Daily Logs

Cleone - Leg 4 Day 11 - A Blank Day

No fish again today. Despite some serious attention to the reel, which, since I don't know the layman's term for it, I will describe in engineering terms as being slightly buggered, we again failed to catch a fish.  And this was after fixing the reel, changing the lure, and doing all the other things that successful fishermen are meant to do.  We miss Will Brooks here - he only had to put the line out over the stern for a few minutes and the Dorado would be queuing up to take their turn on the line.  It's a funny old business, this fishing.  We were chatting to our friends on Quasar V the other day on the radio, and it became clear that Barry, their tame Paddy, was a bit of a dab hand at the fishing, though it quickly became clear that he was not as good at identification as he was at. read more...

Tucanon - Shark cruising near the sugar scoops

We dropped our anchor in the lagoon at Makemo, an atoll within the archipelago of the Tuamotu islands just after 9am on Monday 19th April. We had hove-to for over an hour before approaching the passage within the reef, to wait for high water. It is advised that we enter and/or exit the lagoon an hour after high water or an hour after low water, when the water is slack. The wind was gusting 27knots.Other than the day we left Ua Pou, in the Marquesas, we have been struggling to find enough wind to sail and for the most part have had to motor-sail. It was therefore somewhat frustrating that the wind came up on the afternoon of the 18th April and we were struggling not to sail at 8knots. At this speed, we would arrive at Makemo during the hours of darkness. In order to reduce speed, we put. read more...

Southern Princess - Aunt Daisy, hot girdle scones and high tea!

Thursday March 20th                                    09:09S 121:41W Aunt Daisy, an institution in New Zealand, from Auckland radio 1ZB for 36 years. Daisy produced many cook books and Irene has one on board with a publishing date of 1968. This was published 5 years after Daisy's death and was edited by Barbara Basham.  Yesterday afternoon saw us having hot girdle scones, butter and lashings of raspberry jam for afternoon tea compliments of Lorraine and Aunt Daisy!Been struggling a bit with the trade winds between East and East South East, which means they are a little to square (i.e. to far behind us, the yacht will sail faster across the wind) so this morning we have a strange rig up to try for that extra little 1/4 to half knot. The genoa is poled out to port, the mainsail is set to. read more...

Graptolite - 1385 Miles Out

07:47.65S 111:51.12W Pacific Ocean Wednesday 19th MarchAn uneventful day for sailing. Trade winds good. No rain. No sightings of other vessels. No scurvy and no mutinies. Heike drank the last of a disgusting banana liqueur purchased in Puerto Ayora. She claims most of it must have got spilt on the deck. Nobody else drank it, that's for sure.Everyone has had enough tuna now to last a lifetime. Even the nasty sausages in the fridge are starting to seem appetizing. If only we could catch a chicken... M. read more...

Tucanon - Bev hoists Moe up the mast

There were a number of other WARC boats in Taiohae bay when we arrived, as well as a couple of Blue water rally boats. We dropped anchor, had lunch then went ashore to purchase some fresh fruit from the stalls on the quayside. The mangos, pineapples and bananas were delicious but very expensive.We walked to the two local supermarkets but other than cornflakes and flour for bread, we fortunately didn't need to buy any other provisions. Jeannius came alongside and rafted up to us while we transferred 200 litres of water to their water tank. Their water maker is no longer working and they too will be leaving to make passage to the Tuomotos in the next day or two.We hired a car and explored the island, visiting two ancient, sacred sites, one with tikis, the other with a form of amphitheatre. read more...

Asolare - Leg 4, Day 12.

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Voyageur - Log day 79 - Tahiti Town

25 April 2010 Tahiti does nothing for me. After the magnificence and remoteness of the Marquises and the prettiness of the Tuamotus it leaves me cold. For us, coming here fulfils two purposes. We can seriously reprovision for the next three months up to Australia, and we can effect repairs. Papeete is busy, bustling but also a return to pollution, litter, and all the other less attractive trappings of civilised society. The marina was more run down then we remembered it. The swimming pool, open only for one hour a day made it difficult for us to cool off in the hot and humid heat. We were always in Carrefour at the time. Over two days we filled two trolleys at a cost of 500GBP! Our eyes were popping out when we saw the cheese counter, all the fruit and vegetables. A total puzzlement was. read more...

