Karl & Kara Go Sailing

  Sunday 28 th March, Simpson Bay, Sint Maarten. We have died and gone to sailor's heaven. Sint Maarten/St. Martin is a small half-Dutch half-French island in the northeast Caribbean and while it's probably objectively not that exciting, amazing or wonderful in general, it does tick all the boxes for a visiting sailor. Can you dinghy to two fantastically well stocked chandleries? Yes. Can you dinghy to a laundry? Yes. Is there a handy fuel dock where you can also stock up on water? Yes. Can you dinghy to a handy rubbish bin? Yes. Does one of the chandleries lend you bicycles for free? Yes! Can you cycle to an amazing, big Carrefour supermarket? Yes! Can you get salmon, mahi-mahi, wahoo and tuna? And any vegetable you can think of and fresh herbs and every type of French cheese in existence? Yes! Can you cycle over to the French capital for a proper three course déjeuner? Yes! Is there a good running route across the lagoon bridge and into France? Yes! Is th...

  Wednesday 24 th February, Deep Bay, Antigua. We survived quarantine! And were released! And have been being tourists! And I really feel like I'm on holiday – I know, it's a sort of permanent holiday, but we're anchored in this lovely bay with a gorgeous strip of beach, a fancy resort with over-water bungalows, a smattering of very nice houses (including Georgio Armani's) on the hill and I'm just really feeling the Caribbean holiday vibe. There's even a ruined fort on the hill to explore. So we hunkered down and did our time in quarantine. Everything got cleaned to within an inch of its life, even the hard to reach bits. Anything that was broken got fixed. Karl's hair got dyed. The cookbooks came out (we were down to canned goods). Karl played some guitar. I tried to do some drawing. We came to recognise the regular walkers and runners along...