Matelot Cruising

Arrival - 9 December

2011-12-09T11:10:00.000-08:00

After a fraction under 14 days and 2700nm Matelot entered Falmouth Harbour, Antigua at sunrise this morning.
With the boat already gleaming, a final wash down was all that was required before moving to our berth at Falmouth Harbour Marina.
It was good to see many of the locals that we haven't seen for over 18months and many yacht crew - many of whom we last saw in the Pacific.
So that's it from the Transatlantic Blog. Matelot is now getting ready for a busy charter season, the first of which starts on Christmas Eve down in Bequia in St Vincent and the Grenadines. For the Summer of 2012 we will be cruising the New England coastline, based out of Newport, Rhode Island.
Thank you for following our blog and we look forward to welcoming you onboard Matelot soon.
All the best,
Angus & Crew.

Last Full Day - 8 December

2011-12-08T13:07:00.000-08:00

As the last day of this transatlantic comes to a conclusion, the last blog must be written, appropriately with a concluding theme… One old adage of the navy is; “never volunteer”, but that is not an issue we have onboard Matelot. As a crew there has been a very balanced feel, with a great blend of characters, help is always forthcoming.
It seems like a long time ago that we set off from Las Palmas! For myself, Oli P, Angus and Jess it was almost 4 weeks ago that we left La Ciotat in South France. What a difference a month makes. Thermals were the chosen attire upon leaving, now though shorts and a t-shirt can leave you very hot. From what we hear it’s rather chilly back in England, I’m sure there are many an envious reader of our temperatures. And no doubt it’s going to be a bit of a shock to the system for Andy, Oli and Marcus when they touch down in London around 30 odd hours from now.
As I have previously mentioned, this has been my first transatlantic, and I couldn’t have asked for a better experience. Far from the potential strong winds and heavy seas, this has been a very relaxed and calm crossing; Marcus has hardly known what to do with himself at times! Some great sailing early on saw high speeds that weren’t to be matched as the wind died on us. I think at last count Jess was the top scorer with 17.2kts. One thing is for sure, a lack of sleep is certainly not an issue. Neither is lack of food!! I can’t imagine many situations in life where you are sitting around for 2 weeks, eating loads (thanks Jess), snacking even, and doing no exercise. I think a diet and some long runs are in need.
One thing that has been a source of much amusement on board, and certainly enlightenment for Marcus has been the many various phrases, sayings and slangs that have come out. There seems to be a comment for every situation, resulting in a lot of laughs.
As I said before this crew has been fantastic, and I don’t think you could ask for better balance within a group of people. This is clearly an important consideration when planning a transat, and credit has to go to Angus for getting it spot on. Everyone has brought different aspects to the delivery. Angus as you would expect runs the show, he is also very good at egging Andy on when it comes to taking the mickey out of people. They can be an amusing double act.
Without a doubt though, we wouldn’t survive without Jess’ fantastic cooking! To be able to come up with the quantity of food and make it so delicious every mealtime is awesome, and moral is always kept high by food. Supper time becomes a major focus of the day. I’m sure that Jess is looking forward to a few weeks of not having to cook every day. How she manages to read a million books at the same time is quite impressive!!
Marcus is our resident sea dog and old hand. There seems to be nothing he hasn’t done, with a story for every occasion he can keep us occupied for hours. As an endurance event fanatic, he has been excited by the prospect of a new challenge presented by Andy, I wonder whether there will be thanks afterwards for suggesting it, or curses of agony! I have to admit to being very jealous of all the marathons and 24 hour races he has done.
Andy, as has been reported previously, has kept us all entertained. Several times throughout the day you hear the response of “Sir, yes Sir”, clearly old habits from the Royal Marines die hard. With jokes flying around there is never a dull moment, and anyone can be targeted at any time!
Oli P has been an ever present since we flew out to France, and makes life aboard a million times easier as there never seems to be a task he’s unwilling to do. Also he has had some moments of pure comic genius that have kept us all amused.
On a personal front, it’s time to clean up and shave off the facial hair. There are no doubt many 14 year olds who can grow a better beard than the patchiness on my face. Oh Well.
The last supper and film have yet to be revealed, but I’m sure that they will be a fitting way to end this crossing. For now I’m looking forward to Antigua!!
Angus will do an update tomorrow morning, Ship’s Time, advising you all of our safe arrival.
Regards
Ollie W.
Noon Details GMT – 3
16 49N 058 58W
Miles to Antigua 161nm
Miles to Las Palmas 2501nm

6 December 2011 - Wet Wet Wet

2011-12-06T12:41:00.001-08:00

Wet, wet, wet!!!! Not the music the weather.

Mr Tibbs is nothing short of a genius. The forecast of less wind to the south is just what he predicted with the odd gust into the high 30 knot range. This was forward of the beam so the apparent wind seemed quite strong. In the end it topped out at 37knots true for a short while with over 40knots apparent.

Matelot sails well to windward with very little sail and is remarkably upright. Unfortunately the sea state was confused with waves coming from all directions at one point so we slowed down to a comfortable speed to make sure we looked after the boat. Visibility was down to a matter of meters and you could hear the rain hitting the deck from down below! Now as we head into the evening we have a much reduced sea state and clear radar screen so we should be in for a less eventful night.

Conversation has been focused on when we will reach Antigua and now we are through the depression we are hopeful of making landfall on Friday but will obviously see what comes our way in the meantime. I am not superstitious at all on land and will regularly walk under ladders on purpose but when I am at sea I have a healthy respect for the “Sea Gods” and don’t like to talk thing up as we say in Southwold, or tempt fate as you may say elsewhere.

I offered to cook supper tonight but apart from peeling the potatoes Jess has quietly made it happen, it helped when she noticed that the gas had run out in the oven so supper will only be about an hour late. People have been keel hauled for less I am sure. We all love our food so talk is often of the menu.

Mr Coulson had a jokeathon at 3am where he told jokes nonstop for about two hours during the worst weather so we had a diversion during what was almost like darkness in day time due to the density of the cloud cover.

We are just having a wash down on deck now, a tidy ship is a happy ship and it is good to see her glistening she is so pretty.

Well time to go and check the cooking and buff the stainless before we slip into another warm and starry night.

Marcus

Noon Details GMT – 3

16 30N 052 03W

Miles to Antigua 560nm

Miles to Las Palmas 2102nm

5 December 2011

2011-12-05T11:31:00.000-08:00

705 nautical miles to Falmouth Harbour, Antigua. I awoke today to the sound of pitter patter upon the deck, not a stowaway(!) but a massive squall which is in keeping with the latest weather report from Mr Tibbs. He was spot on. At the moment we are surrounded by the infamous squirrels of the red variety (called this because the more red the squall on the radar the heavier the rain/ larger the squall). Apart from these squalls the sailing has been good. A steady 10knots of boat speed seems to be seeing us alright with landfall forecast for Friday morning around sunrise. The reggae has started already which seems to have attracted the local dolphin pod! “ Aireee dolphins!” I think they like the bass. Can’t blame them really!! Otherwise myself and the other crew are trying to get their sun tans sorted. Just so we don’t look to out of place on arrival!

Yesterday we carried out mid Atlantic fuelling. Ever since Gibraltar we have been carrying two fuel bladders each 500lts. They sit snuggly together on the bridge deck – just like a couple of giant bean bags! Emptying them consists of running pipes from each bladder into our diesel tanks and then slowly opening a number of valves to let the diesel empty. After a while Mr Coulson steps up and uses his ‘Mass’ to apply pressure to said bladders thus increasing flow therefore speeding up the operation. Thanks Mr Coulson “Sir, Yes Sir!”. All joking aside the bladders are a very useful bit of kit and increasing the boats range by 800 miles should the breeze drop or any other scenario. We have options!

Another squall has just passed and the sun has made another appearance hopefully for longer this time!

Just noticed some French steaks defrosting in the galley and smells like roasted vegetables in the oven. Looks like we could be in for a treat! Can’t wait!!

All the best
Oli P

Noon Position (GMT -3)

17 51N 48 49W

Miles to Antigua 765nm

Miles to Las Palmas 1897nm

Sunday 4 December

2011-12-04T11:08:00.000-08:00

It’s an impossible task to surpass yesterday’s blog by Andy, so I’m not going to even try… How to even follow on is a tough one…

We have been enjoying what may be the last of the good weather before Antigua, with a tropical depression forming; heavy rain and some strong winds are expected in the next few days! It could get bumpy for a while. On the positive side, it will certainly make sure we are all hydrated and showered whilst on deck. No doubt plenty of the crew on board boats doing the Arc will be lining up on deck, shampoo and shower gel in hand eagerly waiting for their first shower in many a day. No such problem aboard Matelot, where an hour barely seems to pass before Jess is jumping in the shower.

With less than 900 miles to go, logistics and ETA’s have been worked on, and yesterday’s amusing sight was seeing Andy emerge on deck from the chart table looking like he had just done 20 minutes in a sauna, after using his best maths skills to work out fuel consumption versus speed and distance to go. To use a phrase out of Angus’ book, ‘he was sweating more than a Para in a spelling test’.

Last night’s entertainment came in the form of Will Ferrell’s Anchorman, a cult film to many, with the standard plot of Ferrell being the star, messing up and then coming good again, while shouting a lot. Self-indulgent for sure. I don’t think it was much appreciated. However ‘the Departed’ was much better received; great film even if everyone ends up dead.

One thing that has surprised me is the seeming lack of Ships around, I wasn’t expecting much, but we only encountered our second of the whole crossing today. A big cruise liner breezed past us, heading for Barbados. It must be a pretty relaxed way of crossing the Atlantic… the idea of being able to play tennis, or football whilst being in the middle for the ocean is bizarre, but certainly appealing. Although I’d probably just spend too much time in the 24hr buffet’s! Food for thought…

Ollie W

At 1200 UTC-2:
19 05N 045 35W

Wind: E to ESE 10 to 15.

Miles to Antigua: 941nm

Miles from Las Palmas: 1721nm

Total litres of water used since Las Palmas: 6000litres

Blog, aboard the starship “Matelot”, stardate 3rd/Dec, 2011

2011-12-03T13:01:00.000-08:00

Note to Self….
Well, another day afloat banging out the miles towards Antigua. We’re a happy ship under the capable command of Cap’n “Gusty” Fergus-Fuller and his motormouse wife and cook extraordinaire Jess. I’m along as self-loading ballast and probably only down to the fact that I was Angus’s best man at his wedding. We are a motley crew and come from a variety of backgrounds but all are a happy bunch. This isn’t the hardest of adventures anyone’s done (we’ve got some seriously gnarly salty sea dogs on board…) but the common feature has been the light hearted banter. We’ve even turned below decks into a sauna (just for a laugh…) which is fab for 24hrs… a day. I seem to be leaking a lot and appear to be in a permanent state of exhaustive physical training but that’s all part of it and we’ve all signed up to take a joke (haven’t we?).
Of much amusement are the two Ollies. Ollie W is used to barking instructions to all (whether the intended recipients are two feet away, or twenty) – it must be his Germanic background? SIR! YES SIR! The other Oli – Oli P, is a resident of planet Janet and is suffering much from being away from his gf Kate. We have all homed in on this and being the decent shipmates that some of us are, have taken every opportunity to mercilessly rib him about how loved up he is! He is all “…so dude, whatever….” Both Ollies are worth their weight in gold but for diametrically opposed reasons – great value. Then we have Marcus. Neptune hasn’t got as much experience as this sage of the sea and he was squeezing excitement out of adventures when Granny were a lad. He is a softly spoken family man with a wicked sense of humour and an amazing zest for life. You see, everyone has a story – we just have to dig a little.
This leads me back to the initial heading – Note to self. The sea is a wonderful place to clear the head and I have had a couple of times – well plenty actually, when I’ve had to make a mental note to self. This invariably happens in the early hours, alone on watch, when I love to stargaze. The stars out here are stunning – just like the desert where they too appear to hang out of the sky so that you can almost reach out and touch them. When I see a shooting star I think of my Ma – she has a wonderful way with words. She says that a shooting star is someone’s soul entering heaven. Fab to think like that eh? Mental note to self – I must think more along those lines. I really appreciate my family and girlfriend more than ever when I’m isolated from them. Note to self – I must tell them I love them more often – and not to be too caveman-like with my emotions. Ahh, the old romantic returns!
I stare for ages at the stars and the globs of effervescance (is that a word?) that wobble from the stern of the boat mesmerises me. Mental note to self – spend more time in the great outdoors. I don’t know, perspective is too often lost back home but found again when away from loved ones and amongst such wonderful settings. I reckon time to really think is seldom found amidst the hustle and bustle of everyday life at home.
I’m really grateful to be aboard an amazing sailing machine, with complete fruitcakes as wonderful companions, contemplating all the advantages I’ve been given in life and feeling very grateful and humble. Note to self - don’t be so serious Andrew but value such opportunities. Go sailing more often!
At 1200 UTC-2:
19 52N 042 11W
Wind: E 10 to 15.
Miles to Antigua: 1128nm
Miles from Las Palmas: 1534nm
Total litres of water used since Las Palmas: 4500litres

2011-12-02T10:20:00.000-08:00

Halfway drinks. From Left to Right: Angus, Marcus, Ollie W, Oli P, Jessie, Andy

2 December 20011 - Half Way

2011-12-02T10:15:00.000-08:00

So, the half way line has been crossed aboard Matelot! With the electronic charts now showing the Caribbean instead of Africa, it certainly seems that we are getting closer. This was celebrated with a glass of La Ciotat’s finest champagne for everyone and a splash for King Neptune, at lunch time. The “half-way Party”, as it was hyped up to be, failed to include on board entertainment from resident joker Andy Coulson or even guest appearances from Jon Bouy and DJ Ray Dar, but it was none the less a nice way to cross into the other side of the Pond!

