Back in Germany / Ireland

Hi everybody,

we brought Freefall up the Miami River and docked her safely at Jeffs place and cleared her out from all our belongings. Its a strange feeling, but we will start the next step in our life. If you are on such an important step there is always a laughing and a crying eye, as we say in Germany.

We had a beautiful last Friday evening in Miami Beach. It was Emmas Birthday and we went of to the Spanish street in Miami Beach, had a fantastic dinner together with Silvia and afterwards we were dancing hot samba.

The next morning it was for Emma to say good bye to Freefall first, I brought her to the Miami Airport at 09.00am. Totally overloaded she sad also goodbye to me for a while and was heading for Dublin in Ireland.

My flight was in the afternoon and I arrived home in Schrevendorf at the Baltic Sea the next day.

 

For anybody who wants to get in touch with me:

 

axel.wellendorfgmail.com

or call me at:

+494348910523

 

Axel

Pictures Updated

We are still in Miami at the Sunset Marina and we have a good time, although we have to take our stuff from Freefall to get ready to leave her and to go home.....
I just updated the pictures, have fun,
Axel

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Miami

hi all
We´ve arrived in Miami after a few days trip from Key West through Hawks Channel (inside the reef) exploring some of the Florida Keys along the way. Stefan, Axels friend from Germany has been sailing with us since Key West. We caught a spotted mackerel in Hawks Channel and had a lovely BBQ on Freefall; stopped at a couple of the Keys including Marathon Key, snorkeling at Sombrero Key´s reef finishing with an overnight trip outside the reef, arriving in Miami yesterday morning. The wind was very good to get here so we took advantage of it and between that, and the Gulf current outside the reef, we whizzed along at 7-8knots during our overnight trip.

We have anchored in a nice little spot next to Sunset Harbour Marina where Axel´s friend Art keeps his boat. The 3 of us had good fun exploring the many bars and cafes around Miami beach yesterday afternoon and evening, and meeting all sorts of ´interesting´ people...
we´re off to explore the beach today...

Stefan leaves on Sat 12th and we have one week left to get things sorted before we fly home on the 19th.

Hope you´re all keeping well and that its as nice and sunny there as it is here!?!
Em xx

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A limerick for Freefall

There is a sailboat called Freefall
Nothing can stop her at all
The world she sailed twice
Seeing romance and paradise
Now rests til she gets her third call

That sailboat called Freefall was steel
But sails with mighty good feel
To oceans far and wide
The next sailor by her side
Will be getting a very good deal

Freefall is steel but not slow
She sails quite fast you know
Brought friends together
Whatever the weather
Now that´s her story to go!!

Em xx

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The World is Round!!!!!

There are easier and quicker ways to proof it, but I am sure there are no more exciting and nicer ways then doing it by sailboat.
Thanks to everybody how supported and helped me, to my family, especially my brother in law Sid and my sister Susanne, to my crew Andy and the Backpackers from Australia. To all the friendly people we met in all countries, to the islanders how taught me that you do not have to have money to be rich. And to Emma how came on board of FREEFALL in the middle of the Pacific in Bora Bora and (almost) never left till then......

What does it mean, Sailing around the World???
Here some quick facts:

33024 Nautical Miles = 61160 km
250 Days and Nights at Sea
104 Islands
28 Countries
37 Month

I would have liked to count the fish we caught and the books I read! many many many...

Atlantic Ocean (3 month): Feb. 04 - 02 May 04
Pacific Ocean (26 Month, inc. two hurricane saisons, 6 month in New Zealand, 5 month in Australia) : 2 May 04 - 21 June 06
Indian Ocean (7 month): 21 June 06 - 14 January 07
Atlantic Ocean (4 month): 14 January 07 - 4 May 07

Happy Sailing, i am off to the pub now,
Axel

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A limerick...

There was an old man on a boat
Who had on board a nice goat
The goat was good fun
They drank milk in the sun
And sailed to islands remote

Well that man on the boat with the goat
Who sailed to islands remote
That goat could not swim
One day she fell in
And nothing could keep her afloat!

xx

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What a Stop!

We are happy that we stopped at these two little remote islands of the south Bahamas in the middle of the ocean! They are only dots on the chart and we haven´t found any information or heard about them. They were beautiful! Crystal clear turquoise water, white sandy beaches and no other boats around....It is amazing that these Islands are so close to the US yet it seems like you are back in the South Sea, where we had whole islands to ourselves. We reckon its just too far from mainland Bahamas for the charter boats to get to, so they will remain unspoilt, for the moment.

The marine life was fantastic. Turtles, Lobster, thousands of Conch, huge Helmets, lots of fish, including sharks and not so friendly barracudas. Emma will surely tell the story of how she got followed by a big, aggressive barracuda, whose mouth was wide open with long nasty teeth ready to bite her!! (and how Axel came to my rescue with his speargun in hand. Even then the nasty fella was going for us!).

Yesterday we changed from Anguila island to Cay Sal and met another boat - Nancy and George on Steel Lady, from Florida Keys. We went snorkeling with them and got 4 big lobster for our dinner which we BBQ´ed on Freefall. So delicious! We could have got more; they were just walking around in the daylight!! We have never seen that before.

This morning we sailed to an old wreck five miles from the island and were snorkeling there. Again lots of fish between the old wreck pieces of the old ship. It didn´t take long until the first sharks came to have a look at the newcomers. They were reef sharks, not big ones, only around 4 feet, but its always a bit uncomfortable when they are around. Generally they don´t bother you, however George speared a reef fish but unfortunately didn´t hold it out of the water. You should either hold the struggling and bleeding fish out of the water or put him in your dinghy immediately, otherwise the sharks get excited and aggressive thinking its their dinner! On his way back to the boat George got attacked by a shark who mistook his arm for this fish so ended up giving George a nasty bite!! He was close to his boat so got safely home and we all got out of the water pretty quickly! George now has a big wound with lots of teeth marks on his left arm, which we steri-striped (stitches) for him; the 1st time we´ve used our steri-strips during our whole trip! After that drama Nancy made us all a great Mexican lunch then we said our goodbyes and set sail...

We expect to arrive at Key West tomorrow afternoon (Fri). At the moment there is no wind and the Gulf stream is against us.

Axel (& Em xx)

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Cay Sal

Just dropped the anchor at Cay Sal, very very nice here....later more.
Axel

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Cay Sal

We just pulled up our anchor and are heading for Cay Sal. Anguila Cay was a bit odd. No houses, no sailboats, nothing...just a little island with beautiful beaches and water for us alone. Today we were exploring the Island and went to the windward side, where we found lots of junk on the beach. All floating over from the US. We got a perfect football. Between all the junk we discovered prints in the sand. They were turtle prints who were laying there eggs there. I was tempted to dig out the eggs for a nice dinner but I could resist.
Now we are motorsailing the 50 NM to Cay Sal. Not a lot of wind, but also no waves. We started at 2300 so we will be there in the morning. Cay Sal we will leave on Thursday, to be in Key West on Friday.
Axel

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Anguila Cay

Just dropped our anchor at Anguila Cay, a little uninhabited island from the Bahamas. We immediately jumped in the water and snorceled around. It is beautiful clear water and on our little 30 min trip we already saw lots of little fish including two barracuda and a shark! Tomorrow we will have a rest here and explore the island, then we are of to the Cay Sal, our last unspoiled island on the "Big Trip".
Axel

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The day has dawned...

.. and what a beautiful sunrise it was this morning but not much wind so we have had to put the engine on, unfortunately. It was a much less rolly day yesterday and a comfortable night last night since we are now sheltered from the North Atlantic rollers/swell by the Bahamas. In another 4 hours or so we will be entering the Old Bahama Channel a fairly narrow channel which separates Cuba from the Bahamas, where all the traffic converges.

And the end day is looming. We have our flights booked from Miami to Europe, thanks to our sisters. The end of the epic voyage is nigh!!
Hope you´re all keeping well.
Em xx

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Cuban news...

