Wooden church at Navarino Bay

This small wooden church is located on an uninhabited island at Navarino Bay. The only way to visit is by boat.  

Selinunte

Today we visited the ancient site of Selinunte on Scilly. The Jupiter temple was very impressive. When the site was picked,  the people knew what they were doing,  as it is sited just above an amazing white beach. But what was perhaps more amazing for me were all the wild flowers that really livened the site up. I have visited many Greek and roman sites before,  but mostly in high summer,  in the scorching heat. Other than the Jupiter temple the site is mostly a pile of scatted stones,  but with the wild flowers,  it made for a very interesting hike. I can really recommend a visit to this site to anyone.

Costa Del Sol - A cruising perspective

Costa del Sol

We didn't spend too much time around the Costa del Sol. The things that struck me most about the Costa del Sol:

1. It is hard to escape the apartment buildings. Even the pilot guide is full of phrases like: “aim for the 4 large apartment blocks” to make your way to the anchorage or marina. This phrase is typically not very helpful, as there are apartment buildings everywhere.
2. We could see the snow on the peaks of the mountains peaks. I didn't expect that the SaltyPaws would ever see the snow, and now she has.
3. The anchorages are not very sheltered, and especially when the wind has a South component, it is hard to find a sheltered anchorage.
   

   

Good omens

Normally I don't believe in omens. This off course is all different when it comes to dolphins. On my first night watch I came out to inspect the sails, and I saw some ghost like figures coming up next to the boat. I quickly grabbed the spotlight to illuminate the ghosts, and they turned out to be dolphins. I could 3, but there may have been more. What a beautiful send off from La Rochelle!

We did see dolphins on 2 more occasions, crossing the bay. They seem to be in the areas, more remote from the shore (>20 NM).

A Small Boy with a Big Dream

A small boat that led to big dreams:The Optimist

I like the Optimist. When I was 7, sailing started for me, in an optimist. I instantly fell in love with sailing, the freedom, harnessing the power of nature to be able to go anywhere and the closeness to the elements.

Growing up, every boy has a dream, to do something big in life. My dream has always been to sail around the world... In that sense, the Optimist is very aptly named, as this small boat led to big dreams. One day, with my brother and some friends, each in their own Optimist, the sky rapidly became darker and darker and the wind picked up more and more. One by one, the other Optimists headed for shore. I was having so much fun, that I headed away from shore, so that the instructor would take longer to reach me with his rib, and tell me to head back to shore.

To realise this dream, I have worked to gain all the skills, and the paperwork, to be able to sail a boat, big enough to take around the world. Sailing in the optimist, I would go on, until I had to use one hand, to pry the sheet out of my other cold and tired hand. As I grew up, I realised the best way to learn something myself. That is to become a sailing instructor off course. On one of my instructor training sessions (the one where you need to raise and lower the sails of a PolyValk in under 60 seconds) I practiced this maneuver, until my hands first bled, and finally were covered  in callouses.

Clever 23

British Hunter 31

Spurt 25, small but very capable and seaworthy

My parents helped me by getting a small capable and seaworthy sailing boat, a Spurt 25. This boat was capable, both in the Dutch inland waters (which are very shallow) and also on the Waddenzee and Ijsselmeer. I have many fond memories, sailing with my family on this boat, drying out on the Waddenzee, loosing the engine out at sea, and sailing in the Friese waterways and Lakes.

Bavaria Match 38

I was an official sailing instructor at age 15 (one year before the "legal" age). (Please keep this between you and me...) As I grew up, I went from sailing instructor on Optimists and Polyvalks, to instructor on catamarans, small sailing yachts and later sea going "big" yachts. My student job was water-ski and yacht sailing instructor (23 feet Clever) on one school, and sea sailing instructor (31 foot British Hunter, and Bavaria 38 Match). By this time I was ready...

But wait, this was 10 years ago. Why the big Wait? I never wanted to sail around the world by myself. I needed to find the right partner. Perhaps I should have used "Would you sail around the world with me" as my standard pick-up line, but I didn't (I dont like "pick-up" lines as a matter of fact).

On the glaciers in Norway I fell in love with a girl that had never sailed before. Also, with the girl came two cats. Both factors, that do not help when you want to sail around the world.  This could have been the end of the line for my dream. But like a hollywood movie, this was just the cliffhanger, leading up to the happy ending. After just one week of sailing, Elizabeth fell in love again, this time with sailing. And it was Elizabeth that proposed we would sail around the world. Her only condition: Take the cats with us. And we will.

The End (or a new beginning)

Some inspirational passages by T.S. Elliot shared by friends

From Little Gidding:

“We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time”.