With temperatures rising, it’s not just the crew who are feeling the heat. My Macbook decided to go on a 24 hour sojourn! One minute I was using it, the next the screen was showing wavy colours and then blankness! To use one of my common turn of phrases; Devastating! Modern technology is such that even if you believe you’re good at computers, you rarely are. Thankfully the laptop decided to start working again. Crisis averted!

The crew on Matelot were treated to our very own Newspaper, excellently comprised by Tim Watson. At lunch Angus handed out sections, as you would get in a Sunday times, with Finance, Sport and World News to name but a few. Headlined the ‘Mid-Atlantic Times’, we were able to catch up on current events. Naturally I went straight for the Sport’s section, and was appalled to see that Rob Andrew is still at the RFU. Anyway thanks Tim for the fantastic newspaper, maybe you could make this a new service… label it the ‘TW Times’! Could be epic!

Ollie W

At 1200 UTC-2:
20 23N 039 04W

Wind: ENE 8 – 12 knots.

Miles to Antigua: 1306nm

Miles from Las Palmas: 1356nm

Total litres of water used since Las Palmas: 3450litres

1 December 2011 - Time please!

2011-12-01T09:53:00.001-08:00

Time please! We have put the clocks back today as we travel further west. Each 15 degrees of longitude equals one hour of time. We put the clocks back at lunch time split between two watches so Angus and Oli P each had half an hour extra. Tomorrow will see the sun rise around six rather than seven am.
Usually when you are at sea food is a taboo subject because it can cause arguments. Anything you are short of becomes an issue sometimes of disproportionately large importance. Not on Matelot, we are eating better than I have eaten before on or off a boat. Jess is a magician. Today for lunch we had a double decker burger with all the trimmings and tonight prawn curry is on the menu. We are treated to something new every meal.
Last night saw more squalls or “squirrels” as they are affectionately known and they seem to get the flying fish airborne. If we were keeping them and putting them in the freezer we could head to the fish market when we get to Antigua, fortunately for the fish they are going back alive.
Crew morale is high as Mr Coulson has us all smiling. He missed a career as a comic and would be the subject of a great documentary for a reality programme based on pilot vessels. Maybe it is not too late.
The halfway point is within sight so we are preparing for the party.
Last night was my first with shorts and a shirt in 20 knots of wind and I came off watch feeling pleasantly warm.
The advent calendar was opened with much excitement today. Christmas in the Caribbean can’t be bad.

Marcus.

At 1200 UTC-2:
20 47N 035 40W
Wind: ENE 15 to 20knots, upto 25knots in squalls.
Miles to Antigua: 1493nm
Miles from Las Palmas: 1169nm
Total litres of water used since Las Palmas: 2950litres

30 November

2011-11-30T10:39:00.000-08:00

Another day and another blog as the sun sets on a glorious tropical day in the Atlantic, Matelot cruises along at 9 knots under engine and headsail. It has certainly been a hot day aboard, with plenty of sun block being used to protect some decidedly pasty crew members, myself included! Unfortunately the tan from the summer has long gone.

One new hazard that has started to become more frequent is the threat of a boarding party in the form of flying Fish. These marine/aerial invaders zip along at a fair whack, which incidentally is something you don’t want to get in the face. Overnight Andy and Angus had first-hand experience, as one flew into the cockpit. With Angus diving down below to grab some kitchen towel, Andy was left chasing the flapping fish round the cockpit before snatching it up and throwing it back into the sea. Crisis averted, as I am told the smell if it gets down below is unbearable!

Tonight’s entertainment is American Pie, god that film seems old and dated now, though at the age of 13 I clearly thought it was brilliant. I am told that Andy has never seen it, so he is certainly in for a bit of amusement.

With such calm conditions, Jess cracked out the stainless polish, I believe because she only has 3 more books left and we are only 6 days into the delivery! God knows how she manages it, and keeping five Crew well fed too! I would like to say that I could read that much, but a mixture of sleep and films are too tempting.

The delicious smell of Sausages wafting round the boat is certainly enticing, and Matelot can look forward to another settled and relaxing evening.

Ollie

At 1200 UTC-1:
21 08N 31 59W

Wind: ENE to ESE10 to 15knots.

Miles to Antigua: 1706nm

Miles from Las Palmas: 956nm

Total litres of water used since Las Palmas: 2500litres

Tuesday 29 November

2011-11-29T10:21:00.000-08:00

A slow progress day at sea, but we passed another yacht. They are going to Bequia in the Grenadines and hope to be there within 3 weeks!! We had a chat on the radio and took pictures of each other before carrying on – I think we passed about 100m apart.

Big wash down today to tidy up, plus we hosed down the topsides so a nice clean Matelot is being sailed. Dolphins are everywhere today with the guys stood at the bow watching them duck and dive. We’re now sailing direct route to Antigua so every mile counts which is great. Proper tropical weather now with us all needing to be careful of sunburn.
All the best
Angus

At 1200 UTC-1:
21 51N 025 45W
Wind: ENE to ESE13 to 18knots.
Miles to Antigua: 1889nm
Miles from Las Palmas: 773nm
Total litres of water used since Las Palmas: 2130litres

28 November - Monday

2011-11-28T09:44:00.000-08:00

It is getting warmer! We are heading south west to get more favourable winds and currently have full sail and have just taken the headsail across to help us get more southing.

This morning just after dawn had Ollie dashing for his waterproof, a line of squalls came marching onto the radar following us with the rising sun. The wind can get up to 50 knots in some of these localised weather systems and it is never totally obvious when this may happen. When the rain travels towards you it is easy to see where it starts and finishes on the sea but in the dark it is not always easy to tell strong it will be till it gets reasonably close to you.

Promising news from Chris Tibbs, the tropical storm in the Caribbean is heading North West at the moment and with luck it will move further away from us.

We are eating really well with lovely fresh cooked food from Jess. We are sailing on our tummies and the crew spirits are good on board.

Marcus has not sailed the Atlantic for a few years and lots of stories of past adventures are coming to light. We were discussing eating flying fish which can hit you in the night giving you quite a fright when you think you are alone on deck. But we are yet to be visited by our rather smelly but tasty friends.

Our closest point to the African coast is about 500 miles away but this morning a very small butterfly flew onto the deck before disappearing into the dawn light.

We had the home cinema open this morning with “Mr Nice” being shown. The critics were at the perfect temperature thanks to the air-conditioning, which probably helped it receive good reviews from the critics! It is surreal to be watching a film whilst the waves go past the port lights (windows)!!!

Marcus

At 1200 UTC-1:
24 03N 025 47W

Wind: ENE to ESE13 to 18knots.

Miles to Antigua: 2061nm

Miles from Las Palmas: 602nm

24hr run through the water: 225nm

Total litres of water used since Las Palmas: 1430litres

27 November, Sunday at Sea.

2011-11-27T07:39:00.000-08:00

The last 24 hours have seen Matelot cruising along in what can only be described as prefect delivery conditions. Just before dark yesterday evening the sails came down, the motor was turned on (at low, fuel efficient revs), and the whole crew settled down to a night of single watches! One and a half hours ON, 7 and a half off!!

Motoring thoughout the night with our stomachs full from a delicious Chilli Con Carne courtesy of Jess, we certainly had plenty of sleep. Much of the crew elected to read or sleep when off watch, though myself and Andy Coulson entertained ourselves with a film; ‘Meet the Fockers: Little Fockers’ which whiled away a few hours.

The morning broke to glorious sunshine, made even better by a show of athleticism from a few dolphins doing belly flops and flips out of the water. We really are in the Tropics now! With the wind still fickle and blowing from the easy we motored up until midday, keeping a westerly course. However after consulting the forecasts, Angus revealed tactical nous that Mourinho would be happy with! (Or Coutts) The sails went up and a more southerly course was elected, with the intention of sailing during the day, and then motoring on a westerly course overnight. The crew were happy! Yet more skills from the ‘Mourinho textbook’! I fear too much football analogies there, if only Martin Johnson was able to keep his team as happy! And don’t get me started on Rob Andrew!

Anyway as I write we are sailing along beautifully, 10 knots of boat speed touching 12s at times, and potentially looking at another good night’s sleep and Angus gearing up for a showing of ‘American Pie’. Great delivery conditions!

Ollie W

At 1200 UTC-1:
25 57N 022 40W

Average Speed Over Ground (SOG) in last 24hrs, approx.: 9knots

Wind: ENE 15 to 20knots, now gusting to 25knots

Miles to Antigua: 2240nm

Miles from Las Palmas: 422nm

24hr run through the water: 210nm

Total litres of water used since Las Palmas: 1010litres

26 November

2011-11-26T10:07:00.000-08:00

A fast night saw us manage to get a surprisingly long way west due to the NE wind blowing up to 30knots. Jessie won the top speed prize overnight with 17knots of boat speed. For a while we sailed with just the mainsail sat on 12knots of speed but eventually the wind shifted and we unfurled the headsail. All the crew did a great job of driving the boat with no moon and cloud mixed up with an expectedly large sea state.

This morning we gybed south after dropping the mainsail following the 1^st reef pennant anchor point came adrift. No problem – we dropped the mainsail, reattached it and carried on on port tack.

We have seen two other sailing yachts today, one very large – about 45 to 55metres long and there is another one behind us right now, but we were unable to identify either of them.

All well onboard so far and we are now on port tack heading SW in a wind that is starting to die. Infact, after writing the last sentence I popped on deck in order to drop the mainsail and we will now motor through the night. Although there is enough wind to sail (14 to 16knots), the problem is the sea state and the resultant banging and slapping of the mainsail. Eventually this will damage the sail, the rig or both and it can happen in a matter of hours. So it now looks like a suitably quiet evening motoring our way towards Antigua.
Angus

At 1200UTC today:
27 12N 019 19W

Average Speed Over Ground (SOG): approx. 10knots

Wind: ENE 15 to 20knots

Miles to Antigua: 2428nm

Miles from Las Palmas: 234nm

24hr run: 237nm

Fresh water consumed/ made so far: 600litres

Las Palmas Departure

2011-11-25T09:43:00.000-08:00

As I sit at the nav table typing this, we are south of Gran Canaria fully into the acceleration zone – an area to the south of the island where the wind increases considerably. Today it increased from 18knots to the present 25 to 28knots. Boat speeds are in the mid teens with 16knots being hit regularly. The sail plan is a poled out full headsail and mainsail with one reef.

So from the marina we had a Great Circle distance of 2662nm to Antigua. It’s always difficult to say how long it will take, but in the past we’ve done crossings as quickly as 11 and a bit days and as “slow” as 14 days. Hopefully, we will be neatly between the two as I do not intend to try and break any records. It’s a long way so we need to pace ourselves and we will have plenty of speed “to burn”. Matelot can sail very swiftly if required. The spinnaker will spend the majority of the crossing in the bag and we will be relying on poled out headsail for the sailing and for the light winds that I am sure we will encounter we have 3000litres of diesel to play with.

Whilst we’re expecting good wind strength for the next few days it seems the direction may not be ideal for working west, so it looks like we will be sailing south – a mixed blessing: good because it will get warm pretty quickly (still a tiny bit nippy here – sorry to those of you in the UK!) but not so good as it means we will be sailing extra miles. But that’s ocean sailing for you.

We’ve currently got Andy steering with Marcus and Jessie on deck. Dinner is cooking which is sausages and beans with mash, can’t wait. The watch system for the trip will be 3hours on watch and 6 hours of watch – the first hour and a half with one person and the second hour and a half with another. This keeps alert crew on deck and helps with the conversation after a week at sea!

The wind is already starting to veer around to the east as I type so I suspect we will be out of the acceleration zone in the next couple of hours and into more relaxing conditions.

Further updates daily.

All the best
Angus

At 1730 UTC:
27 30N 15 49W

Average Speed Over Ground (SOG): 13.5knots.

Wind: ENE 25knots

Miles to Antigua: 2615nm

Miles to Las Palmas: 47nm

Maintenance day in Las Palmas, Gran Canaria

2011-11-24T09:52:00.001-08:00

Today has been the usual pre passage day. Angus and Ollie have serviced the engine. Then we had a thorough briefing to bring Marcus and Andrew up to speed with the boat systems on Matelot.

