Daily Logs

Glamorous Galah - Glassy seas

Glassy seasWe have motored most of last night and most of today as there is not a breath of wind. We should cross the equator tonight and arrive in wreck bay tomorrow. Ted. read more...

Serendipity - Down in the Doldrums - Erratum

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Jus'Do It 3 - First Cook island - Atui!

undefined <!--/* Style Definitions */p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {margin:0cm; margin-bottom:.0001pt; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman";} a:link, span.MsoHyperlink {color:blue; text-decoration:underline;} a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed {color:purple; text-decoration:underline;} span.EmailStyle17 {mso-style-type:personal-compose; font-family:Arial; color:windowtext;} @page Section1 {size:612.0pt 792.0pt; margin:72.0pt 90.0pt 72.0pt 90.0pt;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} -- Friday 23rd May It’s been another long motor-sail all through the night with the wind dropping all the time. The seas are calm, the sky clear and we’ve been lucky enough to have bright moonlight all week , the full moon at the weekend now on the wane. We see. read more...

A Lady - Sailing around the World (Presently at sea off the NE coast of Australia)

Tuesday, 17th August 2010 00.00hrs The wind was very strong, blowing over 30knots and we must gybe the boat. There are three of us on deck at this stage, Niall is asleep down below, so rather than gybe, we do a tack/gybe set. We had 2 reefs in the main, with no other sails up, and we were still doing in access of 8 knots. The skies are clear and the 1/2 moon is setting over the hills to the west. Two large coal ships passed us going south to collect their precious cargo and take it to China. 01.45hrs We passed kings Island, and altered course by 20degrees to port. The moon had disappeared by now and the wind increased to 39 knots and gusting to 43 knots at times. The sea state was rough, and we had to keep a sharp lookout for trawlers and passing ships, all the. read more...

Voyageur - Log day 142 - Into the Escape river

16 August 2010Thor IV and Eowyn left two hours ahead of us at 4am. We crossed Shelburne Bay seeing only isolated reefs and islets in the distance. The Great Barrier Reef is now much further from the mainland. Consequently there is less protection form swell. Studying the chart the Barrier Reef gives the appearance of an orderly procession of caterpillars. Today we are not so much as crawling but positively scampering along. Our destination today is the Escape River, our last anchorage before rounding the top. On the net this morning Wolfgang warned of many pearl rafts in there just ready and waiting to get caught up in a prop. He has also had a very serious warning of the threat of saltwater crocodiles from the people running the pearl farm. Not to dip as much as a toe or a hand in the. read more...

Kasuje - log Mon 25th

Hi everyone, So it's Ruby and Jen's turn to write the log... We have now left the Cook Island's and are currently on the four day sail to Nuie. We are about 350nm from our destination with two more night watches and 4 yacht meals before we hit land. With island life on hold for a while we are back to balancing pots and pans, cooking against the odds, and back to the routine of limited sleep at night - but unfortunately not for the right reasons!  On these night watches most are looking out for boats and other potential dangers. For instance Jim on his first night watch, being still in that keen and studious stage, unlike his other half Kate, who by-passed this stage, preferring to fall asleep on her first ever watch, spotted a light in the distance, after waking and confirming with Kate. read more...

Serendipity - The Greatest Show on Earth.....and in the sky!

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Lady Kay - large mahi mahi

It's our last day we hope before Suwarrow. We should arrive there at first light. This morning was lightened up by another two fishing catches. Michael caught a large bull mahi mahi about 18lb and simultaneously a smaller barracuda. so our stocks of fish are overflowing again with tuna (two catches) mahimahi and barracuda. Plenty of variety we were getting concerned about the tuna only diet.Winds are good today although there have been some showers. Jackie has been sorting out photos - a mammoth task, and we are looking forward to seeing land againMichael, Jackie and RobIMG_0136_1_1. read more...

