mars 2023 – Sailing with Saphir

Crossing the Pacific Ocean

The big day is here… we are going to sail from Galapagos to Marquesas just me and Edgar on Saphir. It is 3000NM ahead of us and we are very pleased that we have the rest of the World Arc fleet around. Although we might not see so many of them on the plotter but we will speak to them twice a day on the SSB net.

We will cross some timelines during this sailing, It will be in total -3,5 hours (-9.5H UTC)when we get to Marquesas. The boat clock will follow the Galapagos time (-6Hour UTC)until we are anchored in Hiva-Oa Marquesas.

On the third night sitting and watching the sun set and taking some photos we suddenly get company by lots of dolphins. The played around our bow for 10 minutes before they move on.

The next morning the engine had to work for a few hours due to no wind and unfortunately we got water in the engine room. Edgar saw what the problem was but it is not easy to fix on sea. So we have to empty it out from time to time. To see how much that comes in we have taken of one off the hatches to the floor to see. Just have to be very careful when we go down in the boat. An other day our generator stopped working and we had to use the main engine to load our battery until Edgar had tried different things and solved it by changing an impeller.

On the 6th night Edgar woke me up since we needed to take down our gennaker due to all the squalls around us. The weather got more tens and soon we saw thunder. Suddenly we have Hoka hey near us and we kept in contact during the hole night and steered around to avoid the thunder. It felt very good to have one boat close to us during those hours. Early in the morning we could relax. The sun was getting up and cleared the sky. That morning when I took the net call Edgar slept trough it all. It can be quit noisy and lots of schhrr and shhh sounds from the radio. In the middle of this is where we sleep. We can’t sleep in our cabin due to all the rolling so we take turns on the couch which we have put an extra mattress from the bow cabin.

There will be lots of sunset and sunrises on this trip and they all look different so it is very hard to choose so here are a few and some with dolphins

12 Mars at 04.00 we have done halfway which we celebrated with a glass of bubbles the next evening. We also discovered that we had got company on the boat. A grey feted booby had sleepy on our sun panels. In the morning Edgar manage to get him of the boat so we could clean the sun panels. It was not that easy but lots off water , holding tight on to boat that is rolling we got it cleaned. Now we just needed to keep the boby away from the boat. That’s why Edgar have the stick next to him. Took us the hole day until the booby gave up.

13 Mars, still sailing with the genaker but the wind change and we switch to wing by wing. Much more comfortable sailing. Edgar decides to change the impeller on the generator since it is not working so well with the cooling system. So far so good. While the generator is on and loading our battery I take the opportunity to make a suger cake to celebrate Edgars brother Mattias on his birthday. This is for you Matti, Happy Birthday!and I will make the cake for you when I am home. I also made us pancakes for breakfast. Trying out different mixes since I am saving the eggs and flour for baking. Think I found one good that we also can use for waffles.

I believe I got some energy after that breakfast or maybe just bored since I did some clothes washing and polished some of the crome that got rostat. Can’t just sit knitting and listen to books.

After many days on sea and needed to change sails we are getting better and better in changing the different sails settings and I do feel more comfortable doing it know. It is quit heavy, hard and tricky to take down the spinnaker and then take the spinnakerboom out as a preventer for the genua and the main boom for the other genua. Our wing by wing sail.

Today we spotted five killer wales we think. Haven’t seen any dolphins or whales in five six days so this was very nice to see. No picture though but some on my knitting that I worked on.

Late in the evening on our net call there was an mayday call from a non WARC boat that had hit a whale and the boat sank. The whale actually came up under the boat and hit the rudder so it started to leak and in 20 min the boat sank. All four from the boat went in their lifeboat and had also their dinghy with them. We and several other boats change our course to help them. Around midnight we heard a cargo ship calling them and an others boat that was near them. Felt good to know that the lifeboat was spotted and an hour later we heard on the rescue sending live in VHF. The four crew went on the sailing boat RollingStone and we was told that they will sail with them to Hiva-Ou where we all are heading. With this great news we turned back to our track and head to Marquesas and Hiva-Ou.

