The wonders of UMTS

The wonders of UMTS. I am sailing along the Portugese coast, in the Lisbon area. I can actually post a message!!!
All is fine, but this crossing is not going to be in record time. I have not been seasick, and during the nights it has been calm. Yesterday the Portugese Trades really started. Today I am making great progress.

Will let everybody know when I arrive in Fowey.

I'm still surprised that I am able to be on internet. Very curious how much it will cost me?
Bye for now

United Kingdom

September 16th I left for Fowey, a town close to Plymouth. It is approximately 1100 miles, and the first part is defenitely beating into the wind. Along the Portugese coast there is always a norderly wind. I am counting on a passage time of at least 3 weeks, but possibly longer. It all depends on the weather and the number of depressions that pass. Just to give you something to read on my blog, a post with pictures taken by others.

Photo Milorad Cakara

Hope the crossing is as relaxed.
Photo Milorad Cakara

Foto Coby Oskam

Foto Coby Oskam

Gibraltar

The first night I slept tightly, but in the morning I woke up to a trembling sound. It really startled me. It sounded like it was directly next to my boat. I ran outside to see what was going on. An airplane?????????
It turns out that I am berthed 50 meters next to the landing strip.

Really just 50 meters.

And especially for my dad I took this picture. The road to the border crosses the landing strip. So if a plane lands or takes off, they close the road. When the plane is gone, they open the road again, simple as that.

Road crossing the landingstrip.

Because it appears to be impossible to buy a belt for my autohelm in the Med, I have ordered 2 via internet and had them delivered to my brother. He then send them to Gibraltar. So full of excitement I headed towards the post office the firts morning. Before I had left the pier, my fellow cruisers informed me that it was a bank holiday. This belt is cursed. Tomorrow I will try again. Would be nice to have an autohelm when crossing to England.

The rest of the story; no, no belt the next day. On the way back I stopped at the chandlery, and asked if they had one in stock. Yesssss, they have one. Initially, I was a little cheap, and told the salesman that I wanted to wait till tomorrow and see if my package would arrive. As soon as I was outside I thought, with the luck I have had with this belt, someone will buy it this afternoon, after no-one has asked about this belt for 5 years. So I immediately turned around, and bought it. It only took a few seconds to install the belt. As I turned ot on, the fuse bust. I dismantled everything and.....fuse bust again. Hmmmm. New problem. So I took the entire thing apart again, and it is an electrical problem again.Some saltwater leaked onto the print via the buttons. The autohelm is definately broken. The next morning my package arrived. So now I have 3 belts for a broken autohelm. Sigh.

But there is also lots of fun stuff in Gibraltar. The rock.

Donkere wolk boven de rots.

It is a bit chilly here, and very damp, with a cold breeze. For the fist time in months I have worn long trousers. 

Long sleeves!!!



Why do they keep turning their head?

In the rock there are caves, not as nice as the one in
Slovenia, but still fun.

Ibiza-Gibraltar

A 389 mile crossing, so very doable. The last couple of days, rainclouds passed over Ibiza. Now I can get used to the (bad) weather I am heading for slowly.

Dark clouds above Ibiza town.

During this crossing I have tested my patience, but I didn't pass completely. Like I said, it is only 350 miles, but the first two days I was beating into the wind, force 6. Tacking is not Madame Curie's strongest course. So I only advanced 50 miles per day. After that the wind turned, it was a soft breeze, force 3 during the day, and force 0 during the night, directly from behind. Downwind is also not a very fast course for Madame Curie.  gAnd because the autohelm has not been repaired I have to steer all the time. To get some sleep, I drift during the night, and continue sailing in the morning. Because of the eastbound current (0,5 to 1 knot), I'm set back a couple of miles towards Ibiza. The last 4 days were terrible. Because large amounts of water evaporate from the Med, this water needs to be replaced. Most of this water is replaced via the strait of Gibraltar, so the eastbound current south of the Spanish south coast is 1-3 knots. Only during spring tide there is a change of having an westbound current in the strait. If the wind is west, then the current is against me 24 hours a day! So if I travel at a speed of 3 knots in the right direction, I will do.........

Oh only 24 miles per day!!!!! This because I have a current against me of on average 2 knots. Normally my morale is boasted when I have the current with me. But I didn't get a favourable current. Bummer. So eventhough I used the engine quite a lot (okay, 10 hours per day the last 3 days, but I really ran out of patience) I only travelled 30 miles per 24 hours. Frustrating. I had kind of underestimated the effect of the current. Of course, this whole current thing is explained in the pilot, but I didn't read the pilot until during the crossing. Maybe this is better, this way I couldn't get depressed in advance.

Afer 8 days and 4 hours I arrived in Gibraltar.

But during this crossing I also had dolphins and small whales swin with Madame Curie for a longer time. And now you can enjoy the videos. The videos are a bit rocky, but these creatures allway swim with the boat when I actually need at least one hand for myself. The small whales (not really sure if they are really whales but they are a lot bigger than all the dolphins I have ever seen, more than 4 meter. Maybe you know if they are wales) were so close to the boat less than 30 cm, I could have touched them!

