Daily Logs

Delphini - Day 9 - In the trades 18 33N by 33 19W

36 hour run with spinnaker (so far). Fish 5 - Manos/Peter 0. Tia is rooting for the fish!!Beautiful weather and happy crew. Eating well (thanks to Julia). Saw another boat today..yeah!! almost half way there. Toby is learning fast and doing well. Hope to eat fish tonight and have a 200 mile run. Manos S/Y Delphini. read more...

Twelve Moons - Mainz 05 - Bayern München 3:2

Den ganzen gestrigen Tag musste ich das gefrotzel von Markus , ein eingefleischter Bayernfan ertragen. Für ihn ging es nur noch um die Höhe des Bayernsieges, sein Tip war 0:5 passend zum Gründungsjahr von Mainz. Markus kam mit seinem Bayern Trikot an, ich habe natürlich die Mainz 05 Fahne in der Saling gesetzt und zusätzlich den Vereinsschal im Cockpit aufgehängt. Robert hat mich aus dem Stadion mit den Zwischenständen per mail versorgt, und es war mir eine Genugtuung Markus mit der 1:0 Führung der Mainzer zu konfrontieren. Nachdem der Mainzer Sieg feststand habe ich natürlich eine Flasche Sekt spendiert. Ich wäre gerne live im Stadion dabei gewesen.Grüsse von der Segeljacht 12Moons, mitten auf dem Atlantik, Position 18 Grad Nord,37. read more...

Saltwhistle III - Day 8

Hi,not much to report today - made good mileage overnight in steady winds and clear skies. Saw a few other boats overnight; Hanami II is probably on our  starboard quarter about 3 miles away.Had roasted Mahi Mahi for dinner; the rest is in the freezer. Looks like being another scorching day today so we'll get round to putting the bimini up at last.Feline conjunctivitis patient is probably on the last day of treatment.Looking forward to the halfway mark in probably 2 days. Might have to chill a champagne for that one...All well on board.Tony. read more...

Hassebas - 5 - Amsterdam - Paris [in 24 hours]

v\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} o\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} w\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} .shape {behavior:url(#default#VML);} Normal 0 falsefalse false falseEN-US JA X-NONE/* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0cm; mso-para-margin-right:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0cm; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-ansi-language:EN-US;}Fifth. read more...

Sookie - Day 8 (six) Spinnaker Hell

We have finally turned west and time for some downwind sailing with the cruising chute.  We took the sail inside the boat and fixed a couple of nicks with spinnaker repair tape relatively easily. We hoisted the chute, unfurled only  to find what can only be described as an overlapping twist between the sail and the continuous furling luff rope (tech stuff I know, or don't' probably).  So we droppped the sail fixed the twist, rehoisted only to find the same problem.  After much head scratching and discussion we were getting nowhere. This was one of those times where every one is talking about the same solution to what we think the problem is but in a different languages (all English). We decided to French Connection United Kingdom it and ditch the furler and. read more...

Sookie - Day 6 (four) 25th November

Written Late (who said you won't know what to do with yourself?)   Our shifts consist of two people officially on watch (helming, sailing, watching!) at all times.  Four hours on then four hours off. Wit a day off every fifth day to do anything or nothing.  We have already found out that on your day off one is very busy but it's like volounteer work and you do get to sleep through a complete night. plus wherever and whenever, whatever!   Although most of the boats are heading westerly towards St Lucia we have decided to keep heading in a southerly route towards the Cape Verde Islands to pick up the trade winds as the boat will maintain  good speed in relation to the N Easterlies currently blowing and our downwind sail needs some setting up. read more...

Sookie - Day 7 (five) Surf city

 Still going South.  Fresh Winds 27/20 Kts dropping through the day.  Last nights strong winds continued into the early hours and gradually dropped during the day but the seas remain untidy. A small tear was noticed high up on the Genoa (foresail) so it was decides we should drop the sail carry out a minor repair before the tear got any worse.  As is typical of life when the sail was dropped the wins picked up.  The gallant attempt to carry out the repair failed, due to the heavy seas and accompanying spray.  However when the sail was rehoisted due to the flogging in the strong win a further tear and a little larger appeared.  This was also near the top of the sail therefore as long as we furled the sail beyond the tear it would not be a. read more...

Aztec Dream - 27/11/11 - Having a whale of a time...

