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03/12/2019

Summerwinds of Cuan - Our boom is like Mary Poppin's handbag

We are currently sailing downwind with two headsails both poled out with separate poles. We have the mainsail up with three reefs in and cranked down tight centrally. The wind and sea are from behind. The sails are pulling us forward and reefing is very easy. Just ease the sheets, pull in  a few turns of the drum rope and the sails open & close up like curtains. The purpose of the mainsail is to counter against rolling and stopping as broaching as we run down these big seas.Since running with this configuration, we have found other benefits.  We have long had a metallic clunking from the boom when the mainsail slatted. We spoke to riggers, suggested perhaps it was something to do with the reefing mechanism. They said no, but it was always a mystery.  A couple of. read more...


03/12/2019

Celtic Star - Blog 9, Day 9 Tuesday 3 Dec

Today is our shipmates birthday, Alan is 70!! It was a little weird wishingsomeone happy birthday at 4am in the morning as I came on watch in themiddle  of the Atlantic. I think we have a cake and will have baconbutties for lunch, I'm planning in making pizza for tea, wish me luck it's a bumpy ride today. Alan doesn't normally do much for his birthday butcrossing the Atlantic will certainly make this memorable!Over the last 24hours the wind has picked up and we are making good time, we have covered awhopping 164 miles! So progress continues to be excellent.The fish haveconspired to avoid being eaten, Richard continues to think up ways to catch themand they seem to be out thinking him, i'll let you know if he manages to outwit them.Spelling still a disappointment for my English. read more...


03/12/2019

Hatha Maris - Day 5 30/11/2019

Hatha Maris day 5 30/11/2019Today, Saturday November 30st, is shower and laundry day. Our Swedish girls call it a “hot shower” while we Swiss say: the water is cold (22.8C). T-shirts and shorts got washed and hung up on the guard rails.We are doing 7.5 knots very comfy, time to read a book or just relax. Our speed is to high for fishing, that might be the reason while our sister-boat BLUE MOON caught a dorado ;) Boat life starts to become a routine, watches are over quickly as filled with good sailing and cool music. The weather is fair and the trade winds start to get a little bit stronger. Mood and Food are great, yesterdays dinner was Älplermaccaroni, done by our Swiss crew member Mirjam. That we had no left overs tells you allHappy birthday hausi, thanks for the thermal pot and the. read more...


Cuvee - Ted’s Atlantic Adventure - The Fabric of Life
Cuvee - Ted’s Atlantic Adventure - The Fabric of Life
Cuvee - Ted’s Atlantic Adventure - The Fabric of Life
Cuvee - Ted’s Atlantic Adventure - The Fabric of Life
Layla - Raymarine - do I cut the blue or red wire!!
Layla - Raymarine - do I cut the blue or red wire!!
03/12/2019

Cuvee - Ted’s Atlantic Adventure - The Fabric of Life

16:00 30Nov 2019Congratulations are in order! Ted and Louise are now the proud parents of 50 baby wipes born only an hour or so ago. Although reluctant at first, I think Ted is warming to his new life. As I heard Ted say, “Children are the fabric in the tapestry of life we weave!” Maybe I was wrong that I thought Ted’s poetic sayings couldn’t get any worse. I’m concerned his brains may have turned to cotton wool.I am yet to find the courage to ask Ted how he knows Louise’s babies are his and how he now seems conveniently unconcerned about his offspring from his past relationship. Maybe someday I can tease out from him all the threads to this strange adventure of his.I’ve had time to chat with Louise now things have settled. She denies any involvement in the kidnapping. She loves Ted. She. read more...


03/12/2019

Little Island - 216 hours

For the past 24 hours the beast has had to be tamed a little. I’m not talking about Cat. She’s been nothing but pleasant. I’m talking about our wallowing floating house in an incredibly messy sea. It has been pretty windy, which is great for progress. However, the sea state has been all over the place, with big, steep waves at random intervals throwing the boat in all directions. No matter how much you try to stow things away snuggly, there is always a banging or a rattle, especially when the boat is whipped from full heel one way all the way to full heel the other. I did a fairly mammoth stint last night, all at the helm, which I love in these conditions. When you pop the headphones in and find the right song, it’s such a surreal experience. All you can see is the deck of the boat,. read more...


