Papy Jovial

Calling into Puerto Rico

2012-02-09T07:51:00.008-05:00

This was not our first choice, in fact not even the last one, but a choice that circumstances dictated to us, and it turned out to be the best possible choice. Extremely well sheltered marina with very friendly staff, the best food in the area, good internet connection and good facilities.

We got in there in the night Wednesday to Thursday (the entrance is 0.09 miles wide, unmarked within a 0.35 miles wide opening. We came in using the radar, but once in, you are in a wonderfully sheltered bay.

After daylight, we tied up at the marina and got a taxi to go to Mayaguez, the nearest big town, to clear customs and rent a car. On the way back we had lunch in a seaside restaurant, and then back to the boat to do tidying work, and have drinks and snacks at the marina.

Next morning, it turned out that the gaz bottle put in service two days ago was emtpy. Found a leak caused by a missing o ring. Went on a chase to find a gaz filling station and the o ring. Took all afternoon but gave us a tour of the surroundings. We even did a little bit of shopping and a visit to an ATM at Cabo Rojo, the neighbouring little town.

On Friday also, we were receiving the visit of Bill and Graham, two brothers from San Juan, who were coming to visit us and to participate in the first regatta ever organized by the marina. Papy Jovial is not exactly a racing boat, but we registered anyway, to participate. Of course, dinner and drinks with Grahama and Bill.

Saturday, regatta and party, music, drinks, food and friendship. Bill wanted to get back to San Juan that day but had to wait for Sunday. As for us, Sunday was touring day towards Ponce, the second largest town in Puerto Rico, and Salinas, where we had lunch in the wrong restaurant (2 hours waiting for our orders with a very average quality food). In Ponce, we visited the Bomberos museum, very dear to Scott's heart, and then the "Castillo de Serralles", which is more an out of use mansion then a museum. Very nice architecture anyway and interesting furniture, for a family

that was dominating the sugar and rhum industry in Porto Rico until the end of the last century. There are no more sugar cane in Puerto Rico and the rhum is made of molasses imported from the Dominican Republic.

On Monday, we did a little bit of work on the boat, and had the fuel extensively polished, under the very competent supervision of Joe who did a magnificent job. Hopefully the clogging of fuel lines will not be bothering me for a while.

On Tuesday, we went to San Juan, by road. We met Bill at the Sizzler restaurant near the Club Nautico and after we were shown our quarters (an apartment belonging to a friend of Bill), Scott and I were given the Bill Butler old San Juan tour. Joe who has difficulties walking and Karen who was not feeling well stayed in the apartment.

After the tour, we left for the boat of Manuel Martorell in the harbour, for a boucan of the San Juan table. At the end of the boucan, we were fortunate enough to witness the induction of Manuel in the table as brother "Tridente".

Later that evening, Bill had to take Karen to the Emergency Room and the poor lady had to spend almost all night there in not very comfortable conditions.

Anyway, we eventually got her back, and after a short visit to Walgreens and West Marine, Karen and I drove back to Puerto Real, while Joe and Scott stayed in San Juan to fly back home.

Karen and I did our last shopping, then the last meal at the marina, then the next day, we drove back to Mayaguez to surrender the car, before sailing off for Casa de Campo on Friday.

700 miles upwind

2012-02-03T09:05:00.006-05:00

They say "gentlemen don't sail to weather". Well, for a little more than a week, I was certainly not a gentleman. We left Pestel on the 18 and sailed, motored, motor sailed around the south peninsular of Haiti to reach Cap Tiburon but did not find wind and had to wait until Vaca Island to start sailing. In the meantime, we got tossed around quite violently by choppy seas and no wind. Then we sailed for a little while roughly until Jacmel. The wind died again and we started motoring. Not for long. The motor died with all fuel lines clogged with thick and large particles of algaes.
Brother Flaco came to the rescue and cleaned up everything real well which gave us time to reach Cabo Rojo (close to the border between Haiti and Dominican Republic) where the wind came back and we started tacking, hoping to reach Punta Salinas.
But Dr Murphy was still with us, and we soon got caught in a fishing net, which 6 foot seas and 20 knots of wind, and we were drifting at around 2 knots, towards the shore, of course. We managed to fish the lines, which I thought were caught in the rudder, as it happened off Port Elizabeth in South Africa, using the dinghy anchor. Eventually we freed ourselves and resumes tacking, practically all the way to Boca Chica which we reached on the 22nd shortly before noon.
It was time to recover, clean again the Racor filter, clear the line from the propeller (not the rudder), have a nice dinner and a few beers, and we left Boca Chica on the 24th morning, thinking that we were sailing towards San Juan.
But again, we kept beating into the wind, and after several exchanges of email with Bill Butler in San Juan, we decided to call into Ponce first, and then, hearing that there were no space available due to the boat show in Ponce, we called into Puerto Real on the 26, happy to have a shorter distance to cover, and happy to get into a very well sheltered bay. But before getting there, we still had to satisfy Dr Murphy one more time by having the genoa halyard break. Fortunately, we had a spare halyard in place and we could quickly get the genoa back up.

Return to Pestel

2012-02-02T16:40:00.003-05:00

I was not planning to stop in Pestel on my way to Porto Rico, as I had nothing to bring to the place and I did not want to create false expectations. However, the meeting with the President changed everything and I felt obligated to be the one to announce there that I had committed myself to help with organizing the Festival of the Sea in March 2013.

This was a very emotional and intense return to a place where I had left a big chunk of my heart back in the 90's.

It started with my first fan in Pestel, Drivelhomme who had travelled from Roseaux, where he works, to meet me in Grand Goave and sail with us to Pestel.

Arriving in Pestel was i

ncredible, with groups of folks dancing and chanting my name.

I anchored the boat in the lagoon, and after receiving aboard my closest friends, madame Jacques, Antonie Antoine, Antilhomme, Castrat, Claudel and many others, we went to visit the village and meet with the local priest and seek his support for the Festival of the sea.

The day ended with a fantastic dinner at madame Jacques, with plenty of local food (Riz Dion Dion, Lobster, Conch, fried plantains, etc . . . ) and entertainment provided by our brother Piper, known by o

thers as Scott Rogers.

Upon leaving, we did a very quick detour to see what was left of the little marina that I had built there (Libertalia), just to confirm that everything would have to be rebuilt.

But there is first

a lot of work to be done to prepare for the festival to make sure that the village is once again ready to welcome visitors from Port au Prince and provide accomodation, food, drinks and entertainment.

Presidential day

2012-02-02T16:00:00.002-05:00

During the day on 14th, I was told that the President Martelly wished me to pay him a visit. And on the 15th, my good friend Mireille Lherisson picked me up at Max's place and we drove to Port au Prince. Mireille is very active running several projects in favour of the country and was hoping to make a presentation of her project to improve water quality and eradicate cholera in the country.

Late on the 15th, we had an appointment at 7 p.m., but it turned out that the obligations of the President led him to postpone the meeting up to 9 a.m. the next morning.

I spent a nice evening with Mireille and her business partner Ingenieur Guy Francois in a Petionville restaurant and I stayed for the night to be on site for the meeting.

At 9 on the 16th, we were at the president's residence. We were swiftly let in, and after a brief conversation with the first lady, the President joined us and immediately started talking about the Festival of the Sea in Pestel that I used to organize in the late 80's. The President would like me to do it again and I promised that I would do my best to have it running in March 2013. We also talked of several nautical projects that could do good for the country without having to spend a lot of money in infrastructures (create an environment more conducive to attract pleasure boats to visit Haiti, use water taxis in Port au Prince to alleviate congested road traffic, study the possibility to set up a coastal freighting system with boats that Haitian sailors can afford and run).

This meeting is likely to make me change significantly my personal planning for the coming months, if not years. However, if I could within my possibilities and abilities, bring a little bit to help in the reconstruction of Haiti, I would certainly never regret it.

Destination Haiti

2012-01-29T19:21:00.002-05:00

visit to Grand Goave and Pestel - 007, a photo by brisegalets on Flickr.

After taking fuel in Staniel Cay and anchoring for the night in Little Farmer Cay, we sailed on, with another night at anchor 30 miles before exiting the bank, to finally drop the hook in Haiti in front of a small village in "La petite Gonave".

This was a first encounter for Country Boy and Karen with kindness, dignity, great poverty, all those things that make Haiti what it is. We spent the night there before sailing on to Grand Goave where Max was waiting for us.

That day, we were supposed to have lunch at "Chez Christian" with the crews of the three french sailboats that had made it to Grand Goave. In fact, lunch started around 5 p.m. and we came back to the boat well into the night.

Next day, it was a kind of tourist trip to Port au Prince, in a bus supplied by my friend Lionel Pressoir, that took us through Port au Prince and Petionville. We had a wonderful lunch and a good taste of haitian cuisine before returning to the boats. Later that day, the three Haitian brothers present in the country at the time, plus the four of us, american brothers, we conducted a ceremony to invite Max into our community of sailors under the name "Moun ak grand ke" (the man with a big heart). This was followed by a wonderful dinner buffet and good entertainment in wich Piper and Country Boy participated.

This was to me of great significance as I had tried to achieve this for the last 10 years, and I am convinced that the brothers of Haiti will greatly benefit from this injection of new blood.

Under Way

2012-01-07T08:37:00.000-05:00

Under Way

At first, I thought that we were going to have a less comfortable
crossing of the Gulf Stream than I anticipated. The seas were as choppy
as usual but at around 6 feet and the wind was from the NNE at 20 knots.
This anyway only lasted for 4 hours, after which we had to hoist the
Yanmar sail and motor all the way up to North Rock which we reached at
6:00 a.m.
We then motored, or motor sailed to NW channel that we passed at 16:00,
then on to Clifton Pier to enter the bank at around midnight.
My plan was to continue up to Samson Cay and top up the fuel tank. But
there was no fuel there and we went to Staniel cay and refuelled at
14:00. Having still 3 hours of daylight, we continued to Little Farmer
Cay and anchored there in front of the south west beach. This was the
first time that I tried the new anchor riding sail but there was not
enough wind for this test to be conclusive. Anyway, as it was, it worked
beautifully and Papy Jovial never made a move towards the anchor.
Once anchored, we had a nice dinner of Mahi Mahi and penne pasta, cooked
by Karen. After dinner, I played on the TV the documentary made by
Jacques Yves Cousteau in 1985, titled "Waters of sorrow", knowing that
there will be even more causes for sorrow in the Haiti that we will find
in less than a week.

Final dash

2011-11-01T17:47:00.003-04:00

Not only I had to be in Fort Lauderdale in time for my flight to France on November 2nd, but also the ontime reputation of Papy Jovial was at stake. From Saint Augustine, it was a direct shot to Port Canaveral, basically with no wind and the Yanmar sail up all the way. Got there in time though, in fact arriving at the fuel dock at 6 in the morning. Tied up and went for a nap.
At that point, I was beginning to fight a cold, coming out of nowhere, maybe related to this other cold front threatening for the rest of the way.
I decided to stay inside as there was no way we could make Fort Pierce before the front would hit. From Port Canaveral we made Vero Beach, not a bad place, with good facilities at the municipal marina and a very nice restaurant nearby, underneath the highway bridge.
Then the weather held up until we got to Blowing Rocks marina (do not try that one, sailboats are not welcome) just as the wind picked up. I had to get into a slip with a strong side wind, strong side current and a million dollar boat next to us that I would certainly not like to hit.
Unpleasant night, in choppy waters, although we are in the Hobe sound with no fetch. Next morning, at first, it looked like we were not going to be able to leave the slip without falling onto the boat next door. Around 10:00, the wind shifted enough so that I could escape and we made a run for the gazillion bridges left until we would get to Fort Lauderdale. That day, we made it all the way to Delray Beach, leaving us with only 26 miles to get to Cooley's Landing.
We left Delray Beach at 8:30 and arrived in Fort Lauderdale (very busy with the boat show and the humongus super yachts lined up under Las Olas bridge) Cooley's Landing at 2 p.m.
Mission accomplished. And my cold is slowly giving up.
Brother John has kindly offered me the use of his dock and I will move the boat there on Tuesday before flying to Paris. Karen is flying to the Bahamas to visit with friends before going North and enjoying the cold weather up there.

Playing tourists in San Augustine

2011-10-25T17:32:00.004-04:00

We left Barefoot Landing around 7h30 with a little less than 300 miles to make it to Saint Augustine. Up to Georgetown, uneventful motoring through the Golf heaven that is Myrtle Beach. Going out through the Georgetown, I though I could turn south before the last marker and hit a submersible jetty that goes parallel to the channel all the way to the end. No damage, but a big scare and a reminder that no matter your experience, you are never totally protected against stupid mistakes. Sobering and humbling reminder.
Then we went on with our two nights crossing to Saint Augustine, a first for Karen. She did very well, just got a little quizzy at the end with the constant rolling caused by following seas. Nothing serious.
We got to Saint Augustine in time for the 8h30 opening of the Bridge of Lions, which allowed us a full day of playing tourists, including a horse drawn carriage tour, a Sangria in a tavern which uses local wine for the preparation and a nice pasta dinner in an Italian Trattoria recently opened.
I had rented a car late afternoon for one day so that we could do the provisioning today. We then visited the fort Castillo de San Marcos, something that I had never done although I have visited Saint Augustine several times.
Tonight will be quiet dinner on the boat, with a Halibut Chowder prepared by Karen. I intend to leave mid morning tomorrow to get to Cape Canaveral on the outside and arrive there early morning on Thursday. There is some strong wind forecast for Saturday and Sunday and I will adjust my plans accordingly. But I will get to Fort Lauderdale on October 31 late afternoon.

Stumbling into a front

2011-10-19T15:45:00.008-04:00

Nothing unusual. As we are making our way south, a weather system (low plus a front) are making their way up north and the front is supposed to go through the Southport area on Wednesday. So, I decided to take a day off and spend the day in Southport. This allowed us to clean Papy Jovial outside as we are still carrying some of the dust collected in Portsmouth boat yard. The front went through during the night Tuesday to Wednesday, with lots of rain and very fresh winds. However, on Thursday the weather was a lot milder than I anticipated. But no regrets. Karen and I enjoyed a good dinner at the Cape Fear restaurant, we both enjoyed being safely in the dryness of the cabin as the wind and the rain pelted the boat. And we had time to work on the boat on Wednesday.
Most people know about Southport, but let me say that the downtown area is very very nice, with most houses dating back to the civil war era, but with new homes being built in the same style, which is unfortunately seldom the case here. On the waterway, between Morehead City and Carolina Beach, it would be difficult to name a winner on the ugliest house contest as there are too many challengers.
Tomorrow friday, it is still supposed to be windy and from the SW, but I am expecting to make Barefoot Landing, leave next morning late to exit the Waterway in Georgetown and head directly for Saint Augustine, arriving there sometimes on the Sunday the 23rd. This will be for Karen her first experience of being at sea overnight.

Cruising

2011-10-17T18:06:00.005-04:00

Although Belhaven does not have a lot to offer (three eating places, one Food Lion and two marinas), I really enjoyed spending a day and a half there. On Friday, Karen and I had a great country lunch at the one place that only opens for breakfast and lunch. We strolled a little bit around the few blocks of the downtown Belhaven and retired to the boat for dinner (juicy steak and green beans) and a quiet night. Saturday morning, Tom and Barbara arrived loaded with stuff (snacks, cookies, french litterature about Granville) , driving all the way from Wilmington to spend the day with us. We had lunch aboard Papy Jovial, then Tom drove us to Bath and Washington as I was curious to see those two places that I had never visited but that I intend to be part of my itinerary when sailing back up north. I liked both places very much, for different reasons. In Bath, there is not much in terms of shops or restaurant, but wonderful houses, some dating back three hundred years. Washington is a bigger places, with restaurants and shops and a city dock where you can stay one week for free.
We then drove back to Belhaven and had dinner at the other eating place, this time a full size restaurant with good seafood, after a short visit at Food Lion for wine and other stuff.
Tom and Barbara left us on Sunday morning and we cast off at 7:00 a.m., headed for Morehead City. Again, clear skies and nice weather although again with the wind in our face. We arrived in Morehead City to find the anchorage full and made the wrong decision to tie up at Port Side marina. Never do that with a SouthWesterly wind. We tossed around all night and very happy to leave early. However, we had on Sunday night an excellent dinner at the Ruddy Duck, next to the infamous Sanitary.
Monday was very much of the same, clear skies, stiff winds at times from the SW, and two bridges to deal with before coming into Harbour Village marina, my preferred stop when I can't sail from Morehead City to Wrightsville Beach on the outside.
The forecast for the weather ahead of us does not feel very good. We may have to spend a couple of days in Southport, and then go out and head directly for Saint Augustine.

Heading South

2011-10-14T18:05:00.002-04:00

Finally, Papy Jovial is moving again. This time, for a short trip in the neighborhood (Fort Lauderdale). Extracting ourselves from Norfolk was like pulling teeth. At the infamous Gilmerton bridge, the railroad bridge got stuck in the close position for almost 90 minutes. Then we missed the Great bridge bridge by 4 minutes. We tied up at the Atlantic Yacht basin for an early departure the next day. Which we did at 5:45 a.m. in the fog and in pitch darkness but we were able to make the Centerville Parkway bridge before it got restricted at 6:30 (we crossed at 6:15) and were able to make the 7:00 a.m. opening of the North Landing bridge. I then pushed hard and despite an increasingly strong headwind, we managed to reached Deep Point (mile marker 102) right at sunset. Next day, still with headwind up to 28 knots, we went to Belhaven marina where we arrived in time to get lunch there.
We are going to spend Saturday there and welcome my dear friends Tom and Barbara who will drive all the way from Wilmington to meet me.
Then, the weather looks like headwind all the way to Charleston and I will probably have to stay inside. The deadline is October 31 at Fort Lauderdale and we should be able to make it. (We is me and Karen).

Here and there

2011-07-12T18:36:00.002-04:00

Since my return on May 1st, there has been quite a few parties, a few trips both by car and by boat, but of course never something worth keeping a blog.
On May 24th, Philippa with my brothers L'Amusette, skipper owner and Civadiere with his wife Pepette sailed into Savannah from France. I drove to Savannah to meet them and the table there organized a wonderful boucan at the home of Mike and Karen.
On the Brotherhood front, we had the now world famous Raftarrancho held this year in Kilmarnock in conjunction with the Solomons table. I had some hiccups trying to get there, with my alternator almost falling into the bilges after loosing the main bolt that secures it to the engine bloc. So, instead of sailing all the way to Annapolis to pick up my crew Brenda who was joining me for the event, I had to stop in Solomons and do the repairs. It was just as well since Brenda was stuck in Boston with flights cancelled due to storms and had to take a train back home. She drove to Solomons to join me there.
The raftarrancho was one of the largest so far. Twelve boats in the river, but several others in the marina on Thursday night.
Friday night, everybody went to the marina to enjoy the party. And Saturday, everybody sailed away, some back home, some for a short cruise on the way.
I did not have a lot of time to spend on the boat as I drove on the 29th to Savannah and meet Philippe again to sort out some admin matters and have a look with him at his itinerary to Norfolk from Savannah.
Then on July 1st, I drove to Asheville in North Carolina to participate in the 4th of July reunion of the group of brothers who live close to Black Mountains. I was delighted to meet again with so many old friends that I had not seen for a long time. A very enjoyable extended week-end.
Back in Portsmouth, it was back to work on the boat. This time, I had my new wind generator installed just in time to return to Rebel Marina on July 10th. Time now to get back on the bike and loose those unwanted pounds that I am carrying with me since I returned.

It's over, for now !

2011-05-05T08:13:00.005-04:00

Very emotional finish ! I spent a quiet night at Tidewater marina while Gary joined the party in Norfolk. But I am not supposed to be in Norfolk until May 1st.
The next day, I had decided to leave at 11:15 in time to be at Lambert's point at noon, but I could not wait that long and as a result, we had to idle all the way to the coal pier. We then first met Orza, and then all the boats from the brotherhood that could make it, Bamboo, Cat Nap, Tardis, Blue Moon, and a little bit further away Talisman. Many cannon shots were fired, many shots of rum were fired too . . . .
Aboard those boats, there were brothers not only from the Chesapeake Bay, but our national captain from San Antonio, and brothers from Texas, Florida and Georgia. Such a warm and festive welcome was a little bit overwhelming for me, since in my mind, I had just completed a round trip to Sydney, Australia. A bigger deal if you called it circumnavigation !
At Rebel Marina, a slip decorated with yellow ribbons was waiting for me, together with a bigger crowd. And the party went on until late in the day. It feels so good to be back at a place that I now call home.
Next day, my table Captain, brother Cruz, offered to take us on a boat ride and lunch at Lynnhaven River. At 26 knots, it did not take as long as it would have Papy Jovial and in no time, we were sitting at a wonderful restaurant, over the Lynnhaven river for drinks and lunch, (which always includes desert for me !).
Tuesday was devoted to finding a set of wheels, and after an unsuccessful trip to Petersburg where I was hoping to buy a used Ford Focus Wagon, same as the one I had before my trip, I ended up buying a Jeep Patriot in Virginia Beach.
So, I am now mobile and independant, and settling down will be my next job. Moving all the stuff that I left in Portsmouth down here and start the long Wishlist to get Papy Jovial ready for her next trip.
I am very much aware that many people have followed my trip on this blog. I want all to know that it has remained throughout very comforting to know that I was not alone. There won't be as many entries in the few coming months, but I will keep the blog going sporadically until I am ready to make a decision regarding the next voyage.
A few numbers,
In a little less than two years (one year and 350 days), I covered 36,775 miles over the ground and 32,841 through the water (thanks to a generally favourable current). I used the engine 1,285 hours, many of those hours to get down from Norfolk to Jamaica and then through the Panama canal, and then, on the return trip, to sail up from the Bahamas to Norfolk.
I used my electric diesel generator 251 hours, and we used altogether, including in marinas, 5,337 gallons of water, which is an overall average of 7.46 gallons per day.

