JULY 2016
Sailing on top of the Ring of Fire
Vanuatu is situated on the
junction line of two continental tectonic plates on the Pacific Ring
of Fire and an occasional tremor is a part of a normal day to day
experience. (And we have already experienced several of these!) There
are nine active volcanos (seven on land) and numerous fumaroles and
thermal springs are scattered through this region. These are some of
the world's most accessible active volcanos and Mt. Yasur on Tanna
island gave us quite a show. There is a bang, the ground trembles,
smoke and red-hot magma shoots up....smell of sulphur,
dust...suddenly silence for few seconds before the roaring noise and
the shooting magma starts all over again. We were allowed to walk as
close as about 150 meters from the crater rim – definitely an
unforgettable sight! Roughly 80 island forming Vanuatu stretches
1,300 kilometres and modern life hasn't yet reached many villages we
have seen till now. People spend their days tending their gardens,
fishing in homemade canoes. There is no electricity, just solar or
flash light for few hours before they go to bed. No fridge, washing
machine or anything else that we can't imagine our life without –
yet the “Western world” could take few lessons from these people
on sustainable agriculture and fishing. All we get here is organic
and no extra cost for that! Of course money is needed for school
education and this is a big challenge for the families here since
industrial structure is at the minimum. Traditional dancing, land
diving, sand drawing and musics performances for the tourists are
just one way to make some money. The water surrounding these island
is crystal clear and the underwater scenery spectacular, full of
life. Vanuatu has twice been voted the happiest place on earth and
villagers always welcome us with a big smile, curiosity about us and
the outside world and they let us share in theirs. We are going to be
around here till the beginning of September, before moving towards
Australia, but first, with a stop in New Caledonia. Have a good
summer and keep smiling!
APRIL 2016
New Zealand is hot...
As planned we
departed Tauranga to explore more of the North Island by the
beginning of March. All major maintenance jobs were successfully
terminated and now came the time to relax and to discover before
resuming our coastal cruising of the east coast and it's islands.
Thermally active Rotorua and it's steaming surroundings was our first
stop. With it's hydrogen sulfide rotten egg smell following us
around, we were amazed while walking through the Maori village of
Ohinemutu that the locals are not worried to live on top of this
thermal area. Pipes are sticking out of their house foundations
belching steam away from the buildings, steaming holes, sounds of
boiling water are everywhere. Next to this village on the side of the
same crystal clear lake lies Rotorua, a typical tourist NZ town with
typical tourist shops and many restaurants and spas with healing
mineral pools. Further south we spend a good part of the next day in
Wai-O-Tapu thermal area which is considered to be New
Zealand’s most colourful and diverse geothermal sightseeing
attraction. Mother nature gave us a stunning show
of fuming lakes, boiling lakes, sulphur deposits, bubbling mud pools.
The intensity of the colours in some of the pools has to be seen! Our
next adventure took us on a cave expedition to finally see the famous
glow worms we heard so much about. “Glowing Adventure” in Waitomo
region is an three hour eco tour on a private land with untouched
limestone cave system. Once the tour started we understood why they
provided us with all the clothing, gumboots, helmets and head lamps
(as well as shower afterwards) as we waded through streams and mud,
crawled under and climbed over boulders. Surrounded by untouched
stalactites we experienced a stunning spectacle where millions of
bioluminescent insect larvae beamed bright blue lights around us.
What a great first experience of caving! Next. Is Wellington
really the world's wind capital? We were going to find out. Situated
at the bottom of North Island this was our next stop. This town often
experiences gale to storm force winds, but we were fortunate to be
there in a calm and settled weather, which made walking around most
enjoyable. If we had to live in NZ, this would be the place. The city
is a vibrant culture-driven hot spot tucked around a picturesque
harbour with lots of cafes, restaurants, museums, walking streets
only and full of shops. What a difference from the rest of NZ towns,
where one has a hard time to find an open cafe after 5 o'clock! This
week went by too fast, but was a great change from our normal
mariner's outings. This was a great vacation in a normal
vacation-life! Back to Tauranga. We strongly recommend this port to
any cruiser. The range of services around the city is excellent, the
marine industries vibrant with lots of knowledgeable service
contractors and at very reasonable price. As the Kiwis often say “No
worry mate.”
