Markus has arrived in Vigo, Galicia with his crew. From Ponta Delgada in the Azores we went straight to the Atlantic towards the Spanish coast. It was a pleasant crossing with moderate wind and a friendly crew.

Another eventful Atlantic crossing will come to an end on May 25, 2021. After 16 days and 13 hours at sea, the Montana has returned to the Azores with skipper Markus Bocks.

The trip was very varied. In the first few days, the north-east trade wind was sailed high upwind. The temperatures were pleasantly Caribbean and the nights were mild. After 5 days the westerly wind range was reached and the weather and the wind changed accordingly. Three low pressure areas overtook us on the way to the Azores. We let them pass north as best we could. However, they sometimes brought us 25kt winds and occasional gusts of up to 40kt. The Montana easily put it all away with appropriate sails and the mood on board could not be spoiled by it.

A little exhausted, happy and also a little proud, the crew reached Horta in the Azores.

The Montana is on its way to Europe. Markus and his crew, an experienced sailing family, have left Guadeloupe and are on the Atlantic towards Horta.

The wind forecast for the next few days is favorable, after which it will be exciting. The question is how the Azores high will develop and thus to what extent the northeast trade wind is sliding to the north.

Position of SV Montana: https://swan-montana.de/de/position

We have a new leaflet including all trips for the next 12 months. (German language)

Here as PDF-Dokument for downloading.

Take note:

We offer the trip Azores: Horta > Terceira from 06.06. to 12.06. at a last minute special price of 790 €.

We offer the trip Azoren -> Vigo from 14.06. to 26.06. at a last minute special price of 990€.  

SV Montana is back in the water. It was lots of work, but it was worth it. She looks really beautiful now.

The deed is done. After careful preparation and a professional spraying, the Montana shines in new splendour.

On Monday she will be back to the water.

After the Epoxi Primer, levelling, sanding, washing again.

Using corona times. Rather than sailing with guests through the Caribbean, the Montana is getting a new coat of paint of its hull in Antigua.

Using corona times. Rather than sailing with guests through the Caribbean, the Montana is getting a new coat of paint of its hull in Antigua.

The ARC 2020 was an outstanding experience for all sailors on the Montana.

After arriving in St. Lucia ARC sailors on the Montana enjoy sailing in the Caribbean.

After several days of calm where we had to use the machine, we have light wind again with which we can sail. At the moment it's just the little spinnaker, all other sails would just flap. We sail a speed of 5,5kn with a wind of 5kn from astern. In 2 days, on Thursday morning, we will probably arrive. The fridge was stocked with beer as a precaution for our arrival. Unfortunately, the situation in St. Lucia has worsened. We have to do another PCR test and stay in quarantine until the result, expected to be 48h. We all hope that afterwards we can enjoy the Caribbean.

We are now on day 12. Yesterday evening we had a very large thunderstorm area. It went on for several hours. Heavy rain, no visibility, lots of lightning and thunder. When the rain stopped and we thought it was over, the wind blew up with up to 30Kn. We took the main into the 2nd reef and we also reefed the genoa. At night the wind turned again and we had to put down the main sail completely to keep on course. But the other boats also struggled, so we won a place in the ranking. The next few days remain changeable, still a lot of work.

Neptun is still with us, but he makes it a little bit challenging. Always the question if we go with ordinary setup with main sail and genoa or twin head sails poled out. That keeps us busy. Wind is still variable in direction and strength. Today we tried the first time the Spinaker and it’s running well.

This must have been like 10-15 years ago.
57 ships in the ARC. You know each other and everything is familiar. But today everything is different. Due to Corona, only groups of up to 10 people are allowed and we have to wear masks. In addition, we are limited to our jetty and cannot visit the other sailors. The seminars are held online via Zoom.
Nevertheless, everyone is in a good mood, you can only see smiling faces on the jetty. The German fleet is also rather small with 3 ships, in addition to the “Montana” there are “Peter von Seestermühe” and “Yuma”. In addition there is the “Albatros” from Manfred under the US flag. The weather data promise a good start and trade winds right from the start. Unfortunately the wind on the start day is rather light and from the southeast, i.e. from the front. We're doing great and after about 10 minutes we're in 3rd place in our starting group. But then it becomes too much for most of them, they start the engine and everyone past us to find the wind behind Gran Canaria. Unfortunately, we are doing it too late and now have to follow. The old hands head west straight after Gran Canaria, heading for St. Lucia. We want to go a little further south first, but that turns out to be unnecessary. We didn't think that you could really drive a direct course. The winds in the following days are good but require some sail changes, even at night. On the 5th day the first 800 miles are done.

ARC 2020 is started on 22nd November.

