The rain is pelting down on the deck of S/V ILEANA as it woke me up in the forward cabin. Paul and I had driven from Toronto last night hoping that we could finally leave from our slip in Hampton VA and head South to Antigua on Saturday, November 12. S/V ILEANA has been sitting Read More

It was a long summer preparing for the trip down south. A sailboat needs to have a long list of safety equipment in case things do not go as planned. Examples includes things like emergency flares, lifejackets, Personal Locater Beacon(PLB) and if things really go very badly, an emergency life raft. All the rigging needs Read More

It was getting dark and a sliver of the moon was reflecting on the calm waters of Chesapeake Bay. We had just left Annapolis and were heading south to Hampton Virginia to wait for a safe weather window before heading on our final step of sailing to Antigua. There were to be about 100 sailing Read More

One of the best things about retirement is that you can do things that you didn’t have time for while you are working a 60-90 work week. Unfortunately for me, not being conditioned to all the fake news that flows through the internet, as I was too busy at work, I found myself googling the Read More

“Clear Caribbean waters, pink and white sandy beaches, a hot tropical climate, refreshing breezes, and friendly people draw tourists to the island of Antigua. Located in the Eastern Caribbean roughly 17 degrees north of the equator and ringed with coral reefs, Antigua is the largest of the English-speaking Leeward Islands. Known as the “gateway to the Read More

It was pitch black at 3:00 AM in the morning. The singlehanded race had started at 10:00 AM the previous morning but the winds had been light, so the progress had been very slow. My 51 foot Hanse was barely moving through the water. There were no stars or moon to help guide me. The Read More

I found myself alone on my sailboat ILEANA in pitch darkness. It was 4 AM. This was the last leg of the the 1500 nautical mile voyage from Bahamas back to Port credit on Lake Ontario. The wind was blowing 23 kn from the stern of the boat. There were massive waves making the boat Read More

The fog was as dense as French Canadian pea soup. It was so thick that you could not see more than 50 feet in any direction.  We were approaching the major shipping lane into New York Harbor. I was startled by a loud foghorn from a freighter that was steaming towards us at 14 knots. Read More

It was 2:00 AM on Tuesday morning, May 10, 2022 when I felt the boat heel to about 15 degrees. It woke me from my sleep. I was by myself on my 51 foot sailboat. There was a terrible racket outside and I could hear the wind howling. I was tied up at the end Read More

I found myself hanging at the top of a 72 foot mast 250 miles away from the closest point of land in huge swells about 500 miles directly north of the Bahamas. Although the wind had died, there were still the remaining massive swells from the previous nights storm. Every oscillation affecting the boat was Read More