Daily Logs

BRIZO - 10 June 2012

After nearly two months in Tahiti, for boat work and a trip back to the US, we are finally heading to Bora Bora. We had an escort for dolphins through the channel - a nice way to depart the island!We expect to arrive in Bora Bora tomorrow morning and will enjoy the island for a few days. From there we will head to Tonga then reach Fiji around 27 June. We are looking forward to cruising and catching up with the Rally in Fiji.. read more...

Kinship - Wandering Plankton

As many of you have heard, Outer Limits, one of our fellow ARC Europe yachts, struck a whale last night and the crew were safely rescued by a freighter before the boat sank..This has been a sobering thought for all of us and has caused us to revisit our safety procedures as well as our abandon ship protocols. It is day 4 now, and we are still heading northeast based on our interpretation of the weather forecasts.We picked up a nice current up here so our daily logs have been in the 180-mile range--which is respectable for a small cruising boat such as Kinship.Last night, with no moon, it was as pitch black as black can be, and it seemed like we were bounding along on a sea of black ink with the bow wake throwing gleaming white tendrils of lacy foam studded with bio-luminescent plankton. read more...

Voyageur - Leg 2 - Log 2 Words of Wisdom

18/19 May  For two days now we have enjoyed near perfect sailing conditions but for the wind angle, forward of the beam, and for those two days we have had at least a knot of current against us. It is hard. All those hard earned miles covered through the water and lost over the ground. At dawn today just before the sun came up David took this most amazing picture of a cloud formation. At first he saw the fluke of a whale but then it gradually changed shape, and metamorphosed into a dinosaur marching across the sky. I said he must send it in to enter ARC Europe’s photographic competition but it will be the first and last for it will take an absolute age to send via the SAT phone. Weather is at the forefront of everyone’s minds at the moment and the main topic of. read more...

Serendipity - The Far Side of the World II

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A Lady - Eating our way across the South Atlantic

Sunday, 30th January 2011  00.00hrs Distance traveled...........................from St Helena 1,625miles.........................from Cape Town  3,545 miles. Another beautiful night at sea. The wanning moon still casting its silvery shadow across an almost flat sea to the boat  as we sailed along with the "Bag of fear" flying nicely in the 14/16 knot breeze...  almost magic. Wild Tigris once again has taken off under engine, they will most likely motor all the way from here to Salvador.  05.00hrs The pale light of dawn on the eastern horizon highlighted the dark scattered clouds with their moon struck silver edgesfloating across the sky. but the real sunrise will not happen for another hour.  07.00hrs (local. read more...

Quasar V of Lleyn - Thursday 23rd October

Thursday 23rd October  EVERY BREATH I TAKE   The Air That I Breathe!  One of the benefits of ocean sailing is undoubtedly the constant supply of fresh air (are there others?). At home I always have a small cough, which is pretty irritating to everyone, but out in this clean air it magically disappears! Where at home can one go and live that has clean unpolluted air? Please tell me?   THE DAY THE MUSIC DIED!   Tragedy! So, Bye Bye American Pie and about another 1760 tracks! My IPOD went into test mode last night and there was nothing I could do to get out of it! Fortunately by this morning it had gone back to music mode. Phew!  For this morning's entertainment we have gale force winds and some rain! Not a big deal as the wind is 120 degrees off the stern, but more attention to reefing in. read more...

Crazy Horse - Jan 31

We are still motoring along at 6-7kts. Once in while we put out the jib but no go. Bill tried to sail this morning but only went 3-4kts. Our limit to sail is 4kts. Hope the wind comes up soon. But if motoring gets us there guess we will just have to adjust. It is getting hotter out here to just sit around and wait around with sails flogging. So we keep on moving toward our destination.We heard that Wild Tigris will be making it to Salvador today. A Lady will be there soon after. Not sure who will be next. We just reached the halfway mark of this leg. We decided to have a halfwaynight tonight. Maybe we will only have half a dinner. Maybe we will only serve half our watch. Don't think the Captain would like that one.Not much else to report here. Hope that weather back home warms up.Rosemary. read more...