03/12/2019

Albatros - DAY 9 - Das alljährliche Benefiz-Volleyballturnier

Gestern Morgen kam noch vor Sonnenaufgang der Wind. Seit dem fliegen wir bei im Schnitt 10 - 11 Knoten Speed über den Atlantik, mit Spitzen bis zu 16,1 Knoten. Der Wind hält sich zur Zeit konstant mit ca. 20 Knoten und die Wellen sind um die 2.5m hoch. Leider sind wir jetzt zu schnell und können nicht mehr fischen. So verloren wir gestern auch unseren 20kg Mahi-Mahi. Auch die tägliche Pokerrunde musste aufgrund des Wellenganges abgesagt werden. Das Volleyballturnier ging unentschieden aus. Gestern überholten wir den Katamaran Aurora II und haben uns mit ihnen via Funk kurz unterhalten. Heute Abend feiern wir mit einem leckeren Hirschfilet unser Bergfest (halbe Distanz!).. read more...


03/12/2019

Next Step - Monday 2nd December 2019

Overnight we had some great sailing with the wind on occasions gusting 20 knots and a boat speed of 9 knots, the sea has also picked up. As the morning progressed the wind became a bit more unpredictable and in the afternoon the wind remained about 20 knots on occasions gusting 24+ and the sea gradually becoming more lumpy as predicted on the weather forecast. Dobby, our windvane, was doing a fantastic job at keeping us on track.For supper Nicole was in the galley again and made a very nice deconstructed shepherds pie. Our progress is very much better than it has been, but we are still not predicting our ETA in St Lucia just yet. Before we turned in for the night we put a reef in the main and a couple of furls in the genoa.. read more...


03/12/2019

Montana - Log 2

Day 7, Mood is good, Crew is keen to work, so we have some sail changes during the day. Brought down Sei for the night. Had contact in the night with Vera. These guy’s are sailing well and gave us a good match race for 1.5 days.Day 8 Still feel the need for speed using the increasing wind. Tried to keep on course to St. Lucia, we are in the trades. Down the wave up to 11Kn. Started in the night with main and Genoa. Day 9 just after midnight we couldn’t hold our course so we had to bring down the main at night and set Genoa and staysail out with poole. Still surfing down the waves. Being excited to see the Etmal.Markus, Montana--. read more...


03/12/2019

Life of Reilly III - Caught a big one!

As part of Life of Reilly III's contribution to the 2019 ocean cleanup campaign, we are bringing ashore an abandoned fishing net. Yesterday around 6 pm UTC Fred was looking astern and saw something strange underwater. We fished out the boat hook, and Dirk attached a safety line to it. Fred furled the jib and drove the boat into the wind to reduce speed to 2 knots.  Long armed Peter reached down into the water with the boat hook as deep as he could go, and with Dirk's assistance brought aboard one end of a fishing net, the other end being securely fastened to the underbody of our vessel. We secured our end of the net and resumed our original course and sail set. We are now competing in this Rally under multiple handicaps, having started a day late, lost our spinnaker, and lost the. read more...


03/12/2019

Jua Kali - The Jua Kali Report - Day 9

Unfortunately we haven't had time to write up the Jua Kali Report this morning due to being very busy sorting things out.Some days (and nights) are just more difficult than others!c8ed461d-934a-422b-996c-3a2bf49524384119371028470000535. read more...


Jua Kali - The Jua Kali Report - Day 9
Jua Kali - The Jua Kali Report - Day 9
03/12/2019

Challenger 1 - Crew blog Challenger 1 2/12/19

2/12/19It all began with Anna and I baking cake 4 in the morning for the crew to have for breakfast and skipper grey and the blue team changing the formation on the yankee sails when he saw that there would be more wind on the navigation chart than we have been exposed to for the past few days. Moments after we also did the cleaning up of the saloon area and galley for the blue watch who were preparing lunch. After having lunch the first mate Sam was giving a speech which I didn’t like and I had to say what was on my mind which resulted in a little argument but was resolved very quickly. Neil from the red watch which is also my watch prepared dinner for everyone on board which was quite enticing and the clean-up was done by Flood from the blue after having dinner. During the night we hit. read more...