Crazy Horse - Aug 18

Crazy Horse and Ocean Jasper are anchored here off Tongue Pt. near Whitehaven Beach. The sands are literally squeaky clean. The sand is very white and super clean . I have never seen such white beaches. It is supposedly because of that the sand orignially comes from quartz and the silica is just so smooth and clean. It is very pure. It just goes on and on. This was the beach we expected in Tahiti. We never saw it there. We are glad that we came here. It is definitely worth the stop.We plan on going to Cairns directly from here. We want to get to Lizard I. because we heard the view is phenomenal. We may not make it to Darwin in time to see the fleet. We are working on it with out timetable but we have a long way to go.This morning we woke up and were not very happy. We had water almost up. read more...

Serendipity - Homage to King Neptune

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Lady Kay - sunset over bora bora

This is a view of Bora Bora taken from Tahaa.The boat in the picture is Harmonie sailed by two American friends.We have left Bora Bora now and are making good progress to Suwarrow.it is also called Suvarov after the boat of the first European to land on it, a Russian explorer.It has a population of one.A caretaker is present for half the year.We hope to arrive there on Monday morning.The wind has returned and we are making reasonable progress towards the island.We have the gennaker out goosewinged so that we can sail downwind. Jackie has been working hard on tuna recipes - we have had poisson cru and tonight it is tuna curry.All the bestMichael, Jackie and RobIMG_0112. read more...

Ensemble - Day 36 (14 Feb): Crossing the Equator, Mermaids, Booby, and Fish (at last)

Greetings from yacht Ensemble!It has been an eventful 24 hours as we approach Galapagos.The winds have been variable - but fortunately not the duldrums - with some decent sailing in winds of up to 12 knots. To make life interesting - the winds (and the currents) seem to come from all directions - with a couple of hours of good wind, punctuated by a squall (although we still haven't got wet yet), and then nothing for a couple of hours. The seas have been nicely flat - and we have made pretty good progress. At one point we were actually sailing faster than the wind (at 7 knots) - although I suspect this was with the aid of 1.5 knots of current.In preparation for crossing the Equator we decided we must please Neptune by making an effort and providing some sort of offering to the sea Gods. read more...

A Lady - Sailing around the World (Presently sailing NNW up the east coast of Australia)

Monday, 16th August 2010  01.00hrs The moon had disappeared over the horizon as we passed some large working ships close on our port side.We also passed a good number of fishing trawlers, busy doing their thing. We passed Endevour reef on our starboard side, This is the reef that Captain Cook grounded his Sailing ship and very nearly met his maker. The weather was obviously mild, otherwise they would have been totally wrecked. so they jettysoned their cargo and all their guns to lighten the ship  and once she was floating again sailed her to the mainland to carry out the necessary repairs, all of which took 3 months to complete. and then sailed back to England. Its wonderful to sail past such historical places, we could almost smell Cpt Cook. 03.00hrs We. read more...

Samsara - Sail, motor, repeat

Feb 12We have 280 miles to go to the Galapagos. We have been sailing as many hours of the day and night as we can and motoring when the wind shuts off. Right now the spinnaker is up and we're sailing at less than 4 knots - so we'll probably take it down and motor, and when the wind comes back up sail some more......We have gotten a few math lessons done today, and I finished my second novel of the leg - so although we haven't been able to sail very fast it's been a pretty easy leg so far. Some of the boats have hit rain squalls and we've seen a few, but we have only had a few drops of rain on this leg.We have seen spinner dolphins a few times, watched them jump in the distance and play in the bow wake too, and this morning we saw some really large dolphins going the other way so we only. read more...

Voyageur - Log day 141 - Sunday roast!

15 August 2010We have sailed all night and now the wind is a lovely steady force four and another lovely day. At 9 o'clock we tuned in to 4 Bravo. Wolfgang has done a great job keeping our small group of yachts in touch with each other. We know the whereabouts of only of six other WARC boats so it will quite exciting to see who turns up at the rendezvous on Thursday Island in three days time.....Destiny, along with Lady Ev 1V, have just left Margaret Bay and are now on their way to the Escape River which will be our next destination after today. Our ETA for Margaret Bay is one o'clock this afternoon with Thor 1V and Eowyn due to arrive later on. As we cross Temple Bay, the long low panorama of Cape Grenville with its distinctive blinding white silica sand hills comes into view. This is. read more...

