S/Y KIWI

Kiwi aftermaths at Minaouët river

2017-07-23T15:44:00.000+01:00

Route up to our boatyard at Minaouët river was excitingly narrow after weeks and weeks at the open ocean

Saying goodbyes-for -now with Kiwi, a home for three years

Boatyard at low tide

Philipp working hard or hardly working. He traveled from Vienna to spend two weeks getting his hands dirty and muscles aching, helping painting Kiwi and preparing her for overwintering

A rust spot attached by a angle grinder and epoxy

Hard work at the Kiwi camp was occasionally rewarded with pieces of French culinary arts

Acknowledgements

2017-07-14T22:10:00.001+01:00

One thing Kiwi trip has shown me is the value of kindness of strangers. The best memories along the route are from places where we met locals, were given a ride or offered access to showers or other help. Hope to pay back by being there in the same way for people I meet in future. Also many friends offered their help in various ways and crewed us along the journey.

Special thanks to:

Ireen for diving for sinks and being a patient Skype friend

Carsten for help with boat papers.

Magnus for giving us books and ideas prior departure

Max and Gerald for carrying in Kiwi's new super battery

Ismo -that week we spend without floor boards in Kiwi before departure saved us from a lot of trouble later, thanks also for being an online support for basically any technical issue regardless time of the day

Tor for some painting jobs and spare cables

Sail and Mesan in Finnsnes for good chats and advices and sail canvas and spares

Mette and Sverre Øystein for charts and encouraging words

Sigrid for kitchen towels and showing us an example of how you can both be sea sick and enjoy sailing.

Thanks for Giacomo for many books and great company.

Helen and Allan in Shetland for lending their tent and cooker that night when we arrived with our bicycles through to that hut which was supposed to be open

Friendly harbor master of Westrey who gave us the tidal Atlas of Orkneys and by doing that, saved our asses

Friendly Norwegian fellow sailor on Fair island who gave us the tidal tables and tidal atlas of West Scotland and therefore saved our asses

Andy and his German friends at Kinlochpervey for invitation and nice meal on-board his yacht and borrowing the water house and therefore savings our asses

Crews of Gwaihir, Missbehaving and Sigmatic who helped us through Grinnan Canal

Margot for sending our working jib to Spain after it erroneously landed at her address. Thanks for the bicycle seat too!

Alice and Christophe for bringing us over Bay of Biscay.

Manu for helping us with painting the hull and doing some serious victualising in Nazare.

Thanks for Dody for driving us around in shops of Nazare area and being such a great inspiration.

Tony Branco for showing us best sushi in Lisbon and showing us around

Martin of Prinsess Mia for welding Kiwi's anchor chain!

Thanks for Vit for crewing us to Madeira and then Teneriffe.

Thanks for mum for a suitcase full of presents from Finland including new orelocks for the dinghy. Thanks also for most supporting messages during the year, they ment alot to me

Thanks for Julli for great literature for Atlantic crossing nr one

Jago for lending his Kindle

Thanks for Eva and Jelle for sailing Kiwi over Atlantic (crossing nr 1) with me

Thanks for family Darnis for taking care of us in Martinique

Thanks for Åse and Johan for engine supplies from Norway, and crewing us during a difficult time

For Alfredo for giving us his old surfboard after a monstrous wave in San Juan broke our previous one

Thanks for police officers of Mayaguana for giving us a drive to and from customs office and showing us basically the whole island

Thanks for Ireen, Mona and Karen for fantasticly fun cruise through Bahamas. Thanks for woll and mail delivery and the snorkeling guide

Friendly lady who offered to give us a ride to the blue hole on Long Island

Gera and Sean for showing me the secrets of Atlantis

Gerald for bringing a bag full of boat parts to Nassau. Also, for listening again and again the fears, disbelieves and stress certain skippers may experience.

Cody and Lasse for inviting us to Blue laggoon trip on-board their fine yacht

Hamfre for carrying the new spare anchor

Gibsy for mango wine

Thanks for St George's customs officer and her husband for driving me to Fedex on the other side of Bermuda to pick up our drogue.

St George s dinghy club for inviting us to watch America's cup to their private club

Thanks for showers too!

