Tag Archives: sailing

6 Months Watermaker Update – Q&A Video

[sponsored post] This is a video for you techie-types covering our thoughts after living with our Spectra Watermaker for 6 months.

We are talking about:

  • Maintenance
  • Real-world statistics
  • Why we chose Spectra
  • Why this model
  • What happens if we get hit by lightning
  • Do we need to take supplements

Hope you like! It’s a fun one, and Kimmi and I have a bit different opinions on a few things…. watch and find out. 🙂

This video is brought to you by Sailing Zingaro and Spectra Watermakers.

Much love!

James

Sponsored by SPECTRA Watermakers

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.

Equator Crossing – Our Promise to Neptune (Ep. 55)

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.

Sailing Your Catamaran Safely (Ep. 54)

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.

Solo Sailing Through the Tuamotus!

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!

Rangiroa Atoll

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.

Ok, enough ranting! Have a great weekend! Kim is finishing up the next episode about our arrival the Ecuador!

Much love!
James

Three Boat Hacks You Need to Know! | Sailing Zingaro – LVB Series

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.

Cocos finale, pirate lore and treasure (Isla Del Coco #4) | Sailing Zingaro – Ep. 53

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.

Diving with Sharks on a Pirate Island (Isla del Coco #3) | Sailing Zingaro – Ep. 52

🙂 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!

You want more? Become part of the CREW via PATREON…

She Loves to Sail Fast (Isla del Coco #2) | Sailing Zingaro – Ep. 51

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.

 

Sailing to Jurassic Park (Isla del Coco #1) | Sailing Zingaro – Ep. 50

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.

We SPLASH Zingaro – Ep. 49

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 🙂

Hope you like the episode!

Much love!

-James & Kimmi

Sailing the “Bat” Islands & drone theft! Sailing Zingaro – Ep 47

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 MurcĂ­alagos. 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.

Kimmi leaves and a Patron comes down | Sailing Zingaro – Ep. 46

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!

We sail 500 miles to be TURNED AWAY!| Sailing Zingaro – Ep. 45

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

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.

The end of days (for the dink) | Sailing Zingaro – Ep. 44

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.

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.

Lucie says goodbye | Sailing Zingaro – Ep 41

We’re loosing our crew! You guys have no idea how bad it’ll get without Lucie. She was the only cook aboard. She came, she cooked, she conquered. Bye, bye Lucie!

We’re just getting to Costa Rica at the end of this episode, and good times await us here! We’re going to sail the entire coast, all the way to Nicaragua. Islas Caño, MerciĂ lago, and even the elusive Cocos… Stay tuned!

We had some amazing adventures in CR. It was beautiful, expensive, crazy, locals came to the boat, Kimmi went back to Berlin, and James and a local went on a spearfishing/sailing adventure with a friend. We can’t wait to share all of this with you.

But, first, hope you like this one.

Pura Vida!
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 through 7 Storms in One Day! | Sailing Zingaro – Ep. 40

This is the very last Panama video, it is our longest (and best) episode to date, and it has a bit of everything you guys love in a sailing video: storm sailing and spearfishing on this uninhabited island (Isla Montuosa), when we run into the navy! Watch what happens, you won’t believe it!

We also go to Isla Coiba and show you some amazing dive footage from there. What a beautiful place.

In the next episode we’re finally leaving for Costa Rica.

Much love!
James & Kimmi

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.

The Return of our Cutest Crew-Member! | Sailing Zingaro – Ep. 39

This video is edited by James 🙂

Lucie comes back from Chile, and we head out to the islands again (I see a recurring theme).

We spearfish and sail through the south coast of Panama as we prepare for our journey to Costa Rica! We visit Islas Secas, Montuosa, and Jicaron, and have another cruiser over for a catch & cook fish taco dinner.

This is the second-to-last video in Pacific Panama. We decided to see as many of the islands we could before leaving. Great idea.

Stay tuned for next episode, where we visit Isla Coiba and leave for Costa Rica!

Hope you like! Much love from Kimmi and me!!!!

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.

We Made it to Rapa Nui!

It took us 18 days to sail to Rapa Nui (Easter Island) from Ecuador.

The only fish we caught were flying fish, but luckily James is getting really good at making Pizza, so we were cared for. Our autopilot broke and we had to steer Zingaro with bungee cords for 1800nm. Bummer, but we made it and couldn’t be happier!

We arrived Wednesday, March 27th, and needed to wait for the authorities to give us clearance to step foot on the island.

The next day we got the officials on the boat, but by the time we were done it was 4:00 and there was nobody around to help us get in… The surf here in Hanga Roa is crazy, and the waves (called El Cruz) break over the entrance to the harbor. We need someone to guide us this first time.

So, we’ve got some awesome footage to show you guys. A teaser reel is already done (next episode is coming soon).

Finally, on Friday, we set foot on land for the first time in 3 weeks. It was exciting! You know what’s the craziest thing that stands out in my mind? The SMELL of land after 19 days. I’ll never forget that.

So we celebrated our arrival, we met our new friend Martha and danced for hours… 💃💃đŸ•ș

Cruising to Easter Island was great

The wind came over the beam for the most part of the journey, but its strength was very variable. While we didn’t have barely any wind the first three days, we were FLYING the 10 days after that. Reefed down to the bare minimum and still surfing these waves like there was no tomorrow. Then again we were becalmed or with little wind for the last 350nm. We had some opportunities to fly the spinnaker.

So much for the wind. Now to the things that broke: Astonishingly little! Only the autopilot did, which sucked, but it doesn’t sink the boat after all, so I give it a 2 on the drama scale.

We were prepared well this time (for the first time ever, probably), we checked halyards and sheets for chafing, provisioned well… It helps to be aware of the things that could go wrong, even though I could have done with out learning that the hard way!

Over all, we loved the trip and I believe it was our best one so far.

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.