HURRICANE SEASON IN THE TROPICS
I just could'nt resist this. When we sailed thro the Windward passage between Cuba and Haiti we were told we would have a bumpry ride - we did! This report is the reason we sailed down below 12 deg latitude as quickly as possible to avoid the hurricane season. This type of email is sent to me on a daily basis and if the warning covers the area where Shimmi is I'll onsend it via sail mail to the yacht!0000 UTC, August 16th 2008 Fay Updatehttp://hurricanewarning1.com/ Tropical storm Fay has developed from the vigorous tropical disturbance which moved through the Lesser Antilles, Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico over the last couple of days, and is now traversing Hispaniola. Fay finally developed a coherent surface circulation this afternoon as it was crossing the Mona Passage between Puerto Rico and Hispaniola, and now has maximum sustained winds of 45 mph and a minimum central pressure of 1008 mb. Hispaniola is infamous for destroying tropical cyclones, but so far Fay is doing just fine as it crosses the island. The circulation of Fay remains vigorous on radar and satellite imagery, and deep convection is firing over it. It remains to be seen how Fay will interact with the mountains of Hispaniola overnight into tomorrow though. So far Fay has been crossing a fairly narrow and low part of the island, but it will be encountering the extremely mountainous central part of Hispaniola soon. I would be very surprised if Fay can sustain itself over those mountains, since they will essentially shred the circulation of Fay and cause dry air entrainment simultaneously. After interacting with Hispaniola, Fay is expected to move into the Windward Passage between Hispaniola and southern Cuba tomorrow afternoon. Fay will have 12-24 hours as it crosses the passage to re-intensify/re-organize, before interacting with the mountains of southern Cuba. It is very uncertain where the storm will be tomorrow, and the exact position of it will prove to be crucial. If it can get further north, it may have minimal interaction with Cuba and start to strengthen in the Atlantic within a day. The other possibility is that Fay will move up the spine of Cuba, and may never recover from that. It could also end up going into the Caribbean south of Cuba. Fay will begin to turn north on Sunday, and may threaten anywhere from the Bahamas to Florida on Monday/Tuesday. The intensity and location of Fay at this range are essentially impossible to pin down at this point though. Tropical storm warnings are currently up for the northern shoreline of Hispaniola, a part of Southern Cuba, and the southeastern Bahamas, with tropical storm watches on part of the northern coast of Cuba and in the central Bahamas. Interests in Jamaica, the rest of Cuba, and Florida need to keep a close eye on this system. I will continue to update, and hopefully the forecast will become more clear soon
Posted by Trevor at 11:31 PM
Thursday, August 14, 2008
COSTA RICA
We love Costa Rica. We're making a little home base at Banana Bay Marina, Golfito about 30 miles from the Panama/Costa Rica border. The Marina is extremely well run, fantastic for the kids, great open air restaurant/bar, 5 min walk to the closest grocery store that has EVERYTHING...baby formula, nappies, great fresh food etc etc. Golfito is a small 'narrow' town set between the sea and the jungle....kind of like Hermanus but only space for about 4 blocks before the mountains rise steeply. Golfito also just happens to be about 2 hours cruise from the famous PAVONES wave on the one side of the bay and my all time favourite waves on the other side at Matapalo. Matapalo is like the 90210 of the jungle. Hardly any surfers there as all the real estate has been bought up by very wealthy americans who have built designer jungle villas....so the only surfers are their off spring...nose jobs, boob jobs are the norm as well as loads of scarlet macaws and howler monkeys. The residents have intentionally kept the 20 mile gravel road bumpy as hell just as a further deterrent. My board was snapped in Panama. I borrowed a board from another girl and with Golla putting the pressure on with the camera zoomed in to my every wave I had one of my happiest surfs. One wave I swear was about 1km long. Golla towed me back to the line up with the speed boat!!!One of Golla's good university friends, Rob van Lingen + girlfriend Liz, were on holiday in Costa Rica. We thought we would miss them but just sent a ha ha e-mail: "We're crossing the border into Costa Rica and will be cruising into the bay at Pavones in about an hour." As we came around the point we saw people waving on the beach....Rob + liz promptly swam over for a G+T and we made plans for them to come aboard for 4 nights. We dropped them off yesterday after 3 days of great surf and great food! Josh just had one conversation with Rob...it lasted 3 days.Golla and Josh left at 7am this morning to catch a bus to Dominical to see if we can replace the snapped board.Just in case this sounds too idyllic life can be rather challenging at times. when stuff breaks on the boat it means all the tool kits come out, keep 2 kids entertained in 2m2 of floor space and run around passing Golla stuff while Golla sweats profusely over generator/main engine/pumps etc usually at the hottest time of the day.INDIE CAN CRAWL!!!! SHIMMI OVER + OUT
Posted by Trevor at 8:26 AM
Monday, August 4, 2008
DINING OUT - SHIMMI STYLE
2 DINNERS OFF THE BOAT!!!!*got taken out for dinner by arg + aussie at the Santa Catalina surf camp originally cancelled dinner at 4pm as it was pouring with rain...then thought what the hell put all our clothes in our waterproof grab bag including indie's and josh's and headed for the beach. basically the whole Malherbe family in the nude in their rubber duck! got changed under a tin roof car port thingy and got picked up by the arg. caipirini's, red wine, beer + pina coladas + pizza and the next day was a struggle of note!*then got invited by Morro Negrito surf camp manager for dinner last night. josh asked a local Panamanian girl (about 8 years old) to marry him....i think he asked her 5 times. the 5 min walk after dinner through the jungle back to our dinghy was funky....pitch dark and oops tied had dropped, dinghy marooned high and dry on the beach. Golla and I had to drag it about 1/2 a mile in the dark and then head out in a scary shore break....josh and I both have bruised bums and eina backs....won't be doing that again in a while.
Posted by Trevor at 8:19 AM
MORRO NEGRITO
from GollaHere on shimmi we are all OK. Chantal and Indie have a bit of flu, Chantal is struggling to shake it. We stayed for 2 weeks in the vicinity of the Morro Negrito surf camp. Had some lovely surfs and met some great people. Took Josh surfing often, he is now standing on the surfboard, I push him into a proper wave, he takes off and rides the foamy all the way to the sand. Diego and Luke came and joined us for 5 days which was great, especially Luke is an absolute pleasure to have on board, he cooked and cleaned and played with the kids. Now we are anchored off Montuosa Island, quite a rough anchorage. The island is spectacular, it has a high hill/mountain covered in forest with white beaches and palms. Its the closest thing to a real life Kong's Island! Its about 50 miles away from the mainland, out in the middle of nowhere, west of Coiba (penal colony) so the water is clear and snorkelling is the best I've seen so far. I went for a night dive and saw 2 sleeping turtles. I just interrupted this email because I heard so many fish jumping. Its a new moon, a truly black night, it feels as if we are in a pitch dark cave, almost claustrophobic, I can just see the outline of Kong's Island. Caught a nice Trevally on my first cast. Then a second one about 40 casts later! The night is so dark, the fish are attracted to the glow from the chart plotter! Tomorrow morning we plan on sailing to Islas Ladrones, then the next day on to Puerto Armuelles. This will be our check out port from Panama. From Armuelles we will cruise around the Burica peninsula and into Costa Rican waters. Our new batteries are working well, I have not had any major f-ups for a while. Except the gennie would start but not run which after a long trouble shooting session turned out to be a faulty 'stop' switch which activates the solenoid for the fuel cut off. Replaced the switch only to have a totally flat battery a few days later...I obviously did something wrong somewhere...When we arrived at Montuosa there was already another yacht anchored. A cruising couple with a 2 year old boy! So Josh has had plenty of visits to and fro. This other boat, from Santa Cruz California, is in its 7th year of cruising, in the final stage of its circumnavigation. Both Josh and Indie are growing up in leaps and bounds. Indie is about to crawl, goes onto his hands and knees and does that thing where he sways back and forth, we are waiting with bated breath for him to put a knee forward which would make the crawl official. Maybe tomorrow.
