Tuesday, 16th December 2010 – most things were done, the weather window looked OK for at least 4 days and it was time to set sail for the 900 or so miles from Las Palmas to Mindelo in Cabo verde. A few last minute things, we got the scuba diving compressor serviced, printed up some promotional materials for the best electronic chart swapping network in the world – www.chartswap.net and finally stopped at the local Fuel dock for some cheap diesel, water and a couple of ice creams before casting off the bow lines on what was going to be Leg 1 of a 2 Leg Atlantic crossing to Barbados.

Having said goodbye to many of our new friends and a few of the old ones, we left the 250+ ARC boats, the parties, and the sailor bar in our wake.  The trip was a smooth one and largely uneventful, For Agatha it was her first time sailing more then 24 hours non-stop and was undoubtedly going to take some adjusting to (read her account here), Andy was also getting more and more familiar with Squander having then been onboard for 3 weeks and Simon took on the leadership role of being our in-house safety officer.

We joined the rumrunner net, a daily SSB Radio based “ring-in” of boats heading in roughly the same direction, exchanging tips, weather information, anchorage suggestions and so on which was a good way for everyone to learn some basic radio communications – with the UHF Radio being a big part of our Safety procedures.

Simon’s father was a radio man and the family lineage clearly showed as Simon took over the airwaves. Unfortunately the rather dry aspect of the Rumrunner net didn’t quite suit Simon’s style and he quickly rebranded it STIFF FM and proceeded to hand over the radio reigns to Andy.

Simon’s logo and STIFF FM merchandise worn by yours truly below

Andy took over STIFF FM with great enthusiasm, rising bright and early for 2 days straight before announcing that we had sailed ourselves out of range… which brought an end to out Rumrunner contributions – it was fun while it lasted!

We finally started catching Mahi Mahi too – which has been great fun and great eating. The Mahi Mahi (AKA Dorado or Dolphin Fish) are veracious hunters and tend to chomp at anything that moves… so we decided to try our hand at making Lures – a great pass time and yet another level of competition onboard – who can come up with the best name for a lure!

The early prototypes weren’t perfect.

Andy resorted to writing threatening messages on his creation.

Agatha adapted really well and was soon making good use of a bucket, some assistance from her fellow crew members and some crystal clear, blue ‘eau d’Atlantique’

Speaking of Agatha, here’s an email she wrote to our parents, kindly reproduced with her permission.

Dear Mum & Dad,

It is Monday morning 22nd of November day 6 at sea and i imagine ours is very different to yours. The sun rose at 6:45 am local time.. the moon was still high in the sky and there was not a cloud to be seen.

All crew were on deck shortly after, and as we were running on the engine all night due to a lack of wind, the sails soon went up and we have been trying to get the most out of the little wind there is with the main sail and spinnaker.

Currently cruising at around 4 knots, which leaves us another 17 hours or so before we hit Cabo Verde.

Yesterday was another successful fishing day with the boys pulling in a sizeable mahi mahi once again. The poor thing put up a mighty fight, but it was no challenge for the filleting team, and before he knew it he was skinned filleted and partially frozen, whilst a little was left for what made a Gorazdowski fish soup for dinner.

The lures are out again today.. I am personally hoping for a tuna as we have a good supply of wasabi, pickled ginger and soy on board which I am hanging to sample with some fresh tuna sashimi.

Ag got her wish soon after.

As I write this it looks like the wind has died off totally, as the engines are being started once again and seems the spinnaker has had its time for now!!!… suddenly we now have 22 hours left to our destination.

These little calculations take up a portion of each day, along with a competitive regime of push ups and sit ups.. Andy is leading the way with 500 push ups yesterday!
Other activities have included custom lure making to attract the fish.. and now all shiny food packaging is being set aside for further and more elaborate lures to bring in the fish..

Home made hummus and an attempt at making rye pita bread (unfortunately not so successful) were just some other activities from yesterday.

I hope this allows you to further imagine what our days entail..

And so on the night of the 6th day we pulled into Cabo verde for a week of fun, exploring and meeting more great people.

Squander ready for crossing the Atlantic.

I often wonder what people in third world countries make of us ‘travelers’?

When I used to live in Sydney’s Bondi beach I was often perplexed by the busloads of Korean or Japanese tourists that would arrive on a hot summer’s day, dressed for a Tokyo winter, complete with scarves and sun umbrellas and equipped with the latest creations hot of Sony’s, Canon’s or Nikon’s production line. All most of them seemed to want was a photo with an Aussie surfer on the beach… but every so often there was someone amongst the tourist group that ‘got it’!! They would use their 15 minute stop at the beach wisely. it wasn’t pretty to watch a 50 something year old person who hadn’t seen sun since their 12th birthday, strip down to their underwear and behave like a 10 year old in a fun park as they ran down to the sand and launched themselves into the surf, more often then not right into a rip, but that’s by the by, and besides it kept the lifeguards entertained!

The point is that somehow that act seemed to make that one person far less alien then the rest of his fellow travelers that stood there sweating in their winter gear and collectively shooting thousands of photos of their seemingly mad, lucky to be alive, ‘Bondi Surf Rescue’ protagonist!

It is that kind of awareness, the ‘….Ahhh, I get it now feeling that is sometimes hard to tap into, how do you become the person that isn’t just another tourist following your tour guide or in our case what the lonely planet recommends. Don’t get me wrong, the lonely planet guides are actually a damn good start to becoming underwear wearing, drowning guy, or better still, an independent traveler that gets the  privilege of being accepted into local life for a minute, an hour or even a day. but sometimes it takes a little more luck or more effort – or both!!

Cabo verde was one such country, where effort and luck paid off and allowed us to meet and interact with some local characters that make up the fabric of the city of Mindelo and get glimpses of what life is like here. Although to be fair, I’m fairly certain that at times we stood out like a middle aged, Yves Saint Laurent clad Japanese woman stepping off an air conditioned bus in Bondi beach cooling herself with a battery operated, blue tooth enabled, blackberry phone-fan!

Agatha took the camera out one day and came back with this great series of photos:

Roadside market stalls


With a little research anything can be found.


Hanging out is popular.


Local Hardware store.

That afternoon, the boys went to the fish markets and came back with 6 Coral trout which we barbecued for lunch. Yum!!!

we also had the option of buying fresh lobsters, delivered to the boat by local fishermen!

With our bellies full and a short siesta to recoup some energy, we decided to head down to the beach for a bit of exercise and a swim. It was there that we befriended Kenny and David, 2 brothers 17 & 18, Mindelo locals who were into a mix of break dancing and Capoeira and would train most afternoons on the beach. David, the younger brother was still at school, whereas Kenny had left school at 12 and works painting fishing trawlers when he can get the work… his motivation for leaving school was to be able to earn money to buy nice clothes and cool things. He was a mean break-dancer!

