A short cruise to Ilha Grande

I apologise to all readers of this blog for the intermittent posting. However, my internet connection has failed on me over the last 10 days.

I'm still dreaming of the days in the islands, with lazy sailing in a paradise. So, here is a video with a few of the shots, to whish everybody a great new year and a prosperous decade!!! May we all have less worries, and more sailing, more time for making our dreams become reality, more love, more friendship and happiness!!! Scol! Get inspired!

Sail to Ilha Grande - Sitio Forte

On the first day, we took off early in the first light, under engine. The little wind we had came from the North. A light rain didn't bother. It actually gave a peculiar touch to my silent and solitary departure. The rest of the crew didn't bother waking up in early morning. And I didn't mind at all. I was eager to get to sea. As I fired the engine at 6:30 am., the boat was already half undone from its quayside moorings, and in no time I was in the channel of Bracuhi Marina, and heading out to the islands in a calm sea. The bimini held the rain off, and the cockpit was tolerably dry and cosy. My old friend, the light foul weather jacket, came in handy to keep me comfortable.

As we approached the islands Paquetá and Itanhangá, after 30minutes of motoring at 5-6 knots, the wind picked up slightly. Still blowing from the North, it made the islands' anchorage a bit exposed, and not suited for the breakfirst I had in mind. And since the crew was still fast asleep, I decided to move on to Jipóia Island, to seek a well protected and solitary anchorage over there. And since the wind had picked up, I opend up the genoa too. Afterall, I came for sailing. And that is what I did, slowly, in a following wind.

As we came closer to Jipóia Island, the crew came to life. The approach to the small and isolated Praia das Amendoreiras, was all I came here for. We admired the wild vegetation of the Island. It sparkled in deep, fresh green, gleaming in the first timid flashes of sunlight. Clean and washed from the morning rain, all vegetation seemed to bust out in vigour. The first morning heat produced clouds of vapour steaming up from the forest. The sea invited for a swim in its esmerald waters. The temperature of the water was such, that you just didn't want to come out of it any more...

After swimming, exploring and breakfirst, we moved on to Ilha Grande. The wind had now veered to a more Easterly direction. After we cleared the Jurubaiba Point, the wind gifted us with an easy close reach, right into Sitio Forte, where we would find a safe and quiet anchorage.

In a lucky stike, we saw a couple of fishermen in a small boat, working on some nets. A quick approach and negotiation rendered us with a bucketfull of still-alive fish. Smartly, the negotiation included killing and gutting. Shorly later, after a heavy tropical downpour, the fish made a beautifull figure on our grill. A white wine kept them in good company, during our splendid dinner.

The heavy rain can be seen on video above, approaching from the West. It came as no surprise. The only suprise was, that the rain waited, until we had our hook planted, and the boat cleared for the night at anchor.

Late Christmas Greetings

Over the Christmas days I took a long awaited short break. It had been too long a time, that I spent without actually going sailing. To spend some time on the water, we rented a Brasilia 32, a very popular monohull from the 80-ies, and spent 5 days sailing the islands of Ilha Grande. My original plan was to go only with Adriana. But in a last minute turnaround, we took my friend Kiko and his 6 year old daughter Carmem along.

We had a great time together, surrouded by stunning natural beauty. The weather was sweet, blessing us with a most amazing set of weather patterns. All of the very beningn sort. In all a most extraordinary Christmas time, with a sky glittering with stars on Christmas evening.

I hope that you all also have had a good time over Christmas, joining your families and friends. And I hope you have a peacefull time, with a good start into 2011 comming up.

I'll post a couple of pictures of our short cruise shortly, as soon as I have edited them.

Rio Soberbo

The tropical rainforest covering the steep mountains of the Serra do Mar, around Rio the Janeiro, is one of the sweetest settings, in my opinion.

Stainless

Minster Palma is being so kind to help me with building all the rudder-hardware. Here he is showing the socket for the rudder tube, through which the stainless steel rudder-shaft will come to the steering quadrant.

An Eco Fishing Boat. by James Wharram

A design contest gave a brief for an under 10m boat for fishing under sail or oar. This sort of "eco boat" is relieved from certain restrictions by fishing license regulations in European waters.

