Hello darling friends!

It’s been an intense time with new impressions adapting to a life at sea. First arriving on Delos; straight into work mode doing the Haul out, welcoming the rest of the crew and provisioning part one in Langkawi.  We had been working hard trying to get the boat ready on time and then set sail towards Thailand. It was a sweet sail and kind of my first one haha. Then the rigging! Pretty insane stuff is you ask me, however the boys did an outstanding job. Us girls, well we went provisioning! 8 days later the boat was so full of stuff you could see food popping out from every cupboard and shelf. I even got chips taped under our bed, saving it for a long passage.

So here we are, just about to leave for the Andaman Islands in a few days. How did I end up here? I think to myself. With these amazing people doing my first passage traveling by sea. It’s indescribable and exciting but most of all I’m trying to inhale every moment, there are so many first timers on a boat I can’t wait to share with you. You kind of get to know the person you have become over the last few years. I have never felt more alive and peaceful all at once.

Brian introduced us to “cruisers midnight” which is 9 pm; we have all been so tired after long days of working. I’m starting to feel more in tune with the waves rocking me back and forward at night. Sailor snooze is also a new favorite time of the day. I cannot recall what day it is and we’re starting to create our own day rhythm where time has no place nor importance. I’m cleansing my body and soul with naked swims telling myself that naked at sea is the new way to be.

Being on Delos is a challenge; life at sea is simple but full of surprises and new emotions. I remember when we arrived at Lovers hole, a tiny paradise and our first stop on Thai waters. Such an adventures feeling arriving on this beautiful island, the wind truly is our organic fuel.

Anchorage in Thailand has turned out to be a tough experience with powerful swells and winds. We spent one night at Koh Lipe, which definitely was the toughest night so far. It was scary waking up in the middle of the night with the boys running up on deck. There was actually a catamaran coming towards us as their anchor was dragging. You can tell these guys have been doing this for a long time though, I definitely feel safe onboard. Brady also assured us if shit goes down, they’ve got it covered. I have a feeling he will explain this more clear during the safety onboard session.

I’m very hot in the evening so I have a nightly routine that I do. I take a quick shower and then run naked up on deck. Sometimes we put the mozzie net up so I get stuck naked in the door trying to open it. It usually creates a few laughs. Then I sit down, letting the breeze dry my skin while cooling down admiring the view from my new home. When we’re anchored close to shore I’m looking out over this neighborhood of floating homes with lights thoughtfully switch on to guide you back at night. Like a parallel world people on land never see the beauty of the ocean so close and alive. A floating home takes you to untouched places far from reality, or the true reality as you wish to see it. I feel grateful for this experience and also beginning to understand why so many of you share the dream to live on the ocean. There’s no traffic and it’s all blue. I asked Brian once what to expect from a place like Chagos, he said; “In Chagos there’s nothing and you can never expect anything from nothing. “

Who am I? I live for expressive arts, photography and anything you can find in nature. My creations will hopefully make you feel apart of this adventure; drawing is my way of reliving memories, connecting with the free spirit inside. I’m an artist and usually paint with oil and spray on big canvases but since I’m living on a boat I’m sticking to pens and charcoal for now. Delos is truly the place to be for inspiration, good vibes and magical scenery. Through Fallondrin.com I create massive installations with my partner Kimberley all over the world, for us art is a creation of freedom.

There’s so much experience within the Delos crew and I’m very keen to learn the ropes around here. However on a boat they’re called lines, which was the first boat term I learned. Each of the crewmembers brings out the best in everyone and we’re already like a big family. Karin and I come from Kiruna and she is one of my dearest friends, we lived together in London many years ago. It’s awesome to finally spend some time with her as we have some major catching up to do

How do I feel right now? I feel free and completely under the spell of the ocean, discovering shades of blue I did not even know existed. But also a bit scared since we’re soon doing a 300 miles sail which will be the longest crossing for me so far.

Is there anything you wish to know? Post a comment and I’ll try my best to cover all wonderings in my next writing moment  The support you so openly share with Delos is inspiring in every way and I’m so happy to be apart of this worldwide friendship. I’m sure you will find the topic of my next post very interesting, let’s just say you will see the crew from a different light.

Life is now and it is vibrant.

Positive energy to you all!!

Love from Thailand,
Frida

How did I score a part of this adventure with The Delos Crew you might ask?  WELL.. it all started when I was backpacking in South America.  I had noticed The Delos crew put a lucky draw to be a part of their crew for 10 days. How exciting!  My sister’s Josje and Phoebe had been on Delos before and I thought it was a great idea to have a taste of the sailing life.  I was close to donating $50 to be a part of their adventure in Asia, until I saw the cut off date had passed. …  I was too late!

I remember Josje mentioning Delos next passage through the Indian Ocean starting in February, so I asked Josje for Brian’s email.  I sent him an email saying it seems like a great opportunity and how I have always wanted to sail.  I asked Brian and Karin if they needed help for their next passage or if I could jump on board anytime.  You never know until you ask right?

I was in Lake Titikaka when I received the reply from Brian and boy, did I get the biggest smile on my face!  He said they would love another Leyten sister on board and it seemed like perfect timing as they were looking for more crew!

I arrived to my homeland, New Zealand for Christmas after 2 years of working/ travelling abroad.  It was amazing catching up with friends and family after so long, and reconnecting with my roots.  Then suddenly packing my bags for Delos!

Tuesday 9th February came by so fast and after a long 30 hours of travelling from Christchurch, Brady, Josje and I arrived in Malaysia!  We arrived in Langkawi to be welcomed by The Delos Crew, Brian, Karin, Max and Frida.  Little did we know that my Mum’s brother Arnold and his bubbly wife Coby were there to greet us!  The last time I saw Arnold and Coby was 4 years ago in New Zealand.  They have been sailing on SV Drifter for over 11 years since they left Holland, seeing almost every country in the world!  It was heart warming to catch up with them after so long, they are such an inspiring couple!  Hugs, kisses, video’s and photo’s, and then a short, sweet goodbye. What an amazing surprise!

We took a short boat trip to meet Delos at Rebak Island Marina, and I was so excited!  The boat was similar to what I had seen on photo’s, video’s and Josje and Brady describing it to me.  I got a tour of the beautiful Delos and I was amazed how big it was on the inside!   I was still so jet lagged, and it felt strange being on Delos, knowing it was going to be my home for the next 6 months, but everyone welcomed me on board like family.

We all did a last minute clean of Delos, put up the new sails, then went to a nice restaurant for our first Delos crew dinner.  It was amazing meeting Brian, Karin, Max and Frida, they are such inspiring people, all very unique. I’m really excited to be a part of Delos with such an awesome bunch.

It was a little different sleeping on a boat at first, with the slight swaying, and smaller space, but after a few nights I got used to it.  One thing I noticed is to be very conscious of the utilities and things on board. For example, to run water only when needed and to tidy up after yourself, etc.   That way, with 7 people on a 53 ft boat, it stays clean, organised, and everyone’s happy

Being on Delos for a few days, it was nice taking the dingy to shore, do some provisioning and explore the town of Kuah.  What’s great about Langkawi is the fact it’s a duty free island, so everything is so cheap!   We hired two cars, all jumped in, on our way to our first stop. Most important… ALCOHOL!  Delos brew their own liquor, so it was a MUST to stock up on beer and wine.  Standing around all the different cases of beer and wine, having discussions on how long it will last us until our next big shop, we decided to buy one case of red wine, have a taste test in the car to see if it was good or not.  Imagine buying 10 cases of 2 litre red wine and it tasting like medicine!   So in the end, we walked out with 42 cases of many different beers, 10 cases of red white wine and 2 bottles of spirits.  SUCCESS!

Next stop… FOOD!  Everyone had different things to get, which made it faster, and we stocked up a lot, over 20 boxes of couscous!  I had no idea there was going to be SO MUCH filming, go pro’s, photo’s etc, but I found it really cool! I even had a go at filming the adventures.  The Delos way: It’s better to have more footage then less.. because you can always delete the bad footage, but you can’t go back and get the same footage twice!

We stuffed everything in two cars, and made our way to the marina and managed get all the food in one go with the dingy to Delos, then all the beers and wine! It was lucky the dingy didn’t sink!  We all had a guess with how many beers we thought we had, and I guessed 1,000 cans. Turns out we had a total of 1,008 beers on Delos!  Delos crew working with 14 hands doing different jobs. It was great seeing how they work in regards to storing food and drinks.  Max and I cleaned the fruit, Josje and Frida took the labels off all the cans to prevent bugs, Karen was putting away the food, and Brady and Brian put away the beers. GO TEAM!  I was so surprised how much space was at the bottom of the boat to squeeze all the beers in secret hide away places!

Friday 13th, we all had a crew meeting and talked about our options. We all discussed certain projects as well, and everyone was happy with their projects for Delos moving forward. I got onto replying to all the Facebook posts and photo comments, also starting up a Delos Instagram account! I am really excited about upcoming projects, like subtitles for all the video’s for foreign countries, and also for my Mum, who is deaf. That way, it can reach a bigger audience.  It amazed me all the support and love from thousands of people around the globe! Popular comments were saying we didn’t have enough beers! Not to worry folks.. WE WILL BE GETTING MORE!

We had a dinner by the Marina, being Valentines Day and all, and the place got packed pretty fast! Chatting to the people to the table next to us, then suddenly a man and his son come to our table.. “excuse me, are you the Delos crew?”… so we replied yes! “oh wow, we follow your video’s on youtube! And my son is a huge fan!” haha wow, how crazy is that?! They took a photo with us, then said “happy sailing, and have a good life!” with a huge smile on their face. It’s so inspiring seeing strangers approach us, and have so much love and support for Delos! It makes me really appreciate being a part of this adventure.

Delos is great to slow things down and everything you do is “cruiser time”.  There is no rush, or hurry. It is all quite simple! Everyone seems to be doing their certain projects, and I catch myself just wondering around the boat doing nothing! So I open a book, start a drawing, play guitar or just have a nap with the nice swaying of Delos.  I’m still getting used to my routine and my way around the boat, it might take a few weeks to get the hang of things.

I had the honour to put up the New Zealand crew flag on Delos and it looks amazing up there. GO KIWIS!  I started reading The Miracle of Mindfulness. It’s a beautiful guide to the methods of mindfulness in everyday life. How to be at peace and harmony within yourself. Everyone needs to read this book!

Monday we all checked out, and had a nice last meal in Malaysia. NOW I AM READY TO SAIL!

Tuesday, being one week on Delos, it was perfect timing to start the sail to Thailand.  We had to put everything away in case there were heavy winds, because things could go flying inside the boat.
Sails up, petrol restocked, oil stocked up, a few more groceries, then off we go!  So many emotions.. but the main emotion was excitement.   Fat Freddy’s drop playing in the background, sun shining, everyones smiling, and a smooth 3-6 knots the whole 3 hours!

We anchored at Kochucko Island, a small beautiful island with clear waters and tropical scenery.  I love the underwater world, there are some fascinating creatures in the sea.  “Welcome to Thailand” by swimming to land! That was a first!

Sailing is so different to backpacking! It’s cheaper, you don’t have to carry your bags everywhere, no exhausting plane/train/bus rides, you see places you would only dream of and YOU JUST CRUISE!

There have been many things I have already learnt from being on Delos and the most important thing, for me, is to not sweat the small stuff.  I always told myself I never worry, but at times I stress over little things I shouldn’t.
Like, what am I going to do after Delos?  What do I want to be in the future? What is my passion in life?… WOAH, slow down there maaaate.. it’s a shit ton of time away to be worrying about that!  I am slowly getting used to the cruising time…DELOS TIME… and remember the flow ~ Just go with it ~

I have learnt being on board with 6 other people and a small space, you are almost forced to be yourself. Yes, BE YOURSELF!  Sounds like a walk in the park, but you learn to be open and honest and speak your mind more than usual.  Clear communication is key, and that way everyone will have a clear understanding of each other.

I have noticed I have a lot of insecurities. I don’t know why and I don’t know how.  I can’t ask myself “why am I so insecure?”. The best way to improve is to TELL myself “I’m not insecure”  That’s the best possible way to improve for the better.  I am learning the power of your mind. Tell yourself every morning “YOU ARE A STRONG, BEAUTIFUL PERSON” yeaaahh sistah!  And it’s crazy… I have only been on Delos for one week and I feel as if I have already improved within myself.

There are times when I sit and look out to the horizon, and think “WOW.. what a unique life-style”. Living the dream, surrounded by inspiring people, sailing across the Indian Ocean with a huge smile on my face. Life is great.

…..We had some 1600 Nautical Miles ahead of us… We were in the Andaman Islands, India and our next destination was  across the equator and into the southern hemisphere to Cocos Keeling Islands, Australia. This is our passage blog about 15 Days at sea from 2 different perspectives from Babs and myself….

“Delos, Delos, This is Port Control. What is your estimated time of departure?”

“Port Control, this is Delos, departure time to be 0600”.

“Ahhh this mean more port fees for one more day… There would be extra formalities in the morning”. We all looked around at each other with tired eyes, half laughing, half exhausted. Are these guys serious? Everyone went back to their tasks and I continued tying Maggie on deck.Brian answered

“Okay Sir, we will be departing the harbour 2200”.

“Okay Sir, what is your next port of call?” We had already given all the formalities and copies and copies of our paperwork to Customs and Immigration during our check out process that day. The Indian Bureaucracy is a bit crazy.

“Next Port of call is Cocos-Keeling Islands, Australia”. There was a long pause.

“Australia?” We all sniggered between us and just wanted to get some rest.

“Affirmative”. Brian said almost sarcastically. We had kind of given up being serious, we had been dealing with these guys all month, we knew how this all worked.

“What is your ETA in Australia?” We all took a deep breath. I wasn’t sure why they needed to know this, probably just filling out their form that they’re required to do.

“Probably 3 weeks”. It probably wouldn’t take that long, but it sounded like a good number.

“3 days?”

“Ah no, approximately 21 days”.

“Ohhhh okay, have a nice trip. Thank you and Goodbye’

Brian put the VHF back and we finished preparing the boat for passage. Damn, the sun had already set, it had been a long day, we just wanted to have some dinner and go to sleep before leaving at sunrise. Nope, it was now eat and then leave. Brady and I sat at the saloon table and wrote out a watch schedule on excel while the anchor was being picked up by Max and Babs.

