Category Archives: Kids

The best birthday ever ! (sneak peek)

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In the Djungle (without words)

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At home in Las Palmas

Slowly we’re feeling at home here in Las Palmas. The personnel of the local chandlery knows us by name, the kids have plenty of friends and the days pass by in an instant. Today at 13:00h, the ARC will start across the Atlantic and then it’s gonna be much quieter in the harbour. We’ll commemorate that by having a beach party in the afternoon. Hehehe.

Unfortunately, the Express Crusader also left Gran Canaria this morning. This beautiful, history-charged ship is inhabited by an argentinian family with three kids – despite sailing under the english flag. We’ll gonna miss them and look forward to meet again in Cabo Verde or maybe in the Carribean. Bruno was really very sad today.

Yesterday I built the mount for our tiller pilot and thus managed to remove one of the last items from my ToDo list. After that there was a big children farewell party on board the Express Crusader with 11 (in words: ELEVEN !!) kids. Afterwards Bruno and Viola still had energy left to do the long planned restaurant evening. The kids created a menu and Bruno took the orders with pen and booklet and passed the wishes of our guests towards the kitchen. Viola mixed Mojitos and Bruno and Gui made the Cheeseburgers. It was a wonderful evening with Klaus und Tim from the Kira (where the restaurant was actually planed – therefore the name…)

And now we’ll have to get into the Dinghy to see the start of the ARC 2011 . We wanna shoot a couple of pictures. We have a steady breeze and I guess at lest the racing division will use that to start under spinnaker. We’ll see…

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With the car in the south and a new visitor

Huh ? No update in three days ? That’s unusual. But of course that only happened because we’re sooooo busy. Hehehe. This monday we rented a car and crossed the island towards the south. It goes waaaaay up on the mountains and it really IS a street as you expect it to be, meandering up the steep slopes of the rocky center of Gran Canaria. On the summit we had a little rest, cool air, a nice view, the driver had a beer and the kids had a donkey-ride.

Then it was downhill for quite a while, passing strange plants. I was just saying to Gui: “Look at that strange trees, they have yellow leaves.” When it came to me. Aaah ! There still is that thing with seasons. – It’s autumn !! *Pfew* Somehow we already ARE a little disconnected with central Europe, it seems. Then we saw another strange thing: A paddle-cactus-tree. Never saw such a plant – and actually I learned that it’s a highly endangered species and ususally only to be found on the Galapagos Islands.

Having arrived in the south, we payed a visit to the Hitch-Hike-Heidi which we last saw in Aveiro (Portugal). The kids had fun without end and the grownups had an endless chat. It was wonderful but way to short. We hope to meet again in Cabo Verde.

Yesterday there wasn’t much happening – but we got a visitor: Klaus from the Kira arrived to meet his parents. And since it was logistically better, he used the ferry to come over from Tenerife. He’ll spend two nights on board the Rancho Relaxo after which Tim will arrive with the Kira.

Today we had big construction works on our ship: five kids were playing Lego. Unfortunately I forgot to document the creations – but I was just too engaged.

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30th international dinghy race

Today the crew the Rancho Relaxo participated in the much anticipated dinghy race. – And we think we won. Or actually nobody knows. We didn’t even realize when the race started or when it finished. It was all just splashing water and throwing balloons filled with – or old bread soaked in water… yes – we got dirty and wet.

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.

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Preschool, muffins and up the mast

It’s three o’clock in the afternoon and we’ve already been quite hardworking. After breakfast, Bruno went immediately to work with pre-school and today’s subject mathematics. After that the kids and Gui tried a new muffin recipe, decorated the pastries and immediately ate them.

In the mean time, I was up the mast to repair the remote compass and took measurement of  our antenna mount where the active radar reflector should be rigged. The electronic compass is now finally working. And since yesterday our ships main compass has working illumination again and Bruno and me installed the last missing part for our desalinator. We’ll check on our way to Cabo Verde whether it really works.