Pajarito - Day 4 - Pass the Ginger Ale

Captain's Log: Wind speed: 5-10 kn; Wind direction: SE; Remarks: Beating, Beating, (and a frowny face - code for Pass the Ginger).We've been beating into the wind for a couple of days now. The wind has been anywhere from very light at 5 kn to fairly fresh at 15 kn, but always out of the southeast - the direction we want to be heading. We've tried a couple of strategies. Sail close-hauled due east, then tack back to the southwest. This bought us very little ground towards our destination because whatever easting we were able to make we lost when we headed back southwest.The other strategy was to motor in the direction we wanted to travel. This meant motoring head on into the wind and waves, and turned out to be pretty darn uncomfortable especially for the off-watch trying to catch some. read more...

Cleone - CLEONE Leg 7 Day 4 - Sailing Again!

Spinnaker up, and away we go.   After a full day of motoring and a weather forecast that was less thanencouraging, we did not expect much from today.  But at 2030 yesterday,Greenwich Mean Time (1030 in the morning our time), a sailing breeze setin.  So up went the main and up went the big spinnaker.  It was a bithesitant at first, but as time went on, the breeze became more confident. And off we went, with Cleone settling into her stride.  And so today, forthe first time, we are going to post our first decent day's total of propersailing miles.   Apart from that excitement, and it is excitement, we have been pondering onthe lack of bird and sea life.  Unlike the Atlantic, dolphins and otherfish seem rare, and we have seen no birds since we left Bora Bora, which itselfdid not team with. read more...

Kasuje - Log Thursday 22nd.

Hi from Raratonga We are still here in the delightful port of Avarua in the Southern Cook Islands. We have now put together an Itinerary for the next couple of weeks to get us to Fiji by the 7th June. This is detailed below. We have been experiencing some heavy tropical storms whilst in harbour,so we have re employed the services of Bruce the weather router from Australia to help us over the next part of the journey. We are also travelling ''off piste'' with regard to the majority of the WARC fleet, this is due to work and travel commitments by the crew,and to meet flights etc. But it is great fun sorting ourselves out and the greetings we get from the locals is genuine curiosity and friendship. Indeed in these Cook islands we have found the people the most warm and friendly of all the. read more...

Lady Ev.VI - Daily Log, Lady Ev. VI, 16. August

Hallo, Freunde, die uns, wenn auch von Land aus, begleiten.Gestern, 15. August 2010, haben wir die Nacht vor Anker im Rescue River zusammen mit Ariane und Destiny verbracht.Die 70 Meilen von unserem vorigen Ankerplatz in der Margaret Bay haben wir mit, Gott sei Dank, durchschnittlich 7 kn unter Genua gesegelt, so dass wir, dort um 0600 Uhr abgelegt, noch bei Tageslicht in den Recue-River einlaufen konnten. Und das war gut so!Denn der ganze Fluss ist gespickt mit, natuerlich unbeleuchteten Bojen der Perlenzuechter, die ein Einlaufen und Ankerplatz-Suchen bei Dunkelheit zu einem gefaehrlichen Hazard-Spiel gemacht haetten.Man hatte uns schon davor gewarnt, noerdlich von Lizard-Island ins Wasser zu gehen. Wer nimmt sowas schon richtig ernst?!Am Ankerplatz im Rescue-River begrueßte uns per. read more...

12moons und das Angeln - ganz oder gar nicht

12moons und das Angeln, eine Sache für sich.Seit wir von St. Lucia mit der World ARC unterwegs sind, hofften wir auf Angelglück. In den Speiseplan hatten wir frischen Fisch fest eingeplant. Unser eher gemüselastig ausgerichtetes Crew-Mitglied Annette hatte bereits zuvor in Deutschland angefangen, sich an Fisch, den sie vorher nie gegessen hatte, zu gewöhnen. Hatte sie viel Überwindung gekostet - Hut ab, Annette!Kaum in der Karibik wurde dann auch eine entsprechende Mahlzeit eingefordert, aber das Einzige, dass sich ereignete, war ein schöner und großer Kingfisch, der mit unserem Winner-Köder, kurz bevor wir ihn endlich an Board ziehen konnten, fröhlich von dannen schwamm. Mist! Danach verloren wir dann reichlich Köder bis sich ein. read more...

