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Oh my oh my – That has been a serious while – I am sorry, I have not really been keeping up to date with the blog. Well, let’s try to give it a go again, so I can tell you all about everything that happened since my last blog!

In my last blog (14th January 2021…oops) we crossed the North Atlantic from the USA towards Ireland. You can read more about that crossing here if you would like. We safely arrived in Kinsale/Ireland. Kinsale is a historic beautiful port and fishing town in the County Cork. 

We arrived during the pandemic in full force and foreign vessels were not allowed in the country, unless there was an exceptional reason. We didn’t have one, other then that an extensive low pressure was coming up the next day and we didn’t really want to be out on the open sea being very tired. Luckily that low pressure made the officials decide that they couldn’t sent us out after a 23 day crossing coming from the USA. After filling in all the paperwork for Floyd and ourselves, we were officially allowed in the country. A child hood dream coming true for David to arrive here.

Restaurants by that time were (just about) open and at night we celebrated our crossing with a big well deserved pint of Guinness outside on a terras in the sun. Friends who live in Belfast and Dublin came to Kinsale to celebrate our crossing. That was so unbelievably nice. Great to meet up again and to spent time with them. After a few lovely days and many big and long walks in the green rolling countryside we decided it was time to head off again. 

We hoisted our sails and left Kinsale for a two day crossing towards Belfast. We wanted to be in a marina so that we could clearly think about what we were going to do for the next months. It was a squally uncomfortable sail in the Irish Sea and I remember I was very happy arriving in Belfast.

It was very clear for us, at that time, that this pandemic wasn’t over yet. Because of that, we had to plan our sailing route. We are not big planners at all, normally we see where we end up. In Belfast we made the decision to head to Engeland and cross to France to stay the winter in La Rochelle. Our time in Belfast was good, the marina was very nice and we spent a lot of time with our friends and even did a short road trip to the county of Mayo.

It was time to leave again – Sails up, crossing the Irish Sea towards England. We dropped our anchor in beautiful St. Mawes opposite Falmouth. We had a great week with very good weather, the day filled with walks and eating fish and chips.

When it was time to head off to France we briefly looked into Floyds ‘Animal passport’. We always have everything in order, but this time we noticed his rabies vaccine was one day overdue. Yes, one day! That meant no leaving to France yet. You might think ‘What’s the problem, just go”, but borders are very strict with these rules and fines can be massive. With great urge we found a vet and got him a new rabies vaccin. All good, but you have to wait a week before he can travel again…and guess what happened…in that week France decided to close their borders. 

With France being closed we suddenly hadn’t much choice. I, Kelly, didn’t see my parents for more than 1.5 years, so we thought ‘why don’t we sail to Holland to spent the winter there’. Via our friend Peter, who we met in Valencia with his daughter Jiske last year, we were able to get a berth in our Dutch Kings harbour in Muiden. When Floyd was allowed to travel again, David took off and sailed on his own towards Holland. I drove by car (which is another story on itself) to Holland. A pity, because it was for me quite a little dream to arrive in my home country via the sea. David didn’t have a very nice sail but arrived safely after two days in IJmuiden where Peter and I got on board before the first lock. The sun came out and it was a lovely day motoring towards Muiden. After 4 hours Ker Marie was berthed in our Kings harbour. A very pretty spot!

It was nice to finally be able to ‘show’ Ker Marie to my family and friends. Everyone was so curious about the boat ‘that we crossed the ocean twice with’. Somehow, an ocean crossing is more on people’s mind, while it can be pretty spooky weather in just the mediterranean sometimes. Our time in Holland was very pleasant, we even had a massive snow storm which ended up in ‘Ker Marie’ being iced in for a week. Quite cool to ice skate around your boat. Alien for David as he has never seen and stood on natural ice.

After almost 4 months in Holland we waved goodbye to the very kind and generous people from the harbour in Muiden. Our time here was very good but we were also extremely eager to get out back to open sea again. We hoisted our sails after leaving the last lock in IJmuiden, signs of relieve, we are finally out again! Our main goal was to get to France, which was at that time tricky with not all states being opened yet. We ended up in Ouistreham where we had to stay for 1.5 months because we weren’t allowed to move up along the coast.

At the beginning of May we were finally able to leave, and so we did straight away. We wanted to make big passages as we already sailed this part of France before. We sailed from Ouistreham to Cherbourg and Cherbourg to the Glenan Islands. That’s were we decided to enjoy these beautiful islands a bit more. There are also described as the ‘Breton Taihiti’ and it indeed felt like I was back in the Caribbean. Lovely blue waters, supping and strolling around the islands, postcard perfect. We even had our first barbecue of the year here. After the Glenan Islands we sailed to our favourite island, called “Houat”! A stunner of a place with one of the best ‘Pain au raisins’ we ever had. I can tell you, I had quite a few in my life, you can wake me up for them!

After a few pastries, just a few, we got ourselves ready to cross the Bay of Biscay. We crossed it this time in 2.5 days, the wind not forecasted as it was, but all good. A quick stop in Spain to get some sleep and time to head off again. We sailed from ‘A Coruna’ in one go to ‘Porto’, had a 15 hour stop here and got our sailing gear on again. We then sailed non stop from ‘Porto’ to ‘Denia/Spain’ in the Mediterranean. That was a 5 day trip and we covered about 850 miles. The passage was good but some moments we had strong winds and fairly big swell from the side. We had a big wave that exactly broke on the boat. I never had to hold myself so tightly to not fly through the cockpit, she was so much pushed over! Inside was a mess because every locker flew open and crockery broke on the floor. But as always, very happy with this boat, Ker Marie handled this wave like a dream! After arrival in Denia we took a few days off to relax and sleep a lot.

A few days later we hoisted our sails to Ibiza, a place which we have seen before by boat, it is easy sailing and there was not much time left in the season to head out further down in the Mediterranean. So, we decided to stay here for a few weeks. It was great, we met up with our friends Phil & Roxy who we met in Martinique in the Caribbean, and a few other bunch of sailing people who we met via Instagram. We had a lovely few weeks but the season was over, winter was coming up. For the first time in 3.5 years we decided to park the boat in Valencia for the winter and to spent the winter in the French Pyrenees!

Very strange to have unlimited hot water, no anchor alarm stress and steady ground under your feet again. And snow, that’s why we decided to come here, David is an avid Snowboarder, so on the first day the lifts opened we were out there, one of the first once to take the runs. That unfortunately was ruined by me, because I fell and broke my wrist. A day later I was operated in the local hospital and the snowboard season was over for me. Pretty damn unlucky! But it is what it is. We had a great few wintery months, but it is time to do again what Ker Marie is made for; Sailing!

We just arrived back in Valencia, have to sort a few more things out, and we are off! We both can’t wait to get her and ourselves back out again!

Love,

Kelly

In my last blog we were in Gloucester in the USA to wait for a good weather window to start our North Atlantic crossing to Europe. Towards Ireland/Kinsale to be precise. It might be a long blog for some of you, but maybe a nice insight into an Atlantic Crossing. 

We left Gloucester on the 5th of August in the afternoon when the wind finally calmed down a bit around 20 knots from the Tropical Storm Isaias the night before. The whole sky was opening up when we left and we got treated with the sun and great wind on the beam. Ker Marie was flying along with 8 knots…not a bad start. We were heading towards Canada. Due to the pandemic we weren’t allowed on land and if you wanted to anchor in Canadian waters you had to ask for permission from the government. We planned for one stop, which is also the last stop possible before you cross the big pond. It’s a place called St.Johns in New Foundland where we will re-fuel and get our last provisioning. St.Johns is the capital and largest city of the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. It is the most eastern city in North America, excluding Greenland.

Our sailing along with 8 knots didn’t last for that long unfortunately. After 4 hours the wind died down and it turned into very rolly sailing. The swell was side on and while I was making dinner I got tossed around and my cherry tomatoes for my Caesar salad were airborne in the galley. We both love cooking and find it really important we eat well during a crossing. I put in a lot of effort making nice meals. There are some meals I make before hand, and put it in our freezer. Meaning that if I really don’t fancy cooking or if the weather makes cooking in the galley not easy I just grab a freezer meal. Somehow I always end up with the most challenging meal in the most challenging weather conditions. 

We do our watches 4 hours on, 4 hours off. When it was my turn to sleep after dinner the rolling motion of the boat made it that I couldn’t get into sleep. Completely awake in my bunk I saw the 4 hours pass until it was my turn to get out there again. I guess it was just because it was the first night and I was all a bit too excited.

