To the boys on board, a poem

In six hours we should be arriving at Shelter Bay Marina, Panama. We
willmeet our agent and do all the officials for crossing Panama Canal.
Into the Pacific Ocean which covers about 70% of Planet Earth. The
following poem by Rudyard Kipling is a great chart to plot your life by.

When you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
but make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
or being lied about , don't deal in les,
or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream and not make dreams your master,
If you can think and not make thoughts your aim,
If you can meet with triumph and disaster,
And treat those two imposters just the same:
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken,
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings,
And risk it on one turn of pitch and toss,
And lose,and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss:
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you,
Except the will which says to them, ' Hold On!'

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings nor lose the common touch
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count wth you, but none too much:
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the earth and everything that's in it'
And which is more, you'll be a man, my son!

Send in the clowns

Last night we were in for a bit of a rough ride. The wind picked up to
40 kts and we hit a new speed of 18.2 kts. Mostly we were doing just
fine with a little bit of headsail out and a long line dragging behind
us. This kept us at a nice pace with the big swells as they lift us up
from behind and hurtle us down their sides. Our stern is heavily loaded
with fuel and the line also helps to keep our rudders in the water. Now
and then though we would catch a sideways swell and instinctively the
boat would just follow where the swell is leading, surfing down at great
speed. Everything that is not properly secured will fly and the G-forces
created as the boat gets down to the bottom of the wave and turn around
to surf the other way is immense. Your whole body tenses up and everyone
is normally up after such a spell to see that everything and everyone is
ok. A rogue wave also smashed into Nick's cabin. He had his hatch open
only slightly. I had to quickly stop writing as we were just taken for
the quickest surf yet. The water was boiling over our bows when I ran
out to take the helm in case we loose control. By that time we
wer already slowing down at 21 kts, I guess we were doing 25 or over.
Steven is busy cleaning the inside of the boat a bit and commented that
it is quite an adrenalin rush. My stomach is still tight and my fingers
slightly shaky. Yet the sea is relatively calm, blowing a gentle 17 to
20 kts, and we are prepared for up to double that. Just now and then one
of those waves come through that shakes the living daylights out of
you. Back to Nic's cabin, he got completely flooded while he was asleep.
To much laughter and chirping from Eduard and Steven he did some damage
control and proceeded to sleepin the saloon. It has happened a few times
to Eduard, so I guess he could for a change be laughing.

Fishing story for the day is that we left our one lure out last night
through the rough stuff, and this morning when we retrieved it the hook
was bent open! These hooks are round circle hooks, #9 size and really
strong. The first time I saw one bent open. Must have been a big marlin
again. Will definately take a photo of it for when I want to look back
one day to back in the days. We are only 130nm from the Panama Canal
Yacht Club where we will tie up for a while. We expect to arrive at the
port entrance at about 8am tomorrow and will start making arrangement
for the transit with our agent who will meet us at the PCYC.

Our position at 10am is 10*27'N/078*11'W. Nautical in origin ,'Stand'. A
ship will stand in towards the land, stand off a port, stand in with
another vessel when sailing together, and stands by in case of trouble.
The word has come ashore, people also stand-by, stand their ground,
stand in favour, becomestand-offish, or simply like to know how they
stand.

Have a great week

Captain Paul

Angel of death

As the weather predicted, the wind started building yesterday afternoon,
and the swell increased accordingly. With our twin headsails up we were
surfing at 17.2kts and the wind gusting up to 27 knts. I waited for the
wind to calm down a bit and at about 2am this morning gave the
instruction for the headsail to be dropped. Steven and Eduard fitted
saftey harnesses and secured themselves on the bow while Nick was ready
at the mast to lower the sail at the given moment. Surfing down waves at
great speed, bouncing up and down and side to side, it does get slippery
out front and can be deadly dangerous if you take any chances. The
motion is rodeo rollercoaster, the mission simply to drop the sail. I
backfilled the loose genoa and with some considerable effort we got her
down,furled her and packed the sail away. With the wind picking up tp 30
kts we had two mooring lines tied together and ready for deployment
behind the boat as well as a drogue to slow us down should it become
necessary. The long lines we tie to the center of our stern and tow this
line behind us. It keeps us running down in a straight line, not
venturing out too far when surfing down the huge swell from behind. We
now are sailing with a small bit of genoa out, enough to keep us going
in rhythm with the elements around us.

Yesterday I did a small alteration on one of our lures and had it out
for a while. The flying fish lures did not last long. A big marlin moved
in to have a closer look at our newest offering and I called the boys
out. I would bring the lure in quick with the marlin in hot pursuit,
hoping that he would try and whack it. Ten meteres from the boat I would
let the lure go slack again as marlins mostly first stun their prey and
then go in for the kill. Everytime the marlin moved in close he would
open two blue fins just behind his head, attack mode, and in the
sunlight it formed an awesome image, an angel of death. I am sure this
is the last sight many a bonny and flying fish see before they are no
more. The last time I pulled in the lure I felt him hitting at it and
tried to hook him but no luck. He must have felt it as we did not see
him again.

'Oil on Troubled Waters' From the seamanship practise of spreading oil
to calmthe waves. It is frequently done in rescue or salvage work where
a little vegetable oil spread from the windward has a remarkable effect
in modifying the seas and thus reducing the risk of accidents. Our
position at high noon today was 11*39'N/076*01'W. We are 260nm from
Panama and looks like we will arrive there on Tuesday morning. Thanks
for the comments. Just another day at the office.

Captain Paul

The quiet before the storm

We sailed passed the most northern tip of Colombia last night. The winds
were consistently strong during the day and carried on through the
night. Biggish swells also formed and it was great fun averaging 10kts
and surfing down the swells at close to 17kts. We are about 40nm from
nearest land and staying off the coast and following the contour lines.
Due to the increased shipping activity we have our navlights on again at
night. This morning when the 6am watch started it was still dark and
sunrise was only at 7. We will adjust our boat clocks today which will
place us 7 hours after SA, UTC - 5. Wind direction is mostly still from
the east and we are sailing dead on a run, the wind right behind us. Our
weather prediction is that the wind will start backing a bit to NE,
increase by about 10 kts taking us to a consistent 30 kts with potential
gusts up to 45kts+ within the next 24 hrs. There are some cirrus clouds
in the air foretelling high winds. That will give us a straight angle
again on Panama which is about 450nm away, an easy three days, but
requiring a bit more care. I have learned to be extra careful when you
are closest to your destination. One has the tendency to relax after
some hard sailing, but that is where mistakes creep in. Relax once you
are safely anchored or moored, all you want.

In the fishing department there are always new developments, but the
results are not in yet. Rigged a flying fish that landed on deck and
trolling but still shy of a score. Maybe we should try.........Just
weent to go and check the flying fish lure and the fish is off. Will
have to try again. Fortunately we have four flying fish ready to be
baited up. Before I go and do that our nautical is 'Ride the Storm' To
survive by patience and fortitude, as a vessel rides a storm. Impossible
to go forward or run before it the ship lowers or shortens her sail and
rides the waves until the storm abates. A vessel also 'rides' to her
anchor, although this may be because the old-fashioned word for anchor
was roding, thought to derive from roadstead, the area where craft
normally anchored. The expression 'let her ride' originates from here
and was part of an official order to discharge the crew at the end of
the voyage and 'let the vessel ride'.

Our position at 10 am is 12*57'N/072*56'W. A pleasant 27*C with blue
skies above and blue seas below. Have a super Saturday.

Captain Paul

Free to comment

Thank you very much for the comment considering the last posting being
boring...ha ha ha. I really enjoyed writing that one, thought it was a
bit more colourful and even thought provoking at times than some of the
previous postings.Where is the adventure...? I love questions and our
adventure is both an outwards and inwards adventure, and sorry if you
can't get some type of feel for what it's like out here on the ocean.
Boredom is something we face every day out here, although I've never had
a boring moment out here. Living in the moment does not allow for such
luxuries. If you want me to venture more towards the inner adventures we
experience, please say so. Writing a blog without any comments at all is
a one way street which is why appreciate your comment so much. Please
don't fire me, I will try harder.

Let's fall into the door with an every term born on the sea, 'Round
Robin'. A petition popularised by sailors who, fearful that the names at
the top of the list may be held as the ringleaders, wrote their names in
a circle. However, credit for the original idea must go to officers of
the French government who in complain wrote their names on the sash or
ribbon worn with their tunics. Round is a corruption of the French
'rond'; robin a corruption of ruban(ribbon). Another French term I like
is 'Papillion', the French word for butterfly. Sailing with twin headsail
can be called goosewing but I think papillion more descriptive. Goosewing
sounds heavy, butterfly sounds light. Swift like a butterfly....stings
like a bee.

We are making great progress towards Panama. Less than 700nm away we
should make it comfortably on Tuesday the 28th of February at an average
of 7kts. The weather has been kind so far, the ocean rolling in the same
direction as us. We are about 30nm north of Aruba island and will soon
enter the Gulf of Venezuela. Had three ships on our watches last night,
no squalls, although our adjustable headsail was furled in just in case.
Our position at 10am is 13*13'N/069*52'. Our barometer is sitting at
1017mb/hPa, the temperature a comfortable 28.7*C.