Top of the Morning All
We are now sailing between the southern Bahamas, on our starboard side, and the north coast of Cuba, approx 30nm to port. Last night we passed Great Inagua Island, Bahamas and could see the glow of Matthew Town on the horizon in the distance. It was another dark cloudy night but thankfully with only a couple of squalls and a few ships.

Our new plan:
Yesterday we decided that we would give Cuba a skip on this occasion. It´s a big and interesting country for only a 3/4 day visit, after which we would end up beating in a NNE direction against NE Trades to get up to Key West. Instead we are going to stop at a couple of the uninhabited southern Bahama islands in Sal Cays Bank namely Aguila Cay and Cay Sal, only accessible by boat, for a last taste of paradise before hitting the real world and the Florida crowds. From these islands we will have a much nicer sailing angle to Key West where we will have our official Round The World party. Who´s coming??? Ahhh go on, go on, go on...! ;-)

The wind has dropped from around 20k yesterday to about 10k today and we have slowed to 5k speed, its going to be a partially sunny one and feeling smoother...

Ciao for now
Em xx

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Haiti

We are just passing Haiti and tomorrow we should be of the cost of Cuba. Around 600 NM to go to Havana. We should arrive in Havana on the 1. of Mai.
Pretty rough passage, the roughest one for us in the Atlantic Ocean. Wind is around 20-25 knots from ENE and we are sailing with around 7 KN for the last 2 days.

Everybody how wants to come to Key West on the 5th or 6th of May is happily invited to stay on Freefall and to join us for our
"Around the World Party".

I hope to see some of you guys,
Axel and Emma

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Dominican Republic

Just passed Puerto Rico and are of the cost of the Dominican Republic and Haiti. The weather is cloudy and sometimes rainy. Got a nice Wahoo today and I had a big Fish Burger, Emma Sushi....
Everything is fine, 740 NM to Havana.
Axel

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On the Way to Cuba....

1045 NM to Havana! If everything is fine we should be there in 7 days...bit bumpy and windy right now, so we moved to the back to sleep!
Axel

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Rainy day & mainsail on the way...

Hi All
Took Axel too the US VI ferry at 0630 this morning in the pouring rain - it was a nice freshwater shower and all this rain is a great chance for us to top up our water tanks. The islanders generally are happy to have the rain. Axel´s back this afternoon with the new mainsail- Yippeee!

Yesterday we had a nice day at Smuggler´s Cove beach. Believe it or not, its unusual for us to laze on a beach so it actually felt like a novelty! Got chatting with a Brazilian lady who was able to help remind us of how to cook some of the traditional Brazilian dishes we loved when in Brazil so when we came home we cooked a yummy Black Bean dish with pork ribs.

Must go and take the old ripped mainsail off in preparation for the arrival of the new one...
Em x

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BVI

I think here is the only one place on earth where you are in Britain and you can look over to the US! only a little one mile channel is dividing the countries! And the only place on earth where the British are using US $!
We can also feel we are getting closer to civilization. We are anchored on the edge of the bay in 25 m of water (thanks to our 100 m chain), because we refused to pay 25 US$ for a mooring buoy a night! Traveling to the nicest islands on the planet in the pacific or the indian ocean we spend 10 $ for living a day!!
The islands are very nice with little hilly bushes but no palm trees!
Tomorrow i will go to the US Virgin Islands to pick up the new mainsail. I have to do that by ferry, because i have no visa (and do not get one) and cannot sail over there. Although i get a visa if i go there by ferry!!! Confusing?!!?! do not ask me....
Axel

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British Virgin Islands

Just dropped the anchor at West End in the BVIs in Tortola. A bit rainy but a nice place.
Axel

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Sabba Bank fish

Hi all

70nm to go to the British Virgin Islands so we expect to make landfall in Tortola early tomorrow. After a slow night the wind is good today and we´ve been doing about 6k goose-winging with genoa and cutter sails. lots of sunshine and no squalls. The wind varies from S to E so is over aft quarter which is great when we only have foresails to sail with. Thanks to Sid we´ll collect the mainsail in the US Virgin Islands soon...

We have just sailed over Sabba Bank where the depth dropped to 30m so the fishing line was out in hopeful expectation! ... we caught a 3 foot Mahi Mahi (Dorado)! With sailing coming to an end soon I´m feeling very adventurous and feel the need to ´push the boat out´ on this one. Having spoken to local Caribbean fishermen and a couple of cruisers I´ve decided to cook the roe and the eyes! Ben on Gypsy Soul told us the roe is delicious and is apparently a delicacy in some expensive fish restaurants especially in the Med., so its shameful that we have wasted it up until now. As for the eyes, well the local fishermen have also assured us they are delicious pan-fried... hmmmmmmm!!! I´m not sure I will be able to persuade Axel to give the eyes a try! Will let you know...

Em xx

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Bye Bye Windward Islands....

After a beautiful week in St. Lucia with Susanne, Sid, Zoe, Siddy and Emily we left the Windward Islands and are on our way to the British Virgin Islands. 300 NM to go. We should arrive there on Saturday.

Yes we had a fun week with the family - 4 days at the beautiful Pitons (unique volcanic cones - a World Heritage Site) and then all aboard for a nice sail to Rodney Bay for a 3 day stay there. All the kids made excellent crew altho´ Siddy and Emily slept alot but Zoe was busy for the whole trip pulling & coiling ropes, blowing the boat horn (giant Conch shell) and making a Scoubidoo ankle chain! We were able to anchor Freefall off the beach at both hotels so it was easy to get to and from the boat for onboard breakfasts, sundowners and BBQs. As the week progressed the kids gradually got use to Freefall and in the end Zoe and Siddy were happy to jump from the yacht into the sea. Both even climbed 1/2 mast! Future sailors in the making!

Axel and I had a trip into the mountains and did a hike through a beautiful rainforest. We stayed one extra night in St Lucia to get the boat ready for sailing and to have a final night out in the YC with our friends from the Bequia Regatta. They´re all heading to Antigua Sailing Week so best of luck to them.

And we´ve recently learnt that our friends on Eagle Wing, Petrell, La Familia, Cisnecito and Pamina are not far behind us (Tobago Cays etc) but we will not get to see them (boohoo!) again as they (ex La F) head for Antigua Sailing Week to race Cisnecito! Its a pity we miss the fun and reunion at ASW but Cuba is calling so we´re fast-tracking to there...

Em xx & Axel

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Pitons in St Lucia

hi all
We arrived here at the beautiful Pitons at Soufriere in south west St Lucia on Easter Monday after a overly long (15 hrs when we hoped only 8!) and tedious motor sail from Bequia against head winds and strong currents. The current was so strong at one stage we were going backwards at the rate of 1 knot when on 1500rpm! We changed course and travelled north along the leeward side of St Vincent instead of the windward side...

The Pitons are 2 steep volcanic cones, so unique they´ve been declared a world heritage site and we are on a mooring nestled between the two! The scenary from our cockpit is breathtaking! Its also a Marine Reserve here so snorkelling is good - lots of different fish.

Axel´s sister, brother-in-law and 3 kids arrived on Tuesday and have been staying in the Jalouise Plantation Resort which is on the shore about 100 meters from us! Very convenient, its great to see everyone and we´ve been having lots of fun and games. As of yet, none of the family have ventured to sleep overnight on Freefall but its been breakfast onboard for all every morning. Tonight Axel & I did BBQ´ed Mahi Mahi dinner on Freefall (unfortunately not caught by us - we had to go to the market to get this one!).

Hope to climb a Piton tomorrow...
Em xx

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Fun in Bequia Regatta

hi all
We arrived in Bequia on Good Friday and as we sailed in we passed a big fleet of all sorts of boats battling it out in the 1st day of the Bequia 26th Annual Regatta. That evening in Frangipani´s bar we got chatting to lots of the people racing who included serious racers to cruisers just having a bit of fun... The captain of an X99 (X Factor, a 30 footer) needed more crew (6 in total) so on Saturday we were delighted to crew for him for the big race - Round The Island Race. We did it in approx 4.15 hours and we came 7th in the racing class! It was a great days racing, with lots of varied sailing including spinnaker, something we dont have on Freefall so the cobwebs were abruptly brushed away. It was lovely to see the whole island- most cruisers tend to avoid windward sides of islands, and we´re still nursing the bumps and bruises from the race.

