London, Monday August 30th 2004: Summer report.

Farewell Isobel Young (1913-2004)

Our summer break in Norway is over and I am on a slow journey back to our yacht in Trinidad, stopping over in London where I’m staying with Elisabeth & Hugh. Eli is staying behind in Norway this time, and Diana is not with me, either. - She had to fly from Kristiansand to Canada a few days ago as her mother, Isobel, became seriously ill. She got there just in time before Isobel became unconscious; she passed away quietly early this morning. Had she lived 8 more days she would have become 91 years old. The last few years she repeatedly said she was feeling her high age and was ready to go. Fortunately, she remained mentally alert and played a good hand of bridge until two weeks before she died. And I could not have asked for a more welcoming and easy-going mother-in-law. I have known her since 1967. The enclosed picture was taken last year on her 90th birthday when a large crowd of family gathered to celebrate the event with her in Oakville.

Arrival of Johan Fredrik Hoff

While some go, others arrive. July 19th witnessed the birth of our second grandchild in Oslo; Johan Fredrik Hoff. So Isobel also got the happy news of her great grandchild while she was still quite well. Johan weighed in at 4,3 kg, was a bit blue around the edges due to a doubly knotted naval cord being wrapped around his neck (some maritime omen?), but was soon fine and ready for a world of milk, nappies, cuddles and care. I last saw Johan, his parents Camilla & Martin and “big” sister, Hedda (turned 2 in March aboard White Admiral) in Oslo yesterday. But the first time was when he was only 4 days old and they all came to show him off in Kristiansand.
One reason for me going to Oslo this last weekend in Norway was to give Camilla a wee break by looking after Hedda and at the same time assisting our sons Martin & Robert who competed in the Birkebeiner race. This gruelling mountain bike race attracted nearly 11.000 entrants, who left in large groups from Rena at 250 m altitude, wound their way across the mountains at a height of 900 m and finished in Lillehammer, 89 muddy km later. It was Martin’s 4th and Robert’s 1st. They both did very well, although Robert found he had too little clothes in the cold drizzle in the middle, and Martin had problems with grit in the gears and had to stand and peddle all the slopes. That gave him such a sore back. Both still claimed it was fun! Certainly we all thoroughly enjoyed the super shellfish meal Camilla had ready for us back home Saturday night…

Work and work-outs; a new challenge ahead.

Looking back on our 3 months’ interlude in Norway I better start with the beginning: Diana, Eli and I landed at Torp airport near Sandefjord 26th May. During the next week we had caught up with a number of family members and good friends, had helped Eli to settle at her summer cottage at the island of Veierland, bought a 10 year old Volvo and rented a small house in Kristiansand (our own house is being rented out until next year). 7th June I started work as a consultant locum at the Cardiology Dpt., Kristiansand Hospital (SSK). I kept that up for 11 weeks and thoroughly enjoyed it; even enjoyed the occasional all night duties I offered to do. Apart from the satisfaction of being part of a well-functioning, modern, medical team and being responsible for a number of hospital beds, it became a much needed revision of internal medicine. And I even learned some new skills! An old ambition has been to master (trans-thoracic) cardiac ultrasound examination. These machines being very expensive, I never did any cardiac echo all the years I was in private practice. After my 11 weeks at SSK I cannot claim to be either an expert or even very good at it, but given a couple more locums and I should become quite useful! (I’ll be back in the same job in late November for 2 months as we are keeping White Admiral in the Caribbean for another year, at least.)
Diana worked a total of 6 weeks doing ophthalmology locums in private practice, i.e. the same type of work she did the last several years. She did not enjoy it as much as I, but the good income she generated is certainly welcome. Maybe she will also look to the hospitals for future work. It means more team work, more shared responsibility, more varied and much more sociable work.
When we arrived in Norway in late May the trees were still in lighter shades of green, the weather was warm, and the long evenings were filled with lilac and jasmine fragrance. This inspired us to do a lot of walking, so why not some tempo-walking? (Kinder to aging knees after all those years of frequent jogging.) So we bought sticks and started tempo-walking more seriously. And with all that wonderful nature close by and long, mild evenings we found it an activity we really enjoyed. So we now have set our eyes on a new challenge, the Marathon des Sables.
It was John Peck, from New Horizons (participant in the Atlantic Rowing Regatta earlier this year), who convinced us that this super-marathon in the Moroccan Sahara desert is just the right challenge for Diana and I. So come 7th April 2005 we should be among the 600 starters. These slightly insane people not only volunteer, but actually pay a high entrance fee to cover 240 km of Sahara by foot in 6 races of 25 to 82 km in one week. The fittest ones will run the whole distance carrying all food, clothes and spares needed en route. The only facilities provided during the race are a daily nine litres of water per person and a tarpaulin for shelter at night. No beds. Stays at a five star hotel is provided at either end of the race, so the contrast to the tarpaulins and freeze-dried meals can hardly be greater… Readers interested in more details should go to www.saharamarathon.co.uk.

Swedish-Norwegian wedding

Before rounding up this 2004 report of the Scandinavian summer, two more trips deserve a special mentioning: Visiting Dagmar and Christian Platou’s new mountain cottage at Haglebu (near Gol). Here our good friends joined us in stick-walking trips to several of the nearby heights. Check out the enclosed pictures. And 20th August we found ourselves on the island of Blidø in the Stockholm archipelago celebrating the wedding of Eivind and Malin. Eivind is the oldest son of my cousin Geir Hoff and wife Sissel. (Geir and I are double cousins and grew up almost like brothers, had a lot of fun together both as boys and as we studied medicine and rowed together in Glasgow.) Most of the guests were there for the full three days - Diana and I had to restrict our visit to 36 memorable hours. The married couple are both political scientists and work with EU and EFTA affairs in Brussels, Belgium. So with all their international friends it was a truly cosmopolitan wedding with speeches switching between Swedish, Norwegian, English and French. And with Malin coming from an artistic family we also had lots of music and entertainment. The wedding ceremony itself was civil and held outside beside the sea and fortunately blessed with good weather.
But no such blessing during our rain-filled and rather boring drive back and forth the whole width of flattish South Sweden - 900 km each way from Kristiansand... (It’s going to be train or plane for us the next time!)
Finally, I hope you found my terrestrial, temperate summer review of some interest. But I promise that the next greeting will be from the maritime, tropical world of White Admiral; it will be posted either in Trinidad or Venezuela.

London, UK, May 23rd: Final sail to Trinidad

I’m writing this in Kensington, London at Elisabeth (our daughter) and Hugh’s house, so as planned we have left the boat for summer storage in Trinidad and are slowly on our way back to Norway. And with a lot of rain and humid heat in Grenada and Trinidad lately, it is pleasant again to breathe cool, dry European air in long twilight evenings – not to mention the fun of seeing family and friends - and catching up with some classical culture...
After our last report, we remained at anchor in the Lagoon, St George for another week (of daily rain…) and had time to socialize with other yachties. Breeze was the first and last Norwegian yacht we had met since Mindelo, Cape Verde. They had to move on quickly, but we spent some time with two nice couples on the Swedish yachts Miz Mae (Lilly & Thomas) and Malinda (Eva & Leif). The Grenada Yacht Club is an open, friendly, relaxed place where food and drinks, laundry and several other facilities are reasonably priced. No wonder some yachts get their anchors stuck for good, like the French, green and rusty yacht named Boof next to us…We also took the opportunity to see more of St George and the surrounding area by foot. The old Fort George on the hill between the two halves of the capital has a commanding view of the town and adjacent coast, and looks over to the island jail on top of another hill just east of the Lagoon. In the fort’s quadrangle is a bronze plaque commemorating the execution of Prime Minister Maurice Bishop and most of his cabinet in October 1983. This brutal action enraged the international community and prompted an invasion of USA-supported CariCom forces. Self-appointed PM Bernard Courd was arrested and thrown in the jail on the hill where he remains to this day. (Maurice Bishop was a Castro-inspired socialist with idealistic visions, but his methods were rough and dictatorial. Courd, a former party colleague, engineered a coup, but proved to be even rougher.)
Posters outlining the history of Fort George (initially built by the French in 1705) reminded us of how the Caribbean islands used to change hands: Grenada was originally annexed by France in 1650 (from the native Caribs, who were more or less annihilated), but Britain took over in 1763, France again in 1779 and British finally in 1783. Independence was declared in 1973, but the country remains a member of the British Commonwealth.
Monday 10th May in the afternoon we cleaned the mud and clay from the anchor, motored outside to drift along Grand Anse Bay and have a refreshing swim before hoisting sails for Trinidad. Shortly afterwards a succession of rain squalls with gale force gusts caught up with us and sent us spinning past the SW cape. The weather settled after an hour, but seas became choppy and the movements as rough as back in the North Sea last July. The reason is a long, shallow continental shelf and a lot of current south of the island. But shortening sails improved conditions inside, and in the wee hours of the morning is was almost comfortable. Dawn revealed the hills of Trinidad looming ahead, an oil rig and several large ships and to the west we could also make out the NE cape of Venezuela.
In the passage we had nearly two knots current against us and made painfully slow progress, but there was plenty to look at and entertain us; lush, green hillsides and lots of birds – the familiar laughing gulls, gannets, pelicans and frigate birds and – for the first time – large vultures. Suddenly we became aware of a high pitched noise. Engine problems? No, the infernal music was from cicadas on land! Just inside the passage we were met by five large dolphins, an encounter that always gives us a feeling of being welcome and never fails to make us happy!
Just before noon we tied up at the Customs & Immigration Dock at Chaguaramas. After a lot of paperwork we moved to a buoy outside Peake’s Yacht Services (PYS). At Peake’s we arranged for lifting out two days later on the 14th, a few days earlier than originally planned
The Chaguaramas area was originally an American naval base, but after they left it has developed into the biggest concentration of yachting and boating facilities we have seen so far on our travels. PYS is only one of several marinas catering for storage on land and repairs/maintenance, but there are also boat builders and a profusion of shops including chandlers and hardware shops. There are also sail makers, carpenters, engineers, welders, painters, and experts on refrigeration, electrics and electronics. The area is well kept and tidy, with hardly any litter (unusual for the Caribbean, I’m afraid). Around all this maritime activity is beautiful, wild rain forest as the area is also a national park.
While waiting for hauling out, we motored the two miles around the peninsula to the Carenage anchorage. This was rolly and uncomfortable at first but towards evening became beautifully calm as described in our guide. Then we also noticed a number of people fishing along the shore. They kept hauling in long, shiny fish, but we could not make out what kind exactly. Well, we soon found out, for as Diana and I took a row ashore to the yacht club a long, flat and shiny fish with large teeth suddenly jumped into the dinghy! (And Diana nearly jumped out!) But the fish met its end with a quick blow from the oar and was eaten for dinner next day (tasted OK, but too many small bones). The fish looks a little like a flat snake mackerel, but with the wrong tail. (We still do not know its correct name, if you recognize it from the picture, let us know!)
PYS proved to be as efficient and professional as their reputation, we were safely and quickly lifted out, pressure-hosed and placed beside other catamarans in the back of the marina. Diana and I stayed aboard while Eli moved into the small hotel run by the Bight Restaurant at the waterfront. So for the last few mornings we woke up to calls and songs from a variety of birds, including parrots and the yellow-breasted kiskadee – named after its characteristic call. In between a lot of boat work and packing these last days we did a little sightseeing. However, the centre of the capital Port of Spain late one Sunday afternoon had a lot of emaciated street dwellers and beggars and did not seem very inviting to us. But our trip to the Caroni Swamp was a real adventure. The ranger who drove the boat was excellent and pointed out many “hidden” animals in the mangroves and the brackish waters. – Among these were a large snake hanging above us in a ball, an ant eater that looked a bit like a teddy bear and a cayman (alligator) with only eyes and nostrils showing. But the main object of the trip, the scarlet ibis, national bird of Trinidad & Tobago, did not need pointing out! In the evening this brilliantly coloured bird returns from the beaches to roost in the mangroves; 15.000 in this area alone! With the red ibis also come flocks of white and blue herons, and with the bright green mangroves as a backdrop, the whole migration is a truly colourful spectacle.
Rain the final day was a nuisance, but by midnight and after a lot of hard work, the boat and we were finally ready. After a short sleep a taxi collected us at 4 am, so in the early hours of 19th May we patted White Admiral goodbye, see you 1st September!
BWIA brought us to Barbados where we had almost the whole day before the Virgin Atlantic flight to London in the evening. But Dora Herbert had kindly invited us to Port St Charles for lunch with some of her family, so in spite of yet more rain this turned out to be a most enjoyable day. Eli had a good sleep, Diana a long swim and a jog on the beach, I had a good work-out in the PSC gym and we all had an excellent lunch; thank you Dora!
Main event here in London has been the Ocean Rowing Society dinner Friday 21st. 100 people made it a capacity crowd at the distinguished Army & Navy Club, Pall Mall, and ORC Director Kenneth Crutchlow was in his element. The dinner was honoured by the presence of the Governor of Barbados and his wife. And we enjoyed meeting again nearly all the rowers we had seen leaving La Gomera Jan 20th , most of whom we also met again in Barbados. Two rowers missing, however, were Henry Dale and Louis Ginglo, who had only reached Barbados his week. (Louis as the last rower arrived the day before the dinner (to Kenneth’s great relief) after spending 121 days at sea! It was a night especially for the rowers and their relatives. Speeches and prizes were given, and we on White Admiral were also shown appreciation for our support.
That was two days ago. But yesterday also provided a special occasion for Diana and I. We left Eli to watch the FA Cup final, and secured last-minute tickets to the English National Opera were we saw The Valkyrie by Richard Wagner. It is our first live Wagner opera experience and it was amazing. With two intervals the performance lasted 5 hours. But there was never a dull moment as the drama, the music and the singing was enthralling, almost overwhelming. Afterwards, on our way to the Underground Diana and I walked hand-in-hand in the cool, clear night past famous landmarks like Trafalgar and Leicester Square, and lots of others enjoying London’s sights and shows by night. We talked in awe about our great musical event, and felt very privileged and happy to share such amazing experiences from such different environments as the Caroni Swamp and the English National Opera…

