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Antigua to Azores

9May-27May

I have discovered that there is a diary app on my phone that I have used now and then. So this sailing from Antigua to the Azores is from the diary that I am sharing with you. There is a lot of text and few pictures this time.

Day 1. May 9, we are setting sail for the Azores. First, we need to check out, which Edgar will handle while I clean the cockpit and wash the floors on the boat before heading out for the last shopping trip for frozen pizza, fruits, and vegetables, and finally avocados. I’ve been longing for them since we left Cape Town.

Bahati comes in and docks at the marina after being at anchor for a few days. It’s time for them to stock up and receive crew members who will sail with them to Portugal. It’s been fun hanging out with them over the past few days, especially snorkeling with Sien.

The gangway is put up, and the dinghy is hoisted. We detached the engine yesterday. Just after eleven, the marina staff comes to help us get away from the pilings, and we wave goodbye to Sien and Martin. Before we leave, we fill up with 140 liters of diesel, so now we have a full tank. We also prepare with seasickness patches, which I’m glad we did because as soon as we rounded Antigua, it started rolling, and we lean to port all the time. We’re not good at managing food; neither of us feels like being in the kitchen and cooking, not even going downstairs, so it’s crackers, pastries, and fruit.

Day 2. Last night’s sleep was so-so. Even though I sea-bedded our beds, we both slept in the cockpit in shifts. It continues to be bumpy, and we reef or let out the sails depending on wind strength. We’re keeping a more northern course since the wind and waves would be straight ahead of us. I finish listening to “Smultron and Betrayal” and also manage to listen to “Anki Goes to Skummeslöv” by Anna-Lena Brundin and Jan Sigvardsson. No knitting as it’s too bumpy.

Day 3. I got a few hours of sleep from around midnight to 3:30 when it was Edgar’s turn. He went down to sleep on the couch until about 6. It was so nice to sleep in a bed. What a difference. Unfortunately, some water came in through the saloon window, but that’s nothing compared to how wet it was in the toilet in the bow. The rug was soaking wet, and there was a lot of water by the windows. Just had to clean it up and put towels in the windows.

It’s a bit calmer now, though we’re still leaning a lot. I started a new book, “A Well-Kept Secret” by Jenny Fagerlund.

Day 4. I Slept until 3. I got 5 hours of sleep, but was up twice because Edgar needed help. It has been a calm day, and we’ve been able to maintain 4–6 knots. We’re steering northward but not directly toward our destination. We’re maintaining about 40 degrees off course; unfortunately, at some point, we managed to steer only 10-20 degrees off. Energy remains low since we haven’t eaten much. In the evening, it gets better because today we had boiled eggs and sandwiches for breakfast, yogurt for lunch, and lasagna with salad for dinner. I’ve binge-watched several episodes of “Parenthood” and started watching “Four Seasons.” Time goes a bit faster with Netflix.

Day 5. The night was calm. Our log has started working again but isn’t fully synchronized. We’re running on the engine as wind speed is 2–3 m/s. At 9, when Edgar wakes up, we can sail again, but only for a short while. It will mostly be motor for the whole day. Since we had the engine on, I decided to make waffles, and as soon as it was time to plug in the waffle maker, the wind picked up and the sails came out, and the engine turned off. Well, it’s lucky we have full batteries.

I unraveled my blue top to the division of the front and back piece because the armholes turned out very differently. I finished one side, so tomorrow I’ll tackle the other. I’m thinking of starting to knit clothes for my grandchildren’s Barbie dolls. I’m also tempted to make something for Novalie with the pink mottled yarn.

We only sailed for an hour as the wind died again. The best part is that when we’re running on the engine, we can steer towards our destination because when we sail, we obviously steer north but not much westward. It makes for a detour when sailing. We got a very short glimpse of some dolphins, which were in a hurry.

In the evening, I made risotto with mushrooms on the side, chicken fillet, and salad. It’s nice to be able to eat cooked food. I tried the bread mixer, but it didn’t want to rise at all, so I baked Fatjax’s bread recipe, which has always worked well so far.

Day 6
We have sailed all night at 3.5 knots! It’s been a very pleasant night’s sleep for me. Edgar slept from 9 to 12 and again from 6 to 8. He’s finally sleeping a bit longer, which feels great. Now the temperature has dropped on the boat, making a huge difference as well. The water temperature is 25°C compared to 29°C that we’ve had for the past few months. The engine was started at 5, and we attempted to sail at 8:30, but after 30 minutes, the engine was back on. A new attempt at 9:30 to sail. I want to sail as much as possible since it looks like we will have calm waters when we approach the Azores.

Day 7. I crawl down into the saloon sofa and use a blanket for the first time since we packed them away in Australia. I woke up to Edgar talking to a vessel that didn’t have functioning lights. I fell back asleep and was woken up at 4:30. It’s still moonlit. We’re finally steering more towards the Azores, only 20 degrees off compared to 40 degrees before. At the moment of writing, 1390 nautical miles left. A good distance to go. I watch a movie during my watch, listen to podcasts and audiobooks, and knit. Not all at the same time, of course. It’s pleasant sailing, making between 4 and 6 knots depending on the wind.

We have been sitting, planning, and sketching the Attefall house that we plan to build by the cabin up in Bydalen.

Day 9
May 18
I moved my phone clock to Azores time in the morning (4+) and the plotter 2 hours ahead. For some reason, I had to change my Outlook password again. It was a calm day; I slept from 21:00 to 3:00, and Edgar from 3:00 to 9:00 with interruptions. Breakfast at 10 consisted of freshly baked bread from the night before. It turned out well, though a bit dense as I added rye flour. We sailed all day at 4.5–5.5 knots with the wind coming from the stern, slightly off the starboard side. The boom was out with the small sail on the starboard side. Genua out on the port side.

It was overcast all day; the water was at 22 degrees, and the air maybe at 24. I finished knitting one sleeve of the cardigan but not the finish. I’m considering whether to have a pink or blue edge. For dinner, we had tomato and mozzarella for starters and a pizza that we shared for the main course. I finished listening to “Death Gets the Blues.” Part seven about Hercules who goes on a cruise and solves crimes. A light listen that’s good during my watch. I went to bed at 22:00 and was woken shortly before 4. It’s great to have so many hours of sleep, or at least rest since I wake up occasionally as it rolls quite a bit.

Day 10
I woke up shortly before 4, and we turned on the radar as it looked like a squall was coming. We avoided the rain, though the boat could use a wash to get rid of all the salt. You can’t touch anything on the boat without getting a thick layer of salt.

Our plotter has really gone haywire. It works, but we can no longer read the names of the boats we see. The names are covered with a colored bar code. When you share the radar with a regular one, the bright parts on the radar got confusing, so I turned off the sharing and switched instead. It was nice to be able to turn off the radar when it started to get light around half-past four. Now I can see the clouds that lie like a curtain in front of us until the sun comes up and they dissolve.

The wind seems to be shifting, or at least swirling a bit. One moment it comes from behind the starboard side, and the next, it shifts to behind the port side. A small course change of 4 degrees made things much more pleasant on board. The course to Horta is 64 degrees, and we’re sailing at 70–75, so a bit too much on the starboard side, but apparently, there’s a storm a bit further up, so we’ll stay at 32 degrees N for now.

When Edgar wakes up properly, we go forward to fasten the boom to the small sail on the starboard side. I take the opportunity to wash off the salt from our windows since it’s rolling less. The easiest way to remove salt is vinegar and water.

After a little while, we set the boom for the genoa on the port side. We’re sailing more comfortably now. This lasts until late afternoon when we take in the small sail and sail only on the genoa for an hour until we remove the boom and use the small sail on the port side as well. But that gets furled too.

Dinner is at 19:30, consisting of a pie with tomato and red onion filling. By 22:30, I crawl into bed.

Day 11
I wake up around 1, as it’s rolling heavily, but I don’t have the energy to go fetch the extra cushion that could help keep me from rolling. After a while, I manage to fall back asleep and wake up at 3:15 and get up. Feeling a bit sore, as if I’ve worked out. I need to remember to bring a cushion/mattress piece for my bed so I don’t roll around so much. My body is starting to feel worn out from all this rolling. It’s rolling heavily and unevenly all the time.

I get up, and the wind is coming more from the side, and we have crossed north of the rhumb line, so we go up and take down the boom. Now we can maintain a better course and steer towards our destination. The best part is that we also got a better sea state and more speed. We need the speed since we’re behind. Another sailboat has caught up with us. This one is called Maja and is 2.5 nautical miles off our starboard side. They apparently changed course right before I got up; otherwise, they would have sailed right into us. The plotter is working again after a we did a Norwegian reset (turn of the plotter and started it again).

It’s just under a half moon, so I’m still enjoying being able to see the sea even at night. We are slowly getting closer to the rhumb line. It has been cold at night; this is the first night I’ve frozen. The water is only 22 degrees.

Day 12
The small sail was out pretty much all day. This allows us to reach a maximum of 5 knots. If we have the genoa out, it gets a knot faster, but it’s an uncomfortable sail. It still rolls quite a bit, with some dips. The sun is trying to shine through the haze, and sometimes it succeeds. I slept on the sofa last night since it was rolling more than on the other nights. I got 4 hours and then another 3 in the morning. Edgar has been sleeping one to two hours at a time all day.

We were overtaken by a boat that was going 9 knots, probably a relatively large sailboat. Finally, I have finished my cardigan, but I’m not sure if I’m completely satisfied. I made an O-Cord blue edge around the entire cardigan. I will block it, as I think that will make a difference. Maybe I should have gone for a pink edge instead.

No matter. Now I’m thinking of trying to make Barbie clothes. I bought a Barbie when we were in Recife, so I can try it out in the meantime.

I listened to Martina Haag’s book “Steel-Berit.” A good book, a bit whimsical.

More water in the boat. The toilet was completely fine now in the evening, but there was a lot of water in the port side window box. We scooped out probably 3-4 liters. I discovered this when I needed to secure a box that was sliding around after it flew out of its place under the bed on the starboard side. The loose cushion I took from the port side turned out to be wet. So another thing to dry out.

Enjoying the sun for a few hours

Day 17
Continuing with the engine running. We are approaching the Azores. This morning when I woke up around 4, we had 100 nautical miles left. Edgar sleeps until 9, gets up to have breakfast, and at 11, he goes back to bed again. I’m knitting a poncho for Barbie dolls and embroidering on my Saphir hoodie, which I’ve managed to get bleach stains on.

Day 18
We have land in sight and are slowly but surely approaching Horta. The harbor is full, so we anchor and hope to get in the next day. 2200 miles became 2400 nautical miles, and we avoided the storm that was predicted; we’ve seen lots of dolphins, I’ve managed to knit a bit, listen to many books and most importantly, we’ve arrived in the Azores, and our daughter Elise is coming here to sail with us to Ireland.

Horta is there in the rain

Hugs, Eva

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St Lucia to Antigua

The day after the big finale, it’s time to move Saphir from the SuperYacht dock to the regular dock as we will stay until April 28. We begin by spending three days in a villa with Karen & Chris, Julia & Jeff, Matt & Fiona, Cheryl & Ken, Cory & Luc, Clare, Maria & Oscar. What a place, absolutely fantastic with a pool, and we didn’t have to wash dishes or cook dinner. A perfect ending to our round-the-world sailing. No obligations, just enjoyment. The next meeting is already booked.

The Livingroom
Almost the hole gang
Even Edgar went in the pool
Beautiful kolibri

Back on the boat, I get help removing the salt from the hull and cleaning the interior. It’s so nice to have that done occasionally. I take the opportunity to continue sewing some more sailcloth boxes. I try cutting out letters and numbers from the Sailrite fabric I bought for our hatches. It’s quite fiddly to cut out, but it turns out well. Unfortunately, I run out of my navy blue thread, so I can’t continue sewing on the letters/numbers. I find some glue, which I use to stick them on. I can’t find any place nearby to buy thread, so I have to wait to sew them on. We say goodbye to Solana V, Renegade, Matilda, and Lover of the Light.

We stay for a few days, waving off one by one as they head out. There are a few last dinners with our friends before we also say goodbye to Karen and Chris, but we know we will see them in August at the latest when they come to visit us in Sweden.

We head north! Our next stop is Martinique, where we will receive our new D1s. On the first night, we anchor and have a fantastic lunch with everyone on board Brainwave, Navilus, and Kaja, which ends with a swim in the sea and a lovely sunset.

We motor into Le Marin and dock between two large motorboats. We have total shelter and are not visible from land. The next day, we have an appointment to get our D1s made. Edgar goes over with our damaged ones and is informed that they can’t handle them, but maybe on Tuesday or Wednesday, Thursday is closed. It all ended up with Edgar sitting outside on Friday at 2:30 PM waiting while they manufactured them. We installed them ourselves, and now we hope the rest of the rigging is okay. Edgar also managed to find a guy who could change the shaft packing on our water pump. He came on Tuesday and promised to return the next day. Ha ha ha, we thought, and on top of that, Thursday was a public holiday, so maybe he could come on Friday. On Friday, Edgar tries to contact the mechanic but with no luck, so he asks the dock guy to call the mechanic, who also does not get a response. But shortly after, the mechanic contacts him and wants to come on Monday. Eventually, Edgar manages to convince him to come on Saturday. Which he did, though a little later than promised. The whole job took 30 minutes, so one wonders why it took so long. The harbor office was closed, which meant we couldn’t check out and leave Martinique. In hindsight, we could have just anchored at the beach and enjoyed swimming and sunbathing, especially since it was unbearably hot. On the positive side, I walked quite a bit, and we had good food every day without me needing to cook it. Some stops don’t always go as planned, especially when things need to be fixed on the boat by others. Our patience has truly been tested and has improved more and more, with Edgar improving more than I.

Fixing with the D1

Sunday morning arrives, and we finally set off, and the best part is that we sail. Extra joyfully, we see dolphins this time, small ones jumping high out of the water. It’s about 120 nautical miles up to Guadeloupe, so it’s barely a day’s sail. The anchor went down Monday morning outside the village of Deshaies, which is the place where “Death in Paradise” is filmed. Unfortunately, we missed them by a day. They were probably somewhere else on the island. Others who had been there had seen the whole filming crew and met the new commissioner.

Sunset
Screenshot
Sunrise
Very calm sea in the morning

Finally, I can swim from the boat again. I manage to take a dip before the sky opens up. At the same time, I see Seamonster with Gen and Jerry coming in to anchor for the night. When the rain stops, the bottom of the dinghy is filled with water, so we just have to scoop out the water. It has been a long time since we’ve had this much rain.

Gen and Jerry came over for a sundowner and brought a Kalukela, a rum they bought on the island that we tried. It was one of the best rums I’ve tasted. We continued our evening with dinner at La Savane, a nice little restaurant by the beach. We had a fun evening, which we ended with a little walk to see some of the famous buildings from “Death in Paradise.”

A bit water in the dinghy
Sundowner with Gen and Jerry
Deshaies
Dinner at Le Savanna
Outside the Police station of Death in Paradise

We were in two minds about whether to stay here and set off for the Azores or head up to Antigua and Jolly Harbour, where some other ARC boats were also docked, and we decided on one more island and a few nautical miles closer to the Azores.

We sailed up to Antigua in the morning. Seamonster also left but was headed to English Harbour to fix their rigging. We had a wonderful sail up with sun and warmth. The closer we got, the more the clouds gathered, and of course, when we dock at the customs dock, it pours down. Edgar was not too pleased with these bureaucrats. They were a bit grumpy and wanted to show some power. I think it’s the first time we’ve encountered such sour officials, as everyone else has been very nice. Luckily, the harbor master was pleasant and very helpful when we docked at the pontoon. Even the rain had stopped but lingered in the air. When we finished, I saw that Amanzi was a boat away from us. Unfortunately, we wouldn’t meet Mark and Clare as they had crew sailing their boat home. Kaja is also at the dock, getting ready to sail one step closer to home. They don’t have to cross the Atlantic since they are going to the USA, a bit envious especially since they will go via the Bahamas. In the evening, we meet up with them again, Bahati, and Escaped of London.

Best bauguett and croissant place
Amanzi almost next to us
Lovely evening

Sian and I go out and snorkel around the three small islands by the entrance. A little hazy sun, so not the best visibility, but we see some beautiful corals and a small turtle and a little stingray.

In the coming days, we keep ourselves busy during the day with usual activities like laundry, maintenance, shopping, preparing food, etc., and in the evenings, we meet our friends who leave the island one by one.

On May 9, we leave Antigua to sail to the Azores and wave goodbye to Bahati, who is staying a few more days to wait for their crew.

Now we have 2200 nautical miles ahead of us with varied weather, hoping to be in port on May 25-26.

Hugs Eva

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Celebration with World Arc

It was nice to lie still for yet another week. I managed to clean and do laundry, and I even brought out the sewing machine after we went to the village and bought canvas for the forward hatches. The only water-repellent material I have on board is sailcloth, and it’s too stiff for the hatches. The hatches gets sun protection, clothes are being repaired and some re-sewn into linen, I’m also sewing a storage bag for the clothespins, and I’m sketching and planning how the last part of the Arc flag will look. We are six boats that will fit in the last available spot. I’ve decided to use sails with the names of the boats. I sewed one and will leave the rest to finish in Marigot Bay.

Sunprotection on the hatch
Planing the flag

During the week, the Swedish catamaran Think Twice showed up with Björn and Nilla, who are on their way to Trinidad. The next boat to arrive is Cepa with Britta and Thomas, with whom we did the first part of the Arc around the world. Another pleasant surprise was that Rebecca, also from the last Arc, showed up. It was so nice to see each other, even if it was just for a short while.

The rest of the week went smoothly with some more grocery shopping, knitting, reading, and socializing with the other Arc boats that came in one by one to Bequia.

On Monday morning at 5:30 AM, we cast off and headed up to Marigot Bay, arriving at the dock by 3:30 PM.

5.30 and we are on our way
The Piton in the south of St Lucia

Now we have a few days before the others arrive. I take the opportunity to prepare to sew some storage boxes and bags from sailcloth by cutting out the different pieces before bringing out the sewing machine.
The first sewing is finishing the flag. Those who have their own logo get it sewn into the sail, while the others I write on with a marker and zigzag stitch. I let my creativity flow a bit and try to create some waves and a whale fin. It’s so much fun to sit at the sewing machine and be creative. The flag itself is a trophy that is given to a boat that has done something special on a crossing, which in turn decorates it with, among other things, its boat name. I also made two boxes and a bag. The boxes are for Andrew and Swade as a little memory from me and Edgar, and the bag is for Sian on Bahati, as it’s their sailcloth I used. In between, I help decorate the boat by hoisting signal flags at the bow and the national flags of the places we have visited at the stern.

In the following days, our Arc friends arrive, and the celebration begins. One evening, there’s a Rompunch sundowner offered from the harbor, and the loo Arc treats us to a sunset cruise on a catamaran with food, drinks, and dancing that continues until we’re back in the harbor. It was an incredibly fun evening. The next day, we take it easy and hang by the pool with several of the others.

