LinoCat

I will be back on linoCat the 4th of june for around 10-14 days. Olaf, a friend which i have not seen for ages will be with me and we will sail LinoCat from Palma de Mallorca to Portimao in Portugal. YES; there will be pictures and reports on the website :-)

Lani asked twice about going to the beach. Well, there is no real beach so she got her big plastic shell filled with warm water and she played and had fun. Since it was her birthday many people were here and played with her. She also asked about Peter and Tina but they were not able to come :-) Lani is enjoying the freedom to walk around alone and the attention of all people around. I have the feeling she is not missing the boat yet.

During the past year i used a ALFA AWUS036H adapter with a one feet 9dbi vertical antenna. It is soooo much better than the built in Intel chipset that i can only highly recommend it. Most of the sailors i met are using the same. They come in different versions, mainly with more transmit power. be aware that in some countries (like Germany, the transmit (TX) power must not exceed a certain limit. Also when using the adapter with the driver that allows to adjust the power, try as low as possible first. To connect it to the Laptop (i used a DELL 6400ATG and an Asus EEPc) i used a simple 5m extension cable. Here i would recommend an expensive one with golden connectors since the others rot away quickly. If you plan to sail for one year take at least 3 adapters since they are only around 30 Euro each anyway. If you leave them in the rain over night just open the housing, dry it in the sun or with a hair dryer and use it again. After a few weeks it might stop working. Also if you let it han...

LinoCat was loaded onto the MV Amstelgracht. The Amstelgracht is a carrier which carries other goods and the yachts are only additional cargo. Under www.marinetraffic.com you can see the Amstelgracht if she is in reach of a coast. Expected arrival in Mallorca is around 2. June 2010. Thanks again to Peter and Tina from the Vanora and also to Jeff Balentine.

We left St Thomas USVI the day Peter from "Vanora" arrived. He arrived to steer both boats to their cargo ships for the transport back. La Medianoche to the MV Slotergracht and LinoCat to the MV Amstelgracht. Thanks a lot to Peter, i think there is no one better to do that! Also check out their website on: www.bluewater-dreams.com (in german). From St Thomas we took the American Airlines flight to Miami and stayed in the Sofitel Airport which was very nice. We even got an upgrade to a suite for free :-) The next morning we went to Dolphin Mall for some shopping and then took the LH 463 flight from Miami to Frankfurt. The business class has 80 seats and the service was not as good as in the past but of course the seats much more e comfortable than economy class. We arrived 20th of May in Frankfurt and so we are now back in Germany after 1 year.

Yesterday morning my mobile rang: J:Are you Mr Michael Waldbrenner? M: Yes, i am J: Have you been living in Mannheim and went to the Liselotte-school: M:Yes J: I am Jeff B and i have been in your class and now i am the loadmaster for your yacht to put it on the MV Amstelgracht. Isn´t that CRAZY? So Jeff works as a commercial diver and loadmaster for yachts for different shipping lines and he was flewn to St Thomas to load around 30 yachts. He visited us a few hours later and we had a nice chat and also met for dinner in the evening. I still can not believe that! Also that his wife April was coming to visit him and joined us for dinner. Lani though that all the talk about school was boring and had a nice nap :-)

Many people ask me what is on the agenda next? Well, LinoCat will be shipped back on board of a freighter to Palma de Mallorca and from there it will be sailed to Portimao in Portugal most likely. When ? Good question the freighter left Florida a little late and has already been postponed a few days. The current plan is to fly to Germany this week. From the 1st of August i will be working again! YEAH! No kidding. Then we will see... What will happen with this blog? I don´t know yet, for the time beeing i will continue it and then maybe use it as a daily update for what is going on. Or it might rest until our trip continues? Who knows....

This is the Yacht Haven Grande in the bay. Big motor yachts and fancy Gucci stores. Not really my cup of tea. Crown bay marina is full so LinoCat will stay at the anchorage. There is a huge commercial laundry near Crown Bay marina where we dropped 4 big bags of laundry for around 40USD. If you want a taxi take one of the "safaris", these open trucks. Within the city you pay 1 Dollar and just hop on and off. Iguana in Crown bay. There was a parade from the young police recruits and other groups. They played cool musiy and were marching and dancing. It looked nice and they had fun. Lani got 2 clip on earrings from a local girl when we used the safari taxi. The girl was maybe 4 or 5 and wanted to give them to Lani. Cute!

