Hanqelou
06/11/2011, 32 55.345'S:171 41.494'W, Southern Pacific

To all you salty dogs out there, you will understand when I tell you, there is a reason why people sail from east to west and not the other way around.... It is like going the wrong way around that black bloody stone or going left on the payer wheels, nature does not like that and lets you know about it. Swell and current on the tips of our noses, making the fillings come loose by the pounding we are getting every 7th wave, and it feels like somebody pulls the handbrake on you everytime. First of all, a pair of sealegs have arrived for Jana, she is a lot better, still not enjoying it to the fullest this whole "let's go sailing and have some fun" experience, but wait till she sees the lagoon on Tubuai, our first stop and strolls around those white sandy beaches and tips her toes in water blue-er then the color of the skype sign.(Sorry that is all I can come up with so far, just right in front of me on my desktop and I thought, waaauw that looks pretty blue). We had a terrible experience due to some weather not arriving when it was suppose to, that is my story and i am sticking to it. Our weather man Bob in NZ told us that 3 days ago it was better to keep heading NNE as the wind was going to turn dramatically to the NW and give us that push to go East. So I kept pushing and pushing, what Bob did not realize is that my little arabian seahorse, better known as Babalu to you all, was feeling good and just ripped it and was 6 hours ahead of schedule, so I kept going and going until the wind changed a little but not enough pushing me to the NW in other words going away from my destination, so I decided to take a chance and tacked anyway, suddenly I was heading SE, tacked back, NW again, tacked again, .....,you are getting the picture, the wind was toying with me and testing my patience, so in other words by the time the wind really changed to where it should have been in the first place I was pretty much back at square one and that aft er a good 15 hours, so I gained a day going over the date line and mother nature picked it up and ripped it right back out of my hands, thanks mom!!! The next day, no wind what so ever, so motoring is all I could do pretty much. But righ now imagine this, I am writing to you, exercising my belly muscles to the fullest, at a 20 degree angle, pounding up and down, 2nd reef in the main, 1st in the jib going at a speed of 6.5 to 7.5 Kts, burning rubber baby!!! Can you smell it? I must have lost the first layer of that anti fouling we sprayed on before leaving...man it feels good. By the way the investment into a new windgenerator and watermaker have been a very wise one if I may say so by playing the first 4 bars of "'round about midnight" on my own horn. Only need to run the engine right now to make water that is pretty much all or ofcourse when there is no wind at all. And I run the water maker for one hour and hup full tanks, isn't that nice? The wind generator keeps up with the energy consumption at about 15kts of wind, niceeee. Alright it is time for me to stick my head out there and check for fellow ocean dwellers and making sure they don't get too good of a look on board the mighty vessel Babalu... may you all enjoy that piece and quiet while I pick up my teeth and move another couple of miles in hopefully the good direction,.... piece out...how many?

Comments [0] | | More

Hanqelou
06/09/2011, 33 47.593'S:175 44.833'W, Southern Pacific

Hi all, just a quick one, all is well, no wind yesterday at all, had to motor and since last night some SE and E so we have been sailing wonderfully in about 15Kts of wind about 60Deg off, on a nice starboard tack. It scared the shit out of Jana, living at and angle of about 20 degrees but she is getting used to it, unfortunately she is still a little nocious. She has declared herself mad (louco) for sailing here in the middle of nowhere but wait till she hits the islands,.... it is not nowhere it is called the middle of paradise.... Lots of love from Babalu....

Comments [0] | | More

Hanqelou
06/07/2011, 36 15.821'S:179 54.707'E, Southern Pacific

Hi all, we have sailed 288Nm since we left on the 6th at midday. It is now according to NZ the 8th but I just realized we are sitting on top of the famous 180 (that actually does not exist. It goes from 179.59E to 179.59W. Figure that one out.) So we have the prevelidge (ok I admit I can not spell that word) to relive the 7th of June!!! Magic!!! So far all is well, Jana still looking a little pale, not fully sealegged yet. We had no wind when we left, so we pretty much motored the first day, gradually building up the sail area and then finally on the morning of the first 7th, engine off, great feeling. Seas have been alright not too big, a squall here and there but otherwise a fine day for sailing. Quite cold last night as the wind shifted a little to the West but today is beautiful. I need to take a nap now, have not slept since we left. I can't help it, adrenaline pumping.... Also started the watermaker and found that one of the bronze elbows at the sea intake was cracked. Lucky I checked and good that there is a valve between the big blue and the small brown inside. There is only about 4000m of water below us. Survived our first kelp attack too. Bloody kelp. Drove Babalu through a kelp field, too busy watching the sunset and felt a thhhuunck followed by a lot of vibration. First thought was, good time to check out my new wetsuit, too bad it is only 3mm thick. So I felt the water and quickly came up with an alternative, throw it in reverse, and back forward and lucky for me that did it. Ok that is it for today, thank you for your responses on the blog, I can not check the blog but get the messages mailed through whe someone comments, that is nice.... ciao big hug from Jana and me...

Comments [0] | | More

Hanqelou
06/04/2011, Auckland New Zealand

After a month and a half of busting ass, I can say that we are leaving the island of the Long White Cloud in a boat that is in really good shape. The weather is not great but will do. Little wind to start with but at least out of the right direction. I might have to motor a little to get as far from NZ as possible and south too, heading for the roaring 40's to catch good westerlies. I know once I see the first iceberg it is time to turn east. These last couple of days have been very productive, buying food, remembering the last details and testing the equipment.
One of the jobs was to pull a new line into the boom so I can have a 3rd reef in the main sail. For people that do not sail, reefing reduces the main sail area and brings the center of effort forward, so when the winds get too strong and the boat is overpowered, too much canvass, you reduce the area by bringing the sail down to the first reef, about 75% of the sail, etc... now I added a 3rd reef reducing the area to about ¼, yep expecting more strong winds in the next year. So now I am poking a stick into the back of the boom to see if the passage is free for a line. I got stuck after about 1 meter. After shining my flashlight in there I understood why. I found an illegal apartment from one of my more feathered friends. While the boat was sitting on the dry in Whangarei, a family of sparrows took a liking to the first floor of my residence and built a quite large nest inside. After taking the whole thing out I realized how industrious these little buggers were, I filled a shopping bag and a half. It was a bloody mansion!! No, before anyone accuses me of anything, I did not evict any poor souls, the nest was empty but now it make sense why I had so much bird crap on the helm station and a lot of visitors, flying back and forward while I was working on the boat.
I spend a bit of time yesterday with Jana, showing her what to do in case of emergency. One of the important tools is the EPIRB. In a nutshell, a device that sends your personal ID number and position through to the authorities via satellite who will try to save you once received, in my case the NZ Rescue Coordination Center. It is activated by either pushing the on-button or when it falls into the water. So I show Jana, where the clip is to open the cover of the unit, I pull the pin to show her how an EPIRB looks like. She had to be quick though to see it, because as soon as I pulled the pin out, the whole thing flapped open and the unit made its escape via the transom into the water. Too be honest I have never seen a unit work before but I can tell you now, there is a red light and a white one flashing once activated. Lots of swearing, jumping around trying to get the boat hook out and feeling amazingly stupid. I was able to catch it and Jana pulled it out of the water. Next important step, call the Rescue Center, I am not going to wait to see the helicopter fly over, especially sitting at the pier of the largest marina in New Zealand. Lucky for me it takes about 50 seconds before the satellite picks the signal up and I must have saved it just before that as the center did not receive a distress signal just yet. Ooooffff. A good lesson though, because in case of emergency you do not want see your EPIRB float away, you want to hold on to it as long as possible.
One more good night sleep and at 8.00 tomorrow morning we will receive the visit of immigration and customs, clearing us out. After a quick stop at the fuel dock we should be on our way for a new adventure. I have waited and looked forward for over a year.... One chapter closes and a new one starts,...
The next blog will be offshore, no pics but a little text with a position to let you know how we are living the next 20 days. I am giving an update every two days so family and friends would know that we are alright.
Take care you all....

PS the picture is the coat of arms of my hometown Bruges on the tail of my new wind generator.
PPS Goodbye to all our friends here in New Zealand, it has been a pleasure....
PPPS By the way, I have received my Burger Fuel T-shirt, the manager ordered it in especially for me... it gave me indigestion but I have my T-shirt, that was not for sale, it pays off to nag I guess....

