Journey Posts
89 posts from Cape Town to Greece
I built my own boat dashboard — and it looks better than the €250 Victron screen
After years staring at a 1995-style Victron Remote Console, I built my own on a Raspberry Pi. Plain HTML, CSS, and JavaScript — no frameworks, no cloud, no subscription.
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I Built a Boat Manager App
After eight years of sailing Oroboro across three oceans, I've fixed a lot of things. I couldn't find a boat management app that worked for real bluewater cruisers — so I built one.
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The Azores — The Happiest Landfall
Some landfalls you forget by the next passage. Horta is not one of them.
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2nd Atlantic Crossing
Twenty days. 3,054 miles. One giant mahi-mahi, two dead bilge pumps, one lost propeller, and the best crew we could ask for. Here is the log, day by day,…
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Sailing in the Bahamas!
After spending more than a year in the Lesser Antilles, including an unprecedented lockdown for Covid-19 and the busiest hurricanes seasons on…
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Anti-Fouling
In October 2020 we decided to do a bottom job before leaving Grenada. Last time we did one was 1 year before in Trinidad. This time around we used Pettit Trinidad Pro. We chose…
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Dominican Republic
We spent very little time in the Dominican Republic, unfortunately. We only sailed to Samana Bay and Luperòn on the north coast. Samana Bay is a…
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Spanish Virgin Islands
The Spanish Virgin Islands consist of Culebra and Vieques, and are part of the commonwealth of Puerto Rico. It's been documented that…
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Puerto Rico
You can tell we are approaching the end of the Tropics: Weather patterns are starting to change! Back in the Lesser Antilles, winds were from 60° to…
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Entering the Greater Antilles
When Christopher Columbus in 1492 became the first European explorer to record his arrival in the Bahamas, the term West Indies was eventually used…
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US Virgin Islands
The first island of the US Virgin Island we made landfall was Saint Croix. The USVI consists of three island, St John, St Thomas and St Croix. St…
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Recap of year 2020
Year 2020, the Annus Horribilis (Latin phrase meaning "horrible year") is coming to an end, and it's now time for a year end review. Let's start with counting our blessings: None…
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How to rebuild a Spectra Watermaker
After 2 years and 600 under hours, my Spectra Newport 400 needs to be rebuilt. The symptoms were that the production of water went down from 61 liters (17 US gallons) to only 25…
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Vendée Globe 2020
For some people, the Vendée Globe is the equivalent of climbing Mt. Everest. But, as the great American skipper Rich Wilson once pointed out, it's rather the other way around,…
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How does a water maker work?
The convenience of making your own drinkable water while cruising is priceless. This was our number one requirement when we decided to travel around the world on our sailboat. The…
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Oroboro's energy system
Modern boats are very dependent on electricity. For this reason almost 4 years ago when Yuka and I started envisioning our life on Oroboro, one of our main goals was establishing…
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Hurricanes in the Caribbean
It wasn't in our plans to spend the Hurricane Season in the Caribbean. By now, we should be enjoying good food and good weather in the Western Med. Our plan…
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Covid-19 in Paradise
Since we come back from Japan after the Christmas holidays, we were having a very good time sailing north along the island’s chain. We had friends visiting…
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Grenada
The sail from Tobago to Grenada was a beautiful overnight spinnaker sail. Yuka and I are now so used to our 3-hour night watches, and we handled it really…
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French Guiana
French Guiana! At last! I have dreamed to sail here for a long time. I can't believe that we are finally there!
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Joao Pessoa
We sailed out of Joao Pessoa around midnight. Around 3 am, while sailing north from Joao Pessoa to Natal, I saw a red flare in the night sky on the…
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Tibao do Sul
We also visited Tibao do Sul. Initially we wanted to get there by boat. I read a Brazilian pilot book very popular among Brazilian sailors, where it was…
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Pipa beach
Pipa beach is a major surfing destination in Brazil. It was just a fishing village with no roads until some surfers in the 70s discovered it. Today is…
Read more →Jacarè
The passage to Jacarè was the last leg we did with Mario as a crew. It was easier than the previous one but had its own challenges. Especially navigating in…
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Recife
Mario arrived in Salvador as soon as he graduated High School. Well, he went to Greece first with his schoolmates to celebrate the end of high school, then…
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Itaparica
Itaparica is an island right in front of Salvador, in the Baia de Todos Os Santos, the largest bay in Brazil, with 56 islands! We visited most of them,…
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One year in the Caribbean...
It's amazing how time flies! We just realized we've arrived to the Caribbean exactly one year ago. Little did we know back then that the world was going…
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Crossing the Equator!
The moment Oroboro crossed into the northern hemisphere for the first time, somewhere between Fortaleza and French Guiana.
