The next day we got up, did a quick trip to the supermarket to stock up and left Puerto de America marina on our way south towards the Med… we had a great sail and by sunset were faced with either pulling up at Barbate for the night or continuing for Gibraltar straights in the dark.

We opted for an overnight stop in Barbate and were fortunate to not have to pay for the Marina as conditions were calm enough to anchor just off the beach.

After a great sleep & morning swim we were on our way again towards Tarifa and the Med finally.

Approaching Gibraltar straights – North Africa in the background

We timed the approach to Tarifa such that we would have favourable currents and did our best to avoid any serious winds. Tarifa boasts a 30+ knot average on at least 300 day per year.

In the Straits – traffic, chop and Africa in the distance.

We arrived in the early afternoon and managed to anchor just outside the harbour on the east side of Tarifa islet. There are 2 winds that blow here a Westerly called a “poniente” which is what we were experiencing and the somewhat dreaded easterly called a “Levante” which often blows at 15-20 knots more then it’s forecast to.

Entering the Mediterranean

The forecats was calling for 3 days of Poniente and then 2 strong days of Levante before switching to a westerly again that would allow us to continue onto Gibraltar. We were relying heavily on www.windguru.cz which not only gives the official forecast but also an interpreted version which seemed to be very accurate for local Tarifa weather.

The huge ferries make the anchorage a little rocky at times.

Our anchorage on the east side

And so with the anchor firmly set, we dinghied ashore to explore this little town which reminded me a lot in character of Byron Bay in Australia crossed with Spanish/Morccan influences -  a great mix!
  
Cobble stone streets, bars and tapas restaurants.

And once the clock strikes midnight, there’s the spanish nightlife…
 

Simon showing off his limbo skills 

Amongst other things, we booked ourselves into a kiteboarding course for 2 days in an attempt to focus on non-alcohol fuelled activities ashore. It really paid off as not only we got to do some exercise whilst having fun, but we also met some great people in the process.

Speaking of people, on our second last night in Cadiz we met Kirsten & Allard, 2 friends from Holland who were in mourning after suffering defeat at the hands of the Spaniards.  Kirsten told me her and Allard were finishing up their Spanish course at the end of the week and had no plans beyond that. As a bonus, Allard had done a fair bit of sailing and would be able to contribute to sailing Squander.

We exchanged numbers and left an open invitation to join us onboard for the trip to Ibiza.

Within a week Allard and Kirsten had caught a bus to Tarifa and joined us onboard for a wicked 10 days of fun, good food, sailing and partying – great to have you guys onboard, you’re welcome back anytime!

 
The anchor snubber doing it’s job holding onto Squander in 40 knots.

and so it was after 3 days of fun in Tarifa, the Levante turned up and blew like buggery for 48 hours. We were forced to move the boat back onto the Atlantic side of Tarifa islet and stay onboard for the first 24 hours as the 35-40 knot winds played various tunes on our rigging.

View from the beach, Squander on the left

We had plenty of chain out, and with almost no swell to speak of, our anchor held tight. Within 24 hours the wind had moderated to 28-35 knots and we were able to launch the dinghy and go ashore.

The updated “team Squander” 

Late on a Monday afternoon, the wind stopped as suddenly as it had started. We picked up Kirsten and Allard, did some shopping and motored east towards Gibraltar in dead calm conditions with the sun behind us.
 
Coastal sailing in Europe – never too far away from a text message or two.

 
A local fisherman making the most of the calm conditions in the straights of Gibraltar.

Approaching Gib – the rock sticking out of the fog.

We arrived in Gibraltar around 10pm and well after dark. Having weaved our way through the fog, the tankers and avoided the airport runway.

We dropped anchor in an anchorage that was marked on my chart – given that we were there alone, I had a feeling we may not be allowed to stay the night there.

No sooner had we cooked up dinner and sat down with a customary glass of vino, I noticed a spot light on us from a large RHIB. I came up on deck to face a couple of Policemen who advised us that we were no longer allowed to anchor there since “all of the events of 9/11” – it turned out we were too close to the runway… So after a short 45 minutes in British waters, we moved back to Spanish waters at La Linea (10 minutes away) and anchored there overnight.

 
Squander safely at the Bay Marina next to the airport runway as we explore the rock

The next day we booked ourselves into a marina and went about exploring Gibraltar. As it turned out we had a berth next door to some fellow Australians – Rosco & Sue Ellen on a great Catalina called “Barrenjoey” – great to meet you guys.

Enjoying a private screening of a 3D history of Gibraltar
 
Tanker playground.


The beach where some 14 years ago Michael, Mark & I parked our old Kombi Van for the night on our way around Europe.

 
Simon trying his luck with the local ladies

Allard hanging with a local. La Linea anchorage in the distance

We covered the sights of “Gib”, stocked up on Duty Free drinks and within 2 days were ready to head for Ibiza via 1 or 2 Spanish ports. Amongst other things we desperately needed to pick up some gas as we had run out and no one wanted to fill our Gas bottles and local "Camping Gaz” swap and go bottles cost a small fortune to buy.
Heineken all around as we melt Aussie and Dutch cultures.

So we set sail for our first overnighter since leaving Portugal. As we entered the straights, we picked up a nice 18-20 knots breeze from behind as well as up to 3 knots of current…

We averaged over 10 knots for some 5 hours before a change of tide slowed our progress.

At anchor in Almeria 

By the morning we were abeam of Almeria and our last safe spot where we could easily hide from the strong easterlies forecast for the next 2 days. We pulled in and again anchored just outside the harbour. We went ashore in search of gas, food, internet and mobile phone credit… by mid afternoon we had accomplished everything we needed to and decided to spend a night at anchor and keep going in the morning if conditions allowed it.

Introducing new crew to the Squander push up program

The next day, we set off, with the wind on our nose and conditions soon started deteriorating with the wind & swell building to a fairly uncomfortable level – we had 2 reefs in and shortened headsail and were still managing 7.5-8 knots, but were bashing into it and not really enjoying ourselves.

Allard brought his own world charts onboard

A quick scan of the charts identified a protected anchorage at Cabo de Gata some 30 minutes inshore from where we were. It didn’t take long to make a decision to head for shelter and glad we did.  A great little spot and by sundown we had the entire place to ourselves.

Look out for the killer crab

 
Simon demonstrating the “sunset drinks” salute 
Look a ‘monster’ sunset 

We’re not sure if it was the full moon, the balmy night, the natural beauty of the spot or all of those things put together, but we all got in synch and decided to have a Squander dance party well into the early hours of the morning – one of the most fun, impromptu, nights onboard that I think we’ve had to date and there’s some stiff competition in that department. Action summed it up when he exclaimed at 2:00 am “…I’m having so much fun,  I just want to press pause on my life right now!”
 
Drunken Chefs

Introducing the Starboard side dance podium

Things were heating up – Simon demonstrates how to cool off.

Ahh that’s better – now for the chicken dance!

and the disco balls were flying


Kirsten was a popular dance partner leading the way with some power dance moves
 

What the?? should we be running the first “win a night on Squander” competition by coming up with the best caption for this photo

Inspired by the music, the dancing and the fun from the night before – we all woke up grinning and ready to tackle the final 230 miles or so to Ibiza. The winds had subsided overnight and by 8:00 am we were underway again, first under motor and then under sail for a big majority of the trip there.

