Posts
Hot off the press
Having recently returned from sailing across the Pacific Ocean in our thirty-five foot sloop, we hear the same question all the time: So, what is it like? We still struggle... Read more →
Happy New Year from NaMaNi!
In the small print on our New Year’s card from last year we promised to send the next card from a “cold and rainy place”. In an attempt to keep... Read more →
Nicky's Page and Life on a Boat
We moved the content from Nicky’s Page to this site (see box “Nicky’s Page” to the rigtht - or below if you’re reading this on a very small screen). It... Read more →
Back in the Fatherland
Well the inevitable has happened: we’re back in our apartment in Gelting/Bavaria… After a very nice six-week transition period in Maine we had two days in New York (including a... Read more →
Four years in fourty words or less
While migrating our blog from Sailblogs to this address we had to do some data wrangling with the blog texts, comments, etc., and we wondered if we could plot word... Read more →
The backshore of Peaks Island...
… is a special place to us. Years ago we’ve sat here many times, dreaming about sailing away (Nana probably as long as she can remember). Now Peaks has become... Read more →
Back at 41N 74W...
We're back on the US Coast now, about a month after we left Namani and Australia in early May. We had a wonderful trip back with a few stops to... Read more →
Surf's Up!
After a relaxed few days with Steve and Margaret in Jakarta we caught a train to Yogyakarta in Central Java. We spent a day visiting the Buddhist temple at Borobodur... Read more →
In the Bubble
In Sydney during a one day stop-over on the way to Indonesia… Nicky had fun with this street artist making giant soap bubbles in Hyde Park. It will probably be... Read more →
The Perils of Cruising...
…are small when compared to life on land. In four years and close to 30,000nm of cruising in some remote places aboard Namani, sunburn has probably been our biggest health... Read more →
Then and Now
The picture on the left was taken by Cath Byrne when we made landfall in the Aeolian Islands as our first stop after leaving our home port on Sardinia in... Read more →
145 degrees 43 minutes East...
Back in August 2007 Namani was at her eastern most point in the Greek Aegean at about 25 degrees East. Now, at the end of our trip on Namani we’re... Read more →Last Night at Anchor on Namani
Barring any major surprises this will be our last night at anchor aboard Namani. We had a nice 170nm sail from the Whitsundays up to here (Palm Islands, about 120nm... Read more →The home stretch
After our TC Ita episode in Pacific Creek, we stopped at Keppel Bay Marina in Rosslyn Bay for two nights to re-provision, do laundry, and get water and fuel. Then... Read more →
Life on a Boat
This is a video I put together from a bunch of short video clips my parents took aboard Namani. I tried to cover most of the aspects of living aboard... Read more →Too much time in the mangroves...
While we were holed up in Pacific Creek, waiting for TC Ita to pass, I was playing around with the metadata (i.e. the timestamps, camera settings, etc. that are stored... Read more →
Mangroves, Mosquitoes, and Cyclones
Did we say we were back in the tropics in the previous post? Well - one of the implications of that is that any weather forecast beyond 72hrs may be... Read more →Out of Tasmania, into the Tropics
Time for a little update from aboard Namani… After our return from Tasmania, we sat out a few rainy days at the dock in Scarborough/Brisbane during which it seemed as... Read more →
A Day in Brisbane
Nicky writes about our recent visit to “the big city”: After such a long time in our marina on Namani, it was quite the change to go to this big... Read more →
Namani goes 3D
Below you can see an animated 3D model of our Dufour 35, Namani. The model is very accurate since I modeled the boat from some blueprints, but the blueprints are... Read more →
On the hard
Namani is getting a few new coats of antifouling - a good opportunity for another shot in our “On the hard” series. You may ask yourself though what’s wrong with... Read more →
Namani goes 3D
Nicky just completed a two-week project of developing a 3D-model of Namani and animating it into a short video clip. Working from photos and some blueprint drawings, he used an... Read more →
Wow - time flies!
We have been working hard here in Scarborough, not far north of Brisbane, getting Namani looking good and finally getting around to the little things - a new light, a... Read more →
At the dock again
We arrived at the dock here in Scarborough (close to Brisbane) yesterday (Sun, 12JAN) afternoon, almost a week after we slipped our mooring in Sydney’s Middle Harbour. After our pit... Read more →
Theory Meets Reality...
We left our anchorage in Middle Harbour’s Sugarloaf Bay yesterday morning, made the 11:15am opening of the Spit Bridge, and sailed out between the Heads that mark the entrance to... Read more →
A Surprise Visit
A few posts ago we showed a picture of Nicky during our first visit to Sydney in 2005, when Nicky was 18 months old. During that visit we did a... Read more →
Happy New Year from Namani!
We got lucky with a great spot for Sydney’s NYE fireworks. We were anchored in Rose Bay with a clear view of the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House. The... Read more →
Cruisers and Racers
We had an exciting morning a few days ago, watching the start of the Sydney Hobart yacht race on Boxing Day. We went up to South Head from where we... Read more →
Waterfront Property
When we left Maine in 2011 we put a ‘Sydney’ waypoint into Namani’s GPS (think big… ;-) - today we passed it when entering the harbour after a swift sail... Read more →
Whale Beach - Then and Now
The top picture was taken on Whale Beach in 2005 when we came to Sydney for the first time during a vacation. Nicky was 1 1/2 years old then and... Read more →
New Vanuatu Photo Album
Some more progress on the picture front: We’ve put up a selection of photos from our month in Vanuatu under this link. We’ve enjoyed our almost two weeks here in... Read more →
New Head and New Photo Album
After almost a week in Pittwater we splurged on a new head for Namani. Something we originally wanted to do in 2011 before we left Maine, but that never quite... Read more →
Reaching Out to Fellow Dufour 35 Cruisers
Over the past few years this blog has brought us in touch with a few fellow owners of an original Dufour 35 of Namani’s vintage (the series was built in... Read more →
Good holding
We left Coffs Harbour on Tuesday (03DEC) morning for an overnight sail to Port Stephens, about 170nm to the south. The weather was supposed to turn nasty again by Wednesday... Read more →
Getting settled
A week after our arrival in Australia we’re still in Coffs Harbour, slowly “getting settled” into the country with the usual routine: replenish food stores (after having to give up... Read more →
Australian East Coast Weather 101
We entered Coffs Harbour at 10am this morning (Saturday, 16NOV), and are now anchored in front of the port, inside the outer breakwater. We will stay here until Monday morning... Read more →
Humming along nicely
About half-way to Coff’s Harbour, our destination on Australia’s east coast. Very pleasant sailing these last couple of days, broad reaching under largely blue skies in a 15kn breeze. Sailed... Read more →
Out of the tropics
We exited the Boulari Pass at the Amedee light house yesterday (Saturdat, 09NOV) afternoon, bound for Coff’s Harbour, Australia. As of today we’re oficially out of the tropics at about... Read more →
New Caledonia - Bonus Round
Originally we thought New Caledonia would only be a relatively short stop-over for us, assuming we would leave for Australia soon after Nana’s mother’s visit at the beginning of October.... Read more →
A Salty Piece of Land
We’re on a mooring off Ilot Amedee, about 12nm south of Noumea at the outer reef. Ilot Amedee has New Caledonia’s tallest light house at 53 meters and we enjoy... Read more →Picon!
As a good German I like my beer - a commodity that we loath to run low on aboard Namani. I have a preference for “hoppier” tasting pilseners and IPAs... Read more →
New Photo Album and Weather Update
We finally managed to sort through our photos from our six months in New Zealand and put a selection online. The new album can be found under this link. On... Read more →
Hoping we'll be wrong again...
We visited Caroline and her girls on Topaze this evening to say good-bye (Christophe is away on a trip to in Francey). Always a sad occasion but sweetened in this... Read more →
Turtles or crocodiles?
A quick hello from Ilot Nge. We’ve relocated here from Ilot Mbe Kouen after a very nice and windy week there. Papillon joined us in the anchorage there and we... Read more →
A beautiful breezy spot
A quick hello from Ilot Mbe Kouen, a little motu 12nm WNW of Noumea, just inside the main island’s outer reef. We’ve come here after Nanas mother left last week... Read more →
Der Hahn im Korb
Last Friday we had one of those special memorable evenings aboard Papillon. Between Martha, Audrey, Nicky and the three girls from Kyrimba there were six kids - and Nicky the... Read more →
Pines and Birthdays
Time for a little update from New Caledonia…be warned: this is going to be one of these “catching up posts”, mainly for our own record. Perhaps a bit boring… During... Read more →
New Caledonia here we come
We’re about 12nm away from tne entrance to the Canal de Hanvannah, the SE entry into the lagoon of New Caledonia. After leaving Port Vila in Vanuatu on Tuesday afternoon... Read more →
Pictures in the Sand
We visited Vanuatu’s National Museum here in Port Vila today. It’s small but definitely one of the more interesting and more captivating museums. Edgar, the (amongst many other things) museum... Read more →
Basket blon titi
We are on a mooring in Port Vila, Vanuatu’s capital on the island of Efate. Funny to see all those artifacts of modern life again, mixed with some of the... Read more →
Birthdays, laundry and hunting rifles
A quick hello from Dillon’s Bay on Erromango where we dropped the hook on Friday (31AUG). Our friends on Victoria had already arrived a day earlier and we celebrated Niklas’... Read more →
The "coolest and scariest thing"...
Over past 24 hours we had a wealth of impressions and experiences - it almost feels that we have to go on stand-by for a few hours to avoid sensory... Read more →Vanuatu - Week 1
It’s been a week since we arrived on Aneityum/Anatom in Vanuatu. What was originally intended as a short convenient stop over for clearing in before continuing to Tanna has turned... Read more →Arrival
We arrived yesterday (Sat, 17AUG) around 10am and dropped the hook in a sandy bottom at 11m in Anelghowhat Bay on the south side of Anatom Island/IsleAneytioum (the southern most... Read more →
Power on Namani
This is my report on how we generate and use electrical power on Namani: 1. Intro Smell that melted charger! Look at that whirling wind genny! Hear those blades spin!... Read more →The 100 Mile Mark
Just over 100nm to go to our destination on the south side of Anatom as of this morning (Fri, 16AUG).. The “more comfortable ride” mentioned in the previous post turned... Read more →Moving again
Under way to Anatom now, the southern most island of Vanuatu. Exited the Navula Pass out of Viti Levu’s outer reef yesterday (Tue, 13AUG) afternoon around 1730 local time. A... Read more →
The Google Cloud - We found it!
