LinoCat

Alvor

2011-09-26T14:16:00.001+01:00

Alvor is always a good spot. Unfortunately we already had haules LinoCat out and so stayed in a hotel in Alvor.

The weather was beautiful, just some nice clouds and we also noticed that the nights were becoming colder.

We love the restaurants and enjoyed Monkfish Kebab, Swordfish, Golden Brem and other stuff from the charcoal grill

The colors are so cooool!

Yummy!

Walking around in the town and just enjoying a Galao (coffee with milk) here and there is the ultimate relaxation before it gets back to work.

Lani gets a new hair cut

2011-09-20T16:23:00.001+01:00

I went to the hairdresser today and Lani said she wanted a new haircut too!

So there was the oppurtunity to get rid (or at least reduce) the daily fight with washing, combing, drying and so on.

First she was watching me getting the hair cut and i was almost sure she would chicken out but NO! She told how long she wanted the hair to be and off they go.... The floor was full of long blond princess hair :-)

Since we did not have a camera with us we had to use the mobile phone....

And here is the new hair cut. Well not dry yet but looked really sweet! Let´s see if tomorrow she wants her long hair back :-)

Lagos to Portimao

2011-09-19T21:32:00.001+01:00

Lani enjoyed the day out. Maybe because there was no wind and so there were also no waves. We decided to do a dolphin watch tour and just headed out of Lagos south.

Enough time for some swimming and jumping...

And more jumping and swimming. The water was really cold since the wind was blowing all the warm water away and we were at the edge of the deep-water zone where the deep water flows upwards.

Roger shot more than 1000pictures this day. I only had my small Lumix with me. I might post some of his shots later.

The first dolphin encounter was with a mother and her little one. They played around us for around 10 minutes.

The little one was very keen to show us some jumps and seemed to have fun doing so.

..playing around our bow...

They have left us when we stopped the engines for a swim.

On the way back we had a bigger school of dolphins around us.

Then we reached Portimao and went to the swimming pool for some afternoon swimming with Lani.

New blogger software version

2011-09-18T22:05:00.001+01:00

It is nice to have the sails up. They could use a wash though and the mainsail has a very small hole which could be repaired.

This blog entry has been done with the new version of blogger. I am curious how it will work out.

Entry to Lagos. You have to request the opening of the drawbridge via VHF radio on channel 9. Positive sideeffect: it is difficult to steal a yacht from this marina. Especially at night when the drawbridge is not operated :-)

Lagos and swimming

2011-09-17T16:04:00.002+01:00

Lagos is still one of my favorite places on the Algarve coast.

I like the old buildings, the marina and the beach here.

Another catamaran approaching the reception pontoon.

This was still taken in Portimao where Lani enjoyed the saltwater pool.

The river flowing towards the atlantic and the promenade which leads into the old town.

Our "Jacuzzi"

2011-09-11T10:48:00.003+01:00

Our Jacuzzi is only 1,5m in diameter but is given lots of fun. The sun is heating it up and we add a kettle of hot water for the mornings.

Happy faces

Lani is also enjoying it.

Here you can see it with the "adjustable" sunroof :-)

Pure hightech!

Around the marina

2011-09-10T09:18:00.003+01:00

Portimao, Tivoli Marina Appartment Hotel.

Check out the clouds: ZERO

nice sunset

Lani on one of the power-trampolines

Check-Dive :-)

The river in front of the marina

Cape St Vincente

2011-09-04T07:23:00.002+01:00

This corner of continental Europe is very prominent since it is at the very western corner of Portugal with a big navigational lighthouse.

A short break with our rental car. I wonder how Opel can sell cars with such weak diesel engines.

We also met with Ricardo and some other CPAS scuba divers there.

It was nice to chat about some diving at least :-)

Lani tried out her "diving equipment". Well the snorkel handling needs some improvement....

Boat

2011-09-03T07:16:00.000+01:00

The communication with Sopromar was tricky but they acutally worked a lot on the boat.

The Bimini zippers have been replaced, even a new "soft windscreen" has been added.

Props clean and newly painted with new Zinc Anodes.

You can even see the price tag for 30 EUR :-)

The weather is also improving ! NICE!

Lenny has tried his first Cappucino, well at the least the foamed milk!

Not what we expected

2011-09-01T16:27:00.004+01:00

The good news is that in Portugal they have introduced parking lots for my type of guy.
I can clearly recognize myself in this picture!

Lani is optimistic so she bought a new net for cathcing fishes and a new "plate" which is a frisbee in reality.

Posing for the camera.

After 3 hours delay from Stuttgart this is not the weather we ordered!

Lani is complaining about the weather. She wants to go to the beach!

Monster news

2011-07-29T06:17:00.009+01:00

Some of you might already know most of these pictures but some who are not on facebook recently asked me to share some up to date pictures from Lani and Lenny.

Lani looking serious

Lenny having fun.

Lani knows how to use her charme to wrap daddy around the finger...

Having fun outdoors....

Ladykiller...

The butterfly was for a costume party in the kindergarten

Lenny started to sit (well at least with some support). He also starts crawling right now

...eating BBQ spare ribs....

On the playground.... What will i do next???

Time to say Goodbye

2011-06-30T08:41:00.002+01:00

Well here is LinoCat already on his way to the hard concrete floor in the boatyard.

..afte we approached the crane...

hanging around in a beach lounge....

LinoCat on dry land.....

The story will continue later....

time to fly back now...

Reaching Portimao

2011-06-29T08:34:00.000+01:00

Well we also reached our final destination Portimao. This is the place where we set sail in 2009 to cross the Atlantic.

Here you see Thomas and Andy having a sundowner while cruising along the Algarve coast.

Here is Linocat at the visitos pontoon in Portimao.

A lighthouse on a cliff at the Algarve coast.

beautiful landscape with many caves and grottos.

And of course sandy beaches. Some of them can only be reached via boat.

time for another swim

A happy skipper

The wind died

2011-06-29T08:29:00.001+01:00

After the wind has died down we tried to make the best out of it and so we went for a swim.

Well actually on some days we stopped as much as three times to jump into the beautiful blue atlantic.

It was the perfect thing to do after the thermometer had reached 30 Celcius.

Big ships

2011-06-28T08:22:00.000+01:00

There were many warships around Gibraltar. Over the radio we could listen to even more...

We saw a submarine in the med and we heard multiple "coalition warships" and even aircraft carriers over the VHF radio.

A few warships we could see. A helicopter carrier and a new stealth type warship.

From Gib to Vilamoura in Portugal

2011-06-27T14:47:00.001+01:00

We left Gibraltar with a nice breeze from East around F5-6.

After passing Tarifa we pulled out the Parasailor and had a nice ride with speeds between 7 and 15knots (surfing).

We sailed into a beautiful sunset and had a nice Campari Orange as sundowner.

At sunset the wind slowed down and then at around midnight died and so we had to get the Parasailor back in.

Gibraltar

2011-06-27T07:28:00.002+01:00

Again the largest motoryacht in the world, the Eclipse seen from top of the rock.

Thomas and Andy, two of the monkeys on the rock :-)

And here is a smaller one with her mother.

seagulls enjoyed flying in the air floating over the edge of the rock

Battery which defended the rock in the past.

Reaching Gibraltar

2011-06-25T09:07:00.003+01:00

This is our berth in Gibraltar. We reached there the 25th in the evening and it was still enough time to have a nice "anchoring beer".

The "Eclipse" did not even fit on my wide angle lens. It is currently the biggest private Yacht in the world measuring 127m and belonging to Mr Abramowitsch.

"The rock seen with its typical clouds"

Well this was the anchoring ceremony.

Seaworld

2011-06-25T08:00:00.000+01:00

This is not seaworld but the Dolphin show was live in front of us.