Have a fab Friday and take it easy over the weekend.

Captain Paul

Over the halfway mark

During the course of yesterday afternoon and this morning we quietly
slipped over the halfway mark, being gently urged on from behind by
surf, wind and tide and the currents they create. At about 10am
yesterday morning conditions became perfect for flying our twin
headsails, we stood up to the challenge, and took our good time to set
both headsails just perfect. I will let you in on a secret here, tuning
your guitar, tuning your sails, same thing. The aim is the same, to make
music. I think to make music is to become music, and once you vibrate in
harmony with your surroundings, your instrument, whether it be your
guitar, your boat, your paintbrush, your pen, your life takes on a life
of it's own. Before I go too deep too quick, let me rather drift to
shallower waters.

Steven and Eduard's bread baking efforts turned into a monster bread. A
magnificent beast of a thing, filling our oven-sized baking tray and
rising to twice it's size. We sat down and proceeded to feast on this
beast, and tried it in small sections with just about everything we
could lay our hands on. Butro, apricot jam, Bovril, peanut butter,
honey and maple syrup, one at a time and sometimes combined. When we
came back to our senses there was not much left,a few skins and bones.

For supper Nick prepared some lamb flavoured curry with rice, and we all
agreed that soya beans with the right ingredients, can cook up quite a
storm. Nick also made some extra rice afterwards as there was quite a
bit of the curry left and mixed the two together. We just warmed up some
and a nice little breakfast snack. Tonight is my turn to burn some gas
and perhaps tuna pasta will do the trick, freshly caught or in a tin.
Coming to think of it, freshly caught fish would first be enjoyed as
sushimi, and then later fried with chips. Our lures are out, our boat is
running free with the seahorses around us, dancing, surfing, curving,
styling; if we catch a fish.....

The weather out here is truly any sailors dream. Sunny skies with some
clouds floating around, a few cirrus clouds preceding stronger winds,
really a perfect example of fair weather and following seas. The
distance between Panama and us is rapidly shrinking and we are staying
above 8kts average. Nick was on the graveyard shift just after me and an
hour or so into his watch a dark cloud came over us. The wind got up to
25kts apparent and we were sailing at about 10kts, which would bring the
true wind speed up to 35kts. It was time to up the rudder response as
the swell from behind worked up fairly quickly and we were sailing at
speed down the swells, highest speed about 16kts. The swells are not
very long out here, but long enough for us to accelarate from 6kts to
16kts in probably 5 or 6 seconds. The beauty of sailing with the twin
headsails is that one can furl in the big one when the wind requires
smaller sails and yield higher speed. Too much headsail up front pushes
your bow into the water ploughing in a way, to use smaller sails keeps
your bows up. This in turns give you a longer line of vessel in the
water which determines the natural speed of a vessel in a big way. Too
deep, too technical.

'Now She's Talking'. Pleasant and welcome sounds nowadays connected with
speech but once attributed to that distinctive sound of waves dancing
and rattling against the wooden hull of a sailing vessel as she moves
quickly through the water. It is especially noticable in a sailing ship
where no machinery noises would mask or interfere with the sound. Our
position at 11am, UTC - 4, SA 5pm , 13*27'N/067*06'W. We are about 800nm
from Panama and about 5500nm from Tahiti. It is a very pleasant 28*C here
by us, the wind is consistent with the weather reports and all is well.

Take good care, can't believe tomorrow is Friday again.

Captain Paul

Rainbows everywhere

It is our first morning out after St.Vincent and the skies are having an
exhibition of rainbows, some blue skies and some cumulus clouds with
patches of rain. As I am writing we just entered under such a patch and
the boat is getting a fresh water rinse. For the first six hours after
leaving we had to motor and at about 2pm we were out of the island's
windshadow and the predicted wind started to build. We are getting the
wind from the starboard aft quarter and we have mainsail and genoa
second reef to sail on a broad reach. Now the sun is out and once again
a huge rainbow formed on our bow. Pots of gold for those who can
see.

In the galley Steven whipped up some dough and sweetcorn and it is still
busy rising outside. Soon it will be in the oven and an hour later it
will be enjoyed. Eduard is busy cleaning the 5ltr water container we use
to make colddrink in and Nick just popped his head out from the cabin.
We have got a new lure out, and who knows what the day may bring. Nick's
turn to supper , perhaps it will be fresh fish and chips. If only.....

'Reel Off' comes to mind. To prevent the inevitable twists and kinks
which occur in ropes at the most inauspicious time, and provide a
greater embarrasment when handled at speed, it was found expedient to
keep certain lines,such as the log and sounding line,on reels. From here
the lines could be 'reeled off' without delay or hazard. The term was
later applied to anyone who spoke fluently or was especially adept at
quoting facts and figures.Our position at 8am was 13*31'N/063*37'W. We
hope to arrive at Panama next week Monday or Tuesday. There are a few
yachts hot on tails and we shall see who gets there first.

Wednesday's or to some little Saturdays, so have one of those
Wednesdays.

Captain Paul

St. Vincent behind us and Panama before us.

We arrived at St. Vincent at 2:30pm on Monday, got all the stuff we
needed to get, topped up the water tanks, washed the boat down and went
to the nearest little beach bar for a burger, fries and a beer. We then
went back to the boat and tried to do some internet. Not much luck in
that department. Listening to the night sounds on land when you have
been at sea for some time make a deep impression. We saw some bats,
fireflies etc coming out to play, and enjoyed a thousand other little
sounds, even a few dogs barking in the distance as the twilight zone was
setting in.

The beautiful Caribbean islands are slowly growing smaller as we bid
them farewell and set a course due west towards Panama. Our weather
guru, my mom, sent us the latest updates and looks like we are in for
some strong conditions, all from behind. We could do the 1200nm in six
days under such conditions and thus expect to arrive at Panama on
27-28/02/12. This next leg will require fast and safe running tactics,
and the crew once again learn a new level of understanding and respect
for the ocean, in this case the Caribbean Sea. These are the things that
thrills us and also keeps us humble, focused and aware.

'Staunch' is a good expression to describe our boat.From the old French
'estanche' meaning watertight. A vessel which had no leaks was described
as staunch. Hence firm, reliable. So yes, our boat is strong, her crew
is strong and soon we will meet weather that will test us.

Our position is just off St.Vincent, heading straight west. Have a swell
day.

Captain Paul

St.Lucia at sunrise, St.Vincent at noon

It was as always immensily amazing spending a while at Marigot Bay,
St.Lucia. We met some of our old friends, made some new ones.
All colourful characters with their own dreams, own plans, own problems ,
living in a bit of paradise. After arriving at 6pm we tied up to the fuel
dock for the night, and filled our watertanks and drums. We took a free
ferry to the beach on the opposite side of the bay. Had some refreshments
there, took a walk into town a bit and were back at the boat at about
before midnight. Had a good sleep and at about 7am we started removing
refuse bags from our boat, organised a dingy, cleared customs and then
moved off the fuel dock and tied up to a mooring bouy. It was fab to have
free internet; we could skype, check our emails on our landbased @'s, do
some research etc. Also got the oil pump that was left for us. Saturday
afternoon we went for lunch, coconut chicken curry and rice with salad, and
then went across the bay again and had a burger and chips each. We were
truly well fed by then and made our way back to our boat a"s the sun was
setting. The dinghy we got could only just move at full throttle, making a
big noise and getting nowhere slowly. We even rowed to keep us going, but
at least we had a means move to and from our boat.

We had an early night last night as we planned to leave before first light.
Got up at about 5am and casted off, and turned our bows toward St.Vincent.
The sun was rising as we went past the pytons and another unforgettable
moment was etched in our brains, blessed beyond words. Quite a few boats
are making the short hop over and a little race ensued. Under sail we
pulled up close to another Leopard 46 and slowly passed him by crossing
ahead of him working a better angle of wind on the sails. We are leading
the pack, not often we get to race a few other boats. We should arrive at
St.Vincent just after lunch, do a last few checks, wash the boat down
properly with fresh water and either sleep over or take the highway to
Panama.

The wind predicted from here to Panama is what one of our Italian friends
Manu would say - "Vento in poppa", meaning wind from behind. Sounds about
right. And when these winds get very strong and the waves very big we get
the next nautical term - 'Pooped'. Comes from the devasting effect of a
huge wave breaking over the stern or poop deck of the ship. Such seas could
often flood or even sink a ship, stoving in companionways and
hatches.Yachts can be pooped while running before a big sea. It is now used
as a slang term for being crushed, exhausted or satiated.

I have been in such conditions before and we apply a few tactics to keep us
going at a safe speed and in a relatively straight line. We don't expect
too much of this but when we get to the top of Venezuela and turn south
west towards Panama we could meet some stronger seas.

Hope you have a good week ahead.

