Daily Logs

Agua Dulce - Log Day 14 – Not much to report

Today was pretty much a repeat of the last few days. Winds the same. Swells the same. Some squalls, but not many. It’s too cloudy to stargaze tonight. The biggest news of the day is that we passed the 1000NM to go mark. We’ll be watching each hundred miles we shave off with great anticipation now. If the winds continue to be consistent, we hope to arrive by Friday night. We’re doing lots of reading and playing cards. We have no idea what is happening in our world right now, except for on this small part of the ocean that we are moving across.More tomorrow.. read more...

Idefix - Idefix update day 14

Very busy day today:First a huge squall was on approach this morning, we got prepared and were waiting for it, but it passed us really close - maybe 100m or so. We could see the water surface with the rain and the large cloud above, but we didnt get hit. Pretty impressive. Then crew pressure this morning to hoist the code0 as the shy has cleared and wind was down. Ok, code0 on. We were very fast. Caught a fish, but not surprisingly with the speed above 9, it was too hard too bring it back and we lost it. Shortly after, another one. This time we managed to bring the Mahi-mahi back on board. Just before lunch, perfect timing, and went straight to the plates! sky darkened after lunch and while it didnt look like a bad squeal, we brought back the code0... for only a little while.. read more...

Sally - Day after day over an ocean

On my watch last night, the moon was very bright and it gave shadows in the cockpit. When a squall was closing in from behind the boat, it looked as if there was a moon rain bow in the squall. When in Saint Lucia I will check if its possible.Today was a squally day with a squall each hour or so and we have used the radar to try to see how intense they are and which track they will take. We got some rain and a lot of wind in some of them, 35.9 knots of wind and 12.6 knots of speed in a surf. It’s a great feeling when the wind and a wave pushes Sally forward.We have tried reaching (wind from behind but from either side) to reduce the rolls and sail flapping. It works good but the speed did not increase to cover for the longer distance we sail. Today Carina decided that we must be in Saint. read more...

Salamander

Hello Salamander Nation,Today saw two important milestones: we now have under 1,000 miles to our St Lucia finish line and a crew member had a memorable celebration at sea. While our steady progress is heartening, as always it's the interactions between crew members that make our voyage such a standout experience. As lunch was wrapping up, it leaked that Timwas celebrating a birthday. His wife Meg had thoughtfully tucked a card inside his seabag, which caught the attention of those nearby as he was reading it.Shortly thereafter Captain Chris summoned everyone to the salon for a crew meeting. However, instead of providing the expected weather report, he surprised one and all by kicking off a rousing rendition of "Happy Birthday". As the song concluded Greg presented a fresh from the oven. read more...

Skyelark of London - Talk of land - nb

NB! The hardest part is missing my wifeBirgith... Peter. read more...

Skyelark of London - Talk of land

  We definitely know how to deal with squalls by now. Lastnight was really a wet tropical one with long showers. So wet, that when Istarted my watch at 3 AM, my sailing clothes was still wet from the last watch,6 hours earlier. Luckily the sky was clear and with a fabulous sky full ofstars. We had the opportunity to follow the Big Dipper rotate counter clockwisearound the North Star. We are getting closer to the end of our adventure, andthe talk has started about how to celebrate, when we get to St. Lucia. The firstbeer in the bar, a hamburger, a hot shower and a bed that does not rock all thetime etc. etc. At the same time remembering to enjoy every moment till we getthere.   m_DSC_0372. read more...

Meltemi - morgendliche Mülltrennung und -verdichtung bei 25kn Wind und 3m Welle

--DSCN8079S. read more...

Amadeus - Amadeus blog dec 7.

Two days ago we jibed (or how to spell) finally and now we can sail towards Santa Lucia. Two boring days. Sunshine, very steady wind (18–22kn with some gusts after sunset) ,surfing down the waves, cold beer or white wine.New downhill surfing Personal Bests in the 16-17 kn range, but no one could overtake Blanka. Shorter and shorter distance to go, we can nearly see the finish line. Just in time, we run out of wine. All other food seems to be ok, both in quality and quantity. Maybe we have just a little bit more pasta than absolutely necessary. Thinking about opening pasta shop in Santa Lucia. By the way yesterday we had duck confit with baked potato. Delicious.We saw a big flock of dolphins and a huge see animal. We all believe it was a killer whale, but no clue if they live here, too.. read more...

Zaurak - Zaurak's Bimbling Blog

Zaurak's Bimbling BlogSaturday 7th December 2019We are now at the end of our second week at sea. Family members Yael, Maia, baby Noa, Mike, Char and baby Toby are flying out to St Lucia today, leaving two weeks after us and arriving roughly a week before. This direct comparison reminds us that we are not on this journey for efficiency, and, despite the skipper's claims, we are rejecting the notion that we are sailing to the Caribbean for environmental reasons, based on the number of periphery flights that were required to put this trip together. That said, why are we doing this?Skipper Richard: it's my dream. If you are a cruising sailor, sailing the Atlantic in your own boat is the dream. Claire: someone's got to look after Dad [skipper Richard]. Alice: a chance to decide if I like. read more...

