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Loreley - We made it! What a wonderful trip!
Loreley - We made it! What a wonderful trip!
05/12/2023

Freedom - Blog 17 Freedom Tuesday 5th December 2023

Gday Team Freedom from the Aussie Freedom FighterTuesday finds us literally rolling along the 14th parallel (the same latitude as StL) goosewinged in 20 knots of breeze with a following sea. 170 nm sailed in 24h to 1300 today. As we are into the 3rd week I thought I would take a step back and give my overall perspective of the passage to date. I have used the SWOT framework, that many of you will be familiar with, to structure my thoughts.STRENGTHS1 the Crew - The Freedom Fighters are the bedrock, or should I say the keel post, of the passage.Though I had no doubt that we would get on fine; before the trip I was interested to see how 5 blokes would combine within a 42ft space for 3 weeks. My reference point was a 5 week trip of 5 crew between Adelaide-Melbourne-Hobart (this leg was a. read more...


05/12/2023

Cloud Jumper - Mental Lentils and the Blister Shift

It is day 17 at sea today and it is definitely starting to smell like it! Luckily we are all suffering personal hygiene breakdown at a similar rate so it is barely noticeable.Not a huge amount to report really, the flying fish are now starting to fly into the actual cabin interior of the boat through any open hatches. None have survived yet and unfortunately you would need a whole shoul (or flock)to make a decent breakfast for 4 of us.The seas have been getting increasingly lumpy lately and with all the pitching and rolling Cloud Jumper will often throw you in a random direction so it can be a  surprise where you end up sometimes. Mathias got violently launched from his bunk the other morning and after a big crash ended up on the cabin floor keeping the flying fish company. His good. read more...


05/12/2023

Hot Stuff - 14:54.92N 53:43.38W

It is with great sadness we said goodby to the pink lady today. The kite was flying well and doing us proud when BANG the head tore straight down the edge and into the water! All hands on deck and managed to recover her on deck and loaded her into her launch bag for the last time this trip. Who knows maybe she might fly again with ... well quite a bit of cosmetic work really.So Kite 2,  up came the spare untested kite. It lasted for a couple of hours and whilst sweltering trying to doze in the main cabin... BANG... All hands up again and the second kite gone at the head and managed to letter box the remaims through the main and down. Packed next to her sister ready for an assement today.So Kite 3... Oh bugger we have run out of them now. Back to white sails for now and pressing hard. read more...


05/12/2023

Pure Fun - ARC 2023 - Endspurt - noch 280 sm bis Sant Lucia

ARC - 2023 Endspurt. Nur noch 280 sm bis zum Ziel.2571 sm liegen hinter uns.Unser ETA gestern endlich mal 181 sm. Wir haben endlich mehr Wind…und mit dem Wind mehr Welle und mehr „Geschaukel“ im Boot. Heute Morgen sahen wir Alle gerädert aus….dieses passiv bewegt werden auf der Matratze strengt schon an, schön warm ist es auch. Eine Zudecke brauchen wir schon lange nicht mehr. Gestern Abend sahen wir vor uns eine schlecht Wetter Front die sich abregnete. Es sah bedrohlich aus. Daher entschieden wir uns mit Genua und Groß durch die Nacht zu segeln. Blitz und Donner, sowie Regen blieb aus, aber wir hatten zwischendurch starke Böen. Zum Glück bei Bernd und nicht bei mir. Er wusste damit umzugehen. Ich habe im Bett nichts davon mitbekommen, so gekonnt hat er die Pure Fun durch die Böen. read more...