For Emma and Angela for crossing an ocean with me

Eva and Jelle (again) for weather service and land crewing during Atlantic crossing number two.
Thanks for Jelle for IT support and providing Kiwi with a new navigation computer, extra epirb and board games!

Special thanks for Serge and Caroline for welcoming Kiwi so warmly in Concarneau and making everything very easy going at the boat yard. Thanks for Christophe for finding a boat yard in Bretagne.

Marta and Berit for taking good care of Elvin the baby dog

Peter of Dagtun for being the hard working mail man and secretary

Friends who have offered accommodation upon return to Tromsø. Friends who have kept contact during the year, been there in times of hardships and success. Friends, family and colleagues who tought such a trip is a great idea!

Philipp of course -for being a friend and my partner in crime and great support the whole way

2017-07-12T22:59:00.000+01:00

Sunset at Biscay

Meeting the traffic from English Channel rounding Bretagne. Finally some ships to avoid collision with!

Kiwi making her way through some extremely calm seas. Anyway trip to the mast top was a challenging one..

Half way pirate party

Emma's birthday - knot competition

This is how night watch looks like

This is how day watch could look like

Skipper's log

2017-07-11T13:22:00.000+01:00

Nassau - Bermuda

Day 1 Left from Salty Cay around 10.30. Great to get going, we also had the best possible wind conditions, great speeds. The usual prior-departure fear and panic starts to fade away. Keeping an eye on the water tank leakage, its not something you want to have on a crossing!

Day 2 Discovered the floor of the storage room next to the bicycle as the best place to sleep. Nice scent of diesel and wet shoes, hard and relatively chilly floor, full overview of whats going on on the boat and minimum movement

Day 3 Emma says the highlight of the day was two huge waves which soaked us all in the cockpit. She was the only one who had gone down between the waves to change to dry and unsalty clothes. Todays noon report was epic DISTANCE COVERED IN 24 h 155 nm, which means average speed of 6.4 knots!

Day 4 Started log keeping, any info above is unreliable. Today the bananas got ripe and all fell down on the floor. Two highlights > 1. skippers quiz number one to celebrate half way to Bermuda reached in the night 2 visiting birdie resting on the reeling. Later the bird actually moved in and made a nest on the galley table. We called her Harriet.

Day 5 Until now, I haven’t had a night watch but have only been a back-watch for everybody else. This was changed today as I stepped in for 20-23 making the night shorter for the others. The effect was immediate, I slept really better, because I did it with good consesness. We entered a calm and had to motor through night. Gets on my nerves to motor, but it is well part of crossing an ocean. Sleeping on the deck next to the dinghy under thousand stars.

Day 6 Last night Emma woke me up because she saw a strange light on her night watch. “It’s a star”, I said, and went back to bed. The crew is doing great, I am woken up when there is something. Maneuvers go smooth, food is great, there is a lot to talk about, but silence is also natural. Eva and I have a new tradition of a backgammon game in the evening. Observed tiny dolphins, but they were busy fishing and didn’t come to say hello.

Day 7 I have tied to emphasize the importance of fighting apathy among the crew. Eva learns to knit, good amount of initiative to fix stuff is taken, we are planning for a dinner where you have to dress up with something else than clothes (with maritime theme) I have given up with using email for weather, also grib file downloading mostly doesn’t work. Jelle sends me weather sms every second day and that’s alright. Miss looking at the data myself though.

Day 8

Arrived around 10 am and had an early morning to clear the deck, take down the two poles and prepare for both customs dock and anchoring. St Geoges turned out to be a really beautiful harbor with extremely friendly people.

Bermuda – Azores

Day 1

The moods are little down, guess we miss eva s company and we also start to wear off a little. Departure went smoothly in the end. Friendly customs officer (or her husband actually) helped me to pick up drogue from fedex on the other side of Bermuda. All in all, Bermuda was one of my favourite stops, people most friendly. Departure together with three other sailboats, all of them faster than us.

Day 2

We went good speeds, five to six knots and were hit by a squall and then calm at dawn again. Good day with Emma-quiz and training hour, cloudy and gray. We try with poled out jib, but there might be a night of motoring awaiting us.

