Overseas Express - LOG 5 Galapagos Marquesas Transit 2

LOG 5 Galapagos Marquesas Transit 2 Overseas Express is making good progress with 145-170 Nm(except for a couple of days with low winds) each 24 hrs, and right now the19th March we have 600 Nm left to the Marquesas Islands. With anaverage of 150 Nm a day we will arrive at the 23th of March. We have to anchorup in daylight.The life on board is easy going, but we have had toproblems, first the gasoline to the generator we bought (in Galapagos)for tripleprice was triple dirty with asphalt (only Ecuadorians could by gas and diesel ,they payd US$ 1 pr gallon, we had to pay 3), and everything were transported tothe boat. The generator stopped even with one filtration, and we had to cleanthe carburator twice, and filtrate twice the second time through Erics T-shirt.The color of the gasoline was. read more...

Overseas Express - LOG 5 Galapagos - Marquesas Transit 1

LOG 5 Galapagos Marquesas Transit 1 This transit started Tuesday 1st March fromSanta Cruz Puorto Ayora on the Galapagos, and goes directly tol Hiva Oa, one ofthe Island in the Marquesas archipelago, a distance of 3000Nm, which is a bitlonger than the Atlantic crossing. This transit will last between three and fourweeks. We started 1200 hrs on 1 March, all four Tor Odin,Kirsten, Eric and myself. The wind was good, so we sailed the first 12 hrs, thenthe wind was gone. We were motoring the next two days, through the wind stilland rain with the swells from the side. Convergence zone between the south andthe northern trade wind belts, gives a lot of unstable wind from all directionsplus rain showers and squalls. That lasted for nearly 500 Nm till today the6th March 1200 hrs . Finally we have. read more...

Overseas Express - LOG 4 Galapagos

LOG 4 Galapagos We arrived at Puerto Baquerizo, San Cristobal  the 17th Feb when Gudrun hadher 30th birthday, at 1640 local time. We made 120 Nm miles that day.But we had a stop at the equator, took a bottle of sparkling wine, fished ayellow finned Tuna and went on motoring with no wind. We had to wait in the boat until the inspection team hadmade their control, they arrived at 1800. The hull was inspected by two divers,and we passed, thanks to Eric, who had scraped the hull free for barnacles,especially under the keel. The dive team got four cold beers. Afterwards wewere inspected by five inspectors, immigration, engine, medicine, environmentand one boss. They took away our aspirin because it was outdated, but after theyhad gone, we found the aspirin in the cockpit, and they just. read more...

Overseas Express - LOG 3 Galapagos Transit

LOG 3 Galapagos transitWe started the transit to Galapagos from Las Perlas Panama on the 12th Feb 2016. The leg is 850 Nm and will last 6-7 days, depending on the weather and winds of course. There was little wind in the beginning, so we used the engine for some hours. I had bought a new fishing rod called PENN SQUALL GOLD . The rod was tried out as soon as possible, and at sunset we caught a 10 kg Carango. Eric was struggling for forty minutes before I gaffed it, and took out the guts, and did the filleting. Eric and I had raw Carango with lime pepper&salt and olive oil, which was washed down with rum. We had some Parrot fishes in the fridge which Eric had shot with his spear gun ( he has caught a lot of them on the coral reefs in Las Perlas) that we had for dinner. The day after we. read more...

Overseas Express - Log 2 - Finished Transit and La Playita

3rd Feb - 2016"The Pacific!" was shouted in the last lock as the doors finally opened and horns were ringing. We used our fancy handheld brass fog-horn which was gray, old and loud. Now the line handlers could finally rest their hands and backs, the skippers lean back and we could finally call it a day.The transit was over and took approximately two days. Our advisor Victor was a really great guy and we gave him enough food and drinks, even though he and his collegues joked about his never-ending hunger. We had some baguettes before the Gatún Locks and we had burgers between the two last locks. The line handlers on land, who managed the loops over the bollards, also got a nice surprise in the end. We filled a plastic bag with some cans of soft drinks and let it go up with the bowline.. read more...