Itaparica near Salvador de Bahia in Brazil - 12°53.22'S 038°41.31'W

Thursday, 2 August 2012

 

Hello from Brazil!  And merry Full Moon parties! 

 

 

By now our clocks and watches are at UTC-3 hours.  The trip across the South Atlantic was one of the most pleasant ones we've ever had.  Only the trip from Chagos to Mauritius can compare.  The wind was mostly around 25 knots from behind, so that we didn't even unpack the mainsail at all and did everything with the genoa.  So glad to be on a multihull!  One of our friends was rolling so badly that he mostly had three reefs in the main and even at anchor his boat was rolling like mad.  Once upon a time I was considering getting myself a small monohull - but I am definitely not going to do that now.  Much rather a Wharram or a little trimaran. 

 

An amazing thing were the many whales following us, for hours and hours, sometimes for days.  We think they were finback whales.  They were surfing just a couple of meters from us, regarding us with one eye and turning their flukes sideways so that they looked like giant dorsal fins.  The first time that happened, it gave Liping quite a fright!  Fortunately we didn't hit one of them, as happened to ADIO.  Apparently the whale got quite angry, for he rammed them full power in the side, so that they now have giant dent in their boat.  Which is fortunately made of metal. 

 

 

Our arrival was just as peaceful.  While almost all the other boats head for the marina in Salvador de Bahia, we decided to bypass that horrible city altogether and sailed on to the island of Itaparica.  Much more peace and quiet and also much safer.  Salvador has one of the worst reputations anywhere and people here call it The Black Hole.  Not only because of the predominant skin color of the population, but because everything disappears there on an astronomical scale.  Post office, customs, theft, robbery, muggings - you name it.  We were told that they had to move the Cape Town race back to Rio de Janeiro after only three years here, because about 80% of the sailors got mugged in the first few days, often right between the two marinas.  But that must surely be exaggerated!

 

By now we even can take showers in the cockpit again, because it finally got a bit warmer.  Only in the daytime, though.  At night temperatures fall to 27°C or even lower.  Right now it is winter and the rainy season, so we can expect rain for weeks on end and squalls of up to 40 knots.  Hmmm...

 

Just before our arrival here, Aurora was so excited that she couldn't sleep any more.  She tried it on the sofa in the salon and that seemed to work.  You don't miss any excitement there, see.  One day before our arrival, the clouds were lit up all over the horizon from the lights of Salvador.  Amazing how much electricity we humans waste.  The closer we got, the more I got reminded of Belem in the Amazon delta.  One skyscraper standing next to the other.  Apparently everything is falling into ruin and is very dirty and neglected. 

 

Here in Itaparica there is a more village-like atmosphere of a small tourist attraction.  I was reminded of Soure in Marajó where my brother Birger and I went on DHARMA BUM I together with Dede and Riton on the VILLE DE SAINT NAZAIRE in 1989.  Hard to describe, same architecture and flat land.  Typically Brazilian. 

 

Right after arrival I launched and pumped up the dinghy, put on the outboard and went to visit Reinhart & Marlene on ADIO from Cuxhafen.  We met before in Mauritius and they are good friends of Michael on TANOA, who is by now back in Germany.  The next day we went to visit the German boat UI, as there were  two little girls for Ulani to play with.  They swim like fish and climb like monkeys, very independent minded.  Their father is working in Germany while the mother is staying here with the children. 

 

Many boats here come from Europe and are new to the Yachtie lifestyle.  We managed to get cash out of a machine and buy a cucumber for Hamsti.  Back home we had the good instant noodles Made in Taiwan.  Unfortunately our supplies are dwindling.  Next project was WiFi and Internet.  Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't and if it does, it is excruciatingly slow.  Still can do eMails once in a while, which is very nice indeed. 

 

Through my long-time friend Roy Starkey on SEALOONE (we met 1989 in Kourou) we got to know Ron Llewellyn, who lives in a house right here at the anchorage.  Ex-Special Forces in Australia, specialized in "High Altitude, Low Opening" parachute jumps with oxygen and special gear.  You only open up the chute when it is almost too late.  Often at night, as the idea is to penetrate enemy lines this way.  He did that for ten years, cross-trained and instructed Americans, the Brits and the like.  After that he quit and opened up his own sky-diving school.  Did that for many years and then went sailing.  After the first circumnavigation he thought it might be a good idea to sail from New Zealand non-stop and single-handed around Cape  Horn. 

 

There he got caught by a big storm.  The military observatory at Cape Horn measured wind velocities at 120 knots.  My God!  He was under bare poles, capsized, a Norseman terminal broke and that was that.  The mast came down and trapped the forward hatch in the open position.  Ron was only wearing a T-shirt and some kind of jumpsuit pants.  He stood on the ceiling and thought that this was most likely going to be the end, as SULA didn't seem to want to right herself again.  Fortunately she did after all and he could make it on deck and to that hatch crawling on his stomach.  But no way to do anything, as the broken mast was way too heavy.  Every wave put in many liters of 5°C cold water into SULA.  If he didn't fix the problem, she would surely sink.  He managed to destroy the hinges and wired the hatch into place.  Then back inside.  That's when he realized that he was now just about to die of hypothermia.  This was the second time he thought he wasn't going to make it.  Everything was wet, cold, full of diesel - an unbelievable mess.  I've seen the pictures.  He put on all the stuff he could find, so that he looked somewhat like the Michelin man. 

