Pizzazz's progress
03 June 2010 | Bora Bora
Hugh
Not been any updates for a while, been very busy sorting our relocation from South Africa to Australia out.
Pizzazz eventually left Panama after waiting for wind and got on her way accross the Pacific. Pizzazz was approached at night with a bright light shining on the boat, it turned out to be the Columbian Coast Guard checking up. The Coast Guard never boarded, but they did take photos of Pizzazz and asked for identification and a few questions. Pizzazz crossed from Panama to Marquesis Islands in 36 days which we thought to be good going, as she did have a few days of slow progress. After a few days of rest, she progressed to Bora Bora and are now ready to sail on to New Caledonia before doing the final leg to Brisbane.
As far as our relocation goes, we have now moved into our house and I have started work in Australia. So will update again, hopefully before Pizzazz get to Brisbane. The Photo is Pizzazz approaching the Marquesis Islands
The Panama Canal
05 April 2010 | Panama
Hugh
The Panama Canal is a 77 km (48 mile) ship canal that joins the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific ocean and is a key conduit for international maritime trade. Annual traffic has risen from about 1,000 ships in the canal's early days to 14,702 vessels in 2008.
One of the largest and most difficult engineering projects ever undertaken, the canal had an enormous impact on shipping between the two oceans, replacing the long and treacherous route via the Drake Passage and Cape Horn at the southernmost tip of South America. A ship sailing from New York to San Francisco via the canal travels 9,500 km (6,000 miles), well under half the 22,500 km (14,000 miles) route around Cape Horn.[1]
The concept of a canal near Panama dates to the early 16th century. The first attempt to construct a canal began in 1880 under French leadership, but was abandoned after 21,900 workers died, largely from disease (particularly malaria and yellow fever) and landslides. The United States launched a second effort, incurring a further 5,600 deaths but succeeding in opening the canal in 1914. The US controlled the canal and the Canal Zone surrounding it until the 1977 Torrijos-Carter Treaties provided for the transition of control to Panama. From 1979 to 1999 the canal was under joint US-Panamanian administration, and from 31 December 1999 command of the waterway was assumed by the Panama Canal Authority, an agency of the Panamanian government.
Pizzazz in Panama
01 April 2010 | Panama
Hugh
Well Pizzazz has arrived in Panama, she covered the 1300 miles in 9 days. The sea was very lumpy but she had a great trip and Pizzazz handled it very well.
Pizzazz is now waiting for a date & time to transit the Canal.
Hopefully some photos will follow.....
Update
20 February 2010 | Rodney Bay, St Lucia
Hugh
Well unfortunately, we do have a camera now but cannot get the photos to load from the wifi connection we have, so will have to load photos at a later date.
So just an update on our whereabouts. We eventually got our wind generator installed and were then ready to leave for another sailing adventure, destination St Lucia. We had a last night party on the floating pub in the bay and we were off the next morning, we sailed around to Hillsborough, on the other side of the island to book out and stayed overnight. We then sailed up to Union Island, 7 miles, to check into the Grenadines, we stayed for one night. The following day we sailed around to Chatham Bay on Union Island, which was a beautiful stop. The turtles swam around the boat, the fish were jumping and the birds were plentiful. We stayed in Chatham for 3 nights, then cruised across to Mayreau Island and anchored in Saline Bay for 2 nights. Then we sailed up to Bequia Island and stayed for 5 nights, our favourite Island, we had some big swells coming into the bay for about 2 days but was still a pleasant stop. Then we decided to sail up to St Vincent and anchored in Wallilabou Bay, the bay where the movie of the Pirates of the Caribbean was filmed, we checked out of the Grenadines here and early the following morning we left for St Lucia.
After an great sail to St Lucia, we arrived here in St Lucia yesterday, 18th Feb, and have tied up to a walk-on mooring for a few days. So until next time.......
Change of plan
04 February 2010 | Tyrrel Bay, Carriacou Island
Hugh
Well we have had to change our plans once again, after many e-mails trying to organise our arrival and transit through the Panama Canal and getting nowhere, we have decided to cruise the Caribbean and have Pizzazz delivered from Grenada rather than Panama. We have just had our wind generator fitted and am preparing to leave Tyrrel Bay tomorrow, Friday, for the Grenadines and then on to St Lucia to have our liferaft serviced.
The route through the Canal
05 January 2010 | Tyrrel Bay, Carriacou Island
Hugh
This is just showing the route through the Canal, we hear that the yachts actually spend a night on the lake before proceeding to the locks on the Pacific side, to lower us down into the Pacific Ocean.
Map showing Bonaire to Panama
05 January 2010 | Tyrrel Bay, Carriacou Island
Hugh
This is the leg we are expecting rough seas and stronger winds.....
