Daily Logs

Lexington - Captain Bob: motoring

We have run out of our wind. We are motoring tonight. If we were better sailor we would probably tough it out will light wind. We will probably put up the asymmetric spinnaker tomorrow but it would be foolish to try it at night. We have not flown it much before and it takes about an hour to rig up for us. I will be good to get the experience with our light air sails. The wind is expected to improve in the day tomorrow. I am using the SSB to get weather information. It is a very pleasant night. I was in shorts and a bathing suit for my watch of 00:00 to 02:00. We do easy 2 hour watches. We have a near full moon. Later in the evening the wind increased and we were able to sail again. It is now 8:00 am and we have been going well since 4:00 am. The forecast is for the winds to do fair for a. read more...

Timshel - Cruising San Blas

We would probably have enjoyed the San Blas rather more had the(new)engine and then the electronic autopilot not failed.The engine seemed to be an electronic problem, initially we thought with the cockpit button panel. The panel would not turn on, then the engine started seemingly by itself, then it wouldn't stop and kept restarting itself.But the next time we tried it was normal - maybe one of the buttons had got stuck?Then it wouldn't go at all! We mailled Jean-Paul at Mechanique Plaisance in Martinique who had fitted the engine - using the SSB link as we had no phone signal let alone 3G.Thank goodness, he replied promptly and said he thought the problem was the MDI box which we did have a spare of rather than the button panel for which we didn't. We changed the little electronic box. read more...

Lexington - Captain Bob: at sea

We have had a fairly good day of sailing. It is a little bit of a rough ride but we are making excellent time. In the first 24 hours we sailed 197 miles. For an average of 8.2 knots. Which is 9.8 miles per hour.It is a very clear pleasant day with a temperature of about 84 degrees. Unfortunately we expect to run out of the fresh winds. Someone give us a suggestion on a good equator crossing ceremony! Photo of crew below. image1. read more...

Lexington - Captain Bob : brisk sailing

We are on the way to Galapagos. We have had a nice 24 hours of sailing. The wind is coming over our right shoulder NNE at 16-30 knots. The seas started out moderately mild. Over the 24 hours the seas have built to 8-12 feet. Seas build with time and distance. The longer winds blow over a greater fetch ( distance over which the wind is blowing) the greater the seas are. We are due to have diminishing starting Sunday. We are at latitude 05 57 north and 080 39 west. We will be crossing the equator. Anybody got any suggestions for our crossing ceremony?Bob. read more...

Lexington - Captain Bob: on to the Galapagos

We started the leg to the Galapagos today. Jerry Hey joined us today as we left Las Perlas. We have brisk winds over our port stern at 15-25 knots. We have a reef in the main and the full gib poled out. It is at sunset now and I am going to do a watch with Jerry. We started at about 11:00 am so we are still bunched up. We are not out of the Gulf of Panama. When we round Punta Mala we will make a little jog to the west. We the brisk winds we are hoping the sail the rhumb line. The leg is about 850 miles. Will send more tomorrow. Bob. read more...

Lexington - Captain Bob: Isla Viveros

We are anchored at Isla Viveros at about the midpoint of Las Perlas.We had a nice short trip to this anchorage. On the way we saw masses of birds feeding on the surface. We deverted over to have a look. There were birds diving all over the place in swarms. See photo below,image1 image2. read more...

Misto - Days 28-34: Las Perlas Islands

Our first stop was Isla Contadora.  The bay where anchoring is indicated now has a number of local mooring bouys in it and by evening some were occupied by local pleasure vessels.  We went ashore to the hotel Sol y Mar and were able to connect to their wi fi and enjoyed freshly squeezed local fruit juice.  A walk across the island brought us to another pretty bay and the ferry landing.  Nearby are a number of small restaurants and we enjoyed a BBQ lunch at one of them.The next day we anchored between Isla Chapera and Moga Moga.  Apparently the TV series Survivor was filmed here – but we were unclear on which island.  This pretty anchorage attracted a large number of local boats which mostly left in the late afternoon, and we were able to move and re-anchor. read more...