Lots has been written and said about “Cloud Computing” where you have storage and computing capacity available “on tap” as a service via the Internet. Sounds very abstract and we’ve... Read more →
The Veggie Boat ... and two new reports by Nicky
When we were in Panama’s San Blas Islands, almost two years ago, everyone was eagerly awaiting the “veggie boat” as fresh supplies were running low. It never showed while we... Read more →
Taveuni Time Travelin'
Below you will find Nicky’s report about our recent visit to the island of Taveuni in the north-east of Fiji. As an experiment, after he was done with the report,... Read more →
Oncoming Traffic
Last Monday (29JUL) the weather was right and we left Volivoli Point on Viti Levu for an overnight sail to the Yasawa Islands, WNW of Viti Levu. We dropped the... Read more →
No Scurvy Today!
After a month “away from civilization” we were starting to scrape the bottom of the barrel of our supplies - even flour and rice were starting to run low… That... Read more →New Zealand to Fiji - Nicky's Cut
On the passage from New Zealand to Fiji we took some video clips along the way. Nicky cut and edited theses into a 4:40 min movie about the passage. You... Read more →
Westwards again!
After 6 weeks of zig-zagging up and down the eastern portion of Fiji we left our anchorage in Vanua Mbalava yesterday (Monday, 22JUL) morning to sail the 130+nm to the... Read more →New Zealand to Fiji
A passage documentary by Nicky On the passage from New Zealand to Fiji we took some video clips. I cut and edited them into a four-and-a-half minute movie that you... Read more →Sailing to "Long Island"
After a wonderful 12 days in Fulaga we had a 24 hour window to make our way back north before the South Pacific Convergence Zone (SPCZ) rears its ugly head... Read more →Jaws still dropping
One of the negative side effects of cruising multiple seasons in the tropical Pacific is that one becomes quite spoiled. A new landfall that would normally be spectacular runs the... Read more →
Under way to Fulanga
We left our anchorage at Taveuni at 1500 local time on Thursday afternoon (28JUN) right after the rain from a passing front/trough had cleared and are now (29JUN, 2345 local)... Read more →
Taveuni
We left Viani Bay on Tuesday and moved to the NW end of Taveuni, the “Garden of Fiji”. Together with Virginia and Jose from Caps Tres we hired a taxi... Read more →Moving on...
After a week in Savusavu with reprovisioning and some minor boat repairs, we left our mooring there last Monday and relocated a full 4 nm to anchor off the “Cousteau... Read more →
Warning: Commercial Break
Before we left New Zealand we finally managed to get Nana’s latest book, Lesson Plans To Go: Hands-on Learning for Active and Home Schooling Families, onto “the shelf” at Amazon.com... Read more →The (Weather-)Tsar's Thumb
We heard that Russia has a train track running from Moscow to somewhere in Siberia that runs straight over flat country for thousands of kilometers. At one point however, the... Read more →Arrival
We arrived in Savusavu on Fiji’s northern island of Vanua Levu yesterday (Monday, 10JUN) morning after yet another very nice sailing night. A very friendly welcome in a beautiful setting.... Read more →Land ho!
While we have still about 120nm to go as of this Sunday morning we are now meandering our way through the southern islands of Fiji. First sight of land this... Read more →We almost forgot...
..why are we doing this. But yesterday we were reminded again: a perfect day under sunny skies with a few tradewind clouds, sailing smoothly under Parasailor, and catching a big... Read more →New Zealand to Fiji - Week 1
It’s been almost exactly one week since we sailed out of the Bay of Islands.Since then we have sailed close to 900nm but still have a bit more than 500nm... Read more →Taking the long way...
No - the position above is not a typo. We are indeed at almost 173 eastern longitude, roughly on the same meridian as NZ’s North Cape. After having started out... Read more →Going North...
We left Opua on Wednesday noon local time and are now (finally) under way towards Fiji. It was quite a scene at customs during check-out with about 30 boats all... Read more →
This time we mean it!
So everything is ready to go now, including the weather forecast! We are aiming for a departure tomorrow - Wednesday, May 29. That means all of us: Namani and what... Read more →
Living It Up in the Hotel California (aka New Zealand)
You can check out any time you want, but you can never leave… That’s kind of the feeling we have right now. Lovely as New Zealand is, we thought we’d... Read more →
Not just waiting...
We actually thought weâd be leaving New Zealand about two weeks ago, but we still havenât found a weather window to our liking. So here we are, still in the... Read more →Forecast continuity - or the lack thereof...
As an illustration why that weather window mentioned in the previous post has so far been elusive… The image on the left above shows a computer model forecast (NOAA GFS)... Read more →
News from Nicky
We put three new school reports from Nicky up on “Nicky’s Page” at namaniatsea.net. If you’re interested, you can read about his recent 2-week visit to the local school in... Read more →
Getting Ready to Leave
After our return from Auckland we headed out to Urupukapuka Bay on Friday (26APR). This is perhaps our favorite spot in the Bay of Islands and the weather cooperated to... Read more →
Mudslides and ANZAC Day
Beth and Nicky had a great time early this morning using the little grass slope in front of Beth’ house in Devonport as a mudslide. We had driven down to... Read more →.JPG)
Opua School Visit Report
Introduction Because I went to Opua School recently, I decided to write an essay comparing it to MIS (Munich International School). I got to go to Opua School because we... Read more →
A birthday blow-out and more boat projects
Namani got back into the water on 08APR after 4 days on the hard. Nicky was still attending the local Opua school for that week, so we stayed on a... Read more →.JPG)
Auckland Museum Report
This is a short essay about my favorite carving in the Pacific cultures section of the Auckland museum: a pointy figurehead of a shark from the Solomon Islands (part of... Read more →
High and Dry in Opua
So why isn’t Nicky in the picture, you ask? While Markus and Nana work on the boat, Nicky is attending nearby Opua Primary School for a week. It seems a... Read more →
A Wonderful, Whirlwind Visit
On our way back from the South Island, we spent a fun night with our friends from Sea Bright in Devonport and a morning at the Auckland museum to wrap... Read more →
South Island Side Trip
Wow, wow, and wow! We just returned from a ten day trip to the Otago region of New Zealand’s South Island and the scenery was just incredible! So many highlights!... Read more →.jpg)
Motuihe: Volunteering to help plants
On the sunny, peaceful island of Motuihe we did a number of helpful things for the Motuihe Project Group. Motuihe is a small, grassy island near busy Auckland in New... Read more →
Lesson Plans Ahoy!
One of the projects that we finally completed during our two weeks up in Whangaroa was converting Nana’s “Lesson Plans Ahoy! to an eBook/Kindle format, which is now available at... Read more →
Heading South
We’re back in Opua now, after two weeks in Whangaroa and another week between Oke Bay and Urupukapuka in the Bay of Islands. Had some great company on the sail... Read more →
Under the Duke's Nose
We sailed into Whangora on Tuesday afternoon (it’s Friday today) and have spend three very nice days in this large natural harbor / inlet with numerous side branches. It is... Read more →
Fly Lufthansa
Nicky has been very interested in NZL2, New Zealand’s high-tech catamaran for their latest America’s Cup challenge. He build a Lego model from a picture in a sailing magazine, albeit... Read more →
Back where we started
After almost two months we’re now (Sunday, 10FEB) back in Opua in the the Bay of Islands. After leaving Oneroa Bay off Waheke on Wednesday, we stopped in Bon Accord... Read more →
Dragonfire pizza
We changed our minds yesterday morning and rather than going back to Motuihe we went to Oneroa Bay on the northern side of Waiheke Island (still only 7nm away but... Read more →Windshift
Spent two nights tucked in between Motutapu and Rangitoto Islands to sit out the passage of a trough/front last night. Now the wind starts to shift to the south (our... Read more →
Das Knaurs Spielbuch
When we were in Germany back in July last year, we brought back the “Knaurs Spielebuch” to Namani. It’s a book full of games for children (and adults) that includes... Read more →Back in the Gulf
Our plan to get an early start for the 50nm from Great Mercury to Rotoroa were fouled yesterday (Fri, 01FEB) morning when Markus’ watchband was snagged by a line and... Read more →
Scallops and Chowdah!
We arrived at Great Mercury Island yesterday afternoon and stayed put today. Picking up right where we left off when we stopped here on the way south to Tauranga, we... Read more →Next: Stop Slipper Island
A slow sail to privately owned Slipper Island today. Better anchorage than yesterday at Mayor Island) (less roll). Also, some boats around that we recognize from Tauranga. Planning to move... Read more →
The Pleiades: A Look Into Maori Art and Culture
Some cultures, like the Maori, had interesting beliefs about stars. They saw people, gods, and animals in clusters of stars billions of miles away. Here is some research I did... Read more →On the move again
After more than three weeks at the Tauranga Bridge Marina we slipped our lines this morning just before slack tide and sailed the 20nm to Mayor Island under sunny skies.... Read more →Boat life - the kid's perspective
While we were in Tauranga (NZ North Island) for some boat work, Nicky made friends with Katie and William from the sailing vessel "Alouette". We gave them a little assignment... Read more →
Nicky's Maori Arts and Culture report
Nicky explored a sculpture park in Tauranga as part of his “Arts and Cultures” Unit of Enquiry. He has produced a little report on this which you can find under... Read more →Welcome to Nicky's Page
I am Nicky and I am the little guy on Namani. I like to play Lego which I have five boxes of, and I like macaroni. I also like big... Read more →
Road Trip to Tongariro National Park
Namani’s berth here in Tauranga makes for an ideal starting point for visiting the North Island’s central plateau - specifically Tongariro National Park which includes three active volcanoes in a... Read more →
Breakfast with Andre
Remember the movie “My Dinner with Andre”? Well, we had that, but we also had breakfast with Andre from E Capoe. He had flown down from New Caledonia to attend... Read more →
Happy New Year from Tauranga!
Surprisingly, we had the bay at Te Kuoma to ourselves on New Year’s Eve (the other boats had moved out when the wind shifted to the SW and we still... Read more →
Making Tracks Again
Left Auckland on Friday morning (28DEC) and are now anchored in Te Kouma Harbour, on the west side if the Coromandel peninsula. There actually is no harbour in sight, just... Read more →
Team Namani Wins Americas Cup
… or at least felt as if they did ;-) We paid a visit to Auckland’s Voyager Maritime Museum this afternoon. It’s a great museum with a big section dedicated... Read more →
New Zealand - Month 1
It’s been exactly a month since we arrived at at the Q dock in Opua. After a week at the dock and another at anchor in Opua we finally started... Read more →
Auckland!
