‘Cruising Life’ Archives
Under sail again to Saint Martin
CRUISING LIFE Frances Diebler hfdiebler@gmail.com We’re on the move again. After spending two months in the beautiful Virgin Islands, we finally sailed over to Marigot Bay, St. Martin, French West Indies. The Christmas winds were blowing for two whole weeks now and the sea state was rather rough. This next passage was a serious [...]
VIRGIN ISLANDS I, A BOATER’S PARADISE
CRUISING LIFE Frances Diebler hfdiebler@gmail.com The British Virgin Islands and the U.S. Virgin Islands collectively make up the whole of the Virgin Islands. They have separate governments. The US Virgins is a US territory while the British belong to England. The BVI’s, aka British Virgin Islands, are made up of about sixty [...]
VIRGIN ISLANDS I, A BOATER’S PARADISE
CRUISING LIFE Frances Diebler hfdiebler@gmail.com After spending at least two months traveling throughout the British and US Virgin Islands, we reluctantly had to prepare to sail on down the island chain. Thinking back to all the islands we sailed to in the Caribbean, from Dominican Republic to the north coast of Venezuela, each [...]
LET’S GO SAILING
CRUISING LIFE Frances Diebler hfdiebler@gmail.com My husband and I never sailed or ever thought about this subject until one day out of the blue he said, “I want to learn how to sail”. “Okay” I said. “Why?”? We didn’t live on the water at that time. We weren’t associated with other sailors or owned a boat. I was [...]
Puerto Rico to Virgin Islands
Frances Diebler hfdiebler@gmail.com We are underway again sailing from Puerto Rico and Culebra to St. Thomas, USVI. We left GRENDEL, “on the hard”, which is a phrase for having your vessel hauled and stored on land. This is probably the best way to protect your vessel when you will be away for a month or more. We left Puerto for [...]
Preparing for a long voyage at sea
CRUISING LIFE Frances Diebler hfdiebler@gmail.com Before I continue taking you south through the Caribbean Island chain to the North Coast of South America, I would like to discuss some of the requirements I consider necessary to prepare yourself and your boat for such a long trip aboard. First and foremost, from my perspective [...]
Reflections of life at sea
CRUISING LIFE Frances Diebler hfdiebler@gmail.com After writing several pleasant articles about our life at sea, I began to miss some of the things that made life both more pleasant and more frustrating at the same time. I know that this statement is a contradiction within itself. When we all write letters or tell stories about our [...]
Plans and preparations for long term sailing
CRUISING LIFE Frances Diebler hfdiebler@gmail.com Rather than continuing writing on our journey from Connecticut to South America, I think it is time to address your need for planning, i.e. what to do, when to do it and how to do it. Each cruiser has many of the same responsibilities and many have very different issues. One essential task [...]
Christmas in the Caribbean
Frances Diebler hfdiebler@gmail.com Holidays such as Thanksgiving and Christmas are celebrated all around the world and it makes no difference if you celebrate at home or at sea. We have experienced both and, each time, we had friends and family who celebrated with us wherever we were at sea or at home. Each celebration was joyous, warm, [...]
LIFE ABOARD GRENDEL – FARJARDO, PUERTO RICO, part II
By Frances Diebler hfdiebler@gmail.com We had been gone for two and a half months and we were out of many staples. Fortunately, we had friends, Wally and Linda, who were living aboard their boat, TIRE SWING, long term and had their van shipped to Puerto Rico from Texas. It would have been cheaper for them to have bought an old car here. [...]
