http://goo.gl/ynZpV

The new Dean 5000, what a boat, we took the boat on its maiden voyage from Lisbon, Portugal to La Rochelle, France. The next delivery is set for March 2011 and yes it's a Dean 5000.

Dire Straights

Leaving Mindelo we hit some bad sea conditions making our way up North
East to the Straights of Gibraltar. We had wind right on our bow and
swell hitting us on the nose. Time for our fowl weather gear to make
another appearance. Watches were cold, wet and somewhat unpleasant. We
all took some waves over the boat soaking the poor soul who was
unfortunate enough to have their watch that time. Our days consisted of
little food, a lot of sleep, doing next to nothing and just trying to stay
on our feet as we swaggered around like drunken seamen!!
We were all relieved as the seas started to calm down and we had the next
challenge of making our way to the Straights of Gibraltar, one of the
busiest shipping lanes in the world. Our way up dragged on for days as
the wind angle did not do us any favours. I know I speak for all of us on
the boat that it was the most frustrating part of this trip. We reached
the Straights on Sunday afternoon and were hit with yet another choppy
beating. We bounced around like a kangaroo while the big container
vessels passing us made it look all too easy. Coming through the
Straights the sea calmed down and fog fell upon us. It got real dense and
we had to stop the engines for 6 hours around midnight as we could hardly
see our own bow. Vis was real bad and we had to rely on our ears and
radar to keep us safe until morning came. All other vessels had stopped
and our radar screen looked like a shipping graveyard. We could only sit
and wait for the fog to lift.
Things got better when we got into the Med and we had some real awesome
sundowners as the sun set in the west and the moon simultaneously raised
in the east. A sight a lot of people aren't lucky enough to see.
Next stop Ibiza baby...nuf said. We made our way to San Antonio on the
island Ibiza where we had to collect the owner of the boat. We got in
early Wednesday morning, fuelled up and made our way along side. We did a
decent shipshape on the boat and went out for some food and drinks. The
club strips were insane and buzzing with people all having a blast and
reducing their ability to communicate and walk in an orderly fashion.
We collected the owner today around lunch and we are underway to our next
stop which is Cannes in France. Our destination changed a couple of weeks
ago and we are taking the boat to the Cannes boat show which starts on the
8th of September.

Our current lat and long is 39 259N and 1 3691E

Vol de Nuit out!

Mindelo, Cape Verde

We reached the first set of islands around noon on Thursday to our delight,
however it would be another day before we arrived at Mindelo.

We had just gone between the first islands Fogo and Santiago and we had huge dark
clouds behind us to the south with a light NE wind blowing, so we were
motoring. Dusty was on watch and mentioned 'I think thats going to hit us' and
sure enough it did! 'a rolling cigar cloud', luckly we were motoring as the
strongest wind recorded was 54 knots with very heavy rain.

At daybreak we had reached Mindelo to beautiful sunshine! We decided to moor
alongside this year and it made things so much better. We did the normal
formalities and then explored Mindelo and the local beer!!. Things are very
limited there but you get mainly get everything you need.

Mindelo has very laid back atmosphere, I did notice that there were a few
differences from last year, they have a fuel dock now and the water is not a
strange yellow colour! Although you do have to pay for water.

We met up with a boat 'BLUES' a 90ft monohull built by Southern Wind in Cape Town.
They were sailing to Palma! Just as we were leaving we noticed a huge
mast of the other boat that was in Cape Town 'Pink Gin' this is a beautiful 160ft
monohull that I have been around and got to know some of the crew and
skipper. Pink Gin is privately owned and cost 28 million euros to build. Its about
3 years old, but now heading to Norway for a 6 month refit,
unbelievable. There next stop for them is the Azores.

Now well rested we press onwards with our voyage.

We are heading NE with very little wind our current position: 19 06N and 24 23W.

Vol de Nuit out.....

