Schatzi II - Schatzi 2 - Prêt au départ / Schatzi 2 - Ready to sail

Voilàmaintenant plusieurs mois que nous sommes sur la préparation du bateau etmaintenant Schatzi 2 est pratiquement prêt ! En octobre2012, quand nous avons sorti le bateau direction le chantier, nous n’imaginionspas le temps que cela prendrait… je me disais « mais c’est beaucoup trop tôt, 11mois avant le départ ! ». C’était sans compter avec les « effets du climat et duGulf-Stream » sur le temps d’exécution des travaux par le chantiernaval. Pas mal desoucis et de questions sont maintenant derrière, les choix ont étéfaits. Lesnouvelles voiles en Hydranet radial ont été essayées en baie des Sablesd’Olonne, le solent, le spi, la grand-voile et le génois sont parfaits ! Lesolent est parfaitement dimensionné et nous permet de naviguer sereinement, lebateau est bien équilibré. Le SPI est. read more...

Silver Slipper - Silver Slipper has left the building

Well we have finally left to join the ARC 2013. Many months of planning and hard work have come to an end and we have now left the shores of Great Britain for pastures new.We would like to say thank you and all our love to all our friends and family who have supported us in the exciting and challenging adventure.Very special thanks to all our dear friends from Brixham, who have made the last 12 months so much fun.  You are all true friends and we will miss you all.  Only problem is that when we return, our home will be in Brixham so you will have to put up with us all over again, sorry folks.A special thanks to Mr David “Ushant” Thomas for putting together such a moving and memorable video of us departing Brixham. He made so many people cry and so many people happy all at the. read more...

Leviathan II - log day 2 - leaving Plymouth

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Capricorn - Startbereit in Las Palmas

Nach viereinhalb Tagen schönstem Atlantiksegeln ab Gibraltar haben uns unsere Freunde mit Sekt auf der Hafenmole empfangen, ein schöner Empfang!Nun beginnt das lange Warten .... read more...

Zingara - Las Palmas hat uns wieder

So, liebe Freunde der "ZINGARA": die vorbereitenden Etappen haben wir erlebnisreichhinter uns gebracht.Hatten wir doch auf der gesamten Strecke der ARC 2011 keinen einzigen Fisch anlandenkönnen,so überraschte uns unser Angelexperte Berny in kurzer Folge gleich zwei malmit guter Beute.Natürlich wieder einmal zum Zeitpunkt der fast fertig gegrillten Bratwürste ratterte dieAngel am frühen Abenddes ersten Legs Richtung Porto Santo.Nach taktischen 15 Minuten hatten wir ihn, den ersten Fang , an Bord.Eine maßgeschneiderte Makrele für eine 4 - Personen Mahlzeit , und die fiel reichlich aus.Aber nicht genug :Das Leg Porto Santo nach Madeira brachte dann einen richtig großenErfolg.So hatte sich tatsächlich ein Tuna an unserem Köder verbissen und konnte nicht anders,er mußte sich seinem Schicksal. read more...

Edelweiss - Introducing Edelweiss!

Looking forward to launching our adventure in early July 2013 ... stay tuned. The Read FamilEdelweiss. read more...

Zingara - Da sind wir wieder...

ARC 2011 und ARC Europe 2012 liegen hinter uns, nun laufen bereits unsere Vorbereitungen für die diesjährige ARC auf vollen Touren!Wir:das sind Uwe aus Essen, Wolfgang aus Hamburg, Berny aus Frankfurt und ich, Ernsti aus Friedrichsdorf.In dieser Besetzung wollen wir am kommenden Dienstag, dem 14. Mai die Algarve von Portimao aus verlassen und zunächst nach Porto Santo und Madeira segeln.Danach soll der Kurs bereits Richtung Las Palmas gewählt werden, allerdings könnte zunächst La Palma angesteuert werden, um dann über La Gomera und Teneriffa im Bogen Gran Canaria zu erreichen.Sehen wir mal, wohin uns die Winde treiben. Das erste Kribbeln in Verbindungmit der Vorfreude auf das Treffen mit den vielen auch bereits bekannten Segelfreunden in Las Palmas ist bereits zu spüren.Nun hoffen. read more...