 

Then it took him two days to get the engine started.  Next was the radio and an emergency antenna.  The Chilean navy treated him very badly.  Heavy duty fines and it looked pretty sure that he would never get his boat out again if he took it to the military outpost in Puerto Williams.  Finally Ron had it and went under engine, just as the boat was, around the Horn to Ushuaia in Argentina.  His life was one big adventure.  Now he lives here with his young Brazilian wife Marli and baby Ronzinho. 

 

Life here can be very inexpensive.  A full meal with chicken, rice, noodles, beans, fruit-juice and a cafezinho is less than US$ 2!   

 

 

The other day we all had a barbecue on SEUTE DEERN from Cape Town.  Hans (72) hails from Hamburg and SangHee Lee from Korea.  Our friends Henry (Oz) and Tuk (Thailand) from PARPAR had bought three lobsters from a boat  that morning and the three Asian "girls" all cooked specialties from their country.  Delicious!  We had beer, red wine, Caipirinhas and good conversation.  Hans left Germany around 40 years ago and Henry always has excellent stories to tell from his life as a field geologist in remote areas all over the planet. 

 

By now Aurora Ulani is in the 4th grade of Calvert School, which alone means 6 1/2 hours of school every day.  Add to that Chinese and German lessons and you can imagine how busy we are.  At least it looks as if we will not have any visa-troubles for once.  As long as Liping is listed as crew on the boat, she gets pretty much the same deal as Ulani and I in Trinidad.  That is important as everybody told us it is not a good idea at all to attempt major repairs while here.  Spare parts never arrive, everything is always slow, late and costs more money than originally agreed on.  So we won't be staying all that long.  Got to get DHARMA BUM III back to the Caribbean - and after we have sold her, our sailing lifestyle will have come to an end.  Whether we can sell her up there or have to go to Australia or elsewhere is a different chapter again.  : - )

 

Here is the updated position tracker:

 

http://www.pangolin.co.nz/xtras/yotreps/tracker.php?ident=WDC7641

 

All the best, cheers and ciao! 

 

Holger, Liping & Aurora Ulani Jacobsen

Catamaran DHARMA BUM III

Itaparica, Brazil, 12°53.22'S 038°41.31'W

HolgPhone +557197039908 

GloriaPhone +557183422235 (Data)

South Africa to Saint Helena - 5 July 2012 - 15°55.04'S 005°43.14'W

 

After three weeks our time in Saint Helena is coming quickly to an end.  For us, the trip from Cape Town was one of the best we ever had.  Both the wind - mostly around 25 knots - and the swell were coming from behind, so that after the first day we took down the main completely and were moving as if on tracks.  No fuss whatsoever.  The story was very different for a friend of us, who was sailing at the same time.  A 30 foot long keeled boat apparently behaves very differently in these kind of conditions and he was having a miserable time of it with three reefs in the main and constant rolling.  Even here at the anchorage he was still rolling like crazy.  Shows again that it very much depends on what kind of boat you are on. 

 

 

 

The big swell outside of Hout Bay did cause one problem on our boat as well.  My spare battery took off, smashed into the automatic water pump and broke off a nozzle.  Since the pump is well lower than the tank, we lost all our drinking water.  Not exactly a life-threatening situation as we had bottled water and all kinds of other liquids on board.  Still, while in a pinch, I might be content to drink only "homebrew", I don't much like it for taking showers or washing my hair.  And the best of all women will get positively grumpy in this kind of situation.  I had to get water quick.  The next source was in Jamestown, Saint Helena though.  Originally we had planned to pass this island close by and sail directly to Brazil. 

 

After 16 days of sailing we arrived.  The last night we were drifting, as we didn't want to arrive in the dark.  As friends had already told us, it was a rolly anchorage in very deep water.  Not quite as bad as the one in front of Betio, Tarawa, Kiribati, but here the swell was coming from the side.   

 

After a short time we were together with old friends and acquaintances.  Just in time for my 52nd birthday party.   Henry & Tuk from  PARPAR, Kirk from SALSA, Neil from FULL MOON, as well as Bill & Melissa from RELIANT showed up. 

 

Most of the time here, I had to deal with the water-system.  I had connected a smaller spare pump, put water in the tank, nada.  Even the foot pump in the galley didn't work any more.  I had to take apart half the salon to get at the tank and open it up.  I fixed the old, stronger pump and when finally I managed to get water, it was so filthy that I had to dump it overboard.  The foot pump still wouldn't work at all and by this time I was losing my temper on a regular basis, with the slightest provocation and at ever shorter intervals. 

 

That's when I decided to change tack.  I sent my girls ashore without me, so that I could concentrate on my work.  There was another reason, though.  By this time the swell had become considerable, so that I didn't really dare to anchor my dinghy that close to the rocks.  I simply didn't trust the small anchor I had bought for the dinghy in Fiji.  If the anchor doesn't hold, you can write off dinghy and outboard motor.  Kirk did it anyway and lost his diving mask and snorkel.  He also holed his dinghy, so that it always fills with water now.  His anchor, on the other hand, held so well that he had to dive with a crowbar to retrieve it.  The joys of going to out-of-the-way places. 

 

Finally l decided that I had massive amounts of air in my water system.  I didn't help to pour in water at the top, as the back pressure was too big.   I took a powerful manual bilge pump for the dinghy and used it to push water in instead of sucking water out.  At the same time Liping operated the foot pump in the kitchen.  That finally did the trick and everything was working once more as it should. 