After the startline the route was along the eastern coast of Gran Canary southbound with best sailing weather against the wind. In the meantime Montana is sailing speedily in the north-east trade wind on a south-westerly heading towards the Caribbean.

The bolster in the cabins of the montana were renewed. We have to get familiar with the new look, but therfore we have a new, top-quality and durable fabric now.

SY Montana is out of the water for preparation of the ARC 2020 after 13.000 nautical miles in 15 months for a new antifouling.

Looks still quit good because the fouling had nowwhere much time to grow.

And the Canaries again:

At first we sailed with rather light from Las Palmas, Grand Canary to Santa Cruz, Tenerife.

Markus is sailing through the Canaries. They sailed from Las Palmas on Gran Canaria to Santa Cruz on Tenerife. Then further to the south to Las Galletas with best sailing weather and warm temperatures. From here further to La Gomera, where it was anchored in a lonely nice bay.

Markus has finished his Atlantic round and arrived in Las Palmas.

Here two more trips will be done and then he will depart to the Caribbean again with the ARC.

Let's go from the Azores to the Canaries.

The first leg brings us from Ponta Delgada to Santa Maria in best sailing weather. 

Here some impressions from a vacation trip at the azores. The wind was often calm so we made a few shore leaves.

Some more pictures in the gallery.

The anchor is hoisted and the trip begins on June 27th at 10:50LT. We are possibly one of the last or even the last boat of this saison, which leaves the Caribbean towards Horta. A moderate easterly wind is blowing and we have 20 miles against the wind to the eastend of Guadeloupe. We turn between Guadeloupe and Les Desirades to the northeast within the last daylight.

After the last provisions were bought and stored and the crew came on bord the Atlantic crossing trip begins. The weather forecast is good, so a smooth crossing can be expected.

Finally Markus sailed from Antigua to Guadeloupe, where the rest of his Crew for the upcoming Atlantic crossing comes on bord.

Markus and his Montana found a nice place at Antigua to spend the difficult time during the Corona period.

Because of upcoming travel restrictions in St. Maarten and the uncertainty of future circumstances, Markus descided to sail directly to Antigua. Here you have good infrastructure and a marvellous sailing area.

The SV Montana with Skipper Morkus Bocks participated in the Heineken regatta this year. The Heineken Ragatta is famous for high-class racing and partying.

SY Montana is depicted with a beautiful picture of the last ARC in the current issue of the German magazine YACHT- as a preview of an article about ocean sailing in the next issue.

SV Montana is currently on a vacation trip in the Caribbean. The journey starts from St. Lucia via the Tobago Cays to Grenada. 

SV Montana was honored at the the award ceremony of the ARC 2019 as oldest participating ship (together with SV Vahine, S&S Swan 65).

As you can see, the S&S Swans are of such quality that they are still able to compete at the ARC nowadays.

Then we come to the result:

I'm afraid the winners' podium was just failed with a fourth place in Cruising Group F.

In the Cruising All scorecard the SV Montana with her skipper Markus Bocks has achieved a superb 27th place from 122 participating ships.

Day 18: What a last day, what a last night on the ocean? The day began well, we recorded our best Etmal in the Regatta with 188NM, 185NM to destination. We closed the gap to "Finoor S" to 5 miles. But with the lighter winds in the morning they were doing better and put some miles on us. We had to change something and the spinnaker went out, giving us the advantage. After a while the pendulum swung back, we encountered a rip in the spinnaker and the sail went down again. And again the pendulum came back to us. We faced the biggest squall on the trip, up to 35Kn of wind, heavy rain and totally dark. Thanks god the kite was down and under trade wind set up we were flying over the rainy sea. In the night it was all on the helmsman steering the boat dead down wind in a light breeze. Unfortunately we found the wrong parking spot between to small squalls with absolutely no wind.

So congratulations to "Finoor S", they made it and we have to admit you guys can sail, thats proven by us.

Thanks to my awesome crew, it was an honor to sail with you, we had a good crossing, easy living on board. Everybody helping any time and the mood was always up.

Thanks to the yellow shirts for an excellent rally, it was a awesome year 2019, a real ARC.

Markus, proud Skipper of sailing vessel Montana, Swan 48 S&S

Markus and his ARC Crew finished the ARC 2019 and have arrived at Rodney Bay, St. Lucia at night.

Montana has only needed 17 days and 20 hours for the route from Las Palmas to St. Lucia and has sailed 2828 nautical miles. The avarage speed was 6,6kt.

Here a "low quality" picture from the nightly arrival.

Day 16: Last night everybody on the helm was surfing Montana. With fairly strong winds we realized a good speed over ground. What a fun surfing down a wave with S+S designed boat in a nearly full moon night. In the morning we had to change the gas bottle before we could prepare the first coffee for the day.

