Daily Logs

Swan Valhalla - Log 16 - Nutty Nick

Nick as guest blogger..........this has been the pantsday of the trip, we always need pants days to show up the rest and give us thefull contrast. Today was scorchio, no swimming as we are trying to make bestspeed, had to make do with buckets over us instead. Also this was a mysteriousday of no fish even though we were going at a very suitable trawling speed fortuna. Absence of the ubiquitous flying fish was probably the reason. Feeling ourway through the light evening breeze with our ghoster up and clocking a healthy6 knots helped by the very flat sea state. Crew have been trying to bust through the lethargy bydoing several things..........Matt doing proper Japanese coulior ski prep withsome very impressive squats on the foredeck to get ready for his ski trip toJapan in. read more...

Hecuba - Satellite phone fixed - we're back online!

After a pretty fierce storm about 6 days ago, our sat phone looked dead after suffering water damage. However, once the weather improved we set about attempting to fix the fried cables. Thanks to some expert soldering by Steve (and a hefty chunk of luck), we managed to get it up and running again - quite unbelievable. Over the past week we've been stuck in some low winds making slow progress and well behind schedule, but we're well past the half way mark at least. More updates to follow over next couple of days. Team Hecubahttp://www.teamhecuba.com . read more...

La Rochelle - The party begins in Saint Lucia on La Rochelle

We finally finished at 9 pm on Thursday night after counting down the last 85 miles from sunup on Thursday . Just over 14 days for us as we started 30 hours late but managed to overtake a few boats on the way. The crossing can be described in thirds. First third, lovely sailing conditions up to 20 knots, second third, boring as bat****, hard work motor sailing and the final third, reasonable pressure but a little frustrating . Overall the crossing was very tame, but the rock and roll was still there. The Atlantic didn't bite us so we should be grateful for that.Wonderful support from Paul and his team, again, again and again . We definitely have had more sleep than them, as they are basically working 24 /7. Superb effort .I cannot recommend the ARC + enough, having established. read more...

Jade - Days 12 & 13 Board/bored games...

The Monopoly Set has come out. Noah and Ferne are quite the little Alan Sugars. Ferne snapped up Mayfair and Park Lane within minutes, whilst Noah took to building houses and hotels on any other spare land. 5 hours later and I had to retire from the game owing them thousands in (thankfully) make-believe money. Alex has fared no better.The wind has finally perked up and today we've been flying along. We've seen only a bird and some flying fish all day long. Tonight the sky is full of stars and Venus is twinkling below a smiley-mouthed moon. Everyone on board is well and happy. Lots of love to allMichelle and all on Jade xxxx. read more...

Golondrina - Christmas is here ......

Today the crew of Golondrina stood and had a minutes silence, thinking of all those loved ones at home running around doing the Christmas shopping.  Our thoughts are with you - fighting for parking spaces, buying rolls of wrapping paper only to find the load left over from last year, trying to work out what does "Don't go mad on me" actually mean? buying yet another Christmas tree stand because you can't find the old one and they always fall over anyway, realising you still haven't updated the address book from last year for the Christmas Cards,  un-knotting the Christmas tree lights which don't work anyway,  working which parents to visit and which ones to offend AND our special thoughts go to retail sales persons who are listening to a loop of Christmas music - Remember. read more...

Dragonfly - 2.Fall

Die Nacht ist ruhig, der Motor tuckert vor sich hin und wir fahren Richtung WSW. Es ist fast unheimlich: Stockdunkel, keine Sterne, kein Mond, kein Horizont, man sieht die Hand vor Augen nicht. Auch das Glitzern des Planktons im Wasser fehlt fast gänzlich. Irgendwann in der Nacht taucht die Excalibur wieder hinter uns auf. Volker versucht mit zwei Ausweichmanövern einer Kollision aus dem Wege zu gehen, aber die Manöver werden vom Rudergänger der Excalibur nachgefahren. Erst mit einer drastischen Kursänderung kommt er weg. Die Excalibur passiert in Rufweite. Später funke ich mit Heike und wir wünschen uns eine gute Weiterfahrt nach St. Lucia. Wahrscheinlich war sie bei dem nächtlichen Manöver genausowenig an Deck wie ich. Gegen Morgen kommt etwas Wind auf. Wir setzen sofort den Genaker. read more...

