Here a picture of one year ago, the SV Kira and the SV Suvarov anchored together in Port Resolution, Tanna (Vanuatu). The Kira was sold two days ago !

So we left at 10:45 with the high tide being at 11:20h. We sailed down through Brisbane in a beautiful, sunny but slightly cold day, took some fuel at the Rivergate Marina on the way out to the bay and started sailing just after noon. The weather was perfect: sunny and a steady 25-30 knots from WSW. We just flew up the bay and when initially we thought we would barely make it in daylight we actually arrived at 3:40h in the afternoon. Most of the time doing 7 to 7.5 knots with double reefed jib. Heh. Cool last sailing trip !

In the marina (the second we entered in two years) it wasn’t too easy. We got a berth that was at the very end and in a small corner and maneuvering the 15t Suvarov into place took a few helping hands and long mooring lines over winches. But we made it !

Now the Suvarov has reached her final destination, we’re in Scarborough Marina on jetty E1 and here she will stay until her next owner will take her out for a ride. Hopefully soon. And the los locos are emotionally a bit shaken and tired from packing and organizing all our stuff. But everything is in bags and suitcases and ready to go. Tomorrow we’ll clean the boat one last time and on wednesday at 2pm we take the plane to Bankok, then to Istanbul, then Munich. Yay !

Well, our friends from the SY Elhaz said hello and goodbye and left for Port Vila – which made us quite sad. But next morning the SY Kira arrived and we had a good, long breakfast together that continued into a mid-day feast, followed by a walk through the village and a swim on one of the most gorgeous beaches we’ve seen so far. When the sun started to set behind the volcanoe, we brought Gui and the kids to the boat. The men were invited to drink kava with the villagers. People in Tanna are strict followers of the ‘Kastom’ and thus: no women allowed.

All the grown up males gather on a little place in the village and start to prepare the kava by chewing the roots, spitting it in banana leaves , rinsing it with water and finally pouring the brown/greyish liquid in a little coconut shell. The kava here is a lot stronger than in Fiji as it is made from fresh roots and the traditional way. We enjoyed the ritual and the quietness that falls over the village after the first round of cava bowls went around. The sounds are from the waves and the wind to our back and endless zykades in the front, the sound of small, red glowing fires all around and a lot of loud slurping and spitting. The sky is full of stars, no bright lights disturbing our vision. We are welcome in the village and together with our friend Claus with whom we started the voyage three years ago. What a dream !

And although we’re anchored in one of the most historic places (James Cook went ashore in this bay, approx. 230 years ago) we’ve found internet: connected via bluetooth and mobile phone. Slow but steady…

Of course some of you will try to encourage us to stay and I really appreciate it but be assured: It was not an easy decision. And somehow we wished we could continue. But the time is not the right one. We’ve been sailing three years, crossed two oceans, lost one yacht, had many adventures, met wonderful people and were able to see and live in the amazing beauty of the South Pacific. It’s a good time to stop.

We also searched for ways to continue our travel or fast routes to sail back to Europe but nobody on board really wants to cross the Indian ocean and even less the Atlantic from south to north with very few and short landfalls in between. We all miss our family and friends a lot and – it has to be mentioned: Since our shipwreck we always have been very short on money which sometimes complicated things.

Soon we’ll try to go back in our previous lives but not quite yet: We still have some weeks left and want to visit Tikopia in the Solomon Islands and climb the volcanoes of Vanuatu. Later we probably will end up in Australia which seems to be the best place to sell a boat in the Pacific.

And just as we made up our mind, the South sea throws this unbelievable gorgeous island called Yanuca in our way. Together with the family from the SY Time Lord we’re the only souls around. The kids wander off and disappear for hours looking for crabs on the beach and investigating a lost resort hidden by the palm trees. We snorkel in the crystal clear water, see turtles and sharks. Dolphins swim and jump in the bay and in the evening we have a wonderful camp fire on the beach. And to top it all off, we experience a rare ‘blood moon’ as we return to our boats.

