The East Coast

Fidelity, has been making fabulous time up the east coast. North Carolina, Virgina, Atlantic City and currently NYC have been the ports of call!

Stay tuned, b/c the boys will be back in Pickering soon!!

Bahamas

At the End of June, Sam and Karen travelled to Grand Bahama Island, and spent time with Ryan, Davis and Seamus. Everyone had heaps of fun at Lucaya. Seamus also had a friend Briar come down for a visit! When the boy's decided to leave Bahamas, it was time to head back home!

CUBA

In Mid June Ryan's cousin Jeff travelled to Cuba to visit the Boat! Although he was there for a short time, they had a fantastic time!!

CAYMAN ISLANDS

Ryan and Davis are in the Caymen Islands.
Thay made awesome time, and should meet up with Davis' fam tomorow.

Good work guys, HAVE FUN!!!

Bocas Del Toro, Panama and San Andres, Columbia

When the visitors were gone the group sailed to Bocas Del Toro. They had some engine troubles so they had to spend more time in Bocas than planned. Maggie left from Bocas, and had a fabulous trip with the boys as she got to visit, Curacao, Aruba, Caracas Venezuela, Cartagena Columbia, San Blas Islands (Panama), Colon (Panama) and Bocas Del Toro (Panama).

Ryan arrived in San Andres Columbia yesterday. They will leave to sail to the Caymen Islands where their next set of visitors, Davis' family, will arrive.

Panama May 10th -17th

On May 10th My dad and I arrived in Panama to visit Ryan, Davis and Maggie. For our first night we rented a room at the Veneto hotel, as dad's flight had been delayed for about 7 hours.

When I arrived, Ryan was at the airport to pick me up. We decided to bus into town and go to the swimming pool at the Veneto. Public Transit in Panama is on a school bus. Many of them have been spray painted and fixed up with sirens and lights. The bus cost 5 cents to ride. When we got into Panama City, Ryan took me to a store to buy a swim suit, as I had left my luggage in storage at the airport. Everything was VERY Cheap in Panama and my swim suit cost 8 dollars. After having some drinks and chillen by the pool for the afternoon it was time to head back to the airport to pick up Dad. The bus ride was quite the adventure. Picture 3 people to a seat, and Ryan had 5 people to a seat at one point. The bus was packed with more people than you can imagine. The driver was crazy and it was an adventure for sure. We met dad, and went to the hotel.

The next day we awoke, and travelled by coach bus ($2.50) across the country to Colon, where Ryan's boat was located. It was raining when we arrived at the Panama Canal Yacht Club, so we chilled in the clubhouse, drinking dollar beers, and eating lunch. When the rain stopped Ryan took the luggage to the boat and Davis came back to pick, Maggie, Dad and I up. That evening we went grocery shopping and provisioned for our trip to Bocas Del Toro, and we would leave the ancorage on Monday morning.

Monday came along and dad wasn't feeling very well. He decided that he should not sail to Boca and he would meet us there by plane. That wasn't an option so we decided to go back in to Panama City and get a room at the Veneto. A/C and comfy beds would help dad we thought.....

We got a cab to drive us to Panama City, and this was an unbelievable story................................................................................................................................................

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Ryan, Maggie and I got into the backseat with a two year old child (the driver's daughter) and dad was in the front seat. We thought the cab driver was going to drop the kid off, but I guess decided it wasn't neccessary. Maggie held the baby for the first half of the trip, and was even asked to change her diaper. I told the cabbie to pull over and change the diaper herself. So she did. About 45 minutes into the trip the child would not stop crying....it was very annoying! The cabbie pulled over and asked us if anyone had a driver's license. I said we did, but at home in Canada. She didn't care and asked us to drive. Ryan hopped in the front seat and began to drive a cab, across Panama while the cabbie held her daughter in the backseat. I wish I had a pic of Ryan driving the cab!!!! Close to Panama City she began to drive again, and took us to the Veneto. Dad went to bed, and we hung out at the pool. At the hotel there was wine and tapas for free on the 17th floor between 6-8pm. It was fun and the bar tender left the bottles when he cleaned up.

On Tuesday we had to take my dad to the hospital. He ended up with severe food poisioning and was re-hydrated through IV. Thanks to Maggie's dad for helping us decide which hospital to take him too!

On Wed, I was sick, so I must have eaten something bad too. Fortunately my sickness didn't last as long as my dad's.

Thursday, we decided to do some site-seeing! Ryan, Dad and I went to the Panama Canal Museum. The exibits were in Spanish, but it was still interesting. We also saw a Rembrant Art Exhibit.