Comments [5] | | More

Hankelu
05/27/2011, Auckland

"Just arrived in the city of Sails, Auckland Baby!!! Sailed on a shake down from Whangarei. Chased by a fat ol' greasy gale... Babalu handled it like a true sea whisperer, I am very happy with how she handled, just a couple of little things and have some fun in the big city and then as soon as the window opens up to Tahiti off we go...." (Sample of my last Facebook entry)
It is true we are on the next leg of our trip. Whangarei is a past tense now. Many thank yous and goodbyes. First of all a big thank you to the following companies that have helped me restoring Babalu in such a great shape and that I can recommend to any cruiser out there thinking of having a little boat rehab. Shipyard: Riverside Drive Marina (Ray and Karl will take care of all you need, and check out how good Karl is at selling inflatable paddle boards, great product but if it was not for Karl, I would have a little more room in the forward cabin), Any steel work go and see Terry and the gang at Alloy Stainless & Marine, fast and efficient, they made extra supports for the arch and that beautiful tower of power, for my new windgenerator. Ray Roberts Marine was great to work with, Grant, you giant you, created a piece of art out of what started as being a real challenge, not using the expression with the dolorous sensation and a lower part of the human body, the bracket for my new High Pressure Watermaker pump mounted onto the engine, millimeter work was necessary to fit it all in that small space, but he did it with a lot of swag, thanks for that. Big thanks too to Karl his spares manager, great people. If you think wood and fibers, think no longer go and see Maurice at Riverside Boat Worx. He will take care of you, great, very knowledgeable bunch, they modified the engine box, reinforced that beam that showed a nasty crack. And little bits and bobs here and there. And I could go on, I have put their links on the blog, if you want to check their websites. Remember the quality of the work that is required and received is enjoyable and memorable if it is served with extra kindness and friendship.
After getting back in the water which was a mission in itself, being out for so long and struggling with the a very wet Kiwi autumn. I did save a couple of jobs for Auckland, all the electrical ones to be precise.
Jana and I left, motoring down the river on a high, not just our spirits but the tide was on our side. After about 2 and a half hours we checked out a bay at the mouth of the river, on the ocean side called smugglers bay, did not see any, but there you go, the Northerly winds allowed us to stay the night. The big problem here is the following, if you want to sail down to Auckland, you need some Northerly wind and it is better to leave in the morning early then you arrive in the early evening, about 70 Nm. But to understand the winds a little bit, when the Northerly arrives, he brings warmer and wetter air, that is the nice part but if you look a little further down the line, a big gale follows as all this is part of a big Low passing over the Northern Island. So the whole way we kept hearing on our VHF radio the ominous sounds of the Coast Guards calling out to all poor souls out there to come inside, a gale is coming. At 3.30 am I was fed up waking up and checking the anchor and hearing the winds build up so I checked if Jana was awake and hup off we went. The winds were great, 25 to 30 Kts of broad reach, sailing at an average of 7 Kts peaking to 8.5 surfing down the waves. But the seas were a real Bitch, sorry for my choice of word here, but you were not there and I can tell you, Jana was sick the whole way and I was not a 100% for the first few hours. Only 2 to 3 meter but a very short interval between them and from different directions. I was hoping she was not too sick to give up the next part of the voyage, 20 days of challenging sailing. I pretty much sailed alone while she was resting down below. It was a great confidence builder, reefing, gybing, installing the reef lines I did not have time to do before, etc... all by myself. We arrived on a 2nd reef and as soon as the lines were secured on the dock, the sky opened up.
Now we are here enjoying all the pleasures of a big city and are getting ready for the next part... will let you know when the big departure is coming up....
Fair winds to David and crew on Watermelon, Sputnik, and many more that are sailing to Fiji...

Comments [0] | | More

Hankeloo
04/24/2011, Whangarei, New Zealand

Let me introduce to you, my newest crew member, cook, stewardess, deckhand, watchkeeper and companion tout court, Janaina Lima Monteiro, or Jana to keep it short. She is Brazilian and has never really sailed before. We met in Fernando do Noronha for only one day but we hit it off pretty well, although not being able to speak Portuguese and she very limited in her English, we mannish to communicate all day, a combination of English, Spanish and lots of hand signals. And who needs to talk while snorkeling, I tried and I did regret it. In the late afternoon, I had to be back on Drumbeat, I popped the question, "how would you like to visit Tahiti? And doing it in style by sailing on Babalu?" I don't know what overtook me, it sounds crazy, but it had to be asked. She just told me about her plans to go traveling Europe with her friend for 6 months. I told her that sailing in the South Pacific would beat a trip to Europe hands down, not even in the same league, sorry my European friends, but come on, do I really need to explain??? We stayed in touch by Skype getting more and more excited about the trip as the days went on and here we go, she arrived last week and has been slaving away with me to get Babalu back in the water ever since. Which by the way has not happened yet. We are still in the process of preparing her belly to get painted next week. We first had to get the International Paint rep in to confirm that the paint would stick to the black layer of skin that got revealed under the gel coat, it is amazingly hard, probably an anti fouling paint from the early days, my first guess is that it is plutonium based, you know in those days, the early 80's, people were not afraid to use the good stuff. But in the mean time we continue to work and go through the massive list I had put together. My new water maker is almost installed, a nice 70 Liters an hour!! The chain has been painted, also just bought a wind generator, apparently the Rolls Royce of alternative energy generation, that thing is so quite and produces over 30 Amps in only 20 to 25 Kts of wind. I might not have to use my Steel sail anymore only to make water and to park Mama Baba. I had a crack in one of the beams and that has finally been fixed and I could go on but the pictures will speak for themselves. So far it has been great. Jana is a great worker (you know that I really appreciate that in a crew member) a great cook (even more appreciated) and the only little miss-communication that has ended up in big eyes on my part and lots of laughter after was the hard luggage she turned up with. I did try to explain that uncompressable, voluptuous bulky things are not very welcome on Babalu, my hands, who are obviously also suffering from dyslexia, must have badly translated my intentions or the image on skype must have frozen at that particular time, who knows, I know one thing, there is some lucky Kiwi out there that will be able to make a nice nest in a very large pink suitcase, just after we set sail.
Socially we are having little Brazilian BBQ's with some friends here. Life is good. Jana is learning English with her Belgian teacher, stop laughing!!! I gave her a sailing instruction book and a dictionary what good combination, two flies in one smooch.
As the weather is not optimal for making our way to Tahiti, we will take our time to get the boat in a really good shape and sail down to Auckland to enjoy ourselves a little. A little Salsa would not hurt us at all!!!

Comments [2] | | More

Ankeloo
04/12/2011, Riverside Drive Marina, Whangarei

It was great to see my baby back. I arrived in the late morning and as I drove up, I could see the bow, with its amazing Stainless bow piece, leaning over the fence of the shipyard as if she was looking out for me. A massive smootch on her rudder to say hi and I did not care I just licked up some very toxic anti fouling in the process, over a year I had to wait for this moment, I have dreamed so many times of how it would be and it was good.
But immediately I could see that the outside became a holiday camp for spiders large and small. Also I did not remember having black decks. So the next day I spent on my hand and knees like Cinderella in her most glorious posture, scrubbing like crazy. I did get most of it off but I will need to sand it down a little to get it to an acceptable level of cleanliness. That is what pollen does to decks, from when the NE blows over the hills and forests.
I also had some bad news the next day, the anti fouling is peeling off to the point that I need to scrape her back to the gel coat level and re epoxy her underside. So on a Saturday, me still thinking I am 20, bandana on my head, breathing mask, goggles, full blast Latin music and scraper in hand. After only 5 minutes I realized that this was going to be like having to redecorate hell on my own. So I did not give up, did my best and finished the day looking like a smurf with a limpy arm and finished maybe an 1/8th of the whole surface. Ok, this is where I need to accept that I will not be able to save money by doing it by myself, let the pro's take care of it.
The positive in all this is that some Maori workers asked me to get some copies of the tunes I was playing, I am becoming the Ambassador for Samba and Salsa music in New Zealand.
And ladies and gents, Babalu is no longer registered it the US of A. We as none citizens are not allowed to be registered in the Stars and Stripes Nation so I applied to be part of another country and they were happy to have us. So now we are part of the Cook Islands. We had to become member of the CIYS first, before being able to register as an individual. That stands for Cook Islands Yacht Squadron. And today I changed the letters on the transom. Cool no? My flag has been ordered and should be here shortly. I hope to be back in the water by next week. Will keep you posted.
Ciao

Comments [3] | | More

Ankeloo
04/04/2011, Fort Lauderdale - Auckland

I just woke up in my firemen truck bed on my spiderman pillow.... what happened between my bed in the gym on Drumbeat and spidermans' lair?
I flew from Martinique to Barbados uneventfully and then flew to Miami. What can I say about Miami airport, like being dumped on a Mexican Market, that if the chickens had real feathers running around, shouting, waving arms, ques that criss crossed and overtook themselves,... you know what I mean, I got my Ferrari red economy car and drove to see my friends the Trujillos in Fort Lauderdale. It was so great to see them again, it had been a couple of years and they have a little girl on the way. I had only two days and have tried to make the best of it. Had to pick up a certified copy of my divorce papers, which of course was an adventure on its own in that massive courthouse of West Palm Beach. Let me put it this way, my document ended up in the archives without having been scanned and added into the data base, a little bureaucratic oops,.. lucky the clerks were all very helpful and held my hand walking from office to office, up a floor, down a floor, to get me sorted out. And after a couple of hours I walked out of the main office saying goodbye to all, just short of a Mexican wave and some high fives, and with the papers in hand. Went to see Erika at her new job, a brand new Westport where she works as a chief stewardess, it was good to see her and have a jamba juice together.
In the evening Julie, Raffa and myself went to Hollywood (Florida) to have some fine dinner and check out a salsa club. The dinner was great, the salsa club reminded me why I left Florida in the first place. It was more like a strip joint on steroids and the passion was more created in the gym and enhanced by silicone filled packages, all rapped in what local Haitian prostitutes would call, quite distastful. Reegs don't worry we will find a better place next time around!!!
But in the end what was important is that I had to spend two days with my friends. Then after a pretty good flight I arrived in Auckland yesterday morning, took a shower in the airport and drove my Nissan rental car to the City of Sails.
Checked out new dingies, pricing on dive gear, etc.... remember it is the early worm that catches a golden bird, or something like that... So in the afternoon when my energy levels started to go into red I went north to see my friends Andre, Vicky and their two lovely children. By 7 I was snoring away in my firemen truck hugging my spiderman pillow,....
Next Stop Whangarei.

Comments [0] | | More

Hanqelou
03/21/2011, Les Trois Ilets, Martinique

After spending 7 days at sea at pretty much a 20 Degree angle at all times and going at about 11 Knots just propulsed by the trades, we arrived in Le Marin, Martinique. The best part of this trip was the fact that I finally decided on learning on how to make bread for when I get back on Babalu. Gordon, our chef makes excellent bread and under his supervision and receiving the valuable tips much needed to make some tasty sany material, I got started. My first bread tasted good but looked like french beret. The dough was just too wet. You know I am not using the bread machine, it has to be done by hand. I do not have a machine on Babalu. Now to also imitate the mediocre oven on my little sweetness was not possible, I had to use the Rolls. By the third try, it came out good as you can see on the picture, Thanks Gordon, the Legacy will live on!!!
Now I am sitting in a little hotel room in Les Trois Ilets writing this after spending the whole day driving around in my mini Peugeot. I drove north to go and visit Saint James Distillery. They have a lovely museum and they serve some samples of their gamma. Rum in all kinds of mixes, but always in the same square bottles, they have to by law created in the late 1800's. Because of the torrential rain I stayed a little longer and tasted some more, Rum au coco, 'ti punch, etc, I was doing research for my blog, this brew was considered sacred and a medicine for all kinds of bad luck, and I wanted to make sure to get the facts straight, shit they have some great stuff, the drive home was a little hairy but I made it, lucky nobody could hear my singing....
I have some dates too. I am leaving Drumbeat via most likely Barbados to Fort Lauderdale on the 31st of March. I am going to visit my good friends the Trujillo's, get my copy of the Final Judgement of my divorce, and get my mail in person before it gets lost again. Well my mail that was send to South Africa did finally turn up in Capetown after 3 months, I have it send to New Zealand, I hope I will receive it this year, that would be nice.
And then the final long stretch to Auckland on the 2nd of April, In the year of our Lord 2011, the circle will be completed, I am going to go to see my baby, Babalu'tje here I come...!!!!!

