Back in Australia

Here we are back in Australia and it’s HOT. A heat wave from the minute we arrived back – 28C each day. I had only packed a few light weight clothes for when we get stuck in Miami on the way back so have had to pick up a few T shirts, annoyingly, as I have so many on the boat! We’re staying at the apartment in Kangaroo Point in the city. It’s odd being up here looking down to where we had the boat when we lived on it getting ready for the trip. My son Rupert is with us for a bit just before he heads off to live in Sydney. We’re getting lots of our planned bits and pieces done in amongst catching up with people. The worst is yet to come when we look in our storage shed later today!

Grenada to Australia

St David’s Bay to Australia

We motor sailed to the southern end of Grenada (St David’s Bay) and took up a buoy in order to prepare the boat for the haul out. We had a great last week in Carriacou meeting lots of other cruisers and playing Mexican Train dominoes, and I even joined in a noodle water aerobics exercise class that one of the other boats organised. Quite surprisingly challenging! Spenta bit of a lost afternoon after lunch with Marie and the guys from Platina waiting for the rain to stop in La Playa restaurant. We’ve been trying to get more exercise now that we’re not sailing so much – walking and kayaking. We saw the ruins of a 17th century hospital right next door up a hill to where a local guy was building a terrific house out of old timber and local stone with sea viewing platforms and an ingenious water catchment system. He invited us to visit next time we are there as his wife spent many years in Australia.

We had an email from the ARC people asking us if we’d like to help with the finish of a huge joint ARC (300 boats) arriving from Europe at the end of November early December. They need people to man the finish line and welcome the boats on 24 hour rosters. So we’ll travel back down from Martinique for that – it should be fun.

A few last minute little problems to deal with – a fish n our generator filter!

We are now in St David’s Bay. The boat is out of the water and we have everything packed away ready to leave tomorrow. Lots of last minute drinks with people we have met along the way and will catch up with upon our return. Looking forward to our time back home and seeing lots of people and family….

Heading south - 18th June to 2 July

We’re heading south now for Grenada ready to get hauled mid July.  It is now very much off season here and the islands are quiet with mostly only places the locals use open. We stayed at Clifton Beach for 5 days. There is an island in the bay called Happy Island made entirely out of conch shells. It seems that there was a guy who had a café at the next beach round and had two problems: one was not enough customers and the other was where to get rid of his empty conch shells from the lambi meals (the snail inside the shell). He began putting them on a bit of sand that came out at low tide at Clifton and eventually had enough ground to build a café, and with the addition of some concrete, a whole construction with it’s own water collection and wind and solar generation. We first went there for a drink but Misha (the original guy’s nephew) did not have change for a $EC100 so we had to return the next day to use up the balance! Lots of rum punches and G and Ts. We had asked to come for dinner so Misha made us a really nice mahi mahi meal with local extras. A really cute and interesting place. In the season it really gets going but was lovely and quiet, with us the only people there the first day. The next day a couple of time share boats called in. We imagined trying to do something like that in Australia!!!!!!

We had a great 3 hours sail to Cariacou Island and are now in Tyrell Bay where we found Gary and Marie from Mai Tai. We went to drinks and dinner at Lambi Queen with two other people from yachts but got driven back to our boats when they started up some steel drums. The other boats both English gave us a hard time about the rugby but we said “Well at least were still speaking to Europe!”

The weather has become rainy and unreliable – typical for this time of year. We caught a gap in the rain to go and explore some mangroves where boats can go in an emergency as a hurricane hole but otherwise is a protected area. Would make a top marina!

We hosted drinks on board for Mai Tai, Apollo and Manx Goose (from the Lambi Queen night). It was a big night but lots of fun. We’re all heading south in the next few days. Dave and Anna from Apollo are being hauled the same day as us.

