A Quiet Achiever, Sailing Alone Around The World

Alexandra At Anchor In The BVI's

Every now and again you meet someone who manages to alter your perceptions, re-align your values and generally give your heart a good shake-up.

Back in 2015 we sailed South West from Chagos, to Rodrigues in the southern Indian Ocean, a strenuous 6 day passage that tested our capabilities. After a thorough bashing we finally raced in to the tiny harbor on the island of Rodrigues, on a day when even the local schools had been closed due to high wind strengths. Frankly, I've never been so happy to arrive anywhere.

Alexandra In Rodrigues

Next day, a small sailboat came in off that same angry ocean, with just one young man on board. It had no roller furling sails, not even an engine. There was no generator, no refrigeration, no fancy autopilot systems, no electric toilets and certainly few comforts below decks. The boat was simple, minimalist, in fact so basic I was shocked. It was not in great condition, but it got him there.

Sean D'Epagnier had just crossed the southern Indian Ocean in that boat, on his own, through some dreadful weather. Having no engine, he sculled his way into harbor with a single large sculling oar, settled in and lit a wood fire in a pot on deck, heating a meal of seafood he'd caught. Squid lay on the deck, drying in the sun - his means of preserving fish he caught by line or by diving.

There in Rodrigues we helped Shaun with some fasteners and glue, and a chunk of timber to make a new sculling oar. Then, over the next two years, we bumped into Sean a couple of times, first in the BVI's after crossing the Atlantic and then again in Charleston, South Carolina. Each time I looked at the approaching sailboat and instantly said to myself - that just has to be Sean.

He's an intriguing character, doing it his own way. By his own words he's interested in the weather, climate, mathematical algorithms and graphics. Very importantly, most cruising sailors already benefit from Sean's work - he's a member of the development team that produce Open CPN, the superb freeware chart plotting program (check it out here). So there is a lot more to Sean than initial appearances might suggest.  Behind this crusty and unusually tough adventurer are a million stories.

He purchased his boat, a Bristol 27 built in 1973, for $1,000. She's named Alexandra. Departing California in 2011, he crossed the Pacific and arrived in New Zealand in 2012. There he became the subject of a search by local authorities, as his family in the USA hadn't heard from him for some months - it turns out Sean was fine, busily working his way around the New Zealand coast. Of course he didn't understand the fuss.

Sean & Alexandra Arrive In Charleston SC

He had further trouble in New Zealand when the authorities would not let him depart without making certain repairs to Alexandra. However by 2014 he was in the Phillippines, then moved on through Indonesia and set out across the Indian Ocean in 2015.

Early that year he commented online about the cruising equipment that he considers essential - his list included spare sails, a sculling oar, a sailing kayak, a wood stove and squid lures. It's fair to say that most of these items are not on my list ...

I spoke with Dave Register, Senior Developer for the Open CPN platform, who commented on Sean's enthusiasm and breadth of ideas - Sean has contributed to many add-on modules for Open CPN.  I believe that Dave see's Sean as a committed ocean traveler, kind of hard to track down - in fact I think Dave was never quite sure where he was in the world. I think Sean's family probably feel the same way.

During that first connection in Rodrigues I realised that Sean was obviously very talented on the IT and software engineering side.  However when we met again in the BVI's I learned he was developing a prototype low-power electric autopilot, so he's clearly into hardware solutions as well.

My most enduring memory of Sean is watching him sail into the estuary in Charleston one morning, short tacking patiently up river against the outgoing tide. As he slowly slid past the dock I yelled out and made contact, and he asked if I knew where and how he could clear in to the country - his country - this was just so Sean. I was able to call the Customs and Immigration team for him, and I have little doubt that they are still wondering quite what they encountered that day. Should you see Alexandra coming into your anchorage, I suggest you reset your values and offer Sean the hand of cruising friendship - he's surely earned it.

I've recently heard that Sean has re-connected with his family here in the USA, however right now I'm not sure where exactly Sean is in this world. Then again I suspect that, just maybe, that's how he likes it. He's a special person - more power to him.

Sean, Cruising The World His Own Way

Cruising Fun In The BVIs, A Sailors Paradise

The British Virgin Islands are a sailors paradise - reaching across the Sir Francis Drake Channel is a marvelous way to spend an afternoon, racing south west past Virgin Gorda, heading for a Dark & Stormy at the floating bar in The Bight on Norman Island - it's the stuff dreams are made of.

The fun continues when you enter harbour, as legendary super yachts and equally legendary classic yachts seem to be everywhere. At Jost Van Dyke we watched the (very few) entrants in the annual wooden boat regatta come back into harbour - what they lacked in numbers they sure made up for in style. That night at Foxy's Bar the prize giving was a typical yacht club style event, with perhaps more rum consumed than was wise.

