Daily Logs

A Lady - Sailing around the World, ( presently in Port Villa, Vanuatu, South pacific. )

MONDAY  12th JULY    2010  In some respects, we should title the blog " Eating and drinking our way around the World, " We had that title many moons ago , and it fits the bill nicely. Spain won the World cup, and needless to mention that the Spaniards on this trip will have bragging rights for some time to come. Some of the crews got out of the scratchers at 04.30 hrs to watch the match on TV. 07.00hrs, We moved the boat to the quay wall, and made ourselves comfortable there. Skipper went to the " Yachting World" office to register our berth position and sort out some paperwork. Aileen found a medical centre and got some advice and medication from the in house doctor, She was happy with this, Do you know something, we still miss Donal and. read more...

Sapphire II - Day 12, 20th Jan, Rio Diablo Adventure

With so much happening in the Lemon Cays anchorage I forgot to mention the visit of the fisherman with his canoe full of lobsters. Many were undersized, but there were 2 that looked over 1lb each. We bought those and had them for dinner with a nice bottle of white wine. Delicious!Friday 20th was set aside for an adventure trip for Jerry's last day in the San Blas. All 6 of us took the RIB over the shallows and into the aptly named Rio Diablo river. The slow flowing river twisted and turned into the interior. The river banks we crowded alternately with mangroves, then tall palms, then large canopied rain forest trees. A variety of birds occupied the river, ranging from white herons to grey herons to swallow-like small birds. Every now and then Kuna Indians came by in their dugout canoes.. read more...

Graptolite - Normal Service

17:35.16S 149:36.93W Pape'ete, TahitiBit of a gap in the blogs there. Sorry, but I've had better things to do.On Monday we went diving again. More wrecks and fish. Why would anyone want to dive in the cold, dark and muddy waters of the Frozen North?Tuesday was my birthday and Heike and Colin laid on a surprise birthday breakfast for me in the cockpit. Smoked marlin, fresh pineapple, croissants, everything. I was later 'kidnapped' and found myself on a car ferry going to Moorea. Up to now, Moorea has to be the most beautiful island I've been on. The landscape has an unreal quality with tropical flowers, reefs, blue water and big rock pinnacles. Even the roadside stalls are nice. The local wildbananas taste slightly of oranges and when you buy loud tropical shirts they give you free. read more...

A Lady - Sailing around the World

Microsoft Outlook Express 6    . read more...

Ensemble - Day 12 - Panama Canal - Shelter Bay Marina

Greetings from yacht Ensemble.We arrived in Shelter Bay marina yesterday early afternoon. The day was not without it's adventures... we got away ok and could only set the main to the first reef because the halyard was twisted. We had a good sail downwind for the 20nm to the entrance to the Panama Canal - lots of boats about - the AIS looked like one of those screens from Space Invaders...Just as we got into the marina the wind picked up. We had to reverse into the berth between two super yachts. I was managing ok until one of them hit their bow thruster and sent us sideways - not helped by the wind! We recovered ok and got the boat to the jetty safely - but certainly a bit of a scare. The marina is pretty full - so will have to move the boat again today.We'll spend today cleaning and. read more...

Chessie - world arc 2010.11, SY Chessie

Time out ... and back againBorne in paradies (Moorea), already died in paradies (vor Langeweile) so jedenfalls werden wir vom Kellner in der Snack-Bar und Restaurant "Chez Roger" in der Cooksbay in Moorea begrüßt, one of the 1000 Places To See Before You Die. Das ist wohl seine Standartbegrüssung, und wir haben das Thema nicht weiter vertieft, sondern die Spezialität des Hauses, Mai Mai Mousse - eine Art Soufflet aus rohen Garnelen und Mai-Mai-Fleisch - und weiterhin unsere private Auszeit genossen.Die ARC.Flotte hatte schon lange Papeete Richtung Westen, Bora Bora, Cook Islands und Tonga verlassen, während wir es uns in der Marina Taina in Papeete und in Moorea gemütlich gemacht haben. Eigentlich wollten wir nur einige kleinere Nachbesserungen am neuen Furlingsystem machen lassen, das. read more...