Comments [1] | | More

Hanqelou
03/08/2011, On my way out...

Well this Brazilian chapter is coming to an end, way to short but it definitely started a relatively large appetite for more. The last three weeks have been a blur since we left Rio. I wish I could tell you great stories of amazing adventures but working on some yachts prove to be quite boring. (Sounds spoiled, I know, hope you can forgive me). I have seen a lot of the Brazilian territorial waters and some coast lines but that is about it. The owner likes to go really fast and wants to see it all in a minimum of time. That being said, when I come back with Babalu next year, I will take at least 3 months for what this boat did in 2 weeks.
Well the trip with the boss ended on this little piece of paradise called Fernando the Noronha. An island with not more then 2200 inhabitants about 360 NM east of Fortaleza. We all got one day off, so I enjoyed that to the fullest, shaking it with some local samba band, snorkeling with my new friend Janaina, checking out the local turtle community, having some good local food. One of the great things about this island is that a good 80% of the coast line is protected and guarded. Racing around in my green buggy....1 day of this can make 21 of Alcatraz disappear into oblivion...
After a 36 hours trip of motoring, as there was no wind, we arrived in Fortaleza. A beach city, where actually most people that want to get away from the big carnival madness come to relax. That does not mean that we did not enjoy a big Samba concert on the beach that looked quite carnavaly to me but then again, not even close to the beauty and extravaganza of Rio, again guess where I will be next year? Tip, Not Jerusalem....
Thank you Brazil, for once you get passed the stereo types and silly cliche's, from which some countries sometime suffer, this is an amazing place, that is for the little I had the pleasure to experience, I am sure there is so much more. The kindness of the people will overwhelm you. And how much this massive country with its big pot-au-feu of colorful people are so impregnated with music, rhythm and dance. While I write this I am listening to one of the greats, check out "Chove Chuva" from Jorge Ben, it will make you melt... like Toots Thielemans once said in a master class I had the honor to be part off, the Brazilians are the masters of melody, I totally agree...
Well the end is coming near, I am off on Thursday morning, straight to Martinique, counting down to my release into freedom on, most likely, the 31st of March. The day I should arrive in Fort Lauderdale for a brief, 2 day stop on my way to Auckland....
Abraços e beijos brasileiros com carinho!!!
Ciao

Comments [0] | | More

H
02/11/2011, Marina Da Gloria, Rio De Janeiro

After spending 8 days from St. Helena using our steel sail as Anemos was having a lot of fun in another part of the South Atlantic we arrived in the legendary city of Rio De Janeiro. What can I say, we have been here now a little over a week and it keeps getting better. Although the language barrier is the only obstacle between these great people and petite moi, after a couple of capperinia's it is easier to pretend I speak fluently Portuguese by adding "chh" or "jao" to the end of the English words, a couple of "ta bom" mixed with some Spanish and even Flemish if needed be. But that is usually the sign to grab a cab and go back to the boat.
I even had a couple of days off!!! Can you believe that? Just took a taxi and drove to Santa Theresa, a neighborhood up the hill from another great place, Lapa, close to the Centre. What a wonderful area, very arty and in the evening a great atmosphere. I thought Belgians drank a lot of beer but here it is a different story. Every night is pretty much a good night to have fun (and now I understand why you do not see many people in the streets in the morning, they are all still in bed, partying till the early morning). What is amazing is that most people do not even go to a pub or bar, they just grab a couple of chairs, a few bottles of beer and sit outside, talking and drinking. And here and there suddenly the sound system comes out, the mic and some ukelele looking guitar, some other people get their drums and hup you have a mini carnaval-samba dance going on, where cars better make a detour as the whole street is dancing and singing.
One of the first nights, someone told us to go to Lapa, an area that is famous for its Arches. It was used in the olden days to carry the water for the city from the hills of Santa Theresa where is was collected from the Rain. Now there is a little tram that drives over it, and I can tell you it is freakin' high when you hang on the side, wobbling over the bridge over looking the plaza where almost every night samba is practiced. So the first night, we went just to sniff the atmosphere and have an authentic capperinia in one of the little stands. By about midnight it felt like celebrating new year all over again, there were so many people on the streets dancing and laughing and dancing Samba, every club has a local samba band.... man they love it!!!
So little by little I was giving up on finding a salsa joint, getting funny looks when I asked. "Salsa, ohh wrong place my friend, here it is SAMBA!!!" So one afternoon, walking down a little alley where a market was held, I walked behind some well tanned long legs, not that I was following her, but I just happen to be in the right place at the right time I guess, because as she steps aside, a man turns around and hands me a flier with in big letters announced a SALSA night on Thursday, can you believe that, it found me... So of course I had to go, which I did. What a great night, danced until the end, and even learned how to dance samba from a lovely lady called Sylvana. Thanks for that because straight after the music stopped, we went to a Samba club where a really good live band was playing, and hup, getting the feet rolling samba style made me meet Juliana and her friends, we could not talk, as that bloody barrier made me trip again but we danced until 3 in the morning.
It is so easy to meet people here, it does explain the fun you have with the Brazilians you meet cruising around the Pacific, easy going, friendly and never shy for a little party. One person that I do have to mention is a lady I met, watching some local afternoon footbal in a park, now we were not playing but just chilling out, her name is Brigitte, Belgian professional photographer that decided to come and live in Brazil, great lady.
And yes I did visit the more popular and touristy places like Ipanema, did not see that girl, but I guess she must be a lady now of a certain age, Copacabana, beaches, palm trees and dental floss bikinis, volleyball, etc... but I do prefer the above mentioned area's, very niiiiicccee, as they say here.
The boss is coming on today for three weeks, so it might get a little quite, but I am sure some more will come up soon.....
Ciao....

Comments [0] | | More

H
01/27/2011, Jamestown, St.Helena

Just arrived at St. Helena, a rock in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. On the side we arrived just raw high cliffs of hard rock, but once you pass the "capital" of Jamestown it all becomes very lusciously green. We only received a 5 hour leave from the boat. We sail tonight to Rio, shame, would have loved to spend more time here, definitely coming back here. Visited Napoleons' home or "prison" if you prefer, it is actually build on ground still owned by the French. It is pretty big and all the stuff inside are replicas as the French took it all back home as a souvenir. I guess St. Helena is the most famous for that but unfortunately it is also famous for having the first concentration camp in the sad history of concentration camps. 6000 Boer from South Africa were imprisoned here.
It took us 6 days to sail here, well two of great sailing, 30 to 40 Kts of True wind but the last four we had to motor, the wind died and went straight from the back reducing the apparent wind to pretty much 2 Kts. Now we still have 9 to go to Rio. I miss the Salsa like hell. I do practice a little with Nino on the flybridge but with the boat rolling like it does it is not easy. We have been looking for the local Salsa club but unfortunately nobody has thought about this before, so Reegs this might be a new challenge for you, starting a new Salsa club and school on St. Helena. There are 5000 inhabitants, so there are bound to be some that are ready to learn the art of the happy groove....
Next news, Brazil, cheers...

PS By the way, I have been asked to stay until the end of March on Drumbeat. I received an extension on when to leave New Zealand from Customs so I have accepted to sail to Antigua and leave from there. MEANING, I have to fly by Miami to go back to NZ, MEANING I might stop for a couple of days to visit some of my friends in Florida.... are the Trujillo's ready???

Comments [1] | | More

Hans
01/19/2011, Cape Town, South Africa

Capetown 2 January 2011

"Never mind 2010.... Here is @)!! or 2011!!!! A Happy New Year to all of you out there, trust me, it is going to be an amazing year!!! Learn a new skill, Eat something you think you always hated, Try things a different way, Taste new love (I am still available) whatever, make it count that is all I want to say, we are not getting any younger, but we are getting wiser and way more beautiful. Raise your glass and swing yourself in the New!!!! " , (this was taken from one of my facebook short stories).


19 January 2011,

What better place to start a new year then the Cape Of Good Hope. Many sailors have looked at this place with eyes filled with tears of hope and relief when entering the bay and seen this majestic mountain in the shape of a table set with all the goodies desperately needed. And now, a day before setting sail to another continent, I realize that when they left, their eyes were filled again but now with tears of sadness for having to leave this wonderful community with plenty of beautiful memories.
These last 5 weeks have been, hands down, the best I have had the pleasure to enjoy, in many many years. Cape Town was not just one big party but it has been a bit of turn around for me too. I studied the beautiful art of Salsa dancing to the max, about 4 to 5 times a week and practiced in the Engine Room when nobody was looking. So first of all a massive thank you to Regan Christmas and the Salsa Studio, what a teacher and friend. Salsa has not just made me love the music even more and the movement in particular, but the whole community and social sense are the parts that have been so revealing and uplifting, a constant smile.
So when one of my flip flops flew across the dance studio after performing a spin that ended up sideways, I realized that I should get some shoes and while I am at it, maybe some new clothes. So I asked some of my female friends to come along and went shopping all afternoon. It was hard but I did not resist. I gave each suggestion a chance and ended up with a new wardrobe that has uplifted my visual presence, if I may say...
So thank you Monica for that.
A wonderful encounter that has to be mentioned is my dance partner and good friend Tania, who has been one big ray of sun in my life and has given the dance experience that extra dimension. As driven as myself we have learned more then anyone can imagine, pure passion. Thanks also for letting me meet your wonderful family.
And then not to forget the people I have bumped into again. My Belgian and family friend Anemie, thanks for the car while you were in the motherland and bringing me back the "neusjes" and the chocolates.
Jono, it was great seeing you again after 6 years, brought back a lot of great memories from our sailing course in Durban.
My good cruising friends from Marionette and their whole army of crew and fellow travelers. Ituska and Tang that made that New Years Eve really special and very multicultural (11 different nationalities and we were only 20). And sorry for not mentioning all the other good people that have made this time memorable. I know that some of you will join me on Babalu for some sailing in this coming year and you will not regret it.
So to come to the last part of this blog message, thanks to you all and I wish you all the best for this New Year.
Next stop Rio De Janeiro!!!!