Time to leave the Caribbean
04 January 2010 | Tyrrel Bay, Carriacou Island
Hugh
Well a Happy New Year to everybody, we all hope 2010 is a really good one. The time has come for us to leave the Caribbean and move closer to Australia. We both leave Johannesburg Airport on the 7th January, bound for Grenada, first we are meeting our mate, Shawn at Gatwick Airport, and then the 3 of us are on to Grenada. We will be spending Friday & Saturday night in Grenada, before boarding the ferry to Carriacou Island on Sunday, we normally fly but thought we need a few provisions, so a first for us as well. Shawn will be spending 11 days with us on Pizzazz and then we are off to Panama. I have included a map of some of the area we will be sailing. The plan is from Carriacou, which is above Grenada on the map, then down to Los Testigos, then to Margarita Island, then on to Tortuga Island, then up to Los Roques, then to Bonaire. From Bonaire we are planning, because of our schedule..... to do a straight hop across to the San Blas Islands, this will be crossing a well known patch of rough sea and weather off the Columbian Coast, so know we are in for a rough passage, but hope we get a good break.
Merry Christmas!!!
25 December 2009 | Tyrrel Bay, Carriacou Island
Hugh
Merry..Merry Christmas to all our family and friends, and to everybody who follows our blog, thank you to those who have read and commented on our blog, it is always great to see comments, a way of knowing people are interested in where we are and what we are doing.
At present we are preparing for our trip from the Caribbean to Panama in January. We arrive back on Pizzazz on the 10th January, we will however be meeting a friend, Shawn, in London. Some people may remember Shawn from Zululand Yacht Club, when we were in Richards Bay, he will be travelling in to Grenada with us and spending 11 days or so on Pizzazz, we look forward to welcoming Shawn onboard Pizzazz.
From about the 20th January we will be looking at departing Tyrrel Bay, our home for the past year, which has been fantastic, we have really had a great time in the Caribbean, sorry we could not stay longer, but new places to see, new adventures.
So everybody have a great Christmas
Time to dress Pizzazz
04 December 2009 | Tyrrel Bay, Carriacou Island
Hugh
So time to head back to the Caribbean and get Pizzazz all dressed up to sail again. We arrived in Grenada and spent some "Lime time" and then arrived in Tyrrel Bay, where our great mates Dave & Barbara were waiting to see us again. We had to get all the sails and coves up and Pizzazz ready as Glyn's brother & wife, Keith & Lyn were arriving with in a week. We had a problem with the foresail as the Profurl halyard swivel, did not work properly, but after a few try's and getting into a problem with our foresail flapping and the swivel and sail not going up or down and having it halfway, our friend John from the yacht "Thiswan", came to our rescue and was a great help in sorting the problem out, but after a lot of stressing and hard work we were ready to collect Keith & Lyn from Carriacou airport. So here is Pizzazz all ready to sail away again...
Time to sail again.....
11 October 2009 | Tyrrel Bay, Carriacou Island
Hugh
Above is a pic of Pizzazz in Union Island.
Well just an update on what has been happening lately. With hurricane season starting to close, it is getting close for us to resume our sailing adventure again. Glyn has had a wonderful time in South Africa and we had a very busy time when we were both there. Unfortunately it was not enough time to make plans to see everyone as we had a few things we had to sort out for our future plans of sailing and moving to Australia.
We had a week up near the Kruger National Park in a timeshare resort with Glyn's family, then we spent a great weekend in Port Qwen with our great mates Francois & Mad's, where we had a great sail overnight on there new boat, and then we spent time with my father and brothers, so was a very full 28 days.
But now we are returning to Pizzazz on the 29th October, where we plan on putting Pizzazz together again and prepare her for her next leg to the Panama Canal in January. We are hoping to also sail more north this time, to see friends in St Maarten, but we will see how our preparations go, before we make definite plans.
Pizzazz has also been slipped at the local yard for her anti-fouling, polishing of hull and to have her new propeller installed, so hope that will be making a big difference to our speed when motoring. We are also having a new wind generator fitted.
So we are looking forward to being on Pizzazz again, luckily, so far (touch wood) the hurricanes have all gone north this year and there have been very few compared to past seasons, but hurricane season is only over come end of November, so we hope things stay this way. Till next time.......
Hillsborough to Sandy Island
27 April 2009 | Carriacou Island
Hugh
After lifting anchor at about 10:00am, we first sailed down past Frigate Island or Ashton Harbour, to have a look for future, we thought of stopping for lunch, but decided to carry on to Hillsborough to check into Carriacou Island and go straight out to Sandy Island for the night. We had a fantastic, fast sail down to Hillsborough, we anchored and went ashore to check-in. Because it was Easter weekend, Immigration were open for business but not Customs, we were told we could carry on but had to check with customs after the weekend. So we picked up anchor and motored across to Sandy Island, here we are approaching Sandy Island....
Back to Union and then Carriacou
27 April 2009 | Tobago Cays to Carriacou Island
Hugh
So we lifted anchor at the Cays and sailed towards Mayreau Island, we rounded the west side, had a look in at Saltwhistle Bay, which we hope to visit next time, then passed Saline Bay and on to Union Island, passing inbetween Mayreau & Union Island, after rounding the east side of Union Island we anchored back in Clifton Harbour. We went and checked out of the Grenadines and decided to stay overnight and leave the next morning.
Grenadines Map
22 April 2009 | Grenadines
Hugh
Hopefully this will be visible, if not check out the following website for the map http://www.paradise-islands.org/grenadines-map.htm. So have been from Grenada in the south to Carriacou, then to Union, Bequia, St Vincent, Bequia, Mustique, Bequia, Canouan, Tobago Cays, Union and back to Carriacou.
