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Modern day Columbus discovery ship runs aground in Florida

A replica of the boat that Christopher Columbus first sailed across the Atlantic in, “La Niña”, ran aground on sandbanks in a fierce storm, recently, as it attempted to enter Tampa Bay on the West side of the Florida panhandle in the United States. Luckily, the grounding was only temporary and together with a companion boat, the Pinta, it was able to proceed on and tie up for an official visit to Tampa.

Columbus left Spain for the Canary Islands, then crossed the Atlantic with three vessels. His own boat was the Niña. He sailed with the Pinta and the Santa Maria. Only the Niña and the Pinta made it back to Europe.

Discovery of America (1492)

The Niña was built originally in Moguer in Spain’s Andalucia province, and designed as a coastal trading boat with a shallow draft and wide beam. Strangely, there were no drawings or models of any of the boats which could be used as a reference when the decision was made to build replicas back in 1986 by the Columbus Foundation. The idea at the time was to have two of the three boats built in time for the 500th anniversary of Columbus’ Atlantic crossing. In fact, there was only time and money for one to be built before that date – this was the Niña.

The Niña and Pinta were caravel redondas – four masted timber boats with square sails for down wind sailing on the two fore masts and lateen sails on the two aft mizzen masts. They had large holds for carrying cargo and were much in use during the so called “Age of Discovery”. They were apparently good sailing boats and were used in times of war as well as for piracy. The cargo hold came in useful on Columbus’ voyages as the sailors had to share the ships with horses, cattle, chickens and pigs! The animals were kept in slings to stop them from being damaged when sailing.

The Santa Maria- Columbus’ third boat of the expedition was a different type of boat called a Nao, or freighter. It was apparently disliked by Columbus and never survived the trip and was wrecked on a reef, in what is now the Dominican Republic. Columbus said after it ran aground that it was too clumsy and slow and not suited for the purposes of discovery when there was a need for maneuverability in waters that were unknown.

The replica Niña was buillt in Brazil between 1987 and 1991. The location for the project was specially chosen by the Columbus Foundation because of the skills that the boat builders had in the Brazilian coastal village of Valenca on Brazil’s Bahia coast and the tools they used for boat building- hand tools such as axes, adzes, and saws. The timber for the craft came from nearby forest trees and it was built not from an actual paper plan, but from a mental image the boat builders had in their heads. The boat building method used in the sleepy little village was called Mediterranean Cold Moulding and dated back to the time of the real Niña. .

The replica was completed in 1991 and sailed for 4,000 miles on its first voyage through the Panama Canal and up to the Pacific Coast of Costa Rica, proving that a replica caravel could still complete lengthy voyages 500 years after it was the master of the seas. The Niña arrived in time for the filming of “1492”, featuring Columbus and his four voyages.

The Niña’s sister ship, the Pinta, was built a little later, also in Valenca in Brazil. The two replica boats are still used and are actively sailed around the U.S. coast as floating museums representing the type of boat that was prevalent in the fifteenth century.

April 11, 2013 | Alison Williams

Last British Top Sail Schooner Reluctantly put up for Sale

The main mast top sail schooner “Kathleen & May” has been put up for sale in Liverpool in England for a price of around 2 million pounds sterling.

The ship was built 113 years ago near Chester and is owned by Steve Clarke, who says he has to sell the historic tall ship because his health has been deteriorating. He no longer feels able to maimntain the boat as well as he was able to do so in the past. Mr Clarke put a lot of his own time and money into restoring the Kathleen & May after purhasing it.

As might be expected of a ship of this age, she has had a varied and interesting history. When she was first built she was designed to be a three masted top sail schooner of around 30 metres in length.

She was built using three inch (8 cm) seasoned pitch pine for the planks, which were nailed and bolted to to oak ribs. Her current name was given to her by the second owner who named her after his two daughters. She served as a coastal trading boat for the first sixty years of her life, and was only fitted with an engine for the first time in the early 1930s. For much of her early life she traded coal and other cargo on the West Coast of England.

Top-Sail Schooner

The ship was found to be in bad condition in 1968 by the Duke of Edinburgh and was bought by a trust which was set up specifically to refit and restore her. When restored, she was the last remaining West Coast trading schooner in existence.

Steve Clarke bought her in 1998 and towed her to his home port of Bideford in Devon. She was hauled out and much of her timber planking, bow sections and deadwood were replaced. She was then given back her originally designed three main masts. Since the major refit, the Kathleen & May has sailed across the Irish Sea many times, attending a lot of major festivals celebrating and showcasing tall ships. She also sailed down to Bilbao in Spain, where she was a guest feature at the famous Guggenheim Museum for three weeks.

Mr Clarke is a reluctant seller and would like to see the ship stay in Liverpool. There have been several interested potential buyers, one of whom is from the Far East who has offered more than the valuation price.
In order to help keep the boat in its home country, the Arts Council has made a temporary stop on any export licences, to allow the possibility of the vessel staying in Britain.

The Arts Council will apparently match any offer, pound for pound, meaning that an offer of £1 million should finalize the sale.

Mr Clarke’s agents are keeping an eye on the sale progress and are hopeful that the boat will stay in Liverpool. They say that the historic port is close to where the Kathleen & May was originally built and has strong links with the Maritime Museum. It worked the Irish Sea close by until the 1960s. Keeping the old schooner in Liverpool would mean a continuation of the huge interest there has been in it in the city.

February 7, 2013 | Alison Williams

Clipper Yachts make Round the World Sailing not Just a Dream

With Europe in a state of economic gloom, you would think it strange to see a whole new venture involving a fleet of 70 foot yachts designed to allow ordinary people from all walks of life a chance to circle the globe.

But that is precisely what is happening with the unveiling of the Clipper 70s – a new fleet of yachts that will race against each other in the world’s longest ocean race around the world using an amateur crew made up of enthusiastic people who may have never set foot on a yacht before.

The race itself is not new. It started as an idea put into practice by Robin Knox-Johnston, the first person to make a solo round the world trip in the 1960s in a leaky Indian built timber ketch. His vision was to allow amateurs to participate in one or more legs of a purpose designed round the world race and get the adventure of a lifetime. Now well over 60, Sir Robin has been in the headlines of world yachting ever since he brought “Suhaili” back to Britain after that memorable race which saw everybody else either give up, sink or dismast. It was the race that saw famous French yachtsman Bernard Moitessier head for Tahiti and a life amongst the palm trees rather than the stress of trying to remain in front of a race around the world.

Rising Wind

Montague Dawson

The latest Clipper race will be between 12 new identical Clipper 70s and will take place between 2013 and 2014. Only the first of the boats has yet to appear on show at a week long viewing at St Katharine’s Docks on the Thames in London. The boat show at the docks allowed everybody a peep at the new design and soon promoted a further 50 people to sign up for the year long race. These people were added to the more than 500 who had already signed up for the next race.

