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Welcome
to the website for 'Teka Nova' the sailing home of Terry Baverstock and
Christine Jarvis |
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August 2011 Dear All, We have a funny feeling that our last Newsletter which covered California, Mexico and the passage to the Marquesas might not have been received by all on our distribution list or that you really had “slashed your writs” as it was sooooooo long. Anyway, if you did not receive it, it is on our website – www.terryandchristine.com In the Marquesas we only stayed at two anchorages on the Island of Nuku Hiva. The first one being in Baie De Taiohae where we checked in. This particular anchorage was a bit rocky and rolly and not conducive for cleaning the hull, which had picked up large amounts of barnacles on the passage. We also attempted to take on some fuel. The fuel dock is a commercial dock that had a high concrete wall. With the swells that were running into the bay it is best to do a Mediterranean mooring. However, even with the help of Tommy and Fiona of “Phambili” taking our lines ashore we could not get close enough for the fuel line to reach along the decks to the filler caps without doing some serious damage to the boat, (ie the Davits hitting the concrete wall). So we decided to go round to the Northern side of the Island into the calmer anchorage of Baie Anaho, clean the hull and think about how best to tackle the fuel dock on our return to Baie De Taiohae. The cleaning of the hull took some doing. There was not only at least 6 inches of Barnacles on our semi long keel but the rest of the hull, prop and particularly around the water line had a substantial growth, no wonder our boat speed had dropped considerably on the passage over. We spend six days here, scrapping, scrubbing, washing and polishing. We do however take a little time out to have a couple of walks along the beach. To get ashore with the dinghy you have to find the gap in the reef. This is not difficult as you can see it quite clearly especially if the sun is out. You anchor your dinghy in about 3 feet of water and wade ashore being careful not to step on the small sting rays that are basking in the shallow waters. Back on board the boat you get to see Manta Rays (approx. 6 feet across) quite often as they cruise up and down feeding. It was then back to the Southern side and Baie De Taiohae to do a courtesy visit to the Gendarmarie to inform them we were moving on and of course to try and tackle the fuel dock again. So the plan this time was to put all our fenders high up on the starboard side, drop the anchor at least two boat lengths out and attach a bridle from the chain to points fore and aft on the boat, so that we could come side on to the dock but keep 'Teka Nova' off the wall by tightening up on the anchor and bridle. First of all however we needed to do a “Run By” of the dock to assess the swell/surge conditions. As it turned out it had sufficiently calmed down enough (still not a place you would want to be tied to for any length of time) for us to go along side without using the anchor and bridle, however the fenders took a real bashing, which in turn caused another cleaning job. The little we did see of the Marquesas was pleasant enough although for us we had been to nicer places, but each to their own. The scenery was lovely and the two places we stayed were well maintained and kept neat, clean and tidy, however the water clarity was poor. Fruit and Veg was a limited choice and you had to be at the market early to get any veg. The two small supermarkets were surprisingly very well stocked and you could get basically anything you needed plus quite a few unexpected products – a little on the expensive side but understandably so as everything has to be shipped in. You could buy fresh white tuna off the fishermen on the dock side at a very reasonable price. We also get to put some of the boat names to faces of fellow “Puddle Jumpers”:- Tommy, Fiona and their three children, Annina, Naomi and Cameron of “Phambili”. All with varying backgrounds and interesting stories to share. On 8th April we set off to the Tuamotu Islands on a passage of approx. 500 nm, apparently if you put Tuamotu in a search site you will come up with Tomatoes. The passage to the Tuamotu Islands was one of the most pleasant we have done to date. The winds did not get above 15 kts and the sea state was very slight. Although we only averaged 5.3 knts it was a comfortable ride and we managed to sail all the way. The end to a perfect passage was further rewarded by arriving in paradise. The Tuamotu Islands (our first Island being Ahe) are roughly circular/oblong Atolls of land with lagoons of approx 15 miles across inside, and only have one or two navigable entrance passes. Once inside you can anchor in beautiful clear turquoise waters off of white sandy beaches lined with palm trees. After spending two weeks at Ahe we decide to head off to another Island called Apataki. In order to get over the bar at slack water at the exit from Ahe and then arrive at Apataki in day light, at slack water with the sun behind us (the majority of the lagoons are not charted, so you have to eye ball your way through the reefs), we are up at 01.00 in the morning. First off, the anchor chain had got caught round a rock/reef which took a bit of pulling out but we managed it in the end, to get out of our lagoon within the larger lagoon was an interesting exercise in the dark picking our way between coral heads. Then we had a 2 hour navigation to the exit, although there were lit marker buoys at Ahe, a few of them were not working, thankfully we had chosen to leave when there was still a ¾ moon. The passage was lively/sporty and 'Teka Nova' made good time, so good that we arrived at the entrance to Apataki a little early with the current against us, but with a few more engine revs (quite a few more actually) we punch our way through the overfalls and get inside, this was then followed by a further 2 hour pilotage in uncharted waters to our chosen anchorage. Here we have the whole place to ourselves. Upon walking along the shore there were several Black Tip shark that would come right up to the waters edge in only about 6 inches of water. They ranged from tiny baby ones to ones up to approx 4 feet in length. This is where the video camera was worth its weight in gold (purchased for Christine's last birthday present). You had to keep very still as any sudden movement and they would just dart away. We spend 10 days in Apataki in complete isolation, no internet connection and not seeing any other cruiser or anyone until the afternoon of the day before we leave, when Annie and Patrick a French couple on their boat “Elgantine” arrived. We spent a very pleasant evening having drinks on their boat. They had a little English and we had a little French so we got by. It was the first time we had actually got dressed in over 10 days, (Shorts and T-Shirts). Only wearing swimmers during the day and after our showers in the evening just our underwear – no one to see us and it sure cut down on the washing. We leave on 4th May for the 2 day passage to Tahiti. Setting off at 08.30 am for the 2 hour pilotage to catch the slack water at the exit from Apataki. We arrive at the exit and its looks like a witches boiling cauldron. We line 'Teka Nova' up and go for it through the narrow gap in between the reefs. This time we have the current behind us and we shoot through at 8.6 knts (basically in idle) swooshing from side to side. It's like a roller coaster ride at a fairground only we did not scream and put our hands in the air – to busy steering, navigating and holding on. We knew we would be motoring to Tahiti as there was only 4 knts of wind, if you can call that wind – 'Teka Nova' certainly does not, and its behind us. All was well though and we had a gentle swell until we started getting clear of the Islands, when the seas turned from gently rolling to larger swells and then just plain nasty. The next day around 16.00 pm there is an almighty BANG under the engine and our revs dip slightly. After doing as much investigation as possibly we could only deduct that we may have had a rope round the prop and the rope cutter had taken care of most of it but perhaps we still had something remaining as there was a definite vibration. The waters were too rough to go over the side and investigate further. Night drew in and we hit an electrical storm that produced 30 knts of wind on the nose. We arrived in Tahiti the next morning feeling as though we had been on a rough passage for a month, instead of just the 2 days. The next morning Terry dives over the side to inspect the prop – bad news, one of the blades on our Auto Prop had completely unscrewed and fallen off, the loud BANG was the blade hitting the hull. Fortunately 'Teka Nova' is good solid steel otherwise we would have been in serious trouble. We have to say that we were very proud of 'Teka Nova' as she had carried us through the night, with 30 knts of head wind, hauling her 32 tons of weight and still managed 5.3 knts with only 2 blades to get us to safety. So we sat on a mooring buoy just outside the Tahiti Yacht Club (near Papeete) to await our new prop blade, which only took just over 3 days by DHL to arrive from the UK, however, we could not get a lift out booked until 1st June at the Shipyard. Papeete is the capital of French Polynesia, it is a bustling, busy and dirty town – just slightly different from when the “Bounty” was here, but hey they have a Carrfour. Although a small bottle of Bacardi (smaller than a normal bottle of wine) will set you back around 35.00 GBP. Anyone who knows Terry knows this is his favorite tipple, so he is on rationing and thinks there is a war on. Mike and Jan of “Fully Involved” were there so we spent a couple of lovely evenings with those folks before they left for Moorea. Jan made the best potato salad we have tasted and Mike can whip up a very tasty cheesecake from any ingredients they have onboard. After being on a mooring buoy for 3 weeks we finally moved round to the shipyard on 31st May where we were lifted out and held in the travel lift whilst they replaced our prop blade and serviced the other two blades. Then put back in the water the same day. Whilst we were there we met Vaughan and Sharon of “Reality” who were waiting for a new rudder to be made as theirs had sheared off on their way to the Marquesas, the nearest lift out was Tahiti, so they had to travel many hundreds of miles on a jury rigged rudder. 2nd June we set off for the Island of Moorea. We pick a great spot in the bay of Opunohu. The next day we take our dinghy for a 40 minute ride round to where you can feed the sting rays. This is a big tourist attraction. You stand in the sea up to your shoulders in water and about 60 or more 4 foot wide sting rays will come and feed out of your hand. They glide round you and gently brush up against your body and up your tummy to take the food (they are not tame – they are in the wild). In between the sting rays there are several black tip shark who will gladly take any morsel you would like to give them. If anyone had said that we would be standing in water feeding sting rays and sharks we would have not believed them – it was truly an amazing experience!! Unfortunately the weather was about to get “Lively” and so we make a 2 day dash to the island of Tahaa before the weather sets in. After picking up a mooring buoy off The Hibiscus Yacht Club the wind started to blow and it continued to blow for 4 days and 4 nights – 30/35 knots, gusting 40. We were only a short distance off shore from the club house but the seas were 4 foot plus, which stopped us from launching the dingy to go ashore. On 8th June the winds died down and we set off on a 1 day passage to Bora Bora. Well the winds might have been down but the seas were definitely not!! However, once inside the outer reef of Bora Bora we find a perfect spot to anchor with beautiful clear and calm waters. Here, once again we meet with fellow Puddle Jumpers who are going the same way as ourselves:- Gary of “DASH” After spending a few days at anchor we move over to the other side of the bay and pick up a mooring buoy off of the Bora Bora Yacht Club. Gay of “DASH” has also moved over and Stuart of “Farr Gone” and Tom & Janis of “Tomboy are there. We all have dinner one night at the Yacht Club. The Yacht Club is small and basic but delightful and the people are very friendly. There is no menu so you are not sure what you will get and where the heck they actually cooked it but when it arrives it is beautifully presented and very tasty. We liked Bora Bora very much but as with all the French Polynesia Islands it is expensive. Whilst we are here apart from waiting for a weather window (of actually getting some wind) we were waiting for news of Terry's son Gavin and his wife Cathy having the first Grandchild, Christine's Mum having a hip replacement Op and Neil Jarvis our close friend having both his eyes operated on. All three events on roughly the same day. We are please to say that after poor Cathy endured 64 hours of labour, followed by having an emergency C section and other traumas – baby Charlie arrived, Christine's Mum's Op went well and Neil's eye Ops were a success. On 16th June we departed for the 700 odd nm passage to Suwarrow (Suavro) in the Northern Cook islands. Suwarrow was another delightful Atoll, not dissimilar to Apataki. Suwarrow is administered by NZ and has two Park Rangers based there six months of the year (out of Cyclone Season). You are not allowed to go there when the Park Rangers are not in attendance, however if the Park Rangers are not there who's going to stop you?? This was another tricky little entrance into the lagoon. Once in you are then surrounded by Black Tip Shark, who hope they might get fed a tip bit or two from you. These shark are not aggressive and you can swim/snorkel quite safely amongst them inside the lagoon. Outside the lagoon is a different matter, where there are white tip which are aggressive. The two Park Rangers were special characters. James the head Park Ranger was approx. 