Amari - Day12 pic 2 of 2
Amari - Day12 pic 2 of 2
Amari - Day12 pic 1 of 2
Amari - Day12 pic 1 of 2
Idefix - Idefix update day 9 - catch of the day
Idefix - Idefix update day 9 - catch of the day
03/12/2019

Amari - Day12 On Autopilot

Captain Jack Sparrow drove the Black Pearl into what the special effects department seemed to indicate was a 50 knot gale with thunderstorms. His first mate implored him to take it easier on the boat. But Sparrow, being the star of this picture, was not deterred as the first mate hollered over the howl of the storm, “what’s putcha in such a fine mood this evening Cap'm?”Camera flashes to Jack, cue the lightning to silhouette of him hand steering the Pearl through the night in that gale, hat inexplicably still on his head, when he replies, “We’re gaining on them!”Aaaaand Scene. Back on Earth, I know that sailors used to hand steer all the time, and I guess they had to. But doing that for hours at a time is a killer. We lost our autopilot on Amari on a shakedown cruise from North Carolina. read more...


03/12/2019

Umiko - Umiko blog day 10 by Paul

We continue to make good progress towards our destination. Last night we went down to white sails and the winds are still honking today. Squalls abound but luckily no direct hits on us yet...Paul has done today's blog.Olly OutUmiko ARC 2019 Blog- Day 10Just over 1,000 miles to go, that’s about two whole Fasnet races, and we are trucking.The much vaunted 20 kt trades have finally arrived and there have been regular shrieks and hollers from aft proclaiming the latest “record” as we surf down the back of a wave.This record currently stands at 18.7 kts, Olly pipped my 18.4 kts earlier this evening, and will definitely hold until daylight as we are currently running under white sails as a night-time precaution with winds hitting 25 kts.This has slowed us a little but we are still managing a. read more...


02/12/2019

Moana - Moana and the dolphins

Enjoying the beginning of the next beautiful sundown a school of roughly 20 dolphins crossed our westerly course and followed us for more than 15 minutes. We were really delighted and hardly impressed lying on the bow beam of our catamaran. Besides this highlight our mute is accordingly to our speed, but on high level - no worries. We are still waiting for a constant passat with more pressure as in the last 48h and are switching between main / jib and parasail accordingly to the wind direction. ---- This e-mail was delivered via satellite phone. Please be kind and keep your replies short.. read more...


03/12/2019

Agua Dulce - Log Day 9 - I think we've found the trade winds!

We’ve been sailing with the spinnaker during the day for 3 days now in NE winds from 10-15 knots. This feels like what we expected it to be like sailing in the trade winds to the Caribbean. The seas and swells are regular – not confused or crazy big. And the weather has been sunny and warm as well. I’m sure we will run into some squalls along the way, but I’ll take that over motoring non-stop any day!We haven’t fished for a few days, but this morning when I went up for my 7am watch, I did find four flying fish on the deck. They had “flown” onto the deck during the night and, unfortunately, left some of their blood and guts behind. I found one perilously close to Charles’ open hatch in our cabin. It would have been hilarious if it had flown in and landed on him in the middle of the night. read more...


03/12/2019

Idefix - Update Day 8

Second week of the crossing aboard IDEFIX. Now we are getting to the NEXT level:first, we have passed the 1000 miles milestone. About 1700 NM to go! Good news, we are on a decent short or optimum path to saint Lucy and the original detour - south and close to African coast - didn't extend our distance much.second, after decent size mahi-mahi, we got this morning a huuuugggge Swordfish! 1.85m total length for sure, and somehow between 30 and 35kg. Taken on the small Mexican yo-yo réel line,.. while the big rod was getting a large mahi. Done fishing for a few days for sure. The lunch was amazing.and then the wind has strengthened so we had to give up the code 0. Back to reefed Genoa for the night with gust up to 28kts. As the direction just got east, we still have waves a bit sideway,. read more...