Arrived in Auckland this afternoon. Slow but nice sail up to the city going wing-on-wing straight downwind. Two ex-America Cuppers coming the other way as we’re approaching the city -... Read more →
Last exit before Auckland
A nice sail today after a morning walk on Tiritiri. Now anchored off Rakino Island with 15nm to go to Auckland tomorrow. The fisheye picture above was taken during today’s... Read more →
Back to civilization...
… in small steps. It’s been a while since we saw a TV set but the scene above on Rakino Island today unmistakably shows that were getting closer to what’s... Read more →
Keeping up the pace
Our stay in Kiwiriki Bay on Great Barrier Island (see previous post) turned out be more of a pit stop. We had planned to stay there for 2-3 days but... Read more →
Attention: Low Flying Dolphins
A longish tacking day today … had to sail 50+nm to make the 35nm back to Great Barrier Island. Some good sailing though, and we were treated to a visit... Read more →
Scallops and Tuatuas
Came back to the bay where we had two nights ago when we had Seabright and Saltbreaker on Namani. Saltbreaker had brought scallops that night which they had just picked... Read more →Scallops and sunsets
Sailed the 30+nm from Greta Barrier SE to Great Mercrury Island, and anchored on its western side yesterday afternoon (one of these nice open bays where you can actually sail... Read more →The sooner the better...
.. was the title of an article Nana had written 3 years ago about our visit to Dave, Jo and Beth on Seabright in April 2009 in the Bay of... Read more →Light wind sailing
Another day of trying to maximize use of about 5 hours of sailable sea breeze… relaxed close reaching to Tutukaka; now the only boat anchored in a little bay on... Read more →Going south in small steps
The North Island is under a high pressure ridge with almost no gradient wind. There was a bit of a sea breeze picking up around 11am this morning. So we... Read more →Making tracks again
After two weeks in Opua we weighed anchor at midday today (Saturday, 08NOV) and moved out into the Bay, to Urupukapuka. The unsettled weather of the past few days has... Read more →
New photo albums - at last...
We heard you Dave… and since we can no longer pull the excuse of having no internet access, we have posted three new albums on Picasa: Niue, Tonga, and the... Read more →
New Zealand - Week 1
It’s just a little over one week ago that we arrived here in Opua - time for a little update. Clearing into the country last Saturday was a pleasant 15... Read more →
Arrival!
Tied up to the Q dock at Opua at 2115 local time tonight after a perfect sailing day. At 0200 last night we finally emerged from under that stationary front... Read more →
Less than 100nm to the Bay of Islands
Well, it seems that stationary occluded front that has accompanied us the last two days isn’t so staionary after all. It keeps slowly dropping south, just enough to stay in... Read more →
Slow progress
Well… those fresh nortehrlies didn’t last 36 hrs but only about 18 before they died around 1000 local time this morning (20NOV). Feels like we’ve spent most of the day... Read more →
Getting closer...
After logging a 24hr run of just above 50nm at 10am this morning and no wind in sight for the next 24hrs we decided it was time to fire up... Read more →
30deg South
Just about to cross 30S lattitude, marking the start of our final 350nm to Opua/NZ. After still having flown the Parasailor in light airs during the day, we now have... Read more →Greetings from the Great Pacific Duck Pond
After some nice sailing under Parasailor earlier today, the wind died on us this evening and we’re currently (2300 localt time on 18NOV) drifitng under a band of high pressure... Read more →
Back to zero and a strike
Just after sunset, when we were getting ready to take in the lure we had been trawling all afternoon, we caught a nice size yellow fin tuna. Sashimi tonight and... Read more →
Slowly gliding towards NZ
It’s been very relaxed sailing the last 24 hrs, gliding along on “best course to windward” (currently averages at around 225deg true) at 3-4 knots. We made good speed the... Read more →
Off again
We weighed anchor at North Minerva shortly after 0900 local time this morning (Thursday) and are now under way again for the final 800nm to Opua in New Zealand. Conditions... Read more →
Greetings from Minerva
Well, the wind didn’t die on us and we ended up having a relatively fast sail, getting us into North Minerva at 1600 local time this afternoon. We did have... Read more →
On our way...
Weighed anchor at 1430 local time this afternoon (11NOV) and left the anchorage at Big Mama’s for Minerva Reef. There is nothing bad on the radar weatherwise, so we decided... Read more →
Back at anchor
Moved back out to the anchorage this afternoon, after some last re-provisioning in town - nice to be out of the harbor again. Conditions are easing for the boats underway... Read more →
Greetings from the deluge
This area’s first tropical low of the season passed just to the south of us this afternoon, making us feel glad that we did move inside the harbor here in... Read more →
Waiting for the low to pass (and a new report by Nicky)
A previous post (“At the starting line”) made it sound as if our departure to NZ was imminent, but not so… The tropical low mentioned in that post did solidify... Read more →How to Clear Out of Tonga
To clear out of Tonga successfully, you have to go three different offices: Immigration, Port Captain, and Customs. First, we took a white taxi to Immigration. It was very funny... Read more →
At the starting line
Had a slow sail down from Nomuka to Tongatapu last night, tacking against light winds. Checked out of Tonga today and are now (Friday) eyeing a potential Sunday departure for... Read more →
Halloween at Nomuka Iki
Had a little Halloween party today among the kids in the anchorage. Here’s Nicky’s report: Halloween at Nomuka was very fun. I was dressed up as tropical Santa Claus. Niclas... Read more →
Another island to ourselves
Weighed anchor at Oua Island this morning to go about 15nm to the SW to Nomuka Iki. When we left Oua the sea looked like a duck pond with absolutely... Read more →
Tongan Take-out
When we came to Oua last Thursday (25OCT) it was primarily because the reef and the island here promised good protection against wind and waves from a front that was... Read more →
Off the chart
Two “firsts” for Namani: The first time Namani is below 20 degrees south lattitude and the first time we’re anchored in a place where our chart only shows a solid... Read more →
An island to ourselves
After checking into Tonga’s Ha’pai Group at Lifuka yesterday, we checked out again this morning and moved on (together with Victoria) to a little beach and reef fringed island called... Read more →
Moving south - in small steps
After two very nice days in Hunga/Fafoa Island we set sail for Ha’ano Island in Tonga’s Ha’pai group (the next set of islands to the south of Vava’u). We had... Read more →
Moving on...
After two days of high-speed re-provisioning in Neiafu (incl. a nice dinner with lots of by now familiar crews) we sailed to Hunga today, where we are now on a... Read more →
The cruiser's Ponzi scheme
After 3 very nice days at Kenutu Island on the eastern edge of Tonga’s Vava’u Group, we sailed back west to anchor off Lape Island yesterday and explore the coral... Read more →
Going east...
Spent 4 hours beating to the east today, and then threading our way through the reefs/shallows to get to the easternmost anchorage in Tonga’s Vava’u Group, just behind Kenutu Island.... Read more →
Tonga, week 1
A week in Tonga’s Vava’u Group with four different anchorages and total distance between them of less than 20nm… a nice crusing ground. Had a “brisk” little sail today, from... Read more →
Just around the corner
Sailed a whopping 3nm today, to an anchorage just outside the Neiafu bay, and are now anchored off Mala Island (#6 in the canonical Moorings Guide to Tonga), next to... Read more →
Safely arrived in Tonga
We reached Tonga’s Vava’u island at 1400 local time this afternoon but then had wait in a “holding pattern” for an hour until some rainy squalls that reduced visibility to... Read more →
Getting ahead
We’re about 20nm off the northern end of Vava’u in Tonga, with a further 15nm to go after that to reach the harbor in Neiafu. We know it’s currently 8am... Read more →
Bye bye Niue
Slipped our mooring at 14:30 local time this afternoon, after a last snorkel in Niue’s crystal clear waters. We sailed out of the bay together with Victoria, trying to take... Read more →
New school report by Nicky
We’ve finally put Nicky’s report on mapping Anchorage Island in the Suwarrow Atoll online. It can be found under this link. Read more →
New Photos and Album
For a few hours this morning we had a decent internet connection and were able to upload some new photos. We added pictures from Maupiti to the Society Islands album... Read more →
Nicky's birthday
Nicky turned 9 today (27SEP) and we had a nice little birthday party at the Niue Yacht Club (of which we are now proud card carrying members), together with Victoria... Read more →
Namani off "The Rock"
Picked up a mooring here at Niue at 1400 local time today (Friday), exactly 96 hours after we weighed anchor at Suwarrow on Monday. Sailed a total of 562 nm,... Read more →Turning the corner
The wind filled back in today and after some good progress it looks like we will make landfall in Niue tomorrow (Friday). Until this afternoon we had sailed about 10°... Read more →
The far side of the world
Sometime in the next 24hrs we will cross the “opposite” meridian of our home town’s longitude (Gelting in Bavaria, somwhere between 11° and 12° East if we remember correctly) and... Read more →UTC - 11
Changed ship’s time yesterday to 11 hours behind utc… Making good progress, averaging just over 6 kn, beam reaching under double reefed main and 1/2 genoa. Currently steering aboiut 10... Read more →
Sailing!
Weighed anchor at 3pm local time in Suwarrow this afternoon and are now sailing towards Nuie (about 475nm to go). Sailing on a beam reach in ESE winds and making... Read more →
Mapping Anchorage Island in the Suwarrow Atoll
We are anchored at Suwarrow, an atoll in the South Pacific, that has some small islands sticking out inside its lagoon. The biggest of these islands is is called “Anchorage... Read more →
Suwarrow - Week 1
Today marks the end of our first week on Suwarrow which has quickly established itself as one of our favorite landfalls.. Healthy and beautiful coral, lots of fish and an... Read more →
Scuba day
Went for a day of diving today with Anthony (“Ants”, the Assistant Park Ranger), Helena and Kari from Merilelu, Iris and Alex from Aleris, and the crew of Gypsy Blues... Read more →
One year anniversary and mantas again
01SEP - exactly one year ago we dropped off our friend Laura at the airport in Portland, ME and started sailing on Namani again in earnest. Nice to celebrate our... Read more →
Cruisers' heaven
Read in some other boat’s blog: “When cruisers go to heaven, they go to Suwarrow”. We arrived here after a 6-day passage at 09:00 local time (1900 utc) this morning... Read more →
Almost there
About 45nm to go to Suwarrow (Thursday, 22:00 local time / Friday 08:00 utc). Wind has finally started to decrease this afternoon. Seas have started to go down as well... Read more →150nm to go
Hit some convergence zone/mild front during the second half of last night with lots of rain and gusty winds…everything on deck is nicely freshwater washed now ;-) Were going though... Read more →
Speeding along
Wind continued to build today (Tuesday) as forecast. By now we have a solid 20kn+ from ESE, making for speedy progress - at least by our modest standards. Made contact... Read more →Wind again
The wind started to fade this morning (Monday) and even the Parasailor gave up by lunchtime. We indulged in four hours of motorig before the wind started to slowly come... Read more →500 nm to go...
