Yeah… so I got installed sweet new 16:1 purchase adjustable backstays and all new rigging. What I didn’t realize was the amount of dyneema that needed to be stretched, and just how fast it would stretch out. Big mistake.
We went on a test run with Zingaro, when we had an accident. 30nm out from our home port in Ecuador the new standing rig stretched faster than it should have. Due to the strong wind and big seas we had to abort our shake down cruise and turn back.
This could have easily led to some serious damage on the boat and we’re lucky, that we could avoid a bigger accident.
Just for the record: our mast is still standing and synthetic rigging is the bomb. You just have to know how to use it…
Check out this episode to see what happened, it wasn’t a good day (even though James says it was).
Much love! Kim & James
You like our content? Please don’t forget to like, subcribe and share!
… or spend us a cold one on PayPal and become landcrew on Patreon.
So we’re technically checked out of the country, but we can’t seem to tear ourselves away from Mo’orea. It’s so nice here. We can swim with whales every day, dive, have friends over every night… it’s magical here. We’ve even been invited to go hiking by the guy we stole our dinghy from (lol, long story, we’ll get to that later).
Sailing Zingaro | Diving with Whales in Mo’orea
We’re planning our journey towards Kiribati. We’ll be sailing to Makatea (the only raised atoll in French Polynesia) then heading towards Raiatea and Bora Bora before we jump off towards the Line Islands.
He had it coming. He was such a bugger… Very difficult to live with, constantly complaining, a real nightmare. So, we did the only thing two sane people living on a boat together can do: we got rid of the problem! Who needs cold beer? 😀
The rest of this video is pretty fun as well, we’re refitting our catamaran to go across the Pacific in Ecuador – a place that is very difficult to refit a boat.
Hope you like.
Kim
You like our content? Please don’t forget to like, subcribe and share!
… or spend us a cold one on PayPal and become landcrew on Patreon.
Livestream from a cyber cafe in Mo’orea (French Polynesia). It’s going to be about our time in Ecuador (where we are in the Episodes). We’re talking about sailing plans and attaining 50K subs on YouTube, plus some special announcements!
Wait where this channel will take you next… 🙂
All the best from Mo’orea, we wish You a great weekend!
Here is an episode about when we arrived in Ecuador. That was already a year ago! Whoa, how time flies! We had tons of work to do on the boat and Ecuador was really a great place to do that. Not too hot to work during the day and a low cost of living (we ate out on a daily basis because we were too tired to cook!).
The only problem was getting parts, because the cruising scene is basically non-existent there. 5200? Can’t find that. New anchor rode? Gotta turn the whole country inside-out to find it! A new 5hp two stroke outboard? Forget it!
It took a lot of running around for us to get things done, but luckily we don’t get frustrated too quickly 😀 and, very important, we speak Spanish! Ecuadorians are very helpful and relaxed people that will take their time to help You, but barely anybody we met spoke English. You can always do the hands and feet dance, but speaking their language makes communication way more efficient 🙂
Anyways, working is part of this life and that’s ok. As long as You don’t forget to have a little fun as well!
Lots of love
Kim
You like our content? Please don’t forget to like, subcribe and share!
… or spend us a cold one on PayPal and become landcrew on Patreon.
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! 😀
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
You like our content? Please don’t forget to like, subcribe and share!
… or spend us a cold one on PayPal and become landcrew on Patreon.
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
You like our content? Please don’t forget to like, subcribe and share!
… or spend us a cold one on PayPal and become landcrew on Patreon.
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 you’re 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. It’s 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 it’s blowing hard with 6’ 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, it’s and aftermarket tides marine track, they told me this happens after 10 years. Not sure the age.
No sleep – I start to hallucinate
It’s really nerve-racking sailing here solo. I usually sleep in 1 hour blocks, after the sun rises, no sails (drifting), and as long as I’m not within 20nm of land. I’m not sure how others do this… but here in the Tuamotus it’s hard to sleep because you know, if you sleep too long or the wind changes, you’ll loose your boat. At the same time after 36hr of no sleep I start to hallucinate (I know this from my navy days) and that’s no good either.
Sailing on/off anchor
I’ve 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. I’m damned proud of that. Too many people rely on the engines far too often. You don’t need them if you’re 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.
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
You like our content? Please don’t forget to like, subcribe and share!
… or spend us a cold one on PayPal and become landcrew on Patreon.
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
You like our content? Please don’t forget to like, subcribe and share!
… or spend us a cold one on PayPal and become landcrew on Patreon.
🙂 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 🙂
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 you’re trying to go as fast as physically possible! Join us as we’re making record time to Isla del Coco.
You like our content? Please don’t forget to like, subcribe and share!
… or spend us a cold one on PayPal and become landcrew on Patreon.
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 “Jurassic Park” 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.
You like our content? Please don’t forget to like, subcribe and share!
… or spend us a cold one on PayPal and become landcrew on Patreon.
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 🙂
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
You like our content? Please don’t forget to like, subcribe and share!
… or spend us a cold one on PayPal and become landcrew on Patreon.
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 (that’s what they call a local Costa Rican guy – girls are Ticas) on a 200nm sail from Isla Caño to Isla Murcíalagos. What a great time. Here’s 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, it’s 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. It’s one thing to be anchored in 40kt winds, it’s 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 Murcíalagos 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
You like our content? Please don’t forget to like, subcribe and share!
… or spend us a cold one on PayPal and become landcrew on Patreon.
