Episode number 55 covers the sail from the Coco Island, entering the South Pacific and arriving to Ecuador.
When we arrived the first time we had no idea how much we were going to see and how long we were going to stay. That country is so diverse: You have the coast, the mountains, the Amazon and Galapagos Island. Truly a destination for anybody that’s interested in anything! đ
The next couple Episodes are going to be about us sailing all over the coast and even exploring the inland with their worldclass bus system. So cheap and so reliable, it’s amazing.
As You can tell, we loved Ecuador. I’m sure You’ll love it too!
Kim
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This is an all-sailing episode! We go over how to sail safer, specifically on a catamaran. If you guys like to sail fast you like this episode!
Sailing a catamaran is a bit different than sailing on a monohull. We explain while crossing the equator into Ecuador. Come join us for this informative and funny example of what (not) to do when cruising around the world on a catamaran.
Also, this was one of our best and fastes crossings ever. 83 hours for 600nm. Woohoo!
Next stop: Mainland Ecuador. What a place!
-James & Kim
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Sailing Zingaro | Small island in the Rangiroa atoll, Tuamotus, French Polynesia
While Kim is visiting her family in Berlin, I am solo sailing through the Tuoamotus, looking for the coolest places to bring her back to. This archipelago is definitely one of the most beautiful areas of the world!
Sailing Zingaro | Rangiroa – the largest atoll in the Tuamotus
The Tuamotus are a group of atolls in the South Pacific. Very remote, very beautiful and very dangerous. Before the GPS age sailors avoided most of this area, because it was too dangerous to safely navigate. It is still dangerous if youâre not on your A-game – just this month three boats have been wrecked on reefs here. I saw one of them, when I was coming into the pass here in Rangiroa. Itâs a constant reminder to be diligent.
Interesting notes on this journey:
My main sail ripped out of the mast track
Imagine you go outside at 2am and see your main flying in the wind, only held on by the halyard at the top and the foot at the bottom. And your alone. And itâs blowing hard with 6â waves. But dangerous, that work. You can easily slip and fall in trying to wrangle the main. The only way I could do it was to let the halyard down almost to the deck, with the main spilling aft of the boat, and pull/push it back into the bag. Harder than it sounds, that thing is heavy. We are getting a new track shipped in, itâs and aftermarket tides marine track, they told me this happens after 10 years. Not sure the age.
No sleep – I start to hallucinate
Itâs really nerve-racking sailing here solo. I usually sleep in 1 hour blocks, after the sun rises, no sails (drifting), and as long as Iâm not within 20nm of land. Iâm not sure how others do this… but here in the Tuamotus itâs hard to sleep because you know, if you sleep too long or the wind changes, youâll loose your boat. At the same time after 36hr of no sleep I start to hallucinate (I know this from my navy days) and thatâs no good either.
Sailing on/off anchor
Iâve really been trying to practice sailing on/off anchor, tacking with various sail setups (only jib, reduced jib, etc) and trying to learn the boat a bit better. Even after three years and 20k miles on her… I still have things to learn and I can still be a better sailor. That said, this last journey I sailed off anchor in one atoll, sailed 80nm to the next, through the pass, and sailed onto anchor in between a bunch of boats here. Iâm damned proud of that. Too many people rely on the engines far too often. You donât need them if youâre patient and willing to give it just a little more effort. It may pay off in the long run, as engines only fail when you need them the most.
Ok, enough ranting! Have a great weekend! Kim is finishing up the next episode about our arrival the Ecuador!
Living La Vida Broka (LVB) is back! This time, Zingaro is sending out three boat hacks, that I learned along the way.
These are things I didn’t know about when I started, that I wish someone had told me. Tips to save money and time on your boat. Learned during my circumnavigation, I’m passing the knowledge to You.
Hope you enjoy!
James
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Here’s the last installation of our Isla Del Cocos series.