Posted by Trevor at 8:19 AM
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Golla's version
HoessitEating my words. Lam arms, arc eye and armpit rash. Surfed 3-4 times overhead P-land, its a faarken heavy wave, ledging take off, slows down a bit, then hits the ledge proper, once you are locked in it wont let you out, I got faarken thrashed thrice. Its very much a Cape wave...something in between the Factory, Outer Kom and Cones...with a bit of big Bawa mixed in. It really turned on this evening with a few 12 footers, but by then my arms were already fucked from surfing the inside wave which is like Elands with a few fun sections and exposed rocks just to make sure you don't go for the barrel section. Ja it faarken turned on. Full high tide, full moon, big swell, light offshore. In fact my arms were so toast, plus I was on my biggest board, a pin 6'6, I could hardly paddle, so I had to wait for these waves to come onto me, take off under the lip, almost like a no-paddle take off...ja I am buzzing right now, after all the kuk waves and Catalina crowds, hard graft on the boat, I thought I would never have a kiff surf again, I was evening missing Sand Baai if you can believe that, fekking crazy. Plus, on the other side of this island, there is a seriously massive A -frame peak, it had plenty of 20ft plus waves, no shit, it is a mental wave, like Sunset, seriously world class tow wave, or paddle, ask Chantal, I almost paddled it twice, but I was kukking myself, you know the story, bad knee, don't have a 8 ft gun, blah blah...also quite weird paddling these heavy waves which I dont know, on my own. But P-land...what can I say, its not a perfect Indo wave, but size for size its way heavier than Moneytrees...its my kind of wave if you don't mind me saying that. The island is covered in thick virgin rain forest, parrots fly amongst the trees, fish jumping all over the show. The palm trees have not taken over like in Indo. 5 Sepsters from the Morro Negrito camp finally paddle out, one oke got 2 bombs, then snapped his board, the other okes were just absolutely kukking themselves, ashen faced with eyes as big as frisbees, just scratching for the horizon. One beginner out on an oversized surftech...dunno why the camp guide even allowed him to paddle out...not that he lasted long, but he was a good marker whilst he was out. Turns out he IS the camp guide! Try figure that one out. I went and sat next to him and tuned him: 'next wave is yours bra', I thought he was actually going to kuk his rods then and there...ja, the heavier it gets the more fun it is to surf with the seppos. The last few days were crazy, we dropped my dad off at a port 30 miles away on thursday, this port is 10 miles up a river, which has 3 routes to get into it. On the way in we took the most dodgy and 'least recommended' route which entails punching through a beach break to access the river beyond. It appealed to me as a surfer, I just could not resist giving it a go. Turns out there is a classic rivermouth setup with a long pealing superbank righthander which I would love to check on a swell. But the next day, after fueling and stocking up in the port of Pedregal (I won't blame you if you've never heard of it), we decided to do the conservative thing and took the so called RECOMMENDED ROUTE, only to have a power line and a galvanized 20mm steel cable tensioner (which was strung up township style between 2 islands at their narrowist point) caught up on our mast as we came through on an outflowing tide...which was flowing at pace. What kind of dumb poes would put up a cable like that? Probably the brother of the oke who naaied me with the alternator. Thank fuck the cables came loose from the pole on the one side, it was complete havoc, I had just finished my second Smirnoff to congratulate myself on navigating on a falling tide out of this river system with my eyes glued to the depth sounder when I heard this awful grating sound, I thought we had run aground. Chantal and I ran around like rabid dogs trying to get this cable off, engines screaming, hammer down in reverse, the rushing tide pulling us onto a dock with a cable hooked across our railing...MAYHEM. But we got the cable off, missed the dock by a ball hair, and off we went again. The damage? So far fuckall. We hit the cable just below where all the nav instruments are situated at the top of the mast...needless to say Chantal and I needed a chill pill after that. Anyway, I rarely saw solid waves like this in the Mentawais. Josh is now swimming without any wings/jacket...after a while he gets tired from treading water and he does not make much headway...but its a great start. I now take him surfing in the shorebreak with Chantal's surfboard, I push him into the foamies lying down, which he rides, STANDING UP, all the way to the beach, you wont believe it. Turns out he is a goofy. I am just so stoked to finally be getting some kiff waves, its been a hard slog, I've checked out all the islands, looked in every nook, basically found f-all, until now. But its all been worth it. Where we are now the weather seems quite mellow, most days a 10-15 knot onshore south westerly comes up at about midday, it dies of again at night. I plan west-east drives for the afternoons and when Deon was still on board we had a lovely sail in 15-20 knots, we almost hit 10knots under full sail and stayed on 9.5knots for a few hours, we have not had much change to sail so that was great. We are now hanging in the area of the Morro Negrito surf camp, google it, it will come up. We have a nice quiet night anchorage up a river which is only a short motor from most of the islands, beaches and surf spots in the area, we come back here every evening to anchor, then set off again in the morning. Once again sorry for this group email thing, let me know and I will take you off the list...I only get limited email time with sailmail, plus I am too lazy, miss you guysCheersGolla
Posted by Trevor at 6:31 AM
Friday, July 18, 2008
When it hits the fan!!!
