14/03/2009, 8 22.27'S:27 23.77'W, Atlantic Ocean

Atlantic Ocean - St Helena to Brazil Day 10 Saturday 14th March 2009 Position : 8 22.27S 27 23.77W Time: 8.45am Miles to go: 449

We actually crossed the half way around the world mark at 2.30 am this morning. (26 52' W 8 28' S) So instead of popping the champagne cork then we will enjoy it sometime this morning accompanied by a self saucing chocolate pudding made from a packet yesterday. (See photo above) There has been very little wind for the past day or so and we only covered 107 miles in the last 24 hours again. Last night we motored all night and as there is a bit more wind this morning we'll put the sails up soon. It is very warm - 30 degrees day and night now with the water at 27 degrees.

By the way our 2nd batch of bread turned out beautifully. I added more yeast and water to the recipe give to us by yacht Khulula. I made big bread rolls and a loaf with 1kg flour. We enjoyed real mince hamburgers on fresh rolls with fresh tomato, gurken, onion, chillie and Mrs Balls chutney(from South Africa). Delicious especially out at sea after 9 days! The captain said 'Where are the chips?'. I could have made some from sliced tinned potato I guess... next time when I make tuna burgers! (hopefully we'll catch something soon)

Also Happy Birthday to Michele who turns 40 today! We will toast to your health and happiness when we open the champagne!

All well on board

Comments [0] | | More

13/03/2009, 8 40.82'S:25 30.11'W, Atlantic Ocean

Friday 13th March 2009 Position: 8 40.82 S 25 30.11 W Time: 7.30am Miles to go: 563 miles Total distance sailed since leaving Mooloolaba 5 Nov 2007: 15,151 n miles

It's been fabulous hearing from everyone on this momentous occasion! The winds have been very light so we are going quite slowly and only clocked up 109 miles in the last 24 hours - not Valiam's style at all. Landfall in Brazil will be later than we thought now. The bubbly is ready to pop the cork for our party today. The galley slave will whip up a chocolate cake which should please the captain. Pity we have no cream. Perhaps one of our guests could bring some?

Here are some more RSVPs:

dear Bill & Linda, Sorry we won't be able to make the party as our water wings have sprung a leak. Just the same we will (as always) be thinking of you. In case we don't get to you before you cross your half way DO HAVE A HAPPY HALF WAY DAY ! Love from all here Dad/Mum/Gwen XXXXXXXX

Congratulations on reaching another important milestone. We will share a red with you this evening if we can transport ourselves down the internet to you. Happy Sailing Love Lyn and Dave (Caloundra, QLD Australia)

Hello Bill and Linda. Great to always be able to log on to your website and find out how you are going. You have set yourself an enviable challenge and it all is going so well for you both. An illustration of taking big risks and having to compromise with family life which is dear to you, but, with good planning and preparation, getting the big rewards in return. According to your last log, you should be halfway around the world today. Congratulations to you both. Keep up that great writing style Linda. You provide enjoyment to many. May you continue to have many memorable experiences, meeting new friends and magical places. Regards Fred and Kathy. (Brisbane Australia)

Love to come, can you arrange a taxi home, as we might like to indulge in some of those SA wines. take care Rick (Melbourne Australia)

We would really love to join you on this momentous occasion, but without a mast on Freo Doctor the yacht is still not sailing; I did consider taking the kayak and paddling half way around the world, and even though it's a long way I can paddle real fast, but I'd have to tow Ally on a surf board which would slow me down (not because of Ally but because of all the junk she carries out to sea) so I guess we'll have to pass this time; Maybe after the next half. Congratulations on the first half of the trip, Regards, Steve and Ally (SV Freo Doctor Fremantle, WA, Australia)

Thanks everyone for your words and thoughts. It certainly makes it a lot less lonely out here!

On a sadder note we just heard about a big oil spill form a tanker off the Sunshine Coast (our home). Cyclone Hamish washed away our beaches and caused a ship to drop containers of fertilizer and spill oil. The turtle eggs are hatching prematurely causing them to die and the beach behind our house is a mess.

The winds are supposed to pick up a bit so hopefully we'll go a bit faster than we have been the last day or so. We have 3 sails up at the moment - our old jib attached to the furler on the opposite side of the main jib as ell as full mainsail up. Valiam is doing 5 knots in 7 knots of wind! She looks and sounds beautiful gliding through the calm water.

All well on board!

Comments [0] | | More

12/03/2009, 9 9.97'S:23 38.13'W, Atlantic Ocean

Atlantic Ocean - St Helena to Brazil Day 8 Thursday 12th March 2009 Position: 9 9.97S 23 38.13 W Time: 6.45am Miles to go: 677 Total miles since leaving Mooloolaba 5 Nov 2007 : 15,040

I saw the sun rise while the full moon was still up this morning - double vision! The wind is very light so we have slowed down to 4.5-5knots. Captain Bill was tired of the mainsail banging and flapping so took it down and hoisted our old jib next to our usual jib on the furler. Valiam looks like a butterly drifting along the water. I just love these replies to our "Half Way Around the World" party invitation:

Lucky me, I'll be there! ;-) Nancy (New York, USA)

Congrats on getting halfway round, champagne is definately on order. Will think of you... Mike has been playing sea shanties and rum drinking songs.(on his recorder) Hugh has been playing his giant bongo drum he bought in Africa and I have been hiding from them. cheers, Bryson, Hugh and Mike (yacht) Khulula at 1800Z March 10, 10 deg 53 S 018 deg 20 W. Atlantic Ocean

Cool. Can I swim? Jerry (Lismore, NSW Australia)

G'Day Guys, You're not starting to lose it out there are you ? I know what too much time at sea can do to a sailor. Anyway, I will steal one of the lifeboats here and head your way for the party. (a tempting thought now I mention it)Anything you need ? We had a nice chicken cordon bleu for dinner, plus they have fresh salad at the moment. How far to go to the land of Samba and caipirinhas ? Take care. Mike Might not be there by Friday. You are currently 1989.51 NM from me (assuming the Earth is a perfect sphere, of radius 3443.9 nautical miles). As these lifeboats only do 5 knots, I will be there sometime on March 27th. Would you mind heaving to for 16 days please ? See you soon. Mike (Yes I have nothing to do at work today) (Oil rig off Angola coast,Africa, Atlantic Ocean) (also skipper of yacht Vire Nord when not at 'w' word)

Would love to come. I will check my diary. What should I wear? Will write more soon Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Yolanda (Brisbane Australia)

Coming by imagination to celebrate and enjoy filleted flying fish grand marnier and sparkling apple juice love Helen and Shirley (Perth Australia)

hi not much to report, other than that because of the cyclone, a container ship has got into trouble and lost 31 full containers off mudjimba, and the entire kawana beach is black with oil. fun times! Liam x (Buddina Beach near Mooloolaba, QLD Australia) I take it you wont make it then? Mum X

Where? Am at bbay atm Roy (Batemans Bay, NSW Australia)

Thanks everyone for your RSVPs - I better get working in the galley!

All well on board The crew on SV Valiam

Comments [0] | | More

11/03/2009, 9 29.24'S:21 46.82'W, Atlantic Ocean

Wednesday 11th March 2009 Position: 9 29.24S 21 46.82 W Time: 9.25am Miles to go: 789

The full moon shining on the sea at night is almost surreal - like daylight. Valiam looks and feels magical as she glides along. Warm balmy breezes and little a brown bird sitting on the solar panels complete the picture. I saw a little bird circling around us before I went back to bed at 5am wondering how far he must be from home. Bill said he was having a rest on his shift.

The day before yesterday captain Bill was woken from his catnap during the night by 'Blaaarp!' from the AIS monitor. After almost of a week of no ships it was good to know our newly acquired piece of 2nd hand technology was still working. It was a tanker called Polaris Star registered in Liberia heading for Japan with an ETA of 4th April.

Evidence of another live creature out here (apart from us) was in the form of a large fish. We didn't see it - it just chomped off our lure. It was a lucky pink squid too.

For those of you who are sitting on the edge of your desk chairs wondering if the bread turned out - well it didn't really. The mixture was a bit dry and we aren't sure about our yeast (it was bought in Oz 18 months ago) as it didn't really rise. We used a small part of the dough to create a pizza for dinner - it was delicious even with its 'thin and crispy' crust. I made 'baguettes' and 'rolls' with the rest. They are quite heavy and of a very solid consistency. One piece toasted with vegemite is very filling. We will adjust the recipe and let you know the results.

Captain Bill is repairing by pulling apart a 'rope clutch' at the dining table as I write. It is a bit more fancy than required and self destructed under load a while back possibly when we jibed. It's a 'Spinlock' and he wants to put it back as we need it to change the side of the jib. (The wind is now more from the south) The diagnosis is a bent pin inside which he has now banged with a hammer. 'Bob's yer uncle!' he says.

On Friday 13th you are all invited to: our 'Half Way round the World' Party. We will give you the exact co-ordinates as you come closer by hot air balloon, submarine, windsurfer, seaplane or yacht. No need to bring anything just yourselves. We have plenty of different wines and champagne on board. Vegetarians will be catered for. RSVP by Friday morning.

We won't be offended if you can't make it as we realize it is short notice. We will let you know in plenty of time when we have almost completed our circumnavigation for the big party in Mooloolaba. (Actually Valiam and her crew will have circumnavigated when we reach Isle des Pins, New Caledonia) We will have sailed 15,000 nautical miles by the end of today since we left Mooloolaba on 5th November 2007.

Hope you are all having fun at the 'w' word.

All well on board (We're not quite insane yet)

Comments [0] | | More

10/03/2009, 10 6.82'S:19 20.10'W, Atlantic Ocean

Tuesday 10th March 2009 Position: 10 6.82S 19 20.10W Time: 10 am (10 hours behind Oz we think) Miles to go: 938

Hope you like the sunset photo - even though it's tiny it is quite a big download for the sat phone. Each time we watch the sunset out here we look for the 'green flash' but not sure if we see it or not. The moon has been full shining on the water at night making it seem like day out there. The boat is nice and steady so we slept quite well in between shifts.

Our friends on Khululah are about 100 miles behind us. They caught a 7kg mahi mahi so we are hoping we will do the same. It's great to communicate with Bryson, Hugh and Mike out here and know we are not alone in this big ocean. They use sailmail via their SSB radio whilst we use our sat phone and laptop using GMNs Xgate program. Bryson gave us their fabulous bread recipe which we will try today. This is it:

Recipe is dead easy: one sachet of yeast, mixed with half a cup of blood temp fresh water on one side. One cup of salt water, 1/2 cup of fresh water, 1/2 cup of sugar mixed together and stirred till sugar dissolved in another container. Wait till yeast if bubbling and mix two containers together. Finally, add it all to approx 1.25 kg of flour (white, brown, etc), mix thoroughly and kneed on a floured surface for 15 mins. Light rub with oil, and put in a bowl (covered with a big plastic bag) in a warm place until the bread rises significantly (could take a couple hours). Punch the bread down, put it into bread tins, allow to rise again and bake at 350'C for about 40 mins or till the bread sounds hollow when tapped. Fresh bread, perfect...

We'll let you know if it turns out.

Comments [0] | | More

09/03/2009, 10 41.72'S:16 49.43'W, Atlantic Ocean

Atlantic Ocean - St Helena to Brazil Day 5 Monday 9th March 2009 Position: 10 41.72 S 16 49.43W Time: (South African) 9.15am

Have we only been at sea for 5 days? It seems so much longer! Every 6 hours we record :

Date: 9/3/09 Time : 06.00, Position: 10 deg 46.01'S 16 deg 25.6'W , Course: 298, Wind Speed/direction: 16SE, Barometer:1009, Log (since Mooloolaba):14,868 nm, 24hr distance log: 176nm, Water temp : 26.5deg, Distance to Brazil: 1112nm, 24 hour distance GPS: 168nm

Now that I have dazzled you with figures I will interpret : Its Monday morning, we are a long way away from anywhere, steering West/NWest, pleasant breeze, we've come a bloody long way, we're going reasonably fast, the water is warm, Still a long way to go to Brazil, we've done 8 more miles than needed because Valiam cant go in an exact straight line cos of the waves.

What else may be interesting to you? What we eat? Yesterday : BREAKFAST : Freshly baked lemon and poppy seed muffins, caf� latte LUNCH : Crostini - thinly sliced rounds of baguette grilled with garlic oil with various toppings : (1.)smoked salmon, French camembert and capers (2.) Pesto, anchovies & tomato (3.) Pesto, pepperoni salami, tomato and olive. Glass of cold Blanc de Noir (South African white wine made from red grapes) DINNER : St Helena made pork sausage with lemon and thyme, mashed pumpkin with ginger and butter. Cold glass of South African 'Bouquet'

As you can see I am more than qualified to be employed as a highly paid chef on a fancy yacht in the future. Hopefully it will have a wall oven so I don't have to grovel on the floor of a moving boat to produce these gastronomic delicacies for a billionaire boat owner.

ENTERTAINMENT: BOOKS : Linda: 'Backpack' by Emily Barr (Bill now reading), Behind the Scenes at the Museum by Kate Atkinson, Cruising the Coast of Brasil by Marcal Ceccon, Bill: Yachting magazine Both: Collins Portuguese phrasebook DVD: Beyond Borders (Angelina Jolie,) EMAILS: thanks everyone - each one is read about 3 times! If you think you have nothing to write about you could always tell us jokes or stories..

We also engage in the usual drudgery of washing dishes, keeping the boat sort of tidy and occasionally have a solar shower in the cockpit. Today we're going to wash our hair - hooray! The captain says we have enough water. We are still using Mona Lisa as Fred just wont work in these conditions with a light wind straight from behind. This means running the engine for a few hours each day to charge the battery.

If we keep up the current speed we may even reach Brazil by Monday 16th - one week to go!

I f you would like to fly over to meet us at Jacare Yacht Village there is an airport not far away at Joao Pessoa.

All well on board

Comments [0] | | More

09/03/2009, 11 8.99'S:14 39.19'W, Breakfast time!

As you can see we are really starving on this trip!! Galley slave's fresh muffins - lemon and poppy seed

Comments [0] | | More

08/03/2009, 11 21.90'S:13 48.86'W, Atlantic Ocean

Sunday 8th March 2009 Position: 11 21.90 S 13 48.86 W Time: 7.30 am

Just over 1200 miles to go...Valiam crawls along the watery surface of the earth. It's hard to believe sometimes that gravity is holding us all on this big ball called the world and we are hanging sideways if the North Pole were the top. It's a bit grey outside but it could get sunny again as it did yesterday. The wind is blowing 10-15 knots and Valiam is causing the water to make whooshing sounds against her hull. She is rocking a little but gentle enough for us to be able to lie relatively flat when resting. I still feel like my body gets a constant pummeling and have to use muscles we don't normally use on land to grip and hold on - a bit like yoga.

The rubber shock cord broke yesterday on the fishing line and we could see a fish flapping on the end of the line. Unfortunately it got away. Sometimes the fish hook themselves not in the mouth but through an eye ball or gill so there are probably quite a few maimed fish swimming around! So not having fresh fish for dinner I cooked a tasty pasta dish instead with anchovies, olives capers and chillie in sun dried tomato sauce. 'Deliciosa!' as you would say in Portuguese. We struggled through the Cd yesterday and even though some words sound familiar others aren't and quite difficult to pronounce. Here's a few we have learned: Por favor ...Please Thank you .Obrigado ('a' if male) Um copo vinho branco..one glass of white wine Uma cerveja....a lager Um galao....a milky coffee I think these will be useful: Nao compreendo...I don't understand Fala ingles?..............Do you speak English? Some letters are swallowed as in French and some words have masculine/feminine gender. 'm' is pronounced 'n'. 'g' is pronounced 'zhuh' etc. We think our brains are too old to absorb all this. Maybe when we are there it might sink in. We have been told not many people in Brazil speak English.

We received an email back from Frenchman Philippe Fessard letting us know the costs etc of Jacare yacht marina: "Tnak you for your Email, Yes we have a place for ours boats, with this size our price on a week basis is 79 Euros (11,26 p/day) and 304 for one month (10,12 per day) on prepayed packages. For 6 monthes stage we offer more 10% discount... This prices included the pontoon, water, electricity, Internet Wifi coinection, sanitary installations, gym room and pool. Best regards, and good winds Philippe"

Sounds good to me! 8 days to go. If you are wondering where Jacare is , it is up a river past Cabedelo in the north of Brazil . (www.marina-jacare-village.com) 'Jacare' means crocodile but we have been told there are no crocodiles there any more. Perhaps they have been turned into handbags and shoes. You can also take a look at www.noonsite.com for any places we are going to. I usually save all the noonsite stuff for each country/harbour before we go for useful information such as immigration and navigation. I then print it out and put in a folder - I am such a good secretary for the captain aren't I?

All well on board.

Comments [0] | | More

07/03/2009, 11 53.79'S:11 20.40'W, Atlantic Ocean

Saturday 7th March 2009 Position: 11 53.79S 11 20.40W Time: 10 am

With another 1400 miles to go it's a long way to Brazil. We are still sailing along quite well 'wing on wing' with the wind mainly from behind. The wind picked up a little so we are going a little faster - 7 to 8 knots. Looking at the weather grib files it looks like 15 knots SE for a day or 2 then it will lessen again. Captain Bill is changing the sails around including the pole on the jib to make things more comfortable as we were swaying around a bit. We have been using Mona Lisa (electric autopilot) the whole time due to the wind being straight behind and not strong enough for Fred the wind vane. We may be able to use Fred today if the conditions are right as Mona Lisa does chew up a bit of power.

We are eating well so will have to exercise when we get to land! It is nice to sit around in shorts or sarong after months of coolish weather in South Africa. We heard teenager Zac on Intrepid finally made it to St Helena. We heard St Helena radio calling him every hour the day after we left. He finally arrived a day later after hand steering in light winds after his 6th tiller pilot burnt out. It may be difficult for him to get this replaced at St Helena as there are no planes - everything is shipped. Our friends on Khulula left St Helena on the same day as us and they are not far behind us. We are in touch by email and it's nice to know we have friends out here on this huge ocean. (apart from the flying fish suiciding on the deck)

Our last run for 24 hours was 161 miles . The Atlantic is so much nicer than the Indian Ocean and I have heard this from many yachties that this is the case. The Pacific should be similar. We are nearly half way around the world! We'll have to work out the exact longitude so we can celebrate when we cross it! Another event to look forward to!

All well on board.

Comments [0] | | More

06/03/2009, 13 40.86'S:9 5.53'W, Atlantic Ocean

Atlantic Ocean - St Helena to Brazil Day 2 Friday 6th March 2009 Position: 13 40.86S 9 5.53W Time: 8.30 am

Valiam is skimming along now at 6.5 to 7 knots. The sea is fairly smooth so everything is steady inside making it easier to sleep, prepare meals etc. We have been enjoying the stars and the moonlight at night but not the 20 minute lookouts! The Southern Cross was nice and clear which makes me feel closer to home although we're not! We still have more than 1500 miles to go.. I think I will have watched every movie we have 2-3 times by then! We are getting through the books too. I will start putting the Portuguese language CD on every day now so we may have a slight chance of communicating when we get to Brazil. The weather is warm - already 29 degrees and the water temperature is 25.2 degrees. In Simons Town, South Africa the water temperature was 16 degrees. It's definitely not suitable for penguins here!

Bill has trimmed his beard and I am contemplating painting my toe nails. As long as the wind remains steady we don't have to touch the sails. We are wing to wing again i.e. jib poled out and mainsail on the opposite side. Many cruisers we have talked to say they spend 90% of their passages sailing like this.

All well on board. Do send us the latest news. We're in a different world out here.

Comments [0] | | More

05/03/2009, 15 14.57'S:6 56.24'W, Atlantic Ocean

Thursday 5th March 2009 Position: 15 14.57S 6 56.24W Time: 6am

The sun is rising as I write this - burnt orange sky against dark grey clouds. Mona Lisa (autopilot) grunts occasionally as she doesn't have to work hard to steer the boat. There has been very little wind since we left St Helena yesterday at 10.30am. Valiam has been drifting and coasting along at 3 to 4 knots. Occasionally she gets up to 5-6 knots if the winds strengthen a little. It's been very peaceful with no swell. Cups, glasses etc stay where they are put and the bed is level.

Yacht Khulula left just before us but we have lost sight of them now. We also saw another boat light last night which we think was the power cat that was anchored at St Helena. The radio has been calling yacht Intrepid every hour since we left. Intrepid is the yacht sailed by 17 year old Zac Sunderland and he is overdue at St Helena. His last position was given to his mum via satellite phone a week ago but the sat phone is no longer working. Hopefully he is delayed due to light winds.

This will be a long trip - 1785 miles from St Helena to the northern part of Brazil where we are aiming for. (We've done 80 miles.)The wind predictions look light for the next week so we most likely won't be doing the miles and speed of the last passage. It is nice and warm so the winter clothes are put away. The gas has just run out so now we have one gas bottle full of gas. We'll have to conserve everything - water, gas, fuel as we may be out here for a couple of weeks.

St Helena was a relaxing break and we were overwhelmed with hospitality during our stay. We had lunch every day at Anne's Place - the traditional yachtie hangout. I met the lovely Anne briefly on our last day. She was busy working out the back even though she is supposed to be retired. Her son and daughter in law manage the place now. We received an invitation on the website on the afternoon we were leaving from Guy to have a cuppa at Cleopatra House. Sorry Guy we ran out of time - maybe be next time?

I am rewatching movies on the little DVD player and we have plenty of books to read. We will also try and learn Portuguese from a CD and Book. Receiving emails of course will be the highlight of our day! (We won't see any website comments until we arrive in Brazil). Hope you enjoyed the photos of St Helena. (album South Africa to St Helena).

All well and relaxed on board.

Comments [0] | | More

03/03/2009, Atlantic Ocean

Can you spot Valiam ? at the back furthest right

Jamestown Harbour
St Helena Island
Atlantic Ocean
3rd March 2009

St Helena is an amazing little island and we have really enjoyed exploring it. In some ways it reminds us of Rodrigues - size, the people, isolation etc. It took us most of the morning to organize our laundry, banking and clearing in officially to the island. Everyone is very friendly and welcoming and seem to know who we are - there's only 6 yachts in the harbour. Everything is in the main street and easy to find. At the tourist office we organized a tour for the afternoon. For 4 hours Larry drove us around for 30 pounds. Larry is a mine of information as his family has lived here for generations. Hi father was on a whaling ship and met his mum a 'Saint' (St Helena resident) on St Helena. Basically the island is governed and financially supported by the British government. The Saints get priority over anyone else for jobs here.

Larry drove us all over the place so we could admire the wonderful views including one overlooking the town from Jacobs Ladder where we could see Valiam happy at anchor. We also visited the house where Napoleon was exiled. It was closed but the 2 gardeners who were working in the overgrown garden said we could walk around the grounds. Napoleon had it very comfortable with a large house, garden, servant's quarters and a beautiful view. The French government still maintain his house, tomb etc. We were lucky to see all of the attractions without any other tourists. It all has a relaxed country feel of bygone days. We visited ST Paul's Church with it's historical graveyard. No-one was there but the door to the church was wide open. We enjoyed the beautiful workmanship of the church and read some of the names on the gravestones. I recognized the same name as the ferry driver. We wonder how many people are related to each other here? I was keen to see Jonathon the 175 year old giant tortoise who lives with 3 other tortoises in the Governors garden. Again when we walked around the Governors residence garden there was no-one there. We found Jonathon and his friends hidden in the long grass towards the side. It's hard to believe such gentle slow moving creatures so trusting were eaten by sailors in the 17th century. After giving Jonathon lots of strokes under his neck - (it feels like thin crinkly leather) we headed back along the winding one way roads back to town. We found a supermarket that had just unpacked fresh fruit from the ship so we bought a good supply for our next passage.

Tomorrow we leave again for another long trip to Brazil. We expect it to take longer than the last passage due to the proximity to the equator and lighter winds.

Thank you to all the 'Saints' on St Helena island - we have really enjoyed your relaxed hospitality and it has been a lovely break during our voyage.

(See photos in album South Africa to St Helena - click on camera icon to the right)

Comments [0] | | More

28/02/2009, 15 55.04'S:5 43.06'W, South Atlantic Ocean

Saturday 28 February 1300pm

Arrived safely just under 11 days after leaving Simons Town. all good. ferry coming now to take us ashore. Details to follow soon.
Position 15 55.046S 5 43.069 W

Jamestown Harbour
St Helena Island
Atlantic Ocean
1st March 2009
Nautical miles sailed since leaving Oz = 13,824nm

It's always thrilling to sight land after being at sea for a while. St Helena looked mystical with its jagged peaks not unlike La Reunion. A small island measuring 10km by 17km it's a small dot in the Atlantic Ocean. The only way one can get here is by boat so it feels very remote. Shortly after anchoring at midday - 10 days 22 hours after leaving Simons Town, South Africa we were given permission over the radio by Port Control to go ashore. A young man with Creole features took us ashore in his wooden boat ('ferry'). The exciting part was disembarking as the boat rose in the swell as we had to grab hold of the hanging ropes to jump ashore on to wet concrete steps. This was not easy when we hadn't got our 'land legs' yet! After wandering past shipping containers, 2 cranes and people with honey coloured skin wearing hardhats we found the Customs office. We were lucky it was open on a Saturday as the ship RMS St Helena had also just arrived. There was a flurry of activity with lots of people working in the area unloading luggage and sniffer dogs busy hoping for a reward! The lady that gave us our port clearance was so friendly and helpful giving us maps and brochures of St Helena. I was surprised to see so many Polynesian/Creole looking people here in this English colony. Looking briefly at the 500 year old history of St Helena the current islanders are descended from Portuguese, Dutch, Negro slaves, French Huguenot refugees, some victims of the Fire of London and others. I was intrigued by the way the "Saints" (name for locals) speak. It is a type of English dialect with a sing song twist. Sometimes it is difficult for us to understand.

Wandering around the main street of Jamestown we could see so many relics and old buildings. St Helena has a 500 year history. We found 'Anne's Place' the yachtie hangout. After explaining to the barman we had no local money until Monday he said 'We'll make up a tab'. It was nice to not have to cook as we tucked into a high cholesterol lunch at 3 times the price of South Africa. We'll have to just get used to more normal prices! One of the yachts who has just been here said we could get hot showers at the Consulate Hotel for a donation. The Consulate Hotel is a beautiful old white painted building with corridors, lots of wood and chandeliers. It's small and after looking for Hazel in the upstairs office we found Ethel a gorgeous lady who gave us the use of two of the hotel's communal bathrooms and even offered us towels. We are struck with the trust and friendliness of all whom we meet as after all we are strangers just arrived on a small yacht. We were basically given food, drinks, hot showers, money until we can pay everyone back on Monday. There are about 6 visiting yachts here as well as passengers from RMS St Helena which isn't very big. The RMS Helena goes to and from Cape Town every few weeks with 2 trips to United Kingdom a year. This is the only way you can get here unless you have a private vessel.

There are no tourist shops and it is very quiet. 4000 people live here with 800 in Jamestown itself. The locals drive cars around with 4 digit number plates. They often park in the middle of the road talking to each other through the windows. We look forward to having a look at the rest of the island. It has some beautiful green gorges and vegetation. Robert the local tour guide has already offered us a tour on Wednesday. As we may go before then we are hoping we can get some transport to look around before then.

It's a rolly anchorage as warned and we woke a few times throughout the night. However it was good not to have to be on watch. It was an excellent passage faster than most due to the ideal conditions for Valiam to sail at her best. We are pleased to have made it here in just under 11 days from Simons Town considering the first day or so it was slow with calms. There is a race to here from Cape Town where the winning boat took 12 days. Simons Town is further too. Go Valiam!

The internet facility here is at Anne's Place and it's quite expensive - 1 pound per 10 minutes. I am downloading some photos for you so please look at them!!! (click camera icon. Go to 'South Africa to St Helena album') I have also added photos to the ships logs days 1 to 11 . Enjoy!

Comments [2] | | More

28/02/2009, 16 21.2'S:5 11.54'W, South Atlantic Ocean

South Atlantic Ocean - South Africa to St Helena: Day 11 Saturday 28th February 2009 7.45am Position : 16 21.2 S 5 11.54W

Just after I was woken by my loving husband at 4.45am he tells me there is a ship. As I try and waken from yet another weird dream (short sleeps seem to do this) he says like a true sailor "I could smell it before I could see it - a diesel smell and then I saw a faint glow in the dark. It hadn't come on the ship plotter yet." At the chart table in the dark the captain looking at the computer screen says "RMS St Helena." This must mean we are on the right track! The captain surmised that RMS may mean Royal Mail Service(??)

Just now I heard St Helena Radio talking to 'sailing Vessel Kahlua' then a moment later to RMS St Helena. An Englishman answered saying that RMS would arrive at 8.45. I wonder if the ship arriving at St Helena Island provokes the same excitement as the ship did at Rodrigues Island. St Helena has no air strip so everything comes and goes by ship. (including us!) I wonder if the shops will be stocked up on Monday? We read that a letter takes 6 weeks as there is no airmail. The grandchildren will receive their St Helena postcards after the ones I send from Brazil!

It's exciting coming to a new place. We are only 40 miles away now. We need to add another hour to our clock which means we will arrive around 1pm. I hope Anne's pub is open! We'll have to clear with the authorities first of course. Hopefully the local policeman (I wonder if they wear police hats like London bobbies?) will clear us on a Saturday. We received an email from friends on yacht Rainbow Chaser giving us the latest information. They are leaving St Helena today so we will probably miss seeing them. They said there are 5 yachts there now. (then there will be Kahlua and us 7)

The next log entry will hopefully have a photo of St Helena.

All well on board!

Comments [1] | | More

27/02/2009, 18 11.7'S:3 19.9'W, South Atlantic Ocean

Friday 27th February 2009 Time: 8.20 am (S Africa + 1 hour) Position: 18 11.7 S 3 19.9 W

This has been such a good trip and we are making excellent time. The captain says we should get to St Helena on Saturday easily. It is always wonderful to see land emerge after seeing nothing but sea for days and days. We can't complain as we have had a much shorter trip than most yachts. Thanks Valiam! She just loves to race through the water!

One little disaster this morning - the shelf holding all my art books broke so all my lovely books are lying in a heap on the floor in the quarter berth with the pumpkins and a cask of wine. We will have to find a box in the 'back shed' when we stop to store them until the shelf is fixed.

We had a rest from fishing yesterday. It's actually very messy once the fish is on board flapping leaking blood etc. One of the mahi mahi we caught I poured a bit of our Philippino gin into its gills which is supposed to be the most humane way to kill them. It stopped flapping very quickly. If you are wondering what fishing tackle we are using it's a bright pink rubber squid with a hook attached to a nylon trace which is attached to green string. The string is attached to a 2 metre length of spear gun rubber as a shock absorber. This lure cost 28 Rand (A$4.50) in Simons Town. This cheap lure seems to be working much better than the 'professional' lures made up by a fisherman in Palau at a considerably higher price.

Excerpt of email from Bill to his Dad re question about our 'jibes' etc: 'Re jibes, we are actually sailing on a shallow reach as you suggest, keeping the wind about 20deg off astern with the jib poled out to windward. We haven't really been jibing because the boom is held down with a preventer, just occasionally the wind has changed enough or waves have slewed us around so that the wind gets to the wrong side of the sail, then we quickly manually steer back on course or if not quick enough ease the boom across using the preventer on a winch then jibe back doing the same. We had a few occurrences yesterday because the wind was a bit more fickle with direction changes caused by 'rain squalls' which are a typical trade wind phenomenon. A ship just passed us, heading north looks like an empty log carrier, according to our gadget it's the 'Great Mary' registered in the Marshall Islands bound for Camden eta 14 March traveling at 14.2 kts. We haven't had anything come up on the AIS for a week and were wondering if it was still working, I suppose there's just not much out here.'

Oh yes yesterday afternoon it was finally warm enough to put on my bikini to paint my toenails! They are now all different colours as I couldn't decide which colour to use. (Actually the captain's idea). Now that you can see how exciting our life is out here at the moment I will say 'bye' from the Atlantic Ocean. The next log will be announcing our arrival at St Helena. I will download a tiny photo by sat phone if the internet there is difficult.

Comments [0] | | More

26/02/2009, 20 26.13'S:0 54.52'W, South Atlantic Ocean

South Atlantic Ocean - South Africa to St Helena: Day 9 Thursday 26th February 2009 Time: 6am Position: 20 26.13 S 0 54.52 W

There's been no ships for several days now. Just us, the ocean and fish! The Fish God is suddenly smiling at us because yesterday we caught TWO fish! They were both small Mahi mahi (dorado). (We haven't caught a fish since 2007 apart from one inedible one near Mauritius) The first one Bill cut into fillets which we fried for lunch accompanied by left over fried rice. The last one we cooked whole (minus head, tail, guts and scales). The galley slave prepared this one baked in white wine and butter. Mashed pumpkin and a white mushroom sauce went well with it. Cleaning fish is a messy bloody slimey business which the captain seems to know how to do. I have no experience in these 'manly' matters..hmmmm. We're actually getting a bit tired for fish as the tuna lasted 3 meals before the mahi mahi.

You will have noticed the change in position West instead of East. Last night we crossed the Greenwich Meridian line and celebrated with a glass of champagne when our position changed to 00 00.0 W. We are not quite half way around the world but soon will be somewhere between St Helena and Brazil. Then if you were to dig a hole through the earth in a straight line from Mooloolaba, Oz we would be there sailing along proving the world really is round!

Valiam is racing at the moment through another rain squall. I just saw the instrument read 10.4 knots! We are going well - 24 hour averages 168 to 191 nm. Captain Bill just reefed the main. We are now doing 8 to 9 knots. Because Mona Lisa is moaning a lot and working hard (electric autopilot) we have to run the engine 3 hours a day to charge the batteries. It's still mostly overcast during the day so the solar panels aren't charging much.

The photo above shows what we look like at the moment - scruffy! Bill says he will tame and trim his beard before he has to talk to any officials. Yachties have a bad enough name in the grooming department already. We have been informed that visiting officials in Brazil as the ship's captain he has to wear long trousers and socks. It didn't stipulate what type of footwear ( sandals?!!)

All well on board

Comments [0] | | More

25/02/2009, 22 14.46'S:1 12.14'E, South Atlantic Ocean

Wednesday 25th February 2009 Time: (S Africa plus 1 hour) 7am Position: 22 14 .46 S 1 12.14 E

It's early morning and it's grey and cloudy outside again. Yesterday afternoon it was perfect - blue skies, gentle seas with Valiam sliding along smoothly. Now we are going a bit faster again and I can see the wind gauge saying we are doing 8.6 knots as I type this.. The last 24 hours we covered 175 miles with 551 to go to St Helena. I f we keep up this speed we could make landfall late Saturday.

Sleep seems to come easier either because we are tired and /or we are getting used to the motion and short sleeps whenever we can get it. The bed is a bit slopey so I use pillows around my body in strategic positions so I am not constantly rolling around. Sometimes the only way to sleep is spread-eagled on one's back. Lucky there is only one of us in the bed at a time!

I have just pulled out a packet of buttermilk pancake mix ('Just add water!') to surprise the captain for breakfast. OOOOOps! Flap flap flap bang! We've jibed again. The captain emerges and wrestles with the tiller (I get to push the button on 'standby' on the autopilot) He says the wind direction has changed more east which may mean having to change the whole rig over.

All well on board

Comments [0] | | More

24/02/2009, 23 43.44'S:3 39.08'E, South Atlantic Ocean

Tuesday 24th February 2009 Time : 8.45 am (SA time) Position: 23 43.44S 3 39.08E (just over 700 miles to go)

The most exciting thing that happened in the last 24 hours is that we caught a FISH! Yes and it was a tuna. After the captain dealt with the beheading, gutting and bleeding (it went all over the deck.) he cut it up into fillets and steaks. Our Happy Hour turned into dinner as we enjoyed sashimi with wasabi and soy sauce accompanied by cold white wine. Today we will have tuna steaks. We are not lacking protein on this trip as we still have 3 steaks left purchased in vacuum packs in the fridge. Sadly the fresh fruit and vegetables are getting low. We have one pear, a couple of apples, 3 onions, 5 potatoes, 3 pumpkins and half a cucumber left in fresh produce. The galley slave will stretch it accompanied by a wide variety of tinned/packet food and the occasional fresh fish.

It's still grey and overcast outside but the temperature is much warmer. Goodbye winter clothes! Hooray! It would be nice to see the sun though. It's not quite bikini toenail painting weather yet.

