As can be seen from the map, the winds have been very uneven this leg of Anastasia's journey - contrary to the strong favourable winds that were reasonably expected, winds have often been weak, with a memorable night of becalmed, black, mirrorlike ocean reported on December 14th.
All in all 32 days at sea, often very trying for the patience.
The support team at home in Sweden has had a dark and weary December (lots of work) - sorry fo not keeping up better with the English summaries. Our role has been to wait eagerly for the blog report each day, and mark the position off on the map. Since the posts from French Polynesia usually arrived on the Net after SOLB (Swedish Old Lady Bedtime), it has been very noticeable that Anastasia has drawn nearer and nearer across the time zones.
We have also kept a lookout for reports from Erik and Samuel on Facebook and on their Googlemap - they've been waiting in Puerto Montt for a couple of days, and seem to have had no further mishaps after losing Erik's camera to a robber in Santiago del Chile on one of the first days.
Previous summaries:
Ten days at sea
Bora Bora - and the next phase
Society islands
The Fakarava week
Towards Tuamoto
Catching up
First two weeks of the Pacific
Leaving Alameda
Second week in Alameda
Showing posts with label translation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label translation. Show all posts
Monday, December 21, 2009
Monday, November 30, 2009
Ten days at sea
Anastasia left Tahiti by the south pass on Friday November 20. If you check out the Google map, you can see the route backtracking through the Tuamotos in order to avoid a low pressure system to the south. Strong winds in a not a very favourable direction for the first seven days, almost no wind on the eighth. The last few days better winds.
Passed the Gambier Islands on day nine - then just the vast empty sea. Passing far, far south of Pitcairn. Even further from Easter Island. No fishing vessels, no nothing - only Anastasia. Making good speed on day ten.
Passed the Gambier Islands on day nine - then just the vast empty sea. Passing far, far south of Pitcairn. Even further from Easter Island. No fishing vessels, no nothing - only Anastasia. Making good speed on day ten.
Monday, November 9, 2009
Society islands
Tahiti -Moorea - Tahiti - Moorea - then on to Raiatea & Tahaa. Picking up guests, sending other guests home. Two weeks in the Society islands, still there. Do check the map.
Sunday, October 25: arriving to Papeete, Tahiti in the evening. Going to buy lots and lots of fresh fruit and vegetables in the morning. In the Tuamotos all you get is coconuts.
Monday morning: change of anchorage from Papeete harbour to Marina Taina, not all that far away.
Tuesday: Re-stocking, not least fruit and veggies. Fuel refill. Maintenance work. Negotiations with the riggers in the marina about repairs for the broken forestay.
Wednesday: Crossing to Moorea.
Thursday: Anchoring in Robinson Cove, Moorea. Thursday afternoon: Two whales resting in the bay, mother and child. A substantial audience of dinghies and canoes. Some even went whale watching by swimming - two of the guests on Anastasia among others. Unforgettable!
Sunday, November 1st: Back at Marina Taina. The forestay finally fixed, replacing the broken rod with a wire. Rain. A new pair guests arrived in the morning, and the couple that signed on at Fakarava left for Sweden in the evening. Ready to sail northwest. Sunday evening: Back at Moorea, this time anchoring in Cook's Bay. Will set sail Monday evening, to sail by night towards the Leewards. May cross paths with the great outrigger canoe race.
Tuesday: Uturoa, Raiatea turned out to be most suitable for watching the outriggers arivving after the first part of the canoe race.
Thursday: Sailing inside the reef that encloses the islands of Raiatea and Tahaa. Good wind, calm sea. Watching the outrigger race again, off Patio.
Friday: Taking the Vanilla Tour of Tahaa with Alain the botanist. Googling to find out more about where on western Tahaa we find "Vanilla Tours" (Hurepiti Bay) you may observe that the tours are famous - and that more than one blogger has arrived to find them already booked for weeks and weeks.
Bora Bora next?
Sunday, October 25: arriving to Papeete, Tahiti in the evening. Going to buy lots and lots of fresh fruit and vegetables in the morning. In the Tuamotos all you get is coconuts.