The brothers demonstrating their acrobatics.

Kenny teaching us how to focus on holding a handstand. Simon watches on.

I had a go and managed to hold it for 500 thousandths of a second! 
Next it was somersaults into the water Simon lead the charge on the left

An then there was synchronized tumbling!!

With the sun setting and the appetite levels rising we bid farewell to our friends and headed for the sailor bar for some live music, dinner and a few quiet drinks!

We soon met some fellow sailors… Christian and Anne-Christine, a young couple form Norway sailing alone from Norway to the Caribbean and home via New York, Canada and Greenland – all in 12 months!

Three Norwegian guys in their early twenties who were following the stars on their way around the Oceans, Viking style with no navigation instruments other then a compass!  (Anders in centre of pic above)

… and Espen & May Linn on SY Maggie who have taken 2-3 years off to circumnavigate the world – we may well cross the panama Canal together!

The next day we rose bright and early and caught a ferry to the nearby island of Sao Antao… a beautiful island well worth spending the day on.

Once all the cargo was loaded, we set off for the hour or so voyage across the strait – the trip can often be rough and everyone got given a little plastic shopping bag for emergency use.

The ladies weren’t feeling crash hot.

Whereas this fella was catching up on some much needed rest.

And the horse in a box was just happy to be heading home!

Our little ferry soon docked and we went about finding a guide and car to take us around the sights for the day.

We soon found Piedro and negotiated a good deal for him to drive us around to the major sights in his Prado. the island is spectacular, lush vegetation, mountainous and incredibly peaceful. The main industry seems to be farming and a modest level of tourism.

Looking East, Sao Vicente and Mindelo in the distance.

The lush, farming town of Paul (pronounced Pa-ool) in the valley below.

The view down to Ribeira Grande – the big River

The people of Cabo verde always have time for a chat.

Piedro didn’t speak English, but we managed to communicate in Bitsa, my new favourite language – BIitsaeverything!

The main mountain pass between the east and west coast, is an incredibly well maintained 36km cobble stone highway.

The coastal road on the east and north coasts is equally impressive.

We arrived in Punta del sol just in tome for lunch and to see the local fisherman put their skills on show as they negotiated one of the hairiest harbour entrances that i have ever seen.

We sat at the restaurant perched over the cliff face, sipping on ice cold beers and waiting for our fresh seafood lunch, and watched the spectacle unfold.

The centre of the pic above is the harbour entrance!! The fisherman time the waves and motor in and to the right of the photo.

They wait for a break between sets and motor in. You can see two boats anxiously waiting for the crowd to help them  beach the boats.

Everyone gets involved as boat after boat comes in from a day’s fishing.

After lunch we walked around and checked out the sights and people of Punta del Sol, before returning to the Prado and taking the more modern coast road back to Porto Novo.

We never found out who was behind this sculpture, but it would make a great entrant for Bondi’s Sculpture by the Sea!

Agatha was already tiring of male only company and decided to make friends with the local garrotas!

By 4:00pm we were back in Porto Novo and ready to jump on the Fast ferry home.

This guy  was a riveting storyteller!!

As the sunset we coasted back into Mindelo harbour and for a moment thought we were back in Las Palmas… the marina was full of  ARC boats making unscheduled and out of the way stops in Cabo Verde to pick up fuel. It seems that 2010 will go down in history as one of the slowest East-West Atlantic crossing seasons, with little to no wind.

Does an upside down flag usually suggest Distress ??

With the No-wind panic well and truly gripping everyone, the local fuel station was making some serious moolah as were the local entrepreneurs who started selling jerry cans outside the marina for ridiculous prices. The boat above seen fuelling up on at least 500 litres of diesel!!!

Incidentally, Andy made the observation that Cabo verde has to be one of a very few countries around the world where you have to speak at least 4 languages fluently in order to pump gas… seriously these young guys and girl would switch between Portuguese, English, French, German & the local Creole without batting an eye lid.

The following day, the guys and girls from MAD surprised us with a visit, they too were in the ARC and decided to stop over to pick up extra supplies and fuel, before heading off for St Lucia! See you in Bequia for xmas!!!

Then the biggest surprise of all…. Simon was doing some research on Caribbean islands, when he got distracted by his new appreciation of the joys of Facebook, whereby he found a friend request from his long lost uncle Arturo, who happens to live in Mindelo – unbelievable!

Arturo dropped by for a visit…the resemblance was uncanny!!

We bid farewell to Arturo and decided with all the panic of potential long hours of motoring, we should do an engine service. In doing so Simon discovered a small oil leak coming out of the intake side of the Turbo charger. It didn’t appear catastrophic and with some consultation with a few people in the know we decided to wipe up the small quantity of oil, keep an eye on it and check it out on the other side of the pond.                                 
There was about a half teaspoon of oil gathered on the rim.

With all said and done we went to the local Sailor bar for our last beer, a decent fish burger and to say goodbye to the friendly staff!

That evening, we negotiated with Nena the fuel boss to tie up overnight next to fuel station and be first in line for fuel for an early morning getaway from the islands. The wind was up and it was time to roll… all was going to plan until 3:30am when a boatload of Bosnian/American drunken loud mouths decided to carry on right next to us, waxing lyrical at a 100 decibels delivering the kind of bovine fertiliser that made us question whether consumption of alcohol was indeed a bad idea!!

As it turned out, before long we drifted into sleep and managed to get an extra couple of hours… the morning came and we managed to download weather, top up water tanks (we have 20 litres per day) get diesel and get going.

On Wednesday 1st of December 2010, at 10:30am  we set off heading west across the Atlantic.

Morocco is a colourful land of contrasts – be it the deep blue Atlantic ocean meeting the red dry desert, the proud Berber culture mixing with westernised ideals, the traditional Muslim people living their lives next door to Christians and less adhering Muslims, the extremely rich and the extremely poor, the list goes on… It seems that most cities perpetuate this contrast by having an old or often ancient side to the city as well as a new, more modern city.

MOROCCO – 17th to 30th October 2010

The ‘metal works’ area of fez

What is particularly striking is that many of the old cities retain not only the architecture, the primitive sewerage and water supply systems, the smells – good and bad, fashions, shops, markets, but also the way of life, the traditional trades, crafts and modes of transport, whereas 1 mile away the modern end of town works in banks, air-conditioned offices, drive the latest European and Japanese cars and shop in French & Italian designer stores.

No cars allowed in old fez – deliveries are by Donkey or hand pulled cart.