03/12/2019

Sweet Dream - Monday December 2, 2019

Captain painted the inside of the chain locker, returned the rental car and we fellowshipped with Chao Lay’s crew. Hoping to get our new anchor chain painted tomorrow! image1.. read more...


Sweet Dream - Monday December 2, 2019
Sweet Dream - Monday December 2, 2019
02/12/2019

Layla - Downwind all the way now…

Winds have improved for us today and we ran with polled out Genoa and Jib polled out on the boom for much of the day, this configurations works well for Layla between a narrow range of wind speeds and we had a chilled out day with most people taking the chance to catch up on some zzzz’s. Today a cruise liner overtook us but apart from that we have not seen much around us these last days. In the water we have been seeing sea weed for about a day signalling that we are getting close to land. We had a visit from 4 dolphins who played around under the stern for about an hour – what amazing creatures they are. The rods were chirping quite a few times today but each time the fish was lost and for H the line ran out so fast that he was in danger of running out on the reel.So we have 360 nM left. read more...


02/12/2019

Umiko - UMIKO Blog day 9

Dear UMIKO Fans,We have had a fantastic days sailing. We are now under white sails after deciding in 25kts with no horizon that the A4 was gong to be a bit tricky... We will likely rehoist at first light. While the A4 is down we are checking it over and doing a few small running repairs. All is good on the good ship UMIKO... I am fretfull as to where we will find stay calm in the morning....Todays blog is from BrianAs we pass the halfway point life on board SV Umiko has taken on its own rhythm. The watches flow by at a pace, as does the ocean. We are mostly sailing for speed and to the polars of the boat. VMG sailing is the skipper’s call. Umiko eats up the miles with relish; I cannot get over this boat. She has power and beauty in equal measure. From a vantage point at the top of the. read more...


02/12/2019

Zaurak - Zaurak's Bimbling Blog

Zaurak's Bimbling BlogMonday 2nd December 2019Having outlined the general goings-on during watches, it might be worth answering the question: what on earth are the crew up to the rest of the hours of the day? If, for example, a pair are on watch from midnight until 3am, 9am until midday and 6pm until 9pm, that leaves 15 hours of the day uncharted, unexplained. Life on a tipping boat and the irregular night watches take their toll on energy levels, so factoring out the hours of sleep, this is the general picture: Skipper Richard spends much of his 'down' time working out the best way to download the all important grib files (weather forecasts). These files are relatively large for the seafaring technology on the boat. Data can be received at certain times of day on certain frequencies. read more...


02/12/2019

Sally - Glad we have furling sails

In a couple of minutes the wind increased from 15 knots or so to 25 and changed direction. Then its good to have furling sails. We don' need to leave the cockpit to reduce sail area in the dark. Despite 2 reefs in the main and the genoa, we still do 7-9 knots and that's OK speed for us. If there was a ”cosy” noise from the waves behindthe boat yesterday, today its a bit more intense and the sails are hard as steel plates from the wind pressure.The latest weather forecast has a big fan blowing a steady wind towards the Caribbean for at least ten days so the rest of the trip will be something like this, a good breeze from behind day and night, if the forecast is correct.Good evening from Sally. read more...


02/12/2019

Salamander

Hello Salamander Nation,Simple pleasures take on new meaning aboard a boat. Captain Chris and our crackerjack culinary team comprised of Hillary and Greg are adept at keeping spirits high among the crew.Tonight, after a day of rolling seas as Salamander gracefully makes her way.. read more...


02/12/2019

Cuvee - Ted’s Atlantic Adventure - Part 7

12:50 26Nov 2019 - Atlantic OceanI Harpoon WeddingThe Boss was pretty angry yesterday. He and Ted had an all-in session this morning. We heard it all of course - you could hardly miss the polite conversation. In the end the Boss said he wouldn’t have an unwed pregnant lady stowaway on his vessel and since he didn’t have a shotgun on board, there’d be a Harpoon Wedding today at 12:00. And so Ted and Louise were married just a little while ago. A mid-Atlantic Ocean wedding - how romantic! Whatever. It was hard to photograph the happy couple without the harpoon getting in the way. Ted looked like his inner self was unraveling.. read more...


