Faith

Greetings from the north eastern tip of Brazil. On watch from 3am to 6am
this morning, the lights of Port Natal was looming in the distance, a soft
white hue on the horizon. About 25nm away one could not distinguish any
particular light or lights. Sister Moon was sinking into the ocean right
ahead of us, her silver veil following her, and only once she disappeared,
the loom became visible. At first I thought it was a cloud that was
reflecting the moonlight. I had a look at our chartplotter and then it
dawned on me; the first sign of land after about two weeks since departing
from St.Helena.

St.Helena, as always, was an incredible visit for us. We arrived there on
a Saturday morning at about 4am. At 3am I did the usual sing song with
St.Helena Radio on VHF channel 16. "St.Helena Radio, St.Helena Radio,
St.Helena Radio, this is Yacht Leopard, Yacht Leopard, Yacht Leopard,
over." Soon a voice on the other side was singing back to me. "Yacht
Leopard, Yacht Leopard, Yacht Leopard. This is St.Helena Radio, St.Helena
Radio, St.Helena Radio. Over." I then sang St.Helena Radio 3 times back,
then This is Yacht Leopard 3 times, and then proceeded to inform them that
we are expecting to arrive at the Jamestown anchorage in about an hour's
time. The radio operator informed me of the usual procedures. An hour
later we tied up to a mooring buoy, and waited for Port Control to contact
us on the VHF radio. At 08h30 Port Control called us and we changed to
channel 14. They asked a few questions and then asked us to stand by on
channel 16. Sometimes Port Control, Customs and Immigration would all get
on the small ferry boat and come to the yacht to clear us in. Sometimes
they would give us permission to come ashore and do all the official
procedures there. This time it was the latter, and by 9am we were waiting
for the ferry to collect us. We had our passports and official boat papers
ready. First visit for James, my 1st Mate, and Hubert, the French owner
who contracted us to sail his vessel to the Caribbean.

The ferry arrived, collecting us after first collecting crew from two
other yachts on the mooring buoys, and proceeded to the landing at
Jamestown. We all disembarked, and setting foot on this volcanic island I
last visited a year ago, was as it always is, a great pleasure. The sail from
Cape Town was a good one, and St.Helena marks reaching a milestone on
our journey. After two weeks on a yacht, solid land does not feel so solid
at all. It feels a bit wobbly and the feeling always makes me smile. Our
first stop was at Port Control and Customs where we were warmly welcomed
by the Port Master, Steve, and a staff member that handed me the paperwork
I had to complete. Always a jovial little affair. We then proceeded to
Immigration and it was good to see familiar faces once again, and welcomed
to the island with open arms. Real, warm people.

From Immigration we walked across to Anne's Place, a place famous to
yachties all over the world. I have visited the island about 20 times
before and have forged close friendships with the people here, so much so
that I very much feel part of the family. And whenever I visit, we find a
reason to celebrate. Like a long lost son coming home. This time round I
sensed a bit of trouble. It was Saturday morning, and the "Closed" sign was
up. That has never stopped me from going in before, which I did as usual.
First person I bumped into was my good friend Sally, and after the
usual warm heartfelt hug and kiss, she informed me that Jessica is in
hospital and fighting for her and her unborn baby's life. She had trouble
breathing, her lips had gone blue. Sally had just come from the hospital to
fetch Jane, Jessica's mom. Jane saw me and I could see the concerned look
in her eyes. Gave her a hug and a kiss, and told her that everything will
be ok. I have known Jessica since she was a little girl, and she is like a
daughter to me. Richard, my very good friend, Jessica's dad, came out and I
could see he was not well either. Stressing beyond what his body could
endure, he lately developed high blood pressure he told me. He was also
complaining of his left arm that has been going numb the last few days. I
told him he should take a disprin immediately, it is not a good sign when
your left arm goes numb like that. My crew wanted to go and explore the
island a bit. I told them to go and enjoy, I will be staying with Richard
until we know what is happening to Jessica. Both Jane and Sally left, and
it was just Richard and myself. I could understand his fear and his stress,
sat down with him and just kept him company. Urging him to stay positive,
sharing his pain with him, but also trying to pull him out of this misery
that was engulfing him. Jessica was supposed to have an emergency caesarean
at 12h00. It was already 13h00 and still no news. Richard is a strong, big
and rugged man, with a heart as soft as you can get. Jessica is his only
daughter, she was in trouble, he was busy falling apart. I love my daughter
more than life itself, and I am sure Richard feels the same about his
daughter. At about 14h30 we got the news.... Jessica is ok, the baby .....
well, it is a girl !!!!!, 5 and a half pounds. There was a silence between
Richard and me; a thankfulness, a gratefulness, a togetherness. A quiet
sense of relief. Not a mad jumping up and down celebration. When Jane
returned I congratulated her, mothers can be so very very strong. On
Monday, the doctors asked Jessica whether she wanted to stay in hospital,
or go home. Although still very weak and in pain, Jessica opted to come
home. Just before we left St.Helena on Monday afternoon, I made a final
turn at Anne's Place to go and say goodbye. Jane came out with the little
newborn baby and placed the precious little child in my arms. Jessica came
out soon afterwards, walking slowly but steadily and gave me a tender
little hug and kiss. She sat down and I knelled down next to her with the
two day old baby smiling in my arms. I asked Jessica what the little girl's
name is. She named her daughter Faith.....a more apt name I could not think
of.

