Yesterday we waved goodbye to Matty and Arent, as they set sail on their new boat. They’ll be helping deliver the catamaran to Australia. Their first stop however is Raiatea for some repairs. So we’ll probably catch up with them there, as we are hoping to leave Tahiti in a few days as well. We wish them both a very good trip and thank them for all the help and fun on board.
Goodbye and thanks for all the fish!
As of Sunday evening the 15 of august the Helena has been a non-smoking boat. I know you probably won’t believe me if you have ever met any of the men on this boat, but it was a mutual and voluntary decision to quit. Okay, I must admit that I did pressure Rolf into it, but after about 6 months of me nagging about it he was quite ready to give up. Arent and Matty however quit because they wanted to themselves.
Although it sounded to me like a good plan for them to be able to do this together, it unfortunately doesn’t really seem to work that way. Read the rest of this entry »
We would like to present you the newest trend in Pacific hairstyling. Here you see Rolf & Arent Brink showing what from now on will be known as the Bald Brinkie. Only available at Boukje’s Hairsalon on the back of the Helena. (The necklaces are a parting gift from our Manihi family)
Since they finally found paradise, the guys were not really looking forward to sailing out again to meet me in Tahiti on the 4th. Fortunately Manihi has an airport with a daily connection to Tahiti. So Rolf got himself a plane ticket and was at Papeete airport when I arrived there at four in the morning, after a 26 hour trip. I was so happy to see him standing there, complete with leis (flower necklaces) to welcome me in true island style. Read the rest of this entry »
We said goodbye today to our dear crewmember Marie-Andree. She flew out from Hiva Oa to join her friends on Tahiti and Bora-Bora. Now it’s just the guys and without a woman on board we’re on our own way to Tahiti… No woman on board, that means we have to do our own sailtrim, navigation, cooking, dinghy driving, reading, movies, teeth brushing, bedtime stories and so on from now on. Read the rest of this entry »
We met Matty in 2010 through an internet dating service for sailors called Sailing Networks. Matty has been a good friend ever since and has joined us all the way to Tahiti for many months.
We are happy that Matty returned to Helena in August 2012 to sail her across the Indian Ocean. This time crewing with Rikard and Mauritio.
Vybrashun is the guy that has been looking after us on St Kitts. He is the greatest engineer I have ever met in the Caribbean. We picked him up on the way back to St Maarten and he stayed with us for 2 weeks after that, helping out with anything that needed to be done on board. We are all very thankful for his help on board!
Marie was coming along for an overnight trip to Guadeloupe. What she didn’t know was that Arent and Rolf had sabotaged the driveshaft and in that way tricked her into a long stay on Helena while being stuck on St Kitts. Seriously, who wants to lose another great cook? She never left the ship since and she has joined us all the way to French Polynesia. Yes, we did chain her to the ship… I should also mention that she’s a great helmswoman and does extremely well on sailtrim!!!
Arent is Rolf’s cousin who has lived on St Maarten since puberty. This obviously has spoiled him and has given him the impressive ability to talk the shirt of any woman. He has sailed most of the world’s oceans himself with his catamaran Airee, so he invited himself on board Helena to join on the trip to Tahiti. Since St Maarten has the old tradition of blackmailing, he blackmailed me into accepting him with some none-compromising pictures. Since I always appreciate traditional approaches, I decided to forget about the pictures and let him come on board anyway. (Don’t ask about the pics, I’ll never tell!)
Arent is a great sailor who never lets any situation get out of hand. He joined us all the way to Tahiti.
sailing yacht Helena 