Saturday, April 19, is a bustling day at the dock. Today is the big day when we have all decorated the boats with flag displays and are ready to sail in an escorted group up to Rodney Bay, where the finish line for World Arc 2024-2025 is located. It’s an amazing experience to end the sailing this way, with all the boats lined up. However, it seems not everyone has complete control of their boats, as some are maintaining very wide distances or steering out of line, but we made it to Rodney Bay and crossed the finish line, receiving a fantastic welcome from our Arc friends from 2023-2024. Onboard Renegade are Julia and Jeff, of course, Ken and Cheryl, Maria and Oscar, Luc and Cory, and Clare. Once we docked, we enjoyed amazing music, snacks, Rompunch, and other drinks. What a wonderful atmosphere it was now that everyone had arrived. It was one big hug fest filled with cheers, congratulations, and dancing, which ended with most of us jumping into the water.

In the evening, we had our farewell dinner with a slideshow from the entire journey, and Swade and Andrew gave fantastic speeches to each boat and its crew, and we also got to share a bit about ourselves. The evening concluded with dancing before it was time to take the bus back to the boat. We enjoyed a nightcap onboard Mistral before it was time to crawl into bed. We fell asleep with big smiles and tired feet.

Our body boat true good and bad Karen&Chris

Here, our adventure with Arc World comes to an end, but our Arc boat friends remain, and we will surely see some of them again very soon.

We continue to sail and so will the blog. Now we only have 6.000nm left to get home which is nothing compared to the 36.000nm we have done since we left Sweden.

Hugs Eva

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We have sailed around the World and celebration have started!

Wow, absolutely incredible!!! We have sailed around the world. Our own path has been crossed. We are five boats that have sailed around the world here in Grenada while most have done it when we arrive in St. Lucia in mid-April, where the big celebration is going to be or have been since at this writing moment it is 15 May and we are on our way to Azores. But first let’s go back to our arrival in Grenada on the 22of March.

For three days, we were busy cleaning and fixing on our boat, and in the evenings, we had great parties on the dock with our friends. Dancing late on Fatjax and drinking rom punch and Abides Sangria we learned is dangerous strong. The marina also wanted to celebrate our arrivals with a rom punch sundowner party.

Edgar was doing different maintenance and I was busy organizing the boat, emptying both cabins for our friends Linda, Kalle, Leif, and Marita, who will sail with us up to St. Lucia. That was the plan, but now we’ll have to rely on the engine, so we’ll see how far we get. We won’t have our new D1s, (which we ordered to Martinique), until the end of April. Thankfully, the engine is working, and the distances between the islands aren’t too long. The only thing we don’t want is too many waves that put extra strain on the mast.

Our friends surprised me by showing up earlier than I expected. They arrived during our ladies’ lunch. It was so wonderful to see them. It has been a while since we met at our cabin. I’m looking forward to spending time together again and showing them parts of the Caribbean. First, they will join us for our festivities for another day, culminating in a prize-giving dinner.

Both D1s rolled and attached to the boat.
Ladies lunch
Changing the remote to the anchor.
Buddy boats
Food and drink shopping

We leave the harbor in the morning of the 27 of March and set off towards Sandy Island. It was a tough start for our friends with a very bumpy sea as soon as we got out a bit, and it got worse when Grenada didn’t shield us from the waves. Normally, we travel at 6 knots with the engine, but unfortunately, we encountered a strong current between the islands, so we only made 3.5 to 4 knots. This meant the journey took an extra two hours. When we arrived, I was glad that Kalle and Leif were with us when we docked at the buoy. It wasn’t easy in the strong wind and waves. Despite the lack of sun and calm weather, it didn’t stop us ladies from swimming before dinner. For safety reasons, I tied a fender with a long line from the boat. It turned out to be a wise decision, since as soon as we got into the water, the current took hold of us.

The next morning we navigate into Tyrel Bay to check out from Grenada. As we go along the coast, it is very clear how badly the storm hit here in Carriacou, with trees down, empty houses, and boats washed up against the rocks. The storm was strongest here and around the islands up to Union Island and over to Tobago Keys, which is very evident as we continue sailing past these islands.

We spent one night in Chathambay, and there was not much left. However, we had a lovely afternoon and evening on board with swimming, trying out the paddleboard (which still leaks a bit), enjoying sundowners, and having a fantastic dinner prepared by Linda and Marita. Our attempt to check in here failed as it was a bit too far to walk in the heat, so we chose to head to Canuan and Sandy Lane Marina. Once there, we got a ride to the airport for check-in and walked back. We enjoyed the pool and the sea for two days before we made our way up to Bequia.

Chathambay
The
Checking in at the airport

Even though Port Elisabeth is a large and sheltered bay, it was quite rolly and very windy. After two days and some seasickness, we moved to a mooring bouy closer to shore. The rolling eased but not the wind. After checking the weather, we realized that the conditions were not good for reaching St. Lucia in the next few days, so we looked for the best way for our friends to get from Bequia to Martinique. There are flights, but they go via Bermuda and were fully booked. Eventually, it worked out: ferry to St. Vincent, flight to St. Lucia, and ferry to Martinique. Now we can relax and enjoy the last days before they leave Bequia.

The weather varies with sun, rain, and wind, but it doesn’t stop us from taking a trip around the island. Many beautiful views, but also a bit tragic how the Atlantic side of the island has been affected in recent years, with lots of seaweed making it tough for hotels to attract guests since the beaches are filled with meters-high piles of seaweed. It’s not pleasant to swim when it is so far out in the water, and we won’t even mention how it smells. Coming from the west coast and being used to the smell of seaweed, I can say that this is worse. It was nice to be back at the boat, enjoying the lovely sandy beaches, Port Elisabeth, and everything the village has to offer. There was some swimming, snorkeling, drinks at sunset, good food, drinks, and lots of laughter, along with a game night or two. Time flies when you’re having fun, so it’s time to wave goodbye to our friends on Saturday morning. We will stay another week as our reunion with the Arc is on April 15 in Marigot Bay, which is the next island.

Black seaweed on Atlantic side
Happy Captain
Sundowner at Cocktail Lab
Who will winn?
Bye bye safe travels
The ferry to St Vincent

To continue…..

Hugs Eva

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Recife to Grenada

All is well on board Saphir, and we are ready to cast off and sail our last leg with a stop at Fernando. There is full activity on the bridge among the boats, making sure our vessels are ready for the long sail. One of the tasks is to get a clean propeller and bottom with the help of divers. We also receive assistance from them to check our propeller, which turned out to be full of barnacles and other things. It feels good to get that fixed before we head out. The list of things to do never ends; we just have to prioritize: safety first, comfort second, and lastly speed. When the diver is almost done, I hear the start of the Vhfn, and for the first time, we are not at the starting line but pass it 20 minutes later. It’s a bummer to miss the start, but I’m glad we got a clean propeller.

As we round the breakwater, Mistral is waiting for us. I am so grateful to have them close by in good times and bad. Our mainsail is not functioning as it should, and Mistral’s radar is not working either. What I unfortunately realize as we leave is that I made a huge mistake: the seasickness patch was not on, and it’s quite rough out here. The waves are coming in from the side, making it definitely an uncomfortable sailing. None of us wanted to go down below. You can guess how it went; not well, there was no cooked meal on board during the crossing, just some dry crackers. Luckily, it was only 200 nautical miles and about 48 hours to Fernando. After several attempts, Edgar gives up getting the last meters of the mainsail in, so it will have to be tied to the mast. It’s nice to have some shelter behind the island when we have to deal with rain. Luckily, at least I have put on my rain jacket. Edgar gets quite wet but soon sits under cover again while I prepare to drop the anchor. After a tour around the anchorage hoping to find a good spot without being too close to other boats, I free drop the anchor. We end up a good way out from the harbor and land. It’s certainly not the best spot considering the rolling, but the anchor holds well, and the boats around us are at a safe distance. A little food and a couple of hours of sleep, and we are ready to head in.

We check in and make a joint decision with Karen and Chris to only stay for two nights, as it’s going to rain a lot in the coming days and it’s very rolly on board, so we might as well be on our way.

This how it rolls on anchor. I am not moving my foot deliberately

The next day, we have rented a beach buggy to get around the island. It’s a bit bumpy in the back, but we enjoy the sun that peeks out as we drive around the island. We have lunch at a cozy hotel with a fantastic view, then spend a few hours on the beach before it’s time to head back to the marina and return the car. The evening ends with dinner at the restaurant up the hill, overlooking our boats.

The next morning, Chris comes to pick up Edgar, and they head in to check us out. It takes a little while, so we leave around 3 PM together with Mistral. It turns out that most others have also decided to depart a day earlier. We keep ourselves no more than 1-2 nautical miles from Mistral so that we can inform them during the night if a storm is approaching and if we should change course to avoid the worst of it. Not only is their radar not working, but now they’ve also had trouble getting their mainsail in. It’s clear that our boats are tired and need to rest. We sail on with the genoa and small foresail out, and a little bit of the mainsail as support to reduce the rolling. The days and nights pass, and we get into a sleep rhythm. Cooking goes somewhat okay. It’s difficult to cook when it’s tilting and rolling. I gave up after all the food ended up on the floor after a serious roll, and the stove locked up. The rest of the trip, we served meals that only needed an oven. Luckily, I had filled the freezer with ready-made lasagna, pies, and pizzas. The weather varies from fantastic sunrises and sunsets to cloudy and pouring rain. Our blue canopy keeps us dry and goes up and down.

On day eleven at 03:45, I hear a strong bang. The starboard shroud is very loose with just a tiny wire remaining. The engine is started, and down with all sails, and incredibly we also got the whole mainsail in. We discuss what to do when we hear another bang. Now the shroud is lying over the boom and down to the deck. Thank goodness the boom was where it was; otherwise, we might have had the shroud through the window. Now we have no choice. Edgar is hoisted up to the first spreader so he can secure a line around the mast, tightening it down and around the shroud’s attachment on deck to the winch so we can tighten it properly. We inform Mistral of our mishap and that we have the engine on. Now we just want to arrive with an intact mast. They try to keep up, but they end up behind since they can’t use their engine due to noise. Luckily, we have passed all the bad weather, so there’s no danger from that and only 190 nautical miles left, which is just over a day’s sailing/motoring. Not far to go now.

During my last night watch, my thoughts swirl while my knitting grows. It’s hard to digest that we are almost in Grenada, thus having sailed around the world. This last stretch has been a bit too dramatic, with boats appearing without showing on the plotter and boats dragging a long pipe/line behind them for 3 nautical miles that we had to keep a distance from and avoid. In the midst of these thoughts, I hear a bang. No, not the next shroud too… yes, it is. It didn’t break but several wires came loose. I wake Edgar up and go lay down. It was almost the end of my watch anyway.

On Monday morning just after seven, we cross the finish line! Yippee, we have sailed around the world! We were especially happy when we saw a dinghy coming out to meet us. It was Mark and Clare from Amanzi and Julia from Renegade. Once inside the marina, we are welcomed by many of our sailing friends and receive some rum punch. Tears come as I step off, and the hugging party begins. We have arrived, and the mast is still intact. Now it’s time to celebrate for a few days with our Arc friends.

Yes we did it!
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Brazil part 2

Now that everyone is healthy and well, it’s time for us to fly back to Recife and the boats to see that everything is okay. We were a bit concerned about our batteries, but they had lasted up until this point, so our freezer and fridge were still on. This is good since more than half of our freezer is filled with Mistrals food. They are waiting for a part that will arrive a few days before we leave. So now we are keeping our fingers crossed that everything goes well and that their freezer will work again. It seems that our solar panels had done their job. When we are not on the boat to avoid galvanic electrical currents, we do not use shore power. In other words, we want to protect corrosion as Saphir has an aluminium hull.

Here in Recife, we are noticing more of the Carnival than in Rio. There are concerts almost every evening that we hear from the boat, and the official events haven’t even started yet, so one wonders how it will be then. Karen and I are going with Arden and Jim from Kalli into Olinda for a guided tour. Our guide told us that every weekend from September, there is a carnival celebration that continues until the carnival ends in March. Absolutely incredible.

Olinda is a UNESCO World Heritage site, and I can understand why as we wander around the town with all the beautiful architecture of the houses. Some are well-preserved, while others need a bit more love. It’s a very hilly city, and from the top, we have a fantastic view over the town and out to Recife.

Our holiday travels are not entirely over, as on the 25th we will be picked up and driven along the coast to Nannai Beach and Resort. Here we will celebrate our wedding anniversary with Karen and Chris, as well as theirs a couple of days later. It is a truly fantastic place to celebrate. We enjoy just being, hanging by the pool, at the beach, enjoying fantastic food and each other’s company. We are the only foreigners at this amazing resort hotel, Nannai, and on the 27th we celebrate Chris and Karen’s wedding anniversary. A perfect conclusion to our holiday here in Brazil.

It’s time to prepare for the final stretch of our circumnavigation. 2300 nautical miles, and we will have sailed around the world. It’s a bit hard to understand, but first, the boat needs to be stowed, provisions purchased, etc. Once we are on the boat, we realize that Carnival is in full swing. There are lots of people moving around and live music even in front of the hotel in the marina.

Karen and I are going to Olinda with several others from Arc to take part in the carnival. It’s absolutely amazing to see all the people who have worked hard on their costumes and music. We had a great time with lots of Capirinhas.

The last grocery shopping is done, our fork for the stays (D1) is in place. Unfortunately, Edgar notices that a small part of the wire against the mast has come loose, not good, we hope it will hold until Martinique, where we will get a new D1. Pool

We are concluding our stay here with a sunset cruise around the canals arranged by WARC. It was a great evening with nice scenery.

Now we are ready to set sail and head to Grenada with a stop in Fernando.

Hugs Eva

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Exploring Brazil part 1

We spent the first day fixing small things on the boat as getting our blue water runner hand rolled back around the furler and also ordering a new thing to the shroud.. Since it was very hot, no wind and our air con working we moved in to Novotel next to the harbour. Once again we can see our boat from our hotel room. Lovely to have access to the pool and a room with a lovely view.

After a few days of work, it’s time for a break from fixing the boat and to explore parts of Brazil. Along with Karen and Chris, we start our adventure by flying to Rio, where we will stay for three nights. Our room offers a fantastic view of Copacabana Beach, and from the rooftop, we can also see Christ the Redeemer.

Look from my bed

The next day, we visit the Christ statue and Sugarloaf Mountain. These are typical tourist attractions, but they are also places we were eager to see. The statue is impressive, and the views from both locations are breathtaking, though there were long queues to get to each site. Fortunately, with our guide, everything went smoothly as we had access to a separate line. We took the train up to the statue and walked the final steps to see this enormous Christ figure. There were many people around the statue taking photos, and we did the same.

The bird and the plan is flygning
Waiting for the gondola to take us up to Sugarloaf hill
Copacabana beach in the other side of the mountain

We started the evening with a drink in the hotel bar and ended with dinner at Churrascaria Palace, where we could eat as much as we wanted. Not always a good idea. I personally enjoyed seafood, sushi, and salads. Usually, it’s the meat that people go there for, and certainly, Edgar and Chris were very happy and became quite full. It’s hard to say no when so nice piece of meat after another comes and is served at the table.

Drink at hotel bar
Our happy servant
Two happy husbands

The next day at breakfast, Karen informed us that Chris wasn’t feeling well and therefore wouldn’t join our guided tour in the city. Edgar also decided to stay back at the hotel. So it was once again just Karen and me on an adventure. The best company. Once inside, I was surprised by how few people were there on a Monday morning; it felt like a Sunday morning. The city is preparing for the carnival, so many buildings are being equipped with fences to protect them from damage. Some have metal fences, which make it hard to see much, while others have grilles, which I prefer as a tourist since I can see the buildings better. Rio still has the monument for the Olympic flame, or rather they made two, so that’s why they have one still. They are allowed to keep it burning while the Olympic Games are taking place around the world. We walk around and look at the fantastic architecture of many buildings, although some have seen better days than others. The state library belongs to the better category. We conclude our visit to the city with coffee and cake at the famous café Confeitaria Colombo. There was a long line here as well to get in. Once again, our guide manages to get us in without waiting too long. The decor is amazing with all the beautiful mirrors, lamps, cabinets, etc. The coffee and our cake were also exquisite.

Lovely door
Lovely picture from the door
The library

Satiated and content, our next surprise awaits. We travel to Selarón’s Steps, which we had both completely missed knowing existed and is a major tourist attraction. Once there, we understood why. In the 1990s, local artist Jorge Selarón transformed this completely ordinary staircase into a colorful experience filled with captivating mosaics. People from around the world have contributed tiles to the staircase. Unfortunately, I didn’t find anyone I recognized from Sweden, but there were tiles from Frankfurt and San Francisco. Our next visit was to the neighborhoods in Theresa, which have many shops with handicrafts. Unfortunately, it turned out that most of them were closed, so we returned to the hotel.


Now it was Edgar’s turn to feel unwell, and there was no improvement for Chris. Karen and I decided to bike over to Ipanema Beach. Just around the corner from the hotel, there were bikes available for rent through the Uber app. We thought it was convenient and easy. Ha ha, Karen got her bike, but I didn’t. I had to prove that I was over eighteen. In the end, I had to go up to the hotel room to grab my passport, take a photo of it, and finally, it worked. I had a picture of my passport on my phone, but unfortunately, the app didn’t recognize it.

It felt so nice to move around again. Once we arrived at Ipanema Beach, we left the bikes at the bike station. We enjoyed a lovely long swim before cycling back to the hotel. It turned into a girls’ night out, having dinner at one of the many food stalls along the beach. We did a bit of shopping for paintings and each got a sarong.

The next day we are on our way again. This time we are flying to Iguazu Falls where we are booked for 3 nights. Here we have booked two trips to the falls, one on the Brazilian side and one on the Argentine side. Chris is still not feeling well, so he stays at the hotel while we go to Iguazu Falls on the Brazilian side. First, we take a speedboat tour on the river. Everyone puts on these fancy yellow life vests that are so uncomfortable and hot. It’s so amazing to see the falls from the river, and I think the captain finds it extra fun to soak his passengers because he drives very close to the falls several times. Luckily, they told us to bring extra clothes. We needed them after that trip. Now it was time to see the waterfalls from the land. Along the walkway, we also saw some animals like the common coati, monkeys, and lizards. Iguazu Falls is the largest in the world, with a total of 275 falls and 2700 meters long. I am completely taken by these waterfalls. I have always been fascinated by waterfalls, big and small, but this was more than I could have imagined, both in terms of the amount of water and the sound, which is so powerful. I have always wanted to see Niagara Falls, but I realized that I have now seen the best, so we’ll see how that goes. I guess I will have to see smaller ones in the future where you can bathe, like in the Marquesas. Even though we are at a distance from the falls, we get wet, which is why the pictures turn out a bit blurry.

We also take a trip over to the Argentine side with our guide, and this time it’s just me and Karen again. Edgar feels he has seen enough, and since it involves a lot of walking, Chris opted out. He is feeling better but doesn’t have much energy. We were definitely not disappointed with this experience. Now we walk along the edge of the waterfalls and across the river. Since the distance is very long, we take a train for part of it. It would have been a bit too challenging even for us to walk the entire distance in this heat. Satisfied, we head back to the hotel, and I enjoy the rest of the day by the pool while Karen and Chris go to see the falls so Chris can experience them.

Time to fly back to our boats and make sure everything is okay.

