Daily Logs

Twelve Moons - ETA St Lucia

Heiliger Nikolaus, du brava MoI sing da a Liadl so guat I halt koMia Fahn auf St.Lucia und heut sama do.. read more...

Cheeki Rafiki - Day 15

Hi again everyone,we're getting close now ...so a bit of a different blog. Some of the usual stuff for 24h but then the thoughts of each of us at this time.Yesterday, during the day it was fairly uneventful with lightening winds from the same (E) direction so here's the menu for the day; breakfast: hot dogs in brioche with fried onions lunch: sardines and cucumber on toast, lamb stew (boil in a bag) dinner: pasta with melted cheese, canned mango   During the night it was fairly frantic at times. We had a series of squalls chasing us East.Ilya and Doug got the worst of it with winds strengthening and shifting 90 deg in minutes. lots were up on deck to help and got wet in the process. Morning came with quieter seas and winds. We listened to other yachts on VHF saying they were 100. read more...

Voahangy - Day 15 - Un dernier poisson!

La journee a commence par la disparition soudaine des alizes: une minute nous avions 18-20 noeuds de vent, puis une chute brutale a 10-12 noeuds qui a continue dans l'apres midi. Bien sur nous ne sommes pas les seuls dans ce cas la, et le sujet de conversation sur le net radio aujourd'hui etait de savoir quel bateau serait le premier a demarrer les moteurs a l'approche de St Lucie. Nous sommes une vingtaine actuellement a environ 190nm de l'arrivee, et il n'y a rien de plus frustrant, apres des jours entiers a bonne allure, que d'etre stoppe si pres du but! L'usage du moteur est permis, dans les regles de l'ARC, mais une penalite est infligee. Nous avons bien essaye faire la traversee le plus possible a la voile, mais nous avons enfin. read more...

Sookie - Day 15 (Thirteen)

Day 15 (Thirteen)  Greetings from KBS Sookie from the mid-Atlantic   Today we have mostly been sun bathing and ipoding in between general boaty type things. Yes, much like any other day of the last 14 Had another flying fish surrender last night and land itself on the deck. This brings the running fishing stats to:-Fish caught - 2Fish surrendered - 5fishing lines broken and lures/weights lost - 8 - 10*Number of skippers getting peed off at losing all his fishing gear - 1(* this included JBs 'magic' lure that he engineered by himself, albeit based on a design by Jerry Gee, to the general mocking and poo pooing from the crew only to then go and hook the biggest mother in the ocean. Ok, so it got away in the end but you try winding in a 5 meter marlin when your moving down a wave. read more...

Cattitude - Vroom vroom

Day 13 Having looked at the next two days forecast and rocking like a rocky thing for a while, the decision was made to put the engines on. Had we not, we would have bobbed about out here for the next three days, and since most of us have previously completed the ARC with no engine hours, we thought what the hey, let?s get in there! Most of the day was spent going through big showers and wiping down the boat afterwards. The crew are busy tidying and cleaning to maximise ?party time? on arrival. Woo hoo! No fish biting, no dolphins in sight, no other vessels on the horizon.... ho hum. But we are dressing again for Sunday lunch (roast beef) so all is not lost.   Our Voyage Left Las Palmas on a high Looking for?d, endless sky Caught the wind and flew those sails Watery hills and watery. read more...

Mojomo - Another prize-losing blog

16:35N 52:39W dtf 501.8nm at 2235 GMT Sunday (=19:35local time st lucia) and we think we’re on target to reach rodders daytime Wednesday. SOG 7.5 ish. As foretold by BxWx, we are appraoching some wet blog of weather, and Lo! here we are in a soggy bit.Our mate Sim in rodders predicted about the  same thing, but he's from t'North so sent me a shorter email about the weather with the more blunt subject line of "Cra p". All a bit wiped out today, lots of sleeping and snoozing followed by sail change for broad reach overnight, giving Mr Pink a rest after almost 10days days on duty.And we still haven’t had to declare any engine hours!Apart from that 1 minute to bend the instantaneous SOG for the website a while back.Not bad eh? We put the clocks back two hours, I filled in. read more...