7 feet tall, weighed around 22 stone, had a beard, his hair was tied up in a bun and he was missing his front teeth. James was also the Customs, Immigration and Port Health Official. The Club House was a wooden open sided structure where the cruisers could get together with James and John and have Pot Luck. The Rangers lived above. After spending 5 days in Suwarrow, we make a 5 day passage to Western Samoa. The people were very nice but it was the start of Official Paperwork gone mad and it was particularly difficult to take some of the authorities that showed up at the boat seriously when they were wearing a skirt and Ray- Ban sun glasses – and that’s the men. We were only going to stay for 3 days. It took 2 days to complete the check in and on the third day we had to start the check out procedure. So we can not say much about Western Samoa as we did not really see any of it. We leave there on 2nd July for the approx 800 nm to Fiji, which involves crossing the International Date Line. So:- Today became tomorrow and yesterday became today – either way we lost a whole day and instead of When we said Western Samoa was the start of Official paperwork gone made, Fiji has got to take the biscuit “Its Been Lovely but I have to scream now”!! OK we are not going into the details but its an absolute nightmare that just keeps re-occurring. Anyway, we find an idyllic spot to anchor for a few days (Musket Cove on Malolo Lailai) before moving round to Vuda Point Marina, where we planned to leave Teka Nova whilst we returned to the UK. As with the Western Samoan’s the Fijians are very friendly and we are soon invited to dinner at one of the locals houses. There are two things here – most of the locals are very poor and this was true of this particular family and secondly is the tradition to take a gift of Kava and partake in the tradition of drinking the stuff – IT IS HORRIBLE!!! they mix the powder with cold water, which is squeezed through a rag with their hands. It looks like muddy water and tastes a lot worse. We have decided to spend the cyclone season in Vuda Point ashore in a 'cyclone pit'. This will mean that next April/May we will have the opportunity to cruise some of the fabulous cruising areas within Fiji before moving on westwards towards the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, New Caledonia and Australia. We leave Teka Nova in Vuda Point Marina and make the 30 hour flying time back to the UK on 27th July. Best Wishes ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- March 2011 Dear All, Firstly, a reminder of our new E-Mail address – tekanova[at]hotmail.com Also, we have limited internet connection whilst here in the French Polynesian Islands and may not be able to pick up or send E-Mails for maybe 2 weeks at a time. HEALTH WARNING – This is a very long Newsletter, which covers California, Mexico and the passage to the Marquesas. 6th November 2010 sees us back on board 'Teka Nova' in Ventura Isle Marina, after our trip back to the UK and Cyprus. Having left 'Teka Nova' for nearly 3 months we start the process of checking her systems and carrying out the usual routine maintenance in preparation for going back out to sea. We do however give ourselves a little time off and hire a car to drive up the coast and visit Santa Barbara. Also Alastair Harkness a friend from the UK on a trip to Los Angeles (BA Pilot) arranged to meet up with us. We spent the day in Santa Monica. Walking along a particular part of the beach front we felt we stuck out like sore thumbs by being dressed “Normally” or was that “Boringly”. There were some weird and wonderful characters there – very entertaining sense of dress. Many thanks to Alastair for taking time out on his short stop over to spend the time with us, it was great to see him. Whilst in Ventura Isle we spoke to several cruisers regarding the security situation in Mexico, where we had originally planned to spend Christmas. The resulting decision was to spend our Christmas in San Diego instead and wait until we have more solid information regarding improvement in the security situation in Mexico. We wanted to visit Mexico and we had decided that somewhere in Mexico would be our departure point for the Marquesas. On 1st December 2010 we leave Ventura for Santa Cruz Island for a two night stop over at anchor in Albert's Anchorage. FLIES!! - we have never seen so many and they are so dopey. As soon as we leave the shelter of the cockpit we are covered in them. Terry goes on a killing spree armed with a can of fly spray and the next morning the boat looks as though someone has dumped several packets of currents all over the decks. On 3rd December 2010 we plan an over night passage down to Santa Catalina (Catalina Harbour), leaving at 22.00 in order to arrive in day light. At around 18.00 thick fog starts to drift in, this is not what we want as we know there is a large fishing fleet out there between us and Santa Catalina, but do we want to put up with these flies any longer – NO!! Fortunately the fog drifts way by 22.00 and we start to pick up the anchor. It is absolutely pitch black and I (Christine) can only just about see the anchor chain coming up with the aid of a torch (our head torches have given up the ghost – another story for later). I can hear a Sea Lion barking near by but can't see him – or was it Terry back in the cockpit conveying some message to me? Thankful for the wonders of GPS, radar and AIS we crept out of the bay and the fog bank, and avoided the fishing fleet. We spend a night in Catalina Harbour on a buoy, very pleasant, quiet and no flies, before moving round to the east side of the Island to Avalon where we pick up another buoy, for the pricey sum of US58.00 for the night, which you have to vacate by 09.00 the next morning regardless of what time you arrived, or pay more money for an extension. On top of this a four minute water taxi ride to and from you boat will cost you US20.00 (the dinghy dock does not appear to exist anymore or we could not find it). We thought the Irish Sea was the most expensive stretch of water to cross!! Avalon is a very nice quaint place and we had a great breakfast ashore but were we going to spend another night there at those prices – NOPE. So another over nighter to San Diego and Chula Vista Marina which is right down the southern end of San Diego Bay, where we have chosen to spend Christmas. We arrive at the entrance to San Diego Bay at 22.30, and complete a night pilotage for the next 2 ½ hours, into San Diego a long channel that winds and twists itself into the bay. This is a pilotage where you really need to concentrate as at night with lots of shore lights and plenty of splits in the channel, it is very hard to pick up the next channel markers, which is not helped when the odd marker buoy that is supposed to flash green every 4 seconds, actually flashes every 2 seconds, plus several consecutive buoys have the same light characteristic. Weird! On top of this the dreaded fog appeared to be coming in as we make our way under the Coronado Bay Bridge but fortunately it holds off and we arrive at Chula Vista Marina in our reserved berth at 02.00 – very tired and with sore eyes. Terry mentions at the time that it would have been nice to have made this particular pilotage during day light hours, as not only would we have been able to see the massive Coronado Bay Bridge in all its glory, there is also a great Navy presence here, including the Nuclear Aircraft Carrier Ronald Reagan plus the museum Aircraft Carrier The Midway, that would have made the pilotage more scenic – little did Terry know what would transpire the next day. After having a few hours sleep we get up to check in at the Marina Office. Walking to and from the boat we meet several people who by the afternoon have organised our social calendar for the next month and we are already feeling quite at home. Now, although we checked with the Marina that they would be able to accommodate 'Teka Nova's 9 foot draft and the pilotage book clearly states there is 13 feet at MLW (Oh you know whats coming next, don't you – flash back to Sydney Harbour Marina), Yeap, by late afternoon we are aground by about 2 feet. Once again 'Teka Nova' is badly listing to starboard and 32 tons of boat is sitting on the bottom and leaning on her fenders and once again we have to get a line from the top of the mast to the opposite dock to keep her upright. This is not going to be the lowest tide either, as on the 21st December it is going to fall a further 2 feet. The Marina staff are devastated and get their guys out to check every berth and depths surrounding the Marina, in order to try and find another berth for us. The deepest they could find was 7 feet at MLW. There has been so much silt built up over the years that they have lost about 6 feet of depth and not realised it. Unfortunately we cannot stay here and the Marina are very sorry to loose us – so are we it was a lovely spot. So at high tide the next day we make our way back up to the northern end of San Diego Bay to Harbour Island West Marina who have the space and depth for us and so Terry gets to see it all the interesting naval highlights during the day after all. We are made to feel very welcome by all the staff at Harbour Island West ( 2 English staff) and settle in very nicely. The two Sundays preceding Christmas they have the “Parade of Boats”. Boats from several Marina's in the Bay area decorate their boats with Christmas Lights etc. and then parade them along the water front at night. This was a great sight, around a 100 boats of all shapes and sizes took part and the effort that they had put into their decorations was quite spectacular. It reminded us of the film “National Lampoons Holiday” only afloat. We did the whole nine yards as usual on 'Teka Nova' for Christmas. The Christmas Tree, the cockpit lights and of course the full English Traditional dinner complete with Christmas Pudding brought back from the UK along with other goodies. Our turkey weighed 17lbs!! It was the smallest fresh turkey we could get. As usual we had to chop it in half to be able to get it in the oven. The other half we had another Christmas dinner in January plus various other dishes and still plenty left over for Christine to make some Turkey Casseroles and Turkey A' La King in preparation to freeze for our passage to the Marquesas – so we are still eating the darn thing in APRIL!! Both of us get new head torches for Christmas, now we always have head torches on board but like with everything on board a boat, it either breaks, rots, corrodes, fails or falls off – usually over board. At some juncture, if it has the word “Boat” in the sentence it will do one if not all of these things. Our new head torches come with infra red light, which are great for night watches. You can read, write Newsletters, do a fix (that’s a fix, as on a chart not the other kind, for those of you who are not sailors) and move about the boat without ruining your night vision. Although 'Teka Nova' has red under floor lighting for the night time, this does not include the forward head/loo/restroom. So once you reach this area you either fumble around in the dark or blind yourself silly by switching on the over head light – not anymore!! - such simple things please us. Whilst we are here in San Diego we take in a few of the sights, one being a visit to the Midway, also the really good Maritime Museum. We also have dinner with Nikki and Dave, these are friends of Gary and Linda of “Rainbowrider” whom we had last met up with back in November 2008 in the Dutch Antilles, really lovely to see these guys again and sorry we were not able to get you down on 'Teka Nova' in Mexico, we hope you will be able to get to us somewhere in the South Pacific. Also, whilst we are here the heavens open up and we get torrential rain for day after day. If we had wanted that much rain we could have stayed in England. Our cockpit covers in the end could not cope with it. Locally the San Diego River burst its banks causing havoc in the old town and at the main shopping mall. In the New Year we hire a car and drive to Las Vegas for a 3 night break. When we arrive it is snowing and the pass behind us is closed over night. Interesting place Las Vegas, Terry has been here several times but I (Christine) have not. Glad we went and had a nice break but would not want to go back. We must have been the only people to go to Las Vegas and not spend one dollar on gambling. On the way back we arrange to meet up with the “Porters” in Riverside and stayed in a beautiful hotel over night. It was great to see them again. These guys get everywhere, you had to be in our Newsletter somewhere, we think you have been in the last three at least. We are sure you will get a mention somewhere in the next one. By now we have spoken with several more people and reading the letters in Latitude 38 with regard to the Mexico security situation and decide its safe to go. So on 12th January 2011 we set off for Ensenada – Cruiseport West Marina. Here we check into Mexico, which is made very easy by the Marina staff, who actually drive you to the Port Captain's Office, Immigration, Customs and to buy the mandatory Fishing Permit (which is a bit of a joke for us), this is all courtesy of the Marina – no extra charge and no agent fees to pay. On 15th January we depart for Banderas Bay – Puerto La Cruz and warmer climates, which was a 1 week passage, 994 miles. Would you believe that there is actually a 2 hour time difference between Ensenada and Puerto La Cruz – we didn't, hence on arrival, shops etc. were not open at their stated times and we just thought, Oh well that’s just “Mexican Time”, until somebody told us about the time difference. Brits, think about if we had a 2 hour time difference between Southern England and Scotland. There is a new marina in La Cruz, but also a very nice anchorage just outside (which is free) so guess where we stayed? Here we meet up with other cruisers taking part in “The Pacific Puddle Jump” (similar to the ARC – Atlantic Rally For Cruisers with some differences, more on that later). We attend as many seminars, functions and events as possible, which were all well organised and interesting. A great deal of time and effort go into these and by volunteers. Just one example being Neal Schneider of “Rutea”. Neal has taken on the arduous task of setting up and controlling the on passage radio net. Unlike the ARC, where 235 boats leave from the same place on the same day with sections of Boats (roughly 20) with their own Net Controllers, the Pacific Puddle Jumpers (110 boats) are leaving from several different places (California, Mexico and as far down as Panama) at different times over a period of 3 months or so on a single radio net – think about that in logistical terms. So the task Neal has taken on is far from an easy one. Not forgetting that Neal and his wife Ruthie also have to make ready and prepare their own boat for the passage as well. We take our hat off to Neal and thank him for all his efforts and hard work. We meet several other people, amongst them were:- Bill and Kat of “ Island Bound”, had great fun going to dinner with you followed by watching Star Trek at the amphitheater – thank goodness for those cushions and the blanket guys. Kath, Liz and their Mum Jeanette, who are English by birth, living in Canada and holidaying in Mexico (not on a boat). Great to meet up with you. Lori and Wally (and at one point their friends Sheryn and George Smith) from Canada, likewise holidaying in Mexico and not on a boat. We shared some very pleasant lunches and dinner with them, and actually persuaded them to risk a dinghy ride out to Teka Nova at anchor for lunch. We also bump into a couple from the Waikiki Yacht Club in Honolulu, Mart and Dorothy Hazlett, who have been told to watch out for us by all our friends back in Honolulu and to pass on all their good wishes, it was nice to be remembered. Puerto La Cruz is a lovely place to hang out (apart from all the events appertaining