S/Y Kerpa

After Los Roques we set sails towards Bonaire, we did not enjoy it too much, maybe we was spoiled after two weeks in Los Roques. We had some fouling on the bottom, so we stayed a few days extra to scrub the bottom. We are not very comfortable to work under the surface with our Hookah style set, but after a few days the bottom was clean again.

Next stop was Spanish water in Curacao, a place more geared towards cruisers than Bonaire and we enjoyed the stay much better.

Curacao

Sailor services provide a lot of information and services, I can strongly recommend contacting them the first thing when arriving. By chance they came by and told us that we could not clear in during Sunday we had to wait until Monday, that was very important info for us as we were in process booking a rental car to go into Willemstad on Sunday, instead we could rent a car from them on Monday, which was much closer and more convenient.

They also arrange several social gatherings, such as Barbeque evenings, joint dinners at various restaurants. We appreciated that very much.

Sailors Services, Barbeque

One of the Spanish waters anchorages, this one just outside Sailors Services

Joints dinner

Hamburger evening

Besides social events we did a few boat works, the most important one was to fix the motor to our water maker.

We had a mishap on our way to Los Roques, on our passage I felt the smell of smoke, when opening the engine hatch smoke and a terrible smell came up. I had by mistake activated our anchor wash pump. Unfortunately, the hose was not properly attached to the pump so the hose got lose and salt water was sprayed over the electric motor, a short was developed and the motor started. Resulting in smoke and a ruined motor.

I contacted Dessalator, they were very helpful, explaining that a new motor was 1450 euro plus vat and freight. A few phone calls later they found a second-hand motor with only 120 hours. They dismantled it and changed bearings and sold it for 200 euro! That is what I call excellent service. We got it delivered to Willemstad. And it was an easy fix to replace it with the old one.

We have a lot of spare parts, the one below is a full replacement of the head sail furling system with gears and electric motor. I put the parts in rags sprayed some wd40 on the rag and then vacuum-packed the different parts to avoid corrosion.

Kerstin made a rainwater collector in case of another problem! with the water maker and to take advantage of rain.

Work in progress, later when raining we got to test it and it works great.

Kerstin also made a cockpit sea berth, it will come in handy on our Pacific passage, especially as I always sleep in the cockpit.

Colombia

St Marta

 From Curacao to St Marta we had an uneventful trip, we had heard about difficult winds and shoppy sea, but we had a very gentle trip.

Arriving St Marta should preferable be done during office hours. One has to use an agent for clearing, and during office hours the marina arrange clearing for a discount and even free of charge if you stay one month or longer, we paid 100 USD.

The marina is good and situated in town, so everything is easily accessible by foot.

If you need any work done, I can recommend to contact Oscar Ivan, he works on a boat in the marina and he arranged a few jobs for me, one was a stainless steel part that needed to be welded. Fast service and good price, he also cleaned the bottom on our hull.

You find him on WhatsApp +57 301 2399612.

One drawback with St Marta is that the boat get very dirty a lot of fall down from the nearby commercial harbour.

The marina is close to town and a beach, which looks very popular among locals when they are free.

We enjoyed the restaurant and bar life which was very loud.

The lost city

We signed up for a four-day trip to “The Lost City”, or Teyana as is called by the locals.

Teyana is located in the Sierra Nevada Mountain. It is believed to be from 800 AD i.e. 650 years older than Machu Picchu. It was discovered by tressure looters as late as 1972,

Soon after, gold figures and ceramic urns began to appear on the local black market. This alerted archaeologists, and a team of archaeologists reached the site in 1976. The site was reconstructed between 1976 and 1982.

The city itself lies ca 1200 above sea level, the hike is 55 km there and back, in total we climbed 3970 meters up and of course the same amount downhill.

It was a stunning beautiful trip, many times we felt like Indiana Jones, when walking in the rainforest.

We had to pass several smaller rivers

But rivers was not only for crossing it was very refreshing to take a dip after long day of hard walk in the heat.

Ackommodation was very basic

Part of the trail did really give a feeling of stepping in the footstep of Indiana Jones.

To see cutting leaf ants did not make the adventure less

To reach “The Lost City” itself you need to climb ca 1300 steps.

A happy smile at our faces, a bit grim halfway up, but it was a very rewarding trek all in all.

The city covers a very large area and only a fraction has been excavated, it is believed that up to 20000 people could have lived there. The Tairona people still “run” the city and its closed on for them sacred periods.

This how the houses should have looked like at that time

We had the fortune to meet their leader up there

Kerstin got a blessing from the leader. He is a famous person and has his portrait on one of the colombian bills.

The way back offered again fantastic views

But the last hours it was torrential rain for hours and the trail become extremely slippery and it was no way to stay dry. We became, wet, cold and muddy, my sandals become totally muddy and broke half way into the rainy walk.

But finally, we got to the end of the trail, we were all rather tiered and happy.

Medellin

It is rather expensive to move around with your boat in Colombia for each marina you need to clear in and out by using an agent, first we had planed to sail to Cartagena, but due to the cost, we found it more cost efficient to fly, so we took a flight St Marta-Medellin-Bogota-St Marta, the cost for the ticket for both of us was below 300 USD.