I walked into the back cabin to grab the printer out of closet. I walked back to turn the Invertor on and hooked up the computer to print out the watch schedule. I looked over at Karin, she was laying down and tired too, we laughed at the fact that everything was such a chore. Imagine every time you wanted to print something at home, you’d have to turn the power on, grab the printer, take it out of the box, hook it up in a tiny space and reverse the procedure once done. We sighed and she asked when she was on watch.

“2am -4am”. ““Okay sweet, see you in the morning”“Sweet dreams” I replied as I squeezed past Frida working on her laptop in the pass through bunk.

I inhaled the rest of my pasta salad, walked out on deck and the lights of Port Blair were glittering on the darker shade of the horizon. I sat down next to the rail, pulled my knees to my chest and grabbed the cigarette Brady had passed over. We sat there for a while staring at the lights slowly moving, and thinking about the past month. And just like that, our time in the Andamans was up.

I opened my eyes at what I thought was about 7am, sun streaks were dancing across the wood in our cabin and I could faintly hear Brady snoring. I grabbed my phone to check the time and was surprised to see it was only 5:30am. I must have fallen back asleep because I awoke again to my alarm. I threw on some bikini bottoms and the first top I felt in my cabinet. I used the head, walked over to the galley and stood there drinking 2 big glasses of water. Memories of the night started filtering in. I remember rain and having to close the hatch, a squall that woke me up while Karin was on watch during the night with thunder and lighting super close to the boat. There were faint memories of furler motors and winch grinding as people trimmed and arranged the sails during the night. Other than that, I slept deeply and comfortably.

I walked out and stood on the companionway steps to see Frida sitting and listening to her I-pod. She saw me and smiled, I looked around and was surprised to see us moving along quite well. All sails were out, 10 knots right on the beam and we were cruising. God it felt good. Good to have wind, to be sailing, to be sailing away from something, towards something. To be moving, having this kind of space in between of nothingness but the ocean and the sky where time kind of stands still, the days melt together and you can kind of forget about everything else for a little while.

Frida went back to bed, so I started to lay all the cushions out in the sun to dry from the nights rain and then went below to make a cup of tea. I sat at the helm and made sure we were on course and all was well. Sweet, we were heading at 152 degrees and making 5.5 knots. I sat for a while drinking my tea, pulled the camera out and did my video watch log before putting out the fishing lines. An hour later, our monster lure, dubbed Frankeinbeast got a hit, so I quickly woke up Brady before pulling the line in. Unfortunately whatever was on there got loose so we retreated to the cockpit with an ‘oh well’ kind of feeling. Brady was sleepy eyed and went straight for a nap on the now warm cushions. I went below to make us some muesli and a banana and heard the aft head pump going off. Someone is up. Brady and I were sitting there eating the brown mush of oats and raisins without any real appetite when Brian came out with a coffee. Good mornings were said and then there was silence. No awkward silence or anything, we just sat and relaxed and stared off into the distance. A few minutes later Karin came out and then the four of us sat there for a while, watching the sea roll by and the clouds pass overhead.

When my watch was over, I took a nap down below for a few hours, not really sleeping and not really thinking about anything either. Inspiration swept over me and I decided to get started on making something and after taking all my newly bought Indian supplies, I plugged my headphones in with a bit of Fleetwood Mac, and I sat down and began to make a bracelet. It felt empowering to be creating something. Lately I’ve been feeling a creative urge inside of me just wanting to radiate out and I think I’ve finally found something to pursue. So it was exciting sitting down, just to start. I watched the clouds roll by as I sewed and began brainstorming ideas for a brand name, the kind of vibe and feeling I want to create.

The first few days at sea are always the same. It takes me about 3 days to get into the groove of things, before then, it’s always a bit of light-headedness and a general feeling of grogginess. Even though the conditions can be perfect, theres a lot of naps, drinking loads of water and staring out into the ocean trying to cool off in the breeze.

This is pretty much what this first day out was like. I put my newly made bracelet on my wrist and felt satisfied with my progress for the day so I treated myself to a cigarette and put my IPod in. I listened to some mellow reggae while watching the ever-changing yet constant flow of the ocean pass by. The shadows on deck began to move as the sun edged closer to the small line that faintly distinguished the difference of where the sea ends and the sky begins.

We ate a bowl of leftover pasta and some spring rolls for dinner, while I worked on my computer for a bit. The wind had held up all day, we had cruised well away from Port Blair and were just past Little Andaman Island in the south.

I wasn’t on watch until 10pm, still a few hours away, I didn’t feel like laying down in our cabin so I sat in the saloon and watched a few episodes of Californication with a piece of chocolate to kill an hour or so. Now 9:45, I came out on deck and switched out with Max. The night was calm and beautiful. I adjusted the sails a little as the breeze had switched a little more Easterly meaning we were on a close reach. The breeze was light though so we were comfortable gliding through the water with only a slight heel on port tack. The half moon lay halfway in the sky, sitting there comfortably and shining its light towards us and glittering the spots along the water between us.

Brady walked out with a couple cups of tea and I realized 2 hours must have nearly passed by already. We sat together and whispered to each other so as not to disturb the night. Happy and with a warm cup of ginger tea in my belly, I went down below to close my eyes.

…..Stay Tuned next for Babs’ perspective over the next few days….

Delos is swaying really nicely. Not too rough, not too still.. perfectly comfortable. I sank into the cushions of the saloon, ginger tea in one hand and pillows squished behind my head as I lay back and put a movie on.. Avatar. I remember seeing it years ago and it being really good. Brady is laying in the saloon on the other side looking comfortable wearing that classic Coca Cola bandana of his catching up the season seven of Californication. The time passed by and Brady went up into the cockpit for his night watch. The movie finished and I looked around to see everyone had gone to bed and there were dimmed red lights inside the boat. I got up and walked through the companion way into the cockpit for my watch. I see Brady listening to his iPod. “Hey Brady, how’s it going?”, I ask him. He takes out his earphones, “Hey, good thanks. We are cruising along pretty nicely, steady wind, steady speed. If the wind shifts a little, turn the boat port or starboard, and if there’s a big wind shift or a squall coming, just wake me up”. I lean over the helm to take a look at the conditions, as Brady jumps out of the seat. “Wake me up if you need me ok, goodnight”, Brady says disappearing into the darkness inside the boat. “Ok, have a good sleep”, I said as I sat at the helm, shoving cushions behind my back.

I look around, I see the down-wind sail lurking out and the conditions are absolutely perfect. We are sailing maaate! I scan the horizon for other boats or things in the water, but there’s nothing. Just the peaceful night sky with some clouds. I put on my iPod and started listening to Lauryn Hill in one ear.

I hear these noises from the port side so I take out my earphone, and lean over the rail to take a look. All of a sudden I see these huge white shadow looking creatures flow around under Delos. I step back in shock. “What is that?!” I think to myself.. holy moly, could that be a giant squid?! I have no idea what it is. I got a little scared, but I took a closer look. It was so dark in the water, but they were almost glowing and I wanted to see what it was. They went up to the bow, so I followed them, stumbling up deck, passing through all the lines and squeezed past the dingy. I got this rush of excitement and I look down and to my surprise they were dolphins! The white shadow was the bioluminescence that was flowing behind them making them look bigger. It looked so amazing. I just stood there watching in awe while they danced by the bow. There were a few of them, some jumping up and diving back in the water creating this splash of glowing, fluorescent mist behind them. They looked so beautiful and I was totally hypnotised. They swam around the bow for a bit longer before disappearing into the distant ocean. And I could hear them splashing water out from their blow holes. “Thank you for the amazing show dolphins!”, I said smiling as the wind carried my voice. I noticed flashes of lightening every 30 seconds. It seems so bright, or maybe because the sky was so dark. Every time the sky lit up from the lightening, you could see all the clouds in the distance. And with the down-wind sail out, I could see the big buddha light up every time there was a flash. A very unique sight. It looked really amazing. With the magical dolphins and the lit up flying buddha man is a night I will never forget.

I wake up slow, stretch out in my bunk, the red elephant sarong hanging to my left blowing from the fan and a picture of a little gnome stuck on my cupboard to my right from my sister Phoebe. I smile, get up and chuck on a dress I find in my bunk. I pull the curtain, wrap my legs over the wooden piece of my bunk and jump on the floor. I make my bed, use the head and wonder into through the companion way into the cockpit. Josje is on watch, “Good-morning”, I say to her as I rub my eyes. “Morning”, she says turning her head to me smiling. The waves seemed to be getting bigger, and it was really cloudy. I made some cereal and a cup of earl grey tea and managed to walk up to the cockpit without spilling anything. We all spoke about our dilemma on wether or not to sail inside the Nicobar islands down to Banda Aceh or go down the western side of them. We are using a software called “predict wind off-shore”, which we hook up to the iridium go, and it gives us a weather routing, which is pretty sweet so we can check the weather when ever we want, in the middle of the ocean! The wind was coming from the east, south east, and it will eventually change to south west, so it will be perfect to sail west through the Nicobar islands.
There was a little sunshine peeping through the clouds, so the boys got straight onto some wood work on the deck. They are making a fishing platform, so when we catch a fish, we can put it on the platform to fillet which will help so much! I remember filleting a barracuda by the stern and my legs were numb from kneeling for so long. I sat and watched the waves roll by and the ripples Delos left behind. It’s so strange drifting along steadily and not seeing any boats for a while. No birds. No planes. No-one else. Just us. In this huge ocean. Sometimes I stand up and turn 360 degrees, look around and all you can see is ocean and that fine line to differentiate the ocean to the sky. It’s beautiful, wide, so blue.…and makes me feel so small. I look at Delos, it seems like a big 53 foot boat, but it’s realistically a minuscule dot in the world. We are like tiny ants on mother nature’s crust. It makes you realise how big the world is. It is huge. And the ocean is the biggest part, with millions of sea creatures living in it. So much of the ocean has never been explored. Imagine all the alien creatures far below us that we haven’t yet discovered. I find it so fascinating.

I grab a mango from the fruit hammock, cut it in cubes and slurp on the delicious flavour while it drips through my fingers. I love mangoes, they are one my one of my favourite fruits.. along with feijoa’s. Ohhh, I miss feijoa’s… my parents have 10 tree’s at home. I miss them…. and my parents of course. Back home in New Zealand, it’s wintertime. I sometimes miss the colder weather, putting on some boots, wearing a coat and wrapping up in a cosy scarfs. We were all talking about this, saying how nice it is to cuddle up under a warm blanket while it’s raining outside. Meanwhile we snap back to reality and I look down to see me wearing bikini bottoms and a singlet. I guess you always want what you can’t have. I really appreciate the present moment because that’s all we have. That’s all we will ever have. And this moment, right now, is here, and tomorrow it will gone. So I try to remember to live in the Now and learn to love it.

It’s time for my watch, so I take over from Brady and sit at the helm. I noticed there’s not much wind, we’ve got the genoa out, but it seems to be picking up. The conditions were pretty good, we were sailing a smooth 3-4 knots, not the fastest, but we were moving forward. The wind was really shifty, and we were dodging squalls, so I ended up hand steering. At first, it was quite scary because I didn’t want to get back-winded as it would damage the sail. So I was keeping an eye on the gages, making sure the apparent wind angle stayed between 45-50 degree’s. The wind was picking up and now read 10-15 knots. After a while I didn’t feel so nervous. I felt really comfortable and confident behind the wheel of this massive sailing boat! I think at that moment, I really got the feel of Delos… the way she moves with the wind, the waves, having a better understand of how it all works. Watching the sails luff, and changing course a few degree’s and watching the genoa fill with wind and see us cruising a little faster. The feeling of my heart was beating a little faster when the wind changed drastically and making the correct change of course to match it. Oh, it felt great!

The past 2 hours must have flown by because Brian arrived for his watch. Brady and Max were standing by the stern in the sunshine working on the finishing touches for the fishing platform. “Man over-board!”, Brady screams. Everyone comes rushing into the cockpit. “The shower cream fell off the stern!”, Brady yells. I felt relieved it was only a bottle and not a person. I stand up on the back deck to try and see it in the waves. “I see it, come round more to port, Bri”, says Brady pointing out to see. I squint my eyes, where is this white bottle?! “More to port…a bit more to port”, says Brady from the back. Brian turns the whole boat around. I thought it was funny how we were going in a full circle back to where we were to retrieve this bottle of shower cream!
I could finally see this bottle floating in the rolling waves, it came a few metres off the port side and drifted toward the stern. Josje had a stick with a hook on the end. She tried to grab it, but the lid came off so it wasn’t going to work. “I’ll get the net!”, she screams! “I’ll get the camera!”, I scream, rushing down the stairs of the companion way to get it. I started filming while Josje was reaching with the net. “Keep reaching, you’ve almost got it!”, I yell. We both looked at each at one point and laughed at the situation. The bottle was rolling with the waves, then one waves came and the bottle came really close, so Josje swooped it up. “Oh yeah! We caught a mighty fish! A white princess!”, I said as I was still filming. Our “man over-board” drill was a hilarious success.

The sun was creeping slowly towards the horizon with piercing colours and pastel clouds so we all sat down and watched this magical event. It happens every night, but this one was especially beautiful. We took some photo’s of Brady posing like a super model, which he did quite well, holding on to the lines with one leg up on the rail. We were all laughing and everyone sat down to enjoy the view. Delos was drifting along really nicely, while we all gazed in silence.

Something scratched my head softly as I woke up. “It’s time for your watch now Bubsie”, I hear, as I roll over in my bunk to see this dark figure standing over me. It was Brady. “What time is it?”, I yawn. “It’s 4:06AM”, he said while he closed the curtain. I looked at my clock. Damn, I set it for 3:55PM. I climb out of my bunk, go for a tinkle and put the kettle on. I walk up to the cockpit and scope out the conditions. It all looked pretty good.. so quiet, light winds of 8-10 knots from the north-east behind us, still going down-wind with the genoa out, no other boats on radar and we’re going a smooth 4 knots. I made a cup of ginger tea with a drop of honey and milk and sit at the helm. The sky was slowly getting lighter. I look over my shoulder and notice rays of sunshine peeping through the clouds. A tint of yellow and orange appear. The clouds drift on by, and I notice the warm rays on my shoulders. I quickly grab my camera and take some snaps of the sunrise. It’s so beautiful in the morning. It’s not too hot, not too shiny and the colours are so pretty. I felt so peaceful as no-one else was around, everyone was sleeping. I had this morning to myself and really enjoyed some alone time. When you’re on a boat with 6 other people, constantly around them, you sometimes forget to be at peace by yourself. It’s so healthy to have some YOU time. So I sat at the helm, feeling the sun on my back, listening to the waves splash on the sides of Delos and I was there. Not really thinking about anything. My mind was completely blank and I was in total peace and harmony.

