Alpha Crucis

New Zealand – ‘The Land of the Long White Cloud’ 20 October 2009

2009-10-18T22:31:00.000-07:00

No 1, Chef, Crew, Genius

3rd Mate Keeping Clean

Brian, Ken, Terry

3 Monkeys Feeding

Leaving Moorea

No 1 and Brian relaxing on deck

Sister Ngaire and Neice Jan in Tauranga

Chief Steward at Work

New Zealand – ‘The Land of the Long White Cloud’

20 October 2009

We made landfall in Tauranga, Friday 9^th of October.

We were extremely grateful and blessed for our safe arrival of ourselves and AC back in New Zealand after a long long journey that began in Corfu in December last year!!

You may recall our departure from Moorea was delayed because of continuing difficulties with our genset. At the same time our main batteries were losing their effectiveness and so we had to rely more and more on the genset being available to provide the power we need to run AC. The main components we need to have available at all times are the autopilot, refrigeration, navigation and communication systems.

We finally left Moorea in the early afternoon hoping to set our course due west. In fact we could not make due west because there was a rather strong southerly component enforcing us to travel west northwest. The seas were a little lumpy but not extreme. Our strategy was to travel west in the Trade winds until we reached a point between, and south, of the islands of Palmerston and Nuie. After that we would turn to the southwest and slide down the globe to Auckland. That was the plan but like most of our plans on this voyage what happened and what was planned to happen turned out to be quite different.

By the second day the normal north easterly trades had set in and we were making good progress in the right direction.

On this leg we had Brian McAra from Havelock North and Ken Everett from Sydney as our second and third Mates. They both independently asked if they could join us on this, our final, leg. For the first two days we did not require them to stand their own watch but they did accompany us on some of our watches as a means of them getting familiar with AC and acquiring their sea legs. On the third day we cut our watches in half assigning the midnight to 3 a.m. watch to Ken and the 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. watch to Brian.

As you know the only other time we had anyone else on board during ocean passages was from St Thomas to Panama when Peter Riella from Melbourne joined us.

It was great to have them on board for the company they afforded and the shorter watches as a result of that presence. The extra burden of catering fell entirely to Lois which she cheerfully accepted and executed beautifully. Terry gained from the situation as some of the lighter duties were taken away from him. We continued to handle the deck work and they nobly assisted with cockpit activities, dish washing, cleaning and most importantly, preparing the first cup of tea of each day. Brian took on the role of head steward. In a survey conducted by the crew and Captain that role was voted the most important of all. We had a requirement that all persons on board should shower and have a clean set of clothes every day. Lois, Brian and Ken had to devote some time to hand washing clothes.

Other than the aforementioned responsibilities Ken became the ship's poet laureate. At some time in the near future we will publish his masterpiece when terms and conditions have been agreed. So watch this space.

And so the journey continued... And continued... And continued... And then the wind died... Unbelievable! It was time to start the engine which we did for a few days until we reached our threshold of acceptable fuel reserves. And we continued on and on and on.

When we reached the 29th of September Terry changed the clocks to New Zealand Daylight Time. That made it the 30th of September. His birthday. Originally we had hoped to celebrate that event in Auckland but no such luck. Fortunately the weather conditions were okay and his choice off rare fillet steak with green peppercorn sauce accompanied by a medley of vegetables including broad beans was enthusiastically devoured. Any restrictions on the consumption of accompanying wines and spirits were lifted.

As always our cocktail hour was the highlight of the day, every day. With only two of us that was the case but with four that was better. Many interesting conversations, sometimes with some exaggeration, were had. We had 22 such occasions.

We reached the Kermadec Trench after having turned left a point between Palmerston and Niue or at least a little below them. Brian described our time over the trench very succinctly and aptly... "When are we ever going to get out of this f....ing Trench; I didn't even know it existed!"

About 500 miles north east of Auckland (in a journey of 2500 nautical miles being 500 miles out is almost like being home... "Right"... No... "Wrong") the wind turned to the southeast and increased to gale force and on occasions to storm (that is Force 10 on the Beaufort scale).

For some days we went nowhere doing our best not to slide past the longitude of the East Cape. We so did not want to continue on to the Chatham Islands. We tacked back on two occasions only to end up within a stone's throw of where we had been 24 hours before. Finally the weather did turn to the North West but we knew we only had a window of 48 hours before it would turn to the south again. We elected to motor sail and head for Tauranga. We reckoned we had just enough fuel to make it.

At dawn on the ninth of October Mayor Island was 10 miles off our starboard bow. During the night we were able to sail for most of the time thus preserving our precious fuel. We docked at the Bridge Marina at 10:30 a.m. In the rain.

Welcoming us on the dock in now torrential rain was Lorraine (Brian's wife, also known as Doris) with a trolley of welcoming goodies albeit she could not come on board until we were cleared by customs. We had kept Customs informed of our lack of progress over the previous few days although they were expecting us to arrive in Auckland because Auckland had not passed the message on from Auckland to Tauranga. Nonetheless they were on board within 15 minutes of us arriving and cleared us with absolutely no problems or hassles. Once they left it was great to have a drenched Lorraine on board and that was not just because she was bearing bottles of champagne and vodka and many other things.

The next arrival was Terry's sister Ngaire and so we started the celebrations that have continued ever since.

That evening we went into town to enjoy a restaurant meal together. The next day, Saturday, Ken returned to Sydney, Judy and Dave Rouse, sister and brother-in-law of Lois arrived from Tokoroa and joined in the festivities for the next two nights. Terry's brother and sister-in-law Tony and Raewyn arrived back in Tauranga on Sunday. We accepted Tony's offer of his car as well as his hospitality. Sister Ngaire had provided a sumptuous dinner for us all prior to Tony arriving and so it was now his turn.

The weather for the first few days was cold and miserable but we did not care. We were here at last.

In preparation for our next leg to Auckland we took AC across to the fuel dock and in the process started up the genset. It failed, leaking freshwater out of the exhaust manifold. The weather forecast was terrible so we decided to stay put and invoke appropriate repairs. Having got that under way, what with the weather continuing to be inclement, we decided to take a break and drive down to Havelock North and the McAra's for a few days.

That is where we are at present. We expect to leave here Thursday 22^nd or thereabouts. We should be in Auckland after Labour weekend.

Love The Jolly Rogers (in New Zealand)

Mobile phone: +64 21 117 5403

Email: alphacrucis@110pct.com

Tahiti to NZ Leg

2009-09-21T03:13:00.000-07:00

They Have Arrived!! Safe & Sound & Tucked up in a Marina in Tauranga. They got in at 10:30 this morning (Friday)

08/10/09

Day:22, Position:S3633,E17723, Miles to Go:088, Wind Speed:20, Wind Direction:225

Weather:Mixed, Sea State:Moderate

The predicted change to NW has not happened yet but we expect it some time before midnight. Winds were forecast to abate to 10 knots but that hasn't happened either. Meantime we are motor sailing on course for Tauranga at 6.0 knots. Our fuel supply should hold out especially if the wind comes into the NW.

ETA is 1200 tomorrow. 87 nautical miles to go for respite and rest and recreation!!

Love

The Jolly Rogers

They have progressed 18 miles since the last report and the positions are too close to seperate on this scale chart (click to enlarge)

07/10/09

Day:21, Position:S3618,E17842, Miles to go:0146, Wind Speed:25, Wind Direction:230

Weather:Sunny, Sea State:Rough

Distance to go to Tauranga 146 nm straight line. Of course we will not be going that way.

We are 80 nm North of East Cape heading for North Cape at present (1930 hrs NZDT).

The wind was supposed to moderate to 15 kts this morning. No such luck but is has come down to 25 from 35. Meant to go NW tomorrow evening and then NE at 35 with rough seas. What's new. That should get us to TG.

We have been battling strong and very strong winds out here for 5 days now. And we are still not there and not making Auckland but hope to make Tauranga by Saturday.

The social cost has been high. I have missed being the oldest best man in the Southern Hemisphere for a couple (Deserae and Matt) of younger generations whom Lois and I respect and like a lot. They are circumnavigators.

Yesterday Murray told us that Carole-Anne and Thomas from Atlanta Georgia had flown out to provide a special surprise and indeed it would have been. Business commitments require they return tomorrow. They were with us between Savannah and Charleston and Connecticut and Martha's Vineyard and London and Glasgow and the cruise to the Baltic. Bother!!

We are in contact with Customs/Immigration and Taupo Maritime Radio (ZLM) on a daily basis (1815 hrs) and like you they are probably wondering why it is taking so long.

Believe me if we could get to shore faster, safely, we surely would.

Will keep Murray and Matt posted each day until we arrive.

Love

The Jolly Rogers

06/10/09

Position:S3606,E17859, Nautical Mile to Tauranga:164, Wind Speed:35,

Wind Direction:135, Weather:Mixed, Sea State:Rough

We have a new destination... Tauranga. Distance to go is straight line to Tauranga.

Reason is that over the last 3 days we have been pushed SSE and have little choice than to make our landfall/clearance in Tauranga.

On our present course we will be lucky to make East Cape before tacking to the West across the Bay of Plenty.

Here is an excerpt from a message to Matt when we realised that we would not arrive in time to attend Deserae and his wedding in Queensland.

"With what we are experiencing and what we know we don't expect to be in Auckland before Friday or Saturday or later.

The low we encountered yesterday (was the 4th Oct)has deepened and broadened and slowed. The NZ Met forecast says they don't expect it to move off the North Island until Wednesday/Thursday.

Last night was appalling. Winds of 50+ at times. F10. Sort of "hove to" but did make some headway 20/30 degrees south of our track to AKL. No damage fortunately and no sleep for Lois and me.

Better (not much) today but the southerly winds we expected when the low should have passed over us have not eventuated because of the broadening.

At present we are (just) making course to the East Cape of the North Island. We are about 270 miles out. If this continues we will consider making our landfall/clearance in Tauranga in the Bay of Plenty and even that will require back tracking.

This leg has been beyond belief. Light/nil winds after a few days and now all this over the past week. 18 days at sea so far. It only took 17 days on our AKL-Papeete leg against the prevailing weather.

It is with bitter disappointment and heavy hearts that we have to delay our trip to Australia. We were so looking forward to being with you on your very special day. However we look forward to spending some quality time with you within the next month."

Last night and today we have made slow progress in rough conditions. What's new.

Hopefully the low will move off and leave us in manageable conditions. We will make Auckland...eventually!!

Love

The Jolly Rogers

05/10/09

With what we are experiencing and what we know we don't expect to be in Auckland before Friday or Saturday or later.

The low we encountered yesterday has deepened and broadened and slowed. The NZ Met forecast says they don't expect it to move off the North Island until Wednesday/Thursday.

Last night was appalling. Winds of 50+ at times. F10. Sort of "hove to" but did make some headway 20/30 degrees south of our track to AKL. No damage fortunately and no sleep for Lois and me.

Better (not much) today but the southerly winds we expected when the low should have passed over us have not eventuated because of the broadening.

At present we are (just) making course to the East Cape of the North Island. We are about 270 miles out. If this continues we will consider making our landfall/clearance in Tauranga in the Bay of Plenty and even that will require back tracking.

This leg has been beyond belief. Light/nil winds after a few days and now all this over the past week. 18 days at sea so far. It only took 17 days on our AKL-Papeete leg against the prevailing weather.

We have decided now in light of all this to to postpone our trip to Australia which of course means not making the wedding but it is not to be, very disappointing. However we will catch up with the newlyweds when we head over there in a few weeks.

04/10/09

Apologies for the huckery chart but they are between my two charts - East & West Parts of the World.

Day:17, Position:N3259,W17924, Miles to Go:0366, Wind Speed:15, Wind Direction:315

Weather:Fine, Sea State:Light

Destination Auckland we hope.

"So close and yet so far"... that is us at the moment. On Thursday (1 Oct) we only had 520 miles to go. Since then we have had strong SW winds such that on Friday we thumped into it on both tacks making a pitiful and uncomfortable 13 nautical miles. Saturday was worse with only 7 miles in 24 hours. Sunday the winds lightened a little making 88 miles headway but still uncomfortable, especially for Lois keeping us all nourished in addition to her many sailing duties.

Yesterday the winds veered from West to NW allowing us to gain 105 miles. Heading into winds of over 30 knots is something AC and we do not like. Today things are better as we are holding our course and achieving over 5 knots on average.

We don't expect that to last. Gale force winds are forecast ahead of us. Our ETA Auckland probably is between Wednesday evening and Saturday sometime depending on the actual weather. As reported in the previous update we don't have enough fuel to motor or motor sail, even if we could in these conditions.

The good news is that we have no "Mal de Mer", are warm, dry and fed. Naturally we would love to be in Auckland, or anywhere, rather than out here with such tedious progress.

Hope to see you sometime soon...yes really!!

Love

The Jolly Rogers, Brian and Ken.

29/09/09

Day:13, Position:S2918,W17437, Miles to go:0697,

Wind Speed:05, Wind Direction:045, Weather:Cloudy, Sea StateCalm

Destination is still direct to Auckland.

We have been motoring and motor sailing for the last three days. Calm or light conditions.

We used 3 of our 4 fuel tanks and 3 of 4 60 litre containers. At present our day tank is full but will run out sometime tomorrow. After that we will hold the forward port tank and the last 60 litre container in reserve.

Current weather fax prognoses and grib files suggest the wind will be moving to NW tomorrow and then backing through West and then NW in the next 72 hours. Also it is predicted to increase to 30+ knots. Hope not what!!

That makes setting an ETA rather difficult. My guess is 5-7 days from today.

As we are in the GMT + 12 hour time Zone we are operating on NZ time. Changing the clocks this morning and shifting ahead a day meant we lost September 28th. It does mean I will be celebrating my Birthday tomorrow, hopefully before the heavier weather hits us.

We are all well on board, even having chocolate coated ice creams during a Matinee Movie yesterday. Mate Ken just loved that touch from Lois.

Other than the weather outlook our biggest problem will be consuming all the food before Customs come on board and confiscate heaps. Touch wood... everything is operating as it should.

Love
The Jolly Rogers, Brian and Ken

23/09/09

Days at sea:08, Position:S2139,W16425, Miles to go:1412

Wind Speed:15, Wind Direction:135, Weather:Sunyy ,Sea State:Light

Destination is now Auckland. We have been making only moderate speed albeit the conditions are very comfortable and we are making our planned course very easily. None the less we are unlikely to have time to call in at Opua if we are to make our flights to Sydney on the 8th with some time to spare.

Our 2nd and 3rd Mates have settled into the shipboard routine taking their turns on "watch" and helping with other duties. Brian continues to be an excellent steward (a vital role)with Ken acting as our maintenance and engineering assistant. They both share galley and general cleaning tasks!

Three days ago our watermaker blew a hose fitting. After three attempts to rejoin the offending coupling we managed to get it working in mildly difficult circumstances using the combined resources of Captain and crew and gasket cement. Lets hope it holds for the rest of our voyage.

Lois (now addressed as "No 1") attends to everything... sailing operations, cleaning and cleaning standards, cleanliness (ship and personal; clean clothes and showers every day for all of us for example} and then before and after cocktail hour prepares the evening repast which is always world class.

This morning after dawn our new Gennaker ripped about 1.5 metres into the sail itself from the clew. Conditions were light and that should not have happened. At present we are moving at a healthy 6 knots under full headsail, main and mizzen. Very p....d off about the Gennaker so hopefully Doyle Sail Makers will honour their 2 yr warranty.

We are all well and in good spirits and hope you are too.

Will report again in 3 or 4 days.

Love
The Jolly Rogers

19/09/09
Days at Sea:04, Position:N1823,W15627, Miles to go:1846,
Wind Speed:12, Wind Direction:090, Weather:Fine, Sea State:Light

Destination is Opua in NZ. That could change to Auckland depending on progress and/or weather.
First two days out from Moorea we had moderate winds 25+ knots from the NE which veered to East. Seas were 3 metres with squalls.
Last night things have moderated to 12/15 knots with 1 metre swells.

Hoisted the MPS (Spinnaker?) after midday. According to our Grib files these conditions should continue for the next few days. Very comfortable but not fast. Day's run have been 121, 128 and 111 nautical miles so far.

As you know we have Brian McAra from Hawkes Bay and Ken Everett from Sydney on board. Brian spent 8 weeks with us while we were in Greece. Ken has sailed extensively on our previous yacht "Acrux". Brian and Lorraine sailed with us some 13 years ago between Bora Bora and Papeete on "Acrux". Would you believe they independently asked if they could join us on our last leg! After considering the effect that may have on our well practiced and entrenched processes and space agreed "Why Not".

For the first two days L&T let them settle in and get used to being back at sea. They separately kept us company for part of our night watches. Tonight things change. They will take 3 hour watches themselves allowing us to reduce our normal 6 hour watches to 3 hours as well. Other duties will be allocated as we progress!
Have the line out but no luck yet!

Love

The Jolly Rogers

Moorea Tahiti – 16 September 2009

2009-09-16T12:18:00.000-07:00

We are leaving today bound for New Zealand!!!

We traveled over from Papeete Sunday to spend the last couple of days in French Polynesia in the lovely lagoon in Opunahu Bay. We have had a pleasant time doing some the last few jobs, dominated by the fact that Terry has worked long and hard to rid the genset of an annoying knocking sound which didn’t disappear with the initial new mounts brought from Australia by Ken (3rd Mate). However finally yesterday we were happy to report the genset is ‘quiet’!!

Ken arrived from Sydney on Thursday evening to join us which completes our crew of 4. I must admit it seems strange to have people with us preparing for passage, but it will be great to have their company and support.

The weather overall in the last two weeks has been fairly average, lots of wind, cloud and rain however like the first week after our arrival, this last few days it has been magical. We had cocktail ashore last night for a change and enjoyed the sunset looking back at AC. We are happy to report she is looking great. Brian and I have been doing lots of cleaning – let’s hope she looks as good on arrival!!

Estimate of time frame of our passage will probably be 15-18 days but of course it is all dependent on the weather. We will head mostly west just short of Tonga then south west. It looks as though Terry’s birthday may be spent at sea!!

We hope to clear in at Opua and then make our way down the coast to Auckland.
Naturally we want to orchestrate our arrival into Auckland on a nice day as we sail/motor up the harbour to Westhaven, so we may stay with friends Dean & Glynnis Ryder in the Bay of Islands to wait for the right weather.

As usual our friend Murray Aldridge will update the blog en route.

Looking forward to seeing many of you on our return – we are so excited!!

We have a NZ mobile number which will work once in range of land - +64 21 1175403

Hard to believe this is our final leg home! Excited that we are nearly at the end of the long journey which started in Corfu in December last year and sad, that our adventure is nearly at an end!!! But there will be more to come no doubt!

Love the Jolly Rogers on board Alpha Crucis….heading for the ‘Land of the Long White Cloud’

Moorea, Tahiti - 5 September 2009

2009-09-07T11:09:00.000-07:00

Passage Making as it should be!!

Our Large Furry Friend "Sam the Sealion"

Giant Tortoise in the Galapagos

Grand Daughters at dinner ashore.

Nicole and David at rest

Sophie and Nicole cavorting in Paradise

Sophie Showering with Style

Lorraine (Doris) and Brian in Moorea

Captain Daniel

Moorea, Tahiti – 5 September 2009

You could describe the first 25 days of our passage from Galapagos as mostly great and uneventful, particularly the first two weeks, where we were making 150 plus nautical miles per day – our best being 170. We were delighted with this progress but unfortunately the wind died for the subsequent 3rdweek to a stage where for two days we were totally becalmed – at this point we were in the Tuamotu’s. We were within 200 miles of Tahiti.

Then the wind arrived with a vengeance which was ok but extremely uncomfortable as we were hard on nose in order to make Tahiti. At this point, as we tacked, our forestay gave way. Of course it happened at night – 9.30pm to be exact. Firstly there was a ‘bang’, almost unnoticeable with the sound of the howling wind and then it bowed out and snapped. It fell into sea on the starboard side but was attached to the bow. And our head sail was reefed so when it fell in the sea it was firmly wound around the self furling gear and rigging otherwise, for sure, we would have lost the new sail we had made in Sotogrande.

As you would appreciate both Terry and I were in stunned disbelief at first, watching these events unfold. The seas were rough and wind blowing 30+ knots and we are now almost stationary. Of course we fear the worst that the mast would be next but that thankfully did not happen. Terry is totally calm and collected and evaluating the situation on the forward deck and well me; I am in the cockpit shaking, trying to take it all in!!! The other fortunate aspect of AC is that she is well rigged particularly with the additional inner forestay.
I now can appreciate the value of the “belt and braces” aspect of our rigging.

So Terry secured the mast with halyards which took some time and then we attempted to try and lift the sail and gear back onto the boat. It was so so heavy of course; we couldn’t get it back on board. After a bit of juggling (as we had used some of the halyards to secure the mast don’t forget) we secured a line around the sail and used the electric deck winch to haul some of it on board and then I proceeded to lift all 71 feet of the gear including the sail back on board foot by foot – phew what a relief that was – to our pocket as well!!!

Next issue – we were drifting towards an atoll so of course we had to address that. We have little fuel and now the autopilot is not working so we bite the bullet to motor 8 miles away from the Island so we can drift overnight with the wind, out of danger.

About 1am Terry lay down in the cockpit and I lay on the saloon floor exhausted, to try and catch some sleep.
The next morning we hoisted our spare jib as a mini spinnaker but decided that it was too windy to leave up – at this point the wind was increasing and continued to blow 30-45 knots for the remainder of the two days. We were concerned that it was too much pressure for the mast.
So we continued on with a double reefed main and our faithful mizzen sail.

Oh boy – so close and yet so far – great expression and very appropriate for our situation at this time – we couldn’t believe our lack of luck!! However as any sailor must, we had no choice but to rationalize that we were at least safe and so was AC. We were grateful that we were in equatorial waters and not in the North Atlantic.

Our autopilot continued to have the odd hiccup and in fact the last 12 hours – we had to steer a lot of it as the seas were rough with lots of swell and it couldn’t handle the gusts with the unbalanced sail configuration.

As we rounded the Pointe Venus 10 miles from the main entrance to Papeete harbour all is well and as you would appreciate we were excited and relieved to be nearly there!!!
As per usual a quick tidy up – candles out – dinner on – champagne poured and we are nothing less than ecstatic.

We have been in French Polynesia over two weeks now – not sure quite where this time has gone! But mostly the weather has been excellent (apart from a few days when it rained and blew) and Tahiti is everything conducive to the ideal perfect cruising environment. In fact we would say ‘so much better than the Mediterranean’.

Two days after we arrived Nicole, David and the grandchildren Amy, Daniel and wee Sophie arrived for 6 days. This was their second attempt to time a visit to Tahiti to visit us – the first being in July which of course we didn’t make and although our timing was razor sharp we made our rendezvous with them on the 17th – phew it was close. We were exhausted after 27 days at sea from Galapagos and of course particularly the last two days when we lost our forestay but I guess our adrenaline and excitement at seeing them all kept us ‘keeping on’!

Given that AC had been at sea for 27 days we of course needed some reorganization to welcome our family on board so decided with one thing and another that the best solution was to take them and us to a hotel on arrival. So that is what we did. We meet them at the airport and went to the Intercontinental Hotel for two nights. That way Terry and I could by day complete what we needed to do to ensure that their 6 days with us was hassle free.