Old man Foxy was even there for a little while, however I think he needed to go back of house and review his share portfolio or something - that guy has worked hard and done well  - I do remember him cooking lobster for me 30 years ago on the beach in East End Harbour, near Diamond Cay..

J-Class Classic Ranger At Virgin Gorda

If the racing or wooden boats don't get you, then the charter boats provide the most entertainment, specially at anchoring time. We invested some time helping folk pick up mooring balls in trying conditions - an afternoon in the cockpit wasn't complete without seeing at least one blooper. Heck, we've all done it, right?

Trying To Get Both Hulls Hooked Up ... Very Trying

Why Is The Dinghy Under The Boat? 'Çause Propellers Love Painters.

Overall, the British Virgin Islands are simply a great place to be on a boat.

Where Am I ? Social Change In Caribbean Cruising

Sailing west from the BVIs, a cruising sailor enters an area that is increasingly influenced by proximity to the United States. While the southern end of the Caribbean oscillates between French, Dutch and English histories, and quaint provincial social influences, the northern islands are suddenly and dramatically quite American.

Crystal Blues In Cane Garden Bay, Tortola, BVI's

The British Virgin Islands, the biggest charter boat destination in the world, is where the influence really starts to blossom. The poor British there have given up on the Pound Sterling, let alone the Euro, and have adopted the US greenback as their standard currency, along with switching their channel markers and buoyage over to the US style "red right returning" system (IALA Region B). So much for tradition. Then again, Region B was in use even in Martinique, an otherwise 100% proudly French territory.

Moving westwards, the US Virgin Islands are of course, well, US.  Then you come to the Spanish Virgin Islands, part of Puerto Rico, which is really, well, part of the US. Next we sailed over the top of the Dominican Republic and Haiti, before pausing in Cuba. Here we found that even Cuba uses the IALA Region B buoyage, besides being the home of the worlds best collection of 1960's American cars.

Street Traffic In Cuba - Horses, Bicycles & 50s - 60s US Classics

It doesn't help that almost every island in the Caribbean, north and south, uses the US country code (+1) for their international telephone dialing prefix - all having nice 3 digit area codes under the US regional communications umbrella.

Of course this American influence isn't all bad, standard regional buoyage systems make sense, and we certainly enjoyed the social services and amenities provided in Puerto Rico and other places.

However I do fear for the future of Cuba - they already run two parallel currencies, a local Peso worth very little and a tourist Peso that is closely pegged to the US dollar and worth 25 times the poor local currency.  So market shopping in rural Cuba is done using the "people's money", but marina payments by visitors have to be done in the tourist Peso. When a power outage caused the local banks to shut their doors, we had no trouble changing greenbacks for tourist peso's in the local market square - the population are happy to take greenbacks. When President Obama wound back the restrictions on US travel to Cuba last year, we found that by November there were more than 30 flights a day out of Miami into Havana, and even more out of Fort Lauderdale. For those wanting to visit today's Cuba, we suggest you move fast.

A Sleigh Ride In The Gulf Stream

The Customs lady looked fearsome (why is it always the Customs folk who play tough?) but gave us our clearance and charged only US25 cents for the pleasure. The Immigration man smiled, removed the little cards from our passports and said "have a nice voyage, you're cleared". With that we sailed away from Jost Van Dyke in the British Virgin Islands the next morning, on the first day of May, bound north west for the USA.

That first day of sailing was an easy one. Leaving the anchorage at 06:30hrs we ran past the US Virgin Islands then veered south to sleepy Culebra, in the Spanish Virgin Islands, arriving at 12:45hrs with 36 miles under the keel, to anchor in a perfect lagoon. Lunch at the (delightful) Dinghy Dock Restaurant was followed by a very friendly clearance process at the local airfield. The beautiful Spanish Virgins are part of Puerto Rico, a US possession with US style border protection policies.

Old Town, San Juan, Puerto Rico

Next day we sailed another 62 nautical miles to San Juan, capital of Puerto Rico, for provisioning, fueling and a little dose of tourism.

We anchored in San Juan Bay, just off the yacht club, in good holding ground.  The San Juan Bay Marina offered a dinghy dock and wi-fi service for $10.00 per day, which suited us fine. The city of San Juan was a real surprise - very American, yet Spanish enough to have a truly vibrant soul. The old city is spectacular, the people relaxed and friendly.

We traveled the city far and wide, riding the efficient metro (bus) transit system. Restaurants offered unique local and Spanish dishes, we were in foodie heaven. Each day in port we carted another 100 liters of diesel fuel out to Crystal Blues, and loaded provisions from the excellent super market to cover our next voyage.

Spanish Era Powder Magazine, San Juan

San Juan Bay Anchorage

From there it was more spirited down wind sailing, for four days (622nm), to peaceful Puerto De Vita on the north coast of Cuba - here the welcome was warm and gracious, the whole environment relaxed and friendly. We stayed just three nights - next time it will be three weeks. Yes, the country is certainly very poor, however the people are happy, healthy, well fed and well educated. Cuba has very high literacy standards and a world class health care system. We'll write more about Cuba in a later story.