From The Dry Salvages

“Fare forward, travelers! Not escaping from the past 

Into indifferent lives, or into any future;
You are not the same people who left that station
Or who will arrive at any terminus,
While the narrowing rails slide together behind you;
And on the deck of the drumming liner
Watching the furrow that widens behind you,
You shall not think 'the past is finished'
Or 'the future is before us'.
At nightfall, in the rigging and the aerial,
Is a voice descanting (though not to the ear,
The murmuring shell of time, and not in any language)

Fare forward, you who think that you are voyaging;
You are not those who saw the harbor
Receding, or those who will disembark.
Here between the hither and the farther shore
While time is withdrawn, consider the future
And the past with an equal mind.
At the moment which is not of action or inaction
You can receive this: "on whatever sphere of being
The mind of man may be intent
At the time of death" - that is the one action
(And the time of death is every moment)
Which will fructify in the lives of others:
And do not think of the fruit of action.
Fare Forward.”

Movie Review: All is Lost

A colleague at work mentioned that I should watch "All is Lost" as preparation for our sailing trip, as I might learn a few things. I though I was well prepared with my sailing skills, offshore survival training, emergency preparedness training, medical course and risk reviews, but you never know if you can learn a trick or two from an old dog i.e. Robert Redford.

*** Spoiler Alert ***

Clearly Captain Rob is not the most safety conscious sailor and he did not follow the RYA schooling. Here are some observations:
When he detects the leak, the first thing captain Rob does is not calling a mayday on VHF, setting of the EPIRB satellite beacon, stuffing the hole with anything that is at hand, or pulling a sail over the leak, or getting the life raft and ditch bag ready or even starting the bailers. No, the first thing he does, is getting the mainsail down, an action that does not help him whatsoever. Then he manages to collide into the container a second time.

Finally, after some agonizing minutes, where all the good advice I shouted out at captain Rob was ignored, he manages to tack the other way and the hole is safe and clear above the water line. At this point captain Rob is safe, and he could use the time to pull a sail on the outside of the hull, and start stuffing things on the inside.

What is Captain Rob doing, when he is going down into the boat to have a nap when the boat is still half full of water? Captain Rob's safety thinking is highlighted by the fact that:

• He needs to cut a handle for the bailing pump, and does not have one to hand
• He has to connect up his VHF antenna, it was not even connected before the collision.
• What is that about when he call a S.O.S.? Mayday Mayday Mayday is how you start an emergency call?
• Why does captain Rob not keep his sat phone in a waterproof bag?
• Why is he not wearing a life jacket?
• Where are the storm tactics? Captain Rob  does not use his sea, anchor that he earlier used to connect to the container, streaming warps, taking the seas from the behind, running the engine to keep up with the waves, and worst of all, he is still not wearing a life jacket.
• He is finally deploying the life raft, when the boat is floating high up on the water. Man up Captain Rob, and instead of sissily deploying the raft, deploy the bailer!
• Really! Getting into the life raft, when the boat is still high up in the water! Not only are did you just earn the title of coward the size of a blue whale, you just took a very unnecessary risk. BTW, where is the ditch bag? At least stock up with water and supplies before you make the jump.
• Filling up the fresh water canister with the sea water pump from the sink?
• In clear weather, with a boat that is not sinking, you leave the boat again? Man up and start pumping the water out you sissy!
• In the life raft, for the first 24 hours, do not eat or drink, get your body in energy preservation mode
• Where is your hand water maker our solar still?
• Where are you keeping that knife Captain Rob? The correct place in in a bag at the end of the painter line in the water. No wonder you managed to sink your life raft.
• Way to go: Setting of the flare without safety glasses or gloves. This is really the time to use the parachute flares.
• Shooting flares when there are no vessels in sight?
• Setting your only life raft on FIRE!

Katadyn Survivor 35, a hand operated water maker.

Some miscellaneous observations:

• who is steering when he is down below, he clearly does not have an auto pilot...
• It is beyond me, how with so little wind the boat even generated enough speed to create a hole like the one that was created.
• How did the boat turn over? the waves where not even that high....
• Man Over Board by yourself is Game Over..... to get back to the boat is extreme luck! 
• How did he let go of the mast, without even cutting the shrouds or the faulty VHF connection
• Where did the swell go after the big storm?
• How did you manage to sink the life raft!
• The hacked together water maker has little chance of actually working in wave motion.
• Captain Rob can suddenly read the map and writing without his glasses.
• There is land in the background! where is that on the map.
• Where did the glass bottle come from?

Final rating: Too agonizing to watch without writing a blog post with what Captain Rob does wrong and Hollywood gets wrong. No expert sailors consulted in the making of the movie. It turns out that actual courses are a much better preparation than Hollywood...

This would have been on the movie screen, if I was there for the life screening.

Tuxington asks: "Wherrrrrre is the ships cat?" Lunington says: "To be purrrrfectly honest, Captain Rrrrrrrob cannot likely keep his cat alive in even the best of conditions. Miauw!"

Salty Paws boat cards

It is always nice to stay in touch with those nice folks we met over sunset. Now what was their email again? Enter: SaltyPaws boat cards:

Front

Back

Our Proposed Route

We have been looking at weather windows, hurricane seasons, insurance limitations, touristic value, start location, end location, preferred cruising duration, piracy tendencies, trade winds and prevailing currents.

