Puerto Seguro

taganga

2012-01-18T14:03:00.006-05:00

taganga is a bay north of santa marta. it is a fishermen’s village that has developed into a tourist destination. it is pretty and very protected from the crazy winds. the people are friendly and the food is spectacular. fruits, fish, plantains and everything coconut imaginable. simply delicious!

near the sierra nevada

2012-01-15T13:53:00.007-05:00

north of santa marta is the tayrona park and some beautiful farms with lush vegetation contrasting the deserted surroundings. there are fresh water streams flowing down from the sierra nevada very close to the beach. the ocean is rough and cold and the beaches look very untouched. we visited ios’ place with my parents. a paradise below coconut trees. from here we walked the virgin beaches and saw for the first time the snow peaks of the sierra. it was phenomenal. one of the best places we have visited. with no electricity and only nature around, what more can one ask for?

santa marta

2012-01-12T12:57:00.001-05:00

after a rough several hours with the strong winds, we made it safely into the wonderful new marina santa marta in santa marta of course. what a trip. Later we found out that the wind is called “la loca” and that we were very lucky to have rushed to get in, as for the next week that we were here, we had up to 40 knots of wind every day. this is close to shore. we can only imagine how it must have been out at sea. but being safely tied in the slip of a new marina, we enjoyed the city, and walking around, and specially meeting some of my family. This stop had mixed feelings, as it is now a country where we have already stopped, meaning that our circumnavigation is now complete. a good feeling of accomplishment indeed, but a sad feeling to see that the round the world adventure has come to an end…

cabo de la vela

2012-01-11T12:41:00.006-05:00

cabo de la vela was the last point of ok weather. we approached but decided not to stay. we had the last hours of good weather and knew that if we stayed, we would have to stay for at least a week for the weather to calm down again. so we unfortunately missed this place known for its cool sand dunes and home to the wayuu indigenous people. after our approach, it was crazy windy until we reached sanata marta. we sailed through the tayrona park and could not even see the high peak of the sierra nevada of santa marta because there were so many nasty clouds on top. rather we were sailing very fast with one of the strongest winds we have had on the entire circumnavigation, trying to get to a protected harbor before the worse of the storm.

sailing through venezuela & colombia

2012-01-09T12:27:00.012-05:00

sailing through venezuela and the northeastern part of colombia is said to be one of the most complicated legs in the world! it is in fact very windy, specially this time of year, and there is a 1.5 knot of current against the wind, creating rough seas. the wind blows constantly at 30 knots and the gusts are easily up to 40 every single day. we had not thought much about this before, but when approaching we were a bit nervous. we tried to plan around the weather and left bonaire with a good window of two days ahead, however the next leg was for three days, and we knew we were going to have rough seas and strong winds the last day. we had planned on several stops, including los monjes, which is a military base in venezuela north of the gulf of maracaibo, but when we were close to that area the wind and seas seemed ok, so we moved on through the cabo de la vela in guajira, colombia.

at the end the wind was not so terrible in this part, but what did complicate things a bit was the heavy traffic of ships carrying oil from venezuela and coal from colombia. we were constantly watching them approach us and pass very close. they kept us awake all the time.

bonaire

2012-01-08T11:57:00.010-05:00

bonaire was fantastic. we moored in the lee of the island between the main island bonaire and a little island across. the little island across had no buildings at all. it was a park with plenty of diving and snorkeling spots. the water was great and we did get to see a little of the underwater sights. on the main island, there were many pretty buildings and most of them looked like the typical dutch architecture.

the island is very dry and we enjoyed the scene with cactus and lots of pink flamingos.

we were also very pleased to do a one stop only immigration and customs, with no lines and absolutely free. definitely a sailor friendly place. not to mention there were plenty of moorings for us to choose from and grab, as anchoring is strictly forbidden in the entire island, to preserve the coral of course.

diving here is a main attraction and people do so from the beach. it is a unique spot for that. we also felt very comfortable as we heard a lot of spanish. being so close to venezuela, seemed to us that spanish was the common language, but of course is papiamento, which if we concentrated a bit we could understand. in fact we even laughed because it sounded to us like a funny spanish but with a slight variation, but still easy to understand.

we enjoyed going around some canals in our dinghy and a beautiful marina complex with incredibly pristine beaches and water.

sailing towards the abc's

2012-01-06T11:50:00.003-05:00

we left grenada towards the abc’s, specifically bonaire. as every other leg in the caribbean, we had constant 20 knots of wind from the east. we set the sails wing on wing and went on a run for 3 days. this was our fastest leg ever. our average speed was over 6 knots and the boat was sailing great. we almost did not feel the wind or the swell. it was beautiful, except for the last day when he had torrential rains and some nasty weather in the horizon, but at the end, it did not affect us much.

we were expecting to catch lots of fish but we had actually zero bites. so soup and pasta had to do. it was ok. at least 3 days is not that long.

driving around the island

2012-01-04T09:15:00.000-05:00

we rented a convertible jeep and went around the entire island; from sand beaches to jungle through rocky rivers and everything in between. of course we got lost in our tour but that made it even better as we saw almost every single parish and road of grenada.

grenada

2012-01-03T10:07:00.040-05:00

this island of just over 100,000 inhabitants used to be a british outpost but after WWII when britain started to let go of all of its colonies, grenada did not want independence. over 51% of its population voted against but nevertheless england gave it up and ever since, they have been a sovereign country. now all the colonial buildings are dilapidated. most houses are very small and poor but look picturesque nevertheless.

the sailing industry is very developed here. there are over 10 fully equipped marinas with yards to haul out boats and stores of the size seen in the us. boaters can find everything they need here. it is probably used as a base point and hurricane shelter and from here they go up to sail the caribbean and down again at the beginning of the hurricane season.

there is also a lot of evidence of foreign investment with beautiful resorts, boutiques and top class restaurants. an example of this is the true blue marina and hotel complex where we stayed. we really enjoyed our stay in this wonderful paradise. on our last night we had a marvelous dinner on the beach and then, in the mooring we had a superb steel band playing in the background.

sailing towards grenada

2012-01-01T09:16:00.002-05:00

the sail to grenada was long for caribbean standards. a whole 35 miles which took us 7 hours to do. at the beginning it was rolly but after a few hours we had a most pleasant day sail downwind and even over an active volcano: kick’em jenny is the name. we are not supposed to sail on top of it but because it is in the middle of the most straight route, i think every cruiser disregards the warnings and simply sails over it... until some day the volcano erupts and the sailors on top go in history with it i guess? but this was not the day. it was calm and we sailed right on top of it and then very close to the beautifully lush and green coast of grenada. what a wonderful site. and at the end of the day we arrived into the most charming cove called true blue on the south west of the island. the anchorage is protected from wind but rolly; but we actually thought it was soothing. needless to say we grabbed a mooring. we decided not to bother anymore with the anchor… too much effort. the entire mooring manouver took us maybe two minutes. one only try to grab the line and then back the boat with the engine to see if it will hold. success! easy and we know we can go to shore and the boat will not drag… what little pleasures we are enjoying lately… and with this easy maneuver taken care of, we were off to the restaurant to enjoy the best burgers and rum punch we have had so far!

new year's celebration

2011-12-31T07:54:00.024-05:00

after a long day of tourism around carricou we were tired and decided to take a nap of an hour to get ready to party for the new year. this decision was taken around 5 PM.... well, that nap lasted several hours... but luckily at 11PM we woke up and noticed we had not missed it (as we missed last year's in thailand because we had not adjusted our on board clock to the correct time zone). but this year we did not do such a thing. we woke up, got ready and got on the dingui and went looking for food. all kitchens were closed, but the bars were fully open, so dinner was not really healthy or filling. but we did not care, we were celebrating anyway. we went to the local beach bar where they had a live steel drum band and the locals were there dancing to it. it was fantastic. really caribbean style; we welcomed the new year with good reggae, no solid food, but plenty of rum, beer, locals and other cruisers. here you can see raphael, a 10 year old cruiser sailing with his family from france. the kid has rhythm ah?

this year for us was another of those amazing ones we will never forget. but now we look forward to the next and hope we have 365 days with salt water around us. happy new year to all!!!

carricou

2011-12-30T07:20:00.026-05:00

to enter in this country you must first anchor in hillsborough on the lee side of the island (the west, protected from the wind) to do immigration and customs. as usual, it was blowing quite hard, but we were protected from it but not from some swell coming into the bay. we anchored, and because the bottom was rock and grass, it did not grab, again! we are just not having any luck with our anchor…. because we have a manual windlass on board (big mistake and the weakest part of our boat); we are lazy to pick up the chain too often…. we figured clearing into the country was a fast affair and did not reanchor, but instead let the boat slowly drag in this huge bay. scary plan considering that it started raining and the protected bay from the wind started producing these massive gusts from the mountain as the rain came down very hard, so our boat was dragging faster and faster. luckily the bay was empty and huge and we cleared in very fast (like one hour only which is speed of light in sailing and island times.) once cleared in, we moved to the more protected tyrrel bay on the south. here we were protected from swell and wind but still the anchoring process was not easy due to the many boats and the terrible bottom for our anchors. we had to try also several times with no luck. we were very frustrated at this point and decided to just grab a mooring from the locals. We have had the worse luck anchoring in the caribbean. it seems like a long process to which neither of us is looking forward to, which requires many tries and a lot of work, and always adds tension when every single cruiser at anchor stares at you coming in to do your anchoring thing, while acting very protective of their little space and frowning upon us if we come too close (like there is any real room to begin with). so our anchoring is not only arrival time but a stressful weird moment that requires a celebratory beer not only to relax and celebrate our arrival to a new port, but to also finally enjoy that we have that thing fixed to the bottom somehow.

but enough about the anchorage. in this island we were actually hardly on board. we went around the entire island (is really not that big) to the north and windward side to see the towns, and also to several beaches. for a total of 7 USD we rode on local buses all day listening to reggae of course and just enjoying the views. it is a cool place and so far we have found the people here to be the best, welcoming and charming. we also found the first decent fast internet place of the caribbean and were able to communicate with families and update the blog very fast while enjoying a great pizza and good beers.

union island

2011-12-29T12:03:00.000-05:00

we stopped in clifton town. it took us three tries to anchor properly. the holding was terrible and the little space was very crowded with other boats. i guess we cannot complaint and better get used to really crowded anchorages in the caribbean. but to make matters worse this time, the wind was constantly blowing at 30 knots and gusting to even more. after the anchor held esteban dove it and made sure it would hold us in this unique spot only protected from the swell by the outter reef but completely exposed to the wind. As usual we walked around town ate delicious food, this time it was crepes! and then back on board to be ready in case the anchor got loose. here we saw a couple of boats getting loose and banging other sailboats; total chaos. fortunately nothing happened to us and yet again, we enjoyed another beautiful caribbean spot. this was also the last of the svg islands. here we cleared out and moved to the next country: grenada.

tobago cays

2011-12-28T11:36:00.004-05:00

this place is truly from a dream. it is what the caribbean is all about. white sand beaches, beautiful corals and warm waters, and unfortunately but inevitable, many other cruisers around. luckily we found a great spot with sand to drop our anchor. From the boat we not only saw paradise but all the french sailors peeing overboard and taking showers completely naked on their boats. we do not understand why they do this… i guess taking showers naked is ok. we imagine it is simple and no so unnatural in these places at anchorage. but peeing overboard?? it does not stop to amaze us. they do this over and over, during the day, a few meters next to kids, families and strangers, the more boats, the more people doing this.. .oh well. we try to look the other side and continue to enjoy paradise.

best caribbean food

2011-12-27T15:02:00.007-05:00

the roti!! a sandwich made by folding a chicken and potato curry stew inside of a roti skin. delicious, spicy and inexpensive. here esteban tried for the first time this very good and succulent caribbean delicacy, uhmm..!

bequia

2011-12-27T11:16:00.020-05:00

bequia is one of the grenadines. a beautiful little town with a very protected harbor full of yacthies. the scenery was gorgeous and the place was so comfortable that we did not want to move. with white sand beaches and great restaurants, what else could we hope for.

sailing towards SVGs

2011-12-26T11:03:00.010-05:00

after barbados we decided to go to the grenadines, a group of islands which together with saint Vincent form the country of saint vincent and the grenadines: SVG. we were going to go to saint vincent first but because we did not have too much time, we went a little south instead. We sailed for one night at an incredible fast speed, wing on wing with a very strong wind behind us. ever since arriving in the caribbean the winds have not stopped blowing at 30 knots from the east. it is a first for us to have them from a favorable direction and not from the nose. so the night sail was pleasant and even better our arrival in a little paradise harbor in the grenadines.

