Toodle-Pip Tangaroa

The Mjolners decided to join us on our sail to Grenada so that we could delay the agony of separation for another 10 days. Hurray! I must give thanks to Caroline for the suggestion and to Jeroen, Luise and Sophia for taking it up so enthusiastically.

Departed Trinidad in the evening of February 1st along with the Tangaroa and Mjolner for a 70 nautical mile sail to Grenada. We travelled at night and close together as there had been a report in December of pirates from Venezuela in the area. There is a large and very brightly lit oil rig almost exactly halfway between Trinidad and Grenada. Just as we passed this floating Christmas tree we heard Wierd’s voice over the VHF channel 71 with a wonderfully moving speech bidding us good-bye. As they signed off we saw the Tangaroa turn 90 degrees and head off towards Los Testigos, Venezuela on their way towards Panama. They will go through the Panama canal in March on their way to Australia where they will remain for six months while Wierd fixes a few hips (he is a surgeon) before flying back to the Netherlands. They were one of the original musketeers and the first fellow ‘vertrekkers’ that Seb and I met in the early days of preparations. You don’t often find people with whom you have such a common approach to life and we are very happy to have spent time with them. Fair winds Tangaroa!