And indeed it was. The children were very excited about coming on AC, despite the fact the swimming pool at the hotel was very nice, they wanted to get going!!!! On Wednesday we motored off to Moorea and anchored in Opunahu Bay (we spent some here time in 2005) where we spent 3 nights and then Cook Bay for one night. The children were a delight and just loved swimming off the stern of AC enjoying the wonderful warm temperatures and clear waters. Little Sophie, now 2 and half, adapted amazingly well considering the last time on AC in Italy she was 7 months old. David and Nicole took us all shore for a wonderful dinner in Cook Bay – the highlight for the children were watching the stingrays gathering around our dinghy. It was such fabulous quality time with great memories.

They headed home on the Monday morning and our special friends Lorraine (Doris) and Brian McAra arrived on Friday morning. We spent the four days in between getting AC in shape (the growth she had acquired on passage was the worst yet including a little mussel farm on the bottom of the stern) as well as ourselves and provisioning.

It was great to have Doris and Brian on board again - they spent considerable time aboard with us last summer in Greece so they are familiar with the drill. We headed off to Moorea again in Opunahu Bay and kicked back and relaxed and enjoyed! One of the days we hired a car and drove around the island with a stop at a very nice restaurant over the lagoon. The weather that day was rather cool and windy however it didn’t deter our fun day. That night we had 40 plus knot winds in the lagoon and both Terry and I slept in the cockpit on anchor watch – you wouldn’t believe that could happen at this time of the year in Tahiti!!!

We met an interesting young couple, Mike and Veronica, anchored next to us who we had drinks with on AC and went ashore with them one evening for dinner. He is English and she is Italian but they live in California. He is a Film Director and has worked in Hollywood with movies, documentaries and particularly advertising. He had some good stories about people including some celebrities. She is a singer and in fact sung a few songs at the Restaurant we went to.

Doris left Friday morning to head back to NZ and Brian is staying on to do his first off shore adventure and our last leg home to NZ. Again it was a wonderful few days to catch up and fabulous to think that as we are so close to being home it will not be long before we can do this again in NZ.
We arrived back in Marina Taina on Thursday and luckily the first process of fitting the new rigging for the forestay started immediately and was completed yesterday. Good to know that everything is now secure again.

Our plan is to provision for our passage and head out to Moorea again and then onto Huahine and Bora Bora for a few days relax and wait for our 3rd mate, Ken Everett, to arrive from Sydney on the 11th and then we will head off to NZ. So this leg we will be 4 souls!!

We hope that we will be back in Auckland by the 30th of September which is Terry’s birthday – a few celebratory drinks with family and our old friends.

Meantime we are making the most of the beautiful weather and enjoying cocktail hour in a most pleasant temperature…

Our local number is +689 323524

Murray of course will keep you posted of our progress towards New Zealand once we head off around the 13/14th of September.

It has been a long journey from Corfu where we started in late December!! We are nearly there……..!!!!

Love

The Jolly Rogers

Day excursion.

Galapagos to Tahiti

2009-07-19T15:51:00.000-07:00

Click to enlarge image

Nous Arrivons!!!!

AC dropped anchor in Papeete Harbour at 2030 local time after 28 days at sea. Whew.

Just after we sent the update this morning everything weather wise changed for the worse. Strata cloud formed and the winds and squalls got up to yesterday's velocities. This evening as we approached the Island it got worse such that we (mostly Lois) had to hand steer for the last 4 hours. The Auto Pilot could not cope with the gusts and general conditions. We dared not veer downwind too much as we were only going to get one shot at making it. Achieved that and rounded the Northern headland on our limits and at speed. After half an hour it was relative calm and bliss. And everything held together.

Thanks for your offer to arrange things Matt but we will be OK thanks.

Nicole is getting a separate message.

Love

The Very Jolly Rogers

Read blog 14/08/09 below first!

0945 Saturday here. 60 miles to go.

Weather has moderated slightly since midnight to make things a little more tolerable. Still 2-3 Metres swell but the spume and streaky seas have mostly gone with normal 25 knot whitecaps. Except for a few rainy squalls in the early hours the day is now bright and sunny.

Both of us managed to get some sleep overnight finally.

Most importantly everything is working well so hopefully we should be anchored in Papeete Harbour some time around midnight.

Love

Terry and Lois

14/08/09

Day:27, Position:S1623,W17424, Wind Direction:0140, Wind Speed35,135

Weather:Mixed, Sea State:Rough

This is not a full report which you will understand in a moment. That will come after we arrive in Papeete.

The good news is we have finally cleared the Tuamotu's and we are on track to Papeete arriving some time tomorrow night with 145 nm to go. Saturday here.

Without motoring and in light airs getting through was a challenge. Yesterday we were becalmed from 0200hrs until about 1400. Then the wind roared in from the south. We had to skirt around the last atoll in our path. At about 2100 we were under 50% reefed headsail but had to tack out to sea from the precincts of the atoll.

Bang... Down came the headsail, furler and forestay into the sea alongside. The mast stayed thank goodness. Shored it up with two halyards and then L&I proceeded to winch the mess aboard using ourselves and our electric deck winch. It was blowing in excess of 30 knots and very rough. Used precious fuel to position AC 6 miles clear of the atoll so we could drift northwards towards bigger atolls hove to until dawn. Getting mobile took an hour or so then we hove to after midnight.

This morning further secured things and re rove the halyards. Checked the inner forestay and the 5 shrouds each side of the mast. As far as we could tell all AOK. The two backstays are a bit loose but you expect that.

Set off with 2 reefs in the main and full mizzen. Winds still 30+ to 40+ from South but fortunately backing to SE. Seas terrible. More detail later.

Since then have made good but uncomfortable progress towards Papeete. Wind on the beam or slightly abaft so every reason why things should be OK until we get there. Almost no sleep and not much prospect. We were in a situation where we could not to go back so decided to press on.

Nicole... We are tired but safe and are looking forward to seeing you on Monday much refreshed.

Love

Terry and Lois

09/08/09

Day:22, Position:S1343,W14116, Miles to go:530

Wind Speed:08, Wind Direction:090, Weather:Sunny, Sea State:Light

Our new destination is Papeete with 530 nm to go. With current conditions we have decided to miss Rangiroa. We will have to leave that opportunity to a later time.

We are on the fringes of the Tuamotu's. In the olden times the area had several nicknames... "the Dangerous Archipelago", "the Maze", "the Archipelago of the Bad Sea". 77 low lying atolls which would have been a nightmare with sluggish ships before good charts, GPS and Radar.
We will cut through the more northern lot direct to Papeete.

Last report we had just started motoring in the hope of increased winds by dusk. That did not happen. We kept motoring for 4 24 hr days until 1020 hrs yesterday. 1020 hrs is when we measure our days run. Good news was that the swell has almost died and over those days we averaged 160 nm per day. Our main motor is relatively quiet but even so it does become monotonous after long periods of time. In the interests of saving fuel for our support systems for whatever time it takes to reach Papeete we turned the engine off, Since yesterday we have been plodding along under Spinnaker in light (very light) conditions. Our days run dropped to 112 nm. Those of you who have Spinnaker experience will know that the worst conditions are at the extremes of light, or heavy, weather. Not much sleep during the dark hours.....

This afternoon we changed course from Rangiroa to Papeete. To do this we had to gibe (put the Spinnaker on the other side) during which time the first squall for a couple of weeks came to visit. We were a busy and challenged crew for about a half hour whilst we got that lot sorted.

Presently sailing with our headsail in place of the spinnaker as we reckon we deserve a night of relative serenity, after all it is Sunday evening here! That will lose us some miles of course.

Lois has decided it is time for a treat which I suspect will be a dinner of succulent rare fillet steak with a myriad of accompanying vegetables and condiments...and Red Wine!!

Best wishes from...
The Jolly Rogers

04/08/09

Day:17, Position:S1117,W12839, Miles to go:1135

Wind speed:05, Wind Direction:105, Weather:Sunny, Sea State:Moderate.

Current destination is still Rangiroa but our chances of making it in time look marginal at present.

An important milestone today being the 4th of August. We left Auckland on the 4th just 4 years ago and here we are back in the Pacific on our penultimate leg home.

At the moment we are motoring would you believe. Have been doing that for two hours in the hope the trades will return at dusk in about 2 hours time. This is our second motoring session. The other was 2 days ago for about 3 hours if that.

For the past week the winds have continued to moderate but unfortunately the seas/swells have not. Our "days run" changed from consistently above 150 to a low of 130 today. In between it has been erratic but slower. Two days ago we hoisted our new Genaker for the first time and about an hour after having it in place we experienced a series of squalls so had to bring it down. Since then have fine tuned the tack and clew control lines and re hoisted it this morning. Then the wind died and we are waiting for the sea to do the same. ha ha. The launching/dowsing sock is just brilliant. Easy to use which is great for the two of us. A dream compared to our previous one. Naturally we have to learn the sail's idiosyncrasies which we should be able to do over the next 4,000 miles or so en route to Auckland.

Last night about 0300 we saw the only ship since the first day out of the Galapagos. Talked to the Captain who was interested in where we were bound etc, etc. He was a large container vessel bound for Papeete, Noumea and Tauranga. He changed course to keep out of our way.

We are in good spirits but you have to be here to appreciate the enormity and isolation associated with this huge Pacific Ocean from a very small floating wooden platform moving at 6 knots give or take.. Other good news is the "Cocktail Hour" is back and our shore support team keeps us up with the play when they can. Also the quality of our cuisine has been maintained at a high level. For example fresh Pancakes with roasted Pandanas with yogurt for breakfast a few days ago. Yummy and different. All Lois's good work of course.

Love to you all.

The Jolly Rogers.
31/07/09

Day:13, Position:S0851,W11902, Miles to go:1721

Wind Speed15, Wind Direction:110, Weather Mixed, Sea StateModerate

Destination is still Rangiroa. In the last 4 days we have not made 150 nm/day. The wind has gone ESE and moderated slightly. However we still could be in striking distance of Rangiroa in time to stopover... Here's hoping. Have been under full sail for the last two days.

If the wind moderates further we will launch our new Genaker but it is a little marginal at present.

We are definitely in Ocean Mode now with the days blending into each other as they do when we are relaxed, comfortable with our lot, and perpetually tired.

The only things since our last report is we passed the half-way point at about 0430 this morning and Lois landed her 3rd Mahi Mahi yesterday PM.

So far so good...

The Jolly Rogers

27/07/09

Day:09, Position:S0629,W110.06, NM to go:2272,

Wind Speed:25kn, Wind Direction:135, Weather:Sunny, Sea State:Rough

Today is day nine on our run from Galapagos to Rangiroa, a distance of 3543 nautical miles. We have … still 2272 to go and today's run was 161 nm, our best so far. We are making good progress having averaged 154 nm per day or 6.4 knots. If we can keep this up we will have time to stop at Rangiroa before continuing on to Tahiti. Proximity to Papeete, the fact that we have not been there previously, it is a clearance Port for French Polynesia, the second largest atoll in the world and the R&R could be good!

Papeete harbour is a place to be avoided. In 1996 in Acrux (remember her) and four years ago in Alpha Crucis we suffered damage due to excessive and constant wash waves from the inconsiderate large high speed ferries. Also our waterlines were coated in oily tar like goo which acted like Velcro to the copious quantities of flotsam passing by. The harbour is a dirty place. The Vista from the Quai de Plaisance on Boulevard Pomare belies the actual situation. All the visiting yachts lined up stern-to to the beautifully crafted Quay look picturesque but as the song intones "…from a distance." We will be heading to the marina area, not the marina, near Lois' favourite South Pacific emporium "Carrefor." This is past the Airport on the South side. On the "land" side Papeete is a fun place.

We seem to be in a consistent pattern of conditions at the moment and long may that continue. During the day the wind fluctuates between about 15 and 25 knots particularly with a variegated overcast sky. This requires a combination of adjustment of the headsail and altering course. We are talking about adjustments of about 6 times in a 12-hour period. On clear days the variation is less pronounced. At night pretty much the same but we cannot read the sky as well although now the moon is waxing it is getting easier. Sometime between 2 hours before and after dawn the wind usually dies for a while subjecting us to the uncomfortable effects of a 2-3 metre swell. This is from the SE with an overlay of SW making the motion rather cranky. Apart from the lulls we try to keep our speed between 6.0 and 7.5 knots; Our course to Rangiroa has remained a steady 254 degrees true…..and you thought we were having a South Pacific vacation out here!

Back to the voyage. On Thursday (23rd) Lois hooked three Mahi Mahi and landed the last one. Fantastic. Fresh Mahi Mahi for dinner. Delicious, washed down with a little Chardonnay. Friday same ritual hooked three, landed one. Friday night, (Pub Night) entrée of fresh Mahi Mahi sashimi, probably in excess. Main course was marinated hoison chicken…

Lois always takes the first evening watch 2100-0300. About 2300 I awoke feeling really uncomfortable and by midnight had chills and sweats with nausea. Not a condition I am all that used to. Repaired to the head where the experience of instantaneous projectile vomiting was a first. In unison Newton's third law "For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction" came into play. The law of "Conservation of Energy-Mass" then took over. With two streams of matter at near sonic speeds being expelled, the consequential loss of sensible body heat took its inevitable toll. Exhaustion, disorientation and quivering. The only upside at the time was that AC's head did easily double for a Hospital sluice room.

By his time (we are talking seconds) Lois was there. Lois (Nightingale) Rogers looked after me with TLC for the next 24 hours. It turns out that she was also not well herself experiencing similar symptoms sans the actual external phenomenon.

Both being well below par we just existed for the next day and night. My "Interest in things Nautical" Index, 100 being normal, declined to 50 by midnight and dropped to zero by one minute past midnight.

Lois did manage to produce drinks, soup, pasta and baked potatoes over our recovery period despite her discomfort. What a Gal! The enormity of this event is under written by the fact that Cocktail Hour has been voluntarily withdrawn meantime. Also we experienced our slowest days run of 147 nm which is not all that bad under the circumstances

It is now Monday here and we are back at full operational levels.

Communications from here to Tahiti could be erratic. Our contact with Murray relies on semi-automatic connection with radio ground stations. Out here the nearest is Corpus Christie in Texas and later it will be Honolulu. We will do what we can but the absence of regular contact is no big deal.

We will pick up messages to alphacrucis@110pct.com about mid August.

May the winds and waves of life be favourable for all of you as well.

The Jolly Rogers

22/07/09
Day:04, Position:S03:22,W097:20, NM to go:3059
Wind Speed:17, Wind Direction:135, Waether:Sunny, Sea State:Moderate

Destination is Rangiora in the Tuamotu's. Our strategy is to try and get there for R&R before continuing on to Papeete in Tahiti. It is on our track and only about a 30 hr sail from Papeete. We will stop there only if time allows it. As you know we are keen to meet up with Nicole, David and family August 17 or thereabouts. After that there is a possibility that others may visit. To early to be precise at the moment.

Our wind instruments are not working so wind information is based on the "wet finger" methodology. We went up the mast in San Cristobal to see if it was a failed connection but no such luck. Suspect the mast head unit has expired.

So far this leg has been what "trade wind" sailing should be. Cracked sheets, reasonable speed and comfort. We can only hope it continues. As we get further on we expect stronger winds with a little more East in them hopefully with eased sheets. Watch this space. We adjust the headsail and mainsail as conditions vary to get a good balance between speed and comfort with the latter being paramount. Comfort correlates with less stress and strain on gear and us of course. Our day's run each day so far has been a little more than 150 nautical miles. If we can maintain this our strategy will work.

In the Galapagos area and since the temperatures have been unexpectedly low. Even though we are basically on the Equator temperatures have been in mid 20's and lower at night requiring light covers for sleep. This is caused by the Humboldt current which flows up the Chilean coast from Antarctica and sweeps across this region in some years. Apparently this is what triggers the La Nina weather pattern that affects a great deal of the World's weather. We expect it to warm up substantially from here on. The Sun is on it's way back from the North.

Lois and I are acquiring our sea legs once again. It always takes a few days and we are always amazed how quickly we lose them once we are near land in the proximity of friendly people, bars and restaurants. But have no fear, Cocktail Hour is sacrosanct, and the standard of "on board" services has not declined in any way.

Have seen a couple of Tuna boats and have hooked but lost two fish... darn.

This is a long haul so we are just taking it a day at a time.

Love
The Jolly Rogers

19/07/09

San Cristobal, Galapagos Islands - 19 July 2009

We left San Cristobal at 1.20pm today bound for Tahiti!

We have been here for just on a week and it has been a pleasant and interesting stopover!
We didn't particularly want to stop here as we heard it is expensive and procedures with the authorities laborious! It was all of that but well worth it for several reasons - we got the opportunity to rest after our 12 day passage from Panama (which reminded us much of our journey east across the Pacific, hard on the wind) plus the opportunity to buy fuel. and got to experience a little of what the place is about!

We found only one person here in San Cristobal that speaks any English and he was a Naturalist therefore phrase books and dictionary are a help, otherwise sign language works well too!! However everyone without exception has been friendly and helpful made it so much more pleasant and welcoming!

It was opportune that the Australian couple, Adam and Bronwyn and children Jack (6) and Amy (4) arrived here before us so it was a warm welcome via the VHF on our night approach to guide us in. We have spent a bit of time with them during this week, which has been fun! They are on their final leg of their circumnavigation over the last 7 years - no mean feat in a 35 footer with two young children! We hope to catch them back in Sydney in the near future!
There are several yachts on their way across the Pacific at this time - mostly heading for Marquesas and then onward to Australia. Quite strange for us to have other boats heading in the same direction! This is the first time this has happened during our journey.

The town here is quite large with a rather nice boulevard along the foreshore. There are many restaurants however the best ones are family operated on the back streets - pretty scruffy but good food and you can get a meal for 4USD per person - not bad!
Provisioning is limited as you would expect as most things are imported from the mainland however they do grow in their rich volcanic soil some produce that is cheap! So managed to stock up on a bit of variety.

They operate an efficient and cheap water taxi service in the harbour so no need to take put your dinghy in the water, which has been so convenient. The reason they do it is because of the sea lions - not only hopping on board apparently but they also tip dinghies over as they climb aboard. We have had most days these furry animals sun themselves on the transom of AC and the large sea lions are territorially aggressive as well.

We hired a taxi on Friday to have a look around and went up to the Volcano Lake. It was raining and misty so it wasn't ideal but it was pleasant. As we were making our way down the coastline on our approach to the Island the landscape reminded us of a desolate moonscape so it was interesting to view such luscious inner terrain. We also viewed the Interpretation Centre, which explains the history and the theory of Evolution - quite fascinating!
The highlight for me was seeing the giant Tortoises in their natural habitat - some of them were huge! There are very few left now, after many centuries of being killed by buccaneers and sailors for fresh meat. They have been attempting to breed them in captivity for the last 4 years. They have only one success so far, a four years old. Subsequent attempts have improved which is wonderful!
Their natural predators are rats, dogs and cats - strange that they allow the locals to have the latter two!

Naturally there is an accent on Eco environment which is well communicated to tourists however they have a long way to go to teach the local inhabitants about rubbish disposal despite the fact that they have recyclable bins everywhere - there is heaps rubbish all over the place.

We employed the services of an agent who managed our clearing in process. Although he could speak little English we managed to communicate quite well. We were grateful for his help as he did make it easier for us and even then it still was onerous. He also arranged to have our fuel delivered on board - all 300 gallons in jerry cans. Of course you pay for this service but would have liked to see Terry and I try to manage that - not!! We paid 3.00 USD a gallon which is the 'international price' and on shore you can buy a gallon for 1.05 USD but foreign yachts are not allowed to purchase this - just one of the ways they keep the economy turning we suspect! This place has many pleasant surprises as we also managed to get our propane bottles filled.

It has been a great week and we have enjoyed mixing with the locals but it's time to push on to Tahiti! We are well rested and in good shape for the continuation of our journey. We have heard that the yachts that have left before us are making at least 150 nm a day - let's hope we can achieve this.

Good news, we had an email from Nicole earlier this week to say David has got a week off on the 17th of August so we may see them in Tahiti after all!.

Love, The Jolly Rogers

Panama to Tahiti Leg

2009-07-03T05:52:00.001-07:00

Double Click Images to Enlarge Chart

Thursday 16/07/09 Thursday

Hi there,
Sorry we have been a bit slack with communication, but was about to send you an email but upon turning the computer on the screen failed. However Terry managed to retrieve and decided to test the mail system - hence you got in first with your email!!
Anyway we are rested and have taken fuel on board all 300 gallons (40 of which are in canisters) - quite a process via jerry cans however the agent etc were quite efficient.
We provisioned today and little more to do - limited but surprising what you can buy.
We are going on a wee tour tomorrow around the island and leaving Saturday. Terry dived down today to check the prop,but all AOK. Up the mast tomorrow first thing to try and fix the wind instrument which is not working. Otherwise we are in good shape.
We have spent a bit of time ashore wandering around - fairly basic however you can buy a good meal for 4USD each - fish, salad, rice and beans - not bad!
As you will appreciate everything takes forever - the process of checking in is onerous to say the least so you need about 3 days just to do that. However everyone pretty friendly.
they have water taxis operating for 50cent p/p during the day and one dollar at night so you don't bother to put the dinghy down! Besides the friendly sea lions apparently just tip them over. We have our furry friends come time to time to sleep on our transom.
Will send you the blog update when we leave ok.
Lots of Love
Lois and Terry

Saturday 11/07/09 AC has arrived in the Galapagos Islands!!

Alpha Crucis dropped anchor in Wreck Bay (Puerto Baguerizo Moreno), San Cristobal, Galapagos Islands, at 1915 local time (GMT-6 hrs) 13 days out from Panama.

We are now in the Southern Hemisphere having crossed the Equator earlier today hard on the b... wind. We are almost exactly half way between Gibraltar and Auckland.

Cocktail hour was delayed in the interests of a safe night entry.

Love

The Jolly Rogers

Friday 10/07/09

Day:12, Position:0035N,8857W, Miles to go:098

Wind Speed:20, Wind Direction:180, Weather:Fine, Sea State:Moderate

Dist to go is ATCF. We will have to put in a board to Port sometime between now and our arrival as we are about 60 nm off track to the NE. Expect to arrive Wreck Bay mid afternoon tomorrow... or so we hope?

Since our last report have made reasonable progress considering we have been hard on the wind all the damn way on a port tack. Have had 1 reef in the main, full mizzen using the head sail to adjust for a compromise between direction, speed and comfort.

Pretty much we have maintained a speed of nearly 6 knots except in squalls or periods of increased wind when we have reduced sail to increase comfort. (In this context maybe "reducing discomfort" would be a more appropriate description}.

Yesterday, for a while at least, we were entertained by local (we assume) birds attempting and finally succeeding in roosting on the pulpit. This was viewed as a great photo opportunity. As the headsail was partly furled they managed to approach from both aft and forward attaching themselves to the stainless steel rail. One even landed and stayed on the port life-line. Maximum complement was 3 on the pulpit and 1 on the life-line. We are talking about very lively conditions.

These are relatively big birds. About twice the size of a standard Auckland Seagull. They have blue faces... truly. Hopefully we will find out what species they are after we arrive in the Galapagos.

Once Lois realised their capacity for defecating over the foredeck and beyond the relationship changed from friend to foe. Unbelievably they would not move until prodded with a boat hook. Armed with boat hook, bucket, brush and soapy water Lois valiantly removed them and cleaned up the resultant residues. Attaching supermarket bags around the landing zones in joggly seas was no mean feat but was accomplished just on dark. Meantime I had to keep watch over Lois of course and take care not to spill any Whisky... It was well into cocktail hour you understand.