.. to Suwarrow. Wind has dropped as expected, as has the sea state. Sailing comfortably along at 4.5kn. Passed Motu One this afternoon 3nm to the north and should now... Read more →Rolling on the ocean....
Left Maupiti at 14:30h local time this afternoon, after some boat work, quick snorkeling excursion. and a look at the pass from the dinghy. Pass turned out to be not... Read more →
Ready to go
Had a very nice hike up Maupiti’s little peak today with Victoria and Aspasia. Re-anchored in the afternoon close to the pass to be able to see the manta rays... Read more →
Spass am Spi-Baum and the "Tour de Maupiti"
A quick hello from Maupiti, our last stop in French Polynesia before heading off for Suwarrow. We arrived here yesterday (Wed) at lunchtime from Bora Bora and found Victoria and... Read more →
New photo album and the road ahead
We’ve put up a new photo album under this link, with pictures from the last month in the Society Islands. While we’re doing the last bits of re-provisioning in Bora... Read more →
Magic Mantas
Moved to the NE corner of Bora Bora yesterday afternoon as there was said to be a great snorkeling spot to see some very big manta rays. We went with... Read more →
Bora Bora
After one night at the Tahaa Coral Garden we moved on with the rest of “the fleet” towards Bora Bora early on Wednesday morning. We’ve have now been anchored here... Read more →
Kids in the Coral Garden
Moved to Ilot Tautau on the west side of Tahaa this morning. In a light WNW wind we were even able to sail up to the anchorage inside the lagoon.... Read more →
A whirlwind day (kind of)
A busy day - by local standards… weighed anchor in Huahine at 0800 local time this morning, after returning Merilelu’s water juggs (they had kindly offered to use 60l of... Read more →
Ready to move again
Had three very nice and relaxed days here on the SW corner of Huahine, with Helena and Kari from Merilelu and Ingrid and Gerd from Lazy Lady. Got a quite... Read more →
Going deep
Left Chantier Naval yesterday (Wednesday) and anchored on the east side on Raiatea, off Ile Tipaemau, just north of Passe Iriru. At 22m a new depth record for Namani at... Read more →End of hard time and "Making bubbles"
Namani is (almost) ready to be relaunched this morning, just a few touches of antifouling left to apply. To celebrate the end of “hard time” we had a dinner out... Read more →
On the hard
Almost exactly one year ago we posted a blog entry with a very similar picture - that time still at Yankee Marina in Yarmouth, Maine. About 12 months and 10,000... Read more →
A nice overnight sail
We’re just approaching Raiatea, our next stop in the Society Islands in French Polynesia, sailing nicely on a beam reach about 5nm from the island’s SW corner (11:30 local time... Read more →
At anchor again - at last
After returning from yet another trip back to Germany Thursday night (something for another post), we finally slipped our lines today (Saturday) and left Marina Tahina on Tahiti at 11:30h... Read more →
Nicky goes Gaugin (and others)
A new school project by Nicky, taking a shot at emulating the painting style of four post impressionists. Click here for his report. Read more →
Heiva on Tahiti
In the past week we were able to see two parts of the annual Heiva festival here on Tahiti. It started as a revival and showcase of traditional Polynesian arts... Read more →
Dots, Stripes, Swirls: I Paint Like the Post-Impressionists
In this art assignment, I painted a boat sailing in the style of Gauguin, Seurat, Van Gogh, and Rousseau, the Post-Impressionists. They worked after the Impressionists. The Post-Impressionists painted in... Read more →
New Photo Album
We put up a new photo album with pictures from our last month in the Tuamotus and on Tahiti/Moorea. The album can be found under this link. Read more →
Back Home
We are now into the first week of July and still in Tahiti. Time flies! Sadly, things did not go as expected with our planned visit to Germany, as Markus’... Read more →Civilization (or what's commonly considered as such...)
We arrived in Tahiti yesterday morning (Friday, 15JUN) and are now berthed at Marina Taina, just SW of Papeete. On the way in we realized that we had been sailing... Read more →Land ho!
Tahiti came in sight at dawn this morning. Now (0630) local timethe rising sun starts to paints the mountain peaks (max = 2200m) in a beautiful orange-pink. We hope to... Read more →Au revoir Toau
We had five wonderful days in Anse Amyot on Toau, enjoying the hospitality of Valentine and Gaston, the company of the other boats in the anchorage and the shear beauty... Read more →Moving north
Had a very nice two days at anchor about halfway down the length of Fakarava. The wind has turned southerly yesterday, a direction from which the “inside” of Fakarava offers... Read more →A bay to ourselves
Made landfall at 0815 local time (utc - 10) this morning and are now anchored in Fakarava. No roll in this anchorage for a chenge and we have it all... Read more →Big fish day!
After yesterday’s dismal fishing performance (see previous post, “Fish: 3 - Namani: 0) we were back in the game today and had our “Big Fish Day” in two respects: Earlier... Read more →Fish: 3 - Namani: 0
A good day for the fish and a bad day for Namani as far as fresh supplies of the same are concerned… We were trailing two lines all day today... Read more →Smooth sailing...
Very nice and relaxed conditions… sailing along on a beam reach and averaging 4.5kn in about 10kn of true wind… about 380nm to go to the northern entry channel into... Read more →Under way again...
Weighed anchor in Taihoae Bay at noon today (31MAY) and are now sailing towards Fakarava in the Tuammotu Archipelago. Total distance is about 550 nm, so we hope to take... Read more →
New photo album
One of the rare occasions with a halfway decent internet connection here in Taihoae, Nuku Hiva… have posted a new photo album with some pictures of our month in the... Read more →A pit stop in Taihoae...
After another very nice day yesterday (Saturday) with Samba, E Capoe and Topaze (four boats incl. Namani and eight kids between them!), we left the “Baie du Contrôleur” this morning... Read more →Child's play
Left Ua Pou early this morning (Friday), together with Topze and Merilelu, to sail 30nm to the north for Nuku Hiva. What looked like something between a close and a... Read more →Foodshopping...
Nana and Caroline from Topaze went ashore this afternoon to get some fresh fruit and vegetables. As it turns out, the little store in Hakehetau is not the place to... Read more →A new island
Well, we did finally bid farewell to the Manta Rays in our favorite bay on Tahuata in the southern Marquesas and weighed anchor there yesterday at 5 pm local time.... Read more →A short hop south
We moved today - a whole 4nm to the south to Hapatoni Bay, still on Tahuatu. Beautiful scenery again, this time steep woody slopes rather than a palm fringed white... Read more →Away from the "big city"
After sitting out a “rain day” in the Hiva Oa anchorage on Sunday, we sailed a few miles SW on Monday and are now anchored off the western shore of... Read more →Perfect timing
As things turned out, we originally arrived on Hiva Oa on 30APR at the same time that Jomique’s flight from Nuku Hiva was making its approach onto the island. Jomique... Read more →
Island Tour
Still in Hiva Oa, sitting out a rainy day before moving on to Tahuatu, a small island just to the south of us. Went on a tour of the island... Read more →
Nicky's new report on the Galapagos
One of Nicky’s projects on the passage to the Marquesas was to write a report on what the had learned about the Galapagos. The result can be found under this... Read more →
New photo album
We put some pictures of our Galapagos-Marquesas passage on Picasa. The new album can be found under this link. Enjoy! Read more →
Back on Hiva Oa
We’re back in Hiva Oa now, after a beautiful four days on Fatu Hiva. On Monday (07MAY) we hiked to Omoa, the second village on Fatu Hiva, a bit south... Read more →
WOW!
After having spent four days on Hiva Oa we came down to Fatu Hiva on Friday (04MAY). We left at daybreak and motorsailed most of the 44nm through the rain.... Read more →Landfall!
Cliffs at the eastern end of Hiva Oa became visible ahead of us at dawn today (1450Z, 0550 ship’s time), only seconds after our last star fix put us within... Read more →The home stretch...
About 40nm away from the eastern end of Hiva Oa / 60nm from the anchorage now (Sunday, 29APR, 2330 local time). Feels almost strange to think that we should see... Read more →Alaska...
Forgot to mention in yesterday’s post: We finally switched Namani’s “ship’s time” back another hour yesterday afternoon. We’re now 9 hours “behind” utc. We checked the Nautical Almanac and it... Read more →300nm to go...
As expected two days ago, the wind has stayed rather light and our progress is a little slower than before. We now hope to make landfall in Hiva Oa on... Read more →A slow news day ...
.. on Namani today. After two weeks of wind from the SE…ESE with true wind speeds solidly in the 12…15+kn range and good progress at an average boat speed of... Read more →It's Monday...
.. which means we have been at sea for exactly three weeks now. Conditions continue to be good and we’re making good progress (by our modest standards). The days pass... Read more →Under 1000nm...
.. to go to the Marquesas. Early this morning we passed the 1000nm mark and celebrated with freshly baked brownies later in the day. Still could see E Capoe on... Read more →Pacific rendez-vous
Five days ago we made contact on the SSB radio with E Capoe, a French sailboat with a French-Austrian family aboard. We realized that we were only about 30nm away... Read more →Bergfest!
We passed the half-way mark yesterday (Tue, 17APR) aorund mid-day. Now it’s less than 1500nm to the Marquesas… We’re trying to arrange a rendez-vous with E Capoe, a French boat... Read more →Sail change and another strike
The wind backed a bit over the past 24 hrs and we have finally changed to our “down wind genoa” today. It’s actually two identical 115% genoas, sewn on the... Read more →Less than 2000nm to go...
