Hello Ellen and Kjartan,

Oceana Deck Project

While you are working to refit your engine, i'm rebuilding my boats aft deck for some 3,4 meters. I'm happy that i took everything off, now i have fitted new bows, new blywood cover, 2 x 12 mm, and started to set fiberglass. There will be some 5 layers and on top of that either real or synthetic teak. Still some work to do after this, new contruction for the steering wheel, new railings, bench and winches back to place. In the picture you can also see how she's wintering in the water under cover. Kind regards, timo

A shrimper complete with resident pelicans

Hello friends, We left you one month ago in Puerto Vallartta ready to continue on. We made it to Mazatlan and had some of the best sailing days we have had all year. It has been a most benign year with hardly any wind. We spent 2 weeks there visiting that lovely town with other cruisers (new and old friends) . Then we set off to cross the Sea of Cortez one week ago. That trip takes 40 hours which started off very quietly but then the wind picked up (form the north) and we had a "rollicking" ride into a bay about 50 miles south of La Paz. We travelled with 2 other boats which is always fun. We chat through the night watches and keep 3 sets of eyes open for other sea traffic. There are 2 regular, over night ferries on that run. Then we continued North to the islands off of La Paz. This past week (before Easter) is the biggest holiday for all Mexicans. Every sea side town and every road accessible beach is packed with holidayers. So we elected to stay out here for the week. This whole area is a desert. The sea is that beautiful turquoise blue. It makes for some nice pictures.

Periclees at anchor

There is so much interesting plant and animal life here abouts. The huge manta rays (up to 5ft across) leap 3 or 4 ft into the air, turn a somersault and do a belly flop back on the water to loosen parasites! They were particularly active the other day. We watched maybe 12 doing these antics for 10 minutes. I did catch one far off picture of one just before he landed in the water. I hope you can make it out. As always the dolphins are in great numbers. There are pacific white sided and bottle nose in this area. They are more playful and curious than our northern varieties. These fellows always stop for a little play in our bow wave and usually swim alongside us and roll over to look at us looking at them! Such fun! Snorkelling is amazing here. At any one spot we easily see a dozen or so different species from needle fish to butterfly fish and tangs and parrotfish and the ubiquitous puffer fish and so many more. Walking on the beach we came across an army of little crabs with a huge pincer each. We had to move out of their path! But they did not seem to be using that pincer! Maybe it is just to scare away predators!

Stark hills of the Baja

We have been hiking on the islands in dry creek beds and through scrub bush deserts. We are seeing evidence of rabbits, lots of chipmunks, geckos, spiders and insects (not snakes, thank goodness!) , lots of birds. It is fascinating stuff!! This is a popular area for Kayaking and we are seeing lots of groups paddling by or camped on white sandy beaches in quiet little coves.

Lovely anchorage. Good kayaking

We arrived at Mazatlan on Nov 25th and tied up in the El Cid marina for $36/night . This is a flash hotel resort (with a marina). So we had the use of the swimming pools (swim up bar) and hot tub and all sorts of friendly services. I could live my life out here, I think. We met up with old friends, even people we met while cruising in 2002! Mazatlan is one of our favourite Mexican towns. We shopped at the old market, visited the old town center and went to an evening performance at the 100 year old Angela Peraulta Theater.

hiking in the hills

Tomorrow we will be into La Paz and hopefully this will go out. WE hope you have had a lovely Easter celebration with your family and we wish you well. Rolande and Angus

Hi, We just got back from camping at Fraser Island. It is located in Hervey Bay, about 2 hours from here. You hop on a ferry, and there you are on the biggest sand island in the world. You must have a 4 wheeler just to go there, for you drive on the beach, on sand rutted roads, and through the water. Rocky (our car) got many good salt water baths. We probably drove on approx. 50 miles of beach. It was wild. (This is where they filmed Mel Gibson's Road Warrior movies.)

The Aborigines called the island, K'Gari, which means paradise. Their version of paradise, certainly had Hades nipping at it's heels, for although it is mind boggling beautiful, it is full of Aussie demons. You can not swim in the ocean there. SWIMMING IN THE OCEAN IS LETHAL! It is full of tiger sharks,(one of the few varieties that actually like human meat), box jelly fish, and some itty bitty jelly fish that can kill you in a minute. Well, as an aussie we met there said, "it probably won't kill you. It just stops your breathing for a while until they can get you to a hospital, and get you restarted." And don't forget the rip tides!! Fortunately, they have something like 40 inland lakes to offer a bit of a respite from the heat.

We camped on the beach, of course. We were all by ourselves with the stars and surf. Incredible! Oh, but did I forget to mention the flies...the giant flies, that bit and left blood.....hundreds of them, maybe a thousand. How giant were they, you ask? Well, they would definately occlude a nasal passageway for life. The good news is they were way too big to enter a nasal passage, so, at least body orifices were out. Even though we are a hearty bunch, we were out of our first campsite by 7a.m., swatting like crazy people, mumbling profanities, and setting a record for breaking camp. The next 2 nights, however, we did find a piece of Nirvana and had a most beautiful camping spot on a long, white beach. For some reason, unkown to us, it was bug free. Our only visitors there were the dingoes and a massive guano (which is a lizard about 2-3 feet long, with a cute little wiggle, and a very long tongue. I found him a bit unnerving, as I was alone in the camp at the time, and he just sauntered around checking it out, not in the least afraid of me.)