Free Spirit - 1000 miles to go! (Free Spirit 62)

We just passed the 2/3rds mark in our passage (see celebratory photos, Tropical is the Canary Islands local brew!), its looking like we'll clock up 3,000 miles due to the various course changes we've needed to do from time to time (the straight line distance is around 2,800 miles), we have just 1,000 miles to go and its feeling like the finishing line is coming into sight :) We're also just under 2 weeks at sea, so very much in the swing of things. We're getting quite large (4 - 5m) swells cruising through at times but with 10s between each and broad, rounded tops, they're fun to ride over. Most of our fresh food has gone, although its lasted remarkably well, we're wondering whether the Las Palmas supermarkets radiate their produce or do something else to make it last! Standouts have. read more...

Skyelark of London - Where are the trade winds?

We sailed all the way down to St. Lucia latitude to get to the trade winds but they are not here. The wind we have is varying in strength and direction, last night for a while we sailed NW then gybed to sail SW, then straight downwind going west, but with barely with enough wind pressure to keep the wing-on-wing sails filled. Steering in these conditions on a moonless night required your full attention to avoid the sails from banging.Morning brought a passing rain squall then a scorcher of a day. The shade under the bimini was disputed by all. We are slowly making progress towards St. Lucia and the spirits are high. Yesterday afternoon we caught a nice medium sized tuna, it seems that the 4 to 5 in the afternoon is our lucky hour to catch fish. The tuna became this evening's dinner,. read more...

Shenanigan - Fabulous Sailing

You may have noticed from the Yellowbrick that we have changed our course going south in search of better wind and then north again following the wind! Today we have enjoyed some superb sailing reaching under the cruising chute with good speeds and good weather. Last night we had a huge squall which we had watched coming!It hit us just as we served our supper of rump steak, sautéed potatoes and steamed buttered courgettes. When the squall had stopped as abruptly as it started there was at least an inch of rain collected (not on purpose) in a beaker left on deck.Fortunately, supper was unspoilt despite the cook holding onto the plates for dear life!Today we saw flying fish for the first time - it took a moment or two to realise they. read more...

Merlyn III - Who has stolen the trade winds

This ARC will become known as the ARC without wind, specifically withoutthe Trade Winds. These fabled winds have conveyed generations of sailors fromEurope and Africa to the Caribbean. They are part of a mighty circulatoryweather system covering much of the Northern Atlantic, kept in position by theAzores high. According to my North Atlantic weather routing chart there is analmost vanishingly small chance  that they will not manifest themselves atthis time of year at the Latitude of the Cape Verde Islands. So what hashappened to the Trades? Who is the culprit? We need to investigate.   There are various suspects amongst whom I would include Melissa, thecitizens of the UK and Chris Tibbs. I should explain. Melissa was a seriousweather system in the North West Atlantic who. read more...

Milanto - 7 Dec Day 13

As predicted by Vale the wind shifted to the North East late on the 6th, we gybed onto 260 degrees heading directly to St Lucia and quickly picked up speed to 8 knots. Overnight we maintained this speed with wind of 20 knots and by morning had covered 110 miles since dinner.Today the wind has remained steady and we have been bowling along at  between 8.5 and 10.5 knots. At this time, 1630 Milanto time, we have 844 miles to go.The weather forecast is favorable for the rest of the trip with some periods of stronger winds on our stern and scattered rain but mostly warm and sunny. There isbig sea running but it is helping us on our way and Milanto is riding wind and waves beautifully.We have had a good day with rod and line and have landed two Dorado one of which was a whopper at. read more...

