Pura vida...Evita's voyage to the Seven Seas

The second part of our voyage, which at some point will get us all the way around the world. The first part was a mad dash across two oceans to Australia. This time we are taking it a little more slowly....

Vessel Name: Evita
Vessel Make/Model: Moody 44
Hailing Port: Gosport
Crew: Ian, Paula, Raul(13), Oskar(11) and Eva(9)
About:
Captain Ian, First Mate Head Chef and General Dogsbody Paula look forward to spending long periods of time in close confinement with some beautiful well behaved children. [...]
05 August 2016 | Muros
24 July 2016 | Ponta Delgada, Azores
12 July 2016 | Horta, Azores
11 July 2016 | Horta, Azores
07 July 2016 | Mid Atlantic Ocean
02 July 2016 | Mid Atlantic Ocean
26 June 2016 | Mindelo, Cabo Verde
17 June 2016 | Mindelo, Sao Vicente, Cabo Verde
13 June 2016 | Mid Atlantic Ocean
09 June 2016 | Mid Atlantic Ocean
07 June 2016 | Mid Atlantic Ocean
04 June 2016 | Mid Atlantic Ocean
31 May 2016 | Mid Atlantic Ocean (precisely!)
26 May 2016 | Cabedelo, Brazil
24 May 2016 | Cabedelo, Brazil
04 May 2016 | Santarém
29 April 2016 | Santarém
26 April 2016 | Manaus
26 April 2016 | Manaus
16 April 2016 | Cabedelo
Recent Blog Posts
05 August 2016 | Muros

And then there were two

The final passage of our trip was to take us from Sao Miguel to Muros in Spain. Paula had long said that she would fly to Spain - the circumnavigation was done after all and this gave her some more time to spend with her family. Oskar and Eva joined the ranks of deserters, so the crew was down to the [...]

24 July 2016 | Ponta Delgada, Azores

Portuguese Jewels

The Azores are made up of nine islands divided into three groups. Horta, on Faial, was our first port of call and is in the central group. Horta has for years been a welcome stop for yachts making the crossing from the Caribbean back to Europe, and being well out of the tropics the passage to get there [...]

12 July 2016 | Horta, Azores

A Circumnavigation

Some 40 miles north of Santo Antao in the Cape Verde Islands, on the first night of our passage to Horta, we crossed the track in the sea that we had laid down back in December 2010 and completed our circumnavigation.

11 July 2016 | Horta, Azores

Arrived in Horta

We set off for the Azores back in May, and we finally got here on Saturday. The second half of the passage was much calmer than the first - we spent almost three days motoring in flat calm conditions as we passed through the Azores High. The wind came back for a while, and we had quite a fast sail [...]

07 July 2016 | Mid Atlantic Ocean

All balmy now

What a difference a few days make. We are now into our third day of motoring, becalmed in the Azores high pressure system. When we started out from Mindelo this was sitting up NW of the islands, but as we have moved north, it has come down to meet us, forming a windless barrier between us and the Azores. [...]

02 July 2016 | Mid Atlantic Ocean

Why we go westabout

Most of our sailing, and in particular the longer passages, have been downwind. This is the nature of a westabout circumnavigation which follows the trade winds around the equator. Our extended stay in Brazil meant that we were unable to continue on our planned route which would have taken us downwind [...]

And then there were two

05 August 2016 | Muros
Ian
The final passage of our trip was to take us from Sao Miguel to Muros in Spain. Paula had long said that she would fly to Spain - the circumnavigation was done after all and this gave her some more time to spend with her family. Oskar and Eva joined the ranks of deserters, so the crew was down to the core - Raul and myself. We did make some attempt to find another person to come with us, but that didn't come off and I think both of us were relishing the opportunity to do the passage with just the two of us. Raul had for some time been helping out with night watches on passages - our routine generally included him taking the first watch, which included the first hour or two of darkness - and he knows the boat and the routine. I was very comfortable that we'd manage, and that he was ready for the extra responsibility.

