After three amazing days outside the northern coast of Antigua we are now anchored up outside Barbuda. From here we will take the dinghy to the shore, visit the customs and check out. The days spent on Great Bird Island were wonderful. On Christmas Day we had a barbeque on the beach. Since this is the day everyone else celebrates Christmas the bay and the beach was empty. Sitting on a lonely beach on the 25^th of December was yet another surreal feeling. The surroundings here look like pictures from postcards. It is that fantastic.

Our next destination will probably be St Barths, however we have heard that boats have been evacuated from their marina in Gustavia due to strong winds and backwashes.

St Barths was Sweden’s only colony for many years and still there are some streets named “Drottinggatan” and “Storgatan”. Today it is a popular yacht destination and has been called the Riviera of the Caribbean. We have been talking about celebrating New Years Eve there together with the crew on Midnight Sun. But, due to the winds we might have to reconsider. Nevertheless, we hope to find a berth in a nice marina for New Year’s. An idyllic Christmas was great, but on New Year’s we would fancy some party…

The closest island to St Barths is only a few miles away, St Martin. According to John, the skipper on Midnight Sun, the Dutch side of St Martin is supposed to be very pleasant. This might be another alternative. Nothing is certain yet, but we do have some options.

We all hope that you had a great Christmas back home with lots of good food, snow and well-deserved presents. Are you still eating from the Christmas ham?

What are your plans for New Year’s?

Love from the Xavante crew!


Barbuda, an Island north of Antigua. are we stuck in a swimming pool?



English Harbour, Antigua. This is not our boats. Their dighy is the size of our boat... and they have a jacuzzi on deck...



Christmas Eve in paradise



Christmas Day, barbeque on the beach.



Yet another barbeque...



We love lonely beaches!

Imagine spending Christmas anchored up outside a reef with turquoise water, a light warm breeze and a million stars in the sky. Still, with some help from our new Swedish friends from Midnight Sun, we enjoyed a typical Swedish Christmas dinner, with ham, smoked salmon, meatballs, “janssons frestelse”, herring, potatoes, beetroot salad etc. A Christmas Eve spent in paradise that we will always remember.

Last time we updated the blog we were at Dominica. We stayed there for one more night and left early in the morning next day. We sailed up to some small islands called Les Saintes, did some fantastic snorkeling. Later that night after Malin and Elina had cooked soup and pancakes for dinner we left and sailed up to Antigua. We arrived in English Harbour at sunrise the 23^rd. English Harbour and Nelson Dockyard is a beautiful historic marina with mostly Englishmen as visitors and now it was crowded and fully booked since it’s a popular place to spend Christmas. Our plan was to stay in the marina for one night, do some shopping and refill the fuel and water. Early next morning we left together with the Swedish boat Midnight Sun and followed up to this beautiful place that we are now. John, the skipper guided us in difficult water between reefs and shallow waters. Without his help we wouldn’t have found this beautiful place.

Today on Christmas Day Bengt got the nicest present he could ever wish for. Turns out our Swedish friends from Gothenburg are technical professionals and helped him out with the Fisher Panda. It has been problems running it for several years and in Las Palmas he paid lots of money to get it fixed, but in the end it still didn’t start. Now, with a simple procedure it runs perfectly. Thank you Anders, Hasse and John!  

We are staying anchored up here for one more night and tonight we are planning to take our dinghies to the beach for a barbeque. Tomorrow we will continue our sailing and probably head to St Barts.

Merry Christmas everyone, we have heard that there’s lots of snow in Sweden and we are happy that you got a white Christmas.

Puss&Kram



Sunset at Dominica



Malin, Elina and Alexis who took them to a beatiful waterfall





A small part of the christmas dinner



John, Ove, Camilla and Hasse

Two days ago part three of our journey began! The crew from now on will be Bengt, Ove, Malin and Elina and all of us will sail together up to Florida! We reckon that it will take us about 30 days to reach our final goal, Fort Myers.

The last week that we have spent in Saint Lucia has been amazing in many ways. We have met a lot of new friends that were hard to leave. However, we know that we will keep in touch and see them soon again. Even though leaving friends behind is hard we all look forward to sail again and it felt very good to leave the marina Saturday morning.

