While sailing out, a cruise ship sneaks up behind us and forces us to go higher on the wind. But soon it is past us, we leave the lighthouse Oksøy behind and set course 110°. That should get us just past the south-east tip of the traffic seperation area north of here. Also it’s a convenient course as it will take us out of the counter current sooner and we hope to enter the NW setting current somewhere midway. We have wind from WSW to W with five to six beaufort. That is a bit more than was announced and we rapidly leave Norway behind.

But the wind against current situation creates really ugly waves and a few hours later Moana gets seasick. Kilian also wakes up and so Gui tries to keep lookout in the cockpit while I am in the forepeak changing diapers. One should be well on the lookout around here as there is a lot of traffic and some ferries are really crazy fast.

The trip doesn’t start too nice. We have too much wind and the kids keep us very busy. – But what could we expect ?

At some stage both little ones fall asleep and it is a bit easier on the watch. Dozens of freighters, tankers and fishing vessels pass us on the starbord side. All coming from the baltic and heading down towards the english channel. During the very short phase of semi-darkness, between midnight and about two in the morning, a cruise ship is coming towards us and passes close by.  A bit north of Skagen, in the early morning we meet the only other sailboat. We did have mobile reception while sailing past Skagen from a distance of about 12nm and then again from 22nm west of the swedish coast. Quite irritating to suddenly receive messages in the middle of nowhere with no land in sight.

In the early afternoon we arrive in Slubberholmens, a beautiful little anchorage, friends of us suggested. While entering, there are only (?) four other boats. It is warm and tomorrow it is supposed to get really hot. So we eat a sandwich and quickly inflate both dinghy und SUP and head for the beach ! The children are immediately happy and play with the sand in the fingers, in the water and explore the island. We spend a wonderful afternoon at the little island and head back to the boat when the small kids get tired. The tension of the at times agonizing trip falls of me and as we paddle back to the boat we realize how full the anchorage has become. We eat and soon fall into the beds.

The question we heard the most often during these last months is: ‘And ? Have you settled in ?’ This question is asked without much thoght and unsuspecting that the answer might be a long and complicated one. Just as for the typical ‘How are you ?’: people expect a simple ‘Good/well/whatever.’ and definately not a lecture on the positive and negative sides of different lifestyles. So right now I could just write ‘Good.’ And all of you would be satisfied, wouldn’t you ?

Or do you really want to know how we are and what’s been going on these last months ? I guessed so…

The initial arrival was quite nice. Hugging old friends, knowing the surroundings and the neighborhood, meeting family and friends of our kids… All very lovely. But we also knew from other sailors’ returns that the actual arrival hits you after a few weeks and it’s not a nice one. It was just the same with us. It’s not that suddenly you realise that the journey and the free and wild life is over. It’s more subtle. The changes get you slowly.

One thing I miss the most are the intense, deep conversations we had with our sailing friends. It seems that the people on land are just too busy or too fearful to really dig in deeper. So the conversations stay on the surface and the essential parts of life mostly are kept out of focus. This is a thing that really makes me sad and it is something that one starts to accept after a while – although it really hurts.

Our kids took it the best, I would say. They really integrated themselves rather easy and fast and Viola had no problems at all to find heaps of friends and find herself to be one of the top students in her class. For Bruno it wasn’t that easy as he was rather slow when it came to reading and writing. He had done school on board in spanish and german but his new school was all english so this was a big step. But after a few months he also had settled in and is now gaining on the midfield in his class. His teachers are optimistic and tell us that by the end of the year he would be above average. Well at least that is no reason for concern anymore. Before arriving in Berlin we were quite nervous about school but it all seems to develop very well. The kids have lots of friends and frequent sleepovers and playdates and both are quite happy.

And how are the grownups ? Well we didn’t have it that easy so far. During the first weeks we had a lot to organize (appartment, insurance, school, taxes, furniture, jobs, etc.) but that was all settled quite fast. More difficult for me was the fact that during our absence the development in politics, economics and society are still in the wrong direction and even picking up speed. So rather than getting more independet from the axis of evil (the five eyes) we embrace them with TTIP and CETA and at home ‘our’ institutions ECB, European Comission and IMF do everything to make the situation worse, to play everything into the hands of a few rich people while the big part of the population in Spain, Portugal and Greece is driven into poverty and unemployment. The news regarding the global surveillance through the NSA are not publicly discussed and the rather shy comission of enquiry that the german parliament put into work was dissolved during the first hearing when a double agent was discovered on the team. Business has to continue. Business as usual with full speed towards the abyss. These developments make me rather nervous (a huge understatement) and I’m quite sceptic when I look into the future. But here comes one of the most important learnings of our journey into the picture: Even when the future looks rather grim, we still know that a different life is possible. And we HAVE lived that life for some years. That gives hope. As does the awakening of Podemos in Spain or Tsipras in Greece. Maybe all is not lost yet.

Well now I’ve disgressed completely into the political arena. But well. Politics is important and the developements right now will have a huge impact on all our future. So. What have Gui and me done during these last months ? Gui was busy with her clothes label Coquito and travelled to Argentina in January to create the new collection. On the side she works three to four days a week in a little french restaurant here in Berlin. I started to work with my old company again. Back at the computer instead of painting the deck or working on the engine. It’s not exactly better work but it pays better and that is quite important for us right now. But still it’s not what I would want to do forever. That’s why I’m currently trying to establish a new company together with a friend. We’re still quite at the beginning but it will have to do with conserving and monitoring energy, focussing on small businesses now but going towards private households in the end. This is really fun and involves a bunch of skills that I really like to work with. Mostly electronics, electricity, programming embedded and web and also installing the equipment on site which gets me away from the computer at least one day a week. But the best is that doing this work, we’ll improve the human impact on our planet just a little and that’s great.

That all means that we both ususally work six days a week while our kids are in a full-time school. We meet only shortly in the evening then everybody is really tired. During the weekends we usually work one day each so there is no time to do anything together as a family. We were prepared that re-entering the ‘normal’ life wouldn’t be easy but we really didn’t expect it to be that hard. But still: spring is in it’s starting blocks and slowly one thing fits to the next and the outlook get’s better and better.

Many friends also asked me whether I would be writing a book of our journey ? Yes. I want to. Definately ! It’s just – right now I have no time to do that. And with two jobs and a lot of chaos around us it’s quite difficult to organize my thoughts and put them on paper (or rather on hard disk). But I have tons of content, a lot of good ideas and slowly the story is developing in my head – despite all the crazyness around me. So don’t give up yet and bear with me. It’ll be worth it. Promised !

But the best thing right now is that in two weeks we’ll be sailing ! YES !! It’s not gonna be the tropics but a little trip in Flensburg with friends will really be good for us. And actually – speaking of the tropics: I will be back soon. In three weeks I’ll have to fly to Australia visit the Suvarov. We’ll have to move her to a cheaper marina and also there might be two potential new owners having a look or a testsail. So please keep your fingers crossed that we’ll sell the Suvarov. That would definately cheer me up !