Serendipity - The Far Side of the World 1

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Quasar V of Lleyn - Log 22-Oct

Wednesday 22nd October ONE THOUSAND! Yes, this morning we are about 1,000 nm from Cocos and 1300 from Mauritius and much more than that from anywhere else! Lindsey is on the SSB at 09:00 as usual this morning to Kualula and I am in my pit and Malcy reports a problem in that one of the Yankee sheets has chafed through at the bowline and on inspection the other is nearly through! This is after 5 days running continuously with the Twistle. We revert to main and Yankee and a better course. Its been cloudy for a couple of days and quite a bit of rain today, but we are making good progress with winds of 20-25 knots just aft of the beam. For 2 hours in succession this afternoon we averaged 9 knots per hour. At 23:00 local we are at 15.34S 78.48E 1220 nm from Mauritius. As Ian tucked in to yet. read more...

First Edition lll - May 19

This morning the sun is shining on moderately calm seas and 15 knots of wind from the south.With following seas and a broad reach, s/v First Edition has been making good progress in spite of being delayed 5 hours in St George Bermuda due to alternator problems.We have caught some of the slower vessels.Two notable events yesterday include catching our first fish and a whale sighting.The line Susan has been trolling hooked a baby sailfish that was approximately four feet in length (we have photo documentation). Not wanting to deal with the sword the fish was brandishing, we released him back to the sea. The whale sighting came while we on deck adjusting lines."Look a whale!"; a right whale was gliding along side the boat, as dolphins often do.The whale, which was slightly larger than First. read more...

Anastasia - Approaching the reefs

17:34.2S 177:40.3W  223 miles covered, 202 to go   The sky is overcast, the moon has not yet risen, there is no phosphorescence in our wake and so we are rushing through inky blackness, 50 miles from the group of reefs we have to pass through to get to Fiji. We are aiming to get to the first reefs at first light and have furled the jib and put two reefs in the main to try and slow down. However, the wind is gradually increasing (currently 25 knots) and we are still doing 7.5 knots. At this speed we will be about 10 miles from the entrance to our chosen passage when the sun rises, which is fine provided we do not go any faster than this.   Our YellowBrick tracker has failed, so our position will not appear on the World ARC website. The. read more...

Purrr-fect - Leg Two - Friday Day 3 - Fish Battle

After trolling with no success every day, this afternoon Dave's fishing pole started to scream and the fight for a giant fish was on.We slowed the boat, headed to wind and furled in the jib (were going over 8 knots at the time) and Dave reeled and reeled while the fish fought back.After one hour, the fish was finally close enough to see....and we discovered that it was a huge SHARK, estimated to be about 6 feet.We sure didn't want that animal on board, so Jim and Dave cut the line, losing the new lure and wire leader which Dave had just purchased in Bermuda.Bummer! Otherwise, the winds continue to be favorable and we are making great progress, trying to get far enough north and east before the front comes through.Noon to noon we posted a 178 mile day, our best yet. I am writing this. read more...

Voyageur - Log day 232 - Action stations!

29 January 2011Pole up, pole down, pole in, pole out, main in, main out, mizzen to port, mizzen to starboard. Jibe ho, jibe ho! We were exhausted. This was far too much like hard work, not the way we like to do things on this ship. Besides it was interfering with our sleep patterns. I had to get David up twice last night to change everything over as the wind changed. I even had to keep putting my book down to tweak the autopilot! We had had enough of this loitering about the ocean. The time had come to shake off this lethargy. The time had come for action! We had had a week of very leisurely cruising. We had toyed with the idea on and off for days, always finding an excuse not to. Well, it was lunchtime, it was always someone's turn for a nap, the wind had just gone up a notch etc, etc.. read more...

Quasar V of Lleyn -

Tuesday 21st OctoberWHO NEEDS WEIGHT WATCHERS?  Ian has been rewiring up forward for some time today and Malcy is waiting on him for more works in the wet locker. Have seen 2 ships on the AIS this afternoon. Spoke to the second one "Northgate" with the standard question "Have you picked us up on your radar?"  The answer was no! He was carrying a cargo of iron ore from Brazil to Singapore and making 10.2 knots, so sounds like a long time at sea! When last on the boat I lost a stone in weight. Don't think that's going to happen this time. In fact quite the reverse! Ian like me has an addiction to chocolate, which is of course essential to keep one going on night watch! To make sure we didn't run out we bought about 40 bars of Cadbury's in Woolworths, Darwin, mainly fruit and nut plus. read more...