The old city in Fez, is my favorite by far in Morocco and I would recommend it to anyone who visits this part of the world to go and spend a few days absorbing this incredible place.

Simon and Michelle returned to Squander a few weeks ago after three days in Fez, with a multitude of stories, experiences, souvenirs and not to mention  Simon’s ongoing reminder of the dodgy Moroccan lamb or was it the tagine that he ate… apparently Bali belly and Deli belly have nothing on the “Fez express” – ‘cause that’s what you need to make it to the bathroom in time..!

Simon admiring the Camping Gas bottles – we use these on Squander and have often spent days looking for a supplier, never knew they did home delivery!

So with Squander’s water & fuel tanks freshly filled, my latest BAS and tax returns almost finished and the recent memories of Fez still fresh in Simon & Michelle’s minds, we set sail out of the capital of Morocco, leaving behind some newly made friends and a modern city in the making.

It was a full moon, and other then the lack of wind, conditions were perfect for the next 36 hours – with night watches being illuminated by a huge moon that came up before the sun set and set after the sun rose – incredible to see a spectacular sunrise to port and a full moon fairly high in the sky to Starboard whilst sailing along the North African coast.

Sunrise to Port (our left).

The other good thing about full moons is fishing…!! which is of course different to ‘Catching’ but fun nonetheless – our rods were going off all day long hooking all manner of fish, but despite over a dozen hook ups we only managed to land 4-5 Tuna and no Mahi Mahi despite hooking a fair few of them only to see them getaway before we had a chance to slow the boat down and reel them in.

We sent this one back…!

Ahhh… that’s better!!

Michelle got in on the action and landed a great Tuna shortly after sunrise. We made good use of it that evening – a Sushi and Sashimi feast – kirko, if you’re reading this we dedicated this one to you mate!!

We’ve been doing extensive research on Tuna preparation and have drawn inspiration and guidance from as far afield as Japan, New Zealand and California to learn to properly kill, bleed, set and prepare tuna for Sashimi.

Strips of tuna ready to be made into Sushi.

Sushi rice and seaweed sheets – check.

Short on ingredients… improvise – tuna olive sushi!

Et Voila!! Freshly caught, lime juice seared Sashimi and Tuna/Olive Sushi…. served at sunset!

And what a sunset it was! definitely one of the most spectacular ones we have seen in a long time!   

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It seems that every passage, no matter how big or small is marked by something new happening. On our last night at sea this time around, we were motoring and managed to get an old fishing net tangled around our prop. It was midnight and I was alone on watch. Simon’s cabin is right next to the engine and he instantly heard the drop in revs and the banging sound as a big clump of plastic netting weaved itself around our prop and drive shaft – he was standing on deck before I even had a chance to slow Squander down… we fairly quickly ascertained that I hadn’t run over a working net and that whatever it was, the only way to get it off was to go overboard with a knife and torch…

Simon was still feeling crook from his dodgy camel burger in Fez, and so I volunteered to jump in – there was a bit of wind and some lumpy swell around – definitely a new experience – diving under a 10 tonne boat as it lurches up and down whilst moving at 2 knots through the water, holding on to a rope in one hand, razor sharp knife in the other and a torch half in mouth, half out – it was a professional operation – NOT!   it took a while, and wasn’t something I would want to do again in a hurry, but it was worth it as we managed to get going again within half an hour and it earned me a Hot shower at sea – yeaaaaah!!!

As a new day  & Michelle’s final day at sea awoke, the wind started picking up and the fish started getting bigger… the fishing lines were buzzing every hour or so but  today the fish were going to win the day… the elusive Mahi Mahi kept on getting away, however this did not deter us from going after them nonetheless. In the end, not only did  a big one get away, but it got away with one of our fishing rods… it was the skipper’s fault from beginning to end, who set the fishing line out for one last try, forgot to put on the safety line on the rod and managed to put it in the rod holder that wasn’t done up tight enough…. nice one GAV!!!

One of the last known photos of the fishing rod  lost at sea– we miss you!

By mid afternoon we were back in the land of contrasts – this time in Agadir… a kind of Moroccan Los Angeles where instead of a film industry there’s a large fishing fleet. Agadir was completely destroyed by an earthquake in the 1960’s and as such is a very modern city by Moroccan standards. A sprawling, seaside city of lo-rise buildings, industry and 30,000+ beds aimed at European tourists.

Arriving at the Marina – friendly, yet thorough, officials are housed in this building.

We saw a couple of boats anchored outside off the beach, but at 120 Euro per week, we opted for the modern facilities of the Agadir Marina. It is right next to beach that stretches for a good 10 kms or so and it wasn’t long before we introduced our newest crew member, Andy Patrick from Queensland, to beach frizbee – the squander game of choice.

… and of course our other favourite pass time soon followed.

And as evening fell, the mountain behind the marina lit up in full glory, the streets came to life and for team Squander it was time to have one last night out with Michelle who was leaving us to continue her epic journey… I will let Simon take over from here. Simon’s Squander’s entertainer and comedian – keeping us all laughing aboard for hours on end – take it away Seeeemon!

Thanks Gavino. Well as Gav just said, we all decided to go out for one last night with Michelle. The night didn’t start off that well as the taxi we flagged refused to take the four of us in one cab forcing us to get another cab then both of them charging us double the normal fare so we ended up paying quadruple what we should have! Being that the total amount came to a little over $2.75 we decided to let it slide.

After a word or two to the shifty taxi driver we went to find a decent place for dinner then afterwards, at Michelle’s request, to the local English pub to watch her perform Karaoke.

She’d been hounding us to go for weeks and we’d all managed to side step it but being it was ‘her night’ we indulged her and we have to give credit when credit’s due, she was really good. Her rendition of Alicia Keys’ ‘Falling’ left many a Moroccan man in awe. Well done Michelle. Hope all is well in Amsterdam.

And then there were three. With it now an all Aussie guy crew with no exotic females to encourage us to watch our p’s and q’s, we stopped sucking in our guts, exhaled and went on a bit of an exploration of down town Agadir. We ended up at the local souk (market). Now I had only just met Andy and wasn’t sure whether  he was going to be a ‘stiff’ or not, so I kept him under observation for the first few days. He opened his account with a big plus by announcing he has an appetite that rivals mine and suggested we start our market tour with him shouting us a little snack. Next thing Gav, Andy and I are all gnawing on a ‘minced fish ball cooked in beef fat’ sandwich. Awesome. Keep it up Andy – you haven’t consolidated your spot yet but you’re on your way.