Brian stumbled up with his scruffy morning hair. “Good morning” I said to him, jumping up. “Morning”, he said, yawning. I told him about the past 2 hours, nothing much happening, everything still the same. “I’m gonna make a coffee, do you want one?”, I ask him walking down the companion way. “Oh yeah, that would be awesome” he said stroking his hair back out of his face.

Everyone was still sleeping, and I felt pretty awake, so I sat in the saloon and started working more on my video. I’m making a music video using my sister Phoebe’s song “paradox” with all the drone footage from Delos. It matches so well together and it’s almost finished. It will go up on youtube and I’m really excited for people to see it. I can spend a couple of hours behind the screen in the morning before I need to adjust my eyes. It definitely feels weird on a moving boat, so I try and not over do it. Karin wakes up for her watch “good morning”, we say smiling to each other. It was such a peaceful morning. I sat in the cockpit reading my book “The Power of Now”, which is a great book.

“Dolphins!” Karin says. I sit up and see them swimming towards the bow. I grab the camera and sit at the bow filming them all. There were about 20 of them swimming across each other, diving up and down, splashing around, swimming on their sides. Brian and Max were on the forward deck hooking the go pro to a stick to film them. I climb out from the bow seat and watch Brian put the stick in the water. All the dolphins disappear. He kept it by the bow hoping they would return, but nothing. “Maybe they are scared of the stick” I say to Brian. “Yeah, it happened last time. It’s a shame” he said getting the go-pro off the stick. “Maybe next time, we could put in the stick on the port side and slowly come towards the bow”, I suggested. “Yeah, that’s a good idea, we’ll try that next time”, he said as we both walked back to the cockpit. I read my book for a while longer until Delos was ready to tack. Since the wind was going south easterly, we changed direction down towards Sumatra.

After dinner, we all had our “love circle”. It sounds cheesy and it’s definitely not an orgy or anything. It’s simply a time where we all come together, go around the circle and express what’s on our mind. There’s no laptops, phones, books, distractions… just us. Wether big or small, positive or negative, we each have a turn with no interruptions, no judgements, just love. It was actually my Dad’s idea, he came up with when we were in New Zealand, and he called it the “medicine box”, which is an awesome concept, but for some reason, we felt the “love circle” suited this concept better. I think it’s amazing that we chose to do this because living on a boat, things tend to get blown much bigger in proportion. The main thing we spoke about at this love circle was stress. There was quite a lot of tension when we had our last provisioning run in Port Blair. So we all agreed there was this unnecessary level of stress and next time we are going to relax and really enjoy it. We had a great idea to make a list of all the tasks to do in Coco’s Keeling, write them down and put them in a hat. It ended up being Karin’s hands, and we picked out each of our tasks. We felt so much better having our own little job, really focusing on it and getting out of our comfort zone. “So let’s all try and have fun with our tasks, like if you have propane, you might meet a truck driver, and you are chatting with him about his family and he ends up inviting you over for dinner!”, Josje says really happily. We all laughed and ended the love circle.

Suddenly we heard the plastic bottle but the stern, so Max quickly jumped up and started pulling in the line. We all gathered around, Brady helping with the line, someone was filming. Suddenly this fish jumps up, Brady and Max both holding it down. It was a small Barracuda. Brady managed to pull the hook from it’s mouth, while it was flapping around like crazy. “It’s just a baby one, let’s throw it back”, Brian said. I was watching as I kneeled down on the back deck. Brady grabs a hold of it’s tail fin and chucks it back in the water. “Oh well, better luck next time” I said standing up. We all stumble back to the cockpit and I noticed Delos was really leaning. We all watched the sun dip below the horizon and enjoyed the pretty pastel colours. This sunset was more orange, yellow and pinks which was really cool.

I had my watch at 6pm. The wind was coming from the north-east and we had beautiful sailing conditions. We were coming closer to the northern tip of Sumatra, so we were seeing a few cargo ships to Asia. It was fairly windy and the radar was showing some squalls, so I kept an eye out trying to dodge them. It was quite peaceful, and everyone disappeared into their nests. The plastic bottle smacked the side of Delos, so I quickly jumped up and started pulling in the line. I didn’t feel any force, so there was no fish, but I kept pulling it to see how frankeinbeast was. Yep, there was nothing. False alarm. But good old frankeinbeast was still in one piece. I threw it back in and sat back at the helm. I gazed out at the horizon, watching the sky dim to black. The moon slowly appeared and it was so bright. Almost glowing. I put in one earphone and listened to the soft voice of my friend Hannah Kettle sing and play guitar. I got inspired so I got some paper and pen and started writing my own lyrics. I really love it. The flow of words, telling a story, thinking of rhyming words and how you can add chords. Brian arrived for his watch, and I told him about the conditions. I went down into the saloon and lay down thinking lyrics. I closed my eyes and let the dreams take over my mind.

Officially now day 6 at sea, it was 4am when my alarm awoke me from a deep sleep. With eyes half shut, I walked outside to find a fresh 20 knots of breeze still from the NE. We were on a close reach and making a good 7 knots through the water. I made a cup of tea and nestled into the cushions in the most comfortable corner of the cockpit and peered over the rail where the water was rushing by in the glow of the phosphorescence. I listened to ‘The Moth’ podcasts, some cool 15 minute stories from some really good story tellers and enjoyed the simplicity of nothing on the horizon, nothing on the radar and a constant, consistent breeze.

About 6am, I opened the fridge and ate some leftover Taco Pie that Karin had made for dinner the previous night. Yeah, there’s such a thing in Sweden as Taco pie. There were some false alarms on the fishing lines, where I kept thinking we had hooked something. So I quickly woke Brady up before reeling it in. Turns out we were going too fast for the repala we had out, so it kept sounding the alarm. It did this twice and Brady looked a little tired and grumpy. 6am switch over to Brady, I went back to lie down.

It was about 10am when I got up again and I worked on a current video for a little over an hour in the saloon, which is the most amount of time I can work in front of a screen down below before I start to feel ‘ugh’.

Brady and I decided to do our ‘Interview’ for our ‘Super yacht’ video. What better way to lighten the mood and get the creative juices flowing than a bit of goon before noon? I set the Tripod up in the cockpit and Brady bought out a couple of generously poured cups of wine. I’m surprised he even bought out cups. So we spent the next few hours taking turns talking in front of the camera about this and that, how we got the job, what it was like, how it was different from Delos etc., with big pauses for mouthfuls of wine. Brian and Babs laid on the back deck, casually listening in the sun, enjoying some entertainment from a rather normal Tuesday, (or Wednesday?) afternoon.

Frida made a delicious spag bol for dinner as the sun set and the breeze stayed constant. We were officially out of India as we had passed the southern part of the Nicobar Islands. Lights littered the horizon as a ton of cargo ships were heading east and west through the Great Channel between Nicobar Islands and northern Sumatra. We kept a close look out, as we started the movie “Kon Tiki’. It seemed that Max should have been on that Balsa raft with those Norwegians with his Scandinavian sun kissed hair and beard.

We sailed through a few squalls during the night and tacked as the winds came more southerly. We had made good ground and by the time the sun rose, the clouds were painted pastel pinks and purples from underneath. Still no fish, but we’ve had dolphins swimming at the bow nearly every day. After some tea and a pear, I saw some awful black clouds up ahead as I saw the wind picking up. I woke up Brady and by the time he came out, Delos creaked and groaned as she heeled over in the strong gusts. We reefed all the sails and heard the toilet lids slam shut as we heeled over a little further. The pan from last night rattled and clanked in the sink and slowly everyone from below filtered out through the companionway. My hair flung across my face and little sprays of salt water came sprinkling over the side before the rain started. All 7 of us sat out in the cockpit, wet and tired, too rough to be down below, and not quite enough room in the cockpit for us all to sit comfortably outside in the rain.

We rode out the squall and once things had settled down, I took the massive bunch of now semi-brown bananas down below to make some muffins. A little rain and some baking, mmm nothing like it. It felt like it should have been a Sunday, who knows, maybe it was.

Brady and I sat down for the rest of the afternoon and worked on our video for a few hours before retreating to our cabin to watch a movie.

Delos began heeling far over again as the wind picked up during the sunset and in between mouthfuls of beef curry, we reefed the genoa and the main. We watched the sky turn into darkness and Frida, Max, Brady and I sat and talked about the urge to wanting to party! It was more the idea that romanticized us under the moonlight. We talked about Spain and Ibiza, little cosy cafes, wearing proper clothes, putting on some makeup and running bare feet into a massive outdoor club under the night sky. But there was nowhere else I’d rather had been at that point, hand steering, sailing into the moonlight, trying to point as high as we could, making as much southing as we could under the SE conditions. Brady and I switched out and I cosied into the heeling side of our cabin and fell softy asleep against the gentle rise and fall of the bow.

Theres something about that motion because it was nearly 12 hours before I awoke again and it was my turn for watch. The breeze had died down to a slow but steady 7-10 knots and we were still cruising, just with not as much direction and purpose. Brady passed out plates of lunch and I ate with an appetite as Frida and Babs sat behind me busy with their drawing pads and pens.

It had been a week of sailing at this point but for some reason, it didn’t feel like it had been this long. It was what we just needed though, some space, no other people, no provisioning, no officials to call into, and no nothing. We were forced to just BE. We never really know what time it is unless it’s our watch, there’s no cellphones, no internet, no connection to the outside world apart from our sat phone for a random email here and there. No grocery store to wander on down to, we are just here. Wherever here may be.

The sky was clouded over with a grey blue tint of relaxation and calm. Little sections of the sky opened up and soft light filtered in between the clouds down onto the ocean. I looked around for a long time and realized I didn’t feel alone. I’ve never really felt alone on the ocean. I didn’t feel small and I didn’t feel far away from land, I didn’t feel far away from anything really. Its a subtle empowering feeling, it’s the complete contrary to being in society where there is this constant pressure to do something, to feel something, to be somewhere.

The excitement of the afternoon was a big brown bird that flew past the boat.

I don’t know which is worse, pitching or rolling. We experienced the extremes of both during the night. The first half, we were slamming into the confused 25-30 knots of squally SE winds, my face all screwed up as we free falled and eventually smashed into the depths of a wave, the whole boat shaking with the after shock. The second half of the night, the wind decided to turn NW again and fairly light, allowing us to put the genoa out on the pole and the main and mizzen out with the preventers. Then the rolls began. Finally the right heading of 145, except we were completely side ways to the swell, one way, then the next, we were rolling ourselves up in one big ‘ugh’ and ‘blah’. I don’t think anybody slept very well at all.

By morning, things weren’t any better and we were still rolling all over the ocean. The winds were confused, squally and just kind of plain annoying. This part of the trip wasn’t really a ‘set and forget’ kind of sail, we were constantly changing the sail arrangement, rolling, pitching, swaying, no wind and squalls. We had definitely found ourselves in the ITCZ (inter tropical convergence zone), an area of confused and unpredictable weather that straddles the equator. In the periods that it was a little more comfortable down below, we all got our laptops out and did an hour or two of work.

It was another day that passed by in quite the blur. The occasional rain shower made everything a bit miserable and grey. Although I did manage to take a nice outdoor shower in one of the heavier downpours.

I woke up this morning rolling back and forth in my bunk. I went up into the cockpit and noticed no wind. We were motoring along and swaying with the waves. The past few days were really cloudy, but today was quite sunny, so I decided to sit at the bow. I love sitting at the bow when we’re sailing. There’s something so cool about it. It’s a great way to see Delos from that perspective. Watch her lean and drift with the waves. I look up and see the sails fill up. I started listening to some “TED” podcasts, leaning back, watching with the waves crash below my dangling feet.

I could see some clouds in the distance, so I got up and walked back to the cockpit. All of a sudden there was 20 knots of wind, and Delos was cruising at a smooth 6 knots. It was my cooking day, so I started preparing dinner. Left over lentils, with Maggie noodles, and some fresh vegetables. It’s great having 7 people, 7 days a week, so you have one cooking day a week, and 6 days off! For some reason there were high spirits on Delos, maybe because it was a Friday or something.. I lost track of the days! Josje noticed Brian through the hatch, watching a film eating his dinner, kneeling down, with his bowl and phone on a chair. It was a hilarious sight. She started filming him, walking through the “love tunnel”. “What are you doing Breeeyawn?”, he looks up in shock and noticed Brady, Frida and I spying on him through the hatch. He looked so funny and we couldn’t help but laugh.

The night sail was really good. Steady wind out of west, perfect 15 knots and making really good speed. It wasn’t rolling anymore, it was very comfortable. The moon was out again and brighter than ever. I fell asleep rocking in my bunk listening to Ed Sheeran in one ear.

I woke up to the voices of Max and Josje and I could hear my ipod faintly playing Erykah Badu under my pillow. I must have left it playing. Josje and Max were discussing house music and how it was created. Max loves making music and was telling her about Avicii and how he came about.

I could hear rain drops as I walked over to the head. “Close the hatches!”, I heard Brady say from the cockpit. I closed the hatch above the head and went up to check out the conditions. It was wet, windy and raining from all directions. We closed everything off and we were nice and dry inside. Frida in the lovers tunnel, Manskraft working on his music, Josje Rama and I working in the saloon, Braidster having a nap and Breeyawn and Kazza on watch. We were leaning a lot and it was a moving quite a bit inside so I decided to stop working behind the screen for a while.

All of a sudden we were hit by a big squall. The wind picked up to 35 knots and it was still raining. Everyone put their waterproof jackets on and helped take the genoa in. All fingers were crossed hoping for the squall to disappear.

The night was crazy and I don’t think anyone slept well. I remember being tossed around in my bunk. Hitting my shoulders on the wood. I woke up quite early, exhausted and went for a tinkle. Jesus, it was a mission! Firstly you have to keep the lid up without it smacking on your back! Then once you’re done, grab the shower head, put it over the bowl, turn it on while holding the flush button for 5 seconds, turn it off, all while trying to balance and not fall over!

