Seven years ago, Aaron and I spent Thanksgiving surrounded by flower-studded hills and taller masts in Falmouth Harbor, Antigua. The night before, we’d met the chef on one of the neighboring megayachts, who informed us that each staff chef in the harbor would be making a turkey the next day in a kind of friendly […]
Author: Brian
Brian Sails in Newport
Few American ports have as much maritime history as Newport, Rhode Island. From north to south, America’s Cup Boulevard follows the natural arc of Newport Harbor, which is thickly studded with marinas and yacht clubs. It’s also protected in most directions thanks to the mainland and a sturdy penninsula that terminates in Fort Adams, which […]
Out of the Boatyard & Into the Frying Pan
Our last week in Power Boats, Trinidad’s hottest boatyard, saw enough accomplished to allow Audentes a taste of water after a month on the hard. We made a great stride toward this goal on February 17th, when we managed to reinstall the mast. All the other yachties we’ve talked to have nothing but praise for […]
Carnival Ad Nauseum
A week is enough time to gain sufficient perspective on Carnival. It kicked off with the NFL Superbowl on Sunday night, which we watched on a Mexican channel in a local bar. We missed out on the commercials, but we did manage to catch some off-air chatter between the commentators, who discussed whether or not […]
Carnival in Trinidad
We were somewhat mislead concerning the nature of last Sunday’s Viey La Cou. In our minds, “theater” means a performance with a plot. In Trinidad, it apparently refers to several different groups of people in costume walking to and fro on a grass field. The first section, from 1 pm to 4 pm, was a […]
Toil and Trouble
We’re quickly forgetting how to sail and fast remembering how inept we are at fiberglass work. Still, we’ve managed to overcome our incompetence and are only a few nuts and bolts from completing the reinstallation of our deck hardware. This has involved plenty of drilling, prying, hacking, heavy-duty gluing, and liberal use of our hammer, […]
On the Hard in Trinidad Part III
We’ve reviewed the journal entries from our spring/summer stint in the boat yard at Fort Pierce, looking for clues as to how we might make our current stay in a boat yard more enjoyable. Of course, we found nothing, but the nature of our work here in Trinidad is far cleaner, thus far. Eventually, we […]
On the Hard in Trinidad Part II
The verdict is in; if you haven’t seen “Troy” yet, keep waiting, for as long as possible. Moving on, we have established ourselves in the boatyard at Chaguaramas, Trinidad. Our first full day was rainy with occasional precipitation and intermittent drizzle. Fortunately, our work detail was scraping, sanding, and wiping the bottom, where we were […]
On the Hard in Trinidad
Saturday and Sunday were slow as the weather was bad and we were getting restless waiting for Monday, when our boat was scheduled to be hauled out. Sunday our plans for a good meal and sports on TV were smashed when we learned that our favorite restaurant, Joe’s, was closed on the Sabath. We spent […]
Passage to Valhalla
On the evening of the 11th, Aaron and I set out for Trinidad with high hopes and tempered sails. A 15-20 knot wind made the close reach brisk but uncomfortable, and we got little sleep on our first shifts off. The monotony of my 12am-2am watch was broken by the sudden sound of cellophane at […]