All is gone. Everything we uploaded in these last three years: thousands of photos and many videos…. all gone. That’s something not everyone could do. And definately not as fast as me. To efficiently delete these amounts of data you need a proper internet connection and the right tools ! Heh.

But as I’m not really new in this arena I don’t get a stroke but keep quite calm and start searching through the backups of our blog. But not ! Funny enought it’s exactly that ONE folder that somehow is not included in the nightly backup routine. Heh. So the only option that is left: To restore everything manually. Up until mid 2012 this is an easy task as I did a complete backup of the whole site when we were in Moorea. The rest I have to extract from a PDF export I once did in Brisbane. And the final posts I restore manually.

Two days later our site and all our pictures are online again. And now I’m finally starting on a long overdue update. There was quite some things happening during these last weeks, believe me !

While the grown-ups were a big jet lagged, the kids had endless fun with their cousins and the brand new bikes they got. Today we’ll be at my grandmother’s place for a different kind of dumplings (with apricot inside). Hehehe. Later more…

The volcano was at the lowers activity level (1) but still – the show was breathtaking ! The noise and the lava that was thrown through the air, the smell, the whole scenery. Quite awesome. ’nuff said, enjoy the pics:

Before leaving from the Costeau Resort, I had to go diving because the night before I accidentally dropped part of our barbequeue. My first attempts of freediving down to 18m were unsuccessful – so I went down again with proper diving gear and actually could find that little thing lying on the ocean floor. Second thing to do: to replace the lower shrouds that got damaged months ago in a storm when sailing towards Tonga. My brother brought the needed replacement parts with him from Europe.

Then – finally ready to go, we set sail and have a beautiful cruise towards Namena. The breeze is light but enough to let us glide along with five knots and we reach our destination an hour before sunset.

Next day we hop into the water and again we’re all amazed by the pure beauty of the reef here in Namena. The number of different animals seems to be without end – as is the form and color of the different hard and soft coral.  During every single dive we run into some sharks (small white- and blacktip reef sharks) which is quite common. Usually the sharks come around for a short look and a few seconds later they disappear into the endless blue.

Quite different on the second day: a pair of little white-tip sharks start circling us and instead of being afraid, they come closer and closer while still circling us. I try to scare them off and actually put my fins in their face but they still continue to circle and their movements get more rapid and intense all the time. Needless to say: we don’t like that and although these sharks are usually completely harmless we jump out of the water and into the dinghy. Here we still can see the sharks circling us – sometimes close enough to touch them. Weird.

But it’s not all scary down there: We also run into some turtles with I follow with the camera for nearly a minute. Same thing: Usually the turtles are easily scared but this time I was quiet enough to be able to follow them and get really close.

Of course we see tons of little clown fish, huge giant clams in all colors, groupers, sweet lips, snapper and other species too numerous to count. I’ll let the pictures tell the rest of the story…

After being at anchor out at the reef for more than two weeks, a few days in Savusavu are a welcomed change. Because of the forecast I took down the big sunroof and gave it to a local tailor to stich up a few holes. Then we wait for the wind. The weather prediction was spot-on and despite being well protected behind the little island, we still had a constant 30 knots with gusts reaching into the 50ies.

It wasn’t too easy doing pictures with the rain coming in horizontally and the light being only slightly above candlelight-level while working mostly with maximum zoom. It was a lot easier on the next day, during the ‘golden hour’ when the water level was at it’s high and we could watch as an australian yacht was pulled out of the mud.

The Beneteau somehow got the mooring line around the keel and shaved through it after which the boat was adrift and ended up close to the mangroves. That was pretty lucky – as there is enough coral around to split the thin fibreglass hull. But the lucky boat got stuck in soft mud and could be towed out at the next high tide without any further damage. Two dinghies and a boston whaler from the local perl farm pulled on the mast to lift the keel out of the mud and a dive boat with 500hp pulled the yacht into deeper water.

Uh ! And I’ve even got more good news: After waiting for eight weeks, yesterday my christmas parcel finally arrived !!  After months I’ve finally got a decent computer again. Yay !

My old MacBook Pro died in the caribbean when a glass of water was spilled over it. The replacement, a MacBook Air killed itself when the internal (SSD-) harddrive got knocked out. So I had to use the ship’s navigation computer, an old Asus EeePC. It’s a nice little laptop that draws nearly no power but for working with pictures and videos it’s the wrong equipment. That’s why I’m as happy as a child on christmas day to finally have a decent laptop that won’t lag behind when I’m typing my blog posts. Maybe it also has positive influence on the frequency of updates. Only two posts duting the last month ?!? That’s an all-time low, I better start writing again…

The marine weather report here in Fiji is quite funny: although there was not much wind during these last weeks, we were continuously warned of foul weather and heavy rain. When we had 15-20 knots, the marine weather warned of ‘rough seas’ sometimes even mentioned ‘very rough’ seas – even when the wind in this area wouldn’t even exceed 25 knots. I guess, the boys and girls from Fiji’s weather bureau don’t get out to sea much – otherwise they would know that it takes waves of four to six meters with breakers to qualify for a ‘very rough’ sea. Don’t get me wrong: I really appreciate them sending meaningful warnings out to the people cruising the oceans but if you shout ‘Fire ! Fire !’ all the time – no fire brigade will show up when it really burns. I know this analogy sucks but I guess you get my point.

A related story might illustrate it further: When we were cruising the Canary Islands in 2011 some overeager employee of the local authorities sent two DSC-alerts in front of *every* marine weather bulletin. This means that six times a day the whole crew is startled by the intense alarm of their VHF radio just because they send weather info. This resulted in most of the yachts turning off their VHF ! Fortunately we could revert to our handheld radio which doesn’t support DSC. Hopefully this dangerous and silly practise since has ceased.

Well but now back towards the actual cause of today’s posting. One of the most important tasks of the local weather bureau is to alert the population in case of a cyclone. And right now there is no such warning. Although in my opinion, the situation is quite critical. Wikipedia lists six requirements for the development of a tropical cyclone:

1. Warm ocean surface of at least 26.5°C. – check
2. Atmospheric instability (tropical wave north Fiji towards Tonga) – check
3. High humidity in the lower atmospheric levels. – check
4. sufficient Coriolis force (always given near the equator) – check
5. Preexisting low level focus or disturbance (two lows north of Fiji) – check
6. Little vertical wind shear (hard to tell but likely)

Two additional factors are left out: El Nino, which has influence on hurricane activity – but this year is no El Nino event. And the Madden-Julian-Oscillation which seems to have massive influence on the frequency of tropical storms. In a scientific study done in 2009, the area of Fiji-Samoa-Tonga was investigated and the study came to the conclusion that in case of an active MJO there are five times (!!) more cyclones forming than during the inactive phase. The MJO develops in a 30 to 60 day rhythm in the indian ocean and then travels east. According to current observation, the MJO will reach our area during the next days. Although it’s not extremely active, it still enhances my alertness.

Let’s hope, Fiji’s meteorologists know what they do. I’d be happy if I’m proven wrong.

