Pete & Annie Hill

We spent some time in Halifax, Nova Scotia. From there we’ve been working our way south. At present we are in St. Michaels.

We stayed around a few days and then set off South. It was very cold and we had ice on the dinghy in the mornings. We decided to stay in the Intra-Coastal Waterway all the way down. Apart from the odd flurry of activity in very narrow sections, where it was too narrow for us to turn around and the bridge didn’t open in time, it was pretty relaxing. 

We lost forward and reverse in Greenland. Our 1984 engine is now obsolete and we wouldn’t get spares in the U.S.A. They had them in the U.K. last time we were there, so we are keeping our fingers crossed. 

It was very cold all the way down to Cape Kennedy, where at last it started to warm up. We were glad of our heater. We made a detour across Lake Okeechobee to St. Petersburg and then crossed back again, negotiating the 5 locks each way without problems. The minimum height is 47ft, so we’d have been stuck with anything much bigger or a bermudian rig. We quite enjoyed the trip and saw a couple of alligators, which seemed rather exotic. We also had the privilege of watching the space shuttle launch. Standing on the sails, we could actually see the launch pad. It was a moving sight. Awesome as our American friends would say. 

We left the U.S.A. from St. Lucie Inlet and sailed down to the BVI. We should have been closehauled all the way, but were lucky and did the 1300 miles in 13 days. Then, we met up with Cameleon, as arranged 13 months previously. We had a great time, cruising in company with them. The two boats turned a few heads as they sailed by together. The winds were lighter than usual, at that time of year and Badger proved to be slightly faster on all points of sailing in those conditions. 

We had intended to leave the BVI about mid April and sail to Ireland, but were delayed waiting for mail. In the end it was 2nd May before we could leave. As we want to go to Brest ’92, we have had to scrap Ireland and are going to the Azores instead and then to Brittany. After Brest we are returning to the U.K. for the end of July, August and early September. 

We don’t feel that we’ve achieved a lot this Summer, but plan to make up for it by Christmas. However, we’re still en route to the Azores and anything could happen yet. The wind has been forward of the beam since leaving – hence the rotten handwriting and it’s been a bouncy F5 for the past few days. We hope to send this from Horta in about a fortnight. 

All the best 

Annie & Pete