 
Heading east again as the sun rises 

By Midday the sun was shining and we decided to all have a dip in the sea – we introduced Kirsten and Allard to Body dragging…

Later in the day, we had the Spanish customs trailing us for a number of hours which was slightly disconcerting, first they did a low fly by in an airplane taking photos of us, then a giant inflatable snuck up on us and started circling us, then they called in a chopper and finally late at night the inflatable was back with huge spot lights – they never established contact with us other then the occasional nod as we waved to them.

Getting tracked by Spanish Customs

Having been left alone, we sailed on with a Full moon again overnight and by the evening of night 2 we were anchored at Salinas on the South West coast of Ibiza!

 
Allard spotting “party island” 

Celebratory Bloody Maries

Walking back to our Dinghy with shopping in hand

So many distractions (attractions) on the beach

A quick afternoon beer as Squander waits patiently in the background 
 
House Music rules this world – there’s a DJ for every occasion 

We’ve now been here for 5 days and earlier today we bid farewell to Kirsten and Allard who flew home to Amsterdam – thanks for some very fun times guys.

You know life is tough when the biggest dilemma is choosing which party to go to.
 
I’m sure Simon will miss the extra pair of hands on deck – who will help with the anchoring??

In a short time Kirsten progressed from passenger to foredeck hand, to even trying her hand at skippering – seen here ‘practicing’ giving out orders

Flying the dutch ‘crew’ flag

Ibiza has been great so far and i can see us getting stuck here for a while longer.

Last night we watched the sunset outside the original Cafe del Mar – the inspiration for all of those chill out CD’s that most of us have bought over the years.

Squander centre stage for the light show. 
           
Dutch invasion… Allard & Kirsten’s friends from Holland join us for sunset drinks

It’s a great vibe as yachts and speed boats boats all anchor up outside the 3-4 main sunset bars (Cafe del Mar, Mambo, Savannah amongst others). Onshore there are 1000’s of people watching the sun go down for 2 hours or so, drinking and grooving to the house tunes pumping out of all the bars.

By the time the sun actually sets, the 10,000 or so strong crowd cheers and claps celebrating the end of another day, and more importantly the beginning of another debauchery filled Ibiza night – the volume gets turned up and the DJ’s go into overdrive – welcome to party central!

More on Ibiza in the next blog… time for a swim and a siesta as another fun night awaits.

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. 

10 June 2010 – three of us (Dmitrij, Simon & Gavin) arrived in the Azores, landing in the small island of Faial in the port of Horta. We have so far crossed approximately three quarters of the Atlantic from Florida to the Azores, via the Bahamas and Bermuda.

Crossing the Northern Atlantic was always going to be a challenge –  the unpredictable and ever changing weather patterns, the bitterly cold temperatures that keep you awake on watch at 3:00 am , the occasional 12 hours of driving rain and blustery winds and at other times dead calm and sunny. We had winds from every direction, ranging from 3 to 40 knots – we sailed up wind, dead downwind & everything in between – we had many things ‘not go to plan’ and just as many things that worked perfectly and made our lives infinitely easier & more enjoyable – in short so far it’s been a true adventure, rewarding, challenging, at times taxing on body & mind alike… & occasionally frustrating – yet overall exactly what we came looking for and I’m sure we’ve all gotten a lot out of having completed this leg of it!

To our old mate Todd, who was meant to be here with us, but for a mishap in Bermuda involving walking of a pier whilst texting his girlfriend, we wish you a speedy recovery and hope the knee operation went well!!

For a change, we have decided to document the trip using video and as such the rest of this blog is dedicated to a more ‘technical’ sailing oriented download of the experience which may or may not interest you – where as for pure entertainment value we recommend the video below…. enjoy (and you may need to be patient as it takes a while to download the 85MB – youtube version coming soon!

Many years ago, when I was 18 or 19 I was strolling through Balmain markets in Sydney. An old hippie who had seen me pull up in my Green VW Kombi, invited me over to his stall and recommended that I buy a book from him – it was called “Divine Right’s trip” – it became my favourite book – this was in the days when i was reading a lot of Jack Kerouak, Hunter S Thompson and so on – anyway – Divine Right (the lead character) bought an old VW bus called “Urge” from a family who had loved and cared for Urge. Divine proceeded to go on an adventure with his girlfriend, a bunch of hitchhikers and whole heap of pot. The book kicks off with Urge (the VW bus) speaking “… I hadn’t gone five hundred miles with that son of a bitch before I’d have given my fuel pump to be back in that parking lot. That bastard drove me from Boston to Chicago to St Luis to Cincinnati without once checking my oil…” and it goes on…

I hadn’t thought about that  book for a long time but for some reason the adventure with “Squander” has reminded me of it – I wonder what Squander would say about us given the opportunity??!! I’d like to think we’re not quite as bad as old Divine Right, but we’ve made a few rookie errors that I’m sure Squander is not used to and is wondering what the hell we’re doing…

Atlantic crossing – What went right

- Three man crew. We were meant to do it with 4 of us initially, but due to Todd hurting himself and having to fly home early, we were left with 3. I made the decision that three people whom all knew each other and had over 6 weeks experience with the boat was a better crew then having a 4th crew member who didn’t know us or the boat. It worked brilliantly. Nice work guys for stepping up to the challenge and making it such a smooth and relatively pain free passage.

Half way across the Atlantic approx 42W.

- Water. We have 400 litters in the main tank as well as a 100 liters in various containers as emergency water should the main tank get contaminated or something else should happen to it. With 3 of us onboard and 14 days at sea including a shower every 3 days or so we have only used 275 liters. (a little over half of our total) if pressed we could have lived on half of that again.

- Food – we’ve eaten like kings. we prepared about 5 meals which were ready to eat for rougher weather days or lazy ones… and have used fresh and frozen ingredients to cook daily. Fruit has been a bonus and after 2 weeks at sea it’s great to chomp into a fresh orange or apple. Some surprises have been Lemons that have lasted 2 months, Lettuce and tomatoes that have lasted 2 weeks refrigerated – and old staple that just keep on delivering – pumpkin, potatoes, onions.

- Easy sail options have made us faster, safer, drier and more in control. We have a triple reefed main with a harken track that means we can reef in 5 minutes flat with only 2 of us on deck and can shake reefs out on our own. It’s meant that we have sailed to the conditions 24/7 including running full main at night if the conditions allowed it, having the confidence that if need be we can reef it at a moment’s notice.

We also have 2 self furling headsails – a big heavy Genoa and a decent, actually very good & versatile jib. The Jib has served us as a furled ‘handkerchief’ in heavy running conditions as well as being a great upwind sail. The Genoa has been polled out when running at night in heavy or very light conditions (spinnaker during the days) as well as being a great reaching sail.

The Spinnaker got a big workout this trip with it being our sail of choice for approximately 25% of the trip (including 36 hours nonstop in about 15-20 knots). We flew it in anything from 10-25knots and were guided more by the sea state then the wind strength per se. – it handled it well although the braces have almost worn through where they were attached to the pole.

- Dinghy storage on foredeck. We deflated our dinghy and stored it on the foredeck. it initially looked like being in the way and annoying. But we soon got used to it and I will definitely do that for any extended passages form now on. Aside from allowing us to see the sunsets behind us now that the dinghy is not blocking them, it’s given me far more peace of mind in heavier weather. I left it on the davits when we were sailing from Florida to the Bahamas and had to constantly re-tighten the ropes in 35 knots as the lurching was causing them to stretch and slip… not fun and fairly nerve-racking.

