April 5, 1999, Bequia, Caribbean
Note from Jeff: It seems as though the PinOak SSB e-mail system has decided to take a self imposed rest.  It just doesn’t want to work. Bill was able to send out this update through the cell phone on the boat.  However, with cell costs at $4 per minute to transmit, it may start to get a little pricey...

Prickly Bay, Grenada to Mayreau
Having beat our way 40 miles north from Prickly Bay, Grenada, we've anchored in Tyrell Bay, Carricou, WI. Carricou is basically just a small, less populated version of Grenada. Very beautiful and simple with friendly people to boot.

While exiting Prickly Bay, we passed the highly raved and reviewed "Hyperion" (Jim Clark’s 150 foot plus luxury sailboat) which happened to be anchored right next to us. Sixty million dollars of technology and super computers devoted to the salty old sport of cruising and getting away from it all. The night before we left, there was a beautiful starlit sky with a steel drum band playing on shore, little twinkling masthead lights from the yachts dancing slowly on the water. Then there's Hyperion with lights running all the way up the mast like a conning tower, three sets of spreader lights on at all times and the boom illuminated like an advertisement for Ceasers Palace just in case you missed it. If that's not enough to make you put a finger down your throat, all the crew were running around shore with their cute little Hyperion shirts, Hyperion Hats, Hyperion belts and Hyperion attitudes. I think the name "Ostentatious" would have been far more appropriate.

On our way north, we encountered very squally conditions with winds reaching 47 knots, right on the nose! We were reefed down to the max while still plowing along at over 8 knots. During the passage we sailed over a true underwater active volcano. Scientists from the states were down a couple of months ago checking it out to try and figure out when it's going to blow! The mouth of the volcano is only about 450 ft below the surface and it occasionally throws up quite a sea. The island of Montserrat only 250 nautical miles NW of here is active once again as well. Who knows, we may have some more islands to cruise in the coming years! Having passed the volcano, we sailed by the island of "kick'em Jenny." They call it Kick'em Jenny because of the seas that it tends to "kick up" in it's vicinity. We experienced 2 meters or so and it wasn't such a big deal.

Yesterday, we anchored off of Sandy Island located about 1/2 NM from the main harbour of Hillsborough, Carricou. Sandy Island is a gorgeous little spit of sand covered with palm trees and crystal clear turquoise water. Grenada tends to use its photo in all the travel brochures. We were all just lounging around in the sand with Lucy playing under the umbrella when Harrison Ford decides to walk right by us! Good 'ol Indy! He's just cruising around the Grenadines on a motor yacht named "Exuma C".

Anyway, today we're going to sail up north a bit to the island of Petit St. Vincent. Apparently there's a beautiful reef around it with terrific snorkeling. We'll check it out. After a quick snorkel, we'll head up to the island of Mayreau which will be our home base for a couple of days. I'm not sure if we'll take OOB into the Tobago keys because of the depth, but we'll see.

Weather conditions are puffy trade wind skies and 20 knots of wind right out of the ENE. It seems to be the same "soup du-jour" as we left it two years ago. I'll send another update as we get further north.

All the best from all of us on OOB!
- Bill, Suz, Jack and Lucy
Lat N. 12.27.41 Lon W 61.29.17

Mayreau to Bequia
Greetings from the island of Bequia, St. Vincent!

We arrived into Saltwhistle Bay, Mayreau to find 31 charter boats stuffed in like sardines! Saltwhistle Bay is, however, one of the most beautiful in the Caribbean. So we handled it well. I think we arrived at a particularly busy time as the following morning over half of them disappeared. Stunning long white beach with palm trees dotted everywhere. I think the resort completed a considerable amount of landscaping and it was even nicer than when we were her before in 1997! After a trot down along the shore with Lucy, we enjoyed a sundowner on OOB.

After a couple of days in Mayreau, we departed on a squally morning for the island of Mustique. Mustique is the island of the stars. A privately owned island which comprises itself with a lineup of names including Mick Jaggar, Raquel Welch, David Bowie and Princess Margaret. Mustique is possibly the most beautiful I've seen in the Caribbean. The island itself has the feel of Bermuda with well groomed gardens and exquisite mansions dotting the hills, however none of the traffic or mopeds. The roads are small and well tarred with golf-carts the preferred means of transport. Trees seemed to be flowering everywhere with their petals lining the grass. We walked along a nature trail with signs posted describing all of the fauna and environment, a very nice touch. The beaches are stunning with Conch shells everywhere and pure white sand. The water at the anchorage alone had over 10 meter visibility and moorings were provided to protect the coral reef below the boats. Mustique is definitely not an island to be missed.

From Mustique, we sailed a comfortable reach out to Bequia. Easter weekend happens to be the biggest of the year in here. The weekend of the Bequia Easter Yachting Regatta. Yahoo! Over 100+ yachts anchored in Admiralty Bay for the festivities. Jack is currently on one of the boats racing as I type. We'll probably spend the weekend before continuing north to St. Vincent for a hike up to the volcano and then off to St. Lucia. We plan to stop at every island up the chain until we arrive in Antigua. We'll keep you updated as we go.

All the best from all of us on Out of Bounds!
Bill, Suz, Jack and Lucy
Lat N. 13.00.57 Lon W. 61.14.56

April 11, 1999, Antigua, Caribbean
Note from Jeff: Unfortunately, I have not heard from Bill or the crew lately.  The last Alex and I talked with Bill, Out of Bounds had reached Antigua. They were due to met Mick (another Mick, this one is Suz’s sister’s boyfriend from Australia) on April 7th. From there, they planned on spending time in both Antigua and Barbuda.

On the Antigua Race Week preparations:
We’re still looking to borrow a good tri-radial racing spinnaker
The boat is to be CSA certified so that we can be handicapped for the races
The race crew so far is Bill, Suz, Alex, Jeff, Leathem Stearn, Chris Lucas, Burke George, and Marc Fleutte.

Chronology of the Out of Bounds web site:
I wrote an article for eFuse.com on how the Out of Bounds web site came to be. The eFuse site provides some great tips on how to use NetObjects Fusion software to build web sites that stand out from the crowd.  Even if you don’t use the NetObjects software, there’s still tons of great advice on how to build a great looking site.

Check the article out at http://www.efuse.com/Build/my_first_time_3.html
Let me know what you think... Cheers, Jeff

April 19, 1999, Antigua, Caribbean
Bill sent in a journal of what’s happened during the last three weeks along with photos.  The Caribbean 1999 journals are now posted.

On the Antigua Race Week preparations:
Went out to Connecticut on Sunday to pick up two tri-radial spinnakers that I found on the Swan Owners Association web site. They gave us a great deal and now with the .75 and 1.5 ounce spinnakers, we should be competitive in the racing/cruising division.  A note of thanks to those of you that e-mailed me with offers of assistance.

There’s just a few things left to do.  Alex is waiting on some small parts from the Jamestown Boatyard, most notably a new spinnaker pole pin. Bill, Suz, and Mick offloaded a bunch of equipment and gear to make the boat lighter for the races.  Bill says he gained back three inches of waterline!

I’ll be flying down to Antigua on Thursday to join the crew (the first time I’ve been back to the boat since December 1997!) and Alex flies back down on Wednesday. We’ve loaded the web page software on Alex’s revitalized laptop and I will be updating the site from Antigua.  Hopefully, I’ll be able to keep everyone updated on the race results and happenings on a daily basis starting on Friday.

So, once again, thanks for keeping up with the Out of Bounds exploits. See ya in Antigua! Cheers, Jeff