Sailing to Easter Island - The BIG Heads

Back in 2007, Val and I made a conscious choice about our mode of travel as we meander around the planet. One of the drivers to the choice of using a sailboat was our desire to make our way to Easter Island. It holds a special place of enchantment for both of us.

The Polynesian name for Easter Island is Rapa Nui or Big Rapa. It rests some 2,200 miles off the coast of Chile and it will serve as our farthest reaching ocean run. We estimate that it will take us some 25 days to make the journey from Chile. Nearly a month! The Easter Island run will be a true test.

Easter Island is one of the worlds most isolated inhabited islands. It is also home to the massive stone statues called Moai. We think so much of these Big Heads that we have a nice, small, 150 pound one in our apartment to greet guests. His name is Fred ... Fred's Head. In the winter time, Fred's head serves as the place for our hats.

From what we can gather, when we visit the island, the best place to tie up is in a small harbor called Hanga Pikio, on the west coast. However, to get inside, we will need to hire a local pilot to help guide us in. In 2008, the harbor usage fee was $150.00 (US). It should also be noted that due to the conditions inside the harbor, it is truly a choreographed effort to get in and out when other boats are anchored up in the harbor. It get's worse, only monohulls less than 36 feet are allowed in, so we will have to anchor around the island! This means shifting locations as the wind shifts. Here is an excellent Easter Island anchorage guide: Easter Island Anchor Guide by Bruce Balan and Alene D. Rice of Cross 46 trimaran "Migration."

The calmest seas, and lightest winds, occur from mid-November to mid-February. That will be the window we will be aiming for.

Sailing to Zanzibar

One of those places that strikes a cord in my inner explorer is Zanzibar. Just the name alone gets me excited. Images of ocean traders, white sandy beaches, and deep Africa parade through my head.

Zanzibar is about 20 miles off the coast of East Africa in the Indian ocean. Zanzibar is a part of Tanzania and operates "semi-autonomously." Zanzibar served as a hub for spice and Ivory trading in 1700.

When we are on the east side of Africa, our intent is to use Zanzibar as a launch point into the interior of Africa. The ability to spring to many parts of Africa is fantastic from this part of the continent. Mt. Kilimanjaro, Victoria Falls, and the Serengeti National park are all do-able from there.

Zanzibar charges a whopping $100 USD per visa for US Citizens. This rate means that we will have to pay $400 to get in. Ugh. Just as my mind was thinking, "Damn that's absurd" I read that the Tanzanian government sets the visa charge equal to what the USA charges Tanzanian citizens for the equivalent visa. Still absurd, but the Tanzanian government pegging the amount to the US amount sounds fair to me. The visa is a multi-entry type and lasts for 12 months.

A survey of options shows that mooring ball rates run about $40 per week, and $100 per month. So hanging out for an extended period is quite do-able. Zanzibar, here we come!

UK Canals - Burton On Trent Run

Last week on a business trip to the UK, the opportunity to go for an early morning run along the canal in Burton On Trent (Brandston) materialized. Along with 2 colleagues (one from the offices here in Atlanta, the other from our Brandston offices), we headed out.

We saw numerous very long, very narrow boats as we ran. In single file fashion, they were tried up along the sides of the canal. The scent of wood burning permeated the air, and the softness of lush green grass could be felt through our shoes. We were floating through the domain of live aboard long boats. These were peoples homes. My 2 other colleagues chatted nearly the whole way, and normally I would have been engaged with them but I was lost in fantasy land, thinking about the life of being on these boats. I could see the smoke billowing out of the smoke stacks on the boats. I could imagine the people inside puttering about, doing normal morning things, but on a boat!

We ran under a number of bridges ... a few were so low that I (at 6ft) had to duck. It appeared that from the water line, the clearance couldn't have been more than 8 ft for a boat passing under. The boats on the canal didn't seem to have a beam of more than 5 ft which, given the width of the canal, much more would have really jammed up the water way. These 2 dimensions, even with a stepped mast, means that our boat, Ariel, wouldn't be able to make it through these water ways.

As we ran along the canal, there were some boat folks up and about doing their things. As we ran by, they smiled and nodded. Interesting, when we were running off the canal and passed people whom were dirt dwellers doing their morning things, they didn't nod and smile. While not a scientific polling mechanism, it sure seemed that those lived on their boats were much happier.

My only regret was not taking any photos. I didn't even carry my phone, which has a camera, for the run. The memories, however, of that magical experience, that running through the backyards of true boat dwellers, with lush green grass, calm water, and the scent of the fresh wood being burned, will live with me forever. I can't wait!!!! What's the count today? 265? :)

Sailing to Central America

As the weekend approaches, we've been thinking a lot about where we could be this time next year. It is very possible that we will be 2 months into the journey, and we suspect we will be somewhere in Central America.

