Bianca OceanCruising

19/09/2023

01/03/2023

Some stories need to be shared….especially when FB played an crucial role in it

Some 37 years ago I started my small charter business in Turkey. Sailing along the Turkish coast and among the Greek Islands with guests aboard in my 47 feet Taiwan clipper Kophiphi, bought for the purpose.

During my three years down there I learned a lot. I was 19 years old and of course with much more courage than knowledge in the baggage. I grew up fast and made friends….

And it was especially one person which continiously stayed in my mind after those years - Martin Coombs. A photographer from Lymingthon in the UK. He was a bit older than me and was skippering another Norwegian boat down there – Gambler. I long story short… we became good friends, but after I left Turkey in 1989 we did not have contact.

During the last 32 years I have searched for him several times, but with no succses. I must admit that I thought he had passad away…..

But…a couple of weeks ago while sitting on a beach in South Tenerife it plinged in my phone. It was a lad called Martin Coombs sending me a message;

Are you the Svein which used to own Kophiphi?
Yes I am, are you the Martin which used to sail Gambler?

No further explanation needed….., he found me on FB.

Martin is now 83 years old, and beleive it or not….it is 32 years since last and now we are here, sailing together again.

Martin on the wheel, next stop Arecife. Life is good !


Svein, Martin & Lisa

19/02/2023

When you are at Carneval it is important to know the steps….

14/02/2023

An update from the Canaries

Lonely Planet has several times nominated the Canary Islands as the most underestimated travel destination in the world. We must agree to this!

Since we left Las Palmas in the beginning of January we have so far just seen a minor part of it, but we are eager to explore more. We spent some days in the South of Gran Canaria before we set sail to Las Galletas in the South of Tenerife. Later we sailed across to San Sebestian at Gomera. After 10 days in San Sebestian, going to School to improve our basic Spanish, sightseeing and hiking we set course for La Palma, the nortwestern most island in the Group.

La Palmas had a big Vulcano eruption in 2021. The smoke is still visible, and it is fascinating to see the huge areas covered in ash and lava, forcing so many people escape their homes. We also got the chance to get a small feeling of northerly latitudes when we drove across the top of the island. In the sun the temparature was around three degrees, but still snow and ice covered some of the vegetation in the altitude of 2700 meters.

Our fishing luck has not been the best so far on the journey so we decided to search for some better lures and advice. It worked! When we set sail from La Palma towards Gomera again a well fed Bonito found our lure attractive and suddenly the freezer was full of the freshest fish you can dream of.

After a short stop in Gomera it was time to join the celebration of rounding of a half hundred years old friend from the boat Soling. It took a couple of days to recover, but we are now safely moored in Santa Cruz de Tenerife. And what we did not know a few weeks ago was that this town has a Carneval rated as number two in the world after Rio de Janeiro. Tomorrow it is time to invest in some costumes and join the party.

The most valuable part of a jurney like this is all the different people you meet and friends you make. Quite a few boats are spending the winter here and in more or less every harbour we meet up with new and old friends.

It is so Nice here we now consider to book a return flight to Sweden for the summer and let Bianca rest here for a while. Let’s see…

Ship o hoy

Svein & Lisa

31/12/2022

Happy New Year

It is now almost six weeks since landfall in Las Palmas and we could probably fill a book with our variuos challenges….

On the last night sailing towards Gran Canaria we got a strong gale and experienced again a broken steering. Sloppy repairs after our first orca attack caused this, so time has been used to double control everything and of cause need for new parts….which takes time to get.

Apart from this our relation faced some challenges as well… just to top up everything. With nothing more to loose we decided to press the Ctrl ALT Delete button and here we are again.

On Tuesday this week we were ready to go sailing again, but as a Calima storm from Sahara was expected we decided to wait until Wednesday to depart. We woke up at 4 AM with a german boat slamming into our side when they tried to manouver into the marina in 50 knots of wind…not so succesful!

On Monday we will get lifted for repairs and hopefully ready to sail by the end of next week.

With all this we have decided to stay on the European side of the Atlantic this winter. We will explore the different Canary Islands until the end of march, and then sail north via Madeira, Azores, Irland, Scotland before landfall in Kungshamn early summer.

A wording says that Blue Ocean Sailing is like repairing boat in warm exotic places. It feels quite right!

Anyway, even Gran Canaria is a very touristic island, Las Palmas is Spanish and a nice place to spend December month.

Happy New Year to all our friends and followers


Svein & Lisa

15/11/2022

Next stop Las Palmas⛵️🙏 My good friend Eirik Fuglum showed up in short notice to give an extra hand in last Orca risk area. ETA Las Palmas saturday.

Ship o hoy !

Svein, Lisa and Eirik

01/11/2022

A sad day at sea…

We left Baiona at dawn this morning. Everything was closed in Spain due to Halloween and there are better facilities in Porto to get repairs done.

As the autopilot was broken after our second encounter with the Orcas on Sunday, we hand steered out into the waves from yesterdays gale. We kept as close to shore as we judged safe and kept continuos look out for any big black fins.

12.05 we heard a Mayday on the VHF. We set out the position in the map – 12 nm behind us the French boat Smousse was under attack of Orcas and flooding with water. Even with full speed on the engine we were 1,5 hours away and there was not much we could do.

Luckily the crew of four was rescued by another boat nearby, but their home and boat sank.

It is only a question of time before these killer whales will take lives, and it is hard to understand why no action is taken by Spanish and Portuguese authorities to stop or reduce the huge risk these animals represent.

At least in Norway you have the right to get a dog put down if it is considered a treath or hazard toward its surroundings……not exactly the same, but I think at least some of these animals has to be taken out to stop this.

This was the sad story of the day. We are safely moored in Porto and we were welcomed by a big herd of dolphins following us all the way to the breakwater entrance. Safe, happy and soon to be seen with a glas of portwine in our hands..

Ship o hoy

Svein, Lisa and Sondre

30/10/2022

When do you give up sailing ?

I must admit that is was a very special feeling going at sea again yesterday. After more than a month ashore after the attack it was really mixed feelings.

We knew it was going to be ruff out there at «Costa del Morte», but after a while it felt good. Alongside Beluga II,a X 43, we did good speed in relaitively fair conditions. After a few hours the wind and waves increased and naturally the dark came along. After a couple of hours in the dark a sound of a big bang occoured and the main sail dropped faster than it ever did. After a bit of creativity we got it up again and motorsailed in the strong headwinds to get around Cape Finisterre.

After a long dark night with sea sicknes among the crew the daylight came through and we started to plan the Portwine tasting in Porto….but it was not how it was ment to be this time….

The Orcas came to visit us again and starting to slam the rudder. We fired of all the Hallowin party accessories we had and for sure new big bangs occured…a I believe there are some headeache in this Orca Family today. The Orcas gave up the attack after less than 10 minutes, but they managed to make some damage… How much I do not know yet, but new delays are for sure.

Galicia is really recommended, but maybe better to explore this area of the world by land…

We are now safe in Baiona. No Portwine, but we will not let the Orcas effect this adventure. We start to get experienced in self defence now..

Ship o hoy

Svein, Lisa and Sondre