tirsdag den 12. juli 2011

Bangor and Belfast

Sailed in to Bangor Marina at 10am on the tenth of July. This gave everyone two days to see Belfast, cause I was going home on the 12th, and Den Vilde Jagt was leaving for Scotland.
The 10th was spend in Bangor. We did some city things, and went for a walk along the bay.
The 11th was spent in Dublin. Ole had read an article in a Danish newspaper about a 3 hour "conflict-walk" in Belfast. The guides are former active "political prisoners". Our guide had spent 10 years in jail.
He was catholic, and gave us a guided tour around Belfast. A very interesting tour with lots of information about the conflict.

A three hour walking tour with an English speaking guide was a little tough for the kids, but they did great. Tor was counting bulletholes in walls. Bjarke was trying to understand as much as possible. The guide was speaking with an Irish accent, so I think I got like 80% of his information. Rasmus was informed by Ole who was translating some of the facts/ stories.
The tour ended with fish and chips and a Guinness. Perfect!

Now, I've just said goodbye/ see you to the crew. I'm in the train towards Belfast. There is actually a huge Orange March today, and some protestants have advised us to stay out of Belfast. We also met a proud boy yesterday. He was going to be a flag carrier in the march. Strange conflict. One part of Belfast take their family into town for the march. The other part advises us to keep out.
I'm just catching a bus to Dublin airport, so I'm probably safe...

Now, in the bus, I've just seen around 15 buses filled with people wearing orange march clothes.

Yep, I got out of Belfast, and now I'm in Dublin looking at a very little plane (26 metres), which is taking me home to Denmark.





fredag den 8. juli 2011

Dublin

2½ great days in Dublin. Enough time to see central Dublin, Howth, and especially relax with a Guinness or two...
My last 100nm on this trip are from Dublin to Belfast, and I'll leave Belfast by bus Tuesday.
It takes 24 hours to go there by ship, and two hours to go back to Dublin airport. That's how fast we're been travelling the last three months :-)
Looking forward to see you all back in Denmark.
Thanks to hosts, friends, and everyone reading this blog.







torsdag den 7. juli 2011

Towards Ireland, day 13

Distance: 70nm

Land! Yep, Ireland has been close for the last few days. Today, we can see the land. We even reached mobile connection. Ole has a unique technique. He stand on the cockpit bench, and raises his arm to reach the best connection.

After some interesting sailing with good wind and mostly good current, we arrived in Dublin at 1am on the 7 th of July.

Here is huge ferries coming in or going out very often. Very busy harbour.
Now, time to do the tourist thing in downtown Dublin.



Towards Ireland, day 12

Distance: 104nm,

Getting up at 2am, just to get dressed in already wet rainwear, and watch a ship which is pretty much steering itself. (thanks to our wind steer)
Usually time for "Mads og Monopolet"
This night was different though. Lea served me a hot cup of tea, and went downstairs to rest afterwards.
She pointed out some ships ahead and behind us.
I was watching these lights for a long time. Some was definitely getting closer, and bigger. Some where moving away from us. One of them got bigger and bigger. I was just about to wake up Lea to ask for advise, when I realised. The big ship was not moving towards us. It wasn't moving at all. It was an oil rig, and I was passing it in a fine distance.

Today has been like a Danish summer. Rainshowers followed by sunshine. My rainwear went from soaked to dry to soaked. Luckily it's back to semi dry before my nightshift.



Towards Ireland, day 11

Distance: 123nn

Had the toilet shift. This is the 6am to 8am shift which include cleaning the toilet. A very little toilet, and no one gets seasick, so I don't mind.
This morning I got a bonus. About 20 pilot whales followed the ship for more than an hour. They got as close as possible, meaning 1 metre. Very cool sight. All the crew except Tor got up and saw the whales.

Late afternoon and evening, we have had the strongest winds in three months. Was doing up to 6 knots just with our main sail in second rope. This meant done big waves, and turbulent sea.
Our crew is very used to sailing now, so no one was sick.

