Exa Ocean Cruise

13/2-2012 2235UTC

2012-02-14T12:42:00.000+13:00

pos S07.54 W15.45 10-15kn cloudy
7.3 kn course 270
expected posin 24 houers S7.07 W18.30
Had fresh MAhi for dinner.

Next stop Fortaleza

2012-02-13T22:14:00.001+13:00

We will leave Ascension and all the fish and turtles here in Clarence
Bay today. 1467 nm SSW to Fortaleza.

More Ascension

2012-02-11T03:48:00.000+13:00

The Boys Diving with the turtles, check the tracks on the beach, from the turtles nesting.

On the road in Ascension

Ascension

2012-02-08T23:18:00.000+13:00

Ascension

2012-02-07T07:52:00.000+13:00

Arrived today at 1300 UTC. HAd a nice sail all way. Caught 2 yellowfin
tuna on the way in. We anchored in Clarence Bay George Town and went
swimming with the Green Turtles immediately. Water 25 oC so no
swimmsuite nessecary. Nice and warm here.

4/2-2012 2.45 UTC

2012-02-04T16:00:00.000+13:00

Pos S12.20 W009.04
Wind yesterday 12-16 kn ESE tonight ESE 15-20kn
Sail the kitE ALL day replaces iy with the jib an hour ago.
Can see sydkorset to the Karlsvognen to the north (dont know the english
names). 405nm to Ascension. Had whales (halvspækhugger) and dolphins
playing around the boat yesterday. All in good spirit 8500nm to Denmark.

3/2-2012 2.33 UTC

2012-02-03T15:50:00.000+13:00

pos S14.33 W006.57
Yesterday all day Easterly 12-16 knots few clouds. Had a Petrel landing
on the sprayhood and a flyingfish crossing the cockpit in the moonshine
something came down thrue the atmosphere at 19.40pm pos S15.14 W006.27
maybe a satelite or a meteor. At 2am we had a shower,we were running the
spinnaker when black clouds came up from the back, suddently it looked
like a twister came closer, in the end we fighered it to be a rainbow
luminated from the moon??? No bad winds.

The Vikings

Next stop Ascension

2012-02-02T22:08:00.000+13:00

Today Exabyte will lift anchor and course to Ascension Island 700nm to the NW. ETA Monday or Tuesday next week.

2012-01-28T01:15:00.000+13:00

24/1 Vi har lige indtaget vores aftensmad (marlin som i går). Vi har delt marlin kød ud til højre og venstre og har nu et stort stykke tilbage som skal sættes til livs i morgen. I går sejlede Kresten og jeg over til vores nabo på ankerpladsen (i dinghyen). Det er et par fra Capetown utroligt dejlige mennesker, som vi har tilbragt tid sammen med siden. I dag var vi på toppen af Jacobs ladder 200 meter trapper lige op i skyerne, hårdt men dejligt. På toppen fandt vi Ladder Hill Fort. Jamestown er i det hele taget fyldt historiske fort, castles og fængsler fra år 1600 til 1800. Efter turen til byens tag tog vi en tur forbi byens bibliotek, der er det ældste på den sydlige halvkugle. Her var et par hyggelige gamle damer, der fandt os nogle historiebøger og tegneserier til ungerne. Vi er nu fuldgyldige medlemmer. I morgen har vi leget en bil og skal på eventyr på øen, se Napoleons hus og grav mm.

Den 25/1 tog vi turen rundt i Napoleons fodspor. Englænderne blev trætte af hans krigeriske adfærd og efter at have banket ham 2. gang (Waterloo) besluttede de at sende ham til St Helena. St Helena er en af verdens mest afsides øer med 1131 km til nærmeste ø (Ascension), 7240 km til England og 1800 km til Angola, der er nærmeste fastland. Den 15. oct 1815 ankom Napoleon til øen med HMS Northumberland og ankrede i samme bugt som vi nu ligger ud for Jamestown. Hvorefter øen fik tilnavnet Napoleons Rock. Englænderne havde fundet en gammel gård midt på øen hvor han og hans tjenestefolk skulle bo men da Napoleon kommenterede stedets dårlige stand fik han midlertidigt lov til at bo i ”The Briars”. Her fik vi først rundvisning af en lille gammel meget charmerende mand. Vi var de eneste 4 så vi fik et utroligt foredrag om Napoleon og om hvordan øen var den gang. Det var en utrolig travl ø med 1000 skibe der årligt kom ind for at proviantere. Efter at Napoleon kom til blev der landsat 3000 engelske soldater og 2 fregatter for at sikrer øen mod franskmændene. The Briars er et lille hus på ca 25 m2 men med en fantastisk udsigt til hjertevandfaldet og en stor grøn slugt. Efter nogle uger i The Briars havde englænderne renoveret ”Longwood” som gården hed hvor Napoleon kom til at bo resten af sine dage. Vi kørte også hertil og fik et fantastisk foredrag om hvordan han levede der. Efter 7 år blev Napoleon syg og døde i Longwood. Man er i tvivl om det var kræft eller arsenik, der tog ham. Herefter kørte vi til hans grav, hvor han lå en årrække inden franskmændende fik lov til at få ham hjem til Paris hvor han nu ligger begravet. Da vi stod og betragtede stedet kom en krihvid terne ned til os hang der og kiggede et par sekunder inden den igen fløj væk, så nu har vi også mødt Napoleons genfærd.

I går var vi på øens højeste punkt Dianes Peak og skrive Exabyte ind i den lille bog der ligger der. Det var en 3 timers hike i smukke omgivelser. Bagefter tog vi til ”The Plantation House” hvor guvernøren bor. Ikke for at møde guvernøren, men Jonathan, der bor i hans have. En 192 år gammel skildpadde, der bor her sammen med et par artsfæller. Måske den har mødt Captain Joshua Slocum da han var her i 1898. Er desværre ikke gammel nok til at have mødt Capt Cook, der besøgte øen både på hans 1.og 2. jordomsejling eller Capt. Bligh, der ankrede her i 1792 med det gode skib Bounty, men måske den har hilst på Darwin, der var her i 1836 på Beagle. Ja dette sted er fyldt med historie og St Helena kan nu tilføje i historiebøgerne at også Exabyte fra Danmark har ankret i denne bugt.

St Helena

2012-01-24T01:48:00.000+13:00

Til morgen kl 8 droppede vi ankeret her ud for Jamestown St. Helena. Inden da udspillede der sig en legendarisk kamp mellem mand og fisk. En 2.1 meter marlin tog vores lure ved solopgang og Kresten tog straks kampen op. Efter ca 30 min var den træt (ligesom Kresten) og Jørgen kunne harpunere den fra Exabyte og trække den om bord. Så er der fisk til et par dage. Hip hip hurra for Kresten.

21/1 1200 UTC

2012-01-22T01:30:00.000+13:00

pos S18.54, W004.08
Wind SE 4-8 kn a few clouds.
We had some rainclouds this morning giving us 15-20 kn SE for 3 hours,
very nice averaging 8 knots boatspeed for a few hours.
The water temp is now up at 22 and the sun is telling us that we are
getting closer to the tropics.
200nm to go.
the vikings

20/1 1600 utc

2012-01-21T05:08:00.000+13:00

pos S20.17 W 002.53
Vind variable today until now, we have been rowing for 2 hours today.
We just got 5-8kn Southerly.
Few clouds and more sun today.
No waves. The surface off the Atlantic looks like a mirror.
We havent seen nothing but flyingfish and a few birds for days now.
Not even the AIS showes any other ships around. I think we are in a
parallel world with only few animals on no other humans around. Only
connection to the outside is our friens Lauri.
Regards the Vikings

To sit on the middle of the Southern Atlantic

2012-01-20T14:38:00.000+13:00

It is the 20th of January, we are 378 nm SE of St Helena. We have been
out for 8 days since we left South Africa and Cape Town behind us. We
have had a nice time in SA since we arrived in Richards Bay on the 11th
of November 2011. Gameparks, landscapes and very nice people. On Monday
morning we will be on St Helena Island, in the middle of the Atlantic,
where they had Napoleon prisoned for a time. We look forward to dive and
explore this Island. After we left Hout Bay last week we had 3 difficult
days before we found the tradewinds out of Namibia. From there the
passage has been very relaxing, light downwinds, and the flattest ocean
(no waves) we have ever seen. Our advice is: Don't go there without a
spinnaker and good books. Besides being calm there is no life out here,
no fish, no whales and very little birds. Here is nothing for
entertaining your passage.
We are now getting closer to St Helena and the water temp. have been
going up from from 9 to 21 degrees of celcius. We hope to get fish
tomorrow and leave the canned food in the bunker.
Jens

19/1 2012 19.15 UTC - S21.09 W001.06

2012-01-20T08:31:00.001+13:00

Sydatlanten har de sidste dage levet op til sit ry om at være stille og
behagelig. Lette vinde og ubetydelig dønning har gjort sejladsen
behagelig. Det går lidt langsomt med vind fra 2-6 m/s, så vi forventer
først at nå St Helena tidlig mandag. 407 sm har vi tilbage. Har set 2
tropicbirds og en stormsvale ud over selvfølgelig flyvefisk i dag. Vi
har trollet de sidste 1000 km uden et eneste hug. Det er lidt kedeligt
herude sammenlignet med det actionfyldte Indiske Ocean. Håber på lidt
fisk i morgen, vi er ved at være træt af dåsemad.
Vi har daglig kontakt med Empire og Lauri.
Vi fortalte vores vejrmand Lauri(fra Australien) at vi fulgtes med
norske Empire, og at vi følte os for at være de "rigtige" vikinger.
I forbindelse med det stille vejr skrev jeg også at vi snart var tæt nok
på StHelena til at kunne nå derind for motor. Lauri svarede at hvis vi
er rigtige vikinger kunne vi ro ind-
Jens

her er fantastisk

2012-01-17T13:35:00.000+13:00

17/1-2012 kl 00.05

Pos S24.13 E005.46
Midtvejs til St. Helena. knap 1000 km fra nærmeste land. Pludselig
forsvandt det meste liv. Fra den ene dag til den anden. Kun flyvefisk og
et par enkelte Shearwater at se. Ellers intet ud over den dybblå
Sydatlant. Fiskeriet er ligeledes totalt uden udbytte. Ikke en gang et
enkelt strike har vi haft de sidste 2 dage. Underligt, efter
fiskeeventyret på Det Indiske Ocean. Det lille samfund på Exabyte er
alene i verden her 6 dages sejlads fra Cape Town og med ca 5 dage endnu
før vi kan forvente at se land igen. Vinden og bølgerne herude er med os
5-10 m/s fra syd og sydvest og dønninger på 1-3 meter giver os en ganske
behagelig sejlads efter et par hårde dage ved Afrikas sydvest kyst. Vi
har tid til os selv og hinanden. Tid til eftertanke. Og tid til at tænke
på at vi snart er hjemme i Kerteminde igen. Drengene er for alvor
begyndt at glæde sig nu hvor vi "næsten" er hjemme. Vi mangler jo kun at
sejle en bagatel af 9000 sømil svarene til 16700 km.
Det er kul sort nat herude, ingen måne og et skydække, der dækker for
stjernehimlen. Kun lyset fra vores lanterner lyser op og en enkelt fugl,
der har fulgt os og ses flygtigt krydse lanterneskæret af og til. Et
sentimentalt gammelt fjols kunne fristes til at tro det slet ikke er en
fugl, men en engel eller måske genfærdet fra en omkommen sømand, der
kredser om os. Helt sikkert er det i hvert fald at jeg kan høre stemmer
også at det ikke er stemmen fra en af de 3 sovende besætningsmedlemmer
ombord. Jeg har tjekket alle 3, de sover. Jeg må hellere op i cockpittet
og holde udkig nu, det er jo hernede "Den flyvende hollænder" sejler
hvileløst rundt i bestræbelsen på at komme rundt om Kap det Gode Håb.
Jens

syd atlanten

2012-01-15T19:44:00.001+13:00

her til morgen har exabyte passeret e10.40 og vi har der med sejlet alle
jordens længdegrader.
hip hip hurra for exabyte