We caught another two Dorado yesterday, both of which we released, as we're still eating the last one....in fact it made for an excellent lunch of fish cakes, salad and freshly baked bread. However, the highlight of the day was, without doubt, being joined by a pod of 5 or 6 Minkie whales, who were crossing under the boat and surfacing ever closer. I was changing the gas cylinder at one point and 30 foot of whale surfaced right next to me and I was treated to a shower from the spray coming from his blow hole....quite incredible.They entertained us with their antics for over two hours. This morning we also have a stowaway, as a flying fish landed in the cockpiit.....poor Bob, who was on watch, thought part of the rig had fallen off, as it landed with quite a thump! We again. read more...

Hassebas - 4 - Hassebas zet tandje bij!

"Verslag 4: de Hassebas zet een tandje bij"DankDank voor de vele aanmoedigende reacties die wij via Julia ontvingen. Op verzoek van de Nederlandse kinderen schrijven we vandaag eens in het Nederlands.De Boter begint te is smelten- 20ste breedte graadHet advies van de visser uit Las Palmas blijkt volledig correct te zijn. Zodra de boter begon smelten nam de speed van Hassebas toe ,tot nog niet eerder gerealiseerde snelheden. De boter smolt, de koers werd naar West ingezet, de blauwe genaker werd gehesen om er niet meer van af te komen. De crew was na 3 trainingsrondjes warmgedraaid, was het gezeur met roerbladen en kapotte zeilen te boven en besloot dat het hoog tijd was een tandje bij te zetten. Het is toch leuker om alvast een paar keer om Virgin Islands heen te varen voordat de rest. read more...

Cattitude - Lock out and look out

Day 7 A whole week has passed and we're all still enjoying the experience. The routine is well established on board and with the weather warming up we are able to work on those all important tans! Slight problem this morning when crew member managed to lock herself out of her cabin. After much fiddling with the lock, inability to open the hatch, failure with fishing rod etc etc, the problem was resolved by removing the porthole shaped glass from the door to allow someone to reach the lock. We spotted a small craft off the starboard side with a gaf rig, which can't have been part of the ARC to be at this spot at this time. As we scooted past it at 9 knots you couldn't help but wonder how long he will take to reach his destination, and where that may be. Being Sunday we decided to have a. read more...

Hassebas - 3rd Newsletter

DSC00920.. read more...

Aztec Dream - 07.99 - 28/11

Good morning Chris, Our position is 20 12N 32 33W, SOG 6.7, COG 260, wind E14, trip 1037 NM. Sky is pretty much clear, just the odd small cloud, which is an improvement on yesterday where we saw quite a bit of cloud and even got rained on for 15 minutes or so. As you can see we are heading more or less for your new waypoint. Winds were variable and on the light side yesterday but have picked up a bit and steadied overnight. We caught another two Dorado yesterday, both of which we released, as we're still eating the last one....in fact it made for an excellent lunch of fish cakes, salad and freshly baked bread. However, the highlight of the day was being joined by a pod of 5 or 6 Minkie whales, who were crossing under the boat and surfacing ever closer, staying with us for over two hours.. read more...

Watergaw - Day 8 -Sunday 27/11/11 -

The Origin of the Species We should probably have done this earlier, as we often get asked what the boat name means. A “watergaw” is a lowlands (lallans) Scottish word meaning rainbow, but refers to that odd shimmering and indistinct kind that has not fully formed .... and being imperfect, is wholly appropriate for a yacht which can never be ideal (none is), and for sailors who share the same characteristic writ large. Watergaw is also the title of a poem by Hugh McDiarmid (our other bard, but only famous in our own back yard), who wrote brilliantly for a few years, and was quite anti-religious.  You cannot do a long passage like this without thinking about those who did it in ships that did not go to windward, whose crew did not know whether or when they would see home. read more...

Flying Fish - 1. Woche

Das Leben an Bord besteht nicht nur aus Segeln, dh Segel setzen, bergen, steuern und Essen und schlafen. Jedes Segelboot ist zugleich ein schwimmender Reparaturbetrieb, unsere Flying Fish ist da keine Ausnahme:   So bauten wir als erstes die bb-Lichtmaschine aus, nach dem sie kokelnd ihren Geist aufgab. An so einem Teil kann der Laie nicht viel reparieren, trotzdem hofft er, dass nach pfleglicher Behandlung und liebevollem Wiedereinbau das Aggregat wieder seinen Dienst verrichten wolle - vergeblich. Also noch Keilriemen runter, damit kein weiterer Schaden entsteht. Als nächstes war ein Riß in unserem Parasailer zu beheben, eine nächtliche Fahrt mit Boen bis 27 kn hatten ihm und den Schoten zugesetzt. Also Parasailor runter und Klebearbeiten auf dem bewegten. read more...