Last night was Canada's national day and there were drinks and hot dogs on shore. The Canadians weren't much in evidence the next day. Carriacou Island has a Fisherman's birthday day where the fishing history of the Island is recognised by free drinks and food all day and night. We went to the one around at Paradise Beach then found out that there was one at Tyrell Bay too.  The internet on the boat has been pretty patchy so we've been going ashore to get news of the Australian elections.  Sounds like a shambles!

St Lucia to Union Island 8 to 18 June

June 8 to 18

 St Lucia to Union Is

We left Rodney Bay with  our new generator all serviced and happy. Stayed overnight at the Pitons art thesouthern end of St Lucia and took off early next day to Bequia where we checked in to St Vincent. Had a great fast sail there and anchored at Princess Margaret Beach just off the town. Stayed there for 5 days doing odd jobs and snorkelling etc etc. met an Australian couple from Perth who have been cruising around here for 6 years! We had drinks with them on their Lagoon, Mai Tai, then dinner on board CEB another night. They are heading south for the hurricane season too.

Left Bequia for Tobago Cays. (still in St Vincent) A beautiful spot that is a marine park. Quite a few boats there but nothing like I imagine it would be in the season! We snorkelled on 3 little islands and saw loads of fish and turtles – all very unafraid of people and grown to large sizes. A kite boarder went flying by and yelled hallo – it turned out to be Luke from Makena (ARC boat). They are at Clifton on Union Island where we go next. Will be good the catch up.

Caught up with Luc, Sarah and Kai and had lunch on board Makena. They have one of Sarah's brothers and wife with them. Kai has grown up quite a bit since we last saw them in April. really great to find out other ARC boat news.

Cruising Martinique

We continued around the coast in the general direction of Fort de France (the capitol). Past Diamond Rock, that during the French and English scrapping here was actually commissioned as a ship by the British who were getting a bit lean on ships. In a, to us, seemingly impossible task they hauled cannons and provisions to the top and annoyed the French right on the door step of Martinique. (also the birthplace of Empress Josephine) Napoleon was incensed and sent Villaneuve to capture it for France. He achieved the impossible and went back to France expecting to be considered a hero but Napoleon held him in disgrace for only carrying out that one feat and still leaving Britain in control of the seas in general so he suicidally offered to take on Nelson at Trafalgar rather than die in disgrace. Ironically he survived and Nelson didn’t. C’est la guerre!

Anse d’Arlet is a lovely little town just a few hours around from Marin to the north. We pulled up to a government buoy and snorkelled right off the back of the boat! Tons of fish, the most we have seen so far and great clear water with white sand.  We really like the French part of the world here – beautifully maintained government build jetties with stainless steel ladders and tying up rings. Very different from some of the broken down, filthy old splintery things we have experienced on some of the other islands. Apparently Martinique has a very healthy economy geared to cruising and general tourism. There are none of the tout boats that come out and pester you as in St Lucia, St Vincent and Grenada. Whilst these add a bit of local colour and you’ve got to appreciate the fact that they are actually trying to make a living, it can get annoying and tiring.

We sailed and stopped all the way around.  . Anse Defour – where we and a few other yachts got moved on at dusk by fishermen who wanted to put nets out in the bay! Anse Noire – black sand beach and lots of coral, fish, caves and grottoes to explore and a lovely anchorage. It was mother’s Day on day we were there and got very busy with all the Mum’s out on the boat for the day. We met a lady from Perth with her Martinique partner. They met on a cruise in Singapore! We will catch up with them in Fort de France where they live on their boat in a marina. Anse Mitan and Anse D’Ane are nearer to the city and more built up but still very attractive with little hidden, not too touristy creole villages and lagoons.

We anchored off Fort de France. It (capital of Martinique) is actually still a commissioned fort. The city is quite large with a very nice mall area with lots of specialty food and bits and pieces stalls. Pete made friends with an American, John (while we were having lunch at Hasta la Pizza) from a visiting cruise ship and we had a few drinks with him on board before dropping him back to his big boat. The library here was designed by Gustav Eiffel (as of Eiffel Tower) and built in France and shipped out. We had a look through – sadly it is in bad repair on the outside but still is a functioning library inside. We’re now back in Rodney Bay, St Lucia for the generators first service.  The trip is only about 4 slow hours but took longer as we managed to pick a thunderstorm to do it in!

