The first time i crossed the Pacific on Yelo about 20 years ago, i took along 3 crew. Your night watch gets reduced to 3 hours and you always find somebody to play back gammon or just blab. We hoisted the
spinnaker early morning with a sock. I often did that alone. We made up to 220 miles a day , mostly because it was fun and there was another idiot catamaran behind us trying to catch up. The big swells made Yelo
surf a lot faster with such a sail .Once you arrive at the bottom of the wave you louse speed. There is no wind down in the valley the sail collapses. As soon as the big waves pick you up again and the blow gets into
this giant balloon and BOOM it opens up with a big bang. The whole rig and boat shakes and we were all screaming with joy. KABOOM no more now. I know what can happen. Once we wrapped the whole spinnaker
around the forestay as we were heading towards shore. Its like a hour glass. You have a small spinnaker wrapped around the stay with a monster knot on both ends. And you are heading towards shore , with no
chance to change course. A courageous crew got hoisted up the forestay to loosen the knot as my blood pressure went out of control. he couldn't loosen it off course The only option he thought (he was a sail
teacher), is to cut the sail or else we surf on to the beach. I had a better idea and started to make extra turns on the roller furled genoa. I wanted to roll up the spinnaker onto the forestay and deal with it in port. As we
turned the genoa the spinnaker got loose and we were able to stow it and breath again OOOOF.
Since then i have this pretty black chute in the forward locker and hardly ever used it .Its for sale!!
Now we sail a lot sower with genoa and gib wing to wing. If the wind shifts or gets to strong, we just roll it into a smaller size.
All these crazy stories stay in your memory. You don't want to live them again. At the moment there are a lot of boats sailing this route and around the world alone. I don't understand why people have to prove they can
do this shit alone. Well yes i do understand that people put themselves under pressure to climb dangerous mountains etc. But certain problems that occur on boats cannot be solved alone by most. There are a few i
know that can do and fix almost anything. But too many Tom, Dick and Harris are sailing around alone. Thanks to Starlink and GPS plus more electronic garbage , it leaves you with the illusion that you can DO THIS.
When the shit hits the fan , those "heroes" have to be rescued . And that is often a dangerous task for the rescue team.
That's why we are a lot more cautious when older .Others call it chicken shit. Its a fact: you do it slower and you weigh the risk. When you are young you eat RISK for breakfast, YOU NEED IT.
When I was 26, I climbed at small Peak in Nepal...alone. Just to see Everest properly i hiked up to 5900 meters. The weather was like in Mexico: blue skies every day. I had no tent , no sleeping bag, no weather
forecast and no GPS. In a white out i would have been in serious trouble. The air was thin and it was cold. But i proved something. What i proved , i still don't know. Youth is stupid i guess.
But the view on Evert was ok. And i made it back. Today i laugh at the Everest line ups.
So we are slow and safe .Only 126 miles yesterday , but now the speed picks up a little. Its dead from behind and we surf a little sometimes.
Boobies every where , chasing the flying fish we scare off. One tried to sit on Yelo. I worry they hit the wind generators at night. They often take issue with something on a boat they don't like. One hacked at the SSB
whip antenna with his sharp peak. He was seriously pissed of about my antenna. One got hit with a blade at anchor in Chagos and ended up a in bloody mess in the dingy.
And yes , fishing impossible with them . They hit the lure and get hooked.

ps und an Brigitte in Giebenach, happy happy birthday heb ae schoenae Geburtstag

A slow 24h with only 94 miles. But its comfortable and warmer every day. WHAT BROKE: one of my reading glasses ;-)
After a year in Mexico i thought i write about what i experienced . My interest in sailing around the world is not just sandy beaches and palm trees. I like them , but the people i meet is what i like to write about.
Recently i told a few people that they shouldn't live on a boat. I think many are a thread to themselves and others. The rescue folks often risk their life trying to safe the idiots. Needles to say that none of them
appreciated my opinion.
In many safe harbors in the world boats pile up and never leave. Like in La Paz or San Carlos they often are an eye sore. When a storm hits, they drag anchor, take other boats with them etc . They build their own
moorings and when cruisers look for a place to anchor...forget it, its full of THEM . The good spots are taken...and that's everywhere in the world
Kim in San Carlos lives on her neglected catamaran with 7 !! SEVEN cats. I could write a page or two about her, i am sure, she wont like it.
Many squatter boats cluttered the anchorage in San Carlos. The local marina did not like their presence and would not let their dingy's dock. One of them was "Breakaway" from Deutschland. I thought it was cool to
have see Germans on board. A good chance to improve my rusty Hochdeutsch. The conversation soon went on about their poor life as a yachtie. They life off a rental unit in Germany and complain about money. Its all
Bill Gates fault and Covid is a made up lie and the German government is going to confiscate that rental unit!! ....I like people with different opinions , and my German language skills were improving rapidly. The captain
wasn't very happy when i finally asked him to leave my boat. His behavior was very selfish. He would only TAKE and give nothing in return . AGAIN : he is one of those I , ME and MYSELF types. I guy that never asks
: and how is this for you Rolf ? Single handers and people that live in a dead relationship often talk you to death when we meet them. I listen for a while but Daniela is much better in asking them questions about their
life. In the very first hour you realize: they never asked either me or Daniela what we do or did ...nothing. Its a one way street . Then after an hour, i try to change direction and come with my standard joke : "I DON'T
LIKE PEOPLE THAT TALK MORE THAN I DO" Sometimes that gets them to listen more , but only sometimes. Most of them just rant on and on about themselves.
I piss off a lot of people when i speak what is going on in my mind. Should i stop? Please tell me if you like my abrasive comments ? Or should i just write about how beautiful everybody is and what a nice beach we
have seen?
Recently a Swiss sailor got upset about my blog. She left a negative comment full of "compliments" for me. Maybe because she thought the blog was about her. It wasn't , but what the hell , i guess its good to get a
reaction. Or as See Germans say;
GETROFFENE HUNDE BELLEN....

