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Vitamin Sea - Vitamin Sea - Tag 10: Wettrennen und Riesenfisch, Mittwoch, der 29. November 2023
Vitamin Sea - Vitamin Sea - Tag 10: Wettrennen und Riesenfisch, Mittwoch, der 29. November 2023
Vitamin Sea - Vitamin Sea - Tag 10: Wettrennen und Riesenfisch, Mittwoch, der 29. November 2023
Vitamin Sea - Vitamin Sea - Tag 10: Wettrennen und Riesenfisch, Mittwoch, der 29. November 2023
Vitamin Sea - Vitamin Sea - Tag 10: Wettrennen und Riesenfisch, Mittwoch, der 29. November 2023
Vitamin Sea - Vitamin Sea - Tag 10: Wettrennen und Riesenfisch, Mittwoch, der 29. November 2023
01/12/2023

Wolkenschlößchen - Day 12 - Fishing experiments

We started the day with a wonderful rainbow, going fully around to both ends. Perfect motivation to get creative in paperwork with Lonneke. We have a new favourite tool on board: the bucket. Perfect to collect salt water for dish washing, letter paper boats swim and to cool off in a shower! We also had to get creative (or truly desperate) in our fishing gear. We had a tiny bait left after the Blue Marlin bait theft. Apparently, that small thing worked and a large fish bit it today. Too large, the line broke immediately - again. So we are down now to an octopus imitation made of a tube of hand lotion and some metal left overs as weight. Let's see if we find a semi blind fish going for it. Until then, we have to live with a self-made fish by Lonneke (she asked Mama to make sushi from. read more...


Wolkenschlößchen - Day 12 - Fishing experiments
Wolkenschlößchen - Day 12 - Fishing experiments
30/11/2023

Adrienne - Bergfest

November 30th, 2023 Blog authors Bernd, Werner, Peter The day ended with a hearty mountain festival and celebrated worthy... with Cola Zero and Seven Up. Bergfest has nothing to do with Kaiserschmarren and hut fun. What is meant is that the remaining route to the Caribbean is now shorter than the one already covered. To celebrate, the meal included tuna steaks, fried pumpkin and rice and beans. For dessert, Tanja and Thomas had conjured up a fruit pudding cake to celebrate the day. As soon as all the food was eaten, Peter raised his voice to a toast in which he dreamed out loud about a glass of really beautiful, cool, blonde... SEVEN UP (caffeinated lemonade). The laughs were with him and the crew's facial expressions reflected a certain bewilderment. Dreams are a beautiful thing. The. read more...


Manaia - Squalls around…
Manaia - Squalls around…
30/11/2023

Skyelark 2 - Its really all about the food

A week in the Skyelark 2 KitchenThey say that an Army marches on its stomach – whilst aboard a trans Atlantic sailing journey there is less need for Bully Beef and more need for creative and enjoyable meals to look forward to .Each crew member takes it in turns to cook for a day and there is healthy competition in producing delicious meals.Not quite MasterChef , but there are certainly skills tests that need to be overcome. The challenge comes in all forms, a moving galley, an ever decreasing larder and a remit to use only the ingredients that at home would surely end up in the bin. Nearly 2 weeks at sea and we still have 'fresh' produce.The breakfaststaple is porridge – hearty and warming – and often served with a selection of nuts, raisins, honey and fresh fruit such as pineapple , paw. read more...


Skyelark 2 - Its really all about the food
Skyelark 2 - Its really all about the food
Skyelark 2 - Its really all about the food
Skyelark 2 - Its really all about the food
Skyelark 2 - Its really all about the food
Skyelark 2 - Its really all about the food
30/11/2023

Tahira - TAHIRA ARC BLOG D-Day 11 [30-Nov-23]

TAHIRA ARC BLOGD-Day 11 [30-Nov-23]Location: Mid-AtlanticLat: 13.57N Long: 35.34W Meet the crew: Tony (aka Tig) 'the Dispatcher' Meyer How would you describe yourself in one sentence?- Tony is someone who embraces life to the full, is always up for a laugh and a pint of Guinness with friends, and looks for new experiences.What is your first favourite piece of music and why? - 'Born to run' by Bruce Springsteen.Tony shared a flat in London in his 20's with his oldest friend Nick.Played at full volume it brings back memories of them getting ready on a Friday night to hit the streets of London, and living life to the excess. What is your greatest achievement in life to-date?- My three wonderful children and the love that they have for each other.What sailing experience have you had? -. read more...