But still, today in the afternoon we’ll pull the anchor out of the coral sand and sail through the night towards the western islands. We try to reach Malolo Leilei (what a name !) in the morning and probably stay there for a week to celebrate easter and Violas 6th birthday.

We waited for some days and used the diminishing easterly to sail down to Namena, while during our stay we lie mostly becalmed and quite comfortable. ‘We’ that is the SY Suvarov, SY Odin and the SY Bodhran. Jason from Bodhran takes the mooring and we drop the anchor and 75m of chain in 23m of crystal clear water.

On the first day we payed our visit to the little ressort on the island and payed 30 Fiji Dollar for a permit to dive in the marine reserve  – which is good for one whole year.

Even on the anchorage the coral are already quite impressive and the amount of fish is unbelievable. There are turtles, sharks, barracudas, groupers and endless little colorful tropical fishes around. During the first minutes I’m quite overwhelmed and don’t really know where too look… During the next days we will take the SY Bodhran and tow two dinghies towards the outer reef where the ‘real’ divespots can be found. Expect a lot more and even nicer pictures in the next posting.

And although I’m sad that I can’t see my family this year, we found a good replacement for the lunch itself. Two days ago we were invited to spend the 25th with a family in a village near Savusavu. Spending christmas in tranquility is a luxury most people of the western countries don’t have. And spending it out in the middle of nothing in a village with 123 inhabitants is a blessing.

The food got prepared the traditional way with heated stones, covered with palm and taro leaves. In the lovo were prepared: wahoo, chicken, pig, taro, breadfruit, little packages of fish with onions wrapped in taro leaves and steamed in coconut milk, etc… The feast was awesome ! After that we hopped in the nearby river for refreshment and  the men (yes: only the men) sat together to drink cava and sing traditional songs. The kids spent all afternoon in the water, jumping from trees or paddling along with a little bamboo raft. This christmas will be one of my favourite memories of that journey so far !

It was a very demanding journey – 1554 nautical miles that took us 13 days. But right now I’m too tired to write a lot. I’m gonna sort the pictures and put together a nice story tomorrow.

The dinghy is on deck, everything prepared, the tanks are full… Now we’re having lunch and then we’re off.

Over and out….

Monday is work day: Gui, me and the kids march towards Fare Ute, Gui continues to the customs where she will negotiate the ‘Papeetisation’: If a ship changes owners here in french Polynesia, 26% of the value of the vessel have to be paid as a tax. But the Rancho Relaxo couldn’t be sold and we will give her as a present. Thanks to the persuasion of Gui and a very helpful agent we can lower the Papeetisation to next to nothing. It would be totally in Moitessier’s sense: We were extremely lucky when we had our crash landing and thanks to the help of so many friends and our families we got a second chance. Now we help somebody else and give our old ship without anything in return.

In the meantime I walk in that order to: ACE hardware 1, ACE hardware 2, dive shop, tool shop, Nautisport, Yamaha dealer, Sing Tun Hing Marine. At noon we meet for lunch as most shops and offices are closed. Afterwards we again visit: ACE1, ACE2, Nautisport, Sing Tun Hing, steel shop, AS Systems, Ocean 2000 und fully packed we get back to the ship. That’s really something. Marching the whole day in tropical heat with two children through the town without the little ones complaining even once ! At the ship we unload everything, put the new shortwave antenna on deck and only minutes later we’re on our way south towards the Taina Marina.

Tuesday, early in the morning I bring Gui ashore where she continues her oddysee: Papeete again to deliver papers to the agent, later to pick up my new sunglasses then all the way down to Taravao in the south of Tahiti where she orders new mast steps for the Suvarov, then to pick up seeds and two seedlings of the ‘Magic Tree’. In the mean time Christoph the new owner of the Rancho arrives and we show him the Rancho and start working. We have to repair the bilge pumps, replace the leaking stuffing box, check the fuel, start the engine, repair the steering and the kerosene stove and bend the sprayhood back to it’s original shape. We install a spare anchor at the bow and clear the deck, etc. At 18h the Rancho is ready and we’re all wrecked. We meet ashore to have a shower and a beer and call it a day.