I went out in the cockpit and start my morning watch. Brady was about wearing his waterproof jacket. He looked like a drowned rat and was swaying about with his harness on. “Wow, it’s crazy out here!”, I said to him as I swayed around, gripping onto the helm rails. “The wind is really shifty, so we’re hand steering ok?”, Brady says. I sat at the helm as he explained the conditions. I started hand steering while the boat was crashing at the bow, rocking and rolling in these massive waves. The wind was shifting so much, so I focused on the sails to keep Delos on course. Splashes of water hit my cheeks, my legs far apart trying to keep balance. We were leaning so much to starboard, it was insane! The wind was a strong westerly, and we were cruising 8-9 knots south-east. The waves seemed confused, coming from all directions. I was a little scared at first, getting used to hand steering, but after a while I got confident and fear turned to focus. I stayed on my game and it felt good to be controlling Delos through these crazy conditions. The waves were hitting the bow, sounding like an explosion going off, and you felt butterflies in your stomach to what it seemed like flying through mid air before hitting the next wave. It was such a rush, and my heart was pounding!

Brian was in the kitchen all morning through the insane squalls making bread. The wind calmed down a bit, and he handed up some bread to me. Rosemary, garlic and rock salt focaccia bread. Yum! “It’s so delicious Bri! Thank you! You could sell this stuff in cafe’s!”, I said loudly while he cleans up the galley below. “I’m glad you like it”, he said proudly. It was still early in the morning, and everyone was sleeping through the squalls. There’s not much you can do in a moving boat. Even making a cup of tea is a 10 minute task, as everything goes flying everywhere. I was feeling a little sea sick, so I decided to try my “sea-legs”. I lay down, rolling back… and forth from the waves and the pill must have worked a treat because I woke up 3 hours later feeling so rested!

Brian had made lunch and the bread just topped off the meal. We had run out of most fruit and vege’s, so it was nice having some freshly baked bread. The wind died from 35 to 6 knots from the south east. It was changing so much, and we were going a lot slower than before, but it was so much more comfortable. I was able to sit in the cockpit without getting soaked. I felt a little musically inspired, so I decided to have a jam on the guitar. Time flew by, and it was already late afternoon. Max was on watch, Frida and Karin watching the “Mentalist”, Brian making dinner, Josje and Brady in the saloon, and I was working on my laptop in the cockpit enjoying another beautiful sunset.

I was thinking how much I have learnt already being on Delos with sailing. When I first arrived I only knew “port, starboard, stern and bow”, and even with those, I was getting them mixed up! At first I would say things like “to the left! I mean.. PORT!”, but you slowly learn all the technical words and what certain things do. When Brady explains things after his watch like “the wind is coming from the north-east, and we got the genoa out, reefed in once, and the wind is quite shifty, so just keep the apparent wind angle between 45-50 degrees. If it goes over 60, just turn a few degree’s to starboard, and keep it above 40 degree’s, so the sail doesn’t luff. And watch the radar for cargo ships, every 10 minutes to save power on the navigation monitor. If there’s a squall or the wind picks up, just wake me up”. If he told me this when I first arrived on Delos, I would have had no idea what he was talking about! haha. Being a new-be, there’s an over-load of things to learn. And everything is so interesting. So while I was steering on my own, I smiled to myself knowing I had a better understanding of sailing.

Brian made a concoction of left over lentils, Brady’s leftover soup and some delicious focaccia bread. We could all comfortably sit in the cockpit without getting waves splashed on us.

I woke up in the morning remembering my strange dreams. Like running away from weird creatures. I think dreams are so fascinating. What you fill your conscious mind with, your subconscious mind works wonders in the night while you dream. If you are pondering on a question or trying to work something out, it’s like your subconscious mind figures it out for you. Answers your conscious mind in a way. It’s so interesting, and our minds are more connected than you realise.

This morning was super nice. I felt really rested. We were motoring along as there was no wind.  Even though we wanted the wind to pick up again, it was a nice change compared to yesterday. Yesterday Brian said it was the biggest waves Delos has seen so far and winds up to 40 knots! So it was nice to have some calm conditions for a change.

I was sitting in the cockpit eating some cereal while Brady was on watch. Today was so beautiful, clear, flat and shiny water, blue skies and white puffy clouds in the distance. We were a few hours from the equator, and I felt a little nervous, but excited. I noticed a lot of rubbish drifting past in the ocean. Plastic, card-board, jandals, drift wood, even a TV frame! We were pretty close to the western side of Sumatra, and we could see a hazy glimpse of land, but we weren’t stopping there. We kept sailing south, getting closer and closer to the equator. I was reading my book in the sun and could see Brian, Brady, Karin and Josje rushing in and out of the companion way organising the equator crossing ceremony. I knew they had something evil and nasty in store for us.

We all noticed this huge squall coming towards us and it didn’t look very inviting. The wind started picking up, so we prepared the boat and started putting away stuff from below. We were so close to the equator and then this massive wall of craziness hit us. The wind picked up to 30 knots and started raining, so well geared up on waterproof jackets. I thought it was crazy how fast the weather changed! We had the engine off, no sails up and we were still doing over 6 knots! How crazy is that!

We decided to practice “heaving to” which means we get the bow and boat up into the wind, get a tiny bit of the genoa out, and then back wind the genoa on purpose, then put out a tiny bit of the mizzen, and then go helm hard over, so the genoa will try and blow the bow down, and the mizzen and the rudder will try and force it into the wind. That way, it will hopefully stay in one place and slow down. It was really cool to see how this worked and how Delos slowed down. The “heave to” creates a slick ripple in the water to stop the waves from breaking. It was a successful drill and we were 5 minutes from the equator. Brady decided to put on “Pirate’s of the Caribbean” soundtrack to add suspense to the vibe. We were all jumping around, Frida and I danced in the cockpit in our soaking wet jackets, trying not to slip over. The spirits were high and I was really excited! It was like a countdown for New Year’s!

“We’re almost there!”, Brian yells! “BRIAN FILM THE POSITION ON THE MONITOR WITH THE GO-PRO!”, Karin yelled from the galley as she got cups for shots. “I’m trying to change it to narrow mode”, he said, fidgeting with it. “HURRY UP!”, Karin screamed and laughed at the same time. We were all laughing and ready for this invisible line in the ocean.

“AND WE’VE CROSSED THE EQUATOR!”, Brian yells. We were all jumping around excitedly. “WOOOOHOOOO!”, I screamed, while grabbing a cup off Brady. “This is strong shit”, Brady said pouring the last few cups. We all had a cup in our hands. “CHEERS!”, we all cheered and clinked our plastic cups in the middle of the cockpit. It was strong turkish liquor and burnt my mouth and down my throat. “Woah, that’s strong!”, Frida said giving the cup back to Brady. “After you do the ceremony, you will become shellbacks”, Brady said with a smirk on his face.

We all followed the shellbacks to the forward deck where we find “King Neptune”, which they made from stuffed pillows, wearing a shirt, Thai pants, and a drawn on face. Brady put on the “Pirate’s of the Caribbean” soundtrack again which added a bit of humour to the whole situation.

“ORDER! KEEP ORDER I SAY!”, Brady yells at us all lined up. We all laughed at his silly old school british accent. “You are hereby commanded to appear before the Royal Court of the Realm of Neptune, in the District of Delos” he screamed above us. Josje took his place holding a beer, “It has been brought to the attention of His Highness, Neptune Rex, Ruler of the watery underworld, that you are nothing but lowly pollywogs!”.

Then Brian stood in front of us, “Charge One! You are lowly pollywogs and never crossed the equator by ship! Charge Two! Disregard the Traditons of the Sea! You have failed to pay proper respect to His Majesty Neptunus Rex, crowned master of the oceans, while sailing in his domain, nor have you made any sacrifice to incur in his good favour! Charge Three! Taking Liberties with his piscatorial subjects!”, he yelled. Josje took his place “How do you plead to these charges?!”, she yelled at us. “Guilty”, Max said. “Well done, good choice”, Brady said. “How do YOU plead to these charges?”, Josje yelled at Frida. “Guilty”, she said laughing. “How do YOU plead to these charges?”, Josje yelled at me. “Guilty”, I said pretending to cry. “Oh, I thought the Leyten’s were the none guilty types”, Brady said jokingly. Karin stood in front of us, holding on to the beam, “The good ship Delos has crossed the equator! Lucky you are with experienced shellbacks that can guide you through the initiation ceremony and back in the good graces of His Majesty Neptunus Rex, Almighty Master of the sea. Will you do what it takes to become a shellback?!”, she yelled at us. “YES!”, the three of us screamed.

“To prove your worthiness as shellbacks, you must complete the following tasks”, Brian said. “Consume alcoholic beverages through a snorkel!”, they gave each of us some beer and turkish liquor as we all had a turn drinking from the snorkel. I felt like I couldn’t breath, and then I had to down all this stuff. “Good work!”, they all cheered.

“Apply the magical healing scoby to your body, lay it upon the floor, then lick it to cleanse your tongue”, Brady said handing us a piece of the mother cake. We all rubbed it on our chests. “Don’t forget to rub your armpits, and the other one”, he said while the others laughed. “Go as far down to please Neptune!”, Brady said seriously. We threw it on the deck  and licked it. Then we had to eat raw mushrooms, which was really difficult as it was chewy and hard to swallow.

“Now, cleanse yourself in the bucket of health”, Brady said while getting a bucket. Suddenly he chucked some on my head and the smell was disgusting! It smelt like rotten food and eggs mixed with off milk. Max got bits stuck in his beard and hair, and just embraced it, while Frida and I were disgusted trying to dodge the splashes. “Now you must get doused with hair from the body of a shellback”, Josje yelled. She got a ziplock bag filled with hair and threw it on us. “That’s my pubes”, Brady said cheekily. “Ew, that’s gross!”, I yelled, trying to dodge the hair being thrown at me.

“Now you must swim by the stern of Delos… naked!”, Josje yelled. So we all walked toward the back dripping with bits of food. We all stripped down to our bare bums and jumped into the big blue. The water was so warm and it was so nice getting that stuff off our bodies. I scrubbed my hair in the sea getting all the crap out of it. There were still some swells, but really small ones. We all climbed up the ladder and Karin gave us a coin. “What are you thankful for Babs?”, Josje asked me while filming. “I am thankful for the friends and family around us, this amazing opportunity, the beautiful big blue ocean and the positive vibrations!”, I said as I threw my coin in the water. “Now we are shellbacks!”, I yelled, giving Max and Frida a high-five. “Not yet… you have to beg Neptune for forgiveness”, Josje said. So us three bowed down to the stuffed Neptunus Rex and begged for his forgiveness. “I love you Neptune!”, I screamed, jumping back into the ocean. We all ended up having a naked swim and it was the best swim I have ever had. Maybe because we had been at sea for so long! We all dried off and we all shook hands congratulating each other for becoming shellbacks.

Josje made a vegetable stir-fry for dinner with some spices. We were all sitting in the cockpit eating  and realised our mouths were all burning like crazy. You know it’s super spicy when both the  Trautman’s guys have hiccups! Max suggested to add some of his favourite coconut milk, which actually worked a treat and the spiciness went down a lot. It actually ended up tasting better.

Brian made some popcorn and suggested we have a movie night. So we watched a film called “All is Lost”, which ended up being such a long movie, and the guy in it was a little ridiculous. His boat was sinking, and he decided it was a good idea to start shaving. It was one of those movies where we ended up yelling at the screen.. ”Why are you doing that?!”, or “Come on man!”. It was quite funny. The ending was especially brilliant, but you’ll have to watch it yourself to find out.

Oh, it feels good to be a shellback!

It was the most peaceful night. The wind was nice and easy under 10 knots from the ESE, and we were cruising along under the full moon being rocked up and down by the big, gentle southerly swell. The sun rose with bright certainty and we made some easting as the wind came more northerly.

I think we’re closing in on 2 weeks at sea now and its really showing. People are cooking meals slowly and lovingly, when something needs to be done, it gets done with no time restraints or pressure. We work on videos and when we crave something sweet, we just get up and bake something. The watch schedule has been awesome, definitely a perk of having 7 people on board.

The day started with some delicious bread, cheese and tomato followed by a good 5 hours of Brady, Karin, Babs and I working on videos in the saloon. Im not sure exactly when the rum got pulled out but it was definitely before lunchtime. We were totally in the zone, it was awesome, we got loads of work done while feeding each other chocolate truffles and peeking over each others shoulder for advice and feedback on a sequence or clip.

Before I knew it, the sun was low enough to the horizon; I could see golden shadows glimmering across the cockpit from where I was sitting in the saloon. Brady put some beers in the fridge “Okay, we’re gonna call it good and get off our computers at 5 today”. I guess this was our way of bringing some normality and structure into our day, not a bad way I thought. A delicious dinner cooked by Frida and an early night watch from 6-8pm for me before I passed out in the love nest.

Light was pouring in through the hatch for a few hours before my alarm went off. I dozed in and out of sleep during this time and then the alarm was an affirmative ‘Its time to get up’. Like usual, the cockpit was the social center for most of the morning, where people got up, ate breakfast, had some fresh air, felt the sun and wind on their skin and generally stared out into the ocean.

The rest of the afternoon was spent working with the sewing machine and staring at a needle and thread. I made some new bracelets/cuffs and in the process of making a new belt I really wished today I had a big studio with everything my creative little heart desires. Although it was quite funny, sailing along with the sewing machine, one foot out to starboard to brace myself against the heeling of the boat.

13 days today and I think cabin fever was getting to Brady a bit, “I feel a bit agitated and frustrated today babe, for no reason, and not particularly at anything” he said as he lay up in our cabin. “Cabin Fever” I replied and it made sense. This is the longest I’ve been on a passage so far. Its been really nice to relax and chill but the feeling of wanting to walk or run, the desire to see something different than just Delos, the crew and the ocean is starting to tap on my shoulder.

The sun set quick and fast and once again, it went from buttery gold to complete darkness in the space of half an hour. The winds picked up as the sun descended for the day, so we were cruising along nicely heading for our favourable tacking angle down to Cocos Islands. I had a feeling it was going to be a rough night.