Captain Paul

She's like a rainbow

Ahead of us St.Lucia is about 60nm away and about 8 hours to go at our
current speed. Just looked in that direction and a few beautiful
rainbows is colouring the morning skies. I have seen the moist beautiful
rainbows, three over each other between the pytons of St.Lucia, with a
small yacht below. The famous pytons are two rock formations, cone
shaped,and taking a wild guess I would say at least 300m high. I have
also once seen a triple greenflash in this area. A greenflash is when
the sun just dips below the horizon and the last visible colour of the
light spectrum, green, flashes. Going up and down a swell it had the
effect of three green flashes. Conditions need to be absolute clear for
this phenomenon to occur, no clouds on the horizon. There is truly a
magical quality about the place. Legends like Eric Clapton and Mick
Jagger also has their hide-aways here. Earlier on in this trip I had a
dream and in the dream I was in St.Lucia and I heard a song. Some of the
words went like this, in Carib style music :- If I was a fishamon I
would be fishing in St.Lucia mon, if I was a barmon, I would be barring
in St.Lucia mon, if I was a capitan I would be cappin in St.Lucia mon.
What gives you the idea I just love the place? Anyways, we hope to get
to Marigot Bay before sunset and soak in all the beauty on the way in.

Last night we passed Barbados on our starboard side, and on my watch we
once again had a visitation from dolphins, this time in the midnight
hours. The water is full of bioluminescence and their body profiles
could be clear seen as they streaked through the water. Nick was also
witness to this amazing event, being a night owl and all. We still
didn't catch a fish and to add insult to injury, Eduan spotted a school
of nice sized fish swimming next to the boat at about 3pm. We all came
out to look at this crazy spectacle. Our lure trolling only 20 mtrs
behind did not interest them at all. Aaaaaaaaaahhhhhh.

A short nautical term is 'So-long' A seaman's farewell,from the East
Indian word 'salaam'. Common in shore-side use, but originally nautical.
And so we say so-long to the Atlantic as we are about to enter the
Caribbean Sea. She has been kind to us, the Atlantic, and carried us
here safely. Wishing you a weekend and a half.

Captain Paul

Sweet dreams are made of this...

I started my watch at six this morning and it was still dark. The sickle
moon was about quarter way up the sky, smiling at the blue planet below.
The wind is a fresh 15/16 knots, I let some more headsail out, tied a
sling around the clew and shaped her to perfection. Once again we are
flying, maintaining a constant 8 knots. While I was turning the
chartplotter on bright to see how we are doing a flying fish came flying
pass me missing me by the narrowest of margins. Exciting times. He or
she suffered a bit of a nose bleed as it wacked into the cockpit. I
quickly went back into the galley to get a sheet of papertowel, picked
the wrigling body up and threw it back into the ocean. Steven just
popped up and I showed him where the poor creature smacked into the
boat. It was nearly impossible that the flying fish missed me, it looks
like he went straight through me if you saw where he smacked into the
boat. I have had a few crewmembers before that were struck by a flying
fish and a nice big blue bruise is normally the result. I will also turn
our clock another hour back today which will place us UTC - 4 or 6 hours
behind SA. We are about 230nm from St.Lucia and if the wind stays with
us we could arrive there before noon tomorrow. As stated before we
prefer the sun to rise at 6am and set at 6pm, more or less.

Nick and Eduan are also learning more and more about the finer art of
setting sails to maximise whatever wind we get. More sail does not mean
more speed and I think Nick was fairly surprised when I demonstrated
this to him yesterday. Too much headsail pushes the bow down a bit and
you are plowing through the water. Furl it in a bit and you easily gain
an extra knot. Eduan is also paying attention to our sail settings. When
I took watch over from him I saw that he had pulled the headsail in
quite tight and we are on a beam reach. I showed him what happens if you
let the sail out a bit till she starts luffing and just tighten it a
little till she stops luffing, or flapping on the edge. I have to
constantly remind myself that these guys haven't sailed a lot before and
I have to teach them as much as possible. But I only ever do that if the
crew shows an interest and glad to say both Nick and Eduan is keen to
learn. Nick always asking a lot of questions and Eduan always willing
to learn from his mistakes. I encourage them to experiment and find the
sweet spot on the sails themselves, not to just follow my advise
blindly. I prefer they understand what they are doing and the dynamics
involved.

Once again we have a lure out and once again the conditions are looking
really good. We can only try our best and hope for the best. I have had
a lot of success fishing over the years and know what colour lures work
the best. But somehow we are just not getting fish. I don't know if they
are getting scarcer which I am sure they are or whether they are getting
wiser. My daughter always tells me fish are so clever because they swim
in schools. At eight years old she should know and I have to up my game,
try a few different colours, perhaps keep the lure out at night. Just
decided to drop a pink lure in, lets see what gives.

'Shooting a Line' is the nautical term today. A fishing boat 'shoots'
its nets and lines. There is a probable link with the fact that
longlines, used for catching cod, were several miles long and it took
hours to bait the many hundreds of hooks. Quiet, undemanding work would
be conducive to story telling.

Our position at 7:30 our time,UTC - 4 , or SA time 13h30 is
11*11'N/058*04'N.

And hey hey, it's FRIDAY !!!

Have a seriously good weekend. We will be spending most of our at
St.Lucia.

Captain Paul

The answer is blowing in the wind

Last night we once again had a spectacularly good sailing session. The
stars were shining bright, a few shooting stars as well and early this
morning the moon started taking over the show, even if it is just
quarter moon. It looks like we may just make it to St. Lucia on
Saturday. We will spend Sunday there filling our watertanks, doing a few
preventative maintenance tasks on the boat, a little bit of shopping and
free internet to catch up with the latest news around the world.
Greatest bonus is ofcourse a skype session or two with our families and
friends. We also will be collecting an oil extractor pump that one of my
fellow skippers left there for me. We need this to service our motors
and threw it away by accident in St.Helena. Fortunately we have had
phenominal good winds and have very little hours on the motors and our
second service is still far away. We will probably leave at about
midnight on Sunday to make an early morning entrance into St.Vincent
where we are also collecting a few essentials which we can only get on
Monday. We are nearly halfway through our journey and the boys can't
believe how quick time is flying. Monday we will also depart for Panama
and should be there in a week's time.

Nauti term for today 'Whistling for a Wind'. To hope for the impossible.
It was the sailor's superstition thatbhe could call up the desired wind
by whistling, a belief still current amongst some yachtsmen. Yet
whistling on ships has either been forbidden or discouraged for many
years. There are a number of reasons; it can be confused with orders
piped on the boatswain's call (or whistle); it was said to be the signal
for the commencement of the Mutiny of the Nore 1797;p and because it is
generally felt that whistling brings too much wind - a storm in fact. It
is held to be unlucky for actors and stage hands to whistle backstage.

Our position at 6am was 09*08'N/055*29'W. Nick has just taken watch over
from me and it looks like we are in for a great day, which is just
starting to colour the skies with hues of soft peach turning lighter
into a powder blue. A few clouds are floating around, the sickle moon is
nearly above us and I have to run to go and let the lure out. Conditions
are looking perfect to catch a fish today.

Take it easy

Captain Paul

Give peace a chance

Last night was the first night in a while with no squalls. A nice, fast
and smooth sail, time for everyone to recover a bit and sort out the
frayed nerves. This morning the sun is shining which brings the next set
of weather patterns into play. The cloud formation is now changing and a
huge bank of cumulus nimbus is building east of us. They also bring
squalls, but also thunder and lightning. Fun and games? No way. We
prepare for a possible lightning strike by tying a section of anchor
chain around the mast and let it hang about a meter in the water to
serve as a conduit. Lightning will normally strike the VHF aerial and
run down the mast to our distribution board, jump all the circuit
breakers and fry all our instruments. We also unplug the VHF aerial when
the thundeer and lightning draws close.

We have done excellent mileage through the storms and may still arrive
at St.Lucia on Saturday, but almost definately on Sunday. The wind has
gradually been veering or turning clockwise, placing the wind more and
more behind us. We are still but just holding on to a broad reach and
have lost some speed in the process. If it carries on veering we will
soon be on a run again, throwing both headsails to the wind. Our weather
forecast courtesy of our weatherguru back home shows stronger winds just
east of us and already the swell from that is starting to roll in. Not
much change of the stronger wind getting to us but we will feel some of
its effects.

Nick made a lovely pasta last night and added some fresh basil leaves
from one of our herbal plants we have aboard. We all enjoyed it
thoroughly even though it was completely vegetarian. We've had our lure
out yesterday as we have today but nothing so far. During stronger
weather yesterday I also demonstrated the hove to manouevre and everyone
had a change to execute this fairly easy exercise once you understand
what you are doing and why. 'Let Fly' is our nautical term today.Aboard
ship the order to let fly meant to let go quickly the sheets which held
the sails whereupon they would shake uncontrollably ( as a raging person
can do). The order was given to stop a ship smartly. In the navy a
junior ship was required to 'let fly her sheets' in salute to the
flagship. Let fly has since come to mean to loose one's temper, or
remonstrate angrily.

