1 April 2019 Highbourne Cay to West Palm Beach, Florida (Day 2)
At sunrise, we had fluffy white clouds with blue skies. After 24 hours of solid motoring, we were pleased that the wind picked up to 15 knots from the south allowing us to finally turn the engine off and sail on a beam reach. Later in the morning, we hooked a nice Dorado, which I gaffed and landed ok. It bled profusely, so by the time that I’d subdued it, the aft deck was covered in blood – took me nearly an hour to fillet the fish and clean up the mess. Glenys served Fish Tortillas for lunch, which was lovely.
Recent Posts
Welcome to the Alba Chronicles.
This is a diary of our travels on-board our 42 foot sailing yacht, "Alba". Glenys and I have sold our house and land-bound possessions, bought a boat and the intention is to continue cruising until we're too old to carry on.
Providing that we can get Internet access, we'll be posting diary entries every week - we hope that you enjoy following our voyage.
We have an interactive mapping section where you can view Our latest location and some of the Anchorages that we have visited.
You can also download the Alba Chronicles as an eBook from the Downloads page
Neville Howarth.
Damn Port-lights
6 May 2019 Herrington Harbour North, Virginia
It’s very strange to wake up in the morning without having to think about our next passage or the next anchorage. We’ve been constantly on the move since October and have done nearly 3,000 miles since we left Trinidad. We don’t even have to look at the weather forecast apart from finding out if it’s going to rain and possibly spoil our maintenance work.
Leaving Alba
27 May 2019 Herrington Harbour North, Virginia
It was Memorial Day, but we had no time to relax. We were back at the boat at 08:00 and rattled off a few jobs. I put the final coat of varnish on the cockpit table and Glenys continued to clean after the chaos of the past few days. I then replaced the aft heads door, which looks great.
Heading up the Chesapeake
29 April 2019 Norfolk, Virginia
It was a cold grey morning, forcing me to wear jeans and thick socks for the first time in six months. We’re just hanging about waiting to sail up to Annapolis tomorrow. Glenys went for a walk to the supermarket a mile away, while I lurked down below hugging a cup of hot chocolate.
Maintenance in Maryland
13 May 2019 Herrington Harbour North, Virginia
It was another grey start to the day and had been cold overnight, so I turned on the heater to remove the chill. The rain hammered down last night and was a good test of the port-lights - I’m pleased to report that we have no leaks. It rained on and off all day, so we did jobs down below.