It feels strange to be out here in the middle of the South Atlantic Ocean between Africa and South Africa. It's only when I look outside and see ocean all around and look at the chart plotter that reality sinks in. Because we live on the boat all the time down below seems quite normal with every day tasks - cooking, computer, dishes etc. We just cant get off to go to the shops! We have now sailed more than 13000 nautical miles since leaving Mooloolaba, Queensland Australia. It's a long way in 15 months. We've already had so many adventures and experiences and there's more to come. I know we are lucky to be able to do this - cut our ties and sail the world or perhaps foolhardy some would say to quit secure jobs for an uncertain future. But that's what makes life exciting - not knowing what is ahead. I am reading a book at them moment by a South African man who quit his corporate job at age 30 to spend one year traveling from Cape Town to Cairo. ('Dark Continent My Black Arse' by Sihle Khumalo) He echoes my feelings when he says he was leaving the corporate world and normal life because he was sick and tired of : Routine Being stuck in the comfort zone Being stuck in a rut Being stuck in traffic every morning and every afternoon Driving on the same road to the same office every week day to do pretty much the same thing Dealing with the same things daily, weekly, monthly, yearly Sweating the small stuff Trying to solve imaginary problems Being a manager Dealing with systems, guidelines, policies and procedures Attending meetings, workshops and conferences Sending reports to head office Worrying about how to make more money Looking at life from a strictly financial perspective Worrying about tomorrow and the day after and the day after Being a statistic Being in limbo Wasting golden opportunities Wasting God's precious time and my own Voting in all the general elections but somehow still feeling oppressed Drinking beer and watching soccer on TV every weekend Being bored with life and doing nothing about it Not living the life I suspected I was meant ot live Feeling life was passing me by Feeling like I was missing out on something In short: enduring the pain of a dying soul crying out to be free

Instead he wanted to:

Take the bull by the horns Give life my all Give life my best shot Live in the present Find myself Find peace of mind Be who I wanted to be Do the things I genuinely wanted to do Do challenging and out -of -this- world things Create my own beautiful, yet simple, life Live my own life, in my own way, on my terms Leave a difficult act to follow when I die In short : be me - just me, nobody else but me

Sihle Khumalo (2007)

Food for thought......

All well on board SV Valiam

Comments [1] | | More

23/02/2009, 25 10.88'S:5 59.59'E, South Atlantic Ocean

Monday 23rd February 2009 Time : 9.30am (SA) Position: 25 10.88S 5 59.59E Distance to St Helena : 860 nm - HALF WAY!!!

We are half way today! We have also broken a record for our fastest 24 hour period. Wait for it - 191 nautical miles!!!! Yay!! Go Valiam! Captain Bill wants to crack the 200. We were practically surfing down the waves last night even with 2 reefs in the main. Every time I looked at our speed it was 8.5 - 10 knots. We jibed a couple of times when a bigger wave caught the back of the boat. The captain had to jump out of bed and get her back on track. We are still using the Mona Lisa (electric autopilot) and its cloudy again today so we'll have to run the engine again to power the batteries.

Another exciting event occurred yesterday. We caught a FISH! BUT it GOT AWAY ?. Out in the greyness of the sea I saw a flash of colour - blue and yellow behind the boat. It was a small tuna fish jumping around in the waves. "Fish!" I yelled trying to pull it in. By the time the captain appeared it was gone... Now we keep hoping. The wasabi and soy sauce is ready for sashimi..

All well on board.

Comments [0] | | More

22/02/2009, 26 43.47'S:8 53.72'E, South Atlantic Ocean

Sunday 22nd February 2009 Time: 10 am (South Africa) Position: 26 43.47S 8 53.72E

Bill ticked the calendar this morning so now we know it is Sunday. Sleeping in? Bacon and eggs? Unfortunately no. The wind picked up again last night so Bill put 2 reefs in the main but Valiam is till swaying around a bit in the waves. Making espresso coffee is a challenge so the galley slave has said no bacon and eggs this morning. Mueslie with warm uht milk it will be. We haven't been able to buy decent mueslie since leaving Oz and the stuff we've got is odd as it has cornflakes and other non mueslie items in it. The cereal section in most of the supermarkets we've been to in the past year have contained mostly packets with sweet stuff in them and a lot of chocolate - even porridge! (must be the French influence)

The last 24 hour run was 170 miles with Valiam's average speed at 7 to 8 knots. It's overcast with no blue sky again which is a problem for the solar panels. We have to run the engine for a few hours a day to keep the batteries up. Captain Bill has tried several times to get Fred the wind vane to work but to no avail. The wind is too much behind and not quite strong enough for the speed we are going. Mona Lisa the autopilot chews up a lot of power. We also have one computer running 24 hours for the ship plotter. The electric pump on the toilet also chews up a bit of power. The fridge and the little DVD player don't use much but it all adds up especially when the sun isn't shining.

The radio(vhf) rarely comes up with anything sensible out here as we are a bit far from anything. Occasionally we hear snippets of foreign conversation that sound like fishermen. But yesterday we were entertained by a yachtsman we had heard of about but hadn't met. We heard him calling up a ship (also to remain nameless) several times over a half hour period. Then we heard him speaking to someone on the ship in a very irate voice. "I called you on the radio 6 times and you did not respond. I had to alter course 30 degrees to avoid you running me over when I have right of way. If I didn't alter course you would have run me over..I will be contacting your company to lodge a report.." He repeated this a couple of times. We can understand why he was upset. Clearly whoever was on watch on that ship obviously was not doing his duty. We have heard this before that ships don't always keep a good lookout and don't always listen to channel 16. With AIS ships have MMSI identification numbers where they can contact each other direct so they probably don't always listen to channel 16. The new vhf radios have DSC which would make it easier to contact ships. If we bought one of those we may also have to have a MMSI number. However in the above case the ship's crew was neglectful in not responding to the yacht calling it by name. (This yacht must have AIS) We have also heard of other ships responding to yachts on channel 16 even without the yacht knowing their name and just calling their own position. We have heard from other yachties that the ship's radio crew were happy to engage in conversation out at sea and also alter course if necessary. Perhaps it depends on the ship's crew's ability to communicate in English. An English speaking yachtsperson may not pronounce the ship's name the same way so this may be another reason the ship's crew did not respond. Our general tactic when we see ships is to keep out of their way. With our new AIS ship plotter we know which direction the ship is going from 10 miles away and can alter our course accordingly.

That's enough for today. We are going well. We're a bit tired and sometimes a bit bored. Time to put the Portuguese language lesson on the CD player!!

Keep those emails coming in. All well on board.

Comments [0] | | More

21/02/2009, 28 43.82'S:11 9.44'E, South Atlantic Ocean

South Atlantic Ocean - South Africa to St Helena : Day 4 Saturday 21st February 2009 Time:10.45am Position: 28 43.82 S 11 9.44 E

Valiam rolled around a lot less last night so sleeping has been easier. Our daily runs have been quite good. The last 24 hours we sailed 167 nautical miles. At 7am we had 1232 nm to go to St Helena - another week or so. The southeasterly varies from 8 to 25 knots.

What do we do all day? Night watches and meals regulate the day as follows (with some variations to times). We look around outside every 20 minutes as we seem to spend most of our time inside reading, napping, watching movies etc. When on watch we check the AIS Ship plotter - usually it sounds a computer foghorn if ship within 20 miles. We watch a ship closely but the anxiety is alleviated by the AIS as it tells us how far away it is , in what direction it is traveling, its speed and when/where it will be at it's closest point to us. Usually the ships pass us a few miles away. If it looks like it's getting close (less than 1 mile) we alter course. We also record our position every 6 hours.

11pm - 2am - 1st Night watch 2 - 4.30am - 2nd Night Watch 4.30 - 7am - Early morning shift 7am - 9am - Coffee time followed by breakfast. 9am - write daily log, emails, grib files on computer 10.30 - Another cuppa. Early bird person naps 11.30 - Prepare lunch 12.00 - Lunch 1.00- 4pm - Read, nap, watch movies, boat jobs. Afternoon tea.. Occasionally wash, comb hair etc. 4.00pm - start planning/preparing Dinner 4.30 - 5.30Pm - Happy Hour usually in the cockpit. Play music, reflect etc 6 - 7 pm - Dinner 8 - 11pm - Captain usually sleeps first.

This all sounds idyllic but lots of things have been left out. ie. Captain adjusting/changing sails, checking batteries and running motor. Lately the poor Captain has been a PLUMBER! He says it's his next career. Without going into too much detail the toilet hasn't been working properly and sometimes refuses to pump out. He has unblocked pipes, pulled things apart, tipped things out etc... "Bucket and chuck it" he says is much more reliable. However the female on this boat does appreciate the comforts of a proper toilet. She doesn't cope so well when it doesn't work. We bought a new replacement pump in Singapore and now this has been installed.

Apart from the plumbing all else is going well. We are doing good average daily runs and according to the weather grib files the SE wind should stay with us the whole way. We've got the fishing line out so you never know. Fresh tuna would be nice...

Comments [0] | | More

20/02/2009, 30 17.55'S:13 59.85'E, South Atlantic Ocean

South Atlantic Ocean - South Africa to St Helena : Day 3 Friday 20th February 2009 Time : 8.20 am (SA) Position:30 17.55 S 13 59.85E

The wind picked up to 25 knots from the southeast yesterday so Valiam started swaying and galloping at 8.5 - 9 knots! I asked the captain nicely to slow her down so after 3 reefs in the main and the jib half furled she steadied down to 6.5 - 7 knots. Because the wind is behind we are rolling and swaying a bit. There's a bit of a swell coming towards our port side.

Not a lot to report - we are eating well, watched 2 movies and each have cat naps and short sleeps day and night. We are back in our sea passage routine. A long way to go!

All well on board.

Comments [0] | | More

19/02/2009, 32 4.21'S:16 22.49'E, South Atlantic Ocean

Thursday 19th February 2009 Time: (South Africa): 9am Position : 32 4.26S 16 22.59E

It's grey and overcast outside and we've had very little wind the last 12 hours. We ran the engine for a couple of hours but want to conserve our fuel. It's a long way to St Helena! Lucky we have plenty of books to read. All our fruit is becoming ripe at once so it looks like lots of fresh fruit now and none for most of the trip. The pumpkins, onions, potatoes and a couple of apples will keep for quite a while. We have oodles of tins of everything! In the fridge we have lots of cheese, salami, bacon, cucumber, yoghurt, 5 more vacuum packed pieces of beef as well as condiments and cold beverages.

It was very cold the first night - 12 to 14 degrees. Last night it was a bit warmer and our current temperature is 20 degrees. I look forward to those warm tropical days - about a week away! It will be good to throw off long sleeved sweat shirts and jackets. I look forward to carefree sailing where I can wear my bikini and paint my toenails!! If we get really bored we have Portuguese language lessons on CD as well as the guitar and beginners CD.

The water temperature was 15.8 degrees when we left and now it has crept up to 17.6 degrees. The wind has picked up a little and we are now sailing again at 5. knots. It's very comfortable. I haven't felt sea sick at all and have been able to read. I am currently reading 'Brick Lane' by Monica Ali. It's about an Indian woman living in London enmeshed in Bengali culture. She lives a subservient existence tending after her husband's needs including trimming his nostril hairs and cutting the skin around his corns! Yuck - I'm glad the captain doesn't expect me to perform those duties!

Anyway not much else to report - we continue to do our 3 hour shifts getting up every 20 minutes to check outside. The AIS ship plotter is great. An electric sounding foghorn toots on the computer when there is a ship. Most of the time they are 5- 17 nautical miles away and pass us several miles away. The closest one that passed us yesterday was 2 miles away. The ship plotter certainly takes away the anxiety of which direction the ship is headed ( not directly towards us!). It's interesting reading the details of the ship - currently there is one 17 miles away from Liberia. Yesterday there was one from Denmark bound for Durban. It was called Lars something. It makes it a little less lonely out here reading about the ships near us.

That's it for now. All well on board Valiam.

Comments [0] | | More

18/02/2009, 33 25.84'S:17 13.30'E, South Atlantic Ocean

South Atlantic Ocean - South Africa to St Helena : Day 1

Wednesday 18th February 2009 Time : (South Africa)11.30am Position: 33 25.84S 17 13.30E

It hasn't even been 24 hours yet since we left Simons Town but it feels like longer! There hasn't been much wind so we have motored most of the time until now. Keeping the fuel consumption at a minimum we only averaged 4.5 knots. The wind is blowing from the NW at 8 knots so we are moving quite slowly at around 4 knots. This is not the usual speed of Valiam! The winds should swing around tomorrow to the SE and be stronger so we hope to move along at a faster speed. I don't mind the slowness and gentle seas at the moment as it gets us used to being on passage and acquiring our 'sea legs'. There are many different kinds of birds sitting on the water having group meetings. Last night the sunset was magnificent with burnt fluorescent orange clouds dominating the sky. As we sailed out of False Bay a seal dipped and danced in the waves behind us not unlike a dolphin. A nice 'bon voyage' gesture.

The four months we spent in South Africa were busy with many rich and varied experiences. Not only is the South African landscape magnificent, the animals left to roam free were truly wonderful to observe. I could have watched them every day. The cheetah stole my heart particularly the female as she has to guard and protect her cubs as a single mother. Being the bottom of the wild cat chain the cubs have many predators. The cheetah is an elegant creature, constantly watching around her to see if anything will harm her cubs. The elephants have always been my favourite. We were lucky to have had many opportunities to observe (and interact with) them. Such amazing large animals still roaming this earth. Seeing a large herd of them at Pinda reserve was a great experience.

The people of South Africa are warm, generous and kind on the whole. Everywhere we went we were greeted with warm hospitality , many people going out of their way to assist us and show us their country as well as their homes, families and friends. The infrastructure is excellent. The roads are good, banks and offices all operate fairly efficiently and we were pleased on the whole of how we were treated by immigration and customs officials. Whilst in South Africa I read 2 books which helped me understand the history of this country and admire how far it has come. Nelson Mandela's 'Long Road to Freedom' has made a huge impact on me. This man lived for his beliefs most of his life and was finally able to achieve democracy in this country after more than 50 years of struggle in 1994. Even with international pressure for 30 years prior to that it took a long time for the black South Africans (and coloured South Africans) to gain freedom. Many young people are looking to the future to continue to improve and make South Africa a fine place for everyone to live. The scars of Apartheid still remain however. The other book I read was Charles Cilliers 'For Whites Only'. He also gave me an insight on the relationships between the different races in this country. Sometimes it was strange to be in yacht clubs where it was definitely a 'white enclave'. I guess yachting tends to be a (rich) white man's sport. There are many beautiful houses, buildings and streets in the towns and cities with great historical charm. Johannesburg and Durban seemed to have more security around the middle/upper (?) class houses than Cape Town and other cities. Security consisted of high solid walls, electric fencing and sometimes armed guards. Crime is a problem here but from discussions with several people who have visited in years previously they say the situation is improving. Sadly I didn't have many opportunities to socialize with black South Africans apart from security guar ds, shop assistants, restaurant staff and occasionally on trains. I was dismayed to see the poverty throughout South Africa but could see many new housing developments to replace the shacks. Seeing women and children sleeping on the streets in Durban was very upsetting. Giving money just didn't seem enough..Unemployment is high and of course there is no social security as such as we have in Australia. Although it was traumatic for me to be robbed of personal cherished items from around my neck in Cape Town, I could still empathize with the poor teenage boy who did it. I was very lucky to have most of my gold jewelry retrieved. At a tourist shop in Simons Town I had several discussions with a young man with dreadlocks and a big smile. He sees Obama as a younger version of Mandela. We shared our admiration for both men.

Whilst in South Africa global events and some tragic events occurred. The economic recession, the election of Barack Obama, the floods and terrible fires in Australia. Sailing around the world at this time still seems the right thing for us to do at this stage in our lives. The internet and satellite communication certainly makes things easier for us to remain in contact with loved ones and know what is going on in the world.

Sailing to South Africa and down the east coast was quite challenging at times. We have been told this passage is usually a good trip with nice breezes and warmer weather. It is very quiet out here at the moment especially after the high winds in Simons Town. This will be quite a long trip especially if the winds are light. (The captain won't be happy so I will have to keep up his morale and cook tempting dishes!) There were many ships last night. We purchased a second hand AIS receiver from a fellow yachtie in Simons Town. It is connected to our lap top computer as well the GPS. It shows all ships within a 20 mile radius. A foghorn (electronic) sounds as they come closer. The AIS receiver gives all the details of the ship - size, name, direction, speed, course,when it will be close to us, its hailing port and destination, type etc, etc. It certainly helps us determine which way to steer Valiam if we need to avoid them. We can also call them up on the radio if we need to. A fantastic aid for cruising yachts.

Our boat is already full of mementoes and keepsakes of our trip so far. I have 1000s of photos and movies already (as well as millions of my words!!!) which I have saved on an external hard drive. GMN (Global Marine networks) have asked us to feature a photo of Valiam on their website. We said of course! (www.globalmarinenet,com)

I apologise for the long ramble - but as you can imagine there is more time to reflect and think out here at sea. The next entries will be shorter plotting our positions daily. (click on the map)

All well on board Valiam (we are now sailing at 6 knots. The wind is blowing from NNW 10 -15 knots)

Comments [0] | | More

17/02/2009

17th February 2009

We are just about to head off. Conditions are good. We have plenty of food, fuel and water. We also now have a 2nd hand Ship Plotter so we can know where ships are, which direction they are heading and what their name is so we can cll them up on the radio. Thanks to Randy from Westwind!

Love to everyone - It should be a good trip. (but a llong one!) We estimate 12 days to St Helena. I will update the website from out at sea which will also plot our positions. It is a day late by the time it bounces to the satellite and to GMN USA then to the website. I will put up some random photos ahead of time so the text will be broken up a bit!

We had a lovely farewell dinner with Franck and Meng on Constante. Thanks guys - we really appreciate your friendship!

Keep those emails coming in everyone - it's going to be a long trip.

Comments [0] | | More

15/02/2009, Simons Town South Africa

The above image is a grib file from passage weather which shows good weather for our departure on Tuesday 17th. The colours are in knots of wind and the lines are wind direction.We have a few more jobs to do such as filling up with fuel and water etc. A fellow yachtie has sold us an AIS (Automatic Identification System) receiver which Bill is busy installing. It means we will be able to identify ships and know how far and in which direction they are heading. This will assist in alleviating some uncertainity when ships are near us. We look forward to a good run to St Helena in favourable south easterly winds. We will send position updates along the way to the website. Two sleeps to go!

On Friday 13th February we went into Cape Town by train to go and have a skin cancer check and clear out of immigration and customs etc. An unlucky/lucky day!

Our Appointment with the dermatologist was for 10.15 in Claremont a suburb of Cape Town. We rushed to catch the 9am train and didn't have time for breakfast. I was going to take off my gold chain with charms but in the rush didn't have time. It's a half an hour hike to he train station and we missed the train by 2 minutes! The next one left in half an hour. Despite being annoyed at having to wait we enjoyed the train trip as it is quite spectacular the track literally follows the beach and rocky headlands by 1-2 metres. We were told by the Doctors receptionist to get off at Claremont and catch a cab from there. We got to Claremont at just after 10.15. When we got out of the station where the mini buses (called taxis here) and cabs are normally parked it was empty and deserted. A helpful lady at a fruit stall said the all the taxis and most cab drivers were on strike. 'This is Africa'! We were stranded in this not so pretty part of Cape Town with only $5 credit on my phone. I phoned the doctors and said we cant get transport and wouldn't make the appointment. She gave me a number to ring and said as long as we turned up by 12.00 it would be ok. 'This is Africa'! As we were lost - looking white tourists many people wanted to help. The fruit seller told me to hide my phone
as it was dangerous here. ('This is Africa!") The station manager tried to help but couldn't get a cab for us. I phoned the number I was given and yes a private cab could come for us but it would cost 140 Rand. (A lot for South Africa - about $23 for us) The cab company told us not to wait near the train station because of the strike. He said he didn't want his driver to have bricks thrown at him!('This is Africa!' ) We were told to wait up at the main road. A nice Muslim lady walked with us. It was after 11am by this time and as we were starving while we were waiting for the cab we bought 2 packets of chips! The little shop had a big sign on the footpath outside saying it sold Vodacom airtime. The fellow was talking on his cell phone, glanced at me so I asked for airtime. He shook his head and continued his conversation.( 'This is Africa'!)

Not long after a shiny black 7 seater turned up with a fancy logo on the side. He managed to drive us to the Dermatologist's with the help of Bill reading the map as it was in a small leafy suburban culdesac. After finding it we asked him for his number to come back and get us!! At the dermatologists we had to walk thorough a carport then down the side of a house to a small office and waiting room full of people. ('This is Africa!') We wailted for about an hour when Dr Dagmar Whitaker quietly ushered us in. She knew what
she was looking for and was very thorough. I was pronounced clear but warned to wear sunscreen on my face (which I always do) as well as my throat etc. She found several several solar keratosis on Bill which she then proceeded to treat with liquid nitrogen. Poor thing - on his face including nose, hands and arms. He said it hurt and today he has blisters which will then turn into scabs... Long sleeved shirts and big hats form now on!

We finally got into town about 12.30 and met Natalie and Rob(yacht Wilhelm) for lunch. After lunch Natalie and I went to the pharmacy to get the special sunscreen for Bill the dermatologist recommended. It was closed for another 20 minutes as the staff were at the Mosque praying.( 'This is Africa!") Around 2pm we all caught another private cab to immigration and did the necessary paperwork and our passports stamped to clear out of the country. It's a dull dreary old building with poor lighting and no signs anywhere to tell you where to go.('This is Africa!') (The yacht club prints instructions for yachties!!) We noticed a chart place down the road so went there to get some charts to back up our electronic ones. Most were out of stock! Rob asked about a pilot book he had ordered but was told they cancelled the order because it was too hard to get..('This is Africa!')

The next place we had to get to was Customs. Following the directions on our yacht club handout we told the cab driver where to drop us off. He said here it is "SARS building - South African Revenue... It looked right. We went in at 3.45pm worried it closed at 4pm. It was the wrong building.( 'This is Africa!') Running 2 blocks further we found the right one. A bored looking fellow in a cuble looked at our paperwork as if we had handed him rubbish. It took a while to explain we were on a yacht ('ship') and he really didnt
seem interested in doing the work. (It was Friday afternoon) He was even more unhappy when I handed him the VAT receipts for a refund. He tried to tell us to go to the waterfront but we had been informed by the yacht club that we are to be treated as a ship with ships stores not a regular tourist. He was most unhappy but stapled it altogether. It will be a miracle if we get our refund..( 'This is Africa')...

My next job was to buy $US cash. Natalie came with me whilst we tramped all over the city but all the banks were closed or demolished or didn't sell $US.( 'This is Africa'). It was now just after 4pm. I found an exchange bureau - a small fully glassed office on a street corner. Yes they could help me. The joking young man (it seemed party time in that little office as the 3 employees laughed and joked amongst themselves loudly in their language)- ('This is Africa') He told me how much the $US dollars would cost and I thought the exchange rate was ok but not brilliant. The transaction took some time as it was still party time in there. I was uncomfotable with the figures being shouted out on top of the joking for all and sundry to hear. He made a great show of flashing the $US around and slid it under thecounter. I signed after Natalie and I counted it. She stood behind me with her big hat so the people in the street couldn't see! When I checked
the docket I noticed a hefty commission . I asked about this and he said because it was after 3pm I was charged 3% instead of the usual 2%. I asked him why I wasn't told about this. All he said was 'I'm sorry'. Feeling 'done' I hid the money in my bag and left. ('This is Africa'.)

After having a 'goodbye coffee' with Natalie and Rob, Bill and I walked towards the train station. It was around 5pm and it was still broad daylight with people everywhere in the street. I was walking slightly behind Bill as he had the $US in the bottom of his knapsack and I wanted to keep an eye on it. Two teenage boys approached us with their hands outstretched begging. I turned to talk to one of them saying I didnt have any spare coins. Next thing his face came closer and he lunged forward and yanked at my gold chain with gold charms around my neck. I screamed and he ran off at full speed. People in the street were yelling 'Catch him Catch him!' We saw a
couple of guys running after them. Bill thought he'd grabbed my handbag with my passport in it. Then he looked at my neck. He said the elephant is still there (he gave me that). Lucky the chain didn't break but the other 3 gold charms had gone. I was in shock and was visibly upset. We walked quickly in the direction of where the thieves and people running went. Around the block we saw the boy being
held by the scruff of his neck by a man. I couldn't believe he caught him! The boy kept saying 'Im sorry..I'm sorry' The man had 2 of my gold charms in his hand. He said "is this all?" I said there was one more but it was small. We couldn't find it anywhere.... The two men who caught the boy were wearing shirts with a security logo and happened to be around. I thanked them profusely and asked them not to punish the boy too much. I took off my gold chain and gold earrings and put them in my purse. We walked to the train station to catch the last train to Simons Town. Several people in the street recognised us and asked if we were ok and
warned us to be careful. I knew I shouldn't have been wearing gold jewellry in town and I usually didn't. I either hid it under clothes or
wore cheap beads. We were also more complacent in Cape Town than we were in Durban. I was lucky to get most of it back. 'This is Africa!' (We felt fortunate we still had our passports and money)

What a Friday13th!Lucky and unlucky!! Bill said a lot of locals say TIA
instead of 'This is Africa'. I see it as an acceptance of whatever happens as one cant expect all countries to do things the same way.

Last night we were invited to a party at the yacht club for Valentines Day. A local couple were married that morning and wanted everyone in the yacht club to come and celebrate with them. It was a great night with live music and delicious food. Congratulations Ingrid and Alistair! We shared a table with two 25 year old Norwegian men Lars and Martin who have their last leg to go to complete their circumnavigation in their red 30ft yacht. It's good to see young people cruising the world also.

We leave South Africa with many fond and colourful memories of the people we met who have been so generous and kind. We loved seeing the animals in the wild and the stunning landscapes. Thank you South Africa!

Comments [1] | | More

12/02/2009

Godfrey assisting us load our groceries on to Valiam in 40 knot winds!

False Bay Yacht Club
Simons Town
12 February 2009

The biggest grocery shop ever took up all of yesterday! After loading up Rikki's minivan at the shopping mall, Godfrey was waiting at the Yacht club with the runabout to load it up on to the boat via the water - impossible to carry it all walking on all the ramps to our pontoon. It took us in to the night to pack it all away!

In preparation for our trip Linda cleaned out the galley and all the food storage lockers finding all sorts of 'interesting' jars, bottles and packets with unidentifiable growths and live matter in them. We found a few items were past their use by date so there were several trips to the rubbish bin! We are all loaded up now with food that should last a few months!

The weather looks good for a Tuesday departure so we are clearing customs and immigration in Cape Town tomorrow. It will be sad to say good bye to the friends we've made here but some yachts I am sure we will see again on our travels.

Comments [1] | | More

12/02/2009

Valiam sailing into the sunset

Comments [0] | | More

11/02/2009, Simons Town South Africa

Having a grey beard must be a prerequisite for a yacht captain!
Here's some of the yacht crews from USA (Wilhelm, West Wind), France(Julie) and Australia (Valiam)

Comments [0] | | More

09/02/2009, Valiam is still in Simons Town South Africa

9th February 2009
Simons Town

The news of devastating fires in Victoria and Australia reached us yesterday. Bill phoned his mother as several members of his family live in country Victoria. All is well with them but one fire did come very close to his brother's house. The temperatures have been a record at days of over 40 degrees up to 47. Gale force winds made fires even more devastating with over 100 people dead, many more injured and homeless. Several small towns have been wiped out. The news reached the South African newspapers this morning. To all those Australians reading our website who have families affected by these fires our thoughts are with you.

More devastation has occurred in north Queensland where huge floods have cut off towns including Townsville where our daughter lives. Our thoughts are with those in QLD also affected by the floods. It was reported recently that 60% of the state was flooded. We hope that things will return to normal as soon as possible.

So here we are in Simons Town at the bottom of Africa hearing all this sad news from home. Many South Africans live in Australia now so some families here are also affected.

Our plans for departure continue with the sail maker arriving today with repaired mainsail and jib as well as a new mainsail cover. A few more little jobs to do and then the big provisioning excursion and we will be ready to go.

South African friends Hazel and Richard kindly invited us for lunch to meet friends John and Di who have sailed the Brazilian coast and the Caribbean extensively recently. It was fantastic to gather up to date information and share sailing experiences. It was extremely generous and kind of Hazel and Richard to invite their friends to talk to us. A big thank you to you and also John and Di. The information you gave us will be extremely valuable when we cross the Atlantic. We will remember the beautiful delicious lunch in your gorgeous garden for a long time.

At yesterday's lunch we also met Paul and his friend who have just moved to Mauritius to start a business. It was great to talk about our fond memories of Mauritius and in particular my art experience with sculptor Lewis Dick. So Lewis- if you are reading this you may have a couple of visitors!

Another little activity that has been keeping me busy is tie-dyeing! Our white bed sheets were no longer white so now they are lovely colours including bright pink with hippy sunbursts on them!! A big improvement I think.

See photos in photo gallery Knysna to Simons Town

This time next week we will be out at sea!

Comments [0] | | More

07/02/2009, Simons Town

Bill busy researching in our cockpit. (Linda will be at the computer inside!)

We said 'Au revoir' to friends James and Pam (Rainbow Chaser) the night before they left for the Atlantic. Crew from Valiam, Constante, Westwind and Julie said bon voyage in yacht club style! (see photos)

PS I thought I would put a bit of history on the website ie. Valiam being constructed but the photos have ended up on the main page.....You can see how we have all changed! (Valiam and crew!!)

Comments [0] | | More

07/02/2009, South Africa

Ginger, Natalie, Linda, Bill, Pete and Rob -yachts Wilhelm, Marcy and Valiam out for lunch

7 February 2009

False Bay Yacht Club
Simons Town

This past week has involved 2 trips to Cape Town by train to mainly apply for and pick up our Brazilian visas. The train takes about an hour past several beach towns and mountains. It's quite interesting watching the local people board and disembark the train also. Lucky we get on the first stop and get off on the last so there is no mistakes! We caught up with 2 other yachtie couples at an Indian restaurant. I must admit after 3 weeks living in the tiny town of Simons Town we feel like country bumpkins visiting the big smoke!

We have also been busy researching and collecting information on Brazil and the Caribbean. The sail repairs should be ready by Friday 13th so we will leave soon after that for the Atlantic! A big provisioning shopping trip is planned as we have been warned everything will be expensive once we leave South Africa.

Comments [0] | | More

01/02/2009, South Africa

Hazel and Richard on board Valiam

(more photos under Knysna to simons Town) photo gallery

1st February 2009
FBYC
Simons Town
South Africa

The African penguins are lovely to look at and amusing to watch when they walk down to the water for a dip. We visited the colony again yesterday surprised no babies had hatched yet. They seem to sit on the eggs for a long time! Whilst watching the scenery on the way back we spotted a seal frolicking in the water near the penguins. Next thing he jumped up threw something that looked suspiciously like a penguin in the air and ate it! Oh dear... Not nice to watch but I guess we aren't vegetarian either. We hadn't seen 'Nigel' our loner penguin near the boat for a couple of days either. When I saw Gorgeous the big fat resident seal sleeping near our pontoon I wondered.... But no Nigel reappeared today! He is still sitting amongst the squabbling sea birds again today.

This morning we were treated to breakfast by Richard and Hazel whom we met in a restaurant in Rodrigues! Richard and Hazel have lived in Cape Town for many years and run a painting/decorating business. They are quite adventurous and have traveled in their Land Rover camping along the way in many African countries. We had a very enjoyable morning sharing our adventures both at a restaurant nearby and on board Valiam. They also have friends who have recently sailed the Caribbean. There may be an opportunity to meet with them to share information before we go there. Thanks Hazel and Richard - look forward to seeing you again and do stay in touch!!

Tomorrow we go to Cape Town by train to begin our list of errands including applying for a Brazilian visa. We shall catch up with Natalie and Rob (Wilhelm) who are berthed in town. The count down is now on until our departure..... Our sails are being repaired and a new sail cover made and should be ready before we leave...

Comments [0] | | More

01/02/2009, Simons Town South Africa

Hard to believe he could be a seal's dinner!

Comments [0] | | More

29/01/2009, South Africa

This is apparently 'Gorgeous'. He is a big seal that hangs around the marina. He is much bigger than he looks in the photo. I dont think he's that gorgeous as he has bitten at least 4 people lately! There's a photo in the gallery (Knysna to Simons Town) that has Bill standing some distance away from him.

Comments [0] | | More

27/01/2009, South Africa

Herman, Willy, Linda and Bill - lunch at Hout Bay

more photos in album 'Knysna to Simons Town' photo gallery

27th January 2009
False Bay Yacht Club
Simons Town

It's always nice to welcome visitors to our boat and today my father's friend Herman and his wife Willy came to visit. Herman used to sail extensively but is now retired so he has been following our journey. As a treat Herman took us to lunch at a delightful fish restaurant in Hout Bay. With the stunning backdrop of the mountains and boats we enjoyed a delicious lunch of fresh fish accompanied by good South African wine. It is always good to chat to locals to get their impressions and thoughts about life in South Africa. Herman immigrated to what was formerly known as Rhodesia from the Netherlands after the war. He was born and brought up in Indonesia so wasn't keen on the Dutch cold climate! Herman worked for a bank and was transferred around the place including Namibia and South Africa. Their children, grandchildren and great children are all here in South Africa and Cape Town has been Herman and Willy's home since the 70s. Although conscious of the political and social changes Herman feels confident that South Africa has a positive future.

From what I have observed I also feel South Africa is a wonderfully diverse country culturally and landscape-wise. The infrastructure seems sound particularly in regards to roads, services etc. Crime is a problem and with the huge number of poor people in this country as in many other countries around the world it will continue to be a problem unless there are some drastic changes which seem to be extremely difficult to implement. We have been impressed with the attitude of many young people we have met who are enthusiastic about this beautiful country's future.

We celebrated Australia Day by hanging Australian flags all over the boat. We received lots of nice messages by email and sms from other yachties around the country. We are the only Aussie yachties in Simons Town and we were pleased that our French friend Franck came to dinner. He even ate a vegemite sandwich for the first time declaring it delicious!

Every day we have observed one lonely penguin in amongst all the sea birds. He sits there dejectedly a little distance away from the other squabbling birds. We have nicknamed him 'Nigel' as that is a name in Oz for someone with no friends!

Comments [0] | | More

26/01/2009, Simons Town

Herman and Willy on board Valiam

Comments [0] | | More

25/01/2009, South Africa

Well at least Valiam looked the part!

Comments [0] | | More

24/01/2009, 64 km from Montagu, Western Cape South Africa

One of Linda's sketches - complete with emus and gum trees!!Is it really Africa?!!

Comments [0] | | More

24/01/2009, Montagu , Small Kloof Western Cape South Africa

Bill rock climbing near Montagu

24th January 2009
False Bay Yacht Club
Simons Town
South Africa

On Tuesday the wind was blowing a gale gusting over 50 knots! The noise blowing in the rigging of over 200 yachts was almost ear splitting! Captain Bill secured Valiam ensuring the ropes wouldn't chafe whilst we were gone on our planned 'country jaunt'. It was blowing so hard the sea seemed to be whipped up in a frenzy! As soon as we drove inland we left the wind and noise behind.

South Africa is such a vast magnificent country. The landscape is reminiscent of Australia but everything seems larger and brighter. We spent the last 4 days touring through some of the Western Cape region to meet our friends Charmain and Mike in Montagu. The idea of our "long weekend" was to enjoy rock climbing, walking, taste wine in the local wineries, sketching and browse through local galleries and craft shops.

The climbers were satisfied with their climbing in various climbing locations and we were all more than satisfied with the various wines we tasted! The first 2 nights we stayed in a unit in Montagu itself. Everything in the unit (and the town) was very quaint, historic and countrified with lavender, flowers and fruit everywhere. Charmain said there were even frangipanis floating in the toilet bowl! The 3rd night was unplanned but we were having such a nice relaxed time we didn't want it to end. This time we booked into a cottage on a farm 60km out of town. The views of the mountains and countryside didn't disappoint. The Karoo is quite dry and almost desert like. It was quite amusing to see eucalypts everywhere flourishing into huge trees. In fact the farm was called 'Een Boom' meaning 'One Tree'. The one or two trees on the property next to the main house were gum trees. Checking in we noticed some birds which the others said were baby ostriches. "They look like emus!" I said. I was laughed at but later I had the last laugh as the owner said they were indeed emus! He was planning to farm emus for emu oil. (For therapeutic use etc) It was quite funny for us Aussies to stay on an African farm with gum trees and emus. There were native African animals and birds too - ostriches, bucks, tiny tortoises etc.

We enjoyed our stay in the cottage very much. It was beautiful and quiet soaking up the sounds of nature. It was also very cold in the evening and early morning requiring long sleeves and socks. (Even in January!)

I have taken lots of photos and have done a few sketches so do look in the photo gallery (under 'Montagu - rock climbing)

Bill and Mike managed quite a few difficult climbs and were pleased with their efforts. Hiking around to the various rock climbing venues we were treated to so much beautiful scenery. It was a treat to be there.