Once inside, the market resembled Flemington’s Paddy’s Market in Sydney only a little more old school and a few less birka-clad ladies around. All the expected stalls were there. Fruit and veg, nuts , meat and clothes. One of the highlights of the day was Captain Gav buying us a couple of kilos of the forbidden fruit – Bananas!. “Make sure these are eaten before we get back to the boat boys” was the order.

‘Hey my friend, buy my socks they’re 100% original’

We made our way through the wholesale mayhem picking up some good supplies for the trip to The Canaries. Gav managed to find a guy selling wooden products and went in to try haggling over a backgammon set. After 1/2 an hour of verbal fury he walked out of that stall with a snappy backgammon set and 400 of the 600 Dirham asking price in his pocket – Nice work Gav.

The magic potions made of the local of Argan oil

The local “Fatima’s secret” lingerie stall was doing a bustling trade, with “Bras, birkas & things” across the road in close second.

The most intriguing thing about this photo is the “Inspector Clouseau meets Inidana Jones” guy on the left of the picture.

This guy behind the counter was a bit of a meat head.

Farouk – North Africa’s most famous olive artist.

So much to choose from. In the end we couldn’t make up our minds and just left it.
Andy & Bessie hit it off from word go.


The Doogie Howsers of the Moroccan meat world, these young guns finished their apprenticeships at age 9.

I wonder if this truckie was an Albert Einstein fan who famously said “Life is like riding a bicycle, you have to keep moving to keep your balance.”

After a quiet night we rose early the next day, hired a car (small car!) and headed north to check out the surf. 50 kms later we ended up at ……………. where we found a nice little 4 ft wave. It was great to finally hit a beach with waves after hanging around the surfless Mediterranean.   

Another bonus of having a car was that we got to check out a few cool little beach towns. One town in particular stood out, Taghazout. We stopped there for some lunch and to check out the local surf culture. We took a look around and stumbled upon a surf shop which was selling ‘authentic’ Billabong board shorts for a fraction of the price. We actually couldn’t tell whether they were fake or not so needless to say we collectively walked out with 10 pairs – wardrobe sorted for the next few months.

They say that car break ins are common in the beach carparks – not today boys!
Scenes from Taghazout.

The Africa Surf Shop selling original Australian, made in China, Billabong board shorts for $20.

That afternoon we headed back to the boat to finish off a few  jobs in preparation for our leg to the Canary Islands. One of the more pressing items was to repair the dinghy which had a slow leak. You’ll understand the necessity of a reliable dinghy a little later on.

So with our work done and the boat ready to set sail , we thought we should invite our Swedish next door neighbours over for a drink. They were quite happy to join us for a quiet drink as they were planning on leaving bright and early the next day for the Canaries. Henrik, Kirsten and Kalle were the three people in question, Henrik and Kalle best friends and Kirsten, Henrik’s sister. These guys are on their way around the world in a boat half the size of Squander. They say that its a little crammed but comfortable enough, but after the ‘quiet’ drink we ended up having with them I don’t think that the Queen Mary would be comfort enough for them the following day.

After spending a good two weeks in Morocco it was time to set our sights west,  so on the morning of 30th October we left Agadir en route to the Canary Islands and beyond.

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CANARY ISLANDS – 31st October to 17th November 2010

On the trip over from Morocco, we couldn’t stop hooking tuna on the fishing rod that Gav didn’t drop into the ocean. Unfortunately the freezer on the boat was playing up and we were only able to keep two and throw the rest back. 8 lucky tuna live to see another day – Oh well, we’re after dolphin fish anyway.

The following afternoon we landed in Graciosa, a small island at the top of Lanzarote. We anchored at Playa Francesa at around 4pm and got word of a beach Halloween party so we decided to check it out. Unfortunately instead of the bikini clad girls that we imagined, it was a party for families with little kids and turned out to be the third most boring event I’ve ever attended. Fortunately a storm blew in and the party prematurely ended so we got to go back to the boat to eat our fresh tuna and afterwards watch a few episodes of Entourage over a few rums. 

Playa Francesa anchorage with a volcano to the right soon to be conquered by Gav, Andy and Simon.

There are no sealed roads on Graciosa.

We spent the next few days checking out the island and its main town Caleta del Sebo. A cool little town centred around the marina with laid back bars and cafes that we used wisely to pump a few Euros into the Island’s little economy.

On our final day on Graciosa we decided to do 2 things that we don’t get to do that often these days – wear shoes & walk. We had been hanging out on the boat every day being looked down upon by the highest volcano on the south of the island and decided we had to climb it.

Andy and Simon negotiating the steeper than it looked ascent in 50 knot winds

View from the top. Squander hiding in the crowd.

Not only did we climb it but we made our descent on the other side and trekked back around the island checking out the beaches and coastline. 12 kms in total – We’re not forgotten.

The next morning we were having a bit of a sleep in after our Everest like climb when Jim, an English guy on another yacht, came over in his dinghy and asked if we could give him a hand. The wind was up and he had a problem with his engine and needed us to push him with our dinghy when he raised his anchor so he didn’t get blown into the rocks. Gav was busy plotting our course to the next island so Andy and I went to sort him out. “ Andy you stay on my port side and give me a push. Simon you can raise the anchor” says Jim. I asked Jim where the switch for his anchor winch was but like everything else on Jim’s boat it was broken. “You’ll have to pull it up by hand” Jim say. 45 metres of chain later, we finally got Jim on his way. “I’ll buy you boys a beer in Rubicon if I see you there” were Jim’s parting words. We saw him in Rubicon and he didn’t buy us a beer….Stiff!

We hired a car in Lanzarote and went exploring and in search of a wave.
The old trick of wait for a van full of surfers and follow them from a distance to find the local breaks.

Hi everybody, Andy here – I’m new on the boat and thought I would throw some initial words down… As I understand it, Gav had huge ambitions for this trip. A direct quote from his advert on Findacrew.com – “My partying days are mostly behind me, we will be in search of unspoiled bays… avoiding party towns and tourist traps… blah, blah, blah”. As you can see from the following photos he has failed miserably. Nothing un-spoiled about air hockey, bowling, Sega rally and a good old fashion bender chasing girls. – Andy out!

Andy ended up air hockey king but I smashed him in bowling

We left Graciosa on the 3rd of November and headed down to Rubicon Marina on Lanzarote island, where we got a berth in the marina and did a bit of maintenance on the boat. Ran into Jim a few times but never managed to get that beer he promised… Such a Stiff. 

From Rubicon it was an overnight hop to Las Palmas, the capital of The Canary islands, on Gran Canaria Island. We had to be there by the 8th of November to meet two rendezvous’. Firstly Agatha, our floating crewmember was flying in to rejoin the crew for the Atlantic crossing. Great to have you back on board Ag. Secondly, the ubiquitous Juliana, our friend from Ibiza, was also flying in to catch up with our fearless leader.