On my night watch the sky was so clear and bright that it could have been early morning. We were doing a very slow 2.5 knots in the wrong direction. We were literally going nowhere. It felt terrible at the time, but it is also what I like about sailing. Sometimes it might be the wrong direction but later it pays off if you get into the right wind window. You hope. And it did pay off, we got into a patch of more wind and in the early morning we got our spinnaker out. During the day the wind was on and off and not really playing ball.

By the time we got into our second night we had to put our engine on, there was really not a single breeze left. The sea was as flat as a pancake. We both don’t like motoring but sometimes you have to, to get in time for other weather coming up further in your journey. During the night we had a lot of very thick fog, this is common in this area. A few times I couldn’t see the bow of the boat. There were many fishing boats around and most of them were NOT on AIS (Automatic Identification System….so they show up on your plotter). Thank god for a good working radar! Some fishing boats came really close, but in thick fog and at night that is a little bit freaky (for me) when you don’t see them, and suddenly they are RIGHT there! Let’s put it that way that I had a few swearwords and why?? are they doing this! Oh and don’t forget the big amount of fishing buoys we also had to avoid.

In the morning we got treated with an amazing sunrise that tried to burn the fog away which was almost eerie. A few hours later we got Canada in sight and were welcomed by the coastguard about 10 miles off the coast. Very friendly guys who were asking what we were up too and where we were going. We are not allowed on land and I think they wanted to make sure we were a vessel in transit. After a big friendly wave, they left. In the meantime we changed into our proper warm sailing gear because it was getting pretty cold. David was lying under the winter duvet and even Floyd was completely tucked in under a blanket.

At night we checked the forecast and it changed significantly. There will be no wind at all the next day. We decided to get going as long as possible but that when the wind dies, we drop our anchor. To drop our anchor we had to ask permission from the authorities due to covid. After several phone calls explaining our situation that we are a vessel in transit, we got a phone call back a few hours later that we got permission to drop anchor. Obviously we were not allowed on land. And so we did when the wind died, just before Halifax in Nova Scotia. And oh my god, what a beauty of an anchorage! Magical.

After a good meal and a very good night sleep we hoisted our spinnaker again in the early morning. The wind was back. Not much but enough to head back out again. The sea state was a bit messy but following. We had a big group of dolphins along the boat for a while. These creatures make me so happy.

The fresh vegetables were going wrong quickly. I was only able to buy refrigerated vegetables unfortunately. That means you need to refrigerate them again straight away. Unrefrigerated vegetables stay good for a lot longer. During dinnertime we spotted some whales! Amazing and they were massive! At night the wind was like a night switch/gusty. At moments it was 12 knots and within a few seconds it would be 25. The reefing kept on going on and on. At one point I set the sails for a middle point because I was so annoyed. Although I had a hard time not adjusting it in low winds because you know you can go faster. At this stage we had about 160 miles to go to the south tip of New Foundland. 

During the daytime we were still able to fly our spinnaker but we went slightly into the wrong direction. We decided to continue with our spinnaker because of our speed and that we will make a tack later. Before dinner we took it down and tacked back towards the south tip of New Foundland which was about 20 miles away before we were able to turn up North. Through the night we had very steady winds on the beam and lovely sailing conditions, although it was foggy again. Early in the morning we reached St. Johns but we didn’t get permission yet to get into harbour. For hours we have been sailing circles in front of the natural harbour and finally we got a ‘go’ and were allowed to come in.

The scenery and nature here is absolutely magical. It is so impressive. The natural harbour entrance is fairly small and has both sides steep rock walls. We took our sails down and got the boat ready for docking. While coming in we could see that there were not many small vessels coming into this harbour. We were surrounded by massive fishing boats and we had to park between them. Our boat looked like a dinky toy and the gigantic truck tires against the quay served as a ‘soft’ bumper. Uhmm, not really for our boat. After docking we could not believe we were finally here, a place we both dreamed of. It took us a slow 6.5 days of sailing and 895 miles, but the first part of the Atlantic Crossing was done! 

Port authorities came around and gave us a very warm welcome and have been very helpful to get us this exemption to park our boat here to refuel and to get some provisioning during a pandemic. Such a pity we are not allowed on land, but already grateful to be here and to see the beauty of this place. When the port authorities left we straight away called up the supermarket to order our shopping to be delivered to the boat and a fuel company to deliver us fuel. There isn’t a fuel dock here. 

During the day so many people stopped at our boat to offer help of any kinds, from walking the dog to do shopping for us. We had great conversations and everyone was so enormous friendly. In the meantime we checked the weather forecast and it looked like we were able to leave the next morning. After a good night sleep we decided the weather was good to go. In the morning we got our shopping delivered and a big truck came to fuel us up. We were ready.

We casted off our lines, got a big wave from the fisherman next to us, and off we went, crossing the second part of the North Atlantic towards Ireland/Kinsale. We really want to come back here one day, what a great and beautiful place. Thank you Canada for your kindness in a pandemic. It felt like we were leaving the world, thats how rough and beautiful this place is.

Our route was heading up North/North East for the next few days to avoid a low pressure and to be in more favourable winds. We wanted to stay below the SE ice limit though. The wind wasn’t as forecast, actually there was not much wind at all. At times we had to put our engine on, and unfortunately our engine decided to use a lot more fuel per hour than normal. It was a frustrating day, going up North with not much wind feels like you are not making ANY progress. David spent a lot of time in the engine room trying to sort the engine out with no luck. We saw loads of puffins though and they make me laugh so much. They try to fly away as soon as they see the boat but they are a bit too chubby to take off. So they are belly flopping all the time or are flying into a wave. Little clumsy things that gave good entertainment on board for all of us. 

At night at 12 o’clock on my night watch I toasted on myself with a cup of tea. Today was my birthday. Slightly different then normal I would say. First time celebrating a birthday on an ocean crossing. All I wanted for my birthday was a bit of wind and not hitting any icebergs this crossing. My prayers were listened too. We caught the northerlies and they were pumping us East with a steady 20 knots, gusting to 30 with the accompanying swell. All the sails had a reef and the ride was a bit uncomfortable for mister Floyd, our dog. Later in the day we passed the iceberg limit and that made us pretty happy. A birthday never to forget.

For the next days it was windy, but it seemed like it was dropping off. We were trying to keep up with an extensive low pressure which was heading for the UK. This way we could benefit from the tail end, direction and the wind speed. It felt like we were on the edge of it all the time with the wind going on and off. We were hoping we were able to keep up with it!

It was very cold on board due to the Northerlies. It was that cold that we put Floyd inside. Normally he isn’t allowed inside so you can guess how happy he was when he was allowed to sleep next to our bunk. I wrapped myself up looking like I was ready for an artic experience having to sleep in an igloo. Even David, the über warm blooded man, was cold sometimes. So, my artic experience look was justified I reckon. Suddenly I heard the sound of fabric ripping. I looked up and saw that our Bimini ripped just above the window. A terrible spot to rip it on our boat, because we get wet every time a wave comes over the bow. I made a professional *uhum* repair with some waterproof material, clothing pegs and some line. It was working, for now, let’s see for how long. 

We were already two weeks underway when we left the US and I could feel that my body really needed some exercise, it needs some land. I can feel my muscles start to weaken from the lack of sleep and lack of body movement. But I have to be a bit more patient here, a lot more miles to go!

In the meantime the wind died down substantially and we had the idea we were getting out of the end tail of the low pressure. It died from a solid 25 knots to about 12. This was an opportunity for David again to get into the engine room without being thrown around to try to fix our fuel problem. He did a quick fix which hopefully sorted it. By the time it was at night there wasn’t much wind left and we had to turn on our engine. Let’s see after a bit of motoring if Davids work payed off. 

We checked the weather and we saw two more low pressures forming and we couldn’t avoid the first one (force 7), but we could try to make landfall before the second one. It means we have to keep up with a decent average in miles per day. With not much wind for the upcoming days and our fuel leak this might be a challenge. Well, at least we know we are getting decent wind with that low coming over us. 

We have been treated with lots of groups of dolphins and whales. Floyd even spots them before us. We think he can smell them sometimes. He sticks his nose up in the air, ears up, and that is how we know we got something moving around the boat. I think we should start a whale watching charter because he is a pretty good spotter. 

Our liters per hour are back to normal again and that feels pretty good knowing that you have enough fuel again for this trip. The wind seems to be back as well, and we reached the half way point. That point is always massive in my mind, its a little celebration. It’s like you climbed a mountain and now you are able to go down. I have been literally dreaming of sitting in front of log fires sipping wine, going for long walks and to sleep longer than 4 hours. We are getting there. The wind was coming from the South now and we thought it would bring us warmer winds but I think it will be the artic look for a bit longer.

