Sailing DarLa J

04/06/2024

What an amazing place! Norman’s Cay.

04/06/2024

Visited a cool sandbar at Norman’s Cay Bahamas.

03/22/2024

We found the Turks and Caicos Brewery

02/25/2024

What do you mean no jumping?

02/25/2024

Had a great time in the BVI with Chadd, Teresa, Ryan, and Blanca! Food, drinks, snorkeling, exploring, beach bbq, pirate show, and a little (very little) bit of exercise.

Road Town, Sopers Bay, Little Thatch Island, Willie T’s, Pirate’s Bite, The Indians, Cooper Island Beach Club, The Baths, Eustatia Sound, Saba Rock, Bitter End Yacht Club, Prickly Pear island, Leverick Bay, The Dogs, Road Town

02/14/2024

Our current anchorage, drone photo complements of SV Blue Wonder.

02/14/2024

It’s a great day to be sailing. DarLa J received her repaired Wingaker in Sint Maarten earlier this week and is flying high today on the way to the BVI.

Where in the world has DarLa J been since arriving in Grenada on 12/3/23? …Grenada, Carriacou, Bequia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Saint Lucia, Martinique, Dominica, Terre de Haut, Guadeloupe, Antigua, Nevis, Saint Kitts, Saint Barthélemy, Sint Maarten, Anguilla, Prickly Pear Island, Dog Island, Saint Martin and some other amazing sandbars and small islands along the way.

We are way behind on posting but we have been having a great time. We have seen some amazing crystal blue water, secluded beaches, beautiful flowers and birds, and incredible fish and reef. We have also endured some wicked rain, wind and nasty sea state which beat up DarLa J a bit and impacted our travel plans. We had visits from Ashley, LJ, Peter, Brigit, Rose and Dan and have made some incredible friends along the way. Next visitors are Chadd, Theresa, Ryan and Blanca. We love finding great restaurants and wine when exploring on land.

Goal.. post more frequently to keep caught up.

01/19/2024

Happy Birthday to our fantastic skipper Darrin Johnson!

12/20/2023

Paradise Beach Club has our board ready to post.

12/03/2023

We made it!!! Crossed the finish line at 2:47 am local time. We arrived at night in DarLa J style. (Unfortunately). All crew members intact. So happy we are finally here!! Rum punch was awesome and meeting crew from other yachts was extraordinary.

12/02/2023

Lothar made Mahi Mahi tartare with today’s catch.

12/02/2023

Almost there!! We just broke 100nm to go. 12/2/23 at 11:54 am.

11/30/2023

Sailing into the sunset, 360nm east of Grenada.

11/30/2023

Fishing update… Patrick 3, Gottfried 5.
2 Mahi Mahi at the same time this morning (displayed by Tanja). There’s still time Patrick! Fish curry for dinner tonight.

11/26/2023

Sailing by moonlight

11/26/2023

We just hit the halfway mark to Grenada in a little under 8.5 days. Woo hoo! It’s 11:10 pm on 11/25/23.

11/25/2023

11/25/2023

When they tell you your first catch must be thrown back…
Patrick 1, Gottfried 3

11/25/2023

November 17th, Day 1 (FRI) - Leg 2 departure day from Mindelo Cape Verde
The technician’s finished bleeding the hydraulic steering system while all of the other boats were at the starting line to depart for Grenada. Consequently, we were relaxed and avoided the angst of the crowded start. While we are not allowed to race due to our insurance policy, the way the ARC+ Rally is set up, it gives you the feeling of racing until you realize it’s more pleasant to just relax and enjoy the sailing as much as you can and try to avoid breaking the boat. So we got a late start and stopped at the fuel dock to top off while the others were under way.

The forecast was for a slow passage so we expected 14 knot winds and 6-7 knot speed over ground. Typical Atlantic trade winds are 18 to 22 knots. Our late start put us in a sort of moving wind shadow. The boat is already heavy and our borrowed Wingaker is slightly undersized for DarLa J. With light winds, DarLa J just dug into the water and moved slowly along at 2 to 5 knots while the boats ahead pulled away in stronger winds.

Day 3 (SUN)- Gottfried caught a big Bull Mahi Mahi. It’s now fish on the menu every day. We had some fantastic grilled fish for dinner Day 4 and fish tacos on Day 5. The autopilot is steering fairly well but over active. Antony on Cat’s Pajamas showed us how to adjust the gains, so we have been experimenting with the various setting.

