Daily Logs

Voyageur - Log day 194 - Pit Stop

12 November 2010 Zululand Yacht Club postponed the party held in our honour for a day until all the boats had arrived. It was a wonderful party, with all the members joining in too. The evening began with Zulu dancing. I do not think I have ever seen so much energy in a dance performance. With stamping of feet and high kicks, it was a completely different style from anything we had ever seen before. The prize giving followed with everyone being presented with a WARC certificate for the completion of their trans Indian Ocean crossing. A barbeque followed and we danced the night away to two fantastic local guitarists. Zululand Yacht Club was a pit stop for us and Voyageur, and not a base for touring around. This is all planned for when we get to Cape Town and meet up with Sue, Donald's. read more...

Graptolite - Attack Ships On Fire

17:10.08S 157:59.75E 700 miles east of Cairns, Monday 28th July 02:00There is no wind at all now apart from some tiny flurries that makes the wind direction indicator wander around lazily. The night sky is very clear and we have the unusual effect of stars being reflected on the glassy surface of the sea. I don't expect I will ever get to travel between the stars but this has got to be a similar effect. On the other hand...I've seen things you people wouldn't believe; attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tan Hauser Gate. All those....moments....will be lost....in time....like tears....in the rain....time to die. I'll bet that last paragraph confused you, unless you recognized some lines by Rutger Hauer, from the movie 'Blade. read more...

Anastasia - Slower and slower we go

13:26.3S 145:06.4W   419 miles covered, 83 miles to go   Last night we took down the spinnaker to try and slow down a little, but the wind increased to 18 knots and we ended up going faster still.  So this morning we took down the mainsail, furled the genoa and put up our smallest jib and we are now pottering along at 4.5 knots.  That should put us about 20 miles away from Manihi by dawn tomorrow, at which point we can start sailing again.  The lagoon entrance is on the western side so we need the sun to be quite high to avoid glare off the water when spotting the coral, but the atoll is 15 miles long so it will take us a couple of hours to sail around it to reach the western entrance.   One of the things I had to fix in the Marquesas was a ceiling. read more...

Outer Limits - ARC kantoor open

Gisteren is het ARC kantoor open gegaan en konden we ons inchecken.Wij hadden een dagje weg van de boot en lieten het programma aan de meiden over....Driemaal raden...de bus in en op naar de schoenen en chocola.In Norfolk is een mooi shopping center en daar had ik mn iphone vorig jaar verwisseld.Heel even over een ipad nagedacht want het scheelt toch wel een paar duiten om het hier te kopen maar kon me beheersen. Na een paar uur shoppen hadden we de eerste borrel met muziek. Er zijn hier vier boten dus dat is anders dan de ARC 2008. Wij hadden leuk contact met David & Liza van de Sage, liggen naast ons ,en na de borrel had Diane een verrassing aanboord, truffels en tutti frutti. Maar we moesten wel een rood wijntje erbij drinken. David, Liza en hun crew Jack ook uitgenodigd en. read more...

A Lady - Sailing around the World ( presently in Richards Bay , South Africa )

FRIDAY    12 th   NOVEMBER   2010 06.30hrs, Skipper heard noise in the Saloon, and thought it was Terry having something to eat, well thats what it sounded like,  But, BUT  it was not Terry,  Our neighbours later told us that they saw a Monkey running off the back of the boat with a bananna in one hand and a bag of crisp's in the other,   Well, did you ever !   cheeky little thing. 09.00hrs  Skipper had a visit to the Doctor again, to be told that he has osteoparisis in his right hip / joint. Gawd , what next ! Of course , Skipper has now a heap of tablets he can take to relive the pain,  11.00hrs S,A Terry and Collette piled into the car and took off for the " Hluhluwe " game reserve This. read more...

Endo 2 - Log Day 2 / Nanny Cay

Nun ist bereits Mai und der Starttermin rückt immer näher. Neue Bekanntschaften sind geschlossen, alte wurden aufgefrischt und die Begrüßungsparty wurde gefeiert.Wir haben gestern mit unserem Einkaufsprogramm begonnen, Getränke sind schon einmal an Bord und heute kamen die ersten Lebensmittel an Bord. Freitag wird die frische Ware eingekauft. Jippy sogar unsere 2. Gasflasche ist wieder gefüllt, so dürfte es immer etwas Warmes zu trinken und zu essen geben - bis wir wieder zuhause sind.Heute abend findet bereits das Abschiedsessen statt - nun die Atlantik Cup Segler starten ja bereits morgen ebenfalls Richtung Bermuda und von dort in die USA. Also morgen um 12 Uhr ist großes Winken angesagt.Wie bereits geschrieben, wir haben wieder eine Reparatur. read more...

