Deborah Wheeler's blog

Grenada turned out to be a fantastic substitute for the rally  planned for the British Virgin Islands and cancelled because of the devastation caused by Hurricane Irma.  The Caribbean Islands or the West Indies are a massive archipelago stretching from Miami to Venezuela. Columbus called these Islands Indies because he thought he had discovered Asia sailing east to west. The Windward Islands was a British colony from 1833 to 1960. Today there are four separate countries, Martinique, St Lucia, St Vincent & the Grenadines & Grenada.

If you want to write a blog about the 2016 joint Channel Islands Cruise, sign up now.

The details are in the On The Water page.

If you are wondering why we are recruiting so early, it is because this rally is bigger and longer than most. There are more boats, more people, more parties, more Fast Cruises, more fun, more organized visits and dinners.

We are a team of 6 and we are already busy so that our guests from our sister Club, the American Corinthians, can arrange their holiday flights in good time. Twenty of them have already signed and more are planning to.

If you want to join in, do so now.

Details are at the bottom of the rally page in On the Water.

We turned into the Bosphorus from the north around noon, a half built bridge towering above us. As we approached from the east, monitoring channel 16 and channel 11 (which controls the north sector)we had heard requests from commercial shipping for “permission to commence drifting”. So we knew there were ships waiting to enter the straits. However, as we passed the two small fishing villages on either side and slipped between the steep cliffs covered in green vegetation, there was no sign.

I was asked to write  a blog of my recent trip with the Corinthians in the US.  Unfortunately several marine mishaps made it impossible for me to do that, so this is more of an overview – an over view and then some:I have been sailing with Corinthians for nearly 20 years and it has been enormous fun.  I have been involved from the start.  I remember when Clint Springer turned up at Bell Wharf Lane and suggested that our two clubs sailed together.  Our  Commodore at the time, John Stonham hesitated.  Some people in the club were reluctant.  Who are these people, they asked?  Did they know how to sail? Perhaps we could teach them a thing or two?I suspect similar conversations took place amongst the Corinthians.  Anyway those of us who were enthusiastic carried the day and, in 1995,  I was one of 10 LSC members who joined their cruise in the Chesapeake, when Fred Wilson was Master.