the only wool artist in the world

2011-12-24T10:22:00.012-05:00

that is how he describes himself. wolly-hewitt from brabados, “I am the only wool artist in the world, son of god, the master artist and creator” esteban met him when he arrived and asked him to draw puerto seguro for me as a christmas gift.

when we went to pick up the drawing he invited us to his cool little shack which served as a shoe repair place/art studio where he proudly showed off his portraits of bob marley, mandela, and obama, all made out of wool. what an episode, meeting this funny and cool man and his friend who is also an artist making all sorts of artifacts out of popsicle sticks; just another of the experiences we love of this trip: meeting and spending some time with the locals.

our old life back

2011-12-23T10:21:00.006-05:00

back to how it all was several months ago: just both of us sailing our boat in exotic and great places. we walked around town, enjoyed the food, the beers and the people very much. what a life!

saying good-bye

2011-12-22T10:20:00.005-05:00

peter had decided to go back to his family for christmas so he flew back to london on the 22. I met him for only one day which we spent on board talking and just catching up. it was good we stayed on board as the wind picked up quite a bit at the anchorage and we dragged. luckily with three on board it was not difficult to re anchor to a closer and much calmer place. sill closer to land we continued to roll. the swell in this anchorage is really something. it is just on the verge of being uncomfortable. but a little closer to land gets more tenable. as for the wind, it continued for the better part of the day and the two days after that, but no more dragging. esteban went with peter to customs to get the stamp out and they said their goodbyes. he was sad to see him go. he really grew close to peter during the crossing. we can only hope he comes to visit soon.

reunited

2011-12-21T10:17:00.012-05:00

after last seeing each other two months before in germany, the time arrived to be together again. i was anxiously waiting for esteban to cross safely the atlantic and meet him on this side of the world. on wednesday 21 I finally flew from Miami to barbados to meet him and get back on board. after seeing him at the airport he handed me a card with a message and gift from peter. a night at the hilton! wow. what a surprise!! It was the perfect gift which we gratefully accepted and enjoyed very much! it was the ideal place to reunite again, plus peter had the boat to his own!

thanks again peter.

barbados

2011-12-18T10:13:00.024-05:00

on sunday the 18 december at 6:00 am, esteban and peter arrived in the beautiful caribbean. they made landfall in barbados and went inside the port to clear in and fulfill all entry formalities. the harbor looked protected with walls stopping the swell. but when they tied to the inside of the wall and started talking to the officials they saw puerto seguro swing up and down, in and out with the most incredible swell damaging the boat with every move. incredible, after a safe 3000 mile passage the boat was being smashed against a nasty concrete wall and getting damaged on arrival, at the port! here we want to send a message to our parents and all the ones that worry so much about us at sea: we feel very protected at sea, like very little could happen. instead we believe the problems happen in land, upon arrival, that’s were all the dangers lie.

after eight minutes of this ordeal, which took the cleats, the flag pole and left the bbq at the bottom of the ocean; esteban told them that he could not compromise the integrity of the boat and had to go, which they obviously agreed and let him move and anchor, and then clear in after making sure the boat was safe. soon after, they saw another sailboat coming into the harbor but the authorities told this captain that he could come in at his own risk because it was dangerous to the boat, or anchor outside. great that he was given the option, sadly it took our boat and that bad experienced for them to notice it was unsafe to approach the harbor that day.

but after leaving that scary story behind and clearing into the country esteban and peter were off to the beach bar and to enjoy some banks, the local beer of barbados, under a beautiful sun and with the view of an incredible turquoise ocean; paradise indeed! for the next couple of days, they cleaned what was a male boat in a crossing (i can only imagine the state of things on board) and prepared the boat for my arrival a few days after.

two little birds

2011-12-12T09:59:00.023-05:00

towards the end of the crossing the boat had very unexpected and unconventional visitors, they were a couple of land birds, a female and a male who were migrating probably from africa towards america. they must have been very tired when they decided to make a stop over for almost two days on board, specially as they had just passed two full days of squall after squall. through the time that they were on the boat they were very friendly and allowed peter and esteban to touch them, play with them and even feed them dead aunts and water.

it was easy to tell which was the male and which was the female. the female was poking the male on his head and feet trying to get the male ready to go flying again. she was the most energetic of the two, telling him, “come on, time to move again…” and giving him encouragement. the male was tired and was probably old and sick, his attitude was more, “…leave me alone, let me rest… i am tired and cant go on….” they communicated with each other, touched, played and flew around each other. they even showed affection. it was wonderful to see the couple interact.

sadly, after over 24 hours of watching this love affair, the male died at dawn. it was devastating. the crew had the moral at its lowest. it was really heartbreaking, and unfortunately the worst was yet to come. in a effort to protect the widow female, esteban threw the male overboard so she did not have to see her dead partner’s corpse. this did not help much as she immediately noticed he was gone, and right away her attitude changed. she stopped being the vibrant bird with the “let’s go flying again” attitude. instead she grew sadder by the minute; and after mourning him for 8 hours straight, she gave up and also died. this was tragic, probably the lowest point of the crossing. peter thought it was a love story, exactly as i am writing it here. husband died and then wife could not take the grief and went to a better place to join him. esteban on the other hand had a more hypochondriac version of the accounts. he though to himself how unlucky they must be to get, in the middle of the atlantic ocean, two animals infected with the bird flu who came to die on board and spread the disease. he was then looking for symptoms of the flu, which of course none of them had. but i tend to agree with peter. i think it was a love story; a very beautiful, romantic and sad story.

crossing the atlantic

2011-12-01T09:16:00.041-05:00

with a fixed sail esteban and peter left cape verde towards the caribbean on december 1/11. a 2000 nautical mile journey of only sea and some rain in between. the crossing was uneventful for the most part, which is good news; mostly following seas and many wind gusts. some days the gusts came every hour with torrential rain and dark skies. few electrical storms though. with the many rainy days the rainbows were spectacular; something not seen anywhere before.

the food was plentiful with a total catch of 10 mahi mahi, the last one being so big that it lasted for an entire week of food supply. in total they saw only four other sailboats which is not that many considering it is a busy shipping lane and it was also the time of the arc. the arc is a sailing rally of over 250 sailboats which for some inexplicable reason decide to depart all at the same time from the same port in the canaries, and sail together the entire leg, to exactly arrive and overcrowd the same port at their destination. knowing they would be sailing around the same time as this rally, it was rather surprising they did not see other boats.

the wind was constant always coming from the stern making them sail wing on wing; with the head sail to one side and the main sail to the other; capturing all the wind from the back. there were only a couple of days with no wind at all, and our beloved yanmar, as always worked marvelously. there were also a couple of days with wind from the nose. very bizarre and uncomfortable, but at this point in the journey nothing surprises us about the wind and the direction where it comes from.

as far as living together in so close quarters, i have heard from both esteban and peter that it was fine. they enjoyed each other’s company and had a good time despite some of the boring parts of a long crossing. this is an outstanding result considering what we originally expected and wanted from a crew. because i was not going to be on board, my only condition was that it was a man. esteban’s expectation was that it would not get sea sick. we thought this was best, to have little to no expectations. and at the end, we never imagined that we would end up with a great chef, an experienced sailor, and overall an excellent man who has become a very dear friend.

são vicente

2011-11-28T12:29:00.007-05:00

the stop in mindelo, s. vicente turned out to be very interesting. not only it shortened the days at sea in this crossing but also gave the opportunity to peter and esteban to see a new place and get the sail fixed while also receiving the one I had sent. DHL was a bit delayed in the delivery and customs also slowed this down, but at the end it arrived.

this place reminded esteban a lot of jamaica. it had a beautiful marina complex and a colorful and somewhat shanty town outside with kind and helpful people. a lot of the other sailors that make a stop in mindelo also ran into troubles with the boat and therefore esteban was not the only one waiting for parts here. of course a lot of time was spent here with customs and authorities rather than sightseeing, but because the purpose of the stop was to get the sail, he focused on getting just that. they did see the town and enjoyed some of the food and bars nearby.

the marina was excellent and very comfortable.

with the two sails now on board they finally departed again towards Barbados on the first of december. now they are less than 2000 miles away from the caribbean!

bye bye main

2011-11-23T09:34:00.006-05:00

i guess it would not be a proper ocean crossing if we did not have at least one minor incident. and so we did, or they did, i should say. last tuesday, only 3 days after having departed, and during the night (everything always happens at night) the main sail ripped in half, from one end to the other, rendering it completely useless (sadly after having paid in gibraltar some sterling ponds to restitch it….). losing the main with over 2600 miles to go is not a minor incident … so they changed course and headed now for mindelo in s. vincente, cape verde islands, off the african coast some 800 miles south of the canaries. still on the way, so luckily this is not a big detour. there are not that many facilities in the cape verdes, but it was the best alternative considering that returning to the canaries would have meant sailing against the wind. i also checked on line and this is the most visited island by other cruisers; something we would generally avoid; except this time, because we hope to find some sail repair facilities (wishful thinking perhaps), but the odds improve if we go to the most visited island, we think.

with the new course in mind, but still considering that there may not be sail lofts or that the sail is probably beyond repair (which might very well be the case), i retrieved the original old main sail we had in storage. luckily for us, our good friend jerry who had taken this old sail to texas had brought it back in case we needed it. who would have thought that that case would be a reality (I guess he thought it would, someday.) so after inspecting it and going to the sail maker in fort lauderdale to inspect it again, it was shipped and it is now on its way to the cape verdes. i just checked and it is within the DHL network traveling to meet the boat soon and continue the journey through the atlantic.

transatlantic crossing

2011-11-21T09:29:00.008-05:00

the 2011 atlantic hurricane season is almost over. it is actually officially over on november 30 but historically the last days of the season have been rather quiet, so we hope this year is not the exception. the boat and crew were ready and they finally set sail on sunday november 20. a westbound sail through the atlantic ocean with 2900 nautical miles of open sea, great sunrises and sunsets, hopefully many fish and unfortunately a lot of freighters and other sailboats to be on the lookout for.

the estimated landfall should be sometime around december 15 in the west indies where I will be waiting to rejoin my husband in barbados at last!! peter and esteban will sail around 25 days at an average of 120 miles per day. This is the last of the long crossings of our circumnavigation. I am anxious and very happy to know that they have finally departed.

until the next post, this time from the caribbean...!

la palma

2011-11-17T08:40:00.005-05:00

140 miles west of gaciosa is la palma. this is the fifth largest of the seven canary islands, and it is the most north western one. they arrived here on the evening of wednesday 16, just in time to enjoy a cold beer at the marina bar. the marina at la palma was very upscale and beautiful.

esteban told me the island was quite attractive but a little overcasted every day. Sure enough, I read back home that this island does not get much sunshine and therefore it is not the most touristic one, but on the other hand, the rains make the vegetation a lot more abundant than in the other islands nearby and the tourism here is much more relaxed. they enjoyed a quiet time in this place and the last days of sleeping in a marina without watches. they took care of the last preparations like getting more diesel, provisions, and a last oil change of the engine and visited the capital of santa cruz which was small, clean and very picturesque. they were very surprised not to see so many tourists or even boats at the marina but enjoyed having the place almost to themselves!

graciosa

2011-11-12T21:42:00.009-05:00

after seven days at sea peter and esteban finally arrived in the canary islands. they were aiming for lanzarote but arrived in graciosa instead because the strong head winds did not allow them to make more progress south. they were happy they made this unexpected stop. graciosa turned out to be a beautiful picturesque quiet island, true to its name: a truly charming little place!

departure at last

2011-11-07T10:26:00.005-05:00

on november 7 at 4:00 am they departed at last. the weather conditions were not prefect but they did not want to wait any longer. the more you wait this time of the year, the harder it is to leave. we watched the weather patterns and there are strong gales forming every week. so with a not so great day, and very cold weather they finally left and unfortunately had a very slow progress leaving the strait. there is normally a strong current flowing from the atlantic towards the med of an average of 2 knots. in addition every time the tide rises, the speed of tide against increases. so, to have the weaker current against, one must plan the departure carefully to hit the worse 10 miles of the strait of gibraltar at exactly 5 hours after high tide, or when the tide is coming down. i helped with the calculations from shore but unfortunately the progress was never more than 2 knots. maybe we missed the good timing, or we simply were doing the best possible and it could have been worse. we will never know; but the good news is that they left. the route followed the Spanish coast and then after cutting across the strait they would continue hugging the moroccan atlantic coast for a few days. for me, being the first crossing not being on board it was very difficult. i was constantly thinking about the progress of the boat and following the weather closely and tried to communicate whatever i saw. in the meantime all was good on board, they caught several fish, mostly tuna. peter got a very good looking fish which he liked so much that he put back in the water. after some hours esteban got another of these pretty fishes, which turned out to be a mahi. this one they ate. after peter ate it and liked it so much, esteban says he will not put them back on the water again, no way. they are better looking in the pan!!