Looking forward to a couple of days of being upright.
Love to all
The Jolly Rogers

Tuesday 08/07/09

Day:09, Position:N0259,W08255, Miles to Galapogas:466

Wind Speed:15, Wind Direction"200, Weather:Fine , Sea State:Moderate

Destination is now Wreck Bay, Isla San Cristobel, Galapagos. Day numbers are from Panama, not Las Perlas.

The day before yesterday we wandered around in very little breeze only making a 24 hr run of 29 miles toward our destination. Very boring and a little frustrating! To add to that in the early hours our Genset stopped. Bother... As Lois had had a challenging watch prior to that with moderate/severe squalls all on the nose I decided to hove to until she awoke mid morning. Then we started on the Genset. Fortunately it was only (ha ha) a broken vee belt so the whole operation including other maintenance took only a couple of hours. Meantime Lois catered of course and cleaned ship.

Because of slow progress and mild despondency due to a serious likelihood that we will be unable to make Tahiti in time to rendezvous with Nicole, David and family and other friends we thought we just have to cheer up and pretend we are starting our voyage to the Galapagos from that point. Only 550 miles or as we say - half a Tasman . After all we are safe, warm/hot and well supplied with food, wine and whisky. Who knows we may get great winds once we are in the Southern hemisphere trades.

So at about 1400 hrs yesterday we took the advice of our onshore support duo, Murray and Matt and motor sailed South, or actually SSE towards Ecuador in the hope of stronger winds albeit southerlies. Have made good progress over the last 28 hrs making close on 6 knots into it! Not in the best direction you understand but being in a better place to change tack for a more direct route (yeh). We have the slightly stronger winds but the real outcome.. Well you will just have to wait for the next installment!

Love to all of you and yours
The Jolly Rogers (trying hard)

Friday 03/07/09

Day:05, Position:N0609,W08059, Distance to go:0747

Wind Speed:12, Wind Direction:225, Weateher:Raining, Sea State:Light
Dist to go is to Isla Isabela in the Galapagos if indeed we stop there.
Thanks for all that great info M&M.
Have winds of 10/12 knots on the nose. Grib shows SW with Sthly further down the track. A high is shown between the Galapagos and Ecuador.
We just managed last days run of 144 nm under motor with light head wind. This was from San Jose in Las Perlas.

We will motor until tomorrow pm and take stock of fuel etc then and will let you know.

Welcome back to NZ Murray and back to Aus Matt.

I bet the farewell to Darcy Whiting was huge. What a wonderful icon to NZ Sailing he has been and will remain.

We have just been circled by a large unmarked military style helicopter and they didn't respond to our call!!
Love
T&L on AC

Thursday 02/07/09

Las Perlas, Gulf of Panama - 2 July 2009

We left Las Perlas at 1.20pm today bound for Tahiti! We are motoring into light head winds!

We spent last night in the one of the southern Islands of the Las Perlas group (Isla Ensenada De Bodega 008 15.5300 N 079 07.8899 W) in readiness for our departure today. From what we have seen of these Islands in the last two days they looked really unspoilt. Where we were anchored last night there was no sign of life ashore -just jungle. In fact you would almost expect some natives to come running out of the bush!!

We left Panama City on Monday afternoon after fuelling and spent that night at Tobago Island just 7 miles from Panama! We made our way to Las Perlas a further 30 odd miles to spend some time relaxing and doing our final few jobs - we certainly needed it as our last few days were chaotic and frantic!

We enjoyed our visit to Panama City immensely catching up with both Willie and latterly in the last week Mary Coffey. We had a little birthday dinner on AC for Willie on the 23rd which she really appreciated. Willie being a 'martini girl'…. We introduced to her some nice raspberry vodka martinis to commence the evening - it was nice for us that we could do that for her! Willie, who is lecturer (mainly on cruise ships) and writer since retirement from the Canal, gave us a copy of her latest book about the people you meet whilst cruising - we feature in it - probably about the closest we will get to being famous!

Mary had a great dinner at her fabulous colonial bungalow home for us in the latter part of last week - such a treat! She also spent a couple of days driving me to various supermarkets for provisioning. We had such fun together -lots of laughs - it was so good to catch up! Mary was born in Panama - her parents American - and she speaks fluent Spanish and drives like a very confident Panamanian - which is no mean feat! If you decide to drive in Panama City you have to be extremely confident otherwise you don't make any progress!

During the days I was provisioning Terry was attending to the Genset which has been causing him some grief with fresh water and oil leaks (separately) lately but is working ok now. He had to rebuild/modify the header tank!! The new voltage regulator, which arrived Thursday, we finally received Saturday due to a customs strike, is now installed and working fine. Boy Terry has been working hard in that very hot engine room - poor thing -but as you know he has amazing tenacity to get the job completed!!

Then of course to cap it all off we had a storm come through on Sunday and many yachts drifted where we were anchored -all of which didn't have anyone aboard at the time! To watch as events unfolded was amazing especially so when one yacht was headed for us. Luckily we got our anchor up quickly despite the 40 knot wind however that alone wouldn't have been sufficient, Terry had to drive up on to the anchor to avoid the yacht which missed us by only a metre -quite scary - boy that got my adrenalin going.

Anyway have managed to catch up on some sleep now - although the last couple of nights we had quite a lot of thunder and lighting so we were up and down checking things - there will be more of that to come as it the season! Terry has now rigged a few cables that perhaps may help if we get struck by lighting - let's hope that doesn't happen!

So when we head out we are going to head for the Galapagos in case the winds are light and we may have to pick up more fuel and same with stopping at the Marquesas. Ideally we would like not to stop at either. But if stopping means progress then we will do it.

So we are on our downward leg towards the Land of the Long White Cloud!! May it be a smooth fast ride!

As per normal Murray will post the blog updates and both he and Matt will give us their advice on the weather. Great to know we have their support!

Sorry about the lack of photos - difficult without a computer!

Love Lois and Terry

PANAMA CITY - 22 June 2009

2009-06-22T19:25:00.000-07:00

We are excited that we are now back in the Pacific Ocean after 3 years since transiting the canal in May 2006! We are roughly half way home!! We had a relatively good passage from the US Virgins - we averaged 150 nautical miles a day except for our last 24 hours when we encountered quite a strong head current. At the time we were concerned that our prop had faltered but subsequently learned that it was indeed a strong current - phew that was a relief!!!

For the first time we had a third crewmember, Peter Riella, our friend from Melbourne, on board! He fitted in well and for his first passage and did admirably - it was great to have his company and his great sense of humor not to mention his willingness to assist where he could. Naturally he didn't do a complete watch but he was up and about during the nights to check that everything was ok.

On two consecutive nights on my watch, as a result of a freak wave, water came into the saloon porthole and the other where the computer went flying across the saloon and unfortunately came to grief on the floor in pieces, added to what otherwise could have been an uneventful passage for us. AC performed well travelling between 6-8 knots with following winds the majority of the time! We didn't get to use our new MPS and sock on this passage but have plenty of miles ahead of us for that!

We arrived in the Panama Region around 10.30pm on Thursday 11 June and stayed two nights at the Shelter Bay Marina. The Canal authorities came on board on Friday morning to complete formalities, however as we have transited before we already have an official number and did not need to be measured again so that sped up the process considerably. We were quickly cleared to transit and our agent in Panama City informed us that our transit over two days would be on Saturday.

We were once again lucky as we learned that many of the yachts waiting for transit were waiting up to a week!The whole transit process is extremely efficient! Because of the length of AC we get to have a proper Pilot and as previously they were excellent. Our line handlers arrived at the last minute as they erroneously went to another boat, threatening our slot, but once on board they were very organised and professional.

Peter and I acted as line handlers as well - Peter once again did well. There are 3 locks either side of the Canal - and we went through the Gatun Locks on Saturday and stayed in the Lake overnight. Our Pilot disembarked but we had to accommodate and feed our line handlers which was no problem.

The next morning we were all up at 6am however our next Pilot did not come on board until 7.30am (finishing in the marina on the Pacific side at 5.00pm) so it was a rather long day!We were centered tied on the Gatun Locks and side tied to the wall on the Locks on the Pacific side so Peter and I weren't really needed on the Pacific side. However we were very watchful of ensuring AC was well away from the concrete wall as we were lowered down in the Locks! As we exited the Mira Flores Lock and proceeded forward to spot the wonderful sight of the Bridge of America's - we are finally back in the Pacific! We were also pretty pleased that once again our transit went perfectly - I must admit I enjoyed the second experience much better - wonder why!!!We have been in Panama City in the Flamenco Marina now for a week.

Peter left us on Tuesday - his status deservedly upgraded from Deck Hand to Second Mate and very excited to have completed his new adventure!

We have caught up with our friend Willie Friar a few times (who we met 5 years ago on South American cruise and of course caught up with in 2006)! Willie use to be the Public Relations Director for the Canal when the Americans ran it so is a very well respected citizen of Panama. Already she has treated us to two excellent lunches during the course of this week, one at the Radisson preceded by Green Apple Martinis - unbelievably good, and yesterday at the private City Club. It is all quite painless with having her driver pick us up and drop us off!

Dinner on AC Thursday and tonight is dinner at her home, along with our agent Peter Stevens who is quite a character! So you see we are being well looked after in Panama! During the days we are endeavoring to tick off all the jobs we need to complete before we head off to Tahiti. New optical glasses for me - I managed to stand on my old ones in St Thomas - shock horror but fortunately, the process of replacing them here has been both pleasant and inexpensive relative to Europe and even NZ! Terry was not well and in bed a couple of days but OK now - we thought it may have been a virus but not the dreaded swine flu!!! I have also been to the doctor to have my leg checked out - X rays etc - and now on another course of antibiotics and anti inflammatory so hopefully the swelling on the my knee will subside soon.

Terry has a small salt water leak in the genset to fix and we are waiting on a voltage regulator to arrive (ordered 3 weeks ago from Australia - long story) - we are now trying to source from someone else in the US. We may have to go without it! So all going well we should be off by the end of this week. It is 4,500 nautical miles to Tahiti - our longest passage so far - probably 35 days or thereabouts! We are pretty keen to get there as quickly as possible to see Nicole, David and our grandchildren - we are so looking forward to spending the last part of our journey with them all!

We have a Panama number until we leave - +507 6528 5403
In terms of our email to alphacrucis@110pct.com address - as we do not now have a lap top we will endeavour to pick up this mail when we have access to a computer.

Take care,
Lots of Love
The Jolly Rogers-------------------------------------------------

Canry Islands to Carribean

2009-06-10T04:11:00.000-07:00

Date 11/06/09
We Have Arrived In Panama!
We tied up at Shelter Bay Marina in Panama at 10.30pm tonight!
Our last 20 miles was somewhat stressful approaching the entrance amongst 40 plus vessels that were anchored outside the main entrance! Once inside we then had to navigate our entrance into the marina just inside the huge breakwater! During this process we did pass by an anchored ship with no lights!!!!
The forecast of light and variable winds for the last 24 hours turned out to be strong head winds of at least 20 knots - probably the variable part of the forecast!
We boxed on under motor but the current and squalls slowed our progress considerably over 24 hours! However we are here now and tomorrow once we are cleared in by the Panama Authorities we will learn of our transit date!
Meantime we have just had dinner and a few well deserved drinks!
Love Lois and Terry

Date 05/06/09
Day 05 Position N1314, W073 47, Miles to go:0428
Wind Speed 30 kn wind Direction 090
Weather Mixed, Sea State Rough

Destination is Colon on the Caribbean side of the Panama Canal.

Continue to make good progress having averaged just over six knots for the last four days. Seas range from moderate to rough with some very big ones from time to time with accompanying lurches, broaches and jolts. Mostly we are under reefed headsail and the mizzen.

The night before last at 3 am we suffered a big hit. Unfortunately the jolt catapulted our main laptop across the main cabin landing in a heap on the cabin sole. It ejected the battery, disgorged the hard drive, dislodged the screen and broke the USB connection to our backup GPS and bent the chassis. A very sad event. In contains our "everything". We have elected to leave any restoration attempt until Panama.

You may recall that the previous night we lost our refrigeration for a while. Given the choice we would opt for the refrigeration over the laptop!!! Our refrigeration is working well at present.

Except for a brief dive into acute depression we are well, well fed and well entertained by Peter who is working hard to improve his status from deck hand to Second Mate.

Cocktail hour continues to be sacrosanct despite all.

Love to you all and we still are....

The Jolly Rogers

2009-06-02T07:04:00.000-07:00

Adrienne and Daryl bound for St Thomas from St John

Adrienne, Daryl and Me avoiding Mosquitos

Faye and Me on board AC

Faye and John at Foxy's on Josh Van Dyke Island

Faye, John and Us at "Jolly Roger Inn", Soper's Hole, Tortola

Happy hour at Bitter End Yacht Club, Virgin Gorda

Mayo Bay, St John

Mixing with Locals on Josh Van Dyke Island

Sailander Crew

Soggy Dollar Bar with Faye and John

Daryl and Adriennne in St Thomas

ST THOMAS, US VIRGIN ISLANDS – 01 June 2009

No we haven’t been lost in the Bermuda Triangle – sorry we have not updated the blog sooner!

Our time in the Caribbean is nearing it’s end as we are ready to leave for Panama!

It has been such a treat to be able to enjoy this time in the Caribbean after our rather long Atlantic crossing, in lovely warm temperatures and clear waters – and everything at a much slower pace than the last few months. However most of time until the last two week the weather has been rather erratic with strong winds and loads of rain. It is now officially the hurricane season in this area – hence a good time to leave!!!

The BVI’s generally offered a great variety of lovely anchorages which was fabulous. So many charter boats – no wonder it is known as the charter mecca of the globe!!! Private vessels are certainly around but pale into insignificance compared to the weekly charter numbers!

We found the BVI’s expensive even compared to Europe which we didn’t really expect. The only item we have determined that is better value is the cost of diesel. General produce is of average quality but you can buy most things. Our motorbikes in Road Town (main town of Tortola in the BVI’s) came in extremely handy for provisioning and general shopping! As usual they attract much interest and we only wish we had the agency to sell them!!!!

Within the first few days of arriving in the BVI’s we met another NZ couple, Pete and Rae on their 55 foot ketch Saliander, which they bought in Greece and are now en route back to NZ. They had some other friends on board with them – a couple from Auckland, Mandy and Bruce and Penny, a New Zealander living in Florida. Rae and Peter came over to say hello to us which lead to a couple drinks and then they invited us back to their boat for dinner – a great night all round! We have since caught up with them again in Soper’s Hole – they are now heading north to Bermuda.

The popularity of the this area with boaties comes hand in hand with the reputation of various long standing restaurants and bars. We had a few friends that emailed us to say we must visit some of these establishments; Bitter End Yacht Club, Foxy’s and the Soggy Dollar Bar which continue to live on and provide many wonderful memories to many! We particularly enjoyed the latter two on Jost Van Dyke. We discovered a new cocktail at Foxy’s which was Mango and Banana slush topped off with a nip of rum – absolutely unbelievably delicious!!! Has the potential to become the signature drink on AC!!

We were fortunate enough to have our friends Faye and John from London during our visit to Jost Van Dyke. We had a wonderful time catching up with them during their 4 day stay. They stayed at a lovely villa complex on Frenchman’s Cay in Tortola and we were anchored close by in place called Soper’s Hole (on the west end of Tortola). And as luck would have it we anchored directly opposite a great restaurant bar called the JOLLY ROGER INN! A fairly basic structure which is indicative of it’s name but the food and the atmosphere was fantastic.

Our day with Faye and John on Jost Van Dyke was such fun. We sailed over to the island with four of us and returned with a couple from Tennessee, Pepper and Mike, that we picked up in the taxi back from the Soggy Dollar Bar to AC. The evening was capped off by a great dinner at the Jolly Roger Inn!

We said goodbye to the BVI’s and arrived in St John, US Virgins on the 19th of May to pick up my nephew Daryl and his wife Adrienne who visited us from New York. This is their fourth visit to us during our time in the Northern Hemisphere. While they were living in London they visited us in Cowes, Malta and Santorini. And they have been most helpful in coinciding their visits to us with delivering parts etc for AC! During their short stay with us we decided to have a picnic on the beach in Mayo Bay in St John. The beaches around here are nothing short of stunning with a fabulous back drop of flora and fauna. But unfortunately the downside is the mosquitoes were rampant, so we spent most of the time ashore in the water (up to our necks)! However not without enjoying the a glass of wine or two – excellent way to keep those creatures at bay AND there is always an upside to everything! Of course we didn’t bother to have lunch – we enjoyed that back on AC!

The night before we dropped Daryl and Adrienne off in Charlotte Amalie, St Thomas we all went ashore and found a great bar called the ‘Rum Shack’ on the waterfront. The musicians were excellent – they had the whole place pumping! They certainly know how to party here! The evening was topped off by a delicious dinner that Daryl and Adrienne had arranged!

Whilst we were anchored in Charlotte Amalie we met a couple of lots of New Zealanders. First a 32 footer with five New Zealanders on board all from Auckland – 4 guys and 1 girl (very brave)! They bought their boat in Florida and were on their way south to Trinidad. They were a great bunch of young people having fun! And then we meet Roy and Doon Kelly from Auckland as well. They also bought their boat in Florida and have been spending time around the eastern coast of the US, Florida to Chesapeake Bay, and now on their way south to Trinidad also. Great to know people are fulfilling their dreams and having fun!!

Despite our leisurely pace this last month or so we have taken the opportunity to get through a list of jobs. But our faithful genset has been a right pain this last week or so with one thing failing after another which has given Terry immense challenges – of course all of which he has addressed in excessive heat and succeeded! We did have to come into the marina one day earlier so we could have power for the refrigeration while he worked on the problems. We have spent the last few days provisioning etc and Terry has fitted the new part for the propeller – cross fingers there!!!

On Thursday evening we caught up with a family we meet in the BVI’s who came into this marina! Bob and Patsy are from Tampa Florida and they had 5 of their 6 children on board – some of which we had met previously. Fortunately they have a gorgeous 90 foot motor boat (British Sunseeker) to accommodate them all. We enjoyed a lovely dinner on board that evening.

Our Deck Hand, Peter Riella, from Melbourne arrived on Friday to do the passage with us to Panama. He has done little sailing but wanted the opportunity of doing something way out of the ordinary. I am sure he will fit in well and in fact has been most helpful the last few days so sure he will rise to Second Mate in no time!

Yesterday we discovered we had a problem with our refrigeration – shock horror! You wouldn’t believe how lucky we were on a Sunday to get an expert to us last night at 6.30pm and he fitted the new copper piping, which had cracked (located behind the installation in the engine room) and got our system going again!!! Phew that was a real relief!!!!

We are now waiting for the second part of our new spinnaker which we ordered last month – we got the sail Thursday but without the sock so, we are hoping that will arrive today as we cannot go without it!!

The next leg is 1050 miles which should be a timeframe of somewhere between 6-9 days! Hopefully we will not have to wait too long before we can transit the canal. Peter and I will be part of the line handlers – which means we need only an extra 2 handlers on board and saves us 240.00USD! This time it may be a 2 day transit with an overnight in the Gatun Lakes which will be interesting. Our last transit was in one day, 8 hours – perfect!

Our friends in Panama, Willie and Mary are awaiting our pending arrival. We are certainly looking forward to spending time with them both before we head off towards Tahiti.

Take care,
The Jolly Rogers

St Martin, Caribbean – 16.04.2009

2009-04-16T12:51:00.000-07:00

A Very Nice and Tasty Mahi Mahi... Compliments of Lois: "AC Fisherwoman"

AC 108 Nautical Miles from St Barts

Taking Time-out

Celebrating our Wedding Anniversary at Sea

Cocktail Hour at Sea

Crew at Work.. Polishing between all the other Jobs! (Note the small Gennaker Flying)

Even Lois Needs a Rest from Time to Time (in rolling seas)

Happy Easter.. Lois's Talent at Sea

Ready to Launch the MPS

..... Launched and Romping

At Work During Cocktail Hour at Sea

At Anchor at St St Barts at last..

Ashore at St Barts

Up From the Deep.. Removed whilst at Anchor in 8.5 Metres

Captain Working on our Propeller

It has been 12 days since we arrived in St Barts (4^th April) at the completion of our second Trans Atlantic passage!

Our journey across the Atlantic…….

This was the passage I was not looking forward to basically because of our experience with our previous encounter of the Atlantic in the North from Halifax to Falmouth in October 2006 but as we said on our previous update – we understand what they mean when they call the mid Atlantic passage the ‘milk run’! According to all the literature we have we were suppose to have at that time stronger north east trades but in fact we got the opposite which at times was most frustrating. However the upside was, apart from the action of a little rolling with confused swells and following seas, most of the time we were relatively comfortable!

We had the usual maintenance issues en route which Terry, as per normal, was able to resolve. I think the most scary moments for me as well as for him was taking him to the top of the mast – twice – in lumpy seas to reattach the halyard for the MPS! It was quite challenging for him to hold on to the mast as the boat swayed from side to side and do what he had to do at the same time! That certainly got our adrenalin going!!

We encountered little traffic, just 5 ships in 27 days – sheer bliss compared to our passage across the Mediterranean.

During the first week we headed south towards and beyond the Cape Verde Islands. We saw many large pods of Dolphins which visited us pretty much every day, just a great reminder what a delightful mammal they are!

As you would appreciate our day pretty much centres around meal times and fortunately I did not experience any sea sickness this time so was able to deliver a consistent standard of meals enhanced by the fabulous Mahi Mahi’s we caught. I prepared some of it tempura style – delicious!

We are every grateful, especially on these long journey’s, for the refrigerator space we have on AC and we were able to make our vegetables last for the whole time and with some to spare. However these were embellished at times with the beans sprouts, mint, and rocket I grew!

You wonder how in earth do you fill in 27 days – well the 24 hour days seems to go quite quickly really by the time you do what you must to keep everything working and the boat moving not to mention the meals, washing and general cleaning to ensure we are ship shape! As most of you would know our focus of the day is cocktail hour where we enjoy the time listening to music, having our meal and an accompanying drink!

Terry has added another dimension to his many talents this journey – now also known as Doctor Rogers as he bought a blood pressure machine in Malta to monitor himself but of course he checks on me as well. Delighted to report that we are both in good shape and it didn’t even cost a visit to the GP!

Day 27 – we are finally within sight of land – how exciting! About 5 miles out – still with our lure out – yippee a tuna jumped on the line – couldn’t believe it!

We anchored (at 4.27pm local time) under sail as we had a problem with the propeller (couldn’t use the engine) which was rather tricky manoeuvring amongst the many anchored yachts and motor yachts – I can tell you we were rather relieved to be finally anchored safely.

Once we were all secure, as you would expect , we opened the champagne followed by a raspberry vodka martini and I cooked dinner. We were not long out of bed but feeling pretty happy with ourselves having arrived safely and most things in tact!

The next morning, upon putting the dinghy into the water, found that the outboard wasn’t working properly – only operating on full revs- which was a problem being anchored out quite a way from the township!

We did manage to get into town and clear in with the authorities. Unfortunately for us it was Sunday and very little was open in terms of bars and restaurants but we managed to find one. It was after 3pm and the kitchen was closed so we had a couple of drinks and a packet of chips!

St Barts is an attractive place and certainly popular with sea going people, however it is expensive. We had to pay 18 Euros a day just to anchor in the harbour which isn’t well protected!

