Encore! Enroute around the World


The Internet Postings from the Log of
S/V ENCORE!

Round the World Cruise 
Part I - 1997
St. Lucia to Thailand
Part II – 1998
Thailand to Turkey


The following reports have been taken from the logbook entries written during the first two years of our sailing circumnavigation and sent to our Internet website so that our friends and family could read about our trip around the world.  


Paul, Nancy, Geoff and Jennifer Horst
















? Copyright 1997-1998


Preface
For readers of this account who do not know us, we are a family of four from Michigan, Geoff was 18 at the start of our trip and Jennifer was 11.  Geoff graduated early from high school and after being accepted at the University of Michigan, elected to defer starting for a year to go on this trip.  Jennifer has been home schooled during our trip using materials from Calvert Academy.

We have been sailing for 20 years and up until 1992 kept various sailboats at the Grosse Pointe Club on Lake St. Clair, near Detroit. We cruised the Great Lakes extensively, typically spending several weeks each summer in the areas of Lake Huron known as the North Channel and Georgian Bay.  Our first boat, L’Esprit, was a 30-foot sloop (one mast) built in Florida by Hunter.   Our second boat, Yasumi, was a semi-custom 35-foot ketch (two masts) built in Taiwan.  Our third boat was another 45-foot sloop built by Hunter.   In 1992 we had our fourth boat, a French, 45-foot Beneteau First 45f5, shipped to Florida so we could cruise the Caribbean.  

At that time we thought we might sail in the Caribbean for a year or two before returning to cruise in the Great Lakes.  We did not plan on cruising for 5 years in the Caribbean let alone leaving for a multi-year circumnavigation.  At this time we plan on continuing our cruise in the Mediterranean for two years.  By then we hope expect to have completed the purchase of a larger Beneteau (62-foot), that would provide us with enough room to comfortably live aboard and have friends and family join us at the same time.  It would be like having a small condo in Florida, except we can move it around when we want a change in the scenery. 

The Round the World Rally that we joined is an event organized by World Cruising, Ltd. out of the UK, which was founded by Jimmy Cornell, one of the leading experts on world cruising.  While it is run as a race with all boats competing for prizes for each of the 16 or so legs, most of the boats are participating primarily for the experience of cruising in the company of others for safety and friendship.  



Preface ii
Part I – 1997 St. Lucia to Thailand 1
Logbook Entry 1 - Preparing for the Rally 1
Logbook Entry 2 – Enroute to the Start 3
Logbook Entry 3 - St. Lucia to Panama 7
Logbook Entry 4 - Panama to Ecuador 10
Logbook Entry 5 - Ecuador to the Galapagos 14
Logbook Entry 6- Galapagos to Marquesas 17
Logbook Entry 7 - The Marquesas, French Polynesia 20
Logbook Entry 8 - The Tuamotus to Tahiti, French Polynesia 22
Logbook Entry 9 - Society Islands, Tonga and Fiji 24
Logbook Entry 10 - Tonga 26
Logbook Entry 11 - Fiji 29
Logbook Entry 13 – Arrival in Australia 33
Logbook Entry 14 - Cairns, August 16th to September 12th, Darwin 34
Logbook Entry 15 - Darwin to Bali 38
Logbook Entry 16 - Bali 40
Logbook Entry 17 - Singapore to Phuket, Thailand 44
Part II – 1998 – Thailand to Turkey 48
Logbook Entry 18 - January 8th to 29th, 1998 - Thailand to Sri Lanka 48
Logbook Entry 19 - Sri Lanka 49
Logbook Entry 20 - January 30th – Maldives and Yemen February 23rd, 1998 50
Logbook Entry 21 - Red Sea Passage, Djibouti, Eritrea and Sudan 53
Logbook Entry 22 – Red Sea Passage, Egypt 56
Logbook Entry 23 - Egypt to Israel 58
Logbook Entry 24 - Cyprus and Turkey, May 4, to June 2, 1998 63
Logbook Entry 25 - Cruising Turkey 66
S/V Encore – Specifications and Layout 71
Glossary of Sailing Terms 71

Part I – 1997 St. Lucia to Thailand
Logbook Entry 1 - Preparing for the Rally
Summer '95: Deciding to enter the Rally
The start of the Rally for us can be traced back to mid-Summer 1995.  We had seen articles in Cruising World magazine saying Jimmy Cornell and his organization, World Cruising Ltd., were organizing their third around the world sailboat rally. The first rally they organized, called Europa ’92, had departed from Gibraltar in early 1991 and returned in late 1992 to correspond with the 500th anniversary of Columbus’ first voyage to the New World.

We were familiar with this rally and had even purchased a book that Jimmy Cornell had published about it. In 1995 I retired as CEO of Nematron Corporation in order to spend more time cruising on our sailboat with our family and entering the Rally seemed like at least a possibility, so we sent away for more information. Later that Fall, Nancy and I discussed the possibility of doing the Rally and realized that there were a number of issues that had to be resolved. Among these was the fact that our son, Geoffrey, would be a senior in high school and would need to graduate early in order for him to start the Rally with us. At the same time, we wanted to be sure that Geoff would be able to get accepted into college while delaying his entrance by a year. Another issue would be who would take care of our golden retriever, Heidi, and our home.
February '96: The Decision is made
The possibility of joining the Rally is becoming real. We’ve spoken with the high school and college counselors and it appears that Geoff has enough credits to graduate early and can then defer his acceptance into the University of Michigan until we return from the Rally (assuming he gets accepted).  Meanwhile, Nancy has asked her niece if she and her husband and dog, Molly, would like to house sit for us while we’re away. They agree, and the important pieces seem to be in place, so we send in our application and deposit for the Rally.  We’re officially entered.

Meanwhile we are planning on spending about 6 weeks in the Caribbean, cruising from St. Maarten to Antigua and entering our first ever sailboat regatta, the 5 races of Antigua Sailing Week. We contact our friend, Joe Bayne, who lives on his boat in St. Maarten and works for a marine electronics dealer. We start arranging the first of a long list of upgrades and repairs to the boat. Among these are adding a watermaker, a wind generator, an electric winch (to make raising the mainsail easier) and a built-in stereo system and CD player.
May '96: Racing Warm Up
We successfully completed Antigua Sailing Week, meaning no serious injuries and no permanent damage to the boat, while not being embarrassed during the races.  Our sailing friends, Sue and Desmond Davies from Grosse Pointe, Michigan, Pat and Wayne McKee from Toronto, Canada and Joe from St. Maarten helped to crew during the week. Everyone had a great time, except Sue who hurt her hand during a practice session and had to stay on shore during the races.

The races were a great warm-up for the Rally. We spent a lot of time really trying to learn how to trim the sails to be efficient, got experienced with a new spinnaker pole, and managed to pretty much wear out our genoa (forward sail a.k.a. jib) convincing us that a new sail was needed for the Rally.

We left the boat in Antigua, for the hurricane season. Other than a cracked radar housing which needed to be repaired, everything was working when we left. We did arrange with the boat yard, local sailmakers, and riggers for a number of tasks to be done prior to our return in November. We returned home to start the shopping for spare parts kits, additional sails, charts, a new laptop computer, navigation software and long list of other items. It was going to take months to get ready.
November '96: Preparing the Boat
We returned to the boat to take all the equipment and supplies acquired over the summer and to check out the work we had scheduled to be completed.  Joining us on the boat is Ray Fullerton, a retired automotive engineer who had entered the Rally with his own boat, but when it wasn’t going to be ready in time, asked if he could join us instead. We think he’ll be a great asset, having sailed on his own boat for several years, participated in the Port Huron to Mackinaw race, and even took part in a double-handed transatlantic race.

When we arrived, it looked like Murphy’s Law was in Olympic form. Lots of equipment suddenly didn’t work, and jobs we had expected to be done were uncompleted or done wrong. While we expected some of this to occur, it was almost beyond belief. The three major problems were that our radar, autopilot, and refrigeration were all not working. By the end of two weeks, the radar was finally working almost like new, the refrigeration was fixed twice, and the autopilot, its spare, and the local dealer’s spare never did work. Our brand new hi-tech sail had arrived, but a special feature had been overlooked, so it had to go the sailmakers for modification. Our outboard motor for the dinghy had been "given" away by mistake by the yard and it had to be retrieved from another boat. The final straw was when we found that a brand-new special propeller had been improperly mounted and we had to have the boat hauled out of the water on our last day in Antigua in order to get it fixed. Our punchlist of tasks was shorter, but not done by the time we returned home.

December '96 - January '97: Leaving Home
We’re entering the final countdown to the start of the Rally. In mid-December we host a two-day open house for over 150 family members and friends. Word of our voyage spreads and our local newspaper publishes a story with pictures of our boat and us from Antigua Sailing Week. Once the first article is out, the Detroit Free Press, a major daily paper in Detroit, contacts us about doing a story. It gets published the next week, and by the end of the day that the article comes out, both the top TV and radio stations contact us. Nancy and I do a radio talk show (Mitch Albom in the Afternoon, on WJR-AM) and WXYZ-TV broadcasts the story taped at our house on the 6 PM news. When another TV station calls the next week for a story, we’ve decided enough is enough and we decline. There’s just too much left to do and hardly enough time.

At one week to go, we’re packing up things to go to the boat, while packing up other stuff in the house to make room for our house sitters. We don’t want to check our luggage on the flight to Antigua so we impose on Sue and Desmond Davies to take three very heavy duffel bags with them as they fly to their condo in Antigua a couple days ahead of us. Meanwhile, we’ve been getting lots of e-mail from well wishers as a result of the Free Press article, including an inquiry from Chaunce Smith at IndustryNet a local Internet service provider. He starts out his note saying his 85 year old mother called him at 5 AM to tell him to read the Free Press article about our trip. He offers his firm’s services to develop and host a website chronicling our adventure. This will be fun to work out, but it does add to the tasks on our punchlist.


Logbook Entry 2 – Enroute to the Start 
January ‘97: Antigua, West Indies
We returned to Jolly Harbour in Antigua on January 27th.   Through February 1st we spent most of our days getting the boat ready for departure to St. Lucia. Our refrigeration system still had a slow Freon refrigerant leak, which was repaired easily. We were given a short lesson on refilling the system with Freon so that in the future we could maintain the system ourselves. With the acquisition of a set of refrigeration gauges and Freon we should be popular with other cruisers during the rally, as refrigeration seems to be a common source of problems. Later in this period after cruising down to Ile des Saintes in Guadeloupe, we found that the cooling system for the refrigeration was losing its prime. We hope to rework this system to be more reliable.

We used the first several days in Antigua logging and storing all the various spares and supplies we had brought down from the States.  All told we had arrived in Antigua with 17 bags and boxes of clothing and equipment for the boat. There wasn't enough room to walk around inside the boat until we had stored most of this. We replaced an outboard motor bracket, added some protective covers over the cooling pipes in the freezer, and replaced our autopilot computer. Fortunately the new autopilot computer and all of the new instrument displays we had brought down seemed to work, although there still seems to be a wiring problem between the autopilot computer and the instrumentation computer. Its not a critical connection, but something we want to fix because we can then get electronic compass information from the autopilot into the other instruments so we can determine true wind direction and display other information. More importantly, this allows us to use the autopilot to steer to an apparent wind angle instead of the compass, which will be important on long downwind legs, especially at night.

On Friday, January 31st, our friends, Sue and Desmond Davies had a final bon voyage party at their condo at Jolly Harbour. We had planned on moving our boat around to the dock in front of their place for the party, but we ran out of time as we were still fixing things on board. The following morning we left Antigua for Guadeloupe.  A band of very unsettled weather had stalled over Antigua the week we arrived, and by the time we left, it had only gotten worse.   For the first half of the 50-mile trip to Deshaies, Guadeloupe, it was almost solid rain and very strong winds. Not much fun, but luckily by Guadeloupe it had partially cleared.

February ’97: Guadeloupe, French West Indies
Deshaies is a very small town near the northwest corner of Guadeloupe. We trekked up the road to the Customs and Immigration office and filled out the forms to enter the French West Indies. No one normally mans the office, so we left one copy of the forms and plan on getting more formal clearances later when we depart from Martinique to St. Lucia.  In Deshaies, we ran into a couple onboard Chamaral a Beneteau First 45f5 just like Encore. In fact, their boat was the very first 45f5 made and was featured in the Paris boat show and a lot of Beneteau's literature. Barnard Chapus is French and had bought the boat from its original owner several years ago. We found that Beneteau had made several changes by the time Encore (hull number 55) was built. Barnard had recently sailed the boat from France by way of the Canary Islands, and had not yet sailed anywhere else in the Caribbean other than Guadeloupe. His wife, Sharril, joined the boat once it arrived in the Caribbean. It turns out that Sharril is an American from Gary, Indiana. We spent a pleasant evening comparing boats and notes, and exchanging information with them. Geoff did a good job of translating Barnard's French for us, since Barnard didn't speak a lot of English.

On February 2nd, we continued our sail down to Iles des Saintes, a group of small islands just south of Guadeloupe. This is one of our favorite spots in the Caribbean and finally the weather has turned typically warm and sunny.  We spent our first morning working on the cooling water system for the refrigeration and finally got into town for a nice lunch and an afternoon at Grand Anse, a very large and nearly deserted beach on the Atlantic side of Terre Haut, the main island of the Saintes. With huge breakers and warning signs (in French) about the undertow, we only swam a short while and started on our suntans. Michigan winters had turned us pretty pale. 

That evening we visited with Georgiana and Everett Schuldt, from Seattle, onboard their 60' Dutch built, steel sloop, Verna. They are commodores in the Seven Seas Cruising Association (SSCA) and had noticed our SSCA burgee. They have been cruising on their 24-year-old boat they had bought just over a year ago in Norfolk, Virginia. They had never done any offshore cruising, so their first passage to Bermuda was a real shakedown cruise, where they learned where everything was and how it worked by necessity. With 50-ton displacement, an engine room big enough to hold a party, Verna is quite a bit different than Encore. They never heel (tip sideways), but also don't sail very fast upwind. They have an incredible amount of space below, and some pretty interesting radio equipment from over 20 years ago.

Everett and Georgiana came over the next morning for breakfast, before Nancy and Geoff left to climb the 1000-foot hill overlooking the harbor where we're anchored. In exchange for some computer tips from us, Everett spent some time analyzing our refrigeration cooling water system. We'll try some of his suggestions in trying to get the system to work more reliably. I asked Everett if he ever had a day in the past year when nothing on board needed repairing.  He said, no, but that there were days when no urgent repairs were needed. I guess today counts as one of those days for us. Although our task list seems long, nothing is absolutely urgent.

February ’97 – Martinique, French West Indies
It's 0900 hours, February 5, 1997, and we are enroute to Ste. Pierre, Martinique from Iles des Saintes. We left just after 0700 as we have 72 nautical miles (NM) to go, which will take about 10 hours. The weather is still a little unsettled and a little windier than normal, blowing about 23 knots true. Seas are about 6-9 feet and not too bad, although occasionally we take a wave which dowses everyone in the cockpit. We only have the main with one reef up and we are running the engine at a low RPM to charge the batteries. Dominica is about 7 miles ahead, and when we are in the lee we will unfurl the jib and turn off the engine.

We're trolling one fishing line using the new rod and reel we got in Antigua. This will give us two poles to troll with during the Rally.  So far, no luck though.  Meanwhile, we still haven't gotten through to our E-mail account using the single side-band (SSB) radio. Twice, I've been able to get an initial link and answerback message, but nothing more. It seems like it will take some experience and patience finding the right times and frequencies to get through.

February 6th is spent on boat maintenance, clearing some clogged hoses from the head and working on the SSB E-mail system. So far, neither seems to be working. Later, we sail down to Fort de France and Anse Mitan in central Martinique. We spend nearly all of the 7th in Fort de France, looking for assorted parts at the chandlery (marine hardware store) and the grocery store, buying many of our provisions for the trip to Panama. Good French wine at $3 to $5 a bottle is a bargain. A short trip to Gran Anse D'Arlet gave us a beautiful beach and bay to enjoy for our last evening in Martinique.

February ’97 – Final Preparations, St. Lucia
The morning of the 8th is again spent working on the head and the E-mail system. Both are successful. The head is working, and we find out where the E-mail system software is incorrectly documented, and are able to get a complete link and message sent via Globe Wireless E-mail service. After a quick visit to the beach, we sail the 30 miles to Rodney Bay Marina, in St. Lucia. With slightly lower winds and putting a 2nd reef in the main and a partially furled jib, we find the boat perfectly balanced and the sail is great. We arrive to a Portuguese TV crew from the boat BES Portugal greeting us on the dock along with the World Cruising staff from the Rally. It turns out the last European boat had just arrived that morning from their transatlantic crossing from the Canary Islands.

 After clearing customs, we spend the evening visiting with Archie Marez, the owner of Rodney Bay Marina. We had invited him to join us on the Rally, but he's had some health problems and is reluctant to leave the Marina. The next morning we meet with the Rally staff who passes along many bags of information and gifts from the hosts. We have our safety inspection, which we pass with flying colors after willingly agreeing to a couple of suggestions that were made. For a short time, Jennifer is greatly disappointed upon hearing that Caroline DeHart, a girl her own age who was supposed to be in the Rally was no longer going to participate. Jennifer had been calling and writing Caroline, who was in the 2nd Round the World Rally. Fortunately, by the end of the day, Jennifer had met a teenager on the Dutch sailboat named Dutch Lion, and finally both a 9 and an 11 year old girl from the boat Escapade. This boat, although from the USA and planning on starting the Rally in St. Lucia with Encore, consists of a French family with the two girls, their parents, and a teenage son.  It's great to be able to have so diverse a group of potential new friends to meet.

I spend some time meeting a Portuguese sailor onboard White Swan, some of the professional racing crew on the Swan 65 Blue Magic, and finally the son of the owner of Hydro. Hydro is a Beneteau First 51, the next larger version of an earlier series of our boat. They had won the first leg's cruising division and I wondered how they did on the transatlantic crossing. It turns out that by the end of the leg they had ruined two spinnakers, and were down to their smallest jib. We were told that they expected our boat to be very competitive racing in the cruising class (this remains to be seen).

Later this week we will have a reception with many officials from St. Lucia, possibly even the Prime Minister. At that time we will exchange gifts and get our ceremonial logbook signed.  Then, on Saturday, February 15th at noon, we will start our first leg of the Rally to Panama. I think we are finally able to say we will be ready.

 Monday, February 10th and Tuesday, the 11th are holidays as St. Lucians celebrate Mardi Gras. On Monday, we share a taxi to watch the Carnival parades with the family on Escapade and the British couple, Paul and Angie and their nearly 2 year old son Tom from the boat Ocean Dream. While St. Lucia's Carnival probably doesn't compare to Trinidad, New Orleans or spots in Brazil, the costumes and band are still pretty colorful and loud. We learn that Paul and Angie are really on their first boat and long passage. To help them, they advertised for crew, and recruited two men and two women to join them on the Rally. Tom might be disappointed to learn that he is no longer the youngest participant in the Rally as we learn a couple leaving with the Rally from Ft. Lauderdale have a four month old baby aboard.

Tuesday is a beach day; Geoff gets in some awesome windsurfing out in Rodney Bay, while Ray helps out by taking on a number of little projects on the boat. Jimmy Cornell, the founder of World Cruising (the Rally organizer) flies in from Honolulu where he was meeting boats participating in the Hong Kong Challenge, another of his sailing Rallies. As he greets us, he remembers Ray from a previous meeting in Las Palmas in the Canary Islands. He'll see us off for the start and then go to Panama for the finish of the leg and transit of the Canal.

Many of the Rally boats are returning to St. Lucia after a few days of cruising the nearby islands. Every boat is pretty unique and the group is definitely multi-national with British, Germans and Swiss to our right, Spanish, French and Portuguese to our left. As we approach the start, our task list is growing shorter for once, and we are looking forward to meeting more of the participants at various receptions and parties scheduled over the last few days prior to the start.

This will be our last entry before our departure to Panama. This morning (Thursday, February 13, 1997) the owners of the boats in the Rally went to Castries, the capital of St. Lucia for a reception with the Prime Minister and other dignitaries from St. Lucia. Our entire family went, as well as Ray, our 5th crewmember. Part of the reception was to have our official Rally logbooks signed by these officials. We were able to meet with additional Rally participants and speak with the Prime Minister and others.  There were television crews for the local stations and lots of picture taking.

Later this afternoon, the two German boats hosted a dock barbecue to celebrate the birthdays of their two skippers. Everyone is in a good mood getting done with last minute preparations. The two Swan 65's (among the largest and fastest boats in the Rally) are getting special welding done by a man flown in by the Finnish boat builder. Meanwhile, Inge, the son of the owner of Hydro has flown to Miami to pick up some new sails Apparently they ripped all but one of their jibs and several spinnakers while coming from the Canary Islands. They have been competing seriously even though they are in the cruising division. While Inge speaks pretty fair English, his parents are not as fluent and trying to talk with them during the barbecue is a little difficult.

It seems everyone is very excited to be on our way, especially the 5 boats, which are just entering the Rally at St. Lucia. These include an 83 foot Dutch built boat (Jongert) named Movesita. It requires deeper water than the Marina has, so is anchored about a mile away out in Rodney Bay. We're planning on a last practice sail and man overboard drill on Friday and we'll be on our way at noon on Saturday.

Logbook Entry 3 - St. Lucia to Panama
February 15th	: The Start
The start of the Rally on Saturday, the 15th, took place in Rodney Bay, St. Lucia, just outside of the marina harbor. The docks had been busy right up to the start with last minute preparations. Both Swan 65's had new forestay attachments welded on by a Swan factory technician flown in from Finland. We were busy with storing last minute provisions and filling water tanks. St. Lucia provided a coast guard boat to act as the race committee boat for the start. Overlooking the start was a classic square-rigged tall ship. We had met the captain/owner the night before. We didn't want to fight for a spot on the starting line against the bigger boats, so settled for starting about a minute late. Seems OK for an 1177-mile race.

After clearing a small island in the bay, everyone turned west for a nearly directly downwind leg to the first turning point off of Columbia. Most boats poled out their jibs to run wing and wing, the Swan 65 Blue Magic set their spinnaker, and some boats ran with twin jibs and no main. We poled out our jib, but found that with the rolly seas, we still needed to make long broad reaching tacks in order to avoid accidental jibes.

After the first day, we found ourselves near the northerly edge of the fleet nearly on the direct (rhumb) line to the turning point. We seemed to be in the middle of the pack, ahead of most boats with higher handicaps and behind most boats with lower handicaps. The first night was a learning experience. We didn't want to hand steer all night and tried broad reaching with a fully reefed main and jib. This didn't work well with the strong winds and rolly seas and on subsequent nights kept the jib poled out, although with sail area reduced.

The winds have been unusually strong recently in the Caribbean and we are particularly cautious at night. Encore is light enough to surf down the 6-10 foot swells but it requires paying close attention and hand steering. This is fun during the day, but we deliberately slow down at night so the autopilot can drive. Meanwhile, we talked to our friends on Piquet and found out that they were in winds up to 45 knots off of the Colombian coast when their boom broke off their mast after an accidental jibe. They also had several large waves break into their cockpit. They got permission from their insurance company to put into Cartegena, Columbia for repairs and arrived truly exhausted. It turns out that some repairs made in Trinidad were done incorrectly causing their boom problem. Now that they are in Cartegena they are having a good time, speaking highly of the city, arranging tours and getting the repairs done. Unfortunately, the weather forecast from Aruba to Panama, and especially along the Colombian coast calls for continued high winds (30-40 knots) so they are waiting it out. Since we are already out, we'll just try to stay a bit further offshore and hope the winds die down a bit before we get there.

Our second day and night are quite pleasant, with everyone getting some rest and the boat making good speed. We work ourselves down toward the southerly edge of the fleet, planning to cut the corner a little bit off the Guajira peninsula of Columbia. We will be taking this area during the day so we're not too concerned about approaching the coast a little.

We continue to make long downwind tacks with a poled out jib and main. Just like shifting gears, we put in and take out one, two or three reefs in the main and adjust the size of our jib. Our only problem is that with the main all the way out, it is rubbing against our upper spreaders badly and we've had to sew up some open seams and cover the stitching with some temporary patches. In Panama we will have some more permanent spreader patches sewn on the main and try to get some better protectors for the ends of the spreaders.

Monday night is pretty rolly and while some of us get more sleep that the first night, Nancy gets little, as she doesn't sleep well when the boat rocks a lot. We continue to hear reports of strong winds ahead of us and we stay conservative. In spite of this, a large rogue wave breaks into the cockpit. As usual, everyone is wearing a safety harness and life jacket so other than getting very wet, no one is hurt. We had some ports open in the cockpit and the back cabins are wet as well.

We pass several ships during the night including the cruise ship Seaward that passes less than a mile ahead of us. We are able to track these ships on radar and generally call them on the radio to make sure they see us. Most of the time they do, but not always. The men on watch on these ships will take some time to talk with us and we find that at least one has been aware of the Rally from the sail magazines he reads. The cruise ship watch captain seemed rather bored however and when we asked if we could hold our course he said we could take any course we wanted and if we didn't hit him, he would promise not to hit us. Coincidentally, at dawn our second morning we pass within 50 yards of the Spanish Rally entry, Terracuita, the only sailboat from the rally we've seen since the very first day.

At the radio check-in today (February 18, 1997), we are now still in the middle of the fleet which is spread out over nearly two hundred miles. One of the Swan 65's has broken its boom and the other has several crewmembers suffering from pneumonia. I guess we are happy where we are. Today is clear and hot, and we are only carrying our main as we cross above the Guajira peninsula. Quite frankly, everyone is a bit bushed and we're not too concerned about maximizing our speed given that we're in a respectable position as it is. Later we might fly our cruising spinnaker for fun, but in the meantime everyone can catch up on his or her rest.

