Our travel notes...

Internet Cafe in Vila Baleira

Porto Santo (Madera)

Nice place, nice walks, nice town. Great internet cafe in town before the gas station to the left. Definitely where I would stop again coming from Europe.

But then the port authorities, or the authorities, or the local politicians, I don't know who, don't get it. First we paid 36 Euros a night for our 15.92m which is way too much. Sure there was water and electricity and clean bathrooms/showers (although modest and with cockroaches). But the docking arrangement was not that great. The harbor is very far from anything, it is like being parked in a hole. We either had to stay at the fishing pier with dirty sides, or at the pontoons which were too small and with aggressive metal. Either way the boat was not safe from scratches and minor dents in strong winds. And anchoring, whether in the harbor or at the beach is not free.

A little further than the harbor, there is nice brand new leisure center development being pretty much completed. With nice bars/restaurants, palm trees, paved walks, karting track, beach volley stadium; but then there is no pedestrian access to it from the harbor. Another missed opportunity to make it attractive for yachts stopping there.

Second, the port authorities kept our papers during our stay. This is current practice in banana republics, but come on guys, don't you want to be part of Europe? Behave civilized then, don't take me hostage. Afraid yachts might leave without paying your overpriced charge? Then invest in fixing the moorings, improving the security, services, and comfort of your harbor. The loss from the few that still won't pay will be greatly compensated by the increased revenues of a nice place. It will also benefit your great little town.

Fishing fleet, La Graciosa

La Graciosa, Lanzarote (Canary)

Nicest place on earth. Anchorage or marina, you can choose. Anchorage (free like it should be) still has some rock patches, so be careful, especially if there any sign of S/SW winds. The marina has no water nor electricity and is priced accordingly. Very reasonable indeed. Friendly people, clean place, beautiful colors and Manrique's architecture, restaurants and cafes, clean water, great swimming, great windsurfing and kite sailing, great walks on the island, or across the Rio. And great Internet cafe. We paid 50 cents/liter for diesel. I could stay there three months... or forever.

Marina Rubicon, Lanzarote (Canary)

The 11 stars marina. The showers inside look like you're at the Hilton. The reception pontoon is right at a nice bar. So you park and have a beer while registering. Hi-speed (11mbps) Wifi on the pontoons. We paid 34 Euros for our 15.92m. Wifi is 5 Euros per day. You can also purchase it by the hour. Beautifully thought out architecture, in between a "cite lacustre" and a modern marina. Clean water. Lots of stores, restaurants, and amenities. Great paved 15mn walk to beautiful Playa Blanca town. Never got tired of walking there with the beautiful views of Fuerteventura to the south. Those Lanzarote marina designers, they got it right.

Puertito de la Luz (Punta Jandia, Fuerteventura, Canary)

Wow. Le mouillage de reve. Au bout du monde. In settled weather I guess. At the south tip of Lanzarote. I've read Moitessier loved it there, and miracle, no one has ruined it yet. I would have stayed longer.

Internet Cafe Nederlands in Mindelo

Mindelo (Sao Vicente, Cape Verdes)

People have told me they have other priorities and urgent tasks than catering to yachts. Well we could have figured that out. But everything holds together and is intermingled. Clean your harbor, fix your ruined pontoon, don't hassle the tourists, stop using the beach as toilets, make the formalities easy and unbureaucratic and things you thought were unrelated will also improve.

You have to have your dinghy guarded in Mindelo. It is a rip off and a racket. They were asking up to 5 euros/day. If you don't want to pay they get mad at you. They fight between themselves. Well, la Zizanie. After getting tired of spending all our money in no service and beggars, we got our kids to taxi us to shore and keep the dinghy.

Mindelo, a much smaller place than I had envisioned (and this is great because everything is within a short walk) has everything for provisioning for a crossing. There are small "supermarkets" and we got peanut butter and Piripiri. Paying desalinated water at a fishing dock and at Kai Brossmann's pontoon. Kai was very kind to let us have a package sent to his address, and he fixed our boom vang problem by having a stainless steel mast attachment piece made for a very fair price. Kai also has a Cabo Verde sailing guide book available in several languages.

Great Internet cafe (albeit small bandwidth) and great music.

Santo Antao and Sao Nicolau (Cape Verdes)

The place to hike and aluguer. Incredible rock paved trails. Get a detailed map. There are some at a bookstore in Mindelo. No good anchorage in Santo Antao, still the place is wonderful. A very good anchorage at Tarrafal, on Sao Nicolau.