Hugs Eva

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Crossing south Atlantic

Friday 31 Jan we leave St Helena and heads to Recife which is 1800 Nm away. It will probably take us 11-12 days. The wind is perfect for our Blue Water Runner . Hoped that it will help stabilise the boat a bit but it rolls quite a lot even if the main waves comes from behind. The fishing heats comes out and we are very lucky this time. We got a tuna that is 79cm long. This will be some nice meals for us. This is the first time ever that we get a fish onboard Saphir. Previous we lost quite many kurs so we gave up fishing until Chris came onboard.

Day two we discovered that the BWR was loose so sail down, new cackle on and the sails goes up again. Sadly after four days we have to take down the blue water runner due to the endless line got stuck. Unfortunately the sail was not rolled in so we didn’t dare to hoist it again since we didn’t know how to avoid the sail to blow out before we managed to gett it up full and had everything in control.Today we know how we can do it. But hopefully we don’t need to. We sail on with our genua poled out on port and staysail on starboard.

The sea keeps the boat rolling and it is not always easy to get a good sleep even if I try to make my best very tight. Our watch schedule is rotating so we all get to see the sunset, moonlight, stars and sunrise.

My bed
Sunset
Night sky
Sunrise

One positive thing with the waves are that dolphins love to jump in front of the boat. This time we saw them twice and first time they stayed for almost an hour. We also saw some whales. They were not that close but we saw the squirt and I got a photo of the whale . Not the best one.

Squirting whale
It is a big whale.

On the 8th day we hear a bang. Me and Edgar looks up at the schrouts since we thought we recognised the sound from the Indian Ocean accident. But the shrout was standing so not that we thought. Chris went up to check and when he lifted the cover we saw that one side of the “horse shoe shape”was broken. It was still hanging together. Wise from last time we knot it with dynema and hopefully it will hold until we are in Recife. Two days later on my “dog shift” at 03.00 I hear a bang. The other side of the “horse shoe shape” went of. The dynema holds it together but not tight enough. Me and Edgar went up on deck and secured it with dynema and some sticks. Let’s hope we get some help in Recife.

Enough about things going wrong. Or not halfway of the crossing we calibrate with nice food and a glass of wine if wine.. Hmmm I think Neptune was saying something to us. We cheered started to eat and Neptune knocked Saphir so the food and wine came on me and Edgar.

After 12 days in the sea we reach Recife. Before we do anything it’s beer and bubble time. We done it and it is Chris first ocean crossing he says. Now we have 3 weeks to explore Brazil and fix the boat. Chris is leaving us to go back home. Thank you Chris for joining us from Cape Town to Recife. It has been a pleasure to have you onboard. Hope to see you soon.

Happy we are moored
Karen and Chris arrived

Hugs Eva

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Days in St Helena

After motoring around between all boats, we find a spot to drop anchor. It is quite full at the anchorage, since it’s not only us from Arc rally but also Oyster rally with 8 boats and some other sailing boats as well. This is not a protected bay so we are prepared to have it a bit rolly. Very happy we are not using the dinghy. First it is hard to get ombord the dinghy from our boat with the waves and second there is no dinghy dock and getting a shore is a bit tricky when the waves hits the pier. Luckily we have Craig our water taxi guy that makes sure we get to land and to our boat safe. After done the check in which was very easy and smooth since everything was taken care of in the same building we head up to town to have a look around.

One of the “to do thing” is the Jacob’s ladder with its 699 steps straight up. The time record to get up is around 5 min. That is very fast, you need to run up to get that time. I can tell you it took me more than double of that time to get up. My condition is not the best, specially after being on a boat for so long. I knew that this was not for Edgar or Chris so my dear friend Karen came with me. Lovely view from the top with all the boats on anchor.

Together with a few others Arc friends we went on a guided tour to see parts of the Island. First stop was on the top of Jacob’s ladder, then of to visit the Plantation house where the Governor lives and also George the tortoise. He is the oldest living creature with the age of 194 year.

An other thing to see here on St Helena is the humpback whales . You are allowed to swim with them when you go on a guided boat tour. We saw two but only one that half of the group swam with. There is a law that only eight people can be in the water per whale. I missed the opportunity since I was standing on the upper deck and was not fast enough to get in to the water, but I got to see it from above and it is huge. Karen got in the water and swam with it. We made a stopped so everyone could snorkel. After a few minutes in the water this beautiful xncjray came and swam around us all like she wanted us to see her. Unfortunately my camera was not charge so only got a few pictures . Lesson learned charge the battery the day before going out snorkelling or diving.

72 hours is what we are allowed to stay which is a pity. Would have love to stay a day or two more to se Napoleons place where he stayed. And also to make at least one hike. Anyway time to leave and head to Recife.

Hugs Eva

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Days in Namibia

Late again but will try to work on it…at the moment we are in Rio but let’s get back to the days in Walvis Bay

In the morning we hoist the anchor, or the guys pulls upp the anchor and we go in and moor next to Far. The location is definitely not the most charming place we been at, with the big harbour behind us but it is great to be moored on the pier away from the waves and knowing that we don’t need to jump in the dinghy every time we go a shore. The Walvis bay yacht club is just five minutes walk along the pier. They provides us with facilities and have a restaurant, a bar and a small beach. Next door is a few more restaurants and some souvenir and handicrafts stores. So we didn’t need to go far to have some food and meet up with our fleet friends.

First thing is to get in to town to check us in and at the same time we take the opportunity to get us sim card. Getting a sim card took much longer time than check us in. They need our passport to register our sim card. It is so much easier when we can use e-sim.

A bit maintenance needs to be done before we feel we can explore Namibia. Things that needs to be done is, oil check, filter change, cleaning, washing , extra this time is the windless and filling disel. Grocery shopping can be done before we leave. The windless was not broken which was huge relief, since next place is only anchoring. It turned out to be that the bluetooth remote was broken, so we are back using the one with a cable , but that is only working on getting the anchor up so down is a free fall…. Filling disel took us half a day since the fuelling place was at the other end of the harbour and when we arrived we was the first filling up and some how the information had not gone all the way to the guy in charge. A few calls and we got diesel. It was a new experience for us to fill up next to all the fishing boats with lots of guys standing in the pier and all curious of our sailing.

We didn’t have many days in Namibia but we managed to do a sandwich bay 4×4 wheel tour in the dunes. That was an amazing experience. A bit like a rollercoaster, glad that we didn’t drive our self. We would definitely got lost and maybe also got stucked. On the way to the dunes we past huge amount of birdlife and most of them where flamingos, we also past the salt industry. Just before the dunes started we was told that there where some wildlife as gnu, antilops and even a schakal. The schakal we didn’t see but a few antilops,

Hmm
Sand in focus
Lots of salt
Hard to walk up but easy going down
Our lunch on the dunes

After the tour me and Edgar went up to Swapkonmund for a night. It is a half an hour drive up along the coast from Walvis bay. I was amazed about the landscape. These huge sand dunes along the coastline. Not strange that they build the houses close to the water. We arrived to the Swapkonmund hotel late afternoon so didn’t have the energy to walk around after our tour. From now on we will always we try to book at least two nights in the future. One night is to short if you want to see something more than just the hotel although is was a very nice one a great food.

On the last evening the Yacht club restaurant was closed but they arranged a barbecue evening for the fleet. Nice to see everyone before we head off to St Helena

Hugs Eva

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Namibia here we come

We made it to Namibia! Arrived early Wednesday morning after 5 days sailing / motor sailing.

We left waterfront marina on Saturday the 11 January and headed up to Namibia. We hade a good wind until late afternoon when it dyed out and we had to rely on the iron donkey. It is quite rocky and sadly my chicken stew fell out of my hand and messed up the refrigerator and the floor…… I did use the 3 sec rule and took up the stew and served it after heating it up of course for dinner. Nobody got sick all good.

Sadly we are only 12 boat out of 21 that left CapeTown due to different reasons, some waiting for delivery, others need help from expert etc. Hopefully they will join us in St Helena.

It continues to be rolly, but we do get used to it. The nights were cold so we put up our cover on the back and port side. It makes such a big difference. Know we don’t need to put on full gear during night shifts. Can’t get enough of sunrise and sunset Even the moon is with us and shines up the sea.

On the second day our friend boat Mistral got problems with there engine so they could use it. We planned for a tow rescue if they couldn’t get in to the marina when we reached Walvis Bay. So we ended up turning around to see if we could tow them in. We used our blue lines on one clech each and on the loop ends we attached a long white line and almost at the end, a floating ball. By the time we were behind them the wind had increased and the waves so we decided not to tow them. It would be too risky. This was a very good learning for us. Both how do it and also how difficult it is. Mistral continued sailing and was towed in by the marina early in the morning.

Knowing that they were getting help soon we continued to Walves Bay and dropped our anchor at 4.40 on Thursday morning. Happy that it was no wind or waves, since our remote control didn’t work, so we had to free fall it.

Trying to fix the remote for the anchor
Anchor outside the pier
Not everybody get in

Hugs Eva

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Cape Town days

Today we are leaving Cape Town. Can’t believe we have been here almost 6 weeks. It has been fantastic weeks with lots of positiv impressions travelling around in the neighbourhood. We have of course fixed things on the boat, such as got our main sail and genua repaired. Getting a new toilet which at the end turn out that it was nothing wrong with our toilet. It was a block in the pipes. The big KVH is gone and our starlink is using that pole instead. So happy to have the starlink in a better place on the boat.

Saphir also got new antifouling. That included at trip up to Saldana. Which I am really happy we did. On that trip up we saw a unge amount of humpback whales. It’s not easy to get any great photos with a mobil phone since they were far away so I was extra happy when one actually came up along the side of our boat. I got that on a video.

Saphir is up on the hard for some new paint on the hull.

I also went home for a week to meet up with family and friends. The most exciting was to meet Novalie in real life and not only on the screen. I had a great week home, having Ella, Filip, Nellie and Novalie staying with me the hole week, even Mia stayed for a few days as well. Max had to go to school so no sleepover for him. I celebrated my upcoming birthday twice. Nellie had her birthday party in the house and we also had Novilies baptism coffee. So a very busy week.

My flight to Frankfurt
Taco dinner at home
Nellie’s birtday cake
Novalies baptism

Back in Cape Town unpack and repack for the next trip, which was going to Camps Bay to celebrate my 60th birthday, where Elise came and joined us. She stayed with us for two weeks. I had a great birthday with a walk on the beach, laying by the pool for some hours, a manicure and a massage before we headed out for dinner together with Karen and Chris. So a perfect birthday in other words.

A few days back on the boat going to tabletop mountain and celebrating Christmas with some off the others boats.

Pink bubbles, ginger cookies and skumtomtar
Decorating the Christmas table cloth
Christmas lunch
Best Christmas gift
Tabletop mountain

After that off to explore the wine yards and celebrate Edgar’s birthday in Paarl. We stayed at La Rouche which was a lovely place where we had relaxing days by the pool and we did visit some wine yards as well.

Back in Cape Town Elise had a few more days before going home. First we celebrated New Year with family Svensson, our friends from Stockholm with a dinner at Pier Waterside continued with the fireworks on the boat.

Elise’s two last days we, me, Elise, Karen and Sonja almost manage to the top of the Lions head. The weather was really not the best rain and windy, so when we came to the ladders we decided to turn back. Together with Karen me and Elise went to Betsy’s bay to see the Penguin, which we sure did. It was quite windy and the waves was rough so the penguins stayed on land. We also went to the botanical garden at Betsy’s bay and had a lovely walk up the hill to Lisa Kloff waterfall.

Watching the nest

Time for Elise to go back home and finish her studies to become a sea captain. Wish you all the best and see you when we are back home. It was so nice to have you visiting us.

One more week before we are off. First thing is to move the storage in to starboard side so when Chris ( our new crew) arrives he has a cabin that is not leaking. Food shopping, dinner preparation, sewing and knitting with the ladies.

Looking at the sunset
Lots of water and some other drinks
And the backgamon games have begun

And we are off to Namibia !

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Port Elisabeth to Cape Town

Happy New year, it is the 3 Jan 2025 when this blog is posted. We have been in Cape Town since 1 dec and having a great time here, and the last two weeks Elise have been visiting us. More about that in a later blog. In the last blog we arrived to Port Elisabeth so let’s start there.

It is great to be moored here in Port Elisabeth specially as the wind speeds up. Even in the harbour we feel the wind as it was up to 20 m/sec. We discuss the weather and when it is best to leave with the 6 other Arc boats. Feels good to be sailing with them to Cape Town. One of the evenings we have a sundowner on Saphir. It was very packed.

We managed to fit 15 people
Some after work
Lucia buns and bread buns on the go

Since we knew, that we were going to be stuck in Port Elisabeth for a few days, we decided to go for a Safari to Addo the Elephant park with Chris and Karen. What a great place. We saw lots of Elephants, ‘pumbas’, zebras, antilopes, kudus, buffles, one hyena and many different birds

Our ride for the day
Entrés to the Addo park
The elephants are very close
Picka bu
Kudu
Spotted hyena
Lunch on its way

Me and Karen took an uber to Sacramento to hike. It was a great walk and fabulous scenery although the weather could have been better. Shifting between sun, rain and wind. When we almost dried up the wind got more intense, the rain came and we got soaked, then it stopped raining and the sun came out for a while before it started all over again. Before going back to our boats we had lunch at Sacrament restaurant.

Hiding from the wind and rain
One
Two
Three, jump!!

The weather window is opening up and we are out in the ocean again and heading to Cape Town. On the second night we pass Point Augulhas which means we left the Indian Ocean and are back in the Atlantic sea. This is also the most southerly part of Africa.

When we passed the Good Hope on the 1 dec at 12 we still had five hours left to Cape Town . We enjoy the last Nm and are looking for whales. Edgar sees a squirt from a whale. We see him/her just in front of the boat and that scared us a lot but it manage to dive before we came to close.

3 and 1/2 days on the sea and we are getting in to CapeTown. Now we have till 11 Jan to fix things on the boat such as toalett, sail and lots of other things. I will also make a trip back home to Sweden to see all my grandchildren, family and some friends.

Still love sunset
and sunris..
A new day starts
Good hope between us

Big hugs Eva

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Sailing along the wild coast

Early morning is and a few more boats leave Richard’s bay and hope to get all the way to East London. We really like to get as south as possible before the heavy winds comes. The morning is beautiful and we enjoy the sunrise.

When we got out of the harbour we got very good help from the current, we almost never went under 8kn. So nice to be more or less flying forward. We arrived at East London and Buffalo river just before five, and at 17.15 Saphir is moored along the pier. The pier is for bigger boats so it is very high up to the edge of the pier, luckily there is a ladder attached in the wall of the pier that makes it easier to get on land. Mistral is lying just infront of us and the other boats are on bouy’s in the river.

We went over to the yacht club, to meet up with the others and also get some dinner. This night there was a barbecue, you either buy the meat or bring your on and grill it. Magnus and Karen were in charge of our grilling and they did a great job.

How many people do you need to fix Mistrals dinghy engine??? It turned out that it needed a new battery which arrived the next day. Great! then we didn’t need to get our dinghy in the water. It is a bit of a hassle since the engine is not attached on the dinghy, so it is not only just getting the dinghy in the water. We all went for lunch in Mistrals dinghy at a fish and chips restaurant up the river. An other early night since we are heading out at 4.30 in the morning to get to Port Elisabeth. Magnus jumps off Saphir to head home to his family. Thank you Magnus for all the help from Mauritius to East London. It has been a pleasure to have you onboard. Now I have to go back doing all the cooking and washing up!!!

Now we are back beeing only us two again. Luckily it is not that many nights on the sea. Once again we have good current with us and we have only one night sailing. After 43 hours we a do are moored in Port Elisabeth with great help from the harbour master. A night cap on Mistral before we head to bed.

Hugs Eva

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Richard Bay

Sorry way behind read and enjoy

15-21 nov

We are so happy to be here. Now we will have almost one week to relax, fixing, explore the area. The Arc have made a nice program for the week. It starts with a mingel in the evening and many more during the following days. It was very nice to meet up with the rest of the fleet and hear about their sailing. One of my jobs is to fix the roof in Magnus cabin. He had a few bad leaks that we will see if we can solve with some sikaflex when the deck is dry. Meanwhile I am emptying the water and letting the celling panels dry. Then I need to attach the fake skin back and happy that our friend boat have an electric stapler. New thing on the wish list to the boat.

Happy sailors!
Try to get the last drops out
Roof panels drying.
Richard’s Bay Marina

Saturday morning at five we meet up for the Safari tour. Hoping to see the big fives. After 2 hours in the bus we are at Nomcondo – Big Five Hlabias where the guides and jeeps are waiting for us. Wow! What an adventure. So fantastic to see all these wild animals and fantastic to see that some of the species are actually together. We saw lots of antelopes, buffaloes, gnu, monkeys,“Pumba” sadly not “Timon” , zebra, rhinos that they sadly had cut off the horn a month ago to provent poaching. It was harder to spot the elephant but we finally saw some behind the bushes. The giraffes was not either easy to spot, but we saw some and I even manage to capture one with my iPhone even if it is not that clear. The hardest was the lion, I saw him but my camera was not good enough so I got a picture from one of the other.

Hmmm who is strongest?
Trying to hide but we see you
Do you spot the giraffe ?

Me and Edgar decided to have a night for ourself. The hotel we wanted was fully booked so Edgar found an other that was not so far from the marina in a walking distance he thought. We ended up to take a cab so actually we could have chosen an other hotel. Anyway we stayed at Meer an Sea a bed and breakfast place which I missed. This means that they don’t serve dinner or any drinks so the owner kindly drove us to buy some snacks and drinks and in the evening we had home delivery of pizza.

Thinks she likes gnomes
Feels like you are out in the wild forest

Few more days with a wine tasting evening, food shopping and I didn’t know that Edgar had his own store. The last evening we hade the prize giving awards with local dance and a dinner. This time we got a price for arriving closest to our estimated time of arrival. We arrived only 55 minutes later than ETA. We would have been even closer if we didn’t had to wait for an hour outside the harbour due to cargo ships going in and out of the big harbour that was further in. It was too narrow in the canal in to meet the cargo ship so we didn’t mind waiting outside.( even if we are saying we are not competing when we sail but this time…???)

The morning after is it time for us to leave and sail south. Some of you might wonder why we left when we did, special since it was after the big dinner and event that Arc had planned. The things is sailing along the east coast of South Africa is very special. You can have a good weather window for two-three days and then for a few days really bad weather with strong winds,high sea etc. Which means you might get stuck for up to a week if you are unlucky. So the weather window was right for us to leave in the morning the next day which lead to an early evening since we plan to leave around four thirty in the morning. Very early!!!