Koala - Dec 7th: Zombie watch

This morning I was greeted in the mirror in the aft heads by the sight of a cast member of Shaun of the Dead looking back at me. Tough night with very little sleep again. It is the problem of sailing down wind in the dark in unstable conditions with no instruments where the boat will not happily steer itself without slatting the main badly and waking everyone up. About every 5 minutes.Then this morning, I decided that the wind had shifted sufficiently to warrant a gybe, so I called the off watch on deck (Julia), who responded very positively considering, and appeared a couple of minutes later blinking myopically in a mole like fashion at the upcoming sun behind me. We gybed the boat, re-setting the pole etc. and she (the boat, not Julia) immediately settled down, and steered herself. read more...

Calypso - The Muffin Man?

Calypso has moved below 15 N in the hope that we can miss a patch of little wind forecast for tomorrow. Nothing too exciting has happened since our last blog but we (Dino) did manage to catch a small yellow fin tuna which provided dinner last night. Currently sailing downwind making 5/6 knots with the 2 genoas poled out (the smaller one poled out using the boom). How did the muffins (see previous blog) go down? Mary Berry is not under threat but a very good effort for a first attempt. So David is the muffin man!DDJ & P12:00 GMT (10:00 LT)14 57.6N35 42.1W1464 nm to St Lucia. read more...

Nyaminyami II - blog - Saturday 7 December - Jane

By Jane Robertson Hello all from Nyaminyami on our 13th day at sea. The most unexpected find of the trip has been the excellent philosophy, poetry and general variety of our blogging whizzo, Chris. We thought you might like a bit of female perspective about this adventure so here goes.I have discovered that ‘going to sea’ has a whole new meaning when planning a long trip rather than the weekend hop along the coast or to Brittany. Mostly this is to do with victualling the ship for four people for a month without sinking it and without throwing anything away. This involves lots of trips to supermarkets checking sell by dates and trying to find items that will last for at least a month. All fresh fruit and veg from the markets in Las Palmas had to be washed and dried before loading,. read more...

Adina - Day 12 A very large hook and a bake off

Day 12 dawned with the parasailor having done another night of sterling work. What's been good about the parasailor is it has allowed us to steer very deep and hence keep to our rhumb line as the winds swing to the east and are right behind us. In light winds it keeps us going whereas with white sails we'd be going nowhere. We had a good day of trade winds and were bombing along quite nicely, thank you. But life is never a bed of roses and theforecasts are showing a big wind hole come Sunday. We're hanging south in the hope the impact is not too bad but it doesn't seem worth it to go too far south if it's due to pass over in 24-36 hours.On the fun side, the Great Adina Bake Off is threatening to take off (the Adina boat owners admit they have had to be educated about this programme!).. read more...

George - Still no wind

Beef is a really versatile meat it doesn't seem to ever go off! it just gets more tender... Steve is beginning to worry me he has started mixing more with Mason who is the bad boy in the sextant world. I cant see anything funny in working out your position with a sextant so why all the whispering and laughing? He was quite openly working out how far the horizon will be at 2.5 meters he of course holds 4 stars but he won't get a lolly unless he pulls his socks up! I do realise he isn't actually wearing socks its metaphorical socks.... TBPoirot and Hastings were up on deck at 0330hrs, half way through their watch, discussing a possible new case of sabotage. This was strange, not that they were discussing a new case when they hadn't solved the old one, but the fact that they remembered to. read more...

Golden Spirit of Islay - Freezing problems in the Tropics

At last we have completed the first thousand miles. Much slower than expected, 12 days, but with the improving wind situation we feel we are at last making real progress. The weather has been beautiful, sunshine, calm seas and a pleasant breeze. Our freezer has completely stopped working which unfortunately means we will waste some of the pre-prepared meals made in Las Palmas, very frustrating but nothing we can do about it. We have had to stop fishing in an attempt to eat as much of the frozen food as possible before it goes bad. Just hope our success with the fishing continues when we go back to it. We have sailed quite a way South now and are nearly on the same parallel of latitude as St Lucia. We are hoping for a small wind shift that will help us sail West as soon as possible. Life. read more...