Voyageur - Log day 78 - Tender Trash

24 April 2010High on the "jobs to do list" on reaching Papeete was a repair to our Aquapro tender. Every single handle has now come off including the fittings for the rowlocks. This tender was new only last July and in spite of repeated attempts to make a warranty claim from the suppliers and directly to the manufacturer we have come up against a brick wall of unhelpfulness. It is without doubt the most disappointing purchase we have ever made. I spent two days repairing the stitching to our canvas cover made only last November in Gran Canaria. The trouble when we are continually on the move is that you can never confront any one with their poor workmanship. C'est la vie! When we return home I am going to get my good friend Irene Aldridge to do lots of lovely canvas covers for Voyageur.. read more...

Candela - Log - 19 March

Daily Log: Candela 3-19-08 With less than 900 miles to completing our 3000 mile Pacific passage , we can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel. Just waiting for the flies and mosquitoes to pinch us as a reminder of land soon to come. Our sail has been very enjoyable. Our basil plant begs to differ, as we love Italian night- it is currently recovering from a tomato and basil salad. The crew has been on a 3 hour rotating night watch and has been cruising at a steady pace of 9-10 knots enjoying the promised trade winds, with only the bright spinnaker to pull us through the deep blue seas.. read more...

Kasuje - daily log,Wednesday 19th March

Hi All, It's another day sailing in what seems like paradise. The days do seem to fly by despite not having much to do. The scene at the moment Ruby and Bruce engrossed in books, Skipper helming with ear phones attached and occasionally bursting into song. ("Thankfully not Abba" says Ruby our younger crew member) and me having just finished my book deciding to contact the outside World. It is wonderful receiving all your emails with news from home, we seem so far away from reality here. Steve downloads the emails once a day and it is always exciting to see who has contacted us and with what news. I had been trying to find out who had won at Cheltenham and lo and behold Bruce's Mother sent just that news item for us. My brother then let me know that one of our friend's horses won one of. read more...

Crazy Horse - Lisa's here in Tahiti!

Bill, Matt, and I picked up Lisa last night from the airport. We were all so excited we could hardly stand it! She was like the last person out of the plane and I was ready to call in the police and fill out a missing person's report! She finally exited with full load of supplies for self and Crazy Horse. What a sight to behold. We were all in shock to see her little belly and she looked like the most beautiful pregnant mom we ever saw.Today we rented a car and toured around the entire island. It was hot and we stopped for lunch at the Raddison Resort. We were able to see the black sand beach and the east shore where they have the famous surf championship. Now we are all resting in a/c while we cool down.Tahiti is just so crowded and busy. We are thinking of returning to Moorea as soon. read more...

Windflower III - Bergfest auf dem Pacific

Dank unseres Parasailers,der uns seit 2 Tagen ununterbrochen mit ca 8-9 Kn Richtung Westen zieht, konnten wir bereits am Dienstag morgen nach 8 Tagen und 20 Stunden Bergfest (Halbe Strecke 1485 sm) feiern. Wieder mal eine willkommene Abwechslung die Bordroutine (Wache,Essen,Schlafen) dank eines Glases Sherry zu unterbrechen.Ahoi,die Windflowerer. read more...

Voyageur - Log day 77 - Two nights to Tahiti

22 April 2010The wind had been blowing for the last four days, barely noticeable in the quiet shelter of the lagoon but outside the sea was rough. A two metre swell met the outgoing current at the exit to the Passé Avatoru and fortunately for us David had timed our exit at 3pm, almost slack water. The current, 2.5knots in our favour, met the force four wind outside. Voyageur faced the oncoming over falls and ploughed her way through. I did not know whether to look left or right. To the right local children were surfing down the steep waves in outriggers. On the right was a shipwrecked yacht lying over on its side on the reef. It was on this island that Gipsy Moth 1V foundered on the reef during our last round the world rally. She was salvaged at great cost and shipped to New Zealand for. read more...

Crazy Horse - Tahiti

Guess this is the place we have all been waiting for. Tahiti has certainly been given a lot of hype in my lifetime. Papeete is busy, crowded, filled with shops, restaurants people, cars, and even singing Polynesian songs on the sidewalk. People with blonde hair are certainly in the minority and a curiosity as Sophia from Wild Tigris found out. If one can speak French you certainly have the advantage.We saw many of the World Arc participants today wandering around the city and taking it all in. Thor VI is here along with Calliope, Eowyn, Liza, Arianne, and Wild Tigris is at the other marina perhaps with Ronja. I know I heard Jan on the radio yesterday. It will be great to see our long lost friends. I think some of the other guys from the other boats are awaiting wives and girlfriends who. read more...