“Brady, Jos, we’re thinking of putting up the new ‘Caribbean Blaster’ if you guys want to come out and we can figure out how to put it up” Brian said from behind the curtain. “Yep sure thing Bro” Brady responded. It hadn’t even felt like a full night had passed. We were in a state of nausea and frustration. Had the sun come up so quickly? Had we even gotten any sleep? We threw on a singlet and came out on deck under the brutal sun. The swells were tossing us around and the remains of last night’s squalls and heavy winds were pressing around us.

It took us about an hour to take down the genoa, flake it away and put up the Caribbean blaster. It’s a smaller sized genoa made exactly for the conditions we were seeing. 20 knots, big swell and moving south towards some nastier weather with squalls popping up left, right and centre. The rest of the day was spent unsuccessfully trying to catch up on lost sleep, going outside to steer and watch the boat ride over the waves as we rotated through watches. It was a grey and gloomy day and we were all feeling rather similar to our environment.

Tossing and turning throughout the night, it didn’t seem like I got much sleep at all. I remember waking up in the middle of the night really frustrated. All I wanted was to sleep. Or even a bed that was still. But the more I fought it, the more I couldn’t sleep. These squalls weren’t going to leave. I just had to accept it and live with it. The wind had been blowing a good 15-30 knots the past few days, and Delos was getting tossed about like a rag doll! Big swells would approach Delos and we would go up and then go back down, and CRASH! The bow hits the water, creating this explosion noise. I jump up. Thinking it was a nightmare, I lay back down. As I close my eye’s, my alarm goes off for my watch. As exhausted and tired as I was, I get out of bed and stumble toward the head. Everything is a mission when we are rocking like this. You can hear the creaking of the boat. The cutlery in the draws going back… and forth….back….and forth. The curtain is on a lean, flowing around from the fan. The fruit hammock is swinging back and forth. The cups and spices all lined up in the holders with string around them clinking together. As I stopped and listened, it sounded like a song.. or an orchestra of some sort.

I stepped out into the cockpit, Brady sitting at the helm with his headphones in. The wind was up to 20 knots, Delos was rocking back and forth with the swells, and water crashing at the front of the boat. I sat at the helm with Brady napping in his waterproof gear. Watching the waves, it was a little scary, and I was clingy on to the seat at times so I didn’t fall.

I looked at the time and it was already 8am. Two hours flew by and Brian arrived for his watch. “Good morning”, I said. I explained our course, what sails were out, and how the wind was shifting from East to South East. We only had 220 miles to go! This feeling of excitement came over me, as I realised all this rocking would be over soon and we would get to a fairly still anchorage.

Feeling exhausted, I took a nap in the saloon. It must have felt like minutes because I woke up to sound of Max and Frida making cereal. I got up and to make a bowl of cereal. Sitting in the cockpit with everyone, we noticed we lost the BBQ cover in the squalls. “Oh man, that sucks”, Brady says. “It must have been so windy!”.

When the boat rolled so much, it was difficult to do anything. So everyone was either lying down, listening to their headphones or watching a series. Brady and Josje were watching a series in the saloon together on one side, and Max was lying down on the other side. Karin and Frida were watching “The Mentalist” and Brain was doing some Delos work on his laptop.

Time flew by and it was already 11:30, so I decided to start making lunch. Delos was crashing back and forth as I stumbled to the galley. I got some vegetables out of the fridge and put them on the bench. Bad idea. They went flying to the other end of the galley. So I put them wedged between the pumpkin and some bowls. I got the big pot out from the back and walked back to the galley.

I started with the onions, chopped them up, and put them in a bowl straight away so they didn’t go flying everywhere. Next, the garlic, getting the hang of the swaying of the boat. I put the rope up, and leant against it. It seemed so much more stable. I chopped some tomato and put them in a bowl too. I turned on the gas and started frying the onion and garlic. Then I cracked some eggs, and mixed it with some milk, and salt and pepper. Happy I didn’t spill any of it, I threw it into the pan. Mixing it around, I threw in some baked beans. Woah, it got hot fast. I look around the boat and everyone was hooked into their series and movies. It felt as if the fan was blowing hot air, and I was trapped in this sauna bubble, so I opened the little hatch above me. Oh my god, the breeze from the ocean was incredible. I finished with the pan, so I put it into the sink, so it didn’t go flying. I grabbed the pot and filled it with water and pasta. Trying not to spill it, I put on the brace metal holders so the pot was stable. While the pasta was boiling, a massive swell hit and suddenly a big splash came into the hatch. Brady and Josje look up. “Close that hatch, so we don’t get soaked”, Brady said. As soon as I close it, the air got so warm and I braced myself on the rope, trying to prepare all the bowls. Everything was finished, and I had to get the water out of the pot, so Brady helped me hold the pot and pan while I served it into the bowls. Lunch for 7 people on a rocking boat complete! “Lunch is ready!”, I yelled out. Everyone crawled out of their cocoons and grabbed a bowl and walked out into the cockpit. Everyone had tired eyes, swaying with the waves.

As soon as lunch was finished, everyone was back to bed. I cleaned up and finished up with the dishes. Woah, a simple meal is such a mission when Delos is rocking around like this!

I slammed into the cushions of the saloon and got my computer out. Holding on to it, I get a pillow below my head and start watching “Marley” the documentary. I put the computer onto the table and held onto it the whole time so it didn’t slide down the table. I finished watching it, and it’s such an inspiring story.

I really wanted to make pumpkin pie with bacon bits for dinner, but it seemed impossible in these conditions, so I went for a more simple meal. Tuna salad. Max, Frida and I ate in the saloon, because there was not much room in the cockpit, and if there was, you would get water splashed onto you every 2 seconds! After dinner, everyone gave me their bowls, and I washed them and put them away. It’s better having no dishes in the sink as they get knocked about in the night making really loud noises.

I felt my hair and it was so greasy, I couldn’t remember the last time I washed it. I decided to attempt a shower.

Man, it was mission from the start! I stepped into the head, closed the shower rail, and a massive wave crashed at the bow, and I ended up in mid air at one point. I had second thoughts, but I knew I would feel refreshed after a shower. So I grabbed the shower head and started rinsing. Water was getting splashed around while I was trying to stay balanced, it was chaos! I was slipping around everywhere, so I ended up holding onto the sink and my legs in a squat position clinging on for dear life! I got a pump of shampoo and managed to rinse that off without dying. I got some conditioner, and usually I leave it in for a few minutes, but I just wanted to get out of there and sit down! So I quickly rinsed it out, dried off, and stepped out into the cockpit. Ahhhhh, the fresh breeze cooling me off was so incredible. My watch started at 8pm, so I got some water and walked back through the companion way ready to start my watch.

Brady was fully geared up in bright yellow colours, looking pretty keen as. I stood behind him, holding onto the rail of the helm, and in a lunge position, so I didn’t fall over. “How’s it going?” I said quite loudly so he could hear me in the wind. “Yeah good, we got the genoa and mizzen out, reefed once.. there’s been about 20-35 knots of wind, pretty steady 8 knots the past couple of hours. I didn’t change the autopilot, so you’re probably all good to leave it at that course for a while, unless there’s a massive wind shift, if anything happens, I’m gonna lay here for a while, so just wake me up if you need me”, Brady said, getting some pillows ready to lay on.

This watch I didn’t listen to my iPod because I was enjoying the sounds of the ocean and just thinking. Thinking how crazy it is in these narley conditions. How the wind was so noisy, I looked out at the moon, so bright behind the clouds. The never ending horizon, that was moving up and down so much. I did horizon scans and checked the radar every 10 minutes. There were no other boats, no sign of anything in the water. The wind picked up, then went down every now and then. Sometimes we would go on a massive lean and water splashed into the cockpit. I saw the boat speed pick up to 9 and a half knots. Then the wind dropped again. I had a head-ache and I was so exhausted. It was nearing the end of my watch. My eye’s were slowly dipping, and luckily Brian arrived for his watch. He stumbled around the cockpit looking around to see the conditions. The wind picked up a bit. “Should we reef the genoa a second time?”, I asked him. “Nah, I think it’s ok for now”, he said. We were still going a good 8 knots. I stood up and walked down the companion way. “Good-night”, I said. “Good-night, have a good sleep”, Brian said, as he sat down at the helm.

I got some water, set up some pillows in the saloon and laid down. It was fairly noisy, so I got my IPod and was playing Bob Marley softly in one ear, the other on a pillow as I closed my eyes.

I woke up this morning getting tossed about. I leaned my head forward and see Max sleeping in the saloon on the other side. I heard Brady and Josje in the cockpit. “Woah! That was a big one!”, Brady said. I put my head back down and fell back asleep. Suddenly the whole boat goes on a massive lean and Max and I go sliding forward, almost out of the saloon. We both brace ourselves and hold onto the table. We look at each other, Max’s face half tired, half shocked, his eye’s closing again and we both fell back down to sleep. Jesus, the whole situation was crazy!

After a while I opened my eyes, without having slept, and got up. I walked out to the cockpit and was shocked at how big the waves were. They looked taller than 5 metres! Delos got smashed from every direction. When the boat was at the tip of the wave, it broke into the cockpit, rolling either way, swaying like crazy. It felt like we were surfing the waves. If they came behind us, it pushed us forward. And the waves that got to it’s biggest were the scariest. If we happened to be right under it’s nose, we went swaying left and right so much, you were lucky to be clinging on to something, otherwise you would crash somewhere tragic.

Brady was brave enough to harness himself and sit at the bow. I watched him when a massive wave came crashing and it seemed like he disappeared and then the bow would spring back up. He stumbled back into the cockpit soaking wet. “That was awesome!”, he said, getting the harness off. “Was it cold?” I asked him. “Yeah! It was really cold!”, he said as he sat down.

I had my watch and it was super crazy conditions. Brian went up to the bow also and got soaked, “Oh man, there was a massive swell that came up, and when it crashed down, my legs were in the water and my foot smashed back down”.

Brian made some noodles for lunch as we all sat in the cockpit. “Thanks for lunch Bri”, everyone said handing their bowls to him down in the galley. We were getting closer and closer to Cocos Keeling. I checked the distance and it said 15 miles! So close to land! We called customs and we heard the voice of an Australian guy. We all stayed quiet and then once Brian was off the radio, we all got so excited! “It makes me more excited hearing that he has an Aussie accent!”, Frida said with a massive smile on her face.

Brian went on watch as the waves got smaller and smaller. I lay down in the saloon and Frida and I looked at each other with excited smiles on our faces. “I can’t wait to step on land”, I said. The spirits were high and everyone was super excited. “I SEE LAND!”, Brian yelled. Everyone rushed to the cockpit. I looked out to try and see land over the waves. When we got up to the tip of a swell, you could see a little mushroom type looking piece of land. “I see it!”, I yelled out. We got the film camera out and everyone was so excited. We slowly approached more land and I could see a long strip of land with beautiful palm tree’s. “I see tree’s!”, Frida said happily. The last few hours seemed so slow. We could see it, but we were still so far away. I closed my eyes and all of sudden we were there! How crazy the time flew by.

We saw Direction Island, and we were coming a little south, so we had to jibe north of the island to make the turn. The land was so green. The water so blue. It was such a change from seeing blue or grey ocean and skies for over two weeks! I got the binoculars out and had a closer look of the island. You could see beach, and the waves crashing onto the reef. I had a scan of the island because I thought I saw some people on the beach. Other people!? Could you imagine. Only seeing Josje, Brady, Karin, Brian, Max and Frida, we were all excited to see other form of human existence. But after I scanned the island with the bino’s, it was only logs. I wonder if there are many people on these islands. By the look of it now, it seemed tiny with no living things. Apart from some birds that swooped towards to the swells and came back up. The energy was high and we were all so happy to finally see land! “I SEE LAND! I SEE LAND!” we would all be singing and dancing.

We turned in towards the lagoon and saw a big cargo ship. We had to be careful not to get so close to the reef. Brian was at the helm, and Karin standing at the bow directing where to go. There were buoys out so we could follow them. I was standing at the forward deck watching us drift closer towards the lagoon. “I see dolphins!”, Karin yelled from the bow. “Oh wow! Hey you guys! Dolphins!”, I yelled to the others in the cockpit. Frida and Max came rushing out. There were so many of them. Really big, blue ones. Diving out of the water, swimming on their sides. Such beautiful creatures. It’s a really good sign to see dolphins when you arrive to an anchorage. It’s like good luck.  We are all watching these amazing creatures and then they swam away and disappeared into the big blue. We arrived in the lagoon and there were two other sailing boats. I was really glad to see some other boats, almost like having sea neighbours. We set the hook and dropped the anchor. I saw something bigger than a fish swimming on the port side. “There’s a shark!” I yelled. There were 5 little reef sharks swimming around Delos. They were really cute ones, with black tipped fins and tails.

We put on some music and all got some beers and sat down in the cockpit as the sun was going down. “Really good job everybody”, Brady said laying down. We reminisced our 16 days at sea and were all relieved, exhausted and so happy to be at an anchorage that was still!

“Should I make American breakfast or BLT’s?”, Brian asked everyone. Oh.. tough choice. “I think you should make whatever you feel inspired to do”, Josje said. Brian went into the galley and started making dinner. Everyone spread out in the boat and did their own thing for a bit. I was so exhausted, so I lay on the pillows in the cockpit and watched the sky dim down. I was dozing off and then suddenly I hear Brian from the galley “Dinner’s ready!”. Everyone scrambles into the saloon and sits down like little kids ready for a feast. Oh man, I was so hungry. He gave us a plate each with a piece of scrambled eggs. Then slammed down a tray filled with bacon and American pancakes. Our eye’s lit up like it was christmas. We all dug in and covered it with maple syrup. After we ate dinner, everyone looked really sleepy. “WHOA…I am so ready to lay down now”, Karin said as her eyelids drooped. We all laughed and enjoyed the quiet Delos for a while before everyone disappeared back into their cocoons ready for a good nights sleep.

Well, to be honest I didn’t know much at all before I arrived in Langkawi, Malaysia, to meet up with the Delos crew who at that point was Brian and Karin. Me and my girlfriend Frida were probably as blank as a page can be when it comes to boats and sailing. Sure I’ve been on a sailing boat before, but here I was, being a part of a four man crew who were going to haul out a massive boat, sand the bottom with grinders and then paint it all within 5 days.