Sir Robin was ecstatic about the new boats and the avid reception they were getting at the dockside. He said that his original vision of ordinary people being given a chance to sail an ocean racer on a boat which made it easier for them had been vindicated by the success of the previous races and he was looking forward to the start of the next.

Such a race does not come cheap and although the participants will help to subsidise the cost of the race with the fees they will be charged, it also requires sponsorship. In the case of the Clipper 70s it was announced that the sponsorship by a subsidiary of Rabobank, De Lage Landen, was going to continue, with the company paying for the expenses of one of the boats.

The route this year will see the Clippers sailing across the Atlantic to Mexico – rather an unusual destination for ocean racers. They will be visiting the tourist town of Cozumel, well known for its crystal clear waters and sun loungers on the Yucatan peninsula.

February 1, 2013 | Alison Williams

Travel and Cruising

Cornwall will be host to the Iberian Tall Ships Regatta

Falmouth, in Cornwall, England, has one of the largest natural harbours in the world and is only too happy to play a host to the next Iberian Tall Ships Regatta. The regatta is not due until 2014 – next year – but the city is gearing up for the event already.

The Tall Ships Regatta is organised by the Sail Training Association and usually involves some of the world’s best known tall ships. These are used by their respective nations as sail training venues for their own navy cadets or for character building opportunities for youth or anybody else in the community for that matter.

The regattas are staged over a period of several months and the various host ports are staggered so that the regatta can proceed smoothly from one to another.

The 2014 event already includes the Port of London’s Greenwich site while a third port in either Spain or France is yet to be announced.

Flushing, Near Falmouth, Cornwall, En…

Ken Gillham

The City of Falmouth is excited about the regatta as it has already hosted one before in 2008. During that event, over 100,000 spectators poured down to the harbour side to watch the majestic tall ships carry out their manoeuvres. Financially, the regatta brought in over 12 million pounds to the cash registers of Falmouth, so perhaps it’s not surprising that the event is being looked at with avid eyes.

Falmouth is a particularly scenic and historic harbour with two twin castles on either side of the “heads” – Pendennis and St Mawes – both built by Henry 8th, one of the first English kings to take his own national navy seriously. This is the entrance to the harbour proper and probably one of the best vantage points if you are now thinking of heading to Falmouth for the 2014 event.

Falmouth’s hosting of the event will see a number of organizations cooperating to make it memorable. The Falmouth Town Council will be working in partnership with the local Falmouth Tall Ships Association, the Festivals and Events Team from the Cornish Tourism Office and Cornwall’s National Maritime Museum, just to mention a few.

Falmouth is no newcomer to Tall Ships’ Visits. Of course, the harbour was used in the golden days of sail by the British Navy because of its large size and it was an important commercial port for a long time before the sheer size and draft of modern ships meant that deepwater ports like Plymouth became more important. One of the reasons for Falmouth’s busy harbours before the nineteenth century drew to a close was its easy access to the Atlantic Ocean, the west coast of France and Spain and the run down and across the Atlantic. This gave it strategic importance, allowing as it did a chance to berth and find stores for those vessels without the benefit of a thudding diesel or coal powered engine to help navigate its way up the English Channel with its contrary winds and tides.

More recently, when large sailing ships have become objects of leisure and used for team building and sail training the harbour has seen several events take place within its waters. The first Tall Ships event took place in 1966 and every few years the graceful craft return in large numbers through Falmouth’s heads for yet another occasion.

January 6, 2013 | Alison Williams

Travel and Cruising

A Record win for this year’s Boxing Day Sydney-Hobart Race?

The world renowned Sydney to Hobart yacht race is expecting favorable winds on Boxing Day and may well mean a record time will be set by the time the racing fleet arrive at their destination port, Hobart, on the island of Tasmania. The supermaxi yacht “Wild Oats XI” is predicted to be in the best position to take line honors for the 6th time.

With the start of the gruelling annual race only 36 hours away, the weather forecast is suggesting that the 77 yachts will begin with a headwind as they make progress across Sydney Harbour on the commencement of the passage, a total of 628 miles.

This headwind will dissipate and tailwinds will take over, which will set the yachts into motion as they speed across Bass Strait and then to the capital, Hobart.

Sydney Opera House, Sydne…

Walter Bibikow

The Bureau of Meteorology forecaster for Australian waters, Michael Logan, said that throughout the first night at sea the breeze will soon lighten off somewhat and then come from the north easterly sector and, fortunately for the racing fleet, will freshen up significantly, which will help the yachts on a speedy rollercoaster ride to Hobart.

A westerly change will be expected in the later stages of the race but will not reach the strength that brought about the high seas that occurred in 1998, when six race entrants lost their lives.

Not all of the sailing boats are super racing yachts – they cover a significant range of small and big and new and old vessels.

The faster, larger yachts will have an advantage because they will be able to use the favorable winds, while the smaller, slower yachts as they fall behind will be more affected by the impact of the expected westerly change later in the race.

Currently, “Wild Oats XI” is the record holder and this stands at 1 day, 18 hours, 40 minutes and 10 seconds, a time which has not been bettered for 6 years. “Ragamuffin-Loyal”, at one hundred feet long, and “Lahana”, at 98 feet in length, are also in the running to win the race.

There is another contender called “Wild Thing”, which has increased its length to one hundred feet, and might have a chance to reach the lead as well, but has kept its modifications a secret.

Bass Strait, and the Pacific Ocean, which lies eastwards, have a reputation for high winds and challenging seas. Despite the fact that the this event takes place in the middle of the Australian summer, southerly busters or extreme storms often turn the Sydney–Hobart race into a cold, turbulent, and testing situation for the enthusiastic and competitive crews. Often, a large number of yachts retreat and turn into the small port of Eden, which is the last possible refuge, situated on the south coast of New South Wales.

The founding race, which was in 1945, had only nine boats at the start. The winner, “Rani”, took 6 days, 14 hours and 22 minutes. In 1999, however, the Danish boat “Nokia” took just 1 day, 19 hours and 48 minutes and a few seconds. It wasn’t until 2005 that “Wild Oats XI” proceeded to win the line and handicap honours, which took 1 day 18 hours, 40 minutes and 10 seconds.

Observers will certainly be waiting with bated breath to see the outcome of the 2012 event.

December 25, 2012 | Alison Williams

Travel and Cruising

Shenandoah of Sark arrives at Virgin Gorda after Atlantic Ocean blues

The 55 metre three masted gaff schooner, the “Shenandoah of Sark”, was forced to abandon the recent Super Yacht and Maxi Regatta which was organized by the Sardinian based Costa Smeralda Yacht Club and ran between Santa Cruz de Tenerife in the Canaries and Virgin Gorda in the British Virgin Islands in the Caribbean.

The schooner ripped several of its sails and had to repair them below decks before being able to make much speed across the Atlantic.

One other huge yacht in the fleet also had to admit defeat in the race, which saw strong trade wind conditions.