We arrived a day earlier which gave us time to clean the boat and generally get it ready for female company. Agatha is good value and I’m happy she’s coming back but the down side is that I now have to share my double cabin with Andy as she gets the single to herself.

With the boat all clean and Andy relocated into my quarters we decided to go and check out the local sailor bar. Now it usually takes us 1 or 2 days to find our feet after landing in a new place but today it took just one afternoon. Introducing Mojgan and Rebecca. Two Norwegian girls of Persian decent on a boat called ‘MAD” who are participating in The ARC, a rally for cruising yachts starting at Las Palmas and ending in St Lucia in the Caribbean. We got talking to these girls and before long they became part of our posse joining us for our new found hobby…… bowling

Supercoach Simon… “If you just hold the ball like this Mojgan, let me put my arm on your hip… yep that’s it…, nice form”

Rebecca had her own style – Looks ok but ended up in the gutter

Just one more game… then back to the unspoiled bays. Gav was the king of Sega rally  but I smashed him in bowling.

Andy and Rebecca in a bit of road rage.

The next day our two new guests arrived on their respective flights. Agatha in from Paris and Juliana from London. We all met at the local bar for a drink then dinner at Pier 19 – good food and lightning quick wi fi internet. Then it was back to the boat for our jetsetters to get some rest.

The next 8 photos were taken over the following 3 days. You may or may not notice but there seem to be no images of Gav or Juliana. I wonder where they got to?

Denise, Rebecca, Agatha and Mojgan

With our new crew down to 3, Andy, Agatha and I hung out with Mojgan and Rebecca getting in on the official ARC party where free food, beer and wine was on offer. A good night was had by all, especially Agatha who led from the front after a good nights rest.  

Mojgan took a liking to Simon, wrapping him up early…

Now the following 5 photos show the benefits of having a reliable dinghy. Andy and I recently serviced the outboard, cleaned the fuel filters and threw some new spark plugs in – she’s purring like never before. 

Real subtle Andy…..

Skipper’s away, the crew at play – nothing like skurfing in a packed anchorage!

Nice form….

Anyway I think I’ll hand the blog reins back to Gav for the next series of photos which incidentally were taken over the same 3 days as the above ones. Back to you Gavino.

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Thanks Simon… nice work, I think we have definitely tapped into a hidden blogging talent and look forward to some READER COMMENTS!!!

Yes, when the skipper’s away the crew shall play – it was great to come and hear all the stories, meet new members of the cruising posse and recount some of my own experiences from a great three days exploring Gran Canaria with Juliana.

I sheepishly suggested to Juliana that we could visit a rum distillery… and to my surprise she supported the idea wholeheartedly… the 100 year old local producer in the town of Arucas holds approximately 2 Million litres of rum of various vintages and has started a fun tradition whereby famous people either autograph or paint a barrel – they wouldn’t buy my story of being a friend of a kinda infamous celebrity in the infamous town of Manly in Australia

A rum tasting at 11:00 am is always fun!

Then it was time for lunch in the town of Teror.
Before finding our hotel hidden in the middle of a Banana plantation.

The next day we explored the North western part of the island.
There was a BIG swell hitting the shores which added to the eerie isolation of this area.

Abandoned vineyard??

And time for an afternoon swim followed by an ice cold beer….! nice.

We spent the rest of the afternoon slowly exploring the dramatic western coast, before realizing that we were some 50 kms away from the hotel we had booked for night two – it was at 2000m, on top of a mountain that was accessed by a winding, single lane track…. nothing like a few games of Sega rally the night before to inspire putting a manual, 1.3 litre hire car through its paces, hammering up a mountain road with a sunset in the background…. oh and Juliana enjoyed it tooo!!

We arrived just on dusk, having gone form 28 to 15 degrees and thick fog.

The next morning we were greeted by some sensational views, blue skies and the realisation that it was time to say goodbye again. Thanks for a great couple of days Ju, hope everything worked out in Belgrade!

I dropped Juliana at the airport, and spent the afternoon putting final touches on my side project – www.ChartSwap.net – a website for buying, selling and swapping second hand electronic charts & cruising guides.

By the time I got back to Squander it was early evening and we all stayed aboard, cooked dinner and exchange tales from the previous three days.

The next day we ran around buying bits and pieces for Squander, fixing what needed fixing and putting final touches on the preparation for another Atlantic crossing. We got a lot done including replacing the Speed transducer, getting gas, buying a new flat screen TV for Squander, restocking our grog supplies, buying some scuba diving equipment, getting the Scuba diving compressor serviced, replenishing our fishing equipment and a bunch of other small things.

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Incidentally, as I write this, the fishing  has taken a positive turn… preview from the next blog below!

More of this to look forward to in the next blog!! This one metre long Mahi Mahi was caught 200 miles off the coast of Mauritania on 21 November 2010.

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Back to the canaries and some more parties…

Friday night, we invited the MAD girls and the crew from Birka (www.28fot.com) for a few pre going out drinks. 

Simon setting the rules early – we come as a package Mojgan – it’s ME &THE BEER or nothing at all – now gis a kiss!

ANDY: Looks like your partying days are behind you Gav…… Better stick to those unspoiled bays…! GAV: see what happens when you leave permanent markers lying around young kids!! 

Martin (MAD), Gavin, Agatha, Mojgan, Piers, Rebecca(MAD), Simon & Andy – incidentally MAD stands for Make A Difference – a charity project run by Rebecca and Mojgan helping street people get back on their feet by helping them develop business ideas.

Time to say goodbye to The Canary Islands and head for Cabo verde.

Andy’s super work softening the spreaders to save the mainsail over the next 20,000 miles home. 

and we’re under way – Agatha is adapting really well seen here having a shower off the back of the boat….as Andy contemplates a new haircut  – you heard it here first!

Until next time readers.

Despite the best laid plans, research and determination to make this a smooth trip, it didn’t quite work out according to plan and all I can say is… thank god for that!! The trip across the Atlantic ended up including 5 countries, two yachts, 2 quick plane trips and a multitude of great people that I wouldn’t have met had it all gone according to the original plans.

The research commenced back in March 2009, when I joined Crewseekers and findacrew in order to find yachts that would be sailing across the Atlantic in November… There were many boats, however my apparent lack of breasts, blond hair and female genes instantly disqualified me from about 95% of the yachts seeking masseuses, soul mates, platonic friendships, cooks, stewardesses, nannies and beer wenches… looking on the bright side, too much choice can be a bad thing and so I fairly quickly narrowed down my options to approximately 10 boats with whom I initiated dialogue, without going into too many details, I evaluated what I wanted to get out of this trip and tried as best as I could to match the boats needs for crew to my expectations.