Day 4 (MON) - Still no wind. We couldn’t take the slow bobbing anymore so we started an engine and just motored thru the night and into the next day. We burned 40% of the fuel in our Starboard tank, busted out of the moving wind shadow and finally caught up to our friends on SV Cats Pajamas just about the time when we got into an area with 10 knots of wind. We raised the Wingaker again and slowly things got better as day 5 gave us 14 knot winds which is about what we need to move at a reasonable clip of 7 knots. With 1600 miles to go, if we can keep it up, we might be able to reach Grenada on December 2nd.

Day 5 (TUE) - Dolphins everywhere. A huge pod of spotted dolphins joined us in the morning. In the afternoon, a pod of very large slow moving dolphins joined us for about an hour. One of them kept slapping it’s tail on the surface of the water. It was by far the longest that dolphins have ever stayed with us.

Day 6 (WED)- Gottfried caught a small Yellow Jack. Lothar had the whole fish in the pan ready to bake for dinner. Most fresh fruits and vegetables are now spoiled so cooking requires more creativity. The autopilot seems to be dialed in for the downwind sailing now, its working well. The fishing lines are out and we are hoping to catch a wahoo or a bill fish. We will eat a wahoo if we get one but a bill fish will probably be returned to the water.

Day 7 (Thursday - Thanksgiving Day) - Had one Mahi Mahi on each pole at the same time. Both fish took high leaps out of the water and tore out the hooks on the downward plunge.
Laura and I made calls to the family and had some nice chats. We hope you all had a nice holiday together.

We had a nice scaled back Thanksgiving feast on the boat with Schnitzel style turkey breast, mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing and focaccia bread. It was very tasty and just right.

Fish count: Gottfried 3, Patrick 0. Some additional tugs on the line by both lines but nothing more pulled on board except Sargassum. Let’s go Patrick!

Our position is about center of the Atlantic Ocean 1350 kn-mi east of Grenada.

11/21/2023

November 5th, Departure Day from Las Palmas to Mindelo - The start was exciting as 27 Catamarans started together under sail, 15 minutes before the monohulls. DarLa J was flying her Wingaker with 3rd reef main sail thru the starting line. It was impressive enough that ARC used a photo of it on their news feed headline. Once we were south and east to catch 20 knot winds, the Wingaker pulled us along at 10 knots. It was exciting to see the other boats being overtaken by DarLa J, one by one. Just when we felt unstoppable, the wind picked up to 25+kts in total darkness at 3:30 a.m., we were thinking to ourselves “it’s time to drop the sail”, and “BANG” the Wingaker was shredded in a big gust of wind. New rule: the Wingaker comes down if we see gusts approaching 25 kts. 24 hours of depression followed. We sailed conservatively thereafter and slowed considerably as we pondered steering and autopilot problems. While flying the Wingaker, we noticed that the autopilot was weaving back and forth as the following waves pushed the stern from side to side. We thought it was normal but Lothar insisted that the boat should go straight. So we tried to manually helm the boat and experienced strong resistance when trying to correct the helm against rudder pressure from the waves. We became concerned that we would not be able to hand steer the boat if we lost the autopilot as it would take more effort than we could sustain. Meanwhile, the seas were lumpy with big waves coming from two or three directions for the rest of the trip, it was like being a floating bubble in a washing machine. The good outcome is that the waves eventually began to straighten out and we converged on wing-on-wing sail configuration that gave us good speed and downwind comfort in the end. Despite great efforts, no fish were caught on this leg of the journey.

Crew Rotation - During the passage, the crew worked to a schedule of 4 hours on, 6 hours off. The shift starts as watch leader for two hours to man the helm followed by standby responsibility for two hours. The standby crew is responsible to keep the watch leader engaged, trim sales, assist with cooking/cleaning/etc. Lothar is not officially in the rotation so that he can take Laura’s shifts while she is working or resting.

November 11th - We arrived at the Mindelo Marina at 12:24 am in darkness. Given the concern with the steering, Lothar ordered a new hydraulic steering pump and organized shipment of a loaner Wingaker that we could use on the next leg, so he flew to Lisbon, picked them up and returned two days later.

Meanwhile, the crew toured São Vincent Island and witnessed a culture that probably should have stayed part of Portugal. They gained independence in 1975 but they are certainly not thriving. That said, there is some charm in the town and the marina scene was a lot of fun with a floating restaurant that served decent food. There was one good white wine and a good pilsner beer. The people were friendly and kind but the poverty and health of the people in the streets was concerning. We took a tour to the adjacent island Santo Antão. Much of these islands are dry volcanic rock but the North to North West quadrant was green and tropical. The scenery made for some nice pictures.

