One of our favourite things about cruising is learning from the people that we meet and sharing our experiences. We met a couple who had just bought their first boat and were looking for someone to help them out as they learned the ropes and built up some confidence before they headed off to new shores on their own, and Iain was more than happy to spend a few days playing around on a monohull and zipping up and down the coastline with them. Fair winds!

For those using a screen reader:
[Image Description: The view from the back of our boat shows our dinghy floating in the water and a monohull at anchor behind, lifting its main sail. There are two people standing on deck.]

Our first introduction to the wild world of Carnival! We took a bus over to the other side of the island to join in all the festivities, and ended up walking most of the way home as we stayed after the buses had stopped running.

Sparkles, smiles and feathers galore. What a day!

For those using a screen reader:
[Image Description: 1. Brioni and Iain take a selfie in the middle of a large crowd of people all dressed in bright colours. 2. A woman parades down the street towards the camera wearing a large costume of bright coloured feathered wings. 3. Iain and Brioni take an excited selfie in front of the passing parade.]

Look what we made! Strong enough to stand on 💪🏻

For those using a screen reader:
[Image Description: Brioni is balancing on the extended bow sprit, leaning out from the spinnaker halyard with one arm in the air in celebration.]

I can’t believe we did this! 🤦‍♀️

Watch the whole video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTBhVt_1Mnw

The face of relief when you finish attaching the bracket without dropping it in the sea!

For those using a screen reader:
[Image Description: Iain is lying on the trampolines at the front of our boat. He is leaning over the cross bar next to a small bracket below the furling drum.]

Our motto has always been to try and do our boat jobs ourselves and we usually find ourselves muddling through, even if we don’t succeed in the conventional way!

Watch the whole video: https://youtu.be/qTBhVt_1Mnw

New episode OUT NOW!

This week, we build our own bow sprit – a pointy stick out the front of the boat which will allow us greater flexibility and sail choice when we’re sailing downwind.

Jump on over to our website to see us drilling terrifying holes in our boat, dropping parts in the sea and working through the night to get this job finished!

www.red-seas.com

A big project in tomorrow’s episode – we’re making our boat longer!

Watch the action unfold RIGHT NOW on www.patreon.com/redseas

Even though we feel like every corner of St Martin is familiar and there’s nowhere left to explore, we’re still finding new bays to anchor in and new beaches to wander along.

The world is so beautiful and surprising!

For those using a screen reader:
[Image Description: The view looking forward down the starboard hull of our catamaran, from the helm position. There is an island in front of us, the genoa has two reefs in it and the sky is darkening as the sun heads to the horizon.]

I can’t believe I did this…..after a whole day learning how to splice this super complicated 12-strand line with clockwise and anti-clockwise strands…….and after all that work, I joined the wrong ends together!!!!!! 😫😂

Watch the whole episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yu8GaL6mKJs