Easter Sunday in Bequia was a day off for most of the racers - just aswell after the celebrations on Saturday night. There was a huge party on the beach with sandcastle and ´build your own crazy boat´ competitions and lots of locals pumping out calypso and soca music from gigantic mega speakers.

We are now approaching St Lucia. Much to the disappointment of Andreas, X Factor captain and other 3 crew who sail their final race tomorrow (Monday) we have had to leave Bequia on Sunday evening to get to St Lucia, so have left them behind looking for new crew...The best of luck to them!

Axel´s sister Susanne and the 3 nieces Zoe, Syddi and Emily fly into St Lucia tomorrow for a week so there´ll be great excitement on Freefall - its been a long time since we´ve had guests.
Em xx
PS There were no chocolate eggs this year for Emmie and Axi!

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Happy Easter to you from Freefall!!

hi all
Hope you have a very happy & relaxed Easter. Not sure there will be many Easter Eggs to be found here in the Caribbean but I´ll be looking and hoping there are one or two for us!

We left Tobago Cays at 6am this morning after a lovely stay there. We spent alot of our time in the water and saw great marine life- huge Spotted Eagle Ray, big Sting Ray, sea snake (and land snake!), heaps of turtles and lots & lots of different little & large colorful fish. Its nice that we´ve already caught our dinner this morning by trolling - a Travelly.

So its Bequia in a few hours where we will spend the Easter weekend...

We got an email from our Norwegian friends on Petrell this morning who are VERY happy to have made landfall. They recently arrived in Grenada after 33 days at sea from St Helena, 7 of which were no wind days in the Doldrums! Ohhhh that´s a very long passage!

Ciao
Em xx

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Pirates of the Caribbean....

hi
All day today we were anchored in the tiny lagoon at Petit Tabac, the beautiful little island in Tobago Cays featured in Pirates of the Caribbean! For those of you who saw the movie, its the island on which Johnny Depp & Kiara are stranded and where JD tucks into the huge stash of hidden rum!! The island survived hurricane Ivan so all the palm trees are still standing and the coral reef is gorgeous which we got a great view of when we went Scuba diving (the beauty of having the equipment onboard). And we had a lovely sunny day for it after 2 rainy days.

Now we are anchored for the night behind Horseshoe Reef near World´s End reef, with about 50 other boats!! Its such a beautiful spot here only accessible by boat. Tomorrow we´ll kayak through the narrow pass in Horseshoe Reef and explore its windward side.

We plan to spend our Easter at Bequia Island which has a regatta and lots festivities planned.
Em xx

...and I found the rum treasure on the island...cheers, Axel

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Pirates of the Caribbean....

hi
All day today we were anchored in the tiny lagoon at Petit Tabac, the beautiful little island in Tobago Cays featured in Pirates of the Caribbean! For those of you who saw the movie, its the island on which Johnny Depp & Kiara are stranded and where JD tucks into the huge stash of hidden rum!! The island survived hurricane Ivan so all the palm trees are still standing and the coral reef is gorgeous which we got a great view of when we went Scuba diving (the beauty of having the equipment onboard). And we had a lovely sunny day for it after 2 rainy days.

Now we are anchored for the night behind Horseshoe Reef near World´s End reef, with about 50 other boats!! Its such a beautiful spot here only accessible by boat. Tomorrow we´ll kayak through the narrow pass in Horseshoe Reef and explore its windward side.

We plan to spend our Easter at Bequia Island which has a regatta and lots festivities planned.
Em xx

...and I found the rum treasure on the island...cheers, Axel

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Rastafarian

We are anchored in front of the little town Clifton on Union Island. Everybody has Easter holiday at the moment and are partying with loud reggae music on the streets. From everywhere are coming strange cigarette smells and the Rastafarians are happy. Its a very special place. In St. Vincent (what they call their mainland) you can only walk up to the Volcano with a guide, because of all the armed guards who are protecting their marihuana fields. If you hike the wrong path it could be that they shoot you. The government gave up burning their fields, the reason why we couldn´t find out.
At the moment its raining and cloudy and we are waiting for better weather to get to the Tobago Cays, one of the most beautiful spots in the Grenadines. An anchorage enclosed by coral reefs.
Yesterday Emma took me to see the famous nurse shark in a pool by the Anchorage Yacht Club in Clifton. We looked everywhere in the pool to find them, but also here the Hurricane Ivan changed a little bit. He blew a hole in the concrete wall of the pool and let them all free in the open ocean....

Axel

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The Grenadines

We are still hopping form one anchorage to the other...
Yesterday we got up early again and sailed from Isle de Ronde to Sandy Island for lunch and then to Hillsborough, a lovely town at Carriacou for the afternoon and night. So many beautiful anchorages!
Today we only had a little sail to Chatham Bay at Union Island where we will stay for the day.
The wind is picking up and its 30°C and 60% cloud cover.
Today we relax and are lazy from all the sailing the other days.
Axel

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Grenada

This morning we lifted the anchor at 0630 to get from St. Davids Harbour to the Capital of Grenada, St. Georges. Its a nice little lagoon with the town build around the water. You just drop your anchor in the middle of the town. Here we checked out from Grenada (its Friday and we want to be in the Grenadines by Monday) and got some food. At 1400 we set sail to the north of Grenada and now we are safely anchored behind Isle de Ronde. Our aim for tomorrow is the next beautiful Island around the corner.
Axel

When approaching St George´s today I was looking very puzzled... When I started my trip 3 yrs ago I stopped there, had told Axel it was a run-down town but now we were looking at freshly painted houses everywhere, colourful new roofs, not many trees, all the debris from the broken down jetty cleared from the lagoon...did I remember this place at all?? Now Axel is looking at me thinking I´ve totally lost my memory! Thankfully a cruiser who has been in St G´s for the last 5 yrs cleared my confusion - 6 months after my visit hurricane Ivan hit the town TWICE and totally devastated it! This cruiser was one of only 5 boat owners out of dozens whose boat wasn´t destroyed - he gave us some excellent tips should we ever be preparing to face a hurricane when in harbour! His first hand account of being caught in a hurricane was frightening.

Also ironically 3 yrs ago there was a also cricket being played there, in Granville. That time it was a Cricket Classic with all the old and greats from cricket playing in a veterans game which I went to see and met people like Graham Gooch, Viv Richards and even took Syd Lawrence out for a sail! Today Ireland were playing England. Go the Irish!

Night night
Em x

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Arrived in Grenada

Just arrived in St. Davids Harbour, Grenada. Although we arrived in Grenada last night but I thought its better to go into a wider bay for the night and we stayed in Prickley Bay, from where we got out with the sun.
We are going to check in now and than i will have a look at a friends boat. Probably tomorrow we will head further north.
Axel

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On The Way to Grenada

We just left Chaguaramas in Trinidad and are now on our way to Grenada. A bit later then we thought but Emma had to pick up a letter this morning. No Wind right now and we are motoring. Chaguaramas is a great boat place where you get everything for boats you want. The last two days we were in the Chandlery and got lots of parts we needed.
80 NM to go, Sunny and very calm.
Axel

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Chaguaramas

Just arrived in Chaguaramas after a 45 NM sail from the north coast of Trinidad.
Yesterday evening we were going to the beach in Grande Riviere to see the massive turtles digging deep holes in the sand to lay their 70 - 120 tennis-ball-big eggs! An amazing moment. During laying the turtles are in a trance so they do not mind us watching or touching them.
We stayed out in the village for the night at some friends (Kevin and Larry) home. It was nice because the anchorage was super rolly. Grand Riviere is a crazy place in the middle of the Jungle. The swell on the beach was too big to land a dinghy so we had to make landfall some miles around the corner and than we hiked through the Rain Forest. A great adventure.
This morning we got up with the birds and were going to the woods to see the Pawi, an indigenous bird from Trinidad and very very rare! Thanks Carry, who is living with Kevin, and is doing a masters in biology about this bird. It was my first bird watching experience...very exciting! ;)
On our sail today it was raining almost the whole time with bad visibility but at least we got two big fish. One Great Trevally and one King Fish. The King Fish was longer then 4 foot!! one of our biggest fish ever.
Here in Chaguaramas we are only for getting some boat stuff and provisioning and I am hoping we are leaving Tuesday night for Grenada.
Axel