Martinique

We sailed for 4 hours from Rodney Bay and arrived in France!! Sainte Anne (south Martinique) is a pretty little town – quite French with patisseries etc. The wine is French and quite cheap, around Euro 5 or 6 for a reasonable bottle. Immigration and customs was done in a café called Boubou on a computer that then printed out our arrival papers. Very easy. Most of the Caribbean islands now are a party to an online system where you have saved forms in your computer with the ship/crew details and you log your movements on there for arrivals and departures. At the moment Martinique is not part of it.

We motored just further into the bay to Marin. There is a huge marina here – 750 boats and a massive anchorage. On the way in we passed about 20 catamarans (flagged from all over the world) all heading out covered in theme decorations, sparkly balloons and semi naked people, one boat had about a dozen blow up dolls on the bows! Then one of the last boats came out (no pun intended) with the gay rainbow flag flying! We spent one day indoors with the first wet day that we can remember, tidying up paperwork and playing backgammon. The next day we spent going around 4 very good chandleries getting bits and pieces for the boat and spares. One of them was at the end of a mangrovey little dinghy passage that seemed to be going nowhere and turned into a big shopping area. Lucky we read about it in our book as you’d never know it was there. We’ve been running the generator each day to get it read for it’s first 50 hour service next week. All good so far!

One year!

It is 12 months exactly since we left Brisbane! What a lot has happened. We spent this evening having a bottle of champs on the front deck then joined a French party on the boat in front of us. They had come over from Martinique with a few other boats full of kids taking part in a Laser competition. We are going to watch the races tomorrow.

Jazz Festival

Jazz Festival

We got driven away from Castries by a “Pirate Ship” that moored up in the harbour and put on a disco from 10.30 pm till after dawn!! Playing that awful doof doof music with a base that we could feel all the way through the keels. So we went to Pigeon Island where we waited till Sunday for the Jazz Festival final night that we had booked.

Pigeon Island is a National Trust property as it has remnants of the British fort and garrison buildings here. Back in the day it was a favourite spot for the Brits as you can actually see Martinique from here and they could keep an eye on the French comings and goings. We’re going to explore that later when the Festival has finished.

The concert was great. The crowd very well dressed and behaved. Standing room only. The women mainly favour the very tight spayed on looking dresses with lots of cleavage and splits. They are strapping lasses but look terrific – everyone very affectionate and fun and music loving – at least the ones at the concert were. We went early and got a good spot to put our folding chairs. Very hot so we had lots of water and umbrellas. A couple of enormous ladies came and laid out a rug in front of us and I thought “Oh no, if they stand up we’ll never see a thing!” but they left all their hand bags there and we didn’t see them again… George Benson was great. Air Supply were next and we had taken our spare Australian flag and held it up and got a nod and thumbs up and kisses blown from the guys - the first Australians we have seen for 8 months! May possibly be getting on a bit or had a few (or both) as there were one or two missed choruses which left a rather confused guitarist a couple of times. Didn't detract from the show though.... Kool and the Gang we OK – very loud - and we decamped to a restaurant for dinner and a drink during most of Marc Anthony (who had a massive following here from Trinidad and Tobago). The bay was chock full of boats as many came for the weekend on Saturday from Martinique and Dominica for a big local French band. Our dingy managed to get pushed under the dock but we took turns to keep an eye on it. Lucky we took it rather than a water taxi as there were big queues after the concert. We watched the fireworks from the boat – all in all a super day. Quite different from what we normally do. Quite took me back to the Auckland Western Springs Stadium days going to see the Stones, Led Zep, Joe Cocker, Elton John etc.