Montagu and the surrounding towns have cafes which are so relaxing to be in, usually with a garden and interesting craft and produce for sale. The wine farms in South Africa are many and cover a huge area. Some have been producing wine for over 300 years! The architecture of these older wine farms are in the Dutch Cape style with curved fascias. We sampled the wine in two wine farms and purchased enough boxes of wine (about 8!) to get us through the next few months of cruising. Carrying all these precious boxes to our boat was an effort however. Valiam is of course on the last pontoon. Each pontoon is connected by a narrow ramp. Unfortunately the yacht club trolley wheels didn't fit on the ramps without the outer wheels balanced precariously on the edge. Not wanting to lose our precious cargo we had to carry the boxes 1 or 2 at a time about 100m across all the ramps to our pontoon. They are still stacked up waiting to be packed away.

After such a wonderful "weekend" (Tues-Fri) we had to say 'au revoir' to our friends. Mike and Charmain will be sailing Vire Nord down from Richards Bay. We hope they have good winds so we can see them again before we leave South Africa.

This morning we drove our hire car to Cape Point and Cape of Good Hope before we had to give it back at 1pm. The weather has calmed right down and we could see right across False Bay. We could see French yachties Neurone heading off for St Helena. Soon it will be us.....

PS When we got back the wind instrument read the strongest gust whilst we were away from Simons Town was 69 knots! Bill must have tied good knots on the ropes holding Valiam!

Comments [0] | | More

23/01/2009, wearing Cheetah t-shirts

I bought these shirts and a dvd for Caylan and Joe at Tanikwa Wildlife Centre where we saw the cheetahs. Our own little wildlife warriors! (Caylan loves Bindi Irwin)

Comments [0] | | More

23/01/2009, Western Cape South Africa

Mike Charmain Linda and Bill with wine farm assistant at Bon Courage wine farm

Comments [0] | | More

19/01/2009, South Africa

20th January 2009

The train station in Simons Town is right next to the beach with sand blowing on to the train tracks! The trip to Cape Town by train was very scenic as it went along the beach for several stations within metres of the sea! We arrived in the busy city of Cape Town just before 12 noon and made our way to Immigration by foot. Immigration is in an old grey building that has seen better times. There are no signs outside to tell you where it is but we found it on the 5th floor after written directions from the yacht club and the verbal directions of a passerby. The process of filling in about 6 forms (including the recording of stowaways and deceased passengers) didn't take very long. It was difficult to see in the dark corridor as none of the lights worked! We were impressed that we got the paperwork done even though at least 6 people left the office obviously on their lunch break. No fees either. (Not like the Philippines!!)

As the area towards the waterfront didn't look that nice for walking we took a cab. Again we were confronted with a mass of touristy shops and restaurants all obviously very new and upmarket as part of Cape Town waterfront development. We enjoyed a nice lunch overlooking the busy harbour and noise. We are glad we are staying in Simons Town! After lunch we took another cab to pick up a hire car. Bill drove the hire car (VW Golf) to a suburb called Claremont where it was recommended to buy climbing boots for Bill. We surprisingly found the place without a proper map and made a dent in the credit card buying climbing boots, harness and a waterproof knapsack.

Today we join our friends Charmain and Mike for a mountaineering/wine and brai couple of days in Montagu. We are renting a cottage for 2 nights which should be fun. In the meantime we've had gale force winds in Simons Town (gusts of 45+ knots). The howling in the rigging reminds me of our trip across the Indian Ocean!

Comments [1] | | More

17/01/2009, Boulder beach Simons Town

We loved watching these cute birds! (more pics of penguins in photo gallery)
We visited the colony again the next day with friends Natalie and Rob. Another beautiful day!

Comments [1] | | More

16/01/2009, South Africa

17th January 2009
False Bay Yacht Club
Position: 34 11.3S 18 26.0E

The view from our boat as I write this is very picturesque. The harbour is surrounded by rocky mountains. The birds are everywhere - even a lone penguin sitting amongst the others make this place feel like nature's haven. There is supposed to be a seal that is sometimes nasty biting people when he hops up on the pontoon. We haven't seen him yet. We saw many seals on our passage from Knysna that didn't look nasty at all. In fact they appeared to grin and wave their flipper at us as we sailed past. (Valiam was too fast to get photos of them)

We arrived in Simons Town last night at 6pm after a 35 hour passage from Knysna. (240 miles) We had a good trip with the wind not getting too strong until just into False Bay. Then as we were warned it blew 30 knots. Our friend Franck whom we met in Port Elizabeth was there to catch the lines and had arranged a berth for us. A big thank you to Franck! Franck is on Constante and sailed from Singapore with his wife Meng and two little daughters. Meng and the children are currently in Singapore visiting family whilst Franck goes on the hard next week to antifoul. We met several other yachties we'd met previously including a French couple in Reunion, a Dutch couple (yacht Sepia) in Knysna, and several others. It will be quite social here I think!

We will stay here a few weeks preparing for the Atlantic. There is a train to Cape Town which we will use to fulfill paperwork and other errands. We also have friends who want to show us around. We are meeting up with Charmain and Mike next week so the boys can go rock climbing. I will bring my sketchbook to try and capture some of the beauty of this area of South Africa.

One thing we are keen to do soon is visit the penguin colony not far from here.

Comments [0] | | More

15/01/2009

16 January 2009
At 6am this morning we were directly off Cape Agulhas the southern most point of Africa. (Not Cape of Good Hope as some believe) Our position was 34 55.09 South 19 58.82East. It was cool and overcast. We took a few photos and celebrated with a bar of chocolate deciding it was a bit early for champagne. (Keep that for Simonstown)

It feels strange to be down here and wonderful at the same time. We are now officially in the South Atlantic Ocean! Seeing some splashes close to land in the distance I was hoping they were penguins but no they were whales! We could see the water spurts making a misty cloud for a few moments. There are lots of sea birds either bomb diving into the water to catch fish or just sitting in groups having a meeting. The wind is light (less than 10 knots) so we are motor sailing to maintain our speed of 6.5 to 7 knots to get to Simonstown tonight.

We left Knysna 6am on the 15th January and got through the heads without any dramas. Thoses rocks are still too close for my liking!

Our South African phone works here so I sent and received lots of sms messages to/from friends and family in Australia:
My message: Just rounding cape Agulhas now! Nearly 35 degrees south - southern most point of Africa. Goodbye Indian Ocean! Bit too early 4 champers. Grey overcast & cold. L & B
Replies:
Yolanda: Woohoo! Yes a bit early 4 bubbles. Well done crew xxx y
Liam: Are you near Jeffrey's Bay? Can u see the waves? I'm having lunch at the bowls club with work
Paul: Woo hoo - go Valiam :-)
Su and Steve: Fantastic VERY EXCITING! Take care we will have a drink 4 u tonight. Su Steve
Ruth: Gday Aussi wanderers safe passage happy 2009 will be in touch. Mac sorting out computer u may hear from me yet. luv Ruth Phil

Its so nice to stay in touch with family and friends getting immediate
replies to share the experience!

Thank you all for your never ending support

love from Linda and Bill
SY Valiam

PS Decided to have one glass of champagne at lunchtime to celebrate!
(see photo gallery)

Comments [0] | | More

14/01/2009, South Africa

Charmain and Bill - view from game park restaurant including giraffes in distance
Mossel Bay by car (see photos in photo gallery)
14th January 2009

Our friend Charmain (whom we met with hubbie Mike on Virenord) invited us to stay at her place in Dana Bay just outside Mossel Bay. It was nice to be off the boat for a couple of days exploring the region with a 'local'. Dana Bay is a beautiful beachside area with well kept homes and most have a view of the ocean. Charmain and Mike are currently living in a flat underneath Charmain's parents' house. South African hospitality was shown to us once again in abundance by Charmain, Gaart and Anneke. We enjoyed staying in a beautiful home with ocean views, delicious meals including a traditional 'brai',wonderful hot showers and the use of a washing machine! Charmain was our tour guide for 2 days showing us the local area. Most people in this region speak Afrikaans and even the road signs and shop names are in Afrikaans. Even though I understand and can speak a little Dutch I find it hard to understand. Comparing pronunciations of Dutch/Afrikaans words with Anneke and Gaart was fun. Most shopkeepers think we are Afrikaans and apologise when we reply in English!

We drove inland where it was very dry to a local game park. As the game drive was too expensive we enjoyed a leisurely lunch in their 5 star restaurant instead. Two giraffes entertained us the whole time in the distance of this magnificent view. It is a beautiful place but unfortunately we experienced a few culinary upsets! (We should have known as the restaurant was empty but we were so taken by the view) Towards the end of Charmain's meal she discovered a wriggling black grub or worm on her plate under some lettuce. Her face changed colour and she informed the manager. She kept thinking she may have eaten more without realizing it! After leaving the game lodge we drove to the Museum in town. (Unfortunately a short time afterwards Linda became ill! It was definitely a case of food poisoning! ) Bill enjoyed the Museum as there was a replica of Bartolemeu Dias' boat (Caravel) that he was able to climb on board. This replica actually repeated Dias' voyage from Portugal in 1988. The original voyage was in 1487. They completed the voyage in much less time. The copies of maps and illustrations were very interesting. The old charts had strange shapes for some of the countries and Australia didn't 'exist'.

Whilst in Mossel Bay we noticed our French friends Archibald, Maloya and Malamock tied up to a fishing boat in the harbour. We were so pleased to have come in to Knysna. These calm waters are such a treat for us in South Africa. We hope to see our French friends in Simonstown. Most of the cruisers seem to be going there.

We plan to meet up with Charmain and Mike next week (he'll be back from the mine) for a day or two at a mountaineering place so Bill and Mike can go rockclimbing.

Driving back to Knysna we took the scenic route to Oudtshoorn through the mountains. The change in temperature and geography in such a short time was amazing. The mountains were quite barren covered in mostly rock. Oudtshoorn was so hot! On the road in we saw ostriches with their beaks open and wings drooping. It was 39degrees! Linda had to buy some ostrich feathers (some dyed). I think Captain Bill is going to limit the souveniers on board Valiam soon!

The wind had picked up from the south west when we drove the dinghy back to Valiam so it was wet and choppy. Unfortunately Linda still didn't feel well and was soon in bed. Today things are looking brighter and we are starting to plan the next stage of our voyage. We copied 2 of Charmain's cruising books on Brazil mostly looking at the northern part where we will most likely land after St Helena. We will be busy in Cape Town provisioning and getting visas. We will leave Knysna in the next day or so when the weather is suitable and when the tide is almost high going out through the heads.

Comments [0] | | More

13/01/2009, Dana Bay

Thankyou to Charmain Gaart and Anneke for a wonderful stay! (Sorry if I spelt your names incorrectly!)

Comments [0] | | More

10/01/2009, Garden route, South Africa

Linda patting a cheetah cub Tenikwa Wildlife Centre

Exploring around Knysna
10th January 2009

Its fun being tourists especially when surrounded by stunning scenery and gorgeous animals! Yesterday we drove to Storms River Mouth via Tsitsikamma National Park. It was interesting to see the same mountains from the land as we saw from the sea. When we got to Storms River Mouth there was an arduous walk via 1000s of steps created around the rocks and on the forest edge to a suspension bridge across the gorge. This was the reward - what fun to bounce across it! There were buildings such as a café, change rooms and showers built right on top of the rocks which wouldn't happen in Australia in such a natural environment. We really enjoyed the scenery (see photo gallery)

Today we played with the animals! After seeing African animals in the wild I felt a bit guilty being able to get so close to them in captivity . However the animals we saw today are endangered and are being either being rehabilitated or part of breeding programs. These animals are kept in 5 star accommodation and appeared very happy and most have known no other life other than being raised by humans. The cheetah is still endangered. Although the breeding programs have been quite successful, some weak characteristics have emerged due to inbreeding. The largest number of cheetah at the moment in the wild, are in Namibia. Attempts have been made to introduce some of these to other game parks in Africa. Today we had the opportunity to pat cheetah cubs. Their fur although it looks soft is actually a bit wiry. They purr really loudly too! ! One playfully bit Bill on the knee! (see photo gallery) We observed other wild cats at this Wildlife Awareness Centre - Tenikwa. (www.tenikwa.co.za)

Down the road there was an Elephant Sanctuary so Linda just had to go. It seemed strange once again to see a mere 6 elephants cared for in 5 star accommodation when we have seen so many in herds and groups in the wild. We got the opportunity to touch them, walk with them holding their trunk and feed them. "My" elephant Tamela originally came form Kruger Park because she was naughty pushing down fences to eat the farmers' crops. One of the guides here said there are 17,000 elephants at Kruger and although it is a huge park it is still too many elephants for the area. We were also given little mini lectures at both these animal sanctuaries. Did you know an elephant gives birth in 30 seconds?

Comments [1] | | More

07/01/2009, South Africa

Knysna Lagoon
Knysna
South Africa
34 02.67S:23 02.36E
7th January 2009

We arrived in Knysna (pronounced 'nice-na') at 11.40 am on 7th Jan. It was an interesting entrance into the small harbour avoiding rocks etc as a catarmaran came out at the same time. A tight squeeze!! Even after several phone calls to Knysna Quays over the past week assuring us of a space we had to anchor. So we had to get the dinghy out! It seems it is crowded in every harbour in South Africa at this time of the year!! We may get a berth or tie up to the wall later. Oh yes there was a very helpful local showing us where to anchor in between sandbanks and of course reverse decided not to work at the crucial moment!!! Anyway it's working again and we are safely anchored and enjoyed a well earned cool drink - bubbles for me and beer for Bill.

We made our way to the yacht club to avail ourselves of their facilities - showers, restaurant etc. We were warmly welcomed by Roger with the first drink 'on the house'.
The waterfront is so like the Wharf at Mooloolaba or Noosaville it doesn't feel like Africa. Everything is expensive touristy and mostly white people on holidays. We were quite tired after a couple of hours so brought back a takeaway pizza for dinner. It's strange to be anchored again after so long. (The last time was in Rodrigues)
Its great that 3G works here to do internet from our anchorage.

For the yachties: c map is accurate. Just keep close to the western side rocks at the entrance. We came in 2 hours before high tide with no problem. Just phone NSRI 044 3840211 before you leave Port Elizabeth and just outside the entrance to assess conditions. When we came in it was blowing 20 knots from the east and no swell. There was 2 knots of current at the most when we came in.

Also we saw 2 seals a few miles from Knysna. Their cheeky little heads popped out of the water with their whiskers twitching and their bodies glistening as they then rolled over and swam into the waves. It was very cold this morning - beanies, jackets etc.

In South African lingo it looks a bit 'larny' from here. (like Noosa Heads). The Lonely planet says there is a 'gay friendly vibe' and 'a large Rastafarian community'! We'll let you know if it's true!!! At present we can only see well fed sunburnt shirtless whitefellas racing around in expensive runabouts!( as well as 2 kids being towed at high speed in an inflatable lounge suite) Apart from that the anchorage is peaceful however.

We look forward to exploring the area beyond the waterfront.

Comments [0] | | More

06/01/2009, South Africa

We had a lovely passage to Knysna as this picture shows

Comments [0] | | More

02/01/2009, South Africa

photo: Valiam's turquoise hull stands out!
Algoa Bay Yacht Club
Port Elizabeth
3rd January 2009

A wet windy southwesterly came in this morning. We are now tied up to a marina berth (see photo gallery) but one of our new mooring lines chafed on the cleat. So at 5am in the rain we readjusted the lines. The captain says we are not leaving the boat today to keep an eye on things. It's certainly windy down this end of South Africa. We'll sit tight until there is a nice weather window to move on.

Yesterday we explored the local area by foot and taxi. The Spa supermarket nearby has everything we need including big thick cuts of steak which the captain was eyeing off. There is a large tourist development called 'The Boardwalk'. Its open air shopping mall around a man made lagoon and casino. The shops are very up market catering for local as well as foreign tourists. The beach was very windy but the locals were enjoying it nonetheless. We felt quite safe here - everyone is in a happy holiday mood. The kite surfers were having a good time! There are a few restaurants and bars along the beachfront so we enjoyed a glass of wine upstairs whilst 'people watching'. A nice way to spend the afternoon even if we were a bit wind blown.

There aren't many foreign cruisers here. Near us are Franck and Meng on Constante from Singapore. They have 2 gorgeous little girls Carmen and Julie. We spent a nice couple of hours on their boat chatting. Meng is a musician - a double bass player but cant have her instrument on the boat! She is very busy looking after the 2 active little girls. Franck is French and has done some considerable sailing and is currently following his parents' path when they sailed around the world. Franck is also waiting for a break in the weather to head closer to Cape Town.

Comments [0] | | More

01/01/2009, South Africa

Algoa Bay Yacht Club
Port Elizabeth
South Africa
1st January 2009
Position : 33 57.999S 25 38.020E

Happy New Year!
Leaving Buffalo River Yacht Club, East London was like leaving good friends behind. Yevette and Keith waved us off (see pic in gallery) We had to wait an hour until a cargo ship had finished manoevering in the river before we could leave. It was brisk and choppy with a 15 knot South westerly when we left. We knew it would change soon but in the meantime Linda was seasick again (despite medication....) After the south easterly came in Valiam was more comfortable and she sped along in the current at 10 knots! We were deciding whether to keep going to Knysna or pull into Port Elizabeth in the early hours. We decided P E as we weren't sure of our timing getting into Knysna as we have to enter the harbour an hour before high tide. We slowed Valiam down by Bill taking the mainsail down and by midnight Linda was feeling well enough for a small glass of celebratory Amarula (African equivalent of Baileys). Instead of fireworks we watched dolphins swim in phosphorescence trails next to Valiam's hull. Just beautiful...

A mile from the entrance we called Port control. At 4.30 am there were no other vessels entering or leaving the harbour on New Years Day! The port control officer was extremely helpful and said someone would be waiting for us at the yacht club. A young man was there to catch our lines outside the hardstand dock against the wall. We could here raucous party noises coming from the yachtclub! We also noticed our young Polish friend's yacht Ania on the hardstand in a cradle. The young fellow who took our lines said "Their anchor came adrift and they ended up on the beach. They took in 1000s of litres of water" Heidrun and Dieter told us "They left with a faulty motor. There was no wind and their anchor came off. They ended up on the beach half way between East London and here. It was in the newspaper." Marta and Magda are both extremely competent sailors with yachtmasters certificates etc. Marta has already sailed 20,000 miles by herself from Venezuela . Thankfully they are safe and hopefully Ania will be repaired soon so Marta can continue her circumnavigation. We also just heard that an Australian yacht has been abandoned south of here due to heavy weather. The weather in South Africa is to be monitored carefully at all times. Short hops for us when we feel confident. Already there is an uncomfortable surge here next to the wall. We hope to move to a berth soon.

We had a couple of hours sleep and were greeted by two friendly local Germans Heidrun and Dieter. They say there is a berth for us at the marina. We will have to stay on the wall with all the squeaks and surges until we can get a key for the 'walk-ons' tomorrow. Bill cooked bacon and eggs!! ( a change from packet chips and cup-a -soup the last 24 hours!!) We'll sit tight in Port Elizabeth until the next best weather window.

All well on board Valiam

Comments [2] | | More

31/12/2008

Here's part of a newspaper story in Afrikaans of our Polish friend Marta. See Valiam in the background!

Comments [0] | | More

30/12/2008, East London SOUTH AFRICA

Buffalo River Yacht Club
East London
30 December 2008

It is very relaxing here and we are looked after so well by Yvette and Keith we feel thoroughly spoilt. Yvette cooked up a storm last night with garlic prawns, savoury rive, potatoes and salad. The Polish girls Marta and Magda as well as a couple of members were there for dinner. When we woke this morning Marta had already left for Port Elizabeth. It's been a magical day with blue skies and sun. Keith drove us around town to see the beautiful white sand beaches ( a bit like home!) and the Museum. We had a pleasant lunch at Guidos on the beach front. Linda had to buy some more African beads and second hand books from the stalls along the esplanade. The Museum was really interesting with many stuffed creatures, replicas, photos etc. The most famous exhibit is the stuffed original of a coelacanth a strange looking fish that until 1938 had been extinct for 50 million years. The history of South Africa is very interesting particularly the settling of people. Before white men came the original people were the San - Khoi khoi people who were here for tens of thousands of years. They were likened to 'Bushmen', were small in stature and were hunters and gatherers. Descendants of these people still live here today.

One of the best parts of traveling is meeting and chatting with the locals. It gives us an insight into how they feel about the struggles and changes in South Africa. It sometimes surprises me when I hear racist comments from white people but there are many white people who are working hard to build harmonious relationships with the black South Africans. South Africa has a 'colourful' history for want of a better term and has much potential. We are reading an interesting book at the moment called 'For Whites Only' by Charles Cilliers a white South African of many generations. Some of the things he talks about in his book about the past, apartheid policies etc are depressing. However he talks about how a positive future can be created by all South Africans by acknowledging the past but moving on to work collaboratively together.

We aim to leave East London tomorrow - New Years Eve - so we will have a quiet celebration at sea. Maybe we will see some fireworks!! Knysna seems a nice place so we are aiming for there but may have to stop in Port Elizabeth first. Knysna has a tricky entrance which is best to enter at high tide. We'll see how we go!

(more pics in the gallery)

Comments [1] | | More

28/12/2008

Buffalo River Yacht Club
East London
South Africa
Position: 33 01.437S 27 53.736E
28 December 2008

After clearing with Port Control to enter the harbour, Port Control radioed back shortly afterwards to say that Buffalo River Yacht club had a mooring for us as Latimers Landing is too crowded. As we entered the river we could see lots of yachts on what we Aussies call moorings - big drums floating in the water with ropes tied between them. After fishing out the boat hook and trying to work out how to pick up one of these things, a fellow motored over in a dinghy to tell us to tie up to a 'walk on' in front of the club. It was raining by this time so we were grateful for the 'walk on' as well as Keith and Mark's help tying up. (not our best skill after a passage!) It was still light at 6pm.

We had quite a good trip although uncomfortable at times. We didn't really get a ride on the Aghulas current until yesterday when we were going 11.5 knots!! The current was about 20 miles offshore and the water temperature went up to 24 degrees. When we first left Durban we were about 12 miles offshore (as reommended in Tony Herrick's guide) but all we experienced was a 1 knot counter current!! Marta on Ania came into East London just after us and said she went 35 miles off shore from Durban and at times was going at 14 knots! She left 6.5 hours before us but arrived an hour or so after. We would have liked to have kept going to Port Elizabeth but there was a 35 knot gale warning and we were tired.

For all the yachties we would like to put a good word out for the Buffalo River Yacht Club. We have been welcomed with open arms and Yvette the manager (and Keith) cant do enough for us. BRYC is like being in someone's home. Yvette and Keith cooked up nibbles, soup and steak, chips and eggs. After a few glasses of red wine we were snoring in our bunks. Yvette has made the club very homely and the amenities are spotless even with paintings and flowers decorating it. She has offered to do our laundry and run us into town. The pontoon we are tied up to is new but there is really only room for about 3 yachts unless rafting up. We think it is better than Latimers Landing. see their website :
http://www.bryc.co.za.
It's quite picturesque on the river and reminds me a little of Hobart, Tasmania. East London is Spouth Africa's only true river port.

We will wait for the next weather window before we leave either for Port Elizabeth or Mossel Bay.

It's a refreshing change here after Durban

Comments [1] | | More

22/12/2008, Durban South Africa

CHRISTMAS WISHES FROM LINDA AND BILL

22 December 2008
Durban Marina, South Africa

Hi everyone

Is it really Christmas? We've just returned from hauling out Valiam at Marina Yacht Lift on the other side of the harbour. Valiam has now a sparkling smooth black bottom and new waterline to reflect our increased cruising load. From 8 tons we are now about 10 tens. We are now tied up a little away from the International jetty but we can wave to them and also the people across a few metres of water in the Fish Café. We are now waiting for a good weather window to sail south towards Mossel Bay.

We nearly added to Valiam's crew by adopting a small stray kitten. After being fed, bathed and given a warm basket to sleep in little puss was in heaven. 5 star treatment after the rubbish and dirt in the boat yard! He was quite pathetic and on death's door when Bill found him in the dirt under Valiam. At four weeks he'd obviously been abandoned by his feral mother. Anyway after lots of discussion it was decided that in everyone's best interests that he stay at the boat yard. The yachties next to us in the boatyard are feeding him now who will then pass him on to the next ones and so on until he is strong enough to fend for himself. ( more photos in the gallery)

Last Christmas we were at sea between Papua New Guinea and Palau. As I reflect on our first year of cruising I feel a sense of amazement that we really sailed our boat all the way to Africa from Mooloolaba! (11,400 nautical miles) Valiam is comfortable, safe and reasonably fast. We are really happy with her performance and we feel confident that she will continue to get us safely wherever we want to go. As a cruising team of 2 we have managed pretty well. There are definitely 'blue' jobs and 'pink' jobs on this boat but that's the way it goes. We have to make the most of what skills each of us have. I have tried to learn more about rigging and managing the sailing and navigating and think that I understand everything a lot better. Bill has been honing in on skills he already has and with experience knows which equipment works best for us and the boat. Anything to do with computers (i.e. autopilot, sat communications etc) sometimes get the better of us!

The best part of our journey so far has been meeting amazing people when we are ashore and learning about their lives. As we travel through different countries we learn so much and gain understandings we didn't have before. The yachties we meet are 'in the same boat' (ha-ha) as ourselves and we usually have an instant connection. Conversations tend to be about the weather, fixing the boat, tips on places to go and of course the usual tall yarns after a couple of drinks. When we meet 'landlubbers' its nice not to always talk about boat things and experience life as they do a little. This has been especially significant and rewarding for us when friends/family from home has given us contacts. Examples of this are meeting all our 'in laws' in Malaysia and Singapore, forestry colleague Nestor in the Philippines, our artist friend Lewis in Mauritius and recently Angie in Durban. We now have wonderful memories of these rich experiences. Chance meetings especially when we have anchored Valiam near someone's town or village have also been enjoyable. I have lost count of the number of times I have dragged out my little photo album of the family and where we live in Oz to show people. Photos of the grandchildren always break the ice when there are language difficulties! Even the most dour faced official will smile and talk about his kids. We have given clothing, school items, fishing line, batteries and occasionally money to communities that we have visited who have so little in material possessions but often seem 'richer' in some ways by the way they live. A good example of this is the little community living on Egum atoll in Papua New Guinea. They have no electricity, cars, roads, shops, computers, TVS, telephone etc but have almost everything they need. They fish and grow vegetables. They build everything themselves - their own sailing canoes (main form of transport), huts, toys etc. We still can't believe that we traded a few t shirts and batteries for 10 fresh lobsters! This little community also gave us a couple of ancient carvings from an original canoe that we have proudly displayed inside Valiam's saloon.

Another significant pleasure as we travel is enjoying the local foods and wines! Unfortunately this has been reflected in our waistlines so we will try and indulge a little less in 2009! This is difficult in South Africa as the food (steaks, curries) is excellent quality as well as the wine at very reasonable prices for us Aussies. If we go to the USA and Europe it may be diet time!

It's been a fantastic year for us 'living our dream'. We will continue enjoying and learning as we go along. Thank you everyone for your support through emails, sat messages and comments on our website. It's been hard being away from our friends and family but satellites and mobile phones make the distances seem less! We hope that we have inspired some of you to also 'live your dream' as life is too short to waste it. We believe if you have a seaworthy boat and a bit of common sense anyone can do what we have.

Merry Christmas wherever you are and have a safe and happy 2009.

Love from
Linda and Bill
SV Valiam

Comments [0] | | More

21/12/2008, South Africa

This shot was taken the other night from Valiam looking towards the Fish Cafe. The southwesterly that blew that night got up to 50 knots on our wind instrument in port. We continue to wait for wa weather window!

Comments [1] | | More

21/12/2008, South Africa

21st December
The boat's painting is finished so we went for a drive into the country to Drackensberg. It's about 2.5 hours drive there and the scenery did not disappoint. Due to Linda's love of champagne we decided to go to Champagne Valley! We lunched at the Country club there amidst relaxed South Africans on holiday, and peacocks strolling around the garden. The male peacock looked magnificent when he spread his feather for the female but she took no notice of him particularly as she was busy caring for a clutch of baby peacocks! We had to have champange of course! (We chose a re sparkling) The mountains are indeed very beautiful and it was good to get out of the city and the dusty boat yard. The crazy drivers on the N3 driving back were not relaxing however!

Comments [0] | | More

18/12/2008, Marina Yacht Lift, Durban

Marina Yacht Lift boatyard, Bayhead
Durban
18th December 2008

After receiving a call from Terry the manager yesterday afternoon informing us the winch was being repaired and he wasn't sure he could lift us out we felt rather deflated. However after another call late in day he said 'I think it will be all right'.... As you can see from the photo we are in fact out of the water! We were pleasantly surprised by the lack of barnacles on Valiams bottom as we hadn't antifouled since February 2007 in Australia. The guys here did an amazing job carefully pulling her out and for a small fee pressure hosed and scraped the worst off for us. A big thank you to Terry and the guys for a great job at Marina Yacht Lift, Bayhead Durban.

Now I am typing this from up in Valiam's saloon still filthy dirty from scraping and sanding. The view from up here is quite different as we are up quite high. We can see the river down one side and piles of containers on the other. It hasn't been as hot as we expected with a breeze blowing whilst we worked. Another plus is there is a 24 hour takeaway shop run by and Indian lady. Lots of yummy Indian food is on offer, burgers as well as beer and other drinks. We enjoyed another 'bunny' for lunch. (5 inch slice of white bread hollowed out with curry inside) We still have the hire car which means we can have a break from the boat yard. It will be interesting sleeping here tonight!

We should be back in the water by Monday or Tuesday. Christmas in Durban!

For those of you who are interested in what Valiam looks like out of the water check out the photo gallery.

Comments [3] | | More

16/12/2008, Valley of 1000 Hills

Another great shot! (More in photo gallery)

Comments [0] | | More

16/12/2008, Valley of a 1000 hills

17th December
Durban Marina
South Africa

How spectacular Zulu dancing is! What a treat!We hired a car yesterday to drive up through some wonderful scenery through the Vally of the 1000 hills. Many villages were dotted throughout the landscape with groups of 'rondavels'. In Zulu culture a man can have many wives. Each must be paid for with at least 11 cows and each wife has their own house within the compound. I guess that's one way to share the domestic chores! (as well as have big families) The zulu performance we saw yesterday was in a touristy place but wonderful nonetheless. The spectacular view was an amazing backdrop! The performance included some story telling and drama including fortune tellers and witch doctors. When we were at the markets the other day we saw many old smelly bones lining the footpath. As we looked closer we could see a stall with bottles and jars, dried things and liquids etc which was obviously witch doctor stuff. I was surprised to see this in downrtown Durban. Enjoy the zulu photos!
(We haul out Valiam tomorrow at the boat yard - hard work ahead!)

Comments [0] | | More

14/12/2008, love from Nanny and Pa in Durban

Dear Joe
We wished we could have seen you eat your number one cake with blue icing and smarties! We will try and talk to you today from the other side of the Indian ocean!

Comments [1] | | More

14/12/2008, South Africa

<i>Linda, Celia and Angie on board Valiam</i>
Durban Marina
14th December 2008

We had a night on the town last night! Bill was in the company of 3
women! Angie and her firend Celia popped by the marina on their way to a party at a nearby waterfront restaurant and insisted we join them. It was a birthday party of a table full of people much younger than us! They were a nice bunch and asked us lots of questions about our trip. The girl next to me is a teacher working for a government school in an underprivileged area so it was interesting talking to her. Her boyfriend is an architect and feels quite positive about the future of South Africa. For those who are committed to staying in the country he says there is a lot of work to be done. After this party Celia drove us to all the 'hot spots' around Durban - mostly the 'larny' (means upper class) places. We had drinks in a couple
of bars which were 'pumping' and icecream on the esplanade which was full of people (like Mooloolaba) and then finally in an Italian coffee shop place. My hot chocolate was so rich you could stand a spoon in it! It was a fun night and a great eyeopener for us as during the day we only saw the poorer side of town when we walked around.

We had visited the Victorian market in the Indian part of town and ate a 'bunny' in an Indian cafe. A bunny is a thick slice of white bread about 5 inches thick with the middle hollowed out and vegetarian curry inside. The locals mop up the curry with
the bread in their hands. (They gave us a spoon!) We went to this place on the recommendation of an Indian man at the market where we bought pepper spray. (our amunition if baddies come on our boat) He said we cant experience Durban without having a 'bunny'.

So yesterday was a day of contrasts and that's what we love about
traveling. There is a definite division between the rich and poor here. Last night I was distressed to see several small groups of women and children sleeping on the street close to the expensive restaurants. We gave them some money and felt useless to do anything to help. Bill says they probably feel safe there as their previous homelife is obviously not a place to be... A huge percentage of Africans die of AIDS. There is no social security and there are many African refugees here from other countries who obviously dont
have any family to support them. We have also seen on a number of
occasions a couple of white beggars. There is an old dishevelled white man who begs from the cars at the traffic lights accross the road from here. The other morning Bill got up really early (before 6am) and saw a man sleeping on the steps near the boat. He also saw woman get up out of her corner in front of a small building in front of us, lift her skirts to pee in the street then change her clothes under a towel. He said it was such a contrast to the super rich Indians backing a huge expensive motor boat into the water down the ramp with a huge expensive 4 wheel drive to go fishing. This is
the sad side of Africa and it is much much worse in other countries
especially Zimbabwe. Durban has 3.5 million people. (same pop as New Zealand) South Africa has 40 million people (approx 4 million are white)Thats enough current affairs.
Us 'rich' yachties just enjoyed brekky at the yacht club because it was too hot on the boat..... We watched lots of yacht club members (all white) get ready to participate in Sunday yacht racing. There are only 10 international cruising boats here at the moment and a few of them are away. We are particularly interested in a young man Zac Sunderland who left the California USA in June at the age of 16 on his yacht Intrepid. He is hoping to break the world record as the youngest person to circumnavigate the world. He arrived yesterday at 3.30am and tied up just behind us. Since resting yesterday he has been interviewed and photographed by the media. Point Yacht Club are really looking after him. He is now 17 is planning to continue his journey after a few repairs. I just spoke to him earlier and he said when he gets back he wants to do it again with friends and produce a TV documentary. He says he still loves sailing and has done it all his life. To find out more about Zac and his trip go to :

http://www.zacsunderland.com/

Comments [0] | | More

12/12/2008, South Africa

Durban Marina
29 51.76S 31 01.28E
12 December 2008

Well we're in the thick of things here! We are tied up right next to Victoria embankment a main thoroughfare through Durban. Valiam is tied up at the International jetty between the 2 yacht clubs - Point Yacht Club and Royal Natal Yacht Club. No privacy! (except inside) We have been warmly welcomed by employees/members of each yacht club delivering show bags of brochures and magazines. The Royal Natal Yacht Club included a bottle of champagne! We have 2 weeks of free membership at both clubs which is great as it gives us somewhere to relax whilst here. Both have showers, bar, restaurant etc. The Royal Natal has a pool. The location is excellent as far as yachting supplies go as there are chandleries across the road and Tony Herricks Cruising Connections.

Our trip here from Richards Bay was a bit unpleasant and stressful to begin with. Although Bill cleaned the prop as best he could the motor struggled a bit coming out of Richards Bay against the wind and wave chop. It was a bit windy and nasty outside and despite taking medication Linda was seasick. The worry of thunderstorms and lightning coming towards us didn't help. The autopilot decided not to steer in the right direction so Bill put the wind vane on. At one stage we headed back north again towards Richards Bay to avoid the storms. By midnight the storms had gone, the full moon was visible and we were sailing along nicely with just the jib. Linda's seasickness abated with the help of stematyl and we both managed a couple of hours rest before got to Durban. There were a number of ships to watch out for and quite a few were anchored outside Durban Harbour. Port Control gave us the go ahead and we proceeded into the harbour to the marina.

After aquainting ourselves with both clubs we walked into town to do a bit of shopping. After being warned about muggings and pickpockets we only took the bare minimum cash and one credit card with us in a daggy purse. It certainly helps to be 'streetwise' and aware around here. Durban is a city of 3.5 million people many of whom are poor. As we walked along Smith street and into Shoprite we were virtually the only white people. We bought food for a brai at the yacht club but collapsed in a heap by 6pm and slept until this morning. Nevermind the sausages were delicious for breakfast!

A young American sailor on his yacht Intrepid is on his way here. He is trying to break the record as the youngest sailor to sail around the world. Apparently he has had some breakages since Mauritius and has run out of fuel. He is about 25 miles out and is due in soon. The yachtclubs have placed his logs on their noticeboards and look forward to welcoming him when he arrives.

The predicted southwesterly arrived yesterday at 11am. We arrived just in time.