first departure

2011-10-31T10:17:00.005-04:00

finally the time arrived to leave gibraltar and start heading towards the canaries so peter and esteban left on october 28 but after two hours had to return to port because of a minor problem with the alternator and battery charger. it was minor because they were close to shore, had they continued like that, they would not have been able to charge the batteries, so of course they turned around. the problem was fixed within the next couple of days but unfortunately there was a bad front coming and they had to stay 10 more days waiting for the weather to give them a chance to depart again. in the meantime they celebrated halloween at the marina, visited sevilla and also spent some days at peter’s house in el rompido, in the south west part of spain.

meet peter

2011-10-24T10:11:00.002-04:00

during esteban’s stay in gibraltar he met peter; a sailor from britain who lives between spain and the UK. he was looking to cross the atlantic and esteban was looking to go with someone; they decided to cross together. luckily for esteban peter is a great cook, so i am sure he will not miss me that much. i will only meet peter when they arrive in the caribbean in december, but so far i have only heard good things from esteban, so i am thrilled he is on board and i am sure they will both bring the boat safe to america while enjoying themselves while at it, I hope!

luxemburg

2011-10-16T10:41:00.000-04:00

during our drive around germany we also crossed to luxembourg and enjoyed a day there. very beautiful as expected, organized and clean. we can’t get enough of driving around europe and exploring little roads.

deutschland

2011-10-15T10:24:00.012-04:00

in between the repairs on board and work back in florida i went back to europe a couple of times. once on a very short trip to madrid and gibraltar and on another occasion to germany for work. what a trip! we rented a car and stayed for 10 days driving around the rhine region.

the sightseeing was beautiful; we had the yellow and orange colors of the leaves in october and perfect weather. we traveled through small roads and stopped in little towns, eat the best sausages and of course enjoyed some very good beer. work in bonn was also a lot of fun. esteban met some of my colleagues and we spent a lot of time together. it was a great break to our long time apart.

life in gibraltar

2011-09-10T10:01:00.008-04:00

for the most part this place was not so much a vacation place for us. i had to be back in the US and estaban stayed there working on the boat; but we made the best of it. gibraltar is an interesting place. everyone that goes there stays for only a few days, but for esteban and puerto seguro, it was home for almost three months. people are constantly moving, and most speak a combination of english and spanish similar to that of the cubans in miami.

we were very happy with the marina end esteban was even happier when he discovered a very nice movie theater.

even though he worked most of the time, he also enjoyed the days there, like september 10 when the people in gibraltar celebrate their national day. it is the anniversary of the vote to reject spanish sovereignty or association. he walked around, crossed several times to spain and enjoyed one of the best supermarkets we have seen on our trip. In all a very pretty and convenient place where, because of its strategic location, he saw many of the sailors and friends we have met along our travels. seems this is a common stop before heading back to america

work on board

2011-09-01T09:33:00.012-04:00

while i was in florida working esteban stayed busy on the boat in the marina in gibraltar. he fixed the radar, water maker, windlass and all the sails, changed hoses, filters, clamps, cables and in general everything that was just about to break; fixed the lifelines, traveler, replaced the chain plates that hold the backstays!! if he had not noticed the crack on one of them, he could have later lost the mast in the crossing;

he also varnished and repaired all the wood interior (this was actually never done before so we had the original wood floors from over 30 years… still today we have the same floors but looking much nicer!);

finally he did a major tune up and maintenance of our beloved diesel engine, replaced the speakers, painted the cockpit, and in general kept himself really busy for the few months before the crossing. at the end puerto seguro is as solid and reliable and looks just like the day we left florida a couple of years ago.

the plans...

2011-08-15T14:01:00.000-04:00

after finishing the med, i returned to my previous job and esteban stayed in gibraltar doing much required and needed maintenance to the boat. once the 2011 hurricane season is over, he will cross the atlantic with a friend and arrive in the caribbean for christmas where i will join him to sail the boat through to finish our circumnavigation in january of 2012!! stay tuned for more news and the soon to start posts on the crossing to the canary islands, and the atlantic ocean back to the continent where we started: america!

this is my view from florida overlooking where the boat and esteban are, just on the other side the pond!

madrid

2011-07-26T08:37:00.005-04:00

a beautiful journey by train across most of spain revealed the most surprising sites: very rural and some very poor places; certainly something not expected of Europe. at the end of the line we arrived in the beautiful city of madrid. because we are now so accustomed to more quiet places, a city this big and busy is a bit overwhelming. our sightseeing here is not the most conventional. we enjoy things like the AC in the hotel room a nice big dry bed, or the nice long showers with the rarity of hot water. and believe it or not what we fancy the most is to go to the movies. all things that are not so common on board. but more than for tourism we came to madrid to renew a passport which not so unbelievable is already full of stamps and also to take my flight back home for a couple of months for now. a short stay with mixed feelings of course.

gibraltar

2011-07-23T08:17:00.004-04:00

back in palma we found out that argentineans can come without a visa to europe and stay up to 3 months consecutive and 6 per year if they go out of europe for 3 months. some complicated rule which in simple terms meant that we could not stay in Europe after august 31. big problem considering we decided to cross the atlantic in november. so we changed plan from the originally intended stay in the south of spain to another place outside the European union. That only gave us two options. morocco or gibraltar. after making inquiries of marinas and chandleries we decided on gibraltar and headed there.

so from ibiza we had the last sail of the med. approximately 300 miles south west on what were the most perfect weather conditions of the last couple of months.
favorable winds and currents followed by no wind some times and flat seas and many many dolphins swimming around. No clouds, beautiful skies… etc. we really had all one imagines on a passage. It was rather emotional, at least for me; as I will be getting off the boat for several months; so it felt like a perfect farewell and close of a chapter.

The only complicated part of this leg came when we had to round the rock of Gibraltar. This was a race against time. There is a constant easterly current from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean of 2 knots. That means we already had current against. In addition, this current can be reversed or increased depending on the wind and the tides. to have favorable tide we looked at the charts and figured out we hat to arrive in Gibraltar, at the marina at 7:20 PM that is one hour before high tide. The calculations gave us the best favorable times to sail around from 3:20 PM until 7:20PM. We could not stay out one minute after because the current would start to play against us. In addition we had strong winds against (20 knots) which would make it impossible to advance with both current and wind against. We force the engine, motor sailed and generally tried to get the best speed for the last 4 hours of our sail, having the last hour a speed of even only 1.5 knots… but finally unbelievably enough we made it into the marina at 7:19PM . we could not believe it when we made the entry in the blog. Exactly on time. A bit stressful but we made it.

once in the marina we relaxed, cleaned as usual and started packing for our trip to madrid and for me my departure. we also went to the immigration authorities and were pleased to have confirmed that, being a British territory, argentineans could stay here without problems and without the 3 month cap that we had in spain. so we found the place that would become home for esteban and puerto seguro until november. a perfect spot with a good and comfortable marina, chandleries, many restaurants shops, and just a walk (and a cross of a live runway) away from spain. a very interesting place indeed.

after so many miles our boat needs serious maintenance. its over 32 years are really showing, not to mention the thousands of miles that we have covered already. There is nothing really wrong except that every item on board needs to be looked at, inspected and in some cases some parts replaced. so esteban will do just that in the next three moths to come. Puerto seguro will be like new again and ready to cross the atlantic at the end of the year.

ibiza

2011-07-18T08:05:00.004-04:00

ibiza is in the south of the balearic group and the most western island, very close to mainland spain. we had heard about this island but really did not know much about it. when we arrived we realized that the place is famous for the clubs, the music and the parties. the port of san antonio, where we anchored is not very pretty. it has tall ugly buildings from them 80s and the shops and restaurants are not stylish at all . everything is tailored for the tourist that visits this place which must average around 18 years of age. it is like cancun on spring break. little activity in the day and lots of parties at night. young europeans, mostly british, come here in the summer to party hard. Walking around the streets of san antonio confirmed to us that we are definitely getting old.

besides the craziness of the town, we found the port to be conformable and we enjoyed the company of other sailor friends we met here. in fact this island was particularly special for that. we met wonderful people from spain whom we went with to the famous café del mar bar and had some drinks. We also met a great couple from Ukraine and another from south africa. With all of them we spent some quality time.

we also did the typical touring around by bus this time and discovered some pretty and interesting parts of the town of Ibiza on the other side of the island. at the end we had a wonderful time here; not the typical party time but some more quiet and relaxing one!

valldemosa

2011-07-14T07:57:00.003-04:00

after visiting palma on the cost we went up the mountains of the north of mallorca to soller. we actually never made it there but instead visited many other smaller towns and one particularly beautiful called valldemosa; small and quiet! definitely more of our type of place. in this town we saw that the back tire of the scooter had two big lumps. this made us choose smaller roads to get back to porto colom. driving at high speeds in the fast highway would have been very dangerous. we were actually lucky we did not have an accident on the way there. imagine that… having sailed safely through pirate waters and end up in an accident in a motorbike in the highway… rather pathetic. But nothing happened and we had a not so urban route back to port. small towns and countryside views.

palma really has it all: beaches, great ports, big cities and small, historical sites and architecture and even their own language which is not like Spanish; at least we could not understand. thankfully everyone also spoke spanish, so communicating was not a problem at all.

palma

2011-07-13T07:45:00.001-04:00

palma is the main city in mallorca. we rented a scooter as usual and planned to visit a small beach town. when we arrived however we were very surprised to see the city was not small at all. it was big, busy, touristy and very developed. pretty of course but not quiet. it also looked very chic with excellent hotels, boutiques and good restaurants all over. the port, we thought was bigger than miami with many terminals for huge cruise ships. the marinas were the most fancy we have seen so far with mega yachts of the type we had only seen in boating magazines; all looked very sophisticated and luxurious and of course mega expensive. we were glad we did not arrive there in puerto seguro. not only it would have probably cost us a fortune, but our boat would have certainly looked like a dingui to the other big bots around.

getting there was in itself funny as we entered a huge 4 lane super fast highway without noticing; so there we were as fast as the little scooter would go, and looking 100% as lost tourists that could not find the small country side roads. so we had a very urban day between the many tourists but enjoying nevertheless the great sites such as the amazing cathedral and the shops and restaurants around.

porto colom

2011-07-12T12:06:00.004-04:00

after another 300 miles due west from sardinia we arrived in the balearic islands of spain. we arrived in porto colom in the island of mallorca; an amazing spot full of boats at anchor in a fully protected cala. the bay is very shallow and is full of vessels from huge motor yachts to the typical cruising sailboats to the small lasers from the sailing academy with all the kids every day sailing around us.

on the shore the town has lots of restaurants, some of them super fancy and great stores and everything we could possibly need or want. we were happy to hear spanish on the VHF and also in the marina offices and the weather forecasts. it made us feel like at home. we quickly met our neighbors and were invited to have dinner with them on board their catamaran and with another couple that left from florida as well. it was wonderful, our first night in this port and we already had friends and a wonderful time. after that, every other day and night was similar, exploring the town and the nearby calas by dinghi. we visited the biggest cave so far in the water and as usual walked all around. another great spot!!

beaches of southern sardinia

2011-07-08T11:47:00.008-04:00

we decided to go beach hopping in the south of sardinia and anchored at several beaches along the coast. some appeared in the maps or guides, some did not. we were sailing with the boat very close to shore and simply anchored wherever we spotted a place we liked.

tuarreda was the last of the spots we visited. when we went to shore to the cool bar on the beach we got a nice welcome from the bar tender who proudly said we were in one of the most famous and pretties beaches in the world. after this comment esteban and i looked at each other and realized that we have actually been to so many beaches around the world already that we had some sort of authority to tell this guy if he was right or not. and immediately in unison we told him he was right; and then we explained how many beaches we had seen so far; to which he was extremely pleased to have this confirmation from these world travelers that his sport was in fact one of the prettiest in the world; and it was indeed.

unfortunately we had very strong winds while we were here and we were forced to be a lot in the boat and could not leave it because we were dragging and also it would be too irresponsible to leave the boat with very strong winds while at anchor. But eventually the winds died down and we enjoyed this little piece of paradise. here, we were visited by a good friend of esteban from argentina that moved to italy many years ago, so she is really a local now. it was wonderful to spent some time with her and hear her stories of how life goes in sardinia. and from what she told us, is definitely not a bad place to live at all!