So what’s the captain doing ? Fixing things – of course ! I can’t sit still for too long and there’s enough work on the Suvarov. Our engine still tends to overheat so again I took apart the whole cooling system. All the tipps of the boat neighbors and of Leon (the local machanic-guru) are implemented. The whole system is checked from inlet, impeller, all hoses, mixing elbow, water collector to exhaust. But the problem is IN the engine which is no surprise since the above mentioned parts were checked before we left Polynesia.

During that check I was quite confused that I didn’t find a thermostat. Now – with the proper manual I could verify: It’s indeed missing ! Luckily somewhere with the boat tools I found a box containing four used thermostats who after checking were all verified to work correctly. They just needed some cleaning.

The next surprise was the air filter – I wanted to clean it but – there is no filter in there ! Well. That safes me a little work. ;-) Next step: replacing the sacrificial anodes. That’s convenient because while doing that I can have a look inside the cylinder head and see wherther there’s any calcium builup. Next surprise: instead of a gasket someone used household silicone ! – On the front of the cylinder head !! The backward plate had no gasket at all. :-) Luckily we have gasket paper on bord and Gui made nice new ones for me.

Inside the cylinder head it looked a lot like a flowstone cave. Lots of stalagtites and stalagmites – and even some crystals ! What a beauty !! Well – and why the cooling of the engine isn’t really working well is clear now. After consulting the almighty internet I find out that it’s best to use 10-15% acetic acid to remove that calcium buildup. Unfortunately the only related liquid available in Savusavu is white vinegar. So I decide to take a little risk and use 5% sulfuric acid to remove the crud.  I fill the (warm) engine with four liters of acid and let it sit until it stops hissing and bubbling. From the connection on the top of the engine we can see the CO2 escape. A nice chemical experiment for our schoolkids. The acid cleaning will continue for the next days. We’ll see whether it works…

While I was at it I also changed the oil, de-rusted and painted some parts, replaced hose clamps and hoses, etc. A nice little service for our engine. As you might be curious it’s a Yanmar 3QM30H with saltwater cooling. And as I had to search forever to find it, I safe others the work and put a link to the service manual !

My starting point is the little vent in the kitchen. Sometime ago there was also an electric ventilator installed but corrosion has eaten it away probably years ago. The Vetus vent itself, I replaced back in Moorea as the old one didn’t even close properly. But somehow water still found it’s way in – so I remove it completely and discover some realy nasty stuff: The leak probably existed for many years and not much is left of the 4mm of steel that our deck is made of. So I start the old game: first hammering the loose material away, then brush the metal until it looks somewhat stable. After cleaning it, I soak everything with phosphoric acid. Half an hour later the acid has done it’s magic and converted all the rust to black ferric phosphate. Now I clean again with freshwater and let it dry. The epoxy primer appears on stage and gives the ugly spot a nice, watertight cover. During the next days, I will paint additional layers of white polyurethan paint. Time will tell how that combination works out….

But as I’m already at it, I crawl around on deck and open more and more rust spots. Some are easy, others quite nasty. The always leaking bathroom window was missing a fitting underneath the handle and the window itself wasn’t glued to the deck with Sikaflex or 3M-50200 but instead sat on a 1cm layer of filler (the one that is used for fixing bumps in cars *rrr*).  In general I usually uncover two or three generations of household silicone which if at all is only to be used inside the ship. – Well it’s an amateur construction, one can tell.

Like this I work for five days on my knees with chisel and power drill in my hands.

We discovered that the hatch on the foredeck also leaks water *underneath* the frame and onto our children’s beds. So I take the whole hatch off and again ramove three layers of silicone and cheap one-component paint. I polish the aluminium frame and after painting everything in the above mentioned manner, I glue it back in with Sikaflex. Also I turn the whole hatch a 180˚ so it now opens to the front. That will let a lot more air into the cabin and make our life more enjoyable in those hot regions we’re cruising in.

My last item on the todo list ist the tiller, which I dismount to put in nice, water resistant marine grease and again glue everything together again. Now all the leaks have been worked on -  if they really hold up against the waves only our next trip can tell…

We again stayed four days and enjoyed ourselfes (more on that in the next post). When leaving for Neiafu we made a stop after about 1.5 miles on the western extreme of the island. Located here is the Swallows Cave that can be accessed by dinghy. One has to stay on the sailboat though as the water is way too deep to anchor in front of the cave. Inside the cave the colors play with the water and as the name suggests, the ceiling is covered with swallow’s nests. A thing not to miss when visiting Tonga.

On our way towards Tonga we ran into a front / through. As the thing really looked weird on our weather maps we prepared ourselfes for the worst – and pretty much got it. Luckily for us, the storm hit during daylight which is a lot less freightening than having strong winds in the pitch black night. Lucky for you too as you get some scary pictures (and maybe a video later on).

The front was clearly visible in the morning after breakfast and when it hit, the wind turned 180 degrees and increased to about 40 knots at which it stayed pretty much all day. After a few hours, the sea picked up and nearing the end of the storm we had waves reaching well above five meters. Despite the rough seas we still did 4-5 knots, going against the wind with the main and genoa in the third reef.

Slightly further south it was even worse. We heard of yachts that encountered more than 50 knots of wind just 50 miles south of our position.

The damage: one genoa sheet was nearly shaved through and again we made lots of water. The most of it in the lazarette but not as much as previously in the living quarters. The sunbrella cover of our Genoa was already slightly damaged from all the flapping during the light wind sailing and the storm did some additional damage. But it’s already down and we gave it to the local sailmaker to re-stitch it. It should be fine again in one or two days. We had to use the autopilot for a few minutes while we put in another reef. Although it usually keeps the course quite well it managed to do a jibe (!!) while we were sailing on the wind. A jibe with 40 knots is not very nice and it tore out the stopper of the track of the main sheet. But that I can also repair easily. The culprit seems to be a faulty connection on the autopilot computer – a common fault, we learned. I’ll look into that during the next days too.

Compared to the other boats that came into harbour during the next days, we did pretty well. Other boats had their sails completely torn, blocks destroyed, hailyards snapped, etc. I don’t like cleaning the boat after an incident like that but if that’s all – I can live with it. And of course we will again improve and try to stop some more leaks that we found on hatches, vents, etc.

One thing I saw on the SY Ui wouldn’t let go: The owner reversed the tiller to gain extra space when underway. And that’s exactly what I did to our boat now: I switched the whole tiller around and adapted the windsteering accordingly. Now the steering only uses the very last part of the ship instead of running lines and moving the tiller all around the aft deck. Which is stupid as it’s a very nice place to be during sailing and we loose a lot of space with that old setup. I hope the new idea works as expected.

The new forestay is already in it’s place and yesterday we spent trimming the rig. Now the mast is 100% straight again and all shrouds have the proper tension. All seems to work out. Well… the lower end of the roller furler has to be adapted still. The new forestay is 12mm instead of 10mm and the newer, thicker terminals also grew in lenght. That’w why I have to extend the steel plates that hold the roller furler to the bow. That’s something for today.

ps: Right now we can’t publish bi-lingual since I recently updated the underlying blog software and the plugin to manage the translations (qTranslate) isn’t up to date yet. Up until then we’ll alternate in between english/german.

