NOVAS MENSAGENS

O PHOENICIA atraca em Mayotte

SEGUNDA MENSAGEM DO DIA

Mensagem do Capitão Philip

Mayotte, Comoros Islands

We have had an interesting 48 hours with many mixed emotions. Yesterday the wind died on us and we made just 70 miles towards Mayotte and we wondered just how long it would take us to make landfall. The early this morning the winds were fresh and for much of the day we have done 5-6 knots and we worried about entering a lee shore with a large reef around it. We lowered the main sail about 3 miles off the reef and carefully made our way through the entrance passage to Mayotte. On reaching the entrance we were greeted by a magnificent pod of dolphins, as if they were sent to welcome us. We are now witnessing an amazing sunset but our anchorage is still some 10 miles further along inside the reef, so we won't anchor until after dark. But we are still hoping the customs and port officials will clear us tonight so we can eat some decent French food after six and a half weeks at sea!

PS. We are now at anchor 2158 local time.



PRIMEIRA MENSAGEM DO DIA

Mensagem de Alice, secretária geral doProjeto PHOENICIA, no Reino Unido, enviada hoje a Vera Sanada:

Dear Vera

Phoenicia will arrive within the hour at her destination: Mayotte, in the Comors Islands. I am pleased to say there were no major problems on this last leg and Phoenicia has completed her longest ocean passage thus far - over one month at sea. She has proved that she can stand up to strong winds, pirates and monsoon conditions.

Philip has looked at the timings for the next 2 legs and asked me to pass on this information. Please find below ETA/ETD for Mayotte, Beira and Richard's Bay.

ETA MAYOTTE 10 Dec 2009 (today)
ETD MAYOTTE 16 Dec 2009

LEG MAYOTTE – BEIRA ESTIMATED 12-14 DAYS.
ETA BEIRA 29 Dec 2009
ETD BEIRA 03 Jan 2010

LEG BEIRA – RICHARDS BAY ESTIMATED 10 DAYS
ETA RICHARD'S BAY 12 JAN 2010

Best wishes

Alice

NOVAS MENSAGENS

Posição11.19.0S 47.22.2E
Data: 07 de dezembro

Arwad meets Arwad in Chance encounter North of Madagascar

On Monday morning Phoenicia had a chance encounter with Syrian owned and crewed ship Aboudi V. Aboudi V had come from Socotra, Yemen and was on the same course as Phoenicia and heading towards Mozambique. The crew of Aboudi V is mainly made up of seamen from Arwad Island where Phoenicia was built and gave them a first chance to see Phoenicia in under sail.

Mohamad Osman, the owner of Aboudi V, on hearing of the encounter kindly offered to provide some much needed chicken and rice and other supplies for the crew of Phoenicia. However a transfer between the two vessels was abandoned on account of the swell and in view of the fact that Phoenicia is now less than 200 miles from her destination at Mayotte. Nevertheless it is hoped that the ship’s paths may cross again as Phoenicia will also be heading for Mozambique following her stop over in Mayotte. Pictures show Phoenicia’s chance encounter with Aboudi V.


Mesma mensagem com tradução para o português

Reunião de Arwad com Arwad em encontro casual no norte de Madagascar

Na manhã de segunda-feira o Phoenicia teve um encontro casual com o navio da Síria e tripulação do navio Aboudi V.

Aboudi V está vindo de Socotra, Iémen no mesmo curso que o Phoenicia em direção a Moçambique. A tripulação do Aboudi V é composta principalmente de marinheiros da Ilha Arwad, onde o Phoenicia foi construído e deu-lhes a oportunidade de ver o barco com as velas.

Mohamad Osman, proprietário do Aboudi V, satisfeito com o encontro, gentilmente ofereceu algumas galinhas, arroz e outros suprimentos, muito necessários para a tripulação do Phoenicia.
No entanto, a transferência entre as duas embarcações foi abandonada devido à ondulação e tendo em vista o fato de que o Phoenicia está agora a menos de 200 milhas de seu destino em Mayotte.

Espera-se que o caminho do navio cruze novamente com o Phoenicia, que seguirá para Moçambique após sua parada em Mayotte.

As imagens mostram o encontro do Phoenicia com Aboudi V.

NOVAS MENSAGENS

PHOENICIA comemora aniversário de Yuri a bordo

3rd December 2009
010° 52.731S, 055° 32.272E
Blog 20 plus photographs: Grey skies ahead

Yesterday we celebrated Yuri's birthday and amongst other things we made an oat cake for him. The attached pictures shows him handing out a piece to another member of the crew.

Progress towards Mayotte has been fair. At times we have made dramatic progress with strong winds and speeds of around 6 knots. These have been compensated for by dull periods of light rainy winds where we have only managed to do 2-3 knots. Still we are closing the gap on Mayotte and have about 600 miles to run. An ETA of Tuesday is still looking optimistic except when we were doing 6 knots but that didn't last for many hours.

During the night we experienced a fair bit of rain, lightening and thunder storms. We also experienced a rather dramatic wind-shift that sent the boat spinning for a while amongst large waves till we could re-brace the sails.

An anxious moment because it was so sudden but it soon passed and we were back on course within a minute or two. As the other picture shows, we are constantly on the look out for grey skies with heavy rain clouds, so we can anticipate the next soaking and whether to furl the sail if needs must. To date the wind forces from the rain clouds have been manageable. In the foreground of the picture is Phoenicia's Zuli or head/PC and one of our three Viking Liferafts. Hopefully we won't be needing the latter anytime soon but we certainly got a bit of a taste for things to come on the weather front during the early hours of this morning.

NOVAS MENSAGENS

Nova mensagem acaba de nos chegar do Oceano Índico. Desta vez, com fotos.


29th November 2009
09 54.7S, 60.48E
Blog 18 and a couple of Photographs!

They say you know when you get to the south east trade winds when you get there. Well we have certainly arrived and for the last three days have averaged just under a hundred miles a day, as we continue to head southwest towards even better and more consistent winds predicted at around 11 degrees south.Meanwhile the piracy situation remains much as before with new incidents to the west and south west of us between Seychelles and Dar Es Salaam. Having come rather too close to comfort to a group of pirates to the north east of the Seychelles, we have taken the decision to divert to the Comoros Islands and Mayotte in particular. Although as our security advisers Drum Cussac point out, there are pirates in many areas of the world and pirates have operated not that far away from the Comoros islands, by diverting to Mayotte we will at least be reducing our chances of being hijacked. And with some 900 miles to run we hope to be there around the 8th or 9th December assuming the south easterly trade winds continue to blow.Meanwhile the end of our sugar supplies hasn't caused too much discomfort. That may not be true when our rice and pasta run out over the next week! However we have large stocks of lentils, red beans, buck wheat, corned beef, sausages, sweet corn, tinned fruit, porridge oats, raisins, tea and coffee. Water supplies are holding up especially as we have been collecting rain water to augment our supplies. So whilst the last days of our voyage may not be as comfortable as some would like, we are unlikely to starve or go thirsty. At the moment we are just crossing the Malha bank to the south east of the Seychelles where the water is just 20 meters deep and this morning Dirman hauled in a large 20lb groupa which has provided an excellent meal for lunch. No wonder he looks happy in the picture with the prized garoupa and Rashid. The other picture is of Phoenicia early last week when we were becalmed and taken by Aziz from the inflatable.