The penultimate leg

2011-04-30T19:59:00.002-04:00

The wind, unfortunately, continued to be almost nonexistent for our last passage in open seas from Wrigthsville Beach to Morehead City and we motored all the way to the anchorage opposite de infamous "Sanitary" restaurant. We had dinner on Papy Jovial anyway for a quiet Easter Evening.
Monday morning, we left leisurely at 9 a.m. to avoid adverse current and we arrived in Oriental around 1 in the afternoon. Having put the boat in order, we went for a walk to look for the local supermarket, around a mile away. Having done the provisioning, we had drinks with local people at the Tiki Bar before a simple dinner at the marina's restaurant.
Next day, I was intended on walking and we made a first attempt to go south of the marina. We did not go even one block before an intense rain chased us back to the boat. We waited a little bit, and having decided that the sky had definitely cleared, we went north this time, and it did not even last half a block before a heavy downpour made us run back to Papy Jovial. The rest of the day, we kept busy doing nothing and reading a little.
I had been told that Thursday was going to be very windy and rainy, so I left on Wednesday trying to move as much as I could towards Norfolk, as time was becoming to be tighter and tighter. Luckily, I was able to use motor and sail to log what is probably my best run ever on the waterway, with 99 statute miles for the day. And we were very fortunate to be able to get an opening of the Alligator River bridge, knowing that it probably won't open on Thursday. We anchored in the Little Alligator River, thinking that we were going to be able to make a run for Columbia the next morning. Unfortunately, the wind kept blowing harder and harder, and we spent Thursday hunkered down with the wind gusting at 40 knots.
No more tourism ! Now the goal is to make sure that the elements won't prevent me from arriving in Norfolk on time. So on Friday, we left directly for Coinjock where we arrived early in the afternoon. My friend Mike (my riding buddy) joined us for dinner and to sail the last leg to Norfolk with me, as he had sailed the first leg to Coinjock with me on May 16th, 2009.
The bridges did their very best to try and scare me and make me think that we could still get stuck. A 400 cars coal train did its best to keep the Gilmerton bridge closed. But all that to no avail. We got to Tidewater Marina around 5, and I will spend the night INCOGNITO there, being now certain that nothing could make me be late for my own home welcoming party. Although, I still have 2.65 miles to go !

Wrightsville Beach

2011-04-26T09:10:00.004-04:00

Another stop which will not be forgotten anytime soon. As it would be extremely difficult to find people as generous and hospitable as Tom and Barbara.
Tom was there, waiting for us as we arrived at Dockside, and helped us with the lines and with finding a diver to check on the shaft and especially the cutlass bearing after the crab pot incident.
We had lunch at the dockside bar and restaurant, which is a very lively place. In the afternoon, Tom drove us to Wilmington downtown and gave us a tour of the place. I must say, I had never seen Wilmington from that angle and it feels like I would like to return there with Papy Jovial.
Barbara joined us that evening and we had dinner at a fish house near Dockside. Generously, Tom left one of his cars with us so that we would be able to go shopping whenever we needed to.
On Friday, I wanted to do some work on the boat, just regular maintenance but that had to be done, like topping up the batteries with distilled water, changing the belt on the main engine as it shows signs of beginning to disintegrate, and other small chores.
Friday night, Barbara had cooked a wonderful dinner which we enjoyed at their place.
Saturday morning, Tom went with David to get his boat at Carolina Beach and was back mid-morning to show us Bradley Creek and then back to Dockside through Shinn Creek and the Motts Channel. We had lunch at Dockside, or to be more precise, on Tom's boat (Floundering around) with food provided by the Dockside restaurant. After lunch, little tour of the waterway up the Figure Eight bridge and some funny houses with a giraffe or a King Neptune in their front yard.
We then went back to Papy Jovial, gave some time to Tom and Barbara to go home and get ready for another great evening, this time a cookout in their yard.
Sunday morning, David got up at 5, drove himself to Tom's and then was driven to the airport to fly back home in Miami where he will be cooking the most part of a full turkey dinner. Tom and Barbara where by Papy Jovial at 6:30, and we left at 6:45 for Morehead city, going outside, Tom and Barb escorting us and taking some great pictures of Papy Jovial under sail against the rising sun.
This was a great conclusion of a great Easter Week-End with more than great friends.

Savannah and beyond

2011-04-22T11:42:00.004-04:00

I have never taken so much time to sail from the Bahamas back to Norfolk. It is a strange feeling but not unpleasant.
In Savannah, we were welcome by the local Brotherhood of the Coast and treated like kings. Arriving a Thunderbolt marina, I did not even have time to go and get my rental car that they were already on the boat to welcome us when I came back. This was the start of a wonderful four days with the brothers and their wives entertaining us in turns. Albert and Alise the first evening, then dinner at Patrick and Wren the next day, then everybody showing up at Tubby's on Friday, and finally a wonderful brunch at Mike and Karen, celebrating Alise's birthday. Certainly the best time I have ever had in Savannah for a long long time.
From Savannah, we left kind of late on Sunday afternoon and dropped anchor immediately south of Port Royal sound in Skull Creek. Very quiet and charming anchorage, on the side of the waterway.
After a quiet night, we left for Beaufort, SC, which was only 15 miles away, and where we arrived at 10:15 in the morning, with plenty of time to enjoy this historic little town, full of southern culture and architecture. We even took a horse drawn carriage tour with a fun filled commentary by a young guide.
We left Beaufort, SC at the 9:00 o'clock opening of the Ladies Island bridge and took the St Helena sound to go outside and sail straight to Southport, NC.
During the night, the gremlins struck again and we lost compass light, engine compartment ventilation, tachometer, oil pressure and temperature indications, and everything controlled by the engine room control panel. I knew at that point that there was no way to stop the engine as we might risk not to be able to restart it. We made it safely to Southport marina, called for a marine electrician, moved the boat by hand away from the fuel dock, and then a little bit later found out that everything had gone back to normal, with no way of identifying the problem, apart from assuming a bad or loose connection somewhere in the vicinity of the starter motor.
I just hope that the problem will not happen again, at least until I arrive in Norfolk.
From Southport we sailed up to Wrightsville Beach and managed to sail over a crab pot that got wrapped around the prop or the shaft. Be reversing the engine a few times, I managed to get rid of most of the lines and material, enough to get to Wrightsville Beach but with still some vibrations indicating probably still some line around the shaft. A diver came to the boat while we were away with Tom and Barbara and left a piece of line on the boat, probably to indicate to me that he had cleared the prop. I still have not seen the diver and I hope I will as I want to know whether the cutlass bearing is intact.
We are now in for some more dining and drinking with Tom and Barbara who are again showing and incredible sense of hospitality.

Snail pace

2011-04-16T16:57:00.003-04:00

We got to Saint Augustine, after a windless passage from Cape Canaveral, and made the 11:00 a.m. opening of the Bridge of Lions.
As always, I enjoyed very much those two days in Saint Augustine. It is a very pleasant city, claiming to be the oldest city in the US, dating back to the middle of the 16Th century.
The day we arrived, we met with Rick and Pam, who are looking to buy a boat and go cruising, and with whom I had been in contact for some time. We had dinner across the street from the marina in a nice restaurant with good food and live entertainment, fortunately not too loud.
On Tuesday, we started the day with a long walk to find a pharmacy where David could find an alternative solution in the absence of his glasses that went swimming in Port Canaveral.
Back on the boat shortly before noon, we just had time to get into fresh T-Shirts before meeting Tom and Sarah who had driven all the way from Jacksonville to be with us. Again, pleasant lunch, in a restaurant across the street from the marina, but not the same one. As those who have followed the blog already know, Tom and Sarah have been really good to me, providing me with weather advice, but also technical advice any time I had a problem with the boat. Again, thank you so much Tom and Sarah.
In the evening, we went into historic Savannah for dinner and chose a place a little bit out of the traditional tourist path, quiet and not a rip off, for a beer and a light meal. Got back to the boat at a decent time, although there was going to be no rush the next day as we only needed to make the 8:30 opening of the bridge of Lions.
This was again a windless passage, but this time with a very high humidity, probably 100 %, and the windscreen of the dodger was continually covered with water.
I had chosen to take the Wilmington river entrance and therefore timed our speed to arrive at sunrise at the first marker. Problem free entrance to the Thunderbolt marina where we arrived at 9:30 in the morning.

Swimming

2011-04-11T13:54:00.001-04:00

freeport_canaveral, a photo by brisegalets on Flickr.

Not a lot to say about the crossing from Ezio's place, east of Port Lucay to Cape Canaveral. It took 26 hours with only 8 hours of sailing. It sucks but that is often the case in these parts.
We arrived in Cape Canaveral around 10:30 on Friday and were greeted by Gary who took us first to lunch at the Grills by the water and then to the Customs Office for clearance.
We then went to Publix to refill with beer, wine and other less important commodities.
In the evening, we had almost a replica of the dinner I had there on the way out in 2009 with Roland, Justin, Daphne, Gary and his sweet heart Dolores, and of course David and myself. Only Dave could not make it.
Saturday, we spend the morning, or rather what was left of it, to go to West Marine as I am missing a few things on the boat (you are always missing something on a boat.).
We could not find an "abandon ship bag" on the Merritt Island shop and had to go to Melbourne, which very conveniently was located near the other Grill where we were to meet Gary. After a nice lunch there, I wanted to find a sports bar where I could watch the third round of the Masters Golf tournament. I tried to stick to fruit juice or lemonade, but we not all had the same idea.
So, after we came back to the boat, there was a need for more drinks and this did not go to well with the sense of balance of one of the crewmembers of Papy Jovial. In short, it ended up with a fall into the drink and frantic efforts to fish him out, efforts wich were eventually successful, at the cost of a cell phone, a pair of prescription glasses and a wet wallet. Other than that, no catastrophic injuries, just a few scratches.
Sunday morning, Dolores came to visit Papy Jovial and I am told that she enjoyed the tour. After that, quick lunch all together and we left Port Canaveral around 4 in the afternoon for the historic city of Saint Augustine.

A very intense week

2011-04-06T07:26:00.002-04:00

60th anniversary Hermandad 098, a photo by brisegalets on Flickr.

On March the 28, I had left Papy Jovial to fly to Miami and spend one day with David and Miriam. This gave me an opportunity to update myself on electronics and go to Chile, still able to communicate from there.
On the 30th early Morning, I flew from Miami to Santiago via Panama where I arrived shortly after 8 p.m.
That's when it started. As soon as I arrived in the hotel, I got ready to go to a party organized by the Brothers of the Coast of the Santiago group (we call that a table) to celebrate their 60th anniversary. There was plenty of food, plenty of drinks and plenty of friendship and it went on late into the night.
Next day, there was nothing going on until the afternoon, so I went for a walk and lunch in town, but not too far from the hotel as I did not want to get lost. The official start of the 60th anniversary of the creation of the brotherhood took place at the Hyatt hotel where we all registered and then had a wonderful dinner, all of us dressed in the formal "uniform" of the brotherhood, consisting of blazer and tricorne. Again, the event went on well into the night before we were taken back to the hotel.
After a very short night, it was time to board a bus to go and visit a winery more than 3 hours south of Santiago. There was a choice between the english speaking bus and the spanish speaking bus, and I chose the latter, first because it was the one going to my hotel, also because I want to try and improve my ability to communicate in Spanish.
Wonderful day. The winery was very interesting, being a small winery compared with the "Concha y Toro" giant. Obviously, the visit had to include a "tasting" session, but I did my best to minimize the "tasting" to be able to get back to the hotel still standing !
We got back very late and after a very quick dinner of one serving of french onion soup, time to crash.
Next day was the big day. First, we were taken by bus to Valparaiso. First, we went to visit the house of the chilean poet Pablo Neruda. Then we went on to visit the Naval Museum after a brief ceremony in the yard of the museum in presence of authorities from the Chilean Navy. In the museum, a room had been dedicated to the Hermandad de la Costa and it was inaugurated by the Admiral who had been attending the visit. That visit helped me understand a little better why the history of the seafarers of the 17th and 18th century, particularly in the Caribbean, are viewed quite differently depending on what culture you come from. I am not sure that I would myself have put on the same level sir Francis Drake and sir Henry Morgan next to Captain Kidd and Mary Read or Ann Bonney. All depends whether you are used to being a target as opposed to being the agressor, legally or not.
From the museum we were taken to a very nice restaurant with a view over the harbour of Valparaiso for more food and more drinks, and more fun, and more camaraderie.
After that extended visit to Valparaiso and the return trip to Santiago, we neede a little time to get ready for the main event, wich was a gala dinner. The dress code for that event was Combat. For those who don't know, it means dressing the way movie makers, marketers and others unscrupulous historians want us to see the corsaires, privateers and pirates of the 18th century are portrayed. Actually, those people would dress any way they like using whatever clothes was available to them from the loot.
The net result is that those events in the "Hermandad de la Costa" which call for that dress code are always very colourful and are a lot of fun.
Again, that event went well into the night, the dinner being followed by music and dancing. The good news was that the next day, final day of the event, was not to start before 9:30 in the morning when the buses were supposed to pick us up at the hotel. The programme for the day was first a visit of downtown Santiago and then a dancing luncheon at a typical restaurant with a show of Chilean dances. The dancing then involved everybody and went on until 5 p.m.
That did not leave much time for me to pack and nap before leaving for the airport at 10:30 p.m. for a flight that did not take off before 3 in the morning. But I was told that you had to be at the airport at least 3 hours before the flight. Except that many people were confused being the standard time and the daylight saving time. I finally landed in Freeport around 5 p.m. and Ezio was there to pick me up.
I think I will need a couple of days to recover before resuming normal activities.

Another round trip

2011-03-20T09:07:00.001-04:00

Moving up at Grand Lucaya Waterway a photo by brisegalets on Flickr.

Another week in paradise (almost, the temperature still below 72 in the morning) is ending.
Yesterday, we were treated to a great moon show. The moon was at the closest it can be to earth on a full moon and there was not a cloud in the sky. Great show. It certainly helps getting a better understanding of the origin of the expression "mooning somebody".
During that last week, I did another quick round trip to Florida. This time I flew to Fort Lauderdale on Tuesday, and Wednesday morning, early (we got out of the cut at 6:30 a.m.) sailed across to Grand Bahamas with my friend Henri on Moving Up. At first sight, the weather window did not look all that great for that kind of powerboat, but in fact, it turned out to be almost perfect and we got to Port Lucaya in good time since we arrived at the customs dock at 12:25.
This time, clearing customs and immigration did not take long and we were back at the Grand Lucaya Waterway early in the afternoon. Pleasant dinner with Ezio and Stephanie, travel arrangements for Henri returning on Thursday to Fort Lauderdale and the day was over.
On Thursday, I drove Henri to the airport, and then went back to Papy Jovial, killing time with regular maintenance work.
Not much will happen until I fly to Miami and then Chile on the 28, so there won't be much to tell on the blog.
See you in a week

preparing to swim

2011-03-14T15:34:00.002-04:00

Ezio's swimming pool 004 a photo by brisegalets on Flickr.

Finally, I spent not two but three weeks in Fort Lauderdale, the third week being devoted to shopping, knowing that I was going to spend the whole month of March at Ezio's place.
Ezio arrived on Tuesday, his friend Bob on Wednesday. By the time we had installed the sails back in place, put out the shopping inside the boat in such a way that we could still live in there and be comfortable sailing back to Lucaya, the week-end was there.
We left on Sunday morning around 8 o'clock, passed the 17th street bridge at 8:30 and were out of the cut by 8:45. We were fortunate enough to have good wind, 15 to 20 knots roughly from a southerly direction and sailed at more than 7 knots for the first 8 hours of the trip. Then the wind abandoned us and I had, once again, to hoist the Yanmar sail and arrived at Ezio's place, on the Grand Lucaya Waterway at 22:55.
After a bite and a short sleep, we returned to Port Lucaya marina to clear customs and immigration, which kept us there until 2:30 in the afternoon after which we could return to the Lucaya Waterway.
The following days, Ezio worked hard in putting he finishing touches to the swimming pool and there is hope that by the end of this week we might be able to use it.
Meanwhile, I am returning tomorrow afternoon (Tuesday) to Fort Lauderdale and leave on Wednesday aboard Moving'us with my friend Henri and sail (powerboat) back to Lucaya. The weather window does not look all that great for a powerboat, but it should be quiet enough to be able to do it in good time.

Another week in Sunshine State

2011-03-02T21:14:00.001-05:00

Fort Lauderdale a photo by brisegalets on Flickr.

Another week during which I did not have to switch on the heater, the temperature remaining all week above 72. After the festivities of the President's day week-end, it was mostly work on Papy Jovial, to take care of some of the wear and tear resulting from the last 34,000 miles. She now has a brand new goose neck on the main, a new traveler for the spinnaker boom, and although it does not show, new pins on the elements of the roller furler. I should get the sails back this week. Oil change and other minor maintenance have been performed and she is almost ready to go out again.
On the positive, there was the visit of Tom and Sarah, the original parents of Papy Jovial when she was Precept. Tom and Sarah have been with me by email the whole trip, helping me not only with the weather, but anytime I would mention on this blog a technical difficulty on the boat, they would immediately send me an email suggesting ways to deal with the problem. I will never be able to thank them enough.
O)n the negative, there were two more yachts taken by the Somali pirates, one american with all four people on board killed in circumstances net yet very clear, and one danish yacht, with seven people including children, taken to the Somali coast for what promises to be another long wait in captivity waiting for someone to pay a ransom.
I am upset because I believe that those people who very clearly had no business being in that dangerous area, indirectly, were pushed to choose that route by people who keep claiming that the route around South Africa is dangerous and treacherous. This could not be further from the truth. Having done it myself, I had spoken to numerous skippers from South Africa who sail around their country all year round. Yes, you have to watch the weather very carefully, yes you have to make sure that you are not out there where worse conditons can be met. But with good weather information and careful planning, there is no more problem than sailing around britanny in the west part of France, or other areas known for difficult weather conditons at times.
By repeating endlessly that the route around South Africa is not doable by the average ocean cruiser, the end result is more people choose to go the Red Sea route with the consequences of risking a pirate attack. And the percentage of getting caught is very high, I am told around 1 %. If you were told that 1 % of the flights were going to fall out of the sky, would you fly ?
Enough said, but anybody who would like to know more about my experience going around South Africa, you can contact me on "brisegalets@yahoo.com"

Family reunion

2011-02-22T18:40:00.002-05:00

Fort Lauderdale 014
Originally uploaded by brisegalets

What a week-end !
On Friday, my brothers (Brothers of the Coast) from the Chesapeake Bay flew in from Norfolk and I went to the airport to meet them. They had rented a van there for the President's Day Week-End and after an emotional welcome, they drove me back to Papy Jovial where we could take some pictures to link to the pictures taken in Portsmouth on May 16, 2009 when I left from there for Sydney, Australia. After that, we had lunch together at Briney's and then they drove to Miami where they were staying.
I took a shuttle the next morning to join them and spend the day at the Miami Boat Show. First, we sent to Miami Beach for breakfast and Stew and Diana joined us there before we went to the Convention Center for the show.
From that 34,000 nautical miles and two years voyage, there were a few ideas I had been thinking of towards improving further a boat that I love dearly and the boat show was the right place to start to implement those ideas.
After spending the whole day there, they drove me back to Fort Lauderdale where I spent the night on Papy Jovial.
Next morning, which was Sunday, Scott and Preston drove up to Fort Lauderdale to pick me up and we drove back to Fort Lauderdale and then to Miami Beach for another great breakfast, before driving to Marathon but not without another pit stop, this time at the "Alabama Jack" for a nice lunch in a "bikers" ambiance. In Marathon, the local brothers there were waiting for us for another great impromptu boucan. There I met not only the brothers of Marathon present in town, but also some of the brothers from the Solomons Island table.
Monday started with breakfast at IHOP, then I was driven home by Gary who was staying on my boat Monday night. Of course, this was not without another get together on the way at Harbor Whate in Islamorada.
We got back to Fort Lauderdale, just in time for another super evening at the house of John Dotto, where the Gold Coast table had organized a boucan, This time, we met the local brothers from Miami and Fort Lauderdale, including David, just back from the Bahamas and who had sailed on Papy Jovial from Jamaica to Manta in Ecuador.
This was the conclusion of a great brotherhood week-end, making me feel that at last, I was back home, even if I won't be back in Norfolk before May 1st.

Strip Tease

2011-02-17T16:25:00.002-05:00

Fort Lauderdale 005
Originally uploaded by brisegalets

Papy Jovial is naked. After an uneventful crossing from Lucaya to Fort Lauderdale, spending the night anchored on the east side of North Bimini, and being boarded by the US Coast Guards 2 hours beforer arriving, I am now tied up in Cooley's Landing up the New River. I had left Lucaya on Sunday at 7, anchored in Bimini at 6 in the afternoon, left at 6:30 next morning and got to the bridge of the 17th street at 3 in the afternoon.
Going up the river, Henri and Cliff were waiting for me underneath the bridge of the 3rd avenue, to help me sail up the river. If you have the tide and the wind behind you, and if the bridges are a little slow in opening, it could be a little dicy. But everything went well and I got to Cooley's Landing around 4:30.
It is time to take care of some of the wear and tear that Papy Jovial suffered during those last 34,000 miles. First priority obviously goes to the sails, which were taken off yesterday and sent to the loft of North Sails in Fort Lauderdale. The main seems OK but the genoa definitely needs some TLC. Many of the seams have gone, and when the halyard broke twice, sending the genoa underneath the boat, it rubbed some of the black antifouling paint on it.
I also had my share of problems with the head, particularly the forward one, which was not treated with white vinegar often enough. I took it apart and found heavy calcium deposit. A good cleanup and it is now operating normally again.
I also have to take care of a minor leak on the bowl of the racor diesel/water separator, and I have to replace the axis assembly on the Edson pedestal, one of which had broken in March 2009 in the Bahamas and the other in Luanda in Angola lately.
Number of lines have to be replaced, others just rinsed in fresh water.
And of course, a general cleanup to make the boat look civilized again. The new coats of varnish will have to wait until I return to Grand Bahamas for the month of March.
And then, as I work my way through that list, I will probably find another gazillions things which require my attention.
But this time, I do feel that I am back and that I can return, temporarily, to a more "normal" lifestyle.