to the Puddle Jump), there are plenty of places to eat out at very reasonable prices. This small town is big on live entertainment and the couple of bands we had the pleasure of listening over dinner to were fantastic. Filo's Bar owned by a previous Puddle Jumper and a great musician with his own group were outstanding. There is a Fish Market here “to die for”. Fresh Yellow Fin Tuna, definitely the best we have had so far. On 15th February, having completed our technical problem with the new inverter/charger - $3,000 worth a new equipment that does not work (lets not go there – on a par with the Anderson electrical winches almost), we head off down the coast stopping at some very nice spots along the way. Now beach landings with the dinghy in Pacific waters is a whole new ball game. It equates as a spectator sport with watching yachts docking in marinas. First you need wheels fitted to the back of the dinghy – which we have. You then have to get your technique right and judge the incoming waves. If you don't you can end up very wet and your dinghy flipped over with the engine immersed in sea water in a flash. All was well with our landings until we reached Bahia Tenacatita, where we mis-judged it badly. We both ended up being thrown out, fortunately the dinghy although being full of water stayed upright, so the engine did not get flooded. A guy on the beach gave Christine 9.8 for presentation and artistic content when she went over board. Terry however despite the dunking managed to keep his glasses on, which is quite a feat in itself as Terry has managed to loose roughly 30 pairs of glasses overboard one way or another since we left the UK. The shortest time Terry has kept a new pair is approx 1 hour – the “Porters” can testify to that. At Melaque we saw how the local fishermen do it. Full throttle, aim for the beach and lift the engine at the very last moment. Result, one Panga beached several yards up and no passer by being killed in the process – luckily. Our final stopover in Mexico is Manzanillo – Las Hadas, where we are anchored next to Neal Schneider's brother Mark and his wife Wendy of “Wendaway” - this world is getting smaller. With the last minute provisioning on board, we check out of Mexico (which took 3 hours to complete) and are ready to leave for the passage to the Marquesas. We wish we had not been put of going to Mexico in December as it meant that we ended up with only having a very short time there. The little of Mexico that we did see was delightful. The Mexican people were lovely and very helpful and we felt perfectly safe. On 2nd March at 17.40 we weighed anchor, said farewell and waved goodbye to Mark and Wendy and start our approx 3 week passage to the Marquesas. On passage we are back to clearing off dead flying fish and peeling squid off the decks in the mornings – No Mum & Dad they are not Humbolt squid (which can grow to 2 metres in length and they can be aggressive) – God can you imagine having one of them on your decks. The first few days were a very warm pleasant sail, at each sunset we saw the “Green Flash”. After that it went to the typical Northern Pacific Seas, with confused wave direction, which makes for an uncomfortable ride. Then having the Equatorial Counter Current against you, followed by going through the ITCZ (you can get any kind of weather/sea state in that area – it is where the Northern Pacific Ocean and the Southern Pacific Ocean converge and their respective trade winds, and can be 200 nm across). The first and second time we crossed this area back in 2009 we experienced no adverse conditions except strange shivering ripples on the sea. This time it was what we call “Hatch Aerobics” conditions - several periods of rain on and off where you are continuously opening and closing hatches. Going back to talking about things falling off and usually going over board. Well a sheet got caught round one of our winches in the cockpit and tore off the self tailer fitting, which ended up over the side. Now where this winch is situated, in the rear, middle of a centre cockpit, if we threw an object of the same size and weight and tried to get it over board the changes are that it would either have:-
Either way according to “The Law of Gravity, it should have just fallen down and ended up in the scuppers or the cockpit. On boats “The Law of Gravity” does not apply - “SODS Law” does!! Over the side it went. 600 nm out at 04.00 a fair size fishing vessel is a little to close for comfort, going the opposite direction. He did not appear to have any navigation lights or they were obscured by the large number of white deck lights on the vessels. However, all be came clear as to which way he was heading. He was about 300 metres, just past our starboard beam when he turned almost 180 degrees towards us heading on a converging track and by now we could clearly make out details of the boat. It was quite a frightening twist as there was no innocent or logical reason for the turn. We immediately thought that this was a fishing boat with quite a large crew on board who might be thinking of augmenting their fishing income with some part time piracy. A very rapid exchange over the radio and the fishing vessel fortunately turned away. Maybe he was bored and a little curios about us and just wanted a closer look at us. Very scary though, especially with what is going on in the news lately regarding pirates etc. Night of 11/03 we get to hear about the Tsunami from our Net Controller, Neal Schneider, that hit Japan badly. This also affected Puerto La Cruz, Mexico (amongst many other areas), where quite a few of the Puddle Jumpers were based prior to setting off across the Pacific, either in the marina or out at anchor. All the marinas on the Pacific Coast were immediately closed and all boats with crews on board ordered to leave. The reports were that up to 6 foot surges were felt in the marina and a dock broke away – you certainly do not want to be tied to a dock in those conditions. Tsunami can travel at up to 600 miles per hour, nearly the speed of sound. In deep sea if out on the water you will not even feel a ripple if you are in a 150 feet depth or more. On 12/03 exactly 2 years to the date, day and within 3 hours of the time, we crossed an exact position from the track line that we made from Galapagos to Hawaii on 12/03/2009 – how spooky was that. Looking back to our Log Book entry, we had the same wind speed, wind direction and sea states – same old, same old. On 18/03 at 04.40 we crossed the Equator, we duly toast and pay homage to Neptune, for the third time in 2 years, you would think it would be Neptune's turn to buy the round of drinks. However, the galley floor, cockpit floor and down one side of Christine got most of it. We arrive in the Marquesas at 11.31, on 25th March 2011 after 2,829 nm. Remind us why we enjoy long passages, apart from being bounced off every conceivable hard surface, wearing half your meals, having most of your coffee run down your chin as though you have just had a trip to the dentist. Having cupboard doors smack you in the head then on the return motion trap your fingers and in the meantime the contents of the said cupboard have now become exocet missiles (tin cans in particular hurt). You get too little wind, too much wind, wind in the wrong direction. You take out one perfectly clean boat and have half a ton of wet salt thrown over the decks and break things that worked absolutely fine before you left. But for some reason best known to somebody else we still enjoy the passages and the sense of achievement we feel when we arrive. Finally if you have not fallen asleep or slashed your wrists by now reading this, here's a few statistics for us on 'Teka Nova'. Below are passages that we have completed that have been over 1,000 nm and over 1 weeks duration:-
Mileage to date – 27,469 nm since leaving the UK in 2006 ...........Yawn..........Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. Very Best Wishes to you all November 2010 After arriving back from Alaska we headed off to the San Juan Islands (Washington) on 2nd July 2010, unfortunately our friends “The Porters” could not join us as they had both gone down with a nasty bug....you keep it guys, we don't want it. We spent a very pleasant week just cruising and relaxing. The 4th July was spent at Orcas Island – Deer Harbour, watching the firework display from 'Teka Nova'. Unfortunately, we were down wind of the floating pontoon from where the fireworks were being launched, so we ended up getting the fall out all over the decks. Dah.... why did we anchor down wind??? 9th July saw us back in Port Angeles for re-fueling and waiting for the weather window for our passage down to San Francisco. We set out on 11th July but had to turn back owing to the weather and sea state going against us. However, this did not turn out so bad as we ended up having a joint BBQ with Michael and Kate (our neighbours on the yacht next to us) and our friends Jean and Dana. Whilst still waiting for the next weather window, we decide to catch a ferry over to Vancouver Island to spend a day sight seeing around Victoria. For those of you that do not know this area there are hundreds of Islands with hundreds of ferry’s running between them all day. We pitch up at the ferry terminal and duly stand in line to collect our tickets, when we spot two of our old English friends, Christine and John of “Time and Tide” who happen to be catching the same ferry at the same time. We had not seen Christine and John since 2008 in Venezuela!!! They had left their boat in Florida and were touring the USA in an RV. What a fantastic coincidence. It really is a small world. We also get chatting to a nice lady called Katrina Brown on the ferry back to Port Angeles who now regularly keeps in touch with us, which is lovely. On 13th July we set off once again for San Francisco. No problems until we exited the Strait of Juan De Fuca, around Cape Flattery where the sea swell was increasing. It is a well known trouble spot for sailors. We decided to go approx. a hundred miles off shore in order to get a smoother passage however, we ended up 250 miles off shore without a smoother passage. Added to this there was a large depression with gale force winds sitting right over San Francisco (which actually sat there for 2 weeks) and we could not get into San Francisco without enduring at least 48 hrs of serious into wind sailing and 15 foot swells on our beam. So we made the decision to bin San Francisco and carry onto Los Angeles. In the meantime one of the steering cables broke. Fortunately, we have four independent ways of steering (five if you count the emergency steering) so we could continue without it and decided to fix it at anchor off one of the Islands (Santa Cruz in Smuggler's Cove) that lies approx. 21 miles off the coast of Los Angeles before attempting to go into Ventura Isle Marina. So we arrive at Santa Cruz 10 days after leaving Port Angeles and 1,296 miles to boot. Steering cable replaced we arrive on 24th July into Ventura Isle Marina , which is roughly 85 miles north of Los Angeles, where on the first night we were well and truly christened by Cormorants roosting on our spreaders – god knows what these things eat but its a lot of whatever it is!!! Whilst we are here we are told about an Air Show that was taking place just down the coast at Point Mugu, which would have a display by the Thunderbirds, the USAF display team. So we take a day off and anchor off the shore with several other boats. Unknowing to us the yacht anchored next door took pictures of us and E-mailed them to us. After an exchange of E-Mails we arranged to meet up with Rick and Patty upon our return from the UK, which we are looking forward to. We return to the UK on 12th August as Terry's son Gavin was getting married on 29th August to Cathy Bury. The Wedding was lovely, with the couple tying the knot at Windsor Guild Hall, where Prince Charles and Carmela got hitched, followed by the reception at Royal Holloway University, if you have ever been there you will know what a magnificent piece of architecture this immense building is. Cathy looked stunning and Gavin looked very handsome. It was a great day and one which we enjoyed tremendously. They could not have had a more perfect way to start their married life. We then set off to our home in Cyprus to spend a few weeks there, enjoying the company of our friends at the Paphos International Sailing Club, before returning back to the UK. As usual we run out of time to visit/get to see all our friends and family but hopefully we will catch folks we missed next time round. To those of you whom we did get to see, it was great and thank for all your hospitality. So here we are back in Ventura Isle Marina (6th Nov) and starting to prepare 'Teka Nova' for our trip down to Mexico at the beginning of December. The socks are off the jeans are stowed, into shorts and flip flops – hurray hurray hurray........sorry guys we know the weather in the UK is not so good right now!! Oh, we know that we are back in California as we saw a dog skate boarding yesterday – we kid you not, its at times like that you wish you had the camera at hand. Very Best Wishes to you all. Christine & Terry ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- June 2010 'TEKA NOVA' UPDATE We are back on board Teka Nova after a few months break over the winter in the UK and Cyprus. We arrived back in Port Angeles, Washington, USA (God's Country as they say over here, (When the sun shines!)) on Thursday 11th March after a two day break with our friends “The Porters” on Whidbey Island, who very kindly picked us and our 6 suitcases up from Seattle Airport. We had been living out of our 6 suitcases, with our cloths somewhere packed around all the boat spares for a few months now. It was getting quite tiring fishing around for clean underwear and coming up with an Engine Oil Filter instead. We started work to get Teka Nova ready for going back in the water after her winter lay over. Teka Nova was relaunched on 12th April and work began putting back on all the sails, life raft etc etc. Dana and Jean as ever offered their help with anything we might need, including Dana driving our anchor chain all the way to Seattle to be re-galvanised and then going back to pick it up. Larry and Peg Bingham arrive 4th May on “Bing Bang”, their sons 48' Bayliner Pilot House Motor Vessel and we depart with them on 7th May for the trip to Juneau – Alaska, after shutting down Teka Nova and catering “Bing Bang”. We headed up through Canada at a fair pace, as we had already cruised this area last season and Larry and Peg wanted to show us as much as possible of Alaska in the time we had with them. They have made the trip on several occasions and thus were the perfect tour guides. The weather stayed amazingly good for the time of the year. For 3 weeks we enjoyed 60-70 *F with wonderful sunshine. The exception was Ketchikan, where it always rains anyway (155inches per year). Peg and Christine got a good soaking lugging all the washing to the launderette, where it became a toss up as to whether they put the washing in the dryer or themselves. Alaska is so vast and immense, it is very difficult to judge distances and heights of the beautiful scenery around you, it can be quite overwhelming just looking at it, especially the glaciers. The glaciers are a wonder to behold. They have a range of blues in them, from pale blue to sometimes quite vivid blues. When you get up close you can hear them cracking loudly and if you are lucky (which we were) you get to see them “carving”. We get to see such amazing sights, Brown Bears (Grizzly), Black Bears, Sea Otters, Orcas, Humpback Whales, Grey Whales and Eagles. On the second to last morning Peg bangs on our cabin door “There is a grizzly on the beach with her three cubs”. We both scramble like mad out of bed, not really knowing if we had put each others clothes on and rush out on deck and sure enough there was Mum with her three babies strolling along the shore. The day continued on the same note, where Humpback Whales pass us and Sea Lions with their pups float by on ice bergs on our way up Tracy Arm to our last glacier by boat. We could not get to the face of this glacier as it was “carving” quite a lot, which meant the ice bergs were too thick for us to motor through. Not a great sound hearing them crunch along the boat and being ever mindful that they can wipe out your prop. Apart from sitting back and enjoying the wonderful sights and scenery, we get to do some crabbing and shrimping. OK so the first time we put the pots down we only got one shrimp and one crab but boy was that crab sooooooo.....good and enough at least for all four of us to have an appertiser. Our efforts (or should we say Larry's) did pay off where we continued to get one or two crabs and on one particular day we hauled in approx. 