A school of around 20 Dolphins were jumping and playing and chasing each other.

It was pure fun watching them.

Passage from Cartagena to Gibraltar

2011-06-24T08:52:00.003+01:00

The passage was VERY stressful as you can see in the pictures.

The wind was very good in the beginning and so we set the Parasailor and had good speeds between 8kn and 10kn and up to 15 in the surf down the waves.

And this despite the fact that the antifouling marine coating had given up and we have heavy growth underneath the boat.

Extreme chilling...

Now testing the foredeck and the trampolin.

HEY; this IS hard work. Thomas is testing if the structure of the trampolin is not weakened by the UV light!

Finally!

2011-06-23T11:58:00.002+01:00

Back on the boat.
After a healthly meal we prepare the boat to leave for Portugal. The plan is to reach Gibraltar Saturday afternoon and then stay there for a night since they predict Force 10.

The good part is that the wind is in our direction. Nevertheless there is no point to shoot through the narrow passage and Thomas has not seen Gibraltar yet.

Cartagena at night is beautiful.

We also inflated the Dinghy and tried out the outboard engine, all is fine.

The UV light from the sun has destroyed many smaller parts and the bimini and lazybag need to be repaired in Portugal.

We enjoyed tapas and a cool beer also.

Andy and Thomas adding some weight :-)

Lenny eating his first "real" meal

2011-06-19T12:06:00.003+01:00

Hi,

today Lenny had his first real "lunch" consisting of pumpkin.

It is about time that he learns to walk, talk, goes to school and leaves the house now :-)

This and that

2011-04-25T10:15:00.005+01:00

Yeah, i own some guns and i like shooting since i was a boy. I still have my old HW35 airgun and now my daughter is reading a "Salamander book" which still has some impact holes from my airgun :-)

I particpated in my first Cowboy Action Shooting (CAS) event last weekend and i finished 6th place in my category (and i did two clean runs without missing a target). Good enough for me!

The revolver is a .357Mag Ruger New Vaquero and my rifle is a Marlin 1894 lever action.

It is a short version and so it can be moved quickly from one target to the other.
I bought it used over egun for a very good price and in good condition.

In this category you are allowed to fire the handguns two-handed.

The Ruger in the holster. Made out of leather by "Bernie Beaver". Aboce you can see the ammo for the Coach gun shotgun. (12/70)

My Ruger KGP141. This one i won for more than 20 years now.

Any my very much loved CZ 75. Never thought that i will move into the guns origin country.

Me, firing the coach gun.

A farm visit 60km outside Prague

2011-04-03T20:37:00.006+01:00

This weekend the weatherforecast was nice and so we decided to go outside. On Saturday we had breakfast with Deborah, Dan and Elias at Bohemia Bagel and then we went to a near by playground and were chatting while the kids played.

Well, there was a half marathon just beeing held but i decided i don´t do half things :-)

Dinner was then at an indian restaurant and of course before dinner it was mandatory to have an afternoon nap of one hour.

So now it was Sunday and we wanted to visit:
http://www.bohemiae-rosa-farms.com/
around 60km outside Prage in the direction of Brno.

The farm was bought in 2006 by Ingmar, a dutch guy and he was showing us around for an hour which was very interersting. Everything is organic and no chemicals used.

The farm has been fully renovated and looks nice and as clean as a farm can :-)

They also rent out nice rooms to stay overnight and this might be a nice thing to do in the summer.

They also have a restaurant attached which used the own products. I had spicy pormeat with peas and french fries and some salad and besides the bell peppers and cucumber all was from the own farm and it tasted really good!

The food was also priced very reasonable, we paid around 18EUR for 3 maindishes and the drinks.

Lani was of course walking around trying to find cats and she kept on saying "where is the farmyard?".
I guess she thought that all animals walk around together and sing "Old MacDonald had a farm....".

The black cat liked Lani and i had to prevent Lani from grabbing her directly.

This was my meal. Well i could not wait to start eating so the picture was taken after a few bites :-)

In the shade it was still a bit chilly but in the sunshine it was really beatiful.

Temperatures around 20 Celcius.

Ingmar told us that this part is also called Czech Siberia and until LAST WEEK they had some snow!

Of course we also had to try the local Schnitzel and Lani had noodles with Broccoli.

This is the inside of the main buling square.

Pigs with young piglets, only around 1 week old.
We had to be quite because the mothers are very protective and if going wild might run over their own piglets.

These are already some weeks old and they were curious.

I really love their facial expression :-)

This was one of the mothers. She was curious to see what we were doing.

Organic salad growing.....

One of the younger cows out in the field. Well the grass to grow a bit more. These cows look more like teddybears!

This is the farmyard shop with a variety of goods. You can also order over the internet and they will deliver every Monday to Prague.

The own bee houses. Lani got some honey as a gift and we all tried it back home and it was very good!

It was a nice trip and Lani fell asleep on the way home. Nevertheless i could also have a nap when we reached back home :-)
A perfect weekend!
Well a weekend on the sailboat might have been better!

WOW, another entry :-)

2011-03-16T10:43:00.005Z

I haven´t posted anything for a looong time because i was just to lazy.

To the left i am shooting a Winchester during last weekend.

It was fun!

The Prague "Eifel tower" is on the other side of the Moldau river.

you can use your metro ticket to go up via cable car and then have a nice walk over to the castle.

We did the tour when Roger and Melanie were here for a week.

This picture and the next one are taken by Roger. The week was very relaxed and we liked it a lot.

The benches are still empty but since the temperature is rising almost daily i am sure the parcs and benches will get filled soon!

Well, this was in Bad Haering where we had a Ski-Weekend with around 15 people from our company. The weather was nice and the "chill-mood" was very strong. Since i do not ski at all it was pure relaxation and some partying :-)

here the SKI-gang

In another shoppingcenter her ein Prague they have Dinosaurs in real sizes and they are also moving and make sounds. Since Lani is a real Dinosaur fan we have been there twice already.

Once while my parents stayed with us for 5 days. Included is also a 3D movie about dinosaurs. My mum was so amazed that she yelled during the movie when a "lava rock was fliyng towards her" :-)

Here Chris and Lani crawled inside a dinosaur and were making dinosaur sounds and faces

How sweet they are when they are both sleeping. I should add my feet for size comparison :-)

Lani taking care of her little brother

Lenny is now laughing more often.

Lani often wants to hold his little brother and he enjoys it too.

The snow is gone

2011-01-18T08:27:00.002Z

The snow melted away and water level were rising.
This is Pruhonice park with the green overflooded and the lake still frozen.

Pruhonice always looks a little bit like a farytale....

Not exactly the Caribbean

2011-01-11T12:57:00.005Z

We have been to the aquarium in Prague and it was a positive surprise. The fish tanks were clean and nicely arranged with wrecks, amphores etc and we had the chance to see the feeding at 12:00.

Lani was excited with all the fish and she only missed the Octopus. So either they do not have one or we could not find him.

Well marinelife is more fun when you see it snorkeling in tropical waters but for a moment this was like a short visit to our friend in the Caribbean!

A Nice way to finish 2010!

2010-12-31T13:29:00.001Z

A nice way to close 2010.
Lenny, 3070gr and 48cm tall, arrived yesterday at 13:03.

Meeting our virtual crew members

2010-12-08T06:47:00.002Z

Hi,

those of you who followed us over the atlantic last year with our blog might remember that we had a "virtual" crew member.

Helmut and Sylvia helped us to keep our blog updated and also always informed us what was going on with the rest of the cruisers.

Since then we had kept a sporadic email exchange but now it was to meet them anyway!

We had planned a Vienna visit for quite a while but now we managed to meet with Titiksha on Sunday evening and had dinner together.