More St Lucian west coast

Anse Chastenet

We arrived here straight from Capella Marina and stayed for 3 nights. We had been told that the snorkelling was outstanding as the black sand made the fish jump out visually. We were a bit underwhelmed though. Been completely spoiled by the Whitsundays, Barrier Reef, Cocos keelingand Lombok I think! Lots of soft coral and some fish – easy to get to though just off the back of the boat. There is a nice resort here but no village or private housing. We were on an Marine Park buoy but the guy only comes round to get the fee on weekdays so we had 2 night no charge – good thing to remember!

Motored against the wind and tide to Laborie, an authentic little non touristy fishing village. Lots of little hole in the wall eating and drinking places that we didn’t really want to go into. Can’t get enough of the local tomatoes – not the supermarket ones but the street market ones. So juicy and real tasting, they are even real funny shapes! The other thing we have discovered is banana ketchup – MM mmm – sounds weird but is delicious. We will try to bring some little bottles home for everyone if it doesn’t get to weigh too much. We are finding that once we get a bit off the beaten track, that unless they follow the cricket (which most do naturally – the Windies) no one really has any idea of where or what Australia is. Some of these little places don’t have TV or satellite. So far in the whole trip we have seen one other Australian flagged boat and it was full of Poms! I suppose we are rather a long way away!

Thursday 5 May

Anchored right in town in Castries. Very good market here – rated by National Geographic as one of the best in the world. I can see why – apart from being very extensive food and merchandise it is CLEAN AND SAFE AND FRIENDLY! But still very local and colourful. Not always a combination that we have experienced. We heard today that the generator is arriving on the 10th and will be installed shortly after that.  Then we will move on to some of the other islands.

West coast of St Lucia

22 April

We left Rodney Bay around lunchtime after saying goodbye to the last ARC boats Exody and Starblazer and sailed to Anse La Raye a little bay (Anse) just a little to the south.( We’re finally doing what we set out to do nearly 12 months ago – to cruise the Caribbean! ) There was supposed to be Fish Friday where all the local fishermen and vendors set up tables in the main waterfront street and cook their fresh catch. We went ashore and because it is still Lent it wasn’t on till next week. We’ll come back as Pete wants to try fling fish stuffed with potato. We had a couple of meat skewers instead and had an early night. Just as well as it turned out!

Next day we cooked a quiche to take on a 2 mile walk to the River Rock Falls for a picnic. A faded sign in the Village promised a bar, café, viewing deck and gardens. The directional sign post on the road was swinging around on it’s pole and it was hard to tell where is was pointing so we asked a local walking by who pointed us up the hilly street. It seemed OK to go up a hill to see a waterfall but 2 miles later we asked someone else and they said there was definitely no waterfall in this direction! So 2 miles back we took the other road – I don’t know why it took me so long to think of looking at maps in my phone! Anyway we walked 2 miles more and found a rather uninspiring concrete assisted waterfall with a derelict shelter the remains of a bar and not much else. We had our picnic and a very refreshing swim then trudged back rather tired and a bit dispirited. Lesson – be a bit suspicious of faded signs….My relatively new Reebok walking shoes delaminated both soles just to make things harder. Luckily at the exact moment one fell off altogether Pete saw a bit of wire on the ground and wired me up for the next mile back to the boat. Having not walked much being on the boat for so long the 8 miles (12k) rather took it out of us!

24th April

Upped anchor and moved around the corner to Anse Cochon where we were last weekend. Went for a long staircase walk to a happy hour with a view. Just what the legs needed. From here we sailed the next day to Soufriere, a fishing village a bit further south. Quite cute but with an intermittent awful smell that we took for sewerage but later found out is sulphur from the crater. You can have mud baths and do hot spring bathing. Somehow we didn’t make the connection with the smell. I should have, at least, having been around Rotorua often enough!

26 to 28 April

Now at Sugar Beach, a lovely spot between the two Pitons that are all that is left of a massive eruption. Very impressive landscape but one which sent wind bullets down on to the bay with wind speeds up to 32k! We only stayed one rather wild night on one of the Marine Park moorings. Sugar Beach Resort is very nice, full of honeymooners and expensive cocktails.