- 3 hour, 1 man watches. These have worked brilliantly with 3 of us. (and would work well with any odd number of watch teams) It means that there is a rotation system and that every 3rd night you get a full night’s sleep (or as much as 6 hours can be considered a full night).

If you need help with anything whilst on watch we have agreed to wake up the person that just came off watch to ensure anyone coming on watch is as rested as possible.

When all is going well you’re 3 hours on 6 hours off – which gives plenty of time to rest, relax & enjoy.

What went wrong or didn’t quite work as planned

- Generator water pump leaking again. Lesson learned check vital equipment prior to departing. (i tried fixing this issue in Fort Lauderdale and probably should have used the opportunity to replace the water pump) Luckily we made do by running the engine to charge batteries. I replaced all the house batteries recently with 7 brand new deep cycle 110AH. that combined with the trickle charge from the 3 solar panels meant we could get away with running the engine every 2 days or so (ie when we had calm days/nights). Overall we had enough power to run the autopilot and all other equipment 24/7.

- Freezer thermostat – that’s what we thought went wrong when all of our food defrosted after day 3. It seems that we packed the freezer too tight and we had a bag of frozen something wrapped around the thermostat fooling it into believing that the freezer was cold… on second thoughts it may have actually been related to us running the batteries down to too low a voltage… either way it works fine and we managed to rescue most of the food.

- Inner forestay. The first 2-3 days we were doing a lot if up wind sailing in 20-25knots and fairly rough and confused seas. The inner forestay and staysail were being used overtime and it seems that 2 bolts that hold the furler down decided to abandon ship… we didn’t notice it until Dimitry went up on the foredeck to take some footage of the rolling seas and spotted the fittings lying on deck – a closer inspection revealed there were more nuts loose and the inner forestay was millimeters from saying goodbye to the deck that it was attached to – lesson learnt – inspect & observe fittings, joints, connections etc daily… catching this one in time really saved us a  big headache and we’ve since avoided a bunch of other issues by inspecting and maintaining things – specifically shackles that seem to wor themselves loose despite us having cable ties on most of them.

- SSB Radio was meant to be our primary link to weather information – through voice communication with Herb the legendary “Atlantic weather” forecaster in Canada on 12,359.0 at 20:00 UTC daily and by using our Pactor modem to download weather faxes and Meatarea4 text weather forecasts and warnings. Initially we had trouble hearing or transmitting… some basic trouble shooting identified the interference as being the fridge compressor, so by turning off the fridge whilst using the Radio we got near perfect reception, however it seems there may be a grounding issue with the radio (it needs a ridiculously large quantity of metal to ground it properly) and our ability to transmit may be limited to a 300-500 miles rather then the 2000-3000 required… but I’m not an expert and will need to find an expert to help me solve it.

We were lucky to have boats like Naroly, Circus, Laurel Blue in front of us and behind us and by listening in to the advice given to them we were able to deduct our own best approach. We also used our Iridium Sat phone daily to download regular GRIB file snippets using UGrib.

- PC went flying. That was my stupidity… leaving the laptop just sitting on the nav table in 30 knots and 3-4 metre seas is not the definition of clever. Here’s a shout out to HP – it hit the floor hard as we got broadsided by a decent wave and the whole boat lurched… the wave managed to find its way down the hatch and land straight onto the laptop. Simon was up to the task and grabbed the laptop and immediately wiped it with a towel – happy to report that the hard drive had dislodged itself and it was easy to get to it and reconnect – touch wood all is operational and the laptop now has a safe new home when not in use.

- Windlass stopped working. The anchor locker fills up with sea water when we’re in heavy seas and in particularly large waves the water reaches and I guess engulfs the Windlass. After the first storm had passed and I was doing routine inspections I decided to see if the anchor windlass was working – it seems not. Luckily it’s not a piece of equipment we need out here nor will we need it in our first port – but it’s still vital and something we need to fix – no idea what the problem is but I’m guessing Salt water has either corroded something or shorted it out.

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!

There are times in life when you feel like you need to pinch yourself just to make sure you’re not dreaming. I am sore from pinching myself!!

Since our last blog, we sailed off into the sunset leaving behind the beautiful Staniel Cay and the Exumas .

An incredible downwind sail in calm waters, with the spinnaker flying and beers in hand. I had read that it’s possible to anchor totally out of sight of land when conditions are calm and suggested this as an idea to the guys.

It was met with great enthusiasm and so we sailed about 35 NM literally into the sunset, found a nice bit of sand in 5m of water and dropped anchor, fired up the BBQ and cooked some great steaks surrounded by a star lit sky & a calm dark ocean. Definitely an experience that i won’t forget.

BBQ out of sight of land!

I went to bed around 11:00pm content, but somewhat uncomfortable as some clouds had formed on the horizon late in the evening and the barometer dropped a couple of notches over the course of the evening.

By 1:00am we started rolling as the swell came up a little and the wind picked up to about 15 knots… it was still manageable and with a plenty of snubber taking the pressure off our windlass I decided to try and get a couple more hours sleep – by 3:00am I was sure it was time to weigh anchor soon… I had a quick look at the charts and decided to wake the guys up at around 4:00am -  by 5:00am we were sailing again, fishing rods out and the sun rising behind us.

Another great day had by all as we sailed some 80Nm almost entirely under Spinnaker again.

We got a couple of strikes on the lures but it wasn’t until the early afternoon that we finally managed to bag a fish  – a beautiful Mutton Snapper.

Got him, the “action” gaffer strikes again.

The guys took care of dropping the Spinny as I reeled the fish in and proceeded to fillet it.

With 2-3 hours to go before we got to Nassau, it presented a perfect opportunity to make some fish stock with the leftover head and bones and cook up the famous Gorazdowski fish soup!

Mutton Snapper

We sailed into Nassau as the sun was setting, scraped under the two bridges  and cruised past all the huge cruise ships before finding a spot to anchor overnight.

Woah, that was close

The local fisherman watching us scrape under the bridges

We all woke up on Thursday morning ready to hit the glitz and glamour of Atlantis Resort & Marina!

Squander in lucky slip 7

This place was by far the most ritzy of all marinas we’ve been to. They have a minimum 40 foot boat policy, with the actual average being more like 140 foot – we managed to get the cheapest berth available in the marina (Slip number 7) and damn well nearly missed it entering the channel to the marina – it was a very quiet spot, a good 700m walk from the actual glamour spots reserved for the big boats willing to pay big boat prices.

Walking to the hotspots!

but hey we were in Atlantis and there was a golf cart pickup service

and as we found out we had access to all the rides, beaches, aquariums,  casinos, nightclubs, cinemas and fun we could imagine all included in our marina fees !! This was going to be a great birthday.

One of the main lobbies with massive Aquarium behind it – seriously impressive

Sharks in the Aquarium

The Squander Salute
We all decided that we would get through all the little maintenance jobs on Thursday morning, have a quiet night on Thursday night and wait for Todd to arrive on my birthday (Friday) before getting into the action…

This was all going well until a local Bahamian guy called Sean turned up and offered to clean the entire boat for $40 from head to toe… hmmm that’s $10 each we all thought in unison as Atlantis flickered it’s pink building eye lids saying come to me Squanderers – you will love the fun…!