I was never keen on doing night sailing before we started our circumnavigation adventure specially if it was only me and Edgar on the boat. Mostly I think is that our sleep is not great and sit out on the boat and watch and see nothing since it is totally black. Can’t recall that we have these night sky’s up in the north as we have now in the south. The moon is shining up so I see the ocean and the waves and on top off that all the stars and Milky Way is magical. Sadly it is hard to take photo on a rolling boat when the camera wants your to hold it still. Done my best to capture the sky and the moon. Easier is to catch the sunrise which greets you after the night watch. Changing from dark red to brighter to orange and then yellow . All these lovely colours painting the horizon together with all the clouds

The 15 Mars at 19.34 we have done 2/3 of our sailing only 1000NM left to go. Fingers crossed that we will have wind and can make around 6 -7 knots. If so we will arrive around the 22 of Mars. On the 16 of Mars at 07 we put on the engine since there is now wind to talk about. We are doing only 2,5-3,5 knots. That is not fun at all. After the morning net call the engine is of and we have wind again and doing almost 6kn. This morning we have porrige for breakfast. Edgar goes back to bed and I found that I downloaded french language on my Storytel reader. Starts listening to that for a while. Around 12 we starts to get more wind and doing 7.5-8 knots. Feels really good after this very slow night.

One afternoon it suddenly flew hundreds and hundreds of flying fishes on the ocean . I saw them near and far away from the boat and in between I saw some medium sizes fishes jumping around. Think it was tuna but not sure. I did catch the flying fish on film.

There was a new call out to the fleet that they needed help on Cepa due to one of the guys passed out and needed som help. Once again some of the boats turn there course to them and on Pec there was a doctor that came to assist and was with the sick man all the way to the hospital. Luckily there was a privet yacht nearby that came and picked them up and rooked them to Nuko Hiva. All went well and he is in good hands. We got an sms from him the day after he had arrived to the hospital that he was well and needs some more tests.

After 18 days on the sea the wind dies out and we only do 2-3 kn. So boring and so rolling. Time for the iron genua to work. The positive thing is that we get less rolling due to the speed and help with the mainsail out. I even can sleep in my one bed for a few hours. Many other of the boats also had put on their engin, but we heard from them later that they got some wind and could sail a bit again.

After 20 days and 13 hours 47 min we have crossed the finish line and can anchor to have a nice sleep in our new made bed. It was totally black since it was around 23 hours when we arrived.

Galápagos Islands Part 1 San Cristóbal

We arrived early in the morning to San Cristóbal and just before we where going to anchor the sky literally opened up. Luckily I have a really good yellow raincoat to keep me dry. After three tries we are anchored and have put up our presening to keep the rain out from the cockpit. Time for some breakfast and some sleep.

Due to the restrictions we had to stay on the boat until the boat had been cleared in and checked the hull by a diver and inside by 10 different people from different authorities for anything we are not allowed to bring with us from others countries. We was told that our frozen meat was going to be sealed but they didn’t do that although some other boats got their meat sealed Lots of paperwork. The immigration lady had left when they arrived to our boat at 17 so we will do that the next morning . Now we are good to go a shore.

We can’t use our own dinghy due to all the sea lions so we have to rely on taxi boats. There are sea lions all over this city mostly of course on the rocks and beaches but some of them also goes up in to the town. There was also a few lizards in town and we was told that it is their breeding season so they come up and lay there eggs on land.

We went diving around the kicker rock . It was great. We saw lots of hamar sharks, black tip sharks, some turtles, one mantra and lots of other small fishes. Need to get a book to know little more about all these fishes we see.

Every evening there was happy hour at the hotel where the Arc crew was stationed and most of us went there to meet up before dinner. Lots off different restaurants here to choose from so no eating in the boat for us. I am happy since I get a lot of fish to eat. Haven’t been much of that in the boat. No luck in fishing . We take taxi boat in and out and also when we fill up the diesel they come out with it in a boat

The Arc had a half day trip booked for us to see part of the island. We went to a turtle nursery? The land turtles was getting less due to humans. Know the amount is growing again and the inhabitants are involved in keeping the turtles safe.

We also went to a very lovely beach on the other side of the island. There was some sea lions around the rocks sleeping and if we would have stayed until five we might have seen sharks. Lots of salamanders also and this one was not afraid he just looked at me. There was this little creature p

Next stop was a crater filled with water and a fantastic view. It was very high up, many steps and so wort it. Sadly Edgars knee was not good so he missed it.

Walking around in SanCristobal you see a lot off different houses and styles. Some are still under construction and at the same time the finished part is already rented out and opened up businesses in and living in.

The last evening on San Cristóbal Christian on Hoka hey organised a dinner for al of us at The Pier. Almost everyone came so at the end we where around 70 people. We had a great evening with all our friends.

When it rains it rains heavy so it makes sense to have the big drains system in the streets. Can’t have inlay without a sun set or two

Hugs Eva

Galapagos part 2 visiting Isabela

We set sail just before sunset and head towards the largest island in Galapagos although it is only populated in the south East corner . Our instrument is not with us…. No wind, depth or speed again… grrr. Hope we can (Edgar) can figure out the problem soon. It is very nice to know where the wind is coming from ( yes you can see it )and the strength and also when we arrive to an anchor place it is much easier if we know the depth under us and not only rely on what the plotter/map is saying.