Comments [2] | | More

H
12/25/2010, Waterfront

To all my friends and family, a wonderful Christmas, may you enjoy it with lots of laughter and gifts, deliciousness and snuggy hugs. For some, may the ice melt fast to keep them warm and safe and for some a fresh load of cubes to cool their cocktails down. Although far from my bloodline and rooted friends, I am happy to be surrounded with my Drumbeat family and my cruising friends, who have given me pillars of support, African style patience, love in super-sized doses and lots and lots of gifts. (Love the book on bread making, can't wait to start beating the dough and burning the crust!!!) Thanks all of you, although I sometimes wish to flush 2010 away, as a quite painful and trying year, you all made it a very memorable one. Each in your own sweet way as they say. Salut, Cheers, Sante, Gezondheid, Up your bum, Lacheim, Ay Mate,....and many more!!!!
Well I have been in Capetown now for 3 weeks and are loving every single inch of it or millimeters if you want to be metrically correct. I am left here to babysit Drumbeat with Nino, John and Charlotte. It is great to be in one spot for a little while, especially Capetown, there is just not enough time to do everything!!! I have been able to do Bikram Yoga a couple of times a week, have strolls around the waterfront enjoying the many marimba bands, groovin' like crazy, although very tourist orientated, these youngsters know how to lay down a beat, let me tell you...
And the one new discovery in my life, love at first site is Salsa dancing, yep, me salsa dancing, who would have thought? Can't get enough of it. Met this great teacher, Reegs from the Salsa Studio, showing me the moves and "almost" forcing me to dance with the most beautiful Jaapie girls in town.
The hipswinging-syncopated-shoulder-twisting-short-short-long- moves together with my lessons in Spanish are all in preparation for my next years' adventure, Chile and Cape Horn.
I hope the white bearded man from the North (and I am not talking about Dougy) has fulfilled all the items on your wish list and you are surrounded by the people that are good to you...
Keep it fresh,.... coolness....

Comments [2] | | More

Hankelou
11/15/2010, Black River, Mauritius

We are leaving tomorrow for Capetown, South Africa. Having a little break here in Mauritius was a perfect way of saying goodbye to the Indian Ocean, short but good. We ended up avoiding the Maldives and Madagascar. Pirates and elections in an unstable country in turmoil are the main reasons, so there you go, next time maybe...
We first went to Port Louis, who is this vibrant, multicultural, very busy at business hours, dead after five, capital of this wonderful island. First thing I had to do was to get my divorce papers notarized,...AGAIN....American Bureaucracy in its full glory and extreme wisdom forces me to go through this painful experience again, at least these were my first thoughts until I experienced the Mauritian way which turned out to be quite pleasant... In the Republic of Mauritius you can not just get a stamp and have it notarized. To make a long story short, I ended up going in front of a Grand Jury Judge to swear that all the information given was correct and I was who I claimed to be. The documents, after receiving several smaller stamps, had to be sent off to the Prime Minister for the final, cherry on top, all glorifying golden stamp. All this was a bit pricy but you know I had a chance to see the Justice Department performing in a graceful and glorious manner that turned out to be much more efficient then most so called more developed countries and I ended up meeting some great bureaucrats, whom we all know are just a different breed. But the best thing was the help I got from the barristers secretary. She was a tiny little woman from Indian descendent (as almost 80% of the local population) pregnant and would not take "no" or even "maybe later" for an answer, her goal was to get me sorted out as she promised her boss and she did, great success.
Traveling by bus is definitely the way to get to know the locals better and literally race around the island. I think that most of the drivers got their training from watching F1 or playing playstation. But so far no accidents. You don't really need a map or timetables, just step up to an indigenous person and ask them for the way and with a big smile they will give you all the info necessary, accurate and with a funny accent, priceless.
Once again I met up with friends here. SV Marionette arrived a couple of days after us. It was great to see Markus, Johnny, Simon and Irene (sorry probably misspelled) again. Kathy, Markusses girlfriend was on her way from Sweden. We left each other in Cocos Keeling not thinking that we would meet again before SA, but as we always change our plans, here you go. We spent a full day together, driving, me on my scooter and them in there rental car, along the beautiful east coast. By then Kathy joined us with her best friend, the lovely Gayathri. We had a great time cruising the whining coastal roads, enjoying whatever was thrown at us. The next day we ended up having dinner on the 40' Marionette with all of us and some local friends. Great Party!!! The smallest club of the Indian Ocean, great dance floor.
Well here you go, another chapter ends and we are getting ready for the next and last chapter of 2010, Capetown.... if any of you out there are in that area for New Year please let me know, we are planning on ending in beauty and start 2011, that promises to be an amazing year, in megamongess-stylish-happy-funess.... See you there!!!!

PS Some people did not get the joke about not knowing what to do on my days off and thought I was serious,.... check the pics out....

Comments [3] | | More

H
10/23/2010, Peros Banhos, Chagos, Indian Ocean

We finally got the word to leave this wonderfully peaceful place and are off to Mauritius. We were suppose to leave a couple of days ago for the Maldives but as we were lifting the anchor just after sunset we got the call from our manager telling us that the boss wants us to stay put until he makes up his mind about going or not. The issue here is piracy and the safety of boat and crew. They just arrested about 17 people last week accused of piracy. Madagascar is not really that safe either or stable for that matter.
These islands, part of Chagos are free of humans, no one lives here except for the island of Diego Garcia that is an American base. We were anchored in the massive lagoon of Peros Banhos about 12Nm diameter. This was my program for almost a week, see if you like it.... Get up at 6.00 for an hour of yoga, breakfast and start work. Eat lunch and get ready for some light entertainment, a book, a movie, a little guitar session. And then off for a snorkel on the reef, a couple of hours flying around in the sailing dingies or explore one of the motus (little islands part of the lagoon) People use to live here, there is plenty of ruins and other proof of human presence left but they all moved out at one point making this one of the largest marine national parks in the universe (until the existence of other life has been proven and they happen to have a bigger marine national park then us). Unfortunately we were not allowed to dive just snorkel but you can't have it all... The great thing about spending some quality time under water is that the fish, including the sharks are not intimidated, not even startled by our presence, they have not seen any of our species in their life time I think, so they are very curious and observing us.
I have to admit that there are some cruisers around but not here, it is too deep and too big for them. They usually go to Salomon Island, a smaller atoll to the east.
I did have a premier that just blew my mind. After a nice afternoon of snorkeling and trying my underwater camera out for the first time we all climbed back on our tender and started heading back for the mother ship. Suddenly we saw some commotion just at the entrance of the pass with a couple of fins sticking out and swimming back and forward. At first we thought they were sharks hunting. Gulppp at first, we just snorkeled not far from there but the closer we got the more we realized the incredible opportunity. For me to finally, after all these years diving and spending lots and lots of time around and on the water, a big family of dolphins of about 25 in a playful mood. We did not drop anchor but just about all jumped in as fast as we could. They were shy and probably a bit intimidated but they stayed around for a little while and we saw them well under water and around us. I did not ride on their back or held hands and swam into the sunset but nonetheless a very exiting moment I must say.
Hope all of you are well. In about 3 hours I will be released into "civilization" again, we arrived in Mauritius, I hope some of you had the courage to leave me a little note on the blog. Talk to you later...

Comments [0] | | More

H
10/11/2010, Cocos Keeling

This is for me one of the absolute highlights about sailing, nature and then mainly the wind determining your path and the places you end up at. In this case we left Bali for Chagos. About 2200 Nm of open ocean. Only Christmas Island and Cocos Keeling to the South. Well the further we got the less northerly ground we gained, the wind was pushing us more and more South on our Westerly travels. A couple of hundreds of miles out of Bali it became apparent that no matter what, our bow was pointing at this Australian settlement in the middle of Nowhere, Cocos Keeling. This island use to be independent belonging to a family of Malay. It has quite a big airport for this relatively small atoll in the vast Indian Ocean. It is for that reason that the Australians caught sight of it and decided that it would be in their best interest to buy the island and have a permanent base instead of having an aircraft carrier bopping around on standby. So they offered the Malay a package including citizen ship, lots of government money, etc... which of course they accepted. On our arrival we saw only one other boat there, a green/white 40' catamaran with an American flag. "Pora Vida" with my friends Dallas and Lauren were just lounging there in the bay. Last time I saw them, they were in Cairns, Oz a couple of months ago. Also "Marionette" sailed in the next day, with Markus, my Belgian friend with a new crew. Dallas and Lauren were planning on leaving for Madagascar the next day but decided to stay one more day so we could finish a little project that they had in mind. I do not want to spoil the surprise but they wanted to make a song for a common friends' birthday coming up. Whom I am not going to mention just in case he is reading this. D&L chose a 90's pop song on which we wrote new lyrics. I played the guitar, Markus banged away on the conga and Johnny, a Cech Republican crewmember of Marionette hammered the djembe while D&L rapped their asses off. What a bunch of Muppets!
After putting the coarse lines together of this amazing song we had a quick shot of good ol' rum to add a little more spirit to it and started recording on Dallas's pretty much never used HD video camera. We had a good laugh. After a bit of lunch and a trip to the beach we continued our recordings sitting and playing on top of some concrete pillars in the shallows of this beautiful white sandy beach. Half a bottle of rum and a couple of megabites later we were satisfied with the result. Now we have to wait until Dallas finishes the editing. We are supposed to see each other in South Africa for X-mas and New Year. I can't wait, a great bunch to start 2011 with, as it promises to be an amazing year, I can feel it in my bones or there is a low front coming that is possible too.
We spent the last evening together, laughing at our video, eating the fish caught in the morning, drinking the left over rum and chatting away, making me realize how much I miss the cruising life. I got a lift from Dallas back to Drumbeat. I actually came over by kayak that morning and was not really up to paddling back so we laid the kayak across the dingy, John and Johnny in front, Markus and Dallas at the back and me laying on top of the kayak, what a sight, we made it in one piece just about hitting one of the none lit markers, great times!
The next morning Pora Vida set sail for a new Westerly adventure, we went diving the Cabbage Gardens and Marionette went Speer gunning the reef, life went back to normal.....