We decided to go back to Capella Marina in Marigot Bay for a few days as there is some big wind forecast. As we are generator-less at the moment it is a good opportunity to do laundry and top up with water – we need the generator to power the washing machine and water maker. Pete has someone who will dive to see if they can find his phone. Neither Apple or Nomad Travel will cover it unless we have the actual phone! as it is covered for theft, damage or lost luggage – not dropped irretrievably into the water. I would have thought that constituted damage? More on that later…..

Rodney Bay on...

All the ARC boats have progressively left now. The last activity was Bluebell’s birthday just before she left to fly out to England to stay with her grandparents whilst the rest of the family carries on to Panama. We went out on a day sail to Anse Cochon with Peta from the Rally organisation and her two boys and John and Joyce from Starblazer. We had a great day drinking fresh fruit daquiries, snorkelling and the boys on the kayaks.

The St Lucia Jazz Festival starts soon so there will be lots of café and restaurant based performances as well as some big days at Pidgeon Island. We discovered that George Benson, Air Supply, Kool and the Gang and Mac Anthony were all playing on the last night so we have booked to go. It coincides with when we have to be back in Rodney Bay for the new generator to be installed. It’s the 40th anniversary of Air Supply. I have to admit I didn’t know that they we still out there

Last World ARC function

We had a really great dinner and speeches at the St Lucia Royal Hotel on the night of the 9th. Everyone pulled up well after the welcome drinks! Victor who has been with us as the ARC representative at each port gave a very clever and well thought out speech and invented an award for each of the boats and a funny talk about each one. Andrew Bishop from WARC head office also spoke. We also all received a picture book of many photos taken along the way - very much appreciated by all.

Here are photos of all the people we have been sailing with for the past 8 months. Of course lots of different crew members (family and friends) have come and gone in that time. We're really sad it's over and hope to meet up and sail again with some in the Med when we eventually get there. Most of the boats are making their way home in the next few days. San Fransisco, Iceland, Sweden, Portugal, France, England, Germany and France so really their sailing is far from over! We are going to relax around here for a long while.

Pete has dropped his phone in the water and couldn’t find it so we are now in Rodney Bay trying to buy a replacement – surprisingly difficult as they mostly sell android here. I wonder if Apple realises that this is one area where they clearly don’t sell one a minute or whatever that statistic is.

Marigot Bay to Rodney Bay, St Lucia

April 8.

Been in Capella Marina in Marigot Bay now for few days. The port engine failed just out of the bay and we had an interesting time getting med moored between two other boats with one engine! It was the same dirty fuel problem we have had on and off since Salvador, so we got both tanks pumped out and the fuel cleaned and put back in. New filters all round at the same time. Tomorrow is the Parade of Sail day round to Rodney Bay and the official finish. We will have John and Joyce on board with us as they are already in Rodney Bay as their engine broke down and they had to get partly towed by Allegro and then limp in early, but they want to join the finish.

April 9.

The “Parade of Sail” up to Rodney Bay. All the Rally boats in a line with flags and sails up. It was in length order and we had Garlix behind us, it was funny watching them try to sail slowly! They are usually the fastest of us all and struggled to stay in line! Luc and Sarah from Makena sent up their drone camera (what toys don’t they have on that boat!) and got some great shots. We had a great welcome at the marina, boats all sounding horns and a steel drum band. Lots of rum punches to greet us all.

St Lucia!