Then i had a business meeting on monday and then late afternoon on monday we met Sylvia and Helmut from the catamaran Onotoa.

They took us to the Christmas market at the Rathaus and the view was impressing.

We had some mulled wine and thn went for a dinner together.

Lani also liked them a lot, especially after Helmut shared his sweet dish with her :-)

It was a nice evening and we chatted a lot about cruising and boats.

I am sure, we will meet them again.

Thanks again to both of you !

The Prater in the early morning hours seen from the trend hotel Messe.

Mathias and Ute

2010-12-04T20:47:00.004Z

Lani was very happy that Mathias and Ute came to visit her.
It took them an amazing 9 loooooong hours due to the snow.

But so we had the chance of nice walks in the snow and also some dinners and shopping and christmas market together.

The Christmas market was full of people but manageable. Not like last weekend :-)

I still like this view from our terrace. The colored light is coming from the neighbours by the way :-)

What did we do last year on the 29th November?

2010-11-29T09:02:00.004Z

First: These are actual pictures of Lani and below you will find the pictures one year ago to show how she grew.

Christmas cookies during the atlantic crossing. Well it is not really snowing here but rather 30 Celcius :-)

Relaxing during sailing.....and having fun.

Lani is always enjoying when pictures are taken

It´s winter now

2010-11-29T08:50:00.003Z

It has snowed tonight and this morning everything is completely white.
Lani looked out of the window and started to sing a song about snowflakes (Schneefloecken, weiss Roeckchen).

A blacksmith on the christmas market showing his skills.

Lani is always interested when she sees fire and other people working.

Maybe this is because she never see her das really "working" :-)

One of the little Christmas trees at the "Wenzels Platz".

We did not make it to the big one because it was so crowdy that we decided not to go there.

The building faaaaar in the back is the museum.

Halloween

2010-11-04T18:35:00.005Z

For the Halloween party in the Kindergarten it was allowed that kids bring some sweets and that they should wear costumes.Lani was a mushroom. In botanical terms a fly agaric or Fliegenpilz in german.

She even had white spots in her face. During the day in Kindergarten she was wearing the cape.

The other kids were witches, spiderman, etc. Lani thought that some of the costumes were pretty scary.

Yesterday evening we had noodles with mushrooms. She did not want to eat them and said Papa should have them all.

So i started eating them. Then she asked if they are poisonous and when i said no she started to eat them and then even wanted mine back :-)

Of course we also had a pumpkin with a candle. Chen helped preparing with the pumpkin and the cookies.

A short test sail

2010-10-30T17:24:00.004+01:00

We just went out for 2 hours to let the engines run and to move the boat a few miles.

Cartagena has many old fortress structures to see when you approach it.

Some are quite old and some looks like they are from WWII.

Unfortunately the weather was not so nice and the wind has dies down to around 6knots.

So we only did a short cruise into the bay and then back again.

Sailing for Jesus Christ

2010-10-30T17:08:00.003+01:00

Today the ELIDA V was in the marina. She is 40m long and the mast is 45m high!!!
She is built from composite and weighs only 95 tons. With a sail area of more than 800squaremeters she can do 20knots. COOL STUFF

The boat is holding groups of young people who believe in Jesus Christ but it does not matter to which church they belong.

Typically up to 40 young people are guests and the crew is around 12 to 16 people.

The boat is very spartanic inside but built very safe and fast.

The big Harken winches are operated by grinders and even the anchor is pulled up with them.

This is the meeting room below. It can also be used for company sails. Maybe one day we will have our management meeting there.

Here you can see Colin from Californa. He showed us around on the boat.

Under
http://www2.elida.se/default.asp?id=53
you can read more about this fabolous boat.

Roger at the steering wheel. Almost as tall as he is :-)

Check my big shoe size 47 against the winches and the traveler :-)

Back on the boat

2010-10-29T22:59:00.004+01:00

Roger working hard on the boat :-)

Our upgrade from LinoCat. Well, if we would have 3.5MEUR to spend.
Well Linocat is 11.55m long, this boat is 11.9m WIDE!!!! :-)
http://www.haas-international.com/brokerage/detail.php?yacht=63
shows pictures.

The wood inside was to dark, so Roger and myself decided not to buy her :-)

Sand on Linocat....

LinoCat waiting for a sail. In the back is the Westerdam cruise liner. She later left for Malaga.

We met a nice couple from St Francisco, she is orginally from Ireland and he is German. Their daughter is 8 years old and cruising with them since 4 years. They will do the Atlantic cossing in winter and so we exchanged books, DVDs and informations.

Autumn in Pruhonice

2010-10-11T07:09:00.003+01:00

Pruhonicky Park is a botanical garden near the highway from Prague to Brno and is a very beautiful parc with many plants and many small lakes with fish.

The pathways are easy to walk and so it makes a nice relaxing sunday afternoon walk.

But be aware that you are not the only one having this idea :-)

It can get crowdy during nice weather on weekends.

Entrance fee is 50CZK per adults and kids up to 6 are free.

Parking is 30CZK/hour IF a space is available. If not you cna park in the village near by.

It is good to combine this park with the Aquapalace aqua parc in Pruhonice only 1km away!

Lani had fun yesterday....

Sailing in Prague?

2010-09-18T15:12:00.004+01:00

Here is the marina of Prague. Most of the boats are small because if you want to sail on the Moldau you need to take the mast down anyway. There are also some catamarans but also rather small ones.

Today it was sunny with a little bit of wind and some sailboats were underway using the wind.

The bathing monster!

2010-09-13T12:15:00.003+01:00

A weekend in Prague

2010-08-30T15:12:00.002+01:00

Hi,

this weekend we had many visitors:
Karin and Heinz, Sarah and Monty plus Eric. Just when we wanted to leave the old part of the city in the afternoon we heard strange shouting and saw people in weird outfits.
It was a "flashmob", a gathering of people to perform things and they met to dance to Michael Jacksons song "Thriller". Here is a video from that event:

Some Prague impressions

2010-08-15T11:20:00.006+01:00

This is the block where our appartment is.

The old street train is still cruising around and makes a nice scenic ride.

The tower with the astronomical clock below. You can actually walk up and enjoy the scenery from there.

here another view onto the clock.

Grilling the famous Prague ham in the street.

Some flowers and old buildings....

Lani pics

2010-08-15T09:51:00.002+01:00

Here are some pictures of Lani in the citycenter while having dinner.

She got some crayons and paper from the waiters and was drawing and playing.
Then she even got a balloon and was happy.

It was only around 2100 when we reached home and she went to bed.

I was happy because of the Hägen Dasz shop behind her :-)

Waiting to move the boat

2010-06-18T09:39:00.005+01:00

Waiting for a good weather window .....

What to do? Watch the worldcup and work a little bit and organizing things.

These pictures are from a "family viewing event" in Matthias barn.

Two grills were used for the BBQ and around 30 people showed up.

We won 4:0 and i hope this will continue today....

Healthy

2010-06-10T09:10:00.002+01:00

Sailing is healthy...

until you flip over and get soaking wet in the harbour basin.

LinoCat is well know for its 5 star cuisine and so we used the sandwich maker and did dome "Olaf and Michael"-sandwiches.

and some salad and a beer

The swandich maker was way to small for our hunger :-)

Round trip

2010-06-09T10:23:00.003+01:00

The barometer fell from 1015 to 1008mbar yesterday and this morning it is 1001mbar.

We left the marina yesterday morning and had wind and waves on the nose.

Half way to Almeria i called the marina on the phone and they were full.

Our speed reduced while the wind was picking up and we were only doing 3 knots at times.

We felt well but thought it is just stupid to continue since the forecast predicted wind on the nose for the coming 5 days.