In a way that was probably a really good way to know your way around the boat, and to get a good understanding how the hull is shaped and what goes on below the waterline. It’s also good to get a hint of how much work a boat takes.

Reading The Complete Sailor is also a great way of learning the basics of sailing

However, here I am in Andaman Islands soon 3 months later, and I thought I was going to write a few things about living on a sail boat with 6 other people (after the haul out Brady, Josje and Babs joined us in Rebak Marina – movie coming soon).

Living on a boat (not including super yachts of course) you need to preserve EVERYTHING. Fresh water, electricity, food, paper towels, the use of clothes, you name it. Everything is limited and if you run out you run out.

For example one day Karin had noticed that the toilet paper was running low, and if we kept on using this amount we would be using our hands or only doing aqua dueces in Chagos. It might have had to do with that we just had arrived in India a few days earlier, but still we were using way too much.

At that point I was pretty satisfied with how good I was doing, saving water and everything I could think of. However toilet paper was something I totally had forgotten about. Don’t ask me why, but I guess it’s one of those things I’ve never reflected about. Anyways, from that day I’ve counted every sheet and done a mental note every day of how I am doing. It kind of turned into a game, and later on that week I told the rest of the crew about this. Funny enough most of them were actually doing the exact same thing without knowing about the others. Brady said he hadn’t used one single sheet all week….interesting.

This is certainly something you would never even think about in a western society, and it’s pretty funny to actually see how much we waste on just living our day to day life at home.

Sailing is a simple life, with extremely hard work that never runs out. However the perks and rewards are truly great. Here’s some of my favourites:

• The food. The first toasted cheese sandwich in a month tastes better then any hotel breakfast I’ve had. You learn how to appreciate things when you have them and to enjoy them to the fullest.
• Being alone on nightwatch when sailing a long passage. Surrounded by nothing but darkness and a million stars that reach all the way down to the horizon. Add a coffee and some music in your headphones. Pretty wicked feeling if you tell me.
• Unlimited diving, swimming, fishing and discovering places. Travelling by boat just makes so many things possible that you otherwise never could do.
• More than anything you have time. You don’t know what date or time it is, but you have alot of it. I spend my days chilling, swimming, going on adventures with the crew, making music, working on stuff for my website, talking, making sailing videos, cooking and enjoying life.

Before you know it, you turn in to a salty sea dog and stop wearing pants/shorts.

To sum it up it’s a pretty sweet life on Delos, and I feel exited about being a part of this adventure crossing the Indian Ocean. Let me know if you have any questions for a first timer and I will try to answer them in my next scribble in the SV Delos sailing blog!

’In the light of’ series I profile the Delos crew through photos and stories, shedding some light on how I got to know who they are.

In the morning you see him with a cup of water sitting up on deck staring out at the open sea. Sometimes up at the bow meditating, with his headphones in. In a good anchorage he takes the paddle board out for a ride to explore our new home and he can be away for hours. He loves discovering new places on his own; he often leaves on a mission and comes back with crazy stories about his adventures. Luckily for you and me he often films it all. There’s something soulful about him and his open way of meeting new cultures and people. He seems to see goodness in everyone he meets and by treating people with love and respect he often gets love in return. Brady invites people into his life so they all feel apart of it and he sees endless possibilities in whatever crosses his path. His open heart towards others is a humble way we should all learn from, at least I have. Believe in goodness and goodness you shall find.

Brady is our own Kombucha guru onboard. Kombucha is an ancient Chinese healing tea also known as “the elixir of life” and is known to increase serotonin levels in the body and balance out pre and pro biotics. Its brewed from a Scoby culture. Scoby stands for Symbiotic Culture Of Bacteria and Yeast and he refers to it as his “mother cake”. A metaphor for placenta I believe, at least that’s what it looks like. He always has a batch on its way so we are all treated with half a cup for breakfast. It’s healing powers are supposed to keep you well from cancer and other diseases and has been around for centuries. Sometimes we have ”Kombucha hucha” which pretty much is Kombucha mixed with homemade Delos alcohol. It’s a very popular treat onboard, especially for beach afternooner’s. It was so funny when he introduced me to the ”scoby”, when he unpacked arriving on Delos I had just met him, and he pulled out this gross looking thing from his bag. I mean, who brings a mother cake in a plastic bag? A very special guy indeed that I came to share awesome moments with.

…And there it is! Looks like a good batch, well done Braidster.

Around his neck he carries a beautiful Maori necklace from New Zealand, a birthday gift from Josje. It’s a toki pendant and it’s a symbol for strength, courage and authority, they used it back in the days to cut things and show strength and it’s made from punamu or jade stones.

His and Josje’s room aka ”The love nest” is a cozy little place with music instruments like a guitar and didgeridoo. Sometimes they jam together, awesome vibes in there as you can tell and it has a gypsy and adventurous feel about it too. That’s where he keeps his Kombucha so there’s always a yeasty puff that hits you when you walk in, the container keeps a good 25-liter batch going. You are always welcome to join them for cozy times. Brady is often lying naked with his dick out though, but we are very natural onboard and embrace nudity in all situations. True Delos cruiser style.

He’s got a few tattoos and these are my favorite ones. One is on his right shoulder that he had made when he was 19. I asked him the meaning of this palm tree island dream. He said ”I think it was my subconscious vision board without knowing it then, since what I have been striving for is a simple life with a small shed on a beach with palm trees ” The other one is a cool and structured art piece on his right ribs. He got that one done in Marquesas in French Polynesia in Fatu Hiva Island by a man called Tiava. It was a fair trade, he got the tattoo for one bottle of wine, a dive mask and some dive weights. The waves symbolize protection at sea, other parts stand for fertility and symbols in the local language symbolize that he forever will belong to the tribe on the island.

We have an awesome vibe on Delos and through smiles, hugs and being the loving and caring person he is, Brady truly brings the best in him to all of us. He is what you would call a professional sailor but I like to see him more like a very skilled adventurer that masters the winds and navigates the world as he unfolds it.

”I love my snorkel and mask, it’s pretty much a part of me”. That’s his snorkel right there incase you didn’t notice.

Like all of us Brady has challenges and hard times in life. On our sail to Barren Island in India we spent a night watch together, the stars covered the sky like a sparkly blanket and we had a sweet sail going 6 knots. He told me that he grew up with pretty bad anxiety issues. Often having random panic attacks when we was young. When he was 18 and went away to university he got a little depressed as well. And sadly, in Brady’s case when he reached out for help, the doctor handed over a little antidepressant pill called Zoloft as the answer. Which in my experience seems to be a false temporary solution for some people. Its meant to be temporary, like a band-aid but unfortunately most people don’t make that next step to stop taking it. Being on regular medication for some time the anxiety and depression went away for Brady. I can only image the relief but also the struggle within to face such dark emotions at such a young age. I believe this is the hard part about listening to his story. Once you start to take the medication, especially at such a developmental stage in life, it becomes a part of you and your personality. He has stopped taking it a few times and even stopped for a year once. But he told me he doesn’t really feel like himself when he doesn’t take it and living on a boat traveling the world isn’t the most stable place to come off such a thing.

“After about a month of not taking the Zoloft my mood gets really low and all the things I really love; sailing, diving, editing videos, etc. all become these extremely difficult tasks that seem impossible to handle. Panic attacks come and go for no reason. And the worst part is, it’s Josje and the people around me who are affected by it too” Brady explained.

“Looking back to when I started taking Zoloft I wish I would have known more about the other options available. Maybe I could have started meditation back then and talked to someone about how I was feeling before taking an antidepressant. It’s a pretty fucked up thing that for years I traveled around the world refilling my prescription in random countries and not one doctor stopped and said `wait why are you taking this medication and why have you been on it so long`. Unfortunately, most doctors get little to no training in holistic and natural approaches to healing. They just listen to what the pharmaceutical companies tell them is right”

I asked Brady if he would share this story with you and he didn’t doubt for one moment. “Fuck yea” he said, “People should know what’s up” He wants you to get the full picture of who he is, including the tough bits. By speaking open heartedly to all of you, maybe someone out there sharing similar experiences would feel less alone? Or at least find support or learn through his experiences. Maybe start by talking to someone about their problems or trying meditation before popping a pill. Living a dream out at sea does not make you immune to real life struggles.

“No matter how rich you are, where you are in the world or how many materialistic things you have, you will always have ups and downs and struggles like every other person on this planet. Its how you choose to approach those struggles and hard times that make the outcomes positive” Brady said to me.

Depression is not something anyone should have to live with, but it is nothing that you should be ashamed of either. That is Brady’s message to you.

 ”It took a long time for me to open up about this to family and friends, but when I did I felt relieved. It’s not a specific experience in my life that caused my depression but something I have inside of me. I spent some time trying to figure out why I’m feeling down but it actually is a chemical imbalance in the brain that makes me experience these emotions. I finally realized this. Some people need glasses to see or a prosthetic leg to walk, well, my brain needs a bit more serotonin to be balanced. I knew I had to accept this part of me but also help myself by working towards a healthier mental state and lifestyle. In my heart I know this will help me become more balanced and in the future when my life is a bit more stable, I will stop taking the Zoloft.”

Meditation is one of Brady’s tools in life to become more balanced and he also practices yoga and what he calls living mindfully, in which he stares at the water for an extended period of time. He even learned some new yoga and meditation techniques in India from an actual yogi; perhaps he will share it with you some day. The ocean is of course a big part of it too, he’s spent many peaceful moments floating in the under water world. I can feel him longing to visit the ocean when he haven’t dived for a while.

Life is so complex but amazing with all it’s emotions and experiences but I believe we can learn from each other in unique ways. Sharing stories is a start, seeing others and yourself is the beginning of writing them.

Sending all my love to you incredible beings out there, you inspired me to start writing about us. You guys are truly awesome and keep on sharing this global friendship. I hope you liked the reading, I’m not sure who’s next but I’m working on it.

Follow my instagram @ fallondrin for more daily love and creativity crossing the Indian Ocean! Stop by and say hello

https://instagram.com/fallondrin/

Sending awesome vibes your way!

Frida

10:00- Took advantage of no morning watch and slept in a bit. Woke to the sound of the motor droning on and on. The rhythm can sometimes be very comforting as it chugs away. Started doing a bit of morning reading.

11:00-15:00 Not a lot going on today. The wind comes and goes. Tried to sail for about two hours but then the wind died completely, making less than .8 knots. Started motoring and the wind came back, but from a different direction. Now we are headed directly towards shallow spots on the chart. Soon we will need to either tack or motor sail to clear them. 360 miles to go until Bassas Da India. If the weather holds we may get to do some diving!

15:00- Karin on watch. Hand over the helm. We have two big hits on the fising lines in the afteroon. We pull them up only to find the leaders bit clean through! Must be something savage down there… We switch to our steel leader and now it’s game one!

16:00- Steel leader also destroyed. What the hell is down there?

17:00- Karin and I watch Harry Potter relaxing. The wind has returned and we’re tacking our way among the reefs, course due south.

19:30- Must have dozed off for a while. Wake up to a loud flapping and Brady yells from the cockpit. The genoa is luffing uncontrollably. I run into the cockpit and Brady is shining a light on the genoa. It has slid half way down the furler. What the hell is going on? Drill time- we don harnesses and lights and run onto the foredeck. The forestay is okay, all rigging is okay and the halyard is still cleated off in its fully up position. The head of the sail must have ripped, or the line tying the head to the furler must have chafed through. First we must get the sail down so we backwind the genoa and pull it down by hand. It goes smooth and we find the sail to be in good condition, the head is still fine. It must be the attaching line. We dig out the bosun’s chair and I resign to going up to the top of the rig at night. We set up the blocks and halyards and Karin points the boat directly into the swell to minimize roll. Jens hoists while Brady and Uli are on the foredeck. I tie myself to the forestay and get slowly lifted. Even though the seas aren’t really that bad the higher I go the more the motion gets magnified. By the time I’m halfway up I’m being slammed around pretty bad and it takes all my strength to avoid being bashed against the furler. I’m twisting and turning as Delos moves with the sea. Eventually I make it to the top of the rig and find sure enough that the line tying the head of the sail to the furler has chafed through. I tie the furling collar and halyard to my harness and start getting lowering down. It’s even more difficult to go down than up as the furler keeps on getting bound up, jerking me to a stop at points and causing me to slam into the stay face first. I take some pretty big blows but eventually make it down to the deck. Success! We re-tie the genoa up and head dead upwind for a hoist. At least the breeze is only about 15 knots otherwise none of this would have been possible. Within 90 minutes we are back underway tacking along the coast. Afterwards I wondered what would happen if you were a single hander? Would you go up the rig at night by yourself? I would have to seriously think about this. It would even be tough for a typical cruising couple in this situation. A good reason to have extra help onboard for longer passage I think.

21:00- Eat some dinner that has now gone cold during the genoa incident and turn in for 30 minutes of rest before watch starts.

22:00- Watch starts and resume tacking along the coast. Making good speed of 5-6 knots but beating into it.

24:00- Pass out exhausted, what a day!

Where’s Delos?

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0800- Awake groggily for watch. Sometime overnight the wind has died and we are back to motoring along. This means lots of power and the ice machine is on. Decide to treat myself to an iced coffee while I read during my watch. The sun is shining and the ocean is calm. No wind. 1000- The wind comes up enough to sail, although of course it’s coming from the exact direction we want to go. Still, sailing in the wrong direction is better than motoring so we tack off in a SE direction, although we really want to go SW. Karin takes over watch and I pass some more time reading and writing this log.

1400- Fish on! Fish on! We throw the line to Uli and tell him to pull like a mad man. It’s his first fish ever I think and he really doesn’t know what do to. Eventually he gets it up on the back step and it’s a beautiful tuna! Somehow Uli doesn’t put the fishing gloves on and cuts his finger on the steel leader. Not too bad though. Next time he won’t forget. I think it’s a big eye but will have to check the book. The 2nd hand line is also tight which I quickly pull in. It’s a much smaller tuna so we unhook it and throw it back. It’s my cooking day so I think I’ll make sushi for dinner tonight!

1400-1700- The sea state has calmed down and it’s pretty smooth sailing. We’re still making good speed and our course has improved as well. I’m able to spend a few hours on the computer editing. The fish alarm goes off again. This time it’s a barracuda. What in the hell is a barracuda doing all the way out here? I don’t think there are any reefs around. Anyway we have plenty of tuna so it’s his lucky day. We throw him back.