Cleone - En Route to the Tuamotus - Day 3

Timing is everything, and we seem to have got it wrong. The Atols need to be approached with care; strong streams set through the gaps, some of which are not very wide.  And at the present rate we will arrive at our chosen island - Kauehi - a few hours after low tide!  And by the time high tide comes along, it will be dusk, and the coral heads will remain unseen.  This presents us with a dilemma as to whether we risk entering with the current, or whether we wait 20 hours or so, or whether we try somewhere else.  You (and we, I suspect) will have to wait until tomorrow to find that one out. Meanwhile, we have had some very good trade-wind sailing, making a comfortable 6 knots in 20 knots of breeze and generally bright sunshine.  Despite liberal applications of sun-cream, Will is starting. read more...

Anastasia - The entrance to the Panama canal

9:22.13W 79:57.02N This is a view of the chart plotter as we approached the Atlantic entrance to the Panama canal 26. Each gray triangle is a ship.  Like Piccadilly Circus in the rush hour. Fortunately 99% of the ships are anchored waiting for their turn through the canal, so not much is moving (very much like Piccadilly Circus in the rush hour) but it does make it quite hard to pick out which ships are actually steaming towards you.   On  approach to the breakwater you radio Cristobal Signal Station to ask permission to enter. "Proceed, avoiding any traffic" was the reply, which was a bit surprising because there was a big container ship about to exit and therefore no way we could proceed until it had passed.  Anyway, we are now inside the canal. read more...

Glamorous Galah - Portobello

PortobelloThis photo(photo) was a last glimpse of the wonderful and windy San Blas islands which we left yesterday. We had one of our best sails of the Caribbean yesterday off the wind in 12 knots and scudding along the Panamanian coast.Portobello is a great harbour with 16th century forts on either side. Drake raided it and relieved Spain of most of the gold reserves they had here which set up England for empire building. Archeologists have just discovered two wrecks which he scuttled when he left.The village is also home to the Black Christ. It is a wooden statue in the church of San Felipe which has become holy due to the miracles attributed to it.We will head down to the canal tomorrow and ready ourselves for transit on Australia day.Ted. read more...

Lady Kay - our first atoll

We arrived in Kauehi first thing this morning. Our arrival wasn't that auspicious. Rain shower after rain shower blocked our visibility to the entrance. We crossed the narrow passage into the lagoon and we were in a Pacific paradise. It was everything you imagine. The sun shone, the water is crystal clear blue. The little village is like a picture postcard. The size of the atoll makes it very difficult to show in a photo, but this is a shot of a small inlet into the lagoon.We are anchored in side a circle of reefs which have occasional palm trees and sandy beaches. There are 310 people living on the island who make a living from fishing and the three pearl farms. they have some amazing looking crabs for sale.We plan to spend a couple of days here before moving on to another atoll and. read more...

Tucanon - Moe catches supper

We left Musket Cove marina after Jeannius and before Lisa to ensure that the anchors didn't get fouled, the reverse order that we had entered the marina. We made our way to the start line and at 11am, following the signal, leg 10 commenced.I managed to get the galley fridge defrosted, starting the procedure soon after rising. It isn't possible to do this when we are in port as the fridge in the cockpit is filled with beers and other drinks leaving me nowhere cool to put the produce, while defrosting the other fridge..The first hour and a half was fine as we sailed under main and genoa on a broad reach. Suddenly, all hell let loose as the wind and sea both increased substantially. A deluge of water poured into the boat from open hatches, soaking the sofa and floor in the salon. By the. read more...

A Lady - Sailing around the World ( Presently in Port Villa, Vanuatu. )

SUNDAY  10 th JULY  2010 08.00hrs   We had a late morning, and its cloudy and windy, a cool 26 degrees.There are 17 of the WA boats here, with 3 more to come, 11 of the boats are tied onto the Quay wall. the rest are on moorings,including ourselves, 09.00hrs, skipper dropped Scotty ashore to do his usual internet stuff, and while there went and hired a 4x4. thats all that was available,10.00, Masses were all over at this stage, so we took off in the truck,First place we stopped was the golf course to check what it was like. yeah, ok an 18 hole course.and would be delighted to see us at any stage. On from there, we went to "Hideaway Island" and resort. This was a very interesting place, it had an underwater post box yes, an underwater post. read more...