BRIZO - 13 April 2012

We stayed at Manihi one night longer than planned. This was because after spending all afternoon at the remote Pearl Lodge Resort enjoying a lovely poolside lunch no one felt like leaving! Ordinarily the resort's restaurant does not get many walk-in customers and is not really prepared to accomodate anyone not staying at the resort. We saw their launch come into town and asked if they could take us for lunch or dinner at the Lodge. They cannot operate the launch after dark because of the hazards to night navigation but called the manager by cellphone to see if we could come for lunch. After checking with the chef that they had enough food, the manager found out they did not have enough staff to serve our party of ten (including the SAMSARA crew). At this point a woman sitting nearby who. read more...

Cleone - Leg 12 Day 5 - Nip and Tuck

Sailing is sometimes hard work, even when the sun is shining. We've had very varied winds throughout the night, and it has been hard work making the miles.  The log shows that the Mizzen Staysail has been up, down, up, down and is up again, and at present the spinnaker is also flying.  But it is not always showing much enthusiasm.  The fact is that with the fine weather - as predicted - and the spectacular rise in the barometer, the sun has come out, there are fluffy rather than serious clouds, and the wind is a pleasant breeze rather than anything else, and fickle with it. So Elizabeth is concentrating hard on the helm, trying to keep the spinnaker full, the Skipper is - as usual - chatting to his mates on the radio and looking forward to his lunch-time can of beer, and Will is, as. read more...

Graptolite - Wahoo!

17:15.82S 160:41.78E Saturday 26th July PMThe wind is now coming from the southeast, as it's supposed to, and it's been very pleasant sailing. The prospect of the crew having a 'chunder in the old Pacific sea' is now past.Colin caught a good-sized Wahoo today. The first for Grapto. It was about 16lbs but we didn't weigh it. For all you non-hunter-gatherers, a Wahoo is a long fish with very good white meat which should keep us going for a few days. Now we will have even more supermarket food to dump before Australia! An experiment with this fish was to just cover its eyes to keep it still instead of our usual beating seven bells out of it with clubs. Thanks for that tip, Joanne. It works and saved us a lot of cleaning up.We have about 850 miles to run before Cairns. Arrival could be about. read more...

Crazy Horse - Nov 13

Yesterday we had a visit at the Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park. Jim kindly organized the whole outing quite nicely with Jeannius, Eowyn, Wild Tigris, Ocean Jasper, and Crazy Horse crews in attendance. Our tour guide was Samora who had such knowledge of the area, animals, their habits, and their qualities of making us dinner. Samora made the tour interesting and held our attention until the hunger of food outweighed that of curiosity. We finally did make a stop but you can imagine there are not too many fast foods places in a game reserve in South Africa. We saw a herd of 30 female elephants with 3-5 babies. The two males stayed on the outskirts and didn't join in the departure when the herd left. We stayed a safe distance away in our van.There were too many impalas to count. There were baboons,. read more...

Ensemble - Day 95 (Thursday 12 April 2012): The Pacific Paradise Pizza Tour

Greetings from yacht Ensemble.We've spent a pleasant day at Takaroa with the crew from Seaquest. We'd anchored in the Eastern part of the lagoon, opposite the causeway and about 10m off the coral. A beautiful spot - with a constant 10 knots of wind helping to keep the boat cool. It would have been interesting to explore the rest of the lagoon - 12nm across - but it is riddled with pear farms and fishing nets - and you are supposed to be escorted - so instead we decided to have a leisurely day on board.Seaquest invited us over for coffee - that turned into lunch and beers ( - so the work on the generator will have to wait for another day). After a swim and a nap we planned to go onshore and explore the town. Unfortunately (predictably) - once Magali's head hit the pillow it was lights out. read more...

Hanami II - Derniers details

Nous voici donc a Nanny Cay apres les formalites d'entree faites a Road Harbour au terminal du ferry.Pas de probleme particulier pour cela mais il,faut mouiller, alller en annexe a la petite marina de la pointe sud puis aller a pied au terminal: 10 minutes.Comme partout il,vaut mieux utiliser eSeaClear! Et bien sur je ne l'avais pas fait! Donc retour au papier et au carbone.Ici il faut payer les formalites en dollars US: 21 dollars, heureusement car je n'avais pas plus et le premier distributeur et a 5' a pied.Ensuite direction Nanny Cay, ponton C17, etroit, en debut de ponton, accessible en marche arriere seulement et avec usage immodere du propulseur d'etrave. Bien sur on a fait le gasoil avant.Ensuite le classique, enfin, si l'on peut dire:L'electricite d'abord. phase 1. Ici. read more...