Sunrise - Log Day 8: Nacht- und Tagschichten

Unsere Position haben wir wohl etwas verbessern können. Die ersten 1000 Seemeilen sind geschafft. Die Wolken und Wellen haben sich verändert, ein Zeichen, dass wir dem Passat näher gekommen sind. Die täglich zurück gelegten Distanzen sind besser geworden; unsere Taktik ist ok und wir sind mit dem Ergebnis momentan ganz zufrieden. Der Wind bleibt uns hoffentlich treu und schiebt uns regelmässig vor sich her. Das Segeln bei Nacht ist für uns alle eine Herausforderung. Die Nachtwache dauert für jede/n jeweils 3 Std. wobei der Wechsel alle 1,5 Std. stattfindet. Das ist sehr angenehm und bringt etwas Abwechslung. Am Steuer wechseln wir uns in der Regel alle 30 Min. ab - je nach Verfassung der Person. Die Nächte sind sehr dunkel geworden. Der Mond. read more...

Cheeki Rafiki - Day 8 Top Up

The moon rose tonight on the Western horizon and looked particularly bright, despite it being but a small waxing crescent. As it rose in the sky it provided a useful beam on the water to steer down before it began its march across the skies and over our heads. It has been a good afternoon, we finally made the time zone jump on board that I wrote about a few days ago. Each watch effectively did an extra hour on deck to bring us in line with local time. Hopefully tomorrow we can eat all three meals in daylight! This afternoon brought us some cloud which afforded us some protection from the relentless sun, in particular it helped the helm in the middle of the day. Unlike some of the more cruising orientated boats we are hand steering the whole way and due to our aft main. read more...

Voahangy - Day 8 - Another beautiful sailing day

After chasing/praying for wind all day and all night, it looks like we finally found some blowing in the right direction. We are now pushed gently by a 20knot easterly breeze straight towards St Lucia! How long this will last is anyone's guess, we're just making the most of it sailing at 8knots. As long as we arrive before the first party starts in Rodney Bay on Dec 7, Terry will be happy. There's been increasing talk on board about the need for a spinnaker, which would allow us to sail at a better angle and go faster. Note that on day 2, it was merely desirable, now it features on top of Terry's Christmas list! That's what the ARC does for you: it is a cruising rally intending to provide fun competition, and while the key word for me is FUN, Terry seems to focus on the COMPETITION. read more...

Zingara - 28/11/11

Zingara auf reisen. Da bin ich wieder. Meine nachtschicht hat begonnen und so ist zeit genug, zu berichten. Den 1. Advent haben wir gebuehrend vor einem kleinen adventskranz bei gaensekeule u knoedel ausnahmsweise mit nem glas rioja gewuerdigt. Den passat haben wir erreicht und so geht s nun auf dem grosskreis mit direktem kurs zum ziel . Mittwoch ist bereits halbzeit, unglaublich! Es wird immer waermer und so ist der aufenthalt im cockpit selbst nachts sehr angenehm. Soviel fuer den moment, herzliche gruesse von der mitte des atlantiks, skipper ernsti, bordarzt ruediger u 2.Offz felix. read more...

Kealoha 8 - The Mighty Atlantic

Todays blog is in response to questions sent to us from a primary school in Maple Ridge, Vancouver, Canada. This has come about as Billy’s daughter Nicola teaches grade 1 at the school and her class have been following us on blog and website. As inquisitive 7 year olds they have asked some searching questions.......   1.Are you trying to win the race? YES!! Overall there are 230 yachts in the race split into various classes. We have 19 in our class but we are also in competition with 8 Oyster yachts in various other classes. there are many talented sailors in the race from the following countries:- Germany Holland Finland Norway U.S.A. U.K. Australia PortugalSpain France Sweden Peru Canada Italy Greece Russia Swiss Denmark Ireland Poland Austria New Zealand Turkey   2 Are. read more...

Mojomo - position update

21:47N 28:51W at midnight sunday night/Monday morningI got our position wrong on my diary thingy a day or so back so lots of people think we're near Greenland. But we aren't.Now bxwx sez our yellowbrick isn't transmitting. It might be because it's run out of 50pence pieces inside, or praps cos I didn't pay them the £50 deposit in las palmas like i should have, or becos they gave me a duff one last year as well so i'm now\a sort of parity error checksum thingy, or because it's having a holiday. Not sure. It definitely should be working - none of the magical electrical smoke has escaped, and as everyone knows, electrical things are all powered by electrical smoke and if it gets out of the machine, well, then that's when it stops working. I'll get the crew to have a go at it tomorrow.. read more...

