Daily Logs

A Lady - Sailing around the World ( presently at sea between Bali and Coco's Keeling Islands)

TUESDAY  14th  SEPTEMBER  2010    ( Aileens Birthday ) The night was a clear starrey night, with lots of fishing boats around and plenty of lightning in the distance,  ( so long as it stays in the distance). During the night, Kallopie had a boat follow them, so the rest of the fleet closed ranks with Kallopie and the uninvited guests took off. There was a lot of lightning during the night, all well away to the north over Java. It is lovely to look at the shimmering lightning at a long distance, and long may it stay at that distance. ( although , we were told to expect some thunderstorms during the trip........  09.00hrs  RADIO NET,  For the first time on the trip, we were Duty Net Controller for the fleet on the SSB radio., and. read more...

Lady Ev.VI - Daily Log,15. Sept. 2010

Unser heutiger Rundspruch per Kurzwelle um 0900 h hat uns auf 09Grad 59Minuten Sued und 110 Grad 59Minuten East gesehen...damit liegen wir an dritter oder vierter Stelle auf unserer kleinen "Regatta" von Bali nach Cocos Keeling. Als psychologischen Effekt haben wir als Zwischen-Punkt die Christmas-Islands ausgesucht, die die Strecke nahezu halbieren und so die lange Tour nach Cocos nicht so lang erscheinen lassen.Die beiden Skipper, Frank und Axel, holen alle Segel raus, die wir haben: Spinnacker folgt auf Genua, Gennacker wird eingeholt zu Gunsten der Genua, Genua ohne Baum und dann Genua mit Baum und so fort. Letze Nacht gab es in meiner Wache einen Ruck...irgendwas hatte dem Druck des Windes nachgegeben...Gott sei Dank waren nur die Knoten im Top des Gennackers aufgegangen und jetzt. read more...

Ensemble - Day 58 (March 6): Flying squid, missing fish, and quiche for real men

Greetings from yacht Ensemble!A good night's sailling - with consistent winds of 10-15knots from the SE and waves of 1m.Magali's cooking lessons for Joel continue - and today Joel cooked up a 'Real Man's Quiche' for lunch. Magali also made Banana bread - and because of dire situation with fishing - we had chicken BBQ for dinner.Fishing wise it was just one of those days. We had 5 strikes - and one line snapped - but didn't manage to land anything. Fortunately, there were flying squid - and some of these rained on deck - and the usual flying fish. There is now some debate amongst the fleet as to whether we should count the flying fish as part of the fleet fishing total. Consensus is 'yes' - provided they are eaten or caught with your teeth... Joel will have a new task today!CheersDave. read more...

Wizard - Victor on board Wizard

Well, it's finally here! The update to Wizards whereabouts over the last few months. And what an eventful few months they have been with ups and downs, good times and not so good times.PANAMA:So the last update on this site was when we had just arrived at Panama City having transited the canal. We were supposed to leave with the rest of the fleet to Ecuador, but our plans were shattered when we heard that it would take us three weeks to get our visas for French Polynesia! We thought it would take a day at the most! But every cloud having a silver lining and all that, we decided to spend the 3 weeks chilling out in the Las Perlas Islands just south of Panama City. They were the same set of islands on which they filmed a series of Survivor a few years ago, and they are just as beautiful in. read more...

Jus'Do It 3 - lost in time!

Sunday 8th JuneWe continue motor-sailing through the night. The wind has now swung round to the SW – we could be just sailing now but decide to keep our speed up with a few engine revs as we want to be sure of reaching Va’vau before dark. It’s a beautifully clear night, the sky a canopy of stars.At 0438 hrs local time we cross the International Date-line ……Annie celebrates on her own with a cup-a-soup! Sunday has now disappeared ,into the ether, gone, cancelled !. read more...

Anastasia - Sushi for lunch

05:02.6S 94:53.6W 389 miles covered  Yesterday was tuna day.  Bertie and Estella made some excellent sushi for lunch (127).  For dinner Bertie cooked tuna steaks with chips, beer-battered onion rings, fried bananas and a honey/balsamic coulis.  The downside of being given two full hands of bananas is that whatever we did with them they were bound to all ripen at about the same time.  In this 33 degree heat, one hand is already ripe and the other will be ripe tomorrow.  So we have about 150 bananas which need eating in the next couple of days.  You can freeze bananas, but not if you have already stuffed your freezer full of tuna.  Today Andrea made banana bread, so that used up five bananas.  She has put a couple of big. read more...