We forgot to mention that we went Scuba Diving in Tobago, off an island called Little Tobago before leaving and one of the largest coral brains in the world- very impressive! And rather alot of frisky sharks around. Ian Flemming (James Bond) build a beautiful house in an amazing location on Goat Island next to Little Tobago- a perfect spot for dreaming up crazy 007 adventures! Now its time for a Bloody Mary, relaxing and an early night...!
Em xx

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Arrived in Trinidad

hello all
At 0630 we set sail from beautiful Speyside, north east Tobago and arrived here at Grande Rivieré Bay north coast Trinidad at 1400. Its gorgeous, rugged, mountainous area covered in virgin rain forest (St David Forest Reserve). Its not an official anchorage here; its quite rolly so Dylen has had to go ashore to stop getting greener and greener from sickness! We are here to drop off Larry & Dylen who have been sailing with us for the last few days and also to see the huge Leather Back Turtles lying their eggs on the beach tonight!! We´ve already spotted a few as we sailed into the bay and, boy, they are huge - 5 to 7 feet! It hasnt stopped raining since we arrived here, I guess that´s why there´s such an expansive rain forest here.

Will head around to Chagaramas tomorrow...
Ciao
Em xx

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Anse Bateau Bay

We just popped around the corner to another lovely bay. We are trying to arrange a diving tomorrow and then we are off for Trinidad. On the north coast of Trinidad are nesting the Leatherback Turtles right now and we would like to watch them....
Axel

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Charlotteville

Arrived at Charlotteville yesterday evening after motoring for 2 hours into the NE Trade Wind. This is a lovely tiny little town full of character, set in a beautiful natural harbour on the north west coast of Tobago. The scenery around us is gorgeous. Heaps of little fishing boats & birds here. The little fish are jumping around Freefall! The 4 of us we went ashore yesterday evening to explore and had a nice (cheap) dinner & beers and met a few locals. There are only 6 other yachts anchored here. We are going to suss out the best spots for Scuba Diving.
Its overcast today so a nice cool day, perfect for a run or hike...
Em xx

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Englishman Bay

Tobago is getting better and better! We are cruising up the NW Coast and stopping in the most idyllic Bays with gorgeous scenery, walks threw the rain forest and nice snorkeling in the beautiful reef. On the way up we made friends with some Canadian / Trinidad Guys whom we are taking up the coast and back to Trinidad on Freefall...so lots to do!!! Tomorrow we will sail to Charlottetown and then to Little Tobago...
Axel

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Another Paddy=?ISO-8859-1?Q?=B4?=s Day bites the dust...

We had a fun St Patrick´s day & night yesterday in Tobago! Met some great local Tobagonian & Trinidadian people who took us into their home to join them for their big family reunion dinner. 10 of them were very keen to came partying with us after dinner and we had a long fun night with lots of face painting & Calypso dancing. I think I painted Green Shamrocks on at least 20 faces (& boobs - the ladies preference!). Strangers, from kids to a local writer in his 80s, were asking me to paint a shamrock on them...funny! Its 2 yrs ago since Axel´s 1st Paddys day, in Whangarei, New Zealand...uhhh ahhh, time flys!!

And the locals were very excited that Ireland beat Pakistan in the World Cup Cricket!! We haven´t yet heard if Ireland are the 6 Nations Rugby Champions...??

We´re off to snorkel on Buccoo Reef...

Em xx

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Beautiful Togabo

HAPPY ST PATRICKS DAY TO YOU ALL! I hope you have a few Guinness or other to celebrate - we have found an Irish pub which serves Guinness!!
Em xx

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Tobago

What a nice island!! We cleared Customs and Immigration yesterday in Scarborough, got some food and water and than in the afternoon we were sailing around the west end of the Island to Buccoo Bay, close to Tobagos biggest reef, the Buccoo Reef. This is a beautiful Bay, with a little Town and beside all the little fishing boats is only one other sailboat anchored here. Swimming, snorkeling, kayaking, diving....that will be the agenda for the next days...
Happy St. Patricks Day,
Axel

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Tobago

Yipiehhhh, we just dropped the anchor in Scarborough, Tobago. Everything is fine!!!
Axel

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Tobago Today

Hello All

We arrive in Tobago this evening and in time for St Patrick´s Day -Yippee! We dont expect to find many Irish or any Irish pubs there but you never know, the Irish get around!

Yesterday was a slower day than what we have been use to on this otherwise fast trip but we were still going at 5-6k. Not much wind and at times still a little current. It was nice to have another sunny day with a beautiful sunrise & sunset. And we caught another Mahi yesterday. It took me one hour to land this 4 foot fella - what a fighter! Its amazing how they change colour - electric blue to bright green then completely white!

We dont know if it will be easy or not to send emails from Tobago so please dont worry if you dont hear from us for a few days.
Cheers
Em xx

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Nice and Sunny!

Mmmmmhhhhh, that´s nice! We can open all the hatches today without being afraid of getting a bucket of water inside the boat and we can have a sunbath in the cockpit!!
The windy and rainy weather is gone and we have very nice sailing conditions at the moment. 15-20 knot from the NE and our speed is around 8 knots. If we can hold that speed it will be Tobago by Thursday evening. That would be 9 days for 1620 NM! The fastest sail we ever had and that without the main for half the way!!
Everything and everybody is fine on board...
Axel

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Very Windy...

We had another windy night and are flying to Tobago. Our Genoa is only 20 % out and we are doing between 7-8 knots with winds around 30 KN. The sea is not too bad but its still pretty tough. We are getting squeezed against our cushions during our sleep and dancing around in the galley...In these winds i do not miss the main sail.
600 more miles and we should be in Tobago by Friday.
Axel

Lost count of how many fish we caught yesterday; threw about 4 little (1 foot) Bonito (Tuna) back. Too small for us! Then something really big made the line screech but then unfortunately broke it, taking off with our successful fluorescent green squid lure without showing himself/herself. Boohoo! Just some of the events onboard to amuse us.

Late Breaky: Bacon & eggs with bread Axel made in our new doughnut shaped minioven which we found by chance in Brazil. This sits on the gas ring & cooks break/cakes in super quick time - very economical on our propane!
Early Dinner: huge pot of spicy vegy soup with TVP (textured vegetable protein - mayb we´ll keep the next small fish we get!)
Cheers
Em x

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Stormy Night...

What a night. Wind up to 40 knots and beating against it with heavy rainfall is not the most comfortable night. The wind is howling threw the spreaders and the boat is pounding from one wave to the next with a big shivering bang every time. Inside the boat everything has to be tight down and the walk to the head can be quite acrobatic.
And then the mainsail gave up again. This time there is no chance to repair it so we need a new one. So the next 1000 miles we have to sail with our genoa only what makes the trip a bit longer, but FREEFALL sails quite comfortable without the main.
We are licking our wounds today and getting everything dry.
Everything else is fine,
Axel

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Dear Neptune...

Its now 10.30pm on Thurs 8th Mar and at 10pm local time (0100 Zulu), we crossed the equator! Wayhey!!! 00°00´, 43°58´W Made a paper boat and sent it overboard to Neptune with a Bloody Mary to put a little smile on his face and help make a wish come true. We both opted out of shaving our heads, a sailors tradition on the 1st equator crossing since this is our 2nd! Phew! So now we´re back in the northern hemisphere after 22 fabulous months of adventure in the southern antipodes.

1200nm to go to Tabago. The Amazon estuary is about 200 miles off to our left. Still no sign of the Doldrums and now we have North East Trade winds at 15k. With this great speed of 7-9k (still current with us) we should hopefully make it to Tabago in time for St Patrick´s Day celebrations on 17th!

