Journeyman 60

Equator crossing trials

Jesper — Fri, 17 May 2013 15:58:15 +0000

As tradition will have it, every one in the crew passed strenuous tests in order to qualify for entry into the Kingdom of Neptune. This time, due to the level of sweat and saltwater everyone is covered with, the test was to wash your hair Neptune style. Now we are home. In the Northern hemisphere.

Yay! Really fast engine repair action in Recife!

Jesper — Mon, 13 May 2013 23:48:14 +0000

Thanks to our local crew guy Angelo we got really good help fast. The guys are hard at work, tests were done and the problem identified as a clogged pump inlet in the distributor pump. So now we are on our way again, after just one day of repairs. (and an inactive Sunday).

A comforting fish

Jesper — Sat, 11 May 2013 16:52:01 +0000

So we started our crossing towards Cape Verde. But the squally weather, with its frequent calms that require motoring, we soon realized that we had an engine problem. With each squall the engine lost more power, and this time it wasn’t because of clogged filters.

So we have had to go to shore to seek an engineer to fix it. We are now in Recife in northern Brazil.

A small comfort in all this is that we caught a nice 4 kg Dorade just outside Recife. So we got a tasty lunch!

[Updated] Want to crew across the Atlantic?

Jesper — Thu, 04 Apr 2013 19:37:15 +0000

Update: The crew for this journey has now been filled. Europe here we come !!

______________________________________________________________________

We are planning a crossing from Salvador, Brazil to Santa Cruz, Tenerife, with a stop-over in the Cape Verde islands. These two legs will be 15-18 days and 6-8 days respective. The only cost is your share of food costs.

The schedule is roughly from first week in May to mid June. We are currently 3 in the crew on this trip, so there is room for a few more!

See the crewing info page for the usual info.

Hotter by the hour

Jesper — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 19:02:25 +0000

As we move further north we are slowly moving into the “too hot for comfort” zone. On Abrolhos I found this little guy, who obviously needs a pair of slippers to walk on the sundrenched rocks.

High Tech versus Minimalist

Jesper — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 16:38:13 +0000

Now that we are back in the warm airs outside the coast of Brazil, a torrent of rain can be handled using different techniques…

Albatross!

Jesper — Sat, 02 Mar 2013 13:49:58 +0000

Apparently there is not much food for the albatrosses out here. I have never experienced a bird trying to eat our fishing lure before. This guy was hungry, and got hooked. Fortunately he was pretty calm about it, and I was able to pull him in and grab him by the beak and unhook him without any fuss. The hook was only sitting in the bone of the hooked part of his upper beak, so he wasn’t even hurt.

Unbeatable anchorage view

Jesper — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 23:19:03 +0000

For a change we have had fair weather today. Which makes the sunset view from our current anchorage pretty much unbeatable, I would say.

Too much ice in Garibaldi…

Jesper — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 20:44:17 +0000

Todays excursion was meant to go to the glacier in Seno Garibaldi. But the ice was too dense, and we were forced to give it up.

Making our mark

Jesper — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 23:06:03 +0000

Since a lot of other yachts that passed through here left their mark in the bar, of course we couldn’t be any worse. Thanks to Olof we had a spare Swedish flag that we could sign and put up in the bar!

Punishment for slow bowlines…

Jesper — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 15:15:49 +0000

The Journeyman is a rough environment. Crew members who cannot tie bowlines fast enough gets left behind on the buoy.

Joke joke.

The guy jumped on the buoy to tie on a line, and didn’t notice that the boat moved away while he was busy tying it. This rather amusing event shows the importance of knowing your knots. Had there been more wind it might not have been so amusing.

Feeding the locals

Jesper — Sun, 17 Feb 2013 02:35:36 +0000

We’re waiting for some favourable winds before heading up the Beagle Channel. In the meanwhile a local predator bird got very well fed from off our boat hook…

Cape Horn.

Jesper — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 17:05:23 +0000

Fourteen years ago I first started to think about this place. I have to say that actually going around Cape Horn was much less dramatic than the many events on the voyage down here. Partly this is due to all the modern aids to navigation. We have engines and radios and weather forecasts that makes sailing much less dangerous than it was when this place first got its reputation. And today the Chilean Armada will not allow you to go around if the weather is not suitable. So even if you want to make it dangerous you’re not allowed to…

We got down to just north of Cape Horn on a wonderful calm sunny afternoon, but decided this was not the right setting for a Cape Horn rounding, so we stayed the night at anchor and went the next morning instead, when the weather was windy and the skies more dramatic. This way we got a fully day of really nice sailing, doing 11-12 knots in 25-30 knots of wind around the horn and all the way back up to Puerto Williams.

Ping Pong wait for Cape Horn

Jesper — Sun, 10 Feb 2013 00:17:12 +0000

While we are waiting for refuelling in Puerto Williams, some crew members have decided to turn the deck-house into the smallest table tennis court in history. Total floor space is 2.2 x 0.7 meters. It works surprisingly well!

Puerto Williams – Possibly the coolest marina in the world.

Jesper — Sun, 27 Jan 2013 14:36:15 +0000

Sure, it’s the southern-most marina. And it’s about 95 NM from Cape Horn. But it’s not only about the geographical location. The marina was created by taking an old Chilean navy supply vessel, the “Micalvi”, and grounding it in the mouth of the small river that flows out to the west of the naval base. The vessel is acting as the mooring dock, and yachts raft up around it. The spot at the mouth of the river is very protected, so the prevailing strong winds are not so much of a problem. Internally the vessel has been rebuilt with an office, showers and a really cosy bar, where everyone drinks the local speciality Pisco Sour, a drink I personally find quite horrible.