Crazy Horse - Sept 15

Due to the direction of the wind we have been zigging and zagging our way to Cocos. Yesterday was a cloudy day topped off with storms all night. We do have wind now. Yesterday the wind shifted from the E to ESE to ENE to E. It looks like it is ENE now but changing to ESE. The Buckley weatherman was right on about the storms of yesterday and last night. It rained buckets, the wind was fluky, and the seas were a little wild.We hoisted the Code 0 that I was talking about yesterday. We were admiring ourselves for doing such a wonderful job and going along so well. We changed the lines a little using our handy dandy snap blocks. Well, right after that the halyard broke and the whole sail fell into the sea only attached by the tack which is the bottom of the sail. So we gathered in the sail. read more...

Jus'Do It 3 - off to Tonga

st1\:*{behavior:url(#default#ieooui) } Saturday 7th JuneWe rise early, well rested. It’s still overcast but looks to be clearing to the West. Stewy motors over to Tallulah Ruby to collect cargo Brian’s taking home for Paul. Paul and Andy come over to say their farewells to Brian – they’re also leaving for Tonga this afternoon. By 7.30am, we’re off our mooring and by 7.45am our sails are set, heading straight for Va’Vau, Tonga , on a course of 260’. We’re close hauled, 7-7.5 knots, wind direction N/NW, windspeed13-14 knots. Somewhere between here and Tonga lies the International Date-line – so we will be arriving on Monday! A few hours out, we speak to Lady Kay who are to port – they give us the co-ordinates for the date-line. read more...

Voyageur - Log day 158 - Pastures new - Out into the Indian Ocean

14 September 2010I was up until 1.30am on Monday morning writing up the blog. Now as I check it there are oodles of mistakes. But worse, I set out on this latest leg tired. Not a good idea. We just made it to the start line in time having taken on fuel but John and Jenny alongside us at the fuel dock were one hour later. The pilotage from the island out into the Indian Ocean for the start of Leg 15 could not have been more straightforward. Once we had negotiated the mayhem of boat traffic in the Benoa Channel and cleared the southern tip of the island, it was just a case of hang a right and sail a straight course direct for Cocos Keeling. We have 4960 nm of ocean to cross with three stops, Cocos Keeling, 1110nm, Mauritius, 2350nm, Reunion, 130nm, with land fall at Richards Bay, South. read more...

Samsara - Good wind so far

March 6We had to motor a few hours the first night but since then the wind has been really good - we weren't expecting that so it's a welcome surprise. We also figured out the propane issue (we were told just hand tighten the connection but it had to be tighter to release the propane) so I'm able to cook (which Lee and the girls are very happy about!). We also finally got the hydrovane working, we hadn't really had the time before to get the last few parts in place and play with it - we haven't used a wind steering system before. We're figuring it out and it seems to work pretty well although we are still using the autopilot more. The autopilot is nicknamed Otto and the hydrovane is Heidi.We flew the spinnaker yesterday but today we're under main and genoa. Had one squall during the. read more...

Serendipity - Reflections on Galapagos

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A Lady - Sailing around the World (Presently leaving Bali, bound for the Cocos K Islands)

Monday, 13th September 2010 All on board got going early, as we are leaving Bali today. A light breakfast followed by a Hindu blessing of the boats before the trip west to the Cocos Keeling Islands. Neil had to visit the Yacht Club and have his passport stamped by Customs. We also had to get rid of the Bali currency, as this will not work anywhere else, so Australian or U.S $ will both work in the Cocos. 09.30hrs Thomas Wibberenz called to look over our Parasailor, KITE. Thomas was the person who sold us that wonderful sail in Las Palmas back last November 2009. A little sewing, and repair work and all is well with the sail again. As we said before, as soon as we repair or renew something, something else goes wrong, now we have a little leak in our Aqua fresh. read more...