Preparing to cast off . . ..

2011-02-12T16:42:00.002-05:00

Today, it's been raining almost all day, and it's cold, at least for me (64 degrees outside!). I know that some up north are exeriencing temperatures in the 20's, sometimes less and mountains of snow, but I just sent 2 years in the tropics and anything below 72 feels like freezing.
Yesterday I did my second ride. Not as shameful as the first one (I did 10.3 miles at 13.2 mph) but still, nothing to brag about, with 13 miles and 14.8 mph. Lots of miles to do before I can regain some kind of shape and get rid of those unwanted pounds, courtesy of two years in the sun and no exercise except pulling on a few lines.
To morrow I am going to play it safe. I keep worrying about falling asleep at the wrong time, and the Gulf Stream is not the right place to fall asleep. So, I will go in two stages, first from Lucaya to Bimini, get there in the evening with the wind behind and no current to speak of. I don't expect the sea to be anything else than fair. I will spend the night anchored north of Bimini on the bank and leave next morning at crack of dawn to go to Fort Lauderdale, crossing the Gulf Stream with North or North NorthWest winds of less than 15 knotsl. It is wind against the current, but not strong enough to create a very uncomfortable chop.
I expect to get to Fort Lauderdale before sunset.

Back home

2011-02-07T14:27:00.002-05:00

After a "rabbit call" on the continental US to renew my driver's license, pick up my mail which contains the updated vessel documentation for Papy Jovial, and make a personal trip up north, I am back aboard Papy Jovial with one week to prepare her to cross to Fort Lauderdale. Yesterday was Super Bowl day, and since the whole morning was devoted to travelling, nothing really happened. Today, I started by trying to reorganize stuff inside. Somehow, I am kind of deflated, without much energy, and I did not accomplish much. Tomorrow I intend to work on the winches which need service, on the racor filter/water separator which is leaking, sort out the lines, and get her read for a short 12 hours crossing.
I tried to download a selection of pictures on Facebook, but I soon realized that any album can only contain 200 pictures at most, and that there is no option to sort the pictures by date. I will have to try and do the same on Flickr. It is time consuming and requires an excellent fast connection, so that will wait for Fort Lauderdale.
I see that Shanty is crossing over to Green Turtle cay soon with Dave on board. Maybe he could sail back with me. I will have to try and contact him.

New Chapter

2011-01-30T09:18:00.001-05:00

DSC07310
Originally uploaded by brisegalets

The circumnavigation is now over. Actually, in my mind, I was not sailing around the world. It's only that I had decided that to go to the Worldwide meeting of the brothers of the Coast in March 2010 in Sydney using my sailboat, and then, after the meeting to return to Norfolk again using my sailboat. It so happens that the optimum way of doing that was to continue sailing westward.
Anyhow, now that I have crossed my outbound wake, I am no longer in the "circum" mindset. I am cruising the Bahamas and Florida before returning home to Norfolk on May 1st.
Today, Brise Galets is leaving Papy Jovial in the care of Stephanie and Ezio and is going back to Virginia by way of Ferry and flight, to take care of admin chores, before returning to Lucaya on February 6th.
In the meantime, I won't have much to talk about.
See you in a week

The loop is under my belt

2011-01-24T10:59:00.000-05:00

Last night, I crossed my outbound wake at 18:03 when I passed the
Nuevita Rocks, which I had passed going out at 17:00 on May 16, 2009.
The whole trip took 34,172 nautical miles over the ground (for those not
familiar with maritime measure, you get the statute miles by adding 15
%).Surprisingly, I only had to cover 30,233 n.m. through the water, This
is because at the latitudes where I travelled, there is most of the time
around 0.5 knots of favorable current.
I took 618 days and 1 hour to complete this trip around the world. It
includes stops along the way,of course, some significant, like one month
in Tahiti, three month in New Zealand, almost four months in Australia,
one month in South Africa and same one month in Martinique.
My voyage is not over yet. I will spend a little time in Florida and in
the Bahamas before sailing back to my home port Norfolk where I will
arrive on May 1st.
Right now, we are sailing like a bullet up the Exuma bank, most of the
time at maximum speed for my boat of 7,7 knots. I will come out south
west of Providence Island, go up to North West channel, sail around the
Berry Island by the south west and aim for Port Lucaya where I will
clear in the Bahamas.

Pit stop in Provo

2011-01-22T13:21:00.000-05:00

When we left Martinique, the forecast was of very light wind all the way
to Port Lucaya and having enough fuel became a top issue. After looking
at various options, I finally decided to make a stop at Providenciales
to top up the fuel tank. So, we came into the Turtle Cove marina
yesterday morning, at 8 o'clock, but with a full tank as we kept a good
wind all the way. But, having made up my mind that I was going to stop,
I did. This gave us a full night sleep and a visit to a very nice place.
It is however almost entirely devoted to tourism so there is not much in
terms of a local culture, but it is clean, it has all the shops what you
might need and it is quiet and well sheltered.
In fact, we did need to go to a hardware store as we had lost the three
screws holding the roller furler to the bottom drum and we could no
longer roll up the genoa. They had to be stainless steel, 1/4 inch
diameter and a little less than half inch in length and have a tapered
head. The only shop that had that was a long walk away, but we got what
we needed.
We ate at a nice restaurant in the marina, called the Tiki Hut, not a
fancy place in terms of food, but by the water and in a nice setting.
And during our stay, we had a very good internet connection, compliment
of the marina which gave us a code to the wifi valid for one week.
This morning, we left at 8 exactly 2 hours after arrival, with a very
uncertain weather forecast. There are several cold fronts on their way,
some affecting us in some ways and we have 500 miles to go. Apparently
our fuel will become very useful.
I still expect to arrive on the 26th morning in Port Lucaya.

Iron Sail

2011-01-19T11:40:00.000-05:00

The dreaded moment when we have to hoist the iron sail has come. Since
we turned the corner around Tortola, we had been making good progress,
knowing that once we would get to the Dominican Republic, the wind was
likely to become very light. This morning at 9, we tried to fight by
hoisting the gennaker and it kept us going until noon. But then, the
speed dropped below 4 knots and the various forecast all say the same
thing, very light wind until the cold fronts move through possibly on
Friday. We have 688 miles left for Port Lucaya, but Sampson Cay, which
has fuel, is now less than 500 miles away and if need be, we could top
up the fuel tank there. We also have a moderate current with us,
possibly half knot, and any help is welcome.
We have a nice blue sky and sun shine, so we should be happy to enjoy a
postcard kind of weather.

Exit from the Caribbean sea

2011-01-17T12:09:00.000-05:00

We left from the fuel dock in Carenage in Fort de France almost at noon
sharp on the 15th. At first, it looked liike we were going to have a
nice wind on the starboard hind quarter, but this hope was short lived.
It took us the best part of one full day to extricate ourselves from the
wind shadow of Martinique. And in the first 24 hours, we only covered
126 miles through the water (137 over the ground). But fortunately, once
clear of the land, the wind came as promised and in the last 24 hours we
have covered 159 miles through the water and 167 over the ground, thanks
to a nice half knot current.
The only problem is that I have had to change my plans and instead of
exiting the Caribbean sea through the Mona passage, I will exit east of
Porto Rico around Virgin Gorda as the forecast promises us more wind
that way. But the overall distance between Martinique and Lucaya becomes
1304 miles instead of 1240. And we are watching our estimated time of
arrival very closely since Olivier has to fly from Freeport to Miami on
the 28 at 14:00.
If the forecast is correct, we should keep a little bit of wind until we
reach Puerto Plata. At that point, we will be within range, in terms of
fuel, of Highborne cay in the Exumas, where we could refuel if necessary.
To get to Lucaya on time for the flight, we only need 3.7 knots average,
and Papy Jovial has never been that slow, so I am not too worried about
catching that flight. But I would prefer to arrive around the 25 and
that only requires 5 knots average, which is doable.
Time will tell. In the meantime, having some wind means also having some
seas and being back, in a small way, in the shaker. After one month
cruising in Martinique, we had almost forgotten, but it will come back
quickly.

Photo safari

2011-01-14T16:16:00.001-05:00

Martinique - 44
Originally uploaded by brisegalets

Family time is over, with Patricia and Alice back in Quebec and Anne in France. Today the morning was devoted to touring the south west part of Martinique and take some pictures. This one is taken in Anse Cafard, near the village of Diamant, and is a memorial to slaves who perished in the grounding of the vessel transporting them from Africa.
After that, we went to yet another super market to do the provisioning before the last leg during which I will cross my outgoing wake and complete, technically speaking, my circumnavigation. I will still have to sail back to Norfolk, but I intend to take my time and not get back up there while it is still too cold.
For this last leg, we are going to sail straight to Lucaya, as Olivier is flying back to France on January the 28. We have 1200 miles to go and we should arrive there on the 23rd, with enough time to spare if we go slower than anticipated.

Marie Galante - Les Saintes

2011-01-10T18:14:00.001-05:00

Patricia - Martinique - 5
Originally uploaded by brisegalets

It's going to be difficult to forget the beauty and the charm of Dominica, and of its people. We had to move on and we sailed to Marie Galante for the Week-end. Marie Galante is also a very small island, scarcely populated, focusing on agriculture and not on tourism. It is very quiet and pleasant. We took a mooring close to the wharf of Saint Louis, which is the second settlement of the island, the largest one being Gros Bourg. The bay is calm and we only experienced a very gentle rolling. I also had the opportunity to meet there with my friend Max, whom I met for the first time in Haiti in 1985, and with whom I have done quite a few things in the last few years. Meeting with him and catching up with the news might lead to a one week trip to Haiti in March.
After Marie Galante, we went to Les Saintes, only 16 miles away, very different from Marie Galante. It's an archipelago of tiny mountainous islands with no space available for agriculture. It is very much tourist oriented, with still quite a bit of fishing. Originally, those islands had been settled by people from britanny, in France, so you meet there quite a few people with blue eyes and sometimes blong hair.
Tomorrow, we will sail to Martinique where Patricia and Anne will catch a flight back to Quebec and I will then sail directly to Lucaya on Grand Bahamas. I expect to get there around January 23rd.

Dominica, the Nature Island

2011-01-05T16:05:00.001-05:00

Dominica - 09
Originally uploaded by brisegalets

This is a very wet stop, but it is worth it. We sailed from Martinique to Roseau through a stream of continuous thunderstorms and showers and we arrived in the rain. Actually, we got there by night and I had no idea where to anchor. The shelf is very narrow, if you want to anchor with less then 40 feet, you feel like you are anchoring on the beach, We spent a very uncomfortable night there as this anchorage creates continuous heavy rolling. Early morning, as we had almost decided that Roseau was not worth it, we went to have a look on the other side of the cruise ship wharf and found the place where we should have been. Still a little bit uncomfortable, but there were moorings available and facilities to go ashore. Plus an excellent and free Wifi connection.
Roseau is a small but very charming little town, I am not sure that the big cruise ships coming in every day with probably several thousands tourists on board are not a threat to the charm of this place. But it provides probably an alternative income for the island where, we were told, the agriculture is becoming less and less productive. The first day was dedicated to discovering the town and finding out what was available. Then Patricia and Olivier went to visit the botanic garden while I stayed on Papy Jovial to update my work. Next, Patricia and Alice went to swim in the bubbles in Champagne. All that with almost continuous rain.
We then went, altogether to the Trafalgar falls, again in the rain, but it did not matter all that much as the temperature is very comfortable and the rain is not cold at all. The day ended with a nice dinner in what appears to be the only restaurant open for supper.
This morning, we left very early to motor up to Portsmouth which has the reputation of being a much better anchorage. And it is. There is much less swell and only a minimal rolling. After touring the village which is much smaller than Roseau, we returned to the boat having planned a ride up the Indian River tomorrow.

Transition

2010-12-31T16:14:00.001-05:00

IMG_0313
Originally uploaded by brisegalets

Papy Jovial has not disappeared from the Cyberworld, but time now is for family and reunion. Anne's stay unfortunalely is about to end as she returns home tomorrow. I wish she could have stayed longer, long enough anyway to wash away the consequences of a very stressful life. Hopefully, this short stay in Martinique will have provided her with a little bit of energy, enough I hope to face returning to day to day life.
Patricia and Alice have arrived last night and are looking forward to two weeks island hopping in the Caribbean.
In terms of navigation, there will be a change from coastal sailing and shuttling between the marinas of Martinique to sailing to the other islands, starting with Dominique, about which Patricia is quite excited. She has become a professional of the protection of the environment, and Dominica should be quite a feast for her.
I wish all those who have been following this blog (there is still more to come) a very happy and prosperous New Year. I will still be on the water in the years to come.

Rain check

2010-12-25T19:46:00.002-05:00

In Europe, they have snow storms, to the point of disrupting air traffic. Here in Martinique, we got an unusual tropical wave. It went over the Caribbean just in time for Christmas, starting on the 23rd and it will clear by the 27th.
At first, the plan was to go to Dominica, but the harbour master of the Pointe du Bout, convinced us that it was not a good idea. I then went to plan B which would have been to go south. But once out there in the bay of Fort de France, the whole southern horizon was deep black and we turned north and went to St Pierre. St Piere is a small town that was totally destroyed in 1902, costing some 30,000 lives. There was only one survivor who at the time was in city jail and that's what saved his life.
On Christmas eve, we went ashore for drinks, but the town was not very much alive. We did not spent too much time there and went back to the boat for fresh oysters and champagne.
Having seen what the weather had in store for us, I decided to go back south the next day and we went to Grande Anse d'Arlets which is a very good natural shelter. Unfortunaly there is almost no telephone coverage there and a very weak and erratic wifi, which is better than nothing since the 3G network is not available there.
Hopefully tomorrow we will continue south and anchor in Sainte Anne, which is a place that I know well. There, we are a dinguy ride away from Le Marin and multiple shops, not that we need much, but we can always do with some fresh stuff.

family time

2010-12-23T13:41:00.003-05:00

I feel almost guilty that there will be much less postings in the two coming weeks as I am welcoming aboard Papy Jovial, first daughter Anne, PHD in Marine Biology, scientific journalist, starting a career as a painter and art photographer, from December 22 till January 1st. She will be joined on December 30 by her sister Patricia, architect and "green" expert, who lives in Quebec and will be coming with daughter Alice, 16 years old, who will live through her first experience at sea.
I wish I had been a better father in the past, but here is an opportunity to catch up somewhat, and the blog will come second.
Last Monday, I sailed as planned from Le Marin back to Pointe du Bout. Again, luck was on our side and I got a spot alongside, which makes it a lot more convenient to do the provisioning and to come and go as we wish without having to synchronize everything with the dinghy.
Anne arrived on Wednesday afternoon, only one hour late despite all the delays that air traffic was experiencing in France. She was of course exhausted and had to adjust to the time difference, so the holidays start only today.
At first, I was planning to go to Dominica, but we have been told that there is a heavy swell making its way to the northern part of the Antilles, and I want to keep everybody as comfortable as can be. So, we might satisfy ourselves with a tour of Martinique, which is far from a bad idea.
Maybe if we spend time at anchor will I find the time to work on the computer and tell it all.
Meanwhile, happy Christmas everyone

Martinique

2010-12-17T16:03:00.002-05:00

I can't believe it's been already 4 days since we arrived in Martinique and a lot has happened since. We first arrived not knowing where to go, but we got lucky and as we were approaching Pointe du Bout on the 13th (Monday) we were told that they had one spot available and we were able to tie up there for the night. There was no Wifi available alongside, but if you had dinner at the restaurant "La Marine", they would give you a code valid for 2 hours. This enabled me to receive my mail and to reply to whatever was very urgent.
Next morning, we left for the yard where we were supposed to haul out. Got there at 10:00 a.m. sharp and we were hauled out immediately. Everything went smoothly and it only took two days to clean the hull, remove the existing coat of antifouling and apply two new coats of a good paint available locally and not too expensive. In the meantime, we were able to replace the blower in the engine compartment that had burnt.
We spent Tuesday and Wednesday night at Philippe and Odile, two very pleasant evenings with old friends that we first met in 1987 in Haiti and that we had last seen in 2000 here in Martinique.
I was also able to rent a car and to put and end with the nightmare I was having with Digicel and my Internet connection. It took a great number of hours and several visits to several Digicel offices, but all is well now and I should be able tomorrow to post some more photos.
We went back in the water on Thursday morning and sailed straight to Le Marin where I wanted to take care of the rigging. Luckily, we arrived late enough to take a spot at Caribbe Greement, knowing that they would work on the boat on Friday. We also expected them to take the whole day to do the work and stretch our stay until Monday morning. This worked well and we will probably leave Le Marin on Monday.
Last time I came here was in 1996, and the place was still small enough to be pleasant. Today, I reckon that there are probably over 1,000 boats either on the docks or at anchor and I only have one wish, get out of here as soon as we can.
The base plate that holds the rigid boom vang to the mast has received 8 brand new stainless steel large rivets and should be secured to the mast for a few years to come. The pins that had gone missing on the elements of the roller furler have been replaced and the mechanism inspected and found in good shape. The halyard that were not of a very good quality, especially the ones that I had purchased in Australia, have been replaced. The only thing that we could not do was to have the goose neck on the mast replaced. The rigger told us that he would have to research what kind of spare is needed but he did not have it in his workshop. He also said that I should not worry too much, that even with the play on it, the existing one should hold easily until I get to the US and find a replacement.
We are going to spend the coming week-end doing some touring on the island while I wait for my daughters to arrive, Anne on the 22nd and Patricia on the 30th.
Monday we will probably sail back to Pointe du Bout that we like a lot more than Le Marin.

Caribbean

2010-12-12T16:31:00.000-05:00

This is it. This time, we can say that we are in the Caribbean, as we
are passing Barbados. But very slowly. For the last day and a half, we
are crawling with less than 10 knots of wind at somewhere around 4 knots.
I am no longer expecting to arrive in Fort de France tomorrow morning,
but rather in the afternoon if we are lucky. There is no rush however
since our appointment for the haulout is on Tuesday morning at 10. But
it would be nice to arrive early enough to find out if we can find
somewhere to tie up and go ashore. If we have to use the dinghy, I doubt
that we will do that, Maybe if we can anchor close enough to the marina
of Pointe du Bout.
For the last 24 hours, we have only covered 137 miles, a far cry from
the 204 between Cabedelo and Cayenne. It is 5:30 p.m. and we still have
124 miles to go for Fort de France. Hopefully, we won't have to use the
engine too much.

Re entry

2010-12-10T11:21:00.000-05:00

It feels like we have left for good the territories which were new
discoveries for me, and we are back in the all too familiar ones.
We just spent a very bad night. Intense thunderstorms, lots of rain,
some wind too although never anything threatening, and heavier seas than
the wind would let you expect, and Papy Jovial is rolling heavily. We
are safe, but uncomfortable,
There is some traffic as well, mostly freighters but some fishing boats
as well. Last night, one of those fishing boats was underway, most
probably on auto pilot with nobody watching, or they could not see
anything having left all their powerful deck lights on. In any event,
they were on a collision course with us, but all the signals that I made
towards them with flashlights remained ignored and I had to change my
course and speed in conditions which were not very easy. They passed us
very close, and I could not see anybody either on deck or on the bridge.
Not surprising but frightening. What if ?
Today, the conditions are much better. Few clouds but we can see the
sun, the wind is steady at 20 knots and we are reaching. We are
averaging 7 knots over the ground, which would make us in Fort de France
early on Monday morning. Papy Jovial is still rolling, but not as bad as
last night and it becomes possible to sleep.

Cayenne

2010-12-08T17:03:00.000-05:00

Cayenne will not stand as one of our best stops. I would even venture
to say that in many respects, it will stand as one of our worse. The
only exception would be the local customs officer. He is a yachtie
himself and understands the needs of a small sailboat. In one hour, I
did the clearance in and the clearance out, all on proper documentation
and all that with a very friendly atmosphere. A big change from Reunion
where we had so much trouble getting a clearance.
The marina at Degrad des Cannes could be voted as one of the worse in
the world. It is located in the wrong place (on the outside of a river
bend with strong current), next to a cement plant, next to the
commercial harbor and with no services at all. All it has are two
pontoons with water and electricity, which is almost a miracle, but
there is no office, no access to toilets or showers, and it is located 8
miles from the city with no public transport available. The swell comes
in all the way to the marina and the boats are tossed around quite a
bit, with a lot of stress on the moorings.
Also, since the marina is hardly managed, there are quite many boats, in
terrible shape, owned by squatters who come here to work and don't care
if their boat goes to hell and looks like a piece of sh......t.
We arrived at the beginning of the rainy season, which means that
everything is hot and almost dry, or hot and totally wet. The atmosphere
is very damp and you get esxhausted very easily.

When you go to the city, you never feel that you are in a city by the
sea side. In fact, it seems to have its back to the sea and is only
looking inshore to the rivers and the rain forest. I managed to rent a
car, but failed to get a mobile broadband connection with a USB modem.
We drove to Kuru in an attempt to visit the space facility. Although we
had been told to be there before 8 a.m. and have our passports ready. So
we did. On arrival, we were told that they were training the guides, so
there would be no visit, but we could visit the Space Museum. Which we
did. To find out that most of the exhibits did not work, either being
out of order, or just not connected. So we left, under the impression
that visitors were not all that welcome.