 

Except that I now noticed a leak in my water tank...   After a lot of swearing and two more days of work, that problem was fixed as well.  Man!  PARPAR & FULL MOON had taken off for Ascension just after my birthday and soon RELIANT was on its way too.  Kirk had quite a few problems with his windvane self-steering and was busy fixing things as well.  And as we heard later, both FULL MOON and RELIANT had problems with the SSB radios.  Only PARPAR didn't report any problems. 

 

We still had time for a  trip around the island where we had a look at the houses of Napoleon Bonaparte, his tomb, the giant tortoises, the Jacob's ladder and many other interesting sights.  Unfortunately we were sitting in the back of a pickup-truck which my back didn't like at all.  Liping and Aurora Ulani went to a barbecue picnic at Sandy Bay but I couldn't go as I had picked up some kind of virus and suffered from neck- and headaches for about three weeks. 

 

 

 

Aurora Ulani and I took her little fishing net and tried to catch some sea creatures.  She enjoys this kind of activity tremendously.  Just like her father.  After a little while we had caught some starfish, a crab and various other creatures.  The fish were too fast and the sea urchins were too well entrenched in their holes in the rocks.  Unfortunately for the crab, it was gobbled up by the starfish. 

 

The "Royal Mail Ship" RMS ST. HELENA came by.  We watched how they offloaded three containers at a time onto barges which are powered by some gigantic kind of outboard engine, which looked like heavy duty construction machinery. 

 

Then there was the big discussion whether we should go and watch the hatching sea turtle on Ascension. We had tried at Ashmore Reef between Australia and Indonesia, but were not successful.  We really would like to watch this!  However, our friends had told us that it is often impossible to go ashore there as the swell is even more of a problem.  Also, Ascension would mean quite a detour and from there to Salvador de Bahia the wind would not be on such a propitious angle compared to leaving directly from here.  Even today, when we are about to set sail, we haven't made a decision yet. 

 

 

No matter what, we have a longish time at sea ahead of us which suits us quite well.  It'll get warmer all the time, the moon will accompany us at the beginning of the trip and we are well in the trade-wind area now.   

 

Our position:  http://www.pangolin.co.nz/yotreps/tracker.php?ident=WDC7641

Tomorrow will have a good-bye party and weather permitting we will leave for Brazil pretty soon.

Tomorrow we will have a good-bye party and weather permitting we will leave for Brazil pretty soon. Winter is coming and weather windows are getting fewer and fewer. We'll probably bypass St. Helena and go straight for Salvador de Bahia. Should take us quite a while to get there....

Cheers!

Holger, Liping & Aurora Ulani
Catamaran DHARMA BUM III
Hout Bay Marina, Berth No. 90
Cape Town, South Africa
34°03.02'S 018°20.85'E
Phone 1: +27719749347 Holger
Phone 2: +27719284443 Liping

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Winter is coming to Cape Town

Monday, 30 April 2012

 

Not many of the long-distance yachtie boats are left here in Hout Bay near Cape Town, South Africa.  Most have gone across the Atlantic by now and are in South America, the Caribbean or even farther away.  It is getting noticeably colder, the frequency of storms has gone up drastically – as I write, it is blowing 52,5 knots (Force 10) – and most of us are huddling inside.  One storm is following another, so that we will have a respite of only one day before the next one starts this time.  Outside the bay, there are recorded wave heights of up to 17 meters.  Except for the residents there are only very few people left, as almost all the ones which haven't sailed, have flown away to see their families and left their boats behind for the time being. 

 

 

 

We had intended to be long gone as well.  We had waited for seven weeks for the mechanic Charles to start working on our saildrive.  Then he decided to tell us that he really didn't have the time to do the job.  We don't have enough time on our visas to go through the same routine twice and so we will head for Brazil with only one functioning saildrive.  Doesn't really matter as we use the engine only to get in and out of harbors anyway.  We were toying with the idea of leaving the boat here and visiting my family for three months.  My mother is suffering from cancer of the lymphatic system and is receiving chemotherapy.  Also, it wouldn't have been half bad to spend June/July/August in Germany to resume our trip when the winter here is over.  The school in our little village had already agreed to take Aurora Ulani in so that she could get used to the German school system.  Unfortunately all our plans fell through. 

 

We had applied for a South African visa-extension as soon as we got to Hout Bay more than two months ago.  We still haven't got it.  Things are going very slow around here and if it weren't for the approaching winter, we wouldn't mind at all.  It is a friendly little yacht club and marina here, and it is a busy fishing harbor as well.  We've befriended a few of the locals and we have met lots of people from Taiwan.  They have become very good friends by now.  These guys seem to make our life sometimes like a fairytale and they treat us like kings.  Thanks so much, guys! 

 

 

 

We did get a few things done and that is mostly thanks to the efforts of other people.  Steve Meeks, one of the sail makers of North Sails (Cape Town) has been very good from the beginning.  For a brand-new fully battened mainsail of 52 square meters, the repairs of the old main, the genoa, and the stackpack/lazyjacks he charged us less than US$ 1,900!  Even our local sailor friends find that price amazingly low.  We haven't been able to see whether it all fits properly, as the wind has simply been too strong.  According to Steve, he used the best cloth that North Sails (New York) had to offer. 

 

We have applied for a visa for Brazil and Wednesday Liping is going to apply for a new Taiwan-passport.  Don't want to get caught in the wrong place without one.  We've already had that happen twice with our German passports.  The first time it took four months and the second time it took about two months to get a new one.  Here it is supposedly only taking three weeks and since we have to wait for the visa for Brazil anyway, it makes sense to get it here. 