Glamorous Galah - Pacific swells

Pacific swellsWe are pleased with our progress so far to the Galapagos as our engine hours are only 9 so far for this leg. We are rolling over long swell lines similar to the ones we know in the Southern Ocean. The prospect of some surf in a few days is good. We caught 2 small sharks yesterday, enough for about 8 meals!Ted. read more...

Crazy Horse - Aug 16

Crazy Horse and Ocean Jasper finally set off this pm for Goldsmith I. What aglorious day of sun and little breeze. We are galloping along with enginegoing trying to make it to anchorage before dark. It feels good to be out atsea once again.We are at least setting off toward the goal of the North and the Torres St.It was getting a little too comfortable being at the dock. We were gettingused to the lifestyle of not getting rocked to sleep each night. We weregetting a little too used to not worrying about the anchor holding. We evencould sleep through the night without worrying about what time our watchstarted. Come to mention it we could even cook without worrying about thefood sliding off the stove or the butter sliding down the other end of thecounter. Well, it is still good to be off. read more...

Lady Kay - almost half way

HiWe are managing to sail today, albeit rather slowly. We expect to be half-way to Suwarrow this evening - it has taken almost twice as long as expected due to lack of wind. Photo today is of our last mooring in Bora-Bora.All the bestJ, M & Ranchorage. read more...

Voyageur - Log day 140 - Counting the Capes

14 August 2010A nothing morning again today. I refer to the wind or lack of it. We motored across Princess Charlotte Bay seeing nothing, seeing no one. Even the VHF remained silent. No brisk trade wind sailing conditions for us today but the forecast is for 15 to 20 knots later on this afternoon. What a wild and desolate place this is, which is of course is its great appeal. The Great Dividing Range, which has, up until now been hugging the coastline, has dived inland and is seen from afar as a series of hills, as it circles the great delta plains of this vast 30nm expanse of bay. We are sailing up the Cape York Peninsula. From here to the "Tip", as Cape York it is popularly known, we expect to have strong south easterlies to carry us on and around the top. This second overnight passage. read more...

Serendipity - The one that got away....

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Cleone - Leg 7 Day 3 - NSTR

Engine driving us forward for 24 hours, and no remarks in the log. Just because we've been motoring for the last 24 hours, it does not mean that we'd rather be sharing your office, job, weather or anything else!  For us it has been a day of sunshine with the odd cloud floating over-head, a cold beer at lunchtime, a snooze, a delicious chicken stew (Chef Will gave us the Menu), a stunning sunset and a balmy starlit night.  It has all made the lack of wind just about bearable.  I suppose we could have sat there with the sails flapping and still be where we were this time yesterday, but the Skipper decided that we'd better get on with it, and try and catch up with the rest of the fleet before they leave Suworrow to itself and us.  But the last Commander's weather forecast was brief to the. read more...

Graptolite - Oktoberfest in Atiu

19:10.48S 157:11.64W Freitag 23 Mai AMDas Schoene am Segeln ist ja nicht nur, dass man sehr langsam und ab und zu unbequem an die Stellen kommt, wo man hinwill, sondern auch, dass man eben dort hinkommt, wo einen der Wind hinweht. Ich wollte ja eigentlich, dass uns der Wind nach Aitutaki weht. Das wollte der aber nicht, sondern jetzt werden wir wohl in Atiu landen.Ich versuche ja immer wieder, die Jungs davon zu ueberzeugen, dass eine Insel nicht wie die andere aussieht. aber manchmal ist es wohl wirklich so. Nachdem Colin und ich uns schon ueberlegt hatten, wie wir in den haesslich schmalen und sehr, sehr flachen (1,3 m Wassertiefe.bei 1,7 m Kieltiefe.. grusel) Pass kommen (mit dem Dingi vorausfahren, mit Lot ausloten und dann mit Boot hinterherfahren.), hat der Wind auf Sued-Suedwest. read more...