Friday the five of us travelled to the Panama Canal. We were at the Miraflores Locks. The museum was awesome, and the best part was we got to see 2 ships go through the canal. The first was a US submarine, and the second was a Disney cruise ship. We then switched hotels to be closer to the airport for our departure on Sat.

Although we didn't get to sail on Fidelity, it was great to hang out with Ryan, Davis and Maggie.

Pics from Panama

More Pics

At the Panama Canal we saw a US sub. We also saw a disney cruise boat make its way through the canal, and who would have thought we would see Mickey Mouse in Panama???

Pictures from Panama Continued...

Pictures from Panama Continued

The Rental Car, Saba, The Grenadines and the Boy's in Grenada

REPORT FROM RYAN

After the conclusion of the Heineken regatta we took care of the necessary boat work and took the main sail to get repaired. While waiting, we noticed that there was a big storm in the North Atlantic that was hitting the islands in 4 days. If we waited for the repair, we would not have been able to get to Barbados by the 1st to pick up Matt Cordeau and see the islands on the way down. With a last minute decision we picked up the sail, which is still usable with a reef in it and set sail for Saba. Our goal for Saba was to climb to the highest peak (3000 ft) and get the stamp in the passport. We did in fact make it to the top and see most of the island which was absolutely beautiful. From Saba, we continued south east to Guadeloupe before the big storm hit. Once we arrived we realized that the Island was extremely large, and public transportation was hard to find. We rented a car, which made accessing the surf spots a breeze. We surfed Port Louis, which had the biggest surf it has seen in years, so we were quite fortunate. We decided to hang around till the 24th so we could meet up with a friend that raced with us in the Heineken regatta. After hanging out with Dan for a day, we decided to push off to Dominica. This sail was quite rough but only took 8 hours. On this sail our engine stopped charging the batteries which would eventually become a serious problem. Not being able to charge the batteries means that we would not be able to start the engine once they get below a certain charge. We got a local mechanic to fix the problem which was a huge relief. We could now use lights and keep our food cold.

Due to the large size of Dominica, we decided that a rental car was the best way to see the whole island. After getting the car we made our way to one of the Islands natural waterfalls (Trafalger Falls) and enjoyed the beautiful scenery. After looking at the map of the island, we thought that the drive through volcano would be cool to do as the only drive through that we had encountered before was Mc Donalds. This turned out to be amazing. We then cruised the North Coast of the Island which was extremely lush, covered with Palm Trees, greenery, rainforest, and single lane roads. This was definitely the coolest drive that we had ever made. Our plan was to depart the next day and make the trek to Barbados. When we woke up we noticed that one of our friends from the BVI was anchored right in front of us. After reminiscing, we pushed off for Barbados. This sail took 35 hours and was quite rough. We ended up ripping our genoa so we were limited to our main sail. We arrived early morning on the 1st, just in time for Matts arrival. We spent the next couple of days touring Barbados, getting the boat back in shape and checking out its famous surf spots.

We departed on the 4th and headed south west to Grenada. Along the way, we decided to stop off in the Grenadines to check out the scenery and enjoy a swim in the Tobagao Cays. This was an area with a lot of little islands and a huge reef. Very cool spot to spend an afternoon. It was another 10 hours to Grenada which is where we are currently anchored.

So whats next…….We are heading to Caracas(Venezuela) tomorrow which is probably going to be a 3 day sail, then push off to the ABC islands to pick up Maggie on the 15th. From there we will work our way west to Panama to go through the cannal and meet up with family. We’ll keep you posted.

BARBADOS

ARRIVAL in BARBADOS!!! not much news other then a tear in the genoa....

quick news

Ryan and Davis have just spent time in Guadalupe and Dominica . They are currently in transit to Barbados!

Exciting news is that Maggie will be joining the boys mid April and Karen will hopefully meet up with the crew in Panama on May 10th!

Article on Sailing Anarchy about the Boat Ryan and Davis sailed on at the Heineken Regatta

Tame That Tiger
Heineken Regatta 2008, Flying Tiger 10What happens when 3am trash talk at the bar 4 weeks ago turns to the idea of chartering a race boat for 2008 St. Maarten Heineken Regatta? 9 people, ranging from the age of 21 to 61, a Flying Tiger Ten and enough stories to keep the trash talk at the bar for at least another year of racing stories? Yea you'll get a few, party stories, why not?