Nix - Day 8 (27th) - Worn Out, but Merry

This is what Vicks slept through today...   Sailing started well with the spinnaker gliding us through the waves at around nine and a half knots. We were hunting down Triumph, the leader of our class, at about half a mile every couple of hours. As we came within a mile of our rival, an unexpected change of wind direction forced us to gybe, however, our new bearing is now directly to St. Lucia. During the course of the gybe several crew members acquired injuries. As a result, David needs a new finger, George a new back, James a new shoulder and Vicks fell out of bed. Roughly half an hour later with a sudden crack of a rope the spinnaker was flying freely over the port bow. Initial thoughts were a broken shackle, however, after later inspection it was in fact the sheet that snapped.. read more...

Scarlet Oyster - Go West! 27/11/11

Hi All,Did not get round to a blog yesterday, decided to do one of my watches instead! I figured that as most our readers don't work on a Saturday that they would have more important things to do anyway!All is great out here, and we are finally reeling the miles off, sailing is perfect at the moment with 15-20knots from the ENE, and nothing too scary in the squalls.The only issue we have is the lack of angle to st Lucia, so we are constantly trying to sail low (and fast!), or VMG yesterday did not look too flash as most was spent on the non making gybe trying to get South into better wind, we put a couple of gybes in to try and go west, but each grib we downloaded suggested better pressure S so VMG was sacrificed to find a better lane of wind. Midday yesterday we were overtaken by a. read more...

Brizo - WCC Log Day 8 – Sunday 27th Nov: Weather changing.

1,304nm complete and approx. 1,659nm to go. So far its been a mix of mainly cloud, some sun and a little rain. As we have now gone South far enough we have turned and are chasing the sun heading West. On Brizo we are still working on GMT (UT) so its darker until later in our morning and lighter in the evening – so tomorrow we will start slipping our watches later by an hour. In the early hours of the morning we broke a Main sail vertical batten that keeps the sail stiff and in shape. So the sail was pulled in batten removed and during the day we made up a new one from spares. Tomorrow if winds permit we will remove the Genoa head sail and check for wear and tear on the Halyard (rope that holds it up). The latest weather report that has come in in the form of a ‘grib. read more...

Casamara - Day 8 - we are in the groove

Hi everyone,   Today has been another blue sky sailing day with great trade winds.  We have sailed nearly 1200 nm in a week and no engine.  We replaced the broken main sail batten which required a piece being hack sawed off and reconnected with a new connector.  We are running with main sail, solent and poled out genoa and have been experimenting with fine tuning to reduce rolling and wear and tear.   We nearly lost the block on the end of the whisper pole but recovered it just in time  We have now had three Dorado fish on board and they are getting bigger and bigger.  We are all having showers and Iain keeps washing his smalls at an alarming rate.  Iain is doing lots of sextant sights and I have had a go as well but boy is it difficult! . read more...

La Palapa - Main sail update 27 Nov 2026 nm to st lucia

I know everyone is dying to hear how the sail project is going. we decided this am that in spite of the good winds we needed to make some progress so here is the update but first just let me say we have been having an amazing time out here. after the nets this am aimee heated us up some leftover quiche for breakfast, she even got over her micro-phobia and used the microwave to save gas! after this we had a bit of a creative disagreement on the blog content but sorted it all out and spent the rest of the morning lying on the fore deck basking in the sun as the boat cut through the waves. aimee but in a dolphin request but alas no dolphins. eventually we tore our selves away from the for deck and aimee worked on lunch while i got going on the sail. here you can see me in our "sail loft". read more...

Halcyon of Hebe - Day 8 - Arrival of the Trades

Pos: 18:36N 30:16WA week from the start, over 1000Nm gone and I think (hope) that we've arrive in the reliable trade winds. On advice from our weather routers, we had been heading SW towards 18N, 30W. During last night, the wind seemed to pick up from the east, and we decided to cut the corner and put a bit more west in the course. Time will tell if we have turned right too soon. We now doing about 7.5 knots on about 255Good news. After days of trying we have finally caught a fish. Bad News: it was an unfortunate flying fish about 2cm long that we found on deck. Sarah is particularly happy to have caught something.Today we crossed the 30deg line so put the clocks back an hour. Although theoretically there is a 4 hour time difference between the Canaries and St Lucia, I think we'll stick. read more...

Ensemble - Day 8: Sunday 27 November - Dorado Double!