Lady Kay - sleeping flamingos - sleeping crew

We've just past the half way mark only 1496 miles to go. So this evening special celebration - breaking out the half way bubbly. We're still making a good speed although the waves are making the journey rather bumpy. The crew are finding it quite exhausting. These flamingos photographed on Floreana, one of the Galapagos islands, have no excuse. They're just sleeping.Jackie, Michael and Kerry.sleeping flamingos. read more...

Bristol Rose - Day 6 Galapagos to Marquesas. Navigating our Course.

We've made 900nm in 5 days. The crew of Bristol Rose are enjoy watching the video "Master and Commander".We left the Galapagos island of Isla Isabela on Sunday 18th of April 2010. We were fortunate to have good wind as we left the delightful anchorage of Villamil. Taking advantage of the wind conditions we took Bristol Rose south on the rhum line. In hindsight this tactic was not necessary as we had favorable wind to enable sailing towards the SE trades. We then sailed due west along a 3 degrees south latitude to avoid the reported area of rough weather conditions. At 105 degrees west we started the remaining 2000nm run along the rhum line to the Marquesas. We plan to stay on the north side of the rhum line, not to be tempted to make south too early. This strategy should keep the SE. read more...

Whitbread - What would Ellen do?

This is a question that we seem to be asking ourselves more and more on Whitbread. If something is going wrong with the engine or there is a wind shift or if it's simply whether to have a cup of tea or coffee we say to ourselves...."What would Ellen do?" We have her book onboard of her solo trip on B&Q and she has become for us, and in Wolfy's eyes especially, a hero.I'm thinking of making up some wristbands that we can market to the sailing world with the letters W.W.E.D. printed on them so that each time you find yourself in a predicament or stuck as to what decision to make you look at your wristband for that bit of inspiration from Ellen. Of course these wristbands would be produced in a range of colours and reasonably priced at $6.99 each and available at all good. read more...

A Lady - " A LADY TRIP " SAILING AROUND THE WORLD with WORLD ARC 2010

THURSDAY   22nd    APRIL   2010     (  TIKEHAU  ,  THE  TUAMOTU  ISLANDS,  SOUTH PACIFIC  ) We had a very showery and breezy night, but early in the morning there were lots of birds around and lots of fish jumping.The place looked stunning, lots of pink sandy beaches, and of course the " Pearl Beach Resort " hotel sitting nicly in it all. 12.00hrs  Aileen and Stephen went ashore to the hotel , tricky in shallow water, but we made it eventually, having bashed the engine off a few corals on the way. This lovely collection of bedrooms on stilts in the water , surrounded by sand and hundreds of palm trees, shallow water for snorkling and as many coloured fish as you would ever want. read more...

Crazy Horse - Moorea to Tahiti

We had our last night on Moorea Wed. night. The Bali Hi had a great dance show and barbecue on the beach. Of course I had to try my dancing out again after I said I was giving up the grass skirt. A cute little fellow about 5 asked me and I couldn't refuse. This time Bill has me, Matt, Jim, Maggie,and Bob on tape. Next time Bill and Ana are getting up to dance!They had a great meal too at the Bali Hi too. We meet some great people there. They have an evening happy hour there where a gentleman named Muk gives a talk on the culture and development of the island. He even knew James Michner who wrote about the South Pacific and spent time on the island of Moorea. They say that some of the footage was filmed there.We are currently beating our way to Tahiti. The wind and waves are big. Of. read more...

Cleone - Leg 4 Day 10 - Ways and means- Communications

Two nights running we have been able to talk freely to Keahola 8, over 500 miles away! What follows is a technical interlude; you can skipt to the last couple of paragraphs if you just want to know what we are up to! We send and receive e-mails from Cleone daily - hence these musings which, for all we know, may go straight into your "Deleted Items" box still in that dark black script which denotes them as being un-read.  Our e-mails are typed up as normal (on the Skipper's lap-top, as a rule) and then sent via our Iridium satellite phone.  Ed Wildgoose in London runs a wonderful ISP service called Mailasail, which over half the yachts on this rally are using.  His computers process all our ingoing and outgoing e-mails, screening them for viruses and removing and storing for us anything. read more...