Wednesday morning, Gui again travels to Papeete to finally pick up the fabrics for Coquito, while I get the Suvarov ready to leave and Christoph removes ten months worth of mussels and green stuff from the hull of the Rancho. At ten in the morning Gui arrives and we meet at the gas station where we get 120 liters of Diesel, Christoph brings the bottom part of Rancho’s old Mast on bord and we store about 50kg of fabrics. We set back out into the mooring field where we go alongside the Rancho and fill her tank with 20l Diesel and put the kayak on bord so Christoph has something that floats – just in case. At noon we’re ready and travel through the lagoon towards Papeete, followed by the Rancho. Christoph is at the steering and smiles like a child at christmas as we exit through the pass and find ourselves out on the Pacific again. For once the weather report was correct and indeed we have no wind and nearly no swell. We run under engine with five knots towards Moorea, the Rancho always 100m behind us. As we start dreaming of Tonga and Fiji and can’t think how it could get any better, a huge whale jumps out of the water just 200m in front of us ! Seconds later a younger whale follows and splashes back into the sea. We stand at the bow, shout ‘Uuuuh !!’ and ‘Aaaah !’, while we slowly pass the whales. What a crazy day ! Soon later two other whales follow us a bit towards the Cook’s Bay. At 16h we enter the Opunohu Bay and find ourselves surprised how much we think of this anchorage as our ‘home’ now. We throw the anchor while the Rancho is tied to the mooring that was prepard for her right in front of Christoph’s house.

The next months he will slowly restore the Rancho to her old beauty. And as both he and his wife are sailors the chances are quite good that soon the Rancho Relaxo of the Seas will set out for another amazing journey. Oh, wow. We’re sooo happy !!

Im letzten Posting hatte ich ja schon die SY Ninita erwaehnt, die letztens hier auftauchte. Zwei Tage spaeter sind noch zwei weitere schwedische Schiffe eingelaufen, so dass wir uns hier einer kleinen skandinavischen Invasion gegenuebersehen. Wir feigen Alpenlaendler ziehen uns da zurueck und fluechten also nach Huahine. (Scherz, nein. Unsere Schwedenfreunde kommen allesamt auch mit !)

Heute am Nachmittag segeln wir also mal ein Stueckchen weg von Moorea und Tahiti. Machen auch endlich mal wieder eine Nachtfahrt und sollten morgen Vormittag da sein. Ein paar Tage spaeter wollen wir noch nach Raiatea und dann geht’s wieder retour nach ‘hause’, nach Moorea. Juhuu !!

Natuerlich gibt’s auch einige Erledigungen. So sollen wir in Huahine unser zweites Tauchequipment aufnehmen, in Raiatea unser Gaestebuch wieder einsammeln und die SY Gobo sowie die SY Yasoo besuchen. Viel Programm fuer ein paar Tage…

As soon as the Nutella buns are swallowed, Bruno and Martín are up in the cockpit with their life vests on. And faster than me they climb down into Pinguin, Bruno’s new dinghy, to look for the best place to be seated. We have a light breeze and because the Simpsons Bay is nearly completely seperated from the sea we have no waves. Perfect test conditions.

Usually the Walker Bay 8 comes with an inflatable tube on the sides to give it more stability. But it’s absurdly high priced and we found an alternative by mounting small fenders all around. Works just as well and gives it a little self-made touch.

The children and the skipper were both thrilled ! The dinghy handles very well under sail and is quite fast even with very little wind. There’s enough room for me and three kids. We’ll see how we do with two grown ups – but it shouldn’t be a problem.