A 24 HOUR DAY ON SHIMMI*estuary/river navigation can only be done on rising tide into port pedregal....no joke what so ever!*arrived at a tiny port with cute little marina *tied up along side another cat (no space left) *had to rush to fuel dock with 1 hour left before tied too low *to get to fuel dock we had to squeeze past the bow of a yacht and a speed boat with 50cm on either side of shimmi (crazy crazy stuff), then had to come along side the fuel dock made solely out of STEEL with NO FENDERS OR RUBBER ON THE DOCK. Ok so now we've got 40min to fuel/water up before the tide is too low to get out. After 30 min we have fueled up but still got a half tank to go of water (very low pressure)....but have to get off the dock. As golla starts the engines he says: 'actually don't know how to get out of here.' Guys are jumping from one yacht to the next fending off our bow as we squeeze out. We are then told to tie up along side an old converted barge/restaurant where we can carry on taking on water....this we do.*now we are finished, deon talking about the G+T we're going to order at the very lovely marina restaurant.*but now the shit really hits the fan: as we come off the dock the current is NOW so strong that it whips us around 90 degrees and pushes our stern onto the beam of another yacht and the CORNER OF THE STEEL DOCK IS ABOUT TO STAB our hull on the port beam. Deon pushing with the strength of 3 men and I'm pushing with the strength of one man and when I realise the 'dock guy' from the marina is just watching instead of pushing us off I up my brute force to the strength of 3 men. we are now 1 cm away from this dagger like edge. Then our rig hits a speed boat that is tied up off this converted barge about 1m above our deck. Deon and I are now pushing us off the speedboat. Golla is pushing the stern of the other yacht and then running back up to drive us forward.... he's running to and fro between stern, throttles, speed boat and the ghastly STEEL DOCK...I don't know how but we came out unscathed....ADRENALIN PUMPING. THAT CURRENT WAS JUST RIPPING DOWN THAT RIVER.*so anyway...lovely evening at marina restaurant (margheritas and latino music)....at the end of the meal it was pouring with rain so after waiting half an hour we decided to undress put all our clothes in a black bag and run for the boat. Indie and I used the restaurant's umbrella. Next morning early big shop, purchased batteries and said goodbye to Deon (WE LOVE DEON...he had a wonderful time...spoke kak for 5 weeks) *2pm (rising tide) we head out of port pedregal (after I ran to and fro between port captain's office and merchant marine getting us cleared out) Golla navigates all the way through the estuaries towards boca chica. At 5pm we are about 1/4 mile from the sea and what happens but the tip of the mast hits a RIGGING CABLE (between two telephone poles on either side of the river). I'm bathing Indie and think we have hit the bottom as tide now going out rapidly... Sprint upstairs. There's a freaken cable around our mast and mast is jirating badly. golla throws the boat into reverse to try and reverse us against the current and let the cable go slack and drop off the mast...the current is so strong that the engines are just keeping us in the same position. the cable drops down the forestay and then gets hooked on the bow and across our life line. i am running around the foredeck waiting for the smallest sign of slack on the cable so that I can throw it off. Golla comes up to help, we get some slack but not enough and suddenly we are now about to hit a jetty with two speedboats on it. speed boat driver already getting his boat fired up. golla sprints back to the helm slipping on the trampoline on the way. drives us away from the jetty. now the cable is off the life line and running over the tip of our port bow...i'm leaning over the life line waiting for slack to just push the freaken thing off. finally i get it off. NO DAMAGE. Windex and anchor light still working....weird. SO LUCKY. Nearly lost our whole rig twice in 24 hours. Golla still got to climb up the mast and check things out properly and he's still got to dive and check propellers etc after our shennanigans at the fuel dock. THEN to drive out of the estuary we literally went through a narrow exit of breaking surf. we arrived at our anchorage after dark and left a 6am this morning for Morro Negrito (has a surf camp....huge cyclone swell arrived today) and BIG G ready and in place for BIG SURF. Wanted to get the hell away from where we snapped the cable as didn't want any locals harassing us for money etc. What the hell that cable was doing strung up so low we will never know...And why had no other yacht hit it?? QUESTION MARK ?? T he cable did look very new.Still can't believe how golla drove us IN and OUT of the FUEL DOCK and then OFF the BARGE followed by brilliant manoevering to free us of afore mentioned KILLER THE CABLE.Of course Josh and Indie are as happy as Larry. Josh was watching Jungle Book during KILLER THE CABLE FIASCO and didn't notice a thing. You would be so proud of Josh these days: eating his food, can entertain himself for hours lego, coloring in, painting, etc etc actually at the moment it's lego lego lego (deon bought a set to add to the lego i got from you and josh has gone lego beserk!)3 hours later: finally at Morro Negrito surf spot and Golla has surfed huge waves pretty much all to himslef....few guys out from the surf camp but not really handling the big...husband in his element!!!!!!!!!!!!Lots of loveC
Posted by Trevor at 9:46 PM
Monday, July 14, 2008
Surf's Up - well sort of!
HoessitHave had some average surfs, now heading towards a well known surf area called Morro Negrito (google it). Josh is now finally swimming without water wings/life jacket, we went to a small beachbreak yesterday, he is now surfing and standing up on a big boogie board, he's claiming it...I push him into the wave, then he stands up and cruises in towards the beach. Gets faarken thumped in the shorebreak, but he has no fear and feels no pain, only starts tjunking when I say that the surf is over...this is a kids dream i tell you, amazing to see him developing, every day, he is becoming a strong well muscled little 3 and a half year old, he has also taken to posing with fish, for photos: he also knows all the names, Mahi Mahi, Yellow fin tuna (caught quite a few of those lately), Big Eye Jack, Ignoblis, Spanish Mackerel, just to name a few. We went down to Coiba Island, it used to be an ex penal colony like in that book Papilon, now no-one lives on this island, the fishing was phenomenal, one morning we could not even get the engines up to rev before the next strike...eventually we took the rods out. We found a perfect little river mouth sandbar setup, had some kiff waves then the onshore came up...also was not much swell around. There is supposed to be a dik swell arriving Friday from a tropical cyclone which will cross over from the Caribbean north of us...so I am amping to be in the right place for this swell...so now we are headed to Morro Negrito where the wave P-land can be found. A nearby island has a surf camp, you can google it...So far the waves in Panama have been VERY arb. Catalina is a wedging B grade reef break which has a lame barrel on just the right conditions, yet it is super crowded by these Nias style local boys who absolutely rule the wave when its on...they take off on every wave, if you are a gringo they just drop in like you don't exist...faark that. I swear this wave would not even be a shit stain on a piece of toilet paper in Indo. And the other waves in the area are a joke...they are like those Sea point waves which only the body boarders ride, short little kuk things. The main problem is that there is no coral growth around these islands, so you don't get those perfect South Pacific and Indo style set ups...but, all is not bad I can assure you...like I said before we have been slaying the fish, we only keep yellow fin tuna at the moment, our freezer is chockers full. All other fish we throw back...I think the best waves generally speaking in central america are either beach breaks or sand bottom points. I met up with an Argentinian oke Diego who has shown me where most of the Panama spots are, he claims this area, he joined us for a 3 day cruise with another ozzie. But this Argentinian has never been to Indo, when I showed him some Indo pics on my old laptop his bek was hanging open, he shut the faark up about Panama after that...One thing I can tell you is that the words 'word class' are being used far to losely for this area. Soooooo, now we are motor sailing towards this Morro Negrito wave...my hopes are not very high. From what I can read between the lines, P-Land is a pretty pup wave, the other waves in the area gets crowded with seppo longboarders, these okes must be anybody's worse nightmare, hearing that accent just makes my