After a last evening at the home of a friend of Olivier, during which we
learned quite a bit about Guyana, we got back to the boat, happy to be
about to leave.
Having no access to Internet, I can't post any pictures, but I will do
so once in either Martinique or Guadeloupe.
We should arrive in Martinique by the 13th at the latest.

Doldrums

2010-12-04T12:37:00.000-05:00

Also called ITCZ (inter-tropical convergence zone). We though we were
going to get away with it and not have to go through.
It started yesterday around 1:00 p.m. It looked like a lot of very heavy
thunderstorms. But once we got inside them, there was no wind, just
heavy rain and a little bit of air pulling the boat into all kinds of
directions. We had the gennaker up and I did not see the need to take it
down as the wind never went up more than 13 knots.
It seemed that it would never stop, and it did not. The rain stayed with
us until 9:00 this morning. After that, the wind became a little more
stable but still very weak. less than 10 knots. Just as well ! After
that run at more than 200 miles a day, there was a chance that we would
arrive, as usual, on Sunday morning at 2:00 a.m. in a moonless night.
Even now, if we were doing just 5 knots, we would get to the entrance of
the channel at 3:00 a.m.
I do not like to enter restricted areas at night when it is the first
time I get there. One can never trust the GPS, as I have seen this
voyage in Tonga, Rodrigues and Cabedelo where while we stayed in the
middle of the channel, the GPS would have run us aground. The radar
works well, but it is not always easy to distinguish a channel marker
from other objects. And there will be no moon to help. So, I might just
stay adrift outside and wait for daylight.

My upcoming itinerary, which was very much dependent on availability of
boat yard to haul out and marinas to stay, during the holidays season. I
now have a boat yard confirmed in Fort de France, Martinique where I
will haul out and do the bottom paint on December 14 to 16. Then I will
move to Point a Pitre, Guadeloupe and take a berth at the Marina de Bas
du Fort where I have found a space available. In Pointe a Pitre, I
should be able to work on the rigging (roller furler, goose neck for the
boom and the rigid boom vang, lines to replace, etc...) I will be in
Pointe a Pitre from December 18 to 28. Then, we will sail back to Fort
de France to pick up daughter and grand daughter. I still have to find
a place either at the Marina de Pointe du Bout, or in the village of "Le
Marin".
Will follow a great 12 days cruise with daughter and grand daughter.

A friend to meet in Guadeloupe, my older brother arriving in Les
Saintes, and then we will start sailing back to Grand Lucaya where Papy
Jovial will stay for a few days to lick her wounds and clean up.

And then, Papy Jovial and myself still have to sail back to Norfolk, but
I intend to creep up and stop wherever I have friends to greet.

Reflecting on Jacare

2010-12-01T09:31:00.000-05:00

Despite the fact that Manuel Pimentel in Luanda had done a miracle to
get me a visa for Brazil, leaving Lobito, I was not sure yet that I
wanted to stop in Cabedelo, as I felt pressed by time. But since we did
a fast crossing of the South Atlantic, there was no problem stopping in
Brazil. And I do not regret it at all.
First of all, meeting with Paulo Mourao was great. I did not expect at
all to see a brother of the Coast there in Jacare since most of the
Brazilian brothers are either in Belo Horizonte or in Porto Alegre.
Paulo was in Belo Horizonte but moved to Joao Pessoa, and since we were
connected on Facebook, he saw that I was coming in Jacare and paid me a
visit.

Paulo and his wife Joanna have severe physical limitation (Thalidomide,
Birth defects) but they both display great enthusiasm, great energy and
to meet them is a great lesson in life. Thank you Paulo for being who
you are.

Then, on the last evening, we went to watch the sunset while the Bolero
of Ravel was being played. All four restaurants on the river have their
sound system tuned in to the same source, Jurandy do Sax, who plays his
saxo standing on a canoe being paraded on the river just in front of the
sunset. Great show, great evening, and thanks to the advice of Philippe
from the Jacare-Village marina, great food in the restaurant where we were.

Today, it seems to me that Papy Jovial has broken another record. We
covered over the ground 204 miles, with 173 miles through the water and
31 miles, courtesy of the current. But Papy Jovial has had a previous
life as "Precept" and I would have to check with Tom and Sarah.

If all this continues, wind and current, we expect to get to Cayenne on
Sunday morning, December 5th.

Tales of current

2010-11-29T09:37:00.000-05:00

Since we passed Madagascar, we have had to deal with some of the world
renowned currents.
First, was the Agulhas current. We did not see much of it because of our
direct route to East London from Reunion, but we were in the current for
15 hours and we averaged 9 knots. So, not bad for this one. It deserves
its reputation.
Then, leaving from Saldanha for Luanda, we were told to watch out for
the Benguela current. All we had to do was to sail away from the coast
and when we would see the water temperature drop, we would be in the
Benguela current, pushing us north a 4 to 5 knots. We got the cold water
all right, at 150 miles from the coast, but no current. The best we ever
got was 0.25 knots, very much in line with what I had seen on the
various scientific papers available on the net.
Now, we are going from Cabedelo to Cayenne, and we were told that there
would be a conveyor belt, all the way to Cayenne, providing us with 3
knots of current. All we had to do was to go at the outside of the
continental shelf and follow it. Which is also what the Grib files from
Max Sea were saying. It is also where most of the north bound traffic
is. But the current, well, the best we got today was an average slightly
over 0.5 knots.
Maybe sailors inflate their stories about current the same way fishermen
talk about the fish that they nearly caught.

The air temperature remains high, somewhere in the high 80s and the
water temperature in the 90s, but I have some doubts about my
thermometer for the sea water. I will have to recalibrate it in Cayenne,
it seems to me to be on the high side.
We have been enjoying from the start an ESE wind 15 to 20, and we are
sailing under Gennaker alone, doing on average a little under 7 knots
through the water and a little over 7 knots over the ground. We have
another 1004 n.m. to go, and provided that the wind does not die north
of the Equator, which is a possibility that I saw on Internet before
leaving, then we might get to Cayenne either December 5th evening, or
6th in the morning. Still a long way to go.

Rest stop in Jacare

2010-11-26T13:41:00.001-05:00

jacare - 08
Originally uploaded by brisegalets

Jacare means alligator in brazilian. I was going to stop here only for two or three nights as we need to move on and be in Martinique late December, but finally we stayed four nights et we would have liked to stay longer. The marina here is very friendly and pleasant. It's a small marina, located in a very strategic place, and where you will find all the essentials that a cruiser would want : showers, toilets, laundry room, bar, snack bar, wifi with an excellent connection, and on the dock water and electricity. And in the nearby town, you can do all the shopping that you would need for the boat, possibly with the exception of spcialized boat hardware. But you can haul out.
Up the river, there are three restaurants where people go to watch the sunset over the Brazillan landscape, but without any construction of any kind, whille sipping on a Cai Piriniha (a drink based on Cachaca, lime, sugar and lime) and listening to the Bolero of Ravel. This piece of music has been played here every sunset, every day, rain or shine, for donkeys years. It has become a tourist attraction and I think it will stay for quite a while. So, tonight, we will follow the tradition and go there.
We will be leaving tomorrow early afternoon, one hour before low tide, so as to avoid the choppy waters of current against wind one we get to the exit of the river.

Speed bump !

2010-11-21T12:22:00.000-05:00

As much as the middle of the South Atlantic Ocean has been kind to us,
as much the fringes are not very generous in terms of wind. We had no
wind to speak of leaving the African continent, and since yesterday, the
wind has dropped to a mere 10 knots as we are approaching the Brazilian
coast.
So much so that to keep going a 4 to 5 knots, we have the gennaker and
no main to enable the Gennaker to collect all of whatever wind there is.
We only have 230 miles to go for Cabedelo, but they are going to be
tough to go through. We will have to play the wind and the current to
get there during the day on the 23rd.
Yesterday, there was drama in the galley. Olivier had decided to make
"gratin dauphinois", which are potatoes sliced in very thin slices and
baked in milk. The problem came from the door of the over which is very
heavy. When you open it, since the stove is gimballed, the whole thing
rotates a good 30 degrees and the milk spilled in the oven. Olivier then
slammed the door shut to prevent the milk to spill more, and one part on
the left of the door jumped out of place and we could no longer open the
door. Eventually, everything came back to almost normal, except that we
have to retrieve this part which is only there to prevent the door from
opening at more than 90 degrees angle with the face of the oven.
The gratin dauphinois was very good, although Olivier complained that
the potatoes were not cooked enough. But to me, it was a success. And
one in Cabedelo we should be able to fix the problem for good.
It is beginning to be hot out there. The air is at 90 degrees and so is
the sea. We still have this damn swell from the SE which makes us roll
and the sails to flap since we have no wind to hold them. We will be
very pleased to set foot on the dock in Cabedelo.

Domestic chores

2010-11-18T20:40:00.000-05:00

Not much to tell about in the monotony of a crossing where the wind
and the sea are almost always the same, day in day out. What breaks the
monotony are the few technical glitches coming from wear and tear on the
rigging and the equipment, and what we try and do in the galley to make
things a little more interesting.
The day after the genoa fell on deck, I decided to try and make an
"ailloli" which is a kind of mayonnaise, but the egg is replaced by
crushed garlic to make the emulsion with the oil. It is served with cold
boiled fish and vegetable, in this case yellow fin tuna, potatoes and
carrots. It would have been nice to add cauliflower, but we have ran out
of veggies except for onions and potatoes.
Then the day before yesterday, this time at midnight, while reefing down
the main, I noticed the base plate that attaches the rigid boom vang,
and is fixed to the mast with eight rivets, was coming off. I quickly
made and emergency tie up with a line, and then looked for steel clamps
big enough to go around the mast. In the end, we used four clamps, two
to make one, and tied the plate to the mast with them. It should hold
until Cabedelo, if we don't tighten the boom vang too much.
Yesterday, I then went into the process of baking bread. I used to do
that in the70's, but have not done that since. At first, it's a two days
process, as you first have to make the batter with which the bread will
rise. You mix flour, water and dry yeast in the right proportions and
keep it in the fridge for 24 hours. Then you mix that with again flour,
cold water and salt, by hand or with a mixer if you have one, then let
it rise for 2 to 3 hours, then mold it into whatever shape you want and
put it in the oven, with a container full of 1 liter of water at the
bottom of the over, and bake it for about 1 hour.
For a first attempt, not too bad. The oven was set a little too high and
I should have put more flour in relation to the water, but overall, it
looked like bread, tasted like bread with a crisp crust like we like to
have it, just a little burnt on the underside, and aluminum paper glued
to it.
Today, the clamps that hold the locking wheel of the windvane to the
main steering wheel broke. Fortunately, the autopilot was cooperative
and kept the boat on track while we did the repairs.
We now have 632 miles to go (it is midnight on Thursday night, November
18) and it looks now like an arrival very late on the 22nd.
The wind remains on the ESE at 15 to 20 knots, with a swell from the SE
that keeps us rolling, with the sails wing on wind, and we are doing
more than 7 knots. So far, everything looks good.

Breakdown on the high seas

2010-11-14T08:50:00.000-05:00

This time it did not happen at midnight. At 8:30 this morning, while I
was at the end of my watch, the genoa fell on deck, again, this time in
the middle of a shower. What had broken was a part underneath the top
swivel of the roller furler, and there was no choice but get at the top
of the mast to recover the halyard and the sliding swivel. We are still
rolling heavily with light winds but sizeable swell. Olivier put on the
bosun's chair and I hoisted him up while he was clinging to the mast for
dear life. But the operation was successful. Then, once the swivel was
at deck level we realized that the broken part was the exact same one
than the one at the bottom. Se we swapped them and put a simple shackle
at the bottom for the tack point. We then hoisted again the genoa and
were back sailing at 10:30, which is not bad. And we did not lose 2
hours as we were still sailing under full main sail during the operation.
This being said, the day was not one of our best. As expected the wind
had dropped, but we are now in a different system and there are many
squalls and showers around us. The good news is that there is not much
more wind within those showers, just enough to speed up to 7.5 knots.
For the day, we covered 150 n.m. over the ground and we are now only
1287 n.m. from Cabedelo. We very much would want to use the Gennaker,
but with those squalls, I don't want to take chances and we remain with
full Genoa and full main wing on wing. I am still expecting to reach
Cabedelo on the 23rd morning. As long as the wind remains true to the
Grib files from MaxSea.

Half way

2010-11-13T08:35:00.000-05:00

As of today, we are now in the second half of the crossing. At noon,
we were 1428 n.m. from Cabedelo fora total distance of 2882. We have
covered 1540 n.m. over the ground, some 153 miles per day, which is very
good considering that we never had more than 15 knots of wind on average.
In theroy, the wind should drop even further today, and this for about
three days. When this happen, we are going to jibe the main and the
genoa, to keep them wing on wing, and curve our course northwards as it
appears that the wind will come back from the north. From now on, the
name of the game will be to maximize speed, almost regardless of the course.
Today the sun has shown up for the first time. Olivier did not waste one
minute to drop long pants and t-shirt. I am a lot conservative in terms
of clothing and I tend to avoid exposing myself to the sun. But I am
dressed lighter still.
Since we left, we have used on average 2.4535 US Gallons of water per
day, and we have at this rate 72 days left. No worries on that score. We
could cross three oceans and still not run out of water.
Yesterday, I ran the main engine for 5 minutes, just to put the impeller
of the raw water pump in a different position. As for the genset, I have
ran it for a little less than 8 hours, To me, it's a lot, but we have
not seen the sun since we left. Things should change with the sun making
its first apparition. I would like to use it one hour every other day.

We are not so lucky as far as food is concerned, especially fresh stuff.
What we bought in Lobito did not survive and it's a good thing that we
bought just a little. We have ran out of bread and today or tomorrow I
will try and bake some. I have not done it in a very long time, so it
will be interesting to see if I succeed.

Less than ten days to go now. We will survive !

Monotony

2010-11-11T07:47:00.000-05:00

Eight days into the crossing, we haven't seen the sunshine yet. We are
wearing long pants and sweater and we are in the South Atlantic, in the
summer by 12 degrees of latitude South. This is probably what they mean
by global warming.
But the good news is that we have now covered 1202 miles over the ground
and have closed in on Cabedelo by 1128 miles.
The first day, we went tacking, then for three days we went on close
haul, then we spent another three days under gennaker, and we are now
Wing on Wing, full main and full genoa, steaming along at 7.5 knots.
The worry is what lies ahead. It looks like by the day after tomorrow,
we are going to hit a patch of very light wind that might last for three
days. And there is no obvious way to go around it, either north or
south. So we are going to go north so that once in the light wind, we
won't have the wind right behind us and we should be able to do 5 or 6
knots under Gennaker.
Yesterday was the end of the bread that we had bought in Lobito.
Actually, it was stale and Olivier prepared it like "French toast",
soaking the bread in milk and eggs and frying them in a pan. Turned out
quite good.
The days go on, three hours on, three hours off, no excitement. When we
were still close to Africa, we say a few whales, sharks, dolphins and
sea turtles. But now that we are in the middle of the pond (we just
passed 240 miles north of St Helena), there is almost no life. A few
flying fish, some of them landing on deck at night, the occasional bird,
and that's it.
I can't stay at the computer for too long, with an overcast sky the
solar panels don't produce much and the computer burns 4 amps. So, we
get very busy doing nothing, which is not very exciting. And we have
another two weeks to go. The Indian Ocean had more diversity.

Mayonnaise

2010-11-08T08:34:00.000-05:00

This blog is about my trip. My trip is almost exclusively about the
Brotherhood of the Coast. And so, I make entries about the trip and I
make entries about the Brotherhood. I apologize for those who not being
part of our community are either not interested or do not understand. It
is very much part of me and I can't just ignore one aspect or the other.
Besides, I do not write to please or to seek agreement with what I
write. I just put out my feelings as they result of my various
experiences during this voyage. Some entries have been praised, some
have been criticized and that's OK. This is how I feel. At 70 years of
age, I am made, not likely to get rebuilt or changed.

Yesterday, I made mayonnaise while Papy Jovial was speeding at 8 knots
under Gennaker. I usually don't make mayonnaise at sea as I like to
start by adding oil almost drop by drop until the emulsion holds. And on
a moving platform, it is not easy. But it was a success.
I start like everybody with the yoke of an egg, salt and pepper and a
wee bit of mustard to help the emulsion start. I use a hemispheric bowl
so that when I whisk the mayonnaise, nothing gets away from the
whisking. And I use a regular stainless steel fork for the whisking. As
you add oil (I use Canola oil because Olive oil has a too strong taste
for me), the mayonnaise will get harder and harder. I continue until it
forms a kind of hard ball in the middle of the bowl.
Then, if it is for meat, I would bring to boil one table spoon of
vinegar, either in a stainless steel measuring cup or a stainless steel
laze, add it in one go to the mayonnaise while whisking. The mayonnaise
will become lighter in color, smoother in texture, it will loose its
oily taste and keep better in the fridge without falling apart.
If it is for fish, I replace the vinegar with fresh squeezed lemon
juice. If is for shrimps, crab, lobster, crayfish, etc..., then I use
cognac and after that I add some ketchup until the mayonnaise has a pink
color. A touch of cayenne pepper to give it a little spring and you have
a "cocktail sauce".

Today we made good progress. And we no longer have to fight any current.
For the last 25 hours (we move the clock by to Z time), we covered 170
n.m. both through the water and over the ground and we have now 2221
n.m. to go to the entrance of the channel to Cabedelo. I still plan on
getting there on the 24th. Since we left Lobito, we have not used the
main engine, except for the one hour to get out of the harbour, and we
ran the genset for 2 hours, because we keep having an overcast sky and
the solar panels don't produce as much as I wanted. Maybe after St
Helena, we will get the blue sky, long swell and warm air.

We find the South Atlantic Ocean, at least the area where we are, much
more comfortable than the Indian Ocean. The seas are much better
organized, and once Papy Jovial is locked in her 10 degrees list to
starboard, not much rolling goes on. Much easier to cook.

Moving on

2010-11-07T06:33:00.000-05:00

Apart from the first day when we had to tack away from Luanda, we are
rather lucky, even if we had been on close haul from the start. This
morning, at last, the Gennaker came out.
The first day, we closed in on Cabedelo by a mere 88 miles, the second
day 143, the third 139 and today 150. Bearing in mind that the weather
I had seen before leaving was giving us almost 500 miles of very light
wind, the actual weather and wind are rather satisfying. If we could
maintain a VMG of 138 miles per day on average, we would reach Cabedelo
by 7 p.m. on the 24th, local time. But, in all, there are still 2384
miles to go and everything can still change.
Otherwise, overcast skyand a temperature that dropped more than 10
degrees since Luanda and relatively faire seas. All we need is wind at
our back, not too straight at the stern and not too light.

Pirates and brotherhood

2010-11-06T06:57:00.000-04:00

In the second half of the 17Th century, when non military vessels were
attacking the Spanish merchant vessels on their way to Spain from
Panama, there was only one word in Spanish to designate those attackers,
be them true pirates, freebooters, privateers or corsairs, and that word
was "Piratas". Even if their fate was not always the same depending on
which group they belonged to (to be hanged or not), the word was the
same. And when in 1951, a group of Chilean Yachtsmen created "The
Hermandad de la Costa" (translated in English as "The Brotherhood of the
Coast"), they certainly did not have in mind to allow the possibility to
confuse who we are with "piratas". I am convinced, and to be proven
wrong will take supporting documents and not just hear say, that the
founding brothers never had in mind that we would one day play pirates
or that we could claim a spiritual ancestry with the "brothers of the
coast" of the Island of La Tortue, also called piratas.
The fact is that a pirate is a common law criminal at sea. That is the
legal definition and the only one accepted by all.
There has been pirates from the day man ventured at sea, back thousands
of years ago where ever shipping was to be found, as the long maritime
history of the Mediterranean and the China sea will testify. Pirates
were common throughout history and today they are active in most parts
of world, however, none are currently more conspicuous than those
hijacking ships along the coast of Somalia. The pirates active along the
East Coast of North America and in the Caribbean during the 17th and
18Th centuries only represents a small part of the history of piracy.
One should never doubt the nature of piracy. Pirates are conceited and
violent. They bear arms and attack whoever is not with them and could
yield a benefit, however small it might be. Pirates steal, rape, take
hostages, ask for ransoms and kill. They don't play games. Remember Leon
Klinghoffer in October 1985, thrown overboard on his wheel chair from
the deck of the Achilles Lauro.The fact is that many seaman are still
being killed (Sir Peter Blake) or seriously injured annually by pirates
testify to this. Many contemporary pirates (as pirates of old) are
convicted criminals who hide their real names behind a nickname.
Pirates do not love the sea. They merely see it as a their criminal
hunting ground - the place where they conduct their illicit activities.
There is no such thing as a pirate uniform or pirate dress. Pirates will
wear anything they have or whatever clothes is practical, including
clothes that they may find in their loot.
In short, there is nothing more alien to what the Brotherhood of the
Coast represents than pirates. In fact, the use of nicknames was not
even a custom in Chile, and in the rest of South America until much
later when this habit of having a nickname was brought in by the
European brotherhoods. And I am at a loss as to why in many cases, we
hold brotherhood functions asking brothers to dress as pirates or even
using the word "pirate" in naming
the function, or even worse, using a pirate logo (skull and crossed
bones) for their table. To me, the use of that word can only bring
disservice to who we are and I don't think it adds anything to the fun
and the joy to be had by getting together as brothers. I hope it will
not take a 9/11 of the sea for the message to get through.