Monday morning: change of anchorage from Papeete harbour to Marina Taina, not all that far away.
Tuesday: Re-stocking, not least fruit and veggies. Fuel refill. Maintenance work. Negotiations with the riggers in the marina about repairs for the broken forestay.
Wednesday: Crossing to Moorea.
Thursday: Anchoring in Robinson Cove, Moorea. Thursday afternoon: Two whales resting in the bay, mother and child. A substantial audience of dinghies and canoes. Some even went whale watching by swimming - two of the guests on Anastasia among others. Unforgettable!
Sunday, November 1st: Back at Marina Taina. The forestay finally fixed, replacing the broken rod with a wire. Rain. A new pair guests arrived in the morning, and the couple that signed on at Fakarava left for Sweden in the evening. Ready to sail northwest. Sunday evening: Back at Moorea, this time anchoring in Cook's Bay. Will set sail Monday evening, to sail by night towards the Leewards. May cross paths with the great outrigger canoe race.
Tuesday: Uturoa, Raiatea turned out to be most suitable for watching the outriggers arivving after the first part of the canoe race.
Thursday: Sailing inside the reef that encloses the islands of Raiatea and Tahaa. Good wind, calm sea. Watching the outrigger race again, off Patio.
Friday: Taking the Vanilla Tour of Tahaa with Alain the botanist. Googling to find out more about where on western Tahaa we find "Vanilla Tours" (Hurepiti Bay) you may observe that the tours are famous - and that more than one blogger has arrived to find them already booked for weeks and weeks.
Bora Bora next?
Sunday, October 25, 2009
The Fakarava week
A week spent around the Fakarava atoll.
Sunday: Guest blogging by Suss. Having an appointment at Fakarava airstrip Anastasia and crew did not stay long enough on Makemo for the post office (where wifi acces could be paid for) to open on Monday. Suss, unable to access her own blog by Iridium, posts her vivid description of Captain and Captainess navigating the witch kettle of the atoll pass. The summarizer thinks she's pretty impressed, though she is working hard at coming across as super cool, "what's all the fuss about?"
Monday: On the way from Makemo to Fakarava. Hans, who lost TWO fishing lines to a couple of BIG tuna fish the other day, got an ugly fella on the hook. Looked like a barracuda, but the barracuda pages were missing in the book, fish identified as possibly a wahoo instead. Pictures on Suss' blog.
Tuesday: Fakarava. A the K posting over the post office wifi - sitting 20 meters away from the office because of the very limited range. Anyway: we get a picture of the captains and the turqoise water of the lagoon. Another couple of guests have arrived, Anastasia now accommodates six persons.
Thursday: Still in the Fakarava lagoon, anchored away from the populated parts, diving, snorkling, exploring the reef.
Friday: Going to leave Fakarava through the south pass. Taking pictures of Anastasia under sail, from the dinghy - the summarizer does hope the pix turned out, that the plan wasn't cut short because of the autopilot alarm - which, after all, was only caused by one of the passengers having chosen the wrong spot to read his Åke Edwardsson.
Saturday: On the way to Tahiti. Hans gets his revenge on tuna-dom by catching a 7kg specimen. Supper for the whole crew for a couple of days at least. Report from the reef days: plenty of sharks, mostly on the parts of the reef too shallow for snorkling. Shark watching by wading - hard to tell who was most afraid of whom.
Sunday: Guest blogging by Suss. Having an appointment at Fakarava airstrip Anastasia and crew did not stay long enough on Makemo for the post office (where wifi acces could be paid for) to open on Monday. Suss, unable to access her own blog by Iridium, posts her vivid description of Captain and Captainess navigating the witch kettle of the atoll pass. The summarizer thinks she's pretty impressed, though she is working hard at coming across as super cool, "what's all the fuss about?"
Monday: On the way from Makemo to Fakarava. Hans, who lost TWO fishing lines to a couple of BIG tuna fish the other day, got an ugly fella on the hook. Looked like a barracuda, but the barracuda pages were missing in the book, fish identified as possibly a wahoo instead. Pictures on Suss' blog.