4 – 5lb of large shrimp and four large crabs. We feasted like kings that night. If you have ever eaten crab that fresh, there is nothing like it..............absolutely gorgeous!!! We also got to bath in the hot springs. One of which we sat in amongst the natural rock and another which was fed into old fashioned tubs, which reminded us of the old western films – great fun and wonderfully warm. Unfortunately like all good things they come to an end as we were booked to fly back to Port Angeles on 4th June, after covering 1,962 miles. We can not thank Larry and Peg enough for the terrific time and trip. They really did put themselves out to ensure we got to see as many of the best things as possible and we really appreciated that. We arrive back in Seattle, where Dick and Sharron “The Porters” meet us and take us to their home on Whidbey Island for a few days. This time we only had two bags of luggage and NO SPARES for the boat. As usual we have a fun time with these guys, also our mutual friends from Honolulu, Sally and Jim were over and we get to catch up with them for a day. 8th June “The Porters” drop us off at the ferry terminal with our now four bags......how did that happen!! and we cross over to Port Townsend where we are met by Dana who has kindly come to pick us up and take us back to our boat (via Costco and Safeway, thereby catering Teka Nova for the next month!!) Well here we are back on Teka Nova and relating stories to anyone who will listen of our Alaska trip, they all appear suitably envious and quite right too. We plan to depart Port Angeles the first week in July, when we will cruise the San Juan Islands for a while in company with “The Porters” on their new Bayliner Motor Cruiser, or should we say we will follow in their wake and catch up with them at the anchorages – motor vessel verses sailing yacht...Um. (before we head south). As usual it will be a sad farewell to all our old and new friends that we have made and met here. We would also like to say a big Thank You to the Port Angeles Boat Haven Marina staff and other support staff in the Port Angeles area, they have really looked after us here and we would recommend this Marina and Haul Out facility to anyone. ..........................and for those of you who have been following our saga of our electric winches.....they are now actually working – for those of you who have not – VERY VERY LONG STORY!!!!!
Very Best Wishes Christine & Terry -------------------------------------------------------------------------- March 2010 Hi All -------------------------------------------------------------------------- October 2009
Dear All, You will find in this Newsletter that there will be a great deal about the people we have met up with. We make no apologies for this as they have been and become a key element in making our adventure a great one. Once again their kindness and generosity has been overwhelming, not only do they invite us into their homes for dinner, they offer to drive us anywhere or help us with anything and for that we say many many thanks from the bottom of our hearts to all those mentioned in this Newsletter and in previous Newsletters, we feel we are far better people for having known you all. OK, the last Newsletter ended with us waiting for our injectors to come back. In the meantime we meet new friends:- Bill and Carol of “Linda Grace”. Dana and Jean who live in Port Angeles – more about these people further on. With the injectors returned cleaned and re-built we set off on 13th July for some cruising around the Puget Sound area. Our next stop was Port Ludlow, where we dropped anchor. We prefer to be out at anchor and will quite happily not go into Marinas for 6 – 9 months, we are fully self sufficient with the generator, water maker and the dinghy. Everywhere is just so quiet, peaceful and still. We go for walks ashore, the trees are stunning and the smell of pine is just wonderful. The scenery here is beautiful, albeit a little on the chilly side for us thinned blooded people who have been in the tropics for the last 3 years. We get to see Deer, Raccoon, Seals and Otters. Terry has his first Birthday afloat (usually back in the UK for his). His Birthday cake is baked and suitably decorated and Terry gets to choose what he would like for dinner – tenderloin steak and my chips and of course followed by Birthday cake and cream, thats if after he has blown out all his candles we still have a boat left. On 15th July the passage to Sinclair Inlet started out in thick fog but cleared by 13.00 hours and the day became hot and sunny. Agate Bridge proved to be interesting as we had about a 5 inch clearance under it. The next day we arrive in Filucy Bay and within 3 hours of dropping our anchor a gentleman by the name of Rich has come by our boat with Brie his dog (a Black Lab) that cannot wait to board us and inspect our boat, (would make a good Customs Officer) however, the distance between Rich's dinghy and our boat widens slightly and Brie nearly goes in the drink, Terry successfully prevents this and Brie is onboard big time. Rich then invites us to their house for dinner. His wife Connie at this point does not know this. We duly arrive at their beautiful home after accepting such a generous offer. Connie welcomes us like long lost friends and dishes up the most amazing spread at short notice. They have also invited their friends Peg and Larry. We eat, drink and chat in their amazing garden, again savoring the wonderful smell of pine trees, the beautiful setting and most importantly the company of special people. Larry and Peg drop by our boat the next day. Larry is a fellow professional aviator and Peg is a qualified pilot, so an interesting duo. They also started out long term cruising which unfortunately got interrupted. They bring on their visit home made cookies and fresh herbs from their garden!!!! The day after that we meet up with Larry and Peg again and were invited out on their son's motor boat, to view the Bremerton naval facility and have some lunch. We then set off to Langley Marina (Whidbey Island) to meet up again with our friends Dick and Sharron Porter (we met them originally in Honolulu) and will be known from here on as “The Porters”. After receiving a warm welcome by the Marina (which is quite small and Teka Nova is the largest yacht they have had) and people who just wanted to talk to us (they are very interested in our adventures as very few world cruisers come this way). We spent a few days with “The Porters” at their home. A great deal of Americans fly their National Flag outside their homes, as we drove up their drive they had hoisted a huge Union Jack as well. We do some fun and interesting things like ride in their Ford Model A with Sharron and Christine in the buggie seat and go to the pictures in a family size local village cinema – we can not remember the last time we went to the movies. We also get to unwrap the many packets containing spare parts etc. and our new folding bikes that we have had sent to their address – it was just like Christmas. After, “The Porters” join us on Teka Nova for a little cruising. Dick lends us his crab pot and sorts us out with fishing gear to catch salmon. We end up in Seattle and go to the Boeing Museum of Flight (one of the Concorde's is here), we also get to see the Blue Angels (the US Navy's equivalent of the British Red Arrows) amongst many other great things. “The Porters” depart and we continue to cruise the Puget Sound. When we anchored off Port Townsend, I.D. and Bobbye who were over from Honolulu on vacation meet up with us for lunch, it was just great to see these folks again. One of our first trips out on our new bikes proved interesting, we managed to confuse a driver at a pedestrian crossing, whereby he shouted out his window... “are you pedestrians or cyclist?”................”neither we're English”, as if that explained everything. Next we head back to Port Angeles to do the final arrangements for the haul out in October. We get to spend time with Dana and Jean again, also Larry and Peg who drove up from Filucy Bay (with more home made cookies) and we spend a day sight seeing with them – Lake Crescent and Hurricane Rig in the Olympic National Park – spectacular!! We then set off to Canada (Vancouver Island - Port Sidney Marina) where we meet up with John and Harmony whom we first met in Grenada 2 years ago!! John & Harmony live close to the marina. John had also participated in the Atlantic Rally For Cruisers on his yacht “Ocean Harmony” the same year as us (although we did not know this until we had met with them in Grenada). They introduced us to their friends Gerry and Maxine (Gerry crewed for John on the ARC). Once again we are given the most generous hospitality by these people, invited to dinner and sight seeing, one of the sights was the world famous Butchart Gardens, if you ever go to Vancouver Island this is a must to see. On the first day we arrived at Port Sidney Marina we voiced our concerns regarding the depth of water in the slip we had been assigned to. We had on several occasions informed them we have a 8' 6” draft. The first morning at low tide we only had 6” under the keel. Once again we informed the Marina as the next low tide was going to be even worse (spring tide). They said they would move us the next day to a slip further out. TOO LATE!! The next morning we wake up and get out of bed .... ahhh, whats wrong with this picture, Teka Nova is listing to starboard and is well and truly aground. The bow has sunk into the mud but the middle to aft section of the keel is resting on a rock and we are sitting about 2 feet out of the water. Teka Nova is also listing over onto the dock putting all the pressure (32 tons) onto the fenders. Two concerns were a) if the fenders burst we would lean even further over and b) if the keel slid off the rock we would be in deep shit. We tied a line from the top of the mast to the opposite dock, this pulled Teka Nova into a more upright position and took some of the pressure off the fenders. The weight was actually bending the dock post over. The tide eventually re-floated us and we moved round to the other slip we had been assigned. We had set the alarm clock for 5 o'clock in the morning to check the depth and we were already down to 5' under the keel. So at 6 o'clock we up and left with just 2' feet under the keel and still 4 hours of falling tide to go – we would have been aground yet again. Now back to our fishing:- Crab Pot – Well its 1 crab and 4 large Star fish (anyone got any recipes for Star Fish?). Fishing – Nil Salmon and 1 Christmas Tree and a broken reel!! We head North for the next couple of months (we get approx. 500 miles north of Port Angeles) staying at anchor and only going into Marinas when strong storms are forecast – now it got really wet and cold. It rained so much at one time we had to get up and bail the dinghy out in the middle of the night. The further north we travel the more it becomes wilderness sailing with very few boats or people around. In the Broughton Islands there are very few settlements, only fish farms and logging camps, All the buildings/homes are built onto floating docks and the normal mode of transport (apart from boat) are sea planes. However, the scenery is second to none and the mountains covered in trees are clearly reflected in the water to make a near perfect mirror image and of course our highlight was that we got to see Black Bears!! The other thing to note around this part of the world is that the currents can be quite strong particularly in some of the Passes and this can be combined with tide rips, so you have to time your passages accordingly. Some Passes you only have a 15 minute window to navigate through with the penalty of 15 knot currents on the ebb and flood. Also, owing to the large logging trade you find that you are quite often taking avoiding action as to not to hit stray logs – it makes an awfully loud and horrid noise when you do and of course can cause damage to your vessel. Whilst we are cruising this area (and when it was not raining) we get down to re-painting Teka Nova's scuppers and coach roofs. Unfortunately, Terry manages to get some metal in his eye, which ended up with him having to go to hospital to get it removed - $715 just to be seen by a doctor – thank goodness for travel insurance and after 48 hours his eye was fine. We also get to catch a Jelly Fish – the first thing we do in the morning is to start the generator to charge the batteries...... CJ - “Um Terry, theres no water coming out the generator exhaust” TB -“Oh Blow” (or words to that affect, actually it was nothing like what Terry said) “I've only just changed that impeller, can't believe its gone already – I'll change it when we stop at the next anchorage, lets get the engine started and get on our way” CJ -“Um Terry, theres no water coming out the engine exhaust either” TB -“Both the impellers could not have gone at the same time surely?” And no they haven't................what is causing the problem is the biggest Jelly Fish you have ever seen (or we have seen) sucked up into the salt water inlet filter. Trying to remove it became interesting – we can only a liken it to trying to pick up several dozen raw broken eggs. It was slippery and slimy and came out in several bits to half fill a plastic