Category Archives: Pics

Pictures from the Pacific crossing

Posted on Monday August 27th, 2012 by dafdaf

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Rancho Relaxo vs. Felsen

Posted on Friday August 24th, 2012 by laloca

Taoha ! Es ist was Krasses passiert, aber uns und der RR geht es gut. Wir sind gegen einen Felsen gekracht ! Vor ein paar Tagen, als wir unter Segel von Fatu Hiva abgelegt haben, ist das Unglueck passiert. Erst haben wir uns kaum bewegt, da es gerade keinen Wind gab… der ist aber ploetzlich gekommen, in Form von einer Fallboehe. Ha !


Ich war vorne an der Ankerwinsch und sehe wie wir uns doch auf einmal mit vier Knoten Richtung grosse schwarze dichte Wand bewegen. Spooky. Ich fange an zu schreien “drehen, drehen, DRE-HEN!” Aber bis David die Genoa raus hatte (um das ueberforderte Grosssegel auszubalancieren) waren wir nur noch ein paar Meter vom Fels entfernt. Und dann waren wir schon da. Ich habe uns erstmal weggeschoben, da haben wir angefangen zu drehen, alles knapp 20cm weg vom Stein… ich dachte, uff ! – Wir schaffen es. Aber nicht. Es gab noch ein miserables Stueck Stein an der Wasseroberflaeche … Krach ! Krasses Knacken. Das war nicht gut. Das war echt nicht gut. Kurz habe ich gedacht, mmmmm, jetzt geht es ab nach Hause :( Aber unsere Rancho Relaxo hat uns mal wieder gerettet. Wir haben nun zwei schoene Schrammen und eine nach innen gewoelbte Beule am am steuerbord Bug – aber Loch gibt es keines. Hey, jetzt freue ich mich, dass wir ein Stahlschiff haben !


So hat unsere Reise nach Hiva Oa angefangen. Danach war alles ok, ausser dass David den ganzen Tag nicht gesprochen hat. Wir sind dann -natuerlich- in der Nacht angekommen, und David hat den Motor waerend des Trips wieder zum Leben gebracht um hier rein zu kommen – zum Glueck, da es die letzte Meile in den Hafen rein ueberhaupt keinen Wind gab. Wie es sein muss, in dem Augenblick als die 20 Meter Kette runter waren, hat sich der Motor von selbst wieder verabschiedet. Der Anker hat gluecklicherweise sofort gehalten. Spaeter hat
David noch den Heckanker und 35m Leine ausgebracht. Aber eins ist klar: ohne Motor gehe ich in keine weitere enge Bucht rein !


Am folgenden Tag sind wir ins “village” gewandert und haben uns Steaks, Salat, Burger, Eis und M&M’s gegoennt … ouhh yeah ! Ah ! Und wir haben auch Alec mit dem gruenen Pick up getroffen. Ich habe schon so viele unglaublich schoene Tatoos gesehen… dass ich getraumt habe, ich haette eins wie ein Liane vom Fuss bis zum Hinterkopf.

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Waiting for the port captain

Posted on Saturday July 21st, 2012 by dafdaf

Yesterday at 4pm we stood in front of his door for the first time but he was ‘in a meeting’. At around 6pm we gave it another try but again: meeting. Today we got up extra early to maybe find him free for us. After a boat-taxiride and a 15 minute walk into the village we again found him in a meeting. Well. So we spend our time travelling back and forth in between the village and our boat. Or we roam the beach and watch the iguanas and crabs.

The island is quite different from San Cristobal. The streets are unpaved and the houses much nicer, the nature is even more meager.  The Iguanas are much smaller and the nice and bright beach is interrupted by black lava rocks. Those are the same rocks that we found in the entrance to the anchorage. It’s quite interesting to navigate in between those obstacles and I guess at night it’s quite dangerous. The anchoring is not that nice here as there is quite some swell entering and the weather is mostly misty – bad for our energy input.

Continuation of the above entry at 7:30pm: Finally in the early afternoon the port captain found some time for us and we could present our case. He told us to get going as fast as possible and repeated everything all the other people of the office already told us. Thereafter we found ourselfes in a small office where another officer took about two hours to type the protocol, make a copy of our passports, ask stupid questions while we studied a copy of the ecuatorian maritime law that lie on a table. In the end we were back at the Rancho Relaxo around 3pm and I could finally fix the engine. (Replace the fuel filter again.) So it’s working now but noone knows for how long. But for sure long enough to exit the harbour.