Casamara - Day 15

Civilization as we know it and the skipper is chilled;  so this blog, my first,  is from Charlie - the new boy on the block.  Until I arrived in Las Palmas I had not met any of the crew - it was a leap of faith and one that I have no regrets. Day 15, week 2 and my god what an experience it has all been.  We have just eaten  the most fabulous Sunday Lunch thanks to skipper Simon, with more than a little help from our talented Julian.  Roast lamb (laced with knobs of garlic), roast potatoes, cauliflower, leeks in a white sauce and gravy;  and this was all consumed with hardly a movement from Casamara.  She was bowling along at 7.5 knots on the most delicious broad reach, stable, powerful and purposeful.  For we are up against it. . read more...

Destiny - Log Day 15.......counting down to the finish line

12:36 GMT, Sunday Dec 4, 2011 15 08 N, 53 54 W Distance sailed from Gran Canaria: 2543nm Rhumb line distance to go:420nm Dear Family and Friends, We are coming down to the final leg of the ARC and I am happy to report that we continue to have good winds out of the East slowing down to 10 - 20 knots. Still sailing WITHOUT the engine! (We have sailed the entire trip ,so far, without engine assistance!) Every once in a while, we get hit by a squall that will push us along another few knots, but our average speed has slowed to 7.5 knots for the last 24 hours. Last night was one of those memorable ones. We had a beautiful moon lit sky with the reflection of the ocean lighting a way for us thru the water. The seas had calmed and were very deliberate in pushing Destiny and crew in the direction. read more...

Island Wanderer - Day 14 17:10N 51;56W

Warm sunny and flat seas – that's the summary of the day’s sailing. The moon is now out for much of the night and is incredibly bright. In a few days time it will be a full moon and we will see if the rumours are true that you can read a book by the moonlight!   We were treated to a huge pod of dolphins yesterday evening, that stayed with us for about half an hour, and another moonlight encounter shortly after midnight.   Last Friday night saw round two of the pub quiz on the SSB radio, with team Island Wanderer narrowly missing out on victory once again by a single point.   No fishing for the last few days since we still have Dorado in the freezer and we have been flying the gennaker during the day.   The aroma of the boat is set to improve since the. read more...

Emilija - Sunday 4th Dec.

Well Hi All, Still out here in the deep blue sea, and the sun shinning and we are all melting. The day was light winds, however making some progress, this morning we had 669 miles to go. No fish today as Martin (the gog) must have thought it was a day of rest.  Twinsailsstill going great, you hardly ever touch them.  Got the washing done today and some showers, so productive.  Clare had roast chicken for dinner and veg and potatoes,  Jennie had Icecream and pears, so we are hard off.  Its very hot apx 30deg and night 26/27 .  Big swells in the sea, so sometimes hard to sleep and some shifts feel long.  Everybody well and we will have 6 of the best livers and flushed out kidneys when we get to St Lucia.  The Betty Ford Clinic is looking after that.. read more...

Diamonds Are Forever - blog - Day 14 - 4/12/11 - Filthy Girls

Subject: Diamonds blog - Day 14 - 4/12/11 - Filthy Girls!!Hi all! This morning was a lovely sunny morning but by lunchtime our first tropical squall shower was seen, and owing to its size we got very excited and cracked open the washbags, dug out the shampoo, donned bikinis and headed to the cockpit for a mammoth hair washing-in-the rain session!It's official, judging by the rainwater runnoff in the cockpit drains, us girls were filthy!!  Wow - do we all feel better now!Who needs fancy marina shower facilities when you can use the power-shower of mother nature!! We are all now gathered down below, like a wet family camping holiday whilst Harriet takes her turn on the helm in the next rain shower.The girls are lounging on the sofas reading our treat. read more...

Ensemble - Day 15: Sunday 4 December - Squalls and Pizza

Yacht 'Ensemble' is making steady progress towards St Lucia as we celebrate two weeks at sea. The winds and waves are starting to ease up - with winds forecast to drop to 10 knots tomorrow for the rest of the run in.This is punctuated by lines of squalls that pass through and bring much appreciated higher winds - but with unwanted rapid changes in wind direction and rain.So - a bit of a mixed blessing.With the lower winds our arrival to St Lucia will probably be put back a day or so. The good news is slower speed and (theoretically) more fish on the rods. Unfortunately - for the third straight day - no fish! (Must be all the bananas on board). The temperature has risen noticeably - and the humidity is rising - with sea temperatures of over. read more...

Grateful Red - 4/12/2011

spectacular sailing day.gybed, turned more south and west and flew the spinnaker all day.Still flying now as the moon takes over and the sun sets. With a fine crew of four we switch to wing on wing at night - easier, stable and able to de powered without going on deck - definitely slower than the spinnaker but we sleep well at night. Plus we will have a round of aperitifs in the glow of the moon as we speed toward st. lucia. Ken ps badgers big 10 champs with a 42 to 39 win over the spartans.Rose Bowl!. read more...