ears burn...I heard a rumour that there is a boat access only right hand point break on the other side of the headland where Pavones is situated which is even better than Pavones...but I take that with a big pinch of salt. A seppo shaper told this to me in a bar in Catalina, I was pretty wasted on all kinds of white spirits, I mean the liquid kind in a glass bottle with kiff sounding spanish names like Caipi Rosca, unfortunately the next day you are faarked so it might as well have been klipdrift. Most of the latin chicks have kiff big tits but they dont last well past 35. Anyway, I am starting to digress. This morning I put my so-called fixed alternator back on, turns out the naaiers in Panama city thought that spraying the thing black means its fixed. Not so, I can assure you that just spray painting and alternator is NOT going to fixed it as well. For that you actually need to open the faarken thing...but who gives a faark, by the time the gringo realizes that I did faarkall to his alternator he is going to be long gone and I am $100 richer... Plus it was a kuk sprayjob. Why spray a green volvo alternator black? Because you are a thieving @#$##@, thats why. Now Ian the Rat sends me a email that a big swell is hitting this area on Friday, which can you believe is the day I have to drop off my dad at some harbour far from surf...what's the odds of that happening. So I am dropping him off a day earlier on Thursday, then I am going to drive all night to get down to where the waves are on Friday, hopefully this P-land wave is at least 10% as good as G-land. I'll even be happy with 5% as good as G-land. I mean, imagine having the audacity to call a wave P-land, like its the G-land of Panama....faark off I say, show some respect and DONT name it after G-land. Rather call it Poesie II, Cheeseburgers or something. Anyway, I am generally in a belligerent mood right now, I would give my left ball to be in my beloved Indo right now, but maybe things will improve as we head up towards Nicaragua and El Salvador...I hope you are all well, I don't have it in me right now to write individual letters, please dont take offense w.r.t. this group email, I know it would have pissed me off, I hope all you families etc are well. Truly! PS My wife is loving the surf...at least her wave quota is back on target!!!CheersGolla
Posted by Trevor at 9:46 PM
Friday, June 6, 2008
Skollies # 7
We’ve been in Panama for 2 weeks now. The more we read about Panama, the more excited we get about the place. As with most of you, I never paid much attention to Panama. It always seemed like a small country made famous only by the canal. But now that we are here we are quite blown away. Its got cooking surf on both sides (at exactly opposite times of the year), fantastic diving, awesome rainforests (most of the country is a national park), the world best game fishing (Pinas Bay is ranked no 1 in the world), a kiff big city (Panama City) with lots of flights. On the Caribbean side there are 2 main areas: Bocas del Toro and The San Blas Archipelago (home of the Kuna Indians), on the Pacific side there is Pinas Bay, the Las Perlas Islands, Coiba Island, Catalina…the list just goes on. We have set aside almost 10 months for this area and we are glad we did. We have already met a few cruisers who are bummed that they “rushed” through this area on their way to the South Pacific. So, we’ve spent about a week in the Marina (finally got all the laundry done and we never want to see another cheeseburger again!), we did a 2 day cruise up to Islas Grande on the Caribbean side which has a cooking lefthander (but it’s wrong time of year for this side so it was flat), I went for a spearfish there and got buzzed by a school of massive Tarpon, the biggest one must have been a 100kg’s! Although tempted I did not pull the trigger, but I am sure my mate Martin would have pinned one. On Sunday we sailed back to the marina as we had a haul out booked for the Monday to change that bloody shaft seal and install a second depth sounder. And now its middle of the week (can’t tell you what date it is!) and we are anchored about 6 miles up the Rio Chagres (Chagres River – go google it), west of Colon. The river is about 100m wide, with a solid wall of green jungle on either side. The area is a national park, its dead quiet outside except for the screams of howler monkeys and birds. And oh yes, there are crocs. But we are yet to see one of those. Either way, we are glad to be up the river as it has not stopped raining for almost 48hrs with lots of squally winds. We have a date booked for going through the canal around the 10th of June, until then we have to hang on the Caribbean side of Panama. Going through the canal is quite a story: you need 4 linehandlers, a pilot, lots of tyres (fenders) etc etc plus about $2000!!!! But the Pacific side of Panama is where the surf is happening at the moment, so we are keen to get there. Tomorrow we cruise back to the anchorage opposite Colon, the new halyard which we ordered should have arrived and we need to sort out that sailmail dilemma. The next time you hear from us we should be in the Pacific. For the next 9 months we will just be doing short cruises around the Panama – Costa Rica area, we only plan to head across the Pacific March-April next year. So this is a good time if anybody wants to come cruise with us – you can simply book your flights in and out of Panama City. We have been aboard now since the last week of March – just over 2 months. And now we are sitting halfway up a river in the tropics with nothing but animal sounds around us. And the occasional other sailboat cruising past is a silent reminder that you are not the only one who read the “Panama Guide for Cruisers”. Be that as it may, a yacht allows you to access the most awesome spots, and this river is one of them. The wind has died down, the rain has stopped for a moment, our furry and feathered friends ashore are making fresh noises. Trevor left yesterday, so now its just the four of us. Shimmi is functioning well, I really feel like I am getting to know her. After being on the Indies Explorer (which was a very “noisy” boat, especially when she starts creaking in rough seas), Shimmi is very quiet. Her systems are obviously much more sophisticated (and therefore much more expensive to fix!). Here is a condensed list of what we did to Shimmi (mainly in Fort Lauderdale) since we came on board: Feel free to skip this section if the technical stuff bores you:Bought a shit load of toolsBought a shitload of sparesScrubbed out the bilgesChanged stanchion positions, new cabling, netting all around (contractors)Ripped out the old lining in all 4 cabins, scraped, grinded off the old glue (kakkest job in the universe)New liners in all cabins (contractors)New lights and fans in all cabinsRefitted the standing rigging with sta-lok fittings, new striker etc (contractors)Installed windexInstalled chart plotter and receiver on daffitsMajor troubleshooting with battery chargerReplaced faulty isolation switchRewired starboard shower-sump pumpFixed engine throttle control Fixed starboard throttle and kill switch controlsRemoved old fridge, installed new oneRemoved port toilet, installed new king size toilet (very important)Ripped out old freezer, installed pantry/shelving in its placeServiced all three the diesel engines (two main engines plus gennie)Replaced hot water heater coolant hoses Bought and installed sailmail modem (*&$$!!!!)Bought laptop for sailmailPortable dvd player for JoshBought and installed small portable 12v chest freezerCleaned out and rebuilt generator fuel tank (new valves and gaskets)Major trouble shooting with gennie – no AC outputEntirely removed and replaced generator “back end” or dynamo Cleaned and serviced gennie heat exchanger plus anodesCleaned out all 10 diesel jerry cansServiced and replaced various bilge pumpsBought rods, reels, speargun, dive gear, kayakBought and installed gas barbequeBought spare battery charger, freshwater pump, engine coolant hosesBuilt two book shelvesRemoved everything from the boat onto the quayside, repackedBought $4000 worth of charts and booksReplaced port side shaft lip seals (Panama haul out)Installed 2nd transducer for Furuno chart plotter (Panama haul out
Posted by Trevor at 11:29 PM
Thursday, June 5, 2008
Skollies # 6
