Closed Captions (CC):
[Music]

last time

on sailing bella chandra we showed you

all of the diy maintenance we did on

bella chandra

since the beginning in one video

if you're new to the channel hi i'm

noelle and i'm dan and we're sailing

bella chandra

we're just a couple canadians sailing

around the caribbean making youtube

videos and if you like our channel and

you want to subscribe just go below this

channel look for the big red subscribe

button

press that button so this week's video

is a recap

of everything that we've achieved

since the very beginning of our journey

here on sailing bella chandra

yeah that's right it goes right back to

the very beginning the day i bought the

boat in st

john new brunswick through to sailing it

to nova scotia canada and everything

that's happened since

now we're in the caribbean so you know

clearly a lot has happened for those of

you that are just joining us the new

viewers and new subscribers we know

there's quite a few new subscribers

lately

this would be a nice way to get caught

up and

get to know us and what we're all about

so i hope you enjoy it

i'm in st john i just arrived at

the marina where

breakaway is where it's in the water

right now and i'm gonna go check it out

i've seen it before but not in the water

and uh hopefully we'll be doing a sea

trial

today

[Music]

we are sailing in the bay of fundy right

now

[Music]

so yeah the very first winter in halifax

was a rough one we had a storm on

christmas day and a second storm on

boxing day and the dock that the boats

tied to

actually broke up into pieces and i had

to rush home

from christmas with my parents to

babysit the boat and get us out of that

situation and well joined me

shortly after and our holidays was kind

of half

babysitting the boat and on a broken

dock it was crazy

it turns out that while i was gone and

during the night

um the dock that was holding my boat

ended up splitting up

i rushed down here to see what had

happened and

looked like my boat was okay a good

scratch on one side where the dock had

kind of run against it i checked my

bulkheads in my hull and everything's

fine

we have a plank here temporarily but

everything's just kind of just

jimmy rigged right now so we had our

first real snowfall of the winter last

night

and the boat is covered in snow the dock

is covered in snow

so let's check it out i've been knocking

snow off the boat all night actually

[Music]

the first time i came aboard sailing

bella chandra was

during the winter the boat was

completely covered in plastic there's

just this little wooden

door that you'd have to crawl into into

this like little nook it was pretty

interesting um going below i was

surprised actually as

to how warm the boat was dan had the

furnace running

for a good hour before i had actually

arrived that was back before our furnace

actually worked

yeah yeah our furnace is no longer

working right now

but thank god we're in the caribbean

my name is noelle or

finally i'm starving yeah looks good

looks delicious

[Music]

it was really nice to take the plastic

enclosure off for that first sailing

season with noel this would have been

noel's first time sailing ever and

it you know it all kind of happened

around the same time we got the plastic

off and brought the boat back to its

original state

[Music]

so this morning dan sent me a text

saying he found the perfect dinghy and i

agree we're really really excited about

checking this out we're on the road

as we speak yeah we just bought

our first tender what are we doing

we're getting her out of the water today

yeah

yeah going up on the heart

[Music]

so my first real trip on the boat was a

trip to mahome bay

we stopped along the way of course and

we had some friends

at the very beginning of our journey we

dropped them off in prospect

yeah it was a good trip we caught some

fish we went swimming

it was probably one of the best summers

we've spent in nova scotia on the boat

[Music]

i feel like i'm riding this

[Music]

wait

[Music]

oh

[Music]

we're on this little tiny island it's

completely deserted nobody lives here

there's this beautiful beach that goes

the whole length of the island

it's refreshing hey guys guess what

what this is our one year anniversary of

making sailing bella chandra

we are one year old today i'm off to

lebanon

for an entire month i'm really excited

it's been about eight years

i'm taking you guys along

[Music]

oh

[Music]