Resolute of Thames - BAAAAR HUMBUG AND COUNTING CHICKENS

No, dear reader, Gilly-mate has not elevated eggs to the same status as tomatoes but increasingly the question on both our lips is are we nearly there yet?To which my overly cynical response (after the mainsail drama) is not until we have crossed the finish line and started the engine but to which Gilly-mate's is once we get within 200nm (because that is my conservative estimate as to how far we might motor, in benign conditions, with the fuel we have left onboard).I estimate that we have only used the engine for propulsion during the crossing to do 10nm and I would very much like to cross the finish line without increasing that! We both feel that having been at sea since the 20 November we do need to get there.However, our reasons differ:I have already been in e-mail contact with a. read more...

Firefly - Fast at last

Friday was a very pleasant day but we were plagued again by light winds (again!) The wind speed and direction being about 6 knots and easterly. Most of the day was therefore motoring and as we were going at 6 knots and heading west it was hot. The wind came back this morning (Saturday) and we have the Gennaker up in a north easterly wind that is touching 20 knots in the gusts. Its close to the wind strength limit for this reaching spinnaker and its giving us speed surges of nearly 10 knots and an average of over 7. The forecast is for the wind to keep building so before dark (at 1830 in our current zone) we will drop the spinnaker for the night. If the wind does keep building it may not come out again then for the duration of the trip.This morning Murray and Peter saw a large pod of. read more...

Hebe - Day 14 7/12/13

15:31:44N047:31:26WQue ce qui ce pas alors ??  Here we are in a gentle Force 3,  coaxing the spinnaker along day and night, cloudy and drizzly. Where's the glorious ocean swell? Where are these s******g trades? We wanna go surfing ! Andrew has already ordered another colourful sail to add to Hebe's wardrobe, this lady is high maintenance. On board life goes on contentedly, pulses sprouting, goldfish rocking gently ( relieved not to be beating and emptying out in the sink) and bananas down in the net happily ripening.Sarah wears the marigolds on this ship and gets teased mercilessly poor girl, even called Bilge Queen the other day. The boys are very naughty, not paying attention to cleaning lessons.  Peter desultorily  pushing the dirt around with the swiffer. read more...

Beetle - Beetle - day 14

Getting into the quiet mood.1007 miles to go - looking for the 1000 nm mark. Treating myself with a cold Coke and a mini Bounty.In the confined waters of Denmark Skipper usual helms the boat. There is a little more space here midocean, so the autopilot has done a remarkable job - as well under sail as under engine. In the meantime the crew (Skipper and Mrs. Skipper) has been reading, cooking, maintenance, adjustments and watched a few movies.We are experiencing some sort of jetlag. Our ships clock is on Las Palmas (UTC) time, but we are moving some 10-15 minutes further west each 24 hours. It' s getting later and later dark, and sunrise is later every morning. We will keep it that way - and look forward to weather reports and noon positions every day at 12 UTC.Temperature in the saloon. read more...

Abraxas - 07/12/13 The 'Trade Winds' have ceased trading

Itsbeen a few days since our last posting but it has been pretty busy and days seemto pass quickly. Ourroute plan has been to head south from the Canary Islands to below 20N. This was where we are told that we will hit favourable trade winds and skate ourway west under spinnaker.  Well, we are now below 17N and we have beenstruggling with some light winds and having to work hard to keep a goodpace.  The positive thing however is that we are now well in to the tropicsand so are enjoying some very nice weather indeed.  Our position in thefleet is currently not as good as those who stayed further north or those thathave motored in the lighter winds but we hope to come good with some speed fromnow on and there is still plenty of ocean to go. Wehave been at sea. read more...