 

 

 

 

We got Aurora Ulani's Calvert School materials for 4th grade, which she will start in the beginning of August.  It was quite an act to get them as they were held by customs and they neglected to inform anybody.  Also, Cape Mail is in the middle of nowhere in Epping so that I was very happy indeed when our friend Anna offered me a ride in her car.  Things are moving along slowly and I fear that it may well be June and the beginning of winter when we finally get on our way.  We will try to go due north to take advantage of the Benguela current, although that means it will be cold and foggy for a long part of the trip.  The next update will probably from Brazil or the Caribbean, depending on how things go.  You can always see where we are at http://pangolin.co.nz/yotreps/tracker.php?ident=WDC7641 . 

 

OK, ciao for now and cheers!

 

Holger, Liping & Aurora Ulani
Catamaran DHARMA BUM III
Hout Bay Marina, Berth No. 90

Cape Town, South Africa

34°03.02'S 018°20.85'E
Phone 1: +27719749347 Holger

Phone 2: +27719284443 Liping

Three Months South Africa

3/3/2012

Hi guys,

 

It's about time I wrote something in here again.  After all, we have been in this country for almost three months now.  Things in Richards Bay took an abominably long time as everything comes to a standstill at the beginning of December and it stayed that way until almost the middle of January.  Finally we were able to get a new shroud, which set us back about one "boat unit" of € 1,000 (US$ 1,250).  We used the waiting time to visit several national parks together with our friends Michael and his wife Sylvia from TANOA.  We saw lions, elephants, giraffes, cape buffalo, rhinos, hippos, crocodiles and a lot of other animals in the wild.  Cheetahs and leopards were conspicuously absent, though.  When Sylvia left for Hamburg, Edmund came with the same plane which took her away.  We had known Edmund on his own catamaran FELICITAS while we were in New Zealand.  Now he planned to sail with Michael all the way back home. 

 

Finally all was ready, the weather forecast was favorable and we took off.  First the Raymarine autopilot died.  The starboard engine stopped running as there seemed to be air in the system.  I replaced the linear drive of the autopilot, all the time being quite seasick, unfortunately to no avail.  We had to go into Durban to get this stuff fixed and we had to hand-steer until we got there.  Then, already inside the harbor, I started to go a bit slower - and the other engine died as well.  I had no choice, but to drop the anchor, which pleased port control no end. 

 

After Michael and Edmund had a quick look, I decided to get professional help.  The mechanic Jonathan quickly diagnosed and solved the engine problem, so that both 40 horse Volvos were working properly again.  One more time (hopefully the last) the main problem was caused by the incompetent mechanic in Thailand.  The autopilot was another matter.  I needed a new course computer, which cost another € 2,700 (US$ 3,375).  Bummer!  Finally we could clear out once more and when we were barely outside the harbor, I had to steer innumerable circles to align the compass of the new course computer and then had to complete the "auto-learn" feature, which entailed a rather long zigzag course.  By that time TANOA wasn't even to be seen any more.  They'd had their own nasty experience before, because they had sailed 300 miles for nothing, as the weather forced them to turn back to Durban.  Michael is a professional seaman and has a captains license for ships, so you can guess what conditions were like.  The "Wild Coast" is really not the right place to fool around in during bad weather. 

 

Of course the inclement weather was just waiting for us.  We all had to seek shelter in Port Elisabeth.  Gerold on his MOMO was in the marina, but since we wanted to avoid the endless paperwork, we decided to anchor outside the harbor.  I switched off the autopilot – and immediately lost all our steering.  I had to use the emergency tiller and the auto pilot again.  Both steering cables had snapped.  Poor Edmund spent hours in our engine room, as he had done in New Zealand.  Port Control wanted us in the marina, but I strictly refused.  We got permission to enter the harbor by dinghy the next day.  Gerold, Edmund and I got the new cables and then Edmund and Michael worked like maniacs to install everything, as they planned to leave that very evening.  When the wind plays ball here, you must make every effort to take advantage of it. 

 

The plan was to go around Cape Agulhas, which is in actual fact the southernmost cape in Africa, and not the Cape of Good Hope as many erroneously believe.  French sailing legend (and my and Elis inspiration) Bernard Moitessier called Cape Agulhas "one of the three great capes".  The local fisherman seem to agree with that assessment.  TANOA, having a wider variety of sails and being generally faster than us, actually made it around on the fist go, but we got caught by the weather again.  We tacked in all morning to Struisbaai only to find out that there was pretty much no shelter from the wind.  Also, there is a wreck which is shown incorrectly on the chart.  After the worst wind had died down a bit, we left again in the evening and rounded Cape Agulhas at 8:00 pm. 

 

We had intended to go right around the Cape of Good Hope, which is also sometimes called the Cape of Storms.  They say that every year there are 100 days of Force 11 (56 knots or more) or even higher winds around there.  I sure as hell don't want to sail around there during the worst time of the year!  Once again the radio told us about bad weather coming our way.  The weather forecasts were very often wrong, but you ignore them at your peril.  We decided to head for Hermanus, which again took the whole morning of tacking.  When we arrived we saw lots of rock, kelp, seals and a truly tiny harbor.  Nowhere to anchor really.  As nobody answered on the VHF, I anchored in the entrance and put the dinghy in the water.  Nada.  I was getting pretty frantic at the time and even considered to head out into the weather.  The radio upgraded the situation into a "gale warning" with "Very Rough Seas".  You can actually hear the capital letters.  Perfect! 