DECEMBER 2015
This country is for nature lovers
After Bay Islands we cruised around Great Barrier Island in the Gulf of Auraki, where every bay has lots of hiking trails to offer and so instead of daily swimming in Fiji we had daily hiking in NZ. Now we are securely tied to a dock in Tauranga, out of the zone of dreaded cyclones of SW Pacific. This is a year of El Nino, and here in NZ they are already worried about how drought is going to affect their agriculture. In El Nino year cyclones have a tendency to occur mainly Est of our longitude and the French Polynesia is preparing for the worst. We hope they and the low laying atolls of Tuamotu are not going to get hit too hard, but will escape cyclones completely! Here El Nino brings dryness, but for now rain still comes now and then and everywhere we look the flowers are blooming between many shades of green. This country is a real heaven for nature lovers and fit people, who are ready to carry all they need on their backs. This unfortunately is not for us anymore, but there are still many, many day trails that we can enjoy. Tauranga is a real small tourist town with a lot of activity around and so it looks like JP is not going to miss me too much while I'll be away! He has a lot of projects he wants to accomplish before I come back, so we can still enjoy the many islands, bays, trails in this country, before we sail away for good sometimes in May. We still didn't settle on exactly where we will go, but for sure the adventure will start with Vanuatu, followed by New Caledonia and then either Australia or through Indonesia. For now we wish you to enjoy the magic this wonderful holiday has to offer and may it bring you joy that will last throughout the whole year. JP would like to share a final thought with you all: “Our small planet Earth is beautiful, so lets do better in preserving its diversity and resources.” – and I do hope his wish will come through...
NOVEMBER 2015
The loop is complete – back in New Zealand
You might have been wondering what was going on with us, no news for the past six months – almost gave this blog up – that’s how lazy we were. After the fall (your spring) uneventful crossing from New Zealand to Fiji we cleared the customs in Savusavu on Vanua Levu island. From there we were planning on visiting the Lau islands. These are the most isolated islands of Fiji where people live a simple traditional life still following the old customs of welcoming the visitors with Kava ceremony after the visitor presents the gift, such as yagona, which is a root from which Kava drink is made and can easily be bought from the markets in the city. One has to ask the permission to visit the village, take photos, swim etc. Everybody who sails there also buys extra sugar, tea, flour to exchange for fruits or vegetables, or other useful items, especially items for school like books, paper, pens. Unfortunately the weather wasn’t favorable to sail in that direction, but we did have an experience of this traditional welcoming on Kadavu Island that lies just below Viti Levu which is the main island of Fiji. No hats, no sunglasses, the shoulders and knees have to be covered. The people of Fiji have a reputation of being the friendliest people of this planet and we have to agree. We spent about ten days here and got also invited to the Sunday feast, which was one of the best meals we had in Fiji! This island is quite rich as they are the ones who grow yagona and sell it on the main island and so all the tea, sugar etc. we still have on Vanille we are hoping to add to some Christmas food basket collection (here in NZ). We also managed some snorkelling on the magnificent and famous Astrolabe reef which is part of Kadavu island. By this time JP’s two sisters were getting ready for a visit and so we sailed to the main island to pick them up from the airport. With them we visited Yasawa group of islands, where one can hop from island to island in few hours or a day, each one with crystal clear water, colourful corals, lots of fish, long sand beaches...we had a great time, swimming, snorkelling, kayaking, eating...laughing was on the daily menu! The rest of the season we spent with friends, just bumming around, being lazy, enjoying each day as it came. After many years of intense travelling it was nice to do just nothing. On the 26th of October we departed Fiji and after eight days and three hours we tied to custom dock in Opua, once again in New Zealand. For this crossing we had a wind most of the time and so JP was very happy! (I was less happy trying to balance the pots and pans in the galley!) Everything is in flower here, the spring is almost over and the summer cruising season is just around the corner. We will do more sailing around the islands here, as we don’t have that many things to fix. I am once again flying to California to see my sister, JP will stay and will take care of the few things that need looking after. We reserved a place in Tauranga, hopefully a more exiting city than Whangarei, where we were last year. We will try to be a bit more active with this blog in the future as well. We hope all of you are doing well and till next time – CHEERS to you from New Zealand!APRIL 2015
Fall already?
