Cape Town to Belize 2012

We hope to post some interesting and inspiring blogs for your enjoyment. We have a slight problem with our satelite coms system and trust that it will be sorted out shortly. We are currently sailing north north west to get far north as the wind, current and motors will take us.

On Friday night we expect a strong front to move in and we should be just out of it's reach if we can maintain a decent pace. The wind should back from north all the way to southeast which will assist us greatly bringing in strong winds from behind. We have two headsails ready to deploy and make the most of these tradewinds.

On board myself as captain, Malcolm Rennie as 1st Mate and Jarryd Muller as crew. We are planning to make a quick stop at St. Helena and then the long haul to St. Vincent. From there depending on weather we hope to get to Belize in less than two months.

It is our first day out and my fellow mariners are slowly growing their sealegs. It takes a day or two before one becomes accustomed to the motion if you are that way inclined.

Time here by us now 22h35, we are 12nm west of Saldanha, water temperature 12*C. Wind a gentle 8kts from behind and we are motorsailing staying comfortably above 5kts.

Take care and we sincerely hope to sort our satcoms out soon. Otherwise no way we can blog every day.
Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device

Tahiti......at long last.

About 20nm from the harbour entrance I was just thinking whether I should turn off the port motor and run the starboard when the port engine ran out of fuel. After accepting that I will have to go in on one motor , if we make it on that one motor we heard on the VHF another yacht that also just ran out of diesel and adrift. They were about 15nm and we were at that stage about 12nm out, they were three miles behind us. They were calling a fishing vessel for assistance and I immediatly made contact with the yacht. I informed them that we are very much in a similar situation and just idling along on our last few fumes of diesel on the one motor. I asked Steven to drain all the fuel out of the port tank so we can add that also to the starboard tank. The pipe taking the fuel to the motor does not reach all the way to the bottom as sludge eventually forms there after a few years. Our diesel was super clean and no problem. It took a while but we managed to drain about 3ltrs. I was rushing Steven to add the fuel to the starboard tank when the motor ran out of diesel as we were opening the fuelcap to add the extra diesel.. The yacht in distress informed us that they have ordered two 20ltr drums of diesel and as soon as they are sorted they will get to us and pass the other drum over to us. It was starting to get dark and an hour afterwards they were close. We discussed how we will do the transfer on the VHF. We got our motor running again with the last three liters. They requested us to disengage and just drift, they would come alongside and throw us a line. On the other end of the line they had the 20ltrs of fuel attched and the plan worked like a charm. They informed us that they are going to a different marina than what we were planning to do as one normally can't go in at the main harbour after dark as the airport is closeby and one has to get permission from the air and port control to enter. The planes take off and could easily dismast you if they are struggling to gain height after take-off. We split the 20 ltrs in two and had both motors running when we went into the channel. We owed them a drink or two for getting the diesel and delivering it as well. They had as they term it a delivery from hell. They left Mexico 33days before and everything that could go wrong with their boat went wrong. We tied up at 11:30pm and were just in time to catch the bar open. We had two drinks each and our debt was settled.

Afterwards we took a five minute walk, found a small 24hr supermarket. Ibought a roast chicken, two french loaves , mayonaise and a two ltr Coke. We got back to the boat and sat down having a feast at 2am. Soon afterewards we were sound asleep. About 7am we were awakened by the same couple, and another yachty had someone on the phone for me. I emailed our base manager the night before and informed her that where we were. She advised me to get back to the main harbour asap as we can only clear customs and immigration there. I took on another 20 ltrs as we were tied up right next to the fuel dock and I wanted the last run to be completely stress free as far as diesel was concerned. We left at 8am and at 9am I called Papeete Port Control and asked permission to enter the harbour. They gave us the green light and directed us to our berth. I went to a spot that we thought was the right place, right next to town, close to everything. Our agent arrived half an hour later and pointed us to the customs dock, a place close to nothing and nowhere.We moved the boat and half an hoiur later the base manager, Patricia arrived to do the handover. As it was 10:30 she advised that we first get the immigration behind us before they close for lunch. We did just that and an hour later we were sorted. We then started with the handover, and thanks to the crew the boiat was sparkling clean and we had very few minor problems to report. An hour later after a thorough inspection by Patricia we were done. We were in a bit of a rush as Steven and myself were flying out the next day, and any delay whatsoever will mean that we will miss our flights. Thankfully everything worked out fine.