Update
14 March 2009 | Carriacou Island
Hugh
Well an update on what has been happening. Just after I left, Pizzazz was taken out the water for dimensions to be taken of the shaft and existing prop setup below, to be able to order the new prop, and then Pizzazz was put back in the water within the same day. In that time Glyn cleaned the bottom as best she could. We have also had our friend Dave onboard, doing repairs to the forward port chain plate, which moved due to the company in Cape Town over tightening the stay.....luckily we did not lose the rig. We are also having repairs done to our Dingy and a extra piece added to the one saloon bunk, to make a comfortable space to sleep. So a bit has been happening.
Then on Thursday, Glyn's sister Di arrived in Grenada to spend 2 months with us, so are hoping to go sailing around the Grenadines when I return next week Saturday. Glyn & Di are presently touring around Grenada and will be flying back to Pizzazz on Sunday. We were hoping to get our new prop for the trip up, but due to it all being a bit of a mess, we will only be getting it much later.
Early start for Carriacou
22 February 2009 | St George's, Grenada
Hugh
Early morning start for Carriacou. We had heard that the 30 miles could be difficult depending on wind and current on the day, so just as we had lifted anchor, we noticed a Passenger Liner....lining up for the dock, and we had to cross its path, so we had to hang about and wait for it to come in, so it wasted about an hour of our early start. We had to motor/sail along the coast, as not much wind, until we reached the north end, we tried to keep as east as we could, but the wind direction was as per normal......coming from exactly where we were headed. So we had to still motor/sail as the east to west current was pushing us westward, at one stage we were heading 20-30 degrees east of the island and the GPS said we were headed straight for the island, so we were going sideways to where we wanted to go. So from a 8:00am start, we anchored in Tyrrel Bay at 5:30pm....
Sail to Carriacou and beyond....
26 January 2009 | Clarkes Court Bay Marina, Grenada
Hugh
So time to go and see what paradise is all about again.......yes it is time for me to return home again. I leave camp on Thursday 29th January at 6:00am by bus to Cabinda, then fly to Luanda and onto Joburg at 6:30pm. My flight to London leaves at 9:30pm and arrive in London at about 6:30am Friday morning, then about 10:00 I fly BA to Grenada, arriving there at 5:20pm local time, there is 6 hours difference between SA & Grenada.
Our plan from here is we have a car for 3 days and want to see as much of Grenada as possible in the 3 days. On Tuesday/Wednesday we are planning on leaving the mooring and then take a slow cruise up to Carriacou, stopping off for one or two nights on anchor along the way. Once in Carriacou, we hope to visit our friends up there for a few days before moving on to the Grenadines. Unfortunately I only have 3 weeks this time so will then slowly return on the same course and eventually back on the mooring by about the 14/15th Feb.
I return to Angola on the 17th Feb and back in the office on the 20th Feb.
Glyn will be staying on the boat again and her sister, Diane, will be joining her just over 2 weeks later, and will be staying with us for about 2 months, so we are looking forward to her visit, and she is all booked and eager to get going, so Glyn will have company for a lot of the time I am away.
The photo was taken from the beach on Carriacou Island on our last visit in 2005.
So then, until an update from paradise.......
Chasing rainbows
02 December 2008 | Jacare, Brazil
Hugh
Well the time has come for us to go and chase some more rainbows, today is my last day of work for another 35 days. I fly to Joburg tomorrow and because we will be missing Christmas in South Africa, we will be having our Christmas on Thursday evening. We fly out to Brazil on Friday morning, arriving on the boat after midnight on Friday night.
We have quite a bit to organise before we can take off, the main thing being checking out with Immigration & Customs, which because we arrive Friday night, we can only check out on Monday. So we hope to be gone by Tuesday but hopefully latest Wednesday.
So depending on the weather and all things going well, we hope do make this trip in between 2-3 weeks. Our destination will depend on the time we take, as if we do it in good time, we want to stop off in Tobago, but if we takes the 3 weeks, then we will be going straight up to Carriacou, where our dear friends, Dave & Barbara, from Kasheter, are expecting us. Then we will have to leave them after New Year to take up our mooring in Grenada, before I return on the 6th January.
So as we prepare for our dream leg, we would like to wish everybody a Merry Christmas, as our next blog should hopefully be from the Caribbean..........
Close to Departure!!
16 April 2008 | Simonstown - Cape Town
Hugh
Well the time has come for us to start thinking of leaving, I am on my last day of work 16th April, for the next 12 weeks and looking forward to getting out of here and onto Pizzazz in Cape Town. We should be back on Pizzazz on Saturday, to do our last bit of preparation for our departure for Brazil. We have hired a car for a few days to speed up the process. We hope to complete everything that is required and then leave before next weekend, 26th April.
Our planned route from here is still to sail up the coast towards Luderitz, Namibia, stay there for a few days to rest and do last diesel, water and provisions for the crossing to St Helena.
We will hopefully do a last entry before we leave Simonstown, next week some time, so until then......