Quasar V of Lleyn - log 20 October

Monday 20th October TIME GOES BYIan has spent most of the day with soldering iron in hand trying to sort out the wiring in the anchor locker and in the foscle for the anchor winch! Malcy looks back on the possible scenario of when we left the boat at Home Island, the anchor heaving itself up with the short circuit, the boat catching fire and ending up on the beach! Good or bad news?Another day much like the last: prawns for lunch with newly baked bread by Lindsey. Sundowners at 18:30 with Clare (in the community-on CD) and tuna for dinner. The wind dropped about 22:00 hrs so we have only been making just over 6 knots through the night. At 04:10 local time Tuesday we are about 1560 nm from Port Louis 14.40 S 84.21 E. read more...

Crazy Horse - Jan 30

We are motoring along trying to catch up with the fleet and make up time that we have lost. Bill also heard that the Super Bowl is next weekend so I think that is motivating him to get a move on to arrive before Sunday. However, in this part of the world they might not think Super Bowl Sunday is as important as North Americans. The challenge might be to find a TV with it on the screen. At any rate we are moving along at about 7 kts.This was going to be another washday but decided to take a break. Seems like a sleepy day and I will be making some Oatmeal cookies for a change. Our tired old store cookies are getting a little sad about now. So as we roll along we keep our eyes out for some wind and hope to see some old friends out here looking for some wind.Now I am off to make those. read more...

Time Bandit - BLOG

34 23N 55 23W 1305 miles to goOver the last few days I've been wondering about whales. On the way out to the Caribbean a pod of may 10 went past us doing 10 - 15 knots. This time, we're going the other way at 8 knots. That makes a closing speed enough to cause some problems which, as you may have read it did last night for the Hanse 370 Outer Limits.For an hour we heard a freighter calling Outer Limits but with no response. Some time later we saw the western horizon lit up like daylight and we assumed it was the freighter, which we could see on AIS trying to tell Outer Limits to get out its path - which I thought was odd as avoidance would have been simple.It transpired Outer Limits had hit a whale and were subsequently taken onboard the freighter and are now safely en route to. read more...

Samsara - On our way to Tonga

June 9We shopped and shopped, the Cost U Less and (again) Ace Hardware (which had much more than just hardware - I bought a few cute sheet sets there...) and then we cleared out of American Samoa yesterday morning and left in the afternoon - of course there was one more shower as we were pulling up the anchor. It was never sunny enough for anything to dry while we were there so a few days ago I took all the laundry to the laundromat - 5 loads with sheets, mattress pad etc. It was well worth it to have everything washed and dried in less than 2 hours. We sailed and motored a bit overnight, have sailed all day today, and are thoroughly enjoying the sunshine!We now have around 220 miles to go to Tonga. We've been diligently working on school work and reading.....The chartplotter has stopped. read more...

Aniara II - Aniara, May 19

19 May We follow our 60 degrees track and we are sailing fast. During the last three days our average speed has been 7,15 knots and the three of us onboard are extremely excited. If we are as lucky with the weather conditions for the days ahead we will reach Horta in 11 days instead of the 15 days we calculated with. We have asked our web-administrator to extend his duty to give us some weather maps, since the rest of the sailing is a matter if we are caught in the middle of a high pressure or if we manage to sneak around it on its north side. Yesterday we noticed we had some water leakage so we spend the day to unpack a lot of our gears hidden deep into Aniara. Hopefully we managed to locate the source of leakage and we sealed it with silicon. The water came in from above since we are. read more...

Quasar V of Lleyn - Quasar Log

Friday 17th October THE LEGEND SAILS ON! Defying all odds, after a lifetime of drunkenness anddebauchery, today, Malcy has reached the grand old age of 65! His avowedintention for many years now has been to 'Grow old disgracefully!' He hascertainly succeeded! After the Government elected to buy him a crate ofchampagne every winter - fuel allowance  (he opens one every time he feels thecold!), the profits of the Railway Hotel are to be boosted even more by theTreasury forking out for another 40 pints worth per week from his old agepension! Ifirst met him in the Powerboat Club in Abersoch in 1972 in the early days of thefirst Quasar. He was sitting there, clutching a tiny Olly on his knee with onehand and with a pint of Mackerson and Cider in his other hand. John spots himand says 'Do you. read more...

