Why that ? Well, tomorrow I’ll finally go sailing again ! Yay ! I wonder if the anchor already transformed into one giant coral brick after being buried in the sand for months. Never before I spent such a long time in one spot. I’ve been here since the 22.12.2012. To stay put for that long time also means a lot of work before the ship is fit for sea again. I spent a whole day moving thingsa around and finding a safe place for all the stuff that was just lying around the last weeks. I was doing laundry, cleaned the dinghy, and got the deck in order. I also put the two additional anchors, including chain and rope back in the aft locker. And since I’m gonna need better propulsion with our little dinghy, I also repaired the oars, sanded them and gave them a nice varnish. Since the paint can was already open, I also gave the wood in the cockpit a new coat. It’s really impressive how the tropical sun literally burns the paint away.
And tomorrow in the morning, I’m gonna sail to Tahiti to pick up my family monday night. I hope, we’ll be back in a few days as I really want to enjoy my favorite anchorage together with my loved ones.

Now that we met the SY Express Crusader again and the 5 kids have spent the last 72 hours (!!) contiuously together, we decided to (maybe) skip the BVIs, stay a little longer in St. Maarten and then sail for the Dominican Republic directly. We net stuff for fishing and the ship as well as do a few little repairs.

But first Bruno wanted to do ‘school’ and as he is more and more interested in small type, Gui got out a magic box containing colored, beautiful letters. With a nice set to touch and move around it’s double the fun and fascination as you turn d, p, q and b around. Transforming a i into a j, a d into a c or whatever. Of course Viola was joining in writing and painting. Both had a lot of fun with it and they immediately recognize and remember because they know that only with the small letters they can really read books. And that’s what both want.

We should do a dedicated post about the school on board sometime. It’s the thing I was most afraid about bevore leaving and it turned out to be completely the opposite of what I would have it imagined. Both kids learn on their way and do it every second of the day. They ask a lot of questions, are interested in metals, volcans, poisenous beasts and things that sting. It’s amazing that sometimes the kids know exactly what’s important for them at a moment. But as I said, that’s something for another post…

Afterwards we gave a name to Bruno’s ‘first command’: PINGUIN. So this is our new crew member. Very handy and fast to row and a funny and thrilling thing to sail. I think I can say that we’ll have a LOT of fun with Pinguin !

The first night, the kids spent on the Express Crusader, the next on the Rancho Relaxo. And as our friends are both switching their work/family role tomorrow, we’ll be seven for one more night. But the kids are a delight ! All are adorable, intelligent and calm and together the five are so in harmony that it’s a real treat. After the breakfast they started paperwork involving drawing, painting, writing and making books and booklets. I had to leave for errands but it continued with yoga, dancing and culiminated, throwing sand at each other on the beach. In the evening the five got a shower aboard, had dinner and went to bed after a movie (with a book and a flashlamp) each. What more could you want as a kid or for a kid ?

Of course Gui also went to bed immediately after the kids. Spending your time watching over five little ones between 3 and 7 years while on a boat or at the beach is something that uses all your senses and a lot of energy. Speaking of – my battery level is also critical. I’ll shut down now for 8 hours to reload.

Have fun everybody !

After the race we met a lovely argentinian family with three kids of which two are the same age as Bruno and Viola. And they’re on long term cruise with next stop in Cabo Verde. Yay !

In the evening there was a big gathering on the beach – so to say a little afterhour to the dinghy race. Many really interesting and lovely people.

On the way back towards the south we picked up Oskar who was windsurfing near the beach. Unfortunately we were a little too late and could not see him jumping the waves… But there’s a nice youtube video if you’d like to see what windsurfing can look like.

We were back at the ship in the late afternoon where my parents spent the day with Viola, Bruno and Oscar. Together they collected more wood so we could have a nice bonfire on our last evening together.

North of Santa Cruz we spent the afternoon at the beach trying the new watersport gadgets (masks, snorkels, skimboard) while we let the time pass. I was at the boatshop to get my ordered parts and then – well then I got the call from Gui that the plane could not leave Buenos Aires and she’ll try to get on to another plane soon. Hmmm. Ok. Tomorrow we’ll give it another try.

All the necessary ‘high tec’ parts I brought with me from Berlin (I bought them at the arcade shop). Those included: buttons, controller and the joysticks themselves. The idea was to build a wooden case, paint it and put the parts. The interesting thing about this was that there were no tools available except for a drilling machine. So we went to the diy-shop and got a saw, some screws and three pieces of wood.

All the wood parts were cut by hand, the wires for cabling came from old computer power supplies. That’s a really interesting way to do this thing. I didn’t have a chance to finish it but Andy should be painting the case this weekend and then it’ll be done. I’m gonna put pictures, I promise.

Well, we had the most wonderful time in Argentina. Nice meat, saucages, cheese from the Barrilla, many hours in the pool, lots of nature and silence. Beautiful nights with a sky full of starts. During the day Campari Soda, building an Arcade Joystick for Gioco, Building little ships out of bamboo, etc.

Now that I’m back in Berlin and alone (until now), I’ll fokus on getting back into the Amateur Radio materials, reading some more books and updating this website. Some pics – the rest will be in the Gallery soon:

Anbei ein paar Fotos: