Hans
07/11/2009, 14 27.889'S:146 02.080'W, Manihi, Tuamotu

Well we made it to the Tuamotu Group. It was not that easy, first of all we had a hard time leaving on Wednesday. Our magnetic compass was screwing up. It is located in a locker with all kinds of food. The lady of the house was instructed not to have any metal containers inside. She followed those directives diligently except for one little detail. Foil packaging was not considered a metal container well the laws of Magnetism did not agree and put the compass of about 20 degrees. So it took us a while to locate the problem and recalibrate the system. Secondly the weather kind of let us down. Where is Armand Pien (Belgian Legendary Meteorologist) when you need him. We had a great start, good winds, clear skies, doing about 7.5 to 8 Kts (in the world of 36' sailing vessels that is warp speed), but at night the squalls start hitting us and they have every night pretty much, so very little sleep. Then we tried to make it here for midday on Saterday, regarding the strong currents through the passes into the lagoons (sometimes up to 9 Kts!!!!) and it was a struggle, we went a little too slow to make it for midday and before sunset and a little too fast to wait a whole night so to make it the next day. Well a long story short, we made it half an hour before sunset. The hairy trip through the pass went OK, coral fields left and right, coral heads everywhere and we have no chart of the lagoon which is actually pretty big. That is not irresponsible from our part, I can hear a few of you mumbling, they just do not exist. Maneuvering through the coral patches going from about 30m to pretty much 1 m we slalomed through them with my very cute look out positioned on top of the pull pit, laughing at the houses on poles everywhere which are pearl farms. And now we are anchored in front of this beautiful white beach with palm trees and big coral reef in front of it (lots of snorkeling coming up!!!) and the water as clear as cristal and as turquoise as can be. For all the Flemish people out there, Happy National Holiday!!! "Ze zullen hem niet temmen, de fiere Vlaamse leeuw ....etc etc..." Speak to you all soon,...

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Hans
07/08/2009, Nuku Hiva, Marqueses

Hallo,

Well today we have very mixed emotions. We are happy to move on to the Tuamotu Islands, 485 Nm SE from the Marquesas. And sad because we leave our friends and the beauty of the Marquesas.
We would like to thank the family of Brysse, Pere, Eduard and Roty, they have pretty much adopted us and overwhelmed us with their kindness, friendship, tonnes of fruit and gifts. They have made this experience in the Marquesas for us unforgettable. As you can see in the picture even the cats and pigs get along like brothers and sisters.
We feel great, are back to good health, the boat is filled with fruit and vegetables, fuel, water, and a little bit of goodies, that is all we need. The sail and halyard is fixed so we should fly at low altitude and make good way. We are expecting to be in Manihi by Saturday.
To all the Americans I want to wish a belated Happy 4th of July (Great memories from past 4th of July's in Seattle) and now we are getting ready to party for the 14th of July, massive celebrations for Bastille Day here in French Polynesia.
Hope all of you are well and like Tintin says "Move on to New Adventures"
A Pai (goodbye)

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Hans
06/30/2009, 08 52.770'S:140 02.910'W, Nuku Hiva

HI, We are still in Nuku Hiva, you can tell we like it here. Well that we like it here is a fact but we are also still in this neck of the woods because of the weather. It blows quiet hard, like a constant 20 to 25 kts and then gusts up to 40 Kts sometimes. And when at anchor in a bay in about 5 m of water, and knowing that the only thing that is holding you back from smashing into the rocks is a 44 Lbs CQR anchor and 5/16" High Tensile chain (about 45m) sleeping is a risky business. Except for that little inconvenience, otherwise life has been good. We have met a very nice Dutch couple with their 3 children, Jan, Wietske, Esther, Anne-Linda and Koen. We met them in Hiva Oa and have been bumping into them ever since. For the last couple of days we have been sitting here together in the same bay. We have been exchanging DVD's and Jan and I share the passion of the six string. Going into the little village of Taipivai, we found the only little snack place (see the pics in a couple of days) owned by Mahina and his girl friend Maeva. Wonderful people, they fed us and he showed me how good he is on his ukelele. We made an appointment to go the next day evening for a good meal with our Dutch friends and I would bring my guitar for some jam session. We had a blast and a great meal, we had breadfruit fries, they tasted really good. The next day (Sunday) we took Jan and the family with us on our boat and sailed around the bay to Hooumi Bay for a barbeque-picnic with my friend Brysse (the tattoo artist) and his family on the beach. There were more sailors present, people we have met on different places, Phillip and Lesley on Carina and Jocelyn and Anne from Sundance. After a good meal Jan and I took our tools out and played a couple of tunes at sunset. After about an 1 hour boat ride we went back to the Bay of the Controleur and went to bed. Well Monday was uneventful, we stayed on the boat all day waiting for the weather to get better, but it did not. As you can see life is good, we hope all our families and friends are in good health and receive all the Sun, Hope and Happiness we are sending to you all....