Sydatlanten 14/1-2012 kl 1900

2012-01-15T07:35:00.000+13:00

Pos S27.47.5 E12.09.2
10-15 m/s fra SSV dvs vi har agten for tværs og vi høvler derudaf for en staget fok og rebet storsejl. Bølgerne er 4-5m og knækker en sjælden gang i på Exabytes
agterdæk.
Vi har siden vi forlod Sydafrika haft først en dag med stille vejr, så en dag med frisk vind og kryds, så en dag med stille vejr og kryds og de sidste 24 timer hård
vind til kuling og læns. De første 3 dage søgte vi mod nord op langs Afrikas kyst for at finde passatvinden, der nu blæser os mod St Helena for fuld skrald. Vi var de
første dage beriget med besøg af masser af Albatros. Nu vi er søgt længere til søs ser vi kun Stormsvaler og Shearwater. Vandtemperaturen har været et kapitel for
sig. Den bengalske havstrøm fører koldt vand op fra Antarktis og op langs Afrikas vestkyst. Ud for Capetown var vandtemp helt ned til 9 grader. Siden da er den
heldigvis steget til hele 18 grader. Det betyder at vi ikke kan fange vores foretrukne fisk "Mahi Mahi", men en enkelt yellowfin tun er vi blevet bespist med. Mest
har vi dog fanget hajer (hvide), 2 i går og 1 stk i dag. Det er nogle grimme karle, så dem har vi ikke slæbt ombord, men ladet gå igen. Vi håber på lidt varmere vande
og spisefisk på bordet i morgen igen.
Vi har de sidste 24 timer kortet lidt over 200 sm af afstanden til St Helena. Fra i morgen skulle vinden langsomt aftage så vi kommer nok ned på 180sm som jo er den
dagsdistance vi hyppigst tilbagelækker på vores passager. Det er mere behageligt og vi ser langt mere havliv når bølgerne flader ud. Alle har det ellers fint efter
omstændighederne og glæder sig til roligere vejr som det ser ud til vi får fra i morgen og resten af vejen.
Hilsen Exabæsterne

St Helena is waiting

2012-01-12T07:00:00.000+13:00

Exabyte left Hout Bay this morning at 9.30 am, so far we had a very nice
sail and have seen: sea lions, sun fish, gannet and shearwater.
pos at 19 UTC S33.15 E17.40, 1638nm to go.
The Vikings

Exabyte heads out for St Helena today.

2012-01-11T19:41:00.001+13:00

We have had 3 nice weeks in Hout Bay. Sunday we were shown around in the winelands bye Mike and Liz. A nice locale couple berthed next to us. They invited us for sightseeing in their car showed us around in the area of Stellenbosch. They know a lot about the history and geography, and it was a very nice and informative day for the Vikings. After intensive testing we found some nice white wine to buy.

Rasmus from Denmark visited us and joined us for a hike to the top of Constantia Mountain, a drive to Simonstown and some nice evenings for dinner on Exabyte.

Tomorrow morning we leave South Africa and set course for St. Helena 1700nm/ 10 days of sailing.

Table Mountain

2011-12-31T22:01:00.001+13:00

Yesterday we hiked up to the top of Table Mountain.
We took the bus from Hout Bay and the bus tickets were a little more expensive than three days ago, maybe because of the summer holidays or because the bus driver had big problems calculating. I think he called us 3 times before he had the right result. He actually had to use a calculator (5x 11, 30).

We had decided to take the Platteklip Gorge hike; the hike took 80 min. for the fastest (Rebecca, Jørgen and Kresten). Jens and I used 2 hrs. And Eivind, Heidi, Marius and Eirik used about 3 hrs to get to the top. Eirik walked all the way, which is quite impressive considering he is only 3 years old. The reward was a big ice cream.

The view from the top was fantastic. We were lucky to have a clear blue sky, most of the time.

We took the cable car down.

Everybody were tired so we decided to get a minibus Taxi back to the marina, The staff at Table Mountain told us what company to call to get the best price. The drive back to the marina was quite interesting, the driver yelled at almost every person we passed. He even managed to chat with a waiter at a restaurant while passing by. The mini bus was a bit worn out, making strange noises every time it stopped. But we all agreed it had been a great day.

Hiking in Table Mountain National Park

2011-12-28T19:55:00.000+13:00

During the Christmas days we had too nice and too much food, mostly together with our Norwegian friends on “Empire”. The 27/12 was the day to burn some calories, and we started a hike to the mountain “Constantiaberg” at 8.30 am sharp. At the mountain party took part as follows.

Marius Norway, 1 year old, mostly carried on the back of Eivind.
Eirik Norway, 3 partly jumping, walking and carried.
Kresten 11 Denmark, mostly running
Jørgen 16 Denmark, walking/ running
Rebecca 21 Sweden , walking/ running
Heidi 36 Norway, walking/ carrying youngsters
Jens 44 Denmark, walking/ crawling
Eivind 45 Norway, walking/ carrying youngsters
Kirsten 46 Denmark, walking/ crawling

The Hike to Constantianberg was 13 km long and from sea level to 928m altitude. The first part to the foot of the mountain went well.

From there Kresten, Jørgen and Rebecca ran off, they totally missed navigating and ended up finding them self on Chapmans peak (593 m) 6 km south of the target. From there they got a lift back to the Marina hiking time 5 hours.

The rest of the party tried to catch up with the frontrunners, but after 3 hours chasing, the 4 Norwegians had to turn around, because Eirik was getting tired. They stopped for a picnic and hiked back to the marina, hiking time 7 hours.

Marius, Eivind and Jens

Orange-breasted Sunbird sitting on a Fynbo

Heidi and Eirik getting ready for a high jump

Dry diaper

Jens and Kirsten continued the chase on the frontrunners who didn’t have any food. After 3½ hour they met a crossing road and went up to Noordhoek Peak (754m) from there they went back on Noordhoek Ridge,and crawled down the mountain. From there they got a phone call, telling the rest of the party was back in the marina. The rescue party (Jens and Kirsten) now dragged them self down to a restaurant and crawled inside to get coke and pizza. 15km climbing in 9 hours had burnt a lot of calories, but after refuelling in Two Oceans (the restaurant), we were back in business. We walked the rest of the way back to the marina, where the rest of the party was sitting in Empires cockpit having dinner. 16 km, 9,15 hours hiking.

Kirsten and Cape of Good Hope

Hout Bay view from Noordhoek

Noordhoek ridge and Fynbos

Climbing down with sore legs

None of us ever went up to Constantianberg, but we all enjoyed the spectacular scenery and views in Table Mountain National Park. And yes we all burned a lot of calories and got some sore legs.

Christmas in Hout Bay

2011-12-24T00:51:00.000+13:00

1½ more ocean has been crossed since last Christmas in New Zealand. We have become rich on friendships and experiences this year. We are all deeply grateful to be able to enjoy how nice the world is. Despite news industry who makes a living of scaring everybody by the opposite. We have found that with a little carefulness and respect most places are secure and kind to visitors. Tomorrow we are having a Christmas lunch with our Norwegian friends from s/y Empire. We are looking forward to see Rasmus from Denmark on Exabyte next week.

Cape of good hope 7:30 PM

2011-12-19T06:46:00.002+13:00

Empire waits at Haut Bay ready to celebrate.
Cape of good Hope

Our neighbour in Hout Bay Marina

Agulhas

2011-12-18T20:06:00.001+13:00

At 7.40 am Exabyte and crew passed cape agulhas, the southern most point of Africa.
We are now back in the Atlantic and have crossed the 3 big oceans.
The weather and sea is very calm and we can enjoy all the see animals, whale, albatross, gannet, seals, dolphins, pinguins, and a lot of seabirds.

Leaving for Simonstown tomorrow

2011-12-16T05:25:00.000+13:00

Tomorrow morning we got 2½ days of calm weather before the nest SW gale will come around the Cape.
At 7 am it is high tide and Exabyte will leave the harbour at that time. We expect to go around Cape Agulhas and later Cape of good Hope early sunday and Exabyte will be back in the Atlantic.

Generous people in St.Francis

2011-12-12T00:42:00.000+13:00

When we approached the marina in St Francis, we had trouble to find our way in. We met another sailboat sailed by Chris Web a local guy. We asked him how to enter the marina and he told us just to follow him. There were a couple of sandbanks to avoid, so we really appreciated his help.

Chris promised to drive us to the supermarket next morning, but because he was in a hurry to get back to his farm, he asked his friend Johan to take us. Johan lives next to the marine together with his wife Martie, his son, daughter in law and 3 grandchildren in a big house. He took us shopping and invited us for dinner at his house the same evening.

We had a fantastic meal and slept at his house this night because we were to full (not drunk) to go back to the boat. Next day Johan took us for sightseeing in the neighbourhood. We saw Storm River ,Tsitsikamma National Park and a local gamepark.

Today Johan drove us to the big lighthouse at St. Francis Point and we walked back to the marina from there. As you can see Johan is a very helpful and generous man, living in a very beautiful country.

Port St. Francis

2011-12-08T06:19:00.000+13:00

We arrived here yesterday evening after a nice sail from Durban. We met some very nice people down here and will stay a couple of days.

Durban to ?

2011-12-05T22:02:00.001+13:00

Exabyte is screaming down the coast with 12 knots sog in average with 30 knots of wind and 3 knots of current with us the speed record 20.6 knots
Kresten

New Main

2011-12-03T22:20:00.000+13:00

Nice new main from Elvstrom Kerteminde

Durban

2011-12-02T22:40:00.000+13:00

I wonder what our friend Lauri from Cairns thinks about the name on this cute racingboat (Mount Gay 30)

Durban City

St Lucia/ Cape Vidal

2011-11-23T02:17:00.002+13:00

Pas på fusserne skrev farmor

Hluluwe iMfolozi park

2011-11-20T18:48:00.003+13:00

The Exas learning the art of relaxing

Seilas.no

2011-11-14T22:05:00.000+13:00

http://www.seilas.no/wip4/detail.epl?id=1132735

Richards Bay

2011-11-12T21:28:00.001+13:00

We arrived in Richards Bay yesterday at 2PM. Passing at least 10 sperm whales on our way into the bay. Now we are just waiting for customs he might come tomorrow!!!!

Look at me and my blue .....

Difficult and exiting

2011-11-09T23:10:00.000+13:00

Exabyte Mozambuque channel 9/11 10.00UTC

Reunion
-south around Madagascar
-crossing the Mozambique Channel to Richards Bay South Africa
This is the final big crossing of the Indian Ocean.
We were a whole bunch of circum navigation cruisers in St. Pierre, Reunion
that was waiting for 2 weeks for this difficult crossing. The lows keeps
coming out of Africa so in the end we went off (around 10) with an weather
forecast that gave us fair weather at least half way. A lot of the boats
caught nice fish on our way out. We caught a 15 kg Mahi Mahi which we shared
with the Norwegian boat Empire. All guidelines told us to go 150 nm south of
Madagascar because of bad waves and big risk of colliding with a whale on the
continental shelf there. Before we came that far we went through the first
front with headwind rain and rough weather. After that the wind disappeared
and most of us went closer to Madagascar then guided. We all got a lot of
counter current 1.5-2.5 kn and with a 4 meters swell coming in from the south,
it was now fun. We motored for 18 hours before the wind picked up a little and
the swell went down. After that we were upwind in very light wind and still
lots of current for 24 hours. When we reached the southern point of
Madagascar, we had made 700 miles over ground, but put 800 miles on the log
trip. We also made the shortest 24 hours run ever with 110nm made good. On the
other side of Madagascar the next front came over us with 3 hours of heavy
rain and lightning before we left it behind us.
Later that evening we got the news that Wizard, a yacht from south Africa,
had hid a container south of Madagascar and was sunk. There are a lot of
commercial ships in these waters and happily all was rescued from their life
raft after a few hours. We are happy to have full moon all night these days
and we don't let Exabyte unattended for many seconds on the last trip in.
We are now 360 miles east of Richards Bay and have had nice passageweather
for the last 24 hours. The forecast is really difficult now.
Looks like nice wind for the next app 12 hours, then calm wind again. See
weather forecast from Lauri below.
We have to be very careful when we cross the Agulhas current just of the
African cost which can cause monster waves.
This is what we got from our weather guru Lauri:
8 November morning:
Exabyte: 27'59S 41'42E, Jose and Sandra: 27'55S 43'21E (there was about 90Nm
between you)

I wish I was more familiar with S.African weather patterns. Would be nice to
have the skills of a meteorologist, too.

