Daily Logs

Brainstorm - To the top through the gates of hell

It was with the sunrise in our back, on a pink sea from the ditto clouds above that Menno and I realized we where half way. From Las Palmas Mallorca to Rodney Bay Saint Lucia that is. 2.100 (3.900km) nautical miles of the 4.200 (7.800km) are behind us now. The mood was extra festive when Hein and Michiel woke to the sight of the storm front in front of us. As we got closer the sun casted a golden glow on our target and there was a rainbow emitting from it. We fell as the winds picked up to 8 knots, we were blissed to rely solely on our sails once more but this was soon to change.The problem lay in trying to clip a massive storm front, where avoiding it should have been our priority. With an unimaginable speed the dark drew near and within 2 minutes we were in a horizontal white rainstorm. read more...

Woolamai - WOOLAMAI 17/01/22 Meet up on the ocean

Hello from the Woolamai crew. It’s been over a week since we passed the starting line in Las Palmas. After a hectic start, battling upwind and having most of our crew struggling with seasickness, we’ve had some very nice and easy sailing towards Cape Verde. Our team found a good rhythm with lots of reading, fishing (only 1 tuna caught so far), and cooking. 3 days ago, we hit the no wind patch as forecasted and we decided to motor at night, and to try sailing during the day. On Saturday we even had to pull our sails in and just enjoyed the calmest day at sea we ever experienced. That feeling to be in the middle of the ocean, with not even a ripple on the surface, the bright sun and clouds on the horizon felt surreal and incredible. That day got even better when we saw Freeway of Penpol. read more...

Oyster Belle - Log Day 8 - sustainability at sea

We made our way through the Cape Verdes and as the saying goes we turned West when the butter melted. As we keep watching the islands disappear against the crack ground of the raising sun, we realized that since our departure we have passed more trash in the ocean than ships and remember a comparison from World Waste Facts: if the Earth’s history is compared to a calendar year, we modern humans have existed for 23 minutes and already used 33% of the Earth’s natural resources in the last 0.2 seconds.On Oyster Belle we harness the power of winds to make our way across the ocean, we produce our own fresh water out of seawater by means of reverse osmosis, we have solar panels and a water generator to produce electricity. But we are also very careful with our resources; we converted all light. read more...

Brainstorm - 16/1/22 How to tank at sea, kill & wait for wind

Today is a special day as it marks the day of the longest consecutive sail for us all. And what a day it was!   It kicked off with a late night shift for men and me. The sun started to rise when Hein and Michiel woke on what would be our second windless day. A breathing taking gold-orange to green-turquoise sunrise with some pink clouds floatingacross a deep blue sea.  My morning nap ended with something peculiar in the air: there’s nothing like the smell of diesel in the morning.. Some of our diesel stash was stashed away behind the dingy in the dingy garage. This means we need to lower the transomsdoor at the back of the yacht, pull the dingy out on top of the platform that it forms and climb inside the garage. A job most comfortable and safe with little waves like today.. read more...

Brainstorm - 15/1/22 Jelle’s balls, the lid that falls & mini squalls

The day started with some clouds in the distance, an easy ocean and when I walked to the front for a relaxed sunrise view, they came again. Dolphins, surfing around our bow and more than earlier checking us out by tilting side to sideand looking you straight into the eyes. Half an hour past and eventually one remained after his buddies repeatedly left and swooped back to bump into him like; enough already let’s catch some breakfast.  Back in the back we saw we missed a surprising email from Jelle the night before with a slightly different tone. “I see you guys didn’t follow my waypoint” we all heard the “again” he didn’t write . “If you go too far south you’ll endup in the big calm down there but continuing west like you do is fine. Please let me know if you still need any updates. read more...

Brainstorm - 14/1/22 A squirrels first time times 6

The day had started as is it ended; heavy winds with a not so easily controllable wobbly womper on a spinaker pole and dolphins being splash asses around us but we knew this was all going to change.  Like every other day we had a call with our weather boy Jelle back NL (who keeps track of us and the weather systems around us). He usually provides detailed insights on the weather, tells us what strategy is best for us and gives waypointsfor us to follow. We in return ask him a shit load of questions, thank him, hang up, make our own summary and decide on something entirely different. Today was like any other call with him; he suggested north west, we went south west. By now we’re curiouswhen he’s going to ask us to update him on what we’re actually going to do so he can ask us. read more...