We woke to stormy looking skies and the odd shower but as the day has worn on we have been treated to sunshine and a steady breeze. The forecast is for a following wind of sufficient strength to take us into the first few days so fingers crossed for our departure tomorrow.

Our most direct route from here is 2662 Nautical Miles to Antigua but we will head south to get the best wind. Thanks to Chris Tibbs’ weather routing we should stay in a good steady stream of air for as much of the time as possible.

We only have a steering cable to replace in the morning and the final preparations for departure like removing the shore supply. You wouldn’t want to pull away from the quay attached to the mains electricity!!

A big hello to all the children following us from Halesworth Middle School and The Old School Henstead. Especially Maddie and Will Gladwell.

Andrew is keeping us smiling with his wonderful way of viewing the world and Jess has taken care of all the food we need to get us across the Atlantic, we have a chocolate ration so we don’t eat all our sweets in the first week at sea!

All the best,

Marcus.

Wednesday 23 November - Arrival Las Palmas

2011-11-24T00:25:00.000-08:00

After 3 and a half days and 630 miles Matelot and a happy crew arrived in the port of Las Palmas. What was described as a “tough delivery”, with challenging seas states and plenty of wind shifts, it was none the less a fast trip. With 2 legs of the journey down, a welcome full night’s sleep is certainly being anticipated by all, after several days of 3 hours on/3 hours off watch systems.
The last 24 hours brought fairly unpredictable weather conditions for all to contend with, strong squalls would come rolling in attempting to catch those up on watch off guard. A pattern has certainly started to arise, with my appearance for a stint on deck frequently being followed by a squall. I am hoping that being a “squall magnet” doesn’t stick. At one point in the night, after Oli P being on watch with Angus and not having seen or experienced any squalls, I stepped onto the helm and within minutes everything went very dark, with upto 35 Knots of wind! Worryingly, for those on watch with me, this happened quite a few times! Oh Dear. It was certainly fun for me on the helm!
This morning saw Angus take the top speed for the delivery up to 16.5 knots, “Oli Pettifer was in awe”, clearly being the skipper he has the midas touch! (Or perhaps being the skipper he doesn’t have to reef early! Just joking!) Either way I’m looking forward to trying to beat it!
Now though it’s time for a relaxing evening. After a run!!
Ollie W

Tuesday 22 November - Good sailing and warmer weather

2011-11-22T08:49:00.000-08:00

1600hrs
30 47.85N 12 09.31W

477 nautical miles from Gibraltar. We have seen various conditions on board the yacht Matelot. Last night’s weather saw gust of up to 30 knots, rain and changing wind directions. Angus and I on watch last night witnessed what we believed to be a comet: a mass of bright green shooting through the western sky. It seemed to ’burn’ for at least 3 seconds. Not something you see every day! Later on we saw multiple shooting stars. I was tempted to wish for a hundred more wishes, but to be told that’s not on! So I made just the one.
Sunrise this morning graced us at about 0730 a pretty grey and overcast day the sun made a brief appearance through the gloom. A wonderful sight but only to last an hour or two and then to go grey again. Jessie’s lunch today consisted of delicious chicken and sundried tomato sandwiches. Delectable!! The weather has vastly improved, the sun has made a proper appearance and the cloud has dropped to 2/8. The wind has started coming from the north so we setup for poling out the head sail. All hands on deck to assist. With that done we are now sailing downwind in 20-25knts. What’s that I hear? Angus on the helm just hit 15.5kts. “You the Man!.” Sun is still shining - this could be described as ‘Champagne sailing’!! According to our weather guru Mr Tibbs, these conditions should go on through the night. So looks like a good sail on the cards for ce soir! Better get some kippage!!
All the best,
Oli Pettifer
Noon Details:
31 25N 011 30W
Miles to Las Palmas 283nm
Miles to Gibraltar 517nm

Monday 21 November - First full day at sea

2011-11-21T08:29:00.000-08:00

Matelot left a grey and overcast Gibraltar just after 1pm yesterday, with a favourable forecast and the promise of some good delivery conditions. Motoring out into the straights we encountered slightly confused seas, and a frustrating current against us. With a speed over the ground of just 4.5 knots progress was initially slow. However once out of the shipping lanes we were able to start eating up the miles as we settled into the watch systems.

After a delicious Tagliatelle Carbonara, cooked by Jess, with light winds and rolling confused seas we motored throughout the night, with fortunately not too much of the heavy rain that was being predicted.

Sailing in Atlantic off the African coast is a new experience for me, and so far hasn’t thrown any surprises my way. Although the contrast of one minute being in a rain squall and strong gusts, followed quickly by sun and a bit of a lull, keeps life interesting. A visit from a large school of dolphins is always a welcome sight. With fast sailing conditions due to stay with us for the rest of the delivery, we hope to be in Las Palmas by Wednesday evening.

Ollie W

Noon Position:

34 11N 008 30W

Miles to Las Palmas 507nm

Miles to Gibraltar 200nm

Gibraltar Departure - Day 1

2011-11-20T02:00:00.001-08:00

Matelot is currently berthed in Queensway Quay Marina, Gibraltar. We sailed from La Ciotat in S France early last week. The yacht underwent a rig refit which involved removing the mast and boom, laying them on supports on the ground and having all the standing rigging (rods) replaced for new ones. This work took 5 weeks and following commissioning and sea trials we had a fast sail down here.
As ever, arriving in Gibraltar is a mixed pleasure - great for pies and a pint, but that's about it! But most importantly for us we managed to obtain a good berth for the 30knots or so of wind which has been blowing for the last 3 days.
Today the wind has died and whilst there is still rain we are looking forward to leaving around lunchtime for Las Palmas, Gran Canaria.
The crew at present consist of myself and of course Jessie who is keeping us all well fed. Ollie Weguelin who is the Mate and has been with the yacht since it arrived in Europe at the end of April makes up the permanent crew onboard of three. We also have another Oli, Oli Pettifer, who joins us for deliveries and we have known for sometime. He comes from Lymington in the UK and we have managed to prise him away from his beloved Contessa 26 for the next few weeks.There are various nick names for each of them to avoid confusion (especially as they are on watch together), but we haven't quite yet reached an agreement on which one is best!
On arrival in Las Palmas two other crew will be joining us - Andy Coulson and Marcus Gladwell. Andy has sailed from St Maarten to the Azores onboard Matelot and Marcus and I have done various trips together since 1994.
It's 703nm to Las Palmas so we hope to be there sometime Wednesday and ready to leave Friday AM. More on the weather in a later blog.
We hope you enjoy following our transatlantic via this blog - it will be updated daily by 1800UTC.
All the best
Angus

Position: 36 08N 005 21W
Miles to Las Palmas: 703nm

2010-10-17T21:58:00.000-07:00

Matelot docked in the Viaduct, Auckland, New Zealand. For those of you who aren't sure - we're the blue hulled yacht in the middle of the picture!

2010-10-17T21:56:00.000-07:00

Monday 18th October

We’ve made it. After a great delivery down from Tonga, we pulled into Opua in the Bay of Islands yesterday lunch time. A little bit of a delay with Customs and Health saw us sat there until 6pm when we then took on a couple of hundred litres of fuel and came to Auckland as fast as possible. As it turned out, our timing was impeccable – total luck. We left just after a front went through and arrived one hour before the next front came through.
Today was a half day – sort the yacht out, tidy it up, put safety kit away etc and wash down and this afternoon we’ve been walking the city and catching up on personal admin.

So that’s now the end of our Pacific cruise. Looking back to when it started in early March, we’ve visited Panama (and off lying islands), Cocos Island (part of Puerto Rico), the Galapagos, the Marquesas, the Tuamotus and then finally the Society Islands all in French Polynesia. For those of you who were following you’ll know that there was a long break in any blog updates before we started again last month as we left Bora Bora. After Bora Bora we sadly had to miss out Palmerston Island, but were lucky enough to stop at Nuie and then have 10 days in Tonga. Not bad for a “whistle stop” tour of the Pacific Islands!

Highlights include pretty much all of it – many of the anchorages were really great, but the best bit for us was the diving. When we arrived in Tahiti in May, Jessie and I couldn’t dive and didn’t really have much of an intention to do so. But we did a dive course, then a further course and became Nitrox qualified and have completed 22dives each! Diving with dolphins (stroking them), sharks (not stroking them), cave diving and snorkeling with the whales in Tonga (see previous blogs) have been the best bit.

Now we’re entering a period of extended maintenance. The yacht will be having the topsides (the blue bits) painted next month. This involves removing the mast and taking the yacht out of the water and putting it on our custom built stands – these arrive from the UK tomorrow having taken around 6 weeks by ship. We’ll be in a purpose built shed for painting for the duration and will also stay in it over Christmas. In the New Year, the yacht gets launched, rig back in and then we take the yacht at the end of February to Tauranga where we’ll be hoisted onto a ship and then ship back to Europe.

We plan to be available for charter in the E and central Med next summer (2011) and look forward to welcoming many of you back onboard again!
So that’s it for our Pacific Blog. Thank you to you all for following this voyage…
All the bestAngus
angus@yacht-matelot.com

2010-10-16T03:54:00.000-07:00

Saturday evening:
The hopes for some breeze to fill in from the NW-N during Friday night / early Saturday came to nothing, as Matelot spent the night motoring along in a calm, smooth sea – with the wind peaking at a whopping 4kts! The main concern was now preserving fuel. However, it is amazing how much one can squeeze out of the fuel tanks when needed most. Saturday has been a mixed day, but we have managed to maximize the sailing and minimize the ‘motion lotion’ consumption. It was good to reach the less than 200Nm to go mark, and soon afterwards we were greeted by a beautiful lone albatross – cruising along effortlessly with its huge wingspan.
104nm to go to Opua and we currently sailing at around 9knots plus.

Bed time – need to look sharp to impress NZ Customs on a Sunday.

Brit.

2010-10-15T00:32:00.000-07:00

We managed to continue to sail through the night until the breeze faded around sunrise on Friday (today), and the sea has been a mill pond all day long. Therefore it’s been a day of motoring along in the calm, with the only problem being a current running against us thieving up to a knot of our speed over ground. Having had a fair amount of light winds since leaving Tonga our current fuel level means we’d like the forecast northerly to kick in overnight tonight, to give us a nice off the wind sail as we approach the Bay of Islands in New Zealand.

Speaking of arriving on land in NZ, as the token Kiwi on board my job description has now been extended to include being a travel agent and chief information officer on anything related to this fine country Angus, Jess, Tim & Ro are undoubtedly about to adopt as their own (well, Angus has told me it’s his anyway, as it is another pacific island colony of the Mother Country). The highest priority issue today has been the location of the nearest fish and chips (aka ‘fush and chups’) once we clear customs.

Depending on how a forecast frontal weather system develops on Sunday afternoon, we are hopeful of being able to continue down the coast through Sunday night, to berth at the Viaduct Harbour in Auckland on Monday morning. I will spend the next couple of days doing my best to prepare to ‘reintegrate’ the Matelot lot into a civilized society!

Brit

2010-10-12T23:25:00.000-07:00

Wednesday update

Well not too much to tell you all about today. We are still waiting on some wind. This morning at sunrise we had a fair bit of rain and wind which we think was the trough we were forecast to sail through, but since then the wind has been very light and variable. We currently have 2knots of wind from the west.
We now have 716nm to Opua in the Bay of Islands, but have 2knots of current against us. So whilst we are motoring at 8.5knots through the water, we are actually only going 6.5knots over the earth’s surface. Not great, and we obviously are using more diesel than planned so we will have to see how things pan out.
The air temperature has now fallen with most of the crew wearing fleeces during the day and wooly hats at night. We’re still expecting the wind, so most off watches are spent sleeping or resting in anticipation of a bumpy but fun few days ahead.

Angus

2010-10-12T05:06:00.000-07:00

It’s now Tuesday evening and the sun has just set – nothing spectacular due to plenty of clouds on the horizon. We have just unfurled the headsail as the gentle breeze we have (6kts) has agreed to veer further west, giving Matelot an extra half a knot of boat speed. Hopefully we can squeeze a bit more out of the breeze through the night – provided it sticks around.

Tuesday has been a gentle day at sea. Still a warm temperature, but a touch cooler than Monday, which makes sense given we are heading south and today we have generally had a 3-4kt wind from due south. The direction and lack of wind has meant a day of motoring, although Matelot has made good progress through the gentle sea state – a bit of swell rolling us around but glass calm on top for the odd patch. We are now about 130Nm south of the southern-most islands of Tonga (Tongatapu) and passed the island of Ata (35Nm east of us) this afternoon. We spotted another yacht heading south today too. As they were 3Nm west of us, Angus called them up to check in on their progress and see where they were heading. The yacht was a 40 footer en route to Opua in NZ, but deciding whether to stop at Minerva Reef to wait for favourable breeze or not. As they were motoring at 4.5kts it means quite a different timeline relative to ours. Always good to have a chat and share and compare weather information.

We have just enjoyed another tasty dinner prepared by Jess, while I told another round of half-truths about New Zealand’s balmy weather during Spring. Time to snooze before it is my turn on deck.