Loreley sailing into the sundown!
Loreley sailing into the sundown!
Loreley pushing …
Loreley pushing …
30/11/2023

Northern Light II - Thursday 30th November

Skipper apologises yesterday that he forgot to mention the name of the fish that was eaten by the shark - it was a Wahoo.As we move towards Grenada the temperatures on board have become hotter and more humid. The crew now spend their days in swim wear and trying to find ways to stay cool inside the boat, particularly when trying to sleep between shifts. A cold shower provides some relief but it’s short lived.Winds are improving and the threatened squalls seem to dodge us. Much time is spent in watching clouds to assess their direction of movement. Patricia has been flown overnight and today. With stronger and consistent trade winds (15 knots average) we have achieved an average of 7.3 knots today with 379 mies to go.Geertje”s neighbour and friend, with the help of her family, wrapped up. read more...


30/11/2023

Saltair - 1100 Miles from Anywhere

Adam here.Tonight I’m on the midnight to three watch. It is a beautifully starry night with an almost full moon punctuated by scattered trade wind clouds. The wind is a bit shifty and gustythough, making for the occasional loud (and scary) “POP” from our huge, double-sided downwind sail. We are sailing at 7.5 - 8 knots in 15 -18 knots of wind 150 - 160 degrees off our starboard bow.It has been a difficult past few months for us. Our time in Las Palmas was largely spent waiting for various vendors to complete repair work and systems installations. The repair list included our starboard rudder bearing, two sails and the genoa halyard swivel. We also took the opportunity to add 810 watts of solar panels to Saltair, which required stainless and. read more...


Salamander - Salamander this is "Swan"
Salamander - Salamander this is
Salamander - "Swan" this is Salamander
Salamander -
Salamander - Dave at the Helm
Salamander - Dave at the Helm
30/11/2023

Adina - One that got away.

Day 12 - St Andrew’s day - 14 degrees 01’N 34 degrees 35’WWe continue to head west and have just over 1500 miles to go. With trade winds of 15-20 kts behind us we are well set up, still wing-on-wing, and may not need to gybe again until 12th December. We are crossing the Gambia Abyssal Plain - a mere 5000m deep! Carole and Pete have finished their whodunnit audiobooks - SPOILER ALERT - it was Ashleigh!Our fresh water rationing regime is going well and we are yet to need the watermaker - sea water is being used to initially do the washing up and this has resulted in an additional bonus freshwater shower day for the crew yesterday.Mid Atlantic Marmalade - homemade at Laundry Cottage in Scotland - has been well received by the crew, especially on fresh bread made by the breadmaker. Power. read more...


Blue Wonder - Barracuda catch and release
Blue Wonder - Barracuda catch and release
30/11/2023

Ipanema - Blog from the Ipanema

Dear all,   The Team from Ipanema is enjoying the rally to thefullest. Of course we have our hiccups and challenges. We had to do somesailrepairs because of not too successful manoeuvres. We saild through a squallthat rinsed the ship and made us go north for an hour or so. None of the issueshave seriously slowed us down. We lost some hours with speed because of atwisted gennaker that demanded that one of us had to climb the mast. As we writethis mini blog everything is up and running. Fingers crossed.   We heard there is snow in The Netherlands. What aperfect contrast with the sunny weather here on the ocean 1166 Nm from StLucia.   As 'Sinterklaas' is already in The Netherlands, we sentour partners the following message (it only makes sense in Dutch)  Ver van alles en. read more...


30/11/2023

Hot Stuff - 14'48;5430N 39'97;4500W

Day 12 - Avast Ye Landlovers.It is the dastardly and fearsome crew of the Pirate Ship Hotsuff here and I have Good News!!!!!!!!!We the crew have obtained our level one pirate badge (yay I hear you cry). To achieve such dizzying heights, we had to pass the following modules:Sweaty - smashed it, Obnoxious - smashed it, Sweary (not me mum) - smashed it, and down right horrible. We can now call ourselves 'Puppy Pirates', but don't let this fool you.....we are proper scum!So level two includes 'raping and pillaging', now this does cause a moral dilemma (and the chance of imprisonment). So, we have decided upon 'peeping' and 'knock door run' (I've only got flip flops so undoubtedly I will get caught). We feel this will honour the pirate cause. read more...