1800- Sushi time! I spend some time in the galley slicing the beautiful light red meat of the tuna, slice up one of our last cucumbers left, and make some Wasabi. It’s roll your own sushi night. Neither Jens nor Uli have ever had this experience but they catch on quickly. We feast on simple tuna rolls with rice, cucumber, and pickled ginger. The wasabi is BLASTING! It’s the freshest sushi possible and absolutely melts in your mouth. What a very cool experience to do this outside as the sun sets and Delos sails on. Just fantastic!

2000- I clean up from dinner and finish up my watch. The wind is still decent and even tending a bit Westerly which helps our course. I download a new weather forecast using Predict Wind and the Iridium and it shows by early morning the wind disappearing. I think we will be motoring for too long. We are just about 280 miles from Bassas Da India. Hopefully the weather window holds! Good night!

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0400- Alarm goes off. It’s O’ Dark Thirty and time for watch! I relieve Uli at the helm and all is well except the wind died a few hours ago as predicted. We are now directly on course but motoring along making 4.5-5 knots. We are going slow to try and conserve as much fuel as possible because the forecast looks like more calms in our future.

0530- There is a beautiful sunrise with clear skies and calm seas. It’s a great morning to be on the ocean and I love this time, with just myself and Delos. Everyone is sleeping so it’s very quiet and very peaceful. I make myself an instant coffee and snack on some leftover pasta that was yesterday’s lunch. Before I know it watch is over and Karin relieves me. Sometimes I think a 2 hour watch is too short. Maybe next passage we should do 3 hours.

0630- Decide to get a little work done on the computer while the conditions are calm and before it gets too hot. I think I’ll do a little editing work on my latest Madagascar video.

1000- Head into the cockpit for some fresh air and sun. Decide to read for a few hours. Delos is rolling gently and motoring along nicely. Some massive swells are coming out of the south. I estimate they are 3-4 meters tall but VERY widely spaced. So wide that Delos gradually climbs up and up and up, then down down down the other side. It’s so cool to watch. I get an idea to try and capture Delos rolling over these monsters with the drone. Brady helps me to launch and I get some cool shots of Delos in the middle of the Mozambique Channel, hundreds of miles from the nearest land. I think one of them is maybe good enough to use for this blog. The only problem is the landing was tricky. For some reason I had a real hard time bringing the drone in. I think it was a combination of the motion of Delos and the huge swells. Just as I’d line up for a landing Delos would drop a few meters as she rolled off the front of a swell, which meant I had to go up quickly. Then I was way too high when we came off the back of the swell. A little scary as the battery was getting low and the drone warning me it wanted to return home due to low battery. That would have been bad as our take off position was way behind us now. I’m sure we would never have seen the drone again. Luckily Brady made a great catch and we retrieved it okay.

1200- Decide to do some more reading, then get drowsy and decide to take a little nap before my watch.

1300- Wind! We have Wind! It’s Uli’s watch and I help him get all sail up. Pretty soon we’re cruising along at 6 knots without the motor, on course even. Just as it’s supposed to be.

1400-1600- I have a really great afternoon watch. The sun is shining and the sea is calm. We have 10-15 knots NW wind and Delos is on course and sailing nicely. I decide to do some filming with the Go Pro on a gimbal. I think I got some pretty cool shots, especially slow motion shots of the waves hitting the bow. I can never get tired of sitting up there and watching that. Karin just came on watch so it’s time to rest more. I think another nap is in order :=)

1800- Karin cooks a delicious dinner of seared tuni steaks encrusted with sesame seeds. YUMMY! Rice, wasabi, and soy sauce on the side. Life is good! Decide to head to bed early and watch a little doco. We got some new movies from another cruising boat, Saltbreaker, and I pick one titled “Exit Through The Gift Shop”. It turns out to be a doco about a guy doing a doco about street art. Really very cool and it was a perfect way to end the day. Passed out and set my alarm for watch tomorrow.

Where’s Delos?
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0800- I didn’t have watch until 1000 so Woke up a little confused this morning without the alarm. I thought it was super early but turned out I had slept until 830! Made a little muesli and instant coffee for breakfast and decided to get some work done before while the morning was still cool. First task- empty all the cameras. We had done some filming but hadn’t emptied the cameras in a few days. Spent about 30 minutes copying things to our NAS over the Wi-Fi Network. Started editing another sequence from our time in Madagascar. Made some great progress and the sequence seemed to just fly together. Sometimes it’s like that, sometimes it’s the opposite.

1000-1200- Watch time! It’s sunny, clear blue skies, and not a lick of wind. Delos is ambling along through the endless blue right on course. We are now only 80 miles away from Bassas Da India and on schedule to arrive first light tomorrow. Awesome! I can’t believe we may be able to dive there again! My watch passes quickly and I spend time reading and watching the low swells roll by. They are a bit more on our beam now and are rolling Delos from side to side. Not too much to be uncomfortable, but just enough to make you rock back and forth, back and forth. Constantly. After a while the motion wears on you.

0100- Brady cooks the last of our tuna seared in a pan with rice and beans. You can always count on Brady for a great meal. Lounge in the sun, take a little nap.

0200- It’s so hot we decide to stop Delos and go for a swim. There’s nothing quite like jumping into the ocean. Both exhilarating and terrifying at the same time. Even though there’s almost no chance of something coming out of the deep to snack on you I’d be lying if I said the thought didn’t cross my mind. We hang from a line for a while, letting Delos pull us through the swells. The water is about 2,000 meters deep here. Crystal blue and infinitely clear. Amazing! It also occurs to me just how fast Delos moves and how much effort it takes to keep up. Even with no sails up and barely any breeze she still moves at a knot or two. The thought of being in this position after falling off terrifies me, you’d have no chance of getting back on board without a trailing line if you were by yourself.

0230- After taking a nap in the sun to dry off decide to get a bit more work done and sit down to edit another Madagascar sequence. I’m really happy with the progress I’ve been making on the passage. I’d love to have a preview ready for Karin and Brady by the time we arrive in Durban. We’ll see! The rest of the afternoon seems to fly by. Lots of time to stare at the waves, more reading, more zoning out. Really getting into the passage mode.

0800- My last watch for the day. The sky is clear and stars are coming out. There is absolutely no wind whatsoever and Delos glides along. I decide to take advantage of the calm and fill dive tanks. It takes my about an hour and a half to fill all five. Not too bad. Our ETA for Bassas Da India is 0600 tomorrow. How frickin cool is that?!?!?

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0500- I awake feeling refreshed and excited. Even though I’ve really only had a few hours of sleep – it doesn’t matter. I know within a few hours we’ll be at Bassas Da India! I think back to our trip here last year and the fricking amazing diving we had. I can’t lay in bed any longer so head up on deck before my watch. Uli is on watch, we are on course and only about 10 miles away from the reef.

0600- The sun is almost fully up now and I can see the reef, or rather the intimidating waves breaking on the reef. The wind has come up 15 knots out of the NE and we’ve been sailing for the past few hours. I look at the chart and verify our bearings with the breaking waves in the binoculars, plotting a course to pass by the eastern side of the reef. Since the wind is out of the NE we’ll dive on the SW side and seek as much protection from the swells as possible. Bassas Da India is literally in the middle of nowhere, smack in the middle of the Mozambique Channel. It’s about 300 miles East of Mozambique on the African continent, and 200 NM West of Madagascar. It’s VERY isolated and VERY cool here. There is no land, it’s just a reef, so very little human impact.

0700- I gybe Delos around the Southern part of the reef and the swells calm down. Even though it’s high tide the reef breaks up the huge ground swells and it’s pretty comfortable.

0800- We see a suspicious boat on the horizon, 12 miles away on radar and running along our beam. It’s big and white, and we hope it’s not a French Navy boat. To be here you’re supposed to have a permit. We applied for and got the permit in La Reunion a few months ago but scuba diving is strictly forbidden here according to their rules. They claim it’s for our safety since it’s so remote. We think it’s because Bassas Da India has over 150 known shipwrecks. Tales run wild around here of shipwrecks and treasure. I think if they allowed diving on a commercial scale it would be a free for all. We have no evidence, that’s just our best guess. We hail them on the radio and it turns out to be a huge Russian ship on their way to Japan. They are moving so slowly it looks like they must be fishing. Imagine a 100 meter freezer ship filled to the brim with frozen fish headed to Japan. What does it say when it pays to sail a ship like that half way around the world to fill it with fish? Have the fish stocks in the Pacific really been depleted that much and now the Indian Ocean is next? The way we treat our oceans sickens me.

0930- The water is over 50 meters deep right up until the reef. We decide it’s too deep to anchor Delos and drop Maggie into the water. We’ll leave Delos out floating in the deep and run Maggie back and forth to the reef. We load up our gear and head towards the reef!

0945- SPLASH! Me, Karin, and Uli make up one team and are first in the water. We’re diving in teams because to dive here it takes one person to drive Delos, and one to drive the dinghy and drop off/pick up divers. Yet another reason why it’s good for us to have extra crew onboard. The diving here is to say the least extraordinary. There is an abundance of life everywhere you look and the absence of a human population really shows. Soft corals abound covering every available inch of real estate. Grouper are the biggest we’ve ever seen and grow to be man sized, easily waying 100+ kilos. They have no fear and come right up to the camera, looking right at you as if they were as curious about you as you of them. They come within a meter and just sit there. Floating and watching you. One wrong move on your part and they’re gone in the blink of an eye. And then there are the sharks. Oh man the sharks! These guys are also fearless and very curious. And completely non-aggressive. There are more sharks here than any other place in the world we’ve dove, and we’ve done a bit of diving J. There are white tips, grey sharks, silver tips, hammerheads, and oceanic white tips. We’re pretty sure there are tigers and bulls as well and we can sometimes see them lurking in the distance but they never really pay us any attention and stay pretty far away. The grey’s here are in the 3 meter range (9 ft) so a pretty big animal. They gracefully slide by you always keeping an eye on you probably wondering what the hell you think you’re doing here. I’ve only seen one grey act aggressivly one time, arching its body and changing its swimming style. When they do this you know to back off. It’s really obvious you are in its domain and it’s saying “Give me some space dude!” But these guys were chill, no weird vibes at all. We swam alongside them dive after dive getting some of the best shark footage we’ve ever gotten.

1100- Back to Delos after the first dive and start refilling tanks. I run out in the dinghy and drop off Team 2 (Brady and Jens). They have an epic dive as well.

1230- On our second dive we decide to head a little more along the reef and I start seeing wreckage of some sort. I follow the trail down to 25 meters and find the stern of a ship, long ago wrecked on the reef. It’s not an old pirate ship or anything, but it’s been here a while. There are lots of metal bits, winches, and parts of the super structure. How crazy cool! I find the engine block which is massive! I didn’t think it was possible but there are even more fish around the wreck. Below it, inside it, above it. Fish of every size have made the wreck it’s home. There is coral growing just about everywhere which tells us it’s not that new. What a completely beautiful and peaceful setting. We stay down here until our computers warn us we’re nearing our decompression limits and we’re forced back up to the shallower reef. Oh man, what a fantastic experience to find this here!

1300- We spend the rest of the afternoon diving, filling tanks, and flying the drone during our surface intervals. We each got to do three dives. The weather really has cooperated with us and we had sunny skies, almost no wind, and flat waters. We couldn’t have asked for more.

1500- Just before sunset we put Maggie back on deck and drink a celebratory beer. We did it, diving in one of the most pristine and remote places on the planet! We set sail and slowly head off towards the SW, next stop Durban 683 miles away. Hopefully we have wind!

Where’s Delos?

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0800- The wind filled in last night during watch and we have been sailing since. Not going fast but the motion of Delos is very comfortable. I open the head window on our port side and stare out at the ocean as I use the toilet. I don’t think you can possibly have a better view in the entire world. I fix up a little instant coffee and add some milk to the muesli. I’m pretty eager to look at yesterday’s dive footage. The next three hours fly by and I kind of lose myself looking through yesterday’s events. I’m trying to find a few shots of us with the sharks to send to Delos shore support team to post up for everyone to see. There are more than a few, amazing how much footage we can get in just one day.

1100- I finish looking through the footage and grabbing snapshots. Next up- the ordeal of getting an email sent to Matt who will then post it up for us. You would think this is a simple matter but at sea it’s not quite that easy. First off the connection is incredibly slow. Even sending a normal picture can take hours, and will often fail in the middle. So we use special compression software which of course only runs on an iPad or Android pad. No PCs supported…. The software works good on the iPad, but is honestly a piece of shit for the Android. The only problem is we can’t easily transfer things like pictures and blog posts to the iPad so we’re forced to nurse the Android version along. After about an hour of repeatedly trying different things and some flagrant cursing it finally connects and the images and blog are sent. Hopefully. It’s basically an hour of my life I’ll never get back. Oh well. I also download the weather report through PredictWind and that works well enough. Pretty happy with that software.

1130- I start looking through the weather forecast in PredictWind and notice a coastal low forming and moving up the South African coast, intersecting our course on Thursday or Friday. Uh oh… This is the critical point in the passage where we would be crossing the Agulas current. The forecast is showing 30-40 knots in places and out of the worst possible direction- against the current. This combination is known to cause “ship breaking” standing waves and is the fear of all craft, big of small. It’s nothing to toy around with on this coast. After verifying a few things and discussing with Brady and Karin we decide to alter our course and divert to Mozambique. If we can cover the distance between us and Maputo by Thursday afternoon, we can get a protected anchorage and wait out the weather then take advantage of the Northerly winds that will follow as the low moves East. We need to maintain an average speed of 5.7 knots to cover the distance leaving us a safety margin. There isn’t much wind and we’re only making about 3 knots so we decide to motor sail to make up the difference.

