Sailing to the Pacific

February 23, 2020 (OLD POST -- PRE LOCK/DOWN There are better connections to fly from Beirut to DC, but Qatar airlines offers better prices and, even if the journey takes longer, the quality of service is above average including in economy class.  Champagne, for instance, rarely seen outside of first and business class in other … Continue reading Beirut-Washington-Beirut

February 4, 2020 Last Tuesday morning I moved Antares to the boatyard.  It is located just before the entrance of  Pont of Sandy Ground, east from where we had  anchored.  One just needs to be careful motoring east — it’s quite shallow — until you reach the buoyed channel.   The yard is a family … Continue reading Back to Beirut, with the Flu

January 26, 2020 It is my second day at anchor here on the French side of the lagoon.  All is quite, the wind has taken a break, time has slowed down and I’m becoming younger relative to you all.   I finally left Marina de Salinas Wednesday late afternoon.  That morning I drove to San … Continue reading St Martin

It’s been, again, a while since the last time I updated this journal.   I had a couple of busy months since my return to Beirut after the summer.  Work took me to Ryad, Frankfurt, Washington DC, Algiers, and Peru where I spent my 50th birthday (and was robbed).  Christmas and New Year’s Eve I was in Ecuador … Continue reading Salinas, Puerto Rico to BVI or St. Martin — January 2020

Beirut, 29 September 2019 Things look a bit calmer in the Caribbean Sea and I hope they remain this way.  Antares and I have been lucky.   On August 25th, one day after Dorian was born as a tropical storm east of the lesser Antilles, Marina Salinas sent a warning e-mail; check the storm and … Continue reading Hurricane Season, Rides, and a Dalio

August 18, 2019 This post is late due to problems accessing the blog.   _____________ I am writing from Tessalonikky Greece.  I came with Natalia for a couple of days to meet her parents who are on their way to Parea, a beach-town just a few miles north.  I left Salinas, Puerto Rico, almost two … Continue reading Reflections About an Aborted Passage

August 5, 2019 I realized yesterday that it had been more than eight days since I left Ecuador and moved to Antares.  The 8-units package of Starbox instant coffee, which I had opened early in the morning the day after I arrived to Ponce - Puerto Rico, had only one little bag left.   As … Continue reading Salinas PR

July 31st, 2019 I am back to Ponce.  Have been here since Saturday 27th.  First provisioning and preparing the boat, then just waiting. A mild anxiety comes and goes, and is hitting a forte today as my departure becomes imminent:  tonight after midnight. I was supposed to depart yesterday night but Chris Parker discouraged me … Continue reading Ponce once again

July 18, I have been in Ecuador for almost one month, most of the time at the beach in Casa Blanca. My mother and daughters are also here.  Natalia left a few days ago. It was our anniversary but we both forgot. Father, brother, and son arrive on Friday.   Although it is already the … Continue reading Casa Blanca – Same – Ecuador