Change of plans re Tobago Cays as the weather was overcast and not the best for snorkelling. Headed on to Bequia which is a lovely little island with a good anchorage at Admiralty Bay. The boats get met by one of any number of locals wanting to get you on their mooring. The little boats all have cute names like Blue Sky, Blessings, Daffodil, Why Worry, Phat Shagetc. They also come by selling bread, beer, lobsters and take away your laundry and rubbish – you do get your laundry back! Some of the moorings are a bit dodgy so Pete snorkelled on ours each day and it did move one night in high winds. It was two anchors that have since dug themselves in and are OK now. There are millions of tiny neon fish that get around in balls and attach themselves around you when you swim. Very pretty. Shore side it is a nice little town with beachfront stores, bars and cafes. We took at taxi tour of the island with a man who owns a model ship shop and he builds all the models himself, then shuts up and takes tours when anyone is interested. There are 4 other ARC boats here with us all planning on one last sail to get to St Lucia for the ARC finalities.

Grenada to St Lucia - stops along the way.

Grenada onwards

Nearly a full days sailing and some motoring got us to Carriacou Island. Tyrell Bay was full of boats but we found a spot for the first night only as we got moved on by the boat behind us as they needed to get their anchor up. We took a local bus around to Hillsborough Bay and had lunch at a cute little café hanging over the beach. Pete wanted to get a haircut and we were told that “Roger’s” at the markets was the place to go. It was a basically a large packing crate on concrete blocks but we went in a waited for a bit. After having watched a couple of cuts and no hot water or cleaning of the cutters, razors etc, Pete remembered a fact we were given on the bus tour that 10% of people in the Caribbean are HIV positive, we decided to leave!

Upon getting back to the boat we found it had dragged a little so we moved a couple of times over the next day trying to get some sand in amongst all the weed. Luckily lots of boats left so it was easier to get a good spot. We need to change anchors if the islands continue to have weedy bottoms.

Cleared out on Easter Sunday. Immigration was supposed to be there from 9am but turned up at nearly 10. The other boats must be used to this as I was the only one there at 9. The others turned up at 9.30! We sailed to Petite Martinique where we found everything was closed for Easter Sunday so we moved a few miles across the water to Petite St Vincent. A very exclusive resort is here but visitors can eat at the beach front bar/restaurant – we did.

March 31. Have spent a very nice few days in Clifton Beach on Union Island. Loads of neat little rum shops/stores/cafes etcAll very colourful and relaxed. Some fabulous smoothies made from fresh local fruit and vegetables in many stalls – you don’t HAVE to have rum in them! There are many small supermarkets with some strange things in them amongst all the regular stuff. (see the pic) We’re spending one more day here then off to Tobago Cays for snorkelling in the national marine park.

St David's Bay - Grenada

The last ARC night in Port Louis Marina, Manuela and Louis from Allegro gave all the slow boats a Turtle Club award. So it was us, them, Luna Quest and Wayward Wind. Funnily though it was the only time we won our multi hull division because Makena didn’t start as they were waiting for crew to arrive!! There are only the two catamarans in the fleet and there is no handicap system in the world that is going to allow us to compete with a 62’ boat - so we always come second!

 Mon 21 March: We are now around in St Davids Bay at Grenada Marina with the boat out of the water. A timely stop as there were issues with the rudders and props that needed more urgent attention than we had expected. The blue nylon line incident out of Recife had left lots of metled bleu nylon still around the prop (see pic) ! The other prop had fishing line still in it from back in the Indian Ocean. Got away with no real damage, luckily. The rudder squark that we have been intermittently putting up with turned out to be appallingly badly installed bearings done in Brisbane!

We are staying at a lovely small hotel in a nearby bay with a private beach and beach bar and restaurant called La Sagesse. It is run by an expat USA couple who arrange for us to travel to and from the marina each day and will take us shopping before we leave. The marina has a little beach bar and restaurant too, all with good wifi. It’s very civilised, but no too much so. Louis, Manuela and Rui from Allegro are here too.  We are planning our sailing to reach St Lucia via a few island stops.. As we could not accommodate Galen over the haul out period and we we’re sure of out sailing plans, he has joined Wayward Wind for the final ARC trip to St Lucia. He hopes to sail to Panama on Aretha after that before returning to South Africa.