Month	Location
April	France, Atlantic Spain, Portugal, Straight of Gibraltar, Spain (med)
May	South Sardinia, South Sicily, Malta
June	Greece
July	Greece
August	North Sicily
September	Sardinia, Corsica, Balearics, exit via Gibraltar
October	Madeira, Canary Islands, Cabo verde (maybe)
November	Crossing the Atlantic, Martinique
December	Dominica, Antigua and Barbuda, sint Maarten, saint Martin
January	British Virgin Islands

Off course, planning only goes so far on a trip like this, and therefore the plan is not "cast in stone" but rather in wet beach sand with a significant amount of concrete mixed in. More to come on the detailed planning for the individual legs.

Gear: Ditch Bag Contents

For those of you wondering what on earth is a "ditch bag" and why we are writing a post about it, I would refer to the survival story of Maurice and Marilyn Baily whom with their family survived at sea in a life raft for 117 days http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maurice_and_Maralyn_Bailey.  Their story of survival was heroic and possibly as a result of their extensive training and preparation of a ditch bag.  While I hope that we never have to board a life raft, its worthwhile to spend some time putting together that container of supplies which would, at the very least, give us peace of mind our chances of survival and rescue would be improved.  I refer to the RYA (Royal Yachting Association) sea survival handbook for the items we chose to include, plus some additional extras for our feline crew members.

Contents

• Ditch bag x2 - must have positive flotation and be waterproof with easy to carry handles
• Portable EPIRB x1 - Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon  This is to send out a signal to satellite that we are in trouble and need rescue
• Handheld VHF (with extra batteries) x1 - To communicate with vessels on within the horizon that might have their VHF turned on
• Selection of flares
• Waterproof LED flashlight (extra batteries) x1 -  to make light signals at night 
• Signal mirror x1 - send light signals during the day to ships or helicopters
• Portable watermaker x1 - make fresh water from seawater to stay hydrated
• 3 weeks of food - high energy bars that have all the vitamins/minerals..Ill pick the chocolate ones of course
• Extra pair of prescription glasses and sun glasses
• Survival books (RYA manual)
• First aid kit and medicine
• Sunscreen and lip balm
• Spare cell phone with working sim card
• Boat papers, passports, credit cards, cash, driving license, house keys, boat keys, car keys, insurance papers, cat passports, vaccination recoords important documents on thumb drive in a dry bag
• Duct tape x1 roll - just ask the Mythbusters how long you can survive on an island with just a roll of duct tape.  Dont want to be without it.
• Lighter in waterproof bag - fire = warmth = cooked dinner on deserted island
• scissors - to cut packages easily, kept with medical kit
• Empty water bottles - storage of watermaker water and rainwater
• Small fishing kit - to catch some sushi while in our life raft to go nicely with the chocolate energy bars
• Toothbrush and feminine products
• Tin opener for food tins from galley
• rearming kits for life vests
• resealable polyethylene bags to keep things dry
• Large plastic bin liners
• Cutting board to cut any caught fish and extra galley food
• Inflatable cushions to use for pillows and back support
• kitchen knife and sharpener
• Food tins from galley
• Handheld compass to read bearings from the raft
• handheld GPS to relay coordinates to rescuers
• Dinghy or liferaft pump
• Sailing or leather gloves
• Spare warm dry cloths in dry bags
• Swim goggles
• Thermal underwear in dry bag with cloths
• paper and pen in sealed bag
• sea sickness pills
• chemical heat packs
• Cat toenail clippers to prevent clawing up inflatable boat
• Supply of pet napkins to clean them up
• 3 weeks supply of wet cat food in sealed packets
• Towels/sponges to dry things out

Meet the crew - Tux Tuxington

Bug Security Officer in function

Name: Tux Tuxington
DOB: Feb 2013
Task: Bug Security Officer
Responsibility: Search and Destroy pests such as rats, mice and insects
Special skill: Standing on 2 legs, ok taking a shower
Weakness: Makes sure Luna has her daily laps around the room, eating Luna's food
Outlook on life: Life is a feather
Favourite fish: Orca fish, because it looks like me
R&R: Playing with feathers, hunting down bugs
Least favourite food: I dont have discovered one yet
favourite food: Lasagna, Pasta (with fish sauce), cheese

Meet the Crew - Luna Lunington

Name: Luna Lunington
DOB: June 2006
Task: 2nd Watchmate
Responsibilities: Cleaning & eating spiderwebs, Public Relations
Special skill: Jumping (can jump down 2 meter high cupboard)
Weakness: Shreds plastic bags
Outlook on life: I am a princess
Favourite fish: Moon fish, because it is called after me
R&R: Playing with ropes, sleeping on the bed, walking on laptop keyboards
Least favourite food: Fresh sushi grade fish & shrimps
favourite food: canned tuna & wet cat food

Project Crab OK - Cartoon Cat Art

Project Crab OK - Black Cat Art