Daily Logs

Trompeta - Grenada Anchorages

We have had a fantastic time exploring the anchorages on the south coast of Grenada starting with St Davids Harbour which is where Grenada Marine are based and where we intend to store the boat for the hurricane season. St Davids is a delightful pretty quiet anchorage where we both had a good sleep. There is a bar and restaurant at Grenada Marine which serves cheap tasty food so you do not have to go far to eat out. Next we went around to Le Phare Bleu where we saw Mr Blues on the dock who was trying to get his repaired rudder put back on the boat. It seems the diver ran out of air and they lost the daylight so he was having another diver to help the following day. They have managed to get going now and have left Grenada.  Le Phare Bleu is again another pretty Marina with. 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...

Matilda - Union Island, Carriacou and Grenada for the Meet Up

Its an unforgivable gap since the last blog, but a combination of not the best of internet connections and meeting back up with the fleet has meant it got rather forgotten. So, to continue our story.... After Saltwhistle Bay we checked out of the Grenadines in Union Island. As we were coming in we heard some familiar voices over the VHF, At Last and Dreamcatcher were leaving just as we were coming in. What a shame to miss them.Union Island is a funny little place, it even has a restaurant on an island in the bay made up of a huge pile of discarded conch shells (a delicacy here). As it was a Sunday we waited until Monday to check in, so we had a very pleasant evening at the Anchorage YC watching the nursing sharks they have in their pond at the front. As per usual the checking in/out. 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...

Anastasia - Brazil to Grenada - The last day

12:02N 61:44W Having passed Tobago the wind started to veer to the east, forcing us to head slightly north to maintain an optimum wind angle.  Eventually we reached the decision point – turn south and head for Grenada or end up in St Lucia.  Turning south exposed the full deficiencies of our reefed mainsail and we had no option but to switch to the asymmetric spinnaker.  This gave us a speed almost identical to Gunvor and we both crossed the final 80 miles to Grenada on gradually converging paths.  We arrived at the southern tip of Grenada with Anastasia just 0.8 miles behind Gunvor.  At this point we had to round the corner and turn up into the wind.  With a full mainsail it might have remained close, but it was game over for a catamaran with two reefs. read more...

Anastasia - Brazil to Grenada - Day 6

10:46N 059:03W  1530 miles covered, 180 to go We are nearly there now, we can almost smell the rum.  Our first sight of land will be Tobago which is 90 miles away, although we will pass it at about 3 am so all we will see are the lights.  We should get some acceleration around the northern tip because the north equatorial current flows quite strongly past Tobago. The wind has remained favourable and, apart from a few hours this morning, it has been blowing from the northeast at 16 to 18 knots.  That means we have the wind coming from 10 degrees behind the beam, which it just so happens is also Anastasia’s ideal wind angle.  So far we are just managing to keep pace with Gunvor, who are now in sight, three miles ahead of us. We had an interesting. read more...

Anastasia - Brazil to Grenada - Day 5

08:31N 055:52W  1304 miles covered, 412 to go Another day, another 263 miles.  533 miles in two days.  We are out of the strong current (it is about 1 knot now) so the remainder of the trip will be slower, but we should still get in before sunset on Friday, all being well.  We now need to average 8.5 knots to get in at 18:00 Grenada time. The wind has been very kind, both in strength and angle, and we are still quite close to Gunvor.   I had a chat with Karsten over VHF this evening, so we are within about 20 miles of them.  We exchanged positions and I calculate they are about 5 miles closer to the finish line.  We have agreed that the first person to arrive will buy drinks for the other boat, so at least we will get free drinks on. read more...

Anastasia - Brazil to Grenada - Day 4 (A new personal best)

06:16N 051:57W  1026 miles covered, 680 miles to go The wind direction is perfect for Anastasia, and with the current reaching 3 knots at times we are flying along, despite having a heavily reefed mainsail.  We generally consider 200 miles is a good distance to cover in one day but today we travelled 270 miles in 24 hours, averaging 11.25 knots, which is a new record for us. We hooked a Dorado, but at 12 knots there was just too much strain on the line and it got away before we could slow down and reel it in.  We passed the half way point last night and Andrea baked chocolate brownies to celebrate.  . read more...

Anastasia - Brazil to Grenada - Day 3 (Ripped mainsail)

03:04N 047:16W  680 miles covered Today’s sad news is of the demise of our mainsail.  Last night the wind died away and veered to the south east, forcing us to turn dead downwind and goosewing the sails.  With the low wind, plus a current from behind, this meant that the mainsail would flog occasionally on the bigger waves.  It seemed quite gentle flogging at the time, but I guess with over a year of continual use the mainsail was in no condition to take the punishment and it ripped just below the second reefing point.   The good news is that we can still continue reasonably well on reef 2, just a knot or two slower then before.  The bad news obviously that we are out of the race to arrive first (and probably not second either) and also it is. read more...

Anastasia - Brazil to Grenada - Day 2 (The Northern Hemisphere)

01:32N 045:22W  530 miles covered We crossed the equator last night and now we are are back in the Northern Hemisphere, with only about 1200 miles to go to Grenada.  Good wind, good current and we are speeding along at over 11 knots.  Currently my chartplotter is telling me it will take about 4 days and 4 hours to get there, but 6 days is a more realistic estimate.  We only need to average 8.4 knots now to hit our ETA target of 16:00 on the 16th. Andrea baked a cake today, to celebrate the equatorial crossing.  As is customary, we tossed a slice overboard for Neptune.  Unfortunately the SSB radio net was switched back to the 4 megahertz band and so we are already out of range of most of the fleet.  There are some boats with particularly. read more...

