Start in ITALY - GRADO August 1999

GREECE

TUNISIA

PORTUGAL - Culatra

CANARY ISLANDS

CAP VERDES 1, 2

GUADELOUPE

TRINIDAD

TOBAGO

VENEZUELA

This year our sailing season started very late as we had spent more than 5 months from Nov.01 on a round the world trip (Thailand, NZ,AUS, Hawaii) and had left the boat in a boatyard in Faro for 10 months. We came down to Portugal in mid July and had to start with a lot of maintainance work (as taking down the mast for the first time for minor repairs). As we could only get into the water over a ramp at springtide we had to wait until August 10th and then moved to the "catamaran bay" on the island of Culatra. The first Wharram sailor we met there was Patrick Dowman, Skipper of the Tangaroa "Skipjack" (former owner of Tiki 26 "Meira") whom we had met last year in the Rio Guardiana and had made friends with him. Then we had a very peasant "international meeting" with Dave Hender an Jane from "Big Tiddles", UK, whom we had come to know just by chance in Feb. in NZ and Don and Denise Brazier from Auckland who were on a family visit in England and came down to Portugal for just 3 days. Towards the end of August we moved a few miles east to Cabanas in the lagoon of Tavira and from there I drove our car to Valencia to leave it there with friends. Back to Culatra we found 2 further Wharram cats in the bay: The Narai Mk 1 "Tayo" with Cristiano Rudolfi and the Pahi 35 "Areoi" that had once belonged to the Wharrams, ancestor to all Pahis, with Allen and Rose Reynolds.

Around Sept.7th everything was ready to go to the Canaries except the weather. Together with Areoi and Tayo we had to wait for 3 weeks , first at the new pontoon at Olao, then in Portimao and finally in the lagoon of Alvor. Allen provided us with weatherfax and we tried (withour poor French) to understand the forecast of Radio France Internacional. The situation was curious: a big depression stationary west of Portugal and where you would expect the Portugal trades at that time of the year we constantly had southerlies. At the end of September the weather changed slightly. On Oct.1st the wind was down completely and in the Canaries northerlies started to build up again. As our boat is very good at engine we decided to give it a try. We knew that we could go at least 200nm to SW with our petrol and hoped to find northerly winds there. Allen and Cristiano decided to wait for a further improvement of the weather. We were extremely lucky and picked up a NW after 5 hours and could stop the engine. 4 days and 4 hours after we had left the lagoon of Alvor we reached the Estrecho del Rio, the channel between Isla Graciosa and Lanzarote (after only 15 hours of motoring). For the biggest part of the journey we had 10 to 16 knots of wind, first from NW and then after 10 hours calm from NE. Twice we had to reef as the wind went up to 22 knots. As our new autopilot had packed up after the first 2 hours we had to steer by hand all the time. The harbour of La Sociedad was crowded and so we anchored in Playa Francesa with lots of monohulls from UK,US, Scandinavia and Australia. On the first morning at breakfast we realised that we were dragging anchor. We didn't take it serious, started the engine, changed from the Fortress anchor to our 16kg "Buegl", set a Bahamian mooring and when we were safely anchored we found out that we could not start the engine any more. It is a 9.9hp 4stroke Yamaha that was absolutely reliable sofar. Unfortunately it turned out that the ignition didn't work and I could not find any simple reason. In the meantime Areoi and Tayo were on the way down. They had left Alvor 36 hours after our departure but it took them more than 6 days. On Areoi the cable of the steering wheel broke and they had to use a brushhandle as an emergency tiller for more than a day. Allen didn't dare to come into the crowded anchorage without proper steering and dropped anchor over 20m. At night they dragged anchor and went up and down the estrecho under engine as they could not approach the shore in the dark. When they finally were anchored safly in the bay they had a lo0ng and good sleep. Then Allen who is an electronics engineer found out that the high voltage coils of our stator were burnt to open circuit and as Cristiano used an old Yamaha 9.9 for his dinghy they removed the stator from there and built it into our engine which then worked perfectly again. Cristiano got a spare outboard from Allen and after Areoi's steering was repaired and the NE wind funneling down the Estrecho del Rio calmed down we sailed to Arrecife where we anchor together in the little bay between Puerto Marmoles and Castillo de San Jose just north of the awfully crowded Puerto de Naos.

