Sailing Catamaran SAVITA
Blog Post
La Gomera June 2019
Ganesh Jung • June 28, 2019
In June we passed two weeks between the Canarian Islands and saw lots of interesting wildlife.
With two children and two couples on board we had much swimming, snorkling and sun bathing time and very little wind.
We had an impressive view on Teneriffa and it's Mount Teide.
Only on 2 days out of six we had some wind for sailing and we used it to pull up the lighter and bigger Parasail. A great sail I am happy to have on board.
We visited the hippie village of La Caleta on a day with beatiful sunset.
Here's a roundup of the trip with many wildlife sightings.
From Tahiti we continued the Pacific crossing and reached Auckland via Fiji.
After a month of Corona Quarataine in Panama, Shelter Bay, we passed through the Panama channel and continued our journey towards Tahiti.
Starting from Sal in Capeverde this trip led us to Martinique in the Caribbean. We were five on the boat, watch our story here.
On our way from the Canaries to the Capverdes we caught another fishernet. We were sailing, no motor on and the net was abandoned and free floating in the middle of the ocean. When we caught the net the boat suddenly turned quickly and we first thought the autopilot was broken. Later we saw the net trailing behind the boat. The weather was calm and all crew members helped with the diving, so we were able to get free again.
When we visited La Caleta in June we met Hussein who has lived in La Caleta for over a year. We became friends quickly and he offered to organize a beach party. We set the date on September full moon, Saturday, 14th of September. Friends came from different places, planes were booked and everybody was picked up to join the event. Getting all the food and people the boat to the beach through the waves was an adventure and the night was magic. Next morning the guests had to swim back through the waves to get back to the boat. They will remember the night for long. During the next days the after party continued with water games.
On our way from the Canaries to the Azores we caught a beautiful Mahi Mahi. Watch the video to see it.
From Las Palmas to Madeira it is 280 nm. With a fast ship you need - depending on the wind - 2 days. Luckily we experienced again that the SAVITA is a fast ship. The crew consisted of Jens and me and of course the autopilot and the radar of SAVITA. We had the wind against us and hacked, barely we left Las Palmas, on starboard tack with 8-9 knots into the waves. Jens had terrible pains in his back as the waves tortured his stomach. He cursed the day when he had started sailing, and decided to stop as soon as possible.
With Alisios Sailing in Las Palmas I have found a good partner to equip the SAVITA for the crossing. I am planning to glue some of these thin flexible solar panels to the hard top and to get a Watt&Sea hydrogenerator to have sufficient electricity available without running the generator several times a day. When the radar is on the SAVITA uses over 20 Amperes of energy also running the autopilot, 2 fridges and 2 of the 3 chartplotters. This equals 240 watts of power and brings the batteries down to 50% in half a day, so good electric supply is essential. I will also add more batteries, hoping that after a sunny day the systems will get over the night without running the hydrogenerator. On the other side the hydrogenerator can deliver over 600 watts giving us enough electricity for cloudy days.
Transfer of SAVITA from Tangier to Las Palmas de Gran Canaria
It was a 12 hour ride from Munich to La Rochelle. We started on Monday 4. March in a Volkswagen Crafter full with 30 boxes containing everything I could imagine we would need on board. This included for example 2 guitars, a printer/scanner and 4 deck chairs to prepare for many guests on board.