shopping bag. That wasn't all of it, Terry had to then don the dive gear and get the rest of it out the inlet pipe. On the way south we call in at Bellingham where we met up with our friends from England, Tim and Bernardean who have a house there. Bernardean is originally from the USA. We spend a few great days with them. They drive us to all the stores we need and take us up to Mt Baker where we get to walk in the snow. We really enjoyed ourselves and have some great photos of the scenery from the Mountain. We head back to Langley via Deception Pass (at the top end of Whidbey Island) – this is one of those Passes you need to time well (half an hour window to get through). Our friends “The Porters” drive a 100 mile round trip to see us go through and take some really good photos of us. Sharron also brings the large Union Jack and vigorously waves it from the bridge – you can well imagine some of the comments she received. We arrive in Langley at 9 o'clock at night in 25 knots of wind – always makes anchoring much more fun. Once again we spend some time with “The Porters” before heading back to Port Angeles via Sequim Bay. Back in Port Angeles a week before our haul out to prepare Teka Nova, after which we have a further two weeks of preparing Teka Nova for the winter before returning to the UK and this is where we come back to Dana and Jean. Dana and Jean have kindly lent us their lovely home to live in and have the use of their vehicle whilst they are away on vacation. On 21st October we go with Dana and Jean to Seattle Airport and take the opportunity to catch up and have lunch with Jim and Sally Ewing who are in town from Honolulu and of course “The Porters”. This was a lot of fun and the guys had organised a celebration of Christine's birthday with presents and a cake made by the Washington Athletic Club, which was a lovely surprise. Teka Nova was hauled out on 22nd October – no problems. Her bottom actually looks in surprisingly good condition seen as she was last hauled out 18 months ago. However, we still have a lot of work to do before leaving her and never enough days to do it in, also the rain keeps stopping some of the work that needs to be carried out. Sunday 25th October we needed to go into Port Townsend to pick up a pump from West Marine and as no one is working in the boat yard that day, we managed to give ourselves an afternoon off and catch up with Mark and Nancy of “Tamara” who live in Port Townsend (the cruisers we met up with in Hawaii who were sailing to Alaska the same time as us – they made it, we didn't). Good to see you guys again and look forward to meeting up with you next year. We are hoping that we can catch up with Larry and Peg and it would be nice to see Rich and Connie again before we leave for the UK but for now thats all from the crew of Teka Nova until we return to her next March. Have we had fun and laughed so much with these people? – in SHED LOADS!! Very Best Wishes to you all. Christine and Terry -------------------------------------------------------------------------- July 2009 Having arrived in Honolulu Waikiki Yacht Club on 3rd April, we developed a couple of Technical problems and instead of our planned stay of 2 weeks we were there for 5 weeks. Having said that we met the most amazing people. The Yacht Club was second to none – staff and members could not have been more helpful or friendly. We would like to say a very special thank you to :-
Kat Petron Jim and Sally Ewing Dick and Sharon Porter Al, Shirley and Terri Jack Peters Jay Evans I.D. and Bobbye Mike Parsons
These people made our stay one of the most memorable of our travels.
Technical problems fixed we venture out over to Molokai Island (Lono bay) and drop anchor for a week before going back to WYC to have the rest of our cockpit covers completed. Whilst we were in Lono bay we meet up with Mark and Nancy of “Tamara”, who will also be leaving for Alaska about the same time as us.
We left Pokai Bay and headed off to Kauai Island – Nawiliwili, to position for the passage to Alaska once the weather window appeared. Pandora is already there and Tamara arrived shortly after. A few days later Tamara and us move up to Hanalei Bay (where the song Puff The Magic Dragon comes from).
Pandora E-Mails us to say that they are leaving on Wednesday, we then depart on the Friday 5th June, followed by Tamara on Sunday. We are in contact with both boats throughout the passage.
We then suspect we have a rope or something around our prop at this time. We wait for a reasonable calm day and Terry dons the dive gear and goes overboard with me holding tightly onto his safety rope, to investigate. After the third attempt Terry manages to get to the prop and sure enough we have picked up a fishing net (not surprising as there had been an awful lot of debris floating past us). This was duly hacked off and floated away astern of us. Terry thought himself extremely brave when he realised the water depth was 18750ft
We carry on North, no wind so we are motoring but one night whilst I (Christine) was on watch, I noticed a fair amount of white smoke coming out of the exhaust. The Engine is running fine and all the instruments are indicating all is well but we are using twice the amount of fuel – so something is wrong. Mark of Tamara was absolutely terrific and talked us through some tests to do on the engine to find the problem. It basically all came down to the injectors which we suspected were gummed up. Both Tamara and ourselves suspected the fuel we purchased in Honolulu was not top quality. Thank you Mark for all your help and the knowledge you passed to us, it was very much appreciated.
So we make the decision to bin Alaska and head for Seattle. By this time our friends Dick and Sharon whom we met in Honolulu have returned back to their home in Seattle, although they have now gone on holiday on a cruise ship. However, Dick organises everything for our arrival into Port Angeles and has a mechanic lined up ready on our arrival. Now you will perhaps understand just how special these people are.
Well we continue trying to sail to Seattle without using the engine, be-calmed some nights and good winds during the day we do some of the most challenging and some of the best sailing we have ever done. For the first time in 3 years the duvet and our heavy weather gear come out – we were finding it sooooo cold after being in the tropics for so long.
The weather pattern does not improve and yet another Gale/Storm is coming our way. This time we can not out run it and we our caught in a Force 9 (45 knots) for 30 hours. Teka Nova handled it beautifully. Everyone who were receiving our Position Reports were worried sick. However, we just got on with it – still playing are customary game of scrabble every afternoon, which has become a daily ritual on long passages with us.
We arrived in Port Angeles (24 days 9 hours and 55 mins – 3,-083 miles) at 23.55 on 29th June. Dick and Sharon caught a ferry across to us the next day – it was so good to see them. They drove us around to all the places we needed to go. Then a couple of days later Dick catches another ferry to us once again to assists with anything we needed.
So, here we are in Port Angeles with some great people around us, waiting for our injectors to be check and returned – hopefully that will fix the problem and we can be once again on are way. In the meantime we celebrated 4th July with Alex Giron an ex colleague of Christine's and Alex's partner Jennifer, it was really good to see these guys.
Thus our onward cruising plans will have to be altered, so for the remainder of this season we will be cruising Puget Sound and the waters to the northern tip of Vancouver Island before returning south to be lifted out in October for the winter, when we will return to the UK and Cyprus. Next spring we will head up to Alaska to Prince William Sound before cruising the inland passage back to Washington where we will be lifted out for another winter. After that we will head south again.
Best Regards Christine & Terry ---------------------------------------------------------------------
April 2009 Dear All, After transiting the Panama Canal we spent 6 days at anchor at Balboa Panama City, to re-cater etc. The anchorage to say the least was horrid and dangerous at times, with pilot and ferry boats etc. going through at a rate of knots. This would send the yachts rocking and rolling badly. If you were attempting to either leave the dinghy to get on board your boat or the other way round, you could easily end up in the water. This is what actually happened to Terry as he was attempting to get back on board, a boat went pass at high speed and the wake surged the dinghy and Terry went flying overboard into the water. It was only David Simpson's actions that prevented Terry from being slammed between the dinghy and the swim platform. However, whilst we are here we are re-united with Geoff and Geraldine of “Blue Dawn” and Georges and Annie of “Trio”, which is always pleasant to meet up with old friends. O n 19th January we depart Panama City (Balboa) for the Las Perlas Islands. We spend approx 6 days cruising the Islands, which were very pleasant. Here we saw Rays flying out of the water, then somersaulting before re-entering which is apparently part of their self cleaning ritual. The locals here hunt iguanas with dogs for food – we gave that delicacy a miss. On 26th January we set off for the Galapagos Islands, which took us 6 days – 875 miles. The passage was pretty uneventful. However, David did manage to catch a Spanish Mackerel and we had yet another bird join us for breakfast. We of course duly toasted Neptune and asked for safe passage upon crossing the Equator. We spend 4 weeks in the Galapagos Islands, which were amazing in their own right. The Sea Lions were funny and cute, and they would happily swim with you. They would also have a nap on your swim platform and if you were foolish enough to leave your dinghy in the water they would be in it in a flash. The Giant Tortoises, Turtles, Penguins, Rays, Iguanas and Blue Footed Booby Birds were great to see at such close quarters. All the Islands we visited were clean, tidy and looked after and the people were very friendly. The downside is the paperwork you have to go through as a cruiser. However, we had an agent by the name of Bolivar, who was tremendous and arranged for someone to meet us at each Island to do all the necessary paperwork. The other couple of downsides were the anchorages, which were very rocky and rolly (you needed to use the kedge anchor). Puerto Ayora on Santa Cruz was particularly bad as this also gets exceptionally busy with the charter boats. Also, not sure if it was the time of year or what but the water clarity was not good. We had to change our water maker filters 3 times whilst we were here. Once again it becomes a small world and Geoff and Geraldine of “Blue Dawn” have arrived. They are a lovely couple and we were very sorry to have to say goodbye to them when they left. Blue Dawn was off to the Marquesas and so our paths divide. But as they say “never say never”, we just might catch up with them again around New Zealand or Australia, we sincerely hope so. The other person who pops up in Galapagos is Gasper of who was one of our line handlers through the Panama Canal. Good to see you again Gasper!! On 5th March we depart for our passage to Hawaii. 4,354 miles, which took us 29 days, 12 hours and 47 minutes (just the 2 of us on board). We knew we would probably have to motor for at least the first 4 days to get far enough north to pick up the trade winds, but we got lucky and pick them up a day earlier than expected. As we start our passage through the Islands a Sea Lion floats by, completely on his back, with tail and fins in the air, enjoying the sunshine, it was so surreal it could have been something from Alice in Wonderland. We once again cross back over the Equator and toast Neptune and ask for permission to cross from his Southern Kingdom to his Northern Kingdom and for a safe passage. On our second day out a Red Footed Booby Bird landed on the roll bar of the anchor and stayed with us for 5 days (goes off fishing for breakfast, lunch and dinner). How he managed to hold on with webbed feet, especially in these sea conditions is quite amazing. 9 days into the passage and we have light winds and confused seas, added to which we have the Equatorial Counter Current against us. We probably experimented with every combination of our 4 sails to get the best out of Teka Nova, however, it still feels as though we are in a washing machine. Fortunately, we have the luxury of 2 separate auto helms, so we run one by day and the other by night, this is in order to give them both equal amounts of torture. The night of day 9 we get our first sighting of another vessel, followed by an hour later of a 6” flying fish landing in my lap (Christine), which being night time, came as a bit of a surprise. After throwing back the fish, cleaning myself and my MP3 player off of fish scales the night continued uneventfully – too much excitement for 1 night anyway. Our watch pattern consisted of 6 hours on, 6 hours off during the night (18.00 – midnight and midnight to 06.00) and 4 hours on, 4 hours off during the day. This works for us but everyone finds their own pattern that suits them. On the 6 hour night watches we set up the Radar alarm (so you can actually doze off whilst on watch). The Radar alarm will also go off if a reasonable size cloud is approaching, this gives you time (depending on what mile range you set it) to shorten the sails if necessary. A typical day on Teka Nova whilst on passage on our own, consisted of:- at dawn a patrol of the boat to peel off squid and remove flying fish from the decks and coach roofs. On one particular evening whilst cooking a sizable Flying Fish came through the galley hatch and missed landing in the frying pan by cms – talk about having fresh fish to eat. The mornings are then given over to our general routine maintenance, cleaning of the boat and fixing anything that might have come loose or needed replacing. This is an aerobic exercise in its self owing to the sea states as they had by now got up to 20' foot from 3 different directions. Any addition physical exercise after this (unless playing with trimming sails) was purely optional or just madness. After lunch we would either read books, listen to our MP3 players, watch a video or play scrabble/chess etc. For the last 12 days of the passage we are only on a reefed down Genoa and still hit speeds of 9.9 knots, with winds of 25 – 30 knots. We arrived in Hawaii – Honolulu (Waikiki Yacht Club) on 3rd April, to an exceptionally warm welcome. Everybody, is friendly and helpful, including Custom Officials. The Security Guard at the Custom's Area, tells you to have a nice lunch, even though its 09.00 am. Shop Assistant's actually want to help you. The choice and quality of food is very good. You can get four different colours of cauliflower – purple, green, yellow and white. You could do some serious damage to your waist line here. Across the road from the Yacht Club there is a huge Shopping Mall with all the big names. Fire Engines on a call out tow a boat with them...........how much water do they use? For those that may be interested in joining us our outline sailing program is as follows:- Mid June Arrive Kodiak bay Alaska Mid July Arrive Seeward Alaska Late July Enter inland passage at Cape Bigner/Cross Sound, close to Glacier Bay Aug/Sept Inland passage End Sept Seattle Oct/Nov West Coast to San Diego Dec To Mexico for haul out