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Another (work)day

“Papi, what are we gonna repair today ?” – this is how Bruno wakes me up nowadays. And every morning I have a different answer. Actually we only wanted to stay a day or two (I know, I repeat myself…) but it’s just soooo convenient to have all shops and toolstores around the corner, so today we said, we’ll stay for another week. Yes, a week because I also ordered new optical sunglasses and they’ll not be ready before that. We also will get a new battery and tank monitor from the U.S. that somehow got wrecked during yesterdays battery replacement. Now the only thing it shows on it’s display is that it’ll like a new firmware to be uploaded – or to say it differently: It’s broken.

Because it doesn’t cost much, I sent an Email to Blue Sea Systems and immediately got an unbelievably friendly email back in which they announce to send us a new (refurbished) unit ! WOW, that’s customer support ! Companies of the earth: take this as an example !! Ah, and to stay on the subject: I also sent an email to our battery supplier and got an answer back. But there’s not yet any concrete development, I’ll post later on this very subject.

As you can see on the pictures: Today was sewing day. Gui made beds for the children’s puppets the other day and now of course they needed a bedding. Viola didn’t hesitate and took the needle and sewed away. Bruno and me were doing the covering for the newly installed fridge and mounted the still missing switch for the same. We repaired the pump that get’s the oil of the ship’s engine out (when it’s to be changed) and we also got the last missing parts to install the saltwater pump for the watermaker. So that will probably be tomorrow’s project. We’ve also been on the beach and right after discovered a Bio-Burger restaurant nearby. Yummie !!

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POW ! To the people.

The power is back !! Yeyeye !!! Electrical light – without cranking the dynamo-lantern constantly. No fumes of our petroleum-lantern… No. Nice, warm LED-light from the ceiling on the push of a button. Great !

Today I talked with the guys from the shop here and although they don’t have a concrete idea why our batteries died, they still told me that I’m not alone. In fact only a few weeks ago a norwegian yacht passed through and had all six (!!) of their five month old AGM batteries replaced ! So we too now have old school lead-acid batteries. Today I spent a lot of money and got four mainenance-free Vaetus marine batteries with 108 Ah each. Replacing the batteries took the whole day because of our fantastic ‘battery-cistern’. Now my back hurts but there’s again power running through the veins of the Rancho Relaxo !

Many thanks to our readers for all the helpful tips and advices that came in via comment function, facebook and email !! But still, we don’t know why the batteries died…. Today I wrote an Email to the manufacturer. We’ll see if they answer – actually it should be covered by the guarantee…. But who knows…

Did I mention that Bruno with his five years is already a good dinghy captain ? He loves to drive us to the harbour – although even more so when we are only two (because it’s faster !) Hehehe. Also in the pics: Bruno and Viola are amazed by an shop window with slide and snow made from styropor (and both hold an ice cream in theyr hand).

Posted in Hardware, Kids, LosLocos, Pics, Rancho Relaxo, Work | 2 Comments

Saying good bye to Victor and Oskar and workday

Today we had to say goodbye to Victor and Oskar who took the plane in the afternoon to get back to Berlin. We had a intensive but really wonderful week together and the farewell was hard for both Bruno and Victor who had to cry a lot. But the tears were soon forgotten as my parents now stay with us on the Rancho Relaxo. We actually wanted to sail towards Gomera today but as it was already quite late and we were in working mode, we opted for tomorrow.

We re-checked the cabling and tubing of the newly installed watermaker and found a broken O-ring, replaced it and everything now seems 100% right. We might give it a try next time, we’re out in clear waters. We also dismounted the windsteering and put a fitting in place that somehow slipped out of the pipe. That probably was the first service in 30 years. Go Windpilot, go !!!

So now we’re pretty much ready for take-off and if you don’t hear from us the next days, we’ll be in Gomera together with my parents, having a good time at the beach. :-)

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In the Loro Parque

Again park – but this time a full success ! In the north of Tenerife there’s a beautiful animal park that specialises on parrots and animals of the sea and since kids love animals more than most things we had an amazing day.

We spent the whole day in the park and also watched the shows of the Dolphins, Orcas and sea lions which were quite good.