Jus'Do It 3 - Niue - snorkelling & snakes!

st1\:*{behavior:url(#default#ieooui) } Friday 6th JuneJust before dawn a horrendous squall passes over us. Remarkably, some of the crew sleep through it! Once the gusts have eased it’s still torrential rain. Jens calls over for the diving gear – Annie says there’s no way she’s going when it’s like this. Breakfast aboard then we pack up for our day out, hoping for the best. We start off getting our business done; customs, immigration, online banking, paying for car-hire, groceries etc. Once all that’s out the way we meet with Cleone (James, Norfy, Elizabeth & Will) for coffee and plan a route round the island to make the most of our hire cars. Brian heads off on his bike and we arrange to meet him later. First stop is a walk through jungle to Avaiki. read more...

Lady Kay - rock pools

HiPicture of me and Ann examining rock pools on the fringing reef below the caves on our day trip round Niue.We are hoping to get to Tonga before we are hit by thunderstorms - no sign yet, but due to be forming from now on.It is 2pm here and we hope to get to Tonga, the Vavau group of islands, in about 8 hours time.Unfortunately it will be dark, but hopefully we can find an anchorage in the lee of the island.We are due some proper storms later in a couple of days time, so plan to be securely moored in a sheltered spot by then.We cross the date line any time now, which means it will be Monday rather than Sunday.Quite confusing, especially with hour changes etc.All the best from all on Lady Kayjackie at nuie. read more...

12Moons - prizegiving dinner

We came in second!Last night it finally became official ? we made it to second place. But we have to admit, we did have a strong suspicion that there just might be a spot for us on the winners’ podium again!  Thanks to Stefan’s exceptional racing tactics as well as to our new gennaker and the crew’s great teamwork, we were able to minimize our motoring time. We were able to sail a lot and fast at that. If not just the motor hours had been considered but also the distance traveled, we could have probably been a little more ahead, as we decided to save diesel fuel at 1/3 throttle and about 1,600 rpm rather than “play motorboat.” Nevertheless, we’re all very proud of having won second place. Our success was in no little part also due to the. read more...

Crazy Horse - Sept 14

We are sailing along at between 6 and 8 kts SOG. The wind angle is from 60-90d. It is a lovely sail but there is some kind of current going on. It has been so long since we have seen another boat but last night 4 tankers crossed right in front of us. It must be a shipping channel where ships go from Indonesia to Australia. Anyway when I first saw them converging in front of us I was kind of shocked. Of course it was on my watch! Thank goodness we have AIS. That as least tells us how fast the ship is coming, what direction it is going, and what is the closest point of approach. Of course I still freak out and second guess myself about where it really is coming.We only have 1079 miles to go.Remember how I said our biggest question each day is what should we have for dinner, today? Well,. read more...

A Lady - Sailing around the World (Presently in Bali)

Sunday, 12th September 2010 We had rain all night, around here they think the monsoons are coming early, ohhhhh, bleedin lovely. That's all we need, a continuous warm shower all the way to Cocos Islands. We had a slow relaxing morning, and the first thing on the agenda for today is the check out procedure at 09.30......... This took just about half an hour. We got our ships clearances, but as Neill was on another Island overnight, he will have to do a special sitting tomorrow morning before we leave. An hour later we were off again in the taxi to Carrefour supermarket to do a major shop, as we basically have to have enough food to take us as far as Mauritius, a total distance of 2,500 miles with a stop at the Cocos Keeling Islands for a few days on the. read more...

Cleone - CLEONE Leg 8 Day 5 - A Lee Shore

 Despite the break in Niue, we are still onLeg 8! Our stop-over in Niue was limited to 72 hours, andwas a timed break in Leg 8, which runs from Suworrow to finish in Vauva'u,Tonga.  Yesterday dawned again cloudy with a difference.  Overnight,the wind had backed around to the North West, and a short, choppy swell wasentering the open bay.  We were on a solid mooring, reportedly a 2-tonblock of concrete, which was just as well as the echo sounder was showing ninemetres, instead of over thirty as it had the day before.  Clearly themoorings were set on the edge of a shelf.  We were safe enough, but Cleonewas pitching up and down, and the two mooring ropes to the anchor buoy werestraining and starting to chafe.  Our time in Niue may have been up, butanyway. read more...

Ensemble - Day 57 (March 5 2012) - Fish and Wind!

