First we sail a bit, then we run under engine. We head south towards Göteborg again and on the we we’ll look if we find a nice spot to maybe drop the anchor. We nearly decided to go into the marina as we finally spot a little beach on the little island Rivö just a few miles from G. – The sun is already gone and we drop the anchor in the last light in 6m water.

Kilian is extremely happy in the water, although it is just about 20°. And for Moana the best is when I row her around in our little blue dinghy and she can tell me where to go.  To spend another night at anchor definatly was a good choice. But later that day when the first clouds appear, we move to the marina because we’ll meet friends from a time long ago. The too were sailing through the Pacific. Back then just the two of them in a small 26″ boat. Now they have two golden haired children and are searching for a larger boat to move aboard in about a year’s time. We spend some wonderful hours together, laugh about the past and dream about the future.

The future … Yeah. Gui will fly back to Berlin with the two small ones… The destination is Rügen and that’s another 200 miles. I will sail these with Viola together. That isn’t exactly as it was planned but it will be better for everyone. We’ll meet again in Rügen and spend some more days at the beach together. Kilian is still too small for these longer distances as he just started crawling and walking a few days ago and that is not a good time to be ona a moving boat.

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.

Next day we sail to Farsund, where I’ve already been with Bruno on the way up. This harbour is very convenient as it’s right after (or before) one of these peninsulas and as we come down, we’re glad to have passed it in rather nice conditions. These points can be quite dangerous and the wind always picks up a bit on these corners.

We actually wanted to stay in Farsund and let the stronger wind pass but the sky is blue and the sun is shining, so we decide to leave anyway. The wind is strong but constant, without any rain or fronts. Although the waves are significantly higher and we have more than 30 knots of wind south of Lindesnes, the small ones and Gui take it a lot better than on our trip to Egersund. Then we had less wind but swell coming from an odd angle which really made the trip a challenge for the whole crew.

Our last night in Norway we spend in a little bay at the northwest side of Flekkerøya, in Åshavn. We are quite surprised to see that the little island is connected via tunnel to the main land. As usual after arriving, we take a little hike and walk to the east side of the little island where we find some beautiful anchor spots between the skerries. Otherwise there is not much here. A supermarket, lots of small beautiful houses with flowers and electric cars in front, green hills over grey rocks and crystal clear green water that is too cold for me to go swimming.

Again we find ourselves a bit in a hurry as the next stretch of coast is the one with the ‘dangerous waves’ marking and there is this gigantic low between Iceland and Scotland and it’s coming closer fast. So next morning we head out again as soon as we see the wind change more towards the west.

The ride is bumpy and for a while Moana gets a little sea sick. But in the evening we are glad that we are a bit further south and again in the beautiful Egersund. This time in the marina – laundry needs to be done and we’ll wait until friday for the wind to ease a little bit. Then we’ll try to round the next little peninsula and hope to make it to Farsund. We’ll see how our plan works out. Uh. Let’s check the weather again….

The entrance to the fjord is marked by a huge bridge and starting here, the wind became very ‘fjordy’ – meaning very light but with strong and surprising gusts dropping from the mountains.  The combination of absolutely breathtaking landscape with sudden gusts had me hold the main sheet in the left and the camera in the right.  – The good old Pentax with the 200mm zoom already traveled the world with us and still works great after more than 40.000 images.

In the evening we tie up at the ferry dock in Songesand – in the outer most corner, which is the only place with more than 2m depth at low water.  Directly beside the little harbour a little stream, a mini waterfall and four go on discovery while little Kilian is already asleep and a fish curry is being prepared.

On the second day we pass a picturebook waterfall, sail past below the famous Preisektolen, east, deeper into the Lysefjord. The weather is fantastic, the wind absent and the day is so great it would be worth the long travel by itself. These nearly vertical mountain faces, hundreds of meters high. On both sides, everything sprinkled with lush green, reflected in the sea. No other boat but us, no other people except the one head looking down from the mountain. We go left and right and take a closer look at whatever we want. We sail east until we can see the Kjeragsbolten on the south side. We sail a big circle, visit yet another gorgeous waterfall and head back to the west.

Without wind, we arrive in Stavanger at nine in the evening. Full with amazing impressions, with a light sunburn but also a little bit sad: Tomorrow I’ll have to bring Bruno to the airport. Nearly 700 miles we sailed together in the past three weeks. And it’s been a beautiful and very harmonic time. It also made me very proud and happy to see how enthusiastic Bruno is about sailing. The fastest trips were his favourite, the most exciting the days tacking through the swedish skerries and when it was raining and we had to reanchor a third time in the pouring rain, he never lost his humour. But for six people, the boat really is a bit small and our cats need someone to take care about them…

The rainclouds are soon left behind and as we get closer to the open sea, the wind picks up. Soon we’re sailing with more than six knots again and the kids stay below to play, sleep and eat. The whole day we sail out of the Hardanger fjord and in the evening we arrive in Haugsund. Moana and me take a little walk while little Kilian is about to go to bed.

Everywhere in Norway we see the trails of the oil industry: oil rigs, gigantic working vessels and cranes… but also the clean future: in some cities a third of the cars is electric and even the fjord-ferries and small cruise ships are electric and can be found at the charging station when night comes. Even the large cargo vessels and cruise ships have proper cleaning systems and run without leaving a dirty yellow-brown trail in the sky. When the dirty money from the short oil boom is invested wisely, this is possible…

Another short stop we make in Vikevåg, where we are lucky with the weather and also find a small beach not far from the fishing harbour where we tied up. From here it’s only a few miles to Stavanger where Viola will come on board and we’ll be all six on the boat for a few days.

In the ‘city harbour’ it is a bit noisy as it’s the party location of Stavanger, it seems. Also this harbour is completely unprotected to the west wind (that blows 90% of the time ;-) So next day we move the boat a tiny bit to Børeviga. Viola arrives at midnight from Berlin and next day we celebrate Gui’s birthday.

In Bergen (the city oif rain) we had really hot days with up to 27°C and so we actually spent an afternooon at the beach (beside Marineholmen Gjestehavn). But next day at noon we already wait for the pedestrian bridge to open, we want to see the fjords….

The sail south is nice in the beginning but soon we have a good amount of wind against us and with gusts up to 7 Bft, we are somewhat shaken and stirred when we drop the anchor in the little bay of Os. Twice Bruno has to pull up the iron again before it bites but then we finally fall asleep … with the raindrops drumming on the roof again.

Unfortunately the rain stays and so we miss some good views of the absolutely stunning landscapes we sail past. The wind is slightly more favourable and we have decent sailing conditions everywhere but in the Lokksund where the wind is straight at us and the sound is too narriow to tack. – Also there is really strong currents and swirls in the more narrow part.

After the Lokksund we don’t have to beat against the wind anymore and can relax a bit. We sail past two corners and behind a lengthy island appears Rosendal: mountains with still some snow, three waterfalls dropping onto lush, green hills… Straight out of a Bob Ross’ painting.

We take a little stroll through the lovely, little village and get some salmon for dinner. The walk to the waterfall we move to tomorrow in hope of better weather.

But today it rained nearly constantly and although I hurried up to the little waterfall with Kilian in the stroller, nobody really was into a longer walk in this weather. So we spend the time waiting for a hole in the clouds with books, paper and bingo. At the end of the day we did get a fat, double rainbow – which really made Moana’s day.

Tomorrow we will have to exit the fjord as Viola arrives on the 8th – in Stavanger – and we have to get there with difficult wind to sail, it seems.

From Farsund we start with rain and thunder around the southwest corner of Norway. It will take hours of sailing until we finally see the clouds lift a bit to let us get a glance of the coastline… The sail is short but with a bit bumpy waves and in the evening we make stop in a gorgeous anchorage in the Egersund.

From Egersund northwards we find one of the very few stretches of coastline with no anchorages or harbours. We sail past Tananger and pull into Skudneshaven. Another one of these many old fishing villages. Next day, we sail through the Karmsund and the Stokkasund and make a last stop in a tiny, slim natural harbour called Hatlevik. To our amazement, the alignment is exactly right to see the sunset from our boat. Nice.

Last day towards Bergen, Bruno is very motivated and is steering for hours while we match ourselves with a slightly larger Bavaria 32. Somewhere in another sund, she sails east and we continue towards Bergen where we finally arrive in the early evening. We tie up in the very center of the city, at the “Brygge”. Bruno and me did 560 miles in 10 days  – not bad. We get a day off before Gui and the two small ones come from Berlin…

We decided not to go too far into the islands and chose a little island southwest of Kristiansand for the night. We found an empty mooring, asked, and were allowed to use it for the night. It was a long and super exciting sail and when I lay down and hear some raindrops falling, I fell asleep instantly.

Again we awoke to a blue sky … and the sound of children jumping into the water. (brrr) We had breakfast and left just to find ourselfes in fog as soon as we exit the anchorage. Going through the skerrys in foggy conditions is quite eerie. But after two weeks of sailing through narrow gaps in between rocky islands we’re not getting too nervous anymore.

After passing the southernmost point of Norway, we arrive in Farsund and tie up on the guest bridge. The small town is a little marvel like most we visited the last week. But the real stunner we only see when going up a little hill: There is a fjord hidden in the back, all covered in thick, lush green ! Beautiful.

After breakfast we immediately leave and it should become one of the most amazing sailing days in my life. We tack 52 miles towards north in between the islands and sometimes only have a few shiplengths to maneuver. Really exciting  – and challenging to navigate.

The Skerries get more beautiful as we go north and although most of the islands seem empty, one can find hidden little (or not so little) houses hidden in between the rocks on most of them. We are very happy to have met John with his SY Josin, a very well outfitted Ballad 30 . He is a very experienced sailor and gave us many tips for our trip of which all have been absolut marvelous so far.

On the island Koster we actually wanted to celebrate Bruno’s 16th birthday and go out for dinner but it seems like the whole island is closed. The only thing open are the footpaths – everything else is closed. And I thought it would be big party as it’s midsummer today ? – But the swedish people will celebrate on the next weekend it seems. Well. We cook and Bruno blows out the candles and next day it’s sailing again. We don’t have much time as we should be in Bergen on the 30.6. and that’s not too much time.

So we’re really happy that the light wind that was predicted actually blows with nearly 20 knots. Going against with a 30ft boat is not too comfortable but on the other side we’re doing 7 knots and arrive in Risør, Norway at eight in the evening.

The little town is really beautiful with it’s white wooden houses. – We’ll stay for a day as the wind will continue to blow from SW. Tomorrow it’ll be better and we’ll continue our way towards south Norway…

Since the way to the fjords is long and the wind is usually not in the right direction, we decided to split the trip in three legs. The first one to Gothenborg I’ll do with my old friend Wolfgang who also came with us across the Atlantic back in 2011. The second part from Gothenborg to Bergen, Norway I will do with Bruno who just turned 16 ! Then, once in Bergen Gui will join us with the two small ones, Moana and Kilian. Viola will join us later in Stavanger where Bruno will fly back to Berlin.

We headed out of Stralsund on the 8th of June with wonderful blue skies and light wind from southerly directions. As the wind was absolutely perfect, we decided not to stop for the night but keep sailing through the Øresund until we want to stop. We slid under the huge Öresund bridge right after sunrise and were pushed northwards with a steadily increasing current.

In the evening of the second day the wind went to zero. – So we pulled into a tiny fishing harbour called Skallbroken for the night.

Next day we encountered our first Skerries and also met some seals sunbathing on them. After a beautiful day sailing, we anchored behind the little skerry called Öckerö.

The last day we sailed into Gothenborg with a wonderful blue sky and perfect wind. Here the trip ended for Wolfgang and I did a bit of work on the boat (and in the “homeoffice”) while I waited for Bruno’s arrival on the 18.6.

Since 2014 we are landlocked again in Berlin. My wife became full time teacher and I started a company specializing in energy consulting (and we build our own ultra portable energy meters). Of course we’re still travelling a lot. Initially with an old camper van, until one time when we visited friends in Gullholmen, Sweden – the sailing fever hit us again. So sometime in 2018 we exchanged the VW van for a small Compromis 720.

And then … we got two new family members – first Moana (2018) and then Kilian (2021). So now we have a wonderful family with four kids (and two cats). The boat of course was a little to small so since 2020 we have a Carter 30, Bj. 1979 which we share with another family who are very good friends and neighbours.

Or to put it short: Yes. We still are LosLocos. :-)

Well, at least it isn’t only us. So far I have yet to discover sailors that keep blogging once they’re back on land. There are several reasons for this. First – there isn’t much to write about. It’s just something completely different to brag about sailing adventures and post the most gorgeous pics of idyllic islands. – To write about daily life in Berlin, work, school and all the stressful moments of this everyday life just isn’t as interesting. Second: there just isn’t time for this. Our lives are busy and demanding and to invest an hour a day to keep friends and ‘followers’ up to date just doesn’t work out. And third: the switch to the so called ‘normal’ life wasn’t exactly as easy as planned (psychologically that is). I felt quite depressed and wasn’t able to write at all. But it seems that’s changing now…

But fortunately there still are sailing magazines and one of those – the austrian YachtRevue was kind enough to ask for a few pages about how it was to come back after three years at sea. It wasn’t easy for me to write about this and had it been any earlier I’d probably have declined altogether. But the developments of these last weeks were promising and got me in a better and more optimistic mood and thus I complied and here ist the outcome.

I couldn’t put the full article online as that wouldn’t be fair for the publisher but maybe when the next issue is out, I’m able to update this post with the full PDF…

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 !

I’ll start from the beginning: Last weekend it finally happened that two cruising families who know each other since ages via Email, Skype and Facebook get to meet each other in meatspace. I’m talking about the crew of the SY Ironlady or nowadays SY Marlin. Even before we began our own journey, I’ve been a keen reader of their blog and the first book they wrote about their own journey with kids: ‘Meer als ein Traum‘ was the trigger for us to go sailing. So finally we met in Flensburg to get to know each other and go on a little sailing trip with their amazing new yacht. The weekend was exhausting but totally beautiful and just as expected the kids immediately connected to each other and off they went blabbering in three different languages, running around with the dog, chasing sheep or producing chaos on bord. The big ones enjoyed the (chilly) breeze on their faces, the sea, the moving of the yacht – in one word: sailing. It was gorgeous. And hopefullly not the only meeting.