It's starting to get
quite chilly again – long pants, sweaters and jackets are coming
out of the closet – it's time to move on before some serious cold
hits us here, now that the cyclone season in the Pacific is nearing
its end. Since coming back from visiting our family and friends we
were touring the South Island in a small camper van. Our trip started
with wine tasting in Marlborough region, where most of New Zealand
wine is produced. If you like nature this is a paradise for you, if
you like to ride a motorcycle this is a dream come true. Roads are
winding like a never ending snakes! Scenery beyond belief. Curve
after curve, km after km, rarely a straight line. From the wild West
coast bordering the Tasman Sea to snow-capped peaks, giant ferns,
flying albatrosses, billions of sheep, walking tracks indicated every
few kilometers, there is no way to get bored. We could have spent the
entire summer roaming this part of NZ but we had only three weeks to
spare and yet managed to log over 4,000 km while circling the entire
South Island •
Back in Whangarei we took Vanille
to the boatyard to finalize the last preparation for the coming
season – antifooling paint, hull wax, etc. – now we are back
floating and filling her up with supplies needed for the next six
months in Fiji. The last few days we spent exploring the three
supermarkets here and other stores for goodies and bargains on wines,
beer, boat parts spares, etc., and then trying to find a place to
store all this inside Vanille.
Who said we were retired! This is work! •
In a couple of days we will leave
this place, will go and play with the wind and sea, test all the new
equipment installed and then will seek a good spot and will start
monitoring the weather for
crossing to Fiji. With a bit of luck
and mother nature cooperation we should be underway before mid May.
DECEMBER 2014
Back to civilization as we know it
Vanille is tied up in a Whangarei harbour marina, some 20 miles up on Hātea River, New Zealand. This was our final crossing for 2014 and now Vanille and the crew are ready to take a land-dock break until April 2015 since cyclone season has already started in SW Pacific and will last until then. We chose Whangarei in New Zealand's North Island for its facilities and protection. This is a small town with medical clinics, dentists, big modern library, boutiques, three big supermarkets and any service a yachtsman could imagine will be available to him here. There are also trails within easy reach and we are amazed by hundreds of species of ferns and all kinds of for us unusual flowers. Here we are back to civilization as we know it with the same standards we are used to from North America or Europe. Yes we will be going to cinema as well and JP will be able to enjoy popcorn!! ...After more than 15 thousand miles we traveled in the last two years Vanille needs a bit of pampering as well – new sails are on the program, revision of the shaft alternator and motor starter is needed, outboard motor needs a good tune-up, rigging has to be checked,... etc,... etc. Every yacht that comes here to hide during cyclone season takes advantage of excellent service and a reasonable costs for numerous boat repairs after the long Pacific crossing. Australia has great service as well, but more costly than here in New Zealand. The next tune-up station to fix anything will be in South Africa, and that is not exactly next door! ...We also decided to rent a small camper van and will tour the South Island in February. This will be a nice change for us to travel by roads, although we will have to get used to driving on the left side – for now, one time out of two JP puts the windshield wiper on instead of the flasher – but could be way more dramatic-traumatic. ...Presently with the holiday season around the corner comes the time to visit our families. I'll be spending this time with my sister in mostly pleasant California weather, but poor JP will be facing ice and snow in Montreal. We were complaining of cold when we had a sharp drop from tropical heat to a NZ's spring, night temperatures were and sometimes still are around 10°C, day time is better, up to 18°C and now climbing up every day. After a month here we still have to heat in the mornings, although during the day with the sun up we are ready to complain about the heat!! ...hmm, is that just myself complaining? Knowing that we will be back here later in the full summer gives us courage to brace anything. ...We wish you all the joys of the season, a fabulous New Year and most importantly good health and best of everything!!