Shenandoah of Sark Schooner Sails Pas…

Onne Van Der Wal

The race started on the island of Tenerife on November 26th with 20 to 25 knots of wind from the North West. All the yachts that started on time decided to leave the island by going round the top end, while Shenandoah, which was built in 1906, decided to leave round the south end of the island.
The Costa Smeralda Yacht Club organizes the rally / race every year, together with the International Maxi Association, specifically for very large or super yachts. The yacht club runs a marina on the island of Virgin Gorda and has a new club house there.

The event, which is now in its fifth year, is 2700 nautical miles long and takes the big boats between 10 to 16 days to sail. The difference is not just the sailing ability of the boats themselves, but the wind conditions which vary each year. The fastest of the super yachts before this year’s race was the “Hetairos”, which claimed line honours last year in just under 9 days.

The other big rally, the Atlantic Rally for Cruisers (ARC) was forced to delay the cruising section of its fleet this year by two days because of unseasonally strong south westerly winds. The racing fleet, of about 35 boats, all quite a lot smaller than the super yachts that left from Tenerife, all left on the due date, though.

Shenandoah had got off to a good start with its mainly volunteer crew, by getting to the starting line first.
The winning boat of the race was the 100 foot Farr designed maxi yacht, Ran Leopard, with Niklas Zennström as skipper. The Ran Leopard beat last year’s winner by arriving in just under 8 days.

Second was the 32 metre “Nilaya” in just over 9 days days and 5 minutes later another Farr designed maxi racer, the “Sojana” arrived.
Skippers of the these two yachts commented that it had been an exciting race as winds had been strong, with up to 37 knots at times, especially at the start. The strong conditions had meant a fast crossing, generally, but the Nilaya reported ripping “several” of its spinnakers, which resulted in a lower overall speed than had been expected.

The “Shenandoah of Sark”, named after an American Indian name and a U.S. river of the same name, has an Indian as a figurehead at the stem of the boat. It has just arrived at Virgin Gorda to take part in the planned events there, although it missed the trophy award ceremonies at the club house.

December 13, 2012 | Alison Williams

Travel and Cruising

Lone Female Dismasted Vendée Sailor on Her Way Home

The Vendée Globe round the world single handed race is not known for faint hearts. Every time the race takes place there are exciting times for some and failures for others. At the moment, it is the turn of the only female sailor, Briton Sam Davies, to feel a measure of defeat as she nears home again after dismasting north west of Madeira not long after the start of the race.

Sam is sailing the boat, the 60 foot “Saveol” back under jury rig and remarked yesterday that it really felt so much slower than the speed she was able to sail at after leaving France at the start of the race. She has been more or less tracing her original route back with the modified rig.

The race competitor suffered the dismasting not long after a depression and its accompanying cold front swept across the fleet as it edged down into the Northern Atlantic on the first leg of the race southwards towards the Cape of Good Hope.

Action Off the Cape of Good Hope, Mar…

Samuel Scott

It is still not known at this stage what exactly caused the breakage in the wing type mast carried on the boat. The Saveol is not new to ocean racing as it was used by a former French competitor, Roland and was then called the “Veolia Environement”.

Changing the name of a boat is considered unlucky by some old sailors, so perhaps this is the reason for the dismasting! Ms Davies was thought to have passed very close to the centre of a depression when the accident happened, while most of the other competitors had steered to one side or another.

Whatever the technical reason for the failure in the mast, Ms Davies appears to be relatively upbeat about her adventure and certainly mastered the whole incident exceptionally well alone.

The dismasting happened as the boat was careering in large, confused seas downwind. There had been a sharp change in the wind direction earlier in the day, causing the wave flow to become steeper and more unpredictable. Sam had apparently reefed down successively as the wind built and was just thinking of putting in a third reef in the mainsail when the boat hit a large wave, which was followed by the mast breaking and falling into the sea.

The worst aspect of a dismasting is the possibility of the mast remains jabbing into the side of the hull and piercing it while it is still attached by the rigging to the rest of the boat.

The important step for any dismasted sailor is to cut away the remains of the rigging and drop the mast in to the sea or lash it securely onto the side if it is thought it could be useful as a jury rig. In Sam’s case this was made moré difficult with the size of the waves continually pushing the mast onto the side of the boat.

The Saveol is not the only boat to have struck bad luck in the race. Another, the “Safran” lost its keel, while two others have suffered collisions with trawlers.

December 6, 2012 | Alison Williams

Travel and Cruising

Clipper Round the World Yacht Race Veteran Guo Chuan Sails Solo

The Chinese coast is not new to sailing. The classic junk is recognisably Chinese and these sailing boats have been plying the waters of the South China Sea for centuries, both as trading and fishing boats. Fragments of Chinese pottery and other relics have turned up in mysterious places like the Australian coast, hinting that the junks were more far reaching in their quest, perhaps on exploratory visits far from the shores of the Chinese motherland.

However, China is certainly new to sailing as a leisure pursuit. While the junk rig has been adopted as a seaworthy and safe design for western yachts, China has only started to view sailing as a possible form of entertainment very recently. Perhaps the growing affluence of the Chinese economy, together with exposure to sailing enthusiasts during the Olympics, as well as the recently completed Volvo Ocean Race, may have contributed.

Morning, from a Set of Si…

Hiroshi Yoshida

China now has a sailing hero in Guo Chuan. He is out to make sailing history by aiming to be the first from China to complete a solo non-stop circumnavigation of the world. Chuan, now 47, and once a scientist, commenced the ambitious trip last Sunday from Qingdao, his hometown, situated in China’s North East Shandong province. His target is to sail in approximately 130 days the 21,600 nautical mile salty journey by tracking south eastwards to the Southern ocean, then transit Cape Horn and eventually back to China.

Guo is not new to sailing. He has had 12 years of practice after spending much of his working life working on a commercial satellite programme in China. He is also trying to be the 1st man to sail around the world in an Akilaria 40, which is 40 feet in length and is a monohull.

Guo hopes to be successful, but there is always some uncertainty when dealing with a feat that involves the great oceans. But he has certainly done all the possible preparation to ensure he completes this journey without having to seek any assistance along the way.

Circumnavigating the world in the 21st century has not normally been seen as anything too extraordinary, as both male and female sailors have already made their names. More recently, younger sailors in their teens have taken on the challenge. Australian Jessica Watson happily took on and completed the challenge in 2010. 16 year old Dutch teenager Laura Dekker, who flew the New Zealand flag, where she was born to parents on a much earlier and slower circumnavigation, similarly succeeded in completing the route last year.

A Chinese syndicate has been involved in lead up challenges to the 2013 America’s Cup and Guo was the first Chinese sailor to crew in the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race. He has sailed single-handed across the Atlantic Ocean in a 6.5-metre yacht, and he has also crossed the English Channel solo. Guo certainly seems to have built up an enviable reputation on the water and is set to break a record for his country.