Back in Berlin, I immediately prepare to leave again. This time the journey is a little longer. Destination: Brisbane, Australia. Our ship the Suvarov has been in Redcliffe for several months but the plan to sell her with the help of a broker didn’t really work out. That’s why I chose to fly around the globe to tidy her up and take it in our own hands. I’ve just got two weeks but it should be possible to find a new owner – or at least a cheaper place to leave the boat.

After 1.5 days of air travel, Brisbane welcomes me with tropical-moist, warm air just after midnight. I take a cab to Redcliffe where our marina is located. Luckily everything worked out as planned and I find the deposited security token and our ship’s keys – I get onboard without having to climb fences or getting wet. Heh. On bord no surprises (good !!): everything is in it’s place, no bad stench, no little animals. Without searching, I find the lights in the dark. I sit down while my surroundings together with the ship’s smell remind me of past adventures and places. The soft hissing of the wind generator takes me away to lonely anchorages in the south seas… a torrent of emotions start to break down on me. Despite the exhausting journey I can’t sleep and start to search for a drink. Finally I find an old hip flask with some Whiskey in it. I grab it and sit down at the bow where I immediately catch sight of the constellation Scorpion….

Eventually my eyes get tired and I fall asleep having crazy dreams. I wake up as a tropical shower pours down on deck and I run through the ship to close windows and hatches. When viewed in daylight I can see a few little specks of rust here and there but nothing essential. Actually a lot less than I imagined. One fender lost it’s air but otherwise I cannot find any defects. In the afternoon I walk through the little town to get some groceries and have a look at the nearby beach. Back on board I start the engine which comes to life on the first turn – just as if we’d been getting into harbour yesterday. I’m amazed how well the Suvarov has taken the six months without maintenance. Hopefully a potential buyer will also notice. Tomorrow – hopefully halfway recovered from the jetlag, I’ll start working…

We party till late in the night and tell stories and I’m amazed how many kids there are around me and how big they all are. And more stories and more drinks… A dream !

To prevent the skipper falling into a depression or getting sentimental, Guenther picks me up on Sunday to go sailing with a ‘proper’ ship. Ok. For living aboard, the Platu 25 would be a bit small but it’s a fantastic feeling to not be the slowest in the field. Actually pretty much all the other sailboats seem to stand still as we overtake one after the next. Only my friends Roland and Christine cheer as they zoom past in their Tornado, probably doing ten knots more than us.

Yeah, yeah. I agree. Sailing on a lake can also be fun. The weather is perfect, the water has a color that I’ve last seen in the lagoon of Huahine but here you can drink it. The deck isn’t encrusted in salt, we don’t have to shower after taking a bath and there even is a floating bar ! Heh. We pick up a few friends along the way and sail to the other side to have a ‘Summer Spritzer’ Mmmmh. Salzkammergut. Salzkammer VERY good !

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 !

Ok here comes: From Tanna, around NewCal towards Brisbane we travelled a total of 1238nm and it took us 219 hours to do that. This gives an awesome average speed of 5,70 knots ! Top speed (with a wave pushing from behind) was 9.9kn. The daily logs (24hours from noon to noon) were: 141, 144, 150, 126, 136, 142, 125, 130 and 123nm.

The wind on average came from SE with a force of 5. Minimum of S2 and maximum of S9 (measured: 42 knots). We never met more ships than on this trip. Out on the open ocean we met two fishing vessels, two tankers and one cruise ship. And during the approach to Brisbane we met another six ships. The drive up the river was a whole different story. We that we have stayed on tropical islands for these last years and never saw a real city… now suddenly we have to navigate a river with speed ferries zomming in and out, hundereds of ships anchored everywhere, buoys, moorings, jetties…. a lot of current. And everything is so bright ! And the eyes as well as the skipper who hasn’t slept the last 48 hours are a bit overwhelmed… But everything goes well, we find a nice spot to anchor and sleep the best sleep ever. The one of sailors who arrive in a safe harbour after a rough trip.

Oh. And I’ve got a little video too. It’s a bit boring but sailors might enjoy it anyways…

Am spaeten Nachmitag erreichen wir endlich die Flussmuendung und machen kurz darauf an der Tanke der Rivergate-Marina fest. Nach nur wenigen Minuten kommen zwei sehr nette Offiziere vom Zoll und klarieren uns ein, ein paar weitere Minuten spaeter gesellt sich noch der Herr von der Quarantaene hinzu. Kurz vor Sonnenuntergang koennen wir die gelbe Flagge bergen und sind nun willkommen, das Land zu betreten. Wollen wir aber gar nicht ! Wir legen augenblicklich wieder ab, fahren in der Dunkelheit eine Stunde weiter den Fluss hoch und um ca. 19h lokaler Zeit werfen wir den Anker in den Fluss – im Zentrum der Stadt ! Umgeben von Wolkenkratzern, nahe dem botanischen Garten. Voellig surreal.

Die letzte richtige Stadt, die wir sahen war Panama City vor ca. zwei Jahren. Und nun – nach Fiji und Vanuatu kommt die westliche Kultur echt ganz schoen schraeg rueber. Aber wir machen natuerlich das beste draus: werfen das Dinghy ins Wasser, paddeln an Land, wo uns ein paar Leute von einer Parkbank aus interressiert beobachten waehrend wir unser kleines Boetchen irgendwie an der Uferpromenade festtuedeln.

Und dann geht’s zum naechsten Diner auf einen lecker Ozzy-Burger mit allem drin und einem grossen, kalten Bier. YAY Australia !!

LATITUDE: 26-52.18S, LONGITUDE: 153-52.27E, COURSE: 278T, SPEED: 5.3, WIND: SE 6(7), DISTANCE TO DEST.: 34nm (+46nm to harbour)

LATITUDE: 26-24.23S, LONGITUDE: 155-03.20E, COURSE: 242T, SPEED: 5.8, WIND: SSE6, DISTANCE TO DEST.: 101nm

LATITUDE: 24-52.45S, LONGITUDE: 156-39.18E, COURSE: 239T, SPEED: 4.8, WIND: S3, DISTANCE TO DEST.: 218nm

Latitude: 23-28.54S, Longitude: 158-21.03E, Speed: 5.7, Course: 222T, Wind: SE4-5, Distane to dest.: 341nm

Latitude: 21-51.45S, Longitude: 160-05.02E, Speed: 5.2, Course: 223T, WIND: SE4, DISTANCE TO DEST.: 499nm

LATITUDE: 20-03.08S, LONGITUDE: 161-48.54E, COURSE: 216T, SPEED: 6.4, WIND: ESE5-6, DIST. TO DEST.: 642nm

LATITUDE: 18-47.98S, LONGITUDE: 163-19.58E, COURSE: 242T, SPEED: 6.1, WIND: E5, DISTANCE TO DEST.: 757nm

Sonst alles gut hier. Die Capitana wie immer die ersten Tage gruen um die Nase, die Kinder dafuer putzmunter.

LATITUDE: 19-13.91S, LONGITUDE: 165-37.95E, COURSE: 297T, SPEED: 6.2, WIND: ESE5, DISTANCE TO DEST: 840nm

LATITUDE: 19-30.87S, LONGITUDE: 168-07.04E, COURSE: 269T, SPEED: 6.5, WIND: ESE5, MILES TO DEST.: 946nm (minus NewCal)

Unterwegs sind wir wie immer mittels Kurzwelle erreichbar (Kommentare bekommen wir zugestellt). Und unser Satphone ist morgens an, also ca. 2100-0000h UTC.

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:

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…

Also this post marks the end of internet: in the next days and weeks on our final travel to Brisbane, Australia we will only be connected with shortwave radio. So no pictures in the upcoming days. – Sorry…

…oooh yeah. And I miss my good Pentax camera ! The photos could be so much better with decent equipment. Well, well…

In the meantime Gui managed to get her visa for Australia – in record time ! I filled all necessary papers and sent them so we’re ready to leave – legally. And also we had first contacts with people – mostly from France – who are interested in buying the Suvarov. Everything seems to be going in a good direction.

We also were quite lucky: we arrived in Port Vila at night but with good weather. The next day it started to rain heavily (we topped up the water tank in less than one hour !) and we had wind quite above 30 knots. Good timing !

So it seems we’re stuck in Port Vila for a few days since our next trip to Tanna is against the wind and I don’t want to head out into rough seas…

But right now I’m still waiting for the quarantine officer to come on board. It seems he’s busy with the cruise ship that entered that morning and keeps us waiting. Gui and the kids are on land, visiting the immigration office and later the Australian Embassy fur Gui’s visa.

More tomorrow…

LATITUDE: 18-19.62S, LONGITUDE: 171-21.27E, COURSE: 284T, SPEED: 4.9, WIND: ESE4, DISTANCE TO TARGET: 177nm

gibt nicht vieles das schoener waere.

Also besser geniessen, diese letzten Sonnenauf- und untergaenge und bloss nicht meckern, weil die Segel mal wieder schlagen, wenn die Front durchgezogen ist…

Und wie geht’s sonst so ? Na die Crew schlaeft tief und fest, die Suvarov ist mit ihrem neuen Antifouling recht flott unterwegs mit meist um die sechs Knoten. Wir segeln nur mit Genua, kreuzen vor dem Wind, der mit ca. 20 Knoten aus Ost blaest. Anfangs sind wir noch motort, haben das Riff etwa fuenf Meilen westlich von Malolo durchquert und den unglaublichen Schwell bewundert, der die letzten Tage duzende Surfer raus auf den ‘Cloud Break’ gelockt hat. Danach hatten wir Wind aus: WSW, SSE, N, NW, SE und schliesslich aus E. Die Wellen kommen natuerlich auch aus allen Richtungen und der lange Schwell aus Suedwest ueberlagert das ganze. Es schaukelt also ganz ordentlich. Werd’ mal Fruehstueck machen – meine Akrobatikuebung fuer diesen Morgen…

LATITUDE: 17-50.45S, LONGITUDE: 175-39.00E, COURSE: 266T, SPEED: 6.3, WIND: E4-5, DISTANCE TO TARGET: 420nm

LATITUDE: 18-15.07S, LONGITUDE: 173-20.87E, COURSE: 253T, SPEED: 5.2, WIND: E4, DISTANCE TO TARGET: 289nm

Maybe later on I’ll add some anti-slip paint but for now that will have to wait. Actually we’ll see on the coming voyage if that’s necessary at all. Speaking of: Yes, we’re ready to go out to sea ! Tomorrow, on sunday we’ll start the trip to Vanuatu. The destination is Port Vila where we will try to arrange our visas for Australia. After that we hopefully meet the SV Kira on the island of Tanna to climb the volcano together.

So tomorrow we’ll be out on sea again and probably do some posts via SSB.

So finally we found ourselves in a marina – for the first time in … two years ! And man is that crowded here !! No space to breathe ! But as there also were ‘the french’ from the SV Elhaz in the marina and all the kids had so much fun together, we decided to stay for a few days. But on the hard: there is more room between the boats :-) and of course because we wanted to paint fresh antifouling. So we ended up in the travel lift and found ourselves again right next to the SV Time Lord.

Our poor friends found they had a lot to do on their boat: Huge parts of the hull had to be cut out. The previous owners never took care of the rust and so it developed to a point where the only solution is to just cut out and weld new pieces in. But a few weeks of grinding, welding and a sand blast later and the ship should be in good shape again.

In the mean time we cleaned our hull, grinded the old antifouling away, put two new layers of primer and new antifouling. I used a pressure washer to remove all that loose paint our previous owner put on deck, then took care of some rust and finally put three coats of primer on top. But sadly my immigration permit expires on the 7th of May (yes, today) and so we have to leave Fiji….  More infos to follow in a few days.

So as a yottie you can anchor, pick up a mooring or go into the little harbor where you moore stern-to. There’s a little shop, showers, toilets and a bar on the little island at the end of the jetty. At the bar one can use the two gas barbequeues and the resort even provides for dishes – as long as one consumes an occasional beverage at the bar.

The resort has a nice (saltwater) pool, there are lots of other kids around and in the evening the staff organizes a childrens dinner, followed by a cinema evening. So while the grown ups have a good time on the BBQ-island, the little ones have endless fun at the resort and in the evening all four kids sleep together on the Time Lord.

With the Suvarov we made a little excursion towards the outer reef where the bar ‘Cloud 9′ is to be found. A floating, little heaven for surfers who enjoy the close by surf spots. Today our friends from Norway had to leave, to haul out at Vuda Point marina and do maintenance on the ship. Hopefully they can finish the work in time so we can sail out together in two weeks…

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.

Suva being the largest city in the tropical south Pacific is home to 50% of all escalators – namely: two ! There is also three or four traffic lights and a cinema. And today I will wander off to see ‘Rio 2′ with the kids.  Heh. After stocking up a little, we’ll probably be out on sea in a few days, visiting the island of Benga and finally arriving in Malolo Leilei where we plan to celebrate easter and (even more) Viola’s sixth birthday.

Also we made a huge decision and have changed our long term plans but more on that in an upcoming blog post.

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…

The sea is calm and the visibility under water quite good. Sitting in the dinghy we can make out the dive spots and decide to go for a quick one at ‘Grand Central’ while Jason and Melanie are snorkeling with the incoming tide and drift over the reef back towards the yacht.

The second stop is at ‘Arkansas’ – a lonely coral column extending from -25m up to about -4m. While Bertel and Jason dive circles in the deep I’m free diving and again amazed by the sheer beauty of this site. The soft coral on the top looks like wheat fields (hence the name: Arkansas) and the rock is surrounded by colorful soft & hard coral, lots of ‘unicorn fish’ and numerous other species. We stay for quite some time and are all happy we made the decision to visit Namena.