"A LADY TRIP" Sailing around the World and avoiding Recessions, Depressions, religious, bank & government scandels and Volcanic ash

Wednesday, 21st April 2010     TIKEHAU - The Tuamotu Islands,  French Polynesia, South Pacific You know something. When you look at all the things going on at home and around the world, its clear that the timing of this trip was just about perfect, but we can not claim responsibility for that wonderful foresight, it just happened that way. 07.00hrs  Ronja, Ciao, and some of the other yachts departed for Tahiti. We still had some things to do ashore, and when these were complete, we hauled the anchor and set sail out through the Pass and around the northern end of the Island and headed to  "Tikehau" an adjoining atoll to the west. Wind ...............................   20 knots. read more...

Jus'Do It 3 - not just flying fish!

Wednesday 19. 03.08 12.30pmJust before sundown we see lots of activity in the water ahead; there’s a feeding frenzy going on – numerous tuna and dolphins leaping into the air over quite a large area. We think we might pick up a stray but not even a bite! Southern Princess passes ahead of us travelling south. The sea has a bigger roll to it now and we’re seeing a lot more bird life. Stewy identifies Skuas, Petrels and Terns but we’ll need a closer look to identify which ones. Night watches continue to be relaxing and enjoyable. Ronnie sees a big squall pass ahead in the night but luckily we miss it.The wind has now dropped  to 10-11 knots, we’re doing a steady 7.5 - 8 knots SOG steering a course of 206’.Distance in last 24hrs – 191 miles.. read more...

Southern Princess - Can't even think of a catchy title for today

Wednesday 19th                  08:43S 118:36W Boy this long distance sailing is boring! I will be pleased when this leg is part of the past. The only point of interest this last 24 hours is that I had to end to end the main sail outhaul as it had chafed nearly through. One of things I have to do daily is check for chafe points and anything that is loose. Oh and we managed 207nm for the 24 hours. The other daily chore, first thing, before they adhere to the deck, is the 'butcher patrol' when all the flying fish and squid are returned to the water. Our topsides are 4' high so don't know how the squid make it that high? In Galapagos we bought a huge stem of bananas which unfortunately was consigned to the deep today as they had` all ripened together.  We are currently running under twin. read more...

"A Lady Trip" Sailing around the World

Tuesday, 20th April 2010  Rangiroa, The Tuamotu Islands, South Pacific. 06.00hrs  We all got up early again, another beautiful day. 07.00hrs  Aileen and Stephen went to the Diving Center, Stephen for his diving classes and Aileen went on to do a visit to a pearl farm. Donal stayed on board for the morning, reading.Skipper did 2 dives in the morning, plus did the written exams and passed with flying colors.A & S went for lunch in the "Raora Lagoon" Pension restaurant, and it was so good, that they book dinner for the 3 of us this evening at 19.00hrs. Donal had lunch with some of the other crews in the cafe at the pier. 14.30hrs  The skipper went off again for more diving, this was to be the last of 8 dives in 3 days, and he was. read more...

"A LADY TRIP" Sailing around the World.

Monday,19th April 2010  Rangiroa,  The Tuamotu Islands,  French Polynesia, South Pacific. We had lots of rain during the night, this is often a problem, particularly when we leave the windows and hatches open for ventilation. Keeping cool at night is very important. 06.00hrs  Fats and Jan (Ronja) went off in our rib trying to locate Ronja's rib, but again failed and also they had to return to "A Lady" as the Skipper had a diving lesson at 08.00hrs. 08.30hrs  We got a message from "Lady Lisa" to say they saw a rib similar to Ronja's tied to a boat in the northern Pass, by the Church. So Fats and Jan took off again, this time in our rented car, and sure enough, they found the rib where "Lady Lisa" said it was. It had been rescued last night. read more...

Graptolite - 1140 Miles Out

Pacific Ocean, Tuesday.It makes you appreciate what a fantastic invention fishfingers are. Colin hooked a 20lb skipjack tuna this morning. As we are not using rods and reels, the lines get hauled in bleeding-hand-over-bleeding-hand. The Health and Safety Officer has made Colin promise to wear gloves next time. Anyway, guess what we had for lunch? And what we are having for dinner tonight? And tomorrow?More Grapto lyrics have been concocted by the librettist team of Heike and me. Nothing fit for publication yet but one to the tune of 'Israelites' by Desmond Decker (did I say Bony M before?) is looking promising. This is the first verse:'Get up in the morning looking for good windsSo that every sail can be filledOh! on me yacht Graptolite' We are at 07:02.44S 107:53.10W unless we have. read more...