Vegashamas!

There are some people that naturally fall into roles in life, and Nathan “Strike” Harvey is a born activities coordinator – I will never forget when Luciana and I visited him at Seaworld last year and Nath met us with a hand written hour by hour itinerary, strategically thought out to minimise  queues, maximise fun and cut out all the crap that’s overrated – legendary stuff – we had a great day and so it was a no brainer when Nath volunteered to step up to the plate and organise my birthday day of activities that he should be the chosen one to lead us through the land of fun known as ATLANTIS!

The water slides where you get clocked to see who goes fastest – great fun!

He picked up the brochure, the maps, the flyers and within 45 minutes announced all was under control – we had a briefing explaining the day’s activities and left Sean to finish polishing Squander’s decks, nooks and crannies as we went in search of fun….

and what a day it was, water slides, ice cream stops,white water rapids, underwater tunnels, aquariums, a swim at the beach a drink at the bar and a definite sense that we were starting to get to know the resort’s hot spots – thanks Strike a great day had by all!
Stopping at the local Rum Cake shop for a tasting and a good laugh with the locals

The ice cream stop – a great addition to the afternoon’s activities

For those of you that have met my parents, Elizabeth and Matthew or anyone else in our extended family – you would know that we are very hospitable people that love to entertain and live life to the fullest –and so it’s no surprise that there are few countries in this world in which mum, dad  or my uncles and aunties do not have friends from various walks of life – The Bahamas have been a definite standout – My dad’s sister’s best friend, Rosa and her husband Geoffrey live here with their 4 kids… Wow talk about getting introduced to Bahamian hospitality – you guys have been amazing!
Simon, Amanda & Strike Harvey
Gav, Rosa & Dmitrij

It all kicked off on that fateful “quiet” Thursday night – Rosa and her daughter Amanda came over to Squander for a quiet drink – we all had so much fun that before long it turned into a typical Squander night – drinks, a last minute dinner whipped up from the ship’s stores – with Rosa volunteering to jump into the kitchen to help out -  and before we knew it, the clock spun past 2:00am…and the end was not in sight!

Rosa helping out in the Galley – great team effort!

The girls had to work the next day, and very sensibly headed home around 3:00 am whereas we decided that it was time to discover the late night secrets of Atlantis (just to make sure we could show Todd around!!!!) – we headed straight for Aura, the nightclub that was talked up to be the be all and end all. Unfortunately it was already closed and so it was we ended up at the Casino – Action had a quick run which ended on him breaking even whereas Strike was all over the Roulette table like a seasoned pro and was going well enough that we all finally got a free round of drinks out of the Casino (around 4:00am) – none of us were quite aware of the fact they were FREE and so Action handed over a crisp $50 note to the buxom waitress who smiled, whistled and skipped off into the distance… with a $50 tip!!! hahahahha

We all finally crawled into bed at 5:00 am, not before sending Todd a quick text message advising him that his welcoming committee at the airport was unable to make it due to technical reasons and that he had to catch a taxis to party trap Atlantis and head for Slip 7….!

I was the first to get up at around 10:30, quickly jumped online to check if Todd’s fight had landed and was relieved to see it had been delayed – I quickly made enough noise to wake up the rest of the crew and went about tidying up the evidence of the previous night’s activities – I wonder if there will be a sharp rise in Rum sales as a result of our recent stay in the area???!

Todd looking thirsty after his 30 hour flight from Oz

Todd arrived at 11:00 am and it wasn’t long before he was doing his customary liver slap indicating he would like a beer, we all put on a brave face and cracked a cold one to celebrate his arrival and of course my birthday – this was starting to feel like one of THOSE birthdays!!!

Todd’s birthday present for me – a fantastic Aussie Flag!

We had a couple of beers and by 1:00pm decided to hit the fun park on our doorstep and show Todd the attractions – another great afternoon of water slides, beach, lunch at the beachside Cave Bar & Grill and living life to the fullest.

We all got back to the boat by 7:00pm just in time to receive a message from Rosa that they were coming to pick us up at 8:30 pm – WOW!!! We gave Rosa and Amanda a call and I was again pinching myself – Amanda had gathered a bunch of her friends, Rosa had baked a birthday cake for me and we were all going out to dinner to a cool waterside bar/restaurant to have a few drinks, have dinner and celebrate my birthday in traditional style – with a  good old BIRTHDAY CAKE and 2 bottles of Aussie wine!!!

Thank you Rosa, Amanda, Kim, Janelle, Janine and everyone else that made it such a memorable night!

I also got a set of traditional Russian dolls from Dmitry!!!!

We all headed to the famed AURA nightclub for a boogie and a drink, but soon realised it wasn’t the scene we were after –

the girls recommended a local club called Bamboo and we were soon carving up the dance floor there – it all somehow went a bit pear shaped as our Australian appetite for drinks, shots, beers, and anything else that’s alcoholic took over and we culminated the evening at 4;45 am taking over what was left of the dance floor with our unique mix of headstands, wrestles, drunk stumbles lamely disguised as dance moves (have you seen the kangaroo hop trip??) and god knows what else – thank god for the fact that old Dimitrij’s Camera battery went dead and nothing was recorded.

A huge thank you to Amanda, Ryan and Janine who drove us home at the ungodly hour of 5:00am… you guys rock!!

Saturday, I finally felt all of my 36 years – ouch. That last Tequilla shot mixed with the beer I had with the Mexican dudes that Simon & I met at slip 23 at 6:00am must have done some serious damage.

Nath impersonating Bernie, from weekend at Bernies!

Saturday was a write off – in more ways then one – we were meant to head to Rose island with Amanda’s friends but everyone was passed out. Todd and Nathan had stayed up to see the sunrise and were inspired by the white water rides to a point of spending 3 hours going around them at 9:00 am drinking rum and squirting lifeguards with water bottles before finally hitting the hay at 11:30 am – nice effort, whereas I was too confused to work out North from South and felt it was wise not to try and negotiate the shallow waters by taking Squander to the outer islands…

I fired up the computer and was blown away by all the birthday messages – Thank you guys – It’s always great to get a birthday messages, but especially so when you’re half a world away form friends and family.

After reading and responding to all of the messages, we had a relaxing day on the beach, soaked our bodies in the crystal clear Caribbean waters in the hope that some magic elixir would take away the pain and pondered what the night held for us – we had been invited by Amanda and her friends to a Rugby Party but weren’t sure if the invite stood after our previous night’s antics… the unfaltering Bahamian hospitality shone through again.     
Our resident Russian Stud steals a kiss to Amanda’s Surprise

Someone stop that guy – he’s on fire!
Team Aussie – with Kate from Paddo joining in the festivities

And he’s back at it again!
The ever elusive Jenine striking a pose

The Russian charm never ends!

Amanda got her friends to drive their speed boat into Atlantis to give us an update – we would be picked up at 9:45.

Quick bite to eat before heading out again.
We were humbled and excited to have a party to get to – we showered, got dressed and headed out to the local Marina Village for a healthy meal in an attempt to apologize to our bodies for the punishment we were putting ourselves through.

by 10:30 pm we were at Phil’s parents house, feeling incredibly welcome and meeting the local Rugby team and their friends- another great night, amazing people and… an open bar!!!