SEPTEMBER 2014
We lost a day... (Vava'u, Tonga)
JULY 2014
“Live in the sunshine, swim the sea, drink the wild air...” Emerson
After taking an advantage of the Salinas's yard
services to finish few projects we had in mind for a while and after
fixing the defective engine mounts we departed for the Marquesas
Islands, some 3,600 nautical miles away. The weather along the way
was great, sometimes even on the light side and we ended up wishing
just for a bit more wind. It took us 25 days to cover this distance
with about 12 hours of motor help when the wind got very light. As
almost always long passages come with some type of unexpected,
usually unpleasant surprise, and this one unfortunately wasn't an
exception. The rack and pinion system of our rudder wheel broke and
we ended up once again hand steering, this time only for the last 30
hours with just few gears left on the system, afraid we won't make
it, but at the end we did arrive safely in Nuku-Hiva and anchored in
Taiohae Bay. Nuku-Hiva is the largest of the Marquesas Islands and
Taiohae is the administrative capital, hence why this bay became our
choice for receiving the parts. The village is located in the centre
of a crater, half sunk in the ocean, with black sand beach, open to
the South. The trade wind at this time of the year is from South-East
and we ended up rolling almost as if we were sailing down wind! Not
the most comfortable anchorage! There has been about another 30
vessels of different nationalities rolling around with us, and I bet
at least half of them were waiting for some parts for repairs as
well! We were lucky as this is French Polynesia, our parts were
coming from France and surprisingly post office system was efficient
and we received what we needed in only eight days! Meanwhile, while
waiting, we investigated this sparsely populated volcanic island,
with razor-edged basaltic cliffs pounded by crushing waves, deep bays
with cobalt-blue water, dramatic tall waterfalls and many mysterious
looking valleys with lush vegetation that feel like the beginning of
the world must have looked like or like a countryside from the pages
of some fairy tale. The Marquesans are very welcoming and friendly,
women with flowers tucked behind ears, easy smile and both sexes
adorned with very artistic, tasteful, geometric tattoos. While
sailing around the island we were visited by very different looking
dolphins, and as we found out later this kind of dolphin, called
Electra, is only seen around this island. Since our arrival in
Marquesas we have been sailing together with friends we have met for
the first time in Morocco two years ago, then Caribbean and now here,
also owners of Amel sailboat, but 54 ft instead of our 46. We will
have to say good-bye to them soon – they, being French can stay in
French Polynesia for 36 months, we as Canadians only receive three
months and now we have only another two months left here and we have
to move on, while they can linger. Presently, since a week we have
been exploring Fakarava together, the second largest atoll of Tuamotu
islands. We snorkel every day, dove both passes here with
crystal-clear water, with very healthy corals of every color and
shape imaginable and fish so plentiful and colorful, one doesn't know
where to look first. Black-tip sharks (quite harmless) are one of the
main attractions here and we meet them everywhere we snorkel in this
lagoon. This is an unbelievable underwater playground with so many
species of fish we have never seen anywhere else and we wish we could
spend some more time here. However, soon we will have to lift the
anchor and be on our way. Next we will cross first to Papeete, Tahiti
island, before continuing westwards as we must...
APRIL 2014
Galapagos via Ecuador!
OK, so quite unexpectedly we find
ourselves in Puerto Lucia, Salinas, Ecuador, although we already
covered about 1/3 of the way to Galápagos islands! But I am jumping
too much ahead, since our last entry was in January! So first,
beginning February we set the sails from Jamaica to Shelter Bay,
Colón to prepare Vanille for the Panama Canal crossing. The
wind was perfect, the sun was shinning, and just as we settled
ourselves for a pleasant uneventful crossing, we suddenly heard a
very strange noise and then silence! For few more minutes Vanille
kept its course and then sadly the sails started to flap...yes, our
20 years old automatic pilot died a sudden death only one and a half
days out of Jamaica and so for the next three days we became real
sailors, each taking one and a half hour shifts, day and night, round
the clock, steering Vanille with our own hands and muscles!