24th March. Back in the water today, going well. Much quicker than we expected. Will sail tomorrow for Curriacao Island.

Grenada

We arrived in Grenada safe and sound with no sight or reports of pirates! This is a terrific marina. Clean, working, landscaped, organised, everyone friendly and pleased to see you, great internet, Call me shallow and unadventurous, but I’m definitely a first world sort of person! We have been over to the yacht club for a welcome function and had a half day tour of the island. Some reminders of a few recent cyclones but otherwise a pretty place and very colourful. Lots of history in the spice trade with the French, British and Portuguese fighting each other over the centuries. The chocolate here is the best in the world and there is a chocolate festival here in May. They supply Belgium, Switzerland, France etc. The South Americans beat them in quantity but not quality. Nutmeg is the main spice but loads of cinnamon, cloves etc. These businesses are suffering because the young people don’t want to farm and are leaving the islands for more “exciting” places and “better” jobs. (how many computer programmers does the world need?) The Chinese are investing and donating money here so they probably will take over in the future, economically at least. The locals build highset houses for a number of obvious reasons but mainly so they can open a rum shop underneath! There seems to be no regulation as to selling beer, rum or anything for that matter. The tour took us to a waterfall where everybody swam and Pete set a benchmark for the tough by jumping from halfway up the falls! The island is very hilly and any farms cling to the sides of very steep slopes and cabbages etc are grown on road verges where it is flat. All dairy or anything that needs flat land is imported.

We are having the boat hauled in a few days to get some repairs done where the nylon line melted around one propeller and to fix the rudder squawk! While it’s up we’ll get an antifoul done and one or two other jobs ready to day sail after the final ARC functions in St Lucia in early April. Can’t wait after all the ocean crossings!

Fortaleza to Grenada

We left Fortaleza on the 3rdMarch. The last night there Pete and I went to one of those Argentinian steak houses where they bring around endless cuts of different meats on skewers that they carve on to your plate. Very nice and very cheap it was a good end to the stay. All the yachts managed to get out of the marina OK considering that there were anchor lines and mooring lines everywhere like a spider web. 

Heard an interesting conversation on VHF channel 16 (emergency channel) the other night. A 1000’ freighter communicated with 3 ARC boats that were in his vicinity. Peter from Exody (39’) informed him that HE was the stand on vessel!! (meaning the one that does not give way) Which technically is true but sounded very brave!

Friday 6: We crossed the line (equator) on Friday 5 March at 4.25. We celebrated withbowl of ice cream – Pete and I had Grand Marnier in ours but Galen didn’t have GM– he’s got health food poisoning from eating too many acaii berries (or whatever they are) in Fortaleza. Why can’t these young people just eat a good varied omnivorous diet washed down with lots of wine and stay healthy like all us old people? Been in and out of squalls the last few days. Going from no wind, to too much, to wrong direction, loads of rain, hot and steamy, cool –the works! It must be the northern hemisphere! Making good time though. We’ve had a few little bird hitch hikers the last few nights. One came in and tried to land on my head then wandered inside and hopped on the couch. Anyone who has sailed with me will know how happy I would be with bird poop on the upholstery -but he was very unafraid and was happy to be ushered out. I think he was either disoriented or attracted by the navigation and instrument lights – or just getting out of the rain.

Thursday 10: Good sailing days even though we were in a bit of a changeable weather system. Some time out when Pete had to snorkel on the rudder and prop again! Partly a bag and partly self- inflicted with a line! Pete lost his best swimming shorts to the current! I couldn't hove to properly because of the line around the rudder!

I think I saw an eclipse one morning. I was on the 4 to 7am watch and was just wondering what had happened to dawn when the clouds parted and there was a huge moon all lit up, craters and all, by a sliver of sun around the bottom edge. By the time I woke Pete a cloud had come and spoiled it. Just as well I saw what I did though, as I would have been wondering why we had no light till about an hour later than normal

We’re well in the northern hemisphere now and the first cloudless night I couldn’t recognise the sky at all! Even though I’m no expert on the constellations etc I must have imprinted the southern hemisphere patterns as it does feel quite disconcerting – as if I’ve woken up and someone has moved all the furniture around.