I have no idea how many people read my boring blog. So please tell me : SHOULD I CONTINUE? or just write boring shit about a beach? I think there are already tons of blogs or tiktoks about beautiful people and gorgeous beaches

Thank god i bought this roll up asymmetrical spinnaker in Thailand. it works wonders in light winds and its been easy to handle. We only use it on long trip. For a few hours sailing i wont take it out and install the reefing
gysmo and all the many spaghetti ropes that come with it. It paid for all the fuel we saved. Many mono hull boats would run with an engine. A sail like that would would thrash around with the boat roling. Catamarans
don't roll much. Yes its been a pleasant sail.
Daniela hurt her wrist when she took down the mainsail yesterday. My wrist hurts for a half a year now, among many other pains :-) Maybe i should visit a Dotee as they call the medicine man in Polynesia. Oh yes i
banged my elbow 4 days ago and it hurts every time the moving boat jerks me around and i touch it ....moan moan
The spinnaker reefing line came apart . Its been fixed and that's the only thing that broke on fabulous Yelo. Since we joined this WhatsApp group " Pacific Crossers 2024" we become aware of all the troubles the other
boats have. A boom came loose , Lithium batteries behave crazy , spinnakers gets shredded. People see unmanned robot boats and abandoned yachts in the middle of nowhere. That's bad news if you hit something
at night or when you are not watching.
Today i wont write about weirdos we meet. Sometimes we meet very interesting people on land and on boats. I guess traveling makes many new encounters .More than if you just live in your bubble of friends that think
and talk like you. I appreciate meeting people that believe in conspiracy theories. I find them totally fascinating and mad .....For a while i get into a discussion about..covid ,Bill Gates etc Unfortunately for most of them ,
they get very aggressive when i question ANYTHING. I can almost see the devil riding on their shoulders , like a mad parrot sitting there and repeating shit they find on the web.
Times have changed , yes indeed .We didn't have this when i was younger.
We have 2074 miles to go. We did 530 miles already .Fast in e the beginning , now slow and very comfortable. We have more light winds in the forecast , i don't mind. Its a lot better than a howling gale.
I did a video on whatapp yesterday , telling everybody not to make videos...hi hi .Data is expensive ...but what the hell. Its free money i can blow. I don't have to work for it or borrow it ..it just sits there .its mine and its
free