Serendipity - Farewell San Blas

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Quasar V of Lleyn - Signing Off

Thursday 17th AprilTAHITIArrived at Marina Taina at about 16:30 yesterday to a bit of confusion as I had managed to correspond with two different agents to handle the shipyard repair. The confusion was that they were both called 'Laurent'. It was sorted out this morning and we ended up with the WARC agent! We also had a visit from the Technimarine boss Alain and his oppo to look at the work. Various jobs then undertaken including a small mainsail repair and tons of washing!I'm signing off now from log writing till the end of August when back permitting I will rejoin in Darwin for the trip to Bali and Mauritius!. read more...

Voyageur - Log day 119 - Tanna - Vanuatu

8 July 2010It has been a fascinating experience to come here to Tanna. Theirs is a culture steeped in tradition and our brief stopover enabled us to gain insight into life as removed from the civilised world as we know it. As visitors we got to see life in its purest form. On our third day out from Fiji, by mid morning we were at anchor in Resolution Bay, so named by Captain Cook when he arrived in HMS Resolution in 1774. WARC had arranged for us to clear in at the yacht club and they had set up a bank for currency exchange. Nick, Paul and Andrew Bishop of WARC were here as our support team. Nick, we last saw in Ecuador, Andrew had sailed aboard Crazy Horse from Musket Cove, Fiji. There, Andrew asked us which had been our favourite supported stopover. This was a difficult one and took. read more...

Anastasia - The challenges of anchoring

There is a certain amount of skill required to anchor a boat. First you have to pick a spot to drop the anchor. A rule of thumb is you drop chain to around 5 times the depth of water. So for 10 meters of water you would drop 50m of chain, ideally in a place where you could draw a circle of about 35m radius (the chain hangs in a curve) around the boat, and that circle would not contain any shoreline or other boats. You usually don't have that much space and you have to have a couple of boats inside your anchor circle.  What you try and do then is arrange that if the boats all generally point into the wind then they will not swing into each other regardless of the wind direction.   Then you have to stick the anchor in the ground.  Often you. read more...

Sapphire II - Day 11, 19th Jan, Another Full Day

We started the day with a relaxed, lazy motor sail to the Lemon Cays. The lagoon had some 35 boats at anchor but joining them was no easy task. We basically circled two thirds of the little islands before we found a narrow passage with enough water for us to enter. The O'Connors and Jerry took off in the RIB to find the reputed excellent reef-snorkeling. Although it was indeed interesting, I don't think we found the best area. Rather than tropical fish what we mostly saw were very large colorful starfish. We had finished swimming and were snacking and taking photographs when 2 Kuna arrived in a dugout canoe. They spoke to us in English and started to display, on a tree trunk, beautiful examples of Molas, the tapestry- like fabrics that are a hallmark of the Kuna culture. The work was so. read more...

Ariane - Die Dorfbevölkerung legt liebevoll ihre Geschenke für die WARC-Flotte bereit in selbstgebastelten Behältnissen: Vanuatu, Tanna, Port Resolution

 Folgende Dateien oder Links können jetzt als Anlage mit Ihrer Nachricht gesendet werden:Vanuatu, Tanna, Port Resolution 117Vanuatu Tanna Port Resolution 117. read more...

Maamalni - Leg 4: #9 - Woo Ho! Or, When Knotty Things happen

Winds Up and MaaMa flies! The wind has finally "freshened" from the south and finally MaaMa is able to make a westerly course. We fiddle farted around with headsail and main and finally make the decision around noon to fly the 'kite'. 2 hours later and 12 knots of wind we get the damn thing out of the sleeve and flying. So what gave? Only the important control line, which you allows to take the 'sock' up and down or douse the kite when the boat becomes overloaded. Seems that the connection point have torn out, so 2 shackles, 2 hours, 2 re-rigs , and we have 2000 square feet of Dacron pulling us westward to Tahiti at 7.5 knots and now its time for 2 Gin Tonics.Fair Winds _/), Michael and Suzan. read more...

A Lady - Sailing around the World. ( presently in Vanuatu.)