Santa Luzia (Cape Verdes)

Great anchorage, beach, clear water. Nobody there, just nobody. Williwaws; though not a problem since it is blowing offshore.

Internet Cafe in Rodney Bay

Rodney Bay (Saint Lucia, Lesser Antilles)

Great and easy anchorage near Gros Islet (slightly on the left of it), outside in the bay. Great place to land from the Atlantic crossing, even at night and tired. Easy access to stores and shopping. Several Internet cafes with high speed connections. We paid a 40 EC (USD 15) port fee to be in the territory, which included permission to visit the Pitons.

Les Saintes, Terre de Haut (Guadeloupe, Lesser Antilles)

Fantastic place, beautiful yachts and ships in the bay. First it is French so you can get bread and bottled water for the price of... bread and bottled water (and not 5 times that). Then the place is free. Then there is no comite d'accueil, no emmerdeurs, locals just leave you alone (the other place like this is La Graciosa). No rich hotels, no ghettos. Instead, lots of cafes, restaurants, boutiques, markets. Of course, since this is France, there is no high speed Internet (who needs that anyway), and the French anchor too close (as in the metro, they like you). Great art and culture.

Tobago Cays (Grenadines, St Vincent, Lesser Antilles)

The reefs are wonderful. Must go there at least once. Yachts and multihulls tend to crowd all in one or two places, so you can go a little further and be alone in the wild blue. We paid 15 EC plus 5 EC/person per day just to be in the territory (entrance at Bequia). For two days, that was 60 EC (USD 22 - children under 12 are free). This is just a big rip off given that you are not going to be left alone by the beggars, your safety is not granted, there is no public service associated with that tax, and you will be depleted of your money by locals no matter what. The clearance customs officer at Union was a real jerk and gave us a hard time asking us to pay for an extra day since "we where probably not leaving tonight". I told him I was leaving right now and we did.

Los Testigos (Venezuela)

Wonderful, remote, magic. Comite d'accueil is a friendly and extremely polite coast guard. The pontoon says "Bienvenido" and they mean it. Fishermen wave at you at sea, and nobody sells you stuff. Water is clear as can be. Nature is beautiful. Anchorage is uncrowded and easy. Please keep this place as it is: always report to the coast guard on arrival, don't take any garbage to land, respect locals and their privacy, be careful where you anchor, etc...

Porlamar's anchorage

Porlamar (Margarita)

Great shopping. We liked it downtown (there is not much, if nothing, at the anchorage). We did our checkin with Juan Baro as the agent (Juan Marina). That was $50 (International check in). To check out it is another $50 for International, and $35 for National (let's say you go to another port in the country, like Los Roques).

You can park your dinghy at his dock and it will be watched by his team. Minimum tip 50 US cents/day, but you can give what you want. Juan organizes for various shopping centers to come pick up cruisers for free on the morning via minivan. We did the Rattan hypermarket that way. Rattan is right downtown, so we could walk around the shopping area and numerous stores. This is the best way possible to provision the boat, because Rattan pack your stuff for you and deliver it right to the pontoon. The whole thing is better than painless, it is right down pleasant.

Diesel boat comes right to the boat for a fill up. Idem for water boat (Waterbaby VHF 72). Since the anchorage is not that secure by default (dinghy theft mainly), cruisers organized a night watch system, with a Security Net at 8:00 am on VHF 72. So this is really a great place to stop, shop, and provision the boat. For telephone card, we used Multicard (pin code) which can be purchased at the panaderia near Rattan.

Overall, Venezuela remains quite dangerous for cruisers in my opinion. Of course the appreciation of danger is highly subjective. It is hard not to go there given the beautiful places and the friendly people. We wanted to walk from Marina Juan to Vemasca (about 1/2 mile on a 4 lane avenue with good sidewalks) but were told not to. Both Juan and Philippe also told us to go inside Marina Del Caribe, and not just anchor outside (although it looked just fine to me, but I followed their recommendation). While we were there, the French yacht Marquise was robbed in Cubagua just a few miles away (I believe on the night of February 4th). The captain resisted, and both he and his wife got badly hurt (knife cuts) and had to be hospitalized.

El Yaque (Margarita)

Does not look like an anchorage, we went by bus to the queen of windsurfing destinations. Well unfortunately, El Yaque is a little bit like a palm tree ghetto. There are actually armed guards at the entrance. The hotels are not that fancy but their prices are. The place is hot and crowded with the windsurfing, now kite sailing corporate audience.