It was great to see it but have to say that we thought it a little overrated!

The next 3 days Terry spent resolving the issue with the outboard, he ended up taking the entire fuel system apart, and then addressed the propeller, which he took off and repaired with parts from our original propeller… underwater – no mean feat!

We then spent the next few days in a lovely bay further north on the island just chilling out! The weather is warm and sunny and the water warm and clear!

Last Saturday we made our way to St Martin – the French side! It is a little more casual and low key compared to St Barts but has a good feel to it albeit over Easter weekend it has been very quiet! Being duty free and very reasonable we have stocked up on our liquor cache. You can fairly much buy most things in terms of food however at times the produce is looking a little tired!

We met a French gentleman from Switzerland, Jean Christian, off a catamaran moored along side us a few days ago who invited us to dinner on his lovely boat. He has a crew of 2, Captain and Stewardess /Chef. His wife and family join him regularly. We had a delicious dinner and lovely evening. Hopefully we will catch up with him again in the BVI’s. But if not he is intending to make his way to Tahiti, New Zealand and Australia next year!

We are off to British Virgin Islands today and looking forward to cruising around the many islands there. From there to the US Virgins and will then make our way to Panama by late May and through the Canal to Panama City. We are looking forward to catching up with our friends Willie and Mary again whom we saw when we were going in the opposite direction in 2006! For now we are in cruising mode!

Just a reminder; we will pick our normal mail up at alphacrucis@110pct.com intermittently when we can connect to a wifi and at this point we do not have a mobile telephone.

Thanks to all of you for your ongoing good wishes of love and support – we are very humbled and grateful! To quote one of our dear friends Seally Gordon, who is a constant companion on our journey; “Right now there is nothing that would give me greater pleasure that the vision of two sailors (of your vintage) having crossed the Atlantic, safely moored, successfully cleared customs, clean shaven, brushed hair with a touch of lippy walking joyfully to the nearest public house in the knowledge that for one night no one does it better than yourselves – Fond Admiration”!

Love the Jolly Rogers

AC Atlantic Crossing Canaries to Lesser Antilles

2009-03-11T01:47:00.000-07:00

THEY HAVE MADE IT! Saturday 4th April 2009
We are delighted to report that we anchored just off the main town, Gustavia, in St Barts - Caribbean at 2.27pm or 1427hrs local time today (Saturday)!
After 27 days at sea (longest passage so far) from the Canaries we are of course feeling a little strange to be stationary. But hey a good feeling to finally have completed our second Trans Atlantic crossing and compared to our North Atlantic crossing (Oct 2006) this has been a 'walk in the park' ha,ha, and despite it's frustrations, we now understand what they mean in talking about the Mid Atlantic 'milk run'!
Our approach overnight towards the island was a number of starboard and port hand down wind gibes with north east winds. However that changed this morning to south east which was fine. We didn't want to use the engine as we knew we had a problem with the propellor so we actually anchored surrounded by a large number of yachts under sail - tricky but fortunately all went according to plan!
Terry has since dived down to check firstly, the anchor to ensure it is looking ok which is is and then the propellor. Definitely have a problem with the latter which he will sort out over the next couple of days.
We decided that we will check in with authorities tomorrow by dinghy.
But more importantly we are now making our way through our bottle of champagne NO 1 which has travelled with us all the way from NZ - celebrating our safe passage over some 3000 odd nautical miles across the Atlantic and enjoying the privilege that tonight we can go to sleep in our own bed at the same time! And tomorrow is another day and thankfully for the time being - not at sea!
Thanks for your encouragement and support during this marathon!
Love Lois and Terry

Date:31/03/2009 Day:24
Position:19 53 N, 57 04 W
NM to go:355, Wind Speed:12, Wind Direction:060, Weather:Sunny, Sea state:Light
Although winds have been moderate to light the sea state has been a pain most of the time. This is because there are two superimposing swell patterns, one from the North and one from the NE. Even the official weather reports from the Miami Tropical Centre forecast them. This means that the waves are sometimes quite large, steep and confused, quite unlike normal long ocean swells. This gives us bouts of undue rolling and slows AC down. Nothing sinister however.

Our man in Brisbane and famous British circumnavigator, Matt Clarke, has reported light winds ahead and at this time it looks like he is right. Our man currently in the high and low country of the South Island, Murray Aldridge, keeps the blog current from wherever he is along with helpful sailing information and local stuff.

A couple of days ago Lois noticed a new clunking sound emanating from the stern area. She is very aware of every sound in every situation which is a great asset. Turns out it was the spigot on the rudder arm to which the autopilot hydraulic arm is attached, was working loose. A good thing to fix so we did. Lois on the helm with me below with our Dale Wrightson supplied walkie-talkies.

Yesterday we set the MPS (Spinnaker) and it was just great. Cruising along at 6 - 7.5 knots with the sail steadying AC beautifully. That took us past a mild celebration of our 12th Wedding Anniversary and into the very pleasant night. At 0330 this morning a small puff shredded the sail up the luff and across the foot. It took about an hour for us to get the remnants down and away and continue on our way under headsail and mizzen.

Hopefully we we be able to effect repairs in the BVI (or get a new one?) but meantime we are back to making slow progress. Such is life.

Because of the sea state we have decided not to use the Mainsail when the wind is abaft the beam (ie behind us). Despite efforts to tie the boom in place the constant flogging creates more damage to battens and fastenings than it is worth. Also we don't achieve much extra speeed.

The weather is excellent, our stocks of food and beverage would sustain us for months , plenty of water as we make it and fuel for the genset in good supply but it would be imprudent to use the main engine for passage making. Could be another 5 days or so before we see land. Will keep you posted..

Love

The Jolly Rogers

Date:26/03/2009 Day:19
Position:N20 06,W45 34
NM to go:980, Wind Speed:14,Wind Direction:150,Weather:Fine,Sea State:Light

What a day! You will recall that we attempted to go up the mast last evening but gave it away. Most of yesterday was spent preparing to mount two halyards, one with a new block (Pulley} and stainless steel "S" hook for quick attachment at the masthead. At sunrise the winds were light (% kts) and the swell looked less inhibiting so woke Lois to try again. I almost reneged at the halfway point but bit the bullet and continued to the top under the control of, and encouragement of, Lois. Hanging on with one arm, holding the halyards in the other, put me at the limit I must admit. Stopped for rests on the way up. Once at the top it was, as all the bits and pieces converge, slightly easier to hang on despite the increased arc of movement.

Fortunately everything fitted well and was able to load the halyards through the blocks and send them down to Lois. Whew!!

Having two arms fully available on the way down was a comparative luxury. We were so pleased to be back on deck with two fully intact halyards in place. Poor Lois had to break her rest period to do this... life at sea!!

Some of you experienced sailors may ask? 1. Why didn't we have spare halyards pre rigged? 2. What about using the Main and/or the Headsail halyards? Answers.. 1. Yes we should have. 2. Didn't want to risk damage to the s/s halyards or the masthead but would have as a last resort.

After breakfast re routed the halyards. On the way back to the deck, because of the swaying, they found their own individual circuitous way back so all that had to be sorted.

In the previous 24 hours we only covered 86 miles toward our destination because of light and fickle winds. At around 1000 hrs in came the wind at 20 knots from the SSE no less. Ain't supposed to do that here. But this was good as it picked us up to 6 - 7 knots in the correct direction with Headsail and Mizzen. Well that lasted until midday and the wind dropped to about 14 knots. Time to raise the spinnaker!

Did that except the throat of the launching sock collapsed. Back down to the deck with it, removed the sock, and re-launched it "au naturale". A lot of activity and effort for a crew of two.

Since the have been clipping along at 5.5 - 6.5 knots, on course and steady. At last.

At 1430 we crossed the "1000 miles to" go barrier so Lois prepared a wonderful fish and Singapore noodle dish with wine. Something we don't normally do before cocktail hour.

Love

The Jolly Rogers

M&M.. Methinks I know why the apparent counter current. Below 5 knots boat speed, SOG is greater, above 5 knots boat speed SOG is less. Must be our log is not linearly accurate? Now receiving Forecasts from the US. Hope you are well. T&L.

Date:25/03/2009 Day:18
Position:N19 39,W43 57
NM to go:1074, Wind Speed:12,Wind Direction:090,Weather:Sunny, Sea State:Moderate
Not much has changed since our last report. Continuing light Easterly winds means our progress is slow, averaging 5 knots, but comfortable so that is OK with us. Our hot water system failed with a burnt out heating element so that took a while to fix. Lois caught her second Mahi Mahi which was twice the size as the first one so we are replete with fish at the moment.
Although the winds are light there is still a moderate residual swell. We tried to set new Spinnaker halyards this afternoon but gave it away after hoisting to above the boom as too marginal/dangerous..darn!!
Love
The Jolly Rogers
M&M Hope Murray is enjoying the 4wd adventure in the South Is. Matt, as you can see we have not moved south yet because of the added 300-400 miles and we thought we would be able to reinstate our MPS...maybe tomorrow? Please keep the info coming as you are able to. We are not receiving Inmarsat weather reports at the moment but I request/get a Gib about every three days. Any more frequently takes to to much air time. Love. T&L

Date:18/03/09 Day:11
Position:N1617,W02827, Miles to go:1977, Wind Speed:18, Wind Direction:000Weather:Sunny, Sea State:Light
Comments:Current destination is still St Martin. We have traveled 1700 nm from Gibraltar, 1000 nm from the Canaries and only two "Tasmans" to go to reach the Lesser Antilles. Not far in the scheme of things what!
Until this morning we have had our MPS (Spinnaker) doing a sterling job in light/medium airs for the past few days dragging us SW towards the elusive "Trades" belt. Had a few glitches though. Two evenings ago the halyard parted at the top of the mast, it had chafed through against the forestay. The entire sail dropped into the briny so it took L & I some time to get it back on board in the dark just after dinner... darn it! Next morning under headsail the swells and conditions were not too bad so Lois winched me up to the top to re-rove the halyard. Not something we really wanted to do but we needed the sail power to get us South. We were both pleased on my arrival back on deck. A lot of movement up there even in mild conditions, especially for crew of our vintage.
Last night just before midnight our Genset failed. Lois was on watch and had to prise me out of a deep sleep. Turns out the vee belt had parted so all was repaired and operational in time for tea at 0100 hrs. The Genset is our lifeblood out here.
At about 1000 hrs this morning the halyard parted again and once again we had to retrieve the mess. Yes we tried to avoid it happening again by routing the halyard differently but that didn't work OK! The problem is the halyard block is mounted on the wrong side of the forestay for a starboard tack. At the next opportunity we will mount a second halyard on the other side.. Probably when we reach a sanctuary in the Caribbean.
Oh yes, our sump pump failed after the Spinnaker episode, flooding from the grey water system added to the aromatic's of the morning..Such is life! Now fixed.
Now some better/good news...Had the MPS not fallen down we would have had to take it down as from that time the start of the "Trades" have kicked in and we have been under full sail since that time making over 6 knots and, would you believe it, in the right direction. May it continue.
Whilst we were packing and stowing the now dry MPS Lois a fish jumped onto Lois "the fisher woman's" killer line.. but jumped off before she could attend to it. happy that 1. there are fish out here and 2. the lure she has chosen worked...watch this space!
Our support team, Murray on blog and weather (Auckland and the World) and Matt (Brisbane) on weather, are just doing a great unpaid job for us. We are so grateful.
Cheers
The Jolly Rogers in Mid Atlantic (Sort Of)

Date:13/03/09 Day:06
Position:N20 53,W024 39
Miles to go:2100, Wind Speed:12, Wind Direction:040
Weather:Fine, Sea State:Light
Comments: We are now 200 miles north west of Cape Verde Islands or 700 nm SW of Las Palmas in the Canaries, our last departure point!
This is our 6th day at sea and all is well! In fact we were just saying that it is the most enjoyable continuous sailing we have done in a long time - long may it last! We haven't put the main sail up yet, just a combination of using the head sail with the mizzen or the MPS with the mizzen. The wind speed has not exceeded 20 knots but at times there has been no wind - overall very pleasant!
We are heading south west looking for the trade winds before we head west! Only 2100 miles to go!!!!
No sign of life out here other than many pods of dolphins who visit at least once a day.
Thank goodness no sign of other vessels especially fishing boats so our watches are not stressful compared to what we have been subject to recently.
Have the fishing line out but no luck yet!
We crossed the Tropic of Cancer at 1006 hrs GMT for the fourth time; probably for the last time in AC. The Equator and the Tropic of Capricorn will be special events to look forward to.
Last early evening the tack line on the MPS parted as it had caught up on the forestay attachment. Fixed that this morning and added a covering plastic hose so that that won't happen again...ha,ha. Except for the first day and a half motoring we have had Champagne conditions with only a few hours of almost no wind. So far we have averaged about 130 miles per day. Very happy with the gentle conditions..we are not in a race!
It is sooo pleasant that Lois is creating a veritable garden of herbs in the cockpit... and the seeds are indeed germinating. Part of her anti-scurvy programme!

Food quality and service is still Cordon Bleu+!!!

These transmissions are via ground radio stations. At the moment we are equidistant from Belgium, Trinidad and Nova Scotia. Generally we are able to connect just on dusk.

Lots of Love
Lois and Terry

Date: 10/03/09 Day 03
Position: N25 03, W019 02, Miles to go:2600
Wind Speed:15kn, Wind Direction:040
Weather:Fine, Sea State:Light
Comments: Left Las Palmas 1250 hrs on the 8th of March. Destination is St Martin in the Lesser Antilles. Actual distance to go will depend on our route. We are moving SSE until we pick up the trades assuming they exist at this time?
Lois writes.."Would you believe despite the forecast on Sunday of North East winds we motored south into head winds!! After we passed south of Gran Canaria, just after dark, the wind strength decreased to literally nothing so we continued to motor until this morning which was our deadline to turn off the engine! We have to save our fuel for power from our Generator. Fortunately the wind direction changed to our starboard quarter and light enough to set the MPS (a type of spinnaker)which we haven't used since our passage from Hawaii to San Diego. Very comfortable and we are ticking along between 5-7 knots. We need get south just north of Cape Verde Islands before heading west in the trades. Let's hope these winds keep up so we can head in the right direction.
The temperature is warming up considerably as we head south so rather pleasant. Have had drinks on the aft deck last couple of nights.
Another couple of days and we will really be in the swing of living at sea! So far feeling AOK and managing to deliver 3 good quality meals a day."
Lots of Love Lois and Terry

Las Palmas, Gran Canaria – 8 March 2009

2009-03-08T03:18:00.000-07:00

We arrived in Las Palmas last Sunday the 1st after 5 days at sea from Gibraltar!
Overall it was a comfortable passage however we did a lot of motor sailing because of the light conditions which of course we will not be able to do on the next leg!! However we were keen to push on so we used our precious diesel so we made good time in 5 days! I guess the good news is that it was a lot more reasonably priced in Gibraltar (0.59p per litre)and even cheaper here we understand! Certainly a lot different than we paid in October for a litre in Corfu @ 1.48 euros!

Anyway the staff at the marina were very welcoming and efficient so our check in went seamlessly for a change!!! We were tied up, power on and checked in within 40 minutes of our arrival. At the end of that process a lady by the name of Lorna (on a boat just along from us) came along to welcome us and during the course of chatting invited us for drinks and then subsequently dinner! She and her husband Lee (Americans) and their two children – twins Elliot & Eden aged 6 years - are travelling also across the Atlantic leaving any day as well! They have been waiting for some parts for two weeks which have now finally arrived!.

We had a very pleasant evening sitting on the aft deck of their 60 foot Catamaran! We also met another French couple both named Dominique and their little son who were also on board for dinner.

So we were pretty up to beat on local knowledge by the end of the evening which was great news, however the next day we ventured only as far as the marina bar to pick up mail and spent the remainder of the day relaxing and watching a couple of great movies lent to us by Lee and Lorna!

We have made several trips into the main part of town where a fabulous a food market is located - - Mercado Centrale - which sells produce, meat, fish and seafood and poultry and pretty much everything else right down to fresh herbs.
To my delight the surrounding area was also littered with excellent Asian shops so was able to stock up with products that I hadn’t seen for a very long time!!

This place certainly has a great feel to it – great selections of bars, restaurants, shops etc and unlike many Mediterranean towns in winter it has a lively feel, I guess it is a warm retreat for many people in winter – the temperature today is 22 degrees! The public beach adjacent to the marina is absolutely pristine – very impressive!

It has been a bonus to have met Lee and Lorna and spend time with them during the course of the last week and hopefully we will see them soon in the Caribbean!

So we are leaving today – Sunday - on our journey across the Atlantic – nearly 3000 nm and probably will take between 3-4 weeks depending on the wind! It is known as the ‘milk run’ passage – well I believe that when we experience it’ but if that’s the case it will make the comparison to our North Atlantic passage a walk in the park – here’s hoping!

Once again Murray Aldridge will keep our blog posted and we will pickup normal email where we get to the Caribbean or if you need to contact more urgently contact Murray Aldridge. We will not have a mobile until we return to NZ now!

Leg 3 is about to begin – not what we expected to be doing however we are organised and in good shape and spirits!!! Of course we are looking forward to getting to the Caribbean.

Lots of Love
The Jolly Rogers

Gibraltar to Canary Islands

2009-03-01T01:17:00.000-08:00

27/02/09
Day No: 04
Position: N 31 20 W 011 36
Miles to go: 280
Wind Speed/Direction: 15 kn 045
Weather: Cloudy
Sea State: Moderate
Destination is Las Palmas, Gran Canaria, Canary Islands. We are 430 nm from Gibraltar.
Hi trust this finds you well.
We left Queensway Quay Marina at 0840 on Tuesday 24 after they opened the floating boom to let us out. We then moved around the harbour to the fuel dock across from the Airport. Departed the dock at 1000 hrs on our way to the Canaries. At least the fuel prices were much better than anywhere in the Med.
To take advantage of the Eastward set we had to leave by 1100 at the latest. We got that right, having a pleasant motor at 6.5+ knots out through the Straits, crossing the Traffic Separation Zones in the presence of heaps of shipping in calm and warm conditions. The forecast for Gibraltar and the Straits was for Easterlies force 8 in the early hours. In fact they, according to our Met Info have had force 9 conditions for the last 3 days... We were thankful to have missed that!!
Queensway Quay Marina...hmmm. Quite new, right downtown, chic with bars, restaurants and up market surrounding apartments, even reasonably priced by European standards but there it ends. A design fault makes it very uncomfortable even in light airs.
It is located on the old harbour/city wall and is about the size of a football field and is fully enclosed except for a very narrow right angled entrance. All of that is enclosed in the old "Great" harbour which is almost totally enclosed by 2 surrounding breakwaters probably up to 1/4 of a mile out from the main docks.
It suffers from sympathetic resonance! Ie any small surge outside is amplified inside the Marina. (just like an acoustic guitar or violin amplifies the small movement of the strings for certain "resonant" frequencies).
We experienced only 20- 25 kts when we first arrived and AC and all the other Vessels were uncomfortably moving up and down and in and out. We suffered damage to our transom and wore out one of our stern lines. Sleeping was difficult.
Apparently last October a force 9 caused havoc and mayhem with the floating pontoons breaking loose and severe damage to a number of vessels. People were stranded on their yachts and vise versa. It will be interesting to find out what has happened over the last few days??
We motored the first night and except last night with head winds and lumpy seas we have been able to sail most of the time. At one point we gybe tacked towards Casablanca and the out again until the winds became reasonably favourable. The downside was the increased frequency of b... fishing boats. Large ships were quite numerous to start with but having moved away from the Moroccan coast has made our night life easier.
Our new sail looks good and is working well.
Our speed is down to below 4 kts so we had better attend to it.
AC

Gibraltar – 23 February 2009

2009-02-23T13:38:00.000-08:00

AC on the hard in Sotogrande

Edmond & Graham

Julia & Richard birthday Hosts

Margaret, Julia & Fiona at my Birthday Dinner

Peter and Mary

Roy and Margaret

Lois with Sir Ted Dexter

Not sure quite where to start with writing about the last 3 weeks since we arrived in Sotogrande to have AC lifted out but here goes…..

AC was eventually lifted out of the water on Friday 6^th of February after waiting 3 days for the travel lift to be fixed. We were to stay with John and Sandra Fitzpatrick but had guests

arriving early so Roy and Margaret very kindly offered to have us stay with them. You will recall we had only met them earlier in the week so what an amazing gesture to invite us to stay in their home. Even so we had know them only a short time it felt like we had know them for years – I believe they felt the same!! Not only did they have us to stay Roy dropped us off every morning at the yard and picked us up every night.

We worked quite hard on AC over the next 6 days – me on anti fouling and Terry sorting out the fixing of the propeller which turned out to be a worn bearing as well as a loose propeller which explained the knocking noise. Fortunately no damage had been done. We did have the Sunday off when Roy and Margaret decided to invite a few other friends around to their home for a Sunday roast which lingered into the evening – excellent!

During the course of that week it was also my birthday on the 10^th. Friends of Margaret’s and Roy’s, Richard and Julia, organised a wonderful dinner at their home with a few others – in fact 14 people in all! What a wonderful evening and once again we couldn’t have been made more welcome.

Earlier in the week we met a gentleman staying with John and Sandra by the name of Ted Dexter the famous English cricketer. He lives in Nice with his wife. We enjoyed hearing the story of him piloting his own aircraft (Piper Aztec) and flying out to Australia with his family many years ago!! He was such a character - we enjoyed his company at various times, including my birthday dinner, during the course of the week!

Of course we are grateful to both John and Sandra for introducing us to all these lovely people

since arriving in Sotogrande. Our social programme was equally hectic as our working days – no wonder we were tired when we arrived in Gibraltar. We can’t thank them enough for their hospitality, particularly Roy and Margaret who made us feel very welcome in their home – we so enjoyed their wonderful company and looking forward to seeing them in NZ next February!!

AC went back into water on the 12^th and we made our way to Gibraltar with a few of our new ‘best’ friends on board who came along for the ride – it was a really nice warm sunny day as well.

We caught up with Mike and Nicky in Gibraltar who we met in Samos whilst they were cruising on their boat. We spent quite a few fabulous nights with them in Samos so it was great to be able to met up with them again. Nicky has a business here in Gibraltar but they have a house in Spain. We went to their apartment here in Gibraltar for dinner last Wednesday and Nicky cooked us a delicious meal. We are encouraging them both to come and cruise in NZ!!!

Graham Waring our friend from Essex arrived on Tuesday for two days with his friend, Edmond,

whom we met with Graham when he visited us in Malta last March. It was a whirlwind two days but great to see them both.

Then on Saturday Mary and Peter Reeve our Foulness Island friends arrived and left us today! Again it was wonderful to spend our final two days with them to say goodbye. We are sorry we couldn’t say goodbye to Barbara fondly known as Bubs (Mary’s mother) who kindly agreed to adopt us during our many visits to their home on Foulness Island in Essex. We had had a very enjoyable lunch yesterday on the waterfront here in the Marina with Roy and Margaret also! Wonderful to think our friends would fly all this way to catch up with us before we leave the northern hemisphere – or it is just to make sure we do in fact leave – just kidding!!!!

So we are finally leaving Europe tomorrow on our way to Canaries and then across the Atlantic! It has been a full on 3 weeks in every which way – we have a newly anti fouled boat, a much improved effective propeller (now able to motor much faster) an excellent birthday celebration for me and most importantly a few more wonderful friends that we are encouraging to come to NZ after we get home – a pretty good outcome we thought!