Direct it is 830 miles from Sao Miguel to Muros in an east-northeasterly direction. This isn't trade wind sailing though, so direct is not often an option - winds in the region of Sao Miguel were from the northerly quadrant, and looked set to stay there for as far into the future as the forecasts could see. Our old friend the Azores High, after coming to meet us south of the islands on our way up from Mindelo, had now relocated north of the islands bringing N-NE winds and wasn't going anywhere. So, no point waiting for a change in the weather. I do think we both wondered whether we shouldn't just wait a while, though, as we left Ponta Delgada in a rain squall, but that wasn't part of the bigger picture anyway.

Provisioning for this passage was as easy as it gets. As a legacy of caution on previous passages Evita is still loaded down with tins and other non-perishables so there was none of that to think about. The question there was how much could we manage to use up? The answer in the end was very little, as we caught a beautiful yellowfin tuna, which normally would have fed five of use for a couple of days. When we'd caught it I felt guilty as I feared we wouldn't be able to do it justice, but in the end it took us six meals over three days but we ate it all.

Our main purchase in Sao Miguel was a selection of some of the delicious Azores cheeses. My crew is a bit of a cheese monster at the best of times, and the quality here makes temptation run wild. The yellow stuff (don't put it in the same category) we bought in Brazil remains unopened in the fridge! The other Azorean speciality we enjoyed was pineapples. After sampling pineapples in 30 countries around the world we concluded that Azorean ones should win first prize.

For the first couple of days we sailed in a roughly northerly direction, in NE winds, until the wind died off as we entered the edge of the high pressure system. At that point we turned and pointed at Muros, motored for a while until the winds filled in, this time from the north as we struck out from the eastern end of the system.

Conditions for most of the passage were pretty benign; my only complaint - a common one of mine - was that there were too many dead zones through which we had to motor. With our new slimmed down crew, though, it was a nice gentle introduction. Other than on the first day when the islands were still having their effect on the wind, we never had to reef the sails, and the sea was a flat as I have seen it anywhere for such a lengthy period, so all was comfortable on board. And to finish up, yesterday we had as perfect sailing as you can hope for - 12-14 knots of wind on the beam, sun in the sky, flat seas and 7+ knots for hour after hour with the cruising chute doing its thing.

We arrived in dark last night, a little over 8 days after leaving the Azores which was pretty much what we had expected, and anchored off Playa San Franciso just outside Muros. As a passage to finish up on, it was ideal.

Conditions were comfortable, we suffered no gear failures, it was great to have the chance to do it with just Raul, and the final day of sailing was as good as it gets. As always it is good to arrive after a lengthy passage, and in this case more so as it is something of a homecoming with our house and family here, but for me in particular it is tinged with the dawning realisation that this is where it all stops. Oh no..time to wake up!

So, this will be the last post for the time being. Hopefully we will again sometime find some adventures that are worth writing about, and that others find worth reading, but I don't think the trials of living in a post-Brexit rainy island, and the daily commute, quite provide the inspiration. Thanks for reading, and thanks for all your comments. And bye from us.....

Portuguese Jewels

24 July 2016 | Ponta Delgada, Azores
Ian
The Azores are made up of nine islands divided into three groups. Horta, on Faial, was our first port of call and is in the central group. Horta has for years been a welcome stop for yachts making the crossing from the Caribbean back to Europe, and being well out of the tropics the passage to get there can have its difficulties. We came from a different angle, and although the latter part of the passage was relatively comfortable, arrival was a welcome relief. Perhaps as an expression of this relief, a tradition that has built up over the years is for crews to leave their marks on the harbour wall, in the form of artwork illustrating their boat and their journey. Some of the paintings really are quite impressive. There have been so many boats through the port over the years that the only option for finding space for a new painting is to paint over a really old one that time has rendered unrecognisable which I think was the fate of the mark from my previous visit here in 1994 aboard the Norwegian boat Aquarius �" my memory of the location of our efforts was a little hazy, but there was no sign of it, not that many of that vintage survive. We must try and be back here in less than 22 years to see how our current effort holds out.

The other institution in Horta is Peter Cafe Sport, whose fame extends though the yachting community way beyond those who have actually been here. A very welcoming bar, with good food, a pretty decent G&T (and that’s something coming from someone who has never really enjoyed gin) and a good line in T-shirts, which has now been extended into a chain of shops across the islands. Apparently Newsweek described it as one of the best bars in the world.