Greetings from yacht Ensemble.Another day of typical trade winds sailing - 15 knots downwind - with slight seas and blue skies.We've set up the sun-bed, but fortunately left the rods out.We'd seen a lot of flying fish - and plenty of birds - but hadn't caught anything (other than a couple of suicidal flying fish).Then just as the sun was getting low on the horizon two rods went off and we landed two dorado (mahi mahi). Fortunately, the curry we'd planned for the night can easily stand another day in the pot - so fresh fish for dinner! Delicious!Signing offDave27Nov 027. read more...

Clearlake II - Day 8 - MoB recovery trial

Current position "19:30.9N 32:17.5W”. Reasonable progress by day and disappointing by night – the wind dies down. We’d do better with the spinnaker still up but we’re cautious about keeping it up at night lest we tear it in a squall – by the time one realises one’s going to get hit by a squall one may not have the time to get the spinnaker down (safely at night). We’re still doing well overall versus the fleet but falling behind the racing version of our boat, not unsurprising but we’d like to keep in touch.  Lots of other things to talk about. The principle one is most recent. Things got rather hot and slow this afternoon so we tried out surfing behind the boat. Graham, James & Byron had a good conversation about what could go. read more...

Skiathos - 27/11/11

Liebe Leser,   die Reise geht weiter und wir finden täglich eine passende Möglichkeit, dies zu feiern: das erste Viertel geschafft, die ersten 1000 Meilen, das erste Drittel, den 30. Längengrad gequert... Nun warten wir aufs Bergfest, auf die Querung des 20. Breitengrades... es ist schon erstaunlich welche Kreativität wir beim Finden von Gründen für eine Reduzierung der Getränkevorräte an den Tag legen ;-) Keine Sorge, die Versorgung mit Flüssigkeit ist alles andere als einseitig und erfolgt stets nach sorgfältiger Vorbereitung der Grundlage... So backen wir inzwischen täglich Brot und zaubern aus den geschätzten 10.000 Dosen feine Speisen. Heute Nacht hatten wir ganz besonderen Besuch: ein fliegender Fisch hatte sich an. read more...

Cochise - 27/11/11

day 8 Sunset and Stars Just after yesterday's blog we hooked a huge fish which took most of our line out of the reel and the combined strength of several crew to hang onto the rod. Excitment built at the beast we would land, but once again it wriggled free after 50 mins and we were left deflated - but only briefly! As we sat down to our sundowners, the sun put on a magnificent display on the horizon, and then above the remining glow, the first sliver of a new crescent moon came into view seemingly cradling Venus. No one could remain unmoved by the magnificent display of stars and sunsets we we get in these clear skies. Tonight is a big Swedish celebration for Ascension and the team are planning to have glvgg and pepperkakor and Sam is practicing some Swedish Christmas tunes on his flute. read more...

Elisa - Dag 6: geen vis..

Tegen de tijd dat u dit leest zal inmiddels wel duidelijk zijn geworden dat onze SSB er na de korte opleving van gisteren weer duchtig mee opgehouden is. Dat maakt ook het gevoel bij het schrijven van dit blog ineens heel anders. In plaats van dat ik het gevoel heb het thuisfront op de hoogte te houden, voelt het ineens alsof ik voor ons zelf aan het schrijven ben; versturen kunnen we het resultaat op korte termijn tenslotte toch niet naar het zich laat aanzien. Morgen staat dus weer een exercitie op het programma die het geheel nalopen, loskoppelen en weer aansluiten van alle relevante kabels van het systeem op het programma. Hebben we in ieder geval iets te doen, want zeiltechnisch is het niet direct spannend geweest vandaag en ziet het er naar uit dat dat nog wel even zo blijft. De. read more...

Hanami II - Barry found 'not guilty'

Well, we have completed our first 7 full days! We have been sailing downwind with mainsail and poled out genoa (on the opposite side), sometimes known as 'goose-winging',and using our Hydrovane, 'Barry', to do the steering. Hydrovanes are excellent on a reach, but are not supposed to be as good with the wind behind in a sea with large swells, especially when the wind speed drops. We were seeing large fluctuations on the compass around our desired course, swings as much as +/-15 degrees as we sat watching it with concern. Discussions ensued ... is Barry up to it? What additional miles are we notching up with this meandering around? How many days will this add over 2000 miles? Should we switch to the power hungry autohelm? Should we go on a broad reach and gybe to St. Lucia? Barry's fate. read more...

