Der Plan



This is the blog of our travels with s/y Barracuda.

The trip started in August 2010 from Harlingen in the Netherlands as a young man's adventure by Jan-Vincent Nickl and Laszlo Schöffer, both born of the year '89 (also the owners of 'Barracuda').

After crossing the Atlantic Ocean and cruising the Eastern Caribbean islands for a while, Jan left the boat and Oliver Clasper, a young artist and photographer (born of '88) from London joined in. We plan for this year to cross the South Pacific.

The boat is a dutch-built sloop,ten metres long, year of construction 1975. She's a Cumulant 3 to be more precise, designed by 'Van-der-Vlis'.

Most of the photos will be posted on Olly's blog, check it out:

www.olivertc.blogspot.com






Samstag, 17. November 2012

Brisbane, Australia

We made it!

Arrived at our final destination, Brisbane, Australia on Thursday, after a rather horrid trip.
It took us a whole eleven days, a bit more than anticipated... It could have been a lot worse without fourth crew-member, my dad, our committed weather man and coordinator.
What happened was that the 'fresh breeze' I saw on the forecast before our departure from New Caledonia turned into a trough with 40 knots and more of wind and 4-5 metre swells. The kind of thing you want to avoid...

Fortunately with my dad's insight we could alter course early enough to go down South-East - back towards New Zealand - and have the core of the system pass us in the North. Like that we got away with 25 knots of wind, which we tackled with triple-reefed main and jib, zooming at over six knots for hours.

We thought we'd made it then but it wasn't over yet. We now had to make our make our way back West-North-West in light winds with the next strong northerly winds coming up on Thursday. We cranked up the engine and motorsailed from then on. It all looked good until we discovered the 'East Australian Current' setting South. At a second look I found the far too small writing in my old paper-chart 'up to 4 knots'. That made it hard to get up North, the wind being more westerly than expected didn't help either. For a while it looked like we wouldn't make it around Cape Moreton and I started looking into and considering 'South Passage' a very narrow and dodgy alternative entrance to Moreton Bay which 'should not be entered without local knowledge', with the prospect of otherwise having to tack up along the shore against up to 4 knots of current and 30 knots of northerly winds coming up. Once more dad was consulted in the middle of the night and info about South Passage was gathered.

In the end the current let up a bit and we just made it - by a matter of half a mile - around the cape early on Thursday. Coming in at high tide we took a shortcut into the 'North East Channel' which saved us hours. While in Moreton Bay the wind picked up but going downwind enabled us to make it a quick rest of the journey down and up the Brisbane River to the custom's boarding dock, where we got cleared this same afternoon. It all went smooth and afterwards we treated ourselves to well-deserved burgers and beers.

Next day we proceeded up the river and got the last free mooring in the heart of the city in front of the Botanical Gardens, the perfect spot. Enjoying some big-city life now, it's about time!

Cheers, Pa!

 Bin liners - the new wet weather fashion


 Tuna!


 Early morning shift


 We saw LOADS of dolphins on the crossing


Team Barracuda arrive in Brisbane!


Samstag, 27. Oktober 2012

Road Trip!









PS: Tanna

 
The mighty Mt Yasur ahead 




 
Geeks
 
 
 
 


Stan the man, our fixer
 
 





Fwends






 
Port Resolution
 
 
 
 

Up on top






Yasur up CLOSE!






Sonntag, 21. Oktober 2012

Nouméa, Nouvelle Calédonie

Alive and well we arrived in Port Moselle this afternoon, after a at times rough ride down from Tanna. It took us two and a half day of sailing and a few hours of rest on anchor once we had made it through the 'Canal de la Havannah' and into the protective reef.
We just had a most invigorating shower and are now ready to have an arrival drink with Henrik and Kiki from 'Birka'.

Dienstag, 16. Oktober 2012

Tanna, Vanuatu

Ramasa everybody,

on Monday we finally made it into Port Resolution, on Tanna's windward side, after nearly a weeks sail; there wasn't as much wind as we'd anticipated... After a rather horrible start - Fiji's constant rain followed us another 24 hours into the trip - it all got calmer, sunnier, better. We caught mahi mahi, tuna and a big barracuda - that one we released - so couldn't complain about food. Amelia took to her first crossing on Barry very well, we killed time by introducing her to our favourite card-game - which you can only play with three or four participants; you Germans know which game I mean, that is if you can figure out what participants are - haha!

Approaching Tanna at night we could see it's great attraction glowing in the dark long before actually reaching the island, our first sight of mighty Mt. Yasur, one of the few very accessible active volcanoes in the world. We were welcomed very warmheartedly by the Tannese, who live a basic but by the looks of it very genuinely happy life. The most genuine we've seen since - well - San Blas? ... ever?
On the same Monday we took our trip up the Yasur and I can tell you it was amazing, stunning, breathtaking! And absolutely beyond words, I'm sorry. I'll upload some photos at some point, but those too are just a poor tribute. All I can say is people, save some money and go to Tanna. And if you're on facecock and friends with Olly, check his pics!

Today we made it over to Lenakel which is the main town, to check in, which turned out to be for more expensive than we'd expected and a mistake. Well we're legal now and all set for our trip to New Caledonia on Friday. That's where I'll post again, 'til then so long!

Mittwoch, 26. September 2012