So first we flew to Medellin and from the airport we took land transport to Guatape which took about 2,5-3 hours as we had to use three different transport ways, it was bit of and adventure itself. The last part was by jeep type vehicle

Guatape itself is a colourful tourist place, we had booked Airbnb for two nights, but one should have been enough, and an over the day trip would be very feasible.

And the main attraction is this rock , called El Penol in Spanish

But the village itself is not too bad, it’s a very colourful place, with plenty of cafes, bars and restaurants.

The lake is a hydroelectrical dam.

The colourful village.

The rock has 708 steps, and the top are at 2150 m asl. So, it is hard work to climb as you must negotiate quite some climb before reaching the steps.

At the top there are a great view.

Medeline

Medline is a vibrant city with lively night life, which is almost impossible not to notice.

These party busses were all over and I guess free of charge they run around playing load music and we guess anyone could board and party.

This how much we party, a happy hour Frozen Margarita

Comuna 13

One of the main attractions in Medellin is Comuna 13. It was claimed to be the most dangerous area in the 1990 th. But after the peace with the Farc guerrilla it has become safe and a tourist attraction. It lives about 160 000 people there.

Entering the Comuna 13

It is again a very lively and colourful place.

And a lot of noice

But I’m afraid also misery, from above it looks rather worn down

Bogota

Last stop on our short trip was Bogota

It was a nice place to visit, at lot of street art.

They had several guided city tours that we took, one was taste Bogota, and we visited a coffee house where baristas were trained, there we tasted several different coffees, the coffee in Columbia is very good.

And they made coffee art,

Tried Obleas at a local fast food stal

This particular place was visited several times by Mick Jagger, I guess he was mighty proud for that, at least I would have been.

Not often you see a man with only one leg dans tango.

We also had time to visit the gold museum, they had so many amazing gold objects, I’m afraid that the Spanish got more than a handfull of treasures from their looting in South America

When not strolling the streets, we tried the local cuisine.

Back to St Marta, we waited for a weather window to take us to Porvenir, San Blas a bit over 300Nm away. This time we did not worry to much about the wind, our worries was for thunderstorms, which are very frequent in this part of the world.  We decided to consult Chris Parker and ask for advice. We waited a few days as it was a lot of activity in the air. When we finally went it was more or less no wind, fortunately not much thunder either, but we could more or less constantly during nighttime se lightening in the distance.

Towards San Blas

We had an amazing sunset, but also some heavy rain on our trip

This was 25 May definitely in the rainy season which end around december, this is also a period with rain, thunder and not very much wind. The humidity is very high and the temperature as well. We found the heat taking away part of the fun to be in San Blas. We had rain and thunder more or less every day, not full days just an hour or two.

We arrived at the small island Porvenir, with a small airport and an office to clear in. Cruising permit for San Blas is bought from the local Cuna Indians.

Porvenir island above

The first impression was good

It felt very exotic, and when we were visited by a local in his dugout canoe selling fish and langusters that feeling was reinforced

when the local fruit supplier come by

Kerstin made a divine languster pasta that we enjoyed that evening.

But we also frequently saw a lot of litter on the beaches not nice at all

Down below follow a few very nice anchorages we visited, as you can se there are some shallow anchorages, one need to be very careful and the Panama Cruising Guide by Eric Bauhaus is necessary to have.

We had some time limits so we could only stay for two weeks, we have a few things pulling us to Sweden, both positive and one very sad. My oldest brother passed away after being sick in cancer. On the positive side our youngest daughter is getting married. But also seeing family, friends and grandchildren is of course very delightful.

If you like the blog please hit the like button, also appreciate comments or questions if you are heading the same path as we have covered.

Turtle Cay Marina

We had booked space in Turtle Cay Marina, which is not fare away from Porvenir about 35 Nm.

TCM is a very small marina in the middle of the jungle. A bit runed down but pleasant, owner and employees are very helpful and friendly. Cost for us is Only 300 USD/month, that include 30% discount as we are member in the Panama Posse.

 

We spent a few days to Prepare Kerpa for being left “alone” for extended time.

Kerstin cleaned her very thoroughly inside and as a final measure wiped down all surfaces with vinegar to prevent mould. We have a dehumidifier we set on 65% humidity and connected it to one of our inverters. We do not want to have shore power connected as this part of the world has a lot of thunderstorms and I have heard of more than one boat catching fire when being connected to shore power during lightening. We rely on our inverter and solar power. I sat the solar power regulator to 27,9 V not to push the LiFePO4 cells to hard if sun would be very strong, has probably very little impact on the durability, but as a precaution.

We also agree with one of the local hands working for the marina to look after Kerpa, to see that everything works Ok and keep her clean. It a lot of birds in the area and they like to put their remains on the boats, and also building nests. I get regular reports and photos on Kerpa so sure she will be clean and in a good shape when we get back.

We have moored her with double lines and heavy duty shook absorber if there should be heavy wind our surge.

Next blog about our time in Sweden with friends and family.

This blog will be a bit different, more detailed about navigation, distances, anchorages etc. that’s due to that very few people go to Los Roques, they do not think it is safe, hopefully I can encourage some more cruisers to go there as it is a true paradise, that maybe contributed by that very few are there. Anyhow I must say we felt super safe all the time, we never locked the boat or the dinghy for the whole time we spent in Los Roques. We have heard cruisers close to Los Roques get panicking when they see a fishing boat with AIS! heading towards them, they have changed course and steamed away as fast they could. We also saw a fishing boat on AIS heading towards us, we kept course and speed, a bit later they passed ca 200 m astern of us no drama. I do not think pirates or general crocks do announce their presence by AIS.