It takes me three days to install our new mast steps. A exhausting and dangerous work. But a cruising boat needs mast steps: Sailors are lazy people and when there are no steps one rarely wants to climb the mast and so never gets to check the rigging. No steps = higher risk so to say. As soon as I put the last two steps on the mast, I start looking at all the blocks, terminals, shackles and immediately I find a major defekt: The forestay has two strands broken right at the upper terminal ! So we got to get the sail and roller furler down and inspect the whole thing, probably replace it.  That means time, money, work. And that we’ll not be able to get going in the next days. Ouch !!

Ten minutes later we were in the dinghy and zoomed out towards the pass. We hopped in the water and only seconds later those huge, magnificent mammals were coming right at us. I could feel my heartbeat soar up and had troubles holding the camera still but still managed to make some shots. The whales went out to sea again and followed the reef to the north, towards Cook bay. Again, we parked the dinghy in front and hopped into the water. This time we were even closer – Lorenz and me had to swim out of the way to not get ‘run over’ by the mother whale. Puuuh ! And although they seem to move in slow motion, they still do 5-6 knots. We followed them out into the open sea as far as we could but then lost them.

A memory for a lifetime. And a video to share with you:

That’s one big, bold lettered item off the todo list ! And I’m even more happy about it – since I’m alone here with the kids and usually don’t get too much done these days. The kids – well, they found friends on our neighbor boat ‘living’ and try to spend every waking minute with the two boys.
All well in the South Pacific

That all happens while we’re doing eight knots going downwind towards the north-east corner of Moorea. Luckily we had our little test run a few days earlier, so nothing comes loose on the deck and also on the inside of the boat everything stays in it’s place. It even is dry inside as the deck vents don’t leak water anymore. But two breakers about half way through our journey bury the whole aft deck and cockpit in white water and a few liters find their way in through a broken seal in the back entrance. It was planned as a fast voyage with 25 knots downwind sailing and instead we get a ride in a storm: For the two hours that we are in between the islands, the wind establishes itself at 45 to 55 knots with gusts reaching over 65 knots. That’s where the beaufort scale ends – at force 12 !

Just after the NE-corner of Moorea we get some more choppy sea after which the waves quickly die down in the lee of the island. The wind also eases to 30-35 knots and we put a little more sail out. We continue sailing along the reef in close distance and finally tack through the pass into the Opunohu bay. The anchorage we enter under sails and Bruno receives cheers from the neighboring boats while he helps me anchoring the boat.
That really was an exciting trip and another good test for the Suvarov and her crew. Especially as we were without our capitana this time. She’s already landed in New Zealand and will continue her travel to Buenos Aires in a few days. – Odysee, LosLocos style. Now I’m gonna pack the wet mattress into the sun and relax for a while

As the night approaches the wind increases slightly but it stays quite comfortable during the first 16 hours. The ‘Fleming’ windsteering is holding the course very well and as the sun rises and Gui comes up we do the first tack and head ENE. The whole trip was not just to have some great time and see those wonderful islands but also to do a proper testdrive with the Suvarov. And now, on the second day we shall see what the boat can handle. A few small rain fronts pass overhead and we bash through them with full sails – despite having wind with 30 to 35 knots. On our old boat, the Rancho Relaxo, we would have sailed with the main in the second reef and probably the small jib. But the Suvarov with her longer and much wider hull doesn’t even need a reef. We stay hard on the wind and accelerate to 8.5 knots without any problems.
But the wind generally increases and the sea gets wilder on the second day. So additionally to the swell coming from SW we have now steep and choppy mix with the windwaves that come from the SE. The Suvarov smashes through the waves, the spray covers the whole ship and we see the first drops of water coming in through a small window in the bathroom and the two deck vents in the saloon. We push some towels into the vents and solve that problem.

During the night the waves increase and every now and then the whole deck is covered with white water. Later at night I’m downstairs at the chart table doing a logbook entry as I hear some weird watery sound from the kitchen. Can it be the water running by the hull ? No. That sounds different. There’s also that distinct noise that floating cans make. I open up the floorboard and my heart drops in my pants as I see all our food floating around in the bilge. We’re taking on water !!! Damn ! I wake up Gui and ask her to start her watch a little early while I use a portable pump to get the water out of the ship. A little bit more and our batteries could be buried in seawater. Not good. Not good at all.
After a while the water level sinks to a few centimeters and the rest I have to get out using a sponge and a bucket. While I’m at it I see where the water comes from: a deck vent in the kitchen acts as funnel and with every wave we get a few liters of saltwater. *rrrr*
The vent we close with a rag and some duct tape, that’s no problem. But we have lost a lot of food and also some of my spare gear that was stored further in the front. A little more than three hours later the bilge is dry again and we don’t take on more water.
That’s one thing to do in the next days: to get rid of the leaking vents. And rinse the whole boat with freshwater. Uuuuh. A lot of work. But – hey – otherwise we had a good trip. The Suvarov proved herself as a tough ship that can handle some beating. The sail upwind was good, actually better than with our old boat. And we were quite fast as we did 234 miles in a little more than two days, going against rough seas and a wind with 20 to 30 knots average. Now we feel like sailors again and we know we also have a good ship ! Yay !

Again there is some difference to the Rancho Relaxo: On our old boat all the interior was done professionaly and uwing the same wood and brass screws. The Suvarov on the other hand is amateur built and the interior is a wild mix of different types of wood, screws, paints and taste (or lack thereof). In our current case most of the wood is glued together with additional screws that are hidden under filler and paint. That makes things a lot more difficult. But after one day of hard labor, the bathroom is gone and we can think of what to do with the new space and how to integrate the steering cables that run through the middle of the room.

Next day I take the old wood panels and fabricate a mock-up of the new interior. I think that’s a good test to see whether our idea would work. Now we’re gonna sleep one or two times over that and see if we can come up with a better idea. Otherwise we’ll buy wood and start the work.

The school is closed for easter holidays but Bruno and Viola go to the Circus-school. There they do acrobatics, play clown and generally have a lot of fun. As it’s the last day, we come early for the pick-up and the group does a presentation for us. Viola’s friend Manoa comes back with us to the Suvarov. There’s a little front approaching and the dinghy ride with five people is not as relaxing as it was during the morning. The three wild ones do a pirate fight across the deck and through the interior of our boat. When the rain starts drumming on the roof, Bruno and Viola get active collecting rainwater.

Uh, and I have some bad news: I was quite looking forward to the return of our DSLR but unfortunately the charger for our good camera stayed in South America. So I continued using the compact camera. And this rather poor replacement did a little dive in Viola’s rucksack. Although the skipper ignored the sore foot and immediately jumped overboard for a rescue mission, it still got a few drops of water. Not more than during a snapshot in the rain but enough for it to wreck the battery. So now we have two compact cameras and a Pentax K5 without charger. The last cameras still in operation are the GoPro and my trusty old mobile phone which from now on will be the primary source of pictures for this blog. Uaaah !