Serendipity - Toodloo to Vava'u

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A Lady - Sailing around the World

Saturday, 29th January 2011Another beautiful starry night, but its hot and humid. 00.00hrs Distance traveled...................................1,475 miles              Distance to Destination............................485 miles The wind was very light when we left St. Helena. It increased as we went west, and now it is decreasing (as predicted) again as we approach Brazil.These are the distances in nautical miles, that we traveled in each 24 hour period since leaving St. Helena. They reflect the wind strengths as the days go by.             Day 1.........................................................165. read more...

Voyageur - Log day 231 - Tzigane's trials

26 January 2011We were puzzled as to why John did not come on as radio net controller. It was Tzigane's turn this morning. Turns out that their autopilot failed and they are having to hand steer. With 1400nm still to go this must be a major setback for them. Thank goodness though they have Leila and Chris with them. They take half an hour each on the helm. We understand how hard a thing it is to hand steer for long periods. David and I once hand steered a yacht with two others from the Azores to Portugal, a distance of only 600nm, and the concentration required to steer to the compass is immense. I well remember my limit was a mere 20 minutes. We feel so helpless. The best we can offer is moral support over the SSB radio.We have noticed there is a definite pattern to the wind. By day it. read more...

Anastasia - En route to Fiji

18:33.8S 174:46.7W 44 miles covered, 382 to go.   We have just left Tonga on our way to Savu Savu in Fiji. The trip from Tonga to Fiji is one of the more complicated because we have to cut through a reef that is 60 miles wide and quite poorly charted, so we have to plan to hit it (not literally) in the early morning so we can be through it by nightfall. You would think that in this day and age we could just have a satellite image overlay on our chart plotter so we could see the shallow water approaching without having to peer off the front of the boat.  No such luck, but the World ARC did give us a list of coordinates for 60 uncharted reefs to be avoided. I am not sure whether it is good to know where the 60 uncharted reefs are, or to know that our chart. read more...

Quasar V of Lleyn - Quasar V log

Wednesday 15th October RIPPING TIME! Thecustoms announce that they won't be with us till 13:00 (we have gained 1 ½ hoursso it's a long morning), which is OK as Malcy is engineering and cleaning, Iancleaning and battery checking, Lindsey and myself washing and cleaning. Our newchums set sail about midday and a new yacht 'Intrepid' arrives complete withbroken boom and broken tiller!  Bythe time Dave, the Sergeant and his 'Oppo' had turned up at 13:45 and gonethrough all the paperwork it was too late to go to Home Island and thence toWest Island by ferry. So we went ashore to the beach for a snorkel and a look atthe uninhabited Direction Island. Found the famous 'Yachtsman's Shack' completewith damsel in a hammock, who turned out to be Dave's wife! She had been droppedoff whilst they. read more...

Luna - Log 10 - Another day at sea...

Efter en omgang swellititis, som bl.a. påvirker evnen til at betjene computere, er kommunikationsmedarbejderen på højkant igen.Og der kan berettes om en dag på søen, hvor vinden har været stabil, og vi synes, at vi har skudt en god fart til trods for, at vi igen modarbejdes af vandstrømnningen :-)Det er lidt skyet, og der er nogen sol. Det er egentlig ikke koldt, men når vinden blæser 8-10 m/s og kommer direkte ind i cockpittet, så er man alligevel nødt til at tage lidt ekstra tøj på og ikke mindst noget meget vindtæt. Men vi nyder også, at man ikke hele tiden er nærmest overvarm.Natten bød på fortsat vind (omend lidt mere svingende i styrke) og ikke mindst en helt fantastisk. read more...

Voyageur - Log day 230 - Blog gone - nearly!

25 January 2011Another very slow day today. We are reluctant to use the engine until at least we arrive at the half the sail configuration from poled out genoa to running wing on wing. This allowed us to recover some of the lost ground and get back to our rhumb line. We had drifted over 8nm to the south of it during the night. This morning we saw two World ARC off to starboard, our first sail sighting in four days. It is Ariane and Tzigane.The chart laptop computer screen has given up the ghost. Without it we have no electronic navigation, although we always have the required paper charts, we are unable to receive and send emails but worst of all the blog would not get posted. This is quite unacceptable for me. Consequently David rigged a 'Heath Robinson' affair, using the slave screen. read more...