A Lady - Sailing around the World, ( Presently at sea on the east coast of Australia, )

SUNDAY  15th  AUGUST  2010 07.00hrs, A Sunday morning, and there is a lot of activity on the marina. Another beautifull day , and it seems like every one in Australia is going to sea. The boys went ashore and had a shower in the shore facilities,  well we felt and smelt much better, when we were finished and made our way back to the boat, 09.20hrs  We slipped our lines and motored over to the Fuel dock and took on board 395L of Diesel,10.00hrs  We motored out of the marina basin and headed down the channel , The 5 mile channel to the sea. Having calculated our travel times to Thursday Island, ( 460 miles NNW ) it seems at 7 knots we would arrive in the middle of the night, so we decided to stop at lizzard Island for 6 or 7 hours,  Lizzard. read more...

Ensemble - Day 35 (Feb 13): Wind & Rain & Men in Grey Suits

Greetings from yacht Ensemble.Yesterday was interesting for weather - with a consistent 10 knots - although from many different directions. We passed through a number of lines of squalls - and to be conservative - brought the gennaker in a dusk and went with the jib. The strong current of nearly 2 knots worked against us for part of the day - but seemed to ease in the evening.To make matters more interesting - the Auto-helm started misbehaving. We suspect it has never been properly set up in the first place - but have made due until now. The latest malady is that it won't hold a course closely at all - and drifts by 10-20 degrees. We made due by making course corrections every 20-30 minutes through the night - but it was exhausting - and added to our distance travelled.Unfortunately the. read more...

Destiny - Segeln im Korallenmeer

Das Great Barrier Reef hat zwei Two-Way-Routes in Nord-Süd-Richtung. Die eine liegt eng am australischen Festland, ist schmal und hat viele Inseln und Korallenriffe, aber auch viele sichere Ankerbuchten. Die andere verläuft entlang des Außenriffs, ist breit, hat relativ wenige Inseln und Korallenriffe zu beiden Seiten, dafür keine sicheren Ankerbuchten. Bei Tag sind die Inseln natürlich gut zu erkennen, auch wenn sie oft mit ein paar Palmen nur wie ein Wuschelkopf aussehen; die Korallenriffe sind durch Seezeichen gekennzeichnet. Wir haben für unseren Nachtschlag die Route am Außenriff gewählt. Die Route ist mit unterschiedlichen Feuern (weiß oder rot! ein Blitz, zwei Blitze oder drei) übersichtlich gekennzeichnet, wobei der nächste Blitz meist schon am Horizont erscheint, bevor man den. read more...

Anastasia - A slow day

01:57N 85:28W  Another day of light winds, but at least we managed to sail all day.  The highlight of the day was Andrea's coconut and banana prawn curry.  She made this to use up some of our green bananas which have obstinately refused to ripen and are now looking like they will all turn yellow the day we arrive at Galapagos.  It always happens, however much you separate the bananas and put them in different places and temperatures they all ripen on the same day.   We had a tired looking visitor on the deck for half the day.  He must be a Galapagos seagull because he was quite tame and just stood around watching us, stepping to one side if we needed to walk past him. 750 . read more...

Jus'Do It 3 - preparing to go...& we're off!

Monday 19th MaySure enough, we’re on anchor watch all night,doing one hour shifts. The wind came as expected, gusting up to 30 knots. We’ve got a good hold but we’re too close to Tallulah Ruby and the wind swings round completely in the night to the opposite direction expected – SE. Due to this, a few of the WARC boats in various locations have to re-anchor in the night . By morning it’s stopped blowing, although still very overcast. We have breakfast then all go back to bed for a couple of hours. By the time we get up it’s flat calm and a lot of the boats that were beside us have gone. The water is clear, we can see the sandy bottom and we watch fish and large rays swimming by the boat. Paul from TR calls over to discuss the forecast and we make a. read more...

Peat Smoke - OUR VISITOR

Another wee verse for you, everything also on our facebook page PEATSMOKE if you have not signed up!!   OUR VISITORI was on my watch at midnight when I heard a little bang Oh no I thought it's the engine now we're really in a jam! I then checked the equipment it was fine and we're still afloat But I took a look in the water and saw a WHALE next to the boat!It swam with us for ages it made me a nervous wreck  As I then remembered the boat that had a whale land on its deck! I wished that it would swim off now and go on its merry way Because I wouldn't be so scared if it was in the light of day!From side to side it swam and it really was quite huge  Please don't go underneath us or we really will be screwed! But eventually it left us so off I went to bed But couldn't sleep. read more...

