Swell Archives - ToursMaps.com ® http://toursmaps.com/tag/swell Tue, 06 Nov 2018 18:16:00 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.0.9 The Boatyard I Believe in Angels http://toursmaps.com/the-boatyard-i-believe-in-angels.html http://toursmaps.com/the-boatyard-i-believe-in-angels.html#respond Fri, 09 Nov 2018 17:06:00 +0000 http://toursmaps.com/?p=264994 Rust chips fly as anchor chain spews out of Swell’s chain locker into the bay in front of the Bora Bora Yacht Club. My hotel holiday is over. Looking more closely, I find that some of the links have only an eighth of an inch of steel remaining, so when a cruising boat nearby vacates a mooring, I haul the compromised chain back up and tie off to the mooring ball instead. I will have to pull all 300 feet of chain onto the deck, cut out the rusted links, then splice whatever is usable onto my length of nylon

The post The Boatyard I Believe in Angels appeared first on ToursMaps.com ®.

]]> http://toursmaps.com/the-boatyard-i-believe-in-angels.html/feed 0 Oli and the VIP Yard http://toursmaps.com/oli-and-the-vip-yard.html http://toursmaps.com/oli-and-the-vip-yard.html#respond Thu, 08 Nov 2018 22:12:00 +0000 http://toursmaps.com/?p=265110 My holiday ends abruptly when the weather forecast warns of an approaching cyclone. I sail directly back to the boatyard, hauling Swell out a week earlier than planned so as not to have to weather the storm in the water. The crew tows her to an overflow yard down the street. I joke with them, asking if this is the VIP yard, since there are only a few other boats. Swell’s decks must be stripped to make her as streamlined as possible in preparation for the powerful winds. The sails, solar panels, and wind generator must all come off. Once

The post Oli and the VIP Yard appeared first on ToursMaps.com ®.

]]> http://toursmaps.com/oli-and-the-vip-yard.html/feed 0 Costa Rica Vacation Guide http://toursmaps.com/costa-rica-vacation-guide.html http://toursmaps.com/costa-rica-vacation-guide.html#respond Thu, 20 Sep 2018 06:40:00 +0000 http://toursmaps.com/?p=264637 Danger! High Voltage! It seems darker than usual as Swell plows south again. I blink into the unending blackness, unsure whether my eyes are open or closed. Dark, dark, dark. An eerily warm breeze grazes my cheeks, but I focus on the sweet evening song of the gecko that crawled aboard in the boatyard three months ago. His melodic chirps help me ignore the sense of foreboding that has become a regular part of night watches during Central America’s rainy season. Thunderstorms are expected. After more than a dozen close calls with cascading bolts both at anchor and underway, it

The post Costa Rica Vacation Guide appeared first on ToursMaps.com ®.

]]> http://toursmaps.com/costa-rica-vacation-guide.html/feed 0