SATURDAY   10th   JULY  2010  04.45hrs  Still dark with the stars dancing in the sky. Skipper started the engine to let it warm up. 05 20 hrs  We hauled the anchor and motor sailed out of Pt. Dillon ( named after some Irish guy ) You may remember, we came across Dillons in Equidor, also of Irish extraction. The weather was beautifull, but little or no wind so we just kept motoring NW towards Port Villa, on " Efate "  77 miles away During the morning we used our steel putty to repair the bottom of the rib, blooming hell,looking at the split in the hull, we really hit the reef hard with this thing, It shattered the gelcoat and fractured the glass fibre matting, for a length of 1.5 feet.......... Ocean Jasper and. read more...

Maamalni - Leg 4: #10 - Ottomat laundry maker or will the laundry go fowl?

We check up on the auto pilot, because Otto has been making a lot of noise of late. It seems that the 4 rather large bolts that hold Otto's arm in place have come undone. Ah ha! Could there be a fowl about? Some of you may remember from previous chapters that the steering arm resides underneath the master stateroom bed and then buried under the cabinetry, which is very difficult to access. So when one has to tend to the steering arm, it necessitate lying upside down and backwards with only Suzan's narrow arm could access be gotten to tighten the bolts. All the while the boat is still moving at 6-7 knots with water flying over her hull. Oops, forgot to close a port and next thing you know we got laundry to do. Now, we have been contemplating the fate of the chicken for several days (see #. read more...

Ensemble - Day 11: Isla Linton - Monkey magic

Greetings from yacht Ensemble.Today we started our passage to the Panama Canal. We had a nice sail for about 40nm and pulled into a sheltered Bay opposite Isla Linton to drop anchor. Only issue during the sail was the halyard which stubbornly refused to untwist - so we sailed with a reed in the main for the whole way.The anchorage itself is well protected from all directions - but had some swell. We went into the small town - Puerto Linton - and bought some bananas and some eggs.The area is very much as Magali imagined the tropics to be - palm trees down to the water's edge, lots of exotic birds, and monkeys. Isla Linton is privately owned but un-inhabited. All that is left is the ruins of a US university research station from the 70's - now occupied by monkeys. They have a large tail, a. read more...

Cleone - En Route to the Tuamotus - Day 2

In the groove again. It's downwind on the port tack, just like the old days! Sun's shining, Chris was cooking last night, Will steering and the Skipper sleeping.  What could be better?  After chatting to friends en-route, and reading various e-mails from others, we have now decided to head for Fakarava, giving us the option of calling in at Kauehi on the way if conditions are reported as being good there.  We are slightly hampered by our lack of an anchor windlass - we don't fancy hauling up 100m of chain by hand!  So we will look for shallowish anchorages, and try and devise a way of not having to heave and ho too much.  We will let you know how we get on. Yesterday's drama was the deck-wash, which was not producing sea-water on demand.  It took the skipper 5 minutes to realise that the. read more...

Crazy Horse - July 11

We arrived yesterday here in Port Vila on the island of Efate, Vanuatu ataround 5pm. We made a quick passage from our anchorage off Erromango tohere. This is quite different than Tanna. I can see hotels, a casino,restuarants, banks, ships, etc. here. We had nothing of the kind in Tanna.We may be able to find good stores here to help with the final provisionsnecessary for the trip to Australia. We won't be getting too much since inAustralia they are careful about taking all the fresh produce and meats onestill has left on the boat. All the dried or canned food should be safe buteverything in the freezer and refrgerator may have to go.We have made lists of lists of all the repairs and parts which are necessaryfor me to pick up or buy when we get to Australia. One thing we keeprealizing is. read more...

BRIZO - Log Entry Friday 20 Jan 2012

As planned we arrived at Portobello late yesterday afternoon and caught-up with several other Rally boats. We went ashore for dinner with the crews from Working On A Dream and Anastasia. As reported in the cruising guides, we had a very nice dinner at one of the simple restaurants in town, had a great evening of getting to know the people on the other boats. When we got back to our boat we discovered that the anchor had dragged and we had started to drift downwind. Because this harbor is well protected and close to the Canal entrance, there are quite a few boats anchored here, most of which are not in our Rally. Anyway, we had to raise the anchor and only after several attempts were we successful in finding a secure spot for the night. It is always an uneasy feeling when you go to bed. read more...

Wind Dancer - LOG 2: Suntans and Detective Novels

Karson and Terry. read more...