Cuvee - Ted’s Atlantic Adventure - Part 7
Cuvee - Ted’s Atlantic Adventure - Part 7
02/12/2019

Sally - Have reached the trade winds

Last night we got a couple of hours of wind above 10 knots, after that it was a night with flapping sails and bad sleep due to all noise generated by the sails. Now we are below 20 degrees north and where the trade winds begin to blow mainly from NE and it is now around 15 knots and we begin to see larger swell. I have started to finish up the first videos from our trip down to Canary Islands. Routinely I make sure we always have water and power, checking the rig, doing navigation and checking the weather to find the optimal route to Saint Lucia. We will pass ”half way” on Thursday or so and with the current speed we will be in Saint Lucia on the 12 of December. But that will not happen since the weather will change before that. Carina routinely makes sure we have food and she and Johan. read more...


02/12/2019

Idefix - Update Day 8

And here we go in December. Full week into the crossing. Longest time at sea for the all crew!while we didn't get any fish today - almost unusual ! - this was not an uneventful Sunday!First, we ripped our spinnaker, again :-( ... very bad after more than 48 hours of a really nice ride. So repair activity during afternoon. We'll see how it holds later!We change time, while kept only 1 hour difference instead of 2We are past Cape Verde islands...But most importantly, today was Catherine's birthday. Quite something to celebrate a birthday so far from land. As usual at Idefix, this is an opportunity to prepare food ... and we had good lunch and dinner (chocolate mousse dessert, yummy!)toward the end of the day, the wind really picked up and we saw 21kts for a shirt time, which hasn't. read more...


02/12/2019

Saoirse - The Saoirse Diaries -16- A dive in the Pond

It was my shift, 3am - 7am and I had made the executive decision to whack the motor on and power through the hole into which we had sailed.Moral has been low after all the breakages, the last thing I wanted was to slosh about all night with the sails banging so no one could get proper sleep only to wake up the next morning and find we are still exactly where we were when they went to bed.So on it went, course was altered to head directly to our way point, Rodney Bay, St. Lucia and I was powering through.It was all going swimmingly. Peak wind strength all night was about 9 knots so I was feeling very content with the decision.Óisin woke at 6am as usual, and as Wolf was still sleeping made his way himself in the pitch black up the stairs into the cockpit and with a big smile on his face,. read more...


Saoirse - The Saoirse Diaries -16- A dive in the Pond
Saoirse - The Saoirse Diaries -16- A dive in the Pond
02/12/2019

Skyelark of London - Whale!

Team Skyelark 2019 is getting it done!  We are catching fish, knocking down themiles, and we just saw a whale! Everyday is an adventure and every meal is a feast.  The crew is in good spirits and lookingforward to the halfway point.  It isstrange to be out here sailing above thousands of meters of water and thousandsof kilometers from land.  The seaand the sky make up our days and nights. The stars are brilliant.  Itis an incredible experience and true voyage. DJ n.b photo shows a whale at half launch, it cleared thewater and made a spectacular re entry. A small pod passed by us today with lots of leaping, froloking andgenerally splashing around. We think they wereMinke’s m_DSC_0315. read more...


Skyelark of London - Whale!
Skyelark of London - Whale!
02/12/2019

Rum Bucket - NZ boat - Rum Bucket Update

Rum Bucket recap of the last 8 days at sea.With a fantastic start to the race the crew were fired up and ready to celebrate with Rum and Cake for one of our crew - Brian’s birthday at sundowners.With champagne sailing it was great to get into the groove.Three days in a hearty brunch of bacon, eggs and beans on toast was called for as it was our Owner/Skipper’s birthday of course in true Rum Bucket fashion Rum and Cake was consumed at sundowners. As the days go on it went from champagne sailing to drifting and eventually back to racing with the A3 up 15-20 knots breeze heading west for St Lucia.The sea state is uncomfortable but not too bad for Quintin’s world famous toasties!Last night was an eventful evening/early morning for us with strange noises coming from the steering gear.After. read more...