Central America consists of Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama. We've been to Honduras before and found it to be exactly what we would expect of Central America. It has friendly people, absolutely beautiful landscapes, and a lot of poverty. The cost of living in this region of the world is very, very cheap.

Honduras is part of the Central America Border Control Agreement (CA-4). The CA-4 consists of 4 countries, Honduras, Nicaragua, El Salvador and Guatemala. As American citizens, we can enter any one of these 4 countries and stay for 90 days without any entry/exit formalities. If we need to stay longer, we can fill out some forms and then stay an additional 30 days.

For Belize, we can stay 30 days without a visa.

For Costa Rica, we can stay for 90 days without a visa! Wahoo!!

For Panama, we can stay 30 days without a visa.

If you sum up all the days just in this region, without doing anything formal, we could spend 240 days in South America, soaking up the culture, waters, and life style. This may be the best area for us to hang out as we start this journey ... figuring out what the heck we are doing.

Boating Europe's Canals and Rivers

One of the reasons we bought Ariel, our Gemini 3200, is her size. We talked long and hard about the right size boat for us. We wanted her big enough for us to be comfortable for years at a time, but small enough to allow us to navigate tight waterways, such as those that comprise Europe.

Our plan is to sail from East to West, leaving from the East Coast of the USA. This places Europe in the final leg of our round the world odyssey. At a high-level, our plan is to spend at least 2 years wandering the canals of Europe once we finally arrive.

Europe has a fantastic network of waterways. The canals, originally built for goods transport, are now a highway of opportunity for tourists. They make the innards of Europe easily accessible, if one has the right sized boat.

Ariel's draft is a mere 18 inches, and her beam 14 feet. This beam figure is about a foot or 2 short of the maximum you would want for traversing the canals. Our mast will have to be stepped of course, so down it will go. We will most likely carry the mast with us, versus shipping it to a known end destination.

Many of the canals have captain operated manual locks ... that is, we will have to get off the boat, and work the locks ourselves. That is an exciting proposition!

The pace on the canals is around 4 knots .... a nice leisurely pace, one to take in Europe's offerings. Germany, Holland, France, Sweden, Spain, and more are all at our boats disposal.

Sailing to the Great Blue Hole in Belize

There are so many amazing places on the ocean. While in Honduras, we took a boat trip to SCUBA dive a seamount ... a mountain rising from the sea floor that doesn't quite reach the surface to make an island. It was beautiful. As we traveled to Truk Lagoon, we saw a few atolls ... a reef structure that creates, and encloses, a lagoon. One really cool ocean landscape phenomenon we have not yet enjoyed, however, is a blue hole .... an underwater sink hole.

On our journey, we want to experience a blue hole first hand. The one we expect to enjoy first is the Great Blue Hole in Belize. Good ole Jacque Cousteau made it famous when he declared it a top 10 must SCUBA dive spot.

The Great Blue Hole is part of a large, partially collapsed, deep, limestone cave system. Attached to the Lighthouse Reef Atoll, this oceanic wonderland is 60 miles off the coast of Belize city. Something easily accessible by our boat! :)

Ahh, the thoughts of such beautiful places is perfect as we sit in our tiny apartment with winter cold right outside.

Sailing to New Zealand

Many hours are spent thinking about where we will sail to. Of late, the discussions have been around sailing to New Zealand.

With all the horrible things we read about regarding sailing into Australia (permits, aggressiveness of Australian authorities (simply read the SlapDash account to get an idea, and their account is hardly the first), etc.), and the wonderful things we read about New Zealand, we've decided that we will make New Zealand our base of operations after we've left Easter Island.

New Zealand not only has cruiser friendly maritime laws, but the visa policies for foreigners are perfect for our family. If we stay 90 days or less, we don't even need a visa! If we elect to stay for 6 months, then we do need one and the processing is simple and affordable.

New Zealand has fantastic ship yards with reasonable prices. We expect, after the long passage, we will need to make some sort of repairs.

New Zealand is also a very bike friendly country. Quick Internet searches reveals miles and miles of bike ways, and after having made the ocean crossing, maybe a month or 2 on a bike will be exactly what we need.

With New Zealand's proximity to Australia, we plan to make a week long type trip into Australia. The flight would be short, and we can then tour the country as a regular tourist without all the hassle one has when visiting by boat.

New Zealand looks absolutely beautiful. We can bust out our small 3 person tent, scramble up a mountain or 2, and sleep with the trees. Heck, one of Val's favorite movie sagas is the Lord of the Rings .... and it was filmed in New Zealand. Maybe we will find Mordor; that would be cool!

Then, of course, there are the indigenous Maori people, with their tattooed faces. Exposing our girls to such cultures is fundamental to the education of this trip.

What better place to anchor up in than New Zealand?

New Zealand, here we come!