It’s September already and Helena is on the way to South-Africa. A lot has happened since we last posted here, not surprising since that was in December of last year! In short: we sailed around SE Asia, had a lot of engine trouble and went back home for a couple of months. And oh yeah, Boukje decided she was done with long passages, so Rolf is crossing the Indian Ocean with crew.
Archive for the ‘Helena’ Category
Our SE Asia experience explained
In Helena, Voyages on 12/09/2012 at 20:27On dry land
In Helena, Voyages on 23/06/2011 at 02:39
We’re back in Australia. This time we brought Helena along! Our original plans were to go from the Solomons along the coast of PNG through the Torres Strait to end up in Darwin. However, due to an unreliable engine, two furling systems in need of repair and a broken genoa, we decided to take the easiest and quickest route to a place for repairs and sailed to Cairns. Read the rest of this entry »
Two parties and a ritual
In Helena, People on 01/11/2010 at 21:38
On the 31st of October Arent turned 40-ish. That means birthday songs, a homemade cake, best wishes and, if at all possible, a huge party. As he (and we) don’t know that many people in this part of the world yet, we decided to take him to the party of the year on Tahaa: Halloween at the Taravana Yacht Club.
But before we went there, we had an important ritual of our own to perform… Read the rest of this entry »
Fixed it! (again)
In Helena, Voyages on 29/10/2010 at 06:13
We did it! Last Thursday we received the watermaker and installed it ourselves. This involved Rolf sitting in the engine room for 8 hours, Boukje handing screws, tools and drinks and the two of us using a hammer 🙂 to change some of the parts. But as I said: we did it, and it works perfectly! Now we can make 60 to 75 liters of drinking water an hour. It’s amazing.
The same day we were busy fixing the watermaker, Arent and Matty and their captain Mike arrived back in Raiatea (still waiting on repairs). And because the wind was now coming from the north (just where we want to go), we had plenty of time on our hands. So we enjoyed some nice days catching up and being tourists on Raiatea with them.
Read the rest of this entry »
Relaxing in Moorea and Huahine
In Helena, Voyages on 23/10/2010 at 01:36
We did indeed leave Tahiti the next day. Happy to finally be sailing again, we set course for a relaxed trip to Moorea. Moorea is a nice small island that lies about 20 miles west of Tahiti. We had been seeing it’s mountains in the distance for the last month. Now that we got there, it turned out to be as nice and peaceful as it had looked from busy Papeete. We anchored in quiet Cook’s Bay, went for a dinghy snorkeling trip around the north coast and hiked our way up the mountains towards a beautiful view of the coast.
After all that relaxing we set sail for Huahine. Or so we thought… Read the rest of this entry »
A month in Tahiti
In Helena, Voyages on 07/10/2010 at 19:49This last month in Tahiti we’ve made use of all the time we had to wait for parts to arrive, by improving the boat and playing tourists. As we’ve not been keeping up the blog (sorry), here’s a short impression of our activities in the last month.
Uh-oh, steering problems
In Helena on 29/07/2010 at 18:46Tomorrow morning we’re making an unscheduled stop at Manihi, because we have taken damage on the steering system. The hydraulic autopilot (which was replacing the original autopilot that broke down on the way to the Marquesas) has broken the steering system. So now we have a jury-rigged autopilot with the emergency tiller on the stern deck. Steering the ship manually is now an old fashioned undertaking while sitting at an actual helm and the autopilot needs re-attachment with improvised ropes.
No worries, we’re under complete control. Since we’re arriving on an atoll tomorrow morning this shouldn’t give too many problems. It’s going to be a logistical challenge now though, because we’re supposed to pick up Boukje in Tahiti and we’re in need of a welding shop… I guess we’ll have to figure that out when we arrive.
Miraflores Locks, Panama Canal
In Helena, Voyages on 11/06/2010 at 18:05Helena in the Miraflores Locks in the Panama Canal as seen on the live webcam of the Autoridad del Canal de Panama.
Pimpin’ da boat
In Helena on 20/05/2010 at 16:42St Kitts is behind us now and we’ve set sail to Guadeloupe where there is an Amel yard. Since Helena is an Amel, we figured that it would be a nice place to do some large maintenance and many upgrades. Everything was nicely arranged in advance only to find out that Amel did not remember to order or prepare anything in advance, even though everything was arranged and agreed on by email in advance.
So after a big beef and some emergency stuff that could only be done by Amel, I decided not to spend anything overthere and we set sail for St Maarten again where everything is available and can be done. This trip was truly amazing with good winds and an average of 10 knots! Half way we picked up Vybrashun from St Kitts to take him on a holiday. Just for the record, he considers helping out with maintenance on board a holiday… 🙂
sailing yacht Helena 