And so it was that I ended up committing to crewing with  Max and Bronwyn, an Australian couple from Tasmania, retired and having bought their new Beneteau 46 some 18 months earlier in Europe they were now starting the long trip back to Tasmania from Europe.

The trip interested me for many reasons, firstly Bronwyn was a fair weather sailor which meant that Max and I would be essentially double handing across the Atlantic, a challenge I was looking forward to, secondly Max seemed to have a lot of experience and I was bound to learn a lot from him, thirdly the boat was new, yet tested over the previous 18 months which meant it was likely to be in optimum condition for a comfortable voyage of some 3800 NM and lastly the fact they were Australian and had 3 sons my age gave me a sort of comfort that it would be easy to slip into life aboard in close quarters for the 2 month trip.

And so it was on the 26th of October, I said a long goodbye to Luciana in London (she flew to Sao Paulo 2 days later) and I flew to Cadiz in Spain to Rendezvous with Ariel and her 2 owners.

Having arrived in the late afternoon, Max and Bronwyn instantly made me feel at home and it wasn’t long before we were getting to know each other over a couple of cold beers. Max briefly laid out his plans, We would leave Cadiz, sail to Morocco (about a 1.5 day sail) then wait in morocco for a good weather window and sail across to Arrecife in the Canaries (3-4 days sailing) and then proceed to weave our way through a number of the Canary islands again waiting for favourable weather and aim to set off from there to Martinique in the Caribbean towards the last week of November – expecting this last part of the journey to take approx 18-21 days.

All sounded good, we provisioned the boat with fresh supplies and essentials such as Rum, Whisky and a few bottles of the delicious and cheap Spanish red wine.

The trip to Morocco was a dream trip in terms of getting to know the boat and each other, light, yet consistent winds, plenty of traffic crossing the Gibraltar straights between Europe and Northern Africa which meant that we had to test out the Radar as well as working together at night to ensure we avoided a premature end of Ariel by colliding with a gazillion ton freighter and eventually navigate our way into the tight and shallow channel of Rabat, the capital of Morocco.

I had been in Morocco only 2 weeks earlier travelling by train and bus across the country with Luciana, so it was quite cool to re-enter this north African land by yacht. Bronwyn & Max encouraged me to to take off exploring on my own, which I gladly accepted and went off in search of more photo opportunities, a hand made backgammon set as well as a place to hire a board and go for a surf… over the next 4 days I managed to get 2 out of those 3 things done – the backgammon set wasn’t to be!

Two of my more memorable things from the few days here were meeting the Moroccan surf champion who advised me and lent me a board to go for wave on – great guy, friendly and a unique stand out amongst a crew of fairly aggressive and opportunistic people.

And the second was travelling to Casablanca for dinner at Rick’s cafe – something that max had been looking forward to for some time, a great evening, good food, great wine and many laughs had by all!

and so it was that we decided to make tracks – the weather was predicted to be solid, with 25-30 knots predicted from the North East. We figured it was a good thing as it would be a shakedown for the crew and boat alike and seeing it was from behind for us it shouldn’t be a drama.

The winds ended up being more like 40-45 knots, and we had ourselves a shakedown indeed – got to test out the No4 headsail which performed beautifully on it’s own with no main propelling us at a 7-8 knots down waves that were 6-7M and steep.

We did some hand steering as well as relying on the autohelm which also performed very well – at the end of the three days, we were all tired and glad to drop anchor at Arrecife, but also satisfied and impressed by the way Ariel handled the conditions. SEE SEPRATE BLOG FROM ONE OF THE NIGHTS.

The next 10 days or so were a mixture of fun & frustration. The canary islands had a lot to offer and would have been good to explore some more, however we had a number of other factors playing against us – planning for the crossing was looming, the conditions worsened which meant we were pinned in a commercial port for some 5 days at anchor and there were cracks appearing in the relationship between myself and Max & Bronwyn.

On the positive side I met up with Gord and Ginny again, a couple from Canada whom Luciana & I had run into in Fez some 4 weeks earlier. Gord  invited us to meet  a number of great people from various boats that they had met along the way. I ended up meeting Michaal and his Son Brian both from California and their crew – a cool dude from Indonesia! We all decided to hire a car and go in search of waves… unfortunately the big winds were still howling and we didn’t manage to get a wave in, but had fun nonetheless exploring Lanzarote island.

By the time we left Arrecife and sailed to Puerto Calero, our spirits had lifted – we had a great little sail and pulled in at 5:00pm, just in time to be invited for the annual Puerto Calero ‘ball’ with free drinks and food.

Bronwyn wasn’t up for it, however Max & I couldn’t contain our excitement, we quickly showered up, put on our best jeans and shirt and headed off in the direction of the party – The world Rally was due to start in 3 days time and many of the crew were participants about to set off on an organised circumnavigation of the world. Needless to say there were many interesting sailing conversations had over dinner, specifically with the three Austrian guys, all retired and having the time of their life on a beautiful Halberg Rassy as well as some great guys and girls from the Uk whom we hung out with till the early hours of the morning.

The next day, we set off again in the direction of Rubicon Marina, in the south of Lanzarote – a very modern, big Marina with a quaint seaside village nearby, a small beach called Playa Blanca and many seaside restaurants, bars and cafes.

Max & I managed to convince Bronwyn (who thought this place was the ass end of the world) to join us for dinner at a traditional Canarian restaurant.. despite her initial protests, she accepted and we all had a good night out, with fresh seafood, cold beer and good local wine!

Early the next day, we set sail or rather we motored down the eastside of Fuertaventura island, by 8:00pm we had snuck into a small port and tied up unnoticed for the night – early next day, we had breakfast and set off for the ‘big smoke’ – Gran Canaria island, or more specifically Las Palmas, the capital of said island… our objective was to do any last repairs and maintenance, stock up on fresh food have some fun and decide whether we would set sail before, with or after the 200 or so boats involved in the 2009 ARC (Atlantic Rally for Cruisers).

In retrospect, I should have probably got off Ariel soon after we arrived in Las Palmas. It was approaching 1 month since I had gotten onboard and the mood was decisively uptight – here’s not the place or the time to discuss the finer points, but simply put things weren’t really working.

For a variety of reasons which are painfully evident in retrospect we collectively decided to continue, although I suspect we all knew it wasn’t going to be ‘smooth sailing’.