Tonight we’ll have the crew of the SY Red Sky Night from Australia aboard our ship and we’ll have a drink or two. They will also start towards the Marquesas in a few days and as they got a faster ship than ours, we’ll probably arrive around the same time.  Tomorrow after the breakfast we’ll be going….

Oh ! And I nearly forgot: Today we also saw Penguins !! Unfortunately we didn’t have a camera with us.

Last thing: During the voyage our satphone wll be turned on every day at 18:00 UTC for one hour.

Posted in Animals, LosLocos, Pics, Plants, Rancho Relaxo, Sailing | 1 Comment

Updated route

Posted on Tuesday July 17th, 2012 by dafdaf

After one year, I updated our PLANNED route. Finally a couple of important changes are reflected. As we’re now planning to sail to New Zealand for the south-summer and instead of visiting India and east Africa we might now focus on Asia. (Because of the pirates that cover the entire Indian Ocean from India down to Madagascar !)  But don’t take our plan too seriously as we will change it again – promised !

For more details, click the image or ‘The route’ up in the menue.

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Thank you for visiting the capital of paradise !

Posted on Tuesday July 17th, 2012 by dafdaf

That’s what we can read on the sign, when walking towards the dinghy dock. And this way we took a couple of times today. With a big crate filled with grapefruit, oranges and lemons. With bags of potatoes, carrots and onions. Small packs of fresh spices, apples, tomatoes, and some other stuff – as well as two whole bunches of bananas, about 30 kg.

Well, we’re moving our house again. Somehow sad because Galapagos was really fantastic. But we already gave away our passports to get the necessary stamps and tomorrow we’ll pull the iron out of the sand and set sails.

Towards the Marquesas (yes, that destination is now clear !), across the “Big Blue”. – 3000 miles without stop. And without the possibility of a stop. But we’ve done good shopping and I’ve got two new fishhooks. Should be good.

The day after tomorrow we’ll might do another posting with pictures from the Isla Isabela (if we find internet there). Otherwise there will be our daily posts via shortwave radio as soon as we start the crossing.

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Coconuts and pets

Posted on Saturday July 14th, 2012 by dafdaf

Somehow there seems to be a relation between those two. After our last dinner together with Tamora, Papillon and Mares, the owner of the restaurant gave us a big bag of coconuts. Since then we sometimes heard a faint scratching or crawling behind the walls and in some of our lockers. Could it be possible ? Did we finally manage to establish cockroaches on board ? No. The trail of small, black excrements we found the next morning made it clear: a rodent of medium size found a new home on the Rancho Relaxo !
The kids immediately liked the idea of a new pet, named it ‘Elvis’ and wanted to build a small Lego house for the rat. But the capitana threatened to move out: “Either Elvis moves, or I do !” So it was that the skipper and the two short ones went into the village to search for a trap. It wasn’t too easy to find it, but we finally came back home with the classic model with an extra strong spring. That should work !
Back on bord, the situation got more complicated: The capitana got a terrible stomach ache and despite us having different causes in mind, in the end it was the disgust of the rat that caused her stomach cramps. In the evening we put a small piece of cheese in the trap and everyone went to bed quite excited.
Big disapointment on the next morning: The trap went off but was empty ! – No trace of Elvis. Or actually that’s not true as he ate the cheese and then feasted on a bunch of bananas that the careless crew forgot on the saloon table.

Sensitive people and rat lovers: Don’t klick the last picture !!

The day passes with a lot of music. As planned, the skipper started to learn Guitar when entering the Pacific. The kids accompany his first musical steps with melodica and E-piano. All that while in the aft, the capitana arches because of her stomache cramps.
But this night we have a different plan: As Elvis obviously enjoys a very healthy diet, we’ll put a piece of banana in the trap and place that on the saloon table. To help the crew get sleepy we finally do a movie night – it’s been a long time. At 22hrs everybody is in the bunks and fast asleep.

At around 03h in the morning, the always watchful skipper awakenes and has to pee… – As I weasel through the dark saloon I noticed the trap has moved slightly ! And in the faint moonlight I thought I could see something small and round beside the trap. Maybe Elvis isn’t all that clever and we… I turn on the light and see the rat run to the far side of the saloon table. He again managed to get the food out of the trap and he only lost ONE whisker (!) when the trap snapped ! But now he’s behaving like most Galapagos animals and shows no fear of humans. He just sits at the table and stares at me while I – without turning away my eyes, I reach behind my back to get the machete we used the evening bevore to open coconuts. I lift it above my head – one stoke ! And I put a 1cm deep cut into our saloon table – and Elvis does his last twitch. I throw our former crew member over bord and hear the capitana sigh in her sleep. Next day her stomach ache is gone.