Main problem was not much wind. I think there are too many sailboarders around and the wind is getting depleted. Instead of restricting the amount of sailing a single person can get, they just go to bigger and bigger sails, and to kite sailing, depleting the little wind that is left even more. Bernard rented his gear from a large international outfit with a 12 day package. He sailed on large sails only 2 days. They told us this was the first year that bad, but some people said last year wasn't any better. He had paid in advance because they advertised that if one does not reserve and pay in advance one may not be able to get gear. This is a lie and false advertisement as there are plenty of rental places to get gear once you're there. Mistral had no problem renting me gear with no reservation.

One good thing about El Yaque. You can buy used windsurfing gear and kite sailing gear for cheap. Since the outfits have to renew their equipment every year, one can buy last year's for good prices.

Chacachacare

Marina Del Caribe boat yard, Chacachacare (Margarita)

Great place to haul out and to a bottom job. We paid $175 for in/out plus $20 choking. The high pressure wash was $62, and live aboard while on shore was $12/day. This included clean showers, water and electricity, refrigerated drinking water, and clothes washing machine. If you can bring your own tools (the yard does not loan tools) and accelerate the work by doing some stuff yourself, you'll save some frustration. Although labor is really cheap, things happen on Venezuelan style, mañana, mañana, you need not be in a hurry. The yard filled my tanks with diesel, 450l for $70 I believe. Philippe Philippart, the yard owner, has been very kind to cruisers, and he also gave us a very fair exchange rate (Bvs 2500/USD, the official bank rate is 1900).

From Chacachacare, you don't want to miss the trip to La Restinga (beautiful mangrove). The visit costs about $15 for an hour plus a stay a the beach on the other side. There are buses all day long to Polarmar and the airport intersection. To go to El Yaque (windsurfing/kitesurfing), one needs to get off at the airport intersection, and finish with a taxi. The bus is about Bvs 1500 and the taxi may be taken for Bvs 4000.

Los Roques

Los Roques (Venezuela Isles)

What people would call paradise on earth. The place is so nice I thought I would get bored with this paradise, but I got used to it after about 24h and it hurt to leave. It is very nice, very hard to beat. Colors in all shades of blues, emeralds, and turquoises. Not too hot, water and air are cooler, there is wind (place is a long way to get to, so there is some wind left here), easy and non crowded anchorages. There are very few foreign cruising yachts, just the 6 or 7 local charter sailboats ($150 per day per person).

Big and show off obnoxious motor yachts from rich Venezuelans during Carnival. Drive and honk like barbarians. Fortunately, they hang around just a few same places, so the rest is unpolluted by them. This is paradoxal because when we arrived I right away noticed we where also in the land of competent seamen and generous friendly people. We followed a charter boat into Francisqui, and they showed us where to drop our hook. Then a diving shop worker showed us the good places to snorkel. Then once we where heading straight to a shoal in the sunlight, when a local catamaran made big gestures at us and saved us from a certain grounding. Elias and Lieselotte from the escuela de vela at Francisqui adopted us and helped us with our windsurfing and kitesurfing. One night Elias was kite surfing all over the lagoon at moonlight. He literally jumped over our cockpit. Docking alongside the Normandia to get diesel was difficult, with gusts and surge and only 1.2m of water. Both the skipper and the cook of Chaito (a charter yacht we had shared anchorages with) ran over to help us. And then there was Ezekias, and his amiga Maria the heron at Carenero. He hurried out to sea to get us fish before we left for Las Aves for which he did not want any money. When we had walked to his cabin on the beach, his first word was Bienvenido.

It'd be great to come straight to Los Roques from the Caribbeans. But that is illegal, as Los Roques is not a port of entry. One has to go to a port of entry (like Polarmar) first. One cannot check out of Los Roques either, and leaving the country without checking out would be a major crime. To check out of the country, one has to go a main land port, such as Porto Cabello.

We paid Bvs 368 000 to be in Los Roques for 15 days with 6 people on board. 15 days is the maximum length of stay, although renewal extensions can be granted by the coast guard. Gran Roque posadas are expensive ($200 per night/per person), restaurants expensive too (breakfast was Bvs 48 000 per person) and the markets have the bare minimum at high prices (except we got a box of 24 diet Pepsi cans for $10). So provision before you get here. We got 200l of diesel at the Normandia for Bvs 30 000 (about $12).

Bonaire

Bonaire

Not much to say except great place to stop and provision. Mandatory mooring buoy about $10. Clean and nice. Lots of places to eat. Animation. Europe.

