, the first mate cri…
To Cuba by Plane: How We Nearly Got Busted for Importing Drugs
To Cuba by plane. How we nearly got busted for importing drugs. Can you bring a mountain of dried herbs into Cuba? The crew returns to its floating home “What’s this?” demands a customs o…
On Buckwheat, Russians and Foreign Lands
On Buckwheat, Russians and Foreign Lands. The First Mate’s Musings While Making Porridge Aboard the Yacht I’ll add my two cents’ worth about how we Russians need buckwheat when we are far…
We’re Leaving for the Yucatán
We’re leaving for the Yucatán, Mexico. 300 miles against the Gulf Stream “If you’re holding an elephant by the hind leg and it’s trying to run away, the best thing to do is let go”... Tha…
How Ten Siberians from Three Yachts Met by Chance in Havana
How ten Siberians from three yachts met by chance in Havana. What are the odds of meeting, in a port on the other side of the world, a crew from your own city? — Cuban magnetism, new frie…
Time to Get Out of Here
Time to get out of here. Storm season, babies aboard during a thunderstorm, playing shipwreck, and rotating squalls Lady Mary is bringing to an end her longest stay since the Canary Islan…
Along the Edge of Hurricane Irma—Under Sail
Along the Edge of Hurricane Irma—Under Sail. Chronicles of Crossing the Caribbean Sea Along the Edge of a Hurricane, Hoping for a Fair Wind. Days 1–2 Goodbye, Mexico! We enjoyed being you…
Along the Edge of Hurricane Irma—Under Sail. It Has Begun!
Along the edge of Hurricane Irma—under sail. Chronicles of crossing the Caribbean Sea along the edge of the hurricane, counting on fair winds. Days 3–4. That very wind has begun. Seasick.…
Along the Edge of Hurricane Irma—Under Sail. A Waterspout and... Birds
Along the Edge of Hurricane Irma—Under Sail. Crossing the Caribbean Sea along the edge of the hurricane. Days 5–6. Shifting winds, a waterspout, kamikaze passengers, approaching the reefs…
Along the Edge of Hurricane Irma—Under Sail. The Pirates of “Zero” Island
...Six boats with 40-horsepower outboards are circling Lady Mary. Black faces grin at us, but for some reason I picture wolves baring their teeth, saliva dripping from their fangs... Day …
Along the Edge of Hurricane Irma—Under Sail. Days 7–8. About Birds
Along the edge of the hurricane—under sail. Days 7–8. About birds. Mass deaths among swifts fleeing Irma, and smuggling aboard an oil tanker It’s a good thing people can’t fly the way bir…
Along the Edge of Hurricane Irma—Under Sail. Lightning and... Silence )
Along the edge of Hurricane Irma—under sail. Days 8–11. The most terrifying lightning in our seafaring history, dancing on the coachroof, and musings.... What if we got rid of one mast? T…
Along the Edge of Hurricane Irma—Under Sail. Storm
Along the Edge of Hurricane Irma—Under Sail. Day 12. Storm and Arrival in Colombia The engine coughed I n the morning we wallowed in the calms, with 40 miles left to Cartagena. If this ke…