Greetings from yacht Ensemble!The first day's sailing has been surprisingly good - with enough wind to let us switch off the engine early in the morning. We have made good about 250nm - with only 2750nm to go!The winds have been around 10 knots from the SE - and that added to a current of around 1.5 knots. So good sailing - with the main and the gennaker set - and speeds of 6 - 7 knots.And to make matters even better we managed to catch our first fish today - a 10kg Mahi Mahi - so fish is on the menu for a while.Magali now has a student for the kitchen - with Joel keen to mend his bachelor cooking ways! Magali even got Joel to help with the filleting of the fish!Wish us luck for the wind and the fishing to hold up!CheersDave & Magali & Joel5March2012 005. read more...

Matilda - Goodbye Galapagos

We had intended to make a couple of phone calls before leaving Galapagos yesterday, but would you believe there was a power cut across Santa Cruz for our whole last morning on the island. So no internet, no phones, not even a coffee in the cafe! So our apologies to those we were planning to call before this third, and one of the longest legs.We enjoyed Galapagos, although I think we might have made more of it if we had not had to wait in Cristobal for the banks to re-open. We also missed Floriana, but from what we've heard it wasn't such a big deal. We had a wonderful last few days, the highlight being a dive trip to Gordon Rock. We saw Hammerheads, rays, eels, turtles, one huge Galapagos shark, reef sharks and we even frolicked with some sea lions on our safety stop. The water was. read more...

Graptolite - Graptolite - Time Travellers

18:41.09S 172:49.60W Sunday 8th June, 18:00 (UTC+13) about 100 miles fromVava'u, TongaOn crossing the International Dateline this morning, two things happened.The first is that, without doing anything fancy, we have now gone from beingvery late risers, relative to the UK, to being up very early. The secondthing is that somebody stole our Saturday from us which seems like a poorreward for travelling so far. This morning we were 12 hours behindPerfidious Albion's Summertime and now we are now 12 hours ahead. Makes myhead hurt.We also had a bottle of iffy NZ champagne at the crossing and had someexcellent fresh-caught mahi-mahi for dinner. Storms are forecast up ahead.M. read more...

Voyageur - Log day 157 - Back to the Blog....

12 September 2010Some time ago Andrew Bishop asked me if I would be prepared to write something for a yachting magazine. Never having been stuck for anything to write about I was more than happy to oblige. However on seeing the choice of subject matter my resolve and enthusiasm took a dive. I had thought of waxing lyrical over balmy ocean breezes and velvety moonlit nights, of pristine white beaches and swaying coconut palms. Pah! How could I have I been so naive. It was belt and braces stuff they wanted, facts and figures, practical stuff. None of your fluffy desert island dreams. Money, bills and home affairs? Definitely not my department. Everyone knows I am far too fond of shopping. Crew and crew changes. Being two up for the majority of the trip we are hardly qualified to comment on. read more...

Anastasia - Stowaway!

Last night we were visited by several seabirds and one red-footed booby has taken up residence.  We have tried encouraging him to fly back to the Galapagos but he is determined to make the trip with us.  I have no idea whether there are other boobies in the Marquesas, so this may be the first "Lonesome Booby".  In the radio net someone suggested setting a booby trap to capture it and then painting its feed black so it would fit in better in the Marquesas.  But if we are going to all the effort of capturing it then you have to wonder whether red footed boobies might not make good eating. BA. read more...

Wizard - Wizard 57 IMS Racer , Souyh Africa

hallo,Nun bin ich seit dem 10 Mai 2008 auf Wizard einem 57'IMS Racer aus Durban South.AfricaSeit Tahiti, Papeete segeln wir also sportlich. Zuerst haben wir an der Tahiti-Pearlregatta teilgenommen, Raiatea, Tahaa und Bora Bora , vier Tage Racing und harte Arbeit mit sechs Mann, wo doch so ein grosser Racer minimum zwoelf Mann braucht um auch ordentlich Spinnaker zu segeln. Siehe auch www.wizardofafrica.com , www.tahitipearlregatta.org.pf , www.tahitipearlregatta.over-blog.orgDrei mal waren wir zweiter im Ziel und einmal Dritter, doch unser Rating ist so hoch, dass wir nicht insgesamt unter den ersten sind.Wir hatten aber viel Spass, den die lokalen Segler koennen nicht nur segeln, sondern auch am Abend gut feiern. Von Bora Bora sind wir dann wieder mit der Worldarc weiter nach. read more...