Adina - Crossing Biscay

We had been waiting in Falmouth for two and a half weeks for a weather window to cross The Bay of Biscay to Spain. People were asking "Are you still in Falmouth?". Tom was starting to get a little narked, it was time to get that tracker fired up...Leaving FalmouthSo on Friday 19th April at 0640, Adina slipped quietly out of Falmouth and started heading south. Our planned destination was Bayona, Spain, afour and a half day sail away.Biscay is a notorious stretch of water in sailing lore. Robin Knox-Johnston said at the start of the Vendee Globe Round the World yacht race that the waves were so steep it was like trying to sail a yacht up Mount Everest.  Ironically, after weeks of heavy winds and seas the forecast for us was for light winds.For any other Brits heading. read more...

Silver Slipper - Silver Slipper wedding

Well the boat is now ready. Just need to acquire and install the AIS transponder which is now mandatory. Thought I’d had everything ready until the April newsletter arrived. LOL, more money to spend. Well last Saturday Wendy and I were married on a cliff top in Bigbury on Sea, Devon.  The sun gods looked after us as the sun shone all day and 250 family and friends enjoyed a very special day. Full of fun, dancing and good cheer. With the wedding behind us, our focus is now to go sailing. We plan to leave Brixham around 8th May, weather permitting and look forward to meeting other ARC participants on our way to Las Palmas.  Wish you all safe sailing and fair winds. Silver Slipper295861_10151560242821480_1347051937_n. read more...

Adina - We're Off!

Thursday morning, 29th March, we bade farewell to London and our home in Chelsea. Tom went to work and Susie did the final errands and storage trip. After work, Tom caught the train to Southampton and Susie’s Dad, Richard, drove us down to the marina in Hamble where we were dropped in the car park. That was it. We now lived on a yacht. All our usual surroundings gone in the blink of an eye. This was no usual weekend of sailing in the Solent and driving home on a Sunday night. Our last week had flown by, a madmelee of packing and farewells. It was all surreal. We got on the boat, and felt just a little bewildered. So what did we do? We went to the pub! Much better!Good Friday dawned and it was time for final boat preparations and weather monitoring. Plus we were wary of a bit of. read more...

Silver Slipper - New Duties

I am now officially the ships entertainment and fisherman. After many hoursscouting various websites for a Deep Sea Reel, I think I am nearly ready to facethe perils of the deep. Look out Mr Marlin & Mr tuna i’m coming for ya!! Myguitar playing skills are honed and ready.. Cant say the same for the crewthough... read more...

Defyr: -16C and freezing cold in Webbasto

SyDefyr Winter still her. 27.3.2013 Hi ARC 2013 partipisiens.We to try to get the boat ready her in the north 62.15,5  E21.22,2 first nights in the boat on shore -16 C freezing cold Webbasto working full time.Spring is late harbor master think the sea is better for skiing ( picture taken 27.3.2013 ) the next month than putting the boat in water.Planned starting day 12 may from Kristinestad Finland we will see.Alf & Kaija  WP_000294 WP_000290. read more...

Adina - Two bikes and a dinghy in an anchor locker

This weekend’s purpose was very clear - get Adina as ready as possible. Ready to head off from Hamble any time after Easter. Saturday morning that looked an intimidating task. We've accumulated a lot of gear over the last few months, and now it all needs to go on deck or safely stored away down below. We’ve read our Atlantic Rally Cruising handbook and made sure we’re ticking off the recommended gear. It’s an excellent guide.We had decided that Susie with her majestic packing skills would tackle gear below decks, while Tom would get everything ready on top. Being Spring that sounds like a nice outdoors activity. Unfortunately in England we still seem to be in the midst of winter with temperatures of 0-2 degrees Celsius. Add to that a significant wind chill. Miserable March as the BBC. read more...

Silver Slipper - Ready to go, well almost.

Well save for some final painting and a good clean and polish we are almost ready to go. Looking forward to a few days of fine weather to finish the above but still have 4 weeks to go before we go back into the water.  Think we have now ticked all the boxes in the ARC handbook and hopefully made our final investment in acquiring all the gear recommended for the crossing. Would like to say a big thank you to all at Bayside Marine, Brixham for all their help and support in sourcing and fulfilling all our needs. You saved us a migraine in our preparation. Thank you David, Teresa and the team.    . read more...