During the nights I catch myself ‘again’ obsessively tweaking the sails and direction to get the best speed possible. On a normal day sail I would roughly look at the numbers and more feel whats going on. Instead, I am staring (with my glasses on) at the speed/wind direction and the sail set up. When David wakes up for his watch and I tell him excitingly that 77 degrees is “really the best angle for this set up” and that “He can’t change it”…..he starts laughing out loud….and so do I. At least I keep myself busy. 

I was hitting the bunk quickly after my sail tweaking and pulled out an extra duvet because I was super cold. When lying down I could hear the sea start moving fast underneath me. The wind is increasing. I couldn’t really get into a deep sleep. I heard so many little noises/sounds but I can all relate them. After living on Ker Marie for more than 2 years I know every little screech or sound it makes when she moves. I am so proud of her. 

I tried to watch a program on my phone which might make me fall asleep. It does. I woke up 3 hours later and make eggs and bacon for breakfast. In between making breakfast we hoist our spinnaker. The wind should change direction later on and turn behind us so we are sailing downwind. That makes us both pretty happy because our boat is very good in down wind sailing. A lot more stable and a lot faster.

The weather is still cold, grey and miserable. But in the afternoon the sunshine showed itself for the first time. What a great feeling to feel some rays on your face. Later on the day we had a big group of dolphins around the boat and a lot of baby dolphins. I clipped myself in and stepped out of the cockpit to deck to walk towards the bow. Fantastic! These creatures always make me so happy. I never saw baby dolphins before and it was beautiful. They were so tiny, yet so agile and completely synchronised swimming along their mothers. It almost made me cry. Almost. I blame the tiredness for that.

As expected the wind turned and kicked in over dinner time. This was part of the low pressure we were going to see. We had a steady 20 knots for a while but on my first night watch the wind suddenly increased with gusts over 40 knots within seconds. And that didn’t stop. The swell was building rapido behind me and we were literally surfing down waves a few hours later. 

I woke up David after my 4 hour shift. I was so tired that all I could think of was hitting my head on my pillow. That was a heavy watch. That is heavy weather out there. Those are big waves out there. It’s exhausting to control the boat in these conditions. My body started to relax when I hit the bunk. I am cold. Tears are rolling over my face. Not because I am sad, just because I am dog-tired. I fall into a deep sleep and I scare up from the sound of my alarm. 4 hours passed which felt like 30 minutes. I get my sailing gear on again, get up into the cockpit and are welcomed again with heavy rain and 35 knots……..it’s my turn again.

The next two days continued like this and I couldn’t wait until the wind would ease off. It did make us both very competitive though in trying to break our ‘over ground top speed’. And we did, we improved our top speed to 15.6 knots! Thats pretty fast for our boat. Later the wind finally died down to a steady 25 knots which felt like an absolute delight. We don’t mind 40 knots and it isn’t new to us, but it just amazes me every-time how quickly swell builds and how quickly you adapt as a person to the situation.

In the meantime we made a lot of miles and we were getting closer to Kinsale/Ireland. We both have been talking about all the things we’ll do when we get to land. It is so funny how you can look forward to very simple things in life that are not always so simple at sea. We should be able to make landfall before the second low pressure comes in.

We were coming closer to Ireland and it didn’t take long before we finally spotted land. That is such a great feeling. At night we had an unexpected plus 30 knots which flew us through the evening sky. We had a very slow day after, with almost no wind. We passed the iconic FastNet Rock and made the calculation we were probably not going to make it before dark. Which meant we needed to anchor outside Kinsale so we could go in harbour the next morning.

We dropped our anchor at 10.00 o’clock at night outside Kinsale. We did it! We crossed the North Atlantic after 23 days and a total of 2680 miles from Gloucester/USA. From St.Johns/Canada it was 1785 miles in 12 days. After a knock out sleep we sailed into Kinsale the next morning and arrived in harbour. We got a very friendly Irish welcome and were both über happy that we made it into Kinsale. A dream for David to arrive in his home Country and to drink a pint of Guinness to celebrate. 

A trip to never forget. A trip we both smile from ear to ear if we talk about it. A trip which made us grow. 

Love,
Kelly

I just looked when my last blog post was….I was ashamed. It was on the 8th of June. That has really been a while but we have done so much sailing in the last 6 months that I just didn’t get around it. So here we are; The last time I wrote we just sailed from the Caribbean to the USA. We arrived in West Palm Beach to sort out our cruising permit for the boat. I will take it from there again…

After obtaining our cruising permit in West Palm beach we decided to go to Charleston. Charleston is a city in South Carolina, it is defined by its cobblestone streets and pastel houses in the elegant French Quarter district. The sail towards Charleston was quite a rough one. We have been waiting for a decent weather window but somehow the predictions were full of lows. We did see a gap in the weather where the winds calmed down a bit, so we decided to go for it. A few hours later we didn’t regret it but when I started to feel sick we both knew the seas weren’t small. 

Both pretty tired we arrived in Charleston and parked the boat in a marina. This is extremely rare! We never go into a marina unless we really need to. Davids aunt lives here and after more then 10 years of not seeing her we thought it would be a bit easier to meet each other this way, instead of dinghy rides backwards and forwards. We had an absolutely great time in Charleston! We were only thinking of staying a few nights but this ended up in two weeks!

Spending longer than expected meant less time in other parts in the USA up north. It was already the end of May and we really needed to get out of the hurricane area. With a not so strong forecast we left for New York City. The wind didn’t play ball for the whole trip until the very end. We were literally flying into the city with our spinnaker up at 10 knots of speed. The sun just set and it was a magical time of day to arrive in this enormous city. At 21.30 o’clock at night we dropped anchor right next to Lady Liberty. I still can’t believe it. That feeling was immense and so special!

Due to covid we decided not to go on land. We both have seen New York and David even lived here for a bit. The next morning we went up the East River past Manhattan to get into Long Island Sound. You need to time this right because of the tide, if it’s against you, you are going nowhere. We had a current of 4/5 knots with us. Crazy.
We went under the Brooklyn Bridge and you pass all the massive buildings in Manhattan and around you. With an open mouth as a kid so excited I looked up to them. So unbelievably cool. What an experience, one I will never forget!

Coming into Long Island sound we had a lovely gentle sail towards Sheffield Island where we dropped anchor. Sheffield island is a small island just of the coast of Darien in Connecticut. We met up with our friends Roxy and Phill (The couple we met in Martinique and spent our lockdown with) who had their boat hauled out in this place to give her some maintenance. It was lovely to see them again, spending dinners together and to see where Phill grew up.

After Sheffield island we sailed together to New Port. A place David and I both really wanted to see. There is so much sailing history here. Newport is a city set on Aquidneck Island in the New England state of Rhode Island. It hosted the America’s Cup, a renowned annual sailing regatta, for many years.

From Newport we went into Martha’s Vineyard/Edgartown and Roxy and Phill left for Chatham. Martha’s Vineyard, a Massachusetts island, sits in the Atlantic just south of Cape Cod. It’s only accessible by boat or air. Edgartown is one of the islands seaside villages full of boutique shopping and pristine harbour views. Martha’s Vineyard is apparently a popular vacation spot among the wealthy, like Bill Gates and Oprah Winfrey.

We wanted to get here on time for the celebration of the 4th of July. We dropped our anchor in between the super yachts and spent a few lovely days here.

After Martha’s Vineyard we left for Cuttyhunk. Cuttyhunk is a small little island part of Massachusetts. It has a small beach, a great little harbor, good fishing, a few dozen houses, some great ice cream, and some beautiful hiking trails. We went for lovely walks and ate great chowder in the little harbour.

From Cuttyhunk we sailed towards Chatham in Cape Cod/Massachusetts. Chatham has a very small and shallow entrance which we could only enter with high tide. We arrived on a windy busy Saturday afternoon with loads of little pleasure boats hanging about. One of them even anchored in the middle of the channel. When he finally spotted us he quickly took his anchor up. Glad he noticed us on time, literally no space to manoeuvre here. When we finally got in the bay we dropped anchor but a few hours later we were told it isn’t allowed to anchor overnight. A pity because we are not a fan of being on a buoy for several reasons. But no other option so we pulled our anchor up and drove to the inner harbour where they allocated a buoy to us. Actually…this spot was really nice. We have been meeting up with Phill and Roxy here again. This time we met Roxy’s lovely parents. We had great dinners, drinks and laughs and playing crocket together. Very nice to meet both of their families! 

One of our highlights was that it was finally windy enough to do some Kitesurfing. The spot was amazing! Natural lagoons because of the tide with flat water and you could go out and play in the waves if that’s what you preferred. Normally when I am kitesurfing I don’t think about anything other then enjoying what I am doing. But Kitesurfing in Chatham was a bit different; there are white sharks here, yes those big things, from that movie ‘Jaws’. I have to say when I saw a seal around me (white sharks eat those fellows) I was a bit wary.
I loved Chatham. I loved it so much that I didn’t want to leave.