Nath taking over bar tending duties
Someone mentioned it was my birthday and before we we knew it shots were flying again – Thank you guys!!

We all agreed one of our favourite ‘learnings’ of the night was during the presentation of the rugby awards – for anyone that hasn’t played rugby skip to the next paragraph now – our favourite award was the “Matador Award” – given to the player that has the most consistent track record of gracefully stepping aside just as the opposition player is about to barrel over them…. in this case given to a 300pound prop nicknamed “Alice” – priceless!!!

MVP award… not the MATADOR!

We made some great friends at the party before heading for night 2 at Bamboo…. and another 5:00 am finish.

Woahhhhhhhh….. someone press pause on this weekend!!

Sunday was quietttttt… shhhhh no one move!

We all kinda woke up, mumbled, went for a walk, advised the marina that we would be staying for another day as we were in no state to depart and went back to bed at 6:30pm to sleeeeeeep all night long.

Monday was a day of action – we were all up by 7:30 am and got stuck into the long list of jobs to do – fix the floor boards that have been progressively falling apart under the weight of 5 heavy weights,  fill the gas bottles, the fuel tanks, the water tanks, do the grocery shopping, download the latest GRIB files, do the washing, clean the boat, change the stay sail and re-stock the ship’s store of rum!

so here I am again… enjoying a quiet rum on the eve of departing the Bahamas, with great old friends onboard and new friends on land – pinching myself in that sore spot and making sure I’m not dreaming – Thank you everyone – it was the most memorable birthday to date!

Goodbye Spanish wells, hello EXUMAS !!

The day dawned beautifully as we set out from Spanish Wells on a rising tide scraping over the shallow entrance. After our usual strong coffees we set off early to make the most of the day as well as the wind which was predicted to die off in the afternoon.

Spanish Wells Seafood shop

We were greeted by a nice 12 to 18 knot wind and calm flat seas.

Time for some nice sailing, a great 2 hour reach down to “Current Cut” – a narrow passage, no more than 10M wide. We dropped the sails and approached the narrow channel that cut the two long islands. The water was boiling like crazy and despite it being almost high tide we still got sucked through with a freaky 5 knots of current which we timed to be in our favour. (on a falling tide it would have been against us!!) – our boat speed over the ground was almost 10 knots!!

Approaching Current Cut – getting sucked through!

Once through, we all breathed a sigh of relief having come through unscathed. We hoisted sails again to set off towards our first destination – HIGHBORNE CAY on the northern tip of the EXUMAS. More fun sailing as we had a downwind run for an hour or so with a goose winged Genoa and a few jibes to get us into practice. (next time it will be a spinnaker!!)

The charts said that there was an area with numerous shoals and rocky outcrops but this place was insane – it was like playing Galactica – yacht style with endless death traps coming at you from the horizon!!

Here we were in the middle of nowhere, no land to be seen and ahead we see shallow water and it stretches on for as far as we can see.

2.6-3.4 metres of water and patches of rocky reef like this one to starboard.

Righto then – drop the sails and get ready for three hours of very nervous navigation.

The water was so shallow and there were so many rock and coral shoals we had double watches on the bow with hasty instructions yelled back to captain Gav as we zig zagged our way through an amazing yet very treacherous stretch of water. We had planned to be there with the sun high in the sky and thank god for that – towards 4:00pm as the sun started setting it was already starting to get difficult to spot the obstacles.

It seemed to go on forever and there were some very tired boys after that stint of intense concentration but we made it through unscathed and proceeded onto our destination.

This was also the time that we caught our very first FISH . Woo hoo ! (as opposed to Wahoo!)

It was on – we hove to and reeled in a 70cm…. BARRACUDA…. damn!! We heard that they weren’t the best eating so we let it go. It seems that “good from far but far from good” was going to develop into a bit of a pattern as our fishing journey continued but we’ll leave that for a bit later.

We reached HIGHBORNE CAY in the late afternoon / evening dropped anchor alongside the usual array of vessels ranging from small yachts to Super sized monoliths and readied ourselves for tomorrows ACTIVITY DAY !!

At anchor, we’re visited by a school of strange looking shark-like fish.

Strike, our Activities coordinator showing us how it’s done!

The next day was snorkel day and after our initial plan was thwarted by the current we did a great couple of hours of drift snorkeling with beautiful white sandy bottoms and some nice coral and colourful fish.

This is underwater – crystal clear!

Then back for lunch and we went exploring the supposedly private (oops- denial works for us)  island with our usual game of fitness frisbee thrown in and some street signs Bahamian style to keep us entertained.

The EXUMAS really are a nature lovers paradise as when we got back to the small marina to go home we spotted some action at the end of the wharf.

SHARKS !! and heaps of em.

Nothing dangerous – just Nurse Sharks but still a pretty impressive collection as the 2 to 3 metre sharks swam around gobbling up the fish guts from the fisherman cleaning his catch, all in knee deep water right next to the swimming beach!

Also plenty of rays, garfish, yellowtails and other varieties all joining in on the feast.

After getting back to the yacht we saw a little 30 footer sail in and said g’day to the Cody’s.

Thats right folks Cody and Cody – Two young blokes from the States sailing to the Dominican Republic with not much more than a handheld compass and handheld GPS.

Nice one guys – the spirit of adventure and daring lives on.

We invited them over for some beers and cooked em dinner and generally had a good yarn .

They asked us what weather service we were using and then told us they were using a service called GREG .

One of the Cody’s and GREG the weather man in his dinghy.

Never heard of that one – turns out they’ve met a guy called Greg going to the same place and they’re tagging along and getting the reports off him. Hilarious !!

The next day we hauled anchor and set off for another Cay further south called SHROUD CAY.

Another nice sail on a close reach with everyone having a go at captaining Squander.

Captain Nathan in charge
We were visited by some Dolphins and caught another FISH – you guessed it – another bloody BARRACUDA !! What the ??

After days of not even a bite we get two bloody ‘Cudas in two days – no Tuna, no Mahi Mahi just another bloody Barracuda.

Action gaffs the ‘cuda!

Now these fish are supposedly Ciguatoxic if eaten over a certain size. We volunteered Dmitrij to taste it (just kiddding!!) seriously, after much deliberation we decided to keep this one as we were about to enter the EXUMA LAND AND SEA NATIONAL PARK where we weren’t allowed to fish and this one was a fair bit smaller than the last one.

Biting the bullet – so to speak!

We’ve also unanimously decided to call Gav  – “Captain Gavin BARRACUDA Gorazdowski’” after this latest exploit along with another we wont mention on this family blog – HA HA !!

That’s right folks Gav is now referred to by the tag “BARRA” !!

Moored at Shroud Cay – part of the Exumas Land & Sea Park

After picking up a mooring at the beautiful and very isolated SHROUD CAY (no civilization to be seen apart from the moorings) we were contemplating what to eat when who should we see – our friends from Spanish Wells – Paul and Carol from Colorado who were just behind us in our passage.

Paul & Carol on Odysseus – a beautiful Valiant 42

Hi guys !! Good to see you again.!!

The trip from Highborne was short – only a few hours and we were there by 1 in the afternoon and so we had plenty of time to explore.

Dimitri wanted to go kite surfing and so Action, Strike and Barra went zooming off across the bay to see an amazing tidal system that cuts the cay in half . (by the way a Cay as far as we can tell is an island, usually small and covered with lots of white sand)

It was lined with mangroves and really shallow and so we had a tricky time negotiating the dinghy with engine tilted but it was worth it when we hit the ocean at the other side.