Tuesday: Fakarava. A the K posting over the post office wifi - sitting 20 meters away from the office because of the very limited range. Anyway: we get a picture of the captains and the turqoise water of the lagoon. Another couple of guests have arrived, Anastasia now accommodates six persons.
Thursday: Still in the Fakarava lagoon, anchored away from the populated parts, diving, snorkling, exploring the reef.
Friday: Going to leave Fakarava through the south pass. Taking pictures of Anastasia under sail, from the dinghy - the summarizer does hope the pix turned out, that the plan wasn't cut short because of the autopilot alarm - which, after all, was only caused by one of the passengers having chosen the wrong spot to read his Åke Edwardsson.
Saturday: On the way to Tahiti. Hans gets his revenge on tuna-dom by catching a 7kg specimen. Supper for the whole crew for a couple of days at least. Report from the reef days: plenty of sharks, mostly on the parts of the reef too shallow for snorkling. Shark watching by wading - hard to tell who was most afraid of whom.
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Towards Tuamoto
Friday: On the way to Fatu Hiva, to see the least visited of the Marquesas islands (on request). Sighting a huge ray, cruising with it's scary mouth open. (We are still waiting for the pictures, internet connection (apart from the Iridium) is a scarce commodity in French Polynesia).
Sunday: The rain turned into a deluge. The planned anchorage at Fatu Hiva would have been too exposed to the westerly wind - anchoring in the bay of Hiva Oa instead, which in the circumstances was like anchoring in a mud pool. Holed up, enjoying food and board games.
Monday: Reporting the second dorado - a big one.
Later on Monday: Making fairly good speed from Marquesas towards Tuamoto (Raroia).
Tuesday: Deliberately slowing down, in order to arrive at Raroia at dawn. Question of the day: Fresh fish for supper or fish from the freezer?
Wednesday: Raroia. Entrance through the pass went fine, in spite of the strong countercurrent. Anastasia the only visiting yacht at the anchorage. Everyone very friendly.
Thursday: Snorkelling at a coral reef in the lagoon of Raroia. A living reef with fantastic colours.
Friday: Up early in order to reach the next atoll before sunset. Anchor stuck. Enrolled three young local free-divers, who could confirm that the chain had tangled around a couple of coral heads and give directions for disentengling. All in French.
Saturday: Makemo. Arrived yesterday at sundown. The water in the atoll pass roiling like a witch kettle. Amazing countercurrents in these passes. Still no internet access: you can only buy it in the local post office, which is open on weekdays = Monday.
Sunday: The rain turned into a deluge. The planned anchorage at Fatu Hiva would have been too exposed to the westerly wind - anchoring in the bay of Hiva Oa instead, which in the circumstances was like anchoring in a mud pool. Holed up, enjoying food and board games.
Monday: Reporting the second dorado - a big one.
Later on Monday: Making fairly good speed from Marquesas towards Tuamoto (Raroia).
Tuesday: Deliberately slowing down, in order to arrive at Raroia at dawn. Question of the day: Fresh fish for supper or fish from the freezer?
Wednesday: Raroia. Entrance through the pass went fine, in spite of the strong countercurrent. Anastasia the only visiting yacht at the anchorage. Everyone very friendly.
Thursday: Snorkelling at a coral reef in the lagoon of Raroia. A living reef with fantastic colours.
Friday: Up early in order to reach the next atoll before sunset. Anchor stuck. Enrolled three young local free-divers, who could confirm that the chain had tangled around a couple of coral heads and give directions for disentengling. All in French.
Saturday: Makemo. Arrived yesterday at sundown. The water in the atoll pass roiling like a witch kettle. Amazing countercurrents in these passes. Still no internet access: you can only buy it in the local post office, which is open on weekdays = Monday.
Catching up with the summaries
The English summaries have suffered badly from the internet connection problems the Gothenburg Editorial Office of this blog has had for the past month, since moving. Things should be back to normal now.
Last day previously summarized was Day 15 out from San Diego - nearing French Polynesia.