If you think it’s too boring reading all the text, just scroll down and see some amazing views.

2006 we took a 4 week long winter holiday with the family and some friends. For two weeks we were on a blue water boat, cruising part of the Venezuelan coast including Los Roques. The captain wanted to fill up on his cruising kitty and thus took paying crew. During the trip we visited many amazing places, and the most fantastic was without doubt Los Roques. Since then much has happened in Venezuela, it is considered to be a very dangerous country to visit and has long been a no-go area. I must admit we did not felt safe on several places we visited during 2006.

Sailing Los Roques 2006

Anyhow Kerstin and I had a desire to visit Los Roques again and we have some friend who had visited Los Roques a few years ago, so it cannot be too dangerous we thought.

As we now were on the Caribbean again and Los Roques was in our path, we decided to see how the security situation was, by looking into YouTube to see other who have visited Los Roques and some other sources, we found it to be safe enough for us.

One of the sources was Alejandro (You reach him on WhatsApp +58 412 212 6051) who work as an agent and facilitate check in and clarence. We contacted him, he confirmed that Los Roques is very safe, he sounded very reliable, and also several other cruisers had used and praised him, so we had no reason not to believed in him, so he became our agent.

He is not cheap, but take care of all matters, we are not very demanding customers, so we did not use many of his services, except for clearing in and out and have our passports collected when we were on the fare west side of Los Roques, thus we did not need to go back to Grand Roques where the place for customs and immigration is.

The allow maximum stay is two weeks, and total cost for the stay including park and agent fee was a bit north of 1500 USD, rather expensive even though we got discount for being senior citizen, sometimes it’s a benefit to be senior citizen, but not too often. We transferred money to Alejandro before we set sail for Los Roques. So, when we got there the process was very swift. We must say the visit made it worth every penny.

Where is Los Roques?

Los Roques is a bit over 60 Nm north of main land Venezuela and ca 90 N east of Bonaire, so relatively isolated.

Los Roques is a rather small area which also is a national park.

From East to west ca 25 Nm, and from South to North ca 13 Nm, but a large part of the southern part is not navigable for any type of cursing boat, only minor shallow draft type boats, as coral reefs all over the place.

On our way towards Gran Roques

We left Portsmouth, Dominica an early morning to sail the ca 380 Nm to Gran Roques, it took us ca 58 h and most of the time under sail (28 Nm under engine)

On the picture above you can se a reed arrow, that the anchoring area at Grand Roques, watch the clip and see us approaching Los Roques again after longing back for many years.

Gran Roques anchorage, very few and only local boats

This is a photo from 2006, unfortunately we had very murky weather, so difficult to see, but the anchorage was almost full, and we had to search a long time to find a place to anchor that time.

You land your dinghy at the beach and just stroll around, further down….

In under the grass roof, we meet Alejandro who had arranged our arrival, it took maybe 10 minutes for him to get our passports stamped and the clearing process was done. On Navionics he showed us nice anchorages, and gave some advice concerning navigation, restaurants, and eventual contacts with local fishermen. He also sent routs that we could follow from anchorage to anchorage, but still eyeball navigation is necessary, one cannot follow them blindly.

One of the first things one notice when in Los Roques and especially on Gran Roques is the large number of Pelicans, very fascinating.

Pelicans now and below from 2006

Could almost be the same boat!

Navigation in Los Roques

Gran Roques seen in Northwest.

As you can see there are a lot of shallow areas, luckily between them it is often good depth with margin, not uncommon with +/-15 meter. In calm water you easily see the bottom at 10 meters depth.

When we first planed to departure we saw on Predict wind that it should be very windy in Los Roques, it is very protected to waves, but not to fun to be there when wind is 25 kn gusting 30+ Kn. So we decide to postpone our departure, which we are very happy we did. We did had wind sometimes 20+ kn and most of the time 10-15 kn, but some day it was calm, and then it become a very hot place. So before you go lock carefully at the weather forecast. You also need to have relatively clear sky to be able to do eye-ball navigation. Alejandro recommended only to navigate between 10:00 and 14:00 hours. We found this not to be totally accurate we thought after 11 was better and no problem to navigate until 16:00 or even 17:00 hours as long as sun is behind you.

The charts are not very accurate, we used several sources, but Navionics with satellite overlay works very well.

Navionics with no overlay, rather useless, but with overlay

Slowly sailing in a narrow channel below you see how it looks on Navionics, on the video clip you can see how close we are to the reef, later when we gained more confidence navigating the area, we were sometimes much closer.

But Google satellite map if you are online (we have Starlink) is also a very good complement.

The two photos and the video clip is more or less from the same spot.

Sebastopol our two first anchorages

We had a very gentle sail to Sebastopol ca 12 Nm south of Gran Roques, it was little nervous in the beginning when we entered the very narrow straits between the reefs, but after a while we realised that with eye-ball navigation, google satellite map and Navionics with overlay we could safely navigate around not much drama as long as the sun was shining. It is a relief that usually it is very deep between the shallow parts, but not always!

The two red arrows are the two places we anchored at I think both of them are in the area of Sebastopol, it’s ca 4 Nm between them.