Thosyma - 8. Tag auf See 27-11-2011

Advent, Advent - die Lichtlein brennen, 1 Engelchen und 2 (B)engelchen sind unterwegs mit dem ARC-Atlantik-Rennen. Die Schneefloeckchen sind aus Plastik nur, der Gluehwein-Punsch hat Kuehlschranktemperatur. Kein Weihnachtsmarkt am Horizont, die Lichterkette sich grad bei 30 Grad sonnt. Raeucherkerzchen bei diesem Wind? Da muss das Naeschen sein geschwind. Wir fragen uns, wie wir bloss in Weihnachtsstimmung kommen sollen, Die Rettung ist UNSER DRESDNER WEIHNACHTSSTOLLEN! Hhhhmmmm? lecker!!! Einen sonnigen Adventsgruss aus den (Wellen)Bergen vom Team THOSYMA 20° 36.041` North 32° 34.341` West. read more...

Dschinni - Tag 8: Die Seebeine sind ausgewachsen

Nach der grossen Anspannung und dem fulminanten Start von 225 ARC Booten am letzten Sonntag ist Ruhe auf unserer Dschinni eingekehrt. Die ersten 2 Tage auf See waren noch ziemlich aufregend, vor allem da wir auch immer wieder andere Yachten angetroffen haben. Man fühlt sich dann gleich nicht mehr so allein. Dank einer nicht ganz glücklichen Routenwahl sind wir einen Tag in Verzug gegenüber anderen Booten, doch wir holen auf! Ansonsten geht es uns gut, und auch die Seebeine sind inzwischen ausgewachsen. Auf Dschinni hat sich langsam eine Bordroutine eingespielt, wir bewegen uns in unserem eigenen Mikrokosmos. Die Tage auf See sind hauptsächlich geprägt von Schlafen, Wache schieben, und Essen/Trinken. Ausserdem hat jeder von uns ein tägliches Projekt,. read more...

Raparee - 27 Nov. RAPAREE firmly in the Trades and battling (South)west

27 Nov. Firmly in the Trades and battling (South)west. All up for early start untangling stuff. A crazily busy morning. Pull spi halyard out of mast by sewing another halyard to its tail. This in order to replace the smashed head block. Multiple painful mast ascents. Skipper goes aloft and swearing at the waves 50ft below as he clings on with teeth while assembling and mousing 3 shackles and block at crazingly gyrating masthead (cliche warning). Job finished at 1330 with all crew feeling thrashed. Time for cheese and fruitcake. Desperate to get some revs on to improve our speed but too knackered to face up to another hoist of that devil's bag of tricks called a cruising chute. Decide that as its Sunday aft we should be happy to do some dhobeying and trundle along at 6kts under twin jibs. read more...

Island Wanderer - Blog Day 8 Sunday 27th November, 19:47N, 31:58.5W

Day 8, Sunday again. One week at sea. How time flies (or sails!). We still have a fair wind, though it varies in strength and direction frequently which keeps us busy keeping sails trimmed (pressing buttons on the autohelm to keep sailing with the wind at the same apparent angle). The light winds are favouring the lighter boats taking part in the crossing.   We spotted another boat during the night, so guess we must be going somewhere in the right direction.   Temperatures are now very warm during the day – uncomfortable down below, though we still need long trousers and pullovers at night time.   Water tanks are full, which means even if we could not produce any more we should have enough until we reach St Lucia. The chartplotter reports 1694 miles to go, so we. read more...

Cruinneag III - Matelots Diary

Sunday 27th November 18:30:51N 29:22:69WIn all my 25 years before the mast, I've never crewed on a ship where they work you as hard as on Cruinneag III. The crew have to turn to with the Dyson every morning before we've even had our latte and pan au chocolate. One man forgot to take the filter paper out of the coffee machine yesterday and was sentenced to 15 licks of the cat. He coughed up a furrball this afternoon and is feeling much better now. After that excitement we attended a lecture from Karen on foredeck drills as we wanted to put the sails up for photos. Thursday night was Raman's Happy Hour, 'Rum'ns Carribean Bar' - "you can drink whatever you want as long as it's got Rum in it!". Day 6 - Susan 'Aligator Aberdeen's' Happy Hour 'The Billabong Bar' served us Kangaroo punch. A. read more...

Annie - Log Day 8 by Pip

At last a sighting of another sail! On our port beam. What excitement! I suggest we call them up on the radio. "Nah, no need to do that" said Graham.  Is this something to do with men and communication - or is it that this yacht looks to be overtaking us? Moving on - another flavour of life on board.There I was curled up on the cockpit floor, by now not a pleasant environment as debris is tending to get caught there from when we heave ho our organic refuse. There I was curled up against Jamie Oliver pumping the bilges dry using the hand pump. Now, ofcourse Jamie Oliver is not on board and had he been so he probably would have been pushed over the side by now, what with his jolly over-excitable nature. This is a boat of grumpy old people after all. No, 'Jamie Oliver' is his branded. read more...