Samsara - snorkelling fun

April 11Today we snorkelled right outside the pass into the lagoon at Manihi. It was fabulous. The coral wasn't very colorful but the variety and density of the coral was impressive. The number and variety of fish was amazing. There were schools of bright purple fish, neon blue trimmed fish, yellow......the variety of fish swimming altogether was wonderful. We were swimming through schools of fish. After that and an exciting run back in the passage in an outgoing tide (not easy!) we swam in the shallow water and saw one reef shark who promptly left when he saw us.For lunch we went to the Manihi Pearl Beach Resort. It has over the water huts, beautiful beach bungalows and lovely restaurant, grounds.....the prices are very high, an over the water bungalow is over $800 for a night for two. read more...

Cleone - Leg 12 Day 4 - Wizard Dismasted

Why are you on a Rally, and not sailing around the World at your own pace?  It's a fair question! It was noon, and the daily radio schedule was in progress.  Gerry from Northern Sky was running the net in three languages with his usual calm professionalism.  Most of the fleet had had a difficult night - there had been some vicious squalls around, with teeming rain.  Propagation was poor, and the continuing bad weather had kicked up some awkward seas.  But the positions were coming in smoothly, though Cleone's operator (unusually, Elizabeth) and the others were bouncing around and finding it a challenge to write down the details.  The postions are given in alphabetical order, so it was not until the end that we learned that Wizard had lost her mast.   Gerrie, Wizard's Skipper, was calm on. read more...

A Lady - Dreaming of sailing around the World (Presently in Richards Bay, South Africa)

Thursday, 11th November 2010    (Paul Hyde's birthday) Another beautiful day, Skipper got up early and did the blog, the emails and a breakfast.The weaver birds provided the early morning music and this relaxed everyone on board.We had a great laugh over the breakfast recalling last night and all the shannigans. It was a great night to remember. We had a lot of trouble with the shore power, so we ran the generator for an hour or so, to charge up the batteries, and do the breakfast... 11.00hrs The mighty 5 piled into the rent a car and headed North to St. Lucia. This is part of their National Park System, and is very close to the coast. The river and lakes all drain into the sea at St.Lucia and is a very upmarket place... St Lucia is 120 km north of. read more...

Voyageur - The story so far....

To summarize this is the beginning of the end. The end of a very long voyage for us aboard our beloved Amel ketch, Voyageur. We launched from Yatlift boatyard in Turkey in May 2009 where we bought her, having previously sailed around the world on Stella, a smaller version of the Amel. Our destination was Gran Canaria, in the Canaries for the start of ARC 2009 which took us across the Atlantic to make landfall in Rodney Bay, St. Lucia where we spent Christmas. From there we struck out in early January 2010 on our second circumnavigation this time with World Arc. Oh what amazing adventures, exhilarating sailing experiences we had over the course of the next fifteen months, covering 25,000nm across three oceans, arriving back once more in Rodney Bay in early April 2011.  Now having. read more...

Voyageur - Log day 193 - Windows of Weather....

9 November 2010We have now formed ourselves into several groups and each day there is a small window of opportunity for each group to scoot across the Agulhas current and down into Richards Bay. One group arrived yesterday morning and Tzigane and Drammer of group two arrive today. Our group is the largest with six boats, Voyageur, Thor VI, Jeannius, Tucanon, Lady Ev VI and Ariane, all due in sometime during the night or early morning of the following day. Just before midnight we reached our waypoint of 28 degrees south and 34 degrees east, the eastern limit of the Agulhas Current. The plan now was to head straight towards the coast as quickly as possible so that when the wind backed and strengthened as it was forecast to do, we would have the waves coming more on the quarter. The. read more...

Jus'Do It 3 - final preparations to leave!

Friday 25th JulyWe’re up early and allocated jobs for our final preparations for leaving: Alex does customs and gets a few final groceries.; Ian and Annie go to the patisserie to stock up on bread and pies, and go to the local market for the fruit and veg; Phil cooks his macaroni cheese for the voyage, Annie makes a pot of soup and Ian fixes the third reefing line. Kevin sets up the man overboard life-tag system and goes to check the fuel berth opening times for the morning. The boat is ship shape and we’ve never been so organised. The warm clothes are also looked out for easy access as we are now, without doubt, heading into the cold! The front passes through during the day and for the first time since we got here, it rains. We discuss weather with Alberto from One Life, and. read more...