Kerpa at the south anchorage above see how well the reef protect us from the swell but the wind kept us relatively comfortable, but with wind 25 kn+ and gusts 30 kn+ would not have been to fun to explore or snorkling as current sometimes got rather strong, we guess mainly due to wind.

Kerpa at anchor Sebastopol at the north arrow.

Looking south

A nice drone clip showing the beauty.

2006 we were fascinated by this wreck, but now 18 years later no trace of the wreck.

At Sebastopol we had our first snorkelling trip, and it did not make us disappointed.

Snorkelling in Los Roques

When we were in Los Roques 2006, we were shocked by all the dead corals we saw, very little colour at all, so now we were very pleased to the wast improvement.

Click on the video and seethe crystal clear water with abundance of fish

Bocca del Medio

Distances are short in Los Roques, next anchorage was just 4 Nm north.

Bocca del Medio anchorage

Again Kerpa securely anchored inside the reef while the trade wind keeping us relatively “cool”.

Protected anchorage inside the reef

Soyoqui

Next anchorage was of a little bit different anchorage, we had a private island with a small private beach for our self. As you might have noticed you do not see any other boats around, and no difference at this place.

Again, only short sail this time 5 Nm to Soyoqui, a bit trickier to reach than the previous places

Soyoqui

Clip on us having a smal but beautiful island and beach for out self

Saki Saki

Our confidence navigating around the shallow areas increased and after a look at the chart, we decided to go to Saki Saki also called Cayo Los Viejos, only 3 Nm this time, but this time it was not always very deep between the very shallow areas, and we was well rewarded a fantastic anchorage.

Saki Saki Aproach

Kerpa approaching the narrow and shallow entrance to the anchorage at Saki Saki

From Saki Saki we took a dinghy trip to Francisqui and on the way back it looked as if Kerpa was anchored a long way from the shore

Francisqui

Fracisqui is very close to Gran Roques and one of the most popular anchorages for mainland Venezuelan visitors. They come with rather large motor yachts, Diesel is very cheep in Venezuela it is 0,004 $/liter!!!! i.e nothing so to take a large motor cruiser the +60 Nm to Los Roques is extremely cheap. It was now Easter Holiday so extra many boats did probably come.

Gran Roques at the blue arrow, and Francisqui at the yellow, and Kerpa at red arrow.

Us in the dinghy, you can see the motor yachts in the background.

A lot of Venezuelan tourists are coming by airplane there is a small airport at Gran Roques.

A very typical sight in the western part of Los Roques, Several tourists rent a day tripper boat and these shadows are then set up at the beach. Los Roques seams to be a paradise for kite surfers, on areas closer to Gran Roques one se many of them on day trips out to some remote island.

We relaxed with a beer looking at the people, we had not seen many people the last days, so it was nice to sit down relax and have a cold one.

Crasqui

9 Nm west of Saki Saki, we have Crasqui, a place we came to love last time we were here, we celebrated New Years eve 2005/2006 in Crasqui.

we had a magic beautiful start of the very calm day leaving Saki Saki.

On the short way to Crasqui we decided to try to catch a fish and we were lucky.

Interestingly, we caught a Wahoo last time as well, they are very tasty.

Crasqui 2006, you see only a few sailboats, but it was plenty full at that time, the anchorage is very large.

About the same view as before but from our drone, now only one foreign sailboat, Kerpa, we only saw two foreign sailboats during our two weeks stay and that was on large distance, only by AIS we could determine their nationality.

In the distance we can again se Gran Roques. In a rather small area you can find many amazing anchorages

Now a few motorboats at anchor and remember it is Easter holiday.

We walking the beach 2024

And walking the beach 2006.

Noronqui

Noronqui at the white arrow, only a very short (4Nm)  distance from Carsqui.

Another boat at the anchorage and some day-tripper, but they did not stayed long

Noronqui beach clip with a few day tourists

Sarqui

Another 5 Nm and we are at anchor at Sarqui.

Again, we had a whole beach for our self.

We took a walk and enjoyed the surrounding. and the pelicans

Checking our footwear after the trip

Glad I did not go barefoot

In the morning, we were visited by some fishermen

They offered us some langoustes.

As they only spoke Spanish and we not, it was difficult to understand what they wanted in return, I started first with money, but that was not it, no beer either, but after a while we understood, they wanted a few soft drinks and some t-shirts, which we happily gave them, we also paid them as we assume they live a rather harsh life.

Carnero

Only 3 Nm this time took us to Carnero another amazing anchorage.

Now it was time to enjoy the Langoustes.

Guess what we had New Years eve 2005/2006?

It tasted divine both times.

And again we had great snorkelling look at the clip and see

Over at the read arrow, we have heard that a fisherman had a very small restaurant, he was also the one to bring our passports back to Gran Roques for the exit stamp.

La Casa De Pain, was the name of the restaurant.

The open-air kitchen.

Look at the clip showing the fishing home with a very small restaurant, only two tables.

We were the only guests

The fish was fantastic, one of the best ever, and then we are spoiled with extremely high-quality fish in Portugal, where we live when not sailing. They had not much to offer when it comes to drink, just lukewarm beer, we assumed that would be the case so we had brought our own chilled white vine. If you go there strongly recommend a visit but do not forget to bring your own vine.

La Casa De Pain from above and flying towards Kerpa anchorage.

