Category: Ngahue IV

Three more nights on board, after which Laura and I take an Air Tahiti Nui Boeing Dreamliner to fly from Papeete via Vancouver to Paris. There, our flight changes in Cinderella-like fashion into a TGV to cover the last leg of the journey from Charles De Gaulle airport to Brussels South station. The Ngahue IV […]

When I was a little child, my mother ended every bedtime story, “and then a pig with a long snout came and blew the story out.” Oink, Oink; piggy just came by … Last weekend Laura and I decided to return to the Netherlands. And ever since we have been working like crazy to arrange […]

It’s raining today. Tahiti in the rain: drizzly, and grey. Papeete cold and wet: that is also unusual. But lately we have had this more often. After all, it’s winter in the southern hemisphere! It has been 3 weeks since we departed with the Aranui 5 on its maiden voyage to the Marquesas and Tuamotus […]

We have been in Tahiti for more than 3 months now! We actually arrived here by accident, because the French government did not want to have all those sailing boats straying through Polynesia … The confinement that came into effect from mid-March 2020 is formally over for us. In a few days, intercontinental jets from […]

Slowly, and very quietly, the lockdown is beginning to be eased here in French Polynesia. A local court had ruled a while ago that the curfew that had been imposed was not legal, which led to some more evening traffic. Then we were allowed to walk around without the special French government form you first […]

After a few “short messages” written during our turbulent four weeks at sea between the Galapagos and Tahiti, it’s time again for an ordinary, long article. I look at the calendar and am shocked to see that we’ve been in Tahiti for 24 days. The days go by quickly, especially when you’re not allowed to […]

Due to the Coronavirus COVID-19 we were not allowed to go ashore in the Marquesas Islands and were de facto ordered to sail along the Tuomotu archipelago to Papeete on Tahiti to land there. To prevent the coronavirus from spreading, Tahiti lives under a strict curfew. Also, no alcohol is sold anymore – a unique […]

With the Corona virus we live in eventful times. Every day we receive a new update via the World Cruising Club that supports the World ARC trip. And every day the news gets a bit more gloomy than the day before. We have received “Update N° 11” and it’s really not a cheerful literature. Not […]

For almost two weeks now we have been sailing in grey and rainy weather from the Galapagos to the Marquesas Islands. Is this tropical sailing? It might as well have been the English Channel, so gloomy day and night during this leg of our world trip! However, it started off very nicely when we left […]

We all know the Galapagos Islands from the documentaries by Jacques Cousteau or the National Geographic. There’s nothing new that we could add to those impressive images! It is a fantastic travel destination the HRC house flag is now proudly flying in our mast. The first HRC house flag in the southern hemisphere ??? Between […]

On the Atlantic side, Shelter Bay marina, once an American base, is hidden behind a long breakwater that protects the Panama Canal against wind and currents. It is where the World ARC (WARC) fleet is prepared for the “Transit” of the Canal. On both sides, you need to pass through 3 locks: three chambers up […]

Make a circumnavigation with your yacht and you will always encounter new and unexpected surprises and discoveries. After Santa Marta in Columbia, I didn’t think there’d be much to write about our trip until going through the Panama Canal. But no; we saw lots of new things. So here’s a short piece about the leg […]

Saturday 11th January 2020 saw the departure from Rodney Bay marina in Saint Lucia of the 2020-21 World ARC. 34 boats crossed the line to set off on a trip just over 820 miles to Santa Marta in Columbia. During the entire preparatory period in St. Lucia the weather had been excellent, punctuated by the […]

The ARC-organisation had prepared two beautiful excursions for us in the Cape Verde Islands; the first one was an island tour of Sao Miguel, the island with Mindelo as it capital. The second excursion was a visit to Santo Antao, a neighbouring island which contrary to the dry Sao Miguel is a green and luscious […]

Cold, cold, cold and grey, grey, grey: that would be a good summary of our first ARC Plus leg from Las Palmas to Mindelo – 950 miles (860 in a straight line) and 6 full days at sea. Moreover, there was a lot of wind during the first 3 days of this trip. Nice for […]

From Madeira to Lanzarote is not that far – the distance to be covered actually fits onto a single British Admiralty chart N°3133! It’s only two days sailing: just the time you need to start to get used to living on the high seas. Again I had overestimated the time needed, and we had to […]

If one thing has become clear to me during our travels across the Atlantic Ocean – and I imagine that the Pacific or Indian Ocean will be no different – your ship will always be asking for “more”. When we left Bruinisse, I thought we had all the necessary things on board and that nothing […]

After 11 months of extensive winter work on the boat, we finally left Bruinisse early on Thursday morning 1stAugust 2019. Our boat-handling was a little rusty despite a number of test sails on the Grevelingen meer and our participation in the successful Nova-HRC trip to Zierikzee. Moreover, we had planned our “escape route” to the […]