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Hans
06/26/2009, Taiohae Bay Nuku Hiva

Kao-ha to y'all,
Erika and I are happy to announce our victory over our Dengue debacle. The fever, the rash and headaches are part of the past. We are now recovering and gaining strength again here in Taiohae Bay in Nuku Hiva. We sailed the 25Nm back from Ua Pou last week. It was great to see our friends again.
We had a great party on last Saturday. With lots of local dances and music.
We are still in Nuku Hiva as the weather has been pretty bad. Lots of rain (I heard that Seattle has been dry for quiet a while, great!!!) The winds have been up and about in this well protected bay with gusts up to 35 Kts. So far our anchor has been holding out quiet well.
We had some trouble with our jib halyard. When we got here we noticed when we furled the genoa sail that the sail had sagged a couple of inches. When I looked through the binoculars I noticed the core of the line was the only thing holding the sail up. The retainer on the mast high up had eaten away the whole cover. So now we have to learn how to splice and I can tell you this halyard being a STA-SET X line is a real pain in the hooha. We have spliced 3 strand before but this is a totally different ball game. But as always we will manage, great to learn new skills.
We wanted to say hi to all the China Harbourians among our friends, we watched the famous movie "the Taj Michaelle" again and laughed so hard... Great memories...
We are moving today to another bay here on Nuku Hiva, we are going to a little bay called Hooumi bay. It is still kind of rough out there but it is only 7 Nm, should be allright.

PS we have added quiet a few pics in the Nuku Hiva file and created a new Ua Pou album. Check it out...

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Hans
06/15/2009, 09 21.460'S:140 06.320'W, Ua Pou, Marquesas

Well a few days have passed since our last entry. We have moved this morning from Hakahau to Hakahetau which is about a 7 Nm sail. It is a lot shorter actually but there are parts around the island that have not been mapped so why take the risk to save maybe 10 minutes. The reason we moved is because of "Aranui 3" the 118m provisioning ship that is suppose to show up tomorrow morning at 5.30 and we were in the way for it to dock. So we had to move anyway. Last week ended in us going to the-end-of-the-year party of the local college. They build a traditional oven, had local dances, food etc... a big chunk of the local population was there, it was fun to see the boys and girls performing their traditional dances in their selfmade very colourfull clothing. Now I am sure some of you ask yourselves why would they stay over a week in Hakahau? Good question... Erika and I have been suffering since Friday from the Tropical dissease: Dengue Fever. A viral infection propagated by the only animal I like to kill (with a vengeance from now on) the Mosquito. Since we have been in the Marqueses we have been bitten on many occasions feeding the local population of many good proteins and this is how they repay us. We have tried to protect ourselves with Deet sprays and local lemon based oils but all in vain. The little suckers kept coming and I can tell you we are not the only victims. Before we left Nuku Hiva, two people we met, one local and one British guy were suffering of the same symptoms: Muscle pain, fever, headache, being very very tired,... So for the last few days we have been laying around with our new best friends Ibuprofen, Panasonic laptop and the Lord of the Rings Triolegy. Yep we watched 9 hours of Frodo wining like a little girl, elves, hobbits, wizzards, orc bashing, etc... Time well spent I would say, it is not like we are a dingy ride away from paradise. Tomorrow or the day after we are planning on going back to Nuku Hiva. We read in one of our cruising guides that we could restock on fresh veggies in this place... but when I went ashore this morning to get my baguette, I asked around and I happen to bump into the sister-in-law of the only farmer around here and she told me he had to work the land to plant some new crops, so no veggies. So we are going to fill up with water here and as soon as we are feeling better we are going to cross over to Taiohae bay (Nuku Hiva) to restock on food before we depart for the next leg: Tuamotu Archipel. This Archipel consists of about 78 islands, all but two being coral atolls. So no more lush vegetation and vulcanic mountains, here the highest point of the island is the tallest leaf of the coconut tree. White sandy beaches with waving palmtrees, encircling the large lagoons, filled with all kinds of colourful coral heads, this will be great to snorkel our way to Tahiti. Just for your information this is where the French use to love performing their Nuclear Tests. I guess observing so much destruction from a sandy beach with an aperitive in one hand while sucking on a Gauloise cigarette is quiet an experience, you probably had to be there to understand..... Peace and Love

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Hans
06/10/2009, Ua Pou Marqueses

