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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