Horta to Norway

Our voyage from Horta was good but with variable weather.

Grete's new baked bread tasted wonderfull!

Refilling the diesel tank underway.

Geir had daily contact with radio friends on HAM radio and on the radio networks on marine bands.

Weather forecasts was sent to us by LA3ZH Leif in Kristiansand every day and we also downloaded forecasts from Predictwind.com. Another feature was position reports via Predictwind.

This gave us the oportunity to report our own position and to see other boats position while underway.

This is a "Happy meal" while underway

.
The last week we had a LOW with high winds and choppy seas.
2 days prior this LOW we turned due East and sailed towards the Spanish NW coast to get further away from the high winds.
On friday noon wind picked up from the SW to 20-25 knots and seas were building. The wind slowly increased to 30-35 knots and the sea to 5-6 meters. It stayed like that untill Saturday evening. Sunday morning it slowly decreased and by noon wind was down to 15-20 knots.

The boat sailed very well through this gale - and living aboard was fine. We even cooked our dinner and relaxed quite comfortbaly.

However, we decided to drop sailing up to Ireland, as this ment sailing with the beam to the high seas created by the gale force winds.
We therefore set our course for Yarmouth Harbour on the Isle of Wight.
Our friend Thom D'Arcy on S/Y Fathom - put in a good word for us - as Yarmouth is his home port.

We were therefore given a fine berth when we arrived on June 25th.

Just tied up at the Yellow Pontoon in Yarmouth Harbour

We celebrated our 20th year anniversity.

A few pictures from Yarmouth:

Boat needed to be "pimped up" with some brass.

We spent a few days relaxing and went for fresh supplies at the local grocery shop.

Finally we tanked up with water and diesel and started our voyage to our home port Farsund in south Norway. We departed with the current flowing from west to east - and managed to do great distance before the direction turned.

The first day we did 150nm. The wind was blowing from the SW at 15-20 knots and we were "flying" along out of the English Channel and into the North Sea.
We kept out of the Traffic Separation Sone sailing along the English coast and the Dutch coast.
There were a few fishing trawlers, windfarms og offshore oil/gas platforms - but we sailed through without any problems.

Approaching Dogger Bank we exspected yet another gale. The forecast was intitially for gusts up to 35-40 knots, but later downgraded to 25-30. When it arrived it slowly built up from the SW from 15 up to 25, then varied slowly up to 25 to 30 knots from the SW. The water depth of Doggerbank is ony 12-25 meters and seas builds fast and creates quite choppy seas. But again Ocean Viking showed us what a great sea going boat we have. And I have good praise to our Hydrovane and our Simrad AP25/AC20 autopilot. They steered the boat better than I can do manually.

The wind started to ease off early morning on Saturday 4.7. In the afternoon/evening we were getting close to the Norwegian trench. We were approached by a Danish fishing boat. We called them on the radio and had a great chat with the captain, who was from the Faroes - but living in Denmark. He also had a 31 foot sailboat at home.

He came up pretty close to us and took pictures that he later emailed us. Here is a couple of them.

We arrived in the early morning at Farsund and was moored at 3AM and even if it was kinda late,

a toast or two... was very appropriate.

The good stuff - Gin from Peters Cafe Sport in Horta

Why has that nose turned so RED ?

It's been a great year - but it could had been so much better. The COVID-19 pandemic unfortunatly set a total stop to our trip.

We feel we still have lots to see. Who knows - we may cast off again on new adventures in the future.

Horta and voyage to UK/Ireland

We arrived at the port of Horta located on the southeast of the island Faial in the Azores Archepilago in the early morning hours
the 28. May. We called the marina before entering and got a friendly welcome and we were asked to anchor in the bay.
There were 20-25 boats anchored there already but we managed to find a good spot right infront of the marina office
with enough room to swing around the anchor. The bottom had very good holding.

We were checked in on the VHF and instructed that we were not allowed ashore and could not put our dinghy in the water.
Later the same day the harbour police came to our boat and checked our passports and gave us a signed form stating the regulations
for the port of Horta.

The famous Peter Cafe Sport has for many years been a well visited bar in Horta. Now that no one could come ashore, they ran
a service for all the boats at anchor. They were available on VHF and WhatsApp and could arrange to get us just about anything.
We bought take-away food, groceries, they filled our water jerry cans, brought us medicine. We will remember them always for their great service.

The boats were coming and going. But the turnover was slow and at some stage there were almost 40 boats anchored. Boats that need repair or fuel and water were allowed to come alongside the dock that was isolated and fenced.