Although the conception of our trip was not completely wrong, it still came a lot different than we thought. One and a half oceans later we wrecked our beloved Rancho Relaxo and are still in the process of settling in on the Suvarov. The paperwork is done and the austrian flag again decorates the back of the boat. Most of the work on the new boat is now finished.

The main problem right now is the Rancho. She’s still rusting away on a mooring in Taina Marina and costs money every month. Now that work on the coquito webshop is finished, we finally have time to put all the remaining stuff online for sale. And although we don’t try to have any illusions we still hope that we can find someone who wants to live on board the Rancho. Maybe even repair her and sail again… There’s still time. Gui’s visa will expire on the 30th of May and thus the date of our departure is set. A fact that I’m actually glad about because it’s really time we get away from here.

Not that I wouldn’t love these paradise-like islands and the wonderful polynesian people. But as everywhere there are also some downsides. Right now it’s the never healing wounds that drive me crazy. Even the smallest cut will get infected, swell up and take forever to heal. My ankle is showing a nice purple/black/red cut that has been there for a month now. Antibiotics and daily cleaning doesn’t seem to help much – it’s still swollen and hurts. This seems to be a general problem as most of the other sailors have had the same issues and the bodies of the lokal people also show remains of those cuts and bruises. The other thing I’m looking forward to is to finally visit some english speaking islands again and have better contact to the local people. An issue that is completely alien to our kids. Although they ‘only’ speak german, spanish and english, they have absolutely no problem communicating with the local kids. A fact that is best demonstrated by Viola who joined the local kindergarden a few days ago. She doesn’t mind at all that she has to get up before sunrise or that the other kids speak only tahitian and french. The only thing that counts is the many new friends she has and the new games she plays with them.

During the hours we spent on sea we made scetches and discussed possible ways to get the boat off the reef. When we finally arrived just before sunset we saw that she was actually nearly on dry land. The images I made just before we got into the helicopter showed a different picture. So there was absolutely no way we could pull her off the coral, we need to get a crane or a – excavator. And luckily Ti Ai Moana by coincidence also had a special excavator on exactly this island. And it can go through 2m of water ! After we got the permission (this island is private and owned by the son of Marlon Brando) next morning this big yellow beast made its way through the lagoon while Yann and Sebastian were tying ropes around the Rancho Relaxo.

With the help of the digger and the 1500HP of the Vaimiti 9 the 12-ton Rancho Relaxo finally started moving. And when her back was already touching the water and the excavator only needed to retreat – it happened. The arm touched the mast and it immediatly broke. Now we had a new challenge: To get the broken rigging of our ship on the deck before the waves again put her onto the reef. The wires and ropes were cut and the pieces of the mast and boom put on deck. And finally with extremely violent motion the Rancho hit the water – and stayed afloat.

On the inside the ship was a mess but nothing was broken. The rigging was gone, so was the boom, our handrails, the sprayhood and many other little things. But it had no hole – after spending two nights on the reef.

Right now we’re back in the Marina Taina in Tahiti. We try to get some order into the chaos on deck and calculate our options. It probably will take a few days for us to get to a decision as how to move on. Luckily nobody got hurt. And lucky us we have this amazing tank like ship that keeps us save.

We were on our way from Moorea to the Tuamotus when we hit the southern reef of Tetiaroa at around 3am local time. It took only a few seconds and the ship was thrown onto the rocks. Everything went very quick. The kids got lifevests on, I used the VHF to send out a MAYDAY with our position and situation. As soon as we knew that help would come (in the form of a Navy helicopter) we started to gather our most important things and prepared to abandon ship, I got the sails down and closed all windows just to be sure.

One of the best moments of our life – seeing the searchlight of the helicopter appear in the middle of the night. Followed by one of the scariest things we ever did: Leaving our home, our ship, all our posessions behind and jump into the dark ocean to climb onto the reef with the kids on our arms.

The crew of the helicopter did a fantastic job and got us up in the air in no time, fatigue setting in when we saw our shipwreck from above and escaped into the night to be brought to Papeete….

Yesterday Dan and me took the dinghy towards the reef where the wrecked yacht is bouncing in the surf. There were already a few sailors from the anchorage helping the owner get all stuff from the boat. We got all the sails down and into the dinghy to transport them towards the beach. The accident happened when going through the pass of the reef under engine where the propulsion suddenly stopped. Whether it was the gearbox or some failure with the propeller we don’t know. But it certanly was too late to get sails up and the yacht hit the reef only a minute later. The keel and rudder broke off instantly and the ship filled with water. What a sad story and how shocking to see how fast and easy something like that can happen !

In the afternoon we discovered that the small shop close to the beach is also selling burger meat ! We got the big pack and left it in the sun to defrost while we took the sailing dinghy for a ride through the lagoon.

Right before sunset we met back at the beach and Dan showed the kids how to start fire with a firestone and some dry coconuts. The short ones were fascinated !! We had a beautiful evening and everybody fell into the bunks like a stone. Good to be out in the nature again !

We visited Tahiti Nui and Tahiti Iti with Zac, Sylvie and Dan from the SY Ustupu. They rented a car and Dan managed to drive us all around, and although I wouldn’t say he forgot how it works, I’m sure he did that a little smoother while living in Canada. Together we went looking for fruits near the streets and checked every surf spot of the island… They also started surfing in Galapagos and we where all keen to have a look at Teahopu, the legendary break. On that day the waves where not as impresive as during the Billabong Contest, but it was nice, there are very positive vibes on that whole area. I’m shure I’ll be back some day…. but it could take a little while…

The last time I  took my board I got such a mighty wave, that it made me think about my kamikaze nature. It went rrrreally fast and was a massive fun the first seconds ! I was enjoying the speed with all my body and soul, but at the moment I realised I should start getting up and try to get out of there, I saw the reef aproaching. Coming in … three… two… one… SHIT !! I crashed full force into the coral and the only thing I could do was to grab my board as tight as possible and hope for the best. Well, I’m not dead, and got only a few scatches, so I guess it did went for the best ! Yeah, that was a wild ride. So, let’s face the facts. My next surf is going to be at a SANDY beach, with little waves. No harm done.

Gerade wenn man Kinder hat, kommt immer frueher oder spaeter die Frage nach dem eigenen Aeffchen aber das ist dann immer so kompliziert mit den Quarantaenevorschriften, gerade wenn man die am Strand einsammelt. Auf der Rancho steht ein Gecko bei den Grossen hoch im Kurs waehrend es bei den Kindern ein Huhn waere, das die Eier fuer den Kaiserschmarrn liefert. Dies sind natuerlich alles praktische Ansaetze, man muss sich aber auch Gedanken ueber die artgerechte Haltung machen. Spaetestens hier scheiden die meisten Mehrzelliger aus, denn welchem hoeher entwickelten Lebewesen wollte man schon eine solche Seereise zumuten ?