Ponce and Boqueron (Puerto Rico)

Don't think it should be a destination, but a place to stop along the way. We liked Ponce very much. We anchored at the Ponce Yacht Club at Isla de Gata. There is a beautiful park there with board walk, restaurants, pubs, and music. Fantastic to just sit with a beer and jalapeño relleno and watch your boat swing in the bay.

People take a cab from there to town, but we preferred riding our dinghy across the bay to a small local fishermen marina at Playa Ponce, near where the customs are. There we parked the dinghy right in front of the police station, and rode a "caro publico" to either Wallmart or Del Caribe mall. Both shopping centers are very nice, clean, and convenient. Got 100l diesel at the Yacht Club for $50. Water was 10c a gallon.

Boqueron is pretty. Good anchorage. Not much there. We rode two publicos to Mayaguez, through Cabo Rojo. Mayaguez mall has everything. We also begged for a Wifi access at Mayaguez University, which they kindly granted us, so we could update our Web site and e-mail. Great food on campus as well.

Providenciales (Turk and Caicos)

Not worth the stop unless one needs to. It has supermarkets for provisioning and dusty streets. We first stopped at French Cay on the southwest part of the bank (settled weather anchorage on the West side of the cay), and in retrospective should have continued to the Bahamas. The island is ruined by million dollar homes that lack architectural harmony and coherence. It is just a big disorder and anarchy. Customs officers at South Dock as unfriendly as one can be. They don't answer on VHF, and when I wrote down my arrival time as 12:00 they hassled me with: "why do you only come now?". It was 16:00. They charged me a $5 "boarding fee". Where is the boarding? Next I asked them if it was nice to go to Little Water Cay. The answer was we can't tell you, in case something happens to you we may get sued. Phew... Other than that, locals were quite nice and friendly.

Bight of Acklins and Long Cay (Bahamas)

Miles of sailing (motoring) in 2 meters of water or less. Remoteness and extremely friendly people. Anchorages are far from shore and in the open. Unless one has plenty of time and really wants to be alone in the middle of nowhere, I would skip. After rounding Castle Island to the south we anchored at Salina Point before entering the bight. Great beach and beautiful shades of blue/turquoise/transparent colors.

Clarence Town

Clarence Town, Long Island (Bahamas)

Fantastic bay with several uncrowded anchorages. Clear water, protected and safe for windsurfing and kitesurfing. Beautiful settlement. Friendly locals. Easy hitchhiking all over Long Island. Could stay and live there forever. We will miss this place. Visit the blue hole at Deans by dinghy, it is worth the trip.

One word about Flying Fish Marina there: not up to par. One powerboat called pan pan on VHF 16 in the middle of the night. They were out of fuel half a mile out and drifting to the ragged coast. Nobody was answering. We told them to put their anchor down which they did, and it held. We went over to the marina in the night and woke up the manager. He was not willing to help in anyway, nor would he talk to them. I told him I would take them some diesel with the dinghy but he was unwilling to provide me with fuel. Next morning, the marina towed the guys in for $800 (less than a mile), in spite of the fact that they filled their tanks there and bought at least 2 nights of dockage. Now what kind of business is that? I am not sure what so great things people find about marinas.

Conception Island (Bahamas)

Nothing there but natural beauty. Clear water, unbelievable colors, great snorkeling with giant blossoming coral structures, fantastic walks on shore, turtles in the creek/mangrove on the SW. Both anchorages on either side (West Bay and Booby Cay to the East) are easy to get at. Not to be missed.

George Town (Exumas, Bahamas)

Large protected bay with many varied anchorages. Obviously a destination with boater's net (VHF 68) and tons of "activities". Camp for cruisers. We did not stay but one night.

Farmers Cay (Exumas, Bahamas)

The cut is intimidating. Friendly local community. Wood carving. Water at the dock. Strong current at the anchorage, although one could anchor on the bank west and north of the island.

Black Point

Black Point (Exumas, Bahamas)

Fantastic community, friendly locals, straw works, grocery store, water at the dock, regatta site, blow hole, clear water, easy anchorage. Everything there is nice, not be missed. The kids learned how to weave straw work.

Staniels Cay (Exumas, Bahamas)

Neat place and marina. The Thunderball grotto is great snorkeling. Several small stores.

Allens Cay (Exumas, Bahamas)

We like this anchorage a lot. Not too protected and some surge, but we just like the small settings. Watching the iguanas from the boat is really fun too. We used it as a base point to go to Nassau and back, and would do it again.