Well do I have to say more, check out the pic. This mountain is 1200m high. It took us about 5 hours to get here yesterday. We kind off ran out of wind midway but that was alright, we did not have a hot date....
Last night when we went ashore, we were exited. They had a shower!!! Now it is not like we have clouds of flies following us but a shower is not a very common thing. The reason we are not taking showers on the boat is because we have to save power and water. We are always anchored out. So the only way to fill our boat with fresh water (if and when it is potable) is with jerrycans ( 2 x 20L) in our wobbly and tiny dingy. Our tanks hold about 200L!!
So we went off looking for the shower. Which we found as a steel pipe hooked up to a hose mounted to a wall with no nozzle on the beach. Except for being completely in the open it was clean. Now it is the open part that kind of made this into a memorable moment and a good story. I showered first and by the time I finished and Erika was getting ready the whole local football team ran by and started practicing on the beach exactly in front of the shower. They could not believe their eyes. They kept tripping over their own jaws. Erika did not care too much, now for those who are a little slower then others, we were wearing our bathing suits. When they finished their "warming up" exercises they ran off with huge smiles on their faces waving and laughing, it was great. After we went off to have a little dinner we saw about 20 youngsters (teens) practicing their Haka (traditional warrior dance) just like the ol' blacks but then Marquesion style. And on our way back we saw the ladies practicing their traditional dancing in the local hall. Very elegant. There is a big party on Friday for the end of the school year and the visit of the General Commissioner who is coming to visit this wonderful place... to be continued...

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Hans
06/09/2009, Baie de Taiohae

Well this morning after breakfast we are leaving Nuku Hiva. We are going back South to Hua Pou. We mist it before so we could make Kai's drop off. We are full of fuel, almost no more water (water is not drinkable here because of the pigs and goats in the mountain, they are polluting all the local water with their dongdong).
We are kind of sad to leave though, in a very short time we have met a lot of good people. Especially alot of locals. We have met the local Tattoo artist Brysse (Tattoo's are very highly regarded here and yes I gave in to the temptation) and we hit it off right away. He is 27, has a little boy and lives with his parents right now, until he finishes his own house. The mother is called Pere and the father Edouard. They have bombarded us with all kinds of fruit, bread, a Marquesian flag, goodies, etc.... Erika and Pere hit it off right away too, she speaks a little English, but they both speak the language of the kitchen, making banana fritters, fri fri (donuts), French bread in coconut milk and sugar and fry it, yammiii. She also made us customized necklasses out of coconut shells which she hand carved on the spot with Marquesian symbols and our names.
On Sunday we were invited to a picnic on the beach to their families' valley at Hooumi Bay on the East side of the Island.
We thought it would be just like 10 people, but more and more trucks arrived and I can tell you they have a big family. It was great we had all kinds of meat, fresh lobster,... Just a wonderful day at the beach.... Life is great...
Hope all of are doing good, big hug,...

PS. KAI are you alive???? We are still waiting for just a little message, kind of worried here, it is like you disappeared of the map...

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Hans
06/04/2009, Nuku Hiva, Marqueses

We are in Nuku Hiva. This is the main island in the Marqueses. And there goes Kai. He has left this morning for Papeete in Tahiti to catch his flight to Hawaii where he will join his own little floating Misses. We wish him the best. And thanks again to make our crossing a lot easier.
This is another lovely place, with a lot more boats in the bay. We just filled up on fuel, we have water, lots of fruit and the only thing between us leaving and staying is a 44Lbs CQR anchor and about 40m of chain.
We are probably going to sail around the island a little and then go to Hua Pou.
By the way I have been updating the pictures from the trip so far, so please feel free to check out the photo gallery....

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Hans
05/31/2009, 09 42.830'S:139 00.900'W, Hiva Oa, Marquesas

We have spend a couple of days in Atuona, clearing in finally happened and we were able to get Erika also 3 months. We had to pay extra as Americans only get 1 month, but after purchasing a 3000 FCP stamp (about $30) the Gendarmerie allowed us 2 extra months. Now for me, as a EU citizen, I got 3 months to start with. We went to see the Gaugin Museum and the Jacques Brel Memorial. What a man Jacques Brel was, he did so much good for the locals. When I have a chance I will post all the pics that we have taken so far, ....

So we have left Atuona 3 days ago and from the start 12 - 15' seas and head winds, up to 25-30 Kts. It was tough to sail to the Northern part of the Island. The SE trades were slapping us around and the swell did not really help but we made it in one piece.

I think we have found one piece of the Paradise Puzzle. Hanaiapa Bay, on the North side of Hiva Oa. It is a small village of about 140 People living on one road sided by colorful flowers, palm and fruit trees. As much fruit as you can imagine, giant pomplemouse (family of grapefruit), bananas, lime, papaya, red bananas, breadfruit, mango, chili pepers, pineapple, lemon, etc... ok I admit the peppers are not a fruit, but they were growing on the side of the road. The locals keep there gardens soo clean, some of them are actually waiting under the trees for the leaves to drop so they can pick them up. We were invited here by a man called William back in the Atuona Post Office, he told us we had to come and see his bay. He promised us free fruit and that he owned a Yacht Club. Well we visited with William, a very very nice and generous man, he gave us a whole bunch of pomplemouse, baguette, red bananas, a piece of a goat, regular bananas, lime, lemon, chilli pepers, tiara tahiti flowers, ginger and all that from the bottom of his heart (his fridge and garden would be more realistic...but you know what i mean) The yacht club was only a sign at the front of his house hand written and a little crooked,:" William Hanaiapa Yacht Club" and we signed his logbook where previous visiting yachts wrote little comments in since 2003, it was great to be part of that. If any of you ever get around here please do visit with William, it will be a true experience of Polynesian hospitality. We went snorkelling yesterday in the bay, nice coral, all kinds of exotic fish, very nice. In the morning when Kai and I were on deck we saw a whole pod of spinner dolphings come into the bay just to hang around, swiming around just babacool chillin', I am sure there were at least 50 of them. The night before we saw a manta ray (about 4 m in diameter) circle our boat swooping up plancton. This morning (Sunday Morning) we went to church, yep you guys heard well, church. There were two options, Catholic and Protestant. William invited us to the Protestant one. Now neither Erika or I are Christians and the mass was in Marquesian so it didn't really mather either way. What we really came for was the singing. And singing we got. There were about 20 people and 5 children and when they started singing we got the chills. The harmony between the women and men was beautiful. No iffy notes all spot on and sang with conviction. If there is a god, He would have been pleased. Erika and I felled like we were back in school, no idea what the guy in front was talking about and it took for ever, but when the angels started singing, time stood still and we were floating in a veil of bliss.