Crazy Horse - July 10

Last night we spend the night anchored off a little island called Erromango.It was a beautiful anchorage with green hills, sandy beach, and what lookedlike caves on the shore.The water was so clear and clean we could see thebottom. We had a nice meal prepared by Matt and capped off with a visit toOcean Jasper to view the video of Maggie and Bob jumping out of an airplanefrom 14000 ft. They had a free fall of 70 sec. It was amazing to watch letalone experience for them. They had a successful landing on the island ofMalolo Lai Lai. They did their jump while we were all docked at Musket CoveMarina.We are now underway to our destination of Port Vila. That is where I willmeet my flight back to the US. You can imagine that I am excited to see allthe folks I love back home. There is a little. read more...

Strega - Welcome to Kauehi...

..wurde uns nicht gesagt, dies lag aber wahrscheinlich nur daran, dass keiner zur Begrüßung da war.Kauehi unsere erste Insel der Tuamotus. Total verschieden von dem was wir bis jetzt sahen,denn hier gibt es keine Berge, sondern die Palmen wachsen "direkt" aus dem Wasser.Sind eben Korallenatolle hier...Die Fahrt war kurz, 3 Tage, ein Katzensprung, im Gegenteil die Katze ist zu schnell gesprungen und wir mussten,um nicht in Dunkelheit anzukommen, bei 3 Windstärken mit dem 2. Reff fahren um langsamer zu werden.Gut, dass uns keiner gesehen hat :-)In den Büchern stehen etwas unterschiedliche Angaben zu den Inseln - einfach anzulaufen, bei jedem Wetter aber auch: Vorsicht vor gefährlicher Strömung bei der Einfahrt. So war die Einfahrt dann doppelt spannend und dann auch mit einigen Wellen und. read more...

Quasar V of Lleyn - log

Wednesday 16th AprilON THE WAY HOMEThe wind has dropped during the night and the engine is back on to ensure we reach Tahiti during daylight.Meanwhile the Polynesian Eco Police are searching for a small longhaired blond woman in a red shirt, who was last seen cutting up plastic on the aft deck for compact storage. It seems that despite (allegedly) being tied 3 times to the pushpit, the plastic bag containing the said cut up plastic, blew overboard causing a catastrophic environmental impact!If you have seen this woman, a substantial reward is offered by the Polynesian Eco Police for her apprehension. (At least a 100 CFP - all she is worth-Ed?)clip_image002. read more...

A Lady - Sailing around the World, with the World A.R.C. ( Presently on route to Port Villa ,)

FRIDAY  9th  JULY  2010 06.30hrs, Early morning rise, Another beautifull day in Paradise x 8. We have to leave shortly and move on, We really enjoyed this remote and primative Island, but, all good must come to an end. Aileen is in much better form, 08.30  We raised the anchor,and motor sailed out of Tanna, as there is little or no wind. We set a course for " Erromango"  an Island just about 50 miles north of Tanna, We passed the belching volcano on our way and waved goodbye to it all...   sob, sob, sob, We are basically heading for Port Villa, in " Efate " Island, a total 127 miles away. We have decided to stop at Erromango to have a swim and have dinner, and a good nights rest. We arrived at Port dillon, Erromango, at 16.00hrs,. read more...

Wind Dancer - LOG 2: Suntans and Detective Novels

mike and terry. read more...

Anastasia - En route to Panama

9:33.5N 79:39.9W  We have to be in Panama tomorrow afternoon so today we sailed most of the way there, anchoring at Portobello, a once thriving town that is now just a small fishing village. In the days of the Spanish exploitation of South America one third of all the riches gathered by the armadas passed through this port. Now it is a ramshackle collection of houses around the old church. 145  Our first anchor spot was close to the town, but it felt unsafe, being within an easy swim of the town, and so we re-anchored on the other side of the bay. Being robbed in Soufriere has made us suspicious whenever we see people hanging around the dinghy dock watching the comings and goings from the yachts.   However, we ate at a restaurant that. read more...