Monday, Day 16: Crossed the equator. More rig damage - inner forestay broken. Provisionally replaced by an arrangement with the storm-sail (the summarizer as a landlubber obviously has no idea how to express these things, even when consulting a dictionary).
Monday extra: Having a good time in spite of rigging repairs and shifting weather. Steak suppers, seawater baths in the cockpit.
Tuesday, Day 17: Steady sailing, easterly wind.
Wednesday, Day 18: A tsunami warning beep from the Inmarsat: Samoa = as far away from Anastasia's position as San Diego. The wave imperceptible: a 0.1 m wave should have passed at around 22h, U.T.C.
Thursday, Day 19: Arrival at Nuku Hiva, Marquesas: green and mountainous. Anchorage in Taiohae Bay.
More on Thursday: Housecleaning on Anastasia, buying fresh fruit in Taiohae. Land sickness - heads, adapted to constant motion, spinning as AK an Th walk along the village street. Champagne celebration in the evening.
Friday: Clearing in at the gendarmerie, which is only open in the mornings. No problem that the clearance out from San Diego was not in paper form. No deposit for EU citizens!
Sunday: The green, green mountains are explained by a more or less constant rain. Well, better rainwater than saltwater permeating everything.
Monday: Visiting Yacht Service, where the tempo is s l o w. It has taken three days to convince them to take the laundry. Too much rain, not good enough water. Refilling the bottled gas... well it'll hopefully get done before departure.
Tuesday: Got the bottled gas. Laundry drying in the rain. Leaving for Tuamotoas soon as S&H arrive.
Wednesday: No rain. A big cruiser visiting the bay - Yacht Service doing business with the passengers, forgetting all about the laundry. Well, got it back in the afternoon, with a discount.
Thursday: The guests have arrived. Sailing tomorrow.
Last day previously summarized was Day 15 out from San Diego - nearing French Polynesia.
Monday, Day 16: Crossed the equator. More rig damage - inner forestay broken. Provisionally replaced by an arrangement with the storm-sail (the summarizer as a landlubber obviously has no idea how to express these things, even when consulting a dictionary).
Monday extra: Having a good time in spite of rigging repairs and shifting weather. Steak suppers, seawater baths in the cockpit.
Tuesday, Day 17: Steady sailing, easterly wind.
Wednesday, Day 18: A tsunami warning beep from the Inmarsat: Samoa = as far away from Anastasia's position as San Diego. The wave imperceptible: a 0.1 m wave should have passed at around 22h, U.T.C.
Thursday, Day 19: Arrival at Nuku Hiva, Marquesas: green and mountainous. Anchorage in Taiohae Bay.
More on Thursday: Housecleaning on Anastasia, buying fresh fruit in Taiohae. Land sickness - heads, adapted to constant motion, spinning as AK an Th walk along the village street. Champagne celebration in the evening.
Friday: Clearing in at the gendarmerie, which is only open in the mornings. No problem that the clearance out from San Diego was not in paper form. No deposit for EU citizens!
Sunday: The green, green mountains are explained by a more or less constant rain. Well, better rainwater than saltwater permeating everything.
Monday: Visiting Yacht Service, where the tempo is s l o w. It has taken three days to convince them to take the laundry. Too much rain, not good enough water. Refilling the bottled gas... well it'll hopefully get done before departure.
Tuesday: Got the bottled gas. Laundry drying in the rain. Leaving for Tuamotoas soon as S&H arrive.
Wednesday: No rain. A big cruiser visiting the bay - Yacht Service doing business with the passengers, forgetting all about the laundry. Well, got it back in the afternoon, with a discount.
Thursday: The guests have arrived. Sailing tomorrow.
Sunday, September 6, 2009
Sailing!!
* New batteries installed on Monday morning by repairman Eric.* Monday: SAILING. Passing the Golden Gate bridge, westbound, 4pm. WITH the tide and AGAINST the wind. Choppy. Later, out on the Pacific, almost windless with a long, slow, nauseating swell
* Tuesday: A the K on the night watch. Monterey and Carmel behind them. Steady wind from the rear, black night with a narrow strip of moonlight. Later increasing wind, had to take in sail. Making very good speed. Check out the map.
