Searenity

Searenity sailing next to us. They cant believe the flat seas we have had. At last the wind blew from Fernando de N, so they were happy to sail at last.

Blackjack fish

The blackjack we caught leaving Ascension, 65cm. Great eating and we made super pickeled fish. Its been scaled in this pic, its darker with scales.

THE BEEG FISH

This is it the huge Marlin, 2.1m. Not good eating so sad that he had to die.

Valentines day at sea

Time for the photos.

The men were spoil on Valentines day, fresh fish and Chocolate brownies!!

Day 35 27 Feb 2010

Past the 'Átol das Rocas' last night and the sea 

got shallow, to 53m. Dolphins swam with us at 

dusk, they are so wonderful to watch, Krazni and I 

went to the front of the boat to watch and 4 jumped 

at the same time, least 2m in the air! They came 

back again at 22h00 and we could see them just 

below the surface with the full moon. Wash day today, 

sheets and towels in the washing machine. Also washed 

down the bathroom at 7am before it gets too hot. 

Everything gets a layer of salt air on it and feels sticky. 

We wipe the wooden surfaces with a vinegar and water 

mix to remove the salt. Rob is making more water so 

we'll have full tanks in Fortaleza, should get there Sun morning. 

Doing 8.5 kts.  Caught a small Marlin but cut the line off 

once we had got most of it back on the reel, lost lure. 

3,45.22S  35,48.05W  PS steak in F.de Noronha was not good.

Day 34 26 Feb 2010, Fernando de Noronha

Friday morning and we are leaving Fernando de Noronha. 

The Island is a reserve and we paid R700 to moor for one day! 

Thereafter the charges are per person, so we stayed one 

day only. We hired a taxi to go to town, up a very steep hill 

in 34C, we were not walking. The taxi was an old beach 

buggy, 3 of us perched on the back and Rob in front. 

Most transport was beach buggy and scramblers. 

The town is spread out and tourism esp diving, 

is the main trade. The supermarket had no fresh veg 

or fruit at all! Had a cold beer and yummy salad lunch 

for 12 Real about R48. The sea is so wonderful to swim in.

 Both mornings the 'spinning' dolphins came through the bay. 

They jump up spinning, wonderful to see. So now we 

are off to Fortaleza. Good wind, speed 8 knots, 

Searenity has her Spinnaker up and is far ahead.

Day 32 24 feb 2010 crossing complete

Land Ahoy, we are in the islands of Fernando de Noronha, 

Brazil...we have crossed the Atlantic! Just had a reviving 

swim in 28C sea, magic. We will go ashore tonight to 

find a restaurant, the men want to sample a Brazilian 

steak. Caught a 80cm Rainbow Chaser, looks like a 

yellowtail. Thats supper tomorrow sorted. We averaged 

1.2 miles per liter at 1200 revs, so Rob is very happy. 

Searenity had good winds and kept up with us at 7 knotts. 

Wow, can you believe we just crossed the Atlantic!

Day 30 22 Feb 2010

5 days at sea, need to get off now and walk. My body is 

tired of sitting or lying, I do some leg lifts and arm swinging 

each evening to get the blood flowing. No lines out, 

dont want to catch a Marlin again. At night a few birds 

rest on the roof. Amazing how they appear from nowhere 

at about 9.30pm. Good breeze now and we are 

averaging 6.5 knots. 5,03.77S  27,07.76W

Day 28 20 Feb 2010

Today Krasni caught a Black Marlin 2.1m long! 

A shame really as we did not want to kill a Marlin. 

The lure came out of its mouth and then got fouled 

on its tail. With all the excitement Rob started the 

other motor forgetting the bungy line that was out.

 It got wrapped around the prop. Thank heavens 

Johan, from Yacht Searenity, is a good diver and 

he went down to cut the cable off. Its not a great 

eating fish, but created a good diversion. 

It gets rather boring out here. 6,15.70S 21,56.20W

Day 27, 19 Feb 2010

It was sad that we could not go ashore at 

Ascension isl, but we had a nice break. 

The huge swells were set to stay a few days 

and there is no protected landing jetty. Its a 

British isl with a USA airforce base. We had a 

fly past of 3 F16 as entertainment. The Canadian 

yachty next to us said the fresh produce market 

was closed anyway. He was a chatty fellow, 

he and his wife had been sailing for 7 yrs! Great 

excitement as we left we caught a 65cm long, 

black fish with a big flat head. It provided excellent 

meat which we made into pickled fish. Today Rob 

had the fun of fighting a Marlin till the line snapped. 

Between the two yachts we have now lost 6 lures 

and burnt out a reel. Searenity is ave 6 knotts so 

we are staying together. She looks pretty with the 

Spinaker flying. Today they got up to 7.5 knots.  

6.47,79S  19.35,86W

Day 25, 17 Feb 2010

08h00 We arrived at Ascension island at 6pm yesterday.

5 miles out there was great excitement as all the lines started

whizzing. We lost 2 Dorados with lures and managed to land one

1m long Dorado. Rob had fun playing one of them but it broke

off at the boat. 

Had fun feeding the 'Trigger fish' (pretty black and blue, size of a mans hand) with

 the Dorado bits. Today the swells are huge,so may not get to go ashore. 

Lots of large Turtles about, these are Turtle breeding beaches. 

Lets hope we get ashore. 

17h00 Just had a fish feast with Searenity crew. 

Cant get ashore, leaving for Fernando de Noronha now. 

7 day trip.

Day 23, 15 Feb 2010

We will be in Ascension tomorrow at 16h00, had a great Valentines lunch 

with a fresh Dorado, 70cm, and freshly baked chocolate brownies. 

