Two weeks in Morocco, new friends & fun times in the Canary Islands

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…

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Sailing with the Girl with the dragon Tattoo

Where were we.... Italy. It seems like a lifetime ago already as i write this from the capital of Morocco. There's a surprisingly pleasant wailing (a muslim call to prayer) in the mosque tower near the marina adding colour to my already colourful evening. Earlier, John from Solstice next door dropped off half a freshly caught Mahi Mahi for me for dinner, I cooked it up and have washed it down with plenty of Vino and am not allowed to get up from the nav station until…

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Living la dolce vita – a slow sail south from Rome.

After a memorable week of Villas, lakes and family fun in lake Como - it was equally great to be back by the seaside again and back on Squander. To make things even better mum & dad were staying with me onboard in Rome for a few days and then driving down to Vietri sul mare to visit their friends where they would again jump onboard for a week. Back on Squander! Aaron, an old mate from Sydney, has been living in Rome for the past 4…

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Sailing to Rome via Bonifacio Strait

Goodbye Ibiza... we woke up later then planned in Cala Llonga and pointed Squander North East, aiming at northern Sardegna (Sardinia) via Mallorca. We had a tight weather window that would allow us to get to Mallorca in one day where we would hide from the bad weather that was forecast to hit the area the following evening. From there we would pick the next good weather window, scrape past Menorca and continue sailing through the night onto Sardegna. We've been watching the storms that roll down…

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Lagos, Villamoura, Portimao & football fever in Cadiz!

After a somewhat last minute departure from Terceira in the Azores, we had a brilliant run all the way to Portugal and mainland Europe. We weren't planning on leaving so soon but were forced to make a decision as Dmitry and Luis had to be back in Europe by the beginning of July  and the Azores high pressure system which kills all wind was looking like settling in for a week or so - the decision had to be made - we go now or not for…

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

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

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1000 miles to Bermuda

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

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Iridium 9505a installation on Windows 7

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

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

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

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I can have toast again!

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

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