We were planning to just make a quick stop at St.Helena. From Cape Town to
St.Helena took us 13 days, a bit longer than expected. Currents were
holding us back a bit. It is also the place where Napoleon was kept
captive, and Hubert, being French, was keen to visit his house, his grave,
and do a tour of the island. As the house is only open by arrangement
during week days, we would have to wait till Monday. Providence. Saturday
afternoon we lowered our tender into the water, started the brand new
Yamaha 15H.P. outboard and made plans to go ashore under our own steam. The
ferry service only runs till 6pm, which limits your time on the island
somewhat. The landing is a quite rough concrete wall, and to tie the tender
up against it would cause quite a bit of damage. It was also a bit too big
and heavy to lift out of the water. There are lines that is anchored and
runs into the bay. Most of the fishing boats and the ferry is tied to these
lines. We thus tied a long line to our tender, and formed a loop around the
anchored line. After getting off the the tender, we pulled her back to the
line away from the wall, safe and sound. We had a lovely oriental meal at
The Orange Tree on Saturday night. After dinner we wanted to go and play a
game of pool at a place called Donny's on the wharf. The table was however out
of order, they were waiting for spare parts to come by ship, the RMS
St.Helena. Donny's is a bar and disco and the loud music and no pool table
did not really appeal to us after such a hectic day, and we made our way
back to our yacht for a relatively early night.

Sunday morning we woke refreshed and well rested. We brought a few bags of
charcoal and a few other goodies for my friends/family at Anne's Place and
arranged with them to fetch it from the yacht on Sunday morning. At about
9am Richard and his two sons Brian and Michael arrived and we loaded the
goodies on the ferry. Tied up close to us was another sailing boat with 11
crew, the Howard Davies. She is a well known vessel that normally is tied
up at the V&A Waterfront in Cape Town doing day charters. This time round
she was a floating sailing school for Two Oceans. The skipper, Wavey, 1st
Mate Nqoba, and 9 Yachtmaster Ocean sailing students. Their route runs from
Cape Town to St.Helena to Rio de Janeiro and back to Cape Town. A classical
50 year old sailing boat, with lots of wood and creaks and things like
that. The 11 of them, Richard and his sons and the cargo from us and the
little ferry boat was just above the water line :) We asked the ferry to
fetch us on the 10am round. We had breakfast at The Consulate Hotel. My
good friend Hazel is part owner and also runs the place. Her business
partner, Peter, an ex physics professor, was on the wharf preparing and
applying a fresh coat of paint on his yacht Galaxy that he recently sold.
St. Helena's coffee is considered the second best in the world, second only
to Blue Mountain coffee from Jamaica. I have had the pleasure to enjoy Blue
Mountain coffee in Jamaica when I ran for shelter from a hurricane there
once. I enjoy both coffees equally, and I am no connoisseur when it comes to
coffee, or anything else for that matter :))) It was splendid to see Hazel
and Peter again. Note that I am trying to refrain from using the word
awesome :))), even though it would apply to many of these situations. The
breakfast at The Consulate was great, and the coffee served in generous
portions in plungers.