February 19th: The Gale
On the 19th, the wind strengthens to gale force, quite unusual for this time of year.  We have reduced sail to just a triple reefed main and our boat speed is still quite high. As the day progresses, the winds continue to grow and we are somewhat more concerned about how we will continue at night. The seas are consistently up to 20 feet high and while it is great fun to surf down the seas, we will get no relief from the autopilot under these conditions. We end up switching from the triple reefed main to a nearly completely furled jib. We are trying to reduce our speed so we aren't surfing so much and decide to take a bit of a detour towards the Colombian coast on the chance of getting a little reduction is the seas and wind. By dark it is up to Geoff and Paul to hand steer the rest of the night, as the boat is very hard to keep under control with the high winds and seas. At one point Ray and Geoff are in the cockpit when an unusually large wave breaks over the stern. Ray's automatically inflating life jacket goes off due to the water that washes over them.  The cockpit ends up filling with water several times during the night as waves break in. Nancy and Jennifer watch a video during the storm although at times when the boat heels, items on the shelves on one side fall out and fly over to the other side.  The inside of the boat looks like a mess. Meanwhile, outside we are always in our foul weather gear, life jackets and safety harnesses

February 20th: End of the Gale
Around midnight we get within ten miles of the Colombian coast and the waves become manageable. We continue down to Cartegena where at dawn we turn back toward Panama and the Canal. The winds finally drop to a manageable level and we return to relatively calm sailing.  Late in the afternoon on the 20th, we are about half way from Cartegena to the Canal and being somewhat conservative after experiencing the gale, we decide to furl the jib a bit for the night. Unfortunately we find the furling drum is jammed and it won't furl in. We pull our brand new staysail out of the sail locker and tie it on deck with the idea of dropping our genoa jib and raising the staysail instead.  Because the winds are still quite strong and the waves are still 15-20 feet, we decide instead to try to put up the main first and use it to blanket the jib to make lowering it easier. Good plan, but bad execution. We end up having the staysail slide off the deck into the water as we raise the main. We make about 5 passes to try to pick the sail back up, but it sinks and is lost.

We do get the main up, the jib down and the furling system fixed. We raise the jib again and continue with a nice sunset and relatively calm night. The next day the winds continue to die and we decide to practice flying our cruising spinnaker. It takes awhile to sort everything out, and with large swells still running, everything takes longer. We get it up and have about 5 pleasant hours with it before the spinnaker halyard breaks. We get the sail back on board and add running a new halyard to our list of things to do in Panama.

February 21st: Cristobal, Panama
Our last day out, the 21st ends as the winds die out almost completely. Our estimated time of arrival keeps getting later as our speed drops. We cross the finish line at the harbor entrance to Colon/Cristobal, Panama just after 1:00 AM and with a great deal of satisfaction and exhaustion drop our anchor near the Cristobal yacht club. We've finished our first leg of the rally without any injuries or major problems  (other than losing our staysail). By detouring to the Colombian coast, we slip several spots in the competition, but have perhaps avoided more problems. We find out later that one boat was severely knocked down and ended up losing the use of their engine, most electrical equipment and even have a small electrical fire. They are sailing with two young children and are pretty demoralized when they get in, but seem ready to go just a few days later. The French boat Saranaia that rates almost the same as Encore finishes the 1100-mile race only 30 minutes after us. The fleet from Ft. Lauderdale and Jamaica is finishing almost simultaneously and in the morning the area off of the yacht club is filled with Expo boats. Early finishers have already started to transit the canal. 

February 22nd - 28th: Transiting the Panama Canal
We are assigned to transit the canal starting on Sunday the 23rd of February. It is quite impressive with the number of large freighters constantly passing, the size of he locks, the jungle, and the massive cuts in the hills through which the canal passes. It takes two days to go through the canal for smaller boats such as ours, with an overnight stop at Gamboa, a town just at the edge of Gatun Lake and the river Chagres. We are required to pick up a Canal Pilot each day who helps us to transit the canal and the locks. We pass through the locks rafted together with two other boats and three other sets of three sailboats. Just after lunch on the second day we emerge into the Pacific Ocean and take a mooring at the Balboa Yacht Club. We'll be in the Pacific for the next seven months and won't see the Atlantic until next December.
March 1st: Panama City
Today is Saturday, March 1st, and we are completing our preparations for the leg to Salinas, Ecuador. We've spent the past several days at the marina at the Miramar Hotel in Panama City. This is a brand new complex that had their grand opening and a party the night we arrived. There are two 50 story towers with condos, and about a 30-floor hotel.

The party was a major event since this may be the most significant development in Panama for years. The President of Panama was there (although we missed him), there were three bands, food and beverages (all free) and fireworks over the harbor. As a five-star resort everything is beautiful including a pool with bridges and waterfalls. The kids and many of the other Expo sailors take over the pool, which would otherwise be deserted.

On Wednesday we visited a small replica of a rural village called Mi Pueblito where we had our logbook signing with the mayor of Panama City. It turns out she was once married to a man from Wayne, Michigan and lived there for two years.   Thursday we went shopping for provisions. Not counting any fresh food or meat, which we'll buy today, we filled seven grocery carts. These supplies are expected to last us until Australia as provisioning in the South Pacific is expected to be difficult and expensive. It took Nancy almost all of Friday to then find spots to store all of the food and supplies. We are definitely floating a few inches lower. We also took advantage of free fresh water at the docks to clean up the boat, it had really gotten dirty and salty since we left St. Lucia.

Last night was the formal awards banquet at the hotel complex. We didn't win anything and in fact haven't even checked to see where we finished (given our side trip to the Colombian coast, I doubt we beat too many boats after handicap). We have spoken with a number of other Rally participants. Almost all seem to need sail repairs or replacements. One boat had lost their dinghy and outboard from a big wave that washed over their stern, and one had broken their rudder. We certainly expect to have much calmer conditions for most of the future legs.

Today we will get our fresh foods, try to get our e-mail and send out this report and other e-mail. Later we have to clear customs and immigration and attend the skippers briefing for the next leg, which starts at noon tomorrow.


Logbook Entry 4 - Panama to Ecuador
March 2nd: The Start of Leg 2 to Ecuador
The start of our second leg of the Round the World Rally was in the bay off of Panama City. Out of about 45 boats, we were about the 3rd boat across the line, behind the maxi racer Maverick and Blue Magic. We started downwind with a poled out jib and later switched to our cruising spinnaker. While most of the boats went southwest we went southeast on our first long tack in order to avoid having to tack in the middle of the night when we would pass some islands.

The winds were light to moderate and we were going very well almost all night, keeping up with much larger boats and averaging nearly 9 knots. Unfortunately, around 4 in the morning, the winds increased to over 30 knots, which is above the range for our spinnaker. Since we were sailing so fast, surfing at over 12 knots at times, we were having a great time when the top of the sail ripped and the spinnaker went in the water in pieces.  Meanwhile our spinnaker pole had come off of its track on the mast and added to our problems. It took about an hour to get the ripped sail back in the boat and by then it was getting close to dawn, so we waited until first light to deal with the pole and get our genoa flying instead. It probably took several more hours to get everyone calmed down since this was the first time we had blown out a spinnaker. For boats like Blue Magic who blow out spinnakers all the time, it is old hat, in fact Hydro from Sweden has had their spinnakers repaired or replaced 5 times so far during the rally since they left from Lisbon.

The next two days, the wind speeds were pretty low, which are good conditions for Encore, and we seemed to be in a good position to finish high in the fleet.  Wednesday morning, while we're acting as rally radio net controller for the morning roll call and position reports, Geoff finally lands a 14-pound dolphin fish (not the porpoise), also known as a mahi mahi. It takes Geoff and Ray 40 minutes to land it since we don't want to stop or slow down while they are bringing it in. It later becomes dinner that night and the following night for us and all five people on the boat Dutch Lion as well.  After we arrive we learn that the boat Bon Ami landed a sailfish during this leg.

It turns out our fishing gear, which seemed big to us, is pretty small compared to other boats. Bes Portugal has poles with reels on them probably 8 to 10 inches in diameter. Bon Ami, a Shannon 50, is set up with a steering seat that can be swiveled into a fish "fighting chair". Gunter, one of the World Cruising staff has promised Geoff some fishing tips.

March 5th: Crossing the Equator
Just after noon, we crossed the equator.  We celebrated by blowing our air horn and with a bottle of champagne at dinner.  It's a tradition to have some ceremony or initiation for sailors crossing for the first time, but since we are all in this class we really don't know what else to do. On Dutch Lion, Anne Ringsma dresses up as Neptune, while on Bes Portugal, their youngest crewmember, Martin, is given a mid-ocean buzz cut (short haircut).

We sailed on the same tack for almost 30 hours when finally the wind died down to nearly nothing as we entered the ITCZ (intertropical convergence zone, sometimes known as the doldrums). We waited a while before we started our engine and finally motored 8 of the last 16 hours to the finish at Salinas, Ecuador.  Nearly everyone else motored as well, most for longer periods than we did, so we think we may finish in the top two or three spots in our class.

March 7th: Salinas, Ecuador
After we arrive we learn we did finish third in our class and eighth in our division out of over 30 boats. Not bad considering the time we lost with our spinnaker.  BES Portugal came in first and Mantra-3 came in second.  Jose Inacio, who has eight Atlantic crossings to his credit, skippers BES PORTUGAL. The past four years, he was in command of the caravel Boa-Esperança, a replica of a 15th century vessel.  Mantra-3, a custom 42-foot boat from Poland, had broken their rudder on the way to Panama and their crew had been up late the night before the start still trying to install the new one.

Only a couple of diehard racers didn't motor and they waited as much as 8 hours without any wind. The last night we end up sailing through a fishing fleet and run over a fishing net at one point. The fishermen light flares and throw them in the water to show us how to get around the nets.

In the morning we are joined by over a hundred very large dolphins (porpoises) that swim under our bow, jump out of the water and generally entertain us for nearly an hour. They are the largest dolphins we have ever seen, especially compared to the very small dolphins we saw on our way to Panama. Dutch Lion sees three killer whales, like the ones in the movie "Free Willy" and at Sea World.  They come right up along side their boat like the dolphins.

Salinas is a resort town with a huge beach, hotels and condos for people working in nearby Guayaquil or as far away as Quito, the capital. The yacht club is huge with over 3000 members. There are hundreds of sail and powerboats of all sizes and several fleets of one design racing sailboats. The club has championship tennis courts, restaurants, a swimming pool, and in general seems pretty posh even by USA standards. We definitely won't suffer for the week we spend here.

By Friday afternoon, the 7th, we have already dropped off all of our sails to the sailmakers for repairs and reinforcements as necessary and to have some additional sails shipped down from the states. We are replacing the staysail we lost overboard and adding a conventional (symmetrical) spinnaker that should be better for our straight downwind passages. The sailmaker runs a marine hardware store and also has good Internet connections so we will try to send this log entry at his place and also pick up any e-mail sent to Encore since we left St. Lucia (we were unable to retrieve it in Panama).

We are making arrangements for tours to take this next week. It looks as if Geoff and Ray can take a day trip to climb a 16,000 foot snow capped mountain, while Nancy, Jennifer and I will tour Guayaquil and other nearby places. We are thinking about "possibly" trying out a skydiving offer, which has two people (one being a championship instructor) share a parachute and land on the peninsula where Salinas is located. Nancy is checking out the horseback riding, and we are finalizing the trips scheduled for the Galapagos Islands.

The Rally is generally pretty well organized, with 4 members of the World Cruising staff on hand at the yacht club. They keep track of all the boats (and how they finished), distribute information on tours and events, organize the customs and immigration procedures (which took only ten minutes for us, but up to 3 hours for some boats yesterday) and distribute mail and faxes the boats have received. In a way, it almost seems like a traveling summer camp with camp counselors meeting you at each port. We are getting to know the other boats better at each stop as well as over the radio at night when we are keeping a lookout for ships.

Some of the boats have a great deal of turnover of crew and guests at each stop, so they are hard to meet. Others like the families on Dutch Lion, Ocean Dream and Escapade have all become good friends already with a lot of socializing, especially between the kids.  Anne and his wife on Dutch Lion, their son Thom (14), and their friends Ed and Wil, joined us for dinner one night on Encore (with Geoff's mahi mahi). The two girls on Escapade talk to Jennifer every day at sea on the radio, while their son, Guillaume (13) talks with Thom.  Paul and Angie on Ocean Dream, and their son Tom (2) are going directly to the Galapagos and bypassing Ecuador. Paul is an avid windsurfer and helped Geoff repair his windsurfer in Panama.

Other than sail repairs, which almost every boat has needed, we haven't had any other significant problems yet on Encore. Other boats are trying to get autopilots replaced or repaired, water pumps working, inboard engines and outboards working. We'll keep our fingers crossed and hope for the best for future legs. The two boats that were dismasted going to the Canary Islands in the Atlantic are now rejoining the fleet. One actually sailed this leg, and the other transited the Panama Canal the day this leg started. The boat Dasein, which suffered a knockdown and small electrical fire on the way to Panama, had a steering failure the first night after leaving Panama and had to be towed back for repairs. The owner, Kevin, says he may rename the boat Snakebit.

We hope everyone at home is well. We call about once a week on the single side-band radio to our family to stay in touch and have enjoyed the couple of pieces of mail we've received so far. We are looking forward to seeing what e-mail has been sent to us.

March 15th: Touring Guayaquil, Ecuador
The past week has gone past quickly and we could have easily spent another week here. On Wednesday we took a city tour of Guayaquil. The tour organizer had forgotten about our trip and we had to take a pretty old and small taxi into the city to transfer to a minivan for our visit. Even though Guayaquil is only about 60 miles away and the roads are not too bad, it took almost three hours and we almost missed our guide who was about to leave without us.

We visited the Centennial Park in downtown where they have statues of Simon Bolivar and dozens of huge green land iguanas that are fed by the city. We later learn that these iguanas are everywhere, just like squirrels at home, and climb and live in trees, crawl over the outside of wooden houses and structures, and in general are considered to be pests by some people especially farmers.

We walked along the river Guayas, which is quite wide and very swift this time of year.  From December to May is the rainy season due to the Panamanian (warm) ocean current flowing south. The temperatures are quite high (80-90 F) and it tends to be overcast if not raining most of the day. The rest of the year is dry and much cooler due to the cold Humboldt Current flowing north. We visited the area of town called Las Penas, which has buildings reconstructed of the style of the past century and earlier. No original buildings exist much older than around 1910 due to massive fires that destroyed the town. At the time there were only a few thousand residents.  Now there are around 3 million in the metropolitan area.

From the top of the highest hill in the city, we were able to see for miles around with both extremely poor areas and modern and prosperous areas nearby. The contrast between these is amazing. On our ride from Salinas, we passed villages where families lived in buildings with maybe a single light bulb and dirt floors while a few miles away we could shop in a modern mall with supermarkets, department stores, sports stores and so on, no different than in the USA.

Next we visited the city's famous cemetery, which is visited by people from around the world. Apparently the only place like it is in Argentina. This cemetery with over 500,000 entombed in above ground crypts and mausoleums is famous for the elaborate marble structures and statues. Many of the statues have been imported from Italy and rival those we've seen in museums like the Louvre in Paris. Our tour guide tells us that a small plot of land for a family in the cemetery could cost $200,000 or more, and it would appear some of the small buildings which range from neo-gothic cathedral styles to modernistic designs could cost as much or more to build. We are told that some visitors to Ecuador come only for the purpose of visiting this place and that university students spend weeks here studying the sculptures and architecture.

Unfortunately we were unable to take any other tours. The mountain climbing tours were already filled, and the skydiving which Geoff wanted to do, was only available on the weekend when we would already be gone. Many of the Rally participants did take side trips to Quito and the mountains. While they all seemed to enjoy their trips, everyone agreed that the long drives were pretty tiring.

The last night we had the awards ceremony and logbook signing at the Salinas Yacht Club. With music and food, the party was great given all the people including several Ecuadorian officials. The past several days, the Ecuadorian navy has had a number of ships anchored just off of our area and since yesterday even a submarine has been nearby.  The President of Ecuador sent the Commander-in-Chief of the Navy to represent him and sign our logbooks. It was interesting meeting him and several admirals that were at the party as well.

It was finally time to check out and prepare for the start. Luckily we were able to get two new sails which were shipped from the USA and repair our genoa and main sails, however our cruising spinnaker was not repairable.  This may be the last spot to get boat equipment and repairs for several months. At the reception last night, Nancy invited Martin, a 17 year old on BES Portugal to sail with us to the Galapagos. Perhaps this will help us finish better, since they came in first in our class while we finished third.

Logbook Entry 5 - Ecuador to the Galapagos
March 15th: Salinas, Ecuador to San Cristobal, Galapagos
This logbook entry has become very long, as we have been unable to access the Internet since we left South America two months ago. In the meantime our e-mail has been piling up at IndustryNet (and some old mail may have been purged). We noticed that a resort in the Tuamotus listed a website and they gave us the name of the travel agency in Tahiti where their website is maintained. We have just accessed our mailbox and are now happy to file this entry from our logbook...

The start of the leg from Salinas to the Galapagos began about two miles offshore and then went directly inshore toward the Salinas Yacht Club and the Ecuadorian Navy. We had a great start being one of the first boats over the line and the nearest boat to the committee boat at the gun. With relatively light winds, Encore can be pretty competitive, and it was fun to stay near the leaders and much larger boats for many hours after the start.  We are able to keep moving even with winds down to 5 knots until around noon the second day at which time we started to motor.

Through the morning roll call over the radio we keep motoring for a total of 12 hours, and are surprised to find that with the exception of the handful of serious racers who won't motor no matter what, we have motored less than nearly everyone else. Better yet, we are ahead of almost everyone else, especially those that didn't motor at all. We decide to try out our new spinnaker, and end up flying it for 17 hours straight, definitely a record length of time for us. The rest of the leg continues with pretty light winds and we end up motoring the last few miles when the winds dies completely as we approach Puerto Baquerizo Moreno, our harbor on San Cristobal island in the Galapagos. We don't know for sure, but figure we will end up in third place again in our class behind BES Portugal, the boat that we borrowed our new crew member from, and Mantra-3, the Polish boat which appears to be very fast. We should do much better against all the other boats in the fleet that in the prior legs finished ahead of us.

Martin has been fun to have on board as we learn a little Portuguese, and he helps us to fly our spinnaker for the first time. Geoff and Jennifer take advantage of the slow conditions to watch several videos with Martin. The last evening at sea we finally land a large mahi mahi that will likely end up as two or three meals.

Touring the Galapagos
San Cristobal is the capital of the Galapagos, but is still relatively unpopulated with maybe 4000 people in total. We will spend a few days here before leaving for Santa Cruz and Puerto Ayora. The first full day in the Galapagos is spent cleaning up the boat, checking out the small town and walking to La Loberia a beach with hundreds of sea lions. On Friday the 21st, we take our first of three excursions, joining two dozen others from the Rally on a trip to Epsilon Island (sometimes called Hood Island).  Because of the distance we need to travel by boat to get there, we have to get up at 4 AM and board the excursion boat before 5 AM. It takes several hours to arrive and the whole day is extremely long but worth it as we get to see marine iguanas, more sea lions and several species of boobies including the unusual blue footed booby. This is the mating season and the birds are extremely tame. Because of the fragile nature of the environment we have to stay on a narrow path as we walk around the end of the island, but the boobies have several nests with eggs right in the path.  You can walk right up to them, if not trip over them, and they won't move or act afraid of you. We see the marine iguanas digging to lay their eggs, and the young chicks of the masked booby, covered in fuzzy white down even though they are nearly as big as their parents.

The weather this time of year is unsettled and one night the winds howls from the north, which is unusual, and it rains hard. Very large swells enter the harbor and the boats rock all night. Getting ashore is nearly impossible as the big waves crash against the stone jetties. The next day is calm and clear, and the day after is rainy again for several hours.

We decided to stay an extra day at San Cristobal in order to take an informal side trip to Kicker Rock, a two acre island that looks like Gibraltar from one direction and the Egyptian Sphinx from the other.  It has a huge cleft, which creates a mini mountain peak on one side and a dark grotto in the water in between. Our guide tells us to go snorkeling when we see our first shark (one of the reasons for taking this side trip). In a group with several people together, we're told the shark won't attack us.  Nancy decides to go back in the boat when the number of sharks swimming around us outnumbers us. These are about 4-6 foot reef sharks, which typically eat small fish.  Swimming around this rock with the sharks, tropical fish, an occasional sea lion and sea turtle is tremendous. On the way back to our boat, we stop at a small island close to shore where there are hundreds of sea lions. There we get out and swim and snorkel around the sea lions that come from all around to play with us. They come right up to you and sometimes stare right in your face at a distance of only inches. The sea lions with their fur and whiskers look like a mix between a dog and a porpoise. We also see a pelican rookery with fuzzy young pelicans, and a flock of frigate birds with their unique red balloon sack under their throats that they inflate to attract attention from potential mates.

We are learning that the animals in the Galapagos are unique in that they have absolutely no fear of man, which allows you get as close as you like.  The sea lions in the harbor climb into the launches of fishing boats and ignore you completely. Occasionally you see two male sea lions snarl and chase each other as they defend or attempt to acquire their territory.

The people in the Galapagos seem very friendly. As an isolated society where everyone probably knows nearly everyone else, crime appears to be rare and for the first time since St. Lucia, we no longer see the policemen on the street or security guards carrying double-barreled shotguns. We do hear some isolated reports of petty theft from dinghies and take advantage of the offer to tie up to the naval dock when we go into the town.

Today, Palm Sunday, March 23, 1997, is the prettiest morning we've had with clear blue skies and a light breeze from the south as we motor-sail to Santa Cruz. Nearly all of the boats in the Rally have already gone to this next island and the bay at San Cristobal seems deserted. Just as we leave we are hailed by the sailboat Out-of-Bounds. This boat has also begun a circumnavigation and we have been corresponding with it via the Internet.  Their website is at http://www.outofbounds.com. The last we heard from them, they were in Aruba waiting to go to Panama. It seems strange to finally run into them after thousands mile at sea. We will likely see them again in Santa Cruz and later in the Marquesas.

Meanwhile we have been in almost daily contact with our good friends Peter and Karen Balson on their boat Piquet. We sailed to the Caribbean together with them in 1992 and since then have rarely seen them on their boat as our schedules just seemed out of sync. They started from Trinidad in January and stopped in the ABC islands and Cartegena before reaching Panama. Now they are waiting in the Perlas Islands off the south coast of Panama for some wind to help them sail to the Galapagos. So far the winds have been so light they would have to motor the whole way and are reluctant to start under these conditions. It seems we will end up leaving the Galapagos before they get here and miss them once again. Maybe they will catch up to us in the Marquesas

March 26th: Puerto Ayora, Santa Cruz
By Wednesday the 26th of March, we are pretty settled in at Puerto Ayora at Santa Cruz. We've walked the main street several times and hit at least a half a dozen of the T-shirt shops in between sampling the sidewalk cafes. Our tour to Santa Fe Island was changed to Las Plazas where we saw more sea lions, nesting birds and had two opportunities to snorkel. The tropical fish are much bigger than in the Caribbean, reminding us of the fish we saw in Hawaii. We took a bus ride from the north to the south side of the island going near the highest point on the island. The vegetation really does change with the altitude, starting with cactus and barren rocks on the north shore, passing through a more temperate zone on the way up the mountain with shrubs and trees and almost a tropical rain forest at the summit. We stopped to see the Gemelos (the Twins) which are two gigantic sink holes near the summit, each about 1/2 a mile wide and several hundred feet deep. It is believed they may have been formed by the collapse of huge lava domes back when the island was being formed. They look like a rock quarry with near straight sides going down.

It seems that on boats, something always needs repair and yesterday our inverter that provides 115 Volts AC stopped working. After looking inside and seeing many smoked parts, we got on the radio and talked with the manufacturer in order to get replacement parts sent to us in Tahiti, about six weeks from now. In the meantime we'll use a small backup unit we have, but will have to give up our use of the microwave oven for popcorn and may have to give up watching movies and video games.

We've heard from Piquet and they are now on their way, but as expected will not get here for several days after we leave.

On Thursday we visited Bartolome Island, the only island we are able to visit that has the Galapagos Penguins. This island is basically a barren moonscape of lava with only a few small plants, iguanas and a few birds.  The view is spectacular, especially toward the north end where a large pinnacle broke away and forms a 200' spire of rock just off the edge of the island. We motored by one of the penguins and were able to snorkel off the tour boat. Some people saw penguins swimming with them underwater.

Logbook Entry 6- Galapagos to Marquesas
March 29th: The Next Start
On Saturday, March 29th, we finally had to leave the Galapagos for the leg to the Marquesas. We are sure we will return some day, as the views and animals are tremendous and the people were all very friendly and helpful.

At the start of the next leg, we are concerned that the winds will be too light to sail and we will have to motor or wait a long time for wind.  Fortunately, we are able to keep sailing through the first afternoon and night with only brief periods of very weak winds. By mid-morning on Easter Day, the winds have picked up nicely and we are well on our way, "only" 2800 nautical miles to go. At this time we are predicting about a 20-day passage, but depending on the winds it could be shorter or longer.

We have beautiful skies, temperature about 90 degrees F. and 10 knots of wind from the southeast. We'll settle for these conditions for the entire trip, although a little bit more wind would be nice. Last night was one of our nicest night passages. We could see the lights of 20-30 boats all around us and had clear skies when the moon came up about 11 PM. By morning we can still see about seven or eight boats, although we expect to be out of sight of most boats before long and it will be rare to see other boats until we get close to the finish.

It turns out that many of the boats have been having problems with their watermaker and we are no exception. The seawater intake is off to one side and when we are heeling (leaning) the opposite way air gets in the system and we can't make water. We figure this out after we have disassembled the system and spent one day already trying to fix it. We end up replumbing the system to share the water supply for the engine and refrigerator. While this works well for the watermaker, we learn that we cant run it at the same time as the refrigeration and engine. By and large we have spent several frustrating days getting our systems to work, but luckily, now all is in order. If we couldn't have gotten our watermaker to work we would have had to give up our occasional shower and been much more frugal, but it wouldn't have been a serious problem since we carry a lot of water in our tanks.