This place was cool as and to make matters even better on the way home we saw a massive manta ray which was pretty elusive but Gav still managed to get a great shot or two.

Huge spotted ray (about 3-4 metres from head to tail) – see the fish under it’s right wing – it was about 2-3 feet long.

Simon trying to show Dimitrij how to look natural in  a photo!??!

Now when I say contemplating what to eat – the fact of the matter is we’ve been eating like kings for the entire trip. All the boys have been adding their recipes ( except for a certain Russian who cant cook but makes a mean mashed potato) and the Squander menu has been everything from Asian curries, Lasagne, Honey Soy Chicken, Pork Loin and other delicious meals with Capt Barra leading the charge .

Action and his home made Lasagna.

It certainly has paid off to be so well stocked particularly when we haven’t been to a marina in a while.

AND SO – faced with the prospect of potentially paralyzing ourselves with a Ciguatoxic Barracuda curry you can understand the boys being a little apprehensive. Especially when there’s prime steak still in the fridge.

Does curry kill all toxins?? maybe throw in a few extra veggies for good luck!

Perhaps that was why we decided to turn up the music really loud and crack the rum.

Perhaps that’s why we got so plastered before the meal was even cooked.

Perhaps that’s why we forgot we had invited Paul and Carol over.

Perhaps that’s why two blokes upon hearing said loud music swam over from a neighbouring super yacht and then swam straight back.

Perhaps that’s why Simon and Nathan attempted handstands & arm wrestles in the cock pit and sent mugs of Rum flying.

Perhaps thats why we werent paralyzed within 6 hours of eating the BARRA CURRY – we killed it off with Rum !!

One thing’s for certain – when you leave 4 blokes unattended with a boat full of alcohol of various varieties and a potentially dangerous gastronomic experience miles away from any civilization – all hell breaks loose.

Another thing’s certain – we all woke up with serious hangovers the next day and we had to set sail and of course the wind had changed.

Not the ideal situation – a beat upwind – with a serious hangover.

Well we had no one to blame but ourselves and maybe that damn Barracuda !! (not Gavin – the fish)

Onwards to STANIEL CAY – the bastion of civilization in the Exumas and a long hungover day of tacks and beating into the wind.

We have a scale of 1 – 10 on the feeling shite scale – 1 being the worst and 10 being the best.

Dimitri didnt drink much so he was at least a nine.

I was a shady 5 or 6 at the start but then Gavs amazing wrap of leftover tuna pasta, ham, salami, salad, cashews, cheese and philadelphia  perked me right up to an 8.

Gav was a solid 7 to 10 and poor old Simon ACTION Fraumeni was a piss poor 4 the whole trip !!

HA HA – then he had the nerve to accuse me of spiking the nips in his drinks – SOFT !!

We were all a bit soft that day and as it was nearing sunset and a Saturday night we motored the last hour past the salubriously named Harvey Cay and finally into the anchorage of Big Majors at Staniel Cay.

Anchored at Big Majors – Squander on the far right

Nearby Fowl Cay

It was Saturday night and somehow we had miraculously healed ourselves of our hangovers and after a hasty shower and dinner with plenty of mash and corn we headed into town with fun in mind.

OK so which one is town ??

It was well past dark and a very long slow dinghy ride and a lot of guess work but after mistaking a super yacht for a pub we pulled into the one and only place with any signs of life.

THE STANIEL CAY YACHT CLUB

Taken the next day!

It was around nine on a Saturday night and there were perhaps thirty people there and the crowd was dwindling. We had fun though as we do and Dimitri was in overdrive. I don’t know what he had that night but we all wanted some.

He was in fine form and after an eventful trip back in the dinghy where I was told by said Russian to SLOW DOWN, KEEP LEFT , and to USE YOUR   @#?KING BRAIN NATHAN – we all arrived safely home ready for the next day’s ACTIVITY DAY !!

Gearing up for Activity Day in Staniel Cay

What a day of activity it was – the best so far !!

First thing we did was go to an adjacent beach where we saw – get this -  SWIMMING PIGS, and some of the girls weren’t that pretty either!

It was the funniest thing ever. We weren’t sure whether they were aggressive or not but it turned out they run up or swim up to you because they think you have food. They even swim after you in your dinghy it was hilarious.

Best looking ‘Babe’ we’ve seen in a while.

On the way back after a little more exploring we bumped into the Codys again.

Nath & Simon making friends

After that we went to Thunderball Grotto and I think we all all agreed it was one of our most amazing snorkeling experiences ever.

Capt’n Barra – laughing at the size of the shark behind the photographer!

Gav going deep whilst Simon does the underwater running man

This is the same grotto that was featured in the James Bond movie of said name. You literally swim under what looks to be a normal cliff into this magnificent grotto.

The entrance that we all swam through

After a short 8-10 metre underwater cave dive Dimitrij pops up inside the grotto.

At first it was a little sketchy because the current was strong and we weren’t sure if we were at the right place but seriously this place was AWESOME !!

We hung in there for ages exploring all the little passageways and meeting the very friendly fish !!

Whose fins belong to what mask?

Whereas James Bond no doubt had a gorgeous bond girl with him we were just 3 Aussie Dudes and a Russian but hey the fish were very pretty !!

Dmitrij negotiating the narrow exit point – not for the faint hearted.

With our spirits up we headed into town to explore and after quickly realising there was not much to see we settled into a long lunch of conch bits , burgers and beers.

In the evening, inspired by the abundance of pigs on the surrounding beaches, we tucked into a solid serving of Capt Barras marinated pork loin for dinner.

Check out that Mash – nice work Dmitrij!

Thanks Pappa G (Gav’s Dad) for the recipe! All this was followed  by a game of cards – 500 is our game of choice – won by the good guys – Gav and I that is !!

Life is good!

This is a fuel wharf – beats going down to the local BP!

The next day was maintenance day with plenty to be done including fixing a leaky water maker , an alternator problem that turned out to be an isolator problem WTF ?? Shopping for fresh groceries and a few Bosuns chair rides up the mast, it’s now dinner time !!  
We end on another great 500 scorecard – taken out by Nath & Gavin!!

Squander signing out – we’re off to celebrate Gavin’s 36th birthday at Paradise island!!!

We did however meet some cool people like Rick Fleming (G’day Rick hope you’ve managed to get out of there and we will see you soon somewhere along the way!) who added to the experience of being in Grand Bahama.

Once we recharged our batteries (figuratively and literally as not only we all got plenty of rest, but our onboard Russian engineer worked out how to splice two 110V cables to give us 220V shore power and charge our boat batteries) we were ready to get exploring – we had heard that Harbour island was home to Elle Macpherson & Jimmy Buffet amongst others and so inspired by requests from some of our friends to provide tales of song, wine and women we decided to head there.

Our chosen departure morning greeted us with rain squalls and howling winds – but according to the radar it should all pass by the early afternoon and provide us with a nice clear run for the 120 or so Nautical Miles to Northern Eleuthera.

Simon showing us sailors what a real knot looks like – the old “Truckee’s hitch!”

And so it was, coinciding with an afternoon high tide we took off in a gentle 10 knot breeze for the 120 miles or so to a place called “Devils’ backbone” where we would meet a pilot called “Little woody”

who would guide us through a reef system that provides an access to Harbour Island.