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Tobago
We sailed from Trinidad to Tobago for various reasons. Among them, the main one was that the direct route from Trinidad to Grenada is very close to Venezuela…
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Morro de São Paulo
Morro de São Paulo is a lovely village some 30 nautical miles south of Salvador. It's the closest thing to a Mediterranean island village you…
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Trinidad
The leg from Kurou in French Guiana to Trinidad was about 650 nautical miles and we enjoyed every mile of it. Conditions were perfect, we flew the…
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Fortaleza
The leg from Natal to Fortaleza was enjoyable at the beginning, but very tough once we got near Fortaleza. First of all Fortaleza is a very inhospitable…
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Salvador de Bahia
Salvador de Bahia is the third largest city in Brazil, and the one where its African roots run…
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Olinda
North of Recife there is one little town that after Parati and Ouro Preto, is one of the best preserved colonial villages in Brazil: Olinda. Not as big and as…
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Santo Antônio do Paraguaçu
We navigated the river Paraguaçu to get to see the beautiful and remote convent of Saint Antony. What an experience! We felt like in the…
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Ilha de Boipeba
South of Morro de São Paulo, reachable only by boat, Boipeba is one of the most remote and unspoiled islands on the Bahian coast — white sand, turquoise water, no cars.
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Jiribatuba — Tidal Flats and a Ruined Church
At the southern tip of Itaparica, barefoot across warm tidal flats, isolated mangrove trees rise from the sand around a 300-year-old roofless baroque church.
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Salinas da Margarida — Salt, Cobblestones and the Bay
A town built on salt pans, a Portuguese calçada with its name spelled in mosaic cobblestones, an ornate parish church, and wooden fishing boats at low tide.
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Ilha do Goio — A Freshwater Spring and the Fourth of July
A freshwater spring erupts from a sandstone cliff at the waterline. We anchored off the beach, flew the Stars and Stripes from the dinghy, and celebrated with caipirinhas.
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Jaguaripe
A colonial village on the eastern shore of the bay where the boats outnumber the cars and the bar by the water serves cold beer from breakfast onwards.
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The dark science of weather forecasts
When you live on a boat it's very important for your safety to constantly monitor the weather. For this reason, the first task of the day for us is checking the weather forecasts.…
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The Boatyards of Camamu
A traditional boatyard on the shores of the bay where wooden boats are still built by hand — fishing skiffs, passenger launches, and a full-size caravela replica — using the same methods as five centuries ago.
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Waterfalls by Dinghy — Serra Grande, Bahia
We took the dinghy upriver into the Atlantic Forest and drove all the way to the base of a series of cascading waterfalls. Nobody told us we could do this.
Read more →Itacaré
We left Ilheus at 3 am in order to be able to get to Itacaré at high tide. We were really not impressed by the town and the Iate Clube. The rain didn't help…
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Ilheus
Ilheus is an overnight from Coroa Vermelha, about 18 hours. We left at 3pm and by 9:30 am we were anchored in front of the Iate Clube. Yuka and I are really…
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Porto Seguro
According to popular belief, Pedro Álvares Cabral landed here in 1500 and that's why the town was named Porto Seguro (Safe harbor). However, what is…
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Terra à vista! Santa Cruz Cabralia
To get to Santa Cruz Cabralia we anchored in front of Santo Andrè, also sadly known as Villa do Sete a Um (Seven to One). It's here that the German…
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Coroa Vermelha
Oroboro dropped anchor in the very same place where 500+ years ago Pedro Álvares Cabral set foot on Brazil for the first time. The Bay is protected by a…
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Cumuruxatiba
The Abrolhos archipelago Park Ranger Joyce mentioned to us that Cumuruxatiba was a great place to stop. I'm glad we followed her advice because the place…
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Abrolhos
Open Your Eyes! Abrolhos Archipelagos. Back in the old days, some Spanish charts bore the inscription "Abras los ojos" near reefs areas that might put the ship…
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Cabo Frio
Time has come for us to start heading north towards the Caribbean. We left once again Rio de Janario on April 1 st at 22:00, destination Cabo Frio. We headed…
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Camamù Bay
Some 30 nautical miles north of Itacarè lays the Bay of Camamu. There are a lot of different villages in the bay and up the river. For us it was the first…
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Ouro Preto, or Black Gold!
During our stay in Rio, to take a break from the carnival with our friends Joaquin and Monica we decided to get a rental car and visit Petropolis. The visit…
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Brasilia
From Vitoria, we flew to Brasilia to spend a couple of days exploring this unique town. Brasilia is the modernist city that a very cool and visionary and…
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Ubatuba
Our first sail out of the bay of Ilha Grande was to Ubatuba, some 30 nautical miles south west. It was a very nice sensation to get Oroboro in blue ocean…
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Vitoria
In Vitoria we moored at the local Yacht Club. They charged us R$30 per person per day. The harbor is very small, and they only have powerboat and maybe two or…
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Sao Paulo
After Brasilia, we flew to Sao Paulo. For me this visit had a special meaning, since I was going to meet for the first time a dear old friend, Gianfranco,…
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Pirenopolis
While in Brazilia, we decided to get a rental and go visit Pirenopolis, well known for its waterfalls and Portuguese colonial architecture. We found the…
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Guarapari
Guarapari was just a technical stop on our way to the Abrolhos archipelago. Nice town.