Day 3

Most of the day under engine powers. Today we really have all kinds of weathers. Wore up for rain and gusty squall winds, after reefing down to third reef, wind gradually died and forced us to use the engine. Its not a good feeling to start burning diesel the third day. Afternoon was calm and sunny and there are thousands of Portuguese man-of-wars around us. Emma and I, we went for a swim and the sea is definitely cooler now. I am wearing socks, jacket and a hat during night watches.

Day 4

Drifting around without sails. Beautiful calm day, waiting for the wind which was due this morning. Emma made pancakes, don’t feel like starting the engine..

…and when I finally did start the engine, there was the weirdest noise and off it went again. After suspecting the propella (that’s where the noise seemed to come), and diving down to check it, I removed all engine covers and discovered that the dynamo had fallen off! Thanking all gods of diesel engines, this is something I can fix, and now Ford is running again and makes its usual humming. Normally I wear ear protection when motoring, but tonight I listen to it with the greatest pleasure.

Day 5

Figured out that both me, computer and shipslog had been one day ahead, and therefore the weather forecast never matched with what we had. Been quite useless today, just daydreaming most of the time by myself. Checked the dynamo once more, and engine in general, slept a lot, what a weird day. Wind came this morning and we are sailing again towards Europe. Eva sends black story riddles over iridium!

Day 6

144 nm in 24 hours. Love this wind! We would need to somehow sneak further north to be less exposed to calms, but then we would need to strip down mainsail and Philipp, the weather man warns about too high wind speeds further north too. In this point I prefer 40 knots to zero. We celebrated quarter trip point by sending a message in a bottle and eating Nutella with crackers (sort of a cake). I have all these fears of running out of diesel (we need to charge batteries every 2^nd evening) with further calms in the forecast. We have enough diesel, but I still have this fear. Another fear is that something more goes wrong with the engine. Its not likely, and it doesn’t help to worry about it, but I still have these fear. Third fear is how the crew will do, I personally feel exhaustion sneaking in even if I actually got a lot of sleep the last days.

Day 7

Today was a rainy day with, perhaps 3 m wave. Perfect for studying French! I try to study one French lesson from Philipp’s German speaking book every day. These kind of thigs you would never manage in real life. We also played couple of rounds of Wavy Carcassonne. First time since Nassau, we have to live with port-tack. That means that the heads, kitchen and everybody’s beds are uphill!

Day 8

Only two oranges left. A four day calm in the forecast. We prepare mentally, I try to think of things to do. Calms are demanding, because it means constant trying to sail and often failing, banging sails and swinging boat. Anycase, today was a great sailing day, close hulled, made a degree of northing. Emma saw dolphins. Had a short circuit on the fuse panel. Uncool, but problem fixed now..

We ve tried to fish, caught only plastic.

Its getting colder, Wearing a beanie in the night, and socks and shoes.

Day 9

We made it to 36 degs north were the coming calm should be a day shorter. A day of solid six knots straight towards Flores is great for moral. Something is wrong with our iridium balance. Left with 180 minutes from Nassau, now only 35 left! No more grib files or riddles over iridium, weather com with Philipp only. Planning “wear anything but clothes“ - dinner as halfway celebration (if we ever get there…)

Day 10

My day in the kitchen. Did nothing else today- no weather, no noonreport no fench lesson. Finally reached -the oddly calculated- half way mark! Baking chocolate cake for celebration resulted in amazing amount of cleaning (the liquid paste was all over the stove, the diesel heater, over and under floorboards…) and matching level of crumpiness. The atmosphere lightened up when celebration costumes made of sail bags and covers, billows and driftanchors were put on, the chilled drinks and special meal incl. the cake were brought out. The main course had to be made twice because one of eggs added in the final face turned out to be gone sour. Calm finally hit us at dawn. Chatted over vhf with s/y Nivana, a second sailing vessel we saw since Bermuda.

Day 11

Motored through gray night without any reference. A group of perhaps 50 dolphins kept us company. Managed to make only 25 nm in 10 hours with 4 knots speed. How IS that possible? We were steering in circles on featureless gray and black see. Switched engine off eight in the morning and tried to sail a bit. Ended up drifting until early afternoon, when Angela found me (I was sleeping under the working jib in the bow : P) and pointed out that the wind was picking up and that it was three hours in to my watch. With two poled out jibs, we goose wing through the blue sunny seas dotted with thousands pink and blue Portuguese man-of-wars. We went though any life changing future plans this trip has brought our minds, Emma made pizza and just before sunset we almost collided with a turtle!