November 23, 2012 | admin

Travel and Cruising

Vendée Globe Sailors Prepare for the Greatest Solo Race

The 7th Vendée Globe Race, with 20 boats waiting at the starting line at Sables d’Onnes on the Atlantic coast of France, is due to start on November 10th.

The race village has been inundated over the last week with thousands of curious onlookers and fans of the world’s toughest solo sailing race.

From France, the twenty competing solo sailors sail South round the world’s southernmost capes without stopping anywhere, which puts it in a different league from other ocean races like the Volvo Ocean Race.
The 60 foot boats can travel downwind at speeds exceeding 20 knots, which makes for exhilarating sailing as long as nothing solid is in the way, like a whale , floating container or iceberg!

Joshua Slocum Encounters a Huge Wave …

Thomas Fogarty

From France, the boats must at first negotiate the arduous conditions across the Bay of Biscay in early winter weather, which can deliver severe south westerly headwinds, storms or fast downwind northerlies.

The route then leads past the Canaries into the tropics through the Cape Verde islands. This becomes a fast, but predictable downwind sail using the north east trades. From the Verdes, the boats then battle the vagaries of the doldrums, a complex region of calms and sudden squalls, which can challenge the race contestants to a choice of strategies.

With the doldrums passed, the south east trades lead to the first of the southern capes – the Cape of Good Hope and Cape Agulhas, off the tip of Africa, and into the wild Southern Ocean. This ocean straddles the forties, fifties and sixties in latitude and is characterised by strong westerly winds with embedded fronts and the occasional storm – fast, but tough sailing.

The route through the world’s largest stretch of unbroken sea sees the yachts pass the southern edge of Australia, New Zealand and South America, before again emerging into the Atlantic after passing Cape Horn.

Each stretch of sea presents its own dangers, and while weather, at least, can be predicted from the regular 6 hour forecasts which each boat is able to receive, it is the unpredictable solid bits which most sailors fear the most – from rogue waves due to storms, to stray icebergs in the Pacific and the occasional unfortunate sleeping whale which could be easily hit on the surface.

Large ships use a special sonar device which searches the water in front of the ship, scanning for possible obstructions.

The electronic surveillance allows the ship to detect anything which could be a possible danger. This is particularly useful when it comes to the possible risks of collision with forty foot steel containers, which might be floating on the surface of the sea after falling off a container ship and icebergs.

The sonar is impractical on a Vendée yacht, because the weight of the device would seriously impair its stability.

With not long to go before the commencement of the race, competitors are looking west to the massive storm at present threatening New York. Ex Hurricane Sandy, born in the warm waters of the West Indies could present a threat to the fleet just as it heads off from Sables d’Onnes. These tropical origin storms have a knack of tracking east in the higher latitudes of the North Atlantic and there is no reason why it might not pass straight through the fleet’s intended path in the days to come.

October 29, 2012 | Alison Williams

Travel and Cruising

Disabled Sailors Set Sail on Exciting Voyage Around the World

The first ever round the world voyage on a tall ship carrying disabled sailors as crew has set off from Southampton in England.

The ship is the “Lord Nelson”, named after the half blind British admiral who led the British fleet at Trafalgar, so the ship is suitably named to carry the collection of people with a variety of disabilities on its mission.

The disabilities range from blindness and multiple sclerosis to paraplegia and the ship has been fitted out to help cater for the full range of abilities that the crew will be able to demonstrate.

The Battle of Trafalgar and the Victo…

Not only are the abilities and disabilities very varied, so are the ages. One of the oldest crew members who signed up for the 23 month voyage, which is expected to travel 50,000 miles around the world, is Beryl Jones at 69 years old. When asked for her reasons for joining the trip, she said that her great grandfather had been an ocean going captain and thought that she was following the tradition he had kept.

She said that the thought of doing all the normal chores as well as changing sails and spying on the horizon from the crow’s nest was an exciting thought.

The “Lord Nelson” is skippered by a female captain, Barbara Campbell, and is part of the Jubilee Trust, which has set out to administer a purpose built ship that can carry able bodied as well as disabled sailors alike.

The “Lord Nelson” is 55 metres long and will visit more than 30 countries on its historic voyage on all 7 continents. Some of the key ports on its itinerary will include Rio De Janeiro, Cape Town, Kochi in India, Singapore, Sydney, Auckland and Ushuaia. The last named stop, at the Southern end of Argentina, will also be the port of embarcation for a side trip to Antarctica. The Antarctic explorer, Skip Novak, who has made dozens of trips to the Antarctic Peninsula in his own sailing yacht will be piloting the “Lord Nelson” on the trip to the frozen South.

The Jubilee Trust has also been sponsored and supported by a number of celebrities, including Peter Snow, the BBC commentator and global explorer, Sarah Outen.

Not all of the crew have had sailing experience, but they are all determined to enjoy the experience of sailing on a tall ship and discover how their disabilities can be challenged to the full. One crew member is a paratrooper, retired from active service in Afghanistan after losing a leg in an explosion. He said that the voyage allowed him to complete an important part of his rehabilitation process as the voyage would provide him with the opportunity to recover his self confidence.

Another is a parish constable from the Channel Island of Jersey. He is an active sailor back at home, and also suffers from multiple sclerosis. He is looking forward both to the sailing in the great ship, but also to the sense of camaraderie, which such a mixed crew is likely to engender.

October 23, 2012 | Alison Williams

Travel and Cruising

Technology Saves a Yacht when Something went “Bump in the Night”

The fact that the Slovenian crew members on the yacht “Ciao” could be rescued when their vessel hit a submerged object in the middle of the night in the middle of the Southern Indian Ocean was due to the combination of the tracking device which they carried on board as part of their equipment loaned to them by the organization which they belonged to as well as their High Frequency Radio.

The yacht was part of the regular round the yacht rally called the World ARC. The rally always has a few dramas and a sinking or two, but rarely do yacht crew members end up missing or die as a result of their mishaps because there is always somebody keeping a check of their whereabouts and ready to send out assistance if required.

ARC departure from Las Palmas, Canary Islands. November 2005

The safety measures come at a considerable cost. The World ARC yachts are few in number and are a minority of the two hundred odd participants who start out every November from the Canary Islands to cross the Atlantic Ocean to the Caribbean. This year’s ARC (Atlantic Rally for Cruisers) sees the yachts leaving Las Palmas on Spain’s Gran Canaria on 25th November. All the yachts pay a considerable amount of money for the security of having an Iridium tracking device on board and regular communication with the rally control group by the compulsory HF radio they have to own. The crossing to the Caribbean only takes between 15 to 30 days, depending on the vagaries of the weather and the design and size of the yacht, but most participants think that the sum is worth paying.

The small number of yachts that carry on from St Lucia in the Windward islands to complete the full World ARC Rally are similarly happy to pay the extra payment for the rally support network.

