Category: Sailing

Panama Canal 1feb-2feb

Wednesday morning and we are ready to go trough the Panama Canal. Our crew Clause, Chris and Anne arrives in the morning and I was baking since there was no good bread to find. No we just wait for our adviser to come so we can leave. All boats need an adviser from the canal onboard and also five adult on each boat. When arrives we leave the marine and starts to motoring towards the first lock.

Just in front off the first lock we make a nest with Lover of the light and Cacique IV. Then slowly we go in the lock and having the three other nest behind us. We are in and attached in Gatun lock. The line holders made a great job with reviving the lines from land.

Two more locks and we will be staying by a buoy over night in the lake. The Gatun lock have a web camera so this journey any one can follow as I wrote on instagram and fb. Ella was trying to see us but we are first far out on the way in and then when we are in the lock we are very deep. It is our nests mast you see.

Last lock and it is still light. We head to the buoys where we attach us to wich was not easy at all since it was blowing hard and a lot off waves.

Next morning the adviser arrives around 8.30. We get a new adviser Oscar who has been working with this for over 20 years. So happy we got him feels much better than the previous one. We get lose from our nest around they buoy and start our motoring on the lake for some hours before we arrives in San Pedro lock.

Time to tighten the nest for San Pedro lock and after that Milaflores where you can see the lock live. Here Ella is also once again with us even if it is pass bedtime for her back home in Sweden.

We have done the Panama Canal and now it is just less then an hour before we are in La Plaita Marina. Letting the nest go and also our adviser. One of the picture is a big crane working to lift up an anchor and the chain from a huge ship that cut it off when they got on fire. All went well with the crew and the boat needs some attention. Now we will have three nights in the Marina before we leave for Las Perlas and then Galapagos

It has been a great adventure going the canal with the World Arc Fleet and extra nice to have company on the boat. It’s been a pleasure to have Anne, Chris and Clause onboard. We would love to have more company on our sailing. So glad that we will get Eva onboard from Tahiti.

Hugs Eva

Days in Shelterbay

Saphir went up on land and we check in to the hotel in Shelterbay. It is very nice to sleep in a air conditioned room so we decided not to sleep on the boat when it is on land. The hotel was full so we book a room in Colon. Not a place where you feel safe walking around in and it is very poor and many broken houses

A bit shopping was also done with Lorraine and Annie. Trying to find a new pare of good walking sandals since I manage to forget mine on one of the island in SanBlas.Not easy to find they only have flip flops and sneakers. It was so nice to have two hours going shopping . Ended up with a Panama hat, basing suit and some groceries. Me and Edgar went shopping and got a ride back home to the boat from the shop. Now we should have enough of soft drinks,beer and wine until New Zealand we think…. We are good to go on the Panama Canal after inspection from the canal. On the skippers briefing we was inform how we will attach our boats to each other when we go in the locks and how we will attach us during the night on a big buoy. We are the middle boat in the nest.

I joined a guided tour with Sara of Sweden and parts from BlueSunshine to Gatun locks which is the first lock we are going trough in the Panama Canal. The museum is where the new lock is, not the old where we are going trough. It was very interesting and fascinating to see. The locks are huge 55m wide and 427 long and these are only for the enormous big ships. The pools are for reuse the water and safes around 50% that would have just gone out in the ocean. It is not only the locks that keeps control of the lake not flooding. There is a trap door that when it is open it provides with electricity.

The ARC organised a guided tour to one of the natives village Embera village in Charge national park. This was a fantastic trip. First an hour in the bus then 45 min in canoe until we reached the village. They live very close to how they always have lived. Although even they are getting effected/ influenced what happens in the rest of the world. They have a school that is provided from the government up to 6 grade and after that they go to school in the nearby city. Some stay and some comes back to live in the village. In this village there was 132 people living in 40 different houses. One of there income is to sell products that they make. We bought some baskets that are made out of bamboo. They use leaf, nuts ect to colour the bamboo. We had a lovely lunch served on bamboo leafs, and some dancing. We really enjoyed our day here in the jungle.

Tomorrow our crew comes to help us trough the canal.

Hugs Eva

SanBlas a place in paradis.

We had few lovely days in this paradise before we left for Shelterbay to lift the boat. This is paradis, wish we could stay for more days. Easy relaxing life at SanBlas anchoring and just jump in to the water, walk around the island, meeting our sailing friends, grill party , snorkelling ,paddling (getting better). Lots of pictures for you to enjoy.

Last dip in Caribbean for this time. Next time it will be in the Pacific. Lots of boats near the entrens to the canal. Up again with the boat to get it painted before we leave for Galapagos.