The synoptic situation is: A deep low at 50S separates the South Atlantic
high and the Indian Ocean high, each located at about 40S latitude. The
Indian Ocean high is only 1024mb and extending a weak ridge into your area,
hence you have light winds. The South Atlantic high is stronger at 1032mb
but all models show it will stay west of the Cape. From there it will
periodically extend a ridge east and sometimes a small high pressure cell
"bubbles off" into the Mozambique Channel and sometimes a weak low pressure
forms in the channel or at the coast. These weak lows get absorbed into a
coastal trough extending from the low along the east coast of S. Africa.
Models will do their best at detailing these events but don't expect them to
be 100% on the money.

ASCAT: no data from your area. 15-20kn N winds at 35E. The coastal areas are
having 30kn northerlies. Perfect conditions for breaking all speed records
down the coast. I remember doing 12kn over ground sailing from Durban to
East London with only a genoa open. Pretty good for a 8-ton 32-foot steel
yacht with a 10m mast. I can't wait to get your reports when you catch one
of these northerlies down the coast. Anyway... back to the weather:

Satellite image shows clear skies for the entire S.African coast. A thin
band of cloud is marking the position of a cold front, sweeping past Cape
Town. 30-40kn westerly winds there. These winds are from the outer areas of
the low down in 50S and there is not much discontinuinity along the front. A
fairly dry front. This front is currently 25S 10E - 37S 20E - 45S 30E,
moving east. There is not a great deal of cloud associated with this front
and everything indicates that you will not have to deal directly with the
frontal passage, which should remain south of 30S. (The northern portion
will have to cross land and lose much of its energy)

Wednesday should see some good NNE winds for you. Make the most of it, as it
may not last.
By Thursday African coast is getting 20-25kn S'ly winds from a ridge
extending from the west, stay away from the Agulhas current!
On Friday that ridge "bulges" off as a secondary small high within the
ridge, winds rapidly turn E and NE along the coast.
Changes are frequent: Late Friday a coastal low brings back strong (25kn or
more) N'ly winds north of 29S and 20kn southerly winds south of 29S. Yeah,
If I was reading this, I'd be saying: "what the hell????" I'm actually
looking at models and wondering "what the hell" my self)
Off shore waters remain more constant and lots of light winds. I hope you
keep making good speeds, don't slow down for anything yet. I will hopefully
have a better idea of how the battle between the ridge and the trough looks
like on Friday night (your Friday morning).

Expect a south-flowing current to get stronger near 40E, peaking possibly at
over 3kn near 39'30E and then weaker after 39E. The same current loops up
and you may find a 1.5kn north-flowing current at approx. 37'30-38E. All
longitudes along 28S latitude.

Halloween

2011-11-02T00:02:00.001+13:00

Ward, Flor, Sepke and Kresten

Trick or treat

Smell my feet or give me something good to eat.

Bras de la Plaine

2011-10-29T22:34:00.000+13:00

We have done a hike to Bras de la Plaine. We had a local guide Eric who wanted to show us where he has been hiking since he was a kid. We took the bus to La Ravine de Cabris.

The hiking was mostly walking in the river which was nice as it was very hot in the canyon. Kresten got a new hiking backpack which has a build in water sac, 2 l.

Erics mum had made lunch for us a really nice French dish.

Rugby World Cup 2011

2011-10-25T04:10:00.002+13:00

Cilaos

2011-10-25T03:54:00.001+13:00

We drove to Cilaos very early Sunday morning and did hike gr.1 and gr.2 a 6 hours hike from Cilaos we passed 2 waterfalls. Hiking from 1200m to 2000m and down TWICE!!!! This hike was totally different from the volcano hike.

The hiking here in Réunion is great.

Hiking tour to Cratére Dolomieu

2011-10-23T01:57:00.000+13:00

Yesterday we went on a hiking tour with crew from 5 other cruising boats (Small Nest, Blaue Pinquin, Misty, Tutatis and Imagine). We stopped at a few viewpoints on the way, and we very lucky to have a perfect view all places, if you come midday it is almost always too cloudy.

The hike to Cratére Dolomieu is 11, 9 km; it took us about 5 hours. Very hilly. The volcano is still active and there was a major eruption in 2007 and a smaller one in 2010, so the shape of the volcano has changed much during its history. We saw very different formations of lava. Take a look at the pictures. It is a little hard to describe.

It was amazing sitting on rim looking into the crater, perfect place for a picnic.

Everyone on the hike was in good spirit, Kresten, Jørgen and Sandra took the lead. Some of the guys tried to keep up with Sandra and Co. But when the team stated running up the stairs (500 steps almost vertical) at the end of the hiking tour they had to give in!!!

We all had very sore legs, many had blisters, but we all thought it was a great hike.

Jens and José

Rèunion

2011-10-20T03:03:00.000+13:00

We arrived in Saint Pierre, Rèunion yesterday morning at 8 AM. Rèunion is a beautiful little French island. And it is also an EU territory so checking in was really easy, we just had to go to the harbour office, and they called customs that didn’t bother coming. The small harbour is full off boats waiting for the right weather window to do the passage to South Africa. But off cause we have to explore the island too, so we want to go hiking here. It is possible to spend the night in one of the cabins they have along their hiking trails.

Sandra and José caught a Mahi Mahi on the way, so last night Sandra had prepared beautiful Brazilian dish- sorry guys - no leftovers. For desert apple cake.

from the passage

2011-10-11T16:45:00.002+13:00

Sandra and Jose arrived in Port Louis yesterday, tired but in good spirit.
Here is some communication from the passage, while it was rough. The day
after it turned nice
Hi Jose, Sandra and Lauri.
I will put this on my blog when we both have arrived safe. I don't want
any pirates
to have a clue where we are. And Lauri I hope you forgive me forwarding
your
weather forecast.
We now had 4 days in a row with hard wind (20-30 knots) and 4-6 meter of
swell. The
height of the waves are hard to estimate, but the Grid files are saying 4
-6 meters
which will be the average of the highest 50 %, That means some will be
bigger.
All on board Exabyte are in pretty good mood, but tired of being thrown
around like
sitting on the bag of a mad bull. Our good friend Lauri from Cairns are
giving us
daily weather forecasts and Jose and Sandra, a Brazilian couple who also
is crossing
the Indian Ocean on a 40 footer, is cheering us up with nice words:
Hello Vikings,
I hope you are Shaking less than us.
The life on board are miserable, but we must go on..
I want to congratulate you guy... what a beautiful and fast boat you have!
We just cannot go faster (We tried hard) because the boat became more
stable at
beginning, but very critical and at any moment a big wave make it cross (I
don't
know if this is the term).
So, We decide to go slow, making 6.1 kt mean).
Wait for us in Mauritius, and give us a report once in a while.
Today around 00:00 UTC a cargo ship (Orion) passed us, heading Mauritius
or South
Africa, with speed 11 kt. I think that you will have this traffic soon.
Watch out.
Thanks for the emails from the weather man - He is professional? very nice
job.
Cheers
Jose and Sandra
Reply from Exabyte
The nice words about Exabyte will put you in my heart forever Jose and
Sandra
And like my old friend Angus from Auckland would say "It just a kiwi
breeze mate".
Kirsten and the boys are doing pretty good job. Jørgen helming the boat
for hours
and hours is making it possible to go fast. Kresten also helps all around
and
making jokes, and don't taking care of the weather at all. Kirsten backing
and
making nice dinners for us, and even taking some night watches is doing a
pretty
good job too. So as a captain on Exabyte I can't complain, ah yes a little
less wind
would be nice. Please Flying Spaghetti monster talk to the old guy up
there and
give us a below 20 knots soon.
Lauris latest upsate:
ASCAT missed you this morning but recorded mostly 20kn SE, some grids with
25kn at longitude 75E. Winds a little lighter south of 20S but the
reduction
is very gradual and I don't see any reason to deviate from rhumline.
Buoyweather swell charts show seas easing to less than 3m but rising again
to over 4m during Sunday and Mondy, from SW. Then reducing for the rest of
the week. Seas are a bit tricky as the reality consists of many different
interactions and the swell forecasts only show one direction.
Nevertheless,
expect higher seas for a couple of days or less, as the area of higher
seas
propagates from W to E against your line of travel.
WX hasn't changed, winds easing, then building up again but not as much as
before, then easing again and arrival in very pleasant conditions, ahead
of
a front or trough during next weekend.
Pleasure to be on board.
Lauri

Mauritius

2011-10-09T00:15:00.000+13:00

13 days at sea, 4 in galeforce. Rough like hell, but no problem for the 4 vikings. Fishing has been exceptionel, 1 Wahoo, 2 Mahi Mahi and 2 Yellowfin Tuna. Good to be ashore and have a nonfish meal.

tanker og flyvefisk fra det indiske ocean

2011-09-29T17:11:00.000+13:00

Det Indiske Ocean sep-2011 pos S14.19, E87.28

Status på Exabyte efter at have sejlet 23500 sm på de godt 2 år der er
gået
siden vi forlod Kerteminde den 8/9-2009.

23500 sm har betydet ca 134 dage til søs, på kortere eller længere
passager,
i mere eller mindre behagelig søgang.

Vi har alle vænnet os til Exabytes bevægelser på oceanernes dønninger. Pt.
Har vi en ca 3 meter høj dønning, der kommer op fra sydhavet, hvor det
altid
stormer. Den lange passage over dette ocean er på 2311 sømil og tager ca
14
dage hvor alle ombord finder dagrytmen.

Alle tager et ansvar for at gøre passagen så behagelig og hurtig som
mulig.
Endvidere passe på Exabyte ved at skifte og trimme sejlene, styre præcist
og
løbende vedligeholde. De unge mennesker ombord, Jørgen på 16 og Kresten på
11 har en hverdag meget fjern fra hvad unge mennesker normalt oplever i
dk.
De kender begge båden i detaljer og kan udføre alle sejladsmæssige
opgaver.
Jørgen også de vedligeholdelses-mæssige.

Jørgen er godt klar over at det betyder meget for sikkerheden, at vi er 2,
der kan klare opgaverne ombord. Begge drenge er helt på det rene med at
det
er nødvendigt at behandle Exabyte ordentligt og være på forkant med
vedligeholdelse, der er ikke plads til ligegyldighed overfor slidtage. Når
vi ind imellem befinder os i dårligt vejr i en kulsort nat, skal der bare
være tjek på tingene.

Den bløde side af sejlads med madlavning og proviantering er også af stor
betydning og at man kan fire snøren ud efter båden og få frisk kød ombord,
er en ting som vi alle nyder. Disse aspekter ved langturssejlads påfører
de
unge mennesker en ansvarsfølelse og en tydeliggør for dem at det er
vigtigt
at de tager et ansvar hver især. Det tætte sammenhold på båden tydeliggør
også at alle mennesker er sårbare og at man skal passe på hinanden. 'A
good
spirit' er et must, og det er tydeligt at hvis nogen er sur eller doven
ødelægger det med det samme hele stemningen på båden. 2 vigtige aspekter
at
lære for unge mennesker i en verden hvor man somme tider glemmer at
tilføre
noget, frem for altid at tage.