ECLSP

Exuma Cays Land & Sea Park (Exumas, Bahamas)

ECLSP encompasses a large area with several cays. Most of them are places of rare beauties with natural gardens both above and under water. Not be missed. Shroud Cay has mangrove wide channels that lead to beautiful beaches on the Sound side. Hawksbill Cay was my favorite, with trails marked by cairns and pristine beaches. Warderick Wells itself has the park office/headquarters, great place to hang around and learn about this place. Lots of incredibly beautiful trails all over the island. Pick up a free map at the park's office. We anchored at Hog Cay, at the pirates lair. Just a fantastic place to be.

Nassau (New Providence, Bahamas)

Not as bad as people had said, we actually enjoyed Nassau both times we were there. We anchored in shallow water (1.8m) southeast of Fort Montague, near the fish market and the Royal Yacht Club. It was quiet and nice with garbage disposal and shopping at the City Market close by. Downtown at the straw market is fun, and we hung around Atlantis--of course. Watching hydroplanes take off and land in the middle the harbor intense traffic is quite an experience.

Dunmore, Harbour Island

Spanish Wells (Eleuthera, Bahamas)

Not actually on Eleuthera, but on St George Cay, if I read the map correctly. A real town with real workers, loyalist descendants, real fishing boats (not the sports stuff), real restaurants, ship chandlers. A great place to be for a while. We anchored on the side of the channel to Gun Point as all the moorings were taken. Before Spanish Wells, we did stop in Current on the "main land" south. Current is very small and extremely friendly.

Dunmore, Harbour Island (Eleuthera, Bahamas)

Nice looking, very touristy, but still real people living, working, going to school there. They call Eleuthera the "main land". Lots of sport fishing boats, all going out together in fishing contests and not very well behaved in our opinion. The pink beach is beautiful, and sitting at Sip Sip restaurant watching the coral beyond the beach to the great Atlantic is unforgettable.

Little Harbour (Abaco, Bahamas)

Beautiful art gallery with bronze sculpting. Must go there.

Little Harbour, Abaco

Hope Town, Elbow Cay (Abaco, Bahamas)

Only tourist stuff, but most beautiful houses. They got it right as far as architecture and restoration. A visit to the light house is a must. Moorings inside are quite crowded and we stayed outside.

Marsh Harbour (Abaco Bahamas)

A real town, great anchorage with lots of room, friendly marinas, good restaurants and super markets for provisioning. Again, not a bad place at all compared to what the guides suggest. Boaters net on VHF 68 with weather and cuts conditions. Cuts to the ocean should be treated with lots of respect.

Taylor's Cafe
Beaufort, North Carolina

Beaufort, NC (USA)

We had to stop in Beaufort, North Carolina (there is another Beaufort, South Carolina, not to be confused) to get our pilots fixed, and a few other things, such as getting propane. Good thing we did, as this place is extremely nice. We anchored at Town Creek past the draw bridge, where there is ample room to swing. One might also anchor at Beaufort Docks, but there is not much room to swing and the Coast Guard doesn't like the boats to be in the channel. There are public dinghy docks right in Beaufort Docks, and we also landed at Discovery diving center on the town creek side. The North Carolina Maritime Museum loans cars to transients boaters for free (please refill with gas) two hours at a time so we could go shopping to Morehead City (there is a Walmart there, although Beaufort itself has everything one needs to provision). At least two cafes in Beaufort have Wifi Internet for free, as well as the Beaufort Docks. We also used the (very nice) library for Internet. The rest of this place is filled with lots of nice shops, restaurants, beautiful historical houses, historical cemetery, old majestic oaks, friendly merchants... We could also ride our dinghy all the way to Morehead City past the bridge on Bogue Sound. We left the dinghy at the Crystal Coast Visitor's Center and could walk to convenient shopping places. Filled with diesel at about $2 a gallon.

Fishing fleet, Cape May, NJ

Cape May, NJ (USA)

We stopped there to weather north winds from a frontal low. If one does not want to go in Chesapeake, there aren't that many places of refuge on the coast, and Cape May is the right one to go to. We parked right in front of friendly Utsch's Marina (mud bottom - only 1.3m of water at low tide) where we could paddle our dinghy and walk to town. There are all the technical services and chandleries a cruiser needs. Wifi connections near the marinas. We walked to town (a good 20mn) which is beautiful with restored Victorian houses. We ate several times at friendly Dock Mike's Pancakes House & Family Restaurant, or just had coffee there while accessing Internet.