05/12/2023

Vitamin Sea - Vitamin Sea - Tag 13: Sternenhimmel, Seegrasfelder, und ein Fang des Tages, Samstag, der 02. Dezember 2023

Die Nacht vom 01. auf den 02. Dezember 2023: Unter den funkelnden Sternen des Ozeans Wie schon in den vergangenen Tagen war eine unserer Hauptaufgaben während der Nachtwachen, uns auf mögliche Squalls vorzubereiten und immer ein Auge auf dem Radar zu haben. Um im Notfall schnell reagieren zu können, haben wir entschieden das Segel runterzuholen und den Motor die gesamte Nacht anzulassen. Das mögen wir alle nicht, denn der Motorbetrieb ist mit erheblichem Lärm verbunden. In solchen Fällen wechselnwir den Motor regelmäßig - entweder läuft der rechte oder der linke. Das hilft einerseits die Motoren zu schonen. Denn beide Motoren gleichzeitig zu betreiben, bringt keine deutlich höhere Geschwindigkeit. Anderseits sind nicht alle Kabinen gleichzeitig vondem hohen Geräuschpegel betroffen.. read more...


05/12/2023

JaZoFi - JaZoFi Arrival

Land ahoy! We have sighted land for the first time in 14 days; the good thing about that is this will be JaZoFi’s final log for ARC 2023. The better thing is that we will shortly be enjoying a Caribbean rum in a bar in St. Lucia!  Thanks to Scotty Bailey for sharing this experience. I know he has spent the past few years doing Research, Planning, Commissioning, Testing, Delivering ready for ARC 2023. We can all see how and why he is so proud of what has been achieved so far. Congratulations to Oyster for delivering a superb vessel, the vessel is beautifully finished, robustly built and certainly capable of the onward world circumnavigation in the Oyster rally. No doubt Scotty will give you valuable feedback to help improve the Oyster 595. The crew: Glenn Gaynor, what a great mate,. read more...


Vitamin Sea - Vitamin Sea - Tag 13: Sternenhimmel, Seegrasfelder, und ein Fang des Tages, Samstag, der 02. Dezember 2023
Vitamin Sea - Vitamin Sea - Tag 13: Sternenhimmel, Seegrasfelder, und ein Fang des Tages, Samstag, der 02. Dezember 2023
Vitamin Sea - Vitamin Sea - Tag 13: Sternenhimmel, Seegrasfelder, und ein Fang des Tages, Samstag, der 02. Dezember 2023
Vitamin Sea - Vitamin Sea - Tag 13: Sternenhimmel, Seegrasfelder, und ein Fang des Tages, Samstag, der 02. Dezember 2023
Vitamin Sea - Vitamin Sea - Tag 13: Sternenhimmel, Seegrasfelder, und ein Fang des Tages, Samstag, der 02. Dezember 2023
Vitamin Sea - Vitamin Sea - Tag 13: Sternenhimmel, Seegrasfelder, und ein Fang des Tages, Samstag, der 02. Dezember 2023
Vitamin Sea - Vitamin Sea - Tag 13: Sternenhimmel, Seegrasfelder, und ein Fang des Tages, Samstag, der 02. Dezember 2023
Vitamin Sea - Vitamin Sea - Tag 13: Sternenhimmel, Seegrasfelder, und ein Fang des Tages, Samstag, der 02. Dezember 2023
05/12/2023

Hot Stuff - 14:45.27N 53:05.14W

Marching on! We have around 500 or so miles to go and after a squall hit last night we continued still managing over our 7 knot target with a reef in. It was tiring but made good progress. We have seen the buoys marked on the chart for Mid and West Atlantic but there is some debate as to whether these actually exist. That is one of the first google searches we need to try to see as we cant have been to far from their positions.We also considered last night in a slight sleep deprived stated Sir Francis Drake and his quest  sailing the Atlantic discovering potatoes! We have a bag on board yet to be cooked so its almost as if we are merely transporting some potatoes to their original point of origin or at least somewhat closer to home!Odd. read more...