Another boat named Indigo had their watermaker fail completely and at the time only had 10 gallons of fresh water. Since their system was the same as ours, I spoke with them on the radio trying to help them. They finally found a spare parts kit they didn't know they had and were able to fix their system. They would have had to use a hand operated spare unit otherwise, and this would have been much more work and unpleasant.  Meanwhile our friends on Dasein had a leak in the water system and lost nearly all of their water. Luckily they found the leak and were able to use their watermaker to refill their single tank. We have five tanks, which means that contamination or a leak in one of them or in the system does not jeopardize the others.

The decks in the morning have been littered with squid and flying fish. This should be a good sign for our fishing but so far no luck. Some of the boats are landing blue marlin, sailfish and tuna. On Easter Sunday, we were having a family worship service when we saw our first whale. It was several hundred yards away and spouting.  We couldn't see it very well.  The next day we had an entire pod of about 20 false killer whales come along side our boat and play like dolphins in our wake.

These are small whales about the size and shape of killer whales (a.k.a. Orcas) like those in marine shows and the movie Free Willy. They are all gray however with a blunt head. We thought at first they were just large dolphins but Geoff looked them up in a book we had to confirm their identity. They are supposed to be common around the Galapagos.

 Our friends Peter and Karen on Piquet have now reached the Galapagos and are beginning to take the local tours. They will probably stay a week or 10 days, unfortunately, just long enough that they are not likely to catch up with us as we continue across the Pacific. Maybe we'll see them in Tahiti.

April 8th: At Sea
Today is the 11th day of this leg so far. We have passed the half way mark, but our winds the past few days have been very light and our progress has been very slow. We motored about 8 hours out of the past two days when our wind was too low to keep the boat moving at all.  We don't have enough fuel to motor all the time so we will have to tolerate moving slowly under sail. Most of the other boats in our class have been motoring as well. Only Bes Portugal, who beats us every leg, has held out. Geoff told me that the captain and one of the crew were once on a boat for two weeks without an engine or wind just drifting back and forth in the current, so they probably have much more tolerance than we do for these conditions.

 The weather otherwise has been pleasant, not too hot, and only an occasional shower. The stars at night have been great to watch with the Milky Way and the Magellenic Cloud very visible. The winds have been under 10 knots almost continuously for the past two days and frequently less than 5 knots. Luckily, our boat will still move at about 3 knots with only 7 or 8 knots of wind while many of the other Rally boats have no choice but to motor or take down their sails and wait under these conditions. The biggest problem is that the sails flog back and forth making a racket and causing wear and strain on both the boat and our attitudes. The forecast is not favorable for a near term change, so we'll just have to be patient.

We are getting a lot of reading done, having fresh bread baked daily and chatting on the radio with some of the other boats. There are still boats relatively close to us after having gone about 1500 miles, but not close enough to see most of the time. We are calling home on the single side-band radio every once in a while but would like to have more news of what is happening. We did hear from another boat what the results of the NCAA basketball tournament were, but have no idea about our sports teams or local news.

After almost three days with very little wind, late on the 9th of April we decide to turn our motor off and if necessary drift during the evening waiting for wind. We have calculated our fuel reserves and know that we can't motor all the time. Fortunately by that evening the wind begins to return and we are making slow but steady progress. We make some minor repairs and are in much better spirits now that we are able to sail instead of motoring. That evening we see a comet (Hale-Bopp) just over the horizon. It is pretty interesting with a long tail. The stars in general are pretty spectacular when you are a thousand miles from civilization's lights and smog, and especially when the moon isn't up.

The winds continue to increase and by Sunday the 13th we are enjoying our third straight day of strong trade winds. By our calculations, we seemed destined for yet another 2nd place finish whether or not we push hard and fly our spinnaker or not, so we start taking it easy and going for maximum comfort. It is still rolly however and sleeping at night is still not that easy. We are beginning to think seriously about our estimated time of arrival at Hiva Oa and at this point are looking forward to arriving on Thursday the 17th (if our winds hold).

We haven't had much luck fishing on this leg. We've lost a couple of lures, had one strike by a sailfish (which promptly broke the line), and caught a very small mahi mahi which was only enough for a couple of bites per person. We are just about out of the fresh food we bought in the Galapagos except for a squash and a few onions. We do have a frozen chicken for Sunday dinner and some mystery meat (wasn't that great when we had it before) and two eggs per person. After that it will be canned food, pasta, rice, and pancakes. Nancy has been baking almost every day, with bread, rolls, and even sticky buns. With a hungry crew, two loaves of bread only lasts a day. I think we are looking forward to reaching port, stretching our legs and eating out for dinner (even though we have had some great meals this leg).

From the 13th through the 17th, our winds continue to hold and allow us to make good and steady progress, hardly touching the sail trim for four days. On the morning of the 17th we sight land, at a distance of over 40 miles. At the same time, our wind starts to fade and we hope we don't lose it completely before we arrive.

For better or worse, the wind does die when we are about two hours away, which convinces us to simply motor the rest of the way. We arrive just before dark. If the wind had been a little stronger we would have continued to sail and we would not have arrived until after dark. As expected we are the second boat in class B to arrive, and the next boat in doesn't arrive until the next morning. We are very lucky to get in when we did as the winds stay very low for several days afterwards and some boats still haven't arrived as of Tuesday the 22nd. The difference of 5 days allows us a lot more time for exploring.

Logbook Entry 7 - The Marquesas, French Polynesia

After visiting Atuona, the main town on Hiva Oa, we spend a couple days at Hana Moe Noe Bay on Tahu Ata, an adjacent island. The scenery and beach are great and we are invited to a dinner party on L'Isme a 60 foot French boat. All the other French boats join in, making a total of 25 dinner guests. The next day we go to Hana Menu Bay on Hiva Oa. This is definitely the most spectacular anchorage we have seen with shear cliffs on one side, hills on the other and a valley in front going up to the top of a 3000' mountain. There is black sand beach in this bay and a white sand beach in a bay around the corner that we visit by dinghy. We could stay there for months.

Today, April 22nd, we are enroute to Ua Pou, another island in the chain that has a 4000' mountain, horseback riding, and several bays for anchoring. It is about 60 miles away, so it will take us almost all day to get there.

Ua Pou is a relatively small island yet has the highest and sharpest mountain peaks in the Marquesas. Hakahau is the principal village and it is amazing in that it has well paved boulevards with flowers and shrubs along each side and streetlights in the median, a modern wharf for the supply ship and the main schools for children up to 14 years of age. We are able to rent horses and take a four-hour ride to a deserted beach on the other side of the island, going well up into the mountains and deep into valleys along the way. The owner of the horses and his three dogs, walk along with us the entire way, nearly 20 kilometers. He is pretty well known having at least 15 children and three houses at the head of the main street next to the school complex.

We also spend two nights in Hakahetau, a nearby village. We have a homecooked meal with Etiene Hokaupoko, the former mayor, who was a schoolteacher for 6 years, and still is the president of the Committee on the Marquesan Language, the vice president of the cultural center and the president of a planned parenthood type of organization. We learn a lot about the Marquesas from him as his English is very good and he enjoys entertaining visiting boaters. He has kept a logbook for several years of each of the yachts that have stopped by. The scenery is unbelievable with at least six towering spires of solid rock rising over 4000' in the air. Each is shaped like a bullet or needle showing no affects of erosion. In the moonlight the center of the island looks like a cathedral. We are also lucky enough to see three large Mantra-3 rays swimming near the wharf. They seemed to like our flashlights in the water almost doing acrobatics or water ballet for us.

Our sail to Nuku Hiva is the first upwind passage we've made since the Caribbean. The final island we will visit in the Marquesas, Nuku Hiva has 2000 citizens, deep bays and many ancient Polynesian temples known as maraes and statues (Tikis). The trip only takes four hours and is a brisk sail in the trade winds. We are sailing with a family from Victoria, British Columbia that we've met. They are sailing the South Pacific for the second time and have a young daughter and son. Their only schedule is to finish their voyage before their kids go into the 11th grade. They built their boat from scratch and first sailed the South Pacific in 1982, returning home via Japan and Alaska.

Nuku Hiva's principal town is at Taiohae, which sits at the base of a large valley with overhanging mountains and cliffs. It has a number of small shops where we replenish some of our supplies, especially our fishing tackle which has almost all been taken by fish we failed to land. We spend several days at the island, taking a side trip to Daniel's Bay where a number of boats spend the night during which time a gale passes through the area. This bay is totally land locked and other than howling winds we have no serious problems. Boats back at Taiohae have white caps in the bay and many drag their anchor and consider going out to sea in the middle of the night. Back in Hiva Oa, one boat breaks a dock line and crashes into an adjacent boat and the dock sustaining some serious damage. A number of boats were visiting Fatu Hiva at the southern end of the Marquesas during the storm and out of 12 boats at anchor, only two stayed anchored through the storm, everyone else dragged anchor or left in the night. Some boats reported winds of 50 to 70 knots, while we never saw much more than 20 in our protected bay.

At Daniel's Bay most of our crew and many others from the nearby boats took a hike to well publicized waterfall. This was supposed to be about a two hour hike each way, but with a poorly marked trail and having to ford a stream about 5 times, the round trip took almost 6 hours, with some people returning just as it turned very dark. It would have been impossible to get down off the mountain if they had been even 15 minutes later and they would have had to wait until dawn.

The town at Taiohae has a large and modern Catholic Church that we visited. The architecture and woodcarvings were just as impressive as the enthusiastic singing and harmonizing. Being Protestants and not understanding either Marquesan or most of the French, most of the service was unintelligible, even though we enjoyed being there and seeing all the local people. Nuku Hiva must be fairly prosperous as families were driving their late model four-wheel drive vehicles to church.

Logbook Entry 8 - The Tuamotus to Tahiti, French Polynesia

From Nuku Hiva, we made an easy three day passage to the Tuamotus, stopping for several days at Manihi and then going on to Rangiroa. The Tuamotus are atolls, which are narrow, low islands and islets that are formed by a coral reef around an island that has eroded away. Manihi is about ten miles by five mile in size with the islands being less than a quarter mile wide. The interior lagoon is relatively shallow and has very large coral heads. These are up to one hundred yards in diameter and are only a foot below the surface. They are easy to see and we find the snorkeling around them is spectacular. Manihi is well known for the black cultured pearls that are farmed in the lagoon. Long nets are suspended with the oysters attached to them. We spend a couple afternoons at the salt-water pool and facilities of the Manihi Beach Resort. This has got to be one the most exotic resorts we've seen, with bungalows built on pilings over the water, where you can step out of your room and go snorkeling on the reef.

Entering and leaving these atolls has to be timed to coincide with the tides.  You want to have the current against you so you can keep up steerage while proceeding slowly. We graze a coral head on the way into Manihi even with Geoff sitting in the bosun's chair and standing on the lower mast spreaders in order to get a better view of the depths. We end up leaving Manihi late in the afternoon in order to have the right tide and then motor overnight to Rangiroa to make the next pass at the right point for the tide.  When we arrive, the tide is going out and the current is very fast creating huge rollers in a riptide just at the pass. It is a safe but very exciting entry to Rangiroa.

We spend a couple days at Rangiroa, where among other activities snorkeling and scuba diving are great. Ray joins a dive through the pass and sees dozens of large sharks. Geoff has discovered that our dinghy is fast enough to get his friends up on a wave board, sort of cross between water skiing and skate boarding. There goes most of our gasoline.

May 8th: Enroute to Tahiti and our first, First Place Finish
On the morning of May 8th, the next leg of the Rally (to Papeete, Tahiti) begins. Once again we get good start with the seven serious racing boats, and for about three hours we manage to stay close to this group before they pull away. In the meantime we are leading everyone else who hasn't used their motor, so we are happy. As we circle around the end of the Atoll, the wind shifts and dies, leaving us in a channel with the current against us. We finally start to motor as other boats are passing us using their motors. Luckily after two hours the wind returns and we can stop our engine. Unluckily, the wind seems to be going through a major shift and within minutes we are hit by the first of many heavy rainsqualls. We are soaked and get little or no sleep all night. The next morning we notice that our jib (forward sail) has a ripped seam and we are forced to take it in and put up a smaller staysail that is brand new and has never been used.  It works pretty well and before long the skies are blue again and we making good progress to Tahiti. We should get in before midnight, and if we don't lose too much performance using the smaller sail, we stand a good chance of winning our class for this leg. It looks like our original jib should be easily repairable.

Well, we did it. We got in to Tahiti around 10 PM and we ended up in first place for our class and about 8th overall. Our corrected time was only 7 minutes less than the second place boat. We are docked on the main yacht quay alongside Papeete's main boulevard, with restaurants and shops all just across the street. It is not too bad to be back in civilization for a while even though Papeete with almost 100,000 has its loud traffic and traffic jams. The French food is great and people very friendly. When we went shopping at a supermarket and asked the checkout teller how to get a taxi, she got permission from her manager to give us a ride back to our boat in her car. By the way, the supermarket was better stocked than most stores in the USA. The main problem here is that prices are very high, a Big Mac at MacDonalds is about $4.00.

We had a dockside reception given by the President of French Polynesia last night with a band and refreshments. Today we took a bus tour all around the island with stops at the Gaugain Gardens and Museum. The buses are built on a semi-trailer frame and are called "Le Truck." They have a wooden bench down the middle of the truck with facing seats on each side. If you have to straddle the bench for a long ride like we did it is like riding a wildly swaying horse with a wooden saddle.

We are looking forward to the formal banquet on Thursday night where we should receive our 2nd place award for the leg to the Marquesas and our 1st place award for the leg here to Tahiti. Unfortunately, it appears that the number of boats in the Rally is declining as a couple of the French boats dropped out in order to cruise French Polynesia longer, and there are many boats considering different itineraries which might take them to New Zealand, back to Hawaii, or other options. Our friends on Dutch Lion will probably be dropping out of the rally as the owner has just become Chairman of the Board for a billion dollar printing company in Holland and can't afford to be gone on his boat as long as he had originally planned.

Our friends, Fred and Marlene Trudo from Ann Arbor, arrive tomorrow and will cruise with us through the Society Islands of Tahiti, Moorea, Huahine, Raiatea and Bora Bora. They're also bringing with them two months of mail, lots of spare parts and special groceries that Nancy wants, and a new spinnaker sail for us. Maybe they'll have space for some luggage as well.  Our crew member Ray Fullerton has offered to crew on another boat while Fred and Marlene are visiting in order to free up some berth space.  As it turns out, by the time we next see Ray, we have begun our plans to change our route, returning home by way of the Mediterranean instead of South Africa.  As a result we won’t be needing Ray for the long passages we had originally planned, and we won’t be completing our circumnavigation for perhaps a year longer.  For these reasons, Ray ultimately joined the boat Queen of Hearts, as crew, which would otherwise, had been shorthanded.

Our next spot to check and send e-mail will probably be Bora Bora just before we leave for Tonga. After that it may be a long time again before we can connect on the Internet. 

Logbook Entry 9 - Society Islands, Tonga and Fiji
May 15th to July 3rd: Society Islands to Fiji
The past several weeks cruising the Society Islands of French Polynesia have been filled with island tours separated by a few brief passages.  Our friends Fred and Marlene Trudo arrived on schedule and it was like Christmas unwrapping and opening all the packages they brought.  We had requested a variety of things from home and were rewarded with nearly everything we asked for plus some surprises.  Nancy got the special food items which we weren't able to find in the Pacific, we got a new cruising spinnaker from our sailmakers to replace the one we ripped on the way to Ecuador, and Geoff and Jennifer even got some treats from home.

It was especially nice to get several months of magazines and a Detroit newspaper, just to get caught up on local and world news.  We've been virtually isolated without any English language newspapers, magazines, radio or television, and haven't made the effort to listen to the BBC on our single-sideband radio. 

We took a round the island tour of Tahiti via the local mass transit system, which is like a bus, but built more like a truck with two side benches and a center bench running the length of the truck.  Sitting on the center is like riding a fence that sways back and forth as the drivers seem to be qualifying for a grand prix race.  The tour is interesting, although long, with a stop at the Paul Gaugain museum and gardens near the isthmus between the two main parts of Tahiti.  In addition to some original paintings on display, we saw sculptures and wood block prints he had made.

Papeete is somewhat like a tropical Paris, with lots of stores for shopping, boulevards along the wharf, and restaurants everywhere.  The food was good everywhere we ate, although prices for everything were high.  In addition to the Expo '98 sailboats, dozens of other boats from around the world were tied up or at anchor in the harbor. 

Ray, Geoff and some of his friends took a hike and climbed one of the higher peaks on Tahiti.  The trip was close to 12 miles and in parts the trail was so steep you had to pull yourself up using ropes.  It took all day and Ray claimed it was even more strenuous than some triathlons he had participated in. 

The Rally had an awards banquet at the Hyatt Hotel at which time we received plaques recognizing our 2nd place finish in our class from the Galapagos to the Marquesas, and our 1st place finish in our class from Rangiroa to Tahiti.  The next day, the Tahiti Yacht Club invited us to their facilities for a BBQ. 

It was finally time to leave for Moorea and we took part in a yacht race sponsored by the Tahiti Yacht Club.  We had a terrible start as we had misinterpreted the instructions and were headed the wrong way at first, ignoring a mark which had been placed further inside the Papeete Harbour.  In spite of this we finished a respectable sixth out of all the Expo boats and received a special book from the Expo '98 organizers as a prize.

Moorea is a relatively small island with several resorts but few large towns or villages.  We anchored off the Bali Hai Club resort in Cook's Bay.  The view of the mountains from this vantage point matches all the postcards you find of the island.  The weather while on Moorea and for the better part of the next week was pretty unsettled with lots of clouds and rain.  We took our chances one day to rent motor scooters and circle the island, stopping at one resort with a dolphin exhibit and another for some great pizzas and ice cream sundaes.

Unfortunately when we arrived in Moorea, we had several pieces of equipment fail.  Our watermaker had a nut come loose inside its pump and damage a piston shaft.  We were able to repair this temporarily ourselves, but have ordered some replacement parts.  The computer for our autopilot also failed and we had to install our spare.  We'll send the failed unit back to be repaired and hopefully we'll find out what went wrong and perhaps we'll be able to fix it ourselves the next time.  We also broke some bolts on some other sailing gear which we were able to fix but will need to replace in the future as well.

Sailing northeast from Moorea about 90 nautical miles is the island of Huahine.  We made this passage one evening, arriving just before dawn.  We waited offshore until it was light enough to enter the pass of the reef that surrounds the island.  We had originally planned to bypass Huahine and go straight to Raiatea, which is a bit further, but decided to stop for a day.  Huahine turned out to be so pleasant that we spent almost a week instead.  We anchored for a couple days off a nearly deserted cove and went snorkeling and exploring by dinghy. We then anchored at the main town of Fare and ended up renting cars for two days to visit spots on the island.
 
Close to where we anchored earlier, we visited the Hana Iti resort, perhaps the model for the stereotypical South Pacific resort with peaked thatched roofed bungalows and buildings located near the beach and up the hillsides.  The beach was beautiful with a great view for sunsets, while they had a secluded pool and waterfall off to the side of the resort.  The road to the resort is too steep for cars, so they have a shuttle "truck" for the guests.  We swam and enjoyed drinks in the afternoon before returning to our boat.  Perhaps we'll return some day even though the rooms run $600-$700 a night (without meals).

Nearer the town, another Bali Hai resort was located, which became a bit of a home base for us and some of the other Rally boats.  Fred and Marlene were satisfied to forego further visits to Raiatea and Bora Bora for the opportunity to spend more time at Huahine and decided to spend one night at the Bali Hai resort before they returned home, just for the experience.  Their room was only a few feet from the pool and lagoons that encircled the complex.

Meanwhile our refrigeration stopped working, and luckily a French soldier staying at the resort who was a refrigeration specialist was willing to help us fix it.  A broken connection was all that was wrong, so we didn't lose too much time or food while it wasn't working.  While we were fixing it, Geoff went surfing on the reef with some of the local young men.  The surf at Huahine is supposed to be about the best in French Polynesia.  There seemed to be a lot of surfers all the time, even people from cruising boats who had come especially to Huahine to surf.

After leaving Huahine, we had a fast afternoon passage to the islands of Raiatea and Tahaa that are encircled by a common reef.  We decided to bypass the more commercial island of Raiatea which sports two different yacht charter companies, and spent a night on a mooring off the Hibiscus Hotel on a long narrow bay on Tahaa.  This bay reminds us of the North Channel of Lake Huron in the Great Lakes.  Geoff and Nancy spend the morning retrieving bags of groceries stored in our "garage" an area under the transom (back) of our boat.  These were intended for later in our trip, but we seem to be going through our supplies faster than planned.  At least now we have fresh stores of coffee, cocoa, pancake mix, catsup and mustard, and a variety of new canned goods.   We don't have to worry about running out of food, even though the selection tends to be weighted toward canned corn, pasta and spaghetti sauce.



Logbook Entry 10 - Tonga
The Race from Moorea, The Finish at Nuku’alofa
Sunday June 1st was supposed to be the start of the leg to Tonga, however the weather has been unfavorable with very strong winds that would be directly against us.  We convinced the Rally official to postpone, as many boats would have decided not to start under those conditions.  The next day's weather was beautiful, and we had another good start, tacking through the lagoon and out the pass behind only three of the racers.  

After several days we are still within shouting distance of some of the serious racers and seem to be in a good position.  We are behind many of the boats, but are among the few who haven't motored as yet.  The winds have been very erratic.  The first day and evening the winds were steady and we sailed less than 100 feet away from the racing boat Rio for over an hour during the night.  The next couple days the wind became very light and most of the boats motored some of the time.  The past day and a half (day 6 out of Bora Bora) the winds have been strong, but have varied in direction so much that it's been hard to decide which sail combination to use.  We have changed configurations a half dozen times, putting up spinnakers, reefing sails, taking out reefs, running wing and wing (our jib poled out opposite from our mainsail), etc.

Some of the boats are pushing hard, Pipe Dream reported they had blown out two spinnakers and had three crew members hard at work sewing them back together so they could put them back up.  We later were told that their third spinnaker had to be cut down and was destroyed, a sail that supposedly cost $25,000. The boat Kela said that they had ripped their spinnaker so bad that they were making "crew uniforms" out of the remains.  The Swan 65 Blue Magic simply reported that "several" of their sails had been damaged.  We on Encore are taking the "cruising" approach, not risking too much, but still enjoying going fast when we can.  If we can finish high in our class we'll be happy but we won't take big chances or be uncomfortable for long just to finish a little better.

We've been talking to our friends on Piquet.  They just left Ua Pou in the Marquesas and are enroute to the Tuamotus, roughly a month behind us.  They are having a string of bad luck it seems.  Their autopilot is not working and the wind vane they have (a device to automatically steer simply by the wind) has never been connected.  As a result, the two of them (Peter and Karen) will have to hand steer for 4 or 5 days straight.  To make matters worse, their compass light has failed, so they have to use a flashlight to tell where they are headed.

In general we are very grateful that very few things have broken on Encore and when things have broken we have had a spare or been able to fix it.  Currently our watermaker is not working, but we have new parts coming and our water tanks are filled enough to get to Tonga without any problem.  If necessary, we could probably get the watermaker to work in an emergency.  Yesterday our water system pump (for faucets, etc.) stopped working.  We found a loose wire and were back in operation.  These challenges are what makes cruising more interesting and satisfying when you are able to solve the problem on your own.

The last several days of this passage have been fast although a little uncomfortable with quite strong winds and seas building to 15 or perhaps even 20 feet.  Sleeping has been difficult, as the boat tends to roll quite a bit as the waves are coming mainly astern but occasionally from the side. We have been tracking a tropical depression that has formed to the north and hope that it doesn't build too much before we reach port.  It is very late in the year for a tropical storm to form.

The last day out of Tongatapu we are carrying a mostly furled jib and a triple reefed main and still going fast when we develop a small tear in our mainsail.  We take it down and are able to repair it, but decide to finish the race with just our jib.  We are in a good position to finish against everyone in our class and most of the boats in the other classes.

When we arrive in Tongatapu at about 3 AM, we cross the finish line which has a Tongan naval ship as a committee boat.  It takes another two hours to maneuver into the harbor and anchor and we sleep in the next several days.  The Rally staff has organized several events including island tours, parties and beach BBQ's.  We enjoy the tour and the parties; especially the awards banquet that is hosted by the Tongan Prime Minister where we are awarded a black coral statue of a dolphin for finishing first in our class.  In fact we are fifth overall, our best finish yet.

Touring Tonga
The tour of the island takes us past the Royal Palace; an area filled with roosting Flying Foxes which are a very large species of bat, the north coast of the island, and finally a luncheon and dance presentation at the Tongan National Center.  The dancers are quite different than those we saw in French Polynesia.  The women dance very slowly and methodically with a lot of hand gestures while the men are much more active and enthusiastic with stomping and hand clapping.

On Sunday we attended the Wesleyan Church which is where the King of Tonga attends.  The guests from the Rally were given the first two pews in the church just a few feet from the private pews for certain nobles and dignitaries such as the prime minister we had met the night before. Not much further away was the King who sat alone with a daughter and granddaughter a few rows behind.

We have met several interesting people during our short stay.  At our awards banquet at the International Dateline Hotel, we met the Ambassador from Thailand to New Zealand and Tonga.  He attended Michigan State University in the 70's and was familiar with our hometown of Detroit.  We later met him for breakfast at the hotel after church and again at dinner coincidentally.  He has offered to help us make arrangements to visit Thailand, which we are considering as an alternative route home.  He had come to present his credentials to the King and told us about having to rent the proper clothes.

While in Tonga, we met with several other boat owners to discuss a return route via the Red Sea.  Instead of crossing the Indian Ocean and going to South Africa and then crossing the South Atlantic and visiting Brazil, we are tentatively planning on visiting Singapore and Thailand.  We then would stop at Sri Lanka and the Maldives before transiting the Red Sea and the Suez Canal in order to reach the Mediterranean Sea.  