Adina - Pigs Trotters!

I’m thinking it’s an unusual heading for a blog – but then again who knows what awaits us on our voyages? When you sail around the world you need to be largely self sufficient. And that means there will be times when you can’t call up a doctorat a minutes’ notice. Although I do put my hand-up and say with the English NHS system it’s not so easy getting an appointment in the first place. Susie managed to organise a private tutor through Stormforce based in Shamrock Quay to give us two days of medical training. Our tutorwas Frank Schweitzer a retired consultant, yachtmaster examiner etc. who proved to be an excellent tutor and a heck of a good chap at that too. Susie and Frank had agreed a curriculum and we were joined by friends Neil and Hallie Meyrick. The brief was tocover key medical. read more...

Adina - Bon Voyage with Friends and Family

So it's all becoming real – Susie and I have both resigned and are into countdown mode. To be honesta relief to get that done so we can now be open and transparent about our plans to sail around the world! Dash down to the boat on Friday evening and come 7pm we have Gareth who is doing the Atlantic crossingwith us performing his usual electronic wizardry, Bob from Sailcom installing a modem, and Solent Spars fitting a spinnaker pole in the dark. A sign of the momentum right now. And to think we've been preparing for this since the beginning of the year. Saturday our new laptop is fired up (thanks to Stephen Plume) and Gareth has got a wifi booster up andrunning with hotspot etc. Comms in place! We both run round frantically get things done. Susie is doing her usual. read more...

Aditi - Shoreside

Hello all from Yacht Aditi. Two years intense preparation and some way to go with the watermaker to fit, half the main cabin to rebuild, wiring to add to the already three layers of new wiring (what the old 'new wiring' does is a distant memory...), liferaft to service and plenty of bilge related stuff to sort out. Still yet to fix the dishwasher.Some way to go before packing up the shore life and we expect to be launching in July to start the journey south. The Crew. 101_0300. read more...

Adina - Adina Service Time

Over the last five weeks we've been getting Adina ready for the years sailing. It's been a good learningcurve given this is the first time we're doing this. So you get out the manuals, read a bit and then dive in the deep end! And when it comes to boats thatinvolves a great deal of scratching your head, playing hide and seek as you try to find things, complex yoga manoeuvres as you need to get to parts in inaccessible spots, and a great deal of patience. Did I say a great deal of patience? So we put in new water pumps and then serviced the engine including replacing all the filters, changingthe oil and coolant etc. Out came the generator manual and the same treatment. I have to say it was rewarding phoning the Yanmar engineer who said there was no need for him to come out as we'd ticked. read more...

Sephina of Beaumaris - ARC 2013 Day Minus 251

Or -35 Weeks or -6024 Hours or -21,686,400 Seconds. This is not the beginning for me. Nearly 3 years ago I bought a boat to do the ARC and beyond so I started a blogg to chart the whole journey at www.sephina.org. However the opening of the 2013 ARC blogg makes things more real and has stated to make very real the preparations. After following the World Cruising site for several years and avidly reading the posts from the Atlantic I know this is very much work in progress. I can't hope to emulate some of the wordsmiths or previous years but will do my best to chart the preparations from here on in. Looking forward the day it is ARC 2013 Day1 but much to do before then not least of which is having a functioning engine! Good luck to all and lets hope for safe passage to Gran Canaria at. read more...

Silver Slipper - ARC 2013

Well it’s almost 8 months until we leave Las Palmas for St Lucia. This journey is the culmination of three years finding the right boat and preparing her for the sail across the pond. New rigging, new sails and all safety gear now purchased and installed. What’s next?   Well the boat is out of the water and  all we have to do now is prep the hull, prime and antifoul, replace the anodes and then a good clean and polish and we are ready to start the great adventure. Follow Wendy and I as we leave Brixham in early May and make a leisurely sail down to Las Palmas via the Channel Islands, Brittany, Spain, Portugal, Madeira and the Canary Islands. Joining us on our trip is our dog, Bumble, a 4 year old, Bearded Collie who just loves boats and will be writing her own blogs to. read more...

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