Hatha Maris - Hatha Maris day 12 6/12/2019

Hatha Maris day 12 6/12/2019Thank you X-BionicA very comfortable fit. Keeps me warm during damp evening watches as well as cool in the midday sun.Thanks so much Xbionic for the sponsorship.I will be certain to spread the word in Canada.Tara Law, crewmate from Toronto CanadaThank you very much Xbionic for sponsoring us our fastdry extremely comfortable crew shirts. They fit like a second skin and regulate our body temperature. I like also the underwear, especially the boxer shorts, very convenient for sports women.Corinne Wirth, first mate from SwitzerlandMy recent boss does a lot outdoor sports in the mountains. He’s allready addicted to Xbionic clothing and was telling me how good it works. So I wanted to buy some of my own. Thanks to your generous sponsorships I have now my first shirt. read more...

Montana - Log 4

Day 12, Life is good on the ocean, Montana is sailing well and the Crew does the same. With the empty 8L Water bottles we invented a separation system for the garbage. Big advantage no ugly smell. Crew is already making plans for Rodney Bay.Day 13, Had a rough night, dealing with the first squalls which hit us. Was around 30Kn of Wind. We rolled in the Genoa a bit, so we could handle the situation safely. The night was followed by a bright sunny morning and a good breeze.Markus, Montana--. read more...

Jua Kali - The Jua Kali Report - Day 13

Rain rain go away, and don't come back! Day 13 has without a doubt been the wettest day so far for Jua Kali.Multiple squalls came through overnight bringing all of the wind and rain they could muster. Some were avoided but most we decided to take and stay on course.These continued well into the morning and although the rain has now stopped it is still pretty windy!Unfortunately overall these probably slowed us down significantly for the past 24 hours, hopefully the competition had similar conditions otherwise we may have lost out a lot.Still, life goes on. Everyone is happy watching the miles tick down, about 700 to go now! Talk is beginning about what everyone wants to eat first once on land, a conversation that is sure to continue for the next few days until we arrive.Quote from the. read more...

Challenger 1 - Crew blog Challenger 1 6/12/19

Well today started quiet well,breaking the 1000nm mark. After that we all went an complete our different duties. But my main duty is sleeping on deck which I feel sometimes has the most work. After my power nap woke up to seeing the first mate (Sam) climbing  up the mast (96ft) which was quiet scary. A little later after that we had some hotdogs for lunch which was prepared by two of my mates ( Hugo & Adonai) Which tasted great. But no one on the boat can beat Mr Jason's (NEIL) local dishes on the trip as yet. He makes some excellent dishes with fish, and I am someone who doesn’t eat fish at all. But so far so good we all cant wait to get into port in st.lucia. 976nm to go see u guys soon.Flood - blue watch . read more...

Take Off - Our first squall

Although the full moon lit our way so gently last night was quite unsmoothdue to wind changes all the time. We suspected several squalls so the spinnakerwent up and down all night in prevention. However we seemed everytime to “miss”them. This morning was a grey morning, no sunrise from the sea and heavy cloudsahead of us. However the heavy clouds were all along the horizon so we thoughtit was just normal rain. We sailed through it, got a bit wet, the wind wassteady and we thought this was smooth. The wind started to blow stronger and wasup to 30 knots when it then dropped gently down to 17 knots. And from nowhere astrong wind hit the boat, Jörgen stearing had difficulties in answering the windand the broach was inevitable. And then came the real rain – just like pouringhundreds of. read more...

Challenger 1 - TS Crew blog Challenger 1 6/12/19

06/12/19 Some good team work over the last few watches including rigging the port spinnaker pole ready for the other watch to gybe and this morning when we had an issue with the staysail. The clew became disconnected and swift action meant the sail was lowered reconnected and returned within 5 minutes. Good job team. Then we arrive at the roundabout, apparently rain causes team members to disappear down the companion way faster than if dinner was ready, fortunately I was able to keep enough on deck to ensure we could react to an issue. After the squall passed I found most of them asleep in the saloon, the birthday party today seems to have taken its toll! The team spirit to celebrate Michele 25th birthday was nice to see and the whole crew coming together and enjoying each other’s. read more...

