Daily Logs

Lullaby - Day 2 on Lullaby

Happy birthday on board!. read more...

Legato - First 3 days at sea!

Legato - first 3 days of the transatlantic We are already 3 days at sea. Time flies when you are at sea. There haven't been boring moments so far, cause even looking at the waves around us is interesting.Day 1: departureThe harbour is full of activity early on: people buy the last groceries, fill their watertanks, call friends or family at home, send a last email and enjoy the last real shower. The boats are washed at the last minute and the team shirts areput on. We say bye to the neighbours and wish everyone a good crossing with the standard joke "we are waiting for you in Grenada!". People quickly discuss the route with each other and which sails they need at the start. Everyone is ready and looking forwardto the departure. Soon after the start, we hoist the spinnaker, but while. read more...

T-Rex - 2023 11 20 - Our first 24 hours at sea

Our first full day back at sea, having departed at noon two days after the rest of the pack due to a mainsail track repair.  We broke out the jamon iberico to celebrate our first 24 hours at sea. T thinks it won’t last, but it only has to last 12 days (hopefully) and I think it could take almost that long to get through. We’ll see. It is salty enough that despite tasting great, you can’t eat too much at one time. The YB Races has us 3rd from last, which matches our departure from port. We are optimistic that we will get to Grenada by Dec 3, so we will probably catch up with a number of the smaller boats before that point. Most of the PredictWind models show a very southerly route, but we are not convinced it will be worth it. Most of the fleet looks like they are staying closer. read more...

Blue Pearl - log 8?!

Last night was abit more eventful than we might have liked! Having taken down the spinnaker before dark to give ourselves an easier night the first 2 watches went well but on the third watch while Dad and I were asleep one of our sheets chafed through, now before you think we were not checking we state of our rigging, we were and had even added chafe protection in Mindelo after noticing the amount of ware on the first leg. We had been monitoring our sheets carefully to try and avoid such an event but these things always seem to happen and of course with great timing! Mum and Henry were on watch and I was asleep in the saloon to be woken by a lot of flapping and mum being quite confused. Once I turned the deck lights on it was apparent what had happened, luckily we had already. read more...

Saida - Day 2 - heading South

Hi everyone - we are cruising down off the coast of Africa towards the Cape Verde Islands - hoping to catch the easterly trade winds in a couple of days. All good on board, everyone is well after the first night at sea. Our kitchen team is doing their magic with Thai Curry Rice dinner followed by bacon and eggs breakfast this morning! More to follow soon.. read more...

Uno - Night one done & dusted on board Uno!

It was a slow but exciting start to ARC 2023 - whoop! Having a pod of dolphins swim by just before we put up our genoa and headed for the start line was extra special and we will take it as a good omen of protection and good luck. Never having been in a race situation onboard Uno, we have been sailing conservatively and keeping a close eye on all the boats around us on AIS. We've never sailed in such a crowded sea! We caught our first fish, a Mahi Mahi, in the late afternoon but threw it back as it was just a baby. Night one had a beautiful sunset, made extra special with a fly-by from the current race leader, Berenice Cube (90ft Swan), who yelled out in their beautiful Italian accents "What's for dinner?", as they whizzed past us. Sadly, not Mahi Mahi.. Dinner on board. read more...

Pure Fun - Die erste Nacht liegt hinter uns

Die ersten 127 nm liegen hinter uns. Wir hatten viel Spaß. Auf Instagram gibt es unter sy_purefun Videos mit der phänomenalen Stimmung. Insbesondere das Auslaufen aus dem Hafen unter Musik, Beifall, Winken und Fotos war so ergreifend. Ein echter Gänsehaut Moment. Der Start verlief sehr gut. Hoch am Wind kreuzten wir entlang der Küste von Gran Canaria nach Süden. 30 bzw. 15 Minuten vor uns sind zwei andere Gruppen über die Startlinie gegangen. Nach zwei Stunden hatten wir die ersten Schiffe aus den Gruppen erreicht. Unsere Pure Fun läuft unter Segel einfach gut. Uns fünfen macht das schnelle Segeln einfach reine Freude. Am Abend schlief der Wind fast ganz ein. Wir standen in der Flaute. Andere Boote zogen mit eingerollten Vorsegeln und laufenden Motor an uns vorbei. So starteten wir auch. read more...

Solaris - First night

First night on the Atlantic in light Winds and clear Sky with beautiful View to Orion among a lot of other Stars. read more...