Another plus is that the new dinghy has the perfect size to be lifted into the Davits on the back of the Rancho Relaxo. Our inflatable was both too big and too heavy and thus we had to put it on the foredeck while sailing.  Also new for us: the Pinguin is perfect for rowing ! I was going into town and out a couple of times during the last days and even human-powered, our little friend is quite fast. And my back is very thankful for the new exercise.

But the BEST ? We don’t have to burn fuel if we want to go to town anymore. Also it’s way more stylish to leave the sailboat with a sailing dinghy – isn’t it ?

Bad ideas are usually the best. That’s what I thought about when I was gliding out of the bay to pass the rough landscape of Carriacou. Alone in a small dinghy with an 30 year old 4hp engine. Hehehe. The ride was long and there were plenty of rocks and submerged reefes but 40 minutes later I saw my family waving on the beach.

We put everything into the dinghy and rode another 15 minutes towards White Island. One island and four people a great feeling to have a whole island for oneselves. We strolled along the beach for a few hours, swam in crystal clear water and just before sunset drove back to Carriacou. A wonderful day !

The other day Bruno told me that pirates entered the bay ! I immediately jumped out of the ship to see a beautiful square rigger enter the marina. We soon after met part of the crew in the marina bar and were invited to have a look of that great sailing vessel.

The by far most fascinating thing about the Tres Hombres is that it’s actually a merchant vessel ! The tree owners decided to revive the old days in which sailing ships would deliver cargo around the world and doing the same now in our modern times. They’ve got no problem to find crew that will help run the ship an deliver mostly ecological goods from here to there. Right now they’ve got rum, chocolate and wine to bring to New York.

The whole ship is full of tradition and smeels of old wood. The engine got replaced by a nice library. So the Tres Hombres is a 100% sailing vessel. Amazing !!

The next stop will be in Barbados and they’ll start monday next week. So we might meet somewhere on the atlantic or on the other side. Let’s see.

Right ! Ban the demonstrations !
“In Syria you can’t demonstrate against Assad, in Libya you couldn’t demonstrate against Gadaffi and in the U.S. you can’t demonstrate against Wall Street.”

And some thing else to think about: “Beginning in 2010, JPMorgan Chase donated technology, time and resources valued at $4.6 million to the New York City Police Foundation, including 1,000 new patrol car laptops.”

Here’s the site as PDF in case it’s taken offline.

Install in that order: PlayonMac, XQuartz, Wine. The last two components can be installed directly from PlayonMac. Once that is complete, get Airmail3 and install it by double-clicking it’s icon. It should be started/installed via PlayonMac. I’m using the version 3.3.081 which also includes the drivers for the Pactor modem. Install those drivers during the initial installation of Airmail3. If you want to get the propagation automagically from inside Airmail, you’ve got to install the (seperate) propagation programm: Open PlayonMac and run a ‘exe-File’ in the same virtual drive, you’ve installed Airmail in ! It has to be the same drive because otherwise Airmail will not be able to find that software.

Now that everything is installed, it’s time to configure the connection Bluetooth-Modem Wine. First the modem has to be paired with OS X. This is done using the Bluetooth-Assistant. The only thing of importance here: Use a ‘user-defined’ pairing-string ! It’s the last eight letters of your modem’s serial number which can be found on the underside of it. Be sure to use the correct upper/lowercase spelling – otherwise it won’t work. Once the Bluetooth-pairing is done, the connection can be tested by opening a Terminal-window (to be found in Applications -> Utilities) and typing the command: cat /dev/tty.SCSPTC-IIusb-COM1
After a short delay, the init-string of the modem should be printed. Now you can close that Terminal window. Attention: If you’ve played around with your Bluetooth-Setup and/or re-installed that modem or whatever… The name of the device can be slightly different. Use ‘/dev/tty.SCSPTC-IIusb-COM1-1′ of whatever is your correct device name.

