sailing vessel Sänna

Blogs from our sailing vessel Sänna. Eastwards from England to New Zealand... & sailing circumnavigation.

09 May 2023 | Willemstad, Curaçao - Dutch Caribbean.
12 June 2022 | Sherwood, Nottingham
30 March 2022 | Cartagena, Colombia
03 March 2022 | Shelter Bay, Panama
14 December 2021 | Shelter Bay - Caribbean Panama
20 November 2021 | Vista Mar, San Carlos, Panama
11 September 2021 | Nottingham, England
11 August 2021 | No Location
25 June 2021 | England
30 April 2021 | Lockdown in England
14 April 2021 | Lockdown - Nottingham, England
31 March 2021 | Winterton-on-Sea, Norfolk, England
09 March 2021 | Vista Mar, Panama
17 February 2021 | Sherwood, Nottingham, England
07 February 2021 | Sherwood, England
28 January 2021 | In national lockdown, Nottingham, England
28 December 2020 | Nottingham, England
20 October 2020 | Vista Mar, Panama
23 April 2020 | Vista Mar, Panama

The Stoker With Low Steam

09 May 2023 | Willemstad, Curaçao - Dutch Caribbean.
Dave Ungless
Photo: Marie's birthday, The Pier, Spanish Waters, Curaçao


It's been close to a year since our last post. To those of you who follow us I apologise, the last twelve months has not been easy. It's been tough, it's been hard. It's been like, well, you know, like those times we always hoped would never happen. It's something you know already because you're more in touch with reality than we are, when you might lose someone, someone you cherish, you know what I mean, you know the hurting pain of loss.

Last year, it all began well enough, I already told you about our escape from the madcap world of covid Panama, about our time in the magical San Blas islands, about our stormy voyage to Cartagena in Colombia when we lost every one of our sails. You read all about that, you know it's what we do because we don't have better to choose from, that it's our way of life, our dream, our nemesis, our stupid existence that was always gonna turnaround and kick us hard. Well it did kick hard, I got kicked and Marie, she got kicked too.

In March we left Sänna in Cartagena to fly to England for a long awaited wedding. Unexpected, a couple of weeks later, my mom, bizarrely, out-of-the-blue, stupidly, she passed away. Okay, she was old, she was eighty-nine, she was always gonna go when she finally decided it was time to teach me a lesson. What made it harder, awful in fact, was that four days after my mom died Marie got diagnosed with something not good, the bad one, the one you wouldn't wish on your worst enemy. You know the one I mean but Marie has banned me from using the 'C' word. We always knew our good times might one day turn bad, but me, I never realised that fighting that bastard storm to Colombia, that heaving down our ripped sails with Marie pinned back against the stanchions, the angry green ocean breaking all over her, was not that much compared to what we had ahead of us.

Writing these sail blogs, for me, was always a convenient way of keeping my ageing mother informed of where we were, what we were up to without the tiresome chore of actually calling her. She religiously printed out every blog post I ever wrote to keep them in a cardboard file, to proudly read each one to all her elderly friends at the conservative club or the pensioner's bowls club, so I wrote them in a way to make her laugh, in her own way proud. Now she's not around anymore there's not the reasons to write - also we've had a real fight on our hands with Marie's cancer. I apologise, of course, I should've written more. And I should've called my mom.

Where the hell do we go from here? Well, we're running low on our double-down reserves of steam. I still heave coal into the fire-pit of life tho every two or three shovel loads I pause to wipe the sweaty coal-dust from my black-faced brow. I dutifully crank up the engine revs when Marie pipes down 'full steam ahead'... but when I tap the pressure gauge hard to see what steam we have left that cold feeling of sadness draws over me, when I see the needle hover well below where I would like it to be.

Of course, at this time of writing things are improving. We are in Willemstad, in Curaçao, in the Dutch ABC islands. In the end we left Cartagena in a hurry, we had to, the gang in the marina there were giving us a hard time. So, we headed out, Marie in pain, we sailed one of the four supposed toughest passages in the world, Cartagena to Aruba. Marie is fine, she is getting well, her cancer is not cancer, her doctor told her it's something else, something more curable...
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Please visit our SV Sänna website for more details of our circumnavigation voyage from the UK. Also at www.facebook.com/SV.Sanna. Like our Facebook page if you'd like to receive more news about our sail adventure. You can contact us here.

Read more about the mishaps and mayhem of Nellie, The Ship's Cat
Vessel Name: Sänna
Vessel Make/Model: Ocean 50 (Bavaria)
Hailing Port: Poole UK
Crew: Dave & Marie Ungless
About:
We have sailed together for over ten years now, leaving the Mediterranean to head eastwards. Our destination was Australia and New Zealand which we achieved in 2012 before attempting a full round-the-world circumnavigation across the pacific and back to the UK. [...]
Extra: Sänna is a hybrid Bavaria Ocean 50, custom built for bue water ocean cruising. The build and re-fit specification is high and to date boasts over 56,000 miles of ocean cruising. For more information visit our main website at www.sanna-uk.com.
Home Page: http://www.sanna-uk.com
Social:
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Starting out
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