so we've made it to valva so you can see

behind me

we rented a bus me and about eight

family members are here

yeah we are getting in some sun

we got a big announcement to make we're

planning on sailing to the bahamas next

winter

that's right we're going to spend

possibly up to six months in the bahamas

and avoid the canadian winter so

all of you guys who've been watching and

telling us to get the hell down there

we're listening we're taking a surprise

what you got there little baby boy

see how that was that looks like a boat

dog

it is a boat dog deuce

zeus the boat dog so yeah we just got

our newest

crew member zeus

hi zus our brand new little doggy dog

for the boat hey guys so as you know

we're taking the mast off the boat as

one of the first steps in getting her

ready for the bahamas

this is it here it's so heavy and so

large

that there was virtually nowhere else to

move it without

some kind of heavy equipment

you can do it yeah you can do it buddy

hey guys so we're hauled out of the

water you can see here

our bottom paint is still in really good

shape so yeah we're going to drop the

rudder today

the main reason we're dropping the

rudder is because we're going to be

cruising in the bahamas for a long time

and i was told

when i bought the boat that the rudder

wasn't in great shape i'm pretty sure

that

it's delaminated but it's definitely a

wet rudder so the boat's back in the

water finally

and we're out on a mooring still

massless

but hey we're in the water and look

over there sailing

uma the offshore survival training

was intense i have to say

uh getting into that wave pool and

having the wind machine blowing and the

rain and the sound effects

it was very intimidating after that

whole experience of like

uh i don't even know if i want to go

with you anymore

but overall i was very happy to have

done it

so that i was aware of how treacherous

the ocean can be

yeah i think for me the craziest part

was immersing ourselves

in a four degree celsius cold tank to

kind of get the feel for what it would

be like to fall

in the frigid north atlantic that sucked

this is it

survival training center

are you doing well how'd you like that

cold tank

yeah it seemed we had just filled the

boat with food and we're just getting

ready to leave nova scotia when

hurricane dorian hit

and that was uh just wild we were we had

our heads

varied in provisioning and all of our

plans and then suddenly here's this big

threat that could just end the whole

thing it was

it was a very trying moment for us well

there's those hurricane warnings you

don't see very often atlantic canada

the national hurricane center is

acknowledging the intensity

increase of hurricane dorian you kind of

hear it just starting now

the rain's just kind of starting we're

going to hop in the dinghy and get the

heck out of here

spend some time on shore while this

hurricane

goes by so we didn't have to take down

our sails because our sails are already

off the dodger was up the bimini was up

so the dodger and bimini came off

and i strapped down the frames for those

and secured everything on deck cleared

the deck of any

anything out there that might be in the

way roll the fenders in everything

because we're on a mooring so we don't

need to tie up we don't need benders or

anything like that

it's been go go go getting our prep for

the

caribbean so we're on our way back now

to check out the boat

suspect the damage kind of nervous we

made it

there's no chafe on the lines and these

cleats held up everything looks really

good

when i started provisioning for our trip

to the caribbean i

kind of went a little above and beyond

actually

a lot of people at the marina had quite

a few comments about

how crazy had gone with my provisioning

although i spent

quite a lot and stocked up so much so

that the

water line was pretty much submerged

into the water

at that point by the time i was done

provisioning i'm really glad i have done

the provisioning i had

because kovid19 hit us by surprise and

our journey ended up extending by six

months

and that food really helped us out with

expenses

yeah absolutely

so it's october 20th 2019 but it's

actually a beautiful day today it's a

little windy a little cold but not

terrible we are bundled up

how are you doing well yeah where are we

now

chilled out of the arm and now we're

we've cleared halifax just about

got a new crew member on board

this is bob how you doing bob's gonna

come with us all the way

to bermuda this is what we're riding at

right now

outside right inside uh shelburne here

it's been going for how many hours i

don't even know

since uh this morning it's high tide

right now

and we are just moving but you know what

our anchor has not moved

i'm really glad we splurged and got

ourselves a rocna

so our anchor slipped we turned on our

engine

dan's out there soaked dripping wet

i don't even shaking it should be almost

over now

i hope we don't have to ride it out for

too long they were predicting that the

winds would die down shortly so

i feel sick to my stomach and i am

so worried

[Music]

we've accumulated more stuff backpacks

are full of groceries

new boat hook we're just trying to find

a gas station now to fill our diesel

tank so we just left portland

and i'm motor sailing now noel is just

taking a nap we're going back out into

the gulf of maine so that we can go from

portland

down to cape cod and then we're going to

try and hook up with some friends

and i think we're going to try to cross

the bermuda

so we pulled into marblehead which is

just outside of boston

it's going to be pretty intense tonight

they're calling for up to 50 knots of

wind tonight

you're going to see me diving in cold

frigid north atlantic water to

cut stuff off of our prop

[Music]