Brainstorm - 13/1/22 Raising our army of flopping and popping dolphins

My second night was horrible sleep wise, with little to none off that note for me, however the night sky was clear as day. When Menno took the rudder I lay down in the sideboard of the yacht to admire the start constellations above.Noticing we were right underneath Leo and Virgo I felt my sweetheart back home watching over us.   After a brief nap with that in mind I woke to spot the Woolamai, a Bavaria Ocean 38, on our AIS. This was a great surprise as Pietertje was the last yacht to start late with us on Monday afternoon. Contrary to most contestants, who starteda full day earlier on Sunday. Did we really have the race pace to catch up with the stragglers from the pack already?!   Hell yes we were! Remmert shared a YB overview of us just behind the entire main group!! Fuelled. read more...

Brainstorm - 12/1/22 Passing Pietertje

After a thrilling first night we spotted Pietertje on the horizon. We saw he had his parasailor (a special and enormous self jibbing spinaker) on his 65ft Swan from the 70’s so catching up with him on our 49ft X is quite the challenge.However we are not afraid to hoist our 100m2 womper next to our 73m2 main sheet😎 on our modern 20’s machine. We knew he was afraid to do this and we could smell it.   The sun and excitement raised the temperature to wear shorts, something we’d expected on the 5th or 3rd day at the earliest (heading straight south). It quickly became clear we had the upper hand and Pietertje was a great sport in acknowledgingthis by not answering any of our many joyful radio calls. To be fair they could have been busy with more fun stuff with a crew of 3 men and 4. read more...

Brainstorm - 11/1/22 First lurker and pas by night

After a delicious oven potatoes, aubergine, carrots and bell pepper with steak Hein and Michiel took the first nightshift. Starting at 9pm they could have wakened us at 1am but were kind to wake us with Herman van Veen’s Vrolijk at 3.They felt strong during the first of many to come and we were catching up to the 60ft jolly breeze. A ship with a crew I knew to be sleepy as a morning earlier I had to wake them to their ass slamming into the dock on staring day.  Menno and I were happy to do their overtaking under this breath-taking night sky. The moon had just set on this cloudless night and with only a little light pollution on the horizon from Tenerife, Valverde Frontera and Gran Canaria.You could see millions of stars looking up and thousands of lights looking down around the. read more...

Brainstorm - 10/1/22 Surreal Start

After a week of preparing and waiting for curly COVID, who was stuck in South Africa, our start was a little unreal. Hein had received a negative PCR the day before, after a positive one 2 days earlier when Michiel and I already scorednegative. Menno did a test early in the morning as all crew needs a negative result from the port of departure and a daily temperature log throughout the cruise.   We had a call with our weather boy Jelle who keeps track of us and the weather systems around us. During we got confirmation on 1) the north route has depressions with rain, waves and likely some thunder, 2) the straight route has nowind and 3) the south route has good wind, some calm spots but a big dip down south, adding to the distance to cross, is required.. Jelle recommended we go. read more...

Friendship - Tag 9 - Kurs Richtung St. Lucia

Langsam aber stetig dreht der Wind in die richtige Richtung. Gestern allerdings hat er uns ganz schön auf Trab gehalten. Nachdem er so aufbriste, dass es unter Motor keinen Sinn mehr machte zu fahren, setzten wir die Genua. Zunächst segelten wir am Wind Richtung Nordwest und machten dann am Nachmittag eine Wende. Nach und nach sollte dann der Wind Richtung Norden drehen, sodass wir uns durch langsames Anluven immer mehr unserem eigentlichen Kurs nähern konnten. Als anstrengend erwies sich aber die Welle. Verursacht durch das Sturmtief im Norden kam die Dünung mit bis zu vier Metern Höhe. Gekreuzt wurde sie dann teilweise durch die Windsee aus Westen. Das machte es etwas ungemütlich. In der Nacht frischte der Wind dann weiter auf und bescherte uns Böen bis zu 8 bft. In den frühen. read more...