Hunny Pot - Day 6 and day 7

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Twelve Moons - 7 Tage unterwegs

7 Tage unterwegsHeute um 13 Uhr sind wir genau 7 Tage unterwegs. Wir haben genau 1400 Seemeilen durchs Wasser zurückgelegt, also ein Schnitt von 200 Meilen pro Tag. Damit können wir ganz zufrieden sein, zumal wir relativ weit südlich gut positioniert sind. Morgen können wir Wahrscheinlich Bergfest feiern. Mit 8 bis 11 Knoten Speed laufen wir unter Gennacker bei 5 Bft. Kurs West, der Autopilot übrenimmt das Steuern Gestern war unser Hydrogenerator ausgefallen, ein Stück Treibholz hat die Aufhängung verbogen. Konnten es aber mit Bordmitteln wieder reparieren. Das Ding ist ein kleines Wunderwerk, liefert 100% des benötigten Stroms aus Wasserkraft, so um sie 20 Amp/h im Schnitt.Kulinarisch verwöhnt uns Alex weiterhin. Gestern gabs Filetsteak mit. read more...

Cosmic Dancer V - Day 7 - A frustrating 24 hours

What a difference a day makes. Yesterday we were rejoicing at what we thought was the beginning of some steady trade wind sailing. Today we were cursing the instability of the wind and battling to keep the boat moving in the right direction.Despite the fact that we are now mid ocean, and there was hardly a cumulus cloud in sight all day, the airstream was remarkably unstable, with the wind constantly oscillating between NE and SE and varying in strength from 5-15 knots. To keep the yacht heading on our westerly course we would ideally have needed to gybe every 30 minutes or so to keep in phase with the shifts.Therein lay the problem. Cosmic Dancer is not an easy boat to gybe at the best of times, and especially not when sailing 2 handed. With only a single spinnaker pole, but with 2. read more...

Spindrift of Jersey - Spindrift ARC Log - Day 8

18:30.15N 28:15.56W Yesterday afternoon we caught two fair sized mahi mahi fish about 70-80 cms long. We cut up one of them into steaks and put it in the fridge and will have it for dinner tonight. Chris A has volunteered to forego the feast, just in case there is any problem as I am sure that there will be plenty of opportunity. Ken has agreed to try it even though he has previously strongly disliked this type of fish - if you don't try it here you never will and sometimes tastes change. We also had two flying fish land on deck. One jumped into Chris E's lap during the night and really made him jump as it flapped around!! After a night of rather slow progress running under only a poled out genoa, this morning we experimented with different rigs for a couple of hours but didn't really. read more...

Mojomo - Egg Report

22:07N 27:40W at 1445 GMTThe clue in the forecast from BxWx was the name “Pudniw” reversed, which we spotted, thank gawd. We have been given permission by BxWx to take the rumb line (direct) to St Lucia, but clearly the higher winds are further south, and we’re moving more south but still preserving VMG to as near 8knots as  often as possible. BxWx asks if we would like more wind, and I think yes, we’d like an extra 5-10 knots please. The power BxWx is great indeed.Egg Day this afternoon. Instead of Egg Roulette, we decided to play Egg Cricket and deliver the eggs against each other. Random hardboiled and raw eggs in a bowl, each person chooses an egg at random and splats the person to their right. We had fifteen eggs (8 raw eggs, 7 hardboiled) and five. read more...

Kantara - One week at Sea 20.14.511N 25.52.203W

We've been out here in the big blue sea now for one week . Haven't seen another boat for two days !. Its been nice and sunny for the past few days and we are all starting to resemble old sea dogs with beards and tans. We caught a big fish today but it got off . We saw it jump and it looked like a 2ft Tuna. Its getting towards sunset now so we are settling down for dinner and the night watch. The stars at night are incredible , I am slowly learning all the constellations with the use of Mikes clever I phone app and a Noddys guide to the stars. We can see all the major planets bar Mars. Jupiter is the brightest followed by Venus. We have been taking fixes at dusk and using them to locate our position, very interesting but hard on the old grey matter. Kantara is. read more...