Sunday afternoon was quiet, all the shops closed, and we slowly started to
prepare for a bbq at Anne's Place, warming to the occasion with a few
Windhoek Draughts :) We caught the last ferry at 6pm back to our yacht and
fetched our tender. Just quickly, tender, rubber duck, dinghy, same thing,
more or less without getting too technical. I will use tender. We invited a
few bodies from the Howard Davis yacht and proceeded back to Anne's Place.
As always we had a most agreeable time, and at 10pm I called it a day and we
dropped our Howard Davis friends at their yacht and had another good rest on
ours. During Sunday we also made arrangements with Robert, our chosen tour
guide, to collect us at 09h30 for an island tour and to arrange for a tour
of Napoleons house. Robert is part of the history of St.Helena. At 80 years
old he is getting competition from the younger tour guides, but I always
choose him when he is available.

Our first stop was at the most remote distillery in the world, owned and
operated by my long time and good friend Paul. He is Sally's hubby and
stokes some of the most amazing moonshine in the world in huge copper
kettles that was custom made in Germany. His coffee liqueur, Midnight Mist,
is second to none. I enjoy coffee liqueur, Tia Maria from Jamaica, Kahlua
from I don't know where. Midnight Mist takes the number 1 spot for me. His
White Lion Spiced Rum has also improved in heaps and bounds, his gin is made
from real juniper berries that grows wild on the island, becoming a very
rare item indeed. Tungi, his exclusive brand, is made from prickly pears
that is harvested in season on the island. He also made a special limited
edition brandy for Napoleon's 150th anniversary. All sold to someone in
Switzerland who will supply exclusive clients in France. To have a little
sample of all these products early in the morning before breakfast is a very
merry occasion indeed :))) Liquid breakfast. I have heard of beer as a
liquid lunch, but this is on another level. Everything in moderation though.
Hubert acquired a few bottles of what he enjoyed most.

We then visited Napoleon's house where he passed on, his grave where his
body was laid until the French took his body back to Paris, and the Governor's
House where Jonathan roams. Jonathan is arguably the oldest living animal in
the world, between 180 and 250 years old. And still actively procreating
:))) Maybe his secret is taking it slow, being an Aldabra Tortoise and all.
All too soon our time at St.Helena was up and it was time to go. We then
visited the newly build airport, a massive project that apparently will cost
about 300 million British pounds. The official opening is on 21 May if I am not
mistaken, and a member or two of the royal family is expected to attend. It is
an end of an era, the end of the RMS St.Helena, a passenger/cargo ship that ran
a route between SA, England and St.Helena, and supplied all the goods that the
island required. A weekly flight from Johannesburg contracted to Comair is
planned. A flight from England is also on the table. The RS St.Helena will be
no more. The end of an era. I trust that the airport will have a positive
effect on St.Helena.

We've had a lovely sail from St.Helena up to Brazil, despite the currents
which just wouldn't let us go. But we kept up our good cheer, kept doing our
best, weathered a few tricky moments. One of them was at about 1am on
Hubert's watch. I heard him shouting for me from my cabin and on the way up I
shouted at James to get up to come and help. Running past the db board I
also flicked on the deck light. We were both next to Hubert in a flash. In an
instant I assessed what happened and had to react swiftly and safely. The
wind was fairly strong, and our Code 0 sail has become undone where it is
attached to the bowsprit. The huge sail was flogging wildly loose in the
wind, and as if that was not enough trouble, a dark cloud came over us and
rained poured down in buckets. No time to don foul weather gear, dressed in
shorts, that's it. I took over the helm and started shouting instructions to
James, and shouting to Hubert to get out of the way of the flogging sail,
shouted at him to gtf down. I do swear and curse at times. It is at times
like this when injuries and man over board are most likely to happen. No time
for being nice, no second changes. The noise of the rain and flogging sail
was deafening, and James understood exactly what I was going to do. Or rather
was already busy doing. He has done a few trips with me before and he knows
when the chips are down there are no time to discuss anything, just follow
instructions. I was busy dropping the sail while James was dragging the sail
towards the back of the boat and gathering the sail that was coming down. The
front part of the sail was the dangerous part, the part that could take you
out in a flash. Once we had regained control of the sail Hubert could now
safely assist. We don't want any sail or ropes in the water that could get
around the props and just make matters worse. A pin came loose and the
fastening part was bent open. Hubert was in a bit of despair as he thought that
was the end of us flying this great sail. We however sorted it out the next
day, made some alterations preventing the pin from coming loose again. Hoisted
the sail and with great sighs of relief sat back and enjoyed.