Blue Wonder - Who is peeking?
Blue Wonder - Who is peeking?
Manaia - Avoiding a line of squalls and a rainbow as as beautiful start into the day
Manaia - Avoiding a line of squalls and a rainbow as as beautiful start into the day
Manaia - Avoiding a line of squalls and a rainbow as as beautiful start into the day
Manaia - Avoiding a line of squalls and a rainbow as as beautiful start into the day
30/11/2023

Pure Fun - ARC 2023, Das SEIN auf der Pure Fun aus Sicht von Andreas

30.11.2023, 13:20 Uhr UTCDas SEIN auf der Pure Fun aus Sicht von AndreasNacht. Mal wieder.Die wievielte eigentlich?Vorher hatte der Künstler, nach dem mal wieder sensationellen kantenscharfen Sonnenuntergang, noch die komplette Farbpalette an den mit Dekowolken verzierten Abendhimmel geworfen, wo er sich tagsüber mit allen vorstellbaren Blauschattierungen begnügt hatte.Ich kann mich nicht sattsehen. Nachtwache. 3 bis 5.Endlich wieder. Diese zwei Stunden allein an Deck, ich genieße sie, es ist warm. T-Shirt, Shorts, barfuß. Meine Lieblingskleidung. Das Schiff zieht seinen Kurs, gesteuert wie von Geisterhand durch den Autopiloten, durch das scheinbar unendliche schwarzblau, erhellt vom Vollmond oder diesem sagenhaften Sternenhimmel. Ich kann mich nicht sattsehen. Der. read more...


Blue Wonder - Ed captured a pirate
Blue Wonder - Ed captured a pirate
30/11/2023

Freedom - Blog 12 Freedom Thursday 30th November 2023

Editor: IRWWGood morning Vietnam …Thankfully we’re not there, but hopefully you’ll get my drift.Yesterday was a strange one as it was dominated by two words, Pina Colada. This came from the most unlikely member of the crew, Stuart Ashton. Stuart who is not known for his boozing kept repeating his desire for a bucket of his cocktail of choice. Maybe he can smell the Palm Trees of St Lucia, if so he has impressive nostrils as we are virtually mid Atlantic. Yes that’s the story (morning glory)10 days in and we’re virtually half way there. Poor Stuart, not only was he starved of liquor but he lost the nightly game of Spoof where the looser was the only person not to receive a chocolate biscuit; Stuart’s food of choice. Generously, Simon donated his, so bedtime tears were averted.Back to. read more...


30/11/2023

JaZoFi - JaZoFi day 11

Ground Hog Day….Running out of new news with today being a dead ringer for yesterday.Only variation was dinner which we had a second edition of the Mushroom stew of day 3, once again it was to die for, all Chef needs to do is serve it under a more exotic name and he could serve it in any Michelin star restaurant.. read more...


30/11/2023

Blue Pearl - Blue Pearl Log

This morning we have the company of a few sea birds who are circling the boat and diving into the water in search of their breakfast, at this stage the water does look very inviting and I am looking forward to having a swim once we reach Grenada. Last night just before my watch started, I woke up and looked at the chart plotter, I was a little alarmed to see a large tanker coming straight for us and not very far away! Coming up on deck and looking I could see its lights very clearly, it was probably 500 meters away, a bit close for my liking. As it slowly ghosted past we could see its silhouette against the lighter sky, this was definitely the closest we’ve come to another ship on the whole passage even including the other ARC boats. As we are getting closer its exciting to be able to. read more...


30/11/2023

Hot Stuff - 14:49.39N 38:46.69W

We eem to be making progress though the fleet at the moment and were up to 75 overall which isn't too bad at all.Flying at speed takes its toll though and even Nick (Beardy hat face) succumbed and slept through his watch yesterday morning.Now in a previous blog I might have mentioned that some of the instruments were not quite playing ball. We still have enough and were sailing at night with the kite and compass bearing when needed. Well last night the compass light grew brighter and then... Pop. No light. A temp fix was tried with an LED torch. This in principle was a great idea other than the large magnet on its back to stick it to a metal surface. So lights off again. The plus side to this is that when the moon comes up there is plenty of. read more...


Blue Wonder - Mini flying fish now a pet on Blue Wonder
Blue Wonder - Mini flying fish now a pet on Blue Wonder
30/11/2023

Hot Stuff - 14:49.37 N 38:46.04 W

_Fun fact_*Volvo Penta MD23*In neutral running at 1000rpm while charging the batteries, the Volvo Penta MD 23 sings in the key of E... /Just saying/JH. read more...


30/11/2023

Saltair - Plastic

Saw Solaris blog post on plastic… we are also trying to be conscious of recycling. We have 3 bins, a small one for any organic waste that can go back to the sea, one for the smelly trash and one for recycling. To keep odors down we use salt water (we have a salt water pump in the galley) to rinse everything out! Once in St Lucia we can sort through the mixed recycling bags! . read more...


30/11/2023

Uno - Day 11: A great day sailing!