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During the second half of October we stayed at anchor in the bay behind Puerto de Marmoles (entrance of Puerto Naos), Arrecife, Lanzarote together with the Pahi 35 "Areoi" (Allen+Rose Reynolds) and the Narai "Tayo"(Cristiano Ridolfi). It was a pleasant anchorage with the exception of two very rolly days when a huge storm depression went towards northern Europe and the wind here changed from the NE to the SW. One day wer went down to Puerto Calero with Allen and Cristiano in a hired car to visit Ben Mullett on his Tiki 30 "Pilgrim" and spent a very nice evening with Ben and a few other English Wharram sailors. On Oct.29th Hannes, our son in law, came down to Lanzarote to join us for the next leg to the Cape Verde Islands. He brought the parts for the ignition of our 9.9 Yamaha and a new timing belt and so Cristiano got his spare parts back. On Oct.31st We said "Good bye" to Allen, Rose and Cristiano 7 weeks after we had met in Culatra and set sails, this time with a crew of three. During the following week we had constant northeasterly winds mostly 5 bft (up to 26 kn in gusts) and only two days of rough seas. The rest was pleasant sailing. We used our "tradewindsail" for the first time and were very pleased about its performance. We have a Harken rollerreef with two groves that take our two jibs (standard size for the Tiki 30 made by Jeckells). When rolled in completely they are not too voluminous. We can use them either with the clews boomed out to each side of the boat ("tradewindsail") or tie the clews together and use them in the normal way (where they cover each other). The big advantages of the "tradewindsail" are the stabilizing effect when sailing downwind and the possibility of easy and immediate reefing when the wind pipes up. In addition we tested an auxilliary sprietsail of about 1 m2 for selfsteering that was recommended to us by Dave Hender ("Big Tiddles"). We set it flying just aft the cockpit with our mainsheet and a halyard, the clew with the protruding spriet pointing forward. From this end of the spriet two lines, crossed via two blocks on the cabin top, lead to the ends of the tillerbar. This selfsteering is quite good but cannot be left completely unattended as the sail area is not big enough for bigger steering forces. But we will need it very much during our Atlantic crossing as our tillerpilot has packed up.

After 900 nm of constant sailing we dropped anchor in the bay of Palmeira on the island of Sal in the Cape Verdes in the evening of Nov.7th and found ourselves in the middle of a mainly French sailing community. The situation here is relaxed and safe (no dinghi watchers necessary), very much in contrast to what we heared about the two real harbours of the Cape Verdes, Mindelo and Praia. Especially Praia on the Island of Santiago has a very bad reputation. Meanwhile Hannes flew back to Europe and we both are waiting for the end of the month to start the big jump to the Caribbean.

