and so it was that we sailed into the sunset on a Monday afternoon with so many great memories still fresh in our minds.

5.5 days after leaving the Azores – approaching Cabo Sao Vicente, Portugal

The trip to mainland Portugal was fast – we covered around 1000 miles in just over 5 days averaging 7.4 knots. Unfortunately our rudder developed an ear piercing squeak as well as continuing to vibrate and move around – we knew it was time to address the issue once we arrived in Europe.

Almost there – Lagos here we come

View of Lagos from the top of the mast

But in true Squander style we had some partying to do before getting too involved in work and maintenance.

Dmitry and Luis were set to depart Squander and return to their lives ashore. Dmitry had spent 2.5 months aboard and had really become a solid part of the team – we were going to miss our Russian connection. Luis had only been onboard for 3 weeks but also left his mark.

Dman is a big fan of stripy shirts

We quickly got our bearings around Lagos, and what we couldn’t work out for ourselves we supplemented by chatting to the locals to work out what’s on where… we wanted beach party atmosphere and found it at the Bahia bar – a great Sunday afternoon session, live music, fun people and a balmy summer night – yeehah!

Sandy & Mandy rocking out

After dancing till midnight we were hungry and a little on the wobbly side – we headed back to Squander for a healthy meal of BEEFARONI – it was a joke purchase in America – a 1 kilo tin of macaroni with beef sauce – yum!!!

Cougar alert!!! Lady, you’re old enough to be my mum!

Dmitry took himself off to bed whereas Luis, Simon and I hit the town for round 2 – we ended up at Joe’s Garage where Dan the barman whom we’d met earlier in the day did his best to look after us with free shots and Pints of rum & coke – I don’t think responsible service of alcohol has quite made it over here – we again danced till closing – meeting countless people including big Bill – the owner of Joe’s whom we were set to meet on many occasions in Lagos – this really is a party town!!

Action befriending the bar staff

Joe’s Garage

Whytes – The cavernous underground bar

The rest of the evening is fairly hazy – but we all regrouped onboard the next day and other then a few sore heads all was in order!

The week was spent relaxing, going to the beach and partying most evenings. We bid goodbye to Dmitry and Luis and by Friday morning it was time to set sail again – not far this time – only 30 miles or so to Vilamoura to go and pick up my sister Agatha who was flying in for the weekend from Paris.

Coastal sailing in the Algarve

Sunset in Marina Vilamoura

Before leaving we booked Squander in to be lifted out of the water the following Tuesday. I was very impressed by Sopromar in Lagos who were very helpful, reliable and like many of the Portuguese people we have met spoke near perfect English – great to deal with.

Vilamoura was an interesting place – it seems to be a package tour destination for mostly British people, with many of the bars, restaurants and cafes catering to English tastes. We jumped online and tried to find some more local/traditional entertainment and weren’t disappointed – there was an opening party at the old Niki Beach resort on Saturday night as well as a great Balinese inspired bar/club open till 4:00am right next door to the marina… plus a beach on our doorstep as well as bunch of good Portuguese seafood restaurants which we found in the back streets away from the hustle and bustle.

After a late dinner of Portuguese Sardines (def my favourite dish in Portugal) Simon & I stationed ourselves at the bar at “Agua Moments” in Marina Vilamoura and waited for Agatha to arrive – she finally made it by 1:30am and in true Gorazdowski style came straight to the bar from the airport and tucked into a couple of quiet mojitos… good to see you sis!

Agatha learning the Squander salute

As 4:00am was approaching we met a great local couple who offered to give us a lift in their dinghy from the bar – a short 200 m by boat that saved us having to walk right around the entire marina. We invited them back to Squander for a nightcap before finally retiring for the night.

Agatha introducing style and her signature bloody marys

The next day was a cracker with the sun shining, and hardly any wind – we decided to stay another night in Vilamoura and headed for a relaxing afternoon at the beach, followed by a late seafood lunch complete with local beers and Mateus wine.

As evening was nearing we decided to have a little siesta which lasted till 8:00pm… we finally got up, had a few drinks and a bite to eat and headed out to the white party at around 10:30 – we managed to get ourselves on the guest list which saved us 20 euros each ($30) – and thank god for that – we only lasted 10 minutes there – an amazing venue but the mixture of less then inspiring music,  a stiff crowd and $15 drinks meant that it was time to head back to our favourite bar – Agua moments.

