S/V Ah Ma

All aboard!

A few more days before we set off on the first leg of the long journey to the other side of the Pacific.  The last few days were spent finishing off some of the last tasks on the to-do list. The running backstay has been replaced with a fresh string[…]

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Last preparations

Two suitcases filled with almost 50kg of bounty from TaoBao and local shops accompanied me from Macau back to Holland. Here I’ve picked up two life vests and my Marcom/B Radio license documents and said my goodbyes to my parents and brother. It is now time to head out to[…]

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Registration

Next hurdle would be finding a place to register and insure our soon to be yacht. Not as easy as it sounds, when approaching the larger insurance companies like Pantaenius they right out refused insurance because the boat is lying in Curacao which in their mind is in the very dangerous Caribbean. Even though Curacao is well removed from the hurricane belt and Spanish Waters is probably one of the safest spots to moor your boat in the region.

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And out she goes.

The first sea trial was a success, so after a couple of days of deliberation we asked our broker, to arrange for an outhaul and survey. This was quickly arranged at the Curacao Marine wharf at Schottegat. I contacted Ed Versteeg, a local surveyor and yacht designer to do the honors of the survey. I also arranged for Gijs Sijbranda of Curacao Rigging to climb the towering mast to do a close up inspection of the rigging.

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