Ensemble - & June 2012 - still in the water, still raining, still in Pago Pago

Greetings from yacht Ensemble.Well, the rain has eased, we saw a rainbow yesterday - and we are back exactly where we were when we arrived: waiting to be hauled out at the shipyard!The good news is we are promised a lift out at tomorrow morning - so please keep your fingers crossed for us.It has been a harrowing week. We have had more anchor drags (not just us - and the holding has been terrible - with high winds and rain to add to the mood and atmosphere of the place) - bilge pump failures (the bilge pumps are working non-stop to keep us afloat), float switch failures, a dead battery - just to name a few.At least the people here are very friendly - and we have had wonderful support from the remaining World ARC boats (At Last, Zoe, Southern Cross, Eva, Sophie and Samsara).We decided to. read more...

Hanami II - Presque un quart de fait!

Samedi 19 mai 2012 08:08 UTC (05:08 local)   35 41.3 N 57 59.1 W   Le vent reste stabe en direction mais a faibli dans la nuit apres un petite survent qui a amene a prendre un ris. Nous navigons avec 1 ris dans la GV, 17 a 19 N de vent de SSE et de la houle de travers, bon pour la gite! Avec cela la vitesse oscille entre 5 et 7 noeuds. Depuis hier nous avons change de route et pris la route directe, suivant les conseils de Chris et de Pierre. Esperons que nous ne serons pas contraints de traverser un long anticyclone au moteur.   Barry a repris du service et il a ete long et laborieux de trouver les bons reglages au pres et au travers et jouant sur les voikes, la barre et Barry lui meme. Reglages inclus, il est tout de meme difficile a utiliser dans la mer que nous avons. read more...

Kasuje - Quick log from Mauritius

Hi from Skipper Steve Just a quick log to let you know we are safelymoored up in Port Louis, Mauritius. We have a couple of weeks between here andReunion so plenty of time to recharge the batteries (both boat and personal),before the passage across to Durban and south down the Africancoast. We will be in touch soon with news of the delightsof Mauritius. Kindest Regards SkipperSteve. read more...

Sookie - Leg 2 Day 3 200Nm Day from the Smelly Crew

We managed to cover 200 Nautical miles in a 24 Hour session  today and almost made 400 Nm in 48hours (good going). The other lead boats have headed  more northerly than us in search of stronger winds however we opted to carry on in possibly lighter but improving winds directly towards Horta avoiding an incoming low pressure system from the north.  We are now plodding (8Kts)into a steady current but are expecting better winds by the morning.  We think we may lose some ground but we would rather not take the beating of  possible gale force winds and associated seas the other boats may run into.  Hey ho we will know more in the morning (just after I actually send this blog)  At the end of today 18th May we would have covered about 490. read more...

Matilda - Wonderful Vavau - and one of the most surreal nights we have ever had.

Vava'u is truly living up to being part of the Friendly Islands. Everybody always appears to be smiling, and bearing in mind that most people do not have a lot here, it makes you wonder what we are doing wrong in the 'first world'.The rest of the fleet are all here safely and it has been great catching up with some of the guys we haven't seen since Tahiti or even before. This has led to some great evenings, but I think last night had to top the lot. After the skippers briefing we decided to have dinner and then go to a bar that had the Lei Girls performing. How to describe? Basically the Lei Girls are cross-dressing men (which appears to be quite common in Polynesia) who during the day run a local hair salon but at night are transformed into the most seriously glamorous women performing. read more...

Crazy Horse - Jan 29

Wind is SSE to SE at 9kts. We are motoring now and have taken down the jib which we had up throughout the night. It just is flogging around too much wind not so much wind. We are motoring at between 6 and 7 kts. This morning was the first time in a long time Bill was able to report our position to the net controller. He was able to hear some of the positions of the fleet. We are closest to Chessie and then Kalliope, and Brown-eyed Girl. If this no wind continues it will be a long trip to get to Salvador.On the bright side I am able to get some washing done- is that a bright side?- and the cooking is easier without as much heel. Speaking of which we had a wonderful meal of tuna steaks last night compliments of Annie's Place on St. Helena. They tasted terrific with our couscous and green. read more...

