Salamander - from Rebecca Hayter

Salamander Saturday 25 May, lovely flat sea, with 327nm to go. Loving the sunshine and, even better, everyone had a shower yesterday. Skipper is practising and improving his celestial navigation so we are no longer lost. A turtle just drifted past but we have been reading 117 Days AdRebecca. read more...

Salamander - YB Connect Message from Rebecca Hayter

Salamander, Friday 24 May. We are just loving the back of the front. That big, dark red beast on Skipper's PredictWind screen arrived bang on schedule, bringing gusts of plus-40, big seas and threw buckets of cold rain over the poor souls on watch. Salamander rollicked along under staysail and slightly reefed mizzen, which brought us through unscathed. Today is all about sunshine, hot showers and decks festooned with wet gear and smelly boat shoes. There is still no answer on whose are the smelliest as no judge has survived the assessment process. I hope other boats also came through without problems.--Transmitted by Rebecca Hayter using YB Connect (www.ybtracking.com). read more...

Salamander - YB Connect Message from Rebecca Hayter

Salamander, day three... yesterday was our wildlife day. We?d already seen lots of Portuguese man of war jellyfish, like a big version of the blue bottles we get in NZ so that cancelled the daily swim. Around mid morning our first dolphins came to play, like speckled small bottle nos--Transmitted by Rebecca Hayter using YB Connect (www.ybtracking.com). read more...

Salamander Tails, day four - Rebecca Hayter

Salamander Tails, day four... I think. After several days of friendly toy-boat icons, now it is just us on the AIS screen and I am guessing some boats are already in port. I bet they are supping sundowners at sundown and daiquiris at daybreak, spinnakers rinsed and repacked.Meanwhile our onboard party consists of teenage flying fish crash landing in the dark and an autopilot that, unlike others I've known, hums rather than grunts, albeit more Florence Foster Jenkins than Kiri Te Kanawa. I'malso missing birds - where are they? Have seen a few small, dark grey ones and one large black and white; that's it. Apologies for my lack of avian smarts but not used to northern hemisphere birds. On the plus side, hardly any litter in the ocean. Apart from a 33-knot squall with heavy rain this. read more...