Right now the wind is lighter. I'm in my bed now, and the waves are still making it difficult to stay in bed.

But the wind also means we're logging a lot of miles.




Towards Ireland, day 10

Distance: 110nm

This morning we met a huge school of dolphins. For more than an hour, we had dolphins playing around the ship.
Sailing with engine all night. No wind at all.

Rasmus served his wonderful omelette for lunch. While eating lunch we had visitors, again. This time two pilot whales.
They got really close.

After dinner, dolphins gave us another one hour show. Lots went airborne.
The kids onboard have a favorite band, and usually they play only their cd. This means we have heard Green Day "21st century breakdown" at least 30 times while crossing the Atlantic. :-)


Towards Ireland, day 9

Distance: 107nm

Under the sprayhood is a very important place. This is where our mugs, coffee and hot water is located. At night time there's usually biscuits as well.

A grey day today. Saw the sun when it was raising at 4:10am, but didn't see much to it during the day.

Wind in from behind, which made it difficult to use our windsteer. So had to steer manually as we did when crossed from Guadeloupe to the Azores.



Towards Ireland, day 8

Distance: 117nm

Halfway to Dublin, and only 370nm from Ireland.

While I was steering from 8am to 10am Rasmus was making American pancakes for all the crew for breakfast. So halfway pancakes for breakfast. Couldn't be better.

Had my second shower on this trip. Salty, and a little cold, but not to bad actually. Rinse my body with 1.5litres of freshwater after the shower. That's all you need. 1.5 litre! Back home I'm probably using close to 150 litres of water during one day.

We contacted a ship today. They gave us a weather report for the next few days. No bad weather is coming, and the nice wind will continue.

For desert I served Daim chocolate from Denmark, and Henning had Danish Candy.


Towards Ireland, day 7

Distance: 108nm

At approx 3am I was steering. I was Laughing away somewhere on the Atlantic. I had the radio show "Mads og Monopolet" in my ears.
I was trying to laugh as quiet as possible. Everyone was sleeping.

I had a good night sleep. The piece of gardenhose was back in the door, and I could breath. Beautiful!

At 8am we turned the engine off, and have sailed with sail all day. Very nice after 5 days with constant engine noise.

Bjarke and Lea made their famous pizzas for lunch. Yummy!

Not the same amount of wildlife as yesterday. Seen Dolphins, of course and a few whales in the distance.




Towards Ireland, day 6

Distance: 108nm

I share cabin with Henning. Probably 5 square metres in total. Basically two beds.
So your living really close on each other. Especially when sailing the long distances without option to go on land when in harbour.

Until now it's been uncomplicated. The last few nights has been a little complicated. Henning wants our door to be closed during the night cause of colder temperatures and noises from the saloon/ engine.
I want the door open, or at least a little open. I have "invented" a little gardenhose thing on a elastic rubber string. This holds the door, and let a little air in.
According to Henning, this invention makes noises, and he removed it during the night. It came back up later during the night.

Imagine two men on 5 square metres, and one smokes pipe, and both farts once in a while... I'm usually not soft, but I can't breath in there.
Hopefully he'll let the garden hose stay tonight, and I'll get some more sleep.

Despite the lack of sleep it was a very interesting day.
I think I saw a whale yesterday. Lea said she saw one today. Everyone onboard was sceptic. Today everyone saw whales alot of times. We're pretty sure it was Fin whales. One of them got really close, like 20 metres. Fin whales are the second biggest whales in the world. They can grow up to 25 metres of length.

We're also pretty sure we saw southern right whale dolphins today as well.

By far the best day when it comes to wildlife.




Towards Ireland, day 5

Distance: 114 nm

I had the midnight-2am steering shift. There was lots of algees which glow in the dark. The ships make a very cool line of light. Suddenly I saw lines of lights coming towards the ship. Dolphins. It looked very cool, and made the lonely nightshift much more interesting.

Bjarke, Rasmus and I took a very short swim after the boat today. First shampoo, and then a 30 second swim in a lifeline. Cold, and refreshing, and definitely other temperatures than the Caribbean sea.