Quasar V of Lleyn - Coping with Cocos

Tuesday 14th OctoberCOPING WITH COCOS!Another day much like the last one, but we finally arrive at Direction Island exactly when we expected, around 6.60 pm Bali time, but 5.00 pm local time. Its been a good run 1108nm it just over 6 days an average of 180 nm per day!clip_image002 We are not allowed to go ashore until customs arrive which they announce will not be till Wednesday morning. In the meantime 4 guys from the yacht on our port side "Khulula" stop by on their way back from Home Island. They stop for drinks and as I had a big piece of beef in the oven, they stayed for dinner as well. They are all young and met at engineering college in Canada. 3 of them (the other guy was a visitor) saved for 3 years after graduating and bought their yacht to sail round the world. They sail for a. read more...

A Lady - Sailing around the World

Friday, 28th January 2011 00.00hrs We are presently in the mid south atlantic. and have covered 176 miles in the last 24 hrs on our way to Salvador. The wind is light from behind, the seas are moderate, and the skies are partly cloudy. 09.00hrs Radio Call :- Lady Lisa is net controller for today. We could hardly hear them, even though they are only 249 miles behind us, with many relays by different boats, we eventually got the positions of all boats and it seems we gained on average about 10/15 miles on the fleet since this time yesterday. We even made 6 miles on Wild Tigris who is now 36 miles behind.  The morning gave us perfect sailing conditions, with clear blue skies, deep blue water, a good breeze from behind, actually it really is too far. read more...

Dancing Lizard - The Lizard is finally dancing!

We're happily sailing along at a steady 6.5 kn on a straight course towards Tortola. Major events include a school of dolphins playing around the boat, a flying fish landing by accident on the deck and catching a mahi-mahi that we enjoyed for lunch yesterday - delicious! Ian is enjoying a love-hate relationship with Global star. Trying to catch a signal on his personnal sat phone has now become the joke of the day. Despite the swells and chopy waves, no major mess to report, beside half a cup of coffee spilled on the galley floor.Everyone's doing great and having a good time.Marie-Claude, Andre & Ian. read more...

Matilda - Moving On From Suwarro

Following the bad weather and assisting with Ensemble's repairs (it was amazing what was done, especially those guys who spent the best part of a day and a half in the sea repairing the holes underwater - I don't know how they did it), we at last managed to get underway to Niue. It was tinged with some sadness at leaving those who were going on to American Samoa with Ensemble. We really miss you guys and look forward to when we can all get back together again in Fiji.All went well initially with lovely wind on the beam, but of course that didn't last and it eventually went to nothing, so on went the motor. However we were not too downhearted as wind was forecast, but of course when it came it was the wrong kind, squalls meant that you either had 4 knots or 24 knots from different. read more...

Scolamanzi - Surviving 3 Days across The Atlantic to The Azores

Surviving 3 Days across The Atlantic to The Azores:As we have had great sailing weather from the start on our crossing from Bermuda to The Azores, we had very little to complain about! The winds were great! The seas were at times pretty choppy ... feeling like we are in a washing machine, with swells and breaking waves coming from everywhere! The odd rouge wave breaking across the beam leaving salty spray just about everywhere except on the little patch where I am sitting behind the wheel!The challenge was really - having only the two of us on board - to get enough sleep and get into a rhythm of a month old baby to fall asleep every 4 hours with minimal effort! It did not quite happen for us yet and the struggle continues - I believe it takes about 3-4 days to get into it! We are dooing. read more...

Cleone - CLEONE Leg 17 Day 15 - Arrival in Mauritius

We arrived in Mauritius just before Midnight (GMT) on 13 October or5am local time.   I have not been able to work it out yet, but this may be a record for along leg.  After another epic Alex meal (did you know that in American,pasta is pronounced posster?), the Skipper retired for a kip.  It was aswell (from his point of view) that he did.  He was woken by Alex ratherearlier than he expected, for we had arrived just short of our way-point off thenorthern tip of Mauritius earlier than expected.  The reason was obvious;as soon as he appeared on deck we shortened sail - there was a sharp windacceleration around the point and between the islands.  Then we dodgedbetween the brightly moonlit islands, slid past Mauritius's only powerfullighthouse (which Chris spotted from 20 miles away) and. read more...