Here in the Caribbean everything is on “island time”. This basically means that ten minutes might as well take one hour. Our experience therefore is that it is too late to go and eat on a restaurant when you are already hungry, it is better to go there one and a half hour before you expect the hunger to strike you.  In the beginning this was a bit frustrating but all you can do is to follow their advice: “Ya man, chillax! You are on island time now baby!”

So, let us tell you all about our week in Saint Lucia! One day we rented a car, all six of us, it was before Per and Bernard had flown home. Driving on the left side of the road in Saint Lucia is not very easy, since the locals drive like fools, the roads are extremely narrow and the hills are really steep.  But thanks to Bernard who drove the car all day, we managed without any problems. Our first stop was a small town called Soufriere there we had some lunch and took a quick look at the city. From there we went to see some waterfalls which unfortunately were a disappointment, just lots of tourists and one waterfall which wasn’t very scenic. We finished up our day by going to a beautiful beach and everyone enjoyed a swim in the ocean after a whole day spent in the car.  In addition to our car adventure we have been busy working on the boat, visting ARC parties and snorkeling at Pigeon Islands, a national park that you could reach with your dinghy. As well as spending time at the nearest beach listening steel drums and eating barbeque.

The last night before we had decided to leave Saint Lucia Malin and Elina went to a local street party. These street parties are called “Jump ups” and they happen every Friday. This means that every Friday there is a massive street party in every town. Malin and Elina went to a town close to the marina called Gros Islet.  Local food, lots of Rum punch, loud music and people in party mood. We had a great time!

Us leaving Saint Lucia also meant that our ARC event is finished. Everything has been fantastically organized; the parties have been amazing, the seminars useful and informative and the ARC staff really friendly. Crossing the Atlantic as participants of the ARC is something we can truly recommend. It is a wonderful way of meeting new people, making your crossing safer and learns a lot from others.

So, we left Saint Lucia for Martinique and we spent the night anchored up in a lonely bay. Elina and Malin did some snorkeling and then we had dinner in the sunset. In the morning Bengt and Ove heaved up anchor and set course for Dominica where we are now. Our sailing today was perfect, sunny and good winds! Now we are in a bay called Prince Rupert’s Bay tied to a mooring buoy and we might stay here for two nights!

We know that we haven’t updated the blog so frequently but we will get better! Sometimes it’s hard to both have dinner in the sunset, snorkeling AND update the blog ;)

Sorry for not uploading any pictures, but we are having some problem with the Wi-Fi. We will give you photos as soon as possible.

We have finally arrived in Saint Lucia. The 10^th of December at .00 local time we crossed the finish line and had successfully completed our first Atlantic crossing. This has truly been an amazing adventure! At the arrival we were warmly welcomed by both friends that we made in Las Palmas and the ARC staff. Stepping of the boat for the first time in 19 days was the one of the weirdest moments. To see civilization, meet people and feel steady ground was a bit too overwhealming and we had to take a moment just to take a deep breath and let it all sink in.

After some phone calls to family members telling them we are safe we went to the bar to get the beer that we had been looking forward to for so long. It tasted fantastic!

Even though the crossing went well it was really rough at times. As we reported once the winds were really strong and the waves were at some points between 5- 7 meters high. Some equipment on the boat did obviously break. The spinnaker broke, but it is hopefully fixable. One of the last days something with the steering happened. Suddenly the steering did not go as smoothly as before, due to damage in the propeller shaft. We will try to fix that as well here in Saint Lucia. We also had other minor incidents such as broken stanchions etc. However, overall and compared to other boats we seemed to be blessed from serious damage.

Here in Saint Lucia the atmosphere is great, everyone are really relived and happy. Everyday a new boat arrives there is a new welcome party. The last couple of days we have been exploring the Marina but on Monday Bengt rented a car to take us around the Island. The scenery is supposed to be extraordinary and we will also try to find the waterfall and the hot springs that Saint Lucia is famous for.

It feels amazing that we actually crossed the Atlantic. None of us are professionals, but we did make it across without too many complications. And we are all really proud.

We will keep in touch.

A gourgeus night at the Atlantic 



First time we see land for 19 days...



On the finish line!



On the finish line!



A really happy, tired and proud crew!



Malin and Elina attending one of the welcome parties.