Liberty Island, NY

New York, NY (USA)

What is there to say? We took a mooring at 79th St Boat Basin (NYC's Municipal Marina) on the Hudson River for $30 (seems like marina prices go up as fast as the dollar goes down). From there one is right uptown Manhattan, at Broadway with the subway to lower Manhattan and other places.

Mystic, CT

Mystic, CT (USA)

Mystic is hard to beat. Just very beautiful. Lots of attractions, room to dock you dinghy, visit the Mystic Seaport where there is dockage, a place not to be missed. Maybe a little bit too perfect. Being still off season, we found plenty of anchor room at the entrance of the river near Noank Shipyard.

Newport, RI

Newport, RI (USA)

Extremely nice, several public dinghy docks. We were off season I guess, so we had plenty of room to anchor at Ida Lewis Yacht Club. Spent time at the Steaming Bean Cafe on Thames St (free Wifi), and at the Armchair Sailor (nautical bookstore has everything), a little further also on Thames.

Up the bay (about 6 miles), is the Alden/Hinkley's complex and New England Boat Yard. The whole thing has everything and service one would ever need to maintain a yacht. One can anchor either south or north of it, or even 4 miles further at Potter's cove on Prudence Island. We got our furler fixed with the help of Rig Pro (Phip Hallowell). Highly recommendable. Alden Yachts allowed us to park at their fuel pontoon while the job was being done, and we thank them for their kindness. Alice, at the purchasing department at Hinkley Yacht Services was most helpful getting us parts, or having some of our gear serviced (like our Hydronic 10 central heater - actually serviced by Ocean Options). Beware though that if you bring your yacht in to be serviced, fees will be steep. You will be assigned a "service manager" and have the top service that goes with expensive catering.

We also spent time in the town of Bristol, about 12 miles up the Narragansett bay from Newport, where we had a great time. Bristol is the home of the Herreshoff museum. There is ample room to anchor, and dinghy parking is easy. The town is small and not as sophisticated as Newport (we like less sophisticated places). It has great cafés (one we liked is café la France on Hope St) for morning hang out with plenty of Wifi connections, accessible right from the boat.

SHYC, Shelburne

Shelburne, Nova Scotia (Canada)

Another place not to be missed (check out their Web site www.shelburnenovascotia.com). Beautiful little town with all amenities. Great place for clearing into Canada, and discover the multiple museums about boat building and history of this loyalist town. Shelburne Harbor Yacht Club is the place to hang around and ask questions. Sue was extremely kind to us and let us use their Wifi connection so the kids could chat with their friends.

LaHave River, Nova Scotia

Damien discovered LaHave River in the fall of 1969, I believe. "Et ce petit yacht-club en eau plate et qui ressemble à une case forestière des Alpes" - Damien Autour du Monde - Gérard Janichon. Since then a few yachts have been there. The Lahave River Yacht Club is friendly and it was great to have a drink with fish and chips, while watching the boats racing on the water. On the morning, we had breakfast at the famous LaHave bakery near the ferry with Ken and Merydie from the club.

Bluenose II, Lunenburg

Lunenburg, Nova Scotia

Just beautiful. Lives up to its reputation. Library is very comfortable and cozy with free high speed wireless internet. We hung around there for long hours (weather was cold and foggy outside). Home of Bluenose II. Great bar with great food, music, and yummy Keith’s draft beer at the Knot Pub. We anchored close to the docks so we could just paddle our dinghy over.

Halifax, Nova Scotia

At first we wanted to tie up at the public wharf downtown, but the wharf is... a wharf, not a place for a yacht, plus it was choppy. So we went up the Northwest Arm. Took a mooring the first night at the Royal Nova Scotia Yacht Squadron (RNSYS). First class welcome there, easy diesel/water, clean hot showers, and great food. Next we went to Armdale Yacht Club (YCA). One can anchor there, but we left the boat on a mooring ($25Can/night) for four nights and toured the Atlantic provinces. That place is very convenient. We could walk to The Binnacle ship chandler, and to a nearby mall (with WalMart superstore and a couple of grocery stores) for provisioning. One can also take public transportation ($2 - runs on the hour, until late) to downtown Halifax.

Bell museum, Baddeck

Bras d'Or lake, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia

Place of a rare beauty, with hills and firs, and cliffs, where local and American cruisers go. Mostly free of fog, warmer weather. The town of St Peters seems to have everything one needs. The canal and locks are just beautiful. We tied up at the cement wall at the entrance of the canal, lockmaster very helpful and friendly. Baddeck in the middle of the lake system is beautiful. We could anchor right in front the the yacht club (actually slightly east of east) in 5-6 meters. Picked up wifi from the Bell museum. Free Internet at the library.

