Sailing Tropical Dawn

In this episode of our podcast we talk about our future sailing plans now that we are back home in Cape Town. We are not planning to do weekly podcasts any more for now, but if you like hearing what we are up to you can listen to our weekly Princess and The Big Blue […]

We are so happy to be back in South Africa, and not just because we were tired of being on the water and love having solid ground under our feet. We both missed the very special country on the southern end of the African continent. In today’s podcast episode we’ll tell you about our experiences […]

We recorded a podcast episode during our passage from Brazil to South Africa, about two weeks in. Reflections on our departure from Cabedelo and the start of the big South Atlantic passage.

After 45 days at sea, crossing the South Atlantic from Cabedelo, Brazil to Cape Town, South Africa, we are back home. It wasn’t an easy passage, and not just because it was our longest yet. We’ll tell all about it in this episode of our podcast.

A special episode of our podcast where we look back at our time spent in Brazil.

This week on our podcast we talk about our last minute preparations ans our offerings to the orisha of the water.

Our engine is finally fixed, but we are still in Cabedelo, Brazil, so what’s up with that? Listen to find out. We also complete our the safety inspection for the boat, tasted a delicious chocolate pizza and pizza pie, Brazilian style. Content warning: towards the end of the podcast we talk about violence and safety […]

We are still in Cabedelo, Brazil. We’ll explain where we are with our engine repairs and when we think we’ll leave here. And we get into a rant or two.

We are still ion Brazil and not crossing an ocean. What is happening with our engine and how did we get around coming to the end of our 90 day tourist visa in Brazil? Listen to this week's episode of our podcast to find out!

The engine is finally back inside the boat and we are preparing for our big passage from Brazil back to Cape Town. We went on a nice weekend outing to Pipa with our Brazilian friend Thallys.

We went back in the water, after finishing painting a few new layers of anti fouling, checking the seacocks, replacing the anodes and a few other things. Other great news is that the parts for the engine have finally arrived so hopefully it will be repaired soon!

This week we talk about gender roles within the sailing context and how the principle of "there can only be one skipper on board" can conflict with relating as equals within a romantic partnership. But before that, we talk about what we did this week, such as learning to dance Forró and Coco getting pricked.

This week we are reflecting on some big news we shared with the world as well as on the fact that we got married exactly 4 years ago. We have some good news regarding our diesel engine repairs and have been enjoying the Brazilian music and food.

This week we made a few different boat outings here in João Pessoa, Paraíba, Brazil. Dimi went sailing on a dingue, a Brazilian made Sailing dingy, with our friend Fernando. We watched the solar eclipse, right here in Jacaré at the marina. We went snorkelling to the Piscinas do Seixas, getting there on a pirate […]

We are still trying to get our diesel engine fixed, it feels like we are getting closer to getting this resolved. Keeping our fingers crossed. Our rudder is also getting closer to being fixed and good for another few years in the water. Luckily it wasn't all work and no play, our Brazilian friends took us to see the São Francisco church and cultural centre and some other special places.

This week Coco (and we) made a new friend at the laundromats. Some friends left and some friends arrived. Some of the stuff we ordered online arrived. Frustrations mounted as we scraped endless layers of paint off the rudder. And we got some not so good news regarding our engine.

So what happened to our boat and us this week? Some good things and some bad, ups and downs, sweet and dour! Listen to this week's episode of Sailing Tropical Dawn to get the lowdown.

We managed to get ahead on some of the boat work and we also finally have some more information on our diesel engine.

There's a saying among sailors that cruising is just fixing your boat in exotic places. We are still in Jacaré/Cabedelo Brazil and we might be for a while longer since we are getting our diesel engine and a few other things fixed.

We catch up with the crew of S/V Trinity in Cabedelo, Brazil before they head North and we head South. We chat a bout our respective experiences in sailing from Str Helena to Brazil as well as things that can and did go wrong.

This week we elaborate on our experiences being in the North East of Brazil, going to Cabedelo and João Pessoa, Paraíba. What we learnt about the culture, religion and just in general about Brazil and this beautiful region. Oh yes, and food!

We've been in Cabedelo, Brazil (or more specifically Jacaré) for a week and a half now so we can give our first impressions of what it is like here for us. We love the food, the weather, the culture, etc. Listen to the episode to hear why.

While under way Kay and Dimi each separately recorded some of their reflections. As an added bonus there is also a recording of the background noises on the boat during the passage.

We made it to Brazil! We rejoiced in a similar way when we got to St Helena, but this time the passage was challenging in different ways, it was longer and it was harder but we also got new things out of it because of that.

We are about halfway on our passage from Jamestown, St Helena to Cabedelo, Brazil or at least we should be.