According to the GPS, we only have 20 hours left until we reach Rodney Bay. In other words, we will arrive on Thursday. It is an almost surreal feeling to imagine spotting land after 16 days of open water. The same calls for the feeling of steady ground beneath our feet.

Both the crew and the boat are in great need of a rehab. For us it will be wonderful just to have a still and quiet dinner, have a proper shower, a cold beer in the sun.

The food is becoming an issue, yesterday we had Ravioli which made Malin and Elina to food strike.  The cooking creativity is not on top, since all we have left is tinned food.  A majority of the crew hope that there is a McDonalds somewhere in Saint Lucia, a Big Mac would be nice. Others long for fresh food, vegetables and fruit.

It will also be nice to take a walk, to actually move around and stretch your legs. On the boat the only two body positions are sitting up or lying down since standing up right is a balancing act that we mostly wish to avoid. 
 

The skipper is planning a little arrival show as we cross the finish line. The complete crew will be standing on deck dressed in our Team Xavante t-shirts singing “Sankta Lucia” loudly and Bernard will play the dragspel. He has been practicing these past days. We will see about that…

So, the next time you will hear from us we will have reached our goal.

Liten rolig detalj är att den 10 december då vi beräknar att komma I mål, är ingen mindre än den väldigt patriarkiska Nobeldagen, till lika Malins namnsdag. Hurra!

We are at this point about 730 nautical miles from Saint Lucia and the countdown has begun!

Yesterday we tried to hoist the spinnaker again; the weather was quite calm and we wanted to practice our spinnaker skills. Unfortunately, a couple of minutes later the top port side of the spinnaker got stuck in the top spreader and was torn apart. Bengt, Per and Elina ran up on deck trying to save the spinnaker from getting into the water.

The same night we had a really good meal, Bengt and Ove cooked “pyttipanna” with eggs and beetroots and everyone had forgot about the spinnaker, but sadly there were more complications to come… On Elina’s and Bernard’s night watch the wind increased dramatically and the wind strength was at some points about 35-40 knots. It rained heavily and our speed was 6 knots with only three square meters of mainsail. The hard winds continued the whole night and as we reached the morning the pole accidentally jibed and the boom bracket broke. Luckily, Bengt had spare parts and was able to fix it.

According to the weather forecast the strong winds will continue and there are also warnings concerning thunderstorms and isolated showers. At this point we have shortened the sails and are on the right course to Saint Lucia. We will hopefully cross the finish line in about 5- 6 days.

The Basil plant is still alive, barely. It is heading towards a certain death. The number of leaves that are still green and vital is constantly decreasing.

Thank you for all your comments and Malin sends a special thought to Bertil Palmcrona! Miss you a lot!
Over and out, for now.

 
Bengts lifejacket accidentally inflated, ( so did Pers )



Spinnaker-mess...



Per on his night watch, maybe we should be worried?



Sunrise the morning after a windy night..



Everyone got soaked except Per, notice that our swedish flag tried to take off during the windy night.

Today is our 10^th day on the Atlantic crossing. Our estimated time of arrival will be the 10^th of December if the winds will maintain as before. Our average speed is 7, 3 knots and the wind strength varies between 16-25 knots (8-13 m/s). We are all longing to feel steady ground because this constant rolling that we have experienced the last ten days is frustrating and getting on our nerves.

Since we are out of fresh food we have to be more creative chefs. Yesterday we caught our second fish, a big one, approximately 8-10 kg. Ove and Per cooked it Thai-style and we all gathered for dinner in the saloon while the autopilot managed the steering.

Moreover, we have received a satellite picture (google earth) from Pers wife where we clearly can see our position. However, we believe that we have lost some ground the last two days due to unfortunate winds. We have been forced to go way too much south than we wished for in order to avoid close down winds. We are doing fine only using our mainsail and the genoa but earlier today we tried hoisting the spinnaker but it didn’t work out to well, finding a good balance in these rolling waves turned out to be more difficult than we thought. Therefore we took it down again, safety is key. We will try to set the spinnaker again when the wind and the waves calm down.

Malin and Elina are taking part in the basil challenge. The rules are simple, keep a basil plant alive when crossing the Atlantic, unfortunately the basil isn’t feeling so well. It will probably die within the next two or three days.

 

Per and Bengt is trying to set spinnaker..



Big fish, dinner for at least two days!



Malin is learning to steer, or posing to make the picture look good?