We still have not decided yet if we are going to Hua Pou or to Nuku Hiva. We have to drop of Kai in Nuku Hiva by the 3rd of June, he is flying back to Hawaii. So you will find out shortely where we are next.

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05/26/2009, Atuana, Hiva Oa

Here we are, anchored in the bay. By the way this is the first time we anchored with Babalu and all went well. A CQR anchor on the bow and Fortress 23 at the stern, she lays wonderfully in the swell.
There is quiet a few boats (about 10) around us, there are no facilities on land. No showers, no docks, there is a gas station, so roll up our sleeves and start dragging some jerry cans, and a single tap, so lucky we saved all our drinking bottles to be filled and also dragged by our little dingy to the boat.
We are at about a 2 mile walk away from the town of Atuana, we are actually anchored in the next bay. So to go to town you have to hitch hike, great encounters. It has also been great to speak the local lingo, French. It must be a lot harder for cruisers when they do not speak French, so many more doors open up, I already walk through town waving at all the people I have encountered the day before, like I have been here for a while.
It is beautiful here as you can imagine. I have tried to clear us in yesterday, I went to town after the anchoring and preparing the dingy, it must have been around 11.20.The Gendarmerie told me that we could only clear in between 7.00 and 11.00, I had to come back tomorrow. So Erika and I rented a little bungalow for the night, just so we could take a shower (the first one in 25 days, yep lucky there are no nostrils to your computer)and to have a good night sleep. Kai came out to have a shower, some dinner with us and then returned to the boat to Babalu sit.
Now we are tomorrow and here I am at the Gendarmerie at 7.00, all this communication works through a speaker phone, "Nope not today", the only time they can clear us in is on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays... come back tomorrow. (For some reason he did not mention that yesterday, does he not know we are from the Babalu Nation???) Who says the French Bureaucracy is a pain in the butt????
Today Erika and I are going to visit Jacques Brell's grave and pay our respect to one of the greatest Belgian revolutionary singer/song writers. I listened to him one night on watch, just me, the boat, the wind and a sky with so many stars that the moon got scared and did not show up until the next day, well maybe it was new moon, who knows... Sooo powerfull, when that "rrrrr" starts rolling, and he gives the Bourgeoisy one of his elegant, well pronounced, poetrically juiced punches. I do not know if told you this before, but he retired to this little paradise and helped the locals a lot by flying his little bi-motor airplane between the islands.
Ok people, it might take a couple of days before we post another blog, we should stay here on the island until probably Friday and then make our way up North to Nuku Hiva who is the administrative center of the Marqueses.
Ciao

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hans
05/26/2009, Hiva Oa approach

LAAAAAANNNNDDD AAHHHOOOOOYYYYYY!!!!!!
We saw a first glimps of land at 5.30 in the morning, just about at Sunrise. How cool is that, The sun unveiled our destination ray by ray. And you know what was even cooler? Kai and I are on deck and we are looking ahead of us letting the beauty of land sink in and suddenly a dolphin makes an amazing jump in front of the boat, followed by 3 of his family, like they were greeting us to the island, they stayed with us for about an hour, making sure we head in the right direction I guess. I filmed and the footage is great. They swam in front of the bow, falling back to touch the boat once in a while like to get rid of an itch.
So here we are!!!!
Thanks again for all you well wishing, that means a lot to us, ....