During the next days we also explore the southern reef and the dive sites called ‘Chimneys’ and ‘Mushrooms’ as well as the ‘Four Sisters’. All of them breathtaking beautiful. Timing is important tough: the sites on the northern side should be visited shortly after high tide, while the ones at the southern side are best visited at low tide. The difference between slack water and out- or incoming tide is huge and the currents can get quite strong. If one got the timing wrong, it’s definately worth waiting in the dinghy for the current to change.

During the final dive at the mushrooms I dropped our camera which neatly sank into a depth of about 25m – which I guess it could survive – but despite wasting a full bottle of air on it, I still couldn’t find it again. So for the time being those will be the last underwater shots. Damn ! The Nikon AW110 was an awesome all-round camera and I’ll definately miss it a lot.

But good news for everyone who plans to visit Namena during the next months: When we arrived there was only one mooring at the anchorage and one about 0.5nm ESE from the northern channel. There are plans to put as much as five moorings near the island and numerous at the dive sites. That will make visiting those spots a lot easier for cruisers.

Thanks to Jason for many of those awesome photos. Please visit his blog to see more !

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.

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…

After I did a lot of testing, the final changes I made was to replace two more hoses, clean and polish the old waterpump, getting two new impellers (also for the bilgepumpe !) and finally connecting both pumps in parallel to increase the waterflow through the engine. And it seems to work as during the last test-trip from Savusavu to the Resort, the engine DID NOT overheat ! Ok. I was only putting along with 1500 revs but still. Also one has to take the water temperature into account and that settled at amazing 31˚C (!!) during the last weeks ! With that temperature, all watercooled gadgets will run into slight problems. I borrowed a nice infrared-thermometer from Dieter and now I could verify that the engine indeed doesn’t overheat: After running for one hour, the cylinderhead measured 62˚C and the water coming from the exhaust 52˚C. All good.

And as usual: when one thing is repaired, the next one will break. Our next patient is just beside the engine in the bilge: the watermaker suddenly wouldn’t build up any pressure. I suspected a seized valve which I took out and restored. Then the pre-pumpe wouldn’t start anymore so now I have to figure out how to get all the air out of the system. Well, well… next project.

In the mean time the rainy season went into action and the first cyclone ‘Ian’ (upgraded to category 5) missed Fiji and went over Tonga. Right now the storm is heading south where it will disappear over colder waters. The next one is just about to form in between Vanuatu and New Caledonia while here in Fiji the weather slowly returns to ‘normal’.

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.

A little trip like that brightens the mood and once we hop into the water and have a look around in this big aquarium, the day is safed. The difference to the more eastern parts of the Pacific are big and the diveristy of fish and coral still amazes me. Especially as we’re not in a proper dive- or snorkelspot. For that one shoud go out to the smaller islands or visit the neighbouring Namena, only 25 miles from here. The diving there must be one of the best in the pacific and we will check it out sometime.

As you can see in one image, the Suvarov already got decorated and ready for Christmas. The kids had a lot of fun engarlanding the whole saloon, hanging stars, balls and little angels. Viola spent hours cutting colorful stars out of paper and decorating the cockpit dodger.  Otherewise there is not much reminding us of the year’s top consumption fesast. There are no huge masses running around on the streets, trying to get some last-minute gadgets, no decoration on houses or in shops and best of all: No stupid christmas songs !

To that effect, I want to wish all our readers and friends a verry happy christmas and a beautiful 2014 !

Yesterday I again checked the impeller and replaced it (just in case) but that didn’t do anything. I also cleaned the seawater inlet and filters which means EVERY part of the cooling system now was checked.

My last hope is the following: I don’t think there’s enough water coming out of the exhaust. Maybe the whole system is flawed from the beginning and we just need a water pump with a higher throughput ? The manual says, it should pump 800l/h at 1400rpm which I will measure later. Any other ideas ? Anyone ?!?

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 !

We zigzag through the maze of little channels, discover some hidden birds and try (without success) to catch some geckos from a half sunken bamboo jetty. We could definately use a few of those animals on bord to eat away those mosquitos that try to keep us awake at night. Our way is blocked by a piece of an old pontoon that must have drifted in here and we turn around.

On the way back we discover a little path that leads through the otherwise impenetrable jungle to the other side of the little island. Unfortunately I only have the small, waterproof camera with me – the big one would have done better shots. But at least there are some nice, colorful pics. Ey ?

And as I got started with the camera (and it stopped raining) I again went up the mast and took a few more shots. From up there the water looks surprisingly clear. From close-up that’s different and sometimes it also get’s a bit smelly. But I guess that’s just the mud that is exposed during low tide. On the pics you can see the Copra Shed Marina with the little jetties in front. There we spend some of the hotter afternoons when it’s getting uncomfortable on the boat. Well, here we will stay for the next months… Awful – isn’t it ? Also: don’t forget the mosquitos ! ;-)

As we found nearly everywhere else too, there are numerous schools and plenty of kids everywhere. All dressed up in nice, colorful school uniforms. A treat for the eye !

When we picked up the cruising permit, I noticed the schedule of the authority. It has a seminar on climate change for the employees. Yeah – when the big polluters of the earth still are arguing whether or not it’s true, the island nations of this world are getting prepared for the worst.

Maybe the people of Levuka will also start thinking of getting rid of that awfully noisy Diesel generator located in the center of the village that provides power for the whole island. There would be more than enough sun to power all homes here on the island and as for storage, I suggest to use that huge fuel tank up on the hill. One could use the excess power during midday to pump up salt water and use a turbine to generate power during the night. – Just a thought…. But I guess burning fuel is (still) just too convenient.

Alright. Enough of the ranting. There are also some pics of our little hike up the hill to the little freshwater pond. On the way the kids got a little toy cooking set and when we were back on the ship they promptly openend a restaurant on the foredeck. Let’s see if someone can decypher Viola’s menu. It’s a wild mix of german, spanish and english but it shows promise and she’s definately not lacking inspiration. Also  – she’s still just five. :-)

Levuka was the former capital of Fiji and although it’s only a tiny little village it is quite charming, the people are extremely friendly, food is cheap and it’s very hot ! We like it ! Yeyeyeee !!

More later – when we found an internet connection….

LATITUDE: 17°45.86S, LONGITUDE: 179°51.01W, COURSE: 258T, SPEED: 4.1, WIND: E3, TO GO: 57nm

LATITUDE: 17°52.77S, LONGITUDE: 178°37.78W, COURSE: 277T, SPEED: 4.2, WIND: E3, TO GO: 144nm

LATITUDE: 17°48.30S, LONGITUDE: 177°04.34W, COURSE: 252T, SPEED: 3.3, WIND: ENE2, TO GO: 233nm

LATITUDE: 17°37.28S, LONGITUDE: 175°52.20W, COURSE: 277T, SPEED: 3.6, WIND: E2-3, TO GO: 278nm

LATITUDE: 18°17.09S, LONGITUDE: 174°48.14W, COURSE: 308T, SPEED: 4.7, WIND: E3-4, TO GO: 351nm

Wollte nur bescheid sagen – nicht, dass sich jemand Sorgen macht, weil man uns auf See vermutet und wir uns nicht melden.

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.

Next day we took a hike together with Harald and Veronica from the SY Tagtraeumer – the one other austrian sailboat currently in Vava’u waters. It took some time for us to discover that we actually met before. That was in Mindelo, Cabo Verde in December 2011.

The walk over to the other side of the island leads through beautiful lush tropical forest and the beach on the eastern side is amazing. Unfortunately it was too windy and the sea to choppy to go for a swim.

We stayed for four days and then finally said good bye (again) to our friend Dan from the SY Red Sky Night. He took off towards Fiji to press on towards Australia.

Otherwise we’ve been strolling through the village, got fresh groceries from the fantastic little market down at the harbour, met maaaaany sailors we saw passing through in Moorea. Also we try to make a decision where to head next: Fiji or New Zealand ? Right now I’m looking for a taifun-safe mooring in Fiji. If we get one, we’ll be sailing west. Otherwise we will receive our guest in a few days, spend another few weeks in those magnificent little islands of Vava’u and it’s south to NZ. But we’ll see….
Tomorrow we’ll be leaving Neiafu to check out some of the fantastic anchorages here. Expect some jaw dropping pics of the most beautiful beaches of the south seas in a few days. (You’ve been warned !)

Oh, and that also means: No internet these next days….

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.

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.

Gui und ich haben den Tag ueber jeweils abwechselnd geschlafen, um uns von Gestern ein wenig zu erholen. Das hat auch gut geklappt. Schoen ausgeruht und motiviert sehen wir unserer letzten Nachtwache entgegen, morgen gegen Mittag planen wir den Landfall im Koenigreich Tonga.
Der einzige Aufreger heute: Am fruehen Nachmittag sind wir durch einen richtig dicken Fischschwarm gesegelt. Ja: mitten durch ! Von weiten konnte man schon die Toelpel, Tropicbirds und Sturmvoegel sehen, wie sie immer wieder wie Pfeile ins Wasser schiessen und sich kleine Fische holen. Was uns aber normalerweise verborgen bleibt, weil wir nie so nah ran kommen: Der Fischschwarm – vermutlich Sardinen oder aehnliche, kleinere Ozeanfische werden von oben durch die Voegel und von unten durch Thunfische angegriffen. Die Thunas schissen durch’s Wasser und hechten oft in Gruppen durch die Luft; das ganze Wasser brodelt und schaeumt dabei. Und als wir gerade durch sind sehen wir, wer die Thunas jagt: ein Hai ! Die Rueckenflosse war kurz sichtbar, sonst haben wir nur einen grossen, braun/grauen Schatten unter der Oberflaeche gleiten sehen. Bilder, wie wir sie normalerweise nur von BBC-Dokus oder aehnlichem kennen. Das hat schon was.
Tja, ansonsten war der Tag ruhig. Wir haben Klamotten, Hand- und Badetuecher, Cockpitpolster und was sonst noch alles Gestern von Salzwasser getraenkt wurde halbwegs getrockenet. Uns und unser Schiff landfein gemacht und freuen uns auf Tonga. Da wir noerdlich der Vava’u Gruppe nach Neiafu segeln, koennten wir eventuell die Insel nachts schon riechen, bevor wir sie am morgen sehen. Bin schon gespannt.

LATITUDE: 18°08.69S, LONGITUDE: 172°48.53W, COURSE: 252T, SPEED: 5.7, WIND: ESE5, TO GO: 73nm

LATITUDE: 17°28.12S, LONGITUDE: 170°57.01W, COURSE: 276T, SPEED: 2.6, WIND: SSW2, TO GO: 187nm

Und dann gibt’s noch ‘Good news everyone !’: Und zwar haben wir seit ca. einer Stunde wieder Wind. Wind ! – WIND !!! Oder zumindest das, was Segler im allgemeinen als eine ‘maessige Brise’ bezeichnen. Wie erwartet hat der Wind auf Nord gedreht, etwas an Staerke gewonnen und nun segeln wir Halbwindkurs und endlich mal wieder mit 5 Knoten. Mann, ist das schoen, nach einer Woche wieder das Wasser am Rumpf entlang rauschen zu hoeren. In ca. 18 Stunden wird uns dann irgendwas ganz Komisches erreichen. Zuerst 4-5 Beaufort aus NNW, die dann direkt auf 5-6 Beaufort aus Sued wechseln. Na da bin ich mal gespannt. Leider geben die Gribfiles, die wir hier via Saildocs bekommen keine Auskunft ueber Niederschlagsmengen, doch bin ich mir sicher, dass uns da eine fette Front erwartet – gefolgt vom Uebergang auf den ‘normalen’ Ostwind, dann in zwei Tagen.
Jetzt erzaehl’ ich schon wieder nur vom Wetter. Oiiii. Dabei sind heute sogar zwei (!) Sachen passiert
Erstens hatten wir endlich mal wieder einen Fisch an der Angel und zwar einen wunderschoenen Mahimahi. Doch beim Einholen ist dann das Stahlvorfach gerissen und der Fisch verschwand mit unserm Koeder im unendlichen Blau des Pazifiks…
Und Sensationsmeldung Nr. 2: Bei Sonnenuntergang taucht an Steuerbord ein Fischtrawler auf ! Das erste Schiff, dass wir in den letzten 10 Tagen gesichtet haben. Wir haben kurz auf Funk gequatscht ueber woher und wohin und ein wenig Smalltalk und dann ist der Fischer nach Sueden abgebogen und vor kurzem auch wieder aus unserem Sichtfeld verschwunden.

Falls uns einer unserer Leser aufklaeren moechte: Vielleicht kann mal jemand ein Radarbild oder einen ‘guten’ Gribfile runterladen und uns sagen, was in dieser Front drinsteckt, die da morgen kommt. Was ich meine zieht sich von NW nach NE und liegt in ca. 12-24 Stunden genau zwischen uns und Tonga. Ein, zwei Saetze dazu wuerden reichen – am besten als Kommentar hier. Vielen Dank !

LATITUDE: 17°29.90S, LONGITUDE: 169°14.99W, COURSE: 256T, SPEED: 5.1, WIND: N4, TO GO: 279nm

Tell her I’m losing on a tuesday afternoon.

Anger steers me clear of every instict for eloping.

Sometone should mention that I won’t see you again.

Tuesday’s the day I die moping in style but still so lost.

Caught in between the uptown seats destined to fall apart tonight.

I don’t mind the crazy weather, I’m so glad we stay together.

I’m just loosing on a tuesday filled with purposeful desasters.

Tell her I’m losing on a tuesday afternoon !

(‘Losing on a tuesday’ written and performed by Adam Green. Listen to it, you might like it !)

Nachtrag zum Blogpost von Gestern: Rechnen kann ich bei der Hitze wohl auch nicht. Aber beim Nachdenken war mir klar, dass mir die Tiefe des Tongagraben nicht 50%, sondern sicher um 100% mehr Angst macht !