Crazy Horse - Sept 13

Hooray we still have wind! It has been blowing now for 2 days straight at about 10-12kts true. We still have Joshua up (the A sail) and going along between 6-8kts SOG. It is a wonderful point of sail from 90 to 120 deg. Today we have washed some clothes and put them out in the warm sun to dry. Things are moving along and we are into our routine.We couldn't hear Ocean J on SSB this am or last night. Jim could hear Bill but they just weren't transmitting this far. Somehow we have pushed on ahead of them. Bill and Jim have different styles of sailing and they just won't change at this point. Anyone who has sailed with Bill knows that his nickname is Rhumb line Willy. I think Jim wanted to conserve fuel being afraid that we were going to have to motor the whole 1900 miles. Of course when the. read more...

Tucanon - Tiered paddy fields

The passage from Darwin to Bali was a little disappointing as we had to motor at least a third of the journey due to insufficient wind. However,  there was a surprise for us once we were around one and a half hours from  our destination. The adverse current increased from 1.5knots to 2knots then  2.5knots and before we knew it, we had 5knots against us. To make matters  worse, the sea had increased from slight to moderate and was in a confused  state with waves breaking over the boat. The squall, which reduced  visibility enormously, added to our feeling of discomfort as the chart  plotter showed the direction of the boat over 90º off course to port one  moment and then 90º off course to starboard the next. With two engines on . read more...

Kasuje - Kasuje Log Sunday 8th June

Hi from Ruby and Jenny,   For those of you who aren't already aware of Bruce,he is our weather router, and as of yet, has never let us down. He tells us howto avoid storms, what rain clouds will be coming and even what sun factor towear - in our case at the moment - none!! This is to the extent that a conversation overdinner one evening went along the lines of this:'If god were to have a name, do you think it wouldbe Bruce...?'   So naturally, when Bruce told us that we had pastthe risk of any more squalls, and that the rest of our journey to Fiji would bea pleasant, but yet again a wet one, we naturally believed him! The result of this was a slightly more relaxed attitude whenon watch, as we took to watching our books instead. So when Jen was busy watching her. read more...

Anastasia - Goodbye Galapagos

2:47.6S 91:49.2W  We are now on leg 3 of World ARC, having left Santa Cruz at 12:00 on Sunday.  This leg, from the Galapagos to the Marquesas, is the longest leg we do at just under 3000 miles.  All being well it should take us about 18 days, although the wind is predicted to be a bit light for the first few days so it may be longer.  The last few days have crammed with preparations for the trip.  We had to get the outboard on the tender repaired at short notice because it was coming loose and in danger of breaking off.  Andrea had the hardest job, having to provision for a journey of this length, although we do carry a permanent stock of staples and canned goods on Anastasia so it is not as bad as it might have been.  We now trust. read more...

Glamorous Galah - Take a long Line

Take a long lineWe had a good start and our game plan is to head south for a couple of days to get into the steady tradewind belt. At 0630 hrs we snagged a longliners fishing line, so I popped over the side with my mask and snorkel to free us up! I am glad it was not rough. Ted. read more...

Lady Kay - getting ashore

HiGetting ashore at Niue is quite an operation.The swells are very large and first you have to time your leap onto the steps to coincide with the top or bottom of a swell depending on tide.You are still likely to get water up your knees before you get to the top of the steps.To protect the dingy you then have to winch the dingy up onto the dock and move it away on the trolley - see 'photo. We had a major problem yesterday with a blocked toilet (and still not fully resolved or should I say dissolved).Michael worked on it all yesterday, and Rob, who devised a special rotory plunging tool, managed to make a break through after a hard morning's work today.Not a pleasant job.We actually left Niue bright and early this morning en route to Tonga.The winds and weather are not entirely. read more...

Crazy Horse - Sept 12

Thanks so much for all/anyone who was putting in a good word for us about a little more wind. It is blowing about 9-12kts true wind. We have Joshua up and flying beautifully and we are going about 7 kts. That is faster than we were going with the motor on. There is a nice breeze blowing through the boat and we are happy! It would be nice to have this last till Cocos. In Joshua Slocum 's book Sailing Alone Around the World this was the part between Australia and Cocos that he said the boat just sailed itself. It was a constant wind with no squalls. That is a sailor's dream. Instead of predicting 20 days to go our GPS is giving us a projection of 8 days to go. Of course we have to go and avg speed of 7 kts.We are still waiting to hear about our new grandchild's birth. Every day we are. read more...