We locked the boat and started the long walk to town to go and find a bar and something to eat, also to find banks open etc. We had mixed success but eventually got sorted. I told the guys we will have to get back to the boat early as I still need to pack and our taxi would fetch us at 3:40am. They made sure we got back early, early the next morning,about 2am to be exact. Being fairly tired I had to focus one more time, got my bags packed, had a quick shower and just had our luggage off the boat when the taxi man came walking to us, perfect timing. Eduard was fast asleep and we could say our final farewells., Nick stayed up and helped us get our luggage to the taxi. Soon Steven and myself were at the airport, a bit shellshocked but ready to catch some rest on our long flights home. He is heading for Paris and then a small hop over to Birmingham, I am at the moment in Tokyo waiting for my next flight to Dubai and work my way back to SA.

It was an extraordinary trip in many ways, and it had us in suspense till the very last. Thanks to the crew, their families, our office in Cape Town, my friends and family. Thanks for all the prayers, the good wishes, and being part of our adventure. Without the support of all of you our trip would have been not half as nice, and we appreciate all the mails we received regularly.It kept  the crews morale high. It was easy to share our experiences as we had no bad experiences. I will in the next few days select the 100 best photos of our jouney and will post them on a web album. Thanks for the emails received from everyone that want to be linked to the web-album, I will mail you as soon as I have got them sorted. It should not take longer than two weeks.

All good things come to an end, as all bad things also do. To Steven, thanks matey for the last nearly 30 000nm you sailed with me. I wish you all the best for the future. You are a star in many ways. To Eduard, I have invited him as first mate on my next trip if he should be available and not busy with something else. He has worked hard to deserve this invitation. To Nick, thank you very much for adding your special contribution to our journey as well. You are planning to travel some more and I wish you safe travels and awesome experiences. To my parents, thanks for all the support I always get from you, thanks for the weather mom. To my wife and daughter, I will be home soon. Planning to take a three month break and hoping to make the most of it.

And that's it folks. Email me at sailwithpaul@gmailif you haven't already and we will stay in touch for the web album and our next adventure.

Over and out

Captain Paul

Nearly there

We are less than 50nm from Papeete, Tahiti with no wind and precious
little diesel. Ran out of diesel on the starboard motor this morning and
for a moment felt not too happy. Took out all of my diesel containers
just in case and found half a drum of diesel, enough to take us all the
way. We are cutting it that fine. The bit of wind we expected last night
did not happen and we had to keep on motoring at low refs. The little
bit of breeze that teases us keeps us working hard, sails up, sail down,
sails out, sails in, then she changes direction and we have to change
our sails accordingly, very whimsical conditions but waht can we do.
Normally we would just motor until the wind settles, now we have to beg
and plead for some attention. Serves us right I guess,we've had three
months of fairly easy, and she is making us sweat a bit on the home run.
No problem though, we stay humble and honest, don't loose our cool.
Stressful at times, I cannot deny that. But looking at it objectively I
cannot help but laugh at myself for getting myself into this situation.
Am I mad, I hope so, just a little, just enough so I won't get all
serious about these things and loose my joy for life.

Besides running low on diesel and wind, our food supplies are also
dwindling. Maizemeal, soya beans, baked beans and peas is what we have
left for supper type of meals, and for breakfast we have a lot of Jungle
Oats,maple syrup, peanut butter and milk powder left, so although we
don't have a lot and are not eating like kings, we are surviving and
healthy. We also decanted the last 120ltrs of fresh water into our tanks
this morning. Other than that we are very busy getting the boat spick
and span for handover tomorrow. Our bags are packed, Icannot tell you
how much we are craving meat,any meat. Every night we place an order to
the person preparing supper. Last night it was steak, egg and chips,
with a cold beer, mushroom burger with chips and a coke, a mighty meaty
pizza with a Heinekin, and an eishbein with a draft. Then we sit down
and eat maizemeal with soya, baked beans, peas and try various sauces
and spices. If we make it in time tonight, we will make a mission of
finding some meat to eat.

Our position is damn close to Tahiti and we will post one more blog
adter we have arrived there.

