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grantmc · 12-01-2022, 17:16

A good friend is sailing his yacht home to Germany from Fiji via Cape Horn.

As I post this he is 4,400 miles south west of Fiji (nearly at latitude 50 degrees south, oh that's a cold and windy and lonely part of the ocean) with 2,200 miles to gain Cape Horn.

The boat is a classic wooden yawl built in 1920, designed by German designer Max Oertz. Built as a pleasure boat, with style and sport, qualities which remain today. She is designed for comfortable sailing on big oceans, turns heads when you enter anchorages or marinas and overall wonderful to sail.

The name Pantagruel is from the series of novels “Gargantua and Pantagruel” by François Rabelais whose philosophy is one of living life to the fullest!

Panta (to her friends) was sunk during Cyclone Yasa in a remote anchorage in Fiji December 2020. And after salvage was rebuilt and restored by her owner Michael (aka Misha) at the Vuda Marina near Lautoka.

The vessel has quite a history and you might be interested to review a web site SV Pantagruel Obviously there'll be no updates to her web site until owner and yacht are safely anchored up in Europe in I guess another couple of months.

In the mean time you might be interested to track their voyage on Predict Wind here.

Ferrity · 13-01-2022, 03:23

Thank you for the link. Always interesting to follow long-distance sailors, especially one with a 100 year old vessel.

He is a bit ahead of Mark Sinclair on s/v Coconut who is finishing the 2018 Golden Globe Race. Coconut is running at 47° S this morning. Mark can be tracked here.

grantmc · 24-01-2022, 10:58

Pantagruel will pass Cape Horn in a few hours.
As I pen this post it is 8am 25 Jan local NZ time.

grantmc · 02-02-2022, 13:05

Pantagruel and her skipper/crew Misha are now tucked up at Port Stanley for repairs, mostly concerned with the electrics.

**hpeer** · 02-02-2022, 13:35

Thanks for updating.

I suppose the worst is now behind?

grantmc · 09-03-2022, 14:10

Pantagruel and her skipper/crew Misha will cross the Equator in the Atlantic in the next 24 hours.

So now almost 3 months at sea, since departing Fiji, with only a small stop at Port Stanley, Falkland Islands for repairs.

grantmc · 29-03-2022, 11:58

The good ship Pantagruel and her solo crew arrived safely in Martinique 25 March after sailing about 13500 nm and being 93 days alone at sea. They'll chill out there for a few weeks before departing for Germany early May.