SAILING ALONE ON S/Y CAPRICE

Dags att komma hem och dags att tjäna pengar.

Tänkte ta vara på tillfället att ha skaffat lite nätverk för att jag söker ett jobb så snart jag kommer hem. Eller flera mindre jobb. Innan jag skaffar ett riktigt till hösten.

Jag kan jobba från Maj och under sommaren eller delar av sommaren. Jag kan tänka mig (nästan) vad som helst.

Mina många talanger inkluderar: Trubadur/musiker, gitarr/ukulele lektioner, renovering av båtar (ej motorer…;), restaurang/bar/underhållning, hemtjänst/personlig assistent, jobba med barn och ungdomar, segla….

Hör av er till min pappa under April på claesringqvist@hotmail.com, eller till mig på emmaring@gmail.com från Maj.

Approaching Tristan

Tristan Settlement

Bye Tristan

Gale

Cooking in Gale

I didn’t manage to post a blog before leaving Brazil and I have now been at sea since the 10th of February.

I made a decision to turn homewards from Florianpolis. The last few days sailing from Rio Grande had been very slow an so I stopped in Florianpolis to do some more research and reconcider my plan.

As I wanted to reach home by May I decided against sailing to Falkland Islands.

I do have a thing about remote islands and I wanted a final destination for my journey, so I took a course towards Tristan da Cunha. This also meant that I got much better winds than trying to sail north from Rio. And I would reach the borders of the Southern Ocean.

This island is difficult to visit as you can only anchor outside the harbour and only in good weather.

The sail to Tristan was great with mostly strong winds, and I got a sense of the southern ocean as the air and water temperature dropped and the whole atmosphere slowly changed, much to my liking. I also had some kind of whales swimming with Caprice for a while. They were not porpoisses but up to 4 meter in lenght.

Tristan da Cunha is truly magical. It is symmetrical in shape and towers up above the sea with majestic lines and the vulcano top straight in the middle. Absolutely beautiful! It is the most remote inhabited island in the world so I was pretty excited to see it, at the same time being aware that a visit entirely depends on the weather so I prepared myself for the worst scenario, that being just seing it from the water.

The day we where closing up on the island the wind was pretty weak so I was running the engine to get there before dark. Then a funny sound apperared and the engine cut out. I spent hours trying to fix it. I am rubbish with engines but I did everything I could figure out from the instruction manual. Eventually it started but only to cut out again after 20 minutes.

It was then dark as I approached the little lights from the settlement so I hove to for the night and sailed into the anchorage in the morning. I was REALLY lucky with the weather because the anchorage is not att all protected and the harbour entrance is subjected to the big swells from the Atlantic, meaning that you can only drive in and out of it on certain days. My rubber dinghy without an engine was entirely out of the question.

So I anchored up at about 10 in the morning Sunday the 6th of March on the koordinates given to me by the harbour master. The weather was beautiful, sunny, slight chilly but light wind.

A boat came to pick me up at about 12. This was lucky again as it costs £120 to hire one for the day but they where out anyway and so very kindly they didn’t charge me anything.

Tristanians are English citicens, and have had a commuinity there since the early 19th century, consisting of different shipwrecked people. A very interesting story.

Conrad, whom took care of my port clearance, remembered Sven Yrvind visiting the Island in Bris in the 70s (?) Conrad was then 13 years old.

After Conrad had cleared me in and stamped my passport with a beautiful Tristan stamp, Dawn, the head of tourism took me under her wing and I had an unforgettable day on this stunning and unique island. It was a Sunday and Dawn’s only day off so it was ever so kind of her to give me her time and she and her family made me feel so welcome.

I have never been is such a calm place, everybody I met had such a calm aura about them. The small village has one bar in which we had two drinks, one little shop and that is it.

Dawn, her husband and her daughter took me on a little drive to see the potato patches where all the familys has a little summer hut in which they often spend the weekends. It was the cutest thing I have every seen!

Amber, the 10 year old daughter told me that they where 4 children in their class and 25 students in the entire school. Nobody has mobile phones on the island. It was really a little paradise. Instead they communicate with VHF.

They keep cattle, sheep and chickens and Dawn very kindly gave me big chunk of lamb, potatoes, eggs and homegrown tomatoes for my onward journey. I lived very happily on lamb and potato stew for a few days. And those eggs where amazing!