While being in the USA David thought again about changing our batteries to Lithium ones. It is here significantly cheaper than buying them in Europe. David did a lot of research, like….a lot, to sort out the set up he exactly wanted. So we put our old ones for sale and bought everything we needed for our new system. The old ones where picked up by a legend of a guy and so the work could start. It involved a lot of work for David. Changing a lot of cables in very awkward spaces, soldering and so much more.

This is for the geeky people out here reading this, I will tell you what our old set up was and what our new set up is now. If you can’t be bothered with this, just scroll down a bit.

We had 8×110 Ah AGM batteries with a house bank. This gave us 440 Ah at 24 volts. You are only supposed to use maximum 35% of that.

We switched to 8×100 Ah Lithium batteries where we are happy to use 70% of that (depending on who you listen too). This gives us 400 Ah at 24 volts. So, we now have a minimum of 280 usable Ah. Are you still with me?

There are two mayor benefits;
The amount of amps you can both draw and charge. Which means you can put a relative large inverter and draw 5000 watts without any difficulty.
The charging efficiency is the second mayor benefit. You can continually charge up to 210 amps until nearly full. The two chargers that we have add up to 170 amps. This means if we run our generator for one hour, it charges the entire battery bank with 42%.  

Our 6500 watts generator has now effectively become an efficient battery charger as the inverter lets us use all appliances whenever we want.

Speaking in normal language, I can basically put on the washing machine, heater, oven on whenever I want! We are both over the moon with this set up and David really did a brilliant job! Very proud. 

But enough about batteries. Time was really marching on for crossing the North Atlantic. We decided to hoist our sails again, we said goodbye to our friends and left for Manchester by the Sea. It was a very foggy passage where we could only see a few meters in front of us. We listened to the foghorns around us carefully. At night we both heard the sprout of whales so close that we turned on our engine, just to be sure. The next day we arrived in Manchester by the sea. A lovely, pretty little seaside town. We had a great time here and the weather was beautiful.

After some last bits and pieces Ker Marie was ready to cross an ocean again. We moved up North to Gloucester after a week to hide out a potential hurricane. Luckily it didn’t hit us that hard, although we had some pretty strong winds!

Now it was waiting for good weather for our first part of crossing the North Atlantic to St. Johns in Canada. But that’s a whole other new story. So lets keep that for my next blog.

Thank you all for reading and your kind messages during our travels. We appreciate that a lot.
Love,

Kelly, David & Floyd

 

Deciding our sailing route for the summer. An unpleasant welcome in the USVI and we set off for a 1300 mile sail! 

After being in lockdown for 6 weeks in Antigua we were allowed to move between anchorages again. We left Green Island, the place where we dropped anchor at the start of the lockdown. It felt so good to get the sails up again. Complete freedom! We went for a short (35 mile) sail to Barbuda, a small island north of Antigua. Barbuda has amazing white/pink beaches with unbelievable turquoise waters. We spent a week in an anchorage with no one around other then our new friends Phill and Roxy, who we’ve been spending time with during lockdown. 

We have been Kitesurfing, snorkelling, paddle boarding and went for long beach walks. Barbuda is a dream, but it was time to go back to Antigua again to re provision and to take some decisions due to hurricane season.

For days on end we have been indecisive about our sailing route. Hurricane season is approaching quickly and as everyone else we want to be way out of that area. Because of this pandemic it isn’t that straight forward as people might think. I got a few times from friends and family ‘Oh, just go to this country’ or ‘No complaining for you because you are in paradise’. Well, I can tell you, it doesn’t quite feel as paradise while you know that the hurricanes starting to look over your shoulder while all the countries are closed around you. It feels like me, attempting an uncomfortable gymnastic split.

Not even mentioning some other questions which have been crossing our minds. For example; Do we get a visa for the US and if we go is it sociably responsible? What if we cross the Atlantic but can’t come into a country on the other side? Anyway, I think we are “all in the same boat” and share similar feelings in each situation. 

In the end we choose for going to the US. With in the back of our minds that we might need to cross anyway if we can’t get into the country. Our original plan was applying for a visa in the Bahamas. But due to the virus this wasn’t possible anymore. We heard stories that people were trying to get into the USVI and that they got a Visa waiver for 6 months (single entry). We decided to go for it too, and hoisted our sails on the 20th of May towards the USVI. A sail of about a day and half. We said goodbye to new friends and to Antigua, which has been extremely good to us during these corona times. The sail was lovely and it felt good to be back on the road again. 

After trying to find a good anchor spot which seemed not easy, David left towards customs. After an hour he came back with no good news. He encountered a very unpleasant welcome and we were allowed to come into the country with a visa waiver but we had to pay a fee of 585 dollars each. We knew about this fee but with other friends the fee has been waived. Guess we were unlucky who was behind the desk this day! We considered not going to the US anymore and instead crossing the Atlantic straight from here. But after calming down a bit we decided to bite the bullet. We paid the fee, loaded our boat with fuel and left the USVI the next day. Done, we’re in!

The next leg is a bit longer, a 1100 mile sail! Normally we would stop at different places along the way but this wasn’t possible because of the virus. If there is really bad weather coming up you will be able to ask to seek shelter with authorities. But other than that the answer is ‘No’. 

We were taking the longer route, via the ‘old Bahama channel’. With not much wind predicted we did decide to leave. It’s the end of May and it’s really time to move. The first days were slow with not much wind passing Puerto Rico. After passing the Dominican Republic the wind started to finally be in our favour. We had very good downwind sailing and made good progress along the coast of Cuba. 

When we arrived in the old Bahama channel some squalls were hitting us resulting in wind shifts, rain and a bit of thunder. We motored quite a bit to get through it. But as soon as we were out of the channel we had great wind on the beam. We had lovely sailing through the night and at daytime we were hitting the Gulf Stream which made us fly. The next morning we dropped our anchor in West Palm Beach in the USA. In total an 1100 mile trip in 8 days.

After some well deserved and needed sleep we left the boat and took an Uber to the airport, to customs. An important part to gain in the US is a cruising permit. Without one you need to check in and check out in every place you stop. We heard from several people that due to the virus in certain states they won’t give them anymore. These people went from place to place and being disappointed/frustrated every time. With slight hope and being friendly towards customs, our officer told us we didn’t have the right papers. We missed a certain paper which they should have given us in the USVI. I think you can guess the feeling which we had right now.
After showing other papers and some gentle interrogating from his side this officer sorted us out completely. He gave us the cruising permit, and we, and the boat, are all clear to sail in US waters. What a legend this guy, so happy!

For the next few months we will make our way up north; Charleston, Hatteras, New York, Cape Cod and Maine. From Maine we will cross to Nova Scotia and then to New Foundland/Canada. From there we will cross the Atlantic to Ireland.

Quite a trip ahead but looking forward to it!
Wishing you all a great day!

Love,

The Ker Marie crew

Last bits of work in Valencia, saying goodbye to our friends, crossing the Atlantic Ocean and our current situation. 

It has been way too long after my last writing. Sorry, but somehow it was busy and didn’t find the time to do so. But here we are, it will be a long one. Going quite a bit back, when we were in Valencia.

After installing our last bit of kit; a new hydraulic autopilot, plotter and radar we finally left Valencia. The installation was fairly straight forward but it involved a lot of thinking/debating bAfter 3 months of work on the boat we finally left Valencia. We have done so much to make the boat ready and our last new instalment was a new hydraulic autopilot, plotter and radar. The installation was fairly straight forward but it involved a lot of thinking/debating before the actual job was taken on. The existing auto pilot is placed under our bed in the aft cabin. To install the new autopilot things had to be cut away, moved and changed. One of the ‘arms’ had to be extended in order to give the new drive unit the space it needs to move in and out. You can see the new extended arm in the last picture. David did a very nice job and the autopilot works like a dream!

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We were ready and the wind was in our favour, so on the third of January we hoisted our sails towards Gibraltar. We said goodbye to our lovely friends from Nathape. These friends (who have the same boat and we met last year in Almerimar/Spain) have helped us so much during our time in Valencia. It means the world to us and hopefully we soon see them somewhere in the Caribbean/Pacific or wherever in the world. 

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The sail to Gibraltar was nice and easy and took us four days. When getting closer to Gibraltar the amount of cargo ships increases. Some are pretty big but manoeuvring through them is very manageable. After arriving in the marina we treated ourselves on a big pizza and then hit the bunk. The wind looked great for the next couple of days to sail down to The Canary Islands. So we had to take advantage of that and left the day after. A quick stop at the fuel station to get a full tank of vat free diesel and then we hoisted our sails again. 