This sailboat was constructed to run on a pilot and the steering
station is not the most comfortable place to sit for a very long
time! - but we survived –
good thing just before this happened I have read that the sleeping
cycle for most people is 90 minutes and that did seem to work really
well for us. Once in Panama we ordered not one, but right away two
new motors to have a spare!! wouldn't want to steer by hand across
the many miles separating the islands in Pacific! When we finally
entered the Panama Canal we noticed some vibration from the motor but
suspected that was due to Vanille's obesity –
with all the provisioning we did for the Pacific, for sure we were
about one ton heavier than before! but a closer look on the way to
Galápagos we realized that the silent blocks for the engine and the
transmission are at the end of their life as well and that made us
change direction to Ecuador and to take care of it here, since the
next place where we could do something about this is Tahiti, and that
is many, many miles away! Well, hopefully after this there is nothing
too old to brake in the near future. We had stopped here four years
ago and took an advantage of the yard here to spruce up interior of
Nikan (after which we sold it
in Chile), and we are quite amazed that everybody remembers us here,
even our names – we have never had such a warm welcome anywhere
where we stopped for the second time before! So I am not sorry to be
here right now...hopefully the next leg of our journey will be
smooth with no unexpected surprises, and since we are already almost
at the end of April we will most likely skip Galápagos and go
directly to Marquesas Islands, some 3400 nautical miles away. This
will be our longest passage so far. We will try to be more regular in
our postings, although we are going to be entering islands of rare
Internet, slow Internet, no Internet –
I don't expect anything too efficient before New Zealand – and do I
ever wish that I was wrong about that prediction!!!
JANUARY 2014
Island hopping
Since our last blog entry from Beaufort, due to an offshore weather pattern, we made several coastal jumps to West Palm Beach and from there we finally crossed the Gulf Stream directly to Nassau. The route to Puerto Rico has to be taken from the latitude of Beaufort or higher, otherwise it becomes a struggle against the wind, and so we just decided to see Puerto Rico another time... Although we visited the Bahamas five years ago, with over 700 islands and 2,400 cays there is always a new cove to drop the anchor in, a new coral head to snorkel over, another shade of turquoise water to admire or some new island where to enjoy an ice cold beer. Our final stop was Clarence Town, Long Island, the perfect place from where to await an opportunity to move on, and where you find probably the most easygoing people on Earth! On the way from Clarence Town to Île à Vache, Haiti, we made another decision to change our plans and now here we are, in Port Antonio, Jamaica. I am very happy we finally didn't go to Île à Vache, as we have met here few boats who didn't have a good experience over there, although there are others who loved it. Amazingly Port Antonio is now very quiet - on our last visit reggae music blasted over the whole port 24/7! After the Bahamas this NE corner of the island is green and full of flowers, receiving rain daily, brought in by a steady flow of warm and humid trade wind stacking up against the Blue Mountain range. Shortly after our arrival, Compagneira, a motor sailor that we have met in Ecuador three years ago, entered the harbour and so we explore the island together, while catching up on the sea adventures and news of old friends. Although the weather for the next passage for now is not too bad, we are awaiting a bit calmer sea to sail to Colon, Panama. The heading of about 100 degrees from the wave direction could make this passage quite rolly in 12 to 14 feet wave! Meanwhile we relax and enjoy the company of friends and fellow cruisers... and the time flies by...fast... too fast...NOVEMBER 2013
Cat-and-mouse game
The fall pattern is well established now and so we start to play cat and mouse with the weather, that is to say, we have to pick a weather opportunity to leave the East Coast of USA with favorable conditions to cross the Gulf Stream and then head South-Est toward the islands. Cold fronts are now crossing the coast every three days on average, so you know for sure one or two of these will hit you anyway, but you don't want to be in the Gulf Stream when that happens. Patience is the key, choose the wrong time, when a strong wind is out of the North blowing against the current, and you’ll find this a dangerous place to be. Contrary wind in the Gulf Stream produces steep and short waves that are not pleasant to sail thru. Unfortunately some years the weather is not cooperating as we wish and in the past we had to change our plans and work with what mother nature gave us. For now it looks like it will be one of these years, and instead of crossing the Gulf Stream from Norfolk we already had to continue by the coast to Beaufort, and now it looks like we will take us further south by the coast, rather than crossing right away. Oh well, something lost, something gained, Beaufort is very pretty town definitely worth visiting, if you can. Hopefully we will still sail offshore to Puerto Rico - our next destination.OCTOBER 2013
We are still alive and kicking