Sibilation - Day 7

Noon to noon run = 151nm.   One week in and 1000 miles ticked off!  Two significant milestones achieved, but with another 1800nm still to cover no one is getting too carried away.  It was an incredibly dark night last night, without even the reassuring flashing of Rodney the autohelm who’s retaining pin had worked loose.  Helming in these conditions for 3 hours straight is tiring and we all looked weary this morning.   We are now at 19 degrees north and things are hotting up, even the sea temperature is 27 degrees!  Finding shelter and drinking plenty of water is top of the agenda, fortunately shade is found in abundance under the umbrella hats Mum and Dad (Jane and Pete) found for us in Gran Canaria.  I am sorry to report that after several. read more...

Destiny - Log Day 8: Fresh Fish and home made bread

1200 local time (which is also GMT time for us at the moment), Thursday Nov 24. 18 19 N, 030 39 W Distance sailed from Gran Canaria: 1195 nm Rhumb line distance to go: 1759 nmDear Family and Friends, Yesterday was an exciting and productive day. Matt was successful in landing 2 Dorados, 6 and 6.5 #'s each, approximately 70 centimeters in length (Maui, Maui) late in the afternoon. Matt filleted them with the utmost precision (he is a retired surgeon)and we grilled them on the barbecue. I prepared some caramelized onions in red wine, balsamic vinegar, garlic and olive oil as a side to the fish. Nothing better than fresh fish 1000 miles out in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.I had prepared the dough to make oatmeal, walnut bread and had 2 loaves set aside next to the sink to rise. While. read more...

VIA CON ME - 1st Advent

As I'm the only woman on board with 4 men, I was sure, I have to made a self-help group for them. So I told them, they could have a daily meeting under the mast at 1500. But it seems, that they do not need use of this... good for me. We have still a good time on board, the always fabulously kitchen make every body happy, the few Squalls bring us a bit forward und we enjoy every day at high seas.Have a good 1st Advent. Marina 999C. read more...

Ula - Log Day 7 Missed Opportunities

p { margin-bottom: 0.21cm; }Day 7 Missed Opportunities Our monster lure was taken. A very large grey shape jumped on the lure and bit straight through it, without zipping the line out more than a few feet.This morning the rod bent double, and just before the pressure snapped it in half, the line went slack. Amazingly the lure remained. We changed the hook on that one. After our delicious roast lamb dinner last night, we enjoyed 'Saturday Night Movie Night'. Thats certainly a first for me, showing Guy Richie's latest film on flatscreen in the cockpit in the middle of the Atlantic, while sailing at 7-8kts with a spinnaker up, in the dark. What fun! The trades are thankfully starting to return, and boat speed is returning to what can only be described as acceptable, and as long as our big. read more...

Meltemi - Skippers Logbook

Ahoi und Gruesse aus dem Atlantik zum 1ten AdventSY 'MELTEMI' 27.11.2011 Position 1200 Bordzeit = 1400 MEZ: 19Grad 40Minuten Nord / 030Grad 45Minuten West Kurs ueber Grund: 265 Grad Geschwindigkeit ueber Grund: 6 - 7 kn ETMAL: 156 Seemeilen Segelstatus: Gross und Parasailor / Spinnacker Wache: Wachfhrer Tim mit Eva und Morten, Skipper standby Freiwache: Wachfhrer Gabriel mit Max und Andreas als auch Co-Skipperin Beate in Kojen Wetter: Wind: E 12 - 16 kn, sonnig, vereinzelt Cumuli, Druck: 1019,5 hPa See: Seegang 3 aus E mit Kreuzsee durch Schwell aus N und SE Zustand Yacht: alle Systeme arbeiten einwandfrei Fuellstaende: Wasser: 2 volle Tanks mit ca. 660l, 1 Tank mit ca. 150l dank diszipliniertem Wassersparen Diesel: 390,6 l / Tank plus 100 l Reserve / Kanistern Gas: 1 Gasflasche leer. read more...

Brizo - Crew blog Nov 27th

Looks like we are truly in the trades now, dead downwind sailing with as much cloth out as we can fly. Headed south for a fair while to avoid the hole in the wind created by a low to the north but now we’re trying to get west as fast as possible. As I write this we passed 30 degrees west and have 30 additional degrees to go before we get to St Lucia. We are also at 18 degrees north and can drop to 14 degrees to be on target across the rest of the course. We have been looking at Grib files from Llyod and trying to figure what will give us the best VMG (velocity made good). So as you can see we are spending a lot of time theorising and analysing nav and weather, all good boaty stuff.Appart from the geeky nav stuff, the days are filled with: sail changes, eating, SSB radio net calls. read more...

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