Dos Mosquitos

Dos Mosquitos anchorage, as you can see, we are now almost as fare west one can come, there are a few anchorage just a bit west, but as the wind and wave picked up they would have been very uncomfortable, it was a bit scary to navigate as we had to pass some shallow patches with potential depth around 2 meters, and as wind picked up to 20+ kn one has to be careful, but if I remember right we were never below 4 m of depth. This time we made a ”long” trip 8 Nm.

Dos Mosquitos Anchorage

They had a turtle sanctuary, they collected/protected eggs and made sure they were hatched, so no seagulls or other predators could take the eggs or newly hatched turtles. They showed turtles at different ages, Kerstin hesitate a little bit to hold the turtle, but the guide insisted, we were not sure if the turtles liked to be hold,

It was a very beautiful anchorage with a few mainland tourists, they were as surprised we had sailed from Sweden as they were from, that we were staying 14 days at Los Roques, obviously they also think the park fee is very expensive.

Avec de Vorleant or Bird Island.

Bird Island is also a part of the national park even though it is ca 30m Nm west of the main coral reef.

It was a bit windy and some shallow patches to pass.

It is no understatement that Kerstins hates the times I ask her to stand at the bow and look out for shallow patches, especially under strong wind and waves as seen in the Clip

Kerstin recovering from near hart attack when looking out! now the puls is on its way down

We took a dinghy trip into the mangrove admiring the surroundings and birds

Kerpas Last anchorage in Los Roques.

One is only allowed to stay one night at the bird island, do not know why, but maybe for not disturbing the birds, very few people stop at Bird Island, we had already overstayed at Los Roques, we stayed 17 days in total so we did not want to push it more so we made this our last stop, there is another group of Islands ca 10 Nm further west Aves De Sotavento, It’s the place were the Coast guard have a very small base. We thought it best to stay away.

We are very happy we did this trip and hope this blog encourage other cruisers to vist, they inhabitant living in Los Roques are poor and are dependant on turists, so even if one think the park fee is expensive, we can at least see that the corals now looks much healthier now than 18 years ago, so obviously the park rangers taking care of the area and make a difference.

If you decide to visit , you can contact us and I can send the tracks from Los Roques, I think they are better than the routs that Alejandro gives you.

Kerpas last anchorage before we head off for the ca 60 Nm to Bonair, but that is another blog, thank you for reading this fare.

Hope you liked it. I case hit the like button..

From Grenada we sailed north to Ronde Island it was a quite rolly anchorage, so we put out our Floppy Stopper, and then the stay became rather pleasant. It was our wedding day, 34 year of marriage not too bad.

Cava and caviar together with good friends at a nice anchorage can’t be much better. The day after, the trip continued to Tyrrell bay, Carriacou, where  we meet Camilla and Robin from Alba

There is a hurricane hole there in a mangrove “swamp”, we took the dinghies there, but unfortunately my photos from there seems to have vanished, or did I forgot to take photos? Often one take to many photos but some days/weeks I forgot to take photos!

Anyhow on Union Island we took some photos, first we anchored in Clifton bay, did not look that nice from distance but it had some charm.

Next day we proceeded to Chatham Bay, and had Langouster on the beach, but I think it was overpriced.

But the most important thing, the ladies aboard appreciated it much more.

Tobago Cays

Tobago Cays on the other hand was well appreciated by all aboard

We stayed two days and really enjoyed the time especially the nice snorkeling

But not too bad above the water either

After Tobago Cays we continued to Bequia, but again I forgot to take photos, maybe I start to get dementia, hope not, probably just a bit old.

Rodney Bay

Rodney Bay is also a classic stop, not only a huge anchorage but very cheap diesel as well, so we topped up our diesel tank, and all jerry cans with gasoline.

We took a half day tour with one of the Taxis there, the driver took us to a few places, the most memorable was the mud bath and a very nice local restaurant in Soufriere. Made a short YouTube video, hope you like to have a look.

On the way from Bequie up to St Lucia I wanted to stop at Chateaubelair bay, St Vincent, but I got some protest from my crew as they felt a bit unsure about the safety. A day after, we heard about a catamaran Simplicity which we are sure we have seen several times. They were bordered in Grenada and later murdered aboard their catamaran, which was found just outside Chateaubelair bay. A very sad and scary story fortunately the criminals were found very quickly in St Vincent. In general I think safety is not a big issue when out cruising, this time it was very bad luck, which could happen anywhere.

St Anne Martinique

our crew mustered off in St Anne, and we had dinner at the very special hole in the wall restaurant with probably no name on Rue Captaine Romain, just a few steps from La Dunette. They only serve two dishes’ Fish or shrimp croquettes, which taste great, to that we had white vine and you get a very small (one glass) bottle of vine. We strongly recommend you to visit the place, it got charm, cruisers, local people, good food and very reasonable prices, they open at 17:30 be prompt as it fills up very fast, but turnover is rather high so one do not need to wait to long to get a place.

Hear we get some tip from a local lady.

In St Anne we spend a few weeks due to waiting for a new flow meter to our water maker. During that time, we meet some old friends and made new friends.

Here we have a dingy meet with OCC cruisers.

Practise to fly the drone overt the huge anchorage

And finally bush craft fixing the water make.

Old flow meter, the new had a different thread for the tap to test the water, so piece of fuel hose, a piece of water hose and self amalgamating tape fixed it.