Day 12

Nothing much happened, but we are sailing 6 kn directly towards Flores with two poled out jibs. That is great! We are sneezing all together, a few days since we run out of oranges. Time to find c-vitamin tablets. Planning the shopping in Flores already, food is an endless topic for discussion. Stuffing box seems to be leaking more than before. Discovered also that our fresh water in the first tank is slightly salty. The only explanation being the lid on deck not holding. Luckily we have the second tank kept separate and plenty left in canisters, enough for couple of weeks.

Day 13

After some investigations it seems that the water collecting in the aft bilge has flushed over to the kitchen bilge with the amazing rolling movements we have had the last days. The freshwater for the tab is taken from a hose which lays in that bilge. Guess that’s how saltwater got in to our drinking water. All bilges are dried now and stuffing box tightened salty waters flushed out of the hose and hopefully problem solved. We had couple of yellow fin tunas following us (we could see them through the wave), but none of them would go for the bate hanging on a line behind the boat. After a lot of rolling and goosewinging we hoisted the main to stabilize us and hope to keep it up for the night to allow good night sleep for everybody.

Day 14

Two weeks out at the sea, four days to go. There wasn’t much maneuvering going on today. Kiwi does the sailing and we take turns to keep an eye on how she performs. She does well, we have 30 knots wind and go almost six knots with working jib only. We have three meter wave from aft so shes tossed around quite a bit. Makes life ombord very interesting.

Day 15

It’s kind of an anniversary: we sailed from Tromso exactly one year ago today. And what a year it has been! Was utterly knocked out today, and useless. Good we didn’t arrive yet, would have not managed to go in to any harbor in the shape I was in.

Talked to an Austrian catamaran on VHF today to practice my social skills. Didn’t go so well. Think I showed too much interest in their fresh fruit and veggie stocks and they got scared surely thinking we were pirates!

Day 16

A lot of sail changes through night with wind picking up to 40 kn. Subsequently the skipper slept past noon and were woken up for another sail change and pan cakes. There was a lot of sailing going on today, strong southerlies turned in to strong northerlies. Angela and Emma don’t always manage cooperate which means if there is anything to do with the sails, it has to be me with one of them. Little frustrainting, but then again, this is something I cant really do anything about.

Day 17

Don’t manage to arrive during light hours today. Aiming for daybreak tomorrow. That doesn’t help for the mood. Everybody soaked and seriously ready for landfall.

Day 18

Went in early to find the cutest harbor ever. Lajos turned out to be very unspoiled and friendly and the island lush and green and full of blossoming rodorendons. We did some great hikes and had a good rest before heading for our next leg over the Atlantic.

Crossing Flores, Azores – Brest, France

Day 1

Had a slow start because I decided to wait for Camille who fly from Faial with the morning flight. The boat is desalinated and tidy, Camille is fun and a welcomed addition to our group. Think we were starting to grow little tired of each other. Winds seemed hopelessly low, but we had a good start with 4.5 knots to the right direction, dolphins and a leatherback turtle.

Day 2

Another day of light but sailable winds. Poled out both jibs in the morning and this is how we went the whole day. Adjusting to new watch system with 3 hour watches. I am happy Emma and Angel help with explaining stuff to Camille. A lot of sun! In the evening we were visited by minkie whales!

Day 3

Kiwis future (if she’s sold or not, or if we sail her next summer and where) is unsure. The decision to sail to Brest this time is solid. I cant handle further changes in the immediate plan. The plan has changed so thousand times during this trip and its wearing me out. Light winds picked up towards the evening, Jelle warns about approaching low pressures further north.

Day 4

So much happened today. Emma’s birthday. I had a cooking duty, made a cake and we played fun games : ). Sea is getting rough so we were splashed wet several times. We played Kim’s game, precision ball throwing on main sail, we had a knot competition and a winching competition. Some action like this always helps for the mood. Crossed ¼ line in the evening.