Talulah Ruby II - Halfway to Marquesas

Spam Spam Medico,Spam Spam Medico,Spam Spam Medico. This is Talulah Ruby ,Talulah Ruby,Talulah Ruby,I think we may need a doctor or anyone in a white coat, my crew seems to have lost the plot. Bit of a sleepy start today after last nights halfway to Marquesas party. We all dressed up,boys as girls and girls as boys,(well we have been at sea for 10 days, now the rot is really setting in) We had a great supper of steak and stirfry vegetables, even managed a pudding of fresh fruit salad and chocolate dip, all washed down with some fine French wine courtesy of Williwaw 11, in thanks for our rescue efforts when they lost their engine entering St Cristoble in Galapagos. Wind and current are still with us so we are romping along. We clocked over 208 miles on Monday, a boat record.The fresh food. read more...

Bristol Rose - Day 4 Galapagos to Marquesas

"For many cruising boats the passage from Galapagos Islands to the Marquesas is their longest and, if one is lucky with the weather, it can also be one of the most pleasant" - Jimmy Cornell, World Cruising Routes.Our passage on Bristol Rose is not blessed with fine weather. We have overcast skies, numerous rain squalls with wind gusts to 40 knots and a heavy swell with wind blown chop, making for an uncomfortable ride. On a positive note we are also enjoying one of the fastest passages to date on Bristol Rose with daily runs of over 180nm for 3 consecutive days. We are sailing with double reefed main and Genoa. Our fastest speed over ground has been 10.4kts with a favorable current of 2kts and our average for the passage since we left Isla Isabela is 7.7ktsThe crew is only able to find a. read more...

Ariane - Tuamotus

Hallo liebe FreundeWelch ein Gegensatz gegenüber den Marquesas! Nähert man sich einem Atoll, so sieht man erst wenige Meilen davor Palmen aus dem Meer wachsen... Erst, wenn man sehr nahe ist, sieht man das eigentliche Ufer, das ein bis zwei Meter aus dem Wasser ragt. Die Pässe, wie man die Eingänge in solche Atolle nennt, sind oft nur wenig mehr als 100 m breit. Erwischt man nicht den Wasserstillstand, so gibt es mehr oder weniger starke Strömung hinein oder hinaus, je nachdem, ob Ebbe oder Flut angesagt ist. So fuhren wir bei der ersten Einfahrt mit über 7 Knoten in die Einfahrt und plötzlich zeigte das Log eine Fahrt von nur noch 2,5 Knoten über Grund. Eine weitere Folge sind dann auch noch einige Grundwellen, die Folge der Strömung sind und das Boot etwas aus dem Kurs bringen.. read more...

Quasar V of Lleyn - Log 18/03/2008

Tuesday 18th MarchROLLING ALONG!Busy day for most people! Amongst other jobs people have been doing, JB has been making bread and cleaning the decks with Barry and Malcy although he has been relatively quiet on the engineering front recently he had a lot on today; repairing the deck wash pump, the generator and finally making the main function again after the boom slider broke as we were having dinner! Everyone was involved in this operation, which took along time as the main got stuck in the mast and it was a painful and slow operation to get it out again!We are making steady progress averaging about 7 knots, which isn't great considering we have a decent breeze, but the point of sailing at 120 degrees off the stern with the main and Yankee set isn't a great one for us! However at the. read more...

Kasuje - daily log Tuesday 18th March

Hi all,What can I say, just another day in sailing paradise!!........... A couple of photos taken yesterday. Galapagos 003   Galapagos 001        Our new friend hitching a ride ( Red footed Boobie)  Galapagos 008  Angela showing off, after a successful bake!...... Love to allSkipper Steve and crew.. read more...

Voyageur - Log day 76 - Tearaway Tender!

19 April 2010The Tuamotus are clearly suffering from the effects of the world wide recession. The hotel in front of our anchorage here is closed, the other hotel, Maitai, had only 2 guests and the winery was also closed although the owner told us they were still in production. We made our own small, contribution to their struggling economy. David went for a dive along with Paul, presently crewing on Thetis, and Jan, Snorre and Stian from Ronja. I of course bought my pearls. We ate at the local Kai, Kai Restaurant, run by a young French couple who moved here from Marseilles one year ago. They were obviously trying to make a go of things. The husband was chef as well as our taxi service, his wife served at the tables. It was a great meal and great value for money with three courses for. read more...