Our position at 10am was 07*41'N/053*17'W. We are 570nm from St.Lucia
and looking forward to spending a day or so there before our final quick
stop in St.Vincent and hope to be on our way to Panama by Monday next. A
week later we expect to arrive at Panama, as always depending on the
weather.

Hope your day had some lighter moments in it and that you could laugh at
yourself, even just for a moment. We often take ourselves so very
seriously.

Captain Paul

Nothing but a dreamer

This morning at three the squalls started coming through thick and fast.
During the day all the crew were properly instructed and had a few goes
at furling in the headsail safely and easily. They are all learning the
different options of dealing with squalls. First try and run with it and
should it carry on too long or get too strong turn into the wind and
either motor or sail with a deeply furled headsail into the storm. If it
really gets out of hand the option is always there to hove to but they
haven't learned this manouevre yet. I will show them how to do this
shortly, just so they know and understand the dynamics involved. All
this builds confidence, both in the yacht and in their abilities.

At about eight this morning Eduan was on watch and I just got up to
greet the day. From behind we saw a substantial number of pigmy killer
whales surfing past us at speed. Their round heads makes them easy to
identify and they are not actually whales but part of the dolphin
family, and more specific the Electra group of dolphins, according to my
WHALES, DOLPHINS AND SEALS - A Field guide to the Marine Mammals of the
World. What an awesome sight they were and what a way to start the day,
and Valentines Day of all days. I think everyday should be Valentines
Day, or Mother's Day, or Father's Day or even Freedom Day. But not in
the commercial sense of these days. I just think we should love and care
and respect and show gratitude every day, to each and everyone around
us. And everyonbe should also be able to accept all the above gracefully
and thankfully. But then I am a dreamer, amongst other things.

Coming back to the harsh weather, it is taking it's toll on our
bodies. Nick opted to sleep in the saloon last night after his watch and
for good reason. One can only stand so much levitation. Being on the
weather side bow his cabin gets the most movement which brings me to
another interesting term with nautical origins : - 'Posh' It is said
that the letters P.O.S.H. were printed on the tickets of 1st class
passengers travelling to and from India in the days of British rule.
There is no evidence to support this although the term was current and
comes from the practise of wealthy passengers booking a cabin on the
port side of the ship outward bound, a starboard cabin when coming home,
which in each case was the cooler side of the ship away from the glare
of the sun.The word poshy stood for Port Out, Starboard Home.

Our position at 10 am was 05*34'N/050*29'W. We are also sad to hear
about Whitney Houston passing away recently and hope that she has found
peace at last. She was certainly one of the greatest divas of all time
and I am sure the world is better place because she lived. R.I.P
Whitney.

Captain Paul

Riders on the Storm

Last night when the squalls started at about 9 it just kept on coming
and coming, relentlessly pounding us with strong winds and rain. Not
much sleep for me as we are being pushed closer and closer to land and
had to fight hard to stay on our chosen course. We are 150nm northeast
of the Amazon rivermouth and the term rainforest comes to mind. Lush
green jungle with surprises lurking everywhere. Should we turn our tail
to the wind we will be there in no time at all. But not today, instead
we are beating hard into the wind to stay off the shallows of the
rivermouth and on the deeper side of the continental shelf.

One of my previous crewmembers once told me that a piranha fish can
devour a whole cow in under a minute. We had a rendezvous out here with
a friend of mine under much calmer conditions, tied our boats with 30m
rope and swam around in the gingerbeer coloured water when this bit of
information was shared with me. We were also celebrating my friend's
birthday and the shocked expression on my face when I heard about the
piranha devouring a cow chop chop gave my game away. I have seen piranha
fish in a tank before and using my hands to indicate the size of a
piranha and the unbelievable metabolism it must have to eat a cow so
quick said it all. When I was informed that a school of piranha fish
can do this I was still amazed but accepted the fact, but swallowed hard
on a single piranha.

Makes me think of another crewmember who was looking at a ship in the
distance in the broad daylight through the binoculars and informed me
that he can't figure out which direction the ship is going as his
navlights were off. He was serious as was I when I told him navlights
are only really visible at night and no ship should have navlights on
during the day. We all had a good laugh when it dawned on my friend.

Yesterday Eduan tried his hand at baking bread, and I don't know if it
was beginner's luck or whether he is a natural, but it was a resounding
success. One of the best breads I've ever had the pleasure to partake of
on the ocean. Can't even give him 10/10, he is way off the scoreboard,
in another league completely. It was also his turn to do supper and the
bread came out of the oven an hour before supper. No ways we could
stop ourselves not to have a slice or two of hot bread before supper,
even though it spoiled our appetites a bit. Despite that we enjoyed
supper very much as usual, just that we all ate too much. But better to
go into a storm on a full tummy.

As circumstances dictates the boys are learning more and more about the
practical aspects of sailing. A guiding principle is that if you are
using brute force to do something you are doing it wrong. With respect
to the ladies, nothing we can do that you can't in regards to sailing a
yacht. On of my fellow delivery skippers, Kirsten is a lady whom I have
the highest possible respect for. I also have a suspicion that she will
outsail me on a one to one basis, and knowing your strenghts is also
knowing your weaknesses. Dame Ellen McArthur is another example of an
awseome lady sailor, world record holder of solo around the world. I
have also met Dee Caspari when in the Seychelles. She made a reputation
for herelf by sailing solo around the world twice, first time the right
way round and second time the wrong way round. Really humble down to
earth people whom I have all the time in the world for. The ocean is the
greatest equalizer I know. If you think you are bigger and stronger than
her, she will take you down.

An interesting nautical term is 'Hi-Jack'. The harlot's call to the
sailor 'Hi-Jack'. It acquired its more sinister meaning when after their
first embrace she hit him with a lead-filled handbag - or alternatively
lured him into a boarding house from where he would be dragged the next
morning in vest and socks to be sold to a ship in need of crew. This
practise was prevalent along California's notorious Barbary Coast where
ships, emptied of crew by the call of the goldrush, were desperate and
prepared to support such intrigues. It became known as 'shanghai-ing',
probably because many of the ships were employed in the China trade.
Sometimes the tables were turned, seamen did occasionally drag boarding
house operators off to sea, others took the girls. So yes, don't ever
underestimate anyone or anything.

Our position at 9am our time, UTC-3, or 2pm SA time is 03*21'N/048*00'W.
We are 1000nm from St.Lucia and at an average of 7kts we should arrive
there at 9am on Sunday morning. We are going somewhat faster so all good
for an early arrival.

Take care and enjoy the week ahead.

Captain Paul

Dolphins at play

For the last few days we've had the great pleasure of being visited by dolphins. On some trips we don't see them at all, and
we never tire of these visitations. The way they move through the water, up and down, left and right, is just a beautiful
show of energy, of loving life and an inspiration to all who witness them. Yesterday we've also had huge numbers of bonny's
feeding, smallish tuna darting in and out of the water, pouncing on their prey. What they were feeding on became evident
when we found tiny flying fish on board. The food chain in action, the bonny's in turn are fed upon by the bigger fish,
bigger tuna and a favourite with billfish, wahoo and other game fish. Dorado mostly feeds on flying fish and hopefully we
will land one , or at least one, in the days to come. We will set a lure again today as the conditions are getting better,
and the nutrient rich waters of the Amazon river is not far away. Pretty amazing how far the brown water reaches into the
ocean.We should be crossing about 200nm offshore and often encounter these coloured waters here. Not right opposite the
river mouth as the Guiana Current runs up the continental shelf of South America curving the outflow more north.

The wind is a mixture of medium to light easterlies and east north easterlies, between ten and twenty knots. We are sailing
at between 6 and 10 kts taking the wind on the beam, the strongest point of sail on most catamarans. It is difficult to
guess our ETA at these rates but we should reach St.Lucia on Sunday latest. Yesterday and this morning is mostly overcast
and we had no squalls to contend with last night. The temperature does not vary so much during these overcast days, on more
variable days the heat and cold produces cumulus nimbus, the big cloud formations with a relatively low base but towering
high into the stratosphere. They are famous for thunder and lightning and also squalls when they built up energy and
disperse it when they are saturated. If you are in the vicinity, hold on to your hat, things can get wild.

Our position at 6am our time was 01*20'N/045*12'W. Currently we are about 1200nm from St.Lucia, 2400nm from Panama and
7000nm from Tahiti.A small but interesting nautical term is 'Push the Boat Out'. The original nautical expression meant to
pay for a round of drinks. Now more widely understood as to celebrate and not trouble about expense. The crew are all
relaxed, doing the shifts as they come and go.

May you have a serene Sunday.