Grenada, 3rd May, 2004

Bequia and St Vincent
We left Barbados on13th April, sailing out into the sun-set, after a
farewell glass of champagne with Kenneth Crutchlow (director of Ocean Rowing Society), the boys from Kilcullen (the support boat), photographer Dixie and Matt Boreham (who had just rowed the Atlantic) with his family. Those not so pleased with us were the birds who were trying to make a nest in our radar reflector, they were whistling angrily above the cross trees as Stein cleared out their little branches for the fourth time – sorry, rainbirds! Port St Charles gradually disappeared astern, and our grateful thoughts went to director Thomas Herbert, who had been so kind to us for the past two months. A gentle, overnight sail in the trade-winds brought Bequia into view, an old favourite from past sailing trips. We anchored in the wonderfully sheltered Admiralty Bay on the West coast, right outside the Whaleboner restaurant run by old friends Albert and Angie Hinkson. Albert had been a patient of Stein’s in 1978 when we lived in Barbados, and it was good to see him at 78 still alive and well and working in the restaurant. He had got a new lease of life by becoming a grand-father! Our other friend in Bequia is Mariann Palmborg, she and ex-partner Peter have been living here since their yacht Fredag ran aground on a reef in the area almost 20 years ago. Apart from eating and chatting with old acquaintances, we took time for some walking on the island and were pleased to see that despite being a little busier, the place was not much changed. Admiralty Bay is still idyllic with colourful fishing and sailing boats on the beach (locally built, of course), and a rim of palm trees. Stein and I spent one day going to St. Vincent to do the wonderful walk over the now dormant volcano, La Soufriere. This I had done in 1996 on my own and I wanted to show Stein. We took the early morning ferry over to the rather chaotic capital Kingstown, found the right minibus up the east coast to where the trail begins, and off we went. The trail goes through banana plantations for abut an hour of brisk walking, then through luxurious rain-forests for anther hour, then over scrub-land above the tree line for abut half an hour. At the rim of the huge crater there is often rain and cloud, which was the case on this trip, and we were soaked with pelting rain as we peered down into the crater with its central mound. After walking around the crater edge, we had trouble finding the right path down, as there was no visibility, and when the path we chose ended up in shoulder high vegetation we had to grudgingly turn and tramp back up again. However, we were then rewarded with the clouds lifting and a fantastic view both into the crater and down to the west coast of the island. Once on the correct path, the descent went down through more luxurious vegetation to the beach on the west coast, a couple of miles north of the nearest road and even further to the nearest town and bus-stop. This last stretch was made easier by a wonderful cold beer at a roadside shack, and some friendly locals who let us sit on the back of their pick-up truck, which we gratefully accepted after the six-hour trek over the mountains. Then we took a minibus back to Kingstown and the ferry over to Bequia - a great day!

Mayreau.
On Sunday, 18th April we moved on to Mayreau, another island we know well, this took about 4 hours in a nice easterly breeze. Anchored in Saline Bay, we took the steep walk up the hill to the little catholic church on top of the island. It must still be the church with the best view in the world! Here we met Father Mark, the priest and an enthusiastic protector of the environment. He gave us lots of information abut living conditions and danger to the ecology, and proudly showed us the new community centre which the islanders had built and named after his predecessor Father Robert Divonne, whom we had met on our first visits to the island in 1978 and 1979. This is a beautiful island, but the islanders are poor, with not much else to do than try to make a few dollars from the yachties and cruise-ships which visit.
To clear out of the St.Vincent Grenadines, we had to go to Union Island, previously not one of our favourite places, thanks to an open rubbish dump in town, and not too friendly locals. It is only an hour’s sail from Mayreau, which we did on the morning of 20th April. Checking out was simple, the place looked more colourful and tidy than on our previous visit, with the rubbish dump almost filled in, and nobody gave us any abuse. So our opinion of Union has improved!

Carriacou and Petit Martinique (Grenada Grenadines)
We did our shopping and moved on right away to Petit Martinique in the Grenada Grenadines, another hour’s brisk sail to the south. This is not a port of entry, but we heard that the authorities do not worry if boats spend the night here before checking in. This is a charming island, friendly people, lovely beach, and a pleasant hour and a half walk round the island, partly on the concrete road, and partly on a rather hard to find path a bit overgrown with prickly plants. Obviously not many people walk around! Eli sat in the garden of the Palm Beach restaurant and bar, enjoying a cold rum-punch and chatting to the proprietor Augustina Clement while we went walking. Afterwards Eli and I bought some extremely cheap clothes, which Mrs Clement buys through her daughter in Florida. This is the place to get a bargain, and I bought a dress to wear on my birthday for 30 EC dollars (about £7)!
The next day we checked into the country in Carriacou, after another hour of fresh sailing with just the genoa, anchoring off the beach at the main town of Hillsborough. The checking-in was time-consuming, with four offices to visit, and like most countries there is now a fee for cruising, we paid abut 90 EC dollars (abut £21) for a month’s permit. Carriacou is famous for its boat-building and we took a trip to the east coast to the town of Windward, where we could admire the wooden cargo boats (called “schooners” although they only have one mast) being built on the beach. Now they also build more modern sailing boats and fast boats with powerful outboards that whiz around everywhere (“pirogues”).
There is a lovely little tropical islet called Sandy Island with a few palm trees just outside Hillsborough, where we took a three-hour stop for swimming, snorkelling and pottering about, before moving to Tyrrell Bay, the larger bay in the south of the island where most of the yachts lie. This is a big, well-sheltered bay with a relaxed yacht-club (great callalou soup!), and a large new marina under construction. So there will be even better yacht facilities in the future, but whether it will be so idyllic is questionable.

Turning 60 in Grenada.
Time rushes on, and we had to leave Carriacou on the 24th April, as Elisabeth was due to arrive in Grenada the next day. This was a longer sail of 36 miles, which took seven hours, partly in pouring rain. We anchored in True Blue Bay on the south of the island very close to the air-port. As I stood at the arrival gate at Port Salines air-port, peering to see when Elisabeth would be coming out, suddenly I saw Robert standing grinning in front of me. This was a surprise visit arranged by Stein for my birthday, so it was great to have two of our children to celebrate with. (Would have been nice to have all three, but Martin was in Barbados a month ago.)
The rain which started on our sail to the island unfortunately has continued, so we have had the wettest week since arriving in the Caribbean, with torrential down-pours; seems like the wet season has started early this year. That has not stopped us having a great time together. We hired a car for two days and have ”done” the island as best we can, walking in the rain-forest, visiting a nutmeg processing station (felt like going back to the time of the industrial revolution) and a charming little chocolate factory, feeding the Mona monkeys, and admiring one of the many beautiful water-falls. Here the local boys offer to entertain visitors by jumping from the cliff down into the small pool under the fall. They were impressed, and so were we (and a little nervous), when Robert went up and did the same! A strange visit was to a disused airport, where a couple of old dilapidated Cuban planes lie as a monument to the political trouble here 20 years ago. We had the unusual experience of driving at full speed down the runway!
We did of course also do some sailing, moving to different anchor places, one more on the south coast at Martin’s Marina, then round the south west headland to Morne Rouge Bay, a lovely shallow anchorage, only suitable for multi-hulls, then into the lagoon at the capital St George’s. At these spots, we have walked, trained, swum, and Stein and the younger generation have used the second-hand wind-surfer we picked up in the Canaries. Elisabeth raced off on it, showing us that she has some experience and wanting more wind, and Robert quickly learned the basics, too.
The occasion that Elisabeth and Robert had come for was my 60th birthday on the first of May. Not much one can say abut turning sixty, except that it is great to be alive and well and enjoying life! We had a champagne lunch on board, with cards and presents and songs, and in the evening we went to the Laluna restaurant, which we had been advised was the best on the island.
This a hideaway, luxury resort on a little beach, with the restaurant overlooking the gentle surf and an unbroken horizon. As the sun went down, a big moon was up, the candles and fairy-lights came on, and it felt like a magical place. The menu lived up to its reputation, and with tender filet mignon, good wine and a heavenly coconut cream pie, life seemed pretty good at 60!
Yesterday we waved goodbye to the younger generation at the air-port and walked the few miles back to the lagoon where we are now anchored. We have some minor jobs to do, before we leave in a few days on our last sail for this season, down to Trinidad.

Sunday 11th April 2004, still in Barbados: New Horizons, Cricket and Friends

The 17 days since Diana’s last report have seen lots of social activities for the Hoffs in Barbados, but we have only assisted in one more rowing arrival; New Horizons, Sat. 27th March. The main “mother ship” Kilcullen left several hours before us to meet up with John and Fraser a few miles SSW of Barbados and to start towing them home. Boy, those two were glad to get off the boat! Apart from aches and pains, they experienced awful worries for several weeks as they were too far south and thought they might miss Barbados altogether. However, all’s well that ends well, and like every other crew so far they were the best of friends, and very happy
to accept a long tow up the west coast of Barbados. We had Elaine, John Pecks wife aboard, and when the two boats met John dived in from Kilcullen and swam over for a wet and hearty welcome!