LATITUDE: 17°15.27S, LONGITUDE: 168°23.75W, COURSE: 288T, SPEED: 2.7, WIND: E2, TO GO: 330nm

LATITUDE: 17°16.75S, LONGITUDE: 167°58.13W, COURSE: 291T, SPEED: 2.2, WIND: E2, TO GO: 353nm

LATITUDE: 16°52.76S, LONGITUDE: 165°51.01W, COURSE: 238T, SPEED: 5.1, WIND: ENE4, TO GO: 477nm

Worueber ich bislang gar nichts geschrieben hab ist, dass die vier an Bord lebenden Personen teilweise voellig unterschiedliche Lade- und Entladezyklen haben:

* Der Captain: Startet den Motor am Morgen mit einer Tasse Espresso und fuegt dem System massiv Kalorien in Form einer Doppelportion Haferbrei zu. Danach wird sehr sparsam mit der Energie umgegangen. D.h. um die Batterien zu schonen, bleibt der Skipper im Schatten und bewegt vorzugsweise nur die Augen beim Buecherlesen.. Wenn’s dann doch mal zu einem Manoever kommt, werden Unmengen von Energie freigesetzt, die Segel gehen rein und raus, dass die Winschen nur so aechzen, der Spiebaum wirbelt durch die Luft und Leinen werden hin und hergezurrt bis dann endlich wieder alles passt und sitzt. Dann ist der Captain ueberhitzt und muss erst mal mit ein paar Eimern Meerwasser auf Normaltemperatur gebracht werden bevor er wieder in den standby-Modus uebergeht. Da der naechtliche Ladezyklus mit nur vier Stunden sehr kurz ist, wird manchmal tagsueber ein weiterer Ladevorgang noetig.

* Die Capitana: Ist noch immer im Stand-By modus. Vermutlich kommen ihre Batterien mit den Schaukelbewegungen nicht klar und limitieren so die Energieabgabe auf ein Minimum. Trotz langer Ladezyklen steht also keine nennenswerte Batteriekapazitaet zur Verfuegung. Im Land-Modus wird dafuer ein zusaetzlicher, kleiner Atomreaktor aktiviert, der andere, rein batteribetriebene Lebewesen vor Neid erblassen laesst.

* Der Schiffsjunge: Beinahe 90% der Energie werden akustisch abgegeben. Wir nennen ihn auch ‘das Radio’: Vom Aufwachen bis zum Schlafengehen erzehlt, quatscht, singt, blabbert, schreit, lacht er. In drei Sprachen und absolut ohne Pausen. Ist fuer andere Lebewesen an Bord nicht immer leicht, doch mit viel gut Zureden gibt es manchmal kurze Pausen. Ansonsten geht er aehnlich sparsam mit der Energie um, wie der Captain. D.h. viel Aufenthalt im Schatten, Buecher gucken und (aha !) als zusaetzlicher Input Musik, welche teilweise stundenlang via iPod und Kopfhoerer aufgenommen wird. Der Ladezyklus ist mit 10-12h der laengste an Bord.

* Die Bordkatze: Der Input ist minimal aber auf kalorienreiche und stark ueberzuckerte Nahrung optimiert. Abgegeben wird diese Energie ganztaegig in Form von Akrobatik und Turnuebungen an Haltegriffen, Riggteilen, Reling sowie auch akustisch. Zusaetzlich scheint Logistik eine ihrer Staerken zu sein. Es werden taeglich Unmengen an (hauptsaechlich kleinen) Gegenstaenden quer durch’s Schiff transportiert. Beispiel heute: als der Wunsch nach einem gute-Nacht-Film ausgesprochen wird, heisst’s zuerst mal ‘klar Schiff’ fuer die Kinder – das ist Vorraussetzung. Zu diesem Zeitpunkt befanden sich in der Achterkabine all unsere Kochbuecher sowie saemtliche Babyklamotten von Viola’s Puppen. Am Vorschiff wurde tagsueber ein ‘Zelt’ aufgebaut, welches mit dem ueblichen Hausstand ausgestattet (Malsachen, Puppensachen, Kuscheldecken und Polster…) abgebaut werden musste. Im Cockpit fanden sich ein Stapel Pixie-Buecher und eine kleine lila Blechdose sowie weitere Schreibutensilien, Im Salon U
nmengen von Mal- und Bastelsachen sowie gefuehlt ein Kilo Papierschnipsel. etc…. All dies soll wieder an seinen Ursprungsort zurueck. Das Problem ist aber, dass bei diesem jungen und noch etwas unsausgereiften Modell die Energie tagsueber voellig aufgebraucht wird und Abends nicht mehr genug Restkapazitaet vorhanden ist, um solche zusaetzlichen Raeumarbeiten zu erledigen. Die verbleibenden 4% Batteriekapazitaet werden dann wieder akustisch freigesetzt. :-) Der Ladezyklus setzt dann oft ueberraschend und ploetzlich ein, dauert ca. 9-10h und wird normalerweise mittels Sonnenlicht abgestellt. D.h. ein wolkenverhangener Regentag oder ein Dinghie ueber der Schiffsluke koennen den Ladvorgang zusaetzlich verlaengern.

So und dann wie immer der Wetterbericht: Wir zuckeln noch immer mit Schwachwind dahin, ist aber ok so. Ueber Tonga breitet sich inzwischen eine Flautenzone aus. D.h. die LosLocos werden dann wohl mal noch ein paar zusaetzliche Tage einplanen muessen. Eieiei. Naja. Noch haben wir ja Wind, wollen wir hoffen, dass der Wetterbericht in dem Fall falsch liegt.
Sonst alles supi an Bord.

LATITUDE: 16°25.88S, LONGITUDE: 164°04.27W, COURSE: 258T, SPEED: 4.3, WIND: ENE3, TO GO: 583nm

LATITUDE: 16°21.13S, LONGITUDE: 162°30.11W, COURSE: 277T, SPEED: 4.6, WIND: E3, TO GO: 672nm

Zu den Kommentaren muss ich noch sagen: Das jeweils erste einer jeden Person muss ‘freigeschalten’ werden, erst danach erscheint es am Blog. Spaetere Texte landen dann ohne Interaktion auf unserer Website. Leider hab ich aber kein Plugin fuer WordPress gefunden, dass es mir erlauben wuerde, von hier aus (via Email) Kommentare freizuschalten. – Wir bekommen sie aber trotzdem und das Freischalten hole ich dann nach, wenn wir wieder Internet haben.

LATITUDE: 16°33.99S, LONGITUDE: 160°20.25W, COURSE: 279T, SPEED: 3.8, WIND: ENE3, TO GO: 792nm

LATITUDE: 16-07.72S, LONGITUDE: 158-30.40W, COURSE: 253T, SPEED: 4.4, WIND: ENE3, TO GO: 898nm

I completely forgot to mention: Our satphone is turned on every day from 19h-20h UTC. Also we can receive blog comments via shortwave radio – those are always very welcome !

LATITUDE: 15-48.52S, LONGITUDE: 156-41.43W, COURSE: 267T, SPEED: 6.5, WIND: E4-5, TO GO: 1007nm

LATITUDE: 15-55.58S, LONGITUDE: 154-33.11W, COURSE: 269T, SPEED: 5.2, WIND: E3-4, TO GO: 1127nm

LATITUDE: 16-23.20S LONGITUDE: 152-17.17W COURSE: 287T SPEED: 3.7 WIND: E2-3 TO GO: 1251nm

To reach Vanuatu in time we would have needed stable wind conditions all the way and even without that low it would have been quite tight. So we again changed our plans, stick around here until the weekend and then we’ll sail towards Tonga. I guess the change is not for the worst as it somehow felt wrong to skip past those beautiful islands.

Of course we also discuss what we’ll gonna do for the Cyclone season but I guess it’s too early to write about it. You know…. plans can change…

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

Over and out….

We of course used the winches to get the forestay in place and that was when we realized the winches also need some service. So I took apart and serviced the windlass and both Genoa winches. And as I could see from the hard grease and dirt inside it was quite necessary ! Well that’s for our preparations. Now that the boat is ready, of course we got another delay. This time it’s the laundry. HAhaha. We used the last opportunity to do two loads and hang them in the garden of our friend, J.C. to pick them up dry and nice in the morning. BUT during the night it started raining ! The first real rain in at least two months. Why now ? Why in exactly that night ??? Moorea just won’t let us go….

Eigentlich wollte ich mir ein Posting zum Thema Proviant sparen, da ihr die Bilder bereits kennt: Ein Kleinwagen voller Lebensmittel wird quer ueber den Strand und ins Dinghy geschleppt, zum Schiff gepaddelt und verschwindet dann langsam aber sicher wieder in den schier endlosen Staufaechern der Suvarov. Der Grund fuer das heutige Posting ist eigentlich der neue Rekord. Ablauf-Rekord ! Und zwar haben wir ein Arnika Massageoel gefunden, dass im September 2003 abgelaufen ist. – Der letzte Rest wurde vor zwei Tagen in eine massiv heilende und wohltuenede Ruecken-Massage fuer’n Captain investiert. Das ist die Silber-Medaille. Gold geht an eine paar Knick-Lichter, die im Juni 1998 (!!) abgelaufen waren. Diese wurden in der Leuchtkraft sogar vom Plankton der Lagune uebertroffen. Aber vorwerfen kann man ihnen das nicht… -  im letzten Jahrtausend abgelaufen. Haha.

Ach ja und dann gibt’s da noch zwei Fotos aus dem wunderschoene Stoffladen, den Gui um ca. 80kg leichter gemacht hat. Diese Farben – einfach unglaublich. Und zu sehen wird’s die Stoffe dann wieder in zwei Jahren geben, in der Coquito Fruehling/Sommerkollektion 2015 !

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.

During the ‘breaks’ I stiched up the Genoa, put UV protection spray on all our sunroof, tried to repair the handle of the stove twice (but proke off again), glued the floor of our Kayak three times (always to find yet another hole), installed the missing vents for the aft cabin, replaced completely corroded rivets that attach the boom to the mast, installed a new navigation light on the top of the mast, tested the shortwave antenna, etc etc.

Gui is working non-stop for Coquito as these are our last days with internet connection and the new collection is about to hit the stores in Europe.  Phew ! After all this, the sailing to Vanuatu will feel like a holiday…

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 !!

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 !!

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:

Bruno didn’t mind – he was just too happy to have kids around that talk english that’s already quite something. So only minutes later they set out with the sailing dinghy and weren’t seen until late in the afternoon.

Yesterday, we’re installing the new membrane for the watermaker as I see yet another green steel ketch enter the bay. This time it’s no drill. It IS the Supermolli !! Bruno and Viola stand on the foredeck and start chanting while I make a few pictures. As soon as the anchor hits the ground we’re in the dinghy and on our way. Last time we saw each other was in Germany, two years ago. And that also was quite a coincidence – as is the whole story of our boats: It was us who actually wanted to buy the Supermolli in 2009 ! But then things developed differently and we started our voyage with the Rancho Relaxo.

Well now we can stop reading and commenting each others blog posts for a few weeks, I guess.

The ‘A’ is 119m long, displaces 5500 tons and carries 750 000 litres of Diesel. Using that, the up to 14 guests on bord can cruise for about 6500 miles at 19 knots speed. After all that’s from Panama to Fiji. But before continuing one should top up the tank. At current prices here that’s a bargain a little above 1 million and it should be full again. I’m not gonna start writing about the ecological footprint as shoes of that size are not invented yet.

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

This time we stayed at the pontoon in the city. Next morning at 06h Gui was already underway to get her carte de sejours – to extend her allowed time in the country. On the way back through the city we bought about 50 kilos of fabrics for Coquito and had to wrestle everything back to the ship. Right after we get everything on board, we leave towards the Marina Taina. It’s a few miles south and is closer to the airport in Tahaa. But I’m a bit nervous about the anchorage there as the wind is supposed to shift to the south on the next day and that can lead to a Maramu: a strong wind from the south that get’s accelerated in between the islands. We’ve seen it before and know that we could not get ashore in our dinghy in those conditions which means we might have to plan for a water taxi.

When sailing towards the marina we are amazed by the number of boats here. The main season really has arrived. No free mooring balls and plenty of yachts in the limited space there is to put an anchor. But we boldly throw the iron right in front of the dinghy dock into the 16m deep water of the lagoon. While Gui fights to fit 60kg of luggage into two bags a 23kg and her hand luggage, I take the kids to Carrefour where we get some good food for the coming days. While there I run into Lily from the SY Portal who contacted me earlier to talk about selling the windvane of the Rancho Relaxo. We agree to postpone the negotiations to dinnertime in the pizzeria. At sunset we’re in the restaurant and enjoy our last minutes together – and we also sell Wendy our windvane.
On wednesday at 04:50h in the morning the buzzing  of the alarm clock throws us out of bed and I take Gui and her luggage to the dinghy dock where the cab is already waiting. Later at about eight in the morning we see how the windvane is dismounted and transported to the SY Portal. That’s when we also see the dark clouds approach from the south. We quickly say good bye to our friends, get the dinghy up and leave before the Maramu hits…

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 !

The beach on that motu is private and owned by a polynesian called Bruno. As all locals he was extremely generous and welcoming and we had a great time, making a bonfire, barbequeue, jumping into the water, eating and drinking again, singing and so on… On the way back I somehow ended up in the water (at two in the morning) and lost my sunglasses. But as the water is crystal clear it was no problem finding them seven meters down in the water. – Oh and that is again my last pair of glasses as I lost my NEW pair of sunglasses on the way to Raiatea. Meh.

Next morning we got up early to continue our round trip of Tahaa. Unfortunately a winch stopped working right in the middle of a jibe and we managed to create a big sandclock with our Genoa. So we rolled it in as far as we could and searched for a little valley to drop the anchor and get the sail working again. A little wind from the front and a few tries of rolling in and out did the trick and soon after we continued sailing around and back south again on the west side of Tahaa. We exited through the pass in between the islands and found ourselves in the Pacific again.