The rally that Ciao was part of was the first in the series to pass South of South Africa directly into the Atlantic from the Indian Ocean. All previous rallies have been organised to take the easier route up via Sri Lanka and the Red Sea into the Mediterranean. The route was altered due to security concerns over piracy in the Gulf of Aden and the Yemen and Somali coasts.

The change in route means that all yachts taking part in the rally have to undergo much longer ocean passages from Indonesia to Cocos Keeling, Mauritius and then South Africa.

Long ocean passages mean that there is always a chance for a “bump in the night” as yacht “Ciao” discovered.

In the case of “Ciao”, it struck an unknown object at around midnight about 40 nautical miles away from safe anchorage at the Australian Indian Ocean island dependency of Cocos Keeling. The yacht’s rudder was damaged in the collision and this led to significant amounts of sea water leaking aboard.

The yacht was luckily close to at least two other yachts also in the same rally and bound for Cocos Keeling. When the yacht finally started to sink the two crew members were able to clamber aboard one of these yachts and were taken to safe harbour. The Australian authorities, who are responsible for the ocean waters in the vicinity, were kept fully informed of what was happening by the rally control team as the yacht’s tracking device pinpointed their position and the SSB radio could be used to keep other yachts informed of what was happening.

October 4, 2012 | Alison Williams

Travel and Cruising

Clipper Round the World Race Announces Crew Recruitment Campaign

On the 17th September, the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race recruitment campaign was launched throughout Britain. This is a new international crew recruitment method aimed at encouraging people who want to achieve something different by giving up their normal daily routine through embarking on a race across the great oceans of the world and they do not need to have any experience at all.

The Clipper Race was inaugurated sixteen years ago by renowned lone yachtsman Sir Robin Knox-Johnston, who was the first person to sail alone and non-stop around the globe in 1968-9. Of all the sailing races, the Clipper Race is the longest in the world, covering some 40,000 miles. An interesting qualification to take part is that any person over eighteen has eligibility to apply, without requiring any sailing experience at all. Those selected for the adventure are trained for three weeks at an intensive pre-race training event.

British Clipper for the China Tea Tra…

Almost half those who take part do not have any prior sailing experience but they are not left to learn the skills unaided as they are supervised by a range of professionally trained skippers.

The Clipper Race grows in importance every year, with the final race attracting a worldwide audience of more than a billion viewers. Because of the increase in interests from sponsors for the available crew berths, there are going to be twelve new 70-foot yachts to be included in the coming races.

Crew members can complete the 40,000 miles of circumnavigation in total or just one or more of the eight sectors. The race fleet takes nearly a year to complete with 15 ports on their timetable, visiting six continents. Sea conditions are never consistent, from the calm conditions experienced in the doldrums to the tempestuous seas of the Southern Ocean.

A crew member in the last race said his highlight was experiencing a big storm in the Southern Ocean, when he recalled clambering up the mast to bring the sails in where he managed to secure a view of the amazing force of nature – the grey in the sky, the massive waves, mountainous seas and the strong gusts of wind. A sight that most people in this world will never have an opportunity to see.

For many, the best part of the race is meeting up with people who you would never usually come across in ordinary every day life but on board you are working together with a common goal in mind.

The current recruitment campaign is taking place on posters in London’s main line railway stations and throughout the country, trying to entice rail travellers to swap the monotony of their daily commute for the adrenalin rush of sailing in earnest across some of the great oceans of the world.

Sir Robin Knox Johnston recalls that racing across a great ocean is a truly unique endeavour and really makes you feel alive.

September 21, 2012 | Alison Williams

Travel and Cruising

Historic Junk makes it back to Taiwan the Easy Way

A Chinese junk with a mysterious and amazing past has made it back across the Pacific to its original home after 55 years on the West Coast of America.

The junk, named “Free China” on its maiden ocean voyage in 1955 that saw it battle typhoons and steering failures, was originally built fifty years earlier and plied the Chinese coast as a fishing boat and was sometimes in charge of pirates and worse.

In fact, the early history is something of a mystery to its present owners. All that is known is that the junk changed hands several times as owners were alternately jailed or killed.

View of a Chinese Fishing Junk on the…

Joseph Baylor Roberts

What was known was its toughness and speed under sail. In the typhoon season, the junks in the first part of the twentieth century had no warning system for the savage storms of that area and learned to copy the movements of the larger trading ships. When they turned back to port, it was assumed that a typhoon was brewing and so the junks would head back too – often getting back earlier than their engine powered cousins as the strong winds of the gathering storm would send them shooting ahead.

The “Free China” caught the attention of a sailor called Chow who had been working on the large, motorized trading ships that plied the coast of China. He had wanted to enter a boat in a new sailboat race from Rhode Island to Sweden across the Atlantic and thought that the Chinese junk had the sail power and stamina to make a realistic entry.

The name of the junk was changed to make a political statement about the desire of the island of Taiwan to gain its independence from the Chinese mainland. The government had given enough money to purchase the junk for Chow and his fellow enthusiastic crew members.

The only obstacle was to get the junk from Taiwan to Rhode Island – a journey that was to become far more challenging than the race itself.

The Free China set sail from Taiwan eventually with a crew of 5 including Chow, but had its fair share of trials and tribulations in the first part of the passage. It sailed through a typhoon, but lost its steering and had to be towed into a Japanese port. It eventually docked in San Francisco two months after the trans-Atlantic race had started.

The boat and its crew were greeted with acclaim from the city and especially its Chinese inhabitants but led an extraordinary life, mostly of neglect over the next fifty years. It was donated by Chow to the San Francisco Maritime Museum, who abandoned it and, for the most part, it lay neglected and deteriorating in one boatyard after another.

It was only recently that the son of one of the original crew, a businessman called Dione Chen decided to take it back to Taiwan, where it is to be restored as part of the island nation’s history. The junk was loaded on to a container ship and made its second Pacific voyage in a less romantic, but far safer way.

September 11, 2012 | Alison Williams

Travel and Cruising

Andrey Melnichenko is out to Impress the Yachting World

While out along the Mediterranean coast, whether driving or on foot, what might catch the eye of the casual observer is the sight of super yachts, with sails set, gliding gracefully through the water. The thought races through the mind as to who could possibly have the time or money to enjoy or own luxuries of this type.

Most certainly, there are people who do have the money to enjoy a leisurely sail on the crystal clear waters of the Mediterranean Sea. But few of the tens of thousands of yachts that set out on their annual cruise every year fit into the super yacht bracket.

Countries Bordering The Mediterranean…

Most super yachts have a professional crew who look after the yacht most of the year. When the owners go off to look after their business affairs, or get bored, they leave their boat in the hands of this experienced crew, who will dock the yacht when asked any where along the coast.

A Russian billionaire at only 40 years old has now made the media headlines because the 128 metre motor yacht he is having built has become world famous because of its radical design and huge size. When finally built it will be the world’s largest privately owned sailing yacht.

Andrey Melnichenko’s boat fits into the 130 metre range. The largest sailing yacht in the world at the moment is the 100 metre “Eos”, which once belonged to Barry Diller.