02/12/2019

Nizuc - Blog 18 Nizuc

BLOG 18 - 'Guys ...''Guys, I think we've got ... a poltergoost [sic]'- Hippy Neil, in The Young OnesSaturday nightWith 13 knots on our beam, we went for full, 'white sails', and were making 6-7 knots. The excitement moved up a level, when we spotted larger boats, fore and aft. The boat behind was catching us, and we were slowly making ground (water) on the one ahead. This type of sailing is exciting in the dark, but still fairly safe, with star signs to guide us, but we were back to a jaunty angle, which makes everything move to port.Here's another "try at home" effect:wear a high-heeled shoe on your right foot, and a trainer on the left (reverse, if need to turn around). If you have teenagers around, or even a stroppy adult, then get them to slam the cutlery drawer as hard as they can. read more...


02/12/2019

Celtic Star - Blog 8, Day 8 Monday 2 Dec

At 13:17 yesterday we completed our first 1000 miles!!At this time we were at 20 degrees 52 minutes north and 30 degrees 8 minuteswest.Everyone is pleased by the progress we are making! Over the last 24hours we have made 150 miles.Because of higher winds forecast overnightRichard decided to take our spinaker down, it had been up for 5 days, a recordfor Celtic Star!Richard and Petra did a great job taking down the spinaker,they work really hard and make a great team!The winds didn't increase by asmuch as expected but the sea has become a little more choppy. Mainly cloudynight so no more shooting stars, it rained before the end of my 4pm watch and Iactually felt cold!!I saw my first flying fish of the trip they arefantastic flyers and are a wonderful sight. I always thought that they flew. read more...


01/12/2019

Agua Dulce - Log Day 8 – 1900 NM to go!

At 1am as I was getting off watch, we passed the 2000NM to go mark. We’ve already travelled close to 1000NM, so we are 1/3 of the way there!Right now, I am wishing we had more room to store more fresh fruit. I can tell that fresh fruit and vegetables are going to be very missed as we go forward. Do olives count as a vegetable?It’s been a quiet day for the first day of December. We are still sailing with the spinnaker. The wind has been steady from the NNE at about 11-15 knots. Our course over ground is 260º which is slightly south of the rhumb line but will allow us to turn to starboard if the winds come more from the east. The seas are regular with waves of only about 3 feet, so the motion of the boat is not uncomfortable at all.The only issue we had is that the macerator pump for the. read more...


30/11/2019

Agua Dulce - Log Day 7 – Fish on! Dolphins! Spinnaker!

What a start to a day! I decided we needed to try a new lure this morning, so at 7:30am, I put my favorite lure on and dropped it in the water and crossed my fingers. Just as I was coming off watch, I heard the “zinggggggggg” of the line running out – FISH ON! Since we were actually sailing at about 4 knots, we didn’t stop the boat. I brought in another mahi – not huge but big enough for a meal for 4 people – and cleaned and fileted it with some help from Tracy who is master of fileting fish. Charles and Keith were kind enough to clean up the mess on the deck. And now, we’ll be having Mahi Meunière for dinner!As if that weren’t enough, we were joined by a pod of hundreds of dolphins who raced across the bow of the boat, jumped through the air, and put on a synchronized swimming show for. read more...


29/11/2019

Agua Dulce - Log Day 6 – Long Day

We had a wonderful brunch as Keith made omelettes for the crew with some of the wonderful Iberican jamon we bought in Gran Canaria.Again, no wind to speak of, so we have motored all day long. The positive thing about smooth seas is that cooking is easy since we aren’t heeling at all. It was sunny and beautiful out on the water, so it was a nice day to spend on deck.This afternoon, we passed time playing Gin Rummy and Spades. The women soundly beat the men in both games, as expected.We’re still discussing whether we should divert to Mindelo in the Cape Verde islands for fuel, but the forecast shows fairly consistent winds west of the islands. Here’s hoping that wind is coming soon and we can turn off the motor!. read more...