Maxim 46 - Log Day 7 Feeling the vibe

Waking up with dolphins, a coffee and fresh pancakes. What a way to start the day! When pulling the code 0 out the hatch got damaged by the sheet. Shoot, there goes our happy vibe. Luckily we could fix it and we had calm weather. Lesson learnt, check everything one more time. Lisa made us happy with some cupcakes, included toppings of your choice. We went through Lisas Science classes today and she read a lot. Super proud mom! Grabbag check, is eveerything inside what we want? The next day, I had a restless feeling when I woke up. Johan wanted to get the Parasailor out since the weather is changing. A moment later we found out the splices came loose completely. Fix immediately! Could have lost the sail eventually!After an hour, time to get it up again…. We had fish! Fighting with a big. read more...

Friendship - Tag 7 - Immer wieder Südwest

Wer uns im Fleet-Viewer verfolgt, hat sich gestern vielleicht gewundert, dass wir über mehrere Stunden hinweg Richtung Südost gefahren sind. Wir hatten nicht etwa Probleme (wie einige andere in der Flotte) oder wollten umkehren. Nein, es war schlichtweg der Wind, der uns dazu gezwungen hat. Da er ab dem Nachmittag mit 10-15 Knoten aus (wie sollte es auch anders sein) Südwesten kam, entschieden wir uns die Segel zu setzen und zu kreuzen. Gegen Wind und Welle können wir mit dem Motor nicht wirklich was erreichen und verbraten nur unnötig Diesel. Da wir nicht zu weit nach Norden kommen wollten, wählten wir den Südost-Kurs. Da der Wetterbericht ein Drehen des Windes Richtung Nord vorhersagte, hofften wir, dass wir im Laufe der Nacht nach und nach anluven und Richtung Westen drehen könnten.. read more...

Friendship - Tag 8 - Kommt bald der „richtige“ Wind?

Nun sind wir bereits eine Woche unterwegs. Die Zeit verging wirklich wie im Fluge. Bei kleineren Reparatur- und Wartungsarbeiten, Kochen, Schlafen und Wache gehen, merken wir kaum, wie schnell die Zeit vergeht. Noch haben wir knapp 2.000 Seemeilen vor uns. Der Wind kommt noch aus Südwest, hat nun aber auf 10 Knoten aufgebrist. Da sich nördlich das Sturmtief befindet und südlich eine Flaute, fahren wir noch unter Motor genau gen Südwest. Laut beiden Wetterberichten soll der Wind im Laufe des Montags anfangen zu drehen, sodass wir dann die Segel setzen können. Wer gestern unseren Post vermisst hat: Wir hatten nicht etwa irgendwelche Probleme,wir konnten nur nicht übers Iridium senden, da wir damit beschäftigt waren, die verschiedenen Wettermodelle zu laden. Während wir auf den richtigen. read more...

Bastet - Week1 - tydzien1

The Polish crew of S/Y BASTET sends best regards to all our families, friends, followers and fellow cruisers!It has been 1 week since we left Las Palmas. Our departurewas delayed by 8hrs due to late arrival of a crew member. We than followed the expert’s advise and chose the southern route, which probably wasn’t the best decision. We carry lots of sails to tackle wind conditions but not enough fuel to tackle wind calms… Hence our initial strong performance under sails and quick catching up with other boats in our group. Now the fleet in our group is forced to use engines which is a bit frustrating…Last night we encountered winds on the nose from 0 to 40kn, thunderstorms and we had to tack at least 15 times. Where are the January Atlantic trade winds??? But our moods are high and we hope. read more...

Oyster Belle - Log Day 7 - sailplan

We are sailing through the Cape Verdes in very light winds under spinnaker with 3-4 kts speed. On Oyster Belle we have different sails for different directions and strength of wind. You will have already seen pictures of our blue asymmetric sail which is good for light/medium strength winds towards the beam. With the white rose on our blue asymmetric we celebrate our Yorkshire heritage. Today in these very lightwind conditions with the wind from behind we are flying our colorful spinnaker. With its colors we embrace diversity. Once in the trades we plan to use the white sails, genoa poled out and the main in a „goosewing“ configuration. For strong wind conditions we can use the small staysail in combination with a reefed main. The skill is choosing the right combination of sails for the. read more...

Oyster Belle - Land-Ho!

We reached the Cape Verdes!image1. read more...

Oyster Belle - moonlight

The moon last night at about 5 UTC. image1. read more...

Zelda - Greetings to everyone from sailing catamaran Zelda!