We are stopping in Fortaleza a bit later today for some fresh produce, some lpg
gas, but mostly to spend a bit of time on land. Good for morale as extended
time on the ocean does take it's toll. Just a 24 hour stop though, an looking
forward to catching up with my good friend Armando again after many years. He
is the marina manager and we are always delighted to see each other.

I hope you enjoyed sharing some of our experiences on the ocean wide. Looking
forward to share with you again soon.

Take care

Paul

La Marie Bulles making Water from Air !!!

When I first quoted on delivering a Leopard 40 from Cape Town to Buenos
Aires, already the prospect of sailing the Atlantic Ocean started bubbling
up in me. The destination changed to St. Maarten as the date the owner
received the boat and the season moved on a bit. I mostly sailed the
Indian Ocean for the last two years, except for a delivery to France early
last year. Sailing to France you normally have a smooth run up to the
equator and from there on beat your way to the Med. This time round, we
are staying with the trade winds, past St. Helena where we will stop for a
day or two, past Brazil and French Guyana into the Caribbean via Barbados
and St.Lucia. Lots of smooth, fast sailing with following winds and seas.
No passage is ever without it's challenges though, the milk run as we call
this route can get a bit hectic at times, but mostly it's a song and a
breeze.

It is always interesting to sail with an owner on board. Different
dynamics for sure, 95% of my deliveries are with a 1st Mate and a
crew member. I have been most fortunate that the owners I have sailed with
before have become lifelong friends, bonded by days and nights out on the
ocean, for weeks on end. The amount of fun we get up to and the laughter
we share, the intense moments when things get a bit rough, the little
stops in between, and then finally, the arrival at our destination. All
moments forever cast in gold and scattered with diamonds.

On a good Monday, I was introduced to Hubert Heyndrickx. A jovial French
gentleman turning 64 this year. He has had some boating and sailing
experience before, but respected the fact that experience in crossing an
ocean is worth paying for, and hired me as skipper. Lots of advantages
attached to that as he found out. A fellow Frenchman, Noburt, has been in
Cape Town a few months and will could still be there for another month
before he can depart. Lots of red tape, safety inspections, registrations
etc you have to do before you can depart on a newly build yacht from South
Africa. To source all the goodies you want for your boat is much easier if
you have a skipper that knows exactly where to find what you need. Even
more so if you are a foreigner. And to have Tui Marine oversee procedures
you have the best team in the world to back you up. Tracker, satellite
phone, epirbs, liferaft etc all supplied and monitored by them. Within a
week of receiving the boat, we were officially ready to leave. We could now
focus on the weather and preparing and provisioning for crossing the
Atlantic Ocean.

La Marie Bulles is the name that the owner and his family chose for their
home on the sea. The name can mean a few things, and is a bit Spanish and a
bit French. It holds a special meaning for the family. In short, it can
also mean bubbles of the sea. And bubbles itself also has different symbolic
meanings. After a week of getting things sorted, the weather looked fine and on
the first Sunday after receiving the boat we took her for a maiden sail. Or
seatrial if you want. Had all the sails up and chased down some other
catamarans that were sailing in Table Bay. Beautiful sunny day it was and a
more spectacular background than Table Mountain and surrounds I have yet to
find, and I have travelled far and wide, on and off the beaten tracks.