1969 Dodge Coronet, Our Cuban Taxi To Town

From Cuba we set out westwards through the Old Bahama Channel, more fine down wind sailing until the wind faded south of the Great Bahama Bank. Two days of motoring carried us up into the Florida Straits, heading north at breakneck speed towards the Carolinas. The Gulf Stream came in fast, and ran at more than 4 knots for 36 hours - last night Ley saw 11 knots over the ground for most of her watch. We shot past Miami around midnight, and Cape Canaveral (which I first saw as a teenager back in 1972) was abeam of us by 14:00 hours that day.

This unstoppable current then became a problem - our destination of Charleston was approaching way too fast, and we could not enter at night time. So earlier today we ran off westwards toward the coast of Georgia, moving out of the stream into shallower water where the current was more sane. By mid afternoon we were back on course and spent an hour before sunset sitting on the bow rail watching masses of dolphins play with the boat.

We should arrive in Charleston, South Carolina, tomorrow morning, completing a quick five day passage covering around 800 nautical miles. The trade winds have been behind the beam for the entire 18 days since we departed the British Virgin Islands. We've traveled north so fast that the sunsets are noticeably later each day - temperatures are also much cooler. Our brief port stops in Puerto Rico and Cuba gave us a taste of cultures that we'll be back to explore next year - for now we're looking forward to exploring the US east coast this northern summer.

LED Lighting Goes Beserk

Super Yacht Savannah Lights Up The Harbour, Nicely

This year in the Caribbean I've often been delighted, though more often offended, by the incredible displays of light pumped out of sailing and power vessels at night time. It seems that the energy efficiency of LED lamps has launched boat owners on a new quest to throw light into the water and the sky.

While Savannah did it in a classy way - a silky curtain of white light below the waterline, in a perfect 360 degree arc around the vessel - others were less tactful.

This catamaran owner obviously spent a lot of money installing a large number of LED lights, however the color scheme was kind of  off-putting, or as cruising friends said, "Oh Puke"! It would be cheaper and more honest to simply paint the side of the boat with "Look At Me!".

While the big boats lead the pack in this new trend, even smaller cruising vessels are starting to compete. In Trinidad we berthed next to an older Beneteau 37, a lady of a "certain age", that had applied new make-up. She had (wait for it) blue underwater LED's in an arc around the stern, plus recessed LED strip lighting along both sides of the salon, which changed color every minute or so. Yep, one minute the interior was green, next minute it was red, then blue and so on - all it needed was a shiny pole and some dancers to complete the picture. Please, spare me.

OK, enough griping - we're off to Cuba today, 570 nautical miles West North West and downwind all the way, we hope. Our next post should come from Puerto De Vita on the north coast of Cuba, if we can find some internet there.

A Strong Sense Of Deja Vu .....

Pirate Bight, Norman Island

Ah, the British Virgin Islands. Thirty years ago I sailed here, different boat, different life, different wife, you get the idea.  It was great then Wendy, and it's great now thanks Ley. Crystal Blues sailed into the north sound of Virgin Gorda on April 20, after an easy overnight passage from St. Martin. Here we found to our delight a friendly social scene and a great number of sail boats, punctuated by the occasional spectacular power boat. We figure big power boats are OK if they look really good - like Savannah, (below) that really delivers on her hundred million dollar construction price tag. Ouch.

Then again, you can charter her for just a million bucks a week. Much easier.

This is the boat with the underwater lounge, swimming pool, and which is (gasp), "Eco Friendly"", despite the lack of solar panels and wind generators. Diesel electric propulsion pods, battery storage, and just one direct drive low RPM diesel engine. Read about it here.

When Savannah wasn't keeping us on our toes, there was no shortage of inspiration in the anchorage.

So here we started to relax a little, meeting new friends and spending time on other boats, coupled with the obligatory eating, drinking and general yabbering. Quite a few yachts are here, ready to depart for the USA, though many are joining one of two available rally groups to make the transit.

Even the ARC organisation is running a rally from here, leaving mid may to Florida, which is a little late to our thinking. Most of the named storms that sweep up the Florida coast to the Carolinas do so early in the season. We'll be on the move quite soon.

The past two days we've anchored in Cane Garden Bay on the main island of Tortola,  relaxing and doing provisioning before our next passage. It's a cruiser friendly lazy beach resort, with a perfect white sand beach and clear waters. A string of bars are scattered along the foreshore offering entertainment and sustenance to suit all budgets. For every cruising sailboat you can count at least four or five charter yachts, so entertainment is everywhere, specially at anchoring time. We were all there once I guess.

Cane Garden Bay, Tortola, BVI's