Stay cool

Paul

Still going strong

Last night at about 6pm we passed the last atholl on our way to Tahiti.
It was with some sense of relieve that we entered into more open waters,
although the open waters turned out to be very bumpy. Unexpectedly we
had some good wind to sail but were going to fast for the seastate. I
decided to reef both main and headsail to second reef. We were sitting
much better and not falling into the troughs slamming rodeo style. It
is as if we will be tested to the very last, no easy at last we are
nearly there. But yes, somehow we made a good 60 mile through the night
and at 8am this morning only had 150nm to go, a days work in our books.
The wind did fade in the early hours of the morning and we had to motor
a bit, but not too long before the wind settled in from behind and
Steven asked if we should put the twin headsails up. I gave him the
thumbs-up and since then we have been maintaining a fair speed under
sail. We are nearly at the point where we will have enough diesel
to motor the rest of the way. We should be arriving at Tahiti some time
tomorrow, but we are not 100% clear yet. We are really at the mercy of
the elements and do the very best we can with what we get.

Should we run out of diesel it won't be the end for us. We are close
enough to call for assistance from various sources. It will take a boat
from Tahiti half a day to reach us and we can decide on an exact
position to meet, or stay in touch via satphone and once closer via VHF.
But I am quietly confident that we will be better than ok, that we will
be in time to stick to our handover and flight schedules. One wouuld
think that after three months att sea sailing nearly half way around the
globe the last few miles should be a breeze. But not so, nearly never do
we have that. There is always that extra bit of effort required to stay
on top of things. Anyway, I have heard rumours that both Nick and Eduard
also wants to do a posting on the blog. I always invite my crew to do a
few postings which they hardly ever do, and I don't expect them to. That
way I don't get dissapointed if they say they will and they don't. I
will just make sure I do a blog anyway and you won't be dissapointed
when there is no blog. Only one or two more postings for this trip
though.

In the meantime we are busy with the big clean up. Packing, sorting,
shining, getting ready to hand the boat over on the 12th. And she will
be shining as the star that she is and has been the last three months.
Not saying cheers yet, just saying she has been exemplary thus far and
we will show our appreciation by treating her right as well.

Our position at the moment is 16*28'S/147*24'W. We are 140nm from Tahiti
and at 5kts we will be there at lunchtime tomorrow.

Take care

Paul

Apologies

Apologies for not blogging the last two days. I could give a few reasons
but please just accept my apology. After Fatu Hiva we were in a big rush
to get to Tahiti as our flights are booked etc, and were motoring quite
hard to get to Tahiti on the 10th of April. In the process we also used
more diesel than expected and suddenly found ourselves a little short of
diesel with just over 300nm to go. Two days to go with one and a half
days diesel left. This prompted us to run the motors at much lower refs
and going much slower in turn. Now and then we have some wind from the
squalls and use every bit of wind we can find. I was reminded of the
perils should one run out of diesel as described in a previous blog and
now we face the same predicament. Running low on many things we have got
to keep our heads in the right space and keep focusing on our goal. It may
take us a few days longer to get to Tahiti, so close and yet so far.

We have been fortunate to have had some good spells of wind and during my
shift from 9 to midnight we were doing very well when the headsail turned
all wrinkly on us. One of the shackles up the top of the mast have come
undone and I had to furl it in partly and sail with a limping sail, tying
a sling to create some shape in support of the mainsail. We were doing ok
but could have done much better. Early this morning I discussed the
problem with the crew. Steven said he'll go up the mast, but as Eduard has
a passion for climbing and have often said he would like to get to the
top, it became his mission when he volunteered. We had to haul him up
three times before we had everything back in shape. Noy easy to get to the
top of the mast with the boat moving around. The forces up there are much
stronger than you can imagine standing at the bottom. Once he finished we
all gave him a high five as it was an enormous task accomplished.We
unfurled the headsail, pulled her back up and she is back in perfect
shape. Unfortunately we don't have wind at the moment, but fortunately we
are ready for when the wind does come our way.

We caught a bonny two days ago and had half for supper the same day. Fancy
that we may have the other half for sushimi today, something to look
forward to. Everybody is also busy preparing the yacht for handover,
cleaning and shining and making tidy.Yesterday morning we went close past
Takaroa, an atholl well known for it's black pearls and other interesting
facts. Saw a wreck on the one side and our electronic charts mention that
it is not the worst place to get stranded, and this wreck is sitting high
and dry on the beach. These are fairly dangerous places to try and enter
and I decided that we will just run along at a safe distance after our
depth sounder alarm unexpectedly showed some shallows that was not charted
on any of my paper or electronic charts.