On arriving at Port St Charles in pitch darkness at 9.30 pm., Pavel the Ukrainian solo rower, noticed that out fishing line was trailing behind. Amazingly enough we had not got it in our propeller on going alongside the dock, but that relief was nothing compared to the surprise of finding a nice tuna at the end of the line! Nobody on White Admiral had consciously let out the line. Our theory is that John hit the drum with the line on it accidentally as he climbed aboard and hence released the long line, which was all out. Indeed a fishy story, but true! With a quiet period rowing wise, Diana flew to Canada from 31st March to 5th April. She endured the cold and enjoyed meeting her mum Isobel and brother Jim and his family and friends Ethel and Will Duthie. Isobel still plays a sharp hand of bridge, as Diana painfully experienced at the local bridge club… Apart from that she went to the musical Mamma Mia and roamed
the computer and boat equipment stores. She bought a new external hard-drive after we had experienced a computer nightmare. Both our computers had crashed, and even worse, shortly after her return the new hard-drive with which one had been repaired also crashed! At least this time we had a back-up on the external unit… Now Martin is buying a new computer for us in Norway and hopefully Elisabeth will bring it when she comes to visit us in Grenada 24th…

In Diana’s absence I built book shelves and with my mum Eli kept up the pleasant routine of socializing with rowers and Bajan friends. Elaine and John took us to Mango, a lovely restaurant in Speightstown and a place to be recommended. Another evening at the Goddards was also most memorable. Sam Knight, the fastest of the solo rowers, is an avid cricket fan. Along with a crowd of rowers and families he invited me to see the West Indies v. England at the Kensington Oval April 2nd. This was the second day of the
third test match in the Caribbean. It was my first ever live cricket match, a fact I hardly dare to admit, having lived here for two periods as well as in New Zealand and South Africa where cricket is a really big sport. The rules are complicated, but with Sam & Co as commentators I soon had the general idea. And apart from the entertainment of the game with hard balls being bowled (thrown) and batted at incredible force and speed and skill, just being part of the general stand and watching people and the culture around it was fascinating. My old boss from the late 70’s, Trevor Hassel, is now a professor and the distinguished Chief Medical Officer of Queen Elisabeth Hospital. He organized that I could attend a word round Thursday 8th April with consultant Dr Rudolph Delice, So with him and his medical staff I spent two interesting hours in the same medical wards I used to work 25 years ago. Medicines, investigation and some of the treatment have become moresophisticated, it is now possible to do CT scans and both dialyze and do
coronary bypass surgery in QEH, but in other ways time seemed to have stood still. The wards were the same, large wards with little space between the beds and a minimum of privacy for the patients, and the patient notes are still hand-written and frequently misplaced. But as a general comment, the standard of public medicine in Barbados is still head and shoulders above that of most of the Caribbean…
Wanting to see more of our many friends here in Barbados, this last week has been particularly busy and enjoyable. Our chief benefactor here at PStC, Thomas Herbert, his wife Kathy and mum Dora had dinner with us a few days ago. While he filleted a whole lot of freshly caught barracudas, we had pre-dinner snacks. Next day he took us for a fascinating drive around Claybury Plantation. How he and Kathy cope with that farm in addition to his demanding job as Chief Executive Officer of PStC is a mystery... But apart from seeing the large fruit and vegetable orchards and acres and acres of sugar canes on this huge farm, he showed us a couple of “secret” gullies with jungle-like vegetation were you can swing from long lianas. We did not meet Tarzan, but woke up dozens of large bats instead! Last night Marsha and Oscar Jordan came for dinner with daughter Claire and boyfriend Gordon, and today Gloria and Clive Gibbons had lunch with us. I have worked with Oscar and Diana worked with Clive, both consultants at QEH. With the shelves and a few other items needing two component epoxy and varnish, which Eli is allergic to, she accepted the kind offer to stay with Trudi Smyth on the East Coast. At the same time Martin Smyth offered us the loan of his car – a very practical exchange! Varnishing is now all finished (and so are probably a few of my liver and brain cells!) and Eli is moving back aboard tomorrow. Tomorrow we also expect another rowing arrival, that of Matt Boreham on Alison May. It is Matt’s fourth attempt to row the Atlantic, this time he looks set to succeed. Tuesday in two days we set sail for Bequia, and for Wednesday evening we already have a dinner invitation to friends there!

11th April2004 Port St Charles, Barbados

It is a warm and beautiful Easter Morning here at Port St Charles, Barbados. The humming birds are zooming between the blue flowers lining our dock, a pair of fly catchers are twiddling happily (and dropping things!) from the mast head, and it is already 31 degrees inside three hours after sunrise. There is hardly a breath of wind, but the weather man on CBC radio promised some trade winds later... Diana and I have had a jog and a swim before breakfast, we have written some post cards and we are thinking about
friends and family, and before I get a report written about the events these last two weeks, we’d like to send you all this Easter Card &
Greeting. Eli sends her regards from the Smyths at Joes River House, St. Joseph (East Barbados), where she is enjoying the luxuries of land life. She moves back aboard tomorrow before we head west towards Bequia on Tuesday 13th. Mariann in Bequia phoned today and wants to have a party when we arrive on Wednesday – great! But meanwhile,

Happy Easter and the Warmest of Wishes to you all, wherever you are. From Diana, Eli and Stein

25rd March 2004 Port St Charles, Barbados

Nearly a month since our last update and we are still enjoying life in sunny Barbados in the lagoon at Port St Charles. One reason for our delay with this report is that both our laptop computers crashed within 3 days! A local data expert is working on them, and in the meantime we are using the Ocean Rowing Society’s computer. Our two main occupations this past month have been meeting rowing boats and looking after family. Martin, Camilla and little Hedda were here for 10 days from 4th March, which was a great pleasure for us, especially with this chance to get to know our little grand-daughter better. Like most two year olds she is a busy and demanding little girl, full of fun and curious about everything. We had our first children’s birthday party aboard, with balloons, presents, cake and birthday crown, the only thing lacking was other children! We enjoyed doing some baby-sitting, an easy task in the sunshine with both swimming-pool and white beach close at hand, while the parents relaxed and charged their batteries before facing the rest of the Norwegian winter.
Since meeting Queensdale, the fastes boat in the regatta (36 days) and the first four to row across an ocean, White Admiral has been out on five more missions to meet boats arriving. These were: Carpe Diem, the first pair to arrive, with a previous and present member of the British Prachute Regiment aboard, Against All Odds with an American/Zimbabwe pair, Linda with two Englishmen, Pacific Pete with the fist solo rower Sam, also the youngest person ever (23) to have rowed solo across an ocean, Marion Lviv with Pavel (65) from Ukraine, the oldest person to have rowed an ocean and Sea Slug with another young English pair. The most dramatic arrival was Linda, which capsized on Harrison’s Reef off the north-west coast of Barbados as we watched in horror! While I drove White Admiral outside the breakers, Stein took the dinghy with the outboard, and found a passage to the boys who were trying unsuccessfully to right their boat. Stein tried to help them do this, but it was not possible so with all three and the oars in the dinghy they towed the upside-down boat back to White Admiral and with all aboard, we continued towing it to the finish at Port St Charles. The boys and the vessel had minor injuries, but all electronic and most of the electric equipment was destroyed.
Stein also went out one evening with the American yacht Svoboda, to meet Stuart Boreham, the first disabled person to row an ocean. For details and pictures of these ocean rows have a look at www.oceanregatta.com or www.oceanrowing.com (go to Photos).
Another pleasure here has been seeing more of our old Barbadian friends. As well as the ones we mentioned in our last update, we have had a pleasant evening being treated by Stein’s old colleague Oscar Jordan and his wife Marsha, to a lovely restaurant meal a couple of meters from the Caribbean surf, and received more wonderful hospitality from Maureen and Doug Mackenzie, old friends from our fist visit to Barbados in 1977/78.
I plan to take a trip to Canada next week, when there will be a few days pause between boats arriving, to visit my 90 year old mum. We will move on from here in early April en route to Trinidad, via Bequia, the Grenadines, Carriacou and Grenada. We have now booked a place to leave White Admiral in Trinidad towards the end of May, and will return home to Norway and summer jobs when we are absolutely sure that the cold weather has gone!

28th February 2004, Port St Charles, Barbados

Navigation is no longer an art, we knew exactly when Barbados would appear on the horizon, and as expected, on the morning of 17th February we had the delightful sight of the island on portside. The sea was rough as we got closer to round the North Point, with gusts up to 36 knots, so it was a relief to come into more sheltered water on the West coast, and even better to tie up at the Immigration jetty at Port St Charles. But before the sea settled and squalls still battered us we had the most amazing welcome from five large and playful dolphins. Two of the animals treated us to leaps high up in the air just in front of us. (Could they possibly be trained and employed with the Barbados Board of Tourism?!)
At Port St Charles three officers for immigration, customs and health came aboard, well-dressed and very formal, cleared us in with a lot of paper-work, but no problems, and after joining us in a glass of Norwegian aquavit to celebrate our arrival, relaxed and became very chatty and friendly. Later in the day, we were given a berth in the outer lagoon of Port St. Charles. This must be the best berth for a yacht in Barbados! It is a completely sheltered, aquamarine lagoon, with apartments for the rich in well laid-out tropical gardens. Thanks to our previous rowing, helping with the present rowing regatta from La Gomera and the kindness of one of the owners; Thomas Herbert, we have been given this free berth and use of all the facilities. So we are now enjoying a very privileged life, swimming in the pool, keeping fit in the excellent gym, and watching the sun set behind the palm trees with a rum-punch in hand. Beats going to work back home in frozen Norway!
It is also a pleasure to share this with our guests, first with our crew member Frode who was here for nine days, thanks to our fast passage from Cape Verde Islands. Together, we have driven around most of the island, visiting places we know well, and meeting old friends. Stein and I have worked in Barbados twice, in 1978-79 for just over a year, and again in 1988-89 for half a year. So we know the island well and have good friends here. So far we have visited Wendy and Harold Goddard, old sailors whom we met on our first circumnavigation in the Solomon Islands in 1981, and the Smyth family, who are faithful helpers of all yachties who come to the island, giving them weather forecasts on the amateur radio (The Caribbean Maritime Mobile Net) or by e-mail, and often inviting them to their lovely home on the East coast. Frode left us on the 26th, after nearly six weeks aboard, the perfect crew-member – experienced sailor, good fun, easy-going and helpful. The night before he left, he treated us to a second, splendid meal at the restaurant La Mer in the PStC complex, Eli having done the same on the first night ashore. And with the excellent food and service, good wines, and a table at the edge of the water, life seemed wonderful! Welcome back again another time, Frode!
While we are here, we will be meeting the rowing boats which come in, and the winner has already arrived, the four-manned boat Queensgate on the 24th February after a fast 36 day passage from la Gomera. Unfortunately they didn’t beat the record for the fastest row ever across the ocean of 35 days (but that was by 11 men!) but they are the first four to cross and have set a hard standard for future rowers. We took White Admiral a few miles up the coast to meet them, with Kenneth Crutchlow, director of he Ocean Rowing Society, a couple of journalists/film-makers and a few relatives aboard. It was quite moving to see the excited relatives shouting and waving to their loved ones, and follow the boys the last few miles into the harbour here.
Now we have my brother Jim from Toronto and his son Andrew aboard. The arrived from cold Canada yesterday and are just getting used to the shock of 30 centigrade in the shade and blazing sunshine. Next week we are looking forward to seeing our son Martin, daughter-in-law Camilla and grand-daughter Hedda who are coming for ten days.
We will probably stay here until about the end of March, as long as we feel we are not outstaying our welcome, to meet a few more of the rowing teams, and fully enjoy life on our Barbados; Island in the Sun.
.