"A LADY TRIP" Sailing around the World and avoiding the recession & depression, the church, Bank & Gov. scandels, & Volcanic ash

Sunday 18th April 2010 Rangiroa 07.00hrs  All up and about, and all went for a swim, wonderful.  08.30hrs  A & S set off in the car for Mass, the Church being 12 km away. When we arrived, things looked mighty settled and on entering the church, we find Mass coming to an end. Oh feck! (not Aileens comment) we were obviously given the wrong times. Damm that, but we did get some of the singing, and had a bit of a sign language chat with the Priest when most people were gone. 10.00hrs  Stephen and Donal went to the Dive center for our introductory session. "Top Dive" a well organized outfit with centers in lots of the "French Polynesian Islands".  Our Diving Instructor was a French Lassy called Kathy...a fine lassy too. The lesson took. read more...

Jus'Do It 3 - Happy birthday!

18.03.08 12.00hrs We all stay up to enjoy surfing down the waves at 9-10 knots from sunset and into the evening. It’s almost a full moon now . We’re all in party mode, no-one wants to go to bed and we enjoy our sundowners to music, the full crew singing and even having a wee dance in the cockpit! Night watches are uneventful; the wind drops a little in the night but we’re full steam ahead again in the morning. Happy birthday Stewy! We wake up to have a bucks fizz breakfast, and also celebrate passing the half way mark. Stewy cooks us a mega breakfast – the works! About 11.30 am , we hear a crash, bang , wallop ! – the auto-helm has switched to standby, causing us to broach – this happens every so often and we’ve no idea why.After our partying and celebrating. read more...

Crazy Horse - Still in Moorea

We are still here in Cook's Bay. Hard to leave when we have made such good friends with the folks at the Blue Pineapple. That is the place we have been eating breakfast and once for lunch. The ladies, especially Elma and Tiara, are kind and sooooo in love with Matt. They make the perfect eggs, pancakes, and believe it or not bacon. That is something hard to come by on these islands. Coffee here is great. And we always have the friendly chickens to clean up any crumbs we leave behind. There is a special drink called "Tahitian Drink" made out of all the fresh fruit from this island. They let all the fruit ferment and it becomes a pleasant mild alcoholic drink thatone could become accustomed to.All the senses seem to be happy here. How will we ever leave? That's right-Lisa is coming to. read more...

"A LADY TRIP" Sailing around the World and avoiding recessions, depressions, religious fallouts, Volcanic ash, +++

Saturday, 17th April 2010   " Rangiroa " 07.00hrs  Another beautiful day in paradise. 09.30hrs  We went ashore and were collected at the pier and brought to the Hotel again, this time to collect the buggies we had to leave there last night. A & S went into the Village and collected some really flowery tops we had made up. If we painted the skin copper, we would look like the locals but we had great fun and the people were very friendly. 13.00hrs  We had lunch  (chicken wings) in the hotel once more. After lunch the skipper got on the hotel wifi while Aileen went for some bathing.14.00hrs  We changed the buggy for a regular car with a /c, things are improving. Later we called to the "Top Dive Center" and booked. read more...

Lady Kay - st patricks day celebrations

The Irish contingent on Lady Kay took their roles seriously. To the sound of a Thomson gun we were off to Dublin in spirit. the navigator thinks it's just west of Hiva Oa. The Guiness tasted unusual but to the tune of some fine reels a great time was had by all.We slowed the boat down a bit last night so it was a bit quieter. However today we are romping along again at about 7.5 knots. We hope to pass the half way mark tomorrow all being wellSlainteJackie, Michael and Kerrypatricks day. read more...

Cleone - Leg 4 Day 9 - Hitchhiker

Who but a booby would hitch-hike out in the middle of the Pacific? For the last 24 hours, we have been carrying a hitch-hiking Brown Booby.  He arrived cautiously, landing on our Pulpit after a bit of fishing.  For the first ten minutes or so, he found getting his balance rather precarious, and needed to keep his wings semi-unfurled.  But gradually he got used to it, and perched gracefully (for a Booby), preening his wing-feathers.  Every so often, he would fly off for a spot of fishing, relieving himself on the way there or back.  So, you would think, a hitch-hiker with good manners.  And thus he remained all night.  But this morning, he discovered that it was much easier to perch - or even squat - on the deck; it's very comfortable and makes an ideal open-air loo!  But he still goes. read more...