Melnichenko has refused to engage in conversation about his new yacht. A spokesman for Melnichenko has declined to comment on any more details. So far, no blueprints or photographs for the boat have been made public and very few in the boating community have ever viewed the plans. Not even the name of the new boat is yet known.

According to those contractors and associated companies that have been involved with the project, the boat will be propelled by both sails and motors.

The sails of this novel looking ship are to be raked, which means they will be angled backwards. This gives it a sleek appearance when compared to other boats with straighter looking masts.

Melnichenko is depending on just his own team to initiate the building of his new yacht. The German shipyard, Nobiskrug, is responsible for constructing the yacht which is operated by Abu Dhabi MAR.

The final costing of the boat has not been revealed, as it’s still in the initial planning and construction stages. However, estimates are that it is most likely to be more than $100 million. Those in the know say work has commenced on the hull already but the progress of the construction will be dependent on making funds available.

The ship is not likely to be launched until at least 2015 which is a long way on from now but it is something to look out for after the champagne bottle has been broken on its bows.

August 15, 2012 | Alison Williams

Travel and Cruising

The Bizarre Swordfish Boats of Sicily

The Messina Strait that separates Sicily from mainland Italy is no easy place for small boats. Strong currents rip through the narrow northern passage, whirlpools are known from antiquity, when Scylla and Charibdis of Homer’s Odyssey fame were thought to trap the unwary or unlucky vessel and its human occupants. Winds funnel up and down the strait making for a fast or slow passage depending on the direction of travel.

The Straits of Messina

Carl Rottmann

Despite the natural difficulties, the strait is regularly used by a veritable cavalcade of marine shipping, using the faster route through the eastern end of Sicily rather than having to go right around the western end en route anywhere east or west in the Mediterranean. Ferries ply between the towns on each side, carrying their human cargo to and from Italy’s largest island. Leisure craft, using GPS and electronic tide tables regularly use the strait to pass from the Tyrrhaenean Sea to the Ionian or vice versa.

Calabrian Sunset and Sailboat, Strait…

Walter Bibikow

Stranger things use these waters, too. Swordfish and tuna pass through the strait on migration to and from feeding grounds and breeding grounds. Swordfish are known to swim south in the spring and then back north again in the month of June. One of Europe’s most bizarre looking boats has evolved over time to take advantage of the existence of large fish and good prices in the local fish markets. These are the swordfish boats, characteristic of the coast of Sicily and the neighbouring coasts of mainland Italy.

The Old Man and the Sea

Harry G. Seabright

The modern swordfish boat is now only partly similar to the older version. These had a tall mast, from the top of which a spotter stood to keep an eye out for prey. Four oarsmen would row the boat from the shore, while a harpoonist would handle a long harpoon from the bowsprit.

These days, the craft have been transformed into hunting machines, sometimes aided by “spotter” planes that circle overhead on the lookout for the tasty fish. Swordfish apparently have an odd habit of resting on the surface of the water when it is calm and hot in the daytime, making their presence easy to spot. The idea is that the hunter creeps up on sleepy swordfish as they rest, unaware of their potential fate.

Today’s boats have a high metal tower, with a seat on top, which is where the spotter or even the boat’s skipper sits, looking out for fish. The spotter is winched up the tower using an electric winch. The boats have huge bowsprits, as long sometimes as the boat itself, and can be 15 metres long. It is from the very tip of the bowsprit that the harpoon is aimed at the prey. No longer do the swordfish boats rely on human muscle power, as they have sturdy diesel engines.

Anywhere around the port towns of the Sicily coast, the boats can be seen late on a summer’s day, bringing their catch in, if they have been successful, and leaving again in the morning. The cost of the fishing operation is quite high as the boat may or may not be successful and may call on a plane to do some of the searching.

In the marketplaces, streets and restaurants along the coastal strip of both sides of the strait, swordfish steaks are on sale, cut from the body of the huge fish, while it rests on a table.

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June 27, 2012 | Alison Williams

Travel and Cruising

Ever thought About Spending Your Holidays in Dubai?

With an ultramodern looking skyline it’s very easy to forget that Dubai, part of the United Arab Emirates, was once a small town of Bedouin traders. Today, the old is mixed with the new: At the Nad al Sheba racetrack, camels race by day thoroughbreds at night. Fashion stores and electronics as successful as the gold souk. A sample of more than 400 restaurants gives you a taste of Dubai’s ethnic diversity. Enjoy the beaches, golf, historic sites, nightlife and renowned tax-free shopping of Dubai.

It is a fascinating blend of contrasts, East and West, modernity and desert. It offers superb facilities for sport and fun, such as the theme park Dubailand, endless beaches, golf courses, safaris, …

Dubai’s culture is tied to the Arab tradition, but foreigners are very welcome. There is also a high degree of tolerance, there is total freedom of religion and alcohol is served freely in all hotels. Even the Western dress is widespread. It’s greatest expressions are poetry, dance and local art.

Atlantis, The Palm. Dubai

Dubai enjoys an ideal climate and offers a broad range of excursions, from a visit to the Creek, a channel which divides the city into two, to the souks, the house of Sheikh Saeed, Al Ahmadu IEH or famous desert safaris, in addition to visits to neighboring emirates. The temperature varies from a low of 10 ° C to 48 ° C. The mean daily minimum is 24 º C in January, with a highest of 41ºC in August.

In Dubai there are many restaurants offering a wide variety of cuisine from around the world. There are hundreds of restaurants scattered throughout the city, apart from the extensive collection of bars and pubs.

Other major attraction of Dubai is shopping, thanks in part to its favorable tax system. Modern shopping centers with hundreds of shops in buildings with cutting-edge designs are alternative shopping in traditional souks.

Atlantis, the Palm is the perfect place to stay during your Holidays in Dubai. Located at the apex of the Palm Jumeirah’s Crescent, it extends over an area of 4000 square meters which constitutes the largest open-air marine habitat in the Middle East.

April 23, 2012 | admin

Travel and Cruising

Auckland more than ready to Host Volvo Ocean Race

The Volvo Ocean Race, which commenced at Alicante in Spain on 29th October, is now steaming towards Auckland, New Zealand a city that is often dubbed the “City of Sails.” It is has been long well known for its insatiable fascination with vessels both small and large that sail into its waters each year from far and wide.

This time it is the turn of the million dollar round the world Volvo Ocean racing fleet. It is common for countries and cities on the main world ocean sail racing routes to vie to gain the monopoly of hosting such economically geared events. This time Auckland won the bid.

Puma During In-Port Race 1, Alicante,…

Rick Tomlinson

The city of 1.5 million will certainly not be short of spectators as the heat is building and Auckland is holding its steamy breath, as it prepares for the opening of the Race Village on Thursday. Time is closing in for the arrival of the tiny fleet of six yachts that will have descended on the city at the close of this week.