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Hans
05/23/2009, 07 15.353'S:136 35.337'W, Pacific

A fine day it is... We are 196 Nm away from our first destination. We had to slow down the boat considerably so to arrive at Hiva Oa on Monday morning. The French do charge a big overtime fee if not cleared in within business hours and Sunday is not a business day not even here. We have been doing an average of 7 kts for the last couple of days. So we reefed the main and furled the headsail to get down to about 5 kts. So near and yet so far. Rolling our way closer to our croissants. We have logged 2792 Nm so far and we would have arrived in 24 days if not slowed down which is quiet good considering the estimated time for this trip is 27 days at best. That is what happens when you sail a sportscar. We are all in good health, slightly longer hair on different parts of our bodies and are afraid to set foot ashore as our mind will have trouble walking straight. We do not have a good idea of the facilities we are about to encounter as the latest cruising guide is from 2005. That will pretty much determine how long our stay will be before moving on to Nuku Hiva who is the center of the Southern Marquesas. We need Diesel, Fresh Water, Fresh Food and a good night sleep. Hope all is well in your neck of the woods or part of the globe. Will be talking soon, hopefully with a "Land Ahoy" Picture. Todeloo

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Hans
05/21/2009, 03 15.965'S:133 13.332'W, Pacific

Day 21,

We can almost smell it now, and we can not wait to have a cold beer, baguette with Bri and a croissant. We have made good progress in the last couple of days. The wind is kind of iffy at this moment but we are still doing about 6 kts. This boat is the bomb. She sails great. She eats the waves like there is no tomorrow. Inside she creaks like an old square rigger, as the bulkheads and floorboards move back and forward because of the twisting of the boat in the seas. If you have not spend a lot of time on boats offshore you would think the boat is falling appart, but not our dear Babalu, she just moves elegantly and the twisting is just part of here groovy moves. For those who believe in aliens this will be more of a "aha told you so" moment and for those who are more sceptical or non believers I am sure there are some explenation for the sometime bizzare things we see at night. I am more of the latter so I am trying to give it more of a scientific twist. One night we saw at the horizon a light glow, usually that means another vessel is coming, then a bright spotlight went from right to left across the sky and hup the whole thing dissappeared, not to be seen again. I thought it might have been a sub surfacing or a naval ship as we had no return on the radar what so ever. Then a couple of nights ago as I gave my watch over to Kai a big glow in the water maybe 20m in front of the boat, just a couple of seconds of bright white light in a 5m diameter rounded spot, no phosphoresents as we are used to see and are more greenish color, I was stunned and did not move the boat, there was no time and I could not really move, another sub? Then last night Kai saw a spotlight on top of a cloud, like a lighthouse, that obviously did not come from a star in the background, just for a brief moment and then gone,... Are you guys scared yet??? Well we have no drugs on the boat, so that illiminates that explanation, we do not sleep as much as other people but still enough to be sane, we eat well, we are not sick,... Just food for thoughts Ok gang speak to you in two days...

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Hans
05/19/2009, 00 00.000'N:132 00.000'W, Pacific

We did it!!!! Well we crossed the equator, not that we arrived yet, and I could not wait to send you the pick. It might not be very clear but the gauge in the background shows the Latitude. We had chocolate Cake that Erika baked with chocelate covered rasberry sticks that said 0(Deg.Sign)00'. We washed the very tasty cake down with some chilled coffee. We are quiet exited as this is quiet a milestone, only 700 Nm to go!!! and off we go. Later Mob

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Hans
05/19/2009, 00 47.358'N:131 43.805'W, Pacific

Greetings from (Almost) the Equator, Well as you can see we are about 47 Nm away from the Equator. It has taken us quiet a while to get here, the reason for that is that the wind direction has not been helping us. We have more Southerly winds then the expected South Easterly. So we have been going more West then we anticipated. The only negative on that is that we will have to beat longer then expected and that is not very comfi. We have been beating now for about 3 days and Erika has been amazing in being able to cook for us in that position (between 20 to 30 degrees angle) She has made us muffins and made falafel from scratch, etc... What a woman... Our spirits are high and are in a healthy state, we did run out of fresh produce, for 18 days at sea that is not bad I would say, and who can say no to a good well ballanced canned meal??? Our watermaker is puffing along. We run the engine for about 2 to 3 hours every two days, and that is when we make water, charge the kids iPod and charge anything that needs juice. We still have about 25 Gallons of Diesel left, that should be enough to get to the islands with still some left in case of emergency. (If Steve Dohm is reading this, your bloody tank is leaking again!!! only at the top when we are pressed up, I will come to Seattle and kick you in the nuts, and then we can have a nice evening together and have a laugh, say hi to Wendy). Otherwise all is well, we will be talking again in two days, ciao...

Pa, Ik heb eindelijk mijn WestVloams Zeemans lied geschreven, vanaf dat ik een goeie internet verbinding heb stuur ik je een video en de tekst, je kan dan allemaal meezingen...) Groetjes

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Hans
05/17/2009, 04 07.870'N:129 50.887'W, Pacific

As you can see we are approching the equator very slowly, we have had to go all the way west to catch some winds and with fear of going to much west and crossing the equator way passed 130W we chose to motor last night South South South.... hoping for some Easterly wind. The Doldrums are mean little buggers that love to move around, and because of us not making alot of Southerly progress and they are moving West we got caught up yesterday with no wind and when there is a little wind it is on the nose. But we are hoping today to get the final push all the way to the Marquesas, cross fingers, and keep that blood flowing please.... Also for those that have not received their Invitation to our Equatorial Cross Party please do not despair we should be very close to the Mail bouy. The Equadorian Goverment has assured us of its location and we should be there shortely. Otherwise, live goes on here on our, a bit less of 300 square feet of pure luxuary, vessel. We have seen very little Marine life, what we see most is clouds, all shapes and forms so while on watch we make up stories and the funny thing is that most of the time the clouds are playing along, changing their shapes to our creative telling. For the rest we eat and sleep, not very interesting but we do it in an amazing setting, nothing but water, at least 3000m deep and as far the eye can see. Completely at the mercy of Nature, let's hope she is mercyfull, .... Ciao, huggs and kisses.

