We arrive late afternoon and was greeted by Swade from ARC. First we have a drink on the deck after a great day on the Panama Canal. We say Thank you to our crew when they leave us and looking forward to have more crew onboard again.It is very nice to have company onboard from time to time. Next one that is planned is Eva that will join us from Tahiti
First some shopping again to Allbroke mall. Found me new shoes so now I can use my fine shoes as fine shoes again. In the late afternoon we take a taxi and get in to old town together with Michel, Petra and Fleur. Lots off nice renovated houses and also lots that needs some attention . A drink on the rooftop before dinner and then more drinks on the next rooftop with lots WARC(world arc) friends.
Sunday morning we went on WARC guided tour of Panamas history and visit to old town. Our guide was great and have lots of energy and pumped us with so much interesting history about Panama and the canal. One was about the big riot when the student demanded that the American school in the Canal Zone also should have the Panama Flagg outside there school and not the American. This costed many students life and today there is a memorial site in the previous canal zone.
We went up to a fantastic view point. On the way we say a sloth sleeping in the three. Up at the top we had view over the canal, American bridge, yatch harbour and Panama city.
After that we went in to old town and got to see some more nice places and the old church. On the way in we pass a not so very nice area with lots off graffiti and very sad houses. After the tour we went for lunch with the group in a new open Italian restaurant. I saw a painting on the way there that I really loved but unfortunately the shop was closed so Erika maybe you like to make your mother happy in between your knitting?
Tomorrow we will fill up with diesel and then head down to Las Perlas. Would have loved to have some more days here in Panama but it is time to move on.
Tjohooo we made it!!! I am so happy to have crossed the Atlantic together with the love of my life my dear husband Edgar, my brother-in-law Mattias and our friend Magnus. Extra thanks to M&M who join us and to their wife’s who manages a month without them. The picture is of us on our last night together in Grenada witch was a very nice evening, but let’s go to back to Cape Verde and the start of the crossing.
Friday 18 Nov at 12.00 the start shoot went of and together with 90 others boats we started our longest sailing leg so far 2164NM. Crossing the Atlantic here we come.. just before the start the little fishing boat came in front of our boat and through in a net and after 15-20 minutes they where done and had caught some fish.
After a couple of hours the wind stopped and the waves came from all sides and Saphir started to rock and swing. Luckily we had scopoderm plaster to avoid seasickness.
After a few days on the Sea the days goes in in each other. You have your watch, we eat, prepare dinner and lunch, read, knit(only me) and sleep. I tried to bake bread of raw-flour that we bought in Las Palmas. Had to trough it over board. It was like eating sand… back to plain wheat flour to make bread and it worked. When I was on it I also made a lemon cake and it was very appreciated by the crew. Heard that is was the best ever … Cocking is very interesting when the boat rolls. On top off the oven is a thick pancake. Waiting for the oven to be warm. Luckily the oven swings, but I was a bit scared that the pancake batter would scump over.
This rolling on a boat can be okay and it can be very hard and also make you use different ways to stay safe. On thing you learn is to always have on hand on something when you move around and use different techniques to stand safe when you are cooking, washing, reading,sleeping. Wide legs and have your feet, hip, but against something that is steady or use the tall .Edgar had the best technique in bed. Look like a toad.
We also had good moment and great moments on the boat. Lots of laughs great food and interesting eating…. Either you eat or you drink. The plate don’t stay on the table nore does the glasses. They tip easily in a wave. It took half the sailing until I realised we have a great thing to have our glasses in since these anti slip cloths only helps the plate to stay in place. It also helps other things in there place a bit better but even then things can move around when a wave comes hard. Sadly my camera was one off them. Don’t have the long object working anymore but the camera is working even if it is a bit damaged.
Crossing the Atlantic gives you a perspective and appreciation of the beauty of our world. Sunset, sunrise , stars in the night( definitely not possible to take photo on), rains, sunny days, grey days and so on. It is hard to take a great photo special when my big camera is broken or it works still after falling but unfortunately my sd card brook later.
Long sailing is tearing on things on the boat. Comparing a summer sailing for which has been 6 weeks and maybe 2-3 night sailing during that time and around 500-600 NM.????Crossing the Atlantic was approximately 3000 NM from Las Palmas-Cape Verde-Grenada. So it isn’t strange that things wear and tear. The biggest for us was that we couldn’t get the mainsail in or out when we had 700nm left. After long trying we manage to get the sail in and didn’t dear to use it anymore.