Celtic Star - Blog 13 Day 13 7th December

Assault by flying fish!So there we were, Alan and I sailing along, I was helming making a steady 7-8knots, occasionally surfing down the bigger waves, in compete darkness with a fabulous array of stars over our heads, regular shooting stars splitting the night.Then OUCH, at first I thought that someone had punched me HARD in the arm, I almost let go of the steering wheel, then I realised I been hit by a fish.A flying fish.About 6 inches long, not massive, but judging by how much it hurt (surprisingly painful) it must have been doing about 30 miles an hour when the impact occurred.Really glad it wasn't in the face this time.I saved the fish to use as bait for my fishing line, not a lot of success with that (the fishing that is). Started by catching a good size (enough to feed 6) Dorado,. read more...

Umiko - Friday the 6 th of December day 13

Hey Umiko Fans here is todays blog from teddy!UMIKO BLOG Friday 6th DecemberSV Umiko reporting with little over 24 hours to go. As I write we have 250 miles on our Distance to Destination. The mood is very good on board, we celebrated Barry’s birthday yesterday the day after he was injured in a crash Gybe and Chris our cook made crepes with a candle on top, we all gathered in his ‘ward’ to sing him a Happy Birthday! He made it up on deck today so things are looking up. Never a dull moment when Ocean sailing as today we realised the hydraulics on our backstay are not operational so basically we can’t tighten the backstay which puts the rig at risk. We ran a Halyard to a strop from two fixed points on the stern which seems to given it the stability required.We are running under our A4 kite. read more...

Next Step - Friday 6th December 2019

We woke up to big seas and winds gusting over 25 knots mixed with the occasional squally showers, exciting sailing. On the whole Dobby has been coping well with the conditions, only occasionally needing input from the crew to get back on track. Everything on board is getting a little damp with salt water from wet clothing etc. Throughout the morning and early afternoon we continued to get squalls coming over one after the other. At one point before the crew had an opportunity to reef the genoa we did get up to a dangerously fast speed. Jeremy made some delicious wraps for lunch using the remains of the fish we caught yesterday. In the late afternoon it looked like we would get a reprieve from the weather, but I am not too certain...! In the evening we decided that because we had a big. read more...

Idefix - update day 13

Wow, at the time the first two catamarans have reached saint Lucy, we still have 1000 miles left!Today the swell was pretty rough and the wind kept moving around 90degree, making for an interesting ride... so eventually we decided to take the second reef. May slow us down a little, but the night will be more comfortable and the crew needs it. Always interesting to see how one activity - fishing, cooking or reefing takes almost half a day!! We tried to reef downwind as it worked for the first reef but this time it was too much and we had to turn around. Also had to re-do the boom preventer and adjust the Genoa sheet.All seems in order now!Good food for lunch and dinner as usual, but no movie night with popcorn today!Not much for the day , one week to go!c.. read more...

Oyster Moon - final update from oyster moon

Day 15:  Thursday 5th December – Not long nowThere was a bit of excitement in the early hours of this morning as Joe watched a fast catamaran come zooming past us at a rate of over 20 knots.  We can only assume it was one of the front runners of the main ARC race.Everybody was feeling very hot and tired today and we had a quiet morning. A quick satellite phone call with the Halls in the afternoon and bangers, mash and baked beans for tea cheered us up no end. Day 16:  Friday 6th December – A day for reflectionI am writing this entry at 1 a.m. as I come off my last night watch of our Atlantic passage.  We have approximately 75 miles to go until the finish line.  I should really be crawling into my bed but am conscious that there will be much. read more...

Zaurak - Zaurak's Bimbling Blog

Zaurak's Bimbling BlogFriday 6th December 2019Squalls Last night we experienced gifts from the sea gods of the northeast. On the horizon behind the boat formed dark low clouds, which gradually moved in on the boat's stern quarters, bringing with it force six winds and buckets of rain. The rain trailed off, the wind stabilised and the stars began to reappear one by one as the clouds departed. Within an hour, on the horizon behind the boat formed dark low clouds which gradually moved in on the boat's stern quarters, bringing with it force six and, in one case, force 7, and boat loads of rain. And so on and so forth until about 9am. The rest of the day was glorious sunshine and gave us time to reflect, on a side note from squalls, that there is a distinct lack of whale sightings and tuna. read more...

Skyelark of London - Here fishy fishy

Excellent sailing all night last night – beautiful moon light and starsand 20 knot winds pushing us along. Sunrise watch was treated to a visit by a pod of minke whales jumping offthe starboard side and swimming in the waves behind and next to the boat.  Later in the day we were revisited andsaw one whale swimming right next to the boat, which makes Dan and Em quitenervous, especially when the whale decided to dart across our bow.But this wouldn’t be our only fishy adventuretoday.  We als have the classic bigone that got away story.  We had astrike on the fishing rod rigged with Peter’s “Terminator” lure.  Two nibbles, then it took the line andran with almost all of it. Increasing the drag just caused the 80 lb test line to snap.  Right after that the. read more...