Brizo - WCC Log Day 15 – Sunday 4th Nov: The Weather Blues (Stuart)

Had a great night (Saturday) – 200nm run in 24 hours, as we have the past 3 days this followed another another Main Sail batten rebuild in the evening.  Craig and I had a meeting at 11:00 UTC to discuss latest Grib (weather) files and the ‘no wind hole’ which is spreading out from the Islands we are approaching with just over 400nm to go. Winds are a little better North of 16 degrees so we have kept above that latitude, running before the wind, essentially West. The problem is that although our Speed Over Ground (SOG) is good, the VMG (Velocity Made Good) = speed when taking into account you are not heading directly to St Lucia but to Cuba instead and at some point will have to make this distance up, is starting to decline fast. So we calculate a few scenarios of. read more...

Minaxi - back at Sea

So after 7 days in Sao Vincente, Cape Verdes, Minaxihas newa forestay and a reasonably straight furling tube. Genoa stitched back up and something we noticed at the last minute, a broken alternator bracket which we had welded. Minaxi has also lost 2 of it's crew, Valerio and Frank but we picked up Heidi who ran away from the French Alps to go to sea! 8 am we depart in 35 to 40 kts of wind and big following seas. 10 am Auto pilot broken!!! While Sietse helmed direct down wind to keep the boat as flat as possible, I stripped down the pilot motor and found the 4 internal gears worn out. Fortunately we still have the old one in a cupboard and took that apart to find the same gears in perfect condition. Some 3 hours later we are back up and running but with a stern warning from a worried. read more...

Arabella - Sunday 4 Dec

Hi All from Arabella   They have just celebrated  having under 1000nm to go to St Lucia lunch time today, the Gin and Tonics have been flowing and all are in good spirits.   The weather is good but they have had a few squalls with some heavy rain but they only last approximately 15 minutes. They are much further south now so its warm but often humid.   They hope to arrive by the 11 December ( in time for Deiniols birthday!) if the trade winds remain favourable, but otherwise by the 12 when they will be back on line and be able to email us themselves   Best wishesJudith. read more...

Coyote 2 - day 15

Only 385 nautical miles to go! Doesn’t time fly when you’re having fun? I was going to say that Coyote was sailing along nicely at 9 knots under spinnaker but nothing stands still for long on this boat and I have just had the black monster(spinnaker) dropped on my head as a rain squall blows through. Up until then we were pushing hard to catch up with the opposition; particularly the other two 40.7s.   The day started well will a star and moon filled night surfing the waves- it helps when you can see where you are going. Morning broke, reef shaked out then a few technical glitches the pole up and downhaul parted with the pole with a bang- it’s not just the crew and skipper getting tired. A rapid repair from skipper Matt, a slight feeder (dogs balls) problem, a gybe. read more...

Matilda - In Out In Out Shake It All About

Well, we did decide to leave the parasailor up last night but the jury is still out on whether this was a good move.The plus side was it was a breathtaking evening and the memory of the parasail against the moonlight on a silver sea will be one that will stay with me for a very long time.However the night lost its magic in the wee hours (if anything is going to happen it is always around 3am) when an approaching squall was spotted and so had to take it down while being pelted by copious amounts of rain - what jinks.We then had to get by for a few hours very slowly on our headsail with the added insult that when the wind did come back to normal, it was well within manageable levels.  However, come first light we launched the parasailor again and did some very respectable speeds (max. read more...

Nyda - Day 15: Speeding up again

Last night was a speedy one (well, by our standards anyway) as we kept up a steady 6-7 knots for most of the night. I handed over to Dad at 3am when there was a mild increase in the wind speed, this pushed us up to 10.3 knots at which point Dad had to change both the sail and his trousers. The morning was grey AGAIN but the steady wind gave us the opportunity to get the spinnaker up again, we've flown it most of the day, only taking it down now as more squalls are on the horizon. Our days run for the last 24 hours is 148 miles and we have sailed 1930 miles since leaving Gran Canaria. The lovely thing about approaching land (if still quite distantly) is that we are seeing dolphins again. We saw several pods for a few days at the start but none since, our only wild life spotting has been. read more...