Ahoy thar me hearties!We are in Panama. It took us 8 days and 8 nights of sailing to cross over from the Bahamas. The route took us through the so-called Windward Passage between Cuba and Haiti, past the east side of Jamaica and then diagonally across the Caribbean Sea to Panama. The 1st two days the sea was flat and the wind variable, but as soon as we entered the passage a mean Northeasterly came up which funneled these big confused chops through bottleneck between Cuba and Haiti. We decided to slow the boat down and take the pressure off the rig, so with 2 reefs in the main and a reduced head sail we battened down the hatches. We had 3 options to head for: one - Cartagena in Colombia, two - the San Blas Archipelago and three - our preferred destination, Colon, Panama. The state of the ocean and the strength and direction of the wind would determine where we would end up. Thankfully it never blew no more than gale force and after 2 days things calmed down to a minor panic. We were just very happy that this confused ocean was running in the same direction as us. Thank the lord we did not have to hammer our way against this mess – the few times that we had to turn the boat to face the storm to reef the main was quite hectic….you don’t realize how big the waves actually are when you are running with them! Josh and Indie coped well, every day we baked a loaf of bread, or cookies, or pancakes….we also came up with a new pasta dish (called Shimmi pasta!) which is basically pasta, olive oil, chopped salami or vienna’s and lots of parmesan. But here is Chantal’s take on the whole thing:GOLLA SAID, “We’ll have a lovely TRADEWIND sail all the way down to Panama”…..um…..this was not to be! We quickly had to formalize our duties as it was all becoming quite serious. ME….I was in charge of the kids. First time for me, but I had all the kiddies sleeping with me, all squashed up in Indies bunk. My dad and Golla shared a “hot bunk.” So my husband was now sleeping in my dad’s bed, Josh was only eating pronutro, I was no longer looking up new recipes in my “The cruising chef book” and “Shimmi school” was on hold. Often the best place for me and the kids was on the saloon floor where I just read 40 books to josh whilst trying to avoid the questions, “Where is the island?” or “Can I swim now?” After 4 nights, another 4 nights seemed inconceivable in the horrid weather conditions. But as we all know (however, at the time I was way too tired to to be philosophical about anything) without those “lows” you’ll never get the equivalent “euphoric highs” and those of you who know us, Golla and I always get ourselves in all kinds of situations because afterwards, when the kak situation is over , it feels so good! Actually, anybody who has weathered a storm will know exactly what I am talking about. The funny thing was that as soon as Josh jumped off the boat onto the quay-side after 8 long days and nights he would not let the boat out of his sight. But we all rushed to the restaurant at the marina and swallowed a couple beers and a huge burger, josh included. I would like to take this opportunity to thank my DAD for helping us. He was with us for 2 months. He taught us everything we didn’t know about sailing in that 8 day crossing. His presence will always be felt on Shimmi and we will always fly his flag.”Back to Golla:During the crossing Trevor and I did the watches, we worked as follows: 8am to 2pm, 2pm to 8pm, 8pm to 12am, 12am to 4am, 4am to 8am. With this system your watch times change every day and you have a nice 6 hr “off time”. That’s the theory anyway…in practice we were up most the time. This was a baptism of fire for us on Shimmi, and we had to get to know all her quirks. Every yacht has its preferred point of sail for every angle of wind which depends also on the strength of the wind. Shimmi liked sailing close to the wind with full sails at up to 20 knots, anything stronger than that and she prefers a broader reach with a reef in. She prefers not to be dead downwind in light winds, but if the wind is over 15 knots, you can reef the main, sheet right out, wing out the head sail on the other side and run dead down wind. During these 8 days we had to deal with most of these variations. We touched on 13 knots as we surfed down the faces of a few 15 foot plus waves under 2 reefs, we were trying to keep things safe and conservative, Shimmi handles beautifully, she has rides the waves like a 10ft pintail gun, holding her line and keeping her ass up. We never felt that we we get pooped (go look that up). By day 6 the southeasterly finally came up and the sea settled down which allowed us to head straight for Colon on a nice comfortable reach. One morning Trevor came to wake me up at 4am: we had slight problem. When he came up on deck after taking a dump the main sail was simply not there! Trevor was flabbergasted. Where has it gone? Meanwhile the halyard had snapped and the mainsail had dropped by itself perfectly into the sailbag. So the topping lift became the new halyard and off we went again. One other problem which reared its ugly head was the port engine saildrive: Its oil had gone milky which means that seawater has entered the gearbox. Replacing the seal is not that expensive, but the boat will need to be hauled out…bummer. So now my Panama “job list” was becoming more complex. New halyard, new saildrive seal replacement…still, it could have been a lot worse. The other thorn in our side is our dysfunctional “sailmail” modem, making it impossible for us to email from the boat. By midday on day 8 we were off the coast of Panama. Thick rainforest jungle shrouded in clouds of mist rolled away across the hills off our port bow. The rain pissed down, filling a lone bucket on deck to the brim within 2 hrs! We were now in the main shipping lane, barreling along at our customary 8 knots under full sail, our visibility reduced to maybe 40m, this was not good. These huge ships cruise at 20 knots plus and they don’t even see you (or care if they do). But all ended well, by early afternoon we were tied up in the Shelter Bay Marina, Panama. We all rushed off Shimmi to go order cheese burgers! Thereafter? Laundry laundry laundry. Everything on board was damp and smelly. But it’s a great achievement for us as a family…we cruised day and night for more than a week and we still love each other!
Posted by Trevor at 11:29 PM
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Skollies in the Tropics part 5
Shimmi Skollies 5Towards the end of a bumpy day’s sailing, we found ourselves in the Compass Quay area. Pete Van Houwingen recommended Compass Quay to us as a “must see”, I was also keen to disprove my theory of the Bahamas as being a sterile and boring rich boy’s playground. So we gooi-ed a left turn just north of Compass Quay and motored via a series of narrow coral flanked channels into a beautiful flat lagoon, with only one other catamaran at anchor. Josh and I went for a snorkel and swam across to the island where we explored a bit and took a short side to the windward side of the island – the onshore easterly was pumping onto this shore, I saw some onshore chops which were almost big enough to surf...you see, I was keen TO DO something – I can’t surf (no waves), can’t spearfish (no spearfishing in the Bahamas), can’t fish (we are currently in a marine reserve), can’t dive kreef (season has closed). But, “marine reserve” to me is just a synonym for “special area set aside for poachers”. And when Josh and I got back to the boat, after seeing bugger-all sea life (once again confirming my “Bahamas are over-rated” theory), we suddenly ran into a nice big solo barracuda, just hanging in the shadow of shimmi. Now this Barracuda is not enough for me to go get my speargun for some marine reserve fish population control, but soon after the barracuda pulled in we saw a school of wok-sized Silver Trevally. Just what we need for tonight’s chow, I thought, so I sneaked my speargun into the water (with only one other yacht in the anchorage this what not that hard). Two dives later and I had speared the biggest one in the school, but it was a gut shot, and the heavy 8mill shaft was sure to pull out. So I handed the gun up to Trevor to pull the whole lot on board, in the meantime the poor Trevally is going apeshit on the end of the spear. I could see it was going to rip out, so I made a desperate lunge to grab the fish’s tail but all I got for that effort was a nicely sliced finger and thumb – these Marine Reserve Trevally’s are mean! And there goes the fish – my gut shot did not hit any major organ so the fish was still swimming fine…damn. Then suddenly the gut-shot Trevally came right back to me….?!?...followed closely by two big muthafucka bull sharks, the big male must way in excess of 500 pounds. Swimming high, circling myself and the wounded Trevally, these 2 sharks were unlike any reef sharks I had come across. They were agro and highly agitated, dropping there pecs, arching there backs, distending their jaws and just generally scaring the living faarken shits outta me. The big bull rushed me, but it turns out the gut-shot Trevally is hiding behind me, so it charged past me, swimming right on the tail of the Trevally which still had enough energy to avoid be nailed. At this point I decided to get the fuck out of the water. For the next half our these two sharks chased after the Trevally. It was using the hull, keels and rudders of shimmi as quite an effective obstacle course, doing a good job of avoiding capture, often swimming and staying on the shark’s tail – a blind spot for the shark. But this does not work that well with 2 sharks in the water…Trevor and Chantal were taking pics (which we will post soon). I was still figuring a way to get our dinner on board. So I loaded the gun, put on the a pair of goggles and leant out the toilet window which is just above the water below the bridge deck. I had now had a grandstand view, and sure as fuck, the Trevally swam right past me, closely followed by the big bull. When it came past again, I blasted it, a good clean body shot. Now I had only milliseconds to get the poor fish on board. I frantically hand over handed the spearline, and just as I got the fish to the window, KABAM, shark nails it a 100k’s an hour, breeching right out the water with a moerse splash, rubbing my knuckles as it guns past. Faaark. And of it goes with my fish and my spear. Now it’s turned into a kak situation, I was hanging onto the back of my gun for dear life, feet planted on either side of the toilet window. Twang! 300 pound mono snaps. Cheers fish, cheers spear. The next morning Josh and I went looking for the spear and found it not to far from the boat. CheersGolla
