It's Sunday evening here. As I am writing these lines, the atmosphere is calm on board, I am comfortably sitting in the swivel chair at my deskin my cabin and Beethoven's fifth piano concerto, "Emperor" is playing on the boat sound system. I can't help but feel in total harmony with myboat. Especially because sailing conditions have become ideal. The…
Just after leaving Salvador, we saw some whales playing near the coast. We sailed up to them and it was achance to take some wonderful pictures with the sky turning bright orange behind the city. Andrea took theone on my recent Instagram post. The day went well with a few rain squalls. The routine is the same. On the ocean…
Dear family, dear friends, it is time to give you some news from the deck of ASANA. The repairs to the damages that occured in the Drake Passage took almost four months. A new solid rod mainstay came from Denmark and Reckmann profiles from Germany. These profiles fit over the stay and are used to hold the headsails, the luff…
It seems adventures do not happen only at sea, they happen on land too. We arrived at Mar Del Plata on Wednesday 23rd at 8:15 pm. We called the Yacht Club Argentino marina and a young boy helped us tie up to the buoy just outside the marina as there is not enough depth for myboat inside. After a drink…
This is our fifth day at sea and what a difference with the past three days! Today was the wind was light at 10 knots, the sea was flat with a residual swell of the wind from the days before. And it was sunny, now was time for sunglasses and suncream, Bermuda and polos. At 7 am, Dirk and Bernard…
This Monday morning, to our surprise the wind showed no sign of abating. It was still blowing at 27 to 33 knots. The sky was still gray and the air was full of spray and rain. And we are still in the washing machine! We took a new weather report and I guess the only explanation I can find is…
3rd day at sea - 3ème jour en mer As Sunday began, it seemed that the weather was slightly better, there was a bit of blue sky to be seen at sunrise, the wind had diminished a knot or two, the waves were slightly bigger but more regular. I received an encouraging email from Philippe with the latest weather report.…
On Saturday 19, the morning went rather well but the sky is grey and there is slight drizzle. The wind increased earlier than planned, by noon we had close to 30 knots. In the beginning, it was coming from the Southeast but it backed 30 degrees. Which means that the wind is coming more from forward, that the boat heels…
We passed the cape of Dungeness which marks the entrance to the Strait of Magellan this Friday February 18 at 9 am. We are now in the South Atlantic ocean, heading North. The planned crossing should last five full days. This first day was calm, no wind and a flat sea, we were under engine. We saw again the black…
We arrived at Punta Arenas on Tuesday 15th of February at 4pm. I decided to take a shipping agent to help me with the entrance formalities. I'm happy that I did so because the paperwork especially in these Covid times can be quite daunting. Another problem is that Punta Arenas doesn't have any facilities for yachting, there is not any…