Faial, like all the islands, is volcanic in origin, and is still very active. In 1957 a sub-sea eruption added a few acres to the western end of the island. The lighthouse keeper on the point there had a perfect view of all the pyrotechnics, but the lighthouse was not only half buried, but was left with its beam blocked off by the new land to the northwest. The landscape down there contrasts starkly with the lush greenery elsewhere on the island.

Faial, like many other Azorean islands, was a big whaling centre. Unlike many ports of the world, where whaling was done from a mother ship with the whalers going out in small boats, the location of the islands allowed for shore based whaling. Lookouts would be stationed at various points on the coast and when a whale was spotted the whalers would sail, or be towed, out in open boats to hunt the whales using hand-thrown harpoons. Obviously this all came to an end in the 1980s; the lookouts are still stationed along the coast, but now they direct whale watching boats loaded with tourists who come to see these animals as they pass through the islands.

Our next stop was Angras de Heroismo, on the island of Terceira, also in the central group. This is a beautiful old town built up around the port, once an important stop for sailing ships heading back to Europe from the Americas and from Asia and the Indian Ocean. As Horta, Angras is a great place to enjoy some of the fantastic fish from the seas around here. Our favourite is something called a Boca Negra (which somehow translates to a Blue Mouthed Rock Fish), which seems to be a local speciality. We also enjoyed the Sopa do Mar, “Sea Soup”, served inside a loaf of bread.

After a couple of days in Angras, our next hop took us east to Sao Miguel, the largest island and location of the capital city â€�" Ponta Delgada - where we met up with Paula’s brother Jano, Isa and Iago, his son. The volcanic history of this island is also clear, with beautiful crater lakes and smelly fumaroles giving off sulphurous gases. The island has a few beaches, although in most places the coast is the point at which volcanic flows reached the water, so is rocky. The lava flows have eroded and in many places formed natural swimming pools. Cold water but that doesn’t bother the kids.

After here, next stop is Galicia. We have been hoping for the wind to shift to give a more comfortable ride, but for the moment it seems to be well set from the northeast, with little chance of a change in the near future so could be a bumpy ride.

A Circumnavigation

12 July 2016 | Horta, Azores
Ian
Some 40 miles north of Santo Antao in the Cape Verde Islands, on the first night of our passage to Horta, we crossed the track in the sea that we had laid down back in December 2010 and completed our circumnavigation.

Since leaving the UK earlier that year, we have put 36,000 miles under Evita's keel, in a little over three years on the boat. By comparison with many of the other boats we have met along the way, three years is a short time in which to go all the way around - the Vendee boats of course do it in around 70 days but that's a different game. Amongst the cruising fraternity six years is more the norm. In all we have spent 257 nights at sea, which, if we are comparing to races, is of a similar order of magnitude to the time taken by Robin Knox Johnson on his circumnavigation back in the 1960s; he of course was alone on his boat, sailed the Southern Ocean and didn't stop so that also is not really comparable either. We, on the other hand, have stopped 270 times, in 33 different countries or territories in 5 continents and 3 oceans, and while there left the boat and visited another 6 countries. Eva and I, who still carry the same passports we had when we left, are relieved to be back in Europe as we have been struggling to find spaces for stamps the last few times we have stopped.

For the analytical, the vital statistics are:

Miles logged: 35,947
Time spent underway: 301 days, 3 hours
Proportion of time sailing: 64%
Average speed: 5.0 knots
Longest passage: 2,956 miles; Galapagos to Marquesas
Number of passages over 1,000 miles: 8, of which 3 were over 2,000 miles
Best 24 hour mileage: 178 miles; between East London & Mossel Bay, South Africa (current assisted)
Worst 24 hour mileage: 40 miles; day 4 Panama to Galapagos, stuck in the Doldrums with engine problems
Nights on passage: 262
Nights at anchor: 413 in 188 places
Nights moored: 92 in 13 places
Nights in marinas: 359 in 40 places
Nights on shore: 86
Ocean crossed: 5 - Atlantic 3 times, Pacific, Indian
Great Capes rounded: 1 (2 left for next time!)
Countries/territories visited: 39 - France, Spain, Portugal, St Lucia, Martinique, St Vincent & the Grenadines, Grenada, Venezuela, Colombia, Panama, Ecuador (Galapagos), French Polynesia (Marques Islands, Tuamotus, Society Islands), Cook Islands, Niue, Tonga, Fiji, Vanuatu, New Caledonia, Australia, Indonesia, Singapore*, Malaysia, Thailand, Laos*, Cambodia*, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Chagos, Mauritius, Reunion, Madagascar, Mozambique, South Africa, Botswana*, Zimbabwe*, Namibia*, St Helena, Brazil, Cabo Verde (*visited only by land).
Number of times the watermaker failed: 4
Number of other mechanical/technical problems: too many (more of this in a subsequent post)