Our booking with Marina yacht lift for hauling out is next Thursday 18th. Think of us working hard in the hot sun in the boat yard! Hopefully we will be back at sea by Christmas!

Comments [0] | | More

10/12/2008, South Africa

Bill is doing the paperwork to leave. In South Africa we have to notify the authorities whenever we leave and arrive in each port. Its been great here at Zululand Yacht Club. Thanks Fiona and the all the wonderful staff including the bar and kitchen staff. We have felt really at home here. Im sure it will be different at 'the big smoke' as we say in Oz ie Durban. I believe the marina has 350 berths!

Just in case you were worrying about us in an open landrover on our last game drive - the driver had a rifle mounted on the dashboard in case any lions or elephants got upset with us humans in the noisy big metal thing that kept following them!

Next entry will be from Durban. We expect it to be an overnight sail. Cheers!

Comments [0] | | More

08/12/2008, South Africa

Mother Cheetah and her cubs (above)

Tuesday 9th December 2008
Zululand Yacht Club
Richards Bay

We are probably heading to Durban today to haul out Valiam for antifouling. The weather looks good so it is a good time to go. It will be sad leaving Richards Bay. Everyone at Zululand Yacht club has been so friendly and welcoming and we have made many friends. We hope to meet some of them again one day and with cruisers you never know when this might happen!

The animals and varied landscapes in Africa are the main reasons Africa is so majestic vast and unique. Returning from Phinda Game reserve yesterday we are still feeling incredibly lucky to see such beautiful animals in their natural habitat. Phinda has only been a game reserve since 1990 where the animals have been reintroduced to the 23000 hectares of land previously used for farming since the war. The local community has leased the land to Phinda reserve (&Beyond). We were spoilt and thoroughly enjoyed 5 star luxury for one night. We were able to get a special deal on the internet which made it affordable for us. We enjoyed 2 game drives in open land cruisers with an experienced guide and tracker. All meals were included and we loved the accommodation. We had our own villa with private plunge pool decks and bush surroundings. Little touches such as chocolates and dried fruit always available, ice and cocktail ingredients etc made us feel like royalty. We went with another yachtie couple Natalie and Rob (Wilhelm) who had said on the booking form that it was a special occasion for Linda. (My birthday). When we returned from dinner in the evening the freestanding bath tub was filled with hot water and bubbles surrounded by candlelight and 2 shot glasses of Amarula (like Baileys) were placed beside the bath!

It was hard to answer the wakeup call at 5am for our morning game drive! We were so fortunate during both drives to see animals and their behaviour we had never seen before e.g. Cheetah and her 3 cubs on watch when a rhino ambled past, lions snoring and then later out hunting with Baboons making huge noises from the tops of the trees, an elephant ripping out a huge tree and so much more. Driving around with Richard and Cibo through grass and rocky hillsides with the wind in our hair soaking up the landscape are memories we will always have. As a friend once said 'Memories are better than 'things'. Enjoy the photos - I had difficulty choosing one for the main web page! (See photo gallery - 'Back in South Africa')

Comments [0] | | More

01/12/2008, near Richards Bay SOUTH AFRICA

1st December 2008
Zululand Yacht Club

The dreaded southwesterly blew yesterday so we were very glad to be tied up in a marina. Even so the wind howled and yanked on Valiam's ropes. The wind was also a lot stronger than predicted. We will be picking our weather before we go down to Durban . It's only an overnight sail so we should be fine. This week will be spent doing domestic/boat chores as well as celebrating Linda's birthday on Wednesday!!! This coincides with happy hour at the yacht club -yay!(Woops -Bill just said my birthday is Thursday - will have to stay up till midnight Wednesday haha)

Yesterday we spent the last day of car hire by driving to a small game park close to Richards Bay called Enselini. Even though it is small (300 hectares) it was nice to walk around instead of driving. The walk took us down towards the river to vantage points to observe the hippos and crocs. Alas none could be seen. Instead we interrupted the lunch of a giant sea egret. He had caught a large fish and was half way through it on the river bank when we came along. The 5km walk took us away from the noisy highway into the bush beside the river which was shady and cool. We observed several bushbucks running into the bushes when they saw us. Just as we were on our way back we were surprised to see a group of zebra feeding in a small grassy plain. Looking more closely we could see that they were 3 babies and their mothers. The smallest baby zebra looked soft and its stripes were dark brown and not black. It was lovely to walk close to them and be amongst them. We also saw a couple of large majestic stags who just stood still staring at us with their long curved horns. There were no giraffes. (wiped off the info signs - must be too small an area for them) A lovely day finished with a huge meat meal at Dros, Tuzi Gazi waterfront.

Comments [2] | | More

30/11/2008

I took this photo myself! I was closer to the zebras than it appears in this shot. Glad there are no predators in this park!!

Comments [0] | | More

29/11/2008, Richards Bay

Valiam resting before her trip down south

Comments [0] | | More

29/11/2008, by hire car

View from Romas revolving restaurant, 32nd floor

It's become really hot here during the day but we've enjoyed the comforts of an air-conditioned hire car and the local shopping centre! We've spent a couple of days in the Durban area enjoying the hospitality of a friend Angie in Ballito. Angie is the sister in law of one of Linda's sister's good friends; Ballito is north of Durban and feels a bit like the Sunshine Coast of Queensland, Australia. Angie lives in a complex as do many white South Africans with boom gates, electric fences and 24 hour security. Her home enjoys lovely sea breezes which she shares with her children Megan and Michael as well as a lively grey kitten named Storm. It was an enjoyable time discussing world affairs over several wines and later going out meeting several of Angie's friends. It was a late evening and us old grandparents couldn't quite keep up the pace and called it a night at 1am. It was an interesting evening talking to and observing South Africans letting down their hair in a local night spot. A couple of Aussies were also there relaxing after work. (see photo gallery)

We heard many stories of people's lives which gives us a better understanding of how it is for white South Africans here. One lady lost her farm in Zimbabwe and after coming to South Africa separated from her husband and it is difficult for her to make ends meet. There is no social security. Angie was all excited after an Indian work colleague said it was a good time to buy Vodacom shares. When she fronted up to buy some she was told she couldn't because she was white. It is interesting for us to hear stories such as this as it is not unlike how the Chinese are treated in Malaysia. In both cases these families have lived in their country for many generations. We also heard accounts of whites being assassinated during robberies. These murders are not always recorded in the news. Many white South Africans are emigrating to Australia. Angie's brother is already in Oz and her remaining sister is also going.

When we park our car anywhere there are always fellows who hang around 'protecting' cars from robberies and it is required to pay them a few rand. We feel quite secure here at Zululand yacht club. Its quiet and we don't lock up at night or when we go ashore to the club. We are careful driving around however and always have our doors locked and handbags etc out of sight.

Durban is a big sprawling city with a big harbour and beaches. Durban Marina has 350 berths and is right next to the city with views of the shipping across the harbour. After driving around getting lost on the other side of the harbour amongst commercial shipping, containers and wharves we finally found the Yacht haul out facilities. The travel lift is big and will handle our boat at a reasonable cost. We can go around 9th December to antifoul. It will be sad to leave Richards Bay as it so relaxing here. They can't accommodate us for haul out here until 26th December and we would like to start heading for Cape Town.

Whilst in Durban we found the excellent shop Cruising Connections run by Tony Herrick. Tony has been an icon for yachties needing info on sailing around South Africa for many years. He gave us wonderful service and we came away with much needed cruising guides, charts etc. As a treat we went to the revolving restaurant Roma's on the 32nd floor of a building on the Harbourfront. The views were fantastic and we could see all of Durban and of particular interest was the harbour and the marina. Romas has been operating for more than 30 years and has an authentic Italian menu and the décor consists of copied paintings by Michelangelo on the walls. We highly recommend it if you are in Durban!

Back at Richards bay with 2 more days of car hire we did some much needed grocery shopping and plan to go to a nature park close by that has non predator animals. We'll be able to walk amongst the animals without being eaten! Bill plans to pat a giraffe......

Comments [0] | | More

26/11/2008, Hwahlue Imfalozi Game park Zululand

Yesterday we had a wonderful day driving around Imfalozi Game Park in a hire car with Natalie and Rob (Wilhelm). It was good to revisit as we saw more of other animals we didnt see last time. The park is only 1 hours drive from Zululand Yacht Club and only 80rand entrance fee. It is so wonderful to be able to see these gorgeous animals in their beautiful natural habitat so easily. Linda was particularly pleased to see several elephants quite close. Bill was lucky enought to see a lion slink by behind us in the rear vision mirror! Unfortunately he/she disappeared into the bush befroe we could get a look. It was a wonderful way to spend our 31st wedding anniversary. (see photo gallery)
We are driving to Ballito and Durban today to see a friend(sister inlaw Angie to my sisters friend Sanchia) as well as check out the haul out facilities down there for Valiam. Enjoy the photos!

Comments [0] | | More

25/11/2008, Richards Bay

photo : blue testicled monkey
Zululand Yacht Club
Richards Bay
South Africa
24th November 2008

After a busy time traveling from Brisbane to Melbourne to Canberra, Sydney back to Brisbane, the Sunshine Coast and Townsville, Australia spending time with our family and good friends we are ready for a rest! It feels strange yet welcoming to be back. Our 'byes' to our family and friends were even more emotional as it may be more than a year (maybe 2) before we see them again. (unless they visit us in some far flung place in the world!)

We had 24 hours in Johannesburg before our flight back to Richards Bay. After staying the night in a hotel we engaged a friendly taxi driver Evans recommended by the hotel to drive us around. Evans took us to the tower in the city to see the view. There is evidence that Joburg is rejuvenating itself by revamping and building new shops and apartments. Squatters however still live in unused buildings. It appears much safer now to stroll around the CBD during the day anyway. As it was Sunday things were rather quiet. A good coffee was searched for and eventually found in Kensington at a groovy little place where the owner roasts his own coffee beans. The machine is impressive. The aromas were wonderful and the taste even better. We took a bag back with us and could smell it through the back pack all the way on the plane!

After hearing so much about Soweto we were keen to go there. Evans drove us past one area that was full of little tin shacks. Each little dwelling looked meticulously swept clean and the people as always were superbly dressed particularly as it was Sunday - church day. The famous part of Soweto where Nelson Mandela lived is beautifully kept. Winnie's house was difficult to see behind a fence and Nelson's original house was being redone to create a family museum.

Evans took us to the Hector Pieterson Museum which was a real eye-opener for us. Hector was a 13 year old boy killed during the demonstration in June, 1976. High School children were protesting against the language of instruction at school - Afrikaans. As they were taught and spoke Bantu in Primary school it was difficult (and inappropriate) for them to learn in Afrikaans. Something like only 38% passed matriculation. The demonstration turned violent when the police fired weapons killing and injuring many children. This was a turning point for Apartheid in South Africa. It was interesting to note that media coverage for the world was highly censored. In 1976 I had just finished high school myself and don't remember hearing the details of this horrific time. The Museum had many photos and film as well as documented interviews by children and witnesses. Now of course high school children are taught in English and much has improved since then. The effects of Apartheid can still be felt in subtle ways but as Evans said 'People now realize everyone has to get on together and no longer see the whites as enemies'. We have certainly been welcomed everywhere by all the South Africans we have met regardless of their ancestry.

Its always informative to talk to locals and Evans gave us lots of background information about Joburg and his thoughts on the present and future. He is proud of his Zulu ancestry. He said 'Linda is a popular name in Zulu. It means "wait"'(putting his hand up in a stopping motion.) I laughed and said Bill always has to wait for me as I walk slower than he does!

At the end of our 'tour' we drove through some affluent areas. All these big houses and estates of town houses had high walls and electric fences, boom gates etc. Evans said many of these houses have dogs and armed guards. To us it would feel like being in prison! Evans said violent robbery is still a big issue in Joburg and is attributed to drugs and unemployment. Illegal immigrants from other African countries are also blamed. Joburg is a city which is very spread out with enclaves of different housing depending on the demographics. It was certainly an interesting day.

After 9 aeroplane flights since we left we finally arrived 'home' to Valiam.
Valiam has been safely looked after by Zululand yachtclub and we look forward to the Monday night 'brais' where we can exchange stories and information with other yachties and club members. We have bought a big 'boerworst' and 2 big steaks to cook tonight. Our friends Rob and Natalie on Wilhelm whom we met in Cocos are now here. It will be good to catch up.

Tot siens!

25 November
Today we drove around Richards Bay in a hire car to have a look at the local beaches. It was good to see where we came in through the harbour. The cliffs and beaches look a bit like north of where we live on the Queensland coast in Australia. On one track we saw a monkey in a tree right beside the road. He had luminous blue testicles!

Tomorrow we will see some more wild life at Imfalosi game park. Natalie and Rob are coming with us in the hire car. It will be good to go back out there. I hope to see some elephants this time!

Comments [1] | | More

24/11/2008, Soweto Joburg

Famous photo taken of Hector Pieterson 13 year old boy killed during Soweto demonstration June 1976

Comments [0] | | More

17/11/2008, Kelso, Townsville

photo: Valiam's crew with Caylan, Clayton and Chloe
Hello Prep CAD at Kelso! We enjoyed meeting you and telling you about our trip so far.
Today Caylan asked us to be her show and tell for her prep class.
Caylan: 'There were lots of hands after my show and tell. Clayton asked "Why do you want to do it?" so Linda and Bill could have time to themselves saling. Captain Bill said 'So we can see all the interesting things like animals and places that were in the photos.' We presented a short slideshow together with artefacts and short video clip of the big seas in the Indian ocean.

Comments [0] | | More

15/11/2008, Australia

Our kids and grandkids......

Comments [0] | | More

10/11/2008, Brisbane, Queensland

Bill with a friend near Roys Beach house, Durras, NSW

Brisbane 11th November 2008

After a week or so driving from Melbourne in the hire car we arrived in Brisbane. On the way we visited family and friends in Canberra, Durras, Sydney, Umina, and Lismore. It was a leisurely trip enjoying the Australian landscapes interspersed with quality time with loved ones.

We also revisited a couple of places we visited in our first yacht Alouette in the early 80s - Laurieton and Coffs Harbour on the NSW coast. We only had a small 24ft plywood boat in those days with an extra crew member in the form of our dog Jane. We remember a fast trip from Laurieton to Coffs in 12 hours (96 n miles) - not bad for a small boat hand steering all the way! It was a strong southeasterly we remember and we only had the storm jib up. I still remember the captain's eyes gleaming with delight as our little boat surfed down the waves!
We are now spending time with all our special friends and family in Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast. Next week is our last week in Oz and most of this will be spent in Townsville with our daughter, son in law and grandchildren. (see photos)

For those who are following our journey on our yacht Valiam, we will be returning to her in Richards Bay, South Africa soon after 23rd November.

Until then
Tot siens
Linda and Bill

Comments [1] | | More

01/11/2008

Linda and Bill with Lesley. We met here in this house in 1976 at her brother John's 21st! Bill said hi to John on the phone in China! Its been great to catch up with everyone, their kids and parents most of whom we hadnt seen for 8 years! Linda's brother Roy took us on a drive around Canberra to see how much had changed. Lots of memories of fun times during our youth!

Comments [0] | | More

31/10/2008, Canberra

Our nephew Doug working in Woolies
To all our website followers : Thanks for all your messages of support and friendship! Valiam is safely tied up at Zululand yachtclub, Richards Bay South Africa waiting for our return on 23rd November. We are currently on a road trip in a hire car from Melbourne to Brisbane visiting family and friends. We will then spend 10 days in Brisbane and our home town on the Sunshine Coast spending time with our son, other family members and close friends. Before we head back to South Africa we will fly to Townsville for a few days to spend time with our daughter and our precious grandchildren. As it will be at least another year before we see everyone again we will make the most of every moment. Everywhere we've visited we have recounted our adventures giving slideshows etc. We are overwhelmed with everyones interest. This is great as it feels as if many people are sailing with us! Love to all from Valiam's crew

Comments [1] | | More

23/10/2008, we are in Oz!

photo: 4 Generations in Victoria
Castlemaine
Victoria, Australia
24 October 2008

After spending a busy few days catching up with family in Brisbane we flew to Melbourne with our daughter Vashti and grandchildren Caylan and Joe. Watching the news that evening with Bill's parents the weather report predicted minus 1 degrees that night! It was very cold indeed and Grandpa has lit the fire every day. Caylan was very excited to see frost for the first time in her life and asked if it was like snow. She has been very busy with great Grandpa making things in the shed, creating fairy houses in the garden and listening to his songs and stories. 10 month old Joe has coped very well with all the traveling as well as being bundled up in lots of clothes and is wearing shoes for the first time. Our grandchildren are enjoying the company of all their little cousins. Above is a photo of Isadora and Caylan.

You will be wondering about our subject title of this log. Last night we received a disconcerting phone call from our bank informing us of some suspicious transactions on our credit card in South Africa. Someone has copied our card and had a spending spree of thousands of dollars including $1000 in a restaurant. Our bank has cancelled our cards immediately which is a bit of an inconvenience but we'll survive for a week until our new cards arrive. For anyone using credit cards don't let them out of your sight! We have narrowed down the possibility of the culprit to a shop at OR Johannesburg International airport. Linda purchased a shirt for Liam with her credit card. The woman said she didn't have the facilities to process the card and said we had to go the bigger shop. Linda followed her to the other shop whilst she had the card. She gave the card to two other people in a dark corner of the shop near a cash register. Linda was looking around the shop about 3 metres away waiting but did not take a lot of notice of what they were doing. It did seem to take an extraordinary long time. She glanced over a couple of times and saw the two shop assistants look at her. A third shop assistant answered Linda's questions about other shirts in the second shop. All we can say is never let your credit card out of your sight and take notice of all the warnings the banks give in using credit cards. The bank is pursuing this matter and we are very pleased so far with their vigilance. It seems that copies of ones credit card can be made by an extra mechanism in the swiping part of the machine. Just watch carefully what they do and read what comes up on their screen. We will be using cash when we go back to South Africa!

Captain Bill is presently investigating a cheap van for us to drive back to Brisbane next week via Canberra and Sydney visiting family and friends. There are a few photos of the family including our son Liam wearing 'the shirt' purchased at Joburg airport.

Comments [2] | | More

16/10/2008, South Africa

Thursday 16th October 2008
Zululand Yachtclub
Richards Bay

Being tourists is fun but quite tiring! We drove to a Shakaland the other day which enabled us to see some of the countryside around Richards Bay. Many locals still live in small round houses with thatched roofs. Some people also have to carry water in 20litre drums in wheelbarrows. (Just like us yachties!) Some of the traditional houses have been replaced with small square houses made of concrete blocks and tin roofs. At Shakaland (where the movie Shaka Zulu was filmed) we enjoyed a great view over the hills and reservoir whilst eating a huge buffet lunch. We missed the Zulu dancing but got to see that later when the kitchen staff at Hilltop lodge Imfalozi entertained us at dinner.

Keen to see the African animals in the wild we drove ourselves to Hwulue Imfalozi Game reserve. (About an hour from Richards Bay) The first animal we saw was a white rhinocerous! This was very exciting as on our previous safari in Serengeti, Tanzania in 2002 the white rhinos were very rare. Later we saw lots of white rhinos in small groups very close to us. Seeing all the animals is such a thrill. The landscape is not unlike Australia but the diversity in wildlife is just amazing. Around almost every corner we saw something different - zebras, giraffes, warthogs, wildebeest, bucks, impala, kudu, baboons, monkeys, as well as many beautiful birds. We saw only one bull elephant in the distance and late on our last day we saw a hyena way in the distance eating a carcass. Large birds which didn't look like vultures were hanging about. We saw evidence of many elephants in the form of fresh poo and broken sticks/branches. We missed out on seeing lions but our friends saw a couple not far from our accommodation.

After being greeted by surly unfriendly reception staff at Hilltop camp we drove ourselves to our chalet. It was quite beautiful with views through the trees to the hills beyond. On our verandah just before sunset a female bushbuck and her baby came very close. The bush sounds were lovely and it was a very enjoyable place to stay.

We met up with friends Charmain and Mike (Virenord) who were also staying at Hilltop. We enjoyed a huge buffet dinner together and afterwards took our own group photo under a lion skin draped above the bar. (See photos)

We were very brave and walked though the wild bush imagining lions stalking us to a premade hide. The hide was overlooking a river valley but was very dry with very little water. As we munched on smelly French cheese from Reunion a family of warthogs wandered down to the waterhole. They kept sniffing the air no doubt wondering what the strange smell was! It was very peaceful there in the bamboo hide watching the animals. At a camp spot we did notice some tourists dressed in safari gear marching off into the wilderness accompanied by a guide with a big rifle. It really is African safari country! (They weren't wearing pith helmets however)

We are really enjoying South Africa and look forward to returning after out trip to Australia. We have made many friends at the yacht club and everyone is so helpful. We have visited the dentist due to our fillings falling out (must be all that rough sea) and were pleasantly surprised by how cheap it is here. (1/6 the price of Oz) A lovely South
African Indian dentist did a very professional job.

To all our friends and family in Australia - we hope to spend quality time with each of you! See you soon! To all our other followers out there - sorry but there wont be any Valiam adventures for 5 weeks! We are thinking of doing a road trip in Oz so if anything exciting happens we'll put it on the website. We promise not to put too many photos of our precious grandchildren!!!

Until next time
The captain and crew
S V Valiam

Comments [0] | | More

12/10/2008

Zululand Yacht Club
Richards Bay
12th October 2008

It's another beautiful day with clear blue skies and we are ready to explore our surrounds a little further today. We have hired a car for a week and after yesterday's excursion we really feel we are in Africa. By the time we got moving it was nearly 11am and we managed to get a car - VW golf from the airport just before they closed. We were told to keep the doors locked, hide our valuables in the boot and not stop beside the road. After a while we relaxed into enjoying the country side which reminded Linda of her time in Tanzania. The countryside was quite dry in places and we saw little round huts as well as small square dwellings in some of the settlements. Brightly coloured clothes were draped over fences to dry. We also passed many plantations of skinny little eucalypts. Forester Bill says they will be turned into pulp and paper eventually.

After an hour or so we arrived at St Lucia Estuary. It's a busy little tourist town with restaurants and tourist shops. We saw a huge baboon scampering about next to the road. Yes we are in Africa! Whilst having fish and chips for lunch we asked the waiter about boat trips to see the hippos. He booked tickets for us there and then from his mobile. What service! We were able to enjoy our lunch, pick up our tickets and get to the boat jetty in time for the 2pm cruise. We boarded the cruise boat and began motoring up a wide muddy river. Many of the tourists on boar were dressed in 'safari' gear - khaki lightweight pants, jackets, new boots with no mud carrying huge binoculars and cameras. Linda was pleased to be wearing a bright African skirt and vowed never to dress in khaki whilst in Africa!!! As we cruised the river the commentary was then translated in French. We realized that the majority of tourists on this vessel were part of a French tour group! For a moment we thought we were back in Reunion! Not only did we have French filling our ears once more we had to watch them eat a gourmet buffet lunch. Lucky we weren't hungry!

The river reminded us of the Kinabantangen River in Borneo. The first animal we saw was a hippopotamus peeping out between the reeds. Only his eyes, ears and nostrils were visible. Hippos have sensitive outer skin and stay in the water most of the day when it is hot. Further along we saw several very large crocodiles basking in the sun on the muddy bank. Again the crocodiles looked similar to the ones we saw in Borneo having lighter skin than Aussie crocs. We saw several pods of hippos grouped closely together occasionally snorting and wallowing in the water. Hippos are the most dangerous animal in Africa. It has been reported that they have been seen wandering the quieter streets of St Lucia. They are huge animals and its best not to be in there way!

After the cruise Linda just had to buy some jewelry and small carvings and spent all her money! On the way home we received an sms from Charmain inviting us for dinner. Charmain and Mike have cruised Patagonia, Chile which is one of the places Bill really wants to go. After an enjoyable evening discovering many mutual interests such as belly dancing and bushwalking etc it was decided to meet up at Imfalozi Game Park on Tuesday night. Imfalozi will be wonderful as we hope to see elephants, lions etc.
We are not sure where we will go today. We have left it a bit late again so it will be somewhere close by. There are many beautiful places and reserves in Zululand. We are happy here at the yacht club. Everyone is very friendly and helpful and it is quieter and more private than Tuzi Gazi.

There are supposed to be hippos and crocs here in the river where Valiam is berthed but we haven't seen any here yet!

Comments [1] | | More

09/10/2008, 400 miles from South Africa

This photo was taken by Charmain on Vire Nord. What a fun rendez vous after so long at sea!

Comments [0] | | More

08/10/2008, Richards Bay

8 October 2008
Zululand Yacht Club

This will be our home away from home for a while. Zululand Yacht Club is in a pleasant location especially the bar which overlooks the water and the boats. In the above picture the waiter is describing the size of the steak!

The meals are good and cheap. We just ha ve to organise some form of transport to get to the shops and maybe visit Umfalozi Game Park which is only an hour away. Linda desperately wants to se the African animals!(There are monkeys playing on the lawns)

We are also very excited about seeing family and friends in Oz over the next month or so when we fly home. Valiam will be well looked after here at the yacht club.

We have resident pet native ducks who live on the pontoon. Their names are Potroast and Potluck! One tried to attack me earlier!

tot siens!

Comments [2] | | More

08/10/2008, South Africa

Tuzi Gazi
Small Craft harbour (moving to Zululand Yacht Club)
Richards Bay
South Africa
8th October 2008
Position : 28 47.69S 32 04.7E

We are in Africa!! It's hard to believe we sailed here from Mooloolaba, Australia after a total of 11,223 nautical miles. The last day was cool and blustery coming in. With choppy waves and strong northeasterly wind it mad for a quick trip. The Aghulas current was only about 2 knots but with the strong wind Valiam galloped in at 9.5 to 10 knots at times! (With only a jib) We saw whales in the distance splashing and breaching. What a welcome to South Africa! The shore line looked similar to the Queensland Coast on the way to Noosa with its coloured sand dunes.

It took a while for Richards Bay Port control to answer our radio call. As we got closer to Richards bay we could see why. There were at least 6 ships outside the harbour waiting and one coming out. The Port control people were busy organizing a pilot to go out to one of the ships by helicopter. Then there was little old us. We were given permission to enter the harbour 'But to keep clear of the incoming vessel'. With a big ship not far behind us we stayed to the far right of the channel as we could. It didn't take long to tie up at Tuzi Gazi Small craft harbour. It took us 9 days to complete 1400 mile passage from Reunion. All in all it was a good passage with no dramas. A helpful fellow from the Port Authority came over to assist us to hurry customs and immigration along. They have a reputation of making yachts wait days so with his help the formalities were completed in 3- 4 hours.

It wasn't long before we were welcomed by a couple of yachties. One German Swiss fellow and an Australian couple Geoff and Chris on Shambala 1. Geoff and Chris are from Caloundra just a few kilometers from our home! We have met very few Australians and Geoff and Chris have given us lots of advice as they have been in Africa for year.
Last night we went to Dros restaurant (walking distance from the boat in the photo above) and had a huge meal using visa. We haven't been able to get any rand as the ATM is out of order. Whilst dining in Dros it was apparent that South Africans like everything big including themselves. Coming from tall Dutch stock they are big on eating and drinking. The meat on our plates was of a ridiculous size yet we managed to eat it all! The wine came in a mug sized glass which was filled to the top. (For $3 not bad value) South Africans won't like the small sip they would get when dining in Oz!!!

Mike and Charmain arrived this morning on Virenord. It was good to see them and we plan to meet up at Zululand Yacht Club tomorrow. We are moving there today and look forward to the yacht club facilities.

Comments [0] | | More

06/10/2008, 27 56.3'S:35 11.0'E, Mozambique Channel

Monday 6th October Position: 27 35 11.0E

Long passages are quite wearing on ones body and state of mind. 24 hours a day we must be constantly aware of what the boat is doing. Our bodies must adjust to every movement flexing and balancing even when asleep. A certain amount of stress level exists as we never forget where we are and our safety is paramount in our minds. Looking for ships every 20 minutes is trying but must be done. They most likely cant see us and cant turn their vessel as easily as we can to avoid a collision. We've seen many ships on this passage and they have been a comfortable distance away thankfully.

The weather is the most talked about and thought about topic amongst sailors. Its serious weather talk not like on land! We have used a personalized weather service for this trip - Commanders Weather and they have been excellent. Their predictions have been accurate and if any revision is necessary towards the end of a 5 day forecast we receive that too. They are aware of our daily position and let us know if anything challenging is ahead. We download grib files daily through the sat phone email system. We have a program that automatically presents the grib file as a weather map showing wind speeds and direction. All we do is send the latitude and longitude we want. We have shared weather information with other yachts nearby either by vhf radio, sat phone sms or email. Virenord has also phoned us on the satellite phone.

During the last 24 hours the south easterly increased to close to 30 knots. We also have an uncomfortable Southwest swell. Last night we were resting back in the saloon and quarter berth. Last night the sea reminded me of the previous passage with the wind howling and the sea spuming and spitting. As I type this the southeasterly is moderating but still up in the 20 knot range. We were sailing at 8 knots all night. Now we are moving at about 7knots. We need to keep moving quickly as we can to reach Richards Bay before the northerly is too strong when we cross the Aghulas current tomorrow. Hopefully we will arrive in the first half of the day.

As we sit chatting occasionally funny thoughts cross our minds. It's so important not to lose your sense of humour! Thinking about being flung around the cabin during heavy seas we came upon the idea of a Velcro sailing suit. Now don't steal our idea as we have already patented it! The suit would have Velcro all over it with removable pieces for going to the toilet. (Velcro on the toilet seat could be useful too!) The whole cabin would be lined in Velcro so you could lie or sit wherever you wanted to. Flat down lights could be installed in regular intervals for reading etc. If the suit was too hot in the summer a special air conditioning unit could be attached powered by solar panels strapped to one's head. All eating/drinking utensils and crockery would have Velcro as well. We think it's a wonderful idea and can't wait to get it on the production line. This would ensure we would never have to work again and can then live comfortably for the rest of our lives.

Speaking of sailing clothes Linda has been wearing an interesting wardrobe from her selection of comfort wear... Captain Bill was very impressed with today's outfit which featured light blue tracksuit pants with the following 3 upper layers - leopard print nightie, black sweatshirt and short tracksuit jacket with '75 Sport' written in pink letters on the front. The tangled knotty hair completes the look. He said that movie stars wear layered weird outfits like this and he took a photo to show you. This is the first time he has ever commented on Linda's clothes so it must be a good look. Perhaps we should start a fashion label as well for landlubbers.

We are looking forward to getting into harbour and tying up. (The cold champagne is waiting.) The next entry will be from the land. Its so exciting getting closer to Africa!

Comments [1] | | More

05/10/2008, 27 47.2'S:38 43.5'E, Mozambique Channel

Day 8 Sunday 5th October 9.45am Reunion time Position:27 47.2S 38 43.5E

It's been another good 24 hours and the captain just remarked that we've had 'a few good sails on this trip'. Usually there is not enough wind or cant make up its mind or too much wind etc. We have been averaging 7- 8 knots which makes for a very happy captain. Not knowing much about the design of boats and rig Linda had no idea that Valiam is designed for maximum speed. Valiam appears to be faster than most cruising boats. Friends of ours who circumnavigated the world said 'A fast boat is a safe boat'. We agree. Sometimes the big rig is a handful but Bill has adjusted a few things to make reefing etc easier. With good weather forecasting we are usually prepared for any changes in wind strength. Today we are expecting the southeasterly to increase to 30+ knots with gusts perhaps up to 40 knots. We are quite relaxed about this now that we have experienced much stronger winds on the previous long passage across the Indian Ocean. Strong winds are not wonderful close to the coast of Africa due to the currents but the wind is supposed to die down and swing to the North east by the time we arrive. Our estimated time of arrival in Richards Bay, South Africa is Tuesday .

Yesterday was a special day because we were able to catch up with Mike and Charmain on Virenord. Just as the sun was getting low in the sky and the dolphins were frolicking in our bow waves, Captain Bill could see a white sail up ahead. As the wind had eased quite a bit and we were motoring anyway we decided to motor over to them. Mike said 'Come over for a beer!'.This was quite fun and exciting to meet up with sailors in the middle of the ocean. We had only chatted to Mike and Charmain by email, sat phone and vhf radio. So we got to see what each other looked like! We were able to have a shouted conversation across the water and took photos of each other on our yachts rolling in the swell. Virenord is a pretty green 30ft steel boat that Mike and Charmain have sailed from Canada. Charmain is South African and is excited to be going home to live in a house after being 'homeless' for 13 years. As the sun set we gradually sailed ahead of Virenord waving 'See you at Zululand!' It was good to see other humans after 7 days at sea. It was a great opportunity and doesn't happen very often.

Valiam was a lot steadier last night and we both got some much needed sleep. Although Captain Bill was woken twice due to a ship that was getting close and the wind picking up making Valiam sail at 9.5 knots. We don't need to be racing like that in the middle of the night! There is a southwesterly predicted on Wednesday so hopefully our timing of arrival on Tuesday will mean we'll be safely tied up in harbour.

Comments [0] | | More

04/10/2008, 27 41.5'S:41 38.9'E, Indian ocean

Day 7 Saturday 4th October Position: 11am 27 41.5S 41 38.9E

What a fantastic run we had last night! 55 miles in 6 hours! The wind was about 20knots SE and we had 1.5knots of current with us. Speed over ground was often 10 knots! The downside is we are very sleep deprived as Valiam bounced and heeled over too much to make sleeping possible (even with 2 reefs in the main). There were a lot of ships traveling parallel to us so we had to keep watching out for them. It's the shortest route around Madagascar for them and perhaps there's more going this way due to increased piracy in the Red Sea

This weather will change tomorrow bringing with it strong winds so we better nap now whilst conditions have eased. The exciting news is that my sister has booked flights for us and we will be in Brisbane in 2 weeks time! A few calls on the satellite phone sorted it all out! Sometimes it is easier to phone thane email due to our disconnection rate at the moment. Speaking of electronic gadgetry our one remaining 12volt socket (cigarette lighter socket) is very precarious and we can only charge the satellite phone using the inverter as the sat phone 12 volt charger wont work any more. We tried to get replacement 12 volt sockets in Singapore and the last 3 islands but we had no luck. Hopefully we can get them in South Africa. We can definitely get them in Oz. We'll have a list of things probably!

We've had almost tropical sunsets out here with the sun showing as a huge pinky orange ball as it goes down. The crescent shaped moon and stars have been lovely when we see them peeking through the clouds. The ocean looked like chrome and gun metal this morning.

With just over 500 miles to go - South Africa here we come! We hope to arrive Tuesday or Wednesday. A cold bottle of Aussie champagne is waiting in the fridge. (hopefully no southwester before then - PLEASE HUGHIE!!!!)

All well on board

Comments [0] | | More

03/10/2008, 26 54.4'S:44 39.8'E, Indian ocean

Cordon Bleu dining (above)
Day 6 Friday 3rd October 2008
After lunch
Position at midday: 26 54.4S 44 39.8E

Everything is a bit damp feeling and I couldn't get the salt grinder to work. My hair feels oily and I am pretty sure our skin has a layer after 6 days without a shower. (We have to save water) The important bits get washed so we aren't entirely dirty and unhygienic!

We just saw a whale (or 2) in the distance splashing and jumping. We have seen whales in the distance a few times but forget to record it in the log. There has been a number of ships pass on this passage at least 2 ships a day. We also overhear a number of conversations on Channel 16 on the radio from ships as well as another yacht. One of the ship conversations referred to the number of ships taking a particular route due to piracy. We are not sure where the ship person was referring to but it could possibly be the Red Sea as it is a problem at the moment. It could also account for the fact that there appears to be quite a few yachts going to South Africa at present. There is also some unrest there too we believe! Makes life exciting I suppose..

We have passed the half way point and the wind has already changed to the south east currently blowing at 15 knots. We are expecting this to increase over the next few days to 30 knots +. No Southwesterly gales have been forecast to our relief. Hopefully we will get to Richards Bay unscathed. We have a berth booked at Zululand Yacht Club.

Another item to report in this log is our constant problem solving with electronic gadgetry. We experience many disconnections with the satellite phone when logging on to email. Sending and receiving is often disconnected several times for many minutes at a time costing $2 a minute so it is becoming quite expensive. We have installed all the recommended equipment to improve connection - high quality cable to our external antenna, docking station for the phone etc. We are not sure where the problem lies but think we have narrowed it down to between the computer serial port and the iridium Motorola phone. Everything is brand new so we are a bit disappointed. But we would like to say at this point how happy we are with the prompt personal service provided by GMN our email provider.

