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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