We spent almost 2 weeks waiting for the right weather window - but it never appeared.
The forecast was very unreliable.
What looked ok one day, was totally changed the next. At the end we just decided we'd had enough and set a departure day.
We were given permission to come in to fill up with fuel and water and to stay over night in order to have some 230V to do some cleaning/hoovering
and to top up our batteries. Same evening we were invited for a beer/drinks at another Norwegian boat.
They were there as they needed repair to their gear-box. It was very good to have some social contact with others
as we had been isolated to the boat for more than a month.

We left in the morning Friday the 12th June. We set sail and cruised towards the east and then northeast past the island of Terceira in order to avoid a weather system with high winds, that was forecasted.
We were successful and had a great sail.
We lost sight of Terceira Saturday evening. Sunday noon the wind calmed down and we had to motorsail.
Wind returned from the southeast and later east and we sailed north. When we reached a point 600nm west of Porto in Portugal we changed to an easterly course as there is a LOW pressure coming in from the west with high winds.

We are now 525 nautical miles from Horta and have 800 left to UK or Ireland.
Ireland is still locked down with the COVID-19 - we can visit a port, but then we will have to quarentine for 2 weeks. UK is partially open in certain ports iin south England.

Weather will decide which way we will go back to Norway. One is via Ireland, Scottish west coast

via Pentland strait accros the North Sea.

The other is up the English channel and up the North Sea.

Days passes fast. We cook meals, read books, chat on the radio etc. Geir sends daily position reports and checks in on the Ocean Cruiser Clubs Atlantic West to East radio net every evening.
Leif/LA3ZH keeps an eye of the weather forecast for our route and gives us great advise.
Geir also have contact with radio friends on 14328 every evening at 2100 UTC. It is very nice to hear
friends familiar voices. It breaks up boredom and feeling of isolation.

Now that we have decided to return home, we really look forward to see our kids and their families and our newest grandson Tobias. He is now almost 5 months old. Grete's phone is bursting with pictures and video's of the little guy. We look forward to meet him for the first time.

Arrived at Horta

We arrived Horta at 5AM on the 28ght May. We have sailed 2553nm in 24 days and 17hrs. From Sainte-Anne anchorage in Martinique to Horta. Average speed was 5.4 knots.

Much of our trip was motorsailing and some even plain motoring.
 Luckily we purchased more jerry cans in Grenada and we had filled up our main tank (225L)
and had 210L in cans on deck. We gave away 20L to another sailboat - underway.
When we arrived Horta we had some 20L left in total.

Horta

There were just some 20 boats in the harbord and easy to find a spot to drop the anchor.
Went to sleep for a few hours. Later we were visited by the harbour police and we were checked in to Portugal.

Menu from Peters Cafe Sport

We also had a visit from the friendly guys from Peters Cafe Sport who offered their services to us.
We got their whats-app number and later ordered take-away food and groceries to be delivered next day.  The food waas great. We had both Chicken Curry and th Sirloin with pepper sauce.

Now we are waiting for a suitable weather window for our next voyage up to UK/Ireland.
Unfortunately the wind is pretty persistent with a fresh breeze to near gale from the NE.
By the end of next week (6-8. June) it looks like we might set sail.

Day 22 at sea

Days passes fast. You probably won't believe this to be so - but you get into a routine,
Do your daily chores, have your meals, read books, chat on the radio, read mails, check and plan the sail for the coming days etc. We have lots of time to think and talk about politics and the time ahead.

We really look forward to come home to meet our new grandson Tobias and the rest of our family.
Hopefully the Corona restrictions will be a little lighter by the time we arrive Farsund and we can travel to see our family.

We are now getting close to Horta. We have 220 nautical miles left.
With 5 knot speed we will be there Wednesday (27. May) in the afternoon/evening.

But the downside is, we will have wind from the north on Wednesday that will slow us down.
So chances are we won't arrive until in the morning on Thursday.

The past 48 hours wind has been very light and from E to SE and we have had to motor sail
to keep the speed above 5 knots. We have to run the engine at low speed not to burn too much diesel.
We now have 90+ liters left in the tank - which should be enough to reach Horta.
We look forward to arrive, anchor and get some good rest.

We have prepared a long shopping list for various foods & provisions.
Fresh bread and meats is on the top of our list + cold beer ;)

The Azores is officially closed for tourists. But Horta and the capital Punta Delgada have adapted to have made facilities in order to serve arriving yachts that has crossed the Atlantic. We will not be allowed to go ashore.
But we can come alongside the fuel pontoon to fill our diesel and water tanks.
We will order food/provisions from a local store which will be deliver to us at the anchorage.
They even can bring take-away food - if we would want that.

Running on motor in light winds makes things a little difficult to use our SSB radio.
The radio interferes with the autopilot - and Grete hand steers while Geir is on the air - checking in on sailers radio network or sending/receiving emails.

Having email capability is very nice, as it makes a long crossing less boring and also lets us receive weather data
from friends and weather service agencies. We even get an ocational news letter - that our daughter Synne compiles.