Agua moments with its own pontoon

This place was unreal, Balinese inspired, outdoor bar/nightclub with a very local crowd, well priced drinks and a fun DJ pumping out the tunes on the water’s edge at the marina – and the best part about it we got there by dinghy and parked it in the dinghy carpark… I wonder if there are rules against drink-dinghying??!

It was there that we met Rita and Marta – 2 cool girls from Lisbon – Rita’s a Soap opera actor here in Portugal and she had a mini fan club on the dance floor – in true Squander style we whisked the girls away in the dinghy for a round of sunrise drinks aboard. We eventually said goodbye to our new friends in the early hours and settled down for a short rest. We woke up around midday and set sail for Portimao.

We were hoping to anchor along the way, go for a swim and have lunch, but the swell had come up overnight and we couldn’t find a good shelter. Eventually we decided to head for the protected anchorage in Portimao, fire up the BBQ and have the last of the meat that we bought in America – we’ll miss those steaks!!

The last of the steaks
Portimao Sunset

Well after sunset, we jumped in the dinghy and went ashore to check out the town – very touristy and not really our scene but cool to check it out anyway.

In the morning we weighed anchor and set sail for Lagos – actually we motored the hour or so as there wasn’t much wind. We pulled into Lagos, tied up and went to one of our favourite cafes – Lazy Jacks for lunch with Agatha before putting her on the train to Faro.

Bye Sis… see you onboard again soon!

The next morning it was time to focus on Squander – we hauled her out of the water and the guys at Sopromar dropped the rudder and went about machining new rudder post bushes made out of Polyoxymethylene (POM).

A rudder-less squander

Straight into it – cleaning the rudder post

Rudder back in

Lagos Marina

The maxprop – is that the source of our vibrations???

Simon and I attacked many of the jobs onboard from fixing leaky water hoses, sorting out the gas oven regulator, replacing the furler block, replacing the anchor light  bulb ($45 friggin dollars for a light globe!!!)  finally sourcing the right o ring for the deck wash filter and a bunch of other stuff.

We also gave Squander a good wash and shampoo as well as polishing her topsides… and so with the rudder firmly in place and one last night out in Lagos, we set sail for Cadiz in Spain – world cup final fever was awaiting!

Lagos by night

Live music in the town square

Simon doing a bit of street art

Local sushi restaurant in Lagos – all you can eat for 15 euros!
The Spanish navy patrolling the waters

Approaching Cadiz

Two days into it and Spain is living up to expectations !!

Having sailed overnight from Portugal, we were pretty tired. So after a quick swim at the beach and some local fare on the way home we decided to have a siesta… a long one – we woke up at midnight – perfect!! just in time to go out and party.

many of the clubs here don’t open until midnight – by the time we managed to get organised it was 1:00 am – we drifted towards the centre of town and found a cool little bar that was going to be our place to watch the world cup final the following evening. We had a couple of beers there and headed for Imagina  – my new favourite club – great vibe, unreal music and a cool crowd.

Chicas espanolas – is that Elle’s Spanish daughter?!  

It was 8:00am by the time we finally made it to bed… a few hours sleep and then off to the beach again… life is tough.

It seems we weren’t the only ones with that idea!

a popular spot!

It was world cup final Sunday and the first time Spain had ever been in a world cup final – the nervous buzz was palpable!! … (incidentally apparently New Zealand was the only team to not lose a single game in the world cup??!!)

Freshly caught Tuna – a healthy breakfast at 2:30pm!

We showered up and headed straight for the little bar we had found the night before – when we got there it was full of Spaniards who welcomed us with open arms, offering us seats and beers – unreal vibe and awesome to watch the game in such great company!!

A couple of stand out classic dudes made the whole experience even more real – one guy was so nervous he sat outside the bar the whole night just waiting for the game to finish – the entire bar kept on making fun of him by doing the occasional coordinated “GOOOOOOOAL…!!!”

When the game was finally over and Spain had won the bar owner pulled out a hose and sprayed the entire bar – people were dancing, jumping for joy, hugging and crying…

Soaking wet, slightly tipsy and in the best of moods we bid our new friends goodbye as they thanked us for being their “Kangaroo good luck charms”!

The pressure is off – smiles all around – we are the champions!