We are cancelling our UK mobile number as at the 15^th of March, therefore we will not have phone from hereon in, however we will endeavour to pick up our email when we can.

Murray Aldridge will be updating the blog as we progress to the Canaries and across the Atlantic.

Until next time,

Love The Jolly Rogers

Sotogrande, Spain – 05 February 2009

2009-02-06T05:18:00.000-08:00

For those of you who have been following our travels west across the Mediterranean will be pleased to know we have finally arrived in Sotogrande on Monday afternoon (2^nd of Feb). We are now 16 miles north of Gibraltar and can easily identify the ‘Rock’ from this distance. It is a wonderful sight to us!

We had an eventful 28 hours journey from Almerimar, during which, we pretty much had every weather condition possible – well I guess not a storm at least! We started our journey with light winds from the South East and were able to sail which continued to early evening. At that point the wind direction changed to the south west and picked up momentum as the hours ticked along. Then we encountered numerous squalls complete with thunder and lighting – quite a display and finally the last squall which was quite violent changed the wind direction to west 25 – 30 knots! Except for the SSE winds none of this weather was forecast!

At this point we were about 20 miles from the Malaga coastline. We plodded our way towards the coast endeavouring to get some shelter, which we did some hours later, when we continued motoring down the coast line to Sotogrande. It was rather a long long tiring night for both of us - so we were delighted to reach our destination.

We have been communicating with the yard since we were in Sardinia regarding the lifting out of AC to sort the problem of the knocking sound near the shaft. However we found out when we arrived that the lift is not working. We are waiting to hear when it is and then we can get on to solving our issue and push on to Gibraltar.

The upside of being here is that we met a couple in San Diego, John and Sandra Fitzpatrick (John was a famous sports car racing person in the 70’s and 80’s) in 2006 and we caught up with them on our way through to the Med in September 2007. Fortunately for us John has been most helpful in sourcing information in advance for us and they have very kindly offered to have us to stay with them while AC is on the hard! Gosh it makes all the difference when you have a local person to look out for you!!

On Tuesday John picked up and took us to a friend’s of his home – Roy and Margaret Oswell - where we had a lovely dinner – it was such a great evening! We are being well looked after which is fabulous!

Sotogrande is a resort complex with apartments, shops and restaurants around the water. It is very attractive, even in winter, and a very nice environment to be in! However the only downside is the cost to stay here – a little on the high side!!!

At this point we have been told that we will be lifted out tomorrow morning. It looks like we will be here until next week until probably Tuesday or Wednesday!!

At least we have just about finished Leg 2 across the Med – hooray!!!

Love

The Jolly Rogers

Almerimar Marina – Costa Del Sol, Spain 31 January 2008

2009-01-31T10:31:00.000-08:00

We left Puerto Santa Eulalia, Ibiza, late on Tuesday 28^th January based on a forecast of a window for the first 24 hours of north west winds to try and make our way to the mainland of Spain before the west and south west winds set in! No such luck, after 12 hours the north went out of the wind which became west 20 -25 knots, so we had no choice but to head south. Had we not left we could still be stuck there.

After a further 12 hours and another 60 odd nautical miles we were literally on our way to Algeria! But finally we got a little south in the wind and so we were able to change course heading for Cartagena on the mainland - or at least that was our wish! Fortunately with a help of the motor and AC being able to sail close to the wind we made it to the coast adjacent Cartagena on the Costa Blanca by 1pm Thursday and now thankfully we were in the lee of the land away from rough seas and the large swell! We followed the coastline south with help of the motor and rounded Capo Del Gata at around 4am in the morning and made our way down the Costa Del Sol coastline.

Knowing that the forecast was for strong, near gale, westerly winds by midnight on Friday we decided to head for Puerto Almerimar and the marina to take shelter – we didn’t want to risk heading into strong head winds overnight with the prospect of simply no shelter on this coast.

The truth is we simply didn’t want to risk being beaten up yet again!!!

We approached the harbour under radar and GPS because of fog, no wind and motoring and a few fishing boats to keep us on our toes. We were greeted by a very friendly port staff who assisted us to tie up, we did our paper work and were shown to our berth. Always fabulous to see some friendly helpful people!!

Overnight, indeed the westerly wind did kick in dramatically around 4am, to a point of 25-30 knots which has increased during today to 40 knots – naturally we were pleased we made the decision to take shelter!

We went off to the supermarket this morning to provision – is was obvious we were on the mainland – the choice was great – the packaging of the produce was amazing and the prices so reasonable. Being on Islands are expensive in terms of food particularly - Corfu, Malta, Ibiza where we have been!

After 3+ weeks from leaving Malta we are within 122 miles of Sotogrande, Spain, our next destination – just 20 miles north of Gibraltar – hard to believe it has taken so long to get 1000 nm! To get to this point we have spent 9 nights and 10 days at sea and 13 days and nights hiding from dreadful weather… Makes sailing to the Bay of Islands seem like an afternoon stroll!

We are going to have AC lifted out to sort out the knocking sound near the propeller. After that we need to push on and get moving to the Canaries and across the Atlantic. It is most likely that we will stopover in Gibraltar before we leave for the Canaries.

It looks like we will have a window tomorrow to leave and get to Sotogrande – we hope so!

Gosh Leg 2, Malta to Gibraltar, has been a rather tedious process!!

Keep you posted.

Love

The Jolly Rogers

Ibiza – 27 January 2008

2009-01-27T04:57:00.000-08:00

We have been in Ibiza just over a week – in a marina in Santa Eulalia on the east coast for the last 7 nights. During which time we have had winds of up to Force 10 around the vicinity and between 25 – 45 knots in the marina. It was particularly bad on Friday through to Sunday with little sleep Friday night when it was at it’s worst – up and down readjusting fenders etc.

Fortunately we were in the lee of the Island – as you would do anyway – and the west coast received majority of the damage with 15 yachts and motor boats coming adrift onto the beach and another 5 sinking. We knew it was not good but managed to see some newspapers (in Spanish) yesterday and saw for ourselves that in fact Spain has experience quite a bit of devastation. It seems we were spared in this vicinity – thank goodness!

This has been a great place to stopover though – everything here in the way of provisioning and lovely bars and restaurants. It has a nice feel but can’t imagine what it would be like summer – it would attract and does attract heaps of visitors! We found a fabulous little café and bar where we had lunch one day – food was superb and in fact the best meal we have had for a long time ashore!

We have not ventured very far from the boat though as we didn’t want to leave AC unattended in the high winds!

It has been over 2 weeks since we left Malta so it certainly has been a slow journey west across the Mediterranean, however the upside it that we are within 380 miles of our next destination. As you can imagine we haven’t even considered tempting to push on from here – just watching the weather to wait for our opportunity which presents itself today! We want to try to get as close to mainland as possible and travelled down the coast. The forecast is North west going to west tomorrow which is not great but the wind is somewhat lighter so hopefully we will be able to motor as well. The forecast for the next two days is a variation of west, south west but all low in wind strength – so here’s hoping!

We want to get to Sotogrande (north of Gibraltar) and sort this knocking issue we have so the sooner we get there the sooner we can get on our way to the Canaries.

Will keep you posted.

Love The Jolly Rogers

Alphacrucis Malta to Gibraltar

2009-01-17T10:13:00.001-08:00

Tuna Aboard.. A rare event in the Med

A Proud Moment.. Lois with her Prize

And one of the many very fine outcomes...Poached
Eggs, Hollandaise Sauce, Fresh Spinach atop Seared rare Tuna. An amazing
contrast to the conditions outside!

Position reports received for Terry & Lois along the way:
19/01/09
We arrived at the NE corner of Ibiza about 1300 today. A small haven called Cala Portinatx (3906N, 00130E). Had to backtrack hard on the wind from yesterday afternoon. The SW winds kicked in earlier and harder that predicted. We are lucky to have made the Island at all but did so by keeping AC hard on in 25-35 kts. The downside was discomfort and little rest. Did not fancy overshooting to be at the mercy of stronger winds between here and the Spanish coast heading in entirely the wrong direction toward Valencia.

However all was forgotten because as we were coming around the N/NE end of Ibiza Lois hooked a large Blue Tuna (A Bluefin??) and all thoughts of R&R faded in the excitement of the event. She had a line out most of the time since we left Malta. It is the first fish caught by us in the Med and the largest Lois has ever caught.

To get to this spot we were head into the winds again on the NE coast for about a two miles. It was quite a coordinated effort to turn in here, anchor, drop the reefed main and retrieve the fish in quite a small and windy space. As far as Lois was concerned the priority was the fish. We do not have the means to weigh it but with it's tail touching the deck it's snout was up to my waist (or at least where my waist should be!!

Don't know what our strategy from here is. When we do know we will make contact.

18/01/09
A different set of occurrences have just happened which you may find interesting.
We are currently motor sailing at just less than 5 knots on a course of 250 T. Star lit night and except for the drive train noise, very enjoyable. We are about 75 miles north of the Algerian Coast.
Cocktail hour was here and Lois was below finalising dinner. From the cockpit I saw a white flare arc upwards on our starboard beam/stern quarter. Who knows how far off but probably less than 5 miles?
Turned on VHF channel 16 and checked our Radar, called all ships, no answer. Lois came up to watch for more flares. There were none.
About twenty minutes later (I'm below by the VHF} Lois noticed a blip on our Radar about a mile away. She went on deck to check it out and saw a red light which at first she thought was the port light of a yacht's tricolour. A minute later she heard the roar of a helicopter. That was the red light. The helicopter flew around us by which time Lois had called me back on deck.
I called on our hand held VHF and received an immediate response "Are you in need of assistance?".."Negative, Negative we replied". I then told them we had seen a flare. They (Don't know who but a perfect American accent) said they had seen it as well. Asked where we thought it was. Replied that as far as we could guess it was between 000 and 030 Magnetic from our position, probably less than 5 miles, but hard to judge. We asked if we needed to show more lights? "No we can see you perfectly" they replied.
With that they zoomed off and we have not seen or heard from them since!!!
Anyway we have a ship to run and have given it our best shot...
Cheers
Terry and Lois on watch

17/01/09:
Day 08, Position: N3811,E00552, Miles to go: 563, Wind speed 15,Wind Dir: 080, Weather:Fine, Sea State: Moderate
Destination still Gibraltar but according to our info that is unlikely as the wind is predicted to turn to NW 20-30 kts on the 21st and W 25-40 on the 22nd. At worst hope to make Ibiza in the Balearics or if luck is with us we may reach the SE coast of Spain somewhere between Alicante and Cartagena before the weather becomes a "no go".
Whilst we were waiting in Sardinia we rewired our deck lights, fixed up the Mizzen but noticed the foot of our headsail was only being held together by the UV strip. Pulled it down ever so gently to check it out. Sailcloth just fell apart along a couple of transverse seams, not the stitching, the cloth itself. Just ran out of puff so to speak.
Hope to get a second hand (or maybe new) replacement in Sotogrande during our haul out. Meantime have our heavier and smaller unit in place and so far so good.
Last 18 hours have been Champagne sailing sans Champagne. All sails set, 15-20 knots on port quarter, 6 - 7 knots and only two ships all night...bliss.
This together with the previous messages should bring you up to date. We are in fine fettle.
Can't believe how good Sailmail has been for comms and Grib files given that the nearest station is in Belgium.

16/01/09
We are leaving to day trying to make either Ibiza or Mallorca - 350 miles. Forecast is for light south east and north winds for the next 2/3 days so will be motoring a bit. Then the wind direction is changing to the west again so will probably not be able to push on and have to wait it out.
We told you about the knocking sound between the engine and the propellor - well have decided to have her lifted out now and get a marine engineer to check it out with Terry. Fortunately we have friends who live in Spain (we met in San Diego through other people and caught up in Gibraltar on our way through to Italy over a year ago) in a place called Sotogrande just north of Gibraltar. As luck would have it they live in a resort which has a marina and a travel lift so they are checking out availability and costs and said we could stay with them whilst she is out of the water. We were going to stay a few days with them in their home anyway so this is a perfect solution!!

So that's it from our end. We are rested and organised as best we can.
Keep you posted.
Lots of Love Lois and Terry

14/01/09
Day: 05, Position: N3854,E00849, Miles to go: 750, Wind Speed: 04, Wind Direction: 300, Weather: Fine, Sea State: Light
Current destination is Gibraltar but that could be via the Ballerics depending on weather.

We left Malta Saturday about 1400 hrs and arrived at this refuge about one mile west of the most southerly point of Sardinia at 0900 on Tuesday the 13th. After motoring until midnight on the first day the wind kicked in from the northwest on schedule. Next day hoisted the main and romped along into the second night having to drop the main about 2200 hrs. Should have done that during daylight hours of course. By this time the weather became uncomfortable building to gale F8 and probably a bit more with squalls and rain to make locating sea traffic in the "rain clutter" a little challenging. Above the cloud cover was a nearly full moon which from time to time afforded myopic and dull illumination. The new deck lights we fitted in Corfu failed inconveniently at this point.

The last night had only direction and speed in its favour. With reefed headsail and mizzen we were overpowered so had to drop the mizzen which we achieved without using the engine. Lois did the deck work in sh....ty conditions whilst feeling very poorly. What a Girl!!!

After dawn we eventually sighted the cape with about half a mile of visibility and awful seas. Saw it on radar of course. Was hard to believe there was any shelter any where but at times like these the old adage "Trust your instruments Captain" came to mind.

We made it and there was shelter of sorts but it took us over an hour to make it against gale force winds under motor (we have a problem somewhere in our drive chain..tried to get to the bottom of it in Malta.. That and any outcome will be reported separately.)

Later in the day the weather moderated and we shifted further in to this cove to enjoy relative peace and much needed rest. As expected winds have gone to the northwest so we wait here until they become favourable for the next leg or two.

13/01/09
We arrived at 9am this morning into a little bay near Porto Malfatano on the southern tip of Sardinia to shelter from the gale conditions we had experienced in the last 24 hours! What with loads of traffic for the first two days and then the rough seas and wind in the last 24hours we have not had much sleep! Poor Terry had to be on watch practically all the time in the last 24 hrs as I was not feeling well, however I didn't abscond from my deck duties! Anyway we didn't continue on mainly because there is going to be a change in the wind direction in the next few hours which will stop us for getting any more west! We will stay here until the wind direction is right! We are now comfortable and be much improved by catching up on some sleep. Terry will give you an official update tomorrow. Just about to have a drink and nice meal.

We are one third on the way at least!
Keep you posted!
Love Lois and Terry

2009-01-09T11:34:00.000-08:00

Patrick and Oliver (Grandson) Vella

Robert Zammit and Lois

Debbie and Simon Vella

Us in amazing ruins in Albania

Looking forward to 2009 and hope you you are too.........

HAPPY NEW YEAR – MALTA 7 JANUARY 2009

Happy New Year to you all – trust you had a festive season or are continuing to do so?

We arrived in Malta on the 22^nd of December after nearly a 3 day sail from Corfu. Having waited for approximately 2 weeks for the wind from the North we were not disappointed as after motoring 12 hours the wind kicked in from North and we had a great sail with wind on our starboard beam and quarter! In fact we did not put the main sail up as we were doing between 6.5 knots and 9 knots on a headsail and mizzen with the head sail reefed – overall the wind speed was between 25-40 knots! However I must admit I didn’t feel that comfortable – hopefully it is because I haven’t been to sea for 7 months, if not, I clearly need to ‘toughen up’ as we have a long way to go yet!!!

The seas were rough, however we were reasonably comfortable. It was challenging on our last night when we were meeting traffic heading and coming from the Messina Straits and beyond. Terry and I both ended up on watch all night as the majority of the vessels (much larger than us) did not change course and because we were under sail it was more difficult to alter our course. We were very pleased to arrive in Malta around 8.30am, tie up, and have a good coffee (drinks waited until 6pm)!! We were met by our friend who runs the marina here, Chris, who has kept our berth here since the 10^th of December – we were very grateful given the difficulty of securing a berth at all!

We had a busy few days leading up to Xmas as our refrigeration cooling pump failed en route from Corfu so Terry has to secure another – which he finally manage to do without importing it from England with the help of our friend Robert Zammit!! In addition we were just about out of gas – oh Xmas day without gas – can’t imagine that! And of course obtaining a Malta number – not to mention loading our wine supplies on board which fortunately we had ordered in advance!! We managed to achieve everything in those 3 days – just!!!

It was strange to be leaving Corfu after nearly 3 months in the vicinity – 2 and half of those in the marina. Although we were fairly occupied with our job list we made some great friends and had the appropriate Thanksgiving and Xmas celebrations with turkey dinners etc. We had a little Xmas get together on AC and we all experienced my homemade Xmas pudding and I am delighted to report it was a hit!!

During the last couple of weeks in Corfu we went with some friends over to Albania for the day by private vessel and viewed some excellent ruins in the Butrint National Park which represents Hellenistic buildings of the 4^th century BC to the Ottoman defences created in the 19^th century! What was unique was that most of the buildings are fairly intact, unlike many of the ruins we viewed elsewhere in Greece! We took in the produce markets as well and had a delicious lunch – certainly a highlight of our visit to this area!

It has been wonderful to catch up with our friends we made last winter here in Malta. We went to a party up in Valletta the second night in port at Robert’s restaurant opposite St John’s Cathedral. Valletta was looking so festive with all the decorations – even better than last year!

Xmas day we had friends , the Pullicino family - Joseph, Michelle and their 3 children for brunch which was a very relaxing fun day! We didn’t get around to having our duck etc as they didn’t leave until 6 pm and then another group popped in to wish us Merry Xmas. So we had our Xmas lunch on boxing day – delicious it was too!!

The social gatherings continued; a couple of days after Xmas Simon and Debbie had us at their home along with the Pullicino family! We also met Debbie’s Dad, Patrick holidaying from England and subsequently has been to AC a couple of times – first time on a sail boat – there you go!!!! New Year’s eve was celebrated also with Joseph, Michelle and a few of their friends at their home for dinner. Robert and Antoinette took us to a Pantomime at the Convention centre (Robert is a Director of the Convention Centre) on Sunday evening which was fantastic – a very professional production - we were most impressed – such a highlight! As good as Broadway or the West End.

We have been most fortunate to have so many friends here – they have been so generous and wonderful to us – we will miss them! Of course we are now working hard on persuading all of them to come visit us in NZ!!!

Terry has now fitted the new refrigeration cooling pump and we also had a specialist check the entire system to alleviate any further problems – happy to report he couldn’t find anything amiss!!! So here is hoping as we are going to spend a lot of time at sea in the next couple of months and we need the refrigeration working!!

We are counting down our last days here now! We are watching the weather and it is looking good to leave on Saturday (10^th). (Tomorrow). It is one 1000 miles to Gibraltar and the prevailing wind is West so we will see how we go? We may have to do a bit of tacking. At best it will be 8 days and at worst it may take us a couple of weeks!

This will be leg 2 of our journey home to NZ. We are hoping that all going well we will be in the Caribbean by middle to end of March. Then we will spend a couple of months in the Windward Islands before making our way across to Panama and through the canal. A few days stopover to visit our friends Willie and Mary in Panama and then our journey into the Pacific via Tahiti again. We envisage being back in NZ around mid September.

Once we leave Gibraltar our good friend Murray Aldridge will keep the blog updated regularly to let you know how we are going.

We have a Malta number until tomorrow +35699859941 and then we will be on our UK number +447787793398 which we will keep until the Canary Islands and then relinquish.

Take care and hope 2009 brings you all good health, happiness and prosperity.

Lots of Love

The Jolly Rogers – Homeward bound!

2008-11-19T13:42:00.001-08:00

Brian, Lorraine, Lois, Terry and Sandra at Birthday Lunch

John Menzies, Lois and Terry in Corfu Old Town

Captain Lorraine?

Sarah, Lois and Chris on board "Infinity"

Terry enjoying his birthday lunch Lobster

Corfu – 17 November 2008

Doris and Brian departed at the beginning of October and since then we have had a further three lots of visitors; Maurice and Gill Atcheson (Auckland), Carol Ann and Thomas Johnson (Atlanta, Georgia) and Andy Yavasis (we stayed with him in Samos) or otherwise known as ‘Moutsos Rangi’ – a total of 3 months with visitors on board by the time Andy departed at the end of October – we enjoyed ALL of it!!!!

The McAra’s hold the record now for visitation previously held by the Watts of Washington State (14 days) – Brian for 2 months and Lorraine for 5 weeks – we had the best time and both of them fitted into shipboard life very well considering the length of time. Contrary to popular belief, Terry and I generally as a rule of thumb do not partake in lunchtime drinks unless our visitors persuade us otherwise however at this time we threw all those rules ‘overboard’ and generally partook in a aperitif at lunchtime everyday!
I do miss my lunchtime vodkas with Doris – such a treat!!! We managed to come up with a few variations on our normal vodka, roses lime, squeeze of fresh lemon and lime – this is our normal drink and when we met 23 years ago this is what we drank then! Absolut PeachVodka with the same condiments as well as Absolute Grapefruit. Absolut Raspberry with raspberry sorbet – also great as a shot!! All delicious especially the Peach Vodka which seems the most unlikely contender. For those in the southern hemisphere a fabulous lunchtime drink for summer coming up!

For Terry’s birthday on the 30th of last month we sailed around to the west coast of Corfu and anchored in a cove at Paleokastritsa. We were told about this great restaurant near a Monastery.
Doris and I checked it out the day prior and reserved a table overlooking the sea and cliffs. It was a fabulous day which started with a Raspberry Vodka shot on board AC before we headed off – as you do!! The day was sunny and warm which made it all the more special. We also had Sandra, business partner and friend of Doris, who arrived the day prior to share the last week of board for all of them. The recommendation was to try the Lobster pasta but Terry opted for one whole broiled lobster which he savoured! It was great to have our special friends to share in the day’s celebration which made it all the more special!

Sadly – the next week went very quickly and it was ‘Time to Say Goodbye’ (just had to play this) to Doris, Brian and Sandra on the 6th of October and now can’t believe we had that quality time together - we are so grateful they could make the journey to spend time with us. It has certainly given us some ‘new cocktail talk’ (as our friend Don Watts would say) and some great memories to look back on.

As you would appreciate now that we have been in this area for a while we are fairly familiar with what’s on offer in terms of anchorages and tavernas etc. As Doris has already said – we could be charged with loitering at this particular Bay called Agni – a little way up the east coast from Corfu town. It has 3 great little tavernas in this small bay – one of them, Nikolas, we have tried for both lunch and dinner with the McAra’s (last Greek night of the season) in the same day – a sterling effort! And the other, Agni Taverna, a couple of times for lunch, one with Atcheson’s and another with Andy! Very popular but very low key – the food was excellent.

Corfu old town is lovely and we have been in a few times during the day for lunch and once in the evening with Carol Ann and Thomas during their visit.. It is a delight to wander around!

On the last evening Carol Ann and Thomas were with us they took us to dinner at the restaurant on the dock of the marina – great setting and very pleasant. During the course of the evening we got chatting with the host of a group of English people led by Tony. He is a gregarious fun loving man and he invited us to join the group after our dinner as he had arranged for some entertainment!

He has been coming to Corfu for a number of years and so is totally familiar with the place and obviously has a number of local friends who were joining the group as well – some of these were professional entertainers. What a great evening – the best Greek entertainment we have encountered during our time here!!

We found out later in the evening the get together had a rather sad touch to it as it was supposed to have been a celebration for Tony’s wedding but that was called off some months before. However all his lovely friends decided to rally around and come to Corfu regardless.

