Allan & Ursula Ward: Port Owen, Cape West Coast, South Africa.

Shearwater 39:
- L.O.A. 43ft (13.22m)
- L.O.D. 39ft (12m)
- L.W.L. 34ft (10.3m)
- BEAM 13ft(3.9m)
- DRAFT 6ft(1.8m)



HOW IT ALL BEGAN .

I placed my order on Nebe Boats on the 19/10/1992 for what was initially planned to be a complete factory built yacht that l would sail home to Durban from Capetown once she was completed. Unfortunately due to the demise of Nebe Boats in the early days of her construction it did not turn out that way, so l decided to truck her home to Ramsgate on the KZN South Coast to finish building her in our garden at home.

For many years we could proudly boast that we had the most expensive piece of garden furniture in town, but at the time l had no idea of how massive this project would turn out to be. As anyone who has built a blue water cruiser will tell you, particularly if she is kitted out with all the systems and the equipment that a modern cruiser has onboard these days, it is a daunting task . Looking at the positive aspects of this project, l know the boat intimately in that l designed and installed the systems, so from a repair and maintenance perspective l have no issues carrying out the work that is necessary from time to time.



The big day arrived on the 29/8/2008 when we craned her out of the garden onto a rig to truck her through to Durban for launching . What followed was three months of preparations to ready her for the maiden voyage to our home port in Port Owen on the Cape West Coast.

We had a fast passage down the South African East Coast including a storm off the notorious Wild Coast and arrived in Port Owen in dense fog. Windward had passed her first test with flying colours and since then we have enjoyed some great sailing on the West Coast.


The master plan has always been to go cruising, so our plans are to leave for Brazil via Luderitz and St Helena Island at the end of February 2014. So far everything is on track although the “To Do“ list still grows each day.

The purpose of this blog is to record our adventure for ourselves, family and friends. Although it will probably end up being a brief summary of events while we are cruising, we hope you will enjoy and share some of our experiences with us.

LIVING THE DREAM .

Monday, January 30, 2017

QUIRKY CLIFTON . UNION ISLAND .


After a short sail up from Sandy Island we arrived off Clifton , the cosmopolitan little town on Union Island . As we entered the anchorage and mooring field we received a warm welcome from the awaiting mooring attendant on his boat , ready to give the First Mate a hand with tying up to a mooring buoy . As soon as our bowline had been neatly secured to the buoy he drifted down to the cockpit and offered me a range of supplies from fresh lobster , fresh fish , diesel and last but not least the best marijuana in the Caribbean .

There is something about Clifton that is unique , I am not sure if its the reef plumb in the middle of the anchorage , the tiny village square or the bright colourful buildings that line the main street , but we really liked the place and it was also an official Port of Entry so we could clear into the Grenadines right there . Our first experience of St Vincent hospitality started in the Customs Office when after handing over $120EC Dollars needing 14 change the Customs guy informed us that he did not have any small change on him and suggested we go to an ATM in the village and draw some cash. Four young St Vincent guys who were standing next to us whipped out $6EC and settled our bill then immediately invited us to their home in Chateaubelair , St Vincent explaining that their house is the blue house right on the beach and that we could not miss it .
Since then we have discovered that the locals on the island are really open and super friendly people .
Something else that is unique to Clifton is its very busy little airport which when aircraft come into land it appears that they are lining up for the main street in the village . Being a very short runway they approach the island just clearing the mountains and then put the aircraft down quickly using a very steep descent and braking hard once they touchdown . It is the same when watching the Inter-Island ferry docking , a polished act of dropping both anchors and pivoting the little ship around stern-to the dock . The captain has definitely done this bit of maneuvering many times .

Clifton has also become a popular kite surfing venue and sitting in the anchorage in the cockpit of our boat watching the kite surfers flying back and forth in front of the moored yachts is not a bad way to spend a couple of hours when you are sitting in the front row seats . These guys get so close to the yachts on anchor that the other day one of them wrapped his kite around a mast of a yacht tied to a mooring buoy . He attempted to scale the mast but after getting to the first spreader he seemed to lose his nerve and slowly slid down back to the deck . In the stiff breeze the kite eventually flogged itself to death and flew off leaving the top of the mast bare of any equipment .

We set off from Clifton to visit the very popular Tobago Cays but that is another post on it's own to follow this one shortly . After a wonderful visit to the Cays it was time to set sail for Grenada to get our daughter back to the airport in time to catch her flight back home . We were looking forward to a broad reach all the way back to the South Coast of Grenada and the airport after a chilled and relaxing time spent in the Southern Grenadines . 
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