ENGLISH POST NO° 7

18.01.2014 – 24.02.2014

Florian

Our wind transmitter arrived from Austria (the local dealer was not able or willing to do the warranty exchange) und worked (hopefully longer than the last one). The day before we wanted to leave Le Phare Bleu marina on Grenada was a dinghy concert – live band on a barge right in the open bay; everyone sitting in dinghies tied up to the barge listening – it was quite an experience.

When we came home after the concert I checked our Dolphin striker and saw that the mounting was broken – departure delayed; we have to repair that. Quite amazingly the next day I found a place that could make a new Dolphin striker within two hours and in the eveninig everything was fixed an ready to leave. Sometimes things work out just fine!

We left Le Phare Bleu on February 5th to go north. We treid for a while to go up on the east side of Grenad but had to realize that there was no way we could sail hard on the wind against the waves. New plan – we go around the southern tip and up the west coast – the lee side of the island - that worked. Due to the longer route we had to anchor once on the west side fort he night. Next morning we took off at sunrise to cross over to Carriacou – hard piece of work. We sailed west of the underwater vulcano – „Kick `em Jenny“ – and arrived in good time Tyrell Bay. Lots of ships – ist a very well known anchorage in the Caribbean. After a few days we motored over to famous Sandy Island – a postcard setting – and anchored in front of Hillsborough – the capital of Carriacou – a nice little village. It was lovely to join the locals in Sunday mass at the catholic church.

We cleared out of Grenada and sailed over to Petite Martinique, the northernmost island of Grenada – very small. Just across the bay – maybe 500 yards lies Petite St. Vincent – the very exclusive resort on this private island; part of the neighbouring country St.Vincent and the Grenadines. People who anchor over there come for dinner in a restaurant on Petite Martinique – borders are here somewhat not so precise.

Next morning our refrigerator had decided – once again – to quit working. The pump was dead. But we were sailing to Union Island anyway – the place to clear into St.Vincent an the Grenadines. What I found somewhat interesting was tthat the customs officer asked me to donate to some local wellfare organisation – who can say no to a question like that of an official upon clearing in. So I did my donation – hope it reaches its proper destination.

I even found a mechanic who ordered a new pump for my refrigerator for EC 300,00. Two days later it even arrived – amazing! With some improvising the refrigerator worked again. Since strong winds where on the forecast we deciede to stay a little longer on Union Island and I – first time on our voyage – took out my windsurfer. It was two days of wonderfull windsurfing, even though my 20 year old material showed its limits – looks like I have to find a new windsurfer soon.

Finally the weather turned nicer. So we lifted anchor and sailed up to the Tobago Cays – said to bet the prettiest anchorage in the Caribbean - and for us so far it definitely was. Clear bright blue waters, we swam with turtles, snorcheled on the reef and saw hundreds of conch shells and several lobsters (alive not on the grill). It is definitely a place you dont want to miss – a little paradise.

After three days we carefully worked our way through the reefs on the north of the Tobago Cays, sailed by Canouan and dropped anchor in Port Elizabeth on Bequia – the books say the best anchorage between Martinique and Grenada. Probably a hundred boats had the same idea, but Admiralty Bay in front of Port Elizabeth is big enough that everyone has sufficient space. We enjoyed being back in civilization – ice cream and restaurants and more than cans in the supermarket. The new pump of our refrigerator broke down again; my construction was obviously not percfect yet. Here I could get a new pump for EC 170,00 and build another colling system for our new pump – refrigerator works again – let´s see how long this time.

Martina and I explored the island – she on the bike, I on my Nikes – we explored the north and visited the turtle sanctuary of „Brother“ King; a wonderful place. Next day we explored the south and tried to visit the Moon Hole developement. Unfortunately they did not let us in; its a private condominium kind of settlement – comprising of 14 little stone houses built into the rocks of the southern tipp of Bequia – check it out on the internet – quite amazing, but suspicously secluded; must be owned by some celebrities.

We feel ist time to move north a little faster. On April 9th we want to meet some friends on the BVIs. At the speed we are moving we would get there next year.

ENGLISH POST NR° 6

Florian  14.11.2013 – 17.01.2014

Its been a while.

We had a great time on the Cape Verdes. San Nicolau was much more basic than Sal – less tourists – less „tourist industry“. The boat kids where happy with 50 cent, whereas on Sal the „charged“ 1 CVE (Cape Verde Escudo).  On San Nicolau we anchored in Port Taraffal – the „busy“ town of San Nicolau  - it was very relaxing. Friendly people, decent food, good anchorage. After three days we sailed over to San Vicente/Mindelo the economic capital of the Cape Verdes. Mindelo was completely different from what we had seen on the Cape Verdes so far. The biggest difference where paved roads, real supermarkets – a real city; Mindelo has approx. 60.000 people.