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The strait of Gibraltar was to us not that busy and very relaxed. More dangerous were the tiny little fishing boats who obviously don’t appear on your plotter. As soon as we left and you start to hit the The North Atlantic Ocean you can feel the swell is rising. During this trip to the Canary Islands the swell was fairly big at some stages where we were literally surfing down waves. Although it is impressive, it is very constant and clear. Not how the Mediterranean can be sometimes, messy! We made very good progress and the wind was great. Unfortunately on the last day our ballooner (one of our downwind sails) ripped at the top. 

It took us 5 days when we arrived in La Graciosa, which is a volcanic island in the Canary Islands, located 2 km north of the island of Lanzarote. The anchorage was lovely so we stayed for a couple of days. In the meantime we ordered a new sail (for the one who was ripped) which would arrive in Las Palmas/Gran Canaria. 

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We left La Graciosa and sailed to the capital Las Palmas to stay in the marina for some last checks on the boat. Unfortunately the 10 day promise for our new sail to arrive ended up in a month! In the meantime we loaded up the boat with as much provisioning as we could. We went out for a lovely dinner and enjoyed a bit of time on land. On the 10th of February our new sail arrived and we finally got everything we needed and we left to cross the Atlantic Ocean! 

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It felt unreal to actually leave and that we were really going to do this. But there was no way back anymore. The first week was great with perfect downwind sailing with our new sail. It is a great set up and with our new autopilot we just followed the wind. We do really had to push to try to get west. The wind was sending us way more south than expected. After 5 days I finally had a shower. That was the first time I had some energy to do so. I have never been seasick ever in my life but somehow from day one since we left Las Palmas I got sick. I left with the last bits of flu and I reckon that all the months of work and finally leaving got me into it. Seasickness drains you, but after a couple of days I finally got my sea legs back.  

On day 7 our new sail (ballooner) came down in the middle of the night, lying half in the water and partly wrapped around the anchor. Don’t ask me how, we somehow managed to get the sail back in and it was in one piece. We also had to change our course significantly when we noticed a sailing boat which didn’t have AIS (Identification system), didn’t show up on radar and had no lights. That was good practice again to stay alert during a night watch.

We had a few flying fish and squid on deck, it is very hilarious when they hit the deck. After a week we started to loose sight with the line of Cape Verde and that’s were you really started to feel that you are only surrounded by the ocean. I loved the tranquility.

Every day we had a simular set up. We would have dinner together around 18.00 o’clock. I would go to bed at 19.00 for 3 hours. Then David would go to bed for 3. Then me one more time for 3. After that David could sleep for as long as he wanted. Which most of the time didn’t ended up longer then 4 hours. In the morning we would have breakfast and for the rest of the day, we would take our time on and off equally. David was reading books like rockets and I enjoyed listening to podcasts.

After a week the wind picked up and we had a steady 27 knots with gusts to 35 with the accompanying swell. The boat was rolling heavily since our sail came down the other night. This particular sail steadies the boat up, so it gives us stability but also a lot more speed. But you can’t get this sail up in strong winds, so it was not possible to get it up in the current conditions.

After more than 7 days of fairly tiring conditions the wind finally calmed down a bit. We thought that this might be the moment to get our sail up again, and so we did. We tried our old sail first (which we got repaired in Las Palmas), we got it halfway up and then it ripped completely. Well, maybe it had its time after 25 years. So, we got our new one out again, and when it was almost up, it ripped as well!! We both could not believe that this just happened, because this is the sail we really need! Both down and tired, we got the sail down and stored it away. Seems like we have to do the rest of the crossing without.

Our last week consisted of almost no wind, how unbelievable. The boat was sometimes heavily rocking and all not comfortable. But we were coming closer to our goal and that kept us going. Mister Floyd, our dog, was doing extremely well. A very relaxed and adaptable animal which gave me so much smiles during our crossing.

On the first of March when I had my watch, the sun came up and I finally saw land. I woke up David and we had a lovely sail to the Island Martinique, where we dropped our anchor in Saint Anne. We did it! We crossed the Atlantic Ocean. We covered 2874 miles in 20 days.  It felt so weird that we could finally sleep whenever we wanted and no sailing for a bit. Just quiet at anchor. I was so extremely happy that we did this. After a long shower and a little kip in the afternoon we had a BBQ at night. We both could not wait to sleep in our bed, together. All in all, an unbelievable never to forget experience. It made me grow.  

We stayed a few days in Martinique where we re provisioned, got more fuel and bought some parts which we needed. After that we sailed up to the north of Martinique where we stayed in a great bay with a view to the famous Mount Pelee. In the meantime the corona virus made us decide to go quicker up north than our original plan. Our plan was spending the summer in the north of America, around Maine. You need a visa for America which we wanted to obtain in the Bahama’s. So the reason for going up north quicker was trying to get into the Bahama’s as quickly as possible. We always said we don’t want to spent hurricane season in the Caribbean. 

We sailed to Îles des Saintes, formed by nine unspoiled islands. I loved it, it has bistro lined streets and turquoise waters and is apparently one of the most beautiful bays in the World. From ’Les Saintes’ we sailed to the west coast of Guadeloupe where we stopped at Pigeon Island. Here you can find the Cousteau Reserve, which is a protected underwater reserve with vibrant coral reefs and gardens. I had a great few hours of snorkelling where it felt like I was in an aquarium.

Unfortunately our generator broke down and we needed to go back south to the capital of Guadeloupe to get the parts. We got the bits that we needed but in the meantime the borders from countries around us were closing because of the virus. We did not want to be in lockdown in this country for several reasons. So, we decided to leave the next morning towards Antigua.

When David went to the immigration office in the morning it was closed; you were not able to ‘check out’ anymore, meaning leaving the country was impossible. They didn’t tell that they were closing so more boats were more then surprised that this just happend. After several phone calls, calls on the vhf to other people, emails to immigration David had the idea to go to the airport to obtain the clearance stamp. I thought no way on earth they were giving us the stamp. But two hours later David came back with the stamp! Unbelievable, so so lucky! We raised our anchor straight away and sailed overnight to Antigua. Antigua was one of the few countries that were still allowing people in. When we arrived it took us 6 hours to ‘check ourselves in’. It all felt like a big relieve. 

We sailed to green island, this is a small island lying off the eastern coast of Antigua. It is a private island owned by the mill reef club since 1947. It is a great big bay where we are anchored and we are protected by the reef. As we speak Antigua went into lockdown from today. We ‘can’ still kitesurf, paddle board and all the things that we are passionate about in life. So, we feel very very grateful to spent this time right here.

It is likely we have to change our original sailing plan. If we can not get into the US we probably sail back to Europe. But for now, we don’t know what happens the next months, so we leave it a bit for what it is. I hope you are all safe and well in these times.

All my love,
Kelly

A lovely visit to Asturias to visit friends. All the boat work almost done, but still ‘stuck’ in Valencia.

While we thought we would have left by now we are still in the marina in Valencia. We missed a very good weather window last week. Unfortunately David got a sudden dental issue which he needed to fly back twice to the UK for. A bummer but Valencia is not a bad place to spend some time.

With being most of the boat work done I thought I give you all a little update of what exactly has been done. So, it is going to be a bit of a technical nerdy blog this one.
Before we arrived we made a list of the things we wanted to upgrade or change. The list was manageable and we thought it would take us around 3 weeks. But the thing is, you start a job but then another job appears to be solved first. Meaning the list kept on growing.

One of the major jobs was the engine which has taken a long time. The turbo wasn’t working anymore and we were only making a maximum of 1800 revs. This can be caused by a numerous amount of reasons, which need to be eliminate one by one. And hopefully the first one is the right pick. We took the injectors out and brought them to a garage where they checked them. Back in, but still no good. We changed the fuel injection pump, cleaned out all the pipes, tweaked other bits and David even got into the water to clean the propellor. But that rev counter was still not going up. In the meantime we learned a lot about our engine and in a way it felt good to spend so much time on it. After many hours; in the end; we changed the turbo for a whole new one, which brought us back to 2450 revs again. I can hear you thinking; Turbo problem, why not change it straight away? Well, a new turbo cost significantly more than the other maybe possible caused reasons if you can imagine. With all the effort David has put in it feels like we have a new engine! He even gave it a paint job!

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We have done a lot of work which was not necessarily needed, I talk here about cosmetic work. We ended up changing our windows in the cockpit. We saw this change on the boat of our lovely friends from SV Nathape who are in Valencia too. Our windows were scratched all over the place so we decided to change them as well. We took the old ones out and drove for two hours to a place where they only deal with plexiglass. They took the old ones to make the new ones exactly the same. After 3 hours we were able to pick them up. Great service and by the end of the day we had some new windows. They needed some painting around the edges but after that they were ready to go in. We are very happy that we have done this job. Mostly because when we sail in the night we couldnt see very well through the old windows.