At about 5 in the afternoon I was driven back to Caprice in a zodiak. You really need a fast boat to be able to drive in and out of the harbour entrance with big swells coming in. And you have to chose the right time, just after one wave and before the next one comes crashing in.

The plan was that I was to be picked up by a fishing boat in the morning to spend one more day on Tristan.

However, in the morning they called me on the VHF to say that the swells had grown and no boats could enter the harbour that day nor the following day.

So I had no choice but to anchor up and go. It made me realise how lucky I had been to get one day ashore, an experience I will never forget.

We had our first gale a couple of days after leaving Tristan. It was supposedly 14-19m/s (I have no wind meter onboard). Unfortunately it was from the North so we couldn’t go quite where we wanted. Caprice sailed very well on a beam with 3rd reef and a tiny bit of front sail. The Aries steering very nicely. As soon as I tried sailing a little more onto the wind we got violent hits banging down into the waves. It actually broke some of the interior wooden beading in the front cabin….oh well! I quickly came down wind. The gale went on for 2-3 days but it was fine. The waves where not as big as I had anticipated.

After that I got becalmed for about 4 days. That was a test for the patience!! And with no engine of course!

Then finally we hit the SE trade winds and we had steady winds the last few days to St Helena where I now am.

I have a lovely little yellow book – Pocket Atlas of Remote Islands – with stories of 50 remote Islands. I have now ticked off 2 of them. Not too bad!

Funnily enough this book proved very useful as my supposedly worldwide navigation computer is missing the charts of Tristan and St Helena. At least I have a drawn map of the Islands in the little yellow book!

An engineer came to look at my engine and as the flightwheel is jammed he said it needs to come out and taken completely apart to see what parts it needs. The parts would then need to be shipped here and so the whole affair would be costly and take a lot of time.

I have decided to keep sailing and hope to get the engine fixed in the Azores. I just have to hope that I don’t get becalmed for too long around the equator or the Azores high.

 

This monday Emma was forced by the whether and expected high waves —as far as I ,v  understood —to leave the island. A guy had checked the  engine but couldn,t do anything. Emma has to take a descision , either go east to Cape Town or north to St Helena. It looks like the winds will take her to the northern direktion.  I believe it would be good for Emma to feel mental support from all of her friends so let us send  it to her. I will do it tonight….

 

 

 

Emma called us this night – from the house of the tourist “agency”!!. She has been very well taken care of, Advised where to anchor outside the very small unprotected harbour and picked up by a boat. Yesterday we got a message, that the engine had stopped 9nm from the harbour. Luckely easy winds took her to the anchoring place. A serviceman will look at the engine tomorrow. Emma wrote that the island looks magical and beautiful.

 

Got a message from Emma yesterday – in 4 days she will reach Tristan, this very small vulcanic and not very accessible island on latitud 37 between Buenos Aires and Cape Town. 254 inhabitants from Great Britain sharing 9 different surnames. Emma will pass Inaccessible Island!! a very small Island 45km from Tristan.

At the 25 of januar Lollo and I left Emma and Caprice anchored at the beautiful island Ilha Grande south of Rio. We had had a marvelluos nightssail from Rio.   Sitting alone in the cockpit and experience this beautiful heavy ship been taken care of by the windrudder was magic, and even more magic when two dolphines followed us for a while.

At the beginning of februar Emma left  heading for Montevideo and maybe Faulklands Islands. She stoppad at the island Florianpolis 800km south of Rio. And after a couples of days of investigation and “decisionmaking” she decided to go eastwards to Tristan da Cunha.           …… I hope and pray that the see and winds will take Caprice in to the very small port at Tristan.

The Sugarloaf approching Rio De Janeiro

Caprice and I have had a couple of adventurous and wonderful weeks with my parents in Rio. I had my first experience of special treatment as I got invited to stay for free in a very fancy sailing club in Urca. The members Monika, Julius and Matt invited me simply as I think they were impressed with my journey.

This was wonderful as in the club we had access to toilet and showers and each time we wanted to go to land from our buoy (which overlook the sugarloaf) we just called Cocoroca on our vhf and a taxi boat arrived to pick us up for free.