Kan unge mennesker have gavn af at sejle rundt i en sejlbåd uden
nødvendigvis at sejle jorden rundt? Svaret er ja, samme værdier med
sammenhold og ansvarlighed vil være gældende, selvom man kun tager en tur
ud
på Storebælt. Det er selvfølgelig afgørende at have en god lærer, der
synliggør vigtigheden af ovenstående. Det er vigtigt at de unge mennesker
selv føler at de har et ansvar for hinanden og båden. En større kølbåd med
mindst 3 personer ombord er nok nødvendig, og så en skipper der har
overskud
og overblik til at lade mere eller mindre erfarne folk udføre opgaverne
ombord. Ikke bare de sejladsmæssige, men også de vedligeholdelsesmæssige
og
ikke mindst menneskelige opgaver skal læres og udføres.

For at få fuld glæde af sejlsporten ar det nødvendigt at få de unge
mennesker ud og lære samarbejdet på en kølbåd. Den grundlæggende respekt
for
hinanden, båden og udstyret er afgørende for at sejladsen skaber værdi, i
modsætning til at reducere sejladsen til blot en 'børneparkering' hvor det
kun er alt for nemt at zappe videre til noget helt andet den følgende
sommer.
Jens Mohr Ernst, Skipper på Exabyte

Cocos (Keeling) Islands

2011-09-18T18:27:00.001+12:00

Arrived at Direction Islands at 6AM. This is the only anchorage for
visiting yachts. If we want to visit the other islands we have to take our
dinghy or the local ferry.
Cocos is one of Australia's most remote external Territories, is situated
2950 kms nw of Perth. The island was settled by John Clunies-Ross in 1826.
The population is 500 Malays and 100 European-Australians.

Cocos Keeling

2011-09-16T21:20:00.000+12:00

We left CI yesterday and we are on our way to Cocos. Lots of flyingfish,
boobys and tropicbirds seen. No other ships and no longlines. Nice
passageweather. Kresten has just made noodles, have to run.
Jens

Ohøj landkrabber!

2011-09-14T14:45:00.001+12:00

Igår var vi på en mine tur som min mor havde arrangeret på en mægtig snild måde. Det var nemlig ikke os der betalte den guidede tur, men det lokale mineselskab! Vores guide var en fyr ved navn ”Dude”(eller det var nok hans øgenavn) han var opvokset i Shanghai, og havde boet og arbejdet på øen i 35 år. Og som hans assistent var pigen ”Sara” som snakkede en hel masse om minedrift, øliv(der er næsten ingen kriminalitet på Christmas Island), Øens religioner taoisme, budhisme selvom de vidste ikke hvor en ”taoisme” kommer fra. Udover os som turister var der også en Malay student som sagde at han læste ”enviroment” det var egentlig det eneste vi fik ud af ham ,men han virkede skam flink nok. Turen startede ved daggry (det var i hvertfald meget tildligt!) og vi skulle mødes med dem ved turist informationen som er lille og tætpakket med souvenirs ,men alligevel mægtig hyggelig. De kom et kvarter for sent ,men det gør de stort set altid i disse små øsamfund, så vi tog det ikke personligt(selv min far holdt sig i skindet!). Mens vi kørte rundt skoven, og af og til stoppede ved et fosfat ”deposit”, fortalte vores guider os på skift om prosessen fosfaten går igennem, før at den bliver solgt som gødning. Først bliver der boret et sted hvor man håber at der befinder sig fosfat ,hvis prøverne er positive graver de det op og sier kalkstene fra fosfaten ved hjælp af en kæmpe si som deler stenene ved at vibrere. Fosfate blir derefter fragtet til ”blanderiet” hvor det bliver blandet efter køberens ønske (der findes bådes A B og C fosfat) Christmas Island producere hvert år omkring 600.000 tons fosfat og tjener omkring 60 milliloner dollars ( 300 millioner kr) hvoraf 10% går til øens naturresevater og de næste 10% går til ”the shire of Christmas Island”med andre ord kommunen. Udover minedriften viste de os en af øens fredede dyrearter nemlig palmetyven. Som i nok allerede har regnet ud, lever den hovedsageligt af cocosnødder. De kan godt sammenlignes med en tank for den kan med lethed klippe din finger af ,men de er lige så nemme at fange som en skildpadde. De kan blve så store at du skal holde dem med to hænder! Vi besøgte også et taoise tempel hvor der var billeder på væggene af folk der gik på kul og bliv besat af ånder (vores guide hævdede at han selv en gang havde gået på kul uden at blive brændt!) vi fik også fyldt vores frugt beholdning op med papaya som gror næsten udelukkende i vejkanten. Vores indiske ven viste ingen af disse ting særlig interesse og han sad med musik i ørene når guiden fortalte om øen. Turen sluttede med håndtryk, lykønskninger om god vind og god business. Vi er glade for at vi ikke forlod øen før vi havde taget denne her lærerige tur.

Sømandshilsner Jørgen og EXabyte

Ashmore Reef

2011-09-07T15:39:00.000+12:00

Moored

2011-09-06T01:25:00.001+12:00

Flying Fish Cove, Christmas Island
We arrived to Christmas Island at 730 AM. The last 3 days have been a
little rough, we sailed about 600 nm.
There is an amazing wildlife here and so far we have seen Brown boobies,
Red-footed boobies and Golden bosunbirds and lots of frigatebirds. Just
after we picked up a mooring we sighted a humpback whale further out in
the cove.
We have planned to visit an old phosphate mine sometime this week.
And for dinner squid, Kresten has been fishing from the jetty so we had
fried squid for dinner, very tasty!
The visibility is great lots of corals below Exabyte. The water temp. Is
26C. No Tourists. Most tourists come here in November when the red crabs
migrate from the forest to the coast, to mate and release eggs into the
sea.

forventet ankomst Christmas Island i morgen

2011-09-04T11:54:00.000+12:00

4/9-2011 så er 5 dage gået siden vi forlod Ashmore Reef. Ashmore der
ligger 450 sm eller små 3 dages sejlads fra Darwin. Her ude var der kun et
stort coralrev og et par små øer. Ingen huse eller civilisation. Den
grønne lagune spejlede sig i himlen så man kunne se revenes genskær i
himlen 15 sm væk og langt efter at øerne var forsvundet under horisonten.
11 dage siden Darwin hvor vi sidst var ved civilisation. 11 dage hvor jeg
dagligt har suget den friske luft dybt ind og følt friheden. Frisk luft
krystalklart blåt vand, flyvefisk, delfiner og hvaler. Oceandynningerne
har bevæget båden op og ned, frem og tilbage mere eller mindre ublidt. Jeg
har betragtet drengenes leg med roret, båden og dynningerne. Efter
tusindvis af sømil styrer de båden gennem bølgerne som en drøm. Placerer
Exabyte perfekt på hver bølge så vi sendes ud på et langt surf. Styrer
båden helt i balance så de næsten ikke behøver at korrigere på roret.
Nattevagterne er blevet knapt så hårde. Delfiner har lavet lysshow i det
morildsfylde vand. Vi har haft mørke mørke nætter med en måne, der er gået
tidligt ned. Set Sydkorset, Skorpionen og Orions gang hen over
nattehimlen. Jeg har vågnet til Jørgens forsigte: vågn op far, det er din
tur, jeg er træt. Set solopgange og Krestens glade ansigt komme op fra
kahytten tidligt om morgenen for at afløse en træt far.

Passage to Christmas Island

2011-09-02T16:02:00.000+12:00

Halfway
We are now halfway. The Indian Ocean is still very calm. We have seen
quite a few Indonesian fishing vessels their long lines are all over, like
a giant spider web.
Jens is trying to fix the autopilot so it can stir after the wind.
Kresten has just finished a book by Jules Verne's. Twenty thousand leagues
under the sea.

Had Killerwhales in sight at noon.

Had Mahi Mahi day 1, Yellowfin tuna day 2 and nothng yesterday the
indonesian fishermen just emtys the area with their longlines.

Det Indiske Ocean

2011-08-31T19:20:00.000+12:00

Kresten skriver i logbogen:
31//-2011 kl 1400 GMT+9
Vinden er 4 m/s 5 i stødende.
Vores position er S12.36 E120.76
Vi har sejlet 157.5 sm det sidste døgn.
Vi har haft 2 bid, men røg af igen.
Har haft besøg af customs og lidt plastik.

Ashmore

2011-08-29T18:41:00.000+12:00

Hi Lauri
Thanks for the news, this is a very nice service. We will enjoy Ashmore
one more day and leave for Christmas Isl tomorrow. Nice corals, lots of
turtles, saw a dugong this morning and a ray jumping out of the water.
Today we got company from 4 Indonesian fishing vessels. (wooden and only
sails -no engine) They look really nice under sail.

Best Regards
The Vikings

Ashmore Reef

2011-08-28T18:27:00.001+12:00

pos S12.14323 E122.58002
Last night we arrived at Ashmore Reef. On the way into the lagoon where
the public moorings are we suddenly saw a huge shadow on the right side of
our boat. Jens was afraid he might have missed something on the chart, and
then we all thought it was an illegally Indonesian fishing vessel with no
lights on. The vessel stayed close to us for 2 minutes before it called us
on the VHF, it turned out to be an Australian warship controlling the
border. He actually scared the hell out of us, which I also told him over
the radio. We finally picked up a mooring, and we didn´t have to worry
about the boogieman because we were well guarded by two Aus. Warships and
one from customs.
Ashmore Reef is a national nature reserve, only 60 nm from the island Roti
(Indonesia). There are 3 small islands inside the reef and visitors are
only allowed to stay at the West Island. The marine life here offers a lot
ex. Dugongs, sea turtles, sea snakes and over 650 different fish species.
There are also 30 different kinds of seabirds nesting/migrating here.
At the West Island there are 7 graves (Indonesian fishermen). The
Indonesian fishers have since early eighteenth century been fishing at
Ashmore in their wooden perahus (traditional sailed fishing boats), they
are still allowed to fish here. But only for finfish, to collect water
from the water pump and visit the grave sites on the Island.
Today we had a visit from customs that checked our papers, they told a
little about their job here and the reason for all the warships was
because of an increasing in activity in the last couple of weeks. They
have a big problem with refuges entering from Indonesia.
We were a little short of fresh water, but the custom guys gave us about
100 L. Now we are going to do a lot of diving in this very remote
paradise.

day 3 Timor Sea

2011-08-27T15:16:00.001+12:00

pos 27/8-2011 12.11 PM UTC+9 S12.11 E123.55, Wind durng night 5-8 knots
during day 8-12 knots SE to E
Putted out the lure this morning, only one Tuna until now waiting for Mahi
to bite. Seasnakes around dolphins playing at the boat each day and night.
The Vikings

26/8 1830 GMT +9

2011-08-26T21:34:00.001+12:00

We had a nice day 10 knots from SSE at 1800 it turned SE so now we run the
kite again. Are having the last Kanguru steak to night, so tomorrow
morning we start fishing. Would like a Mahi Mahi- all are looking forward
for Ashmore Reef, we hopefully get there before sundown tomorrow.
The Vikings

East Timor Sea 2nd day

2011-08-26T14:36:00.001+12:00

26/8 11AM GMT +9 Position S12.20 E126.23 Wind 10 knots SSE swell 1.5 m
ENE. Sunny.
Thanks to Laurie for Daily weather reports.
Yesterday dolphins visited us a few times. First 20 Pantropical Spotted
Dolphins joined us. They took turns staying up front surfing the bow
stern. Kresten was hanging at the bow like Spiderman trying to touch the
dolphins. At night 5 dolphins also joined us for 10 min. It looked like
white lightning under water and we could hear them through the hull. It is
always nice with a little company. One of customs aircraft fly over us
every day, calling us on the VHF, checking our data's, always very
friendly.
We had kangaroo steak last night, which really taste good, very lean meat.
The croc burgers we had the other night were fine too. I had one, Kresten
and Jens had two each and Jørgen had four.(Guess he liked them).