Why silent for such a long time? Well, until just few weeks ago there was nothing much to write about, as it was basically work, work, and more work, making Vanille not only ready and reliable (hopefully not for heavy seas!), but esthetically pleasing as well. The first task we tackled was quite a challenging labour done in a typical summer weather here in Annapolis (hot and humid) and took us several weeks, stripping Vanille's headlining and replacing it with a new one purchased last year in France. Then the windlass motor had to be changed for a stronger one. While one contractor replaced all canvas outside for better sun protection, another took care of all cushion covers in the boat seating as well as replacing some of the foam, and still another one made us new carpets. Meanwhile Jean-Pierre installed a marine sanitation device system to one of the toilets to make us legal in United States (and probably elsewhere as well), he installed few additional fans, renewed all motor hoses on the Perkins motor and checked the heat exchanger. Amel head sail furler had to be exchanged for a new electric one from Harkens, and as an unexpected surprise we had to order a new HF radio and tuner since the old Furuno suddenly gave up. We also installed a new fridge before the old one would get a chance to fail us. And as part of the normal annual maintenance we hauled-up for an antifooling paint and some waxing and polishing as well. All in all this was a total refit and we think we will be under way around the mid October and will get going, depending on what kind of weather the mother nature brings us, in this almost like new sailboat!. And just to let you know this hasn't been only work and no play, we had our annual visit with the family, and played tourists when my sister Marcella flew here for a visit. With her we finally managed a proper visit of Annapolis as well as its surroundings and toured Washington city to see where all the US tax money gets spend! - we managed to visit before all the government mess and were lucky to have all these interesting museums and parks open to explore!!
MAY 2013
“You can go to heaven if you want. I'd rather stay in Bermuda,” Mark Twain
We spent some time in the sparkling,
crystal blue waters of Antigua, before sailing to St. Maarten, where
we waited inside the lagoon for a sailing window towards Bermuda. At
this time of the year these two islands are full of many beautiful
classic yachts (wow! wow! the shine and the sparkle!) getting ready
for Antigua Sailing Week, the #1 regatta in the Caribbean and one of
the top ten in the world. St. Maarten, the Dutch side, is often
referred to as little Las Vegas, with more casinos than gas stations
and 400+ restaurants! Finally on May 8 we crossed the lagoon and
departed from St. Martin, the French side of this tiny island and
arrived to Bermuda some 800 miles and eight days later. This passage
took much longer than anticipated, we had to heave to (stop and
drift) for approximately 40 hours on two occasions to let nasty
weather and confused sea pass by. We detoured about 120 miles to
avoid the worst of a depression passing by Bermuda. Now we are back
in North Atlantic, the temperatures dropped down, gone is the
humidity! This island deserves kudos for being exceptionally clean,
garbage cans every few steps, and everything is extremely well
organized, you feel the British discipline imposed since the
beginning of this outpost. This is one of the most expensive islands
we have been to so far, for example, two small beers, one soup, one
burger in an ordinary restaurant at lunch time = $54, not exactly a
bargain. The median income here is about one and a half amount of USA
but the rental cost is about $2,000 a month per room! So even with a
better salary closing the budget in the positive is a challenge, to
purchase a house here is a seven figures affair. At the moment the
criminality rate on the island is twice that of England and much
higher than USA. Everything is imported and the cost of food is very
high, and yet, just traveling around, the poverty is very well
hidden, all the houses look beautiful, painted in pastel colors, the
lawns cut to perfection everywhere, parks and streets spotless, the
locals very friendly and still adhering to some old-world customs not
seen in many places. We love the business men in their national
uniform – a salmon pink Bermuda shorts (no shorter than six inches
above the knee), a pair of dark long socks, smart shoes, a tie and a
dark jacket – looks very chick!. Our next stop will be Chesapeake
Bay where we will spend the hurricane season and finish upgrading
Vanille in preparation for the next season. Have great summer
and see you soon!
April 2013
Was Martinique, then Guadeloupe, today Antigua
Looks like we just skipped
one month – time flies when one is in a vacation mode. Visiting the
islands, happy hours on Vanille or friends' boats, reading,
swimming relaxing - just being two lazy bums - and we are not ashamed
to admit that once in a while doing nothing feels great, just like a
long vacation. Well, in fact, this is a long vacation called
retirement! The water is warm, even too warm, the air hot and humid. There
isn't much to write about this lazy period, except to report that rum
here is still as good as when we met here each other in the Caribbean
some 28 years ago, except now we don't consume as many Ti-punches
(white rum, sugarcane syrup,
lime) as we did then! Sadly most of the anchorages are
crowded, full of boats, for sure some 30 times more than then.