This yatch club Iate Clubo Rio De Janerio also had wifi, free coffe and wonderful areas to chill out away from the heat in the boat. And even a pool. It truly felt luxorious! A big thankyou to Monika, Julius and Matt for making our stay so wonderful.

Dad turned 70 on the 13 of January, the day after I arrived in Rio, and we celebrated with a wonderful dinner in the cockpit of Caprice. Luckily I had made a table for the cockpit during my trip from Salvador. Janne, an old friend of my parents whom I spent some time with in Salvador joined us for the dinner.

Mum and Dad brought in their luggage from Sweden a Lewmar Profish 1000 anchor winch and a 9 meter chain. Luckily they didn’t need much more stuff with them as this took up all their luggage weight! Boat stuff in Brazil is very expensive so it made sense to bring it from Sweden instead.

In the club we got introduced to Reinaldo whom run a small chandlery and he was able to help us getting all the rest of the stuff we needed for the installation. We had a anchor roll specially made and got a 15 kg Bruce Anchor. Dad made all the wiring and Reinaldo helped with the rest of the installation so by the end of the week Caprice was ready to go with her new anchor equipment.

We waved goodbye to Janne and the club in Rio and set off towards Ihla Grande to do explore the many bays and enjoy anchoring in nature for the last couple days before Mum and Dad went home. I really wanted them to get some good sailing but unfortunately the wind wasn’t blowing very much – which is often the case here. We did some slow sailing during the night and then spent a day motoring in the heat to get to the island.

It is a beautiful island and we spent a couple of lovely days although the heat was getting to us a bit and we all kept dreaming of the winter in Sweden. I was truly jealous when they left on the 25th.

It very lovely that they came and shared my little world onboard Caprice for two weeks. They did very well to cope in the heat and in the small space in Caprice with all my guitars 🙂

I have then been here in Ihla Grande a few more days doing planning, research, thinking and preparing for my onward journey. The problem with an ‘open journey’ is that decision making can get tricky. I wont get into all the details about my dilemma but all I am going to say for now is that I am heading south possibly towards the Falkland Islands. First stop is Montevideo and then we will take it form there!

I am very happy that I have had the chance to get to know Brazil. It is really a special place and so much to experience. It seems people here are very good at living in the moment and they are so warm and welcoming.

 

Building a table on route in preparation for Dad’s birthdayPassing time on my way to Rio by climbing the mastIhlaIhla Grande – looks almost like home Mum and Dad feeling hot but happyThe new anchor equipment – No more sore back for me 🙂

I have left Salvador and heading south to Rio where I will get a visit from my parents.

It will take 6-8 days 🙂 

The sun is ever so hot and winds are stable from the east for a few days. Looking forward to being at sea again!



Svensk version längre ner!

So I have sailed across the Atlantic alone! That is perhaps an achievement one can say. For me it mostly feels like a privilege, that I could chose to follow my dream and make it happen. This would not have been possible in the short time spam I had without the support from family and friends. Nor would it have been possible if I was not free and if I was not from the more privileged part of the world where such things are possible. Many thoughts like that about life came along out there on the sea and I felt very grateful to the world for the position I am in.

 

Everybody says I am brave but it doesn’t quite feel like that either. For me it didn’t feel so scary to cross a big sea, specially not with all the modern safety equipment that is nowadays available. I take my hat off to those who did it in the old days with no communication at all!

Of course I fully respect the sea and had I encountered a storm I would of course have been very scared.

But as you can see in the video most of my trip was full of sun and stable winds, never even touching on a gale force.

But what is not visible in the video was that I was sick a whole week before Christmas and then I had such a longing for home that I had never felt before. And I felt incredibly alone at times. Luckily the sea and Caprice took good care of me though and we had light and stable head winds so that I didn’t have to deal much with sails nor reefing etc.

I felt continuously nauseous with a heavy head and this started after eating a beautiful tuna that I caught. Not sure if it had some kind of position of if it was something else. Perhaps the headwinds with the uncomfortable motion were part in my illness but that seems strange after two weeks at sea. Who knows!

Funnily enough I became well again after a tiny bottle of champagne that I consumed on Christmas eve in spite of feeling sick. (This bottle was meant for crossing the equator but I then felt too sick). I was so sick of feeling sick that I just buggered it, drank the champagne and then felt better.