28/11/2019

Agua Dulce - Log Day 5 – Thanksgiving at Sea

Other than motoring all day long, it’s been a really good day. Because the seas are so smooth (read glassy), we’ve been able to see lots of see life clearly. We’ve seen dozens of turtles of all sizes just hanging out on top of the water. The most exciting thing we’ve seen today – and probably on the whole trip – was a large pod of maybe 20-30 pilot whales. They were swimming together and you could see large ones and small ones – clearly families moving together. One of them raised his head up out of the water, but mostly they were just rolling lazily along.We offered our British crew, Tracy and Keith, their first American Thanksgiving dinner. We didn’t have turkey, but had to substitute roast chicken leg quarters. We also had cornbread dressing with gravy and a green salad with arugula,. read more...


27/11/2019

Agua Dulce - Log Day 4 – An Unwelcome Visitor and a Welcome Catch

I started off my day when I came up on watch at 7am to relieve Charles. After the usual report about what the wind was doing (or not doing, in our case), what tack we were on, where the boats were, etc., he showed me his hand that had several cuts and gouges in it. He said that when he came up for his 5am watch, there was a large petrel (big seabird!) on the floor of the cockpit. It was just sitting there, but seemed agitated when Charles got near. He – the petrel, not Charles – somehow managed to squeeze his large body through the small porthole in the cockpit that leads to the galley below. Charles went below where the petrel was now sitting on the floor of the galley. Maybe he smelled last night’s lasagne. Charles covered him with a dish towel and picked him up to put him back. read more...


26/11/2019

Agua Dulce - Log Day 3 – Searching for the elusive trade winds

It was a fairly low-key day with not much to report. We had such light winds earlier that we decided to try sailing with the spinnaker. We even tried using the poled out genoa on one side and the spinnaker on the other. But, the wind was even too light for that to work very well. After we got tired of going less than 3 knots, we broke down, brought in the sails and turned on the engine. We only ran it for an hour when we hit some nice 13-16 knot winds on the beam, so we’ve been sailing on a beam reach since then. The winds have dropped off a touch, but we’re still sailing. UPDATE: As I’ve been writing this log, the winds have continued to slacken. Where’s the wind???We’re sailing SW at the moment because that’s the best angle for the wind, but we’ve been trying to sail south for a while. read more...


25/11/2019

Agua Dulce - Log Day 2 – Settling in

Our first full day at sea was really just a process of settling in to the rhythm of watches, eating, sleeping, etc. The winds ranged from 9-15 knots from the NNE and the seas were a bit rolly. By the evening, we stopped rolling as much and were able to get a good night’s sleep when off watch.We’re having an issue with the generator, again. We don’t think it’s getting fuel even though it’s a brand new fuel pump. We’re waiting to hear back from Fischer Panda to hear how to trouble shoot. So, we ran the engine for about an hour to charge batteries and run the watermaker. Speaking of which, I LOVE our new Dessalator watermaker! It is simple and reliable and we topped off our tanks quickly.Weather was gray and cool – I’m really looking forward to the sunny Caribbean!We dragged a lure all day,. read more...


24/11/2019

Agua Dulce - Log Day 1 – Ready, set, go!

After an exhilarating start to the rally, we are shaking off the dust from the Sahara that has coated our boat for months and heading home. At the start, there were almost 200 boats milling around until their designated time to cross the start line. Party music was played over loud speakers, tons of people lined the seawall to wave goodbye, and even a live band played while marching down the pontoons. The multihulls took off first, followed by the racing boats which included some of the former Volvo race boats. The cruising division (that’s us!) crossed the start line at 12:30. I’ve never seen more sailboats in a concentrated area in my life. Some were flying their spinnakers, but we opted not to since we knew the forecast called for higher winds as we proceeded.So far, it’s been. read more...


Cuvee - A trick or two up our sleeve
Cuvee - A trick or two up our sleeve