Day 5

Port tack with kitchen and toilet uphill is demanding. I am on kitchen sofa now, which is an excellent place for sleeping. Last night we had a weir encounter with a Dutch sailboat, which slowly overtook us. I had warned them on the radio about our position and course, we were anyway almost ran over by them in the middle of the night and had to change our course to avoid collision. In the morning we see same boat heading to an opposite westward full speed. On vhf they say they are fleeing from a depression and later asked if we had newest weather report since theirs was three days old. I told them there was nothing to worry about weather-vice, but excellent sailing winds. We didn’t see them turn back but can obviously expect anything…

Day 6

Out of movies to watch! I have fever and muscles so week that just standing makes them shiver. Snapped at Angela. With this wave direction we sometimes experience toilet products entering splashing up to the cockpit. Sailing sucks!! Almost collided with a cargo ship too.

Day 7

Half way this morning. High pressure arrived and we hoisted 150%genoa. Happily making 5 knots in big swell. Celebrated halfway with pirate costumes and some good games. Discovered broken babystay and had a very adventurous trip up the mast to remove it. I am not well, I am exhausted, my legs barely carry me.

Day 8

Got to sleep 4h in the middle of the day and feel much better. I woke up for laughter from the cockpit, best sound in the world. Evening brought finally the calm we have been expecting and we ended up motorsailing into the night after a great beam reach through the day. Worked with figuring out tides for arrival in Brest and on my jury Babystay.

Day 9

Gray day without much wind. Motorsailing throughout the whole day. Not many words spoken onbord, Emma has lost her good spirits and has a broken back. Camille is full of energy. She and Angela are well rested it seems, and offer their help where they can. I am exhausted, but fine. Philipp wrote “enjoy the last days” in his weat0her SMS. That seemed like a joke, it feels like a survival struggle for me. Had some classical music on my driving watch and admired the gray desolated sea and tried to think how I will miss this scenery and how lucky we are to get to travel like this.

Day 10

Beautiful sunny day with extremely flat seas and motoring. We could see whale blowing in the horizont, quite some carbage and a gannet like bird with a fishing lure on his peak. Could say we have arrived to Bay of Biscay! Installed the jury babystay.

Day 11

Started sailing at midnight with very optimistically light winds. After 49 hours under engine we all were ready for some sailing. We are close hauled as hell and point to England, but also will not have enough diesel to bring us to France. We have to sail the wind we have. Angela has changed a lot, she takes great responsibility, is not afraid of taking initiatives and after Emma hurting her back, really contributes hugely onboard.

Day 12

We were followed by pilot whales today. Starting to doubt how we will make it with these non-existent or head winds. Rather horrible day. Broke 150% genoa. I need to sleep, but there is always something to do or worry about. Thunder weather, turbulent winds on and off. A lot of work with up and down with the sails, on and off with the engine, no rest. Waves are violent and I fear more things will break. Ended up motoring most of the night even if I try to spare diesel.

Day 13

Much better moods today. Hoisted sails in the morning, wind lasted through the day and everybody got to rest. Waves are smaller and in the evening wind veered Northernly and we could finally point to Concarno with 5 knots speed. My jury-babystay works fine with the innersail. Emma is still dreaming of catching the ferry on Friday. I cant let any kind of pressure build on me now. My focus is to bring us to France before we run out of food, fuel and water and in good health and shape. Around midnight we arrived to the shipping route from English channel around Finnistere in Spain. Extremely busy on AIS compared to what we are used to, in reality, we have in times lights of one ship in the horizont to admire. The ocean is so big.

Day 14

Arriving to the continental shelf finally. Beautiful day with sunshine, closehulled, we sail slow but steady towards Concarnoe through and area with a lot of traffic. Had a bath in the cockpit and figured it is kind f chilly after all. We were visited by about a hundred pilot whales. They stayed a good while and we could hear their song through the hull. As it is in the end of any expedition or a trip of considerable length, the eagerness of finishing is shadowing the spirit of a good trip. We have done really well, but now it’s time to home.

Day 15
Approach was easier than I tought. Tide around Concarneau allows for us to enter any time of the day, something you really appreciate after 41 days Atlantic crossing! Land was sighted only 5 miles before reaching it, weather is hazy and hot and there are moonfish everywhere.

Old good Europe

2017-07-08T08:26:00.003+01:00

After 14 days at sea Kiwi arrived in Concarneau in Bretagne in France yesterday afternoon. The crew is tired, the boat in fine shape, the skipper confused. The feelings of achievement after a tough but successful crossing blend with sadness of the trip coming to an end. Philipp-the-landsupport has helpfully organized a travel lift for Kiwi already the day after arrival, so discovering Concarneau or any feelings of emptiness after the trip will have to wait:). More pictures will follow!