After Christmas eve I had three wonderful days with light following winds and the most beautiful sunset I have ever seen in my life. I just sat there and watched the sky for hours. All possible shades of the most soft pastel colours mixed in with different layers of fethery clouds, the moon above the top of the mast and the stars that appeared one after the other on the sky that slowly slowly became a deeper blue.

When I was sick I just wanted to go home (I seriously considered turning north with the wind) but as soon as I was well again and just wanted to keep sailing. There are quick mood changes out there!

To be alone for such a long time was harder than I anticipated but at the same time incredibly rewarding and beautiful. It really gives you time and space to reflect upon life in a unique way. When I analyze it now afterwards, the fact was that all feelings got stronger and very alive. I could sometime be so touched and teary when thinking about those at home that I love. And I could sit and watch the stars and just that alone could make the love towards life incredible. At the same time the darker feeling was also stronger and more unpleasant when they appeared at times.

The best

The strong and stable trade wind that I had the first part, the sunsets, all the time to myself to read, play guitar and just be, the dolphins….

The worst

The night with thunder and lightening was the most scary time and it was the only time I used the engine for a few hours. I figured that I could in that way escape the thunder, as there was no wind.

To be alone and sick on a big sea was also not so much fun.

Facts about the trip

I sailed from Las Palmas the 3rd of December around 13.00. From there I went S/SW and between Cape Verde Islands and Africa. The first 10 days I had every sailors dream, stable and strong wind from behind and we just flew with the sails being gull winged. When I passed Africa the wind brought the sand from Sahara, and a beautiful shimmer lay over the sky. The sails and ropes got coloured orange from a thin layer of sand. It was special knowing that the dessert was over there beyond the horizon.

I continued S/SW and after 10 days I entered the Doldrums. The first sign of this was a whole night of thunder and lightening and this was the only time during the trip I was pretty scared. You hear of stories when the lightening hits the mast but I do think it is pretty unusual.

After this night I had 3-4 days of calms mixed with unsteady winds and some little squalls. I slowly moved forwards. I was lucky I think, I had heard of somebody being becalmed for 25 days! From 2 degrees north (2 days before the equator) I had stable wind again but more from S/SE so it was from the front. Continued like this for 10 days with a slight turning to the E and finally 3 days of following light winds at the end before arriving in Salvador in the morning of the 28th of December.

All in all I think I was lucky with the winds and the time of 3 weeks and 3 days was relatively fast.

Salvador and now

I have been struggling with the heat and longing for snow but I have had a nice time with Janne Beijer, an old friend of my Dad and another Swede – Micke who both live in Brazil. And they have been taking good care of me.

I feel that there is so much to see and experience here but right now I don’t find enough space in my mind, instead feeling the need to fix the boat and plan my onward journey.

I will let you know my onward plan. It will be southward…..

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Jaha, då har man seglat över Atlanten ensam! Det är ju kanske en bedrift kan man tycka. För mig känns det mest som ett privilegium, att jag kunde välja att följa min dröm och genomföra resan. Detta hade jag inte kunnat genomföra i den korta tid jag hade till förberedelser utan stöd av familj och vänner. Och det hade jag heller inte kunnat göra om jag inte var fri och inte var från den mer den delen av världen där sådant är möjligt. Många sådana tankar om livet infann sig därute på havet och jag kände mig väldigt tacksam över hur otroligt bra jag har det

Att vara ensam så länge var svårare än jag hade förutsett men samtidigt otroligt givande och vackert. Det ger en verkligen tid och rum att reflektera över livet på ett unikt sätt. Nu när jag tänker på det i efterhand var det faktiskt så att all känslor blev djupare. Jag kunde ibland bli helt rörd vid tanken på de därhemma som jag älskar. Och jag kunde sitta och se på stjärnorna och bara det kunde göra kärleken till livet oerhörd. Samtidigt var de mörka känslorna också starkare då de smög sig på ibland.

Alla säger att jag är så modig men det känns inte riktigt som det heller. För mig kändes det inte så läskigt att segla över ett stort hav. Särskilt inte med alla moderna säkerhetspinaler som vi har nuförtiden. Jag hyser verkligen respekt för de som gjorde dessa resor helt utan kommunikation.