Ariane - Vanuatu, Tanna, Port Resolution

Liebe Segelfreunde Es ist der Hammer, was wir die letzten Tage erleben durften! Angekommen sind wir in einer tropischen Traumbucht, von der aus 2 bis 3 palmgedeckte Hüttchen sichtbar waren, sonst alles üppigste Natur pur. Nach dem Ankern, während unseres Ankertrunkes hörten wir, wie verschiedene Muscheln geblasen wurden. Später wurde uns erklärt, das seien frisch beschnittene Jungs, die für einige Monate von ihren Eltern weg leben und von Dorf zu Dorf ziehen. Bevor sie jedoch ein Dorf betreten, blasen sie in die Muscheln, um ihre Ankunft anzukündigen. Das Signal bedeute, dass alle weiblichen Bewohner das Dorf verlassen müssen, bis die Jungs wieder weg sind. So ungefähr: "Führe mich nicht in Versuchung!" Am nächsten Morgen ziehen die Jungs weiter, die Muscheln ertönen wieder,. read more...

Lady Kay - lady Kay in Nuka Hiva

This is a picture of us in a beautiful anchorage. Each way you look there are bewuatiul cliffs and mountains. You can't actually see the sea.We are now approaching the Tuamotas and should be anchoring at an island called Kauehi tomorrow afternoon all being well. The wind has dropped quite a bit but we are still on schedule.Michael caught a nice 12l tuna yesterday, so it was suchi all round and we are hoping for some more fish todayAll the bestMichael, Steve and DebbieIMG_0806. read more...

Crazy Horse - July 9

Yesterday and last night brought out lots of emotion for many of us. The village welcomed the fleet with music. We all formed a parade of people walking from the beach to the village, with hand clapping, and singing. The people were so friendly and open-hearted to us. Many of them spoke little English but you could feel their acceptance and respect. There was a ceremony where they brought us all gifts which they had made by hand. Each of us got fruit, hats, baskets, and feathers. Each of us from our respective boats brought gifts to be shared in the village. They carefully fitted each of us with the perfect hats as we made our way into the village meeting area. They gave the fleet a kava root and Andrew, our leader and chief, a staff which was beautifully hand-carved by a member of the. read more...

Anastasia - The bare necessities

The Kuna Indians live in huts and fish from canoes carved out of tree trunks.  Here is a typical view, of an island that is a part of the Chichime Cays, showing a canoe on the left and a few houses scattered around. 141  The San Blas islands are all tiny (you can usually see through the trees to the other side of the island), but there are plenty of fish, lobsters and coconuts so the Kuna do not need land for agriculture.  Many of the Kuna's commute to the mainland each day to work, so additional supplies can be brought in as needed.. read more...

Cleone - En Route to the Tuamotus - Day 1

In war, nothing is as good or as bad as it at first seems (von Clauswiz, probably). And the same is true of sailing.  We achieved everthing we needed during our pit-stop back in Nuku Hiva.  We had manged to load 500 litres (that's half a tonne in case anyone's interested) of water into our tanks back in Tahuata, where there was a tap handily next to the jetty.  That meant 4 dinghy loads, using the empty water bottles we had accumulated en-route.  But we needed fuel and food, too.  So a quick hop to Hiva Oa and into the very crowded anchorage (where on earth do all these boats come from?), and we were in time to deliver our laundry to Sandra for collection the next afternoon.  Food and fuel went expensively OK, though the Skipper had not expected such a big fuel bill (88 litres).  But the. read more...

Wizard - On our way to Tuamotu's atolls

Today sees us sailing from Nuku Hiva having spent a wonderful last evening in one of the northern anchorages, Anse HakaPaa. We sailed in around 3 p.m. having just landed a decent sized yellow fin tuna. As soon as the anchor was down a solo sailor Frank Groh came over and introduced himself to Gerrie as he had seen the South African flag and was from the RNYE in South Africa. Having plenty of tuna onboard we invited Frank to dinner and jumped in the dinghy eager to explore the small bay. There was little there, nice beaches, a few houses, dogs, ducks and horses, but no-one seemed to be in. After exploring the island we were on our way back to the boat when we met 2 local guys sitting by the beach. Raymond and Alfonso, complete with guitar, ukulele and bucket with 2 glasses and 2 cartons. read more...

Samsara - Paradise - with an occasional venomous sea snake....

Jan 19We're having a great time exploring the San Blas islands. A few days ago we made a new discovery. The girls were swimming along with their goggles on and I was walking along with them when I saw a sea snake in the sand. I told the girls to get out and we were looking and pointing at the snake, the Kuna people working nearby saw and I motioned them over to ask what kind of snake it was. Immediately shouts of "Pelegroso!" went up (not sure if I've spelled that correctly) and they got a spear and speared the snake, brought it onto shore and beat it to death. We have spoken to several cruisers who have been here for several years and have never run across one of these so apparently not that common.We've enjoyed swimming, snorkelling, sundowners on the beach and a get together with all. read more...