We're out of fresh bread. The solution is better than fresh bread from the supermarket though, Lea's fresh baked bread!
For the first time since Horta, the cockpit temperature let everyone eat outside.

A very nice day with sun all day. No wind though, so engine all day.
Beautiful sunset at 9:15pm




Towards Ireland, day 4

Distance: 109nm

Brrrrr. It's definitely getting colder, and when sailing in head wind it feels even colder.
In the cockpit your wearing windproof dress all day. Even when the sun is shining.

Rasmus made lunch for everyone today. A nice omelette with potato and chorico.

At 4pm Lea served a very nice cake with apples and cinnamon. We all made a guess about when we see land, and when we'll arrive to Dublin.




Towards Ireland, day 3

Distance: 78nm

Engine all night. At 6:30 we tried sails. We had headwind, so we needed more wind to get more than 3 knots... After an hour or so, we could turn the noisy engine off.
This meant a quiet ship, so everyone except Tonny and I slept until 11:30am.... "nice and quit" as Tonny said in the cockpit :-)

Todays good news. Ole found the part we needed to fix the wind steer. So now we don't need to steer whenever sailing with sail.
The picture is of the wanted part, and my new slippers. All the crew wants them, but they are mine!

(later)
Just got back to the dry saloon after 2½ hour in the cockpit. No rain, but I'm pretty soaked, with saltwater.
It's 9ppm, but definitely going to bed now.


Towards Ireland, day 2

Distance: 109nm

A huge slash of water yesterday. Today starter with a broken windsteer at 5am. The weather is wet and grey, and gives no opportunity to dry the wet sheets, blankets and mattresses.

The weather got a little better, and we even saw the sun after dinner.

Not much wind today, so engine most of the day.



Towards Ireland, day 1

Distance: 108 nm

Left Horta at 10:30am, waved goodbye to new friends on different ships.
The wind between the island was very strong, and we were shooting towards Ireland. We changed sails a few times to slow down.
Have had a great day with sunshine, dolphins. And a bonus is the windsteer is working, so we don't have to have a hand on the steering wheel all the time. Awesome!
Getting used to be on the sea again doesn't seem to be a problem for the crew ether.




torsdag den 23. juni 2011

Horta, last day before leaving to Dublin

Bought fruit, eggs and vegetables today.
Ole and the kids have been busy painting graffiti on the dock wall. I helped buying the last food ect. for the next 14 days. That's what's were expecting for the trip to Ireland. We're also expecting a little more wind than on the Atlantic. And more traffic when we get nearer Ireland.

Think everyone are looking forward to be sailing again. We might need a few days to get used to a rocking boat.




onsdag den 22. juni 2011

Horta, home alone

Haven't written blog the last few days. Not much to write.
Yesterday, everyone onboard went on tour. Except me. I had the whole ship to myself. And a computer with internet access. Perfect!
I was able to backup all my photos. Upload some of the best to facebook, and look on options on flying home from Ireland as scheduled.

Today we have done a little work to be shipshape again. The sail is fixed. We have done some rust work. Tonny did the hard work.

Leaving for Dublin on Friday.






mandag den 20. juni 2011

Horta, hike

Even though we got to bed late we were all up around 9:15
Kristine had to go to the Airport, so Silvia and I drove her there. Afterwards Silvia took me on a tour around the island. Went to the western, and newest volcano crater. Very special place. Still no vegetation, but it's starting to "crawl" in.
At 1pm we had to be in Horta. Five of Silvias friends were joining us on a hike near the highest spot on the island. Even though it was extremely foggy, it was a great and interesting hike. Nice to move my legs again.
Some of the hike was following rain water canals. They use the water for drinking water in Horta.

After the hike we went to a holiday house of one of Silvias friends. The location was so great. Just at the sea. We had a big paelea.
All Silvias friends are working/ studying with the sea, so have a lot of very interesting knowledge.

A long and very interesting day.