Anastasia - Half way to the Tuamotu

11:26.4S 143:03.2W  248 miles covered, 254 miles to go  We have had a fairly consistent 14-16 knots of wind throughout the trip, which means we are several hours ahead of schedule at the moment.  Our plan was to arrive in the early morning, giving us plenty of contingency for arriving a bit later, but the down side is that we have no contingency for arriving early.  If this wind keeps up then we will have about 6 hours to kill before we can try entering the lagoon.   We could start to gradually reduce sail now, but you can bet the wind would die down and we would end up having to motor to get there in good light.  Instead we will get to within 40 miles and then switch to our small jib, which should take us in at about 4 knots. . read more...

Asteroid - Log #1 -T minus 8 Days

Hi there all.Well this is the first of many blogs from the crew of Asteroid.Just to introduce ourselves.We are a family of five - Mum, Loretto, Dad, Brian, with three children, Cliona (age 14yrs), Ciara (12yrs) & Jack (7yrs). We will be joined on our big adventure by Tracey, (Irish), Billy (English), Manfred (American) and Roger (Welsh/Canadian).So a good mix of crew and it also means we will hopefully get some decent sleep on the journey!We are now in the US Virgn Islands availing of the wonders of Cost U Less and have just completed a MASSIVE shop.Doing a "dry goods" shop for nine people to last approx six weeks is a huge undertaking but I think (hope!) we have achieved this.The dingy was weighed down and did several trips groaning under the weight of tins of tomatoes, corn, pasta,. read more...

A Lady - Sailing around the World with the World ARC ( presently in Richards Bay, South Africa )

WEDNESDAY   10th   NOVEMBER   2010 We all were very slow in getting up today, It was a wet and windy morning. Skipper got into the blogs, and emails, in fact the emails all came in twice and Skip is still suffering from the hip trouble. He is taking lots of pain killers, Doc advised against taking too many anti inflamitories, as they thin the blood too much. 11.00hrs   Skipper and Aileen went to the Hospital, Charles ( the YC manager ) had made an appointment with the doctor and his wife " Pat " drove us there and collected us again later,  Neil, Terry and Collette had a relaxing day around the boat. Meanwhile, skipper had lots of tests done and paid the bills. All very good and economical, compaired with home. 17.00hrs" Pat ". read more...

Graptolite - Mal de Mer

17:22.39S 162:42.76E Saturday 26th July north of New CaledoniaIt's a bit rough here. The crew have been looking greener than they have since starting out across the Pacific and Heiki has had to be drugged up with scopolamine patches which is my most serious pharmaceutical in the medicine chest for the 'Seekrankheit'. It seems to work very well.We hear Gerrie on 'Wizard' to our north has lost his mast and sails over the side yesterday which makes me even more pleased to have waited for my rigging spares to arrive before setting off. Our rigging is getting a good rattling even though we are mostly just motoring into wind.As nobody is eating much, the annoying thing is that it looks like we are going to have to dump a lot of food before we get to Australian waters. The weevils in the ship's. read more...

Irena - Dan - 7 do starta ARC Europa 2012

Spremljanje ARC Europa 2012 bo letos potekalo preko naslova, ki sem vam ga poslal na Facebook. Tu lahko spremljate kako bomo napredovali in tudi kaj doživljamo. Teden dni pred odhodom sem privezan na boji pred otokom Marina Cay. Jutri bom odjadral do Nanny Marine na otoku Tortola, kjer se pocasi zbirajo jadrnice s katerimi bomo skupaj prejadrali atantski ocean, tokrat od zahoda proti vzhodu. V dveh letih bom tako naredil krog na Atlantskem oceanu.. read more...

Sialia

Last night was a total bummer.We had to motor…. Or sit and float around.And as much fun as that would be, we know we have to get back to work and school and the real world. It was nonetheless a spectacular night… the sunset was a watercolour of blues and purples and pinks tinged with yellows and greens, the line between water and sky indiscernible.We are no longer bundling up at night against the cold. The attire has gradually changed from foulies, boots and fleece to shorts, t-shirts, bathing suits and our very cool new Sialiacaps.The afternoons are now very warm and we’re glad of the bimini.  Amy and I were on watch together for the sunrise this morning.We were treated to an entire rainbow – from one horizon to the other.We can see 360 degrees of. read more...

Samsara - pearls!