And also some regular dolphins joined my boat, and despite my frustration, this always makes me happy!!!

Left for the UK

In about 30 minutes I will set of to the UK. I am dispropotionally nerveus. Fingers crossed for this crossing.

Ibiza, a bit late

When I arrived in Ibiza, I clearly noticed that the other boats were a different class. They were more superyachts than "ordinary" boats. Ibiza has 4 harbours, and because it was allready around midnight, I decided to try the largest marina first. Their answer was very sobering: "For a boat like that we do not have a place." Well take that, as a proud owner of a smaller boat. So I tried the second port. Nobody answered the VHF, and I could see noboby, but there was still a spot available at the fuelpump. In the pilot it said that it was ok to berth there, as long as you leave before 0900. I actually needed diesel because I ran the engine so long, so actually it was very easy! The following morning I a guy from the marina woke me at 08:15 to tell me that the fuelstation was going to open. The motorboat that was berthed in front of me left very quicky, but I responded: "That's great, I need diesel". He was not expecting this answer, so he said: "Please wait a minute". After waiting for more than 45 minutes, I could actually get the diesel, and afterwards I berthed in the marina.

They have given a new meaning to expensive here. I had to pay 98 euros per day, water and electricity not included. A shower costs 3 euros, and a simple visit to the toilet sets you back 50 cents!!!. Ridiculous, no pool, no luxary, just an ordanary marina. Because the marina staff was not very trusting I had to pay a 200 euro deposit for 3 nights. With these prices, it will only be two nights.

After having relaxed a bit, I decided to try to deal with the battery problem. I measured all the voltages, remeasured all the voltages, took Nigel Calder's book out, no I'm not going to solve this problem. Ok, I'll start with the navigationlight. It took me a while to gather all my courage, to go up the mast. Well I actually only made it have way. I wasn't happy with the pulley and the rope I had used. The rope was very slippery, and I don't want to land on the deck. Maybe tomorrow, I'll come up with a better plan. So I went into town to look for the autohelm belt, and new batteries. Fortunately I found a shop that could order the belt, and had an exellent offer for batteries. The owner of the shop came to look the same day. Diagnosis battery 1: dead. Diagnosis battery 3: very dead. Apart from new batteries, he recommended that I buy a new charger as well. Hmmmm, I don't really have an option. As a bonus, he offered to go up the mast to change the navigation lignt. Oef, I don't have to go up myself!!! Unfortunately the belt could not be shipped, so I'm leaving without again.

After the second night ( the night at the fuelstation doesn't count, because it was free), I was still very tired, and I had not really seen anything of Ibiza Town. Because it was now september 1st, prices often go down, so I decided to ask the reception what the new price would be. 47 euro per night. Less than half. Well I'll stay a couple of days longer. I can now see the Ibizan nightlife. If you're on Ibiza, you need to go to a club. I'm not really a clubhopper, and really don't like loud music, so I decide to go to a very trendy club/restaurant/cabaret. Put on a dress, some make-up, completely ready to investigate the nightlife. The pricetag was also very trendy, well I don't think I will go to a club again soon, so let's go. Everywhere there were beautifull girls wearing high heels, and very short dresses, and earplugs to communicate. They escorted everybody to their table. There were also around 20 tough security guys wearing black shirts, and earplugs. I really loved watching people all night. But around 2 o'clock I thought it better to go to sleep. So I missed the "real" clubbing.

PS, my dress was way too long, just above the knee. All the others were wearing dresses that are so short it is impossible to sit down!!!

The marina where I was not welcome.





Ibiza Town by night.



Finally, the rock

Made it to Gibraltar!
Will say hi to the monkeys.

Gibraltar

On Saturday the third of September, I left for Gibraltar. A crossing of 370 miles. I will let you know when I get there.

We're going to Ibiza

August 25th I left for Ibiza. As always, I left late in the afternoon. No autopilot, but is was going to be close hauled, so no problem. Since my last crossing, I have learned that it is a lot more frustrating to have no wind, than to have a little to much wind. The forcasts were predicting windforce 4-5, with a day of 6 in the middle. Windforce 6 is now problem for Madame Curie, so I left. A "seasonal low" was passing through the Med, and as long as I stayed rather south, I would miss the eye. So heading for Ibiza was more sensible than heading to the much closer Mallorca. Ibiza here I come. Just outside Cagliari there is a traffic seperatien scheme, this is a sort of highway in the sea. You are only allowed to sail in the indicated direction, or you have to move to the sidewalk (inshore traffic zone). Because the wind was to much on the nose, I had to engine for 45 minutes. Then I hoisted the sails and watched the evening fall in. After about 2 hours my
AIS gave an alarm; bad connection. This means I can still see the other boats, but I am no longer transmitting my position. Grrr. Disconnected all the connections, reconnected everything, and..... conection problem. Frustrating. Because by now it was completely dark, I had to give up and accept the situation. I will look again tomorrow. First some nice sailing. After about two hours I noticed that my navigation lights were not so bright. Hmmm, are my batteries empty? I was connected to shore power the entire time. Is my charger broken?  Quickly measured my batteries; 10 volts. I'll first run the engine for a couple of hours and then
I' ll see if the batteries are charged. As soon as the engine was running, the navigation lights were working, the AIS was working, and the alternator of the engine was working fine. Oef. Despite charging my batteries for 3 hours via the engine, and turning off the largest powerconsumer, the fridge, the navigation lights dimmed after two hours, and the AIS stopt transmitting again.