Porto Santo - 04/12

Já começa a parecer que navegamos nos 16ºlat N,já veio o sol,ainda parcialmente encoberto por nuvens altas,já sentimos algum calor,mas agora que o sol se pôs começou a arrefecer e fechei a capota.E o mar melhorou muito,está de acordo com o vento,que ainda está um pouco fraco.Vamos em borboleta,a pouco mais de 5n,com o Lemos a trabalhar e a manter o rumo sem dificuldadeE é esta a previsão para as proximas 48h. read more...

Kantara - Shower time: 16.17.82N 51.28.31W

Hi All,   Have had some interesting reaction to yesterday's blog posting and there have been a few questioning our sanity after 2 weeks a sea, but I can assure you we are all as sound in the head as when we left, if that comforts you.   Had a good night run making good speed straight down our rhum line and crew were up at crack of dawn to launch spinnaker which, other than a brief drop during a squall, has now been flying for nearly 12 hours. The first half of the night is now fully lit by the moon so we plan to hold the kite until around 10pm when the first proper night shift starts.   It has been getting very hot over the last few days and as a consequence squall watch has become shower watch as the crew hang around with shower gel in hand in anticipation of a fresh. read more...

Kealoha 8 - Hobbling home, but with our heads held high

Seeing as we now don’t have a mainsail, we sailed through the night on light winds, mostly lolloping around at 5-6 knots and watching other boats overtake us. When the wind still dropped further we had to switch on the motor. When we get into St Lucia, each boat has to declare the number of hours motored & ARC then decide on a penalty of up to 2 extra hours added onto your finish time for each hour motored. The silver lining to having such low winds at the moment, is that it is likely many of our competitors are motoring too & while we cannot sail as fast as them anymore, we can certainly motor as fast! However, we are not moping around – we have set up a number of classes/activities for today... We have cleaned and polished the boat, so that when we arrive in we are. read more...

EH01 - BLOG DAY 15 - Soggy, and not in a good way.

Squall line after squall line since last night and all through today. After the second wetting down and cool off they lose their appeal. Kite up, kite down, change kite to masthead, pole out No. 2 blah blah blah 263 NM to go and where are the so**ing trades?! ETA now is Tuesday AM so whilst not a fast crossing (14 days in 2009, 17 in 2010) its not too bad. Moral is still good, wveryone is loking forwrd to landfall and meetig their loved ones, the grey overcast and rain showers combined with lack of wind isnot the most exciting of finishes but the beer will still taste good! Fishing tackle is deployed, moral high ground and all that. I'll hopefully be sending a report soon on how good the next blighter tastes. Not much else to report today, my face itches andI really need a shave... Andy. read more...

Clearlake II - Day 15 - Sun Sight

Current position "15:46.7N 51:09.3W”. Apparently Friday’s marlin catch was, more specifically, an Atlantic Spearfish and, apparently, quite rare so was a good call to put him back [thanks for info Scott]. We’ve been making good progress since, although this morning the heat was sweltering. Byron and Graham both had to go to the stern to get buckets of water to throw over ourselves to keep cool, and we put the bimini back up for more shade.  Yesterday we ran out of wind towards the end of the day, so experimented with more sail – adding the cruising chute to a goose-winged genoa and mainsail. Not exactly in the boat designer’s mind, but gave us an extra 0.5 knots even if not very much flexibility in where to point relative to the wind!  In absence. read more...

Halcyon of Hebe - Day 15

Pos 15:58N 49:18WAs skipper I need to report that morale is not as bad as might have imagined from newly-demoted cabin-boy Alistair's blog of yesterday.I have ordered that the entire crew be cheerful at all times from now, and the threat of whipping seems been effective in this regard!The weather is starting to get seriously hot.Down below, typing this, sweat is dripping from every pore.A respite came last night when we had 3 squalls blow through.In the 1st, the wind became gusty and variable from every angle for about 20 minutes.The 2nd and 3rd were short short sharp deluges that were almost comical in their intensity.Perfect showering opportunities had they come when more people were about.James enjoyed helming during the. read more...

Hunny Pot - Day 13 and Day 14

Day 13!!  Number 13… unlucky for some. Unlucky for Hunny Pot. The day started out like every other day. Woke up surrounded by sea!  The sun was warm and everyone was relaxing in the shade.A thought to why our cans of coke weren’t as cold as they had been resulted in Iain’s bunk being taken apart to find the compressors for the fridge unit. On lifting up his bunk (on the high side) Bill FB said.  “Christ, there’s a lot of water in here!” Andrew was sitting at the chart table, turned round his face a little pale, but in a calm voice said “Ok then, we have a bit of an emergency. Let’s get….” Andrew was about to launch the emergencywater ingress control plan. “it’s all bottled” said Bill A bit of. read more...