Sailing 2164nm is long and yes we get in to routines and one was to keep track on how far is we from finish line. Some figures are more even than others. The second thing is keeping track of the squalls in at night on the radar. We didn’t get many. There was only one night we got really much that we had to reduce the sails. Most of the time they just passed us very close but didn’t give us much extra wind and extra rain. Following the distance we celebrate halfway with a glass of bubbles.
Half way !!
You can get wet also without rain, specially when the waves come behind and from side and are big. Poor Matti got a quick wake up
The sailing slowly comes to an end. We see land and just in front off us comes the boat Maroro. They kept us company on the LasPalmas-CapVerde leg and just sail in before us there and also this time… probably our ways will cross again. So after 13days 8 hours 3 min and 13 sec we crossed the finish line and was greeted by other cruisers, Arc staff and the harbour staff.
We even got to students singing for us. We felt very warmly welcomed
This night we will (and we all did) sleep very well in a no rolling boat! First some nice dinner ,champagne and wine. Didn’t know if it was the wine or the not rolling boat that made us sleep well.
Sunday 6 nov around 12.30 all boat’s in ArcPlus where outside the harbour and ready to start the sailing down to Cape Verde. We are 93 botas all in all, one motorborren and 21 catamaran. At 13.00 a clock the start went for us in one hull. The catamarans had started before us.
No wind in the beginning so we decided to go for motor the first two hours. This help us get out to the wind and gave us a great start together with our sail setting , great wind for 24 hours. Let’s see what it will cost us at the end. Due to the wind we decided to use both our genua and sail wing by wing. It was a good strategy. Bit hard in between to go up high in the wind.
The first night we had great wind and lovely sky. Not many boats out there that we could spot with our eyes but we saw a light out there. Next morning we got a short company of some dolphins
After a while we find new places to relax in
On Wednesday the Swedish boat Alexandra caught up on us and passed us very fast. They have a much faster sailing boat than us.
Lovely sunset and sunrises . Some knitting have been done also. Hopefully it will be more. Can’t get enough of the view here on the sea.. trying to catch it but it is not easy.
Lots of flying fishes. It is so great to see them flying. They fly very long and bounce on the waves. Not much more action on the sea a bird or two and we had pancakes mix in the waffle iron. Works perfect and was so great and extra great with my sister in laws jam of blackberries and raspberries, my favourite.
Getting closer to Cape Verde, we change or sail setting. It was different to have to genua set at the same side.They didn’t always stay tight together but most of the time.
Cape Verde we made it!!! It took us 5 and a half day. We crossed the finish line on Friday 11th at 18.03 local time and as the 17th boat. We are so happy that it went so well. We was sure that we would come in in the middle. The winner boat came in after 3 1/2 day. They are not a crushing boat.
Nice to have soil under our feet. The next day we had a relaxing day and found a restaurant with a great view.
Friday the 18th the next leg starts. Crossing the Atlantic
The crew have arrived and the last preparation are getting done. Chain up, reversed and painted. New bag for the chain is sewed. Sun screen sewed. Food prepaired and more things. I have also have had time for some leasure. Going on a tour on the previous volcanos. It was very interesting.Dinner with our friends and costumes party.
Now we are ready to go!!!
A mix of picture from the last days
Sorry for not telling much about the pictures but wanted to put them in the blogg before we don’t have anymore wifi. So might fill in it later.
We left Porto early in the morning together with Life@sea and Currier Sur. First it was hard to see but as soon as the sun came up we had clear sight. Then we realised we had a lot others boats after us as well.. And we also saw lots of dolphins. Thank you for boat photos and the film Christophe
First jump I caught on the camera
Arrived in Figuera da Foz after eight hours on the sea. We took a walk in to town to have something to eat.
Next morning we wave bye to Life@sea and Currier Sur and headed to Nazare. We had a very nice day and got som really nice photos of Saphir from Esther of Sweden. A bit zig zag sailing between the fishing gears.
Nazare is famous for the high waves and is the paradise for surfers. To get them you have to go to the next beach north of the cliff so her in Nazare city the waves are smaller. I went to the beach and the water was great, big waves so didn’t need to go far out in the water to swim. But is was a bit tricky to get in and out of the water and not get caught in a wave. Lots of sand inside the bikini. Edgar didn’t join me but he also went in the water but in a wetsuit. He wanted to check the zinc anodes and at the same time cleaned the side off the boat. We stayed a few nights here. Very nice food and very good services in both of the restaurant we visited. Portugal is growing on us as we say in Sweden.