Night night sleep tight.
Em x

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Gooood Current

Wow, we are flying along the cost of Brazil around 8 Knots!! Thats great. There must be a 2-3 knot current what is pushing us to the Caribbean. I hope that last a while! Last week our friends on Dream Catcher and Syren had the doldrums where we are right now and we are speeding along...Maybe we are lucky.
WE got a huge Mahi Mahi yesterday evening and i am canning the half of him right now. Still there is fresh fish for the next 3 days.

1145, 31.2°C, very humid, 100% overcast, Wind: 10-15 NE, Course:304°, Speed: 8 KN, Log 324 NM, 1277NM to Tobago, average speed:7 KN.

Axel

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Bye Bye Brazil...

Yesterday morning at 1100 we left Fortaleza and are heading now for Tobago, maybe we will stop in Suriname. The coast of Brazil is almost one big beach and lots of surfing is going on here. They have almost everywhere a good beach break and millions of peoples are hanging out on the beach with lots of football and volleyball games. Principally its a perfect place with its sunny, hot coast. The downside is the violence in the big cities and nowadays also outside on land. Everybody is telling you not to take your watch, camera, backpack with you and not to go out by night. Every Brazilian can tell you a nice story about how they robbed him and that doesn´t taste good. If you want to leave your boat, you have to find a protected marina.

During our time in Brazil we had no problems thanks to Brazilian friends we made in Recife (Naide) and Fortaleza (Doris, Luciano, Otto and Wladie) who took care of us and drove us safe to the nice places and beaches of Brazil. Thanks to them also from here.

Our plans for now was sailing to the Amazon and cruising up the river for a bit. But this we canceled after we talked to some Locals and Sailors. Its rainy season at the moment what means that large masses of vegetation and large tree trunks float downstream what is a serious danger for us. Beside that are the several serious attacks to sailors in this area. It would be a dream, but too much risk is involved.

Now we have 1500 NM to go to Tobago, probably 11 more days. We will pass the Doldrums (ITC-Zone) in around 2 days what means tons of rain and no wind for around a day.

0930, 28.6°C, 02°15S, 40°09W, Wind: SE 15 KN, Speed: 6-7 KN, Course, 303°, Average Speed 6 KN, Log 123 NM, 1472 NM to Tobago.

Axel

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Still in Fortaleza

We are going to check out of Brazil on Monday and starting our sail to the Caribbean on Tuesday or Wednesday. Fortaleza is the hammock capital of the world and we got six supernice hammocks yesterday.

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Picture Update!!!!!!!!!!

We stay in Fortaleza in the Marina Park and we could fix the Main sail yesterday!! I hope its lasting till Key West. After a little talk with our neighbors we are not sure anymore about visiting the Amazon!! They all say its very violent there and told us about the killed sailors from the last years, who tried to get up the river!! Its also raining season and wet wet wet...so we have a decision day today. Maybe Frensh Guina instead.

Thanks WiFi in the marina, I could update the Picture Galerie...
Have fun,
Axel

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our mobile number

..give us a call- we´d love to hear from you!!

0055 81 928 44 990

xx

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Stopping in Fortaleza...

Unfortunately we have to stop in Fortaleza to mend the main sail again...the three years sailing is making the sail very weak and especially the seams are coming off. So last night there was this weeeeeehhhhhhhhhhhppp and a big hole in the main. The last 8 Ports we were in i had to mend the sail. Everytime I think it should be strong enough now, but than the next bit is ripping away. Still very wet and the squalls are getting more and more aggressive! At the moment its blowing like stink and raining cats and dogs....very nice.
4 NM to go to Fortaleza...call us on the mobile...
Axel

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Rain Rain Rain...

What a wet passage....lots of rain. So everyone is fresh and clean. Its will be probably the cleanest passage we ever had. The wind is very variable as well as our speed. Sometimes we are flying with more than 8 KN and other times we are just moving with 3 KN!! But still not to bad. The waves are fine.
Axel

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Around the Cabo...

We just got around the tip of Brazil and heading now almost straight for the Caribbean. Its wet here, almost every hour we are sailing threw a rain squall and are getting a good shower. Beside these squalls we have to be very carefully about little fishing boats and freighters who seemed to be everywhere of the cost of Brazil. The water is quite shallow here and a lot of this tiny fishing boats are just anchored in the open ocean.
At the moment we are thinking about stopping in Sao Luis and after that in the mouth of the Amazon...

2200, 28.3°C, 04°52S, 035°24W, Wind: SE very variable, at the moment 10 -15 KN, Speed: 6 KN, Average Speed: 5.7 KN, LOG: 200 NM, Course: 301°

Still not the best propagation here, so do not worry if you do not hear from us for a day or so...

Axel

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along the coast of Brazil...

hi all
We sailed out of Recife this morning having said our goodbyes to fellow yachties and our new Brazilian friends especially lovely Naide. We met Naide during one of our days at the crazy Carnival (she was dressed as a nun, an outfit I once wore!) and since then she has truly spoilt us, taking us around to see local sights, shops, pubs, her home. For Axel´s birthday Naide, her mum & friend cooked us a huge lunch spread of lots of traditional Brazilian dishes followed by my home\boatmade chocolate birthday cake! This feast was followed by Samba dancing lessons from Naide, an excellent dancer, who then gave me a pressy of her dancing shoes! (maybe she thought there was some hope for me!)

With 2 million people, Recife was much bigger than we expected but after our busy 10 days we got to see quite alot of the city and learn very little Portuguese. Olinda, a 16th century neighbouring, town was our favourite place with its many beautiful old buildings, churches, little cobble streets & lots of colour. Its been hot with lots of heavy rain showers (its their rainy season) so at least our water tanks are full. We sampled many Caipirinhas, a Brazilian drink made with Pitu crushed lemon & ice, with sugar. At less than 2 Euro a bottle, we stocked up on lots of Pitu!

Now we are sailing alone, north bound along the coast towards Sao Luis which is around the northeastern Cape of Brazil, 765 nm away then on towards the Amazon. Dream Catcher left 3 days ago heading straight for St Lucia, Caribbean. Cisnecito left Salvador last Friday and are heading in our direction so perhaps we will link up with them soon. Our 6 months sailing with Texan Ben on Gypsy Soul has ended as he has opted to stay longer in Recife.

Ciao for now!
xx

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Getting Close...

Puhhhhhhh, what a long passage, but it finally looks like we are making landfall tomorrow!!!! Nice wind for the last 2 days!
The last day on a passage seems to me always the longest one. The excitement is growing and I cannot wait to see the new country with all the different people and cultures! and of course a nice shower and a good time in the bar, where you mostly meet some other sailors you know.
Axel

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Slow Motion

Hmmmmm, I hoped we are getting more wind today, but we are still sailing around with 4-5 knots!!
Thats my slowest long passage I ever had, but also one of the calmest ones!! We changed the clocks 1 h today to -2UTC.
No news, everything fine,
Axel

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Sushi

We got two tunas today...and will have sushi now!!!!!!!!!
That was one of the longest periods we haven´t caught any fish, so we are happy now.
They have yellow fins and very big eyes, so I think they are yellow fin tunas, Emma thinks they are big eyed tunas!!! so we will put it to our discussion forum this afternoon. they look very yummmmmie.
Very low winds, I hope its getting better by tomorrow. Very hot here with this low winds! 36.2°C, puuuuuhhhhhhh, hello to everybody in the European winter!
Axel

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The Magic Windvane....

The windvane is the most amazing part on a cruising sailboat. And in my opinion also the most important, beside the sails of course. It is a construction on the back of the boat what is steering the boat without using any electric energy.

The theory: The unit uses an air rudder that you feather into the wind and lock it. As the apparent wind angle changes, it heels the air rudder over one way or the other. This movement is transmitted to a steering oar which is pivoted on its vertical axis in the water. Since the oar is moving through the water, this change of angle makes it veer to port or starboard. Lines attached to the oar, which run to the steering wheel in the cockpit and is steering the boat on course.

That sounds complicated but its one of the best inventions ever made on a sailboat.
We sail 24h with the windvane in almost every weather condition. That gives us time to do all the other nice things on passage, other than steering.