Darwin -Ashmore

2011-08-25T19:35:00.000+12:00

Position 1700 Utc +9.30 S 12.15 Ø128.12 partly clouded wind øSØ 10-15
knots swell NNØ 1 meter.
We left Darwin yesterday in very nice weather. We could smell the
bushfires as far as 50 miles off the coast. Black burnt bush also landed
on Exabyte very far away from mainland. The night was clear and very calm
so we motored for almost 3 houers.
The Vikings

Left Darwin

2011-08-24T18:50:00.000+12:00

We have left Darwin today heading forChristmas Island. The plan is to stop at Ashmore Reef.
Dinner for tonight, Croc burgers.

Next stops

2011-08-20T00:05:00.001+12:00

Next week we are leaving for Cocos Keeling. On the way we will stop at Ashmore and Christmas Island if the weather is right.

click to get big chart

Darwin

2011-08-14T12:19:00.000+12:00

We arrived in Darwin (Fanny Bay) yesterday after a nice and calm run with anchoring 1 night at Cape Don. We got internetconnection here so we uploaded some pictures to past stories

Cobourg Pininsula Northern territory

2011-08-10T11:42:00.005+12:00

Kresten and 160m2 of big blue masterhead spinnaker

Paragala Island- Palm Bay – Coral Bay
We left Paragala Island with only a small day sail in mind, but the wind
was not favoured for this direction so we decided to go further west
(closer to Darwin and better for the wind). As we came closer to the next
anchorage and zoomed in on the chart plotter, suddenly unsurveyed area
turned up on the screen. We decided to go further to an anchorage that we
got recommended from another cruiser 245 miles west. We arrived late the
next evening and it turned out to be very shallow, so we dropped the
anchor 1½ miles of the cost and turned in. Next morning we left early in
very quiet and nice conditions heading for an anchorage we found on the
chart outside a ranger station. On our way we crossed a big croc, and
after him a big catamaran who called us on the VHF "sailing vessel under
spinnaker this is Pharlab". He he we don't meet many cruiser out here and
we haven't seen one with spinnaker before. Because of all the downwind
sailing we were often run ours, then during the day we take down the main
sail and put up some sun protection over our boom. We spoke to Pharlab, an
Aussie that just had completed his Circumnavigation of Australia and
Tasmania. He told not to go to the Ranger station, but to Coral Bay at
Cobourg Peninsula. He had been there and he told us about a resort there
with nice burgers and cold drinks. After the Aussie we past a group of
very large see turtles. The resort turned out to be very nice. It is only
possible to go there by plane or boat, and we are the only guests here at
the moment. Today Michael (the manager of the resort) will drive us out to
Wanarij Point and drop us off so we can hike back. There are lots of
wallabies and very big black and red parrots here, more of all that later.

Billabong, Cobourg Peninsula, Arnhem

Seisia- Wessel Islands

2011-08-06T22:15:00.001+12:00

Croc on patrol

We left Seisia after some really nice days. The boys spent most of their
time fishing from the "Red Island jetty" (a remain after the 2nd world
war). We meet some interesting people, Kevin who is a walking dictionary.
It seemed like he knew everything there was to know about Australian
history, Aboriginals and wild life. Jeff (skipper of the SY Intrigue) told
us about a bunch of really nice anchorages in Arnhem Land which is located
around 80 miles NE of Darwin (Aboriginal country). And Bear who was a
crazy fisherman and a good storyteller, one day he took his fish and went
to the gas station, he emptied the ice cream freezer put his fish in it
and then he put the ice cream back on top of the fish and left without a
word…yup a lot of weird people around, here in the outback!
From Seisia we headed for Wessel Islands about 350 nm across the Gulf of
Carpentaria which is slightly similar to the Bay of Biscay although it's
smaller and a lot shallower (the deepest place is 52m deep). The fishing
rods stayed below under the whole crossing; another cruiser had given us
some frozen Spanish mackerel and it is now among one of our favourite
eating fish! Most of the way we sailed downwind between 20-25 knots. A bit
of light drizzle. And lots of sunshine!
Jeff had also told us about a shortcut in the Wessel Islands; it's called
The Hole in the Wall. And it is a Passage about 1, 2 nm long and barely 60
meters wide. We had to be there at the right time when there was slack
water; the current can be up to 12 knots. We arrived around 10AM the
current was easterly, the wrong way. But we gave it a go, we came ¾ of the
way the boat didn't move an inch even though Jens gave full throttle
noting happened!(it was the first time ever that our engine has been going
more 3000 Rpm!) and we were forced to turn around and we got shot back
out of the passage! Now back at the start we had to decide what to do, we
could sail to the next passage (10NM) or spend a few hours waiting for the
current to change direction. We waited and tried again this time we came a
little further before Exabyte stopped moving but no one wanted to go back
so we hoisted the Main sail and the jib and that helped, finally we made
it. (Video will be uploaded when we get to Darwin) We have found a nice
anchorage at Paragala Island.
Today (6/8) we went ashore to explore this uninhabited island. As we got
close to the shore we identified a floating thing not to be wood, but a
nice croc. While we landed on the beach, we kept an eye on him and ran
away from the water carrying the dinghy as fast as possible. We were not
only being watch from the water but also from land. The place turned out
to be home for a lot of wallabies. With our eyes all open for dangers, we
went along the shore and had a nice time. When we came back to the dinghy,
the croc was still patrolling further out, so we ran back to the water
while watching him.

Flinders to Seisia

2011-07-29T12:27:00.003+12:00

Flinders to Seisia

Kresten and our friend Kevin at Seisia wharf

After anchoring one night out of Blackwood island (Flinders)we sat course after Morris Island 60 miles to the north. As usual we put out our fishing-lines. We first caught a spotted mackerel, but because we found the last one too oily, we released it again. Afterwards we caught a real fighter, it took us around 15 min to get it up to the boat, and we were all guessing what a monster it could be, reaching from a croc to a shark. But to our surprise it turned out to be a 9 kg Southern Bluefin tuna. Jørgen fillet it and lines were cleared. To untangle our heavy trolling line we put it overboard and the second after we got another Bluefin, which we returned to the sea. The spinnaker was hoisted and we had a relaxing downwind run for some hours, during the day the wind picked up from 10 to 25 knots, gusting 30 and the sailarea was reduced. At 4 pm we arrived to Morris Island, which turned out to be a small sandbank with only one palm tree, to protect the anchorage against the heavy wind. Now we had got 2 options: Sail this difficult area in the dark or try to sit in the anchorage until dawn. We choose to continue, we were inside the Barrier reef, which is full of shallow reefs, and with no moon and cloudy weather it was pitch dark. Until now our Chart plotter had been very precise in Australia, but we still remembered the places in Panama, were we had 1 mile offset on some of the charts. This error would be a disaster in here. Jens took the watch all night, because it would be impossible to sleep anyway. The route was changed to pass most possible lighthouses to double-check the position. Wind was 20-25 knots gusting +30 and sails were reduced to jib only. At 5.30 we started to get some light and Jens, now really relieved, could wake up Jørgen to take the next watch. At 4pm we arrived to Cape York, the northern tip of Australia, and went through Albany passage, the wind and waves still pretty strong, but the tide just right. At dusk we dropped the anchor behind Possession Island on the leeward side off Australia, with no swells, but still pretty gusty weather. We all slept like never before all night long. Next morning we got the weather forecast from weather guru Lauri, who wrote us that the strong wind would last a at least 4 more days. At midday we left the bay and 1 hour later we arrived to Seisia. The channel to this protected anchorage is only 2 meters deep, so we had to enter at high tide, the timing was just right and we are now securely anchored next to this little outback town.

Mainstreet Seisia

Flinders Islands

2011-07-25T22:08:00.001+12:00

From Lizard to Flinders we had 85 miles and therefore we planed to leave
early so we could anchor before dusk. We didnt get away early so we had to
push Exabyte hard. We are out of fresh meat, and we would like to catch
one of the tasty makrels that swims around inside the reef. At 7am we left
our anchoridge, at 7.30 we arrived in the blue zone were trolling is
allowed, at7.45 we caught a bonito, whitch we threw back to the sea, at 8
we caught a spotted mackrel and at 8.15 we hoisted the spinnaker. The wind
was around 20 knots, and we arrived at the new anchoridge at 5 pm,
averaging 8.5 knots. Kirsten just served the Makrel and we are all pretty
tired after a nice day in the tradewinds of the northern Great Barrier.
Now we are pretty excited to hear what our good friend Lauri can tell
about the weatherforecast.

TheVikings

off cairns

2011-07-23T21:11:00.003+12:00

After 7 days in Marlin marina with access to all the shopping you can
imagine, we were ready for new adventures. We were now going following
Cooks footsteps again exploring the Great Barrier Reef. The first stop
was Low Islands, which apparently should have pretty good diving. But
the water had no visibility and with crocs on our mind, Only Jens went
out shortly to clean the log transducer which was stuck. Next day we
left early to go to Hope Island, still quite windy but nice and sunny
and humpback whales in sight most of the day both old and young ones.
But we did not find clear water at hope island either so we only stayed
for the night, then we left for Lizard islands. On our way we passed
Cooktown, where Cook stayed for a month in 1770, repairing Endeavour,
after the ship had hit a reef (Endeavour Reef) and here we are right now
celebrating Jørgens 16th BIRTHDAY. Lizard Island has a lot of history,
It is sacred place to the Aboriginals (the Dingaal people) and Cook came
here with the Botanist Banks climbed to The top (385 m) to look for a
passage out. So off course we had to take the same tour, it was a really
nice hike about 3 hours a little steep but we were rewarded with a
fantastic view, and easy to see where Cooks found his way out, Cooks
passage. On the island there are 11 different species of lizard, we saw
some and we did see Gould's monitors, about 1m long. The water is very
clear here the watertemp. Is 22C, cold compared to 28C in Vanuatu. We
are not allowed to fish here, the Australians have very strict rules
where to and where not to fish, the fines are horrendous thousands of
aus. dollars. We need five different maps on our way inside the Great
Barrier Reef, to make sure we fish in the right places. But with a GPS
it is no problem. Today we are planning to do a hike to the other side
of the island, where there is a beautiful lagoon, and a research station
(www.lizardisland.net.au). So no worries here from Lizard Island.
Except the warning sign on the beach, no swimming might be a croc

around.

Cairns Barron River

2011-07-16T10:14:00.000+12:00

Bye John and Shawn

2011-07-13T19:04:00.000+12:00

News from John

This was a sad morning since our friends The Vikings took off and we probably wont see them again until we get to Denmark someday.

The Vikings caught a very large stripped marlin yesterday and, even after giving most of it to the little village (more like a family group) on the island near our anchorage there was still enough to fill our Engle freezer and feed all six of us dinner last night. Stripped marlin is really good. Its much milder than its cousins and came out really good on the gas grill.

After the family on shore took as much of the marlin as they could eat that night they dispatched one of the men in a canoe to take the rest to another village on a nearby island. These people waste very little.

Jorgen (AKA Jack) is the older of the junior Vikings. He is the fisherman in the family and the big marlin was caught on a home made lure that he fabricated out of a champagne cork, a lead sinker and strips of a snack food bag. Of course the whole thing was held together with duct tape. His younger brother Kresten (AKA Chris) painted the requisite spooky eyes on the champagne cork. You can argue with success and the price of the lure was sure right. Jack is also really good at cleaning the fish, too.