 

Suddenly Cape Town Radio was on the line and after a seemingly interminable interview they promised that they would call the Hermanus people on the phone.  Nothing happened for several hours.  The promised official didn't show up.  By then I had decided to go into the harbor, one engine or no.  The wind had picked up quite a bit already when suddenly a big RIB of "Sea Rescue" showed up.  I definitely had not asked for those guys, but nonetheless I was more than happy to have them there.  Henk with his powerful engines could tow me wherever he wanted, while the other two guys in the RIB were taking up slack and making sure that all went well.   Still, it took about an hour, until we were finally tied up to a huge mooring there. 

 

All was not well, as the mooring balls were connected by chains which acted like a hacksaw and proceeded to cut into my freshly painted boat.  There was not much we could do, as the wind was getting stronger and the whole next day we huddled inside.  When it died down a bit I went ashore in the dinghy where I met Boet Scheun, who originally comes from Namibia and even speaks German.  He runs a commercial diving school and when I asked him about directions to the next supermarket, he immediately offered to drive us all there.  The mooring problem had meanwhile been solved, but now one of the hard mooring balls kept slamming into our side.  I winched it up, but it wasn't really satisfactory.  When Liping had bought about one cubic meter of provisions, we called Boet who promptly picked us up.  Then he showed me pictures of a big storm, where the whole harbor had been under water and several ships sunk.  To show our appreciation for all his troubles, we invited him and Francois on board for a "sundowner".  As far as we are concerned, the friendliness and willingness to help is the best part of South Africa for us. 

 

The morning after we finally made it around the Cape of Good Hope.  We drifted the whole night in the vicinity, as we didn't want to arrive at our destination in Houtbaai in the dark.  Our friends Kirk of SALSA and Lars of LUNA were waiting at the dock when we arrived.  As before, the starboard engine was running, but it provided no thrust whatsoever.  Something is probably broken in the gearbox.  The mechanic is supposed to come next week, all our sails and the sail-cover are with the sail maker and we have already applied for a three-month visa extension.  Joshua Lin from the "unofficial Taiwan consulate" drove us all over the place so that Liping could buy Chinese foodstuffs, which are essential for good cooking.  We have already ordered the materials for 4th grade from Calvert School as Aurora Ulani is going to finish 3rd grade around the end of June or in July. 

 

Next on the agenda is the visa for Brazil.  Liping has to to appear in person at the consulate.  Trinidad & Tobago have made it clear that she can only apply for a visa in her home country, which means we have to send the passport by courier service to Taiwan and back again.  Very expensive and time consuming.  TANOA is taking off to Namibia today, while LUNA is on the hard in Cape Town.  SALSA, MOMO & DAKOTA are still here as well as many other new friends. 

 

Last night we went to a party on land and were told by one artist there, that she had never heard somebody talk so much about an eight-year-old child.  (Kirk? Lars? Who?)  She seems to be getting quite a reputation among the yachties!  Fortunately there was a black cat, she got a present of a book about cats and then there was Tuk from Thailand which she knew since Mauritius.  We learned a lot of new things about this country and had a very interesting evening. 

 

Today DAKOTA-Peter invited us into a posh fish restaurant here, in order to thank us for the numerous computer jobs.  All is well on board, our daughter is playing with two kids from the boat next to us and for me and Liping there is always enough to do.  Boredom is certainly not one of the problems here. 

 

Cheers!

 

Holger, Liping & Aurora Ulani
Catamaran DHARMA BUM III
Hout Bay Marina, Berth No. 90

South Africa

34°03.02'S 018°20.85'E
Phone 1: +27719749347 Holger

Phone 2: +27719284443 Liping

DHARMA BUM III in Durban now - tales of woe ;-)

Hi guys,

 

How are you doing?  And where are you? 

 

When we left Richards Bay last Monday, we realized that the autopilot wasn't working.  Soon after the stbd-engine quit as well.  So hand-steering in following seas for Gloria, while I almost threw up in the engine room replacing the linear drive for the Raymarine autopilot.  It took bloody hours & hours & hours...

 

Unfortunately it still didn't work.  The wind stayed quite strong from behind, but we decided to slow down so as to arrive in Durban at daybreak.  Around 2:00 am the wind started to come straight on the nose, fortunately not very strong.  We switched on the port engine.  After passing about 100 ships at anchor we made it into the harbour, where our friends Michael & Edmund on TANOA were in the marina already.  I called them on the VHF to tell them that we only had one engine and they told us that  the marina was full and we had to anchor.  Suited me just fine.  Michael got the dinghy ready and he and Edmund came out to meet us. 

 

When I entered Silburn channel, I took down the revs - and the second engine quit as well!  I dropped the anchor immediately and we stayed there over night.  The next morning we got chased away and now we have two anchors out, while our stern is secured with two lines to a mooring-block.  Which comes right out of the water at low tide.  People could actually climb right onto our boat at low tide.  If the anchors don't hold, we  will certainly be in trouble.  At least it is not more than R 50 / day. 

 

I got hold of the Raymarine dealer (Steve at Fonzmarine), removed the old course computer (which didn't show any power going to the linear drive) and handed it over to Fonz Marine.  The next day they told me that the computer had to be replaced and the new one was not compatible with the old control unit.  I almost fell on my back when they told me that the computer alone is R 27,000!!!

 

Next step was a good diesel mechanic.  I had realized that I had lost all freshwater and the engine had overheated.  When the engine had cooled down, I poured in a couple of litres of fresh water and immediately heard it dripping in the back.  Waterpump?  That was also the verdict of Michael & Edmund on TANOA.  And of the friendly diesel mechanic called Jonathan, who had been recommended by Rob Bowman who seems to do most of the mechanical work at the marina and the club.  A new water pump from Cape Town would be another R 7,000.  I felt faint at this point...