Captain Paul

Storm tactics and crossing the equator

Last night I took watch over from Eduan at midnight. It was a fairly
moonlit night and to our starboard on the horizon I could see a bank of
darker clouds and rain coming our way. We had mainsail 1st reef and
genoa the same. I thought about our options and waited for the squall to
hit us. First sign of it getting closer was a slight change in the swell
getting progressively bigger, but not radically so. At 1am it got to us,
I took over the helming from the autupilot and my first option was to
run with the storm, taking care not to gybe, a nautical term meaning we
don't want the wind to get on the wrong side of the mainsail on a
downwind run. The wind picked up quickly starting from about 15kts and
quickly worked her way up to 25kts. Before she got to 30 kts I decided
to turn into and through the wind bringing us to a hove to position. An
excellent storm tactic as long as you are not to close to land. The
mainsail and headsail then works against each other and the boat stays
upright and standing steady against the onslaught. Steven peeped through
his hatch and asked if I wanted a hand and soon afterwards Nick and
Eduan was also out. We set the headsail at a perfect angle for a hove to
position and the rain increased substantially while the wind was now
building up to 30kts+. We all remained calmed, operated swiftly and soon
we were allk set and enjoying the rain, taking the boat through the
boatwash. Steven joined in, grabbed his shampoo and had a refreshing
shower in the rain in the dead of the night. There was no thunder and
lightning, just thick sheets of rain driven by a fairly strong wind.
Half an hour later the rain had moved over us, which is one of the
advantages of the hove to position, the storm passes over far quicker
than running with it. The wind still remained strong and decided to drop
the mainsail and carry on towards the Caribbean with a bit of headsail
and some motoring to charge our batteries a bit. Afterwards I made coffe
and tea for everyone and we enjoyed the experience of learning how to
navigate a storm like this. I could have dropped the sails before the
storm hit us but then none would be the wiser, certain things one can
only demonstrate when the situation is upon you. After the bit of
adrenaline rush everyone went back to their cabins and an hour or
so later Nick took watch over from me. I decided to keep on motoring
with the headsail only, loosing some potential speed in the process, but
also timing our equator crossing for daytime and gave Nick the
instructions.

At about 7am this morning we were close to the equator and woke Eduan up
to get ready to swim across with Nick. At 7:15am the boys were in the
water and crossed the equator in grand style. How many people can say
they have swam across the equator. Making memories is part of this
journey and they will look back on these days as some of the best days
of their lifes. At a slight cost ofcourse. Being away from there loved
ones, giving up their comfort zones, learning how to get on with people
in close quarters over extended periods of time, having to prepare food,
learning the science and art of sailing and so on. In turn they get a
lot of time away from mental pollution(tv); time to read, to think, to
assess, to re-assess and to grow as human beings, being closer to nature
than they have ever been before. Becoming one with the motion of the
ocean. And hopefully this will stand them in good stead when they have
to weather the storms of life and face the challenges that the future
may bring. Being mariners for a while and dealing with uncompromising
beauty and potential danger and teaching them awareness and
responsibilty.

'Lay of the Land' is the nautical term offered today. to study the lay
of the land is to make an initial inspection, a first step. Making a
landfall a sailor studies how the land 'lays' along the horizon to see
whether he can recognise any prominent features that would make it
familiar or if it promises landing facilities, shelter and so forth.
Another expression with the same meaning is 'see how the land lies'.

We have crossed into the northern hemisphere and our position at 10am on
our boat, UTC - 3 or 3pm SA time is 00*08'N/043*13'W. We are about 130nm
from the nearest land and 200nm from the Amazon river mouth. The wind
has changed direction to SE and we now have both headsails up again,
going a bit slower than before and seeing our chances of arriving at
St.Lucia next Friday slipping away a bit. And so be it then, for
whatever reason it is so destined.

Trust that you are having a good weekend

Captain Paul

Man Friday

The continental shelf off the Brazilian coast is fairly wide and stays
shallow right up to tthe edge where the drop-off quickly falls to 3000m.
Like a fortress wall, the drop-off also blocks the current a bit and
creates a rather unpleasant choppy criss cross of small waves. I have
experienced it everytime I have left from Fortaleza. It is a bit hard on
the boat and when I woke up this morning I could feel my body had also
taken a bit of shaking around. Just no flow or rhythm to get into, the
motion of the ocean here is non-existent.

The waters at night also gets full of little fishing boats with their
bobbing whitish yellowish light showing the presence of such a vessel.
Not a big menace, but always the possibility of sailing into one so one
has to extra watchfull. We travelled about 140nm on this corrugated
stretch of ocean befor e we got to the deeper waters and conditions
started improving a bit.

Our speed however is great. We started with one reef in the mainsail and
genoa balanced to suit. As the night set in I decided to rather take the
main to second reef and once again balanced the headsail according,
making our sail surface quite a bit smaller. There was not much loss of
speed as we take extra care to trim the sails to perfection, and we were
comfortably sitting above 8kts. This whole operation of taking a reef in
I gave to Steven as he needs all the experience he can get, and kept an
eye on proceedings without interfering as the crew went through the
procedures. They are getting better at it as we practise it more and
more and soon I am sure things will be running smooth and fast when we
need to make a sail change. I also decided to reduce our sail area as we
are in the area where squalls can catch you unaware and easier to deal
with when the sails and boat won';t have to be stretched to the limit.

Our position at 10am on the boat, UTC -3 now, or 3pm in SA is
01*28'S/41*00'W. The equator is just over the horizon, about 150nm away
and by all accounts we should cross it within the next 24hrs. And
fortunately for the crew it will probably in daylight that they will be
swimming over. Only a small nautical term today, and aptly,'Man Friday'.
Factotum, handyman. The name of Robinson Crusoe's manservant in Defoe's
book of that name.

Have a wonderful weekend
'
Captain Paul

Fortaleza fading in the background

At the break of dawn, as planned, we raised our anchor and slipped away
quietly from our anchorage between the other yachts, who's occupants
haven't stirred yet. Steven and myself did this part of the operation as
our two crewmembers had taken to town and returned just before
sparrow's fart, so no stirring there either. Made our way out of the
harbour under motor and headsail and Steven went back to sleep. I always
take the first watch when we leave a place for various reasons.An hour
later Nick showed his face, the wind is coming just off the beam; just a
breeze really but enough to propel us to eight knots. Decided to go first
reef main and full genoa and within half an hour we had the sails up and
took some extra effort to tweak them to perfection. And it is paying of
handsomely. Still in the shallows, the continental shelf is rather wide
around here, but we are drawing away from land and our heading is exactly
magnetic north. Our autopilot is set on windvane mode to ensure a constant
angle of wind through the sails resulting in a constantly good turn of
speed. Our next destination is St.Lucia and just under 1700nm away. Should
we get exceptional good weather and current we could be there in eight
days requiring an average of eight knots. It is a little bit optimistic
but sailing up the northern coast of Brazil allows for a bit of optimism.
Good currents and steady winds are some of the elements we rely on to
achieve such an average, but then there is also the equator and a taste of
the doldrums ahead of us and possibly some thunderstorms. We are going to
try our best within the safety boundaries to get to St.Lucia on Friday and
perhaps even St.Vincent. We can then do our business in St.Vincent on
Saturday and get cracking for Panama, which is about 1200nm down the road,
a week or less if all goes well. We have just crossed the 4000nm mark and
going stronger than ever.

We have been reminded by some of our friends back home of the epicness of
crossing the Atlantic and we never forget the sacredness of this crossing. A
lot of people take years of preparation before they set of on such a
journey. In Europe the sailors get together weekly for meetings, sharing
advice, information and building up the courage to cast off. And then they
will set of in small fleets, knowing that there is safety in numbers. They
all stay in contact daily and can come to anyones assistance should the need
arise. In our case we have an operations manager backed by a worldwide team
that we report to twice weekly, and availble 24/7 in case of an emergency.
They are the best in the world at what they do and have an impeccable safety
record maintained over many years. That is our back-up and and that is what
makes us the best at what we do. A group of charter bases covering the most
exotic and sometimes truly historic sailing destinations around the globe is
part of the company we keep. Yes, sometimes I think we have died and gone to
heaven, with sailing boats and all.

Nautical expression today is 'Maroon'.A corruption of the Spanish word
'cimarron' which means wild or unruly. It was the word given to the slaves
in the Spanish colonies of the Caribbean. Later it was adopted by pirates of
the area and came to describe their practice of settling unwanted men down
on an inhospitable shore. Fortaleza was not so inhospitable, but we did
loose out on some of the reasons we came here for. We didn't do the 5star
breakfast buffet this morning or yesterday morning, we didn't get to fill
our water tanks, but we did get some time to unwind and the biggest plus was
being able to skype home, even though the internet was very expensive and
unreliable. I managed to get a good session in this morning at 2am our time
and 6am SA time. We have also changed the time on our boat and are now 5
hours behind SA. We have the liberty to change our time on the boat based on
when the sun rises and sets, and we try to keep dusk and dawn as close to
6am and 6pm as we can.

And with that I wish you an awesome time till we cross swords again.