This route avoids the potentially heavy weather and seas off the southeast coast of Africa and eliminates almost all of the very long passages.  We also then get to see countries like Thailand, Egypt, Israel, Greece and all the other southern European countries including Italy and France.  Eduardo on Zandunga first suggested this alternative route and as a result we are calling this the Red Zee Rally.  While we would regret leaving the "official" rally, it may turn out that nearly as many boats go this route as the official route.  This route certainly makes more sense for "cruising" versus "racing" and allows everyone to take an extended visit home during December while our boats are at a marina in Thailand.

Geoff met a teenager fishing in the harbor and we had dinner with him and later met his parents.  They are from New Zealand and have been in Tonga for nearly two years.  The father is the Chief Justice of the Tongan Court of Appeals, and as a result we learn quite a bit about the local politics and judicial system.

While in Tongatapu, a tropical disturbance we had been watching to our north eventually became Hurricane Keli, a very unusual storm for June.  The peak winds were over 100 mph and at one point the storm appeared to be headed directly for us.  All the skippers of Rally yachts met to discuss precautions and we spent the better part of a day putting out additional anchors and lines to the shore and nearby boats, as well as taking sails off the boat and all other loose items.  We are in a pretty well protected inner harbor and are not terribly concerned.  Keli ultimately turned more East and weakened and we had no noticeably different weather (which has been somewhat cool and windy).  

Several Rally boats have stopped off to sightsee in the Cook Islands at Rarotonga that is 800 miles to our east.  While there, Keli passed nearby causing 55 to 60 knot winds.  Apparently they suffered no serious damage, although we are anxious to hear more details when they ultimately arrive in Tonga.  Keli may well be the latest tropical storm for many years, and we are told that the weather in general this year has been unusual.  A serious hurricane struck Tonga in March causing a lot of damage.  We have had unusually strong winds from somewhat unusual directions.  Although the temperatures have been pleasant, especially at night for sleeping, it has been cold enough to have us wearing long pants, sweatshirts and jackets.  Hardly what we expected for the South Pacific.

We are now getting ready to depart for Va'vau, a group of islands in the north of Tonga.  It seems to be taking forever to leave, with getting lots of lines untied from shore, a second anchor up, and putting up our dodger, flags, life rings and everything else we took down for the possible storm.  We are also having a sailmaker in the Rally help us to repair some wear points on our sails.

There are many boats in the harbor from New Zealand, in fact two with kids whom we've met.  One of them, Twilight, was actually sailed in two earlier Round the World Rallies organized by Jimmy Cornell, although the current owners didn't participate.  This family has sold their house and nearly all of their belongings in New Zealand and is now enroute to the USA, apparently in search of a new job.  I don't know how they will deal with immigration.  It is apparently not unusual for New Zealand boats to stop here in Tonga first before cruising elsewhere in the South Pacific.

Our passage to Vava'u turned out to be somewhat rough as the winds were strong and coming nearly straight at us.  We pass two volcanic islands during the night, Tofua and Kao, which are still somewhat active.  Tofua is well known as island where Captain Bligh of the Bounty first stopped after the mutiny.  They tried to get water but were attacked by the cannibals and one of the crew was killed.  With a full moon the islands were very interesting since Kao looks like a perfect cone while Tofua looks like a cone with the top cut off and set next to it (Kao).  North of these islands is a volcanic island named Late Iti which appears out of the sea every so often as the volcano erupts and then erodes away and is gone again.

Vava'u turns out to be a beautiful area for cruising.  It has dozens of limestone islands with protected bays, beaches, caves for snorkeling and crystal clear water.  It is very similar to the North Channel of Lake Huron in the Great Lakes where we cruised for fifteen years.  As a result it is the center for many charter sailboat companies.  We spend several days anchored out in the remote bays and a few days in the capital of Neiafu.  One afternoon we snorkel at Mariner's Cave, which is famous for being the spot several hundred years ago for a girl who was being hidden from the local royalty.  In order to enter the cave one has to swim through an underwater entrance that is just below the water's surface.  

In Neiafu, Jennifer sees her friend on Twilight, while Geoff meets new friends on a boat from Canada called Copout.  We spend longer in Vava'u than originally intended as we wait for our friends to catch up to us from Rarotonga.  The delay allows us to become better friends with people on other Rally boats who are nearby.  One of them, Nori, was at sea when Hurricane Keli passed by. Alan and Jane told us about 45 foot seas, dragging ropes behind them to slow the boat down, and being in what must have been the eye of the storm when the clouds were coming in to them on all sides while the winds and seas went calm.  

Queen of Hearts elected to go out to sea rather than stay in Rarotonga and ended up spending the night somewhat sheltered by the island from the seas but still getting over 60 knots of wind.

Finally, we start out for Fiji, which is a 420 nautical mile passage.  We are looking forward to getting there so we can send out our e-mail and this log report, and hopefully get lots of mail and more spare and replacement parts for equipment that has broken.  Cruising with us is the sailboat Vuela from Florida.  In addition to his wife and two guests, the owner has his daughter, son and a friend of his son on board for this passage, who are all about Geoff's age.  It is possible the son may stay aboard for several additional legs, which will be fun for Geoff.

We are now using our backup autopilot while the original one is being repaired.  We have just received some spare parts for our watermaker.  Our genoa (jib) headsail seems to be somewhat the worse for wear. Some of the problems are due to the strong winds we've had and the heat of the tropical sun and we always seem to be repairing seams and patching areas of the worse chafe or degradation.  I'm not very optimistic that it will last the entire trip.


Logbook Entry 11 - Fiji

The two and a half days of the passage to Fiji were very pleasant with fair winds and relatively calm seas.  As we approached Fiji we noticed a problem with our alternator on our engine.  At first we thought it was a loose belt but it turned out to be the bearings.  When it couldn't be fixed on board, we ended up putting our spare alternator on instead.  Because it was late at night when it failed, and we couldn't run the engine without the alternator belt driving our water pump, our friends on Vuela, a 47 foot catamaran, gave us a tow the last few miles in to the capital of Fiji, Suva.  The next morning after clearing in with customs and immigration, we found a repair shop for the alternator and got it fixed.

We are now ready to reprovision and start cruising around Fiji.  We'll get our photos developed, laundry done, fuel up and get water. Hopefully we will find someone with an Internet connection and be able to send this logbook entry.  We are looking forward to getting our e-mail and hearing from our friends.

July 4th: Suva to Beqa (Mbengga), Fiji
Fiji is a relatively large country for the South Pacific with several big islands and a number of scattered island groups with smaller islands. Sailing from Suva, the capital to Musket Cove on the west coast of the same island (Viti Levu) would take more than a day, so we decided to make a couple of stops in between. 

Our first stop was at the island of Beqa that is actually pronounced and sometimes spelled as Mbengga. Fiji is trying to keep its traditional culture alive and as a result it restricts access to most of the outer islands and then gives you instructions on how to introduce yourself to the local villagers when you do visit. Beqa was our only opportunity to see in practice some of these customs. After anchoring off one of the local villages, Jim Logan from the sailboat Vuela, Geoff and I went into the shore by dinghy and were met by one of the villagers. He asked us if we wanted to meet the chief, which is the traditional greeting, and of course we replied that we would. We found the chief seated in circle with some of the other elder men of the village. At that time we were asked to join the circle and then present the chief with our "sevusevu" which is a gift of kava root (Jim had bought this at a store and it was wrapped in newspaper and a ribbon). When the chief accepts the kava you are officially welcomed.

Throughout Fiji and some other South Pacific islands, drinking a mixture of ground kava and water is both a formal ceremonial practice as well as a social event (primarily among men) similar to downing a few beers with the boys after work. Traditionally the kava root is ground up and chewed by young women or boys before mixing with water and then the liquid is strained through a cloth. Today it's more than likely to be just ground up and mixed with water. The result is a dirty dishwater like solution. Kava has a variety of biological effects, which are used as a drug in places, but in general it has a mild numbing affect on your lips and gums and tends to make you calm and sleepy.

The formal ceremony has a large three-legged bowl of kava and two half-coconut shells from which the kava is poured from one to the other and then given to the guests to drink (all in one gulp). After the chief and guests have had their kava, the other men have some as well. In social settings, the local men will drink kava for several hours every Friday night if not every evening. Jim, Geoff and I all tried the kava and then after being introduced to all the men in the kava circle we were given a tour of the village.

The village had about 100 people in relatively well-maintained houses made from corrugated sheet metal and local materials. There was a large church and every home had decorative plants and flowers planted around them. One of the only sources of electricity in the village was an old car battery that we were asked to take back to our boats to recharge. This battery was used to power their stereo radio and tape player.  We took some young people out to visit our boats and since it was the Fourth of July, Nancy gave them some cupcakes she had baked with little American flags on top.  Gail on Vuela gave them a bag of small items like shampoo and soap while Nancy took some Polaroid pictures of them to take back to their village. They seemed to enjoy our visit and had only seen a few other boats from the Expo '98 Rally so far.

From Beqa we went to the Mamanutha group of islands off the West Coast of Viti Levu. Malolo Lailai is a small island with a couple of resorts including Musket Cove Marina where the Rally boats congregated for the next start of the Rally. We spent several days at Musket Cove and Geoff and Paul were able to take the PADI SCUBA diving certification course and got in four dives. On Saturday, July 12th we had to start the next leg to Vanuatu, once again making our visit too short to be able to see all the places we wanted. It would be very easy to spend several months in Fiji just cruising the more isolated island groups.

The start of the leg to Vanuatu was inside of the outer reef by Malolo Lailai and with good winds and fair skies, all the boats got off to a fast departure. After two days, Encore was in a good position to finish well again. With winds of 20-25 knots we would have expected some of the longer yet heavier boats in our class to be ahead of us, but so far we are holding a slim lead in our class and will probably finish early Tuesday morning in the top 5-10 overall. Since the southeast trade winds have been relatively steady and strong, most of the rally boats have been sailing a pretty straight line to Vanuatu and simply stretched out like a parade. After the first 24 hours we still had 5 other boats still in sight ahead and behind us. After 48 hours, less than 60 miles separated most of the fleet. We've been averaging over 8 knots the entire passage with a full main and jib during the day and a couple reefs in the main the first night. Going downwind is relatively quiet and easy on the autopilot. We'll do nearly 200 miles per day for the passage.

Nancy has discovered that if we put one of the floorboards across the cockpit with cushions on top, she can stretch out and sleep at night when we are rocking and rolling at sea. This is a major accomplishment since she finds it hard to sleep below in the cabin when we are on passage and it is sometimes very difficult to sleep in the cockpit when lying lengthwise if the boat is rolling a lot. She woke up this morning saying she felt like she had slept in a real bed. This will definitely make the longer passages more enjoyable for her.

We have been eating well this passage with a roast leg of lamb the first night and roast beef the second and beef burgundy and pumpkin pie our third and last day out. We haven’t tried fishing this leg, but we've heard that one boat caught a mahi mahi and had a marlin on the line for a short while. Seeing that Vanuatu doesn't allow you to bring in any fresh or frozen meat, fruits or vegetables, we need to eat what we have before we arrive.
Logbook Entry 12 - Vanuatu
A First Place Finish
We crossed the finish line at dawn and by noon had been cleared by the quarantine, customs and immigration officers (as in Fiji, they took all of our fresh food in order to prevent the spread of diseases to their agriculture). Port Vila, the capital is a modern town with a large central market, lots of shops, banks and many good restaurants (no doubt due to the French influence). While we were in Vanuatu, the Rally had organized several parties including the prize-giving banquet, which was attended by the prime minister. Encore was fortunate to win their class again and received a nice carved wooden trophy. 

Vanuatu surprised us with its many attractions in addition to Port Vila itself. We could easily spend many weeks here, but must settle for a short side trip to the island of Tanna. Tanna has one of the world's most accessible active volcanoes, Mt. Yasur. You can stand a foot from the edge of the mile wide crater and look down a thousand feet to several active caldrons that shoot red-hot lava into the air with an explosion that can be heard for miles around. We visited during late afternoon and stayed until after dark. The view was awesome. We all agreed that in the USA you could never see this because the risk would force you to stay miles away (behind all the lawyers).

We also visited the custom village of Yakel, which is an enclave of natives who live very primitively (practicing the traditional "customs") probably no different than a thousand years ago. We also saw the exchange of food gifts between various villages as they celebrated the annual circumcision ceremonies for the young boys in the village.  Dressed in traditional colorful costumes, each village builds a pile of food and gifts for the village where the boys’ maternal grandparents are from. Included in the pile is a pig being cooked in an underground "umu" below the pile and one or more "live" pigs carried on poles and set alongside the piles. The pigs are then killed by a blow to the head with a large club. Pretty gruesome for westerners, but all part of the ceremony which was definitely not staged for our benefit. It is amazing that this and neighboring island groups (especially Fiji) were known for their cannibalism from just the past century (and rumored to have been continued in places up until just a few decades ago).

Nancy started out with a SCUBA certification course, but ear problems prevented her from completing the class. Geoff got in one dive on a shipwreck. Paul and Geoff were going to visit Espirtu Santo (another island in Vanuatu) to dive on the USS President Coolidge, a 600-foot ocean liner used as a troop ship during WWII. The lack of time to stay over night (since the dive was going to be quite deep and require decompression stops) made us cancel this trip. Meanwhile we made repairs to our anchor windlass, rechecked our alternator, and enjoyed our all to brief visit.  While Vanuatu doesn't have the plush resorts of French Polynesia, it would be a preferable visit if we come this way again.

As time flies, the next leg starts on 7/27 and finds Encore somewhat short handed Geoff has been graciously invited to crew aboard Blue Magic, perhaps the classiest race boat for the entire fleet. Blue Magic has won the racing division several legs and is in first place for the European fleet. Geoff will have a great time onboard and will learn a lot about racing. They will have a crew of nine (including a cook) versus Encore's three. Oh well, we can still try to win our division, but it will be more difficult since the winds are predicted to be quite strong which better suits our competition.  Since it will be just Paul and Nancy at the helm for eight days, Jennifer will be doing most of the cooking and clean up.  She doesn’t seem to mind putting aside her schoolwork to help out.

July 31st: At Sea from Vanuatu to Cairns
By July 31st, we are past the halfway mark to Cairns, Australia. The winds have been relatively strong, allowing the larger but heavier boats to maintain their maximum speeds while Encore is forced to shorten sail and put up with a rocky ride. We are still near the leaders for our class, but need a day or so of lighter winds to allow us to catch up or cushion our lead. As this is written we have broken our genoa halyard (the line that raises our front sail) and had to lower the sail to use a backup (staysail) halyard. We'll wait until Australia to replace and re-run this line which requires a trip up the mast  (Geoff's favorite place). We hope we won't need our staysail for the leg. In spite of going for maximum comfort (we shorten sail more than most) we are having a great sail this evening. We are going 9.1 knots (about 9-10 miles per hour) with a reefed main and partially furled jib, in about 21 knots of wind. This is great sailing without a lot of heeling (tipping) as the winds are somewhat behind us, but given the swells (sometimes 8-12 feet) we are rolling and yawing a lot. Although we've had several rain squalls this leg, the weather has been pretty nice and on occasion almost swimsuit weather (it seems its been a long time since we had really hot and sunny days).

Its somewhat sad to think that as we reach Cairns we will have finished our crossing of the Pacific Ocean and we will be leaving the "South Seas" behind. At the same time we are looking forward to the unusual sites of Australia and going on to Bali, Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand. After this leg, we will have relatively few legs of more than a few days and nights. Probably for the best since the wear and tear of 10,000 plus miles so far have begun to show on the boat and subsequent repairs and maintenance will be more frequent.


Logbook Entry 13 – Arrival in Australia
August 3rd to 12th: Cairns, Australia
We arrived at Cairn's early Sunday morning the 3rd of August. As seems to be our practice, we arrive at night and never see much if any land until after we have anchored. This was a disappointment for not seeing the Great Barrier Reef as we passed through it at 3 in the morning. The last few days of the passage were fast but very wet due to the large swells and high winds. We wore foul weather gear all the time at night even though it didn't rain and still got very wet.

The Rally is tied up at docks at Half Moon Bay Marina at Yorkey's Knob a town about 10 miles north of Cairns. This is a very modern and large marina and yacht club, with great docks, a restaurant and even a small casino. Our first order of business was meeting with the yacht chandlery that had been set up outside the marina temporarily. There we arranged some new lines, cosmetic fiberglass repairs, and various other tasks to fix our backstay, sails, awnings, etc. Most of these were minor, but they added up to a lot of work and for several days it seemed we never got off the dock waiting for workman to come down to the boat.

Our major excursion was a full day trip out to the reef to snorkel and SCUBA dive off of a large dive boat. The reef was more colorful than anything we had ever seen before.  Geoff and Paul took two dives, while even Jennifer got to SCUBA dive once. We bought a copy of a video that had been produced that day featuring all of us diving (it was worth it).

The Rally organized functions for nearly every day at the Marina. We had a golf tournament, Aussie BBQ, wine tasting party, presentation of wild animals, and even a demonstration of aboriginal dancing by a group that has performed for people including President Clinton. The awards party was quite elegant with fancy food, local politicians, and members of the yacht club. Geoff was part of the crew of Blue Magic going up to accept their first place prize for the racing division and Class A of the cruising division. We settled for second place in Class B.  Geoff is organizing some additional crew for us for the leg from Thursday Island to Darwin so that for our last racing leg with the Rally we can go all out to try to beat as many of the "racing" boats as possible.

Cairns is a modern city which could be anywhere in the USA if it weren't for the locals always saying "mate" and "no worries". The mountains behind the coast reminded us of San Diego and the climate was perfect. We spent an afternoon at a wildlife park seeing crocodiles, walking amongst and petting kangaroos and emus, and all kinds of colorful wild birds. We saw the koala bears up close and Jennifer even went back a few days later to hold a bear and have her picture taken with it. The birds here are amazing.  Playing golf you could see white cockatoos in the trees along with rainbow lorikeets (like a large multicolored parakeet), eagles, huge geeselike birds, and dozens of other colorful and exotic species.  You would often hear the Kookaburra birds “laughing” in the trees.

We have met many local boaters who have been very friendly to everyone. We are getting first hand information on where to stop on our cruise up to Thursday Island inside the Great Barrier Reef. We are going to spend another day or two in Cairns, going by car to nearby attractions and then start our trip north. We are hoping to send this logbook entry from a computer store in Cairns, and will probably have another update once we arrive in Darwin later this month. We need to get our computer serviced (salt water on the keyboard has caused some keys to malfunction) and get a bunch of new floppy disks since we noticed all of our backup disks have gotten soaked from salt water during the last leg.


Logbook Entry 14 - Cairns, August 16th to September 12th, Darwin

We've finally left Cairns (actually Yorkey's Knob) for the Torres Strait and Thursday Island.  It seems we've been working on getting the boat taken care of so much we've hardly had time to see much of Australia so far.  In actuality we have had a day trip through the Tablelands west of Cairns which allowed us to see Kuranda, Granite Gorge, Mossman Gorge and Port Douglas.  We visited Wild World, a zoo with koala bears, crocodiles, kangaroos, and other native animals.  We also spent a couple days in Cairns and one day in Port Douglas.  All in all we've seen a lot. 

Kuranda is purely a tourist town, with blocks of shops of all kinds, but little of true interest except the view of a steep valley where a river has cut a magnificent canyon.  Granite Gorge had huge boulders similar to the North Channel of Lake Huron along with rock wallabies, a miniature version of a kangaroo. A primitive camp ground with hand painted signs was all there was at Granite Gorge, so it was definitely not a high tourist site.

Mossman Gorge was an area in the rainforests between two steep mountain ranges with spectacular views.  We wished we could have spent several hours hiking the trails.  Port Douglas is a posh tourist town about 30 miles north of Cairns.  This is where President Clinton came for a visit in November 1996.  Like a larger version of Harbor Springs, Michigan, it has several blocks of fancy shops, plus a marina mall with three restaurants, a disco, dive shops, expensive clothing, jewelry and art stores.  We visited an old church that had a wedding later when we drove by.

While we had driven through Port Douglas by rental car, we hadn't planned on stopping by boat.  Boat repairs changed our plans.  In Yorkey's Knob we arranged for some cosmetic fiberglass work to be done along with a long list of supposedly minor repairs to our rigging (the mast, wires holding the mast up, and ropes which control the sails, etc.)  It turns out we had more work to do than we expected.  The rigger had us go to Port Douglas where his shop was located in order to make repairs.  By the time we were done we had fixed a half a dozen different things which had accumulated and ended up with a reasonable bill of health for our rig.  

We should explain that although it seems we've had a lot of things break and repaired on our boat, we've really been quite fortunate that nothing really serious has broken or caused a major expense.  We've never had anything break which affected our safety and having our rigging checked in Cairns allowed us to prevent small problems from becoming serious.  Considering that since we left last February, we've sailed more miles and hours than many sailboats sail in their lifetime and everything has held up pretty well, especially compared to many boats in the Rally.  There have been dismastings, broken rudders, keels loosen, lots of engine and mechanical problems, and too many sails destroyed to count.  We've really only had one old sail wear out and one lost overboard due to operator error and hardly more than normal maintenance otherwise.  Everything else we've repaired is probably about what we would have done after a similar number of miles sailing in the Great Lakes.

At the same time, we've had pretty good weather all things considered.  While we've had pretty strong winds and big seas, other than the gale we experienced off of Columbia in the Caribbean, we've never had wind or seas where we felt we were out of control. Even in the gale we were pretty much under control even if we were under somewhat extreme conditions. 

After completing all the rigging work at Port Douglas, and spending our share of tourist dollars at the restaurants and stores, we've started north, sailing overnight to Lizard Island, one of the major islands off of the Far North Queensland coast of Australia and inside the Great Barrier Reef.  From Lizard we sailed to Flinders Island where we met up with our friends on Ocean Dream.  They invited Jennifer and Geoff to sail with them the rest of the way up to Thursday Island so that we could enjoy our 25th wedding anniversary alone on the boat.  We will have a day sail to Night Island and then an overnight sail the rest of the way up to the Torres Strait.  Inside of the Great Barrier Reef the seas are almost flat and the winds have been light, so the sailing is very easy and relaxing.  We are timing our arrival at Thursday Island and Torres Strait to coincide with the tides and currents that can be extremely fast (over 7 knots).

Thursday Island, Torres Straits
Thursday Island is the northernmost outpost of Australia.  With the strong winds and currents, this is definitely not a cruising destination, only a waypoint.  We stock up a little on fresh vegetables and fruit and on Saturday, August 23rd, we start the leg to Darwin.  This will be the last competitive leg we will participate in with the Rally since the leg to Bali is not a sanctioned stop of the Rally due to political problems between the Portuguese (and the Expo sponsors) and Indonesia over East Timor.  After Bali we will be cruising with a spin-off group to Thailand, the Red Sea and the Mediterranean.  Geoff has invited Martin Martins from our rival boat BES Portugal to help crew for us and we will try to be as competitive as possible for this one leg.  This means flying our spinnakers most of the time and hand steering all of the 740 miles to Darwin.  

With relatively light winds (under 20 knots) and flat seas we should be able to place high in our class as in the past and perhaps even beat a few more of the boats in the "racing" and larger class. 

The leg starts out well as we fly our spinnaker for the first day and then again the second day and evening.  Unfortunately around noon the third day our spinnaker halyard broke again dropping the sail in the sea.  Luckily the winds were strong enough that we didn't need the spinnaker the rest of the leg.  We stayed close to two of the more serious racing boats, Best of Boingo and Wild Woman.  We passed Best of Boingo when they had a problem with their rigging and had to motor the rest of the way to Darwin, and after a neck and neck last night and morning we beat Wild Woman by almost half an hour.  This is pretty good since their handicap would suggest they should have beaten us by 5 or 6 hours.  We end up winning our class by several hours over the next closest boat and coming in 5th overall.

Darwin
Darwin has a significant tide; so most boats stay in harbors with locks that only allow boats to enter at certain times of the day.  We are in a marina called the "duckpond" which is usually used by fishing boats.  It's not very scenic but very close to town and with a rental car we can get to anyplace in Darwin in just a few minutes.  There are lots of places to visit in Darwin and we are busy nearly every day.

Darwin has botanical gardens, an art/historical/maritime museum, lots of restaurants and an easygoing attitude.  Darwin is to Australia as Anchorage, Alaska is to the States.  It is so far from any other city that everyone else in Australia assumes people from Darwin are a little strange.  After asking directions to various places outside of town and being told to take the road so far, we realize there is only one road out of Darwin.  The next closest significant town is perhaps a 1000 kilometers away.  We visited the Territory Wildlife Park that has everything from birds of prey on display with free flying exhibits to a nursery for orphaned animals.  We drove to Litchfield Park that is in the 'outback' with great scenery and waterfalls. 

The highlight of our visit to Australia (if not the entire Rally so far) was a camping trip we took into Arnhem Land, the home of many aboriginal people and where four wheel drive jeeps and hiking are the only means of transportation.  This region of tens of thousands of square miles is nearly totally isolated and very restricted.  We arranged to visit the area with a guide, Shane Rowe, who is one of only three individuals who are licensed to take people into this area.  The days we were there we were possibly the only "visitors" to the entire region.  By law and necessity an aboriginal guide accompanied us whose family was the traditional owners of much of the land we were visiting.

The land itself is spectacular.  This area of Australia has basically two seasons, the "wet" during which monsoonal rains flood huge areas and make travel impossible, and the "dry" when hardly a cloud can be seen and the extreme heat and dryness contribute to continual brush fires.  The fires are frequently deliberately set in order to prevent the accumulation of dry grass and wood that would make a worse fire later.  The fires are also important to the germination of certain plants.  We drove through thousands of acres of recently burned areas and even through the middle of several brush fires.