February 17th - Barbados!

At 0910 local time, ie 1310 GMT we tied up at the immigration/customs jetty, Port St Charles! Position is N13 15,8' W 59 38,7'. We were quickly boarded by three officials, who completed a lot of papers, got the B$25 fee, joined us in an "anchor dram" and declared us officially entered in Barbados! Last night was rough, especially after about 2 am when we again had to reef down the genoa. Took the reef out about 5 am, only to have to re-reef about 7.30 when we got the strongest squalls yet: 37 knots from NE. Off the Arawak Cement factory and Harrison's Reef the wind died, so the last two miles in here we motored slowly while enjoying breakfast in still water for the first time since Mindelo and of course lapped up the lovely sight of this lush, green, beautiful island! Boat's been behaving very well throughout, the crew are all well, our Norwegian mobile phone seems to work also here (SMS should work on 004797179605, but we'll get a local phone card/no. asap).It's now 1310, we've had a little look around, said hello to Derek in the Administration and Ian at the bar, seen the Russian explorer Fedor's son Oscar and assistant Dimitri (Fedor Konyukhov's expected here tomorrow after yet another record-making sail), had a swim and a shower. And chatted to Martin Smyth on the phone. The other three are now off to Speightstown for fresh food for lunch while I will have a wee sleep (mine was the morning duty, also I did not sleep too well before that). Life is good!

February 15th - Crossing the Atlantic - Two days to go!

Position Sunday February 15th 12 GMT: N? 13 32,6’ W 55? 10,2’, 259 n.miles to go. EWNE F5, rough seas, clear sky
(overcast later). Several heavy squalls last night - the rigging becoming cleaner all the time!
We have been at sea now for 13 days, a fast ride in the trade winds, with a strong northeasterly breeze blowing
faithfully day after day. The sea is rough, and has given us a chance to judge how our new catamaran compares to
our old ferro-cement monohull in big seas. The advantages are that we sail horizontally with no heeling, and go a
bit faster, the disadvantage is that it is quite bumpy, with an occasional crash when a large wave smashes up
between the hulls. All in all we are pleased with her performance, we manage to live fairly comfortably on board,
although Eli complains a bit about the sudden movements, and we feel very safe. I am finally losing my fear that
we could be tipped upside down by a large wave, as catamarans have a theoretical possibility of doing.
The days have gone quickly, with lots of reading, sleeping, chatting, sunning ourselves, some repairs and
maintenance, singing and Trivial Pursuit, sending and receiving mail on the internet and the daily tasks of
preparing food, eating and clearing up. We have been lucky with the fishing, two dorados and a big tuna fish
giving several meals with various fish dishes - fried, baked, mixed with rice or with pasta. The fresh vegetables
are now running out, but with the help of tins, the remaining onions and potatoes, and still plenty of cheap
Spanish wine, we have no complaints about the cuisine.
With daily runs of between 126 and 157 nautical miles, we are now pretty sure to arrive in Barbados on Tuesday
morning, 17th February. The average speed through the water so far has been 5,7 knots since leaving Mindelo. We
are not very daring sailors, prefer to reef early and have too little, rather than just the right amount of sail -
especially at night. We’d also like to arrive in Port St Charles with all sails intact! Thanks to our helping with
the rowing regatta, and knowing one of the owners of the private development at Port St Charles, we are lucky to
have been given a berth in their lagoon. Although life on the rolling sea has been pretty good, we must admit that
we are now looking forward to our landfall, especially the boat lying in absolutely flat water at Port St Charles,
fresh bananas and tomatoes and a jog on the beach!
Pictures today are Stein working on the anchor winch (not yet sorted…) and Frode and I enjoying good books in the
cockpit.

February 12th - Crossing the Atlantic. Click here for postition.

Position 12 GMT: N 13? 44,4’ W 47? 30’. We are 708 n.miles from Barbados, in a few hours we will be two-thirds
of the way. Conditions are gentler with a moderate E breeze, warm and sunny in the cockpit. We are sailing
butterfly style with 2 genoas. This we tried last night with less success, the wind started gusting just after we
got up the second sail, and when taking it down again, it fell into the sea, the sheet getting caught under the
port hull. Stein was preparing for a night swim, but Frode managed to get it freed, and we got both sail and
ropes on deck and stowed without any damage. Not a performance to be proud of, but another experience richer - we
now know how not to take down a genoa!
Today's picture is of the SW lighthouse of Sao Vicente taken Sunday February 1st 1 1/2 hours after leaving
Mindelo. Impressive building with a track to a nearby village cut in the cliff high above. But we never saw any
lights from it...

February 11th - Crossing the Atlantic. Weather improving. Click here for postition.

Position 12 GMT/UTC: N 13? 49’ W 45? 24’; 830 n. miles left to Barbados at a course of 269? T. Wind is from ENE F5, occasionally F6, moderate-rough seas. Nice trade-wind cotton-ball clouds for the first time. Above the horizon W of us are receding squall clouds reminding us of another uncomfortable night with squalls and cross swells. It was difficult to have normal amount of canvas up due to the rough sea and big wind speed variation - 12-29 knots! But conditions improved gradually during the wee hours of the morning and this afternoon life on White Admiral has in fact been very pleasant! So we have been able to get on top a few chores. There are always a longish list of maintenance, repairs and improvements. The anchor winch is not working properly; the leak in the portside water-tank has worsened. But difficulties in getting the port engine starting were sorted out yesterday. Some clothes are washed. Next we need more baggy-wrinkles (anti sail-chafe device). Meanwhile we have all enjoyed a lot of reading. Today Eli has finished John Steinbeck’s East of Eden, part 1, Diana is on page 696 in W. M. Thackary’s Vanity Fair, I’m reading another Steinbeck: Pastures of Heaven and Frode is finishing Knut Hamsun’s Markens grøde (The Fruit of the Land). A number of other books and magazines have already been consumed since leaving La Gomera. Such luxury! Other activities in spite of rough seas are a daily Trivial Pursuit (simplified to asking questions from the cards). We do two rounds, takes about 45 minutes. Eli has the current record of 20 correct answers. (Why is she not senile like other 88 year olds?!). And the guitar and song-books also usually appear around supper-time. Today the last of the tuna was off and returned to the sea… Dinner was instead another of Diana's popular sailing-voyage concoctions; risotto different goodies added. Heated, tinned peach, cold sardines and mussels added separately. Red or white wine. Mushroom soup for starter, tea/coffe with biscuits & cheese and nuts, raisons & chocolate after. A nap is almost compulsory after that sort of meal…
Before finishing, a special note of thank-you to Trudi in Barbados for daily e-mailing the weather. She and/or husband Ian have been doing this one way or other for us every time we have crossed the Atlantic since 1977! She also sends occasional news, including from yacht Svoboda, also associated with the Ocean Rowing Regatta (check the web-site). They have experienced 45 knot squalls and a wet laptop PC, so have more reason to complain than us. From the coast of Brazil and heading for the Antarctic (!) she also relayed greetings from Staale on Rozinante. Also thank you John for editing a voyage site for us (click here). John is like us a real Galapagos enthusiast whom we hope to meet there later this year. He is heading for Terra del Fuego 13th , so the final data-entries of our daily positions will be added when he is back on March 1st. Bon voyage, John!

February 10th - Crossing the Atlantic. Halfway report!. Click here for postition.

Position today at 12 GMT/UTC: N 13 55,4 W 43 11,7; 959 n.miles to Barbados. Rough seas (heard it before?), F6 from ENE, noirtherly swells. Overcast, lines of squall clouds behind. At 6 minutes past our local midnignt (GMT-2 hours) we were halfway between Cape Verde and the north tip of Barbados with 916 n.m to go. Also during the night the moon cleared up and this morning the good visibility confirmed that the Harmattan is now behind! And please, will you stay there! - The Harmattan (Cape Verde) and Calima (Canaries) are names for the dusty, warm wind from Sahara. So now we hope we have had our fair share of sticky, brown dust. Frode and I spent some time washing decks and coachroof and cockpit yesterday, but it will take a lot of Barbados showers to clean the rigging... Last night was again too bumpy for Eli who spent most of the night on the setee. At dinner today Frode produced a bottle of Dubois Sec, a Spanish champagne to celebrate halfway. And the meal? Our fifth meal of tuna, the second of tuna casserole. That it tasted even better than before is a credit to Diana, main chef. We still have some in the fridge, but may go for something else tomorrow, maybe try for a dorado. Eli sticks to her ham or corned beaf, anything but fish as long as there is warm gravy and potatoes to go with it! After dinner we had the first rain for 3 1/2 months, followed by a squall hitting 29 knots, so it's been in and out with the roller reefing. Just now we have a storm jib up on the baby stay in anticipation of more squalls. But the rain only lasted a few minutes, so my shower had to be from a bucket on the port steps. Yesterday we were visited by a beautiful Tropic bird, otherwise little life to be seen apart from flying fish and the occasional storm petrel. We're travelling too fast, I suppose.

February 9th - Crossing the Atlantic. Click here for postition.

Position 12 UTC/GMT today: N 14 06,6 W 40 47,5 1099 n.m to Barbados. Wind at F5-F6 from ENE, seas still rough, 3/4 overcast sky with what looks like could develop into squall clouds, but no rain yet. We have not seen proper rain since Graciosa, late October. In fact, a proper shower shall be most welcome as the Sahara dust is still settling and giving every surface, especially to windward, a dirty, brown stain. But the visibility has improved. We have quite big following waves, in
addition occasional trains of northerly and south-easterly swells that make infrequent monster-waves. They shove us around and can thump the "abdomen" (thebott om between the hulls) so hard that cups hop on the table! Even spilt a little wine during dinner yesterday! But having said all that, last night was very much better than the night before and we all could sleep reasonable well. Especially Eli was grateful, the night before she slept mainly on the settee in the main cabin... We are still eating tuna fish and enjoying it. Diana also marinated a batch of tuna cubes in vinegar and coconut milk, salt & pepper.
It tastes like poisson cruz, the National dish of Tahiti, and keeps well in the fridge. Just add lime, cubes of taro and some lettuce and we're in the Pacific! Yesterday was a Chinese tuna-dish, today is a fish-and pasta casserole tuna-dish. We eat this about 2 pm local time in order to have a glass of wine and wash dishes in daylight.
Yesterday I sent a low resolution picture of the now famous tuna. I will continue to add some pictures during the trip and resend them in good quality when we reach shore. With this speed, just over a week until we arrive! Halfway-mark should be passed about midnight during Diana's watch.
Best wishes from
Stein & crew
The two pictures included: The elusive village/anchorage, Ihla Brava on Feb 2nd and Frode displaying our now much worn and shortened flag on a rare occasion (we're saving it for Barbados!) on Feb 5th to celebrate his grandson Frederick back in Arendal, now all of 5 years old!

February 8th - Crossing the Atlantic. Click here for postition.

12 noon position today: N 14 25,7 W 38 32,3. 1230 n.m. to Barbados, F6 from ENE, very rough seas. Partly overcast, mixture
of low cumulus and high mare's tails, but less of the latter than y'day. So we hope the wind will decrease. Hazy sun, poor
visibility due to brown dust settling everywhere together with a fine salt cover. We had a very uncomfortable night with
wind hitting 31 knots and a lot of crash and spray, slightly better now. The genoa is reefed to aonly a small area up front,
still giving us 6-7 knots.