We try to discover the secret of the Treasure of Lima! Come hike up to the top of the island, listen to pirate lore, see some of the most amazing sights of this island paradise: Isla Del Coco, Costa Rica. Wow, that a place.
This is one of the more artistic videos we’ve produced, and I think Kimmi did a masterful job with it. It’s beautiful and interesting…
I’ll let you guys be the judge, and won’t give too much away of the finale.
-James
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đ This is Kim’s very best episode so far: the intro, the endscreen, incredible underwater footage, narration and the choice of music… Check it out đ
Tiger sharks, Galapagos sharks and hammerhead sharks swim right under our sailboat all night and day long! Isla del Coco National Park is way better than we expected it and we’re glad we took the ‘detour’.
Sailing here was not easy, but that’s part of traveling the world as a live-aboard: Nothing is ever easy!
We jump in and freedive until our lungs couldn’t take it anymore! If you’ve ever been shark diving You’ll understand the thrill!
Sailing a catamaran is scary sometimes. Especially when youâre trying to go as fast as physically possible! Join us as weâre making record time to Isla del Coco.
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With a sordid past of pirates, mutiny, and buried treasure, accessible only by boat, the pirate island of Isla del Coco is the island that the book âJurassic Parkâ is based on! We sail the 400nm to see what kind of adventure we can get into. Come join us in Isla Del Coco, Costa Rica.
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My boat was broken into and someone cut my radio cables when he tried to steal my radio. Fortunately the guard caught him just as he was trying to escape and he dropped it. I needed to re-solder the antenna cable, so used this opportunity to make a video to show YOU how.
If you remember in the last episode, we were just about ready to drop the boat back in the water…. BUT (and there’s always a but) the “Biocide-free” paint we used didn’t dry. Ever.
What are we suppose to do now? Sail away? Wait in the boatyard? Start going crazy on the paint manufacturing company? We’ll see. Watch and find out.
We made sure to follow the directions perfectly, but after 27 hours it’s still wet. Damn. So we let her stay up on the trailer for another 5 days while we try to get a refund for the paint, and see if it will ever dry (it didn’t, we got a refund 6 months later).
After we finally splash Zingaro Kimmi is in heaven being out to sea again, and the boat is WAY faster than it had been, and much safer.
We now just need to check out of Costa Rica, and head for the PIRATE ISLAND of Isla Del Coco đ
In this episode we talk about plywood catamaran problems and what work you can expect.
After sailing 700nm we finally find a boatyard to haul out Zingaro. Repairs, refit, bottom paint, and lots of fiberglass await.
When we got Zingaro on the hard all hell started breaking loose. We could see numerous dripping spots on the bottom (indication of delaminated fiberglass and water intrusion).
Luckily our boat is all Airex Foam and the water had nowhere to go. But on a few places it seeped up inside the glass layers and I had to remove big pieces. We had purchased 3 gallons worth of West System Epoxy to do the entire bottom in an epoxy/copper mix, but with this new dilemma we were forced to use 1 entire gallon on the bottom repairs.
We even removed an old through-hole that was filled with cabosil (not the correct way to fix that). All in all there were 7 big patches, and a lot more work than we though it would be.
-James & Kim
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Every cruiser’s nightmare: thieves. They stole our drone, radio, tools. Now the police are here investigating, taking fingerprints, and for what? Watch and find out…
See how the crew of Zingaro handled it in this installment of the life and times of Zingaro!
I take a Tico (thatâs what they call a local Costa Rican guy – girls are Ticas) on a 200nm sail from Isla Caño to Isla MurcĂalagos. What a great time. Hereâs the real story on that one…
So we get up to this beautiful island chain, the “Bat” islands – named because of the shape of a bat made by the second island (you can see this very clearly at 2:39). This island chain is very rarely visited, mostly because it lays in a very dangerous zone – the Papagayo wind zone. This is an area of the Central American peninsula where the eastern trade winds from the Caribbean shoot through the mountains and make their way (very strongly) to the Pacific. Within 5 nm of land you are subject to 40kt catabolic winds, sometimes out of nowhere. Needless to say, itâs a dangerous place to bring a boat⊠so we went!