Brit, the kiwi extra

2010-10-10T23:52:00.000-07:00

Monday morning
We left the Vava’u group of Tonga around 12hours ago. I think Vava’u offers some of the best cruising in the world that I have seen. Protected anchorages, short distances between sails (less than 5nm), great beaches, snorkeling, swimming, diving, swimming with whales and good restaurants. I’m sure we’ll come back sometime in the future.
So we now have 1087nm to run to New Zealand. We’re planning to clear into Opua in the Bay of Islands as that is where we will offload all of our sails except the mainsail to our sailmaker before continuing the final 120nm to Auckland. All being well our ETA should be Saturday sometime, but we’re due some head winds and other interesting weather so it could well be Sunday.
I’ll let you know how we progress, but for now we’re motoring with a boatspeed of 9knots in 7knots of wind from the north on the Great Circle route to Opua.
Angus

2010-10-08T21:12:00.001-07:00

Matelot is currently anchored back in the main town on the island of Vava’u, Tonga. Unfortunately due to some strong headwinds further south we have been unable to leave for New Zealand and at the moment it looks like our departure day will be Monday 10th October.

We had a very special dinner on Wednesday evening. On a very small island we ate at a small lodge owned by the local Whale Watching guru. A beautiful wooden terrace that reached just to the breaking waves on a gorgeous sandy beach and owned by Alan and his wife. Alan has been in Tonga for 15 years and built the lodge when he first arrived. The lodge is over 80% self-sufficient, running with solar panels, rainwater catchment and composting toilets. The food was divine – we had a three course set menu of poisson cru, mahi mahi and pineapple meringue pie.

We woke the next morning to wind and rain so decided it was best to head back to the safer town anchorage, just 6nm away. We were back in time for Friday afternoon racing in Vavu’U harbour. We joined some friends onboard their 125’ sailing yacht. It was a very tight course and strongly competitive, with most yachts around the 30-40ft mark we were a little oversized for the small course. I’m not sure we won anything however we certainly caused a stir!

Last night was party night out here in Tonga. The locals say it is Christmas every Friday and they certainly do know how to party. We joined in at the yacht club and even in the pouring rain we all managed to dance the night away.

We are now a total of 5 persons onboard Matelot. Brit Smith from NZ joined us on Thursday morning. More of him in future blogs… Three crew have been out diving today (Angus, Jessie and Brit) which they thoroughly enjoyed seeing some beautiful coral and plenty of tropical fish. So the plan is to leave here tomorrow and join Alan and his family for a bonfire and BYO BBQ on his tropical island before weighing anchor early on Monday and heading south for New Zealand – assuming the weather doesn’t throw headwinds on us and we have to delay again.

Ro.

2010-10-04T00:24:00.000-07:00

2010-10-04T00:21:00.000-07:00

2010-10-04T00:18:00.000-07:00

2010-10-04T00:12:00.000-07:00

Monday 4 October
We’ve had a couple of nice days in Tonga now. Yesterday, Jessie and I joined up with the crew of the motor yacht “Ammonite” and joined them for lunch at the Tongan Beach Resort – a BBQ in the shade of the trees on the beach. Very pleasant. And last night Tim and Ro met with some long lost friends.
Today, Tim and Ro hired a car to drive around the island and had a great time. Jessie and I chartered a local boat, captain and guide and went swimming/ snorkeling with the whales. Something quite spectacular. We were out there for 6 hours but within 45mins of leaving the dock Jessie and I were swimming with a 1.5tonne 2 week old calf and it’s 50ft/ 40tonne mother. We stayed with these for several hours getting in and out of the water before going off in search – successfully – of further whales. We were so close that several times we had to move out of their way and once the calf hit my left fin.
The way it works: we cruise around the channels here slowly, watching out for any sign of whales. Once we’ve found them we gradually motor towards them and wait for them to stop swimming. This can take upto 30mins or more. Once they have stopped they occasionally float on the surface, or more often 30metres down. If on the surface, we all slide in the water but if they are down deep then the guide hops in the water to check they are indeed there. We then slide in – making as little noise and splashing as possible. For those of you who have snorkeled it’s quite a strange feeling: normally when snorkeling you hop in the water, then take a look around to see what’s there. With this, as you fall in and are underwater and then look down to see a massive whale right below looking up at you. Then the secret is to just float still and they will gradually come to the surface to take a look. We had one instance where the calf shot up from 10 or 20metres down and breached about 10yards away from us. You then drift or swim slowly as the calf plays around you and in the meantime the mother is 10 – 20m below watching us watching her. Then at a time convenient to her, sometimes after 30 secs, sometimes after 7 or 8 mins a brief flick of the tail and the mother has disappeared at 5 or 6knots and the calf follows.
We managed to swim 7 times with the whales and probably totaled around an hour in the water with them.

Some pictures attached.

A great experience and one which we’d do again and again given the opportunity. On the way back from the whale swimming, the captain took us to his private island/ resort for a drink. Very smart and there is a picture attached. We’re booked in for a crew meal there on Thursday night, before we hopefully depart for NZ. I’ve attached a picture of the island as well.

Tomorrow we’ve got some jobs to sort out. We have Britton Smith of ex Salperton and Philanderer fame joining the yacht on Thursday morning. He’s making a guest appearance for what is likely to be the most uncomfortable leg of all the sails we have done since Antigua. Still, each to their own and it will be good to have a Kiwi onboard.

Angus

2010-10-01T21:49:00.000-07:00

2010-10-01T21:46:00.000-07:00

Saturday Arrival in Tonga
This morning at 10:30 local time, we moored up alongside the fishing wharf in Port of Refuge Bay, Vava’u. A couple of friendly customs and immigration officers came to the yacht and carried out clearance and after Jessie went to the local market (picture attached), we headed off to anchor.
We’ve not been ashore, or off the yacht since as we’ve been working through our jobs list. So, I’m afraid you’ll have to wait until tomorrow to get our thoughts on the place! Jessie and I are off ashore tonight for dinner with some friends from a motor yacht and we look forward to seeing what Saturday night in Vava’u has to offer.
Regards
Angus

2010-09-30T22:07:00.000-07:00

Thursday 30th September

We are currently 127Nm from Vava’U in the Kingdom of Tonga. We left Niue at 0550 this morning, it has been perfect motoring weather, with on average 6 knots of wind and a flat calm sea. Jessie and I have been especially pleased as we were able to finish the laundry which due to the very heavy rain recently has been piling up!

Jessie and Angus spotted whales this afternoon, and we have aired and dried the mainsail. Now it all gets rather confusing with the time soon. Although our ETA is in just over 13 hours which in current ship’s time is Fri 1st Oct at 0700 we are crossing the international dateline which means we shall arrive on Saturday 2nd October. It sounds like a time capsule but I have been told its not! Just a theoretical line which to make matters more complicated Tonga actually sits to the east of. However they decided to adopt the timezone as the King of Tonga wanted to be on the same day as New Zealand and Australia. So for all of us on Matelot we shall never have a Friday 1st October 2010.

Tonga is one of the only islands in the South Pacific that has not been colonized in its history and as such has kept it’s Royal family. This also means that it has kept the historic traditions that in French Polynesia are not so easy to find. We are all looking forward to witnessing this first hand and may go to church on Sunday to listen to their impressive singing. I will also be on the lookout for Jonah Lomu eek!

Well there is a lovely smell of sausages cooking and the celestial navigator is going to try and take a planet sight this evening – you shall be pleased to know his accuracy has now vastly improved and he now gets our position to within a couple of miles – reassuring when we are closer to land! I look forward to updating you all on what I am convinced is going to be a very special place.

As they say out here “‘Alu a” or goodbye

Ro

2010-09-30T01:00:00.000-07:00

2010-09-30T00:55:00.000-07:00

2010-09-30T00:46:00.000-07:00

2010-09-30T00:41:00.000-07:00

Wednesday in Nuie

Nuie is a really great place. I’ll tell you a few stories so that you can get the idea:
On arrival yesterday, we picked up our mooring buoy (even 100yds offshore it’s too deep to anchor). I was then called by the local radio station on the VHF to go ashore and wait for customs on the wharf. Customs came down and we carried out their formalities/ paperwork on the bonnet of the car. As a crew, we were then driven to Immigration/ Police. There weren’t enough seats in the room, so the lady asked us to sit behind the desk next door. It turned out to be the desk of the Police Commissioner but, “no problem, he’s at a meeting and wont mind anyway.”
Today in our hire car, Tim accidentally drove through a puddle soaking 3 children and their mother. Expecting a hail of abuse we were greeted by a friendly wave and a laugh from the mum and as they were now wet, the children started playing in the water.
This afternoon, we drove to the north of the island to walk out to some caves on the shore line. On the way, we came across a bar and got talking to the barman. It turned out the barman was actually a local Member of Parliament who enjoys meeting the tourists and yachties so decided to open his bar.

These sort of things just don’t open in other places in the world.

Jessie and I went cave diving this morning which was quite something. We were lucky it was just the two of us and a guide for the two dives – three divers in total and no other boats or dive groups to be seen -anywhere. Down at 24m depth we started going in and out of caves, tunnels, canyons and other passages. Excellent visibility of around 35 – 40m and a water temperature of 26degrees. One of the caves we dived into and then came up into an air pocket inside with sufficient air we could remove regulators, masks and have a chat but it was pitch dark other than our dive torch lights. The pressure of the surge/ waves causing us to equalize every few seconds was a strange experience. Sea snakes were swimming around during both dives and a myriad of reef fish, in many of the caves it was pitch dark at the ends but turning around and looking seaward we could see the shafts of light shooting down, two really good dives.

So like many of the Pacific islands before, it’s a real shame to be leaving and at a time when we are just getting to know the locals. But such is life and we’re lucky to have visited Nuie at all.

Tomorrow we depart at sunrise for Tonga. We’re heading for the Vava’u group at the northern end of the Kingdom. On the way, we’ll have to cross the Date Line and do a time change, so for those of you who have sailed across the Atlantic with me, you’ll know that there is a high chance I can get some of this wrong and we arrive on the wrong day at the wrong time!

A further update tomorrow.

Angus

2010-09-29T01:44:00.000-07:00

After an incredibly wet night we arrived in Nuie at 0900 local time. Matelot was made shipshape before we had to all venture ashore to clear customs.

Angus had been ashore to clear our arrival before finding out that we were all needed ashore for customs formalities. In order to get ashore here we have to use a crane to lift the tender onto a concrete dock. A way to ensure the tender is safe from the south pacific swell in the very limited protection that our current anchorage affords. The people of Nuie are very friendly and after meeting with Jim the owner of the Nuie Yacht Club we firstly decided that we needed to hire a car and secondly that we needed to do it quickly!

After a very hasty lunch we visited the dive shop in preparation for tomorrow. Angus and Jessie are diving on the caves of Nuie and Tim and myself are visiting the snake pit and coral gardens. I am especially excited to see the sea snakes that are particular to this island. Following this we began our exploration of the northern caves. We visited two sets of limestone caves and a freshwater spring where we snorkeled and swam in the pools. The caves are pretty immense and incredibly beautiful often opening out straight onto the reef which you can then walk across. On closer inspection of the rockpools we witnessed jumping fish and I spotted an octopus.

The freshwater pools which we swam in are incredibly beautiful not least because we were the only people there. Captain Cook is known for saying that the water in Nuie is the clearest he ever saw often with visibility of up to 80ft and today even in the overcast shadows of threatening clouds we can see the sea bottom in 35M. I guess we shall know more tomorrow when we return from our dive expeditions and see for ourselves the true extent of the visibility.

So our plans for tomorrow are diving and exploring but for now its time for some well deserved sleep and rest!

Pictures of the tender storage/ quay and other locations to follow tomorrow.

Ro.

2010-09-28T01:02:00.001-07:00

Monday evening, ship's time.
Position at 0740UTC Tuesday:19 08S 168 20W
87nm to run to Niue

Today was meant to be a relaxing day: the wind was easing for the first time this trip, the rain for the last few days had finally stopped and the sun was coming out, we didn’t need our thermals and it was our (Jessie and myself) 2nd wedding anniversary.
However, just before lunch I thought I’d start the engine to check all was okay for our arrival in Niue, but it wouldn’t turn over. It was drawing a very large number of volts but just wouldn’t crank

On inspection Tim and I found it to be a hydraulic lock – salt water in the four cylinders. After discussing a plan I thought we’d ring an engineer who knows our boat very well. Wesley lives in Antigua and is our first choice for mechanical work. He’s been involved in this yacht for 3 years now, the previous Matelot for 2 years before that, and I’ve used him on other yachts. Ringing him on the satellite phone I got hold of Wesley just before he was going to the local bar! A poor line, but occasionally I could here the tree frogs in the background which was quite strange when we are sat in the South Pacific. Anyway, 8 minutes later he’d given us a couple of more suggestions and we were ready to go. For any boaters out there, Wesley is the guy to use in the Caribbean for any mechanical work.