pula

2011-07-06T11:40:00.006-04:00

the biggest town we visited in sardinia was pula, and this is not really big. it has around 6000 habitants and during siesta time it seems a bit like a ghost town. it has lovely small stoned streets full of restaurants and shops. almost all the houses have very pretty windows full of flowers of different types and colors.

the people that live her are very easy going and relaxed. we felt the atmosphere of a small town. we loved it. because the scooter rental was the highest price so far of the trip (102 dollars par day!!!) we decided to walk around this lovely region and were lucky to be picked up by locals in their cars who offered us rides. so we gladly hopped into their cars and saw a bit of their home while talking to them and getting to know a little bit some of the local culture. a perfect place to spend our vacation time in sardinia!

sardinia

2011-07-05T11:37:00.002-04:00

because of lack of time we could not sail in the north of sardinia which was very much recommended by many friends that have sailed there. instead we only went to the south of this island but we were very pleased. if the south is so pretty i can only imagine how the north is. we found the towns and beaches around cagliari to be relaxing, quiet and extremely beautiful. the few days we were in sardinia we felt like on a vacation (as if we were not already in a major one) but we really did because we only stopped in remote anchorages with beautiful beaches in the background and white sand bottoms with transparent water. we would swim to shore or around the boat and spend the day enjoying the sun in the boat. perd’e sali was the town we arrived at. with only one restaurant and nothing else to do or see, we walked around the lonely streets, saw the many big and pretty houses mostly opened in the summers only, and enjoyed the beaches and atmosphere of a truly remote vacation place.

the evening shows

2011-07-03T11:32:00.005-04:00

the leg from tropea to sardinia was about 360 miles due west passing through the aeolian islands in the middle. one of them is called stromboli, after the volcano that lies in the place. the island itself is only the volcano with a couple of towns near the shore. because it is so difficult to anchor in this place, we decided to only sail around it by night to see the show. the volcano has erupted many times, and is constantly active with minor eruptions, often visible from the sea, giving rise to the island's nickname "lighthouse of the mediterranean". sure enough when we sailed around it we saw the volcano’s eruptions, one every 5 to 10 minutes. it was unbelievable to see this. first because it is almost unreal to be sailing so close to a volcano and second, even more surreal when that volcano is active and constantly throwing lava up the sky. it was fantastic. this show lasted several hours for as long as we kept seeing the volcano’s lights in the horizon.

the second night at sea on this passage was uneventful except for a bad food poisoning that esteban caught in italy. it was his turn this night to see the fire… of another kind of course. luckily the whole ordeal lasted only one night and by daylight he was feeling a lot better.

the final night of the crossing was probably the scariest of our trip. during the day we saw the barometric pressure gauge go down quite a bit while at the same time we saw all the heavy clouds getting more dense and dark as the night approached. by nightfall we were sailing through the worse electrical storm we have ever seen. the clouds were surrounding us and we had nowhere to go. at some point in the night we tried to sail backwards to avoid being hit by the lighting but we also had lighting in the back, and to our left and right. there was nothing else to do but put all electronics that could fit inside the oven (i am not sure this works but some sailors do it, so we did it just in case) and wait for the daylight to come. we were so happy to see the sun light and with it the end of this grand 9 hour electrical storm.

unfortunately we did not take any pictures to share and show what we saw. these are only of the clouds forming earlier in the afternoon before. we were too occupied praying and literally maneuvering the boat around the strikes; well esteban was at least. i was below deck for the most part, afraid covering my eyes and ears imagining how we could get out of it. watching the display of lights would have been wonderful in a TV screen or some other place safe, but certainly not in the middle of the sea with the mast to act as the only pole to attract them and with the most horrific sounds on top of us. miraculously, and i really think it was a miracle, we were not hit by any of them and somehow made it to the morning safe and in one piece and with all the electronics working.

vibo valentia

2011-07-01T11:28:00.002-04:00

this city is located some 40 kilometers up the mountain and away form the coast. we rented a scooter and went around little roads in calabria all the way to this non touristic place called vibo vanlentia. here we met some local officials and had a not so touristic experience in the questura to process some papers related to our travels. so we experienced a little bit the day to day business and some of the bureaucracy of the country. most of all, the officials were always very polite and friendly with us. we also had one of the best meals of the trip so far. in a little local place, nothing fancy, not expensive; just simple good food served by the owner: a kind and big italian woman that was clearly very happy to see us eating everything she served us.

tropea

2011-06-29T16:26:00.005-04:00

this is a medieval city of calabria that seats high upon the cliffs with the most wonderful beaches below. italian friends recommended we stop here and of course we followed their advice. not bad at all. in fact we loved walking around the narrow streets, enjoying the fabulous views and as always on our trip: taking so much pleasure in the food. we stopped at the marina which was very comfortable and close to the town. here we washed down the salt from the last storm and enjoyed southern italy hospitality while relaxing in this picturesque town.

taormina

2011-06-25T15:49:00.004-04:00

we arrived in a beautiful spot in giardini naxos and anchored and relaxed after the rocky and wet arrival. from the anchorage we had the most amazing view. we could see the town bordering the shore and also anther city high above the cliffs called taormina. finally we had mount etna at a distance with some snow still in the summit. it was a view to remember for sure.

we relaxed in the town for a few days and walked around naxos and also taormina. we visited the old theater and the streets full of restaurants and shops. we later discovered that taormina is one of the jewel cities of Europe, or something of that sort. we now understand why. everything looked too beautiful and fancy as well.

after enjoying ourselves in sicily; paying the most expensive diesel of the entire trip so far; and checking and double checking the weather and tides in preparation for the messina crossing, we finally headed north. the messina strait is known, at least among sailors; as a little body of water that must be crossed with caution. It is only 3 miles long and possibly 4 miles wide. it separates sicily from calabria in italy. the wind generally funnels from the mountains on either side and increases its speed significantly; and also, and this is the difficult part: the currents change every 6 hours from north to south but can run at very strong or high speeds. from reading some guides we knew that if we had some wind against and a minor current against, maybe our boat with engine and sail would not overcome the south going stream; so we definitely had to prepare to cross with a north current and hopefully favorable wind. the wind part has not been in our favor since many months ago, so hoping for a good south easterly in this part of the world was out of the question. It blows from the north west and it blows hard. so the best we could hope for was little or no wind at all. Unfortunately we were having constant 20 kts every day in the area. not good. finally the current is calculated based on the tides in Gibraltar at UTC time and for some reason this calculations are not always accurate… why there is not a simple tide table strictly for messina with local times is beyond me, or maybe we just couldn’t find it in the books, guides or the internet.

so, with our experience of strong winds so far in the med, plus the gale of a few days before and a forecast for the next weeks of at least 15 knots, we were getting a bit anxious and preoccupied about crossing this strait. luckily one night we felt the wind die down and we took the opportunity and just left. we had calculated the tides but were not sure if we were going to make it on a good time before the tide started to run south. but we left through the night and motor sailed with some boat traffic through the strait. finally when we arrived at the most complicated and narrow part of the strait we could not believe our luck: the wind died, the water was flat and the current was favorable; and we glided through in less that 30 minutes. once again, maybe we were lucky, or it was our accurate calculations and good planning…? Good planning sounds better I think!

sailing towards sicily

2011-06-24T15:42:00.001-04:00

we had a very pleasant 3 day sail towards sicily accompanied with dolphins. only in the last five hours when we crossed the gap between the tip of italy and sicily the weather turned bad. the winds blew at force 7 at least (35 knots) and the sea became nasty. the boat was with minimum sail and was healing a lot and of course we were soaked, specially esteban who was at the helm. it was quite the little storm. nothing happened to us or the boat but we started feeling a bit scared of crossing the messina strait in a few days. we had already read that it was bad, but with a lot of wind and from the wrong direction, it could be really really bad… but we continued towards sicily and decided to worry about crossing the messina strait to the north later.

cephalonia

2011-06-22T13:51:00.002-04:00

for us this was our last island in Greece and it was beautiful as all the others. we enjoyed the town of sami and the view of fishkardo and prepared the boat for a long crossing ahead (for med standards of course – 3 days only!). we really fell in love with this country and its people. everyone was extremely kind to us. sailing in greek waters is easy and comfortable. the places are friendly and inexpensive; maybe that is why there are so many tourists and charter boats. we leave already planning to come back again!!

corinth canal

2011-06-20T13:25:00.006-04:00

with the same idea in mind of going where the wind best allowed us, we moved further north to cross the corinth canal that separates mainland greece and the peloponnese. the canal was built around 1822, it has 3 miles in length, 20 meters wide and surrounded by huge limestone walls that went up to 75 meters tall. this canal became the third of our trip so far. it was different from the others. there was no need for advisors or pilots. this one we crossed on our own.

it was simple and short. the entire document exchange and payment lasted only 10 minutes, and the actual crossing lasted 45 minutes. so within less than one hour we arrived, got the office formalities out of the way, signed, paid and crossed to the other side. motoring through such a narrow gap is at the least very bizarre. we enjoyed it.

once on the other side we were greeted by more wind on the nose that we had to struggle against. but we motor sailed and arrived with the last light in trizonia, a little island with a free and abandoned marina and of course the same usual taverns and restaurants where we ate and drank some more… adding more extra pounds to our already bigger bodies… courtesy of the hummus, halawa, pita bread and feta cheese, just to mention some ….

the next morning we continued west and for the first time in the med with the wind strong and completely behind us. we checked our GPS and saw we had to go under a bridge of only 49 feet tall… we could not believe this!!! our little boat would not pass through. we contemplated we had to return through the corinth canal again….! but of course we thought there had to be a mistake, and sure enough there was… upon seeing the bridge we realized where we were. we crossed the antirio bridge which is the longest hanging bridge in the world and is huge, magnificent and plenty tall for our boat to go under and three more on top of us. we had seen on the discovery channel a few years back how this engineering masterpiece was built and finished well in advance before the greece olympic games of 2004. it was pretty amazing to know the story of it and actually see it and go under. it was fantastic.

paros

2011-06-18T12:59:00.000-04:00

paros was a surprise. we went there as a recommendation from our neighbor French sailors from the previous island. we anchored in the north of this medium size island in the town of naousa.

first of all we found the anchorage to be an idyllic place and second, the town was beyond our expectations. it was fantastic. very upscale and again with the tiny streets and white houses all over. there were great restaurants and shops everywhere. we loved it and did what we do best in greece: eat, drink and enjoy. what a place!!!

despotiko

2011-06-16T12:46:00.000-04:00

after ios, we moved north to despotiko because the wind was not allowing us to go south to milos; where we originally intended to depart from Greece. the winds in greece did not agree much with our route. they basically blew from all directions but always against us. but I guess this is normal, or at least we think so because every time we talk to other people sailing, everyone always tells the same stories of having the wind on their noses. … so this time we tried to sail with no specific island in mind and simply went out to sea with different options in different directions and of course headed towards the one we could sail to. and we were glad we went north and found this place. with flat shallow water, islands all around, some mountains, some caves.. and just a little of everything but mostly not very crowded. it was the perfect place to slow down after ios. we had the luck of full moon in this magnificent anchorage. What a place. it reminded us of how lucky we were to sail around greece and around the world of course!

the med moor fiasco

2011-06-14T01:01:00.003-04:00

as explained in a previous post we are not too crazy about the med moor maneuver where we need to throw the anchor and back up the boat to a wall and tie with lines to the shore. Aside from the challenges our boat has with the manual windlass and the difficulty backing up caused by the long keel, there is also the issue of the other boats. of course there are too many and once you are in a marina that you think is fully packed, in comes another boat and squeezes his way in using the engine to push the other boats to the side while making some room for himself where there was really none. We had this experience in ios. There was a place next to us enough for a kayak, according to our calculations… but of course not according to a 42 footer power boat that literally squeezed his way in pushing our boat to the side smashing us on our starboard side and making us collide with the boat on our port side. Here we were on a total sandwich with all the fenders touching the boat and therefore scraping the paint off. As if this was not painful enough, at least for esteban, the wind picked up while we were on the beach and the boats next to us left. As they did, they picked up their anchors which managed to tangle with ours, and in doing so they picked up our anchor too. Without the anchor securing our bow and the strong wind blowing from the nose, the boat completely backed up and smashed against the concrete wall. It tangled and probably damaged our wind vane auto pilot and took away the paint and damaged all the fiber glass in the transom, not to mention completely cutting the electricity cables that we had attached to the shore power.
Sure enough when we came back from the beach we saw our beloved puerto seguro smashing against the wall. Two other boats felt so bad that they put some fenders to protect it from getting more damaged, but the truth is that it was too late. The boat was moving wildly in the space left by the other boats because we did not have any anchor holding us in place. Upset as we have never been, we untied and had to do the entire re-anchoring maneuver in order to secure the anchor again. All this while in the middle of the wind gusts and with two huge ferries coming in the port and maneuvering at the same time. Because the difficulty in handling our boat in reverse was now worsened by the strong wind, esteban was at the helm and I was at the dreadful, manual, useless windlass which I now not only dislike but absolutely hate. Somehow I managed to tangle one of my fingers with the chain and hurt it. at least I was lucky not to have broken it. in addition a line that was tossed to us from shore got tangled in the propeller and it jammed the gears and also cut the screws from the cutless bearing in the shaft leaving us with no engine to maneuver. But somehow we finally moved into our original position again, secured the anchor and boat, and started inspecting the damages.