...but the windvane cannot make any energy!

Axel

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Sail Change

We just put the biggest and lightest foresail up and are hoping to catch a little bit more of the light winds. Last night we already were very slow and our average speed over the whole trip dropped from 6.4 to 6.2 and it is still dropping! that does not sound a lot but on a voyage over 12 days its more or less one day at the end! The rest is fine on board, Emma is fit again and having a sunbath on the deck.

1230, 12°56S, 19°19W, 33°C, sunny with 30% cloud cover, wind: 5-8 KN, speed: 4-4.5 KN, 962 NM to Recife, Log 820 NM, av. speed 6.2 KN, course: 286°
All sails are up, fully main on the starboard side, together with the cutter, the genoa boomed out on the port side.

Axel

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under 1000nm to go

Hello all,

We have now under 990nm to go (from 1774nm)- nearly half way. For the last couple of days the wind has been quite consistent; sometimes however, like this cloudy morning, the wind dies for about an hour or so and we bob along at 3-4k, resisting to put the engine on. Unlike alot of the other boats we dont need to run the engine (or a generator) once a day in order to keep our batteries charged - the solar panels and windvane have been making enough energy for us, even with the new fridge running!

We had a beautiful sunrise and sunset yesterday; the cloud cover varies greatly day to day. Ohh and a ship passed us last night - 1st one since we left Cape Town!!

Axel has spent the last 3 days writing up his Curriculum Vitae and a job application, in English, so with a little help from me. We´ve been aiming to do little jobs each day - I serviced 2 winches yesterday and today we´ll probably polish the brass lamps.

Can you believe two fish got away yesterday - one from each of our lines! Now there´s officially a ´fish famine´ onboard; we havent caught one since leaving St Helena! Yesterdays menu below is looking pretty boring but on Thursday we had a very nice Chinese stirfry.

Yesterday´s (Fri) menu:
Big breaky: Egg & beans on toast
Lunch: Cheese & chutney toasties
Evening: Fresh (still a few pieces left) & tinned fruit with custard (yum!)

Come fishy fishy fishy...!!!

PS Propagation isn´t good around here so not so easy for us to email.

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I=?ISO-8859-1?Q?=B4?=ve done it!!

Hi all
Early this morning we sailed across longitude 16°15´ West, which is the same longitude as Santa Cruz, Tenerife, where I began my circumnavigation 3 years and 6 weeks ago, on Up Spirits!! I´ve been sailing on Freefall since joining Axel and Andy in Bora Bora in the Pacific, Sept 2004. Now I´ve crossed the Atlantic, Pacific, Indian Oceans and now we´re 2/3 the way across the Atlantic again; I have circumnavigated the world - Yipppeee!!!

What an amazing adventure this trip has been; full to the brim of so many surprises, delights, highs & lows, survival & discovery, crazy & new experiences, different & ancient cultures & tribes, fun & adventurous people, excellent fishing, amazing far-away places & remote islands, lovely & challenging sailing, high seas romance ;-), lots & lots of fun times and very very fond memories. I would highly recommend it to anyone!

A huge thanks to all my family for their endless support and encouragement during my trip.

We´re saving the bottle of bubbly for when we make landfall in Brazil...
Em x

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Patient on Board

Emma is sick since yesterday! Something is wrong in her belly. I hope its better soon.
The sailing is fine and smooth today so Emma can have a good rest. I varnished, read and studied yesterday and baked a pizza in the evening.
Emma made some yoghurt, what we had to our fruit salad for breakfast this morning.
Yesterday we had a bit of rain and some lulls and little squalls. We also changed the clocks to +1.

1200, 32°C, sunny, 14°31S, 12°02W, Wind: 10-15KN SE, Speed: 6-7KN, Course: 284°, 1398NM to Recife, Log: 379NM, average speed: 6.3KN

Yesterdays menue:

Breakfast: Cereal
Lunch: Cheese & salami sandwich
Dinner: Pizza (tinned tuna)

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Smooth Sailing

The first two sailing days we are recovering from the quick and eventful visit on St. Helena. With very good sailing conditions we are able to catch up some sleep!
We are still watching with three hour shifts during the night, even we haven´t seen one ship on the whole passage in the Atlantic Ocean.
On our agenda for this trip is: reading, fishing, i started sewing a costume for carnival, more varnishing, playing chess, sudoku and of course cooking, keeping a good outlook and sailing.
We were hoping to get some fresh fruit and veggies in St. Helena but the only supply ship they have was just arriving and it takes them 4-5 days to unload the ship and to get the food to the supermarkets so the shelves were pretty empty! The only fresh fruit or veggie were some carrots!
That make our dinner plan more simple then on the first half of the Atlantic Crossing.

1430, 15°08 S, 09°40 W, 31°C, Wind 10 -15 SE, Speed: 6 KN, Course: 283°, 1541 NM to Recife, Log 235NM, Average Speed (since St. Helena): 6.2KN

Yesterdays menue:
Breakfast: cereals with milk, coffee and tea
Lunch: cheese on crackers
Dinner: Peas, carrots, pumpkins and rice
Evening snack: -

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Bye bye St Helena

Hello All
We said goodbye to the beautiful, rugged and very remote (no airport-yet) island of St Helena and its very friendly, welcoming people (pop c 4000) last night (Sunday) at about midnight. The winds are good at about 15 knots from South East and we are now on a course of 283° to Recife, Brazil 1774nm from St Helena, we are sailing on a broad reach.

What a wonderful time we had in St Helena. We arrived early last Friday and checked in with Customs, Immigration & Harbour Master in the morning after which we explored the lovely little town of Jamestown and climbed up Jacobs ladder - a very steep (not far from vertical) old rail cart track which has 699 big steps; our leg muscles are still sore!
That afternoon by VHF we called the captain of the ship Arctic Lady which is at anchor in the bay waiting for their next job, to see if we could have a tour of this huge & impressive looking Norwegian owned Natural Gas tanker, the biggest in the world at 288m long. At 6pm they collected us and we didn´t leave the ship until 10am the following morning! The chief engineer gave us a fascinating 2 hour tour of this steam turbine ship which has 4 gigantic spherical gas tanks on deck, each 60m in diameter. This was followed by drinks & snacks in their bar with captain Knut and his officers, Irish dancing(!) and lots of fun until the early hours, after which we were shown to our big ensuite cabin for a very comfortable sleep (the anchorage in St Helena was very rolly because of a particularly big swell so we were very happy not to be sleeping on Freefall!!).

Saturday was our day for exploring as much of the island as we could but we had a bit of a late start after our leisurely big breakfast on Arctic Lady consequently missing the only morning bus, so we decided to hitchhike. There are not many cars on the roads but a very nice chap in the 2nd car to eventually pass us, picked us up and ended up giving us a 4 hour tour of the whole island! The island is only 10k x 17k but because its so hilly the distance travelled is much greater. We had a great day out visiting Napoleon´s house - a nice large rambling cottage which was his ´prison´, the Governor´s mansion where the oldest St Helenian resident, 170yrs old Jonathan the tortoise resides (given to the Governor as a present 150 years ago!!! Axel), and driving through the islands many hills and valleys, some lush green and others barren and desolate - a stark contrast!

Saturday evening we returned to Arctic Lady with 4 loads of laundry which all fitted in their industrial washing machine, followed by a lovely steak dinner with the captain & officers and then all ashore to listen to an excellent live band in Donny´s pub. After another comfortable nights sleep onboard Arctic Lady we said our goodbyes, loaded with ship souvenirs (mugs, shirts, hats).
Sunday we spent a few hours on rolly Freefall doing a few essential jobs in prep for the next half of the Atlantic. Two of our friends had sailed in that morning, Cisnecito & Gypsy Soul, so we all ate Gypsy Soul´s catch of Tuna & Mahi Mahi on Sun evening before saying goodbye & weighing our anchor at midnight...

Em x

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Yipieeeehhhh

..just arrived save in St. Helena and we are anchoring in a rolly bay outside Jamestown.
Big black cliffs and rocky mountains around us. We have to clear customs now and then we have a couple of day to explore the island.
Axel

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15 nm to St. Helena...