Very fortunate for us, Tony invited us to be his guests at the dinner on Saturday evening he had organised for the group at a lovely hotel nearby the marina. It was a la carte style and just stunning! His great group of friends made it such a fun evening!!! The next day or so we had a number of the group pop in to AC for coffee – Alpha Crucis Café it’s called!!

We have been in the marina since Andy left us, busy getting through the long list of jobs that need to be done. The weather has been perfect – warm and sunny by day for weeks now and I have finally done 4 coats of varnish, some painting and just about finished polishing the boat! Terry has equally been busy with many trips to the top of the mast, fixing lights etc. And of course the usual never ending engineering maintenance – we are getting through the list!

There is really good community feel here in the marina – many boats wintering over including a few larger motorboats. One being a NZ super yacht – T6 owned by John Spencer from Auckland. We met John and his Captain John Menzies (also from Auckland) when we arrived back in the marina to drop the McAra’s off – they recognised the RNZYS Flag we were flying and helped us tie up! That ended with John Spencer inviting all of us on board T6 for drinks that evening.

Stunning boat – designed by John, built in NZ - a very impressive vessel, complete with helicopter and fast tender under the aft deck! We have subsequently spent a couple of great evenings with John on board T6 and he on board AC! Great to have a couple of fellow New Zealanders around for a change!!!

We have had a couple of fun lunches in old Corfu town with John Menzies on his days off! He is a cherry fellow, good company and has been most helpful in giving us direction in terms of suppliers etc! He will often wander down to AC for a pre dinner drink! Then there is the lovely Sarah (from UK) – she works on one of the larger motor yachts here which is wintering over. She has joined us a few times for drinks and dinners over the last month or so and the other evening cooked a lovely dinner for a group of people which included us. In addition there has been a number of others we have had on board for drinks! So as you would expect we are not without our social activity during our ‘work in progress’ time!!

At this point we will probably be in Corfu another week or two before we head south and then to Malta. However as we cannot have a berth in Malta until the 12th of December we don’t want to leave too soon.

For many of you in NZ I guess you are looking forward to summer and for others like ourselves winter is setting in although we cannot complain about the wonderful autumn we have been experiencing here in Corfu – many warm and sunny days!

Next update will probably be once we leave here.

Love

The Jolly Rogers (nearly that Jolly time of the year again!)

2008-09-24T10:16:00.000-07:00

Farewell lunch in Oia for Daryl & Adrienne with Brian, Terry & Lois
(Lorraine on Camera duty)

AC Crew enjoying cocktail hour in Lefkada on the Foredeck

Lois on the way to Oia by ancient vertical transport

Lorraine & Brian on AC at the Entrance to the Corinth Canal

Ken and Terry at Casa Zazza

Akiko, Frank, Clair, Brian, Lorraine, Roger, Lois & Jackie in Gualdo, Le Marche, Italy

CORFU– 23 SEPTEMBER 2008

We apologise for not updating the blog earlier but it has been a busy 6 or 7 weeks! We are now in Corfu in the Ionian Islands!

Since the beginning of August we have travelled from Rhodes back across the Aegean to Athens, transited the Corinth Canal, travelled across the Gulf of Corinth and the Gulf of Patras through to the west coast of Greece and the Ionian Islands and north to Corfu – quite a distance in a short space of time!

We left Rhodes at the beginning of August heading for Santorini. We actually did make Turkey after all, but only for one night, where we took shelter at a place called Serce (North of Rhodes) – a fjord-like bay on the mainland. We caught up with an Australian young man and his girlfriend who we met in Rhodes and we went ashore with them for dinner – yes this isolated place had two restaurants to choose from! We even met up with two members of the Royal NZ Yacht Squadron there!

From here we sailed to the island of Yiali which is off the south coast of Kos. We stayed two days here waiting for the right weather but unfortunately the meltimi had kicked in quite strongly and we ended up pushing onto the Island of Astipalaia in Force 8 conditions. The meltimi lasted another 4 days before we headed for Santorini in very light conditions. This is fairly much the case in the Aegean at this time of the year either it is blowing hard or virtually no wind at all! On our 4 day journey from Rhodes to Santorini we managed to sail the majority of the time…. a bonus!

We arrived in Santorini in time to welcome our friend Brian McAra on board who had flown from NZ. There was really a double celebration – his welcome and that we were now half way across the Aegean on our journey to Athens.

We loved Santorini and thought it was the pick of all the islands in the Aegean we have been to. However it was quite challenging to find shelter as you cannot anchor in the crater because of the depth. Eventually we managed to find a very small cove to shelter in on the volcanic island called Kammeni opposite the west side of the main island and town. That had it’s challenges with many lines tied to the rocks but in the end it worked well for us.

During our stay there we had more visitors, nephew Daryl and his wife Adrienne flew out from London for 4 days. We were very grateful to them for carrying our watermaker parts that were sent from Trinidad. We had a fun lunch ashore with them in Fira which began and ended by dinghy (20 minute journey). We were all very all very responsible wearing life jackets which is a rarity in this part of the world! Our highlight in Santorini was the little village of Oia – about 8 km north west from the main town. This place is famous for it’s sunsets which are spectacular. Of course we are spoilt with many fabulous sunsets from AC! It is not so busy with tourists and houses those famous blue domes which are on all the postcards and books of Greece.

We had a fabulous farewell lunch with Daryl and Adrienne in Oia overlooking sea with spectacular views of Santorini and the pumice cliffs which began with a donkey ride up the cliff track from where we left AC tied to a very large buoy!

We left the next day and headed to Ios – directly north of Santorini. We anchored in a bay on the southern part of the island which is famous for nude bathing – however nothing in sight! It is also known as the party Island. Soon after our arrival we were joined by a flotilla of boats – about 25 in fact – and our very peaceful bay looked and sounded like a floating party boat by sunset. At this stage the wind had picked up to 30 knots and as you can imagine we were kept quite entertained during our cocktail hour with the coming and going of so many people between boats not to mention the dragging of anchors! Terry went to the rescue of some young people whose engine on the dinghy had failed and they were drifting out to sea. As a result we were invited to their group’s party on the beach at 11pm –we declined of course but heard the very loud music still playing at 4am!!

The next morning we headed to the west coast of Ios and anchored off a gorgeous beach called Milopotamou. We had a very enjoyable Asian style lunch ashore in a Taverna as you do!!!

From here to Sifnos and then to Serifos. We are now in striking distance of Athens but unfortunately once again the meltimi kicked in and we were in Serifos for 6 days – blowing 25-45 knots on anchor – awaiting for a change in wind direction. By the end of 6 days we were really over the wind. The up side was it was an attractive place and had many facilities including a medical centre which Terry had to use as he damaged his right hand – same one as his damaged little finger – while using the dive compressor - his hand made contact with the fan! I think a bit of reconstructive surgery of his hand when we come home may be in order!

We had a week back in Athens between the 25 August and the 1^st of September. Firstly we had some serious work on our failed generator which was successful at a reasonable cost and secondly Lorraine (otherwise known as Doris) arrived to join us and her husband, Brian on the 1^st of September from Hawkes Bay, NZ. It was a great opportunity to provision with meat etc from the Central Markets in Athens.

We left Athens on the day Doris arrived and over a couple of days made our way to the entry to the Corinth Canal. 300 Euros later and a rather short journey through the canal (3 miles) to the Gulf of Corinth – we stayed in the town of Corinth for the night!

The Gulf of Corinth joins the Gulf of Patras eventually but it is quite a long way to get to the west side of the Greek mainland and the Ionian Islands – we did that over 6 days. Stopped at a gorgeous little medieval walled harbour called Navpaktos on the north side of the Gulf for a couple of nights. We had lunch ashore and a wander around the village ending with sundowners overlooking the harbour just below the Venetian Castle

We have been 3 for over 6 weeks and 4 for over 3 weeks now and having a wonderful time. It is fabulous to have them both on board! We seem to have an excellent routine going - Doris is a wonderful culinary and general contributor – With her here I am not on cooking duty very often and admit that normally I am seldom happy to give up my station!!

Brian as 2^nd Mate and chief steward –on call anytime for drinks, particularly at lunchtime and cocktail hour and dinner. His duties also include tea in the mornings! It will be strange to have to pour our own drinks when he leaves! Like a few others before him he tries to improve his status! He has also been a stalwart assistant to me in the cleaning and polishing department. For Terry he has done a great job in fetching tools etc as engineer’s mate.

On our way north to Corfu we had a few stops of course, but Praga on the mainland coast was a highlight where we anchored in a small inlet near the town. Very picturesque and simply a gorgeous setting with perfectly clear water and only room for a couple of boats. A fabulous dinner ashore was called for where we had the comfort of keeping an eye on AC! From the Taverna.

We arrived in Corfu on the 13^th of September and left for Italy on the 14^th for 6 days. We took the overnight ferry to Ancona which was a really good experience and we were pleasantly surprised to find the ship was well equipped with restaurants and bars! We shared 4 berth inside cabin and we all managed extremely well!

Picked a hire car up in Ancona and drove to Gualdo in Le Marche (approx 100 kms) to stay with our friends Ken and Akiko Everett from Sydney who have a rebuilt farmhouse there (the beautiful Villa "Casa Zazza"). They have invited us many times but timing never seemed to be right before so it was such a treat to finally get to see and experience their home and even better, that Lorraine and Brian could be with us to experience it too!

Ken and Akiko showed us around their local villages and introduced us to many of their friends and in particular – Frank & Clair who also own a farmhouse close to theirs and Roger and Jackie visiting from England! We ate out a few times but also enjoyed the ambience of eating at their home as well! A wonderful time!

It was so good to be back in Italy again – the language is fun to play with, unlike the Greek language which we find much more difficult! We stocked up on some excellent Italian coffee beans which are so scarce here in Greece and expensive!

Interestingly we found it was quite a bit cooler to what we have been accustomed to of late – cool in the evening and around 18-20 degrees by day, but to be fair 2 days previously they were experiencing early 30’s! Since we have arrived back in Greece we have noticed a drop in temperature to around 23 degrees or so. Still very pleasant and mostly a welcome change from the constant 30’s we have had for 4 months! Let’s hope we don’t experience an early Autumn though!!

Doris and Brian are with us for another couple of weeks before they head off but thankfully they will be here to celebrate Terry’s birthday on the 30^th! Can’t imagine what it will be like without their company now! This is the first time on our journey we have had company for such a long period and it has been such fun and fabulous to be able to spend quality time with my special friend Doris – I do miss her so! Not to mention that we will now have some updated stories to share – even if people don’t want to hear them!

Our plans are at this stage to meander back down the coast of Greece then across to the Boot of Italy, Sicily and then back to Malta for December and part of January when we will make our way towards Gibraltar, Morocco and across the Atlantic to the Caribbean.

As we have mentioned our preference was to sell AC in Europe but with one thing and another that is very unlikely to happen so we have decided that we will head back to NZ.

Promise, ha ha, not be so long next time with updating our blog.

Take care

Love

The Jolly Rogers

2008-07-29T09:23:00.000-07:00

Bath time on AC

On board "Jernica" with Aussie Captain Glenn

Lindos bathed in smoke from a raging fire

Seally, Meghan, Toby and Terry in Lindos

Rhodes, Greece – 29 July 2008

Goodness where has the last month gone!!!

Unfortunately we are not going to add Turkey to our ventures as we left Samos a little late to make a visit there worth while! We had about two weeks after getting back on AC from our shore base stay at Andy’s place, where we had numerous engineering issues – all of which Terry overcame with his sheer determination, tenacity and skill – certainly not without frustration of course and especially in the heat! Anyway Turkey will have to wait until another time!

We made our way from Samos south via Arki, Pserimos and Simi to Rhodes over 5 days!

We had two nights in Simi one of which was sleepless as we had to do ‘anchor watch’. We were experiencing 35 knot winds gusting over a ridge. This is the first time we have had to do this but the holding in this particular bay wasn’t great and it was quite an experience watching many boats having difficulty anchoring as well as dragging anchor including ourselves! This time of the year the famous ‘meltimi’ wind blows quite strongly and it is difficult to get shelter from the gusts on the leeward side of islands.

We arrived in Rhodes on Thursday 17^th July and tied up Med style (without incident) in Mandraki Harbour! We opted to pay for an agent to ensure we got a berth in this harbour as there are very few options for anchoring in the vicinity and it made the process of checking in and out with the authorities seamless! But you wouldn’t believe all the extras they charge besides the mooring fees – rubbish, assistance on mooring etc etc etc – not a cheap exercise!

Rhodes town is a great place – consists of an old town which is a walled medieval city and the new town! It was most interesting for us to view the old town built by the Knights of St John before they were kicked out of here and then of course ended up in Malta. You can see the definite improvement in their building skills in Malta!

Our friends Seally and Meghan and little Toby (3mths) arrived on Saturday and were with us 5 days until Thursday! Seally has been quite a regular visitor on AC – sailed with us from Dartmouth to St Katherine’s in London, from there to Essex, and also visited us in Malta!

As it happened, our new friend, Glenn Kennedy, who we met in Samos, arrived on his boat on Saturday and parked next to us in Rhodes. Glenn is an Australian and has been living in Athens for 20 odd years – married and has a daughter. He works for a Swiss guy who owns the lovely traditional motor yacht “Jernica”, Glenn is the Captain! He has been most kind and helpful with weather and local information since we met and in fact kept track of us as we made our way down to Rhodes! We all had a fun night out with him on Sunday in Rhodes at a great Chinese restaurant.

Seally really enjoyed riding around Rhodes on one of our fold up motorbikes. He and I went on manoeuvres searching for supermarkets on the Sunday and that was fun. As it happened we rode out to the local hospital to see how Terry was getting on. Just prior to leaving Samos he got his little finger entangled in the anchor winch which crushed the last segment quite severely. Reluctantly he went to the hospital but was happy he made the effort. I also went the next day as the wound on my leg had got infected so overall we both had a good experience of the medical system here and even better it cost zero, we just paid for the prescriptions! In the five days prior, as you can imagine, Terry had a good excuse to drink numerous single malt whiskies!!

We left on Tuesday (managed to get the anchor up without fouling it – this is no mean feat in this harbour) and sailed to Lindos which is about 25 miles down the south coast! It has a natural harbour just perfect for us to anchor in. Of course we made our way ashore a few times during the 4 days we were there – it was such a gorgeous little village with quaint little alleyways and very easy to get yourself lost in! On the top of the hill is the Acropolis which dates back 2000BC and a Medieval Castle – oh the vista was spectacular, especially at night!

Whilst we were in Lindos there was a fire out of control over the ridge – we couldn’t see flames but the smoke was intense and at times covered the sun – quite a strange experience! It lasted for about 3 days fuelled by the wind! Sadly fires are a regular occurrence in Greece but to us there isn’t a lot to burn – the islands are very arid!

Seally and Meghan and little Toby said their farewell to us in Lindos, however not without a farewell dinner ashore – the time went so quickly – it was wonderful to have their company plus little Toby who was very well behaved!

We are now back in Rhodes town to have a sail fixed plus we are getting a shade cover made for the saloon windows to help keep the heat out! Boy it is very warm – most days it is between 35 – 40 degrees and whilst sometime this wind gets on your nerves without it, it would probably be unbearable! Hard to imagine Auckland experiencing wet windy and cold weather at the moment!

Yesterday we got a call from Graham King, a friend of Graham Waring from Essex, who we haven’t met before but have spoken to on the phone, to say he was en route to Marmaris Turkey and was going to come to Rhodes just to catch up with us! He invited us for dinner on his motor yacht which of course we gladly accepted! What a grand way to spend an evening, particularly in Rhodes, and what a treat it was to be wined and dined on a gorgeous 90ft motor yacht – a gracious host and complete with Captain and crew – lined up with all the other fabulous motor yachts!! It was great to finally meet Graham and his two lovely children – what a treat!

We will leave tomorrow, weather permitting, and hopefully if the wind allows us, to head for Santorini (Thira) where it is most likely we will pick up Brian McAra arriving from Hawkes Bay on Wednesday the 6th!! We are very excited about having him aboard!

Love

The Jolly Rogers

2008-06-26T05:13:00.000-07:00

Parthenon atop the Acropolis - we bet you've been there!

Andy, Terry and Taverna Owner Marios in Mykonos

Thermia (Spa) on Island of Ikaria

Christina & Demetri with our "Welcome to Samos Basket" on behalf of themselves & Andy.
You cannot see the Pythagoras Wine Cup!

SAMOS – 26 JUNE 2007

We are now in Samos which is on the eastern side of the Aegean within a stone’s throw of Turkey!

The last four weeks we have travelled from Nafplio on the Peloponnese via the Islands of Poros, Aigina, Athens, Kea, Siros, Mykonos, Ikaria and now Samos. We had intended to travel north along the east coast of mainland of Greece to the Northern Sporades however that plan changed when we realised that we would miss our friend Andy (who lives part of the year in Samos and the remainder in Wellington) who is travelling back to Singapore for 6 weeks this week and has been waiting for us to arrive in Samos since we left nearly 3 years ago!

We had a wonderful 5 days in Athens a couple of weeks ago – my first time – visiting the Acropolis and many other sites including great food markets – everything was excellent quality and very reasonably priced! Just loved the Plaka (old town) area. It was fascinating to wander around there and then look up and see those amazing buildings (what’s left of them) in the Acropolis! We had a fantastic view of this when we were sailing along the coast as well!

We parked AC in Zea Marina in Piraeus and used the train to get into and out of Athens – efficient and cheap! We caught up with our friend Chris we met in Hydra a couple of times, one for dinner on AC, which included inviting our next door neighbours – Americans visiting from San Francisco – the meal was stretched from 3 to 5, a great night!

We truly are now in cruising mode enjoying the opportunity to anchor in many beautiful little bays along the way and enjoying the opportunity to swim in the most amazingly clear blue water! We also have enjoyed some great sails with the wind going in our direction - nice for a change!

We arrived in Mykonos (after a sail by the ancient ruins of Delos) on Saturday 14^th of June and fortunately we were able to anchor in a small bay just off the town. This is not usually the case at the prevailing wind is Northerlies which means anchoring off the town (northwest coast) is not always possible. However as it happened we lucked it and couldn’t believe that the only other boat in the bay was from Whangarei NZ, Barnstorm, owned by Roy & Margit! Then about one hour later another NZ boat, Legend II, owned by Werner and Cathy came in! We have only seen one NZ flag since leaving Auckland in 2005 and that was in St Katharine’s dock London – a motor boat called Pacific Mermaid (from Auckland)! The end result was a get together on AC for drinks which lasted to midnight – it was fun!

The next day our new found NZ friends came on board once again and after an exchange of contact details and a few flat whites we bid farewell and ventured in to the town in the dinghy! We had a wander around the maze of little streets ending with a nice little lunch at a back street restaurant and “people watched” – fascinating! Yes Mykonos is very commercial with many cruise ships and super yachts, but still maintains it’s charm nonetheless!

Later that day our friend Andy arrived by ferry from Samos and fortunately the weather continued to be conducive to anchoring for another night! We had a lovely dinner at a cute Taverna on the beach – just a stone’s throw from AC!

We stayed in Mykonos another day and night, meet up with a couple of Andy’s friends, Nick and Betty and then headed further east along the island and anchored overnight in readiness for our 46 mile journey east to the Island of Ikaria. We had an excellent sail – ticking along mostly at 8 knots. There is little shelter on this very arid island but I had read about this little fishing village, Thermia, just north of the main port (small) and once again were fortunate to be able to anchor there as it was only really large enough for two boats and we were the only boat there! This place has a very small spa hotel and hot springs but it is so low key it was absolutely delightful! The water was crystal clear and just fabulous for swimming. I made the most of the calm conditions by cleaning the water line of AC. Both Terry and I remarked as we all sat on the aft deck of Alpha Crucis having a drink – special places like this, make it so worth while, sailing to the other side of the world!!

We had a problem with the hose to the watermaker and then subsequently the bilge pump failed so we actually ended up staying in Thermia for two nights but it was so special we probably would have anyway! Terry managed to get the watermaker issue resolved but the bilge pump will have to be replaced. It was great to have Andy on board with us for many reasons, not only his great company but to be Terry’s ‘Moutsos Rangi’ or gopher as it is commonly known (instead of me) but particularly so as he speaks Greek so he was able to obtain local knowledge with ease and also translate for us! He chatted to an older gentleman (83) who was trawling in the bay and we ended up meeting him again on shore that evening when we had dinner at a Taverna (just tables and chairs on the beach). He came out to AC in morning for coffee and brought us an octopus he had caught - wonderful!

The next day we headed for Samos – by this time the wind speed had really picked up but again fortunately it was still favourable in terms of direction. However what you have to watch sailing around these island as the wind gusts off the mountains/cliffs/hills are more vicious than the wind at times!

We arrived in the harbour of Pithorgorian (named after Pythagoras who was born and lived here) – a pretty little harbour side town, around 6.30pm. There was limited space for us however we managed to fit into a vacant space, Med Style, to the astonishment of many boats around us. A couple of Andy’s friends, Demetri and Christina, arrived with a basket of goodies – wine, olive oil, jam, vinegar, fresh herbs all home made as our welcome to Samos! We had intended to head home with Andy but we decided to delay this until Saturday because we didn’t want to leave AC; the wind was gusting into the harbour!! On Saturday we shifted the boat to the marina where we knew it would be safe. Andy picked us up to go to his home where we have been for the last 5 days!

Andy was born in Wellington but his heritage is Greek as his parents are from Samos. Andy has renovated an old stone warehouse directly across from the beach owned by his grandfather in the village of Konstantinos where also his mother was born! He has done a fabulous job maintaining the ambience of the original structure, the stone walls and beams, but everything else is beautifully modern. It has been a fabulous few days being in his lovely home! He has organised and driven us everywhere from doctors to provisioning so we have been very fortunate to tick off all those jobs.

We have also met lots of his friends who live full time and part time on the Island – including his neighbours from either side of his property, one of whom is his Aunty. They have this lovely tradition here of sharing – the neighbours garden are full of goodies; herbs, lemons etc – you just help yourself!

On Sunday we had a lunch for six of his close friends on AC – they are a lovely bunch of people and they so enjoyed themselves and it was neat to able to do this for Andy! These same people took us to dinner last evening at a very nice restaurant no far from the Marina overlooking the sea – very special!

Before we headed out to dinner Andy drove us up the mountain close by his house to another Village called Manolates where his father was born! The contrast from the seaside was amazing – lots of beautiful vegetation. It was very cute, lots of tavernas and restaurants and quaint little shops selling mainly locally made crafts – quite a treat to see something completely different to what we have previously seen!

We are heading back to AC today as we will anchor for the next couple of days while Terry to completes a couple of jobs; fitting a new bilge pump and fix the bow thruster before we head south to Kos and then onto Turkey.

It is our intention to go to Bodrum in Turkey first and then head down the coast to Marmaris. We need to be in Rodos by the 19^th of July to welcome our friends Seally & Meghan (from London) and little Toby (3mths) on board and they will be with us until the 25^th of July.

Then we will try to make our way across to Thira (Santorini) – difficult with the prevailing wind direction of WNW – after that, hopefully, we will be back in the vicinity of Athens around beginning of August, where our dear friend Brian McAra will join us on the 6^th of August in advance of his wife – Doris (or Lorraine) on the 1^st of September. We are so excited that finally, these special special friends of ours are coming to spend time with us on our journey – the challenge will be not to enjoy ourselves too much (Yeah Right!!!). In dealing with this dilemma – we have bought us all some genuine ‘Greek worry beads’ to use at cocktail hour!

