http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Korora-4-on-Tour/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Korora 4 on Tour en-us Wed, 16 Dec 2009 00:56:56 +0000 Wed, 16 Dec 2009 00:56:56 +0000 Hello Everyone well this blog is a bit of a mixed bag to say the least. The first section is by Debs and recounts her memories of the trip across and the second section is copies of the logs we sent to Rally Control during our trip across. A fait bit of reading but seeing you all will have some time off over Christmas you might be able to get through itJust over 24 hours ago we arrived on t http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Saint-Lucia/blog-459957.html Hi everyone sorry for the lack of blogs recently but we have been just a tad busy getting ready to cross the Atlantic. We have been in Las Palmas on the island of Gran Canaria in the Canary Islands for the past 12 days. There are 218 yachts and crew here and everyone has been running around like blue aed flies getting their boats ready to go. We leave here tomorrow at 1.00pm for the officia http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Spain/Canary-Islands/Gran-Canaria/blog-454905.html Porto Santo Madeira Canary Islands 300 nautical milesWe left Porto Santo on Friday the 16th of October heading out about 10.30am for a very leisurely sail to Madeira about 30 miles away to the south. We had met up with a couple of Aussies while we were at Porto Santo Mano and Shelley who hail from Brisbane and we really enjoyed their company and learning from their experiences as well. http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Spain/Canary-Islands/blog-448464.html Lagos to the Island of Porto Santo 450 nautical miles. We spent our last day at the Sopromar Boat Yard getting the boat readied and the last few glitches with the windows being sorted out at last. Final provisioning was done for what we had anticipated was going to be about a four day passage. Debs has been very busy cooking up lots of individual meals that we just have to slip into the oven a http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Portugal/Madeira/Porto-Santo/blog-445062.html SUNBOY IS HEADING HOMEWell after getting the boat tied up and sorted Willem and I headed off to one of the local bars that has wi fi to check emails. The very exciting news we received is that Sunboy is now an official starter in the Atlantic Rally for Cruisers 2009 along with 225 other cruising and racing yachts. Wahoooo.Our elation was soon quashed when the technicians told us that Hanse had s http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Portugal/Algarve/Lagos/blog-442973.html Lisbon Oeiras Sines Sagres Lagos LATE BREAKING NEWSWe tied up in Oeiras Marina smack bang next to a boat called Solitude a very large and beautiful looking Hanse 54. Small Nest was a couple of boats away and as usual saw a few other boats we had shared marinas with since we struck Portugal a few of them being British and Northern European Yachts heading south to make the Canary Isl http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Portugal/Algarve/Lagos/blog-442965.html Nazare Ilha da Berlenga LisbonWe left Nazare late on the morning of the 13th of September to sail down to the Island of Berlenga a distance of 20 to 30 odd miles. We dropped our trolling gear over the side hoping to pick up the odd mackerel. The conditions were incredibly nice for a gentle day sail down to the island and we just enjoyed the casualness of the trip for the first two or three http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Portugal/Lisboa/blog-438861.html Batalha Alcobaca and Obidos.We had to catch the bus to the towns of Batalha and then catch a bus back from there to Alcobaca and of course back to Nazare. The Stellermans are brilliant travellers and Haike is very resourceful as far as her research is concerned so all we had to do was basically sit back relax and be guided as to when and where to be too easy.We caught the bus from the marina http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Portugal/Northern/blog-438862.html Pavoa de Vazim Aveiro Figueiro da Foz NazareThis blog takes in about 150 miles of the Portuguese Atlantic Coast incorporating the departure from Pavoa de Vazim heading for Aveiro Figueiro da Foz and Nazare all of which we sailed in company with A Small Nest. The reason we did this part of the coast this way was primarily due to the spring tides and the times they are occurring at the mom http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Portugal/Northern/blog-436133.html Day trip to Porto Thursday 3 September 2009Another good feature of staying at Pavoa de Vazim was the metro link from there to Oporto. We walked to the metro station which was about a 15 minute walk and arrived at the station ready to take on the automatic ticket booths. Well they had us nicely confused in about two minutes flat and then we were rescued by a very friendly Portuguese lady who sp