Out od Africa

2010-11-04T07:10:00.000-04:00

This time, we are leaving the African continent, headed for South
America. Not on a high note.
Last week, we decided to try a restaurant which looked clean near the
Clube Naval. And I made a fatal mistake by having 2 slices of raw
tomatoes with my well cooked meat and rice. And since then, it's been
running and I have not been able to find a way to stop it for more than
a few hours. I tried Imodium, I tried eating a diet of exclusively non
agressive things like white rice, yoghurts, oat meal. Nothing workds and
I am not looking forward to the next three to four weeks.
On a less personal note, I lost the screen on the main computer. The
scree itself seems to be alive, the computer too, but there is no signal
going from the computer to the screen which point towards probably the
VGA connection. I managed to install a small portable screen that I
normally use in the waterway to have a chart up there in the cockpit. If
and when I feel better, I will try and see if I can do something with
the main scree.
Weatherwise, we know that it is going to be difficult to move away from
the continent. We have to tack and try and go south almost to the
latitude of Namibe. But the wind has decided otherwise and we are for
the time being sailing almost due west, which is not too bad, We have to
keep going on that tack anyway until we are sure to clear the coast on
the other tack.
For the first 24 hours, we have reduced the distance to Cabedelo by a
mere 88 miles and we still have 2793 to go. This is going to be a long one !
The good news is that we have blue sky and calm seas. . . . .

Viva Internet

2010-11-02T15:05:00.003-04:00

Lasst boucan in Luanda - 06
Originally uploaded by brisegalets

I am again sitting on the veranda of the Terminus Hotel in Lobito and today we have Internet working quite well. So I want to take advantage of this to at least make a posting on the blog. In fact, we were supposed to have left this morning, but the wind was MIA and I decided to wait for tomorrow and see if we are luckier.
At first, it looked like we were in hot water regarding formalities. In Luanda, they had been kept to the minimum and we had left Luanda without seeing any authorities. But in Lobito, they found that strange and we had to go and visit the port authorities, or immigration, or fiscal police, I don't exactly know. Anyway, we were given a pass to allow us to go to the city in exchange of our passports which we will recover once we are ready to go.
Lobito is a small town much cleaner and quieter and nicer than Luanda. Obviously, not having to cope with millions of people and cars makes a change.
The marina is quite adequate, with electricity and water, but other than that it is practically dead. Don't know why, but that's the way it is.

Today, I lost the screen of my computer. At first, I blamed the computer itself, but I managed to get a signal on the screen of a backup computer, so it appears, since the screen is powering on and going through its power up routine, that the problem, once again, lies in the connecting cable. Nothing I can do about it here in Angola, and I can only hope that the jerry rigged set up that I have installed will last until I can find help, probably in Cayenne, but I might have to wait for Fort de France.

The night here is quiet, beautiful, we are sitting next to the beach, and we might as well be on vacation in a tourist resort. We had a nice dinner, and while I am having my espresso, I will close on that. Next time I come on the blog with a picture might be in Cabedelo, Brazil, around November 23rd.

Out of Luanda

2010-11-01T01:03:00.000-04:00

This was a very emotional send off. At 10:00, I positioned Papy Jovial
at the fuel dock, just beneath the building of the Clube Naval and its
restaurant. First, there were interviews with the local media, around a
table in the Clube with some of the important people of Luanda
attending. While all that was going on, the sailing school attached to
the club was putting out all their dinghies, Laser, 420, Vauriens, to
provide an escort on our way out.
As we cast off the lines, the members of the Club who had gathered on
the balcony of the restaurant gave us a big hand and cheered us as we
were sailing off under spinnaker. (or gennaker to be precise). And all
the way until the exit of the bay where the port of Luanda is located,
we had all those dinghies around us, competing to be the closest to us,
all with spinnaker up, and providing us with a fantastic show. And then,
there were still three boats belonging to the Brotherhood of the Coast
of Angola, sailing along with us on their way to their base at Mussolo.
So far, this is the most impressive welcome and send off that I have
seen of all the various brotherhoods that I have visited. Well done Angola !
Among the things that the brothers of South Africa and those of Angola
have in common is their involvement in teaching under privileged young
kids to sail. In South Africa, I visited the sailing school ran by Koos
Louw and Manuel Mendes. In Luanda, the Clube Naval includes a sailing
school and the members of the table are very much involved in its
running. Wonderful to see in action what means "sharing their love of
the sea".

As far as the country is concerned, I don't have much to say since we
only saw a small portion of the city of Luanda. Most of what I now know
about it, I got it through hear/say, and you might get a better idea by
visiting Wikipedia or the CIA factbook. What we have seen is a city
planned for 800,000 thousand people but actually housing 5 or 6
millions. Everything is under construction, and the infrastructure
obviously, is not able to cope with all those people and all those cars.
What I found remarkable is the coolness with which everybody is taking
in that mess. I have not seen anybody lose their cool, I have not seen
any bender fender, although traffic lights don't work (yet) and there is
gridlock most of the time. I believe that the average speed of any car
in the city must be around 1 to 1.5 mph. So much so that many people
with a few cars in their garage are opting to travel on a motorcycle to
beat the traffic.

Angola right now is certainly a difficult country to live in as it is
engaged in rebuilding itself after the war. But the welcome and the help
constantly coming from the members of the Club and the brothers did
make my stay one of the best I've had during this voyage.

Mussulo to Luanda

2010-10-29T12:44:00.000-04:00

The arrival at Mussulo point was spectacular and I wish I could post
some photos with this blog but we do not have Internet yet and it might
have to wait until Cayenne. Anyway, as we were still some 10 miles from
the Mussulo point, we were met by Mario Fontes on his 43 feet Sun Fizz
Jeannneau sailboat Vega Uno, and then, as we were sailing towards
Mussulo point, three other sailboats joined us, all of them belonging to
the brothers of the Coast of Angola.
We got to the entrance of the channel way before I expected, at around
5:15 our time (in fact it was 4:15 local time), which was just what we
needed as we still had a very long way to go to get to the beach where
the brothers have their property. There were more sailboats anchored
there when we arrived and we got a fantastic welcome by everybody.
Saturday night, there was a dinner party at the headquarters of the
Brothers with the crews of the various boats anchored off the beach. All
families were there, lots of kids, in all a very pleasant evening.
Next morning, we were taken by Nico for a tour of the vast area between
the mainland and the peninsula, which is called an island because at
some point, there was no connection with the mainland. Lots of house,
resorts, beaches, bars and restaurants, obviously a very popular area
for weekenders.
After the tour, and a glass of wine on Nico's catamaran, we all got
together again ashore for a Sunday lunch and a celebration of Mario's
56th birthday.
We then set sail for Luanda, 5 boats in all, and it was exhilarating. As
soon as we got at the exit of the Channel, we decided to fly the
Gennaker and leave everybody behind. That did not work, because as soon
as we had ours out, theirs came out. Almost a regatta to Luanda, lots of
fun. Coming into the harbour, we had to tack with 15 knots of wind and
Papy Jovial did very well, with something like 85 to 95 degrees between
tacks. Great arrival.
We came shortly to the fuel dock in front of the "Clube Naval de
Luanda", second oldest Yacht Club of Africa, founded on May 23, 1883.
There, an immigration officer was waiting for us, and formalities were
done swifly and in a very friendly and pleasant fashion. After that we
went to our berth in the brand new marina built by the Club, which will
eventually offers all the facilities of a modern marina.
I am pressed by time, time going too quickly and too slowly, but I will
come back on the blog as soon as we are at sea and I have time to tell
you everything about this great experience. We were told that since the
end of thewar,they have not seen more than half a dozen visitors, which
explains the special care that we are experiencing. All the club
members, the management of the marina, are going out of their way to
help us and we are very grateful for that. Obviously, Luanda being in
the midst of reconstruction after 30 years of war, day to day life is
somewhat frustrating, and I really appreciate that help, given the
circumstances.

Final rush

2010-10-23T03:44:00.000-04:00

So to speak, as far as rush is concerned. We have been without wind
for three days solid and this constant motoring is not very good for
morale. Fortunately, fuel is not an issue.
With the engine at 2,000 rpm, no wind and calm seas, we do a little
better than 5.6 knots. At that speed we consume around 0.85 US Gallon
per hour and we carry 85 gallons in the tank, plus for safety one
jerrycan of 5 gallons on deck. In short, we have more than 500 miles
range, which is why I knew we would not have to call into Lobito for
fuel. But during those three days, we did not sit idle. We tried to take
advantage of every little puff of wind that came by to gain a few tenths
of a knot here and there. Obviously, that meant constant adjusting of
the sails.
I had no problem arriving in Luanda with an almost empty tank. But it
won't be the same story leaving directly for Cayenne. Given the light
winds around and off shore Luanda, we will have to go south to try and
find some wind and we will have to stop in Lobito to refuel. On the way
to Cayenne, we will have to sail across the equator and confront the
dreaded doldrums. Better arrive there with a full tank.
From the start, we had been looking for the famous Benguela current
that was supposed to push us all the way to Luanda but all we found was
cold water and cold air. And now that the temperature has gone up, we
are very often confronted with one of those ebbies that is robbing us of
sometimes as much as half a knot.
The change in temperature is quite amazing. In a matter of 5 days, sea
and air have gone up to the high 80's from the low 60's. Thermal
underwear, sweaters, woolen hats and foul weather gear has gone back in
and we are back in shorts and t-shirts.
We know that the National Captain of the Portugal Brotherhood of the
Coast is visiting Angola and will leave on Sunday, so we must arrive at
least before cocktail hour on Saturday.
And there is great hope that we will succeed. At 09:00 GMT+2 this
Saturday morning, we are 28 miles away from Palmeirinhas Point, where
some of the Angolan brothers will try and meet us to guide us to the
entrance of the channel leading to the island owned by the Brotherhood.
Hopefully, we will enter the channel at 6:00 p.m. local time which will
give us time to tie up and ready ourselves for drinks.
I think a great week lies ahead of us.

Diversity

2010-10-20T07:22:00.000-04:00

Since my last entry, it's been everything. Broad reaching under genoa
and main, wing on wing, gennaker, back to wing on wing, back to
gennaker, and finally in the late hour of this morning, the dreaded
Yanmar sail. In theory, we could go all the way to Luanda motoring, we
have enough fuel for that, but would rather sail. All we need is 10
knots of wind or more and we are assured to do more than 5 knots. Still
not enough to make Luanda on Saturday. I sent a report announcing
Saturday 18:00, but this was wishful thinking. In fact, at 5 knots, it
was in fact Sunday, not Saturday at 18:00. Now that we are motoring and
on a direct route to Luanda, at 5.5 knots, we should arrive late
afternoon Saturday. In that case, we might slow down in order to arrive
with daylight.
The hand of Olivier continues to heal and looks good. He can now help
with manoeuvrings, but has to avoid contact with water, especially sea
water.
Since we left Saldanha, our average consumption of water stands at 2.11
US Gallons per day for the both of us. To minimize use of fresh water, I
have starting heating up seawater to do the dishes and this way we only
need a quick rinse in fresh water that can be reused twice. I think this
is saving approximately one gallon per day.
I have also drastically reduced the use of the boat computer, switching
it on for emails, postings on the blog, taking grib files, all that in
two sessions per day, and to do the noon position. Otherwise, we leave
it off. As a result, we consume a lot less electricity, and even with an
overcast sky sometimes, we only ran the electric diesel generator for 2
hours since we left. And now that we are motoring, charging the
batteries through a 100 amps alternator, we won't use the genset until
after we leave Luanda for Cayenne.
The only item that might be in short supply are chocolate chip cookies
and bread. But we have rusks. And Olivier mistakenly took a box wine of
white wine that he thought was red wine. This also will have to wait for
Luanda, even if it is expensive.

Game change

2010-10-17T09:12:00.000-04:00

When I took my watch this morning at 6, we were still battling 35
knots of wind, 10 feet swell and trying to run as fast as we could
without breaking everything. By the end of my watch at 9, we were back
to full genoa, full main, wing on wing and the wind dropping. By noon,
the wind had dropped below 10 knots and we set up the gennaker for a
broad reaching run.The actual distance to Luanda, as the crow flies, was
798 miles, but the wind being straight behind us and forcing us to go
broad reach tack on tack, we will probably have to cover 1025 miles to
get there.
The forecast for the week to come looks like continuous light winds from
the SE directions. This is no longer a battle with the brutal forces of
nature, but a more elaborate game of moving towards our target playing
with the variability of the wind and the capabilities of the boat.
Almost like getting as fast as possible around the downwind mark in a
regatta, except that this mark is 340 n.m. away and the wind is likely
to change directions several times and we must playing in such a way
that we don't do unnecessary extra miles.
The temperature is beginning to improve, 75 during the day, 69 last
night. Also the humidity is not as much as it was when we cleared Luderitz.
Unless we manage to find some better wind, it looks now likely that we
will get to Luanda Monday morning, October 25th. We are still hopeful
for a nice change in the forecast anyway.

Down the Benguela current

2010-10-15T12:30:00.000-04:00

Well ! We looked for it since we left Saldanha, but we have not found
it. For sure, we got the cold temperature, somewhere in the low 60s, but
the little push from behind, nada, niente, nothing. We are practically
at the same latitude as Miami, and we have thermal underwear, shirts,
sweaters, foul weather gear, and still we are cold.
Fortunately, we have wind. Lots of it. Mostly in the 30/35 knots since
we left Saldanha. Today, we did 186 miles over the ground, 188 through
the water, with a peak at 11.8 knots during the night. New record for
Papy Jovial.
We have to adjust the sails setting constantly. Mosly we run wing on
wing, but we have to reef down and reef up constantly so that the
windvane can work. During those manoeuvres, Olivier managed to cut the
back of his hand, between the forefinger and the thumb, on a length of
approx 4 inches. It was mostly a clean cut, and Olivier cleaned it
himself with rubbing alcohol, but lacking the proper strips, we closed
it with adhesive tape and hope for the best. Had we been near a medical
facility, that would have been at least 5 stitches. The only good news
in that is that he is exempted from washing the dishes, at least for the
next 3 to 4 days.
Tonight and tomorrow, we are entering an area where the isobars are
farther apart and the wind should ease up a bit. This will be welcome,
but hopefully it won't ease up too much as we are eager to get to Luanda
as quickly as we can. Still 1145 miles to go.

The skeleton coast

2010-10-13T12:13:00.000-04:00

Getting out of the Saldanha Bay was as entertaining, comfortable and
fun than a tooth extraction. For those who are familiar with the cuts on
the east coast of Florida and Georgia, it felt very much like it. Choppy
seas (but 12 feet if you please), and no wind. So we had to shamefully
get out of there motoring and keep motoring until noon.
This is when the real party began. At first, sails up and crawling at 3
knots. Did not last. Very quickly, we were back with our familiar 35 to
40 knots, swell on the beam at about ten feet. And it has remained like
that since.
The temperature is very chilly and the atmosphere damp. During the night
it dropped to 61 and Olivier put on socks for the first time since we
left Sydney. I had my Icebreakers on, and still felt cold.
The good news, because there is always good news to anything, is that
despite the slow start, we did 168 miles in the first 24 hours. I hope
the wind will stay with us as far as possible towards Luanda. I had
noticed before we left an area of light winds all around Luanda,
extending almost 500 miles from it. We have diesel to come in, but I
would rather not burn my fuel going out as we need it to go through the
doldrums.
And to make the day a perfect one, Olivier caught a 25 pounds yellow fin
tuna.
We now have ahead of us another chilly night in the shaker. We are
caught between a low over the Namibia desert and a high southwest of us
(some 500 miles west of capetown). There is also this cold benguela
current that we are seeking to push us northward, but we have not found
it yet. Maybe tomorrow. Still 1430 miles to go and we have been asked to
do our level best to get there for the week-end 23/24 October. Not
likely, but who knows, it only takes wind.

Boucan in Saldanha

2010-10-11T15:04:00.002-04:00

Boucan in Saldanha
Originally uploaded by brisegalets

Finally my stay in South Africa is nearing the end, and it was not without a grand finale. Cobus had organized for Sunday another "braai" where I could finally have the pleasure to meet the national Captain of the Brotherhood of South Africa, Louw Koos. He is also, by the way, an admiral and one of the top men in the South African Navy. He is also involved in that wonderful project that Manuel showed us in Simonstown, which includes teaching young kids from poor neighborhoods to sail, build, fix boats and win regattas at a world class level. It deserves to be known as a project and I will try to get a write up on this project and give it as large a distribution as I can.
For someone used to participate in barbecues the american way, a "braai" is a little disconcerting. Basically, the only item which is shared is the cooking device, the "braai", this time using wood. Then, every participant brings his own food, cooks it and eat it, drinking whatever drinks they had brought, everyone almost at different times. But it does not take away anything from the friendliness of the event and the exchanges of ideas and the conversation. And it gave me the pleasure of meeting a few more brothers from that table that I had not seen on Wednesday.
We were then supposed to leave on Monday morning, but the weather decided otherwise and Tuesday was looking like a much better option.
Monday, Manuel drove up from Capetown with 2 new mooring lines that we had broken in the previous windy days, as well as some fittings for the traveler of the spinnaker boom. He then took us on yet another tour of the area and a visit to Cape Columbine, famous for its fog, responsible for the fact that the coast up to Luderitz is called "the skeleton coast". Many ships have gone aground here, due to the fog in the old days before the radar, and the shipwecks litter that coast. We then had lunch in a nice restaurant on the beach in the village of Paternoster.
We returned to Papy Jovial, and this time, no jokes, we are leaving tomorrow morning for Luanda.

Saldanha

2010-10-09T15:07:00.002-04:00

Entrance to the military academy
Originally uploaded by brisegalets

What a week !
When we arrived in Saldanha on Sunday around 5 p.m., brother Louis went out with his boat to meet us and guide us towards the Yacht Club. There, brother Cobus was at the Jetty to take our lines and help us familiarize ourselves with the Club, which was done, obviously over a few drinks.
On Monday, Cobus took us for a guided tour of the Military Academy and the National Reserve next to it. Cobus loves nature, and is very knowledgeable about plants, insects and animals, as well as the recent history of Saldanha and the tour was very informative.
On Tuesday, brother Louis took us on a long full day tour in his car, 400 kms long, that took us north almost as far as Lambert's Bay, then east to Clanwilliam then south through mountains and orange tree farms towards Piketberg, and then back towards the coast where he took us to Langenbaan and Mykonos before heading back to the Yacht Club.
Thanks to Cobus and Louis for giving us so much time.
Then on Wednesday night, Cobus had organized a "braai" (south african version of barbecue) for a mini boucan of the table, so that we could meet those brothers who won't be able to make it on Sunday, when we will meet the rest of the brothers. So in addition to Louis and Cobus, I could meet Chris, Gert and Thean and other guests.
On Thursday morning, brother Gert took us to his home for breakfast and also to show us the boat that he is currently building, a 43 foot which is a Dudley Dix design. The design calls for a steel hull, but Gert chose to build it in wood and add the weight differential in lead in the keel. Beautiful piece of work. Gert has been working on this project for the last three years and expect to complete the job a little more over one year. He has already built 4 boats, so he has experience, and the work looks very very professional. After that, Gert picked me up to take me to Customs and Police for paperwork and admin formalities.
Friday I had to return to Customs as the clearance cannot be done more than 36 hours before departure and I plan to leave on Monday morning. With Olivier, we also did some shopping and started sampling the local restaurants.
Saturday, work on the boat, maintenance of the winches, second trip to the supermarket, laundry, etc . . . .
Tomorrow will be the last "braai" to meet the rest of the active brothers of the table of Saldanha, and then we will be off to Luanda.

Grand finale

2010-10-04T07:51:00.002-04:00

The Cape of Good Hope
Originally uploaded by brisegalets

Manuel had finally made his way back to Cape Town from Portugal, and it is hard to find the right words to explain the way he treated us.
For three days, although he certainly had a lot of things to do in his business and at home after being away for several weeks, Manuel gave us all his time and took us around the whole area. The first day, what started like a short drive throughout the city, ended up with finally a trip up the Table Mountain with the cable car. Strangely enough, although it was a beautiful day with a good visibility, the crowd was very think and we were able to have a quiet walk on top of the mountain and see Capetown and Camps Bay down below with all the other suburbs as well. Manuel took us also up Signal Hill and the tour also included an impromptu visit at a small local mosque.

The drive up to mountain was going past a Chocolate Factory and Manuel stopped there for what amounted to an ambush. I walked out of that shop with a lot of calories in three nice little bags. Wonderful chocolate !

On Saturday, we were in for a real treat. First, we went south to Hout Bay and continued by way of the Chapmans Peak's Drive, with a wonderful view of the coast, starting by the view over Hout Bay. Then we went on to Cape Point, which is the real Cape, as opposed to the Cape of Good Hope, much lower but I am told also more treacherous than Cape Point. There was a strong 35 to 40 knots wind up there which was very fitting.

To get to the Cape and back, you drive through a park where baboons and oistriches are wandering, as well as other wildlife that we haven't seen.

For me, as a sailor, it was a very emotional visit. Cape of Good Hope, despite the fact that it is not the most southern point of the african continent, is one of the three great capes, with Cape Leuwin on the south west corner of Australia and Cape Horn on the southern tip of south America. And the surrounding are extremely impressive, yielding an atmosphere of power, greatness, showing how forceful nature can be.

After that, we drove to Simonstown, which is the naval base for South Africa inside False Bay. At the naval base, Manuel showed us the sailing school that he is running for the young boys of the townships. Very, very impressive. The school teaches them how to build a sailboat, how to sail it, provides some academic schooling with the help of computers donated to the school, feed them and transport them back and forth to the Township. It is really a great project and I wish I could help publicize it to the outside world.

