8/10-2004 - Fiji

Dear all......

I really don’t know where to start!!!!

First off all, I must apologise for having been so bad at updating in English. I know that it is a looooooong time since I have written, please forgive me, I really don’t have any excuse!

There, now I can get started!!!

We are in Fiji, and have been here a few weeks. We arrived in Suva, the capital, and ohhh how great it was to be in a real city again. The people here are just so very friendly, so we have been enjoying our stay very much.

We sailed to the other side of the island, and are now in a marina, close to Nardi and Lautuka, Vuda Point marina. We haven’t been around the island, we have been busy scrubbing and polishing the boat.

The reason for that, is that we will be going back to Denmark before Christmas. We have checked out the prices of getting the boat shipped home, but it is just too expensive, so we will put Herdis up for sale when we get to New Caledonia.

Yes, I know that it is very sad, but we both think that it is the best solution.

Right now, we are alone on the boat, our crew wanted to spend more time here in Fiji, so they have left us.

We are now getting ready to make our last trip with Herdis, about 5 days to New Caledonia. We are just waiting for the right whether.

The Fijians claim that Vuda Point, is the place the first Fijians arrived, so here there is a very nice resort called “first landing”.

They are very happy to get sailors here, so they have made special “rules” for us! Instead of just 2 hours of happy hour, we get 4!!! Very nice….

Two days a week, there is half price on pizza, and every Wednesday we get a 3 course dinner, for just 11 Fiji dollars- that’s 2 us!!!

We can also use the pool if we want to, but Peter and I think that the weather is too hot.

The other day we were in the bar, with Timo from DDU2, there was the Melbourne Cup on TV, a bit like the Darby, so we made a bet. Just 50 cents, and of course we didn’t win, But Timo did quite nice!!!

He knows this kind of game, so he picked an outsider- and it came in third. He won a couple of hundreds Fijian!!!!

Timo is also going to New Caledonia to sell his boat. He thinks that it is to big for just one person, so he is looking for a smaller boat.

As I mentioned before, we have been here for 2 weeks now, just waiting for the right weather. Others have been very busy during that time!!! We had two little birds building a nest in our boom!!!! They weren’t very happy when we removed the nest, and put tape on the boom…

Anyway, it looks like we will be leaving tomorrow, the low we have been watching, is slowly moving away from our course…

Sooo tomorrow it is, and in 6 days, we will be in New Caledonia!

As for Peter and I…. We are still very happy together, and we are looking forward to being home for Christmas. We miss our families very much, especially the kids.

But we also miss you guys, it is not always that we have time and possibility to answer your mails, but we want you to know, that we have you in our hearts, and that we think- and talk about all of you, almost daily…..

Take good care of each other….

Love from Peter and Gitte…

Hello to you all......

As you can see on the first picture, our new friends in the Pacific know how to relax. We had a lovely time in Galapagos. Sea Lions, Blue Boobies, Albertross, Leguana´s and many more.

Hello to you all......

I know that we haven’t been written for a very long time, sorry about that, I will try to make that up to you now...

We arrived in Panama- Colon on the 6^th of April. There we got our 2 new crew members on the boat, Felicia and Henrik. Colon isn’t a very nice place, very poor, so it’s the kind of place you take a taxi or stay at the marina.

The day after our arrival, we got scheduled for our passage through the canal; we were supposed to go through the 16^th. We sailed out in the morning, waiting for our pilot, and guess what? Nothing happened!!! We waited for about one hour, and then we called them on the vhf, they had cancelled us without telling us! We weren’t too happy about that, but it seems that if a big boat comes in, and they are willing to pay a lot of money (under the table), they go through the very next day…

Anyway, we got through the next day, and with us we had one of Henriks friends, Yuberi who lives in Panama City with her husband Ebbe. We had a nice passage, the canal has some very beautiful lakes, and it’s very impressing.

In the evening, Yuberi and Ebbe had invited us for a very Danish meal, with herring, rye bread, Danish cheese and all sorts of other delicious Danish things, including snaps!!!! The crew even turned in to civilized people, after a nice bath!!!

Ohhhh, what a blessed evening! A divine meal, beer, snaps, dancing and…..when the evening was nearly over, Peter took me by surprise. He had booked a room in a nice hotel!!! What a strange feeling, leaving the boat all alone for a night, I think it’s like having babies! You keep thinking if it’s all right…

The 20^th of April, it was Herdis birthday, she turned 2 years, so we got her out of the water, gave her a good belly scrub, a new paint and a good polish. She looks brand new now! The day after we got her back in the water, we left Panama, and 5 days later we reached the beautiful island Coco. Only 4 people live here, to take care of the island, and there is only one other boat besides ours.