Elisa - Dag 14: Over geleerde lessen en beloond geduld..

Rond lunchtijd leek gisteren de instabiliteit in de lucht langzaam af te nemen evenals de windsterkte. Waar de schipper en ik de ambitie van de jonge honden al dagen op de proef hadden gesteld door het zetten van de Parasailor uit te stellen, het voorbereiden en uitvoeren van zetten en/of bergen in volle oceaanstand kost gauw een half uur en dat wil je niet drie keer per dag hoeven doen, was nu de tijd rijp om de jacht op de Brizo weer in te zetten. Voorafgaand aan het hijsen van de Parasailor gijpten we eerst, ook omdat meerdere thuisfronten ons crescendo maanden om toch vooral meer naar het zuiden te varen. Na de gijp en in de startblokken om aan de Parasailor te gaan beginnen, werd onze voorbereiding verstoord door Tom. Wijzend naar de top van de mast attendeerde hij ons er op dat de. read more...

Babsea - Tag 15 - 2000 Seemeilen sind gesegelt

Bei stetigem Passat aus Ost in Stärken zwischen 12 und 20 Knoten geht es jetzt eher "gemütlich" voran. Unser letztes Etmal lag nur bei 125 SM. Dafür ist die See ruhiger und es ist total entspanntes Segeln bei schönstem Wetter. Es erinnert direkt an schöne Segeltage auf der Adria. Wir haben mit Ausnahme eines Frachters vor zwei Tagen nun schon über eine Woche lang kein anderes Schiff gesehen. Der Ozean gehört uns scheinbar ganz allein. Wir wissen aber aus den Positionsberichten, dass im Umkreis von 100 SM eine ganze Reihe anderer Yachten sind. Gestern habe ich beim morgendlichen Kontrollgang einen fliegenden Fisch (ca. 25 cm lang) aus dem Trampolin nicht direkt zurück ins Meer geworfen sondern mit einem Haken mit Stahlvorfach versehen und diesen als. read more...

Cochise - more of the same

day 15. More of the same! Yesterday evening sundown was celebrated with the ususal beverages and to the tunes of Bob Dylan courtesy of Sam as ever. There was a nice sunset, and after a good curry we all felt settled for a steady moon and star lit night of sailing.By 11.00pm ominous clouds were coming over the horizon, and 10 minutes later the deluge began....and finally abated at midday today. Yuk!Under the clouds the wind was incredibly variable and over the past 12 hours we have gybed and reset the sails as though we are doing a sunday afternon dinghy race.The frustrating thing has been that as soon as we have the sails set on one side, the wind shifts back to where it was ( once via a 360deg loop!). Since lunchtime we have had better winds and set the spin for a couple of hours and. read more...

BRIZO - Log day 15: Iron Chef, Microwave Popcorn

It's been a while since I've written a log entry and I've been officially "called" on it.We are officially in the tropics.The nights are hot and the days are hotter.I caught some sargasso (seaweed) today, so we at least know we are heading to the Caribbean.  We caught a 10-12 lb Mahi today, the first take in a week.We did catch our first tuna, but it was only 4 lbs.After seeing the medium sized ones swimming in the pelagic tank in Monterey, this one was puny so we threw it back.We lost yet another lure in a very quick strike so I'm thinking it was a big one. On the boat front, we've given up on the watermaker.The high pressure pump is broken and unrepairable by us.We did fill up the tanks before it gave out, so we have plenty of water.We also ran out of butane.So if someone tells. read more...

Spindrift of Jersey - Spindrift ARC Log - Day 15

We continued to experiment with rig yesterday afternoon in very light winds and are now running with no mainsail and two headsails poled on opposite sides - a bit like having two wings attached at the bows. One sail uses the pole and the other sail attaches to the boom (that normally is used by the main). These supports are needed to stop the sails collapsing in light winds when the boat rolls. This rig seems more effective than using the main/genoa combination and we are now making 5.5-6 knots in 15 knots of wind. This is quite respectable after the last 24 hours when we we were wallowing and changing sails, etc and we had our worst speeds so far. Due to light winds the sea calmed down and the swell reduced from 2-3 metres to only about 1 metre. read more...

