Golden Spirit of Islay - Arrived St. Lucia

We finally arrived on Wednesday 18 December about  04:05hrs.  (08:05 GMT) crossing the finishing line at Rodney Bay, St. Lucia  after sailing for 23 days 4 hours compared with 18 days the last time in 2007. It turned out to be a very different type of crossing, with little or no wind, for the first two weeks.  We also sailed much further South, nearly all the way to The Cape Verde Islands, before turning West. We had some great trade wind sailing in the last 9-10 days.  And now it is Caribbean Party Time! . read more...

Golden Spirit of Islay - Birthday and homeward run

My birthday on the 9thwas celebrated with a great home-made chocolate cake, made from really dark chocolate and we even had some long life cream on board. Caroline had done a superb job.  It was so calm we were motoring and even stopped for a mid-Atlantic birthday swim. It was only 4000 metres deep, so not thinking too much about what might be lurking in the deep, Caroline and I dived in and swam three times round the boat. Steve and the crew member and friend Mike Boys managed a quick dip, Vivien said she would rather not. Shortly before this we got some discarded fishing gear wrapped round the propeller, an immediate loss of r.p.m and blue smoke.  Luckily I had just purchased some diving gear in Las Palmas for just such an eventuality, so Steve, a really experienced diver,. 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...

Golden Spirit of Islay - Catch of the day

We have finally picked up a bit of wind and making nearly 5 knots in aWesterly direction. Slow but steady and only 2020 miles to go!We also finally caught our first fish on the trip; a Dorado weighing 10kg.,which for us, with our fishing knowledge, is a real monster. Carolineprepared 5 fish steaks with Hollandaise Sauce, potato wedges and ratatouilleand it was calm enough to eat it from proper plates, even with proper fishknives and forks. A real treat and a great meal. We will be eating fishagain tonight and the next night as our freezer is still having problems. Itis keeping frozen food frozen but does not freeze food. It is becoming areal problem, although the other day it was working fine.Today 03 December we are heading a little more towards the South West in thehope of finding. read more...

Golden Spirit of Islay - windless and fishless but great muffins

The last few days have been unexpectedly calm, sometimes with brilliant sunshine, sometimes, like today, dull and damp and this evening it has rained steadily. Hopeful that this would be good fishing weather and having heard of the success on some of the other yachts, we have had 3 lines out with a selection of different lures.  No luck so far!The lack of wind has unfortunately meant that our ideal of a zero engine hours crossing has had to be abandoned. We finally admitted defeat at noon on the 28th and started motoring as at that point we had only made about 340 miles in 4 days. At which rate it would have been some time in the New Year before we reached St Lucia! The up side of the calm weather was that I did some baking and Caroline’s birthday muffins went down a treat. Current. read more...