We stayed too long in St Anne, but had a nice time, always a pleasure to be in St Anne.

Our chain was very fouled.

Our new Anchor-wash pump got to work.

We have had problem with our Yamaha outboard, it was the carburettor who needed cleaning, I took it of and cleaned in maybe a half a dozen times, but still it did not run well at all. In Forte de France they have a Yamaha workshop with spare parts I thought we needed new gaskets and membranes for the carburettor. So we anchored in Anse de Mittan just opposite in the bay, rented a car and made a trip to the Yamaha place. They had what we were looking for.

And a very large outboard engine 450 hk!!!

Well I took of the carburettor, cleaned it again, put in new gaskets and pump membrane, but it did not helped, so off again, very very thorough cleaning AGAIN!!, now it works but still a bit grumpy on idel throttle. Before we transit the Panama canal I will make sure we have a spare carburettor, and a few other spares for the Yamaha, one is extremely dependant of the dinghy especially at remote places it’s a disaster if it does not work.

Next Stop Portsmouth, Dominica, where we attended the PAYS barbeque evening. Rather nice, talking to sailor,s having food, drinks, and finally dancing. We were one of the last to leave, very pleasant, but again very few photos.

Dingy dock Portsmouth

I can assure you that we took very many more photos on our next destination, Los Roques, Venezuela, which will be in our next blog.

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Lagos and Portimão

Before heading for the Canary Islands, we had a few things to fix on Kerpa, and as we live in Lagos Portugal when not sailing, we had a stop in Lagos. There we had the rubber bushings in the Vetus flexi coupling replaced.

And when we were at it we also replaced the damping plate

It was a small thing for the mechanic to take off the gear box, and he found that the springs on the damping plate was more or less warn-out.

The cooler was also rather corroded, so we replaced it with a proper bronze cooler

The mechanic also supplied us with a set of gaskets, including head gasket. As well as a spare starter motor. Now I think we have most things in order with our old VP TMD 22 from 1999, with just short of 5000 engine hours. Before last season we had the injectors and high-pressure pump serviced at Bosh, as well as replaced the timing belt and the freshwater circulation pump.

But it was not only work, I had my 66 birthday which we celebrated with friends, and Kerstin made me a small but traditional birthday cake.

We needed one more thing and that was a new cockpit enclosure, the current is 8 years now and started to deteriorate, and it was severely stained of mould, not nice at all.

We headed for Portimão to have that done just 7 Nm east of Lagos, we had been recommended a canvas man there by several other local sailors.

This is the old cover, looks really nasty, this is a part of the top, so this time we went with an alternative fabric, with vinyl on the inside, which should be much easier to keep clean.

Working on the new cover.

Kerstin happily enjoying a glas o wine under the new cockpit enclosure

Which she did last time as well (photo October 2015)

To be honest we are not super happy with the new enclosure. The craftmanship on the old one we had done in Turkey was better. A second matter that annoyed us was  delaye in the delivery for more than two weeks. In Turkey they had it done in a few days, and now they had the old one as model and should at least have it done in similar time. Due to that we missed a good weather window to sail over to the Canaries and also the opportunity to cross over with some new friends while we were in Lagos/Portimão, the crew on Corisco and Cool. We had some nice time with them, had planed to sail over with them, but at least we meet them later in Las Palmas.

Canary Islands

Beautiful evenings on our way to the Canaries

And occasionally good sailing

Arriving at night

We anchored at Papagayo, Lanzarote

At Isla de Lobos we got the opportunity to try our new Davis rocker stopper

The Davis rocker stopper, we have two strings of 5 that we deploy from our ballooner booms.

We become very wide with both the pools out so we have a light on the end of each pool to prevent someone from hitting them if they manoeuvres the anchorage at night.

They stack and stow rather easily and do not require that much space.

We can recommend them.

Las Palmas

In Las Palmas we had a very unpleasant discovery, our water had been contaminated, we had severe bacteria growth. We have always had very good water and no need to buy bottled water for drinking, but suddenly the water started to taste very metallic and earthy. We opened the only easily raceable hatch to the water tank, and this is what we found.

A grey and slimy coating of the whole tank, by the way the tank is in the keel pocket and can carry 1000 l of water.

What to do? We decided to shock treat with chloride. We found a pool store and bought Chlor powder from them. A shock treatment of 100 ppm, to stand overnight, purge al l outlets and then empty the tank, with our submersible emergency 220 v pump.

We rinsed the tank a few times, replaced the charcoal filter as well the Seagull drinking water filter. To make a long story short, now we have good water from the seagull filter, but from the tap it still tastes a bit earthy.

Another job was that one of the sheeves in the car to control the boom position was missing some parts of the edge, I tried to find a new one but did not succeed, so filing it down to a smooth surface and now work smothly.

On the ballooner boom there is a cavity to hold the sheet, and the locking mechanism was broken.

This is how it should look.

Fixed it with some webbing.

A quick fix and it work rather good.

Emergency tiller

We wanted to test the emergency tiller, to see that all things work properly, Last timer we crossed with a rally that Jimmy Cornell arranged the Barbados 50 rally, one of the boat lost their steering, so it is better to try it beforehand.

The rudder quadrant is under the bunk in the after cabin, and going up through the after cabin roof.

Tiller in place.

Kerstin trying the emergency tiller with a smile on her face, doubt she would have that smile if we really had to use it.