We headed straight for the big central area where everyone was again jumping for joy and celebrating – having soaked up as much joy as we could we decided it was time to hit some more bars – and that we did – Woodstock Bar, followed by a great little club whose name we don’t know and then a finish at Imagina again….
Quick food stop


Midnight and the celebrations spill onto the streets!

Action befriending the locals

Half Hombre half Torro!

Time for a break I think – some healthy eating and exercise before heading for some more fun in Ibiza!

LATE UPDATE: We stopped in Tarifa and love this place. So will stay here for a week or so before heading to Gibraltar and onto Ibiza.

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 – Victoria Bitter.
You can get it drivin’,
You can get it strivin’,
You can get it any old how…

Matter of fact, I’ve got it now

 
Leaving our Dolphin friends behind, we first sighted land at around 7pm and by midnight we were coastal sailing, inhaling the sweet smells of land and looking forward to our first rum and coke – apart from a quiet wine at the half way point, we had abstained from drinking for 2 weeks!

 
Almost in “race mode” hand steering towards the finish

“Pico” greeting us from the neighbouring island

Having motored into the Harbour at around 3:00am in the hope of quietly tying up till the morning, we were soon interrupted by a voice on Channel 16 on the VHF – “…yacht entering Horta harbour this is Horta Radio… you’re advised that you have to anchor overnight and wait for customs to open…”  – I politely explained that we were having problems with our anchor windlass, we were tired (read thirsty) and we were hoping to tie up somewhere – the well spoken voice on the radio explained in perfect English that they understood but could not do anything for us at this point…

The harbour was rammed with boats and I didn’t like the prospect of hand dropping/raising the anchor in a crowded anchorage… so we reluctantly turned around and headed back to deep water, with Dmitry on the helm and Simon and I with our troubleshooting hats on, multimeter in hand (thanks Todd for the present!) focused on fixing the windlass… it took us 1.5 hrs to get it sorted (i.e. work out how to “hot wire” it) and we headed back into Harbour… no sooner had we got within earshot of the anchorage that the friendly voice was back on the Radio advising us that we had clearance to tie up at the commercial shipping dock… yeehah…

Dmitry after 2 rum and cokes – as a container ship ties up in front of us

And one behind us too.

We watched the sun rise over Horta and realised that if nothing else, we would be in some good company – the little harbour and Marina was a temporary home to at least 50-60 yachts from all around the world. Most of them making the pilgrimage from the Caribbean back to Europe.

By 8:00am I had consumed my fair share of Rum and decided to leave Dmitry and Simon to enjoy the morning, whilst I lined up to be one of the first in the Marina office to check in, go through customs and get the necessary clearances into the European Union…. It was all sorted by 10:00am and we were soon rafting up in our new home for the next week. The Marina was so crowded that yachts were rafted up 3,4 and 5 deep.

Squander rafted up three deep, we had to hop over the yachts to get to shore.

We’ve got a little tradition on Squander that we do our best to clean up the boat for any new crew arriving – as much as it no doubt makes it more pleasant for new crew joining it’s also a good excuse to get stuck into a bit of cleaning for  a “reason”… Luis was due to arrive at 13:00 and we had our work cut out for us… no sleep since midnight, a few rums under our belts and 2 weeks of Atlantic crossing mess to cover up, ahmmm I mean clean up in under 3 hours… we got stuck into it and we all agreed that we did a great job!! hahhah… sorry Luis…!

“Action” getting stuck into a bit of house work

Luis’ first moments on Squander

Having met each other and showed Luis our Video of the Atlantic crossing, tested out a few tall stories on him and consumed more rum, we all agreed it was time to find the infamous Peter’s bar. Hey Luis, you speak Portuguese right…Can you ask where’s

National Holiday in Horta – the streets were quiet – where’s this Bar?

Finally found what we were looking for.

Having had a couple of beers we decided to head back to the boat, have some food, shower up and come back later – still no sleep…

 
And come back we did…. time and time again!

The friendly staff of Peter’s bar.

It can be said that we had many a great night there, with new and old friends alike. It could be said that there were some taxing times with the Skipper of a boat that has the letter Q in its name falling asleep at the Bar, matter of fact many things could be said but this is a family blog and we prefer to not say certain things, however the following pictures should do enough talking…!

Happy 30th Birthday Luis – Tequila all around!