http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Portugal/Northern/Porto/blog-436128.html Hola Portugal and Pavoa de Vazim.We left Bayona on the 31st of August with the harbour starting to show signs of a big Atlantic fog rolling in. Sure enough it continued to fill and soon we were heading along very cautiously eyes paying particular attention to our radar G.P.S and having Luke and Debs up on the bow keeping a lookout with eyes and ears peeled.We got past Cape Silleiro the western http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Portugal/Northern/Porto/blog-436017.html Bayona Ria de Vigo North West Spain Well after getting into Bayona and seeing our old British chum in safe and sound we entered the Monte Real Yacht Club Marina which has to be in one of the most picturesque settings in this part of the world. The Marina is beneath the very impressive Monte Real Yacht Club Building which is perched up nice and high built of sandstone and smacks of gin and toni http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Spain/Galicia/blog-436014.html The Three Rias we visited Muros Pontevedra and Vigo So many people we had spoken to told us how beautiful the Rias of north west Spain were. In all honesty we had no idea of what to expect in real terms but essentially they are like big long and wide areas of water a bit like Pittwater near Sydney in some ways. They have towns and villages dotting the coastline in some of them and in other http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Spain/Galicia/Vigo/blog-431573.html We had the boat well and truly prepared for what had the potential to be a long day trip down the coast. We had set our passage plans to stay quite wide off the coast to stay away from any potential lee shores and try and avoid any fishing nets that might be laid out. We had spoken to quite a few yachties that had come from the south who had had nets caught in their prop and by all accounts not http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Spain/Galicia/La-Coru-a/blog-431359.html Hola from La Coruna N.W Spain The Galician Coast Well we did sleep rather well on our first night in La Coruna originally having plans of going out for dinner with John and Sue we decided we might wait until we were all feeling more alive to do so. The Marina a Coruna has only been opened for a couple of months and so all the staff are very keen to make everyone feel very welcome and help i http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Spain/Galicia/La-Coru-a/blog-431349.html Crossing the Bay of Biscay Saturday the 25th of July to Monday the 27th of July 2009.Pretty excited getting up about 6.00am to be ready for the 7.00am kick off. We were all up and dressed had a quick brekkie and checked the boat again and off we headed with Swagman in the lead. We went down the north coast of Belle Ille with the sea in a very calm state indeed. Nikki was at the helm as we mo http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Spain/Galicia/La-Coru-a/blog-423793.html South Brittany Concarneau to Belle IlleWell we ended up staying much much longer in Concarneau than we had anticipated simple reason was that we enjoyed the place so much. We were able to enjoy the Bastille Day Eve Celebrations Nikki wanted to have her birthday here and we were finally able to catch up with John and Sue Allison from Swagman.We heard from the Tourist Info Office that the Conc http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/France/Brittany-/Morbihan/blog-423782.html North Brittany to South Brittany via the Channel du Four and the Raz de Sein. We left Guernsey on the 18th of June and had planned to sail down to St Quay as it offers all weather and tide access and we thought it was going to be a pretty easy place to hit the coast and then make our way along the North Brittany coast to West and then South Brittany. We had thought about going to St Malo which wa http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/France/Brittany-/blog-415861.html Through the Alderney Race and onto the Channel Islands.We left Cherbourg on the 28th of May making sure we had got our tide times right to head down through the Alderney Race which is quite infamous for its rate of tidal streams that run between the island of Alderney and the mainland coast of France. We had to catch the tide as it turned toward the south and then go with this tide hopefully al http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Channel-Islands/Guernsey/blog-415855.html A very happy new year to everyone. We have purchased our new home for 2009 a yacht called Sunboy and we leave Australia on the 18 March to head to Hamble Le Rice just south of Southampton in England where we begin a whole new adventure. At this point in time we dont know exactly where we will head to for the northern european summer whether it is up to the Baltic Sea or head south for Morocc http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/New-South-Wales/Coffs-Harbour/blog-358880.html