Will write more and update the blog with pictures when we arrive in Horta. We will be online via our mobiles/4G from there.

Kind regards to you all
Grete & Geir

Day 17 - at sea

Our voyage is turning out to be a long one.
We are having to dodge a weathersystem with high winds.
We are at 31N and the weather system is passing to the north of us.
We have had nice sailing wind the past 20 hrs. and it looks as it will continue like this for
at least another 24 hrs. We have approx 870nm left to Horta. ETA is now 28. May.

We have been in company with S/Y Fathom. A 28 foot UK sailboat also bound for Horta.
He was very low on diesel and we gave him 20L. The transfere was easy as we had 2 empty 25 liter cans. 10L in each and a rope between them and over the side. Thom on Fathom fished them out with his boat-hook.

Grete ready to drop the diesel cans.

Thom fishing out the cans.

Thom is on the way home to Yarmouth harbor on the Isle of Wight - returning from a 4 year trip around the world.

This morning we were passed by a large norwegian LNG (gas) tanker.
She was M/T Arctic Princess under way to USA to load LNG for Europe.
Normally they are on contract with Equinor and transport LNG from Snøhvit/Malkøya gass terminal ved Hammerfest.

The mate we talked to on the VHF was a sailer aswell and his boat was in a marina in Grenada.
He was very frustrated with the fact that Grenada is closed by the Covid-19 restrictions - and he can't get to his boat.

We are both well, boat is all OK - but we look forward to reach Horta.

Still on 14.328 SSB/CW at 1900Z and 2130Z - and condx to N.Europe been very good.

Grete & Geir

Day 14 - at sea :)

Time for another update on our voyage.

First of all Congratulations to all Norwegians. May 17th is our independence day.
Normally a day of celebration with friends and family, parades and parties.
But as so much more the pandemic problem has made that most arrangements have had to be cancelled.

However, people was asked to sing our national anthem in unison at 13:02 Norwegian time.
We on Ocean Viking did the same ( at 08:02 our local time) - on the aft deck.

We have a video to proove it ;) But its too large to upload from out here at sea.

We have had various weather.
But sadly not the perfect wind that has given us the speed we had hoped for.
We had a strategy staying below 30 degrees North. That made us sail towards the east for a while. But sadly the wind died late in the evening and we found ourselves rocking around in swell/confusing seas with no speed and a consecuence of that, no steering speed. All sails down, engine started and we finally managed to point the boat in the right direction and the autopilot took care of the rest.

The day after we decided to sail above 30N - to put us in a better position for change in the wind direction.
This morning the wind swung around from the East to South West and increased to 15 knots.
We are now sailing happily doing 6 knots.Looks like we will have this wind for a few days.
We are steering 080 degrees - towards the Azores.
Distance to our destination, Horta, is now 1000 nm and we hope to arrive by the 27.05 (Geirs birthday).

We both go to sleep at night.
We take turn in waking up to check, sails, speed/course and for any eventual traffic in the area.
We have radar with a guard ring and an AIS system. They will warn us if any conflicting traffic.
Out in the ocean you don't see much traffic. On average 3-5 ships a week.
Those that come close know what they are doing and they always keep a safe distance to us.

Grete baked bread and bread rolls the other day. The smell of freshly baked bread is so nice when you are out to sea. They were eaten with good layers of butter and jam ;)

The radio connection on amateur radio to Norway has been very good the past days.
It's so nice to hear the familiar voices of old ham friends ;) I am on the air every day
at 1900Z and 2130Z on 14328. I am listening for calls on both SSB and CW.

Radio sked times + more

Days are passing pretty fast out here. Keeping an eye out for the weather and adjusting sails
and our Hydrovane steering keeps us occupied.

The Hydrovane is a fantastic gadget.
It is a complete independent rudder which is controlled by the wind/direction.
As long as the winddirection is constant the rudder steers the boat at a steady heading.
If the wind changes a few degrees we wills till maintain speed as the windangle into the sails
will still be the same. So we need to keep an eye of our heading once in a while.

We now have around 1450 nautical miles left to reach Horta on the Azores.
The weather outlook looks promissing and we hope to arrive before may 25th.
Our position can be found on winlink.org - look at the links at top of this blog.

I am on the air from the boat on HAM radio on frequency 14.328 every day
at 1900 and 2130 UTC . Please feel free to give me a call.

73's Geir - LA5ZO/MM

Days 5 at sea - and more

Time for an update.

We are now well into day 5 of our 3 week crossing to Horta in the Azores.
The weather has been fine, although we would have liked a more SW wind direction.
Wind has in general been from E-SE between 10 to 15 knots. That gives us only a max speed of 5-6 knots and average around 4 knots.
We are on a course of 030 to 040 degrees sailing up to a waypoint
at 25N and 55W. Here we are hoping to find better winds, we might have to go even a little further up north. If we get too far north there is risk of running into gales, so we are watching the forecasts carefully.