Propvisoning

Provisioning is a big and important task when going away for a bit longer, Kerstin have done it a few times now and has become very good at it.

This is just one of the round of shopping, I think they brought 25 of that boxes down to Kerpa.

Christmas and New Year in Stockholm

During Christmas and New Year, we were in Stockholm to meet family.

Christmas eve at our daughter Emelie, all of our kids were there, a real delight to meet them at such a traditional event.

Our granddaughter Ingrid

And our grandson Alexander

Emelie even wanted to have New-Years eve with us, who could believe that when she was a teenager!

We also had the time to visit our family summer cottage where my interest for sailing originate from.

It looks much more attractive during summer but is not too bad during winter either.

Back to Las Palmas

Back in Las Palmas it was time for last preparation.

Beja one of our crew cleaning the fruits and vegetables before we take them aboard, He and his partner Kia was to crew with us over the Atlantic and a few week in the Caribbean.

We left with the rally Viking Explorer together with 25 other boats, a small low-key rally.

The wind was not very strong so it became a lot of motoring, but now and then we could sail, in total ca 60 % of the distance was under sail.

One scary thing on our way to Mindelo was the first night, we had a tug boat who tug a big platform the total length was almost 1Nm long, and no light or AIS on the platform, fortunately I had seen it in the distance just before it got dark. Then in the very dark night I saw the tug both on AIS and its navigation lights was due to pas just in front of us. I called him up on VHF ans asked how long he was and why he did not had any navigation lights on the platform. They only answer I got that stay more than a mile from him and then he turned on a very strong fllod-light towards the towed platform. Very irresponsible way to navigate at night, could easily resulted in an accident.

The hydrogenator gave good energy to our batteries.

Halfway over to Mindelo was celebrated with Cava, and the following evening was very beautiful.

And when approaching Mindelo we were greeted by dolphins

Arriving Mindelo

In Mindelo it was a few social events very pleasant.

More maintenance, our electrical motor for our water maker did not worked, it was the relay that was broken. Then one is very happy to have Beja onboard, he is a MacGyver, and he can fixe the most issues with whatever spares and tools that are aboard. He had to solder a tiny, tiny short wire that was broken, but he fixed it easily.

Happy and exited crew ready to depart.

Over the Atlantic

I have made a short YouTube video about our crossing hope you like it.

But I have some photos as well.

In the beginning some boats are relatively close even as we not started at the same time, we delayed our start to the afternoon as Kerstin had an upset stomach, but she recovered very quickly so we decided to cast off at about 15:00, rough weather was promised so about half the fleet decided to postpone the departure a few days.

But only 24 h later there was none within sight.

To pas time we baked coffee bread not only ordinary bread

Bread with cinnamon and cardamom, does not look much, but it tasted good.

We make bread in an Air fryer, works great.

We got one fish

Mahi Mahi, one of the tastiest one can get.

Celebrating half way—-

——-with Cava

Looking for squalls on the radar, luckily we did not have many and no violent one.

We rather often get the question, “don’t you get bored being at sea that long, the day must be very long?”

The answer is definitely NO, The days pas rather quickly. We start with breakfast, have a talk about something, maybe rest a bit, then some snacks, and soon it is time for lunch, then maybe some snack, tea or coffee again, some talk, and suddenly it is time for dinner, then it is time to have a look at the sunset, and short after that it is dark. The day passes very quickly. The night are rather long when crossing to the Caribbean, close to 12 h, but as we are 4 aboard, each watch is only 2 h during the night, so the watch is not very long, but as a watch is only 2 h, one of us has the two dark watches one in the evening and one in the very early morning. so every 4 days that occurred and the crew found them to be the least attractive.

Then we broke a few tings,

The hydro-generator, I must admit it was a handling issue

Ripped the clew of our down-wind ballooner.

Code sail halyard broke, it fell down in the water in the middle of the night, so quickly “all man on deck” but it was not to difficult to retrieve the Code sail, Kerstin and I have done it alone a few times during worse conditions. But no down-wind sails the last days.

But we were not the worst affected of break downs, One of the participants had to turned back after Autopilot failure, another had the connonction between the quadrant and autopilot broken, he manage to fix it, but it required daily maintenance. Another participants had a severe leak through one of the portholes and bailing in substantial amount of water before it was fixed. But the worst was two injuries due to being caught by the main sheet inside the cockpit, one was just a “minor” thing when he barefoot had his fot on the main sheet track and when the car went over and severely damaged his toes. The real serious accident was one participants who got the mainsheet coming over him and he fell and broke his arm so badly so that the bone pipe stuck out close to the elbow. He was a tough guy, he squeezed in the broken pipe into his arm again. He was one of three but the only one with sufficient sailing experience so he declined to be evacuated from his boat, one of the buddy boat a large motor sailer offered to turn back and evacuate him to his more comfortable boat, but as said he declined and stayed abord. Eventually they reached Barbados after more than a week in that condition, he got surgery and I understand he will be fully recoved.