Asleep at the computer… this blog writing takes its toll

A quiet evening with the Crew of “Ocean Lady” 
Luis got “Squandered”

An “Action” sized beer

Action doing his post night out workout  

Nahh Gav, you can’t go drinking these tiny beers 

Heading for a night out with The “Circus” crew 
Thomas and Dmitry building Russo-German relations.

“Poor Clowns” – The new Boy band from Squander and Circus

Luis befriending the lovely Nikolina from Sweden (sailing from the Caribbean to Sweden with only her Dad!!!) – By the way if you’re reading this the Captain knows about your Yaegermeister tricks!!

Parties aside, we had a lot of fun exploring the island of  Faial, fixing a few bits and bobs on Squander and generally enjoying ourselves outside the boundaries of bars.

The murals with Pico Volcano in the distance

There’s a great tradition in Horta amongst visiting yachts to paint a small mural on the breakwall to commemorate your voyage – it is said that it will bring good luck on the ensuing passage to Europe.

Basecoat, a couple of beers for inspiration and…

Voila!!

We also seemed to spend a lot of time entertaining aboard Squander which was great fun… On occasion pulling out old favourites like “shrimp on the barbie” and fish soup in honour of Luis’ 30th Birthday – Amanda, Patrick and Thomas joined us from “Circus” with Amanda delivering a killer cheese cake with candles and all!!

 
Night view from Squander

Once round 1 of parties was complete and we had pumped through many of the jobs that needed doing, Luis and Dmitry suggested we hire motor bikes…

Servicing a winch – tick!

they came back with 2 scooters for the 4 of us to share… Simon and I looked at each other with slight discomfort as we weren’t sure how to explain that in Australia it would be fairly uncommon for us to ride a small scooter whilst holding on tight to another dude… it all somehow worked out and before long we had a scooter each and we’re off terrorizing the streets of Faial. 

Giving our photographer the bird… 
Dmitry was firmly in charge of our destination – VOLCANO!            

Once back safe and sound at the Marina, Thomas, our new German friend from “Circus” suggested that we should all go and watch the World Cup game between Germany and Australia – still remembering the glory days of the 2006 World cup (Bring back GUS!!!) we proceeded to dress up Dimitry as our team mascot and head in to the slaughterhouse – a bar full of Germans!! hahahah well we all know the result… we left soon after with our tail between our legs and with one happy Thomas!!      
And so it was after sightseeing and partying with people from all around the world – Shout outs to the legendary  Norwegian dudes, Diego and Nina from Italy and Switzerland, Assa from New York, Grant from OZ, Charlie and crew from “Naroly”, old acquaintances from Laurel Blue, and so many other great people we met – it was time to move on – we had one last little party and left Horta 4 hours after our planned departure time – partly because one hungover Russian crew member disappeared for 1.5 hrs – it turned out he really felt like tea and cake and was sitting in a cafe the whole time….

And so once all were onboard again, we cast off from Horta and set sail for the island of Terceira happy and excited to be heading for the week long San Joaninas Festival that was due to start in 2 days time.

We sailed the 100 or so Nautical Miles, giving Luis a taste of Squander actually sailing as well as giving everyone a chance to get some much needed rest.

We arrived in the Port of Angra do Heroismo late in the evening and decided to anchor out until daybreak.

As day broke, a cool little city greeted us…
  

We proceeded to check into the Marina, and after being told that it was full, we managed to snag a spot in the outside berths that proved to be just fine for us. This was to be our last stop before the final 900 Nautical miles sailing to Portugal so we were keen on making it a fun stop.

The town was in full swing and we couldn’t believe our luck as we joined the opening parade in the streets, partying till the early hours of the morning.

The locals spared no expense in dressing up the town, with lights, music in the streets, various stages, food stalls and a great carnival vibe that lasted for a week.

The Terceira Robocop angels.

One of the many Tapas stands that we visited over the 4 or so days there.

One of the stages right near the marina – empty at 10:30pm –jumping at 1:00am

Some funky moves going down as the band pumped out hit after hit!

  
1:00 am and the streets are alive with young and old alike. 