Hugs Eva

Santa Marta to SanBlas 240NM or 430 km ish

Time to sail over to SanBlas. Looking forward seeing this paradise in about 40 hours. We got company buy these two lovebirds that probably have started build a nest. Hope they just started to build a nest.

Start shot came and we sail east and some of is slightly more south. After a couple of hours we came in to a really dirty water. This is from the river that comes out next to the city Barranguilla. From other boats we learn to be careful and keep good watch since there might come a three or anything else in the water that the river brings along.

Lovely sunsets and sunrise. Love them and continue pinching my arm to realise that we are hear and doing this fantastic adventure. We didn’t see many other boats with our eyes ther came a ship and also our friend boat Enalia suddenly cross just in front of us.

Almost at the finish line. Count down. We need to pass 078 30 000 W and at 02 58 23 we passed the finish line. It took us around 4 hours more before we where anchored in Holandais Cay close to our friends on Sara of Sweden. This looks fantastic and here we will stay for some days.

Hugs Eva

Days in Santa Marta

Now we have almost a week to explore this interesting city and country. Of course there is things to fix on the boat and the usual cleaning washing finding food store ect but in between we enjoy the city. Very nice to be in a city that we feel we can move around without feeling uncomfortable . We went on a guide tour to see the place where the founder of Colombia Simon Bolivar stayed his last days. Today it is a museum and also an art gallery. Next stop was the history museum which was even more interesting. Specially the textil part. I did get a bag or two…

Walking around in the city and checking out some nice restaurants to try later. Then of course grocery shopping and getting help from the store get everything back to the boat. Welcome party out on the pier. Dinner out at the best Mexican food we have had. Strolling around in the Santa Marta and enjoying the night pulse.

Went to a school that are working to help children that have been abuse in different ways. In Colombia it is still very tough even if many have got it better. Worst is for those that are living outside the cities. It was very nice to hear about their work and progress in helping children with their education. Lots of focus was on using your hand and mind true art and craft to help the children. We all had a lovely meeting and I will treasure it in my heart forever.

Last days our friends arrive with their new boat Sara of Sweden. We are very happy to see them and that they are going to sail with us around the world. They lost their mast crossing the Atlantic and couldn’t get a new mast in time so they ended up buying a new boat. Week continues with schippers briefing getting to know things around next leg and also a bit about Galapagos even if that is not our next stop. There are some food that we are not allowed to have on the boat when we arrive to Galapagos.Good to know when we start provisiones for going there, which is when we get to Shelter Bay and in Panama. We don’t want to have food we need to throw over board. The last night before we start our sailing to San Blas we have a dinner and prize giving award for StLucia to Santa Marta. As I wrote on the previous blogg we came in as nr 5 off all the boats so maybe we get something! And we did we was the winner in our sailing class!! Felt nice even if we are not competing… Next morning we have the start to San Blas and part of our instrument are dead… Can’t see wind speed or direction more the depth in the water. Imported when we are sailing around in all the small islands. The most sad thing is that our auto pilot connected to raymarin is not working. Luckily the second is working. Always something to fix on boats. Edgar couldn’t solve it now so he will try in Shelter Bay. Now of to Sun Blas

Hugs Eva

Sailing from St Lucia to Santa Marta Colombia

Time to leave Caribbean and sail to Colombia. This time it is 815NM and will take approximately five days. We have put on seasick plaster to make sure we don’t get seasick. Getting out in the start line we see Infinity laying in the bay and waving to us. They crossed the Atlantic with us. Mary1 came out to cheer on us and the other boats.

The start signal went of and we was not near the starting line……we crossed the starting line last. We couldn’t have our wing by wing from start, there was little wind for our mainsail so we didn’t go that fast in the beginning.

Finally we turned and took a new course. The wing by wing sail setting with our genoas was hoisted. Slowly we are getting closer to the fleet and after a few hours we are not last anymore

We are enjoying our sailing and taking watch turns. Edgar is doing the first night ours and I take over around 02.00 until morning around 6-7. This goes on for the hole sailing and during daytime we read,knits, eats or sleeps. Some nights we have rains and we can see them coming on the radar. Bit by bit we continue to get more boats behind us. It seams like the nights gives us better winds. Boats comes and goes on the Ais. I have so lovely sun sets and sunrises during my watch and it is very hard to choose photos so here comes many. The moon is shining on us every night so it is not totally dark which makes the watch much easier.

Getting closer and we see land and we are getting in as the fifth boat in Santa Marta. So happy and pleased with our sailing. Now it will be nice to sleep a full night in our bed. This is the longest we have sail by our self.