We’re making excellent time and should be at the tip of Trinidad in a day or so. There were two pirate attacks on yachts here last December we have been warned, so all the ARC boats are steering well north. It seems they were using two disused oil platforms as starting points and carrying diesel so did not have a good range for attacks. The local coast guard stepped up operations and there have been none since, but no one is taking any chances. They probably came from Venezuela and of course Trinidad does not want it’s tourism industry in ruins like has happened to other countries that haven’t responded quickly and aggressively. The pirates were armed, boarded and took electronics, life jackets, cash and jewellery but didn’t harm anyone.

Marina Speak

Marina Speak

I’ve started to learn this: not dissimilar to real estate speak.

Lovely peaceful marina in natural setting.

Means: NO facilities and yacht club open 2 days a week randomly.

Marina in bustling fishing village

Means: noisy smelly fishing boats and trawlers with generators clattering away all night and lots of early morning tooting.

Marina in cosmopolitan downtown metropolis

Means: dodgy security, road film all over the boat and idiots going past too fast in power boats.

Marina in thriving commercial port.

Means: a coal or manganese loading facility upwind dumping muck all over the boat and plenty of noise.

Marina offering all he repair services you could need.

Means: right near the haul out hard stand where people sand, paint, grind, and generally throw muck into the air and water all day and half the night. Usually the home of a local who is Mr Fix Everything Know Everybody, from whom you can’t escape for under a few thousand local whatevers.

Salvador to Recife and Fortaleza

Recife was a nice stop. We stayed two nights. After refuelling, Pete and I went in to the town centre along the waterfront for immigration and the police – what a performance! No Portuguese on our part and no English on theirs. Luckily the police didn’t seem very interested in any paperwork and guided us to the Port Capitaine’s office, which we would have struggled to have found on our own! We sat for a while as it was lunch time and finally got out of there with some stamped signed paperwork around 2.30. After a very nice long late lunch we went to an enormous mall and topped up groceries. Galen spent the day in appalling heat sanding and fixing up our new second hand gang plank for when we have to “med moor”. (that’s backing up to a dock and getting on and off from the steps, for those of you who don’t know). He’s working off his food bill! The marina/yacht club had nice facilities with a pool and bar/restaurant but a very,  very narrow shallow channel to get in and out! We only just made it and did run into mud on the way in. “The World” was in port. That is a liner where you buy an apartment that is yours exclusively and it travels endlessly round the world in extravagant luxury very expensively. Pete and I did a tour of it when it was in Sydney some years ago. Super retirement village but a bit out of our range!

We left Recife and picked up some fishing rope on the way out! Both rudders and one prop. Luckily we had only used the engines briefly before stopping them to sail and when we noticed the lines streaming out behind us no damage had been done. It did however take Pete a snorkel on one and a 1 hour scuba dive on the other to hack out melted nylon line! Hero! After that it was a easy sail till we hit two squalls that cleaned the boat for us and had all three of us up for a few hours…..after that easy sailing again. The other boats have nearly all left the island they went to and are heading for Fortelza. We should all arrive tomorrow, Sunday 28th.

Arrived Fortaleza. A pretty ordinary marina with bits of floating dock here and there with sort of power and water! But the hotel is very nice with alovely pool area and cafes etc. Pete and I checked in to the hotel for air con, internet reasons and so far have spent most of the time drinking wine by the pool with all the others! Forteleza is a nice looking city with some very nice clean infrastructure as well as the falling down grafittied old ruins that we have noticed everywhere in Brazil but, like Recife, is cleaner and safer than Salvador. We leave here on the 3rd for Granada – about 12 days then we’ll finally be in the Caribbean! Leaving Brisbane in May 2015 till nearly now!