Days go by by reading, Ham radio and navigation/weather for Geir.
Grete spends much of her time reading and cooking dinners. She even baked a large pan of Foccatia bread which tasted great.

Been seaching the radio for english news stations. But it looks like they have all closed down and moved to the internet. Our daughter, Synne, has started compiling news into emails, something we are very greatfull for.

It is still very hot onboard. Air temperature is 28-30 degrees and the sea 26C - that means we are being heated from all sides :)
We are sweatting all day and constantly feel like having a shower. But we have to conserve our fresh water supply as we have no water-maker. When we start to smell too bad, we have a quick rinse with soap and water - and it feels fantastic.

As mentioned above, Geir spends much of his time on the radio. Checks in on different Sail/Cruiser nets on shortwave where you can talk to other sailboats under way and get weather reports etc.
He also talk to fellow radio amateurs all over the world. Last night a long chat with Ross (ZL1WN), a friendly guy in New Zeeland, and with Mike (KX4WC/AM) who was a pilot of an airliner flying from Philadelphia to Los Angles - at the time they were overhead Cedar Rapids.
Geir also have a scheduled radio contact (@19Z on 14328kHz) with Ola (EA5/LA2PC) - a Norwegian in his summer home south of Alicante/Spain. So far only a few weak station has been heard from Norway.

Leif Molle (LA3ZH) in Kristiansand is a very faithfull and polite weather-router - and sends us the weather forecast every day
for our area. In addition we download weather info via our shortwave email system called Winlink.

AWOB (All Well On Board)

Grete & Geir

On our way accross the Atlantic

We departed from Martinique in the morning 3rd. May.

We have been at anchor at Sainte-Anne beach for a few days while fixing our steering problem.
As we immediately went in 2 weeks quarantine - we were not allowed to go ashore.
But we were hailed by othe boats who offered to go shopping, take our rubbish ashore etc.
The cruising community is very nice and helpful. We anchored near 3 Norwegian boats.
There must have been more than a hundred sailboats there.

We were also permitted to stay while we waited for a workable weather window to start our Atlantic crossing. The steering problem turned out to be an easy fix. The wires connecting to stering wheel to the rudder had become slack and that n cuased the rudde to have "play".
The wires have been tightened and steering is now working very well.

However we are now siling using the Hydrovane wind rudder.It performs very well.
The main rudder is locked in midship.

We are not happy with our main sail. We had it made in Falmouth in august
and so far never sailed upwind with it. We are struggeling to get vove 30 degrees to the wind.
That means we will use some more time to get us into the easterny going trade winds
that will take us to the Azores.

We have lots of food, drinks and freshwater so we will survive ;)
Radio, reading and knitting keeps us from boredom. We also have a few DVDs to watch.
Oh - we purchased a new portable fridge in Saint-Anne. It is so much more efficient than
the built- in we have and uses very little electricity. We have turned the built in- off.

The weather is still hot. Seatemp around 26C and air 28-30C - we look forward to
when it will drop a bit. Sea state is fine. Waves between 1.5 to 2m and an occational one a little higher.

In Martinique

We were supposed to sail non-stop Grenada to Azores via Guadeloupe.
We had planned to anchor in Guadeloupe to wait on a good weather window, but our request to anchor was turned down. The island is closed due to COVID-19 and only EU boats were accepted.
And EU in Guadeloupe doesn't include EEC/Schengen countries - like Norway.

We left Grenada at noon on Friday 24th. The evening the next day we had noticed a growing problem with the boat steering was behaving poorly.
The boat seem to dift off 45 degrees to port - this was much to much to be caused by ocean currents. In addition the autopilot or manual steering could not make the boat turn back on wanted track.
Same fault was there even using the wind vane rudder.
Many thoughts ran through our minds while trying to figure out why - and what could be wrong.
We spent hours testing and discussing - but in the end we set the boat on course towards Guadeloupe with the unwanted drift to port. We slept very little that night.

At first daylight we managed to set the main rudder midship and lock it.
We turned the boat using our Hydrovane wind rudder and set course to Martinique island - which was 5 nautical miles to our ENE. We telephoned the Maritime Rescue Coordinator Centre in Fort de France and explained our situation and requested permisson to come and anchor for repair. They were very polite - and here there was no talk of "only EU boats accepted".

On top of this our email on shortwave wouldn't work. But Geir managed to fix it and we could have witten communication with the MRCC in Fort de France.

The trip in was a long one. We were 60 nautical miles out and we were only doing 2-3 knots as we had wind/sea against us. We motored all the way and used 24 hours to get in.
30 minutes before we arrived our anchorage we were called on the radio and we got the official permit to anchor.

