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This web site documents our epic sailing journey into the unknown on our sailing catamaran Aluna. We say the unknown as we are still underway and unsure where it will end.
We started in La Rochelle, France in October 2010 and sailed the Atlantic to the Caribbean. It was our vague intention to sail through the Panama canal into the Pacific but since there is so much to see in the Caribbean, in 2014 we haven’t progressed much further a sea. Many people think the Caribbean is just a group of small islands made up of the Windward and Leeward Islands starting in the south with Grenade and ending in the north with the BVI. This is only a small part of the Caribbean. We sailed these islands in 2011 and then discovered the small islands off the Venezuelan coast including the Bonaire and then in 2012 headed north to Jamaica, Cuba and the Caribbean coast of Central America, México to Honduras. In 2013 we ventured out of the Caribbean to the USA and the Bahamas before turning back south to continue our exploration of the Caribbean. The start of 2014 saw us again in the ABC’s, in Curacao a small island just of the coast of Venezuela. This year we are heading west to Columbia, San Blas Islands and Panama.
The web site is divided by year the countries we visited. Select ‘Latest’ to see our current position or go to ‘Map’ to get an overview. In ‘Latest’, don’t be afraid to post a Facebook Comment. -
How did it all start ?
October 2010
How and when did it all start? When I got married to Richard, now, 28 years ago, I knew that man had lots of qualities, one of them is certainly being British and born with webbed feet, a "salty sea dog". I was able to drag out the day when we had to have a boat till the day when Richard´s contract in Abu Dhabi ended. It was now or never. It all came very fast, finding the right boat, buying and commisioning. Two years previously, we went on two sailing holidays, one flotilla holiday in Turkey with our good friends Jacinta & Steve and one with just the two of us a one week bareboat charter in the Seychelles. Richard had renewed his sailing interest and was often sailing with is work colleagues.
In the holidays we had together we were chartering a monohull, which seams the obvious choice for a conservative British sailor. The Seychelle holiday however decided for me, no way, the future has to be a catamaran for stability and space. I am lucky my dear husband went along with my wish. We went to La Rochelle to look at the Lagoon and Fountain Pajot factory. We test sailed the FP Orana in La Rochelle and the 440 Lagoon in Kos, Greece. We chose the FP Orana.
The Fountaine Pajot Orana 44 fitted out for blue water sailing is a very comfortable boat and can be sailed easily single handed. We are very happy with our choice and look forward to another season of adventure, meeting new friends and foreign cultures.
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Our progress to date
April 2010 - May 2014
From La Rochelle in France we headed south along the coast of Spain, Portugal and down to the Canary Islands. From there we followed the 2010 ARC to St. Lucia. In 2011 we sailed north to the BVI and then back south to Grenade for the hurricane season. Then across to Bonaire and in 2012 north to Jamaica, Cuba, Caribbean coast of Mexico and Belize. After spending the hurricane season in Guatemala we sailed to the Bay Islands then straight north to Tampa Bay west Florida. In 2013 we sailed from Florida back to north coast of Cuba then entered the Bahamas at Bimini. We passed thru' the 'Far Bahamas' and the Windward Passage to Ile A Vache in Haiti and along the south coast of the Dom Rep. In June 2013 we crossed the Caribbean Sea to Curaçoa where we left Aluna for the another hurricane season. In January 2014 we set sail again for Santa Marta and the challenging coastline of Columbia. Sailing this coastline was difficult but with careful planing we made it comfortably to Cartegena and onto the San Blas Islands in Panama for the summer of 2014. This is where we are now and from what we have seen so far we have decided we will no leave here in a hurry. San Blas are probably the most attractive islands in the whole of the Caribbean and on par with many Pacific islands.
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What does Aluna mean ?
June 2013
The name for our boat comes from a Kogi word.
The Kogi Indians, are descendants of the Tairona, a pre-Columbian tribe. They have been living in isolation high in the mountainous jungles of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta in Colombia, preserving a culture and philosophy long thought lost.
They refer to themselves as the Elder Brothers of the human race, and to the rest of us as the Younger Brother. They see themselves as the guardians of life on Earth.
The concept of "Aluna" is central to their spiritual philosophy and their creation story. It means pure thought, memory, spirit, soul, mind, imagination."Aluna contains everything which is past
and everything that may become.
Aluna is the thought and memory
which forms a bridge between
the human 'Spirit' and the Universe.
Aluna makes possible growth,
birth and creation; it is the spiritual energy
that makes things happen..."
Fragment from Kogi creation mythology:
"In the beginning, there was blackness.
Only the sea.
In the beginning there was no sun, no moon, no people.
In the beginning there were no animals, no plants
Only the sea.
The sea was the Mother.
The Mother was not people, she was not anything.
Nothing at all.
She was when she was, spirit.
She was memory and possibility.
She was Alúna." -
Website Format
June 2013
This new website has a similar format to 'facebook' which should make it familiar for you to use. Apart from the 'timeline news containers' there are 'picture album containers' to allow you to flick through photos by clicking the mouse at the sides activating a direction arrow. Alternatively, you can move the mouse over 'Click to Pick' in the top right corner of the current photo.
boatbook