February 7th - Crossing the Atlantic. Click here for postition.

Position 12 UTC today: N 14 37 W 35 56. 1382 n.m. to Barbados at 270 degrees true. Wind F5-F6 from ENE, rough sea, but less
northery swell today, meaning less cross swell og slightly more comfy aboard, not som many kicks in the belly! During the
night reefed genoa, today whole genoa. Some high clouds, v.hazy sun. 26 degrees C in the sea, 3 more than in Cape Verde.
Very poor visibility and a fine brown powder settling everywhere, especially on the windward side of the rigging: The Sahara
dust originating 1000 n.m. or more E of us! -In Cape Verde known as Harmattan, in Canaries as Calima.
Lots of flying fish and last nigh a big tuna fish: 72 cm long, heavy torpedo of a fish, about 15 kg!

So it's fish for several days starting with supper last night - wonderful taste! Fridge comes in handy now. Thanks for positions on the
rowers both Tatiana and Trudi. Not likeely that we will see any out here, we are too far S. Amazing progress of the four
(Queensgate), we are looking forward to meeting them in Barbados!Glad the straddlers are hanging on-they ill get there too!

February 6th - Crossing the Atlantic. Click here for postition.

At 12 UTC today we were at N 14 43 W 33 34 with 1519 n.m. to Barbados. 1/4 of the way between Cape Verde now behind!
Seas were rough, winds from NE F5-F6, hazy sun, partly overcast. Lots of flying fish, but nothing on our hook. Seen
dorados, so anticipating a fish meal soon! Since y'day only sailed with genoa, which we in fact reefed just now due to a lot
of heaving about. Difficult to do jobs, but managed to sort out a small leak in the diesel tank top (Frode) and put a new
Spinlock sheet-stopper on portside deck (me). Diana as always turning out nice meals, but the last bit of green lettuce from
Mindelo vanished today... Eli peels potatoes and dries the dishes and enjoys the red wine and makes sure we reef in time!
All well aboard, best wishes to all from Stein

February 4th: En Route to Barbados! Our Visit to the Cape Verde Islands.

Sao Vicente and Santa Antao
It is Wednesday afternoon and already we are 260 miles west of the Cape Verde Islands, since 1975 an independent republic of 400.000 soles inhabiting 10 very barren, but interesting islands. Nearest neighbours are Mauritania and Senegal in west Africa. At least 400.000 Cape Verdians also live abroad in North America and Europe, mostly Portugal, the original mother country. The islands are poor, the average standard of living low by standard assessment, but the climate is pleasant although very dry, the general health is good and people are extremely friendly. Unemployment in places is as high as 90%. This is evident by the many men sitting or hanging around looking for casual work or chatting, playing cards or just doing nothing. Some are evidently poor and beg for money or food, but the majority are clean, well dressed and well behaved. Hardly anybody is overweight, a marked contrast to the Spanish folk and tourists we left behind in La Gomera. Communication with the locals is not easy as their creole language is unique to the islands, a few speak a little English or understand what little Spanish we (mainly Diana!) muster. But to this fascinating archipelago we happily rolled in on Wednesday 28th January at 6 pm. We had left San Sebastian also at 6 pm 6 days earlier, but the journey in fact took 6days and 1 hour, having lost one hour en route by going south-west. The log read 837 n.miles, a fast but bumpy passage in mostly rough seas. Thank goodness wind and waves were mostly heading in our direction, although swells from a bad storm far north kicked us about quite a bit… After furling the genoa and starting the engine, we entered the protected bay of Puerto Grande where we were met by two dark-skinned men in a neat little rubber dinghy. Umberto was in his 30’s, his smiling assistant Sidney only 15. They directed us to a good anchorage beside ten or so other visiting yachts and offered to look after the boat and us, remove garbage, help with laundry and collecting water and generally assist in every way during our stay. Price: 10 Euros daily. We accepted this without bargaining, although heard from other boats that the normal price was 3 Euros/day! However, we got on well with our two helpers, and they were always available during our 4 days in Mindelo, Sao Vicente Island.
By the time we had the two anchors and plenty of chain properly set, the boat and ourselves tidy and rowed ashore, it was getting dark. This short row was quite hard with all four of us in the little rubber Avon, because although the water was flat calm, strong gusts of wind come tearing down the valley behind Mindelo. On the sagging, half-broken jetty, partly wood, partly concrete, Sidney waded out to support us and look after the dinghy while Umberto led us along a badly lit road paved with black stones of various shapes. Down a dark alley with a few dark-skinned men hanging around, we came to the tiny Pico Pau restaurant, named after a wood-pecker. The furniture was very basic, but the walls were covered with greetings and praise from many visitors, and 70 year old Lima and his young assistant indeed served excellent food and wine at a reasonable price. (We returned for another feast two days later, but this time the meat-eaters were not so impressed. The fish was excellent both times.) This first night ashore gave us a worse impression of poverty than proved to be true and we discovered that Mindelo has a reasonable infrastructure, colourful cement houses, no open sewage, a couple of nice town squares with palm trees and a reasonable variety of shops. Many shops were tiny and much like I remember from out-of-the-way places in my childhood, others had self service and modern computer-based cash registers. In a town of 40.000 we found no less than 4 internet cafes close to the harbour and one had the most modern machines we have seen anywhere. These cafes often have phone booths where locals came for overseas’ calls. Clearly only a few Cape Verdians have their own telephones and practically all have family members living abroad. In fact, money from relatives abroad is only surpassed by foreign aid as an important source of income. Once upon the time these islands were infamous for its busy slave trade, now the only export of importance is fish and shellfish. But the islands produce various crops for their own use, and the indoor market is abundant and colourful and well worth a visit. The large forests that once grew on these islands are all nearly gone, so has most of the soil, and the remaining landscape is barren, steep and forbidding. Yet it is strangely beautiful. Lack of water is a major problem. Sao Vicente has solved it by building four plants for desalination. We had to pay a little for this water, but found it to be excellent - better than in La Gomera!. So development is gradually taking place, a lot due to an adoption system by several European countries targeting a particular island. And as far as West African states go, Capeverdians have a high standard of living!
Eli decided that the bus drive back in hilly La Gomera was more than enough for a person scared of heights, so she remained on White Admiral when Diana, Frode and I took the morning ferry Mar d’Canal across the straight to the large island of Santa Antao (a 50 min rolly ride). We were joined by Robbie and Peter on British yacht PR2, neighbours also from La Gomera. Together we hired a driver with a mini-bus for five hours of sightseeing. It started with a 36 km long and incredible drive across the central mountains to the more fertile north side of the island. Several stops for photographs en route, of course. The whole day’s outing, including the ferry and lunch at a restaurant in Sol cost each of us 3600 CV Escudos; about 35 Euros. It was worth every penny! The roads are all paved with the same, smallish volcanic stones we saw in Mindelo, and it meanders through a landscape filled with incredible vistas: a huge crater, small farms dotted across the crater floor and on terraces in the mountains, donkeys carrying cans of water and loads of hay, ladies with baskets selling round, flat cheeses made from goats’ milk. At nearly 2000 m elevation the road repeatedly had steep cliffs down both sides! In this high interior are remnants of forests that survived the slave trade period, and along part of the north coast they have enough rain and water to grow thirsty crops like bananas and sugarcane. (In most of the islands it only rains in September-October.) In Paul we visited a farm that included a tiny rum factory. Here time appeared to have stood still for 400 years, that is in fact also the age of the Brazilian mill where the sugar canes are pressed for their sweet juice. This machinery is driven by two huge wooden arms 8 hours daily by pairs of oxen doing four hour shifts. A man has to walk beside the oxen all the time in this never-ending circle. Two men sit below the wooden arms in the middle and feed the canes twice through the metal press. This primitive mill produces 500 litres of juice daily, nine months per year! From the juice is made several products, possibly the most interesting being the fermenting brew in wooden casks later to be distilled to Capeverdian rum called Grogcap. Everything from growing the canes and raising the oxen to distilling and bottling the brew and selling it is done on this small farm. The owner, Ildo Benros Silva, showed us the whole process and let us taste the rum (drinking from coconut shells from palms also grown on the farm) and also demonstrated other products like molasses and a honey-like treacle. Very sweet and very tasty! We were the only visitors present at the time, but apparently Silva has enough such casual visitors to sell his entire production. (No need to advertise!). And the price? - One litre of rum cost 4,5 Euro! (40 Norwegian kroner!) The Silva family had run the farm more or less in the same way for generations, motorised farm equipment was still unknown. But the only son lives in USA and is not keen to carry on the hard work and the farming tradition. I wonder who is the happier of father and son? Dad in his 60’s certainly looked both healthy and contented. For someone keen on photography Cape Verde is unique! Not only are there fascinating motives everywhere, but the people actually like to be photographed! (Not always the case in the Caribbean!) And with a digital camera one can immediately display the picture taken, often to the laughing delight of the locals.
Back to Umberto & Sidney: We discovered their professional secrets the first morning after returning from shopping - our dinghy was gone. But it was not stolen, simply being “looked after” by Sidney as he helped other yachties in the bay! So the neat boat they motored about in when we first arrived was not Umberto’s after all, but another one that he and Sidney had in their custody and sort of recycled in order to do their job. But they always kept an eye on the jetty or their signalling friends ashore in order to pick up returning owners whenever needed. Like most other yachties, we let them just get on with it, but as our rowing dinghy is slow and not very attractive to potential thieves, we kept the outboard engine bolted to the transom of White Admiral! We also discovered that the pair regularly slept aboard unattended yachts in the bay, partly as job, partly for home. We don’t think Sidney had another home alternative on the island, but Umberto lived with his young son at his mother’s place in Mindelo. Mum appeared to have adopted his son.
When we sailed Sunday afternoon, February 1st, we headed for Fogo, 120 n.m. south. We waved goodbye to our young friends, now wearing nice Docksider shoes size 42 left from the boat’s previous owners (fitted perfectly!), and we had given them some sweets and muesli bars, and clothes for Sidney’s mum back on a farm in Santo Antao.
Fogo and Brava
Some years ago with my son Robert I saw a film about a boy on Fogo, and reading about this volcanic island in the Atlantic Islands’ guide book very much made us want to visit. The volcano on the south side last had an eruption in 1996! The crater is 8 km in diameter and it is possible to drive to the rim of the crater at a hight of 2800 m - not to be missed!
The seas south of Sao Vicente were as rough as before, if not worse, genoa alone was quite sufficient. The next morning we saw the impressive shape of the island with 30 miles to go, and at 3 pm we gingerly approached the harbour. Huge breaker cascaded across the outer break-water recently built through German aid. The harbour behind was tiny with a couple of crafts moored to large buoys, but the seas seemed fairly flat. There were no ships along the solid-looking quay to our port side. The town is 3 km away and the harbour very bare with not a single house, only a few rusty containers. Not too inviting. But two boys signalled that we could lay along side the quay. We approached very slowly using the engine to make sure we were parallel to the concrete wall. Closer in the surge back and forth increased, under hesitation, but encouraged by the waiting boys we got a few lines ashore. But it soon was apparent that the strain on fenders, rope and bollards was enormous and after 5 min of frantic rope-work and driving with the engines and trying to avoid crashing into quay and huge, black tires hung as fenders we managed to push off with no major damage other than to our nerves. Sweating I motored a few metres out to the so-called anchorage, but Diana walked up to me and hissed: I want to get out of here! Thank goodness someone keeps their common sense even when a goal is close... So we headed for the next and final possible landfall, Ihla Brava only 15 miles due west. The anchorage in this bay is possibly the most majestic we have ever seen. A tiny, pretty village lined the beach, small, painted boats were drawn up and there were several clusters of coconut palms. And above it all huge cliffs, many with man-built terraces. There was not a single vessel to be seen in the bay, the sea was far too deep to anchor and all along the beach were crashing, white breakers. No jetty or quay. Not that we would have made another attempt… So all we could do was to film and take pictures in the twilight. While we were doing this lamps were lit along the beach front and the road to a small air strip a little further south. A large moon climbed above the island. So no more Cape Verde islands this time, but Brava and Fogo are islands we hope to visit maybe as ordinary tourists one of these days.
As we turned the boat and meant to retrace our own wake out to safety, we must have been pushed too far north and the depth abruptly went from 40 m to 2,6 m. Nearly gave me a heart attack! The electronic map was for the first time not accurate. According to it we were up in the hills behind the village and the sketch in the guide book did not show a shallow were we were. The swells lifted and dropped us as we moved slowly back to 40 m again, big sigh of relief. Then 3,5 m! But almost immediately 80 m and gradually deeper and soon we were out in open safety (wonder what that bottom looks like?). Farewell Cape Verde Islands; you friendly, forbidding, beautiful and scary place. Barbados and 2000 miles of the Atlantic Ocean ahead!
m

25th January: Halfway to Cape Verde!