..almost there! ETA 02.02.07, 0500!
..and we haven´t seen one ship on the whole trip!!
Axel

We have bad propagation here, what means its difficult to send e-mails via our HF-Radio.

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200 NM to St. Helena

It is the 31. of January and I hoped that we are in St. Helena by today!! But the winds are really lower than expected and are dying down again. That is quite unusual for these normally steady trade wind regions.
We have to stay a bit longer on board and will arrive in St. Helena by the early morning of the 2.2.07!
To keep us busy in these calm weather we started some minor maintenance jobs and are varnishing some bits and pieces inside the boat.

1544, 18°11 S, 03°03 W; 28°C, 20 % overcast, 202 NM to St. Helena, S-E Wind 8 knots, Speed 4-5 knots

Axel

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Fresh Bread

Axel made delicious brown bread yesterday morning, we still have lots of fresh fruit and veg thanks to our new fridge, we´v got good wind again,and all is well & good onboard!

Mondays menu:

Breaky: With the gorgeous smelling freshly baked bread we had fried eggs & cheese, followed by fresh fruit salad with yoghurt and Maple Syrup
Lunch: The last of the hearty fish & vegy soup
Dinner: fish strips in spicy bread crumbs

This morning at 0130 we crossed over the Greenwich Meridian - 000° so are now in the West Longitudes & our clocks are same as Greenwich Mean Time or as most people esp sailors say Universal Time (UTC).

Em xx

Got two fish, both too small to eat, one at night (I forgot to put the lure in). A very strange looking long (1m) and slender like an eel with long little needle teeth and a bright blue stripe on the side. who was it???

Axel

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Wind back & 550nm to go...

Ahoy there,
We got wind again yesterday evening - Wayhey! Put 1 reef in the main & Freefall is sailing at a nice 7k. Our eta at St Helena we expect (fingers crossed this wind stays with us) to be in the evening of 1st Feb.
Its totally overcast today with a little chill in the air. Fishing line is out again now that we´ve almost munched our way through that yummy Dorado. I hung up lots of strips of fish coated in different sauces like soy, worcestershire, sweet chilli, on the guard rail to dry in the sun over the last 2 days so now we can have dried fish snacks, like the Biltong the South Africans eat.

Breaky: Cereal & OJ
Lunch: New Fish soup packed with heaps of fresh vegies & spices
yoghurt with fresh pineapple (Em)
Din: more wholesome soup, cheese & crackers

Em x

0750, 25°C, 100 % overcast, Wind S-E 15 knots, Speed 6.5-7 knots, 550 to St. Helena, Course 312°, average speed 6.1 knots

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Fast And Slow

after our speed-record start with three days of 180 nm in a row, we had now our slow-speed-record of a journey with 3 days of only 100 nm!!! Not much going on here, Emma just oiled the wood outside. Wind is just picking up.

1000, 25° C, 100 cloud cover, Wind 10-12 knots from E-S-E, Course 312°, Speed 6 knots, 673 NM to St. Helena.

Menue, Yesterday, the 27.01.07
Breakfast: cereals with milk, coffee and tea (and the rest of the pizza for me)
Lunch: Fruit salad with yoghurt
Dinner: Seviche (it is raw fish, what has been cooked by marinating in lime juice)
Evening snack: chips (crisps) and crackers

Axel

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Waiting For The Wind

Yesterday we motored during the daytime, with around 4-5 knots! Motoring is always annoying, because of the loud sounds in the boat. Just before sunset a little breeze was picking up and we had the chance to sail again. Since then we are sailing with 4-5 knots. Very slow and with this speed we will arrive in St. Helena 2-3 days later.
The evening sun brought us not only the little breeze but also a very nice fish, a Mahi-Mahi. Other names for this in my opinion best fish of the ocean are dorado and dolphin fish! His length is around 1.20 m and we have plenty of fish for the next days.

0750, 23° C, 80 cloud cover, Wind 7 knots from E-S-E, Course 311°, Speed 5 knots, 792 NM to St. Helena.

Menue, Yesterday, the 26.01.07
Breakfast: cereals with milk, coffee and tea
Lunch: Vegetable/Fish soup (with self canned fish from Madagascar)
Dinner: Pizza Salami
Evening snack: Pizza Salami

Axel

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Where Is The Wind??

The first 3 days we were speeding along with 180 nm per day and now the wind is gone! We have around 5 knots from the E-S-E and sailed only 120 nm the last 24 h! It is also overcast, so we have no chance to watch the stars and the comet by night. Nevertheless the calm sea is quite nice and doing the routine things on the boat are easier in these conditions.
We had to gibe so the mainsail is now on the port side.
NO FISH.

Menue, Yesterday, the 25.01.07
Breakfast: egg on toast, cereals with milk, coffee and tea
Lunch: Fruit salad with yoghurt
Dinner: Vegetable soup (with carrots, onions, garlic, celery, eggplant, tomato, several spices)
Evening snack: Crackers with cheese balls

900 NM to St. Helena
Axel

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quiet sailing time on the Atlantic

wind has been blowing good up until today and now there´s hardly much but we´re still doing 5k so without a Log we can only guess we have a 1k current with us. But its nice and relaxing; we can actually sit out in the cockpit and enjoy the sunshine & surroundings or as Axel say "our garden"!!

We´ve had our heads in our books today - Axel studying Management & I´ve just finished R L Stevenson´s Kidnapped and started Zahir by Paulo Coehlo (The Alchemist), given to me by Axel´s sis Susanne last years Christmas.

We´ve been chasing ants!! The critters seemed to join us\proliferate in Richard´s Bay when we were alongside the pontoon. Fingers crossed we´re getting the better of them! Our friends on Eagle Wing had a rat visit them when alongside in East London!! Nice!

Em x

26°40S; 07°26E, 974 NM to St. Helena, all sails fully up, still an average speed of 7.0 (was 7.5 yesterday), course 309°.
Axel

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it was HUGE!

..so big we lost not just our lovely fluorescent green squid but 100m of fishing line from my small Penn reel!

At least the weather is getting warmer. I´ve gone from wearing 2 hats, 2 trousers, 2 fleeces, socks and boots to one of each minus the boots, and in the day time we can now don shorts and t-shirt - hopefully bikinis soon (Axel looks very well in a bikini! ;-))! Them bones are a warmin! The water temp has risen from about 8-10°C to approx 18°! No swims for us out here tho´; we´ll wait for a calm day and warmer waters for that. In the meantime we settle for a cold saltwater shower in the cockpit (followed by a fresh rinse!).

Just after sunset on a clear evening we have a wonderful view of a Comet with its long tail, just south of where the sun sets and where Venus is visible. Its low in the horizon so not sure how from north its visible. That will keep us company for another 2 weeks apparently...

The fridge is running great and providing us with a much greater variety of fresh fruit & veg than we´ve ever had over the last 2.5 years!
Ciao for now
Em x

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Trade Wind Sailing

After the crazy wind conditions down the African coast with changing winds every day a few times, we are enjoying the trade wind sailing again. The wind blows constantly from the S-E and once everything is set, there can be days without changing the sail positions except little trimming here and there.
Yesterday we thought we have lost the Benguela Current what was pushing us nicely towards St. Helena, but last night we got it again and our average speed is increasing to 7.5 knots, what is the best start of a journey we ever had so far.
Every early evening, just after sunset we have the opportunity to watch a big comet with a long glowing tail in the south-west. A pity that we are bouncing around too much and cannot make a picture.

1167 NM to St. Helena, Wind 20 knots S-E, Foresail boomed out to port, Mainsail (2 reefs) and Cutter Sail to starboard.

Axel

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1339 nm to go...

we are sailing along very fine with fresh to strong winds out of the south-east, around 20-25 knots. Our average speed is over 7 knots, so we should make the whole passage to St. Helena in 10 to 11 Days, what means our eta is the 31. of January or 1. of February.
That gives us 2 to 3 nights in St. Helena before we are heading of for Recife in Brazil. Everything is fine on board. With the sea much calmer then the night before last night we had a good night sleep between our 3 h shifts.
Our bodies need around 3 days to get into the rhythm of the sea and the sleeping and watching. So the first days are always a bit exhausting, but then you get into the daily routine of watching, cooking, eating, reading, fishing, setting the sails and listening to the sounds of the boat if everything is ok.
Axel

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drying out & flotilla...