04/12/2023

Risque Business - A Truly Grenadan Welcome

11:59.20N 61:45.39W1146 GMT Monday 4th December 2023WE CROSSED THE FINISH LINE!We’ve made it to Grenada 🇬🇩. Risque Business has sailed from Portsmouth, then to Spain and Portugal, out to Madeira and then to Las Palmas in Gran Canaria. That’s where the ARC+ started, with Leg 1 down to Mindelo in Cape Verde and then Leg 2 the 2,200NM across the Atlantic Ocean to Port Louis in Grenada.We’ve had an amazing welcome from the WAGs and the ARC team when we arrived and many whoops and cheers as we manoeuvred Risque Business into her designated berth. Big hugs and kisses all round when they swarmed on board when we were secured. Such a lovely welcome and one I’m sure we’ll all remember for a very long time. The final night went well, although Mark did get a drenching from a passing squall. As we. read more...


Risque Business - A Truly Grenadan Welcome
Risque Business - A Truly Grenadan Welcome
Risque Business - A Truly Grenadan Welcome
Risque Business - A Truly Grenadan Welcome
Risque Business - A Truly Grenadan Welcome
Risque Business - A Truly Grenadan Welcome
05/12/2023

Uno - Day 16: Gisele caught her first mahi mahi!

p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 19.0px '.AppleSystemUIFont'} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 19.0px '.AppleSystemUIFont'; min-height: 24.0px} span.s1 {font-family: 'UICTFontTextStyleBody'; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-size: 19.00px}Monday 4th DecemberSo I said yesterday that we had not seen a squall yet, and then this morning at 715am we saw our first two show up on the radar! Protocol was to wake the captain as we had been sailing all night downwind, gull-winged & need two people to adjust the sails. Rich came up & we made a plan. The main was already reefed (following our conservative, back-of-the-pack sailing tactic ;) ) so we removed the barber hauler and preventer line to change from a downwind setup, reefed the Genoa and got ready. read more...


Uno - Day 16: Gisele caught her first mahi mahi!
Uno - Day 16: Gisele caught her first mahi mahi!
Uno - Day 16: Gisele caught her first mahi mahi!
Uno - Day 16: Gisele caught her first mahi mahi!
Uno - Day 16: Gisele caught her first mahi mahi!
Uno - Day 16: Gisele caught her first mahi mahi!
Uno - Day 16: Gisele caught her first mahi mahi!
Uno - Day 16: Gisele caught her first mahi mahi!
05/12/2023

Wolkenschlößchen - Day 16 - They exist

Today was our squall premiere! After an unpleasant night in which our normal sails were banging most of the time, we pulled up the oxley first thing in the morning. So much better! This also meant, we had to be observant for squalls and today, they actually came! Around midday we were able to avoid the first big one by altering course but only a few minutes later, the next one hit us. When it was 4 miles away, we quickly took the Oxley down and just 5 minutes later winds increased from 15 knots to 26 knots within seconds! But after a bit of rain (sadly not enough to clean the boat) all was back to normal again. Good for us though to gain some experience with these things. We had a second small one later the day but now starting into the night, all looks gentile again. We still took. read more...


Wolkenschlößchen - Day 16 - They exist
Wolkenschlößchen - Day 16 - They exist
04/12/2023

Asante - Day 16 of the never ending poem

Exhaustion is taking over.Sleep is had by few.Some have been feeling nauseous so their watches they cannot do.The swell is getting greater.Strong winds are on the way.Hopefully only two more nights.Then I’ll sleep both night and day.I’ve had to play the medic, and not just for one time.As people tire they trip and fall.The result they don’t look fine.One person has a black eye, another cut his leg.Everyone’s got bruises.We just want in they beg. December is now with us.So we have on board today.A little advent calendar.And with it a game we play.Each night the crew is questioned, about one part of the boat.The first to get the answer, gets the chocolate down his throat.Last nights question which I gave, was how many winches / that’s a feat.Not one person got it right.So the skipper had. read more...