Starla - Log Day 13 - Chocolate Rations

Hello Everyone,Distance logged today - 95 nautical miles. Distance to date this trip - 1594 nautical miles. Remaining miles to St Lucia 1429.Another slow day. We had 8 - 10 knots of wind for a few hours in the afternoon, which then lightened in the evening to 3 - 5 knots all form the south east.A few more days of this should see us in to some strong north easterly winds and a big increase speed and distance per day.More activity last night before dark, we had a school of dolphins swimming along with us in our bow wave.After dinner on an evening, we like to have a coffee and a piece of chocolate as a treat. The stocks are running low, so we are now on rations. One square each! Believe me that will be better not having any and running out. We believe that the depletion in the chocolate. read more...

Manihi - Les nuits se suivent et ne se ressemblent pas !

14:32.24N 41:16.38W   9:00 heure locale - Profondeur 4530 m   Et bien, hier après-midi il suffisait d'attendre un peu, et le vent etrevenu, tout doucement, vers 6-7 heures. Vent arrière exactement. Nous avons misen place la tenue de nuit de Manihi : la GV complètement ouverte sur la gauche(bâbord) et le génois maintenu déployé sur la droite (tribord) par le tangon ;ce qui offre une grande surface de poussée au vent arrière et est beaucoup plusstable qu'un spi et plus facile à affaler si nécessaire. Bonne leçon que la nuitdernière ! Mais ça sert à ça l'expérience, non ? On  s'en souvient après !   Et cette nuit le vent est resté sage. Il a commencé avec un 8-10 nds puis aparesseusement accéléré jusqu'à 15 nds avant le 1er quart, pour culminer à 15-17nds pendant la. read more...

Avel Biz J+13 Passage de col

Bonjour7 Décembre 2013Position 12h00 UTC21°32 N44°40 W132 milles en 24hPassage de colNous qui étions contents de toucher un peu de vent, nous avons été servis.Le vent a fraichi, des grains ont surgi de partout, des vagues de touscôtés, des risées irrégulières en force entre 5 et 30 noeuds, et endirection. La nuit a été très occupée. Nous avons du tiré des vrais bords,virant dans les refusantes, prenant des ris, les larguant, roulant,déroulant le génois. Un qui barre, l'autre qui se repose tout habillé surune couchette du carré, prêt à sortir. Le tout en tapant et cognant dans leclapot, un peuépuisant tout ça pour ne pas beaucoup avancer.Enfin au petit matin, les éléments se sont calmés. Nous sommes maintenantau petit largue avec 22 kts de vent, bien gités. On ne tape plus mais cesont des. read more...

Blue Ocean

Un dementi quant a notre position  : notre catamaran ne se situe pasdans le desert malien, entre les mains d`un groupe d`activistes lies a AlQuaeda,mais bien toujours dans l`Atlantique a desormais 744 nm de Rodney Bay.Bon ceci est lie a la defaillance de notre YellowBrick, qui nous amene atransmettre par mail notre position regulierement a l`ARC Committee. Erreur detranscription de ce cote qui a pu faire penser a un revirement a laMoitessier... Aurora semble nous distancer peu a peu, Jinja reste dans lesparages. Et cette nuit nous avons ete appele en VHF par un catamaran en convoyagevers Antigua, a 7 miles de notre bateau – mais sans contact visuel – pasd`emetteur AIS   pas de feux-Les routes convergeant vers les Antilles on va recommencer a voir du monde! A nouveau 25. read more...

Athena of Southampton - Liz’s Log

Athena log 6 – Saturday December 7th 2013 –15 05.38 N / 38 50.64 W On Board with the “MotleyMen.” Describing the men in my “present” life as a motleybunch conjures up an inaccurate and unfair image. In truth they are a.....Motivated, Original, Talented, Lively, Enthusiastic and Young (ish)bunch. For those of you back home I have witnessed theirgrowing domestic abilities at cooking, washing, cleaning, etc. as my knowledgeof engine bilges, watermakers and waypoints also increases...I am at risk ofturning into a motley man myself !!! Sharing life in such a limited space withsuch a lovely bunch has made for a wonderful experience and learning curve. Noneed for all that clutter and confusion we surround ourselves with. I have cometo realise to keep life simple and enjoy the beauty of nature.. read more...