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Armação dos Búzios, simply known as Búzios
Buzios used to be an unknown fishermen village until Brigitte Bardot made it famous by spending here her vacation time with her Brazilian boyfriend in the early…
Read more →How to repair a Spectra Newport watermaker
Some old salt was once asked what was "cruising life" and the reply was "Cruising is fixing your boat in exotic places". There is some truth in that. Our Spectra Newport 400 MKII…
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Welcome to Brazil!
After sailing 4,387nm and spending 35 days at sea, Oroboro safely anchored in Ilha Grande, Brazil, on February 1st, 2019. I felt like the early…
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Crossing the South Atlantic Ocean
2,271 nautical miles, 18 days at sea, two people — and a watermaker…
Read more →Ilha Grande
Seven months in Brazil was never the plan. But Paraty — with its cobblestone streets,…
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Meeting Amyr Klink at Marina do Engenho
A quick dinghy trip to the ship chandler turned into an encounter with one of the greatest ocean sailors alive — Amyr Klink, the man who rowed solo across the South Atlantic, tied up quietly at the dock.
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Paraty — The Town That Gold Forgot
Paraty, Rio de Janeiro — February and March 2019 The Gold Road, cobblestone streets, cachaça culture, and the famous tidal floods that turn the historic centre into a shallow canal three times a year.
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Carnival in Rio de Janeiro!
To be honest, at the beginning I wasn't particularly interested in visiting Rio, especially during Carnival. Rio was very low on my personal…
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Hugo Boss at Marina da Glória — An Unexpected Guest
We were staying at Marina da Glória during Carnival when a sleek black IMOCA 60 slipped into the berth next to ours. It was Hugo Boss — and Alex Thomson was at the helm, on a small detour to see Carnival. A 5,000-mile small detour.
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Golden Globe Race — A Serendipitous Encounter in the South Atlantic
Somewhere in the middle of nowhere, our VHF radio crackled to life with a Hungarian-American voice. We had stumbled into the path of Istvan Kopar, sailing Puffin in the Golden Globe Race — a solo circumnavigation with 1968 rules.
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A Moonbow over the South Atlantic
It was Day 8 of the St Helena to Brazil leg. Position: 19°55'S, 024°17'W. Deep in the South Atlantic, with no land in any direction for over a…
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Trindade
Eight days after leaving St Helena, drama stroke on Oroboro: The Water maker started leaking from the Clark Pump! A big leak! In my list of aftermarket…
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St Helena
After 25 days at sea from Cape Town, Oroboro drops anchor at one of the most remote and…
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Hottentot Bay, Namibia
We left Luderitz in awe for what we discovered. The town itself is very nice, with interesting colonial architecture, the anchorage is very…
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Kolmanskop, Namibia
Oroboro safely anchored in Luderitz, Namibia. The anchorage provides good holding, although it's exposed to strong winds (we anchored in 35…
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Passage to Namibia
We left Cape Town on Saturday December 15th 2018 with the 13:15 V&A Waterfront marina swing bridge opening. When calling Port Control over the VHF…
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Maiden voyage
The time has finally come for us to set sail for our maiden voyage. We have worked out a navigation plan, and we have started to monitor the…
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Shake down sail to Langebaan
The time has come for us to do a "shake down sail" to further test the boat - and ourselves - before the ocean crossing. We decided to spend…
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The Tropic of Capricorn
We crossed the Tropic of Capricorn at latitude 23°26′ exactly on the Winter Solstice. What are the chances! This is the time of the year when…
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How the boat was built
Last Thursday we visited the factory floor where our boat was built. It was very interesting to see how everything is still very manual, and the level of craftsmanship involved.…
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Stress Test
A strong South East wind was predicted to be blowing on Saturday, so we decided to take this opportunity to go out and test the boat in…
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7½ Weeks!
This is exactly how long it took us to make the boat self-sufficient: we can now efficiently produce our own electricity and make our own…
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Enough with work...
We are in the final stretch with the work that needs to be done on the boat. Everything is coming together, and so we took our first weekend…
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Discovering South Africa
This week we decided to slow down and take a few days off the boat to explore the region between Mossel Bay and the Storms River, also known as the…
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Three weeks' worth of work
Today marks the end of the 3rd consecutive week since we took ownership of our boat here in Cape Town. We have been working hard to install all the systems we need, taking only…
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Please meet Sailing Vessel Oroboro
Two hulls, two engines, and a dream. In this episode, Francesco explains how he and Yuka spent years choosing the right boat for a…
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Cape Town: 33° 54' 21.9" S - 18° 25' 15.7" E
After 2 long flights and a 6 hours layover in Zurich, we landed in Cape Town, South Africa. First time for both of us in the Southern…
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Quitting our jobs
Before Oroboro, before the ocean, there was a question: could you actually do it? In…
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Choosing the right boat
The research of the right boat for us took a few years and was a complex process. Without going into too many details, these are a few of the questions we asked ourselves.…
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About the name of the boat
During the summer of 2017, while sailing on a charter boat with my family towards the Aeolian Islands, Yuka and I were thinking about a good name to give to our boat. We had a few…
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