This week we talk about our experience sailing/cruising with a dog, how we got our mini pooper to do her business on the boat, and other challenges we faced.

We are leaving St Helena after a bit more than three months. We enjoyed our time here and are sure we will be back. This episode we reminisce about what make this island such a special place.

We won't be flying back to South Africa today, we explain what will happen in today's bonus episode.

A very short podcast episode today as we are still in limbo wether we can fly back to South Africa with Coco or not. We'll post updates as soon we know more.

An update as to what is happening with us in St Helena and our plans to fly back to Cape Town. We also elaborate on our reasons for taking a break from cruising and why Cape Town might be the worst place to get started cruising.

What is the downwind sailing trap and what does it mean for would be sailors? We talk about a big decision we made just this week, why we have come to that decision, our immediate and future plans.

This week we touch on some of the underbelly stuff that we have learnt over the time that we have been here. There is no perfect place in the world, all countries have their issues and St Helena is no different.

This week we talk about the things we usually don't talk about such as money and the difficulty with getting online or getting certain things. We don't like complaining but we do want to mention these, so that's what this week's episode is about.

This week we talk about Coco's play date with Pepe, our freedive course, waking up at night in fear of running aground (don't worry, everything was fine), yachts leaving and arriving, watching Hornblower and Dirty Dancing, and more.

This week on Sailing Tropical Dawn we have guests on our podcast, or rather we were guests on board of S/V Trinity. Franko, Annalie, and their daughter Sadie talk about their sailing experience so far, buying a second hand Dean 365 catamaran and sailing it from Knysna, South Africa to St Helena island.

Another week on this small island in the middle of the South Atlantic ocean and some more adventures. The past week we rented a car, drove around the island, found a stone that rings when you hit it, groomed some donkeys at the donkey sanctuary, the ship finally arrived and we were able to get some onions, Dimi went on a fishing trip and saw same amazing sea creatures, and more.

We talk about what our week on St Helena island looked like: we went for an (early) night out, celebrated St Helena day and climbed Jacob's Ladder. We bought a little FM radio and tuned in to the two local radio stations. And we talk about what a day looks like for us as we are moored here.

We gave our first impressions of St Helena island a few weeks ago, now that we have been here for a month we can tell you a bit more. We chat about the history of the island and some of the interesting Saints and yachties we have met.

In this week's episode we talk about Kirsten Neuschäfer and the Golden Globe Race she just won and why it is such a big deal. We also talk about our other sailing heroes: Bernard Moitessier and Joshua Slocum and why all of them inspire us.

On today's podcast episode, recorded while at anchor at St Helena, we'll talk about the size of our boat and why (for us) our 31 foot (9.3 meter) long boat is big enough.

We love St Helena Island! This week we tell you why. This week we share our first impressions of the island, and about our visit to the hospital, with a shot of Dimi’s crotch.

This week’s episode is about our passage from Walvis Bay, Namibia to St Helena island. We got seasick, we took some seasickness drugs that made us hallucinate, we had a bucket wash in the middle of the ocean, and more. Listen to our podcast to hear how it was for us sailing halfway across the […]

This week, as a lot of our friends are preparing to go to AfrikaBurn, we are somewhere in the South Atlantic between the African continent and the island of St Helena.

As we are preparing for our crossing from Walvis Bay in Namibia to St Helena in the middle of the South Atlantic ocean we recorded this episode of our Sailing Tropical Dawn podcast talking about how we prepare for being at see for more than a week

This week's episode of our podcast is around the theme of Frustrations. I guess we needed to vent some frustrations that have been popping up in the last few weeks, one of them being that we are still stuck in Walvis Bay Namibia.

In this week's episode of our podcast we talk about the difference between the expectations we had about sailing, cruising, yacht clubs and what the reality turns out to be. We also talk a bit about our experiences at Royal Cape Yacht Club, Walvis Bay Yacht Club and our time spent in Hout Bay.

In this week’s episode of our Tropical Dawn Podcast we talk about choices. We have been thinking about the choice wether to continue our sailing journey across the South Atlantic towards Brazil and the Caribbean or to have a break from cruising and return to South Africa to see friends and family and to go to AfrikaBurn.

The past week was quite eventful: we dragged anchor, we had to drop our anchor and retrieve it the next day, we went on an excursion on the dinghy and almost lost the dinghy, and we got a rope caught in the dinghy's prop. But we made it trough all that and are fine, and we have a new episode of our podcast to tell you about all these things.

This week's episode of our Tropical Dawn podcast will be about Walvis Bay in Namibia, where we currently still are at anchor and have been for over a month as well as about the road trip we did throughout Namibia.

Here is the full recording of the conversation we had with Andries/Eiitango Jetango, we had to edit it a bit because the Lüderitz episode of our podcast was getting to long.