Hot Stuff - 27:22.279N 16:05.195W

Sailed though the night and wind has picked up to a nice 12-14knts from the NE so making some ground south looking at the weather forecast which seems to build later north but gets lighter until we get to the Easterlys we want.We had a good sail against SOL and PS5 until they both seemed to give up furl their Jibs and Code zeros and motor off from us at 7 knots. Seemed odd to give up so early at sailing.Sun set and sun rise were amazing and lots of shooting stars with a fairly clear nights sky. Some Phosphresence (can't spell that) in the water. We still have a couple of boats in sight although off to the side.No phone signals now as the masts disapeared.Onwards we go with the hills slowly disappearing behind.C. read more...

JaZoFi - JaZoFi day 1

The 1300 start was in very light winds, unable to cross the line on starboard tack. The majority of the fleet lined up as flotilla on Port tack. A couple of boats thought they would try to start on starboard only to cause absolute chaos. Excitement ensued as everybody did what they could to avoid each other. At 3 knots and heavy displacement cruising yachts fully loaded it appeared that some were more successful then others. JaZoFi got a nice lane to the shore, tacked along the coast picking some nice shifts and found themselves in great shape by 16:00 when the wind dropped to 3 knots, most of the cruising fleet was under motor so we joined them and spent the rest of the afternoon under motor in sloppy seas; it looks like we will have this for the next few hours as we make our way SSW. read more...

Risque Business - Light Winds and a Fish

16:28.2N 28:52.10WMonday 20th Nov 0620. Just finished my watch and heading back to my bunk for another couple of hours kip. Ed’s now got the reigns and we’ve been sailing at 6kts with a fluky NE wind blowing between 8 and 13kts. A quiet night but had to adjust our heading by +/- 10 degrees to keep the sails full and try to stop any flogging which can cause wear and tear; something we’re very conscious of, following the sail repair back in Mindelo.Yesterday we saw our first dolphins - first 3 came by and played on the bow wave for about 10 mins. Then just before dusk, a whole pod came by to take a look at us - must have been 20 or so messing around RB, but they didn’t stay long and headed off to wherever they were travelling to in this vast ocean. Lovely to have their company, as they are. read more...

Wolkenschlößchen - Day 1 - How exciting calm winds can be

Wolkenschlößchen and its crew has started the ARC 2023 and we are so excited about what lies before us in the next weeks. Today is a super calm and sunny day in Las Palmas and so the start was a pleasantly slow. For all except Lennart's dad it was a the very first start of a race (or rally to be precise) and we were all a bit excited and nervous to be criss-crossing by a few meters with so many boats before the starting line. Andreas will his experience however decided to give up no meter and made sure we crossed the line as one of the first boats.  After that, we all calmed down and and so did the winds as well so with the hours almost all of the field decided to use their motors. With sunset we reached the southern tip of Gran Canaria and could change course for some more reaching. read more...

Pure Joy - ARC Day 1

A beautiful and calm start! The energy at the start was electric and I think we are all still processing the fact that we are finally here and really doing this.We started out surrounded by boats but as the sunset, just a few remained in sight. Tomorrow, we’ll be (seemingly) all alone. IMG_1022IMG_1041IMG_1046IMG_1051. read more...

Northern Light II - Sunday 19th November

Sorry for the delay in sending the blog today - it has been a busy 36 hours.The winds were light yesterday morning so we decided to put the furling cruising chute up - we managed 8 knots SOG with 13 knots of wind not bad. The chute stayed up to about 5pm when we went back to white sails for the night and sadly, yet again, the winds dropped so we only managed a SOG 5 knots.During Saturday we prepared all the fishing gear and whilst we were doing that we caught a fish. Sadly not with a line…… a flying fish somehow managed to land on deck, go through a small hatch in Sarah and my cabin ( this was open again to air the cabin) and decided to die on our bed having bounced off Sarah’s pillow and then all over our white bottom sheet. As with the seawater incident all the bedding came off again. read more...

Hot Stuff - 27:54.25N 15:22.009W

So a slow start to the race but we are holding our own against the big boats currently. Fridge has had a wash out to make sure that its all clean whilst we bob along. There is chicken roasting in the oven for tea so all is currently good.We still need to get past the island to turn and its pretty noisy aboard at the moment as the sails wont stay set due to lack of wind. Mind you we could hear the ones on the larger boats sounding like a crack of thunder!C. read more...

