Photo Albums
Fortaleza to Tobago (12th November 2007)
Images: 10
Sailing to Trinidad and Tobago
We sailed off early morning with Lloyd and Ngaire on their Leopard trying to keep the boats sailing at the same speed. Their head sail and spinnaker are both bigger than ours while our main sail is bigger than theirs. Getting the combination right in the days and more importantly the nights conditions took a couple of days. After that it was plain sailing with our boats rarely being more than a couple of miles apart.
It made a change for us to have company on a long ocean passage - nearly 2000 miles. Lots of chit-chat on the radio along the way and for L and N lots of sail changes. Those who know James, (and it has been said that if someone sneezes James will adjust the sails), will know that he always has to have the boat sailing at its optimum. No slacking!
One night in particular started off with a cautionary sail reduction before sunset. Think we dropped the spinnakers, reefed the mains and unfurled the jibs. A couple of hours later the strong wind didn’t materialize and a reef got shaken. Then the waves weren’t right for that sail combination so the main was dropped. That made things too slow, so the jibs got furled and the spinnakers went up. It wasn’t long and another reef was shaken. In between the boats weren’t matched so it was other up and down, in or out on one boat or the other.
We sailed off early morning with Lloyd and Ngaire on their Leopard trying to keep the boats sailing at the same speed. Their head sail and spinnaker are both bigger than ours while our main sail is bigger than theirs. Getting the combination right in the days and more importantly the nights conditions took a couple of days. After that it was plain sailing with our boats rarely being more than a couple of miles apart.
It made a change for us to have company on a long ocean passage - nearly 2000 miles. Lots of chit-chat on the radio along the way and for L and N lots of sail changes. Those who know James, (and it has been said that if someone sneezes James will adjust the sails), will know that he always has to have the boat sailing at its optimum. No slacking!
One night in particular started off with a cautionary sail reduction before sunset. Think we dropped the spinnakers, reefed the mains and unfurled the jibs. A couple of hours later the strong wind didn’t materialize and a reef got shaken. Then the waves weren’t right for that sail combination so the main was dropped. That made things too slow, so the jibs got furled and the spinnakers went up. It wasn’t long and another reef was shaken. In between the boats weren’t matched so it was other up and down, in or out on one boat or the other.
Rio de Janerio - Santos (10th - 31st July 2007)
Images: 50
What a cruisers paradise.
My expectations of Brazil…well, I didn’t have any. Never really gave it much
thought. It was merely a country on our way somewhere else.
We have been tootling around here for about a month (completely lost track
of time) and it has been fantastic.
It feels like we have barely scratched the surface in this immense bay of
hundreds of islands. They say 365, one for each day of the year. More than
that, each one has umpteen stunningly beautiful coves and beaches and it
would take years to explore them all. From our first stop we have said “this
is the best” only to repeat that phrase over and over almost on a daily
basis. In recalling a place one of us has said “….at your favourite stop…”
“the one with the church?”,
“church, what church?”
“with the jumping fish”,
“big rock”
“the fishing boat”
“the yellow mooring bouy”
and then the charts come out along with the log book to try and remember a
stop that at one time had been considered THE BEST.
There is so much space here too. Unlike the Caribbean we have ...
My expectations of Brazil…well, I didn’t have any. Never really gave it much
thought. It was merely a country on our way somewhere else.
We have been tootling around here for about a month (completely lost track
of time) and it has been fantastic.
It feels like we have barely scratched the surface in this immense bay of
hundreds of islands. They say 365, one for each day of the year. More than
that, each one has umpteen stunningly beautiful coves and beaches and it
would take years to explore them all. From our first stop we have said “this
is the best” only to repeat that phrase over and over almost on a daily
basis. In recalling a place one of us has said “….at your favourite stop…”
“the one with the church?”,
“church, what church?”
“with the jumping fish”,
“big rock”
“the fishing boat”
“the yellow mooring bouy”
and then the charts come out along with the log book to try and remember a
stop that at one time had been considered THE BEST.
There is so much space here too. Unlike the Caribbean we have ...
South Atlantic Ocean (23rd May - 17 June 2007)
Images: 3
So there we were a couple of days away from the South American coast. It is in the early hours and while doing my two hour stint I’m standing at the chart table making notes and plotting our position and I hear the water slopping around. That in itself is not unusual. Sometimes the incessant noise of the water slopping, slapping and swishing past drives me to distraction. Somewhere on our music collection is a song and the words go “on the silent sea”. No way! While at the farm with Mom and Dad I relished the sounds of
silence. The cocks crowed every so often and a cricket hiding in a crevice chirped constantly but that was nothing. The place was quiet. Silence.
Back on the sea it is a never ending slap, slop, and swish but now tonight it sounds much closer than usual so I lift up one of the floor boards. To my horror I see the water in the bilge is almost up to the level of the floor boards. It is sloshing backwards and forwards like it has its own wave machine going.
silence. The cocks crowed every so often and a cricket hiding in a crevice chirped constantly but that was nothing. The place was quiet. Silence.
Back on the sea it is a never ending slap, slop, and swish but now tonight it sounds much closer than usual so I lift up one of the floor boards. To my horror I see the water in the bilge is almost up to the level of the floor boards. It is sloshing backwards and forwards like it has its own wave machine going.
Showing albums 1 - 20 of 44.
Photo albums
- Galapagos
- Chagres River
- Panama Canal Locks
- Panama Canal Transit
- Catagena April 08
- San Blas Islands April 08
- Bonaire, Curacao and Aruba
- Rough seas off Columbia
- Gatun Locks, Colon
- Cartagena
- Heineken 2008
- Grenada to St Lucia
- Grenada
- So Long und Galenaia
- Fortaleza to Tobago (12th November 2007)
- Reciefe to Fernando de Noronha XIX Regatta (20th - 29th Sep 2007)
- Aratu - Salvador - Itaprica - Gamboa - Paraguacu (September 2007)
- Rio de Janero - Salador (1st - 15 August 2007)
- Rio de Janerio - Santos (10th - 31st July 2007)
- South Atlantic Ocean (23rd May - 17 June 2007)
- Rio (15th June 2007)
- Cape Cycle Race (11th March 2007)
- Rounding Cape Point with new spinnaker (11th March 2007)
- Cape Verde - Ilha do Sal (3rd October 2006)
- Stork Attack - mid Atlantic (November 2006)
- Saint Martin (14th February 2006)
- Azores - Terceira (20th July 2006)
- Maderia - Porta Santa (2nd August 2006)
- Azores - Flores (July 2006)
- Bay to Bay Race (23rd - 24th December 2006)
- Southern Atlantic Crossing (3rd October - 15th November 2006)
- Antigua Race Week (30th April - 6th March 2006)
- Polesden Lacey (9th Sept 2006)
- Maderia (2nd - August 2006)
- Azores - Horta (7th - 19th July 2006)
- Bermuda (15th - 21st June 2006)
- Atlantic Crossing (21st June - 7th July 2006)
- Heineken Regatta (2nd - 6th March 2006)
- Brian and Rachel (13th - 25th May 2006)
- Bob and Jo (15th - 30th April 2006)
- Charles and Fung Yee (11th - 29th March 2006)
- Mind the Gap
- James and Lorna
- Wedding (13th March 2006)