The land varies from very flat to extremely rugged and rocky terrain with cliffs and canyons.  Areas which were flooded during the earlier wet season and that have no natural means of drainage are known as billabongs.  These can be quite small water holes or large lakes, and in either case attract the feral water buffaloes, pigs and birds, and support the aboriginal people in the area.  We camped out one night on the edge of an escarpment with a cliff below us of several hundred feet and a view of the lands below going off miles to the horizon.  The next night we slept in the middle of the rock river bed at the headwaters of the Wilton river.  During the wet season the area would be a class 5 or 6 white water rapids and water falls, while at this time it is a small creek with deep pools which were great for swimming.  We saw seven fresh water crocodiles in one of the pools (these are OK to be around, not like the salt-water crocodiles, which will attack people).  One of the friends with us caught three large barramundi (a native fish), one of which we cooked in an underground bed of coals, and the others were given to the local aboriginal community.  We tried some green ant tea (really made from green ants), and Jennifer learned how to make "damper" a type of bread cooked in a Dutch oven.

Walking through the woods and climbing up and down rocky cliffs, we saw areas that probably few outsiders have ever seen with waterfalls, exotic birds (lots of white cockatoos), strange snakes and lizards.  While we were driving we saw a 6 foot long king brown snake, one of the more deadly snakes in Australia.

Our guide, Shane, continually told us what he knew about aboriginal customs and stories.  We learned about "dreamtime" which to aboriginals is part history and part religion, and we learned about the aboriginal system of "skins" a means of identifying various family groups and family trees so that inbreeding is prevented.  Mostly we learned that the aboriginal lifestyle and culture is so different from ours that our paradigms make it almost impossible to understand them and their life and vice versa.  It is truly a shame that some well-meaning efforts are being made to assimilate the aboriginal people into a western culture that makes no sense to them.  For instance, homes are built for them, yet they still sleep outside on the ground, money is paid to them for royalties on minerals mined in their country and for welfare, yet they have no concept of money, savings, or personal possessions as such.  Similar to the problems of indigenous people elsewhere such as native Americans, they suffer from poor hygiene, alcohol abuse, and racism.

Throughout the area are thousands of rock art sites.  In Kakadu National Park near Darwin, thousands of visitors are allowed to visit only three sites, with art that is only a few decades old.  Where we walked (in Arnhem Land) we saw dozens of sites and art that may have been 30,000 to 70,000 years old.  Our aboriginal guide pointed out some sites, but was reluctant to show us others because of their sacred nature.  In general, the aboriginal people in Arnhem Land do not disclose very much of their culture or history to outsiders.  We were told of an archeologist who traveled the area for five years with a guide who would tell him nothing at all.  During that time the archeologist made assumptions about what he was seeing.  After the five years he had finally gained the trust of the guide who then started explaining everything they had seen and the archeologist had to start all over with his writings.

Shane and a French friend of his, Francois, who has a semi-permanent camp in Central Arnhem land are among the few outsiders who have gained some true insight into the people. The aboriginal men are given cuts on their upper arms and across their chests as they pass through certain stages of learning and ceremonies.  The more cuts (and resulting scars), the more important and learned is the person.  As boys pass through the rites to become men they receive their first cut.  If they miss this first ceremony they are no longer permitted to "make up" this stage and are forever limited to the lowest status in the community. Francois has lived in the land for 10 years and is just now going to be allowed to witness an aboriginal ceremony and get his first "cut".  This is a great honor for Francois.

We are now preparing for our departure for Indonesia.  We plan to clear into Indonesia at Kupang on West Timor, then cruise to various islands enroute to Bali.  One spot we are looking forward to seeing are the islands of Komodo and Rinja, the only remaining homes of the Komodo Dragon, a huge lizard which is sometimes (improperly) called the only living dinosaur.  

Our next opportunity to send and receive e-mail will likely be in Bali towards the end of September.  In the meantime we hope all of our friends have had a safe summer and we look forward to coming home for a visit this Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Logbook Entry 15 - Darwin to Bali
September 12th to October 3rd: Leaving the Rally, Enroute to Indonesia
As the movie title says, we are "On the Road to Bali."  After saying good-bye to many of our friends in the Rally whom we will not see again on our trip, we left Darwin for Indonesia in the company of Vuela, Ocean Dream, and Dasein.  These three boats as well as a few others will make up the fleet going to the Red Sea and the Mediterranean.

Our first stop was Kupang, a port of entry on the west end of West Timor.  Timor is split somewhat down the middle, with the eastern half originally being a Portuguese colony, which was "annexed" by Indonesia.  The conflict between East Timor and Indonesia is the reason that the Rally canceled Bali as an official stop, at the request of the Portuguese sponsors, Expo '98.

Kupang was our first experience with an Indonesian city and it was a sharp contrast to Australia as well as all of our previous stops since visiting Guayaquil, Ecuador.  There are about 150,000 people in the city and perhaps 500,000 in the area.  We only spent one day visiting, and were given a tour by a local art and antique dealer.  We saw the main market with hundreds of stalls in a collection of dirt pathways.  Between the chickens running around and the flies, it was an instant immersion in the third world.  The principle means of mass transportation are "bemos", little mini-vans which carry up to a dozen people crammed together.  The bemos run on regular bus routes, blasting music from loud speakers, and are colorfully painted including a name.

We visited a small park that had a number of small monkeys scurrying around.  One jumped up on Danny, a crewmember from Vuela and tried to steal his hat.  Danny dropped a music cassette that the monkey put in its mouth and ran off with.  Danny gave chase, but at last glance the tape was streaming out of the cassette and the local kids were cheering for the monkeys.

We had dinner at the most highly recommended restaurant in town, which from outward appearances might make a "Coney Island" hot-dog stand look elegant.  However the food was great although unusual.  We also stopped at the home of our guide and saw hundreds of wood and stone artifacts he had collected from both West and East Timor, several of which were several hundred years old.

From Kupang, we sailed on to the islands of Rindja and Komodo, the home of the famous "Komodo Dragons".  They are actually a form of monitor lizard that grow up to 70 years old and over 10 feet long.  Rindja (spelled lots of different ways) is more remote and we spent a couple nights anchored in a secluded cove. The first night of our passage had us sailing through a strange phenomenon, with the sea glowing a greenish white for miles around against a black sky.  While we are used to seeing phosphorescence as small particles of light, in this case it was like a white fog only upside down with the water glowing.  On Rindja, we saw a Komodo dragon on the beach as well as several deer, sea eagles, and monkeys.  On a nearby beach we had a barbecue and party with the other boats.

We then sailed to Teluk Slawi, the main bay on Komodo where the national park has a ranger station.  We took a short walk with a ranger guide and saw not only many dragons, but dozens of semi-tame deer which would stand only a dozen feet from you without being afraid.  These included huge bucks with impressive antlers.  The Komodo dragons can be quite dangerous as they will attack and eat the deer, wild pigs, wild horses, and even humans.  The ones we saw seemed rather content to lay in the sun and ignore us, but we kept our distance anyway.

Luckily, the first night on Komodo we had the bay to ourselves, and watched hundreds of fishing boats go out at night to catch squid.  The lights they carried made it look like we were in the middle of a city.  The next day saw the arrival of two large cruise ships and hundreds of tourists, so much for our remote seclusion.  We took a dinghy ride into the village of Komodo and I think we were unprepared for what we saw.  There were hundreds of homes built on stakes so that the main floor was ten feet above the ground.  There were dirt paths between the rows of homes, but no vehicles or roads of any kind.  The people gathered around us as we came ashore and we may have been the only western people to visit the village in months.  

The buildings looked very fragile except for a concrete mosque with a metal "onion bulb" roof in the center of town.  Goats and chickens roamed everywhere with curious children following us, and older folks peering out of the doors and windows of the elevated homes.  Everyone seemed friendly and we met a young man who spoke a little English.  He was wearing a faded T-shirt from a yacht that had visited a few years before.  Using him as an interpreter we bought some supplies from a combination grocery store, grain mill and fishing boat parts store.  One man was grinding some rice next to the display of engine gaskets and soft drinks.  Finding any meat or vegetables was clearly out of the question.

From Komodo, we sailed to another nearby island called Banta.  In a protected bay, we found ourselves so content that we decided to spend several days at anchor.  We snorkeled on a reef that rivaled the Great Barrier Reef for colors, fish, and coral.  We gave a 4-foot barracuda we had caught to some local fisherman.  Again, our mini-fleet had a beach barbecue; this time featuring steaks cut from a huge mackerel Paul on Ocean Dream had caught.  It was enough for nearly twenty people plus provided a second meal to both Ocean Dream and Encore.

In the bay, Geoff practiced his wake boarding (a form of water skiing with a small surfboard), and was able to do 360-degree turns.  Jennifer and Nancy also enjoyed getting up on the wake board.  We could spend weeks here if we wouldn't run out of food and gasoline for the dinghies.  We had originally planned on trying to get to Bali by the 27th in order to see the Rally boats that went there from Darwin before they left for Cocos Keeling, but realized we would have to rush too much.  From here on, we are planning on cruising more leisurely and enjoying each stop without the pressure of racing to the next stop.

Our next stop was the island of Pulau Moyo off the coast of Sumbawa.  Again the snorkeling was great. Just below our boat the reef drops off from 15 feet to over 150 feet.  Geoff tried some spearfishing while the crew on Vuela got two lobsters and some fish.  The Amanwana Resort is on this island, an exclusive resort where Princess Di and Bill Gates have been guests.  They have 130 staff for an average of 25 guests, and you can charter a helicopter to fly here from Bali for only $3000 if you are in a hurry and don't want to take the salmon and champagne ferry boat ride from Sumbawa. 

Logbook Entry 16 - Bali

Our overnight passage to Bali had every kind of weather you can imagine.  We started out with clear skies and fair winds behind us making a fast passage along the north coast of Sumbawa.  Then the winds went calm and we motored for several hours.  Later as we passed north of the strait between Sumbawa and Lombok the winds picked up again and we had a great sail until sunset.  It has become quite hazy lately and clouds had begun to build over Lombok when we saw the peak of the tallest mountain on Lombok over the clouds, which at about 12,000 feet is higher than anything we've seen since skiing in Colorado.

In the wind shadow of the mountain, the winds died only to begin again as we headed south through the strait between Lombok and Bali late at night.  With winds on the nose blowing very strong and steep waves from a fierce current, the first 40 miles of this section of the passage was pretty uncomfortable.  At dawn as we approached Denpasar, the capital of Bali and the port of Benoa, our destination, the winds died down for a final time.  As it became light, we saw that we were sailing through the daily fishing fleet of sailboats that work the area.

These boats are perhaps 15 feet long, with a narrow hull and two outriggers that make the boat look like a giant spider.  They all have an identical yet unusual shaped triangular sail while every boat's sail had different color stripes and patterns.  With hundreds if not more than a thousand of these boats everywhere you look, it was probably the largest "one-design" sailboat fleet in the world.

We learned in northern Australia that they have two major seasons, the "wet" and the "dry" with a transition in between.  The wet has torrential rains for months on end, while the dry has virtually no rain for the rest of the year.  For a month or so before the wet, the "build-up" period takes place with increasing cloudiness and high humidity.  Well, it looks like the day we arrived in Bali, the transition period started as we saw banks of towering, dark clouds for the first time since we left the USA.  The people in Bali confirmed that in fact this marked the change in seasons.  We hope we can make it up to Thailand without getting caught in too many of the heavy rainstorms which begin in earnest by mid-October.

We are staying at the Bali International Marina on the end of peninsula in the middle of Benoa Harbour.  While it is small (40 boats or so), it is a gathering place for boats enroute to Thailand like us and we meet two other boats we had first seen back near Komodo.  Unfortunately, all but two of the boats from the Expo '98 fleet had already left for Cocos Keeling so we missed saying a final farewell to many of the friends we had made the past nine months.

Denpasar has 300,000 people plus a number of adjoining towns which may double the total population.  Denpasar itself is a busy city with traffic jams, a huge central park, art museum, and both modern supermarkets and traditional farmer markets.  In Bali as well as elsewhere in Indonesia, haggling (or arguing over prices) is part of the culture, where the first price offered may be ten times what you actually should pay.  For a brief time, it may be amusing to try to negotiate the "proper" price, but we found it pretty tiresome very quickly when nearly every transaction had to be negotiated from soft drinks on a beach to taxi rides.  In the farmers market, the prices we were quoted (and which were barely negotiable) were exorbitant, obviously the "tourist" rate, and we gave up trying to buy anything.  Meanwhile the supermarket had better quality and the prices (pre-marked) were less.

Driving (or riding in a mini-van called a bemo) seems to be a form of legalized bumper cars.  No one looks to their side or behind and simply cuts in front of others without warning.  While we were riding into town with the people on Ocean Dream, we commented on how unusual it was that we saw little evidence of damage to vehicles from collisions considering how everyone drove.  About a minute later our taxi ran into a truck that stopped suddenly, smashing the driver's door so it couldn't open.  No one was hurt since the actual average speed one can drive in the city is quite low, but the driver suggested we get out and we ended up walking the rest of the way into the center of the city.  We might reconsider our plans on renting a car for a few days.

Geoff has been anxiously awaiting our arrival in Bali because it is famous for the surfing.  Less than an hour after we arrived he was off to find a ride to the beach.  The next day the entire family went to Kuta beach (a suburb so to speak of Denpasar) and the reports of big surf were true.  Across from the Hard Rock Café under construction we staked out a section of beach and tried out the waves.  Almost too big for Geoff to surf and a little scary for Jennifer, but still fun to swim in.  

Bali is culturally the most exotic and different spot we've seen.  Their religion is central to their everyday life.  At the entrance to every building including homes, shops, the marina, etc. there will be a small shrine with typically a stone pedestal and what appears to be a throne on top.  Every day a fresh offering consisting of flowers and other items are placed on this throne.  We even saw these offerings placed on the dock opposite boats and yachts that were apparently owned by local people.

There are quite old if not ancient looking temples and shrines everywhere you look as many as one per block.  Ornate masonry gates and walls enclose most homes and many buildings with stone sculptures on top of the gates.  Other statues can be seen everywhere and nearly all are unusual in that those with human or humanlike figures are wrapped in a plaid garment like a sarong.  A yellow sash is almost always wrapped around the small shrines and often will be placed around the waist of a person in the sculpture.  This sash is quite important to their culture and we understand that we will need to rent one to wear if we visit any of the temples.  

Although most of Indonesia is Muslim, Balinese people predominantly follow a form of Hinduism (and somewhat surprisingly, most of the people on Timor were Christian).  Due to the Muslim influence, Friday afternoons start their holy period and businesses close.  

We are finding it surprising that in such a major tourist area, so few people speak or understand much English.  They will nod and agree with you in answering questions such as where someplace is located, but we find they really don't understand what you are saying and are simply being friendly in their agreement.  It's going to take a while to adapt to the culture here.  The food is a different story.  So far, the few meals we've had have been great and inexpensive. 

We took a tour to the top of a volcano on Bali, overlooking a large lake at several thousand feet in altitude.  On the way we saw the terraced rice paddies for which Bali is famous.  These are carved into the sides of steep valleys, where every possible space is used for growing the rice.  We visited several small towns, each specializing in a different trade.  One has stonecarvers, the next had gold and silversmiths and the last had woodcarvers.  We spent a lot of time looking at some huge sculptures of dolphins and elephants and may go back to get something for our home.  We also watched a performance of the Barong and Kris Dance, one of the best known of the Bali dances with the lion/dragon character representing the Barong, a monkey, a colorful witch and Balinese women dancers.  This was the highlight of the day.

We've been told there is a cybercafe nearby (a place to talk over the Internet with a computer) so with luck we'll be able to send this off before it gets to old (or too long).  Greetings to all our friends and relatives who are following our progress.  We are getting anxious to visit home at the end of November, especially since we've gotten very little mail from home. 

October 14th to October 29th, Bali to Singapore
We finally left Bali on October 14th, much later than we had planned as we waited for boat repairs on Ocean Dream to be completed.  They found a crack in a weld on their mast and ended up spending several days trying to find someone with the equipment and experience in order to fix it.  Meanwhile we had a good time revisiting some of the furniture and wood carving shops, hitting the department stores where prices were extremely good, and lastly reprovisioning at a brand new "warehouse" store (called Markos) nearly identical to the "Sam's Club" stores we have at home.  The Indonesian Rupiah has fallen by about 50% against the US dollar very recently and almost 10% on one day alone while we were in Bali.  This has made good prices almost unbelievable.  Friends on nearby boats have bought TV's and VCR's for about half the price at home, while we have bought some shoes and other clothes.   The grocery section at the Markos had everything from Kellogg's Corn Flakes to frozen steaks and lamb chops from the US and New Zealand.  We also got to make a few minor repairs as we replaced a bearing in our alternator for the second time, and filled a hole in an exhaust elbow on our engine that corroded through and was leaking cooling water.  Geoff has been busy trying to repair cracks in his surfboard with fiberglass and resin. We are learning new skills.

The currents in the straits around Bali can be very fast and usually are against you as you go toward Singapore.  As a result, on our first day out from Benoa Harbor, we stopped in a bay that on our chart was supposed to be relatively deserted.  We were surprised to see a brand new port for shipping oil with a huge dock, storage tanks and several freighters anchored nearby.  Our friends on Dasein had their streak of bad luck continue when their propeller literally fell off as we left the next morning.  Apparently the nuts holding it on had come loose.  While they had an old spare prop to put on, they needed a "key" for the shaft, so they had to dinghy ashore and get a ride into town to get the part made.  Then they had to put the prop back on underwater using SCUBA gear.  At this time they are now a day behind us, traveling with Ocean Dream who stayed an extra day at Benoa to complete the work on their mast.

We have heard the reports of huge brush and forest fires on the various Indonesian islands we will be passing. These fires are causing very bad visibility, less than a mile at times.  As we passed the north coast of Bali we saw several fires on the slopes of the volcanoes, but the wind was blowing the smoke away from us.  At the same time, we have had a lot of haze that has limited our visibility to perhaps 10 miles or so in spite of clear blue skies.

Our first stop after Bali was the island of Bawean.  It had a nice anchorage where we saw several other sailboats enroute to Singapore.  We spent some time with a French couple on the sailboat Mimosa.  It appears they will be among the dozen or more boats all leaving Thailand for the Red Sea in January.  It will be nice to have more company.  Because we haven't had a lot of wind and have motored quite a bit this far, and we expect more of the same, we all went into the town at Bawean and bought some extra diesel fuel.

After Bawean we stopped at the island of Seratu about 80 miles west of the island of Borneo and the Indonesian State called Kalimantan.  Kalimantan is supposed to be the source of most of the smoke and haze, and even though we were a long ways from the shore our visibility grew worse and worse until we could see less than a mile.  We went around Seratu and anchored barely seeing the island.  In the afternoon the wind went to the south and the air cleared somewhat, but the next morning our visibility was only a hundred yards and you could really smell the smoke in the air.  Geoff went windsurfing and wore a compass on his arm so he wouldn't get lost if he got out of range of the boat.

Vuela stopped off at Kalimantan to see the Orangutans and the smoke was even worse.  While they enjoyed the visit, they are not sure it really qualifies as a trip to Kalimantan since they hardly saw the land itself.

After a day of rest we left for the Lingga Islands nearly the rest of the way to Singapore.  Around midnight the first day, Ocean Dream developed transmission problems and could no longer motor.  We waited nearby for a couple of hours in case they wanted a tow and finally continued on with Dasein.  We crossed the equator around 2 AM on October 25th and returned to the Northern Hemisphere for the first time since our passage to Salinas, Ecuador last March.  Fortunately, Vuela was still coming from the visit to Kalimantan and they eventually caught up with Ocean Dream, which had made very little progress sailing in the light winds near the equator.  Vuela ultimately towed Ocean Dream to our anchorage at Mesanak in the Lingga Islands and only arrived one day after us.

The next day we began our final leg to Singapore with Dasein towing Ocean Dream.  Just as they were leaving we got our first rain shower in months.  The boat really needs a good cleaning and we are looking forward to the marina near Singapore where we can clean up the boat, swim in a pool and commute to Singapore for sightseeing.  Its still very hot, hazy and humid, typical for this area this time of the year.  We don't expect to get good visibility back until we reach Thailand at the earliest.

With ten miles to go, Dasein's engine overheated so we took over towing Ocean Dream.  We arrived at Nongsa Point Marina on the island of Batam (Indonesia) by late afternoon and settled in at the brand new marina complex and resort.  There are condos, two restaurants, a huge pool, athletic club, tennis courts, golf and more, not at all like the Indonesia we saw around Bali.  Being a half-hour ferry ride from Singapore, Nongsa Point is intended as a yacht club for Singapore executives who want to get away from it all more than an Indonesian resort.  

We will take the ferry to Singapore and spend a couple days visiting (and sending e-mail) before we return to the boat and depart for Malaysia where we plan to visit Kuala Lumpur and Penang on our way to Phuket, Thailand.  We are all getting anxious to go home for Thanksgiving and Christmas prior to leaving in January for Sri Lanka, the Maldives, the Red Sea and eventually the Mediterranean.

Logbook Entry 17 - Singapore to Phuket, Thailand
Singapore
Our visit to Singapore was too short (as usual) even though we spent four days rather than the two we had originally planned.  We met our friends from the boat Zandunga who were staying at the Regent Hotel.  They had already taken their boat up to Penang and had returned to Singapore to see their family off at the airport.  They gave us detailed waypoints and sketches of each place they had stopped along the way.  These turned out to be very useful since there is little published on cruising this coast until you reach Thailand.

Singapore is a modern and very affluent city with high rise office and apartment buildings, museums, and beautiful parks.  They have heavy fines for littering and you cannot even buy chewing gum.  As a result the city is very clean, more so than any city we've seen in the USA or even Europe.  We stayed at the Regent, which was quite plush and a treat for everyone.  Just around the corner was the Hard Rock Café and the start of Orchard Road, a cross between Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills and Fifth Avenue in New York, a solid mile of five star hotels and expensive shops.  

We visited the zoo and the Night Safari (a night zoo for viewing nocturnal animals), the Art Museum which was featuring a major exhibit on Leonardo Da Vinci, and Sentosa Island.  Sentosa Island was billed as an Asian Disney Land, but fell quite a bit short with only 5 rides, the best of which was perhaps the world's shortest roller coaster.  It did have beautiful beaches and walkways and we enjoyed renting bikes and touring the island.

Shopping in Singapore is another unique experience.  Sim Lim Square and Sim Lim Tower are two high rise shopping malls kitty corner from each other that have floor after floor of shops selling stereos, TV's, cameras and computer hardware and software.  We went back three times checking out the prices before we bought a new video camera to replace the one we had which broke in Tahiti and couldn't be fixed.  We also bought a night vision scope, which lets us see boats and buoys at night with only moon or starlight.

We could have spent more time in Singapore but felt we were going to miss out on cruising Thailand, so we finally left and started a series of day trips up the coast of Malaysia.  This area is the infamous Malacca Strait, supposedly full of modern day pirates.  In reality, there are no pirates that bother yachts, although some commercial ships have been robbed back by Jakarta in Indonesia.  Singapore is reported to be the third busiest seaport in the world and it is easy to believe.  Offshore from the city we could see dozens if not hundreds of freighters waiting to load or unload cargo.  Trying to sail amongst these boats at night along with hundreds of local fishing boats would not be fun.  Moreover, we are still experiencing thick haze that limits visibility to a mile or less.

Melaka, Malaysia
Our first major stop was at Pulau Besar a resort island near the famous city of Melaka.  Melaka was one of the three original Straits Settlements (along with Singapore and Penang) founded by the British Sir Stamford Raffles.  Its history goes back even further to the sultans and Hindu princes in the 1300's.  Controlled by the Portuguese, the Dutch, and the British and occupied by the Japanese during WWII, it's a fascinating city with old temples, mosques, churches and museums.  We only spent a day, but took a river boat trip through the city and ate lunch at a restaurant famous for their Nonya food, a type of Chinese food dating back hundreds of years.  We then took a ride in a trishaw (a bicycle powered carriage for two people) and hit the new shopping mall Mahkota Parade.

It seems very unusual to see such a contrast between the old and the new.  From our river boat cruise we saw dozens of monitor lizards two to three feet long (somewhat like small Komodo dragons) swimming in the water and on the banks.  These plus crocodiles (we saw one as well) feed on the mice and rats nearby.  The river is scheduled to be cleaned up but still has shanties, old ruins from colonial days, and smells of a sewer.  Meanwhile the mall with modern shops, every kind of fast food from McDonalds to KFC and even a Kenny Rodgers BBQ Chicken restaurant, movie theaters and more, could have been lifted from any city in the USA intact.  Everyone was very friendly and while Melaka was far from Singapore in style, it would have been nice to spend more time there as well.

North of Melaka the coast features high rise buildings and oil refineries.  As we sailed on, the haze finally began to thin out and we were able to see the sun during the day and the moon at night.  We are staying only a few miles off shore and with a slight northeast breeze it is like sailing on the Great Lakes only with even shallower water.  We are still seeing up to a dozen ships going up and down the straits at almost all times.  We wish we had a bit more wind so we can only sail and turn off the motor.

We stopped at the entrance to the straits at Port Kelang, planning on only spending the night and moving on toward Penang.  The next morning's thunderstorms changed our plans and instead we motored in to Port Kelang and stopped at the Royal Selangor Yacht Club.  This private club primarily for the Malaysian elite living around Kuala Lumpur (KL) the capital of Malaysia, was a sharp contrast to the industrial port area which is the busiest in the country.

Kuala Lumpur
After spending an hour tracking down the port captain, immigration and customs to clear into Malaysia, we took the train to Kuala Lumpur, about a forty-five minute trip.  We wanted to see the KL City Centre complex, which has twin towers that are the tallest buildings in the world.  Unknown to us and not explained by our taxi driver is the fact that the towers are not completed and you can't go into them.  Meanwhile our friends from Vuela and Dasein found this out from their taxi driver and instead went to the KL Tower (a near replica of the CN Tower in Toronto) to see a view of the city.  We settled for a nice dinner and a short taxi ride back to the train station seeing all the Christmas lights that were all over the downtown area.  