The Vikings took off this morning for Port Stanley (about 35 miles up the coast of Malakula) and will probably hop over to Luganville tomorrow so they can get provisioned for their passage across the Coral Sea to Cairnes, Australia. There is a weather window opening early in the week

They will be long gone from Cairns by the time we get there as their schedule requires them being in South Africa by Christmas.

Because we had to start up the second freezer last night our batteries were down a bit more than usual this morning so we decided to hang around this anchorage for a day and run the honda generator to get things topped up again. Once the fish is frozen solid we can transfer it to the other freezer and turn off the second one. Im using this opportunity of running the generator with time on my hands to collect some charge rate and fuel consumptions statistics on the little Honda. Im curious to know how much gasoline it costs us to make a gallon of water with the watermaker, for example.

Jens (papa Viking) helped me adjust the rigging on the mast before we left Lamen Bay. Yesterday's short sail was directly down wind so we did not get a chance to test the effectiveness of his adjustments but we should get a chance to do so soon. We are determined to get the rig better balanced so the wind vane can steer us across the Indian ocean and we wont be slaves to the power needs and noise of the autopilot.

I tried to use the wind vane yesterday as the steering forces were not very strong with just the genoa pulling us downwind. The vane seemed to be unbalanced in its ability to correct the course. It over corrected to port and under corrected to starboard (by a lot). So yesterday afternoon I got in the dingy and adjusted the linkage that controls the steering oar. We shall see how much that helped when we make our next short passage. There was obvious asymmetry in the system and I think I got most of it out with my adjustments. I think the problems started when I replaced some of the plastic parts that had suffered sun damage. I'm not sure the dimensions of the new parts were exactly the same as the old ones and it only takes a tiny change in the linkage to make a big difference in the way the vane steers.

We are still waiting to see a Dugong (manatee) but yesterday afternoon the Vikings saw one in this anchorage so we are hopeful we will see one before we leave. This anchorage is open to the trade winds but there is a reef across the space between Awai Island and the main Island so no seas get in here and the reef looks like it might be pretty good for snorkeling.

There are several nice anchorages in this little archipelago and one is next to a giant clam reserve one of the villages started. We have to decide if we want to visit a couple more of these anchorages before pressing on to the other side of the island where we will meet up with some friends on a boat called Skylight.

Ill write again when I have more to report.

John

End of passage closing 11/7-2011@5 pm UTC+10

2011-07-11T19:08:00.001+12:00

Pos S16.57 E146.59, 35.8 miles to Flora Pass entering smouth water
behind the barrier reef and from there 30 more miles to Cairns.
Wind is around 20 knots from SØ a few comolus and 2-3m wavehight.
Speed around 9 kn at the moment, we will keep powering on to the reef
and then go slow and try to be at Marlin Marina early tomorrow. Thanks
to Lauri for given us very precise weatherforcasts all the way.
Fishing have been bad, 3 lost lures, 1 skipjack and 1 baracuda that we
returned to sea, 1 nice MAhi Mahi that we lost yesterday wenn it made a
nice escaping jump and got off of the hook only 10 meter from Exabyte.
The Vikings

coral sea 11/7-2011 2.02 AM UTC+10

2011-07-11T04:12:00.001+12:00

Pos S1704 E149.01
Wind last 24 hour 12-20 kn from SØ, lightly clouded, no rain allmost no
swell.

Nar manen gar ned

2011-07-11T04:12:00.000+12:00

Så er vi et døgn fra Cairns og 160 sm fra Floras Passage gennem Barriere
revet og ind i beskyttet farvand. Et kraftigt højtryk, der er på vej ind
over Australien har, ind til videre, givet os 6 dage med stabil passat
vind (6-12 m/s) fra SØ vind -agten for tværs. Vi havde helt glemt at de
lange passager kan være en fornøjelse, efter vores ture ned og op fra
NZ. Jørgen og undertegnede deler stadig nattevagterne, men er begyndt at
skære den over i to lange vagter, så vi kan få 6 timers nattesøvn hver.
I disse behagelige vejrforhold er det meget bedre. Mens dette skrives er
månen ved at gå ned og den lyse nattehimmel bliver mørk somen ......
røv.
Månen tiltager med ca 1 time /dag i øjebliket så det giver en pæn
forandring i natterutinerne. Efter månen forsvinder er der mulighed for
enetn stjernetæppe eller kulsort nat, når det er overskyet ligesom det
ofte har været på denne tur. Så kan man intet se ud over de lysende
instrumenter, der viser informationer om båden og vindens fart og
retning. Man skiftes gennem natten så med vores autopilot om at styre
båden, go skiftevis koncentrere sig om at holde kursen (hvilket faktisk
er ret svært når man ikke har noget at styre efter) og skiftevis bare
holde udkik og ellers lade tankerne flyve. Vi har på 6 dage set to skibe
passere i det fjerne, så man har pænt tid til det sidste. Faktisk bliver
man enormt positiv når man sidder der alene og tænker på hvad der rører
sig omkring en. Kommer til at tænke på hr Haurand, der somme tider
fortæller om hans uge lange meditation i Norge hvor man ikke måtte tale
sammen under hele forløbet, måske er han blevet så vis og positiv den
gang. Månen går ned om lidt, det ser ud til at blive stjerneklart, så
jeg må smutte, skal lige se om jeg kan få lidt ud af natten, 7 dages
passage er lidt for kort til rigtigt at få hjernen i filosoferings mode.
Vi har forøvrigt lige passerret Herald Cays, en af de utallige små rev,
der ër de sidste 350 sm ind til Australiens østkyst, længe leve
kortplotteren og hatten af for capt. Cook, der navigerede og kortlagde
en stor del af disse farvande.
Jens

coral sea 9/7-2011 @2340 UTC +10

2011-07-10T01:48:00.000+12:00

POS S13.52.83, E152.39 (33 miles to Lihou reef) and 361 to Cairns
The most pleasent passageweather we ever had today, partly clouded,
12-18 kn SØ almost no swell, we even playd cards in our open cockpit
this evening while flying the spinnaker and going 8 knots.

The Vikings

Coral Sea 9/7-2010 , 9.30 AM UTC-10

2011-07-09T11:43:00.000+12:00

Pos S16.48.88 E154.36.47, 474 sm to Cairns
Wind last 24 houer 15-20 kn SØ
heavy to lightly clouded, waves 2-3 m from SØ.
Kirsten is about to make us nice bread as every day, not much fishing
(to rough most of the time). Lots of flying fish, also one in our
cockpit this morning.

Best Regards
The Vikings

Billfish

2011-07-08T12:08:00.000+12:00

Yesterday (7/7) we thought it was time to get fish. The weather was carm
and nice so we pulled in our watergenerator and out 2 trolling lines.
While going along with the spinnaker suddently one line start,,,ed to
run out. We stoppet the boat in 10 sec. only to see a huge marlin jumpin
out of the water an going a away with our fishinglure without any
trouble. We decided to put up the spinnaker again right away, but
suddentlig another big thing took the other line, even with Exabyte
stopped, the same thing happend and the other lure was gone. Later that
day we tried again, but the same thing happend f..., shit, bugger.

coral sea 7/7-2011 kl 10.54 UTC+10

2011-07-07T13:01:00.000+12:00

position S16.25.31 E 160.3.93
wind 15 kn from 120 (back in SØ)
speed 7.8 kn course 265 (right on waypoint)
Past a group of whales yesterday, and a tanker this night.
Lots of flyingfish, gannets and shearwaters. Sea very pleasent again to
day.
Regards
The vikings

coral sea 6/7 9.00 UTC+10

2011-07-06T11:14:00.000+12:00

pos S16.05, E 163.53

wind 10-16kn DIR 128 (SØ)
Had the Diesel running for 2 hours last night Wind 0-5 kn.
The conditions are very pleasant this morning on Exabyte.
Kirsten and Kresten took 3½ hour nightwatch this night in the calm
conditions!

The Vikings

Cairns

2011-07-05T12:22:00.000+12:00

We left Luganville just before sunrise this morning.
Our positiom at 10.15 am (lokal time Cairns)S15.47.68, N166.27.24
SOG 8kn COG 264, distance to Cairns 1167 miles to go
Wind is 15-20 knot from 120 (SE) The sun is strong, so we have put up
some shade in the cockpit.

Regards The Vikings

vanuatu

2011-07-02T11:01:00.000+12:00

kresten og ko

mad til 12 familier på lamon island

to seje fiskere

lamon bay 24th of june

2011-06-25T18:41:00.000+12:00

kresten woke up early as usual, and tried to make noise to wake up the
rest of the boat. at 6.30am he heard a strange noise and went up on the
boom to watch. then he suddently yelled dugong, so we all very fast
joined him in the cockpit, all thinking it is just a turtle. but a few
min later we all saw it, it was a dugong. everybody grabbed their
snorkling gear and camera and jumped in the water, and spend ½ an hour
with this big friendly ocean hoover. it has been around exa all day. in
the afternoon we all went ashore to visit chief tasso, and invited to
dinner we got coconot crab and lobster. what a nice day in paradise.

til morgen blev vi igen vækket af kresten,som altid står op før solen,
jeg har set en dugong, søko, bagved båden. ja, den er god med dig,gå nu
ind og sov. men kresten kravlede i stedet for op på bommen og holdt
udkig. jens og jeg stod op, satte os i cockpittet, blev halvvågne enige
om at lave en kop the. mens vi begge tænkte, hvorfor er vi dog stået så
tidligt op.
vi skulle ikke vente længe før vi måtte erkende at kresten havde set
rigtigt.pludselig kom en gråbrun ryg til syne bagved vores gummibåd. så
kan det nok være alle mand kom i vandet. jens glemte helt at få badetøj
på.vi svømmede ca. en halv time med denne havets støvsuger, som mest
havde travlt med at græsse.
om aftenen var vi inde og få et par helt fantastisk retter, kokosnød
krabbe,hummer og taro pandekage.uhm

EFATE _ EPI

2011-06-23T21:07:00.000+12:00

We left Efate with bad fishing luck. Had four strikes on a bad
fishinglure one day and after that nothing even with three lines with
our best lures trolling behind Exabyte. We thougt about the story of the
old man and the sea and what happend well off shore.the weather had
changed, we had a few showers on our way to Epi. Halfway we had luck
something had made the wheel scream, what was it-IT WAS AS MARLIN...
Jørgen grabbed the fishing rod and started the battle, Jens were running
around giving orders. after one hour battle we had 65 kg marlin on the
stern 2.35m long and tale spann of 85cm. we arrived at lamon bay just
before dusk and gave the marlin to the locals, who were really happy, and
will make umu and feed the entire village tonight. this morning we are
sitting in the cockpit looking for the frindly dugong which lives in this
bay, but we haven´t had any luck yet. Today Mary from lamon island came
with some umu cooked marlin, malin with coconut and banana wrapped in
bananaleaves, very tasty. marys husbond is working in new zealand most of
the year saving up money so they can build a house on the mainland where
they have their garden and where the kids will attend high school.