Imagine buying a new car, and letting it sit there for a week before you drive
it. Now times that by a thousand and you will begin to understand a bit of
the anticipation Hubert must have experienced. He worked 42 years to realise
one of his childhood dreams. He had owned a few smaller boats before, but
this was the real one, the one you could sail across oceans in great comfort
and style. He also had a crate full of personal goodies imported from France
to find their place on their new home. Goodies that has sentimental value to
him and his wife Marie. All this was stored on board, gas bottles purchased,
filled and fitted, and soon one could start living on the boat. The Sunday
we took La Marie Bulles out for her first sail was very special. Hubert
requested to take the boat out of the mooring into the marina, through the
Bascule bridge and the Chevonne Battery swing Bridge, into port and out to
sea. I gave him a few pointers, and soon the sails were flying and bubbles
were bubbling behind the sugar scoops of the catamaran. I took a picture of
Hubert on the way out behind the helm. I haven't shown him the picture yet,
but the picture says it all. All smiles. We were out for a few hours, sailed
her back in, and after docking the boat, Hubert was a bag of mixed emotions.
A bit tense and a dry throat from docking the boat and ecstatic for having
at last sailed his boat were just two of these emotions. Promptly a bottle
of champagne was opened and with great ceremony a bit of bubbly poured on
the bows and the bowsprit of La Marie Bulles. In good time we had checked
and tested all the systems, all our provisioning was done except for the
final day before departure fresh produce. Now it was just waiting for the
weather to turn in our favour, which it did on the following Sunday.

I have been following and researching a very interesting product. A machine
that makes water from air. I have thought about the possibilities this could
offer for yachts all over the world and mentioned this to Hubert. He was
very interested and asked if we could order one. We only had a few days left
before departure. I contacted the supplier, placed an order, and for once
received service that far exceeded expectations. We expected delivery on
Saturday, a day before our departure, cutting it a bit fine. Friday before
lunch time I received a call, it was the couriers that had the machine ready
for delivery. The machine has not been tested on yachts before, and we are
the first boat to cross an ocean with the water from air machine aboard. On
this yacht we have a few sources of water. Firstly city water that we fill
our tanks with before we depart, 700ltrs.We also have a desalinator on
board. Desalinated water has been stripped from all minerals. Then we also
have 40ltrs of mineral water in 5ltr containers that we stocked up on. To
have water freshly made from the air sounded like a dream, and we could not
wait to test it. But we had to first get settled a bit. The particular model
we have is more for houses, offices, receptions etc. Nonetheless, we wanted
to test one, and it works brilliantly. There are different ways to power
them, and ours is the normal 220v which we run through our inverter. They
can also run on 12v, on gas, on solar etc. As we expected it to draw quite
a bit of power from our batteries, I opted to wait for a spell of light
winds when we could run one of the motors and keep the batteries charged and
keep our speed up. Without the motor on the machine did draw quite a bit of
power from our batteries as, but we ran it for two days. The producers are
looking at developing a product specifically for yachts. After studying the
owner and operator manual carefully, I switched the machine on and watched as
it started performing it's magic. And huge was my amazement after 24hrs of
filling a 5ltr container, then another one, and another one. Just to test the
functions of the machine, I also cooled the water down to 10*C, you can cool it
down to 4*C if you choose. Within a very short period of time, the water was
cooled to 10*C.

WATER IS LIFE

The next big test came in tasting the water. And once again, results far
exceeded expectations. Freshly made water, what a concept !!! And that is
exactly what it tasted like. Fresh, organic, free range water :))) A bit like
rainwater, I thought that it taste what clouds I imagine would taste like. In
most countries a glass of water you drink from the tap has been consumed by
at least 7 people before you and has been treated several times. With
contraceptive hormones and a lot of other things you probably don't want to
know about. Mineral water bottled at source is sometimes less pure than the
water from your tap. And there it is stored and distributed in plastic bottles
far and wide. Have you ever wondered what happens to all the millions of
plastic bottles that are discarded daily ? Sure some of them are recycled, but
I am even more sure that the majority of them are just dumped. Plastic water,
artificial. Desalinated water taste like nothing, and all health has been
filtered from it. Basically also dead water. Water is our most precious
resource. It is what gives our planet her spectacular blue hue when observed
from afar. And to have access to pure, freshly made water, I am still coming to
grips with the incredible health benefits, the possibilities it creates. To
have your own independent source of ultra healthy, ultra tasty water, well, now
you can. I have no doubt that it will change the quality of life for many
people, and I am most keen to share this technology and ideas of where and how
it can be implemented. There has long been talk of alternative sources of
energy i.e. solar or wind generated. Now we can also generate water and all
that brings into play. Email me at sailwithpaul@gmail.com to discuss this
subject more.