Posted by Trevor at 9:48 AM
Skollies part 4
HowzitWe are now properly in the Bahamas, anchored off Highborne Cay, more or less at the "top" of the Exumas chain. So far all I can say for the Bahamas is: "what a goddam bore". The place is a lonely controlled playground for the super rich who own their own island (which they never use because its so damn lonely) or a whole bunch of rich fuckers whole club together to buy an island and then never use it. Dunno if that makes any sense?!? Its like having the only holiday house on Dassen Island...no social life, no lekka little spots to go grab a chow, just you and the other 3 palm trees. But at least you own the island, right! We first came across this on Cat Cay: The only movement on the island was a few lonely fuckers driving their golf carts from their lonely mansion to their lonely clubhouse, where a lonely lady sits behind a till with a glazed expression, serving them their lonely rum and coke...ouch. Gun Cay, where we eventually anchored for the night, is of course uninhabited. So that's the score: either uninhabited or privately owned...no locals on dug out canoes selling crayfish, no colourfull markets, just....no-one. Later on we found ourselves anchored off Chub Cay. Also a privately owned island with its own marina, clubhouse, golf cart roads, private beach and around 10 or 15 villas. All empty. Its a stunning location, sure, but its not my idea of a holiday. Now we are anchored off Highborne Cay. All the guide books mention what an awesome spot this is, blah blah blah. Get a life! Its a flat featureless island with a bunch of low weskus shrubs, nice clear water, fairly OK coral, some little lost fish swimming around. I can't help saying this, but this area has nothing Indo. So my mateys, I hope you feel better about being at home...you aint missing anything...or are you? From a boat point of view its going great. With sailmaster Trevor on board we've got shimmi humming along, rarely sailing at less than 8 knots. We've caught 3 barracuda and a nice Mahi Mahi (which we ate) and Chantal is creating some culinary delights in our galley. Here's a funny story: Today when we sailed towards Highborne Cay, we caught up with another yacht, all of a sudden Trevor transformed in front of my very eyes into a Shozoloza match raising demon. He chased down onto their tail, swerved up behind their ass and overtook them on the inside...meanwhile the crew on this boat were kakking themselves, they got onto their radio and vloeked us from one side to the other (which we could not hear from the cockpit, but Chantal heard from inside). All Trevor said was: "They are obviously not used to tactical racing..." They obviously shat themselves when they saw this big white cat bearing down on their stern, not knowing what our intentions were...anyway, it was quite an eye opener to see the usually mellow Trevor transform into a speed demon with a bit of pad-buffel mixed in. Later on Chantal got onto the radio and played the "toddler and baby on board" card as an excuse for Trevor's behaviour. The other boat (called Winds of Peace) is still not quite sure what had happened today. Go Trevor!!!CheersSkollies
Posted by Trevor at 9:47 AM
Skollies # 3
HowzitWe are anchored in Honeymoon Harbour, Gun Cay, the Bahamas! Its not actually a harbour, just a small protected cove on the North end of Gun Cay. Yesterday morning we left Key Biscayne, headed out to the Florida Straights and proceed to sail due south, hugging the US coast with the Florida Keys to starboard, cruising along at a steady 7 knots under sail. We figured that if we can get far enough south during the day, then we may be able to sail to Cat Cay on the opposite tack during the night. The Gulf Stream is a tricky body of water to cross, it flows in a northerly direction at about 7kms and hour, so if you try and cross it at a right angle you end up being swept past your destination. In our case we were going to try to sail across, so we had to be extra cautious. Also we had to wait for the right wind, if the winds blow from the north against this north flowing current you can have a real kak time with huge chops and crazy standing waves. By nightfall we were far enough south to attempt crossing under sail. The wind was blowing SE at about 15-20 knots, quite stiff, but shimmi loved it, sledding across the chops at a steady pace. We were all nervous, I felt quesy, I lay down in the saloon with Josh, we were watching Jungle Book on the DVD player when without warning Josh decided to kotch all over me which abruptly ended that particular bonding experience. Chantal generally has her hands full with the two kiddies while Trevor and I sail and brainstorm about what Berty Reed would have done if he was in our position. By nightfall we tacked the boat through 100 degrees and suddendly we were flying along to Cat Cay at 11 knots! This is of course directly related to the speed of the gulf stream shunting us along, adding 3 knots to whatever speed we were doing. This was in fact our 3rd attempt at setting a tack for Cat Cay. On the previous 2 occasions earlier in the afternoon we were not yet far enough south and the angle of tack was too tight so we had to run back down. But not this time. We finally had enough of an angle. Off course soon after this the wind decided to drop off, so we started one of the engines to motorsail. Trevor went down below to dos and i was now on watch till midnight. Chantal decided to sleep with both kids in Indie's bed which being aft was the least rocky. By 830pm the wind started picking up again so I killed the engine - its a great feeling to be using only the power of the wind. Up ahead was a massive cruise ship, at night with all its lights on it looks like a quarter of New York City cruising past. Even though we had right of way, I decided not to have a Mexican stand-off with this opponent and changed course to pass behind its stern. I wonder if anyone on board that ship saw us? Soon after crossing paths with the cruise ship the wind suddenly picked up to 25knots. We were sailing at 50 degrees to the wind, so our apparant wind on deck was around 30knots plus. It felt like a gale, especially sailing at night on a new boat for the first time. Not all our nav equipment was iluminating properly at night, so i had to repeatedly shine a torch on the wind direction indictator to confirm what I was feeling on my face. Luckily within an hour or so the wind moderated to a constant 20 knots and I could set a nicely balanced course with Almost Awol the autopilot doing most of the work. At 12pm Trevor took over. He changed course a bit and got the boat really cooking, doing 12 knots at one stage! This happened of course whilst I was kipping. By 3am we were at Cat Cay. We dropped sails, dropped the pick in the lee and went down for some catch up. This was when Josh decided to enter the saloon wide eyed with the words: "I dont need to sleep anymore daddy." But one very short story later and we were both in dreamland. This morning we woke up and motored around to the harbour for our check in and paperwork. After that we cruised over to this cove, Honeymoon Harbour. These islands are flat, few palm trees and shrubs, white beaches and crystal clear water. Its quite something getting used to shimmi's draft of only 1m (3feet). It means we've been crossing some areas were there is literally no more than a foot below the keel. You can clearly see the coral reef and fish below the boat. Trevor alomost pooped in his pants a few times, he was convinced that we were going to run aground (again). We are now literally anchored a stones throw from the beach with 3 other yachts. Josh had Shimmi School this morning which is