At 1600Z (0900 local) this morning, we had about 1880nm to go to the Marquesas…. the wind has picked up a bit now, probably in the low 20ies now and... Read more →Day 10
Wednesday, 11APR, ten days since we left the Galapagos. We’ll celebrate with freshly baked bread and brownies ;-). Conditions are beautiful at the moment: 10…15kn from just abaft the beam,... Read more →Strike!
Caught our first Dorado on this trip today (Mon, 09APR)! Sushi snack followed by a very tasty dinner… Sailing is very different now compared to the first few days of... Read more →Sailing as it should be
Skies did ineed clear during the second part of last night and we’ve had beautiful sailing since then. Wind at 12-15kn from just abaft the beam, swell less confused now,... Read more →Right turn towards the Marquesas
The wind did pick up a bit and has steadied once we reached about 6 deg S, so we could finally make that “right turn” and are now sailing more... Read more →A nice sailing day
Friday (06APR) turned out to be a very nice sailing day - and it still is now, a few minutes past midnight under a full moon and a few scattered... Read more →Looking for the trades...
We had a post with the same title during our Atlantic crossing about five years ago…here we are again, this time trying to get into the South Pacific trade winds.... Read more →Still beating to windward...
Spent much of our time going N and S today, to make a little westing with the wind on the nose .. slow progress, despite making 5-6kn. At least we’re... Read more →Close reaching to the Marquesas
We weighed anchor yesterday (Monday, 02APR) at 1200 local time (1800 utc) after one last food shopping run into town in the morning. After sailing west on a close reach... Read more →.CR2_.jpg)
Galapagos Islands: Hot Spot in the Tropics
The Galapagos are a volcanic archipelago in the east part of the south Pacific.The four inhabited islands are: Santa Cruz, Cristobal, Floreana, and Isabela, but there are many uninhabited islands... Read more →Ready to go...
A quick update on our (hopefully) last full day here in the Galapagos. If nothing unexpected happens, we will weigh anchor here somtime tomorrow morning (Mon, 02APR) and head for... Read more →New Photo Album
Posted some new photos from our visits to different islands in the Galapagos over the past week. Click here to go to the album. Read more →Back on Namani
We are now all reunited on Namani. We took a day trip around a few more Cristobal sights with the French family aboard the catamaran Eol - Matthieu and Lea... Read more →Galapagos Impressions
After one week of settling in and seeing a bit of San Cristobal, we headed off to see more of the Galapagos Islands. Private boats can’t move freely through the... Read more →Sunday evening update from Cristobal
Another two very nice days here in Cristobal. Victoria, another German boat with Kai, Heike and their sons Johannes and Niklas aboard, arrived on Friday. Nana and Heike had met... Read more →
New photo album and new report by Nicky
Finally (we heard you, Dave ;-), some new photos from the Panama - Galapagos passage. As the Sailblogs photo manager is pretty clumsy we will post the photos on Picasa... Read more →Swimming with the sharks...
We had two very nice days here yesterday and today, finally exploring a bit of the plant and wild life that the Galapagos are famous for. After some school and... Read more →Anchor Excitement
Our fifth day in the Galapagos - an interesting one as it turned out… The bottom here here is a mix of sand, some small gravel and patches of bigger... Read more →
Arrival!
We dropped the hook off Cristobal in the Galapagos at 1500 local time (UTC-6) yesterday (Fri, 09MAR) after a beautiful 9 1/4 day passage from Panama City. We had a... Read more →
Over the Line!
We crossed the equator this morning at 7am local time (EST) and Namani is now officially in the South Pacific. We had the proper initiation procedures that turned all us... Read more →
Two days ...
.. until we hope to reach the Galapagos. We’re currently (2200 local time on 07MAR) 20nm north of the Equator and about 150nm from Cristobal, our destination in the Galapagos.... Read more →
Our daily fix
After fully overcast skies yesterday (Monday 05MAR) and the night before, things cleared up this morning and we continued our slow sail at a slow jog’s pace under blue skies... Read more →
Getting there...
At about 0630 yesterday (Mon, 05MAR) morning some steady wind out of S…SE set in at 7-12kn. We had a beautiful sail, close reaching at ~5kn over the entire day... Read more →
Slow but beautiful
After slowly motoring through a dead calm through most of the day and the first part of the night we pulled the genoa back out at midnight when a hint... Read more →
Pacific by kayak
While we had light winds suffcient for slowly sailing on a close reach from midnight last night to about 1500h this afternoon, the air hasn’t moved around us since then.... Read more →
Third night out
At 1500 local time yesterday (Friday, 02MAR) we passed about 40nm east of Malpelo Island (Colombia) and turned the corner for a direct course to the Galapagos. The wind had... Read more →
Life on a Sailboat: Sailing in the Open Ocean
Planes. Dolphins, water and waves! These are some of the things I see on Namani when we are in the middle of nowhere. Right now, we are on our way... Read more →
Under way again
Weighed anchor at 0845 this morning and started our sail to the Galapagos. After a few hours of light westerly winds a steady breeze from the north settled in and... Read more →
Second night out...
..again under stary clear skies. Had a nice relaxed sailing day with good progress and some help from the current. The Pilot Charts for March show a large circular clockwise... Read more →
Ready to go
Anchored off Chapera in Las Perlas and planning to leave for the Galapagos tommorwo morning. Came here yesterday from Balboa to get the last preparation activities done (cleaning hull and... Read more →Film tip: Between Home
A post not about Namani but about another sailor this time… Nick Jaffe is a young Australian with some German ancestry. He worked in Germany in the early 2000s and... Read more →Work Week Completed - Back at Balboa
We had a beautiful sail today, from Chapera in Las Perlas back to Balboa. Close hauled in 15kn of wind and small seas, with Namani peaking at >7kn through the... Read more →
Flashback: Dinner with Ken and Sylvia
Now that we have an Internet connection and can post pictures again… we had a very nice dinner with Ken and Sylvia from Ann Lucia before we left for Las... Read more →A beautiful spot all to ourselves
Moved 15 nm south today to Isla Viveros, where we have a beautiful anchorage under starry skies all to ourselves. Shoreline is rocky and wooded - feels a bit like... Read more →Sailing again!
After having Namani moored at the Balboa Yacht Club for a few weeks now (which included a trip back to Germany), we decided that we may as well do our... Read more →
It Gets You Across: The Panama Canal
The Panama Canal connects two oceans: the Alantic and Pacific. Big ships cross the the canal constantly because it is much, much less hazardous and shorter than going around Cape... Read more →Namani caught on film in the Canal!
The picture above shows Namani in the Miraflores as captured by the Canal webcam (thanks Paul for the screenshot!). If you look carefully you can even see the “Wimpelkette” running... Read more →PACIFICO!
A little more thn four years ago we wrote a blog entry “Bye bye Mediterranean, hello Atlantic”. Now it’s “Bye bye Atlantic, hello Pacific”. At about 1230 local time today... Read more →Halfway through
We had a very smooth transit “upwards” through the three stages of the Gatun Lock last night. Carlos, our advisor, boarded right on time at 1730 and we entered the... Read more →Standing by...
We left Shelter Bay at 1400 today and are now anchored in the “Flats”. Our Advisor arrival ETA has been confirmed for 1730 local time so we expect to arrive... Read more →
Ready for the Canal
Eric, our very helpful agent for the Canal transit, dropped off our four “Panama lines” (125 ft each as required by Canal regulations) and 12 tires today (these will serve... Read more →
Visit Jupiter!
One of my recent assignments was to write a commercial for people to visit the planet Jupiter. Here it is: Jupiter is Moony! It’s cheap! It’s great! It’s out of... Read more →Sneak Preview: Addendum...
Astarté (Markus went with them through the Canal as a line handler, see “Sneak Preview” post below) has posted a detailed report of their Canal transit and some interesting pictures... Read more →
Nicky's Page
Nicky now has his own section on Namani’s homepage. The links in the menu above now include “Nicky’s Page”. Under this heading you can find a short introduction “about Nicky,... Read more →
Happy New Year!
A very happy new year to everyone and fair winds for 2012 - or, as they say in Germany: “Immer eine Hand breit Wasser unter dem Kiel!” (always a hand’s... Read more →
Sneak Preview
Got a sneak preview of the Canal transit over the past two days on Astarté with Barbara and Michael, and Sue and Lenny from Windancer. A very interesting and fun... Read more →
Shelter Bay
Arrived in Shelter Bay (across from Colon at the Atlantic entrance to the Panama Canal) today, after a nice sail from Portobelo and after weaving our way through the cargo... Read more →
Fresh bread
Our favorite (and also the only) bakery in Portobelo… notice the Maine license plate on the door! Read more →
Riding the Bus
One of the local buses, that we took on our food shopping tour here recently… Read more →
Portobelo, Panama
In 1502, Columbus „discovered“ and named Portobelo, Panama. Here in Portobelo, the Spaniards made many buildings and forts because it was an important gold place: they stole the gold from... Read more →
The Tip-Top Restaurant
Now that we have an internet connection, a little flashback to our last evening in Port Antonio, Jamaica. Our friend Bill had just arrived from the US and we wanted... Read more →
Back to Civilization
We weighed anchor in Porvenir yesterday (20DEC) at daybreak, after checking out of the San Blas Islands there the day before. A fast (by our standards) 55nm later we dropped... Read more →
Back in Porvenir
Anchored off Porvenir now (8pm local time). Checked out with the harbor master here to get our “Zarpe”, the exit document we need to check into our next port of... Read more →
Moving ...
.. in very small increments. Have moved a full 12nm today to a new anchorage that everyone refers to as the “Swimming Pool” in the Cayas Hollandes. Conveniently, there seems... Read more →
Kuna Island Camp
Here in the Lemon Cays (Panama), we found a Kuna island camp. It was nothing like my home in Germany. How do they build their homes? The Kunas take posts... Read more →
Who'll stop the rain...
Some real tropical downpours in our anchorage today, as squalls associated with a tropical wave just NE of here move through. A very welcome replenishment of our fresh water supply... Read more →Papas y huevos - saved from the cans!
While we knew that food supplies are not easy to come by in most of the San Blas Islands, things turned out to be even more scarce than we had... Read more →
A beautiful anchorage...
Changed location today from Porvenir to the Eastern Lemon Cays (a whole 5.5 nm away!). Beautiful palce, surrounded by a few small palm-treed islands and some reefs. Also fewer boats... Read more →
Arrival!
Dropped the hook off Porvenir in Panama’s San Blas Islands at 08:00 local time this morning.. Had a really beautiful sail from Jamaica to here. Now getting ready to go... Read more →
The home stretch...