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I love cooking and we both spend a lot of time in the galley. With only 2.75 x 2 gas cilinders on board we found out that we run out of them very quickly. And it is really a ‘pain’ (even) in the Mediterranean to find a refill sometimes. We decided to make a bigger gas locker compartment in order to fit two times 10 gas cylinders. A big job David did, which meant designing, fibreglassing and epoxying the whole thing. It’s looking great so far and David is finishing off this job as we speak. It will take a long time before we need a refill again. Happy Kelly! But there was more fibreglassing going on, not only made David a new gas locker he also made a new bow locker floor in one of our big lockers at the bow of the boat. So much work went into these two jobs.

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But with all that work it was time for some days off. We rented a car and we drove up to Asturias in the North of Spain, an 8 hour trip, where we were seeing our friends. Asturias is well known for its green landscapes, serious gastronomy, great beaches and colorful fishing villages. It is beautiful, even in the rain, which happend to be there all the time while we were around. It was a lovely weekend, filled with fantastic food, happy laughs from Mia their daughter and good company. We both completely relaxed.

But back to work again and something we wanted to do for a while was getting the swimming ladder and the last bits of our davids off. The holes still needs some sorting out but we are very happy with this result.

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Our furler motor from our genoa needed some attention too. On the motor is a disk that links the gearbox to the furler profile. The three bolts in that disk where basically gone and not good. This needed replacement. It was something that had to be done by a garage because we don’t have these kind of tools to do this on board. So David spent a lot of trips backwards and forwards towards these great guys who sorted it all. A new thick disk with big strong bolts, new bearings and new grease with grease nipples.

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Something visual which was high on my list was a new logo. Over the years the Amel logo has been completely faded by the sun. It’s obviously not important to cross an ocean but it makes me pretty happy this outcome.

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Our Bimini is getting a bit old and actually maybe needs replacement. But with some hand sewing it still keeps together. We were thinking about a completely new one but in the end decided against it. We can do with this one just a bit longer. After some patches that I have been stitching up I stitch on 12 round patches of strong plastic. This, so we can attach our new flexible solar panels on top of the Bimini. Quite a job when you are doing the stitching by hand. The two new flexible solar panels are together worth 340 watts. Our existing solar panel system has three panels. Two are above our Bimini and one is attached on the railing on the side of the boat. Each worth a 100 watts. Back in the day when we bought our solar panels we couldn’t find the right size with the maximum output. But looking online again a year later we did. So we decided to change the ones above the Bimini. From a 100 watts each, to 160 watts. A good upgrade overall, with in total 460 more watts compare to what we had before.

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And then all the other many little jobs not even mentioned. Changing a lot of lines, meaning whipping them all. Our yearly winch maintenance. We have cleared out EVERY locker and cupboard on board and throwing away what can go and rearranged it all. Our cupboards were always full of stuff and now we have put everything in boxes so it is very clear where what is. We sorted out the sun cover for our sails, which means getting all the sails down and back on again. We put new seals on the bow thruster and depth sounder and lots and lots more little jobs. The list was endless but we are almost there!

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As we speak David is upgrading our existing navigation system. Last week we decided to buy an autopilot ‘on the wind’. At the moment we have an autopilot that you can set on a certain degree. Works perfectly fine, but we love to follow the wind and we have been discussing this option a lot in the last year. So, we gave ourselves a big Christmas present! That doesn’t mean we loose our old system, we just have two systems now.

But Kelly, when are you guys leaving? I can tell you, we are both dying to get out there but the wind is predominately against us. Maybe we have made a wrong decision by doing the work here, too far away from Gibraltar. But we thought we would only have three weeks worth of work. Anyway, as soon as we can, we set sail.

We hope we spent Christmas at sea. I am looking forward to that because it feels like home.

We hope you all have a fantastic upcoming Christmas and New Years! Big love from Ker Marie!

Xxx Kelly

Leaving Sicily to cross back to Valencia. A storm underway and undertaking a lot of work on Ker Marie in order for crossing the Atlantic Ocean.

I love to write and always intend to do it more often, but time on the boat is going so quickly at the moment. In my last story we ended up in San Vito Lo Capo in Sicily where we waited for a good weather window to cross back to Sardinia. Well actually, Valencia, but Sardinia is our first stop on our way. After four days of waiting the weather looked good enough and we hoisted our sails in the evening towards Sardinia.

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After 42 hours of sailing we arrived in Sardinia. It was a great sail with lovely wind and we made a good overall speed. We anchored in special spot which is apparently famous for his dunes, “Porto Pino”. I walked up the highest dune, which was, (I found out because someone was whistling and shouting), forbidden. I thought these boys were lifeguards, but instead they were facing the other way towards the dunes, making sure no one went into it because it is a protected area. Me, whistling, but some tunes instead, walked my way down, with a full beach looking at me. Sorry peeps…did get the shot from Ker Marie I wanted though.

The next day we left late afternoon to cross back to Menorca. A 250 nm passage and with only 25 liters of water left we thought, “better a shower less than missing this good weather window”. We had some great sailing again. Very nice wind and very good progress. We were about to get close to Menorca when I had my night watch. While having my night watch I had seen thunder for a while in the far distance, but now it looked like it was coming closer and closer to us. I decided to wake up David, when it was 2’ o’clock at night. 

Together we had a close look on the radar and satellite, this was not the forecast at all, a thunderstorm was approaching Mahon, the place we were heading for. We decided we should be able to make it with only 20 nm left to get into harbour. We set up full sails and trimmed them as best as we could, to make the best speed possible. We were flying towards Mahon, but with only 2 miles left the storm was so close that David decided to turn around back to open sea again. At that point I wanted to pull a duvet over my head and go to sleep…

We were so close. For 1,5 hours we were beating against the swell to get away from the storm. We were on the edge of the storm all the time. There was proper thunder and the sea state was getting worse. Suddenly David saw a gap on the radar and decided to turn around to go for it, into safe harbour. We were now getting into the weather and very steadily the knots of wind increased, from 25 to 30, 30 to 35, 35 to 40, 40 to 45, 45 to 50, 50 to a Genoa as big as a garbage bin bag. The wind was ON and without our furler main mast motor, our main sail unfurled himself and was now wrapped around the rigging. Great! David tried to solve it but there was now way in this weather that was going to happen. The swell was big, nothing I have ever seen before. On the radio we heard a Dutch boat asking for the coastguard. With engine failure and a massive jibe on their main (they were surprised about the weather and had now idea what was waiting for them) they had to be tow’d in.

In the meantime we also had our engine on full throttle and with that tiny bit of sail we were beating the swell and trying to get into harbour before the weather was closing us in again. We hoped that we were able to get in because sometimes you can be rolled around so badly that you cannot get into harbour. But the entrance to Mahon harbour is wide. And then, finally, there we were, we made it! Both soo tired and very happy. After docking the boat there was a sigh of relieve.

It was morning at the moment and our neighbour said ‘were you out there?’. Uhm yes, we were. I think I can call this our first storm sailing moment. In a way it felt pretty good. I havent been once scared, but why would you when you know what the boat is capable of and you have the best captain you can wish for. Very happy David made the decision to turn around. Later on I went to see the Dutchies, same as us, the weather was not forecasted and they were completely overwhelmed by the storm. Apparently, as they told us, the coastguard was impressed by the weather as well when they headed out to sea. (see below a picture of the deviation we made and the weather gap on the radar)

After a few lovely relaxing days in Mahon we hoisted our sails again towards Ibiza. From Ibiza we did our last lap towards Valencia. We have been in Valencia for a month now and we have done a lot of work on the boat. To name a few: We replaced our windows in the cockpit, fixed the furler motor, Sails are repaired, winch maintenance and loads of other (endless) jobs.

At the moment David is making a bigger gas locker compartment, a new bow locker floor and fixing our engine. I guess we are not ready yet but we are really getting there. 

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Valencia is lovely and it is good to be here and do the work. We think we can leave in the next two weeks and head for the Canaries. All very exciting!

Will keep you updated and many thanks for all your lovely comments that I get through Facebook and Instagram. Very much appreciated.

Love,
Kelly

Sailing down the coast of Italy, celebrating my birthday in lovely Ponza and Spanish influences on board Ker Marie.

After a lovely sail from Imperia/Italy we arrived in the middle of the night in Corsica. Waking up after a night sail is always a great surprise. You have no idea where you anchored and then in the morning it is most of the time a big treat, which it was. We decided to stay for the day in the anchorage for a bit of relaxing time because we didn’t catch much sleep the night before. 