The picture above shows what James Wharram came up with. A lovely little cat, in an unusual but very interesting configuration. The boat can be equiped with one or two cuddies, which provide adequate shelter. For tropical climates it could be equipped with a tent, for use while on anchor.

In my view Wharram has achieved a cool mix between Polinesian lightness and flexibility and English solidity.

I very much like the desing. I would even like to build one. However, in several aspects Arpex is quite similar to this. But having detailed plans available by Hanneke and James, that would be really cool.

Finally sail again...

I've been away from the sea for too long. I've decided to resume this silly situation, over the Christmas days. The fine boat above, a Brasilia 32 will help me in this endeavour.

The Itchin' Feeling

The itching feeling got the better of me. All through Saturday morning, I couldn't help but feel that something was wrong. So I drove out to Ramos, even if just to ease some clamps and check out how the bed bench is comming out. The answer is: "So-So..." But it will work.

And I also just sat down, and took my time to look around and have a beer. While I took a good scrutinzing look at the things I had built all along this past year.

Year End Nearing

The last wo weeks have seen no activity in terms of boatbuilding. Part of the blame can be credited to our little urban war, here in Rio de Janeiro. But thngs have calmed down now. The good seem to have achieved the upper hand for a while now, while the bad have evaporated into the crooks and nannies of the favelas.

But apart from that, the end of the year is nearing, and whith it the social obligations. Streets are full of cars, and traffic jams are the order of the day if you decide to drive around. So it comes, that I'm resignating into a "no-more-work-this-year" scenario. I'm tired and need some rest.

Last weekend we did just that. Resting. Few places are better to chill out, than the exuberant tranquility of the great boulders of the Rio Soberbo river. Just a short 90km drive puts you out into the spicy air of the jungle, the wonderfully fresh water, and the smooth, hot granite bouders. There is something wonderfully relaxing in cooling down in the water, under a waterfall, and then heating up, on the hot stones again - over and over.

But something inside me keeps tickling my mind, and urging me to drive out, to the shed.

I love Rio de Janeiro

After the big turmoil of the last week, things have calmed down a bit, here in Rio de Janeiro. But a slightly alarmed atmosphere persists among cariocas. Normality is not yet fully re-established. Yesterday, I've whitnessed a sad situation, involving heavy guns, a crashed car, and a dead body.

Last weekend we saw the re-conquest of one big slum area, the Morro do Alemão, which's territory was being controlled by armed drug gangs. On Sunday the police entered the perimeter , with armed tanks from the Brazilian Navy Forces.

Me and most other cariocas are saddened, by the pain caused to many families, by this war-like conflict. But one the other hand we feel, that it is a necessary and healthy process. It is time that the law is re-established for all citizens of Rio.

Despite all this misery, Rio de Janeiro is a marvelous city. The beauty of its inhabitants, and the gorgeous beauty of its natural settings is mesmerizing to me. I like to live in this place, even if we sometimes suffer, from the restrictions inflicted by urban violence. If our government manages to install order, we could all go back to carry on living happily, in our sunny jungle-beach city.

Turmoil in Rio

Rio de Janeiro is suffering under a bit of a turmoil, caused by drugdealers and their gangs. In the last 3 decades, armed gangs have ruled unbothered over slum areas, the favelas, where they allways found a safe haven for their ilicit business. The labyrithic, unpenetrable, and highly populated areas gave them protection.

However, in the last 2 years the government has iniciated a strategic, long term plan to regain the territories, claimed by the gangs. Strong police action has driven them out of some communities, with subsequent, permanent installation of police stations, and gangsters are loosing ground.

In a desperate reaction, these villains have gone over to terroristic acts. They are randomly putting public transportation buses and private cars on fire.The aim is to drive fear into the population, and to make a statement of power.

But the result has been the oposite. The population, tired of random violence and fear, is backung up decidedly all police action, to restore the law. The society feels that it is, in fact, a sign of weakness and desperation.

To put an end to the turmoil, the police is joining forces with the army and navy to confront the gangsters in their ratholes. The result is a rather uncivilised, belical confrontation.

Since Ramos, where I build my boat, is right next to the hotspot of action, my Saturday boatbuilding has been veto-ed by the Admiral. Personnaly, I do not believe in letting my freedom be constrained by such things. And I don't think that the Club is in the line of fire either. But, in order not to worry my loved ones, I'll try not to drive out, to build my boat, tomorrow.