Kiwi sets out for high seas

2017-06-24T13:17:00.001+01:00

Kiwi sets out to her last leg of the Atlantic crossing from Azores to mainland Europe in calm wind conditions and perfect sunshine. Stocked up with delicious Flores water and some more tin cans and chocolate. We were also lucky to get Camille onbord as fourth crew member. With her, we are down to three hours watches, have our own French teacher onbord and new input, stories and fun!

Flores - another favorite island

2017-06-23T01:11:00.000+01:00

Early summer blossoms makes the place almost too idyllic. Being one of the most remote Portuguese islands, we didn't have to share Flores' idyl with many other tourists

On black volcanic beaches we met our old friends from the ocean - stranded Portuguese -man-of-war jellies

Flores is an island of cows

...luckily great part of the island is too steep for farming and great part of the lush and fairytale-like laurisilva-forest remains. Believe me, this steep terrain has been a challenge for us with practically no leg muscles

Few pics from North Atlantic

2017-06-21T01:28:00.000+01:00

Speeds under three knots meant possibility to swim, or more correctly, hang behind the boat on a rope. Beautiful black and white fish (pilot fish?) followed us on our journey

Half way dress -up party with the team "wear anything except clothes". Angela in sailbag and Sanja in driftanchor

As we moved north, more and more clothes were needed. Angela starting her evening watch. She would do 6-10 (am and pm), Sanja 10-2 and Emma 2-6

Emma has hoisted the storm jib. We had so much wind that the smallest of sails were in use, the whole wardrobe actually

Kiwi sails well in a lot of winds. Thats how she likes it best

Couple of days of calm meant better possibility for animal observations. Here are some common dolphins under poled out working jib.

Azores!

2017-06-19T18:49:00.000+01:00

After 19 days at sea Kiwi reached Flores in Azores early this morning. The tiny harbor of Lajes was most welcoming and what we can tell (for actually being way too exhausted right now for any real exploration), Flores seems to be a charming small island with cliffs and waterfalls and more cows and goats than tourists.

The crossing went well, with winds between zero and forty knots from all kinds of directions. Rough seas broke the attachment for our kitchen stove we managed to have salt water leaking in to the drinking water tank (!) and had the dynamo of the engine falling off. These were minor challenges I realized meeting a fellow sailor here who crossed at the same time and lost part of his rigg, his roling furler and having a complete engine failure

Off we go!

2017-06-01T15:53:00.000+01:00

With a best possible weather report in our hands, we'll head out towards Azores and Europe tomorrow morning. Our short visit in Bermuda has been great, the town of St George s one of the prettiest harbors Kiwi has visited and the locals most welcoming. With America's Cup and tall ships visiting the place at the same time, it's been very lively and interesting stop.

When sailing around with female-only crew, you receive surprising amounts of attention. We are the freaks, one-of-a-kinds, we are photographed and invited for drinks and meals and showers. People remember us and are utterly astonished. You could get irritated, I guess, but I can't deny the extra spice added to our experience by being the red boat of girls receiving special treatment :)

Sadly we had to say good byes to Eva, when she decided to fly over the ocean to be there to receive our lines on the other side. Wount be long : P, so long!

Bermuda!

2017-05-31T13:07:00.001+01:00

Kiwi made landfall at St George s yesterday morning. A short stop to collect mail, water (to replace what we lost because of water tank leakage) and check out America 's Cap!

Alright, here we go

2017-05-23T15:18:00.000+01:00

After a day of last fixes and fun (shark watching, swimming and dinghy sailing) at Salt Cay Kiwi finally sails out to the high seas. With great help from Jelle, downloading weather files with iridium works now. Crew is familiarized with the boat and spirits are high. Bermuda, here we come!
-Sanja, Eva, Emma and Angela -

First 4 nauticals done

2017-05-22T13:49:00.001+01:00

Yesterday, heavily loaded with fruits, vegetables, instant noodles, chocolates and some 560 litres of water and 300 l of diesel, Kiwi managed to made her way out of the harbor of Nassau! First day was planned short for allowing continuation of some last minute preparations using the mobile coverage from civilization. We struggle with getting Iridium communication work with our windows 8 computers... and might have to rely on calls and sms's for weather forecast.