04/12/2023

TAHIRA ARC BLOG D-Day 15 [04-Dec-23]

TAHIRA ARC BLOGD-Day 15 [04-Dec-23]Location: Mid-AtlanticLat 13.48N: Long: 45.17W Meet the crew: Chris 'Stotty' Stott - our Skipper How would you describe yourself in one sentence?- Chris is a fair, principled and self-confident person.What is your first favourite piece of music and why? - 'Comfortably Numb' by Pink Floyd; a heady mixture of mixture, harmonies and the best guitar solo to finish off. It takes him back to his school days which were a lot of fun, friends and challenges. What is your greatest achievement in live to-date?- For Chris, being part of a happy family and successful family.But he has also enjoyed everything he has attempted in his varied life - from School at Pangbourne to serving with the Army and a portfolio career in business.He has never been bored.What sailing. read more...


04/12/2023

Saida - Saida day 14 & 15

Cleaning before sunset. read more...


Saida - Saida day 14 & 15
Saida - Saida day 14 & 15
Saida - Saida day 14 & 15
Saida - Saida day 14 & 15
04/12/2023

Saida - Saida day 14 & 15

Great sailing day on Saturday but winds varied up to 40 degrees from their forecast, which was not in our favor, forcing us off a direct heading to the finish line. In addition, on Sunday, a Squall took us by surprise, cracking the bow sprit. This means for the remaining 2 days, we can't use our gennaker. Other than that, all good. Still enough food and the cooks deserve the first Michelin Star ever given to a sailing yacht!. read more...


04/12/2023

Pure Fun - ARC 2023 - 3-2-1 vorbei, bald

3 - 2 - 1 - vorbei, baldwir nähern uns Saint Lucia. Es wird gefühlt jeden Tag wärmer. Der Wind kommt aus einer nicht 100% passenden Richtung für uns. Wir müssen zu „hoch“ fahren. Kompasskurs 300-310°, sonst fällt die Genua ein. Wir vermissen unseren gelben Engel…den Gennaker. Leider liegt er zerrissen in der Segellast. . Leider fehlt uns gerade die perfekte Besegelung, das frustriert uns schon ein bisschen….da wir nichts ändern können, üben wir uns wie gewohnt im „annehmen“ und das Beste draus machen. Vor Sonnenuntergang wechseln wir wahrscheinlich auf das Segel das mit „P“ beginnt und „r“ endet und nicht bei Allen unserer Crew beliebt ist. “Ohne Großsegel ist ein Segelboot kein richtiges Segelboot“ habe ich die Tage mal aufgeschnappt. Ich mag den Parasailor. Er segelte uns bisher immer. read more...


04/12/2023

Adina - Day 16 Seaweed, sunshine and success

Adina and her merry crew are now less than 1000 miles from St Lucia. In recognition of this special moment, the Week 3 snack tin was opened to rapturous applause.We continue to head west, in bright sunshine and with increasing wind which Adina appears to enjoy and justifies the skipper’s decision to head so far south. He is also the one who loves to roll.Yesterday we covered 146 miles and we hope today to be able to break the 150 mile mark. We had a neighbour appear on AIS- the first time for three days - and highlights the vastness of this place.Our deck inspections have identified nothing serious, except requiring the removal of deceased flying fish.For the fourth day we have had to plow through increasing lines of seaweed - olvreus seeweedicus (paininthearseus) and as a result had to. read more...


04/12/2023

Freedom - Blog 16 Monday 4th December 2023

Editor: CJGood Day to you All.Firstly, thank you for all your messages, good wishes and encouragement (faithfully conveyed by Dave), which are much appreciated by all the Crew. We are especially amused by those of you who join in the spirit of the adventure and even enter ‘crew banter’. Apparently, some are vicariously, fully, living the voyage by dressing in their Sowesters for dinner whilst enjoying the blog (no names but thank you Charles and Sue Russell Smith for your enthusiasm!).Sailing progress is good and the ‘trades’ seem to be well established for the rest of our journey. They have been blowing 16/20 knots from the WSW for the last 48hrs and during the last 24 the squalls seem to have died away. It is sunny and warm with high cloud and a few lower puffy white clouds skiding by. read more...