Crackin off with a big bang, we hit up the usual Thursday practice day, Budget Marine Commodore's Cup. We had a great debrief the night before, although I think there was more talk about the peeler bars, then the actual racing. Sure enough, we figured out what we were all going to do on the boat, and how to do it, so we pretty much had already won... Ha... Spinnaker 3, great class, gotta love racing a 32 foot boat with a fleet that consisted of boats like Yani, Storm and Oyster Catcher... In fact we figured out EASY the boat just one size up from us... the rig cost more than our entire boat. So, how does the Flying Tiger (FT 10M) rate? Well, Caribbean Sailing Association (CSA) believes that this boat rates faster than a Mumm 36, a boat that on PHRF owes the FT 10M 18 seconds a mile. What??? Well let's just sail it fast and see how it goes...

After Thursday's regatta, maybe we should worry about going downwind. But hey its a asym boat that most of have little experience, and we got the owner on the boat racing, great he can race it for us, our crew included previous overall winners of this very regatta, ex Americans cup sailors, some young blood skiff and dinghy sailors , and 130 lb German (the owner).

The racing was long, tiring, filled with many stories from the night before, as well as the occasional shrimp session... and occasional broachfest... Wind was a steady 15-25knts all weekend, around the island race brought in some nice north east swell but primarily easterly's, the inshore races had some good geometrics, and of course the bands, babes and booze all lead to why this regatta continues to be one of the main staples of Caribbean racing. The boat, can't say I've sailed a better boat, in all conditions, this boat rocks, hitting 18.7knts on the Friday, followed by a nice scream on the Sunday of 19.9knts, those designers and Chinese got a good thing going, keep it up. With a revamp of the CSA rating systems, I believe the Flying Tiger could be competitive in the Caribbean regattas, or going on what my old man says, who happens to be the oldest sailor on the boat at 61, "we didn't have a snowballs chance in hell with that rating".

So where do we go now? Well first off is too the prize giving celebrations, one were we won't be going on the podium, but we'll party like we did. The band warms up as I write this, and I heard later that this "shaggy" man will be performing, if his name is a cursor for how the weekend should wrap up, well we should be in for a good night, and if it looks a little dismal, well there's always Golden Eyes and Club Bliss after party...

Anarchist Watts2434
Chris Watters
03/10/08

St. Maarten Heineken Regatt

Ryan and Davis have just finished racing in the Heineken regatta.
http://www.heinekenregatta.com/
I'm sure they are at the final party/concert right now!

They will begin to island hop for the next couple of weeks!

Some New Photos

ANTIGUA

Ryan and Davis went ot Nevis and played golf on Thursday the 7th.
They arrived to Antigua on Friday the 8th, and have been spending time with Auntie Anne, and Uncle Peter. The are down visiting family friends, so it was a great opportunity for Ryan to see some family. Ryan and Davis have been staying with my aunt and uncle, and they are having a great time.
Tomorrow (the 13th) they will attend a cricket match, and will head back to the BVI's on Thursday to pick up a charter.

They are having a FANTASTIC time.....

Back to Sea...MAYBE

Ryan and Davis plan to sail to St. Martin, and then Antigua.
Hopefully Ryan will be able to meet up with my aunt and uncle in Antigua!

Happy sailing...

GOODBYE ANDREW

Andrew has returned to the north....
All the best Andrew!! We hope that you have enjoyed yourself the past few months!!

SORRY FOR THE DELAY

Here are some photos from when the dad's were visiting. (Florida to Bahamas)

A NEW CREW MEMBER

This past Monday, Davis Winters (a friend from Class Afloat and Dal) arrived in the BVI and will be joining Ryan and Andrew.
They are planning to spend a bit more time in the BVI's. Andrew's sister and brother-in-law will also be coming for a visit this month!

Here are some pictures from the BVI's. This is when Maggie and Mike were visiting over New Years!

North Sound, Virgin Gorda

The four of us departed Jost Van Dyke on the morning of the 2nd after a great dinner with Mike D's family. We sailed on the North side of Tortola to Josiah's Bay where we anchored and paddled in for a surf session. After catching some waves, we picked up anchor, and continued to the Bitter End Yacht Club where Ryan worked last year. Needless to say, it was a great night. The next day we taxi'ed over the hills to the Baths (a formation of huge rocks). The sight was amazing. We departed BEYC on the 5th and headed into Road Town so Mike could catch the ferry to the USVI. Ryan and Maggie then headed to Cane Garden Bay to catch some of North Swell that was rolling in. The 7th was a sad day as, Maggie had to return home for school. Andrew and Ryan are still in Road Town awaiting the arrival of the new addition to the crew, Davis Winters who arrives on the 14th. We hope everyone had a great holiday season.