ADVENTURE - it's how we live - what about you? Luxury - what we're best at, not necessarily what y
(1)
Awesome trips loading
Urchin is a remarkable 56 foot expedition sailing yacht. Designed and engineered to deliver uncompromising performance, she is a joy to sail, capable of taking you effortlessly anywhere in the world in luxury, style and safety.
Stunning this is going to be one of THE most awesome experiences ever!!
Un moment très spécial aujourd'hui en mer, Hugo et Gaston nageant côte à côte 🤩 Remarquez la même taille des deux requins, la couleur plus foncée d'Hugo à gauche, sa balise acoustique, et le tête plus claire et les motifs marqués de Gaston à droite. Ces deux requins sont observés à Nosy Be depuis plusieurs années, Hugo depuis 2015 et Gaston depuis 2017.
-
A very special moment today, Hugo and Gaston swimming side by side 🤩 Notice the same size yet darker colour of Hugo on the left, its acoustic tag, and the shimmery nose and line patterns of Gaston on the right. Both sharks have been seen in Nosy Be since many years, Hugo since 2015 and Gaston since 2017.
memories of an epic adventure.....
This be my office for the day.
Super kool day out with Escape + Explore well done Jenman safaris!!
Smallish (chipped) fossilised Megalodon tooth - records show this prehistoric shark reached a max length of nearly 25m in length
COME to Africa!!!
https://youtu.be/NVzFpVG4Jh8
Come as you were, come as you are and leave as you’ll never be again. and
We’re proud to be African!!!
https://youtu.be/3qoEH9QKTb8
Magic happens when the arts and sports come together! 🖤🎵 Imagine Dragons – Follow You (The Sharks and Drakensberg Boys Choir) ...
This is pretty cool - to see Tom Cruise interacting with the locals - wow!!
A heart for Tom CruiseWhilst waiting for Tom Cruise to arrive, Savanna decided to draw a huge heart in the sand with his name inside. She couldn't believe th...
Super day in the Cape yesterday saw heaps of basking and playful seals, some dolphins, sunfish lots of birds with
My Dad loved Mastertons
https://youtu.be/9wt7gLsiqkA
This is the story of us researching the delicious my Dad used to make - and where he got it from - and then we drank it all the way from Tr...
This is what sailing through an oil field looks like - somewhere off Trinidad.
🇹🇹
Happiness is.....
🇩🇪 Wusstest du, dass Madagaskar einer der besten Orte weltweit für das Schwimmen mit Walhaien ist? Im Nordwesten der Insel sammeln sich jedes Jahr die harmlosen Riesen der Ozeane, um in den küstennahen Gewässern nach Nahrung zu suchen. 🏝🤿
🇬🇧 Did you know that Madagascar is one of the best places in the world for swimming with whale sharks? In the northwest of the island, the harmless giants of the oceans gather every year to search for food in the offshore waters. 🏝🤿
Photo © Achisatha, licensed from AdobeStock
https://www.madamagazine.com/walhaie-die-riesen-der-meere/
Just beautiful: https://vimeo.com/351220134
If the cameras freeze, they will stop working. It’s been a while since I released a film, or at least one I created purely for the sake of creating. Life can…
Difficult to imagine the enormity of the south Atlantic. Humbling, peaceful, scary, awesome…. esp when halfway between Africa and South America
On Resilience - Adversity Breeds Character: Great blog by my mate Lee: https://leefullersafaris.com/the-fourth-wave-november-2021/
I started penning this blog last week. It was going to be about getting kids outside. See how the Fourth wave is going to affect us.
Some pics of our arrival in Salvador
Hello everyone - just a quick update before we set off…..