Nahrungsbeschaffung ist fuer die segelnde Familie eine anstrengende und zeitraubende Angelegenheit, da will man sich nicht unbedingt Sorgen ueber die Lieblingsspeise der kleinen Salzwasserkrokodile machen muessen, welche die Kinder als Experiment in der Bilge zuechten moechten. Auch ist der durchschnittliche Fahrtensegler ein eher traeges Lebewesen, womit die Verpflegung des idealen Haustieres idealerweise kaum bis keine Zeit beanspruchen sollte. Um hier der Seglergemeinde mal helfend unter die Arme zu greifen mache ich hier eine kleine Liste mit ein paar gesammelten Erfahrungen. Aber keine Angst, viele der Tipps funktionieren genauso in einem Zuhause, das nicht schwimmt !

Wir haben oder hatten in den letzten Wochen mehr oder weniger gute Erfahrungen mit den folgenden Tierarten gemacht. Es sei mir verziehen, nicht die korrekten lateinischen Namen rausgesucht zu haben, das ueberlasse ich dem oben angesprochenen, aufmerksamen Leser:

• Mehlbewohner: Wir haben sie zuallererst in der Getreidemuehle entdeckt, spaeter aber auch bei gekauftem Mehl. Ca. 0.5-1mm lang und roetlich bis hellbraun. Harmlos und geschmacksneutral, wird durch regelmaessige Benutzung der Getreidemuehle und besseres Verpacken von Mehl (in Flaschen) konstant auf maessiger Population gehalten.
• Ruesselkaefer: Zuerst entdeckt in einer noch geschlossenen Nudelpackung aus Gran Canaria. 2-3mm lang, schwarz und sehen aus wie eine Art Baby-Hirschkaefer. Sie haben die Faehigkeit durch Plastikverpackungen zu bohren und lieben Nudeln ueber alles – am allerliebsten Spinat-Lasagne. Werden ausgesiebt oder auch mitgekocht und vom Nudelwasser abgeschoepft. Ebenfalls geschmacks, aber nicht konsistenz-neutral. Geht aber als Pfefferschrot bei den Gaesten durch. Wir probieren zur Zeit eine Uebernahme der Rancho Relaxo durch doppelt-Verpacken in starke Ziploc oder Umfuellen in Flaschen mit grossen Oeffnungen zu verhindern. Lorbeer hilft hier auch.
• Kakerlaken. Wir versuchen seit Spanien welche an Bord anzusiedeln, doch bis auf ein paar Einzelgaenger, die wohl als Botschafter oder Erkunder bei uns an bord schon nach kurzer Zeit verendeten, haben wir bisher leider keine Erfolge aufzuweisen. Es mag an dieser gruenlichen Paste liegen, die wir in den Dunklen Ecken mittels Spritze ausgebracht haben. Es ist ein ausgezeichnetes Lockmittel fuer diese widerstandsfaehigen Alleskoenner (die *richtigen* Kakerlaken koennen fliegen !) allerdings hat es den Nachteil, dass es stark toxisch ist und wir somit einer Besiedelung schon von vorneweg schlechte Chancen gaben. Wir sehen es allerdings als eine Art Darwin-Test und sortieren einfach die nicht-resistenten aus. Wir wollen super-Kakerlaken zuechten, die auch mit diesem Gift zurechtkommen.
• Ratten: Wir hatten einen kurzen Versuch in Galapagos gemacht. Man kann sie ganz leicht an Bord ansiedeln, in dem man einen Kartoffelsack mit Kokosnuessen am fruehen Abend fuer eine halbe Stunde an den Strand legt und dann mittels Dinghy an Bord bringt. Nun hat man im Normalfall eine kleine Population an Bord, welche sich ueblicherweise in den Zwischenwaneden und -decken eine Art Haus mit Tunnelsystem durch die Isolierung frisst und sich hauptsaechlich von gesundem Obst und ungesundem Dacron ernaehrt. Letzteres war dann auch der Grund, weshalb wir heute keine dieser Nager auf der Rancho Relaxo haben. Vermutlich vertragen es die Ratten einfach nicht.
• Kopflaeuse: Haben den Vorteil, dass sie mobil sind und man so nicht nur an Bord von ihnen profitieren kann. Man kann sie ueberallhin mitnehmen und sich an ihrer Gesellschaft erfreuen. Die Capitana hatte nach einigen Tagen aber festgestellt, das dies doch nicht ‘ihre’ Tierart ist und sie mit einer Tinktur und Kamm entfernt. Scheinen einfach unbeliebt zu sein.
• Termiten: Wenn man eine Yacht mit viel schoenem Holz hat, bietet sich diese Tierart an. Sie schicken ihre befluegelten Schwaerme am Abend aus und fallen ueber ihr neues Zuhause regelrecht her. Es ist kein Problem nach nur einem Abend eine dauerhafte Koexistenz mit diesen ueberaus interessanten Tieren zu etablieren. Sie finden in jeder Ritze ein neues Zuhause und umschwirren die stolzen Besitzer der Yacht fortan an diesen lauen Abenden in Polynesien. Wenn man (wie wir) nicht an diesen Tieren interessiert ist, zieht man am besten in einem Notmanoever den Anker aus dem Korallensand, waehrend man bereits mit Vollgas durch das Morringfeld ans Aussenriff fluechtet, wo die Tiere zwar dennoch, aber nicht in derartiger Anzahl anzutreffen sind. Eine endgueltige Entscheidung bezueglich der Aufnahme in unser Privatbiotop haben wir noch nicht gefaellt. Sie moegen Licht, aber keine offenen Flammen wie Bunsenbrenner oder Loetlampen.
• Motten, Ameisen, Mosquitos, Spinnen, Tintenfische und fliegende Fische haben sich nicht bewaehrt bzw. gehalten und  Toelpel oder Sturmvoegel waren nett, aber nur kurz an Bord.
• Entenmuscheln und Seepocken konnten wir in der letzten Zeit gut ansiedeln. Hier hilft es, wenn man sich Muehe gibt und versucht, in den ersten eineinhalb Jahren moeglichst 10000 oder 15000 Meilen zu segeln, damit das Antifouling runter ist. Dieses hemmt den natuerlichen Besuchs enorm und sollte am besten mit grobem Schleifpapier entfernt werden, wenn man zum Beispiel eine Moeglichkeit hat, das Schiff trockenfallen zu laessen. Wenn in genuegender Zahl vorhanden, stellt so eine Entenmuschelzucht einen nicht zu verachtende Menge Notproviant dar, waehrend die Seepocken eine Art Schutzschild um den Rumpf bilden.
• Menschen: Haben wir gerne und in zahlreicher Anzahl an Bord. Es haben sich sowohl junge als auch aeltere Exemplare gut bewaehrt. Die beste Unterhaltung hat man, wenn man versucht moeglichst viele verschiedene Kulturen und Nationen im Cockpit oder am Vorschiff zu versammeln. Obwohl wir sehr gute Erfahrungen mit kurzen WG-artigen Experimenten gemacht haben, konnten wir bisher nur vier Menschen dauerhaft auf der Rancho Relaxo ansiedeln. dies wird wohl an der nicht artgerechten Haltung liegen. Wir arbeiten aber weiter daran !

