AlexandrA comes home

Vessel Name: AlexandrA
Vessel Make/Model: Catamaran Fontaine Pajot Bahia 46'
Hailing Port: Coming home from St Martin to Oz
Crew: Max (Skipper) Sandra (Mate) and Mark (technology management)
About: A Family, a Boat and many a tale to remember
Extra: This tale will unfold in almost real time so we shall see what we shall see.
04 July 2012
11 June 2012 | Tahiti
29 May 2012
22 May 2012 | 100o mls short of next landfall
16 May 2012
15 May 2012
09 May 2012 | Galapogos
06 May 2012 | Guess!
28 April 2012
23 April 2012 | Panama Canal
18 April 2012
16 April 2012
08 April 2012
04 April 2012 | colon Panama
24 March 2012 | Roseau, Dominica
Recent Blog Posts
04 July 2012

CYCLONE KEITH

Well at present we are well in transit between The Cook Islands and Tonga. Having motor sailed due to light winds in the middle section we are now back to sail with a lovely 15 knots off the port stern. 48 hours away till the greetings of the Tongans. we encountered cyclone Keith upon leaving The Cooks. [...]

11 June 2012 | Tahiti

Sharks one Bannanas

Well while at Hivo Oa we grabbed some fruit from a farm in the mountains. I Bunch of 120 bananas for $5 and my new bestest favorites food, pomellos. I have never heard or seen pomellos but the are like a grape fruit but up to 30cm. Not as bitter as a grape fruit, they are delicious. At only $1 each if [...]

11 June 2012

Don't Shoot the Messenger

Listen up guys...I am not the writer and I have things to do so I don't always have time to do an instant update so please don't winge when I am not intantly updating this website. I do it when I can. Tha being said here is the next episode.

29 May 2012

Land at Last

As we approach the Marquise islands we come to huge sheer cliffs hard to gauge their height but can easily be 500m plus. I cannot wait to get ashore and out of the boat confines. I have been cramming for the last week and long for a decent walk. The first place I will head to will be any store that has [...]

22 May 2012 | 100o mls short of next landfall

Fishy Tales

Happy birthday Sis! (How many people get to have their birthday in the middle of the Pacific and be with their Dad and Brother? (BG)). We have now made it 2/3 on this leg, currently we are at 5 degrees south, 123 degrees west, 1000nm to the Marquises . The wind goddess Blusterina forgot us [...]

16 May 2012

Middle of nowhere

6 days out from the Galapagos and we hit 1000nm. 1/3 of the way, haven't see a boat of any sort since leaving. The winds have been consistently 10-15 knots with our boat speed averaging around 7+ knots. We look likely to cover the 3000nm in 18 days assuming the same weather. When the weather map is downloaded we check to confirm out current course directly east at 3.5 degrees south of the equator has predicted good winds. On every download there are always larger winds and storms to the south for us to be wary. If they come more northerly than predicted we plan to sail with them towards the equator as they reduce in intensity. Sandy has the cooking sorted and I'm sure the boys home in Cairns are missing that. Such a long way still to go and one has to be mindful to keep your mind occupied. It took me two days to get back my sea legs on this trip as I did not quite feel right. As the boat speed has been up too high for any fishing I still have managed to catch a flying fish in my bed courtesy of an open window. Cheers for now, mark.

Land at Last

29 May 2012
Mark
As we approach the Marquise islands we come to huge sheer cliffs hard to gauge their height but can easily be 500m plus. I cannot wait to get ashore and out of the boat confines. I have been cramming for the last week and long for a decent walk. The first place I will head to will be any store that has a Coke!
The winds this second half have been lighter than the first apart from the last 2 days which was consistent 20+ knots and rising seas to go with them. The lighter winds saw some motoring to keep us moving but also revealed what has been there all along but we could not see.
We had 3 separate whale sightings with the first blessing max and sandy with a whale in full breach out of the water doing a back wacker. With the calm seas it was easy to identify the water spray of the whales breathing. The closest a family came to us was about 200m off the starboard side, then down they dove with the last thing we would see being a huge tail exit the water as they head down.
One thing that is not missed as we sail are any Mosquitoes and flies. Their absence is welcome. One would think that the great Australian salute was unique to OZ but the same incessant buggers have been at every port of call.
I still haven't worn any form of shoes or even put on a t-shirt other than when we have gone ashore. I am looking for a reason why one would live in Melbourne with winters when you can live in the tropics like this.
In the lighter winds we travelled with the two jibs for a couple of days and then reverted back to one jib and the main sail gull winging as the wind was not perfect for us. The last 2 days with 20 plus knots saw us running under one jib only and still making good time.
Well I did wish for smaller fish to catch too which did come true. We caught one smaller tuna which I could actually get into the net and lift in alone. The beautiful skin colour when taken out of the water is very memorable. It was still far too big to keep and would have been such a waste of fish that again we let it go. The next day we were blessed with a double hook up with max controlling the boat and sandy and I on a line each. It's a team effort on a yacht to slow the boat and attempt to pull in a fish. We had some good methods when a line would scream loose with an unknown fish on the end. We would immediately set Sandy to adding the brake to the reel and controlling the fish as Max and I would round the boat windward, winch in the jib as per Australia 2 in the America's cup and leave the main to luff in the wind. To keep control of the direction we would start both motors and then I could help Sis. Obviously when hooking up with 2, as happened twice, this made for some bedlam. This last double hook up proved to be easier to bring the fish to the boat than before, as already mentioned the big tuna took about 40 minutes to land. Hoping this time we had some smaller tuna we found, once in sight of the stern, we had hooked 2 Mahi Mahi. Unbelievably along with the 2 hooked came the remainder of the school swimming next to each fish, about 15 in total in the water. It was exciting to have hooked them but truly heart breaking to see the family coming in with them as they were obviously in distress being hooked. I have never felt bad about catching a fish before but had the same felling as I would have though in accidentally catching a dolphin. The family guarded them as we got them to the rear steps. I landed mine first with the net, being over 1m long but nothing of the girth of a tuna I assume they could be may be only 10kg. With care we unhooked the lure from its lip, took some photos and returned him or her to their family. Unlike the tuna whose tail was so easily held this Mahi Mahi I could only hold using the net to assist gripping. Max had set the auto pilot to hold the boat windward and started recording the video as Sandy landed hers. Again some photos, removal of the lure carefully and back home to the abyss.
The sails were reset and we headed back to our original course. It really felt right as we all discussed over lunch, YMCA ( yesterday's muck cooked again) to have let them go. Really special the remaining fish covering their two hooked mates. We approach these giants of islands and will report on our next adventures soon.
Cheers Mark, Max and Sandy.
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