François, Southwest Coast, Newfoundland

Beautiful little community nestled in François Bay (bays here should be called fjords IMO - and they say "Fransway" here) accessible only by ferry or helicopter. What is great about this place is the hiking that is possible in the hills to The Friar with beautiful views of Newfoundland's tundra, and Chaleur Bay. People are extremely friendly, there are two stores, post office, and Internet at the school (St Simon - St Jude Academy) through the C@P program. There is a public wharf, but normally busy with local fishing boats. We did get an unused mooring from a friendly local as there is no spot to anchor that we could tell.

Quay Eric Tabarly, Saint-Pierre

Saint-Pierre (Saint-Pierre et Miquelon, France)

Canadian and American cruisers had told us Saint-Pierre was nice... They were right. Docking price at the Yacht Club de Saint-Pierre is 1.5 Euro/meter. It includes water/electricity (with 110V US and 220 V European style outlets), spotless clean showers with lots of hot water, laundry à volonté, and Wifi high speed Internet. The chef de base, Emmanuel Chaigne and his crew, will go out of their way to accommodate transients and make sure one has everything they need. The douaniers (Customs Officers) are friendly and courteous, no hassle types. Tourism is well developed with tons of activities and sight seeing on Saint-Pierre et Miquelon. Unfortunately weather in July is not the best (fog) and August, September, October are much better.

Qaqortoq, South Greenland

Greenland is big. Visiting just South Greenland south of Kap Desolation with its intricate system of deep fjords and inlets near Kap Farvel was plenty ambitious for us. From this area to, let's say Disko up on the West coast, there is a good 600 miles. South Greenland cannot be cruised until late in the season (end of July) due to ice blockage. This year (2005) is a particularly dry year with pretty much no ice compared to what it should be.

Parking in Qaqortoq was very easy due to a new pontoon on the south side near the rock jetty. Swiss yacht Balena was there too and the pontoon could accommodate both yachts, but I am not sure it would be robust enough in strong winds. There was no charge for using the pontoon, and I did not see many possibilities in terms of anchorage. The town is typical of what I would have expected of arctic towns and not very clean. There is a good and very helpful marine shop right there near the jetty and we were able to get everything needed to service our engine (oil/filters). Diesel is a little complicated to get in Qaqortoq, as one has to catch a mooring astern and come bow first against a minuscule floating pontoon. We decided to wait for Nanortalik, which we preferred by far.

Nanortalik

Nanortalik, South Greenland

We really liked it. The old colonial part of town with its small harbour to the west is very pretty. Harbour master came out of his office and showed us a dock where to park. There was no charge. There is a diesel dock, but we paid 200 DKR (7 DKR=1 EUR) extra to have a truck deliver diesel at our dock instead. Diesel was about 3 DKR/liter (or .43 EUR/liter). There is relatively high speed Internet at the tourist office, and they will let you plug your own laptop, but it is expensive. The tourist office also as 1:100 000 hiking maps of the whole area, such as Tasermiut. Those maps show hiking trails and kayaking routes. The town has two nice supermarkets.

About 25 miles up north through the scenic Semersup Sarqa is Uunartoq island with its sulfur hot springs. The water is at 36-38° celsius, and I could sit in there forever. Although a tourist attraction, it is largely used by the locals on weekends, and a great social experience.

Nanortalik is the base for hiking, kayaking, and climbing in the area. Famous climbing walls which are in the nearby Tasermiut fjord - about 33 miles long - include Ketil (2003m), Ulamertorssuaq (1629m), and Napassorssuaq (1287m). More recent climbs at the Tornarssuk and Quvernit islands very near Kap Farvel seem quite impressive as well. Other mountaineering destinations include Pamiagdluk and Igdlorssuit in Prins Christian Sund.

Augpilagtoq

Augpilagtoq, South Greenland

Wonderful little village, nestled in the mountains with incredible views of the sound. The only docking possibility is the ferry dock, but the ferry only comes once a week I believe, so we were fine. The harbour is very sheltered with a narrow entrance. There is a supermarket and post office. There is Internet at the supermarket, but it sounded a little complicated so we did not insist. It was Confirmation day and the village was quite animated with family and relatives--some even coming all the way from Denmark. We had a chance to meet Timo, a renowned skillful seal hunter.