The showpiece of the Race Village will be the celebrities of the Volvo Ocean Race, the huge 70 foot Volvo Open 70 racing yachts and the crews that go with them that have, up to now, raced more than 23,000 nautical miles transiting the world’s roughest and toughest oceans from Alicante through to Auckland.

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The Race Village, staged at the Viaduct Harbour super yacht base will be opening for business at 9am this Thursday, initiating ten days of festivities heralding the Volvo Ocean Race’s homecoming for Camper Emirates New Zealand as it enters the City of Sails and the finishing point of Stage 4 of the race. The first Chinese yacht to enter such a challenging event, Team Sanya, will be lining up with six in the Viaduct as well.

Passenger Ferries Churn Across Sydney…

Annie Griffiths

Normally, the port activities of racing yacht crews are shielded from the public eye but visitors, this time, will have the chance to observe the teams doing their daily chores at close range, as the group of designers and master boat builders will work in front of the public eye.

The Race Village is also offering the Volvo Ocean Race event an interactive draw card attempting to seduce us who prefer the land into the small watery world of a Volvo Ocean Race sailor through its 3 dimensional cinema, simulated presentations and displays and winch grinding confrontations.

Auckland Cbd, Skytower and Waitemata …

David Wall

The events manager Johnny Donelly said there is such a huge variety of events taking place at the Race Village that there is something for just about everybody.

With still almost 18,000 nautical miles to the finish line, the fleet is set to depart the City of Sails on the 18th March heading for Itajal on the Brazilian coast and then onto Miami and across the Atlantic finishing up in Galway, Ireland on the 8th July. There are still some rough and tough seas for crews to cross yet, before relaxing in the European summer.

March 5, 2012 | Alison Williams

Travel and Cruising

Oars Away Across the Atlantic

Sunset over Caribbean Sea, Barbados © PHB.cz - Fotolia.com

Anybody flying from Europe to the Caribbean islands, with a sharp eye out on the vast blue ocean beneath, over the last few weeks might have seen something more than a little strange.

For sure, the odd container ship or oil tanker would definitely have been over flown as well as the bright, white sails of a yacht or the splash from a pod of dolphins or pilot whales. But none of this fits into the category of strange.

The winter season is the “safe” time of year for small boats of all sorts to make the passage from East to West into the tropics from the African mainland or the Canary Islands. Nearly all of these small boats are yachts making the annual migration to sunshine and swaying palm trees, following in the wake of Columbus, who made the passage over five hundred years ago, but these days more than just yachts are plying these waters.

It has become an annual tradition for eccentrics and athletes alike, in anything from beer barrels to kayaks and rowing boats, to try their luck at crossing the Atlantic. These men and women are almost always completing the journey to break a world record or are trying to raise money for a worthy charity.

What make the attempts plausible are the prevailing winds that sweep down the African coast from the shores of Spain and Portugal southwards passing the Canaries and taking anything on the surface of the water towards the equator. A little further south, off the coast of Mauritania, the wind starts to curve towards the Caribbean and becomes the famous trade winds. These are usually predictable winds, blowing from anywhere from 10 to 30 knots, which drive small vessels from East to West before them. Theoretically anybody with a seaworthy craft – even a beer barrel – can therefore cross the Atlantic given time – all they have to do is drift with the wind and the waves and they will eventually get there – assuming they have enough food, water and patience.

This year has been the turn of at least two transatlantic rowing challenges. The bigger one was the Atlantic Challenge, in which 17 rowing boats of all sizes took off form La Gomera in the Canaries to race against each other to stake a claim on the 3000 nautical miles to Barbados in the Caribbean. The other was the Atlantic Odyssey – a six man team trying to beat a 30 day record to cross from the Moroccan coast to Barbados.

Neither of these challenges has been incident free.

One of the boats was rolled by an enormous wave, after floundering in heavy 10 metre swells for days. The oars were lost, but the crew kept rowing after having their oars replaced by a back up yacht. The yacht, the “Aurora”, was towing another boat that had completely lost its electrical power and was being used for spares.

Another rowing boat with four amputees on board lost the use of their desalinator. These small machines are used on the boats to convert seawater into drinking water. Without fresh water, the crew had progressively reduced their intake and had to wait for the Aurora to deliver another machine.

Another crew had lost their boat altogether after a capsize, but luckily for them they had been picked up by a nearby passing luxury cruise liner and got carried to St Maarten in the Caribbean in style and comfort.

The boats, who accept outside assistance from the “Aurora” or anybody else, are automatically disqualified form the race even if they keep going under their own steam.

More fortunate was a five woman rowing team, who completed a world record crossing in 45 days when they arrived in Barbados, a little unsteady on their feet, earlier this month.

Also successful was Andrew Robinson, a solo rower, who completed the fastest solo crossing ever, arriving in Barbados, after 39 days.

But spare a thought for the Atlantic Odyssey crew of 6 in the veteran rowing boat, the “Sara G.” They are still at sea, struggling with winds that are just a little too light. This crew of 6 athletes is trying to make the crossing from Morocco to Barbados in less than 30 days and to do that they need to keep an average speed of 3.5 knots.

As of today, they still have 500 nautical miles to go and are making slow progress. Cloudy skies and light winds have meant that their power is down and they have had to cut back on water and food as the desalinator is used to provide water for their dehydrated food rations as well.

They are still in with a chance at the record though, and with 6 days to go they are already dreaming of dry land, a shower, a good meal and a bottle or two of Barbados’ famous Mt Gay rum!

January 29, 2012 | Alison Williams

Travel and Cruising

Dutch Teenager Breaks World Single Handed Sailing Record

Dutch teen Laura Dekker has just become the youngest sailor ever to undertake and complete a single handed circumnavigation of the globe.

The sixteen year old finished her single handed round-the-globe voyage when she finally sailed into the harbour of St Maarten in the Caribbean, which is jointly administered by the French and Dutch governments.

It looked at first that she would not be allowed to start the intrepid voyage at such an early age when the Dutch social affairs department considered that she was far too young to take on the challenge. The court case that involved her and her family, who were behind the project, reached world attention two years ago.

Dekker sailed from the island less than a year ago, beating the last record by 8 months.

As she reaches the age of 17 on the 20th September, she had to finish her voyage before the 16th September in order to claim the record for the youngest sailor to complete a world trip without any assistance.

Miss Dekker’s ketch, named Guppy, arrived in St Maarten almost a year after her voyage started.

“I can’t really absorb what I have just done,” she said to journalists once she had her feet firmly planted on dry land.

“The sailing was at all times really good and I often viewed dolphins along the way” she said when interviewed at the dockside after arrival.

She said that she would be spending the coming days on the island cleaning up the 12 metre boat before she returns to school.

Her parents, of course, were there amidst a crowd of 450 onlookers who were there to welcome the teenager. Scores of people cheered as Dekker waved her arms to them, cried and then went across the dock along with her mum, dad, sister and grandparents, who had met her out at sea earlier in the day.

