Start of the 2025 sailing season

Reunion with Yuma in Arzal

After a four-month break spent visiting family and friends in Australia and the Netherlands, we return to Arzal late one evening in March 2025. We are slightly concerned about what we will find, given that in January the river Vilaine had had one of its worst floods in decades, accompanied of course by strong winds. Happily, Yuma is still sitting contentedly in her cradle on the hard where we had left her in October.

Coming from a balmy 30°C+ summer temperature in Australia, the European spring weather is again a bit of a shock, albeit not quite like our winter arrivals in Burnham-on-Crouch (2022), Lemmer (2023) and Groningen (2024). To stave off the cold, we set about compiling our long lists of “to-do’s” before Yuma gets to go back into the water on March the 28^th. Lists compiled, we get to work.

Our plans for 2025

Given our plans for the next few years the to-do lists are extensive! For 2025 and 2026, we plan to first follow the Atlantic coasts of France, Spain and Portugal into the Mediterranean. There, Frederieke is keen to visit the island of Corsica where she did her first-ever diving fieldtrip at the marine research station Stareso, near Calvi. Our time in the western Med will also provide opportunities for more catch ups with family and friends who all seem keener on visiting Yuma in warm climes than they did when she was in fresher places.

At the end of the 2025 summer, around September, we plan to leave the Med for the Canary Islands and then the Cape Verde Islands. From here, we plan to cross the Atlantic Ocean late 2025 for Salvador in Brazil. The next year will then be spent sailing down the Atlantic coast of South America, to Ushuaia in Argentina. Along the way, we hope to find the grave of Pieters Zeegers, a captain-ancestor of Frederieke’s, who was buried “on the shore of the Parana river about 10 Leaguas from Goija” in Argentina after dying from yellow fever in 1868.

Later in 2026, we will be sailing back up the Pacific coast through the Patagonian canales during the southern winter of 2026. David already has an extremely well laid-out passage plan for this stretch of the coast, from our attempt to buy and sail an Ovni from Ushuaia to Cairns in 2022. This should take us to Puerto Montt around September 2026, by which time we no doubt will want and need a break from sailing, before we start crossing the Pacific for Cairns, Australia.

Return to the water

After a few weeks, Yuma is put back into the water on a windy, overcast day. This time, rather than being lifted in slings and lowered in by a travel-lift crane, she is picked up by a trailer and simply backed into the water until she floats free. The travel-lift experience is always a bit interesting so this new mode of entry made for a very relaxed alternative.

Back in the water we check that the repacked stern gland (where the propeller shaft goes through the hull) is not leaking. It is very definitely leaking, so a bit of adjustment is required to make sure we stay afloat. Once satisfied, we spring off the bow and back out into open water. The next very chilly half an hour is spent motoring around to remind ourselves how Yuma behaves under power.

With the replacement of all the bearings in the steering system, from rudder to wheel, this can be summarised as very stiffly. This is no surprise though and we know that everything will loosen up again quickly enough. In the cold and wind, it doesn’t take too long before we figure that we have done enough and that it is time to go and get a hot drink.

How does one prepare?

To-do lists for sailing yachts are notoriously long and, unfortunately, never-ending. This means prioritising what is important, and that needs to be done, in part, in the context of future sailing plans. As an example, our planned crossing of the Atlantic late in 2025 means that we will be without nearby medical assistance for about 3 to 4 weeks. While coastal sailing one can return relatively quickly to a harbour for any medical need. However, if you get a nasty infection halfway across the Atlantic you had better be sure that you have packed the right antibiotics to treat it because you are weeks from medical assistance.

Based on our own experience with professional field work in forests and oceans around the world, plus our years of sailing in remote locations in Australia, we are pretty well trained and have a pretty good idea of what we need to have and be able to do in the most likely situations. And more recently, we have sharpened up all of this through our contact with Rob Sijbers, a bluewater sailor and GP who has specialised in assisting offshore sailors. So, we are now prepared for pretty much any medical eventuality that may come our way. We just have to remember what it is we have to do!

As far as Yuma herself is concerned, she had been extremely well looked after by her previous owners, and we are trying our hardest to keeping her maintained along the same lines. The idea here is to keep her sailing along nicely for years to come without, hopefully, any nasty surprises along the way. Still, she is now over 10 years old, which means that some important systems need a renewal. For example, last year we replaced the sails, standing and running rigging. This year, we have done a full check of the keel and completely overhauled the steering and rudder systems, replacing all the bearings. Thanks to both Alubat in Les Sables d’Olonne and to Arzal Nautique in Arzal, Yuma should be sailing along happily for the next few years, hopefully all the way to Australia!