By this time my finger had started to swollen and I was in serious pain so I took some ibuprofen to relieve it somehow. I am allergic to aspirin and have known this all my life, but I did not know I would have the same reaction to the ibuprofen. in fact I think I have taken it before without any harm… but this day was the day I learned that I am also allergic to whatever is in ibuprofen. Within minutes my eyesight was diminished and my eyes and face were completely swollen. Luckily there was a hospital in the island and esteban and the coast guard took me there. I was treated immediately with iv medicine and watched closely by the very young doctor who was very nice to us. Luckily we reacted fast and the swollenness did not affect my breathing. After a few hours of personalized supervision I was finally disconnected from the needles and was able to go back to the boat. Today, 24 hours after the incident there was a boat coming in who decided to drop anchor and then decided to lift it up again and go elsewhere. Before lifting his anchor he started dragging his while doing the same with ours. When he finally picked it up he had already messed up our chain and finished it by also pulling our anchor out of place. We saw him and yelled at him but it was to late. He had picked our anchor up and simply dropped it again and left, and once again our boat quickly backed towards the wall smashing all over the place. We could not believe we were living the same story all over again. Luckily this time we were on board and prevented any further damage. This time esteban put the diving gear and went to reset the anchor manually. I must say we were very surprised by everyone’s attitude. They pick anchors just like that, see the damage they are causing and do not even bother to come and help or even to say sorry. we get the impression that the people who charter boats, and those are the majority we have seen, simply do not care or do not have the experience. after the events of the past 24 hours I am still swollen but feeling much better; the boat is damaged and we may have to pull it out of the water to fix the cutless bearing. of course there are no facilities to do so here in ios, so we have to sail like this to italy and hope the shaft will holds. Needless to say, after this experience we will never med moor again. It will be strictly anchoring for us from now on.

santorini

2011-06-11T03:51:00.002-04:00

from ios we took a ferry to the island of thira, which is famously know as santorini. we decided this was best given the difficult conditions to leave the boat while visiting the villages above the cliffs. the high steep mountains going straight to the bottom of the sea leave no room for anchoring and make it very deep to anchor anywhere near the rocky shore.

so with the boat safely in the harbor we took the super modern and fast ferry to this volcanic island. it was pretty startling to see the cliffs and all the white houses on top. we were surprised though of how full of tourists it was. there was traffic; the narrow streets were packed; and the shops made us feel like on a shopping mall.

but of course the view of the ocean and nearby islands was amazing, not to mention the narrow streets and the architecture, which are so famous and typical of this place. here we said good bye to arava and eran and their short but great visit. they flew back home while we took another ferry back to ios and our boat.

IOS

2011-06-10T03:50:00.000-04:00

we were supposed to go to santorini but upon checking the weather we noticed the forecast predicted strong force 7 winds ahead (28-33knots). after checking out the possible anchorages in santorini we quickly decided we did not want to be caught in a strong wind there with no safe place for puerto seguro. so we bought us some piece of mine and sailed to ios instead.

just like simi, this unexpected stop was a great surprise. the marina was excellent and the town amazing. we went partying to the same places i had gone to 15 years ago only to find out that the age of the crowd had not changed. we were double the age of everyone there!!! we felt quite old but nevertheless enjoyed watching them partying like silly teenagers. we felt glad to have left those years behind.

luckily we were not so old to rent an ATV and go around exploring. this was a lot of fun and allowed us to see this entire beautiful island. we had a wonderful time in ios and enjoyed the town, the marina, the excellent beaches and as always the superb food!

vathy

2011-06-08T03:35:00.001-04:00

after a quiet and much needed relaxing stay in skala we moved to vathy which was another anchorage in the same island only 18 miles away. this place was so remote and beautiful we could not believe it. the mile long lagoon was almost completely closed in by mountains and had only a narrow entrance. inside the water was flat and beautiful. there was a little tavern on shore and many goats in the surrounding mountains. we noticed this because we heard their bells around their necks. we all loved the feeling of being in such a remote and amazing place. eran cooked a lovely meal, relieving me of my galley duties for one night and we enjoyed the wine, food and the company after another safe sail under a sky full with stars!

astypalea

2011-06-07T03:27:00.003-04:00

with the weather still bad we left for astypalea because we were meeting my friend arava and eran from israel there. we had planned to sail with them around greece and decided to meet in this next island on a particular date. we had 36 hours to cover only 30 miles in order to meet them. we though we could be there in 12 hours but it turns out we took the entire 36 hours and the boat took one of the worse beatings so far. we were introduced to one of the local strong winds of this part of the world: the maltemi. it was blowing so much that we; actually only me; felt like crying just of pure frustration. we had already stopped at simi seeking protection and did not have the time to make another stop if we wanted to meet our friends on time and as agreed. so we dressed up in jackets and all our foul weather gear and just sailed at 2 knots towards our destination. to add to the frustration we had to run the engine also while we sailed. If we only sailed the tacks would significantly add miles to the trip possibly adding an extra day, which we did not have. so we had to spend the diesel; at 9 USD per gallon in this part of the world; and still tack trying to fight the maltemi coming from our nose… a terrible idea but unfortunately we did not have too many options. after this trip we learned a hard lesson: there are really no short distances when the weather is not favorable or even OK. 30 miles in rough conditions are worse than several hundred of them in any other setting. but we finally made it. we arrived to astypalea completely wet, cold and with the boat all covered in salt.

upon arriving the french folks from the boat next to us were surprised to hear we sailed in such a rough weather and gave us the first bitter taste of the med mooring experience which we had read about. in europe, because of the lack of space, boats have to anchor and back-up to a wall to tie to with ropes. this sounds simple except that our long keel boat makes it almost impossible to back up on a straight line, so this is definitely hard if not embarrassing in tight spaces. in addition, our manual prehistoric windlass to pick up the anchor chain is worthless and possibly the only piece of equipment we really hate of our boat. every time there is any maneuver with the anchor chain we are reminded that we really need to change that piece… but because we have not done so, we have to still maneuver with it, adding more challenge to a maneuver that we already hate and consider difficult. finally and to top it off, there is always the sailor that is already there and acts as if he owns the wall and space he only tied to the night before, but because he was in first he considers he can watch and not help and warn the newcomer boat of where his anchor is, in order for us not to anchor on top of his, and of course not to touch his boat with ours… definitely not helpful or friendly specially after our long and violent last 30 miles. but we managed to get in somehow in one piece, not touching anyone one of our neighbors and just in time to clean the boat from the messy and rolly night, greet arava and eran and enjoy the warm sun and this new island.

astypalea was the first greek island with white houses and blue windows. it was quiet and charming. we had arava and eran on board and we were safely docked. what else could we ask for?! we quickly went around skala, the main town, and enjoyed yet another good restaurant with excellent greek food and finally introduced our friends to the life on board.

simi

2011-06-04T03:27:00.000-04:00

getting to simi was a coincidence. we had scratched it off from our list because we considered we did not have much time around the islands. fortunately for us, a bad weather with strong head winds made us stop there on our way. for the first time we were glad we had bad weather. because of this we saw another of the most amazing islands of greece.

we anchored in a remote area of the island, far from the main town and port, in a monastery. we quickly visited around and enjoyed the great anchorage absolutely sheltered from the strong winds. we also visited the town on the other side of the island. just getting there was a trip in it of itself: great views and luckily with a local that had come back from australia to his home land and gave us the entire tour and explanations of the place.

it was very informative and we enjoyed every minute of the road. finally we arrived in the most magnificent town. it was similar to kastellorizo but only bigger and with more of the great stores and restaurants that we loved so much of the previous island. we felt really glad and lucky to be there and enjoyed the bad weather with a delicious pizza and beers overlooking yet another wonderful place.

kastellorizo

2011-05-30T03:19:00.003-04:00

after a very enlightening stay in israel we left towards greece. it was only a short 3 day sail and the weather looked ok. unfortunately this was not so for the entire crossing and we did have to sail through minor storms or no wind at all. but after 72 hours and a very scary water spout right on top of us, we safely arrived in greece. the island of kastellorizo was a great surprise. we fell in love with the place instantly. the simple small and color-coordinated houses with beautiful windows painted in beautiful colors and, the mountains behind, made the view of the town simply spectacular. this island is one of the prettiest spots we have visited on our entire trip not only for the architecture and charm but also for the most wonderful local people we met. we really felt like home and formed and instant great impression of the greeks.

what we had planned to be an entry port became a 4 day stay with new friends. we had dinners on board and at the different restaurants and tried mousaka and all the other fabulous great greek dishes. we were very surprised though of the price of the fish. 23 euro per kilo and 46 if lobster. ouch! something tells me we will have a lot of chicken in this part of the world…

the island does not have a road around for cars. only some paved kilometers that lead to the airport and one taxi that makes the runs back and forth. every other place we went to, we either walked or went by dinghy, or we climbed. there are some steep stairs to the top of the mountain. we climbed with difficulty and while catching our breath enjoyed the picture perfect view.

the history of the island is rather sad. most of the original inhabitants have fled to australia and other countries. they have seen their houses and culture being destroyed by the italian occupation, then the french and later with the second world war and a major earthquake. but after so much tragedy, some have returned to restore their houses and maintain their roots and culture alive. in general the 200 inhabitants now keep the place beautiful, clean and very inviting to the tourists. we would be glad and lucky to come back here anytime.

around kastellorizo there is a cave with an entrance on low tide and with good weather. it is not easy to go with the sailboat because, as with many places in greece, the depths are too great right off the shore. it is like the steep mountain continues its steep slope down the water line and leaves no room for beaches or even a few feet for anchoring. we saw this on the charts and took our dingui around to see the cave. it was a very bizarre experience. the color of the water was an amazing blue and was cold but yet inviting. it was great. we went in for a swim and later explored a second similar cave and other beautiful spots around kastellorizo. definitely a unique spot!

around the holy land

2011-05-20T12:36:00.012-04:00

we rented a car and spent a few days driving around this small yet interesting country. we drove through the dessert and also through completely cultivated lands. all the territories that used to be dessert not too long ago are today covered with numerous highways, train tracks and plantations of all kinds from potato to plantains and vineyards to sunflowers. they are all artificially irrigated and some covered in tents to create what we assumed to be a climatized environment.

we also visited many cities each with their big shopping malls and mac donald’s all around and of course old architecture and so many wonderful parks and sacred sites. we went to the north to haifa and akko and to the lebanese border. to the east to zefat and the sea of galilee south of the golan heights. we also visited nazareth and bethlehem, surprisingly to us a part of the palestine territories where israelis cannot cross, just as our rental car with Israeli plates was probably not allowed to cross as per our rental agreement but with which we somehow did cross.
we also went to the south to gaza or at least to the border to see the wall. the israelis call it a security wall and the palestinians the apartheid wall. to us it was definitely a very big and tall wall.

we also visited the dead sea to the east and had the mandatory bath in it. an amazing experience similar to nothing we have tried before. maybe astronauts experience this with no gravity in space. it was crazy to be floating completely effortless, even standing you can float and if you try to submerge yourself you will certainly fail at it.

it would have been a great idea for esteban to read the sign that advised not to submerge the head in the sea. turns out the salinity and minerals are so painful to your face that once he tried submerging his head he had to dart out of the water into the showers to relieve some of the pain in his eyes ears and nose. luckily it did not last long and we continued bathing in this exotic place. in total we had the car for five days, enough to see and enjoy a lot of israel.

tel aviv and yafo

2011-05-16T11:21:00.011-04:00

the marina where we stayed was some 20 kilometers north of tel aviv and yafo so it was relatively close to go there and so we did a few times. the cities are next to each other and are full of nice street cafes and markets. we tried different restaurants and walked around many different places. we must have gained a few pounds courtesy of the great pastries and delicious hummus and other great dishes. this city reminded us of miami because of the beach-style life. these two places were among the many we really liked of israel, and we were lucky to spend some time there with our good local friends!