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Hans
05/15/2009, 06 46.772'N:127 58.717'W, Pacific

We have finally entered the Doldrums 2 days ago. Very impressive cloud scape, very very (and I can not emphasise this enough) very hot and about 95% humidity. The winds did not die down much but we had a lot of new friends, Squalls. They are visual on radar, screws your wind up (and your sails)(50 Deg wind shift in about 15 seconds) and they love to share their contents, mainly water. It is nice during the day, refreshing, cooling your body down from the ever burning sun, you can take a shower on deck, anticipate the wind change a little, but at night, see the pic, it is pitch black, you are disorientated, wet to the bone and alone on watch. (where is that violin?) We have this morning a complete opposit picture, flat, SE winds and a notherly swell, so i am not sure if this is just a little tease of the SE trades or if the doldrums are playing kiekeboe!!! and send us another busload of squalls today. We are looking like a Chinese Jonk today too, all the wet gear, towls, shirts, pants, it is all flapping in the wind hung up to our life lines, quiet a sight, those sea hippies!!!! Well so far so good, we have sailed 1750 Nm so far and we still have about 421 Nm to go to the equator and 1206 Nm to our destination, Hiva Oa at the Marquesas Islands. Take care, The Babalu Crew

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Hans
05/13/2009, 10 21.062'N:126 40.639'W, Pacific

We have finally reached the Trade winds, only at 14Deg. N. Usually they are around 20Deg.N. We have been flying since, doing an average of 7 Kts. We are now a couple a degrees North of the Doldrums, so get back to your kitchen and cut another goat, we are going to need wind. We passed the halfway point last night and are about 650 Nm away from the equator. Once we pass the equator we are turning pretty much westsouthwest. We probably are going to beat up for a little while but you know it might actually be more comfortable then swinging from 20 Deg Starboard to 20 Deg Port and back. We are all in good shape, Erika and I have a little more trouble sleeping because of the motion but Kai he has cut a couple of forests down already, as soon as his head hits the pillow, his off to snore ville. Good for him. We have seen a couple more animals, quiet a few dolphins rubbing their backs to our bow, Babalu the dolphin back scratcher, I hope the wales wont get any ideas. Also a couple of Turtles. One was really big, the shell about 1 m in diameter, he wanted to cross the bow before we got there, he was like one of those pedestrians that want to cross the road just in front of your car, at first quiet confident but then gradually getting more and more anxious with that head that keeps spinning back and forward, eye brows getting lower and lower, well that turtle looked exactly like that, he made it safe, we did not get flipped. Lots of birds, you wonder how they can stay out here for so long. And a couple of dead fish, a couple of flying fish that just did not make the jump over the boat and a small squid that just wanted to try something new I guess. We all say hi to you all and we will talk to you again on day 15.

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Hans
05/11/2009, 14 27'N:124 54.6'W, Pacific

Greetings, It is day 11 and we have clocked so far 1225 Nm (2270 Km or 1410 Mi or 2.398069e-010 Lightyear). We are doing good, Erika just finished baking muffins, Kai is taking a little nap, and I am happilly talking to you all. So far no signs of Cabin Fever (check out your classics, Treasure Island with the Muppets, MUST SEE!!!) I had to put my foot down a couple a days ago that no one jumps in the ocean to have a little swim. It was very inviting, it was so hot, no wind, the colors of the ocean, and the size of this megamongus personal pool. (Megamongus is by the way a new word I am lounching, to keep up with inflation) But I do not like the fact that we have been dumping food left overs for the last week (we probably have a whole ecosystem on our tail) and you know, this is the pacific.... I don't think Erika was very happy, but the next day she came to me and told me that at sunrise she witnessed a good size dorsal fin with just behind a smaller tail fin....maybe 10' overall, greyish, lots of teeth. Otherwise not so much a variety of animals as we would have expected, mainly herds of flying fish and a couple of blue footed boobies. They encircled us all day yesterday and using the opportunity of us disturbing the fields of flying fish so they can hunt them, to thank us they crapped only on the port side of the deck....