 

The next day Jonathan came back with a gleaming water-pump.  He saw my face and to top it up, he said that I would HAVE TO buy a spare one for the other engine.  He then proceeded into the engine room. 

 

Suddenly our luck turned.  Jonathan said that we might be lucky, because he had found out that the previous mechanic (the dreaded Virat of Thailand) had thinned the water-hose with a knife from the inside to make it fit.  Under pressure it didn't hold up.  Jonathan put a new fitting, added two outboard-style rubber pumps to the fuel lines to make bleeding the engines easier and fired up.  Hooray!  No more water-leaks, no more air in the fuel system, everything bingo!  I will have to carefully monitor the engines, though. 

 

TANOA left on a good weather forecast and now I am waiting for the costly course computer.  It will take a while.  First the wire transfer has to come through and then the damn thing has to be ordered from Cape Town.  Merde alors!  We have to have left the country by 14th March and before that we have to have gotten the Brazilian visa in Cape Town (interview in person).  Time flies like an arrow! 

 

This morning my computer gave me serious kinds of trouble, but after several hours I decided on a radical cure and simply uninstalled the offending program.  Next on the agenda is the exchange of the linear drive to the original one and then one of these years we might actually be able to leave Durban.  We are quite looking forward to that.  <Grin>

 

Cheers!

 

Holger, Liping & Aurora Ulani
Catamaran DHARMA BUM III
Durban, South Africa
29°51.88'S 031°01.60'E

Phone 1: +27719749347 Holger

Phone 2: +27719284443 Liping

New Pix: http://picasaweb.google.com/KrautHolg/LakeSaintLucia#

New pix uploaded - Neue Bilder hochgeladen

 

http://picasaweb.google.com/KrautHolg/LakeSaintLucia#

http://picasaweb.google.com/krautholg/Hluhluwe# National Park Pictures

http://picasaweb.google.com/krautholg/Hluhluwe# 

 

Uploaded new pictures from our visit to the Hluhluwe and iMfolozi National Parks on Aurora Ulani's 8th birthday on 30 December 2011. 

 

Neue Bilder von unserem Besuch bei den Hluhluwe und iMfolzoi Nationalparks an Aurora Ulanis 8. Geburtstag am 30. Dezember 2011. 

 

 

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

 

Hope you are faring well and that 2012 will be a good year for you!

 

DHARMA BUM III is now in Richards Bay, South Africa after we almost lost our rig just three days before we got here.  When a strong wind blows against  the Mozambique Current, the waves build quickly to a considerable height.  Our port shroud parted, Aurora Ulani was talking about wires and cables, pointed - and I almost got a heart attack when I realized what was going on.  Three times lucky now:  First the toggle in Kiribati, then the chainplate in Singapore and now the shroud itself.  All on the port side.  And this after we had completely changed our standing rigging in Chaguaramas, Trinidad in 2006. 

 

Well, here we are now and people are going out of their way to be friendly and helpful.  Here at the "wall" in Tuzi Gazi at the "International Moorings" (where you clear in) we don't even have to pay a cent!  And since we got access to shorepower and tap-water, Liping has been washing all our stuff in the cheapo washing machine we bought in Thailand.  We are looking forward to a visit in the game park which isn't far from here.  Lions, leopards, cheetahs, rhinos, elephants, gnu, warthogs and many other animals can be seen there.  And, this is the first time I am eligible to a senior citizen discount.  I haven't quite decided whether I should be pleased about that or not. 

 

The sail from Madagascar was pleasant all the way to Bazaruto Island in Mozambique.  After that the weather turned capricious and the weather forecasts as well.  Madagascar itself was a bit of a culture shock with us, but since I wrote about that in my blog, I am not going to go into details here.  Mauritius was good & we made quite a few new friends there.  We spent a lot of time with Elie, Marie-Laure & Jules of OBERON from New Caledonia and feel sad that we can't spend any more time with them.  Our plans are just too different.  

 

As far as Asia is concerned:  We prefer to be on land there instead of living on a boat.  As there is almost no wind at all, most people use the engine all the time.  I really hate doing that for various reasons.  Also, I want to sail around the world instead of motoring!  But still, Asia felt very much like home.  You can eat out as often as you like, things are comparatively inexpensive and you can buy all the essentials.  

 

After our numerous repairs, we will slowly inch our way around the coast of South Africa to Cape Town.  Weather permitting of course.  The next step will be Brazil (if we get the visa for Liping) and then Bequia in St. Vincent and the Grenadines in the Caribbean, where we will have completed our circumnavigation.  We'll put DHARMA BUM III up for sale and fly to Germany to put Ulani to school there.  Our intention is to give it two years.  If we have settled in, have found work and all that, fine.  If not, we'll move back to Taiwan and stay there. 

 

We have noticed that Aurora's English is way better than her German or Chinese.  A lot of the credit goes to Calvert School, a truly excellent homeschooling program.  It is also a fact, that we meet a lot more English-speaking children than any others.  So she lacks practice in both languages, although we do reading & writing in both of them every day before we even start with Calvert.  So it goes...  :-/

 

The highlights this year were of two different kinds.  Chagos was a place that I would rank at the top anywhere, even including the Pacific.  Truly wonderful!  Hopefully it will be accessible in the future.  And for me personally, it was so great to finally see my novel "Double Trouble at Sea" at "Barnes & Noble" and similar outfits.   I had started it 14 years, 3 months and 15 days before it finally got published.  Kind of daunting, but I have every intention to go for another book, hopefully a novel again.  Should have enough material <grin>. 