It was a calm night sailing or motor sailing is more correct. Not much wind after the first 2 hours so the iron genua had to work. We arrived early morning to Isabela. Lots of Arc boats was already there. After we had anchored we had some breakfast and then both of us needed some sleep. Before exploring the island.

Once again we had to rely on taxi boats since we was not allowed to use our dinghy due to our 2 stroke engine. Here there was less taxiboats and double price (2$/per person) compared to San Cristóbal. Glad we are only two of us and not 7 as on Blue Sunshine. Although they can and are using their dinghy. Luckily for us it would show a bit later in the afternoon.. We went in later in the afternoon to look around and to get something to eat. It is carneval time so it was a big celebration going on on the beach with food tent, loud music, beach volleyball game and lots of people enjoying them self. In the middle of this it started to rain and we tried to find a place to have food. Lots of places was closed and just when we found one place the phone rang. It was Annie on Maroro. Our boat had made a huge turn in the water when the wind blew up and hit the big yellow buoy. When we came back to our boat Clas from BlueSunshine was onboard and keeping her not to hit the buoy again. It was a bit caiotic as it was raining heavily also and some other boats had changed the anchor place since the drifted. We moved us far out to be safe and stayed on the boat rest of the evening and played rumikub.

This is how it looked the day after the rain in town

The next days we explored the island together with Petra, Michel and Fluer from Pippin. We saw some Flamingos, the Turtel Center where they help to bread up the turtles and but them back out to the wild when they are around five years old , we rented bikes and biked to the wall of tears. On the way out there we saw many turtles in the wild and at the wall of tears in the rain we meet a lonely turtle walking along the wall. This wall was built by prisoner during the years between 1945- 1959 for no purpose and the cost many lives.

Not as many seal lions here as in SanCristobal but much more leguans. These are the black leguans. They where everywhere hanging around or swimming .

The last evening on Isabela we had a sundowner together with Petra,Michael, Fleur and Britta,Thomas and Ann(Cepa) at the beach. Our great funny waiter taking photos . To the drinks we was served popcorn and roasted bananas. Very nice.

Hugs Eva

Galapagos Part3 Santa Cruz

Early morning we left Isabela and steered to Santa Cruz. Not much wind (so the iron genua had to work)and a quiet sea and sun fog? dis? We have Pippin behind us and Pec ahead of us whom we passed later. There was some small island north of Isabela and one of them looked like a turtle

Most of the times when you see land after been sailing a day or more it feels like you are not getting closer and that it take so long time to reach the harbour. It felt like that this time as well. Finally we have the anchor in the water and head in to town to meet the other from the fleet.This time our meeting point was a bar/restaurant. Really nice food . Had lunch there few times.

We was warned that it can be rolling a bit so a stern anchor cold be good to have. We didn’t do that since nobody else did. After a few nights we moved the boat and it made a ugh difference. We actually felt almost sea-sick on the boat and it was hard to anything when you was thrown around on the boat. Always needed one hand holding on when you moved on the boat as if we was sailing.. Here is a movie from one of the nights.

Edgars knees was very swollen and heart when he walks so I took a day walking around the area. It was very nice to have land under my feet and not being on this rolling boat. I ended up walking 18 215 steps. Passed some different houses, a dis market where the seals, iguanas and birds was begging for some fish. I saw this lovely arch made of mosaic. I walked in and saw the fantastic wall and the lovely chair. Time to save the broken plates,cup ect to a further project…. Here they also have a a turtle breeding( didn’t visit that one)a Charles Darwin institute, where you can read about his work on the island. I walked down to the beach that we could see from the boat. It was next to the Darwin institute. It was low tide so the lava rock was shown a lot. Had a lovely swim there later with the crew from Solana V.

On our wedding anniversary we went out for dinner only the two of us. They have the same sushi restaurant here as in San Cristóbal that we really liked. Next to the restaurant we had a live music. According to our waiter this was the most famous band on the island. It was very nice to have live music and extra great that they where really good.

We had sundowners every evening together with the rest of the fleet before going out to dinner. They organised one men /ladies evening which was very nice. For the price giving evening I help Sara of Sweden to decorate a jacket that is a honouring prices moving around the fleet. I had a sewing lesson with Alex and Inez and I finished it up with the two Swedish flag in the end

Doing the last shopping at the market, some washing. At the pier we saw lots of white tip and black tip sharks and also very small mantra. Even the sea lions was here but not that many. They did have a bigger pier for all the taxi boats here and they operated more frequently, so it was easy to go back and forward to the boat.