Once again we were on pins and needles getting boat work completed. We wanted professional help since we were not familiar with the hydraulic system, we needed the hydraulic steering pump installed and the hydraulic system bled of air. The washing machine passage from Las Palmas did a lot of damage to many boats and the technical crew was completely booked making repairs to the broken boats. A lot of accidental gybes, wrapped spinnakers, broken furlers, problems with electronics, etc. We scheduled our repair while we were still at sea but they didn’t get us started until after 6pm the day before departure and they finished bleeding the hydraulic lines while everyone else was at the starting line. Regardless, we left Mindelo harbor about an hour after the main group.

11/21/2023

11/19/2023

Hello from DarLa J! Sorry for the delay in posts, we’ve been busy with the crew and preparing the boat for the Atlantic crossing; Canaries to Cape Verde, then one week later across to Grenada. Also, the ARC organized sundowner events most evenings so it kept us busy meeting people from other boats by evening and slow in the mornings. Unfortunately Laura’s work schedule prevents her from participating in many events during the week. We are now about 48 hours into the second leg of the Atlantic crossing so it’s past time to catch everyone up on what we’ve been doing.

Shortly after arrival in Las Palmas we went to a Lopesan resort in Meloneras, South Gran Canaria, to celebrate our first wedding anniversary on October 22nd. (Happy Anniversary Laura!) We had a beautiful round of golf and spent a couple of nice days off the boat for the first time in 5 months.

We tested the new propeller and the vibration issue is finally fixed. Our broker reimbursed us for the propeller cost ($4,200). A huge amount of time and money was spent because of a defective prop that nobody wanted to replace. We’ve finally figured out that for a lot of the warranty work we just need to pay to have it done and then seek reimbursement. Otherwise we spend our lives trying to get the boat to the right place at the right time and waiting around for someone to maybe fix it correctly. We think we lost 6 weeks of the Mediterranean summer learning this lesson. We are grateful to everyone who helped along the way.

We bought the dive compressor, two Swedish certified tanks with BC’s (which means we can only fill them ourselves), regulators and dive computers so we have 3 sets of diving gear on board for the Caribbean. Tanja bought one set as a gift to the boat (thank you Tanja!).

With the first leg departure approaching on November 5th, the girls got up every morning and worried about provisioning, what to get, where to get it and where to store it on an already full and heavy boat. The fresh fruit and veggies don’t keep well outside the already full refrigerators and freezers; we are learning as we go. ARC told us not to expect good provisions at our first stop Mindelo, Cape Verde so we were thinking 5 weeks of food upon departure from Las Palmas. Note: I told the crew to plan 30 cases of beer so they budgeted 15 and bought 10. I’ll tell you how this turns out later.

The guys wake up every morning thinking about coffee. The new DeLonghi has been getting a workout. We have no EU plugs in the salon capable of running the machine so we set up a barista station on the BBQ Plancia and made all of the near by boats at the dock experience the loud hiss of the steam wand and aroma of fresh espresso pours. After that, we think about boat work. Lothar brought the Code 0 sail and installed it so now we have a big light wind sail that could also take us upwind a bit. Lothar is continually busy making improvements to the boat. Winding back the clock a couple of weeks, we scheduled a 400 hour engine service with Volvo and the technicians showed up and removed both turbo chargers. They said they were seized from corrosion. There were three other boats in the marina with the same problem and no replacement parts on the island, so we were on pins and needles with full blackwater tanks waiting to find out when the engines could be put back together and wondering what they were going to charge us for this example of Yacht Industry Excellence. With a few days to spare, they put a guy on an airplane to Madrid to get the parts and they installed the new turbos under Volvo’s warranty. We felt relieved as another boat had come in with the same problem and was waiting for the next batch of turbos to arrive.

Tree Planting Excursion - ARC organized a tree planting trip in Las Palmas, so we jumped on a bus and made our contribution to the environment as we planted trees high on the mountain to help restore the native forests on Gran Canaria. The Forester explained that only 3% of the native forest exists and I think they planted 1% of it over the last 20 years.

Wine tasting - we took the rental car to visit a self guided visit to a winery. A family owned a plot of land up against a cliff wall where they build walls agains an overhang the provided steady cool temperatures for aging the just drinkable wine they produced. Their best product was the coffee which they grow under the citrus trees.

Making Friends - We spent a lot of time getting to know other boats and crews in the ARC+ Rally. Other skippers were extremely helpful and willing to share their stories and fixes, which really helped us to move some projects along. Frequently, there would be impromptu cocktail and dinner parties on boats and at restaurants. We have made some life long friends for sure!