The sailing out of the harbor was a relief, because that means and end to enormous money usage for now. (Bahamas is not the cheapest place to stock up for a voyage) We had great winds and currents against us and discovered a large water leakage in one of the water tanks. Anchored up, fixed the hole (hopefully) and started to work on resting and relaxing before hopefully heading out tomorrow

Thursday - beyond any lists

2017-05-19T03:46:00.000+01:00

-Top up of the propane bottle
-Seeing my regular Nassau dentist (once more)
-Tidying up the boat, making space for the crew
-Welcoming Emma!

Wednesday - almost through the list

2017-05-18T02:12:00.000+01:00

Another meal at Poop deck (yes, that's what the bar in the Marina is called) to celebrate a day without fatal failures

Today
-I found Kiwi's compass from a cupboard and installed it outside, to show that I am taking this crossing seriously. Serious sailboats heading to the Bermuda triangle have compasses. Ours shows mostly the magnetic field of the hull it self and not so much the Earth.
- the navigation computer has an own electric contact now ( yes dad, there is a fuse)
-the engine room got a wash and fresh oil sausages
-started to make a list (for å later blogpost) of 'almost incidents ' which almost cancelled the whole crossing.
-I realized, cheesy as it sounds, how greatly I am supported by my family and friends, who keep sending encouraging messages and offering their help where they can

Tuesday already

2017-05-17T02:23:00.000+01:00

-Through away 300 kg of carbage and unnecessary scrap, fun and rewarding and necessary thinking how heavy loaded with water and supplies Kiwi will leave Nassau
-removed the broken anchor from its chain using sophisticated method of hand saw combined with patience
-That was it, was a little tired and useless today: p

....and Monday

2017-05-16T02:31:00.000+01:00

-Engine oil exchange, new oil filter
-Fuel filters
-Impeller check

-Cleaning fresh water filter

Haven't seen much daylight today. It was a rainy day anyway with several thunder cells passing over Nassau. Let it rain now, and please good weather only for the crossing : p

Nassau - Preparations for Atlantic crossing

2017-05-14T23:30:00.001+01:00

Saturday and Sunday:
-Cleaned watertanks
-Washed and desalinated all mattresses
-Laundry
-Bought more seasickness pills and pain killers
-Tested Iridium connections with Philipp

Exuma cays

2017-05-11T20:41:00.001+01:00

South of Nassau lays a chain of small islands, Exumas, some kind of a cruising paradise, especially well suited for relaxing before any Atlantic crossing and snorkeling, snorkeling and more snorkeling.

Nassau

2017-04-29T15:55:00.000+01:00

Kiwi will cross the Atlantic back to Europe starting around 20th of May. Sanja is fortunate to have Eva from Netherlands as first mate (mate of honor). Emma and Angela, both Irish and competent sailors, will accompany us.

Few days ago Kiwi reached Nassau to see Mona, Karen and Ireen fly back to Europe and reality. We had an adventurous trip including several friendly encounters with sharks and hunders of different reef fish, crustaceans, slimy worms, plankton and other sea stuff that made these biologists very excited. In between easygoing anchoring in turkish green waters, we also had loooongg passages with seasickness, a night of sailing against a thunder storm and challenging anchor operations resulting in one of Kiwi's 25 kg Bruce anchors snapping in two!

Recovering from all this, and three weeks of constant cheerful chit-chating and laughter onbord, Sanja spends some days in Nassau. Current in the harbor basin is strong and there is very little protection from the easterlies, but neighboring boats are very friendly and issues like dragging anchors, dinners and drinks are addressed together.

Pictures will follow!

Four chicks sailing the Bahamas

2017-04-15T22:33:00.001+01:00

After Philipp travelled home from Caicos, Kiwi headed northwest to Bahamas with Mona, Karen, Ireen and Sanja onboard.

Clearing in at Mayaguana, our first port in Bahamas. The local police wasnt really impressed by Kiwi making it all the way to Bahamas from Norway, but was utterly astonished by two ladies walking the distance of four km (!) from our anchorage to the town where the customs office was located. We quickly become something like celebrities on the island. We were naturally escorted back to the boat in a police car.