once you get in it's really not that bad

you can go down you can work

so seven mil wetsuit for the north

atlantic we need to make cape cod today

so we had to leave that early and there

was better wind in the morning just

sailing past the city of boston now

we're gonna get through the cape cod

canal hopefully today in into buzzards

bay and

tomorrow head for bermuda

hey guys so we're in newport rhode

island right now this is

where we were going to jump off from the

united states to bermuda

we kind of hauled butt getting down from

the cape cod canal through buzzard's bay

and then we spent the night in new

bedford because it was dark and we

wanted to get a little bit of sleep

before we made the crossing to bermuda

we had bought a sat phone

and we were going to use that sat phone

to get our grib files and

have weather updates for the next uh

five to seven days we put in the sim

card into the sat phone

and there was an error and the sat phone

didn't work so we didn't have a sat

phone

so we made a judgment call to tuck in it

was a depressing night last night it was

very very depressing coming into newport

here hey guys

we're just sailing through long island

sound right now

on our way to new york city we figured

either we stay in newport

and wait for the next bermuda window

which may or may not happen it's getting

colder every day you know

or head for new york and make our way

down to norfolk where we can cross with

a lot of other boats that will be doing

the same thing

going through hell's gate right now

we're in new york city

that is ice

we are in manhattan and there we are

anchored out on the hudson river

there's a crazy current here we're in

cape may and we've talked to a lot of

the locals and

everyone said that we're perfectly fine

on anchor and they're not concerned

in the slightest so i don't think we

should be either yeah and the storm's

pretty much offshore

uh from what i've read and what people

have been telling us kate may here is

pretty well protected

we made it out of cape may yesterday

around 1 2 p.m

we were watching the weather really

closely and it looked like

we have a bermuda window it only works

if we time it perfectly we had to leave

cape may at that exact time

following a big storm that just passed

through the one that we rode on

anchorage we had two anchors though so

that was a bit of a challenge but we

were able to do it

what we need to do is get past norfolk

and then

south of cape hatteras and if we can get

to that

area tonight

then we have the rest of the week to get

to bermuda

without any storms or bad wind

[Music]

it went hell of a night last night

like i thought fighting hurricane nestor

is probably the hardest thing i've ever

done on this sailboat

and it was but last night

it was it was all the way it went all

the way i mean all the sailing

stories you hear about from people and

they say it was hard you know we hit the

worst conditions and

we wrote out storms like it was one of

those it was very serious

it was a life-threatening experience i

said it several times during

that we needed to do something because

we our lives were in danger otherwise

one is i guess the gulf stream moving

north and the other would be the

north korean water current moving south

and when they meet there at cape

hatteras

man it is insane we had

large breaking waves these waves were

like

probably 20 feet high at least breaking

waves

we crashed into the mall like they would

hit us on the beam they'd hit us on the

stern like

no consistency it was like a washing

machine like you said just waves from

all directions

and one in every fifth wave was a rogue

wave it's so great to be

tied up to a dock oh my god we've been

going hard

since nova scotia

[Music]

it's my early birthday celebration

since we'll be out to see on my actual

birthday although

i was told that when it's your birthday

on a boat

that it's whatever that person wants to

do that day that's right

[Music]

we're just outside charleston south

carolina we just left there this morning

and we are sailing for florida trying to

make as much ground as we can

we have three maybe three and a half

days of really good wind

constantly blowing down the coast so it

makes a coastal passage like this really

ideal we are in

st augustine florida we just got here

last

night wearing t-shirts and shorts it's

like 25

degrees we're in florida in the winter

there's a safe zone

we fought hard to get away the heck out

here but we're in the safety zone now

we're not interfering with the launch i

guess if your boat is

inside that zone they might not launch

the rocket it's that serious

t-minus 60 seconds or so

it's gonna be good

fishy fishy fishy fishy call the fishies

how the fishies where are they get those

fish

fish for dinner

good morning seals where are we where

are we

where's palm beach baby

[Applause]

[Music]