We are six adults, two children and a small dog onboard and have now spent almost a week at sea. As those following the positions have seen we are takingthe easternmost route, trying to below the windless areas an avoid too much swell and upwind sailing. We also try to avoid motoring and so far have done so except for three hours the first night. We are soon to pass south of Cape Verde and hope for fair winds from there to St. Lucia. The sailing has been quite comfortable with light winds and moderate swell. We have encountered a wide variety of wildlife, including Orcas (the only thing to bite on our fishing hook), Sperm whales, Humpback whales, a possible blue whale, huge packs of dolphins,turtles, a shark and lots of flying fish. This morning we also found a small squid on deck. No. read more...

Oyster Belle - Saturday night, burger night

Tonight Paul is serving an handpressed burger with caramelised balsamic onion relish, pancetta, tomato garnish, melted Gauda cheese on a lightly toasted bagel. The ensemble is completed with a potato Rösti with cheese, Majoram, and onion. Happy Saturday! (No dancing tonight). read more...

Mrs. G - 1000 miles done

Mrs.G 1000 miles reportAfter crossing the 1000 miles line today in the morning it is time forMrs.G and her crew to give a short report about how it went until now.We are on an Amel 60, a double handed crew, or better in the manner ofknowing what and how to do a single handed one :-)Our Mrs.G is rather new - although scheduled to be taken over in April2020, we, thanks to all the Covid restrictions, managed to do so only inApril 2021.All our plans changed because of Covid - there was no way to sail north ofLa Rochelle in May this year. Since we were in the last 20 years mainlysailing in the Med, with shorter passages on the Atlantic coast and theCaribbean, we decided end of May to sail from France to the Azores andback to get the feeling for longer passages. Afterwards we knew that. read more...

Oyster Belle - chafing gear

Today’s little craft project: making chafing gear for the gybe-preventer whilst being visited by some dolphins. Let’s see how that piece of felt will do over the next days… image1image2. read more...

Oyster Belle - Log Day 6 - The Good Ship Oyster Belle

We are inching closer to the Cape Verdes and into that big patch of blue (no wind zone) which might or might not (fingers crossed) affect us for a day or so. At the moment we are trying to make way as much south as our sail plan allows us and we hope to go in between the islands tomorrow. We have already introduced the four souls aboard this ship and today want to introduce this old lady Oyster Belle of Whitby. She is an Oyster 435 hull number 51 built in 1989 by Windboats Marine in Wroxham, Norwich, Norfolk, UK. The 435 was Oyster’s most popular model of which 65 were produced. She is a Holman & Pie design, cutter rigged, centre cockpit, 13.24m long overall, has a beam of 4.18m, and a draft of 2.13m; gross tonnage 18.86. Whilst she is more mature in years and needs a few kts to get. read more...

Oyster Belle - light wind sailing

7.2kts boat speed out of 9.2kts apparent. Not too bad for an old lady ;)image1. read more...

Oyster Belle - Log Day 5 - Stefan

Introducing Stefan, captain and owner of Oyster Belle: Hails from Vienna but he is an adopted Yorkshireman, his preferred roots; two years clean of Haribos; Seeking solace in repeatedly rebuilding Oyster Belle to its former glory. A passion for the sea and the wider adventures that are still to come with his Yorkshire wife Emily and his multinational children who have more sea time than the average ship’s cat. Currently his main task is keeping Oyster Belle and its motley crew in order, ship shape, and Bristol fashion.. read more...

Friendship - Tag 6 - Neue Zeitzone erreicht

In der vergangenen Nacht passierten wir die erste von vier Zeitzonen-Grenzen auf unserem Weg in die Karibik. Um kurz nach Mitternacht überquerten wir die imaginäre Linie auf 22,5 Grad West. Um uns in unseren Wachen nicht durcheinander zu bringen, stellten wir die Uhr aber erst nach der letzten Nachtwache um - von 09.00 (UTC) auf 08.00 Uhr (UTC-1).Noch sind es 2.188 Seemeilen bis zu unserem Ziel St. Lucia. Aktuell laufen wir ihm leider unter Motor entgegen, da der schwache Wind aus Westen, bzw. West-Südwest kommt. Das ist genau die falsche Richtung. Kreuzen kommt für uns aktuell nicht in Frage, da der Wetterbericht nördlich von uns eine Kaltfront und Böen bis Windstärke 8 vorhersagt. Ein Schlag in die andere Richtung würde uns nach Südost, also zu weit ab vom Kurs führen. Daher vertrauen. read more...