Hugs Eva

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Indian Ocean Reunion to Richard Bay in 9days

Just after 10 a clock on the 6 November we cross the start line and start our sailing to South Africa and Richard Bay. Me and Edgar have prepared us with scoopoderm so we don’t get seasick. This sailing can and will be really rough so we are extra happy to have Magnus onboard since he don’t get seasick and that means he will not have problem to fix food for us when we don’t feel like going down in the boat to prepare dinner. We have not a gathered start just a time when we are okay to cross the start line. This time we are defiantly the first boat over the start line and we are enjoying taking the lead for some hours before part of the fleet will overtake us

On the second day( 7 November )we hoist the Blue water runner(BWR) early in the morning and sail with it until evening when the genua had taken over during the night. Next morning we take out the BWR and by the evening it goes back in to the forward lasarett. There will not be any good winds for our BWR in the next upcoming days. We continue sailing with the genua and just a tiny part of the main sail. It is still not working properly to take it in and out of the mast even if it is better now after the temporary repair in Mauritius. We don’t dare to take it fully out and not getting it in again. That is no fun to bring it down on the deck specially in the rough sea. Done that a few times already. On the fourth day when we are close to Madagascar the bad weather appears and we start to reef the genua until it is not much left in the evening. The genua makes the boat dip a bit to much and it is not comfortable sitting, sleeping and it is even dangerous to move in the boat. One hand always on the boat. The waves have grown up to 3-4 m and they comes from different directions and of course the wind get stronger. The most we have seen is around 15m/s in the gusts. The bed in the salon is the best place to sleep but to smal to share so I tie up the canvas and make my bed safe when it rolls. It is very uncomfortable. Our stove swinged so much that I locked it which led to that all the trays flew out on the floor. A while later the baking machine,the waffle iron and coffee machine also flew away anfd landed on the floor. All three are working but have new places when we sail. With the big waves comes also a lot of water on the boat which is natural and some of this water goes down in to the hull and then we need to pump it out which was not that much. That’s the normal procedure but sometimes the water decides to take an other way and this time again it went in to the bathroom in the front and all the way in to starboard cabin where Magnus sleeps. We can’t solve the problem on the sea so the only thing is to dry up the water..

Preparing the Blue water runner
Blue water runner
Our watching schedule
My bed
As you see Edgar’s bed

After it calm down it was so calm that the engine had to be turn on and the sails was taken in. For the rest of the route the sails goes in and out , and the engine turns on and off. We have the do current with us sometimes which is very nice. Our watch schedule works well although I ends up to start my watch 1-2 hours earlier since the captain is so tired and needs to sleep. The rain also showed up but only for a day. We do relax in different ways, Magnus reads books, Edgar do sudoku and me listen to books and knit.

Raining
Magnus is fixing the noice in the boat
Beautiful moonlight
Sunrise
Knitting1
Knitting2

Finally we are outside Richard bay. There is some traffic with ships going in and out of the marina so we have to wait for our turn. It turned out to be an hour waiting and that also made us miss our estimated arrival time that we wrote up in one of the competitions we have with the arc. How it went with that will be in the next blog about our time in Richard bay.

We have permission to go in to the harbour. Once inside we followed the motorboat through the narrow and shallow canal to our berth.

We have crossed the Indian Ocean!!! Yeees. The last leg we made it in 8 days and 2 hours. After we had moored we was greeted but the Arc and the Marina. Now we will enjoy being here and just relax before we have start the normal fixing in and outside.

Richard’s Bay in front of us
Our boat gay showing the right way in
Past the finish line

Hugs Eva

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Short sail to Reunion

It is a very short distance to Reunion only 130nm (same distance back and forward Nynäshamn-Visby, which we thought was long before we started sailing round the world) . The start is at 14.00 due to the fast sailors wouldn’t arrive in the middle of the night. Nice to see all sailing from the start.

It was a smooth sailing we had a lovely sunset with some of the boats sailing in to it in front of us. Now when we are three on board we can have longer sleep which is so nice. So in the morning when we arrive none if us needed a napp. First we went to fuel up. Swade is helping us with the sheets at the fuel station.

We tide up next to Mistral and have a pink champagne breakfast before we check in.

Some maintenance need to be done as the window in the cabine. Not the most convenient place to work in but Edgar manage it well. On the way to Reunion Edgar noticed that the engine had new sounds that was not supposed to be there so he finds a guy here how can fix them. It takes the engineers two turns out of the harbour to make sure that the sound is gone. It was the engine mounts that was not correct attached and we also gut all four now attached.

We went up to the crater Sainte-Rose and had a fantastic walk on part of it. The Vulcan is still active and last time was 2020. Even if I haven’t been on the moon but this is how imagen how it would look although without all the vegetation. After we went for lunch at a very different place. Didn’t look like a restaurant at all and lots of animals on the backside and some not so happy turkeys.

I also hade the benefit to go diving twice together with Karen, Madelene and Lars. It was really good although I needed some extra air since I was using mine to fast. All four dives we were down for more or less 60 minutes which I don’t think I ever done before so not strange that my air finished. Went in some caves which was fantastic, saw turtles,scorpion fish, Nemo,huge yellow moray eel and lots more.

On my next visit to this island I would definitely plan some hiking. The scenery my friends have shown me me was fantastic. Once again our bikes came out. It was a long way in to town to go food shopping and hard to get a cab. On the prize giving we got first prize to be the last boat in our group. We got a new handicap after adding an new sail which we never used and probably will not in the future either. Maybe that’s why or that several slower boats started earlier and was not part of the ”race”! Hahaha!

On our last night we went out to eat and this town is strange after 5 there is not many restaurants open but we found one where we had some tapas and house wine. Checking out the next morning and we are good to go and do the last crossing of the Indian Ocean

Hugs Eva

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Mauritius

After 15 days at sea it feels so good to have land under your feet and that the rolling has stop for now. Extra happy are we that the temporary mending on the stay held. Now we look forward to get it fix here.

We spend the two first days to fix things on the boat, cleaning, washing, filter changing, oil check and make sure that Magnus our crew have a cabin to sleep in. It needed to be emptied a bit.

After the two days working on the boat we cheek in to hotel for some nights. What a treat, a huge bed that is not moving and lots of space over our head, bathtub, breakfast served, a pool to hang by. We enjoy every minute of it. We even spoil us with some massage and pedicure. And if Edgar is worried about Saphir he can just look out the window to see her. One of the evenings we have a fantastic dinner with Karen and Chris at the Japanese fusion restaurant in the hotel

Together with the hole fleet and yellow shirts we had a great day visiting the botanical garden, a suger factory and a lovely lunch with a guided tour around the Manor House

Suger factory
Huge bat very scary

It is nice to be moored in the city center. Here you have a lot in a walking distance as the market, supermarket, shopping areas and restaurants.

Food market

Magnus arrives with sparparts which is the engine mounts, yarn and some Swedish candies. The mechanic comes and installs them but they could only change two so the other two we hope to get fixed in Reunion. The stay got fixed and the main sails furling, although not with the spare part since it was sent back to Netherlands. Some miss communication grrr. We are not happy about that. Even this time dynema is a saver. Now we can use our main sail again.

Up the mast repairing

A week can feel very long and that you have plenty of time to do things but swish and it is time for next leg and sail to Reunion.

Hugs Eva

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The second half crossing Indian Ocean

We continue sailing in this rolling sea. Our mending on the stay is still working. Which is a big relief. We had to tighten it once with some duck tape. So happy I have already prepared some dinners although I need to boil the pasta which is a bit scary when the stoves swings a lot.

We have some more days to pass before we are in Mauritius. I continue knitting and a day before our arrival the jumper is done. So what will I do know??? Luckily Magnus who is joining us in Mauritius will have some more yarn with him for my next projects.

The sea is getting calmer but still enough waves to get some dolphins playing around the boat.

I do have to show you some sunrises and sunsets. They do look different every time.

We can finally see the lights from Mauritius . The benefit arriving in the night you spot the island earlier than daytime if there is light on the island of course.

We cross the finish line at 01.39 on the 22of October. Now we have a few more hours motoring down to Port Louis. Early morning we drop anchor and gets a few hours sleep before we can enter the harbour.

We had a very nice welcome from the fleet when we came in. We are so happy to be here and relived that our stay hold the hole way. Now we will have a week to fix things, relax , explore the island and enjoy the company of all our sailing friends

Hugs Eva

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Crossing Indian Ocean.

Tjoho we are half way after a week sailing.

The start was on the 7th October at 11.00 we left Cocos Keeling to sail 2300 NM to Mauritius. It will take us 14-16 days .

The weather prediction tells us that we will have quite rough/rolling sailing with waves up to 4m. Our scopoderm plaster is on to avoid seasickness.

The first hours we had good wind and calm sea, After passed Cocos Keeling the waves came and we started to roll. This time it was quite okay but the dipping is not fun.

Tuesday morning we hear a huge bang on the boat. What was that and where?? I saw that our stay on starboard side was leaning forward.. It was broken. This “stay” goes up to the first spreader.Out of all stays this is the less worst to break. First Edgar hoped to use our kick . That means someone “me”- has to get in to our lasarett in the cockpit. And of course it is in the box furtherest in. Sadly it was to long. Next up is dynema. Back in the lasarett in the cockpit to get the kick back in the box and also find the dynema and schakles. So with dynema, metal stick and “schackel ’ we managed to strengthen up the “stay”. And to be more safe we also put an other stick in to the loop .

Thursday was an other rainy day. With confusing wind and waves from different angel. We were not feeling comfortable to go up in deck to put out the bom out so we changed the course instead. When the sea was a bit less rolling we went up and took the bom out on starboard side and we are back on right course.

Found an other window that is leaking. Puah!!! Not as bad as the kitchen window but still making a little pool under the window….. Good that we have more of the window sealing. Hard part is to reach it since our bunk bed is filled with a sail and other things.

I am knitting and make mistakes so need to take it up a bit make it right until I see a new mistake. Hope to have the jumper done before we are in Mauritius..

Can’t get enough of sunrise and sunset

Sunrise

Hugs Eva

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Sailing and rolling to Cocos Keeling

So finally we are of. The wind is great but the waves… they are all over and high. The sailing is good and rolling is okay and then suddenly the waves smash in to each other and we dip so we get water on the portside deck.

This time knitting is not working very well since I need to hold on with one hand. Good to have books in the ear to listen to. Our blue canopy went up to protect us from the wind and rain in our cockpit. That was a great plan since two minutes later it was raining heavily good to get some salt of the boat. Ha ha not for long since a big wave came over the boat and luckily most was stop by the canopy but some came in to the cockpit. I got a bit wet but not to bad.

I will admit that I thought after being on the sea so long I thought I had sea legs but sadly not. The first day I was fine but on the second and third I felt very tired and going in to the boat was not fun. On top of that our kitchen window started to leak a lot. After every big waves on the side we had to dry the shelf’s under the window. Something must be done to get less water in. A huge plastic bag and silver lots of silver tape helped to 80 procent but still we were getting some water on the shelf’s but not as much as before. One more thing to fix….

Almost there! After spent four nights on the sea it so nice to know that we soon will anchor. Next leg I will have my plaster on for seasickness for sure.

We are anchored at Direction island on Cocos Keeling. Here you have wave protection and bit of the wind. Home Island is where most of the inhabitants live and there is food store,hardware store, post office, pharmacy, two cafes,a museum and souvenir shop that was not open when we were there. Then there is West Island where the airport is some hotels.

First we had to check in on the island also this time easy and smooth with the police coming out to the island. Fantastic beach with lots of shelter to hangout and have BBQs

Happy to be here
Saphir

Time to look at the window. We changed the sealing and with the new sealing it was very hard to close so fingers crossed that this will be enough. The cleaning up was little more than I thought. The hole storage in the bench was also filled with water. All out and was and dry. Then the freezer got som water also so our ice cubs was very salty.

Silver tape is great
Filled with salt water
All out from the storage
Saltwater ice
All Ice I took out of the freezer in

We have a few other things to fix as well. As filling hydraulic oil. Wish I had a photo of us doing this. The hydraulic tank is behind our shower. So Edgar is sitting in the shower and me on the floor in front of him holding the oil can while he is pumping in the oil with a handpump. I can tell you it was very hot. Edgar was dripping sweat on me. Ha ha ha!!

Next was taking out the madrases from the bed and fix a wire that had moved and then grease the rudder again. Doing som food preparing, baking, clothes washing, boat cleaning etc. All the things we normally do…

We went snorkelling on the rip where you jump in and just go with the current . Lots of fishes and lovely clams. Even went to a manta ray cleaning station but sadly no manta rays. The day before people had seen them there so probably only wrong timing. There was also a few reef sharks round the boat every day so have had my share of seeing fishes.

We have had great days with our fellow sailing friends. Been to home Island where we was told the history of the Island. One funny thing is that they all have different surnames. Good that it is only around five hundred people living there. We were showen how to weave baskets out of palm leaves.

We really have enjoyed the days here in Cocos Keeling at Distinction Island, with BBQ s in the evenings on the beach. The last day we had a potluck lunch where Swade and Andrew from Arc also joined. I even had a knitting lesson to learn out the basic. Let’s see how well they have done when I see them in Mauritius for the second lesson.

Me and Lorraine picking some branches to the fire.
World Arc fleet 2024-2025

After six days exploring Cocos Keeling it is time to leave. Won’t mind to have a day or to just relax but we have 2300 NM ahead of us to get to Mauritius. The weather conditions are so so.. wind okay but some big waves and those are the one I really don’t like. This time the scopoderm plaster is on so no seasickness I hope.

Last dip in Paradise
That’s the rip

Will see if I will do any updates on the crossing otherwise I will be back in little more than 2 weeks

Hugs Eva

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Christmas Island

After a hole night sleep we are ready to get checked in in Australia again. It was very quick and smooth check in. Now we have less than 48 hours to fix things before we have leave again. Next up is filling diesel and see if we can join any tours. Filling diesel can be easy and it is in generally but when you are on a buoy it is a harder. First of all you need a few jerry cans which we don’t have on our boat but luckily our friends are happy to lend us 8 jerrycans. Then you have to get to the gas station to fill them up get them back to the boat in our dinghy fill up and then one more tour and we are done…

The tour was fully booked so no tour for us but I hade some really nice snorkling in the bay. Manage to do some grocery shopping and got us Christmas Island T-shirts. In the evening we had great a bbq with the fleet that was arranged by the Arc .

Giant moray
So clear water that you see the corals even in the night

Next morning it was time for us to leave. We decided to leave after lunch to reach Cocos Keeling in daylight. Great then I had time for doing one laundry.

When we are using the washing machine or the stove we turn on our generator so our batteries won’t go empty. This time the generator didn’t want to start. With help from yellow shirts we got two mechanic to have a look. The fuel pump was broken and luckily they had to spare that we bought. The new was in and the generator was on. Edgar drives the mechanic back to land and five minutes later the generator stops. Edgar tries to start it again but it dint work. Back with the mechanic and have a look. The mechanic found out that the “reducer” from 24v-12v for the fuel pump was broken. We didn’t have that part nighter did they so they decided to run the cables directly to the battery. This means we have two switches on the fuel pump and then the generator instead of just starting the generator. Since it was very late afternoon and it would take them a few hours to fix this we had stay the night.

Kaos all is out under the sofa since the batteries are there

Next morning at 7.30 the mechanics arrives and fixes the last things. I take a walk and tries to see some of thes red crabs that there is a lot of on this island. I saw one. It is not really season for them.

We are there just behind the catamaran.

The generator is working , washing mashing is on and our batteries is getting charged. They were almost empty and we like to have them filled up since we are going to sail all the way. At 13.30 we leave the bouy and hoist our Genua and head out. Crossing the start line at 14.45 on the 28th September. 520 Nm to sail

Hugs Eva

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On our way to Christmas Island ut

Half the fleet are gathering at the start line and all are using engine. Not really a sailing rally but what to do when there is no wind and then when it comes it is straight in our nose.

In the start line
Rally control start
And we are of
Bye bye beautiful Lombok

After a few hours we are getting in to a very current area. First we have it with us and then against us and then chaos. The current is all over and the sea looks like it is boiling. We are motoring which normally is a speed of 6-7 knots know we are doing 0.9-1.5. On top of that the gps on the plotter has gone bananas… Good that it is daytime and we can see land on both sides so we know where we are going. In the middle of this chaos there was some calm areas where we saw fins that we think was shark that was eating and also saw some bigger dolphins.

The water is boiling
4 knots against us

Well out of that chaos we hoist our mainsail and then we hear a klonk on the deck. We found some hard plastic things that are supposed to be on the top of the mast… during the day we found some more. New spare part is ordered and we will get it in Mauritius. This means that we probably can’t use our mainsail over the Indian ocean. Let’s see, we will get one crew from an other boat going up to the mast to have a look. Very happy for that. I am a bit frightened of heights. The next breaking was the hook on our little boom that holds the boom onto the mast.

This 620 Nm has continued being challenging with not much wind, current with and against and waves that are rolling the boat. This rolling ended up with water again in the kitchen. Time to fix new sealing strip around the window . The Blue water runner came up which took us an hour with all the booms and lines to realise that the wind dropped. We keept it up so we could use it an other time which we did but the waves made it hard to keep the wind in the sail.

One of the days we hade really nice current. It gave us between 1.5-2 kn extra speed. During this four days we have sailed maybe one third.

On Tuesday morning when we were sailing we saw a huge amount of dolphins coming towards us. They stayed and played around the bow for 10 minutes. They always give me a big smile.

Every morning and evening we have roll calls over the SSB where we tell each other how the night and day been. Rest of the time we take turns to sleep and have watch. Breakfast and dinner we have together lunch sometimes. I am knitting and listening to books , Edgar sits and thinks a lot or do a sudoko. This leg we have also taken a lot of showers.. it has been so hot not complaining but being on deck where there is some wind but full sun we are sweeting as soon as we work with the sails. Comparing with sailing back home in Sweden with full gear on I rather do this. We did have one rain shower for two minutes in the night. We did se it coming on the radar and avoided the worst part.

Early morning watch
Early morning watch
The red is intense rain
One of many sunset
Sunrise is also very colourful

We can see land, it’s only 22 Nm left until we are in a buoy. To be on the buoy before the sun is down we turn on the engine. We pass the finish line at 18.44 Lombok time. Lots of motoring hours so we will need around 400l diesel. That will be tomorrows work tonight we are just happy to lay on a buoy and to get a hole night sleep in our own bed and not on the sofa in the salon.

Passing the finished line
Happy to made it so far
Wow!
Christmas Island
At our buoy and time for dinner and long sleep.

Hugs Eva

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We are sailing again!

After spent 6 weeks on land we were so happy to be sailing again. We have done the half to start our next half of sailing around the world. The first 4 hours we sailed but as sone as we had rounded the island north of Darwin it died. The motor went on .

We kept looking for sea snakes, turtles, dolphins, fishing vessels etc. Fishing vessels we saw some and they are not always easy to spot. Luckily we saw them all in good time to keep away from them. Happy to see some dolphins that did high jumps as well.

The most exciting thing was when we had a special delivery to the boat from Mistral. It appeared that we did not have sea card on our plotter covering Indonesia. Good that Mistral had 2.

Can’t get enough of all these lovely sunset and sunrise so here are some more

We ended up using 101 hours motoring plus the hours from finish line to Medina Marina where we moored. It took us All in all 6 days and happy to arrived in Lombok and looking forward to meet the rest of the fleet.

The checking in went very smooth . All authorities were gathered at the marina.

Hugs

Eva

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Joining World Arc 2024-2025

The World Arc boats are arriving and we get some time to get to know some of them before we start. Very nice to see Andrew and Swade back as the yellow shirts. Last time we saw them was in Galapagos. They are going to be with us all the way to St Lucia. We had a lovely week getting to know the six new boats laying in the Marina unfortunately five was in an other Marina so didn’t speak that much with them but we will get more chances. The World Arc organised a trip to see crocodiles. Finally we saw some crocodiles in the wildness.

One of many great things sailing in a rally is that dealing with authorities is easy for us. We just appear at a certain time and place with our paper and passport without having to book and fix everything by your self. Like going through a passcontrol.This time the boarder controls came down to the marina to check us out of Australia.