1900- The entire day went by pretty uneventful. The wind went away, came back, went away, and was generally being un-cooperative. We’ve also had an unexpected 2 knot current against us most of the day. This means even though our speed through the water has maintained 6 knots we have only been averaging 4 knots over the ground. If this keeps up, we will not make Maputo in time and we’ll need to batten down the hatches and prepare to ride everything out at sea. We also checked our fuel and found we have enough to motor for another 4 days straight. Sounds like a lot but under the best of conditions this is barely enough for us to motor all the way to Durban. And our conditions have been less than ideal. We decide that we would use half of our remaining fuel and reserve the other half. If we make it to Maputo this gives us just enough to motor to Richards Bay. The last thing we want is to be stuck out here bobbing around in the current with no wind and these nasty lows rolling by. I think tomorrow afternoon we’ll need to make a go or no-go decision on whether we can make it to Maputo in time. I think we’re in sort of strange counter current, a spin off from the predominant Mozambique current. Hopefully this is true and we’ll start picking up positive current over the next 12 hours. If not there’s no chance we’ll make it to cover in time and we’ll make preparations to ride things out at sea, staying East of the current which should minimize the wave heights. Let’s hope the wind and current cooperate with us. If not, we’ll just go slow and heave to through the worst of it.

Where’s Delos?

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0630- Awake to blue skies and the drone of Delos engine. I stare out the hatch for a while wondering where could all the wind have possibly gone? In just a few days it will be 40 knots here but now nothing when we need it the most.

0800- Time for watch. I check our position and found we actually made some good miles last night. Motoring through the night with current in our favor made a difference. We can now reach Maputo by 0600 Thursday morning if we maintain 5.4 knots, which is definitely doable. Especially if the current stays with us. Since our fuel supply is precious I reduce the RPM’s on the Volvo to about 1,200. This is the minimum amount to maintain just over 5.4 knots. The rest of my watch is uneventful and I spend the time reading and staring at the small swells out there. 1200- I have been working doing some editing on the computer since my watch ended. But now I’m getting hungry and decide to go out and see what the hell the status with lunch is. It turns out it’s my cooking day so shame on me. I whip up a little pasta chicken salad and it got pretty good reviews. Well done Capt. Breeyawn! I go back do editing for another hour or so.

0100- Tired of the computer head up to the cockpit for fresh air and a bit of reading. Not much going on. There is a tiny puff of wind but not enough to sail. I decide to check our fuel and find out we have about 150 liters left. This is actually more than I thought so, pleased with that. It’s enough to motor for another 2.5 days if necessary, even more if we keep the RPM really low like we did today.

0300- Wind! We have wind! The sails stop flapping and start pulling Delos forward. We shut down the Volvo and actually have wind out of the North, which means downwind sailing. The best! The fish alarm goes off a few times but nothing hooks up on the lure. I pull them in to check the hooks and lures and all is well. We get an email back from Maretron technical support with some troubleshooting steps on our wind gauge. I can’t remember if I mentioned it before but it’s been acting up like crazy. For example, right now it’s blowing 10-15 but the readout says 60 knots. It’s all over the place. We really want to get it sorted before rounding the cape so I spend a few hours checking the connections as recommended. I’ll need to relay the findings back to Maretron via email on the Iridium and then wait for a response. Hope to have it sorted soon. 0600- It’s time for my afternoon watch, but also time to cook dinner. I decide to do a hybrid curry. Green Curry Base using a few cloves of garlic and some leftovers from last night’s dinner (mashed potatoes namely). There is also some left over Zebu meat so I chop that up and chuck it in the pot. I add a can of butter beans, a can of mini corns, and a can of peas. We are nearly out of fresh veggies so hitting the can supply from now on. We are running low on white rice so I opt for brown even though it takes longer to cook. The experiment is a success, the Zebu mixed with the Thai Green Curry had a really nice flavor.

1100- We are still sailing! Speed- 7.5 knots headed directly towards Maputo with 10-15 out of the North. 156 miles to go so if all holds together looks like we will make it just before the weather rolls out of the south. Fingers crossed!

Where’s Delos?

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0400- Wake up to dark skies and light breeze. We have sailed for a good part of the night which is nice. Surprisingly I’m not very tired even though I stayed up last night to watch a very weird movie called “Cell” with John Cusack. Sort of a modern twist on your typical zombie apocalypse thriller. Interesting.

0530- The wind dies and leaves Delos wallowing about with sails flapping. Bummer. Furl in the genoa and leave the main and mizzen up to try and stabilize us. Start the trusty Volvo and start motoring. Maputo is less than 100 miles away now so getting closer.

0600- My watch ends and Karin takes over. I head back to bed for a few more hours of snoozing. 1000- Wake up and have the normal coffee and muesli for breakfast. Decide to do a few hours of reading in the cockpit. A bird joined us in Bassas Da India a few days ago and he’s hitchhiked a ride from us ever since. I see him scurry on the foredeck seeking shelter from the sun. I sure hope he hangs on until we see land again. I decide to get some work done and do some editing. A few hours fly by but I’m making great progress on my Madagascar footage. Lunch is left over curry hybrid from last night. Why is it always even better on the 2nd day?

1300- Motoring, motoring, motoring. Then suddenly I hear the wind generator kick on and there’s enough to sail! Yeah, the engine goes off and Delos immediately stabilizes. We still have some current against us but at least we’re on course and not burning our precious fuel. Brady downloads the latest weather forecast and it looks like things have changed in our favor. The nasty low coming has been pushed aside by a relatively stable high pressure system. This means the wind will be maybe 20-25 out of the south for less than a day which is something we can deal with. If we head into Maputo we will most likely need to stay there for 5 days given the systems coming around the cape. If we change course and head due south from our current position, we can then turn West when the southerlies come. After a few minutes of debating pros and cons we decide to turn south immediately and keep our sea room off the coast, about 100 miles as of right now. If we plan it right we can ride out the southerlies on our port tack approaching the coast, then bare away when they switch to northerly. At which point we should be very close to Durban. If the forecast holds steadily over 8 knots. We also are in the good current now giving us speed over the ground between 9 and 10 knots. Awesome! If this holds for even a day at this speed we will be passing Richards Bay, 190 miles to our south. Durban is another 90 miles south of that. So if things look bad we can bail to Richards Bay to wait out weather. Hopefully it holds and the southerlies don’t knock us around too badly.

2200- Watch time again. The breeze is still holding but has definitely diminished. By the end of my watch at 2400 it’s switched from NE to N, and now NW then almost dropped to nothing. This sucks because there are still pretty big swells coming on the NE and now no wind to stabilize it. The genoa bangs back and forth, snapping from back winded to full. It’s probably the most annoying thing because there’s really nothing you can do to help. The boat isn’t steady, she rolls and pitches and bangs as the swells smack her from all over the place. Oh how short lived were our perfect sailing conditions. It’s Karin’s watch now and I decide to help her put up the pole and gybe to the other tack. There is now 10 knots out of the NW and this helps a little bit. Delos is now making 5 knots at least and not banging around so badly with the pole to hold out the genoa. We expect the breeze to swing all the way around to the South and then finally South East tomorrow. We have made good on our Easting, so have some room to play with off the coast when the South East winds kick in.

Where’s Delos?

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0300- The wind has changed again, I can feel it from my bunk and it wakes me up. The motion of the boat becomes jerky and irregular. I’m trying to think back on another passage where the wind has been so temperamental. I’m hard pressed, this has to be one of the worst… It only sticks around a few hours as if to tease you then disappears leaving you wallowing and clanking in the swells. I can’t take it anymore so roll out of bed and talk to Jens who is on watch. I suggest we start motor sailing which we do and it stabilizes us a little bit. For the time being at least now we can sleep a little more.

0600- I awake to hear Brady tacking the boat. Interesting, the wind must have shifted a lot to be on our starboard tack now. The motion settles down and I fall asleep quickly. Brady knows what he’s doing so no worries.

0800- I feel us tacking again, the wind must be shifting again. I roll out of bed and head up to the cockpit. We are now back on port tack and through the morning the wind has changed from SW to S and now to SE. This is the change we’ve been expecting. So far it looks like the weather forecast is spot on. It’s 15-20 knots and Delos is making good speed. 8 knots through the water plus 1.5 knots of current! The swells aren’t so big yet so the motion is pretty comfortable.

1000- It’ time for my watch so I put down my book and take over the helm. We are on course and making good speed although the wind has built to 25 knots now and we put a 2nd reef in all the sails. Within an hour I fully take the main in leaving just a reefed genoa and mizzen. Otherwise we go too fast and start slamming through waves. The swells are building and Delos is rocking and rolling, doing what she does best on the ocean. 8.5 knots on course and cruising! We are heeling over at a constant 20 degrees, sometimes 30 when we get hit with a big wave but this is what she was built to handle. I grab the Go Pro with gimbal and do some filming from the back deck of how Delos handles the wind and swells. I never get tired of watching this. Jens and Uli are a little bit nervous of the weather I think. Neither of them have sailed in ocean conditions like this and I think they wonder if she will hold together. I remember thinking the exact same thing on my first ocean passage so I try to comfort them, letting them know the conditions really are pretty normal for this type of sailing and it probably wouldn’t last too long.

1200- The conditions continue to build and we put another reef in the genoa. Delos is slamming through waves which puts a shudder through the entire boat. It doesn’t happen that often but every once in a while a wave comes at a slightly different angle, and of just the perfect size. You can feel the bow start to hang in midair for a brief instant, then the plummet down followed by the loud SLAM. Delos is balanced and sailing really well. Karin takes our Xoom microphone around the boat recording the sounds of Delos underway. Creaks, groans, trimming of sails, water rushing by. We’re trying to incorporate more sound effects in the videos so it’s pretty cool to have these. Brady makes a delicious chicken soup for lunch.

1300- We take a few big waves over Delos and get some splashes into the cockpit. Nothing out of the ordinary but still really fun the watch the expressions on the newbies faces

1500- I decide to head below and watch a movie. I pick a random one called “Dope” which actually is really well done. Two hours fly by and I check our course and position. We’re doing very well and the forecast has been accurate. The breeze has backed a little more to the East. Maintaining our course becomes easier now that we’re another 15 degrees off the wind. We are about 100 miles off shore, 110 mile from Richards Bay, and about 200 miles from Durban. If we can maintain good speed that puts us into Durban before tomorrow night. Exciting!

Where’s Delos?

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0300- Another wind shift wakes me.  The wind goes slack and seems to be toying with us.  Never content long enough to make much progress.  Delos slams around uncomfortably until Brady starts the engine and we make a little forward progress.  Yuck, it’s gonna be another one of those days.

0600- I’m on watch now and it’s a grey, cloudy day that threatens of rain. It’s actually cold and for the first time in 6 months I need to put on a sweater.  Not much going on watch wise, we pass about 20 miles off of Richards Bay and I can see the cargo ships in the outer anchorage on radar. We’re getting close, only 90 more miles to go!

1100- It starts raining and the wind swings through 180 degrees.  Backwinds the sails and it’s not very fun.  Karin is on watch and I help her furl in the genoa, we’ll just motor until it settles out.

1500- Still motoring, the wind hasn’t developed like it was supposed to.  Oh well, I suppose that’s better than having it against us.  The one thing is we do have current against us now.  How could that be?  In what’s supposed to be the best place for current we have a knot against us.  We’re all convinced that nature is conspiring against us at this point.  But, only 30 miles to go now.  If we can maintain 6 knots that puts us in right after sunset. Fingers are crossed!

1530- Land Ho!!!!  We spot the African continent!  Oh man it never gets old seeing land after being at sea for so long.  In a split moment all the adverse wind and weather disappear from your mind. You come to the realization that you are nearly there.

1700- We are about 3 miles from the Port Of Durban and I hail them on channel 09 to notify of our arrival.  They respond right away and ask give us permission to enter the port.  SWEEET!  We’re asked to call again when we enter the breakwater.

1730- The city of Durban looms on the horizon and it is MASSIVE!  It’s been so long since we’ve seen anything bigger than a bamboo hut, and here tall buildings loom on the beach like something from a crazy sci-fi novel.  We contact port control again and they say shipping traffic is quiet, come right on in!  In fact, they are super nice and really helpful.  The man in the tower has us in sight and asks if we’re ever been in the port.  When we answer no he says, “No problem, I’ll guide you.”  He gives us step by step instructions and says he’ll follow our progress.  A few minutes later we get another call saying we’re looking good, and to proceed straight ahead to the Durban marina which should be just off our bow now.  People always surprise me with their friendliness.  You think he would have something more to do then worry about a little white sailboat coming into his massive shipping harbor put for some reason he pays a lot of attention to us and it’s very comforting.

1745- We approach the marina and I see a boat on AIS with Capn’ Fatty on the boat name.  It’s anchored out before the marina and I think back to the days when I used to read cruising world magazine, dreaming of setting sail.  I remember Captain Fatty wrote an article in there.  I wonder if it’s the same guy or just a coincidence.  Pretty cool if it’s actually him, would be awesome to chat with such a legend.

1800- We are just backing into our slip when Port Control calls again to ask if we got a slip okay.  Too cool for him to check up on us again.  The people here seem really nice.

2000- We head up the dock for a quick burger and beer at the yacht club. Technically we shouldn’t leave the boat but we aren’t venturing far, and I’m pretty sure we can talk our way out of it since we just arrived that night if any immigration are lurking.  All goes well and we crash back on Delos early and sleep through the ENTIRE NIGHT.  No sail changes, no watches.  And it’s awesome

———-THE NEXT DAY—————–

0600- Awake bright and early with the sun.  The marina doesn’t open until 0800 so we mill around with nothing much to do.

0800- The marina finally opens and we get in contact with Immigration.  They are super chill and since it’s the weekend we are asked to walk to the immigration and customs.  We arrive and are behind a cargo ship clearing in. I see Russians, Phillipinos, and a few other nationalities.  When our turn comes up the official is super nice, stamps our passports with no problems and gives us a huge smile.  “Welcome To South Africa!”  It takes about 5 minutes.  The same thing with customs.  He’s listening to Reggae and chilling with his feet up on his desk.  It’s just us and him.  “Nice music man!” Says Brady as an Ice Breaker.  A Bob Marley tune is drifting out from his computer.  “Yeah man, it’s the weekend.” he says with a huge smile.  He stamps our form, gives us another huge smile and says “Welcome To South Africa!”  Super friendly, super easy.  Probably one of the quickest and easiest check-in’s we’ve ever had.  We head to the Kwik Spar for a snack then to the yacht club for long hot showers and beers.  Carmen Gee (crew from Cape Town to La Reunion) meets us and is taking us for Bunny Chow later. We have our local guide hooked up now and life is good.

Thanks for following the daily blog everyone, it was a lot of fun to do.  I hope it gave you a little glimpse into the daily routine of Delos on passage, although the weather was way more finicky than usual.

Peace and Love to you all.  -Brian

Where’s Delos?

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