Whilst we are in Turkey, only our UK phone will work, and then when in Greek waters again we will be back on our Greek number +306956162101.

Take care.
Yar Mas
Love The Jolly Rogers

2008-05-25T09:45:00.000-07:00

AC Docked in Nafpilo

Chris's Motor Yacht Departing Hydra

Don and Glori onboard AC in Hydra

Don and Glori and Us in Hydra

AC Docked in Hydra... eventually!

GREECE – Nafplio, 25 MAY 2007

We arrived in Pylos, Peloponnese at 12.30pm on Saturday 10 May after a 3 day journey from Malta!

Overall the weather was as predicted – light winds and mostly in the right direction fortunately – however we could have done with a little more wind so we didn’t have to motor the majority of the time but were nevertheless grateful for a pleasant time which included enjoying a cocktail hour or two on the aft deck watching the sun go down! Heading east we had to adjust our time clock ahead one hour (we are 2 hours ahead of London)!

We tied up at the public wharf and Terry went to find Customs and the Port Authorities to clear in. Fortunately he managed to locate someone and made an appointment for the customs officer to come at 6.00pm to issue our transit log for Greek Waters. Meantime we got our ship ‘ship shape’ tidied ourselves in readiness for our formalities followed by dinner ashore at a popular Taverna – food was very good and reasonably priced we thought – especially the wine!

As we had our visitors Don and Glori Watts arriving the following Saturday and we still had a wee way to go to get to Hydra, our agreed meeting point, so we decided to keep moving and headed off from Pylos on Sunday afternoon. We spent the next 4 four days travelling around the southern part of the Peloponnesian peninsulas sheltering in some lovely bays mostly by ourselves! We had 36 hours in one bay hiding from the North East wind which blew 25 – 40 knots consistently over this time!

We arrived in the eastern end of the Island of Spetses on Thursday late afternoon after our 143 mile journey from Pylos and anchored in a small bay close by a 150 ft yacht! It was lovely remote bay with a view to some superb houses ashore! We enjoyed a rather surprising wifi internet connection - courtesy of either the super yacht or one of the very nice properties ashore!!

The next morning we headed around to the Old Harbour at Spetses to get fuel. We tied up in a very protected small harbour right outside a few tavernas and bars! We fuelled in the afternoon and then went for a wander along the foreshore to the old town and had dinner on the waterfront – very pleasant evening! Overall the quality of the food is very good as are the wines and you can eat very reasonably.

We left early the next morning for Hydra and arrived there around midday! This island is obviously a very popular destination for tourists as well boaties with a relatively small harbour, therefore space is limited, but as luck would have it there was space for us right in the middle of the harbour alongside many of the restaurants and bars!

As many of you would know the style of mooring in the Mediterranean is ‘Med Mooring’ where you place your anchor down and let it run out as you reverse into the dock or foreshore and tie up at the stern. As easy as that may sound sometimes it is not quite that simple, as we have found! Unfortunately for us this time we managed to foul someone’s anchor which wrapped itself around our prop as we reversed and subsequently seize our steering! At this point AC started going sideways towards some moored boats. Alas with lots of fending off by me and manoeuvring on Terry’s part with the bow thruster, as well as some additional help by a couple of people ashore, we eventually managed to get securely tied up! It was indeed great entertainment for the many people in the adjacent Tavernas!

Now that we were tied up we felt we deserved a little aperitif but no, that had to go on hold while Terry donned his dive gear and sort out the little problem we had down under, which of course,he managed to do successfully, to cut the line free! The anchor line belonged to a tender moored on the port hand side and he was most gracious to us about this little mishap when he returned to find he had no anchor attached to his boat!

Having made our agreed rendezvous point on time to meet our friends Don and Glori Watts, they subsequently phoned to say they were not going to make it over on the last ferry as their flight into Athens were delayed. However we were well entertained for the afternoon watching in amazement as many more large motorboats arrived in Hydra and manoeuvred their way into these small spaces! We were in awe of all the skippers and their competency in doing so! By 5.00pm that evening there wasn’t an inch of mooring space in that harbour to be had! The moral of the story; you have to get to a harbour early if you want to dock - can’t imagine what it would be like in the height of summer!

Soon after we arrived and in the course of the final tweaking of our lines this rather large classic gorgeous motor boat or should we say ‘Motor Yacht’ parked on our starboard side! The owner, Chris, introduced himself and during the course of the afternoon at various times he chatted to us and in fact offered one of his crew to find a plank for us so we could walk off the back of the boat (we used the tender alongside, with the owners permission, the one whose anchor line we severed)! At cocktail hour we invited Chris over for a drink! We enjoyed his company and although Greek he was educated in England so hence he could speak perfect English – a very smart young man! Later he invited us over to his boat – we met his friends - and he showed us around – what a gorgeous vessel! We ended up sitting on the aft deck around his outside dining table enjoying a few drinks and then were served dinner! Later he arranged to have a case of Greek white wine delivered to our aft deck! What a wonderful opportunity to meet a local person and be entertained on our ‘ideal boat’!!

We returned to AC around 1.00am and invited our other neighbours on the port hand side on board – they were from Vienna - and later Chris and a couple of his friends joined us again! It was a rather long evening but so much fun!! We just couldn’t have had a better introduction to Greece in such a fabulous place like Hydra!

Don and Glori arrived on Sunday morning and we spent the remaining 2 days in Hydra wandering the streets and enjoying many great restaurants of course! What a perfect spot Hydra is – although touristy still quaint and has a great atmosphere!

We set off from Hydra on Tuesday and headed North West towards Spetses once again but this time anchoring in a lovely bay at the west end of the island. The next morning Don and Glori were in swimming and did an excellent job for us cleaning the waterline! Then after breakfast we headed off for a nice sail towards Tolo. The wind generally throughout the day is very fickle – however we managed a have a few good periods of sailing time.

The next day we headed for Nafplio a town at the end of the north west coast of Peloponnese on the mainland. Another quaint but quite a large town which is clearly visited by many tourists! Plenty of shops, bars and restaurants along and behind the waterfront. On the hill top is a Venetian Castle which was worth a visit and if you are keen you could climb the 1000 steps to the top – we went by car!

Yesterday we took a private car to the archaeological site of Mycenae which was well worth while and incredibly fascinating! It dates back 2000 -3000 years!!!

Yesterday Don and Glori left us and AC on their way to Tuscany for a week with friends before they head back to Washington State! We have so enjoyed having them aboard once again – this was their 3^rd visit on our journey! Many laughs and good stories were shared! Glori does a very good cosmopolitan with the pulp of a lemon. She has many talents and one is being an excellent photographer, so we are fortunate to have some fabulous photos of our last week!

I went off to the supermarket and en route stumbled across an excellent produce and fish market, which was a great surprise, to provision with such good quality at good prices!

We are enjoying being in Greece and especially having the choice of so much shelter as we move around! In many places when tied up to the dock we don’t have to pay anything – but in some places we do – in Hydra it was only 15 euros a night! Very reasonable for this side of the world.

The water is mainly crystal clear so we are looking forward to swimming and showering off the stern of the boat when we are at anchor! We haven’t caught a fish as yet, but have spotted whitebait in a couple of places so will get my light rigged up very soon to see if I can catch a meal!!

We now have a Greek number which is +306956162101

In terms of email – we are endeavouring to pickup a wifi connection when we can or visit a wifi site or internet café!

Love

The Jolly Rogers

2008-05-07T01:29:00.001-07:00

Vicki and Phil Joy Riding around Mdina & Rabat

Joseph and Terry after we helped lift J,s Boat

Robert Zammit and Family

Farrugia Family on Board AC

AC Under Repair

MALTA - 6^th MAY 2008

The temperature in gradually on the increase now and most days we are experience low to mid and even high twenties so Summer is definitely on the doorstep!! Along with that process we are now seeing a substantial increase in tourist numbers which makes us appreciate the time we have had to wander around many parts without the crowds!!

Our shipwright Daniel and his crew have now finished our decks which are looking like new and Terry and I have almost completed our long list of jobs – just a final journey up the mast for Terry to repair one of the lights will do it! Her cockpit has 8 coats of varnish and we are very pleased with the outcome but the last coat was challenging keeping the dust off, it especially the red version, which floats in from the African continent continually at this time of the year! We have been delighted with Daniel’s quality of workmanship and work ethic is faultless – he came back to polish our transom and the extra bits I wanted done at no charge! Plus a cake and a pressie for me!!

Thinking that is the end of the maintenance we had friends Simon, Debbie and their son Oliver popped over for drinks a week or so ago and because of Oliver’s inquisitiveness about the instruments we found that our radar was not working!! Shock horror at the cost of replacement but Terry finally managed to fix it without any cost – our Radar is now know as Oliver!!!

We had planned to leave mid April however the previous week we made a visit to the skin specialist for a check up and I had a ‘little something’ cut out of my leg! Well a few days later we find out it is a melanoma! So then went to a plastic surgeon to have another excision to ensure the margins were clear – fortunately they were so hopefully that is the end of that! We are grateful that we caught it early – thankfully Terry insisted we get our check up! So I have had to rest up my leg to assist in the healing process so going to sea at that point was not an option.

We have had my niece Vicki and her husband Phil here for the last 10 days and they were hoping to come to Greece on our passage which obviously didn’t work out because of my leg, however they have enjoyed touring Malta regardless.

These last few weeks we have enjoyed some fabulous local hospitality – dinner on board Chris and Caroline’s very nice Beneteau yacht across the way from us (Chris is the Marina Manager mentioned last blog) a most enjoyable evening.

We have become friends also with a young couple, Mario and Christine who own the local superette or grocery shop not far from us. In fact Christine took Terry and I to the hospital for my check up and waited until we had finished. They had us for dinner at their lovely apartment a few weeks ago plus we have had them a couple of times on AC. Their children Michelle (5) and Daniel (3) are extremely well mannered and behaved and have had a bit of fun on the boat.

We have spent quite a bit of time with our next door neighbour here on the pontoon – Robert, his wife Antoinette and daughter (10) Nikita and sometimes their other daughter Brenda (19) and her friend Nick. They took us to their restaurant in Valletta for dinner and is situated directly across from the renowned St John’s Cathedral (Knights of Malta) which houses all the very famous Caravaggio original artworks! (Probably one of the best examples of churches we have been in!) Plus a number of lunches on board their boat and last week we went out around to Grand Harbour and enjoyed a very nice lunch while on anchor. On Monday this week we had a lovely evening in their fabulous home complete with swimming pool in the farmlands! Robert is a collector of cars generally and in particular racing cars – his garage is much bigger than his house! He also organised for our supply of duty free diesel which we are most grateful for!

We finally went over to the outer island Gozo last week for an overnight visit! We took the bus to the west end of the island and jumped on a ferry to Mgarr Harbour – all very efficient. We then got the local bus to Victoria which is the main town and had a wander around. It coincidently happen to be the annual celebration of St George (the Malta flag also bears the St George Cross) this day so the town was very buoyant! We enjoyed a nice lunch in the Piazza outside the main church which had banners draping the outside facades and we listen to the sounds of the ringing of their bells! Not what you would call a quiet lunch! Later we took the bus to Xlendi Bay and checked into our hotel – St Patrick’s which is situated right on the water’s edge. We enjoyed sundowners on our balcony and then found a very nice fish restaurant along the water front for dinner. Next day we went to the Citadel and took in a few more historical sights before heading back to Malta. A most enjoyable 36 hours!

We assisted our friend Joseph last week to have his boat lifted for antifouling etc. Joseph has continued to be our Maltese procurement officer and his wife Michelle has very kindly altered some of our clothing as she is professional dressmaker!

This last week has been busy knowing we are finally leaving tomorrow! Our next visitors Don & Glori Watts are flying in from Washington State into Athens on the 17^th of May so naturally we would like to be in a good position for their week long visit!

We have enjoyed our time here Malta very much and will be sad to leave for many reasons especially our new friends! It has been perfect for wintering over and especially getting our maintenance jobs done. However it will be good to get back to cruising mode and exploring new territory.

When we leave here we will pickup our normal email alphacrucis@110pct.com when we can get ashore somewhere. Meantime we will revert back to our UK number +447787793398 for phone communication until we secure a Greek number.

Farewell to all our friends here in Malta and thank you for your kind hospitality!

Take care

Love Lois and Terry

The Jolly Rogers!

2008-03-24T13:39:00.000-07:00

Jessica ready to cross Grand Harbour to Valletta from Vittoriosa

Seally & Lois, No 1 Bubbly in hand

Keith & Sue from Kent sharing L's Birthday in Mdina

Graham from Essex with local Limosine

Malta – March 2008

Oh dear it has been a while since we have updated our blog – where has that time gone!

Well we continue to enjoy being in Malta learning more and more about the history when we are out and about! We have noticed lately the tourists numbers are increasing as the weather warms up – we don’t think we would want to be here in summer not only because of the swell in population but also because of the high temperatures. We have been fortunate to discover it without the crowds!!

We arrived in Malta in December not knowing anyone but in the last couple of months we have been fortunate to connect with some like minded souls who enjoy similar things as we do – guess – eating and drinking and generally having a fun time!

In January we met a couple Joseph and Michelle who have a motor yacht, just a along from us. Since then they have very kindly had us to their home for dinner, lunch at their holiday house (overlooks a lovely bay) and helped us with running us around to find items for the boat including our wine supplies! They have lived in Australia twice over the last decade or so where they have relatives and quite possibly could end up there again! There are over 400,000 Maltese who live in Australia - apparently more than the population here!

We also met Simon and Debbie (friends of Joseph & Michelle) and enjoyed a great evening at their home recently for dinner. It was nice to be able to see all the wonderful talent Simon has with woodwork, which apparently extends from his father, but neither practice it commercially!

Our neighbour next to us in the marina, Robert, is a wonderful guy, very funny, very generous and we have enjoyed many a drink or two on board his boat as well as ours during these last two months! Good Friday we enjoyed a long lunch aboard his boat with his many friends and consumed some wonderful food supplied by his restaurant in Valletta – a vast array of seafood including Lobster from Canada!!

Malta is a popular place to winter over for yachts, given it is strategically well located for access to many parts of the Mediterranean plus it is quite South so doesn’t get too cold. We are in fact lucky to have secured a place here and we are most grateful to Chris who runs the marina, and his cooperation to accommodate us. Even better, he is great company and delivers our mail when it arrives otherwise we would have a long walk to the Marina office!!!

Overall there is no end to the general friendliness and kindness of the Maltese people so no wonder they were the perfect allies to the British in the Second World War and were awarded the George Cross! We are fortunate to have made friends with many of the locals who have made our stay here in Malta so enjoyable and rewarding! Not to mention our contribution to increasing the tourist numbers of NZers when they come to visit!!!!!

We went to the Mdina in Malta for my birthday last month– the original capital of Malta – it is a medieval walled city and we are staying at its only hotel - the Xara Palace. It was built in the 17^th century by a noble family and used as a residence. During the Second World War the British turned it into a hotel and then another family bought it in 1995 upgraded it to what it is today! And fortunately for us we were upgraded to the Grand Master’s suite – Room No 1!!!

Saturday we spent wandering around the city and went to a couple of audio visual presentations on the history of the city. We hooked up with an English couple, Keith & Sue, who were on a weekend visit from England and coincidently just were having a quick look around the Mdina (but were staying elsewhere on the Island). We ended up inviting them back to our suite for a drink and one thing lead to another and they ended up coming back on Sunday evening to join us for my birthday dinner.

We had an enjoyable evening which commenced with a bottle of ‘Moet’, compliments of Keith and Sue, which we consumed and then we headed off to Bacchus restaurant close by the hotel and enjoyed a very pleasant evening with our new found friends!!

Staying in the Hotel was such a treat for us as we don’t do much of that these days, staying in this hotel was luxury!!

We have since learnt that a couple of weeks ago on a subsequent visit for lunch at the Xara, that Bruce Willis and his Maltese girlfriend also stayed at this hotel recently and stayed in room No 1 and slept in our bed!!!!!

In the last month or so we have had a few visitors. Firstly Seally, our friend from London arrived at the beginning of February! Seally never ever travels with a suitcase but arrived with one, to our surprise – but not full of clothes as you would expect - but full of goodies for us which included 4kgs of tripe – well I know most of you will be just so envious of that, ha ha!!! Seally enjoys food like us and he and I had many conversations in London about tripe! This has got to be a first, for gifts!!!! We were elated to receive it but didn’t get the opportunity to cook some for him – he only stayed 24 hours!!

Next visitor was our great niece, Jessica, from Christchurch who is doing her ‘gap’ year at a private boarding school in Dorset, England as an assistant matron! It was first term break so we had a lovely 6 days of her company showing her around Malta. Joseph & Michelle’s daughter, Raquel took her out with her friends to a popular night club area called Paceville so she certainly got an all round idea of what Malta has to offer!

She and I witnessed something quite unique on our visit to the Cathedral in the Mdina. We viewed the opening of a private crypt below the floor which hadn’t been opened for 40 years!! Apparently the family had been waiting for 3 years for approval to open up the crypt to add the remains of a family member! We watched with baited breath as they lifted the marble slabs and down beyond the steps below we could see all the coffins stacked on one another in the cellar – it was quite an ‘eye opener’!!- However what we found most amazing is that the workman seemed very happy for us to watch the proceedings and offered to take photos for us – even the priests wandering past didn’t have a problem with the gathering people!!

John Davey, a business colleague and friend of Lorraine (Hawkes Bay) arrived next and spent a few days with us en route to England. Originally from NZ he has a business in Egypt exporting household goods which is how Lorraine met him as her business imports goods from him to NZ (Bluemoon Collections). We hadn’t met John before but we enjoyed his company immensely and we had a very pleasant few days!

Our last visitor a week or so back was our friend Graham Waring from Essex. You will recall we met Graham when we had AC lifted out. Then he joined us on our journey to Eastborne in the south of England, Falmouth and then Gibraltar! As usual it was a full on, fun 3 days in his company, but we did manage to show him what’s on offer in Malta in between, visits to restaurants!! Several of his friends from Essex were here in Malta at the same time for a birthday and all of us had a great lunch one day at the little restaurant up on the dock – run by a lovely Sicilian couple whom we have had on the boat since for drinks!!!

Malta has had elections here recently and National was again returned to power. It only happens every 5 years so National will have been in power 20 years when the next elections come along! But what was interesting was witnessing the festive and passionate way everyone joins in for the build up – rallies, cars rushing around flying flags and sounding horns – oh the noise is unbelievable!! And then we had to endure the victory celebrations which were even noisier – if that is possible!! The procession of cars and trucks blowing their horns and playing really loud music – you have to see it to believe it!!!

We are gearing up to get ready to leave Malta around mid April. Our maintenance programme has been occupying a lot of our time over the last couple of months, in between visitors and social activity of course. We have workmen on the boat now, sanding and caulking the decks plus doing other jobs. Terry is full on with engineering stuff and I am endeavouring to get through all the varnishing/painting jobs.

We now have AC on offer for sale which is the start of the process of thinking about coming back to NZ!! Terry has completed a web site which is http://loisterry.googlepages.com/alphacrucis and we have placed some small ads to direct people to this site both in the UK and Australia. In addition we have listed it with a broker here as well as the UK. So ideally it would be nice to complete our summer cruising and then sell her, however we have to accept that a potential buyer may come along sooner. If we don’t sell her this season we will probably come back to Malta to winter over again.

So that’s it for now – hope you all are well!

Love Lois and Terry

2008-01-13T07:21:00.001-08:00

Daryl and Adrienne on Xmas Day

Looking Back to Vittoriosia

Mary and Peter at Marsaxlokk Fish Markets

Walking around Medina

50's Bedford with Frills

MALTA

– JANUARY 2008

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU ALL!!!

We arrived in Malta on the 14^th of December after our 17 hour journey from Siracusa, Sicily. The forecast was for North West winds which would have been perfect but instead we had wind from every direction, between 17-2 knots, during our 17 hours plus a lot of swell which made it quite uncomfortable at times! Unfortunately when we did have sufficient wind speed to sail – it was on our nose!! There were lots and lots of traffic – mainly larger vessels and both Terry and I lost count at how many times we had to change course, so a very diligent watch was called for! Overall though quite a good journey!

We are moored in a place called Msida Marina in Marsamxett Harbour - it is very well protected and well located for everything! The Valletta area has two adjacent natural harbours – the other is called Grand Harbour.

The next few days we spent time getting to know our immediate surrounding area in terms of where to buy food and wine. We found a very good butcher and a supermarket all within walking distance. Plus the supermarket will deliver which helps with all that beverage!!

We established very quickly that the best way to get around the Island is by local bus. We are about 5 minutes from the main walled city of Valletta.

The pubic transportation is amazingly efficient and cheap (€0.47 to anywhere on the island), so of course everyone uses it! Every bus driver is responsible for their own bus and that includes cleaning it as well. A regular sight on any bus is a bucket of water with a brush and sponge in it.

The fleet is an eclectic array of old to not so old sourced from the UK or the Commonwealth as we drive on the left here. The age range is from the 50's stretching almost into this decade. The oldest we have seen so far is a British Ford Thames Trader. The most numerous appear to be Bedford's from the 50s and 60s and after that Leyland's, Cummins, AEC’s then a variety of more modern vehicles but definitely not new.

Presently there are 508 buses working on a day on, day off basis. Thus 254 buses are working on route transport throughout the island every day. The rest of the buses, that are on their day off, do private trips and perform school transport, carrying school children to and from various schools in Malta.

Our first guests were my nephew Daryl and his wife Adrienne from London on the 20^th arriving to spend Xmas with us. They stayed in a hotel called the Phoenicia – right next to the main gate to Valletta – for 3 nights then spend 3 nights on board AC with us.

We were delighted that we were spending Xmas in a place which is very Roman Catholic as with all the fabulous Xmas decorations it was a magic atmosphere. By the way there are apparently 365 churches on this little Island!! For a population of only 400,000 inhabitants.

We had a lovely 5 days wandering around with them trying to take in all the wonderful sights – so much to see and do here! We found a fabulous fish market which also sells produce on the south eastern tip of the Island, called Marsaxlokk - about a 30 minute bus ride and still only cost around 47 euro cents! The fish was inexpensive and very fresh.

Our Xmas day was relaxing on board with much eating and drinking as you do!! A few pressies to open as well which was a bonus!

Daryl and Adrienne returned home early on Boxing Day and we had a couple of days of R & R before our next lots of guests arrived to help us celebrate New Year’s Eve – Peter and Mary Reeve – our friends from Essex. Unfortunately the weather took a turn for the worst which coincided with their arrival so the first day or so we didn’t venture too far! However we ‘toughened up’ and donned our coats along with umbrellas and went exploring.

Then friends Faye and John from London arrived but they opted for staying in a hotel not far away. So we had a very fun quorum of six for celebrating New Year’s Eve which we did admirably in a lovely restaurant in Valletta which was a 500 year old vault!!

The next day, New Year’s Day, we went up to the old medieval city called the M’dina which is inland from Valletta. This was the capital of Malta before they built Valletta. It has been well preserved and fortunately did not get damaged in the Second World War which is not the case for Valletta and the other Three (walled) Cities (which border the Grand Harbour across from Valletta). It was just a magic place so we are looking forward to going back again soon.