The night before start our sunscreens came down and we filled up water.

We were the second boat out of the lock since we needed to go and fill up diesel.

10.30 Thursday 10th we are sailing again! 920 Nm ahead of us to the next at Lombok

Hugs Eva

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Darwin part 2

Writing this on the boat sailing to Lombok so less pictures this time. Maybe I will attach more when we are in Lombok so depending on when you read it you have less or the usual amount I tend to have. And for you who reads my blog when I have a reminder on instagram and facebook which I not always do, you can get a notification to your email by go in under comment and choose that you like to get updated when new blog is out.

Back in Darwin and the heat. Although it was hot in Singapore as well but there we had air conditioning. Our own on the boat is not broken but needs much more electrical power and we don’t have that cable /glove but the marina had one for us. Don’t understand why we didn’t ask for it earlier, nevertheless now we can have a good night sleep so we have some energy to do things daytime. Although it is hard in this heat. So we decided to leave the boat and go in to the outback . Where it is even hotter but dryer.

We drove for 4 hours and got to Cicadas lodge in Nitmiluk national park. A very nice place where we had our own cabin with the view straight out in the wilderness. The food was really good even tried kangaroo and crocodiles. Yes both were okay. Enjoyed the pool and at sunset the lodge served drinks and canapés.

Since Edgar is not much of a hiker and I do like to sleep in we decided to take a boat tour on the Kathrine Gorge. What a beautiful place. Would be very interesting to see how it looks when it is the rain season and the river is up to 12 meter deeper. On the sandbanks there are signs saying your are not aloud to go a shore due to the crocodiles are nesting and also sunbading. Sadly we didn’t see them but traces after them. To get between the gorges we had to walk a short walk over the rocks to take the next boat. Would have love to swim in them.

You see the tracks in the sand

Back at Tipperary Marina where Saphir is moored, we start preparing for the next leg checking of our lists. Me and and Edgar have two different ones. Mine is focused on food, cleaning, storing, fixing roof, using sewing machine and Edgar’s is about changing filter,oils,impellers etc. Our engins mount are broken but sadly we couldn’t get new ones before we leave. We have to live with a bit vibrating noice for a while. Edgar was just glad that it was nothing worse with the engine.

Attaching the Velcro
Wine storage1

I been sewing things using ours and mistrals sail. It is okay to sew in sometimes bit hard when I have many layers but my pfaff 1222 is working fine. The trickiest is to turn the item from inside to outside. I am getting better and better in that to. So in Darwin I have been very productive. I made 3 basket for keeping the lines together when we are sailing, one bag pack that I am not sure about but definitely my handbag which I will use a lot.

As I wrote sewing can be tricky some times. I helped Karen with one of the most hard things I’ve done. Getting windows on the Bimini. Sounds like an easy thing and it could have been but trouble was that we couldn’t get of the solar panels…. And in top of that it is very hot. Luckily we had an suncover to make shade over us. Best thing is to do it with a smile.

We did do other things as well as going in to town for drink and dinner with Karen and Chris. I really need to get better searching for restaurants and bars. Karen had found a really cool gin bar called Charlie that we missed and also a great restaurant Ella that served Sri Lankan food. Extra fun to here since our daughter’s nickname is Ella.

Last but not least me and Karen went to Zen rooftop bar to watch the sunset.

Hugs Eva

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8 Days in Singapore

Our Visas needs to renew so we went to Singapore for a few days. Last time we were here was 1995 when Edgar’s parents lived here. Lots have changed since then. One thing is this huge hotel Sandy bay Marina and the area around the hotel. Here we stayed our two first nights. Wow what a fantastic hotel with the coolest rooftop pool I have ever visited. Not that I have visited many rooftop pools though. The view from it is fantastic. Can’t complain about the room and the view either. Talking about the room… the toilet hmm the lid opens when you open the door and the seat is heated and it flushes by its self when you leave the room and close the lid. This time we took advantage of the hotel and its facilities.

Garden by the bay from rooftop
Garden by the bay from our room
Paper will do for me
Lots of lilies and me
Inside the hotel
Looking up from our balcony
Night light show at Garden by the bay
Buffe with lobster! Jummy
Late lunch up in old hoddies

So this Singapore trips involves two more hotel visits. We start with Four Season on Orchard boulevard next to Orchard road where we have been a lot before. This time we are not alone Matti and Sus have arrived and we spend three great days together exploring the city. We take the Big bus around the city and stopes at Little India to have a … which was really nice. First time we had that but both Matti and Sus have had it plenty of times when they been in Singapore. Raffles was also a must on the list to see again. We agreed that the Singapore sling drink has shrunk and also the peanuts. But still good taste. We visited China town. Went down to Boat quay and took a boat tour on the river down to Merlion.

Merlion
Love the fans
Big bus tour
Someone is crazy
Serving Pecking duck
One Singapore sling is enough
Time for dinner at Goodwood Park
Boat tour

Singapore have some cool buildings and the nightlights makes them even better

The building where Edgar’s parents use to live

There is one more hotel and an other new area to stay in. Last but not least although the room was very tiny but the hotel had some really nice benefits like the breakfast in the lounge and five a clock drinks with nibbles. On top of this Anna came to visit us from Kuala Lumpur. Andy had to stay home and work unfortunately. It would have been so nice to see him to. We haven’t meet since they left Riga in 2018. So happy that she could make it to meet us. Me and Anna had a great time. She had been in Singapore a few times so finds her self around very well. We walk down to Garden by the bay and strolled around there and also went up and walked up on the super trees. Fantastic view over the city and the bay. A visit to Raffels and a Singapore sling before we headed back to the hotel and the five a clock drink with nibbles. We ended up at the rooftop bar at the hotel after being out strolling around in the quays. Anna went home the next day after we done some small shopping. Good to have someone that knows where to go. I planned to relax by the pool but it was raining so had to wait for the sun that came back a bit later.

Time to say bye bye to Singapore and Pullman hotel. It has been very nice to been able to try out different hotels in different areas in the same city . I can definitely recommend it.

Back to Darwin and Saphir

Hugs Eva

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Visiting “family” in Sydney

We have a six hour flight to Sydney that unfortunately ends up being eight hours due to bad weather in Sydney. First time or actually second time I am flying that we need to land and fill up fuel to reach the destination. This time we actually was hovering around for an hour before it was decided that we were going to Canberra to fill up.

We got our rental car and drove true the city out to our family in Warrierwood. We had three great days with the family and managed to see almost all of them. One of my wishes was to see the opera house up close. Have been in Sydney 3 times before and just seen the house in a distance.

After the lunch we took a walk around the house but couldn’t see much of the inside due to performances going on. Nevertheless it was nice to see it and see the tiles on the roof that are from Höganäs in Sweden. Not far from where I am brought up.

Next day me, Dianna and Hanna went for a walk out to Barrenjoey lighthouse at the end of Palm Beach while Edgar, Sue and Ray waited at the restaurant. On our way down I saw a Kokaburra. Check on that! Back at Di and James place some Kakadus came to visit and bird friend Ray gave them some treats. Meet up with Maryanne and Roger the next day for a coffee at Newport.

We say thank you to our lovely Aussie Family that took time to meet up with us. Hope to see you soon again!

Hug Eva

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Days in Darwin part 1

We have planned a hall out of Saphir on the 9th of Aug and going back in on the 4 sep to get the hull painted again so we have less things that can grow on the hull which will help us not so lose speed. The growing can actually slow us done up to 1 knot.

Before we start all fixing on the boat me and Karen took a tour in to town to get a few things and look at the town. Had some lunch at waterfront where city meets the water. Here you can swim safe and they even have a pool with waves. We didn’t have time for this this time.

Since the boat is getting up we need to defrost the freezer and the fridge. Lots of ice in the fridge little freeze box.. Nafier the mechanic found why it was making noice in the machine room. The rubber stabiliser under the engine was broken. New ordered and hope to get them before we leave.

Next thing is to repair our heat exchanger . This took other mechanics 20 hours work in the boat and three to times bringing it to their workshop. New is ordered and will hopefully get to us in Mauritius. Let’s hope it will work until then or actually much longer.

Time to haul out Saphir early morning due to the tide. Mornings like this with a beautiful sunrise, puts a smile on my face even though the day didn’t end as we hoped. Sadly or more very annoying, the boat that was getting in to the water had problem so we ended up not getting out of the water.

Back to the marina and trying to cancel our hotel booking since Saphir is not on the hard. It was to late and we had stay at the hotel…. poor us getting air condition, lots of space, specially over our heads and a pool. Although we spent the days at the marina me sewing and Edgar checking the workers. Evenings we enjoyed Darwin trying different restaurants.

Night view
Finally Mexican food
Bar on the street
Pool at the hotel
Can’t just listen to a book…

Time flies and time to check out of the hotel, pack again to go visiting our Aussi “family” in Sydney.

Hugs Eva

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On the northern top of Australia and sailing east

We arrive to Horn Island on the 21 of July in the afternoon. We speak with Karen and Chris and decide that we will catch the ferry to Thursday Island next day. Me and Karen take a long walk around the island while the guys finds a pub…. Glad we didn’t plan to stay long here. Not much to see or do. We went back to Horn Island and had dinner at the only restaurant we found at Wongai beach hotel. Funny to call it a beach hotel when you actually can’t be on the beach due to the crocodiles. Before dinner we had a game of pool which we sadly lost.

Full concentration
Full concentration
The beach is behind the trees

We have done a sailing plan with three stops before we are I Darwin on the 30th of. July. Until know we have been allowed to go a shore on all Island and land but from now on we have to apply for going a shore since it is the aboriginals land. I missed that and since it should be done 10 days ahead we skipped it. We are aloud to anchor so we will be okay. We had 2 great sailing days with good wind and some waves so a bit rocky. Lovely sunsets. When we anchored at East Arnhem I saw that we had had a lot water in at or kitchen window. All the cooking books was soaked… and totally wet on the shelf … just to dry everything. Not easy went it is very humidity.

Still quite a bit left so just a night sleep and we are of to next anchor place. First we need to go through “hole in the wall “ . Here we need the tide to be with us. We came in a perfect time and enjoy the help from the tide to get through. Very beautiful narrow passage.

We found a nice beautiful bay to anchor at and the sunset was one of the most beautiful I have seen. So colourful compared . Next day is not much wind but from tight anger so our blue water runner comes out. We start we good speed until we get the tide against us and doing only 2.4 kn. Luckily it is turning and we keep sailing in 6-8 kn. The best part is that suddenly we get company by lots of dolphins or what is it? They are huge and their nose is different. Looked it up and think it might been fake orcas anyway what ever they are called they made our day.

On our way in to last anchorage before Darwin we see the second boat since we left Horn Island except from Mistral that we been sailing with. This tells a bit how lonely it is here. The sea is a bit rough as you can see on the fishing boat. We are happy to have what we hope is a very calm bay so we can get some rest before the last leg.

Laying on anchor with only you body boat gives you the best view on the sunset and the sunrise. Her are a few from our nights and also tried to take some photos of the night sky

Sunrise

Early morning to get to Darwin and Tipperary water Marin in high tide. We have a great sailing with some really nice extra speed with the help from the current and also some opposite. We made it in time to get in to lock an in to the marina basin. Very nice to be back in the civilisation, to walk on land, to see Karen and Chris and go out for a dinner. Yes we have been sailing with Karen and Chris but we have not been together since we left Horn Island since we haven’t felt safe to take down the dinghy. So our meetings have been over the whatsup. Great to have Starlink and internet.

1 of Aug and now we have 40 days to prepare the boat, exploring the north part of Australia and make a trip to Singapore to renew our visa.

Hugs Eva

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Lizard island

I am way way behind in the blog . Will do my best to catch up. Today it is 1 sep and we are enjoying our self at Cicada Lodge in Nimaluk national park before it is time to prepare for our next leg and also joining the world Arc 2024/2025. But let’s continue from arriving to Lizard island.

Around eight in the morning on the 15 of July we anchored in Watson bay at Lizzard island just before Mistral. First some breakfast and then some hours rest after the night sailing. You are a bit tired after night sailing since it is hard to sleep the first night even though it was a very calm sailing. After some rest the paddle boards go in and me and Karen paddle to the reef where we snorkel. So many nice clamps and some more colourful than the others and the size of them is wow. A lot of fishes as well.

So bright colours
Huge clamp

The day after Edgar drove us in to land so we could hike up to the top. Hoping to see a lizard or two. We heard some noise and saw a lizards tail better than nothing. It was a very steep hike up to the top. First we thought we was there then we realised we are half way puha. We made it to the top and the view was magnificent and my body totally exhausted… good that it is easier to walk down although you have to focus where you put your feet so you don’t slip.

There she is Saphir
Standing again after the hike up
You can see the reefs very clearly
The lagoon on the other side of side of the island

In the evening we went to the Marlin Bar that was only open for yachties on Tuesday and Fridays evening rest of the time it was only for the hotel guest. Sadly was Chris not feeling that good so he stayed in the boat. We enjoyed a nice burger and a lovely sunset. It doesn’t matter how many I see they still fascinate me.

Nice to eat out from time to time
Lovely evening with Karen

Our next plan is to get Horn Island but we are not in a hurry yet and states one more night and just chill and relax and hope the Chris will feel better. We do a night stop next to Howick Island. And then of to Horn Island where we round Australia and will be sailing on the north coast to get to Darwin.

Ouch stuck my toe… never walk on the deck barefoot!!!
Mistral tok up the parasail
And they are way a head of us
We had some really nice moment doing 10.4 kn
Hello Horn Island
Looking for crocodiles

Hugs Eva

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Days in Cairns and Port Douglas

Strange to be back in a city after 23 years. Lots have changed and can’t say that I remember that much either. Although nice to be in Cairns to relax and explore part of the rainforest and the area. We have booked a day out on the barrier reef to dive and snorkel. But first we have to moor in the Marina. Which is really great placed very close to the city. Lots of restaurants along the quay.

We hired a car for a day together with our friends Chris and Karen and went for drive to find the lake where we swam with small turtels and crocodiles. No luck with finding the lake but we had a great time in the rainforest. We went to ..,,waterfall where we hope to take a dip but it didn’t attract us. Next stop was Kuranda where we went in to wild kuranda. Here we finally saw some crocodiles although this was freshwater so they are not the dangerous ones. We also saw kangaroos in different sizes and one with baby, koalas, wombat and some other smaller ones.

We was told to not miss Palm cove beach which we really enjoyed. A typical vacation village next to the beach. Here I would loved to stay for a night or two.

Time for diving again in the Great Barrier Reef. Last time was at Lady Eliott island 12 years ago which is located in the southern part of Barrier reef and outside Cairns was 22 years ago. Unfortunately the weather was not the best, quite windy, a bit wavy and very grey. We went out on to Flynn reef to dive and snorkel. The first dive didn’t work for me. When I jumped in I couldn’t go down. My breathing went bananas and I panicked. Even if our instructor was really relaxed and tried to calm me down it didn’t work so I went up again. Took me a while to calm down and get my breath back. Don’t know but it felt like the wetsuit I was wearing squeeze me and on top I was freezing and also did Karen when she came up. Nevertheless the second dive came and I went in with the rest of the group in a one size bigger wetsuit. Everything worked and it was a great dive although not as colourful as I remembered it. I got the opportunity to do a second dive which I am glad I did. All in all I saw a sleeping white tip shark, bluespotted stingray, boxfish etc

When we came back to the boat we got the best news. Our fourth grandchild had arrived. A baby girl .We are so happy but a bit sad also since we will not see them in a long time. Thank goodness for internet. At least we can facetime.

We sailed up to Port Douglas which was not very far. Took as couple of hours. Not much of wind so mostly the iron genua had to work. We spent 24 hours here. A dinner in the evening at Watergate restaurant. Very lovely place. This time we hade an afternoon start from the marina so there was time for a tour to the beach and a bit strolling in the village.

In front of us we have a night sailing up to Lizard island. The night was really calm and the morning was one of the most gorgeous I have seen.

Hugs Eva

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From Townswill to Cairns

We continue doing day sailing which gives us on three stops on the way to Townswill. The first stop was Cape upstart where we paddle in to the beach before the sunset. The next was Cape Bowling reminds very much of the tuamotos island in the sense of very low land around us with a few trees growing but the rest not.

Clear night with lists of stars taken with my iphone.

The last stop was Magnetic Island or Maggie island as the locals calls it. Horse shoe bay is a popular anchoring place which I understand not only for the protection but also for the range of restaurants,bars, cafes. The beach is not bad either. We stay here for one night. Me and Karen went in on our paddle boards to check out and have a walk along the beach and check what we can expect when we come back after been in Townswill.

At lunchtime the next day we left Maggie island to get in to Townswill on the high tide. The marina is good and I like it when it is walking distance to the city and restaurants. The marina have also a complementary car for us(as Arlie beach). We book two hours and also Mistral so we got four hours to drive around and get supplies for our boats and some groceries.

We bought new spark plugs for the dinghy engine so now we have a working engine to the dinghy! Mistral also got their dinghy fixed so now we have two dinghy’s that we can go ashore with when we anchor. After dinner we are sitting in our boat and enjoying the lightnings on the mountain wall.

After two days with fixing and enjoying the restaurant in the evening we head out to Maggie island again in the high tide in the morning.Maggie island is more and less around the corner from Townswill.

Me and Karen got a ride in with Edgar to the beach and planed to do a walk on the forest and over to an other beach but the walking path was closed due to maintenance so we ended up take a walk along the beach on the bay. In the evening we went in to have dinner at one of the restaurants. They had a big screen and some smaller once that was showing a Disney film and all children that wanted to look was given headphones. Why don’t all restaurants do this?

The next day Chris drove us in for mine and Karen’s longer walk. We wanted to see koala bears. And we did. They are not easy to spot in the wild since they more or less hide up in the threes and sleep. Lucky us we saw two and some remains from the second WW. Meanwhile Chris showed Edgar how to make different knots and soft shackles.

The next morning we sailed up to Orpheus Island. It was a nice sailing and doing 6-7 knots. On the way we was called up to have a look for a dinghy that someone lost but we didn’t see it. We anchored in the afternoon and had our evening video call to plan our next leg. Since the wind was increasing we decided to stay one more night before we continued. The rain was poring down and strong winds so we couldn’t go ashore or snorkel which would have been nice. This bay is known for huge clamps. During the night we moved quite alot which you can see on the plotter.

The next stop was in Mosby river. We had problem to anchor since it was very shallow where we was allowed to anchor. Twice we got stuck in the mud so on the third time we succeeded. Opposite us was a small harbour where only a pilot boat was moored. After a good night sleep we let anchor early and head up to Cairns.

Hugs Eva

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Sailing around the Whitsundays Islands

We are heading towards Hamilton Island to meet up with Chris and Karen to celebrate Swedish midsummer and Karen’s birthday.

Our stop on the way was Long Island Reef. A small beach in front of an abandoned resort. This is not the first one we have seen on this trip and probably not the last one either. One of many backsides of covid I guess.

On the way to Hamilton island we pass a very lovely tiny beach island. We arrive just before 11 and needs to wait almost an hour before we can moor. Time to start preparing for the midsummer lunch. The day before I made a try to do herring in onion out of the Dutch herring we found at Woolworth. Let see if the taste is good.