Aurora Polaris - 8. februar 2017 - World ARC 2017-2018

Denne natta var det særdeles stille, men ikke for varmt. Klarte å sove uten vifte, og mygg og knott fantes ikke. Til og med fluene her er høflige. De kryper ikke i ansiktet og kiler oss på morgenkvisten, og de holder seg unna maten vår. Da havregrøten og kaffedrikkingen var unnagjort, låret kapteinen ned lettbåten. Vi hadde lest at lokalbefolkningen kom ut til båtene med både fisk og perler, men nå orket vi ikke vente lenger. Kaptinnen hadde sett dem ganske lenge allerede, men de kom liksom ikke nærmere. Et raskt blikk med kikkerten avslørte at det ikke var båter, men to skjær i sjøen! Det kvinnelige shoppingsinstinktet var nå på bristepunktet, og det hjalp lite at kapteinen først skulle se seg om rundt på øyene.Endelig skulle han sette full gass inn mot landsbyen, med det resultatet at. read more...

Lexington - Captain Bob: another boring sunset

We are anchored out again tonight. If interested here are nice photos of the sun setimage3 image1 image2 image4. read more...

Exocet Strike - 7-8 February 2017

Progress slowing. The books all say this ocean crossing is one of the easier ones to do. It's true. We have hardly had to touch the sails, only a couple of gybed in 13 days of sailing.We are now less than 100 miles from Salvador, and the wind has really dropped. By 1230 UTC we had to give and start motoring. Hopefully some wind will fill in tonight, otherwise it's motor for the last 100 miles. Not what we wanted, but oh well what will be will be!. read more...

Aurora Polaris - 7.. februar 2017 - World ARC 2017-2018

Vi våknet på samme sted, helt trygge og uthvilte. Ingenting hadde ramlet ned fra trappa, og vi hadde ei fin og kjølig natt. Det skulle gjøres store ting om bord, dvs polering av skroget, som har fått sin første skramme. Ingen vet hvordan det har skjedd, men den er nå der, og kapteinen er fast bestemt på at den skal bort! Dessverre var det tomt for poleringsmiddel, så da ble det tur inn til stranda. Vi dro lettbåten opp på sanden og begav oss i veg bort mot en paviljong vi hadde sett gjennom kikkerten. Vi (dvs. en av oss) hadde sågar sett at det gikk vei langs stranda. Paviljongen lå ved nærmere ettersyn ganske så for seg selv. Ingen hovedvei førte fram til den, og den lå så å si halvvegs inn på sanden, slik at ytterste del av den hang ut i lufta. Ingen av oss våget oss inn i den, og. read more...

Aurora Polaris - 6.. februar 2017 - World ARC 2017-2018

Etter nok en god natts søvn, med kjølig luft og behagelig duving, og havregrøt til frokost, lettet vi anker, og denne gangen fusket ikke ankervinsjen! Gutta hadde gjort en kjempegod jobb! Vi dro fra øya, med seilet heist, og i et bedagelig tempo. Kapteinen hadde plukket ut ei hvit sandstrand til mannskapet. Den var rundt på andre siden av øya. Vi så hotellet, og et spisested, og ble informert av kapteinen at stedet var under utbygging, og at det var eid av Canadiere. Det skulle bli en fin marina. Foreløpig var det ei fin sandstrand der, med et hus i den ene enden. Vi oppdaget at det huset nok måtte være en vaktpost. Vi ble litt skeptiske, derfor dro gutta i land først. De kom tilbake med beskjed om at vi var velkomne til land, men at vi måtte holde oss på stranda, og ikke forsøke å. read more...

Lexington - Ccaptain Bob: river trip

We left our anchorage a little early today so we could get to an area called Rio Cacique. It is where a river by the same name empties into the sea. We are trying to time our arrival so we can ride a current up the river to see the wildlife in the river. The waters at mouths of rivers reverses flow direction depending on the tide of the ocean. In this area the tide range is about 12 feet. When the tide rises it will overcome the level of the water of the river flowing out thereby reversing the flow of the water. We will plan our trip to ride the flood tide up the river and the ebb tide coming out. Hopefully we might have a good photo or twoimage1. read more...