A Lady - Sailing around the World (Presently in Bali)

Saturday, 11th September 2010 As Skipper had a late night on Voyageur last night, there was no mad rush to get going early today. Neil took off with Oisin and the other younger people to the Island of Lombok by ferry. The island is about 10 miles away to the east. Susanne called and we received more paperwork to fill in, but that only took a few minutes. Aileen did a clothes wash and then vanished into Sanur to have a pedigree and get the hair done. Meanwhile, Skipper and Terry changed the filters in on the water making unit, and cleaned up the bilges under the engine and generator. These are the kind of things one keeps putting off until tomorrow. Now they are finished, another thing off the list. News for us:- Terry casually mentions in passing that. read more...

Lady Kay - getting ashore

HiGetting ashore at Niue is quite an operation.The swells are very large and first you have to time your leap onto the steps to coincide with the top or bottom of a swell depending on tide.You are still likely to get water up your knees before you get to the top of the steps.To protect the dingy you then have to winch the dingy up onto the dock and move it away on the trolley - see 'photo. We had a major problem yesterday with a blocked toilet (and still not fully resolved or should I say dissolved).Michael worked on it all yesterday, and Rob, who devised a special rotory plunging tool, managed to make a break through after a hard morning's work today.Not a pleasant job.We actually left Niue bright and early this morning en route to Tonga.The winds and weather are not entirely. read more...

BRIZO - Monday, March 5th - LEG 3 Galapagos Islands to Marquesas Islands

The fleet got underway at 12 noon on Sunday. We had a great start and enjoyed seeing the boats under sail from Santa Cruz. This is the beginning of our first long passage and it should take us about three weeks to reach Hiva Oa. Maybe less maybe more depending on the tradewinds. But, we are all hoping for favorable winds to make this a enjoyable cruise. We sailed for a portion of the day but ended up running the engine during the night. We went back to sailing early this morning. Lew and I are enjoying a peaceful sunrise while the rest of the crew is sleeping.We had an unfortunate incident on our last night in Santa Cruz! A water taxi collided with the transom while we were disembarking from the taxi. It cause some minor structural damage and caused a vibration to the recently installed. read more...

Ariane - Bali - die Götterinsel

Bali - die GötterinselLiebe SeglerkollegenWir sind einen Tag früher als die Flotte in Darwin gestartet und auch prompt als erstes Schiff in Bali eingetroffen. Auf diese Weise hatten wir genügend Zeit, diese wunderbare Insel etwas genauer kennenzulernen.Tatsächlich hat fast jedes Haus im Garten einen kleinen Hindutempel. Die Religion wird ins tägliche Leben mit einbezogen. Tägliche Opfergaben sind selbstverständlich; schliesslich könnte ja mal einer der vielen Götter den eigenen Tempel im Garten als Hotel benützen wollen...Äusserst eindrücklich sind die grossen Tempelanlagen. Im Zentrum stehen die Türme mit mehreren Dächern. Elf Dächer ist das Maximum und gehört zum Chefgott Shiva. Neun Dächer für Wishnu und sieben für Brahma. Die Gebäude mit weniger Dächern gehören zu anderen. read more...

Cleone - CLEONE in Niue

What a strange, lovely, sad place.In 2004, before Cyclone Heta hit this island,killing two people and inundating the island, 6000 people lived here.  Nowthere are only 1200, and they are still leaving.  Sustained only bygenerous grants from New Zealand (although Niue is independent, they are a newZealand Protectorate, and the Queen is still the Head of State, and muchrevered), Niue is either going to die on its feet, or is due for arevival.  In some ways, it is another beautiful Pacific island, but it hasunique features.  There are no mountains, but it sits nicely above thesea.  However, this did not prevent a house ninety feet up from beingflattened during Heta, and it did not prevent two metres of sea-water washingdown the high street (if you can call it. read more...