Just after sunset on Sunday, 04DEC. About 50 nm to go to Porvenir in the San Blas Islands off Panama. Trying to slow the boat down now, so we can... Read more →
Third night out
Good progress… wind and seas picking up a bit but skies are still largely clear… about 250 nm to go - all is well aboard, stay tuned… Read more →
370 nm to go...
Had another beautiful sailing day yesterday (Thursday)… Parasailor up all afternoon, worked surprisingly well under wind vane self steering. A bit more moisture in the air but still a largely... Read more →
Under way again
Slipped our lines in Port Antonio at 11:30 this morning and are now about 20 nm south of Jamaica’s south eastern corner. Beautiful sailing conditions, running downwind in 15kn of... Read more →
At Chart's End... A Recap
It’s been almost 3,000 nm since we set sail from Portland on 02SEP and we have covered the full length of our NW Atlantic Chart (see bright blue line in... Read more →
Arrival
Safely arrived in Port Antonio, on Jamaica’s NE coast this morning at 07:30 am. Now waiting for customs and immigration to visit the boat and clear us in. Update to... Read more →
What a night!
Just passed Cuba to our right and are now sailing on an easy broad reach under a beautifully clear and starry sky. Nicky is asleep in the cockpit and all... Read more →
Getting there...
.. about 65 nm to go to Jamaica. Still beautifully broad reaching under poled out genoa at 6 kn under starry skies - what else can we ask for… Read more →On the road again....
After enjoying our solitude at Mayaguana for five days, we weighed anchor yesterday (Tue) afternoon, intending to stop at Great Inagua Island, 90 nm south, before heading though the Windward... Read more →
At anchor!
Dropped the hook about noon today, in Abrahams’s Bay off Mayaguana - an unbelievably undeveloped place for an official port of entry to the Bahamas - very beatiiful. Logged just... Read more →
Life at an angle...
Making good progress but have been beating to windward pretty much ever since we left the Gulf Stream. Good for speed, bad for comfort. .. it did however also produce... Read more →Free at last...
After slow progress yesterday in SE winds and a west setting current, we’re now making good progress, hoping to reach the SE Bahamas on Thursday. All is well aboard…. stay... Read more →Out of soundings ...
We slipped our berth in Charleston at 14:20 yesterday (Friday), only to have the engine cut out on us when motoring down the channel in Charleston harbor. After sailing up... Read more →
24 hrs out ...
Crossed the Gulf Stream today, motorsailing in light winds… a few eddies to the east of the stream which we’ll hopefully get around… temperatures have picked up again… all is... Read more →
Ready to go?
For the past weeks we have been glued to the weather report, first observing patterns and now planning our departure from the US to the Caribbean. Hopefully, there’s a window... Read more →Sailing again!
Slipped our lines at Beaufort Docks yesterday afternoon and are now past Cape Fear, about 30 nm offshore. Recent weather development has played havoc with our plan to depart Beaufort... Read more →An unexpectedly nice sail...
After a windy night at anchor we had a very nice sail today, broad reaching in 20kn N winds across the Albermarle Sound and down the first part of the... Read more →Re-tracing our steps
We left Hampton at day break yesterday (Sunday) morning and started our way south towards Beaufort, NC, along the ICW. When we passed Norfolk two hours later it really felt... Read more →
Among Friends
Had a very nice reunion with Liz, Jeff an Jen from Boundless last night and spend the night off their dock in a beautiful and quiet little anchor-spot all to... Read more →
Namani Airborne ...
… almost. We did get to play with our new Parasailor along the way, an innovative spinnaker-type sail with a paraglider wing integrated into the sail. It flies in an... Read more →
At Anchor Again
After 2 1/2 weeks (which included a 5-day trip back to Germany for Nicky and Markus to see Oma and Opa) we finally did say good bye to Annapolis again.... Read more →
Addendum...
… just noticed that the previous post was truncated at the end. What we meant to say was: After all this time at a town mooring in Annapolis it feels... Read more →
The ice is melting...
We legged it from Cape May and after a wet, cold and bumpy but fast sail up the Delaware Bay, we went through the Chesapeake-Delaware Channel and - with two... Read more →
Arrival in Cape May - Drenched but happy
We slipped our mooring at the 79th St Boat Basin at noon on Wednesday, sailed out under the Verrazano Narrows Bridge and “turned right” towards Cape May where we arrived... Read more →
New York!
Made it to New York this morning after an overnight motor sail from Block Island through the Long Island Sound. Timing worked out perfectly, catching the start of the flood... Read more →
More Island time ...
… this time on Block Island, RI. Got here yesterday after a nice short sail down from Newport and were happy to see our friends ob and Maggie aboard Decoy... Read more →
The windvane is up again!
Almost forgot to mention: The new Hydrovane seems to proof a worthy successor to our old Windpilot self-steering. Have used it on a close reach/close hauled towards Gloucester and down-wind... Read more →
Small fry anomg the big fish...
In Newport, RI, for two days. Feeling a bit small among all those old 12m Americas Cup yachts and new mega yachts ;-). We went to The Newport Shipyard today... Read more →
The Germans are Coming!
Moored in Cuttyhunk, the outermost of the Elisabeth Islands. Feels very tranquil and remote with some interesting WW II lookout posts. Ironically, this is the first place where we meet... Read more →
South of the Canal
Made it through the Cape Cod Canal today and are now anchored in Onset Bay, enjoying a beautiful sunset. Feels like a bit of a milestone and we are curious... Read more →
Welcome to Gloucester!
While we had planned to make a long day sail from the Isles of Shoals to Plymouth, NH, we heard an unfamiliar noise from the steering when we were just... Read more →
Southbound at last!
Spent a day and night here before continuing south on Wednesday, destination Plymouth, MA. A very interesting place here, largely uninhabited, save for a research station and a Star Cooperation... Read more →
A quick turnaround
Picked up a mooring at Portland Yacht Services this morning after a short early morning sail from The Goslings. Were expecting to stay for 2 days to knock some jobs... Read more →
Back in Casco Bay
We’re back at The Goslings tonight (a gfew miles NE from Portland) after a great sail from Christmas Cove (so named because Captain John Smith spent Christmas 1614 there), starting... Read more →
A Bay to ourselves...
… almost. We were one of three boats in Seal Bay, a beautiful anchorage on the NE end of Vinal Haven in Penobscot Bay (thanks for the tip, Mike!). Left... Read more →
The State of Maine
Had a great visit to the “State if Maine”, the training ship of the Maine Maritime Academy that’s located here in Castine. One the Academy’s upper classmen gave us a... Read more →
New Photo Album
Added a new photo album “Maine Shakedown Cruise” (see photo gallery link on the right). The picture above shows Nicky and Papa in North Haven, using the grocery store’s wifi... Read more →
Back to School
Yesterday (Wed, 07SEP), Nicky’s school year has started in earnest. Two days of weather imposed down-time in Castine provide a good opportunity to start settling into a school routine on... Read more →
Up in Penobscot Bay
A quick update from Castine where we tied up at the town dock last night. Had a very nice trip up here with stops in Casco Bay’s “The Basin”, Boothbay... Read more →
Dinghy ride to the airport
Sailed back to Portland this morning to drop off Laura at the airport there. Laura may not have had the sailing vacation she expected but she sure will have a... Read more →
At Anchor at Last!
Namani is back on the water and we’re finally spending our first night at anchor. After a relaxing sail to Eagle Island (former home of Admiral Peary, the Polar explorer)... Read more →Not so bad after all
Irene passed through last night, luckily a bit anti-climatic without any major apparent damage around here. While the scene of crashing waves at the back shore was impressive at high... Read more →
Waiting for and with Irene
Now back on Peaks Island awaiting the passage of what is now Tropical Storm Irene, together with Nana’s sister Irene, their mother and Nicky’s cousin Pearl. The picture above was... Read more →
Out of the frying pan and into the coals...
No sooner did we have Namani ready to sail again, than we had her hauled again to sit out Irene on the hard. While forecasted wind strength has gone down... Read more →
On the Water!
We were finally able to take Namani for a first test sail down to Peaks Island today. Some gusty winds around a passing cold front but everything seems to work... Read more →
Something Left Undone
A poem from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow of Portland perfectly captures our experience here over the past three weeks. “Something Left Undone” 1863 Labor with what zeal we will, Something still... Read more →
Today's Menu
A quick look to Namani’s stove reveals that there is still some more boat work on the menu… getting close though - hope to complete Hydrovane installation tomorrow and new... Read more →
Two years in paradise begins ...
… with some more grinding and glassing… A friend commented yesterday that the picture on our homepage was very inconsiderate towards “those who stayed behind”. So Urs: To make you... Read more →
The Daily Commute
A foggy impression from our 6:15 am ferry ride from Peaks Island to Portland. Our daily commute to our new workplace at the boat yard these past 10 days… Fog... Read more →
Launch!
Yes, Namani is back in the water and she still floats! Almost to the day three years after she’s been hauled out (see here for a very similar picture…) she’s... Read more →
A Hole in the Hull!
After thinking we were close to launching Namani on Tuesday (today), a check of the seacocks yesterday (stupidly left to the last minute… revealed a seized one below the waterline... Read more →
Shed with a View
A view from where we currently spend our days, hoping that Namani will be in the water again very soon now… Read more →
Namani 2011
We’re getting there, slowly but surely… After three years on the hard at Yankee Marina in Yarmouth, ME, Namani is now getting tantalizingly close to being launched again. The hull... Read more →10,000 Miles of Summer
We’ve finally put a little slide show compilation with some of our favorite impressions online. 12 months and 10,000 nm all in 2:09 minutes - something to pass the time... Read more →
Shopping Guide to the Eastern Caribbean
Being the bargain hunter that my mother trained me to be, I spent considerable time comparing prices between the various Leeward and Windward islands. My price list was born after... Read more →The final postcard arrives...
The probably last postcard from our trip finally arrived… it was sent on April 15 this year from Anguilla and arrived at the house of Nana’s mother this past week!... Read more →
Cruising with a Child on a Sailboat
When we began planning our trip in earnest, a big concern of ours was our son: how would Nicky handle life on Namani? How would we handle life with him... Read more →Our year on Namani in summary
We’re back in the fatherland now and slowly transitioning again into land-locked life… There are a few items which we still have on our list to post here as some... Read more →
Laying Up Namani
It is strange to be winterizing our boat in July while other sailors are just launching, and very sad to see Namani out of the water. The end of our... Read more →
The last post from aboard Namani (for now)
As I will have to disconnect our SSB antenna (read: insulated backstay) tomorrow in preparation for unstepping Namani’s mast, this will likely be the last blog post from aboard Namani... Read more →Passing the Torch?