Anyway we were very fortunate to have family and friends join us over the festive period to help celebrate. Of course we revelled in every minute of it enjoying some very special times with some very special people. Oh I wonder where we will be next year at this time????

Well I guess it will not difficult for you to establish that we are enjoying Malta very much – Oh the history – this is indeed a very special place and of course we are so glad we decided to winter over here. The people of very friendly and helpful without exception – a bonus, they also speak English! You can buy almost anything you would need. It’s reasonably priced overall.

We have a local cell number for the time we are here and it is +356 99859941

Of course we would love to hear from you anytime.

We have a few more friends planning to visit while we are here until April who we are looking forward to and hopefully more will come!!

Meantime we trust this year will bring lots good times for you all – most importantly - be happy and enjoy!!

Love Lois and Terry

2007-12-08T09:40:00.000-08:00

AC in Mazzaro Bay, from the mountain town, Taormina,

(the white dot not the rock)

Taormina with Mt Etna in the background

Up in the hills of Tindari

The Medieval City of Siracusa from AC

SIRACUSA, SICILY – 8th DECEMBER 2007

We arrived in Siracusa (east coast of Sicily) two days ago. We have spent the last 10 days, since leaving Portorosa Marina, travelling down the east coast via, Messina, Taormina and Catania. The highlight of these places definitely being Taormina!! It is a fabulous mountain side town with lots of history and style. We enjoyed a full day, in brilliant sunshine, wandering the sites of the town including medieval churches (of course) a Greek amphitheatre, and sitting in a café enjoying a drink while "people watching" along the main street – this is apparently what you are suppose to do there as the place apparently attracts many rich and famous people! Apart from us – we didn’t see anyone else!!

We anchored this time (good for our budget) in a little bay below the town called Mazzaro which apparently is a very popular spot during summer and looking at all the moorings in there you probably could not anchor. Fortunately we were the only boat anchored in the bay so it was quite special. The two hotels in the bay were closed so there were very few people around.

We have enjoyed the fact that we are able to explore these places without the crowds of tourists and although it is winter, the average daily temperature is now between 16 – 19 degrees C, not all that cool and very pleasant! In fact the last ten days of weather have been very good for us!

Our journey through the famous Messina Straits was a smooth passage. If you read up on the history of the Straits there is much to be cautious about especially the tales written in the great adventures of ‘Ulysses’! Although we did witness signs of the two oceans meeting the conditions were pretty well perfect for us – thank goodness.

A little Mythology from Terry.........

In our voyage from Capri down the west coast of southern Italy and then across to Sicily at Portorosa and our continuance through the Straits of Messina past Mount Etna to Siracusa where we are at this moment we have sailed in the wake of the famous Odysseus (or Ulysses if you are Roman). The first place was the Galli Islands which are close to, and West South West of Positano. These small islands are said to be the islands of the Sirens, those bewitching ladies whose sole purpose was to lure unsuspecting sailors to their death. We all made it probably because we had two other couples on board, the McKenzie's from Auckland and the Keeley's from Christchurch.

Then there was the Straits of Messina. A veritable cauldron with Charybdis, a huge whirlpool, on the western side, and Scilla with her six long necks with horrible heads and 12 long feet causing havoc on the eastern side.

Mount Etna is purported to be the home of the Cyclops, the one eyed giant that ate six of Ulysses twelve men .

As I understand it the Odyssey by Homer was all about Ulysses getting home to Ithaca after the Trojan War. Troy was in northwestern Turkey and Ithaca is in the Ionian Sea. One has to wonder why Ulysses was in the Tyrrhenian Sea at all. Either he was a lousy navigator or Homer was geographically bereft or both?

The tides ………

We have been quite surprised at the number and strength of some currents. Often one knot or two and a few times up to four knots. Quite surprising as the Mediterranean has very small tides, seldom more than one foot. Clearly there must be a flow from east to west as all the major rivers feeding into the Black Sea and the Mediterranean Sea can only exit through the Straits of Gibraltar or dribble out through the Suez Canal. Apparently differences in salinity from one Mediterranean Sea to another and various strata of temperature cause quite complex water movements and of course in the end we have to deal with it anyway.

Continuing our Tale…..

During our month or so in Portorosa I went back to NZ for 9 days – only 5 of them were in NZ. The reason was primarily to attend my special niece and friend Vicki’s marriage to Phil in Christchurch – what a handsome couple! It was certainly along way to travel for 5 days but well worth the effort to witness such a special occasion plus the bonus being able to catch up with other family and a few friends in both Christchurch and Auckland. (Unfortunately there wasn’t the time to see everyone – sorry!) The downside being leaving Terry behind as it was the first time in nearly 3 years we have spent more than 4 hours apart – a very strange feeling. However I was also able while in NZ to fulfil a wee shopping list for him as it is difficult at times to find parts for AC!

We spent a couple of days in Palermo before I flew out to NZ so we had a good look around the city. Although in places quite dirty and polluted it was a very interesting and intriguing city. On route to Palermo we had lunch in a place called Cefalu (founded in the 4^th century BC) about half way between Portorosa and Palermo, such a pretty medieval town. It has the most stunning Cathedral with Byzantine mosaics!

After my return from NZ Terry and I did quite a bit of touring around on our motorbikes. We ventured up into the mountains with picnic lunches and also to quite a large town called Milazzo – about 15 kms east of Portorosa. Gosh we love adventuring on our bikes and it was a good idea to take picnic lunches as these siestas (between 1 – 4.30pm) are a bit of a pain during the winter months as nothing is open in smaller villages and towns!

Our local village, Tonnerella, was about 10 minutes from the boat on our bikes. Terry did a bit of scouting while I was in NZ and by the time we left Portorosa we knew where to buy all our food supplies. This little village has the most amazing barber, fishmonger, butcher and produce shops and all of it was excellent quality. Despite our lack of Italiano we managed to communicate sufficiently to buy what we wanted – we were quite the highlight when we to came to town!!! We have found everyone so friendly and helpful – sign language does wonders!!!

We are looking forward to exploring more of Siracusa over the next few days. Last evening we wandered around the old part of town, which is full of Xmas decorations, and into the Piazza Duomo where we enjoyed a glass of vini rosso and witnessed a wedding taking place at the Cathedral opposite – just had to go and have a look while the service was in process – a complete bonus seeing a wedding taking place in the evening in the grand cathedral – quite a treat!

This morning we were off to the markets to replenish our supplies of food – so cheap and the good quality continues!!! And not to forget all the pageantry that goes with these markets - a real highlight!!!

Sicily was quite different from what we expected – simply a mixture of everything really! It has a population of 5.3 million and the land area is less than 1/10 of that of New Zealand and most of that is mountainous pretty much to the sea shore. The shore, valleys and mountains are intensely built upon. Their roading system makes our motorways and roads look like bush tracks. Some of the villages and cities defy gravity. Like everywhere' some of it is beautiful and some is not.

From Siracusa we are heading south (26 miles) to Porto Palo where we will leave to head for Valletta, Malta. Subject to weather we are planning to be there around the 14^th of December!

Our address in Malta will be;

Terry & Lois Rogers

Vessel - Alpha Crucis

C/- Msida Marina

Yachting Centre

Malta Maritime Authority

Ta' Xbiex Seafront

Ta' Xbiex

XBX 1028

Malta

We cannot believe it is only a few weeks until Xmas – it just seems like yesterday we were in London enjoying the lead up for Xmas last year! This is our third Xmas on board!

Take care

Love

The Jolly Rogers

2007-10-31T08:41:00.000-07:00

SICILY – 31 OCTOBER 2007

Buongiorno

We arrived in Sicily 4 days ago and are staying in the Portorosa Marina and Resort approximately 11 miles west of Milazzo on the north coast. It obviously is a popular place in the summer with dozens of very nice one storied holiday apartments in the complex scattered around the canals, but is currently very deserted for the winter period! However the upside is that they could accommodate us for the next 3 weeks or so, as there are only two appropriate marinas on this coast which provide sufficient shelter from the winter weather!

Fortunately there is also a Hilton Hotel in the complex which for the first time is staying open for the winter and this is where we go to process our email. There are no wifi systems to tap into from the boat or in fact anywhere within walking distance. The nearest town that provides internet is 11 kms away. There is limited public transport close by so we will be grateful for our motorbikes!!

In the first week since leaving Ischia two weeks ago, this time with our friend Maurie Hill on board, we travelled back to Capri and Positano, Amalfi and then to Salerno. Unfortunately the weather was not kind to us so we couldn’t get off the boat along the Amalfi coast so we missed seeing Amalfi which was a little disappointing. Fortunately we had visited Capri and Positano in our first week in Italy so we were grateful for that.

We headed for Salerno only to get shelter from a low fast on our tail but the two marinas in the harbour couldn’t accommodate us so we ended up anchoring in a little bay outside the harbour for 3 days while the cyclonic low passed over us. Apart from the weather turning rather cold (snow on the mountains close by) and wet, we were quite comfortable and safe on anchor even from the strong gusts that plagued us for a day or so! We watched a few movies during the course of our bunkering down which was fun and relaxing. After a )couple of days we took the dinghy ashore and had lunch in a quiet little town not far from where we anchored – a nice change!

We then left early hours of the morning and headed south to Tropea around 80 miles away. We arrived there the early hours of the following day in calm and warmer weather and tied up to the fuel dock to wait for the marina office to open. Tropea is a very attractive hill top medieval village and well worth a visit. 250 steep steps from base to the piazza. A labyrinth of cart width lanes and alleys. Despite being winter time, there were still plenty of bars and restaurants still open and we thoroughly enjoyed sitting outside soaking up the atmosphere of this place while enjoying a few wines and two excellent restaurant meals!

One of the days our friend Maurie hired a car for the day and we drove to Pizzo (coastal medieval) and then headed inland into the Mountains through a few villages and back to Tropea. It was an enjoyable day seeing a bit of the countryside by car and stopping off for lunch of course!

It was only a further 60 n. miles from Tropea to Portorosa Marina, Sicily which was a very pleasant day trip.

Maurie left us yesterday to tour around Sicily a little before heading back to Australia on Saturday. His last night with us he took us to an excellent restaurant close by and we had a fun time. So now after a full on month of visitors, we are back to just the two of us for a while. However there are a couple of lots of our friends from England whom are planning visits so we will be looking forward to seeing them!!

So our plans are to do a little exploring over the next week or so from where we are by car to Palermo and then head south down the Messina Straits along the coast especially stopping at Taormina and Siracusa and then head the last leg to Malta at the beginning of December where we will be until Spring.

Travelling around a place like Sicily in winter will I am sure have its challenges but nothing we cannot overcome.

Ciao The Jolly Rogers

2007-10-09T09:27:00.000-07:00

2007-10-09T09:18:00.000-07:00

ISCHIA, BAY OF NAPLES – OCTOBER 2007

Buongiorno,

After 5 days at sea from Mallorca we arrived in Ischia which is an island in the Bay of Naples, on Friday 28 October. Overall we had a reasonably quick passage with the wind in the right direction which we were most grateful for, given that our journey from Gibraltar had been a rather onerous passage with the easterly winds!

We tied up in the Porto of Ischia which is a quaint attractive little port but extremely lively and busy with many ferry services to Napoli and other islands. Most importantly it is very sheltered! Our parking spot is only a hop, skip and a jump to many little restaurants along the waterfront and many shops close by. Our last 24 hours at sea from Sardinia, was to say the least d…. uncomfortable, a combination of wind from behind and on the quarter which was good, as opposed to easterlies, however the wind speed increased substantially which made the boat sway from side to side. At one point, at
cocktail hour of course, Terry had noticed that the starboard davit holding the dinghy was out of alignment. Thankfully with very swift action in difficult conditions, Terry attached the mizzen halyard and two other lines to the sinking davit, the dinghy was saved from falling into the sea, probably taking part of the transom with it!! As you can imagine we were very pleased to sail into the Port of Ischia as we had not managed to get much sleep, with the combination of the conditions and the general traffic of cruise ships as well as fishing boats.

Sister Melva and her husband, Brian, plus friends Errol and Sarah McKenzie all arrived within two to three hours of us arriving in Port so we had to quickly turn our passage boat into a cruising boat. Despite feeling a little on the tired side it wasn’t too long before we were enjoying a few drinks and good company sitting in the cockpit celebrating our arrival in Italy. Whilst we were having a drink we were visited by one of the restaurateurs from along the waterfront, Antonio Fiore, who was looking for a little custom for his restaurant. He was a very polite gentleman and of course we took his card! To our surprise, a little while later, one of his staff appeared with a very nice pizza, with his compliments – excellent marketing we thought! Naturally we went to his restaurant which has superb food. It was a fun and relaxing night and most enjoyable to be with family and friends, who we may add had been waiting days for us to arrive. We had already missed another sister and some other friends!

The next day after a wander around the town, bought a few goodies and then we headed off toward Capri. Unfortunately we couldn’t anchor there because of the wind direction and anchored in a little bay on the Sorrento peninsula.

We woke up to yet, another good day weather wise and we headed down the Amalfi Coast towards Positano with the sounds of Dean Martin’s ‘Amore’ – ‘in Napoli’etc etc!!!! It was Terry’s birthday and the setting couldn’t have been better!!! After a little welcome margarita on our approach to Positano we went ashore for a wander around and little lunch at the top of the town overlooking the bay – just fabulous!

Next morning Melva and Brian disembarked to return to Roma and NZ. For a ‘post birthday celebration’ for Terry; Errol, Sarah, Terry and I went to a hotel called San Pietro just 2 kms south of Positano by water taxi for lunch! Terry and I had been there 10 years ago and we had a photo taken on the same seat looking across the bay of Positano and down on Alpha Crucis – just a magic day and fun to share it with Errol and Sarah!

Later that day we sailed back to Capri and anchored overnight. Again it was a treat to go back there and have a wander around, as we had stayed there on that same trip 10 years
before. It is certainly a way more commercialised now but still has a good feeling. We even went up to the hotel we had stayed at, Punta Tragara, and were able to look down a long way to our lovely Alpha Crucis anchored below. We reminisced that when we were staying there that we would sit on the balcony having a drink at sunset looking down over the bay at the boats anchored below and say ‘wouldn’t it be amazing to bring our boat here’!!!!! And we have!!!!
We dropped Errol and Sarah off the next day back at Ischia – what relaxing fun days we had with both Errol and Sarah and Melva and Brian.

Then we had to prepare for our next lot of visitors, Nicole and the grandchildren’s who were arriving the next day. Early the next morning we caught the Ferry across to Naples and taxi to the airport, very excited, to greet them and take them back to Ischia.

The last 6 days with Nicole and the children we have spend some time at anchor and some days in the Port of Ischia enjoying the environment and the ever lasting fabulous weather. The children or our ‘little people’ have settled in well and Nicole is patiently getting Amy and Daniel’s confidence to swim off the back of boat. Little Sophie (7 months) enjoys her own forward cabin sharing it with the washing machine and freezer. In fact she didn’t sleep very well a couple of nights ago as I had left the freezer off – must light that light humming!!
Nicole’s husband David, arrived yesterday (from seeing the All Backs lose to the French in Wales – very disappointed) and we hope to take them to the Amalfi Coast as well, but will be dependent on weather of course. They will leave us next week and then we have our friend Maurie Hill from Australia joining us on our way South to Scilly.

We also had a couple of visitors yesterday from Melbourne, our friends Peter and Nina Riella. They popped up from Calb, where they have been staying with family for a couple of weeks, and stayed overnight. It was a very long journey for them just to see us, and we were most grateful they made the effort as we had a wonderful evening with them, preceded by drinking some home made wine they brought with them from a member of their Italian family – delicious!!! They speak fluent Italian so Peter was able to help Terry find a machine shop and sort out the damaged davit which required reinforcing and welding. The repaired structure has just been delivered to us here at the dock and it looks good!

So it has certainly been full on with visitors – all good fun!! It is wonderful to be finally in the Mediterranean which in our minds was our final destination, but with lots to see whilst we are here.

Ciao
The Jolly Rogers

Current Position

2007-09-25T17:25:00.000-07:00

Double Click to Enlarge

Alphacrucis MALLORCA - ESPANA

2007-09-24T13:02:00.000-07:00

We didn’t intend to come here however we could be in worse places for sure!!

We arrived last Thursday after battling easterlies on and off for 6 days since leaving Gibraltar Friday14th of September. Both Friday and Saturday nights we took shelter along the South coast of Spain firstly in a fishing port called Adra and secondly we anchored near Cape de Gata.

Unfortunately we missed our rendezvous with sisters Valmai and Melva and their lovely husbands Gordon and Brian who were on a cruise of the Greek Islands on their way back to Rome – it was supposed to be a lunch on Capri! Nevermine that’s boating, but hopefully will still be in time for Melva and Brian to come on board later this week!

We spent the first night in Palma on the visitor’s dock – despite the high prices of a mooring it is a very popular spot – you are lucky at all to get a space so no wonder they can charge what they like!

Fortunately we met Tony, a friend of Graham’s from Essex, who picked us up after our arrival and took us to lunch at a fabulous little bar right on the beach near where he lives in Puerto Portals – a marina complex west of Palma. Then we continued onto dinner in the village and we returned home to AC around midnight – a little tired I might add!

The next day with Tony’s influence we brought AC around to Puerto Portals marina! What an amazing spot – certainly a place for the rich and famous! There are many fabulous bars, restaurants and shops right on the foreshore. And the boats – mostly very large motor boats! The price of mooring is even more expensive here! However we rationalised being here compared to getting battered around at sea!!

The area is very attractive with a great village atmosphere – it would be nice to come back to Mallorca generally and cruise around the island, there looks to be some super spots to anchor – maybe sometime in the future!

We also met some lovely German people whilst having a drink up at one of the bars on Saturday who live not far from here. We had them on board yesterday – great company!

So the weather looks good for us to leave today (Monday) with some northerlies kicking in tomorrow going northwest. So hopefully will be in Naples region by Thursday or Friday!!!

Love The Jolly Rogers

Alphacrucis Gibralta to Naples Sept 2007

2007-09-23T15:03:00.000-07:00

Click to Enlarge

2007-09-14T02:13:00.000-07:00

GIBRALTAR – SEPTEMBER 2007-09-14

We arrived in Gibraltar Sunday 9th of September – we have been here for 5 days now!

Our 8 day journey from Falmouth was relatively straight forward as far as motor sailing was concerned – very little wind. However we had a 26 hour Force 10 storm on our last day across the Bay of Biscay, off Cape Finisterre (translation “End of the Earth” and for a while it was!), which reminded us very much of our Atlantic Crossing with the difference this time that we did get hit by one of those following waves which took overboard – in a flash – our two diesel canisters, our lifebuoy with man overboard light and few of our things in the cockpit including Terry’s lovely Tag Huer watch. We were about 40 miles off the Cape so ran before the storm South West into the Atlantic.

On the positive side the gales that we were heading towards in the Gibraltar Straits subsided and we motored through in very calm conditions with a westerly wind!

The day before we caught a nice sized Mahi Mahi, Dorado or Dolphin fish so we were very excited about this and cooked it for dinner that first night – after the champagne of course as this is our entrance into the Mediterranean so naturally there is cause for celebration!!

On Tuesday our very spontaneous friend from Essex, Graham Waring, arrived by plane and we spent a great day wandering the town. Up by funicular to the top of the ‘Rock’ for the spectacular view – one way to the Med and the other up the Straits accompanied by the apes that run amuck up there – all part of the experienc

It is obviously a very small township but well laid out and quite quaint. Great shopping for duty free liquor (relief from England prices), electronics, watches etc. Of course we replenished liquor supplies, bought a camera and replaced Terry’s lovely Tag with a somewhat cheaper Citizen version which he was very happy about!

The next day all three of us jumped on a fast ferry in Algeciras in Spain – approx 35 minutes from Gibraltar and went over to Ceuta! On the African continent but still Spanish! Amazingly you still clear customs both ways???

It was a great experience and we had a good look around the town. We were lucky to find a lovely seafood restaurant near the water to have some late lunch, as we had left it a little late as our timing coincided with ‘Siesta’! Graham was excellent at persuading the owner to let us in!

On our return to Algeciras, friends John & Sandra Fitzpatrick from Soto Grande (15 miles up the coast towards Malaga who we met in San Diego 18 months ago ) picked us up from the Terminal and drove us back to Gibraltar and we had a very pleasant dinner overlooking our marina. John and Sandra were keen for us to come up to their area but unfortunately it was a little late in the day by the time we arrived back from Ceuta so we will have to come visit some other time!

We have had a fun time having Graham here for a couple of days - he left early yesterday and we spent the day getting organised so we are ready to push on into the Mediterranean towards Amalfi, Italy. We estimate about 8 days depending on the weather. So if we are tracking ok we will be able to meet two of my sisters and their husbands off a cruise ship in Capri for lunch on Monday the 24 September – very exciting.

Adios, Love

The Jolly Rogers

Alphacrucis UK to Med Trip Sept 2007

2007-09-04T02:34:00.000-07:00

They are on their way!

2007-09-01T03:15:00.000-07:00

ENGLAND – FAREWELL!! 1st September 2007

We are now in Falmouth – where we made landfall some 10 months ago in October last year! We arrived here a couple of days ago after spending 4/5 days travelling from Cowes, Isle of Wight via Port Portland and Salcombe.

As we said in our last update we experienced delays with our maintenance mode and when we were ready to leave from Cowes about 2 weeks ago the weather wasn’t favourable! Finally the weather pattern to head South is looking great for our journey towards Portugal and Spain and particularly past the dreaded (we will let you know) Bay of Biscay!!

However not all was doom and gloom during our 10 days in Cowes as we caught up with Jessica Schroder (met during Cowes Regatta week) once again on her yacht and was lucky to get an invite from one of her friends, Mark Heywood, for drinks at the Royal Yacht Squadron which was quite a treat and a step back in history of the centre of sailing!!

We also had a visit from our nephew Daryl and his lovely wife Adrienne (from Sydney) who came down from London to spend the night with us! During our time in London it has been great to have a member of our family resident in London and we spent many fun Wednesday nights having ‘family’ dinners together! Despite their much younger years we enjoyed spending time with them both and getting to know them – we will miss their company!

We have had a neat few days since we arrived in Falmouth! Some special visitors; my sister Melva and her husband Brian (from Christchurch) who arrived in the UK a week or so ago. We will meet them again on the Amalfi Coast Italy, with a bit of luck. Also our friend Graham Waring from Essex arrived on Thursday for the night to bid us farewell – how special for us in both instances!

Our last night in England we were the guests of a fun couple Tony and Helen from Plymouth on their motor boat, moored in the same marina. We enjoyed some great wine and local seafood - superb!!

So finally today is the day- we bid fond farewell to England and to all our friends – old and new, who made our rather long stay so ‘special’! We thank you from the bottom of our hearts and hope to see you all some time as we continue our journey towards the Mediterranean.

Once again our UK cell number will continue to be our phone contact +447787793398 and of course text as well. However we will not have a message system on our phone! Our normal email is alphacrucis@110pct.com which we will check when we are close to land!

At this point it will depend on time and weather, whether we stop in Portugal or Spain. We may very well keep going, however our dear friend and confidant, Murray Aldridge, will be back updating the blog every 2/3 days, from his desk in Auckland, so you will be able to keep track of where we are and how we are going!

We are looking forward to experiencing some nice warm weather in the Med.
We have friends and family who are meeting us in the Amalfi Coast later this month so hopefully all going well we will arrive before they do!!

Lots of Love
The Jolly Rogers