A Lady - Sailing around the World (Presently in Cairns, Australia)

Saturday, 14th August 2010  06.00hrs All up and about, as we are off to Kuranda for the day, we are like school children off to the zoo.07.10hrs We trooped up to the Shangri-La Hotel to catch our coach to the train that will take us up through the mountains to this old village which was part of the rail system to the mining area of Queensland back in the 1880's. The railway was built mainly with Irish and Italian sweat and blood, plus a few chinese and asian workers for good measure. Only about 40 died during the construction of this fascinating project which took 5 years to complete. Skipper and Aileen, were here 9 years ago, so it will be interesting to see what has changed. An amazing thing, the last time we were there, we met Mary O Loughlin from Dublin. read more...

A Lady - Sailing around the World (Cairns, Australia)

Friday, 13th AUGUST 2010   01.30hrs We rolled out the headsail again, at least we were getting a little breeze, shortly after, the wind was abeam on our port side, and blowing 16 knots. Beautiful sailing on a beautiful night, on flat water. 05.15hrs We were outside Cairns, actually at cape Grafton, about 6 miles SE of Cairns. The entrance channel into Cairns was about 5 miles long, very well marked with flashing lights on both sides and looked more like a runway for aircraft. The channel was only about 1/4 mile wide the whole way into the marina.. 06.45hrs We arrived at "Marlin Marina" and tied up at the marina on the southern side next to Wild Tigris. Later,  Joe from the marina dept gave us directions to our berth, E 20,  there were. read more...

Southern Cross - on the way

Hi Everyone! The winds have finally picked up a bit. In case you didn't know, we were motoring for a while. Anyway, everything is good. We caught a mackerel fish the day before yesterday and it was very tasty. Today, we are having a chicken and potato soup for dinner. Very exciting stuff. I would rather have a boring and uneventful day at sea than one filled with broken equipment, rough seas or nothing to eat. Life is good, we are safe, and our guest from the Juba is having a good time. David. read more...

Jus'Do It 3 - still here!

Thursday 15th MayIt’s really beautiful here, and although we’re definitely getting spoilt, the colours of the sea , coral gardens, fish, flowers, sunsets,( and locals!) still blow us away. As usual, we have breakfast while taking it all in then decide it’s a jobs morning. Ian cleans the transom, Stewy and Brian go off to get the fuel and Annie does a bit of boat work then cleans her shell collection. Stewy and Brian return frustrated – the fuel man still claims they don’t have the right paperwork for the duty free fuel - we’ll try again tomorrow. In the afternoon, Brian goes for an explore ashore, walking round the quiet end of the next bay north of the main village. While there he’s sure he meets the same dog that bit Paul from Into the Blue, but is. read more...

Lady Kay - Another tuna

Trundling along slowly to Suwarrow with little wind still.Michael caught another Tuna today, not as big as yesterday's which is shown in the picture attached.Seared tuna last night. Poisson Cru for lunch - raw tuna with onions, peppers, cucumber & tomatoes in coconut milk and fresh lime juice.Not much going on at present and yet to see any dolphins or whales on this trip, although Michael did hook a really giant marlin which broke through his extra strong fishing wire after some spectacular thrashing around.All the best for nowJ, M & Rtuna. read more...

Crazy Horse - Aug 15

Don't know how to say this but here it is, we are still here at Mackay Marina awaiting the final touches of repair work to be done. We had hoped to be gone yesterday for the northern coast with the other ARC boats. Tim just couldn't get the boom bag right or the new code zero up and adjusted in time before the weekend. So here we wait for Monday and Tim to complete the work. That is the way of the boat. Yes, we are disappointed but we have to remind ourselves we are still in Australia. This is a wonderful place to be stuck and the people have been wonderful.It works out that we have this time to find freshwater leaks from the plumbing system. Bill has gone off today to find a new faucet for the sink that was causing all the water in the bottom of the cabinet and under the bilge. Guess if. read more...