Another loaf of sourdough in the oven this morning, this time I tried making it with spelt flour. It did not rise at all! So in the last 30mins of cooking it became a rescue mission to turn it into a flat focaccia bread with a bit of olive oil, herbs and salt on too. Saved! :DMid-morning just as Rich & Jacques headed up front to relax on the trampolines, the fishing line went off and we reeled in a yellow fin tuna! I took a turn filleting & into the fridge it went to be sashimi later on. Lynnie baked a lovely banana choc chip loaf that was almost demolished in an hour.It’s been a better sailing day, finally! Cheese burgers & twice cooked potatoes for dinner.Uno out.. read more...


Wolkenschlößchen - Day 11 - Crew take a mid Atlantic dip!
Wolkenschlößchen - Day 11 - Crew take a mid Atlantic dip!
Wolkenschlößchen - Day 11 - Crew take a mid Atlantic dip!
Wolkenschlößchen - Day 11 - Crew take a mid Atlantic dip!
30/11/2023

Saltair - Halfway celebration

On Wednesday, day 11 of our voyage we had about sailed half of our predicted total distance and celebrated with a nice meal - highlight was the sticky rice and mango dessert! Our St Lucia parrot Cinnamon joined the celebration!  It is a bit of a longer passage than we expected but now that we have good winds, we are really enjoying the sailing! . read more...


30/11/2023

Wolkenschlößchen - Day 11 - Crew take a mid Atlantic dip!

We keep experiencing rather light winds on our northern course. While this means that we are not exactly racing towards Saint Lucia, it also means that we are having a relaxed time on board. And while our friends and family back home are experiencing first snow falls, the air and water here is getting warmer and warmer. Today, this meant: time for a swim!!! We took down all sails and one by one jumped into the Atlantic. What a thrill, knowing that we are as far from land as we could be and have 1000's of meters and wildlife below us! But it was soooo refreshing, bathing in 25°C warm water. We guess, this was not the last dip on this trip! To celebrate yesterday's half time milestone, we started the day with pancakes and the had our next round of steaks for dinner. Cooking. read more...


Saltair - Halfway celebration
Saltair - Halfway celebration
30/11/2023

Blue Wonder

Last night started out with the most champagne sailing conditions I have ever experienced! Following seas, good winds and favourable current all lined up for the first time since the start of our Atlantic crossing. I sat in the helm enjoying a wonderful magic carpet ride at a constant 10kn of boat speed, eating up the miles to the finish line. We had celebrated sailing over 200 nautical miles in 24 hours that evening, and if the conditions continued as they were, we would easily be finishing in daylight on 30 November. Unfortunately, all good things come to an end.When I swapped shifts at 1am, the seas became confused and our boat speed reduced. Squalls formed and we commenced another night of squall dodging. So far remaining successful, whilst we still fly the parasailor at night. If a. read more...


30/11/2023

Blue Wonder

Although our mood onboard is still good, morale was fairly low today. Winds have eased and our speed has slowed significantly, which after a few days of burning miles, feels like we're just bobbing in the ocean. The reduced speed also means we have to spend a whole extra night out at sea. I know we shouldn't complain, being one of the first of the fleet due to arrive. I guess the exhaustion has set in a bit. One bonus of the calm conditions is that we were able to enjoy a nice sunset dinner out on top of our roof. We spotted a large pod of whales in the afternoon, which we probably would have missed if the sea state wasn't calm. So there are definitely some benefits to slowing down. This afternoon we landed another wahoo. Which is perfect timing, as it will still be fresh enough to share. read more...


Blue Wonder - wahoo for a wahoo
Blue Wonder - wahoo for a wahoo
30/11/2023

Pure Joy - Pure Joy - ARC Day10

Ooooooooh we’re half way there, Oh Oh, living on a prayer!Today felt busy. We had the sails up and down a fair bit as we needed to repair the Wingaker - one of the seams seemed to be giving way. PJ caught another fish - a beautiful tuna! Aaaaaaand, we crossed the half way mark! We celebrated with a dance party complete with glow sticks and screaming Bon Jovi at top volume.. read more...


Pure Joy - Pure Joy - ARC Day10
Pure Joy - Pure Joy - ARC Day10
Pure Joy - Pure Joy - ARC Day10
Pure Joy - Pure Joy - ARC Day10
Pure Joy - Pure Joy - ARC Day10
Pure Joy - Pure Joy - ARC Day10
Pure Joy - Pure Joy - ARC Day10
Pure Joy - Pure Joy - ARC Day10
Pure Joy - Pure Joy - ARC Day10
Pure Joy - Pure Joy - ARC Day10

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