Now you have to create a COM-port for use in Wine: Start PlayonMac, enter the Configuration and use the Button ‘open a shell’ in the tab ‘Miscellaneous’. A little shell-window will open, in which you have to type the following commandos:

cd ../dosdevices
ln -s /dev/tty.SCSPTC-IIusb-COM1 com1

This will create the needed COM-port for Wine. Now you can close PlayonMac and start Airmail3. Beside your usual settings, only one thing is really important: The Bluetooth-connection seems to be a bit sluggish and therefore Airmail will not be able to communicate correctly with your modem. You can solve this by going to Tools -> Options… Connection -> Advanced Settings and enable the option named ‘Ignore com-port CTS Signal’. If you now start the Terminal, the init-string of the modem should show after about 20 seconds.

Success !! You’ve got Airmail3 running under OSX with a working Bluetooth connection. Yay !

Compared to our planned route we’re a bit delayed but that is of no concern. We’ve used the additional time here in Ruegen to improve and repair things on the Rancho Relaxo of the Seas and despite the harsh weather (and Gui’s hospital stay) we had a really good time here.

Ah ! – And for the first time we’ve met another austrian Vessel. You can see it parked belong ours in the photo.

The day was wonderful with the most beautiful weather and a fast travel without much waiting at the locks. Another sight was of course the ‘Schiffshebewerk Niederfinow’ which lifts ships travelling from Berlin to the Baltic sea about 36 meters !

We arrived in Marina Oderberg at 19:50h and finished our first day with argentinian steak and a Septima Malbec 2009. Perfect !!

And of course a few pics from my last day in the office. – The bounty invasion on my desk and lots of beer in the backyard. That was followed by even more beer in the Prater Garten and finished off with a few SG&Ts in the Klub der Republik. Mmmmh. What a beautiful last day at work…

And one other thing that really confuses me about that last wiki-leak: The whole world seems to be discussing Julian Assange’s problems with two swedish girls and whether it is good/bad/illegal/whatever that wikileaks does… When will people start discussing the CONTENT of the leak ?

I’ve just donated 50€ to wikileaks.org ! Go, Julian Assange, go !!

Update 4.12.2010, 15:15h:

Wikileaks.org is offline – the webspace at amazon is cancelled, the Website in Switzerland wikileaks.ch is partly inaccessible… What’s next ? An US drone bombing the suspected H.Q. of wikileaks ?

Here another excellent article – from Reporters without borders !!

Update 4.12.2010, 22:37h:

Very interesting story on Slashdot about the shutdown of wikileak’s PayPal Account
The story comes with plenty of very insightful comments. Here’s a good one:

Re:Rather symbolic isn’t it? (Score:5, Insightful)
by lexidation (1825996) writes: Alter Relationship   on 04.12.2010 18:21 (#34444302)

I spent ten years of my life as a “real” journalist in several major US media markets. The primary difference between the news “we” presented and what’s being presented via Wikileaks is precisely that Wikileaks allows more or less unfiltered access to the source material. Ask yourself: do you really want someone else selecting what’s fit for you to read? Trust me, having unfettered access to original sources, so that you can independently develop your own take on what’s happening, is infinitely better for you — and better for society — than having the news dished out to you by a “professional” like me in my former incarnation.

What’s happening to Wikileaks is astounding and should be scaring the living shit out of each and every one of you. They have been transformed into a “criminal” organization in the eyes of many members of the public and many members of the mainstream media inside of a week. From the beside-the-point rape case involving Julian Assange to the loss of hosting, DNS services and, now, the possibility to gain funding. That’s how easy it was to get the job done.

I’ve been an observer of political life, professional and otherwise, for more than forty years. Never have I seen an assault on free speech like this one. It doesn’t matter what your personal view is on the wisdom of exposing the day-to-day minutiae of realpolitik. Free speech — and your right as citizens to live under an open government — are under attack. I can only hope people will speak up to defend them.

