Eclipse Log Book |
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For some years I had been keen to show my designs in the USA and so in late October 2002 I left the UK in my Eclipse, bound for the east coast of the USA. I followed the scenic route, ie via Spain, Portugal, Canary Islands and the Caribbean before heading north through the Bahamas to the East coast of the USA eventually reaching Maine in August 2003. Then we sailed south to Cuba and Belize.
Eclipse spent the 2004 hurricane season in Mario's Marina in the Rio Dulce, Central America, which is probably the safest hurricane hole in the Caribbean. It's a secure place to leave a boat - in every sense. Just look at our security guard!!
In late 2004 we sailed to the San Blas islands, in NE Panama via the Bay Islands, Honduras; Providencia, Colombia and the whole north coast of Panama. In March 2005 we left Eclipse in a Panamanian marina, and went home to work for the summer.
The map above shows the route from Oct 2002 to March 2005. After sailing 20,000 miles we left the Atlantic and motored our Eclipse through the Panama Canal into the Pacific in December 2005 and then began sailing north towards Mexico. On January 19th we were caught in very bad weather, which we later called Eclipse's Perfect Storm. To read more of what happened CLICK HERE. The Perfect Storm reports were written in May 2006, so in July 2006 we were very surprised to hear, via one of my builders in Panama, that Eclipse was seen anchored off the Panama YC. Clearly someone had decided to tow Eclipse back to shore. We made contact, but sadly we weren’t able to reach agreement with the salvors (they wanted USD80,000 and wouldn’t negotiate) so we let them keep it. Even in the small photo below you can see what was missing or damaged:- The rig, sails, engine, rudders, stanchions, electronics, companionway door, even the cockpit loudspeakers. While after 6 months use as a home for seabirds I hate to think what the interior wais like! But despite a horrific storm and 2000 miles and 6 months adrift, it was still afloat and upright, a great testament to catamarans in general and Eclipse in particular.
So our cruising on Eclipse was finally over. You can read about our adventures from 2002 - 2005 in the 300 page "Eclipse Logbook". To order your own full copy (which is a much more comprehensive report than that found on this web site) please go to the Shopping Cart. (scroll down to the bottom) An extract from my Eclipse log book won the 2004 Venture Trophy, presented by MOCRA (the British Multihull Association) for the best multihull cruising story published in 2004. For log book entries describing our trip before Oct 2004 please go to http://eclipsecruising.tripod.com For log book entries describing our trip between Oct 2004 and Dec 2004 please go to http://www.mailasail.com/webdiary-eclipse scroll down to see earlier trips ("The Waiting Game" appears both there and also at the first link below) Or, to buy the whole 300+ page log book, containing thousands of words, and hundreds of photos and maps please use the Shopping Cart and scroll down to "Miscellaneous" The complete log book comes as a PDF file (approx 9Mb) and costs GBP8
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