Its much calmer today & its a nice sunny day so gives us a chance to dry out our wet clothes from yesterday. We´re both feeling pretty tired today as it usually takes us a couple of days to get use to our 3 hr night shift plus the bumpy ride last night didn´t help. It looks like we might break our Freefall speed record of 180nm in 24hrs!

We ate lovely Yellowfin Sushi with Wasabi sauce yesterday and look forward to the steaks today, chilled in our new fridge! Its lovely having cold fresh milk for breakfast!

There are plenty of cruisers making this Atlantic crossing to Brazil. Texan Ben on s\v Gypsy Soul who is single-handing, left Hout Bay buddy boating with us yesterday. He is now about 20nm behind us but we can still chat to him on VHF. Cisnecito, Dream Catcher & Argo may be leaving Cape Town in next couple days so hopefully will arrive in St Helena while we are there. And then our other friends on 4 boats have not yet arrived in CT so we may not see them until Brazil but we will all keep in touch via SSB radio twice a day... if you have one, tune in!!
Em x

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blowing away...

we had a fast and bumpy first night with and average speed of over 8 knots! Wind was 30 + knots with gust in the 40th. The mainsail is fully reefed and together with only the tiny cutter sail we are flying to St. Helena. Got a nice yellow fin tuna yesterday, one of the best fishes of the ocean, yummie.
Axel

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up and away...

We just started our journey to St. Helena! 21.01.07, 0900, course 304°, at the moment the table mountain is blocking the fresh south easterly wind which we expect to have today. It is sunny, 25°.
Down the coast of Africa in the Indian Ocean we got pushed by the warm Agulhas Current what was the strongest north-south going current in the southern hemisphere.
Now we are in the Atlantic Ocean and have the ice cold Benguela Current which is going north-west and hopefully pushing us with around 1 knot.
Axel

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Hout Bay - Getting ready

We got save around the corner to Hout Bay and are getting ready to sail to Brazil via St. Helena.
1700 NM to St. Helena and another 1770 NM to Recife. With only a 1-2 day stop in St. Helena it will be one of our longest trips. We are still hoping to get to Brazil for the 15. Feb 2007, the start of the CARNIVAL!!
Axel

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from Cape Town to Hout Bay

..we have just filled up with fuel here at the Royal Cape Yacht Club, in prep for our trip to Brazil and will leave for Hout Bay at 5am with a NW wind to blow us down there.
It has been very nice being moored near the centre of Cape Town but now we long for the tranquil, personal & beautiful setting of Hout Bay, which is about 15 miles south of Cape Town. My cousins live down in that area (Noordhoek) so it´ll be easy to pop in to see them; I havent seen them for 8 years!! And they are holding some packages for us one of which will include a supply of genuine Maple Syrup!!

Its also an easy hop from Hout Bay to Cape Point - the tip of the Cape of Good Hope, which we will explore by car and foot. From there we´ll be able to view the big ocean(s) we just sailed through.

We had a tough (coz we´re a bit unfit!) but enjoyable hike up Newlands Ravine to top of Table Mountain this morning - all very beautiful and we could see Freefall in the distance below! ;-)

That´s all for now.
Em x & Axel

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Cape of Good Hope - Arriving in Cape Town

What a beautiful sail around one of the most famous and dangerous Capes in the world!!! On the 14th of January 2007 at 1900 we rounded safely the Cape of Good Hope. The sea was flat, the sky was blue! To the west we had a marvelous sunset and to the east the cliffs of the Cape lit up by the warm evening sun. It is a great feeling and to round it up we had a little drink on our success.
Later on the wind was dying down more and the well known wild sea was gentile and calm like a lake!
Now its 0430 in the morning of the 15th and we are approaching the harbor of Cape Town. Two more miles to the entrance.
Axel

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Most southerly point - Atlantic Ocean

We just rounded cape Agulas, the most southerly point of Africa!! 14. Jan 2007, 0530, 35°06 S; 20°02 E.
What also means that we are back in the Atlantic Ocean...
The weather is fine and we hope we can make it to Cape Good Hope today, 80 NM north-west from here. But the weather is changing in the next 20 h and it could be that we have to hide somewhere on the way!
Axel

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100 NM to Cape Agulas

This morning at 0900 after we got the newest weather report we started our trip for rounding the cape!! the weather is looking all right for the next hours, but there is a risk of getting hit by a westerlies tomorrow afternoon. it all depends how fast we can sail the next 24 h, so we put up all our sails and are racing against the time...
Axel

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Mossel Bay

18 NM to Mossel Bay! We would have liked to get to Cape Town, but you have to follow the rules of the nature...so we will stop in Mossel Bay till the next weather window. Getting more and more south the nights are fresher then i thought for this latitude. So we had to get out our woolly hats even in Africa.
Axel

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Next Step

Tuesday, 09.01.07, 20:00, we are leaving Port Elizabeth. Still SW Winds, but we hope they will change during the night to easterly winds and we do not want to miss any time to get to the next port. 180 NM to Mossel Bay, 400 NM to Cape Town...At the moment it looks that we can only get to Mossel Bay. The next SW is waiting for us in around 40 h.
I just put the fixed main sail up and hope it will last a bit longer then last time. We are doing around 6 knots and are sailing hard against the wind.
Axel

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Save in Port Elizabeth

We arrived on the 05.01.07 at 2300 save in the Algoa Bay Yacht Club in Port Elizabeth. It was very relaxing motor sailing for the last 30h and the night approach to the Port of Port Elizabeth was easy and well marked. Nevertheless the trips at the coast of Africa are a highlight for every sailor. We do not have a lack of action and excitement in these fast changing conditions.
Doing the 450 miles trip Richards Bay to Port Elizabeth in one go is in these conditions very seldom and we have not met any sailor who did it in this season.
At this moment there is the Southerly blasting and we hope we can start for the next leg on the 10.01.
Till then we have time to fix the mainsail and other bits and peaces...
Axel

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got the current

We are flying with 10+ knots down the African coast. 30 knots of wind from behind and a good current with us...we will hopefully be in East London by tomorrow evening.
Nevertheless we ripped our mainsail again, but we have enough wind for the foresail. Our body boat "Gipsy Soul" broke the steering cable! lots of bruises down the African coast.
The waves cannot decide from which direction they want to come and we are bouncing around...I was hoping to start with a gentile trip.
Axel

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Speed Record

17.2 knots the GPS clocked surfing down a wave...it was a hot ride down the breakers and as long as the wind came from behind also quite ok. But last night the wind changed in between 1h from north east to south west. The weather forecast could not tell us if we will get hit by the southerly blaster and we took the chance. Our luck was, that the strong southerly only lasted for 5-6 h and died down by the morning.
At the moment we are motoring with no wind and enjoying the calm. The next southerly is brewing and we hope we have 30 more hours to get to Port Elizabeth.
Axel

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Sailing South Africa

Hi All
After setting off from Richard´s Bay yesterday evening, we thought we would only make it to Durban but this weather window is looking more favourable so we´re pushing on further south, sailing past Durban as I write. We´re hoping to make Port Elizabeth if not we´ll have to settle for East London.

..doing 6ks with about 15k wind from NNE - we´re still looking for the elusive 3-4k current to push us further along! Lots of cargo ships around, no whales sighted yet or fish hooked, we´re Goose-Winging and its a lovely sunny day.

Happy New Year to you all.
Em x

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on the road again...

We are off to Durban!!!still a bit weak in the bones from the long flight and the new years party we did decide to head off for Durban on the 2.1.07 at 1800. Its only 90 NM so we should be there tomorrow morning. With almost full moon, a light breeze from behind and the sea not too rough, we have a gentile start in the new cruising season.
Axel

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