Quasar V of Lleyn - Quasar V Log

Monday 13thOctoberShine On!I seeno ships! Only a couple of fishing boats at the beginning from Bali, but sincethen the only ship was seen on the radar a couple of nightsago! Whatwe have seen since Bali is an almost full moon every night over a partiallycloudy sky. It rises behind us in the East moves overhead and sets ahead of us.It's been a touch windy with a 6 to 9 foot swell and Quasar occasionallycatching a wave on the stern to send her involuntarily up to windward, plus theodd green one hitting the cockpit! Imagine crashing through the waves in the middle of thenight into pitch-blackness! It happens frequently of course, but a full moonmakes a massive difference and night sailing becomes more pure rather than achore! You have light, warm winds, the moonlight dances and shimmers on. read more...

Irena - Dan 4

Prehajamo v rutino, se pravi straza, spanje, hrana. Spanja imamo dovolj, hrana je pa tudi dobra. Mladina kar v redu kuha. Meni ni treba. Pac privilegij kapitana ;)). Imeli smo tudi bliznje srecanje z veliko tovorno ladjo. Najblizje smo bili eno miljo. Ni pa bilo nevarno, saj smo jih na radarju opazovali 20 milj. Kasneje smo na radarju opazili se eno, vendar je nismo videli. Jadranje je izjemno, saj pihajo dobri vetrovi. V zadnjih dvanajstih urah imamo povprecje 6,8 vozlov. Do Azorov pa je se 1417 milj. Danes nas verjetno caka nekaj dezja, saj nas bo presla fronta. Upam, da bo za njo se kaj vetra. Se vedno jadramo proti severu in smo prejadrali 36 stopinj severno. Kot sedaj kaze bo potrebno vsaj do 38N. Bo kar hladno in vetrovno.. read more...

Anastasia - The Ene'io botanical gardens and the Transit of Venus

The Ene'io botanical gardens in Tonga were not originally intended as a commercial enterprise.  They are the creation of  Haniteli Faanunu, a man with a passion for gardening.  His family now runs the gardens as a small enterprise, selling products from the plants (Noni juice, Vanilla essence, Kava powder) and running a restaurant for the visitors.   We had lunch at the restaurant, a feast of traditional Tongan dishes.  They were very happy to have just been connected to the electricity grid, so they no longer need to use a generator and paraffin lamps in the restaurant. Haniteli talking about his plants and trees A8 We had demonstrations of various craft skills, including this amazingly dexterous basket weaving.  It took about two minutes for this lady. read more...

Crazy Horse - Jan 28

There is not much wind out here. It is about 3-8kts. For going downwind that is not much to push Crazy Horse along. We are motoring. Matt and Bill are putting the jerry cans of extra fuel in the tank currently. Perhaps now we will have some room on the back to try our hand at fishing once again. Not much to do in the way of sailing so I think we will put the line over. It would be fantastic to catch a tuna for dinner tonight. We do have those tuna steaks in the freezer for an emergency. I heard OJ caught a couple but they managed to get away. We will see how we do on Crazy Horse.I'm doing another load of wash today but there may be rain to give them another good rinse. Kind of cloudy today and not at all like the first few lucky days we have had on the start of this leg. We are still. read more...

Windflower III - Bali-Mauritius -- wahrlich kein Kaffeesegeln

Die ca. 3500 sm lange Strecke haben wir in zwei Abschnitten ueberwunden.Zuerst ca 1100 sm bei passablen Segelbedingungen bis Cocos Keeling.Stoerend auf dieser Strecke war nur die staendig aus dem Suedpolarmeer ueber mehrere tausend Km heranrollende Duenung,die unsere Windflower permanent hin und her rollen liess.Entschaedigt wurden wir dafuer auf Cocos Keeling.Einem Atoll bestehend aus 27 Inselchen.Eine wirkliche Perle im Indischen Ozean.2 der Inseln sind bewohnt.Home Island mit ca.600 malayischen Moslems und West Island mit ca. 120 Australiern.Auf West Island befindt sich auch die Administration von Cocos.Politisch gehoert Cocoszu Australien (obwohl rd.3000 Km entfernt.)Austrlien haelt vermutlich auch deshalb daran fest,weil es deren Marine in der Naehe gelang das erste erfolgreiche. read more...