Starblazer 7 December - Your Family Needs YOU

HiI suspect that this applies to other boats as well, not just Starblazer.We believe (hope?) that some family and friends are reading our blogs oneither the ARC site or our website. But we haven't heard from you.We cannot receive our live/hotmail emails, our website comments or Facebook,but we can receive and send on our mailasail address.Many of our family and friends have our boatcard with our mailasail emailaddress, if you don't or cannot find it please contact someone else in yourrelevant family/friends group.Or perhaps WCC will forward an email???arcrallycontrol@worldcruising.comWe will reply direct with our address and you can then send on that.We want to stay in touch whilst we are away, so please send your ups anddowns, excitements and mundane, everything that you would chat. read more...

Diva - Kann man in der Flaute segeln? Ja man kann.

Jeder Segler nennt den Atlantik respektvoll „Großer Teich“. Heute fehlen nur noch die Enten, denn es ist überhaupt gar kein Wind. Wir fahren sogar rückwärts und es ist sehr warm. Erst einmal einen Eimer Meerwasser über den Kopf giessen- tut das gut, happy Nikolaus. Gegen Mittag unter einem Hauch von Wind mit dem Leichtwindspinnaker Richtung 270 Grad.Es fällt schwer nicht daran zu denken, einfach den Motor zu starten und loszufahren. Den Mount Everest besteigt man nicht mit einem Heli, und den Atlantik bezwingt man nicht mit Motor. So einfach ist das. Also geduldig warten auf Wind. Liebe Konkurrenz – wir haben sehr wohl auf unserem Satellitentracking sehen können, das ihr den Motor angeworfen habt. Wir unterhalten uns dann im Hafen.Die See ist glatt - nur die aus der Tiefe kommende. read more...

Pannikin - Days 10-13

Wednesday 4th December – Day 10A quiet day without much wind saw us burning a few more litres of diesel with very calm seas and almost no swell it was hard to believe we were in the middle of the Atlantic.The highlight of the day once again as the fishing reel screaming off and by the time Steve picked it up, the fish had taken nearly all the line. It was a good fight which lasted ten minutes and finally a good size tuna was landed, so lunch was fresh tuna and salad.Absolutely beautiful!Thursday 5th December – Day11Light winds prevailed, although there was enough to turn the motor off and set a spinnaker which made life on board a little less noisy. The speed has been very slow, each day we get a new forecast and turn to where they predict more wind only to find similar conditions. Our. read more...

Azzurra - Day 14 – Hanging around-

Position Saturday, 07.12.2013 11:00 UTC:21”33’.627 N, 038”13’.993;DTW St. Lucia: 1368 smAnother day providing sailors dream; dead calm for over 12 hours, startingabout 6:00 in the morning. The current was the only force getting us movedto somewhere; of cause to the wrong direction. We used the time to get theGenoa down again, taping some problem areas and to take of the leech line.A loose screw on the forestay gave us some problems getting the sail down.Again, someone had to be hived up the mast. We also tried to solve ourSeatalk data transmission problems. We found some things with just minorimpact. It seems like we have to live with it as it is right now. Afterhaving spent several hours in Azzurra’s torture chamber we gave up as wehad no more practical solutions to find the problem.. read more...

Duplicat - Saturday 15.17N 31.19W

Colin (new crew member) has responded well to loads of sleep, a bit of sun on his body and frequent Beechams and is feeling better.We sailed all night, first part with a little jib an full main but when the wind got too square furled up the jib an just sailed on the full main. Kite back up this morning and we have an easterly 18knts helping us along nicely. During the night Gerry got his ipad night sky programme working and we found Venus, Jupiter and loads of other stars.Still hoping for sighting of comet Ison soon.On my watch I saw three other yachts' lights but no AIS and just faint blips on the radar. Another lovely day's weather today, maintenance going on as deck fitting for spinnaker is being replaced.. read more...