April 11We spent several hours yesterday afternoon on a pearl farm tour. The owner took us into the lagoon where his oysters were on lines strung along between buoys. We pulled a number of lines with 10 or so oysters each and took them to the hut on the beach where we proceeded to open the oysters looking for pearls. Someone commented that it was a lot like a casino - the "will we" or "won't we" be winners and find a pearl? We all came away with several pearls. Then the owner gave us a demonstration of how the grafting takes place. It's really interesting. I didn't know that they could implant the same oyster several times, going bigger until the 4th time then the oyster was finished. The oysters are quite different from the ones in the Chesapeake Bay - they look more like scallops to. read more...

Ensemble - Day 94 (Wednesday 11 April 2012): Takaroa - Landfall in a Pacific Paradise

Greetings from yacht Ensemble.This morning we arrived in Takaroa, the Northernmost atoll in the Tuamotu Archipelago. The atoll is about 15nm long - and has a bit of a tricky entrance with only a 3m draft and a current of up to 9 knots - but we managed this without incident.We'd spent most of the night sailing - and making a fairly leisurely 5-7 knots in 10 to 15 knots of wind. The day's sailing had been mixed - with winds from 5 - 18 knots - swinging from NE to SE - so plenty of sail changes.Yesterday afternoon's sunset rendevous of tuna ceviche and champagne was rudely interrupted when both rods went off in seconds of each other. Unfortunately both managed to escape - one breaking the hook and the other 'bouncing off' when we had him above the water.Today we look forward to a nice swim. read more...

Endo 2 - in Nanny Cay

Hallo an alle Interessierten,  die Endo 2  liegt nun in Nanny Cay und wartet auf den Start Richtung Heimat. Wie immer sind noch einige Reparaturen durchzuführen und wir hoffen das Ersatzteil hier zu bekommen.Bei 30 Grad und Sonne fällt der Gedanke an die Abfahrt jedoch etwas schwer, vor allem da das Wetter in Norddeutschland noch aprilmäßig kühl sein soll. Es trennen uns ja allerdings noch ein "paar" Meilen - und mal sehen.....Bis zum Start werden wir noch einiges zu tun haben und die Zeit wird wie im Fluge vergehen.Bis zum nächsten Maldie Crew der Endo 2. read more...

Jus'Do It 3 - still weather watching...

st1\:*{behavior:url(#default#ieooui) }  Thursday 24th JulyStill waiting for a proper forecast – it seems there may be a window of opportunity for us to leave on Saturday and get across before another front comes through next week. Alex looks up Oz websites – it’s still looking ominous. As we’ve got the car another day we decide to head out of town to visit Tjabaou Cultural Centre, named after the pro-independence Kanak leader who was assassinated here in 1989. The building is a series of tall wooden structures designed by Renzo Piano,who also helped design the Pompidou centre, and is a striking contemporary design very much in harmony with the surrounding landscape. There are 3 grandes cases on site and several exhibitions inside. There’s art and photography from most. read more...

Crazy Horse - Nov. 11

We had a wonderful time at the party at the Zululand Yacht Club for the ARC people and the members of the Yacht Club. There were lots of prizes for all the classes of boats and guessing the correct time of arrival of the boats. They had a dung spitting competition, Zulu dancers who were fantastic and live music and dancing. The food was in great supply too. A real South Africa barbecue with steaks, sausages, chicken, carrot and pineapple salad and lots more. We all had a wonderful time and felt very welcomed and honored. Almost all the ARC folks spent some time on the dance floor. WE all got awards for crossing the Indian Ocean. All in all a good time was had by all!Thanks to everyone who made it possible.Today we had a taxi ride to downtown Richard's Bay and around the waterfront. We. read more...

Cleone - Leg 12 Day 3 - Weather, again!

I'm sorry to harp on this subject, but the weather is pretty important when you're sailing. Part of the World ARC 'Package' provided by World Cruising is weather forecasting.  For the ARC and ARC Europe, this is provided by E-mail every day, and is repeated by the Duty Operator during the Noon radio schedule.  This works well, and a forecaster based in the Isle of Wight, convenient for World Cruising's Headquarters, does the necessary, giving written area forecasts in a format we are all familiar with and could understand.  But World-wide forecasting is more difficult to provide, particularly on a long-term basis.  Initially we were given free access to Moving Weather, a service provided by an organisation in Horsham (would you believe).  Well, there is no reason why an organisation. read more...