Chantal's structured play and teaching program which consists of all the usual activities. Josh now often asks when can he have "shimmi school". I took him for a long swim (from the boat to the beach and back). Built a few much needed sand castles. Later on we went to an old dead tree where we sawed off a whole bunch of round blocks at different angles from one of the branches - he is now building towers as i am writing this (whislt also watching Thomas the Train on dvd from the corner of his eye!). The wind has died down a lot and we are all looking forward to a "rustige" night. I feel like a dead man walking at the moment. Bit of the old sleep deprivation (aaaaah the joys of yacht ownership and fatherhood!). Trevor has been dead to the world in his cabin for the WHOLE AFTERNOON. Tomorrow we hope to cross the Great Bahamas Bank and head down to the Exumas. No more night time crossings for at least 3 weeks. Lekker!CheersSkollies Hi thereJust a short message: We crossed the great Bahama Bank yesterday, mostly with our assymetrical spinaker! With a light wind from behind we had a lovely flat cruise, shimmi quietly skimmed across the water, swish swish. The Great Bahama Bank is only about 3m deep, and this carries on for 50miles. Quite nerve racking because you can see the bottom the whole time. Anyway, by nightfall we passed the northwest channel maker and we were back in deep water, heading for Chub Cay. These are the islands which Hemingway made famous with his fishing stories. Just before we arrived in Chub Cay the rod went off for the first time, we caught a nice small Mahi Mahi, enough to feed all of us twice. So that went straight onto our barbeque. We are struggling with our sailmail which is why we have not communicated, we are now in the Chub Cay Marina, using normal email. So you won’t hear from us unless we can get our sailmail to function – the software keeps on crashing, its very frustrating!We hope everyone back home are well, please give Renee some bigs hugs and kisses from all of us.Love Skollies
Posted by Trevor at 9:45 AM
Skollies in the Tropics
Howzit again!We had a great day today, it was the day we were dreaming off, the day that made all of the past few months worthwhile. The seed that was sown during those long Hermanus winters finally hatched today. This morning we woke up in the Miami beach marina, Chantal decided to wash all our bedding etc in the marina Laundromat, we all went for showers at the marina facilities (and we all agreed that we much preferred our showers on board!) Trevor and I got the watermaker working which was the last major obstacle. So we cast off under sunny skies with a nice 15knot easterly breeze blowing. Ideal for hoisting those white flappy things which hang from the mast! I managed to get us off our berth without crashing into anything and we were off. Our 5th crew member (the autopilot) also finally decided to join us in full force. This oke is amazing. He needs no coffee, no food, nothing, he just keeps on steering the yacht in exactly the direction we want…for as long as you want him to. What a bonus. Quite awesome to have this oke on board, plus with the watermaker we are now almost self-sufficient. If only we can find something which can turn seawater into salami we will be all set. We headed out to sea under power, cruising straight offshore so that we can get some “searoom” before we hoist the sails. Eventually we turned parallel to the coast and hoisted the main. And off shimmi went, doing 8 knots and more in 15knots of wind. It was faarking awesome, watching the sea rush by, no noise from the engines, just a nice swiish as she slides over the water. We kept that up for a few hours, heading down to Key Biscayne, south of Miami. Our plan is to keep going as far south as possible whilst the winds are from the East, then when it turns South (which it is predicted to do on Sunday), then we will head over to the Bahamas on a broad reach. Which is sailor speak for a having the wind from the side, which is the best point of sail. Which is sailor speak for fastest. Anyway, while all this is going on we are cruising across a fairly shallow area, ranging from 5 to 20 metres. So with autopilot on I decide to sort out our fishing gear and get some lines out the back. Whilst I got my head down with tying on a lure, Trevor mentions that the depth has come up to 5 metres, which is fine cause we only draw 1m. A few seconds later he says that the depth is now 2 metres. Followed by the statement that our depth sounder is set to display in feet, not metres. OH Fuck. Gooied a very quick faarken U-turn, luckily the bottom (which I must admit we touched a few times) was soft, letting off billowing clouds of sand. But the depth luckily dropped off and we got the hell out of there. So we headed for a deeper contour on the chart (which in our defence I must say does not indicate such a shallow area, probably because the survey vessel could not drive there). But, lesson learned cheaply. An hour later we were rounding Key Biscayne Island, looking for an anchorage. Saw a whole bunch of Yank boats in the distance at anchor in a protected cove so we headed over there to join them. Dropped the sails, put the pick down and the day was done and dusted. What about the kids you may ask? They were great. Indie is the most darling kid, he just laughs and smiles all the time. Josh now calls the boat "home". This evening, after we anchored, we went for a swim around the boat and then decided to launch our plastic canoe. With Josh in his life-jacket on the back we paddled along the beach, checking out all the massive larney mansions, each with its own private beach and jetty. Back on board we got the rod out, I cast with the spinner and Josh retrieves, winding that reel like his life depends upon it, muttering to himself: "good job, good job", then he stops for a breather, tightens the drag a bit in the most expert fashion, says: "good job, good job" again then winds like crazy. Inspects the spinner as if it is a live fish, then says: "all the fish have gone to bed". Indeed. Chantal cooked a spag bolognaise, I told Josh a story in bed and when I am done he says: "Daddy you can go now", turns over and passes out cold. Which is what I am going to go do now. Tomorrow we head further south along the coast, then when night falls we plan to cross the gulf stream. When you hear from us next we should be in Cat Cay (Cay just means island) in the Bahamas.Cheers from the skollies
Posted by Trevor at 9:45 AM
Monday, May 19, 2008
Noo's NEWS
What a privilege to be a Senior citizen/Father in Law / Granddad/ ex Yachtie…… and to be invited to join our Daughter and son in Law Skollie Golla plus their two sons Josh (3) Indy (5 Months) on their recently bought…via the Internet – sight unseen – only to be checked by a Marine surveyor who wrote an excellent report on the yacht but some how missed out on a few of the details!Answering to the call – “We would like you to join us on the first leg of our circumnavigation from Fort Lauderdale (Florida) to Panama via the Bahamas. Whew Decisions, decisions but with the backing or should I say prodding from the entire family and the support of our very special friends, passport in hand and packed like a Bahaman donkey with pronutro, pronutro, (I just have to tell you that way back when I was at UCT I produced the first laboratory production of Pronutro….made from stinking fish offal………..) baby formula, jars and jars of Bovril AND mountains of Pap I finally ended up in FL WITHOUT my baggage….which arrived the next day WHEW!Their new yacht…well it’s about 10 years old is a Fontaine Pajot 42ft Catamaran. With a rig that is tough enough to challenge the Cape’s weather. This yacht is massive, yet pale’s into insignificance in comparison with the 100’s of power boats/cruisers which are moored in the canals of FL. The so called yachts belong to wallet of the mega rich – lots of glitz!Spent some time working on the yacht…Golla stripped the 7Kv generator and had a new generator head delivered which he installed himself….where this has been attorney gets all this knowledge from beats me!We stripped out the old freezer and made a decent sized pantry for Chantal…..went on shopping sprees to the humongous marine stores – I felt like a kid in a candy store…………all our shopping was done on bicycles fitted with a milk crate on the handlebars and a seat for Josh on the back…which was also loaded to the brim on occasions. Whilst the richies used massive long wheel based trucks and drove around on golf carts!Chantal and Golla have a really good friend in FL who has been most supportive, helping with major shopping and assisting with good advice on where to get stuff. Interesting to meet so many South Africans who have found specialized marine work here and are doing well….but the market is MASSIVE!The idea was to have the previous owner on the shake down sea trials but