Back to the problem, our first job was to ensure the area around the injectors was clean and free from dirt. Some compressed air from our onboard compressor and careful cleaning saw to that. We were now ready to remove the injectors, but first we had to remove the four fuel feed hoses and the four fuel return hoses. Every item was carefully removed to ensure we didn’t lose washers and were then put into a zip lock and labeled. After this we began removing the injectors one by one, again labeling and putting in a bag. Meanwhile on deck, Jessie and Ro kept watch and continued to sail the yacht.
Once the injectors were removed, we could look into the cylinders and clearly see water and oil mixed together. The next procedure was to fill the cylinders up with diesel, so we drained fuel from our day tank into plastic bottles before pouring into the cylinders. Inevitably we spilt some! Now for the messy part: we had to turn the engine over to empty the cylinders of fuel and water. So a towel was offered up by the girls and we laid this over the cylinders, Tim held it in place with his head down and out the way and I cranked the engine. Initially just a few bursts due to the force of the liquid coming out, but eventually we cranked it for 10 secs and were happy we’d cleared them out.

Lastly, we reassembled all the parts and then went to start the engine. Same problem again, not cranking.

The only option was to strip everything down and go through the whole procedure again. This time we cranked it for quite a bit longer before reassembling.

Finally 4 hours after we started the job we had the engine running and after 15mins of use, we then changed the oil and oil filter. Bear in mind the entire procedure above was carried out in a yacht rolling around downwind at sea! Tired, but feeling quite satisfied we had a great dinner of beef and roasted vegetables.

All being well, we should arrive in Niue tomorrow at around 0700 local time. The wind is light tonight so we are using the opportunity to go to single watches which means 2 hours on watch, 4 hours off - a welcome change from the last four days of 4 hours on watch, 4 hours off.

So now the wedding anniversary celebrations will have to wait until tomorrow, and it will also be Tim’s birthday!

Angus

2010-09-26T21:46:00.000-07:00

26th September 2010

We are in position 19deg24.4’S 164deg06.9’W at 1800 local time. Current wind and weather conditions; wind direction 120 degrees and speed 18 knots. Our course over the ground is 284 degrees and speed 9.3 knots. Rain and heavy cloud cover.

It has been overcast with rain and squalls since 0400 this morning. We have been sailing all day and staying down below in the dry when not on watch. The forecast looks set to remain wet and squally until Tuesday am so we had better get used to it!

The temperature has dropped especially in the rain and I am now in fleece, thermals and foulies a bit different to yesterday when it was hot and sunny.

We have passed Palmerston Island and have 328NM remaining until we reach Nuie our approx ETA at the moment is early Tuesday morning.

Jessie is cooking up a chicken kiev and salad – sounds like just what the doctor ordered! Not much else to report just a soggy wet night ahead.

Ro

2010-09-25T22:27:00.001-07:00

Half way:
Position at 0520 UTC Sunday 26 September: 18 37S 160 47W
We’ve just in the last hour passed halfway: now 519nm to Niue and 530nm to Bora Bora. Now that we’re dropping south we’re noticing a fall in the temperature, especially at night and the last 24hrs has seen an increase in squalls. For those of you who aren’t familiar with one of these, this is what happens: the squall is visible on radar by it’s rain and at night you can track it’s position and whether or not you think it will pass overhead. The next decision is to work out how much of an increase in wind you think there’ll be. So depending on whether we’re already sailing at the top end of the sail range or well within it, that helps make the decision on whether to reef or not. In the last few minutes as the squall approaches the air turns much cooler before the squall hits – normally (but not always) wind first, then the rain. Finally the wind eases off and you’re normally left flapping about in a lot less breeze for a few minutes until things return to normal.
Last night we had such an episode. I was woken for my watch at 0350 (watch starts at 0400 for me), to be told that there is some hefty rain coming up behind. I got up and immediately went on deck by which time the wind was up in the high 20s/ low 30s. We had just one reef in the mainsail and most of the headsail out. We furled all the headsail away by which time it was pouring down – we haven’t had rain like that for a very long time and I was still in shorts and a T shirt! Tim then went up to the mast whilst I was on the helm and he put a second reef in the main. Typically by the time the reef was in, it had all passed. In hindsight (a really excellent thing on boats) we should have been earlier with reefing, but that’s the way it is – the squall came in faster than anticipated.
Normally (ie with more crew onboard), we’d have full sail up when sailing downwind until around 25/ 26knots true and it’s pretty good fun! However, given that it’s just the four of us and we’re in no rush, we’re sailing very conservatively now with 2 reefs in the main and headsail. Our weather forecaster Chris Tibbs, is advising us that we can expect an increase in squall activity in the next 24 hours, so there’ll be a lot of jackets on, jackets off going on!

Halfway, and thoughts are turning to Niue. We’re getting information from Chris on the likely swell as there is no harbour or bay as such, the recognized spot for mooring is on the west coast in the lee of the island. It’s far too deep to anchor there, so we tie onto a mooring buoy with a 3tonne block of concrete on the bottom of it. If the swell is too high, then the bay will be untenable and we’ll not be able to stop so will have to continue to Tonga. More on the Niue stop at a later date.

Regards
Angus

2010-09-24T21:29:00.000-07:00

24th September 2010

Our current position at 1736 (GMT-10) is 17deg21.7’ S 156deg49.4’W. The wind conditions; true direction 070 degrees and true speed 22.2knots. Our course over the ground is 240 degrees and speed over the ground 9.3 knots.

Sail plan: two reefs in the main and a reefed headsail, poled out.

Crew positions; Tim on helm, Ro on blog, Jessie in galley cooking tonight’s dinner (spaghetti bolognaise) and Angus off watch catching up on some much needed Zzzzz’s.

24 – hour facts and figures, in our first 24 hours at sea we have covered 240NM distance towards the waypoint (more through the water), we have hit 16 knots boat speed twice – Angus holds this record, wind has topped out a 31 knot gust and the resident celestial navigator has found our position 8 hours ago within a 10 mile accuracy.

The sextant work today involved all crew onboard writing down numbers and telling Tim when we were “on top of a wave”. It seems to have paid off as he was overjoyed with his first sight and got our position within 10NM of our actual position via GPS. He now has to continue with his sights and get a greater degree of accuracy.

The art of celestial navigation is for the observer incredibly complicated. Tim has four books, an almanac and three sets of sight reduction tables from which he has to calculate his position after taking the sextant position. The position taking is in itself quite difficult, taken from the deck of an unsteady yacht powering her way downwind and with the added bonus of occasional clouds and a large mainsail. The calculations are all down to the accuracy of the first sight.

Fortunately for Tim, Angus who has been an Ocean Yachtmaster for 12 or so years is on hand to offer advice and assistance. He is also the owner of the most fabulous sextant that Tim is lucky to be using. The sextant was made in 1972 and is a work of mathematical genius. This does come at a price though – if in doubt save the sextant!

Well I must go on deck now to assist Tim after a courgette and pepper landed at my feet it seems the wind may have picked up a little.

Ro

2010-09-23T21:37:00.000-07:00

Day 3 Champagne Sailing
We departed Bora Bora (again) at 1100 Local Time this morning. Clear skies, SE’ly wind and 22 – 27 knots of it. We hoisted the main with one reef, unfurled the headsail and shot off down the rhumb line to Niue with some great downwind sailing. We’ve now passed the point where our steering cables broke, which is always a good point to pass.
Sadly, departing today gives us an ETA at Palmerston of Sunday. However, it’s not possible to clear Customs and Immigration on a Sunday so we would have to wait onboard the yacht until Monday morning. This doesn’t work with our program as the same is true for Tonga where we are keen to get to and we lose a day next week as we are crossing the International Date Line. So we’re missing Palmerston out and going straight to Niue which is 979nm from our current position. All being well we have an ETA of Tuesday morning and hope to spend two nights there before continuing to Tonga.
That’s about all for today, I'm afraid.

Angus

2010-09-22T19:53:00.000-07:00

Day two 22nd September

After a lovely sausage and mash dinner last night our night watch began gloriously. With a full moon ahead of us and the small island of Maupiti behind us it was a great start to the first day of our trip.

Unfortunately at approximately 1900 our steering system failed. The cable had sheared and we now had to rely on our secondary steering system. After furling away the foresail and dropping the main the decision was made to return to Bora Bora in order to fix the problem.

A great downwind sail turned into a bit of a choppy upwind 63 NM motor back to Bora Bora. Spirits were lifted when we reminded one another that it wasn’t that bad – only 63NM. As we neared Bora Bora at approx 5am this morning the sea state dropped and we witnessed a full rainbow at night lit only by the very bright moon it was quite spectacular.

Today – day two – has not been as was anticipated, however the steering system is up and running and Matelot is now returning to yesterday morning’s “shipshape”. So tonight we shall get a full night sleep before our departure tomorrow morning. I am sure there are much worse places to be delayed in than the lagoon of Bora Bora :)

Ro.

2010-09-21T18:38:00.001-07:00

It’s the end of our time in French Polynesia and we are very sad to be leaving. But we have the next chapter of our Pacific Cruise to look forward to.

We’ve had a wonderful experience out in the Society Islands and memories which will stay with us include the friendliness of the people (we haven’t experienced anything like it, anywhere else in the world), the fantastic sailing but calm anchorages and the experience of diving where we can guarantee seeing sharks, turtles, rays and many other creatures.

But looking to the next few weeks: we are now making our way towards Tonga having left Bora Bora at 2100 UTC on 21st September, a sail of approx 1300nm. On the way we will stop at Palmerston Island and Nuie. Two very different and special places (so we are led to believe). Palmerston is part of the Cook Islands and the community was founded some years ago by Mr Marsters. At the time he made a rule that any boat arriving in the island will be looked after and fed by a local family at no cost. We look forward to seeing if this still holds true today, but we have already been in touch with the island and they have requested that we bring in petrol. Palmerston has no airport and is only visited by a supply ship once a month, assuming the weather is good. So this really is a once in a lifetime opportunity. Have a look at the island’s website: www.palmerstonisland.net We should be in Palmerston this Friday and will plan to leave Saturday night or Sunday morning.

After Palmerston we had for Niue about another 440nm on. Cousteau claimed that Niue had the best visibility for diving anywhere in the world. The locals claim the visibility very rarely falls below 30m and is often at 80m, so we are looking forward to a two tank dive there. Visit the dive shop's site at www.dive.nu and the Yacht Club’s website at www.niueyachtclub.com

We then sail onto the Vava’u Group in Tonga, a 220nm sail from Nuie. Once there, we’ll probably spend a total of 7 days in Tonga before departing for Auckland, New Zealand.

In New Zealand we’re having various work done to the yacht (more about this later) and will then be shipping back to the UK leaving NZ at the end of February. We anticipate being in the Med for the Summer of 2011 available for charters, before going to the Caribbean again for the winter of 2011/ 2012, again available for charters.

We have various celebrations in the next 7 days. Jessie and I will celebrate our 2nd wedding anniversary on the 27th (I remembered!) and Tim will celebrate his birthday on the 28th.

That’s about all from Matelot today. I’m looking back at Bora Bora disappearing over the horizon, but can still clearly see the turquoise clouds above the lagoon – the shallow water reflecting back up to the sky. We’re now sailing poled out in 17knots of wind on starboard tack, heading north of the rhumb line. We’ll be weaving our way through the western islands in Polynesia which we unfortunately are unable to visit due to the very shallow and narrow passes through the reefs. Currently we’re about 10nm east of Maupiti. Once again, Chris Tibbs of Sailing Weather is providing us with weather and routing information – we’ve been working with Chris for 5 years now, so he’s got a pretty good understanding of us! – and it’s looking like a quiet trip with winds of 15 – 20knots, occasionally a little more. Fingers crossed.

It’s the four permanent crew for this trip – myself, Jessie, Tim and Ro.

All the best

Angus

2010-06-21T15:11:00.000-07:00

2010-06-21T14:56:00.000-07:00

Our exploration on Thursday and Friday saw us visit some of the outer motus of Ra’iatea. We have attached a picture of our favourite. Due to the depth of water we could take the yacht right up to the beach and using an anchor and stern lines we will be able to sit ourselves with the lines tied off around the coconut trees. The weather which has been slightly unfavourable this weekend meant that we were not able to completely go around the Island as the light was not strong enough to do the necessary reef navigation.

The best time for reef navigation is between 11am and 2pm when the sun is at its highest. The colours of the water and the clarity make it very easy to see the shallows and the coral heads when transiting through a channel. The Society Islands however, also have very complete and accurate navigation channels with a buoyage system enabling us to pass through those passages we can fit into.

We hired a car, the four of us, to visit the island. Ra’iatea is the most sacred and culturally important island of the South Pacific. We visited the Marea Taputapuatea complex which is the most important traditional temple in French Polynesia. Dedicated to the God of War “Oro” who dominated 18th century religious beliefs this temple dates to the 17th century. Any other Marea built on another island had to contain stones from Taputapuatea as a symbol of allegiance and spiritual alignment. It is an imposing site to visit especially with the explanations and pictures of the great ceremonies with the human sacrifices that took place.