I would like to thank the people that made a sacrifice to Anemos, it took another windless day, but then it propelled us back on track. Today is a little iffy (7 to 10 Kts True) but we expect some increase by the end of the morning. It is very HOT!!! and still quiet cloudy, but so far no rain. We are moving on getting closer to our midway point (Hopefully we will not miss the Mail bouy). Also the equator is just around the corner. We expect a visit from Neptune, as Erika and I are green when it comes to crossing the equator, we have logged many miles on either side of the big E but never crossed it, so exciting exciting....

Hope all of you are well, will be talking again on day 13, over and out...

Happy Birthday Karen!!!!

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Hans
05/09/2009, 17 31.6'N:123 51.8'W, Pacific

We kindly request for you all to make some kind of a sacrifice to the god Anemos, we are in desperate need for some wind. We have been motoring for 2 days at low rpm to conserve fuel. We have been able to fill up all our water resevoirs with our little watermaker, charge our phones (nope we are not calling anyone, just an alarm clock). And we just had our second casuallity today. First of all because of the lack of wind (about 4 Kts.) that means the boat rolls alot due to the swell that is still present. We had just a headsail on with the pole, but as the little amount of wind is not enough to keep her inflated and the influence of the roll, we were flapping, and nothing worse then a flapping sail. Our nice looking radar reflector on the mast got wacked a few times and is now reflecting more cosmic rays then any other ships radar beams. Oh by the way did I mention that we have not seen a ship for 6 days!!! Great no? And then today in a moment of an equilibriac chalange Kai fell back onto the stove and the latch that keeps the gimbal in, broke. Other then that the spirits are up, we have passed the one third mark and we keep going. The wind does not look promising until tomorrow night, but we are getting closer to the Doldrums, so please, cut a chicken, goat, your anoying neighbour, anything our anybody that bleads with the request of a "little" more wind, we are NOT requesting a bloodshed with a huricane as a result. Thanks. Babalu Nation

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Hans
05/07/2009, 20 52.8'N:122 19.9'W, Pacific

Howdy, All is well in the middle of nowhere. We have been making good progress, an average of 125 Nm a day. The weather has been relatively good, still kind of overcast but the winds are in our back so we are still going in the right direction. True wind of 10 to 20 knots with the occasional burst to 30Kts. But our little Babalu just looks back for a second, shakes her toosh and smiles back on her way... We are eating well, sleeping ok, still struggling with the roll, but all in all this is the life. We just passed the Tropic of Cancer, nothing really happened, but it is a nice milestone. We have not experienced a lot of animals in those 7 days, a big dorsal fin, a flying fish, a single porpoase with a purpose heading south and a couple of birds, that is it. Oh and I think I might have seen an UFO, but that might be due to lack of sleep, who knows... We all say hi to all who's reading, hope all is well in the civelized world, speak to you in two days. Erika, Kai and Hans

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Hans
05/05/2009, 24 51.2'N:120 44.6'W, Pacific

Hi to all,

We are all in good shape, today finally the sun back, it has been kind of cloudy for the last two days. We are making good progress. an average of 5 Kts. We have been eating well, ofcourse Erika is cooking. I am not sure if the blog goes through right away, I am writing this at 11.30 on May 5th. Take care and speak to you again in two days.

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Hans
05/03/2009, 28 40.8'N:119 02.1'W,

Hi all, All is well, sailing around with just a main sail and still making between 5 to 7 knots. Quiet rolly because of the westerly swell, should change by tomorrow. See ya

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Hans
05/02/2009, 30 37.7'N:118 04'W,

Fog, hardly any wind, but we are underway....Westerly swell and we are going south, bastard swell!!!

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Hans
04/30/2009, 32 42.6'N:117 14'E, San Diego, Transit Dock

We are leaving today at about 14.00 Pacific Time. Some of you will be up and about, some of you will be about ready to go to sleep. We on the other hand are going to set the canvas, follow the Sun and finally start our journey to prove once and for all that the world is really round. We might not be the first or last but in this day and age, this is the only thing that makes sense to us. We love you all and will take good care of eachother. You will all be mentioned in our toasts when crossing the equator and especially at the point furthest removed from any land... Goodbye, farwell, aufiederseen, adieu, and you and you.....

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Hans
04/29/2009, Still in San Diego

We started the engine yesterday, and she started almost right away and purred like a kitten. We only had a few minor little modifications to do. One of them was the controls. Astern moved the boat forward and Ahead moved the boat back. Easy fix.
Today will be a hard working one, so we can sleep in tomorrow morning and leave around noon time. Yep you all heard well we are planning on leaving tomorrow at noon time.
I will leave our last message on the board tomorrow morning with a "Ce n'est qu'un au revoir..."-picture and from then on, hopefully, the little dots on the map will be going down towards the Marquesas in a relatively straight line, circles are not acceptable.
Ciao

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Baba Hans
04/22/2009, San Diego

