boatinternational.com • 05 2019OWNERS’ CLUBEvery month, you tell us
where you are on the
seven seas, what you can
see from your deck and
your top trip tipsMembers’
Logbook
Bob Giles
Yacht: VivieRae
Length: 97ft
Year: 2017
Location: St Barths
How was St Barths? I am now back home, but the view from
Gustavia Harbor was beautiful, with its red-roofed buildings. We
enjoyed watching the hourly flights from St Maarten that drop in
so close to the top of the hill in front of the runway
How long were you in town? My wife Sandy and I were there for
a week with friends and my sister and her husband. I love to dive
so I made one or two dives each day with one of my crew members
who I was certifying (I am a NAUI dive instructor). The diving around
St Barths is actually pretty good, and we made several dives off
of Île Fourchue, between St Barths and St Maarten. We of course
spent some time at Nikki Beach, which can get crazy at times
Where else have you been cruising lately? We left Bocas del
Toro, on the Caribbean side of the Panama Canal near Costa Rica,
in January to cross over to St Maarten/St Barths. It was my first
time visiting Bocas del Toro and it is a nice area with many greatanchorages. Prior to that we were in Panama on the Pacific side at
Piñas Bay near the Colombian border where the famous Tropic Star
Lodge fishing resort is. We were there fishing for marlin, sailfish and
dorado. Just prior to that we were in the Galápagos for 20 days
Can you pick out any highlights? Of course, the Galápagos was
the highlight and a destination that has been on my bucket list for
a long time. We had some great encounters with everything from
hammerhead sharks to albatrosses and penguins
Where are you heading next? We are heading to the British Virgin
Islands next and then the Turks and Caicos. I will rejoin VivieRae
there and then we will go through the Bahamas and try to hit every
island between the Turks and Caicos and Nassau. This is a
hard-core guys’ trip. We get up early every morning and will fish
and dive for the day before meeting VivieRae at the next island
60 or so miles away in the evening