04/12/2023

Hot Stuff - 14:29.92N 50:24.51W

We saw another boat!!! Last night we saw and passed another yacht! There must be loads around us but we can generally only see the at night from their mast head lights. The updates from friends and family from home give us an idea of who might be near by but we cant get anything on AIS at all from the plotter so its generally guess work. We will see when we get in if we are transmitting although we think we are?!!Back under kite today at first light. Darren has def got some more things signed off his dinghy level 3. He can now hove too and sail a 40 foot yacht backwards in the dark. I am not sure many of can do that well! Also he still holds the speed record so it might just be he is showboating now!We are looking at around 3 days at the moment to finish as far as we can tell but we will. read more...


04/12/2023

Wolkenschlößchen - Day 15 - The stars

The moon is getting less each day and also it only comes up around midnight. Good nights for us to see this abundance of stars all around us. Being so far off civilization, there is practically no light distortion and it really makes the difference.  We are enjoying comfortable sailing although wind is expected to pick up during the night. Thus we took down our oxley and give our normal sails another chance. Better safe than sorry. In the absence of fish, we made our first curry today. With all those vegetables that we are still having, it was delicious none the less. We were really worried about the food amount that we stocked-up. Now that we are getting close, it is safe to say that we have too much food. Luckily, there is a charity on Saint Lucia where we can pass it on. read more...


11/06/2022

Arkyla - 11 Jun 22: Ready to go

The time is nearly upon us for the start.  Over the last few days skipper James has been eyeing up the weather, racer-boy Rich has been eyeing up the opposition, charmer Mark has been eying up the totty, and motorboater Mike has mostly been eyeing up the chocolate rations!  A quiet evening is planned for tonight after yesterday’s day sail around the Hoe and impromptu attempt to drink Jolly Jacks dry after the Rally welcome dinner; we will be as fresh for the Biscay leg as our combined 227 years of creaking bones will allow… James Kenning . read more...


Wolkenschlößchen - Day 15 - The stars
Wolkenschlößchen - Day 15 - The stars
Loreley - Barbara at the rudder getting closer to St. Lucia. 210 nm to go!
Loreley - Barbara at the rudder getting closer to St. Lucia. 210 nm to go!
JaZoFi - day 15 Sunrise
JaZoFi - day 15 Sunrise
04/12/2023

Uno - Day 15: Yellow Fin, Mahi mahi & a Pizza night

Sunday 3rd DecemberToday was a lovely sunny day; super hot weather. We realised our auto pilot issue is not quite fixed after we lost rudder sensors and auto pilot again on my nightshift. I was able to hand steer while Rich reset it & it came back up. We still have some work to do to fix that problem. Gisele & I made pizza dough and prepped 4 pizzas for dinner. We caught another yellowfin tuna on the rod and at the exact same time the hand line caught a mahi-mahi, so the excitement was on as we tried to bring in both fish. Unfortunately, the mahi got away and Gisele was so disappointed because it was on her line. But we did bring in the yellowfin tuna, and a few hours after that we brought in our biggest mahi-mahi ever. So we are fully stocked up with the fish again in case we. read more...


Uno - Day 15: Yellow Fin, Mahi mahi & a Pizza night
Uno - Day 15: Yellow Fin, Mahi mahi & a Pizza night
Uno - Day 15: Yellow Fin, Mahi mahi & a Pizza night
Uno - Day 15: Yellow Fin, Mahi mahi & a Pizza night
04/12/2023

Asante - Day 15 of the never ending poem

Day 15 sees us all recover, from the longest night so far.The weather that had protected us, had given us all a shower.For through the night, the squalls had come.And lightening with them too.The wind howled through the rigging.And the skies had flashed bright blue. Now when I say a shower.I don’t mean a drop or two of rain.But a bucket load of water, thrown time and time again.Last time we did the crossing, back in 2021, the squalls they were relentless.So I knew they were no fun.Our guests had only heard of squalls.Never felt them out in force.And pretty soon the novelty had run and run its course.700 miles is all that’s left.We continue counting down.I’m dreaming of rum cocktails, at my favourite bar in town.. read more...