A Lady - Sailing around the World (Presently in Port Pesolution, Tanna, Vanuatu, South Pacific)

Thursday, 8th July 2010 We were all very slow getting out of the scratchers. There was no wind, so the first thing on the agenda was look at the top batton which seemed to coming out of its pocket at the top of the mainsail. We were also having grief with this part of the sail when we were furling and unfurling the sail. Scotty went aloft on the bosun chair, and removed the batton, which turned out to be badly damaged, all twisted.. corblimey, imagine that. When he returned to the deck, we rolled up the sail again. It will be interesting to see how the sail comes out the next time we use it ! We did some more messing about the boat, and also got working on putting together our gifts for the Villagers at the "Gift Exchange" ceremony being held at the Yacht Club,. read more...

BRIZO - Log Entry Thursday 19 Jan 2012

We got an early start this morning, raised anchor at 0700 and motored to Porvenir in order to clear customs and immigration. This is the only island in the area with an airstrip. The runway seems to cover most of the island and is very short regardless! Amazingly there is scheduled service to the airport each day but the airport is temporarily closed while they are making repairs to the sand runway and control tower. This is by far the smallest airport any of us has ever seen!We are currently underway to a town called Portobello. It was discovered by Christopher Columbus in 1502 and served as one of the main tran-shipment points for gold between Central America and Spain. We plan to spend the night at anchor and try to get ashore (remember that our dinghy motor is not currently working!). read more...

Quasar V of Lleyn - Log

Monday 14th AprilTIKEHAUAvataru Pass RingaroaLindsey and JB went off to look at the Black Pearl Farm and we eventually got going around 11. Received a message from James that their dinghy had been cast off by children in Fatu Hiva, fortunately it was easily recovered with no damage!Arrived in Tikehau around 5 with 4/5 knots against us in the Pass and struggled to find an anchorage before it went dark. Eventually put the hook down, but saw once again that we need more than 50 metres of chain. Had a good dinner of salmon washed down by 2 of the few remaining and grotty wine boxes, played and sang to some favourite music from the IPOD and as usual on board had an early night!clip_image002. read more...

Dreamcatcher - signing off... for now

Hello All,We have left the World ARC to venture on to NZ and will hook back up to the World ARC 2012 probably in Australia. We wish to thank all of you in the Fleet for your friendship and assistance along the way. It's been GRAND. Special thanks to Henning (Destiny) for your positive attitude and expertise. If it were not for you we would still be stuck in Santa Cruz (Galapagos)! Brown-Eyed Girl for that tow into St. Chrisbol** and Voyageur for your continuing support when we lost our steering near Nuka Hiva. Bill (Crazy Horse), Jan Morten (Ronja), Graham & John (Eowyn) and Sean (Wild Tigris) for all of you have been in our engine room to help with one thing or another!?!?!?!Paul, Nick, Suzana & Andrew - thanks. We will miss you all and wish you the very best. Marie & Charles. read more...

Crazy Horse - July 8

We had another wonderful day here in Vanuatu yesterday. Our lunch did get cancelled with Chessie in the village due to the lunch operation being shut down. We did however make it to the hot springs. Bill, Jim, and I dinghied into the shore and met two lovely ladies sitting under a tree. They were Ruth and Becky. I asked if we could go to the hot springs and Becky volunteered to show us the way. First, Becky took us to the springs located right on the shoreline. Bill and Becky walked out to check it out. Becky had placed her dinner into the springs. Jim and I cautiously waited on the sand while Bill and Becky walked close to the springs. Bill was shocked at the temp and hot-footed it back to the sand. Becky with no shoes did as well. They don't call them hot springs for nothing!!Then she. read more...

Lady Kay - tiki on nuka hiva

On Nuka Hiva we climbed up the royal road (an ancient path) which must have been an immense undertaking. The road leads to the waterfalls mentioned yesterday. All along the road hidden in the undergrowth there are places for religious festivals, tohuas and large stone platforms for meetings paepae etc. The road was built for King Te Moana and Queen Vaekuhu. They were presumably inspired by the 100 foot waterfall and the 2,500 feet cliffs that surround it.We are halfway to the Tumautus now and have been getting some very good boat speeds averages in excess of 8 knots. So we hope to be there tomorrow afternoon if the wind stays as good as thisAll the bestMichael Steve and DebbieIMG_0798_1_1. read more...