Outside I guess the weather in a way reflects the weather in Cape Town at
the moment, raining. All around us big banks of dark clouds are spilling
their loads and now and then we are fortunate enough to get some of it.
There is also some thunder and lightning in the air and in anmticipation
of a strike we have fastened a length of chain to the mast and the other
end hanging in the water to act as a conducter. We also unplug the VHF
aerial as that is normally the first thing that gets taken by a strike. It
then runs through the db board, jumping all the circuit breakers and
frying all our instruments. Back to the rain, if life gives you lemons you
make lemonade, here by us, if it rains, we can shower in fresh water,
straight from the sky. Lovely, refreshing, rejuvenating, I just had one.
Sometimes it takes a while to get properly wet, soaped up and rinsed off
again, but if you stand at just the right spot you get all the rain that the
sail catches in the stackpack splashed onto you everytime the boat moves a
bit. While I was having a shower we also got a call from one of my fellow
skippers who often calls to check the weather with me. It is not any
consolation to know that they have much further still to go and also running
low on diesel, all three boats behind us. Fortunately for them there is a
good front coming through from the 11th and will stay for a few day. This
should get them home in one go, I sincerely hope so.

As for us, what can I say, we will make it, one way or another, we always do.
But we do appreciate your good wishes,your prayers, your thoughts, the good
energy you sending this way. In a big way, this is probably why we always find
a way. Our psoition currently is 15*33'S/146*03'W. Distance to go to Tahiti
exactly 235nm.

Fatuhiva a beauty that all eyes should witness (First hand)

Hello to all, this blog is done by steve so sorry for the bad
punctuation and bad spelling if there is (probably will be)

anyways we approached our destination of fatuhiva early morning befor
the sun had woken and the island was a dense black silhouette on the
horizon, by the time we had got to the island and the anchorage the sun
was just about to show its face. We droped anchor and out came the
sunshine, oh how we thought only good things could come.

eddy started off our day with a small but oh so delicious breakfast
which was oats, peanut butter and syrup a good and healthy start for a
day that would require alot of energy.

our plan was to spend half the day on the island and leave for tahiti at
noon. so we made early tracks for land but because we have no tender the
only way to the island was a 500 meter swim to shore, the perfect early
morning exercise. so myself nick and eddy got everything we needed
wraped up in black bin bags and got ready for the swim. paul had decided
to stay on the boat and rest his fragile body :).

myself and eddy where the first in and started to make way for the
beauty that lay ahead of us when not even 20 meters from the boat, the
people anchored next to us had woken and seen us swimming for shore and
where nice enough to offer us a lift ( nick was the smart one, he didnt
get wet) the water was absolutaly amazing tho so we didnt really mind.
the two that gave us a lift were liz from the states and a local who's
name i shamfully can not remember but we where very grateful for the
lift.

the main mission for myself was to go and find the fresh water stream
that runs through the island to have a long awaited bath. ( have had
enough of salty showers ) but liz gave us directions to a old carving,
so we decided we would have a mission around and find it, the walk was
amazing and we all felt so blessed that we could
streach our legs and move around on land for a while. on the way to the
carving we walked through a small settlement of houses and a plantation
of banana trees, these where found all over the island along with palm
trees just scatterd all over the place. we noticed on the walk the palm
trees had wedges chopped out of the truck to create a ladder like effect
all the way to the top so something had to be done about this but will
go
more into that in a minute. after walking for about a mile we finaly got
to the carving, we all stood around it and smiled it was a drawing of
what looked to be a whale with three eyes but it also looked like it was
drawn by a 10 year old but anyways it was still a piece of island
history that we got to experience.

now i dont know if paul has said in the blog but eddy is ment to be
quite the climber ( going back to the ladder in the palm trees) we all
decided that we wouldnt mind a coconut for the next leg of our trip to
tahiti so we picked a tree and asked eddy to climeb it. the tree was
about 20meters from ground to first coconut and with no ropes but two
saftey guys on the ground ready to catch a falling body, eddy made his
way up the trunk its was like watching monkey man. although even with
his valeant attempt (15 meters) eddy was not able to get to the top and
grab us a coconut only because on the tree he had chosen to climb only
had
wedges cut 3/4 of the way up. we were most impressed with his effort
tho.

