Old good Europe

 After 14 days at sea Kiwi arrived in Concarneau in Bretagne in France yesterday afternoon. The crew is tired, the boat in fine shape, the skipper confused. The feelings of achievement after a tough but successful crossing blend with sadness of the trip coming to an end. Philipp-the-landsupport has helpfully organized a travel lift for Kiwi already the day after arrival, so discovering Concarneau or any feelings of emptiness after the trip will have to wait:). More pictures will follow!

Kiwi sets out for high seas

Kiwi sets out to her last leg of the Atlantic crossing from Azores to mainland Europe in calm wind conditions and perfect sunshine. Stocked up with delicious Flores water and some more tin cans and chocolate. We were also lucky to get Camille onbord as fourth crew member. With her, we are down to three hours watches, have our own French teacher onbord and new input, stories and fun!

Flores - another favorite island

Early summer blossoms makes the place almost too idyllic. Being one of the most remote Portuguese islands, we didn't have to share Flores' idyl with many other tourists

On black volcanic beaches we met our old friends from the ocean - stranded Portuguese -man-of-war jellies

Flores is an island of cows

...luckily great part of the island is too steep for farming and great part of the lush and fairytale-like laurisilva-forest remains. Believe me, this steep terrain has been a challenge for us with practically no leg muscles 

Few pics from North Atlantic

Speeds under three knots meant possibility to swim, or more correctly, hang behind the boat on a rope. Beautiful black and white fish (pilot fish?) followed us on our journey

Half way dress -up party with the team "wear anything except clothes". Angela in sailbag and Sanja in driftanchor 

As we moved north, more and more clothes were needed. Angela starting her evening watch. She would do 6-10 (am and pm), Sanja 10-2 and Emma 2-6

Emma has hoisted the storm jib. We had so much wind that the smallest of sails were in use, the whole wardrobe actually 

Kiwi sails well in a lot of winds. Thats how she likes it best

Couple of days of calm meant better possibility for animal observations. Here are some common dolphins under poled out working jib.

Azores!

After 19 days at sea Kiwi reached Flores in Azores early this morning. The tiny harbor of Lajes was most welcoming and what we can tell (for actually being way too exhausted right now for any real exploration), Flores seems to be a charming small island with cliffs and waterfalls and more cows and goats than tourists.

The crossing went well, with winds between zero and forty knots from all kinds of directions. Rough seas broke the attachment for our kitchen stove we managed to have salt water leaking in to the drinking water tank (!) and had the dynamo of the engine falling off. These were minor challenges I realized meeting a fellow sailor here who crossed at the same time and lost part of his rigg, his roling furler and having a complete engine failure

Off we go!

With a best possible weather report in our hands, we'll head out towards Azores and Europe tomorrow morning. Our short visit in Bermuda has been great, the town of St George s one of the prettiest harbors Kiwi has visited and the locals most welcoming. With America's Cup and tall ships visiting the place at the same time, it's been very lively and interesting stop.

When sailing around with female-only crew, you receive surprising amounts of attention. We are the freaks, one-of-a-kinds, we are photographed and invited for drinks and meals and showers. People remember us and are utterly astonished. You could get irritated, I guess, but I can't deny the extra spice added to our experience by being the red boat of girls receiving special treatment :)

Sadly we had to say good byes to Eva, when she decided to fly over the ocean to be there to receive our lines on the other side. Wount be long : P, so long!

Bermuda!

Kiwi made landfall at St George s yesterday morning. A short stop to collect mail, water (to replace what we lost because of water tank leakage) and check out America 's Cap!

Alright, here we go

After a day of last fixes and fun (shark watching, swimming and dinghy sailing) at Salt Cay Kiwi finally sails out to the high seas. With great help from Jelle, downloading weather files with iridium works now. Crew is familiarized with the boat and spirits are high. Bermuda, here we come!
-Sanja, Eva, Emma and Angela -

First 4 nauticals done

Yesterday, heavily loaded with fruits, vegetables, instant noodles, chocolates and some 560 litres of water and 300 l of diesel, Kiwi managed to made her way out of the harbor of Nassau! First day was planned short for allowing continuation of some last minute preparations using the mobile coverage from civilization. We struggle with getting Iridium communication work with our windows 8 computers... and might have to rely on calls and sms's for weather forecast.

The sailing out of the harbor was a relief, because that means and end to enormous money usage for now. (Bahamas is not the cheapest place to stock up for a voyage) We had great winds and currents against us and discovered a large water leakage in one of the water tanks. Anchored up, fixed the hole (hopefully) and started to work on resting and relaxing before hopefully heading out tomorrow

Thursday - beyond any lists

-Top up of the propane bottle
-Seeing my regular Nassau dentist (once more)
-Tidying up the boat, making space for the crew
-Welcoming Emma!