Sailing towards BoraBora only took a few hours and just before sunset we sailed through the only pass on the west side and into a little anchorage in the lee of a motu where we found all our swedish friends again.

I climb the second reef and enter the channel but the waves are too big and snorkeling is dangerous. But the surf waves are absolutely amazing. The swell enters the pass and the waves continue to run forever it seems. There are quite some surfers here and they are haveing a lot of fun. Next time we pack the board instead of the snorkel. But it was fun anyway…

Next day we leave to the neighbor island of Raiatea. We want to meet the SY Gobo and the SY Yasoo who both seem to be a little bit stuck here… ;-) The sail is beautiful and very fast with a nice wind of 17-20kn coming from the south. When we approach the peer in Oturoa, the crews of three boats fight to take our lines. After a chaotic maneuver we shut down the engine and have a beer in our cockpit. The crew of the SY Shambala is also here and just around the corner are the boats of our swedish friends.

At sunrise the island already revealed itself underneath our Genoa. We changed our plan and decided to stay on the windward side of the island and sail around the northern end. It proved to be a good idea as we had wind all the way and could even enter the lagoon under sails. A little further down we met Kid from the SY Lady L. and he followed us down to the southern end of the island.

Soon later, the two other swedish boats arrived. The anchorage is a treat and the island is georgeous. We had some great days here in Huahine. More pics and stories follow…

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…

The evenings I spent on the internet looking for spare parts and stuff we need, organizing the trip and trying to get in touch with friends. Oh I hope, somehow I could manage to see them all. So anyway, my schedule is Berlin for the first days, then to my family in Austria. The third week of May I should be back in Berlin from where I leave on the 21st towards our home in French Polynesia.

The party started right in the morning with the setting up of the slack line, some weird rope game, putting baloons in the trees and while the kids were preparing these things, the skip sneaked out and buried a treasure deep under a coconut palm.

The gang had a lot of fun, searching the park for the hidden hints towards the treasure while the grown ups tried their balance on the slack line. But there was one thing that stole away the attention from the celebration: The puppies !

Somebody left seven little puppies under a tree in the park and they all found food and love with the kids that cuddled and carried them. When we left on monday all but two of the little dogs already had found a new home.

Next day we had to leave towards Tahiti. As usual, there’s not much wind and we were running under engine. Back in Tahiti, we dismounted and sold the windgenerator, the VHF and the fridge. Finally things get moving…

Oh ! And I nearly forgot to mention: I’m gonna fly to Europe !!!! Yessss !!! The Ackerman Foundation sponsored the flight to get Gui’s label Coquito started. So I’ll be in Berlin and Austria the first three weeks of may, starting a business and getting parts for the Suvarov. And of course visiting all my friends and my family – oh, I’m so happy. It’s been two years. I really am excited about that trip. Yay !!

After half an hour walk along the road we really find an entrance to the forest and start fighting our way through the bushes and over crumbly earth and loose rocks. It’s not really a nice walk but the view from up here is absolutely amazing. Once we reach the little ‘summit’ we have our lunch and watch the boats down in the anchorage. We can see the surfers at the pass taking the waves, the speedboats zooming past the beach in full speed, etc.

We’re back down at sea level early in the afternoon and enjoy the ‘fresh’ 30 degree Pacific to wash off all the dirt from our trip. It was great – even more so as it was the first proper movement for me after having had a swollen, nearly unusable foot for a couple of weeks now. Well, my ankle is ok but now it’s Gui who’s fighting another infection. *rrr*

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.

Oh – and yes. We’re all happy together again. The first day after the LosLocos returned, we sailed back to Moorea again. And here we’re right now enjoying the beach, the palms and the beautiful water while being happy to be together again. Soon I’m gonna post some more pics and stories. – Yes, many things happened already….

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

In the mean time: Maybe you have an idea what I could write about ? Something you always wanted to know about me/us/sailing/… Give me your thoughts in the comments.

But even then I still did some preparations: The main anchor is buried deep in the sand and we have 55m of chain out. That gives us a scope of 10:1 and should be quite safe. I also put a second anchor on the bow, ready to throw overboard. And we have another one on the stern – just in case. I also removed the big sunroof and removed all the loose stuff on deck. There’s enough food and water on board to last a few weeks so I’d say we’re prepared for bad weather.

Other than that I’ve been focussing on changing flags. I’ve sent emails to the insurance and to get an official measurement-paper for the boat. That is needed to apply for the austrian flag. It’s all complicated and being on the other side of the world doesn’t make it any easier. But I guess, we have that done in a few weeks.

What else has happened. Ah, yeah, there was the thing with my bank card. It arrived with my christmas parcel a week ago. The thing is: for it to work, the card first has to be activated at an ATM of the Berliner Volksbank. Pitty that those are 20000km away. Well, the bank will send another card that doesn’t need that activation. In the meantime I’ll just try to sell some unneeded equipment for cash. Heh.

The small, red ketch from Switzerland stops right between the Suvarov and the Domani. The anchor finally took hold after a 100m downwind ride. Luckily there is enough room in between the boats to stay like this until the wind eases. After the situation calms down a bit, I place myself at the desk again to edit CSS und Smarty templates.

In the afternoon the wind drops, it’s getting too hot in front of the computer and I hop in the water. I’m quite perplexed as I look around and see the front that’s moving closer and is sucking in all the wind. I hop into the dinghy and row to shore, meet a friend, get a baguette, some apples and 10 minutes later I’m back on bord.  The neighbors are also starting to move: Pascal is strapping his dinghy down on deck and Lawrence removes the sun roof.

A few minutes later, the wind hits, but the anchor is well set. We’re in 4m of water with 40m of chain out. That’s quite safe. I go inside, cook something and two hours later the front has passed. Those little squalls and fronts become more common in the last weeks. I guess the rainy season is now at it’s best. Or to say it differently: the watertank is – and stays – always full. Nice.

Also in the parcel: Our very first self written article in a printed magazine. The Austrian sailing monthly Yachtrevue printed it in Dezember 2012. Although I wasn’t 100% happy with a few of the minor edits, the final story is quite good. Here’s the article as PDF, sorry – german only.

And this means that now I got all our stuff from the Rancho stored away, we have a seawater pump in the kitchen, the freshwater system is also working again, the water maker is installed and working and the solar panels are mounted. And finally I’m happy again. Lots of work done and now we have energy and fresh water again.

After a week of painful calm in which the heat on board was unbearable, a few hours ago the wind returned. This is another thing that makes the skipper smile. First, because the climate is a lot better and the windgenerator will produce power for me. And second because I have to get back to Tahiti and for that I need some wind. The lonesome Rancho Relaxo is still waiting for me in Faaa and I have to get the rest of our stuff and a few more things that I have to deinstall. It’s probably just gonna be a few days but I’m looking forward to the moment when I only have to takle care of one ship again.

Christmas and new year I spent with Jean Claude and his daughters. It was beautiful to spend those days together and this was also the main reason to come here. 2013 began quite amazing. I wish it stays that way !

The wind soon picked up and the Suvarov soon was gliding along with six knots with a steady breeze from NE. No chaos on the inside and everything fine on the outside. Despite constant rain, the sail was really lovely. At 17:30pm I arrived at the Opunohu Bay in Moorea and threw the anchor in turquoise water. 100 points, perfect !!

The Rancho is completely empty (except the front cabin) and all the gear I need to work on – solar panels, watermaker, SSB is on board the Suvarov. Our slightly degraded, deflatable dinghy is tied to Rancho Relaxo and Bruno’s Pinguin swimms in the back of the new boat. The mooring for the Rancho I paid for up until new year – I’m actually ready to go.
Weren’t it for the crates, bags and baskets of stuff in between those piles of clothes, tools, music instruments and books. Somebody has got to clean up that mess before we head out into the ocean tomorrow ! I have a feeling that I should get up early tomorrow if I plan to leave around noon.

Uh, and it’s gonna be the first sailing with the new boat. Also first time singlehanding – even more exciting ! Yay. But I’m soooo looking forward to that, I can’t tell you ! After having spent soo much troubling days and weeks here in this anchorage in Tahiti, I’m really ready for a change of landscape !
Also, I wanna see if the christmas present from home arrived yet …

Happy christmas everybody !!

Boring ? Well, in between yotties it’s not just smalltalk – it’s it’s pretty essential to discuss weather issues. It’s about whether the anchorage is safe or it becomes a trap. It’s about swell, wind and rain and the possibility to take the tender and get to (dry?) land. Or in my case if it’s possible to bring stuff from our old boat to the new. Every day in the morning there’s about 15cm of water in the dinghy. And as soon as it’s bucketed out, the next shower will fill it again, it seems. Not exactly helping if you have to transport clothes, food, spare parts and tools. So I’m trying to occupy myself reading instruction manuals for all the gadgets that are on the new ship. I’m discovering hoses for the engine ventilation and try to make sense of all the cables that disappear somewhere underneath floorboards or behind cabinets. Yesterday I was searching for about 30 minutes to discover a switch for the light in the engine compartment. I guess, it’s gonna take some time until I fully understand our new ship.

Next ToDos are the replacement of the leaking toilet (our old one was actually newer and nicer) and the preparation to install the water maker. But right now I should actually not think of things to do but rather get our stuff moved. It’s bad enough that I look over to the Rancho Relaxo a hundered times a day. I’d rather only have to take care of one boat. So hopefully we’ll get a little less rain the next days so I get something done.

Unfortunately I’m not getting much done these days. The weather is quite nasty. It’s raining a lot the last days and the wind is quite strong. This makes the dinghy rides between the boats a really wet exercise. But I got the most important things and the rest I will move as soon as the weather is improving (which will not be soon as it seems). In the meantime I’m trying to figure out all the switches, buttons, cables and hoses and make lists of things todo and to improve and to move… Uff. Enough work for months… But what else would I do ?

It’s a very sad moment. Using the stove a last time, brushing my teeth in the little bathroom a last time… But hey: Tomorrow I’ll be all the more happy. Especially as this weird, fast movement will have an end. The swell is still increasing and we’ll get a whopping 3.8m tomorrow. I’ll rather sleep on a ship with a mast by then.

Well. More tomorrow…

Tomorrow in the evening Bruno (the owner of the Suvarov) will fly to Europe and I will start moving our stuff over ! I can’t wait….. Ouuu yeah !!

YES ! We found our new ship. It’s a Caroff Sterven MKII from 1995. 12.3m long and 4.3m wide, built in steel of course. She has a LOT more room than the Rancho Relaxo of the Seas. She’s not a sleek looking ship but she’s big enough for me to walk around without constantly banging my head – which I’m looking very forward to.

You’ve seen the list of work on the Rancho Relaxo and although it’s really hard to let go, the decision to rather invest into a new boat is a good one. The comments on the last post were pretty much spot on: We can’t spend a year on a shipyard in Polynesia. That’s not the life we want to live. Especially not with the kids. So I’m gonna spend the next months moving all our fancy gear from the old to the new boat and prepare everything to set sail when the new season starts in April 2012. YEEEEEEAAAAH !!!!

After our rescue, the pilots of the helicopter spent half a day finding help to salvage our ship. Now they took a day off to invite us to the Navy base, have a BBQ together and show the kids all the equipment on the base ! Absolutely amazing !! For us it’s a very welcome distraction from our depressing bord life but for the children it’s very important to see the pilots and the chopper without the stress of a rescue. Bruno and Viola could climb through the helicopter, inspect the airplanes and play with the winch that lifted us off the reef.

The heat on the landing strip was like hellfire but the kids didn’t even realize. They were fully absorbed by all that fancy machinery, the interesting helicopter with all it’s screens and buttons. For hours they asked questions without end and of course had an amazing day. – Who wouldn’t ?

We also are extremely happy to have had that opportunity as we think it’s really important for the kids to associate some positive feelings with the helicopter and the people involved in the rescue operation. Yeah, and guess what Bruno want’s to become when he’s grown up ?

Sorry I’ve not been posting too much during the last weeks but I hop that will change soon. Today I’ve also started to answer all those nice emails we got and finally the inbox looks a little less chaotic. Oh – spaeking of writing. Together with the Yachtrevue an article is coming into existence. It should be published in the december issue.

The trip with the speed ferry only takes a little more than half an hour and we get picked up by car. The ride along the coastline has some magnificent views and we soon enter cook bay and continue towards the center of the island. Here we pick up the birthday girl and her sister Heilani who spent the day at a horse ranch. The energy of the soon to be 12 year old seems to be endless as we first drop her off at the jazz dance class before we finally get to their beautiful little house. The garden is typical for the area and has mangos, papayas, bananas and of course cocos and underneath all that green we see chicken and rabbits enjoying themselves. The weekend on the ‘countryside’ is a perfect change for us as we finally stop thinking about the Rancho Relaxo but have endless talks or (try) to repair an old motorcycle.

The time passes rapidly and sunday in the evening we’re back in Tahiti. Monday morning we suddenly find ourselves surrounded by the amazing number of TWO austrian ships: The ‘Chi’ arrived from the Tuamotus and the ‘Optimist’ came back from Moorea to do some last minute repairs before finally leaving for Fiji.

We’ve talked to many people, asked for prices and looked at used masts but it seems to be a fact: The Rancho Relaxo can not be repaired by us. We have tried to be as objective as possible but in the end that’s really difficult. The Rancho Relaxo is not just an object but our home and we had many thrilling and beautiful moments together. Saying good bye will be incredibly hard but a repair would cost us more than we could expect to ever get back by later selling the boat. After all we try to see the positive side of this: The market for used boats is really bad right now and we’re what you could call at the end of the world. So it is right here that we have actually good chances to find a new yacht. This and the financing of this new boat is what we were focussing the last days. And in both areas there have been extremely positive developments !
It seems quite surreal but only two weeks ago we were on the reef and thought that we would loose everything. Now it seems as if we will continue our journey with a new boat in the next year. This is possible because we have the support of both our families and they not just approve of our lifestyle but encourage us to finish what we started. Many friends helped us and want us to continue our journey. And that is exactly what we will do, although it will not be with the Rancho Relaxo of the Seas – and it will mean more work for us in the future. But that should not take the fun out of it and we are extremely happy about these amazing developments of the last days !!