Vi forlod efate uden at have haft det store held med fiskeri på det sidste
men det skulle vise sig at heldet var vendt så vi igen fik gang i
fiskstængerne, ved middagstid begyndte det ene fiskhjul at hvine, jørgen
var første ved hjulet det blev en kamp ikke set siden den gamle mand og
havet, vi havde fået en marlin på krogen efter en times kamp måtte den
give op. så var der knap 2½ m fisk ombord, der var lidt uenighed ombord
hvad vi skulle gøre med fisken, men resultatet blev at vi forærede fisken
til nogle lokale fra øen lamon. det skulle vise sig at være et godt valg,
næste dag fik vi serveret marlin bagt i bananblade med kokosmælk og
banan ummm. mary som kom med maden i sin ouigger havde også en del frugt
med bl.a papaya, appelsin, brødfrugt og kakaobønnefrugt. mary er alene med
sine fire børn det meste af året, hendes ægtefælle er i nz for at tjene
penge til at de kan bygge hus på epi, hvor de har deres urtehave og hvor
børnenes high shool er.så jeg fandt lige lidt børnetøj frem som ungerne
kunn få. vi nåede også at få snorklet lidt ved sydspidsen lamon der var
utrolig mange fisk et par gråhajer, og flotte koraller. vi venter stadig
på at få et glimt af den lokale dugong, mnn heldet har ikke været med os
endnu.
ktd

vanuatu billeder

2011-06-17T09:00:00.000+12:00

Fisker Port Resolution

Gravhuler Dillons Bay

Vulkanen Mt. Yasur

Skoleklasse Port Resolution

Tanna

2011-06-14T09:47:00.000+12:00

Tanna Port Resolution
We have now been anchored in Port Resolution in a week. And I think that
we all agree that the people of this island are the friendliest, and
happiest, people we've met on this trip, so far. Also they're one of the
poorest countries we've seen. Not that it seems to bother them too much,
I mean, they have each other their ocean, forest, a few tourists and at
last us the "yachties". We give them fuel, to go fishing and normally
they return the favor maybe in form of a lobster. (Which you can cook in
the nearby hot springs!) They also get canned food. We repair their
guitars, take pictures of all the students in a classroom and print it
for them to hang on their wall. We also buy tours to the volcano. The
volcano seems to be very unstable which means that at times it isn't
safe to get closer than 500 meters to the volcano, but we're trying to
find an opportunity to get a look inside the crater when the eruptions
are less violent. A couple of days ago we went fishing along the coast,
simply because we were getting tired of canned food, and the locals told
us that if we by any chance, had a bit too much fish they would be most
grateful for a piece. So we left our anchor behind tied to our dinghy.
But to our disappointment after three hours of trolling we had nothing
but a single 8kg tuna bvadrr! Tomorrow we will head north towards
Erromango (land of mangos) which is only about 55nm away and were hoping
to catch everything but a tuna on the way!
Mt. Yasur
Jørgen and Kirsten had an very exciting evening, we took the one local
Hilux 4W that was available, the two others were not allowed to drive
because of restrictions from the local church!! We finally took of , it
had taken Shawn about four hours getting a car. A last we were on our
way at 11 PM, and it wasn't less exciting driving on the road at night
time . It took about 1½ hour getting to the top of the volcano. We had
to walk the last 300 m, trying not to trip over the lava rocks. But it
was worth it we got really close to the crater rim the volcano is
active . The ground trembles and magma shoot up and spreads against the
sky. Sort of 1000x fireworks, the sky lights up. The guide told us when
we were at the top; if you see magma coming towards you, "Don't run, but
take one step to the side", I must admit it was a little scary, but an
fantastic experience. Defiantly unforgettable.

Port Resolution og Erromango
VI har nu været ankeret I Port Resolution i 1 uge. Og jeg tror at vi
alle er enige at de lokale er de flinkeste og gladeste vi har mødt på
turen indtil videre. Det er også et af de fattigste lande vi har besøgt.
Men de virker alle utrolige glade, vi bliver stoppet flere gange når
vi er ude at gå, for alle vil gerne snakke. Vi bytter dåsemad, benzin,
reb (til køerne, det er i høj kurs), fiskekroge, tøj, til gengæld får vi
frugt, grøntsager(Yams, susuit, Papaja og det lokale kål) I går stod den
på italiensk grøntsags suppe med lokale grøntsager og yams kartoffelmos,
vi blev alle mætte. Et par hummere er det også blevet til. Efter 6 dage
i Port Resolution drejede vinden til NØ, og vi var nødt til at sejle
videre, da lagunen er ubeskyttet fra dette hjørne. Vi tog af sted
samtidig med vores venner fra "active transport" mod Erromango(
Dillon's Bay) som vi mente var sikker i denne vindretning. Når to
sejlbåde kan se hinanden og sejler i samme retning, har vi en
kapsejlads! Vi havde halv vind ud, men da vinden senere rummede fik vi
spileren op og sejlede og sejlede vores venner under horisonten i løbet
af et par timer. Da vi konstant lå omkring 10 knob blev vi enige om at
tage vores trolling liner ind. Da vi senere kom i læ af øen Erromango,
stilnede det af og vi satte linerne igen, vi endte op med en 12 kilos
Yellowfin tun, som vi delte med nogle lokale fiskere, de tog os til
gengæld med ud på et natdyk, hvor vi fangede hummere og papegøje fisk.
Efter 2 timer i vandet blev hajerne for nærgående og en hvidtippet
revhaj fulgte efter Jørgen og skubbede til hans svømmefødder, vi
flygtede op i gummibåden. (De lokale fortalte at hajerne sommetider tog
fiskene fra dem og fiskerne igen tog fisken ud af hajens mund!!)
Udbyttet blev 2 store papegøjefisk og 3 hummere.
Her på Erromango er vi også blevet godt modtaget, den lokale chief tog
imod 80 årige gamle William, han har sørget for guidede ture for os. Så
vi har været en tur oppe af floden for at se den berømte sten, hvor
missionæren John Williams blev slået ihjel af indfødte i 1839, de lagde
ham på en stor sten, hvor han blev målt, delt og ædt. Hans bror og
dennes ægtefælle kom senere til øen, de led samme skæbne.
Vi har været på besøg i gamle grav huler, det var chiefens forfædre som
var begravet her. Bagefter var der snorkeltur i lagunen.
Ungerne og jeg har været på besøg i den lokale skole, mrs. Nancy viste
rundt, ungerne sang et par sange for os. Jørgen fik også undervist i det
danske skolesystem. Kirsten fortalte lidt om de dyr vi har i DK.
John og Shawn er nærmest blevet guder her, de har fixet skolens TV,
flere andre havde dvd'er og tv de gerne ville have ordnet.

Tanna, Vanuatu

2011-06-08T09:12:00.000+12:00

Vi ankom til Tanna kl 12:30, lørdag .Efter en fantastisk stille
sejltur, kan faktisk ikke huske hvornår det sidst har været så stille,
så der var flot stjernehimmel og morild i nat, plus flotte lyn i det
fjerne. Fisk fik vi også fanget , 2 Bonito tun og en gulfinnet tun, men
da vi vil have Mahi mahi røg tunene tilbage igen. En enkelt af fiskene
havde bidemærke efter at have været i nærkontakt med en Cookie-cutter
shark.
Jens har været i Lénakel for at checke ind, han tog med bil herfra, så
var det ellers 3½ times kørsel hver vej, Vejene er ikke egentlige veje,
men hjulspor som indimellem var skyllet væk, floder skulle krydses, der
var af- og på- sætning af passagerer fra landsbyerne på vej til byen.
Jo, det havde ikke været en kedelig tur.
Ungerne og jeg gik op og besøgte den lokale landsby , vi var med til en
times undervisning i matematik, og læreren mente at jeg lige skulle
undervise lidt, så det blev til et par hurtige regnestykker på tavlen,
som trængte til en gang tavle lak. Jørgen var også lærer for lidt tid.
Der var to årgange i samme klasse lokale, skrivepulte og stole var
sammentømret overskudstræ, der var ikke mange bøger at gøre godt med.
Jeg havde fået en sæk med børnetøj og bøger fra en veninde i Auckland,
så skolelæreren fik lidt , som han så kunne fordele. Landsbyen her er en
af de mere velstillede i Vanuatu, men de har ikke meget at gøre godt.
Der har været 2 cykloner i år, så bananer, mango og andet frugt ses
ikke.
Drengene var ude at fiske i går, det blev til en gulfinnet tun. John og
Shawn fik lov at tilberede fisken, så dey blev til super lækker grillet
tun. Det fås næsten ikke bedre.
Vi har også en vulkan vi skal have besteget den aktive vulkan Mt. Yasur.
Det var alt for denne gang, vi har ikke tid til så meget skriveri, her
er simpelthen for spændende.

We arrived to Tanna Saturday, we have had a nice sail can´t actually not
remember when we had such a nice sail, we had a really spectacular star
heaven and morels plus lightning in the distance. We caught 2 bonitos
and one yellow fin tuna but the boys wanted a mahi mahi so back to the
ocean they went. One of the tunas had been too close to a cookie cutter
shark.
Kirsten and the boys have visited to local school, we attended a math.
Class. The teacher wanted us to do some teaching in front of the class,
so Jørgen and I did teach for about 15 min. I gave the teacher some
children's clothes and a few books, so he could divide it between the
kids.
The boys went out fishing yesterday, they caught a nice yellow fin.
Shawn did the cooking, so we had grilled tuna, what a meal. So Tasty.
There is a volcano, Mt. Yasur that we have to see, hopefully a hike.

tadine

2011-06-02T16:58:00.001+12:00

Tadine, Maré, Loyalty Island
Nu har vi været her i 3 dage, det har regnet 2½ dag, så Exabyte er blevet afsaltet. Vi har været lidt inde og kigge på byen, som er et par huse ved et
t-kryds. Her er dog et magasin, hvor alt kan købes lige fra friske flutes til et nyt gas komfur. Alle er venlige, bortset lige fra den lokale drukkenbolt
som mens vi er der får udleveret en flaske vin af købmanden, så blev han stille for en tid. Vi bliver mødt med mange bon jouuuuuur på vores vej. Kvinderne
går i farvestrålende kitler. Ungerne har travlt med at fiske efter krabber. Her er et fint lille marked, hvor der sælges lidt frisk frugt, grøntsager,
friskbagte kager, damerne på markedet fordriver ventetiden med at spille Domino.
Da vores køleskabsbund er blevet synlig, måtte vi på en lille fisketur i dag, Shawn tog med, vi fik en ca. 8 kg. Gulfinnet tun, på krogen, så nu står den på
tun stykker i satay sauce . Shawn har leveret politisk korrekt jordnøddesmør til opskriften.
Vandet hvor vi har smidt vores anker er krystalklart, sigtbarheden er ca. 30 m. På vores snorkeltur er vi stødt på havskildpadder, rokker(stingray og
eagleray) en enkelt muræneål er det også blevet til.

We have been in Tadine for 3 days now, and it has been raining for 2½ day. We have all been ashore to have a view at the small town, only a few houses but
there is a magasin where you can buy anything from fresh baguettes to a brand new gas stove. Everybody seems very friendly, except the local alcoholic who
yelled at everybody until the shopkeeper gave him a bottle of wine. We are greeted with many bon jouuuuurs on our way. The women are wearing colorful
dresses. The small kids are busy catching crabs. The town has a small market place where you can buy some fruit, vegetables and fresh baked cakes. The
shopkeepers play Domino while they wait for customers.
This morning we reached the bottom of our fridge, so we had to take a small fishing tour. We were lucky to catch an 8 kilo yellow fin tuna. So tonight we
are having tuna chunks in peanut butter sauce. Shawn made sure to give us some proper American peanut butter.
We have been snorkeling a few times, and have seen sea turtles, eagle rays, sting rays and one moray eel.

new caledonia

2011-05-31T09:02:00.001+12:00

Nouméa- Baie Prony Máre
Så tog vi fra hovedstaden Nouméa og startede vores sejlads mod Loyalty
Islands, denne gang i følgeskab med to andre både "Active Transport" og
"Island Sonata", Ruth fra " Island Sonata" var guld værd at følges med
på national museet i Nouméa, da hun har besøgt flere af Stillehavs
øerne, så jeg havde gratis guide med. Hurra!
Den første nat lå vi i Baie Iré, en fin lille bugt, uden for mange
dønninger, med med masser af fuglesang, fiskestimer, en enkelt
havskildpadde så vi også. Jorden her i New Kaledonien er rødbrun,
fantastisk farvespil når solen er på, men ikke nemt at få vasket af
tøjet. Vores fødder fra rødbrune i flere dage efter vores travetur til
de blå bjerge. Landet bærer meget præg af at det har været udsat for
heftig minedrift, der er stadig gang i et par nikkelminer her. Godt gået
, kære franskmænd.
Vi ligger nu i bugten Prony, i går tog vi vores gummibåd op af en
lille flod, hvor vi fandt et fantastisk lille ferskvands vandfald,
så var det badetid. Langs flodbredden var der flere ruiner, her havde
franskmændene haft en fangekoloni i slutningen af 1800- tallet, hvor der
havde været op til 2000 straffefanger.
På vores tur hertil har vi set flere små Kanak lanndsbyer.
Kresten og Jørgen får også lavet lektier, vi fik et par matematik spil,
hvor fidusen er jo flere opgaver der er rigtige, jo længere spilletid
får man, det dur!!!
Kresten har opdaget den engelske børnebogsforfatter Roald Dahl, så han
er også blevet bidt af en gal læsehest, som sin bror.
Vi ankom ved midnat til øen Máre (Loyalty Islands), krystalklart vand
(+30meter sigt) hep.

mare

2011-05-31T09:02:00.000+12:00

the vikings left bay de prony yesterday and arrived at máre just before
midnight. 80 miles upvind in 10-16 kn. the water is extremely clear and
we are ready to enjoy this little island on and of shore. the anchorigde
is nice and nobody else is here.