Exocet Strike - 5-6 February 2017

Last night we watched on our AIS plotter as one of the other boats in the fleet slowly overhauled us. Wishanger II is an Oyster 62, but modified in build to the original and current owners spec. With a different transom, which with Davits and other appendages measures more like 70 feet long. Anyway at daybreak they overtook us.Stella had a chat with Sam on the vhf to see which side they were going to overtake, and discovered that yesterday they caught and lost a Marlin! During the day we sailed in company until at lunchtime we had a call on the vhf to say they had to stop to haul in another fish they had caught. Took two hours and then the fish got away, snapped nearly 100m of 100lb line, must have been another big fish.This meant that since they had motored on ahead we caught ten up. read more...

Lexington - captain Bob: Las Perlas

We anchored last night at Contadora, an island of the Archipielago De Las Perlas. We were about 40 southeast of Panama City.This morning Prince, Jim and I took the dinghy around the island to survey the area. Jim is a geologist so he was looking at the area which appeared to him to be largely made of volcanic ash layers with varying manifestations of how and under what conditions they formed and the the erosion effects. There were some nice homes and resorts along the way.There is a ferry that comes to the island several days a week. The People of Panama City use it for nice weekends on the water. The custom is when you pull into an anchorage there might be several motor boats but they will leave in the evening. We are going to Isla Canas now. We will anchor between Isla Canas and Isla. read more...

Skyelark of London - Panama Canal

It is time to say good bye Atlantic and hello Pacific!! That means the Panama Canal, an amazing civil engineering project that even 100 years later seems huge from the deck of a small boat. Our transit was uneventful (which is a good thing)thanks to our expert line handlers (crew) and helpful advisors - of courseall seamlessly organised by World ARC so that the yachts went through together in a convoy and not with commercial traffic and on the right day.Some fun facts- From the Atlantic you head West to East to enter the Pacific- There is a spot in Panama where you can see the Sun rise over the Pacific and set over the Atlantic- * the number of vessels allowed in the lock is a calculation of the overall length and not width (max 730ft) this could be made up of a number of yachts or ship. read more...

Skyelark of London - Portobelo

Main Land PanamaLeaving the idyllicGuna Yala behind, we decided to hop down the Panama coast and see the sights. The first stop was Port Lindon to complete our paper work and official entry into Panama. There was very little to see except for alittle village, which was simply run down and lacked any charm and a private island now over run by monkeys -they look pretty cute from the beach and are very welcoming when you land -just don't try and leave! At this point they become quite upset and violent, even biting the crew from another WARC boat! Following the advice from our pilot book we admired them from the dinghy and moved on!The next stop was Portobelo, a nice town with quite a past. Named by Columbus as 'pretty bay'in 1592 it became the main Spanish port settlement for the. read more...

Aurora Polaris - Re: 5.. februar 2017 - World ARC 2017-2018

Noen bilder fra Panama#end DSC_5495 (for web) DSC_5555 (for web) DSC_5701 (For web) DSC_5708 (For web) DSC_5717 (for web). read more...

Aurora Polaris - 5.. februar 2017 - World ARC 2017-2018

Da vi stod opp og gikk ut, måtte jeg faktisk inn igjen og hente mer klær, og dekket var fuktig av dogg – helt uten at vi hadde avkjølt noe maskinelt! Vi tok det med ro, for det var søndag, og vi hadde ingenting å haste etter. Hadde tenkt å gå videre for å finne oppankringsplass et annet sted sånn rundt middagstider. I påvente av det, vinket fokkeslasken fornøyd til forbipasserende båter, med det resultatet at de trodde vi ville handle. Jaja, da måtte vi jo handle! Bananer var det de hadde mest av, men det hadde vi også mest av! Heldigvis hadde de papaya, så da kjøpte vi det. Vi lettet anker, i alle fall en liten stund…. Det kom en rar «slurelyd» og kaptinnen lurte på hva kapteinen holdt på med. «Her skjer jo ingen ting!» Da var det til å begynne å skru hele baugen fra hverandre for å. read more...

Aurora Polaris - 3. og 4.. februar 2017 - World ARC 2017-2018

Jeg fikk såpene mine igjen! Da jeg kom til toalettanlegget, var de der ikke. Slukøret gikk jeg tilbake og fortalte det. Aud Elin mente jeg ikke burde gi meg. «Det er da ingen som tar andre sine såper!» var hennes konklusjon. Jeg gav så melding til Cecilie, noe hun sjekket raskt ut – dessverre – ingen hadde funnet noe. Litt senere gikk jeg forbi bordet ARC-administrasjonen satt, og der stod alle tre flaskene mine! Resten av dagen brukte vi i gamlebyen sammen med Bengt. Han hadde fått levert bagasjen sin på hotellet, og så handlet vi panamahatter og spiste lunsj. Vi takker Bengt for tre fine uker med mange gode opplevelser og minner! Morgenen etter var dagen for avreise til Las Perlas. Vi dro derfra, og trodde vi skulle få seilevind. Det fikk vi ikke! Vi gikk på motor helt til vi så land.. read more...