I laid out two anchors, about 60degrees from each other, and faced the boat dead east in a little cove (also visible in the drone shot). Super cool spot, but ass puckering dangerous. We were so close to the rocks that I barely slept, always coming out to shine a light and check to make sure the anchors were holding. Itâs one thing to be anchored in 40kt winds, itâs another to be anchored 20ft from rocks, in 6ft of water, in 40kt winds.
But OMG the diving! It was amazing. We talked to the rangers, and got permission to spearfish. I actually took a shot at a mahi-mahi while we were out. We ended up getting lots of fish, and bringing the rangers a bunch, to which they were very thankful, as they had no boat to fish so were eating canned foods for weeks. Ugh. Great view though.
Bottom line: If you are ever in Costa Rica, try to get out to the MurcĂalagos Islands. They are very special. Bucket list item for sure. Climb to the top of one of the islands and watch the sunset. You may get lucky like us and see whales breaching right afterward. What a night⊠Why is this not in the vid, you ask? We had the footage on our failed hard drive, not backed up. 100 videos are gone. That sucks, but you get the real story here.
The rest of the film is pretty self explanatory, Kim comes back (Happy Captain!), and we haul the boat…
– James
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In this episode, Kimmi leaves for Berlin and when the girl is away the BOYS will PLAY! We welcome our friend Steven aboard, sail to Isla Caño, and even meet another crew-member when we get there!
See how our Patron Steven liked his week on Zingaro complete with dolphins, diving, spearfishing, boat work, and sailing!
Kim and I had a chance to visit one of the outlying islands of the Gambiers last week: Isla Taravia. Wow, the coral here is amazing, but the really amazing thing is the size of the fish here!! Most of the reef fish have ciguatera, and because nobody eats them they get HUMONGOUS! We saw a world record triple tail, and grouper the size of Kimmi.
After sailing all the way to Costa Rica just to find a cheap yard to haul out, they kick us out!?!?! The dude does not abide. What are we going to do now? We need to repair the bottom of the boat and nobody will let us in!!! Well, there’s only one thing to do… We hoist the sails and go SAILING!
Much love
James and Kim
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After Easter Island we spent 3 weeks going around the Pitcairn Island Group:
Ducie – The most southern atoll in the world!
Henderson – The most untouched by humans island in the world!
Pitcairn – Home of the Bounty muntineers (and so welcoming).
Oeno – The most beautiful, coolest, and northernmost atoll in the group.
We have behind the scenes videos complete for you guys, and tons of pictures, BUT the internet here is so slow. Like… crazy slow. We had to bribe the cafe’s owner to keep our computer for the night to upload our new episode.
Our plan now is to stay here and see this isalnd group for two weeks until the supply ship comes, then purchase 30gal of diesel directly from the ship (at $6/gal instead of $8/gal in the store here).
Then we’re headed to Hao Island in the Tuamotos. Apparently they have cell service there, and we can use our cell phone to upload all the awesome stuff we’re waiting to show you. Cool?
Can you see what’s wrong with this picture? Find out in this week’s adventure sailing around Costa Rica on a plywood catamaran. The where, why, and when of one of life’s most intriguing questions: When will Zingaro’s dinghy die??
In this episode you’ll see “the incident” that finally killed our outboard. We ended up giving it away to a dock worker when we arrived in Ecuador. Funny enough, I needed some parts off of it later on and we were able to track it down and get the little pieces I needed for the new one.
Hope you like! This is a LONG episode, and took us quite a while to make. We think it’s got just about everything you’d need to get your sailing/maintenance/adventure fix today!
-James & Kimmi
PS: Big thanks to Sue and Pirate Pawl of Pitcairn island for the hospitality, food, drink, and love. We have some lifelong friends on one of the most remote islands in the world.
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