Lone Star - 4 Dec - Day 15 - Rock and Roll on the Night Watch

Once again I am on the 0200-0400 night watch alone in the cockpit with my Ipod playing the golden oldies of rock and roll. The squalls are behind us now for the night and the clear and starry sky is shining brightly. I stand beside the mizzenmast and look up at all the stars swaying to the rhythm of the music and the boat. It seems to me that the boat is listening to the music also and that the rock and roll of Lone Star is in concert with the music as the top of the mizzen mast moves to conduct the stars to the music on my Ipod.Oh, what a night, all is well on Lone Star, my watch and on my little spot of the world.Capt Ron. read more...

Endo 2 - lauter Seetage

Nun sind wir schon 13 Tage auf dem Wasser und so richtig langweilig ist es noch nicht geworden. Immer ist irgendetwas zu erledigen oder der Blick wandert über das Wasser. So hatten wir bereits Delfinbegleitung und können von Walsichtungen berichten. Fliegende Fische finden jede Nacht den Weg an Deck - lieder überle ben sie ihreNeugierde nicht. Gewöhnungsbedürftig sind die Nachtwachen - die Dunkelheit dauert 12 Stunden. Squallis sind nicht ungefährliche Windboen, die uns immer wieder -vor allem nachts- überraschen. Unsere tägliche Seewasserdusche ist nicht unangenehm bei über 25 Grad Wassertemperatur. Aus den täglichen Berichten wissen wir, die ersten sind bereits in der Karibik - doch wir schaffen es auch! Nun habe ich die Adresse wieder. read more...

Northern Child - Daily log #14 - 4th December

Daily Run towards St Lucia - 168nmDaily Logged Miles - 184nmDistance to Go - 310nmLunch -Cheese Burgers with Corn on the CobHappy Hour - SangriaDinner - Pork & Vegetable Curry, with Naan Bread and RiceDessert - Yogurts The fishing team enthusiastic from their success the previous day put the rod out again. At about 1500 the real started to wiz, they had caught a big one... David and Rolf are at the transom reeling it in slowly when SNAP the end of the rod snapped off and cut the line at the same time. That was the end of the fishing. In the aftermath, the price of the fish the night before came up. The rod and reel which Neil had bought especially for the ARC had caught one fish and then had been broken. We all agreed we could have had several good meals in a restaurant for the same. read more...

White Knight of NY - Log 3/12/2011 - Submersable

White Knight of NY coming up for some air every so often by use of its spinnaker.spedita. read more...

Engelen - Engelen Day 12

Having a beer on the moment we "only" still have to go another 1000 nm to St Lucia yesterday (friday Dec2, 2011) I (roel) notice a change in mind-set at our crew. First because the sissies are not used anymore drinking beer at day time (13:36) and all felt asleep below deck. Ok, it is really warm on deck but 1 beer knocks 75% of our crew out!!! This really worries me when arriving at St Lucia! No, we are now into the analyzing phase of our journey. Key question is whether we will remain third in our division our that we are able to beat Lazy Days and gain the 2nd position? The name Lazy Days is quite challenging if you ask me in relation to our aim! We have made all kind of hypothesis on what assumptions the ARC committee gives out the daily reports and rankings and how this will effect. read more...

La Palapa - More projects! 3 Dec 1150 nm to St Lucia

i started today off with a nice sunrise as i got the boat configured for the 7am Magellan net.aimee now wakes me up at 5am or so and then heads back to bed for a nap before getting up to make us breakfast after sunrise.my first order of business is making coffee, unfortunately we are having a bit of a coffee shortage and i am down to a 1/8 bag of caffeinated coffee and 1/4 bag of decaf.i have been using the one serving plastic coffee press to conserve coffee and have even taken to recycling grounds, feel like i am back in college.on top of this i think we are out of diet coke!the sacrifices we make out here! in any case to do the net i have to shut down unnecessary equipment, raymarine chart plotter, water maker, fans, ais, vhf, sat phone simrad autopilot etc.i only leavethe raymarine. read more...

Paraty - Tag 14 / unter 600 Seemeilen...aber Flaute in Aussicht.