It is absolutely amazing !!! We’re can’t believe how many friends reached into their pocket to support us. And even more surprising is the amount of (until now) anonymous blog readers that step into the light and support us financially or by writing a few nice lines to make us smile again. To all of you: Many, many thanks and a big hug from the whole family !!

As soon as we can think a little bit clearer, I’ll write more but right now I’d probably only spread confusion.

What changed our mind in the end is that we would have no problem at all to accept hands-on help to work on the boat. But as we’re stuck here in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, this is not an option. So why would we refuse donations ?
We have created that little Paypal donate button on the side and right there you will also be able to find the details for our german bank account. The decision to write this really wasn’t easy. We are thankful for every cent that will help us to move on ! Thank you all for your support (monetary or otherwise) !

We would also like to officially thank our austrian friends Hannes and Christine who took us in on their catamaran ‘Optimist’ while the Rancho was still on the reef.

We are discussing different options to repair the boat and today we will go to Port Phaeton to look at a used mast that supposedly should be the right size for our ship. In the evening we had long discussions as to whether we should try to continue immediately or if it would be better to fly to Europe, get a job and earn money for one year. Either way there’s a lot of things to do and even more stuff to think about.

On the positive side: Yesterday we built a little roof to protect ourselves from the sun and the kids love it. I also tested the engine and it has no damage, going forward & backward works, as does the steering. So we now consider ourselves the owners of a heavily damaged an incredibly slow motor boat. Heh.

Oh and as some comments and emails go in that direction: We are NOT insured ! We’ll have to pay the salvaging of the boat and the repairs ourselves. Luckily the heroic helicopter rescue is free.

Then we tried to get into the internet at the marina bar but because they have a party tonight, they turned off the hotspot. So we went back to the boat to eat and that was when I found out that I couldn’t stick my foot in between the saloon bench and the mast-support. We knew that because of the bent hull the saloon bench is 3cm higher but that couldn’t be it. No it was the mast support that is bent about 5cm !! This (nearly) let me loose my appetite. So it seems that the Rancho Relaxo has more damage than we thought ?

Tomorrow I will first try to build a sun protection above the cockpit. Then I will think about how and why the mast support was bent. Maybe I’ll also inspect the engine for any water damage (the exhaust was on the side where the waves kept running in). At least the propeller is turning and the rudder is working – which really amazes me.

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….

Click the image to get to the story.

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 !

The anchorage at Maeva beach is known to be very calm but still we were surprised to find ourselfes in a force six after just a few minutes running north. We had to wait for a landing airplane at the airport of Faaa before we were able to continue our journey. After passing the runway we set sail in papeete harbour and left the island with the small genoa. The passage was very fast and quite pleasent. It really was a good thing to be on the move again after such a long time at anchor. Our joy was a bit shortened bya a mayday call from a polynesian yacht that hit the reef in the Passe Tareu – that’s the entrance to the Baie d’ Opunohu which was our goal !
A few hours later we were already sailing along the reef of Moorea and passed the gorgeous Baie d’ Cook. Only two miles further west lies our entrance and we could already see the wrecked yacht. I don’t know yet how this shipwreck happened as the pass is a few hundered meters wide and pretty much without current but maybe we’ll find out tomorrow.

Right now we enjoy the silence of this little bay – no city, no airport and only a handful of boats here. And our kids are on the neighbor boat so we have the Rancho Relaxo all for ourselves ! Yay !

It’s the same as in the caribbean sailing season there is during the northern winter. Most sailors try to escape the hurricane season when the summer comes. The taifun season in the Pacific officially starts in January and ends around beginning of May. The timing tough is not as strict as in the caribbean. The season is actually only the time when the occurrence somehow peaks. Also the islands in the east are usually quite safe whereas the central Pacific definitely gets some decent storms now and then. So it’s no surprise that most of our friends who will spend the summer in the south have already left and are now in Tonga or in the Cook islands. After having changed our plan for a couple of times we finally came up with something that sounds reasonable: We’ll sail to the Tuamotus and spend the next weeks there. Then we get back to Tahiti at the end of November and my family will leave with an airplane towards South America. I will sail back to the Marquesas solo and we will be united two months later. Sounds good to me.

So why did we spend such a long time in Tahiti where most of the surrounding islands are much more beautiful ? Well, first we had a lot of friends that we met here and as one never does know if and when we could meet again, we had a few farewell parties. We were hiking and explored the island by car, later I was out of order for one week because of my infected toe. The last week we spent mostly in town, searching for missing parts. It’s not as easy as we’re low on money and the shops are quite but not always expensive. A 20l jerry can is 46 USD here but anti fouling paint is actually cheaper than in Europe. The record must be a little 12V piezo beeper that I bought in Panama for 40 cents. Here I found one for 42 USD. (A stupid BEEPER !) But now we got our sails repaired, we got spare parts and new hoses to redo the salt water installation and the bilge pumps, we got paint for the whole ship, new rubber for the windows, screws, filters and hoses for the engine and a hundred more things. On monday a man will come and refill our compressor fridge. After that I will probably spray half of the fridge full of foam to increase the insulation and decrease it’s size. I hope that will help a little. On our next visit I will also buy wood to do some enhancements to the interior and redo the cockpit floor. There’s gonna be enough to do when I’m alone on the boat.
Well if everything works out, we’ll be gone by the mid of the next week. It’s time.

Right now I just wanted to announce that we’re still here and that I update our website slightly. I’m gonna write another blog post soon. Promised.

But in the meantime we ran into a lot of our friends that we met along the way. The Papillon arrived, we last saw them at Galapagos. The Red Sky Night arrived which we last saw in Fatu Hiva. And just yesterday I discovered the ‘Armatura Borealis’ that we ran into in Gran Canaria – a year ago !

So we spend a lot of time hanging out with friends, doing BBQ, the kids playing together, hichhiking to the city to get boat parts, etc.

We will stay for a few more days to wait until my toe gets better. – After climbing the mountains barefoot for two days, I managed to hit my toe on the way from the Carrefour to the Marina. Needless to say, the toe immediately got infected and my leg swollen. So now I’m enjoying antibiotics for the first time since we left Berlin….

Thanks to my parents we took notice of some good development in Somalia. It seems the country is heading towards having a government and the piracy rate during the last year went way down. There’s still a lot of danger in those waters but we immediately started plotting a possible new course through the read sea. Oooo if that would be possible it would be really nice. I’d not think twice of skipping that long crossing of the Indian ocean and then the Atlantic crossing from south to north for a nice, short ride throught the med. Well, in one year’s time we’ll know what to do…

First we had new friends arrive: The SY Tamora went on a mooring right next to us. For a welcome we did some barbequeue (Carrefour for the win !) Next day, we started the pizza oven on board and it finally was time for the famous Rancho Relaxo all-you-can-eat pizza !

Sundays the girls did an excursion to the horse party in Papeete while the boys made a big mess in the ship and repaired the watermaker. Luckily the membrane is not cloaked. The problem was a high pressure valve that got stuck. But with the help of Mr. H2O (Hr. Braeuer) and the really excellent instruction manual, we got it working again. We also cleaned all the filters and now it’s working great again.

In the meantime Gui and Viola enjoyed the visitor’s day in the hippodrome of Papeete where Viola found horses of all sizes to cuddle with and ride on. Looks like they had a lot of fun there.

We also did a big walk through all of Papeete in the heat of the midday and visited tht chandleries and tool stores. Unfortunately we didn’t find what we were looking for. On the same day the long overdue SY Papillon arrived with her new and improved besan mast (pic will follow). And on tuesday/wednesday Zac and me did a big mountain tour up Mont Aorai which I will describe in another blog post.

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.

Initially we planned to sail directly to the Maeva beach to drop the anchor. But we didn’t get permission to sail past the airport so we had to moor up at the city pontoon in the centre of Papeete. Not bad. Water and electricity is something we didn’t have for a long time !

The next good thing: just beside us is the austrian yacht ‘Shambala’ and opposite is our friend Zac with the SY Panache. Also there’s a french catamaran with two kids and Bruno and Viola immediately made friends with them.

The next morning, Gui and the kids went to town and came back with baguettes, croissants, butter and fresh milk. We had a real french breakfast and after doing laundry and clening up the boat, the kids and Gui went to the cinema.  I used that opportunity to head out to the brewery together with the SY Anaconda und Zac to sample some local beer. Needless to say, the next day was quite unproductive.

Next day was internet day and we finally uploaded all pics fom the last islands. The only thing left to do was to go shopping. And Gui came back with a car full of groceries from Carrefour while the kids spent the time playing with the waterhose on the pontoon.

Yesterday we finally moved away from the city pontoon and sailed the five miles south to Maeva beach. Needless to say, we arrived in darkness.

So today the first look around was – well – slightly disapointing. No beach here. Just looooooots of yachts. The anchoring is difficult because of the depth and all good spots are taken by moorings that the nearby marina put there. I guess, we’ll stay for two or three more days and then we’re off to Moorea.

An hour later (now that I’m sending this) a front hit and we finally have some wind.

LATITUDE: 16-19.34S, LONGITUDE: 148-02.46W, COURSE: 239T, SPEED: 4.8, WIND: ESE 4, DISTANCE: 114nm

Bruno ist mit grosser Begeisterung beim Lesen. Seine aktuelle Lieblingslektuere: ‘Tahiti et ses iles’. Ein Tourismus-Fuehrer fuer franzoesisch Polynesien. Er studiert wahrhaftig stundenlang die Karten, findet raus, welche die hoechsten Berge sind und wo man Gelaendeautos mieten koennte. Und waehrend Bruno also im Cockpit liegt und dahinsinniert, vernehmen wir von unten aus dem Salon ploetzlich Viola’s Stimme: ‘M…A…U…P.’ – ‘MAUP…I…T…I….’ – ‘MAUPITI !!!’ Verdutzte Blicke bei den Grossen – irritiertes Kopfdrehen bei Bruno: VIOLA KANN LESEN !!

Nein, nicht nur ein Wort. Sie liest beinahe alles, was man ihr vor die Nase haelt egal ob nur Gross- oder auch kleine Buchstaben*. Und ganz auf Viola’s Art hat sie dies mit ihren zarten vier Jahren ganz still und heimlich selbst entwickelt. Zeitgleich kommt natuerlich auch das Schreiben mit. Und da beide in den letzten Wochen eine riesen Entwicklung in Sachen Malen gemacht haben, werden die Kunstwerke auch immer genauestens Beschriftet und mit Pfeilen und Erklaerungen versehen.

Auch sprachlich geht’s ordenlich ab. Da wir die letzten Wochen immer wieder mit englischsprachigen Schiffen unterwegs waren (SY Papillon – USA, SY Red Sky Night – Australien, SY Panache – USA), haben beide Kinder angefangen relativ ungeniert englisch zu sprechen. Natuerlich sehr rudimentaer und mit vielen Fehlern, aber dafuer mit umso mehr Begeisterung.

Der ‘Sachkunde-Unterricht’ steht auch nicht hintennach: Voegel und Fische werden mit Begeisterung bestimmt und Dank Buechern wie ‘Dangerous marine animals’ wissen die Kinder ganz genau, welche Tiere gefaehrlich sind. Ueber Schiffe und Segeln wissen die beiden sowieso langsam alles, was aber nicht weiter verwundert – ist es doch ihr zuhause.

Der Geographie-Unterricht hat sich mittlerweile zum Hauptfach etabliert und wir koennen uns nur wundern, wie jemand mit 6 Jahren Beobachtungen ueber Wind- und Himmelsrichtungen, Reisedauer und Zeitverschiebung machen kann. Sternbilder sind zu spaeter Stunde auch immer ein Thema. Die Kinder kennen das Kreuz des Suedens, Skorpion, den Schwan, die Leier und auch Planeten wie Saturn und Mars werden am Nachthimmel gefunden. Orion und Jupiter werden zur Zeit leider vermisst, da sie erst spaet in der Nacht erscheinen.

Das Wichtigste bei all diesen ‘Lernerfolgen’ ist vermutlich die Motivation. Die Kinder wollen alles wissen und sie wollen es selbst entdecken. Niemand korrigiert staendig oder zwingt sie etwas zu lernen, das nicht interessiert. So geht die natuerliche Neugier nicht verloren und die Kurzen sind Stolz, wenn sie Papi von unten die genaue Position oder die Geschwindigkeit ueber Grund zurufen koennen. Fuer Seglerkinder mag Schwimmen die wichtigste Faehigkeit sein, doch im allgemeinen glaube ich, ist es das Lesen.

Eine Eins mit goldenem Sternchen fuer Bruno und Viola ! (Hahaha. – Noten kennen die beiden nicht.)

*typische Kinderfrage: Warum heissen die eigentlich kleine Buchstaben, wenn viele gleich gross sind wie die ‘grossen’ und manche (f) sogar noch groesser ?!?

Und nochmal unsere Buchempfehlung: ‘Learning all the time’ von John Holt !!

LATITUDE: 15-34.92S, LONGITUDE: 146-38.90W, COURSE: 269T, SPEED: 4.9, WIND: E 3, DISTANCE: 205nm

But THEN we arrived ! And Tony, the son of Alfre and Pauline put the (free !) mooring line into our hands and greeted us with a big polynesian smile. Bruno and Viola liked him at first sight and wanted to go to shore immediately. So they left for the motu while Gui and me had a shower and a nice swim around the ship in turquoise water.
One of the better – if not the best – landfall we had so far.