Well we got one step closer today. The engine arrived, what a beauty. We are on the hard right now so we could install the saildrive. Which we did today. So tomorrow we are putting in the new engine.
While we are out of the water I found a problem with the paint bubbling up on the bottom of the keel. As you might know, anti fouling paint below the waterline part of the hull contains about 45% of Copper. And some of ours was trying to escape, chased by some stray currents. It manifest itself by producing a slightly white foam and the paint chipping off. (Our paint job was 3 weeks old). After a few phone calls with my buddies in Seattle (Yachtmaster NW, bitchin') and some checks here and there with my other good friend Fluke, I found that the VHF antenna was not isolated from the mast, conducting through the lightning wire down to the keel... So now I have to go back up there to install some nylon washers, as you can see on the picture I just went up and down a couple of days ago, and for those who know me, I do not like heights very much...
So changing the engine has unfolded another problem, and for you who have boats, you know, and for those who are thinking of buying one: DON'T, they have only one item on the menu, MONEY and they love it.... otherwise they are great.
Erika is doing fine, she gave that barbecue set a scrubbing and a shine today, we needed sunglasses on this cloudy day just to get on the boat.
Thanks for all the support guys, it was a bit of a blow but we are fine and eager to get out of here, we are planning for this weekend or at the latest the first few days of next week. Inshallah

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Babalost-it
04/19/2009, San #$%& Diego

Well the verdict is in:

1. Positive on Glycol (COOLING WATER)
2. High Sodium Levels (SALT WATER)
3. Elevated Chrome, Iron and Aluminum. (PISTON RING, LINER AND PISTON WEAR)
4. Elevated Lead. (INDICATE BEARING WEAR).

The good thing is that there was no fuel in the Oil!

Well as you can see it could not be any worse but at the same time this is the second best result. The best one would have been, that nothing was wrong. Now there is no doubt, no guilt about the next thing we decided.
Brand new engine and brand new saildrive.
This would only eat up half of our budget for the rest of the year, so at first we were thinking of starting the Save-Babalu-Foundation and put an account number on our website but we dropped that idea after looking around and see all the people struggling with their houses and jobs, or lack of it.

So there you go, just another day in a boaters life.
We are going out of the water on Tuesday morning and hopefully be back in the water by Friday. We will let you know the progress.

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Baba-freakn'lu-se-it-soon
04/16/2009, San #$%& Diego

Hi GentlePeople,
We still have not left the dock. We are located at the police-transit dock, half a mile from the harbor entrance. We are so close and yet so far.
Well we came here after the shipyard as the slips are at a more democratic price for ten days. (that is all that is allowed in a 40 day period). We thought that should be enough for us to do our last preparations and off we go.
One of the tasks we had was to swing the compass in the bay and have a nice stamped deviation card...so far so good. Now before we went off to do our little circles in the bay, I, as a responsible skipper checked the oil level of our lovely little engine, well the dipstick showed about a 1/4" more then the max level. (A little more then half a cm for our metric audience).
For the people that are not that mechanically talented, it means bad news. Three things could have entered the sump, Fuel, Coolant water or (the worst of the three evils) Seawater.
I took a sample and called the local Caterpillar company that does most oil sampling around here. The Lab was at a certain distance so they told me I could drop it off at one of their closer stores before midday. That was the cut off time to have the sample delivered to the lab that afternoon and I would have the results the next day. (That was Monday).
The next day I called, no result, the sample somehow did not made it the day before so they told me it would not be a problem to have it by the next day. So that means on Wednesday, by the way the day we were planning on leaving.
So now I called on Wednesday, the nice lady who answered the phone told me it was not in her computer and after quiet a few back and forward calls, she told me they lost the sample... isn't that wonderful.
So on Thursday morning we took a new sample and drove all the way to the lab ourselves and delivered it hand to hand. The lady promised us that it would not happen again and that tomorrow by midday the sample would be ready. She apologized and gave us each a nice bright yellow Caterpillar hat.
That means that by Friday I will finally find out what is mixed in the oil. So in other words we can still be here for a little while and probably with a lot smaller kitty. But the spirits are still high, we have a tunnel and an LED light at the end (we think green).
We will keep you all posted tomorrow what is happening....
Beware of the Green Volvo monster....

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The Babas
04/08/2009, Shelter Island, San Diego

Well our Sailblogs administrator has been very diligent and has kept the URL the same as the old page. So if you can see this page now that means you have either missed the previous message or figured out that the new address is not working.
So Lads and gents, the countdown has started. The reason we are still here is our tinsy-winsy list that we need to complete (yep we are throwing quiet a few high quality German words in it here and there to show respect to our homy Kai who is now with us.) and some parts we are still waiting for.
We are supposed to leave San Diego between the 13th and the 16th of April.
We are planning on sailing the great circle route with a straight down south passage as soon as we hit the Doldrums to Hiva Oa in the Marquesas.
Hiva Oa is the most southern port of entry in the Marquesas but most of all it is the resting place of the amazing Belgian Singer Jacques Brel, oh yes by the way Paul Gauguin is laying around here somewhere too.
Well children of the almighty blue we will be in touch before starting our passage in the pursuit of the Sun, the Wind and Happiness. (and ein bitchen smootchhh)!!!

Ciao

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