My parents came for a visit and it was a very, very nice time for us. The highlight was a visit to Santo Antao – the island just north of Mindelo. Contrary to the other islands of the Cape Verdes we had seen so far Santo Antao had some really tropical areas. We hiked the greenest valley – Valle do Paul – up, through some amazing landscape. The green was new to us.

After almost 2 weeks with my parents we got ready to leave Mindelo and sail across the Atlantic. We were very anxious to leave, afraid, sad to leave the beloved ones. So on December 6th we hughed my parents good buy, sailed out the safe harbour of Mindelo and headed west – 2100 miles of open water ahead of us – we headed for Tobago.

We shifted to transit mode. Night watches, everything tied up on board. The first two days went fine, then the wind quit and we had three days of hardly any wind. After that the wind came back – stronger than we liked. And with the wind came high waves – unfortunately from all sides. When we were about one week out – 1400 miles to Tobago – our autopilot striked due to strong winds and big waves. I tried to repair our autopilot for three days and also our second autopilot had problems keeping on course. Many times we had to get up in the middle of the night, because the autopilot was completely off course.

We were afraid that we would have to steer the boat by hand. A terrifying idea that laid heavy on our minds – we counted down the miles. Since the autopilot could not keep the course we wanted to go, we tested what course the autopilot could go – and that was Barbados. So we changed our plans – plus Barbados was the easternmost island – a pleasant thought to have less miles.

After 16 days on December 23rd, Martina finally screamed at 4 in the morning  „LAAAAAANNNNNNDDDD“ – she had discovered the lights of Barbados. At sunrise we passed the northern tip of Barbados. It was an undescribable feeling to stand on land again at Port St. Charles where we cleared in. It was a very difficult time for us and we didn´t like the crossing, but we made it and we had crossed the Atlantic – we were very proud of us!

We anchored in Carlisle Bay next to the capital bridge town and hit the full christmas atmosphere – from open Atlantic to Christmas, big difference. Our friends from Austria Dorrit and Horst spend their vacation on Barbados and celebrated Christmas evening with us on board. Silent night at sea in warm weather – very strange; I have never had warm Christmas ever before.

We hooked up with the Barbados Yacht Club – they were extremely nice and helpfull. So we also celebrated New Years at their club facilities. It was hard to stay up until midnight – we are used to live with the sun – but somehow we managed to stay awake and so we entered a new year – 2014!

Our friends had brought us a new autopilot from Austria – an Autohelm 2000+. And of course it did not fit in the place of the old one. When you are a sailor nothing workes out easy. We built an adapter fort he new autopilot drilling holes through stainless steel, grind threads, extend the power cable – four days of work.

Our friends left on January the 6th – ist always hard for us to say good bye to friends, especially from home. And then it was also time for us to leave. Making plans fort he Caribbean we decided that there was to much to see in to little time. So instead of going to Tobago as we planned we aimed for Grenada. On January the 9th we left Barbados – back to shaky sailing, strong winds, squalls, the autopilot needed quite some assistance in squalls but handled the crossing o.k.. After one night and hardly any sleep and 144 miles we tied up in the Le Phare Bleu Marina in Grenada.

We had reached Grenada just in time to celebrate Martinas 50th birthday on Jan. 11th. We had a fancy dinner at the fabulous restaurant of Le Phare Bleu – on an old Swedish fire ship. The food was delightfull, we had the only table on the open terrace. But the absolute highlight was a birthday song the owner of the marina performed with an excellent singer – Sabrina Francis. After their performance they told us this was the surprise of Philipp from Switzerland, a follower of our blogg. Martina was in tears when she heard that – it was simply incredible.

Our wind transmitter had stopped its duty as soon as we had touched Barbados. So we are right now waiting for a new exchange transmitter that hopefully is willing to work again. We do lots of repairs on board – things that had given up on the Atlantic crossing. We will be a few weeks here on Grenada, but we like the island a lot. Nice people, Caribbean as we imagined it, tropical vegetation, warm blue water – its wonderfull. Finally we are really in the Caribbean!!

ENGLISH POST NR 5°

10.- 27.10.2013: Florian

We visited the first two islands of the Canary Islands - La Graciosa and Lanzarote.

La Graciosa is very „laid back“; no paved roads, only one little village (Calleta del Sebo). We anchored in a nice bay with thirty to fourty other boats that had arrived from Gibraltar. I went running and explored the whole island; we walked several times to Calletta del Sebo and celebrated a catholic mass in their little fishermen church – it was very charming. If you ever wanted a relaxing vacation or you needed to get away from everything - La Graciosa; two weeks there and your are fully recharged.