Grete happy for visiting another island.

Our Anchorage oposite Saint Anne

Our anchorage looking west

Many charterboats and no costumers.

We haven't starting looking for the fault yet. Today we have slept and Grete has gone for a swim 3 times already.
We are ut anchor in 4 meters depth in crystal clear water. We are in quarantine for 2 weeks - but that doesn't matter to us - as we don't need anything onshore. We will remain here untill the steering is fixed and the weather for the first days of the Atlantic crossing looks good.

3 weeks in Grenada

Yesterday we passed 3 weeks moored in Grenada.

We have access to what we need here, but things are more difficult to get.
Not because of shortages, but because of the cerfew that has been put in place shops are not allowed to stay open all day.

Everyone is to be confined in their home and not allowed to leave their house/property.
Shopping is only allowed at special shopping days/hours and this leeds to crowding and loooong queues.

This morning Geir and Swedish boat neighbour Lasse - queued up for the local supermarket.
The line was almost 500m long an hour before the supermarket opened.

Supermarket - with the long queue (not visible here)

The progress was very slow, as it looked like they had 3 queues merging into one outside the premises. After having waited in the increasing heat from the sun for nearly 3 hours, we gave up.

We have access to other sources - who can buy and deliver stuff, but at a little higher price.
So we'd rather do that.

Here on the Ocean Viking we used a super yacht delivery who supplied us with, milk, juices, drinks, beer and drinking water - we should have more than enough to reach the Azores and perhaps Norway.

The other night a van showed up in the marina - selling fresh vegetables. Next day Grete made us a great salad for dinner.

Well, weather is great, beer is cold and our health great.
We will probably remain here untill the 20th April.

We will then start the trip up to Antigua and from there set course for the Azores.
The distance to the Azores will depend of the weather route we choose.
As it looks like this time of the year we will sail north 3-4 days from Antigua, then turn ENE for 10 days and then head straight to Horta the last week.  Finding the right wind is important.
To go too far north can get us too close to high winds, too far south in too calm areas.
So obtaining weather updates often is recommended,

Will be back with updates as we start sailing.

St. Georges, Grenada - Our safe Haven

We are still moored in Port Lousi Marina in St.Georges, Greanada.
A few boats have left, some been left here and crew gone home (most to USA).
We are still many who want to wait it out a bit to see how the covid-19 disease develops.

Boats that are sailing to Europe will in any case have to wait - as the recommended time to cross the Atlantic starts first week of May.

Greneda has so far had 7 cases of the virus, all caused by 2 persons contracting the virus in- or on travels from UK and USA. They arrived home to pass the virus on to family and firends.
All the infected are between 60 and 80 and are being isolated at home while they are ill.

They have hospital beds ready for them if they will need medical treatment. Health and medical staff are skilled, but the capasity for treatment isn't very high here.

Today the government declared a 7 day cerfew starting at 7PM this evening.
People will however be able to go shopping for food and medicines - in a controlled manor.

We went to the foodshop and bakery early today - and ended up in a long que.
But Grete who made it inside, did all the shopping and got us all the neccessary fresh goodies
we needed. We are now well stocked for many weeks.

Our plan so far, is to sail from here in 3 weeks time - to be up in the Antigua area when its time to
start our trip accorss the Atlantic.

Today we got an internet router and a cables onboard. The marina had them in store, but had failed to tell us about it. So after having struggeled with a weak and failing WiFi for 9 days we now have our own  fast and stable WiFi onboard for all our gadgets - and able to speak to family and friends on voice/video.

Geir has been on the amateur radio, but heard nothing from Europe. Had a few CW contact with US and Canadian stations.

Well days are passing quick and weather is great. The only irritating thing is the marina pool is closed. So no coooling off there. A shower on the lazarette is the substitue.
 It would be wrong to tell you we are suffering  ;)

Stay at home - and keep safe and healthy.

Grete & Geir



G

In St.Georges - Grenada

We arrived in Grenada one day earlier than expected. We were tied up at 1630 local time on Friday the 20th. March. We were met by the Health representatives who looked us over and scanned our body temperature. After that we were checked in by Costums/immigration and gota certificate saying we can freely move everywhere in Grenada.

Waiting for the Island Water World boatshop to open.

We are moored at a very nice marina called Port Luis Marina in the town of St.Georges.

Ocean Viking at berth G26, Port Louis Marina

We have bought spareparts and repaired the toilet. All pipes and the through hull valve was clogged with salt/urine crystals. Pipes was replaced and a new toilet pump installed. It was great to finally "park" Siri - the toilet bucket ;)

Today sailmakers collected the main sail that needs repair and looked after.

Boats in the Lagoon at St.Georges.

