Seeing the ice in clear skies was a hell of a reward for the heavy weather yesterday. Thus far we’ve stopped to admire two big bergs from close range, bringing in ICEBEAR under power (the wind, after all that fuss, shut down completely around 1200 noon as we rounded Cape Race) to within a hundred yards or so. I put the drone up to get a bird’s eye view, and the crew stopped to admire the beauty of nature’s most striking sculpture. Both bergs we stopped for had at some point in their decay rolled, for the tops of them were pure white and smooth as marble, highlighted in spots by deep turquoise cracks where they’d broken apart and re-frozen during their lifespan.
This has been all over my Facebook page the past couple of days, thanks to Kevin King, who crewed with us and took the footage. When the whale first approached, we were in awe, and just enjoyed his company. Kevin wanted to film right away, but I kind of discouraged him - if you're always behind the camera, you can't appreciate what's right in front of you. But the whale kept coming back! I was afraid jamming the camera down in the water might scare him off (he thinking it might be a harpoon!), but eventually we gave it a go. I think it was worth it!
This was written yesterday, posted today (Monday). Photos below.
We arrived into St. Croix yesterday afternoon after what I think was probably the easiest passage I’ve ever done. We sailed on starboard tack the whole way, broad reaching in anywhere from 8-25 knots, and only motoring for one hour, through a pretty calm spot when the sails were banging around and we had to roll up the jib.
I will have WAY more to say about this in due time, but wanted to post it immediately. Thanks to Dave for sharing - you know who you are. Might we have finally reached a tipping point when it comes to taking offshore sailing seriously, instead of a ride to warmer weather?
I just had an interesting email exchange with a friend whose in the (years-long) process of outfitting his boat for extended ocean cruising. The boat is similar to Arcturus, and we have similar ideas about things, and somehow got in touch a few years back. Anyway, we've had several of these types of exchanges. I won't say who it is out of respect for his privacy, but I want to publish my response to his latest email about rigging, sails and engines. I'll preface each section with what I'm about to discuss, but won't include anything specific that he's emailed me. What's your take?
I am super excited to tell you about a book project i have been involved with during the fall.
Together with 10 Swedish Sailors, we have each written a chapter in the book "Mot en Ny Horisont". All proceeds will go directly towards donation in the aftermath of Irma & Marina that hit the Caribbean earlier this fall.
The book is currently available in Swedish and Danish, and maybe one day it will be translated into English and other languages?
It’s been a long time! Andy and I were first in Bequia and to the Grenadines in 2009 during our trip on Broadreach. We sailed a 50’ Beneteau with 11 teenagers, a month long sailtraining camp starting in St. Martin and finishing in Trinidad. We truly fell in love with the smaller islands in the southern Caribbean, but since then I have not been south of St. Lucia. It was about time!
Andy and I arrived back to Isbjorn and the BVI on Feb. 1st, a long day of travel from Sweden, via London and Puerto Rico. It was a long day, but probably one of the smoothest travel days I can remember and we arrived to Nanny Cay where we had the boat around 8pm. Andy cooked up a simple dinner of rice and beans and I crashed straight after. We spent a full day there, provisioning the boat and getting her ready for sailing.
In the end of December, Andy and I celebrated 10 years from when we met in New Zealand. Over a beer (or two) we reminisced about the past year and started sharing our favorite stories. It truly has been a blast, with lots of sailing and traveling. We have visited some old favorite spots and discovered new 'need to visit again' places.
Today is kind of a big day in my life as a ‘sailor’, although I am very far away from the sailing scene at the moment. Ten years ago, I spent some time in New Zealand with my best friend Johanna, driving our new to us backpacker car – a Nissan Bluebird – exploring the beauty of New Zealand, camping, hiking, meeting lots of fun people and truly having the time of our life.
So, I have decided to start up my blog again.. this time it will be in English so I don't eliminate the 6+ bllion people who don't speak Swedish... And now when Andy and I have started our new chapter on our own, I feel I have the time (do I really think that will happen, more time... :) ) to focus on a few more things that is mine.
I have now uploaded all the photos from the Kinship trip to the computer and there is a lot. Thank God the computer has a lot of space nowadays! As you can understand, it was very hard to pick the best ones, so I decided to just upload a lot and share the experience with you. I also decided to pick a favorite and for now it is the landfall pic to the left here, maybe not the best photo, but the moment when we spotted land was an amazing moment. Hope you enjoy the photos!
Today is two birthdays, my younger brother Erik is becoming 20! And my little girl Anya from Boston is now 12 years old! Happy Birthday to you!
I have a new highlight for the trip. Yesterday we had Walter the Whale visiting the boat. But it started a few days before that. I was sitting in the cockpit and could see something maybe 30 m away from the boat, it looked like it was something big in one of the wave, with a slightly different color.
We just passed our half point. We were debating where it would be and decided that 38° 30' W would do it.
It has been downwind sailing ever since we gybed last Saturday and have been able to head pretty much due west since then. The best sail combination is to have the reacher poled out with the boom on port side, and as the wind shift a bit we just trim the sail.
As many of you already know, on the second night out, Kinship broke a shroud and we decided to turn around to Las Palmas to get i fixed.. We had a bit of a sail to get back to the island, of course the wind on the nose.
The good news is that we came in to the harbour early this (Wednesday) morning and ten minutes later had a guy come work on the boat. The shroud is now replaces and Tim is having a look at a few other things while we are here.
The last couple weeks have been a bit tumultuous on our website. Since June really. Back then (in Horta, in the Azores), Mia and I decided to combine our blogs into one site - Mia had her miatravel.blogspot.com site (which still exists), and I had my fathersonsailing.com site (which evolved from my own andyschell.blogspot.com site for the journal I kept since 2006). When we changed the name to andyandmia.net, we did so simply because we couldn't come up with a better name. Everyone knows us together as 'Andy & Mia' or 'Mia & Andy', so why not stick with something people recognize?
Jag och Andy har nu intagit Hampton, VA och checkat in på vårt hotellrum där vi kommer spendera de två kommande veckorna. Vi är här för att jobba för C1500, ett cruising rally med ca 45 båtar som startar här i Hampton och seglar ner till Tortola, BVI eller Green Turtle Cay i Bahamas. Jag och Andy kan tyvärr inte hoppa på en båt och segla med utan flyger ner och är på plats i Nanny Cay, Tortola när båtarna anländer.
Vi ar nu i Bermuda! I fredagsrunt lunch seglade vi in till St. Georges, nordvastra delen av Bermuda. De forsta dagarna fran Tortola hade vi knappt nagon vind alls och var tvungna att kora motor ganska sa lange, vilket kandes som en besvikelse. Vi tog dock vara pa det och jag och Ursula lagade en massa god mat, jag bakade brod och Ben bakade kakor.