After the school, we went looking at a beach where a very large colony of penguins live, before stopping in a nearby fishing village for lunch of seafood tapas in an ideal surrounding. Almost as if we were in an aquarium, with the sea and the waves breaking on the rocks next to where we were sitting, with only a window to protect us.

We then drove back to Cape Town and to the boat, exhausted but extremely happy to have had the opportunity to see Cape Town from a sailor's eyes. And what sailor ! Thank you so much Manuel for that visit and all the help that you gave us.

The true tourist

2010-09-29T14:23:00.002-04:00

cape town - 34
Originally uploaded by brisegalets

If you were an experienced and seasoned tourist, you would visit museums and shopping malls on a rainy day and do the outdoor when the weather is perfect.
Well, we did exactly the opposite. On Sunday, basing our plans on the weather forecast, we went for the red tour on the CitySightseeing bus, planning to get off at stop 13 and go up the Table Mountain on cable car. We did the first 3 stops on the uncovered top of the bus and enjoyed the beginning of the rain, drizzle at first, then real heavy rain. By the time we decided to escape the rain and go downstairs, everybody had come to the same conclusion and were crammed in a space with twice as many people as there were seats available. So, we decided to get off, have lunch, and then surely the rain would stop and we could continue touring. We had a nice kurdish lunch and went back on the bus just in time for the rain to start again. The rest of the bus tour was done staying downstairs and hanging on like in a subway on a traffic hour, with fog to add to the misery. There was a commentary, but nothing to see.
On Monday, there were still clouds covering the top of the Table Mountain, so we decided to be wise, and we went for the Maritime Museum and checking out shopping malls and supermarkets. That day, the weather was nothing short of perfect, with blue sky and sunny weather.
That is the hard life of a tourist !
On Tuesday, we gave it another go. This time we had the weather and we could see what we had been through on Sunday on the red tour. But once we got to stop 13 (cable car to the mountain), we realized that everybody else had had the same idea and there was a two hour line to get on the cable car. So we gave up and decided to have a walk along the beach, have lunch, and then go back to stop13 as we were told that the line was much shorter in the afternoon. Only we got off the bus one stop too early and walked nearly 10 kms in search of a restaurant that we never found. In the end, we hopped back on the bus one more time to go to the Waterfront, have lunch, and then taxi back to the boat, exhausted by another touring day !
Today, no more touring. Another very nice member of the club had offered to drive us to a good shopping spot and so we did. We went with him to a shopping center and did most of the provisioning that we need doing before leaving for Saldanha and then Luanda.
Tomorrow, time will go fast when we have to do immigration formalities out of South Africa, then top up with fuel, go back to the Waterfront for fruits and veggies, and hopefully some time with Manuel who is landing tonight late. There probably won't be any time to spare to do more touring in Cape Town. Pity ! I feel that you probably need to plan for 3 to 4 weeks stay here if you wanted to visit everything worth visiting. One more time, I almost forgot to smell the roses !

Royal Cape Yacht Club

2010-09-24T12:24:00.003-04:00

Capetown - 21
Originally uploaded by brisegalets

Almost one week has gone and we have been able to accomplish quite a bit.
First, the electric autopilot. Graham, who runs the weathernet of South Africa on the radio had pointed me towards a friend, Tom, who sails extensively and is knowledgeable and helpful. Tom came to the boat, took apart the autopilot, and concluded that the only thing wrong with it was the fact that two bolts that secure the electric motor to the casing has gone loose and the contact with the brushes had been lost. He took the unit home and will bring it back tomorrow morning fixed. Really fantastic.
Then Ivan who works with Manuel, a boat builder himself, and the only brother of the coast who lives in Capetown, has put in place the six new opening portlights of the main cabin, all of which were leaking somehow. On Monday, he will come back and try and fix the forward hatch. After that, we should have conquered most of the leaks. We know that there is still some moisture coming from the starboard side forward, but we hope that fixing the hatch might help with it.
We ourselves replaced the aft bilge pump and the float switch which had failed, and did the little jobs that you always find that need be done after some passage, checking the rigging, taking care of the batteries and of the engine, cleaning inside, etc....
In the meantime, we also had the opportunity to go to the waterfront, where the real harbour lies. It is a place where there are boats and boatyards, but also shopping centers, maritime museum, shopping mall, all that in a very pleasant setting.
Unfortunately, Manuel had to go home just before we arrived for family reasons, so we have not had a chance yet to meet any of the brothers of South Africa. My understanding is that most of them live in Saldanha, and I will have to wait until I get there. If all goes well, we should be sailing to Saldanha on Friday, October 1st, but of course all will depend on the weather. Capetown is a very windy place and we will have to depend on a wind coming from a southerly direction.

Today, a member of the club, Barry, very kindly took us on a tour around the table bay mountain through some vineyards and back via Hout Baai et the waterfront. Very pleasant ride which gave us a good feeling of the layout of Capetown. And this was extremely nice of Barry whom we had not met before coming to Capetown, to drive us all afternoon for sight seeing.

The Royal Cape Yacht Club is obviously dedicated to racing. There is first of all the famous Cape-Rio race which starts in January. Then there is the race from Capetown to St Helena. And then, there are races in the bay with many boats taking part. As a result, the club is very lively and we meet quite a few very nice yachtmen and we see in the marina a lot of finely tuned racing yacht of different sizes.

So far, we have had a very pleasant time here.

Turning the corner !

2010-09-20T15:33:00.003-04:00

MosselBay_Capetown
Originally uploaded by brisegalets

Crossing the Agulhas current already had been a kind of anticlimax, so I was bracing for the Cape of Storms, anticipating the real thing this time.
At the start, it looked that we were in for some excitement. We left Mossel Bay with an easterly gale force wind, 15 foot seas, rain and for us coming from the tropics, a temperature that made the weather feel like brass monkey weather (for those who don't know, the full expression is "it's cold enough to freeze the balls of a brass monkey" probably irish expression), being in the low 60' and a very high humidity. I thought that this was going to be a rough but quick passage. Alas ! Around midnight, the wind which had been declining since early afternoon dropped to a point where we had to start the motor, once again. We had albatross, dolphins and whales around us to keep us excited, but this was not enough to forget our disappointment.
Then, as we were approaching Cape Point, the wind came back up to 35 knots and 20 foot seas to go with it. By the way, the Cape of Good Hope is the one called the Cape of Storms, but it's nothing of a cape. It sits like a small dent on the side of a peninsular at the end of which is Cape Point, which looks formidable. We could hardly see anything as the weather was kind of foggy with less than 2 miles visibility and very low clouds that were hiding the top of Cape Point.
At that point, the locking device which keeps the movement of the water paddle of the windvane in sync with the steering wheel broke, and there was a brief moment of high tension. We first tried a wooden plug, but it would not hold, being chewed up by the movements of the wheel. Eventually, we found the axis of a shackle that was the right size, and we were able to continue under the guidance of Firmin, our windvane.
Again, this was not a walk in the park with that kind of wind and sea state, but at least, we were flying, with on top of that the help of a 0.7 knots current. But this was to be short lived. As we passed Hout Baai, which is about 20 miles from Capetown, the wind died, then came back up at 20 knots in our nose, then died again staying in the northerlies directions.
We then finished motoring and entered the harbour of Capetown at 1 in the morning on Sunday. All our efforts to contact Port Control on 16 and 12 failed, so we went directly to the Royal Cape Yacht Club basin and tied up at the first berth available. And within 10 minutes, we were fast asleep, happy and relieved to be now in the South Atlantic. No more known weather monsters ahead of us !

Mossel Baai

2010-09-16T12:40:00.001-04:00

Mossel Baai - Museum - 10
Originally uploaded by brisegalets

We have been stuck here for five days by the weather, but finally, we don't mind at all. I would even say that we like it.
This is a charming little town, touristic but also fishing harbor. It is very clean and nice looking, lots of building having their front covered with sand stones. Lots of restaurants, shops are well stocked. From the boat, the downtown area is less than a quarter mile away, including a small shopping mall with a supermarket. Extremely convenient.
At the marina, we have electricity and if we wanted, we could fill up our tanks with water. We won't do it as we have enough to reach Capetown and we are told that water is a scarce commodity here.
There is also a museum, part aquarium, part maritime museum, quite interesting and which helped us understand better the portuguese influence here. In the museum, there is a replica of the caravel on which Bartolomeu Dias came to South Africa in 1488. Amazing to look at the charts available at the time and to think of the courage and the maritime skills of those explorers.
It is a pity that there is so much security, so highly visible everywhere. There are probably very good reasons for it, but it does not help the image of the place. To go from my boat to the bar of the Yacht Club, there are four gates, all with different systems (key, magnetic badge, security guard, intercom system) that certainly does not incite you to visit the club for a drink.
The bay is very active, with quite a few whales, we are told on their way to antartica. There are also dolphins and sea lions, some of them right into the harbor.
The harbor itself is very much alive, with an intense activity from the fishing industry. Although it is quite well protected, the swell still manages to get in and alongside the pontoons the continuous movements of the boats are hard on the mooring lines.
This is, I hope, our last port in what is still technically speaking the Indian Ocean. Tomorrow night, we will go around Cape Agulhas and enter the South Atlantic Ocean.

Are we there yet ?

2010-09-12T14:27:00.002-04:00

This time, we were definitely going for Capetown. The night Friday to Saturday, we knew we were going to be motoring, but then after, the nice 20 knots easterly wind was going to help us all day. Then on Sunday, we were going to be motoring in a light westerly breeze before pushing on on Monday with an easterly to north easterly wind getting us to Capetown on Monday. Nothing of that happened, except for the motoring. And if we motor with no wind, then we have to steer by hand with no electric auto-pilot. The story of that auto-pilot is so long that it is not worth writing. We do not know whether it is the hydraulic pump which burnt (we could know if we looked, but we have not done it yet), or if it is the brains that we bought in Townsville to replace that of the Navico, but what matters is that it does not work and we need wind to use Firmin (the windvane).
So, after motoring all night, and all day, and again all night, and when I realized that we were in for motoring all the way to Capetown, I decided to call it quit and call in into Mossel Baai. We arrived there at 6 in the morning, and we have been sleeping most of the day, but with the little that we have seen, I am glad we stopped here. This time round, with no serious work to do on the boat, we will have time to be full time tourists and I like it.

Things that don't change. . .

2010-09-09T10:51:00.003-04:00

. . . .remain the same.
We had left East London already bragging that we were going to make Capetown in one go. The sea and the weather decided otherwise. When we left East London, there was absolutely no wind, but that did not worry us since we knew that the wind would come back from the east around 8 in the morning. Guess what ? It did not. In a way, that was good luck because when we got a long line caught in the rudder, if we had had wind and the wind vane working with the water blade down, then we would have sustained again severe damage to the wind vane. As it was anyway, we were not too happy. That line was probably several hundreds of yards long and we quickly realize that there was no point trying to haul it on the boat. So we cut it, short on the port side and long enough to secure it on the boat on the starboard side. If it had not been pitch dark, we would have done it the other way round and would have been able to clear it there and then. There was a splice on the port side and we could not pull the rope through the gap between the rudder and the shoe because of that splice. But the rudder was still working good, and best of all, it did not catch the propeller. So, after one hour of trying to do something, we just resumed sailing on.
Then around 3 in the morning, (again during my watch), I saw that the depth was down to 50 feet when it should have been 300, with a very clear signal. Then it went up to 45, then 40, then 35, then 30 and I got very very concerned. As I was checking with various navigation aids our position, the depth plunged back suddenly to 300. Phew ! And everything went back to normal. And then, like 20 minutes later, a huge breathing sound next to the boat, probably less than 10 yards, and which was undoubtedly a whale surfacing to breathe. Major scare ! And I could not take out of my mind that picture of that sailboat in the bay of Capetown, where a whale jumped out of the water and dropped back onto the sailboat, destroying the rigging but fortunately injuring no one. This is the last thing we want.
After the night was over, we saw whales around us, but fortunately none of them close.
Then, before sunset, we got into Port Elizabeth and could safely tie up at the local Yacht Club. There were people there to greet us and direct us to a berth. Seems like a very friendly place.
On the boat opposite us was the boat of Miguel who helped us tie up. So we invited him for a drink at the club, where we met many members, all very friendly and all white.(Ooopppsss !)
After drinks, we bought a bottle of wine, and I invited Miguel to share dinner with us. This was steak (excellent meat from South Africa) and green beans, and the bottle of red wine, after a few more drinks before dinner. I don't know if this had anything to do with it, but leaving the boat Miguel managed to fall into the drink. :-(
I did not see that, but apparently what happened is the classic case of having a foot on the pontoon and a foot on the step of the boat. Then the boat moved away from the pontoon, and Miguel had legs only that long. After which, gravity took over. Fortunately, he only got wet.
Today, Thursday, we cleared the rope, filled up with Diesel, and started to wait for the southwesterly to go through. It is now 5:00 p.m. and the wind is in the 30 knots. Good to be in port.

We did it !

2010-09-06T13:01:00.001-04:00

Reunion_EastLondon
Originally uploaded by brisegalets

After the incident of the genoa halyard, it felt like this was going to be smooth sailing all the way to East London. Well, not quite.
First, the wind quit again and we found out that the hydraulic pump that drive the rudder has seized up and we have to steer by hand when we don't have enough wind for Firmin to work well. And I am not going to wait for the wind as I want to get to East London as quickly as I can.
The wind eventually came back, first quite strong, then weakening by the hour, but still strong enough for us to use the windvane and make good speed.
Then at 9:00 p.m. on Saturday, all of a sudden and without any warning, the wind switched abruptly in a matter of minutes from NE to SW, which is in the nose, and building up to 30 knots. I was quite concerned, because we are right in the middle of the area where the freak waves can build up and especially if the SW wind were to freshen up even more. I checked the barometer, but it remained steady, which is a good sign. Anyway, to play safe, we ducked inside the 200 meters depth line and continued motoring. Those last 35 miles seem to last forever. Eventually, we got to inside the breakwater of East London around 3 in the morning. Surprisingly enough, Port Control answered us at the first call and directed us to tie up at Latimer's Landing, wherever we could. Which we did. And then slept heavily until 9. After we woke up, I called again Port Control to find out about formalities to clear in.
Well, it turns out that almost no sailboat makes it directly to East London from Reunion or Mauritius, and they don't really know what to do. The Port Police, next door to us, tries to call Immigration, but there is a civil servants strike going on, and it seems that we won't be able to get anything done on Sunday. But we can go to town and do whatever we want, no problem. In fact, on Sunday, everything is closed and we achieve nothing.
On Monday, it appears that immigration is not in a hurry to come, so we are told to do what we need to do and then tell them when we are back. So, we went back out to town, and finally managed to get a cell phone and an internet connection via a 3G broad band USB stick all set up. When we return to the boat, the police told us that immigration can't come, but if we would come to the police station with our passports, they will put some stamps on them.
The weather which is nasty today, as forecast, should ease up tomorrow afternoon, and we plan on leaving at the end of the day and head for Mosselbay. Apparently, it is very rare, we are told, that a sailboat can make East London to Capetown in one leg, so we will probably spend a couple of days in Mosselbay which we believe will be a lot nicer than East London.

Is it boring or what ?

2010-09-03T07:14:00.000-04:00

Quite often, people wonder whether we are not getting bored to death
after days and weeks at sea on long passages. Well, on Papy Jovial, we
never have time to get bored as there is always something going on to
entertain us.
The day before last, evening, just after dinner. It's pitch dark with no
moon, we are on broad reaching with more than 25 knots of wind and the
boat is going at more than 7.5 knots. This is the end of my watch. Then,
the dreaded sound of something crashing on deck. What is that ?
Well, that is the genoa that just fell on deck after the halyard broke
at the block on top of the mast. And very soon, it is all of it in the
water, dragging along, fortunately still secured to the boat by the tack
point. And the boat, under reefed down main is still going at 6 knots or
more.
Fortunately, I had replaced the spare halyard that I did not like, with
a brand new one, which is in place. So, it took us half an hour of
frantic efforts, but without stopping the boat, we had the genoa back up
and running. It had been a little physical and I was almost out of
breath, but happy. I rewarded myself and Olivier with a shot of rum from
Mauritius

Next morning, still on my watch, we lost the wind. And this for almost
two and a half hour. We had to go motoring, since we have an appointment
with the Agulhas current. Fortunately, the wind came back, strong, and
we could resume sailing toward the south african coast.
We had been lazy trade winds passengers, leaving the steering of the
boat to Firmin, and having little change to make to the sails until we
hit that counter current on the east coast of Madagascar. Since then, we
are a lot more alert to the currents and we zigzag across the Mozambique
channel to try and minimize the effect of those "ebbies".

We are now around 10 hours from entering the famous, or infamous Agulhas
current which can be hell or heaven, depending on which direction the
wind is blowing. Obviously, we are trying to make it heaven and it looks
like we are going to be successful. So much so that if we get lucky, we
might be able to push on and make Port Elizabeth before the dreaded
South Westerly wind shows up which is forecast for Sunday morning 3 o'clock.
No matter how eager we are to make Port Elizabeth, we will play safe
anyway, as this is not the kind of circumstances where you want to take
chances.
We shall know very soon.

All bets are off !

2010-09-01T07:07:00.000-04:00

Decision made, agonizingly, to try and make it to East London. We have
594 n.m. to get there, with probably 6 hours of SW wind on the way,
therefore almost a guaranteed loss of three hours. And then, we have to
make it before September 5th midnight, after which a strong
Southwesterly is forecast to run up the Agulhas current, worse possible
scenario. If that were to happen (being late I mean), we would have to
go back out away from the current, let the southwesterly go through and
then get back in, at which time, we don't know yet what it is going to
look like.
This at least guarantees us four days of intense stress and a telephone
bill going up quickly as I keep checking on MaxSea grib files, UGrib and
Predictwind grib files. Surprisingly enough, today they all agree. It
must be a good sign.
We shoud normally making, but now it's in the hands of the weather.
Inc'h Allah !

Light wind

2010-08-31T05:40:00.000-04:00

Last night, we were able to hoist the gennaker and to increase our speed
to almost max at 7.7 knots. Unfortunately at midnight (it always happens
at midnight), the guy broke and we had to take it down. I did not want
to rehoist it in the middle of the night and decided to wait for the
morning. By that time, the wind had dropped to less than 10 knots, and
although we put the gennaker up again, we are now crawling at 4 to 5
knots. Not very good for the nerves.
We have another 513 miles to go for Durban and 832 for Port Elizabeth on
a straight line. It appears that a low is likely to be moving up the
coast thursday or friday, and then another one on saturday or sunday.
None of those two appear to be threatening but they need to be watched
carefully. Both the weather guys from South Africa and my weather router
from Australia agree that we have to wait another day before making a
decision whether we head for Durban or go for Port Elizabeth, staying
outside of the Agulhas current.
Obviously, in this kind of area, the weather is the ultimate judge and
the decision will only take the weather into account, not our
preferences in terms of location.
As it's often said and very true in our case, time will tell.

Up the conveyor belt

2010-08-28T11:11:00.000-04:00

Since we left Reunion, everyday I notice that we cover less and less
distance over the ground, although Papy Jovial seems to be going quite
the same, except for one night when we had numerous showers, whirling
wind and erratic course.
But today was the worst. Every time we looked at the speed on the GPS,
we were getting figures 2, 3 even 4 knots below that of the speedometer.
Eventually, I decided to request a grib file showing the currents, which
I rarely do as the grib file is a lot heavier, takes more time to
download and therefore costs more, with the sat phone at $ 1.20 per minute.
But it was worth it. We discover (I should have checked that before
leaving Reunion, when we still had a fast internet connection) that
there is a strong current going down the east coast of Madagascar, which
when it gets further south turns back and create a strong counter
current in which we got caught. We had sometimes more than 3 knots
against us, and the day turned out to be a miserable one in terms of
progression towards our destination. Anyway, having found out about it,
we altered course so as to cross that counter current as quickly as
possible and then move into the favorable one. Hopefully, we should get
into that current before midnight and then take advantage of it fore
around 100 miles.
So far, the weather still looks OK for us to proceed directly to Port
Elizabeth rather than stop in Durban. Early days yet, this can change.

Danger zone

2010-08-27T05:57:00.000-04:00

The area towards which we are sailing is deemed to be one of the two
potentially most dangerous sailing areas in the world with the Cape Horn
area.
It earned its infamous reputation first because of the presence of the
so-called "rogue" or "freak" waves, more commonly called abnormal waves
which can be as high as 100 feet. Fortunately, so waves do not occur at
random in terms of time and location. For those waves to exist, the
university of South Africa has found that, whenever damage was caused to
shipping or yachting by those waves, three conditions had to be met.
First, the Agulhas current, which runs down the east coast on a SSW
direction, has to be at its maximum strength, which is around 5 to 6 knots.
Second, there has to be a "buster" or coastal low, racing up the same
east coast and generating SW winds of up to 70 knots.
And last, you would have to be in an area which is east of the 200
meters depth line, 20 miles out, between the latitude of Durban (in fact
a little further north than Durban) and Port Elizabeth.
If you are in there and a buster is showing up, if you are in a small
boat, race inshore with a smaller depth, and if you are on a big one,
get the hell out of it and go off shore.
If you don't believe that it can destroy a tanker, google "World Glory
disaster", which occurred on May 31st, 1968, when a 50,000 tons tanker
belonging to Niarchos shipping, sailed over a freak wave, broke in two
and sunk.

Sailboats planning to sail around south Africa out of the Indian ocean
should first aim for a position around 150 miles south of the southern
tip of Madagascar and then aim for a position halfway between Richards
Bay and Durban. Statistically speaking, the storms and the abnormal
waves don't go that far north. Once you are off Durban, if you have a
nice 2 to 3 days weather window, then aim for East London. Otherwise,
hunker down in Durban. After East London, you need a 36 hours window to
get to Port Elizabeth, then another 36 hours to go to Mosselbay, then
one day to an anchorage in the lee of Cape Agulhas, and then. once you
get a nice SE wind, you are only 125 miles from Capetown.