Very Best Wishes Christine & Terry ---------------------------------------------------------- March 2009 We are planning to leave the Galapagos Islands on Wednesday 4th March after being here for approx. 4 weeks, 7 Mar - 7 Apr Passage Galapagos - Hawaii 4000 miles 7 Apr - 1 June Hawaii 1 June - 18 June Passage Hawaii - Kodiak Alaska 2100 miles 18 June - 1 July Kodiak Area 1 July - 6 July Passage Gulf of Alaska 650 miles 6 July - September Inshore Passage to Vancouver September - Nov Vancouver - San Diego 30 Nov - 4 Dec Possible passage to North Mexico Early Dec Boat lifted out Mid December Return to UK Mid January 2010 Cyprus April UK May Return to Teka Nova Very Best Wishes Christine & Terry
Jan 2009 Firstly, Many Thanks to all who sent us Christmas Cards and Wishes, it was very much appreciated. Communications from the time we left Venezuela have been restricted by lack of Internet and E-Mail facilities, so this Newsletter will be somewhat longer in order to let friends and family catch up with what has been happening to us. We left Puerto La Cruz – Venezuela on 10th October 2008 for a short distance of 5/6 miles to Isla La Borracha, where we stopped overnight at anchor. This was to clean the prop and check other systems, water maker etc. after being in the marina waters for approx. 3 months, before heading off to Tortogua. Saying goodbye to our friends that we had known for so long now in Puerto La Cruz was especially hard. The passage to Tortogua was pleasant enough, apart from Terry quite badly injuring his hands (long story), which got him out of most duties including the washing up – pleased to report that his hands healed quickly and he is OK now. After taking fishing lessons from Paul of “Dream Weaver” we duly cast our line. Paul had said that we would sure as not catch something where the sea bed shelved off after leaving Isla La Borracha. Sure enough we did, however, whatever it was, it took our complete line with it. We now estimate that our fishing exploits have cost us around £600 for one fish that was caught on the ARC back in 2006. On approach to our chosen anchorage on Tortogua we were surrounded by the biggest school of dolphins we have come across – literally 100’s of them. We dropped anchor in approx. 30 feet of water and it was so clear you could actually see the anchor on the sea bed. After a couple of days we headed off to Los Roques. This had to be the worst passage we have done to date. We were surrounded by big mean thunderstorms, with huge lightning strikes to the sea. One would pass then break up, only to reform and come back towards us (watching them on the Radar) we felt as though we were being stalked. On top of this one was blocking the southern entrance to the Islands and you need to have good visibility to navigate in owing to the reefs, which do not have any markers. We eventually get in and anchor at 08.40 in the morning after 14 hours and 40 mins and a passage of 85 miles, which ended up being 110 miles owing to altering course several times to avoid the thunderstorms. As neither of us had got any sleep through the night we were exhausted and retired to our bed for a well earned sleep. The next day we were sitting there relaxing and admiring our beautiful view, when a weather warning comes over the Radio. Hurricane Omar was expected to pass quite close to the northern side of the Islands and to expect up to 90 knots of wind. No boats were allowed to enter, leave or navigate within the Islands – Deep Joy!! So we set about stripping the top sides, and lashing down as much as possible. We had no time to strip the sails off as the wind was already up to 25 knots. We then sit and watch the wind indicator rise. Fortunately, it only reached 40 knots and our big new Rocna anchor held fast. We spent a further 10 days cruising around Los Roques Islands which are absolutely beautiful – no shops etc, only the odd fisherman’s house (apart from on the main Island). Christine got to celebrate her birthday here, with Champagne and one of her favorite meals – fried eggs and chips!! One of her birthday presents was a hair cut courtesy of Terry with the 1” blade on the hair cutters. We then sailed to Los Alves for a couple of nights. Equally as beautiful as Los Roques only with 100’s of amazing birds. There was one particular bird (not sure what as we are not too good with our bird varieties) that had bright yellow webbed feet that actually sat up on the tree branches, how they managed to stay on the branches without any claws to hold on with we do not know. Our next passage took us to Bonaire in the Dutch Antilles. Where upon looking for a mooring buoy (no anchoring here) we are being hailed over the Radio by Gary and Linda of “Rainbowrider”. Also here are Jeff and Una of “Dragonfly”, both boats were with us in Puerto La Cruz. Well Gary and Jeff jump into their dingy and kindly hand up the mooring buoy line for us. Teka Nova is secured, however, at one point Jeff is hanging off our bow sprit and then Gary ends up falling in the water. As Gary goes overboard, Jeff just causally says “Oh there you go” and carries on talking to us whilst Gary is struggling to get back in the dingy. It has to be said that both boats had arrived a couple of hours before us and had already sampled the contains of the beer cooler – entertainment valve scored a 10. Bonaire is a delightful place, the people are friendly, even Customs and Immigration!! The food in the restaurants is particularly good here. We also spend a couple of evenings with Gary and Linda (who have their friends Nikki and Dave on board for a holiday) and Jeff and Una. Also Duncan and Janet of “Consort” who arrived a few days after us. We can only spend a week here as we need to get to Curacao to pick up our spares that we had shipped down from Miami. All the spares are in preparation for after the Panama Canal as there will be virtually no technical support after that. So we get to Curacao and anchor out in Expanse Water (remember we are anchored quite away out from the shore). “Consort” is here also and thank goodness that Duncan and Janet have been here before as checking into Immigration and Customs is a bit of a trek and we would probably still be wandering around lost if it was not for these guys. Downtown Curacao has a flavor of Amsterdam mixed with the Caribbean, with a little American in the way of Denny’s and Tony Roman’s. Quite nice really although parts are Industrial. We hired a car and set off to pick up our shipment. We arrived at Florida Express and to collect our shipment where we have to do the following (this will probably amuse all Christine’s friends and colleagues in the freight industry):- 1. We have to take a staff member of Florida Express down to Customs. 2. We bring a Customs Officer and the FE staff member back to FE. 3. The Customs Officer checks our shipment and we pay our bill. 4. We take our shipment and the Customs Officer back to where we have moored our dingy. We had planned on ferrying the shipment bit by bit in the dingy to Teka Nova. However, the Customs Officer says he has to go with us and all of the shipment to Teka Nova to ensure that it all goes on board………..OK small dingy……….large shipment………plus three adults (the Customs Officer is a big guy) – this is not going to work. Fortunately we have a hand held Radio with us and call “Consort” – HELP!! Duncan comes with his dingy and we divide the shipment across the two. The Custom Officer looks at the dinghy and decides that maybe he will skip the ride to Teka Nova and trust us to put all the items on board, without him being there. 5. We then have to drive the Customs Officer back to Customs. We spend a few pleasant days here. Dinner on “Consort” before they left which was a really lovely evening, thank you Janet and Duncan. Low and behold “Rainbowrider” pitches up and the socialising continues. Unfortunately, whilst we are in Curacao we received an E-Mail which showed how bad the security situation had deteriorated in Venezuela with the tragic news that a dear friend of ours (Ken of “Chill”) has been shot and killed whilst at anchor in Isla La Borracha. We have known Ken and Cathy for the past two years, and the first season in Venezuela they very kindly looked after Teka Nova whilst we were in the UK. Cathy and Christine spent many hours together, walking and feeding the marina cats and shopping. We were truly devastated to receive the news of Ken's death and our hearts and thoughts were immediately with his wife Cathy. We leave Curacao on 13th November for the San Blas Islands, (or as the Kuna Indians prefer them to be called Kuna Yala). This is approx. 620 miles and a 4/5 day trip. We take 5 ½ days and clock up 680 miles. We did just about every sail combination and wind angles, including polling out the head sails for some good old down wind sailing. On the 4th day a little bird decides to hitch a lift. He makes himself at home and feels quite safe to even sit on Christine’s knee. He spends the entire night with us tucked up asleep under a piece of kitchen roll in the cockpit with his head tucked under his wing. All night we are being so careful as to not tread on him. Changing sails and changing watches never bothered him. On the way we cast our fishing line out – we are not giving up. We get a bite – fairly small fish who puts up a good fight and gets away, followed by a second bite which turned out to be the contains of our slop bucket that we had just emptied over the side. On the 5th day we are motoring along (no wind) reading books in the cockpit when all of a sudden the fishing line whizzes and the rod is bent double. We look round “HOLY SHIT” there’s a dirty great big whale sitting on our starboard quarter ………..Oh my god we haven’t caught this thing have we?? No No our line is over there but we have caught something. We start reeling our fish in, whilst keeping a very wary eye on the whale, who is slowly dropping back………….thank God. We duly land our 3 foot Mahi Mahi (we have the photo) and thus breaking our “Duck” and supplying us with 10 fish suppers!!........Yeah Ha!!! Well we arrived in San Blas (Eastern Holandes Cays) on 18th November and it is quite magnificent. Pacific Islands in the Caribbean and no Mosquitoes. The Islands are covered in coconut trees, which you are not allowed to take as this is the Kuna Indians main crop. The Kuna Indians are quite pleasant and friendly and will come along side in their dug outs selling eggs, fruit, fish, molas etc. We later find out that Lisa the master mola maker is an infamous transvestite…………umm. There are approx. 374 Islands, most of which are not inhabited and those that are have no electricity or running water apart from the odd Island. The Kuna Indians live in huts made from bamboo and coconut palms for the roof. The only furniture are their hammocks. Nestor one of the Kuna Indians kindly showed us around his home and village, it was quite unique. We spend several very pleasant weeks here including the Christmas holidays which were celebrated in true style, with roast turkey and all the trimmings, a Christmas tree and lights strung up round the cockpit at anchor off one of the Islands. We also, once again make new friends:- Alison and Derek of "Kalida" Georjes and Annie of "Trio" Geraldine and Geoff of "Blue Dawn" On 28th December we headed off to Panama - Isla Linton for a couple of nights before heading on down to Colon in order to start the process of our transit through the Panama Canal and pick up some spares etc. "Blue Dawn" and "Trio" are here and we spend a few days/nights socialising with them. Terry volunteered to be a line handler on "Blue Dawn" for their Canal passage. This is a good idea to do as it gives you a understanding of what to expect and what you are required to do. In the meantime our friend David Simpson joins us on Teka Nova for a holiday and be one of our line handlers. We also recruited a Spanish cruising couple Gaspar and Inma of “SA Palmereta” as we require four line handlers plus the Skipper. Gaspar and Inma were great company and we thank them very much for all their help. We are duly given our transit date and time for 11th Jan at 18.20 pm. However, our Pilot did not show up until 20.00 pm and we set off for the first three locks (upward locks) that evening (six locks in all over a 48 hour period). Before entering the first lock Paula and Ken of “Suzanne” have to raft up to us for the transit, this is the usual way for small vessels to go through the locks – we were the controlling boat, which means that Teka Nova does all the engine and steering work for both boats. At 23.00 pm we are through the first three locks and our pilot secures us to a huge mooring buoy for the night in Gatun Lakes before taking his leave of us. Our next Pilot arrives at 07.00 am the next morning to take us across the Lakes and through the Canal to the next set of three locks (downward locks) which was approx. 30 miles. Once again “Suzanne” has to re-raft to us before we enter the locks. On the last lock our Pilot asked the Lock Controller to pan the web cam onto us, we know quite a few of you got to see us go through this lock. Geraldine of “Blue Dawn” very kindly spent 4 hours recording the web cam pictures onto a video with music for us. It was an amazing event and when the last lock opened we got to see our first sight of the Pacific. We are at present anchored near Balboa about 20 minutes taxi from Panama City. For the last week we have been involved heavily in catering the boat for the next 2 months to take us through to Hawaii, via Los Perlas and the Galapagos Islands, plus doing loads of last minute jobs and collecting a few more spares. The next Newsletter will cover our most testing sailing passage the 4,000 mile passage from Galapagos to Hawaii, will be we hope the longest we will ever undertake, and the 2,500 mile passage from Hawaii to Alaska will probably be the most demanding. Very Best Wishes to you all. Christine & Terry S/Y Teka Nova -------------------------------------------------------------------------
16th June 2008 Dear All,
19th November 2007 We left Puerto La Cruz - Venezuela for Margarita. Motor sailing all the way as winds and seas were right on our nose. We dropped anchor at 21.00 hours after 14 hours of punching into it. We only intended to stay for one night but the weather forecast for the next few days was not in our favour, so we sat it out for 9 days along with approx 110 other boats that want to head north. However, Harold and Diana of 'Zephrus' have joined us, which makes our stay pleasurable and of course always fun if these two guys are around.