What are the odds of both batteries breaking down at the same time? It's probably just one. Take out the floorboards, disconnecting one of the batteries. Which one is broken? The both had the same voltage (they were connected) so I took a random change. In port this would have been very easy, but as predicted there was a windforce 4-5 so the boat was moving about, and I didn't want to shortcut the circuit. And if you batteries are not working, you don't have lighting in the boat either. So I was on the floor with a flashlight on my head trying to work it out.

This was the start of an experiment. One battery connected, engening for an hour, and then checking if the battery is charged. If I choose wrongly, it's the other battery that is still working. Right?

During the night I was busy with the experiment, on the one I could run the navigation lights for 4 hours, on the other only 2. Sight. Ok it's back to no AIS. After 4 hours also tha chartplotter stopped working. Dubble sight.

I ended up turning off everything, and during the night, when I need my navigation lights I ran the engine for 2 hours, and could then keep the lights running for an other 4 hours. After that I had to run the engine again. I did learn how much I have become used to the luxaries of a chartplotter, AIS, en the fridge and inside lighting.  The Red Dragon (my previous boat) didn't have these luxaries. The inside lighting was run on penlights.

I had to accept the situation, and tried to get some sleep. When I went on deck after one of my naps, I saw my navigation light blinking on and off. Oh no, loose contact. Four more waves, and that was the end of the navigation light. Fortunately I have more lighting, so I turned on the navigation lighting for when I am under engine, and ducktaped a very brigth flashlight to the mast to shine into the sail. The other boats must have thought what is this? But at least I was visible!!!

The day when the seasonal low passeed, gave me a windforce 7, but the waves were propotional, so it was okay. It was a very quick crossing, 380 miles in 103 hours. Around midnight I berthed in Ibiza. Rained wet and tired. For the first time in months it has rained, a short shower but it was right on my head!!. And then I fell asleep.

Cagliari

After arriving in Cagliari, after a few well deserved hours of sleep, I set out to find a nieuw autohelm drive belt. In one word; no way! Every store, dealer of shipyard I visited they gave the same answer, while shugging their shoulders "No drive belt on Sardignia, and we cannot order one because it's August". Aparantly the entire economie comes to a stop in August, everybody is on vacation. Everywhere you look, stores, restaurants, and rental agencies you see signs saying " closed because of vacation". After two days it became very clear to me I was not going to find a belt. I will have to do the next crossing without my autopilot. Bummer.

The old city of Cagliari on the hill top

So I was back to being the tourist. The next morning I woke up early, just to avoid the most pressing heat of the afternoon, I took the bus to the old city. There I visitied the usual buildings. (I have become spoiled after visiting beautiful buildings during al my travels!) 

Amphitheater



Basilica

 But I also visited a very special museum. The old city of Cagliari is build on top of old Roman remains. Right in the middle of the city, underneath a church archeologists have vond the remains of the old city of Karalis. These remains have been made visible. You can see the road, the houses, and the sewage system!

The old city of Karalis under the "new" old city.

Visiting these excavations was the most exciting part of my visit in Cagliari.

Comfortable

I have not updated the website for way too long. But in Cagliari, I did't have internet on the boat, and I had to walk 20 minutes through the heat to reach an internet cafe. You can see why priorities changed.

Because the first night is always the most difficult, I usually leave around 4 o' clock in the afternoon. This gives me the opportunity to relax a bit, sleep a bit, and depart all rested. To show you how "wild" this crossing was, I have added some pictures.

Last corner of Sicily.

This is the wildest it got during this crossing. For most part, there was no wind what so ever. The wind varied between windforce 1 and 2 and it was a downwind sail. The second day, my autohelm autopilot broke!!!! I had taken it apart at least 10 times, resolderd the connections, reset the program via the dealers interface, and now it broke on something as simple as the drive belt!! And of course, this is one of the things I don't have a spare for on board. I'm always sceptical when it comes to electronics, but it was really the mechanics that failed this time.
Usually Madame Curie will keep her course under sail, except when it is downwind or broadreach. And of course I had downwind every day. So I was convicted to steering a lot of the time. At night time, when the wind died completely, I just drifted, so In could get some sleep. Motoring for a few hours was not an option, because underengine, you really need an autopilot. So drifting it was. As a result, it took me 136 hours to travel 274 miles, an absolute record for going slow!!!

But I was able to cook a hot meal every day, enjoy beautiful sunsets, and there were no nasty waves tossing me about. So yes, ik was very comfortable.

What a difference to the video's of the last crossing!!!!