03/12/2023

Risque Business - The Final Night

12:1.36N 60:35.47W2230 GMT Sunday 3rd Dec 23Dusk has just fallen on out last night of the ARC+ Atlantic crossing. We’ve got 75NM to go to the finish line off St George’s, the capital of Grenada. We’ve just furled our large Gennaker, as there seems to be a fair amount of squall activity around us, so to prevent damage by sudden wind strength and direction changes, so we’re doing 6 to 7 kts SOG, so about 10 to 12 hours depending on the wind tonight.The WAGs and shore crew, patiently waiting for us on Grenada are getting excited now, as are the crew whose partners are there are. Poor DB and Mark’s wives had other commitments that prevented them from meeting them, so they are planning to check out the Grenada Yacht Club, then several rum shacks no doubt.The fishing department had a good 24. read more...


Risque Business - The Final Night
Risque Business - The Final Night
Risque Business - The Final Night
Risque Business - The Final Night
Risque Business - The Final Night
Risque Business - The Final Night
Risque Business - The Final Night
Risque Business - The Final Night
03/12/2023

Champagne Hippy - Day 13/14 - 2nd/3rd December

After days of very little happening with Rodney (apart from the endless sargassum weed, yesterday early in the day finally some action! Josh caught a small tuna (most exciting) however, it was too small for us to keep so back into the wild it went. Apart from that yesterday went by with very little else to comment on and was a fairly uneventful day. We have all commented in the last few days how the days are all blurring into one.  Today however has been full of activity! Rodney went off at speed and it was my turn to reel something in. After a small battle, I pulled in yet another decent-sized Wahoo! Josh guided me through filleting it and we’re all looking forward to cooking it up when we get to St Lucia (now only a day away fingers crossed!!).  We had a few green. read more...


03/12/2023

Blue Pepper - Day 15, 3/12

The last couple of days have been rather more eventful - after the skipper ruminated that ‘it would be nice to experience a proper Atlantic squall’, the weather gods immediately obliged with a procession of them. We all got soaked, the boat got a great wash down and for a short time it all felt a bit like being in the English Channel, except a lot warmer!A few shackles and ropes got found out and there have been a lot more sail changes and a few trips to a wet, pitching foredeck - but Blue Pepper has carried us through marvellously. Today was back to sunshine and fast sailing under the spinnaker. It’s beginning to feel that we are closing in on the end of this voyage - we are now less than 700m from St Lucia and clipping along at 8 knots most of the time. The crew, still in great form,. read more...


03/12/2023

Adrienne - Delfine und 1. Advent

Blog Adrienne 3.12.2023Erster Advent auf SeeBlogschreiber Bernd und MarkGestartet wurde in diesen besonderen Tag mit einem ausgiebigen Brunch. Eiersoufflé, verschiedene Schinken-, Salami- und Käsesorten, Oliven, frisches Brot, Lebkuchen, Stollen und weitere Köstlichkeiten führten zu einer überdurchschnittlich langen Mahlzeit bis zum Mittagsläuten. Die Tafel zierte ein seemännischer Adventskranz, hergestellt aus beschwerter grüner Leine, die erste Kerze brannte. Dazu erklangen karibisch inspirierte Weihnachtslieder aus österreichischer Produktion aus der Bluetoothbox, das Ganze bei 28-30 Grad Aussentemperatur (unter Deck mehr…).Seglerisch knackten wir in der letzten Nacht die 1000 Seemeilen-Grenze (0217 UTC). Die Nacht war in der ersten Hälfte ziemlich beschwerlich, da der Wind bis auf 8. read more...



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