Our circumnavigation part 17: A Circumnavigation interlude, again…

It’s May 2021 and the Covid situation seems to be getting better. In the middle of winter 2020/21, Ngahue IV was unloaded in Southampton and handed over to the English Hallberg-Rassy dealer. At the last minute, Sevenstar suggested taking the boat to IJmuiden. A nice offer, but not really helpful anymore at that time. What […]

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Our world trip part 10: World ARC 2020-21 – “Confiné” in Papeete on Tahiti

After a few “short messages” written during our turbulent four weeks at sea between the Galapagos and Tahiti, it’s time again for an ordinary, long article. I look at the calendar and am shocked to see that we’ve been in Tahiti for 24 days. The days go by quickly, especially when you’re not allowed to […]

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Our World Trip – a short message from the Pacific Ocean

For almost two weeks now we have been sailing in grey and rainy weather from the Galapagos to the Marquesas Islands. Is this tropical sailing? It might as well have been the English Channel, so gloomy day and night during this leg of our world trip! However, it started off very nicely when we left […]

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Our circumnavigation part 8: World ARC 2020-21 – The Panama Canal

On the Atlantic side, Shelter Bay marina, once an American base, is hidden behind a long breakwater that protects the Panama Canal against wind and currents. It is where the World ARC (WARC) fleet is prepared for the “Transit” of the Canal. On both sides, you need to pass through 3 locks: three chambers up […]

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Our circumnavigation part 7: World ARC 2020-21 – To Panama via San Blas

Make a circumnavigation with your yacht and you will always encounter new and unexpected surprises and discoveries. After Santa Marta in Columbia, I didn’t think there’d be much to write about our trip until going through the Panama Canal. But no; we saw lots of new things. So here’s a short piece about the leg […]

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Our circumnavigation part 6: World ARC 2020-21 the big adventure kicks off

Saturday 11th January 2020 saw the departure from Rodney Bay marina in Saint Lucia of the 2020-21 World ARC. 34 boats crossed the line to set off on a trip just over 820 miles to Santa Marta in Columbia. During the entire preparatory period in St. Lucia the weather had been excellent, punctuated by the […]

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Our circumnavigation part 5: Our third Atlantic crossing

The ARC-organisation had prepared two beautiful excursions for us in the Cape Verde Islands; the first one was an island tour of Sao Miguel, the island with Mindelo as it capital. The second excursion was a visit to Santo Antao, a neighbouring island which contrary to the dry Sao Miguel is a green and luscious […]

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Our circumnavigation part 4: First leg of the ARC Plus: Las Palmas to Mindelo

Cold, cold, cold and grey, grey, grey: that would be a good summary of our first ARC Plus leg from Las Palmas to Mindelo – 950 miles (860 in a straight line) and 6 full days at sea. Moreover, there was a lot of wind during the first 3 days of this trip. Nice for […]

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Our world trip part 3: Lanzarote and Gran Canaria – soon departing for the ARC-Plus

From Madeira to Lanzarote is not that far – the distance to be covered actually fits onto a single British Admiralty chart N°3133! It’s only two days sailing: just the time you need to start to get used to living on the high seas. Again I had overestimated the time needed, and we had to […]

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Our Circumnavigation – second departure. Part two: From La Coruna to Madeira

If one thing has become clear to me during our travels across the Atlantic Ocean – and I imagine that the Pacific or Indian Ocean will be no different – your ship will always be asking for “more”. When we left Bruinisse, I thought we had all the necessary things on board and that nothing […]

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