Restaurants and bars are in every corners along the sea front, and
unbelievably the internet services are the poorest we have encountered
in years...This is a tourist zone with all its good and also its bad,
just a question of what you are looking for.
FEBRUARY 2013
Relaxing in Martinique
Finally we were able to hit the trade
wind, thanks to a representative from the Amel Yard, who provided us
with his social security number and so the “overnight delivery”
package was shipped to us more than three weeks later! Incredible...,
but all this delay gave us an opportunity to visit Gran Canaria
island from the touristic seaside to the sinuous roads of the
mountains with some breathtaking scenery along the way. We left the
port January 15, Vanille's every inch of spare space
stocked-up with food, beer and wine. Some 200 miles from Cape Verde
we decided not to stop there, as the wind was blowing, the sun was
shinning, Vanille was flying....and 21 days later, by the
early morning we caught the first sight of Martinique's mountain
range, just as the sun was coming up. Overall, one third of the trip
we had a fine weather with occasional squalls, one third with very
uncomfortable cross sea and one third of the time we suffered through
light weather, changing sails all the time, trying anything and everything to move forward, even had to use the motor at times. Once some 15-20 dolphins entertained us for a good
hour, jumping, racing, playing with Vanille, another time
three whales, a family we thought, stayed with us for about four
hours and once we were lucky enough to catch a supper, although we
have tried on several occasions, but without any success. Now and than we
sighted a bird. Since February 5 we are anchored in the Bay of Ste
Anne, just enjoying the sun and the warm water. Life is not too bad
at the moment.
JANUARY 2013
Logistics, logistics....
Shortly after leaving Agadir our shaft
alternator started to show signs of fatigue and than stopped working
completely. So instead of heading south we changed our course 90
degrees west and before long arrived to Gran Tarajal, a small, sleepy
village with crystal clear water on Fuerteventura island. This island
has a desert-like appearance and what you don't water doesn't
grow. There must have been at least twenty very well done colourful
graffitis on various walls around the town, with some artists still
at work. What a talent! We were lucky the recommended mechanic was
able to get all the parts needed and the following week this 20 years
old alternator was rebuild with new bearings, new diodes pack and a
new regulator. Few days later with the perfect wind to bring us to
Cape Verde we got under way again and what a surprise!...this thing
still didn't output any current...we weren't too happy about that!
This is an important piece of equipment for us, as it supplies the
electricity needed to operate the automatic pilot, fridge, lights,
etc. We weren't ready to turn back and so, another course change of
90 degrees west brought us this time to Las Palmas on Gran Canaria
island, a big city, where after taking the alternator apart, this
time, an honest mechanic doesn't recommend us to try to rebuild it – the bearing housing is in a very bad shape and there is a
short wire in the coil. So without any fanfare this alternator is
declared dead and we order a new unit from Amel yard. The package is
sent from France (European Union) to ship to Gran Canaria Island of
Spain (which is also part of European Union), sounds like this is
going to get here without any glitch! What a mistake in our thinking!
The parcel is picked-up by the 21st of December and by the 23rd is in
Madrid. And that is where it stays, although this is send by the
International Priority Delivery, which is supposed to be 24-hr
delivery within Europe. Today we are the 2nd of January and the
parcel is still in Madrid! apparently needing to go through some
custom clearance...wait a minute...aren't we still in EU territory?
isn't this supposed to be 24-hr delivery? - well, looks like the
Canary Islands have a special status and custom clearance is needed.
By now it has been sitting there for the past 8 working days and we
had already spent several hours on the phone, e-mail and yet don't
know what it takes to get it here. Unless you experience EU working
methods, you don't realize, how efficient we are in North America.
Since June we have been dealing with lots of businesses here and now
understand, why there is a big trouble in this part of the
world...But as the saying goes, everything bad is good for something,
and so this frustrating experience provided us with an opportunity to
see some of the Canary Islands. It's beautiful here, the weather is
perfect as well, the shops are full of excellent, inexpensive cheese,
good wine – so what the heck are we complaining about? Happy New Year
to all of you!