* Wednesday: Second night. Entering Santa Barbara Channel. Finding their routines - taking turns sleeping. Th wakes A the K up at dawn to see the dolphins. At least 30 individuals - two or three pods, gathered to check out Anastasia and follow in her wake for a while... smiling their dolphin smiles, then hurrying on. Going to a dolphin staff meeting, sez A the K.
* Thursday: Dana Point - goal of the first leg of the trip. Visiting Th's uncle Karl Erik. Arrived past midnight, just found a quay-berth and went to sleep. Woken up by a grumpy and dissatisfied Harbour Master at six. Made arrangements with the yacht club, supposedly including wifi - but the password won't work.
* Friday: Posting from Starbucks - still no wifi. Checking the blog and reading comments (which is not possible over Iridium). Will remain at Dana Point until Tuesday, waiting for a spare relay for the AIS.
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Second week in Alameda
As busy as the first.* A the K goes grocery shopping on a large scale, observing logistics problems at the supermarket: each can must be scanned individually at the checkout. No programming for scanning just one can and entering "times X".
* The service guys who come to set up the new wind meter fail to get the antenna cable down through the main mast "it's stuck - you have to take off the mast" - Thomas shows them the way by getting a weighted nylon cord through. Piece of cake for a Swedish sailor. Well, there won't be any service guys out on the Pacific.
* Two days in Nelsons Marine - Anastasia up for a paint job. Two days = two layers of paint. While the Nelsoners take care of the paint, the Anastasia crew services gaskets and o-rings and cares for the crusty surface of rudder and propeller. End result: Anastasia is tip top under the waterline
* Including a new 50 kg anchor - the old 20 kg anchor not heavy enough for the Patagonian archipelago. As the wise New Zealander would have it: "When people start laughing at your anchor, THEN you know you're beginning to get it right.
* Weather in Alameda has been summer hot. R&R for the crew has included première steaks on the LPG grill and going to Fisherman's Wharf for crab. Everything has gone according to schedule, sailing on Monday!
Sunday, August 23, 2009
The week that went
Still in Alameda, preparing. Eric the Repairman went over the engine one whole day in the beginning of the week (Monday or Tuesday - not sure how the blog counts the days). More services booked - everything that CAN be serviced WILL be serviced before they set off. And for contact with service people in California you need a US phone number, so A the K got a pre-paid sim card for the purpose.* Hard work from 7 in the morning to 10 in the evening - ALL equipment must be tested, including the hammock, fortunately. The weather looks lovely over there.
* On Thursday, shopping for charts, fixing the antenna for the Iridium system. When blog posts come with funny line breaks, they are posted by satellite phone.
* Some people at home are getting restless after seven days - but two weeks of preparation were always in the plan. On Monday the cruiser will be hauled out of the water, for a paint job. Smooth gliding, Anastasia!
* Saturday: shopping for fishing equipment. Huge Cedar Plugs for tuna!! Also a test trip, flying the Swedish flag. Looks good!!!
Sunday, August 16, 2009
Sunday morning
This is the first installment of the English summaries I have promised to make. I think I'll try to do them on Sunday mornings. As stated in the two previous posts:1) The flight went well, no problems with the luggage or customs. All passengers on the Cathay Pacific flight from Hong Kong, arriving at the same time as AK & Th had heavier and unwieldier luggage than the extremely heavy and unwieldy packing of our travellers.
2) The trip to IKEA also went very well, apart from some confusion about sizes and shapes of pillows & bedding. At the checkout the cashier had to split the entries in two, because the cash register wouldn't take all the items on a single receipt. Last item bought was cloudberry jam, which A the K has NEVER bought before. I think she doesn't like it much.
Another way of keeping up with AK & Th in English might be to use the Google translator, which is getting pretty good. Although it does some weird or plain stupid things, too. Like translating "packningar" with "gaskets" even though it's in a context of luggage.
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