The second problem is the autopilot. Since installing it (Mona Lisa) in Singapore it has not been quite reliable. It often won't correct when going slightly off course and sometimes we are even going back the other way! Another funny thing that happened the other day was the little computer screen went bezerk showing lots of numbers that were nothing to do with the course we were on. Bill disengaged her and connected Fred the wind vane. Bill has contacted the Australian manufacturer a couple of times and they have been very helpful. I guess anything to do with computers can be temperamental on a yacht at sea. Captain Bill says ropes and pulleys are easier to fix!

We look forward to visiting our family in Oz next month. It will be good to see the new babies and of course we will say 'My how you have grown' to all the children in our absence. We have tried to send postcards to the older ones from every country we have visited. Its pleasing to know that 'Valiam goes Cruising' has been discussed in several classrooms. Their parents say the childrens interest in geography and sailing has been enhanced by our voyage. Perhaps Captain Bill may be asked to be a guest speaker!! Linda better buy him a captain's cap.

We are going well All well on board

Comments [0] | | More

02/10/2008, 26 23.5'S:47 15.2'E, Indian ocean

Making South African flag with glue and sewing
2 October 2008
Position: 26 23.5S 47 15.2E (midday)

The wind kept increasing to 25 knots with gusts to 32knots making it an uncomfortable night with very little sleep. Valiam sometimes slews sideways surfing down a wave with the wind vane eventually correcting her course. Fred the wind vane is making Valiam travel in a wavy line! It's still blowing 25-30 knots and we are almost at 'the corner' - ie 80 miles from the waypoint at the bottom of Madagascar. The sea is grey and lumpy and sometimes smacks Valiam's hull . The wind is howling through the rigging and even though our instruments say we are doing 8.5-9 knots we are losing 2 knots in a current which is against us. I am propped up with my feet up on the opposite bunk balancing the computer on my lap. Bill is reading 'Shantaram'. I read it prior to him and it's a fantastic book - a real insight into the people of India. Its an autobiography by an Australian who escaped from jail and lived in Bombay for many years.

There's not a lot we can do except conserve our strength, rest as much as we can, keep sea sickness at bay, eat, adjust things and send/receive emails and weather grib files. Hopefully we wont encounter a south westerly gale within the next week before we get to South Africa.

We are so close to Madagascar! Pity we cant stop. The swells are increasing due to the strong northerlies and we have no choice but to go over a 1000m seamount. The captain says it should be fine unless there was a southwesterly gale (which there isn't). However it's a bit bumpy down here.

All well on board

Comments [0] | | More

01/10/2008, 25 00.3'S:49 58.8'E, Indian ocean

Indian Ocean 1 October 2008 Position (midday local time): 25 00.3S 49 58.8E

How wonderful to have the wind back! With 1.5 knots of current against us yesterday we were only making 2knots headway in such light winds. Its blowing 15 + knots NE now and Valiam is going at her usual speed of 7 knots. After calculating the distance traveled from Mooloolaba last November we have done 10,200 nautical miles. Hooray for Valiam! Hooray for Captain Bill! Hooray for galley slave Linda!

We are aiming for a waypoint south of Madagascar 27.00S 45.00E where we 'turn the corner' towards South Africa. We should get to this point tomorrow. The seas are reputably bumpy and confused there due to the sea mounts and currents. We will be watching the weather carefully for those southwesterlies which can make conditions unpleasant in the Mozambique Channel. We have heard from Zululand Yacht club Richards Bay and their rates are very reasonable. We hope to arrive there around the 8th October. Lets hope Hughie looks after us.

Comments [0] | | More

30/09/2008, 24 52.3'S:52 23.4'E, Indian ocean

Reunion to South Africa Day 3 30 September 2008 Position midday : 24 52.3S 52 23.4E

The winds are very light and we have 1 knot of current against us so we are only going 4 knots. I washed the lunch dishes in salt water as we may be in for a long trip. I have made the South African flag cutting out the fabric and gluing it together. It needs stitching but the boat is too rolly for such fine work at the moment. A journalist asked me what do we do all day out at sea when I was in Mauritius. I thought at the time what a silly question thinking of our previous passage where everything took a huge effort and took 3 times as long. I mentioned cooking, navigating, sleeping, reading, watching movies, repairing things gazing out to sea and meditating etc. At the moment the highlight of our days are meal times, the sunset and receiving emails. We are still only 200 nm southeast of Madagascar. What a very long way to go yet.. The wind will pick up soon hopefully. Oh it just has...we're doing 5 knots now.

Comments [0] | | More

29/09/2008, 23 34.9'S:53 11.1'E, Indian ocean

29 September Position:5pm local time 23 34.9S 53 11.1E

The seas are gentle and my cup of tea stays on the table whilst I type this. We just enjoyed afternoon tea which consisted of freshly baked chocolate muffins and chai tea. The muffin mix had a few weevils in it but the cooked result was edible and the captain ate 2 but said they did taste a bit strange.

We have only been traveling at 5 to 5.5 knots with the main and jib. Mike of Virenord phoned earlier on the sat phone (Hooray another yachtie with an iridium phone!) and said they had the spinnaker up. They left Reunion a day before us but are about half a day ahead of us. The captain thinks we may overtake them. Mike and Charmain have booked Virenord into Zulu Land yacht club, Richards Bay for 2 months. We have emailed Tuzi Gazi and the Durban marinas but their emails bounced back. It seems their email addresses have changed. Our email to Zulu Land Yacht club has been received and we await their response. The problem with South Africa at that time of the year is that the Arc round the world yacht rally has booked out most of the marinas from 9 November onwards from Richards Bay to Cape Town. Due to weather conditions it is impossible to anchor in South Africa and all yachts stay in marinas safely tied up waiting for 'weather windows' to go to the next port. Looking at the website before we left it seems the Arc rally are staying at Tuzi Gazi so Zulu Land may be a better option. It seems they have haul out facilities there and we do need to pull Valiam out to anti foul and do a few jobs. Its supposed to be a friendly place with regular yachtie barbeques (brais) and happy hours. Something to look forward to.

All well on board

Comments [0] | | More

29/09/2008, 22 27.7'S:54 18.9'E, Indian ocean

Reunion to South Africa Indian Ocean Day1 29 September 2008 Position at midnight: 22 27.7S 54 18.9E

As soon as we left the small harbour of St Pierre at 9.45am we were greeted by a forceful Indian ocean. The winds were immediately 30 knots+ and the waves hit Valiam's hull with a vengeance making her roll and occasionally skew sideways. This kept up for several hours with waves coming over the front of the boat into the cockpit. Unfortunately Linda became violently seasick. It was probably a combination of things which I will detail with the eventual cure only for the interest of sailors who also suffer from 'mal de mer'.

Sturgeron worked successfully on the Indian Ocean passage from Cocos because we had a more gentle start and Linda took the medication a lot earlier. In this case the Sturgeron didn't have time to be absorbed and the violent rolling motion almost immediately made Linda very sick. Poor captain Bill had to be nurse as well as keep Valiam under control. The bucket was Linda's best friend. Further medications taken orally did not work. (another Sturgeron then Stematyl) Emergency action was necessary as Linda was very miserable and feeling like she wanted to die! Stematyl an anti nausea drug via a suppository eventually did the trick. So the advice is getting that medication in the system in plenty of time before a voyage. By dinner time Linda was able to eat dinner - tinned potatoes with cheese and cold smoked chicken. After sleeping and resting until midnight it is now possible to type on the computer.

The seas have also abated to a gentle 15 knots. The rough weather south of Reunion seems to be a result of the wind funneling down the valleys and mountains. Its surprising how far out to sea it lasts. Anyway things are looking much better now with a gentle sea and Mona Lisa (electric autopilot) moaning away. Bill tried the wind vane earlier but it doesn't work well with the wind behind. There is no moon but the stars are bright. We saw a ship earlier perhaps bound for Mauritius.

The Masacrene islands will always have fond memories for us and we do hope to visit again. Perhaps the next trip will be direct to the Indian Ocean from Oz so we can spend more time in these places. We don't have time to explore Madagascar this time unfortunately. The French yachties in Reunion describe it as 'superb'.

Hopefully if all goes well we may make South Africa in around 9 days.

Comments [0] | | More

25/09/2008

St Pierre
Reunion
25 September 2008

It's our last day of car hire today so we plan to do the shopping for our next passage and get fuel etc There's only one problem - there are boom gates to get into the marina and we were informed yesterday that we couldn't get a 'pass' until 'apres midday' today. We don't feel like lugging bags of heavy shopping and full 20 litre fuel cans 1km when we can park next to the finger Valiam is on. Lets hope 'apres midday' doesn't mean next week.

Yesterday Bill drove around and up and down and around a million hairpin bends on the wrong side of the road to get to Cilaos high up in the mountains. It may have been an expensive road the French have built but it still added to Linda's grey hairs! In several places there were one lane blind bends where motorists hoot their horns as the only indication for oncoming traffic. We also passed through one lane pitch black tunnels through the mountain where the only indication of oncoming traffic is headlights. If 2 cars end up facing each other one has to reverse out! Big tourist buses somehow manage to get up to this place and one forced us into a rock crevice just missing the car by 1 cm. (Just when Linda was thinking of the 1000 euro excess for insurance). Cilaos is a quaint village with walking tracks to waterfalls and mountain peaks. We chose to have a leisurely lunch instead. It was local fare which included lentils, beans, smoked pork and home made sausages. (Delicious!) Linda had to have crème brulee as well. Oh dear all those extra kilajoules! Lucky the new Indian outfits are roomy ....

After going all the way back down again it was still early so se decided to go up to Le Port where Jim (Alii Kai Too) is. We have also been in contact with Virenord and were hoping to catch up with Charmain and Mike as well. When we got to Le Port we felt very glad that we are in St Pierre. Le Port is industrial and not nice. We found Jim but Mike and Charmain were out. We enjoyed a few drinks with Jim and discussed the passage to South Africa. He is leaving today as he received a good weather forecast from Commanders Weather. He said Virenord was heading off on Saturday. This got us thinking that it would be a good idea to leave this weekend also and try and stay in contact with the others on route.

The passage from here to Richards Bay (or Durban) is around 1400 miles and we estimate it should take us about 10 days. It wont be a straight forward passage as the currents and weather patterns near Madagascar and South Africa can make sailing there challenging. All yachties who sail near South Africa fear the south westerly gales that spring up very quickly. These can get up to 50 knots or more and if one happens to be close to the south of Madagascar where there can be currents and confused seas or in the Aghulas current which can flow up to 7 knots huge breaking waves can occur. The Aghulas current runs parallel down the coast of Africa and is around 40 miles off the coast. If a south westerly gale occurs we have to keep well away from the south of Madagascar as well as away from the Aghulas current. Weather information in this region is very good and we should get some warning if a southwesterly gale is on its way and prepare for it. The passage down to Cape Town is a series of hops between these fronts waiting in each harbour for the next good weather window. Linda would prefer to call this part of the world 'Cape of Good Hope' rather than 'Cape of Storms'. Around 300 yachts a year make it safely around so with good planning, seamanship and a sound boat we should be fine. We know Valiam and her crew can cope with adverse conditions as we have already experienced in the Indian ocean. However it will be good when this next passage to South Africa is over.

Soon after we arrive in South Africa we plan to leave the boat in the marina and fly home to Australia for a few weeks to visit the family. We should be back in time to make it around the Cape during the best time which is December - January.

Comments [0] | | More

24/09/2008

St Pierre
Reunion
23 September 2008

Many people have said how Reunion has the most spectacular scenery out of the 3 Mascarene islands (Rodrigues, Mauritius and Reunion.) After exploring some of the country side it does seem like the 'princess' of the 3, with stunning 'chocolate box' scenes to absorb. St Pierre is very picturesque with narrow streets, some old buildings with wooden shutters with the Catholic church and Mosque both claiming the centre of attention in town. The church rings its bells regularly and the Islamic prayer can be heard at dawn and sunset over the Mosque's loudspeaker! The marina and boatyard is virtually in the centre of town between the beach and the main street.

We enjoyed exploring the town yesterday by bicycle. We haven't had to wear bike helmets since we left Australia much to Bill's joy. We found a few places we were looking for such as car hire (location voiture) and a bicycle shop but all businesses close for lunch between 11.30 - 2pm. So we had no choice but also enjoy a long leisurely lunch the French way in a small Creole café alongside the town's employees until the doors were open for business again. The shops and businesses are also closed on Sundays and Monday mornings. As lunch with a beer or wine seems to be usual practice we surmise that there would not be as much productivity after 2pm! Mondays must be a good work day!

After riding our bicycles to a few car hire places we found one that wasn't too expensive (about the same as Oz) and booked one for 3 days. Today we woke to a brilliant blue sky and for the first time we could see all the mountains making a dramatic backdrop for St Pierre. We felt very lucky to have such a beautiful day as Bill drove up through the hills towards the volcano via a town called Le Tampon! The car is a Renault Twingo and Bill had to get used to the left hand drive and driving on the wrong side. This was especially scary for me on the narrow hairpin bends with a drop down beside my side of the road! On the way to the volcano La Fournaise we passed through beautiful forests and as we climbed higher the vegetation became very alpine. The beautiful valley we saw from the boat the day we arrived was even more spectacular from the top. Through the clouds we drove and up until we were above the clouds. Linda went crazy with the camera and took around 90 photos today! When we got to the viewing area of the volcano it looked like a dark brown moonscape. Unfortunately due to recent eruptions we weren't allowed to walk right up and around the crater. It didn't really matter as the views were fantastic.

Lunch in the forest was cool and peaceful as well as delicious - fresh baguette, French camembert and French wine. Bebous Foret was next on the agenda and it didn't disappoint. The steep mountains were covered in thick lush vegetation including many tree ferns a bit like north island New Zealand. The drive back along the coast road to St Pierre took us past the bottom of the volcano. When we were sailing towards Reunion we saw a large area down one side of a mountain that looked all black and burnt. Looking at the lava flows from the road it had several colours - dark grey, brown and in places yellow. In one area the steam and smoke looked amazing spiraling out of the cracks. Lots of photos here. (see photo gallery)

It's nice returning to our haven - Valiam here at the marina. It's quiet and friendly here. The French yachties have been extremely helpful even if sometimes there is a language barrier! Laurent and Valerie and their 2 sons on Sea Foam have been cruising for a number of years and speak English well. Laurent has leant us maps of Reunion, given heaps of advice as well as given us assistance in refilling our gas bottle. Julios helped tie us up when we arrived and always has a smile and wave. He and his wife have a baby girl Nikita. We think their cat visited us the other night! A ginger cat came inside the boat whilst we were relaxing in the saloon with something that looked like a large rat in its mouth! Bill jumped up said 'Pussycat!' and it ran off.

Oh yes we are legally in Reunion we think! Captain Bill fronted up to the port office and filled in a form. No stamp in the passport, no request for clearance papers from Mauritius, no fees, no time limit to our stay.... No wonder the French find Australian entry rules difficult and often wont visit! One of the yachties here said he spent 6 months in the USA without any paperwork whatsoever. No-one asked him and he didn't go out of his way to find the authorities! 'It's for them' he says 'Not for me. If they come and see me on my boat of course I will provide them with what they want....' He said if we want our clearance paper before we go to South Africa they will probably give us a signed stamped form for us to fill in ourselves with whatever we want! Must be all those leisurely lunches - a very relaxed attitude which we find quite refreshing after some of the officials we've had to deal with.

The other thing the French are very relaxed about is nudity. After the countries we have visited it feels like we are in St Tropez in Europe! Bill enjoys his morning stroll along the boardwalk next to the beach! The ladies are usually only wearing something around the bottom half. The other night a young lithe dark skinned fellow stripped everything off and nonchalantly went for a stroll along the beach and a swim. This produced fits of giggles from a group of girls walking by. This fellow was under the influence of drugs however as he was acting oddly talking to himself and earlier he was smoking something that definitely wasnt tobacco. Nevertheless he cast a striking figure against the setting sun. Linda wished she had her sketchbook!

Comments [0] | | More

21/09/2008

St Pierre
Reunion
21 September 2008

Reunion is pronounced 'Raynyon' which is tricky for us Aussies. St Pierre is a bit like a French coastal town with a bit of Mooloolaba and Creole thrown in! The marina seems to have mostly French yachts and is very relaxed. There are signs of no real rules here ie - major boat repairs, motor bikes and broken dinghies parked on the pontoons. We have hoisted the yellow quarantine flag and French flag and tried to contact the authorities but no-one is interested on a weekend. So we are illegal immigrants wandering around at the moment. The French yachties we have met are very casually dressed, long hair, beards etc and are very kind speaking to us in English. Pets and small children seem to be part of their crews.

The wind is blowing quite strongly at present and reminds us of yesterday when we rounded the southern end of Reunion. We felt the full force of the Indian ocean once again and Bill had to hand steer at 40 knots! The breakwater behind our pontoon is a good viewing spot to watch the surfers - a bit like Point Cartwright at home. However the vast Indian ocean swell makes for nice big surfing waves. We will be watching the weather carefully before we decide to go to South Africa.

We plan to hire a car for a few days to have a look around the island. One volcano Piton de la Fournaise only erupted last year and is still smoldering. We look forward to seeing that! The backdrop of Reunion was certainly spectacular as we sailed close to the coast before we turned into St Pierre. (See the photos of the valley.) From the coral beach next to the marina we can see the sunset over the sea. The marina is supposed to be free for the first week but there are no amenities ie no showers, laundry etc. There is a tap next to the boat so we have unlimited water for bucket baths and washing by hand but so far we haven't managed to make the power work.

There are many restaurants and shops within walking distance but paying in euros we are conscious of the higher prices compared to Mauritius. There are lots of young people wandering around dressed in tight jeans, black clothes, piercings and chains looking a lot less innocent than the young people in Mauritius. We watched a couple of weddings with the bridal parties and guests in cars decorated in ribbons hooting their horns loudly up and down the main street. We tried to purchase a tourist guide in English but no such luck. Every single book, magazine and newspaper here is in French!

Comments [0] | | More

20/09/2008, 21 20.7'S:55 28.6'E, St Pierre

Hello all We arrived safely in St Pierre at 1.30pm today. The entrance was narrow but clearly marked and no breakers going accross it. We'd heard from other yachties that it can be difficult to get in here. The view of Reunion coming in was spectacular - green hills, huge valleys and a live volcano hiding behind cloud! The wind played tricks on us gusting up to 45 knots as we approached the bottom of the island! (Valiam surfed at 10.5 knots at one stage)

When we made inot the small marina a couple of helpful young men helped us tie up and even spoke English! As it is Saturday there has been no response from port control on the radio or telephone. We have the yellow quarantine flag up as well as the French flag. Bill has gone to look for someone in the office. The young men who helped us said it was no problem for us to leave the boat to go into town. It's euros here so Linda wont be able to much shopping if any at all!!!!

The buildings look more like Europe here - very provincial looking. We are excited about exploring a new place!

Comments [1] | | More

20/09/2008, 21 13.2'S:56 05.7'E,

Mauritius to Reunion 20 September 2008 5.45am local time Position : 21 13.2S 56 05.7E

Getting ready to leave Mauritius yesterday our feelings were mixed. It was sad because we were leaving some very good friends behind but also exciting knowing we were heading for sea again. We had to wait until 2 boats left the customs wharf before we could untie our ropes from Caudan marina. We said au revoir to Catherine and Jacque on Seranade our neighbours who are also heading for Reunion and South Africa. As we motored quickly to the customs wharf we hit bottom! How embarrassing! It was low tide and we thought we were on the correct side of the red buoy. After Captain Bill reversed and spun Valiam around we were off. By the time the formalities were completed and the coast guard checked for stowaways (2 prisoners have escaped from jail we were told) we did n't leave Port Louis until 12.30.

As we sailed and mostly motored past the coast of Mauritius due to lack of wind we could see the distinctive shaped mountains including the hill Bill climbed behind Bambous. I immediately texted Lewis on his mobile to let him know we were sailing past. I'm not sure if he climbed part of the hill to see us but he texted back 'Can see Valiam looks white'! Bye Lewis family and lovely students...

At sunset the mountain of Le Morne (where the slave jumped off and is now a World Heritage site) looked like a womans head lying down. The wind was still only blowing 4 knots so we motored for several hours.At about 7.30pm the wind suddenly came in from behind us at 20 knots. We have had full sail up ever since with Mona Lisa steering us.

On our last trip to Le Morne I took photos of Matthew Flinders Memorial and sent them to Bill's father. We notice an animal with a long tail near his shoulder sculpted into the plaque. We thought it was a monkey. It was in actual fact his cat. This is what he wrote back to us: , Thanks for the pics of the Flinders memorial. I was pleased to see that his cat 'Trim" was also remembered. The cat sailed with him on the Investigator all the way out from England, all around Australia, survived the wreck of the Porpoise on the barrier reef got back to Sydney on the boat that they saved from the wreck, and then got to Mauritius and was interned with him. The poor little thing was finally taken by some of the local slave labourers and was cooked and eaten by them. I have a copy of the story book Flinders wrote about him for children to read. While Trim belonged to Flinders he was adopted by the crew of the Investigator I suppose as a sort of mascot.

We aren't far from Reunion now and hope to get into St Pierre. It's a bit of a tricky entrance with breakers to avoid. If its too hard we'll go on to St Galens (La Port)

Au revoir

Comments [0] | | More

18/09/2008

This article appeared as a full page spread on the back page of Le Matinal which was a bit of a shock! Here's the English translation with thanks to Razeeyah :
She has come to Mauritius and has rendered our kids happy. The visit of Linda Frylink Anderson in the island has inspired the kids to take an interest in art.

This Australian artist is presently sailing round the world in her yatch with her husband Bill. They have begun this adventure in Nov. 2007 in Australia.

During a stopover in Mauritius, Linda has taught the kids to draw in a different way. She has worked closely with the pupils of "Ecole de Sculpture" of Lewis Dick since her arrival. She has presented an exhibition on Thursday, Friday and Saturday last.

During her stay she has drawn the works sculptured by the pupils of Lewis Dick's has conducted 2 workshops with the pupils at Le Morne on 2 consecutive Saturdays. Impressed by the sculpture of Gena, this Australian lady will go back with the work of art and thousands of photographs which she has taken during her stay.

After this fruitful with the budding artists, Linda and Bill will set sail heading for Reunion Island. However the bad weather compelled them to stay in the island for a few more days. Afterwards the couple will be sailing to S. Africa. At the end of her trip, Linda will write a book about her adventure including her best photographs. Her husband Bill also plans to create a calendar with the entire all the photographs taken in different countries.

In Mauritius they have discovered a rich and diverse culture. "It's amazing to see all communities existing harmoniously together, without any problem. Everyone accepts the other as he is. This is a good example set by Mauritius to the whole world," remarks the artist. Having worked with children and adults during more than 20 years, she is delighted to discover new talents across the world.

"The art of children is exceptional. Adults impose their way of drawing to children. They must realize that these kids draw what they see and feel", specifies Linda.

PS (from Linda) The nudes are drawings I did in Oz and were part of the exhibition. Also thankyou to Fateema for a nice if 'grande' story!

Comments [0] | | More

17/09/2008

Well, we were ready to go today but it hasn't stopped raining heavily since last night and the wind appears to be blowing horizontally! We would rather sail to Reunion in more pleasant weather and with better visibility. So we are doing a few more jobs - sewing machine repairs whilst we still have power and Bill thinks he may be able to get the gas bottle filled. Filling the gas bottle is a bit of drama everywhere we go. Each country has different fittings and many refuse to fill ours. We do not want to exchange our extra tough galvanised gas bottle for their crummy recycled ones!

Another article appeared in the paper yesterday on Linda with a preview photo on the front page!! It mainly talked about the work done with the children. Lewis says lots of little towns around Mauritius want to have art classes for their children now!

If its still raining tomorrow we might go and see another Bollywood movie. The last one we saw was hilarious especially as it was filmed in Surfers Paradise Australia! The costumes and storyline were over the top - great entertainment!

Hopefully you have plowed through the 100s of photos taken whilst we're here. Lewis friend Michele the stone carver visited us the other day with his wife Lore, sister Janet and gorgeous son Nigel. Lore and Janet are from Rodrigues and knew all the people in the photos we took whilst we were there! Their photo is in the Mauritius album too.

The photo above was taken of Lewis proudly wearing the 'Australia' t shirt and Josiane on Valiam the last time we saw them. Good friends we will miss dearly..................

Comments [0] | | More

16/09/2008

photo : Razeeyah and Linda
Tuesday 16th September
Today we have been busy doing 'boat jobs' mainly packing away the art gear, bicycles etc. It's amazing how the gear needed for an art exhibition, art classes etc fits into the side of the quarter berth leaving the mattress mostly vacant. A contortionist act was necessary! Bill took a deep breath (literally) and went under water in the not so clean water of Port Louis to clean the sides and propeller of Valiam's hull. We are almost ready to head for La Reunion but the weather is looking not so good with a front coming in. We may have to wait a day or so. The main port at Reunion 'La Port' is crowded according to Jim and we will have to raft up. This prospect doesn't really appeal as we only have minimal fenders and are not really used to people walking over each other's boats. It's common practice in Europe so I guess we may have to get used to it.

We took Lewis and Josiane out for dinner last night. Lewis looked splendid in the turquoise t shirt we gave him with 'AUSTRALIA' across the front! We phoned a taxi driver we liked to take us all out to Bambous . He had to wait while we took down the exhibition but seemed to enjoy looking at the art and photos. Originally he quoted 600rupees for the drive there and back from Port Louis but when we got back (after helping with all the gear) he said '400' is ok. That's an amazing thing for someone to do in this part of the world. Bill gave him 600 anyway. He is a lovely Hindu man called Jayraz if anyone wants a nice taxi driver in Port Louis.

Another article appeared in Le Matinel paper yesterday which I haven't seen yet. Our Indian friend Razeeyah is dropping it off for me this afternoon. Razeeyah is Muslim and is fasting at the moment for the month of Ramadan. Between sunrise and sunset she is not allowed to eat or drink - even water. Bill likes to ask the Muslim people we meet what will happen if they do eat during the day but the standard reply is always 'We cant' or 'We don't'. Fasting is like a kind of meditation and connects them closer to god. It also is a purification process. Although Fateemah one of the journalists I met said she ate a lot at night including icecream so didn't lose any weight during Ramadan. Even children are encouraged or 'trained' to fast. I tried to keep silent on my views on that one!

The article scanned for the previous log was written by Norbert of the Weekend Express. He is an art critic and has promised me an English translation! Lewis says the comments are very positive so its nice that the Mauritian people like my work.

Off to the supermarket for a few supplies before we head off. The next email will be sent from out at sea.

Comments [0] | | More

14/09/2008, Ecole de Sculpture, Bambous, Mauritius

14th September 2008

Linda's Art Exhibition:
This past week has been focused on preparing and enjoying this exhibition with the people of Mauritius. Linda feels honoured and humbled by the attention and in particular the support and encouragement of her friend and mentor sculptor Lewis Dick. After working with Lewis holding Children's art workshops in Le Morne he was keen to exhibit Linda's work. Not only did he provide gallery space he and his beautiful wife Josiane and their band of helpers students Hari, Blake and Mike worked hard to make the exhibition a wonderful success. Lewis invited many Mauritian artists, musicians, teachers and the media. Linda was interviewed and photographed by many journalists as well as the local TV. The opening night on Thursday night was exciting and fun with much laughter and emotion as the Mauritian people embraced the 2 Aussies Linda and Bill into their hearts. As the champagne flowed the speeches in English and Creole were received with much clapping especially when Linda presented Lewis with a framed drawing of Gena's sculpture. Gena's story is now a pivotal point of the exhibition. (see previous entry re Gena's story)

Linda exhibited not only her drawings but some of her photos taken in Australia, Papua New Guinea, Palau, Philippines, Malaysia, Cocos Keeling Islands, Rodrigues and Mauritius. 'Images from Around the World' were displayed under each country. Some of Linda's nudes were also displayed either in the original pastel or in print form. Australian friends and family may recognize themselves in some the drawings/photos displayed! (see photo gallery - click on little camera then 'Linda's Exhibition')

Music and dance is an integral part of Ecole de Sculpture. Lewis' senior students Hari, Mike and Blake as well as being wonderful musicians are up and coming sculptors with a study tour in Switzerland planned for next year. On Thursday evening these boys played and sang on guitar and hand drum. A guest artist and musician Billy played the saxophone and flute. Linda was dobbed in by Lewis to begin the dancing with a solo bellydance!

It was a wonderful night one we will never forget. The exhibition was supposed to close yesterday but due to interest and media coverage this weekend it will be staying open until Monday night.

A special message for Lewis and Josiane :
"It's a great pleasure to work with Mr. Lewis Dick, Sculptor of Mauritius. We share a passion for the Arts and use this as a vehicle for self expression to inspire confidence in children. When children are free to experiment with tactile materials they are able to release emotions and once confident can continue to learn eventually leading worthwhile lives. We believe in working alongside the children sharing the joy in learning together. It has been especially enjoyable for me to dance and have fun the Mauritian way. I would like to thank Lewis and Josiane for their generous spirit and allowing Bill and I to become a part of their lives which also includes the community of Mauritius. My heartfelt thanks."

Linda,"Ene grand plaisir travail ek Lewis Dick, ene sculpter Mauricien,"
Nou partage ene passion pou L'Art ek nou servi sa couma ene moyen pou aide ban zenfan pou gagne confiance dan zot meme.
Kan nou donne ban zenfan libert?- pou exprime zot talent avek ban materiels simple, nou capave trouv?- ki qualit?- emotion zot mett?- dan seki zot p?- fer ek sa pou servi zot tout long zot lavi.
Sa travail ki noune fer ensam , ine fer mwa appranne inpe culture Mauricien.
Mo remercie Lewis pou so générosité.
Line permet mwa partaze so lavi ki inclure aussi la communaut?- du Morne ek L'Ile Maurice entier.
De tout c?"ur Merci

Comments [0] | | More

13/09/2008

Photo : Linda presenting Lewis with 'Gena's sculpture'

We are now preparing to leave Mauritius for Reunion in the next few days. Reunion is an overnight sail from here so we should be there by the end of the week. We wont stay long in Reunion - just long enough to fill our gas bottles and take a look at the erupting volcano! (not at the same place!) Hopefully the weather will be kind to us for our passage to South Africa.

Comments [0] | | More

08/09/2008, Mauritius

An Invitation :
To view the work of Australian Artist
Linda Frylink Anderson

"Images from Around the World"Featuring drawings from Ecole de Sculpture
Bambous
Official Opening : 5.30pm Thursday 11th September
Venue : Ecole de Sculpture Avenue de Bricoleur Bambous
Exhibition Times : Thursday 11th, Friday 12th, Saturday 13th September
9am - 6pm

Linda is currently on a voyage around the world with her husband Bill on their yacht Valiam which they built themselves. Linda is an Artist and teacher from Queensland, Australia. She has exhibited mostly in Australia and taught children and adults for more than 20 years in schools and universities.

Linda has studied Art, Photography and Education in Canberra and Brisbane, Australia. As well as degrees in Education , she holds a Diploma in Pianoforte and has practised Middle Eastern Dance for 10 years. Her personal interest in Drawing, Music, Drama, Photography and Writing has enabled her to work with children and adults on her travels in a relaxed and enjoyable way. Linda's style of drawing has been described as being uninhibited and free. She is currently working on a book to be published at the end of her voyage around the world.

Linda would like to thank Lewis Dick (Sculptor of Mauritius), his wife Josiane and his students from d'Ecole de Sculpture for their support and friendship.

For more details on Linda's work in Mauritius see website :
www.valiam.com.au (see photo Gallery : Lewis Dick and Le Morne Workshops)

mob ph Linda : +230 7390391

Comments [1] | | More

11/09/2008 | Grant Doubell

Hi there
I know that you're having a good time. Just to let you know that I am really missing your daily/ regular updates.
I am living your adventure vicariously until my day comes.
Regards

Childrens Art Workshop and Exhibition Le Morne

07/09/2008, Mauritius

On Friday Bill and Linda set up the Children's exhibition at Le Morne Cultural Centre in a beautiful and World Historic area of Mauritius. Many children in this area are underpriviged in many ways and lack funds and motivation to do something with their lives. Drawings done by the children at Linda's previous workshop were displayed along with photos and DVD of the children engaged in drawing and music. The workshop on Saturday included Drawing, Sculpture and Music. I was well attended and amny groups of children participated. Bill was Linda's teacher aide as she took 2 groups of young children for a drawing class. It is a simple concept to 'Draw from Life' but many children are never given the opportunity to do so. The children were encouraged to observe closely the shape and form of several big sculptures in front of them to draw. After drawing Lewis senior students who are excellent musicians played and sang traditional Mauritian music for all to dance to - even the parents when they arrived!

Comments [0] | | More

Gena's Story

07/09/2008, Bambous, Mauritius

A students' work - L'ecole de Sculpture:
Sculpture by Gena

Always aware of his own humble beginnings Lewis is passionate about helping the poor and underprivileged children of Mauritius. His garden and small gallery is full of sculptures made by his students. One sculpture drew my attention each time I went into the garden. It is of a mother with a child on her back. The mothers face is a picture of anger and grief. The 14 year old girl - Gena who carved this sculpture is an illegitimate child. Her mother was shunned by the local Mauritian community as having a child out of wedlock is a big stigma. Her mother pretended the child was someone else's carrying her on her back and went about saying she was the babysitter. Lewis said that this girl got rid of her negative emotions by creating this sculpture. She is now a successful nurse in a local hospital. On our last visit Lewis insisted on giving me this sculpture. The sculpture is now part of Linda's exhibition "Images from around the world" We will eventually place her in the garden at home in Australia.

Comments [0] | | More

Tsunami hits Mauritius

06/09/2008

Yes it's true! We were woken the other night with loud knocking on our hull. we could hear the security men talking on their radios. After Bill hurriedly pulled on some clothes and emerged the message we received was that a 'big wave' was coming at 1am and that we should tie the boat securely. The skippers and crew of all the visiting yachts all emerged and began tying extra rope and tightening the ones we had. We only have 2 suitable fenders as well as 2 we use for seats so we didn't feel adequately protected. We all stayed up until 2am. Linda tidied the boat and checked our insurance documents. As it was nothing happened in the marina. We found out that a 12 ft wave did in fact wash ashore on the coast in palces but no damage was done.
We suffered from lack of sleep but at least all was well.

Comments [1] | | More

12/09/2008 | Helen

Phew! What fabulous images you have on your website, congratulations, and it is wonderful to see your interaction with the local communities as you travel.

More Art - Mauritius

03/09/2008

Wednesday 3rd September
Port Louis

This past week or so has been quite busy. Even now Linda has a deadline of getting some photos printed for an exhibition before Friday. As it is a holiday tomorrow (Ganesh Hindu festival) today will be busy getting things ready. Bill is off buying some board to cut up for the students to draw on their laps on Saturday. Bill has been and continues to be a porter, supporter and a huge help to Linda!

Yesterday was spent at Lewis' house, garden and studio in Bambous. As some of his students worked on their wooden scultptures (2 of them are going to Switzerland soon to exhibit) Linda drew several of the sculptures that are in the garden. (see photos under Linda's sketches) Louis' large piece for his client in London has come a long way in the past week. Linda drew Louis working on that too. It's been a wonderful exchange of art and music and continues to be such a pleasure. The exhibition and workshop planned for this weekend at La Morne is mainly for the underprivileged children aged 7-17years. We are becoming adept at catching buses and carting art gear around the district.

Comments [0] | | More

Visitors on Valiam - Port Louis

03/09/2008, Mauritius

Photo above : Linda with Ramana, Jayashree and Suganthy who nearly drowned in a boating accident in Mauritius

As Bill was riding his bicycle around town the other day he met a German man named Heinz on a folding bicycle. It seems we do meet some amazing people on this voyage. Heinz has been cycling his way around the world for 46 years! He left Germany as a young man and manages to cycle through every country (almost) on a shoestring budget. He occasionally gives talks, sells photos etc to fund his journey which has become his career. Sometimes he camps and sometimes he stays in cheap hotels. For example when he got off the plane here in Mauritius he rode his bicycle into some cane fields to sleep. He said it was private and comfortable! He is now staying in a 600rupee(A$24) a night hotel in town and eats cheap local food. He also does well being invited to people's homes (and yachts) enjoying their hospitality. When he visited us on Valiam he had some amazing tales to tell of his adventures in obscure parts of the world.

Here at Caudan, Valiam has been photographed constantly usually with smiling people standing in front of her. A bridal party came past one day so Bill had to jump up and down poking faces in the background! The photographer turned his subject the other way! On a balmy evening we were relaxing in our cockpit when a group of Indian people took photos of each other in front of Valiam. We ended up in a friendly conversation with them and had further photos taken with them. They were from near Chennai in India and were here on a conference. Business cards were exchanged with invitations to visit them in India. Unfortunately the wind is blowing the wrong way to go there!