Las Palmas offered many highlights, with around 1000 Crew in town who were about to sail across the Atlantic, there was a sailing buzz a kin to Boxing day in Sydney at the CYCA hours before the start of the Sydney to Hobart, except that here it was going for a week with all crew living on their boats in the same marina – regular seminars, the chandleries were perpetually full, and evenings provided a great opportunity to have a beer and exchange ‘war stories’.

It was at one of these evenings that I again met some great guys – One of these guys was a kiwi who was crewing on a 3 week old Wally 80 that was in the invitational Race across the Atlantic – amongst other things he hinted at the fact that they were looking for crew, a fact that was confirmed 2 days later when I was standing with Max & Bronwyn and right in front of me, one of the crew off the Wally 80 announced that they needed an extra crew member – I almost choked and god only knows why I didn’t put my hand up right there and then… but alas I didn’t…

My loyalty was with Ariel and so it was that the day before the start of the ARC rally we set sail across the Atlantic – three of us, with the boat in good condition and most major things fixed and inspected, ready to go – the one thing that was left was to test the water maker that had been playing up since we first tested it some days earlier. Despite Max’s gallant efforts, it wasn’t to be and it turned out the watermaker wasn’t working – we had to make a decision, sail on or pull in to Puerto Mogan, where we knew there was a specialist that could look at it – I cast my vote almost immediately and opted to pull in… Bronwyn also wanted to have it looked at, and so it was, outvoted Max agreed to head into shore. The specialist came onboard and after 2 hours concluded that it was likely there was more than one issue with the watermaker and that it was unlikely to get resolved overnight and in fact would likely take up to a week…

I wasn’t happy, none of us were, however I had a number of factors cursing through my brain – firstly i committed to Luciana to get to Brazil for xmas, secondly I had had a golden opportunity on the Wally 80 that would have got me to the Caribbean in 2 weeks and not only got me to Brazil in time but also allowed me to spend a week or so exploring the Caribbean and the ARC PARTIES in St Lucia!! and thirdly I had to admit to myself that I wasn’t enjoying being on Ariel anymore.

… and so it was that I decided to get off and catch a taxi across the island back to Las Palmas as  a last ditch attempt to get a ride with the ARC boats that were due to set sail at midday the following day – I arrived tired, yet in high spirits and headed straight towards the 3 or 4 boats whom I had met over the previous week or so… The Wally 80 was my first port of call – they looked at me with a “where the f%^ck did you come from look” knowing i had sailed away earlier that day – I explained the situation, however they looked at me regretfully as their new crew stood there looking with a look of “sorry pal. should have been here yesterday!” i tried 2-3 more boats, then proceeded to go door knocking – by 11:00pm I was desperate, tired and in my heart knew that I wasn’t setting sail the next day… I called Max and Bronwyn as agreed as well as texting them but received no answer – I guess I was on my own. I checked into a hotel, had a much needed shower and fell into a blissful sleep.

The next day i was up at the crack of dawn and headed back to the marina for one last try… I put up mini posters with my details, went walking from wharf to wharf and generally gave it my best shot…. The ARC sailed off without me. Beaten but not defeated, i moved my stuff to a youth hostel right near the Marina and gave myself 3 days to find another boat – I made up better posters and spread them around the place, advertising my happy, experienced, easy going, reliable, fun, good at cooking, Australian self – hey there was some tough competition out there with no less than 15 others in a similar predicament to me and at least half of them had that distinct advantage again – they were female.

Within 2 days many boats had come in, and many of them were possibilities, but none were willing to commit and time was ticking… and so it was one night at 3:00 am mulling over what to do, that i recalled the there was a small rally of 34 boats that i had previously been in touch with that was due to sail from Cabo Verde on the west African coast to Brazil – right about now. I fired up my PC, jumped online and quickly looked up where Cabo Verde was in relation to my location – about 1-2 hours flight away from here – I checked out the organiser’s website which confirmed all 34 boats were safely at anchor in Mindelo (Sao Vicente Island) and would be there for the next week – they were due to leave Mindelo on the 30th and were expected to arrive in Brazil between the 15th and 20th of Dec – perfect!!

Next it was onto edreams.com to search for fights – apparently there was 1 flight a week from Las Palams to Praia in Cabo verde – it was the day after tomorrow and was reasonably priced.

The next day I awoke refreshed and excited, headed down to the Marina for one last look, spoke to a few more boats and at  midday decided to head to the airport to book my flight at the office of Cabo Verde airlines – their email was bouncing & website didn’t yet exist – I love it!

By 3:00pm the flight was requested and would take 24 hours to process, I had been to the Cabo Verde embassy and applied for a Visa and my spirits were high!

One last night in Las Palmas spent drinking with some new Irish and kiwi friends and I was on my way – at the last minute I found out that Cabo Verde was in the middle off a Dengue fever  epidemic – what the??!! was this a sign?? well if it was it was too late – I boarder the 1972 model plane, with broken air conditioning, cracked everything and possibly the worse airline food i have ever tasted, but none of it mattered – I was en-route again and excited by the prospect of the point of no return… something would work out!

I landed in Praia 45 minutes late and had 12 minutes to transfer to my connecting flight to Sao Vicente – love Africa – a quick urgent word to the ground hostess and I was ushered straight through and around the corner back onto the tarmac and straight onto the twin prop, even older and more haggard looking plane – unfortunately my luggage wasn’t so lucky…

I landed on the small island of Sao Vicente some 45 minutes later and patiently awaited for my bag – it didn’t arrive… slowly slowly everyone shuffled out and I went to report the missing bag, the girl behind the counter wasn’t surprised – happens every Wednesday! By the time it was all said and done I was the only person left at the airport, no bus, taxi or even information booth – luckily there were 3 policemen who were locking up the airport and offered to give me a ride – good guys!

I checked into the Residencial Beleza, ordered a cold beer and had  a shower – remembered about the dengue fever and proceeded to make sure there were no mosquitoes around – apparently it’s the day mosquitoes that are the carriers, not the night ones?!

The next day I went down to Mindelo, a great little town that promotes itself as the cultural centre of Cabo Verde. The vibe was a mix of things i had experience in other places around the world… Very musical, fishing oriented, with the colonial feel of similar Portuguese influenced countries like Angola and I imagine Mozambique, yet also with a  certain laid back attitude that resembled the pacific islands – this was going to be great fun no matter what!!!!

I found the Marina to be almost full, with the 34 boats in the Iles de soleil rally matched almost 1 for 1 with boats from around the world sailing their own courses heading to either Brazil or the Caribbean. I had a quick scan and quickly headed back to my hotel, started up my laptop and proceeded to design a new poster as well as small flyers that i could hand out to prospective skippers.