Tahira - ARC Blog D-Day 0 [19-Nov-23] Location: Gran Canaria due SSW - West of Africa

TAHIRA ARC BLOG D-Day 0 [19-Nov-23] Location: Gran Canaria due SSW - West of Africa AND NOW FOR THE DAY OF RECKONING! The waiting is over, the preparation complete (ish), and the boats chomping at the bit in the marina - at last allowed to show what they can do.  Not just expensive toys simply to look at.  Crowds of well wishers line up on the marina walls- some local and some friends from home, horns sound, and the champions paraded on their way out to the start line. 150 boats, over a $Billions of investment, and over 1,000 crew members from all over the world.  What a spectacle! The weather forecast for the first few days of the crossing is light winds, so it will provide a comfortable start. There is an 'acceleration zone' around the islands where wind speed can pick. read more...

Blue Pepper - Day 1 19/11

What a great experience at the ARC start! It was a good natured jostle to get out of the marina past the cheering crowds, then some milling about in the light airs until our starting gun at 1300. Blue Pepper behaved herself impeccably and we made a decent start - and then drifted around with the rest of the fleet making slow progress! After a couple of hours we decided a judicious use of the iron sail (engine!) for a short period was appropriate to get us south past the airport and into hopefully better wind. Poor Peter has had a rough day - he seemed to get a touch of food poisoning at our farewell dinner ashore and has spent much of the night and today in the heads :(- He seems to be improving but will certainly miss Malcolm’s spaghetti marinara tonight!Julian. read more...

Blue Wonder - leg 2, day 2

To say leg 2 is different to leg 1 is an understatement. The winds were so light our parasailor took a dip in the ocean. After itsswim, it recovered and struggled to hold its shape through the night. However, we successfully made it through without the use of the motors. Albeit at the expense of some precious miles we were hopingto burn through. The forecast definitely over estimated the wind on this occasion. The start of day 2 brought about a bit more wind, with it settling at about 14kn of wind speed in the late morning. Blue wonderis happily cruising along at 7.5 knots with all on board feeling comfortable and well fed on the fresh bread that was served for lunch. We're all hoping this wind stays the same overnight. . read more...

Joline - Blog Joline

ARC 2023 Tagebuch - Tag 12Freitag 17.11.2023Segel oder Nicht-Segel, das ist hier die Frage...Der Krimi um die Segel geht weiter. Pünktlich um 09:00 Uhr rückt Bernd aus, um im ARC-Office noch Formulare mit unserem Schiffsstempel zu versehen. Jetzt sollen alle Hindernisse aus dem Weg geräumt sein und die Segel bis 12:00 Uhr angeliefert werden...Die (vermeintlich) letzten Arbeiten werden in Angriff genommen. Michael und Jakob widmen sich der Bootsreinigung - Joline muss sich einer gründlichen finalen Reinigung unterziehen. Bernd bearbeitet die letzten technischen Herausforderungen und Frank, Jonas, Robin und ich machen uns auf den Weg und ziehen in die letzte Shoppingschlacht. Frank und ich natürlich hoch zu E - Roller.Beim HiperDino tobt die Einkaufswut - die Frischware wird auf allen. read more...

Valent - Making some progress

A good 24 hours on Valent. We kept the Bora up overnight in the lighter airs and continued to make good progress. In the steady F3 this afternoon Valent is ploughing through the ocean at a stately 6-7kts, just what she was designed to do. Life on board has now reverted back to the established routine. Meals on board continue to be the highlight, yesterday we had avocado, egg & bacon wraps for lunch and fresh Wahu with rice, courgette and a tomato sauce for dinner. The Wahu being courtesy of Dwight’s fishing excursion whilst in Mindelo. Tonight is burger night. Here’s hoping for another solid 24 hours.. read more...

Cats Pajamas - Cats Pajamas Day2

Finally we have a bit more wind so going along nicely, with under 2000Nm to go. Massive fish made the reel smoke and then promptly snapped the line at the swivel so saved the line, not sure we could have landed whatever it was anyway. Simple day of blogs books and food while we wait to see what the next few days of weather bring.. read more...

Blue Pearl - Blue Pearl log 7

Another day has soon flown by and its time to write another log.Having time away from technology and social media was a conscious decision we made when planning this crossing, of course access to the internet is nice and allows us to send and receive emails and weather but none of us wanted daily access for browsing or social media. Part of the enjoyment is not having access to social media. We can just enjoy our surroundings without being sucked into our phones.Although we spent the night amongst a cluster of boats all on a similar course to us, the only boat we could see was the catamaran Aquila, who we have become friends with during the rally. We spoke over the radio this morning joking that it was a bit early in the morning to be racing! We managed to take some photos of them on the. read more...