We have had a busy two weeks in Maine so far - mostly with family and friends. We have delayed and delayed hauling Namani out and instead spent our time... Read more →
An addition to our top-10 list of favorite anchorges
After two days on Peaks Island we used the nice weather today for a sail a little further north and are now anchored off Snow Island in Casco Bay. It’s... Read more →
MAINE!
We rounded Portland Head light at about 1600 yesterday afternoon and tied up in Portland shortly after that. The fog stayed with us for most of the day and around... Read more →
The home stretch...
Had a very nice 1-night stayover on Cape Cod with Nana’s mother visiting and Ralf, Bibi, Martin and kids joining us on Saturday. Slipped our lines at 1700 yesterday afternoon... Read more →
This could be the last time...
Mick Jagger comes to mind… just realized that yesterday (19JUN) evening and this night (0200 local right now) was probably the last time I took a star sight before this... Read more →
160 nm to go...
.. to the Cape Cod Canal, where we will make a stop to pick up Ralf (the “other Ralf” - Boeck this time) who will join us for the last... Read more →
Sailing again
Slipped our mooring in Portsmouth/VA this morning, waved good-bye yet again to Arearea and sailed out of the Chesapeake Bay at 1300 local time. Now (0145 local time on 18JUN)... Read more →
ICW, Mile 0...
We worked our way up to the end of the ICW (for vessels traveling northbound - I guess officially it’s the beginning at mile 0) today and are now moored... Read more →
Intracoastal Waterway & Arearea Re-union
We covered our first stretch of the ICW today, from Beaufort to Belhaven - 70 miles down, 135 to go to Norfolk. This morning we had made radio contact with... Read more →
Carolina on our mind...
We kept our options open until this morning 0630h (30 nm south of Beaufort) but then the latest weather forecast made us pull into Beaufort rather than continuing around Cape... Read more →
Sailing again!
Slipped our mooring in Fort Pierce at high tide around noon today and had some very nice sailing so far…reached the Gulf Stream conveyor belt early last night with a... Read more →
Launch!
Yes, we are indeed still in Florida, but we will leave tomorrow (so we think at least…). The injection pump for the engine was put back in place by Eric... Read more →
Engine Update
Just a quick update… Eric, the long awaited mechanic, was here on Monday (yes, he did indeed come out on Memorial Day!) and took off our diesel injection pump. Even... Read more →
Namani in Space - New Photos and Videos
While we’re still waiting for an engine repair (which will hopefully be completed tomorrow), we have time to upload some new material - including the photo above from our visit... Read more →
Florida (yes - Florida)
Hard to believe how our actual route has diverged from the original plan … but plans are made to be broken, right? In the past 2 weeks we covered a... Read more →
Arrival in the US of A
After a beautiful Gulf Stream crossing last night (up to 9+ kn in light winds on very settled seas) we arrived in Harbor Town Marina, Fort Pierce, Florida today. Bill... Read more →
Pit Stop
After 48 hrs of great sailing through the Bahamas we’re now tied up on Grand Bahama Island on Port Lucaya for one night before leaving for Florida tomorrow. Exact destination... Read more →Plans keep changing...
Hello from underway again, this time about 15 nm SE of Great Abaco Island in the NW Bahamas at 10 pm local time … the dreaded cold front passed us... Read more →Almost there...
3 am and about 100 nm to go to Spanish Cay in the Abacos (NW Bahamas), where we plan to make a (hopefully brief) pit stop to top-up diesel… the... Read more →Going West
We’re under way again, going WNW towards the NW Bahamas where we hope to arrive sometime Wednesday or Thursday… current position is 22-10N 071-49W … looking at the weather forecasts... Read more →
Pit Stop
Arrived off Grand Turk Island this morning… the wind did pick up in the end so we got to at least enjoy a few hours of nice sailing. We will... Read more →Under way again
Left Puerto Rico yesterday afternoon and enjoyed a good afternoon and night of sailing on a beam/broad reach between 6 and 7 kn. Now the wind has died and we... Read more →
Visa!
Last week, I finally got my B1/B2 visa to re-enter the US legally, after quite an odyssey… On our frequent visits to the US over the past years I had... Read more →
Eastern Caribbean Wrap-up
As the end of our stay in Puerto Rico approaches, it’s time to wrap up our Eastern Caribbean circuit… we had a wonderful four months of cruising up and down... Read more →New video footage
Some more short video clips taken over the past few weeks… The first and most recent one of our sail from Anguilla to Culebra with a voice over from Markus... Read more →
Breakfast with Manatee
We’re in Puerto Rico proper now, in a marina on the east coast of the island. We will likely stay here for a week or so to work down the... Read more →
Anchored on the verge of a nervous breakdown
Arrived in Culebra today after a very beautiful and enjoyable overnight sail from Anguilla. Our anchorage here in Bahia de Almodovar (any relation to the the Spanish movie director yet... Read more →
A perfect birthday present...
We’re en route from Anguilla to Puerto Rico (or more exactly: to Culebra, an island just east of Puerto Rico) and Papa is enjoying the perfect birthday present - a... Read more →
Yeek! A long day...
Weighed anchor at 0600 this morning off Barbuda and dropped it 69 nm and almost 12 hrs later in White House Bay St. Kitts… a long day, reminiscent of the... Read more →
Nicky's taste in music
To his papa’s delight and his mom’s dismay Nicky has started to express very specific music preferences aboard Namani. He likes music with a very pronounced drum and bass line... Read more →New Pictures / Neue Bilder
We added some new pictures to the “St. Lucia to Antigua” album in the photo gallery and also to the “Krabbelgruppe at Sea” album - enjoy! As an aside -... Read more →
Back where we started ...
The north swell finally subsided and we left Deshaies this morning for Antigua … a very nice 48 nm close/beam reach between 6 and 7 knots … now anchored outside... Read more →
Sitting out the swell
Anchored off Deshaies in NW Guadeloupe and will likely stay here tucked away until the weekend as there is some big northerly swell coming through this area over the next... Read more →Back in Les Saintes with some new videos
Arrived in Les Saintes again yesterday witth Jez and Tab after a stop-over on Marie Galante. Anchored off Le Bourg now, one of our favorite anchorages with very fond memories... Read more →
New Pictures
Added more pictures to the “North from Grenada Album” and created a new album “St. Lucia to Antigua” in the Photo Gallery. Currently in Point a Pitre, Guadeloupe to pick... Read more →
Life at Anchor
To prevent this blog from turning into too much of a “and then we went from A to B”-type story, we’d thought we try to describe what life at anchor... Read more →
"Gunfire" in the Anchorage
Arrived in Les Saintes this afternoon after a beautiful sail from Dominica. Anchored in a Anse Fideling, a small undeveloped bay on the south of the island of Terre de... Read more →
What a nice place
Anchored in Prince Rupert Bay/Dominica tonight after a longish sail from St. Pierre/Martinique. Prince Rupert Bay has been one of our favorite anchorages on the way down and it’s very... Read more →Northbound
Back in St. Pierre for one night… tomorrow will be another 50+ nm leg to Portsmouth/Dominica from where we will leave for Guadeloupe on Monday to meet with Jez and... Read more →Leap Day!
Realized today that we picked the right year for our “sailing sabbatical” - 366 instead of 365 days! Finally made contact with Sven from Arearea this morning via SSB on... Read more →
Good-byes and a an early start
We left Bequia this morning at 4 am to make the 52 nm to St. Lucia against contrary winds before nightfall. It turned out that the wind direction wasn’t all... Read more →
Grenada and the Grenadines
We have had a lovely month of cruising the Grenadines and Grenada with Laura on board, exactly the kind of island-hop cruising I hoped to do in the Caribbean. Heading... Read more →Turtles, Sting Rays, and the Dark Side of the Moon
We are in the Tobago Cays again, this time on our way back up north. We arrived yesterday afternoon after a very nice day sail from Tyrell Bay, Carriacou, and... Read more →
Catching up -- Bequia to Grenada
A quick summary of our itinerary between Bequia ([%46747*last post%b]) and Grenada, our current location, before we start going north again… We very much enjoyed Bequia which has somehow managed... Read more →Turning Point
Hello from Prickly Bay at the southwestern end of Grenada… arrived here today after a 40 nm sail from Carriacou and are looking forward to exploring some of the island.... Read more →New Video Footage
Some more videos… first Nicky and Beth having fun on the beach in St. Lucia: And a short clip of testing our small staysail between Martinique and St. Lucia: Read more →Welcome Stranger!
When we put up this site it was originally intended to keep family and friends up to date. Based on the summary statistics we receive about the blog (essentially number... Read more →
New Photo Albums
New photo albums “Guadeloupe-Dominica-Martinique”, “St. Lucia & Windward Islands” plus updates to “Krabbelgruppe at Sea” in the Photo Gallery Read more →
Pirates of the Caribbean
Hallo aus Bequia, wo wir vor Port Elizabeth vor Anker liegen. Auf dem Weg hierher haben wir auf St. Lucia noch zwei Nächte zwischen den “Pitons” an einer Mooring gelegen... Read more →At Anchor Again
After almost a week in Rodney Bay Marina on St. Lucia with all its luxuries (ie. fresh water and electricity) we’re now glad to be at anchor again, currently in... Read more →
Back in France / Wieder in Frankreich
Bonjour from Le Marin at the southern end of Martinique. We left Dominica on Tuesday after having stopped at Rosseau at the southern end of the island and arrived in... Read more →Dominica by Car
We had planned to see some of the interior of Dominica yesterday and had quite an interesting local experience… We rented a car together with Anna, Christoph and Leoni from... Read more →Vor Anker in Portsmouth
Hallo aus Portsmouth, Dominica (die Insel zwischen Guadeloupe und Martinique), wo wir gestern nach einem entspannten 20 sm Schlag von Les Saintes/Guadeloupe aus angekommen sind. Guadeloupe und insbesondere Les Saintes... Read more →New Photos / Neue Bilder in der Photo Galery
Finally, the Photo Gallery is up and running again and we have added two new albums, “Atlantic Crossing” and “Antigua”. We also updated “Krabbelgruppe at Sea” with new Wimpelkette-pictures off... Read more →Reggae Nicky
Some video footage from about 10 days ago at Shirley Heights/Antigua where Nicky, Beth and Pearl were dancing to the steel drum music: [%youtube*http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7YfvqP42Z8%v] [%youtube*http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=knk2XC3WCAU%v] Read more →Vive la France!