The Brazilian Caipirinha Guy was a local hit.         
Hmmm… freshly baked chorizo rolls 
Amanda and Patrick – owners of “Circus of Southampton”  – a beautiful Grand Soleil 46  

Now aside from the parties and religious connotations of the San Joaninas Festival, Terceira and specifically this week is famous for bullfighting – at first we were a bit reluctant to support this ‘sport’ – however at the 11th hour we decided that we had to see it for ourselves in order to form an opinion… and so we headed to the “Praca de Toiros” and were pleasantly surprised by a mix of tradition, bravado, showmanship and outright courage!

450 KG of Bull charging at you – quick get the pink cape!

This guy was awesome – many a close call on his horse! However our favourite were the bull tacklers – a group of fairly diminutive guys whose job is to tackle the bull head on – see the video below – crazzzzzzzy!!!!

VIDEO HERE

There were some classic faces in the crowd

Including one satisfied Dmitry with beer and pork rolls in hand!

Speaking of which, this guy seemed to enjoy his pork rolls too!

We came back from the bull fight  very impressed and decided to head out for one last dinner in town. The local girls that we had met were encouraging us to stay till Wednesday when the BIG party was on, but a mix of one too many hangovers as well as a weather prediction that suggested we needed to go now or not for another five days  meant that we made snap decision to leave the next day – Monday.

Before leaving, we were invited to a great little local restaurant for lunch – “Adega de Sao Mateus” – it was fantastic. Sampling local delicacies like Cracas, Boca Negra, Cherna, Garoupa and Lapas amongst a host of great freshly caught seafood, . Thanks Patricia & Barbara – you were great hosts and we wish we could have stayed longer. 

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 recall) & plenty of amazing rum all served with plenty of that unbeatable Bahamian hospitality that we have grown to love!

Thank you – especially to you Amanda, you rock!

We’ve packed away the dinghy on the foredeck

So we left Nassau in a stiff Nor easter which was meant to be an easterly and it soon became obvious that we would be beating into it – punishing the boat and crew alike – Todd and I had a quick look at the charts and decided to head for Grand Bahama – a 150 NM detour, but one that would allow us to ride “the magic carpet” of the gulf stream as well as hopefully avoiding the high pressure area with no wind which was forming north of the Bahamas.

How to turn an 800NM trip into well over 1000 Nautical miles

The plan worked well – the wind settled overnight and within 24 hrs we were travelling at 9knots over the ground picking up up to 2 knots of current.

It was a great trip, with plenty of time for fun, games and the odd bit of thinking time.

We’ve all, at one time or another in our lives, strived towards something we really wanted – in my younger years I worked crappy jobs whilst studying to save up enough money to buy an old VW kombi Van – the work sucked, but the appeal of buying my first car kept me going with a smile on my dial.

A bit of downtime on watch – Nath finding innovative ways to keep his hand warm

Since then there have been many situations where I have resorted to imagination as a way of justifying and motivating myself through difficult situations – “imagine the day I don’t have to wake up and go to work, imagine the day when I don’t have three proposals hanging over my head, budgets to meet, clients to see, staff to hire, meetings to go to… imagine the day when I’m sailing under a star lit sky, on a balmy summer evening, listening to great music, the boat is self steering on auto pilot and I’m suspended in the moment – it was on the 4th night or so, the conditions were so calm that we decided to do one man watches and get plenty of rest – we were motoring in calm waters.

I came up on deck at 3:00am and no sooner had Dimitry gone to bed, that the wind came up – a perfect 12 knot breeze just aft of our beam – I hoisted the main and as the wind swung further back I decided to pole out the headsail – within 15 minutes Squander was flying along in the calm seas, steady as can be – I looked up at the sky and thanked my lucky stars – and they replied – with a huge shooting star lighting up the night sky.

Sun rising as my watch comes to an end

It was at that moment that I recalled all those times when I would day dream about this precise moment, those 6:00 am rises when the surf was pumping but instead of hitting the waves I headed to the office to try and get a head start on the day, those evenings when instead of catching up with friends for a beer I’d be finishing proposals at my desk till 9 and 10pm, those sunny summer days – when I hated looking out of my office window realizing I was committed to the indoors instead of being out there – That moment alone, on a solo nights watch, made all that hard work worthwhile – and there have been many such moments in the past 18 months with hopefully many more to come – It seems that dreaming about better days seems as important as remembering the shitty days once your dreams start becoming reality!