What I find funny about this somehow morbid story: The Galapagos are some of the strictest islands when it comes to quarantine rules. It’s pretty impossible to enter these islands with an animal aboard. Even to bring fruit or vegetables is not always easy. But it is exactly here that we and the SY Mares managed to get a rat on our ships. Hmmm. Maybe we should reverse those quarantine rules to protect the sailors ?

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Again the last ones.

Posted on Friday July 13th, 2012 by dafdaf

We again managed to oversleep – the crossing of the Pacific, it seems. In the beginning there were six sailboats here at San Cristobal but now the Rancho Relaxo is the last one. A weird feeling. A big bunch of tour- and diving ships but only one sailboat. Well…

The last days were dominated by farewells. First the SY Papillon – a beautiful 57″ ketch from the states started towards the Marquesas. Next day the SY Tamora weighted anchor. Dieter and Silke made a short stopover at the Isla Isabela and now are underway to the Gambier Islands. The day before yesterday our swiss anchor – neighbor set sail. Esti, Mario and Laura also started with destination Gambiers but they might try to make a stop at the Easter islands, if the wind is favorable. Especially the last parting was very hard for our kids as they were good friends with Laura. Bruno was extremely sad when she finally got into the watertaxi and went home aboard her catamaran.

I think we’ll stay a few more days here at San Cristobal but slowly it get’s a little to cold. Funny. We’re as close to the equator as you can get but it’s cold. That’s the Humboldt current. The water temperature was 31 degrees in Panama and Costa Rica. When we reached Galapagos we had 26 degrees but that dropped to a chilling 22 degrees during the last week ! First it’s too hot, now too cold. It’s really not easy to get it right for the LosLocos. Hehehe.

Posted in Kids, LosLocos, Pics, Rancho Relaxo, Sailing | 4 Comments

Gui’s first surf

Posted on Thursday July 12th, 2012 by dafdaf

We spent Gui’s birthday at Puerto Chino, a small isolated beach at the east side of the island. Here in the bay, the waves kept rolling in constantly and with a height of about one to one and a half meters. Should be quite perfect to start surfing or what ? Well, the interval of the waves and the time before the wave breakes was quite short but nonethless Gui tried it. She managed to catch a few waves and *nearly* got up on the board before being crushed by the wave. Unfortunately I wasn’t there with the camera when that happened. But I made a few pics for you anyway.

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Camping at the beach of Puerto Chino

Posted on Tuesday July 10th, 2012 by dafdaf

We’ve been planning to go camping for a long time. Usually it was me who’s against it, because our tent is actually way too big for us and I don’t like carrying around all that stuff for only one night out in the wild. But Gui wanted to go camping for her birthday, so I finally had to give in.

And it was a good decision ! The camping site was wild and lonesome – the beach of Puerto Chino is completely isolated and we had it all for ourselves. Only us, plenty of animals and the sea that smashed it’s waves onto the beach. The most beautiful music to fall asleep.

The kids had lots of fun with the white/grey sand and with the big waves that were fun to play with. We climbed the small hill nearby, searched the surroundings for animals and watched the pelicans feed their young ones.

On the way to the beach we climbed up the volcano and saw the lagoon in it’s crater and we visited the station where they care for the giant turtles. On the way back we stopped at a giant tree with a house in it’s twigs. – There is also another room down in between the roots. One has to climb down a ladder through a hole. The kids loved it ! – And we had a great weekend AND Gui could test her surf board. More pics on that in another blog post…

Posted in Kids, LosLocos, Pics, Plants, Rancho Relaxo, Travel | 1 Comment

Galapagos – animals of the first week

Posted on Monday July 9th, 2012 by dafdaf

A few animal pics we collected over the past week: A blue footed Booby, we found near the dinghy-dock in town. A deceased marine iguana, photographed at the Loberia, a beach near town. A small yellow warbler finch, various small lizards and three frigate birds fishing in the lagoon of the volcano. Of course there are also the Giant Turtles, we visited on the way to our camping site on the last weekend. The brown Pelican we saw at various beaches but only on the Puerto Chino we found them breeding with every couple of pelicans caring for two young fluffy white pelican children. The red stone crabs are found pretty everywhere as are the sea turtles. And the birds that look like vultures are actually frigate birds, watching over our tent at the beach.