As soon as we got here, we put on our snorkelling gear and hit the water; the life in the sea is amazing! All around the boat you can see small white tip sharks, and loads of other fish. Only a few years ago, it was forbidden to go ashore, but they now opened up, and today we go trekking in this wonderful old Treasure Island.

The plan is, to stay here for a few days, engrave our ships name in a stone on the beach, along with all the other ship names, and do a little diving.

Our harts go out to all of our sailing friends that are now on their way back to Europe, you don’t know what you are missing!

In a few days we leave for Galapagos, a 3 days sail from here, if the weather is with us.

We miss you all very much, and hope to find an internet café in Galapagos so that we can answer some of the many mails we’ve got. In the meantime please be patient, you are in our thoughts……

Lots of love from Herdis…..

15/4-2004 - Panama

We finally reached the Panama Canal, and are now in Panama yacht club marina.

We arrived the 6 of April, after 8 days on the sea. We left Luperon Dominican Republic together with our friends from “Drake”-they were going too Cuba-.

The plan was too be in Panama around the 4 of April, but as things always go when you are sailing, you never have perfect weather. So, the first 5 days there were NO WIND, we almost used up our entire diesel. The problem was we had 2 friends arriving in Panama around the 6 of April, so we were in a hurry. We made it to Panama, the day after Henrik`s birthday, he turned 40, and we had arranged a treasure hunt. He had to find 12 very stupid gifts, hidden all around the boat!

A few days later, Felicia came, so now the crew is gathered on the boat. Also Peter had a birthday, and we had arranged a nice breakfast with champagne.

We are going throw than canal tomorrow morning, and hopefully we can get throw in one day, but there is a 50% chance that we have to spend a night on the lake. If we do get throw we will be at the last locks in the afternoon, then you all can see us on the web cam. They have in the canal; just remember that we are 6-7 hours behind you.

I know that it’s not much of an update this time, but the rest of the crew are waiting for me, we have to do the shopping now.

Hope that all is well in England, Spain, Sweden, Tobago, and all the other places you are….. Take care, and lot’s of love form the Herdis crew…….

St. Thomas - Crown Bay Marina

We finally made it to the U.S. Virgin Islands, the islands that use to be Danish. It is with a very strange feeling we walk in the old capital Charlotte Amalie. The street names are still Danish and they have managed to keep some of the old buildings, but that’s about it then. The old town have been taken over by the big cruse ships, so everything is very commercial here. Everywhere you can buy diamonds and other goods for rich people. It’s a bit of a shame really, because the town still have a lot of old sights and plenty of history, but I don’t think that the American care too much about that!

We wet on a sightseeing trip the other day, we started out at the old fort Christian, build in 1672-1680. This fort was used to keep slaves and sell them there, and when the American bought the islands in 1917, the fort was used as a police station and prison. The last prisoner left the fort in 1982! Now the fort is museum and here you can read about the slave ships the Danes brought in form Africa. Then we walked down Norregade, and found the place where Jonas` great-great-great grandfather once walked with the crew of his ship. We took a picture of Jonas in the same place. Then we moved on to Frederikskirken, a very beautiful church from 1793. There are a lot of priests and gouvernes buried there, in the floors and walls, so it is quite funny to see all the Danish names everywhere. From there we moved on to “the 99 steps” (hmmm there are 103)!!! All the steps was build from Danish brigs that came on the slave ships as ballast, so it is with a very strange feeling that we walked there. The Danes was the first to cry out about freeing the slaves, but the last to do so! Nice huh?

Anyway we were getting a bit tired, and needed a cup of coffee so we stopped at a nice café, and suddenly Reena and Steeve was there! They weren’t supposed to go here, they had no visa, but they found a leap hole, they took a ferry here on a one day trip that gives you a visa for 90 days. The day after they moved the boat over, so now we are ones more enjoying the aspects of life…

We also got another nice surprise her, Jonas` girlfriend decided that she missed him too much, so now she is on the way and will get here today!!! Now that’s what I call love…

On Sunday, we are moving on to Cuba, and don’t worry, we will stay far away from Haiti…We miss you all very much, so please keep on sending little mails to us….

Lots of love from the crew of Herdis.

OHHHH by the way, Allison, did you like the pictures of you ??? hihi….

And now you are probably thinking, what did they do??? Well there was this hilarious hat party the other day, and off course we just HAD to go!!!   Well Peter was wearing his fire wick, Jonas had a dinosaur on his head and I build a hat out of 2 decks of cards. And I actually wan a dinner for 2, a prize we couldn’t use as we are leaving to day, so we gave the prize to our sweet neighbour Candela from Argentina.

My parents have now left us, and gone back to Denmark, and they are badly missed already. We had a very good time on the boat.

