Big Bear Blog

What goes on in bearland stays in bearland!

After an amazing few days getting to, playing in and then returning from St Marteen…Lettie Pete and I returned Big Bear to Clinton this afternoon. Amazingy short fix list thank goodness (!) and although in need of some good old tender loving care from Clinton and his team here……Big Bear is ready to go back to [...]

To be honest Sooty was.a bit perplexed with this whole regatta thing. The crew seemed to delight in getting up unreasonably early, getting beaten up with winches, ropes, clutches and other boat bits, getting dehydrated and sunburned, yelling and screaming at each other, and all to get back to where they already were as quickly [...]

After the most gorgeous two days the weather changed for the worse last night causing us to have to part comapny with the mother ship at about 4am this morning to try and find a less bumpy mooring
The combination of slightly sleep deprived bear crew along with the impact of the Solent weather resulted in [...]

Sooty had a not too late night at “da rugga rugga jump up reggae mon parti” – is it just an age thing or was it just noise. Party full of locals in their party finery – gold chains and spandex featured heavily for those followers of gangsta fashion, Wind got up in the evening [...]

Sooty, tired of the rough and tumble of life on a race boat, snuck abourd the mothership for this regatta – the wonderful motor yacht “Watercolours”. Sooty liked the chef cooking breakfast – lovely way to start the day. The bowls of chocolates everywhere were also a big hit, but it was the lovely crew [...]

Amazing racing today …two windward leewards followed by passage race to Marigot No idea about our results But we had fun!
Jamie Hilton playing some masterly strokes including closing the door on a 100 ft swan at the outer end of the line
There are to be some stories to tell tonight!
Best J

After a very subdued heineken party – after numerous green beers at least I think we were subdued. No one bothered with looking at scantilly clad swimsuit models (I may have actually risked an eye). Brief sleep and up at 630 to get through the bridge – dozens of boats milling around trying to figure [...]

News from the Bear’s bilges. The delivery team – sort of scary midwives, arrived in tortola with pete, traveliing scum class, arriving ahead of JB and Leatrice travelling smoked salmon but broken plane class. Pete pursuaded the ferry to leave 20 minutes late so we all made it to the boat that night. Next day [...]

Well things are taking shape and Bear is now in St marteen and checked in for the racing that gets underway tomorrow! Crew arriving as I write and our mother ship Watercolours (thanks Bill and Maggie!) will arrive tomorrow morning Watch this space for our progress Best wishes Jonathan