On the other side – I can’t wait to see many of those animals in their natural habitat (no, not the sharks and orcas !) After the park we were at Dekathlon (a big shop for sport stuff) and got snorkeling equipment. Hehehe.

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At the surfers beach and campfire

What a relief. After yesterdays Siam Park desaster we’ve spent today’s afternoon at the beach watching the surfers glide through the waves. Oskar will go there tomorrow at sunrise – he even brought his own surfboard with him. – Sadly I’ll do breakfast with the children so there will not be any spectacular pics of Victor’s father.

The kids were strolling the beach looking for shells, fish and other stuff while their grandparents arrived to have a little fun with them. Later in the evening and back in the marina, we had a nice campfire near (no, not ON) the jetty. The kids fell into the bunks and were asleep only a few minutes later. That’s a sure sign for a good day !

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Siam Park – if you don’t wanna have fun

A little change for once: We wanna visit the big water-fun-park called ‘Siam’.

But somehow those ‘fun parks’ are all quite the same:

At the entrance you loose a lot of money and in front of every main feature you have to queue for endless minutes in the blistering sun – only to be sent back because the kids are too small. It’s 1,1m or 1.25m or sometimes even 1.4m. So there wasn’t much fun for our kids here… But lucky us: they have a little play castle for the smaller kids. The only catch ? You guessed it: No grown ups allowed. And it doen’t mater how much the kids would like or how much they cry. – No. No grownup’s allowed.

Another main attraction is the big wave-pool. But we were immediately sent back with the kids. – “Please don’t have fun here !”

No no no. Today we’ll go to the beach again. The waves are free for everyone and even the kids are allowed to have fun.

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Tenerife, beach

Two weeks on Tenerife – what else would we do ? Spend days on the beach with the grandparents of Bruno and Viola accompanied by Victor and Oskar. We dig holes in the sand and Bruno is trying to swim. This would be something to make me truly happy: if our children would learn to swim… But it’s not the time yet.

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Victor arrived !

After counting the days for four weeks, yesterday he finally arrived. Victor – Bruno’s best friend arrived at the airport. They’ll have each other for one week – hopefully that’s enough. There’s so much to talk about and so much fun to be had….

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If we’re not asleep

On the party pontoon it’s very silent during the days. The crews get a little rest, meditate about the last evening…

Hehehe. It’s surprising but we mostly are quite productive. Today the Rancho Ralaxo will get new paint (again). Yesterday while the captain still was resting, Gui got out all the gratings of the cockpit and cleaned everything with lots of water and soap. The SY Kira tried to repair their windgenerator, re-mounted the solar panel and today they will probably service their winches. The SY Chiloe finally has a running outboard after two days of work and we’ll probably soon hear a shout of joy from inside the Roede Orm, when the toilet is again 100% watertight after intensive repairs. A Bananaboat found a new owner and the ear of the captain was operated by the board doctor of the Kira. In the meantime the kids were having fun getting everyting and everyone soaked with water while in the evenigs they built enormous constructions out of LEGO. Yes. A lot’s happening here…

Today we’ll finally get into town and see a frind of mine. That would be really great – since tomorrow we’ll get out of the marina and probably drop the anchor in Cascais before we start towards the south. We’ve been waiting for wind for one week now and it’s probably not until wednesday that we can go sailing towards the Canary Islands.

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School starts on bord the Rancho Relaxo

This is actually one week old. – The first minutes of bord school with Bruno, Viola and Gui. Enjoy !

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Weary legs

After two days of indoor service, we’ve finally seen some sunrays through the window and went outside to take the bus to Santiago de Compostela.

Having arrived, one thing immediately strikes the eye: About 50% of the people roaming these ancient streets have sore feet and either ski poles or long wooden sticks in their hand. Ah ! Claro – the crusaders ! (Or something similar…) Anyway. We immediately went into that famous big church and made many pictures of important historical figures, when Bruno, wo always has to explain everything whishpers into Viola’s ear: ‘You know – this once was a big circus !’ It was quite hard to retain the composure after that. My personal highlight: You know that little candles that you can inflame – a very romantic gesture to lost friends or family. Well those candles are ELECTRIC here and they switch on for a few hours when you put a coin in a box. See – the church is modern after all. Hehehe.