Queen Frederica - Bericht Tag 14 - Tag 14: wwwww (was wenn wirklich wind wäre)

07.12.2013Der Wind kommt aus Osten, wir wollen nach Westen. Was sich erst einmalrecht stimmig anhört, ist auf dem Boot (vor allem auf der Queen F.) ganzschön anspruchsvoll. Denn bei Wind unter 15 kn (und das ist schon längerso), fallen die Segel auf raumen Kursen bei jeder Welle ein. In der Folgeverringert sich der Speed – und so sind wir weite Teile der Nacht mit ca.3 kn unterwegs gewesen. Was das für unser Ankunftsdatum bedeutet, mögenwir gar nicht genau ausrechnen (21.12.?). Da müssten wir erneut die Flügeumbuchen … Um 6 Uhr haben wir die Maschine gestartet, köstlichgefrühstückt (erneut Pancakes von Katharina) – und seit 9:30 frischt esauf. Im Moment segeln wir mit dem Gennaker und der ausgebaumten Genuaziemlich platt vorm Laken. Beim Setzen der Segel geriet eine Leeschotunter den. read more...

Sunrise - Tag 14 - 07.12.2013 – Nikolaus in der Flaute

Der gestrige Nachmittag war meist etwas verhangen, die See war ruhig, dieDünung von 2-3m doch sehr eindrücklich. Immer wieder runter ins Tal, dannwieder hoch zum Aussichtspunkt. Leider alles ohne Wind, sodass wir unterMotor fahren mussten. Kein Wind bietet aber auch die Möglichkeit sichwieder einmal ins säubernde Nass zu springen (immer zu zweit natürlich undnicht alle gleichzeitig).Am Abend kam der Nikolaus vorbei, läutete mit der Glocke und verteilteleckere Pfeffernüsse. Hans sei Dank! Immer wieder erstaunlich, da sitzenwir auf dem Schiff, das Wasser hat mind. 25Grad, die Luft ist deutlichwärmer und das mitten in der Weihnachtszeit. Hohoho!!!Ruhige Fahrt in die Nacht hinein. So um 22.00h setzen wir die Segel undgondeln mit gerademal 2.5Knoten zum Ziel hin. Mit Diesel ginge esschneller,. read more...

Blue Ocean - Day 13: Out of Africa

For some reason our position has been recorded incorrectly on the ARClistings – we have moved from a favourable position just East of the Carribbean(putting us amongst the leading multihulls) to a location somewhere in Africa.Let me assure readers that we are still (as far as we are aware) in the NorthAtlantic and not landlocked in a desert near Mali.  We have had some odd instrument failures aboard Blue Ocean but I think thatthis erroneous reading can be put down to ‘operator error’. Note that we havebeen sending ARC Control our positions correctly, so it seems that on thisoccassion the operator error is not ours.   For the record, our true position as I write is: 16*28’.26N and 48*10’.73W.Distance to St. Lucia is 753nm.  Bye   Craig    . read more...

Meltemi - 12.Tag Wir sind jetzt U-Tau`s Helden in Strumpfhosen

Heute Nacht um 11:58 Uhr Bordzeit sind die verbleibenden Restmeilen nun unter 1.000 nm Meilen gesunken.Aktuell haben wir noch rund 944 nm to go. Damit ist nun endlich der Endspurt eingeleitet. Die Manschaft ist bis unter die Haarspitzen motiviert, jede noch so kleine Windveränderung wird ausgiebieg analysiert, diskutiert und in die taktische Überlegung mit einebzogen.( Maschine an oder nicht)Also, die Messer sind gewetzt, die Haare geglättet und die Strumpfhosen glattgezogen.Des einen Freund des anderen Leid fiebert schon so manches Crewmitglied ungeduldig seienem Wettgewinn entgegen.Einzelne Teile der Mamnnschaft haben sich losgesagt und wollen nurnoch Dosenduschen.Ob eigens hierfür angefertigte Schutzanzüge zum Einsatz kommen ist nochnicht entschieden.In jedem Fall wird die Fraktion. read more...