Sailing Catamaran SAVITA

Blog Post

Tangier to Las Palmas

Ganesh Jung • April 27, 2019

Transfer of the SAVITA from Tangier to Las Palmas for the naming ceremony

I found this great crew on findacrew.net. We met in Tangier and planned to start 4. April, but things come out different ...

The boat wasn't able to start in La Rochelle because of the problems with Naviop (see previous blog article) and arrived in Tangier with 10 days of delay. We spend the days in the Medina of Tangier. It's a wonderful international city, but the streets are mostly populated with the male inhabitants.

The first night after leaving Tangier our propellers got tangled in a fishernet around midnight. The night was dark with clouds and no moon, so we were drifting with no motor in the dark.

The fishermen came in a very old wooden fisherboat, drove extremely close to our stern and shouted a lot in Arabic. One of them even hopped on the SAVITA and tried to cut free the net. After several close approaches they finally managed to crash their side into our bathing platform and we heard a big crash. I was very relieved when I saw that the old wooden fisherboat had a hole in it's side, but we only received a scratch.

After some time I managed to cut us free from the net although the rest of the net was still tangled in the propeller. We had that fisherman on the boat, but they had that hole in their boat and started to return to land. They did not take their man back on board and left. We set our jib and also started to get away. We told that fisherman that we are going to Gran Canaria. After about half an hour he was picked up by another fisherboat. I have no idea how they managed to find us again in the middle of the night as these boats have to VHF and no AIS.

After he had been picked up we continued sailing with main and jib knowing that both propellers were still blocked. And in that night we got tangled in a second net. Until today I have no idea how we could have avoided this as those nets were not marked and drifting on the surface. Maybe you have to go out of Tangier in a straight line until you reach 10-15nm distance from land where it should be safe from these nets.

Next morning I used the brand new freedive diving compressor to dive down and cut us free from the nets. What a great device!

With 25 knots of wind and the Gennaker up we managed to make 15-20 knots of speed and reached the Canaries quickly. We were one day early took some some time for sleeping and bathing anchored in front of La Graciosa that nice little island in the north of Lanzarote.

Saturday morning we reached Las Palmas just in time when the first guests of the naming ceremony arrived.

Tahiti to Auckland

By Ganesh Jung • March 12, 2023
From Tahiti we continued the Pacific crossing and reached Auckland via Fiji.

Panama to Tahiti

By Ganesh Jung • March 12, 2023
After a month of Corona Quarataine in Panama, Shelter Bay, we passed through the Panama channel and continued our journey towards Tahiti.

Trans-Atlantic and the Caribbean 

By Ganesh Jung • April 22, 2020
Starting from Sal in Capeverde this trip led us to Martinique in the Caribbean. We were five on the boat, watch our story here.

Cabo Verde 10/2019

By Ganesh Jung • January 8, 2020
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.

La Caleta beachparty + future plans

By Ganesh Jung • November 7, 2019
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.

Azores July 2019

By Ganesh Jung • November 7, 2019
On our way from the Canaries to the Azores we caught a beautiful Mahi Mahi. Watch the video to see it.

La Gomera June 2019

By Ganesh Jung • June 28, 2019
With two children and two couples on board we had much swimming, snorkling and sun bathing time and very little wind.

Madeira in May 2019

By Ganesh Jung • June 7, 2019
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.

Equipment changes, current defects, future plans

By Ganesh Jung • May 20, 2019
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.

Viewing the boat in La Rochelle

By Ganesh Jung • April 27, 2019
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.
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