Samsara - off to the Marquesas

March 4We started the long leg to the Marquesas today at noon. We did have wind for the start which wasn't entirely expected. It's gone light now (7pm) so we're motoring but we did sail for almost 7 hours. We should hit more wind at 6 degrees south. Just before the start Lee and the girls saw a hammerhead shark - about 3-4 feet long. I was at the helm working my way below the line as we were only about 3 or 4 minutes away from the start at that time so I didn't get to see it. We weren't able to get any pictures uploaded as the internet cafe we went to didn't have a lot of speed. There was another we wanted to try this morning but the whole town had lost its power supply so no internet. Luckily they did have the credit card machine working and Lee bought a last round of groceries after. read more...

Ensemble - Day 56 (Sunday 4th March): Galapagos to Marquis - we're off!

Greetings from yacht Ensemble!We had a quite quiet evening last night with the family and crew of Seaquest and an early night.This morning I was up early to finish our customs clearance and get last minute supplies (wine and softdrink). The process went smoothly enough - but our dreams of a last minute internet update were shattered with a power outage on the island. This also meant no ATMs - so the provisions cleared out most of our US$ - no need for them anymore anyway...I got back to the boat and go to the last minute tasks of cleaning the hull and making sure everything was 'ship shape' - while Magali packed away the provisions and reorganised the fridge.We were joined by Joel Chadwick - who will be crewing with us for this leg. Joel has been working with the World ARC - and will be. read more...

Crazy Horse - Sept 11

 We are out in the middle of the Indian O. by the Pasco Passage. We went by a lot of oil wells last night and a couple of reefs. Now we should have mostly clear sailing to Cocos if we ever get some wind. This is one of the hottest sails we have had up to now. Right now the only ones out here to contact via VHS radio is Ocean J. When they get beyond 2 miles we have trouble with communication even with them. We are still in contact with Jeannius for our early morning and evening chats.We are thinking of stopping at Christmas I. if it is necessary to refuel. It is on our path to Cocos. We have surely been relying a lot on the engine. We are trying not to use the generator too much to conserve fuel. Even though we like to eat our wonderful meals we are being challenged to make some cold. read more...

Jus'Do It 3 - ...with the snakes!

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12Moons - Immerhin Zweiter!

Gestern Abend wurde es offiziell aber wir hatten schon vorher geahnt, dass es wieder für einen Platz aufs Podest reichen würde! Dank Stefans Taktik, dem neuen Genaker und der guten Leistung der Crew konnten wir die Motorstunden minimieren und relativ viel und schnell segeln. Wenn nicht nur die reinen Motorstunden zugrunde gelegt würden, sondern die dabei zurückgelegte Strecke, wären wir sicher noch weiter vorne, da wir bei 1/3 Gas mit etwa 1600 UpM doch lieber Diesel sparen wollten als Motorboot spielen. So ist die Platzierung für uns alle ein schöner Erfolg und spricht auch für die Segeleigenschaften der 12MOONS!   An dieser Stelle ein herzliches Dankeschön an Stefan und Christine, dass wir dabei sein durften, an die Organisatoren und. read more...

Jus'Do It 3 - snorkelling , Niue

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A Lady - Sailing around the World (Presently in Bali, Indonesia)

Friday, 10th September 2010 The 3 senior members of the boat had a well deserved lie in, Skipper totally wrecked from sitting in busses for the last few weeks. Thinking about it, we certainly traveled some 2500 km in a couple of days in Darwin and now about 600km in 2 days. Aileen loves and thrives on this, while Skipper just wilts completely. Today, at least we are only going on a half day trip, primarily to see the Monkey forest, and the bus leaves the marina at 13.30hrs. Before we set off, we did some boat cleaning and had long chats with with Paul and Susanne from Rally control. Aileen and Sue from Voyageur went off to do a little shopping and returned around 12.30 hrs. Terry made some light sandwiches for lunch and then the 3 musketeers Aileen, Stephen and Terry. read more...

Lady Kay - Niue

HiLady Kay is now in Niue, which is a largish island formed from a great chunk of coral which has been thrust up about 200 foot in the air.The coast is a series of limeston cliffs with amazing rock formations and loads of caves.The island is full of chasms and caves full of stalactites and stalagmites.Together with Ann and Don on Harmonie we hired a small minibus and spent a day driving round the island.See 'photo of magic bus on 'main' road around the island.We saw hardly anybody on our trip and once out of town we only passed about five cars, three of which were hired by other boats.The best spot was a walk along the top of a chasm to these amazing caves and sea arches.Aided by a sturdy rope we scrambled down through the caves to the reef below - it was low tide and you could walk on. read more...