Voyageur - Log day 75 - Caught on coral!

16 April 2010With our anchor wrapped around two coral heads we sought the assistance of Lars, Jan's nephew on Ronja. He snorkeled over our chain and inch by inch we raised it while he directed us this way and that. It worked a treat and came up without snagging. But still having taken half an hour we arrived too early for the passé. Like shooting the rapids but against them rather than with, it was all a little too exciting. There was no margin for error either, with hard coral reef on either side no more than 15metres away. David had the engine at 2700revs to achieve a measly 1.9 SOG. It put us in mind of fighting the tide up the Sound of Luing. With the maelstrom of the passé and Manihi in our wake we both breathed a sigh of relief and headed south west for Rangiroa. We motored all. read more...

Voyageur - Log day 74 - "Pearl" harbour!

15 April 2010It was not even 8am and we had not had breakfast when we had a visit from Jean Paul and Jacob. They came alongside it their outrigger canoes. Not the traditional home made ones fashioned out of hollowed out tree trunk but the modern day equivalent, fancy fibreglass. They had come to sell us some pearls! I had not intended to buy any having bought a pair of earrings on our last visit here. Black pearls for which the Tuamotous are renowned are not always black. They come in the most wonderful variety of colours. Purple, yellow, green blue and steely grey. Their iridescence in the morning sun shone through. How could I resist! The prices certainly did seem very reasonable but you can never tell. They parted with a choker necklace with earrings to match and David parted with his. read more...

Southern Princess - Past half way mark!

07:42S 115:25W Last night we passed the half way mark and its all down hill from here. Lots of reading going on as there is not much else to do. We still have fish in the freezer so no fishing as yet although Lorraine says it is fish for dinner tonight. Food becomes quite important as something to do and something to look forward to. Yours truly made Marmalade Muffins (more like a popover really) for breakfast this morning and Irene has made a frittata for lunch. And of course  the cocktail hour is always interesting.   Our weather man has advised that we move further south to stay within the wind band with best winds so we have changed our sails to reaching genoa and main sail and hiking along at 8.5 to 9.0 knots. Cheers JH. read more...

Voyageur - Log day 73 - Manihi

14 April 2010I did not stir the whole night. A swim before breakfast was the start to a perfect day. We wanted to take a look at the tiny village of Turipaoa so re-anchored in front of a motu Tetate, three miles away, traveling the rest of the way in the tender. Disappointingly there was not much to see.The supermarket was closed and there was no restaurant. We did however manage to buy an ice cream and a French baguette to take back to the boat for lunch. With no opportunity to purchase any fresh fruit or vegetables it prompted the decision to leave a day early for Rangiroa, the second largest atoll in the world, 100nm away to the south west. We spent the rest of the day back on board lazing in the cockpit and indulging in my favorite pastime, reading, whilst listening my favorite. read more...

Asolare - The Remarkable LURGI Spotted!

st1\:*{behavior:url(#default#ieooui) }Tuesday 18th March 2008 We are all so excited on “Asolare” as we have spotted the mystical South Pacific LURGI.We first spotted it on our port beam about ½ mile away and remarkably it came closer until it was about 200 meters behind us. We then noticed that it was accompanied by a baby Lurgi that also leapt, always in synchronised leaps, near its “mum”. They then did a final leap and were gone. Their last known position was 09.241S 114.024W at 14:07 UTC 18th March 2008.We will shortly be sending a sighting report, No. 0104, to the World Wildlife Trust (rare creature spotting section) and it will be very interesting to find out when the last one was spotted as we now can expect press and TV eagerly awaiting our arrival in Hiva Oa.. read more...

Crazy Horse - dune buggy

Wish you could have seen the fleet of World ARC dune buggies flitting around Moorea today. Between Crazy Horse and Ocean Jasper we had four of them for the day riding around the island. What great fun! We felt like we were on the Grand Prix circuit. Of course we really didn't go that fast top speed probably 40. Many of the other cars were passing us and probably frustrated by those crazy tourists in the buggies. We saw some great scenery of the ocean and went up in the hills and saw some great views of Tahiti. We finally had our brick oven pizza. How tasty!We met some people from Chile at one of the mountain stops who had lived through the earthquake in Santiago. We recounted our drama in the Galapagos getting through the tsunami. All in all we were all happy to be alive and be able to. read more...