BRIZO - 12 Feb 2012

We continue to motor along toward the Galapagos Islands, we are finding either no wind or very light and variable wind. We are currently 3 degrees north of the equator and it is certainly hot and humid during the daylight hours, though very comfortable during the nights. We have had a few rain showers, nothing very heavy and no lightning nearby.Yesterday fishing adventures produced excitement but no fish caught. We first saw what we believe was a marlin jumping clear of the water, being chased by something larger. With each progressive jump the marlin came out of the water a bit less as it got tired, until it didn't come up again! Either it got away or... Just after dinner we got a strong bite on our line and saw another marlin, probably 4-5 feet long. It was only hooked for a short time. read more...

Peat Smoke - A Night to Remember

A NIGHT TO REMEMBERContadora was the venue for our last farewell To the Las Perlas Islands venture and head back to the Pacific swell! The food and drinks were hosted by the Punta Galleon Hotel What a wonderful location and they looked after us oh so well!   Paul and Joel got the evening started with prizes for some yachts Although this was very exciting as there seemed to be lots and lots! Many photographs were taken and people interviewed as well We wondered of the interest the World ARC they want to sell! But disappointed we were when the sponsors decided to tell The main feature was their Water and so our faces duly fell!   But on again came Paul and introduced the next act - Nina A new singing sensation from Panama and nearly as good as old Tina! Another request was made. read more...

Cleone - Leg 7 Day 2 -Search but no Rescue

Having spotted a red flare, Cleone spent much of the night in a fruitlesssearch.   Shortly before mid-night, and just as the oncoming watch had been awakened,an alert crew member spotted a red flare.  Ten minutes later, a white onewas seen in the same area.  Getting in touch with MRCC Papeete proveddifficult, but MRCC Falmouth were unfazed by being phoned by someone the otherside of the world, and soon the Iridium rang, and we were talking to MRCCPapeete.  It was difficult to pin-point the location, so making our way towhere we thought the flares had come from, we started an expanding boxsearch pattern.  Every so often, MRCC Papeete phoned us to see how we weregetting on - a great encouragement for us.   By dawn, we were tired,. read more...

Lady Ev.VI - Daily Log, 14. August 2010

Gestern haben wir in der Lloyd-Bucht neben Segelyacht ARIANE geankert. Wir hatten uns ueber das SSB-Geraet verabredet und Ronaldo, der Skipper der Schweizer, konnte uns dann per VHF zum besten Ankerplatz "hereinsprechen".Nach einer ruhigen Nacht ohne "Rock n´Roll " und einem voellig erschoepften kleinen Vogel an der Reling konnten wir dann ,noch vor dem Fruehstueck, die fahrt nach Norden wieder aufnehmen.Ehrlich gesagt, wollten wir nur nicht von Ariane ueberholt werden und sind deshalb so frueh aufgebrochen. Der Wind ließ im Laufe des Vormittags immer mehr nach, so dass wir ab 11 Uhr den Gennacker setzten, der uns dann permanent 6 kn Fahrt ueber Grund beschehrte. Arme Ariane!Von Seezeichen zu Seezeichen navigieren wir durch das Barrier-Reef nach Norden auf unser Etappenziel. read more...

Voyageur - Log day 139 - Friday 13th - A perfect day!

13 August 2010I am deeply superstitious and with the events of the last couple of days still fresh in my mind I was a little nervous about setting out on the next part of our journey. We were leaving on a Friday and the thirteen of the month no less. However my fears were proved quite groundless, for yesterday went without a glitch and was the most perfect day from several aspects. The wind had continued to blow hard overnight but by 6am when the alarm went off we found it had dropped off a notch to a force five occasionally gusting six. Destiny were of exactly the same mind as us as they were also lifting their anchor. It is good to have their company in this great waste of Australian coastline. Ariane and Lady Ev VI are two days ahead of us, Eowyn and ThorVI, one day. Our destination. read more...

Andante of Mersey - Bora Bora - Rarotonga

Apologies for recent lack of news from us but whenin port there always seems so much to do - mainly socially - especially when itsin the Society Islands - well named and great if you are rich and famous. On three nights we ate or just had a couple of Miatais at the renownedBloody Mary's establishment.  The entrance is adorned with hundreds ofnames of the 'stars' etc who have visited the place.  Im not sure oursing songs went down all that well but they took our money. On 20th we set sail for the Cook Islands which areassociated administratively with New Zealand - ie English instead of Frenchspeaking and normal prices. First stop will be Rarotonga on 24th. Yesterdaythe sky ahead of us went blacker than any daytime sky I have ever seen.  Itwas quite errie. read more...