Our lunch guests Chris and Karen arrived after they had moored and we had a lovely lunch. They survived our snaps song, although we don’t have the best voice. The taste of the hearing was okay but the fell apart totally. Our lunch consisted of, eggs with caviar,salomon, potatoes, knäckebröd,a very tasty cheeseand Swedish snaps and ended it with lemon muffins, whipped crème and strawberry’s.

The celebration didn’t end here. We took a few hours break before we took the bus to the other side of the island to restaurant BeachClub for Karen’s birthday dinner. Lovely place with a pool in front that looked very tempting to jump in to. The food was very nice and the dessert even better.

After dinner we started to walk to catch the bus back and there on the lawn we saw our first wallaby.

The next day was cloudy and little rainy. Me and Karen went for a hike up to the top and went down to south east head and escape beach. My Fitbit counted in total that day to 22300 steps. The view was astounding and the trails really good. Happy to done this lovely hike and very pleased that it was a cloudy and a few drops.

The next morning Mistral went to Airle Beach to get spares and hope for some help to fix there gas and fingers crossed that our batteries arrives so they can bring them to us.

We went back to sawmill bay for the night and enjoyed a lovely sunset with the moon rise. The moon really lit up like a lamp.

We hear so much nice about Whitehaven beach and decided to go there the next day. The dinghy gets in but the engine will not work properly. It starts but as soon as Edgar accelerates the engine dies. The wind and waves are too strong to row in so no beach for us. We hope for better winds the next day but sadly not and the night was not fun. It started first to rain heavily and after that the thunder. First it was far away and we saw some lightning in the far but it came closer and closer. Did some filming and when it was at its worst we have every 10 second. There came a pampam on the radio. One boat was dragging and lost power on their instruments. They engined work and they arrived safely and anchor not far from us. Luckily it calm down and we could go to bed. In the morning we could see how we have moved around our anchoring

The next place we was recommended to go to was butterfly bay which is just around the corner. Sadly due to weather conditions we didn’t want to go there instead we went in to Nara inlet. A very protected deep bay where we had a really good sleep. A bit spooky with all the clouds hanging over the tops.

Next day we went to meet up with Karen and Chris at Cape Gloucester. We decided to take a tour in to the beach with Mistrals dinghy or that was the plan. It ended with us taking up our anchor and safe Karen and Chris since the wind and the current was too strong to row back to the boat. Now we both need help to fix our engines. Time to get a Marina with chandelier and mechanics.

Hugs Eva

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Cruising along Queensland’s coast

After a few days in Bundaberg relaxing, cleaning(yes always in need and quite boring)and most important stock up food and drinks, we are heading out to slowly sail up to Mackay to meet up with Chris and Karen on Mistral.

We leave early in the morning on the 5th of June and have decided not to do any night sailing which means by 17.30 we have to have reach our destination or it will be dark. First day we failed and anchored at 18.15 in total darkness. It works when it is a calm bay but not ideally. Always interesting to see how it looks when you wake up.

Sunset before we go in to pancake bay
Lots of stars in the night
On our way out from the bay

We do two more stops and both are before the sunset. The water temperature is okay around 21-22 degrees but I have heard so much about sharks and crocodiles so I am not tempted to swim. Luckily it is not that hot either. The teak deck was filled with trace of cellulose after our crossing. It is the rope that wear on the deck and it is almost glued on so need a good brush to get it of. The sea was calm so after an hour or two it was done.

Lots of cellulose
Clean
Sunset
Even the sunrise is colourful
So happy to find my favourite Norwegian cheese

There was a lot of tankers on standby that we passed on our way in to Mackay. Well inside the harbour we have our own welcoming committee which is Chris and Karen from Mistral. So great to see them again, and even better from now on we will sail with them all the way to Caribbean.

Us getting in to the Marina
Chris and Karen ready to take our lines.

The start batteries came down to the boat unfortunately it was the wrong ones. New were ordered and hopefully can be here in four five days. Mackay city is 25 minutes away by bike. The bike lane was really good and safe all the way in to town. I went in there to get my Australian sim card at a phone company. By the end of the day it turned out that I could buy it at any grocery shop and registrer my self.

We spent some great days with Chris and Karen having our boat next to each other. Me and Karen went for a bike ride to see what the yarn/fabric store had. Got my self some embroidered yarn to decorate my destroyed hoody. Will be done some rainy day, I Hope.

Some reorganisation in the big storage, stocking up with some wine and beer, baking and we are ready to leave and sail up the coast to explore more places.

Chris and Karen stays for a few more days to get their rig and sail in order and hopefully also get our batteries.

Our plan is to get to Arlie beach to meet up with Mon Ami sailed by Louise and Mats, that we meet in Fiji. We hoist the sail and enjoyed the silence of not having the engine on. Our next goal is to hoist our new sail a blue water runner. It needs wind from behind and not too strong. Soon it will come for sure.

Found some nice stops on the way up. Also got some cute visitors. Still haven’t been ashore yet since we got scared from others that there might be crocodiles. At one anchorage it was a sign not to swim unless we didn’t want to be food. So much lovely water next to us and still so far. Well there will be some places where I can swim and use my paddle board.

Taking up the anchor is normaly easy but when it is clay bottom it is a bit harder specially if it’s dug in and also a lot more messy. Benefit is that we are very safe on the anchor. Won’t pull the boat in the first place.

Getting in to Coral Sea Marina we see this huge yachts. Would be fun to have a look around in one these one day. Feels like they are bigger than my house back home.

We have our berth next to Mon Ami. So know there are two Swedish boat in the Marina.

Cute visitors
Midsummer is coming up
Lots of clay on the anchor
Moored next to Mon Ami

It was so great to see Louise and Mats. They are waiting to get a new electric furler. A big part of sailing is that things breaks our wears out and sometimes you need an expert to repair it. Quite often you then spend time just waiting for delivery or mechanical. They told us that they are almost a month delayed due to different problems that had happened when they came back to the boat. We have realised that things even break when the boat is on hard.

We spend two nights here and must say this have been the best Marina so far with all the facilities and the location. Just a short walk in to the town with a very nice walk path.

All the way out there is Saphir
More food and soft drinks
So good sea platter
Small park by the sea at Arlie beach
Me,Edgar,Mats and Louise between our boats
Bye bye Arlie beach

Time to move on and anchoring with a lovely sunset view

Hugs Eva

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1400 NM to Australia

Tuesday 22 May at 9.00 we have an appointment with the custom to check out of New Zealand. The custom gave us 30 min to leave and was not happy when we said that we needed to fill up the diesel. We left Bay of Island just a few minutes more than the 30 he gave us.

Around lunchtime we turn of the engine and enjoy the coastline where we saw a lovely rainbow.

It took only 1/2 hour and the engine was on again and after 4 hours we had to turn back since we started to take in water in the engine room. It is the same problem as we had in Tuamotos. The water pump to cool the main engine broke. Back in the same mooring place early evening. We had dinner on board and went to bed early to be up and ready in the morning when the mechanic arrives.

The leak is fixed and we have a new appointment with the custom to do a new checkout at 11.30. The weather looked still okay to start our sailing which we were very happy about. You never know when the next weather window will be.

After two really rough sailing days it is nice to have a bit calmer sea. Even if the waves are higher then before they are longer, which makes a much softer roll, although from time to time there comes one wave that really rock the boat. We been drinking a lot of water, had a sandwich for breakfast and some bars, buns and biscuits. So on our third day Edgar made us some food.Noodles in a cane, just add warm water. Easy but so good to get something warm in our bodies.

We take shifts and tries to sleep for a couple of hours. It is not that easy in the rolling sea. I tried to make the bed as tight as possible so we don’t ride around like a soap in a soap dish. There is a few hours when it is totally black and we can’t see anything except the stars. Then the moon comes up and it lights up so we can see the sea, waves and the clouds. You can even read a book in that light. After a few days on the sea you mix up the days so it is good that we have calendar in our mobiles to tell which day it is.

Tuesday at 20.00 we changed to Australia time which means turning the time back 2 hours. At this point it didn’t do much

Wednesday we put up the stay sail with the boom out on port side and the genoa starboard side. It is a very nice and smooth sailing that day. Next day we need to change the settings and the stay sail goes in and the genoa goes the port side and change the course a bit.

It is very rolly again. Things starts to bang in the boat and suddenly the coffemachine and baking machine fell down, nothing broken but wet on the carpet from the water in the coffemachine.

Edgar fell in the stairs just before we left and strained his foot.It is still a bit swallowed but looking better.

Friday we have good wind and doing 6-8 knots, a few squalls so we been reefing the sail a few times. Highlight was the dolphins that came and swam around for 10 min. 175NM left. The water temperature is getting warmer 24.7 degrees from 18 degrees when we started in Opua

The sea can’t make up its mind!!! The waves are coming from all over it feels like we are having a good speed from 4.5 to 9 knots with only less then half off the genua out.

We reach the tip of Fraiser Island and turn in towards Bundaberg. 40 nm left and we are in Australia. The last 40 nm we motor sail since the wind is not that good. All in all we had a good sailing in the sense that we have not used the engine a lot on the other hand it has been the worst in the sense of rolling. Our bodies are so tiered and looking forward to sleep in our bed a full night without any rolling.

We arrived in Bundaberg Marina and dropped the anchor on Saturday night and stayed there until Monday morning when we checked in with custom and bio security. Everything went well and now we just relax a few days before we head up towards Mackay to get new start batteries and meet up with Chris and Karen on Mistral.

Hugs Eva

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We are sailing

19 days after our arrival we are leaving Whangarei to sail up to Tutukaka. At 8.30 in the morning together with three more boats we leave the town basin to be at the bridge at nine when the morning traffic is calmer so the bridge can open for us.

As we only have one sail up we make a quick stop, or more a few hours stop to get our sail up. Very happy to get help with that. We would not have managed that by our self. Thanks to our rigger Charles, his worker and the sailmaker the sails gets up. And of course the wind comes to make it more tricky.

The sails are in place and we head out and hoist the sails and steers to Tutukaka. We are in a bit hurry to get there before it is dark.

It was a rough sailing, with waves up to 3-4 meter. We even got one wave in from the side that soaked pore Edgar. This was a bit too much for a first day in the sea. We made it just when the sun was going down and it was really dark when we moored.

The entering was very narrow lots of waves and a small island to avoid, but there was good light marks on the way in.

We stayed in Tutukakas for a few days and waited for better weather again. It is not a big place but still they have four different good restaurants which we of course had to try. We had our best pizza here since ever.

In one place they had similar swordfish on the wall as we have on our wall back home in Sweden. This one had a much nicer fin so now we have to find someone that can make a new fin on our swordfish.

Saturday morning we have nice weather but still very cold so it’s time to put on our sailing trousers and warm jumpers before we leave. Not as warm as we had wished for yet. Yes it is winter here but 11 degrees brrr.

We have a great sailing up to Bay of Island which is the northeast we can get to be able to check out from New Zealand. It is a very cool Island with hole/tunnel that we pass when we enter the Bay of Island. It is a popular tourist attraction we notice. The Bay of Island is lovely with lots of great anchorage places. We stay at two different and enjoy the calm bays. The water looks so tempting to swim in but it is only 19 degrees in the water.

On a rainy day why not deal with the toilet… Changing the pump and now the front toilet is so much easier to flush. Well done darling!

After rain comes the sun and we head in to Opua and Bay of Island Marina. It looks very nice and we recognise Pahia on the way in. We were there in October with our friends when we travelled around for 10 days.

Moored and have grounds under our feet’s. This is really a Marina with all different businesses for things you need to the boat. A great laundromat place, new showers , recycling , a smaller grocery shop, one nice restaurant a fast-food place and the yacht club have also a restaurant. All in all okay for a day or two but quite boring after five days.

There is a walking trail along the coastline all the way in to Pahia which I walked on. I didn’t go all the way since once again I took a detour up to a lovely look out point. This time it was only 200 steps. There was a sign that I was told by some locals that I didn’t have to follow. It was no risk anymore… I was not the only not following the signs which feelt more comforting . The trail was a very nice but narrow and at some spots hard to meet anyone.

Since it is a bit far to Pahia from Opua which is the closest town and definitely more restaurants to choose from, we took a cab to have a change of scenery and food. We hade a great night with lovely food and ended it with a Guinness for Edgar and a yummy drink at Bad Habits.

Last days we prepared last things for the crossing like cleaning, fixing our toilet, baking, cooking and so on. You can guess how did what can’t you? And our bed for the crossing is also done!

Wednesday morning 22 of May is here and we check out at the custom to leave New Zealand and sail to Australia and Bundaberg. Unfortunately due to the winds and waves and 3 weeks delayed we are not going to Sydney. We are very sad for that but hope to get to Sydney somehow during our time in Australia.

First scratch ….

We are sailing out of Bay of Island and enjoying the view and see a fantastic rainbow.

So know there will be no contact for at least 10 days but you can se us on our yb tracker where we are. You find it under meny on the top.

Hugs Eva

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Back in Whangerei NZ

On the 15th of April we started our long flight back to New Zealand and Saphir. In the morning we got an email that the flight was one hour delayed and at the end we were 2 hours delayed due to the air room over Iran was closed we were told. This was our layover time in Doha that disappeared. We missed our connecting flight to Auckland by 10 min and next flight was next morning at 01.50 after 24 hours. Luckily there was one room left so we checked in at the hotel inside the airport and slept most of the time before we took the flight to Auckland. We have flown over lot of water from Doha to New Zealand and lots of it we will be sailing on when we sail to south Africa. Tiered but happy to arrived in Auckland. Only 1 1/2 hour before the car rental opens at 05.00.

You think it should not be any traffic at 5.30 in the morning but New Zealander are early birds. Luckily most traffic was on their way to Auckland so less traffic when we past Auckland. 2 1/2 hours drive ended up in 3 1/2 due to road work. Edgar is in a hurry and even if he tries he can’t drive 100 km/h as it is aloud. Too many curves and they can only be taken in 65 down to 25km/h. There are signs before every curve that tells you what speed to use.

We drive straight to the Marina to have a look on Saphir. She is still in indoors but will be moved out during the day. The painting of the hull looks great and the have put Saphir af Stockholm back, Nordia and the Saphir diamant on the side.

She looks strange without the mast.

The upcomings days we spent doing things on the boat for a few hours and exploring Whangarei area. Although on the longer walks I didn’t get Edgar with me. I had a plan to walk to Whangareis falls but ended up on Mount Pahrihaka. Which was halfway to the falls but also very much up. The walking tracks are very good and well taken care of and parts of them you have steps when it is to straight up I guess. I counted to 800 steps to the top and the totals hight of the mountain is 241m. My legs was a bit sore when I came up and was happy to rest while I enjoyed the view. On the way down I did see a tiny tiny waterfall.

We went to the falls the next day by car. Although Edgar didn’t want to walk down and have a look at the fall. To many steps down for his knees… hmmm

Many steps up
Many steps up

It is a bit frustrating when not much happens on the boat and things get delayed. Meanwhile we continue to drive around along the coast and found a very nice harbour in Tutukaka that we might visit on our sailing up along the coast. The knittings continues as well.

The mast is getting in place and we can go in to the water. Very happy for that since we already moved in to the boat. It is a bit uncomfortable/strange to live on the boat when it is not in the water. Although we can use the toilet and also cook but we have not been shopping so not much to work with. The last thing is to hang up the dinghy before we go in to the water. What a nice feeling we are floating and on our way in to town to do grocery shopping for the crossing. First we have two nights at Nikau Marina next to the boatyard since there was a bit more electricity and other things with the mast to fix. Lucky us there is a nice Greek restaurant in the harbour.

Still not all done but we decided to go in to the town basin so we can start doing some shopping and continue preparing the boat for our sailing. We have to wait for the high tie so we can go in and also get the bridge opened. I really like the shape of the opening part of the bridge. It is a giant fish hook.

The next morning our sails arrives but can’t be hoisted since the hydraulic needs to be fixed. We got the mainsail fixed so we don’t have to have battens in them any more, mended the torn and new UV covers.

Sailing is just a tine part of our journey. We spend a lot of time working on our patience with all this waiting and somehow it is hard starting doing things so I am glad I have my knitting and the blog even if I have hard time writing in it some times and sometimes I can go on writing a lot as this time. (At this moment I am waiting for my wash to be done at Opua Marina so a perfect time to write.)

Our wind indicator is getting changed. Glad it’s not me on the top of the mast. It works and we can finally se on the instruments the strength of the wind and where it comes from. Makes sailing a bit easier

After the rain the sun comes out and so does the rainbow. This time was not fun though…. We have a leak in the ceiling in our kitchen. Grrr more problems! Luckily it is an easy fix that we could do our self. It was leaking from our buttons in the cockpit. Just needed some silicone and we are all good for now, I hope. Talking about leaking we have had problems with our windows and hope know all is fixed after they been put back in with new isolation around them. They didn’t find ours so they use something else which they had to change immediately on a few after we hade used the water hose to see if they were leaking.

In Whangarei they have this eternity machine that shows the time. Very cool with all the metal balls that moves around and the cyclist.

Tuesday morning on the 7th of May we leave Whangarei Marina which by the way have one of the employees that speak Swedish.

We are ready to start our sailing but wait there are only one sail up….

Hugs Eva

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Leving Fiji to sail to New Zealand

Friday 22 sep Magnus and Jocke arrived very early and had breakfast with us at the hotel. The guys went over to the marina to be ready to get Saphir in to the water. I stayed and enjoyed the pool for some hours before I check out and head back to the marina.

It took some extra hours before it was our time to get Saphir in.We are on Fiji time and we are getting use to it. This time they had enough diesel so we could fill up the tank and not only get a few litres as last time. It had been sunny the whole morning but as soon as Saphir was in the water and we were filling up diesel it started to rain. Luckily it is not cold when it rains.

We have 2 days to prepare the boat before we start our sailing to New Zealand. There are some maintenance to be done like filling grease in to the rudder, food shopping, preparing some dinners, baking, washing and in between some naps…

In the evenings we went out for dinner both at the marina and at the resort . Our last night in Fiji we had dinner at the resort and we got our own farewell song singed for us.

We check out from the Marina and are ready to leave. First we get a quick visit from Andrew from Voager. He had just arrived back and laying on anchor outside the marina. Before we leave we get the staff from the marina coming and singing for us. I love this tradition .

We wave goodbye to Vuda Marina and to our friend boats Far,Voager and Ester of Sweden anchoring outside the Marina. Thank you for the lovely picture on Saphir Ester.

One of the first thing we need to do when we hoist the sail is fix it with some silver tape so the tear won’t get worse. Now we have approximately 1100nm ahead of us if we can sail shortest way but we will need to sail around a bad weather so it will be a bit longer.

The first days we have good weather and nice wind . We work first on four hour shift then after two days we change to three hours in the night and then four hours during daytime. This gave us an easy rotating schedule to follow. When the weather is okay I can continue knitting and cooking is okay also

30 sep I had the morning watch from 05.00-08.00. Still the iron jenua that are working. The sun tried to shine through the clouds. At 14 hour we changed our course 45 degrees to avoid heavy winds and waves. This means also even if we still is going south which is good we are going slowly west and not east . We are in other words going further away from our goal……. During daytime we have had to go even more west. NZ is south east from our point. When it was the worst we was sailing 90 degrees from our destination and see the NM left to our destination ticking up and not down….When I went to bed we had 625NM left.

