Sailing in Australia – Sailing with Saphir

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

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.

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.

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.

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

Hugs Eva

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 .

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

Hugs Eva

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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