3437Nm for far since Trinidad and stopped in Salvador, Brazil since Sunday for repairs. Its been a slow trip so far agains wind and currents, but with the threat of hurricanes in the north atlantic, and requirement by the insurance company (to stay south of 10deg N) it was the only way to do it at this time of the year…
We’ve pretty much done all the repairs we can here in Salvador now, and filled up our water tanks last night - used 1300lt for the trip here so far which is pretty impressive = 38 lt per day or 6,4lt per person per day - for drinking, cooking, “bathing” etc. Not bad I reckon. We use seawater for washing the dishes (when out of port) and flushing toilets… The seawater here in the port is pretty manky - and from what I can see while diving and swimming, has quite a lot of poofy “organic” material in it.
And now are just waiting for the 1 x repaired and 1 x replaced sails to arrive - hopefully this morning, get them fitted, get the rubber duck and motor back on board and secured and then leaving this pm or early tomorrow am….
The nice think about not being allowed into Brazil means no customs or immigration or port control when leaving haha. But, despite not being allowed in - I did spend the whole of yesterday morning with a driver Rock (pronounced Ho-Kay) in his old fashioned style kombi (the old round one - they made them Brazil until recently) that runs on biogas - scouring the town for stuff we needed (diesel and water filters etc). Quite difficult with the language barrier but the Google Translate on his phone was most useful - until his battery died that is....
In the rain, skipper Mike and I walked to a few Marine shops situated close by at the bottom of the hill and managed to get some decent rope which we need to replace old worn broken sheets. And fishing tackle to replace what we’ve lost so far - quite a few big bites (one bit through the tracer line and 2 old lures broke) and released a 2-3m shark but have caught very little and lost lots of tackle so far sadly, but am confident we’ll have more success now with new stronger lures and trace lines.
The town is quite shabby but vibrant - I saw no signs of any crime but some homeless folks and apparently drugs on the street (esp hash) is rampant. And not many fat people either. There are quite a lot of beautiful old run down buildings - sort of a combination of the derelict buildings on Point road and Maputo when we 1st visited it 20 yrs ago. The town is split between the new (run down and shabby) part along the bay, and the old town which is at the top of the steep hill which we havent been able to see. We can see lots of cathedral spires up there - and every evening a 6am there are beautiful peals of bells chiming all over town, playing various times - like Ave Maria…. Same at 6am and midday too...
Quite a few mozzies around so use mozzie spray - there are problems here with Yellow fever, Zika and Dengue apparently. Squalls of rain throughout the night so opening and closing hatches in the cabins. Closed hatched make the boat quite hot and stuffy so everyone wants them open as much as possible - which does sometimes let waves in… During the trip here most of us had big splashed into our cabins wetting bedding and mattresses, including me. although when that happened we were heeled over so far that the water wet Mike across the narrow corridor - and not me haha.
Night before while I was on watch (security watch while at anchor in the marina) it started pi***ng down so I rushed out onto the deck to close hatches, getting my only pair of shorts soaking (everything else taking 2 days to be laundered) and I managed to slip on the wet deck and properly see my arse - a few naughty words escaped I confess. And I managed to knock a set of oars overboard in the process as well - so was facing diving overboard for retrieval and ending like Natalie whatsherface - but in the end found a boathook and all was ok. Would have been a properly funny thing to spectate…. haha!
And I was a total dunce and let my phone fall out of my pocket while we were loading stuff at anchor. Straight away I dived for it with a mask - but 10m is pretty deep when you’re not fit and practised for it. After about an hour, I was pretty moeg & gave up… Found a rather rotund Shark Dive operator called Bruno and for R900 he used his scuba set and wallowed around ('scuse the pun) for about 40 mins swimming randomly disturbing the sediment and parking up the viz before giving up - pretty useless - didn't swim proper search transects and trying to explain this approach to him was an insurmountable challenge with the language barrier. And he wanted to charge me double that fee if I was to borrow a scuba set and do it myself!! The other thing is the yacht has 20m of anchor chain out, and in the wind swings it from side to side leaving quite a large “slice of cake” area to search. Can only sort out insurance and replacement back in SA sadly….