Comments [1] | | More

H
10/03/2010, Bali

Hereby I am taking leave of Indonesia and Bali in particular. Because of work the whole IndoTrip has been experienced like someone pressed the x2 FWD button on a remote control but I still have good memories and met some great people. It was great to see my friends Martin and Siet of Anema again. We walked into one of the craziest food courts ever. Indonesian Food a volonte. One little shop next to the other all around the court. All the wall space was taken up by deliciously looking pictures of the dishes available. That does not sound crazy right, well that is because you do not have the amazing yammy smells and now for the crazy part, the sounds. As soon as a potential client sticks his or her head around the corner, all employees run out of their shops leaving only the strict necessary workers in the kitchen, waving a menu and screaming as loud as they can just to get you to come to their little heaven on earth to fill your empty belly with all the goodies they have to offer. Flashing teeth, Sweet Misters, Cute little smile, promises of gastronomical orgasms, whatever it takes...
We did have a great meal and said goodbye, this time for a while I think, Anema is off to Thailand. Fair Winds!!!
The day before our departure I took off for some good HAT (Hans Alone Time). Which ended up again as a string of amazing experiences. It all started with me spending the night in Ubud. This is like the Tree Hugging Place of Bali. No offence... Loved it... Made (#2), the driver we used for boat business said he knew this perfect place and drove me there after he found out I am into yoga. It was a health spa-resort. I was the only man, the rest were middle aged Australian women, so I fitted in perfectly. The whole place was just outside the town centre going through some narrow streets surrounded on both sides with beautiful temples laced by luscious jungle. The walk to my room meant following the pass, tall walls on both sides where the jungle has been taking back what is rightfully hers little by little. This whole full moon, waterfall in the background, noisy army of bugs all around, made me self aware and a little paranoid. I could not help looking behind me all the time; I expected a big stony ball rolling down the path trying the push the breath out of me at any minute. This setting was almost directly copied out of an Indiana Jones movie.
The next morning I got up early, opened all the windows and did my daily yoga before heading for the food patio. After I ordered my breakfast, I followed the "garcon" into the garden a couple of meters away with his cutters. He cut the veggies and fruit right there and then. Man it does not come any fresher. This was exactly the energy I needed for a day full of adventure...
After having a second breakfast (yep when I saw those almond croissants I just needed to have one, dipping in my coffee... Do I need to say more?) I decided to walk back to Seminyak. For those who have been in Bali know what I mean, for those who have not yet had the pleasure to visit, it is like walking from Brussels to Bruges. Every time I asked directions people laughed at me thinking that my six-pack was not only short of a couple but just contained pure firewater. On my way I stopped for a visit to Monkey Forrest (crazy monkees, a day filled with good food, hanging around and plenty of unprotected sex, a perfect Bali holiday most would think), ended up in a local dog kennel, where most of those poor little booboos were rescued from a life full of kicks and hunger, a small donation ensured me some quality crotch sniffing and hand licking, took lots of pics of people doing their daily routines, somehow to me that is interesting and worth all the pixels. After a good 4 hour walk I ended up talking to a guy in a garden chair, sitting in the shade of a little convenience store on a cross road. He ended up convincing me to go with his friend on his motorbike for a small fee. In this heat that sounded like a pretty good idea. His name was number four, quickly translated. You see in Bali all Hindou children's' first names start with a number from one to four, the fifth child is called number one again. So I would be Wayan Hans, #1 Hans. Made is number 2, Nyoman #3 and Ketut #4. So #4 and I drove from Mas to Batubulan (famous for the stone carvings) and stopped for lunch in a local place for some great local grub. He ended up dropping me off in Sanur where I ended up having a great massage. You see a massage is the big thing around here but there are a lot of non professionals and you can feel the difference afterwards believe me. So I ended up in this massage place where only wealthy Indonesians go to, not the tourists. Man that was well worth it. Especially after walking that far with all my stuff on my back. Only one thing left to do. Seminyak, why there? because that is where the Belgian café & restaurant is located named "Manneke Pis". The owners name is Yannick and used to be the owner of the "Fare" in Bruges, my home town. Great food (Ofcourse I had the Flemish Stew with Fries). Let me just put it this way, after a couple of good beers, I ended up playing guitar with the local band on stage and most people in the place on the dance floor, a great party and a great way of ending this amazing day. Thanks Yannick & Monica for the great time!!! Ciao Indonesia, Indian Ocean here we come!!!

Comments [0] | | More

H
09/17/2010, Ternater, Indonesia

Being back on board after my European Tour, work had piled up and there was no easing back into it, full throttle was the only way...
We left the next day of my return crossing the equator to the North East coast of Sulawesi. An even more remote area where the last white people seen were Dutch with knee pants, long white socks and some funny triangle looking hat. After a good two weeks of the only thing I saw from Indonesia was the 6 walls of the engine room, cabin fever started to overwhelm my thought process putting in question the why's and what for's and the what the hell am I breaking my back over's??? But then there is always a moment where you get a "Clin D'oeil" a winky from whatever is out there...
This time it was in the shape of an emergency grocery shopping trip, location, the city of Ternate, Ternate Island. This place is actually one big volcano (you guessed it right, called Ternate 1707m high) and has a city at the foot of the dormant one. The main reason for the size of this concrete jungle is that this was the heart of Nutmeg Empire in the days of the East Indian Company. Ruled back then by the Lords of the Lowlands, an herb metropolis build by the Dutchies. All this is still part of a Sultana. (You have to excuse me but I do not know the word in English, I do not mean the crunchy cookie filled with sweet raisons but the area ruled by a Sultan). Ok that gives you maybe a visual setting, for those that have a little more problems with filling in the colors, check the pictures.
That morning I went on watch at about 6. The Sun was already well warmed up and chafing the horizon. As far as the eye could reach along the Ring of Fire, one volcano after another connected like magical dots by some luscious flat greenery. As a good watch keeper I looked around the whole rose and the thing that caught my eye was the spout of a whale (the watery air blown out of this large mammals snorkel) right in line with a massive column of ash and sulfer smoke puffed out of this earths' pimple. Niiiice.
All this to get to my story of grocery shopping. It is not easy to get a big variety of fresh produce so the chef, while the guests were ashore, asked someone to go into this vibrant city and find him a whole list of fresh colorful ingredients. You do not have to ask me twice. Although grocery shopping is not my finest talent, bullshitting with the locals, sign language and having a good time in general is something I am proud off. So off I went, loaded with money, a good sized list, lots of carry bags and my good friend Lumix.
I was dropped off by our tender on a wooden pier and the first contact was already very friendly, white teeth all around. No taxies here, the only way around was on the back of a scooter. One girl that spoke a couple of words of English, one of them being supermarket, helped translating, having my scooter man drive in the right direction, towards the mall. Very ironically the massive new mall is located just next to the even more massive mosque. One side for the Soul and the other the make that Soul look pretty sweet.
Going inside is like entering the Disneyland of shopping with a massive arcade on the top floor. I went to the food court just to sit down for a minute and check my email.
After buying a drink and looking around to find a spot to not attract too much attention, which is very hard in a place where every time I cross eyes with someone I get this big smile and friendly greeting, they are all happy to see me... Suddenly my eyes crossed an older lady having her meal, waving at me and inviting me to sit at her table, how can I refuse? So I met Yeanne, she was lovely, spoke a little English and wanted to share her meal with me. Apparently the tradition here is when you meet someone new you exchange addresses, so Dad if you have a nice elderly lady knocking on your door and she tells you that she traveled from far, please let her in and give her a nice cup of tea, I know her, she is very nice, thanks.
So the supermarket at ground floor did not have that much veggies, so I bought mainly milk cartons, eggs, a little cake as a surprise for the chefs birthday (yep it was your idea Monsky, I admit it publicly) and couple of other things but no tomatoes, lettuce etc... so walking out I had a choice... carry my heavy load back to the boat without the good stuff ending a normal day or have one more try at the local market a bit further down the road and go for the adventure. Don't forget all this on the back of a moped. Of course I chose the latter, life's too short!!!
After I met Ibrahim, my new moped driver and tried to explain that I wanted t-o-m-a-t-o-e-s, I get a blank stare and an innocent smile. He shook his head and started driving. I had both of my hands full of bags so I could only squeeze my legs to hold on through this total chaos of traffic, the mopeds drive on both sides of the road here. Before I knew it we were making our way through the back streets where I had to pull my eggs and cake filled bags sometimes above my head to avoid smashing them on little bicycle driven stands on the sides of the road. Zigzagging between cars, avoiding their mirrors like a well trained toreador with my bag of eggs as my red towel, OLEEEE. I could not stop laughing this was crazy.
He stopped at a little supermarket, pointing for me to go inside and do my thing. So I did and started using my well known catch phrase, t-o-m-a-t-o-e-s??? I even pointed at a pepper I bought before to make myself understood that I was looking for veggies. People gathered around me, they laughed at my facial expressions and arm waving, some trying to help, some just stood there and smiled, until one guy came up and said he understood and spoke a little English. After a little back and forwards with some basic English, he understood I was looking for veggies and even tomatoes and explained to Ibrahim to take me to the market. So I had to ask, what is Indonesian for tomatoes,......tomaat (as in Dutch!!!!!) @#$$%*&& !!
The market looked quite cute, all the fruit and vegetables were proudly displayed by their owners sitting behind their little piles under an umbrella or a big plastic tarp, an explosion of colors on a carpet of dirt.
The first stand I stopped at had limes. So we started moving our hands to agree on a price. Once the price was set for one cup I told him I wanted 2 Kg. He could not believe his luck, laughing out loud and saying some funny things in Indonesian. He roared when I told him I wanted 3 Kg of tomatoes, "is this guy for real?" He must have said. The excitement made the group of onlookers grow larger and they all had a good time, I could tell. This was not at my expense I think, I was always treated with the utmost respect and courtesy, this was more everybody enjoying this new experience, breaking the mundane, you can not believe when I tell you that I was the only westerner in a very large area, this is not a tourist destination, so it was all kept quite real.
Now I went around the market, buying fresh stuff here and there with always a unique experience as a result and they all knew that the price for selling me something was their picture taken. Great I had at least half of my list accomplished. This is it, now I had to get it all on the motorbike and get it back to the boat...On our way out; overloaded with stuff the guards made me throw a drive by high five, lucky I did not get thrown off the bike or brake any eggs.
Waiting for the tender to pick me up, the pier was filled with people waiting for one thing or another. Once I took my camera out they would come up to me to introduce them selves and to have their picture taken. While in the back ground I could here the local imam inspire the followers of Mohamed giving this whole day an even more oriental magic touch.
Back on the boat I thanked the chef for giving me the chance to experience a part of Indonesia the way I did. My batteries are fully charged again. Back to work.

