Sailing “Holiday” Sensation

Dear Friends,
Every now and again, I am asked these questions: Where are you from? (I was born in Holland…. “Ah.. I thought so, the accent…”.. and Where do you live? (depending on the time available I have a longer or a shorter answer:.. “I have lived the last 15 years in Brazil….(“ah.. Brazil… how nice” and the last 4 years on a sailboat and involved in the charter business, and so wanted to expand the horizon and am now here in the Caribbean…(this is the start of the longer answer)… or: …”I live on a sailboat, who happens to be here in the Caribbean..” (the short answer).
Most systems in place, practiced on land, for people on land, don’t really work well for people on boats. System meaning: (mail) address, proof of address, official stuff.. you know the controllable things…After a couple of years we all are getting good in dodging those (government) control curve balls they throw and we just keep on sailing….
Also, unlike people that travel by plane, bus or car to a holiday destination, cruisers actually never leave “home” and yet can travel to all these different destinations. All in the comfort of your own place and still experience the ultimate “holiday” experience. That is a unique situation. I guess our motorhome/trailer friends kind of experience the same, although usually the roads and directions are already cut out and thought off before.

“Life is too short to sweat the small stuff… “ I read the other day on a sailboat, it was a tribute to a fellow sailor…
Have a great day, and all the best
Pieter

Just Relax, Chill out… Cool…Grenada impressions

Dear friends,
A wonderful journey from Bequia to Grenada. Great relaxed sailing.. so, i managed to produce this chill out movie: http://youtu.be/Yt98v-Jjd3Y hope you like it…
Approaching this lovely island, the look and feel is different when compared to the dramatic hills and volcanoes on Montserrat, Dominica and St Vincent for instance..
Now, preparing for the journey to Trinidad, aprox 70 miles…


Have a great week everybody!!
All the best
Pieter

From Brazil to Tobago. December 2012

My dear friends,
First of all, apologise for such a long time without a post. The preparations for the journey from Natal to Tobago, took up quiet some time. Secondly, to all of you: a very happy 2013!
A few things have changed on board the Onda Boa:

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“What is your course, your next waypoint?”

Dear friends,
It seems I am posting backwards, we write about our travels, encounters, some tips and hints and newly acquired insights. How did it come to all of this, what happened, what made me take responsibility and trace my (new) course…This is about  how this actually happened…

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Escape from the RatRace

Dear friends,
Coincidence or not, last week I received two emails from different persons, with almost the same contents. A CEO of a company in Sao Paulo who told me he actualy hated the job, the city, the traffic and his dream was to kick the proverbial bucket and do what we have done.. go out sailing. Another, wanting to learn how to sail a Catamaran, and planning “soon” his way out.. a hughe lifestyle change…”just like you guys have done…”
Here in Natal,

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Snap... !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Dear friends,


Let there be no misunderstanding: we are no fishers....We understand the importance of catching a fish every now and again, especialy on long sailing passages but we actualy fake to fish, with a nice big rusty hook, kind of hidden in what is supposed to look like a yellow hairy octopus. (i will kill the catch with tetanus..) so obviously we don't catch anything. As we want to be able to post one of those  victorious pics holding by its tail a big nice dourado or tuna fish, we invested in proper artificial bait. This thing set us back R$ 50, and the shop owner gave us the stainless steel line and everything. We were ready to go and catch some serious fish..
So, a few days later, on our way sailing to Salvador from Morro de Sao Paulo i decided to try our new bait... All of a sudden the reel made noise and almost immediately reach the end of the line... No time to slow down the boat (i think that the actual catch (.. a biiigggg one....) stopped the boat... anyway, tried to real in this enormous fish and then Snap...!!! the tension on the line became way too light...I feel sad about the fact that now a big fish near the waters of Salvador is showing of its new piercing.. Anyway, we will be back with better gear (stay tuned for the pics with fish..)

Enjoy
Pieter

Ilheus - BA Brazil

Coxinha de Aratu

View from the restaurant of the club.

The best acarajé in Ilheus, Dna Judith

Acarajé

Ilheus

My dear friends, I found that our journey from Santo Andre to Ilheus was spectacular! We left Santo Andre when the tide was coming in, and even so, we had at some times only 60 cm water under our keels…At a slow pace we sailed (motored actually) out of reach of the sandbanks and the double reef

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Just a question

Photo by PKommerij

The other day I was thinking: People, in general, do the things they do because:
* They like to do it?
* They are told to do so?
* They think they have to do so?
* They never thought about it?