We departed from Cape Town at 10am on 21 Feb. North westerlies was blowing
for a few days prior, and to the dismay of the yearly Mykonos Race
fraternity, it was blowing deep into Saturday. The southerly winds came
through on Saturday afternoon as predicted, and Sunday we were ready as ever
to go. Time to wave Table Mountain goodbye and begin the long journey ahead
of us. The southerlies normally curve around Table Mountain and we had more
westerlies for the first few hours out. Main and genoa 2nd reef opened wide
on a broad reach and with 16kts of wind we were of to a great start. Smooth
and fast, and not to huge a stretch to get your sea legs. That night the wind
maxed at 22kts, but as we were deeply reefed, we had no need to adjust any
sails.

The first morning out at sea and the wind turned SSE and we could rig our
twin head sail configuration. And as the swell direction and wind direction
came in line, we started experiencing sailing at it's best, so early in the
journey. As a habit, we don't prepare supper for the first two days. There
are light snacks, biltong, cold meat, bread etc and everyone helps themselves.
The wind dropped even more and at about noon we decided to try the Code 0
sail. Lovely and versatile sail to have in light winds. A Code 0 sail is a
fairly big, light gauge sail that you can easily furl in or out. Relatively
easily I should add. It always takes new crew one or two tries to perfect
deploying and furling a Code 0. Sailing with a full genoa on the one side,
and the Code 0 on the other side, gives a lot of sail to catch the wind.
Balancing the two sails is an art in itself. And when the current or swell
shape and direction change, you have to fine tune your sails again. The goal
is to go as fast and as comfortable as possible with the least amount of
stress on the boat and crew.

On our track you will notice that we sometimes sail nearly north at times,
and at times nearly west. Our heading towards St.Helena is as you can
probably guess, north west. But we are making most of the prevailing
conditions, keeping a fine balance between speed and comfort. The second night
the weather was gentle and we kept flying our twin head sails making good
miles in great comfort. The wind eased off quite a bit more, and we started
motor sailing. The very little wind was predicted to last for two days, and
whilst we were motoring, also used the opportunity to run our water from air
machine, with spectacular results as mentioned before. The third day we were
getting into the rhythm of day and night watches, and I also cooked our first
proper meal for the trip. A hearty country stew it was, and as we haven't had a
proper meal for two days, it went down very well. A hungry tummy is always the
best cook :)

On Thursday the wind came through stronger again from the south and we were
sailing in a northerly direction for most of the day. Just before sunset we
changed sails and opted for second reef main and genoa on a broad reach. That
way we will be prepared for stronger winds than predicted, just in case. We
were now sailing towards St.Helena again. Friday during the day we had twin
head sails up again and Friday night the stronger weather made us rig the main
sail and genoa again. The wind did come through quite a bit stronger than
predicted, but as we anticipated it, we were ready. Sailing with just the main
sail opened wide at about 150* to the wind, we were quite safe and
comfortable. Nice to have the best technology on board to download weather
forecasts anywhere in the world. It takes a lot of guessing out of the
equation, and we can make informed decisions. I don't just make a call what
sail configuration we will use, I show my fellow crew the latest weather,
discuss our options and explain why I make a certain decision. They also then
know what to expect and understand better my decisions as skipper. Yesterday
the wind was a bit stronger again, and we used my loose genoa and the fixed
genoa in unison to optimize the wind from behind. I decided to carry on with
these sails for the night and they served us well. This morning the wind
dropped a bit, and the weather forecast predicted calmer conditions. Looking
at the cloud formations, I decided to drop the loose genoa, and rig the Code
0. And we have been sailing with these two huge sails with the wind and swell
from behind and will probably carry on like this throughout the night.

It is great to be out sailing the open ocean again. Vast expanses of blue. And
at night, the stars are shining brighter and brighter as the moon is waning and
appearing later and later at night. I showed Hubert one of my favourite
clusters in the sky last night. A cluster called Pleiades. One can just not
make out the individual stars that form this cluster with the naked eye, but
through a normal set of binoculars, one gets a glimpse of the magic that is to
be found out there.

I hope you have a wonderful week ahead of you.

Until next time

P.S. Email me if you want to learn more about making water from air !