LATITUDE: 14-50.24S, LONGITUDE: 145-47.20W, COURSE: 227T, SPEED: 3.4, WIND: ESE 6(7), DISTANCE: 39nm

LATITUDE: 13-40.42S, LONGITUDE: 144-20.50W, COURSE: 248T, SPEED: 6.5, WIND: ESE 6, DISTANCE: 173nm

LATITUDE: 13-26.47S, LONGITUDE: 143-57.36W, COURSE: 225T, SPEED: 6.7, WIND: ESE 5, DISTANCE: 199nm

LATITUDE: 12-09.02S, LONGITUDE: 142-11.25W, COURSE: 233T, SPEED: 6.2, WIND: ESE 5, DISTANCE: 329nm

Taohata war ein wirklicher Traumaufenthalt. Der Strand ist sensationell und die Unterwasserwelt bietet unzaehlige kleine Fische, Mantarochen und Haie. Da wird das Schnorcheln nicht langweilig ! Und obwohl ich weiss, dass die Haie die Menschen nur aeusserst selten angreifen, bekomme ich dennoch immer Herzklopfen, wenn so ein Schwarzspitzen Riffhai an mir vorbeischwimmt. Waehrend unseres dreitaegigen Aufenthaltes haben wir auch das Schiff halbwegs fit gemacht und der Motor laeuft …. NOCH IMMER ! Langsam glaub ich fast schon dran, dass wir nun das Problem behoben haben.
Kulinarisch ging’s dann auch noch ganz gut weiter. Nach Gui’s indischem Abend versorgte Zac von der SY Panache uns am naechsten Tag mit selbstgemachten Gnocci – ooou yeah ! Und weil unsere Bananenstaude nun doch langsam die Farbe wechselt, gab’s heute einen Bananenkuchen nebst selbstgemachten Vollkorn-Baguettes und Rosinenbroetchen.

Tjo und nun, da wir aus Lee der Insel raus sind kann ich sagen, dass es auch seglerisch fesch dahingeht. Wir fahren einen Halbwindkurs, Rtg. 235 Grad und haben Genua und Gross im ersten Reff gesetzt. Sehr angenehmes und flottes Segeln. Sollte wohl auch so bleiben, da fuer die naechsten Tage dann noch zunehmender Wind vorhergesagt waere. Schoen ! – Dann sind wir in fuenf Tagen am Ziel. Das waer’ mal ein schoener, kurzer Trip. Aber mal abwarten. Das Wetter hatte bisher noch beinahe auf jedem Toern eine kleine Ueberraschung fuer uns vorbereitet.

LATITUDE: 10-01.27S, LONGITUDE: 139-17.85W, COURSE: 236T, SPEED: 5.4, WIND: ESE 4, DISTANCE: 541nm

I promise, I’ll write more tomorrow. But we just had such a great dinner that Gui made – indian style with three different dishes and fresh bread – I’m tired.

Oh – und wir sind draufgekommen, dass hier im Pazifik wohl unser Spot-Messenger nicht mehr funktioniert. Deshalb gibt’s ab nun nur noch Positionsmeldungen via Winlink.

When going towards shore for the first time, we took a bottle of rum and exchanged it for a big bag of fruits. Fantastic grapefruits, oranges, lemons and bananas. Finally – after many days without fresh food.

Next day we made friends with Zac from the SY Panache and took a little stroll through the village and into the forest, in search for a waterfall. Unfortunately we couldn’t find it. But we still had a bath in a small river, we encountered.

One day later the SY Red Sky Night arrived and together we made a second try. This time we found the waterfall and had a nice bath in the pool at the foot of it. This island really is one of the most beautiful ones we’ve ever set foot on. No wonder nearly everyone who does the pacific crossing stops here.

After three nights at anchor in the bay of Hanavave, we lifted up the anchor to sail to Hiva Oa, the main island of the Marqueas. Details on that exciting trip will follow in the next post.

There are a number of reasons why we hit those rocks and that was what I was thinking about during that trip to Hiva Oa. So I was silent while Gui wanted to speak about what happenend. That of course led to an argument between us but – hey – there are limits to how personal I’m getting in that blog here. Anyway… It’s really risky to be sailing without a working engine and that was the main reason why during the stay at Taohata, I spent nearly two entire days in the engine room. Now we’re heading towards the Tuamotus and those are even riskier islands. Until a few years ago many sailors still sailed around them because of the many little reefs and currents that make this archipelago that dangerous. But we’ll only do one stop for now and that should not be a problem.

As for the passage to these islands – it’s running great !! We expected to have very light winds during the first two days and we had very little wind during the last night. This prompted the appearence of the Blister right after breakfast – but now we have nice and steady wind with enough power to push us along with 5 to 6 knots with just the small Genoa and the main in the first reef. Wonderful sailing with agreeable movement and beautiful blue sky and sea.

LATITUDE: 11-04.56S, LONGITUDE: 140-29.96W, COURSE: 231T, SPEED: 5.9, WIND: ESE 4-5, DISTANCE: 447nm

LATITUDE: 10-34.20S, LONGITUDE: 138-30.36W, COURSE: 266T, SPEED: 3.6, WIND: E 3, DISTANCE: 18nm

LATITUDE: 10-05.96S, LONGITUDE: 137-05.85W, COURSE: 245T, SPEED: 4.7, WIND: ESE 4, DISTANCE: 97nm

During the day I cleaned the fridge and found five (!!) leaking beer cans. The beer in central america comes in incredibly thin-skinned cans that break when you just look at them firmly. After nearly four weeks of motion in the fridge a lot of them were done for of course. And that made a big mess that I had the pleasure to gt rid of.
I also did a little check on the engine: In the past weeks it was running about three hours to load batteries. Everything fine. Today I tried it with the gear in (with stress so to say) and the engine went out after only three minutes. I again found air in the second fuel filter and (maybe) found the cause: One of the screws for venting the ignition pump had a broken seal. The original copper seal was lost in the depths of the engine room when I was working on it in Galapagos, so I replaced it with one made of rubber. This one was torn and leaking. So I replaced the replacement with a couple of meters of teflon tape and gave it another try: The engine was running without gear for 1.5 hours and with gear for another 10 minutes before I turned it off. Until now it looks good. But we’ll only see if it really works once we’ve been running under engine for an hour or so.

After a few squalls went past us during the late afternoon we now have finally some wind. If it stays like that, we could make it in two days. Yay-woo !!

LATITUDE: 09-46.40S, LONGITUDE: 135-55.78W, COURSE: 224T, SPEED: 3.7, WIND: ENE 2-3, DISTANCE: 167nm

Genau diese fehlt uns schon etwas. Jaja. Langweilig. Echt. Aber das war auch nicht anders zu erwarten. Immerhin sind wir zu viert und die Gefahr, Selbstgespraeche zu fuehren beschraenkt sich maximal auf einsame Nachtwachen und lautes Fluchen, wenn bei einem Manoever mal wieder was hakt oder sich die Schot in der Ankerwinsch verfaengt. Richtig gut nehmen’s die Kinder. Die beiden spielen von Tag zu Tag besser miteinander, sie beschaeftigen sich stundenlang mit Legos, Buechern, Asterix, Musik, etc. Urspruenglich hatten wir das ganz anders erwartet: die Kurzen, die ganz klassisch noergeln, wann wir denn endlich da sind und die Grossen, die dann Ausfluechte finden. In Wirklichkeit ist’s gaenzlich umgekehrt.
Aufmunterug brachte heute morgen eine riesige Schule von Delfinen, die in Gruppen zu drei, vier und mehr Tieren um’s Schiff schossen. Es muessen wohl ueber hundert der sympatischen Meeressaeuger gewesen sein. Immer wieder zischen auch riesige Schwaerme fliegender Fische aus dem Wasser, was im grellen Sonnenlicht und ueber dem tiefen Blau des Pazifiks wirklich atemberaubend schoen anzusehen ist. Seit heute nimmt auch die Zahl und Variation der Voegel stark zu. Mittags haben wir die ersten Fregattvoegel gesehen. Das Land ist also schon nah !

LATITUDE: 09-07.93S, LONGITUDE: 134-59.97W, COURSE: 245T, SPEED: 4.9, WIND: ESE 3-4, DISTANCE: 231nm

Today we had rain. Lots of rain – the whole day was gray and wet. But also nice wind coming from ESE, E, ENE, NE and finally NNW. So right now we’re sailing a course on the wind doing incredible 2.3 knots. – The rain front passed and with it the wind. So now we’re waiting until the wind turns back towards a more easterly direction and (hopefully) also increases in force so we can continue our course with bigger, lighter sails.
Other than that, nothing happened here. Everybody is getting a little excited about the nearing landfall…. Only 396 miles to go. WIND ! We need wind !!

LATITUDE: 09-35.19S, LONGITUDE: 132-02.09W, COURSE: 284T, SPEED: 1.6, WIND: NNW 1-2, DISTANCE: 395nm

** Stark riechende Voegel aller Art **
koche in einem Sud aus Wasser mit Pfeffer, Liebstoeckel, Thymian, trockener Minze, Sellerie, Nelken, Honig, Essig, Wein, Salzlake, Oel, eingekochtem Most und Senf. Doch werden sie saftiger und wohlschmeckender und bleiben fetter, wenn du sie mit Mehlteig in den du Oel hineingearbeitet hast, umhuellst und in den Ofen schiebst. Es empfiehlt sich auch, die Voegel mit zerschnittenen frischen Oliven zu fuellen und diese vor dem Anrichten zu entfernen.

LATITUDE: 08-25.034S, LONGITUDE: 129-18.36W, COURSE: 247T, SPEED: 3.1, WIND: E 2, DISTANCE: 568nm

In der Bordkueche gab’s heute eine der Spezialitaeten des Skippers: Rosmarin-Risotto – leider ohne Lammstelzen, aber trotzdem lecker. Gui ist gerade am Brotbacken und die untergehende Sonne laesst die Gischt der Pazifikwellen und das kleine, weisse Segelboot nochmal kurz rosa aufgluehen, bevor sie dann die Buehne den Sternen und Sternschnuppen ueberlaesst. Wir haben zwar schon lange alle Wuensche 10-fach deponiert, dennoch freuen wir uns noch immer ueber jede einzelne Sternschnuppe.
Der Segeltag war heute wenig ereignisreich. Den Ganzen Tag mit Genua und Gross gesegelt, leider etwas zu langsam, aber doch zu viel Wind fuer den Blister. Morgen soll sich das dann angeblich aendern, dann flaut der Wind weiter ab und wir werden wohl auf die Leichtwindbesegelung wechseln. Kein Regen, keine Squalls und den ganzen Tag wunderschoene Passatwoelkchen. Super !

LATITUDE: 07-20.40S, LONGITUDE: 126-43.86W, COURSE: 229T, SPEED: 4.9, WIND: E 3, DISTANCE: 732nm

Danke, Guenther fuer die aktuellen Noaa Infos ! Klingen etwas vage, aber es koennte uns also doch ein El Nino ins Haus stehen. Mist ! El M. waere mir lieber (Gruesse an selbigen !)

LATITUDE: 06-42.01S, LONGITUDE: 124-57.07W, COURSE: 249T, SPEED: 5.6, WIND: ESE 4, DISTANCE: 845nm

LATITUDE: 06-04.59S, LONGITUDE: 122-47.01W, COURSE: 250T, SPEED: 4.6, WIND: ESE 3, DISTANCE: 980nm

LATITUDE: 05-37.17S, LONGITUDE: 120-50.60W, COURSE: 259T, SPEED: 6.0, WIND: ESE 4, DISTANCE: 1099nm

LATITUDE: 05-10.33S, LONGITUDE: 118-56.42W, COURSE: 273T, SPEED: 5.0, WIND: ESE4-5, DISTANCE: 1216nm

LATITUDE: 04-56.02S, LONGITUDE: 116-56.45W, COURSE: 261T, SPEED: 5.1, WIND: ESE4(5), DISTANCE: 1335nm

Update at 0245h: Couldn’t send that email earlier as it wa impossible to get a connection to our ‘mailservers’. So we had a fast day with big waves and right now we’re preparing a Lasagne to celebrate the middle of the Pacific. The wind is slightly less now.

All downhill from here !

LATITUDE: 04-33.19S, LONGITUDE: 114-46.58W, COURSE: 274T, SPEED: 5.9, WIND: ESE 5, DISTANCE: 1466nm

LATITUDE: 04-06.36S, LONGITUDE: 112-11.00W, COURSE: 259T, SPEED: 7.1, WIND: ESE 6, DISTANCE: 1623nm

So haben wir heute also gesammelte Botschaften der letzten Tage bekommen. Vielen lieben Dank an: Die Crew der Nubia (schon wieder in D angekommen ?!?) und an die Charisma (nein, Bergfest kommt vielleicht morgen um diese Zeit) an Christoph (Danke fur die Bananen-Rezepte !) an die Crew der SUPERMOLLI (Wo treibt ihr euch denn eigentlich rum ?) an Tarek (Schoen, dass du den Weg ins Internetz gefunden hast. Hehehe) an Jens (fuer technische Hilfe – was hast du dann gemacht ? Abgedichtet ?) an Christoph (nein, die anderen werden vom 15′-Alarm nicht wach, die schlafen wie Murmeltiere und der Wachhabende ist ja meist im Cockpit. Auch ist’s am Schiff wegen unserer unglaublich schnellen Fahrt recht laut (Welle, Wind, geklimper) da geht ein Funkgespraech beinahe unter) an Guenther, der uns beinahe taeglich schreibt und natuerlich an meine Eltern !!