On top of that an American Amel owner I have had FB contact with came aboard Kerpa in Mindelo, we had a nice chat aboard Kerpa about his around world trip and this was the last stretch for him to complete his circum navigation. He departed one day before us, and he broke both his mast about 5 days out from Mindelo. Starlink is a great tool being out on the ocean, a WhatsApp group was formed handled by the coastguard of Martinique, at first we was the closest boat, they were about 130 nM ahead of us, so we put the course towards them, a bit later the coastguard got contact with a large catamaran who was closer, they transferred ca 200 l of diesel to Aquarius (the name of the Amel boat), they then motored all the way to Martinique. Aquarius is a Youtuber so if you like to have more information about their ordeal https://youtu.be/LmVlhvc3Xg0?si=jwq2wlxZR4Ksofoe

So a few things did happened on the way.

But after ca 13 days and 6 hours we arrived in Granada-

Of course we celebrated.

We enjoyed the time in Grenada

Being on the beach.

Had a guided tour on The Mayan Queen a 96m yacht. Crew Kia had a relative who work as head steward on the yacht, it is like a major hotel with very many features all of outmost quality.

And enjoying the local sorunding.

And of course, a farewell party with all the participants.

Fixing a leaking water-maker, the flow meter glass was broken, so MacGyver went to work again as usual.

From Brest we continued south, and came to the fantastic out post Ile De Sein. A place definitely worth to visit, but you need good weather as the place is very exposed to the fierce Atlantic waves when the wind is strong and there are few places to find shelter close by.

View from the light house

The main anchorage

We got some delicious dinner as well, together with brother Thomas and Brita

Next step was Audiere where Thomas and Brita left, so now we were alone

Audiere is a nice stop, and they had a nice market.

Ile De Glenan magic beauty

On our way to Ile De Houat we had company with Eric on Abayomi another Amel Super Maramu, we meet him first time on Jersey.

We took the oportunity to try some new combination of sails as we could compare the speed with Abayomi, Gues who was the fastest?

We arrive to the west side of the Ile De Houat, to a very crowded but nice anchorage

The evening was very beautiful

The same anchorage the day after seen from land

When the wind turned, we moved to the east side of Ile De Houat

And had a nice stroll on the beach

Just south you have Ile De Hoedic

All these islands are very crowded, we were there in August the main holiday month, but even though we thought it was marvellous islands to visit. So if you plan to go south from northern Europe, you should definitely allocate time to visit these islands, but try to avoid being there in August. except for Ile De Sein, you will easily find shelter as good anchorage around the islands, so you should find shelter whatever direction of the wind.

Next stop was La Rochelle, the place where Amel boats are built. We had looked forward  to see the place and had planned to have a few things done and buy some spare parts, but due to holiday there where very few people there, so it become a bit of an anticlimax. We did not stay long, instead we crossed the Bay of Biscay from there towards Gion. We had a very quick and pleasant crossing. We can’t say that about our next leg from Gion to Ribadeo further west on the Spanish Atlantic coast. Very strong head wind and heavy rain.

Fortunately, the weather calmed down when reaching Ribadeo

Ribadeo is a suitable place to stay on your way west along the Spanish Atlantic coast, not very expensive and they have the nesseasary facilities.

Next stop on aur way west before turning south was A Coruna.

Coruna is always nice to visit, it became a short stop, but we had time to try some of the delicious food that Galicia can offer.

Kerstin and I are enjoying seafood

And to our delight we by change got a very good wine, made from for us unknown grape, Albarino, which we learned was a common grape in Galicien and northern Portugal

We went around several shops and bought several bottles of white wine made of Abarino grapes and most of them were excellent.

We strongly recommend to try if you have not yet tasted white wine made of Abarino grapes, cost is a bit higher they start at 10 euro

In Coruna we decided to team up with a few other boats to pas the worst part of the Atlantic coast when it comes to Orca attacks. It had recently been frequent attacks around Finisterre and the surrounding area.

Here we have a great time in Muxia, it was some kind of Carnevale.

Lunch together with the crew from Wind of Gothenburg, and the Norwegian couple on Paloma (if I remember right, we meet first time in Amsterdam).

They served all kind of food both from the sea and from farms, and people were partying on the street.

And so did we.

Kerstin with a happy face as she just got a mega large Caipirinha!

Muxia from above, it was a nice area to walk as well, so not only partying.

Finisterre

Finisterre is an epic point to pass, not only for sailors, but also for pilgrim walkers as it is the end point of the Camino Finisterre, Ancient Pilgrims though Finisterre was the end of the world Finisterre means the end of the world in Latin

Rounding Cabe De Finisterre. Luckily without any encounter any Orcas. For you who are not familiar with the Orca issue, the coast from Gibraltar up to Galicien and occasionally as far north as Brest, frequent boats has been attacked by Orcas. They attack the rudder often resulting in totally damage rudder and help has been needed for being towed into nearest safe harbor. a handfull of boat has been sunken. Must be a scary experience.

And of course we had to take a walk to the light house, it was many people on pilgrim walks along the trail.

The surrounding area is very beautiful, definitely worth a stop.

We have sailed the Spanish and Portuguese west coast a few times, and we do like to anchor at Anse de Barra, a very protected anchorage with nice walks, a nice beach and a few bars. This time we enjoyed the beach and the bars only

Peniche

Peniche in Portugal is also worth a stop for a day or two, it has some amazing cliff formation’s

If you do not think the cliff formations are worth to stop for, I recommend at least to stop/take a trip out to the island Ilha Da Berlanga just outside Pernich, also an outpost, if to rough to anchor, one can take day trips from Peniche. Highly recommended.

I stop there next blog will be about our time in Lagos, Portimão and the Canary Islands.