BRIZO - 11 April 2012

We had a very full day today! We went ashore at 07:30 to make it to the bakery before they ran out of baguettes, had a nice breakfast on board, and then started work. Corinne and the Girls worked on school work for three hours, they seem to have had a good session. Hubs and Diana went to scout-out good locations for snorkeling and got recommendations from the manager at the small resort nearby. They took a quick dive on the best recommendation and we plan to all go diving Wednesday morning. By noon our tour guide for the black pearl farm, Fernan(do), came to pick us up in his boat. He is the owner of the farm, we were introduced to him by the young fellow who helped as our pilot yesterday morning, Fernan is his uncle! He spent the entire afternoon with us, showing and explaining the life. read more...

Outer Limits - in Hampton VA

Outer limits is at the dock of Hampton public piers. It is a nice Harbour and the harbourmaster Kate is great.From here you can walk easy to the town and they nice restaurants.Well it is time to work .....still jobs to do :)   Joost  . read more...

A Lady - Sailing around the World ( presently in South Africa, )

Tuesday 9th  November   2010 S & A had a relaxing morning in Durban, but again, we were advised " not to walk anywhere on our own " We left the Hotel around midday and drove to the " Gate Way " shopping mall, This place was huge, It seemed as if it was the size of a city, and again the selection of goods available and the prices were excellent. Meanwhile, back on board, Terry and Collette got a lift over to the Waterfront and had a long relaxing lunch there, It was great to be here, even if the place is not safe to walk around on your own. Neil did his own thing with the young crowd ....  17.00hrs S & A left the " Gate Way "  Aileen having had the hair done , and set off on our journey back to Richards Bay up the " A 2 " motorway, this was. read more...

A Lady - Sailing around the World ( presently in Richards Bay , South Africa )

MONDAY   8th  NOVEMBER     2010 We woke up to the lovely sound of birds chirping in the trees around us,  These birds turned out to be " Weaver birds " and their nests were so unusual, like a round ball of weaved grasses about 6" in diamater with an entrance hole from underneath and hanging from the branches by a long weaved thread,  there must have been about a hundred birds in the nearest tree to us alone.  It was all wonderfull . We went ashore to the yacht club for a big fry up, including red beans,, yum, yum. Of course the crews from the other boats were all there as well. 12,00hrs Ben ( from the Y.C. ) drove Skipper and Aileen to the airport to collect a rent a car, all this took about an hour and then we returned to. read more...

Kasuje - log Friday 25th July

Hi from Skipper Steve,We have now been stormed out for a couple of days in Mackay Harbour, with winds of up to 50knts ,horizontal rain and temperatures down to single figures! All this and we are still in the tropics. It has given us time though, to catch up on our maintenance duties and Kasuje has never looked so good. Dawn, now fully immersed in boat life, has completely stripped cleaned and repackaged the whole of the galley area, Northy has sorted and re-cataloged our manuals. Robert has rubbed down and varnished any slightly defective woodwork and I've kept myself busy renewing faulty electronics ,engine pipes and the other 100's of small defects which inevitably occur whilst live aboard cruising. However the result is we now have a fully functioning yacht with copious amounts of. read more...

Anastasia - En route to the Tuamotu

9:31.5S 141:06.5W  440 miles to go   This morning at 07:00 we left Nuku Hiva, bound for the Tuamotu, in the company of Serendipity.  We were some of the last boats to leave, but the earlier yachts have had to motor for much of the 500 miles and we decided to wait for better wind.  The grib files suggest that we should now be able to sail the whole distance, and so far the wind has been exactly as predicted.   In the days before GPS entering the Tuamotu was a perilous thing to do.  They are basically 1000 miles of coral reefs that are extremely hard to spot until you are right on top of them.  Nowadays our chart plotter will lead us into a safe area without worrying too much about that first landfall.   The most important thing for us. read more...

Sapphire II - 10 April, End of Rain

Takaroa, The Tuamotus.According to a local fisherman here, the 5 days in a row of torrential rains that we have suffered through is without precedent in his lifetime. Fortunately it now seems to be at an end. Blue skies and warm breezes do change ones outlook.The local fisherman, Fredo, took us in his dory to the interior reef to show us a construction, left by the "ancestors", which traps fish on the reef on the falling tide. The fish swarm, and the water, about 9 inches deep, boils with their attempts to escape. Fredo had a wire net basket which fitted the small opening in the reef structure. I walked in the pool and herded the fish towards his basket. He took about 15 and then, still on the reef, showed us how to clean and prep the fish. As he tossed the fish heads into the water a. read more...

