Even after all these years, this still amazes me. The contrast in color between the Atlantic and the Caribbean is amazing, and the waterfall effect on the reef was something I will never forget.
Some very raw and rough footage I took of a reef off the coast of Barbuda in the Caribbean sea. What we are seeing is a reef where the Atlantic Ocean (dark blue) hits the reef, waterfalls over it and becomes the Caribbean Sea (light blue). Very loud so turn down the sound. I apologize for the bounciness of the clip, but a sailboat, or any boat for that matter, is not a very stable platform to shoot a video from. We had anchored in this vicinity overnight, and enjoyed the sights and sounds through the evening and morning. Pretty impressive.
As the title implies, we are going to fill you in on our maiden voyage as sailors, and how we got to here (the video) from basically nowhere. Check out the video (and subscribe to the channel, I’ll get better as I do more, I promise) and I’ll tell the tale below.
I hope you enjoyed that, it was a great time. I promised you a story though, so here goes.
The premise of our various sites is to give the scoop on what we are doing, have done and are working on doing on the path to retirement. A few years back, 2011 to be exact, we shared an epiphany. We were looking for a way to combine many wants and wishes into a fairly neat package. Lori came up with, “Why not a sailboat?”. We want to see things, and in retirement we wish to do so without dragging our suitcases. The thinking with a boat was that it doubles as your home! All your stuff goes with you and you never have to pack. A home away from home so to speak. A;so somewhere to store all the touristy crap that someone I know buys at every opportunity.
This all well and good, except for one tiny detail, not knowing how to sail. The ocean is a pretty big place and a 40 foot boat requires a bit of know how, especially the part about not killing oneself. That drove us to begin researching and the the end result of that was that we needed certification and some hands on training, culminating in the purchase of an actual boat.
Once we figured that part out, we then had the question of where and with who, not even thinking about what we could, or should buy.. The answer ended up being reasonably easy, combine it with a vacation. Thus we discovered the Miramar Sailing School on the island of Antigua. We registered in the Royal Yachting Associations course for rookies, Competent Crew. We would be live-aboard on a 40 foot Beneteau sailing vessel, SV Miramar, for 5 terrific days of intense learning in the beautiful Caribbean.
That settled, we booked our flights, accommodations and the course and then anxiously awaited our departure date.
To be continued. (My apologies for this, got tired).
JOHN LORI'EH 