It’s 17.30 in the afternoon; the position is N 22? 21’ W 20? 25’, we have 15-18 knots (F4-F5) breeze from NE, a moderate sea with the occasional cross swell and white horses. The crash of waves hitting us between the two hulls is getting rarer; in fact it is quite gentle compared to the first couple of days at sea. At 18.00 is will be 36 hours since we left San Sebastion, La Gomera, and in a couple of hours we will have halved the 800 n. miles’ distance to the island of SaoVincente in the Cape Verde Islands. Diana is just now taking out two loaves of bread from the oven; a most wonderful smell is wafting through the cabin… The vacuum-packed mixture for this bread is a left-over from my Atlantic row in 2002, so ends up being consumed where it was supposed to. Eli, Diana, Frode and I have just enjoyed the presence of a large pod of at leased a hundred smallish, bottle-nosed dolphins. They were all around us and swam almost packed between the hulls with the ones behind looking like they were queuing to get to the favourite spots around the bows. Eli prefers not to venture to the bows when we are sailing, but there were so many playful animals around the cockpit area that she also had excellent entertainment. Earlier today we also saw a large sea turtle, we have also seen our first storm petrels and one Portuguese-man-of-war – that most infamous stinging jellyfish. Yesterday morning we found a small squid that had jumped all the way into the middle of the fore deck. In fact when the others had fried ham and egg for breakfast, I had fried squid and egg! It is so good to see that here is still plenty of life in this ocean... We have also caught our first dolphin-fish (not to be confused with the dolphin whale), known also as dorado or in Norwegian as gullmakrell.
But life wasn’t always so easy aboard. For the first two days of this trip we had very rough seas, a lot of wind and movement accompanied by crashing and banging. The poinsettia fell down and for the second time had its pot shattered. Fortunately the inside pot is of plastic so at least we were spared earth spilling. A boat may not be the ideal place for potted plants… Inside the kitchen cupboard the glasses were having a merry time, and on opening the door to calm the clanking one wine glass jumped to its instant destruction. But personally we have not suffered any injuries, Diana has served excellent dinners and nobody has been sea-sick. But we have kept thinking about our friends in the Atlantic Rowing Regatta are getting on… At 11 am, the morning after we left, we had a surprise call over the VHF by Canadian solo rower Louis in Moose on the Moove. He was at sea anchor, had seen us only a couple of miles away. So we had a chat and encouraged him to press on since the wind and the seas were mostly following. It is interesting that we could not see him in spite of me climbing halfway up the mast and knowing exactly where he was. He even gave us a compass bearing. Illustrates how these 7 m boats get hidden by the seas. We must have passed quite close to a number of other rowers later the same day; we put out calls on the VHF regularly, but Louis remains our only contact so far. We do hope they are all well.
That day, 23rd, was also Frode’s birthday. His family had sent with him several cards and presents, Diana baked a carrot cake and with a glass of wine, e-mails from home, and a little extra from the crew, Frode was very happy with the day.
The strong winds and rough seas have been a good test for boat and crew. One functional detail we are very pleased with is being able to reef the main sail and finally take it down if necessary with the wind remaining behind. Normally with the type of rig we have it is necessary to turn the boat into the wind (and waves!), but with a new outside sail track system of low friction cars, the luff of the sail does not jam with the wind pressure. Since stowing the main we have sailed first with a reefed genoa, and then as conditions have eased the whole genoa and finally this afternoon with a genoa poled to each side. This is known as sailing wing-to-wing, or butterfly - very suitable for a boat named after the White Admiral butterfly!

La Gomera 22nd Jan 2004: Atlantic Preparations for Rowers & Sailors

We had a short day sail to La Gomera on 3rd January, 17 n.miles across the channel from Tenerife. This started off quite gently, but as is often the case between these islands, the wind picked up suddenly and it became fresh and bumpy for the last couple of hours, so it was nice to round the huge breakwater of San Sebastian into calm water. We have since been tied up in the sheltered marina here, able to enjoy the comfortable life with electricity from land and hot showers nearby. We have now bought two small, electric cooking plates, and with the water-boiler and toaster which we already had, it is almost like our kitchen at home! San Sebastian is an attractive, Spanish town, with friendly people, small restaurants and shops, nice to be away from the tourist ghettos of some of the other islands. The local people seem to be fond of fiestas and two nights have been full of loud music, people dancing and singing in the streets, many dressed in traditional folk costumes, all very entertaining except that it goes on until abut 5 a.m. right beside the Marina la Gomera! One evening as we made our way to a restaurant, we found ourselves in the middle of a solemn, slow-moving procession following a large cross, with a band playing funeral music. It felt quite moving; maybe it was some kind of remembrance for loved ones.
The main reason for staying here so long has been a rowing regatta organised by the Ocean Rowing Society (www.oceanrowing.com and www.oceanregatta.com ), which started on 20th January. The finish is in Port St. Charles, Barbados, about 3000 n.miles and 40-100 days away! As we both have experience as ocean rowers we have been busy helping in different ways with the preparations. Stein has sorted out various technical problems, becoming an expert on water-makers and sea-anchors in the process. I have daily run The White Admiral Café for two weeks with about 20 rowers and helpers for lunch each day; self-service sandwich making, coffee/tea and waffles for 1 Euro; beer and soft-drinks 50 c!
Ragnvald and May Britt on Mayra have also been enrolled as volunteers, Ragnvald doing carpentry work and other jobs on a couple of boats, and May Britt washing the dishes in our “cafe”. It has been interesting to get to know the rowers, relatives and organisers, also a few veteran ocean rowers who came to join the fun. Kenneth Crutchlow, who is the director of the Ocean Rowing Society is a big, friendly extrovert who makes everybody feel welcome, and with large dinners at local restaurants, free-flowing wine and speeches of mutual praise, the atmosphere has been great. We were a bit nervous about the start on Tuesday, as White Admiral was the starting-line marker and the final line-up was under “the strict guidance” of Stein, but all went as planned, and the 13 boats were off at 11 a.m. sharp, accompanied by a cannon blast from the Norwegian ketch Kragerø. One boat with the Zimbabwian-Spanish Brett & Scott had too much to do and only got away today, making it 14 boats racing each others for Barabados: 7 doubles and 6 solos. There is also one four-man team, Queensgate, trying to go for the record in rowing across this part of the Atlantic: 35 days! (French El Mondiale with 11 men.) An equally big challenge for the four will be to remain good friends throughout this epic journey. (Their boat is not much bigger than the others.) Two days out they have already made amazing progress.
There are two interesting Norwegian yachts in the harbour, the above mentioned Kragerø, one of the original Colin Archer - designed gaff riggers, which its owner Olav Bjørshol has restored with love and care since he bought it in San Francisco in 1996. It is a massive yacht of 40 tons displacement and with 40 years of service as a life rescue boat along the south-east coast of Norway (1920-60). Check www.rs32kragero.no for more details. The other traditional yacht is Fraternitas from Arendal, a 66 year-old 12 - Meter racing yacht (actually 18 m long) with elegant lines, it also lovingly cared for by its owner Knut Frigstad.
Today we are leaving for Cape Verde Islands, which should take about a week. We have had to replace the propellers, as the old ones were damaged by galvanic corrosion, and are now crumbling round the edges. It was difficult to get the original parts, but we have got reasonably good replacements, had some new washers and bolt made at a local workshop, and Stein has got them both put on safely. He used his diving suit as the sea is now fairly chilly, but he still managed to become pretty blue around the edges! Our crew-member for the Atlantic, Frode Filseth, arrived 3 days ago, and as an old sailor, has quickly made himself at home, sees what jobs have to be done and gets on with it – a good able-bodied seaman. Frode has crossed oceans with us before.
The sun is shining, the weather forecast promises a good north-easterly breeze, and White Admiral is looking forward to spreading her wings again on a longer sail.