The stats are of course not the real story. That is found in the places and the people and the unique and unforgettable experiences thrown at us by this amazing way of life. And to have done it all together, as a shared endeavour; the contrast to normal family life (in our case as least) where everybody is busy, everybody has their own activities, and time doing stuff together is limited, could not be more stark. I reckon we probably had more of what is commonly labelled "quality time" in these three years than most families have through the entire childhood of their kids. I have to admit that there have been times (quite a few of them) where the quality was not high and the urge to throw one or the other of the crew members overboard had to be suppressed - and no doubt the captain was the object of such urges at times too - but in hindsight those moments fade away to insignificance.

As for highlights, rather than it just being my opinions, we asked each crew members to describe their own highs and lows of the adventure, and here they are:

Favourite places:

Eva:
Chagos, "because the fishing was fun and so was running around on the beach getting nibbled by crabs"
Southern Africa, "because I liked watching lions eat an elephant and impalas springing"
Hoga, Indonesia, "because I like swimming and having the fear of sitting on a sandfish. The underwater world is amazing."

Oskar:
Chobe National Park, Botswana, "because of the pure isolation and wilderness that I will remember for the duration of my life"
Rio de Janeiro, "which struck me with its floury beaches and wonderful views"
Nosy Hara, Madagascar, "which marked my memory with its lovely hikes and smashing waters"

Raul:
Indonesia, "for its culture, food, diving, history and monuments (Borubudur, Prambanan)"
Sri Lanka, "for its food, culture, scenery, history and religion"
Madagascar, "for its people, culture, art and scenery"

Paula:
Madagascar; "a place so close to nature with an uncomplicated way of life"
San Blas Islands, Panama; "felt like discovering an untouched civilisation from 100 years ago"
Indonesia; "utterly exotic. One of the few places we have been where language was a barrier, but the people make up for that. The only place where we ever got the feeling of being the only sailors."
Sri Lanka; "for culture, history, religion"
Marques Islands, French Polynesia; "first glimpse of the amazing South Pacific Islands, its people so foreign to us."

Ian:
Chagos; "a unique opportunity to live in a watery wilderness for a month"
Madagascar; "wild, natural and warm people"
Marques Islands, French Polynesia; "lush, fertile islands that provided us with our most spectacular landfall after 3,000 miles of ocean"
Indonesia; "huge, varied, beautiful and exotic, and still with unspoiled places"
Fakarava, Tuamotus, French Polynesia; "a coral atoll with the most spectacular underwater life I have ever seen"

So, in the straw poll, the winners were Madagascar and Indonesia with four votes, followed by Sri Lanka, Chagos, southern Africa and the Marquesas each with two. It has to be said that the places we went to on our first trip didn't get much of a chance, as the kids' memories didn't go back that far!

The other thing that was interesting was the highs and lows:
Eva; "I most liked learning different ways of life in the places we visited and swimming in tropical waters. I least liked the toilet on the boat" (and she shared ours not the boys' one!)
Oskar; "I most liked the fun and suspense of fishing and learning exotic languages. I did not like seeing the suffering of the poor people we saw in many places."
Raul; "My positives were absorbing and learning about the culture, history and way of life in a diverse range of exotic environments, visiting such beautiful places, sailing and opening up my eyes to the poverty in which many people live and the realisation of how lucky I am. Negatives were that there was never enough time, that we spent too much time motoring in light or no wind, and missing family at home."
Paula; "I most liked being able to reach such amazing faraway places and to meet people from all walks of life. In the end it is not the scenery, the remoteness or the beauty of the place; it is always the people that make the journey. They are what makes the difference. Biggest downsides were having to teach three wonderful, but very different, kids on a boat, and living in a permanent state of fear on most passages."
Ian; for me the best is all about the sense of freedom to go and do what you want, (weather permitting) when you want and where you want, and to have the time to absorb the surroundings. And to spend all this time in such beautiful, and normally hard to get to, places - both on land and on the ocean - and to live a life whose rhythm is determined by nature - essentially weather - rather than any other human imposed deadlines. No day is ever the same as the day before. The downsides: number one has been the number of technical breakdowns, which are part and parcel of the enterprise but do prevent us doing what we really came here to do. And, slightly contradicting my earlier positive, to feel like we are always rushing. There is always a short term (i.e. within year) timetable set by weather patterns, but maybe this feeling comes about from being with other sailors with much more time than we have allowed ourselves. And maybe it is more intense at the moment because we have been up against the wire on our timing to get back to Europe this year.