Matilda - Mustique, Bequia, Tobago Cays and Saltwhistle Bay

9 MarchThe last night on Mustique was very special. We stayed on for the Sunday night jazz at Basil's, which turned out to be Jan, a very down to earth lady from Yorkshire and her partner, Louis. She had once come to Bequia on holiday, ended up staying and becoming a diving instructor and then landed the job of Social Director for Mustique (what a job!). Jan also played a pretty mean jazz saxophone with Louis on the keyboards. We got to Basil's early and ended up helping them set up after we were really taken with her dog called Stump (due to having not a lot of tail). Stump was a real character she clearly felt she was overseeing operations and I took it as a joke when she was described as the singer with the band. It turned out not to be joke at all because as soon as Jan played the. read more...

Anastasia - Brazil to Grenada - Day 1

00:39S 041:55W  290 miles covered The fleet left Fortaleza at 12:00 yesterday on our final competitive leg of the World ARC.  The wind and current look good for the crossing and we are hoping to complete the 1700 miles in around 8 days.  Finding the areas of good current is crucial for this leg.  It should be possible to find 2 to 3 knots of current at the right distance from the Brazilian coast. The start was quite exciting because the planned committee vessel was unavailable, so Paul an Suzana headed out in an inflatable to do the start.  Their outboard broke down half way out and Paul asked for a volunteer to act as committee vessel, which we did.  We picked them up from the inflatable and got to the start line with 15 minutes to spare, time for. read more...

Anastasia - Fortaleza

3:43.1S 038:31.8W The marina at Fortaleza is med-style, mooring being done stern to the pontoon with the anchor holding you off.  The problem is getting your anchor to hold in the slime.  We tried to lay our anchor twice, dragging it about 80 meters both times, and in the end we ran a shore line across to the seawall instead of using our anchor.  I dived to take a look and the anchor was happily sitting on its side in about two feet of slime, dragging nearer every time we pulled on it.  I guess it is just the wrong type of anchor for slime.  The shore line was obstructing other boats, but the marina staff attached a couple of lumps of iron to it to sink it and now the other boats can come and go just as if it was anchor chain. Today we went on a dune. read more...

Matilda - Farewell Barbados, Hello Bequia, St Vincent and Mustique

The last few days in Barbados were quite interesting. The MacBook developed a problem and the only authorised fixer was on the other side of the island. As we no longer had a hire car we decided to take the local buses. There are 3 kinds of bus in Barbados, the official blue 'Government busses', the yellow private busses and the white private minivan-type busses. All fares going anywhere cost 2 Barbadian dollars (around 1 US). By far my favourite were the private yellow busses as, although they are noisy, the interiors and choice of music reflect the taste of the owners and they will pretty much stop for you and let you off anywhere you want to along the way. The government buses are fine, but a bit staid and officious, and the minivan ones are way too tightly packed for any sane person. read more...

Anastasia - Fernando de Noronha

03:49.2S 032:24.5W Fernando de Noronha is a small island off the coast of Brazil, with a single anchorage that is described as being prone to swell.  We arrived at night and anchored on the outskirts of the main anchorage to wait for morning.  In the morning we found ourselves a sheltered place to anchor inside some big rocks that I thought should block the swell, but we got moved again by the port captain because the swell was predicted to be bad and would come straight over the rocks.  He told us to anchor as far out to sea as we could, so we moved to the centre of the bay and anchored in 21 metres of water. I was a bit nervous about starting the outboard on the tender because it has not been running well on Brazilian petrol and in Recife I had to flip an. read more...

Anastasia - Recife

08:04.8S 034:53.3W The first thing that strikes you as you approach Recife is the huge expanse of high rise buildings.  Not huge buildings, mostly twenty stories or so, but they are not confined to any specific downtown area, spreading along the coast as far as the eye can see in both directions. m_P2242840[1] The harbour has a “rip rap” breakwater across the entrance, which makes it quite a confined space for big ships to manoeuvre.  We waited a little while to let a German navy vessel come out before entering (and Corinne posed for a photo m_P2232902[1]).   Most of the World ARC boats chose to anchor in the harbour outside the first yacht club you come to.  We decided to go up the river to a second yacht club, the Cabanga club, which has pontoon. read more...

Matilda - Beautiful Barbados - Rum and Polo

We arrived safely in Barbados late afternoon on Tuesday 19th after 4 weeks to the day of sailing. We were feeling pretty pleased with ourselves until a few hours later a boat arrived with a group of 6 Brits and New Zealanders who had just ROWED across the Atlantic - certainly put our efforts in the shade. It was great sharing in their celebrations though. There is no mistaking where we are, the best rum punches ever and Rihanna on the radio 24/7.We spent the first night in a temporary berth surrounded by super-yachts, in fact one of them, Salute, had probably the largest mast and boom furler we have ever seen. We were told that the mainsail alone cost half a million US dollars - jeez! If we had arrived a few weeks earlier we would have apparently been parked next to Brangelina's yacht.. read more...

At Last - New Blog Posts

At Last just updated their blog with more on St. Helena, our crossing to Brazil and our time at Carnival. Please visit the site at www.sailingatlast.com.. read more...

Page 7 of 227  5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26