May 10, 2023 Painkiller sailed back into the slip we left from on November 3, 2019. All her flags were flying and friends and family were on the dock to celebrate the complete circumnavigation. Thanks for the warm welcome home. Pic above is Kerri, Ken, Jules and her dad Alan. Below is the day we departed, November 3, 2019, and the day we returned, May 10, 2023.
We arrived in New York City in the dark and anchored behind the Statue of Liberty with a view of the Manhattan skyline. In the morning we motor sailed right by Lady Liberty and headed towards the East River under the iconic bridges. The pic above is taken from underneath the Manhattan Bridge looking back at the Brooklyn Bridge with the Freedom Tower rising in the background.
Ken and Jim enjoyed fishing together with two poles out at most times. They caught two Mahi Mahi and shared a toast of celebration.
A typical coastal day on Painkiller, Ken on the phone, Cedric transferring fuel. And a butterfly? or moth? came to visit.
After spending most of our circumnavigation in the tropics, we enjoyed the beauty of the mid latitudes temperate climate and even a bit of muddy water as we motor sailed north on the Intracoastal Waterway.
There was a lot of weather forecast for the trip home so we stayed close to the Bahamas and spent a couple of nights there.
We stopped in Culebra and sailed through the Spanish Virgin Islands on our way north.
We arrived in the BVI’s and spent a night at anchor before checking into to the USVI’s where we crossed our track and completed our circumnavigation. In mid April we will depart from USVI’s for the return trip to Mystic, CT and then we will be celebrating the circumnavigation.
We almost made Saint Martin before the wind picked up, but we were a few hours short. The screecher unfurled on it’s own in 25kts about an hour before we made the harbor. We took it down and then noticed the two fresh tears in the jib which was out when the screecher unfurled. It looks like the snap shackle attaching the screecher sheets caused the tears in the jib.
We spent a night in Bequia, passing this stone house as we neared the harbor.
We stopped at Union Island for a night and went snorkeling the next morning. It’s great to be back in warm water and able to jump off the boat into the water.
We arrived in Grenada March 11, 2023. David had been on board since South Africa and needed to fly home from Grenada but he took this picture of the three of us before leaving. We also got close to a large cargo ship .The St. George’s waterfront is pictured below.
On the passage from Fernando De Noronha to Grenada Ken caught another Yellow Fin Tuna, Jules navigated, David cooked fierce meals in the galley, Olaf (our figure head) oversaw the Saragossa Sea & Cedric read all of the books on the boat.
Fernando de Noronha, 217nm off the coast of Brazil, is one of the most beautiful places we have stopped. The immigration police drove us to their office in two cars. One car had to remove fins & snorkeling gear from the backseat to accommodate us, the other was driven by a female police officer in leopard print pants, no uniforms-or seat belts.
We stocked up on groceries and wifi for 48 hours and drank caipirinha, a Brazilian drink served over ice with limes. In our daily swims we found at least a partial source of the water ingress; a screw was missing from the bottom of the metal plate on the starboard bow, which is often several feet underwater. A picture of the hole before replacing the screw is shown above. We thought that would take care of the leak, but only slowed it to needing once a day (manual) bilge pumping. Any leak is concerning 1,000nm from shore.
St Helena is a remote island in the South Atlantic (population just over 4,000) that has no credit card machines or ATM’s on the entire island. It’s cash only and they have their own currency that isn’t accepted anywhere else in the world. The bank was closed when we arrived so local establishments let us run tabs until we could get to the bank. When we went to the bank it had no security guards or bars on the windows or anything similar, and the teller used a small calculator to convert our currency. The island is beautiful with areas of desert and cacti as well as lush farming areas.
Namibia was a beautiful country where the sand meets the sea. We rented quads on Dune 7, rode camels, and bought a bracelet from the woman pictured. The dark writing in the sand is iron that was collected from the dunes with a magnet.
❤️ Cape Town ❤️ Most of the pics speak for themselves. The one above is from a wine tasting we did with our friend Jason who we first met on the Caribbean side of Panama and who is single handing an Alberg 30 in a circumnavigation from Virginia. The bottom video is Ken joining the African Mirimba Band.
The heads at the Knysna entrance are world renowned for their difficulty. Wind direction, swell, and requirements for timing the entrance with the tide mean that many sailors can’t make the entrance and bypass Knysna. We got in easily but when we went to leave a thick fog had settled and we weren’t sure we could get out. The fog started to lift and we made a run for it, easily making it out to continue down the South African coast to Cape Town.
Elephants, rhinos, giraffes, impalas & zebras-some favorites from our safari in the Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Game Reserve.
Pics from top: The coastline between Mozambique and South Africa; Breakwater entrance to Richard’s Bay, South Africa; Painkiller flying the quarantine flag on the Richard’s Bay customs dock; Zululand Yacht Club welcomed us with champagne, their motto is “Zululand Yacht Club-Worth Crossing an Ocean For”.