Tomorrow we mst go shopping for provisions and water.
We will sail away from here the 31st March. Plan is to slowly make our way north
towards Antigua. We ought to be there no later than last week og April.

Sail off from Antigua around 7th May.
Azores is closed officially, but The ports of Horta and Ponta Delgada has special permits
for sailboats to come alongside to take diesel and water - but no one will be allowed ashore.

Latest - good news !

For those of you that understand Norwegian and those who were able to get a transation I have good news.
Our satellite phone rang here and a pleasant lady from the Norwegian embassy was at the other end.
They had been in touch with Grenada and we are welcome to come and stay there. So with high spirits we are now
sailing past Trinidad and up to Grenada. We should arrive in the early hours on saturday.

While charging batteries yesterday the engine over-heated. Checked the obviois reasons and found the impeller
in the seawater pump totally worn out. We had 3 new ones in spare. All was well after it was replaced.
Working in a crampt engine compartment on a rolling boat is a real test on ones patience.
But the job was done satisfatory and didn't drop a single par/screw.

Weather has been perfect with a steady 15 knot ENE wind. Untill early this morning when it suddenly increased to 20-25.
All (both) hands on deck and reefs in both genoa and main sails were made.
We sailed with good speed and during the morning it calmed down to 15-18 knots.

Today we had Gretes home- (boat) made tuna salad on rye bread. Really nice.
Grete also made a very nice pot of baccalao. We purchased fish and other ingredients in Joao Pessoa, Brazil.
So we are not starving.

We now have 125 nautical miles left to Grenada. We very much look forward to a good berth at the marina
and to have a long needed shower and to get some long hours of sleep in a bed that doesn't move :)

Corona virus - komplikasjoner

This one will be in Norwegian - try google translate:

Dette ble litt mer utfordrende enn vi hadde forestilt oss.
Det er vel få seilere som tidligere har måttet stå overfor konsekvensene av corona virus trusselen.

Land etter land stenger nå grensene, transport av mennesker og varer opphører.
Vi er på vei nordover mot Trinidad & Tobago der vi har avtale med et verft som skal reparere toalettet,
sjekke kjøla og vi har også en rift i storseilet som må ordnes.

I går fikk vi melding om at statsministeren i T&T har vedtatt at grensene stenges fra midnatt 17.03 og at
båter som ankommer vil bli avvist. Vi fikk beskjed om å ikke komme til T&T og enten bli der vi er - eller finne en alternativ havn.
Problemet er at vi er midt ute på havet og alternative havner er allerede virus smittet eller veldig utrygge. Vi har derfor valgt å fortsette
forbi Trinidad og håper å nå St.Georges på Grenada - før også de evt. bestemmer seg for å stenge grensene.
Vi har noe drikkevann, en del ferskvann vi kan rense - men heldigvis mye mat. Men relativt lite diesel.
Vinden er imidlertid på vår side og har til nå gitt oss god bør på mellom 6 til 7 knop.

Får vi fortsatt god vind vil vi være fremme på Grenada lørdag den 21.03.
Hvordan vi legger opp turen videre mot Antigua og så Azorene - må vi bestemme oss for da.

A secret to share with you ;)

When we left Jacare/Cabadelo in Brasil - our intention was to sail along the coast of Brasil up to French Guyana to visit Kourou and the Iles du Salut - where the French built a large prison complex in the 18th century.

Officially we never went there - but we really did. We skipped visiting Kourou though.
We were afraid we could get into trouble or being refused access to ports if we had been registered
as visitors in French Guyana (COVID-19 fright). 

We arrived there in the dark early in the morning, 13th March and anchored in a bay off the main island named Ile du Royale.
We met one of the officials after we got ashore he welcomed us and said they didn't bother doing check-ins for boats visiting for a day or two.  The island is where the main prison was and where the islands/prison administration was located. There are 3 islands and the other two was Isle St. Joseph and Ile du Diable.

Prior to arriving we had both read the book Papillon, by Henri Charriere. He was prisoned there for many years. Did several escapes, got caught - but finally managed to escape and found refuge in Venezuela.

One of the buildings there was now converted to a restaurant and a hotel. Many of the former houses for guards/families was part of the hotel. The restaurant had some nice cold beers.

The beer tasted fantastic especially after a long walk around the island.

Walking around the prison camp we saw and recognised all the places Henri Charriere had written about.

This is the prison directors residence.

The church

The hospital

View from top of the island

Prison cells

The bay where we anchored

There were many of these on the island.

What this animal called ?

Harbour

Ile de Diable

Prisoners quarters

Jacare to Trinidad - update

Our stay in Jacare was a very hot one. Even our fridge hated the place and decided to stop working. The marina got hold of a technician who turned out to be a very friendly guy - and he was at home on shore leave from his job on an offshore multi -purpose vessel (oil related). So we had a long chat on working conditions in Brazil's oilfields. The pay was getting worse every year - and Joelson (as his name was) was considering giving up his job, as working full time as a service engineer as this was more rewarding than what he made on his 28 days offshore.
He managed to get the fridge started - by checking for freon content and leaks. He replaced the old freon with new and replaced the thermostat.