From Port Kelang we stopped at two islands enroute to Langkawi.  The first island seemed to have a half-finished and abandoned resort and lighthouse while the second; Pulau Pangkor Laut had a very finished and luxurious resort.  While the dockmaster didn't seem to encourage yachts to anchor off the resort and visit, the manager on shore welcomed us.  We spent two nights sampling two of the three gourmet restaurants at the resort and celebrating Nancy's birthday.  We had everyone aboard Encore for a luncheon and a chance to view our videos of Michigan, followed by a dinner ashore with a cake and all.  Among the features of the resort was an outdoor large scale chess board with pieces about two feet tall.  A picture showed the opera singer Luciano Pavarotti playing a game of chess at the resort.

Langkawi
Langkawi is an island surrounded by 100 smaller islands just on the Malaysia/Thailand border.  Its major claim to fame are the duty free stores where we stocked up on supplies, especially the French wine at $5 to $10 per bottle which would have been $20 in the USA.  We stayed at another newly developed marina/resort on Pulau Rebak where we connected with our Rally friends on Tramontana.  We are amazed at the amount of money that has been spent on these resorts, especially considering there seem to be very few guests and the cost for our dock and meals were very reasonable.  Apparently the governments in SE Asia are trying to build up the tourist trade and at least in Malaysia we were told that corporations are expected to purchase condos or homes built at these resorts to help support the resort if they expect to get government contracts.  Unfortunately the local Malaysians still need a lot of training in order to run the resorts.  At the Rebak Marina the restaurant was beautiful but the service needed a lot of work.  One morning we waited an hour for our breakfast until we found out they had run out of eggs and had forgotten to tell us.  They are trying hard however, and given the other amenities our friends on Vuela, Dasein and Tramontana have all decided to stay longer and leave their boats at the Rebak Marina while they fly home for Christmas instead of continuing on to Phuket, Thailand.

We decided to continue on to Phuket, since we had made a reservation to have our boat hauled out and stored on land during our visit home.  We said good-bye to our friends who we will next see again after New Year's Day as we assemble in Thailand for our voyage to the Red Sea and the Mediterranean. We also are still looking forward to seeing the beautiful islands that Thailand is famous for among sailors.  

We talked with our friends on Ocean Dream by radio, and found out they were still in Port Kelang.  They had intended to stop there to get their laptop computer fixed in Kuala Lumpur.  Unfortunately they were struck by lightning enroute and now, will also need to get more repairs done to their mast, radios, radar and electronic instruments.  This seems to be the normal drill for boats struck by lightning, although thankfully no one is usually hurt.  They will probably meet up with our other Rally friends at Rebak Marina.  

Vuela heard from the sailboat Wild Woman, which is still with the "official" Rally sailing to South Africa.  Apparently they had a collision with another sailboat and a coast guard boat at the start from Mauritius causing a small amount of damage.  The owner, Judy Bullmore, signed the e-mail "Tamed Woman" and since those of us going to the Red Sea are called the "Rally Rebels", she sent us greetings from the rest of the Rally fleet now called the "Rally Remnants."

Our first cruising stop out of Langkawi was the Butang group of islands.  We anchored off a mile long deserted beach with the rain forest coming down to the shore.  The granite rocks and green hills reminded us of Georgian Bay and Lake Huron's North Channel.  Our next stop was in a channel between Koh Rok Nok and Koh Rok Nai, another deserted anchorage with pretty beaches.

Our last stop away from civilization was at Phi Phi Lee island about 30 miles from Phuket.  This island has shear granite cliffs which rise perfectly vertically over two hundred feet from the sea, topped by little bits of green rain forest.  Maya Cove is an anchorage where dozens of boats carrying day-trippers from Phi Phi Don and Phuket go to snorkel and see the spectacular cliffs.  During the day this bay is a zoo with all the traffic, at night it is a perfect spot to end a cruise.  We saw brilliant stars overhead and a lightning show across the water toward Phuket.  Phi Phi Lee has two almost totally enclosed coves that are locally called "hongs" or "rooms" which we visited by dinghy.  With the cliffs all the way around, they are perhaps the most fascinating geological sight we've seen on our voyage to date.  We've finally found a spot that beats Covered Portage Cove in the North Channel of Lake Huron in the Great Lakes.

In order to ease our transition to society, we spent a final night at Ton Sai Bay at Phi Phi Don island.  We were told that just a few years ago this was a quiet bay and our guidebook describes it as one of the three most beautiful islands in the world.  Well, it is now filled with hotels, bungalows, tourist shops, small restaurants, and all the typical resort water sports such as parasailing, banana boat rides, scuba and snorkeling.  We expected it to be somewhat touristy, but were happy to have a final night at anchor with a restaurant meal before we head for Phuket and our flight home for the holidays.

Nancy has been organizing our photo album and scrapbook to show our family and friends when we go home, and in the process noted for her diary several statistics on our trip so far.  We've visited 14 countries, met people from 19 countries, seen nine museums, three zoos, attended church at a half dozen different countries and visited churches at more places.  We've seen extraordinary cemeteries in Guayaquil, the Marquesas, and Tonga.  We've met native people living in styles going back centuries in places like Tanna's custom village of Yakel in Vanuatu, the village at Mbennga in Fiji, and settlements in Arnhem Land for aboriginal people in Australia.

While Yakel could be considered almost prehistoric in style, villages like in Komodo in Indonesia are nearly as primitive in spite of their diesel powered fishing boats and portable radios.  Bali was certainly the most exotic place we've seen so far with its thousands of temples and shrines, and offerings placed on the sidewalks, taxi dashboards, and bank lobby floors, along with statues of gods dressed with black and white checked sarongs and yellow sashes.

Urban Australia could easily pass for the USA or Canada except for the "g'day mates" and other expressions, while Singapore's Orchard Road could be New York's Fifth Avenue or Beverly Hills Rodeo Drive with an Asian twist.

We have finally arrived at the Phuket Boat Lagoon in Phuket, Thailand where we will have just a few days before we leave for home. We will be busy getting the boat prepared for six weeks of storage and refitted for the next passages to the Mediterranean.  The Boat Lagoon has hundreds of boats, two restaurants, a pool, shops, and a whole range of boat services.  We've arranged to get hauled out on November 21st and will fly to Bangkok for an extra day of sightseeing before our flight back to Detroit.  This will be our final log entry until we return in January to leave for Sri Lanka.

Part II – 1998 – Thailand to Turkey

Logbook Entry 18 - January 8th to 29th, 1998 - Thailand to Sri Lanka

After nearly 6 weeks back in the United States for Thanksgiving and Christmas we returned to Encore which had been stored out of the water at the Boat Lagoon at Phuket, Thailand.  We had left requests with various workmen to have jobs done before we returned but as we have come to learn, schedules mean little in the tropics unless you are there to urge completion.  We had the bottom of the boat painted and the yard found a crack in our rudder that was letting water seep in.  This was repaired easily.  Meanwhile none of the work servicing our engine or outboard had been started.

We had brought a new cable for our radar to go from the antenna on the mast back to our navigation station.  Re-running this took a few hours.  In the process a connector was damaged and it took three sets of technicians three days to finally get it repaired and the radar working again.  In the meantime our refrigeration had developed a leak and just as the radar was completed we had fixed the refrigeration and we were able to set sail for Sri Lanka.

By this time the other boats from the Expo '98 Rally which were now part of the "Red Sea Rally" had arrived in Phuket.  Mantra-3, which we had last seen in Australia, appeared on our original schedule after having cruised Papua New Guinea, the Philippines and Singapore.  They left for Sri Lanka first followed by Dasein, Zandunga and us.

The passage to Sri Lanka (previously known as Ceylon) was just over 1000 miles and we had light winds and relatively calm seas the entire trip.  Sailing with Zandunga and Dasein we had to sail a bit more slowly to stay close together.  Every evening we rotated the responsibility for radio entertainment with Dasein providing harmonica music once, Zandunga playing Mexican music and on a Monday night, Encore played on the theme of Monday Night Football, singing the University of Michigan fight song.  Enroute we caught a tuna and a mahi mahi and traded some pop and beer for a couple of additional tuna from some fishermen.


Logbook Entry 19 - Sri Lanka

We arrived in Sri Lanka just after dawn and began the process of entering this small country that has been suffering from a civil war for 17 years.  The major population groups are the Sinhalese and the Tamils.  The Tamils have been fighting for independence for the northern part of Sri Lanka they control and have been responsible for quite a bit of guerilla actions and terrorism.  This had hurt tourism and while it is a little calmer now than in some years, the problems persist.  Due to the possibility of problems, security is tight everywhere you go.  The Navy sends out a patrol boat to inspect every boat that enters the main harbor at Galle and throughout the night small grenades are thrown in the harbor to protect against Tamil saboteurs from swimming underwater and placing bombs on the ships.  This has never actually happened but apparently the Navy thinks it's a good idea.  Spotlights roam over all the boats in the harbor and armed checkpoints can be seen all along the highways.

In spite of all the rumors of problems, we found the harbor filled with fellow sailboaters, almost to the point of being overcrowded.  Two local entrepreneurs provide service for food provisioning, customs and immigration clearances, and travel agency functions. We used "Mike" who was very helpful.  He arranged a three-day excursion for us into the interior of Sri Lanka and was both our driver and tour guide as well.  The trip was very interesting and scenic although the ride was grueling.

Most of the roads in Sri Lanka are narrow and bumpy and extremely crowded with bicycles, people walking, cars, trucks and vans.  A two-lane road accommodates at least three if not four vehicles passing each other in opposite directions at a high rate of speed and constant horn and hand signals.  Eventually you become numb and give up worrying about collisions.  After eight hours in a van, our first night stop was at Nuwara Eliya in the heart of the tea growing country at an elevation over 6000 feet.  The views were beautiful of the tea plantations, waterfalls, mountains and valleys.  We stayed at the Grand Hotel, originally a residence of the British governor.  It reminded us of the Grand Hotel on Mackinaw Island with a large dining room, formal sitting rooms, billiard rooms, golf course and gardens.

We saw the women picking tealeaves and visited a factory where the leaves are processed into tea for local use and export.  Our second night was spent in the city of Kandy, which was the ancient capital of the interior "hill" country.  Due to the rough terrain, this area was never controlled by the early Portuguese and Dutch forces which colonized the coastal areas.  While we were able to overlook the city, the center of the city was closed off to all traffic and tourists due to a truck bombing which had taken place a few days earlier at the "Temple of the Tooth" a very famous Buddhist site.  Before our return to Galle we visited a demonstration spice garden and learned about how herbs are used in Ayurvedic medicine and drove through rubber plantations and saw how they cut the bark to collect the rubber sap.

We plan to leave in a day or two for Turakuna Island in the northernmost atoll of the Maldives Islands.  We don't expect to find any significant civilization, only coral, sandy beaches and palm trees.  From there we will sail north to Oman and then on to Djibouti and the Red Sea.  We are finding there are hundreds of boats making the passage to the Red Sea.  In fact, we ran into Idunn in the Galle harbor, with a couple onboard we had met 5 years ago at St. Lucia.  When we had first met them they had just crossed the Atlantic after cruising the Mediterranean and Turkey.  



Logbook Entry 20 - January 30th – Maldives and Yemen February 23rd, 1998

The passage from Sri Lanka to the Maldives took 3 days and nights.  The first day had winds from the southwest, the direction we were headed.  This was the first time we had winds against us since the leg from Rangiroa to Tahiti.  As expected, by evening the winds had shifted around to the northeast, which is where they should be from this time of year (the Northeast Monsoon). With strong winds and ten to twelve foot swells coming from multiple directions, the first night was the most uncomfortable we had experienced in months.  This stretch between Sri Lanka and India apparently is always rough.  The next two days were increasingly pleasant sailing with calmer seas and winds.  On the next to last day as we were trying to dry out clothes and towels which had gotten wet during the passage, we had one last rogue wave which caused us to take water on board through some open port holes.  This got a lot more things wet than we had started out with. 

The Maldives is a group of atolls stretching over several hundred miles from north to south just southwest of India.  Among the atolls are some of the largest in the world.  Each atoll may have a number of islands around its perimeter with a central lagoon.  In order to save some time and avoid the bureaucracy of checking into the Maldives formally, we decided to bypass the capital of Male and instead visited the northernmost atoll and anchored behind a small island called Ulugama.  This put us very close to the course we will take to the Red Sea.

In spite of the remoteness of this corner of the Maldives, we had up to seventeen other sailboats anchored with us off a beautiful beach, with a coral reef to snorkel on just a few yards away.  This is definitely the model for an island paradise.  The village of 400 people has homes built from coral blocks laid out in very straight lines along sandy streets.  There weren't any shops or restaurants but there was a community well where we ladled water into buckets to do our laundry.  The local chief was very friendly and insisted that every visitor stop at his house for coffee.  Being strictly Muslim, we were asked not to bring any alcohol onto the island and we had to have permission to visit the island at night.

With a constant parade of sailboats stopping enroute to the Red Sea, we are beginning to develop more friendships within the fleet.  Jennifer has met some girls about her age from New Zealand on a boat called Wild Bird. 

From the Maldives, some boats will sail directly to Djibouti at the entrance to the Red Sea while others will make a stop at Salalah in Oman to break up the passage into shorter legs.  We have decided to stop in between at the Yemeni port of Al Mukallah.  We've been told there should be little bureaucracy to deal with if we stay only a few days and we are expecting that the 1400-mile passage will be generally smooth and uneventful.  From Mukallah we'll then only have about 400 miles left to go to Djibouti.  We hate to be leaving the Maldives, which are very green and lush for the Middle East, which we expect to be mainly brown and dry.

The first half of the passage to Al Mukallah has been exceptionally nice with light to medium winds and hardly any waves or swells.  Our friends on Mantra-3 3 who are going to Salalah first, left the Maldives three days ahead of us and have had very light winds most of the time and have had to motor quite a lot.  Based upon their experience we expect we will have to motor some as well but so far we've only motored for about an hour when we left the Maldives and we started to motor again just this morning (Friday the 13th) when our winds also were too light to sail.

We're all probably looking forward to the end of this passage since it will be the last long passage (over three or four days) that we will make until we leave the Mediterranean to cross the Atlantic and return to the Caribbean sometime in 1999 or later.  Since we are no longer racing, the longer passages don't seem so much an adventure as just a means of transportation between destinations where one day blends into the one before and after.  Luckily the weather has not caused us too much excitement.  We are expecting to have some hard passages up the Red Sea, but they shouldn't be for as many nights at one time.

After one week at sea on this passage, we've had a variety of wind conditions.  Saturday morning, after motoring for almost 24 hours, we encountered a line of rainsqualls.  As we passed through the squalls, the wind picked up to over 20 knots, the strongest we've seen on this trip.  These winds continued for almost a day and the seas, which had been mirror-like, became lumpy with big swells coming from different directions.  By the time the winds died down again on Sunday night, Dasein and Zandunga (the other two boats traveling with us), had resumed motoring for almost a day while we onboard Encore were able to keep sailing although having tried two different spinnakers and many other sail combinations.  On Sunday night we began to estimate when we might arrive in Al Mukallah, Yemen, and based upon that, Dasein and Zandunga decided to motor at 6 knots.  While we had been sailing with a spinnaker at 7 knots, we ended up trying to sail without it to slow down and stay with the other boats.  The winds continued to die down and we finally had to motor the last two days to get into port.

Al Mukallah was our first landfall in the Middle East and the terrain met some of our expectations with rocky hills, cliffs and nothing but different shades of brown.  This old town is set below some impressive mountains with huge rockslides stopping just above the edge of the city.  From a distance the city looks somewhat modern with hundreds of multistory buildings lining the waterfront.  Among these are several mosques with minarets that look like small lighthouses except they have green lights on the top floor of the tower.

After clearing in with customs and immigration we took a walk to the market to pick up vegetables and eggs.  How dirty the town was and the smells disappointed us.  Again we seemed to be in a town which could have been in central Europe but whose economy had suffered for too long.  The mud walkways through the market, flies everywhere and beggars tugging on your arm seems a long ways from home.  Al Mukallah is very traditional as an Arab and Muslim town of around 150,000 people.  The call to prayers broadcast over loud speakers from every mosque is heard every few hours, almost like the town clock except to us it sounded like a half dozen people simply yelling at each other.  All adult women were dressed in chadors, complete black attire with dress, shawl, hood, veil, gloves, and shoes where at most only a small slit was open for their eyes.  In some cases their eyes were covered as well and they had to look through their veil. At the same time, the small girls we saw wore in colorful dresses.  The men appeared very typically Arab, with head coverings, and in spite of the relatively modern surroundings, frequently a short curved dagger in their belt.  Considering this is supposed to be a safe place, the daggers would appear to be more of a fashion accessory.

This part of Yemen was in South Yemen back when the country was divided into two parts, with South Yemen being communist and supported by the Soviet Union.  The only remaining evidence of this past (other than perhaps the overall 3rd world appearance) was a comment a drive made about a modern private hospital we drove by.  He said the nurses came from Russia and Bulgaria.  The people all seemed very friendly and welcoming.  The harbormaster asked us to contact our embassy to get them to negotiate a more liberal relationship with Yemen since technically we were limited to a 12-hour visit under current rules.  

While most boats enroute to the Red Sea are stopping in Salalah, Oman a few hundred miles east, Mukallah apparently is becoming better known.  We've had nearly twenty boats anchored with us.  While we had initially heard that boats were being asked to leave very strictly under the 12-hour rule, we were given more than 36 hours and probably could have stayed longer if we needed to.  With a very rolly harbor and the noise of the calls to prayer, we were ready to leave.

The passage to Djibouti is relatively short.  We considered stopping for the evening in a small cove about 60 miles west of Mukallah, but neither Zandunga nor Dasein wanted to stop and we preferred not to stop by ourselves.  The next morning we were able to contact our friends on Ocean Dream on the radio.  It was the first we had heard from them for nearly a month.  They were just leaving Djibouti and were able to give us good information about Djibouti as well as Aden.  They will be a continuing source of info as they pass up the Red Sea a few hundred miles ahead of us.

We again considered stopping at Aden enroute to Djibouti, in part to break up the passage as well as to visit an additional port where provisioning is supposed to be good and inexpensive.  This would have also allowed us to time our arrival into Djibouti to be during the day.  Again, neither of the other boats wanted to stop so we kept going.  Dasein developed an oil leak in their engine and has now been forced to sail.  This is a real problem for them since they don't go very fast unless there are strong winds and hardly move in light winds.  We had offered to go in with them to Aden, but when they decided to go straight to Djibouti, we decided to go at our own pace and try to get into port as soon as possible and not slow down deliberately.  For a while we had good winds and with our spinnaker up it seemed we could actually get in almost a day early, but now the winds have died down and we are motoring.  It will be around midnight when we arrive.

Yesterday, Saturday, February 21, we saw our first true pod of whales.  We saw perhaps as many as a dozen swim by us, sometimes only twenty yards away.  They appeared to be 30 to 40 feet long.  The highlight of the encounter was when one breached, jumping almost completely out of the water and then falling back in a huge splash about a quarter mile away.  This whale may have been closer to 50 feet long.  The experience was certainly one of the highlights of our trip so far.

We are really looking forward to Djibouti.  As the former French colony of French Somaliland, it is reported to be the most modern and westernized place we will have seen since Singapore and until we get to Cairo or Israel.  We are expecting to find lots of inexpensive French wine, spare boat parts and a mix of European, African and Arab cultures.

After a day of zero winds and glassy seas followed by nearly 30-knot winds and short steep seas, we arrived in Djibouti at midnight, anchoring amongst dozens of other boats mostly enroute up the Red Sea.  We spent the next day clearing in with immigration, looking for e-mail locations, arranging some repairs to our hot water heater and visiting the Egyptian embassy to find out about getting visas for later in our passage.

The Club Nautique de Djibouti (yacht club) has a good restaurant where we had the best meal since we returned from home after Christmas.  The club has lots of small powerboats, Optimist sailing dinghies, and appears to sponsor sailboat races among the larger sailboats.  In spite of what we have been told and read, English is not widely spoken, however Geoff's French is getting us by pretty well.  We were able to get to lots of different spots by taxi the first day we arrived with only the problem of overpaying for the trips we took.  We'll do better the next time.

We are hoping to send this update from a computer repair store in town.  We are now waiting for Dasein to arrive and arrange repairs to their engine.  It appears they have a major oil leak and will have to have repairs done before continuing up the Red Sea.



Logbook Entry 21 - Red Sea Passage, Djibouti, Eritrea and Sudan
Djibouti, February 27th, 1998
After a few days in Djibouti we are suffering from culture shock.  Even though Djibouti is more prosperous and welcoming than many of our recent stops, we expected much more, perhaps an African version of Papeete, Tahiti in French Polynesia.  While the prices are perhaps even higher than Paris or Papeete, and its fun to try to communicate with our French, the mix of African/Arab cultures and general decay are frustrating and depressing.

Twice we have been criminally overcharged by taxis.  Today, a local friend arranged a trip for us into the country to see wild animals and a local village that was supposed to take 5-6 hours.  Our taxi took us to a nearby beach and brought us back for a total trip of 1 hour and wanted to charge us the full amount we had planned for the day trip of close to $40 dollars.  It seems that not only are many of the locals willing to charge outrageously, they are unwilling to bargain or negotiate.  At least in Bali it was somewhat amusing to get the taxis to bargain down from a requested $5 for a short trip to $1 and then be happy about it and remain friends for future trips.  Here the "right" charge might be an expensive $5, but the taxi will ask and be unwilling to take less than $15 or $20.

For what its worth, our one hour trip took us into some desolate areas where camels seemed as common and domesticated as cows back in the USA, pink flamingoes rose by the hundreds from a coastal marsh, and small gazelles the size of goats roamed by the roads.

Djibouti was a French colony until recently and there is still a large French naval base next to the city.  A reasonable selection of French wines and lots of cheeses were a welcome treat.  Restaurants appear to be plentiful and the Djibouti Yacht Club has been outstanding (although expensive) for meals.  As an example, lunch at a pizzeria in town for our family was $75 for three pizzas and a bottle of table wine.  The pizzeria did have linen tablecloths and apparently is owned by the first president of Djibouti.

We've met a local young man who speaks very good English and who has acted as a guide for us as we've made trips into town.  He took us to an Ethiopian restaurant that had very unusual food.  It is served for the family in a large shallow bowl that is lined with sponge-like bread and you eat with your fingers.  They also had some traditional dancing which was very different from what we had seen over the past year in the Pacific and Australia.

We arranged to get our visas for Eritrea and Egypt and will probably leave on Sunday, March 1st.  The other boats from the Rally will leave with us or a few days later.  Some of them are not planning on stopping very much along the way so we may use our ability to sail faster to be more leisurely and stop on occasion for the night.  I suspect the other boats will end up having to stop more often than they expect and that we will stay close to them after all.  Meanwhile there are nearly twenty boats in Djibouti getting ready to start up the Red Sea so we will have plenty of company.  

Our first day out of Djibouti took us to the city of Obock, at one time the capital and a major port for the country.  It appeared quite small and we never went in.  After waiting an extra day for the winds to die down, we continued up the coast and entered the Red Sea officially around 3PM on March 4th.  We stopped at Dumeira Island, which sits exactly on the border between Djibouti and Eritrea.  We have been traveling with Zandunga as Dasein is still repairing their engine and generator and Mantra-3 is waiting for crew.  Zandunga had planned on going non-stop up the coast but now seems more content to keep a slower pace with us.  We expect Mantra-3 to catch up to us and then stay at our pace while Dasein will maybe pass us by and Zandunga will stay with them.

The Red Sea coast has been unusual.  In some places it is very low while in others it is very rugged and mountainous.  Inland from Obock we could see some very high and jagged mountains.  Everything is some shade of brown and it seems it must not have rained for years, however last night at anchor, we had a heavy downpour with nearly two inches of rain.  Seems very strange.  Apparently the ITCZ (intertropical convergence zone), also known as the doldrums in the Atlantic and Pacific, is the dividing line in the Red Sea between northwest winds and southeast winds.  This zone moves north and south and has clouds and rain while on either side it will be mostly sunny and dry.  We hope to have it as far north as possible so we don't have to sail upwind so far.

March 9th: Arrival in Eritrea
Today, March 9th, is our eighth day out of Djibouti and we will be arriving at Massawa (also spelled Mitsiwa), Eritrea.  We are now apparently north of the ITCZ with light but cool, northwest winds and finally some sun.  The past several days have been depressing with overcast skies and rain.  Yesterday was a record day for fishing with two landed, a large tuna for lunch and a mackerel for dinner.  Geoff lost a very large fish and caught and released a fourth fish.  To top it off we sighted another whale.  Mantra-3 has now caught up to us while Zandunga sailed overnight to get into Massawa a day earlier.  Dasein has finally left Djibouti with a repaired engine although their generator is still broken.  We've had a few mechanical failures including our anchor windlass, but have found a way to fix what we've had to and are optimistic we can fix the rest.

Each morning we check in with a radio net, which now has almost 50 boats calling in their position and wind conditions.  Some are nearly to Suez in Egypt while others are still in Djibouti or Aden.  There are as many boats as were in the Round the World Rally we had been in before with an even wider variety of boats.  Everyone seems friendly and cooperative.  Boats in one anchorage spent two days helping get a boat get off a sand bar when it went aground.  We are getting a lot of information about the weather and ports that we will be visiting a few days ahead.  Our friend on Ocean Dream calls into the net and is one of the boats furthest north up the Red Sea.  He was only the fifth boat this year to check into Suakin, a port in Sudan.

We arrived in Massawa after beautiful afternoon sail up with South Massawa Channel and cleared in with immigration and the port captain in just a matter of minutes.  No charges for clearing in or out, and no requests for gifts for tips.  We've found Eritrea to be quite surprising.  We expected a war-torn Middle Eastern country of sand and camels and instead found what appears to be an up and coming, almost prosperous country in sharp contrast with Djibouti and Yemen.

Eritrea had been an Italian colony but was "given" to Ethiopia by the western powers after WWII.  From 1961 to 1991 they fought for their independence and finally gained it in 1991.  While the port of Massawa shows the scars of battle with cratered and bullet pocked buildings, the people take great pride in keeping it clean, sweeping the streets constantly.  A great deal of new and modern construction is underway and the people seem genuinely glad to see us and we have very little fear of being hustled or overcharged as we were in Djibouti.