Sal is the oldest of the Cape Verde islands; Its volcanoes are completely eroded. It is a flat stretch of desert with a few very low volcanic cones. There is not much to see and Santa Maria, the tourist centre in the south, should be avoided. But the charm and the friendliness of its people make Sal a pleasant place. They are mixed blood, "cafe au lait" as they would call it in the Carribean. The completely black people are street vendors from West Africa, mainly Senegal which is next door. In thr "capital village" Espargos one of the approached me in perfect Bavarian dialect after I had told him that I was an "Autrichien". He was a muslim from Mali who had lived in Munich for 5 years. Now he lived here with his whole family. I asked him how he felt in this very Roman catholic country. He said that people are extremely tolerant and that he had no problems at all. We stayed in the harbour of Palmeira at anchor for two weeks. Hannes, our son in law, had left us for Europe already when we set out for the island of Sao Nicolau in the evening of Nov.21st. There we anchored in the bay of Tarrafal which looks like an oasis in the Jordan desert, for another week. Here on the leeward side of the mountainous island we were completely sheltered from the trade winds. All we encountered were slight thermal winds but we were warned that sometimes falling gusts come down in galeforce. So we set a Bahamian mooring. The anchorage is somewhat problematic if using a rode and no chain. There is good holding in sand but with lots of rocks scattered over the ground. Here we met a very nice Austrian couple, Josef+Maria from Salzburg who had started a circumnavigation on an English monohull (Moody). Through them we came to know Heni Kuester, the 70 year old local representative of the "Trans Ocean" organisation. Dutch from fatherside he had a mother from Vienna. Heni organised an island tour for Josef, Maria, a German couple and us on a pickup and showed us the intensive green agriculturally used centre of the island where the high mountains catch the rain and also the rough northern coast. In the evening we had a wonderful dinner in his house prepared by local people. Heni was a great experience. He is extremely humorous and gets his wonderful Jewish jokes perfectly over in English, German and Dutch. He runs a personal deveopment aid programme, helping to educate local boys and helping them to earn their living afterwards.

Meanwhile we have crossed the Atlantic and anchor in the little harbour of Grand Bourg on Marie Galante in the French Antilles. A report on the crossing will follow soon. (below)