Our Caribbean cruising has officially started today, with a day sail to France - more exactly, to one of its overseas territories, namely Guadeloupe. After a very nice 43 nm... Read more →
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year / Frohe Weihnachten und ein gutes Neues!
A (belated) merry Christmas, happy holidays and all the best for 2008 to family, friends and readers! We had a very nice week with Nana’s family who had visited over... Read more →
Crossing the Atlantic - A Recap
After crossing 3200 miles of open ocean, there is a lot to report, so I organized sections below covering the passage, the highlights, the low points/problems we had, and Nicky,... Read more →
Old Habbits...
The folks at work might get a good laugh out of this… During the Atlantic crossing all the Rally boats would check in via SSB radio every morning at 1000,... Read more →Atlantic Crossing Video Footage
A few short video clips taken during the crossing… The first one is of a group of dolphins playing off Namani’s stern between the Canaries and the Cape Verdes: A... Read more →
Arrival!!
We finally did arrive at Jolly Harbour at approx. 1330 local yesterday (Wed, 12DEC)… very nice place, very nice to be on land again and see the other rally boats... Read more →Land in sight!!
We raised Antigua (or a land mass that we hope to be Antigua) at 0815 local this morning and will have English Harbour abeam in one hour with an ETA... Read more →The Home Stretch (so we hope)!
After some favorable winds and keeping the “pedal to the metal” for the past 36 hrs we now hope to be in Antigua tomorrow (Wednesday) late afternoon. The final sprint... Read more →What Tradewinds?
Did I say the trades are back a few days ago? Well that was short lived… after dealing with rain and thunder squalls all day yesterday (and actually making good... Read more →Whales alongside Namani!
Wow - an unusual view this morning: shortly after sunrise we had a pod of 4-5 whales (type to be determined, each one approx the length of our boat) swimming... Read more →The Trades are back!
Finally… this is what we imagined it to be all along: 15-20 knots from the ENE, a gentle and long Atlantic swell and sunny skies with lots of cumulus and... Read more →Less than 1000 nm to go!
Oh boy what happened to the trade winds?? After the first week of hunting them south of the Canaries it looked like they had finally moved in for good but... Read more →Rolling on the Ocean
Hello from the Atlantic where we have been heading west since last Wednesday (21NOV), when the tradewinds finally settled in again. After 24 hours of very confused seas we’re now... Read more →In search of the elusive tradewinds...
A quick message from the Atlantic, still heading SSW to reach the tradewinds that are forecasted to have re-established themselves on Thursday when a low and associated cold-front off the... Read more →Under way / Unterwegs
A quick update from aboard Namani… we left Lanzarote yesterday at 1430 utc and are now heading towards the Cape Verde Islands with about 2900 nm to go to Antigua.... Read more →
(Almost) Ready for Departure
We are now planning on departing Lanzarote on Friday and since things might be quite busy tomorrow (Thursday) we thought we’d rather put in our “farewell post” from the Old... Read more →Neue Bilder / New Pictures
Ein neues Album “To and in Lanzarote” in der Photo Gallery, plus ein Update im Album “Krabbelgruppe at Sea” Read more →
In Lanzarote
To recap a little, the passage from Gibraltar to Lanzarote was 650 miles in 6 days. As soon as we reached the more open water of the Atlantic there was... Read more →On the Hard
The Blue Water Rally website (see link to the right) has a picture of Namani being lifted out of the water yesterday (look under “Stop Press” on the BWR site).... Read more →Canary Videos
More video footage from Namani… the first one was taken during the last miles of our approach to Lanzarote, testing our orange peel slingshot (gotta find ways of keeping Nicky... Read more →In Port Again
We made it safely into Puerto Calero on Lanzarote yesterday (Friday, 02NOV)) at 1100 local time. We’ll post pictures and more details later…right now we’re just enjoying a nice and... Read more →
Angekommen auf Lanzarote
Nach 654 sm sind wir gestern um 1100 Ortszeit (UTC) im Hafen von Puerto Calero auf Lanzarote angekommen. Bilder werden wir in den n�chsten Tagen einstellen… jetzt geniessen wir erstmal... Read more →Baseball and Fish
A good day aboard Namani today - we heard this morning on the SSB from another Rally boat that the Red Sox won the World Series (we hope that’s correct... Read more →Schau mir in die Augen Kleines (noch ca. 40 sm bis wir Casablanca passieren)
Ein “Hallo” von Namani auf See, diesmal auf Deutsch. Wir hangeln uns ca. 30-40 sm von der marokkanischen Küste entfernt nach südwesten Rchtung Lanzarote durch. Nach einer bewegten Passage der... Read more →And... they're off!
Yes, we’re off! At 0830 this morning we slipped our moorings at Marina Bay in Gibraltar and went to Europa Point where the Blue Water Rally’s official start took place... Read more →Neues von der Wimpelkette
Ein neues Bild von der Wimpelkette in Gibraltar gibt’s in der Photo Gallery. Weiter unten auf dieser Seite gibt’s auch einige Videos von Namani in der Strasse von Gibraltar (diese... Read more →
In Gibraltar - Bye, bye Mediterranean, hello Atlantic!
We are in Gibraltar now for a total of two weeks before we set off into the Atlantic. It is a busy and interesting time for us. Here we have... Read more →Video of Namani under Sail
This short video-clip was taken last weekend by Sea Bright who were sailing along side us en route to Smir: [%youtube*http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZdMXqogTGE%v] Read more →
Marina Bay Update
A quick update from Gibraltar… we arrived here last Saturday (October 13th) after an uneventful 130 nm from Almerimar to join the other Blue Water Rally boats here in Marina... Read more →Mehr Wimpelkettenbilder
Nun endlich mal wieder …. nach einer Durststrecke haben wir endlich neue Wimpelkettenbilder für Euch. In der Marina in Tunisien gab’s keine guten Fotomöglichkeiten, aber dafür habe ich mehrere Bilder... Read more →
Buchten statt Ballermann - Die Balearen von ihrer besten Seite
Zeit für einen Update: nachdem wir Mahon am 24. September verlassen hatten, haben wir die Balearen wohl von einer Ihrer schönsten Seiten gesehen: Wunderschöne (und weitgehend verlassene), geschützte Ankerbuchten, Wasser... Read more →
Balearics - Menorca to Mallorca and Ibiza, with Nicky's 4th Birthday
We have moved quickly through the Balearic islands but have had a lot of luck in finding beautiful and uncrowded anchorages. Leaving Mahon, we sailed a short distance along the... Read more →
Von Tunesien nach Menorca
An unserem zweiten Tag in Bizerte/Tunesien machte neben uns Arearea, eine amerikanische Yacht mit zwei kleinen Jungs (2 Jahre und 5 Monate) an Bord fest (die Eltern waren natuerlich auch... Read more →
From Malta to Tunisia and Menorca
From Malta it was a two day trip west to Tunisia. After one day, we passed the island of Pantelleria, sadly without stopping. It is amazing that even with a... Read more →Cold in Africa
We arrived in Bizerte/Tunesia on Tuesday 11SEP after an uneventful 2-day passage from Malta. Ironically, we had to come to North-Africa to feel cool again (still at 25°C though…). We... Read more →
In Malta
Well, we had originally planned on 6 days in Malta and it will end up being a little more than two weeks! But we have really enjoyed our time here... Read more →
Von Milos nach Malta - Leben auf der schiefen Ebene...
Nachdem wir bereits letzten Donnerstag (23.08.) im Grand Harbour von Malta angekommen sind wird’s nun endlich Zeit für ein deutsches Update an alle, die es interessiert. Wir sind am 17.... Read more →
Greece to Malta
Hooray, we are in Malta! It was an interesting week getting here … First of all, we had a nice couple of weeks in Greece with a good but condensed... Read more →
Hallo aus Milos
Ein kurzes “Hallo” aus Milos, wo wir uns gerade für die ýberfahrt nach Malta versorgen. Abhängig vom Wetter werden wir wohl morgen (Donnerstag) oder am Freitag Richtung Malta aufbrechen. In... Read more →
Agean Update
As promised from Aigina a more detailed update about our travels since Patras - this time from Livadi on Serifos in the Southwestern Aegean. Against expectations we very much enjoyed... Read more →Krabbelgrupp at Sea Update
Neues Bild im Album “Krabbelgruppe at Sea” - diesmal auf Kithnos! Ausserdem enthält das “Gulf of Corinth” Album jetzt auch Fotos… Read more →En Route to the Aegean
Quick update from the “other” side of the Corinth Channel. After 3 very nice days in the Gulf of Corinth with Catherine and Chris (including a trip to Delphi) we... Read more →Hallo aus Patras
Ein kurzes “Hallo” aus Patras, am Eingang zum Golf von Korinth, wo wir gestern aus Ithaka kommend festgemacht haben. Wir hatten ein paar sehr entspannte Tage auf Keffalonien und Ithaka... Read more →
Update from Nicky
Nicky has done really well. He doesn’t seem to mind the confined space and we have managed to keep him occupied well. Thank goodness for Lego! He got a gift... Read more →
Strait of Messina and Ionian Crossing
The Aeolian islands were a real highlight, especially our beautiful anchorage on the west side of Volcano and our hike up to the crater rim. We left the Aeolian islands... Read more →
First Landfall
Jus a quick update since I’m using a public internet terminal with an awful keyboard… Wwe made our first passage from Olbia/Sardinia to Filicudi in the Aaeolian Islands (north of... Read more →
Moored at Olbia, sitting out a gale
A quick update a week into our trip… We left St. Maria Navarrese on Sunday, July 8 at 6 am, sailing up the 60 nm up to Capo Coda Cavallo... Read more →
Schöner Abschied, schöner Anfang
Eigentlich hatten wir erwartet, am 29.06. bis Mitternacht unsere Siebensachen einzulagern und dann am Samstag (Nana’s Geburtstag) kaputt und wehmütig von Gelting (vorübergehend) Abschied zu nehmen. Zum Glück kam es... Read more →HF Installation - Part I
May 17-20: Spent a long weekend on the boat, installing the extension to the bow roller (to accomodate the new Rocna anchor) and installing the HF radio. As always, projects... Read more →
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