Day 17: Last day was a little bit more calm. Steady winds not too strong gives easy living on the helm. With the chilly day there was time to have a chat. We talked a lot about what will be the first things in St. Lucia. Good shower, cold beer and a hang out at Marie’s Bar on Reduit Beach. Looks like tomorrow is the day. We will arrive in Rodney Bay. The wind picked up again giving us a fast speed. Looks like we will arrive in the dark, before daylight. The best, we still able to catch up Finoor S before crossing the finish line, giving us the lead in our devision. Arrival couldn’t be any better.

Markus, Skipper Montana

Day 14: Now 2 weeks at sea. Spirit and mood is still good. But that was needed for the upcoming night. Endless numerous squalls is a row. Up to 40Kn of wind true. Crew and Skipper was working hard to get the best out of it. By the end with success, we gain some miles of our competitors. So St. Lucia will see us soon.

Day 15: Our thoughts are with those who got injured on other boats at sea, hope the get well soon. In the morning we got to ambitious and tried the spinnaker. Unfortunately with not much success. Took a lot of water on the boat and had a hard time to control it. Took a while to get back to trade wind set up. So we lost some miles. Hope we doing better today.

Markus, Skipper Montana

Day 12: Life is good on the ocean, Montana is sailing well and the Crew does the same. With the empty 8L Water bottles we invented a separation system for the garbage. Big advantage no ugly smell. Crew is already making plans for Rodney Bay.

Day 13: Had a rough night, dealing with the first squalls which hit us. Was around 30Kn of Wind. We rolled in the Genoa a bit, so we could handle the situation safely. The night was followed by a bright sunny morning and a good breeze.

Markus, Skipper Montana

Day 10: We have new friends to play with. Since last night Celtic Star came in sight 6NM in front of us. Hard to catch up, looks like they know how to sail. Wind is a little bit less and we discuss sail changes but can’t find a better set up for now. We are still good on stock, fridge is half full. Today we called it halfway or as we say in Germany, "Bergfest“, so all Crew enjoyed the extra beer, of course besides the Skipper. Have to deal with the first squalls.

Day 11: The squalls were friendly last night, mainly past us in the south, caught just a bit of rain, washing of the salt from Montana. At the moment it is a bit of rolly and the Chef of the day has some problems in the Pantry. Skipper puts on the first Soca music on the speakers to get the Crew into the Caribbean mood.

Markus, Skipper Montana

Day 7: Mood is good, Crew is keen to work, so we have some sail changes during the day. Brought down Spi for the night. Had contact in the night with Vera. These guy’s are sailing well and gave us a good match race for 1.5 days.

Day 8: Still feel the need for speed using the increasing wind. Tried to keep on course to St. Lucia, we are in the trades. Down the wave up to 11Kn. Started in the night with main and Genoa. 

Day 9: Just after midnight we couldn’t hold our course so we had to bring down the main at night and set genoa and staysail out with pole. Still surfing down the waves. Being excited to see the Etmal.

Markus, Skipper Montana

On Start day we left the pontoon under sound of Hells Bells from AC/DC keen on doing a good start. The Skipper kept the Swan close to the start line nearly doing an over early. Therefore we started in the front row having the fleet in the back. Due to good wind conditions we did a Etmal of 180NM.

Day 2: At sea the crew was doing good besides minor Problems of sea sickness. After a nice dinner the wind dropped and Montana was only doing 1.5Kn over ground.

After all preparations were made and all stores were stowed, Markus started toward St. Lucia with his ARC Crew.

The SY Montana is mentioned on the offical website of the ARC as a special boat in this year's ARC fleet ("Grand old Lady").

I take this as a compliment.

ARC: What is a typical ARC Boat?

This time the Montana is in Las Palmas and Markus is preparing the ship and himself for the upcoming atlantic crossing.

SY Montana sailed futher southbound to Madeira. We reached Porto Santo after a pleasureable transition with light winds from astern. A few of us went chilling on the beach, whereas the others went on a little hike.

After another nice sailing day, we are now on Madeira and enjoy this beautiful island .

Last week Markus sailed with his guests on the Montana from Vigo along the Portuguese coast southbound to Cascais. It was a relaxing trip with nice weather and light winds. So they had to use the motor a few hours. On their way the Montana was accompanied by dolphins some times.

The Montana has crossed the Bay of Biscay now. With mostly stern winds and wonderful sunrises and sunsets.

In Galicia, we stayed in Muros and Ribeira. After one night anchoring at the Praia de Barra we reached the marina of Vigo.

Further routing from Plymouth to Falmouth at 9 kt with excellent sailing weather.

Markus has arrived in portsmout with his SY Montana. And the Weather has improved significantly.