Exocet Strike - 4-5 February 2017

Saturday afternoon was a lovely one, full sun and blue sky, but not much wind. It got better in the evening and overnight, seems to be the pattern. So we made good progress, a 160+ mile day, which in 10 to 18 knots of wind dead astern is not too bad.Sunday was a repeat of Saturday, gradually dying wind, boat speed down to 4.5 to 5.5 knots. The sea temp is climbing though, it's approx 28 deg c now, and the ambient temp is climbing during the day. Pretty sure Salvador will feel pretty warm compared to South Africa, and humid. At least we can use a hose pipe in Brasil, the drought in Southern Africa meant it was only possible to use a hose pipe for boat cleaning once a week, and we didn't often do that out of guilt. No fish caught again, what's wrong. We aren't alone, most of the rest of. read more...

Aurora Polaris - 1-2. februar 2017 - World ARC 2017-2018

Jeg beklager virkelig at det ikke er tid nok til å blogge. Det går med et ubegripelig tempo dette her! Vi hadde ikke før «landet» i Panama city, så var det «happy hour» i baren. Jeg gikk for å ta meg en dusj, og etterpå skulle vi altså treffe de andre i følget. Deretter bestemte vi oss for å prøve en fin brasiliansk restaurant inne i byen. Den var det virkelig stil over, og gutta hadde problemer med å stoppe og spise. Det foregår slik at vi forsyner oss med tilbehør på en flott buffet. Deretter kom de med forskjellige typer kjøtt (og fisk), og så lenge vi hadde grønt kort, betydde det at vi ville ha mer. Noen av oss klarte ikke motstå fristelsene, så det ble veldig mye grønt kort! Denne «noen», fikk så vondt i magen, at han måtte gå rundt for at maten skulle synke ned. Han kunne sitte. read more...

Lexington - Captain Bob : at anchor

We had a nice sail to one nearby islands. We will be in the area for about 5 days. We will anchor at a few islands and then return here for a rendezvous with the other members of the fleet. Prince will leave on the 9th and Jerry Hey will join us. We will have a captains briefing for the trip to the Galapagos which will take 6-8 days. I cleaned the waterline where moss had grown. It was good exercise. I did this while Prince, Sam and Karen landed the dinghy and explored the island. Prince wanted to make sure she knew where the ferry was that she will take back to Panama City. We invited another boat over tonight for happy hour. Two sailors from a boat named TBC came over. They have another person on the boat that had to go back for a little business dealing. They have sailed a. read more...

Misto - Days 24-28: Panama Canal and into the Pacific!

January 30 saw us departing Shelter Bay for our Panama Canal transit, with Cecilie from WCC on board.Around 13h00 we were anchored at "The Flats" awaiting our Advisor, Roy Torre, who boarded about an hour later.We made our way towards the first lock and the plans for locking all the World ARC boats together were changed and we locked in two groups behind two freighters.We rafted up with Forget-Me-Not about 16h00 and proceeded into the Gatun Locks.The heaving lines with heavy monkey's fists on them soared over the boat and we retrieved the lines, fastened them to the long lines we had been provided with and they were heaved up to the bollards on the edge of the lock.Sharon, Chuck, Howard and Cecile acted as line handlers and Ros was at the helm.Under Roys' watchful, and helpful guidance. read more...

Lexington - Captain Bob: hot day of touring

I was determined to see Panama City before I left. I took an hop on and off bus tour. I really was not all that successful because the route was too spread out. I stuck with it from 8 to 5 and then walked about 2 miles back to the boat. I did see a computer in the Miraflores lock visitors center that I looked up Judy's grandfather who have worked on the canal project. He was a lawyer accountant type. As usual I have some photos to share. Hope all is well with everyoneimage4 image5 image6 image7 image1 image2 image3. read more...