The trip was great in that we managed to test a watch system (we sailed overnight) and Dimitrji and Simon worked together to get the boat going, whilst Nath and I kicked back and provided tips if needed. The sailing lasted some 1.5 hrs before the wind totally dropped out and we were forced to motor for 20 hours – at least the seas were dead calm and we could not have picked a better day to pass through the Devil’s backbone!

Navigating the Devils’ backbone

The route involved us getting extremely close to the beach in 3-4 metres of water between sand and a reef…

Little woody asked us to anchor half way along as he had to go and pilot another boat through. We took the opportunity to sample the local swimming hole – ha!! this is what we’re talking about!

Gday – Nathan here again.

Aaaah Elle – Where are you ???????

We had to freshen up for Elle after a stinky overnighter – you know how it is – four guys on a yacht. This photo above was our first taste of literally jumping into the open water over the side of the boat without being at a Marina with water of questionable quality. It was BEAUTIFUL , AMAZING. The water was crystal clear, we had arrived at our new destination. !!

Harbour Island is a beautiful place otherwise known as Briland as the locals like to abbreviate – they have more in common with us Aussies than you might think !!

This stretch of water really is as the charts state – one of the most treacherous in the Bahamas.

Thanks to little Woody we made it safely to Harbour Island and decided to anchor instead of tying up to a Marina.

Looking into shore all you can see is brightly painted well maintained houses leading down to the water and as usual a marina with the usual assortment of super yachts and high flyers.

Well after we had put our SUPER DINGHY complete with a 9.9 turbo charged outboard into the water we decided to explore places where we were actually allowed to come to shore and by either pure ignorance or just pure luck we managed to tie up to the swishest marina and of course went straight to the bar “Valentines”  to sample the local beer – a growing custom of ours.

By the way local beer is called Sands but our favourite was KALIK as it was quite strong and it is named after the sound of the bells kaliking around a goats head which we thought was rather appropriate.

Wheres Elle ???

Couldnt find her or anyone else for that matter. The place was pretty quiet.

Elle??

One thing we did find was a sneaky place to shower which we thought was deserving for us due to our already kind custom of injecting dollars into the local bar economy.

We went for a walk and this place is definately not for the light of wallet.

Lucky we were on an anchorage in a yacht.

Fancy pants shops and restaurants with entrees starting at 20 bucks and seriously climbing.

Dinner on Squander – tonight we have prime beef burgers!

After exploring for a bit and walking a mile or so to check out the beach on the other side of the island which was fantastic we settled on another local shop and bought some more beers before heading home.

Just as well we had heaps of steaks and food on the yacht and so we made some dinner and prepared ourselves for activity day the next day.

I’m proud to say that Gavin gave me the title of Captain the next day in charge of activities and after a morning of scurfing behind our super dinghy we made our way to the marina and hired a golf buggy.

50 bucks saw us get a buggy for 24 hours and after going the wrong way for an hour or so looking for Elle we eventually headed back to the beach we visited the day before for some snorkelling and fun.

We had decided that we were lacking in fitness and so we made up a frisbee game that if you stuffed up you had to do push ups.

Hilarious – Dimitri was so tired from push ups that he had to do lunges to compromise. He also has this funny habit of changing from one red pair of quick dry shorts to the other red pair . He has four red pairs and this photo was trying to dack him in the process.

After Dimitri finally managed to get out of his red boardies and into his other pair of red boardies we jumped into our buggy and headed for the bar at Valentines to have a few well earned beers.

The only Warning sign that we saw on the whole island – we like this place

Still no sign of Elle nor Jimmy Buffet. WHAT THE ??????

We had heard of some places to go to during the day and after scoping some out in the buggy we headed back to the boat and had dinner ready to gear up for a Friday night Island style.

First stop was Gustys – a cool bar on the north side of the island overlooking the inlet – definitely for the well heeled, in fact plenty of heels were getting stuck in the pure sand floor – it was awesome and it was also the place we met a great couple from Michigan named Shaun and Renee !!

Shaun & Renae – our new friends on Squander.

After that we went to Daddy ds and then drank the night away at the infamous Vic Hum – a reggae bar which doesn’t discriminate and happily blends people from ALL walks of life in a potent cocktail of loud music, plenty of alcohol, an outdoor basketball court and BIG booty shaking on the dance floor – kinda like that bar in the first episode of star wars!!! We fit right in. hahaha

We had a great night that included bum dancing with Big Caribbean mummas, shots, and a buggy ride and dinghy ride home that we cant quite remember.

The next day the wind was up and so our Russian friend decided to go kite surfing – more like kite walking – he spent most of his time walking back up the beach but to his credit he got much better as the day went along and the wind picked up.

It was so funny – suddenly we knew everyone after just one night out – its such a friendly place both locals and tourists alike.

Its here that we saw Shaun and Renee from Michigan again and had a great time chilling with a lunch brought to the beach by Gav which was perfect hangover food !!

Shaun is a pilot and Renee works for a private airline – we spent the afternoon on the beach swapping war stories and pestering Shaun for a joyride. Before we knew it the sun was setting and it was time for happy hour at Valentines.

Well this turned into ten and after going to the boat to check on Dimitri who was napping after his kite surf we found that Little Woody had revisited us and dropped off some of his famous Crab claws. WOW !!

Thanks Dimitri – we werent sure about dinner and instead of eating at the bar we went straight back to the boat and tucked into SURF AND TURF SQUANDER STYLE ‘ Crab claws steak and salad with plenty of Rum , Gin and CC to boot.

A quiet Gin anybody – we’ve got our tiny 1.75 litre bottle of Bombay.

Dimitrij – babeeee !

Now the boys were firing up – Afterall it was ANZAC DAY and after another interesting night on the town both Simon and I woke up with ANZAC morning scrapes from A) Simon falling off the buggy and deciding to take on Shaun in a friendly wrestle ( ps – Shaun is a multi disciplined fighter that weighs about 110kgs and B) Me deciding to take on Simon in the spirit of the ANZACS. Needless to say we were both a bit sorry for ourselves the next morning.

“Shaun, I’ll give ya 50 bucks if you let me win the next wrestle!”

Still no sign of Elle – even on ANZAC day !!

Well after a very slow Sunday morning after Dimitri came back from Kite surfing we pulled up anchor at about 4 in the afternoon and made our way (solo this time) back through the Devils backbone with quite a few nervous moments and onwards to Spanish Wells a small fishing village a couple of hours from Harbour Island.

Goodbye Elle , goodbye Harbour Island – many happy memories remain !!

SPANISH WELLS – a great little family village

Spanish Wells was a trip as we had heard that it was essentially a small fishing village with about 1000 people that didn’t particularly like visitors and that they all shared the same surname.

Scenes from Deliverance instantly sprang to mind and we half expected to hear duelling Banjoes as we sailed in.

Its actually a pretty cool spot and just what we needed to recharge the batteries and head on our next adventure.

The EXUMAS here we come !!

It’s 12.30 am now and we head off in 6 hrs so time to sleep.

A big shout out to our new friends SHAUN and RENEE from Michigan and our neighbours at Spanish Wells – PAUL and CAROL from Colorado Springs. You guys are welcome additions to our guest book.

Smooth Flying and sailing and see you guys soon.

Nathan and Gav signing off from Squander and see you for the next installment.