jerusalem

2011-05-13T10:46:00.006-04:00

jerusalem is a beautiful city. it has history; old buildings and modern architecture as well; boutiques and delicious restaurants; parks and lots of places to walk around. it is super clean and we were lucky to have had a very pleasant weather which of course always helps when visiting a place. we visited the old city within the wall and some of the jewish, catholic and muslim sacred sites. it is a place were the difference of religions is obvious in every monument and the variety of cultures in every restaurant.

we were impressed with the quality of products sold in the boutiques, most of them really pretty and well designed. I loved the clothes in all the windows and enjoyed seeing people wearing the latest fashion. we have not seen much of this in the last months, specially women, as they are mostly covered. we also enjoyed the markets and generally walked all around this very interesting place.

israel

2011-05-10T09:58:00.004-04:00

after a short and pleasant 24 hour sail we arrived in israel just a day before their independence day. entrance into this country was a bit different from any other place we have visited before. they have strict security measures in place and the navy monitored our every movement as far as 40 miles from their shores. we maintained constant radio contact and they escorted us into the marina with a big navy ship loaded with a gun pointed at us; but we must admit they were at all times very polite and welcoming. once settled in the gorgeous marina at herzliya we joined in their 63rd independence day celebrations. we met our very special neighbors from s/v nirvana who gave us t-shirts from the regatta and flags. we blended right in and celebrated with them.

we also went around the entire complex with a shopping center, fancy stores and delicious restaurants and enjoyed the beautiful show of the regatta and the air show courtesy of the israeli air force acrobat planes flying over the mediterranean sea. it was a joyful and beautiful day, at least for some; as for the palestinians it is known as a date for mourning (they call the creation of israel the "naqba" which means catastrophe in arabic).

learning of the history of this country and the struggle of those who live here was very appealing to us. the conflicts of culture and religion are visible everywhere. the military planes fly constantly and there are security measures on land like check points in all public places, not to mention restrictions and walls between israel and their neighbor countries and palestine territories.

we learned a lot from visiting this wonderful place but still leave without understanding many of the intricacies of their problems. it is amazing how the israelis have managed to build such an amazing and developed country in the midst of all the conflicts and of course the dessert. i absolutely loved israel and was pleasantly impressed with everything i saw.

suez canal

2011-05-07T12:35:00.002-04:00

20000 ships go through the suez canal each year. This year we were one of those and part of a very small group of sailboats that crossed. The total length of the canal is 162 kilometers. It starts in the city of suez. We left this city around noon with a pilot and covered the first 81 kilometers until the middle lakes into the city of ismalia. Here all small boats are required to spend the night. we actually spent 3 nights and took a train to Alexandria and later a bus to cairo. Upon returning we picked up another pilot and we covered the remainder 81 kilometers until port said in the Mediterranean. Here we dropped the pilot and slept one night out of the canal right in the med, very exposed to wind and swell. This was the most rolly night ever…. And to top it off it was very cold. But we were happy to have crossed the suez and be in the med.

The canal is pretty simple. There are no locks and it is a long stretch of water marked by a marker every kilometer and with sand dunes left and right for the most part of the journey. Upon arriving in the south tip we were required to hire an agent which was of course not the greatest experience. they overcharge and the service is pretty substandard. Everyone that we came across asked for the baksheesh which is part of the everyday life in Egypt. It is simply a tip but whenever you give it, no matter how much it is, it will start an argument that is too little and they always want more… we played the game as required and tried to be patient throughout. We did have what we think was the only exception to this rule. Our pilot for the last leg was quiet, polite and after receiving the baksheesh he did not even look at it but simply put it away and thanked us. we were very surprised and happy to have met him and have had him on board.

There are three separate convoys of ships transiting the canal. One northbound in the morning and two southbound in the afternoon. The canal is open every day except when there is a warship crossing; and in this case it is reserved for only that one vessel. Small boats like ours are allowed to transit during daylight hours only and go next to the big ships. It is pretty amazing to see the big guys perfectly lined up going through the canal.

Sailboats are not allowed to sail so we had to motor all the way. we did pull out the genoa briefly to help the speed but this is technically not allowed. In our case our pilot asked that we do so to go faster. The experience was interesting and we enjoyed the view and the conversations with the two pilots we had on board. the marinas at suez and ismalia were very pleasant, and except for our agent our crossing experience was an enjoyable one.

cairo

2011-05-05T06:02:00.008-04:00

after alexandria we took another train to cairo. this time we got ourselves in a first class car, not wanting to experience the hard third class trains of egypt ever again. we arrived at the central station in cairo and witnessed the most chaotic traffic of the trip so far.

from there we took the metro and then decided to go to look for a hotel in zamalek which is a beautiful residential neighborhood with upscale shops and amazing houses where all the foreign ambassadors live. This neighborhood was definitely the highlight of our trip we walked endlessly through beautiful streets avoiding the crazy traffic of cairo and had a relaxing weekend strolling around, seeing the great boutiques, art galleries, eating at delicious restaurants, and acting like residents of this place more than tourists.
esteban got a badly needed hair cut in one of the local hair saloons. We loved the hotel we stayed at and the quietness of this area of the city.

of course we also visited the museum and the pyramids and the sphinx; a must for all tourist in this place of the world. and of course we thought they were amazing. surprisingly the tourism that day was very low and we enjoyed the pyramids plateau almost all to ourselves. at the end of our short stay we took a brand new bus back to ismalia and continued our canal crossing towards port said and the Mediterranean sea.

alexandria

2011-05-04T05:36:00.004-04:00

during our transit through the suez canal and more specifically our stop in ismalia, in the middle of the transit, we decided to take a train and travel to alexandria and cairo. the train was in itself an experience. going to alexandria we took the cheapest possible train and only one available. the total price was 2 dollars per person for over this 5 hour trip and we stopped everywhere. the view was exceptional and educational inside and out. inside we watched the people and talked to some of them, all very friendly and practicing their few words of english with us. outside we watched astonished the garbage all around. to us egypt was like india, dirty all around; very sad.

once we arrived in alexandria on the mediterranean coast, we walked around the city center, had delicious food and found ourselves a nice little hotel with the most fantastic view of the harbor. we enjoyed cable TV with hundreds of channels; definitely a novelty for us. we must have watched 4 movies during our stay. we also visited the catacombs, and the famous bibliotheque, built where the ancient one once was. we walked all around to enjoy the shops and very good food. it was a good break and a good doze of civilization and busy city life.

port ghalib, egypt

2011-04-23T05:14:00.004-04:00

in the middle of nowhere in the egyptian coast lies the most amazing marina complex we have been to so far. it has several world known hotels, many american, local and international restaurants, good internet (a novelty for us since it has been so bad for the last couple of months...) and a top class marina with everything we can possibly need. this was our port of entry into egypt. we happily washed the boat and enjoyed the luxuries of the marina life.

sailing up the red sea

2011-04-21T04:50:00.002-04:00

after port sudan we continued north for roughly 300 miles until our port of entry in egypt. we had dead clam seas and also gale force winds. we also saw the most amazing amount of sand floating on the water for miles and miles. it literally looked like the wind had blown all the desert into the sea. while waiting for the winds to settle we stopped at amazing places where the water was so clear that we could see the bottom and even the fish under the boat. sailing these waters has been a beautiful experience and luckily for us, not that hard to sail up north despite the known strong head winds. I guess we got lucky with the winds and only had a few days of really strong winds against, but for the most part the majority of the red sea has been very benign to us!

port sudan

2011-04-16T02:59:00.001-04:00

some 40 kilometers from suakin is port sudan. we paid a short visit and eat the world’s worse hamburger for lunch there; but at least, and to compensate; I think it was also the cheapest. for dessert though we had some very good local sweets. we walked around town and went to the market. we were not impressed with this city at all. it was big, loud and ugly. so we went back to the ruins in suakin and enjoyed the best part of this place: the quiet anchorage! we watched movies on board and catch up on our emails while waiting 2 days for the wind to die down a bit and allow us to proceed north towards egypt.

suakin

2011-04-14T14:14:00.005-04:00

we thought eritrea was the poorest country we would visit on our voyage until of course we arrived in sudan. we arrived into the port of suakin and anchored in one of the most comfortable and protected anchorages of the trip. our agent mohamed made our stay in this port a very pleasant one. he helped us with diesel, water, internet and propane. he even exchanged our money at the most favorable rate. his entire attitude was so no agent like. we really liked him.

we also met a very interesting group of guys. they were architects and engineers from turkey on a project to restore the ruins of old suakin. in the middle of the port there is an island full of ruins from buildings dating back to the ottoman empire. the remains look very pretty but of course there is not much left standing. turns out the government of turkey is investing on this project and has sent a group of 5 professionals to do the task. they explained to us the details of their project over a delicious dinner in a place where food seems very difficult to find. we eat at their place which was pretty much the only nice building in town.

this town has no water or electricity so the few that have light at night get it from generators. the water is treated from salt water by water makers and then transported by donkeys to the individual homes. this is probably an upgrade from eritrea where it is transported by jerry cans over long stretches in women’s backs.

asmara

2011-04-09T14:00:00.005-04:00

after a four hour bus drive through the country we arrived in asmara, the capital of eritrea, which looks more like a city in italy 100 years ago than what you would expect a town in africa to look like. first the trip itself was such an adventure. it was fun and pleasant. the roads were in great condition and there was hardly any traffic at all. we enjoyed the views of the dessert, and the mountains and the two towns we passed by. the entire countryside seemed very poor but clean and beautiful. Asmara itself was extremely clean for a city capital.

it was also full of cafes and restaurants. this trip was a treat to our stomachs. we had a delicious italian lunch (colonial heritage is extremly visible in the food) and right afte some coffee and pastries, only to be followed by fruit juices and later drinks, and then in the next day the same good stuff all over again, and all this great food for very little price. we enjoyed a little inexpensive pension and walked around the city for hours admiring the architecture. it was such an interesting and different trip away from the boat.

we also visited a war graveyard with hundreds of trucks, amphibious and tanks used over the years in the long war with ethiopia. We were amazed of the amount of vehicles piled on top of another making a 10 meter wall for at least a few blocks long. it is quite shocking to see so much evidence of war in the country. we saw it everywhere. on the streets, in buildings and in the people themselves. we had never seen so many handicap people together. We did not ask of course but assumed they were victims of the war.

massawa

2011-04-07T13:52:00.005-04:00

the 300 mile stretch from assab to massawa took us a lot longer than expected. we finally met the famous red sea strong head winds. we started sailing less miles per day and tried to find shelter during the nights. the problem is finding the shelter. most of the islands are full of unmarked reefs making it very dangerous to approach during the day and virtually impossible to do so at night. on one ocassion we were happily sailing with the wind from the stern and within 5 minutes the speed decreased to nothing and within another 5 we had very strong winds blowing from our vows. It was night so we could not make any approach into an anchorage and the only option was to bring down all the sails and drift backwards, and so we did for 25 miles. it is really hard to predict the weather here. i guess the only sure thing is that it will be difficult to make progress north. on this leg we stopped in a couple of remote islands along the way and rested while the winds blew hard.

when we finally arrived in massawa we were happily surprised with what we found. the port itself is full of ruins and there is evidence of the long war with ethiopia in every corner and every building. the beautiful old constructions look like they are about to fall down. it is so poor but yet so clean and charming. the town has a great vibe. the streets are full of cafes and restaurants with tables outside each serving delicious pizza and coffee from sophisticated espresso machines.

the places are full of people enjoying themselves. we certainly enjoyed the food and the cheap and tasty local beer, not to mention meeting and talking to some of the locals which we found without exception extremely simple and polite. this was certainly a cool place to stop at.

more fish than we can eat....

2011-04-05T13:47:00.001-04:00

another bonus of entering the red sea is the fish!! we have caught tunas, wahoos, mackerels, barracudas and other species which we do not recognize and are not in the guide. we have eaten as much fish as we desire and have even picked our favorites and thrown back to the ocean what we will not eat. our diet has greatly improved. it is healthier and tastier than the cans!!! we need to be fast thought. it seems we have competition. when we do not bring in the fish fast we will loose ot to the sharks and will only get a piece of the head...

africa!!!