A few days later we bumped into the same group again at a café. They asked if we had heard the news about a boating accident here in Mauritius. Of course we hadn't as we don't hear any news - it's all in French anyway. Apparently one of the ladies Saganthy almost died. The 3 of them went out on a little tourist boat which filled up with water. None of them could swim and the boat had no life jackets. There were 11 people on the boat and the maximum is supposed to be 7. The Indian visitors were in the water hanging on to the upside down boat screaming and waving. Suganthy was trapped underneath. Luckily an Australian man Carl was on a fishing boat with his son and saw that there seemed to be a problem. He persuaded his boat man to go to the people in the water. When told about the woman Suganthy under the boat he dragged her out and resuscitated her. She spent several days in hospital in intensive care. This amazing story was told to us as we shared lunch. The man in the group Ramana insisted on paying for lunch so we invited them to visit us the following day.

Ramana, Jayashree and Suganthy visited us for sunset drinks and nibbles after they had visited the Minister of Tourism and had a media conference. Suganthy's rescuer Carl and family were also there. They were given a sumptious lunch and apologies on behalf of the Mauritian people for such an unfortunate incident. Over drinks we talked about their experiences and life in India. With lots of laughter, photos and exchange of aussie flag, koalas and a beautiful silver bangle for Linda this lovely group of people left with an open invitation for us to visit. It was the first time they had seen inside a yacht and like most people here are amazed that we sailed her here from Australia.

Here is their story published in the Readers digest:


Saturday, September 06, 2008
How they surfaced from the jaws of death
This was a drama in real life... remember Reader's Digest? V.S. Ramana, a friend, who heads the PR and corporate communication function at L&T-ECC, has sent me an email describing how he and the PR team from Chennai (or was it India) recently escaped with their lives during a visit to Mauritius. I am reproducing here what he has written and except for editing for size, I have let it remain as it is. This came as a shocker when I read it. Here goes:

Nearly 50 PR professionals from India, from various leading public and private sector organisations of India, top media as well as from the advertising sector, arrived by Air Mauritius MK 745 on the 24th August. The event was to mark the celebrations of '50 Years of Public Relations Society of India (PRSI)' - the apex PR body that decided to extend its Golden Jubilee celebrations in the 'Out of the World' Island called Mauritius.
The event had a true auspicious beginning with a kick off by Hon'ble President of Mauritius, and event participation by Minister for Industry, Director Board of Investments, High Commissioner of Mauritius in India, Director, Mauritius Tourism Promotion Authority,the acting Director, Govt Info Service, the CEO Air Mauritius - to name few of the stars; and many noted international PR experts. The three-day sessions of the 2nd International PR Festival ended with active participation of the delegates and speakers. It was time then time for members to enjoy the island's unique experience for the rest of the days before their scheduled departure on at day break on 31 August.
Fatema F Kaderbhay of Heldive Ltd [not Hell Dive!] came to offer an exciting 'underwater walk' - "it is so safe even for 7-year-old kids and those who do not even know swimming!" she said. It was also an unbeatable offer, said to be very special for us. A confident lot of 16 agreed to participate. At the defined moment, only 11 people set out for the venture - that could have turned into a 'disastrous adventure'.
A cab took the team, and Raj, the driver, spoke Hindi and actively engaged all the people on the finer aspects of the island. We soon reached Pereybere at the Grand Bay. The lagoon was quiet, serene and emerald blue.... truly inviting!! As we got to capture few shots on our video and still cameras, a ferry came ashore to take us to a 'platform' in the sea where we were supposed to get into the suits and begin the adventure.
Eleven of us boarded the ferry, and with the fat boat-man, Ricardo Jean Mitchel, we were a complete dozen! We did not know the prescribed maximum, but later gathered that it ought to have been just 8 - including the skipper. The surprise was that Fatema did not come along but said that she'd be available for anything if need be.
The boatman had initial trouble, with the motor not starting off in the first go. "Not a good omen?" sounded off one of the members.... and as if to ward off that 'negative effect', I shouted a prayer for all to say - "Jai Bajrang Bali!". And we certainly needed the blessings of the Lord in the next 15 minutes... "We are now about 3 to 4 metres deep," said the boatman, not very communicative or even excited, just like many other men we had come across the boats in La Plantation where we all stayed.
Soon as we went about two-third the distance, the danger ahead was visible to all of us. "There is water coming in," alerted Meena. Water started entering from the rear end of the boat, just above the place of the motor. The motor perhaps did not have the adequate power to push us all and it seemed to gasp with the 'over weight?' Meena held that she had pointed out to Ricardo of water coming in some ten minutes before, to which he is said to have retorted, "No problem!" Right now it was indeed A BIG PROBLEM! The boat man shut the engine off - asked us to stay calm and not panic, and whistled and waved to draw attention of near-by boats.
"Guys, do not panic, please stay calm," I yelled and Bharat too was trying to make others stay as calm as possible. Any panic and undue movements would surely topple the boat, even before the water filled up. We did hold ourselves together but not for too long. Water gushed in from the rear of the boat, faster than we had anticipated. The boat turtled to its left and threw us all into the lagoon. We all hit the water. Jayashree, Srinivas, Dr Anil and his wife Anita were swimmers of some sort and the rest who did not know swimming were truly in great dismay and distress.
As I held my breath to prevent seawater entering my mouth and nose, I kicked my hands and limbs to stay afloat above water. The capsized boat was right above me and I held on to it. The boat's belly was very slippery and my hand was giving away but finally I managed to hold on to the rim of the boat, he right hand holding from the outer side, and the left hand from the inner. I started stretching my legs and kept flapping to stay afloat and took stock of the situation.
Jayashree emerged from the boat's front-end, having been right under the boat and weaved her way soon out. Bharat and Dr Anil emerged on my left. I saw Srinivas who pulled Bhargavi up even as she was being towed away by the waves. Subha and Rajagopalan too were visible but were on the other side of the boat. Meena took help from Srinivas and stayed afloat. The boatman too emerged and showed signs of utter dismay. Apart from his aiding Srinivas to help Bhargavi climb up and lie on to the top of the boat he did nothing to rescue or lend a helping hand.
We all missed Suganthy! "Suganthy...where is she?" I yelled and we all started drawing the attention of the missing member - we had to act fast! 'Something is holding my leg underneath" Dr Anil said. Karl, an Australian came to our rescue - he was God sent. Off to fishing with his nine-year son, he threw a life jacket. Bhargavi and Rajagopal were quickly taken into the Coast Guard boat that came very close to our sunken ferry and threatened to tilt it further, making us lose grip. Suganthy was still not visible!
Karl rescued Subha. "Take on the man in his dark glasses - he does not know swimming!" yelled Jayashree, referring to me. Karl swam towards me, and guided me till the ladder. As I got on, I insisted: "Please find Suganthi!" In seconds, Karl went under the boat and fetched Suganthy, who was floating flat on her belly. The others too held her and soon got her aboard Karl's boat. "She is breathing" assured Karl. Suganthy was laid flat on the surface while her head hung below the body-level. She frothed from her mouth and nose. A good sign, I sort reassured myself first [I could have been right or wrong]. "Call for the emergency and ambulance".... yelled someone.
Karl's boat soon headed to the shore... which by then had many anxious onlookers. A bedspread was soon laid... as Karl helped by others put Suganthy on to the floor. She was still breathing loud from her mouth. Karl gave her some quick first aid - one of the first aid emergency acts that he had learnt from a course completed just 10 days before.
She was rolled on to her left, with her left leg stretched and the right folded up. Suganthy threw up vomiting some of the undigested food. She was constantly assured by us that she was fine and that the rest of us too were. We held her hand firmly, giving her all the sensation, the heat, and sought to get her senses alive and ticking. "Open your eyes Suganthy", and she would respond, "open wide", she'd do that... "now roll your eyes"... and she quickly reacted to it.
In minutes she was under good care of the emergency ambulance and the medical team that came in. Dr Foundun and the team rushed her to the SSRN Hospital - North - in Pamplemouss. There was water in her lungs and the required medical interventions were given even while on the move. "She will have to be in the ICU tonight and she should be fine,"...assured the doctor. With timely help and best of medical intervention, Suganthy was out of the hospital the third day. But she was advised to undertake travel only after three days for ample precaution. Jayashree stayed back and with approval from my office, I stayed back as well for support.
While Karl and his family were invited to a thanksgiving meet by all the PR men, there is one 'take home' message at the end of the event. Life alone is the only valuable thing we all hold when it comes to a challenging situation. Be it in any place on this planet earth! Would be so true even in Mauritius, the 'Out of this World' country! There is no value really to the belongings or money we lose - video and digital cameras or any such thing that we often state as 'valuables'.
The following day, the Minister Tourism met with us and Karl's family and assured action would be taken on people who messed with lives and flouted safety norms. It was a good gesture on his part.

Comments [0] | | More

The Famous Wood Sculptor - Lewis Dick

31/08/2008, Mauritius

Sunday 31st August 2008
Port Louis

The day Lewis came into our lives was special in that we can see the soul and spirit of Mauritian people through his eyes. Our friendship with Lewis and his wife Josiane began with the introduction by Bill's brother Peter and partner Jennifer Bartholemew, a Melbourne artist. Lewis was invited to Australia 3 years ago to work on a piece with Jennifer for the Commonwealth Games. Lewis' English has improved in leaps and bounds since his visit to Australia and it has been a pleasure to be able to communicate with a Mauritian on a deeper level. Lewis has also traveled to Europe also to work with a renowned Swiss sculptor and his son is presently a sculptor in London. We have visited Lewis' home twice now and enjoyed Creole cooking as well as singing and dancing in his courtyard.

Lewis and Josiane live in Bambous, a quiet village 40 minutes by bus from Port Louis. On our first visit several of his students welcomed us with a song at his front gate. Lewis works with underprivileged children as their mentor giving them confidence and an opportunity to work through their emotions using wood carving as therapy. The students we have met are a credit to Lewis - quietly confident now each showing a talent not only for sculpture but music. Lewis freely mixes music with art as both are interrelated and assists in creating a happy atmosphere with everyone having fun.

The 'legend' of Lewis' success is attributed to a wooden doll he made for his daughter when she was small. Twenty five years ago Lewis was so poor that he couldn't buy his little girl a doll for Christmas. He sat under a tree very depressed and looking up into the branches he could se a branch shaped a bit like a baby. He decided to cut the branch down and make his daughter a doll for Christmas. She loved that doll and wouldn't share it with other children. One day there was a squabble between his daughter and some other children. A man happened to be walking by and when he saw the doll he asked the children where they got it. When told that her Daddy made it he insisted on being taken to him. He offered Lewis 3000 rupees for the doll. This was like winning the lottery in those days as Lewis was only earning 18 rupees a day as a labourer (about 75c) With this money he was able to buy a block of land and begin building his house where he still lives today. His daughters were upset about losing the doll so he made another one. This one they didn't like so much as it was carved like a sitting doll and they couldn't cuddle it as with the first one. The 2nd doll sat on a table in their living room. As fate would have it another man saw this doll and offered Lewis 4000 rupees for it. Now Lewis could finish his house and began his career as a wood sculptor. Now he creates large pieces for large organizations as well as private customers both here in Mauritius and overseas.

The students'work - L'ecole de Sculpture
Always aware of his own humble beginnings he is passionate about helping the poor and underprivileged children of Mauritius. His garden and small gallery is full of sculptures made by his students. One sculpture drew my attention each time I went into the garden. It is of a mother with a child on her back. The mothers face is a picture of anger and grief. The 14 year old girl who carved this sculpture is an illegitimate child. Her mother was shunned by the local Mauritian community as having a child out of wedlock is a big stigma. Her mother pretended the child was someone elses carrying her on her back and went about saying she was the babysitter. Lewis said that this girl got rid of her negative emotions by creating this sculpture. She is now a successful nurse in a local hospital. On our last visit Lewis insisted on giving me this sculpture. We had a hire car that day so we were able to transport it back to the boat! The sculpture now sits under the chart table and we will eventually place her in the garden at home! I plan to do some drawings of her.

Comments [1] | | More

02/09/2008 | Di and Bruce

Wonderful stories, Reggio Amelio...with a Linda /Creole flavour. You guys are inspirational !

La Morne Art Workshop

31/08/2008, Mauritius

Art Workshop - La Morne
Sunday 31st August 2008
Linda was honoured to be asked by Lewis to take his class yesterday to do some drawing. 25 children aged 7 to 15 were busy chipping away at wood carvings left in the local church courtyard. As I set up easels, paper etc Lewis introduced me and translated as I communicated to the class. We used a PNG carving, Bill and myself as models. Most of them had never worked with charcoal before bit seemed to enjoy the texture of it. Bill and I also showed photos of our trip on Valiam and photos of her construction. These children were so well behaved and respectful - the easiest class I have ever had! Yet these children are so poor and don't have the things Australian children have. During the class Lewis' older students who were the musicians we met previously played music on a guitar and hand drum to create a relaxed atmosphere. After we finished drawing we danced to the music. Some of these children have a natural grace and rhythm especially 2 older girls. I had my bellydance belts with jingle and sequins with me so I tied them on. We had lots of fun at this 'workshop'.

After the class Lewis took us to the local community centre for a meeting. After talking to 2 of the paid employees there it was decided to have a workshop and exhibition there next weekend of the children's drawing. There will be wood carving and music and dance as well. Linda will be busy mounting the childrens work and creating a dvd of the original workshop!

It seems our stay in Mauritius will be a little longer than we originally planned due to our involvement with Lewis' projects. Lewis has also asked Linda to hold an exhibition of her work in Port Louis. This will be a combination of drawings and photos completed on this trip. Its all a bit scary but fun and exciting at the same time.

Comments [0] | | More

Exploring Port Louis

31/08/2008, Mauritius

La Marina here in Caudan isn't like any other marina we've experienced. We feel like we are camping in a public park or we are on display to the locals and tourists who walk past in a constant stream. Now we know how animals feel being gawked at in a zoo! Most are friendly but some talk about us as if we're not there! It's funny hearing Mooloolaba pronounced in many different ways!! Most don't realize we yachties are living on our boats here. It is very convenient being able to step off and walk anywhere in town. We buy takeaway or eat at some of the cheaper restaurants around here. Sometimes we have soup and toast on board.

Linda bought herself 3 new Indian outfits at an Indian ladies dress shop. They are comfortable and feel slightly glamourous - the matching scarf/veil however doesn't seem to flow elegantly over the shoulder as it does with the Indian ladies!

The Market is a terrible place for tourists to buy souveniers. The male stallholders are very persistent and follow you around. This has completely put me off shopping there. The smaller Chinese and Indian shops in the back streets are cheaper and more fun.

Until next time!
Au revoir

Comments [1] | | More

31/08/2008 | jerry

Completely put you off shopping? Doesn't sound like Linda! ;)

Hindus in Mauritius

25/08/2008

'Hindus in Mauritius'

Monday 25th August
Caudan Waterfront
Port Louis
Mauritius
Position: 20 09.62S 57 29.82E

The waterfront where we are tied up is in the middle of a tourist area so consequently a constant stream of tourists mostly local and from Reunion come strolling past. Groups of Indian people sit laughing and eating takeaway on the brick wall metres from us! We can people watch unobserved from inside the boat or from the cockpit we exchange many 'bonjours'. The restaurants and food court are very conveniently located but more expensive than Rodrigues. We intend to explore Port Louis further by foot to see the market and Chinatown. In the meantime we have hired a little car for few days - a Hyundi - smaller than any we've seen in Australia! Bill drove us all around the island which is left hand drive like Oz - a remnant of British rule.

Our impression of the natural landscape is that it is similar to New Caledonia. The countryside is dotted with dark volcanic rocks and many sugar cane fields. However it is a lot more populated (1.3million) of which 52% are Indian Hindus. As it was Sunday yesterday we saw many families out enjoying themselves dressed in beautiful coloured saris. We saw many groups in small mini buses equipped with chairs, tables etc for picnics along the southern beaches. The first day we toured the north of the island stopping for a while at the famous Cap Malhereux (Cape of Misfortune) where we could view the same islands we sailed passed from the shore. As we were sitting in the beachfront churchyard having a picnic a beautiful young girl came past selling little hand made dodo birds. (Dodo birds are now extinct and were wiped out by early settlers not because they tasted good but because they were easy to catch hence the name Dodo -Duodo meaning 'stupid' in Portuguese.) We bought some of these little dodos for the children at home. Chatting to this lovely girl we were astonished to hear her say that Indian boys prefer girls with light skin and that she thought she was unattractive because she has dark skin. We both said we thought she was beautiful and that her name 'Priti' matched her looks. She was not convinced and said Linda's skin was much prettier. We have noticed on our travels that skin whitening products are advertised everywhere and movie stars/advertisements are a full of light skinned people. Linda thinks the ladies here look exquisite whether young or old in their bright saris and dark skin.

One of the most interesting places we visited was the Graand Bassin which is a crater lake which the Hindus call 'Ganga Talao' The deity Shiva and others are worshipped here and the festival in February is the largest outside India. In 1972 water from the Ganges river was poured ceremonially into the lake. When we were there it was cool and misty with many Hindus colourfully and beautifully dressed bearing flowers, fruit and incense to offer their deities. The bright pink, orange, yellow and all colours of the rainbow were reflected in the saris and looked exquisite in the back drop of the lake. The people were collecting water, pouring it ceremoniously and dipping their feet and praying at the feet of the colourful statues of their gods. As tourists with white skin, pale hair and uninteresting clothes we stood out but were tolerated with smiles as we observed and took photos from the outer edge.

Comments [1] | | More

05/09/2008 | ruth

hi linda bill fabulous reading makes me homesick for your stimulating company our friday art champers soirees byron bay girls getaway i am sure all the fascinating travellers will echo my sentiments bubbles is in fine fettle she says hi can`t say the same about pippa she looks good but heart hips cancer say otherwise we enjoy luv her off to noosa jazz sunday fathers day picasso exhib wed looking forward to that . Happy holiday in M , Keep up the good work with the kids, bye, love ruth and phil.

Touring Mauritius by car

25/08/2008, Port Louis

'Touring Mauritius by car'

One of the first places we visited on Linda's 'must do' list was a huge local market reputably the best in Mauritius at Quatre Bornes. Two hours later we managed to find our way out after buying a few cheap items of clothing including a lovely pink silk/cotton shirt for Bill for $5. (see photos!) Linda couldn't decide which beautiful Indian sari outfit to buy so will have to do this another time without a bored captain in tow.
On our tour around the island we drove past Bay du Cap where Matthew Flinders was detained for 5 years by the French for being 'British'. Not far from there we observed the cliff near La Morne where escaped slaves jumped to their death in 1833 thinking they were going to get caught when in actual fact British soldiers were on their way to tell them they were free. This island is steeped in history which makes it fascinating when looking around. We found little towns, bays and corners with ancient brick walls and piers as in near Souillac the southern most corner of Mauritius. Linda's navigation made things interesting because we would find all sorts of interesting places when we got lost. Driving oneself around is more fun than hiring a guide as we can come and go to places at a whim.

We also visited Grand Bai where it is possible for us to anchor Valiam. We drove to the yacht club and were given the 3rd degree before being admitted to this 'private club'. Lucky Linda had her Royal Belau Yacht Club membership card! All the members were out sailing and only the bar staff were there. We were hoping to get some information on the safest place to get through the reef but they knew nothing about where the entrance to the reef was. We had heard it is very shallow and many yachts touch bottom and its only possible to come in at high tide. There were no cruising yachts anchored there but the facilities are excellent - cheap meals and clean showers. We haven't decided whether we will move there yet. It would be better for Bill to dive in clean water to clean the propeller! Grand Bai is a tourist haven a bit like Noosa (QLD-Oz)or Boracay (Philippines) with restaurants and souvenier shops lining the foreshore . The bay is very pretty and much quieter than here in Port Louis.

On the way back to Port Louis we stopped in Curepipe where a huge old crater Trou aux Cerfs is the highest point. We walked up the road to see the views across the city and beyond. On the sides of the crater are different species of pine trees with a small lake at the very bottom. Trou aux Cerfs means 'hole of the stags'. Deer from Java were imported by the Dutch and used to roam around there. There are still reserves of deer now and we often see deer on the menu in restaurants.

Comments [0] | | More

Taiwanese Fishing boats

25/08/2008, Port Louis

'Taiwanese fishing boats'

Last night after dinner back at Caudan, we were watching a band play in the courtyard. Next to us we met 2 Philippino fishermen who were very smartly dressed. At first we thought they were tourists! We had a lovely chat with these 2 young men who are in their 30s. We told them how much we enjoyed the Philippines on our voyage through there. They are on a 3 year contract on a Taiwanese fishing boat fishing the Indian Ocean. We saw several of these white Chinese looking fishing boats rafted up to each other in the harbour when we came in. One of the men is married with 4 children and doesn't see his family at all during the 3 years. We had heard stories of Indonesian fishermen who see their families for 1 week every 3 years and sleep in a blanket on the floor of the boat. These 2 fellows seemed to be a lot more comfortable and said they had a cabin with air conditioning and lights. (Better than us!) One of them showed us a yellow plastic ring he obtained from a dolphin that had been caught and unfortunately died. It had Australia and some numbers printed on it. He said most of the dolphins they inadvertently catch are thrown back in the sea and survive. We invited them to come and say hello next time they are walking around as they are here for 2 months.

Today we are making use of the hire car to visit a 'Jumbo' supermarket to stock up the boat. It is convenient as the car park is a few steps from where Valiam is tied up - the easiest place ever to load up! It is generally convenient here except for the shower arrangement. We have to ask for the key at the security office full of uniformed men every time we want to use the amenities. This means Linda has to be properly dressed every time she wants to go there! It's a nuisance to ask for a key when there are only 4 visiting yachts (and 2 have their own showers on board) each time. Once Linda was given the wrong key and had to walk back for the correct one and on the same evening was caught undressed in the shower room when a security man poked his head in! Linda made a formal complaint about this incident! But it is very cheap to stay here compared to most marinas (about half the cost) so we will balance out the conveniences with the inconveniences and continue to enjoy our stay here.

The internet café is a 20 minute walk away, doesn't do wireless and we're not sure it does Skype. Thank you to everyone who has sent sat messages (we get those straight away) and sent newsy emails. It's good to hear all the news and gossip from Oz.

Comments [0] | | More

La Marina Port Louis

22/08/2008, Mauritius

22nd August 2008
La Marina
Caudan Waterfront
Port Louis
Mauritius


Port Louis is a 'middle sized' city of 180,000 people and we look forward to exploring more aspects of this fascinating place. Yesterday we had to tie up to a concrete wharf outside an old grey building with a small 'Customs' sign displayed outside. We decided Bill would complete the formalities whilst Linda minded Valiam. It seemed to take several hours. We got reprimanded for forgetting to hoist the yellow quarantine flag! (strange as Rodrigues where we've just come from is part of Mauritius! ) He then reappeared again to fetch a pen. Don't government officials here have enough pens? Anyway after Immigration, Customs and Coastguard formalities were completed we untied Valiam and motored around the corner to a tiny marina. Linda had phoned for assistance before our arrival but there was no-one there to help with our ropes. There was only one old tyre hanging over the concrete quay so we tied 2 more fenders on Valiam's starboard side. It was a difficult manoeuvre and unfortunately we heard a nasty crunching sound against Valiam's topside. Sure enough she now has some scrapes and scratches which we will have to touch up with turquoise paint. After checking into the marina at the security desk (it's part of Caudan Waterfront development - a government department) it was suggested we move Valiam further forward to access power and water. There was a small space between 2 yachts which looked impossible to get into. However with the help of French couple Jacques and Catherine on one of the yachts 'Serenade' which was directly in front (as well as a handsome young man from another yacht) to hold the ropes we managed to squeeze in without any further damage. Bill says it's always good to ask another yachtie who is going to be next to us for help as they don't want us to run into them!

There are a couple of touts here offering sevices for laundry and taxi rides. Raj the taxi driver was mentioned in another yachties log I had read ('Sohcahtoa') so we may engage his services at some stage. This little marina had enough space for when Jim arrived on Alii Kai Too a few hours later. Bill and another couple of guys assisted him. It would have been impossible as a singlehander to tie up here.

We are right in the middle of the city next to a pleasant developed area modeled on Capetown with the ships harbour alongside. It reminds me a little of Hobart or Southbank in Brisbane. We just have to step over the chain railing and we can promenade with all the Indian people who enjoy this recreational area. We have pasted pictures over our windows for privacy! It is very convenient as we have a mall, restaurants, museum etc here. We went under the busy road on a walkway to the city and had a brief glimpse of the conglomeration of buildings, cobbled streets, hawkers, hooting cars and mainly Indian inhabitants of Port Louis. We were hoping to find a cheap place to eat other than Macdonalds but the few snack bars we saw had nowhere really to sit except in a dark corner at a bench with a plastic stool. We ended up back at the waterfront at a tourist place. More investigation will be necessary to find non touristy eateries. The food court is convenient and only a few metres away. It's the best place for 'people watching' as the restaurants all seemed to be empty. Last night we enjoyed Indian food watching the Olympics on a giant screen. It was Gymanstics with hoops and skipping ropes. A group of Indian children played in the foreground .

More than 50% of Mauritius is made up of Hindu and some Moslem Indians. They are the descendents of 200,000 indentured labourers who worked in the cane fields in the 1800s. Before the abolition of slavery, slaves from Madagascar and the East Indies were imported. Mauritius has had a colourful past since a Dutch Admiral van Warwyck stopped on the southeast coast of Mauritius in 1598 en route to the spice and silk markets of the east. He named the island after Prince Maurice (Maurits) of Nassau. The French came in and named it Ile de France in 1715. The late 1700s could be termed the 'golden age of piracy. Pirates and corsairs under French protection used the island as a base for mercilessly plundering British vessels which traveled along the shipping route to the East Indies. In the early 1810s after several battles between the French and English, the English conquered the Mauritius as well as neighbouring Reunion. Not long after Reunion was returned to France but retained Mauritius, Rodrigues and the Seychelles. The island was again given its old Dutch name of Mauritius. The British ruled until 1968 when Mauritius became independent.

It's interesting that most people speak French or Creole here even though it was ruled by the British for so long. English is still the 'official' language and everyone learns it at school. So in actual fact most of the Mauritius people can speak both French and
English. This is great for us but we will have to brush up on our French when we go to Reunion.

There are two French yachts here. Serenade sailed from New Caledonia without stopping and arrived here in Mauritius 51 days later. Jacques and Catherine said the Australian regulations were too difficult so they kept going. Indonesia is also difficult in a different way. What a long trip! The other French boat is a huge catarmaran and they planning to sail east rather than west to Perth and around Cape Horn. These French yachties sure like their adventurous voyages!

Whilst here in Port Louis we will enjoy the convenience of stepping ashore, use of the hot showers and explore the city and local markets. We wont have to drag the laptop wrapped in plastic in the dinghy here! There is an internet place not far from the boat but someone told us wireless can be picked up from the Foodcourt.

Au revoir. Don't w... too hard!

PS forgot to write in position - will next time!
Photos - some extra in Rodrigues 'au revoir'
and new album 'Mauritius' contains some of trip and arrival

Comments [0] | | More

Madame Angon's hole - Mauritius

21/08/2008, 20 08.798'S:57 28.573'E, Port Louis

Port Louis Mauritius Position: 20 08.798S 57 28.573E

7.30am

We woke this morning to a different view - ships anchored, smoke belching from a power station and interesting jagged peaked mountains forming the backdrop to the city of Port Louis. Not quite making the harbour before nightfall we enjoyed a good night's sleep just south of the green marker before the harbour entrance. We shall ask permission via radio to Port control to enter the harbour once the captain has had his second cup of coffee.

The sail to the island of Mauritius yesterday was delightful. The seas were small and Valiam glided gently through the waves with full sail up. We were treated to a display of whales spurting and frolicking in the distance. As the wind was blowing from them to us we could even smell their whaley fishy breath! The small rocky islands at the north of Mauritius looked spectacular in the afternoon sun.

As we sailed towards the gap between Coin de Mire('gunner's coin) and Ile Plate ('flat island') Linda looked up some interesting information in the guide book: "The fault running down the west side of the island Coin de Mire, le Trou de Madame Angon ('the hole of Madame Angon'), was used for target practice by the British navy during the 19th century." And sure enough as we sailed closer to the island we could see the large hole, a distinctive feature in the rock face. We had few laughs imagining who Madame Angon could have been. Doubtless a popular Port Louis lady to the seamen in those days.

We are looking forward to exploring Port Louis and its surrounds. It's a beautiful day.

Au revoir!

Comments [0] | | More

Rodrigues to Mauritius (day 2)

20/08/2008, 20 09.5'S:58 43.6'E, Indian Ocean

Its 5.45am local time and our position is : 20.09.5S 58 43.6E. The wind has been inconsiderate all night by changing direction due to a few rain squalls. Bill has had to go on the foredeck already in the middle of the night to switch the jib pole over the other side. We have gybed a few times which is a nuisance. Hopefully the predicted SE 15 knot wind will kick in. We caught a weird fish last night. It was long and black like an eel with a nasty big sharp mouth and big sharp teeth. Bill threw it back in. The first time we catch a fish in 8 months and has to be a weird inedible thing! Looking forward to a full nights sleep. We only see the moon occasionally due to the overcast conditions. No stars either... Mauritius coast guard called us up on the radio when we were 150 miles out. They must have a powerful receiver. They wanted to know our position, yacht and crew details. Good to know they are expecting us!

Comments [0] | | More

Rodrigues to Mauritius

19/08/2008, 20 05.8'S:61 15.8'E, Indian Ocean

Rodrigues to Mauritius Indian Ocean Position: 20 05.8S 61 15.8E 19 August 2008 7am local time

This passage is so different to the last one! We are sailing steadily downwind with 18 knots of wind being steered by Mona Lisa the autopilot. (Windvane doesn't work well with the wind straight behind) Captain Bill has rigged the boat with the jib furled out to port and the main with one reef to starboard. This seems to lessen the rolling and give us an average speed of 7.5 knots. We enjoyed watching dolphins play in Valiam's waves before sunset and the full moon made things easier to see during the night. A few rain squalls cause the wind to change direction a few times which means we sail slightly off course at times.

We left Port Mathurin, Rodrigues yesterday just before midday. It took several hours to visit immigration, customs and coastguard. We also had to wait for the coast guard to check us before leaving. Initially they wanted the 2 yachts (with 3 people) to tie up to the wharf but we asked if they could visit us in their inflatable instead. Much easier for us - so only 2 people in a little rubber boat came and did the final clearance. We will always remember Rodrigues with fondness for the friends we made there. It was sad to leave.

The day before on Sunday afternoon we went dancing again to the Le Cocotiers 'nite club'. During our previous visit we met a lovely young woman called Danny who showed us how to 'Sega' dance. It's a bit like a mix between African and eastern European polka steps. Danny and Linda exchanged phone numbers and arranged to meet again on the Sunday. We got to know Danny better that afternoon and learned she is 44 with 2 teenage daughters. (She looks much younger) Her family life is unusual as she is married to a 'Rasta man like Bob Marley' (Rastafarian) and they each have separate houses. She said her husband "doesn't dance, doesn't eat meat or drink alcohol has long knotty hair, is a musician- artist and meditates a lot" Danny is quite independent and works as a nurse in gynaecology and with babies at the local hospital. She confirmed that most women in Rodrigues own property and pass it on to their children. She has already built a separate house 'upstairs' for her daughters. Da nny's English is excellent as she said she had to study in English and often has to communicate with doctors in English. We felt we were just starting to get to know each other and felt sad that this friendship couldn't continue except by email. We really enjoyed dancing and it was good to see Bill get right into it and have fun too.

Just before we left yesterday Birgit was at the jetty with a weather report and taking photos of us. James phoned to say 'he would remember us for a long time'. The day before he presented us with a new French inner tube for my bicycle and beautiful hand crocheted table runner made by Madame Fifi. These generous people touched our hearts. James has asked Bill to find the right type of inner tube for his 1968 bicycle in Reunion or South Africa. This will be an errand Bill will enjoy as he likes poking around in bicycle shops. It is quite cool and Linda is wearing 3 layers of clothing and even knitted slippers in the cabin! All is going well out here and we hope to reach Port Louis, Mauritius tomorrow afternoon. (However the winds are predicted to lighten so it may take long

Comments [1] | | More

18/11/2008 | Birgit Rudolph

Certainly you have thought that I would never be contacting you ...but see...now i am here and reading since yesterday everything about your turn after you left Rodrigues...wow, it is so interesting and I love your journal. We had lots and lots of sailors pouring in until the end of October. Visit the Rodrigues blog and you get a small impression, I will post there in small dosages , as there are so many photos and so many stories hidden, but soon I will refer to you and Virenord. I have mentioned Dieter in blog, he had trouble in a bad storm when he was on his way to South Africa....

I must leave now
but I will come back , be sure, you are not forgotten

Birgit

I will never forget the wonderful afternoon with the wonderful food on Valiam, it was fun to discuss the world...On 5th of November I had to think about that afternoon's discussion too...

Last days in Rodrigues

16/08/2008

Last days in Rodrigues
Port Mathurin
Saturday 16th August 2008

It seems 2-3 weeks is a good amount of time for us to stay in a place to get a feel for it as well as recuperate from a passage. It was our third visit to the market this morning (it's only open on Saturdays) and we confidently knew our way around - where the best tomatoes were, the baguettes and today Linda ventured into the 'poulet' hut. There is no refrigeration and in here were fresh chickens whole with feet or dismembered as well as big brown eggs. The other two huts were labeled 'boef' and 'porc'. The animals are slaughtered here too and last night we were woken by pigs squealing. (We are anchored directly opposite the market)

Yesterday was a special day in Rodrigues because it was the 'Feast of Mary' as well as the first Rodriguan priest was inaugurated. The hill where the statue of Mary is (see one of previous blogs) was covered in people for most of the morning. We were ensconced comfortably at Chez Ram enjoying lunch after a bicycle ride and could hear the music and singing. Later as the people walked down the hill in their finery we rode out to Bay L'herbe to visit James. He was pleased to see us but unfortunately Madame Fifi was out. We made arrangements to meet one more time before we left. James has been welcoming yachties for many years and we are very happy to have met him.

When we rode back into town there were many 'happy' people about as it was a holiday and some seemed to have been enjoying the local rum. Several 'bonjours' later we found ourselves at Le Cocotier the local 'nightclub/disco'. A friendly lady Danny encouraged us to go in and made sure we had a good time dancing the afternoon away. Linda danced the 'sega' twice and got quite puffed! Bill even shuffled around the floor in twirls with Linda trying to copy the locals! As we left we promised to bring 'our American friend Jim' on Sunday. These dances are fun as people of all ages go from grannies to kids. The band plays traditional Rodriguan music which Bill says is like 'pirate' music.

Today Birgit our German friend who has been living in Rodrigues for 11 years came for lunch on board Valiam as well as Jim. It was quite a long lunch with several lively discussions but we didn't solve the problems of the world even though it was dark when our guests left. Tomorrow we will check the weather and see if it is suitable to leave Monday for Port Luis, Mauritius. We will also need to clear customs and immigration on Monday even though Rodrigues is part of Mauritius. The moon is full so hopefully it will be a nice sail.

We leave Rodrigues with many happy memories. It is a special island with friendly people and a beautiful landscape that we have explored by foot, bicycle, motorbike and bus. We hope Rodrigues remains unspoilt for many years to come. It would be lovely to come back and visit one day.

Au revoir Rodrigues and merci beaucoup!

Comments [0] | | More

Tres beau visage a la Rodrigues

13/08/2008, Mauritius

Photo: enjoying the warm hospitality at Chez Jeanette's

Port Mathurin
Rodrigues
13 August 2008

The nicest part about cruising is being able to stay in places for long periods of time to really get to see things at a leisurely pace and get to know the locals. Whilst waiting for our transport to Mourouk Ebony Hotel we met Dirk (Birgit, our German friend's partner) on board their motor vessel Sea Line tied up at the jetty. Birgit and Dirk have lived here in Rodrigues for 11 years after looking for a less stressful life from cold Germany. We can see why 'foreigners' would like to live here - it is so full of natural beauty, the locals are friendly and even though it is small and untouristy it has everything one could need. It is difficult for foreigners to live here permanently unless permission is granted for a suitable business which brings in money or if married to a Rodriguan. As we explore this delightful island we imagine living here ourselves. There isn't anywhere to keep a yacht safely during the cyclone safely unless perhaps lifted out of the water.