now after this long walk we decided that it was time to persue the
mission for the fresh water stream so we got back onto the main road and
followed it because we were told it connects up with the stream. the
locals made little pools all along the stream by building a small dam
wall using rock stacked ontop of each other which also added that extra
bit of paridise feel and beauty to the moment, there was a burst of
colour at every little wall from the flowers and leaves that were held
back. the first pool we got to was about 3meters by 3meters with a small
rapid like system running into it. so we decided to stop and get in,
what was to follow was a truly mind blowing sensation. the water
was cold but so refreshing, i think we had all forgoten what fresh water
felt like on our skin it truely does feel softer and much lighter on
your skin then salt water. we lay in this pool of tranquillity for about
5 minutes befor nick got the fright of his life and jump up onto his
feet and proceded to say "there was like a full on waterspider" as soon
as he said that i felt something nip my rib cage, turns out there was no
waterspider that wanted to eat us it was just fresh water shrimp that
thought we tasted quite delightful. so we spent the next 10 minutes
seeing how long we could withstand the pleasure and at the same time
torture of these fresh water shrimp tickeling and nipping us all over.

after all that and with chill bumps all over us we decided to get out
and go and explore abit more to see what else this unique and barely
touched island had to offer. we got back onto the main road and started
a our gentel strole past more banana plantations and other plantations
of different fruit, one called ?????? it is a fruit that everybody
should try at least once in there life time if you get the chance, it
looks like a grapefruit with the skin on but once opened up it looks
like a huge lime green orange, if you know what i mean :) the taste is a
mixture of grapefruit with a hint of marula is how i would describe it
with alittle bit of lime in there somewhere. We put one in the freezer
today and had it for lunch the perfect thing for a hot tropical day :)

anyways our walk along the main road continued for about anouther 20
meters and then we came to a bridge that crossed over the stream, not
much of a bridge the stream ran over it but beacuse of this it created a
curtain water fall into another pool this one being alot bigger and it
had a waterfall so as anyone would we stopped, jumped in and had abit
of a chill session and at the same time took a shower and washed our
hair in the waterfall. there was also a small cave eroded away from
under
the road so we were even able to sit behind the curtain of water.

this was where our walk stopped and our mission of exploring the island
began, as we got out the pool we looked up at the stream and saw the
natural wonder that lay ahead of us round smooth rocks of all sizes
pathing its way through the lushes green forestry of the island. we
knew what we had to do and started our trek up the stream, we spent the
rest of our time on the island doing this, we followed the stream for
about a mile taking hundreds of photos so we could have this memory for
ever and would be able to look back on it whenever we wanted. just befor
the sun was above us (around 11) we turned back and followed the stream
back, nick went his own way through the vegetation so eddy and i said we
would meet back up with him at the pool with the water fall. the walk
back down was fulled with comical errors by both myself and eddy falling
short afew time on slippery rocks. it was alot easier going up the
stream then coming back down.

once we got back to the pool nick wasnt there yet so eddy and i decided
to have another body cleans from the fresh water shrimp and one last
shower under the waterfall. nick finaly got back to us about 5 minutes
later and he too came and enjoyed one last fresh water experience.

finaly on our way back to the boat we found a small shop and decided to
get a few things like eggs and some chicken (good old meat). once we had
done this we made our way back to the jetty hoping our friends would be
there to give us a lift back, but it wasnt our lucky day. so this time
we did have to swim back which to be honest was abit shit knowing we had
to get into the salt water after just getting out of the fresh
water. eddy made the first move but unfortunatly came up abit short and
get afew small knocks. after seeing this nick and i decided to take the
safer entry and enter behind the breakiwater and swam round and
continued for the boat.