Billeder fra passagen

2011-05-26T15:19:00.000+12:00

3. day startet with 5-10 knots of wind, we had a fantastic day with our spinnaker up.
The wind picked up during the day and at sunset we took it down in the red light of the sun.
Picture showing Jørgen making ready to take it down. Boatspeed 14.0 kn, wind 10.3m/s angle 140 Kresten is helming and was in a fantastic mood.

The good wind onle lastet one day, the nest picture showes the boys controlling the boat in 25-35 kn wind and 4-5 m waves. The trip was rough but we somehow enjoyet must of it! Mostly the boys.

new caledonia

2011-05-21T18:22:00.000+12:00

STORT tillykke til mormor i Jersie med de 75 år.
I dag ankom vi endelig til New Caledonia (kl 15:43). Planen var ellers at tage til Vanuatu, men vejrudsigten som var blevet lovet holdt ikke, så vi
ændrede planer . jeg tror simpelthen ikke det kan lade sig gøre at sejle til og fra New Zealand i stille og roligt vejr .Selv vejr guruerne sagde vi
skulle tage af sted mandag: Vi har haft 20 sekundmeter op til flere gange, mellem 4 m høje bølger, tordenbyger. Alt dette er hvad Kiwierne kalder en lille
kiwi brise!! Ja, vi har meget at lærer.
Heldigvis har turen også budt på gensyn med albatrosserne, som flere gange kom helt tæt på båden, delfiner. Flyvefisk; Jens og Jørgen fik et par fisk i
hovedet om natten, i deres forsøg på at springe tværs over båden, Jens havde stadig et par fiskeskæl i ansigtet om morgenen.
Kresten er stadig utrolig til at stå op om morgenen kl 5:30 er han parat til at styrer et par timer.Jeg har brugt en del af turen til at tale med Ulrik.
Nu ligger vi en rolig bugt ved byen Noumea. Champagnen er drukket, Kresten spiller guitar, Jørgen er ved at ordne fiske grej. Tolderne holder weekendfri,
så det må vi ordne på mandag.

We arrived to New Caledonia this afternoon at 3:43 pm. We are all happy finally to be here, it has been a rough trip. So the Champagne bottle is empty,
Kresten is playing his guitar and Jørgen is looking at his fishing equipment. Customs doesn´t come until Monday!!
kirsten

20 maj kl12

2011-05-20T12:03:00.000+12:00

pos s24.48, e168.49 wind 25 gusting 35kn 170 sm to newcal all well.
kresten maid speedrekord today 18.8kn down a big wave, eta noumea 1pm
tomorrow.
the vikings

downwind

2011-05-19T15:36:00.001+12:00

yesterday we got downwind and sailed the kite all day, in the evening
the wind picked up to 25-30 kn and see got rough and both still are. all
ok but we changed destinaion to new caledonia, noumea, which is closer
and more protected. 300 sm to go
pos 19 maj 1530 nz-time s26.06 e171.19 speed 7.5 kn ourse 303
jens

first day

2011-05-17T15:36:00.000+12:00

We left Opua at 10am course Vanuatu. Weather forecast said up to 25 knot
and no rain!
Last evening Jørgen called me while I was below and with a smile on his
face asked if anything was all right below deck. I ask why and he told
me he just had passed a squall gusting 40 knots (20 m/s). A s I later
took my watch I wandered if John from "Active Transport" could drink his
beer whithout spilling in those conditions. Anyway we sailed the first
20 hours just under heavy jib. I am so grateful to have this thing
onboard. We covered 180 miles the first 24 hours, nice. We are now well
of NZ and and wind is down to 15 knots. What we had yesterday is called
"gale" in Denmark, but just a kiwibreeze in NZ (Angus).
Shawn from "Active Transport" gave us a ton of chocolate chip cookies
(homemade) before we left. Bless him they were good to have in this
conditions.
a pair of albaroses wellcommed us to th open ocean this morning
Ship and crew OK.

Going to Vanuatu

2011-05-15T13:32:00.004+12:00

Tomorrow at nine we'll chesk out from NZ and head for Vanuatu. A high is aproaching from the Tasman sea, Exabyte is ready for a 1000 sm downwind passage, so are we.

We are moving up from 35 to 19oS and will leave the Kiwi winter behind. On the northern hemisphere it will equal our trip from the Canaries to Cap Verde Islands, and the water will get warm and full of Mahi Mahis again.
Kresten went out racing on a Farr 1060 this morning obviously he don't want to spend to much time a shore.

The Vikings

From Auckland to Opua

2011-05-11T17:21:00.000+12:00

We left Auckland six days ago, a little sad as we have been there for 7 months. And the boys have really enjoyed going to school. But finally the weather seemed right; it had been a really windy and rainy Easter. We left Auckland around noon, Tina Wells was waiting on North Head waving goodbye and we had a few dinghies escorting us some of the way to Kawau Island (top picture). We stayed at Kawau for one night. Jens even got to clean the bottom of the boat. Jørgen didn´t mention to Jens, before he got out of the water, that he had seen a big Mako shark the night before circling the boat!!!

From Kawau we sailed about 40 nautical miles to Whangarei Habour , where we stayed for 3 nights. We did two hikes, one to Mt. Lion (picture 2) 400m above sea level with a fantastic view. The track was a bit slippery as it had rained the whole night.

We meet up again with Ann and Dirk s/v sailaway from Vancouver. The where also waiting to take off to Fijii. We borrowed their car so we could drive to pak’n save, on Exabyte a full fridge doesn’t last for many days, especially not with Jørgen and Kresten on board.

On our way to Bay of Islands we passed hole in the rock and off cause Jørgen caught a fish, a Skipjack Tuna no good for eating when we have gotten use to Mahi Mahi so back to the sea with Mr. Tuna.

Now we are in Opua Marina waiting for better weather it looks like we can head off to Vanuatu beginning next week, nice southerlies. Some off the cruisers have been waiting for a month, a few have even tried to leave, but they have had to turn around and head back to NZ, a kiwi breeze is serious business compared to normal Viking conditions.

So we are killing time with sewing mosquito nets, E-Book reading( hurrah we have 1000 books stored) math.(2 pages every day, not fair!!!) sundowners with John and Shawn. Cribbage, mum wins all the time (almost). Cheers, Kirsten

Student at Northcote College

2011-04-26T15:30:00.001+12:00

My time as a student at Northcote College has been short, but, it’s easy for me to say that it has been the best six months of school I’ve had in a very long time. Every morning I where looking forward to school and every Friday, arrhhh wait, maybe Saturday, I where looking forward to Monday (except for the day of my drama exam!)

My subjects:

English through Film: In film we watched the Freedom writers which we in the end of the year had to write an essay about, like find a scene in the movie and comment on it, e.g. long shot, close up, costume, music, and surroundings.

Science: chromosomes, DNA, genotype, HH, Hh, hh, reproduction (sexual and asexual).

Math (MTA): In math we were divided into three different levels MTU (for people with difficulties in math) and MTA (where I were placed) for normal people. And MTA1, for mathematic geniuses.

Graphics: architecture, mostly freehand drawing.

Physical education (PE): where we practiced our Volley ball skills and learned about the functions of your body.

Drama: Acting mostly, where the hardest thing was not to laugh in the middle of a play. At the exam we had to perform a scene of the Greek story about Oedipus where we had to wear Greek styled masks

It’s hard to say exactly, why I enjoyed my time at Northcote College so much. Maybe it’s because I hadn’t been to school in a year .Maybe it’s the Kiwis ´mentality and their hospitality. Maybe it’s the wide range of nationalities (there are student from 70 different countries at NC. Maybe its because of the better teachers. Or maybe it’s because I’m now a better and more positive person…

NZ from Krestens point of view

2011-04-25T10:30:00.000+12:00

What I have learnt in school

In math fractions, in English to write a narrative, in learning languishes learned a little German, in music I learnt to play ukulele, in p.e cricket and softball, in health bullying

Who i have meet

Mr Lai my math teacher

Ms Vuletich my English teacher

Robin Chen, Alex Eldrich, Harry Collard, Aidan Quinlan, Mikey Williams, Jackson Scanlan, Javvier Pitovao, Jayden Maeli

10 best adventures in New Zealand

Going to school, hiking, meeting new friends, trying new food, going to Danny doodles where u can get newer ending nachos for 40 dollars max 8 people, going sailing on a lot of different really fast racing boats, going to a kiwi farm in keri-keri, meeting new and interesting people, I have seen new under water live I haven’t seen before, that I have watched blues vs. hurricanes in a rugby game

I played rugby in a club that was really cool

Kresten

Rugby

2011-04-22T14:34:00.000+12:00

Kresten played his last game for Ponsonby Blacks last weekend. Lost 36 - 40, but happy and high spirit

Going home?

2011-04-12T19:03:00.000+12:00

After 2 month, working on a project for "Dansk Spule Udstyr", Denmark, I feel I am going home. Home is not Denmark, but Exabyte in Auckland, where Kirsten, Jørgen and Kresten are staying.
This is a strange feeling, what is home for a cruiser?
I have had a very good time working with the Guys (and Dorte) in Denmark and it is sad to say goodbye to all of them. I am looking forward to 16 month of adventure crossing the Indian Ocean and the Atlantic twice.

Going home 25000 miles

2011-03-22T06:52:00.008+13:00

Dep. NZ end april 2011, arrival DK app july 2012

Leg 1

Leg 2 Leg 3

Leg 4

Leg 5

Hard times

2011-03-01T18:17:00.003+13:00

Who is it?

North Island NZ

2011-01-18T11:49:00.004+13:00

Hej Calle mfl.
Her er et lille rejsebrev fra mig.
På vej til Kerikeri fik vi besøg af en stor flok Bottlenose-delfiner, der er 3-4 meter lange. Vi sad med benene ud over rælingen og fotograferede de smukke dyr, der skubbede til roret, så Exabyte rystede – fantastisk oplevelse!!
I Waipoua Kauri Forest så vi verdens største Kauri-træ – 45 meter i omkreds.
Vi har besøgt en Kiwi-farmer, som Jens før har hjulpet, de viste os stolt rundt og fortalte om deres produktion af gule kiwier.
I går tog vi i lejet bil til Waitangi-national Maori museum, hvor Kirsten og jeg bl.a. dansede med maoirierne – en stor oplevelse. Vi så også en flot udskåret maoiri-kano, der skulle roes af 75 roere.
Der loves hårdt vejr, så vi bliver v. kaj i Kerikeri i dag.
Skal hilse fra Exaerne.
Regards ”Viking-grandma” Anne Lise