Prins Christian Sund vejrstation

Prins Christian Sund vejrstation

Not much there but unbound generosity and hospitality for the passing yacht and local seal hunters. One or our very finest stops on this trip. Talking to Ole (station manager, about to retire to his family in Denmark) or Christian, who have been in Greenland forever, is fascinating. Lars was the gourmet chef there and we learned about Denmark as well. Their Internet router was temporarily not working (normally it works), but Christian fetched DMI weather maps for us through his telephone slow dial-in connection. Their welcome was boundless and Liz and Geo spent whole days up there watching TV and playing computer. They have a guest book to sign, and it was fun to read about famous (Morgan's Cloud, Carrick, Driver...) and the other yachts that have come this way. Visiting a station reminded me of Damien (Jerome Poncet and Gerard Janichon) who became renown for stopping at several stations in the southern high latitudes for human contact and supplies.

Bonaire in Vestmannaeyjar Harbour

Vestmannaeyjar Harbour, Heimaey Island

Another very best stop. Nice town with all one would need. There is one brand new visitor's pontoon right in town with dramatic sceneries of the lit bird crags at night. The floating pontoon is very clean with wooden edges, concrete strong, and it has nice design lighting. Very protected and easy access too. And it is free of charge. The perfect place where one would want to dock. There is only place for one yacht though, but I guess rafting would be no problem. We got diesel from a truck for about 60 euro cents/liter. Great swimming pool with jacuzzi. Tons of things to do including hiking to volcanoes and cliffs, movies, restaurants and cafés. Very good Wifi internet connection right from the dock (I believe from the tourist office).

Tiganes, Torshavn

Torshavn, Føroyar

Beautiful city with striking art and sculptures. It is a very small city, part of what makes it so nice. The old Tiganes quarter with its grass roofs is particularly interesting and picturesque. There is a great swimming pool with jacuzzi and sauna (not mentioned in Willy Ker's guide) past the SMS shopping mall and the uptown Vidarlundin park. They charge for docking which would be fair except there was no room on the quay and we had to raft with an old rig that left at 6:30 am to go chartering and then the quay is a little rough. So the charge is not for a real service, but then one is right downtown.

We could not find internet in Torshavn, except at the library, but one cannot use one own's computer, and there is no Wifi. So we moved on.

Norðragøta, Føroyar

Norðragøta on the Eysturoy is very pretty and we did get connected on Wifi shortly. Norðragøta has beautiful old black turf houses and church as well as the wonderful Blásastova Museum well worth the visit. The parking situation is fine on protected fishing pier, albeit with tires (find a fender plank). We had a great night sleep there. Árant came out to our boat to make sure we had everything and invite us for coffee and breakfast on the next morning. The old Viking mountain trail to Leirvik has dramatic views.

Klaksvik, Føroyar

Very protected harbour with brand new wooden dock for visiting yachts. It is free, and friendly harbourmaster got us hooked up on electricity. Races and overfalls off the southeast point of Eysturoy and up the fjord can be quite bad, and we did make use the SKIPALISTIN 2005 guide that Atli gave us with tide tables and currents. Klaksvik has a wonderful bookstore/coffee old shop on the right hand side of the water (when facing the head of the fjord). It also has a swimming pool with sauna (although not as nice as Torshavn). Some Wifi internet.

Tvøroyri

Miðvágur, Føroyar

The water is protected from all directions, but the anchoring bottom is not so good (weeds) and the docks are really rough and exposed. I would not choose it to weather a blow. The hike along the Sørvágsvatn lake to the Bøsadalafossur waterfall and cliffs is just spectacular. No internet.

Tvøroyri, Føroyar

Really one of the best places to dock or anchor and hang around for a while. Anchorage bottom very good. But docking is fine with free shower/laundry room and welcoming harbourmaster. The harbour basin affords great protection. Great pub right on the harbour. The town is quite aesthetic as is the country side. Lots of things to see, hikes and bus rides. A very good destination. No internet.

Kyle of Lochalsh, Écosse

The second time we stop there. Strong pontoon at a very reasonable price. Diesel 60 euro c/liter. Showers are great, better than at home. HM John MacRae goes out of his way to make sure visitor is made welcome. One can take the scenic train to Inverness for a day trip. The line is very picturesque along the highlands.

Peel

Peel, Île de Man

Dramatic castle. Visitor's moorings at the entrance. New locks and inner harbour does not dry (2m) very protected. Harbour master courteous and helpful. Restaurants, pubs, museums, walks in the hills of Man.