I didn’t put any pics of Iguanas and Sea lions as we already had enough of them.

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Gui’s pre-birthday

Posted on Friday July 6th, 2012 by dafdaf

Yesterday we had a little pre-birthday party aboard the Rancho Relaxo. The official date is actually the 9th of July but as then most of our friends will have left, we moved the birthday a few days ahead.

So we made Pizza and had a few drinks and next day Gui was REALLY lucky and managed to organize her birthday present: A surfboard !!!

At first we thought it would be impossible since new boards are too expensive for us. But we found a used one for 90USD and of course immediately made the deal. Sunday we’ll go camping for one night to Puero Chino and then Gui will give it a first try ! Yay !!

Posted in LosLocos, Pics, Rancho Relaxo | 3 Comments

Funny anchoring without engine

Posted on Wednesday July 4th, 2012 by dafdaf

Our fuel problems are not yet finished. Actually today we should have got Diesel and Gasoline… The Gasoline was dark-grey – looked as if someone used it to clean engine parts. And the Diesel ? Well, I put a few liters in an empty jerrycan and put a little fuel treatment on it. Only two hours later I could see the water, bacteria and dirt seperating from the fuel. So all the Diesel and Gasoline went back – we already got enough problems.

Thanks to the dirty Diesel it is that a few days ago we had to enter the anchorage of San Cristobal without engine. The main sail was just put away and we were about to turn portside into the harbour when the engine died. We quickly got the Genoa out and put up the main sail again, after which we came about and set a course upwind, passing the first reef and closing in on the second shoal. After passing that one, we steered hard on the wind to get to a good position in the anchorage. Passing in between the many charter boats. – Should be ok. But what’s that ? Why is that ship (at anchor !) moving forward ?!? No, now we can’t pass in front, whe have to go behind it. But will we have enough room to get to our anchor position ?

So we pass at the stern. And we hardly have enough room to pass the SY Mares. But it’s ok. We remove the Genoa, continue for a few meters, luff up and throw the anchor. It grabs ! We lower the sail and open a beer. Yay ! We made it to Galapagos – action included !

And tomorrow I’ll again have a look at our fuel filters. Probably they are again cloaked with bacteria-mud.  What can we do ? Maybe a few bottles of Grotamar82 will fall from the sky ? Otherwise, we’ll try to use the engine as little as possible and try not to depend on it. Maybe I can install a little 3-way-valve and put a small 10l tank above the engine. That should be enough for emergencies and is easier to clean – and keep clean. Let’s see, whether I can find the parts for that here on Galapagos.

Thanks, SY Mares for the pictures !

Posted in Learning for life, LosLocos, Pics, Rancho Relaxo, Sailing | 1 Comment

First day at San Cristobal, Galapagos

Posted on Wednesday July 4th, 2012 by dafdaf

Galapagos. Just the name of these mystic islands are connected to so many images and stories. Darwin, marine iguanas, sea lions, giant turtles… And all that (except for Darwin) we’ll see in the next days and weeks.

After our dramatic arrival in the anchorage (a blog post with pics of that will follow !) We soon were greeted by an agent and the authorities. Soon after we missed about 600USD but had clearance for staying 20 days at the island. As the whole archipelago is a national park, everything is quite restricted and one can not sail around with his own ship. On can’t even take the dingy to the beach ! But – well, there are boat taxis for 1USD per (grown up) person.

The first day we went to the beach, together with the crews of SY Tamora, SY Mares and another sailing vessel with two kids aboard. The beach was fantastic and we finally were snorkeling again – after more than two months without touching the ocean. Unfortunately on that day we had quite huge waves and thus the underwater sight was poor. No turtles for us. – Only a few sea lions in the water. And those were more interested in the fish…

But it was great anyway. Everywhere you look, you see beauty. The black, grey and red volcanic stones at the beach for example. Together with the bright green bushes it makes a fantastic background for any kind of picture. And the marine iguanas – well I could take hundreds of photos. Amazing creatures, scary looking but harmless and they are everywhere !