 

Right, that's all for now.  Have to go on with repairs!

 

Cheers!

 

Holger, Liping & Aurora Ulani
Catamaran DHARMA BUM III
Richards Bay, South Africa
28°47.69'S 032°04.71'E

Phone 1: +27719284443 Voice

Phone 2: +27748375470 Data/Voice

New pix uploaded! Neue Bilder hochgeladen! http://picasaweb.google.com/krautholg/Madagascar#

New pix uploaded!  Neue Bilder hochgeladen!

 

http://picasaweb.google.com/krautholg/Madagascar# 

 

Holger, Liping & Aurora Ulani

Catamaran DHARMA BUM III

+261334078800 Airtel/Zain

+261348172664 Telma/Internet

Crater Bay, Nosy Be, Madagascar

13°24.04'S 048°13.11'E

Madagascar- All is not well in paradise

Thursday, October 20, 2011

 

We have now been here in Madagascar for 53 days.  On the last possible day of our visas we cleared out of Mauritius.  The sail from Mauritius was pleasant, slow and uneventful - just the way we like it.  After one week at see, we saw the island of Ile Sainte-Marie on the east coast of Madagascar ahead and at the same time we noticed humpback whales around us.  For the first time ever, we saw a whale diving and the fluke out of the water, the way it is depicted in numerous photos.  We were pretty excited, I tell you. 

 

A dark red boat overtook us under engine while we sailed slowly under genoa and we had a little chat with Henry on PARPAR on the VHF radio.  We had met him in Mauritius.  Clearing-in lived up to expectations.  Most of the officials wanted a little "gift" either in the form of money or a small bottle of whisky.  While this  process was not exactly inexpensive, it did not present the biggest problem.  That was  reserved for the bank.  There was no CIRRUS or MAESTRO ATM machine, only VISA was accepted.  Cool, I thought, as I had just obtained a German Postbank VISA ATM card in Mauritius.  Unfortunately that one didn't work either and we didn't have enough dollars in cash to even pay the officials.  In the end we had no other option but to use the VISA Gold Card for a cash advance, probably the most expensive way to get at your money while abroad.  Still, it had already proved its worth when paying the fees for the Panama Canal in 2006. 

 

A little while later we had our 90-day visas and met our friends in a kind of tourist bar, where we  celebrated our safe passage and arrival in Africa.  The next few days we were kind of busy.  There is always something to do on a boat and we had to find out what to do about  Liping's visa for South Africa.  This didn't work out by eMail.  After I phoned the South African embassy in the capital Antananarivo, they only told me that they would read the eMail one of these days and in the end we never really got a useful answer.  They did tell us, however, that we would have to travel to the capital in person, which is a trip of several days, mostly in a four-wheel-drive truck without shock absorbers on very bad roads. 

 

So we tried a different tack.  An eMail to the South Africa office in Taipei was answered immediately and Ms. Natalie Ng informed us that it would be no problem to do the paperwork over there.  Moreover, there would  be no fees.  Since Ile Sainte-Marie is mainly a tourist place, it would be better to try and do this in Nosy Be.  As our friend Arne from IEMANJA had  warned us that there would be no rain on the west coast, we spent one day in pouring rain to fill our water tanks.  And since our friends Elie, Marie-Laure & Jules of OBERON were just half day's sail away, we decided to visit them in Manumpana.  

 

First I had to clean the bottom, though.  I had noticed whales right at the anchorage of Ambodifototra and when I went into the water, I was delighted to hear the whales singing.  I had never thought that I would ever hear this amazing sound by myself in the wild.  Wonderful!  When I think about all these experiences that make our lives so rich and interesting, I sometimes contemplate to make this yachtie-lifestyle permanent. 

 

When heading towards the  entrance of Manumpana, my thoughts were completely different.  Reefs  everywhere, charts all wrong, anxiety of the highest order.  If we had followed the charts, we would have lost the boat, as there was quite a strong wind blowing with the resultant heavy swells.  When right next to us a gigantic coral head surfaced, I cursed our way of life with all my heart.  Fortunately we were forewarned and so we followed Arne's waypoints instead of the charts.  Once past the reef, everything was idyllic.  Later we heard that one of our friends had almost lost his boat there and finally had to give up on Manumpana. 

 

Elie was totally astonished that  we had arrived  that fast, as all our friends know that we are the slowest boat imaginable.  When the wind is strong, however, DHARMA BUM III really gets up and going.  Most other boats start to put in reefs at that time, but our boat likes strong wind.  We had a wonderful week with OBERON, but we noticed that they were just as culture-shocked as we were.  And this after they had sailed pretty much all over the  world in the last 20 years.  Like Elie said, this was the first  truly third world place any of us had ever been.  Even the deepest Papua New Guinea or Kiribati are not quite comparable.  During the dry season people starve and are often forced to give up their land, their zebu or their meager possessions just to survive.  They still use the old slash and burn agriculture methods that were in use for millennia here.  The population was small then, but now it is effectively destroying the environment.  But the people don't want to change what has worked for so long.  And here at the coast they were lucky, as they had access to fish, shrimp, lobster, octopus, squid and other seafood.  Further inland and especially in the high plateaus and mountains, hunger bellies are everywhere. 