Next morning we had 603NM left. Tjoho we have been able to change course. The waves are still high and coming obliquely from the front.! The comfort in the boat is not the best. We do not fish but still we get some small ones during nighttime .

300 Nm left to our destination. The sun is shining we have nice wind in the sails. Doing 6-7 knots and the waves keeps us on our toes. Part of the breakfast omelette went on the floor when a wave rocked the boat extra… the coffee spills over and so on. The boat is leaning in around 15-20 degrees angle so we move around in the boat leaning and always one hand holding on to the boat. Sleeping is also a challenge .

We are getting closer and the weather is getting better so we enjoy the calmer sea. Although the water temperature is going down. We started in Fiji with 29 degrees and ended with 15 degrees. I will not jump in the water in New Zealand.

Even if we have reach New Zealand’s tip there is a bit left to get to Whangarei. When the instruments shows that it is only 100NM left you know that the next night we will be sleeping in a harbour and the boat will not rock at all. A full night sleep is one of the first things that we all are looking forward to. Until then we enjoy the scenery on our way down the coast and getting in to the marina.

This is a very protective marina with houses around and some of them have their own privet dock in front of the house. We arrived on the 5 oct 14.30 local time. Unfortunately the immigration could not come until next day but bio security came and took care of our garbage and cleared the boat. Now we have to wait until next morning to be able to go ashore. Luckily we have everything we need on the boat although it will be very nice to walk on land again after 10 days on the sea.

The next morning the custom arrives and we can hoist the New Zealand flag and move the boat the the dock where she will be staying while we take a 10 days tour with our crew and their wife’s Helena and Julia that arrived in the morning.

Hugs Eva

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Fiji in between crews

Sorry for delay. Here you can read about our last days in Fiji before our friends arrive to sail with us to New Zealand.

We have been asked many times how we spend our days when we are not sailing. Easy we sleep long have breakfast, lunch,dinner and then go to bed…hahaha . In between all the eating and sleeping the boat needs to take care off and also we need to rest. Living on a boat is like constantly moving/rocking your body even when you laying in bed. Being on anchor is a bit calmer during night but not always . The most safest place to be calm is to moor in a marina although even there it can be rolling. We have had two particular marinas that I am thinking of but probably there was more. The first one and the worst one was Porto in Portugal and the other was Mindelo in Cap Verde. Being moored means that at least the ground is not moving when you walk… So after we have rested and have our energy back we have to do maintenance in/on/under the boat. Inside and outside cleaning as anyone else that have a home,washing clothes, reorganise when we get new crew (we tend to spread our things around when it is only us two) and on top of that there is a hull that needs to be cleaned. That means you have to jump into the water have your snorkel and mask on and start to scrape of the barnicals and everything else that grows on the hull. It does make a difference in speed if you get rid of it. Since I really do like being in the water I don’t mind cleaning the hull but not always, and specially when there is these itching things in the water…. Don’t like them. There is though an easier way to clean the boat(at least for me) and that is lifting the boat and wash the hull with high pressure wash. This is not very often though due to there is not always a place where we can lift the boat and of course it is not free. This time in Fiji we lifted the boat since we also needed the hull to get painted. There are some strict regulations to get in to New Zealand and one of them is to have a clean hull. And Saphir is not clean and the propeller need some extra care and a new paint.

During this time me and Edgar checked in to First Landing resort next to the marina. It is so nice to sleep in a normal bed with lots of space and a roof that is high up so you can even stand up in your be and walk around it and not crawl in to the bed. We was spoiled with our own pool which was extra nice to use before bedtime to cool down in.

We had lovely days at the resort, walking on the beach, hanging by the pool, enjoying dinner and performances in the evening. I took some walks and Edgar went over to check on the boat to make sure the painting went well on the hull and the propeller.

Our friends Jocke and Magnus arrives very early in the morning and we have breakfast at the resort before it is time to head to the boat and get her in to the water again.

Hugs Eva

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Marie’s visiting us in Fiji continues

The first dive for Marie after she took her license needed to be celebrated with bubbles and some nice food. Next morning we check out and head towards the Yasawa island and to see the caves. This time the passage was much calmer and we had a nice current with us we went though it quick. We will not make it to the other reef before it is dark so we anchor in a bay and enjoy the sunset, the stars(picture taken with my Mobil. So much easier when the boat is not moving) and the sunrise. At 5.00 we wake up and head out to get through the passage and hoist the sail.

The passage with strong current

We have a great sailing day. The wind is around 8-10m/s and waves 1,5-2m. The wind is getting stronger and the waves got higher so we decide to reduce the mainsail. It didn’t work that well……the sail came out in full instead. This was not good. The wind was 15 m/s (30knots) and the waves was 2-3m so we didn’t feel comfortable to go up on deck to get the standing battens out of the mainsail. We change course and went behind the main island to get wind shade. Here was less wind and no waves so time to get these standing battens out of the mainsail. Since we furle in our sail in to the mast the battens are standing and are very long from 4m up to 20m. Now when the battens are out the sail can come down and together we tighten it up around the boom. New plans is made since we can’t make it the caves.

We found a bay close to the reef opening and anchored there for the night. Lots of smoke coming from the controlled fires on the island. Luckily the wind is right so we don’t smell the smoke. Time for a night swim before we go to bed.

Next morning we head to Blue lagoon next to Nanuya island. Suddenly we have 20 dolphins around the boat. Now everything feels much better and seeing dolphins compensate a bit that we missed the caves.

After we had anchored at Blue lagoon it was time to fix so that we could furle in the sail in the mast. Since we had this problem seven years ago(that we couldn’t furle in the mainsail)Edgar made sure we had the spear part that was broken that time. It was a small metal thing but it was a bit to long so it needed to be cut off. Me holding on to it with a poly grip and Edgar cutting it. Took us a few times to get the right length but we made it and the problem is solved. The furler is working and now we need a very calm day to hoist up the sail again.

We enjoy the sunset but are a bit frighten when we see big fires on the island next to us even though we understand it should be under control. Feel sorry for the people who are staying at the resort on that island. Must smell alot. The fire was on for two hole days also.

Time to explore the island and walk over to Lo’s tea house. It was a long, hot and beautiful walk. The view was great when we came up to the top. We was rewarded with a fresh lemonade and Fiji donut.

Lo’s Tea house

The ferry can’t get in to the pier so smaller boats comes out to leave and pick up people. In the evening we had dinner at Sami’s house and celebrated also his sons birthday. Herman and Ute from Thetis was also here at the Blue lagoon. So nice to see them again.

Our fish is in there getting ready

We wanted to dive again so we hoist the anchor and went south to Manta rays passage. First we snorkelled in the passage hoping to see some Manta rays but no luck but we saw lots of fishes and nice corals. We got to dive the next day. This time we was six divers and 2 instructors which feelt good until we started to dive. Our diver friends did not keep distance from us or swam together with their buddy which made it a bit enojing . You miss part off the fun in the dive since your focus is more keeping away from the others ( which of course you always do but then you expect the other also to keep away) Part from that it was a interesting dive in tunnels. Not a fan of that but fun to have done it. We saw one shark but not a great picture though and and we saw also an giant moray looking out from its hideout. All in all it was two okey dives. The sight was good even if the the water was not that clear. Feelt like it was a lot of plankton in the water.

I went snorkelling next to our boat after our dive. This is still my favourite snorkelling spot so far. Lots of cool corals, fishes and colours. Got a cool photo of the sun shining in the water

Next stop was Musket Cove. It was quit many boats there but we found a spot to drop the anchor. Here we stayed a few nights before we needed to go back to Vuda Marina. Me and Marie went for a long walk around the island perfect timing when it was low tie. We ended it with a dip in the pool.

Me and Marie went out to dive the next day and this time the other divers knew how to act which made the dive so much easier and more fun. The first dive I had problem with my tank. It was leaking a bit but managed anyway stay down for 37 min. The rest of the group came up 5 min later. Lots of fishes and a few black tip sharks as well. On the second dive we went next to a sandbank which appears only when it is low tie. Here we saw a very cool coral that looks like cabbage I also saw a moray. Which I didn’t catch on my camera this time.

Join me in to the water

Time to head back to the marina to prepare the boat for getting it out of the water since we are going to paint the hull. Not me and Edgar though we let the Yacht help do it for us. The freezer and fridge needs to get emptied since they don’t work when the boat is on land as they are water cooled. Good that the marina has a freezer where we can keep our food. And it was really time to defrost them as well. I took out all stored food boxes and realised we still have little more than we need of dry food ,cans and spices for our sailing to New Zealand. I have to make sure we don’t have any food that is not allowed to bring into New Zealand so we just buy the nesicery that we need as some fresh food and water. The dinner was taken at First Landing . This is the first time we are sitting indoors eating dinner, but it was raining heavy this evening. Luckily it had stopped when it was time for the fire show .

In the Marina there is a sea swimming pool more or less hidden on the island outside the restaurant. I have been out there several times but not swimming in it. Now it was time to try it and it was lovely. Since it is getting seawater in it naturally there was some small fishes and also some crabs.

Last dinner at the Boat Sheed restaurant with Marie before Karan picks her up and brings her to the airport. Thank you Marie for sailing with us. It was great to have you onboard and hope you learned to slow down and relax a bit. I am extra happy that I got a diving buddy

Hugs Eva

This was an extra long post. There will come a blog later from our days in between guests in Fiji. Until then enjoy the days we had with Marie. Love to here from you readers

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Marie visiting us in Fiji

28Aug to 17Sep

Marie arriverad and we introduced here to Fiji dance and she gladly joined. The next day we leave for go up to Vanua Levu and Suvasuva. It is a bit up so we will do it in two stop. First some rest and the Marie is full energy and start cleaning the windows which was really in need. We find a perfect place and anchor outside Nananu-i-Cake Island.Just in time befor the sun goes down. Lovely to finally be able to jump in the water from the boat. The moon is shining very bright this night.

Next stop is in the north tip of Vitu Levu next to Nananu-i -Cake island. We have a lovely sunset and a fantastic sunrise

We take the dinghy to see if we can find a good snorkelling place. We did see a lot of nice corals. Unfortunately not so many fishes though.

Next stay we have a sunny day and some wind so we can sail. I forgot to but enough sunscreen so my face got a bit red…

New bay and another sunset view. The moon is still very bright. We leave early in the morning to get true the passage in right time. Don’t want the current against us, it is enough with rough to go throw the passage.

Entering Suvasuva and Copra shed marina. We have to use our anchor and unfortunately it didn’t stick properly so we needed to get some help from the harbour master. He and Edgar went out to through it in and it worked. Edgar found the best place to race shave him self. The last photo shows where we are and all the blue dots are places we have visited. As you see some places have we been a few times

Me and Marie explore the town and find some nice things and gifts. We also find the market that was hidden behind some ground working place.

We also found Ocean Ventura Fiji dive center and booked us for a dive the next morning with Sara and Matthew. First we had to take a cab for 40 min to get to them on the other side of the island and then it was 30 min boat ride to the dive place. The first was called the the Zoo and the second the white tip . This was Marie’s first dive after she took her license just before she came to us. Both of the dives was great. Lovely corals and fishes. Some scared ones and some curious and puffer fish.

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Moore will come. Time to leave Fiji and no internet for a week to ten days.

Hugs Eva

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Fiji week with Elin

In beginning of Aug my cousins daughter Elin came to visit us for a week before she is flying back to Sweden after spent 6 months in Australia. Luckily she didn’t have jet leg so she was ready to go and explore part of Fiji. The wind forced us to stay in the harbour for a few days so we went to visit Sri Siva Subramaniya Swami Temple a wooden colourful Hindu temple in Nadi. After that we decided to go to Sleeping Giant zip line, Orchid falls & Jungle Safari. The way there was very interesting. First it was a nice road but after a while it started to be very bumpy and narrow and on top of it a bridge whiteout any fence. Luckily not that high bridge.

Me and Elin had a great time riding the zipline. Edgar didn’t dare or maybe not that keen on it so he stayed on the ground and watch us. There was some lovely orchid and other flowers. We was a bit tiered afterwards so we didn’t go up to the waterfalls. It was a quiet a bit to walk uphills. Might do that if I will visit the place again.

On the way back I got a better picture on the bridge without any fence. Glad we didn’t meet anyone on it. On the other side the farmer had started to burn on the field. Was a bit scary to drive through that but everything went well.

Back in the marina we had high tie and it was easy to walk out on the pier totally opposite from the morning when it was low tie. A tour in to Lautoka ended up with Edgar cutting of his long hair. I didn’t expect it to be that short but it will grow out in a few days/weeks. Now when he was so shorthair why not dress as a Fijian as well. The jumper to Nellie is finally finished only need to attach all yarn ends… and they are a few.

We went to First Landing for dinner and this time they had the show down by the water. This was by far the best light show we have seen there. The effect being in the water help a lot.

The weather was better and we motor sailed over to Muskat Cove. Nice to be able to jump in the water from the boat again. It was women’s world championships football and the Swedish ladies was playing. With help from my cousin we manage to see the game via messenger.

Outside Musket cove on a reef there is this place called Seventh Heaven that we went out to check out. It is a floating restaurant/bar and bathing platform where you can stay during daytime. We had a great day snorkelling, swimming and Elin jump from the tower. I was told that during the last year they have started to feed the fishes and also put in some metallic things that looks like beds to get the corals to grow. We had a great day there and I know that Elin was extra happy since she got to speak to an actress that she really likes. Don’t ask me who she was… not anyone I have ever seen. But happy that Elin was happy.

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A week goes quickly and it is time for us to say bye bye to Elin. So glad that you came and stayed with us .

Hugs Eva

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Fiji days with Ella and family

We had almost 25 hours to clean the boat, do the laundry, going to physiotherapist (me) and have a dinner just the two of us before Ella, Filip and Nellie arrived on Friday 14July.

The plan is to stay in the Marina get batteries hopefully on Monday or Tuesday. Lucky me I got a nespresso machine. From now on nice coffe onboard Saphir. Not the best weather over the weekend rain and cloudy. With right cloths and umbrellas we are of to get some ice cream.

The rain stops and we decided to go to First Landing for dinner or me and Edgar take the bikes and Ella and Filip walks. Nellie has the best place in our wagon and granddad pulling her. Hopefully she will fall a sleep on the way back. Hmmmm

Ella wanted us to come with here when she was going to have some massage at First Landing the next day. Not much of a beach as it was low tie but Nellie had fun and I enjoyed a coffee.

We rented a car since the batteries will take little longer time to get. Bio security will fume them? Don’t understand why and then of course some paper work… Driving on the left side is not for me so Edgar has to be our designated driver. Our first stop at Sri Siva Subramaniya Swami Tempel. I had brought my sarong and one to Ella so we was good but the guys had also to cover their knees.

Made a stop in Nadi to find a support belt for my hip. Didn’t find the correct one but one that will do for know. Will continue look or get someone to bring it with them from Sweden. Me and Ella meet this lovely lady that introduced Ella to Savusavu. Ella was not so keen on it either.

Next to the roads there is railways and also in to the land. These is not railways for commuting it is for the suger plants. Now is the season to harvest so we see a lot of them.

In the Marina they have started to build some nice shades and put up hanging chairs(hammock?). Very nice to sit in and watch the boats coming in and out of the harbour.

I have a training partner. She is cheating a bit though and are done long before me. Some how I promised Nellie in a weak moment to make her a rainbow jumper. These are the colors. Pict on the jumper will come. Let see if I manage to make it before they leave. So training, knitting is not all we do when we hang around in the boat I also do some baking. Since we end up staying here until Thursday and we took out the pool for Nellie so she could have some fun. An 80feet catamaran came up next to us and suddenly we feel very tiny…

Thursday the batteries arraives after Edgar and Karran (our taxi driver) went to the warehouse to make sure we got them. At 5.00 pm the batteries are here and now we wait for the custom to come so we can lift them onboard. We bought them as yacht in transit to avoid vat. 5.30pm the custom guy arrived and saw them taken onboard our boat. Yippie we can leave the Marina after 10 days for us and a week for Ella& fam. Friday morning we are off to Muskat Cove. We get some help with the lines from the marina since we are moored with two buoys in the front that crosses over the other boats. Getting out of the marina Nellie enjoys the sailing or motoring for be exact. After 3 hours we have anchored outside Musket cove.

We will go in and see if they have some space for us tomorrow. For now we will enjoy not being in a harbour and the benefits of jumping in to the water whenever you feel for it. It is though so much easier to be in the harbour with the family. Then everyone can leave the boat when they want and not need the dinghy. First of all we need to cool down and enjoy the water and freedom to jump of the boat in to the water when ever we feel like it. This is the one off the best things with anchoring in a bay.

The morning after we went in with the dinghy to have a look and there was a lot of free space so don’t know why he said we couldn’t come in yesterday. Never mind we went straight out again and took Saphir in to the harbour since it was high tie.

Nellie loved the pool and tried to get friends or getting help with the water. Nellie did meet a new friend and her name was also Nellie. They had great fun together at the pool and also at the restaurant.

We went to the song and dance show at the restaurant this time also and Nellie loved it and also went up dancing

Me and Ella went snorkelling on the reef just outside the harbour. It was okay but the sight was not that clear. I have seen much better places. Fun for Ella to snorkel and the first time for me in six weeks. Feelt good that I can do that again. Saw a lot of blue starfishes and a cool heart shaped pink coral and a few fishes as well

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A week goes fast and it is time to leave Muskat Cove for this time and head to Vuda Marina again. It is not that far but someone got tiered. I am working hard on the jumper to Nellie, still have some color strips to ad before it is done…… can be hard to be done before they leave. In the marina we end up next to the catamarans again and we do feel very small although our mast is almost the same hight.

Went in to Nadi again to have a look around the town. Visit the fruit and vegetables market that was very nice. We also went to visit the handicraft market and that was a bit of disappointment. Felt that many of the things was not made in Fiji.

Back in the boat and our last evening Nellie wanted to make ponytail on grandma with help of grandpa that didn’t work that well… so grandpa let her do Pippi Longstocking ponytails on him instead….with some help from grandma.

Need to show the sunset. Been a few days without it… Nellie decide that she wanted sleep with me and grandpa since it was her last night with us until we come home . A bit tight in the bed so I ended up turning me around. Seems my feet didn’t smell to bad. The next morning they are off and will see them in end of October. Safe flight back home to Sweden.

Big hugs Eva

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Fiji days with Erika and her family

Five days to recover more in my back/leg, before Erika with family arrives. We also need to rearrange the boat so they can sleep in the beds. Luckily the cleaning we got help with. Thanks to a neighbour boat I got in contact with a new physiotherapist that help me much better. Got new exercises/stretches and she also gave me massage and this electrical muscle stimulator that felt really good. Hopefully this will help but it will take a while and need to do my stretches 3times a day. Puh!!!

Erika, Oskar, Max and Mia have arrived ! They are a bit tiered . It was a long journey 36 hours with not much sleep. We are so happy to have them here.

After a day resting and grocery shopping we head out off the Marin to go to some off the island near Musket cove. As often the wind is not right so we use the iron genua instead. Nice to have help with all lines and fenders.

We passes some reefs and need to be looking out for corals heads since not all are marked on the sea chart. There are some very nice resorts that we pass and we anchor outside one. So nice to have a swim in the sea. I have been swimming in the sea since we was in Tonga and that is three weeks ago. With the sup board in the water it is easier to get M&M in the water. They think it is a bit to high to jump from the platform in the back off the boat.