Los Gigantes, Tenerife 2.januar, 2004

Christmas Eve began on a sour note in the cash-desk queue at the hypermercado in Santa Cruz, when I found no purse in my hand-bag! It must have been lifted out at some point when I had it slung over my back and was preoccupied with getting the Christmas goodies. I had to leave my basket of food, run back to the boat for a new Visa card, and cancel the first one, before being able to return for the shopping. Fortunately I never carry too much with me, so I only lost the one card and about 70 Euros, but I will take more care to carry the bag in front of me in the future. The next source of irritation was that nobody seemed to be mentioning that they had got a Christmas greeting from us, and we realised that the large bundle of letters which we posted in Maspalomas, Gran Canaria on the 4th December had not arrived, so much for the Spanish postal service! We are just beginning to hear now that family and friends are receiving them, so at least they are not lost, but we are sorry that they are so late.
Anyway, the day quickly improved as we toasted in Christmas with a glass of champagne with new friends May Britt and Ragnvald on Mayra, and later our Christmas meal of giant prawns (langustinos), which served with toast, white wine and mayonnaise/sour cream/dill mixture (brought by Robert), were almost as good as our usual lobster. Good to have Robert with us, but we missed the rest of the family at this time. Christmas Day dinner was shared with May Britt and Ragnvald, traditional turkey meal, made simpler for the small boat oven by buying turkey breasts and drumsticks and putting chestnut stuffing between them, tasted great! The evening ended with a Christmas concert, which took place, amazingly, in the harbour, five minutes walk from the boat. This is a yearly occasion, with a huge parking area transformed into a stage and seating for nearly 20000 people. It is free, and televised to the whole of Spain and the Spanish speaking Americas. This year the star was the Jamaican baritone/base singer Willard W. White, who sang a lot of old favourites like Old Man River and If I were a Rich Man. Towards the end he was joined by soprano Sine Bundgaard from Denmark. They gave a wonderful rendition of songs from Porgy & Bess and finished with I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas, with the huge crowd waving sparklers, and artificial snow being shot out over us. It really felt like a festive Christmas, and we didn’t miss real snow at all!
Robert had got the idea he wanted to see Mount Teide onTenerife on a motor-bike, and the next day he and Stein went off together to Puerto de la Cruz to try to hire bikes. Unexpectedly there was a week’s waiting list. so instead ended up at Loro Parque zoo, watching shows with performing dolphins, sea lions and parrots. The park takes part in an international project to save the endangered gorillas and many endangered species of parrots and claims to have the biggest collection of parrots in the world. Having studied the countless cages of these fascinating and beautiful birds for about two hours, Stein and Robert believe this to be absolutely true!
We said good-bye to Robert on the 27th, as he left at 5.30 in the morning in a taxi for the air-port. Apart from enjoying his visit, it was good to get our data problems sorted out. As a result of his enthusiasm and nocturnal efforts we now also have the white admiral butterfly, our yacht’s name and the Norwegian flag cut out of cardboard and can tag marina walls wherever this is a custom. Well done, Robert!
Eli had a sad experience here. We rented a car one day, and called in to see her old friend Lily Hoelfeldt-Lund, who has lived in Tenerife in the winters for many years. In fact we had visited her first in 1977 when we were circumnavigating in Red Admiral. We had not managed to get in touch by phone, and our fears that something was wrong were correct, she died three months ago at home in Grimstad. At nearly 90, Lily was the last of Eli’s childhood friends from Trondheim. However, we were all pleased to meet the friend and gardener Rolf Sander, who visited us on the boat with another Norwegian friend Lille-Gerd Hansa Arnesen and her mother. This lady, Gerd Ottesen Hansa, will no doubt keep the record for a while as our oldest visitor, she is 99 years old! Sharp as a whistle, and able to walk along the pontoon and up the steps on to White Admiral!
We got in one last concert before moving on, a popular New Year’s concert which was taking place on the 28th December. There were no tickets left for this, but the general rehearsal on the 27th was open to the public, so we had a good seat absolutely free, and enjoyed the choirs and the wonderful soprano, just as much as if they had been in evening dress. So that is our cultural void filled up a bit, after five concerts in Santa Cruz.
We decided to move round to the west coast of the island on 29th December, as the weather forecast was good, NE breeze, force 4-5 maybe periods of 6, sounded as though it might be a fresh sail. We left before dusk, got up the genoa in the light breeze, but thought that would be enough if it freshened. We were certainly wise, as within an hour we were racing along with the sail half rolled in, the wind a steady 35 knots, and occasionally gusting to 40. With sharp, short waves, this gave us a pretty wild and at times scary ride. We discovered that the auto-pilot needs adjusting, it didn’t manage to steer as we surfed down the waves, so we had to take turns of hand-steering. Fortunately this was only for a few hours, and as we rounded the South point of the island, both wind and seas subsided. We anchored about 1 a.m. just outside the harbour at Los Christianos. Going to bed after a few hours of steering in a force 8 gale certainly beats going to bed after sitting watching TV!
I wouldn’t recommend Los Christianos to anybody for a holiday, unless they are fond of Blackpool - crowded beach, crowded shops, gaudy pubs, game-halls and restaurants and hordes of British. One day was enough for us, on New Year’s Eve we moved up the coast to Los Gigantes, taking with us our friend, journalist/editor Roger Diss (The Western Sun newspaper), whom we know from our previous visits in connection with rowing, his son Greg and a friend, Mark Chambers. This was a totally different sail, with light breeze and sunshine, we were able to enjoy the relaxed 3 hour sail/motor-sail up the coast, eating, drinking, fishing (with no luck) and sunning ourselves. We are now anchored just outside the harbour at Los Gigantes, an anchorage that is only tenable in fair weather. We are the only yacht here, feels rather exclusive lying under the steep, majestic cliffs. This town is where Stein and his partner Arvid Bentsen in 1997, then Elisabeth and me in 1999, set off on our Atlantic rows, so it brings back a lot of memories.
We are looking forward to an exciting year in 2004, setting off for Barbados later this month, cruising in the Caribbean, summer back in Norway, later going through the Panama Canal into the Pacific. We send all our good wishes to friends and family for the New Year, with all the challenges it will bring to us all. Happy 2004!

Happy Christmas from Santa Cruz, Tenerife, 23rd December

After a long spell of sunny, hot weather, the skies are now grey, with a light rain falling over the yachts in the Marina de Atlantico here in the capital of Tenerife.
This is a big, sheltered marina, right in the middle of Santa Cruz, with the bustling city just a few minutes walk away.
We stayed a few days longer than planned in Gran Canaria, as Stein’s cousin Gunnar Hofstad from Trondheim got himself a last minute cheap charter trip offer and came to visit us. He arrived with gifts of two whole Norwegian smoked salmon, 3 bottles of Stein’s favourite pickled herring and two packets of goat-cheese; very generous and very popular! Unfortunately he managed to leave a little spruce-tree which he had got for a surprise Christmas tree in Trondheim air-port! After he was installed on board 12th December, we decided to move to Puerto Mogan which we had decided was the most charming spot on this part of the coast, but again we found our catamaran was too big to get a place in the marina. We anchored for a few hours just outside the harbour to have a walk around the colourful town also called Little Venice, but as the wind had changed to SW contrary to the weather forecast, the anchorage became bumpy and unpleasant, and we decided to move back to the anchorage off Anfi. We stopped briefly en route in Puerto Rico. Again no room for us, but we happened to be in just as Rozinante left for Brazil and the Antarctis: Safe seas and following winds, boys! We would also like to mention a remarkable Swede we met a few days earlier, but forgot to write about in the last report. He is Ulf Gudmundsson and sails alone on Kå Hånes. This yacht stood out among the large and luxurious yachts the marina is full of. It is 19’, less than 6m long, weighs 800 kg and has no engine. In the past he has sailed solo twice around the world and five times across the Atlantic. Past yachts were named Sjøluffarn and Malaika, each successive yacht shrinking in size. The present plan is to sail to the large island of Puerto Rico in the West Indies, put the boat on a trailer and park it in the garden of his house on that island. His wife is originally from there, she and their two boys are now in Sweden but will join him when he arrives. Ulf seems like a powerful and patient person and we assume he also has a very patient wife!
We did manage to get into Puerto Rico (Gran Canaria!) a couple of days later, in the same spot as we had been a week earlier. From here we did some walking in the hills behind the town and had a day sightseeing by bus. The tour was sponsored by a German firm selling sheep-skin products, so although the bus-trip is cheap, one has to sit for an hour or so listening to how health-giving it is to sleep in lambskin bed-clothes! We weren’t too convinced, but we did buy a cushion to make the night-watches more comfortable. The interior island of Gran Canaria is also pretty barren, but spectacular and even beautiful, we had a trip to the highest point of the interior (1949 m), with breath-taking views over the island. We also had to marvel at the work involved in building roads along the steep cliff-sides…
We had been thinking about buying a wind-surfer to have on the boat for a while, and we got what looks like a good buy from the German instructor at a nearby hotel, so that is now installed on board – take note all keen wind-surfers!
After saying good-bye to Gunnar, we were ready to sail the 50 nautical miles to Santa Cruz on 17th December. To make sure we would have a daylight arrival, we left the well-lit Puerto Rico marina at 5 a.m. There was a very light NE breeze most of the way, and we had a pleasant motor-sail, arriving late afternoon. From the sea, the main landmark here is the new concert-hall with its white curving silhouettes, obviously inspired by the Sydney opera house. It is always good to enter a friendly marina where the staff meets you, and this happened here, with two employees guiding us to a berth, and helping us to tie up. The experience here has been quite different from the tourist scene, with Spanish again the main language, cheap restaurants with good. local food and a wonderful chance to catch up on some culture, which has been sadly lacking in our trip so far. We had already heard about the new concert-house, and ordered tickets for an opera gala on the 19th December, in addition we have been to a concert by the youth orchestra of Tenerife, with a programme including Dvorjak’s new-world symphony, and one with a visiting French orchestra and choir playing oratorios by Handel and Bach. This was exquisite, and we were fascinated both by a contratenor who made one wonder if he was castrated, and a beautiful woman conductor who used no score!
Our younger son Robert arrived on the 20th, to spend Christmas with us. We were thinking of sailing down the coast of Tenerife with him, but after hiring a car and looking at all the harbours down the coast, we will stay here for a few days more as there is nowhere suitable for a catamaran. Also we have for several days had southerly and easterly winds bringing brown dust from Sahara (known locally as the calima), while the west coast is being pestered by large swells. This has brought May Britt and Ragnvald on Mayra this way again after a rough sail from Los Gigantes. So now we shall try to get some Christmas spirit, the fruit-cake is made, and large prawns (langustinos) ordered for Christmas Eve dinner. Robert brought Norwegian sour cream, mayonnaise and fresh dill for our traditional shell-fish dressing!
We will be thinking of loved ones whom we will miss, and wish all friends and relatives a very happy Christmas and new year 2004

Anfi del Mar, Gran Canaria, Nov. 18th 2003

The morning after our arrival at Playa Mujeres, our old friends on “Gambit” sailed in from Gibralter. We have known Don since we lived in Barbados in 1978, and partly inspired by us, he has become a long-distance sailor with wife Susan and daughters Joanna and Rebecca, 13 and 9 years old. As the boat name implies Don is a good chess-player, so Stein and I didn’t dare to play him, but worse for our self-esteem was that both daughters, even the younger one, beat us both several times! Otherwise we had a good time together playing on the beach and watching some of their large selection of films aboard their beautiful 53 foot catamaran (Don’s investments did well, he retired at 35!).
We sailed on together on Sunday, 9th November to Gran Tarajal on the east coast of Fuerteventura, a very pleasant day-sail in a light breeze. The only drama was when the gennaker, our light-wind sail, suddenly fell down with a thump onto the deck, and partly into the sea! Stein and I raced to pull it in, thankfully with no damage. On examination, the splice on the rope holding up the top shackle had loosened, not something that we had done, and Stein soon had a new, stronger one made. Best news of the day was that Petter Solberg became world champion in rally driving! As our son-in-law Hugh works for the firm that emloys Solberg this made it extra exciting.
Gran Tarajal is a small fishing village with little tourism, black volcanic sand, a few restaurants on the tiled sea-promenade, and a relaxed and pleasant atmosphere. We were tied up in the harbour on the inside of the sea-wall, which seemed nice and secure the first day, but we discovered when the wind blew up from North-East that there was a big surge in the harbour, and we had to get up in the middle of the night and add some longer ropes to hold the boat steady. The next night also gave us a surprise when a tap burst on the rather exposed water-pipe, gushing water at full force over the deck! Stein managed to tie it in place temporarily until the harbour officials came and turned off the water in the morning.
On Thursday 13th November, we left with Gambit on an overnight sail to Gran Canaria, another light sail, for the first time having both genoas poled out butterfly style, thanks to getting a new genoa boom from Gibralter which Don had bought for us. On Friday morning we sailed along the touristy south coast of Gran Canaria and anchored off the large tourist development called Anfi del Mar. A last day was spent paddling their kayak and getting beaten at chess before we waved good-bye to our friends on Gambit, who left for Barbados. The same day more friends arrived here, Frode and Susanne Filseth with daughter Anne and her family. They have a time-share in the Anfi development, so although Frode is a sailor, this time he is enjoying two weeks of luxurious land-lubber life. They have what long-distance sailors need most, a washing machine, so our pile of dirty sheets and towels are now clean and folded away.
Tomorrow morning, Stein and I are going on a five day trip to London and Norway; a chance to see family, especially our little grand-daughter Hedda, and to attend our good friend Christian Platou’s 60th birthday party in Drammen. Unfortunately we are here at the worst possible time, as all marinas are full with yachts waiting to cross the Atlantic. Despite our pleas, and help from an American yachting-shop owner with good contacts, no marina will even look at a catamaran, so we will have to leave White Admiral at double anchors. Good to have Frode nearby to keep an eye on her, it was in fact he who sailed her to Kristiansand from Germany when we bought her two years ago.
So we are off for five hectic days of socialising. Keep fingers crossed that there are no storms on Gran Canaria before we are back next week!

