LinoCat

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.

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 :-)

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.

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...

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 Graphi...

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.

It is actually nice to also see at least one superyacht that belongs to a german! Prof Reinhold Wuerth has used the term "Vibrant Curiosity" as a motto in his company already in 2007. Here are some technical details: Designer: Nuvolari & Lenard Builder: Oceano Engine: twin 4,680 HP MTU engines Material: steel LOA: 85 m (278.9') Max Speed: 18.5 knots Year: 2009 Guests: 14 Guests (when cruising): 14 Cabins: 7 Country Built: Netherlands Unfortunately the launch of this boat was commented by the press in a negative way due to the recession. But between ordering such a beautiful yacht and the delivery there are usually years between. I think it is a nice boat and from what i know about the company he has very well deserved it!

A Philip Starck design built by Blohm&Voss in Germany. 119m long 2x6000HP strong. A very interesting design, we saw her today when we passed through the Tobago Cays.

We got up a around 7 and had breakfast. The Nutella is empty and so we have to go for a refill to Martinique. That is good since Mike and Ulli will arrive there anyway. In the morning i brought our gas cylinder for a refill and how they do it is an adventure all by itself. It costed around 7 EUR which is an OK price. Then we went for shopping which took the almost usual 2 hours and visited Norman "Norm the Storm" from Quebec who docked his yacht near the shopping center since his brother were visiting him. After a short chat we did our shopping and Lani had her nap. I went to the hardware shop and to Regis electronics and islands waterworld for some "men shopping" and so i got fishing lures and 2 stroke outboard engine oil YEAH :-) Back on the boat we went for a coffee and a blueberry smoothie for Lani. Then Regis, the electronics company called that i had to visit them with boat papers for customs since the new windvane arrived (warranty exchange). The customers of...

The Independence of the sea is one of the worlds biggest cruis ships. She is 340m long and can accomodate 3634 guests and they are pampered by 1360 crew. She has homebase in Southhampton since 2008 and was built in Finnland. Currently she is cruising european waters. She has freecliming walls and also a device called Flowrider to surf in flowing water like an artificial wave. Her stern was secured with 10 thick lines! Check out the wash from her propellers. The AIDAluna looked small against her. It was beautiful to watch her leaving port.

Hi, i also want to update you with pictures of other yachts. Most of the time with bigger ones :-) This "Magic Cat", a french flagged Catamaran made out of carbon fibre. It is said to be extremly fast. The hulls are very slim and the boat is almost as wide as LinoCat long (beam is 36feet) and the length is 82 feet. It has been built by Multiplast under Gilles Ollier and was launched 1996. She still looks perfect but also has been extensivly refitted. She features a rotating carbon wing mast and carbon boom and hydraulic furling. Notice that they still dry their laundry in the wind like we do :-) It is an extremly slick looking catamaran and its a pleasure to see it from a short distance when walking by. The bow that you see on the left of the first picture is the Wally 98 "Alexia" another high class sailboat currently in Santa Cruz. So is the "Brave Goose of Essex" a 35m Motoryacht. She is permanently here and from what i heard her owner is in prison due ...