We decided to have a nights vaccation from the boat. A night at a hotel with aircondition and a great meal was what we had in mind. We found a hotel online - booked the room and off we went with the local taxi driver Bernardo.
The food and the stay was very nice. We had a room on the top floor of a beach side hotel in a large beach just outside Joao Pessoa.

Our trip to Ubatuba unfortunatly had to be cancelled. We could not check in with the immigration untill after the carnival. And we could not travell without beeing checked in. As our time schedule is very tight we had to make this sad decission.

Nicola from the marina picked us up at the hotel the next day - and we went to immigration where we were checked in and out - as we were departing 2 days later.

Sunday morning 1. march we left at high tide.
The day before had been spent at a big Carrefour supermarket - where last provissions was purchased.
Our taxi driver Bernardo was very helpfull insisted on
carriyng all to the boat and even to lift it onboard.

Our trip started well with ample sailing wind which gave us good speed. Our destination was Iles du Salut (Saviours Islands) off the coast of French Guyana. Most people may have read the book or seen the movie Papilon. The island is the site of an old french prison for high security prisoners.
It was in operation from 1880 to late 1950's.
Now it's a museum and open to the public who find their way to the islands.
The trip up here has been very hot and at times tiresome. After the first 1-2 days with sailing wind - we were becalmed and ran the engine every day to help progress. Luckily we had 355 liters of diesel when we left. We have stopped a few times to have a swim, which was very nice - but water temperature is almost 30C. After we had a short rinse with fresh water on the out door shower.
Radio system has worked fine. We have been able to send and receive emails via the Winlink system and hopefully you have been able to follow our position changes that has been added daily.
The sad thing is that there has been no long range conditions that has allowed us to talk to HAM radio friends in Norway.

We have had contact with other boats sailing the same route as us - and been able to share information on weather and choice of route.

We are now on day 11 out of Jacare, it's wednesday and we will arrive the islands early friday morning.
Our plan is to stay at anchor there until sunday and then motor into the nearest town, Kourou to fill up with diesel and fresh water. We also need to buy bottled water, some fresh bread and green stuff.

From Kourou we will sail to Trinidad where we need to have some job done on the boat. Our toilet is blocked again and the manual pump broken.

The fridge - gave up on us, 2 days out of Jacare,
but we managed to get it going and it keep a temp of 9-10 degrees, We have sent an email to try get a portable backup fridge to keep our drinking water atc. Opening the main fridge several times a day doesn't help keeping the temperature low.

The voyage up to Trinidad is 6 days to arrive at the 23rd of March. We hope to get the jobs done within a few days. After Trinidad we wil start our voyage up the Carribean islands. More on that later Today we had confirmation from the yard in Chageuramas to be hauled out 24. and back out the 29th. march.

Latest news on Corona virus worries us. Not the virus itself, but the consequences in trade and available provisions as we go along. Luckily we are very well stocked - but need more drinking water and diesel. We'll just have to see how this thing pans out.


Grete & Geir

Fernando Noronha to NE Brazil

We arrived the island of Fernando Noronha the 18th February and anchored in calm weather
in the morning. The island looks very pretty and we made our way ashore with the dinghy.
Check-in was easy - but took it's time as we had to visit 3 authorities.
But the local sheriff took us in his car and after 2 hours we were ready and cleared in and could go get some ice cold beers.

We met Marcus - a very friendly young German traveller who offered the use of his hot-spot phone
to Grete, as she was very eager to see pictures of our new grandson. We received lots of them as well as video's and had a longer chat with them using Messenger.

Visiting Fernando Noronha is expensive. For the 3 days we had planned we had to pay almost 1000 reais (Brazil money)

After our beer hot-spot session it was time to return to the boat, as it gets dark very early here.
A short while after we arrived onboard, the weather changed dramatically.
First wind increased then heavy rain and more wind. It kept on like this for 2 hours and seas and swell got higher. Bot rolled pretty hard at times, but the anchor held fine.

The next day we still rolled to much and there was too much waves to go ashore with the dinghy.
The 3rd day arrived with little change - and we had to face the fact that a few ours visit to the island had cost a lot of money. At 1530 - we lifted anchor and set sail for our next port of call
the marina at Jacare up-river from the town of Cabadelo in NE Brazil.

We had to motor-sail most of the time - in order to stay above 5 knots, which would get us to
the marina at HW which was at 1600 local time the 22nd of February.
We had limited amount of diesel left, but running the engine at minimum RPM's we managed to get there before the tank was empty.