Dekker finally made her arrival in St. Maarten after fighting high seas and strong winds on the last, 40-day section from Cape Town in South Africa.

The starting point of her trip became St Maarten instead of the original plan of Gibraltar.

The previous holder of the record was Australian teenager Jessica Watson, who gained this achievement in May 2010, just 3 days before she reached her 17th birthday.

But the Dutch girl’s achievement and challenge was not quite the same as Jessica’s, who went around the world non-stop while Laura sailed from one port to another and was not at sea for longer than 3 weeks.

Dekker was born in the port of Whangarei in New Zealand to sea going parents while they were completing a six year circumnavigation of their own, and said she did her first solo sail at the age of 6. By the age of 10 years old she said, she started to dream about sailing around the world. She celebrated her sixteenth birthday while at sea, consuming doughnuts for breakfast after having spent a bit of time in port with her father and some friends the previous night in Darwin on the north coast of Australia.

The teen sailed more than 26,000 miles on a journey that included places that sound like a scan through an online travel brochure: the Canary Islands, the Galapagos, Panama, Fiji, Tonga, Bora Bora, Australia, South Africa and St. Maarten.

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January 24, 2012 | Alison Williams

Traditional Boats Still Sail Bali’s Seas

We left the Lombok anchorage in the dead of night – to sail to Bali we had to take advantage of the strong north west going current that flowed up through the Lombok Strait that was timed by the passage of the moon. Calculations showed us that it would flow in the right direction only in the early morning. This was a double advantage as we could also use the southerly winds that only blow at night and in the early morning. By 5 a.m. we had a favourable, brisk twenty knots from the south and we were flying across the strait.

As dawn slowly put out golden tentacles of light towards the western sky a dramatic spectacle opened up. Hundreds of gaily painted small sailing boats – looking like gaudy spiders – were fanning out in all directions from the Bali shore. Mount Agung, the mountain of God, reared up behind this panorama, providing the perfect backdrop.

These little outrigger and lateen rigged boats were unique to the shores of Bali and Lombok and are obviously still in wide use today and are called jukung. They are the Balinese answer to the “Hobie” but are not just used for leisure.
The Balinese use the night wind to take them far offshore to the fishing grounds and then return as the wind slowly reverses to an onshore sea breeze. The fisherman / sailor who steers the jukung out to sea and back doesn’t waste time and usually tows a trolling line and lure in both directions, the speed of the boat normally giving a fair chance of catching a passing mackerel or tuna.

These little fishing boats have no need for an outboard, although larger craft built with the same basic design do carry engines elsewhere in Indonesia. They can only carry one or two people at the most and with a maximum length of about five meters can easily be dragged up on any of Bali’s volcanic, black sand beaches.

The Balinese do everything in life according to age old ritual and the way they build and use their jukung is no different. The wood that is favoured is the belalu or camplung tree and it can only be cut down on a special date that fits in with religious ritual according to the Balinese calendar. Another special date is reserved for the commencement of boat construction. The size of the boat that is built depends on the dimensions of the owner, so shorter men build smaller boats, although the actual work is often a communal effort.

The two outriggers or floats are attached in a way that symbolises the degree of symmetry which the boat builders feel is suitable, while the launching of the finished and painted boat is accompanied by offerings of flowers, fruit and rice to appease the gods. The bow is decorated with a fierce looking image of the mythical gajah minah or elephant fish, whose bulging eyes ensures good navigation in the dark and safe passage through rough seas.

These days, some Balinese fishermen are succumbing to the pressures and lure of the tourist rupiah and converting their boats into day pleasure boats for tourists off the beach and even building a glass bottom into some to help their customers view Bali’s offshore coral reefs.

As we closed the North Eastern shores of Bali’s vivid green and fertile land, we passed dozens of boats as they weaved expertly in and out around our trajectory. With one hand on the tiller and another holding a line, they grinned and waved – no doubt we both eyed each other up with curiosity and respect

January 3, 2012 | Alison Williams

Travel and Cruising

Circumnavigating the World by Yacht is a Complex Issue

Rope on sailing boat in the sea © Sebastian Duda - Fotolia.com

This is the time of year for yachts of all nations to gather at the Rock of Gibraltar to make the Atlantic Crossing over to the Caribbean via the Canary Islands. Some yachts sail around the Atlantic coast to either Portugal or the Moroccan ports while others leave directly from Gibraltar. September is too early to arrive in the Caribbean as it is still in the middle of the hurricane season but they are itching to start their journey and with the large number of marinas in the various Canary Islands along with an assortment of good anchorages there is no better place to while away a few weeks waiting for a weather window to cross over to the romantic Caribbean.

Some of these yachtsmen and women will complete their journey under the watchful eye of the Atlantic Rally for Cruisers and spend months or even years basing their yachts in marinas or anchorages scattered through the island group flourishing in the clear, rich waters of the Caribbean while others will spend the season there then sail back to Europe via Bermuda and the Azores. However, it is those whose dreams are to complete the full global circle that will be making nail biting decisions as to what they should do next.

Recent reports from experts on circumnavigating and piracy are now stressing that the Indian Ocean and the Gulf of Aden and even parts of the Red Sea have turned into no go areas. Pirate attacks on yachts alone are now approaching disturbing proportions with a 1 in 20 chance of experiencing an attack in the danger zones. The pirates have no inhibitions and don’t discriminate on size of yacht or its seeming wealth value. The valuable cargo has become the crew themselves, with hefty ransoms being demanded for their release. It is often many months before incarcerated crew is released after much haggling over ransom demands.

More alarming is that in the 2010 -2011 year, five yachts people have been killed in the Indian Ocean and a further ten have been kidnapped. This has amounted to five attacks on yachts, with four of them being successful.

However, commercial shipping has benefitted hugely by the presence of a fleet of coalition warships that have been operating a safe corridor between the Omani port of Salalah and the Bab El Mandeb (Gates of Sorrow), the entry to the Red Sea, and which appears to have significantly halted large scale piracy for the time being, in that area. Pirates are more elusive than that and have spread their wings to extensive parts of the Indian Ocean. They are roaming around areas that are too massive to successfully police and which leave commercial ships and yacht crews vulnerable.

Coupled with the problems of piracy there are other hurdles to consider in the Middle East. Political instability in Yemen, Sudan and Egypt has made transiting the coasts of those countries increasingly unpredictable and in the period between January and May 2011 there was great relief by yacht crews when they finally arrived safely in Port Said on the Mediterranean coast of Egypt.

Joining or organising a military style convoy of other yachts has been the recent way to deal with the uncertainty of piracy but this is now not a guarantee of safety and the coalition warships have set no priority on shadowing and protecting such convoys.

Sailing on the oceans of the world can be exhilarating, awe inspiring and challenging and, if well prepared, quite doable, but protecting oneself from a pirate attack is something different altogether.

September 23, 2011 | Alison Williams

Travel and Cruising