Montag morgen kommen Florian, Sven und Peter mit dem Zug nach und die Reise startet nach ein paar Uebungsrunden unter Motor mit einem kleinen Schlag  von 22sm nach Groemitz. Am Dienstag geht es dann mit Sturmwarnung fuer Ostsee und teilweise mit drittem Reff in Richtung Daenemark. Wegen des doch recht miesen Wetters und weil wir mal wieder zu spaet aufgestanden sind, entschliessen wir aber letzten Endes doch, die Marina Burgtiefe auf Fehmarn anzulaufen. Keine Schlechte Entscheidung, denn am naechsten Tag koennen wir bei feinem Wetter und gut genaehrt nach Nysted in See stechen. Kurz vor der daenischen Kueste queren wir einen dezenten Windpark. Nysted selbst ist ein sehr idyllisches, verschlafenes Oertchen und wir bedauern, dass wir leider nur einen Tag in Daenemark bleiben koennen.

Am Donnerstag geht’s gen Sued nach Warnemuende, wo wir bei leichtem Wind eine gemuetliche Kaffefahrt unter Blister einlegen. Zum ersten mal steigen die Temperaturen auch mal ueber den (gefuehlten) Nullpunkt. Mann – warum ist’s auf der Ostsee nur immer so kalt ? In Schleswig-Holstein war fuer die vergangene Nacht sogar BODENFROST angesagt. WTF ?!?

Nach einem netten Abend “Heute hauen wir aber mal ordentlich auf die Kacke !” in Warnemuende geht’s am Freitag weiter Rtg. Insel Poel. – Denn es war ja Ostwind angesagt. – Tja, der Wetterfreund von DP07 hat sich hier aber wohl getaeuscht, denn wir haben feinsten West-Wind und kreuzen langsam richtung Timmendorf. Wo wir dann Abends bei ~5Bft anlegen und die Kite-Surfer am gegenueberliegenden (tollen !!) Sandstrand bewundern koennen. Hierher komme ich im Sommer sicher nochmal. – Aber hoffentlich bei Badewetter.

Am Samstag geht’s in einem letzten Schlag zurueck nach Travemuende. Die letzten Meilen mangels Wind auch unter Motor.

Wie immer waere man nun nach einer Woche auf See nun endlich im Richtigen Tempo angekommen, aber der Urlaub ist schon wieder zu Ende. Tja.

Kurz zusammengefasst: die Rancho Relaxo hat sich bewaehrt – kleine Maengel wurden unterwegs behoben (O-Ton Sven: “Es ist kein Stahlschiff, sondern ein Stahl-Gaffertape-Schiff”. Dank einer ausgezeichneten Crew haben wir auch die 7Bft am zweiten Tag ohne Schaden und recht entspannt ueberstanden und schafften trotz der kurzen Reisezeit von Montag-Samstag doch repektable 186sm. Der Blister ist Toll, und ueberhaupt wuerde ich am liebsten sofort wieder in See stechen.

Naechster Toern-Termin: Ende Juni  – mit Kind, Kegel und Michael Keith als Gast-Star. (und Co-Skipper. ;-)

Mit ungebremster sportlicher Begeisterung und mit hochmotiviertem Skipper am Ruder blies uns der Yugo mit bis zu 50kn Wind in die naechste Bucht. Dort bei knapp 30 Grad – der lange ersehnte Augenblick: der Eichwal !

Bilder vom Toern

- Ah – und hier noch ein Actionshot:

im Yugo zwischen Korcula und Brac

Gute Werbung nicht nur fuer unsere sondern hoffentlich fuer alle Baugruppen in Berlin !

Download: BG Lichtblick auf RBB

What else to say ? Well. The weather was amazing, the food was plenty, we had really nice wind, lots of fun and I promise to be back there soon !

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Ein grosser Tag fuer alle freien Standards ! Und ab wann unterstuetzt eigentlich Apple’s Pages endlich ODF ? Oder hat Jobs Angst, dass dann BillG boese wird ?