Kinship - Provehido in Altum--Launch Forward Into The Deep

After arriving in Bermuda, Andy Schell, a capable sailor if there ever was one, joined the merry crew of Kinship & Ben flew back to his day job. The boat was cleaned up & fixed up, loads of salty laundry laundered anew, and fresh provisions were bought in anticipation of sumptuous victuals at sea. Of course, all was not work, as we all took time to enjoy much needed shore leave in which great quantities of Dark & Stormies were consumed during the ARC Europe BBQs, fish fries, and other fun events.The start of the second leg from Bermuda to the Azores, was exciting as a moderate breeze enabled the fleet to jockey back & forth, angling for a good position at the starting line. Then we all filed out the narrow town cut like a flock of white herons, craning our bowsprits. read more...

Anastasia - Swallows Cave

Yesterday morning we visited Swallows Cave, which is a large cave that you can enter in your dinghy.  The entrance to Swallows Cave 3E8The brown spots are all bats hanging on the ceiling 3E9Interesting stalactite formations 3EA 3EB Anastasia drifting by outside, waiting for our return 3EC. read more...

A Lady - Sailing around the World

Thursday, 27th January 2011 00.00hrs Distance traveled since St. Helena.............................1,128 miles (we sailed 380 miles in the last 48 hours). It was a beautiful starry night again, one ship passed heading east away in the distance to the south.and the blue spinnaker was flying.  02.00hrs Sham called Skipper, who was in the bunk at the time. On deck, the spinnaker was blowing in the wind, soon it became apparent that the guy had sheered off (as Terry says, "Just broke"). Chrips, more trouble! We turned on the fwd deck lights, put on the gloves and made our way to the fore deck. At this stage, all the retrieving lines on the Spinnaker sock were twisted around the spinnaker itself, so this made the task of snuffing the sail much more difficult.. read more...

Voyageur - Log day 229 -St Helena to Salvador

24 January 2011Yesterday was grey and overcast with several periods of very light winds, at a guess, under 10 knots. Today however it is a completely different story, the most perfect sailing day one could wish for, beautiful warm weather, lovely steady sailing breeze, half a knot of current pushing us along. Nights are deliciously warm, the sky a dazzling display of stars. The Southern Cross is back with us once more. I assume that it will be with us all the way to Brazil. We are happy. Since heading out of James Bay we have seen nothing, just how we like it, but the thrice daily informal chat sessions on 4 Bravo have resumed once more and keeps us in touch with Tzigane and Tucanon. The SSB net however continues to frustrate us. Why yachts that do not have 6 Bravo and 8 Bravo volunteer. read more...

Samsara - Cost U Less - not Costco but close!

June 5We've been in American Samoa for a few days now. We had to reanchor once, we were a bit close to another boat. Many boats have had to reanchor numerous times, due to anchors dragging. We had some windy squalls and this harbor is notorious for poor holding. There is a lot of debris due to a Tsunami that swept through and it's hard to get a good hold with the anchor. It has been raining almost constantly since we arrived, the cab driver yesterday said it's not the rainy season so this is unusual. Unfortunately that means I've had a hard time getting clothing etc. to dry - everything feels damp now.We (along with the crews of several other boats) took a bus yesterday to the Cost U Less - it's very similar to Sam's Club or Costco but without the high end electronics, cameras....for. read more...

Ninfea - Daily Blog

The Monsters Our third day at sea provided another set of strong emotions The day started in the usual way, breakfast, set the sail for the day, review the forecast and set the course in light of what we think is coming at us. The radio net provided information on where the other boats were and what course they were on. The fleet is divided in three groups. The first and largest is made of boats that are headed north trying to get to 38 N as fast as possible; the second is made of boats that follow the middle route, going north, but not quite as far, perhaps 36 N and buying time to hedge their bets. We are among the very few that have decided to follow the great circle. Only time will tell who made the better choice.For lunch we had one of  Paolo signature dishes,. read more...

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