Respekt för havet har jag också såklart och hade jag hamnat i en storm hade jag varit väldigt rädd. Men som ni kan se på filmen var större delen av min resa full med sol och stabila vindar, aldrig ens i närheten av kuling.

Det som inte syntes i filmen dock, var att jag var sjuk i en hel vecka innan jul och då hade jag sådan akut hemlängtan jag aldrig förr har känt och kände mig otroligt ensam i stunder. Men även då tog havet och Caprice hand om mig och vi hade lätta stabila bidevindar så jag slapp hålla på med rev och annat.

Jag mådde konstant illa utan aptit med tungt huvud och det började efter att jag ätit en fantastisk tonfisk jag fångat. Svårt att veta om den hade något slags gift i sig eller om det var nåt annat. Kanske var bidragande faktor att det var bidevind och jag då kan känna av sjösjuka mer men det verkar konstigt efter två veckor till havs. Vem vet inte jag!

Lustigt nog blev jag frisk efter en pytteliten flaska champagne som jag trots illamåendet drack på Julaftons kväll. (Denna flaska skulle jag ha druckit vid ekvatorn men då mådde jag för illa….:) Jag var less på att vara sjuk och tänkte att jag provar att dricka champagnen och det funkade.

Sen återstod 3 underbara dagar med lätt undanvind och de vackraste solnedgångar jag sett i hela mitt liv. Jag bara satt hela kvällen och tittade på himlen. Alla nyanser av de mildaste vackraste färger i olika skikt av tunna moln, månen ovanför masttoppen och stjärnorna som tittade fram en efter en då himlen omärkbart långsamt blev djupare och djupare blå.

Då jag var sjuk ville jag bara åka hem (jag hade allvarliga funderingar på att styra norrut med vinden) men så fort jag mådde bättre ville jag bara fortsätta segla igen. Snabba svängningar i tankegången därute till havs!

 

Det bästa

Den stabila starka passadvinden jag hade i början, solnedgångarna, all tid att kunna läsa, spela gitarr och bara vara, delfinerna….

 

Det värsta

Åsknatten var läskigast, det var enda gången på hela resan jag gick för motor några timmar – jag tänkte att jag på så sätt kunde åka ifrån åskan för vinden var helt stilla.

Och att vara ensam och sjuk på ett stort hav var inte så kul!

 

Fakta om resan

Jag seglade från Las Palmas den 3 december vid kl 13. Åkte därifrån syd/sydväst och mellan Kap Verdeöarna och Afrika. De första 10 dagarna hade jag alla seglares dröm, en stabil stark passadvind från aktern och bara forsade fram med ett segel ut åt varje sida av båten. Då jag passerade Afrika tog vinden med sand från Saharaöknen, ett vackert dis låg över himlen och segel och rep blev färjade i orange av ett tunt lager med sand. Det var häftigt att veta att öknen låg där bortom horisonten.

Jag fortsatte syd/sydväst och efter 10 dagar kom jag in i Doldrums, stiltjebältet runt ekvatorn. Första tecknet på detta var en åsknatt och det var enda jag gången på resan jag ganska rädd. Man har hört en del skräckhistorier om åska som slår ner i masten men det är ganska ovanligt ändå.

Sedan hade jag ca 3-4 dagar av stiljte blandat med ostadiga vindbyar, några med starkare vind, men jag rörde mig alltjämt långsamt framåt. Jag hade tur faktiskt, har hört om någon som hade stiltje i 25 dagar!

Från ca 2 grader N (2 dagar innan ekvatorn) hade jag stabil vind igen men från syd/sydost så det var snett framifrån. Jag fortsatte så i 10 dagar med en fördelaktig vridning åt ost och hade sedan svag medvind de sista dagarna till Salvador där jag anlände på morgonen den 28 december.

Allt som allt kändes det som att jag hade tur med vinden och resan tog 3 veckor och 3 dagar, relativt snabbt gissar jag.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I am now moored up in Salvador. I have put together a little film from my adventure. This took me so long that I am now too tired to write about the trip but I will do soon 🙂 I arrived here on the 28th in the moorning.

Happy New Year and love to you all!