February 5, 2007 - Bequia

I picked up the sailmaker and his wife this morning so that they could come out to the boat to talk about the projects that we have in mind. We desperately need side panels for our bimini, to reduce the amount of sun we get while sitting in the cockpit in harbor and on passage. We would also like to get some small awnings made to cover the hatches over the forward and aft berths. It rains at some point during the night most nights. If we had awnings sheltering these hatches, we could leave them open at night without needing to stay somewhat alert to shut them at the first sign of drops.

Alick whipped out the awning for the forward hatch this afternoon, and I ordered the material for the remaining work. When we set up the new awning, it made a terrible racket with the slightest breeze. It needs some alterations before we'll be able to set it up for anyone to sleep under.

Just before sunset Maltese Falcon came sailing into the harbor. She really is the most stunning boat out here. Not classically beautiful, but her lines are striking and her rig design is revolutionary - she's a square-rigger on steroids.

She was built by Perini for Tom Perkins, the venture capitalist. The 14 year old, 288ft hull was originally built for another project, that was eventually abandoned. Perkins bought it from Perini, for them to finish as the Falcon. He then set up his own spar building plant to work out the kinks in the aero-rig design, which was the 1960's, oil crisis inspired brain-child of some German engineers, and build the masts. She cost over $100M to build. And after construction was complete, Perkins donated the spar plant to Perini.

If you can scrape together $300K, you can charter her for a week.