A Lady - LOG DAY 4 : Mixed Bag

WEDNESDAY  9th  MAY  2012   00.00hrs  Wind ESE  22 knots, so a close beat with a full genny and 3 reefs in the Mainsail and wewere flaking along at 7 .5 knots,  Trip so far,................................ 619 miles, Dist, to Destination................... 260 miles, The seas were lumpy,  the sky overcast and it was blooming cool.   03.00hrs the wind just died , so we motored again untill 06.00hrs and off again with the sailing,  By morning, we were all wrecked from a bumpy night and stop, start stop, start , with the engine and sails.09.00hrs  The roll call, weather forecast, etc,The ARC weather guys are never accurate, but today they have it right, ( hindsight being an exact science )they gave us what we were already in. read more...

Jus'Do It 3 - watching the weather....

Wednesday 23rd JulyEveryone’s getting the same weather warnings now so there’s an even greater demand on these berths. We hear numerous requests on the radio and there’s a waiting list – we’re definitely staying put! We can see from the cloud patterns that there’s a change afoot and a more wind in the air. Annie and Alex go off in the hire car to get the major shopping done, buy Ian a cheap watch and collect the laundry. Annie gives Alex a tense moment when she turns on to a road and drives on the wrong side headlong towards a lorry – luckily the lorry notices in time and Annie manages to pull up on the side – Alex generously blames the French for driving on the wrong side anyway…. Meanwhile Ian and Stewy are busy repairing a leak at the mast. Kevin’s. read more...

A Lady - Sailing in tough conditions as we make our way around the World ... ( presently at Sea )

SUNDAY 7th NOVEMBER   2010  ( Day 9 at Sea ) 00.30hrs  The weather has now become wild, with 35  /  40 knots 60 degrees on our port side, It was effectivly blowing fron the SSW ..... and we had a 1.5 knot current across us from NE  to SW, which helped us along , but also helped pile up the sea's....Terry and Skipper decided that we would stay on deck all night, as the conditions kept deteriorating and leave the girls in their bunks,  Ohhhhh, this is terrible, Its not often we hear the wind screaming through the rigging , but thats just what its doing right now, along with the seas breaking completly over the boat.  At times , we could see very little of the boat as she was swallowed into the surf. But , but, we have a. read more...

Ariane - Indik und Richards Bay

Indik und Richards Bay Liebe Segelfreunde Die navigatorischen und taktischen Fähigkeiten der Skipper waren auf der ganzen bisherigen Reise nicht annähernd so gefordert wie auf dieser letzten Überquerungsetappe. Nordöstliche Winde und der gleichzeitig wirkende SW-Strom ergeben eine wirklich schnelle Fahrt. Wenn aber der Wind dreht, entsteht ein sehr gefährlicher Schwell mit steilen Wellen, der im Extremfall sogar grössere Schiffe in Schwierigkeiten bringen kann. Die Wetterlaunen und damit Winddrehungen in diesem Gebiet sind bekannt und ziemlich ungemütlich. Zum Glück sind alle Schiffe unserer Flotte in Richards Bay eingetroffen. Ein Boot erlitt einen Knockdown, jedoch keinen grösseren Schaden. Die schlechte Stabilität der HRs zeigte hier ihre Gefährlichkeit! Der. read more...

Ensemble - Day 93 (Tuesday 10 April 2012): ... Somewhere in the Pacific

Greetings from Yacht Ensemble.We are currently sailing just south of the rhum line to Manihi, with about 200nm to go. We've been sailing since around 6pm yesterday - and it's good to have some reasonable winds - about 10-15 knots from the E - NE. (...Nothing like the forecast!)It is still very hot (31C at 7am - with humidity of 70 percent - so we are missing not having the air conditioning - but the breeze on deck is fine.I hope to replace the impeller on the generator this morning. The seas are a bit rougher - and the engine room is a bit of a squeeze - but at least the motor will have cooled down now.Magali and I have got into the routine of trying to do 30 minutes of 'boat jobs' each day. The idea is a 'stick in time saves nine' - and it means that there is less work to do when we. read more...

Luna - Business as usual

Dagene begynder nu i ekstra høj grad at flyde sammen. Der sker ikke så meget nyt, men det er vel også fint, så længe vi nyder tilværelsen og i øvrigt kommer tættere og tættere på mållinjen :-)Her følger en liste med gårsdagens hændelser og observationer: afslapninglæsningmiddagslurebesøgende delfineren skildpadde på besøg NY!bølger, der ruller os megetinstrument, der skulle nulstilles (plotteren så enorm sjov og spøjs ud, da den viste en medstrøm på 26 knob...)latter og god stemningvin chaud NY!lidt regnlidt solischkold, blæsende vindpassering af mærkepunkt; der er nu mindre end 25% af distancen tilbageDet var vist en kort. read more...