Comments [1] | | More

Lost son
09/01/2010, Bruges, Belgium

Usually leaving Belgium is just the next step of my journey, moving on. But why, this time, do I feel like I leave something more then a couple of old roots and some long lived memories behind? This is the beautiful side of improvising and facebook. A spontaneous thought of making me wanting to look up my first girl friend Valerie has put in motion the gears of dormant friendships. Facebook with its social tentacles has reached beyond Bruges walls of time and touched people I once knew but were stored in a dusty cellar of my brain for all these years.
Maybe all the reasons why I left in the first place have faded, no need to run anymore, looking around me I can see beauty in all directions. I am definitely convinced now that I want to sail Babalu to Bruges. Almost bringing my home, home. Last night was the cherry on top. A couple of days ago I put an advert on facebook inviting all people that knew me and wanted to come and have a drink in the Estaminet, a lovely cafe in the heart of Bruges. I got some great responses, even from some guys that reminded me that I sold some of their records before my great disappearing act 15 years ago. Lucky beer is an easy bribe for these guys... There was just one friend that I could not reach, he is not the facebook kind of guy, all I knew is that he teaches at the school we use to go to. Being the last day of the school holidays he must be there, I got whispered in my ear that morning. So I called the school office. At first the administration lady was quite adamant that phone numbers of teachers could not be handed out, but after explaining my situation that I had not seen my friend for almost 20 years and I was leaving the next day, she took my number and promised me she was going to find him and make him call me back. The phone rang ½ hour later and the rest is history. We had a great evening, lots of laughter with old stories, how big and bold some of us got, who had a crush on who (Chris leave my sister alone!) and much more, when all left I drank one more beer enjoying the left over vibes and walked home a happy man.
So the goals I have set out flying to Europe have been fulfilled and so much more....
Being there for my mothers wedding and enjoying her well deserved happiness; eating the foods I craved for all these years (from Flemish Beef stew to chocolate mouse turds); received a clean bill of health from my lovely doctor (well except the fact that she told me I should eat less fries!!!!! Can you imagine that, me, less fries? What a sacrifice, I'll start once I leave here, what can I say it is on my wish list a couple of times); seeing the love in my grandma's eyes; looking up at my little brother, seeing that he is doing well; kiss and made up with my baby sister; buy some speedo's to annoy the crap out of all the non Europeans, found a whole bunch of very old pictures of my childhood that I scanned and that you can laugh at on the blog, received an 8mm film of our time in "Zaire" when I was 9, amazing!!!, and so many many more....
As a good friend of mine says, Jeeee Wizzzz, this was a vacation to remember.
So I would like to say thank you to all you out there for giving me one of the most amazing 2 weeks. I know that this was not just a little flair up, this will last. I was just at the right place at the right time....
Love you all.

Comments [2] | | More

the Son of Elena
08/22/2010, France

After performing my morning yoga ritual in a cramped little kitchen where arms sometimes have to go under cupboards and fridges to reach full stretch, we all got ready in our fancy dress, the "Big Day" is upon us. After driving about 1 ½ hour to the Mairie of Rognonas, a little typical French village about 5 K's from Avignon, we finally met the three children of Jean Marc, husband to be, and their life partners.
On one of the photo's taken inside the building you will recognize the lady from our previous story that obviously made if from village idiot to assistant maire riding on the special bus. In all fairness she turned out to be quite funny in the ceremony, one thing she said was that witnessing these beautiful people here in front of her tying their little knot, was an experience she was not likely to forget soon, sshhhhure neither would we.
We left the building within ten minutes and were off to the old city of Avignon for our meal. Hotel Saint Louis tucked away in the heart of this old fortress. This was an old hospital turned into a pretty fancy travelers creche, well restored in its old glory with a slight whiff of arty modernness inside. A swimming pool on the roof, which we did not have access to, but tried to get in anyway and failed sadly. Tables were set for 18 but we turned up with 14, a small but very lively group. After a four course meal, good wine and lots of silliness and laughter we left around 5 pm in good spirits and not ready to call it quits just yet. Unfortunately one of Jean Marc 's sons, Loic and his lovely Spanish girl friend Loli, had to leave us to drive back to Alicante, which is about a 10 hour drive. But the rest of us came up with this brilliant plan . Based on the fact that it was still boiling hot at this time of the day, a dip in the sea would be very welcome. So we all went to get our beach stuff, wine, beer, candles, toys,... drive again another 1 ½ hour back to La Grande Motte. I warned Jean Marc that the water will be quite cold and that shrinkage might jeopardize his amazing performance on his wedding night. That obviously shook him up because he needed quite some convincing that the water was not that cold before he would strip and make the big jump, we swore we would not laugh....suckerrrrrrr!!!!
We ended up getting a whole bunch of pizza's, dancing on the beats, engulfed in the flashy green laser beams of a nightclub located a bit further on the beach.
While the kids fell asleep in the car, we all said goodnight slightly tired and still buzzing from this wonderful day. Jean Marc has great children and I am so exited to call them family. Sounds very promising for the future holidays!!!!
Witnessing your mother finally finding a good man, seeing that she is truly happy, there are no words to describe this feeling. As you all know I can use some lift and build some new trust in the loving department and my mom 's story has done more then that, there is still hope.....

Comments [1] | | More

Hans
08/20/2010, Lunel, France

Well tomorrow is the big day but today started with not just a hair but a whole wig in the butter. This morning a lady from city hall called to say that the paperwork was not to the satisfactory of the French Establishment. My mom in a flaming panic like only Spanish women can, swinging her arms with eyes ready to pop out of their sockets, calling left and right, me trying to make sense of her dictating incoherent sentences so to type up faxes to the embassy, swearing my ass off on this bloody French keyboard, totally backwards, hubby-to-be trying to calm his beloved down and my sister and nephew rolling in bed, laughing their asses off and getting on every bodies nerves. You see my mom was born in Marocco, being Spanish until she married my dad taking the Belgian nationality, now living in France. Apparently as Marocco use to belong to France all people born in this North African Oasis could apply for French citizenship, which my grandfather did but nobody knew for how many kids he actually applied for, as my mom has 5 more siblings, two from a different wife and one that the new step mom carried on her arm walking into this new household!!! It is a huge cacophony of national anthems and a carpet with so many patches it would make the head spin of a flamboyant gay Rajastani. And all this in August on a Friday afternoon, can you imagine the heat!!!! The lady at the Belgian Embassy started swearing and insulting the Maire's Assistant for her incompetence, especially waiting until the day before to contact us. Because of the French lady at the Maire's offices' obsession with my moms name being Elena (Spanish) and not spelled Helene (Proper French way of spelling) and many inquiries and silly questioning on the fact that she has two last names, which for Spanish people is completely normal, she forgot to do her job and request the proper paperwork from the B-Embassy. Can you imagine the party tomorrow when there is no marriage? Well of course we would still have the party!!! And the food and the gifts etc...What do you think I flew 11000 Km from Bali to just have it up the behind from some French bureaucrat and not enjoy a party afterwards!!!
So after lots of running back and forward, phone calls, faxes, nail biting, nervous smiles, swearing in multicultural ways we received a phone call from "Messieur Le Mair" himself to say that all was well and that we had the blessing of the French People... Ooooophhh. I can't wait to see what happens tomorrow....