No wind, we have now left Searenity behind as the are trying to 

sail in hardly any wind. 9,50.52S 12,29.30W

Day 20 leaving St Helena

Today we left St Helena, and just in time. Getting onto the island has

 to be done via the water taxi or we used our rubber duck.

 The jetty consists of a flight of 10 steps down to a concrete 

wall with 3 different levels, to accommodate tide and wave movement. 

The boat comes against the wall, you grab a hanging rope and 

step off. It was fine for the first 4 days but yesterday we had to use 

the water taxi as the swell was large. Getting onto the taxi to return 

to our yacht was a quite an experience, not for the faint hearted! 

This morning the swell was so large it was washing over the wall 

and right up the stairs. No one is leaving or going onto the island today. 

We passed the St Helena ship earlier, she is on her way back to 

the island from Ascension, to collect passengers and return to CT. 

I wonder how long they will have to wait for the swell to subside.

About 8 miles out we spotted a small fishing boat that must 

have broken its mooring last night. It was rather battered and 

we reported it to the authorities via our radio. The radio controller 

asked us to call him each day on our SSB radio to give the caps 

in the office some SSB experience. Such friendly people.
No fish today, we saw the fin of a Dorado while he inspected the lure, 

but he wasn't that hungry.
On Wed we saw a huge Ray swim past the yacht, that was very special.
Here are our Co-ordinates for Keith, 15,15.94S 6,28.43W, 

who is following us on Google Earth. Sea temp 26C, air temp 28C.
'Searenity' is just behind us with her spinaker up. 

At last some wind for them.

Jacobs ladder

This is the view down the valley as we went inland. This is Jamestown the main hub of shops and banks.















This is the view from the top of Jacobs ladder, you can see why I stayed at the bottom! It was built in 1829 and is still used.

tour

We had a great tour with 'Robert' and visited Napoleons home and empty grave site, he was a really interesting man.

Jonathan was a big hit, he is a 176 yr old large tortoise! He is so friendly and we all got to touch him.

We were shown where the airport was supposed to be built, there is alot of bad feeling that this project has been shelved.

St Helena tour

OK can you believe I am sitting on the yacht having boat wi-fi time from Annes place and am now connected to internet....in the middle of the Atlantic!

St Helena was named after Emperor Constantine's mother, Saint Helena, by the Portuguese when the discovered the isl in 1502. Over the years it swapped to English and Dutch rule and was eventually brought under British rule in 1834.

There are 5000 inhabitants called 'Saints'

Although the coast shows a rocky exterior the inland country side is green and lush. It was like driving around English countryside.

Next stop Ascension

Pizza evening

Our friends on Searenity have arrived, the sailed from Cape Town and ended up motoring for 8 days as there was NO wind.

We got together to have a pizza party on their yacht. We made the dough in the bread maked and added topping to bake in the oven.

From left thats Mashelle, Me, Carine and Santi.

It was great grub!

Jamestown

Jamestown, St Helena. Amazing blue sea, rocky cliffs and friendly people.


This is Jacobs ladder, 699 steps, 600 foot high.
Rob, Santi, Goltz and Johann climbed it! No I waited below..its soo steep.

Day 15

Wow what an amazing trip we have had, for the last 3 days the sea has been flat with no wind. Rob put the swimming pool on the foredeck and we had a dip. The water temp is 25C. Last night on my duty watch, 9pm to midnight, I marvelled at the stars. With no moon the stars were so bright I felt I could reach up and touch them. The sky is just so full of stars it lights the way, truly an amazing site!

Not much to see out here, we did see a huge fish just below the surface, think it was a whale shark, it was about 4m long. Reading wise I have finished The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, by Stieg Larsson. Great book, will start the second in the trilogy soon.

After 6 days at sea it was wonderful to sea land today. We have arrived at St Helena Island!

The doctor has been to take our temperatures and confirm good health. The customs came on board and tomorrow we need to go to immigration to stamp our passports and pay 27 British Pounds. There are 13 other cruising yachts here.

Tomorrow we will go ashore and expore while we wait for our friends on Yacht 'Searenity' to arrive.

I will download some photos at the internet cafe. No cell phone signal here.

Rob's first fish

Rob caught his first fish, too small to eat but good fun catching.
Land ahoy, at last after 6 days at sea there she is St Helena Island!

As you see the water was soo flat we put up the pool and relaxed in the cool water!

These are the Flying fish. They jump out of the wave and glide for ages until they drop into the water again. At night we get afew landing on the deck.

Good Dorado!

Krazni caught us good Dorado, its a young one and so gold in clour. The colour dissapears very soon after death. Great eating.

I got creative and baked bread rolls for Hamburgers on route!

Harold you will know where this was taken?...The Lighthouse in Swakopmund..yes Rob ate it all!
On returning to the yacht we found the hopeful seal had found a happy sleeping spot on our sugar scoop!

Day 12 4th Feb 2010

After 2 very turbulent days with the swell side on and 

wind we have had 2 wonderful calm days. The swell 

in more from behind and the wind has dropped. 

The water temp is 24C and we are at last wearing 

summer clothes! Yesterday we caught our first Dorado,

 65cm long. Krasni says it was a young fish and it was 

a wonderful golden colour. Great eating! I have my sea 

legs and am able to join Kras and Mashelle in READING! 

The guys transfered the fuel from the bladder tank today, 

464l into the fuel tanks. From the rough seas the yacht 

was covered in salt so she got a wash down today, 

all fresh again. Toasted chicken mayo sandwiches for 

lunch and lamb curry tonight. Then the food we cooked

 in Walvis is finished and we will raid our still full freezer, 

unless we catch more fish. In the morning we have 

'flying' fish on the deck which are tossed back. 

The sea in an amazing blue. Half way to St Helena! 

19,36.997S  004,01.742E