11/10/2023

Hey everyone. DarLa J is live on Instagram. Follow us for daily stories as we sail the Atlantic and beyond. ⛵️
Find us ➡️ Instagram 👌

11/01/2023

Happy Halloween (10/31/23). What a great day! The Sailing DarLa J crew is finally complete. Darrin, Laura, Tanja, Patrick, Lothar, and Gottfried. 2 Americans, 2 Australians , 2 Austrians. Definitely an All Around A+ team! Champagne toast on top of DarLa J. Only 4 days until we set sail to Cape Verde then to Grenada. November sailing month. Time to do some serious provisioning!

10/20/2023

On October 10th we left Tangier for the cold and windy Atlantic Ocean. We cut our stay in Tangier 2 days short because of a weather system in the Atlantic threatening calm and then possible head winds. We decided to take the winds that were available and get out while we had a chance of comfortable sailing. Once underway, we squeezed out every bit of wind we could. We flew the Wingaker right up to the moment it collapsed in dead calm. The motors came on and we put on 67 hours of motor time. Along the way we caught three Mahi Mahi’s and ended up in Porto Calero, Lanzarote in the Canary Islands. The landscape was volcanic like the moon. Black rock and lava flow everywhere. Coming from Phoenix it seemed that the temperature should be 120 degrees but instead there was a comfortable mid 80’s breeze with intense sun and a nice cool breeze in the evening. The marina was well equipped with everything we wanted, so we rented a car and drove to see Los Volcanes Natural Park. On the way we saw that they were growing low lying grape vines between walls of black volcanic rocks stacked neatly into long rows to protect the grapes. We would discover later that they were producing pretty good white wines in the Canaries. There were several villages along the way and every building was white, no other colors. We arrived at the volcano park to wait in a long line of cars as there was limited parking at the visitor center on top of the mountain. One car down, one car up. When parked at the visitor center we boarded a large bus for the tour of the moon scape. It was like a ride at an amusement park but in a big bus. Each time we approached a sharp curve (all with steep drops), the front end of the bus extended over the roadway giving the sensation that we were about to go careening over the edge of the mountain only to have the front end swoop around and saved gain by narrowly missing the wall of lava thru which the roadway was cut at the end of the curve. As the ride continued, they were playing stoic symphony music from the theater with a building crescendo that reminded me of a bunch of ignorant peasants being bussed off to their certain death while feeling like celebrated heroes. The restaurant at the top was pretty cool. They were cooking chickens on long spits placed over a big hole with hot dry air flowing up from a volcanic vent. We had plans for another restaurant on the North side of the island so we forwent the volcanic chicken and moved on to the north. At the north east end of the island there is an estate call Jameos del Agua. Wikipedia says it best:
Jameos del Agua is a series of lava caves, located in the municipality of Haría in northern Lanzarote, Canary Islands, Spain. It is also an art, culture and tourism center, created by local artist and architect, César Manrique, and managed by the government of Lanzarote. Jameos del Agua consists of a subterranean salt lake, restaurant, gardens, emerald-green pool, museum and auditorium
So, it’s a really cool huge hole in the lava with lakes around and a restaurant. Like a restaurant in a cave but more open air straight up. We had a nice lunch with some good dry white wine from Lanzarote before watching Tanja twist her ankle on a hidden black step. She fell to the ground, wallowed around a bit and popped up like nothing happened. She is still nursing some strained ligaments with some swelling and bruising, it’s not slowing her down much.
After two nights in Lanzarote we left for an overnight sail to Gran Canaria. Motor sailed the entire distance with uncomfortable waves on the starboard quarter, no wind and no way to avoid the waves. We arrived before sunlight and dropped anchor in front of the Las Palmas Marina entrance. Las Palmas has so far been a nice place. People are friendly, found good pizza, big stores for shopping. Yesterday we picked up a super-automatic espresso maker so we are back to good coffee and cappuccino. We also picked up a new vacuum cleaner which we needed since Laura got an unpleasant surprise when she tried to empty the vacuum cleaner and the guts fell into the ocean rendering our $400 cordless vacuum worthless. Hopefully we can pick up the spare part and recover the loss.
Today we got a new prop set and had a diver swap it out with the old one. We will go out and test the new prop tomorrow and hopefully the vibration issue that has been haunting us since La Rochelle will be gone forever and before every screw on the boat falls out. We will let you know how it goes. And the final thing, I’ve been waiting for the right moment to get a dive compressor since I don’t need it until the Caribbean but I’m worried about finding one once we get there. So Las Palmas is our last chance. After working with the local dive shops to order one from Barcelona, the boat next to us overheard us talking about going to place the order. The dive shop owner didn’t have the invoice ready and asked me to come back next week to finalize the order. So when I got back to the boat, our neighbor had a sign on his boat advertising a never used dive compressor for sale. It’s one of the best. I’ll test it and if it works, I’ll take it.