Meeting People … 28th January 2018

Meeting People   …   28^th January 2018

One of the best things about cruising is you do get to meet new people. We first bumped into Gunther whilst docking our dinghy in Castries. His boat was down in Marigot Bay and he had taken a bus up to Castries and was looking for any insight on good anchorages and places to visit north of St Lucia. We didn’t spend long chatting at that time but we managed to catch up with him again when we came in to Marigot Bay, and last night we had beers and dinner together. Gunther is an adventurous and interesting guy. He comes from a small village in Germany near Frankfurt, but has spent the past 20 years on a horse-back journey from Argentina to Alaska. He had previously been travelling by motorcycle but found that everything went by too fast and then discovered that travelling with horses was something he really loves. Over the years he and his partner have financed their lifestyle by writing about their adventures and going on lecture tours in Europe. Having completed this epic journey he was keen to explore other modes of transport and thought that sailing / cruising maybe the life for him. No messing around from Gunther – he wears a T-shirt with “Could, Should, Would, Did” written on the front with the first three words crossed out! When he first got into riding in Guatemala he realized after a year that the horse was paying the price for his lack of experience and knowledge … so he bought 8 horses and set up a horse-back touring company for three years to really learn the ropes. In order to determine whether sailing was for him he bought a 32-foot sailboat, spent 3 weeks practicing in northern Germany, and then proceeded to cross the Atlantic! He had two friends with him, a father and son, and the former had previously crossed the Atlantic with his father 30 years ago. Gunther found out within 24 hours of departing that he gets very seasick and for 3 of the 4 weeks passage he was really ill. He managed to stand his watches, but the rest of the time was unable to anything except lie down. I think the inability to do anything and the loss of that time really bothers him. Overall he now suspects that sailing life is not for him, but he will continue cruising the Caribbean for several months with the intention of exploring Cuba before he finishes, so that he can give this lifestyle a fair evaluation. He does look back on the passage as having some value – shortly after passing Gibraltar they rescued two boat refugees in a dilapidated dinghy, who would almost certainly have died had they not picked them up. We really enjoyed meeting Gunther. We really empathized with some one who clearly has a lot of adventurous spirit but is compromised by “mal-de-mer” in their sailing lifestyle.


We are now down in Soufriere, St Lucia. Next blogs and lots of photos up soon!



Water Lily in close up