Captain Paul

Full moon over Fortaleza

As the sun dipped over the horizon the moon peeped up behind us, both at
exactly the same time. A beautiful full moon was on the rise. Ahead of
us the lights of the big city of Fortaleza was flickering their secret
morse codes to each other, making navigating fairly difficult.
Fortunately our chartplotter was showing us the way and we could safely
enter into the Marina Park Hotel's marina. When we sailed passed Atholl
Dos Rocas the scientists there informed us that about ten yachts sailed
pass the last few days and I expected to see a few of them here. Going
into the marina it was clear as daylight that we won't be able to tie on
as there just was no space. Outside the marina there were also a number
of yachts anchored. So Steven didn't get his chance to practise this
complicated manouevre of tying on at Fortaleza. We turned the boat
around out of the marina and found a suitable spot to drop the anchor,
as close to shore as we could. A French guy, Luke, came around and
questioned our anchoring spot but soon was just fine and gave us a lift
ashore on his dingy.

We proceeded to a small restaurant on the northern flank of the hotel
and ordered four hamburgers and chips, four cokes and four beers. Soon
we were feeling well fed and enjoying being on land a bit. We then
proceeded to the pool and had four capharinhas. It was time to get back
to the boat and we got a few cokes, limes and some ice and swam our load
safely across. We had a drink or two on the boat and a relaxed albeit
serious discussion followed on all manner of subjects, including the
origan or source of Love. Soon afterwards we were soundly asleep, our
anchor light and the full moon watching over us.

This morning we were a bit groggy but soon were busy cleaning the boat
and putting the fenders and mooring lines away, just getting the boat
shipshape. We have got enough water to make it to St.Vincent, would have
liked to have had more though. We also stopped to just take a breather,
get a bigger picture of the weather ahead, check our mail and also skype
a bit. Eduan and Nick just swam ashore to go and do some shopping and
also get us some airtime for the internet. Once they get back Steven
will join them at the pool. I am quite content to stay on the boat.

Tomorrow morning we will leave at first light and should get to the
Caribbean within eight days. St. Lucia to collect an oil pump left there
for us, St.Vincent for some official business and to top up our water
tanks and then straight on to Panama.Interesting little nautical term
today is 'Shanty'. Work songs sung aboard ship which brightened up the
drudgery of hand hauling and also ensured the men all pulled their
weight together. There were different shanties for different work.
Halyard shanties were brisk for the quick but comparatively easy work of
hoisting sail. Capstan shanties sung when the anchor was to be hauled
aboard were generally slow and sentimental. The custom goes back to the
15th century and the word shanty probably takes its name from the French
'chanter', to sing.

Have yourself a wonderful Wednesday.

Captain Paul

We found nowhere

A question was posed by James, one of our landbased crewmembers. He has
heard about the Northern and Southern hemisphere but wants to know where
would the Western hemisphere be. In our rugby playing nations we often
refer to the Northern hemisphere nations and the Southern hemisphere
nations, but hardly ever hear of the Western or Eastern hemisphere.

Firstly, a hemisphere is one half of a sphere. In order to facilitate
navigation we used a term GMT to indicate where East and West should be
divided.It stood for Greenwich Meridium Time, Greenwich being a small
town in England. Many other nations had their own systems of dividing
the earth into sections, and for every nation, there country would be
the centre of where they divide the globe. France, China, Italy, Russia,
Greece, Portugal etc all had their own systems. And on the other side of
the globe the Polynesians had their own navigational methods.

In order to reach uniformity, it was decided that Greenwich would remain
the dividing line between East and West. It is now called the Prime
Meridian. And ofcourse the equator is where we divide North and South.
The Western hemisphere starts at 00 degrees 00 minutes 001 seconds West
and goes all around the globe to 180 degrees where it meets 180 degrees
East again.

The time zones also run on the same lines and UTC time stands for
Universal Time Coordinated. Moving West from the prime meridian every 15
degrees would take us one hour away from the prime meridian and we would
use a term UTC - 2 to say that we are in a certain time zone. By the
time we get to Tahiti we will be about 150 degrees West and UTC -10.
Going East from the Prime Meridian we add hours and South Africa is UTC
+ 2. Which means we will be 12 hours behind SA when we get to Tahiti.

Just for fun there is a place below Ghana and West of Gabon where the
equator and prime meridian meet. 00*00'000?/00*00'000?. We can call that
the middle of nowhere. All these lines and time zones are imaginary
lines and no, there is no line across the equator, although I've had
crew looking for it when I asked them if they could see it when we get
close. I prefer to use the moon and the sun as time instruments and the
stars to navigate by, it is the natural rhythm of Gaia. But the GPS does
give us a much more convenient and accurate way to fix our position.

We should be crossing the equator in the next few days, perhaps on
Sunday and our two new crewmembers, Nick and Eduan will cross the line
for the first time on a yacht.There are a few ways we make this ritual
something they will always remember and we give them a few choices. My
personal favourite is swimming across the equator which I think the two
guys will probably opt for. The other options are far more messy, but
also fun. They have to however choose well in advance, a few days at
least how they will cross the equator. We then have no idea wether they
will have to swim across during the day or in the middle of the night.
And to swim in the ocean at night is an experience as unforgettable as
you can get. Time will tell.

We are closing in on Fortaleza at speed and looks like we will make it
before the sun sets tonight. Our position at UTC -2 was
03*49'S/036*52'W. If you look on Google Earth there is a function you
can also set all the longitude and latitude lines. Latitude lines run
horizontal i.e. the equator and longitude lines run vertical .i.e. the
prime meridian. Nautical term for today we then make 'Latitude'. It
comes from the Latin word 'latitudo' which means breadth. In it's
nautical use it is a measure and is the amount by which a vessel's
position lies either north or south of the equator. Hence to allow a
person latitude is to give them scope and freedom of action.

Take care

Captain Paul

Ships, squalls and atholls

Just after sunset we were about 15nm south of Fenando Do Noronha.
Expecting some potentialshipping traffic we had our navlights for the
first time in a quite a while. I took over watch from Eduan at midnight
and half an hour later I spotted a ship, coming across us right on a
collision course. I radioed the ship and informed them that I will alter
course slightly and pass on their stern. On our point of sail it was a
bit difficult as we were on a broad reach and turning to starboard to
much would take the wind out of the headsail and she would start
flogging. An early change of course gave us just enough room to
manoeuvre in and we passed about a mile from the stern of the ship.

It dawned on me yesterday afternoon that our speed at which we are
sailing will afford us to have a closer look at Atholl Dos Rochas and
after passing Fernando we altered course slightly and expected to pass
the atholl between 8 and 10 this morning. We wanted to go a bit closer
but conditions were slightly rough for a swim and we just sailed pass.
We were in radio coms with four marine biologists from Brazil who is
here for a month long research project. They were very happy to chat to us
and we shared some pleasantries. Being from Brazil I informed themthat we
are from South Africa and we think they should learn to play soccer. All
four of them apparently play soccer and we challenged them to a game of
beach soccer. They laughed and informed us that they have a lot of work to
do. Anyway, we could go ashore as it is a protected marine reserve, the
conditions weren'y conducive. Swimming ashore would also be rather
foolish. In asked them what species of sharks they have at the atholl and
it was the expected grey shark and gully shark, and then more unexpected
a type of bull shark,white tip open ocean shark and tiger shark. The last
three are known for their unfriendly behaviour towards humans under
certain conditions. Make no mistake, I love sharks and they are truly
beautiful, but there are times when you shouldn't get too close to them.

To time our ETA at the atholl I furled in the genoa a bit as the wind
started to pick up a bit. The sea became a bit boisterous and ten minutes
later we were hit by our first squall of the trip. Our apparent wind
topped at twenty and we were sailing fast but safe at about 10kts. I was
thankful that I had furled in the headsail ten minutes before as the true
wind speed was 30kts. I have a holy respect for these sudden storms that
creep up on you at night as I have been through some serious storms
before, having had to fight for our lifes with everything I had. It rained
just a little bit and ten minutes later the storm had passed over. When
Nick came on watch after me I informed him of what happened on my watch
and handed the boat over to him. I was asleep for maybe 45 minutes when I
heard the props of the boat starting to whine, a sure sign of another
squall coming over. In a flash I was out and sat with Nick for a while as
the second storm passed over us. This time it rained quite a bit and the
wind peaked at about 23 apparent and boat speed at about 12kts. A
little more intense than the previous one. A couple of windshifts also
happen before, during and after squalls and he learned a bit about storm
tactics.

We are making great progress towards Fortaleza and expect to arrive there
sometime tomorrow night. If we are lucky we will get in just before the
sun sets. Having just experienced Atholl Dos rochas again, a most pristine
example of natural beauty, it once again reminded me on what a beautiful
planet we live. Gaia, as some of us call her, our beloved Mother Nature,
our Nurturer, that what our bodies came from and will go back to. And the
way we have been treating her, us as a human species. Or rather exploiting
and just taking things for granted. I have been reminded of the green
issues we are faced with, the challenges we are confronted with. My eight
year old daughter has a firm grasp of that there is no away. You can't
throw anything away. If you ask her to throw something away she will ask
where away is. It is just moving stuff away from you but there is no away.
I have to start at the core of what I think is needed for our planet. We
once again have to respect ourselves and our planet, realize the
sacredness and the oneness of us all. We are part of our planet and our
planet is part of us. For the next few blogs we will look at some of these
issues and how they tie in with body, mind, spirit and soul. How fear and
greed have robbed us blind, and how we can turn the tide.