Just as the sea lions. They are everywhere. Everywhere in the town, on the benches, in the boats and dinghies, at the beach. Luckily our boat has no bathing platform and also a high freeboard, so the sea lions cannot enter. But all our friends already had them in the cockpit or on the foredeck. Hehehe. Today I took the sailing dinghy to town – hopefully no sealion sleeps inside, when I get back in a few minutes.

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Pics from the trip Costa Rica – Galapagos

Posted on Tuesday July 3rd, 2012 by dafdaf

Just wanted to upload a few pictures from our last trip. Not much to say as we uploaded all the missing blog posts now. Tomorrow, I’ll post first pics from Galapagos !

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Arrived in Galapagos

Posted on Monday July 2nd, 2012 by dafdaf

Today in the morning we arrived at San Cristobal, Galapagos. The engine died on us while we were navigating in between reefs at the entrance of the harbour but we managed to put anchor under sail. Everything ok.

As you can see, I also posted all the missing blog posts of the last week. Our f****** server again managed to screw with us. Really frustrating !!

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In the South Pacific

Posted on Saturday June 30th, 2012 by dafdaf

Woohoooo !!! We just crossed ‘The Line’ ! At 18:31h UTC we crossed the Aequator at the longitude of 88 degrees and 44 minutes. The countdown was a lot of fun because we told the kids that on the south side of course everything is the other way around and you’re with the feet on the ceiling an the head is downwards. Although the kids did not really believe that nonsense but nonethless prepared themselfes, lying down at the floor with the feet up in the air – just in case.
Up until now everything is quite the same. The water still turns the same way when we flush the toilet and we still walk with our feet on the floor. And it seems, tomorrow we’ll be in Galapagos. Yay !

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Opfergaben an die Herrscher der Tiefe

Posted on Friday June 22nd, 2012 by ogl

Wir haben’s ja nicht so sehr mit Tradition und Aberglaube (Zitat Sebas: ‘Aberglaube bringt Unglueck !’), dennoch opfert Gui, die Arme, zur Zeit fleissig an die Meeresgeister. Der Skipper behaelt seinen Mageninhalt, zeigt sich aber solidarisch und uebergibt die innig geliebte Petzl Stirnlampe (die mit der roten LED) der See. Diese ist erstaunlich wasserdicht und wir sehen sie in der Nacht noch lange in der Tiefe leuchten.

Warum das ganze ? Tja, also Gui macht das nicht ganz freiwillig, es ist das Gegenanbolzen, das die Schiffsbewegungen recht unangenehm macht. Eigentlich sollten wir ja Westwind haben. Tatsaechlich blaests aber aus S bis SSW – und das mit Unterbrechungen schon seit ueber 24 Stunden. Tja. Wetterberichte. Am besten gar nicht erst ansehen, dann ist man danach nicht enttaeuscht. Auf jeden Fall ist das Segeln zur Zeit nicht beonders angenehm und natuerlich machen wir auf diese Weise auch keine grossen Fortschritte. Wir segeln abwechselnd Kurs SW oder ESE, bzw. motoren dazwischen auch mal wieder ein paar Stunden Richtung Sued. Wenn wir unseren Kurs und Geschwindigkeit beibehalten, benoetigen wir noch ca. 20 Tage bis Galapagos. Hihihi. Gut, dass wir fuer den gesamten Pazifik gebunkert haben. So haben wir immerhin genuegend Lebensmittel dabei.
Ach ja und das mit der Stirnlampe ist gestern Nacht passiert, als unsere Rollreffanlage klemmte und ich diese am Bug teilweise in freiem Fall auseinandernahm und wieder gaengig machte. Hierbei flatterte mir die Genua mit ihren Schoten gehoerig um die Ohren und hat mir dann die Stirnlampe vom Kopf gestreift. Tja. Hab erst vorgestern neue Batterien rein ! Sowas aergerliches auch. Ansonsten ? Die Kinder sind prinzipiell wohlauf, Viola ist seit heute morgen auch etwas wortkarg, hat aber das Fruehstueck bei sich behalten. Bruno liest Asterix und schnitzt an seinem Segelboot. Fisch haben wir noch keinen gefangen, doch war Gui vorgestern mal unterm Schiff tauchen und hat sich unsere Entenmuschel-Kolonien angesehen. Die gedeihen hier praechtig ! Aergerlich, vor allem, weil das Abkratzen hier in der Pazifikduenung so gar keinen Spass macht und auch nicht ungefaehrlich ist.
So. Genug lamentiert fuer heute. Positives ? Hmmmmmm. Bisher kein Blitztreffer ! Und unglaubliche Wolkenbilder, ansonsten leider nicht viel. Wir waeren lieber schon da. Kann uns jemand beamen ? Scotty ?? Ps: Vielen lieben Dank fuer die lieben Geburtstagsgruesse an Bruno – er hat sich sehr gefreut !!