29th November 2007, gives us the weather window to set off to Los Testigos for a night stop before heading straight up to Antigua on a 3 day passage - 360 miles.
We arrive in Antigua on the evening of 2nd December, tired (3 hours on and 3 hours off watches) but Ok after a pretty uneventful passage. We decide to stay for 7 days, however, once again the weather is about to change and we need to take the opportunity of 2 days of weather window to get to the BVI's. So on 5th December we pick up anchor for a 2 day passage to Tortola.
The seas were lumpy and once we started to get in amongst the Islands it became quite busy with ocean liners. At 02.00 hours on 6th December Ocean Liner 'The Crown Princess', doing 18 knots tried to run us down from astern. We tried to contact the vessel by radio but no reply. So we gave him 5 flashes on the search light, which sorted him out and he reluctantly turned to port. Now we are not saying he was close but the gentleman in cabin 204C should really close his blinds at night!!
For those of you who are not sailors:-
The overtaking vessel is the give way vessel, added to this we could not turn to starboard as we had another Ocean Liner coming up on our starboard side. We could not turn to port as the 'Crown Princess course alteration would have to be to port owing to the position of the other Ocean Liner. If we alter too soon we could place ourselves back in danger.
Anyway we arrive safely in Village Cay - Tortola - guess which Ocean Liner is docked here also!!
Here we are measured for our new set of sails and that is one of the reasons for being here. We also check with the boatyard to be hauled out in March for re-antifouling plus replacing the shaft, which got bent in Antigua. In addition, have a second auto helm fitted - all work we planned to have done in the BVI's.
We also meet up again with John and Christine of 'Timentide' who we got to know in Venezuela and old friends Dave and Jan of 'Irie' ex 2006 ARC.
After negotiating with boatyards etc. and making sure we were set for Christmas, we take a 10 mile leisurely sail (with Irie) over to Norman Island to pick up a buoy in 'The Bight'.
Here we spend a pleasant 3 days with 'Irie' and new friends Larry and Elisabeth of 'Singoala'. It is also where we find we have a problem with the generator. The generator starts and runs fine but is not putting a charge through to the batteries.
After a few days of staying in bays on a couple of different Islands we head back to Village Cay Marina to get someone to take a look at the generator. Bad news - we need a new one - Oh well it is 25 years old and they have an average life of approx 10 years, so its not done too bad - c'est la vie. As the new one cannot be fitted until early Feb, we set off to visit a few more Islands and get in some really nice sailing.
On 22nd December we go into Virgin Gorda Yacht Marina for Christmas.
With our Christmas Tree and Cockpit lights up we sit back, relax and watch the comedy about to unfold before us.
The comedy being the charter boats with people onboard who have little or no experience in sailing or boat handling.
Well we saw just about everything over the next 3 days. The poor Dock Master by Christmas eve had lost all his pateience, sense of humor and Christmas spirit.
Just a couple of example:-
1. Yacht coming into jetty bow first, one man on the helm one man on the bow. The helmsman asks the bow man to tell him when they are nearly there. There is a great thud as the bow connects with the jetty and the boat is jolted violently backwards. 'Ok we are there' shouts the bow man.
2. Medium to largish power boat (Gin Palace), reversing onto jetty with a pontoon on the starboard side and another Gin Palace the other side of the Pontoon.
The Gin Palace is about to cut it abit to fine round the end of the pontoon - not a problem as this can occur quite frequntly especially if the wind is pushing you on. Just gently go back out and try again.
Dock Master:- 'Go forward please sir'
Gin Palace is still coming in reverse.
Dock Master: 'Go forward please sir'.
Gin Palace is still in reverse.
On the 5th time of the Dock Master telling him to go forward he is now at screaming level and waving his hands frantically in the air, shouting Go forward!!, Go forward!!.
At this point the Gin Palace goes into 'FULL' throtle ahead, however his wheel is over to port. As the Gin Palace hauls forward and to port the sun anwing supports connect with the other Gin Palaces anchor which is in its anchor housing on the front of the boat - but not for long. The long and the short of it was that the anchor (albeit pulled from its housing) won and the Gin Palce with the sun awning became a convertibule - Och!!
When the last boat was coming in on Christmas eve the last thing we heard the Dock Master shout was 'Did you get any instructions before you took the boat'?
Harold, we now know what you mean about the BVI's!!
Christmas day was peaceful and quiet and yes we had the traditionl Roast Turkey with all the trimmings plus Xmas Pud, all cooked onboard Teka Nova of course.
New Year's Eve was spent in Trellis Bay on Beef Island. Entertainment on shore followed by a firework display.
We then set off back to Norman Island and picked up a buoy in 'The Bight'.
Along comes a charter catamaran with 3 ladies and 3 gentleman roughly around our age upwards. They drop anchor in front of us. By the time the boat has drop back they are quite close to us but not too bad, however they are even closer to the shore.
A great debate then takes place on the 'Cat', which resulted in one of the gentleman diving over board to check to see if the anchor is holding - by the way this particular gentleman has only got 1 arm.
In the meantime (its quite windy - 25knots plus), one of their roll up sun mattress blows over board and drifts past us on its way to the shore. This is followed by another gentleman in the dingy to go and retireve it, which is then followed by the one armed man floating by on his back to assist.
The mattress is retireved but the one armed man can not get into the dingy, as he is holding on by the one arm his got and does not have another for the guy in the dingy to haul him in by. So he is hanging over the side for the journey back to the 'Cat'
One of the ladies is standing on the sten of the 'Cat' ready to take the dingy line. The man with the one arm manages to get on the stern of the 'Cat' just as the lady takes the dingy line and gives it a good pull, however as she gives it a good pull her elbow comes out and knocks the one armed man back into the water - it doesn't end here...........
A few moments later the dingy comes past again with the 3rd gentleman and the one armed man. This time to retireve a shoe that has gone over board. The shoe has now drifted onto the shore, so the one armed guy jumps out to fetch it. However, the dingy has gone aground and the one armed man needs to give it a good shove before he trys to get in. The shove works but they are back to the senario of the one armed man having to hang over the side (this time at the front) for the journey back to the 'Cat'. As they go past they shout to us 'You know we charge for this kind of entertainment'
Anyway now its dark and the wind is still around 25knots plus and the sea is choppy. All six of them decide to get in the dingy and go ashore to the bar.
Well the first thing we heard was ahhhhhhhhhhh as the first wave must have come over into the dingly, followed by someone shouting 'This was one hell of an idea'!!!
Entertainment value - Priceless!!!!!!!!! for everything else there is Barclaycard.
Over Jan and Feb, we have our new sails, second auto helm and new generator fitted, plus a rigging check and some replacements to that as a result. In between we have had friends and family visit us, which has been great plus get to see some lovely places and get some great sailing in. Also met up with Paul and Mhairi old friends of Terry's who happened to be chartering a boat out here.
On 4th March we were hauled out for the re-antifouling, new sea cocks, new water maker and a new anchor housing for the big new anchor we bought. We will be out of the water for just over a week - if were lucky (Carribean time), after which we have Terry's daughter coming out to visit, followed by the new davits fitted to Teka Nova. Hopefully, that will tick off all the big items we had planned for the boat before going through the Panama Canal next year.
5th March had dinner with Bob and Sally of 'Exceat' ex 2006 ARC, which thinking about it we probably have not seen them for a year now. Great to see you guys.
We are still really enjoying this life and are both well.
Thats all our news for now, please let us know your news, we would love to hear from you. Please bear with us if you do not get a response for some days as the internet connection is still as frustrating as ever, up sometimes but mostly down or intermittant and of course we could be out at sea where connection is not possible.
Also we have discovered that we have not been receiving some E-Mails that have been sent to us, apologises to anyone that has not receive a response from us, we are not ignoring you, please don't give up and try again.