2011-04-03T13:45:00.000-04:00

the convoy stopped in a very remote anchorage in the south of eritrea to celebrate the end of the whole pirate story and that we had made it safely. we celebrated for two days with the other sailors and even with the local fishermen on shore. we also enjoyed the beautiful landscape and the incredible sunsets of africa. After a couple of nights of this beautiful and remote place we oficially parted ways and continued sailing alone. at this time we were so happy to be in africa and finish the convoy that we paid little attention to the challenges the weather had in store for us… supposedly the toughest area of our route according to the guides due to the constant strong head winds… but at least for the first couple of days we had strong winds but from behind and we continued enjoying the peacefulness we felt of being sailing alone once again in pirate free waters.

bob el mandeb

2011-04-01T13:40:00.001-04:00

this has to be the place where we encountered the strongest winds of our entire trip (so far at least) and luckily they were from behind. It was blowing so strong that we were cruising at 8 knots with hardly any sail out. we now never know the actual speed since our wind indicator broke a while ago and as we find it not indispensable at this time of or trip we decided to continue sailing without it. So for a while we have not know the speed of the wind. It either blows to little in which case we motor, or just about enough to have all sails out or too much that we have to reef… here it was definitely too much, to the point we had to be with almost no sails out. we enjoyed this windy conditions for a change. We have had far too many days of light winds for the last months….

going through this strait meant we officially entered into the red sea leaving the pirates behind!! Good. We accomplished what seemed to be almost impossible back at the anchorage in the maldives, and we had done it in one piece! This was an important moment of our trip and where we definitely felt a weight being lifted of our shoulders. We finally stopped looking around for pirates on every vessel we saw… it was a good welcome back to our old sailing style which we have grown to like so much!

aden

2011-03-27T13:36:00.002-04:00

Aden used to be this busy port strategically positioned in the gulf of aden where most ships going through the indian ocean to the red sea or the other way around would stop. What we saw however was completely different. mostly because the effect of the pirates and partly because of the unstable situation of yemen, the port had only half of the traffic it used to have and the facilities looked a bit dilapidated. the city itself had closed streets with barricades and leftovers of debris and rocks probably from manifestations that had taken place not too many days or even hours ago. just across the anchorage was a famous bar and one of the only 5 establishments in the city that sold alcohol. apparently it was a cool place where locals would hang around. unfortunately for us the place was burned down a couple of days before we arrived along with the other four hotel and bars that sold alcohol. We asked and were told that a group of fundamentalist muslims had done the job.

despite the once again heavy atmosphere and sense of turmoil, the people were extremely friendly and we felt welcomed. they even apologized for the crisis their country was going through. we had planned to fly to sana, the beautiful capital of yemen but were strongly advised not to go. We of course took the local’s advise and sadly gave it a miss. so we stayed near the port and did our usual chores such as getting water, diesel, food, change oil, filters, belts, etc… we also had a celebration for having left the most dangerous pirate area behind. So once again we had a good time, rested and relaxed and prepared to move on and finally out of the indian ocean into the red sea.

al mukallah

2011-03-24T13:27:00.003-04:00

in salalah a few other boats joined the convoy and we were now 9 boats sailing together towards yemen. under strict convoy formation everyone tends to need to rest more frequent so it was decided that we would stop in al mukallah, half way to aden. a few days later we arrived in the middle of a street riot. from the anchorage it looked pretty vibrant and chaotic with strong men screaming very forcefully. For our own security (as we were told by the local authorities) we were asked to move to the inner port where we would be better protected.

indeed we moved and for the entire next day we were not allowed to go ashore, again supposedly for our own safety. so we spent the entire day in the harbor watching how a ship full of cattle was being unloaded and I guess being loaded with goats. It was quite the scene.

at night we were allowed to get out of the port gates to have dinner. We liked seeing the town even though it was dark and only for a short while. being so many tourists (a total of 22 crew in the 9 boats) we were transported in two mini buses with police and were escorted to dinner…we felt like tourists for the first time since we left home, but i guess that was part of the convoy plan we signed up for; so we went along and actually had a very good night in this place supposedly in the verge of collapsing into some sort of turmoil. the atmosphere was definitely heavy and although we were not to informed of the current politics in the country, we did feel it was not the place to be wondering around. So the next day we continued our journey towards aden.

salalah

2011-03-17T03:19:00.005-04:00

we sailed in convoy around 600 miles from muscat to salalah. the four original boats departed together from muscat and then we met a fifth along the way who joined. convoy sailing was thought and uncomfortable but it provided the security of the numbers. we thought that if the pirates saw many boats together they would be turned down from any desire of attacking because the logistics of handling 5 boats would be too complicated for them. also with more boats everyone has less chances of being taken. sadly this is the thought of many… let them take the others and not me…. ! during the entire leg the tension levels were high due to the long sleepless nights and constant watch and attention during day and night, not only watching possible pirates but also the other boats of the convoy. at all times we maintained a set speed and distance from each other. this is difficult to accomplish when you have wind and waves. luckily for all of us, most of the time we sailed with other boats we had little to no wind, allowing us to somewhat maintain the formation.

once in salalah we were able to sleep again and recover strength for the next leg f convoy sailing. in this town we rented a car and did some sightseeing across the dessert, went to the beautiful beaches, the beloved lulu supermarket and in general had a relaxing and fun time. we did not have to work so much on the boat here as we had done practically everything back in muscat, so salalah was all about enjoying our time in such a different place. and very different to us indeed because we are just not used to this culture. just seeing camels and goats out the window and completely covered women everywhere is so bizarre…. I assume that is how omanis feel when they go to south america… maybe seeing us dance men and women so close together is something they will be shocked to see… I can only imagine their faces watching a couple dancing tango. but this is the beauty of traveling which we love so much. to learn about the differences everywhere! this entire trip has certainly been an education!

muscat, what a treat!

2011-03-04T02:21:00.002-05:00

after so many rough miles sailing up north the indian coast and then west on the pakistani and irani coasts we arrived at our original country of destination: oman. unbelievable, when we could have just sailed 1000 miles from Maldives straight to salalah, but instead sailed triple the amount of miles and arrived in the same country but in muscat… close to the strait of hormuz… far from where we wanted to go…. but what a place it was.

Here we met our friend justin who came from london to sail this leg with us. we also met friends from other 2 sailboats that joined our little mini convoy of only 2 boats; so now we were 4 sailboats who would sail together hugging the omani coast. We were surprised by the port sultan qaboos which we found incredibly clean and beautiful. also the city of muscat was very clean and pretty. What a contrast from india. We saw gardens everywhere with blooming flowers in the middle of the dessert!!!

We went to a very nice and comfortable marina where we got some well deserved nights of sleep and did a much needed maintenance to the boat. By this time of the trip most of the lines are of have already chafed and almost everything on the boat has been replaced or mended or is not in use anymore because it doesn’t work. So this place with unlimited water to clean the dirt from india was excellent for the boat and for us. the only downside of it all was the cost. this marina has been the most expensive of our entire trip. oman in general has been the most expensive country. Not only everything costs more here but the exchange to the dollar does not benefit us so everything is triple the price when compared to US.

we also discovered the best supermarket ever. a chain from the arab emirates called LULU. what a place… with all the arabian sweets one can think of and with my now favorite snack: dates!! overall muscat was an amazing treat. Delicious food at the market and at the restaurants. we went to the best fish place ever. what a delicious meal.
we also were treated exceptionally well by all the locals who gave us a ride everywhere, helping us save a little money on taxis. we felt clean and rested. still anxious about the remainder of the route which was still long and the same if not more dangerous that what we had already covered. but with a clean and ready to go boat we felt it was time to move on.

detained

2011-02-24T15:05:00.003-05:00

next stop was veraval, a fishing town close to the pakistani border. to us the dirtiest place on earth. Again a place where people were good to us and very friendly and helpful but one that we could not enjoy much because of the dirt and in this particular harbor because of the rats. turns out we were probably the only sailboats that had ever called at this port. as such we were the novelty and everyone lined up to see us. We felt like astronauts in a different planet.

after formalities were out of the way we thought we could go out of the port to explore and get our badly needed diesel and water. imagine our surprise when we were told that we could not go out and were in fact detained. we actually did not have visas for india because we never intended to cruise around this country. our visit to this country was a result of our new route to avoid pirates and when we decided on this route we could not get the needed visas, so we simply decided to sail north and only stop in emergencies only. of course our idea of emergency stops for diesel and water is not necessarily shared by the indian authorities who thought we were probably terrorists because we were entering their waters and harbors without proper documentation…. so after intense questioning and a brutal and very detailed search of the boat by over 30 men, we were simply detained on board for two days next to a horrendous wall full of people just looking at us and sadly spitting some red stuff over our boats… but at the end, they somehow realized we meant no harm and were really there only for water and diesel and released us and allowed us to continue our way. they of course escorted us out of the port to get our water and diesel. With that on board we were happy to continue on and leave india all together. sadly we left with a bad impression. The people are actually extremely nice and helpful. it is the system and especially the filth we could not stand….

the adventure started

2011-02-17T14:59:00.003-05:00

we left the peaceful waters of the maldives early one morning with little wind and motor sailed nicely for almost 24 hours. after this the winds started to pick up and blow stronger from the north, something we ended up having for the entire rest of the trip until muscat. but what was unbelievable is that sometimes we actually had to sail west, and when we did, the winds came form the west as well… so we gave up. The direction seemed to be coming from wherever we wanted to go… so we patiently tacked our way up the indian coast. on the way we had a very scary encounter with a big ship at night and with no lights… our hearts were beating like crazy… how to know if this is not a mother ship of the pirates, or simply another vessel just as scared of them as we are simply trying to sail across safely??? well we never knew. and the same happened with every single fisherman that approached us. It is impossible to determine who they are and their intentions. so for the entire trip we were stressed and scared.

to top this situation off our water maker broke, so now we had no fresh water on board and we now needed to make more frequent stops in ports just to fill up our water tank. with this new need we decided to stop in malpe a fishing village in india.

we had a very nice welcome by all the people we saw and were able to get diesel and water and some food in order to continue north, but generally our first impression form this country, which by the way only deteriorated as we moved north was of disappointment of how filthy everything was. maybe we were simply unlucky and stopped at the dirties places of india or maybe india is in fact dirty all over. Whatever it is, we were shocked of the living conditions.

trying to be invisible

2011-02-12T14:51:00.008-05:00

first a little history on pirates. apparently somali pirates started operating many years ago in order to protect their waters, coasts and their fishing industry. nowadays they continue to commit such crimes because the activity has become very lucrative. in recent years somali pirates have attacked hundreds of vessels in the arabian sea/indian ocean region, most of them are commercial ships.

around 2005 the attacks concentrated on the area of the gulf of aden and so the convoys were formed around these waters (around 700 nautical miles). unfortunately over the last few years the pirates have hijacked mother vessels as big as huge freighters and they now operate way off their coast making the entire arabian sea a real threat for attacks. therefore the danger area is now over 2000 miles. also, smaller vessels such as sailboats have become a target in recent years. this year alone we became aware of three attacks to small yachts. One resulted in all 4 on board killed. Other attack was unsuccessful because the yacht had hired and was sailing with their own escort and security, and the last resulted in all 7 on board hijacked. Devastating news for the entire sailing community. this year alone, and only for the last three months the internet posts alarming figures: the total somali pirate attacks and incidents is 107, this means there has been at least one attack every day!!! The pirates have taken 309 hostages and have killed 7 victims. We read they currently have 26 vessels hijacked and the number of hostages under their custody is over 540

we found ourselves in the maldives with this information and such a vast area of dangerous ocean ahead of us. We were too late in the season to change our route and go through south africa so we decided to sail north as we had planned through the red sea and mediterranean but we decided we just could not be spotted by pirates. So we thought the best strategy was to be invisible to them. We figured that if we were seen we might be a target and could never live with the thought of having risked our lives just because we decided to go sailing… . being invisible means sailing through a route we though was safer and away from the reported attacks, radio silence to avoid being heard and picked up by near by vessels, having low or no lights at all at night, and even no sails up during the day. This was very challenging though and it is easier said than done, but we did try to do as much as possible to be under radar for the most part of this journey.

with the decision made, we started plotting all the attacks and we literally saw the map screen being filled up with dots (black for january attacks and red for february. Note this chart does not even include the march attacks which we plotted on the GPS and not on the computer) with no real safe gap for us to sail through… the only possible route was to sail north parallel to the indian coast up to pakistan and from there border the coasts of oman and yemen until arriving in the red sea (the route we did is in green).

this sounds a whole lot easier than what it actually was…. Sailing north meant going against the prevailing winds at terribly slow progress while forcing the engine, spending too much on diesel and sailing even more time and miles but never in the right direction. In addition india was never in our sailing plans. the entire new route changed from an originally planned 1000 miles to almost 3000. all our tentative dates were significantly pushed back, but not so much that we missed a reasonable weather window for the red sea and later for the atlantic crossing.. so this meant more days at sea with harsh wind conditions and fewer ports to rest.