Comments [0] | | More

H
08/14/2010, Bali

After 40 days and 40 nights of hard work and little or no play we finally arrived in Bali, bombing capital of Indonesia. We sailed all the way up from Darwin and almost stopped at every single island. Bali is the first "civilized" place on our route. Loud and noisy, cheap, dirty and full of tourists. What a shame. Indonesia is an amazing place though, very serious dramatic looking volcano's looking down on the greens and blues like old grandpa's in their rocking chairs. Observing all of us little people from their verandas, making sure we all play well together. Now and then a roar or a puff of bad smelling pipe smoke, reminds us of our place in all this.
That being said, it has been quite full on with a couple of highlights. Komodo dragons staring me in the face, well they were half asleep but still one bite and their you go. There is an anti dote but you need to be pretty quick with the white coats or you become some dragons next meal. It has just been discovered that it is not a bacteria in their saliva that kills you but a proper slow acting poison in a gland. After a short but painful bite it can follow its pray for many days until it drops dead. Ding Ding Ding, dinner is served...
Also one of the nights we were anchored out in one of the bays. The guest had a couple of glasses of alcoholic beverages, dancing and chit chatting in the cockpit. The captain and I were trying to deal with a leak in one of the fresh water pipes underneath the floor of one of the guest cabins. Suddenly we heard the owners wife call out at the top of her voice, "Snake Snake!!!!" The captains' and my head both shot out of the whole in the floor and looked at eachother, "Snake, Snake????" They had a few too many but that sounded serious. So we ran up. The women gathered on the opposite side of the room in a slight panic. The men all over the place and of course there always has to be one that needs to show that he is not afraid of, in this case, one of the most dangerous sea snakes alive. The white and black striped reptile was in a frenzy. He was shit scared, trying to get away in the air conditioning duct as a drunk guest was trying to poke it, facing it on his hands and knees. After telling the guest to calm down and step away from the snake we went straight down the engine room to get some thick rubber gloves and a long crowbar to handle this in a proper matter. The snake was not very long, a bit more then 1 meter so it was easy to lift him with the crowbar and throw him in the water, all that under the loud screams of a guest: "kill it kill it". What an idiot. Well the sea creature came in by one of the scuppers that leads from the water line to underneath one of the benches on deck for proper drainage. Another memorable moment was waking up in the morning for an early departure and seeing dolphins hunting and fishing in the patched of our underwater lights, we could almost touch them.
Now I did mention it in one of my previous blogs that in a couple of hours I am flying out from Bali to Montpellier France for my moms' wedding. And then of to Belgium. Two weeks of pure pleasure....Take care y'all, hope to hear from some of you in the near future....

Comments [0] | | More

H
07/25/2010, Darwin Australia

Isn't 40 the age life starts at? I feel like a new born I guess, almost bold, drooling when I see breasts, in need of a nap after lunch,...
There was no cake but I was surrounded by my friends and colleagues, a couple of nice presents, just a day out of Darwin. To make a long story short. We set sail from Vanuatu with the intention of sailing to Darwin, about 2300 Nm. After a beautiful day of sailing, with everything up and making 14.5 Kts, we got confronted with one of the worst problems. The clew came loose with the main sail completely up. This is a hydraulically driven boom furled main sail. 375 m2 of solid sail flapping like crazy. Very dangerous, can clear your head off your shoulders with one swooosh. There was still a piece of samson rope attached at the back and with every flap, hurt your ears. A giant whip demanding attention.
We had to sail close to the wind to try to control the flapping. Heading of course for the only piece of rock in the whole area and night was about to fall. The more we tried the worse it got, battons were flying around after ripping half the pockets open. (these were carbon fibre poles inside the sail, to maintain a better shape, the longest one 14m). Like I said to make a long story short, we ended up dropping the sail and were very lucky not to damage the paint or anybody doing so.
Now all this can happen but in our case it is the context that makes it worse. We were suppose to be in Darwin 10 days earlier to prepare in a more relaxing way the next boss trip. Like I said in my previous blog, we had a charter thrown upon us at the last minute. So now we have only two days to get ready (for whom that works on boats and particular on yachts, that is cutting it really really short). So when your mainsail gets damaged that way, it becomes mission impossible 4.
We changed our course to Cairns. Dropped the sail off. Had it trucked to the nearest loft (8 hours away) Two crew members witnessed the repair and drove the sail from Cairns to Darwin through the outback, 2600Km off roughness and lots of kangaroos. The battons were ordered from New Zealand that same day, flown to Sidney and trucked up to Darwin. We only stayed 24 hours in Cairns, doing as much work as we could (including replacing injector pumps and turbo on genies, taking on 26,000Lts of fuel, small repairs here and there). We sailed to Darwin as fast as we could on the inside passage of the Great Barrier reef, all eyes on deck, almost had a fire, doing 8 hours of watch a day and work for at least 5 sometimes 8 more in between. On my birthday I ended up working 18 hours straight. So you can imagine I am megamongusly looking forward to my trip to see my mom in France and my dad in Bruges mid August.
For the time being all is well. We managed last night to hoist up the repaired sail and the boat looks acceptable. The owner walked on this morning and all has calmed down now. We made it. This has been a very crazy almost 2 months.
Thanks to all the people who have send me their wishes, I appreciate the love. All I need to do now is get myself a bowflex and get in the best shape of my life....

Comments [0] | | More

h
07/07/2010, Uliveo Island, Vanuatu

I am sure most of you have never heard of Uliveo Island, just off Malekula Isl. Well I did not either until this afternoon. Our beloved Captain went ashore in the morning with our guests for a local dance and some cultural experience. The funny thing was that the guests are very religious (so it is not hard to figure out which country they are from), so at the breakfast table they asked the stewardesses to make sure the Captain knows and makes sure that the daughters would not be asked to dance, or that there would be no nudity at the dance, .... Yep really!!! I did not go along to see that dance but I would have given an arm and a leg to have seen their faces when the local men came out with just a wooden horn on their ding dong and a small leave covering their buttocks. Jumping up and down, balls all over the place, hilarious, the question is: What would Jesus do? They even took a picture at the end with the whole dance group and the guests in the middle. They could not turn their heads without loosing an eye, if you know what I mean!
Ok all that to get to my story. The chief had asked the Captain if the engineer, yours truly, could come and have a look at the satellite TV on his island. Sounds pretty simple but here it goes. We had about a good hour left before diving a wreck, on which I had to participate as a divemaster. Kent and I took our crew dingy and first picked up the chief and some of his family on another island before heading to Uliveo Isl. This island is about 2.5 Nm away from where we are anchored. When we got ashore the chief, whose name was Tom, told me it was only a two minute walk (first mistake for believing him). So Kent was going to stay with the dingy until my return. Kent, by the way, had the only VHF radio with him (second mistake). So I followed Tom through the village, and little by little I started to realize how important the job I was about to perform was to the locals of Uliveo Isl. Everybody came outside or yelled from their huts, "Is this the white man who is going to fix the TV?" They were desperate to watch the world cup. Germany-Spain tonight. So we walked for about 10 minutes before we turned and went through some jungle for another 10. Tom still telling me that it was at the next tree or turn....(third mistake for still believing him). Coming out of the bush on the other side of the island we arrived at the local school which was the only place with stone buildings, about 10 good sized class rooms and about 150 students. On our walk Tom also asked me if I was married, as you all know, I was until recent, so I just said that I was single. He looked at me and told me if I wanted a wife? Which I thanked him for but I told him that I was going to take a rain check on that one...We stopped at the entrance of the school waiting for the headmaster. As you can imagine all the students looked at me, smiling, some waving but it all happened in a relatively calm matter, until I took out my camera. I felt like I was on a Trash Metal concert where everybody was stage diving in front of the camera to get into the picture. This was great. Tom said: "The kids love the white man" They shuuuure did.
The headmaster took me to the sat dish that was sitting on a 55 Gal. oil drum. I checked the wire and it came loose in my hand, I thought great, quick job, done, walking back, happy captain, diving, everybody yiipppiiee. Nope, that is not the way it went. So I asked for the TV. One guy came out with a TV under his arm and pointed to the other side of the compound telling me that that was where the electricity was. So we started walking over the field, one carrying the dish, one the TV, one the oil drum and one the stones to hold the dish in place and behind all that half the village with about a hundred students. They got me a table outside the class room to install the TV on and the Sat receiver that could only be touched by the head master, this was gold to them. He told me outside was better; there were too many mozzies inside. Well I can tell you I have never tried to fix a tv dancing around to avoid to get completely eaten by miniature vampires before, imagine the limbs I would have lost inside. The drum was installed with the sat dish on top of it, held by a guy moving around trying to find the invisible signal. The peer pressure was on, I had a whole audience, observing and studying every move I made (and I made some really groovy ones), astonished by the wonderful tools I took out of my magic bag. It was great, I reprogrammed the receiver, fixed the wire but still no image. We did not know the coordinates of the satellite. So I had to leave them in suspension until I got back to the boat and give them the azimuth and elevation for the Sat. When I got back to the beach I landed on, no Kent, no dingy, I was stranded, they left me behind. I was gone for almost an hour instead of the 15 minutes that I was suppose to be gone for and I had no way to communicate. I sat down with Tom on a tree trunk, next to his friend and grand son, watching the local boat builder, chopping away on his new creation, chatting about me getting married with a local girl, and other trivial things. I told him that it would be hard to explain to the Captain how I went out to fix your TV so you could all watch the world cup and I came back married to your daughter, carrying a canoe and a couple of pigs as a dowry onto his super yacht. I did not go diving but I had a great afternoon. Vanuatu is definitely a place full of surprises....