Reminents of an oil spill on East Plane Cay, an uninhabited outer island of the Bahamas. There is no island that remote that plastic and other dirt wouldnt cover its shores.

Sailing with three biologists naturally turns some of the focus of the trip on observing marine life. We all share great interest to snorkeling, but are equipped with slightly different levels of courage when it comes to approaching certain sharp thoothed top predators of the reefs (not in the picture)

This mahi-mahi turned in to dinner and lunch for four days. Mona is a competent slaughterer

Ireen does like the humpback whale

Karen and amazing colors

Caicos bank

2017-03-30T05:24:00.000+01:00

Caicos islands have a huge but shallow sandbank on their south side (turkish color). The water is only 3 meter deep, bottom the brightest white fine sand dotted with coral heads (uncharted patches of coral reaching almost to the surface). The waters are full of life, dolphins, reef fish of thousand kinds, sharks and rays. And there is no swell! A very bizarre landscape to go sailing and snorkeling with a keel boat...

On the surface there is nothing else to photograph except ship wracks. The depth of the water can be read by the color of the surface (when sun in your back)

Caicos has the richest birdlife we have seen since Scotland, pelicans, flamencos, turns and something like hybrids of a seagull and parrot

Kiwi on her 40 nm passage over the sand bank. Caicos bank is a good reminder of the fact that it isnt really necessary to have all those hundreds of meters of water under your keel. Half a meter is enough. When there is no waves, that is, and none of those sandbanks decided to go drifting and if you have a qualified man in the pulpit interpreting the ocean color...

Kiwi for sale

2017-03-26T19:56:00.001+01:00

Hi all, this is Phil writing from Sanja's account.

We are working on putting Kiwi on the market and have put these two adds out so far:

http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/f152/40ft-langedrag-steel-sloop-blue-water-cruiser-1989-bahamas-and-east-coast-us-45k-181774.html

https://www.finn.no/boat/forsale/ad.html?finnkode=92884585

Any idea where else we can advertise the boat? Our idea is to try to sell it ourselves, and if we can't find a buyer until June, we will leave it with a broker in Chesapeake Bay or somewhere around there.

Please forward the ads to potentially interested people. Thanks!

Cheers,
Phil

Puerto Rico reached - Kiwi a´un flotando

2017-03-05T03:38:00.002+00:00

Johan and Åse drove us around in their rental car in Sant Martin, an island both French and Dutch. They took their flight bag from the Dutch airport of the island to reach a travel back to Norway from Guadeloupe, while Philipp and me headed towards some Spanish speaking islands further west. It's really a mess here with languages, counties and currencies.

Grocery stores on small islands or close to not-so-centrally located anchorages have often interesting selections of pricey items. The store in Isla de Culebra would not have many vegetables or bread, but what they did have was butter made in Finland.

Green turtles are common to see, but really hard to photograph.

Isla de Culebra in Spanish Virgin Islands is among our favorites. It's an old military island with a lot of nature, social sailors, no superyachts nor posh marinas. We found lonely turtle beaches, nice hiking and reasonably healthy coral reefs. The depressing news from our extensive snorkeling surveys at the Antilles so far is that most of the coral reefs are as good as dead. The reasons are many (dirty water because of farming and cutting down the forests, overfishing, pollution ...) but probably all caused by humans.

A friendly dog who took us for a walk on Isla de Culebra

Old town of San Juan, the capital of Puerto Rico, colors colors, everywhere colors! Philipp and Kiwi will hang out in San Juan for two of weeks while Sanja takes a well deserved break from the boat life.

Guadeloupe and Antigua

2017-02-23T16:08:00.003+00:00

Guadeloupe offered some excellent rock hopping/canyoning/river walking. As we rely on the pilot book by Donald Street Jr from the 70s for ideas of where to go (and for sailing conditions), it happens that we find pearls like this river behind Deshaies, with nobody else.

P smears a winch, there is always some maintenance to keep him busy.

Pancake shaped and well ventilated - Antigua in the horizon

Johan and Åse came to skipper the ship from Guadeloupe to St Marting, a well welcomed company of sane people : )

In Antigua we were among the poor ones. Never seen this many superyachs and shiny oversized sailing boats with payed crews

Ants cutting leaves - another exotic bug