The small town of Uturoa is a lovely bustling town where there are a few supermarkets – incredibly well stocked, the pearl shops and a beautiful craft market. On Friday we witnessed the locals gathering to commerate the 70th anniversary of the day Charles de Gaulle urged the French not to capitulate to the Germans. They were wonderfully dressed in local clothes – often brightly coloured with a flower pattern and garlands of flowers around their heads and necks. The singing was lovely and the soldiers displaying all their medals brings home just how many people were and are involved in the French armed forces – even on these tiny outposts in the south pacific.

Ra’iatea has been wonderful to explore and sailing between the two islands inside the outer reef is fantastic. Our cruise has come to an end and all four of us have benefited from the experience of getting to know the area and sourcing the best places to go for our guests. There are still unexplored anchorages so we have some great areas to explore when our guests join us next. We shall be heading back to Moorea when the weather breaks to continue with the maintenance schedule and preparations for the summer. Being close to Tahiti will mean we can easily access the dock if we need to. We are looking forward to seeing the Tuamotus and maybe even heading back up to the Marquesas – which we all fell in love with - so plenty more to update you on. Will write again soon.
RO

2010-06-17T23:25:00.001-07:00

2010-06-17T23:24:00.000-07:00

2010-06-17T23:22:00.000-07:00

2010-06-17T23:17:00.000-07:00

Matelot is currently anchored in position 16 44.2S 151 29.3W. We are at the NW end of Ra’iatea after exploring some of the Islands’ outer motus today. We left Bora Bora yesterday morning and headed for the island of Tahaa’a. Tahaa’a and Ra’iatea are positioned in the same lagoon with an outer reef enclosing both islands. Sailing inbetween the islands is possible and both have a variety of sandy beach motu anchorages and interesting interiors to explore.

The crew got the opportunity yesterday to explore Tahaa’a – the Vanilla Isle. We took a tour in the back of a 4x4 which included a pearl farm tour, a drive through the tropical rainforest and a visit to the vanilla plantation. The Pearl Farm is owned by a local family and the matriarch of the family gave us a guided tour through how an oyster is grafted and a pearl cultivated. Pearls of the South Seas come in a variety of colours from almost black to silvery aubergine. The process is very interesting involving the implantation of the “outer lip” of a very good oyster (a good colour) into up to 120 other oysters. As our guide was eager to point out, one sacrifice for 120 others. The farm is of medium size and they have 60,000 oysters.

The rainforest was incredibly lush and our driver was very good. Very sturdy! We all enjoyed the off-roading and each secretly harboured the thought that we would get stuck in the mud! But no such luck. Our driver – Tever, who turned out to be a man of many talents, gave a coconut demonstration. It’s very useful to be shown this skill and very tasty to eat once it’s prepared. Throughout our tour our guide supplied us with fresh tropical fruits picked off the trees as we passed by. We ate Papaya – to the sound of Tever’s guitar and voice, Star fruit – which Angus thoroughly enjoyed, grated Coconut and Bananas.

Our last stop was at the vanilla plantation owned and run by a crazy man called Brian. Brian who was Danish spoke a multitude of languages and had retired 15 years ago from the French Foreign Legion. Covered in tattoos he was incredibly passionate about his plantation. The work at the plantation is labour intensive and the process long winded, however the smell was glorious. Of course we had the opportunity to make a few purchases and we all got carried away in the heat of the moment buying some vanilla body lotion, vanilla shower gel, vanilla beans and vanilla tea. Jessie has some fabulous ideas for her beans making sugar, essence and rum and the boys smell lovely for once!

We plan to visit Ra’iatea over the weekend to sample the delights of this island famous for its archealogical sights. Ra’iatea is the sacred isle in French Polynesia and home to the most special and important temples. Also hoping to eat more Poisson Cru (Jessie made some this week for dinner and it was divine) and we have all discovered vanilla rum punch…… I look forward to posting some photos of the tikis and temples.

RO

2010-06-16T00:21:00.000-07:00

We’ve been in Bora Bora now for a couple of days. A wonderful place where the real charm is the areas we can only get to by tender: the east coast. Stunning clear, warm water filled with fish. Hundreds of Motus (though mostly privately owned) and all the activities that a charter guest could wish for. The airport is only accessible by boat and the dock has very clear water only 2metres deep, there’s fish here too!
We’ve snorkled a couple of the locations, rays (lots of them) are the abiding memory. Of course as you would expect from Bora Bora there are some excellent restaurants and we had a great meal at Bloody Mary’s restaurant made famous by the many celebs who have visited it. However, it really is a pretty fun place and with a good vibe.
A great place for a sundowner is the Bora Bora Yacht Club, a very informal place where Jessie fell in love with a one year old Jack Russell terrier – she wanted to bring him back onboard!

Tomorrow we go south to Tahaa and Raitea to see what they have in store before working our way back to Moorea. We will spend 7 days at anchor there, before returning to the marina in Tahiti.
ANGUS

2010-06-14T15:09:00.000-07:00

2010-06-14T11:15:00.000-07:00

2010-06-14T11:02:00.000-07:00

2010-06-13T10:45:00.001-07:00

No blog for the last couple of days due to wifi being down.

Huahine is made up of two islands Huahine Nui (northern island) and Huahini Iti (the southern of the two). So yesterday we decided to take the tender around the southern island. There is a narrow passage about 20metres wide between the two and they are connected by a bridge. The channel is marked all the way around the islands sometimes by correct IALA bouyage marks, at other times by sticks in the reef but it all helps. However, with the sun up and a good pair of polarised sunglasses it's relatively straightforward and we managed to average around 20knots often in water less than 2metres deep.
The whole route is only 10nm .
We stopped in Maroe village for lunch and found a restaurant, though to be honest it was more of an extension of a private house. There was no menu: the meal was Mahi Mahi with fresh vegetables followed by papaya with coconut ice cream and a couple of local beers. A great meal, and we continued on to the east and south coasts which were large areas of reef and many motus with remote beaches.
On the south east coast we stopped to watch the surfers, some on boards, some in the local canoues - we now know why they have outriggers to stabilise themselves!
ANGUS

2010-06-11T01:42:00.001-07:00

Still in Bay 'Avea and we now have it to ourselves after the other yacht left this morning. Another maintenance day with Tim working on both watermakers getting them back up to 100% productivity.
It's been heavy rain here most of the day with the wind blowing various strengths from every direction. Tomorrow it should improve and we plan to leave here on Sunday for either Bora Bora or Raitea/ Tahaa.
ANGUS

2010-06-10T01:24:00.000-07:00

2010-06-10T01:23:00.000-07:00

2010-06-10T01:21:00.000-07:00

2010-06-10T01:03:00.000-07:00

Today was clean the decks day and having finshed it the boat is looking in top condition.
However, the best bit of the day was motoring south inside the reef to Bay D'Avea.
I was up at the masthead whilst Tim was driving. The view from 110ft above sea leve was quite amazing with clear skies and with the yacht in depths of 18metres and shoals either side of less than 1m the colours were brilliant.
The marked channel fades away towards the end when it's down to eyeball navigation using the colours of the sea bed ahead to determine how deep it is and where the channel runs. This coupled with a current of 1 to 2knots made it all pretty enjoyable!
The cruising just in the 7nm run between the town and here could easily fill 5 days with all the lovely secluded bays. It is just ourselves and one other yacht in this anchorage.
Now anchored in Avea we went ashore tonight to the local restaurant for a Polynesian Dance display. All good fun.
Angus.

2010-06-08T20:39:00.000-07:00

After several very pleasant days anchored in Moorea, this morning at 6am we departed for Huahine. The passage to Huahine is around 85nm and we completed this in just under 9hours having set off in a very pleasant 18knots with the wind on the beam. During the day and with time and distance north west the wind backed and died off until we had no angle on it and decided to motor. There was a large swell running but it didn't seem to bother Matelot and we continued with the yacht comfortable upright at around 10knots.
Approaching Moorea we could clearly see the very large surf breaking on the surrounding reef and the 90min motor along the coast seeing the spray filled air and beaches was quite memorable. Entering Passe Avapeni through the reef, we were greeted to Huahine by surfers on the breakers on our port side and 5 or 6 dolphins playing around the yacht. We are now anchored off the town/ village here called Fare and have been ashore and explored it – this didn’t take long as it’s one road with shops for about 100metres! However, it does have an excellent supermarket and hardware store, they even sell Devalt tools!!

Tomorrow we will motor south down the coast of Huahine (staying inside the reef) to a bay called Avea a trip of about 7nm. On the way we will explore the bays and reefs, finding anchorages to visit for our guests. This is a bay that we have had great reports about and hope that we will not be disappointed! We will update you tomorrow and hope that there is more sun than today so we can post some pictures of this really stunning island.

So far, French Polynesia is exceeding our expectations by a long way.
ANGUS

2010-06-06T16:39:00.000-07:00

2010-06-06T16:36:00.000-07:00

2010-06-06T16:29:00.001-07:00

2010-06-06T15:36:00.000-07:00

2010-06-06T14:29:00.000-07:00

2010-06-06T14:25:00.000-07:00

Over the next 14 days Matelot will be cruising the Society Islands. Starting in Moorea we hope to visit the islands of Huahine, Ra’iatea , Tahaa and Bora Bora. The crew Angus, Jessie, Tim & I although still working and keeping Matelot in order, are cruising the area in anticipation of our trips here this summer with our guests. We are looking for the best anchorages, restaurants, beaches, water sports areas and more practical things like ATM’s, supermarkets, garbage bins and so forth. To be honest our first stop which has been Moorea is proving to be a great destination.

Matelot left the dock in Tahiti Thursday afternoon for Moorea a quick 18NM hop. We arrived into Cook’s Bay – named after Captain Cook and his first anchorage on this Island in 1769. Cook’s Bay is a magnificent tranquil bay, great for water sports such as wakeboarding and waterskiing. Ashore there is a small village with surprisingly good facilities, pearl shops (the most important!), a supermarket, banks etc. At the head of the bay sits a restaurant with decking reaching out over the water, where, whilst eating fabulous French food, you can watch large Stingrays play in the lights of the shallow water at night.

We moved the yacht this morning into Oponuhu Bay which involved exiting and re entering the reef. This island is an extinct volcano so quite high; however running around ½ mile offshore is a coral reef which has a few natural passages through into the lagoon. We anchor Matelot in this lagoon so we have to pass through the often narrow but deep passages in the reef. This makes for an incredibly quiet night and beautiful flat, azure coloured water. Sitting on deck listening to the pounding of the waves reminds us that the Pacific Ocean and her swell are not far away. We are anchored close to a beach in turquoise water with easy access to a reef drop off for some great snorkelling. The crew spotted three Spotted Eagle Rays this afternoon. Tim got his kite up and running this morning and we all participated in launching and helping him in his quest to master kite surfing. It’s not a bad place to learn!

A short, fun and exhilarating tender ride takes you through a reef system that leads past the Intercontinental Hotel – beautiful over water bungalows – and on to the Motu - a small low lying coral island within the reef system. On this Motu sits a lovely beach restaurant where we found Poisson Cru – a local speciality which we all love - raw fish which has been marinated in coconut milk, BBQ’d Mahi-Mahi which it seems is customary out here to serve with a vanilla sauce and Prawns in a ginger sauce. All washed down with a bottle or two of rose and followed by a tarte au citron – very civilised!