Mercado de Peixe – Fish markets

The next 2 days were mainly spent introducing myself in English, French and  even Portuguese to skippers who sadly saw absolutely no use for me beyond a curious interest as to what I was doing here so far from Australia with no ship!!

There were a couple of skippers that showed some interest, but it was hardly a match made in heaven and regardless of where they were heading it was still a minimum 2000 Nautical miles (3,600 kms) that we had to travel together at a likely speed of no more than 10-15kms per hour!!

Slightly depressed, yet buoyed by the atmosphere, the live music, fresh fish and cold beer, I took myself down to the local bar and enjoyed Cabo Verde with locals and tourists alike – it never ceases to surprise me in places like this around the world how friendly the local crew can be… instantly interested in your plight and eager to help I had 3 or 4 guys promoting my services…

Every evening and even the occasional afternoon when I wondered into the local sailors bar, they would welcome me with open arms “oi Australiano… we have some news – Austrian guy looking for crew, Trimaran going to Brazil… so many options, yet again nothing confirmed! Damn…

and so it was for the next few evenings, having a couple of beers. listening to some great live music, meeting people – on my last night in Cabo Verde, (not realizing it was going to be my last night) I was feeling sorry for myself, having spent the afternoon reading a great book, I decided to stay in and continue reading… at 9:30pm or so, I finished the book and pushed along by an empy pit in my stomach I headed down to the bar to get a bite to eat and have a beer…

It was there that I met Lasse and Anders – two 29 year old Danish guys who, along with a third friend, had a dream 4 years ago to sail across the Atlantic before they were 30 – they had bought Dania, a 42 foot custom built steel cruiser some 3 years earlier and were 1/3 of the way on their 12 month long adventure.

Unfortunately Dennis, their 3rd crew member had broken his leg quite badly some 3 weeks earlier in a kite boarding accident. We’d barely had one beer each when we mutually realized that we could help each other out… by 11:00pm we’d decided to head home to our respective shelters in order to sleep on what was a very last minute decision – they were leaving at 3:00pm the next day…. Some things in life just feel right and this was one of them!!

By 2:00pm the next day, a Saturday no less, I had checked out of my hotel, had convinced the customs guy to make a special visit to the office in order to stamp me out of the country, had bought some extra water and supplies for the boat and was happily settling into my new home for the next 2-3 weeks.

The guys warned me that they had no shower onboard, ate mostly baked beans and lived a fairly simple existence… most of it was a joke, because apart form the fact that we don’t have a shower onboard and a very limited supply of fresh water, all else turned out to be as good as it could possibly get – and even the saltwater deck shower concept has turned out to be a great experience!

We shared many mutual interests, none less than fishing – and with approximately 30 hours to go our tally stands as follows:

15 x Mahi Mahi (Dorado)

2 x Wahoo

3 x Large Tuna

1 x Marlin (over 2 metres long caught by yours trully!!)

and countless flying fish that just jump on deck.

Unwrapping half way party gifts! only 1100 Nautical miles to go!

Another great sunset as we head west!

We’ve been spending the days and nights talking, reading, listening to music, swapping stories, thinking about life and counting our blessings as we have unanimously agreed  that it’s been by far the best imaginable ocean crossing we have ever done.

The wind has blown consistently as predicted – ranging from 15 to 30 knots, always from the ENE and allowing us to sail virtually dead downwind and directly to our target, so much so that our shortest possible route was 2103 Nautical miles and we’ll sail 2200 or so in total which represents a very efficient track indeed!

The food has been second to none. Anders specialises in baking all sorts of breads, we’ve had fresh rye bread, wholemeal, sunflower seed as well as a few others.

We’ve taken turns cooking lunches and dinners and have had the following array of meals:

- Mahi Mahi fillets on Rye with tomatoes & fresh aioli

- Panfied Mahi mahi

- Spaghetti Mahi-nara

- Baked Dorado in olive oil and onions served with mashed potatoes

- Wahoo Sushi and Sashimi

- Battered Wahoo with roasted garlic potatoes

- Mahi Mahi marinated in lemon juice and tossed in a fresh salad

- Wahoo marinated in lemon juice and soy, served raw

- Chicken curry

- Meatball curry

- Tuna Sashimi and seared tuna Sushi

- Tuna salad

- 2 minute noodles for the occasional snack

- and breakfasts of muesli, fresh fruit and yoghurt!

Dania, our home on the high seas is amazingly well equipped, and the guys have done a lot of research and preparation for their 12 month odyssey. It’s been an absolute pleasure to sail and live onboard.  A special mention needs to go out to Aries, our wind vane self steering – I had never actually used one of these before but had read and heard many stories – it’s worked flawlessly for us, from steering dead on track for hours on end in all sorts of winds through to holding us in position as we Heaved to in order to make it easier to pull a fish in – a definite 4th crew member and one that we couldn’t have done without!

We’ve also been using a Pactor modem, over HF radio for brief email communications. I had used one of these previously with limited success – however it seems the further you are in the ocean the better it works… so much so, that I managed to communicate regularly with my ground crew, namely Luciana and my sister Agatha, who have been awesome in organising flight for me from Trinidad to Sao Paulo, via Miami… thanks grrrrls!! Couldn’t have done it without you!

It also meant that I head through the grapevine, that my great old Mate Foz got engaged to Anna…Congratulations guys!!! …what a great piece of news and I couldn’t think of  a better place to hear it – we had a small rum and coke in your honour the other night!!

And so as i write this we have 218 Nautical miles to go before we arrive in Tabago. Looking forward to a shower, a good night’s sleep (we take turns onboard watching the boat round the clock, 3 hours on, 6 hours off) and of course one or two Caribbean rums!!!

It will be sad saying goodbye to the guys, we’ve become great friends over the past 2 weeks and I couldn’t have asked for a better crew to share my first Atlantic crossing with! Good luck with the rest of your journey.

For me, I’ll catch a ferry from Tabago to Trinidad, spend a night in a hotel somewhere and then jump on an early morning flight on the 20th and should be in Sao Paulo by that evening in time for the next adventure – meeting Luciana’s friends and family, a Brazilian xmas and New Years and whatever lies beyond in 2010!!

Wishing you all (all 1 of you that has gotten this far????) a Merry Xmas and a happy and rewarding 2010!!!

x

Gavin

SOME PICS FROM TABAGO

Dania Safely at anchor in Pirate’s Bay, northern Tobago

Heading ashore after 2,200 Nautical miles at sea

Terra firma – in the land of rum nonetheless!

Picture tells a thousand words – or in this case three!

Certainly is the land of colours!

Sunset fishing with the locals

Anders getting into another form of fishing!

Barbeque of freshly caught fish on the beach! ah…mon, is THA life!