Oyster Belle - dolphins

Today we had a visit from a large group of dolphins!image2image1. read more...

Maxim 46 - Log Day 4 Life on board

This was a great day! Sunshine, slow breeze, everyone settled a bit on board. Alex was sick the first two days, even though he has many years experience on large vessels. This was a different motion. We took the Parasailor up for an hour. Everyone knows now how to trim, All the lines are prepared for an easy change between Code 0 and Parasailor. Even Lisa feels super comfortable on board and we picked up schoolwork again after 2,5 weeks of Christmas holidays. She follows a British program from Wolsey Hall Oxford. Highly recommended! Every day we follow the program through an app and can use it without internet too. When we arrive in st. Lucia we will upload our assessments for this period and the teachers will return with their feedback.Agnes wrote some mails today to update our family. read more...

Oyster Belle - Log Day 4 - Richard

Last night we saw the speed indicator climbing up to 8kts and at times even slightly higher than that. We reduced sail area to slow Oyster Belle a bit down and as the wind speed reduced this morning we went back on the asymmetric. We expect the wind to slow down further and probably reduce to 5-6kts later on tonight. Today we are introducing Richard. As you can see from our sextant exercise yesterday he is our strategists and navigator. Richard has an uncountable amount of sea miles and all the experience that comes with it. Having crossed the Atlantic already three times this is probably the smallest boat he has done it in yet but judging by the amount he talks about that the crossing can be done in a rowing boat this might not be his last one. image1. read more...

Friendship - Tag 5 - Einfach schön

Seit nunmehr fast 48 Stunden sind wir unter Segeln unterwegs. Nachdem der Wetterbericht für den Süden schwächere Winde aus Südwesten vorhergesagt hatte, entschieden wir noch am Abend zu halsen. Seitdem fahren wir Kurs 280 bis 290 Grad und machen nun Meilen Richtung Karibik gut. Noch sind es rund 2.300 Seemeilen bis zu unserem Ziel. Auch wenn wir uns wünschen würden, etwas schneller voran zu kommen - wir wollen uns ja schließlich in der Wertung immer weiter nach vorne schieben - so genießen wir dennoch jeden Moment. Wir freuen uns, was für ein Glück wir haben, das hier erleben zu dürfen. Wir sitzen unter blauem Himmel, die Sonne scheint, wir haben nur wenig Welle und machen doch 4-6 Knoten Fahrt. Die Sonnenauf- und Sonnenuntergänge sind einfach malerisch und nachts erleben wir einen. read more...

Friendship - Tag 4 - Endlich richtig Segeln

Seit Dienstag spüren wir, dass wir dem Äquator immer näher kommen. Die Sonne scheint und es ist herrlich warm. Nachdem wir den Vormittag über noch mit zu schwachen Winden zu kämpfen hatten, können wir seit dem Nachmittag endlich richtig segeln. Wir haben Großsegel und Gennacker gesetzt und rauschen mit bis zu 7 Knoten Richtung Südwesten. Tagsüber verpasste Rainer den Wassermacher eine Wartung und Kur, einer Dusche steht nun also nichts mehr im Wege. Die anschließende Nachtwache verlief ruhig. Leider haben wir ein kleines Problem mit dem Radar, weshalb das kein zuverlässiges Signal anzeigt. Aber das will Rainer im Laufe des Mittwochs reparieren. Für uns hieß es daher während der Nachtwache besonders gut Ausguck zu gehen, was bei kaum Mondlicht und ansonsten stockfinsterer Nacht gar nicht. read more...

Oyster Belle - Log Day 3 - Paul

Our watermaker seems to be working ok; we made some fresh water and used it immediately for showers. All clean and fully motivated we are approaching the tropic of cancer in moderate Beaufort 3 winds from the beam. Today we are introducing our fantastic chef Paul who can magic up outstanding traditional food that makes us feel like at home. So far we had fish pie, carbonara, a lovely hot chicken curry and it will be Sheppards pie tonight (minus the HP sauce that we couldn’t source in Gran Canaria).image1. read more...