We hoisted our sails the day after towards Capraia Isola island, an island just off the coast of Corsica. There was a good bit of wind coming up and this was the best option to seek shelter. Half an hour before arrival we suddenly heard the fishing rod zinging…..FISH ON! We haven’t caught a proper fish yet but this time David had a serious guy on the lurer. After an hour David reeled it in and hooked it with the gaff. We had no idea what kind of fish it was but after consulting the chief fisherman (David’s friend) he told us we caught a Mahi Mahi. Not too bad! The boat and David were a bit bloody and as kids so happy we started filleting the fish. That night David made a delicious fish curry. What a great feeling to catch something from the sea and turn it into a meal. With enough fish left to feed a family of 6 we contently fell asleep after another great day on board Ker Marie.

Not long after, I woke up by the wind. I somehow have a sensor as soon as the wind starts to change direction or increases. We were anchored in seaweed which isn’t great and the wind threw us a couple of times around the anchor. Early in the morning the wind was quite strong and we decided to better sail in it, then sit in an anchorage waiting to drag. And so we did, with only the mizzen sail up we already reached 5 knots, enough wind to bring us to Elba Island, a place I really wanted to see. The anchorage in Elba was great and we would have liked to explore more of the island but we had to go down south, because we were picking up David’s friend in Sicily on a certain date.

During sailing down south the coast of Italy we have seen some great places on our way; The stunning island of Ponza where we celebrated my birthday with relaxing, swimming, exploring and enough coke and rum for my next birthday. Later on we sailed to the island of Ventotene and the famous Capri. And of course the beautiful Amalfi coast can’t be missed.

After the Amalfi coast we crossed to the Aeolian islands. First we visited Stromboli. Stromboli is a small island off the north coast of Sicily and is one of the three active volcanoes in Italy. It is very impressive to arrive here and to hear the rumbles of this active volcano.

Then over to Panarea, a very pretty island with great walks and a lovely cobbled street town. Spending a few days in Panarea we were heading for Salina where we visited the famous Hauner winery, where I danced with the locals on a night out and where David had his first granita in his life. We love the Aeolian islands and would love to come back once.

But time was marching on and we needed to get to Palermo in Sicily to pick up our Spanish friend, Inaki! Arriving in Sicily/Palermo is a very different scene compare to Italy, we are closer to Africa and suddenly you notice little bits of that in your surroundings. Inaki is just as us an avid Kitesurfer and our plan was to get to the Aegadian islands to hopefully do some Kitesurfing. The Aegadian Islands are a group of five small mountainous islands in the Mediterranean Sea off the northwest coast of Sicily.

Since we are on board Ker Marie we have only been kitesurfing twice and we really miss it. It seems out to be that Kitesurfing and sailing not always go well together. When you are seeking shelter from that strong wind with your sailing boat, that’s where a Kitesurfer gets excited and wants to go near it. A very double and annoying feeling sometimes.

To try and Kitesurf that week we anchored ‘lee shore’, but far out. For the people not knowing what this is. The wind blows on shore, meaning the wind is pointed to shore, meaning if something happens your boat might end up on the beach (worst case scenario). The preference is it to be the other way around. But with Kitesurfing this doesn’t work because in case something happens with Kitesurfing you prefer the wind to blow to the beach, so you are not being blown into the ocean. Ideal is to find a spit (long piece of sandbar) where you anchor on one side and Kitesurf on the other.

That day when we thought we would do some Kitesurfing the wind dropped and there was no kitesurfing in the end. Unfortunately this was the case for the whole week when Inaki stayed with us. But although we couldn’t Kitesurf, with Inaki you always have a great time; Getting to the local fish market in Tripani to make a delicious Frutti di Mare afterwards, eating in a fish restaurant while we really wanted to eat meat that night and trying to catch fish with the spear gun. We had a lovely week and it was really nice to have people on board.

After dropping Inaki of in Tripani where he took the bus to Palermo to catch his flight we hoisted our sails towards San Vito lo Capo. We stayed for four days and walked up ‘Mount Monaco’ with great views over the bay.

At the moment we are sailing west again because we would like to cross the Atlantic Ocean at the end of the year. But in order to that there are quite a few things that need to be arranged. We will probably do some of that work in Valencia.

Will keep you updated and thanks again for all you lovely followers.
Wishing you a great day!

Love,
Kelly

From Ibiza to Mallorca + Menorca and back to France. David’s brother spent his holiday onboard Ker Marie and we experienced a sailors worst nightmare. 

After the rigging, that has been done in Hyères/France we set sail back to Ibiza. Ibiza is easy. The island is relatively small so If you need to hide from certain weather you can go to the other side of the island in a fair amount of time. We have spent quite some time in Ibiza before so after a few weeks it was time for something else. We hoisted our sails and were heading for Mallorca where we were picking up David’s brother, Stephen, who was spending 10 days on Ker Marie. 

It all started with an extremely uncomfortable (read: very very roly) motoring day. The wind was not as predicted and the seas were very confusing. Resulting in our quest being very uncomfortable. After 1.5 days we finally arrived on the other side of the island where we had a few relaxed nights in a bay. But the last night in that particular bay was a sailors worst nightmare. We were moored on a buoy. Generally we don’t like being on a buoy, especially David, because one; you need to pay for it and two; how are you sure this buoy is going to hold your 16 tons boat in a bit of wind?
That night we had winds around 15 knots, nothing special but I went out of bed several times to check the buoy and our lines. All good. Until Stephen woke us up at 6 in the morning. ‘Something is not right’ he said.

We got up and the scene was unbelievable! The mooring buoy broke (not our lines) and we have been drifting to the rocks were we stranded with our bow faced only one meter away from the rocks.


David automatically said ‘get into the dinghy and start the engine’ so we could try to pull away the boat very slowly. But how unlucky that our outboard engine broke down the night before. That was of no use. Everyone in the anchorage was still asleep and there was no option of getting to them because they were too far away. We had do to something ‘NOW’.

David had the idea to use the bow thruster to try and swing our bow a bit between the rocks from one side to another, meanwhile he had full reverse throttle. Several calls on the VHF radio asking for help were made but no answer. After half an hour it seemed like Ker Marie was moving, and yes she was, very slowly. David did it! He saved Ker Marie!

Slowly he manoeuvred backwards while we had all sort of weird feelings. Of being angry and complete happiness that we got out! The swearing vocabulary has been taken to a next level, that’s for sure.
We were all so happy but we had to be careful and see if we had any damage. We checked all the floor lockers and I dived down to see if we had damage on the hull. So far we didn’t notice any severe damage, only some beauty marks. We got into contact with the marina a bit later and handed them over the broken buoy. Even the guy was surprised that this buoy basically broke from the block in the water. Unlucky or not looked after? We know what we are doing; Never on a buoy again!

After all the checks we decided to get out of there, and so we did, after a full day of sailing we arrived in a beautiful anchorage in Menorca. Menorca is lovely and a lot smaller, making it easier to shelter from weather, which can be changing all the time in the mediteranian. Compare to Mallorca anchoring is allowed in more places and there seems to be more space. We had a lovely week in several anchorages and ended up in Mahon where Stephen flew out back home again. Mahon was a pleasant surprise for me. I absolutely love it. It is not a big city but very lively and vibrant. It is located in a big sea inlet where you almost think you are on a lake when you approach the city. We had the best mojito ever and a lovely dinner in a tiny backyard with cozy lighting in an Italian restaurant. Mahon has stolen our hearts, but time to move again. Stephen got a taxi to the airport and David and I set sail back to France. 

To France? Yes, to France to pick up our hoover. Can you believe it? Long story short; When we were in Hyeres our almost new hoover broke down and we brought it back. Took 2 weeks they said, but instead it took 5 and we already left France.
The crossing to France was not very nice. The wind was different then predicted which meant we had to cross back to Spain first and then cross the Gulf of Lion. We had fairly strong winds, little wind, swell and no swell. Not the best crossing we had so far.

We had to be near Toulon but the wind directed us to Marseille in the end. We haven’t been up the coast near Marseille but we both liked it. The coastline is very pretty and we had a lovely time in a small place called Cassis.

During sailing we were stopped by the douane and they came on board with 6 men strong. They looked in every little locker to see if we had to hide something. I thought it was a great experience! One of the man was happy to be on board of an Amel I think. He kept on saying to his colleague ‘Un Amel, cest tres bien, solide’! It made me giggle while I was behind the wheel steering us in the right direction. After spending an hour on board they gave us a piece of paper that we were all good. The douane boat came along side again and all of them stepped back onto their boat. A wave and gone they were!