Playa Mujeres, Lanzarote, Nov. 6th 2003

It’s time for another update from the Good Ship White Admiral. - And Happy Ship White Admiral, I may add. In fact being in the Canaries with some of the best climate on the planet, it is becoming increasingly difficult to find things to complain about…
I suppose I could complain about the wind: It is often too light when we sail and too strong when we are anchored!
This is being written from Playa Mujeres, almost as far south on Lanzarote as one can possibly get. Punta Papagayo, the south point, is a mile to the south-east, and Punta Pechiguera, another prominent headland, is about 5 miles to the west. The lighthouse (faro) at Pechiguera is like a straight pencil standing 55 m tall, one of the tallest we’ve seen anywhere. We anchored here last night in a slight NE breeze, too little wind for us to unfurl the sails on the short 8 miles trip from Puerto Calero. The sky was cloudless, but visibility not so good, as the easterly winds always seem to bring dust and sand from Sahara, less than 100 miles from here. (All miles referred to are nautical, i.e. 1852 m.) As we lowered the anchors we were surprised to find the French yacht Estel next to us. For nearly a week we also shared anchorage at Playa Francesa on Graciosa. On our first evening there I was playing my clarinet in the cockpit, finishing with Lullaby of Birdland, and on packing away the instrument heard the same tune expertly played on a guitar from Estel!
Graciosa fully lived up to our high expectations. However, spear fishing is no longer permitted, so the easy caught dinners back in 1977 could not be repeated. Instead there is protected marine life for more people to enjoy. The colourful parrotfish is always fun to watch, but my favourite sighting this time was a docile, bottom-dwelling 1,5 m long angel shark. And as for trying to catch fish in the normal way from a boat, luck or skill was not on my side, the two small lizard fish were returned to nature... But the two small supermarkets and the baker at La Sociedad were surprisingly well stocked and chicken was cheap! A second trip to Arricife, capital of Lanzarote, by Diana and I also replenished the larder.
The weather turned sour again while we were at anchor at Graciosa. The NW wind brought back the rain showers, gusty, strong winds and big swells. But the sun is never far away in the Canaries even in bad weather and the surfers especially enjoyed good conditions off the headlands near our anchorage. Skin-diving confirmed that our main anchor was well dug down in sand and that we were safe even if rolling a bit. So Diana and I continued to do a lot of walking and some jogging while at Playa Francesa. Going for our favourite brown rolls (pane integral) to the baker’s at La Sociedad was a 40 min brisk walk in each direction. Near town we would pass the huge racing catamaran Llampec Grillat drawn high up on the beach for repairs. Her anchor chain broke in a westerly gale in January and made her quickly drift on to the rocks.
Another memorable walk was around the top of the extinct volcano Monte Amarilla near our anchorage. From the brim we had a spectacular view of Graciosa and the north of Lanzarote. The camera was used in all directions. We have put five of these pictures together digitally and hope to show the panoramic view as soon as we get it off to webmaster Martin in Oslo. (The last lot of pictures had to be sent by snail-mail.)
One afternoon, while still moored at the pontoons in town, Eli decided it was her turn to do some sightseeing and so she rented a local taxi to drive us around the island. All cars on Graciosa, the few taxis included, seem to be old Range Rover jeeps. Yes, you guessed correctly; the roads are dirt tracks and very rough, to say the least. We humped along to Pedro Barba, the other settlement NE on Graciosa, but this old fishing village is now only a vacation and weekend village for owners in Gran Canaria. All the 530 Graciosa inhabitants now live in La Sociedad (also known as Caleta del Sebo). So Pedro Barba, although beautifully maintained and with more vegetation than elsewhere (automatic irrigation, we noticed), is a ghost town on weekdays. On the west coast of Graciosa the seas have carved out some spectacular stone bridges. Here are also long beaches of yellow sand, most of it airborne from Sahara! This sand is also seen in patches across the entire lower part of the island, contrasting markedly to the black and brown lava that dominates the higher landscape. The island is extremely barren, but still display surprising variation in colours. For example at the southern base of Monte Amarilla there is an ochre-coloured cliff face off the beach.
With the wind and the swell Eli decided to stay aboard the six days we were anchored at Playa Francesa. But she was not idle, and we now have a strong and snugly fitting cover for the outboard engine and all the towels have tapes for hanging them on hooks. She sees to the repairing of all our clothes and gets vegetables prepared before dinner. Lately she has also decided to get familiar with the Taylor stove. This is a three-burner paraffin stove needing pre-heating with alcohol, a bit of a fiddle which Diana and I are happy about as it is safer and cheaper than gas. But it takes some getting used to and if you spill alcohol or are too late in lighting the paraffin after pre-heating, some interesting pyrotechnics may occur! But as Eli made us her famous chicken fricassee recently we will no doubt see more of her dinner-making in the future. On questioning about her situation (luxury or prison?), she says she misses some friends and solid, flat asphalt for walking, but does not miss the Norwegian winter! She feels secure, sleeps better here than at home and is happy with the cuisine as long as she has a boiled egg for breakfast, salami and her home-made Italian Salad (cole-slaw) for lunch, and for dinner a glass of red wine, please! Good red wine here costs one Euro or less per litre, cheaper than juice or milk, and is not difficult to provide…
We were sorry to leave Graciosa, but on Nov 3rd raised anchors, visited La Sociedad and the shops for a last stocking up of the pan integral, and motored the 34 n. miles to Puerto Calero. This is a bit of a show-piece as far as marinas go, with brass bollards and man-hole covers, first class materials used in all the construction of pontoons and quays, and an attractive backdrop of small shops and restaurants. Among the buildings are lots of palm trees, including coconuts with fruit! These made us feel we were already in the Caribbean. Several other Norwegian boats were in the marina, the two nearest made us feel quite small. One is the luxurious motor-yacht Saga of Oslo belonging to billionaire Petter Sundt, the other a 20 m long ex-Italian yacht Il Moro De Venezia IX of Grimstad. Grimstad is a small town not far from Kristiansand, our home-port. On this yacht live Are and Vigdis Jonassen with their daughter. She attends the English school in Puerto Carmen. The beauty and cleanliness and general quality of the marina is much attributed to the work of the multi-artist and architect César Manrique. His name comes up in a lot of contexts on Lanzarote and Graciosa. He pioneered the now widespread conservationist attitudes that prevail in the islands, and he is also given the honour for Lanzarote becoming a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve in 1993. Tragically, Manrique died in a traffic accident about the same time.
We had a day-trip to Puerto Carmen, enjoyed the menu-of-the-day lunch at El Marinero restaurant, but it was too much food for even me to finish. And when I saw all the fat, half-naked white and pink tourists waddling the streets of Carmen, it did not improve the appetite. We were happy to buy yesterday’s Norwegian and English newspapers, but otherwise glad to get away from this busy and rather gory tourist machine.
Our second day at Puerto Calero was spent on boat-work; washing clothes and boat, cleaning and waxing, even some oiling of wood. We took full advantage of water and electricity included in the daily cost of Euro 37!
That was yesterday. Where we are now it is free to anchor, the water is clear and clean, 23 degrees centigrade, and good for swimming and snorkelling. The beautiful beach inside is uninhabited, but fills up during the day. Being partly a nudist beach it also offers a good focus for the student of human anatomy. You see, we are trying not to forget our Medicine!

Isla Graciosa, Canary Islands, 25th October 2003

We are now safely tucked up in the small marina of the most Northerly inhabited island of the Canaries, Isla Graciosa, as a near-gale, pelting rain and heavy, dark clouds make it a good day for writing and other indoor pursuits. Randi and Terje Haga from Stavanger on yacht Mirandi have just had breakfast with us, leaving us ten tins of Norwegian sardines from their large supply, a good present for Stein with his fishy tastes!

Our stay in Porto Santo had to live up to high expectations, after two previous enjoyable visits, and didn’t let us down. The place has become a bit busier, more facilities for yachts, but also now a fee for anchoring in the harbour basin, although not expensive. The island is fairly barren, after centuries of damage by rabbits and erosion, but trees are being planted to try to retain the top-soil, and there are fantastic views from the fairly accessible peaks. Stein, Andreas and I had a day-trip, walking round the craggy Eastern shore, then climbing up the East side, over the mountain tops (516 m), and back down to the harbour, a good seven-hours training! We had a wonderful lunch perched high up on the top crags, with panoramic views over the south part of the island and to Madeira, and tame lizards enjoying our left-over bread-crumbs and mango-peel!

Thursday, 16th October was a sunny day with a nice, fresh north - westerly breeze, looked right for a day-sail to Madeira.

Previous experience in crowded Funchal, with sailing-boats rafted up 5 or 6 at a time did not tempt us again, so we headed for the new marina, Quinto do Lordo at the Eastern end of the island. I had phoned the previous day to find out where exactly this marina was, and was amused to be told that we just had to sail to Madeira and we would see it first thing! After a good, 4-hour, fresh sail we rounded the eastern point, and sure enough, after a short while, we saw the new molo and mastheads behind from a long way off.

The marina was built in 2002, is in the middle of nowhere, not many boats, and we were welcomed by two friendly officials who helped us tie up, and drove us up to the office to check-in. Again, the disadvantage of a catamaran is the high cost, and this was another marina with a 51 Euro/night charge. Plus electricity!

Since our last visit together to Madeira in 1989 (Stein was there with Elisabeth in 1995), when the weather was poor, we have dreamed of a good walk along the levadas, the amazing irrigation system, with channels built all over the fantastic, steep mountains. The first day we took a bus-trip to Funchal, partly to get information about this, and partly to see the town and part of the coast-line. Looking at the crowded harbour and the rolly anchorage outside made us glad that we had not sailed there, although it was pleasant to sit and eat snake-mackerel (espada)at a restaurant overlooking the boats. The colourful market with its abundance of fruit and vegetables was also worth a new visit. We collected maps, bus time-tables and poor information at the tourist office, and planned the next day’s levada outing. Being optimists, we planned to go on one of the routes “for experts only”, found out that using buses would not give us enough time, and arranged with a local taxi-driver, Alfredo, to be driven to the starting place and picked up later at the finish.

We (Stein, Diana and Andreas) marched off in good spirits, but soon found out the sad facts that our map was hopeless, that there were lots of unmarked paths and levadas, and that there were no sign-posts, so that at every junction we became more unsure of where we were! At one point we were surprised to hear the sound of a brass-band, and following the music, we found a party of French tourists who had been driven up by truck, sitting having lunch, being entertained by a local group of musicians. We enjoyed a few melodies, admired the lovely lunch-spread (but got no invitation to join them), and asked for directions, which they could not give us.

However, the day became a fantastic experience all the same, walking along some of the levadas built on steep mountain sides with spectacular views. We admired the feat of engineering to build all these tracks in the impossibly steep hill-sides, with tunnels through the steepest parts, where we had to shuffle, stooped along in the dark holding on to each other, as we only had taken two rather poor flash-lights. Twice we followed a track for 2 or 3 kilometres, hoping we were back on the dotted line on our map, only to find that it came to an abrupt stop and we had to retrace our steps. Fortunately we had Alfredo’s phone-number so could let him know that we had to be picked up at our starting-point, nine hours after our departure. A great day, despite not finding our way!

Three nights was enough in Quinto do Lordo marina, and on 16th October,