In short Moorea is a wonderful destination and the crew of Matelot have found some true gems and great places to take our guests this summer. To sum up this island offers some fantastic anchorages, beautiful snorkelling, great watersports, the land activities are vast including horseback riding and ATV driving (sampled by the crew a few weekends ago), all set to the backdrop of the beautiful south pacific climate…. And if there is any more persuasion needed the chefs are French, the food is French and the wine is suitably French!
Ro

2010-05-28T11:58:00.000-07:00

2010-05-28T11:56:00.000-07:00

2010-05-28T11:44:00.000-07:00

2010-05-28T11:41:00.000-07:00

We'e been in Tahiti for two weeks now. We're berthed in Marina Tainia on the NW coast, with our bow facing out over the reef to Moorea. On first looks, the marina doesn't look that sheltered, but then the lagoon shallows off until it reaches a reef fringing the coast which fully absorbs the swell and chop from the ocean.
It's been a really useful period for maintenance and checks after the delivery from the Galapagos and we are now pretty much up and running again, ready for our charters. Our first cruise through the Society Islands starts at the end of next week. We'll be cruising from Tahiti to Bora Bora visiting islands such as Moorea, Huahine, Tahaa, Raiatae and Bora Bora. We'll be sure to post our findings on here regularly with pictures, so please keep an eye out!
Angus

2010-05-13T22:47:00.000-07:00

Miles to Galapagos: 3649nm

We’ve made it to Tahiti safe and sound. Unfortunately we didn’t get a great view of the island coming in, but we did have some quite interesting sailing today. We passed though several rain showers this morning, with no dramatic increase in wind strength, as we were expecting. In fact the wind didn’t really kick off until we were a few hours away from Papeete. We headed into another rain shower under full main with the headsail furled and were treated to a torrential sea-flattening downpour for half an hour with no change in the wind. Suddenly, out of nowhere, the wind increased from 10kn to 30kn and switched into the SW. We dropped the main and unfurled a smidgeon of headsail to pull us along with the wind on the beam at 30 to 40knots. We held this until reaching Papeete. En route we passed some local fishermen in their tiny boat. They didn’t seem too fazed. We are now tied up stern to and are plugged into the shore power (Angus pleased). Everyone is showering and getting ready for dinner in Papeete. Not sure where we are going – there’s split opinion over a pizza on a Maccie D’s.
Hamish

2010-05-12T22:04:00.000-07:00

Details at 0520GMT
16 20S 146 37W
Miles to Papeete 184nm
Miles to Santa Cruz, Galapagos Islands 3456nm

We changed all the fuel filters last night, and we have had no further problems with the engine, sparing us the time-consuming task of cleaning the fuel. We reached Fakarava late this morning and we motored into the giant ring of land formed by the tip of the coral atoll, passing through the Northern entrance. We dropped the hook and Angus and Rich went ashore briefly to check the lie of the land, whilst the rest of us put the cockpit spray-hood up in preparation for the heavy rain, and readied the boat for the next leg. As we left we got our first taste of some hard-hitting rain with a passing squall. There's less than 200nm to go and it's the final 24hrs of our crossing as we're due to arrive in Tahiti around midnight GMT. We put the clocks back another 3o mins today so that we are now on Tahiti time (GMT -10hrs BST -11hrs). Angus is excited by the prospect of plugging into the noiseless shore-power in Papeete, and giving the generators a rest. The winds tonight will most likely not be stronger than 20-25kn. The breeze is currently backing round towards the NW and heading us. Hopefully, having put in some miles to the north of the rhumb line, we should still be able to get an angle on the wind to sail in. As we are now on starboard tack, Tim, Ro and I will able to see how the other half have been living as we are now on the windward side. I’ll need to make sure my lee-cloths are properly fixed tonight!
Hamish

2010-05-12T00:21:00.000-07:00

Noon Details
13 26S 143 33W
Miles to Fakarava 193nm

We had another super morning’s sail under the kite, chomping through the miles. The wind died a little after lunchtime and we switched on the main engine. However, the engine kept on cutting out and it turns out that the 800litres of fuel that we took on in the Marquesas is very dirty. The fuel filters for the main engine and one of the generators were clogged. In a four hour period Angus and Co have got through 14 filters and lost count of how many times they have bled the engine. Luckily our port fuel tank is empty, and we can clean the diesel by transferring the fuel from the starboard tank to the port tank which will pass it over a set of filters. We spotted a large cargo ship today bound for Townsville, Australia. We are now approaching the first of the atolls which we must pass en route to Fakarava. Although we are now motoring, we are continuing with double watches through the night to make sure that we navigate safely through these low lying, unlit coral islands. Today’s weather forecast shows the depression passing further South than previously thought, which would give us a good breeze from a favourable direction. However, the models for the Pacific are not as accurate as those used in the Atlantic and so we cannot be sure of the depression’s track. It’s still possible that it might pass further North, as suggested by yesterday’s forecast, which would give us strong head winds. We should have a clearer idea tomorrow. We should be in Fakarava around 1900GMT Wednesday and will stay probably for a maximum of 2hrs before carrying on to Tahiti.
Hamish

2010-05-11T01:09:00.000-07:00

Noon details
10 34S 141 27W
Distance to Fakarava 413nm
Distance to Nuku Hiva 121nm

Well the merry crew are off again… We set off last night bound for Fakarava, a coral atoll in the Tuamotus. We had a bit of breeze to start with last night – enough to warrant the first reef – but this died off in the early hours and we had to switch to motoring. This leg is much shorter, around 550nm, which is nice as it feels much more manageable having completed the long passage. We have had a cracking day, setting the small spinnaker this morning and still carrying it as I write, wind ranging between 12 and 20kn true at 100۫ apparent. As we have not dropped it yet, this will be my first taste of spinnaker work in the dark! Angus is keen to make the most of the wind as, with only 800litres of fuel, and 600nm to run to Tahiti, we’re a bit tight on diesel at the moment. We had planned to stop in Fakarava, and then continue to have a look at another atoll before heading to Tahiti. However, with our weather router suggesting the possibility of a small tropical depression (strong winds and heavy rain) coming through on Thursday, we are now planning to stop only briefly in the Tuamotus, in order to get in to Tahiti ahead of the weather on Thursday morning, rather than Friday as originally planned. I will keep you updated as the weather system develops.
Hamish

2010-05-10T00:42:00.000-07:00

Sunday:
Woke up slowly to a breakfast of porridge at anchor, before moving round to Taioa bay – about 3 miles around the corner – which is where you can walk from to a waterfall. The bay was really impressive to enter with the massive sheer rock faces and the sandy beach at the end. There were also several very large rays swimming around. We went ashore in the tender, navigating a very narrow river to enter a sparkling lagoon behind the beach. From here it was an hour and a half walk in, through lush forest, ruined hamlets, and fording the river several times. We passed several houses with their beautiful gardens and a tiny church. We had to be careful not to stand on all the mangoes and passion fruit that had fallen from the branches of the trees. Once we got to the waterfall we went for a swim in the plunge pool with some the freshwater prawns. After the dip in the refreshingly cold water, and a banana for sustenance, we went back down. At the beach we met our yacht agent (a large guy with long black hair and copious body tattoos), who had helped us to hire our cars yesterday. He had stayed at a friend’s the night before and was obviously recovering from a beach party the night before. Once we got back to the yacht we moved back around to Taiohae bay. We then did a few jobs to prepare for the next leg to the Tuamotus. We have just had dinner aboard and are going to set sail at 22:00. We will all be very sorry to leave as the island has rated highly in all of our top favourite places ever.
Hamish

2010-05-10T00:41:00.000-07:00

Saturday:

Wow what a day we had today! We’re only here until Sunday night and we are really making the most of our time here. After breakfast we went to the fruit and vegetable market to stock up for the next leg. There was also a fantastic craft shop with locally produced carved objects and jewellery. Angus and Jessie came away with an incredible bowl which the locals apparently use to serve punch. We hired two cars today: Toyota pickup types, to explore the island. The roads were winding single track snakes clinging to the steep mountainsides, and with Tim and Rich driving, the pace wasn’t pedestrian! We drove to a bay on the other side of the island, with spectacular views from the ridge, and arrived on the sandy beach to find a long line of land rovers and Toyotas and crowds of locals who were watching the start of a boat race. Four 6 man canoes with outriggers were lined up just off the beach and, after the countdown over a loudspeaker, they set off for the lengthy race around buoys in the bay. While we were watching as they paddled away, some of us sampled the delicious home-made apple tart that was at one of the food stalls on the beach. We continued along the road, which turned into a dirt track up another mountain pass. On the way down the other side, we stopped at two archaeological sites which included an ancient dancing platform and the tombs of missionaries who came to the island in the 1830s. We reached Hatiheu bay, where we found a superb restaurant on the beach where we had a delicious lunch of lobster and rosé followed by a swim in the crystal clear waters off the black sandy beach. We whizzed back along the road and found ourselves in another much higher part of the island where there were lots of tall trees which felt a little like an alpine forest – very odd after all the palms and banana trees. We returned to Taiohae bay on the South side, where Matelot is anchored, for drinks in a hotel overlooking the bay, followed by shared pizza at a bustling restaurant.
Hamish

2010-05-07T20:51:00.000-07:00

We sighted land at dawn this morning passing the stark island of Ua-Huka. The land looked similar in colours to the Galapagos with the orange, red & volcanic rock, however the Marqueses islands are much higher. It was past noon boat time when we finally pulled in to Taiohae Bay, Nuku-Hiva. We then set our clocks back another 1 ½ hours taking us to GMT-9 1/2 , with this funny half hour you can imagine the confusion that ensued. The bay here is absolutely beautiful we have just watched a mesmerising sunset from the stern over the surrounding hills with the light shining up through the clouds. Many tasks have been completed, Jessie & I had the opportunity to go ashore to re provision and have a quick glimpse of the craft centre which looks wonderful with lots of handmade jewellery and wood carvings. The shops here are well stocked and the language spoken is French. We all had fun fuelling up today, going astern a rolly dock with all the local boys watching us. Hamish kept his cool whilst throwing the most important stern line ashore. Angus did well, not be distracted by the local boys jumping into the sea in between us and the dock as we came in, and to keep us all safe whilst we took on around 850L for the final leg of our trip at “the worst fuel dock ever!”. Hull & decks have been cleaned, floors hoovered, galley cleaned and restocked and rigging all sorted - looking forward to the beer! We are off to Happy Hour this evening where we have been recommended to go for a Friday night and we have a couple of cars booked for exploration tomorrow. The only worry is the notorious No-No flies around these parts. Endemic to the Marqueses they are known to rip at flesh rather than bite and I quote from our guide book “a severe burn, itch and effect on the nervous system”. The same book advises us to wear mosquito headgear ummm so you can imagine the crew attire tonight – long trousers, shoes, long sleeves – not sure how the headgear will go down… However no one else seems that worried about them so maybe the book is a little over dramatic! An absolutely fabulous start to this ocean voyage and we all really feel like we are now in the South Pacific.

Ro.

2010-05-06T20:38:00.000-07:00

Noon details:
8 37S 136 24W
Miles to Marquesas 220nm
Miles to Galapagos 2795nm
24hr run towards the finish 222nm

After writing last night’s blog, we had a cockpit charades session following dinner. We managed to get sailing again this morning, and give the engine a rest. Under full main and poled out jib we were making good progress, even if it wasn’t quite in the right direction, as the wind direction has not changed, we had to deviate from our course slightly to get an angle on the wind. Unfortunately, we have had to lose the sails and are motoring again as the wind has dropped… We are all very excited to be making landfall tomorrow, making mental shopping lists, planning our horse-trek (some with more apprehension than others!), and we have been flicking through guidebooks etc. I saw my first boat since leaving the Galapagos, which we tracked on the AIS whilst Angus explained the banks of interlinked nav and comms systems at the chart table. This particular vessel was a 27m pleasure motor yacht bound for Panama motoring at 9kn, which we could glean, along with all her other particulars, even though we came no closer than 3nm away from her. A slightly closer spot was a school of dolphins which briefly passed by to have a look at us.

2010-05-05T22:02:00.000-07:00

Noon details:
07 35S 132 46W
Distance to Marquesas 442nm
Distance to Galapagos 2573nm
24hr run to finish 208nm

The wind has built a little, but unfortunately it has not backed around, as forecast, to allow us to sail. We would be running dead downwind, with a reasonable swell on the beam – not good news for the sails, so they remain furled and we continue to motor. Angus has been busy making plans for landfall in the Marquesas with job lists for Friday and ordering fuel/ organising the Agent. Tim has been continuing his morning exercise routine on deck, although the rolling is making it a little difficult. I am now writing to the enticing smell of a stir fry which Jessie is busy with in the galley. Rich has been studying his book on Meteorology for Commercial Pilots for his helicopter training whilst Tim and Ro have been playing catch up with a marathon of “The Office”. It was another scorcher today, so we are enjoying sitting up in the cockpit just now, as the sun is going down and isn’t so hot.

2010-05-04T20:29:00.000-07:00

Noon details
07 06S 129 18W
Distance to Marquesas 650nm
Distance to Galapagos 2336nm
24 hr run towards finish 207nm

It’s been roasting hot today and there has been little wind to cool us down. Everyone has been avoiding the shade-less cockpit and we’ve been hiding away down below. The autopilot has been working hard. I went through 2.5litres of water in my hour and a half on watch! We had a crack at the celestial navigation today, taking a sight at around noon, being careful not to drop Angus’ sextant (a pretty special piece of kit), and then reduced the values. I was surprised at how hard it was to get the sun to sit just on the horizon from the rolling deck. After a considerable amount of poring over the reduction tables and almanacs we came up with a position line, along which we must/may have been a few hours before… Any inaccuracies can, of course, be blamed on the data from the almanac.
Hamish

2010-05-03T19:42:00.000-07:00

Noon details
06 38S 125 53W
Miles to Marquesas 857nm
Miles to Galapagos 2157nm
24hr run towards finish 215nm

We emptied the other fuel bladder into the starboard tank today, and now we have nice empty deck instead! After lunch we had a full soapy wash-down from stem to stern. After the hosing (Angus), sponging (Ro and Tim) and rinsing was complete, a shammy race ensued, with Liv on the port side narrowly squeezing home to the cockpit before Hamish on the starboard deck, relegating the latter to the position of “secret assistant to the regional shammy manager”; and yes, the crew have been watching more of “The Office”! Many teas, coffees and hot chocolates have been drunk, making use of the instant boiling water tap in the galley, and the lazarette is becoming filled with the empty plastic water bottles (to be recycled) as we must all drink a lot to avoid becoming dehydrated. We are preparing for customs and making lists of anything that needs to be declared on arrival in French Polynesia. We clocked the ship’s log as the number clicked over from 9999nm to 0 at around 0630 last night.