NOVEMBER 2012
Agadir, Morroco
We left Gibraltar fast behind us with
an overground speed of 9 knots, but as the wind didn't keep up, it
took us three and a half days to cover some 450 miles to Agadir. We
stepped for the first time on the African soil and yet here we feel
as if we had never left Europe. This is not as one would imagine real
Morocco, but a typical tourist town with real McDonald's and Pizza Hut, as well as their local versions. Hotel
after hotel, restaurant after restaurant border the endless beach,
including an old Club Med resort. The marina facility is pretty good,
situated as if in a courtyard surrounded by expensive boutiques and
restaurants, this is a place where Moroccans come for promenade, to
shop, to feed the fish or just to admire this setup. Unfortunately,
the marina sanitary facility needs a good scrubbing and renovation,
this is the only item ignored by otherwise very helpful manager and
staff of this otherwise attractive marina. As we wanted to see a bit
beyond this tourist town, we visited the mystique town of Marrakesh.
We think even with a detailed map, wandering through the haphazardly
laid out streets of the medina and the souk is a real challenge, a
city within a city, we would never find our way without a guide!
Every nicknack produced in Morocco (or China?) can be found and the
competition is fierce with alley after alley full of shops.
Motorcycles, vendors, trade workers, tourists fill the place and
produce an incredible chaos, mixed with smell of fumes, spices,
herbs, also music and motorcycle noise - what a show! - but well
worth the visit. The great Jamaa el-Fna, the main popular square is
the scene of feverish activity as night begins to fall, outdoor
food-stalls get installed in a snap, air gets smoky as everyone
starts to cook at the same time and street dancers, monkeys and snake
charmers get in action and animate this place which is completely
filled with tourists and locals who try to sell you anything and
everything. And as the weather in Agadir is always pleasant and
mostly sunny (24 to 26°C
during the day), besides wandering around, we continued with the
improvements to Vanille and tried our hand with the
installation of some new lining (not a very fun job, especially the
fumes of the glue get our heads spinning round and round!). And so
now the new standing rigging is re-tuned, the cockpit is polished to
perfection and we are keeping our eye on the weather to grab the next
window to head to Cape Verde.
OCTOBER 2012
We are under way again...
A lot has been going on since we took
possession of Vanille early this June, in Roses, Spain. First
we had to prepare her for the ocean passage, as many things haven't
been changed since 1992 when she was built and we were very fortunate
to be able to do that in our new friends' shipyard in France. The two
masts have been repainted, the standing and running rigging replaced,
the motor revised, all the electric furling motors and gearboxes
serviced and checked, all the winches had to be cleaned and checked
as well. Since Vanille consumes quite a lot of electricity, we
installed a wind generator plus two 100W solar panels and made sure
that the shaft alternator is functioning well. We had all the sails
checked as well and installed a second A.I.S. (ship radar) receiver,
that we hooked to a small GPS for offshore use. We went through
everything thoroughly, so hopefully, no unpleasant surprises will
arrive in the middle of a stormy, dark night and violent sea! After
spending few weeks back home this summer visiting family and friends,
beginning of September found us back in Europe and by the end of
September we were under way again, as our Visa in Schengen area
(agreement between most of the European countries as to permitted
length of stay) was at its end and one has to wait 180 days before
being able to return – too bad – we really enjoyed the little we
had seen of Spain and would have loved to spend here some more time,
as well as being able to cruise around some other countries in
Mediterranean sea. From Port Camarque we sailed to and stopped for
few days in Fornells, a charming, little village on the east coast of
Menorca, than on to more touristic Isla Formentera. We would have
loved to explore some more around Aguilas, a typical little Spanish
town. At the moment we are in Gibraltar, a tax free zone, full of
pubs and fish & chips. So far we are extremely happy with
Vanille, she is easy to sail and is way more comfortable then
Nikan, our previous sailboat – 4 m in length make also a huge
difference in the way a sailboat handles the sea. A bit like going
from driving a compact car to driving Mercedes! For the moment we are
still undecided and are juggling with different ideas as to where to head
from here. First probably Morocco, than......we'll keep you posted.
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