Comments [0] | | More

H
07/04/2010, Efate Island, Vanuatu

Sailing North, up the chain of beautiful islands with our guests has given me a couple of good subjects. First of all, to all our American friends a happy 4th of July. We spend it in front of an island shooting off our own fireworks. One of the deckhands bought some fireworks in town on his way to the doctor. We actually had a nice variety of rockets and fireworks considered illegal in most "civilized" countries, so that promised to be a lot of fun. The Engineering department took it upon itself to put on a great show. Me, as the chief and Nino as the second engineer were determent to entertain all the guests, the crew, the other two boats in the bay and the local village. We had a couple of hours to get this all organized. First of all we had to check who owned the beach and who else to get permission from. Arriving on the corally beach we encountered a whole bunch of youngsters sitting around a fire, roasting and eating chicken. I introduced myself and popped the question. They all looked at eachother, started a 5 minute conversation in pigeon while I just stood there and smiled. Then the owner of the land looked at me and said, ok but you need to ask the chief of the village, who was on the other side of the bay, still in church for another hour. After steaming to the other side, meeting one person after another gradually getting closer to the chiefs family, I received his phone number. We headed back to the boat to prepare just incase the chief would give his blessing. I gave him a call an hour later, had a little chat, he was ok with it but wanted to know the exact time of firing so he and the villagers could get ready for the show. I could just imagine them all sitting in lawn chairs with cocktails, checkered blankets covering their legs, staring at the sky going "ooohh" and "aaaahhh" while roasting shmores on a wood fire, or maybe not. Now Nino and I had put the right firing order together on a list. We cut some pvc pipes to the right length, took our fire fighting gear out, it looked promising and crazy. In the eyes of most of the people on the boat more crazy then promising but then again, what could go wrong? As all good fire works coming from China they all carried an original and slightly intimidating name. There was the Pyromania package consisting of Meteoro, Snake, Rocket Cracker and the Black Fire Balls. We also had two Colorful Dragons, something called Double Action being a mortar firing high power grenades and for the finale some Bengal Fire looking like a bazooka, that was going to be our grand finale, "Ze Bouquet".
Before heading for the beach we went around to the other boats, warning them. One of them was an English family with kids, so they were exited.
We started with setting off some Chinese lanterns, like hot air balloons they were suppose to hang above the bay colored in Blue, White and Red. After the first one we realized that it was much more dangerous then we expected. The bloody lantern went up and backwards towards the bush. After a couple of swearwords and some height, the wind took them under her wing and blew it towards the bay, "Let's just leave it to two lanterns, shall we" was our common thought. This was followed by a chaotic firing of everything we could, as fast as we could. We were engulfed in smoke, deafened by the mortar grenades exploding way, way too close, some of the smaller rockets went for a short flight straight in the water but most of it went up in a graceful ballistic dance and made apparently a great show. We did not see anything to be honest, like headless chickens with a torch in our hands, swearing, screaming and laughing very hard running back and forward, keeping those tubes filled with explosives, avoiding getting 3rd degree burns or our pants blown off was our contribution to the whole. I don't know what made people laugh more, the fire works or our fire-work-chicken-dance show... but it all ended in cheering and applause which is the best reward for any artist, right?
The next day we anchored in front of Ambrym Island which is actually an active volcano. Beautiful how in the darkness of the night, cadzillion stars in the sky and the horizon engulfed in a red glare with spewing fire balls now and then. The real deal....a true artist at work....

Comments [1] | | More

H
07/01/2010, Port Vila, Vanuatu

Port Vila, 2/7/10

Still writing from Port Vila, Vanuatu. We are staying a little longer. We are suppose to head for Darwin (2500Nm) to have some work done and getting ready for our next leg around Indonesia. But two days before departure we received a request for a 10 day charter in less then a week. So today we have some guests coming for ten days. We will drop them back off in Port Vila after the Tour de Vanuatu and as soon as they turn their heads on the way to the Taxi we will push the throttle down off to Oz. Then we have only two days to pick up the next trip, so for the next month and a half work work work, and you know what they say, "all work and no play makes Hansy a dull boy ...".
I also finally managed to watch a world cup game. We got up at 12.30 at night to watch England-Germany on the top floor of the nicest hotel in town. The lounge was pretty much divided in two, the German side and the English (lucky nobody had the crazy thought of digging trenches this time). I was sitting at the German side. Yep for those who know me, I am not a big fan of the English Team (big understatement) and as my Austrian friend Martin from Anima III was in town with his German crew we enjoyed cheering for the Germans for a change. I did make a massive booboo though. I was quite excited at the start of the game, so when my German friends started singing along with their anthem, I was convinced I knew the words I stood up and started singing along with all the air I had in my lungs. I was so happy to be part of a nationalistic group song. Only after my first line, everybody else stopped singing, staring at me with their jaw dropped and their eyes saying "Oh no, he did-'nt!!!" (But then with a strong German accent)
I remembered the words to the German anthem from watching some movies and of course they must have been war movies as I sang the lyrics to the anthem pre 1945.
Lucky for me Germany trashed England so they forgave me....
And finally we did a good dive yesterday. Vanuatu and the Solomon islands are one of the greatest dive spots when it comes to wreck diving. Last month we dove in the Solomon's on an old Japanese Auxiliary vessel that was sank by American airplanes and that sank to about 40m. You could still see tanks in the holds, bottles of sake and ammunition everywhere,... Yesterday we went to dive on the Konanda, an island trader that was sank for people to dive on. Good visibility, lots of fishies and it was great to go through the bridge window down below. I did not go to the engine room, there was nothing to fix anyway....
Off we go...

Comments [2] | | More

H
06/19/2010, Port Vila, Vanuatu

Sometimes a problem becomes an opportunity. I have a bit of a problem with an injection pump on one of the generators on Drumbeat. So we had to order a new pump. Now to get this part in from the States is not that easy so the Captain has decided to sit and wait here in Port Vila until the part shows up. Sounds like a problem, not really, he gave us a bit more time off so some of the crew decided to go horse riding in the hills and the beach.
As soon as we got there we met Owen, our guide, a local that spoke better French then English, very nice man. As soon as I saw her, I fell for her luscious eye brows and long white hair. Her name was Paella and I wanted to ride her so badly. I think she chose me too at the way she licked her nostrils and shook her head, like saying, "come here cowboy, mama is going to take you for a little ride..." It is possible that I misread the signs but there you go, we all believe what we want to believe....
Off we went the five of us following or knowledgeable and constantly texting-guide Owen. We went pretty much all the way up the mountain following a little path, went through fields of fruit trees and enjoyed a stroll along the beautiful beach. Now when we went through the fields filled with mandarin, lemon, oranges, papaya, mango and a lot of other wonderful fruit trees we noticed a very high amount of mega spiders hanging innocently in a web the size of a football (soccer) goal net. One of the ladies with us was freaking at the size of them. At a certain moment Owen decided to have a little cigarette while we continue strolling a long the track. He then falls back to the rear of the group so not to annoy the non-smokers. I was the next inline so he told everybody that they should follow me, I was the new guide. I know you are all thinking, what a mistake!!!. Not even 2 minutes in my new role I hear Nino, that is just a little behind me, shouting: "Watch out!!!", the next thing I know, I have a face full of very sticky spiderweb and I am looking into the 8 eyes of a megamongues multi legger. I can not remember which eye I stared at first but I do know the surprise of my new friend. I started waving my arms wildly and took my helmet off in a rather rapid motion, I felt the spider in my hand as I was trying to flick it off. Laughter is what I got from my fellow horse riders. Inside of me I was pretty proud that I did not scream like a girl and ran as fast as I could. Paella did not even notice it, I did not loose face.
Until next adventure, ciao....Lucky Luke

Comments [1] | | More

H
06/14/2010, Port Vila, Vanuatu

First of all many thanks for the thoughts and words of support, it is in the tough moments of life that you know who your friends are. And we both have many good friends.

Well I have finally got 2 days off after quite an intense 4 weeks full on busting butt. I met up with Tyronne from Gillaroo and his new crew and wondered about ending up in a lovely little place called Tamanu. Rented a bungalow for the night, made out of wood and old coral located not further then a good throw of my flipflop from the breaking waves on the beach. Lovely place, very peace full.
It was great to meet my Irish friend and we had a lovely dinner. It was Kathryns' first try at compiling Pizza and she did pretty well actually. The funny part was getting back on Drumbeat after wards. The crew had brought the side ladder up to deck height. So I ended up climbing on Tyronnes' shoulders in a wobbly dingy laughing our asses off trying to get back on.... all ended well and nobody got wet....
Now that I got some time off and finally have a bit of an internet connection, as you can see, I was able to update the site and have some pics uploaded. But one of the main things is that I have time to figure out what flag I am going to fly on Babalu. You see as a non-American citizen I can not own an American flagged vessel, so right now high on the list is Vanuatu and the Cook Islands. If any of you have any ideas please feel free to leave a little comment, I am definitely open to suggestions. The trick is not having to start a corporation in that particular country of registry.
Well Drumbeat will be chilling out for a couple of days and then we will make our way back up the way we came down with the guests so we can enjoy the beautiful islands at a more relaxing pace.
Just a quick thank you to James our first mate for his contribution to some amazing pictures, including the shots of the dolphins in mid air and on top of this page which is Queen Charlotte Sound... enjoy.

Comments [1] | | More

H
06/07/2010, Uraparapara, Vanuatu

Although I spent most of my time inside the engine room, I came outside today after three days. We approached an island in the shape of packman. Ureparapara island is in the Northern part of Vanuatu and is a dormant volcano with about an 8Km diameter. The mouth of packman is the only way into the crater lake. I went ashore with the guests. The local chief David invited them for a dance, he warned us that the dance was not completely ready, they are still practicing for the festival on Friday. This island is amazingly beautiful. There are about three villages with close to 300 people on the whole island.
When we arrived and dropped anchor within minutes we were surrounded by about 10 pirogues full of curious people. We were the third boat they saw in 6 months. They have no electricity, no TV, no running water. They collect the rain water from the volcano edge. They get a visit every 3 months from a cargo boat with some items that they can not get. Otherwise they live from what the volcano's luscious forest and very fertile ground and of course the ocean provides. They look content and the children have huge smiles on their faces playing all day in the water, jumping off trees.
The dance was very interesting, only men, with self made head gear representing the main ocean dwellers they admire or simply eat. All to honor the gods. I could not tell which part of the dance they did not master yet. I got to talk with a man standing next to us, his name was Winson. He was the local schoolteacher. He taught 21 kids between the ages of 4 and 8. His little school consisted of a big hut, nice and tidy and a playground. The playground looked like any playground back home, a two story construction with a slide at one end and a couple of swings of the side, all in a well set of sandy area. All of it was made out of local branches and banana leaves, it looked impressive. At the end on my way out, Captain Michel, who was walking in front of me with Chief David, turned around, pointed at me and I could see the chiefs eyes lid up and approaching me really quick. As soon as he was within my hearing distance he asked : "Is it true, you have strings???", at first I did not understand what he meant and then came the universal movement of scratching your belly with one arm and tickling the air with your other outstretched arm, ... playing the instruments of the gods, the guitar. "Do you, Do you???" He told me that the island had a band that was pretty good, there was a big inner island festival coming up and he had too many strings missing on the only guitar in the band. I told him to wait there and went back to the boat to pick him up a complete set of my D'Addario's, I had two sets, so I gave him one and made him promise to kick some inner island ass. He gave me a copy of their CD that they recorded on board of one of the passing cruisers last year. It sounds great, what a great place to live. If I do decide to head West next year, this place is on the list, for sure. A little jam with the boys would be more then welcome...

Comments [0] | | More