Golondrina - It's all over..

So here we are having arrived in the Caribbean actually standing on something solid.Even when arriving late in the evening the St Lucian tourist board play a massive welcome to every crew with baskets of fruit and bottles of rum.It's now time for sitting down, sleeping, relaxing, sleeping, drinking, sleeping, more drinking, sleeping....Yes I know Stuarts wearing a garland... It was a pressie from his girls ...Once again a massive thanks for all the messages of support.The crew.image.. read more...

Golondrina - Arrived safe and well

At 2100 Hours (local time), 0100GMT, Golondrina crossed the finishing line in the entrance to Rodney Bay, St Lucia marking the end of their Atlantic Ocean crossing.After 21 days at sea covering 3128 Miles the crew are pleased to say they are all safe and well. Please look again later for arrival photographs however at this very moment there's cold beers with Gareth, Dave, Mark, Owain and Stu's name on it.....Tonights thanks go to 'Cuthbert' and the Iron spinneaker .. Enjoy the rest boys.. read more...

Golondrina - The last 99 miles

As 0700 (local time) arrived with the sunrise ... 11 am GMT (UK time), trip shows 99 miles to go.Pressing on with all speed.Golondrina. read more...

Golondrina - The blogger identified !

It may only be a day to go and you would think nothing else new could occur however, once again the 'dudes' have been surfing and just to make it a bit more extreme they did it at 2am, that's right, in the pitch dark.First up was 'Rodeo' Dave and the Owain 'kid' ..So here's how it's done, you sit and wait for a big black angry cloud, wait for the first spots of rain, indicating a squall, and then haul on the sails and grip on ... Now, bearing in mind Golondrina is a cursing vessel and is designed to cruise at 7 knots, when the gauge shows 16 knots things are going to shake around a bit... Including Gareth ! Anyhow, next up Rattie Davis and his 'lovelyness' Mark.. Both adults ( allegedly ) but with a combined mental age only just bordering a teenager - it was never going to be simple .... read more...

Golondrina - The Golondria saga continues

Apparently there have been complaints that the blog and sailing information is not serious enough and bordering on being flippant .. Perish the thought.So, let's try a different angle.Now hear this, now hear this.Since 08.12.13 the COG has been altered +1 degree T which has reduced our waypoint range to >600nm and our ETA to >76hr (approx 1030 GMT/UTC 14.12.13).Due to the true wind, which isF5, veering from 010T to 090T our AWS has obviously moved to ENE which has enabled us to sail slightly more abeam, to a reach, and thus reduce our XTE onto our waypoint bearing of 273T.Our SOG has increased to an AVG of 7.5 knts due to our preferential POS So there we are, it's all LOB especially if you don't get TLA's (LMCAO).And for the remainder of you out there (especially the Blue Arrow. read more...