Finally we picked up our hoover after a bike ride of 20km land inwards…times two! Mister hoover maker forgot to enclose the battery.   After being reunited with my yellow Dewalt hoover we decided to get up the French coast a bit more to see some super yacht madness. Saint Tropez was our first stop. A little visit through town with a drink on a terrace was enough for us to set sail again towards Cannes. And Cannes really surprised me. I didn’t know that Cannes had a few islands just off the coast.  

les Îles de Lérins are a group of four Mediterranean islands off the French Riviera in Cannes. We have been anchoring between the two largest islands in this group named Île Sainte-Marguerite and the Île Saint-Honorat. Yes it is a bit of super yacht madness but you can find your spot. Somehow it was all very relaxed. There is even a pizza boat floating around. The island of Île Saint-Honorat is beautiful and the 21 monks currently make up the community of the monastery on here. Absolutely a must see when your in the area!  

After spending some time in the French Riviera we made our way towards the North of Italy. We spent two days in a Marina in Imperia to get ourselves ready to go all the way down to the South of Italy (Messina) to pick up David’s friend who will spent a week on board Ker Marie. Imperia was great and David and I found an absolute winner of a restaurant! As I am writing this we are half way, so more about that in my next reading. 

Thank you very much for all you loyal followers, I appreciate that a lot!
Speak to you soon!

Love,
Kelly

Leaving Almerimar, engine problems, big seas and strong winds, anchor dragging and Ibiza/Formentera treating us very well.

That has been a while since my latest story, meanwhile so many things happened. We finally left Almerimar were we spent almost 4 months of our time. It felt so free and relaxing when we were on the ocean again. Both smiling away with loud music on to celebrate! We had a bit of a hiccup on the way though, we stopped in the next marina of AquaDulce only 3 miles of Almerimar because the oil level from our engine had risen so much it was worrying. We thought it were the new seals in the prop shaft not placed back correctly but after some research on the ‘Amel’ forum we found out that this is normal and it is called ‘heat expansion’. Well, learned something again. We had a lovely night in the marina but the next day we set sail again heading for Denia.

And what kind of sailing! Big seas and winds up to 40 knots. It was down wind sailing so we had the ballooner up but completely reefed until it almost looked like we had a little plastic bag up. It was great sailing and we even broke our speed record; we reached 14 knots! That is very good speed for this type of boat and we did a 100 nm in less then 12 hours. Yes!
We decided to anchor in Javea, a place close to Denia because of the wind direction. This is a great anchorage. We had no other boats around and we had a view on the rocks with nice clear waters. This is exactly what we love, no marina fees, just throw your anchor out in a beautiful spot. After spending a couple of days in this great bay we hoisted our sails heading for Ibiza. 

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And this time we had our first visitors on board for a voyage! David’s parents came with us to Ibiza. We had a great crossing from Javea straight to Cala Benirrás. A spectacular bay with blue waters surrounded by hillside. We spent a few days hopping between other bays and did a crossing towards Formentera. We had a great time with booz and good food. One night when we were having dinner; Music on and singing along with Chuck Berry ‘Nadine’ when our anchor alarm app went off. David was already up because he didn’t trust the lights ‘coming by’. Suddenly David called ‘We are dragging, come up!’. I lifted my head in the cockpit and all I thought was; OMG!

Ker Marie was drifting in the dark with a high speed (it was 25 knots of wind) backwards only a few meters from another boat. It was so close that even Floyd started barking towards the people on the boat we just passed. This couple on that particular boat were staring at us with open mouths like if they just saw Theresa May doing a backflip. Weird, dangerous and something you never want to see again!

Quickly we turned on the engine and I steered and David tried to get the anchor back in. We changed positions and in the heavy wind and rain I tried to locate our anchor so we were able to get it back in. You don’t want it to drag behind you and in the end slam your hull. Finally we got it up! We have the best anchor you can buy on the market but maybe the wind and a very heavy duty bag which was caught in the anchor caused us to drag. After re anchoring we all felt like we needed a bottle of wine. Pffff, we looked back and we have been very very lucky. We have been drifting past 5/6 other boats. We had a bit of a giggle in the end about the whole scene. All singing along Chuck Berry while we were drifting away in 25 knots of wind going for the rocks, bunch of hippies. 😉

After a great week of Ibiza/Formentera it was time to head back for Denia to drop off David’s parents so we could set sail towards Hyeres in France. We had a perfect sail back and we absolutely had a great week!

We were booked in to do the rigging of Ker Marie in Hyeres, the very last bit of work. It takes a couple of days from Denia to get there so we looked at a nice weather window. Unfortunately a strong mistral was blowing in the gulf of Lion so we had to wait a bit before we could enter the gulf. We had two stops on our way to catch some sleep at night so we would be ready for the crossing. We thought the gulf would be high seas and strong winds which was the prediction. But we had no wind, yes none. We even have been motoring the first part, but a third way in the wind was suddenly on! Seas were getting bigger and David enjoyed some good sailing at night. It was the first time I didn’t feel very well because of the swell so I have been down in the bunk a lot. Early in the morning I took over so David was able to catch some sleep. Beautiful sunrise, dolphins around and nice sailing. Finally after 415nm we arrived in Hyeres. For the next 10/12 days Ker Marie is getting a complete new rig after 25 years!

With a new rig we feel safe to cross oceans and to let the wind bring wherever it wants to take us. Again, feeling very grateful for this great adventure! Thank you for reading and feel free to share our stories.

Love, Kelly

Ker Marie finally back in the water again, electrics going wrong, David in the UK and presenting you our new website.

Yes, that was an exciting and big splash when ‘Ker Marie’ was in the slings of the crane to be lifted back into the water again. A few days before the splash we have been sorting out the replacement of the seals of the propellor (these need to be replaced after 800 engine hours or every 2 years). And I can tell you that was quite a thing. The first seal went completely wrong because somehow grit came in the shaft and it ruined one of the seals. So, seal out and new one in again. I talk like this is an easy peasy job, but it is very fiddly, greasy and especially exciting when you are doing this for the first time. All of it was a bit of a race against the clock, but we managed just before the haul in.

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Even more exciting was; Is the engine going to start after all those months? We didn’t test the engine because there was no time left to try it. But this lovely lady started her engine so smoothly like she hasn’t been in the yard all those months.

I was standing on the bow when David motored us to our dock. I remember I felt absolutely incredible. The silence after the noisy yard, the sea gliding underneath me, I felt so alive and free! Arriving in our dock we straight away got the hose out to give her a good clean, so dirty she was.

David and I felt so relaxed to be back in the drink again that we started talking about our plans. Our plan is to stay here for maximum two weeks. In these two weeks we need to get the sails back on, fit our solar panels and then we can leave to Hyeres in France to replace our rigging.

But, first things first, we have to get rid of our car. So David drove the next day to the UK and IOM to store it with his family. He left for 5 days and on day 1 it was already trouble. Poniente is back again (is a strong wind direction) and we are blown with our boat against our neighbours, a fancy Amel 54. I have been rearranging all the fenders and lines in the hope it all holds. It was an very uncomfortable night where I went out of bed (I do not sleep well in these conditions anyway) multiple times to check, double check and re arrange. Even Floyd was uncomfortable and I took him inside the boat at night. Which he absolutely loved by the way. The next morning it was a hard time to get him out of his bed. Suddenly pretending (with puppy eyes up) he couldn’t get up the stairs anymore into the cockpit. Funny animal.

In the morning I was cold and turned our heating on. Yes, we are still in Spain. After 5 minutes I smelled burned rubber and turned around and smoke came out of the socket. This is one of my nightmares; electrics going wrong. Straight away I turned the main input off and then pulled the plug out. The socket was half gone, it burned a hole in there. It was still smoking away, but it eventually got less, end ended. Why now?…exactly at the time David is not here. But I learned something new again, I dismantled the heater, threw it out and way you go. Who needs a captain! Well, me, because obviously I called up David in panic mode. 

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The wind is not stopping, it even got stronger and stronger, accompanied by rain. Great. The Marina staff is doing very well, they are driving every hour on the pontoon to check if everything is oke. Even at night. Somehow that makes me feel a bit better and if there is really something I can call up on the VHF. Not the way my dad is using his VHF though; he refuses to talk in ‘boat language’ and just says straight away what he is after. It always makes me laugh the times I have spent on their boat. Some people are trying to correct him, but they haven’t met ‘Louis Bontje’ yet, no messing around with this one.

I had planned a lot of things these days, cleaning in/outside of the boat properly, last checks on the winches, some sanding and oiling wood. But because of the weather it was already a challenge to give Floyd his daily walks. So, instead I have been writing this and have given our website an update, which you must have noticed while reading it. And we have a logo which I am so happy with! Go and have a look on the homepage and let me know what you think!

For now I wish you all a lovely day. We will be sailing very soon and we can not wait!

Love,
Kelly