 

Unfortunately the time with our good friends  had  to come to an end as they had to wait for French CNED homeschooling materials there, while we had to take care of the visa.  So off we went to round the dreaded Cap D'Ambre.  Over there the wind is usually very strong and so is the current.  The best way to round the cape is just half a mile offshore.  When our boatspeed reached 12 knots, I decided to take in all sail except for about 30% of the genoa.  We still surfed along at 12.8 knots!  No longer dangerous, but rather exhilarating.  We could observe whales again as well as a big turtle.  The white lighthouse with the black top looked very well kept and even beautiful, but later we heard that it rarely functions.  Just like all the other things in Madagascar.    

 

When we arrived in Crater Bay on the tourist island of Nosy Be, we anchored right behind BYAMEE.  Originally they had planned to leave so that Paul could watch the rugby world cup in South Africa, but as Darien and Aurora Ulani were so happy at seeing each other again, Paul & Joyce changed their plans.  Soon they played with Nadine, the eight year old daughter of Graham (UK) and Veronica (South African Indian) on the catamaran NOW NOW.  They have been coming here for 16 years. 

 

In Hellville (what a name!) we had to pay another 100,000 Ariary (US$ 54) to the harbormaster and then we got our cruising permit which is free of charge.  The real shocker came at DHL World Express (Deutsche Post), which charged us US$ 130 to send the passport to Taiwan.  As with the officials, we had to go twice, this time because we didn't carry that much money and you have to pay in cash.  As I write this, the passport is already on its way back. 

 

Here we mostly worked on the boat, which was extremely frustrating.  I had an electric problem with the fan in my cabin, but all the cables were glued behind the headliner.  I had no other option, but to rip it off.  Then I had to cut quite a few cables and at one point nothing in my cabin worked any more.  I was  ready to murder the designers as well as the headliner guys in Thailand which had caused the problem by simply twisting the wires together before gluing the headliner back on.  Then I got sick and was out of commission for a few days.  Soon my girls followed suit.  When I was reasonably okay again, I decided to do less strenuous work for a while and worked on my novel. 

 

Finally, 14 years, 3 months and 15 days after I had begun it, my novel was published by CreateSpace of Amazon.com!  I am so glad that the book is finally available in the printed version and I even made my self-imposed deadline before Christmas.  Unfortunately here I am unable to order a second proof, so that I can only hope that most of the errors, formatting mistakes and typos have been eradicated.   Every change I make from now on will cost money. 

 

Here I MOSTLY spent time with Henry & Tuk of PARPAR, "Palain" and his girlfriend from the purple Swiss boat MERLIN, Norwegian Lars on LUNA, American "Captain" Kirk of SALSA and a few other yachties. 

 

While most people rave about the scenic beauty of the place and the happy people here, Liping and I cannot ignore the suffering and the numerous problems here.  Sure, there seems to be more laughter here than in your average European or American city, but there is so much wrong here, that I hesitate to enumerate it all.  As one guy put it:  "The people have a problem getting old here."  Nothing ever works properly.  There are almost no hospitals or real schools, there is extreme poverty, hunger, corruption, injustice, political instability and the ever present threat of civil war, where law and order breaks down completely in a heartbeat.  The people are so desperate, that they try every which way to get  their hands on some money.  As  Elie put it: "In business here there are no friends."  They steal whenever they have  a chance and even burglarize each other.  Some French development aid agricultural specialists offered one of their more reliable workers  a steady job with a reasonable income and even agreed to pay the  school fee for his children.  The man joyfully took up the offer.  A little while later he was caught burglarizing the home of his benefactors. 

 

Whereas the previous government was corrupt as well, there were at least schools, hospitals, roads  and so on being built and there were attempts to protect the unique environment here.  Since the DJ strongman came to power, this has all come to en end.  One guy (won't mention any names here) says that there has been no progress whatsoever in the last few decades, the development workers are totally demoralized and one local engineer sadly voiced the thought that they would be better off, if they were a colony again. 

 

For us sailors the talk often concerns the Somali pirates which are in the area.  One of our friends was anchored in Mayotte behind the reef, when they heard a mayday on the VHF.  A container vessel was being attacked by pirates, but because they could go up to 21 knots and take other evasive action, they were successful in thwarting the attack.  This was less than a day's sail from where we are now. 

 

The other topic of conversation are the ferocious storms in the southern part of the Mozambique channel.  When the wind blows right against the strong Mozambique current, the situation can quickly become murderous.  That doesn't make for peaceful sleep at night.  In fact, almost all of us will be very relieved when we have finally made it safely to Cape Town. 

 

Once we have Liping's passport back, we intend to make a short trip to Momoko island where there are tame lemurs and giant turtles.  After that we will leave here,  slowly going down the coast before jumping off around Cape Andre and set course for Bazaruto island in Mozambique and finally down to Richards Bay in South Africa.  ARCTRACER left a while ago, yesterday PARPAR, LUNA, SALSA & QUEST left, today GERONIMO followed suit.  MERLIN is still here, NOW NOW will remain here and it looks very much as if we will be the last boat to leave.  Again. 

 

Anyway, guys, I hope my next update will be a bit more upbeat and I will try to upload a few selected photos to: http://picasaweb.google.com/krautholg/Madagascar#

 

Cheers!

 

Holger, Liping & Aurora Ulani

Catamaran DHARMA BUM III

+261334078800 Airtel/Zain

+261348172664 Telma/Internet

Crater Bay, Nosy Be, Madagascar

13°24.04'S 048°13.11'E