LATITUDE: 03-34.42S, LONGITUDE: 109-42.89W, COURSE: 263T, SPEED: 5.6, WIND: SE 4-5, DISTANCE: 1786nm

LATITUDE: 03-08.73S, LONGITUDE: 107-37.97W, COURSE: 265T, SPEED: 6.1, WIND: SSE4-5, DISTANCE: 1902nm

LATITUDE: 03-08.50S, LONGITUDE: 105-17.91W, COURSE: 274T, SPEED: 6.4, WIND: SSE4-5, DISTANCE: 2037nm

LATITUDE: 02-48.25S, LONGITUDE: 103-07.76W, COURSE: 252T, SPEED: 3.7, WIND: SE2-3, DISTANCE: 2168nm

LATITUDE: 02-15.80S, LONGITUDE: 101-12.67W, COURSE: 258T, SPEED: 7.2, WIND: SSE5, DISTANCE: 2288nm

0000h: Start of my watch, Gui and the kids are off to bed around 30 minutes later. Wind: SSE4-5 course: 270, sails: Main and Genoa.
0050h: Wrote a small blog post and uploaded via HF, position report sent.
0300h: Start of Guenther’s Pacific Net on shortwave radio (14135USB). Many friends of us are on air and we exchange position, news, weather, etc. The SY Mares tells the story of three wrecked ships at the easter island (one of them german) !
0515h: I wake up Gui to switch watches and go to bed.
0830h: I am awakened by a change in the ship’s movement. (Yes, after one year on the boat that’s quite common.) The wind has increased, I get some clothes on and get outside. Together with Gui I put in a reef in the main sail. Wind now at a steady force 5, the Rancho Relaxo doing constant 6.5 knots towards 260 degrees.
0900h: Gui made a dough during her watch and now she puts the bread into the oven and goes to bed, my watch starts.
1000h: I get the bread out. Also I put the alarm to repeat every 15 minutes and take short naps in between looking for other ships. Again we have an unbelievable starry night. Three days in a row we had crystal clear air and no clouds. The milky way is clear as a cloud during daylight and the stars are fantastic !
1200h: Still dark, but the sun will come up shortly. I put the position into the logbook and record a daily log of 141 miles. (Nice !) As we also carry paper charts, so I plot the current position while smiling and thinking of coffee.
1230h: Sun comes up with a blasting orange sky. Two minutes later, Viola is in the cockpit and cuddles beside me. Bruno follows 10 minutes later.
1300h: Breakfast with fresh bread, coffee, nesquick, honey, butter – and of course: bananas.
1400h: Doing the dishes, the kids have books in their hands. Put the sunsail over the cockpit.
1430h: Collecting 13 squids and 6 flying fish on deck. One squid made a big mess on the foredeck another one I find hanging down on a rope at the mast ! We really had some big waves last night. Otherwise those animals will not fly 3 meters up in the air. I download weather information via shortwave radio.
1500h: Gui gets up and has breakfast. I’m doing some laundry – takes me 1.5 hours for one bucket. I notice the swell changes direction from SW to SE, now matching with the wind waves.
1700h: Big fishing trawler portside, a few miles away. It will circle us for the next hours.
1715h: With enough sun and wind, the batteries are completely full. I’m starting the watermaker for 1.5 hours, making about 45 liters of fresh water.
1800h: Cleaning the bathroom.
1900h: Having lunch (poissant cru). Later doing dishes. The kids listen to music and look at books.
2100h: Playing Guitar. The kids flee and watch a movie downstairs (yes, they also take advantage of the full batteries !)
2200h: I’m doing siesta, Gui takes the watch.
now: My watch again, writing blog post, listening to Pacific network…. Back to start.

LATITUDE: 02-03.56S, LONGITUDE: 098-59.45W, COURSE: 253T, SPEED: 6.2, WIND: SE4-5, DISTANCE: 2420nm

LATITUDE: 01-49.93S, LONGITUDE: 096-15.24W, COURSE: 262T, SPEED: 6.4, WIND: SSE4-5, DISTANCE: 2583nm

LATITUDE: 01-45.41S, LONGITUDE: 094-03.90W, COURSE: 271T, SPEED: 4.3, WIND: S3-4, DISTANCE: 2713nm

LATITUDE: 01-33.40S, LONGITUDE: 092-13.68W, COURSE: 247T, SPEED: 3.9, WIND: SSE2-3, DISTANCE: 2823nm

LATITUDE: 01-13.43S, LONGITUDE: 091-17.38W, COURSE: 251T, SPEED: 4.1, WIND: SSE2-3, DISTANCE: 2879nm

The island is quite different from San Cristobal. The streets are unpaved and the houses much nicer, the nature is even more meager.  The Iguanas are much smaller and the nice and bright beach is interrupted by black lava rocks. Those are the same rocks that we found in the entrance to the anchorage. It’s quite interesting to navigate in between those obstacles and I guess at night it’s quite dangerous. The anchoring is not that nice here as there is quite some swell entering and the weather is mostly misty – bad for our energy input.

Continuation of the above entry at 7:30pm: Finally in the early afternoon the port captain found some time for us and we could present our case. He told us to get going as fast as possible and repeated everything all the other people of the office already told us. Thereafter we found ourselfes in a small office where another officer took about two hours to type the protocol, make a copy of our passports, ask stupid questions while we studied a copy of the ecuatorian maritime law that lie on a table. In the end we were back at the Rancho Relaxo around 3pm and I could finally fix the engine. (Replace the fuel filter again.) So it’s working now but noone knows for how long. But for sure long enough to exit the harbour.

Tonight we’ll have the crew of the SY Red Sky Night from Australia aboard our ship and we’ll have a drink or two. They will also start towards the Marquesas in a few days and as they got a faster ship than ours, we’ll probably arrive around the same time.  Tomorrow after the breakfast we’ll be going….

Oh ! And I nearly forgot: Today we also saw Penguins !! Unfortunately we didn’t have a camera with us.

Last thing: During the voyage our satphone wll be turned on every day at 18:00 UTC for one hour.

So we’re now at Isla Isabela and we will later have to go to the Capitaneria to explain ourselves to the port captain. We’ll see, how long we’re allowed to stay. But usually it should be the 72 hours that are granted by maritime law. We’ll have to replace fuel filters (again) and maybe we have a chance to see the penguins or the land-iguanas….

Oh – and again we had problems updating our blog from underway. The posting I sent yesterday in the night, I had to post manually. Cheez. I hope we’ll not again run into problems with our website – we would be unable to post from underway….

For more details, click the image or ‘The route’ up in the menue.

Well, we’re moving our house again. Somehow sad because Galapagos was really fantastic. But we already gave away our passports to get the necessary stamps and tomorrow we’ll pull the iron out of the sand and set sails.

Towards the Marquesas (yes, that destination is now clear !), across the “Big Blue”. – 3000 miles without stop. And without the possibility of a stop. But we’ve done good shopping and I’ve got two new fishhooks. Should be good.

The day after tomorrow we’ll might do another posting with pictures from the Isla Isabela (if we find internet there). Otherwise there will be our daily posts via shortwave radio as soon as we start the crossing.

The last days were dominated by farewells. First the SY Papillon – a beautiful 57″ ketch from the states started towards the Marquesas. Next day the SY Tamora weighted anchor. Dieter and Silke made a short stopover at the Isla Isabela and now are underway to the Gambier Islands. The day before yesterday our swiss anchor – neighbor set sail. Esti, Mario and Laura also started with destination Gambiers but they might try to make a stop at the Easter islands, if the wind is favorable. Especially the last parting was very hard for our kids as they were good friends with Laura. Bruno was extremely sad when she finally got into the watertaxi and went home aboard her catamaran.

I think we’ll stay a few more days here at San Cristobal but slowly it get’s a little to cold. Funny. We’re as close to the equator as you can get but it’s cold. That’s the Humboldt current. The water temperature was 31 degrees in Panama and Costa Rica. When we reached Galapagos we had 26 degrees but that dropped to a chilling 22 degrees during the last week ! First it’s too hot, now too cold. It’s really not easy to get it right for the LosLocos. Hehehe.

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 !

As you can see, I also posted all the missing blog posts of the last week. Our f****** server again managed to screw with us. Really frustrating !!

LATITUDE: 00-17.32S, LONGITUDE: 089-08.21W, COURSE: 223T, SPEED: 4.8, WIND: S5, DISTANCE TO DEST: 46nm

Woohoooo !!! We just crossed ‘The Line’ ! At 18:31h UTC we crossed the Aequator at the longitude of 88 degrees and 44 minutes. The countdown was a lot of fun because we told the kids that on the south side of course everything is the other way around and you’re with the feet on the ceiling an the head is downwards. Although the kids did not really believe that nonsense but nonethless prepared themselfes, lying down at the floor with the feet up in the air – just in case.
Up until now everything is quite the same. The water still turns the same way when we flush the toilet and we still walk with our feet on the floor. And it seems, tomorrow we’ll be in Galapagos. Yay !

Gut geplant ist halb verloren. So geht doch der Spruch, oder ? Na auf jeden Fall haben wir heute verloren – ein kleines Privatrennen mit einer anderen Segelyacht, die wir heute im Morgengrauen an Backbord querab hatten, welche aber schon eine Stunde spater vor uns am Horizont verschwand. Tja. Dafuer haben die keine private Muschelzucht mit ! Wir schon – immer wenn uns nach Krustentieren ist, muessen wir nur schnell mal unter’n Rumpf tauchen und schon haben wir genug Eiweis fuer eine Mahlzeit beisammen. Dass uns das auf dieser Reise sicher 1-2 Tage gekostet hat, das muss man als Delikatessenliebhaber halt hinnehmen.
Mal eben ein franzoesisches Butterkeks in den Kaffe getaucht. Mmmmhhh. Also zur Planung: Diese war fuer diesen Toern echt mal gut gelungen ! Gestern hatten wir die letzte Banane, heute haben wir Avocados und Gurken aufgegessen und fuer morgen und uebermorgen gibt’s noch Tomaten, Zwiebeln, Kartoffeln und Limetten. Letztere werden dann fuer’n Anlege-Drink wichtig. An diesen denken wir immer oefter. Der Wind ist uns naemlich treu und so sehr kann uns unser Privatriff am Kiel gar nicht bremsen, dass wir nicht uebermorgen ankommen ! So sind’s zur Zeit noch 155 Meilen, bis San Christobal und der Kurs passt haarscharf. Auch hier nochmal gut geplant. Also das Aufkreuzen nach Sued und den anschliessenden Kurs, der eigentlich anfangs noch etwas zu hoch war. Aber die geniale Langzeitplanung beinhaltete einen kleinen Winddreher auf Sued bzw. Suedsuedost und dieser kam auch heute, somit fahren wir genau auf’s Ziel zu.
Ein wenig einsam sind wir hier. Haben noch kein einziges Kommentar auf unsere Blogeintraege bekommen. Und am Satphone ruft auch niemand an. Kann ich aber verstehen, ist einfach zu teuer… So. Jetzt suche ich noch ein schoenes Bildchen raus und hoffe, dass uns jemand eine Zeile schickt…

Ah, zum Bild, welches unser Webmaster hoffentlich nachtraeglich einfuegt: Wir hatten nachts Besuch an Bord. Ein ‘Red-footet Booby’ (lat.: Sula Sula) ist um 04h morgens auf der Reling am Bug gelandet und blieb dort die ganze nacht sitzen. Erst zum Fruehstueck, welches um 12h Bordzeit stattfand, hat er sich wieder hinfortgemacht. Und auch wenn wir ja gaaar nicht aberglaeubisch sind, aber ein Vogel an Bord bringt nun mal Glueck. Da freut man sich !

LATITUDE: 00-51.32N, LONGITUDE: 087-45.62W, COURSE: 227T, SPEED: 3.9, WIND: S3, DISTANCE TO DEST: 153nm

LATITUDE: 01-41.60N, LONGITUDE: 086-44.22W, COURSE: 257T, SPEED: 3.6, WIND: SSW3, DISTANCE TO DEST: 232nm

LATITUDE: 02-38.81N, LONGITUDE: 084-32.41W, COURSE: 241T, SPEED: 3.2, WIND: SSW3, DISTANCE TO DEST: 371nm

LATITUDE: 03-06.81N, LONGITUDE: 083-25.81W, COURSE: 247T, SPEED: 3.2, WIND: SSW3, DISTANCE TO DEST.:442nm

My brother will post the previous blog entries, so I don’t have to write everything that happened during the trip. So we’re still far away from Galapagos and we don’t get much closer despite trying really hard. The wind is blowing from SSW – which is exactly the location of the islands. The current comes with 1.3 knots from the west, so it seems we’re already in the aequatorial counter current. Our idea is to try to get as far south as possible to maybe escape that current and then sail westward towards our destination.
We saw a couple of dolphins and the first birds from Galapagos: Swallow tailed gulls (Larus furcatus) to be precise. We also have followers: a small group of rainbow runners is swimming alongside the Rancho Relaxo. But despite all tries of Bruno – with different baits. These fish won’t bite ! As we were quite hungry we then had the excellent idea to use the harpoon and shoot them, as they’re only half a meter in the water. But no luck. And after we’ve been trying for about an hour, the line of the harpoon broke and we lost the dart !
But even when this trip is a little frustrating, everyone is well (again) and we still have hope to reach San Christobal in time to see the crews of SY Tamora and SY Mares again.

LATITUDE: 03-35.58N, LONGITUDE: 083-13.34W, COURSE: 138T, SPEED: 4.0, WIND: S3-4, DISTANCE TO DEST: 468nm

LATITUDE: 05-56.34N, LONGITUDE: 083-14.06W, COURSE: 135T, SPEED: 3.8, WIND: S3-4, DIST TO GALAPAGOS: 560nm

LATITUDE: 06-36.12N, LONGITUDE: 083-32.74W, COURSE: 356T, SPEED: 0.6,
WIND:0, DISTANCE TO DEST: 577nm

LATITUDE: 07-05.69N, LONGITUDE: 083-18.93W, COURSE: 160T, SPEED: 3.5, WIND: SW3, MILES TO DEST: 609

]]> http://www.loslocos.org/2012/06/20/erster-tag-auf-dem-weg-nach-galapagos-3/feed/ 0 7.0948334 -83.3154984 http://www.loslocos.org/2012/06/19/off-we-are-towards-galapagos/ http://www.loslocos.org/2012/06/19/off-we-are-towards-galapagos/#comments Tue, 19 Jun 2012 20:48:22 +0000 dafdaf http://www.rancho-relaxo.at/?p=2879 Continue reading →]]> Ready to go. We finally were able to clear out and do all the paperwork. We got about 20 kilos of fresh fruits and vegetables, the kids had a final ice cream and now that the the tide is turning, it’s time for us to get going.