this was to be undertaken by the selling agent who piloted Golla thro the intracies of the narrow canals! Then to the fuel dock and loaded up our teaspoon of diesel compared to the tanker loads taken on by the Yachts.The agent left us here and we trundled out to sea!!!!!!!! Found that the auto pilot was not working so went on down south to Miami…Chantal’s old tramping ground! Into the Miami marina – whew R1600.00 per night!!!!!! Then after many calls I found that there was a loose shielding wire in the engine room and when this was reconnected hey presto we had our Auto pilot.Down to Key Biscayne…a tricky entrance thro the shallows but an excellent training for us on the Chart plotter – Stunning piece of equipment! Golla has spent so much time on getting excellent charts and cruising guides…………if we study these carefully we can do some good planning. After Anchoring for the night in a sheltered bay we now were ready to start our voyage proper.So many had cautioned us on the crossing of the Gulf stream and suggested that we wait for good weather then throttles down and head for the Bahamas Banks……….nope we’re from the Cape of Storm. The wind allowed us to tack down South until we could make our lay line for Cat Cay……..the tack was at last light then we sailed up North thro the night in winds gusting up to 33 knots………….hard on the beat………..Shimmi pulling like a Bull in the spring hitting 9 knots at times and taking very little water over the bows…no crashing and bumping….nothing getting tossed around the cabin…..Oh there are 4 spacious cabins with double beds, and two heads with hot showers! Very comfortable….Josh and I share the Stbd side and I’m on Pee duty!Chantal and Golla have the master cabin and Indy the Aft cabin on the Port side….no lee boards are required!We arrived at our first Bahamas anchorage at about 2.00 am creeping our way in, no moon, just working on instruments in about 1m of water!Indy is amazing not phased out at all by the motion of the yacht and keeps regular patterns of daily life. When awake he is full of smiles and chuckles and wiggles about amusing himself. Josh – well he never stops. Chantal spends time each day on the Shimmi school and the puzzles which Liz sent with me are well used.The grub from the spacious galley is yummy and our bread making sessions ensures either crisp bead our doughy gooey stuff which we toast.The winds are consistent from the NE or SE generally blowing out at sea up to 30 knots…well this cat takes it in its stride. On the beat we have the fully battened main pulling well and the furling head sail at about 50 % and we are 45 deg off the wind going at up to 10 knots. Our Avg Speed is 7.5knts….When were off the wind and set the Cruising spinnaker we really cook…I’m sure we’ll hit well above 10 knots. (Ok we did hit about 14Knts in the windward passade on a sleigh ride past Cuba)Sometimes we motor sail using one of the two Volvo engines (27hp) just to help us point and to give us an extra 2 knots to ensure timeous arrival at our evening anchorage. (Plus recharging the batteries and making hot water for evening showers.)To approach the Islands is tricky and not to be done at night! Their charts are excellent but the go areas can be very tight…how they get these cruise ships in here beats me!Some of the Islands have tiny harbours with services costing about 60% more than USA!Thank heavens we have a water maker on board and make our own water albeit at 20L per hour but the stuff is good!Right now we are making our way down a string of small Cays (Islands) to George Town where we will stock up for the crossing to Panama.Sailing over the banks is something else…you can be out of sight of land and still in 1 – 2 meters of water! Then all of a sudden someone has planted a pole in the sea and this is an old DECCA navigation mast! We watch the depth soundings very carefully…Golla was checking and watching the depth go down to 1.5 feet….yes FEET and we were in the middle of the ocean. This is not a place to get stuck!We found a stunning anchourage in the lee of Bell Cay where there is no surge and protected from the wind. Golla and Josh went for a snorkel – yes Josh gets dumped overboard in his life jacket flippers…and loves it! However on their way back to Shimmi I had seen some fish and threw a few bread crumbs…Golla was straight away into his spear fishing mode and within a nano second had got his first fish…well besides the Mahi which we dinned out on! The fish pulled loose from the spear and immediately there were 3 sharks in a flurry of agro….Golla just about walked on the water to get back to the yacht and the sharks darted about trying to get the fish which was using Golla/the keel/rudder as a place of refuge! The one shark was about – well according toGolla weighed in at 170kg (Bull Shark) this was exciting stuff which went on for some time. Now the amidships heads ( Loo) has a hatch which opens on the inside of the hull and the water is just inches away. Golla had his head out of this hatch, goggles, and snorkel. Spear gun..Wam he shot a fish…then all hell let loose with the giant bull shark going for the fish as it was about 1m from Golla! Golla reversed into the heads like a mole on heat and the shark shot out of the water grabbed the fish and broke the 200lb line like a piece of cotton.I was sitting on the sugar scoop…saw the end of the attack……but did not have my camera switched on DAM!The Bull Shark…well according to the book…. Is powerful and aggressive…..even attacking hippos! Develop up to 3.5M having seen them in action – I’m thinking twice of having Pee over the side!!!!Now Coming back to that hatch…whilst we’re sailing it locked closed as when the swell pass under the hull they cover the hatch…consider sitting on the loo and watching the ground shooting past at 10 knots only a few feet away – scary stuff! Sometimes the water is clear clear and at other times iridescent blue!YIKES!Golla has just returned in his canoe after chasing after Josh’s boogey board – This MF (Well to quote Golla)of a shark chased the canoe aggressively swum around it then went for the paddle!!!!!!!!! And I thought of going for a swim?!!!!!How can I describe this beautiful anchorage……well you know my comment –how can one describe a sunset or an orgasm to someone who has not experienced it! This bay is totally enclosed……….within a ring of islands…a tricky passage to get in here. Crystal clear warm water. Only a few feet deep. Away from any vestige of civilization yet the radio comms are A1 with a lady, possible self appointed, monitoring the VHF system and we rest in the knowledge that a call will be answered! She broadcasts weather reports in a most professional manner.So different for the Private islands with their stunning marinas nestled into some miniscule bay, the larney multi million $$ homes the Club the bored kids riding around on their golf carts stopping at the waterside bar and sitting there drinking whatever on Dad’s account and judging from the price I paid for a standard BIC lighter $5.00 – R40.00 you can well imagine what the price of a drink is…..You have to pay $5.00 each fro the first two bags of garbage from the yacht then $25 for each additional bag.We do have an upmarket SSB radio on board to which we can connect our computer loaded with sailmail software. The action here is that one prepares an email….then , searches for a frequency which is powerful enough and tries to send the email via some remote radio station. Somehow our computer is not connecting properly…something to do with the interference of the radio’s aerial which when sending is using massive current!We are also not able to receive the weather faxes which is really important…….the set up of this equipment is something with needs the attention of a suitably qualified person – believe me we have spent hours and hours on this…seem to get it right then it bombs out on us! (This is an amazing service set up by yachtsmen on a voluntary basis and operated by supporting radio stations/Ham radio stations.)Otherwise we would be doing this each evening when we’re at anchor.Golla and I are now so good at reading manuals…………………To be sailing in these waters is a dream come true and each day I have to pinch myself to make sure that I’m not dreaming. Flat seas, warm winds, warm crystal clear unpolluted water, steady winds…..I battle to tune my thinking to the fact that there is no raging South Easter lurking round the corner – ready to turn a balmy days cruising into a nightmare! Yes they do have winds up to 60 knots----hope this never hits us! The Main is massive and to have to reef it short handed in a squall will not be easy!I’m more than amazed at what Golla and Chantal have achieved! How they got this whole thing together in the time in which they did leaves me gob-smacked!I’m spoilt – and I love it!
Posted by Trevor at 9:46 PM
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)