Very Best Wishes to all Christine and Terry
Date: Friday 26th October, 2007 Pleased be advised that our Mobile phone does not work in Venezuela, at present we can only pick up E-Mails. 24th May 2007 After being launched back in the water we visited, with Neil Jarvis onboard, a couple of bays around Grenada before departing on an overnight passage to Los Testigos Islands (90 miles). We had a fabulous night sail averaging 7.5 knots. Teka Nova was going like a train, what a difference the wash off and re-anti-foul made. When we started reaching speeds of 9 knots plus we thought it would be a good idea to slow her down. The auto-pilot coped all the way. Los Testigos Islands were lovely, only 168 people live on the mainland. You first have to check in with the Coast Guard (friendly and helpful) before anchoring off the Islands. The snorkeling was particular good. On one particular day we were both reading in the cockpit, when we noticed a fishing boat of medium size with 10 men onboard getting very close to us, we began to panic when they started throwing lines onto our boat. We then noticed that they had Teka Two (the dinghy) in tow. Teka Two had come untied and drifted out to sea, neither of us had noticed. The fishermen went and retrieved it and brought it back to us. If it had not been for the fishermen we would have quite wrongly thought Teka Two had been stolen. The fishermen well deserved the beers we were able to give them. Los Testigos Islands are well worth a visit if you are sailing in the area. On 3rd June at around 06.00 the Dutch set sail, followed by the German yacht, then us at 06.50 and Fabio awhile later to Margarita (Porlamar). Well once again we had a great sail. The winds picked up and we started to catch the German in his lighter weight fibre glass yacht and make on the Dutch concrete yacht. We just drew level with the German when the winds dropped and he pulled away from us but we are still making on the Dutch. The winds pick up again and we take the advantage of this. We catch and overtake the Dutch yacht. The German just slips into the harbour before us but we have our anchor down and the beers out before him. The Dutch yacht comes in and salutes us shouting over "you won". Now we have to say we were not really racing but this was a bit of fun and we have never caught up, let alone overtaken another yacht, so we were particularly pleased with Teka Nova's performance. About an hour later Fabio sails in, grinning, he has caught a big fish, (hence his delay) and invites us to dinner to share his catch, what a gentleman. Fabio starts with sushi - he has marinated the fish with olive oil, lemon juice, pepper and capers. This was followed by lightly baked fish and vegetables - it was absolutely wonderful and a perfect end to a perfect days sailing. The latest update on our fishing is still nil to us and 2 lures and a complete line to the fish. A couple of days later we were chatting to the Dutch:- Dutch: “You were sailing very well and fast that day”. “But our boat is very heavy, she is made of concrete and weighs 26 tons”. Us: “We are steel and weigh 32 tons”. YEAH!!!!!!!!! We stay in Margarita, at anchor for approx. 3 weeks whilst we have a sun cover made for Teka Nova and covers for Teka Two. Whilst we were there an unexpected storm bounced off main land Venezuela and came through the anchorage. Teka Nova started dragging her anchor and we just managed to start the engine in time to avoid hitting another yacht by inches. The wind got up to 50 knots, yachts were dragging their anchors everywhere and some collided with others, (approx. 80 yachts in the anchorage), Genoa sheets were being pulled out of their furling and shredded and sun covers were ripped to pieces. We were OK and did not sustain any damage but had to hold Teka Nova on engine power for an hour and ferry glide around our anchor, as we could not get the anchor up in the weather conditions. On 26th June we pick up anchor at 05.15 and head for main land Venezuela – Puerto La Cruz (Bahia Redonda Marina) to berth Teka Nova for the hurricane season and the trip back to the UK. We had concerns regarding coming to Venezuela owing to the bad write ups surrounding the area. However, we are very pleased we came and the local people are really friendly and try to be helpful. You just have to be careful about walking out of the Marina at night etc. Really no different to some parts of the UK and in St Lucia, Rodney Bay people were mugged in the Marina, you just have to be sensible. There is a good write up in August’s edition of “Compass”. So don’t be put off it’s a great place to come. There are a great bunch of cruisers down here, majority are Americans who are very sociable and great company to be with – we are having a “blast” On 17th July we head back to the UK. Once again, unfortunately, we were not able to get to see everyone we would have liked to. However, many thanks to everyone for your hospitality and putting up with us, especially Neil Jarvis who ended up with us for an extra 2 weeks owing to Christine having an accident and damaging the base of her spine. A special thanks to Geoff Green who got Christine back on her feet and moving around again. We arrive back in Venezuela on 17th September. We would like to say a huge “Thank You” to:- Cathy and Ken of “Chill”, for looking after Teka Nova in our absence. Many thanks Guys!!! We will stay here for a few weeks, whilst we carry out maintenance tasks on the boat, changing oil and fuel filters etc. the usual stuff and wait for the hurricane season to pass. We will probably go out for 1 or 2 day sails to the islands close to Bahia Redonda before heading north to St. Martin. Very Best Wishes
Date: Thursday 24th May, 2007 Dear All, Firstly, we have our mobile phone back and working, although we are unable to retrieve our voice messages from it, text messages are OK. Our website is back up and running, many thanks Philip. WARNING this is a long E-Mail as we have not written for so long - apologies. SPECIAL NOTES We would like to send our Love and Very Best Wishes to Terry and Nicola Flinn of "Flinesse" and James of "Apparition" for a safe and speedy Return ARC. Good Luck guys and let us know how you got on. Hi Paul Tyminski, how are the repairs going - let us know how you are getting on please. UPDATE After spending New Year in Nelson's Dockyard in Antigua with Terry's daughter Julia and her friend Clare, the weather (strong winds and high Then came the three stooges - Terry, Mike and Chrissy. Well what a laugh we had, it was something crossed between Benny Hill and Black Adder. So off we take them to Guadeloupe, calling in at the Saints, Dominica, Martinique, where we bumped into Bob and Sally of "Exceat" and then Rodney Bay in St. At this point we still had our fuel contamination problem. So we bit the ballet and opened up all 4 fuel tanks and pumped £600 worth of fuel away. However, on the good side we re-met up with:- Terry and Nicola Flinn of "Flinesse". Terry Flinn and Terry Baverstock were in the RAF together - small world. Here we also made new friends:- Tom and Colette of "Prim Teaze of Leith". All above were ARC yachts. We then left and headed back to Antigua to pick up the "Boys"- Terry (he who came back for more), Geoff (neckachief that doubles up as a spare Q flag) and Tim (I'm in the Pink). Here we also bump into:- Bob and Sally of "Exceat" again - hope you guys are well and that we catch up soon. Tony and Kay White, who were on holiday in Antigua and thought they would just pop along to Nelson's Dockyard to see if we were around. Tony was a colleague of Terry's with Monarch. Great to see you guys, please keep in touch. We leave Nelson's Dockyard with the boys only to get a rope (an entire slim Once again, we take leisurely sails around Antigua with the "Boys", as they only have a short time with us. Again this was a delightful week, spent with three very dear and gentle friends. We guess they must have enjoyed themselves as they are already talking about another "Boys" week with us. Here we have included a note from Geoff Green:- February 19th 2007 "In what became known as, ‘The Boys Trip to Antigua’, Terry Bown, Tim Melton and I joined Teka Nova at English Harbour. Apart from a one day outing, this was my first proper sail; eight days on the ocean waves. Christine and Terry never failed to amaze us; Christine produced fantastic meals on a cooker the size of a matchbox and Terry’s ability to overcome problems on board and still make our stay great was remarkable. My cough, which I’d had for months, disappeared and I experienced the best sleep I’d had for a very long time. Secluded coves, swimming off the boat in turquoise seas, magical white beaches, sundowners at the end of the day and a memorable trip around Antigua. Fantastic. Thanks a million to you both. Much love, Geoff" We finish up in Falmouth Harbour where we are along side with the likes of Leander Check them out on their websites. Here, we once again meet up with:- Brian of "Scraatch" James of "Apparition". Great photo Colette - many thanks for that. Unfortunately, after all our efforts with the fuel tanks, we still have the problem. So we order a fuel conditioning and polishing unit. Time to go back to the UK and do a whirl wind tour to catch up with as many friends and family as possible. Many thanks to you all for your understanding that we had a very limited time but it was great to see all of you that we did manage to get to see. On 8th April it was back to the Caribbean - tough life. After we arrived back at the boat in Antigua, we were joined by Peter and Lynne Mallen. We headed south back to Guadeloupe, The Saints, Dominica, Martinique and then St Lucia - Rodney Bay where we collect the fuel conditioning unit. From there we started further south into new water for us, first being Soufriere Bay (still in St Lucia) where the Pitons are. If you have not heard of them there a a set of pointed hills that made a fabulous back drop whilst we were at anchor. On the way down (between Antigua and Guadeloupe) we came across a pod of Sperm Whales (30 - 40 feet in length) who gave us a wonderful display of jumping out of the water, doing somersaults then crashing back down again. Then down to Bequia (Beck-way) - population 5,000. When you hear the Conch Shell being blown it means one the the local fishermen have just come in with their catch and you go and buy it from them. So far our efforts of fishing have produced a big fat zero!! Thanks Martimus for the tips, we will let you know how we get on. Peter and Lynne depart for the UK, hope we did not wear you guys out too much and that you enjoyed your trip as much as we did. We stay in Bequia a few days to fit the fuel conditioning unit. Fuel unit fitted we then proceed to pass all the fuel through. Next day we sample our fuel.............we have clean fuel for the first time in 5 months. We can also condition and polish other boats fuel!!! There are quite a few boats around who do not know they have the fuel "bug" problem and it is only discovered when the engine stops. We have been fortunate (albeit painful) whereby we have a system that allows us to to be able to draw off the bad fuel from the bottom of the fuel tanks, thus keeping it away from the engine. Now having this new unit means we do not have to do this every other day. It cleans fuel at 500 litres per hour and you don't have to stand and watch it. Next stop was Union Island - population 2,000, where Christine saw a cute baby turtle as we were getting ready to drop the anchor - no I didn't drop it on him but Terry nearly ran him over. Christine's colleague back in UK Onward to Carriacou - not sure of the population but they all seemed to be very tall and there were quite a few handicapped, very strange place, also had a run in with the customs officer. One of the great things about the Carribean is that you have "boat boys" come out to your boat selling fresh bread, fruit and veg etc. beats queueing at Tescos. In Carriacou we even had our wine delivered £3 a bottle and home delivery - not bad. Then down here to Grenada, St David's Harbour - saw a couple of large turtles float by us on the way. People here are very friendly and try to be helpful. We have been hauled out to have Teka Nova's bottom scraped and re-anti-fouled. She has more growing on her bottom than there is growing on the coral reefs. The shaft to the prop also needs to be re-aligned as a result of the rope in Antigua being caught around it - it actually bent it!! We have also met up with Susan and Nick of "Flying Start". Its great listening to Susan and Nick, they have quite a few funny tales to tell, which have had us in stitches - a great couple. "Flying Start" was the yacht that came across the immigrants whilst on the ARC. They stood by them throwing bottles of water to them until a rescue ship could pick them up - 14 hours, in seas with big swells. They were awarded "The Spirit of the ARC" trophy, which was well deserved. Susan and Nick introduce us to new friends:- John of " Ocean Harmony" from Canada who was also on the ARC. Safe journey home and hope to see you back out here soon. And so the socialising continues........................ Neil Jarvis joined us on 22nd May, when we will start heading for Venezuela for the hurricane season. Well we are going to wrap this up for now, as you are probably bored by now (or have fallen asleep) with all our babbling. Miles to date since leaving the UK - 6,265 Hope this E-Mail finds you all well. Very Best Wishes Date : Mon, 1 Jan 2007 Dear All, We hope you all had A Very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Firstly, our mobile has given up and we are currently without one that can As per our previous E-Mail we arrived safe and sound in St Lucia on Friday The week before the ARC was amazing, over 200 boat crews working every day Some yachts had it harder than others i.e. the boat opposite us an Oyster The departure from Gran Canaries was terrific with the dock sides lined with For our particular group of boats the start time was 13.00 (26th Nov). We Well we were off and on our way, all hoping for a good crossing with The first 24 hours we sailed very conservatively in order to allow the crew The first few days saw very light winds with varying directions due to the Whilst we were still north of the trade winds the sea states became very We did get to see dolphins and catch one fish, which the two Ian's cooked Overall we faired well (just a broken bracket fitting for the pole and a On arriving in Rodney Bay, St Lucia each yacht was met day or night by ARC We arrived in the morning so all the crew retired to a local restaurant for In general on Teka Nova we had as a crew a relatively easy passage, with two The Atlantic crossing experience remains one of the World’s great Ocean We departed St Lucia (Terry and Christine) on 21st December for a night stop On 29th Julia (Terry’s daughter) and her friend Clare arrived to spend 10 That’s all for now. Best Wishes Dear All, We forgot to mention we logged 2,884 miles on the ARC crossing. Since leaving the UK on 18th Sept and arriving Antigua on 23rd we have done Best Wishes
Date: Sun, 24 Dec 2006 Dear All Many thanks to you all for your kind messages. We are currently berthed in We will be writing at greater length over the holiday as we currently have This message is to wish you all a very special and happy Christmas and we With lots of love and best wishes Terry and Christine xxxxxxxx PS Important message our mobile phone has packed in completely and we are Date: Mon, 18 Dec 2006 Dear All, Just a short note to say that we arrived safe and sound on Friday 15th at An amazing trip and adventure. We will update you all with more details when we get up to Antigua - the Many thanks to everyone for your messages of Good Luck and Congratulations Very Best Wishes Date: Fri, 24 Nov 2006 Dear All, >Date: Tue, 07 Nov 2006 22:57:37 +0000
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