Atlantic Reading List

Books I’ve read since leaving Cape Town:

Salvador

Quite noisy

We arrived in Salvador, Brazil, during the annual carnival. What that means in 200db music (sic) blasting out from every bar and restaurant from 10am to 4am. I the only managed two hours at the parade.

Infinity pool
Infinity coconuts

After the carnival we took ourselved off to a beach resort 30 miles up the coast, joining Ken & Cheryl who had already booked in. After a couple of days at anchor in the Salvador Bay, including a very pleasant boat trip up river, we sailed for 36 hours to Cabedelo where we met the members of the fleet who had skipped Salvador.

We’ll probably skip Salvador next year when we return on Mistral.

Much more on Karen’s site.

St Helena and Beyond

Jamestown
Jamestown

We only had 96 hours in St Helena, but it was well worth the visit. After a week at sea it’s great to have a break, restock (spending GB pounds!) and do a little tourism.

St Helena is a tiny chunk of the UK and feels a little like a strange part of Devon. We took an all-day tour of the island and saw it all, including Napoleon’s Tomb and his house where he lived for the last eight years of his life.

First Time Flying the Parasailor
First Time Flying the Parasailor

Then it was off to Salvador, Brazil – 1930 nm, 14 days at sea. This is third or fourth longest passage in the circumnavigation.

We soon settled into the routine – watch, sleep, eat etc. We were forced to motor for the first day or two, but then the trade wind set in and we sailed for almost the entire trip. We also used the parasailor for the first time – what a great sail! Easy to handle, tolerant of wind shifts, and easy to snuff as long as you don’t leave it too late. We’re looking at one for Mistral…

We expect to arrive in Salvador at dawn tomorrow (the 10th). We’ll have a kip, clear in, then watch Tommy’s England game against Wales! Go Tommy!

South Pacific Reading List

Here’s a list of the books I’ve read since leaving Galapagos five weeks ago:

Obviously can’t spend all day and night working!

Ua-Pou to Ahe

From the Marquesas to Bora Bora is “free sailing” on the World ARC. That means we can go where we like as long as we all meet up in Bora Bora on 11 May, to prepare for Leg 5. It’s about 1000 nm from Ua-Pou to Bora Bora with lots of atolls in between – the Tuamotu Islands and the Society Islands being the main groups.

With Patrick and Janie leaving us in Nuku Hiva (thanks for all your hard work!) Karen and I decided to sail to Ahe in the Tuamotu group on our own. 480 nm is three days and three nights of sailing. We ran a three hour on, three hour off watch system and although tiring, not too bad and definitely possible for short passages.

Tuna!
Tuna!

The highlight was catching a tuna on day 2. We think it may have swallowed the hook completely as it was already dead when we landed it. Karen gutted and filleted it – there’s probably enough for 16 servings!

Arriving in Ahe posed a new challenge – the atoll. Only one way in and always a current dragging you one way or the other. The advice is to enter on slack tide, which in the South Pacific is six hours after moonset or moonrise, that would be 1220 local for us. Our ETA was 1400 which we thought might be too late, so we motored for the last few hours and arrived outside the pass at 1315. It didn’t look too bad so, with life jackets on and the boat buttoned up, we motored though the pass. All good, but definitely not something to do at night or in bad weather.

Ahe Atoll
Ahe Atoll
Ahe Atoll Entrance
Ahe Atoll Entrance – Tiarerao Pass

The anchorage is by the “Village” – we’re surrounded by shoals, “boombies” and reefs. Again, day VFR only!

At Anchor
At Anchor

Leg 4: Santa Cruz, Galapagos to Hiva Oa, Marquesas Islands

The Plan
The Plan
The Tracks
The Tracks of the ARC Fleet

Three weeks at sea – this is the longest passage of the whole circumnavigation, 2980 nautical miles in a straight line.

But you can’t go in a straight line because you need to go south to pick up the Trade Winds. How far south? Good question.

In our case, we missed the official start because we couldn’t raise the anchor. The chain was snagged on something but it magically freed itself an hour later. Once we were on our way we went a little further west and a little less south than most of the fleet. It still took three days of motoring to find the wind, and even then the wind was less strong and more variable than we’d experienced in the Atlantic.

Some of the hightlights of the 21-day passage: a midnight rescue of Raindancer, a non-ARC boat which hit a whale and sank within 15 minutes. Eight ARC boats diverted to the last known position of the liferaft but another non-ARC boat, Rolling Stones, got there first and effected the rescue. Fishing: we threw three fish back which we decided were too small to eat, but landed a tuna and a small mahi mahi. Sun shots: Patrick was keen to use the sextant so between us we took quite a lot of sun shots. Our fixes were usually within 5-10 nm of our GPS position – good enough! Fixing the boat (not really a highlight): the generator played up on this leg. By trial and error and some advice from other boats, I narrowed the problem down to the fuel feed, so we eventually found a way to keep the genny running. Losing the generator means we have to charge the batteries by running the engine, but it also means we can’t run the water-maker.

As we finally anchored in the small bay of Hiva Oa, I recorded our total distance as 3080 nm. Here’s to some shorter passages over the next few weeks!

Leg 3: Las Perlas, Panama to San Cristobal, Galapagos

Lover of the Light
Lover of the Light

855 nautical miles, 5 days, but unfortunately, after the first day, there was no wind. We motored at reduced speed so we had a better chance of catching fish (not many fish that you want on board can swim at 8 kt).

At least, motoring, you don’t have to worry about a night-time squall requiring a sail-plan change, but we used 670 litres of fuel which won’t be cheap in Galapagos.

At midnight on the 12th of February we crossed the equator. I woke up the crew (fast asleep, as usual) and Karen came on deck with a bottle of champagne and an “Equator Cake”. After a suitable celebration I retired in order to be compos mentis for the Galapagos arrival.

We’re now on San Cristobal island, Galapagos, preparing for inspection so we can continue to stay. Fingers crossed they don’t find my stack of Cheesey Puffs!

World ARC Fleet 2023

Some of the boats on our adventure.

Voyager II
Voyager II
Lover of the Light
Lover of the Light
Blue Sunshine
Blue Sunshine
Amanzi
Amanzi

The Panama Canal

Timelapse video of the Canal transit

The first 12 boats in the World ARC 2023 transited the Panama Canal on 29 & 30 January 2023. We were divided into four “nests” of three boats each, with Mistral as the starboard boat of Nest 1. After collecting our Panama Canal advisor next to Shelter Bay Marina, we motored down to Gatun Lock which we cleared through in the dark. Next we continued on to Gatun Lake where we moored up for the night.

The next day was a long motor through Gatun Lake to the Pedro Miguel Lock and the Miraflores Lock. Unfortunately our advisors were unable to prevent Nest 1 from colliding with the lock wall as we exited Miraflores – the stanchions are being repaired as I type.

Passing under the Bridge of the Americas marks the transition from the Atlantic to the Pacific – we’ve now sailed our boat from France to the Pacific Ocean!

Tim & Jane have now flown back to the UK and Shirley & David are joining us for the next leg to Las Perlas Islands and Galapagos.

Read more at:
Karen’s Travels
World Cruising Logs
YB Tracker