And what next? How do you go back to living reality when you've lived your dream? I don't think I have an answer to that. It's not to say that there aren't any more dreams to go for, and not to say that they don't involve sailing either (Patagonia springs to mind). Soon, however, Evita will be allowed to have a rest, the kids will go back to more conventional schooling, which they are all quite excited about, we will return to our life in London to work out what the next challenge will be. But for the immediate future, we are still out here in the ocean, and there are still miles to sail....

Arrived in Horta

11 July 2016 | Horta, Azores
Ian
We set off for the Azores back in May, and we finally got here on Saturday. The second half of the passage was much calmer than the first - we spent almost three days motoring in flat calm conditions as we passed through the Azores High. The wind came back for a while, and we had quite a fast sail for 30 hours or so, but then it died as soon as we sighted land, so we motored into port, arriving in the dark on Saturday night.

Horta is a nice town, on the east coast of Faial Island, facing across the channel to Pico, with its classic volcano. We did catch a glimpse of it yesterday when the clouds briefly cleared. We are obviously getting closer to home now - it's the middle of summer and it is grey and drizzling. The tropics are well behind us!

All balmy now

07 July 2016 | Mid Atlantic Ocean
Ian
What a difference a few days make. We are now into our third day of motoring, becalmed in the Azores high pressure system. When we started out from Mindelo this was sitting up NW of the islands, but as we have moved north, it has come down to meet us, forming a windless barrier between us and the Azores. Conditions are typical high pressure conditions - clear skies and very light winds (we've not seen more than about 6 knots in 48 hours) - so it is quite hot and no breeze to refresh on deck. The calm conditions have allowed some sense of normality to return - school has reconvened, the boat is much cleaner, Raul's cabin is now dry, and we all sleep a little better.

About 250 miles to go.

Why we go westabout

02 July 2016 | Mid Atlantic Ocean
Ian
Most of our sailing, and in particular the longer passages, have been downwind. This is the nature of a westabout circumnavigation which follows the trade winds around the equator. Our extended stay in Brazil meant that we were unable to continue on our planned route which would have taken us downwind to the Caribbean, and then, we hoped to the Azores riding on winds from the beam or from aft (although I don’t think that has been the experience of all boats this year). From Brazil, though, the wind has been forward of the beam, at an angle of about 60 degrees, which is OK as long as the waves are small. Since we left Cabo Verde, however, we have had continuous 20 knot winds which produce quite a sea making for very uncomfortable sailing. So for the last 5 days, school has been suspended, Raul’s cabin at the bow has been abandoned, and all domestic tasks â€�" cooking, washing up, teeth brushing, going to the toilet â€�" have been performed slowly and largely with one hand (the other one being used for holding on in order to avoid getting thrown across the boat).

Progress is OK, making a little over 100 miles per day, although this would be better with a little less wind.

On the subject of circumnavigations, we did cross our wake a few days ago, so can now claim admission to the club. The champagne will have to wait though till we get to port.

The forecast is for an easing in the wind over the next couple of days. We hope....
Where in the world...?
Evita's Photos - Main
A bit of Europe in the middle of the Atlantic, so finally cheese and wine...
16 Photos
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Our unplanned stop in the North Atlantic. Other worldly islands.
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Still on water, but nowhere near the sea...our side trip to the Amazon
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With Evita moored in Cape Town we hit the road for a safari through Botswana, Namibia and back into South Africa
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Arrival in the African continent and the end of the Indian Ocean crossing
62 Photos
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Madagascar from Nosy Mitsio south
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