[Music]

that's the ocean just out there through

the inlet we're anchored over here

peanut island is just really close to

this part of palm beach

here we are at peanut island on the

beach it's beautiful

no barking zeus we just left west palm

beach

we're sailing right along the coast here

because the gulf stream is actually

pretty close here

in this part of florida so we have to

get really close to shore

just to avoid that current today we're

sailing for fort lauderdale

we got into fort lauderdale last night

it was a little difficult there was uh

some bridges to go under the anchorages

were hard to find and

there was a lot of shallow water and

really narrow channels and a lot of

partiers and a lot of crazy stuff going

on but we did

sunday night monday night there was so

many partiers because they were just

zooming past us there was crazy wakes

there was like

so many cruise ships and the police were

like oh

stay southbound we we had cops on

megaphones yelling at us and you do come

in here make sure it's high tide we ran

aground twice

[Music]

hey guys it's the middle of the night

and we are about to leave fort

lauderdale for the bahamas

so we are crossing the gulf stream from

florida to

the bahamas where we're going to do our

customs and everything in the berry

islands

we only had the engine on maybe for

four hours out of the 27 it took us to

get here from fort lauderdale

i can't believe it finally

and it's new year's eve

hey guys so we're still in the berry

islands we left great harbor kay

yesterday and arrived between devils k

and hoffman's k here and uh it's just

gorgeous here the watercolor is amazing

it's just paradise so right now we're at

devil's k

and we're gonna jump into the blue hole

i don't think dan's gonna jump i don't

know why am i so nervous

okay here we go thank you one

two

we left nassau harbor this morning

fairly early we're heading to the exum

list today

[Music]

[Music]

so we're in allen key and we were

checking out iguana beach this morning

there's some

big iguanas

[Music]

so we're island hopping we've made it to

shroud key so far this is my favorite

spot

looks like our friends sailing doodles

were here not very long ago

[Music]

look this is amazing here at compass key

marina

and they have over there swimming all

around people

they're pretty tame so today we got up

bright and early

and we decided to sail on the outside so

we've been sailing in the

shallow like turquoise water of the

zuma's now we're on the outside today

where the water is really blue and it's

like hundreds of feet deep

we're at samuel key yacht club right now

and we just ordered some burgers and

fries

[Music]

thunderball grotto that's daniel

and we're just coming up on the pig

beach and it's raining

but yeah

[Music]

georgetown on this lovely long stretch

of beach

giving zeus a chance to stretch his legs

he did a night sail last night we're

sailing for about 24 hours

yeah we're in georgetown bahamas now

just did a little bit of

shopping in town here picked up a few uh

groceries and things we needed and we

had contra fitters for the first time

and they were delicious

[Music]

[Music]

[Music]

we're at sea again we left georgetown

just this morning

and here we are

so noel and i decided to come to shore

today here in long island

and check things out so today it's just

sailing up the inside of long island to

calabash bay

and then tomorrow ourselves and two

other boats will be sailing from

calabash bay

north of long island to conception and

we'll spend about a day in conception

and conception will be our last

jumping point off the bahamas

we took an entire day to enjoy the

island of conception

this island is beautiful it has

incredible beaches the water is crystal

clear

in the afternoon we explored the

mangroves

another true gem of this island the

mangroves go for miles and miles

hey guys so we have now left conception

and we are sailing

for the dominican republic luperon is

the name of the port that we'll be going

into

it's a lovely morning here in luperon

dominican republic

while still in luperon we were fortunate

enough to catch up with our friends bums

on a boat

we talked youtube had a couple beers and

played some pool

see you guys down the line fair winds

and following seas

we are about to arrive in salmona

dominican republic we left looper on

yesterday we sailed all day sailed all

night and sailed all day again today

[Music]

yeah they're doing the local elections

today here in dominican republic

and they've had a pretty good turnout

for voting so far it looks like so

yeah pretty great salmon is pretty cool

place

but i'm looking forward to going into

the mountains going on some hikes

hopefully

we're heading over to the national park

just on the other side of the somana bay

the reason we're doing this is because

of this outbreak of the coronavirus

and the dominican republic they only

have 11 cases but this morning they shut

the borders down

for two weeks and we are stuck in the

dominican republic

we shared this anchorage with five other

boats making up a small group that we

aptly named

the quarantilla at that time we were

still allowed to go ashore and explore

the park

[Music]