Nautical term for today is 'Out of the Blue'. The totally unexpected.
Short for'out of a clear blue sky' and is an analogy to a sudden change in
the weather when, from a good breeze under a cloud dappled blue sky, a
demon squall can appear and wreak havoc on the ship. Probably the best
documented example of this was in the spring of 1878 when HMS Eurydice was
on the last few miles of her journey home to Portsmouth from Bermuda. The
day was calm, the weather was sunny, all sails were set, all ports and
windows were open and all men on duty were relaxing on deck. Then without
warning a dark cloud appeared, a squall struck and Eurydice went down with
368 men. Within half an hour the weather was perfect again.

At night it is even more difficult to spot a squall catching up on you. It
is terefore prudent to expect squalls,fly lesser sails and sacrifice speed
for safety. We received a radio call from a ship a few days ago re a yacht
that send of an emergency signal via their epirb. The position they gave
us is close to where we are now and I am starting to form an idea of what
might have happened to the sailors. But you can also not expect to cross
oceans without expecting a few storms on the way. This is part of what
keeps us humble, respectful and watchful. Some of us anyway. The rest pay
the ultimate price.

Our position at 10am our time, UTC - 2 or 14h00 SA time is
03*49'S/034*02'W. We are 260nm from Fortaleza and at our current speed it
will take us 32 hrs, so yes, we are sailing fast, but not gunning it.

Wishing a pleasant day and week ahead.

Captain Paul

Sailing hard

I plotted our position this morning and saw that we have two obstacles
directly in line with Fortaleza. Fernando Do Noronha and 50 miles
further Atholl Das Rochas. I changed our course a bit to give these two
beautiful features a wide berth. It resulted in us sailing on a broad
reach closer to a beam reach and our speed has increased considerably. I
have been to those these places before and both are awesome beyond
words. We did a night entry into Fernando Do Noronha and the currents
were very tricky. We will pass them some time tonight but no stopping
this time. They have no ferry service there and to get water to the boat
is nigh impossible.

Looks like we will arrive at Fortaleza on Tuesday night late, or perhaps
we will slow down just a bit and make an early morning entry. I have
done a few night entries there and there are millions of lights ashore
and hundreds of little fishing boats bobbing about at night. Depending
on what speed we maintain I will make a call when we are much closer.
Steven will get a change to take us into the marina and learn how to do
this Mediterranean style mooring. You drop your anchor and the go
backwards towards the walk-on. When you are close enough one of the crew
jumps off and the other crew passes the mooring lines.The anchor chain
must be tight by this time and you have to drag the anchor a bit to
position your stern and tie down. Sounds easy enough, but the tricky
part is that the wind normally is blowing from the side and pushing you
off. Which means you have to come in at an angle to counteract the
windage. One of the most difficult manouvres to pull off. I will be
standing by his side to guide him through the process.

Last night we had some visitors on board, a noisy bunch until they
settled in for the night. Five sooty terns if I have the name correct,
medium sized black birds with webbed feet,scavengers of the ocean. The
normally follow scholls of bonnies or tuna and when the fish are feeding
on smaller fish these birds pick up the morsels floating around. They
are fairly tame birds and you can get real close to them before they
start getting a bit wary. They enjoyed our company so much that they
stayed till about 8 o'clock our time with the sun long time up already.
They normally fly away as soon as it gets light again.

Nicks turn to cook tonight and he is becoming a master at doing magic
with chicken. He probably would have preferred fish and who knows, the
day is still a puppy. Eduan nearly had a mishap last night. Busy tying a
gybe preventer on he was leaning over the safety rails when the boat
lurched a bit as a wave went through under us. He got a big fright and
fortunately he learned a very valuable lesson. Always respect the ocean
and always expect the unexpected. I had a few gentle words with him and
the other crew this morning, just iterating the rules of safety on board
a yacht. And the main one is to stay aboard.

Our position at UTC - 2 this morning, 2 pm SA time was 04*04'S/031*02'W.
We are 440 nm from Fortaleza.

Hope you have a superb Sunday.

Captain Paul

On attitude, latitude and longitude

Just a little posting today to give you our position, our disposition
and some food for thought, albeit not from me but oh so true. In case
you don't want to read further and just want our position it was
04*18'S/028*22'W. We are 600nm from Fortaleza and if conditions prevail
we will arrive there on Tuesday afternoon. We have sailed up to a
position just east of Fortaleza on a run, and have now turned straight
towards Fortaleza on a broad reach. No longer two headsails, mainsail
second reef and genoa first reef and we are doing exceedingly well. The
boat and sails are nicley balanced and we are making the most of the
cards we are dealt with. Nick has just let the lure out again and we can
now turn around much faster should we get a strike, simply just tack.
Sounds simple but there are a few tricks involved in making it fast and
smooth. Hoping for a few reasons that we will have to do this, one to
teach the crew something new about sailing and two to land a fish. The
following was send to me and I would love to share it with you, so here
we go.

The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life,
Attitude to me, is more important than facts.
it is more important than the past, than education,than money,than
circumstances.than failures,than success. than what other people think
or
say or do.
it is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill.
It will make or break a person a home.
The remarkable thing is we have a choice everydag regarding the attitude
we
will embrace for that day.

We cannot change our past.
We cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way.
We cannot change the inevitable.

The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have and that is
our
ATTITUDE.
I AM CONVINCED THAT LIFE IS 10% WHAT happens to me and 90% how I react
to
it.
and so it is with you

Troubles come to all of us, it's a natural part of life. The most
important
thing of all is how we respond to them.

Wishing you a wonderful weekend.

Captain Paul

And another one bites the dust

We had a hook-up, the bucket went in, the danbouy went flying it's flag,
all hands on deck, we dropped the loose headsail, then furled in the
main headsail, then started the motor and turned the boat around and
started looking for the red and orange flag which was by this time far
behind us. Just turned the boat right around and started backtracking,
binoculars scanning the horizon. Into the wind and swell we eventually
spotted the flag and another ten minutes or so we were at the flag. At
the time of the hook-up Nick was on watch and woke me up with some
urgency. We watched the billfish jumping and furiously slapping his tail
in the water, making big splashes dragging the drum and danbouy behind
him. Time of hook-up was exactly 09:15 our time which would make it
about 13h15 your time as our time is now four hours behind you. We were
shouting from the thrill of thinking that this time we had it.

When we got to the the drum and danbouy we thought the fish must be
tired as there was not much drag on the line.Huge was our disapointment
when we retrieved the line and found the line chafed through, the hook
off and the fish gone. Immediatly back to the drawing board I asked
Steven to braid us a length of trace using three strands and tieed this
onto the hook and through the lure which was still on. A little blue and
white lure that I specified and Nick tied on this morning. An hour later
and we are back on track, our sails aflying and our lure looking for
some unwary denizen of the deep.

Nick is busy making some cupcakes at the moment, Steven is on watch and
just made us some 2miinute noodles for lunch and Eduan is having a nap
outside in the shade. It is now nearly 30*C here by us, wonder what will
happen when we go 10* higher. Myself once again humbled and thankful for
the opportunity to try harder, stretch my brain a bit and take it to the
max, once again. If this doesn't work I will get some steel trace cable
or wire from my amigo Armando in Fortaleza.

Long walk to freedom

This morning finds us still sailing and sailing faster and faster.The
wind direction is also starting to come around and curving us nicely in
to Fortaleza. My crew must really have faith in me. For the novice it
will look like we are not sailing the shortest and fastest route. Aiming
a bit higher and getting a better angle on our sails and trusting that
the trade winds will turn us in.

Yesterday I was explaining how we now intend to catch a fish. In the
interem it dawned on me that we cannot turn the boat around in a flash
as we can on a powercat. We are running with two headsails and will
first have to drop the one and furl in the other before we can turn on
the motor and turn around. If the wind was coming from the side, on a
beam reach as we call it, it would be very easy. Man overboard drills we
practice this all the time. And by the time I have dropped the headsails
and turned the boat around the blue bucket will be floating in a big
blue ocean with the morning sun blinding us. So once again I had to up
the game a bit. How will we see the bucket was the problem. Took me a
few minutes to come up with a solution. Attach a danbouy to the bucket.
A danbouy is a weighted pole with a float towards the bottom. A long red
pole with a flag on top. It was developed for a man overboard situation,
and in SA it is law that we carry these. If I am not mistaken it was
developed in SA due to our sometimes big and rough seas. Sailing from
Cape Town to Durban is considered the most dangerous passage in the
world. Many reason why this is so. Back to the point, should the fish
take our lure now the bucket will drop and the danbouy will follow and
we will be able to see it from far away. The flag on top is red and
yellow, so easy to spot on the ocean. Can't give up, we have to keepon
trying and up our game to take on the big game fish without rod and
reel. Our first choice would be a dorado but we will be truelly thanful
for any fish. Not that we will starve if we don't catch a fish, it will
just improve our diet substantially. It is a rather complicated looking
set-up but as long as everything is free to fall into the water when the
fish strikes you are good. Last night we took the set-up down and Nick
who is doing the morning watch has just set it up. Tied on a new lure
and rigged the whole kebang, so here goes to nothing or......watch this
space.

