Arrived

Balaena has reached her destination. She will be near Alcoutim and San Lucar de Guadiana for the next year.

Near to Portugal

300 miles to go! The closer we get to Spain the colder is the temperature aboard! This morning it is 18 degrees. Yet Clemencia is in Sevilla with 40 degrees.

The wind remains fair, though gradually dropping so I may have to start the motor. I hope to meet up with Clemencia at the mouth of Rio Guadiana on Tuesday.

Balaena is in good shape though she and I will enjoy a test after a lot of miles sailing in the last 6 months.

To Rio Guadiana

We had a lovely staY in Horta. That is a place I would like to visit again.

Now I am sailing towards the Rio Guadiana, the southern border between where I will meet up with Clemencia.

We have rented a tiny apartment in the centre of Sevilla.

I will have a week there before returning to work in Sweden and then commuting between Tidaholm and Sevilla.

Sailing single handed in light winds and smooth seas.

We saw a rocket launch

This is what we saw moving across the sky South East of Bermuda on the night of 4 June. It was a falcon 9 rocket launched from Cape Canaveral. One of the strangest things I have seen in the sky.

https://goo.gl/images/DnSJ1Y

Horta

Balaena arrived safely at 2330. All well after a wonderful trip.

Fast sail

Land in sight. Sailing fast. Arrive late tonight.

Almost there

Nor we are on our final days. The weather is calm and sunny with just enough wind to keep sailing. We have two days to go to arrive at the finish of the rally in which we are participating. There are about 50 boats and they want as many as possible to arrive at the same time- midday Monday. We will see if we can oblige. It will probably be chaos but fun.
Then there are 5 days of tours dinners and social activities for the rally. We also have some other yacht friends in port so it will be a social time. Don't expect to hear much from us!
Despite the calm or perhaps because of it we are seeing lots of dolphins and a few whales. As well as cooking bread, scones and tasty meals we are relaxing and reading and enjoying the easy life.

Gentle sailing

Not long to go. Light wind and gentle sailing

Lighter wind

The wind is dropping a little but we are still sailing nicely. Several visits today from dolphins.

A bit more wind

Wind about 25 knots and sailing up to 8 knots. Very good progress and all well on board

No fish

It is so smooth and steady that the biggest news today is that we still haven't caught a fish!

Cheese scones

Very comfortable aboard with smooth sailing. Ethan made yummy cheese scones for lunch. Dolphin escort.

Halfway

We passed the halfway mark last night. The wind is still light but the sea is so smooth that we are sailing well. So smooth that it almost feels as though we are at anchor.

Calm

Still very little wind, though we had a few hours nice sailing today.

Getting much cooler now at night, which is quite a relief.

Calms

We have been making good progress but now have a few days of calms. We motor whenever the speed drops too much.

There are other boats in the rally in our area so we don't feel alone.

Unfortunately we have not caught any fish but we still have some delicious steak from Colombia for dinner tonight.

Fair wind

We have sailed past the calm and now the wind is slowly picking up from South West. From here on the prevailing wind should be west. We are sailing slowly at present but hope to pick up in the next few days.

It is getting cooler, I even need a tee-shirt at night!

Calm

Today it has been calm. We have motored all day. This evening it looks as though we may have a little wind and be able to motorsail.

We had a refreshing swim in crystal clear, deep blue water.

Good progress

We are having an easy sail north with light winds, full sail and smooth seas. Much more comfortable than crossing the Caribbean.

Our course takes us NE until we are near to Bermuda and then we will turn east towards Horta.

Expecting very light winds or calms for a couple of days and will probably need to motor.

After that we hope to pick up westerly winds and have a fast sail to the Azores.

All well eating and resting plenty.

Here's the crew

Sailing Tomorrow

Balaena is all stocked up with fuel, water and food. We plan to leave early tomorrow. It should be mixed sailing with head winds and calm before we reach westerlies.

Crew is in good shape. Today we hired a car and did some sightseeing on Providenciales. Lovely colours but none of us would want to live here.

Safe and sound

We are in Providenciales, the western island of Turks and Caicos. Nice to be attached to land and stop moving.

Great progress

Almost half way to Turks and Caicos. Wind is favorable and we are sailing mainly over 6 knots.

Seas are not rough but we are sailing into them so it is pretty uncomfortable and we have all been sick.

Estimate arrival Thusday morning.

Setting off

Dear friends

We plan to leave early on Saturday for Providenciales in the Turks and Caicos islands. The to should take 4-5 days. We are expecting rough weather so may not be able to update the blog but will send position reports each day.

The link on the right of the page (in browser view, not mobile) is not working at present. I think this is due to maintenance on the web site and hopefully will work again soon. The link in yesterday's message works well.

Our position reports are sent to Yotreps and to Winlink.org. You can search on Google for these and find us by using our radio call sign ZL1MYF in the search option.

Greetings from Andy, Magnus and Ethan

Position reports

If the link to the position on the right is not working try this link:

https://cms.winlink.org:444/maps/PositionReports.aspx?callsign=ZL1MYF&title=Position%20Reports%20for%20ZL1MYF

Safe in Santa Marta

Safely arrived. No internet until tomorrow.

Last leg

We are on the way to Santa Marta, Colombia. Light winds and easy sailing.

We will be there until about 19 May, after which Andy and Magnus will be sailing to the Azores and then to Portugal.

Willemstad

Here we are in the capital of Curacao. Lovely sunny weather- as usual!

Bonaire

Here we are in this lovely Dutch island. So far the most impressive thing is that the people are multilingual. Dutch, English, Spanish and Papamiento (a type of Creole) are all compulsory at school and seem to be spoken by everyone. 

We had a rough trip but now the wind is even stronger so we are glad to be in port.

TOWARDS BONAIRE

We have had some lazy months in Grenada and Martinique little sailing. Swimming everyday and eating and drinking to much.

We have to be in Colombia in mid April so now we are on our way aging and plan to call at the Dutch Islands of Bonaire, Curacoa and Aruba.

Lovely gentle sailing for our first day.

Sorry we are not keeping you up to date. The truth is that our life is very slow. Not lazy. Andy works on the boat a few hours or more every day getting ahead with maintenance as in May he and Magnus will have a very hard sail to Spain. Clemencia is........ you guessed, knitting and also looking after Andy.

Most days we have a pleasant walk on the beach and buy our Bread, cheese and wine. Life is very good.

Here is a typical sunset at Sainte Anne, Balaena is about in the middle of the boats.

Back in Cariacou

We have started our slow move up the island with a hop to Cariacou.

This is a tranquil spot for us to relax. Ha ha.