The weather doesn't always do what the forecast says. The wind is turning from behind alright but not as weak as we have it now. We only did a slow 114 miles yesterday. We took down the mainsail and crawled past
Isla Clarion last night with 3 knots. I saw two lights , .Apparently it has a few Mexican military guys there to protect the national park status. If you want to stop and dive with the many sharks and look at a ton of manta
rays, then you have to pay 75$ per person per day. You cant go a shore. You need to get a permit on the mainland for that, Like everything in a developing country that involves papers...its long and complicated. So
we didn't even ask.
I don't like to look at fish anyways. People come on "live aboard" dive boats and pay a fortune to motor for 300 miles and dive with the hammerheads etc. As an ex fish farmer , i cant get to exited about the fish.
If i cant eat them...why bother them?
The sea state is pleasant now and soon the mainsail has to come down for the roll up black spinnaker.
YELO is doing fine ...NOTHING BROKE. And we manage to download pod casts from BBC and the Swiss radio. Just to keep in touch with the mad world. Its time to stare into the big ocean and think about the past
year. It was interesting to be in Mexico. How ever we met a bunch of self centered old geysers that still think they are sailors, sitting in the numerous marinas or apartments. I found it difficult to be with them. Listening to
their endless moan about pumps or engines or other macho old sailor stuff. I was a bid lonely at times . I tried very hard to mingle with the far right Trump loving Gringos. Usually we hang out with the people that have
the same values. But here you cant find a lot of them . So i mingle with the weird and wacko's of North America that pile up here. Its easy here to park your boat and its cheap and warmer than home.
Let me start with "Marki" , a single American living on an old Halberg Rassy. He is not moving far from La Paz and seems to be sitting on his boat day in and day out. Like most single sailors ...there is a reason why they
are alone. A few moments with them explains it all. He is very helpful if you have any mechanical problems. He helped me fixing my rusty dinghy motor. He didn't want to get paid for his work ,he wanted to have dinner
with us . No problem. He came and finished his plate and 2 bottles of wine Most of the evenings with single sailors consist of us listening to them. When they spend weeks alone and finally they get invited ...they talk
you to death. Their conversation is mostly about I , ME and MYSELF. They hardly ever ask anything about us. Daniela gets very quiet and i try hard to get a word in. But that ONE word is usually the end of it. Because
my interruptions have little to do with : I, ME and MYSELF.
Marki had another bad habit : he worked with an "overall" work suit. It hat had a giant hole in it so his geriatric balls would hang out all the time. I don't mind gray wrinkly balls . But he went to help friends on a boat with
a young boy . He showed up totally naked and really got the the mother of the boy pissed off.
One day he took us shopping with his car. When we picked him up with our dinghy , he was in a dive suit. He didn't want to get wet , he said . Ok why not a dive suit for a 3 minute boat ride. But when we got to his
car he started to undress on a public road.....IN MEXICO!! It took ages to prepare his car. He had Jimmy's ashes in an urn on the drivers seat with a bible on top of the urn. He said it keeps the Mexicans from breaking
into his car....There was nothing in this old car and he was supposed to throw the ashes into the Sea OF CORTEZ but never did. So we drove with Jimmy to Walmart. Back at the marina he had to do his undressing
again and talked nonstop about what a quiet person he his. His presence was exhausting for me . Daniela attracts weirdos. She doesn't tell them to shut up like i do.
She helped him re anchor his boat 3 times. There we noticed that he doesn't know how to handle a small boat , that he has no charts and that he makes a giant drama about re anchoring in a bay he has been for SEVEN
years!! He was a 747 pilot, a father and and and . He lost his family in a car accident ...apparently. But none of these stories made any sense...so i stoped listening and let him sing his Bee Gee oldie's on our
table....yawn

I have a few more weirdo stories from the Sea of Cortez...but that maybe another day. 2175 miles to go to Nuku Hiva . My computer tells me : 11 to 30 days at the ever changing speed. Currently 5 to 8 knots

Its a vast blue sea and not much else here. But a few times a day we get a few boobies flying by. They have that dumb expression on their face when they look at you. Sometimes they merit the name FOUX in French
or TOELPPEL in German. Juveniles attack our whip antennas , wind generators or simply fly over and over thru the wind turbulance behind our sails. But why are they called boobies? I don't know. please Google a
video of their mating dance, its hilarious and ...FOUX . They lift their giant blue feet in the air to impress a potential mate. Tell me if you know why boobies.
The wind comes more and more from behind. This makes our journey and night a lot more comfortable , but also a lot slower. We can keep the mainsail and big genoa up all night and sail fast with hardly any waves.
but this morning the big waves are back ,maybe because of some current, i dunno. Soon the mainsail has to come down .Then we only sail with small to big genoas, gibs or a Code Zero. The giant spinaker on Yelo will
not come out....tooo much hassle. And you cant read a book while that thing is up. Our code Zero is actually and asymmetrical spinnaker that we can roll up fast in case of a squall. That giant black sail brought us
across from the Galapaos to Hiva Oa last time when the winds where very light
NOTHING BROKE TODAY.
We both fall asleep easier and our bodies get adjusted to the 3 hour on and off thru the night . We compensate with as many day time naps as we can. And i eat as much or what ever we have on the TWO
refrigerators!! The goal is to fit it all into one fridge to save energy. The lithium batteries are doing fine ....so far. We still boil water and cook electric during the day..Starlink takes 15 minutes to log in and we loose
connection often when the boat moves a lot....but it works

A fast and bumpy start. Wind is from th side , so it should be comfortable , but a confused sea makes life difficult for the first day out at sea. After a year in no swell Mexico it will take us a while to get used to the big
waves. Its difficult to sleep when you should be sleeping and its also difficult to stay awake when you should be up during night watches. We will get used to it as always. The first 2 days are a pain.
What broke : A chafe guard on a mainsail batten is coming loose and the one wind generator is making sick noises as the blades touch the housing. We had this before, but taking in off , high up over the steering
station in such big seas is not advisable.
Everything else is ok. sea temp is 23.4 C and at night it goes down to 20 C . Day time is 25C and it should get warmer every day and the wind is coming more from behind as we approach the equator.
The Starlink worked fine on offshore (expensive) mode yesterday. We will use it twice a day for mail and weather and news. Usually about 9 am and 6pm. Please don't send us videos or other long files...thank you...A
yes ....and the sky is blue. on another postive note: our new Chinese AIS works well offshore .We now see cargo ships up to 260 miles away from us. And i hope they can see us as well...maybe not that far , but far
enough