Die Hitze nimmt zu, einige Versuchen die Sonne zu entgehen unter Deck oder unter das Sonnensegel, andere trotzen die Sonne auf dem Vordeck...Der Wind nimmt ab...damit verschiebt sich auch unsere geplante Ankunftszeit. Wir schaffen nur noch 6-6,6 knoten statt 7-8 knoten...   Der Schleppgenerator haben wir Heutenacht schon herausgenommen um der Bremseffekt von 0,3 bis 0,5 Knoten zu entgehen...Dafuer laeuft aber jetzt schon der Motor, damit Essen, Getraenke und Bier schoen kalt bleiben...ist ja auch irgendwie wichtig.   Wir sehnen uns alle nach Land, die 14Tage bisher waren eine tolle einmalige Erfahrung, aber wir freuen uns auch schon auf eine frische Dusche und mit Suesswassser gewaschene Kleider und Koerper...   Gestern haben wir unser Cockpit umgestalltet als Rainshower. read more...

La Palapa - Gybe ho! 2 Dec 1300 nm to St Lucia,

well today we got off to a slow start and stayed slow.we followed breakfast and the Magellan net with a nap until i was waken up for the ARC net.after the arc net aimee made us lunch of artichoke salad and some proscutto cheese and wrap appetizers.aimee is practicing for future happy hours on palapa with me which is great. once we finished lunch i declared we where going to have to cancel our activities for the day and gybe instead.i know you would think how hard is a gybe and how lazy can you truly be.well in our defense our "gybe" started with lowering the storm jib which was polled out on the boom in order to detach the main outhaul from the clew.once this was done we re raised the storm jib and began the gybe.gybe is really a misnomer as with the genoa polled out the first step is to. read more...

Aniara II - Dec. 4

4 December 12.00 (local Aniara time) 5 guys, 2 weeks, 20 square meters, 1 fishing rod and not more than 800 NM to go. It couldn’t be better! Of course we all miss our wives, girlfriends, kids and friends back home and we are grateful that you let us loose to complete this fantastic trip and mission. We love you! The gennaker is still swinging up in the air, and gee it´s beautiful. Tonight we have pizza on the menu, the question of today is if there will be a topping of tuna or mackerel.. read more...

Glass Slipper - 4 Dec 2011

Sunday, 4 December 2011 If I were home today, I’d be throwing on a jacket over my pj’s and hiking up the driveway to retrieve the Sunday morning newspapers at about 0700 – then making a stack of pancakes with either some bacon or sausage. My wife would be upstairs still in bed getting some extra sleep to prepare for the week ahead. Around 0900 I would turn on the TV to watch one of my favorite programs – “Sunday Morning” on CBS with Charles Osgood. It’s sort of a news program that lasts for an hour and a half – that highlights world and national news, the various arts, and entertainment and some sports. What I enjoy the most – is that all the articles are in depth – not a 15 to 30 second sound bite. Then at about 0945 I’d. read more...

Sapphire II - 3 December “It’s raining, it’s pouring”

The sky is leaden and the sea looks strangely flattened as if it’s trying to boil but atmospheric pressure is keeping it down. On the radar, there are colourful blobs sneaking up on us. They may divide into smaller blobs or they may pass you by. But when they hit, you need to be ready. Batten down the hatches and expect to get soaked if you’re on the helm. It’s rain, Jim, but not as we know it. Visibility – poor in rain. You could be in the Irish Sea except here you are in swimming trunks and a T-shirt and it feels good. You’re having a shower and the boat is getting a free wash-down. With the rain comes wind. As much as 30 knots blowing the boat along at 13 – 14  knots. And it doesn’t feel like you’re doing any more than 8. Eventually. read more...

Happy Cat - Steady as

It's hard to believe two weeks at sea, have passed today,  5- 6 days to go and that's the Atlantic crossed. We have had light winds for the last two days, so motored, and gave everyone a restful night. No sails flogging about as the swells go through. Have had a whale following us and playing around the boat for 3 mornings.  Seems to stay an hour.  Great sight as a large wave rises behind us, to see a Whale surfing along in it. Food and drinks all holding up. Everyone in good spirits. Had the generator stop with no diesel. Appears to have a faulty lift tube in the port tank.  So after much technical analysis from too many Engineers, we switched tanks, bleed the system and away again.  Another thing to repair when we get there. Lucky to have had such a. read more...

Skyelark of London - Day 15, 4th December 2011

Day 15, 4th December 2011First of all, a correction from yesterday - it is plain James Lind, without the Sir..As we now have less than 500 miles to our destination, our thoughts turn to arrival and how we may prepare ourselves for the culture shock of St Lucia, surely a far cry from the tapas bars of Gran Caneria. Our preparations to date have been to crank up the Bob Marley on the music system!Thoughts of arrival lead me to reflect upon the nature of the trip. Travel by air and you are dropped into your destination without any opportunity for adjustment to both the time zone and culture of the destination. Travel by land gives you ample opportunity to adjust and experience the changing cultures of the people you meet along the way - the writings of Wilfred Thesinger, Eric Newby, Dervla. read more...