In Gibraltar with gusts up to 9bft and waves with 3m which i would not want to sail against.

So we turned around and reached Cartagena at midnight. The ride back we were at least doing 7 knots at times with only the genoa out :-)

Would have been fun with the spinnaker.

So we might fly home tomorrow and try again in a week or so.

Another option would be to haul the boat out here instead of Portimao but today is a holdiay in Murcia so i can not explore this option.

Cartagena

2010-06-07T18:17:00.003+01:00

Olaf having breakfast before entering the marina.

The breakwater in front of the marina entrance.

Pedestrian area

nice houses

Anchorage

2010-06-07T17:54:00.002+01:00

We stayed at a nice anchorage near Cartagena for 3 hours to get some sleep and then motored along the coast to Cartagena.
At around 1200 we reached Cartagena.

There are 2 marinas in the port and the one we used is the right one "Yachtport Cartagena" on VHF 9.
They speak english and we paid 39 EUR for the night with Internet for 2 PCs included.

Some pictures from the city of Cartagena will follow.

From today onwards the wind has shifted and is now coming from the west onto our nose.

So the rides might be less pleasant....

From Formentera to Cartagena (Spain)

2010-06-06T10:44:00.001+01:00

The Nokia phone rang at 7 in the morning and we directly left the anchorage. Our target is Cartagena in Spain and we want to cover as much distance as possible today. So most likely we will sail through the night but we will decide half way. We still have the option to reach the coast earlier and sleep somewhere.
Breakfast was done on the way and i was amazed that Olaf is drinking at least as much coffee as i do :-) So we already had to cook coffee twice this morning.
The sun is out and temperature around 25 Celcius. The wind is weak but at least from south east. Currently one engine is running at around 2000rmp doing 5knots but i will try to bring up the sails now and see what we can gain from that. It is now 11.40 and we have 108NM to go which means roughly 21hours from now.

Espalmador - Formentera

2010-06-05T21:23:00.001+01:00

We reached Formentera at 2100 and realized that mooring buoys were in place.

So we grabbed on and tied LinoCat to it.
After nice spanish sausages and icebergsalad for dinner we decided to go to bed early.

We also had the red MOJO sauce which was still on board from the Canary islands and the red peppers which were from the caribbean.
All washed down by a Piton beer from St Lucia :-)

From Mallorca to Ibiza/Formentera

2010-06-05T15:32:00.000+01:00

We got up at 7 and we both slept well. Olaf bought a warm baguette and then Ludger Peters from the Lagoon 380 "Green Duck" visited us. He recently bought his boat in Italy and is now on the way to Wismar. He will stay in Real Club Nautica tonight and then follow the same route. So after a chat we left at 8.30 and motored away because the wind was zero. I did a safety briefing with Olaf and we adjusted one life vest for him. around noon the wind picked up and now was coming more from the port side and so we set sail but we kept one engine running because we needed speed if we wanted to arrive in daylight in Formentera.

From the current wind and swell direction i picked Cala Sahona as a possible anchorage. 4-6m deep and sand well protected against southerly wind and swell. We agreed that we will decide in the evening if we anchor or directly sail through the night. Currently Olaf is having a nap and so lets see how our mood is later.

The last butane bottle has been put in action now and so we need to find one as a spare even though the current one should easily last 2-3 weeks at least. The sun is shining and the temperature is 26 degrees and water 21 Celcius. COLD at least compared to the caribbean sea :-)

I checked the GRIB wind data this morning and the beginning of the next week a front will pass us bringing stronger winds from the atlantic into the med. This means it might be a bit more unpleasant with waves and wind coming from front. So i want to reach as close to Gibraltar as possible until the front comes so that we can use the backside to sail into the atlantic if possible.

Lets see!

Michael, over SSB HF radio, so pictures will follow.

back on the boat

2010-06-04T21:13:00.003+01:00

After getting up at 1.30 my brother Andy drove me to the Frankfurt airport. Poor dude! Thanks for that!

06.45 i landed in Palma de Mallorca and took a cab to the Dic del Oeste where the Amstelgracht was moored.

The Philipino crew welcomed me and offered coffee and so i was chatting with different crew members for 30 minutes and then LinoCat was the first boat to be unloaded. Meanwhile Olaf showed up and i picked him up after being unloaded.

Over the radio we asked for a berth since the boat was mega dirty and we
also needed new fresh water and some fuel. They gave us a berth (stern-to) and it was quite rolly. It has calmed down now until the evening.

Diesel costs 1.08 EUR. Welcome back to Europe! Also the german boat behind immediately complanied about some things, so you know you are back!

We went to buy some food and had some coffees and later went to a blockhouse steakhouse after walking around in the city.

The berth for LinoCat for oen night here was 70EUR.

Tomorrow in the morning we ant to leave for Formentera/Ibiza since the wind might turn against us later in the next week and i want to cover as many miles as possible.

Lets see if Olaf becomes seasick, he has never been on a sailboat so tomorrow we will do a 70mile test drive :-)

Anyway, i have enough Cinnarizin and buckets on board :-)

So stay tuned....

Status update

2010-06-03T20:05:00.004+01:00

Amstelgracht has reached Mallorca. To be more precise, the Dique del Oeste, the westerly part of the harbour.
I have no confirmation from the real club nautico yet about a berth but i am sure LinoCat will find a space somewhere.

We also need to fill up water and gas and since the wind predictions have changed, we have to hurry a bit in the beginning.

We will keep you informed :-)

Back on the boat this week

2010-05-31T10:15:00.003+01:00

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 :-)

The ocean has become a little smaller now!

2010-05-26T08:35:00.002+01:00

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.

WLAN experience

2010-05-24T14:10:00.004+01:00

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 hang outisde, the condensation over night kills it.

You might mount it into a box but also think about the heat the HF part is producing.

I used a piece of rope glued to the tip of the antenna to just fix it to a genoa halyard. It is a big difference if you have the antenna inside or outside the boat and also if you have it 2 m higher. (see the pictures above and "find" the antenna :- ) )

The Alfa WLAN adapter comes with drivers for most operating systems and most Linux distributions can also use them. There is also a Window7 driver available.

I was more than happy with the unit and even on remote anchorages i could pick up and connect signals of one mile away or more.

LinoCat is on the way

2010-05-23T08:52:00.003+01:00

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.

On the way back

2010-05-21T08:13:00.002+01:00

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.

Unbelievable !!!

2010-05-18T11:26:00.003+01:00

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 :-)

Whats the plan?

2010-05-16T22:40:00.001+01:00

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....

St. Thomas anchorage

2010-05-16T16:16:00.004+01:00

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!

St. Thomas

2010-05-14T21:41:00.004+01:00

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

St. James USVI

2010-05-14T00:05:00.005+01:00

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.

Meet our new neighbour "Barrac"

2010-05-12T22:19:00.003+01:00

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 :-)

Tortola to St. John and St. James

2010-05-12T16:38:00.002+01:00

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 and brought ice cold Becks :-)

Great Harbour on Jost van Dyke, BVI

2010-05-11T14:03:00.000+01:00

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 looks fancy with all crazy road signs on it.

Since it was mothers day when we visited Great Harbour all men gathered in the church and prepared a lunch for all mothers :-)

And people even wished "happy mothers day".

In the afternoon we went back to the green cay anchorage and spent the night there.

In the morning there was beach time with Lani again but we did not bring the camera. it was again SOOOO beautiful. For us it is so far the best spot on the BVI´s.

The cow at the beach

2010-05-09T15:40:00.004+01:00

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 :-)

Green Cay

2010-05-09T13:34:00.002+01:00

This was the overnight anchorage of LinoCat and Medianoche.