If we’re going touristic, we do it 100% so we hop onto one of those little trains and chug for an hour through that old city. There are maaaany orthopaedists here. Ah – I’ve already mentioned the thing with the sore feet… After a little break with some Jamón, Queso and cerveza, we miss the second to last bus towards the coast and have to run to catch the very last one. So in the end, we also got our part of hot feet.

Today I’m happy about the maaaany emails from family, friends and also some (until now) unknown blog-readers. That’s something that is really motivating: To get some comments and emails now and then. Otherwise one really get’s the feeling of writing the blog for oneself – despite the statistics telling a different thing.

And now we go (in that order) for a shower, shopping, picking up or new main sail and finally anchor-up. Where we go ? We don’t know exactly. But the next planned stop will be at the Islas Cies just outside Vigo. Internet access we’ll probably have again in Portugal… Sounds like few serene days are ahead.

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Yeeeah !! Brighton !

After two months of cruising through autumn and winter – we finally found the summer ! It has hidden out in the south of England, it seems. So we’ve arrived here in one of England’s biggest marinas yesterday at 3 o’clock in the morning. We were quite surprised to find the sun shining into our bedroom in the morning. What an unusual sight ! We haven’t felt her warm nice rays for soo long.

Well we came here for two reasons. First: Bruno and Viola want to visit Lola and Darcey and we want to see their mother Nina. Second: Tomorrow we’ll pick up Michael to come with us for one week along Englands south coast. So hopefully the weather will last for a few days…

Ah. And while cruising to Brighton we crossed the meridian of Greenwitch which means, we are now in The West. And also we made our first 1000 nautical miles. 1050 now since we left Berlin to be precise.

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From Netherlands to Belgium

Yesterday we had our most beautiful and by far the fastest trip so far. Going from Scheveningen in the Netherlands to Blankenberge in Belgium, we had a good force 4 to 6 from northwest and could run a beam reach course (does one wright it that way ?) towards our destination. The trip was a total of 70 miles and crossed some of the major shipping lanes towards Hoek van Holland, Rotterdam and Vlissingen. This and the waves that at some stages got quite biog made it interesting, and althought it’s still quite cold here, the sun was actually showing she’s still there somewhere… I was writing we were going fast and yes, we were – at least for our own mesasurements. Which means the current and the wind were pusing our twelve ton Rancho Relaxo with a good 8 knots forward. That’s feeling like flying. Hehehe. Everyone with a modern, light yacht is probably laughing his ass of right now.

When leaving Scheveningen, the customs and immigration came for a visit, both in cool frog-men like outfits and very friendly looked our papers and around the ship and soon after were off with their powerboat and roughly five times our speed. Hehehe.

The approach towards Zeebruegge and Blankenberge (which are quite close to each other) was a little frightening as both cities look AWFULLY when viewed from sea (pic below). But the 80ies style concrete nightmare that’s to be seen from sea is actually hiding some nice housings behind and the marina is crowded but quite nice. We’ve got free rental bikes and one can shower as long as one likes. – Ah, and Bruno wrote a menue plan for us. :-)

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Ready to leave (again)

Phew. One work-week in Flensburg. As you have seen, the Kids and Gui were underway in Flensburg – and after passing the exam I now had to concentrate on some work. So now we have a new wind generator mounted on a mast at the back of our ship. And the engine has new oil and new filters. We also have a new cutter-stay and a new foresail for it. Also a couple of improvements were done to the reefing system and the mast.

Well and now we’re *really* ready to leave for the north sea ! Tomorrow we’ll sail towards Kiel, together with Wolfgang. And on Sunday we’ll enter the NOK (channel connecting North sea and Baltic sea). I’ll do updates as we get along but now I have to concentrate on more important things (after-work beer !) Yay !!

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