Crossing the line

We finally caught our first edible fish. A durada. Dusty and I worked hard
gutting the fish and we had some for supper. The run up to the equator
was great and we all made our own hats with some random stuff onboard.
We also found some rags and made some outfits to go with the hats. Rox
was fully dressed as a pirate and I made the boat BEE compliant as Mavis
with the help of some coco and a basket on my head. The boys had their
white robes and were dubbed King Neptune and King Neptwo. We started our
morning with a full English breakfast. Dustin and Adam then made an
awful concoction and we were baptised with it. Yuckkkk!!!! This was all
celebrated with a bottle of champagne afterwards.
We've been sailing under the Screecher for the last couple of days and
this morning we have the Genoa up and we are goose winging downwind with
some great speed. Really doing some awesome sailing. The weather has
been really hot since yesterday so we went for an early swim this morning
as the sun came up. The water temperature has finally reached 30°C and
its cooler outside than inside the water. We also had some unwanted squids
and fly-fish on board and some even found their way through the hatch and
into our bunk...
Our ETA to Mindelo is Thursday or Friday and we are all looking forward to
spending some time on land and exploring the island.
Our current lat and long is 5°5633N & 20°0175W.

Vol de Nuit over and out!

Ascension Island

Well it was a splash and dash in Acension, we arrived Monday 1300 BST and I would have loved to stay there longer, its so beautiful there, the people were
so nice and the beaches looked stunning, but we had no time. It was a little tricky as we had to ferry everything by water taxi, but we did it. We wanted
to eat ashore on Monday night but I run out of pounds and the bank shut at 1500, so we ended up having a traditional SA braai onboard.

On Tuesday morning we made our last run ashore to fill the last few water containers. At 1000 we tried to raise our anchor but i think it had snagged on
the bottom, so Dusty had to go for an early morning swim (we knew we might have a problem as dusty always checks the anchor when we drop it) but the
problem was made more difficult as the island was being replenished by diesel. This was done by a huge tanker at anchor about half a mile offshore and a
long line from the boat to shore, its seems quite a task. Anyway the floating line was getting closer and closer and ended up right over our anchor, so we
had to get the tanker to put on it stern thruster to move the pipe away from us to enable us to get our anchor free, all in a days work!!

So far we have caught 2 fish but let them go as they were too small, but just as we came in to Ascension we had a huge sailfish on the line but it snapped
the line and we are using 100kg line. I suffered slight rope burn just, i think it would have been to big to bring aboard in any case.

We are now heading 350 degrees straight towards cape verde, mindelo, we have 350 miles to the equator (at wed 0900) so should cross friday lunchtime.

Everyone is in great health and enjoying life at sea. We are having some amazing meals, well apart from the banana bread which went a little wrong!!! ha
ha.

From everyone onboard

Vol de Nuit out........

Its a hard knot life

The last few days the clouds have cleared and the sun has finally come
out. We have had beautiful sunrises, amazing sunsets and lots of
swimming in the bluest of sea. We have had very little wind therefore we
have been motoring a lot. We have used more diesel than forcast so I have
decided to make an unschedulled stop in Ascension Island. We should arrive
there Monday afternoon or Tuesday morning. The island has been notified of our
arrival and apparently they are excited! However this will be a 'splash and
dash' stop, fill with diesel and water then back out to sea. Leaving Ascension
we will head north and cross the equator with 3 days then up to Mindelo, St
Vincent, Cape Verde where we will stop for a for a rest. Everyone seems
excited about stopping in Acension. It will be interesting to see land again
as the last land we saw was Saldanha Bay which was on the first day we left
Cape Town.

Oh by the way we have put a hammock up and you cant get me out of it! it's
been so warm at night I decided to sleep in it for the past 2 nights and the
early hours of this morning woke up swinging voilently and nearly got
caterpulted out!! Roxy was on watch and was laughing her head off.

Last night at sundown we were all on the bow and just as the sun was going
down a few pilot whales went passed us, stunning!

Water temp is currently at 25 deg and rising and air temp has been the same,
we are all starting to gain a tan!! whoop whoop.

Position 12 21 98S & 005 47 94W

Thats all for now.

Vol de Nuit out.......