Great Escape of Southampton - Day 15 (somewhere)

A D I P  On the third day of Christmas my true love gave to me… Three sails are flying, Two reefs in the main And a suntan that will last until spring Back to sailing. Yesterday we had the benefit of a reasonable F 4 to 5 E wind which with all sails up and skilled crew we managed some decent miles on the tacho and some impressive bursts of speed. The boat seems well balanced in the gusts which means most of us can sleep as the night before there was a riot down below with a lot of crashing and banging and stuff flying about. This seems to be the case when the boat is dictated to by the following rollers rather than getting herself together with the wind.A very disappointing day on the fishing front with not a sniff from anything, I think they have us cornered. More fish are. read more...

Lancelot - Day 14 - 2 Weeks at Sea

Morning All   Well 2 weeks at sea so far, in some ways it seems to have gone very quickly and in others it has been a while coming.I would imagine by now that my bank are becoming worried for my safety as not a penny of my money has been spent in a single pub for over 14 days! They need not worry as some time mid week they will soon become aware of our presence in the bars of St Lucia!! We have had a stable breeze of around 20 knots for the past 24 hrs so our praying to the wind gods seems to be going well so far and we are close approaching the 450nm left to go mark, fingers crossed! Today we are going to get back on the fishing mission as we have been a bit beaten down by the fish of the Atlantic so far, but we can't let a whole crossing go by without even landing one,. read more...

Scarlet Oyster - The Winds of Change... 4/12/11

Morning all,As expected the wind has dropped a lot already, unfortunately our expected 30deg right shift has not shown up, so we are now straight upwind of the mark... To add insult to already serious injury, there is now a current against us to the tune of around half a knot!This is conspiring to make us feel a little anxious about our finishing time, especially as the wind is set to drop further!As I am typing the wind is moving slightly right, fingers crossed this is it, but 10knots of wind with a big swell is not really what we were looking for!Keep those wind dances going!CheersRoss. read more...

Jacana of Ardmay - 3/12/11

Hi Everyone,   We cannot rub it in about the weather today as it started off pretty poor..............rain, although by the afternoon it came good, however we have lost wind and our speed has reduced down to between 4.5 and 5.5 knots but we are under 900 miles now! Young Andrew did some more fishing, only managed to bring in some seaweed, but Chef Fred made us a lovely dinner of paella, although our store cupboard has less choice we are managing to still eat well. We did spot another yacht today, not for long before it disappeared over the horizon and a tanker, how longer before we sight land??   Team Jacana        . read more...

Elisa - daar istie weer

Twee gezichten.We zijn nu bijna twee weken onderweg en in deze fantastische weken zijn een paar belangrijke lessen geleerd. De eerste is dat van enige overschatting geen sprake mag zijn. Het is misschien een cliché maar op oceaan realiseer je je hoe nietig je bent en mag je niets voor vanzelfsprekend aannemen. Het tweede dat je leert is dat kwaliteit boven alle vormen van kwantiteit gaat. Dat laatste geldt voor het materiaal als ook voor het aantal af te leggen zeemijlen per etmaal. Onderstaande drie alinea’s schreef ik drie dagen geleden een de laatste twee alinea’s gaan over gisteren en vandaag. Hoewel er geenzins sprake is geweest van noodweer illustreert het wel wat ik met bovenstaande bedoel. Twee dagen geleden; De Elisa ligt nu al twee dagen op een rechte koers. read more...

Challenger 4 - Day 14 - 4 December 2011

CHALLENGER 4 BLOG: DAY 14:4TH DECEMBER 2011.It's been an all action day on board Challenger 4.In the middle of the night Skipper noticed a small tear in theYankee foresail near a hank,As quick as a flash the sail was down and wonder woman, watch leader, chef, sail maker Pam was on the job with a patch and before White Watch came on deck it was as if nothing had happened.Later in the day another small repair was required this time on the batten pocket of the second from top batten of the mainsail.This was due to a small metal bracket coming adrift near the mast.Replete with harness, bracket and screws as well as the ship's camera Skipper Steve was hoisted to the top of the mast by Luis and Di - a very hard task knowing the Skipper's colossal weight and the very hot weather.Happy snaps of. read more...

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