ALEXIS 3 Privatyacht

The thought of drifting through the crystal waters of the Virgin Islands kept haunting them, along with this visitation came the answer to their problems. They would cross the Atlantic once again and go chartering! This time they chose to stop in Jamaica, Cuba and revisit the friends they made in America, sailing right up the east coast to Chesapeake Bay for a whole summer of fun before making passage for the British Virgin Islands and the challenge of chartering guests began. n their previous lives Geoff owned a Building company, and Bambi a partnership in a Catering company, food had always played an enormous roll in the well being of charter guests and her expertise in this field did not fail them.

This sojourn lasted five years, made up of 70, seven day charters, this was a period of growth, learning, making new friends and fun, until finally the cruising kitty was once again strong enough to take on the Pacific.

They headed down the Caribbean Sea to Trinidad where they could ready the boat for the major ocean passage. A wonderful stop in Cartagena, Columbia for Christmas and then down to the awesome Panama Canal, unforgettable memories were made never to be forgotten.

The Pacific proved to be enormous, the distances between the islands long and sometimes arduous, the weather patterns isolated and difficult to predict, storms and rain squalls would pop up out of nowhere to shake them out of lethargy, the longest leg being 20 days between the Galapagos Islands and the French Marquises. This is where the criticism ends, the rest was a dream, the islands exotic, stunning in their almost untouched beauty, above and below the ocean was all as god made it, beautiful!

With all their dreams fulfilled, the plan was to sail on to Australia and to sell Alexis 2 and then to fly to New Zealand for a bit of a 'walk about' and finally back to Cape Town to 'settle down', after all, they had been sailing for 12 years, surely that was enough?

All the above happened as predicted, and Alexis 2 was sold to great Australians, what a wonderful brave little boat she was, with so many happy nautical miles under her hull. Geoff and Bambi replete with memories and travels returned home to take up Grandparent status and 'settle'. (Mmmmmmmmm...)

One year later - they were once again excitedly relating news of their purchase of a 45 foot Robertson and Caine called Cool Runnings! It's back to the water, back to life aboard, and back to chartering in the British Virgin Islands!!

From April, 2015, until the summer of 2018, Geoff and Bambi were happy aboard Cool Runnings. Hurricane Irma flipped that happiness upside-down - literally. Cool Runnings was totalled out by her insurers. The happy news is, Geoff and Bambi immediately acquired a newer model Leopard 46 catamaran, and returned to their original naming scheme, thus ALEXIS 3!