Once the sun went down all the other boats left and as we expected, we were the only ones anchoring directly near this beautiful island.

Medianoche at the anchorage.

Sundowner with Ralf and Helmut on LinoCat. We killed the rest of our Campari bottle and some of our Piton beers.

Green Cay on Jost van Dyke

2010-05-08T17:17:00.004+01:00

LinoCat moved to Green Cay, a smal island with a beautiful beach and a nice reef with good snokeling.

La Medianoche with Ralf and Helmuth is also here and on the beach we met a swiss couple and i chatted with them for a while. They have tried out a catamaran the first time and they are amazed about the size and sailing capability. They have been sailing around for 2 weeks on the BVI´s.

Lani enjoyed the sand and the water and was of course crying when we left the beach for lunch.

I am sure she will fall asleep very fast for her afternoon nap and i would not be surprised if her daddy would do the same :-)

Life is good and this looks like the Caribbean!

Sopers Hole to Jost van Dyke

2010-05-08T13:32:00.002+01:00

Yesterday we spent half the day to get the our permit for the BVI extended. And it was raining cats and dogs. The rain was so heavy that many streets were flooded. It reminded me of the monsoon season in India.
Back on the boat we left for Jost van Dyke, an island named after a pirate. The population ist less than 225 people but trust me, there are many more mosquitos than humans on this island!

The clouds were so thick that our GPS took ages to get a fix and so i was sailing in the traditional way and happy to still be able to reach the bay i wanted :-)
Just when we wanted to anchor Ralf from Medianoche called and he was 2 bays to the south. So LinoCat pointed its nose south and we headed to the Medianoche in Diamond cay, 2 miles south between Jost van Dyke and Little Jost van Dyke. Anchor was dropped in 4m of water and the water is clear. After a beer on the Medianoche we had noodles and went to bed early.

Today we want to check out another place but we do not know which one yet.

Check out this 1m long guy. In german he is called "Schiffshalter".

St. Thomas , US Virgin Islands

2010-05-06T22:21:00.002+01:00

La Medianoche is directly behind us on a mooring.

A very nice and familiar view. Now we are also missing "Bagalut" with Walter and Brigitte and " Vanora" with Tina and Peter and Chico.
Also "Jalan Jalan" with Liz and John and "Norm the storm" with Erika and Norman would be cool.

Today we went by commercial ferry to St Thomas. We started at Westend which is directly opposite the marina and left at 10.15.

After a 50 minutes ride along nice beaches of St John we arrived in St Thomas and saw the US flag flying.

They checked our passports, we had to give fingerprints and they took a digital image of us and stamped the passport with an entry for 3 months.

They told us to keep the green exit card and now we could come back with LinoCat.

But first we want to visit the island "Jost van Dyke" tomorrow or the day after.

Here you see one of the anchorages of St Thomas.

You can also take a seaplane from here. We saw 2 of them starting and it looked cool.

We often saw "seaplane landing areas" in our maps but we never saw one here so far.

The last one i have seen was in the Ijsselmeer in the Netherlands.

Sopers Hole

2010-05-06T22:09:00.003+01:00

This is the approach to Sopers hole marina on Tortola, BVI.

The water is deep (17m) and clear. Moorings are installed here due to the depth. The amount of moorrings also makes it tricky to use the own anchor and so we are also picking up a mooring here.

There is a nice breeze and good weather and the marina has a nice restaurant, cafe, shops, supermarket etc.

We also meet Ralf and Helmut with the La Medianoche, they are anchoring right behind us and yesterday evening we had a BBQ on Linocat with them.

They brough 2,5 liter of rum punsch and guess what the bottle was empty soon and it was very good.

The sund is shining and so we get almost 50A of charging current during the midday hours.

Nicely painted house

The marina area

You remember that it was impossible to get a french gas bottle filled in St Martin?

Well, here we got one but look at the shape of the bottle.

Completely rusted! UGLY YUCK!

Check out how our bottles looked (to the right). That is what i hate about exchange of bottles instead of refills.

Anyway.

Trellis Bay anchorage

2010-05-04T22:52:00.004+01:00

The anchorage in Trellis Bay. We are just leaving LinoCat to check out the beach bars.

One of the iron structures used for the famous fullmoon parties here.

Unfortunately there is no fullmoon in the next days :-)

Dinghy dock and beach bar seen from a Cafe latte.

nice

Want to lear surfing?

A PAINKILLER, the famous cocktail here. I wanted to buy only one but it was happy hour so i got two anyway.

I asked him if he can make a "half" but it was not possible :-)

The restaurant at "last resort". Until three years ago they even had a donkey there.

Lani loved the cat.

Virgin Gorda Yacht Harbour to Trellis Bay, Tortola

2010-05-04T17:44:00.003+01:00

The 3 nights in Virgin Gorda Yacht Harbour costed 100US Dollar, that is an OK price including power and water (we used at least 500Liter).

This is a snapshot from one of the bars in the marina. The marina also has a supermarket which opens every day at 7 and has whole wheat bread in an OK quality. It is a bit fluffy but good.

We are running low on butane gas since we did not get the bottles filled on french St. Martin. We will have to ask around in Tortola.

This motor yacht was not too big and looked like it is very practical but still nice. I have to find out who the manufacturer is. No, i do not want to buy one :-)

Now we have rounded Marina Cay island but it was very rolly and so we diverted to Trellis bay. This bay is packed with mooring so there is almost no space to anchor. We grabbed a mooring they are asking for 25USD for it.
WOW

I will post pictures later.

The baths - Virgin Gorda

2010-05-03T20:53:00.010+01:00

If you are coming to Virgin Gorda you should visit "The baths". You can even anchor right in front or take a taxi from the marina "Virgin Gorda Yacht harbour". The ride costs 6USD per Cab and is only around 5-10minutes.

If you are approaching the moorings of the baths by boat, watch out for the flag on top of the baths. if is yellow, then you can use the moorings, if it is red the moorings are unsafe due to swell.

You can not beach a dinghy but there are smaller buoys where you can tie them off and swim the rest.

When approaching from the top, it is a 15minutes walk down.

It is sand and granite rock and many steps to go down but it is not so hot since major parts are in the shade if you walk down the trail to the bath.

If you then cross to Devils bay through the caves and walk up the other way, there it is really hot, so bring some water.

This small friend had a huge claw and his shell was much to small.

He then just walked away...

Often you have to go low or crawl up some stairs or squeeze through but it is easy.

This is why it is called the baths. The water enters the cave and gets warmed by the warm rocks. It is easily over 30 Celcius and well protected so we could Lani play on her own. No swell or surge...

Even old people like me can do it :-)

Lani was enjoying the ride.

Sometimes the sand is wet.

What a beautiful landscape. Very impressing.

Lani in the baby-pool :-)

Enjoying life.

It is not advisablle to visit the caves to late in the day since there might not be enough ambient light. They say 4.30pm is the max.

Walking through water.

The anchorage.

Another view on the rocks and the anchorage.

It is also nice to snorkel here but we did not bring the equipment.

really like bathtubs.

Lani had so much fun. She was crying when we left.

In the restaurant on top there were chickens and seagulls roaming around. That was also cool

The entrance fee for this marine park is 3 USD per person and is well worth it.

A rainy day

2010-05-02T17:32:00.004+01:00

It was raining cats and dogs this morning. Good that we had nice weather yesterday duringthe crossing. Now the boat is almost salt free but to give it a proper wash it should not rain.

Great, another adapter to build! The yellow one is a US norm 250V 50A adapter and i had to get the parts today and build it. At least the shops are open on sundays and so i could get the parts.

After measuring the socket on the dock it was done in 15 minutes and it worked.
I guess we must have around half a dozen of power adapters and maybe 10 water adapters. Crazy world.

