We arrived fresh and vividly after a long crossing. The timing couldnt be better; it was lunch time and we accompanied it with a fresh beer, our first since 7 weeks. Then we set the first foot on the island. It has been a great, pleasant and remarkable sailing trip. With the accent on sailing. Here are the last three daily stories till the arrival. And then some sort of sailors evaluation by the captain why this trip was such a pleasure to sail. Hard to get (3) Sat May 11 2024 Last days the predictions give very light winds. Sp we would be some days later. OK. The pedictions say the winds will ..read more

You probably think: shouldn’t Ya be arriving somewhere around now? Well, that’s what Ya’s crew was secretly hoping for. But, between the squalls and the windstills, it’s a good thing there’s rain and good food. Because Gambier is playing hard to get. Fruits Sat May 04 2024 02:33:00 GMT+0200 Fruits on board is kind of the same story as for the vegetables, except that it ends up better. Fruits could be found in the same market in Panama as the vegetables, and for very cheap, so this was a great deal. You already heard the sad story of our bananas that fell down during a heavy night, so we had to ..read more

Lots of adventure this week. Ya almost lost the outer jib in a squall and meets with an unexpected visitor. Also, energy is slowly running out. How is Ya’s crew holding? Well, ‘on ne vient pas enfiller des perles’. Adventure and a Fixing day Sat Apr 27 2024 02:44:00 GMT+0200 Last evening the wind decreased. Early in the night, the wind picked up a bit and Peter also heard a funny noise. The wind picked up because you could see a squall approaching in the moonlight. The noise appeared to be caused by the tack of the outerjib that was off its place. The sail worked itself more and more up to the ..read more

Peter and Pierrot are halfway the Pacific now. The bad news: Pierrot twist his ankle, the fish disappear with the fishingear and Ya meets some squalls. Read on for more good and bad news! Full and by Sat Apr 20 2024 00:54:00 GMT+0200  Since we hit the 3 degrees south theoretically we could go in a straight line with a course of 245 degrees to Gambier. But because we are on a sailing boat we never really go straight, we do the best we can with the wind, waves, and currents. We opt for the better course so that we can take the maximum speed out of it and so that we can be the most comfortab ..read more

Ya’s position can be found here We did the Doldrums Sat Apr 13 2024 3 degrees south, we will reach it in a couple of hours, we are finally safe. Out of the Doldrums! It has been a long struggle against wind and currents those last days, but we stayed hopeful to get through. Good weather reports, a sound ship, our navigations skills and a dose of perseverence brought us to here. And also, thanks to all the candles you lighted! Parasailor Sun Apr 14 2024 We had just a little bit of wind, and pretty steep from behind and a swell perpendicular on it. A nasty combination, with sails easily banging ..read more

Crossing the Doldrums, as all sailers know, requires lots of energy – and some luck. Luckily on board of Ya the crew makes the most of the situation. They just keep hoisting and lowering the sail according to wind and current. And all the time, they keep their eyes on the prize: crossing the Doldrums! Good food, good mood – and some superstition. Read on! Lucky Pierrot Sat Apr 06 2024 When Pierrot took over for the night watch, there was hardly any wind, and from the wrong direction. At first light Peter woke up when Pierrot made a tack. The wind had increased. Peter could take over the watch ..read more

In their first week on the Pacific, Peter and Pierrot had good food but bad winds. The start from Panama was great, but then came the bad winds. Read all about it in this weeks’ blog! Screenshot from https://fossilfreearoundtheworld.org/map-where-we-are-now-position-of-the-ya/Great start Sat Mar 30 2024 Our voyage to Gambier Islands starts great. PredictWind forecasted favourable winds and currents from last midnight till April 1. At 21:00 we lifted anchor and we slowly left Panama City with its metropolitan skyline. At 23:00 the first little wind came. We could sail. In the morning we came in ..read more

Panama Canal Transit and … the Pacific Finally, after a very long waiting list we transited the Panama Canal. Together with Sue, with Jack and Sol, and don’t forget Poki the cameraman and maker of this movie. A top quality movie! Poki filmed our Panama Canal Transit. More from Poki on https://vimeo.com/user1230810/videos The very moment that you see this, we – Pierrot and me- have already set sail for the Pacific, a more than 3000 miles route, to the little islands of Gambier in the South Eastern area. The first 800 miles will be challenging , with wind stills and countercurrents. We could ev ..read more

Every sailor has sailed against the waves against. When on the engine, you see the big difference between going on flat water or waves. It doubles or triples the necessary energy. Why using it against you? Why not use it for you? That is how the Xander and Sven thought, just 18 year old. Xander sails regattas, currently the 29-er. Then you are aware of the wave energy! The two guys started a school project, to get electricity out of wave energy. A real life experiment. In general it works like this: You put a floating container in the water. A closed pipe, a canister, anything that floats. Th ..read more

The Sustainable Sailing book is also noticed by the national newspaper Trouw, and uses a full page to describe what the book is about. Here the contents of article, in the English version. As well as the original Dutch article. A trip through the water can also be more sustainable (Translated from Trouw, Sustainability and Nature, p 8.) Now that the sun is out, water lovers are starting to get the itch. They want to enjoy sailing, on a sloop, sailboat or yacht. Eager skippers can master the art of green sailing. Let’s be clear: anyone who abandons the plane and gets on a sailboat instead is do ..read more