STORY OF THE ATLANTIC CROSSING

During the night from Nov. 28th to 29th falling gusts swept down to our anchorage in the bay of Tarrafal on the island of Sao Nicolau. They were not severe but gave us a rolly farewell from the Cape Verdes. In the morning the wind was gone but we realized that the buoy of our main anchor (a 16 kg Buegel) was far away from the boat. A rock had cut the anchor line during the night but it had been caught luckily by another rock and so our Bahamian mooring still worked. We started the engine, got the second anchor up (a Fortress), managed to free the broken line and then got the Buegel aboard by its trip line. We had not expected such a sudden start for the Atlantic crossing. A mile out in the bay we stopped the engine and began to clear the cockpit and the decks and to get the rubber dinghi aboard and into its cockpit locker while adrift. Then, at 11 15 UTC on Nov.29th we started the engine again and this was the final start to an 18 days voyage across the big pond. More than two weeks out in the ocean, only deep blue or black water and the clouds around you means that you are not exactly the same person that left on one side when you have reached the other. Maybe this would not be so obvious if you'd been on a bigger boat. But in these two canoe hulls and the little flat box of a cockpit in between you live nextdoor to the sea. She is allways there. You can't avoid recognizing her for one moment. Even asleep you feel the boat moving in the waves. You become very small, very humble. You develop a big respect for the ocean and you are very thankful if you are treated kindly. We had not expected such a deep impression on our mind. People tell you that an Atlantic crossing is the most boring thing in the life of a sailor. To us it was not. It was partly a hard time, mainly easy sailing, sometimes fascinating and sometimes tiresom but basically it was a great and unexpected experience of the boat, the sea and ourselves. For about an hour after start the island still protected us from wind and waves and we had to use the engine. But then all of a sudden the worst part of the whole crossing began. We came into the area where the NE trades funneling down with about 30 knots through the passage between the islands Sao Nicolau and Santa Luzia together with a northwesterly swell produced a chaotic wave pattern. With only 1/3 headsailarea we went downwind for some time and that led us out of the worst. From there on we had to sail on a reach for about 2/3 of the crossing. For the first 4 days the waves were very high (up to approx. 10m) and a northwesterly swell produced nasty cross seas. The wind was NE 20 to 26 kn and we had only the headsail up, sometimes full, sometimes reefed and so kept the speed at 5-6 kn. During this period we made 130 to 140 nautical miles per day. The first 2 days the waves were so chaotic that we had to steer all by hand. On the 3rd day we first used our partial selfsteering with the auxilliary sail which was a great relief. Up to that day we had VHF contact to the Salzburg couple Josef + Maria we had met in Tarrafal, who were heading for Martinique in their yacht "Athenaeum" on a rhumbline course. but as we used the great circle track our GPS lead us toward Guardeloupe we then came out of range. During the 4th night we saw sheet lightning on the N horizon. On the 5th day the wind went down to 10 kn, the waves to 1m and the northwesterly swell ceased. We decided to have a day of recreation and did not set the main. With only 3 kn speed we could keep the hatches open to dry out the cabins. I got the paddlewheel of the log up for cleaning and then the log worked for the first time during the crossing. We lost a big dolphin fish (Goldmakrele) just before we could bring it aboard but caught a smaller one in the evening which gave a nice meal next day. During the whole crossing we showed no signs of seasickness although Gundi is normally very sensitive to it. She was able to prepare meals on the spirit stove all the time and we never lost appetite contrary to our crossings to th Canaries and Cape Verdes. There was only one moment of real fear and it was on one of the first days. The 3rd of a series of very high waves was extremely steep and I got the feeling that the position of the boat was already vertical, of course a deception. So I expected pitch poling. But the bows with their high buoyancy rose again without getting any green water onto the foredecks. The gentle movements of the boat in heavy seas is really fascinating. It is not only seaworthy but also very seakindly in great contrast to most "modern" boats, be they mono- or multihulls. For the first 5 days we saw clouds only in the N and S of us. On the 6th day we encountered the first rainsqualls. If one of these clouds overtakes you, you never know what will happen. It can be pouring rain or just a few drops and heavy gusts or no wind at all; In any case you'll be becalmed for some time after the cloud has passed. On this 6th day just after sunset we were caught by such a squall when we still had full sails up. I immediately turned the boat downwind and we were blown out of the area with 9,5 kn boatspeed. From there on we allways put the main down before sunset and even during daylight used it very seldom, not only because of the squalls but also as we could not use our selfsteering without the main sheet and the peak halyard. We didn't want to race but to reach the Antilles safely and without any damage on the boat. Usually once a day we saw a freighter or a yacht. In the 9th night at 5 30 UTC we spotted the navigation lights of 4 yachts. I got VHF contact to the nearest, just about 100m behind us. It was the catamaran "Ruach" coming from Plymouth with 4 people on board and we were the first boat they had met at sea. During the 11gth night we were very near to a collision with a monohull. The crew of the yacht must have been fast asleep, the boat being steered by the autopilot. It overtook us and as we had the tradewindsail up our manouverability was very limited. In the last third of the voyage the wind slowly veered from ENE to ESE. Nearly all of that time we used the tradewindsail: two headsails in the two groves of the rollerreef boomed out to both sides of the boat. That gives 24 m2 sailarea and as the wind was between 9 and 14 kn we made 100 to 120 nm per day. On Tuesday Dec.17th at 5 05 UTC (0 05 local time) a line of lights became visible on the western horizon. Soon later it turned out that they were positioned on a hilltop on Marie Galante, an island in the Guadeloupe archipelago we had choosen for our first landfall. When the sun rose at about 6 30 local time we had covered 2124 nm; At 9 15 we dropped the anchor into the turquoise water near the beach just south of Pointe de Folie Anse. The anchor is down, buried in the Caribbean coral sand. The boat sways in a gentle breeze and all of a sudden all the tension is gone and in this moment we realize that we are there, released from a friendly ocean and we first notice the intense tropical green behind that stretch of sand in front of us.

Have weever seen such green trees? Did we forget that there was anything but the sea and us? Have we ever been so happy and so thankful?

Report from Tiki 30, Anna Sophia ; Guenter+ Gundi Zimmermann/Austria 7 months and 4300 nm after "Anna Sophia" had been put back into the water in Faro/Portugal she was hauled out again on March 13th in Chaguaramas Bay/Trinidad (boatyard "Power Boats"). A big part of the maintainance work is done already and on March 30th we'll fly back home to Austria. From there we'll send a detailed report of our journey down south from the Guadeloupe archipelago.