Sapphire II - March 4, Day 57, And They're Off!

Bright, sunny day in Pto Ayora, Santa Cruz, Galapagos.About 9 Kts of breeze from SE. Sapphire and crew are ready. Last spare impeller picked up this morning. We are estimating 17-18 days for the 3100 mile passage. Sorry that blog entries will be short and somewhat infrequent on this leg to keep astronomic satellite phone charges to a manageable level!"The Off" is in an hour, so must run.Adios for now until Bienvenue in Polynesia! Exciting.. read more...

A Lady - Sailing around the World (Presently in Bali, Indonesia)

Thursday, 9th September 2010 06.00hrs S&A got up and ready for our one day tour today. All the others remained in their bunks, catching up with lack off sleep. 08.00hrs We were collected at the Yacht Club. Thats ourselves and the 4 guys from Ariane. The first stop was at a theater for a dancing show, well actually, these super performances are all about telling mythical stories and this show is about Evil vs Good. This had a local orchestra with local instruments, and the whole thing was terrific and entertained us for 1.5 hours. No sooner was the show over, but it started raining, and we drove for about another hour to the main temple on the Island called "Besakih Temple" also known as the "Mother Temple". This was a spectacular monument/temple, the. read more...

Crazy Horse - Sept 10

Today has been a repeat of the last two days. No wind, or not much and we are still motoring. We passed a catamaran who I thought was Jeannius. Turns out is was a cat named Stealaway. They are on their way to Cocos too. We heard from Jeannius on our morning SSB talk. Seems they have motored so much they are running out of fuel and have to stop at Bali. They started a day ahead of us and Ocean J. They have obviously had the same problems with no wind.At the rate we are going we may not make it to Cocos until after the 20th. We will see what happens with the wind. There are oil platforms out here and we must watch out for them. We heard they have the Australia Navy out here warning boats to keep away at least 5 miles. I surely don't want to have one of them steering toward us in the middle. read more...

Graptolite - Graptolite - Snakes & Whales

19:03.29S 169:55.54 Thursday 5th June on a mooring buoy off Alofi, Niue,Pacific OceanThe weather has been somewhat wet today but we put on wetsuits and air-tanksand had a dive with hundreds of sea-snakes through a sea-cave. We have doneenough dives now to know this was something a bit special. As usual you willhave to wait for us to get good internet links for you to see the pictures.Tonight's entertainment was a barbecue in the village hall. There was alsolocal chap (I think a noni fruit farmer) who gave us an excellentKiwi/Polynesian sing-along accompanied by banjo and ukulele.While writing this, we got the sound of some very heavy breathing just offthe back of the boat. It must have been a whale. We got the spotlights outbut saw nothing. The whale watching season has only just started. read more...

Ensemble - Day 55 (3 March 2012): Award Night, Provisioning and a Dive at Cousins Rock

Greetings from Yacht Ensemble!Well yesterday was certainly a busy day! After the dive at Gordon's Rock we went into town for the Captain's briefing at 4:30pm, followed by the Awards Night at 7pm.We ended up winning the Catamaran division, and received a tasteful set of coasters (I wonder if there was a suggestion there?).We celebrated by going to dinner at the Angermeyer Point restaurant and had a lovely meal and an early night.This morning was an early start for both of us. Magali and the girls went to the local fresh food market to provision for the next leg (3000 nm to the Marquis Islands - about 21 days). There was so much it took her two trips. She then had to wash all the food and somehow pack it into the fridge and freezer.Meanwhile I went on a dive with Richard and Bob and Karson. read more...

Sapphire II - March 3, Day 56, A Farewell to the Islands

Although the pace has been sometimes hectic, ensuring that we saw much of the wildlife here and having family arrive and leave, in the quieter moments one turns over in ones mind what we have been privileged to experience.The sanctuaries and breeding stations for the giant tortoises are doing a lot to re-populate the islands of this species, which was decimated in the 19th century when some 100,000 of these gentle creatures were slaughtered to provision the sailing ships of the day. The land iguana population is growing while the seas teem with fish of all sorts. And many of the species of bids, fish and land mammals have absolutely no concern about being close to humans.So, on the one hand, the islands bear witness to the thoughtless depredations of mankind. On the other, there is a. read more...

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