Now, for the dingoe's. Perhaps, you saw the Meryl Streep movie, about the woman who's baby was eaten by a dingo. No one believed her, and she was convicted of murder for killing her baby. In 2001, a 9 year old boy was killed by a dingo, (not eaten), on Fraser Island. Yes, Fraser Island!!! So now, they are taken seriously and the signboards are full of warnings. Do not feed the dingo's! If approached by a dingo acting aggressively, cross your arms and make eye contact. Yell for help with confidence! Now I thought this last bit would require a bit of practice. No matter how much I tried, screaming for help confidantely seemed to automatically reek of underconfidence. Fortunately, the dingo's just came for a bit of a look, and my confident yell was not tested.

The Aussie's are great for giving advice. On a flashing signbooard on our way to Brisbane, they had a sign that said, 'AVOID CRASHING'! Fraser Island, at the moment, also, has a renegade crockodile that they are trying desperately to catch. It is 4 meters long (12 feet), and they have spent $75,000 to catch it, to no avail. Crockodiles are always in northland Queensland, but are not allowed out of their area, as the people are not crockodile wary enough. Whatever that means!

All in all, we had a fabulous time. The wallaby's were hopping around. The cookaburra's laughed maniacally from the tree's. The guys went surf fishing, and actually caught fish, so we even had a lovely barbie of fresh dart fish. (We, also, had Tasmanian steaks and chicken dijon on the barbie the other nights.)

I know I have neglected tales of the culinary delights experienced aboard Temerarius, so, let me make brief mention of the fresh mango's, $2 luscious pineapples, a huge meal of bananna prawns, and after, a very successful day of kangaroo spooting, we decided to have a kangaroo roast for dinner. What did it taste like? Well, not like chicken! The next day, I turned the leftover's into a delectable stew, and had roo stew for lunch. If nothing else, it is very fun to say.

That about sums it up, Now, we are scurrying around to provision, do a few minor repairs, and head off to the Great Barrier Reef. This means I will no longer have internet ability for awhile, but will write when I can. By the way, Hamish missed us, thank god. And "suicide Joe" is still with us, still obsessing about this woman, and the coppers have only been back once. One other piece of advice for women who plan to go 4 wheeling. Avoid floppy tit's....Wear a bra.

All the best as always. Ann, Eric, and Ed s/v Temerarius camp.

Hello loves,

MY MATCH II Arja and Ollie Finland

Autum has gone and we are waiting for Christmas and really winter.

MY MATCH II Arja and Ollie Finland

Autum weather has been bad and worse. Mostly rainy, windy and dark. We don't have snow here in the southern part of Finland. In the North there is a really winter and lot of snow.

MY MATCH II Arja and Ollie Finland

Our autum time has been quite busy. Arja has been very active, taking care of her condition, making new furnitures, learning french, taking care of dog and trawelling. My life has been more quiet on these sectors. My days are going with books, news and boats.

MY MATCH II Arja and Ollie Finland

Santa Claus has visited all ready us (so that he has time to visit all nice people over the world). He brought me a new TOY. More pictures attached. m/y MATCH II is 14,10 meters long and 2,60 m wide. She has been built in Sweden in year 1918. She has a very nice history. The first owner was Mr. Ivar Kreuger from Sweden (www.wikipedia.com). Now she is here in Finland and I have to drive to yard close every day, just to hug. Next year we try to ski us much as possible, so our plan is to move to our ski lodge house early January. Waiting for snow.

MERRY CHRISTMAS and HAPPY NEW YEAR. Arja, Olli and Willie

Hi Ellen,

Sorry for the lack of communication. Since Easter Island, we haven't been in places that had internet available so we haven't been in contact with anyone, until arriving in Honolulu just three days ago. While in the Marquesas, we spent several weeks in Hapatoni and thought about the fun time we had together several years ago. So much water under the keels since then. I see a few other messages from you. Since we will be in Hawaii for a while, I will have time to write. Definitely have some catching up to do. All the best to you and Kjarten. And Tiki says hi. Lorraine

Dear Kjartan and Ellen,

Just discovered your site and enjoy your stories. Did you know Wiskun was launched June 11, 1977 at Rocky Point in Port Moody? Wiskun actually means love or friendship and you're right, it is Indian, I believe it is Coast Salish. Wonderful to know you are enjoying her so much. Cheers, Louis

Drinking Mexican beer at a beach palapa

Hi Everybody, I think I left most of you just off the coast of the Baja. The wind was not much to speak of there. It was mostly from the west at about 5 to 10 knots. We put up the spinaker one afternoon. But there was not enough wind to keep that up even. We mostly had the engine on for that trip, just turning it off for some peace and quite at sunset. Angus has decided that it is his job now-taking sunset pictures. He takes it very seriously. We rounded Cabo San Lucus Nov 18th morning. That is a very lively tourist town. Angus counted 60 sport fishing boats leaving that morning. They are fishing for Marlin mostly. The cost for us to tie up at the marina would have been over $150 american. So we decided to give it a miss. Anchoring is free. But the cruise ships and MANY other boats are anchored in the harbour. So all in all we decided to pass it up. we rounded the end of the Baja and started heading north up the inside coast. The Sea of Cortez is well known for a brisk northerly wind. Sure enough it came up and we were not having fun bashing against it. So we dropped anchor in San Jose del Cabo for 2 nights and rested in front of some very flash homes.