It is not always easy for us to get a place in a harbour as we are 18m long and most harbour at least so far are made more for up to 14-15m. Of course we can stay in a bay on anchor but our anchor winch is not reliable. We will get a new in Las Palmas.Depending on the weather some harbours fill up quickly. This makes us plan little ahead looking at weather forecast to see when we can go and then prebook. Sometimes we have to changes the dates of our arrival / leaving and so far that has been okay. This time we kept our planning and left Tuesday morning on the 20 sep heading to Cascais. These early mornings are lovely with the sunrise. It is only hard to get out of bed…. Sailing close to the coast is nice when you can see the coastline changes from beaches to big rocks and sometimes caves. The backside is that the fog always comes and we have all the fishing gears to watch out for.
We arrived to Cascais after 8.1/2 hours and an hour later we had our place and all paperwork was done. From not knowing many along our sailing (four actually and they are very new acquaintances ) we have many around us here in Cascais/Lisbon. Edgars former colleague Jörgen with family came sailing in to the harbour. They will also do the ARC. In the afternoon Johan who lives here with his wife Marina came down to have a look on the boat. Sadly Marina was not here. In the evening we had dinner with a friend from our time in Riga.
The harbour in Porto is located in Duero River less then 1 km from the Atlantic sea. This effected us very much during high and low water including the swells. It felt like we been out sailing and not laying calm in a harbour. Worst was on Monday to Tuesday when it was very windy and raining. All boats was bumping around. During the night we lost one fender and one was in the water that we saved. Sadly the boat got some scratches that Edgar have filled in as good as he could. It is not easy when it is bumping. The positivt about the harbour is the view, the location as in close to the Sea , the city and have a cute little village next to us with restaurants, food stores, cafe, bakery and a Portuguese traditional washing place
Washing house no machine are used
So what do you do when you are not sailing. Relaxing, like reading a book, looking at a film or sleeping…. Nope! sleep in sometimes yes ( if you ask our daughters they who’d say we are teenagers) and have longer breakfast. Otherwise it is like having a home that needs your attention like cleaning, washing, repairing, food shopping and also filling oil, or change it after a certain time,checking filters, fill up water, organising. And since I love to take lots of pictures there is some extra work sorting them out and then use some in the blog and when that is done time to write the text to the blog. This is not always easy doing it in an other language then your mother tongue and sewing of course etc. We still organise on things around to get them there best place. Wherever that is? At the moment the beds in the cabins are full and that is not good when we get guests onboard soon.
Staying 1-4 nights then you quite busy so having seven nights is very long for us but it didn’t felt that long since we got to spend time with Sofia and Fredrik from Zelda. One day we walked in to Porto took the gondola up to the bridge and walked over to old town and walked back home to our boats. Totally 12km or 20 000 steps.
Together with Life@Sea, Currier Sur,Zelda, Balder, Esther of Sweden and Windysailing we walked to Churchill, witch is a port winery . There we a had a privet guiding and tasting.
I realised that we have missed the most beautiful Mc Donald’s ever so we had to go to Porto again. Edgar was quick to say yes when I told him that I wanted to go to Mc Donald’s. ( not my favourite place to eat at) And luckily just around the corner is Sao Bento train station that used to be a convent for nuns. The entrance is decorated with hand painted tiles. It is sad that there are some mistakes putting them up and that makes it even more charming. So glad we got to see it. Specially since we actually passed by it two days before and totally missed it.
In between we have had sundowners, lunch, small chats on the pier etc with other boat-friends Friday morning 16 sep we leave Porto and also say fare winds to Zelda that will sail to Madeira . We will meet them agin in LasPalmas
All in all Porto is a lovely place but the harbour needs to work on getting better wavebreaker.
Thursday 18 aug at 8 in the morning with a bit help from the marinas rib boat we leave Camaret-sur-Mer to cross bay of Biscay When we reach the strait we get 3 extra knots due to the tidewater.
In the afternoon we reached our friends from OSK, Aegir and Tiger Lilly . They had started a bit early than us. We missed Aura since the turn in to explore a bit more of France before they cross bay of Biscay.
We had 2 great days and nights on the sea. I even could do some knitting. The second night we had clear sky with lots of stars and the moon who shined up the sky.
This is one off all big waves that gave us extra putt forward
We hade dolphins comming and playing around our boat several times. So here is a video
Saturday morning we can see land. The waves crash against the rocks.
Here we will stay two or three nights before we move slowly along the coastline. Looking forward to see what Aviles have to offer. So far a very cute city
Sailing with Saphir 