After a few days of rest we moved on to Lanzarote. We sailed down the east coast and took berth in the new Marina Lanzarote in Arrecife. The marina is still junder construction, but the berths are very safe – and inexpensive. We rented a car and visited the whole island. Its an amazing scenery: volcanoes everywhere, some are even active. The last eruptions where in 1824 and the landscape is spectacular. There is a famous artist – Caesar Manrique – born in Lanzarote. He combined architecture with the volcanic landscape and created some amazing structures; houses built in volcanic tunnels, a theater and other sights you wouldn´t want to miss while you are in Lanzarote.

We enjoyed our time in Lanzarote. But then it was time to move on. The weather was about to get real stormy, so wem ade a quick departure and sailed on the 27th of October 57 nm south to the next island – Fuerteventura, where we landed in the marina of Gran Tarajal on the east side with the last glimpse of light. During our first night in the marina heavy storms and rain passed over us – we had gotten here just in time.

ENGLISH POST NR 4°

04.-09.10.2013: Florian: Crossing Gibraltar - Canary Islands

The facts: its 586 nm from Gibraltar to the Canary Islands. The exit of the mediterranean is tricky. The weather needs to be observed to find the right „hole“ of northerly winds fort he crossing.

Our reality: it is our first major crossing and the first one in the atlantic ocean. Some say you haven´t started a circumnavigation bevor you have not left the mediterranean. And its true: ys long as we sailed in the mediterranean – the mare nostrum = our sea – we somewhat felt like on vacation. Now this should become different. We have heared about the large wavers on the atlantic, large but long. The water is cooler as in the mediterranean and the weather should be more stable as in „our sea“.

You need to find the right moment to leave the harbour in order to get well through the straight of Gibraltar. Strong currents are said to be there. All skippers – and therefore us as well of course – discussed in length when we should leave from marina La Linea (on the peninsula of Gibraltar but still on spanish grounds). There is tons of articles and litterature on that topic. I thought if the otherones can do it, why shouldn´t web be able to do it as well.

The other important factor ist he weather. You need to wait fort he right weather – which is a week of northerly winds. The are said to occur if there is a high preassure field over the Azore Islands. We have waited for almost two weeks fort hat and then it looked like the weather would be right. Others where not of this opinion and did not leave yet. But if its one thing you learn on an adventure like ours its that you have to make your own decisions.

So we left on October 4th at 8:30 a.m. 5 1/2 hours after the last high tide in Gibraktar. We should have currents from the east (Mediterranean) to the west (Atlantic). And we started out perfectly. Through the parking lot of big ships (and they are big indeed - let me tell you) in the bay of Gibraltar we motored, since there was no wind. As soon as we put our bow out of the bay and entered the straight of Gibraltar things changed. We slowed from 5,5 – 6 knots down to 4, and then 3 knots. Where was our current that should speed us up towards the Atlantic?

We passed Punto Tarifa - the southernmost point of continental Europe – and fought our way west (I sound like one of the old settlers in the US). And then we slowed down to 1,5 knots and 0,8 knots. It was frustrating. What all the books and articles did not write ist hat you always have west – east currents in the straight of Gibraltar; its because the Mediterranean evaporates more water than the Euopean rivers feed into it; therefore the Atlatic ocean consistently sends its waters into the Mediterranean. The question is not if you have currents east or west, the question is whether the west - east current is stronger or weaker.

Well, now I know.

At 0,8 knots and winds head on I gave it a try, put up the sails and sailed high up on the wind southsouthwest. Our plotter showed us that we would hit the African coast west of Tanger/Marocco. I hoped that the current would be weaker by the time we where there and that the wind would change more towards the north.

And I was right. We did not collide with the African continent and passed Cap Espartel at 17:45 – pffff.

The wind picked up, we stopped the engine at 19:30 and suddenly it was quiet and we anly could hear the splashing of the sea against the bow of our ESPERANZA. We where happy and sailed into our first night on the Atlantic. We have left „our sea“ and are now definitely „on the way“; the vacation is over – the adventure has started.

Martina does the watch shifts from 20:00 – 23:00 and from 02:00 to 05:00; mine are therefor from 23:00 – 02:00 and from 05:00 to 08:00. We figuerd that Martinas shifts are a bit easier since you cannot sleep at 20:00 anyway, so it kind of feels that you only have one shift (from 02:00 until 05:00).

When I started my second shift at 02:00 things where going nicely. But then I saw the first lights on the horizont. And they became more and more – after one hour it looked somewhat like on a busy street at night – lights everywhere – fishermen! I woke up Martina to help me keep a sharp lookout and tried to keep our ESPERANZA out of the way of the fishing boats. It was nervewrecking. And then there also those blue blinking lights; buoies for nets – great!!

The difficulty is that its difficult to estimate the distance of the lights. They could be close and small or big and further away. Suddenly – about 100 yards in front of me – a sparcly lit fishing boat crossed the waters in front of us. I saw them literally in the last moment. After they had crossed the flashed a flash light to show me that they are there – well thanks, I knew by then – and flashed furiously back with my flashlight.