Ensemble - Day 34 (12 Feb 2012): Half way - Wind at last - and fish!

Greetings from yacht Ensemble.We reached roughly half way last evening - just in time for for a sunset celebration of champagne and one of Magali's home made dips (blue cheese, spring onions and brocholi). As I write this we have only 320nm to go!And at last the wind has started to co-operate. Yesterday we managed a couple of hours with the engine off during the day - and then around midnight we ended up with a reasonably constant 8-10 knots. Not the best - but with the current we managed 5-8 knots of boat GPS speed - quite acceptable given the light conditions - and most importantly - saving fuel in case the wind dies again.Fishing wise we are still in fishing purgatory. The day before yesterday we lost two lures - then yesterday you can imagine my excitement/trepidation when I saw a. read more...

Ariane - Great Barrier Reef

Hallo liebe Freunde zuhause Wieder mal ein kurzer Bericht über einen weiteren Teil unserer Reise. Bisher darf man ruhig sagen, segelten wir von Höhepunkt zu Höhepunkt! Auch der Ausflug von Cairns nach Kuranda war ein solcher. Nun aber zum Great Barrier Reef (GBR). Schon die Einfahrt in das Riff war alles andere als gemütlich. Gegenwind bis 25 Knoten verbunden mit einem Gegenstrom brachte die Schiffe fast zum Stehen. Ausserdem war diese unangenehme Fahrt durch das Riff gut dreimal so lange wie die kurze und in anderer Richtung verlaufende Einfahrt nach Cairns. Mackay war ein nettes Städchen mit sehr guten Einkaufsmöglichkeiten, fast so gut wie in Cairns. Die Distanz vom Hafen zur Stadt konnte jedoch nur mit dem Taxi für 20 $ pro Fahrt erkauft werden. Ausserdem war der Weg nach Norden zur. read more...

Anastasia - In the Doldrums

3:35.3N 83:22.7W  As expected, the light winds have meant our progress is relatively poor and we were lying around mid-fleet at the morning radio call.  Our current calculations show that we will come last in the catamaran group unless the other boats motor more than we do, so the focus today has been on motoring as little as possible.  If our speed drops below 4 knots consistently then we motor for a while, but otherwise we are sailing.  We have managed with just 6 hours of engine so far today, which is pretty good considering we are currently smack in the middle of the Doldrums.  But right now we have 10 knots of wind from the south-east allowing us to sail at about 7 knots directly towards Galapagos, which is good progress.The Doldrums are. read more...

Graptolite - Netting the Surf

16:52.52S 154:26.57W Wednesday 21th May PMThe next leg to the Cook Islands started off the BBYC at 1200.Boats scattered in different directions. Some are doing the race leg to theutterly delightful but near deserted Suworrow while we and others are off tothe southern Cooks stopping at as many islands as we can along the way.The first attempt at landfall was at Maupiti which looks like a miniatureversion of Bora Bora. Unfortunately there is nothing miniature about thesurf that pounds across the reef into the lagoon. The waves looked to beabout 3-4 metres high in the pass and much bigger on either side. It wouldeasily have been possible to make a dramatic entrance upside down whichwould have ruined our day. There was no argument from crew about giving theplace a miss this time.After an. read more...

Samsara - It's mirror smooth out there now....

Feb 11As expected the wind has died. We sailed the first and second day (both under spinnaker) but by 5pm on the 10th the wind died out. Today we swam in the ocean for a while and sailed for a few hours (rather slowly) but now at 5pm it's as smooth as glass out there. I'm going to put lasagna in the oven and pick out a new novel to read. I've brought sooooo many books on the trip and have only read a few so far. The trip to St. Lucia and then to San Blas were so rough there wasn't much opportunity to read - but this leg looks like it's going to allow me to enjoy a few novels.We did a little school work today, Sam did a bunch yesterday, I'm going to make dinner and probably a cake, and I expect it will be a calm night. Off to pick out the reading material for the evening, Pauline. read more...

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