Yesterday we had visitors from Germany who flew into Tahiti and will buy a boat here to sail it towards Australia during the next year. A very clever and interesting idea. So we had an endess talk and did a (quite late) bbq on the Rancho Relaxo. Also when taking them to the dinghy dock of the nearby marina – and then racing back through that enormous anchorage, two people shouted at me because our engine is really loud …and really broken.

There seem to be quieter days but revently it seems that at least once a day something really important breaks. Yesterday it was the membrane of our watermaker (we don’t have replacement and will have to order it from somewhere abroad) and today it was the outboard engine. It was our friend Guenther who fixed the outboard when we were in Bequia but now it finally broke completely.

We didn’t use the big dinghy or the outboard during the last months but now we need it as the dinghy dock is quite far away and there’s no wind to sail with Pinguin. So we needed to repair it. As the shaft cannot really be fixed I just bent two pieces of  threaded rod around it and mounted the engine onto the holding clamps. Now we cannot move it up anymore but – who cares ? We also change the gear oil and cleaned the evaporator. Now it’s going full speed again. Yay !

But during that work I really went nuts. When bending that brass rod around the engine I smashed my left thumb with the hammer after which I ran through the ship (towards the first aid box) shouting and kicking everything. So I broke both doors of the tools locker who happened to be in my way….

I’ll fix them tomorrow.

Sensitive people and rat lovers: Don’t klick the last picture !!

The day passes with a lot of music. As planned, the skipper started to learn Guitar when entering the Pacific. The kids accompany his first musical steps with melodica and E-piano. All that while in the aft, the capitana arches because of her stomache cramps.
But this night we have a different plan: As Elvis obviously enjoys a very healthy diet, we’ll put a piece of banana in the trap and place that on the saloon table. To help the crew get sleepy we finally do a movie night – it’s been a long time. At 22hrs everybody is in the bunks and fast asleep.

At around 03h in the morning, the always watchful skipper awakenes and has to pee… – As I weasel through the dark saloon I noticed the trap has moved slightly ! And in the faint moonlight I thought I could see something small and round beside the trap. Maybe Elvis isn’t all that clever and we… I turn on the light and see the rat run to the far side of the saloon table. He again managed to get the food out of the trap and he only lost ONE whisker (!) when the trap snapped ! But now he’s behaving like most Galapagos animals and shows no fear of humans. He just sits at the table and stares at me while I – without turning away my eyes, I reach behind my back to get the machete we used the evening bevore to open coconuts. I lift it above my head – one stoke ! And I put a 1cm deep cut into our saloon table – and Elvis does his last twitch. I throw our former crew member over bord and hear the capitana sigh in her sleep. Next day her stomach ache is gone.

What I find funny about this somehow morbid story: The Galapagos are some of the strictest islands when it comes to quarantine rules. It’s pretty impossible to enter these islands with an animal aboard. Even to bring fruit or vegetables is not always easy. But it is exactly here that we and the SY Mares managed to get a rat on our ships. Hmmm. Maybe we should reverse those quarantine rules to protect the sailors ?

Thanks to the dirty Diesel it is that a few days ago we had to enter the anchorage of San Cristobal without engine. The main sail was just put away and we were about to turn portside into the harbour when the engine died. We quickly got the Genoa out and put up the main sail again, after which we came about and set a course upwind, passing the first reef and closing in on the second shoal. After passing that one, we steered hard on the wind to get to a good position in the anchorage. Passing in between the many charter boats. – Should be ok. But what’s that ? Why is that ship (at anchor !) moving forward ?!? No, now we can’t pass in front, whe have to go behind it. But will we have enough room to get to our anchor position ?

So we pass at the stern. And we hardly have enough room to pass the SY Mares. But it’s ok. We remove the Genoa, continue for a few meters, luff up and throw the anchor. It grabs ! We lower the sail and open a beer. Yay ! We made it to Galapagos – action included !

And tomorrow I’ll again have a look at our fuel filters. Probably they are again cloaked with bacteria-mud.  What can we do ? Maybe a few bottles of Grotamar82 will fall from the sky ? Otherwise, we’ll try to use the engine as little as possible and try not to depend on it. Maybe I can install a little 3-way-valve and put a small 10l tank above the engine. That should be enough for emergencies and is easier to clean – and keep clean. Let’s see, whether I can find the parts for that here on Galapagos.

Thanks, SY Mares for the pictures !

I then disconnected all hoses and openend our fuel tank to have a first look. Definately bacterias. And lots of them ! I pumped the rest of the dirt into the jerrycans and swiped the whole tank clean. Then I started dismounting the fuel in- and outlets and cleaned all these parts. I discovered that the fuel outlet was a pipe-in-a-pipe and only held in place by a piece of rubber !! – And the fuel meter, which is stainless steel was mounted inside an aluminium (!!) pipe. How anyone doing business with boats would put an aluminium pipe inside a stainless stell tank is a mystery to me. I just think of it as another solved legacy problem.

I also discovered the reason for our mess: It was the diesel we got from the Flamenco Bay Marina ! (Thanks guys !) When I looked into the jerrycans, we filled in the marina, there was about half a liter of diesel left. After a week in the sun, one clearly could see the mud/bacteria seperating down at the bottom. Our problems during our last journey also only started after we put that diesel into our tank. Well, well…..

Now I’m gonna go into town to look whether the new fuel filters have arrived, thereafter I’ll put everything together again.

ps: Yes, we consistently use anti-bacteria additive for our fuel. Unfortunately not the good Grotamar 82, because it’s not available here…

So it’s to no one’s surprise that we forget birthdays and not even realize that we’ve been underway for one year and five days already ! And thus it’s time for a little résumé.

But where should I begin ? As always, a few numbers will get me started: Since we left Berlin on the 2nd of June 2011, we’ve been sailing on 137 days and stayed at anchor on 228 days. In that time, we’ve covered 8843 nautical miles – or 16377 km – which is about a quarter of our planned route around the globe.

Many things have changed since we left. In the beginning it was quite hard for us to be comfortable with such little space and limited ressources. But now we’ve got used to this permanent living in camping-style.  We learned to cook with exoctic foods, learned to fish with the line or the harpoon and can fix things with improvised tools. Gui and me reallocated some of our body-fat and transformed some into muscles. So we didn’t really loose weight but feel a lot more fit and healthy. With the kids that’s not an issue but they are very happy and balanced and are never ill anymore. They enjoy being in the nature with the family and friends but they (and we) miss our family a lot and of course also our friends at home.

But the most change we experienced is in our sailing abilities. Gui and me both just have the minimum sailing-license and only had 2500nm (me) and 500nm (Gui) of sailing experience before we left. If it would’ve been 100nm, the difference wouldn’t have mattered because all we think to know about sailing, we learned on this trip ! A voyage of 50 miles was a long one when we left – now when we sail, say, from DomRep to Panama (800 miles) we hardly do any preparations. We leave as we are and don’t give it much thought, as we’ll be there in a week anyway. In the beginning we only felt safe and comfortable when we were in a marina or harbour; now we try to stay at anchor whenever we can. One has more privacy, doesn’t have to pay, the wind always comes from the front and one can jump into the water if it’s too hot.