After a nice snorkeling dive with Ralf this morning we lifted anchor and La Medianoche and LinoCat sailed with a nice tailwind to St. Thomas. We are now anchored in Charlotte Amalie harbour. It is a little bit rolly but a nice breeze and only 2 minutes to the town. Even the small Coast Guard dinghies carry machine guns on the bow... A typical shopping street with a bar. One of the neighbours from the anchorage again. The water was so clear that you could see them from above without a mask. Ralf checking out the edge of the reef. 2 friends

Well today was just another day at the anchorage. Ralf came over from La Medianoche for breakfast and then there was some snorkeling, some work on the boat and some snorkeling, a nap, some food, some coffee and so on. Ralf tried out his new underwater compact camera and here are his pictures. A nice eagly ray flying by. People asked me about the amount og gas, water and electricity we use: -100Liter / day freshwater -200Ah of power -2,75kg Butane gas per 21days Today i cleaned the waterline of Linocat with a sponge and i refilled the water in the batteries. They have consumed around 2 liter of water in 8 weeks. But that is OK due to heat and daily recharging by solar panels. The blacktip shark on one of the pictures below was shy and he was swimming away and so Ralf could only get him from behind and from a distance.

He is written with two "R". His name is "Barrac Cuda" and he is our new neighbour at this anchorage. When Chris was swimming around the boat with Lani she did not see him :-) Then the swimming around the boat stopped. Even when i started the engine he stayed. To bad that this is Ciguatera area and big Barracuds should not be eaten. I could have invited him for dinner on Medianoche later :-)

The flies here are annoying. They are on most islands but the good thing is that they do not hurt. Here is my "killing" of 30 minutes. In St James at the anchorage the water is crystal clear. Medianoche and Xanthus are both moored here and Ralf saw a big eagle ray this morning. When jumping into the dinghy i saw this huge Barracuda directly under the boat. It is a marina park otherwise catching him would have beend tempting :-) We went with 2 dignhies over to St Thomas to the supermarket and this is a 2 mile ride over an island channel. But our dinghy and the 15HP Yamaha 2stroke did a good job. When taking a shortcut in the lagoon Ralf and myself managed to hit ground but could free ourselves. In the marina there i saw this sign :-) I have never seen so many motor catamarans for charter than here in the USVI and BVI. Maybe due to the short distances many people motor anyway. We often just pull out the genoa for the short distances.... Ralf joined us for a sundowner and dinner...

During the day we went to Great harbout, the "main city" on Jost van Dyke with maybe around 20-30 buildings. They have a police post where you can clear in and out and according to Ralf they are very quick and friendly. There is an ATM but it is not working and a small supermarket. The garbage bins are near the wooden bridge in the middle of the town. No need to pay anyone for that (Like i did :-) ) The moorings are OK and do not cost anything during daytime. In Great Harbour there is the bar "FOXY´S" which is well know but to be honest we did not like it that much. At least during the day it looks a little bit ugly. But from what we heard it should be great fun at night. The water in the bay is clear and you have to make use out of that since between anchorage and beach there is another reef which you need to pass with your dinghy. The dinghy dock is to the right at Foxys and in good shape. There is also a scuba shop which runs dive trips and also fills tanks. It l...

What to do today? YEAH Let´s go to the beach. So after breakfast we picked up Ralf and went to the beach. On the other side of the small island there is a little sitting on a chair at a table. No clue what she is doing there maybe waiting for some food? Lani wanted to take the cow yesterday but i convinced here that she is living on this island and has to stay. Our boats seen from the beach. The water, the blue of the sky, the sand and the clouds are just perfect for a great sunday. Well it is sunday for us every day! "Our beach" This is how it looked under LinoCat this morning. A stingray cruising around looking for breakfast. Morning swim. Ralf chilling on the beach. Morning workout :-) The water is so clear. This shot is done from below the water. Many squids below LinoCat. They would be perfect for a dinner meeting :-)