the rest paul explained in the blog he did yesterday, sorry its late but
i hope you all enjoyed the first hand story of our adventures on
fatuhiva because we sure did they are memories of the most beautiful
place
that i have ever been, and i dont think we will ever forget it :)

happy easter to all

steve

Fullmoon over Fatu Hiva

Once again I have difficulty finding the right words to decribe our
experience In Fatu Hiva. But let's start where we left off last time,
with the boys getting a ride ashore. I am telling this secondhand as it
was told to me and I looked at all the photos, so I have a fairly good
idea of what went down, and what went up. The boys, I should use the
word men really, missioned passed a small settlement and followed a
trail to a fresh water stream and followed the stream further up. Every
now and then they would take a break and sit or splash in the
refreshingly cold water. I told them to look out for the fresh water
prawns and eels in the streams and pools. Quite an experience tosit with
you feet in the water and let these little creatures take off all the
dead skin on your feet. They found some and enjoyed there pedicure very
much, although they say it felt like little electric shocks as the
prawns were cleaning their feet. Not painful but nearly. There are huge
coconut palms on the island and on there way Eduan decided to climb one
and see how high he could get up. Every coconut belongs to somebody on
these islands and they carve small steps into the stems to assist
climbing to the top to reach and harvest the coconuts. Palm trees are
not trees at all, you can google it to find out exactly what they are
and that every bit of a palm tree is utilized for something. Eduard got
about 15m up and came down fairly unscathed. They obviuosly missed land
terribly and couldn't get enough of such pristine forests all around.

I asked them to be back at high noon and back they were, having had to
swim about 500m to the boat. Steven and Eduan arrived first and Nick
followed leisurely afterwards. On the breakwater where they first tried
to enter into the ocean, Eduard had a slight mishap and was lucky to get
away with only a few cuts and bruises. The other two then decided to
enter from the safety behind the breakwaters. The other anchorage was
only half an hour away and the guys that gave them a lift in recommended
highly that we make a turn there which we did. I learned then that there
is a fresh water supply at our first anchorage and returned to try and
arrange a lift in again. Steven's one kneee was troubling him a bit and
as I said Eduard was cut and bruised, both them needing to catch their
breath again. After waiting for about an hour for a lift a fisherman
eventually came past and Nick and myself hitched a ride to shore. I was
now ready to step foot on land after a month at sea and enjoyed our
little expedition very much. Got to meet some locals, were introduced to
some of there amazing craftmanship, checked out some tattoos and
generally had a whaleof a time. We got some fruit etc and bumped into
the same people that gave the boys a ride in. They gave us a ride back
to the boat and offered to take us ashore again to fill our waterdrums
which we gladly accepted. By the time this was achieved it was just
about 6pm, 6 hours behind schedule. For their trouble we gave them a big
bag full of goodies that we still had left over and haven't used at all.
Loads of tea and bushtea, spices, wasabi, soya sauce and a few other
sauces, 2.5lktrs of Lecol lemon juice etc. They were absolutely
delighted. If we had time we would have joined a fullmoon wild bboar
hunt with some of the locals who invited us. Apparently a fairly
dangerous hunt as the boar comes for you once he hears you. They then
either use a spear or a gun to stop the boar in it's tracts.

At six am we raised our anchor, bid our new found friends farewell and
were off into the sunset, heading straight for Tahiti. The sunset was
purely a show of nature at her best, and when we looked back the full
moon was just starting to peep over the jagged cliffs that is Fatu Hiva.
We didn't know where to look and where to take photographs. As the sun
went lower and lower and the sky turning a deeper and deeper red, the
moon behind us was rising higher and higher, casting the island in a
mysterious shroud of silver blue magic. All the boys were in total
agreement that they have never seen a place so beautiful. We were also
escorted out by a few dolphins, and one that jumped about 2 mtrs out of
the water over our bow. How else can anyone feel but totally blessed,
totally humbled, and totally beautified by this experience.

We are 690 nm from Tahiti, and having left six hours later thanplanned
we are running the motors a bit harder tomaintain 6.5kts in order for us
to arrive at tahiti early on the 10th. We will cut through the atholls
and once again we will all be witness to beauty untold, but not planning
to stop. Our position currently is 11*03'S/139*42'W. I have turned our
clock back another hour for the last time and we are now 12 hrs behind
SA and UTC -10. If I haven't got your email address and if you like,
send it to me at sailwithpaul@gmail.com. I am planning to do a proper
web album of our trip with photos and captions and will send you the
details.

Hope you are having a safe and blessed Easter Weekend.

Paul