BYE BYE ELLE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A Manatee coming to visit us at Spanish Wells Yacht Haven – coolest local we’ve met!

Depths around here are scarry – we have 20 cms under our keel.

The only fish we have caught – a sea bass caught on camera

The weather started getting rough,
The tiny ship was tossed,
If not for the courage of the fearless crew
The minnow would be lost, the minnow would be lost.

Baptism of fire comes to mind – we sailed into what was meant to be a decent 20 knotter and ended up being a decent storm…

Leaving our BIG friends behind – thanks for all the help – skies look clear!

The skipper definitely had a slight hint of the guilts having had a cursory glance at the weather and dismissing all the tales of the Gulf stream as just another current that you had to deal with once you were out there!!

Hoisting the boxing Kangaroo pre departure

First signs that things may not be as planned??!

I have never travelled sideways almost as fast as I was travelling forwards, except for maybe when stumbling home after a few too many beers. Literally for every mile that we went forward we were getting swept north 3/4 of a mile. Add to that some fairly uncomfortable seas and big, black ugly storm clouds on the horizon and we had ourselves a ‘situation’ – I tried to keep a brave face, cooked up a good hot stewy soup for the crew, threw 2 reefs into the main and waited… not for long… 15, 18, 22, 25, 28, 30… and then three hours of my wind vane being stuck on 36 knots beating into it… fun fun!

It all looked great at the start

ahh boys – welcome to sailing!!! it was the first time any of the guys had sailed from one country to another, let alone being stuck in the joys of a big, black ugly night, wind against tide, big greenies everywhere sweeping over the decks …. and I’m proud to say it was all handled in great spirit and with no concern!

Fort Lauderdale in the distance – goodbye Florida.

Goodbye blue sky

…..

Nathan “Strike” Harvey here….

If not for the courage of the fearless skip the Squander would be lost.

Gav definately went above and beyond the call of duty in what was definately a tough night. He was awesome in that he had a new crew that was unfamiliar with the boat and with varying degrees of experience. That along with the fact that we were beating into a fickle system with wind speeds building from 15 to 35-40 knots made it a pretty challenging experience. He was the only one on deck all night. You know the drill 15mins awake 15 asleep. Good on ya Gav you’re a legend and thanks from the crew.

end of a tough sleepless night

I remember going up every now and then to check on him and seeing sheets of water flying over the forward bimini and him huddled in the cockpit next to the cabin hatch on duty as always.

Early morning departure shots a distant memory

Along with that we were all a little green around the gills.

Chief spewer goes to Dimitri by a country mile but to his credit he backed up later on with a big stint on night watch. By the way weve come up with a better name – he loves his camera so weve decided to call him FLASH but since hes been sick were thinking FLICK – a mixture of FLASH and SICK.

By the way were yet to come up with a pseudonym for Gav – were thinking BLADE because he loves to cook and cut things or CRUISE because hes definately a cruiser for dealing with us idiots with such grace. Any feed back from you guys would be appreciated.!!

Second place spewer goes unfortunately to me with a little sneaky one while no one was watching – into the kitchen wash tub – Shhhhhhhh – don’t tell anyone.

I’m proud to say the rest of the boys are yet to open the account although Simon “Action” Fraumeni was definately looking like a contender for a while !!

I swear a weatherman is the only job that I’ve heard of where they can consistently get it wrong and still keep their job.

And hows this a weird weather warning came in when it was far too late  that wasnt predicted that they say basically never happens. BA HA HA !!

SPECIAL WARNING RECEIVED AT 6:36PM over navtex
(that Gav read at 3:30 am after the storm front passed)
NWS Doppler RA indicated a line of thunderstorms capable of producing strong winds of 34 knots or greater…. WHAT THE??!!

Breakfast celebratory el dorados – a local antacid!

Well after cursing the weatherman we made it through the night and Squander performed admirably and no bottles of Rum were smashed or anything else important.

We were originally going to go into the biggest marina on Grand Bahama called Xanadu but the seaway looked more like Aunt Marys back creek in Coonamble and so given the low tide we decided to head to Port Lucaya instead and after a nervous low tide crossing of the bar – literally 10 to 20cm of clearance at times we made it to the marina.

Through the shallow channel.

This place is great !!

A lively little spot and plenty of little restaurants and bars all within a fifty to 100 metre walk . HAPPY DAYS !! After we had a nice lunch on land we cooked a great BBQ on board with the music from the Marina bars in the background. WOO HOOOO – were in the Bahamas and Gavs dream and ours is finally on its way – Time to celebrate.

Simon cooking up a steak or two.

We cleared customs with no probs and now have a crusing permit for the entire Bahamas and were certainly looking forward to the next leg.

Well that’s about it now. Were going exploring for a bit tomorrow and then who knows where and when next.

Depends on the weatherman- get it right ya bastard !!

Nathan STRIKE Harvey signing off for now , look out for the next installment.

Port Lucaya Sunset – nice to be here!

PS BIG SHOUT OUT TO THE CARPE DIEM BOYS – here’s to seizing the day. By the way your tank water that we stole at 5:00 am tastes like shit!!

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 next to “Carpe Diem” – our 165 foot next door neighbour.

The sentiment has been very positive, with every little hiccup being a ‘lesson learnt’ or a ‘thank god it happened here not out there’. I think Squander is feeling the strain of having 4 blokes living aboard and is requesting an upgrade or two to cope with our demands.

The old liferaft – thankfully never used anyone want it??

The last week has seen us provision the boat with food and drinks, install new shelves, add fishing rod holders, test the dinghy and outboard, buy a new liferaft as the old one was deemed unserviceable in less then 3 weeks and even then would cost up to $1200 for the service, re-coded the boat EPIRB to Australian standards,

replaced the Battery charger that gave up the ghost last night,

installed 4 new house batteries,  re-tapped the old cleat and sealed it to the deck, , installed a Pactor modem for offshore email communications, pulled out the generator water pump for the second time and a did a bunch of little jobs in between – huge thanks to the guys on Carpe Diem (Jeff & Ben) who helped us out with many tips and Ben even made a new gasket for us that solved our generator water pump leaking problems!

And that’s just a start – poor old Squander is sitting about an extra foot lower in the water since our trips to the supermarket started.

Before I continue allow me to introduce our illustrious crew who today put the final touches on Squander by scrubbing the decks – in order of arrival.

Simon “Action” Fraumeni

Dmitrij “Camera” Filatov

Nathan “Strike” Harvey

We decided to give ourselves a well deserved night out in Fort Lauderdale on Tuesday night – kicking off with  Dinner and a few quiet drinks at the Tarpen Bend in downtown.

Dmitrij was still a little jet lagged so he went home, where as us Aussies never really got taught the meaning of moderation – countless bars from live Punk rock to Coyote Uglys and god knows what else in between – We survived the night and crawled into bed around 4:00 am – Ouch!

The following night was a quiet dinner on the  boat and an early night.  

With batteries fully charged, we were back into full swing – making friends  around town.  Nathan learning the basics?!! Ha – look how good those decks look after the scrub!

Ben from Adamant marine joined us for dinner & a beer  – thanks for sorting out our Battery charger issues!!

See if you can spot Squander amongst the big boys?!

It’s 2:00am here and time for me to Sign out from the USA – if all goes to plan our next report will be from the Bahamas!

G.