We had anchored outside an adults resort ops!! so we couldn’t go in to the beach with the kids and didn’t find any other nice place to go ashore. Edgar took an extra drive around with the kids in the dinghy before we left to a new place.

We ended up on Cast away island. A bit rolly here also but much better then the last place. I thought when we where inside the reef it should not be rolly , of course not totally calm but less then we had. Now everyone is ready to go ashore so we took the dinghy in to Cast away resort. It was on its way to get low tie so we was lucky to get in to land. Now we had to wait for the high tie to come , which takes 3-4 hours. Good that they had a restaurant so we could get some lunch and a swimming pool that we could use. M&M enjoy swimming and playing in the pool and I enjoyed sitting down and relaxing and not needing to walk.

The next day we went to Musket cove to spend some time with the World Arc fleet before they continue in a few days to Vanatue, Australia and onwards. Since we are not joining we thought it would be nice to be their start boat and wave them off. Musket cove turned out to be a perfect place to stay with kids with the beach and a pool to swim in when the tie is low.

It was very nice to spend time with the fleet. We enjoy every minute. We will miss them all a lot. When we started our sailing a year ago I thought/ hoped that we would meet some nice sailors. Never in my mind I thought we was going to be part of such a super great group and find truly new friends.

The starting day for WARC is here. We welcome Tim onboard. Erika will be in charge off the starting flags using our boathook as help. It was a bit scary start when Salt and Sara of Sweden past us and headed straight towards the reefs. You can see on the picture where we had anchored next to the reef. They turned in time and we wave to our friends. Some off them came very close up to us before the went away. We wish them all a great sailing to Vanuatu and onwards.

The bar was located just next to our boat where we could have some food as well. Good for me I didn’t have to walk very far. In daytime when it was high tie we cold have a swim next to the bar but at low tie you could walk all the way in to the beach without getting wet.

Slowly getting better in my hip and leg due to my stretches 3 times a day. The massage I took also help a lot I straighten out so to say. I continue to bike everywhere since walking to far hearts and standing still is not working more than a minute or two. Will come back to this lovely place and get more massage fore sure.

We spend another day here by the pool and in the evening there was a dance performance that we all enjoy. Two fascinated kids sitting like a light as we say in Sweden. Meaning they are sitting totally still and not moving around. Mia wanted to join the dancing so Erika and her went up.

The next morning we headed out and went a bit north and ended up at the island Waya outside the village Nalauwaki. After the anchor was drop Edgar and Mia went in to meet the chef and give cava. We was all invited to the savusavu ceremony later in the afternoon followed with song and dance by the locals. To be allowed to snorkel, swim in the water,walk on the beach etc you have to meet the chef of the village and bring cava and drink it with him. This is not the cava with bubbles this is made out of cava roots and mixed with water. Not very nice taste according to me.

We went in to the village for the savusavu and dance. The tradition is to drink up everything in the bowl so we hade to take a few drinks. It was a very nice song and dance performance. Mia and Edgar join the dance but Max didn’t want to dance.

Nice sunrise and then we are off to Vuda Marina. A bumpy motor going so the kids ended up sleeping.

The next day was a fun day in the water park. Even me went on the slide once with Mia. It was really fun.

Vuda Marina has a built part of the playground like a boat and the kids loved it. Sometimes it is nice to watch a move and just relax in the sofa.

Two weeks goes fast when you have fun. Time for the family to go home. Will miss them a lot. Love you Max and Mia

Hugs Eva

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Fiji with Elise

Suva yatch club anchor place didn’t make a good impression on us rather the opposite. Lots of ship wrecks and ships that almost are a wreck.

We decided to leave and found a bay just around the corner. This feels much better. Although it is a bit rolly when the tie comes and goes. We stay here over night and I did some very stupid thing so my hip and leg got really bad. Hope it will get better soon. Elise is a bit yet lagged and I try out my new baking machine. This will take a few times I guess to get a great result. First I guess was to much flour.

We leave the bay next morning and head up to Nadi. Outside Denarau Marina we drop the anchor since the marina was full. We take the dinghy in to the marina to do some shopping and fill up petrol to the dinghy. When we came in and starts walking I realise that my leg /hip is worse then I thought. Can only walk 10- 20m before it is to painful to walk. After done the shopping I am totally exhausted and can’t walk…. Grateful that Erik is in Denarau and gives me a pain relief shot and some strong pills. Feels already much better on the way back to Saphir.

Laying in anchor outside Denarau was not the best place and we realise that many of the fleet is in Vuda Marina so we decided to go there. It is a very nice relaxed marine. Not as commercial marina as Denarau.

As Elise have been on big cargo ships she have learned a few tricks how clean a boat. I am very happy that she us to clean part of the boat. She also went up the mast to free the flag that had got stuck in the mast.

We went in to the Boat Sheed(the restaurant in the marina) for dinner in the evening together with Chris and Karen. We had a great evening that ended up with Chris singing karaoke and Karen joining him.

Often it is something that needs to be fixed, repaired or replaced on the boat when we come to a marina. This time the boat was okay but me and Edgar where broken. I can hardly walk and Edgar have problem with his back. Poor Elise was looking forward to sail around the island in Fiji but ended up in Vuda Marina and a few day at a resort. The days in the resort help Edgar a lot and I was feeling a bit better but still not good enough to walk . We did enjoy our days at the pool and lovely dinners. So nice to sleep in a full size bed, a bed you don’t need to crawl in and is totally still.

Elise went on a day trip on a catamaran. She snorkelled and saw lovely corals and fishes. This is what I hope to do and see soon.

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Back in the marina after days at the resort Edgar and Elise goes to do some grocery shopping while I rest… So glad that we have our folding bikes onboard. This is my life saver. I am not stuck on the boat although we can take the dinghy in to the marina where there is a restaurant, chandelier and a food/ cafe/gift shop. To walk from the boat to the marina takes about 5-10 min and for me probably 20 -30 min, since I have to stop every 20meter due to pain. Biking is without any pain and the roads are okay to bike on. I can easily move around. We saw that is was going to be a market on First Landing resort so me and Elise took the bikes over to check it out. Found some nice things. Most of them handmade by the locals. I even bought a small bag that I had to wait for to be done

Vuda Marina next to the resort. Short distance but long to walk to.

In the evenings we went there with our friends and had dinner. They had performance and invited us up to dance with them. It was only Elise and Karen who went up. New drinks has to tries and Elises was very blue and good she said.

Our last evening with Elise. She leaves early morning to fly home to Sweden and start work. Safe flight back Elise and next time we hope that you can sail a bit more …

Hugs Eva

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Getting to Fiji

Together with Amanzi and Matilda we hoist the anchor in the sunrise and set course to the Lau groups in the west side of the Fiji Island.

I have prepared our sleeping spot in the salon on the floor since it is going to be a very wobbly crossing. To make it softer I even put a madras’s against the cupboard and pillows on the other side to make it softer. This is definitely the best spot. Don’t understand why I haven’t done this every time. Slept so much better here. It is a two night sailing and approximate 300NM. At 2,30 in the morning we have 190 NMs left. We will be in Lau group early morning next day.

First some lovely sunset pictures.

At 8.20 Tonga time we reach the opening of the reef. This is the first time since our start of sailing that we turn back the clock 1hour and not forward. That means we are on the other side of the world from home. It took us a year to get here and if you fly it takes 30-36 hours depending on hours in airports. A bit different. We arrive in Lomaloma on the Vanuatu Balavu island and drop our anchor at 10.30. Now we wait for the rest of the fleet and specially Rob from World Arc. We didn’t have to wait long. An hour later we have been checked in to Fiji. The 4 authorities plus the agency came out to the boat. Very efficient and we are ready to leave and take us slowly around to the other side of the island.

After some very tricky narrow passages with lots off coral reefs and the scary coral heads that can be just under the surface we dropped the anchor at a lovely spot. Later we heard that five boats hits this coral heads and some needed some repairs later. What a lovely place. Would really love to come back and explore more.

Next morning we found this jello thing under our roof in the cockpit. How did it get in?? And what is it? No time to wonder just clean up and we are of to the main island and Suva to pick up Elise our youngest daughter that arrived on the 14th. She is staying at a hotel in Suva. Apparently not the safest city so no fun going outside the hotel area.

One night crossing and we will be in Suva. At noon we have 144NM left and at 5 next morning 40NM left. It takes time to sail. We have a lovely sunrise and greets by dolphins when we get closer. They where not the only one checking on us. Suddenly there came a rib boat with the coast guard asking to come onboard to check our papers. They said it was a routine check. No others boat friends after us had them onboard. This is the third time we have been checked by the coast guard. Wonder what so special about our boat?

Finally we see Suva. We talk to Elise and can see hers hotel we think. She sees us sailing outside the reef. Lots of boat wrecks and boats that are almost a wreck here. This place doesn’t look very safe or nice. It doesn’t matter we drop the anchor and Edgar takes the dinghy in to pick her up. Elise have arrived and now we have 9 days together to explore part of Fiji.

Hugs Eva

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Tonga days

Sailing to Tonga was a bit rolly so we took plaster behind our ears to prevent seasickness. The scopoderm works wonder and I know that Rob agrees. We had lovely sunset and sunrise. Simple food as halfmade chicken soup and Swedish knäckebröd works perfect when you dont want to be to long in the kitchen fixing dinner although I did prepare dinner the first night that just hade to be warmed up.

Reaching Tonga Rob hoist the yellow flag and the Tongan underneath. Our ETA didn’t hold. We came in 3 hours early this time but that was good then we had good time to check in and find a buoy before dark. We say bye and thank you to Rob who join us from Niue to Tonga. It was a pleasure having you onboard

After having the bio-, custome, ect on board we are ready to find a buoy and it looks like this is going to be a very calm place to stay at, no rolling so we will sleep well here.

Some maintenance works has to be done as some washing and cleaning as always. After so long time on the boat in this humidity the boat gets salty, mouldy in some places and the brass and crome in side the boat needs extra care.

We have some great days with our friends in the village Neiafu on Vava’u island before we explore some of the others island nearby . Lunch at Bellavista sundowners and dinners at Kraaken. Both very nice places.

Only a two hours motoring from Neiafu we lay anchor next to some of our friends and do some snorkelling and a tour to Swallow Cave. That cave is fantastic with the this huge shoal of fishes that hover in the cave. The light inside and the colours of the stone in the cave. So sad that there are those that have to mark that they have been there though.

Even if there is no restaurant near by we still don’t need to cook food our self. David and his family made food for us and we had a great dinner and evening at Vaka Eitu. It was extra nice to meet up with Chris and Anne.

The day after some of us went snorkelling on the reef wall at the end of the island. It was very colour full and lots of different corals. A bit scary to get in and out due to the swells on the coral reef. My friend did heart her self and destroyed part of her west suit when she went out of the water the day before. We all came safe in and out the water with help from each other.

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Time to get back to the village Neiafu and meet up with all the Arc sailors to visit the botanical garden and have lunch at their restaurant. They have just opened up again after covid and we where the first visitors. This guy is around his eighties and have traveled around the world meet the Pope 3 times if I remember right. He even have been in Sweden with some students. After lunch the children had a dance performance for us and we was thought how they make walls, rugs, basket ect out of palm leaves. It was very interesting and there is a lot of hour behind this nice work

The gathering continues with a dinner at a Bellavista where Marco is doing one of his dreams to serve food in Tonga in there traditional skirt. This was arranged by him and the crew from Enalia. The best was that almost all of us came for the dinner that night. Think the restaurant was very pleased as well. The owner is Italian and so is all from Enalia. Marco did a great job and the food was delicious!

We also hade a lovely dinner, prize giving ceremony and dance performance at Mango cafe. This time there was no price for fastest sailing since we all didn’t end up doing the same sailing via Suwarrow and Niue. We ended up getting a price for being closet in the amount of age of the fleet that left Bora Bora.

A stroll around the village to find some last things before checking out and filling up diesel. Here runs the animals around free so I was not surprised to see pigs, piglets and chickens walking around .

Filling up diesel at the pier direct from the thank truck.

The last days before sailing to Fiji we spent them with our friends padel boarding and enjoying the beauty in the bays. Learned me a lesson when I feelt of the board and lost my sunglasses. Not good at all but Clare found them. From now on they will have floating rope or something else that floats. Thank you for great days .

Hugs Eva

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Days in Niue

When we arrived to Niue the swells was quite big and it made it very tricky to go a shore. We decided to take a slow relaxing day , fixing on the boat and go in the next day. You will understand what I mean by tricky to go a shore when you see the movie.

So after breakfast we head in to land and the pier where the dinghy hoists up on the pier. It is a bit tricky but after a few times you learn.

We headed to the government building to regístrate us in to the country. At the same time we also made the paperwork’s for leaving, very convenient. Three different institutions, custom, immigration and bio security. We filled in the immigration paper , the same one you get on the plane when entering a new country and rest was already done by ARC. Edgar just had to sign some papers and pay tourist tax.

We started to walk to the shop, The Arc had organised a sunset drink in one of the few bars. After that a dinner with performances at a resort on the island. It was a nice evening with great company.

The next day we went for a guided tour to see part of the island. There is a lot of caves and and some freshwater pools to walk/climb in and also to take swim in. The water was a bit cold but it was refreshing and after a while you get use to it. Even Edgar went in snorkelling. Felt little strange that there was almost no salt even if it was connected to the ocean although not a huge opening

Very special snorkelling

In the evening one of our guides open up her house for us to have a barbecue. We all went to buy meat and drinks for the evening . So nice of here and her friend to open up her home for us. We had a great time. Lots of laughs, singing and dancing. It was very long time ago I dance so that was really fun. We adults showed the young adults how to move.

Happy that is not only me and Edgar that have to get the dinghy in to the water in the middle of the night. It all went well.

Relaxing Sunday including a short walk

I went diving on Monday afternoon with Laura,Michel,Cory and Luc. We went in to a cave which was fantastic. Little scary with all these snakes in the water. Even if they didn’t do anything except being very curious and scared me when it came up to check on me. The landscape outside the cave was fantastic and so different from what I have seen before. Hard to not to go lower then 18 m which is what I am certified for when the water is so clear and bright.

After the diving it was time to move on and go to Tonga. We welcome Rob onboard. He is working for the ARC and needed a lift. Toghether with Misty, SolanaV , Pec and Pippin we hoist our sails and headed to Tonga ready for two nights sailing.

Hugs Eva

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BoraBora to Niue with stop in Suwarrow or not

After Eva had left it was time to focus and prepare for the next leg that is including to stop before we are in Tonga. We got divide in two groups since the island we are going to visit don’t have space or enough buoys at their bay for all 24 boats at the same time. The first group starts on the 14th of May and we take our dinghy to watch the start and wish the first group fare winds.

Since we already where in the dinghy we decided to go around the corner where we have seen that the cargo boats goes in. The yellow houses is probably the warehouse for the goods. Further in is a small village and they have built some large pools that we couldn’t make any sense of.

The upcoming days we went shopping with Matt and Fiona on Matilda. Luckily they rented a car so it was easy to go drive between the different stores to find what we wanted. Me and Fiona took a walk by our self to see if we could find some nice pearls but no luck. I did found some on my next trip… The boat needs to fill up. Don’t know if it’s a sailing boat but guess. Saw that they had hoist the sail in the evening and put lights on them when still where anchoring. When we came back after filling up diesel our dinghy was laying there keeping our place

We had some sun downers and dinners in the evening toghether with the rest of the sailing group. One night was with performance.

There was a lot of training around our boats but I manage to to some paddling around without disturbing their training. Last sunset in Bora Bora for us

We are getting ready for five days at sea. The bed is made for us on the couch since it is to rolly to sleep in our own bed. The Norwegian flag is hoisted and Pippin is getting to the start field

The start went of at 12.00 and we hoist our second jennaker that is on a rolling thing and not in a sock as the other one. This is the first time we hoist it since we left Sweden 10 months ago. The wind was twisting and turning around the Island so it took some minutes before we got some wind in our jennaker.

Just after the start we got some dolphins jumping next to us

As it is Norways Independence Day we celibrate it with waffles for lunch with the Norwegian brown goat cheese and drink Solo. Happy Independence Day Norway 🇳🇴

We avoided some squalls during the night so our route is no that straight more zig zag between the squalls.

On our third day at sea we get information that we need to change our course and go direct to Nui and not to Suwarrow. The first boats had arrived there and was denied to get in due to some paper that was wrong. Since we all have the same paper with us the World Arc asked all off us to go direct to Nui. We had 402 NM left before we changed the course and now we have 810 NM to Niue. 3 extra days on Sea so total 6 days before we are moored. This news took us down a bit. As we say in Swedish “the air went out of us ’ We was really looking forward seeing Suwarrow. Specially since this is such a remote place and really hard to get to. I hardly believe that we will get a chance to get there unless we do a new pacific crossing…. I Hmmm maybe not.

One early morning at five we caught up a sailing boat. Just when Edgar thinks we will pass it the wind to blow up and the sailing boat speeds up. Edgar hois the sails and hope that the sailing boat speeds up and that we can get back on our course by going behind her. They where heading to Fiji so our courses crossed each other . Took a while though but finally we could go back on our course and head to Niue

After a few days at sea the days goes in each other. We make turn on watches. You sleep or try to when the other is on watch. I knit, listen to books, play some games on my iPhone, work on the blogg during my watches. It keeps me awake. If it would have been less rolly I also would have done some exercises so my back,hip /leg will get better. This rolling makes the pain worse and almost impossible to do the exercises correct specially when it involves keeping balance.

The view I really like both the nice days but also the rough ones. Sunset, sunrise and so on . All jas it charms almost. Do not like the squalls with thunder.

Finally we can see Niue. This little flat Island in the South Pacific is one of the smallest countries in the world.

It will be very nice to relax for a few days now.

Hugs Eva

On our way to St Helena

Thursday 6/3 we are leaving Brazil but first we have to go back to Monday morning the 20 Jan when we are checking out from Namibia. (So sorry very late in updating) Same procedure as when we arrive. All crew to immigration to check out and then the captain to customs and we are good to go. Back at the boat we have a few things to do before we leave. This time we don’t have a common start, so some left already yesterday and some will leave later in the day. We left just after lunch and hoist our sails.

On Tuesday late afternoon Edgar shouts out Dolphins !!! So nice to see them. While I was filming I see that a flying fish jumping high up I front of me, never seen that before. Didn’t catch it good on the film though.

On the forth day we have hoist up the blue water runner and enjoining the day. I was in bed sleeping (since I had have the 20-23 and 5-8 watch)when Edgar told Chris that he saw a squirt from a whale. Luckily Chris was reacting and took a photo when the whale dived just next to the boat. A bit to close to us but at the same time Chris got a photo of the back and the fin and he got to see his first whale on his journey .

We had some lovely sunset and sunrises between all the rolling. Happy that we had some preparerad meals so it was easy to do the dinners, and I am very happy for having our own private live dishwasher onboard. Thank you Chris for keeping the kitchen clean.

What a nice sight when I wake up on my last watch at 5 on this leg (day 8) to see our friend Mistral on the plotter and having only 20 Nm left until we can drop the anchor.

Look at that face
Almost there
Some of the fleet have already arrived
We are St Helena!!

So happy to arrived and looking forward to enjoy the Island, Jacobs Ladder, Napoleon, Whale sharks etc

Hugs Eva