We took a full day drive to Asmara the capital of Eritrea which is located over 6000 feet high in the mountains.  The trip was fascinating, as the brown landscape became first green with cactus and finally almost lush with foliage.  The towns we passed all had both Islamic mosques as well as Coptic Christian churches.  Asmara was very clean, cosmopolitan and European in appearance.  We had lunch in an ornate hotel built in 1899 with clearly Italian styling with carved frescoes and columns.  While the hotel had clearly seen better days, you could see the effort the staff was making to restore an earlier era.  On one corner we bought groceries from a store offering exotic cheeses and meats with electronic cash registers, while two doors away we bought bunches of bananas arriving off a truck to the local wholesaler.  We stopped in an ice cream and pastry bar and watched CNN news while eating our ice cream.

We left Massawa for a two-day passage to our first anchorage in Sudan.  The land seems very flat and we are getting a lot of dust from the sandy land near the coast.  Less than 10 minutes after putting a fishing line in the water the morning we left this anchorage, Geoff hooked a huge fish.  After an hour of fighting, he landed a grand trevalle (like a tuna) that we estimated weighed around 75 pounds.  It was nearly four feet long and it took two of us to get it on board.  Even after cutting steaks off of it Geoff could hardly lift the fish to throw it overboard.  We will have steaks for our entire Red Sea Rally fleet for several days.  That evening we anchored inside a reef next to an island with dozens of pink flamingoes, a family of osprey eagles, some large white herons and a variety of other colorful birds.
Sudan
Our first and probably only port in Sudan is Suakin, which was a major port from ancient times up until recently and used as one of the last ports for slave trading as recently as the 1940's.  Now it has been all but abandoned with ships using Port Sudan, which is much larger and has a population of 1.5 million people.  Suakin has only 12,000 people and most of the old buildings have collapsed into barely standing ruins or rubble.  It looks like the aftermath of a major bombing and is quite interesting to see.  

We took a truck/bus ride into Port Sudan to buy vegetables and get propane for our stove.  Along the road we passed the camps of several Bedouin tribes.  These nomads migrate hundreds and miles north and south every year.  Their tents are large but very low to provide shade from temperatures that can reach 120 degrees in the summer, while offering protection from the strong winds which can blow.  They travel on camels and herd their sheep or goats.  Watching them thresh the wheat and travel makes one think that their lifestyle has not changed in thousands of years.  The market in Sudan was most interesting due to the hundreds of donkey powered carts which bring in the produce.  The relatively few cars on the road tend to be very old and dilapidated.  There it was possible to see the mixing of the Arab and Muslim cultures with their conservative dress and head gear to the colorful garb of the more central African people including the women with huge rings through their noses.

Sudan seems pretty unconnected with the 20th century and the rest of the world.  Making a phone call seems very difficult, credit cards are unknown, and trying to get on the Internet is probably impossible.  We did see evidence that they are trying to put in more modern phone lines, but in Suakin there isn't even municipal electricity only privately owned generators.

We have been lucky with the weather and for the first two days we were in Suakin we had light north winds to strong south winds, perfect for sailing north.  The next day, when we wanted to leave, the winds had turned strong from the north and we are now unable to leave.  We are also experiencing almost a dust/sand storm and the boat is getting covered with fine brown sand and dirt.  The day after the winds are still strong, so we continue to wait and now we expect to have to sail non-stop to Hurghada in order to meet our friends Pat and Wayne McKee from Toronto on schedule.

We have taken the opportunity to do some of the secondary maintenance and repair tasks onboard such as replacing seals in our watermaker, going up the mast to lubricate parts, and trying to do laundry in spite of the yellow sand dust that is covering everything. 

After several days wait, we continued north, stopping several times on the way to Egypt.  At one anchorage nearly all of the boats had problems getting their anchors up due to the coral they had anchored above and unfortunately, a crewmember on Zandunga seriously hurt his finger with the anchor chain in the process.  In spite of having lots of attention from the various nurses among the fleet, he later flew home once Zandunga made port in Safaga.


Logbook Entry 22 – Red Sea Passage, Egypt

We had calms, high winds and steep seas and everything in between on the next leg to Egypt.  The high winds and huge seas helped us find every possible leak on the boat and we spent a lot of time bailing out water and drying out bunks.  A day later we were flying our spinnaker under perfect conditions.  Luckily we had begun receiving e-mail and radio messages from our friends who were waiting for us in Egypt and as a result we stopped short of Hurghada in Port Safaga instead.  There we found a very luxurious Holiday Inn Resort where we checked in for a few days of comfort before taking a three-day trip to Luxor.  

Luxor was the ancient capital of Egypt known as Thebes where the pharaohs of the New Kingdom ruled and built their temples and tombs.  Located on the Nile, this area is famous for its reconstructed ruins and unfortunately for a terrorist attack on tourists in November 1997, now called the "accident" by Egyptians.  We traveled in a convoy from Safaga with security guards in cars ahead and behind the group.  Everywhere in Luxor there were police, checkpoints, and even military protection.  We felt very safe due to the extreme efforts the Egyptians are making to reinstill confidence for tourists.  We stayed at a five-star hotel for a modest price and had the place almost to ourselves, as the number of tourists to Luxor is still only about 10 percent of the number prior to the Accident.

We saw the Karnak and Luxor temples on the East Bank and the Valley of the Kings, Valley of the Queens and temple of Hatshepsut on the West Bank.  All of these spots were amazing.  We had an excellent guide who taught us about the ancient gods, the history of the New Kingdom (starting about 4000 years ago) and how to interpret the architecture and art inside the tombs.  We saw the tombs of Ramses I and Ramses III, stopped by the tomb of Tutankhamun, and among others saw the tomb of Queen Nefertari, the principal wife of Ramses II.  Her tomb has some of the most vivid colors and is restricted to fewer than 150 tourists a day.  We also saw the entrance to the excavation at KV-5, allegedly the tomb for over 160 of Ramses II's sons, recently featured on a PBS television special we had just watched on video before our visit.  Seeing temples and tombs built 3000 to 4000 years ago with their original colors for carvings and paintings was unbelievable and has to be highlight of our travels so far.  Geoff commented that he learned more in two days than in 3 months in school.

Our friends had arranged our tour with a travel agent they found over the Internet based in Cairo, and we were very lucky to have as many as 4 representatives (a driver, guide, agent from Cairo and agent from Luxor) accompanying us for most of our travels.  We saw and learned more than most of the tourists and had great personal service.  We are looking forward to using them to arrange tours in Cairo for us to see the Egyptian National Museum and the Pyramids of Giza.

Back in Safaga we find that the other boats of the "Red Sea Rally"; namely Zandunga, Dasein, and Mantra-3 have all gone on ahead, although we may catch up with them in Port Suez.  Meanwhile, we still have about twenty other boats transiting the Red Sea currently at anchor with us in Safaga getting ready to continue the last two hundred miles to the Suez Canal.

Our first passage day out of Safaga had light winds from the southeast, very favorable and unusual.  This allowed us to go almost half way to Port Suez in one hop before the winds turned around and started blowing almost 30 knots from the northwest just after midnight that evening.  Luckily we were near a good anchorage and put in for the night with four other boats that had left Safaga with us.  With the fair winds we were thinking we could make it non-stop but it was not to be.  We now have less than 100 miles to complete our passage up the Red Sea.

Our "good" anchorage turned out to be very rolly and we had glasses and dishes sliding off counters while we waited a full day for the winds and seas to subside.  We left at dawn on April 4th and we had light west winds, which is allowing us to motorsail straight up the Gulf of Suez at pretty good speed.  We did have to stop for an hour to let Geoff cut a fishing net off of our propeller, which had become fouled.  With the cold morning air (it was 7AM) and water, this was an especially invigorating swim under the boat while we were hove to (drifting), in the middle of the sea. 

The winds cooperated up until the last fifteen miles where it started blowing hard on the nose giving us the last taste of the Red Sea challenges before we reached Port Suez.  It seems we have had a relatively easy trip up the Red Sea compared others this year and in the past.  We have sailed only a couple of times at night and had relatively few days at sea with high winds and waves.  We have waited in anchorages for better weather, but the whole passage has taken only 33 days including our sightseeing in Eritrea, Sudan and Egypt so far.  Some of the boats are taking much longer and spending more time at sea in bad weather and at night.  Our ability to sail quickly has helped a lot.  For instance the last day we left at 5AM and made the 110 miles into Port Suez the same night.  Other boats that left the same time and place as us in the morning only got half way before they stopped since they felt they couldn't make it all the way.  The next day they had terrible winds and waves and only got another 20 miles further and finally arrived two days after us while we were enjoying the calm anchorage of the Port Suez Yacht Club.  

We are tied to moorings in a small inlet off the main channel of the Suez Canal with about a dozen other sailboats and powerboats at the yacht club.  We see the convoys of ships going up the canal each morning and coming out each afternoon only a few hundred feet away.

We had our share of equipment failures, but some were more due to the nearly 20,000 miles we've gone so far than just the Red Sea itself.  None of our equipment problems delayed us while other boats like our friends on Dasein had to replace two head gaskets on their engine, Zandunga had an electrical fire with their generator, and many boats had other serious problems.

We arrived around 10 PM to complete our Red Sea passage and were met by the Prince of the Red Sea, the colorful owner of the local shipping agency that yachts use to arrange their transit through the Suez Canal.  Each morning he had dropped off pastries or cakes for us as gifts and he seems very anxious to help us any way he can.  We're not completely sure if he is for real, but he has shared some interesting stories with us.  He has arranged for us to take a trip to Cairo for a few days, and we hope to find a way to send this and collect our e-mail when we get there.

After we return to Port Suez we will begin our transit of the Canal on Easter Sunday which we expect to take two days.  When we exit the canal we will sail overnight to Israel where we plan to spend several weeks.  The boats from the Round the World Rally we have been sailing with (we called the Red "Z" Rally - for Zandunga) will now be splitting up to go their separate ways.  Ocean Dream is already enroute to Malta and will go to Gibraltar where they will probably sell the boat.  Dasein has started up the canal and will try to join Ocean Dream and ultimately cross the Atlantic this May to arrive home in Ft. Lauderdale and return to their jobs.  Mantra-3 3 is enroute to Cyprus and the crew will fly home to Poland for a while before returning to cruise to Israel.  We hope to see them and Zandunga in Israel and perhaps sail with them for a while before they continue west in the Mediterranean.

We are still monitoring the progress of dozens of other boats still coming up the Red Sea and will likely see many of these new friends during the months to come as everyone begins their cruise of the Med.





Logbook Entry 23 - Egypt to Israel

Egypt April 8th to May 2, 1998 
Our trip into Cairo was fascinating.  We stayed at a hotel where our friends on Zandunga were meeting relatives.  Coming from Mexico, we later realized why they picked a Spanish-run hotel.  It was quite nice although somewhat isolated in an area called Zadalek on an island in the Nile where many embassies are located.

Our tour guide from Suez ended up being less than competent.  We had a quick visit to the Pyramids while our guide kept telling us over and over about the "evershifting sands" and how "the blocks of stone were so precisely fit together that neither a needle nor a hair could be fit between them.  I think these phrases were from Tour Guide class 101 which was as far as he had progressed.  His arrangements for Zandunga's trip to Luxor turned out all bad when their return flight was rescheduled from 7PM until midnight and then their seats were never confirmed and they had to take a train.

We contacted the travel agents that had arranged our trip to Luxor.  They arranged a dinner cruise for us on the Nile, a trip to the port of Alexandria, the ancient capital of Memphis, the Sound and Light show at the Sphinx and Pyramids (which was great), and a guided tour of the Egyptian National Museum.  We were constantly amazed by the extent of the culture and civilization found in Egypt as much as 5000 years ago.

The Pyramids were as spectacular as we had always expected. Geoff noted they were perhaps twice as high as our local ski resort, Mt. Brighton.  It was surprising to see them on the edge of the city of Giza, now a suburb of Cairo, with hotels, fast food, and typical Arab buildings and shops just a few hundred yards away, while on the opposite side the great Western Desert began.

We had arrived in Cairo on the second day of a four-day feast commemorating the sacrifice Abraham had been told to make of his son and who was then told to sacrifice a sheep instead.  This story which is common to Christians, Jews and Muslims, is the basis for one of the most important holidays in the Arab world.  As a result, wherever we went we saw many Egyptian tourists off work for the holiday even though there were few Western visitors, who were still keeping away because of the terrorist attack in November 1997 in Luxor.

Security everywhere we went was extremely high.  Police armed with machine guns patrolled every street corner, riding camels by the Pyramids and providing jeeps with armed escorts for nearly every tourist van.  After a while we began to get annoyed, as we had to wait for our bodyguards to "saddle-up" after each of our visits.  We did feel quite safe and other than the one attack last November at the Temple of Hatshepsut, there have been probably fewer problems here than tourists have in New York City.  We even invited the police major in our escort to have lunch with us in Alexandria.  Obviously the Egyptian government wants to make every effort to restore confidence and have the tourists return upon which their economy is so dependent.

We learned that the Pyramids were built in the Old Kingdom about 2500 BC, versus the tombs in Luxor which were from the New Kingdom around 1600 BC.  The interiors were simple tunnels without the decorations of the Luxor tombs.  In Alexandria we visited some catacombs built in the first century AD and later where the influence of the Greeks, Romans and early Christians could be seen.

In Memphis, the first capital of Egypt, we saw the few remaining ruins, while nearby in Saqqara is the famous step pyramid of Zoser, the predecessor to the Great Pyramids of Giza.  We were surprised to see Alexandria is a relatively modern city, first founded by Alexander the Great around 300 BC, with around 8 million people, second only to Cairo with 18 million.

Everywhere we went we saw mosques, literally thousands in Cairo alone.  The mosque in Alexandria we visited is the oldest on the Mediterranean while the Mosque of Muhammad Ali in Cairo is one of the most famous.  Each tour guide we had explained all over again the five tenets of Islam, and we were reminded of the daily prayer schedule hearing the muezzins calling the faithful to prayer over loudspeakers five times a day, starting around 4:30 in the morning.

We visited an ancient Christian Coptic Church in Cairo, which is supposedly the oldest church in Egypt and built on the site of the cave where Mary and Joseph hid with Jesus during the time of King Herod.  We visited during a Good Friday service, which unfortunately we could not understand.

Our visit to the Egyptian Museum could have taken weeks, our guides were fond of saying that you spent one minute at each exhibit it would take nine months to see everything.  While all of the exhibits were fascinating, the highlights were the treasures from the tomb of Tutankhamun.  From chariots to solid gold coffins and masks, everything was in immaculate condition after nearly 4000 years.

After the splendors we had seen, the transit of the Suez Canal was a disappointment.  Basically a one hundred-mile ditch in the sand, there was little to see other than passing supertankers and other ships.  It takes two days for private boats like ours to make the transit with a stop in a small bay at the city of Ismailia.  This city has some resorts as well as some very luxurious vacation homes for the wealthy and for Egypt's President Mubarek.  As expected, the pilots we were required to take on board for the passage made it very clear they expected baksheesh (presents).  When we tried to avoid arguments by sealing our "gift" in an envelope, our pilot insisted on opening it up and checking it out well before we dropped him off.  He asked for pop, beer, chocolate, magazines, and worried a great deal we would not give him as much money as he expected.  When we dropped him off, a third pilot got on board for the final two mile trip out of Port Said, obviously only for the sake of getting a gift.  This was the final straw as angry words were exchanged and he finally left empty-handed. The whole affair became a major argument and ended our visit to Egypt on a sour note.  While some Egyptians we met were extremely friendly and helpful, those that expected baksheesh or overcharged for services will keep tourists away. 

Although we've seen ancient and amazing things and places as we've gone through the Arab world, our cumulative culture shock has caught up to us.  We just can't appreciate the music that seems less melodic than rap music at home. The general decay and filth in most of the towns (Cairo and Alexandria somewhat excepted), the blatant requests for bribes and gifts (usually undeserved), and the occasional hostile attitude to Americans (because we are told we will side with the Israelis who are still Egypt's bitter enemies) all adds up.  One man seemed to feel another war with Israel was long overdue and inevitable (although he wasn't in favor of it).  The military is everywhere with army and airforce bases lining the roads, tanks lined along the canal, and monuments to the war of 1973, which somehow Egypt claims as a great victory.

As we approach Israel (we're four miles away) we are looking for a change in cultures as we start our tour of the Mediterranean including Cyprus, Turkey and Greece.  


Ashkelon, Israel
We are now at the brand new 600-slip marina at Ashkelon, the southernmost port of Israel only a dozen miles or so north of the Gaza strip.  This town dates back 5000 years and is mentioned in the bible in connection with Samson and King David.  Today it is a very modern city with beautifully landscaped boulevards, very Americanized shopping malls, and an unbelievable amount of new construction along the coast with apartments, hotels, condos and other resorts.  The marina where we are staying has been open only two years and is still under construction in areas, but nonetheless luxurious and the first place we've been since Australia where we feel almost at home. 

So far, about a half dozen boats that we've been sailing with up the Red Sea have come here and more are expected.  We will probably stay here though out our stay in Israel, rather than move further north to Tel Aviv or Haifa.

We've rented a car and plan to make a day trip up the coast to Haifa and back seeing Tel Aviv and the coastal cities.  Next, we will drive to Jerusalem and join a tour group for two days seeing the old city as well as making side trips to the Dead Sea and Masada.  Finally, we plan on driving up to the Sea of Galilee and spending several days tracing the steps of Jesus and his disciples around northern Israel as well as visiting the Golan Heights and the mountains on Israel's northeast borders.  One of our surprises so far has been that English is less understood here than expected, and very few signs are in English.  Probably more people in Egypt spoke English.

Somehow we seem to arrive in countries during some of their most important holidays.  In Southeast Asia our visit coincided with the Chinese New Year and the Indian/Hindu New Year.  In Egypt, our visit to Cairo was during the final days of their Haj celebration, a four-day period commemorating the sacrifice Abraham made of a lamb in place of his son.  Here in Israel they are celebrating the end of the Passover period, during which time they celebrate their exodus from Egypt and eat no food with yeast.

We probably do not quite understand all of the historical and religious aspects of these holidays, but we are affected in various ways.  In Egypt we ended up sharing the various sightseeing spots with thousands of families off on holiday.  In Israel, shops and some restaurants are closed, and in the grocery stores, whole sections are covered as they do not offer or sell products with yeast such as breads, beer, and lots more.  On the other hand, yesterday we stopped at a store (called by other boaters the "push and shove" where the local residents were doing their last minute shopping before the holiday, sort of like the day before Thanksgiving or Christmas.  On April 23rd, Israel observes a memorial day in remembrance of the Holocaust.  All places of entertainment are closed and precisely at 10 AM, sirens go off and everyone stops what they are doing and observes a minute of silence.  We were at the local market, which is usually full of noise and activity.  When the siren went off, it became silent as people stopped talking and moving.  Apparently people in cars stop and get out and stand alongside.  This observance takes place all over Israel and is a very solemn and moving moment.

We now understand that this next week will also be Israel 50th anniversary of their war of independence.  It is really getting hard to figure out which days we can shop, get work done, or even go out to eat.

Tel Aviv, Caesarea and Jerusalem
After nearly 3 weeks in Israel, we've logged over a 1000 miles in our rental car.  We've seen so many places and things, it is hard to describe them all.  Our first trip was to drive up the coast to Haifa, nearly on the Lebanese border.  Along the way we made our first visit to Tel Aviv, a modern metropolis with beaches and high rise hotels along the Mediterranean, and new suburb communities sprouting everywhere.  North of Tel Aviv we stopped at Caesarea, an ancient city founded by Herod the Great 2000 years ago.  Among the ruins that have been excavated, is a theater seating several thousand people, a stadium on the shore for about 10,000 people and a third stadium or racecourse for 30,000 people.  The walled city and port was fascinating.

North of Caesarea is Haifa, the principle port for Israel.  A mountain range ends in the center of the city with Mount Carmel.  The steep streets seem like San Francisco.  We visited the world center for the Bahai faith, which has a beautiful temple and gardens overlooking the city.

Israel is pretty small overall and driving from Haifa at the north end of the coast back to Ashkelon on the south end of the coast only took a couple of hours.

Our next trip was to Jerusalem.  We joined an organized tour which went to Bethlehem (Bet Lehem actually) and saw the Church of the Nativity, traditionally the site of Christ's birth.  Bethlehem is located in the Palestinian managed part of the West Bank, and is not recommended for tourists to visit unescorted.  We returned to Jerusalem and saw the old city including the West Wall (Wailing Wall), Church of the Holy Sepulchre, and walked most of the Via Dolorosa where many of the 14 stations of the cross are located.  All of these spots were amazing even though our Israeli guide seemed less enthusiastic about explaining the Christian highlights versus the Jewish spots of interest.  This was somewhat understandable since most of the tourists in our group were Jewish.  He hardly even mentioned the Dome of the Rock, one of the holiest spots in the world for Muslims.

The second day of our tour took us to Masada; an ancient fortress built by Herod and later occupied by Jewish Zealots up until 70AD.  Masada is perhaps the most famous of all Jewish battles due to the 3 years the 967 Jews held out against perhaps 30,000 Romans only to ultimately sacrifice themselves rather than be taken alive.  The story is amazing and we look forward to seeing the movie that was made (even though we've been told what parts have been embellished or misrepresented by Hollywood).  The actual fort is at the top of a 1000-foot high plateau overlooking the Dead Sea.

We spent a few hours at a spa on the Dead Sea where everyone covers himself or herself in the "therapeutic" mud and then washes off by floating in the water.  The salt content is so high you can't really swim, you just float half out of the water.  The water for the Dead Sea starts from rivers near Mount Hermon on the northern border of Israel, flowing into the Sea of Galilee, and down the Jordan river to the Dead Sea where there is no exit other than by evaporation.  The Sea of Galilee is 900 feet below sea level and the Dead Sea is 1200 feet below sea level, the lowest body of water on earth.

Nazareth, Sea of Galilee, Golan Heights and back to Jerusalem
After spending a few days back on the boat, we drove back up to Galilee to visit spots famous from the Bible.  On the way we stopped in Nazareth to visit the Church of the Annunciation.  This is where Mary was first told she would be the mother of Jesus.  This church is called by some as the most beautiful in the world.  On the walls are murals from dozens and dozens of nations around the world depicting Mary.  Some are abstract and some very ornate, using tiles, paint, carved stone and other materials.  From Nazareth we drove to Cana, where Jesus attended a wedding and performed his first miracle converting six jugs of water into wine.  We stayed at a resort on the shore at Tiberias for a couple of days and from there visited the site of the Sermon on the Mount. We walked up a long path to the Church of the Beatitudes, yet another spectacular view.  On the shore we saw the Church of the primacy of St. Peter where Jesus told Peter of his future role in the church. Just past this spot was Capernaum, where Jesus spent his youth and adult life prior to beginning his teaching.  We stopped at Tabgha where the Jesus performed the miracle of feeding the 5 thousand with 5 loaves of bread and two fish.  It was truly awesome walking along the same paths that Jesus and his disciples walked two thousand years ago.

North of Galilee are the mountains of the Golan Heights and Mount Hermon.  Geoff was anxious to see the ski resort and snow in this area and while skiing was finished for the year, he could see the snow on top of the mountain only a few miles away on the border with Lebanon and Syria.  We saw ancient crusader forts on mountain peaks and climbed from nearly 1000 feet below sea level to over 6000 feet above sea level and back down again in a few short hours.  It was clear to see why Israel wants to control these high plateaus and mountains to keep their border secure.

On the way back from Galilee we spent another afternoon in Jerusalem.  First we went to the Garden of the Tomb.  As opposed to the Church of the Sepulchre, which is traditionally thought to be located over the cave where Jesus was entombed, the Garden of the Tomb, which is outside the walls of Jerusalem is considered by many Protestants to be the true location of His tomb.  The Garden is only a few hundred yards from the Damascus Gate of the Old City and is privately maintained.  Amongst the beautiful gardens is a tomb that fits the descriptions given in the Bible and has been dated back to the time of Christ.

We visited the Mount of Olives where the Church of the Ascension is located along with the Church of the Pater Noster.  This last church translates as the church of "our Father" and is traditionally considered to be the site where Jesus first taught the disciples the Lord's Prayer.  Similar to the Church of the Annunciation, there are murals from around the world, only in this case they have the Lord's Prayer in 78 different languages including North American Indian and Eskimo dialects.  A cave below the church is considered to be a spot where Jesus would go for rest and prayer.

We walked down from the Mount of Olives toward Jerusalem passing the gardens of Gethsemane and the Church of Nations.  This church is filled with amazing mosaics from various countries.  On the way we met a priest from Uganda who has spent years preaching and studying in Montreal.

We could easily spend months visiting the historical and holy sites in Israel and after just a few weeks feel a greater appreciation of this amazing land.

After several consecutive weeks of holidays and celebrations, this past week Israel celebrated its 50th anniversary of its independence.  We were invited to a large private party at the Israel Yacht Club in Tel Aviv where we watched an air show and a review of the Israeli Navy.  It was quite impressive with a half dozen major ships passing by precisely at noon while jets flew overhead in formations, performing specialized maneuvers including mid-air refueling.  Helicopters demonstrated sea rescues, paratroopers jumped out of planes and skywriting jets ejected plumes of blue and white smoke in honor of the Israeli flag.  

Two nights previous, a memorial minute of silence was observed throughout the country for soldiers who died during the wars.  Again in the morning, another minute of silence was observed with traffic stopping, even buses on the highway where passengers got out and stood by the road.  It is absolutely amazing the great level of respect and patriotism the Israelis have for their heritage and country, and the genuine sense of sadness which is felt during these observances.  Among the boaters we spoke to afterwards, we all agreed that Americans should but would not participate in this way in the USA on a Memorial Day.  We seem to take for granted the liberty and freedoms that have been fought for us in the past.