to top this not so great prospect route our convoy of originally 30 boats disintegrated to only a few until we actually sailed with only one other boat all through the coast of india…. this was a very challenging experience. We are simply not used to sailing with other boats.

during our entire crossing through pirate waters we heard a total of five distress calls on the VHF radio; we sailed an estimate of 3300 nautical miles; we were visited by one helicopter off the coast of pakistan, one jetfighter off the coast of iran and one coastguard plane off the coast of india.

we never saw a military vessel from the coalition forces at sea. we did see a few of them in the port in oman. but even if we had seen one while sailing, we were warned in advance that they cannot do much to potect or defend us. they are there to help big ships and tell us that if we do sail these waters we are on our own. perhaps that is why the indian coastguard told us they admired our courage to sail these "pirate infested waters on our little boat"(actual words used by one officer).

despite the warnings these coallition forces did provide useful information to us throughout the journey of the positions of the pirate attacks which we plotted daily. on this same frequency we reported back to them our GPS positions. i am still not sure why, but it somehow gave a false sense of security to know that some authority knew were we where...

the most pure and kind people on earth

2011-02-10T14:49:00.001-05:00

maldives is a wonderful place but also a bit expensive to sail around. We did not have much time and only stayed in one island. few other sailors do sail around to other islands with a one-month cruising permit that can be bought for around 700 USD. In addition we were informed that for each anchorage there is also a fee of 5 USD per night plus an additional 15 USD per person on board. there are also many restricted places for sailboats, making sailing here a little complicated; but I imagine this is good in order to preserve the beauty and nature of the place. so after analyzing our finances and specially seeing the little time we had, we only stayed in this north island called ulligamo. this place is unique. it has a court house (more like a room), a school, three small convenience stores, an immigration office and a total of 487 inhabitants. the water is clear and the beaches are very pretty, however we did not spend the majority of our time snorkeling or exploring the sea here. we instead spent our time with the most charming asset of the place: the people that live here. we have never met such pure and simple persons (and we say this in the most positive way possible). it seemed to us none of them were tainted by civilization. they were happy to share with us stories and simply laugh and not expect anything in return. we really had a great time with them. sadly it was the men only, for some reason we did not share much with the women; in fact, we did not see them much outside. something about their religion that we still do not understand much.

besides the locals, we also spent a lot of time with the other sailors. this was the meeting point for a convoy we joined to sail together with 30 other sailboats for the rest of the indian ocean. so here we planned how to move forward through pirate infested waters…. it was the beginning of the convoy experience and also the end of the joyful sailing we had known until so far……

moving on...

2011-02-05T14:47:00.002-05:00

it took us a while to leave sri lanka. first we liked this country and its people so much (not to mention the food which I particularly enjoyed) that we found it hard to lift anchors and leave. second, there was really bad weather and very strong winds funneling between india and sri lanka so we had to wait for several days for this low pressure to clear. once it did, or so we thought, we left galle harbor towards the maldives. turns out the bad weather was still with us and the seas were very big, so we had a rough passage for the first couple of days. after that, the skies cleared up and we were able to enjoy the remaining days until we arrived in paradise.

driving down to the coast

2011-01-30T14:09:00.008-05:00

after the highlands we were already missing the warm temperatures of the sea and we drove down country to the coast again. we passed through natural reserves, water falls, valleys, towns, beaches and many temples, stopping everywhere along the way. we found this country to be a wonderful place with a great variety of landscapes for all tastes. the landscapes reminded me of colombia. overall these two countries are very alike. they have all possible sights in every climate, the most delicious fruits and the nicest and most humble people. we felt like at home away from home.

the hill club

2011-01-29T13:47:00.004-05:00

during the coldest part of our scooter cross country journey we arrived into nuwara eliya. a town in the middle of the mountains, cold and wet (at least the day we visited). it was lunch time when we arrived and we could only think of a warm place to eat and rest. other than very pretty old and public buildings we really did not see anything in this town where we wanted to eat, except for a golf course in the middle of some potato and other vegetable fields. we thought that if there was a golf course, there must be a club house, and so we decided to look for it. sure enough we found the most amazing place, like from a fairy tale.

it was a club in one of the oldest buildings we have ever been into. the building is from 1870 and in very good shape. it is now the house of the hill club, a very conservative and traditional member’s club that accepted us in as temporary members for the day. soon we were dining in the grand salon and were served a delicious meal with warm soup and other good stuff including their fabulous tea. just what we needed to recharge energies and continue the scooter adventure.

ceylon tea trails

2011-01-28T13:22:00.008-05:00

continuing our road trip we passed through the tea plantations. the mountains look like carpets, perfectly covered with an even green. we learned that this country produces more tea than any other country on earth.

the women pick up the tea leaves by hand and they wear a picturesque outfit and no shoes!!!! we were impressed by this fact. the tea plantations are quite high and it is cold, not to mention they are on their bare foot in the mountain where the soil must be even colder and humid. we watched amazed and took their pictures. most of them laughed and posed and others asked for money in return.

tea is a very important industry in sri lanka. it has been so since colonial times. turns out sri lankan tea is rather good. i am having a good cup of it as i write this post and i really like it!!!

breakfast with the monkeys

2011-01-27T13:03:00.008-05:00

on our first day with the scooter we climbed more than 2000 meters and arrived in kandy, a pretty city in the mountains with a lake and a temple. we found a great and inexpensive little hotel for the night. the best part of the hotel was the breakfast the next day.

while we were sitting down enjoying the view and the food, the monkeys took over the garden and came inside the restaurant area steeling food from all the tables and a banana from ours. it was quite the scene to see the monkeys running with the bounty, and the hotel staff running after them, and of course the tourists running behind with the cameras.

850 kilometers in scooter

2011-01-26T12:58:00.002-05:00

we thought of visiting the highlands by car but the price was so high that we instead considered doing so by bus or train. but just before leaving for our tour around the country we came across a scooter rental place and decided to just take the bike. we thought we could always put the bike on the train and carry it back if it became to long or we got too tired. so with this piece of mind we rented the scooter for a few days and off we went to exploring this magnificent country.
what a place!!

what we liked the most was the people. everyone we met had a smile on their face and was terribly kind. they all spoke some english, unbelievable. and everyone was ready to give us directions, wave at us and also laugh when we showed them in the map what we were doing in such a small bike. at the end we never got on the train and stayed on the scooter for the entire trip. we ventured through most little roads and went everywhere we wanted. we did return with a flat and sore butt but with unforgettable memories of a great country we hope to visit again.

fort galle

2011-01-25T12:09:00.000-05:00

this picturesque city has a combination of modern not so pretty structures; ruins form the 2004 tsunami and beautiful buildings from the portuguese, dutch and british colonies. we went around in tuk-tuk which is the most common mode of transportation. it is a motorcycle but with three wheels and a bench in the back. no doors or windows for easy and fast access in and out. unfortunately what is not so fast is the mandatory 15 minute prior negotiation of the tariff before you actually get on. it is actually a very ingenious fun and cheap way to go around.

we visited the town and saw the many wooden shacks mostly on the beaches with different colors where you can buy all sorts of fish; the great local market full of every fruit and vegetable imaginable, a couple of museums and many stores of clothes, gems and dvds. i do not know how this is possible. everywhere we have been in asia we have seen dvd stores (not street vendors but actual permanent businesses) with copies of movies and music for less than one dollar a piece. here in sri lanka 4 movies cost 0.70 cents. makes you wonder how they enforce any copyright law in these places….

the other stuff for sale is very pretty. crafts, lots of gems and colorful clothes. what we enjoyed the most were the restaurants and their excellent food. mostly curries and lots of coconut and spices, not to mention the fruits and inexpensive fruit juices!!!

galle harbor

2011-01-24T12:04:00.003-05:00

the harbor in galle is heavily militarized and patrolled. this is a result of the prior conflict between the singhalese sri lankan military and the tamil tigers resistance groups. the actual fighting was concentrated in the north of the country but there were seldom attacks in the south and one on galle several years ago. now the conflict is over and the country is at peace but the security remains in the port. on our approach we had to report the vessel in and the port control officials came on board to inspect the boat.

once they cleared us in, we were allowed to come into the harbor and finish with the rest of the formalities such as customs and immigration. the timing of arrival into this port can only be done during daylight. the port is actually closed at night and there can be no movement even with dinghy within the harbor. we followed the instructions and finally anchored and tied stern to a wall next to a big ship to our port and other sailboats on our starboard. there were many sailboats in galle which was a surprise to us.

crossing the north indian ocean

2011-01-20T11:56:00.002-05:00

this crossing was by far the best of all, at least i thought so. when we left the similans towards the nicobar islands (which belong to india) we did not have much wind. this is not so ideal but at least when there is not much wind, the sea is flat, making the life on board an absolute pleasure! we had a couple of days like this and we motor-sailed. after clearing the nicobars; which we just passed through as we are not allowed to stop there; the wind picked up and we had a fantastic breeze for the next 900 nautical miles. it was wonderful. it was not too hot or too cold. there was not a cloud in the sky and we had full moon so we had the most clear skies every single day and night.

only towards the last night approaching the south coast of sri lanka the winds picked up quite a bit and we had some rough seas. on one occasion we had a set of three very big waves which knocked the boat sideways almost completely on the side. we lost some things overboard as they were washed by the water that came in the cockpit. while i was steering through these waves which we practically surfed at 9 knots (note our boat speed is 5), esteban was in the mast setting our third reef, or making our main sail the smallest possible before putting it down completely. luckily we saw the waves before they hit and he hugged the mast and held on managing to stay on board. everything happened in a matter of seconds and just as fast as they came, they left and we stayed with strong winds but better seas for the remainder of the crossing.

when we closed in the sri lankan coast we were greeted by many fishermen in the most fabulous rafts. they are very slim wooden canoes. So slim that they do not fit on the hull so they climb up and hang on wooden poles which are built into the raft and look like a mast with branches; it all looks like if they were hanging from a tree. it is very bizarre and we did not understand the sight until we got a very close look at where these guys were standing. at the beginning we were afraid. imagine the first sight of this canoe approaching at full speed towards the boat with 10 men hanging and waving their arms. but once they closed in, we could see they were friendly fishermen interested in exchanging their catch for cigarettes and alcohol. because we do not carry smokes and only very little alcohol on board we could not barter and had to wait to buy our own fish in the town.

ko similan

2011-01-14T11:52:00.002-05:00

the similan islands belong to thailand and are situated over 50 miles from the west coast of phuket. once we cleared customs and immigration and officially left thailnd we headed towards the similans to spend a few days on our way to sri lanka. the islands are a national park and there are park moorings everywhere. we picked up one of them and stayed there for a couple of days. the water was the most clear since the pacific. there were plenty of fish and beautiful spots to snorkel. the beaches had a very soft white sand and in general the sights were very beautiful. and to top it all, we had the most amazing weather. it was so wonderful that it was hard to leave knowing we had a long crossing ahead… but he had to and after a wonderful stop of beach sun and swimming all around we dropped the humongous buoy and set sail towards the west.

good bye thailand

2011-01-12T06:54:00.004-05:00

after sailing in thai waters around several islands we went back to phuket to get ready for the indian ocean crossing. We stopped at the ao po marina several miles north of phuket town. We did not do any sightseeing this time and only focused on preparing the boat. Turns out we enjoyed a lot being in this area far away from tourism.

In the marina we met great new friends and also had a very pleasant visit from my cousin Adriana and Philip. We went to a nearby waterfall with only local tourist and the local market. We had so much fun in the last days in the marina and the country side that we found it very hard to leave. We postponed our departure day after day.
Among the usual preparations we cleaned the boat in and out, over and under; filled up on water and diesel, oil and other supplies; aligned the engine.

we met a local welder who helped us immensely. we only communicated with him by signs and body language and rather well as he did everything we needed to perfection. our days in this remote area of the island were a perfect ending to our exciting days in thailand. we leave sad and hope to come back soon.

the latest in marine craft design

2011-01-09T06:22:00.004-05:00

the ingenuity of the thais at its best. the long tail boat for example, is a piece of art. a very traditional wooden canoe propelled by a peculiar engine. The motor can be of any type (auto, generator, even lawnmower) as long as it is NOT marine. This engine is then mounted onto a pivoting system with a long shaft (of at least 15 feet) where the propeller lies at the end. maneuvering these boats can get quite tricky and you should definitely keep away from them when they are turning unless you want to meet the flying out of the water and spinning blades. in addition to all this mechanical ingenuity, the boats are decorated with flowers, ribbons and bright colors. they are loud and go fast and the names of these boats as well as other types are just out of this world!!