Barbara Ann is a 1995 Najad 52, built in Sweden. We purchased her in Venezuela in 2004, and cruised her in the lower Caribbean for a year before bringing her to Annapolis, MD, for an extensive refit, in 2005.
Following the refit, we left Annapolis on November 1, 2006, bound for the Caribbean, with an intermediate stop in Beaufort, NC to meet up with our "buddy boat" Emelia. Emelia left Beaufort at nearly the same time as we did, but they opted for a trip through the Bahamas. They will rendezvous with us down-island.
Our crew consists of Jack, Jackie, and our two teenage sons Tyler and Austin (ages in 2006 were 16 and 14). Of course, we can't forget Anzo, our hand-tamed parakeet that we adopted in Venezuela.
Here's a picture of Barbara Ann, taken a few hours after leaving Beaufort, NC, heading to the Caribbean. Our friends Lee & Cindy, on Tranquility snapped this shot just before we entered the notorious Gulf Stream.
The two photos below of Barbara Ann doing some offshore sailing, enroute to Puerto Rico, were taken from onboard Tranquility. They were never more than 20 miles away from us during the entire trip south. We both never wanted for wind, and usually had more than we needed. Highest waves seen were in the 12-14' range.
Now you see us ....
Now you don't.
Our destination was St. Martin, but the wind had other ideas, so we made a slight diversion to Puerto Rico. This visit to Fajardo, Puerto Rico, allowed us to replace our old autopilot, and do some other last minute system fixes, while we still had easy access to "stateside" marine supply stores.
To see our current position on the Google Earth map, as we travel around the world, try visiting the Yotreps website: http://www.pangolin.co.nz/yotreps/tracker.php?ident=KG4PRM Our email address is yachtbarbaraann@gmail.com.
St. Martin is our next Caribbean stop on a trip that will take us through the Leeward islands, Los Roques, Bonaire, Curacao, Cartegena, and the San Blas Islands of Panama with a goal of transiting the Panama Canal in April, 2007.
The Leewards