Needless to day that to undertake this kind of voyage, you need to be
well covered weather wise and have a boat carefully prepared for an
eventual storm.
On Papy Jovial, I regularly check via email (using my iridium sat phone
as a dial up modem) the grib files (a weather map that you can overlay
on your chart plotter providing up to 7 days forecast) from 3 different
systems, MaxSea, which is my navigation software, UGrib, a free system
from Grib US and Expedition LT from New Zealand.
I also have outside help.
First, Tom, previous owner of the boat for 22 years, whose son used to
to weather in the Navy, and who has been with me everyday, sometimes
twice a day, by email, to provide me with weather outlook and forecast.
Second, Bruce, professional weather router, who works with the national
sailing team of Australia, with ARC, and has been in this business for
more than 30 years.
And then, the South Africa Mobile maritime network on SSB, run by
Alistair and Graham. I first made contact when I was still 3,300 miles
away, and since, when at sea, I talk to them and get the weather ahead
of me.

I am still a little nervous, since you can never be 100 % guaranteed no
problem. In fact, most people say that this passage should only be done
around November. Yet, the worst storm in decades that damaged most of
the marinas of the south coast of South Africa occurred in November. I
am confident that I will get to Capetown safely and comfortably.

The brotherhood of the coast

2010-08-26T09:37:00.000-04:00

Often during my voyage, people have told me "why are you in such a
hurry, why don't you take the time to visit the Galapagos, the
Tuamotu. the Fidji, why go to Noumea from Tonga when the regular route
for everybody else is to go direct to New Zealand,etc....".
I have a hard time explaining that I am not just cruising around the
world. For me, this is a voyage to visit the brothers of the coast along
the way while I am sailing to the Worldwide meeting of the brothers in
Sydney, and then sail back home, again visiting the groups of brothers
on my way back, even if it sometimes mean taking a few hundred miles detour.
Again, since some of the people who read this blog are not sailors or
even less brothers of the coast, maybe I should explain a little.
Since there are more than 3000 brothers of the coast worldwide in some
30 countries, there are probably 3000 definitions, each of them as good
as any.
Mine is that The brotherhood of the coast is a community of seafarers
who share the same love of the sea and practice among themselves the
same solidarity as if there were blood brother in a closely knit family.
To belong to this community is an honour that has to be earned. It
cannot be purchased or granted on a simple request. One has to
demonstrate over the course of several years that love of the sea and
strong sense of solidarity are among your key values and that you can
fit well within the group whith whom you are acquainted. Then the group
might invite you to join the community.
I have been a brother of the coast for 24 years and I hope that I will
always remain worthy of belonging to the brotherhood.
And this is why now that I have left Australia and the meeting in
Sydney, my next big stop will be Capetown and Saldanha bay where there
are brothers of the coast of the South Africa brotherhood.
I am very very much looking forward to meeting brothers that I have
never met before in any of the international meetings that I have
attended. This is for me where the value and the purpose of this trip
lies and it is very much worth taking the path around south africa and
the cape of Good Hope.

This is it !

2010-08-25T17:20:00.000-04:00

Those last two days in Reunion have been hectic, as expected. Laundry
(which took three trips), shopping, oil change, surrendering the mobile
broadband 3G USB key that I had borrowed, taking the car back to the
rental car place in St Denis, 32 kms from the boat and get a ride back,
preparing the boat for the big trip, rechecking all the leaks. And a
wonderful dinner party on Monday night at Jean-Louis's house.
We had an appointment with customs at 7:00 on Wednesday to get the
outgoing clearance. This was the only purpose of their coming to the
boat. They came at 6:30, which is good, but they did not bring any
clearance form with them, which is not so good. They had to use my
clearance from Maurice and make corrections to it to show that it was
clearance from Reunion ! I hope the South African customs will accept that.
After topping up the water tank, we were ready to go and we exited the
harbour at 8:25, on our way to the danger zone between Madagascar and
Durban, 625 miles away. Not a glorious start as we had to motor in the
lee of the island for three and a half hours, but at noon sharp, the
wind showed up, strong, and we finally got going. If all goes well, we
should reach the southern tip of Madagascar on Sunday and start crossing
the Mozambique channel. The current forecast calls for a strong system
to form around the end of the month, when we will already be in the
channel, but we should be able to dodge it by aiming for Richards Bay at
first.
We shall see.

La Reunion

2010-08-22T23:37:00.001-04:00

La Reunion - 57
Originally uploaded by brisegalets

We've done so many things in the past week that I am not sure I can remember everything.
We arrived on Tuesday, early afternoon as planned. At first, it seemed that it was going to be smooth sailing getting into the marina as we were expected and the marina got in touch with us via VHF. But it turned out that they had no space available inside the marina and we were to tie up alongside a wharf where it was quite acrobatic to get off. But we had electricity and water, which is all that matters. Customs were nowhere to be seen, be apparently, it does not matter here. My only concern is to make sure I get a clearance out of here to be able to clear in South Africa without problem.
Shortly after we arrived, Antoine showed up with the rental car and we were able to go to town and register the car, as well as taking Antoine home. It took us a little while to get back home, being in unknown territory with almost no signage, but we got back OK.
Wednesday, the whole morning was dedicated to waiting for customs, but they never showed up and in the afternoon we went to town to try and solve the problem of getting an internet connection. Not easy in a place where apparently you need as much justification and documents as if you were purchasing a nuclear submarine. Eventually, the last shop we went it, finally admitted that they could lend us a 3G USB key against a deposit, and we were set.
On Thursday, Antoine came to the boat early on his motorcycle (he lives 60 kms from the marina) and we took off for St Pierre on the south coast as I wanted to see the place and check out whether we could go there with Papy Jovial. Also, Olivier had made contact with the sister of a friend of his who lives there, and we were invited for lunch.
This was a very windy day, and after lunch, very pleasant in a nice house overlooking St Pierre, we went to the marina and could see that on a windy day, there is no way Papy Jovial could get in there safely. On the way back, we stopped at the house of Jean-Louis, skipper of "Loulou", contacted through STW (french association of cruisers) who had offered to lend us a couple of jerrycans to top up our fuel tank. Wonderful old creole house, a garden with all kinds of trees, figs, mango, bananas, etc... and a few turtles, the same kind we saw in Rodrigues. We then filled up the cans and went back to the boat where Antoine recoverd his bike and went back home.
Friday morning is the day of the biggest street market in Saint Paul and I was on a mission to get some vanilla, which had to be "ile de la Reunion" and had to be made either in St Philippe or Bras Panon. I also had to find some "kaloupile" (don't know what it is, apart that it is a spice). Mission accomplished in less than an hour and then we went back to town and to the customs house to do the clearance, since it was obvious that they would never come to the boat.
After that we drove to the crater of the only volcan still alive on the island, with activities almost every other year. The road was fabulous but by the time we got to the crater, we were in the midst of thick clouds with no visibility at all. Fortunately, there was another crater nearby, dead this one but just as spectacular, so we had no regrets.
After we went back to the boat, we went out again to have dinner with Antoine and his room-mate at a posh restaurant in St Denis. Pleasant evening, as always when you share a meal and a bottle of wine with friends.
Saturday, it was just Olivier and myself, and we drove all around the island. The other side, the windward one, is much more pleasant than the one on the lee side. We truly enjoyed that ride which also includes to drive through the streams of lava that came down from the volcano over the years. The last one occured in 2007 and was still hot and fuming. Very interesting. We touched the stones and they were quite warm. Then, as we were driving through St Denis, the capital city of the island, we stopped at a huge supermarket, kind of WalMart, to check out what was available as far as shopping is concerned. We will be leaving on Wednesday morning and we need to know what we kind buy.
Sunday, for the first time in this trip, I did a day sail, as Antoine and his friend wanted to go out and see the whales, which are supposed to hang around near the coast. We left around 8:30 in the morning, and luckily enough, they were there and even did us the favor of swimming past the boat at less than 15 yards. Then we anchored near the coast, in front of a popular beach for lunch and went back to the boat.
These last two days, today and tomorrow, we will take care of Papy Jovial and prepare her for the big jump towards South Africa.

Leaving Port Louis

2010-08-19T01:49:00.001-04:00

Port Louis - 39
Originally uploaded by brisegalets

This last Sunday in Port Louis was, as I expected, one of the highlights of my trip. Francis came to pick us up around 10, spending some time first on Papy Jovial and telling us a lot about Mauritius over a glass of white wine. Then he took us to his house which is sitting right on Cap Malheureux, in a wonderful setting, with his only little marina, swimming pool an a great view over Flat Island.
And then around a delicious schrimp curry, the four of us, Francis and his wife Maryse, Olivier and myself, we continued the conversation and explanations about Mauritius. After that, we returned to the boat and spent a last quiet evening in Caudan.
Next morning, we went to the market for the last provisions. The market, not the supermarket. Lots of fresh fruits and vegetable, but we can only take so much that will keep on the boat. What a pity, as the quality and price of those veggies and fruits were really great.
Early afternoon, we had the visit of a senior customs officer, who was bringing back the salute cannon and the blank rounds that we had been carrying since Norfolk when Stew put it on Papy Jovial.
After we had signed all the papers, we got the cannon back, but the customs guy then asked us "when are you leaving ?" - Well I said, probably within 10 minutes, just time to cast off the lines.
Oh, in that case, we must seal the cannon.
Where ? We don't have any compartment on the boat that we can lock.
Well, it has to be sealed.
So, eventually, we sealed the damn thing inside the overn where we could put the customs seal around the handle to open the over.
Great fun.
The actual formalities at the customs house (health, immigration, customs again, coast guards) took a little less than 1 hour and by 15:00, we were under way, getting out of the harbour at 15:20.
It took us around 22 hours to get to Port Louis, good wind all the way except for the last 6 miles when the wind abruptly disappeared and we had to motor in.

Rain check

2010-08-15T09:54:00.001-04:00

Port Louis - 20
Originally uploaded by brisegalets

Up early on Saturday morning, one look outside, and all I want is to go back to bed. It's raining, but this kind of fine rain that is going to last all day, coming with a mist that guarantees no visibility.
So, after breakfast, I had to call the taxi and cancel. And then we devoted the day at some minor shopping, sorting out things here and there on the boat without real conviction. We went to the chinese district (the famous Chinatown) for lunch and went back to the boat not doing much.
In the evening, I took Ollivier to Pizza Hut, only because they have one table, at the corner of their outside patio, where the internet connection is good and free and I wanted to upload some pictures.
Never mind, tomorrow we are having lunch with my long time friend Francis who will tell us a lot more about the island than what we could learn visiting it on a taxi.
And since it rained all day, we could verify that the mast does not leak anymore and that the leaks from the portlights are no worse and no better than what we anticipated.
Life is good.

It's not over until it's over !

2010-08-12T12:01:00.002-04:00

Port Louis, Mauritius - 42
Originally uploaded by brisegalets

First we repaired Firmin, the windvane. We felt good. Then we had the shipyard work on the leaks, particularly the one where the mast goes through the deck. They worked three days on it. They lifted the deck plate, cleaned it real good, cleaned in fact everything about this deck plate, then they caulked it fresh with a good compound, then they hosed it down with high pressure water, no leaks. We felt good.
Then I find water in the bilge. Traced the source. Find that the dummy plug for the speedometer had an o'ring missing. Put the real speedometer sensor in place. It does not leak. Felt good. Went to lunch. Went back from lunch and found water again smelling urine. Did not feel good. We checked out the heads, found that the outlet was blocked, took it out. Found that it had holes in it and was bloked by calcaire. Cleared it. Went to town to find a similar hose. Put it back in place. Tried the head. It works OK and does not leak. Felt good.
That's where we are right now. For the first time we had dinner on board, convinced that at last, we got the better of the leaks. The drain from the chain locker is now clear, the sensor of the speedometer does not leak, the forward head works fine and does not leak. The passage of the mast through the deck at last seems to be watertight. But we know that only at sea we shall know the truth.
Meanwhile, we have been roaming the streets of Port Louis extensively looking for a hinge, an o'ring, a replacement hose for the head, etc . . . and we are beginning to know the town quite well.
The striking thing about it is the mixture of ethnicities, of cultures, of religions, all that in harmony and with everybody having one thing in common, the french language. I must say that it is quite astonishing to go to a chinese shop, with everything written in chinese, and hear the chinese shopkeeper talk to you in perfect french, just with a touch of Mauritius accent. And it is the same with a hindu waiter, or a blackman from Madagascar, or a white man coming from God knows where. Like in Rodrigues, almost every public sign is in english, but everybody speaks french. Strange !
It is very definitely a lovely place. Saturday we plan on visiting the southern part of the island, especially Mahebourg which would have been the capital if the french had had their way. This week end, there is celebration out there to commemorate the naval battle of Grand Port where the french navy had one of their very rare success against the british navy, 150 years ago.
We are still set to leave on Monday, although the weather looks like there is not going to be a lot of wind. We only have 120 miles to go, but the iron sail might have to come into play.

Back on my feet

2010-08-09T10:06:00.002-04:00

With force anti-inflammatory and a lot of rest, I am back on my feet for this last week in Mauritius. So far, I have only seen the town and I can't wait to see a little bit of the island. I know it is going to be very very different from Rodrigues, still there is a lot to discover.
Where we are, the marina of Caudan, is like a little island of prosperity, with top notch hotel, shopping mall and expensive restaurants. It is isolated from the downtown area by 2 underpasses guarded bysecurity. The town itself is quite pleasant, again with lots of small shops and vendors, but unlike Rodrigues, big shops and banks as well.
Being unable to walk long distances, I have not seen a lot yet. Instead, I have been concentrating on the boat and today we can almost say that we are ready to go. The deckplate has been cleaned and lifted a few millimeters, just enough so that we could clean it real well and hopefully recaulk it tomorrow. Could not do it today as they was intermittent rain all afternoon.
I still have to learn how to post the pictures properly on the blog. The new trick is that instead of copying a link to the picture in Flickr.com, I now have to copy and paste the html language which does not seem to include whether it should go left or right. As a result, it goes in the center and the text does not flow around the picture.
Patience, patience . . . .

Out of commission !

2010-08-07T13:13:00.004-04:00

It hit me almost as soon as we tied up. At first, I believed that it would not last longer than the first night. But since we have arrived, I am almost paralyzed with a very painful lower back, and I feel totally useless. Even sitting in front of the computer for some time hurts me so much that I have to go and lay down for a while before continuing.

We still managed to have the windvane repaired and the exhaust pipe replaced. On Monday we should see some progress on the leaks through the mast.

Yesterday, I could not take it any more and I decided to bite the bullet and go to the local clinic. I spent there most of the day, had a CT scan performed, and ended up with a prescription 2 pages long. At first, I was tempted to throw away all those drugs, but the pain got me to take the anti-inflammatory and a gel to ease the pain. After two days, it seems to work a little bit. I still have tomorrow Sunday to rest and try to get rid of it but next week I need to be able to move.

The boat is now ready, but I want to visit the island a little bit and we still have to sail to La Reunion which is not far but still some 120 miles away, which we should do in probably 18 hours.

Blogger.com have changed their software and I have to learn from scratch how to post the pictures. The albums are still there, this had not changed, so to see all of them, it is best to go there. As for the blog, I will have to ask you to be patient.

Papy Jovial express

2010-08-04T06:49:00.008-04:00

Thanks to very steady and quite strong trade winds we did not waste time getting to Port Louis from Port Mathurin.

We left at 9:15 on Sunday morning amidst squalls and showers, and very soon we found ourselves again in big southeasterly swell and 25 to 35 knots of wind. It was a bit taxing for the electric autopilot, as it would be for any autopilot having to steer a heavy boat on broad reaching and strong swell. But it did the job most of the time and we covered the 347 miles in 51 hours and 45 minutes. Through the water, we achieved an average speed of 6.98 knots, better than I ever did with Papy Jovial.

It took us almost more time to go through the formalities once in Port Louis. Slight exageration, as it was over in 2 1/2 hours, but it seemed like taking for ever. Health, Immigration, Customs, Customs again to search the boat, Coast Guards, and then almost all over again in the marina.

So here we are. We tied up in the afternoon at the Caudan Waterfront marina. Not an ideal marina as it is located by a parking lot and we have a constant flow of people talking, watching etc... But we have electriciy which will allow me to equalize the batteries, we have water and we are downtown.

In the evening, we were having dinner a Grande Baie with my friend Francis Piat, whom I had not met for almost thirty years, back in my working years with Shell. Very pleasant evening updating each other with our lives.

This week will be devoted to fixing the windvane, trying to fix the leaks, washing the boat inside and outside with freshwater.

So long Rodrigues

2010-08-01T07:59:00.000-04:00

So, we are off again, this time bound for Mauritius. But we are a little
sad to leave Rodrigues which certainly has been one of the most pleasant
stop on this voyage.
I bet that a great number of people have no idea that this island even
exists, and even more have no idea as to where it is located. And this
is a small paradise, roughly 12 miles long and 8 wide. It remained
desert until the end of the 18th century, the first settler being
Francois Leguat in 1691. Eventually, it was populated by freed slaves
from Mauritius and the descendants of those slaves constitute the great
majority of the 40,000 inhabitants of the island. There is however, a
small minority of chinese and indian shopkeepers who started settling on
the island at the beginning of the 20th century. The language used by
most is french and a local creole, but curiously enough, one of the
official languages remains english and all public signage is in english.
There is only one town, Port Mathurin, with about 4,000 people. The rest
of the population lives all over the island in small villages and
hamlets. In Port Mathurin, most of the public administrations and banks
are located, together with a great number of small shops selling almost
everything. No big shop or supermarket, but one can find almost
everything, except for what is specifically boating stuff.
We were of course tied up at Port Mathurin in the main harbour, which is
the only place where one can tie up. No facitlity of any kind there,
except a well sheltered harbour. No water, no electricity and of course
no showers, laundry, toilets, etc...
However, after some searching, we found a shop where we could take our
laundry and got it washed, dried and ironed. We also learned that at
certain hours and in certain locations, we could get free wifi from
public administration builings.
And more importantly, plenty of restaurants, some little tiny snak bars,
some looking like real restaurants, some event with live entertainment.
On Friday, we hired a cab to visit the island. Among other things, we
visited a park where a project has been started only a few years back to
resettle giant turtles which used to cover the whole island before it
was settled. Unfortunately, seafarers believed that eating the flesh of
those giant turtles would help them fight many illnesses and as a result
those turtles were totally exterminated on the island. Today, the
project counts more than 2,000 of them and it seems to be going well.
We also visited a large cavern, well organized and very interesting.
The remainder of the island is essentially devoted to agriculture and
fishing. There is a little bit of tourism, unfortunately not much. But
there are a few resorts to welcome visitors and there are 2 flights per
day out of Mauritius.
The one thing about which all visitors are unanimous, is the
friendliness and cheerfulness of the population. Everybody is smiling at
you and greeting you everytime they come across you. It really makes a
difference and we enjoyed our stay tremendously despite the fact that
this island does not have much to offer in terms of comfort and luxury.
But what a great people !
So remember where it is, and if ever you want to spend a couple of weeks
in paradise at a very affordable price, this is it !

Stats and Rodrigues

2010-07-30T23:12:00.002-04:00

Well, finally we have arrived. And since then, silence on my part. This is because Rodrigues, which is a charming island, is also a deep black hole as far as Internet is concerned and I have not been able to post anything, unless I would do it like at sea through the sat phone.

We got in view of the island, as forecast early afternoon on Tuesday July 27. The closer we got to the island, the stronger the wind and the higher the swell. Eventually, by the time we got at the entrance of the channel, the wind was blowing at 35 and the swell, although shorter was still very aggressive. I did not feel good coming alongside in these conditions, but there was no choice. Eventually, by the time we only had 2 boat length between us and the wharf, the wind finally dropped to 20 knots and we were able to put 2 lines ashore.

Since the Cocos, for a total distance on a straight line of 1984 nautical miles, we had covered 2019 n.m. through the water and 2066 over the ground, benefiting 47 n.m. from the current. Our average speed through the water was 6.7923 which is really wonderful. I am very happy with that.

In those 12 days of passage, we only saw 2 fishing boats close to the Cocos, and then 2 bulk carriers on their way to South Africa. Maybe Andy will be surprised that we saw so few ships.

I am hurrying to post this while I still have a connection, but I hope to be able tonight to put in something about Rodrigues, which is a little paradise in the middle of the Indian Ocean and that most people don't even know it exists.