The party included a concert given by one of the most popular female singers in Israel.  The crowd seemed truly impressed and while we enjoyed the music, not understanding a word of the Hebrew lyrics was a handicap.

We are now getting ready to depart for Cyprus.  We have had a couple shipments of spare parts shipped from the USA to Cyprus to be waiting for our arrival.  Most of the parts are not critical, but some like a new hot water heater will be appreciated.  We will be able to make the 200 mile passage in a single overnight sail and hope to find the spring weather warming up as we continue north in the Mediterranean to Cyprus and beyond to Greece and Turkey.


Logbook Entry 24 - Cyprus and Turkey, May 4, to June 2, 1998 

We made our passage to Cyprus with an overnight sail to Larnaca, one of the main cities and resorts on the southeast coast.  We left Ashkelon and found dense fog just offshore.  Without our radar working we were somewhat concerned about freighter traffic, but called up the Israeli Navy which tracks EVERY boat and ship from Egypt to Cyprus and had them advise us from time to time of any ships nearby.  Since their Navy is always on the radio anyway and knew where we were all the time, we didn't think they'd mind.

As we approached Cyprus we couldn't decide whether to go to Limassol or Larnaca first.  Limassol was supposed to have a very nice marina, but it would be far from town.  We picked Larnaca and were very glad.  Even though the marina was very crowded and we were lucky to get dock space, and even though the water was pretty dirty in the marina, the location was great.  The entrance to the marina opens onto a half mile long promenade with beach on one side and a wide pedestrian walkway on the other, all lined with palm trees, outdoor cafes and restaurants.  A block inland found banks, shops, the post office and multiple boat chandleries.  Everything was nearby and many of the friends we had made coming up the Red Sea arrived while we there, while we met more boaters everyday, especially during the weekly obligatory barbecues.  

Throughout Cyprus (if not all of the Mediterranean) there is evidence of ancient Greek and Roman culture and civilizations.  In addition, churches and monasteries dating back over a thousand years are found everywhere.  In Larnaca there is the Church of St. Lazarus, apparently where Lazarus (who was risen from the dead by Jesus) spent his later life and was first buried.  

Cyprus lives on its tourism, and everywhere we went we found dozens of good restaurants (all with nearly identical menus), plus fashionable shops in addition to the regular souvenir stores.  ATM machines were every hundred feet or so on the main streets.

We rented a car for a week and just as in Israel drove nearly a thousand kilometers checking out most of the island country, which is perhaps 125 miles long.  Turkey invaded the northern third of the island in 1974 to protect the interests of the Turkish Cypriots against what appeared to be a move to have Cyprus annexed by Greece.  This area is pretty much off limits to tourists and the boundary is patrolled by UN troops, just like we found between Israel and Syria.  The (Greek) Cypriots are very bitter and unhappy about this situation and it was hard not to get into discussions with them on the current status.  In any case we didn't go up to Nicosia the capital, which is the only remaining divided capital in Europe, or into the Turkish controlled area, but did see nearly everything else.

The eastern end of Cyprus has the resort town of Ayia Napa with a big beach; lots of hotels and not much more of interest other than a spectacular cliff at the final cape, which looks a little, like Gibraltar.  We drove to Limassol and later stopped by boat on our way to Turkey.  It has an even greater number of hotels and resorts.  The marina was very nice as expected, attached to the St. Raphael resort, a five star hotel.  Unfortunately it was 5 kilometers from the nearest edge of the city and you would need a taxi or a bus to get to see anything.

At the western end of Cyprus is the city of Paphos, another booming resort town.  The highlight there was the ruins of several huge Roman buildings and temples to various gods.  All that remains are basically mosaic floors, which are remarkable in their size, color, detail and preservation.  Thousands of square feet in size, they were amazing, especially as we saw small samples of the same designs back at the ancient fortress of Masada in Israel, built in the first century AD.

Our favorite excursion was a two-day trip into the Trodos Mountains, which run the length of the island.  Mt. Olympus at over 8000 feet has ski resorts (now closed for the season) and while the bulk of the island is craggy and relatively dry, the mountains were pine covered and reminded us of Northern Michigan if not Switzerland.  Perhaps the most famous monastery on Cyprus is at Kykkos, high up into the mountains and built during the Crusades.  It is famous for the unbelievable mosaics.  Recently a museum has been built at the monastery with religious icons, artifacts, and items of clothing and silver dating back more than 1000 years.  The museum was especially beautiful in itself with carved ceilings, tiled floors, and amazing display cases and high tech lighting of the objects on display.  The museum looks like it is very well endowed, and considering the monastery has had 1000 years to build up its finances, they have done very well, including funding acquisitions of religious art stolen centuries ago and now being recovered all over the world.

We intended to spend about a week on Cyprus and that turned into nearly three weeks as we found things to do every day.  We got all our boat parts that had been shipped from the USA the very first day we arrived, and now have nearly everything on the boat back in perfect condition.  We repaired yet another leak in our refrigeration system, replaced several instrument displays, and after some effort and outside assistance got our radar fixed.  The weather is supposed to be warm if not hot and dry in Cyprus starting in May, but we had more than our share of cool, cloudy and rainy days.  Our trip in the mountains was almost entirely in the rain.  As a result we waited somewhat hoping to let summer weather catch up to us before we left for Turkey.

Today (May 23, 1998), we have started our passage to Turkey under blue skies, light winds, and when we are out of the breeze we have put on our bathing suits for the first time since the Red Sea.  We spoke over the SSB radio with friends who just coincidentally are less than 60 miles away from us, enroute to Turkey from Israel.  They heard us on the radio talking with other friends back in Larnaca.  We may alter our course to rendezvous with them tomorrow afternoon when we expect to make port in Turkey.

We arrived in Turkey at the town of Finike, the center of the orange growing region on the coast.  The entire coastline borders on the Taurus Mountains and is spectacular with steep cliffs and hidden coves everywhere.  Snow is still visible on the nearby peaks that are over 10,000 feet high.

Wandering around in the town we just coincidentally met the owner of a gift shop who had made friends with our friends on the boat Zandunga.  They had bought several thousand dollars worth of carpets from him and he had taken them on tours of the nearby ancient ruins.  He offered to close his shop and take us on day trips as well.  

Our first stop was at a pass high in the mountains near the ancient site of Arkyanda.  This Greco-Roman city had perhaps 6000 people living in it nearly 2000 years ago.  There was an amphitheater, agora (meeting place for city leaders), a hippodrome for chariot races, and elaborate rock tombs carved into the mountainside.  These tombs are famous in this region of Turkey dating back to the Lycian era.  We then visited Limyra with more ruins and an amphitheater followed by the town of Demre with the site of the ancient city of Myra.  This town is famous its ruins of an amphitheater, even more spectacular rock tombs and for the Church of St. Nicholas (a.k.a. Santa Claus).

We've now seen enough amphitheaters to appreciate the sense of culture the Romans had thousands of years ago (they are everywhere and seat thousands of people).  The rock tombs are carved into the face of cliffs and feature doorways that look like the openings to temples with ornate columns and friezes carved over the doors.

St. Nicholas was the bishop of Myra and coming from a wealthy family was known for making gifts to the poor and children from which the legend of St. Nick was born.  The church where he was originally buried has been reconstructed many times since the time when he lived.  

From Finike we've sailed further west to the city of Antalya.  The anchorages on the way rival any we've seen on our circumnavigation so far.  Antalya, a city of over a million people, is very modern and cosmopolitan yet is centered on an ancient harbor dating back to the Romans.  The steep walls of the original city still stand as well as Hadrian's Gate, a triple archway built around 150 AD to commemorate the visit of the Roman emperor.

We've decided that there is so much to see in Turkey that we will not even try to get to the Greek Islands this summer.  The cost of staying in the marinas is not too high and the airfares are better than from either Israel or Cyprus.  We found that there is a large population of cruising people that have stayed in Turkey for years.  About 50 boats in a rally are leaving in late July to cruise the Black Sea to see northern Turkey, Bulgaria, and the Ukraine.  This seems fascinating and perhaps next summer we will join the rally doing this.

In any case, we now plan to cruise slowly from Antalya east to Kusadasi, perhaps only two hundred miles away, anchoring in the coves for several days at a time and then stopping in one of the marinas every 30 to 40 miles.  At Kusadasi we will definitely visit Ephesus, the Roman capital city of Asia Minor and the subject of Paul's letter to the Ephesians in the Bible.  Later, we will return to Finike and have Encore stored for the winter while we go home till next spring.

Logbook Entry 25 - Cruising Turkey 

In our last log entry, we said we sailed west to Antalya, actually Antalya is east of Finike and now that we have our bearings, we've really started to sail west along the "Turquoise" coast.  After a day's sail from Finike we stopped at Gokkaya Limani, a small cove with several small bays and islands and a fantastic view of the mountains.  Geoff and Jennifer discovered a shipwreck in the bay which we later learned was over 200 years old.  Unfortunately, due to the scenic beauty of this spot, it is also a favorite of the gulets (Turkish tour boats) with dozens of day and overnight charterers aboard.  They wouldn't be so bad except the guests tend to party all night and encourage the development of discos and restaurants in these locations, all of which will play loud music late at night.

Further west is an area called Kekova Roads, an area about five miles long inside of Kekova Island.  Inside of this passage are additional bays and hidden coves.  It seems everywhere you look you see ancient ruins and castles.  In this area, there are castles from the time of the Crusades as well as more ancient cities.  We anchored at the western end of this area (to get away from the gulets and discos) and walked to the site of some ancient ruins, which have yet to be restored.  After avoiding the local camels and herds of goats, we met some students and professors from the Universities of Maryland and Colorado doing research at this site.  They told us that the ruins were from over 2000 years ago until about 600 AD.  Massive stone sarcophagi are all over the hillsides which we were told date back to 300 BC or earlier.  It is amazing to be able to wander at will in an area that has yet to be commercialized.  Escorting this group was a man from Antalya who has had an interesting life working in the USA and Turkey.  He sails on his 54-foot boat along the Turkish coast and told us of his favorite anchorages and the sites of other sunken cities.  He invited us to stay with him in Antalya when we return to Turkey next year.

This area has been great fun for Geoff and Jennifer.  Geoff has been windsurfing and wakeboarding (using his surfboard behind the dinghy) while Jennifer has been sailing a small sailing dinghy we bought for her from a cruising couple in Finike.  She's (with Geoff's help) spent a lot of time sanding, painting and fixing up this boat.  After a brainstorm, it has now been named (with the name painted on the transom) "Wet Paint"!

Our next stop was the island of Kastellorizon, the easternmost Greek Island, only a mile from the Turkish coast.  It seems unusual that most of the islands along the coast are Greek, and we've read that Greeks inhabited many of the towns on the adjacent Turkish coast up until the early 1900's.  Kastellorizon was a major trading port on the route to the Mideast at the turn of the century with tens of thousands of inhabitants and a harbor full of ships.  After the first and second World Wars and occupation by many different countries, the port became abandoned and only a few years ago the population was only 200.  Today it has perhaps two thousand people and the harbor is empty except for a few fishing boats and cruising sailboats.  The whitewashed buildings with colorful trim made a pleasant backdrop as we tied up to the quay lined with small café's and restaurants.

Since the nearest major Greek Island is Rhodes, about 70 miles away, Kastellorizon is dependent upon food and supplies ferried from Kas across the channel in Turkey.  Clearing in with customs and immigration is very low key as the officials know that boats don't bother clearing out of Turkey to make a short visit at this one Greek island.  All they expect is that you switch your courtesy flag from Turkey to Greece while you visit and pay about ten dollars to the harbormaster for port dues.

Continuing west, we stopped at Kalkan, a small coastal town and harbor that has been transformed into a quaint resort with a yacht club on the shore next to the harbor with terraced areas for sunning overlooking the extremely clear waters of the Mediterranean.  We met a couple on a sailboat cruising with their two twin granddaughters who were just Jennifer's age.  The girls visited and talked non-stop for 11 hours straight.  The grandparents were very fascinating to talk with as well.  They were from Italy where he earned his Ph.D. in physics, and later moved to Boston to teach physics at MIT.  Now they spend the spring and fall on their boat cruising the coast of Turkey, and summer and winter in New Hampshire where they have a large home.  The husband teaches skiing (which interested Geoff), even though he has long been retired.  

From Kalkan, we sailed to the bay where the city of Fethiye is located.  This passage was our first experience with the Meltemi, the traditional gusty wind that blows in this part of the Mediterranean most afternoons and sometimes all day.  With strong headwinds for most of the day, we recalled the pounding and wet days going up the Red Sea.  We anchored in a "remote" area for one night, only sharing the area with "dozens" of other charter boats, private sailboats and gulets.  As the ice-cream boat comes by each afternoon, the bread boat in the morning, and touts trying to get you to try the nearby restaurants, it is hard to get into the spirit of traditional cruising.

Fethiye is a big town with restaurants stretching for a half a mile along the waterfront lined with gulets.  The gulets offer day trips around the bay stopping at 12 islands and providing lunch all for just $10 or so.  At this time of the year there are still very few tourists and most of the gulets never leave the dock.  Inland a few blocks there are the traditional carpet, jewelry, clothing and souvenir shops as well as some better quality and lower cost restaurants.  We finally broke down and bought some leather coats as the prices seemed a fraction of what we were used to in the States and the selection was huge.  While we were in Fethiye, we visited with several of our friends on other boats, which came up the Red Sea with us.  Jennifer and Nancy had an especially fun time water skiing behind one of our friend's dinghy.

The area just west of Fethiye called Skopea Limani has a dozen small islands and dozens of anchorages.  This is a favorite cruising area where in theory it is possible to find more peace and quiet than elsewhere.  We spent two nights in a small bay that was still quite crowded and later in our trip we will return to this area and try some other spots where we hope it will be better.  In spite of the number of other boats in these anchorages, the views are still pretty, the water is getting warmer and is usually very clear, and the hillsides are littered with the remains of ancient buildings dating back to the Byzantine eras if not the Romans and Greeks.  Even now in mid-June, we still see the snow on the nearby mountains.  

Going another 40 miles west, we've now arrived at Marmaris, perhaps the yachting capital of Turkey if not the eastern Mediterranean.  The marina holds 700 boats including the bases for a half dozen different sailboat charter companies.  There are dozens of companies inside the marina offering technical services from painting to engine repairs.  Nearby we found four chandleries (boat parts), sailmakers, travel agencies, and hundreds of restaurants.  Among the boats, were some of the largest motor yachts we've seen since we left Antigua, with posh crews and guests decked out in their designer clothes, Rolex watches and gold jewelry.  At least these "boat people" help support some of the better restaurants where gourmet dinners were a bargain.  We've seen some of the World Cup matches on the big screen TV's in the restaurants and sidewalk café's, while we just learned via the Internet that the Detroit Red Wings have won their second straight Stanley Cup.  

While Antalya and Kalkan each had a dozen or so gulets, and Fethiye perhaps 50, Marmaris must have over a hundred, all lined up along the city waterfront.  We just can't imagine where they (and all the restaurants) get enough tourists to stay in business.  It must be later in the summer when more visitors come.

While staying in the marina for a few days to take care of some boat maintenance we took a side trips to some of the ancient cities inland such as Ephesus, which was prominent during the days of the apostles and the early Church.  

Driving north through steep mountains we arrived at Pamukkale, an ancient city best known for its hot springs.  The calcium rich water has flowed down the mountainside leaving thick white deposits that look like a winter scene with snowdrifts and icicles.  The whole area is nearly a mile square and has dozens of terraced pools filled with turquoise water.  The stark white slopes contrast with the nearby green and mainly brown rocky landscape looking very unreal.  Just north are the ruins of a Roman city with the usual amphitheater and baths.

From Pamukkale we, drove west to Selcuk, a major city near the ancient ruins of Ephesus.  We stayed in a small home in a nearby mountain village called Sirince.  The house was about 90 years old and while it was filled with Turkish rugs and antiques, Greeks originally owned it.  This village, like many others nearby, was part of a population exchange in the mid-1920's after the Turkish war of Independence.  Turks living in Greece moved into these villages while the Greeks, who had lived in these areas for generations, moved back to Greece.  We were told over 120,000 people were moved.

The owner of the house met us when we arrived. He walked us through the village showing us the various restaurants, shops and even the local sports bar (actually a TV set in a courtyard with a few tables around it where the local men would drink Turkish coffee or apple tea and watch the World Cup soccer matches).  The whole experience including a rooftop private buffet breakfast overlooking the countryside was unique as well as memorable.

When we arrived at Ephesus early the next morning, we found ourselves thick in the crowds from several huge cruise ships also visiting the ruins.  Groups of 10 to 20 tourists flocked around guides with signs such as A20 or B15 representing their group from the ship.  There were thousands from the ship and they had all arrived first thing in the morning just like us.

Luckily, we found a retired English teacher who offered to be our guide for the day.  She and her husband now work as guides while her daughter attends law school and her son attends medical school.  

Ephesus is perhaps the most significant archaeological site in Turkey.  With a population of up to 300,000 people during Christ's lifetime, it was a major port and city from the Greek era (3-400 BC) to the middle of the first millenium.  The ruins cover a huge area and have been significantly restored.  We spent hours viewing and learning about the city and ancient architecture.  Among the highlights were the library that was the third largest in the world at the time, and the amphitheater that held over 30,000 people.  In contrast to many of the ruins we've seen, Ephesus still had the remains of many of the shops and homes, especially those of the rich nobles.  There were many statues, mosaics and other artwork found in these homes and the temples.

Just a few miles from the city, on the top of a nearby hill, is the place where the Virgin Mary spent her life after Jesus was crucified.  Jesus had charged John with the responsibility of caring for Mary and as John spent many years in Ephesus, Mary stayed here as well.  Local history says that Mary died here although similar legends say she died back in Jerusalem.  In any case, it is almost certain that John later died in Ephesus.

Our guide also took us through the Ephesus museum in Selcuk.  There we saw many of the statues and artifacts taken from the ruins.  It was interesting to be able to relate the contents of the museum to the locations where the statues stood in the actual city.

It is difficult to describe how awesome the ancient Greek and Roman cities and civilization were.  The nobles spent their time in the local legislature debating politics and watching daily exhibitions of the gladiators or plays.  The homes and cities were elaborate with running water and sewer systems, streets paved with marble, fountains and temples everywhere, column lined marketplaces with covered roofs, and even gymnasiums for jogging, boxing and wrestling.  While life for the middle and lower classes may have been hard, the nobles and wealthy had a luxurious life even by today's standards.

When we came to Turkey we had very little idea of what to expect, and now that we are here we are surprised by how much there is to see, how friendly everyone is, and how spectacular the countryside is.  The reports we heard before of friends and acquaintances that have spent years here no longer surprise us.




Turkey June 23rd to July 29, 1998
After touring Ephesus we returned to Marmaris and continued our cruise northwest along the Turkish coast.  After two short day sails (motoring actually), we reached the ancient port of Knidos.  With the exception of a small restaurant, these ruins have been left almost unrestored and unexploited.  After Ephesus, Knidos was one of the most important ports during the Greek and Roman times, with both a commercial and a military harbor.  

Without any tour guide (or crowds) we walked through the ruins seeing not only the ancient amphitheater and a famous temple to Aphrodite, but more recent Byzantine ruins, including a church with mosaics and many columns carved with crosses.  In places, you could just scrape the ground with your foot to uncover more artifacts left unexcavated.  A military post near the site is apparently watching that tourists don't help themselves to ancient souvenirs.

After Knidos, we sailed to Bodrum, the ancient port of Halicarnassus and birthplace of the world's first historian, Herodotus.  Herodotus traveled throughout the ancient world writing about places like Egypt and the pharaohs.

We seem to have visited or sailed nearby many of the places known as the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World (pyramids, Rhodes, Temple to Artemis at Ephesus) and Bodrum was the site of the famous tomb of Mausolos, later becoming known as the Mausoleum.  It was over 20 stories high.  Due to earthquakes and wars, it was eventually destroyed and the materials reused.  Overlooking the harbor is the Castle of St. Peter, built by the Crusaders from many of the old blocks and columns from this tomb.  It is surprising to see in the middle of a wall a section of round column stuck in a strange location.

The castle itself is composed of the usual thick and high walls but is more interesting for the various towers built within.  Each represents a different country, i.e. the German tower and the English tower.  The English tower is supposedly the third largest tower of its kind.  Throughout the castle are stone emblems carved with the crests of the nobles and knights that were here.  While the workmanship and scale of this castle are humble compared to the Egyptian, Greek and Roman ruins we've seen, the view of the harbor was beautiful and at night the castle was lit up and made a nice backdrop to the small tourist city of Bodrum.

Since we now have less than a month before our return home for the summer, we started to sail back toward Finike after leaving Bodrum.  We had made relatively few stops going north and now are going to cruise leisurely for the last few weeks of this year's trip.  The Meltemi (the seasonal strong north wind) has begun to blow more regularly and we should have some nice day sails back along the coast.

One of our first stops was at Keci Buku; a cove nestled deep in a fjord like bay between two mountain ranges.  While most of the coast in this area has been rocky and nearly barren, Keci Buku is covered with pine trees, reminding us again of our old cruising grounds of the North Channel of Lake Huron in the Great lakes.  From Keci Buku we sailed to the town of Bozburun, known as the site where many of Turkey's gulets (tourist sailboats) are made.  The harbor was nearly deserted, bad for the local restaurants and shops but pleasant for us.

Our next stop was a large bay called Sogut Limani.  Our first day was calm and very hot, the second day the Meltemi winds began blowing very hard and we had a rough although short trip back to a tiny cove near Bozburun.  With very deep water and winds gusting from every direction, we spent most of the afternoon setting our anchors and taking lines ashore.  Under calmer conditions, the spot would have been ideal.  

We left early the next morning to sail to Serce Limani, a nearly totally enclosed bay with steep hills all around.  We took a mooring provided by a small restaurant at one end of the bay with only a few other boats around.  It was ironic that although the son of restaurant owner rows around the bay in a wooden dinghy helping us with our lines and ferrying us in for lunch, and the buildings on shore ranged from primitive to ancient, a satellite dish installer was working while we were there.  This bay is well known as the site of a Byzantine shipwreck that was filled with glass artifacts now on display in the museum in Bodrum.  The bay is truly spectacular, contributing to its popularity.  By sundown at least 12 charter boats had come in along with four or five other boats.  It was now a parking lot with boats lined up side by side only a short distance apart.  The next morning many of the boats had left, but we decided not to spend another day and instead make a quick stop back in Marmaris to restock on groceries and get laundry done.  

We'll leave in a day or two and continue our cruise back to Finike.  Down to the last few weeks before we return home, we are making lists of tasks to do before we return home, thinks to take home and things to bring back next year.  After essentially living aboard for 18 months, we now have to prepare for leaving the boat for nine or ten months so Geoff and Jennifer can return full-time to the University of Michigan and Pioneer Middle School. 

Istanbul and Amsterdam, July 29 to 31st, 1998
Our final passage for this year has been by plane, from Turkey back to Detroit.  We stopped for a day in Istanbul to visit the famous Hopaki Palace and Blue Mosque.  At the crossroads between Europe and Asia, Istanbul, Istanbul is a fascinating blend of European and Near East.  Modern skyscrapers overlook the Golden Horn and the various sections of the city straddling two continents.  

The palace has an amazing display of rooms making up the harem’s quarters and jewels from the sultans.  It is hard to imagine life during this imperial period, but for royalty it was obviously very plush.  Across the street from the palace is one of the world’s most famous places of worship, the Blue Mosque.  As massive as it is, after visiting mosques in Cairo and Alexandria, one mosque begins to look a lot like the next.  It seems we are finally suffering the affects of cultural overload, having seen cathedrals from Ecuador to Israel, amphitheaters from Israel to Cyprus to Turkey and now mosques from Egypt to Turkey.  It is time is time to return home and try to soak in all that we have seen.

Our last night and day in Istanbul left us with a bit of a bad taste.  It seems a common con by taxi drivers is to take large bills for the fare and by slight of hand show you small bills the next moment, claiming you underpaid.  The Turkish 100,000 lira note looks a lot like the 500,000 and 1,000,000 (worth only about $20), and commas are not even used to help distinguish the numbers.  The first time we were taken, we suspected we had been conned but weren’t sure.  On our trip to the airport we very carefully counted out the fare, having kept exactly enough local currency we thought.  It didn’t help as we were told we had short-changed the driver, and we weren’t prepared to argue the point.  We now have read about the con and will be very prepared, unfortunately in the meantime we won’t have fond memories of the taxi drivers in Istanbul.

Our visit to Amsterdam was a welcome return for Nancy and Paul.  Nematron had its European headquarters in the Netherlands, and we’ve made many visits to this friendly country.  We wanted to show Geoff and Jennifer a few of the highlights while reducing the effects of jet lag on our way home.  We stayed at a classic old hotel, the Krasnopolsky, on the Dam, the central city plaza.  We just enough time during our layover to visit the Anne Frank house and the Rijksmuseum and Rijksmuseum van Gogh.  

The Anne Frank house was very memorable and moving with displays on the Holocaust and World War II.  It added another perspective to what we had seen at the Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem.

The Rijksmuseum is famous for its paintings by Rembrandt including one of his most famous the Night Watch.  Around the corner is the museum dedicated to Van Gogh.  We were very lucky to have arrived when we did, for within a few days, the museum was going to be closed for renovations and a huge number of the paintings sent on a worldwide tour starting in the USA.

Our last small adventure was our flight back to Detroit.  Apparently Geoff and Jennifer’s tickets, being student fares, did not have any seats assigned.  When we arrived at the airport no seats were left for them.  Rather than make them stay over, Nancy and Paul gave up their seats to them.  Luckily a little friendly persuasion helped convince the gate agent that we should be given the last two first class seats so we wouldn’t be separated from the kids.

Now that we are home, we are planning for our cruises for the summer of 1999, probably from Turkey to Malta.  

	      

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Part I - 1997, St. Lucia to Thailand
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Part II - 1998, Thailand to Turkey	      



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