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Published: October 7th 2009
SUNBOY IS HEADING HOME
Well 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 sent the wrong windows and just as I was about to ring up the factory for a few quiet words, Debs rushed up to tell me that they hadn’t sent the wrong windows, it was just a mistake on the technicians part - whew!!!
So here we are in the Sopromar boat yard. It is Sunday the 4th of October and our windows are in and all being well, they work will be completed on Tuesday as tomorrow is a public holiday.
We have been here for about a week now and since we have arrived, we are still getting our new liferaft sorted, getting our boat insurance sorted, our satellite phone has arrived and we have been able to purchase a second hand gennaker in an unused condition and a second hand head sail in a slightly used condition and a nice big and strong Para anchor in an unused condition. The gennaker is sensational and we were able to buy all three items for an incredible price from a Brit who has brought his boat back from the Caribbean and did not want them any more. We are ecstatic with our purchase and the big fella upstairs must be looking after us big time. So now we have a really good option for light wind reaching and a really good option for safe and easy downwind sailing using the two headsails.
We have changed our anchor chain for 100 metres of chain to meet the needs of being in the Caribbean Sea and later on heading into the Pacific and will most probably buy another anchor when we get to St Martin. We have had a major service done on the engine and have started to compile spare parts for the engine and boat that might be pretty hard to get later on in the trip or completely impossible to get should we get a break down in the middle of the ocean!!! I am sure the list is going to get bigger and bigger by the time we leave Las Palmas in late November.
So avid blog readers our rough itinerary is as follows:
We hope to leave here by Thursday or Friday of this week and we will sail down to Madeira, a distance of about 500 miles. We will have a few days there and then sail onto some other small islands where, with a permit, we can stay for 24 hours before we will sail on to Lanzarote in the Canaries where we will stay for a week or so, hoping to catch up with Patrick and Loes from Amsterdam who are planning on flying down to meet up with us and that we are really looking forward to.
From Lanzarotte we will sail to Las Palmas, hoping to arrive about the 8th of November where we will stay until the start of the A.R.C on the 22nd of November. The two weeks before the start is taken up with heaps of seminars relating to the crossing and unfortunately heaps of social events, both organised and disorganised!!!
We hope to be in St Lucia in the Caribbean about three weeks later and plan to have Christmas in St Lucia with the Stellermans and Willem’s Dad and Mum who are flying over to meet them.
We will have about three months in the Caribbean before heading across the top of Venezuela, Columbia and to and through the Panama Canal, intending to be through their and down to the Galapagos Islands by about the end of April.
We leave the Galapagos Islands and sail for the Marquesa’s, 3000 miles away and from there we will South Pacific Island hop, probably via the Cook Islands, Tonga, Fiji, Vanuatu, New Caledonia to home, hoping to arrive next September / October.
Apart from Small Nest, we have since found out that there are quite a few other boats intending on doing the same passage home to Australia, including Brad and Kat McMaster on their Hanse 470, Ghost. Brad and Kat and a pretty good crew are also doing the ARC this year and they should make excellent time with their great experience and quality gear.
We hope to be able to buy a small piece of kit called Spot Me which utilises G.P.S technology. You simply press a button on the unit and it sends our current position to your email address with a link to Google Earth showing exactly where we are at that time it was sent so if you would like to be added to the email list, send me an email so you can keep track of Sunboy and her crew on their quest for home!!
We hope to leave for island of Madeira tomorrow morning local time, about 500 miles to the south west of here so all being well, if we get internet on Madeira will update the blog then.
Take care guys,
Lotsa
The Crew of Sunboy
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Julie Black
non-member comment
OMG
Wow, how bloody fantastic, I am so happy for you, a years time is still too long away to see you again, but hey, at least you will be back in the land of OZ soon. Your plans sound fantastic, what an adventure! Will speak soon. Take care, be safe. Lots of love, Jules xx