Hamish

2010-05-02T21:10:00.000-07:00

Details at noon:
06 00S 122 19W
Distance to Marquesas 1072nm
Distance to Galapagos 1943nm

It was laundry day this morning for me as I had run out of t-shirts. We hand-wash our clothes in a bucket on deck with fresh water and then rinse them off with the fresh water hose. Rich and I were wondering whether, as washing detergent is often used to clean teak decks, we could be doing two jobs at once. There is now a large swell running and last night the wind died off and we had to put away both sails as they were banging, and putting too much strain on the rig. You can feel it from your bunk when that big mainsail flaps! Angus hates it as every flap is a piece of gear trying to break. We also appear to have lost a bit of current, so Tim and my more optimistic ETAs are now looking slightly unlikely. But the sails went back up this morning and morale is high as the crew have been making our way through the ship’s biscuits, éclairs and jelly babies. There’s been some DVD watching, Jessie’s been enjoying her book about a love story, and it has been a bit of a lazy Sunday today. We also put the clock’s back another hour so we are now GMT -8hrs. Also wishing Liv’s Mum a big happy birthday! (NZ time)
Hamish

2010-05-01T22:21:00.000-07:00

Noon details:
05 19S 118 05W
Distance to Marquesas 1327nm
Distance to Galapagos 1688nm
24hr run towards finish 242nm

At 0800 today we passed another sailing yacht a 40ft yacht called “Kali”. The American Skipper came over the radio and Rich spoke to him for a good five minutes. He is sailing solo from the Galapagos to the Marquesas, we found out that he has been at sea for 11 days and anticipates his arrival within the next 10 days. As he has no freezer onboard he was hoping to catch some fresh fish… sounds good however all attempts so far had been futile as the fish were too big and he was having to cut the line! On leaving him behind in our wake he hoisted his spinnaker hoping we had given him some fresh inspiration to crack on towards Nuka Hiva – our island destination in the Marquesas. We’ve also been planning some things to do once we arrive (after the maintenance jobs are carried out) with the yacht’s lonely planet guide, and some recommendations (thanks Martin!), as we will be spending a few days in Taiohae Bay. Ideas include horseriding or hiking to Vaipo waterfall, diving, wake-boarding, and Tim has promised to show us some kite-boarding! Having passed half-way we feel that we are over the hump and can allow ourselves to look forward to reaching our destination, although not the mosquitoes which, we are told by Rich and Liv, are awful.

Ro and Hamish

2010-04-30T19:11:00.000-07:00

So, half way under our belts. We've had some really good sailing in the last 6 days. In fact, we've averaged 10.4knots towards the finish - if we could steer straight, it would have been higher!!!
The sailing has been in predominantly lightish winds of no more than 22 - 23knots. I would say the average has been around 12 - 16knots and we've never had a wind angle further aft than 110apparent. As Hamish points out, it's all been on port tack and looks set to continue.
We are in contact daily with our weather router, Chris Tibbs of Sailing Weather based in Cowes in the Isle of Wight, UK. The forecast is for lighter conditions over the weekend with the wind backing round towards the east. Given this, we are bearing away 5 to 10 degrees and heading north of the rhumb line in order to allow us to head up when it goes light. Time will tell whether this will work, but we're pretty confident it will - at least in the medium term.
Fuel wise, we're looking good. We had 3,200litres of diesel onboard when we left the Galapagos (1000litres of that on the bridge deck in two fuel bladders). As I write, we still have 1750litres in the tanks and a further 500 litres in one of the bladders, so a total of 2250litres. This means we're in motoring range of Niku Hiva which is always a comfortable position to be in and unusual at the half way stage of any decent length ocean passage.
So, we'll continue to push west and hope that the favourable conditions continue.
Angus

2010-04-30T19:10:00.001-07:00

Noon details:
04 55S 114 03W
Distance to Marquesas:1569nm
Distance to Galapagos: 1446nm
24hr run towards finish: 251nm

Reached our half-way point today and had appropriate celebrations…
Dress Code: Smart casual with a funny hat.
A game of charades washed down with a glass of bubbly to the Top Gun soundtrack plus a sweepstake on our ETA. Suggestions range from my rather optimistic 9am Thurs to Jessie’s 0630am on Fri. The dramatics were good quality, especially Angus’ Harry Potter on a broomstick impression, although with “The Office” in three times this was the first guess in each round. The big kite went up today, and boy is it big! This whopper of a sail allowed us to put in some more good miles in the lighter conditions this morning. Everyone mucked in for a whole deck wash-down with soapy water and Matelot is now even more sparkly. Spirits are high and we have settled into the rhythm of life on-board with the night watches, improvised sleeping patterns, daily jobs etc. So, we’re really in the middle now, and the Marquesas are closer than the Galapagos. Wishing Angus’ father and mum a happy birthday today.

2010-04-30T19:10:00.000-07:00

2010-04-29T19:54:00.000-07:00

Noon details: 04 24S 109 57W
Distance to Nuku Hiva 1815nm
Distance to Galapagos 1190nm
24hr run towards Nuku Hiva 245nm

Still making blistering progress with Matelot eating up the miles. The planning committee (Liv and Jessie) is deliberating over the arrangements for the half-way party, although the planned banana smoothies are looking a little unlikely as the remainder of these were given the thumbs down as they were becoming rather brown and smelly and are now feeding the fish. Ro just about got hit in the forehead by a flying fish just now on the sunset watch. We had a fantastic day’s sail under the asymmetric, which we held for the whole day, dropping with the last light – new top speed 13.5kn to Rich – averaging 11kn towards our GPS waypoint in Marquesas this afternoon. Last night Tim was warning me about squalls as an ominous cloud approached – apparently the flat bottom indicated an increase in wind strength. As the band of red rain on the radar approached, we donned our oilies and prepared for the worst – no 180۫ wind shift and we didn’t even get wet! I’m sure there’s still time for all that to come.
Hamish

2010-04-28T21:56:00.000-07:00

Details at noon:
3 59S 105 53W
Distance to Marquesas 2060nm
Distance to Galapagos 956nm
24 hr run towards finsih 251nm

Well the wind has backed and built and we’ve enjoyed some great sailing today and last night. First prize for top speed goes to Jessie with 13.4kn on a surf before lunch. We have lots of bottles of drinking water on board, which we are working though at 2 litres a day each, but Tim noticed today that many have a green algae growing in the bottom. Everyone set to our daily tasks again with vigour today. These jobs make sure that the boat stays clean, and help keep the crew’s morale up too! The interior is hovered, the woodwork vinegared, the cockpit hosed out, the transom washed down, and the heads shammied. With everyone responsible for a particular area, we know who to complain to if it’s not up to scratch! More flying friends landed on our deck and we noticed a small bird that is following us – he’s a long way from home!
Hamish

2010-04-27T18:42:00.000-07:00

Noon Details:
03 25S 102 10W
Distance to Marquesas: 2286nm
Distance to Galapagos: 728nm
24hr run: 241nm

Still going well today, and the wind even shifted far round enough to allow us to hoist the kite. Handling such a vast sail was something a bit new for me and I could see that preparation was key. Apparently that’s only the small spinnaker though! Unfortunately we had to drop it again as the wind shifted again. We also emptied one of the fuel bladders, that we have been keeping on deck, into the tank – something that Angus has been very excited about. Changing the clocks back an hour to account for our changing time zones, ensured everyone was on their toes for being on time for their watch. We also removed a flying fish which landed on deck last night. We also gybed to flatten the boat while Angus cleaned the engine room, ending the longest time I’ve ever spent on one tack – we’ve been on port tack since leaving Galapagos.
Hamish.

2010-04-26T20:07:00.001-07:00

Monday 26/4/10

Noon details:
02 36S 097 49W
24hr run towards finish 216nm
Distance to Marquesas 2550nm
Distance to Galapagos 463nm

We all enjoyed Jessie’s steak last night – what a treat! I hadn’t guessed that the meals would be such an important part of life on passage but they certainly are something to look forward to, whether its breakfast, a help yourself affair of cereal and, if your feeling creative, some fruit and yoghurt and a warm cuppa, lunch of sandwiches or salad in the shade of the bimini, or dinner just after sunset lit by decklights in the cockpit. Its great that everyone eats together as otherwise, with our improvised sleep patterns its unusual to be all together in the same part of the boat. I was trying to get to grips with a celestial navigation book while off-watch today – might take another try tomorrow. The swell has really calmed down and it’s a brilliant evening as we settle down in front of an episode of “The Office”.
Hamish

2010-04-25T17:45:00.000-07:00

Sun 25/04/10

Noon position 01 54S 94 18W
Distance to Marquesas 2766nm
Distance to Galapagos 248nm

Our first 24 hours at sea have passed and we’re currently motor-sailing at 9.5kn. Last night we switched from our set sailing watch system of 3 hrs on 7.5 off, to single watches of 1.5 on and 9 off as the wind had died and we were motoring with the autopilot. The moon is waxing and is already quite full, so there is a lot of light to see by at night. Enough to spot the gulls following us. After each watch the log is completed and the position, weather, distance covered and other data filled in. From noon yesterday to noon today we covered 221nm – not a bad start! When I look up at the chartplotter with Galapagos on the right-hand side of the screen and the Marqueses on the left I can see that we still have a way to go. We saw dolphins today jumping out of the water. Only one sunset this evening.
Hamish

2010-04-25T11:16:00.001-07:00

Sat 24/04/10
This morning we raised the anchors, and set sail. I don’t know if I was expecting some sort of ceremony, but everyone was rather unfazed that this was the beginning of the long passage and would be some of the last land we would set eyes on for quite a while! I suppose the rest of the crew have a few more ocean passages under their belts than I have. My previous longest passage was probably no more than 14 hours, so this is quite a jump. We passed Tortuga, the exposed rim of a volcanic crater, with its sheer cliffs, sailing right through the crater! I was busy getting used to the wide open spaces on deck, the power in the winches, and in the sun! We had a great sail in the morning at a steady 10kn. On deck we had a bit of a wildlife show going on with the frigate bird colony on Tortuga, flying fish, a swordfish leaping clear of the water, a huge ray doing a somersault (I didn’t believe Tim when he told me to keep an eye out for these!) and three whales astern. We sailed right past another sailboat to leeward as the sunset (twice because of the large swell) and Ro took in the bed-sheet sized ensign as the light disappeared swiftly.

Hamish

2010-04-25T11:10:00.000-07:00

Apologies for the lack of updated posts recently. All the crew have been down with stomach bugs caught ashore in Santa Cruz, there's a fairly nasty bug going around the island the Dr advised us. It's meant each of us has been down for 3 days which has messed about somewhat with our preparations for the next leg.
So we're now ready to go. It's 3014nm to Taiohoe in Nuku Hiva in the Marquesas, are first destination. We plan to stop there for 2 to 3 days before carrying on to the Tuamotus for a day or so and then Tahiti. All in, it's about 4000nm from here to Tahiti.
We're banking on completing the sail to Nuku Hiva in less than 14 days, hopefully we'll get lucky with the wind early on in the trip when it is usally light and put in some decent 24hr runs.
The crew are the four of us still and then our good friends Rich and Liv Selby who have flown in from NZ. Up until January, they were running the 112ft Dubois Silvertip based in the South Pacific, so the next few weeks give us the opportunity to gain lots of information from them on the cruising areas.
We also have Hamish Houston joining us from the UK. He's on his way to University after this trip to study Medicine, but we reckon we can convert him into a yachtie before then! Unfortunately, Hamish's flights were delayed by 5 days due to the ash cloud in Europe.
So it's a total of 7 persons onboard. We'll endeavour to keep the updates on a daily basis and hope you enjoy following us across the Pacific.

Angus

2010-04-25T11:09:00.000-07:00

Fri 23/04/10

Today I joined Matelot in Puerto Ayora, which really was an occasion to be thankful for, as I had spent the previous few days stuck in Europe with an unsympathetic cloud of volcanic ash overhead. Fortunately, the skies opened just in time to allow me to fly out, and after 32hrs of travelling, I met Angus in the Rock café and we took a water taxi out to the yacht. And what a yacht she is! Angus and Jessie do a super job keeping her sparkling and I couldn’t have spotted a prettier boat in the cramped harbour. On board I met the crew in preparation for the passage to the Marquesas: Angus, Jessie, Tim, Ro and Rich and Liv, the Antipodean couple who have also recently joined Matelot and have a wealth of knowledge with regarding our destination. We spent the afternoon completing the preparations: topping up the fuel bladders, sending Rich aloft to replace a spreader light, and organising the lazarette. Angus then briefed us on Matelot’s safety equipment. Dinner ashore was a super chance to get to know everyone a little better before returning aboard for some sleep.

Hamish

2010-04-15T17:03:00.000-07:00

Jessie, myself and Rich and Liv (our two new delivery crew members), have just been upto see the giant tortoises in the highlands here in Santa Cruz. The attached pictures give you an idea of just how big they are! That's Jessie in the background and this tortoise weighs in at over 200kg, apparently.

Angus

2010-04-15T11:01:00.001-07:00