The trip from the Bahamas was largely uneventful as far as sailing goes, but being an inventive bunch we kept ourselves well entertained…

Paper Airplane  flying competition

The competitors’ airplane design varied greatly

On the 14th of May at approx 29N 77W we had the inaugural “Airplane Cup” where Russia took on the might of Australia and came out second best – see the video below!

Name a food game

Very simple game that kept Strike and Action entertained for hours – you start with A (eg Apple) then the next person names a food starting with B (eg Bread) and so on until you get to Z or someone gets stuck – might seem trivial but how many foods do you know that start with X??

hahah – yeah it was a slow trip!

Search for Russia’s next male model – dimitrij does blue steel

This man not only has “the look” but also managed to sneeze 17times in a row – impressive huh??!

Hooking a huge Marlin
Whereas not exactly a game it certainly broke up the boredom – as those of you that have been following the blog for a while know – our fishing has been really bad to date – we’ve caught 2 Barracuda and a beautiful big Snapper – but nothing else???!! A mix of doing a lot of upwind sailing & shallow water sailing I think has contributed… anyway – late one afternoon one of the rods went OFFF – whizzzing like crazy – I tried putting as much drag as possible on it and it didn’t even begin to work… within 20-30 seconds I could see all of my 500M of line disappearing – we had hooked something huge – I grabbed the fishing rod and just held on to see what would happen.

Just as we thought the monster at the other end was going to break off all of the fishing line – a huge MARLIN jumped into the air some 300-400 metres away and freed itself from our lure – a bitter sweet result as we’re glad we didn’t unnecessarily kill a 2-3 Metre fish but it would have been fun to fight with it for a while and it certainly would have provided some great entertainment!

Casino 31degrees North was setup in international waters aboard  Squander. Games of 21 were fiercely fought between players and the banker alike – we’re not sure who won in the end as thankfully the wind came up and broke up the fun.

Spot something – anything!

A ship, another yacht, a bird, flotsam, a huge blue bottle

400 NMiles from land, motoring in dead calm conditions for 36 hrs – great excuse for a BBQ!

Salt water spa bath – Squander style – one day we were all getting a bit on the nose and needed a good wash. The sun was shining and all 2,500m of water under us was blue and calling – we were sailing at about 5 knots with very light breeze behind us so we decided to try and get dragged / washed behind the boat – Action volunteered to go first but only lasted a minute or so as he opened his eyes under water and thought the rudder was a huge shark fin – we all ended up taking turns, enjoying the afternoon & getting a good wash in the process!

Action looking for sharks


Cap’t Gav no longer in command of his ship

Getting out was not as easy as it seems – Dimitrij demonstrates

DJ Strike Harvey’s greatest hits at full ball were also a memorable aspect of the trip – in fact we will miss old Nath a lot as he’s forever providing entertainment, laughs, ingenuity and not to mention his constant efforts to produce extra wind – whether we need it or not!

Nath’s favourite hour or three – sunset drinks

We tried having a rule that we were allowed to start sunset drinks when the sun was about the height of a beer above the horizon – Nath pondered this idea for a while… it was  3:00pm and things were fairly thirsty onboard – he disappeared down below, put his PARTY playlist on at full ball and came up with beers for everyone proudly announcing a solution to a problem that we didn’t know we had – rather then waiting all those hours until the sun goes down towards the horizon, we can stack 4 beers on top of each other and use the sun’s decent to pace ourselves as we consume them…so brilliantly STRIKE!

Nath’s leaving Squander in the next couple of days and heading to Canada to spend the summer in Muskoka teaching water skiing. On his last night at sea he took charge of the stereo and entertained us with all sorts of tunes at full ball – with the highlight definitely being the change of watch wake up – listening to Pink Floyd’s “comfortably numb”, travelling at 8 knots under a star lit sky at 3:00am – brilliant (well for those of us that were on watch anyway – sorry Simon and Todd hahahahh wakey wakey fellas!)

Nath’s last night at sea on Squander

We arrived in Bermuda almost exactly 7 days after leaving Nassau – and although it wasn’t a particularly fast time – we were happy to be in port, having not only completed our first decent long passage but also really enjoyed it!

Land Ahoy!

The markers north of Bermuda warning about the outlying reefs

Entering St George’s Harbour

Leaving the Atlantic behind for a week or so

Todd and his phone – the story unfortunately doesn’t end there… but more on that in the next blog post!

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!