Graptolite - Limping Towards Australia

17:43.55S 167:07.48E west of Vanuatu Thursday 24 July AMColin had a trip up to Santo to dive on the famous 1942 USS 'President Coolidge' wreck. He said it was good. Heike and I had a bumpy drive around Efate island. We found a nice beach covered in sand-washed bits of Coca-Cola bottles chucked over the side when the fleet was anchored there during WWII. I'm now the proud owner of a Coke bottle made in San Francisco in 1942. I'll hang on to it in case I can get the deposit back.The replacement rigging wire turned up yesterday and the mast is now less likely to fall off. Some final provisioning and paperwork and we were ready to leave Port Vila for Cairns by the evening.Victor from South Africa briefly joined the crew but Australian visa delays meant he had to be left behind on the dock.. read more...

Cleone - Leg 12 Day 1 - Musing on the Future

There are big changes ahead for Cleone. It was good to get away from Luganville.  It was not an ideal place to start a long leg.  The anchorage was on a lee shore, though the holding was good, and the first day and a half were windy.  The water was dirty, and the lack of a dinghy dock on the sandy beach made landing hazardous, and it was difficult getting shopping, fuel and water back to the yachts.  At least three World ARCers went head-over-heels into the sea trying to land, and all of us got wet every time we went ashore.  The slightly decaying but pretty resort looked after us well, though, the food was good and the bar well-stocked and we had a merry farewell party. The reception arrangements at Cairns have had to change, and we can no longer go direct to Yorkie's Knob (no, he did. read more...

Crazy Horse - Nov.10-Richard's Bay

The whole fleet has made it here to Richard's Bay safely. There were many people praying for us all to have a safe trip here and I appreciate that it came to pass. We all have our tales of near knockdowns, knockdowns, torn sails, adverse currents, and wild waves. It has been a challenge and we have now according to Maggie and several others, "made it across the Indian Ocean!" What a bear of an ocean to cross and I don't want to do that again in my lifetime! Let's just say it is not on my bucket list now! As we all gathered on various boats last night to congratulate ourselves for a thrilling arrival the spirit of excitement was unbelievable. Just don't believe any of the pictures they took of me last night. We are in Africa! It is just so hard to believe we have come so far.I think we. read more...

Anastasia - The bay at Anaho, Nuku Hiva

Although on the north side of Nuku Hiva, and more exposed to the prevailing north-easterly winds, Anaho Bay is bottle-shaped and very little swell reaches as far as the yachts at anchor.  You can walk over a ridge into Hatiheu bay, one of Robert Luis Stevenson's favorite haunts.  This photo is taken from the ridge, looking down on Anastasia and Serendipity anchored in Anaho bay.  The tide is out and you can see the coral shoals that ring the bay.  Arriving at high tide, the water covers the reef and extends to the white sand beach, so you have to keep a close eye on the depth gauge when anchoring.  The bay is home to several huge manta rays that circle round the boats, sieving the water for juicy plankton ( BFF ).. read more...

Serendipity - Head Office's Relocation Complete

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Tucanon - Fast track out of the Indian Ocean

The night before we left Reunion, the rally presentation and party took place in the Dodo bar. It was great fun, with plenty of Creole style food, alcohol and entertainment, by way of music with girls singing and dancing.Prior to the party, late afternoon, we attended the skippers meeting for the leg to Richards Bay, South Africa and then handed our passports to Immigration for checking. Rally control dealt with all of the other paperwork.The leg started at 11am but no sooner had we unfurled our genoa, it became clear that something was very wrong. We turned the boat into the wind and as the rest of the fleet sailed off into the distance, had to rethread the lines to the boom. They had been put back incorrectly after being washed in Mauritius and as we hadn’t sailed on a starboard. read more...

Jus'Do It 3 - sitting in Noumea

st1\:*{behavior:url(#default#ieooui) }Tuesday 22nd JulyIan and Stewy continue with repair jobs assisted by Kevin. Phil and Annie spend the morning chilling out at their hotel. Alex goes out exploring for the day. There’s more information coming in regarding the weather and it seems we may get 40 knots in here by the end of the week. This is frustrating as it looks like we may have to sit it out here rather than go cruising– there’s a big demand for berths and if we leave this one to go cruising we may not find a good enough anchorage for strong winds. Two other Arc boats have arrived in – One Life and Quasar of LLewyn – they’re also looking for somewhere to park up until the weather is right.  Stewy’s decided there isn’t time for him to do the crossing now. read more...

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