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 January 2 2023 Hi all After the dragging incident I couldnt safely sail to Grenada so just before I left to come and spend Christmas and New Year with Nicholas, Kristel and Max I had to take Galileo out of the water and leave it on the hard to be sure the waves didnt break the duct tape sealing the gaping hole in the Hull and sing her while i was gone. Check the bandage The Insurance Company handling the claim against the boat Triskell that hit me was quite vicious to me accusing me of being an opportunist and looking for a windfall and then threatening me that they would do nothing to sort out my claim but a Surveyor who came to the boat and did the survey of the damage intervened and helped me and the good news is the contractor has been paid in advance to carry out the repairs on Galileo I must say it was really stressful being left on tenderhooks but the Insurance administrator Marc from France achieved his goal in metering out the worst dose of abuse on me to ensure i went throug
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Hello all Well the New adventure started with a big bang On the 30th of November I was in Carriacou anchored in safe water right at the back ofthe mooring field and having a quiet evening with winds of around 20 knots blowing from the shore A 65ft French boat had anchored between myself  and the shore and the winds were not bad especially as I saw he had a huge anchor and 12 to 15 mm chain on his anchor so I wasnt worried  Well something made me look up at around 7.25 pm and I saw the boat was moving so I called on the radio but got no response and suddenly I heard the most enormous bang as his boat hit mine with his length he was across both hulls  I ran out and started fending him off but he was soo heavy it was almost impossible so with adrenalin pumping i managed to move his boat such that it was only on one hull but my chain was very tight so it was catching on his rudder and sawing it while his boat was thrusting against mine and smashing my hull piece by piece This
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 Hi to my friends and family Many of you already know that I have bought the catamaran Galileo and have spent a lot of time getting her ready to sail the Caribbean for the season  Its a 36ft boat with loads of space and is quite comfortable When I got it it was a mess and i have managed to transform her inot a home and although i still have a lot of work to do to finalise getting her ready for my standard it will happen I have moved her from Grenada to Carriacou and am at anchor here for a week or three I am sure you all know this will be a big change in my sailing life and i am looking forward to the life change once again With this post it signals te start of my new adventures and i will be posting on a regular basis from now on so look forward to it
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Getting Mrs Opela ready to sail again

Hi All I have been back two weeks now and working towards getting mrs Opela back in order again because when I got back the fact that i had left her alone for such a long time made her decide to take revenge Bev on Dandelion had been looking after her for me by airing her out once a week and checking the bilges as well and running the engine once or twice for me and for that I am truly thankful but my lady is a very jealous lady and she wasnt happy to be left standing so when I got on board I was expecting to find mould and black algae and a host of other things lurking in corners not often looked at. My first big one was that the new stay wires i had had installed in Le Marin in Martinique a year and a half ago were worn such that one fell on the deck because the hook swaged to the end simply snapped and on further inspection i found the others were all cracked as well which means I cannot sail her. I phoned the suppliers and they were struggling to remember my boat but soon r
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Arrived home

John and I are home on our boats now After reading the air ticket saga you will know We were given tickets and $500 to get to LAX to connect to our next part of the Journey home Max and Rachael (owners) came and met us and went over the boat as they were preparing to go on holiday on the boat a week after we left Sitting talking to them was really interesting as Max is designing a smaller space rocket which will take small satellites up to space and what makes it even more of a challenge is their team is using 3D printers to achieve results and seem to be winning Rachael works for the government helping bring innovative improvements into public transport systems and was really interesting to talk to as well Rachael and Max helped us arranging for the USA customs and immigrations officials to come to us and stamp us into the country and they were really accommodating and when John was presented with a USD 500 fine for entering on an ESTA entry permit instead of a B1/B2 visa Max
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Day 13 Newport trip

Start of Day 14 Position: 40° 39.8787' N 071° 09.1321' W Boat: All good with the boat and we are sailing slowly Last night we had almost no winds so its very slow and it could mean we only arrive very late in the night tonight. People: we are both fine Speed: 2 to 3 KTS Wind: 4 kts Easterly Distance 74 miles sailed yesterday Course: true , to Newport Rode island Conditions: ok sailing conditions for very light winds 24-hour mileage: 74 miles with around 50 miles still to go to Newport with an estimate of 1806 miles sailed of the 1856 total miles Comments: It was very slow last night but we had to be vigilant because we are near New York and there is a lot of shipping traffic to look out for and then at 5 am the fog set in and you could see nothing but you could hear the ships horns blowing all around. And amongst that there were sports fishing boats racing around at over twenty knots with visibility down to less than half a mile and at times John said h
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Day 12 Newport Trip

Start of Day 13 Position: 39° 30.2631' N 070° 37.1987' W Boat: All good with the boat and we are sailing slowly Last night we had good winds and we got up to 12 knots of speed at times but this morning the sea has flattened and we are sailing slowly but doing fine Later the wind will drop even further and we may have to motor for a few hours but we are limited to how many hours so we charge batteries and motor at the same time to get the best out of the diesel I am so glad I have my Small Honda generator which helps me when I need it but I have to carry a little petrol to get it to work People: we are both fine Speed: 4 to 5 KTS Wind: 5 kts Easterly Distance 160 miles sailed yesterday Course: true , to Newport Rode island Conditions: ok sailing conditions 24-hour mileage: 160 miles with around 125 miles still to go to Newport with an estimate of 1699 miles sailed of the 1856 total miles Comments: Last night the winds were from behind and because of the
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