Agua Dulce - Log Day 13 – Star Gazing and More Bruising

I really enjoy star gazing during my night watches, and since my watches are six hours apart, I get to see different constellations and how they move across the sky.So far, I have identified Orion – my constant companion, the Southern Cross, Taurus, Gemini, Ursa Major (the Big Dipper) and Ursa Minor (the Little Dipper), Polaris (north star), Sirius (brightest star in the night sky), and my new personal favorite, Pleiades. I saw a fuzzy group of stars in my peripheral vision and looked at them through the binoculars to see a clear group of stars. My Star Walk app helped me identify these as Pleiades or the Seven Sisters. I love the description from Star Walk – a group of seven hot middle-aged B-stars. Sounds like a description for a bad reality TV show about aging Hollywood female. read more...

Salamander - Day 13 weather and high speeds

Day 13 weather and high speedsLast evening we experienced some challenging weather. Soon after Kay and Kevin started their 10 p.m. shift, Chris spotted a dark cloud upwind from Salamander. As the cloud overtook us, winds rose to the high 20s. Gusts reached the low 30s, creating an eerie vibration in the rigging and making navigation more difficult.The stronger winds were accompanied by heavy rain, eliminating visibility.It was amazing to see how quickly the weather could turn. --Transmitted by Kevin Malone using YB Connect (www.ybtracking.com). read more...

Meltemi - 13. Tag: Bordbuch der Meltemi, ...

Moinsen, wenn wir heute mal so norddeutsch salopp daherkommen dürfen. Heute also unser 13. Tag der Atlantik-Querung, ein Freitag. Bisher hat er kein Unglück gebracht. Ist ja auch Nikolaus. Und - große Freude - der gleiche Koffer, der uns schon den Adventssonntagetannenbaum beschert hatte, spuckte nun einen Kranz Schokoladenweihnachtsmänner aus. Diese wurden freudig begrüßt, fielen dann jedoch einer krassen Kannibalisierung zum Opfer.Ansonsten - wird langsam eng für den Chronisten. Dem Klabautermann ist offensichtlich zu warm geworden für seine fiesen Streiche. Nichts geht mehr kaputt (naja, bis auf einen Verschluß an einem Schapp in der Kombüse. Aber es ist das Topf-Schapp, und ein bißchen Blechmusik zur Welle kann ja nicht schaden.), und keine weiteren arbeitstiftenden Vorkommnisse.. read more...

Summerwinds of Cuan - It's not all beer & skittles out here you know!

Last night was one of squalls, big seas and strong winds. Fortunately all was from behind, but we would just get the boat set up, running lovely with her two poled out headsails. No sooner would the sky darken hiding the light from the moon, the wind speed increase quite dramatically as the rainy squall passed through. It was exhilarating in a scary sort of way.The seas were running behind at around 3 meters but higher at times. As the wind started to increase, so would the boat's speed. Looking back at the following seas the blackness of the water blanked out the milky horizon until it was much higher than that of the boat. The foaming wave crests could be seen and heard as they grew closer to the stern. The transom then lifted as if to let the wave pass underneath as Summerwinds. read more...

Cross Ocean - Cross Ocean, 6/12 - squall

Log 6 - last three days we have had several squalls every day. This one at least brought a rainbow with it! Best regards Malin and Kaj, Cross Ocean, NR 207 image1. read more...

Hello World - 900 nm to go!

Suddenly the sun comes up and then it goes down again. Each day goes faster and faster - looks like we will get land under or feets faster then we ever could imagine! The last couple of days have been rough. Waves are getting bigger, wind is getting stronger, the squalls bigger than the last one and crew is getting tired. Håkon and Eskil was behind the wheels all night steering like pros while having the light from the moon. The autopilot is having a hard time keeping up with the huge waves coming from all kind of directions. Right now I sit on the cockpit floor looking at the wall of sea hitting behind us while listening on some christmas music. It kinda makes the waves a bit nicer together with som tones of christmas. Somehow, spotify managed to delete most of my music 2 hours after. read more...

Hello World - 900 nm to go! (pictures)

Picturesimage3 image4 image5 image6 image1 image2. read more...

Scarlet Oyster - Ross Update

Hi All!,Lot been going on here, been some challenging sailing with some very unstable winds at times.we have had anything from 8kn to 40kn, in any direction from NNE to SE, the unstable nature of this wind makes sail selection a headache, we can only sensibly fly spinnakers upto 27kn, we have a hard limit onboard that as soon as we see 30kn, the spinnaker comes down, bravado of sailing in more with a spinnaker may seem to have rewards, but the potential risks become too great, also in 25kn plus we can sail with poled out jib and still make very acceptable speeds.The trick the wind seems to have is to peak at just over 30, so we drop the kite then within 1 or 2 mins drop to 20kn, we have to tie the spinnaker in bio degradable natural wool for each hoist to ensure no twists or other. read more...