Sapphire II - Days 9 & 10, 17 & 18 Jan, A Blur

The last 2 days have flown by. We said farewell to Charlie and welcome to Miriam and Gavin. The air travel arrangements to/from Panama city were a bit of a mystery but worked in the end even though the 0630 flight left at 0800!The new crew brought good weather with them. The overcast has cleared and we now enjoy paradise under blue skies. We spent Tuesday night in the tiny atolls of Cocos Banderos. Had a great anchorage all to ourselves and enjoyed an afternoon on one of them swimming and exploring.Next day we took instruction from Jerry on hoisting and dousing the Parasail while Gavin and Miriam took turns driving the boat at 10 kts in 15 kts breeze. We reached the island of Chichime in time for lunch and joined the crews of some 26 boats on shore for some socializing. The World ARC. read more...

Ensemble - Day 10: Chichime - Pot Lunch and meet the World ARC

Greetings from Ensemble.In the morning the crew from Gunvor came over to help with some work on the boat. We fitted an extra radar reflector, did some minor repairs on the main sail - and had a look at the 'jury rig' for the genaker halyard. They also gave Magali a dinghy driving lesson. They were rewarded with breakfast and coffee.Yesterday all of the World ARC boats and crew met up for a 'Pot Luck Lunch' on the beach at Chichime. Magali made hommus and a couple of loaves of bread for our contribution. We were greeted with a coconut rum punch - in a coconut (not the best for the hangovers)! The locals put on a dance, and were selling material and shirts - so we bought one of a sea turtle (help the community along) - not to mention plenty of beers.We are now confirmed on the first. read more...

A Lady - Sailing around the World (presently in Port Resolution)

Wednesday, 7th July 2010  There was a time when we would wake up to the sound of Cock's crowing and we loved that. Here in "Port Resolution" we wake up to the sound of a horn, with no specific tune. We think these horns are basically Sea Shells, Like a big "Conch" shell's and are being blown almost all day, mostly by children. Aileen still in trouble with headache's after her fall a week ago.The Boys, Scotty and Daniel went ashore, Daniel went off to the capitol "lenakel", basically a small village 2 hours away in the 4x4. Scotty went hiking around the forest, where he met the "chief" of one of the local Villages and was invited to the chief's house for lunch. This cost him his jacket, but on the other hand, he made a friend for life! Oh, we forgot to mention yesterday,. read more...

Talulah Ruby II - Anchorage Fatu Hiva

Tuesday 15th April Well we have now left The Marqueses and heading S.W. down to The Tuamotos islands and atolls, it's about 485mls and we now have 160 to go so should arrive Wed am.We have great winds about 15- 20 kts on our portquarter.S.O.G 7.5kts so we are very happy, except we have seen no wildlife at all,we havn't seen any other boats since we left just lot's of blue blue sky and sea.(Better than the M25 on a wet Monday I suppose).The Tuamatos consists of 76 atolls the land mostly being just about 2mts above sea level.There are many reefs so great for diving and snorkelling but a bit tricky when it comes to navigation.Some of the islands have pearl farms, so shall keep Andy away from those.We hope to visit 4 or 5 different atolls depending on the amount of time. From Tuamatos we. read more...

Lady Kay - new crew ford the raging torrent

Lady Kay set off today bound for the Tuamotos and then Tahiti. We have two new crew members Debbie and Steve who have joined us for the trip to Tahiti, since Kerry and Jackie had to return home to attend Jackie's mother's funeral. Jackie is planning to rejoin the boat in Tahiti but Kerry sadly has to go back to work. We plan to go first to an atoll called Kauehi where we should arrive in about three days time.The weather is good and we are making good progress at about 7 knots. Yesterday we went to some amzing waterfalls on Nuka Hiva. this involved fording two rivers this is the first ford the second was more scary involving hangin on to a log to cross the raging torrent - well fairly raging anyway. The waterfalls themselves are hidden in a deep cleft in the mountains and drop from about. read more...

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