A matter of water

2010-07-25T08:31:00.000-04:00

Water, indispensable to life, at least fresh water. The trillion of
gallons of sea water that surround us help us to float, yes, but that's
about it.
As for fresh water, which is not available in unlimited quantities, its
consumption has to be managed. Therefore measured, since if you can't
measure it, you can't manage it.
When I started preparing for this voyage, on the one hand I took the big
watermaker that was on the boat off the boat, because I am not yet
convinced of their usefulness on the long distance voyage. Then, I had a
simple mechanical online water meter installed at the outlet of the
water pump. This way, I know permanently, to the tenth of a gallon, how
much water we are using.. Everyday at noon, I tell the crew what is the
average consumption since the last time we filled up, how much water we
have on board and how many days this represents. Just providing that
information help everyone to adjust their usage of water in relation to
those numbers.
Water on a boat has different usages. First and foremost, to drink.
Everyone has different needs, but roughly around 2 quarts per day
average. Anyway, there can be no restriction of any kind on allowing
people to drink water as much as they feel like.
Then water is used for cooking. There, a number of things can be done to
optimize the use of fresh water. For pasta and rice and many items which
have to be cooked in water, I use half sea water and half fresh water.
The mixture would have a salt content of 17 grams per litre. The norm
being 15, you just have to put a little more fresh water than sea water.
Then some items can be cooked in sea water only, like boiled eggs or
potatoes. For items which are steamed, you can use sea water only. For
wahing the dishes, washing laundry and washing oneself (especially
showering), same principle : use sea water first and then fresh water
for the last rinse. This way, you can take a shower for less than 1 1/2
gallons. And never miss an opportunity is the water comes from the sky.
For laundry, it takes a little more water and we try and avoid washing
laundry at sea.
Then the good news is that on a boat, we use sea water to flush the
toilets, unlike in a regular house.
On Papy Jovial, the average consumption since we left Darwin almost a
month ago stands at 3.544 gallons per day for the two of us. We left
with 220 gallons between the storage tanks, one jerrican of 6 gallons
and a portable shower. This represents 62 days of consumption and shows
that we certainly would not need to make water even on the longest of
passages. However, we would have to load the boat with those 220 gallons
i.e. 1,800 pounds of water. Everytime you want to move weight, you have
to provide energy. Everyone knows that the heavier the boat, the slower
she will be or the more power she will require. Same as I hate to load
heavy and cumbersome books on board and would rather have ebooks and an
ebook reader, same for water, I would like to reduce the total weight
that the boat has to carry.
This is where the watermaker comes into play. Ideally, if there were 100
% reliable, one could leave port with only 4 or 5 gallons and then make
water as needed. This is what the ocean racers like in the Vendee Globe
challenge, for whom weight is the ultimate ennemy, do. But they have
assistance ready to come whenever they are if they were in a critical
situation.
The average cruiser knows that he can only rely on himself and therefore
is not ready to take that chance. As a result, not only he has a big
watermaker, heavy and requiring a lot of energy (electricity mostly),
but he also leaves port with full tanks !
I keep thinking of that dilemna, and I think that in the future I will
go for a compromise. Reduce the size of the water tank to a number that
would provide strict minimum for the duration of the longest passage,
and then have a water maker for the extras, like a fresh water shower. I
still have to find a water maker that would be reliable, light in weight
and producing no more than 40 or 50 gallons per day.
Hopefully, I will have found it before I start my next big trip.

Nothing to report

2010-07-24T08:04:00.000-04:00

For the last three days, nothing has changed significantly in the
weather conditions. Overcast skies with morning showers, wind from the
SE at 15 to 25, long swell from the SE or SSE at 6 to 8 knots, to
guarantee a constant rolling, just to keep our legs in shape.
While not taking undue risks to damage anything, we try and maximize
speed to make it to Port Mathurin on the island of Rodrigues before
17:30 local time, which is sunset time. According to Noon site, it is
not recommended to enter Port Mathurin at night and we will try to get
there before dark.
It is now too late to get the part for the Windvane sent to Rodrigues,
but it's only two days sailing between Port Mathurin and Mauritius, and
since the part has to transit in Mauritius anyway, we will do the repair
there.
Meanwhile, we have started cooking with a can opener as fresh stuff has
run out. We still have plenty of spaghettis, rice and fish caught before
the indian ocean which has not yielded anything yet.

Speedy Gonzalez

2010-07-22T03:35:00.000-04:00

With the electric auto-pilot replacing the defective windvane, the
electric consumption on the boat has almost doubled to nearly 230
amp/hour per day, and with cloudy skies, we are having to run the
electric generator 2 and 1/2 hour per day. So I am hoping to get to
Rodriguez as quickly as we can so that we can have a replacement part
for the one that failed shipped to us. And I find myself watching the
speed to try and guess when we might arrive.
Well, talking speed on a boat (or an aircraft) can be sometime confusing.
First, there is the speed through the water. This one, everybody
understand, but not everybody knows that there is a speed limit (not
strictly enforced) for what is called displacement boats, i.e. boats
that don't plane with a hull going constantly through the water. In that
case, the maximum speed is decided by the length of the waterline, and
no matter how much sail you put on, you will not exceed it. Sometimes,
when you are surfing a big wave, you think you can, and indeed Papy
Jovial which has a hull speed of 7.73 knots once recorded 11.4 knots.
But then, after you have rushed down the wave, you have to climb up and
the average drops down to that famous hull speed. Anyway, with a speed
limit of 7.73 knots, we are quite happy when we can average more than 7
knots for the day, and this is what we did today with an average speed
through the water of 7.32 knots. Our average through the water since we
left the Cocos stands at 6.55 knots, which is wonderful.
But that speed through the water maybe very different from the speed you
achieve over the ground. This is because there are currents acting like
a conveyor belt, and it could work against you or for you. If you walked
on a moving walkway in an airport at 2.5 mph and the walkway is moving
at 1.5 mph, then the person walking next to you but outside of the
walkway will have to achieve 4.0 mph to stay with you. Since we left the
Cocos, we have actually covered over the ground 62 more nautical miles
than through the water. That is very pleasing. The bad news is that it
is over, and today Neptune, the god of the sea, only gave us 1 extra mile.
So now that you know your speed over the ground, you think that this is
it and you will be able to work out your time of arrival by dividing the
distance to your destination by your speed over the ground. Niet !
Here comes the VMG (Velocity made good), which takes into account the
fact that you are not going over the ground to your destination in a
straight line. Even if the wind allows you to take a direct course, you
will not go straight. The waves, the way the autopilot works, will make
you sail a sinusoidal course longer than the direct one. Today, in the
last 25 hours, we covered 184 nautical miles over the ground but we only
got 179 miles closer to our destination. And sometimes, you cannot set a
direct course, for example if the wind is directly in your face. You
then have to zig-zag (go tacking say the sailors) to receive the wind
alternatively on your starboard or port side with an angle big enough
that you sails can make you move forward. Let's say that the best you
can do is go 60 degrees from the wind (a convenient number since the
cosinus is 0.5), then when you go 6 miles over the ground, you only gain
3 miles towards your destination. The sailors used to say, when you go
tacking, it's twice the distance and three times the work, since you
have to handle the sails everytime you tack.
I apologize to the many sailors reading this blog for the simplification
and a language looking like intended for people who don't know much
about sailing. Well, quite a few of people keeping in touch with me
through the blog are not sailors and they might learn something they did
not know.
With all that, I have estimated, based on today's figures, that we will
arrive in Rodriguez on July 27 at 19:25 local time (GMT+4)

Talking trash

2010-07-21T02:50:00.000-04:00

Now in decent weather for a few days, it is time to think of something
else than leaks and mechanical failures. We have been a week at sea and
getting near the time when the trash can in the galley will be full.
When I started taking care of Papy Jovial, I had logged approx 135,000
nautical miles on sailboat, including 5 atlantic ocean crossings and I
had had time to realize that on long passages, the most difficult issues
to tackle are not weather or navigation skills, but managing trash and
water consumption.
Basically, the trash falls into 4 main categories, from a sailboat point
of view. First, food items, second bio degradable items such as carton,
paper, etc, third glass and metal which are not collapsible, and then
all others which are mostly plastic material.
While in port, you deal with the trash exactly the same way you will do
at home and dispose of it in the refuse bins provided by the marina, and
sometime at anchorages.
As soon as you get out of port and confined waters, you can safely throw
food items over the side. Marine life may thank you for that. In the
same time, you begin to sort out the rest of the trash into
biodegradable into one trash bag, glass and metal into a box and plastic
in the regular trash can.
Once you are out of the continental shelf, then it is time to drop over
the side biodegradable items and also glass and metal. However, make
sure you break of fill up with sea water the glass containers to make
sure they sink. For metal cans, we punch holes in them, also to make
sure they sink. At that time, you are in the ocean over thousands of
feet of water and I don't believe throwing glass and metal to the bottom
of the sea is harmful to the environment.
Plastic however have to remain on board. Whenever you drop a plastic
item in the trash bin of the galley, make sure to rinse it and clean it
with sea water so that there is nothing left on it that could ferment
and rot.
Once the trash can is full, I then vacuum pack it using a FoodSaver
machine. It comes with rolls of very strong plastic material 11 inch
wide. I cut bags approximately 2 feet long, seal one end, fill it up
with the plastic items compressed by hand, vacuum pack it and double
seal it. You can then store it safely wherever you want, even in your
clothes, as it won't stain them and won't have a bad smell. We fill up
approximately one of those bags in one week and we store them in the bilge.
I am very happy with that procedure. I looked at other alternatives such
as trash compactor, but I think that this is the most effective, the
least expensive and the safest way of doing it.
So, when we arrive in Rodriguez, all we will have will be 2 tiny little
plastic parcels, our trash for 2 weeks. We were able to drop 2 bags in
the Cocos.

The weld that has not held

2010-07-20T08:07:00.000-04:00

Apprently, I am used to having disasters occur at midnight. This time,
as we had just changed watch, the boat start to luff and did not respond
at all to the windvane. I called Olivier back to check out while I
steered by hand, and Olivier found the water paddle of the windvane
floating behind the boat, towed by the safety line. Difficult to explain
for those who don't know the Monitor windvane. There is a vertical tube
holding the water blade and which rotates to trigger the lateral
movement that in turns handle the wheel. That tube has a hinge, half way
up so that the blade can be lifted out of the water when not in use. It
is the upper part of that hinge which is normally welded to the tube
that came off. This is stainless steel and we should be able to have it
welded back in Rodriguez, not before of course.
Sooooo, in the meantime, we have to use our brand new electric autopilot
and its faulty power supply. We put it on, and soon enough, it tripped
the breaker. So at the end of my watch during which I hand steered the
boat, Olivier put back in place the power supply picked up from the SSB
circuit, and it now works fine.
The weather conditions are a lot better now, with winds at 20 knots from
SE to ESE, and with the wind like that way abaft of our beam, we have a
lot less water coming on deck and finding its way inside the boat. Seven
more days of that nice weather and we should be able to start doing
repairs in Rodriguez. Actually, we might spend a little more time than
planned there as we are likely to be anchored in Mauritius and therefore
have less facilities to do the repairs. We need running water to check
out the leaks and we have to be alongside.
Today I again had a good radio communication with the South Africa
Maritime Network. Life is not all that bad.
We are now 1145 miles fromn Rodriguez, very close to the halfway mark.
We have lost the very nice current that one day gave us an extra 20
miles and made me doubt our loch. All we got today was a mere 6 miles.
Better than nothing anyway.

In touch

2010-07-19T07:53:00.000-04:00

Since yesterday, I am now able to communicate with the weather net in
South Africa. We are still some 3300 miles away and the communication is
not all that good, but I was able to send my position, ETA and local
weather conditions and Graham at the other end acknowledged my message.
I suppose that it is going to get better everyday and that is excellent
news to me as I will need their help once I leave Reunion for Durban.
Today, the weather has improved, actually it started to improve
yesterday afternoon and as soon as the wind dropped below 35 knots we
increased the genoa to accelerate and try and get away from that weather
system as quickly as we can.
In the meantime, the war against the leaks continue. We wrapped the mast
in a long plastic sock, but it is very difficult to get it to adhere to
the ceiling. However, we have reduced dramatically the amount of water
coming from there.
For the forward hatch, nothing we can do while at sea. It does not look
like any water coming through the crack in the lens, nor through the
gasket, but rather seeping in between the frame and the deck. If that is
the case, then it should be fairly easy to properly rebed it, as I have
done successfully for the other three hatches.
Then we have leaks through the opening portholes. There are six of them
in the main cabin and at least three of them leak, one very badly, the
one behind the chart table, opposite the engine compartment. We had
tried to change the gasket, eliminate all salt, put vaseline on the
gasket, etc.... but there is a small lump of what appears to be a
compound like Araldite and we could not take it off. Once in Rodriguez,
we will try and block it from the outside and then replace the whole
unit in South Africa.
Actually, I think I will replace all the portholes in the main cabin
with fixed ones. I never open them anyway and I would feel more at ease
with fixed ones.
And then, there are the leaks coming through the deck at various
locations. With the liner covering the whole ceiling inside the boat, it
is almost impossible to examine where exactly the water is seeping
through. Right now, I suspect the two cleats amidship as well as the
stanchion bases on both gates, port and starboard. Trying to feel the
deck from down below, I can find any screw or bolt going through the
deck and I do not know how those cleats were installed. I will probably
wait for Capetown when I haul out in a boatyard.
The weather fortunately has improved enough so that there is now very
little sea getting on deck, only the occasional big wave, and the rest
of the trip might prove to be dryer.

The good, the bad and the ugly

2010-07-18T05:18:00.000-04:00

I should never have asked for more wind ! The gods of the sea heard me
and they have sent plenty of it.
When we left Cocos, it was all good and beautiful. Strong following
winds, not too much sea, and as a result we covered more than 170 miles
in the first day. We could almost see ourselves get to Rodriguez in less
than 12 days.
Then came the second day, with much less wind, lots of showers, confused
seas. It was almost all bad and the daily mileage dropped to 160, thanks
to 17 miles of favorable current. The actual wind was down to 15 knots
and when we are going downwind, Papy Jovial needs at least 20 knots to
get going at a good speed.
Last night, about midnight, it came. First of all, heavy shower, long
and steady, with the wind increasing gradually to 35 knots. And this has
been the story all day. Lots of showers, wind at 37/38 knots with gusts
at 45, sometimes 50, even once 52. As a result, we are down to a very
small jib and no main, and the mileage, although not catastrophic, was
down to 156.
Hopefully, we have gone through the peak of that system and we should be
able to resume normal course and speed by tomorrow.
This is pleasure boating at its best. We continue to have leaks at the
passage of the mast through the deck and at the forward hatch which
makes life a little unpleasant, at best. There is not much we can do in
those conditions, but we will try and get to the bottom of it once in
Rodriguez.
Cooking also becomes a little more challenging, but we are not giving
up, and we maintain our normal routine of continental breakfast, lunch
with either a salad or a sandwich, and a cooked dinner.
We have now covered almost a quarter of the way to Rodriguez and I am
sure that the remainder will be a lot more pleasant sailing.

Around the bad guys

2010-07-16T07:35:00.000-04:00

The weather situation got a little complicated and we were about to
plunge head into an area with 35 and plus knots of wind. And we are
getting a little tired of being in a washer and getting all around stuff
wet. The bad area seems to be to the south of us, right into what would
have been our path, so we eased the sheet and aim for a westerly course
with a little bit of north in it. By Monday, the situation should look a
lot better and we will be able to go for Rodriguez on a direct course.
This being said, this first day sailing after the stop in Cocos was
quite good. We covered 195 miles in the first 27 hours, which is
equivalent to 171 miles for one day. We are quite happy about that.
These were hard earned miles, but what is taken is taken. Another 1795
miles to go for Rodriguez

On the move again

2010-07-15T07:34:00.000-04:00

Well ! I am quite happy to have the Cocos behind me. Not a stop that I
would recommend. During the four days we were there, we almost never saw
the sun, but the wind never gave up. Never less than 20 knots and mostly
25 to 30. Add to this that for reasons probably due to local currents,
the waters of the lagoon are very choppy and the dinghy ride from the
anchorage at Direction island to home island is very wet and unpleasant.
Tuesday we went to Home island, but at the wrong time, i.e. lunch hour,
and we found a ghost town with the few shops that there are closed. We
were told that there was a restaurant open every day, but once checked,
we found out that it only opens on Wednesday. So we wandered throughout
this little settlement of around 5009 malays, Before returning to
Direction, we found the supermarket and purchased a few items.
On Wednesday, we did it again, but this time, we left earlier so that we
could catch the ferry to West island at 10:45. There we found much of
the same, plus an international airport with 2 flights per week. West
island is home to the australian expatriates, 250 of them we were told.
There are two small resorts, one by Castaway, the other one local, but
there did not seem to be many tourists. We also found a coffee shop
where at least we could have a bite before doing the shopping at the
supermarket, only slightly bigger than the one in Home island, and then
returning with the 3:00 p.m. ferry to Home island. And then back to the
boat with the dinghy.
Wednesday night, we entertained Keith on Sadiqi, a yachtman from Perth
on his way to Indonesia. His boat is the only other boat in the lagoon.
We left this morning around 8:45 and since then, it is back in the
washer, Winds of 25 to 30, continuous showers and water over the deck
almost continuous. Unfortunately, a good deal of that water is finding
its way inside the boat, partly through the passage of the mast through
the deck, partly through the forward hatch. All in all, not very
pleasant conditions, but it can only get better. So we hope !
We are going with three reefs and three turns in the genoa, but the wind
is SSE and we are almost sailing with the wind on the beam which makes
for a very wet cockpit.
For the first time tonight, I am beginning to hear voices on the south
africa maritime mobile network and this is encouraging news.,

Trade Winds

2010-07-12T06:08:00.000-04:00

Securely anchored in the lagoon of Direction Island, there is not much
we can do at first but enjoy the lack of rolling and the full night
sleep. Having arrived on a Sunday, we have had to wait until Monday to
clear with the authorities. During that time, we are not allowed to go
ashore or even to visit other boats (there are three of them anchored
here). However, even if we wanted to, the trade winds kept blowing
relentlessly at 25/35 knots, making it extremely uncomfortable to go to
Home Island, 2 miles away but upwind. With those winds, the waters of
the lagoon are very choppy and we might as well go to town in our
bathing suits.
This monday, police showed up around 9 in the morning and we were able
to clear and get all the informations that we needed to organize our
stay. The wind is still blowing strong, but the forecast call for a drop
in strength tuesday and wednesday, which suits us just fine.
Today afternoon, we went ashore on Direction island, had a long walk up
and down this very tiny island and then enjoy a swim in waters which are
crystal clear and transparent for the first time since I arrived in
Australia.
Tomorrow, we will go to Home island for shopping, enquire about what is
available in West island, and possibly find a restaurant to have a meal
ashore. Home island is settled by about 500 malays who live here
permanently. They are all muslims, so no alcohol on the island which
suits me just fin.
West island is home to some 250 aussies expatriate, and it is where the
airport and the various resorts are located. We will try and do that on
wesdnesday.
If all goes well, we will set sail on thursday, bound for Port Mathurin,
capital of the island of Rodriguez. My weatherman tells me that thursday
thru saturday should be fine but to expect up to 32 knots of wind on
sunday. As long as we are sailing downwind, we can easily take up to 35
knots. This should be a fast passage. I expect 13 days or less.

Durban or not Durban !

2010-07-10T02:12:00.000-04:00

For the last few days, I have been involved in a lively discussion on
trying to define the best strategy to sail from the island of La Reunion
to Capetown. Involved in those exchanges were the weathermen from South
Africa who run the South Africa Maritime Net, a prominent brother from
the South Africa brotherhood of the Coast, and my weather router based
in Perth, Australia.
At one extreme of the solutions offered, would be to wait for October
anyway, then sail to Durban and then coast hop from harbour to harbour
(East London, Port Elizabeth, Mosselbay, Cape Agulhas anchorage and
Capetown) taking advantage of the available weather windows as they come
along.
At the other extreme, suggested by a Kiwi friend, sail whenever you get
there and sail around South Africa staying 100 miles from shore until
you have passed Cape Agulhas and then head for Capetown.
For those who don't know it, this area has a very complex weather
situation. It is one of the two most potentially dangerous sailing areas
in the world (with the Cape Horn area), and every year there are
sailboats dismasting, capsizing and sometimes sinking. This is the area
where one can encounter a "freak wave" more than 80 feet high, this is
also the area where one can sail across one of those "busters", coastal
lows that can generate up to 70 knots of wind.
When you get close to shore on the east side, you will have to cross the
notorious "agulhas" current that could run up to 6 knots southwest and
make you overshoot your destination.
And then, there is a 255 miles long stretch of coast between Durban and
East London, with no shelter at all whatsoever.
So, since we left Darwin, I have been busy studying the pilot charts,
the South African Sailing Directions, various books and ebooks that I
have on this subject, and seeking advice from knowledgeable people back
in Australia and of course in South Africa.
At first, I had selected to make a run directly for East London,
believing that I could ride out the storms out there and avoid the area
between Durban and East London.
Fortunately, my brother in South Africa and the operators of the weather
radio net talked me out of that and convinced me to select the route
going via Durban, aiming at first for a position north of it so as not
to overshoot it.
So, come late August early September, I will set sail for the southern
tip of Madagascar (about 4 to 5 days) and then aim for the north of
Durban, keeping my ears very close to the ground to make sure that
should there be a southwesterly on the way, I will ride it outside far
enough from shore so that it is only a strong southwesterly, and then
make a run to Durban.
I know that those five to seven days sailing into Durban are likely to
be the most taxing days mentally of the whole voyage.

Right now, we are sailing in between showers in a following wind of 20
to 28 knots and I had to drop the main sail and roll up the genoa two
turns to avoid arriving in the Cocos before sunrise.

Mighty Putty (as seen on TV) to the rescue

2010-07-08T02:02:00.000-04:00

Yesterday around 4, we had very light winds, doing barely 4 knots and
decided to run the engine to recharge the batteries and make some way in
the same time.
Soon after the engine was started, there was a strong smell of exhaust
gaz everywhere inside the boat. We checked it out and found a hole 1 and
1/2 inch in diameter in the exhaust hose, immediately after the engine.
Olivier, again him, used the mighty putty that I had purchased after
seeing the ad on TV, made a nice plaster, covered it up with an unfolded
can of beer, secured in place with two hose clamps, and after restarting
the engine, concluded that the repairs was good.
We don't need the engine anyway until we get to the Cocos and we
probably won't need it between the Cocos and Port Mathurin, but at
least, we know we can use it.
Other than that, not much to report. We had another 145 miles day
although we felt almost becalmed most of the afternoon yesterday. The
weather is nice, with the temp at 83. Our water consumption has been
creeping up everyday but is still low at 3.295 gallons per day for the
two of us.
I no longer calculate the time left to go in days but in hours. Less
than 72 hours to go for about 420 miles.