Lady Ev. VI - Daily log, 17. April 2010

Liebe Daheimgebliebenen,Uns geht es nach wie vor prima. Inzwischen sind wir auf Moorea angekommen und ankern in der berühmten PaoPao-Bucht, welche eher unter dem Namen Cook's Bay bekannt ist. Ihr Name stammt von Kapitän Cook, der seinerzeit allerdings nicht in dieser, sondern in der benachtbarten Opunohu-Bucht ankertete.Vorgestern haben wir uns von der wunderschoenen Welt der Tuamotous verabschiedet. Wir hatten in diesen herlichen Atollen mit ihren glasklaren Lagunen eine sehr schoene Zeit. Gerade unsere letzte Insel "Rangiroa" hat allen sehr gut gefallen. Sie gilt als das bekannteste Atoll, welches wohl am meisten touristisch erschlossen ist. Hier gab es auch endlich wieder etwas vielfaelltigere Einkaufsmoelgichkeiten. Nach einem Gebraech (mit Haenden, Fueßen und dank Cita einigem. read more...

Talulah Ruby II - St Patricks Day Photo competition entry

Please find attached our entry for the St Patricks Day photo competition.We went into the dressing up box, and this is what we found very appropriate for these hot climes.From De deranged Talulahrubians IMGP2037. read more...

"A LADY TRIP" Sailing around the world and avoiding Volcanic ash, recession in Europe and Depression in Ireland

Friday,16th April 2010 07.30hrs Another beautiful morning with little or no wind.Donal got busy on the phone arranging shore transport. It seems like some sort of buggy's.Skipper got busy doing blog and emails and was followed by Aileen with more emails, 08.45hrs We went for a swim in the underfill clear pale blue water... criky, one could spend all day in the sea. 09.30hrs We went ashore, were collected and taken to the "Maitai" Hotel for our buggies.Oh, what a laugh, we were thinking of golf buggies. But no, these were referred to as "Fun Cars" and looked like a small Bubble car with an open top. Aileen and Skipper buzzed off in theirs, followed by Donal after he managed to squeeze into his, this took a bit of time. Later S & A abandoned. read more...

Quasar V of Lleyn - Paddy's Day

Monday 17th MarchO'QUASAR'S BAR OPEN FOR BUSINESS!O'Quasars Pacific Irish Bar, the most remote Irish bar in the world, opened it's doors this morning for the annual St. Patrick's Day celebrations. Patrons, Malkey Murphy and Robert O'Smithwicks were joined by bar regulars, JB O'Blarney, Lindsey MacFanny & Mac the knife. O'Quasars, open for 1-day only, will be serving Guinness and a luncheon special of Mahi-mahi with spuds and cabbage, followed by Green pineapple upside-down cake for dessert. Any WARC boats, in the vicinity are welcome to join in on the celebrations.O'Quasars received its Guinness delivery just in time for the Paddy's day celebrations to begin. Malkey and Robert pulled in a few Pentagon favours and our SOS (Send Our Stout) was answered. O'Quasars rendezvoused with an. read more...

Lady Kay - jackie on the galapagos

Preparations are going ahead for St Patrick's Day. Celtic music from the loudspeakers. Guiness is being made - picture replicas; for today we are a green boat.The trade winds have increased so winds are 18-25 knots and we are zooming along to Hiva Oa, somewhat bumpily. Caught a modest tuna yesterday. Better than the marlin which after taking most of the line took one of my lures.SlainteMichael, Jackie and Kerryarc6_1_1. read more...

Crazy Horse - Moorea

We arrived to the majestic island of Moorea at 2am this morning. We just meandered around waiting for the light of day to make a safe passage through the pass. We were not disappointed with the beauty of the mountain, hills, colors, and perfume smell of the flowers all around. At 7am a cool breeze brought us into the most perfect anchorage with no roll or swells.Today even though exhausted, we discovered many of the shops and just plain tourist traps. We had to savor some hamburgers and fries. Seems like a long time we enjoyed such an accustomed snack. Wonderful pineapple farms dot the hills surrounding us. Can't wait to visit them and enjoy the fruit we have been missing.Tonight we plan on viewing a firey exotic dance routine at the Pearl Resort and dinner at Rudy's with real steaks.. read more...

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