Hugs Eva

St Lucia preparing for next leg

Back in St Lucia I started to make sun screens for the sides of the boat which is very much needed. They also helps prevent the rain to come in to the cockpit. Not totally when it pours down then we need a tarpaulin. Which we bought here in StLucia and it was needed for a few days to keep the cockpit dry.

St Lucia Marina is very cosy with lots of restaurants, cafe, different shops even a small swimming pool. It is very easy and relaxing to see and talk sailors. The kids runs a round to each other boats and in the Marina. There is 11 kids divided on 5 boats that will be sailing around the world with their parents. You meet so many nice people and get new friends along the way. We had a few nice evenings with Michael, Helena and Martin.

Before we are going sailing our 815NM there is some preparation to do like cleaning the boat, washing clothes, food shopping and preparing some dinners. You are not that keen on going down in the boat the first day and do cooking when the boat rolls in the rough sea. Then being part of ARC you have different meeting with good information about the sailing, weather, place we are going to and then the evening events to meet the others sailors. The ARC also organised excursions. I went on one taking Alex,Inez and Elinor with me while their parents needed to work on their boat. It was very fun going on zip lines in the jungle. All in all we where 3 mums, 2 young adults and 11 kids.

We also got help from Jörgen and Mats to put up the second genua. First they had to take down the one that was up so both could go up together. Down is one thing but getting both up if it is blowing is not easy but the guys did it. So now we can sail wing by wing again.

Mats also went up on our mast to check that everything was okay. He taped the antenna since the screws didn’t sit very well. Thank you Mats for the help.

Now we are ready to sail away to Colombia and Santa Marta.

Here comes the planed route for our sailing. The world Arc continues after Fiji but we jump of there and spend some weeks there extra before we sail down to New Zealand

Hugs Eva

Fixing Saphir and New Year

The sailing up was a bit rough with big waves, wrong wind and some rain. It took us little longer than we expected so we came to late to get in to the Marina so we had to anchor out in the bay. That was quit okay and specially when we got this lovely sunset.

At eight a’clock we contacted the Marina and went in to get our boat lifted. Entering the Marina you wondered a bit where are we going with all these shabby houses. They do need a lot of attention and love.

Before they would lift our boat Edgar had to go and declare us in . After that they lifted up the boat. The turner made us a new mount for our anode and at the same time we got the boat clean and the propeller needed that really much. Now we will sail little faster.

We spend a few days in the Marina enjoying the easy life and happy that our boat is whole again for now.

New Year is coming up and we decide to sail down to Marigot bay to spend New Years even with our friends on Maty1 and Northstar. A very short sailing and we are in this magical place. Very lovely bay but very pricey as well. We had a great evening with our friends even if there was some issues with the restaurant that at the end got solved

Happy New year to our family and friends around the world!🎉

Hugs Eva

Christmas and Edgars Birthday in Bequia

After breakfast we hoist the sail and steered towards Bequia where we will celebrate Christmas and Edgars birthday. When we arrived in to Bequia we saw our friends Mary1 how kindly help us book a buoy for us and Zelda.

The life on boat can be brutal some times and leave big marks or it can be relaxing and playing cards with Martin to end with a nice dinner at a restaurant with a lovely view.

Christmas 24 Dec we started with a sill lunch on our boat. First everyone hade to decorate our tablecloth for Christmas. In the evening we had a dinner together with other Swedish,Finnish and Norwegian boats at Upper deck. We had different but great evening.

The next days we relaxed and fixed things on the boat. Fredrik and Sofia took up our log and cleaned it. It was filled with shells and could not spin. This little thing is sitting under the boat and spins when the boat is moving forward. To get it out you pull it up from inside of the boat and put in a plug in the hole while cleaning it. That’s why they where so concentrated. Little scared of sinking the boat… but they manage it. The hull got cleaned as well and we discovered that we had lost the zink anode and the metal thing that the anode can attach to the propeller. This is not good. Edgar made a temporary solution with hanging the anode on the propeller until we go up to Rodney Bay and get it fixed hopefully. When everything was done we took the dinghy’s in to land and snorkelled . Not much see and the water was not so clear.

Edgar’s birthday we started with going on a tour together with Fredrik,Sofia and Peter. Our taxi driver was an excellent driver and guide. Ended the evening with a lovely dinner on Zelda.

The next day we went up early to head up to Rodney bay in St Lucia to fix the boat. It is a 10hours sailing and we want to get there before it gets dark.

Hugs Eva

My Birthday

I had a great birthday. Started with a dip in the sea and at 11 we sailed to Mayreau to stay there on a bouy for the night. Sofia, Fredrik and Peter join us to celebrate my birthday at Mayreau beach club & villa. Had a fantastic day with lunch, hanging at the pool and dinner in the evening. Thank you Edgar for a great day spoiling me. Love you