Luckily, on Dougs phone - we were able to download my navigation app and charts that proved so hugely valuable in getting us here - so are all set for the rest of the trip. But all images and footage taken so far is gone…
But morale is good, top notch actually, the quite diverse crew all getting along well with no boxing - everyone pulling their own weight. And last night, Doug ordered us Subways from Uber Eats so had a bit of a feast on those last night with a few beers!
And now a few mission-critical repairs (including steering and sails) nearly sorted. And we're set to go!
See you on the other side!!
Byeeee
Left Trinidad on a stunning evening. We’ve popped into Salvador, Brazil after 3,400Nm for some repairs, food and water and then head for Cape Town via Isle de Trindad and Tristan da Cunha (best crayfish in the world apparently). Another 3,400Nm but with more favourable winds and currents. See (some of) you in CT 3rd/4th week of Nov! All the best - Simon
Left Trinidad on a stunning evening. Doug’s drone/video. We’ve popped into Salvador, Brazil after 3,400Nm for some repairs, food and water and then head for Cape Town via Isle de Trindad and Tristan da Cunha (best crayfish in the world apparently). Another 3,400Nm but with more favourable winds and currents. See (some of) you in CT 3rd/4th week of Nov! All the best - Simon
So - on the water, victuals loaded and stowed, and nearly ready, sea trials done and we managed a little over 9knt in 16kts of wind which was friggin AWESOME!! Some weather looming however so strategising over charts and weather forecasts….
I think I just wet my jean pant…
Ocean Sunrise touched the water again for the 1st time in 3yrs. And remarkably is still afloat this morning. More later - S
Calm before the veritable storm - 4 hours before goes back into the water after 3yrs land storage….
1st coat of antifouling on the hull!!🙏🙏👏👏👏👏whew!!
It’s an early start and a big day ahead with the rest of the crew finally aboard
Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Ocean Africa Safari posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.
Send a message to Ocean Africa Safari:
memories of an epic adventure.....
Left Trinidad on a stunning evening. We’ve popped into Salvador, Brazil after 3,400Nm for some repairs, food and water and then head for Cape Town via Isle de Trindad and Tristan da Cunha (best crayfish in the world apparently). Another 3,400Nm but with more favourable winds and currents. See (some of) you in CT 3rd/4th week of Nov! All the best - Simon #oceanafricasafari #africansafaricollective #threetreehilllodge #adventure #explore #legacy
Left Trinidad on a stunning evening. Doug’s drone/video. We’ve popped into Salvador, Brazil after 3,400Nm for some repairs, food and water and then head for Cape Town via Isle de Trindad and Tristan da Cunha (best crayfish in the world apparently). Another 3,400Nm but with more favourable winds and currents. See (some of) you in CT 3rd/4th week of Nov! All the best - Simon
On foot in the dry deciduous forest on Nosy Ankao - We found the lemurs finally - they’re beautiful!! . . . #oceanafricasafari #africansafaricollective #nosyankao #timeandtide #miavana #miavanaislandsanctuary #familysafari #madagascar #oceanexploration
On foot in the dryer deciduous forest, following the research team to find the crowned lemurs, and anything else interesting along the way…. . . . #oceanafricasafari #africansafaricollective #time+tide #miavana #familysafari #madagascar #oceanexploration
We’re off to find the crowned lemurs, and anything else interesting along the way…. . . . #oceanafricasafari #africansafaricollective #time+tide #miavana #familysafari #madagascar #oceanexploration
24deg. 80% humidity. Middle of winter at 14degS. Thank heavens for the breeze cooling things off. #oceanafricasafari #miavana
Lemur tracking expedition #miavana #timeandtide #oceanafricasafari #africansafaricollective #familysafari #madagascar #letshavefun #gettingkidsoutdoors
Diego Suarez to Nosy Ankao. #oceanafricasafaris #africansafaricollective #timeandtide #miavana #familytravel #gettingkidsoutdoors #africansafari @miavana_
Want your business to be the top-listed Travel Agency?