The last time LinoCat was at shorepower was more than 2 weeks ago in Rodney Bay and so thebatteries are happy to get charged.
Since there is no sun the solarpanels only give 9A and i guess the batteries are happy to get charged for 2 days :-)

Lani was not bothered by the weather and she wear her "RAIN OUTFIT" for the first time!

I also did customs clearance today, they have been friendly and the overtime charge of 16 US dollaers for a sunday was OK. They use paper, at least that always works and i even brought a pen.

They do not know about the current process of entering the US with a private verssel so tomorrow i will have to call the authorities in the USVi and explore the options.

On the way to the BVI´s

2010-05-01T19:51:00.002+01:00

The anchor was raised from the ground at 03.40 and i was up at 3. Then the usual stuff followed like putting the paddle wheel in to get the speed through the water instrument showing data. The speed over ground is measured by the GPS and called SOG. The difference between SOG and speed is then used by the navigation system to measure the drift due to current and tide. So it is not life critical but nice to have :-)

I had 2 cups of coffee as a first breakfast and 5 minutes after leaving both sails were up. On the radar i saw a another sailship in 1/2 mile distance and right now i could also see it with my eyes. Its lights were hidden under all the lights of Anguilla, the island near by.
So it is always good to check the radar screen at night.

Around 9 the Parasailor was up. LinoCat had not seen this sail since we crossed the atlantic and it was nice to have it back up since the wind came in 120 to 180 degrees from starbord. It could be a little more wind. Right now there are 10 knots and so we are doing between 4.5 and 5 knots. 15-20 knots from behind is LinoCats favorite wind speed, then we could do 7-8 knots.

Anyway, the sun is shining and the waves are nicely coming from behind, maybe a swell of maximim 1 meter. A pleasant ride. Over the Iridium satellite phone i just called the marina and yes they have a space vailable. So after a loooong time we will be back in a marina and Linocat will get a good boat wash.

Yesterday the watermaker did his 500th hour without a problem. I average that means around 13500 liter of fresh water which it has produced already. Nice!
The marina water tank is empty and the watermaker fresh water tank is full. We will also fill the other tank in the Virgin Gorda Yacht harbour and not run the watermaker in the marina since the water is usually to dirty.

I hope to reach the marina around 20:00 at night.

Upate: We reached at 20.30 since we could not take a shortcut and went south of Round Rock and then north again. The entry to the marina at night is tricky since some of the lights are broken and the entry itself is unlit.

We had a good night sleep but now it is RAINING!

Thank god! The last night in France

2010-04-30T19:53:00.005+01:00

Have you ever seen a sign at a garbage bin that you are not allowed to dump your garbage during the day? Maybe they do it here because it looks so digusting and smells so ugly that people should not go there during the day?

Or was the smell coming from this small river?

Never on another caribbean island we have seen so much dirt than on the french ones. The dinghy dock here in Marigot stinks like they pee all over it every night.

This floating swimmingpool was built in front of the beach in Grande Case. In 2 days we saw NOBODY swimming there. Of course, the beautiful beach is right around it and it is the same sea water. since it is only a floating pontoon. But the fun thing is:
It is paid by the European union! Anyone wonders where the money goes?

We went to Marigot this morning to clear out. You remember that they had printer problems, right? Guess what: YEAH, they send me again to Fort Luis marina. So we have customs office which is not able to do their duty. Even though nothing is saved on the PCs they do not have paper to do that. Weird!

So again i paid 7,50 this time for typing in my own data and get one page of print out stamped.

Then i wanted to change a blue FRENCH camping gaz cylinder in FRANCE. And guess what: They only have one place where they change them and they ran out of stock. I discovered this after walking through the crappy village and coming to the "bricolage" shop and they were still closed. A guy who worked there just came back from his lunch break and told me that not before next week they would have butane gas again.
YEAH, in St Lucia they would REFILL ours for 8 EUR and here it would have costed 24 EUR!!! but they do not even have it in stock.

The good ting was that by Dinghy we went to the US supermarket and bought some food items since you can stroll the shopping cart right to the dinghy.

So tonight i need a beer! Andy maybe a good movie! And around 3 or 4 we will set sail to the BVI.
i was wondering why on this island they have so many customes and coast guard boats. I guess it is maybe like with the Berlin wall, they are keeping people back on this island otherwise it would be empty or every one would live on the dutch side!
:-)

Au revoir!

Grande Case beach St. Martin

2010-04-30T19:47:00.002+01:00

The beach here is here very nice with clear water. The dinghy dock is fairly old and rotten and so is the main dock which already collapsed.

Anchorage is good holding on sand in around 3m of depth and near by there are some rocks which are supposed to be good for snorkeling. There is a small buoy there for dinghies.

Lani enjoyed playing in the sand and unfortunately we have to leave today back to the immigration because they did not clear us out.

Lets hope they have fixed their printer problem!

St Martin

2010-04-29T17:13:00.006+01:00

This morning at 7.45 after breakfast we pulled the anchor up and crossed the Simpson Bay Lagoon to the french side. At 08.15 the drawbridge opened and we went into Marigot Bay. We dropped the anchor here to clear in.

Customs and Immigration are at the ferry docks and so i went there by dinghy. After typing in all the details (Yes, the french system does NOT support saving the data like with eSeaClear.com) i printed the information out and the customs officer realized that the toner cartridge was empty.

No problem, i will wait until he changed it BUT he did not have another one. So he told me i should go to marina Fort Luis to clear in there. Usually they do it only for marina guests but he would call them.

So i walked there and they did not know anything. The lady had to call her supervisor and then i could clear in. Guess what: YES, i had to type everything again. Now they told me it is NOT possible to clear in and out at the same time so i have to type all of that again tomorrow!
And they charged 15 EUR for that! Maybe it is for new toner?
Good that this is the last french island on this trip!

Now we are flying the french flag again and went north to La Grande Case where we anchor with only around half a dozen other boats.
There is no free wifi (yeah, we are in France) but i still have some money in my paypal account and so i purchased 24hours.

The good thing here is the clear water and there is no swell since the wind currently is quite southerly. That is good for Ralf who might be already on the way to St Thomas from Grenada. We hope to meet him there.

Talking more about clearances with foreign countries, i already did the ESTA clearance online for the US Virgin islands. Within one second you get a response which could be one of the 3:
-Accepted, in progress (might be up to 72hours) or rejected. Of course we got accepted.
This is now vaild for at least 2 years.

For the flight to Miami (yeah we are flying to Miami from St Thomas) i also did the APIS registration. It is nice to be able to do that over the internet.

The big trimaran on the picture is the Pilar Rossi, a yacht which has been converted into a trimaran later and has been through several refits to be now around 64m long and fast!

On the propeller you can see the marine growth of around 5 weeks in tropical water. Our antifouling is still ok on the hull but the props did not have any protection.

Looks like i need to dive and clean them!

Sint Maarten and St. Martin

2010-04-28T23:20:00.005+01:00

Yesterday it was the first time that we travelled by dinghy from one country to another because we went through the Simpson lagoon to the french side. The dutch side looks almost american with the US dollar and english language being dominant. On the french side even the road signs look french. The french have 20 square kilometer and the dutch 13. There is no real border here between the countries. Hey it is almost like in Europe.

The top picture shows an old propeller plane which is still flying around. Maybe it was a DC-3 but i am not sure.

To the left is the West Indies Shopping Mall on the french side. Only clothes and girls stuff, no electronics or tools for the big boy :-(

This is a beach bar where we have been yesterday for a coffee. Nice music but they had a big dog running around free and so we left.

These iron balls are used for bonfires, especially on fullmoon parties. So there is a wooden fire in them and people dance and drink.

This is one of the marinas on the french side.