You may wonder how some of the content from the last few postings link
together. Body, mind, spirit, soul and time. One word. Freedom. The
French have a saying, liberte toujours, freedom always. How this little
word relates to your body, your mind, your spirit, your soul and time I
will leave to your imagination, for now, ha ha ha. On the subject of
body, mind, spirit and soul I have received the following from one of
our readers.

The body of man- our flesh bone blood were made of the dust of the earth
.(Body Earth.)
That is the part with which we are most familiar with. The physical side
of
man.

The Spirit of Man.
Our God conciousness. God breathed into the nostrils of Adam, giving him
the spirit ( Wind Breath)
The spirit is the Capital city of the human personality.

The soul of man.
The soul is self conciousness, it stands for the individual, personal
life.
Hungry soul, a weary soul, a thirsty soul, a grieved soul, a loving
soul.
The soul joins two worlds, the physical and the spiritual.
The soul is to keep the body, as the lowest in subjection to the spirit
the
highest.

Man was created with the ability to think, love, and
make decisions.

On the origin of Love I am still waiting to hear from this reader but
thanks for the input.

Nautical expression today is 'Clean Slate'. It was the custom in the old
days to record the courses and distances on a log slate and, at the end
of the watch, transfer this information into the deck logbook. When this
was comnplete, the slate was wiped clean for the next watch to take
over. From this comes the notion of forgetting what has gone before and
starting anew.

Our current position is 05*31'S/025*46'W @ 07:00 UTC - 2. Yes, we have
changed our time on the boat again and we are now four hours behind SA
time. We like the sun to rise and set at abour 6. We are 760nm from
Fortaleza and can start expecting more shipping traffic.

Wishing you a wonderful weekend.

Captain Paul

If I could safe time in a bottle ......

Shaiks ! Yesterday we were hit by a BIG FISH , hooked solidly by our new
configuration. See I spelt this word wrong in yesterdays posting. No
editing, just hit and send. So excuse if a little mistake slips through
here and there. Back to the fish, it snapped our 1500kg breaking strain
line with a bang. There were some choice words that left my mouth, unfit
to publish. Not only because it snapped and got away but also because
the lure was the one that Maryna my daughter handpicked from 100's of
others and it was the one we had all our strikes on. And ofcourse
feeling sorry for the fish that will have to swim with a hook in his
mouth for a few days before it will rust off. And because on our
previous trip on a fast Powercat I devised a method that when the fish
strikes a 30ltr empty water bucket is tied to the line and dragged off
the boat by the fish. A quick tack and chasing the bucket which is
hopping over the water, we had great success like this last time. I
thought going considerably slower we would not need the bucket. I have
never needed it before on a sailing vessel. So yes, back to school it
felt like to me. I have learned something new to up my game and did not
aplly it. Pretty p'd off is the closest I'll get to using strong
language on record. So yes, we have the bucket method back in place and
ready to turn the boat around in a flash to chase after our bucket and
the fish that is dragging it around.

Through the years I have read some very interesting book on Time, and
our perception of it. When I finished matric me and a few friends took
our watches off and placed it under one of the wheels of my fleetline
combi I had those years. Backwards and forwards and backwards again we
voiced our opinion on being slaves to time. Since then I have never worn
a watch again, being a rebel at heart.James Dean was perhaps a rebel
without a cause, I was a rebel without a clue. There are many other
sources where we can get the time from, and nowadays my cellphone also
tells me what the time is. I have never been late for any appointment
and it was one of the reasons I got the job when I was contracting doing
renovations and building.

We have been conditioned to think time is linear, or runs in a
horizontal line. You are born, you go to school, you work most of your
life, you go on pension and you die. Nice, easy, no questions asked, you
have served your duty to humanity, but mostly to industry. I wonder who
decided that one's date of birth must be recorded and that exactly one
year later you celebrate your first birthday. The Romans devised the 12
month calendar and they were certainly slave masters as their empire
expanded. Born in a leap year on the 29th of February as in 2012, you
will only celebrate your birthday every four years, perhaps a secret to
staying younger much longer, 4 to 1. So we sliced up periods of time
into ever smaller sections so we could get some control over it, or try
to at least. I wonder how the bushmen kept record of time or were they
perhaps just aware of the seasons that come and go. Their works of art
remain timeless and the sacredness with which they viewed everything
around them, including themselves, were faultless. So much we can learn
from these small hunters and artists.

Back to time and our perception of it. Is there perhaps another way to
look at time, in a more vertical manner. Get a peep at all the possible
dimensions. Einstein escaped this timetrap most of us are caught in and
developed the theory of relativity. Would time exist if there was no-one
to keep track of time, in the way we understand time? Is time the way we
understand it an illusion? And why would it be important for us to try
and break free from this illusion. Simple really, part of us is
immortal, but the way we view time we forget about that. We talk about
and have all types of memories about back in the day. The future we fret
about, but the most important, the very moment, is all we really have.
But who of us can savour the moment. If you had no baggage from the past
and no future to worry about, and only the moment to experience,
wouldn't that be something. Perhaps we can look at it in another way. If
you suffer from some incurable disease and the doctors give you six
months to live, how would that affect you. What would then become
important, vital. Would every sunrise and sunset just be another day
gone by, or would it take on a whole new meaning. Special, sacred,
unforgettable. What would you spend your time on, watching TV? I know I
wouldn't, I would savour every single moment as if it was my last. And
in reality today is all we have. Tomorrow you may be dead and gone.

Our current position @ 11:00 UTC - 1 is 06*18'S/023*49'W. Fortaleza,
Brazil is 888.8nm away and Tahiti about 8400nm's. Hope you have a day
with at at least one unforgettable moment.

Captain Paul

Where did Love originate from ?

Here by us all is well. For the last few days we've been having some
good winds and making up for some lost time. We also had another strike
this morning and came to the coclusion that it must be billfish,
probably sailfish which is trying to stun our lures. In a natural
enviroment billfish would stun their prey and as the prey then stop
swimming for a moment position themselves and go for the kill,
swallowing the in this case flying fish. There are copious amounts of
flying fish all around, taking off in huge squadrons, touching the water
and taking off again in random directions. Their glistening bodies and
awesome manouvres are always awesome to watch.It also gives us the
reassurance that there is life out here, besides ourselves. One of the
lures I have no rigged specifically for billfish, a type of outrigger
configuration. I have had success a few times before with this method
and we normally release the saily.

An interesting question came up, hence the subject of this posting. We
often end our correspondence with Love and Light. By that we imply and
wish Love and Light of the highest order to abide with you on your
journey. If we summize that the method that was used to create the
universe was a most amazing orchestrated event called the 'Big Bang' and
that Light originated from there, where would Love then originate from.
The English language is sometimes not so descriptive as we would
want,and other languages follow closely behind. There are all types of
love, and we use it to describe a feeling, a thought, an expression.
Using the same word to describe a nearly endless variety of what of what
we are trying to express, all with different meanings. Yes, there are a
lot of truisms and cliches about love, but what is it really and where
does it originate from? I don't know. I have a few ideas but I am
looking for something new, a new insight into this very thing called
love. I know you can come up with sentences that contain the word love .
We all pertain to be experts at it. We all want it, we are all looking
for it, and we all give it.

Our first experience of love is and was motherly love. Right through the
animal kingdom we can see it. Can plants also give and receive love. Are
the fruit and vegetables we eat perhaps accepting the love of plants. On
all accounts love is definately a type of energy that vibrates
throughout the universe. Is compassion love? I certainly think so, and I
also think it is the highest form of love. And what you give is what you
get. Sometimes these are ideas that we don't understand completely. On a
more practical level showing how energy resonates in unison there are
many examples I can give. If I pluck one string on my guitar I can feel
the other strings vibrating as well, including the wood that forms and
amplifies the sound of the string. Your voice is also an instrument that
resonates. Some opera singers can reach such a high note with their
voices that they can can crack a crystal glass. In the same way, this
wave energy that starts at a source travels on and on, perhaps into
infinity.I have much to contemplate on this matter as I would like to
solidy this ethereal matter into some new understanding. If you have any
ideas on this matter please share it.

"Fathom" is the nautical term today. From the Anglo Saxom 'faedm' to
embrace, which loosely describes the manner by which this measure
arrived. A fathom is six feet which is the span of an average man's
arms. Ropes to be measured were held in each hand and stretched across
the chest. Unhappily the word is dying at sea as measures and depths are
now expressed in metres. However, the word still survives ashore where
its figurative meaning is to get to the bottom of things to penetrate or
understand.

Our position now @ 11:30 UTC + 1 is 07*02'S/021*39'W. We are 1020nm from
Fortaleza. Tomorrow we will look a bit at Time, our sometimes relentless
master.

Love and Light

Paul