. We decided to cross directly from Cape Town to San Salvador in Brazil, 3780 nm which took us 33 days. The time flew past with diy, cleaning, fishing, reading and intensive Brazilian learning. André who had worked in Portugal needed to brush up and to learn Brazilian which is different especially the accent. Fione…
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We had long wished to visit Namibia, with its vast deserts, the highest sand dunes in the world, canyons, the skeleton coast, prehistoric sites, rock engravings and game reserves. Namibia, at the time called South West Africa, became a German colony in 1884 which was deposed by SA troops during WWI. It became Namibia in…
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Crossing the Indian Ocean is a challenge due to the rapidly changing weather conditions. We enlisted the help of Des, a router in SA who helps boats free of charge. His daily advice was invaluable during our 14 day crossing and afterwards each time we left a port to sail to another. We arrived in…
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Arriving in Darse Titan in La Réunion staff from the marina office were awaiting us on our berth and gave us all the necessary papers and called customs to come to do immigration. It couldn’t have been easier! Le Port marina is conveniently situated only a couple of minutes walk from the town and public…
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Rodrigues Maurice Our 15 day crossing from Cocos Keeling to Port Mathurin in Rodrigues was far from plain sailing. We often had a lot of swell and huge waves crashing over the boat causing a window to leak and a big rip in the cover of the windvane used for self steering. We therefore used…
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André’s cousin Brigitte and her husband Eric joined us in Bundaberg to sail up the coast to Townsville. As they own a yacht and sail, spending just over 2 weeks together was not problematic. We sailed north through the Great Barrier Reef anchoring at several islands, walking on white sandy beaches as on Haslewood Island…
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We visited both the South and North islands of New Zealand. Staying with people gave us an insight to life, for example whilst watching the evening news on TV (there are only 2 channels which do not broadcast at weekends) and discussing with them. News and weather presenters start by welcoming in Maori. New Zealanders…
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We arrived in Bundaberg from New Caledonia with no food and a clean boat to clear the strict immigration, although our empty cardboard egg boxes had to be thrown away! We attended events organised by the ‘Down Under Rally’ which helped us understand about sailing and touring Australia on land. At the welcome party we…
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Arriving in southern New Caledonia after leaving Lenakel, Vanuatu 48 hours earlier, we anchored in peaceful Proney Bay, before affronting the noise of the capital Nouméa the next day. Multi-ethnic Nouméa is home to about 63% of the country’s population. Central Nouméa revolves around the Place des Cocotiers with its concerts, street markets, pétanque pitch…
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A 6 day sail from Fiji during which André caught a blue-fin tuna, brought us to Lenakel on Tanna, one of the Vanuatu islands. Before independence in 1980 the country was ruled by both the British and the French. Therefore most people speak both plus their language. There are British and French schools and within…
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