And this is the french draw bridge. We still have to figure out at what times they operate. We passed it by dinghy to have a look in the bay and many boats were anchored there. Tomorrow we will pass it and then go north to Grande Case.

There LinoCat will wait until saturday since then more wind is predicted to sail to Virgin Gorda, our first stop on the British Virgin islands.

St Maarten Simson Lagoon

2010-04-27T19:03:00.008+01:00

Like with Sint Maarten itself even for the lagoon i found different writings like Simpson or Simson.
The anchorage is well protected and you enter through a draw bridge like in the Netherlands.
But even though it is dutch, the most dominant curreny is the US Dollar and voltage is often 110V.
Also all signs etc are english and not dutch. Since in the middle of the lagoon there is the border to the french part calles Saint Martin i am curious how things are over there.
So Linocat will drive THROUGH the island and cross countries. Funny!

During the day a few big plans leave from the Airport and fly directly over our anchorage. Since i like planes and they are not flying at night this is not a problem. The Boing 747-400 is from KLM and serves Amsterdam and Curacao from here.

Most of the traffic is done by small 2 engine planes like the Twinotter. Since the sunset is behind the airport i might try some other pictures later.

St Barth

2010-04-26T23:23:00.004+01:00

The amazing part about St.It was really crysta Barth was the water quality. It was really crystal clear, even at the anchorage right in front of Gustavia harbour.

When i cleared in i immediately realized that i am in France. The keyboard layout is so strange and you can save your data, you have to always type it in from scratch. Even on the same PC when checking out. I really wonder if they store it at all or if the only use the printouts, since they even make a photocopy of it!!!
For 2 nights at the anchorage using no mooring but our anchor they also charged 30 EUR. Right, that is 15 EUR per night. The good part is that the surrounding of the harbour is pretty nice. You have good dinghy docks and a place to properly throw away your garbage, etc.
The stores around are fancy and expensive and so is the food. You caneasily pay 15 EUR for a pizza or 16EUR for a salad of tomato and mozzarella.
The bakery behind the post office makes great bread, not only baguette but also wood oven baked bread, bread with cheese and other things. Very good and they open 5.30. YEAH :-)

You can easily walk to shell beach and on the evenings (at least on sundays) people meet in the brazil bar directly at the beach. This beach really has no normal sand but mostly small shell particles mixed with complete shells.

There is a yellow "Stay out" zone, which is not marked on most maps but it only protects and undersea cable from anchoring. So you can still anchor there and then walk to Gustavia (10minutes) from the beach.

The anchorage in Gustavia can get very rolly and so does the water in the port. We had this in the second night and it was very unpleasant.
Watch the water around you, we saw many turtles swimming around us.

When i checked the anchor the visibilty was more than 20m under water.

There is a shop called American Gourmet where we shopped a few things and then had a nice surprise with the price. A glass of pickles costed 13 EUR and a chocolate 6 EUR. The problem is that not everything is tagged there with a price tag, so be careful.

The other supermarket at the dock is nice, well sorted and well priced but they do not have any shopping bags, so do not forget to bring your own.

About Wifi: Even the french should have wifi coverage soon in this marina. At least it is advertised since more than a year now. In some spots you can use open hotspots from shops or homes but then this is only "half legal". I even heard that many people crack those hotspots that are only WEP encrypted.

I found it amazing that on more "caribbean" islands, like St Lucia you could even find an open and free Wifi spot in the smallest bay, the french islands do not even have it in the big anchorages or harbours.

People were very friendly and helpful and so St Barth is a good stop on the way along the islands.

Antigua to St Barth

2010-04-24T13:36:00.004+01:00

I got up at 3.45 and lifted anchor at 4 in the morning. Under radar i made my way through the anchoring yachts. It always amazes me that even in times of LED bulbs some folks still do not use their anchor lights at all during the night. Since the moon was already gone it was pitch dark and i used radar and a search light to find my way out.
A few miles away i passed a buoy which was unlit but i could clearly see it on the radar and it reflected my searchlight even though it was still 0.3 miles away.

There was almost no wind and the first 2 hours i just motored with one engine at 2200 rpm doing 5.4 knots. Then i pulled out the genoa in addition and now it is around 5.6 knots.
The total distance is around 75 miles and du to the low wind forecast we decided to leave so early because St Barth is tricky to approach at night.

Talking about St Barth, the name is actually St Barthelemy but that seems to be to long for everyone. It is not as high as some of the other islands because it is an old island and has been heavily eroded over the years. This also leads to dry weather and in the past it has been a pirates nest for quite a while.

1784 the french gave the island to Sweden in exchange to use the port of Gothenburg. 1878 the Swedes sold it back to France and it is still french today but it is still a free port and a little bit special.

Let´s see how the english skills are compared to Guadeloupe and Martinique :-)

Still 50NM to go and i sent this via Pactor and the HF radio.

Jolly harbour

2010-04-23T20:37:00.004+01:00

Jolly water is a marina in a kind of channel which is part of some waterways with appartments at the front. These appartments have a private dock but they are not so nice. I tooks some snaps of the nicer ones.

You can still buy property here and one of the row houses goes for around 275000US Dollar.

Jolly harbour is good for getting fuel since the fueldock is at a corner and so no matter how the wind blows, it is easy to dock.

Well, i only got fuel for the outboard of the dinghy here.
The water in the anchorage and and the harbour is not as clear as in other places. Looks like there is a lot of sediment in the water, so it is not "dirty" but just not clear either.

Maybe we are now also spoiled with crystal clear water?

Near the fuel station there is also a boatyard with the laundry which is ok priced ans quick.

A big bag of laundry costs around 35EC Dollar including drying.

If you like good coffee, there is an espressobar called Java Jojo in the marina and their coffee and lemon cake is fabolous.

The customs, immigration and port authorities can be found near the mega yacht dock, there in a small house and usually there is a big yelloq "Q" flag in front of that.

Be prepared to fill out many papers :-)

We cleared out for St Barth and will sail tonight since there is only a little wind predicted.

The marina itself is well protected and quite nice. From the boats we know Amazing Grace and Blonde Moment are here.

We will hopefully meet John and Julie later.

From the anchorage you can pick up different free Wifi Spots with the external Alfa Antenna.

Today it is "stretching time" again, which means Lani is stretching our nerves and the smiling like an angel...

An today is my birthday why i got this little rumcake as a present.

Here i wanted to try out if i can gulp it down in one go but decided against that.

On the way to Jolly Harbour

2010-04-21T17:35:00.002+01:00

The admiral Lani and skipper Michael steering towards the Jolly harbour anchorage.

This is the anchorage from a distance. Nice water in front of green hills.

Lani getting tired :-) Time for the skippers and admirals nap!

Impressions from today at Falmouth harbour

2010-04-21T03:17:00.004+01:00

Some people have asked what happened to the Tuna. Well, he gave nice steaks yesterday evening and this lunch he participated in a tomato-tuna salad with toast bread and tonight he was again our guest star in good indian CURRY! YUMMYYY

So we still expect him to be with us (partly) tomorrow with another rounds of steak. Maybe this time on the grill insetad of the pan.

This is our anchorage at the moment.

The beach is right behind to the right and there are almost no waves since it is also protected. So Lani had fun altough she managed to fell in the saltwater in a way that she was completely submerged. Well, she did not even cry. What a tough cookie!

This is the beach and one of the boats in the back is LinoCat. The dark part in the water is sea grass.

Lani enjoying playing in the sand.

One of the classic boats which participated in the regatta.

Athena, the worlds biggest private owned gaff rigged schooner. 90m long she belongs to James (Jim) Clark, Founder of Netscape and Silicon Graphics. For our business i should also mention, founder of WebMD and Healtheon.
He is 64 now and married to a 28 year old swimsuit model :-)
Unfortunately i did not see her.