If you would beam us back to Berlin right now – what would we do differently ? Well, we still would leave with all the chaos and a half-prepared ship as there is plenty of time underway to fix and improve things ! We would probably stay on sea until we reach La Coruña, maybe make a stopover in Morocco but then spend 4-5 months in Senegal, Gambier and Guinea Bissau ! Europe we’d skip entirely. There’s nothing new there – we know the culture, the cities, the people. It only got really interesting once we reached Cabo Verde. And  this archipelago really was one of the highlights of our journey so far.  The trip through the Caribbean was great, but we’d skip Barbados, Antigua and the DomRep and would spend a lot more time in Grenada and the Grenadines, probably go down to Tobago (not Trinidad !), Venezuela and Colombia. Yeyeye. Would, should, had…. Anyway: Afrika rocks !

In the end the route is not too important since most people will discover their real preference while underway and everyone will have different experiences. We had friends that we’ve saild with for quite some time and although we seem to get along very well, they sometimes hated a place that we loved and the other way around. I guess, everyone will discover different things, even in the same countries. Plans increasingly become subject to change, the longer one is underway. I think it’s good to have a general idea when one would like to be where, but don’t get too specific. The longer you’re underway, the more vague the plans get. Right now we’re thinking of spending the taifun season in the Tuamotus and plan for a work-stopover in New Zealand. Although we initially didn’t want to go there at all. What’s really gonna happen, you will probably be able to read here on this blog.

We would definately want to do the trip with the Rancho Relaxo of the Seas again ! The ship is absolutely amazing ! It’s got enough space for us and our things, sails not as slow as one would think and is strong as a tank – in short, we love it !

I’ll not write much as everybody is quite tired and we’ll have a farewell-dinner with Bas tonight. Tomorrow at this time, he’ll already be in Amsterdam and I guess after one week he’ll start missing the Caribbean. ;-) Too sad the time has passed that rapidly, we would have loved to have him on bord a little longer…

Uuuuh, and I forgot to mention something really important: VIOLA CAN SWIM !!! – She started swimming (dog-style) when we were in the Shelter Bay marina (in the pool). And now that we were in salt water again it of course worked way better. Oh, we are sooooo glad that now both our kids can swim – probably the most important thing for a family that’s living on a sailboat.

I joined her on her first dive in the ocean and took a few pictures. Unfortunately the site wasn’t that exciting and the visibility was not too good. But we had a lot of fun and there are cannons, anchor and other things from a ship lost in 1752 down there. We saw lion fish and lots of other colorful little creatures.

After four wonderful days in the hotel together with Gui’s parents we’re back in Bayahibe and started to prepare ourselves for the crossing towards Panama. It’s not yet decided but I think we might leave on tuesday after checking out in Casa de Campo. Our friends on the SY Kira are right now underway to Cartagena in Colombia and the timing seems good to meet them in the Islas san Blas in a week or so. And the hopes are high to also meet with the SY Tamora and the SY Thor since both of them are right now in Bonaire and wait for good weather to go to Panama, too. Sounds like there’s gonna be a big party soon !

And for me it’s difficult to find a beginning. As always – many things happen at the same time. My family is back. And they brought along the grand parents with whom they spent a week in Miami. Now we’re enjoying a holiday in the midst of our holiday-like journey. Gui’s parents invited us to spend four days together in a wonderful hotel near Bayahibe.

The Rancho Relaxo is alone at anchor in front of the Marina de Guerra who promised to keep an eye on our floating home and our dinghy while we enjoy the all inclusive club and have Campari-Soda and Caipirinhas at the pool.

Today Gui started her PADI diving course and tomorrow we’ll go diving together somewhere out on the sea. I don’t know exactly where, but it’s gonna be fun and I’ll bring along the GoPro to make pics and videos ! That’s all for now. It’s been a long and eventful day and I’m the only one awake right now as all the others fell asleep right after sunset.

Well, we aren’t in the capital but still – Hhe drove very well and quite save. The other cars are cautious because the whole area around the marina is a big holiday-village with lots of golf cars driving around. So we got one of these electro-golfcars for ourselves and Bruno squeezed himself behind the stering wheel, replacing the captain and rode with us through the countryside and on the streets of ‘Casa de Campo’.

In the afternoon, Gui called us on the VHF. She left the marina at 04:30h in the morning to go to Santo Domingo where she received her visa for the U.S. (finally !) Thus Bruno drove us back to the marina, we picked up Gui and went to Alto de Chavón where we had a pizza and a beautiful view of the river. Of course he didn’t go straight but found a few ‘shortcuts’ through the field. Hehehe.

Oh .- and Altos de Chavón is actually not a real medieval village but was built in the 80ies. But still very nice.

Ah – and in the morning, the captain once more put on the diaper-shoes and cleaned the bilge. One of my favourite occupations.

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 !

And since I already had dirty hands, I grabbed the brush and paint and went over the deck to remove some rust. Soon we’ll have to get a few other items off the todo list (the steering chain and cable need a little attention, a winch on the mast is broken and some more painting).

Big mistake ! In the beginning we had 5Bft. that increased to a steady six after a while. The swell was quite enormeous and together with a current of two knots against us, it was too much. After two hours of tacking against, we turned back to have a few drinks with the friends we left in St. Davids bay.

So after a nice evening and a quiet night we’ll now give it another shot. This time, we take the west side of the island. Hehehe.

I also always wondered: Where are those yachties storing all that food ? – And today we also were confronted with that problem. We were running out of storage space and had to use a bed in the aft cabin to temporarily keep muesli, powdered milk, etc.

And finally a warning to our readers out there: We bought this lovely looking coffee with a nice sailboat on it’s cover. – It’s UNDRINKABLE !! Do yourself a favor and buy another brand.

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.

Battery  |    U1    |    U2    |
---------+----------+----------+
Main 1   |  12.62V  |   9.19V  |
Main 2   |  12.72V  |   9.62V  |
Main 3   |  12.71V  |  10.70V  |
Main 4   |  12.52V  |  11.39V  |
Start    |  12.30V  |  11.79V  |

The main batteries are of the type: Effecta BTL-100 (specifications). These are 12V, 100Ah AGM batteries. The label says: cycle use: 14.4V-15V standby user: 13.6V-13.8V
The starter battery is a Vetus ‘marine’ battery of type lead-acid.

Our chargers were set as follows:
Windgenerator: off at 14.34V
Shore power: off at 14.40V (setting: ‘AGM’)
Solar charger: off at 14.30V, standby: 13.8V (setting: ‘GEL’)
Alternator: off at 13.80V, secondary regulation: 13.90V

For me this means that the chargers were set correctly and even a little too conservative. As the batteries say cycle, max. 15V – I could’ve set the solar charger to ‘AGM’ with a peak voltage of 14.70V. Hmmm. Any more input before I run off in search for new batteries tomorrow ?