The Azores – a tale of two cities, great people & Festas.

After 2 short weeks at sea, we arrived in the Port of Horta in the Azores refreshed, slightly smelly and very thirsty - that kind of well earned thirst that used to be so well depicted in the old VB (Victoria Bitter) commercials in Australia... you know the ones. You can get it diggin', You can get it riggin', Or straining 'till you thought you'd burst. You've sure got a thirst.... A hard-earned thirst needs a big cold beer, and the best cold beer is Vic -…

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Crossing the Pond – Bermuda to Azores (Video Blog)

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10 June 2010 - three of us (Dmitrij, Simon & Gavin) arrived in the Azores, landing in the small island of Faial in the port of Horta. We have so far crossed approximately three quarters of the Atlantic from Florida to the Azores, via the Bahamas and Bermuda. Crossing the Northern Atlantic was always going to be a challenge -  the unpredictable and ever changing weather patterns, the bitterly cold temperatures that keep you awake on watch at 3:00 am , the occasional 12 hours of driving…

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1000 miles to Bermuda

Leaving Nassau wasn't as easy as we thought. The generosity and hospitality of our new Bahamain friends was second to none and it seems that the Weather gods conspired to keep us there for one more night - which turned out to be a brilliant way to say goodbye to the Bahamas - with a home cooked feast at Geoffrey & Rosa's house, with the whole family coming over to say hello - a beautiful baked hog fish, home made coleslaw, banana fritters (whose name we cannot…

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Birthdays only come around once a year!

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There are times in life when you feel like you need to pinch yourself just to make sure you're not dreaming. I am sore from pinching myself!! Since our last blog, we sailed off into the sunset leaving behind the beautiful Staniel Cay and the Exumas . An incredible downwind sail in calm waters, with the spinnaker flying and beers in hand. I had read that it's possible to anchor totally out of sight of land when conditions are calm and suggested this as an idea to…

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Tree huggers delight… Squander goes au naturale’!!

G'day friends - Nate here. Goodbye Spanish wells, hello EXUMAS !! The day dawned beautifully as we set out from Spanish Wells on a rising tide scraping over the shallow entrance. After our usual strong coffees we set off early to make the most of the day as well as the wind which was predicted to die off in the afternoon. Spanish Wells Seafood shop We were greeted by a nice 12 to 18 knot wind and calm flat seas. Time for some nice sailing, a great…

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In search of Elle.

Port Lucaya on Grand Bahama was a beautiful place, but having arrived there on a Monday morning and in the mood for some fun after our eventful crossing of the gulf stream, we were somewhat underwhelmed by the empty bars, quiet casino and lack of other revelers to party with. We did however meet some cool people like Rick Fleming (G'day Rick hope you've managed to get out of there and we will see you soon somewhere along the way!) who added to the experience of being…

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Grand Bahama… an unplanned stop!

Anyone remember Gilligan's island?? The weather started getting rough, The tiny ship was tossed, If not for the courage of the fearless crew The minnow would be lost, the minnow would be lost. Baptism of fire comes to mind - we sailed into what was meant to be a decent 20 knotter and ended up being a decent storm... Leaving our BIG friends behind - thanks for all the help - skies look clear! The skipper definitely had a slight hint of the guilts having had a…

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Iridium 9505a installation on Windows 7

On Squander we use the great services of Global Satellite for all of our Iridium needs - Speak or email Martin Firestone (sales@globalsatellite.us) and mention SQUANDER. =================================================================== I recently upgraded my PC to a windows 7 installation and went about finding drivers for the phone and trying to install the modem. My recommended solution for those having the same issues is as follows: 1. Download the Satellite phone installer from mailasail (you do not have to be a mailasail customer) http://www.mailasail.com/downloads/mailasail/SatInst.exe 2. Run the installer 3. Go to…

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Ready, steady, go…almost, wait, oops, yes… we’re leaving!

What a week or is two weeks since I last wrote... The crew have arrived safe and sound and have gotten straight into living life aboard Squander. It's been one of those weeks where a lot of big jobs got done quickly and many quick jobs took a looooong time! The trusty Jeep has clocked up some miles running around town getting everything from new kiteboarding equipment for Dmitrij to essentials like rum and beer for all of us! Vacuum sealing the sirloin steaks. Squander looks tiny…

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I can have toast again!

After a great Easter weekend, the week has kicked off with a longer then expected list of things to fix - I guess this is probably the beginning of a long chapter called "The things they don't tell you about sailing" - it's definitely the standout bit of feedback from cruisers (people who live aboard their yacht for extended periods of time cruising from place to place) - you do a lot more maintenance and fixing then you ever imagined! Back to the fun stuff - the…

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