Valiam looked forlorn as we left her for the other side of the island for 2 days. Its amazing how attached we are to her now we have shared so much adventure and she's kept us safe. As we wound our way up and down the mountains we again enjoyed the windswept natural beauty towards the coast. Mourouk Ebony Hotel consists of several semidetached cottages along the hillside. Our room had a wonderful view across the old natural harbour Port Sud Est (South East) where sailing ships (including pirates) in the past used to come in. Perhaps the treasure that is missing is buried nearby! We enjoyed the view, the hot showers and pleasant walks along the coast. Bill had a go at windsurfing after a 20 year absence. He didn't do too badly. (see photo)

We are so used to everyone speaking French around us we don't even notice it any more except when someone starts a conversation and we have difficulty understanding and responding!! We always end up saying "Parlez vous Anglais?" Most younger people can speak English as they learn it at school. It's interesting that the official language for Mauritius is English yet everything is in French! (even the recorded voice on our mobile phones) We buy local sim cards for our mobile phones wherever we are as this is always the cheapest way to phone home. (once you work out the instructions!!)

Half and hour before we were due to check out of the hotel and Bill was still out windsurfing, Birgit and Jim showed up on the beach. Birgit had arranged a local driver to take Jim on a tour of the island. They invited us to join them at Chez Jeanette's for lunch. Again we enjoyed a leisurely 3 hour lunch at Chez Jeanette's and because this was our second visit we were greeted like old friends (French kisses on both cheeks and lots of joking). The food again was fantastic and all cooked on an open fire on a traditional stove in an outdoor kitchen. We took more photos of Jeanette and her delightful staff in the garden wearing Rodriguan straw hats. (see photos) Each eating establishment in Rodrigues have their own recipe for rum punch. Jeanette's is made with lemon juice and white rum - delicious!! We are inspired to make some of our own!!

As Birgit had planned to take Jim to the Tortoise park where we've already been Muslin the driver took us to the bus stop in the town of Mont Lubin to get back to Port Mathurin. It's cold up there! I was glad to have my friend Robyn's handwoven shawl to keep warm. We waited for a bus with 100's of school children. They thoughtfully kept the seat vacant at the front for us elderly tourists!! The bus ride down the mountain involved a lot of screeching of brakes around hairpin bends but didn't take long too to get back. We were pleased to be back on board Valiam again and missed her even after just one night. We especially missed our soft comfy bed. (the beds in the hotel were hard)

There is nothing nicer than being at anchor in a peaceful place gazing out to sea at any time of the day but especially nice when the sun dips down. Valiam's interior is familiar and comforting with all our souveniers, photos and object d'art we have collected wince we left Australia. The wind has picked up as we can hear it howling and whistling through the rigging. It's a good 20 knots - ideal for sailing to Port Louis. (pronounced almost like 'wiss' with the 'L' being swallowed.... The 's' is not pronounced in Rodrigues.....) There are still no other yachts here. We wonder how many will be crossing to South Africa next month.

Today is internet day. We will take 2 computers to the library as the website takes a long time to download!

Enjoy the photos! (click on the little camera then Rodrigues, Mauritius)

Comments [0] | | More

When the Ship came in - Rodrigues

13/08/2008, Mauritius

When the ship came in - Port Mathurin
Rodrigues
9 August 2008

"Crackle crackle .....Port Mathurin.......cinq heure....." went the radio at 4.45am this morning. Sure enough out in the darkness a ship's lights could be seen rounding the small island just off Port Mathurin. Jim had to move his yacht Alii Kai Too yesterday close to the reef and to us to make room for the ship. The ship "Mauritius Pride" causes great excitement in this town. The little fishing boats full of fisherman were hovering around talking excitedly. The two tug boats were moving to the harbour entrance all spic and span after a month of polishing by 4 full time men. People were on the shore waving, cheering and clapping. The usually empty quiet wharf is a hive of activity today. It is very early Sunday morning. A small group of passengers waved to us and took photos. We could see several containers, cars and a new fire engine on board the ship. Further up form the wharf we could hear cows mooing and pigs squealing along the shore being moved off trucks ready to be slaughtered. The Mauritius Pride's captain maneuvered her into the tiny harbour passing the two of us yachts within metres. Perhaps the two yacht captains should partake in petite dejeuner with the ship's captain?!!

For a whole 24 hours the wharf was a hive of activity. Many people are gainfully employed from this town 'when the ship comes'. Many don't have much employment the rest of the month. Actually the Mauritius Pride had been in 'dry dock' for 8 weeks this time so the employment and produce arriving was most welcome. Containers, vehicles etc were unloaded then more containers , crates of fresh vegetables and cages of animals (cows, pigs, goats, chickens) were loaded. We witnessed the pigs waiting to be loaded in on the grassy land nearby fighting, biting and snorting. One of the workers kicked and picked one up by the tail that had strayed. They wont enjoy their ride in the ship's dark hold.... At 7am on Monday morning the ship moved from the wharf with the two tug boats hovering on standby. Again it passed us by within metres with a couple of loud 'toots'.

Later we met one of the tug employees - (there are about 8 employed full time on the 2 tugs.) who was keen for us to move back tied up to them. Perhaps they get a bit bored polishing, reading the paper etc every day waiting another month for 'the ship to come'.

Comments [0] | | More

Still the only 2 yachts at Rodrigues

07/08/2008, Mauritius

7th August 2008

This photo was taken on the way back from one of our motorbike rides. The statue of Mary is on the side of a hill to the south of Port Mathurin and it looks like she is looking after us!! Valiam and Alii Kai Too are still the only 2 yachts here in this small protected harbour. Most Rodriguans are Catholic and in some way this photo reminds us of the town of Maasin in the Philippines where a large statue of Mary looked over the town.
We expect we will get ready to leave for Port Luis some time next week. It will take a couple of days to get there. We hope to spend some time at La Reunion after Mauritius as we have heard the landscape is spectacular. There we will wait for the right weather to head for South Africa.
In the meantime we will make the most of Rodrigues. Today we may cycle down to the next bay where we saw a little pizza place (Bay L'Anglais) and Linda wants to look at some local embroidery there.
au revoir!

Comments [0] | | More

Tortoises and caves - Rodrigues

07/08/2008, Mauritius

6 August 2008
Tortoises and caves

Taking the motorbike out again today we found ourselves near Petite Butt (small derriere - we made lots of jokes about this... as there are mostly grande butts around here!). Linda was keen to see the Tortoise sanctuary so we did the tourist thing and went on a tour once we got there. We had to put on hard hats to explore the caves first. Our tour guide spoke mostly in French but for the '2 Australians' he translated in English. Everyone else was from La Reunion of Mauritius. They don't get many Aussies in these parts! The caves were magical but the Tortoise sanctuary was of even more interest to Linda.

In 1691 there were 280,000 giant tortoises roaming the island of Rodrigues. Within 40 years there were none. They were easy to transport as fresh meat by male sailors. It's difficult to believe these beautiful slow trusting creatures were treated like this. The same thing happened to the Solitaire (very similar to the Dodo) a large bird that couldn't fly. In an attempt to have tortoises on Rodrigues again tortoises from the Seychelles and Madagascar have been introduced. At present 160 giant tortoises are roaming the small valley near the caves on the south coast. They are of different ages and sizes with numbers painted on their backs. The first babies born in the wild are being carefully looked after in the 'tortoise nursery'. One can adopt one and give it a name. A painting in the little Museum near the sanctuary depicts what Rodrigues would have looked like 300 years ago with dark shelled tortoises dotted in the landscape amongst the volcanic rocks and small round bushes. The Rodriguans are also replanting bushes native to the island and trying to eradicate introduced species such as lantana. (Also a pest in Oz)

After having a lovely time with the tortoises we took the coast road towards Merouk. The scenery was stunning (see photos). Little houses dotted on the edge of cliffs with fabulous views with cows and goats munching grass nearby. Houses aren't expensive here. A house like Chez Jeanette's is worth about $40,000. We could live like kings here! What a shame it's so far from Oz!!!

We saw lots of octopuses 'ourite' (octopi?) drying on sticks as well as many little wooden fishing boats anchored in the bay. People here live as they have done for 100 years. Hopefully tourism wont impact on this amazing island. We did however succumb to the luxury of a tourist establishment and have booked a night in the Marouk Ebony Hotel for one day next week. It has cottages with HOT SHOWERS perched on a cliff overlooking the turquoise waters of a bay called Port de Sud with its fringing reef.

Meanwhile life in Port Mathurin has its charms. We look forward to the Saturday market with its fresh produce and lively colour of people from the whole island. The ship that visits bi monthly the 'Mauritius Pride will be here in a couple of days. More excitement! We are wondering if we have to move our yachts to make room as it is such a tiny harbour. Alii Kai Too and Valiam are still the only yachts here. We received an email from Bea and Di from Cocos saying they have been alone for several weeks with no yachts coming in. It may be a quiet year in the Indian Ocean this year with not many yachts traveling through. Some do however choose to go north via Chagos, Seychelles and Madagascar before heading to South Africa (as Natalie and Rob on Wilhelm are - they say there is only 3 yachts at Chagos presently)

Sometime next week we will start preparing for the short hop to Port Luis, Mauritius - about a 2 day sail from here. Port Luis will be busy and noisy in comparison to here with the city's population at 180,000 whilst the whole of Rodrigues is only 36,000. Rodrigues is certainly unique and we feel privileged to be here. It is wonderful to be able to enjoy such places 'off the beaten track' by being able to visit in our own yacht.

Comments [0] | | More

Exploring Rodrigues by Motorbike

07/08/2008, Mauritius Indian Ocean

5 August 2008
Exploring Rodrigues by Motorbike

Rodrigues is a beautiful unspoilt island which we were able to appreciate even more by touring around on a motorbike. We hired a trail bike suitable for carrying both of us. It was quite funny as half an hour into our journey enjoying the scenery the bike spluttered and stopped. Bill couldn't get it going again. Parked beside the road opposite Bay L'herbe we attracted a lot of attention by passers by, all eager to give advice. Eventually Linda phoned the motorbike place and managed to communicate with the help of French speaking spectators what the problem was. Twice the mechanic came out after diagnosing a faulty spark plug. After an hour we got going again.

The roads are winding - sometimes following the coastline, sometimes following the contours of the mountains. The landscape near the coast is windswept and in some ways reminded us of Tasmania. The houses are of course very different built from concrete and often painted bright colours such as pink or orange with decorative columns. Cows and goats are tethered amongst tussock grass and bushes. Occasionally we would see a pig roaming the grass as well. Dark volcanic rocks are scattered throughout the island amongst the grass.

As we climbed higher into the hills the air became quite cold and the vegetation more lush and tropical. Although we did see pockets of eucalypts!! (Introduced) We had heard about a guest house called 'Chez Jeanette' which has great views and offered lunch. We saw a tiny sign beside the road and went up a bumpy dirt road to a beautiful farm house covered in bougainvillea and surrounded by a beautiful garden. A vivacious lady with long braids and a straw hat greeted us. We asked about lunch and she said 'Just I minute' and rushed off. We could see a verandah covered in vines with a couple of long tables and reclining bamboo chairs. One of the tables was already set for 6. Jeanette came back and said 'ok' and ushered us to the reclining chairs. Thinking we were invading a family lunch we at first weren't sure but soon the other guests arrived and were greeted with much laughter and kisses by Jeanette. Soon we were talking with twin young men from La Reunion and two gorgeous Rodriguan sisters with a couple of small infants. Grandma Mary was also amongst the group. We had the loveliest couple of hours conversing mostly in broken English and a little French with these lovely people. The babies Dimitri (4months) and Lowanna (18 months) were cute and Linda got to cuddle Dimitri for a while until he wanted his mum. Chris-Henri who looked about 8 was keen to show off his English and even sang us a song. When we were all asked to sit at the table we felt we were dining at a family lunch in a gorgeous French yet tropical setting. (See photos in photo gallery) The lunch was superb - Rodriguan cuisine of spicy octopus, fish, red beans, maize, pawpaw salad and rice accompanied by French wine. After about 3 hours we finally left after a tiny espresso coffee winding our way down the mountain road.

We'll never forget our lunch at Chez Jeanette's and may try to visit again before we leave Rodrigues.

Comments [0] | | More

Local scenery Port Mathurin

04/08/2008, Rodrigues Mauritius

4 August 2008

Yesterday we collected our bicycles from the port security office where they are carefully guarded 24 hours a day by very nice local police officers. Eddie (right in photo) is also in the coastguard. We found our way to the 'Sega' dancing which was near the fire station. Many motor bikes were parked outside and we could hear catchy music coming from within a concrete and corrugated iron building. After paying the small entrance fee we found ourselves in a large dark room with people of all ages dancing , drinking and enjoying themselves. Its nice to see families, grannies and children dancing in this 'night club' which is open on Sunday afternoons until 8pm. The music was provided by a live band including an accordian, drums etc. A lovely lady named Maurette introduced herself and asked the band to play 'Sega' for us. Everyone got into it. Its a mix of African and bellydance type moves so Linda was in her element! The locals though she was very experienced!! Next Sunday we will go again and hopefully Bill will take an action shot.
After dancing the afternoon away we found Linda's bike had another flat tyre! After walking back to the port with the bikes Bill found the glue in the puncture kit wasn't very good. This morning Bill purchased new glue in the motorbike/bicycle shop and repaired it once again. Today we plan to go on another ride on the other side of town (probably to a restaurant for lunch).
Au revoir !

Comments [0] | | More

Cycling around Port Mathurin

04/08/2008, Rodrigues Mauritius

Port Mathurin
Rodrigues
3 August 2008

How lucky we are to be in this welcoming little town! Rodrigues is sometimes mentioned in sailing journeys in the past. It feels good to be in a place in which sailing boats in the past have visited after also crossing the Indian ocean. Rodrigues has an interesting history where pirates used to stay and there are rumours that treasure is still hidden in the hills here.

The locals are a mixture of races but all speak Creole and /or French. The younger people speak English but the older ones forget it after learning it in school due to lack of practice. In the restaurant Du Quai last night one would need a wide range of skin colours for a paint palette to paint the clientele. We were 2 of 3 white skinned people. The rest were various blends of Indian, African and European coloured skins. There are a small number of Chinese about who seem to own several stores that sell absolutely everything crammed on dusty shelves.

We are so glad we brought our bicycles. It is very pleasant riding around here. Rodrigues is only about 10 miles long so we should be able to get to most places. Yesterday we went for a ride with James, a 69 year old local who welcomes yachties and keeps books of all the yachts who visit. James invited us to his home where we met his wife Madame Fifi. We enjoyed tea and cake made from manioc. We had never eaten manioc before and Madame Fifi pounds it to make a flour. (It's a root vegetable) After looking at the previous yacht entries in the books (since 1990) we decided to ride to the next bay. Unfortunately Linda's tyre was flat. Linda went back to chat with Madame Fifi in 'French' whilst Bill and James rode around . They went to the prison which never has inmates but has 2 staff members on duty!! We are glad there is no crime here in Rodrigues!! Madame Fifi gave us some of her preserves made from olives, chillie and limes to take back with us. We really enjoy eating green chillies ground with limes in a preserve with our meals here.

We have almost forgotten our passage here. I remember reading a log written by some New Zealanders who described their 25-35 knot (with 45knot gusts) passage as 'routine'. Perhaps we were just used to the tropics! NZ and WA sailors think nothing of a brisk 40 knot breeze! Apparently the weather in September is less windy. Sounds like a good time to get around the bottom of Madagascar to South Africa. We are very glad we have come this way rather than the Red Sea which would have been 30 knot head winds. At least our winds were with us! The cooler weather agrees with the captain and we are both glad to be out of the tropics now. (Linda can wear outfits not worn since September in Oz!) The captain has repaired the dodger using his 'sailors palm'. As it seems to shower rain periodically throughout the day it means we can keep the hatch open without everything getting wet.

The local radio station is an interesting mix. At first we were listening to French Creole music but now it is India's latest hits! A local dance form called 'Sega' is supposed to involve hip shaking and has its roots in Africa. Linda would like to see this and perhaps participate! We have heard cds of Sega music and it sounds like a mix of Reggae/African/Spanish etc. Purchasing of Sega music is on Linda's shopping list.

Comments [0] | | More

Village life - Rodrigues, Mauritius

02/08/2008, Celebrating Jim's safe arrival

Port Mathurin
Rodrigues
2nd August 2008

We visited the market this morning and bought coconut and pawpaw tarts as well as local preserves of olives and chillies. The library allows us to bring our own laptop for free internet which is nice. Bill is putting our bicycles together for a cycling tour with local James later today. The weather is cool but pleasant - its nice to wear long pants and a t shirt for a change.

PHOTOS: Rather than lots of words there are lots of photos for you to view in the photo gallery. Just click on the camera icon.
For previous entries click on contents (right). Entires are also recorded via the map accross the Indian ocean

By the way the highest gust recorded on our wind instrument during our Indian ocean crossing was 59knots!!! Go Valiam!
Port Mathurin
Rodrigues
1 August 2008

Early this morning we were woken by the radio 'Port Mathurin this is Alii Kai Too'. "Jim's here." Says Linda rushing outside and sure enough we could see a mast bobbing in the distance. After a brief conversation on the radio to Jim we decided to untie ourselves from the tug boat and anchor in the harbour. As Jim came in we threw him a fresh baguette wishing him 'Bonjour'. Later we went to lunch at Paille en Queu debriefing both our Indian ocean crossings over several beers. The staff dropped subtle hints re the closing time by closing the curtains!

This morning Bill phoned Coursemaster in Australia and spoke with a very helpful fellow named Paul. Consequently the autopilot appears to be fixed. Hopefully Mona Lisa will be under control on the next leg.

James the local yachtie 'tour guide' greeted us on his 1968 bicycle bearing citrus fruit and pawpaw as a gift. He wants to take us on either a walk or bicycle ride around the next bay tomorrow. We put our picture and yacht details in his book and will pass it on to Jim.

It is time to get ready for dinner at Du Quai. They even serve local beef there. We thought Jim would enjoy that.

Bon apetite!

Comments [0] | | More

Tres jolies Rodrigues!

31/07/2008, Mauritius

Port Mathurin
Rodrigues
31 July 2008

It is so lovely here. Port Mathurin is really a charming little town. Being tied up here next to the jetty and the only yacht here at the moment we are the town's curiosity. We have been visited by a couple of residents who traditionally welcome yachts. Birgit a German lady who has been living here for 11 years with her partner Dirk own a fishing boat and are very involved in the community and promoting Rodrigues. Birgit gave us some handy hints on what interested us eg car hire, art galleries etc. She took pictures of us for her website. This morning we welcomed James Waterstone on board. He is a Rodriguan of Irish descent (hence the name) and said his wife Fifi is Italian. James wants us to go to his place to meet his family. He introduces himself to all yachts who enter here and we are invited to write and put photos in his book. The book is very interesting as it documents all the yachts that have come here. We are the 7th Yacht this year and last year 12 yachts visited Rodrigues. Most seem to originate from Europe. There are few Aussies, Kiwis and Americans but mostly British and European boats have visited Rodrigues. The wonderful thing about cruising is that we go to these lovely out of the way places that we normally wouldn't come to by plane.

Yesterday we ate at two restaurants - Paille en Queu and Du Quai which were both just lovely. The atmosphere is casual, friendly and distinctly Rodriguan with artificial flowers, faded maps, painted murals and both had a bar in the corner surrounded by wood and mirrors - a bit 60s retro look. We enjoyed the local dishes of octopus and fish in spicy sauces accompanied by South African or French wine. At Paille en Queu we observed one of the staff greet her boyfriend and sat with him for a while whilst he enjoyed a cigar. (see photo at bar with Bill) Du Quai restaurant is only a few metres from the boat so is very convenient. The friendly handsome waiter originally from the main island of Mauritius is of Indian descent. He insisted we try the local rum mixture which had peach and spices mixed with it. Quite nice. We met 2 attractive young women university students from North Wales who are doing their marine biology masters degree. What a great way to travel the world to do research snorkeling in exotic tropical places! Very smart! They have told us where the best snorkeling is.

Today we will investigate hiring a car to have a look around. Birgit said we can go to the Jenna store and arrange one for 1000Rp a day ($40). It is 10.15 and we are still lingering over our 2nd cup of coffee. One mustn't rush these things! Jim (Alli Kai Too) should arrive tomorrow so we may have to give him the tie up space next to the tug boat so all the officials can board his yacht.

Bientot - au revoir!

30 July 2008

Fresh baguettes and milky coffee every morning is the way we start the day here. Bill found the boulangerie (sorry sp no French dictionary) and came back with 2 crisp baguettes for less than 6 rupees each. (Less than 25c). Its cool here and the captain loves it. He is energetically putting the sails away and is very cheerful. It's around 25degrees during the day and 18 degrees at night. It was absolutely heaven to sleep in clean sheets in our normal bed with a light doona. We still feel a bit 'ocean lagged' and I'm sure it will be a few days before we feel normal.

Yesterday we found a little local restaurant with an outdoor tropical feel - thatched verandah, gaily painted woodwork and again a very handsome waiter. The men seem to have a gentle nature here and we don't feel threatened at all. Wandering past a dark hole in the wall full of noisy men (local pub) a man came staggering out zigzagging in front of us down a small lane with a cheery 'Bonzour!'
Bill found another dark hole in a wall with a sign 'Coiffeur' and went in to have a haircut. Across the road upstairs was a much nicer place - coiffeur for ladies. The petite attractive shy hairdresser greeted me with 'Bonjour Madame' but was worried about her total lack of English. Linda managed to communicate that she would like her hair washed and dried and was told it would be 150 Rupees ($6). It was so nice to lean back and have someone wash the nasty salty hair! It was relaxing not having to speak due to the language barrier and it was nice listening to the French Creole prattle around me. Nearly falling asleep whilst the hair was expertly blow dried it was pampering at its best. Linda emerged looking a lot more glamourous to find a distinguished gentleman sitting on a seat outside. Bill's barber had carefully trimmed everything - hair, eyebrows, beard and moustache. (See photo)

Port Mathurin is a small village with everything we need within walking distance to the boat. Alas we can only have a bucket and flannel wash on the boat. But Valiam is stationary and level which is lovely and we are all enjoying a good rest. Valiam is even dearer to our hearts since she got us safely through the Indian Ocean. We were dry and comfortable inside at all times. We are going to investigate hiring a car for a day to look around and perhaps stay a night in a hotel on the beach somewhere. Bill wants to climb the local mountain - a baby by Kinabalu standards but should be a nice walk for him. Linda will browse amongst the little shops full of curios and perhaps do some sketching.
The people here are the friendliest we've met and so far we haven't been charged a cent.
To appreciate the conditions we sailed under to get here the following emails were received 2 days ago:

From fellow yachties on the way to Chagos, Indian Ocean:

We are very sorry to hear about problems with your gear, and the loss of your bimini. Especially hope the autopilot does not give up the ghost in those difficult conditions. Last night Rob hailed a large bulk carrier on its way from So Africa to China, he was astounded to hear a small sailboat way out here and spoke about how bad the weather had been as he came south of and outside of Madagascar three days ago - so even the big guys have found it rough going where you are sailing. Wed. 30. Rob & Nat. sv Wilhelm

Linda and Bill,

Glad to hear you are almost there. It is painful to watch some of these conditions in the S Indian Ocean. We'll wait to hear from you on your next legs.

Cheers,
Brynn Campbell

--
PLEASE NOTE: AS OF JANUARY 1, 2008, OUR NEW EMAIL ADDRESS IS : info@commandersweather.com
Commanders Weather Corp.

Comments [1] | | More

31/07/2008 | Shirley

As you much your breakfast baguettes tomorrow, pretend I am there (but not by sea) - make sure there is chunky apricot jam too. Wonderful to hear of your arrival. Lots of love to all, including Valiam.

Rodrigues Island

29/07/2008, Mauritius

29 July 2008
Rodrigues Island
Mauritius
Position : tied up nest to tug boat, Port Mathurin
(when 1st anchored : 19 40.72S 63 25.17E)

We first sighted Rodrigues at 5pm yesterday as a dark shaped hill on the horizon. As we got closer and nearer it became darker and we could see all the lights sprinkled over the island. Accompanied by the bright stars it was like fairyland compared to the last 2 weeks. Although we arrived at Rodrigues last night it was too dark to enter the harbour so we had to spend the night 'hove-to'. As it was blowing 30 knots all night Valiam thought she was sailing at 2.5 knots and we ended up 16 miles out to sea. In the early hours of this morning (it was still dark) we prepared to sail back against the wind. Surprisingly Valiam kicked up her heels and sped off bumping through the waves heeling to starboard at 8 knots. "We'll get there too early at this rate!" says the captain. We watched the sky very slowly become lighter and we were just in time to try and differentiate the waves crashing on the reef and the markers for the channel.

Rodrigues looks a little barren and windswept with little buildings scattered about. We noticed a yacht tied up in the jetty and recoginsed Dieter on LenyLy. He was just leaving as we arrived! He had stayed 5 days here and was off to Port Luis, Mauritius. We think he took longer than us to get here from Cocos as he left a good 2 weeks before us. Poor Jim on Alli Kai Too. We received an email from him yesterday and he is still 500 miles away and doesn't expect to arrive until Friday. We took just over 12 days to sail 2000nm in mostly 35-45 knot winds (force7)

We were told by a couple of fellows in an inflatable to tie up next to the tug boat where Dieter just left. We are the only yacht in the harbour so we are attracting a lot of attention. It seemed that within minutes a parade of handsome black men came on board to do all our paperwork. What a feast for sore eyes! As we had just opened a bottle of champagne Linda stayed in the galley observing making jokes trying to speak French etc so she could sip it unnoticed(?). Each gentleman or group of gentlemen represented different departments - Health Officer, Coast guard, customs and immigration, prohibited good declaration.... With Linda's pitiful attempts at French (I figure Aussie French is a bit like Creole) the gentlemen responded in Creole or French in such a rapid manner she must have fooled them! "Petite peu" she cried. "My French is bad!!"

The men in the tug boat next door were having their breakfast of fresh baguettes. Linda couldn't help eyeing them off. When asked about where to get them one fellow said "I will get them for you for your breakfast" and raced off. I had no rupees so gave him a little stuffed koala in exchange. What a wonderful way to be greeted in this lovely place. As we pulled in we also heard reggae/African style music. We thought a school or church choir was practicing but we were later told by one of the handsome gentlemen that it was the radio 'a welcome song'.

Its been a rough trip but so far so good here and we expect to have a really nice time. The immigration man gave us a hand drawn mud map of the town. We are going to find an ATM, hairdressers and restaurant in that order probably. I can hear the men on the tug boat next door speaking Creole. It has a lovely lilting quality with many French words that we can understand occasionally. We will probably anchor later if the every day noises here at the wharf become too intrusive. At the moment we dont mind. Its a welcome change - colour movement and different sounds to what we've been used to the last couple of weeks.

Comments [1] | | More

31/07/2008 | Dave and Lyn Coles

Congratulations on reaching Rodrigues in one piece even if the auto pilot didn't. Have a great R & R. Love Lyn and Dave Coles

Day 13 - Cocos to Mauritius. 97 miles to go

28/07/2008, 19 32.9'S:65 08.1'E, Indian Ocean

Day 13 Indian Ocean 28 July 2008 Position: 7.30am Cocos time :

The wind stayed at around 30-38knots yesterday morning dropping a bit to 25-35knots in the afternoon yesterday. It's amazing how slow 25knots feels when we are used to 40 knots! The airfoil on Fred cracked and broke where it is bolted on so Bill immediately replaced it with a smaller one we had spare. He cut the broken one down to a ? size and later put this one on as the small one wasn't steering us as well down the waves.

Bill cooked Spanish omelette again with the last eggs and Linda made a big pot of Minestrone with fresh cabbage, capsicum and tinned beans and tomatoes, stock, garlic and spices. With vintage cheese and crackers this was delicious.

Last night we saw the stars for the first time in quite a while. We are feeling happy but very tired. We are not sure if we'll make Rodrigues before dark today as the wind died down a bit this morning and we were only doing 5 knots for a while. We would have to maintain a speed of 7 knots to get there before 8pm Cocos time (and when it gets dark) When it gets light and the captain has rested we will put more sail up and try and go faster. We've had just the staysail (small sail attached to an inner forestay) up for most of the passage and not used the mainsail except leaving Cocos on the first day.

Next entry will be from Port Mathurin, Rodrigues Island Mauritius!

Comments [0] | | More

Day 12 - Cocos to Mauritius. Nearly there

27/07/2008, 18 59.6'S:67 22.6'E, Indian Ocean

Day 12 Indian Ocean 27 July 2008 Position: (8.30am Cocos time) 19 00.00S 67 38.9E

What an endurance test this passage is turning out to be! A graduation certificate would be in order! The winds and sea didn't let up (again) with wind speeds 35-40 knots and gusts a bit higher. To have persistent strong winds in this range for the entire voyage is unusual for tradewinds. (usually 15-25 knots).We were getting used to waves banging and splashing over the cabin. It seems to have moderated a little this morning and it's a lot quieter but I may speak too soon. It could be a trick or a short lull before the next bang and lurch.

The self steering systems decided to cause us problems. Yesterday Bill went out on the stern to replace the rope on Fred the wind vane. When it was time to switch off Mona Lisa she wouldn't and the tiller remained locked, seems the solenoid which locks and unlocks the hydraulics is not working. What a nuisance @%$^*(*&%%$#! So were stuck with Mona Lisa only strangely now she decided she didn't want to stick to our course any more. Every time a wave came she couldn't get us back on course and when she is off course she makes a horrible electronic cheeeeeping sound. We tried to put up with this nonsense for several hours until Bill couldn't stand it any longer. He again donned wet weather gear and harness taking tools with him and unbolted the tiller from Mona Lisa. Now this doesn't mean divorce just temporary separation. Once Fred was working again we enjoined the peace and quiet and Bill was able to sleep... UNTIL a wave came and something snapped and we went completely of f course. #@^%$*&(%#! It was dark and nearly midnight and cold and wet. We both put on the wet weather gear and harnesses this time with new rope for Fred. For some reason the previous new rope had got tangled around something and chafed through. We started the engine as we were now going back to Cocos and swung her around with the sea heaving and spitting at us. Linda held on to the tiller (this was not easy) whilst Bill went back to the stern to replace the rope. All went well and we've been sailing beautifully ever since. We don't know what is wrong with the autopilot but will be phoning Coursemaster as soon as we can for advice.

Yesterday was just one of those days.. Cooking is such hard work and you don't know when a wave will hit and you find yourself with hot spaghetti all over you , the floor and everywhere. Linda was very cranky and upset. So the remaining spaghetti bowl and all went overboard!! We are both very tired and we have our limits..

We hope to make Rodrigues before dark on Monday. (Hey that's tomorrow!!) We are not sure we'll make it. There's a reef just outside the entrance to Port Mathurin which makes it foolhardy to attempt entering in the dark. We hope we don't have to sail up and down waiting for daylight..

We contacted a couple on a Norwegian yacht ahead of us. L'attitude gave us their details saying they had left for Rodrigues before we got to Cocos. We heard back from Mike and Charmain (Vire Nord) which was great as they gave us information re anchorages etc for Rodrigues, Mauritius and La Reunion. They are presently in La Reunion but they will be in South Africa by the time we get there. The yachty grapevine is excellent.

We heard from Jim (Alli Kai Too) and he's still northeast of us and says he expects to get to Rodrigues Thurs or Friday. Nat and Rob (Wilhelm ) have had a lot less wind than us on their way to Chagos. Claude and Ollie (L'attitude) are enjoying the food and social life in Phuket, Thailand. Claude who is French sent us some French greetings to practice! Its great keeping in touch with everyone. We haven't heard from our French friends on Peerliane for a while but they are visiting France and have left their boat in Kota Kinabalu Malaysia.

We are tired aching and need of a shower. I haven't washed my hair for 2 weeks and my scalp itches. We have enough water but it is just too difficult in these conditions. Any domestic task takes ages moving slowly around the boat hanging on with one hand and preparing for lurches balancing our bodies. It will be wonderful to be finally anchored and stop moving for a while.

The Indian ocean is a mighty one that's for sure. 243nm to go but we will be a lot closer by the time you read this.

Comments [0] | | More

Day 11 - Cocos to Mauritius. "Are we there yet?"

26/07/2008, 18 36.2'S:70 20.8'E, Indian Ocean

Day 11 Indian Ocean 26 July 2008 Position: (7.30am Cocos time) 18 36.2E 70 20.8E

Its cold. The captain says "Its not cold. Its just not hot." We are wearing long sleeved jumpers for the first time in 12 months and they have a distinctive musty smell! The wind is still blowing in the 30-40knot range and we are quite used to it . (well almost until I left my half cup of tea on the grippy mat behind me and it ended up down the back of my legs and on the floor..grrrrrrr.)

Nothing exciting to report apart from the persistent strong winds and waves splashing into the cockpit. Another repair for the captain today : The rope on Fred the wind vane broke. We have been using Mona Lisa (autopilot) all night. Bill had to get used to the moose 'braying' in his cave again.

Just in case you think we are eating tinned baked beans here is our menu from yesterday: Our menu for Friday 25th July Breakfast: Fresh perculated coffee / latte with uht milk Spanish omlette (cooked by Bill) with salami, onion, red capsicum, chillie,garlic and cheese fresh orange wedges

Lunch 3 types of cheese with Carrs water crackers, Italian pesto, fresh tomato, cucumber and olives small cup of red wine

Afternoon tea Cup of tea fruitcake

Dinner Chicken pieces in Italian scallopini white sauce & button mushrooms white rice water or juice

Snacks : almonds, cashews, fruit cake cups of herb and black leaf tea

So we are doing well in the galley despite the strong winds. Our stomachs never suffer as you can see.

It would be nice to have fresh fish but its foolhardy trying to fish in these conditions. 397 nm to go! (2 more nights......)

Our arms and stomach muscles are getting a workout from haning on and balancing!

All well on board

Comments [0] | | More

Day 10 - Cocos to Mauritius.

25/07/2008, 17 59.3'S:73 10.8'E, Windy windy Indian Ocean

Day 10 Windy windy Indian Ocean 25 July 2008 Position 7am Cocos time : 17 59.3S 73 10.8E

The last 24 hours have been incredible. We still can't believe our eyes when we see the wind instrument continually showing figures in the 40s. Valiam has had her cabin and side decks continually washed by waves. The waterfalls running down the windows look very trendy just like in modern buildings. The staysail is doing an amazing job keeping us fairly steady. It's only when a large wave hits us along the port side that Valiam veers off course with much shuddering and flapping. However Fred the windvane corrects her every time. The photo above was taken yesterday when there was 2 minutes of sunshine when we ventured 'outdoors' mainly so Bill could adjust the rigging. I tried to take a movie and photos of the impressive conditions but of course the waves never look as big in photos. It's still grey out there.

Our weather forecast predicted winds like this (but lower figures) for the weekend. However the last 24 hours we have had persistent wind speeds around 40 knots. The highest figure recorded yesterday for one of the gusts was 57 knots!

Valiam has proven to be amazing in these conditions. As I type this looking out the window at the heaving hissing grey sea I can only think it is beautiful. This passage across the Indian Ocean is our longest in miles, windiest and shortest (we hope) in time. When the Indian Ocean was created why weren't there more islands?!!

More boat repairs : (remember the definition of Cruising boat repairs in exotic locations). At 2.30 am I was woken by Bill crouched on the floor next to me. He said one of the water bladders is broken and we need to pump the water out of the bilge. After wiring up the electric bilge pump directly to the battery Linda held the hose out into the cockpit and out the water gushed. This felt just like holding a firehose. I always liked doing that when the firemen came to visit my kindergarten! However the stream of water was no comparison to the waves that splashed down the decks of Valiam. The second repair that needs to be done is sewing back together the canvas awning. It has ripped all along the seam next to the dodger frame. Bill tied the end with a piece of string but it flapped all night just above his sleeping 'cave'. We will remove the whole thing today. We don't need to worry about sunburn at the moment.

After being woken after our short naps we often still have vivid memories of our dreams. The latest one I had was riding on the back of a motorcycle holding on to Bill over rough roads going through lovely green countryside a bit like Tasmania. I guess the holding on part is what we are doing out here as Valiam charges over the waves and we would like to see green grass and trees again.

Apparently it takes a while for sailblogs to post this on the website so by the time you read this it's probably a day old.

All is well and we are very happy with our ship.

At 7am 563 nautical miles to go. We should be anchored in Port Mathurin Rodrigues Island, Mauritius on Monday. (the champagne is waiting nice and cold in the fridge)

Comments [0] | | More

Day 9 - Cocos to Mauritius.

24/07/2008, 17 11.4'S:76 03.0'E, Indian Ocean

Day 9 Indian Ocean 24 July 2008 Position:

It would be good if sound effects could be attached to this log but I will do my best to describe the conditions at the moment. The wind is howling as if it is blowing through a massive tunnel. The sea is going swoooshskwaish and sometimes SLAP or BANG against the hull. Then the sounds of a powerful fire hose of water over the portside of the cabin and occasionally into the cockpit makes me wonder if I'll get wet next time I look for ships. There are vibrating noises of the rigging and the saucepans rattle in the galley. (I stuff towels in things when it gets too annoying.) The ropes on the windvane are creaking and the canvas awning is flapping. Its 7am Cocos time and it's still dark.