Jacare Village Marina looks like a well organized place. It has all the facilities including a bar
and kitchen that serves great food.

The marina helped us get in touch with a technician to fix our cooling-box. It had gradually gotten warmer - and at the end had an internal temperature of 22C. It's now running as  should keeping all our drinks nice and cold.

Safely moored in Jacare

Marina bar and leisure area

Bringing the laudry ashore

Sailing the Atlantic

Hello

Time passes fast out here. We are already nearly 800 nm SSW of Mindelo, Cape Verde
that we left one week ago. We are heading for the island Fernando Noronha located NE of the NE coast of Brazil. We hope to get permit to go ashore, as one normally need to have a visa in advance. It is supposed to be one for the foremost attractions in Brazil and a well protected natures reserve.

The weather is fine. A ENE wind 15 knots is giving us good sailig wind.
Our 3rd crew member, the Hydrovane wind rudder does all the steering. Expensive but never complains, doen't eat and works 24/7 ;)

Food wise we are eating well. So far we have made several hot meals. Easy to prepare and such that will leave less dishes to wash.
We have bought German frikadellen (Norw: Karbonader) and Bratwurst both with long expiry dates.
We also rely heavily on Corned Beef and tinned Ham. We also have glasses of conserved boiled potatoes, (long life) that only needs
to be heated in hot water. So we are NOT starving. Huge amounts of Ice tea and drinking water for dry throats. And occational cold beer - but JUST the one!

Have great radio conditions and email is easy using Winlink via a station on the Canary islands.
Conditions to Norway been off/on - but have had contacts every day in the afternoon (1600Z on 14328)
Will also try same frequency at 1045Z.

I am also keeping radio sked with S/Y Fitz Roy with skipper Alexander and his to female sailing companions.
We were both in Mindelo. They left 3 days later than us bound for French Guyana. We meet on marine channels
on 6 or 8 MHz twice a day. Such contacts are great for keeping up the spirit and to compare notes when sailing in similar waters.

Will try upload some pictures once we are within wi-fi range.

Bye bye Mindelo

Hello, time for an update.
We have had 10 days relaxing in Mindelo - while waiting for our new grandson to be born in Norway.
He was born the 3rd of February and now their little family is back home in our house at Lista.

We set sail from Mindelo the 6th bound for Jacare near Cabadelo in NE Brazil. On the way we will stop
at the island Fernando Noronha (2 days before Cabadelo.)

Weather is good, wind from NE 15 to 25 knots but a bit rolly at times. But we are making acceptable speed averaging 5 kts.
At noon UTC we are west of Fogo island in the Cape Verdes. Sunny and 24C

Great radio conditions and sending/receiving emails easy. Arranged for radio sked with LA on 14326 at 1600UTC. More later.

Relaxing days in Mindelo

Life has - so far - been very good to us here in Mindelo.

The marina is well run and we feel safe both from weather and crime.
The islands has a lot of unemployment it seems and people try to find jobs doing on the street car wash help tourists with shopping etc. Some beggars, but most want's to do an honest job for money.

A church in town center

The market scquare

We will be here another week. We are still waiting for our new grandson to be born in Norway and
won't leave here untill we know all went well and to have a picture of him :)

Been very windy here the past few days. Today it was very calm and temperature rises. Its 25 C now.

Arrived in Mindelo, CV

We had a great trip sailing from GranCanary to Mindelo.
The first few hours out from Puerto Rico we had smooth sea and light winds.
later the wind and sea increased. During the night we had gusts up 28 knots.
The next day wind eased off a little and sea dropped some. We motor sailed
to keep the speed above 5 knots that would get us to Mindelo in 7 days.
To conserve diesel we motor sailed with just 1000 rpm's.

3rd day wind increased from the NE to 20 knots gusting 25+ knots.
We turned of the engine and set the Hydrovane to steer the boat.
Wind stayed unchanged untill we reached Mindelo in the afternoon on the 7th day. (27.01)
It was great to arrive Mindelo. Geir had been there 48 years ago.
At the time he was a sailor on a Norwegian merchant ship.

Safely moored in Mindelo Marina

The marina is very well organized. We called them on VHF and a small boat came out and guided us in to our berth.

Happy to have arrived Mindelo

After check-in Grete prepared a delicious Indian curry pot.
Later we went into a floating bar here at the marina. Here we met the crew from Swiss sailboat Fitz Roy.
Geir had kept daily radio contact with the captain Alex who sailes with two vegetarian ladies.
Grete tempted Alex to come onboard and have some leftovers from her Indian pot. He came over later that night and left with a portion and a great smile.

Gretes Indian curry

 Mindelo and the island of Sao Vicente looks to be a nice place.
We are looking forward to explore the town and the island in the coming days.

Mindelo sunset Tuesday evening