Lani collecting stones again and today i head to carry them all in my shirt pockets. Yes, in both of them. Now i know how girls feel who carry to much weight in front of them!

Lani getting tired after playing and walking around. The wound on her chin is still from the botanical garden in Guadeloupe where she fell running downhill on a concrete path.

English Harbour Antigua

2010-04-21T03:05:00.004+01:00

This the flag of Antigua. In Jim´s Locker, a local bookstore they sell nice flags, which are not pöainted but stitched from different colored clothes.

Looks nice!

English harbour still has preserved many of the old buildings and around Nelsons dockyard these can be seen. It is by the way THE Lord Nelson which is the famous admiral of the UK.

It is nice that these buildings are kept in good shape. In Nelsons dockyard you can also find immigration, customs and port authorities. Clearing in was not a problem at all.

The guys from "Northern Star" wer ejust checking out in front of me. I mentioned this huge motorboat yesterday. The customs guy asked: is these a motor boat? And the guy answered: "I think so" :-)

When Lani saw the "Northern Star" she said it was a ferry :-)

Antigua

2010-04-20T00:32:00.003+01:00

The Northern Star, a german built Lürssen yacht is just in Antigua.

In german you can read a nice abstract:
http://www.luerssen.de/presspics/Pressebericht_15.pdf

The other Megayachts here i might cover the next days.

By the way, the charter for this one is only 600.000USD per week.

We arrived in Antigua

2010-04-19T19:03:00.003+01:00

WOW what a nice welcome. All racing yachts came out just greet us! Even a helicopter! Well, not exactly, there is the Antigua race week going on and we saw some of them pretty close. First we checked out English harbour but that was pretty full. Now we are just a few miles west in Falmouth harbour and acnhored near St. Annes point. So after checking the WiFi possibilities the next thing to do is customs, immagration and port authorities.

Have you checked the tuna pictures which we added in the last post?

En route to Antigua

2010-04-19T14:35:00.001+01:00

We woke up at 06.15 and decided to have breakfast at the anchorage. So at around 7 we brought the anchor up and set sail to Antigua. The wind grib files said the wind should be around 20 knots in the beginning and then slow down a bit. So we started with a reef in the mainsail and did around 7.5 knots of speed over ground.
At around 09:00 i took the reef out and we are now udner full sails doing 7 knots since the wind already eased to aroun 15 knots but with a convienent 90 degrees angle. The waved are around 1.5 to 2m and are coming from a 45 degree angle to the main wind direction of the last days. So far conditions are as they were predicted. It is now 09:02 local time and we have around 3.5hours to go (28miles).

The sun is shining and so the solar panels are producing power but it is to bumpy to let the watermaker run. I am always afraid that it might suck in air and cause problems so i do not switch it on if it is to rough. We still have around 2x200liter of water in our tanks.

Currently around 100 seagulls are flying around us and i hav!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
And here the sentenc estopped because the fishing reel started to run. I wanted to write "and i have the feeling they are following some predators."
Now it is 30 minutes later and we have a nice fresh TUNA on board.

I will post pictures later. To reel him in we had to take away the genoa and turn into the wind otherwise the brake was not holding and almost all my line was pulled out.
Now the fish is in and the sails are up again and we are doing 7.6 knots again.
The sun is shining and life is good :-)

An here are the pictures. What a nice small piece of Sushi :-) I tasted it and it tasted good.

Deshaies botanical garden

2010-04-18T18:19:00.006+01:00

This is Deshaies when you start walking up to the botanical garden.

It is only 1.5km but up hill and it took us roughly 30minutes to walk up.

LinoCat is still anchored in the bay! GOOD :-)

Lori parrots. They have a vending machine for food and the Loris just fly up to you and eat the food.

Lani liked it a lot.

The garden itself was very beautiful with plenty of flowers, waterfalls and other things to watch.

Our mums would have enjoyed it here!

These are little bananas.

OUTCH

Some goats. How many can you find on this picture ? ;-)

They were not at all shy and then bit on your trouser, tshirt, even the handle of the camera.

MAY THE FORCE BE WITH YOU YOUNG YEDI!!!

Deshaies

2010-04-18T12:49:00.004+01:00

After our unsuccesful visit to Piegeon island we continued to Deshaies and arrived there around 1600. Mayn boats were anchored here because they either arrive from Antigua or Montserrat or they jump to these islands from here (like LinoCat).

There is a "SPAR" supermarket here in town in walking distance and around 50m up a small river behind the fishing harbour you can also exit the dinghy easily and leave it there.

The water of the river (called Deshaies) is not very clear and so the water of the aby is also not the nicest. When diving for our anchor i could not see it at all even though it is only 6 m deep!

It was raining cats and dogs since we arrived even through the night. This morning the sun came out and my first duty was to swim over to another catamaran with 3 older people on board and help them to get the anchor up manually. They had brough out two anchors and the chains were one over the other.
After that we had breakfast and if the weather continues to be OK we might visit the botanical garden here, which should be a 1.5km walk.

In the picture you see the sun but also the rainclouds in the mountains! Let´s see which kind of weather wins today!

Tomorrow morning we want to leave for Antigua.

This one had a problem

2010-04-18T12:43:00.003+01:00

This catamaran seems to have had a problem near the coast of Guadeloupe. It looks like a DIX design but i could not find anything about this incident on the internet. Anyone has any clue?

Pigeon siland? No

2010-04-17T19:49:00.000+01:00

We stopepd at Pigeon island due to the underwater park but there was a swell in the bay and no Dinghy dock. So with the little one we had no chance to get ashore safely. The beach was also to steep and rough and when we asked a local dive boat (of a Padi 5 star center) they did not speak a single word english.
We found out that the supermarket is 2km away and no taxi here and so we left the anchorage the same day.

The Saintes 2

2010-04-17T01:13:00.005+01:00

Lani woke up at 5.11 YEAAAH this sucks! So we head breakfast around 6.30 and a long day ahead :-)

Don´t be fooled by this remote place, the french customs is coming and checking boats. It looked like they gave boat names to Guadeloupe and then boarded some of the yachts around. They dropped teams of 2 to check and the finnish boat next to us was also checked. I did the "Lani trick" and waved them a "Bonjours" together wirh Lani and so they ignored us (maybe).

At around 11 we went for a walk and enjoyed the village and Lani and the skipper had a loooong nap from around 13 to 15.30. That was great.

At around 16.30 we went to shore again and Lani was running around chasing cats and dogs and stretching the nerves of her parents.

We had dinner at "Il Cardinale" and Lani had a really big piece of Pizza Cappriciosa while we had grilled vegetables and Rigatoni Diavolo.

At 20.00 Lani went to bed and so it is CINEMA time :-)

Lets see which movie is still hidden somewhere...

The Saintes 1

2010-04-16T00:39:00.006+01:00

Les Saintes are really nice. Thanks also to Erika and Norman from "Norm the storm" since they have suggested staying here for a while. The Mairie is responsible for clearing in. You fill out a form and they fax it to Guadeloupe and around 10 minutes later you get your clearance. Quick and friendly and they even spoke english!

Funnily we also met some dutch sailors with a girl (4 years) who know the waterman catamaran owners which we met in Teneriffe. The sailing community is really small!

Here they have a nice protected anchorage and even a small pedestrian area with beautful shops and nice restaurants.

Only around 20m from the dinghy dock a beverage shop with rum and all other drinks. Good for provisioning.

The Dinghy docks are good we walked around twice today in this lovely town.

They even sell very good selfmade icecream and many cats and dogs roam around. We even saw two roosters and of course Lani wanted to "play" with all those animals.