Most of yesterday and last night the conditions weren't too bad. (25 knots SE) The waves weren't as big or confused and we both managed to get some genuine sleep. However a couple of hours ago it seems the fun and games have begun already with the predicted strong winds. Now we are now at around 33 knots with 40 knot gusts. Bill has furled the jib to half its size but will put the staysail up when it gets light.

We received a sail mail email from Jim (Alli Kai Too) yesterday. (We left Cocos on the same day). He is a fair way north east of us and expects to be a couple of days behind us getting to Rodrigues. Its good to keep in touch with each other out here on this wild powerful Indian Ocean. Trade winds huh? I've asked Hughie to tone it down a bit but he isn't taking any notice. Maybe I should sacrifice something to him in the sea. After motoring most of the time in the tropics wishing for a nice windy sail we now have it I guess. Valiam designed by Gary Lidgard and originally named Rough Rider was designed to sail from New Zealand to Australia to cope with rough seas. She's doing well. The best thing is we are dry and comfy inside and only have to go out in the cockpit and occasionally the deck to adjust the rigging. Most of the time we are inside keeping an eye on the instruments. The wind vane Fred has needed very little adjustment and when we use Mona Lisa (autopilot) the controls are just inside the hatch.

At 6am we had 734 nautical miles to go

Comments [0] | | More

Day 8 - Cocos to Mauritius.

23/07/2008, 16 32.8'S:78 48.7'E, Indian Ocean

Day 8 Indian Ocean 23 July 2008 Position: 16 32.8S 78 48.7E (7am Cocos time but its still dark..)

This passage is very demanding physically and emotionally due to the persistent strong winds and uncomfortable motion of the boat due to big seas and a swell from the south. We received our weather forecast for the rest of the leg to Rodrigues and we were dismayed to see that even stronger winds are forecast. Over the next few days the winds will increase to 30-40 knots with possible gusts to 50 knots. The seas will build to 20feet and become more rough and choppy. We are sitting on 30 knots now. All we have is the jib partly furled and we are still doing over 7 knots. The last 48 hours we have averaged 180 miles a day. We will probably slow down a bit as the seas increase and we put the small staysail up. Sleeping is reduced to short naps due to the motion of the boat. To move around the cabin one hand must be used to hold on at all times as well as balancing with the rest of the body. Making hot drinks and preparing/serving hot food often requires both of us to accompli sh this without it ending up on the floor. Linda has 'monkey hands' ie calluses on the palms from constantly balancing and hanging on! (very attractive - will need to go to beauty salon in South Africa to rectify this as well as the state of the hair...)

We put the fishing line out briefly yesterday when the wind was at 20 knots but now it would be extremely difficult to pull in a fish let alone deal with the gutting etc. Our weather people said 'Blustery conditions ahead'. At least the wind is going in the right direction to move us along. It would be horrible to be going into it.

We had a brief respite where we could sit in the cockpit 2 days ago but now we are cabin bound once again. We have the washboards in the hatchway and the hatch closed due to waves coming over the top of the boat. We wear harnesses any time we enter the cockpit and thankfully Bill hasn't had to go on the foredeck very often. Our self steering systems are working well. Fred the wind vane worked all last night. This is good because Mona Lisa the autopilot needs power. As there has been no sun since day 1 the solar panels haven't done much and we have to run the engine every day to keep the batteries charged.

The good thing is we passed the half way mark yesterday and hope to be at Rodrigues on Monday. I wonder if we will be able to a walk without looking ridiculous! We are 1/5 the way around the world and by the time we get to Durban we will be 1/3 the way the way.

All well on board.

Comments [0] | | More

Day 7 - Cocos to Mauritius.

22/07/2008, 15 58.3'S:81 41.9'E, Indian Ocean

Day 7 Indian Ocean 22 July 2008 Position: 8am Cocos time 15 58.3S 81 41.9E

The days are blurring into one another now. I write this log each morning and put a tick on the calendar so we know what days it is. There is nothing exciting to report. The sea has been mostly grey and the skies still overcast with intermittent showers of rain. The swell is more pronounced from the south causing Valiam to roll more. Consequently it was uncomfortable sleeping in the fore cabin again so Linda dragged her pillow into the main saloon. The captain still likes his 'cave'.

We had the last of the lamb chops last night and we can honestly say we are tired of them. (That's the only meat available at Cocos apart from mince when we left) There is one packet of mince left then we'll be FISHING! Hopefully that will provide some excitement to the logs and our life here on the Indian Ocean.

We have averaged 7.6 knots the last 10 hours so we are going well. Rodrigues here we come! We're half way there. Maybe I will bake chocolate muffins to celebrate. We are thinking of our granddaughter Caylan today on her 6th birthday having a marvelous time. Wish we were there. Never mind..We have missed and will continue to miss important family events and milestones whilst we continue our journey to endeavour to fulfill our dream of sailing around the world.

Comments [0] | | More

Day 6 - Cocos to Mauritius. Happy Birthday 6th Caylan!

21/07/2008, 15 22.9'S:84 32.1'E, Indian Ocean

Day 6 Indian Ocean 21 July 2008 Position: 9am Cocos time : 15 22.9'S 84 32.1'E

The sea is gentle this morning and a sea bird is circling us once again. So far from any where it must have to sit on the ocean for a rest if it doesn't choose us. We should be able to sit in the cockpit to enjoy a cuppa - the first time since Day 1. We've been sleeping a lot better and I was able to sleep in the main cabin without being bounced and thrown off. Bill likes his 'cave' - the quarter berth. I can't sleep in there - it feels claustaphobic and like being in a cupboard. It has a lot of junk in there (our 'spare room') I cant imagine what it would be like to have crew on board you didn't know very well. Especially when the weather is unsuitable to go outside as it has been these last 6 days. I guess you could always play scrabble..

Yesterday we slowed down a lot - average 5 knots. This was because the jib wasn't poled out, kept flapping and the winds changed every time there was a rain squall. Although the sea wasn't as big as in previous days the conditions were still not suitable to sit outside. By 4.30pm the wind had made ups its mind and seemed to be blowing a steady 20 knots from the East. Once again Bill poled out the jib to port with the stay sail to starboard. What a nice night with no exciting events to report!

Yesterday we made pizza for lunch. We couldn't face lamb chops again so had soup for dinner. When the last lot of chops is gone we'll try our hand at fishing. It's no good fishing if we have to eat the meat that is in the fridge. Besides we will need room in there to store the big fish we will catch!!!!

All well on board.

PS HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO OUR BEAUTIFUL GRAND DAUGHTER CAYLAN WHO IS 6 YEARS OLD ON 22ND JULY. We miss you sweetheart. Have a great day with Mum, Dad, Joe, Nanna, Pop and all your friends! We are so proud of you and can't wait to see you in a few months after we get to Africa! All our love Nanny and Pa SV Valiam

Comments [0] | | More

Day 5 - Cocos to Mauritius

20/07/2008, 14 34.8'S:87 11.2'E, Indian Ocean

Day 5 Indian Ocean 20 July 2008 Position 6am Cocos time: 14 34.8S 87 11.2E

Another grey squally day with winds moderating slightly to 25 knots with 30+knot gusts. We haven't been able to sit out in the cockpit as it is uncomfortable and a bit dangerous unless the harness is on. We haven't got cabin fever yet! We'll lose our tans at this rate! However every half an hour we put our heads out in the cool wet breeze to check for ships. None so far.

The windvane is working well but we still need to run the engine every day for a couple of hours to charge the batteries. There's been not much sun so the solar panels aren't doing much. We're thinking of installing a wind generator in South Africa.

We sailed with the same rig all day - jib partly furled on pole to port and staysail on the starboard side. Murphy decided our day was too boring so at 2am we had a bit of excitement. BANG! FLAP FLAP FLAP. "Bill - get up! Quick!" (Linda was on watch) Peering through the dark clouds and rain the captain said. "One of the jib sheets is broken. I'll have to furl the jib" Making sure he was awake Linda got his harness and torch. After that Linda watched anxiously as the captain crawled on to the foredeck in the rain and wind to remove the broken jib sheet. The pole was swinging around so he tied that down too. We sailed the rest of the night with just the staysail at 4.5 - 5.5 knots. This morning the captain unfurled the jib on the starboard side. We are trying to maintain an average of 6 knots+ but sometimes we go below this when the wind dips down to 20 knots. Its funny how 20 knots seems like not much wind to us now!

Linda is on light duties now in the galley after burning her 2 fingers on her right hand making coffee this morning. We've got some good burn cream and it's not too bad. The blisters will be a nuisance.

Apart from resting/sleeping, eating, reading and trying to watch movies (the pirated Philippino ones stall and refuse to keep playing just when we get to the good bit and can't see the ending - very frustrating.

It's now 9am Cocos time (3.5 hrs behind Brisbane) and the wind has died down a bit. Valiam is rolling so the captain is contemplating putting the main back up (if the wind doesn't increase again). It's a pretty yucky wet grey old day. At least it's not cold.

Keep those sms messages/emails rolling in. We would love to hear from you!

All well on board

Comments [0] | | More

Day 4- Cocos to Mauritius

19/07/2008, 14 02.29'S:89 24.75'E, Indian Ocean

Day 4 Indian Ocean 19 July 2008 Position: (7.45 am Cocos time) 14 02.29S 89 24.75E

The sea is a steely grey this morning and a lonely white bird is circling behind us before it heads off to wherever it goes. 30 knots blew consistently with gusts up to 44 knots (Force 7) yesterday. However the seas seem less confused perhaps due to some current going with us. We have experienced these sorts of winds before on ocean passages but not consistently for such long time. Southeast trades are normally less in the Indian Ocean - around 20 knots . We are pleased with the rig - the small poled out furled jib and staysail spread out like wings at the front of the boat pulling her along at a steady 6 to 6.5 knots. We are now using Fred the wind vane which is steering us nicely and is saving us power.

We are managing the rolling movement of the boat inside most of the time. However, occasionally an extra big wave will push us sideways which can send things flying in the cabin. The worst thing was when the glass lid of our big pan flew across the galley hitting the wooden pole and smashed to smithereens throughout the galley and the cabin floor. We had to pick up many long shards of glass in this heaving sea. Not fun. Another item that emptied itself in the bilge was anew bottle of toilet cleaner. Bill mopped up this foaming solution from the bilge under the chart table. I suggested we pour this down the toilet. Bad mistake... When Bill flushed it the electric pump stopped working. More expletives.... As the ocean heaved around us Bill pulled apart the toilet. Of course a rain squall came by at that moment and it was blowing 44 knots. I had to close the hatchway completely and have all 3 washboards in so we wouldn't get wet. Crawling around on the toilet floor, trying to do repairs isn't fun at the best of times. Poor Bill. After pulling apart the pump he discovered a small piece of glass... "Never put anything in the toilet unless you know what it is." will be a rule strictly adhered to from now on. After reassembling the toilet and cleaning up we enjoyed chilli con carne for dinner.

Now for the next exciting event.. At 8.45pm when Linda was on watch and the captain was enjoying a well earned rest and was just drifting off to lala land, there was repeated banging noise like a rope hitting something. Linda looked at the instruments and it was saying we were only doing 3 knots. Thinking we had accidentally turned into the wind she went out to investigate. The sails were behaving normally but we weren't moving much. After waking the captain the noise became louder and sounded like something banging and vibrating against the starboard hull. The captain donned his harness, grabbed the torch and went to investigate. Even though the moon was shining there were many dark clouds about and it was difficult to see. Conclusion - something had attached itself to Valiam's keel and was slowing us down. Bill turned the boat to the wind and we drifted for a while. Thinking we would have to 'hove to' until morning when it was light enough to see and perhaps Bill would have to swim in this sea to find o ut what it was. Not a pleasant thought. Bill switched on the depth sounder and it said '1 metre'. This did indeed confirm that there was something under the keel. Linda was imagining something with nasty bits of wood and nails and rope and checked there was no water coming in the bilge. After a nerve wracking 15 minutes whatever it was detached itself! Phew! Bill saw a dark shape float off in the distance and the depth sounder went back to normal. He thinks it was a fishing net with a float which could have been banging against the hull. Whatever it was sure slowed the boat down and now we were back doing our usual 6.5 knots. We expected to become tangled in a fishing net in the Philippines or Indonesia. Not out here in the middle of the Indian ocean more than 300 miles from anywhere! We had a discussion about the merits of different shaped keels. Valiam's is quite good and just has a round bulb at the front with the pointy bit at the back. The captain didn't want to turn t oo much incase it wrapped itself around the keel and we can't start the engine or it would foul the prop..

We had a small port to calm our nerves before getting back to our night routine. 9 days until we get to the friendly island of Rodrigues, fresh baguettes and a calm anchorage!

All well on board

Comments [0] | | More

Day 3 - Cocos to Mauritius

18/07/2008, 13 22.42'S:91 57.87'E, Indian Ocean

Day 3 Cocos to Mauritius Indian Ocean Position; 7.45am Cocos time: 13 22.42S 91 57.87E 18 July 2008

The wind continued to increase yesterday to an average of 35 knots with gusts up to 44 knots. The waves were big and we would watch fascinated as they would build up and peak up behind us with the crests sometimes breaking. The colour of the waves at the very top were a transparent bottle green where I could see the sky shining through. The captain explained that Valiam is the type of boat that just floats over these waves like a surfboard. After reading several logs of this crossing about water in the cockpit and sometimes in the boat we are very happy that we are safe and dry inside.

We took down the mainsail and Bill poled out the furling jib with half of it unfurled. He put up the staysail(small jib) on the other side to balance the boat. This is working very well in combination with Mona Lisa the autopilot. As the winds and seas increased further last night we furled the jib so that there is just a small triangle. We are sailing at an average of 6.5-7 knots with this rig and it is more comfortable. Occasionally a wave splashes over the boat with a hiss and very occasionally we skew sideways down a wave.

Sleeping is still difficult. Although we prepared the quarter berth for sleeping it is hot and stuffy in there as well as noisy with Mona Lisa moaning. (It sounds like a moose braying) I tried to sleep in the main cabin again but felt sick with all the bouncing around. This left the bunks in the main cabin. They are ok but a bit narrow. I am sure we will develop muscles on this trip constantly bracing and hanging on to things to balance. At present I am balancing the computer on my lap with my feet jammed up against the opposite bunk.

After the meat and fridge episode we cooked the lamb chops in a tin of curry sauce. Bill added a tin of peas and it was quite delicious. It's too hard to chop up onions etc at the moment. Cups of tea are easier to make than coffee so we are enjoying those at the moment occasionally with big sister fruit cake. I have watched a number of movies on the small DVD player to pass the time including 'Spy Game', 'Kalifornia' and 'Vanilla Sky'. They are all quite good. In the Philippines we purchased up to 32 movies on one cd of the same actor e.g. Brad Pitt, Tom Cruise, Angelina Jolie, and Julia Roberts. We also have Nicholas Cage and a heap of James Bond movies we haven't seen yet. Occasionally the subtitles are annoying as the English words are often completely different to what they are saying. (Translators don't always know what they are saying and just make it up). Chinese Subtitles are better as they just look like patterns at the bottom of the screen.

Anyway that's our life on board Valiam at the moment - a bit uncomfortable and tiring but we'll get used to it. There will be more of this weather and wont ease until Monday. The weather people said 'Rough conditions possible for much of the voyage to Rodrigues Island'. Looks like they are right.

All well on board

PS My standards in the galley are slipping. I heated up my tinned spaghetti in last nights dirty curry saucepan. The sink has cups etc in it and it's a rigmarole in these conditions to wash large items. I guess I am saving water

Comments [0] | | More

Day 1 and 2 Cocos to Mauritius

17/07/2008, 12 42.79'S:94 27.64'E, Indian Ocean

Day 1

Indian Ocean Cocos to Mauritius 16 July 2008

It was sad to see Cocos retreat into the distance knowing we wouldn't see land again for a couple of weeks. Jim on Alli Kai Too left at the same time so we kept each other company for a few hours talking on the radio a few times. At 6.30pm he was around 8 miles behind us. The weather forecast was for strong winds 20-30 knots but for most of the day it was quite a bit less than that.

We enjoyed our precooked dinner of Irish stew at sunset which was obscured by a large dark cloud.

Since 6.30pm its been 25 - 30 knots. Bill poled the jib out and by 11pm he half furled it to try and slow the boat down. She's been averaging 8 knots with 2 reefs in the main. This is the Indian Ocean. I guess we're in for a bit of a rough ride. Bill jokingly said 'Well the original name for Valiam on her plans was Rough Rider or Ruffy!!'

Day 2

Indian Ocean 17 July 2008 Position (8.30am Cocos time) :

I wasn't quite prepared for a theme park ride last night but that's what it felt like everytime I tried to lie down - gripping on to the bookshelves or the mast so I didn't end up on the floor. Bill did lose all the bedclothes at one stage and landed on his back on the floor. We now will 'sleep' in the main cabin or the quarter berth. The quarter berth has junk in it and is noisy due to Mona Lisa the autopilot moaning away. She did a terrific job steering her lat night but she does use a bit of power. Bill ran the engine for a few hours to charge the batteries.

Anyway its bumpy and rolly as I type this leaning against the chart table. I can see sea mountains outside the window with white caps.

We both haven't had any sleep really as its just been too uncomfortable but as we get our sea legs and get ourselves into a good resting position we will sleep even if only for short periods. I was pretty cranky earlier this morning because the meat had defrosted and leaked blood all through the fridge. I had already cleaned it all out yesterday and rebagged everything in those sealed plastic bags but they didn't work. Saying some naughty words and trying to balance in the galley pulling everything out again I also bumped into the hot coffee on the stove. @#$%^&*()(&^%! No harm done just a big mess to clean up in a heaving rolling sea.... The meat is all now in Tupperware containers and we have to cook what didn't fit. The sea sick medication sturgeron is working quite well and should assist me in feeling fine during this trip.

We've lost contact with Jim but he is probably a long way behind us now. We have been going 8-9 knots. Bill is going to put the 3rd reef in the main but that involves harnessing and going to the mast.

Thanks everyone for you SMS messages on the sat phone. Sometimes the endings aren't there because of the 160 character cut off.

The winds will remain strong for some days so hopefully we wont suffer too many bruises getting around the boat but will achieve strong muscles instead.

All well on board

Linda and the Captain

Comments [0] | | More

Au revoir Cocos

15/07/2008, 12 05.45'S:96 52.93'E, Indian Ocean

Tuesday 14th July "Au revoir Cocos" Position :12 05.45S 96 52.93E

It was 'cocktail hour' on Valiam yesterday as the sun went down. The ladies sipped cosmopolitans and the men martinis in martini glasses we purchased in Singapore. We still have lots of gin we bought in the Philippines for $1 a litre. We drank a little of it with class against one of the most beautiful backdrops in the world. We will miss the most aquamarine turquoise water we've ever seen, the coconuts trees, white sand, hermit crabs and most of all the company of our yachtie friends. Bea and Diane of Sortilege who have been coming to Cocos for 8 years have given us invaluable advice particularly for our coming voyage to Rodrigues. We know where the best bakery and pub is as well as fresh spices. Rob and Natalie (Wilhelm) will be in South Africa by November so we hope to see them again . Jim (Allii Kai Too) is leaving tomorrow as well for Rodrigues. We'll definitely see him again.

Bill is taking our passports to the police station this morning to get stamped. It will be a wet dinghy ride to Home Island as the wind picked up last night. We will receive weather information today but unless there is anything adverse out there we will be leaving tomorrow. Our shopping expedition yesterday was mostly successful except for eggs, onions, bread and butter. The ship has just come in so I guess the shop will be stocked up again in a few days. It surprises me with so many chooks running around that the only eggs available to buy are flown in from Perth! Diane kindly gave us 4 eggs as a parting gift and Rob and Nat are going to see if there's any for us on West Island today.

Today we will try and rest, tidy the boat in readiness for the trip and check the weather forecast.

It has certainly been a special time here at Cocos one we will always remember. I wonder if the sharks will miss us?

Comments [1] | | More

16/07/2008 | carol

Happy safe sailing dear friends. Swap? Me sailing, You to school? We'll meet you where? Soon!!

Leaving Cocos

13/07/2008

Monday 14th July 2008
Direction Island
Cocos Keeling Islands

Leaving Cocos

It is exactly one month ago since we departed Singapore with its busyness, heat and calm waters of the Java Sea. After 3 weeks here at Cocos, so much part of the Indian Ocean and its strong south east winds we feel ready to move on. We have been reading up on Rodrigues, Mauritius and La Reunion and they all sound fantastic and we can't wait to try the cuisine and experience the different cultures. Rodrigues sounds small and friendly (only 36000 people) and should be a good rest point after 2 weeks at sea. It's only a couple of days sail to Mauritius. Mauritius is much more populated (1.5 mil) and heavily geared towards tourism. This will be fun for a while but the captain fears it may be expensive if Linda is let loose in the shops! La Reunion may be another nice rest point to enjoy French culture and the one week's free accommodation at the marina.

To alleviate Linda's slight anxiety about crossing the Indian Ocean (more than 2000 nm and our biggest passage to date) we will be using a weather routing service called Commanders Weather. We will receive detailed weather forecasts pertinent to our position and boat speed. Although it seems the trip should be fairly straight forward with mostly southeast trade winds it will be good to test this service for the more difficult passage from Mauritius (or La Reunion) to South Africa.

It's all very exciting! We spent a fabulous afternoon with Rob and Natalie yesterday on their beautiful yacht 'Wilhelm'. They are also sailing to South Africa but will be going via Chagos, Seychelles, Madagascar and Tanzania. We shared much information about the coming voyage (and past voyages) and it wouldn't surprise us if we see them in Durban and other ports on the way to Cape Town. Some yachts also call in to Namibia on the way to St Helena and Brazil. Wilhelm and Valiam may also do this. This would certainly be a fantastic place to stop and have a look around. Rob started building Wilhelm in 1979. It is a beautiful boat and took him (with the help of Natalie in the latter years) 22 years to complete. It is made of steel and as you can imagine he spent many years of weekends welding. What a labour of love! They have been living on their boat for the last 7 years and have enjoyed cruising the Pacific. They spent quite a bit of time in Australia especially Tasmania and Lord Howe Island. Rob and Natalie (like us) like to explore 'path less traveled' rather than the 'milk run' of circumnavigating the world. The route we are taking now is a traditional sailing route around South Africa and places like Rodrigues and Mauritius are steeped in history. It will be completely different to the quiet island paradise of Cocos.

Yesterday we snorkeled 'The Rip' 2 more times with Natalie and Rob. It's such a gorgeous experience floating past all the fish. We managed to hang on to a piece of coral to have a really good look at the different fish peeking out of their coral caves. The sharks were asleep this time under a coral ledge.

We will miss our 'pets' here - the black tipped sharks, hermit crabs and the remaining chooks. Perhaps a bird will visit us when we are out at sea. The one we had visit on our last trip we have now identified as the 'Red legged Booby'.

Today we will be provisioning for the journey ahead using the internet for the last time. We will be able to update the website at sea as we did from Singapore using our sat phone system and I may send a small photo or 2 but there will just be us and the sea and sky for a couple of weeks! We love reading the comments on our web page and promise to write back when we get to Rodrigues.

Au revoir
SV Valiam and crew

Comments [1] | | More

15/07/2008 | Di and Bruce

We love reading all your ancedotes. We just got back from mid year break. Di very much enjoyed being with Kate in London doing mother daughter things like going to yoga and to Paris! Di and Bruce loved Sabah, climbed that bloody mountain! Much lactic acid for 3 days later but animals and plants fantastic. Great jungle/river exploring.You guys keep having that wonderful time!. We will stay tuned...Cheers here's to good sailing. xx

The Wind is back

13/07/2008, Direction Island COCOS

Friday 11th July 2008
Direction Island
Cocos

'The Wind is back' drawing of Sortilege, Diane and Bea

After a few days of perfect weather with light breezes the wind came back last night gusting at 30 knots. That familiar howl in the rigging is back! It is now a steady 20 knots - perfect for sailing! Fellow yachties Steve and Ally on Freo Doctor left yesterday morning for Christmas Island. They didn't have much wind to start with and Steve contacted us by radio telling us they wished they'd stayed another day or so! They will be sailing to windward now. It was sad for us to see them go. Even after such a short acquaintance there is closeness we often experience with other yachties in these remote places. Ally and Steve have to be back in Western Australia in November to work - that dreaded 'w' word. They plan to move to SE QLD in a year or two so we hope to see them again. There have been a number of single-handed men here - not always by choice. We have heard several tales of wives leaving half way around the world when things got a bit rough. Jim on Allii Kai Too from California, USA sailed here alone from Brisbane after his wife decided to go home. He says he doesn't cook and lives on tinned food. He thought there would be a hamburger shop here on Direction Island! He had the option of sending his boat home on a ship but decided he wanted to complete his dream of sailing around the world. He will be going to Mauritius around the same time as us.

We briefly met another English yachtsman who was here a couple of days on his ketch with his crew - a Frenchman Guy he met in Darwin. Geoffrey had an amazing tale to tell about when he began his voyage on a different boat 'Luck Dragon'. From the UK he sailed to Iceland, Greenland and the notoriously difficult passage through the North West passage of the Arctic Circle north of Canada. He said the 'ice opened up' for him. Sadly he lost his boat in Alaska during a storm. He abandoned ship due to broken rigging and his 2 Alaskan crew jumping ship when a large fishing boat came past. To this day he still wonders if he made the right decision. Luck Dragon was found on a beach unsalvageable. His story is on a website: www.luckdragonontour.com
He purchased a new boat 'Eshamy' in Mexico and sailed across the Pacific to here. He is now on his way to Mauritius and South Africa. We will probably see him again too. He also says he can't cook and lives on tinned food. Linda keeps telling Captain Bill how lucky he is to have such talented crew. (Chef, morale booster, communications, general hand and keeping watch, entertainment facilitator,cleaner,provisioner, information gatherer etc etc...will think of some more....)

Captain Bill has tried his hand at fishing. He has tried with his spear gun and a fishing line. Although there are plenty of fish here he has been unsuccessful. The fish stay out of range when he has the spear gun (clever fish) and don't eat the bait when it's on a hook (clever fish). The other consideration is the sharks. They just eat the bait, hook and all cutting the line cleanly with their teeth. They must have a lot of hooks in their bellies! Steve gave Bill a 'shark line' which consisted of a metal trace and a big hook. Bill half heartedly tried this system but we decided that the black tipped sharks that we have been feeding and watching with pleasure weren't going to be dinner. The thought of cutting up one of these beautiful creatures didn't appeal. Anyway we have plenty of fresh food at the moment so we aren't desperate. Trolling when we are at sea for weeks will be better.

The latest on the chooks: We think the police may also be fond of the chickens as Bill found a coke can full of bullet holes. Ally asked one of them how the eradication was going and he sheepishly said they caught a couple of roosters. We can still hear plenty of roosters crowing at all hours from the boat. The little hens have a hard time fending them off. The little brown hen when we saw her last was still limping and now only has 3 chicks. (She used to have 7).

The other excitement here in our little anchorage was when the police towed the abandoned hulk Kitmoor away after it had been here for 10 years. It is now anchored far from here where it is hoped it will eventually sink. If anyone is interested Bill saw a Perkins diesel engine on board which is probably salvageable. This is the same yacht a man went to jail for stealing items from but it's now ok for the public to salvage whatever they want. (It was in the local newspaper apparently.)

There are now 4 yachts here: us, Sortilege (long term visitors Diane and Bea catamaran-Oz), Wilhelm (Rob and Natalie from Maine USA), Allii Kai Too (Jim - California USA) We wonder if another yacht will appear around the corner of the headland.


Another perfect day in Paradise

Comments [0] | | More

Another Perfect Day in Paradise

08/07/2008, Cocos Islands

Another perfect day in Paradise

Direction Island, Cocos
8th July 2008

Yesterday was perfect - a gentle breeze, beautiful temperature and we engaged ourselves in our favourite pastimes - fishing (trying to), snorkeling, drinking a cold glass of bubbly, drawing and painting. Yes you read correctly Linda finally got her art gear out. (See results in Photos Gallery under Linda's sketches - lots of coconut palms and water).

Two more yachts have entered our haven - all men. An American single hander and 2 Englishmen. We hope to meet them today as a barbeque has been planned on the beach. Dieter on 'Lena Ly' our German friend left half an hour ago into the morning sun. The sea is unusually calm so he will have an easy start. We said 'See you in Mauritius!'. We enjoyed our brief time with him and sincerely hope we see him again. He's going the same way as us so there is a good chance. (His yacht is named after his two little granddaughters Lena and Lily.)

Snorkeling the Rip again yesterday we again saw an amazing number of different fish. A couple of black sharks with several fins were swimming beneath us - not like the sleeping sharks of last time! They were a different species too and I held my breath as I floated over them. The current was very fast so the 'show' was over very quickly. We were glad there is a rope with buoys to hang on to near the end as the current was very strong. Snorkeling a few metres from the beach was relaxing and we saw lots of beautiful fish with time to look and take photos. (Again see Photo gallery!) After a refreshing shower using the water tank tap at the yachtie shelter shed we used 'the most exotic phone box in the world' to phone home.

The moon is now a sliver in the sky at night so we will be going soon to take advantage of its light at night. Hopefully we can time our visit to Home and West islands when some fresh food has come in by plane! We were lucky last time to buy the last 2 zucchini and capsicum! Rob of Wilhelm gave us some pumpkin yesterday he found growing on Christmas Island when he was there. We enjoyed that with curried sausages last night and there's still some more left. Pumpkin scones? Perhaps I will make some to take to the bbq as a QLD delicacy!

Comments [1] | | More

09/07/2008 | vashti

Love the new photos, the underwater ones are beautiful!

Enchanted garden

08/07/2008, Cocos

Sunday 6th July 2008
Direction Island, Cocos

"More yachts arrived.'

Early this morning a 4th yacht arrived in the last couple of days. The anchorage is starting to get crowded! After Wilhelm arrived, Jim a solo sailor from USA arrived after sailing non stop from Darwin. He was exhausted so we haven't met him yet. This morning a ketch arrived with an English couple we think. Linda has been dobbed in as social co-coordinator for beach parties so she will have some more introducing to do!!! Yesterday afternoon we had a very pleasant couple of hours chatting with most of the yachties in the Nudey Beach picnic area. The ferry arrived late yesterday to pick up all the campers and day trippers so it looks like the island may be more peaceful again today. It was great to chat to the others about where they've been and where they are going. Dieter is off to Mauritius on Monday. He had some interesting tales to tell especially his visit to Peru. No yachts visit there but he promised to visit a friend so he was welcomed and had to give speeches at the local town hall etc. Dieter isn't confident with his English and as Rob (from Wilhelm) speaks German he translated for him. It was wonderful sitting there in such a beautiful setting listening to tales from yachties from around the globe. We didn't want to be anywhere else in that moment. I observed 3 skippers including Bill from 3 different countries talking about sailing rigs drawing pictures in the sand and thought how brave and clever they all were. It feels great to be here on this little speck in the Indian Ocean now a traditional stop over for sailing boats crossing the Indian Ocean.

The wind has been relentless blowing at 25- 30 knots again after only 1-2 days respite. It's noisy at night with the wind in the rigging and rigging making sounds. We've put the wooden dinghy over the front hatch of our bed so we get some air without the rain at night in our cabin. It rains every night.

Last Friday when we took the inflatable over to Home Island to get fuel we had time to wander around. Bill went to have a closer look at local wooden sailing boats - "jukungs" whilst Linda wandered off looking for the original Clunies Ross house built in the 1800s. There was a long crumbling brick wall surrounded by huge gnarled old trees. I felt I had stepped into an enchanted forest! A lone grave stone with a cross stood in the middle. Written on 4 sides of the bottom of the cross were the names and dates of several Clunie Ross people who had died. Most of them died in their 50s. There was also a child who had died aged 8. Interestingly one of the couples died in the same year even though they weren't very old by our standards. (50s) One wonders whether it was illness, an accident or just the usual age people died in those days. Further along an old wooden door was swinging open in the brick wall. Thinking an old house would be behind the brick wall I felt very excited. Alas it was just a big empty grassy area in a big square shape bordered by the brick wall. Stepping outside the other side of the wall the original Clunies Ross house could be seen. It was nothing special - just a narrow 2 storey fibro building with wooden stairs. It looked like it had been added/renovated and may not look much like the original house(?) I looked for the overgrown lemon trees (with free lemons!) one of the yachties told me about but couldn't find them. The grass and trees are very green and lush. Apparently soil was brought in, in those days to create this very healthy garden. The trees look like introduced species and are very old, similar to ones seen in old English estates.

The local wildlife continues to amuse us. The black tipped sharks love to eat anything carnivorous we throw overboard. They are like dogs when it comes to bones. One will swim off with it in its mouth with the others following. Steve caught a shark the other day and marinated it in chillie and lemon. Delicious! He said the secret of making sure a shark tastes good is to catch a small one and cut off its tail as soon as it's caught. Steve has many stories to tell about fishing and hunting. He used to shoot camels, roos etc as a professional shooter in Western Australia. He's also shot other animals deemed to be a nuisance such as horses and cats. Many of the animals end up as mince meant for the dogs but he's told of stories where someone has taken the wrong mince out of the fridge to make burgers!! Indonesians and Chinese reputably eat cats and apparently they don't taste too bad. Bill has tried to catch the chickens but they are too fast for him especially the roosters. There are several types of crabs on the island. The small red hermit crabs are everywhere and sometimes we see big purple ones. They look so funny crawling along with an old shell dragging along over half their body.

Captain Bill is making noises about going in a week or so. He says it will be good to go when we have the moon shining at night. We would like to stop at Rodrigues (you don't say the 's") before Mauritius. Its part of Mauritius and 300 nm closer than Mauritius. The people are reputably very friendly, the food cheap and wonderful and the locals like to 'adopt' a yachtie to take home for dinner etc. It will be our longest trip so far - over 2000 nautical miles and will take 2 weeks. Hopefully all our self steering systems will continue to work properly. If it's still blowing 25-30 knots we won't need the mainsail!! We will let you know our departure date.... Don't forget to click on the little camera to see our photo gallery under the Cocos album.

Comments [0] | | More

Friendly sharks

03/07/2008, Direction island , Cocos

Friendly Sharks

3rd July 2008
Direction Island , Cocos

'The Rip' is a famous place where people snorkel here. We walked up to the end of the beach and over a small coral headland to experience this amazing reef. I was worried about drifting too fast and injuring myself but it was easy. We went at low tide which meant there was less water rushing through. Whenever I go beneath the water it feels magical like fairyland. There were so many different types of fish swimming slowly beneath us, hiding in huge groups amongst the coral or just 'hanging out' in the one spot. To stop drifting by I grabbed a coral ledge looking at all the coloured fish poking their heads out. As I drifted further I saw 3 black sharks about 1.5 metres long lying still on the bottom of the sea bed. As I floated over them I felt it was not a good idea to kick or thrash to attract their attention. We've been told they are harmless. I swam back towards the beach and continued to snorkel around other smaller coral reefs. The fish were beautiful and I felt I saw just as much as when I've been diving. It started to rain and I did think of my book and sarong left in the hammock tied between 2 coconut trees but I was having such a good time I didn't care. The rain feels nice when swimming. I took lots of photos with my underwater camera.

On our way back to Valiam we popped in to say 'au revoir' to Claude and Ollie on L'attitude who were just about to leave for Thailand. Everyone here waved and wished them well as they left feeling very excited. (They have been here for 7 months). This little farewell was a big contrast to when we left the marina in Singapore. No yachties there waving us off! Last night we met Dieter who arrived yesterday. He joined our little party on the beach apologizing for his lack of English. He did well and we always find ways to communicate especially after a couple of drinks. Dieter left his wife in Germany as she didn't want to come with him. Dieter is already going on Monday aiming for Mauritius. Another yacht arrived last night - SV Wilhelm - a German/American couple we believe but we haven't met them yet. There are people camping here on 'our' island as it is school holidays so it feels less isolated.

We can only buy fuel for 1 hour (8.30-9.30am) on Fridays so we'll be doing that as well as check the internet etc on Home Island. We'll also see if any more fresh veges have arrived. We managed to get some broccoli last time.

Latest on the chickens : After the most recent shooting the mother hen with 7 babies was wounded in the wing. She's still able to get around with her family. There still seem to be plenty of roosters. Today when we were using the phone in the yacht shelter a young boy picked up some small bullet shells and asked his mum what they were. I told them the Federal police had been here attempting to shoot chickens. The mother hurriedly changed the subject. Most children collect shells on the beach. This lucky fellow found shiny brass bullet cartridges.....

PS We met Rob and Natalie of SV Wilhelm briefly - Americans who reminded us it was July 4th Independence day. I suggested a little celebration on the beach this afternoon (Linda likes to party....)

Comments [0] | | More

[ Newer ]  |  [ Older ]