LATITUDE: 05-56.34N, LONGITUDE: 083-14.06W, COURSE: 135T, SPEED: 3.8, WIND: S3-4, DIST TO GALAPAGOS: 560nm

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Off we are towards Galapagos

Posted on Tuesday June 19th, 2012 by dafdaf

Ready to go. We finally were able to clear out and do all the paperwork. We got about 20 kilos of fresh fruits and vegetables, the kids had a final ice cream and now that the the tide is turning, it’s time for us to get going.

We’ll try to get rid of the green stuff that started growing around the Rancho Relaxo during the last weeks so we’ll maybe be a little faster. The wind will not be *that* bad. It seems we’ll have a force 3 from west for the first days. That way we’ll go south as far as possible and then head west for the islands. Well, we’ll see…. We’ll keep you informed.

Posted in LosLocos, Pics, Rancho Relaxo, Sailing | 2 Comments

Last night in Costa Rica ?

Posted on Sunday June 17th, 2012 by dafdaf

Actually we wanted to leave tomorrow with the outgoing tide. But just now we learned that the guys at the customs office will not be working tomorrow. We’ll still give it a try and maybe we can leave without the customs papers. Otherwise we’ll be here for another night and leave tuesday afternoon.

Today I posted a couple of not so nice photos – showing some of mine mosquito stings. (And these are NOT the worst I’ve got !) These nasty little creatures somehow don’t get along well with our european blood. The stings get infectious and red and we have little wounds that excrete water and stay for more than one week. Only Bruno, Viola and me have these – it seems Gui’s got antibodies. It also only started when we came to Costa Rica; we didn’t have problems in Panama. Another reason to get going quite soon. Because even with smoke coils, sprays and mosquito nets we still get bitten sometime.

Today I spent most of the time up the mast and pulled the radar cable out to reconnect it. But without success – the radar antenna still isn’t working. I checked and measured the connections of our ST40 gyro-compass that’s also mounted up the mast. But we’ve only got readings in between 0.5 and 1 Megaohm. The resistance should be: Red to Green: 4-10 ohm, Red to Yellow: 4-10 ohm, Green to Yellow: 8-10 ohm, Screen to Blue: 8-10 ohm, all other combinations OC.
So I take, the compass is also dead&gone. Which means 66% of our Raymarine gear stopped working after one year. Well, well. We’ll manage without…

When we pulled the radar cable up the mast we damaged the LAN-cable of our wireless antenna on the mast, so I had to re-solder that as well. While doing this, our soldering iron broke. Not exactly a successful work day, eh ?

Posted in Animals, LosLocos, Pics, Rancho Relaxo, Sailing, Work | 1 Comment

Third workday in a row

Posted on Friday June 15th, 2012 by dafdaf

I’m not used to work that much anymore. No, no. And definately not in these circumstances with that incredible heat. But – hey – at least I got two amazing kids who happen to help me a lot and keep the mood up. (Ok, ok. Not always…) So today we finally installed that active Radar-reflector that we had lying around since we left Europe. It’ll come in handy on the next longer passages, I hope. While Gui was in ‘town’ to finally clear in (after a more than a week that we’ve been here, hehehe) – I installed the unit on the mast of the wind generator and put the cable through the ship. And that actually was most of the work because of course all stuff has to be moved from one corner to the next, all floor boards have to be removed, all the stuff has to be moved to the saloon bench and so on….

After half a day of work the cable was finally where it’s supposed to be and it also seems to work. Although we’ve still have to test it with an active Radar in the vincinity. I also installed a pre-filter in the seawater system to protect the pump in the kitchen and the watermaker from bigger parts entering through the hose. We put the bolt holding the forestay that keeps moving to the starbord side back to where it belongs, we put a new switch for the electric bilge pump, refilled engine oil, etc.

Yesterday I also took the kerosene stove apart and cleaned everything so now both flames work perfectly again. Tomorrow we’ll try to repair the electronic kompass, reconnect the Radar and fix a couple of other minor things…. But then, I guess on monday we’re finally ready to leave ! Yay !

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