so we're gonna fast track here and give

you guys an

update on the coronavirus and how it's

affecting us

i'm sure uh some of you back home even

just other viewers out there

curious about how us cruisers

are dealing with this issue

once our quarantine period in the

dominican republic was ended we decided

it was a good time to push on

as the bay of samana has no ideal place

to ride out a hurricane and it was

important for us to move on so we could

find a place where we could survive the

upcoming hurricane season

we're just bumping along in the mona

passage it's the piece of water written

between dominican republic and puerto

rico

and it is really our first taste of the

actual caribbean sea

yeah they didn't seem too pleased about

us coming here but anyway

it wasn't illegal or wrong at the time

but uh they told us that we had to stay

on our boat

and that we're not allowed to there's a

heavy curfew and everything and if they

catch you ashore there's like a five

thousand dollar

fine and six months in prison and all

this bad stuff so it's a shame that

we're gonna miss

uh what beauty puerto rico has to offer

but

sometimes you have to roll with the

punches i guess

we decided to leave puerto rial

and move along the coast so now we're

sailing

along the south coast of puerto rico

goodbye puerto rico

we are in st thomas u.s virgin islands

we spent a week or so in charlotte emile

today we decided to pull anchor and

we're heading to megan's bay

[Music]

yeah we're feeling very fortunate to be

here to have been accepted into the

country

and we haven't been going to shore very

often we've mostly been staying

quarantined

on the boat whenever we do go to shore

we're practicing

our you know social distances

we just left christmas cove st thomas

and we're heading south towards saint

croix now

[Music]

uh oh he goes

i went spearfishing with friends in

beautiful megan's bay

we're sailing to st john today just for

an overnight stay

and then off the same tray after

cruising for almost a year straight our

tacking has become

a very efficient maneuver

[Music]

hey guys we have some really great news

we were approved to enter

grenada the government in grenada is

going to allow

uh private yachts and cruisers to come

to grenada

during the crowbit 19 crisis we're going

to st croy to stage

our departure for grenada we're leaving

for grenada in just a few days and

saint croix is kind of our last stop

it's getting us about a day closer to

grenada

and also we should be able to pick up

some supplies and stuff

[Music]

hey guys we've officially left saint

croix for grenada

and we are on our way there it's the

first day we're motoring now

because today uh we had some pretty high

winds this morning

and it looks like some stitches were

coming out of the main the stitching

just kept

removing and now there's like a whole

a boat of you know three or four foot

section of the mainsail that

needs to be re-zoned made it to grenada

guys we're here

we have to serve a two-week quarantine

and there's kind of a changeover so

boats are coming and going all the time

here so we have completed

our quarantine we did our two weeks here

in grenada

in the designated quarantine anchorage

we kind of got in line and we're

supposed to stay

six feet apart and wait to have our

covid19 test

just as soon as we finished our

quarantine i borrowed this barracuda

heavy duty sewing machine from a friend

so we could repair our mainsail

we stayed in st george's for about a

week just last night the coast guard

asked us to move

they told us it's not an approved

anchorage so we left without any

argument

and moved north to grand mall bay

hey guys we're still in grand mal bay

and today we're going to jump in the

dinghy and we're going to go check out

an underwater sculpture park should be

pretty fun

[Music]

we were fortunate to be diving with

other cruisers who also had gopro

cameras

and we were able to capture our dive

from multiple angles for the first time

[Music]

how cool is this we're at the top of an

extinct volcano

walking through a rainforest looking for

monkeys

it doesn't get any cooler hey so we're

just heading into this seven

sisters waterfall here in grenada it's

supposed to be pretty amazing

we're just leaving grand mall today and

sailing

up to laurent island

so as you can see we are missing one of

our lower shrouds

we had it snap on us while under heavy

roll back in grand mall

we arrived in rond island to the perfect

anchorage

and this beautiful black sand beach

exactly what we were hoping for

and perfect for zeus to stretch his legs

[Music]

on the north side we found this

incredible white sand beach

the perfect spot to chill out and go for

a swim after being swarmed by mosquitoes

in 35 degrees celsius heat

we checked out some of rond island's

snorkeling and diving spots

but all within just a few miles of

kikkum jenny the underwater active

[Applause]

[Music]

volcano

soon it was time to say goodbye and sail

on for the island of keraku

today i am participating in a race it's

a circumnavigation of the entire island

of kyraku

so we got a little team together and we

took one of the fastest cruiser boats

that we had

and we entered the race

[Music]

we decided to hop over to saline island

for a few days to enjoy the privacy of a

beautiful anchorage

in a nearby white sandy beach this beach

here at white island has to be one of

the best

beaches here in carrico

so i hope you guys enjoyed our little

trip back in time and our recap

of sailing bellachandra since the

beginning back in 2017 until today if

you enjoyed what you had seen

and like to go back and actually watch

the full episodes they're all there for

you to go and enjoy

if you want to ask us any questions or

if you have any comments you can leave

them in the comment section below or you

can email me on facebook

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