Shiva - Log day 18 - Arrived!

December 10, 2015 – It’s 5.20PM, we need to get ready for the night. Is the top light on? Are the flash lights outside? And the life vests in the cabin? Whose watch is it? Have the dishes been done and are all loose things tightened up? Who makes tea and coffee? Mariette, did you already prepare the Snack Bag?  That’s how it went the last 17 days and nights… Right now at 5.20PM I’m sitting in the cockpit – the boat is not moving (!!) – with the laptop on my lap and a drink and a snack on my left and when I look around I don’t see just waves and sky, but I see lots of ships lying in the harbour and many people walking by or chitchatting in their cockpits or doing some maintenance activities on their ship.  We have arrived at Saint Lucia!!  Yesterday we started the night. read more...

Shiva - Log day 17 - Final countdown

December 9, 2015 – The last day of our Atlantic Ocean crossing…! It started a bit tough after a night of many clouds, extreme heat, strong rains and weird wind shifts. When my night shift started I joined Herman in what was a totally grey world with no sight around us and only strong rain. The bad part of these squalls is the waves and the rock and rolling inside the boat where people are trying to sleep. The good part is that they only take 15 to 20 minutes.  Today there were no more squalls and the sky brightened up. It was still very very hot and we’ve been sitting in the shade all day. Herman and Gerard had put the parasailor up which made us go smoothly more and more towards Saint Lucia. Only 130 miles to go……..!  We’ve seen many birds today and also 3 other ships! It. read more...

Shiva - Log day 16 - Catch me if you can

December 8, 2015 – Today we have been caught by several squalls. The day started very cloudy again and when we saw 1 or 2 squalls approaching us we quickly jumped into our bathing suits and grabbed the bottles of shampoo. Nothing better than to start your day with a natural rain shower! (With a bit of help of the water hose…) It’s again very warm and humid today. Because of that we all took it easy. Mariette and I watched a movie yesterday night and today, also that is possible on board.  And then we heard the fishing line rolling out… Our first reactions were ‘oh oh here we go again’ – slightly less enthusiastic than the first times catching fish. Daan’s goal to catch so much fish that all of us would have enough of it has been achieved! The last Mahi Mahi piece we actually. read more...

Shiva - Log day 15 - Endless time

December 7, 2015 – After a cloudy night with here and there a squall and a shower of rain, the day started cloudy, grey and humid. With most of us inside and waves of 3 to 4 meters it was a funny scene to see the 6 of us stumbling around while doing the morning dishes, brushing teeth, cleaning up the ship and pumping water out of the stern. You always have to hold yourself with one hand attached to the ship, leaving one hand free. If not, more black spots are a guarantee!  Around 11AM the sun pushed aside the clouds and we had a great sunny comfortable afternoon. Mariette and Nicoline practiced some yoga on the front deck. Mariette adjusts the program based on the height of the waves so it’s achievable whatever the weather conditions are! For lunch Inge made a lovely stew of canned,. read more...

Shiva - Log day 14 - Sleeping beauties

December 6, 2015 – We have entered the area of the Atlantic that is known for squalls: local wind and rain storms. You can recognize a squall by dark vertical clouds and you can actually see it moving. They grow and move quickly, so in case we come into a squall it’s only for about 15 minutes that we will be having strong wind and showers of rain. Yesterday night we have seen 2 squalls that just passed us. We’ve seen them on the radar but also by eye. It’s impressive to see how fast several clouds can compile into 1 dark rainy cloud. This time we were lucky, no need to put on our rain jackets.   We were less lucky when few hours later we wanted to reef the mainsail. We had issues with getting the sail straight due to the lock of the line that slips, which we only found out. read more...