May I ask: where do you stand? Maybe, at this point in your life, you would need to think things over, evaluate your path, new options, new horizons, realize dreams... No matter where this leads to, be happy, enjoy and remember: nothing happens by chance...

Some reflections about Work

work (wûrk)

n.

1. Physical or mental effort or activity directed toward the production or accomplishment of something.

2.

a. A job; employment: looking for work.

b. A trade, profession, or other means of livelihood.

In my “previous” life, did as everybody else: exchanged my time for (what I thought to be) the company that paid the best wage. I enjoyed my job so I didn’t think a second of doing something else. Until 

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Does it Flow? Goiot Electric Anchor windlass (winch)

This post is for those of you that are interested to know more about the different equipment we have onboard. If you are not into this, don’t worry, you can skip this one….

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Impressions of a great day.....

A relaxing day.... a little bit of sailing (only with the Genaker...), a great lunch on board, some swimming and catching a great sunset, later on being able to take a picture of an almost full moon on board, meaning no wind, no waves in Buzios....

Sometimes you need to take your time, to unwind and slow down and enjoy the things around you...


All the best...

GNXUS6QYUXUF

Plan B: A nautical lesson for CEO's

So, the other day we were doing a day charter, and we had 10 business people on board, some of them were CEO of their companies. All was great, a good breeze, chilled champagne, cold beers.... Ancored near an island, a little bay giving some shelter against the wind. More champagne, snacks and beers and lots of business talk (aparently...).

When wheighing the ancor,  something was wrong, the electrical winch had a rough time in pulling up the chain and ancor, and  it became clear why: a big rock was wedged/stuck between the ancor and the chain. By hand it was not possible to move the rock and in this situation, the ancor couldnt be used anymore....
Sailing towards another ancorage, another solution had to be organized.... Plan B if you will...

For safety reasons, we have three ancors on board, so  another ancor was prepared (lines attached etc) and thought through how and where i would ancor. (Ancorage was necessary, in order to  get the rock out of the primary ancor)... The plan worked well, and in no time all was back to normal.

The lesson to learn is that you always have to have a plan B ready. If your original plan gets busted,  stuck, stranded or the wind changes (all of this can happen with your company/business plan etc right...?) then what do you do? Plan B should be ready to deploy. No reason for panic nor dispair.

Succes with what you do...

The 36 knots adventure!

It's always an adventure to sail in Buzios, Rio de Janeiro. It is no wonder that this region is known for having excellent conditions for wind sports. Well, we were excited to sail on one of the few days off we have, and Pieter did not want to miss the opportunity to give me more practical lessons on the art of sailing.  

At the beginning, after lifting anchor, we were raising the main sail (master sail), this was in front of the Yacht Club of Buzios, and we faced the first challenge of this adventure, a gust forced the main to one side and ripped one of the suporting lines of the lazyjack, its sail cover. From this I learned that to raise the main sail the boat has to be pointed in the wind.

Then, out of the bay an another gust, the cover of the GPS is blown overboard: it took us 10 minutes to rescue the little adventurer cover.
After half an hour sailing with wind speed between 30 and 36 knots, boat speed between 7 and 9 knots, another gust tangled ​​the loose part of the lazyjack (the one back there that we think it didn't offer more risk) to the bimini (ceiling) and almost ripped the bimini struture off the boat, as you can see on the pictures. With cables we made a very macGyver solution, and returned quickly to anchor and to safety. By now we had sufficient adrenaline (and damage) that are necessary for every human being growth.

Thinking outside the pool....

Inspired by a Rush song called Natural Science, and also seeing this up and close very often near rocky shores..... The water of the ocean, when retrieving leaving behind small pools, with lots of marine life..Creates insights to ones personal life....

Many people (us included) lived our lives that way.... inside a pool, busy as hell and doing whatever everybody else was doing, the same rut the same rythm... and yes, totaly forgetting that there is a larger life outside your little pool...

There are people that are quiet happy with this state of apparent comfort and security and they really dont want to know and neither remember of the what is going on outside the pool, and that is fine, but there are also people who are not quiet happy with this, the ones that would like to swap the state of the ilusion of comfort and change it for the (sometimes) descomfort) of another reality... For those people, the ones that want to know what is on the other side of the wall, the ones that are aware of the ocean outside the pool, here is a little piece of advice: Dream it, no limitations, do it, live it.... Think outside the pool....