Models

The construction of models is an excellent way to learn boatbuilding techniques, and the challenges involved in such a project. I've had great fun in building models from early on. And before I started my first boat, the Arara canoe, I've produced a small model.

As a result from my learnings with the model, Arara came out in a totally different configuration. The model was thought as a proa, while my canoe, despite being a double ender and having a palindrome as a name, was rigged as a tacking outrigger.

Turn of events

In a surprising turn on events, I've managed to put in some extra hours on Arpex, this Sunday. Making the best out of a weekend without my girl, who crossed the country to Fortaleza, to make a presentation of her theater piece, I decided to push the gluing of the bed-bench a little furhter.

And so I did. Things need to be glued on in place, since nothing obeys straight angles. Everything needs to be cut to fit. After some two hours of gluing, I went to have lunch with Jonas. And a delicious lunch it was!

Red flag?

This blog has the colateral effect of being some sort of virtualised conscience to me. I sometimes catch me thinking; "Hell, I need to move on with my construction! It's going to look bad in my monday report, if I say, that I went to the beach, for a ride on the bike, instead of gluing the mast base..."

Sounds ridiculous. But what can I do? In the end of the day, it is a good thing. Keeps me moving on. I say this, because keeping the drive and motivation up, is hard sometimes. Last few weeks have been of the hard sort. I allways get slightly alarmed when this happens, and try to find the true causes for the affliction.

I suppose I have pointed some out, for this case. One has got to do with the current phase of construction. The furbishing and finishing of the cabin is a complex task, and it has no clear definiton of sequence for the mounting of the parts. Lots of small parts, and small projects are driving complexity. This results in me often sitting there, and trying to figure out, whether I will be penalising some other task, if I commit, and glue something on. For example: I try to get all pieces fully finished, before I glue something on, because it is infinitely easyer to do so when the piece is not bonded to something else. However, this approach imposes wayting times. Epoxi needs to be applied. Then it needs to cure, then sanding, epoxi again....

Having lots of small projects going on, means that tasks need to be carried on in parallel, so that the waiting times can be used to work, instead of sitting and waiting. But small jobs also means frequent change of tools, moving of parts, losing of parts,... Which ruins efficiency of my work. It is, therefore, frustrating at times, to see only marginal progress in the end of the day. I mean; Look at how long I've been working on this bed-bench-construction! Today I got the main support beam sanded, finished, and glued on . It is to be seen on the picture below, being held in place by the red clamp. Else, I've glued together part of the bench. I'm not nearly done with the whole thing.

I'm glad there is not much interior to do. Not much left after the bed-bench. ...And the entrance, step-box, mast base, painting of the inside, washboards, steering system, porthole-windows,....

Sitting, waiting?

Well, sitting and waiting, won't help. I need to pick up my heels, and get back to work on my boat this weekend!

A passo de formiguinha...

Rain, cold and a birthday celebration in the Club.

The Iate Clube de Ramos celebrated its 69th. year of existance.I couldn't turn the invitation down, could I? Afterall, we should celebrate a 69-er, shouldn't we?

There are a lot of good and nice people in that club, and they helped me a lot already. So, now was the time to show my appreciation.

The good thing is that during the course of a joint lunch with two of the directors of the Club, Mr. Palma re-affirmed his desire to build the metal parts for the steering mechanism.

Else than that, I just found a little bit of time to re-cut the steering pod parts. It needed sligthly more volume to house the steering drum.

Buckin' bronco ride

The nautical equivalent to a "buckin' bronco ride". Try to keep your hat with the right side up.

See this awsome footage of a solitary sailor, one a sweet looking boat, doing a fine looking job. It is incredible how much power these boats develop. Turn the sound on, put it on full screen, and enjoy the ride.

Valeu, Zé!

O Tahiti Nui Freedom reaching China

The 50ft. outrigger canoe "O Tahiti Nui Freedom", which left Tahiti bound to sail to the coast of China, is reaching its destination.

The canoe used in the epic crossing is inspired by a historical plan drawn in Tahiti by the Admiral Paris around 1820 (standard plank of wood and stich construction). And of course the voyage interests me because of the similarities between "O Tahiti Nui" and Arpex.