Jonas came out on the 19^th , and it’s very nice to have him on the boat. There is only one little problem, people think that he is our son!!! Hmmm, he is 24!!!

We met up with Rena and Steve from Drake, and had some very nice days together, we hope to see them in st. Martin.

And Allison, we never made it to the horses, but the other day we had been to a few bars, and my feet were very tired, so Peter hired a donkey to take me home!!! It had no saddle, so I know how you felt…

We have had a very good time here in Nelsons dockyard, and off corse we made a lot of new friends. Thomas the guard, who always came down in night time to see if we were all right, Max from the bar in the marina, a very funny guy who got us to try a real west Indian breakfast, smoked red herring fried with unions and served with dumplings. We made an open sandwich with white herring for him, very Danish…

But today we have to move on, st. Martin is the next stop, and we can’t wait to get Herdis back out to the sea.

We hope that you all are fine, and that you are enjoying life wherever you are….    

Love
Gitte & Peter

Well we finally made it to Antigua, the island with the 365 beaches. We got here a little more than a week ago, so that we could spend some more time with Allison and Dave, who were enjoying life at the Rex in Dickinson’s bay.

When we got to st.John to do the clearing in, we found an internet café and sent an e-mail to our Spanish friends from Silver Lining, then we went to the bay and dropped anchor. Dave came out in a cano to meat us (it looked good on you Dave), and then we picked up Allison. And guess what? The darling had cheeseburgers with her!!! Uhmmm- my day was saved.

Later that afternoon, we needed a little nap after the sail from Martinique, and when we woke up, Silver Lining was anchored right behind us! What a great surprise. Unfortunately Manel was going home the day after, but we had a funny night. Here in Antigua they only party on Fridays, so Manel you missed a great night with lots of dancing!!!

But as we have learned by now, all good things must come to an end, Silver Ligning moved on, and Allison and Dave sallied Herdis to Jolly Harbour with us. This was our last evening together, and we really didn’t want to loose them, so we tried in many ways to make them stay!!! (By the way, I know that Allison just LOVES this picture)!!!

Now my parents are here, and we are enjoying every minute. The plans are to stay here in Antigua, just sail around and enjoy the warm weather and the nice water.

And, and, and....Dolphins are a girls best friend. This is absolutely a great feeling, to swim with thees wise animals.

Hope that you all are fine; we miss you all very much.

Lots of love from Peter and Gitte…

Well, so we finally got round to writing a little in English...

We now have a lot of people all around the world, who are following us, and this is for them!

We are on our way to Antigua, we had to stay a little longer than expected in St. Lucia. Peter got the flu, and I also got a very mild cold. But this ment that Karl, Dave and Allison had to get a flight to get to Antigua in time…

We had a wonderful time in Charlotteville-Tobago, where we made so many new friends. Anto who provided us with fresh lobster and kingfish, often came to our boat either to check if we were all right or just to hang out and share a beer and a meal with us. Alva, who we meet on the way home from the banana boat one night, who always has a smile for you and off corse  plenty of jokes. Alva gave us a “proper official” send off, in his uniform and the vhf ready. Not many sailors get that!!!

Mark, the happiest guy from Charlotteville, can’t tell a joke without cracking up himselv. Here is one for you Mark: diiiiiiuuuuuu! You know what I mean-he he. And then there was Black Boy, real name Winston. He gave me blisters on my fingers, from playing 2½ meters long bamboo sticks in his band the tamboo bamboo band. He took us to the jungle, an 8 hour walk, and ALMOST didn’t show us any spiders. We went to his home, were he cooked us dinner, took me fishing, and made a very nice BBQ on the beach with Anto, for us. But I must say, Black Boy, I will never suck another fisheye!!!

When we first got there, we were with Laurie and John, Cloe´ and Padrick (hmmm, still can’t spell your name)!John went back home to England, and the rest of us had a very nice x-mas. Then Cloe´ and p….. Went home, and we had a very nice surprise, John came back! Also our friend Karl got on the boat, and together we celebrated the New Year, dancing all night on the Banana boat. Laurie and John left us, and one day Peter and Karl went in to get water and I was baking on the boat, I got the chock of my life. I didn’t hear the dinghy come back, and suddenly Padrick just jumped down the saloon where I was! Big surprise…..

But all good things must come to an end, the day that Allison and Dave arrived, we had a big Farwell party. Loads of food, drinks and off course the tamboo bamboo band. The night after, we left Tobago!

Now we are on our way, to get to spend some more time with Allison and Dave, who are staying in a nice hotel in Antigua, and in about 8 days my parents are coming out.

This was the first news, broadcasted to you in English!!!

Nb. Just want to send a little greeting to Allison’s sister back in England… 

Knus
Gitte & Peter

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