It was strange. Probably 50 fishing boats in one small area. If I´d be a fish I would stay away from there.

And then we had passed them and sailed towards the first sunrise at sea. Our log showed 110 nm at 8:30 on Oct. 5th. The wind turned northerly and we put up passat sails. One front sail left and one front sail right. But the wind that was on the forecast did not show up. At noon our first etmal was 106 nm.

In the afternoon the wind came – and didn´t leave us any more until the Canary Islands. The following days we logged etmals of 121nm, 117nm, 140nm. It is really difficult and consumes a lot of energy to by pushed around for days by the waves, to always need to hold on in the ship, to sleep pressed in between to pillows in order not to toll around in the bed, or to sleep on the floor between the bench and the table in order not to roll around. We found out that these long crossings are an adventure and not a vacation.

However after 607 nm at 10:00 we reached the bay La Francesa on La Graciosa/Canary Islands. The feeling when we dropped the anchor was overwhelming. Martina and I hughed and kissed each other. We just had accomplished something quite extraordinary.

Now it is time to relax, restore our energy, celebrate our victory and explore the Canary Islands. Now its vacation – well almost…

ENGLISH POSTING NR 3°

Florian: Gibraltar II – Regenerating

We are in Gibraltar waiting for the right winds to depart for the Canary Islands. It´s about 600 nautical miles – about 5 – 7 days. What we need are consistent notherly winds; they usually are created if there is a strong high pressure field over the Azore Islands.

It´s an amazing atmosphere here in the marina of La Linea. Most of the ships are waiting for the right winds. There are some who are participating in the ARC 2013 (Atlantic rally for Cruisers), an organized crossing of the Atlatic (about 250 ships) that became also a race – even though thats not the reason for this yearly event but rather to cross the Atlantic in a crowd.

We are getting our ship ready for the crossing to the Canary Islands. I check the ventils of our motor, check and add the oil of the motor, clean the cooling liquid, check all sails and the mast. Buy new charts for the Canary Islands and Cap Verde Islands as well as the Carribbean (in Austria and have it shipped via UPS to me, since they are not really up to date in Gibraltar or Spain and its cheaper to have it sent rather than to buy it here). Our Ham Radio is still a source of problems and does not work properly; even though I have finally got some weather via our pactor modem; a device that transfers e-mail messages to request weather information into short range waves – amazing, but tricky).

Our marina in La Linea

Well we are ready for departure. All work is done. All we need is to buy some food for the crossing and we can depart. As it looks today this could be on Saturday, October 5th. Others have already departed or leave on Thursday or Friday. We rather wait for another day or two until the weather has stabilized itself  towards a consistent northerly wind situation.

 

the way we have to go

Today – after being up in the mast and checking everything up there – we had time to visit Gibraltar. Since Martinas knees and hips dont like long walking, she was with our bike and I with my running shoes.

Gibraltar is a very nice and scenery city. We walked up to the High Rock – the highest point in Gibraltar. I guess I was the first one to bring a bicycle all the way up – in order for Martina to be able to ride down on the bike and not use her knees and hips. Three hours of running all the way around in Gibraltar – plus the high rock (getting the bike up there) – is quite a difference to the usual work every day on bord. It was nice and now I am tired; legs are sore enough for a week at sea with no running.

We are anxious to get started. Next stop Canary Islands. See you there!

ENGLISH POSTING N° 2

For my English speaking friends:
We have made it through the straight of Messina (between the Italian mainland and Sicily; it was quite scary. The current there – due to the tide - is like a river: I´ve read that it´s also caused by the meeting of two differnet salt water densities of Ionian and Tyhrennian sea. We stopped over in Vulcano and climbed the active Vulcano. Vulcano is a beatifull holiday island – excellent for a laid back vacation. From there we sailed to Stromboli – also active vulcano and a nice – kind of fancy – little island town. From there we are heading north west now – wind and waves against us; stress test for the engine.
Now August 12th, we are aiming towards Capri. I´ll keep you posted…

ENGLISH POSTING N° 1

And now to my dear friends, that do not speak German and follow our blog. Well yes it`s true Martina and I have entered into a new life on the boat. We cancelled our lease contract in Vienna, sold our cars and left Austria. Its quite an exciting but anxious feeling to quit your old life and start a new one. Why do we do this? I think it´s because we want to live an adventure. And an adventure it is. Several problems challenge our positive attitude. However – once solved they are quite fast forgotten as well. And we want to see the world before we get old.

We have just passed nautical mile 300 and are on the jump across and down the Adriatic sea to the south-east tip of Italy. The wind forecast predicts 15 knots northerly winds. Should be perfect to get there – I´ll let you know!! Keep your fingers crossed!!