Little Island - We made it!

We made it! And quite naturally I’m nowhungover whilst writing this. With every rum punch the achievement sunk in, and so we celebrated that moment with another rum punch; and so on...The first sight of land yesterday was an amazing feeling, coming into view as the sun rose and lifted the cloak of mist and darkness that had covered the island. We knew it was there for a while, but could never be too sure until we got that all important visual. Thankfully it was the correct piece of land, which was a relief having had no chart plotter for the final 300 miles or so. Despite standing next to each other at the time, we gave it a bloody good “Land ho!” call to mark the occasion, and briefly thought of those early explorers that stumbled across this green gem among thousands of miles of ocean. read more...

Little Island - 480 hours

We’ve been without power for over 24 hours no, but it’s no big deal. The solar panel and wind charger are working, but slowly, so we hope to be able to start the engine by the time we arrive. It’s an emotional game checking the battery level, then waiting a few hours and checking again to see that it’s barely moved, or bizarrely sometimes even gone down!We’ve taken to reading the cruising guide and Arc pack for arrival info and broad plans for where to head next. It’s been a pretty fun day and is making us both very excited. I can almost taste the rum and it’s warming sensation as it trickles down to my belly. Cat is most excited for the fresh fruit the way that fruit is meant to me - full sized and naturally ripened rather than harvested early and ripened with a blast of gas after. read more...

Little Island - 408 - 456 hours

408 hours. The winds are good and spirits are up as we make good progress towards St Lucia. It’s looking good to arrive on 16, which isn’t too bad given the really slow first week. The sea state is a real pain and a pain probably felt more by us than any other boat. Being the smallest, the rolling affect is massive (as well as being a tubby, shallow keel Moody). Being double handed means that, if you’re not awake on watch, you’re trying your best to sleep but sometimes the rolling sea has other ideas. Last night it felt that 34 and a half feet of boat was the perfect length to fit into the troughs of the waves; perfectly imperfect. We were being sloshed around in all directions to the point where both autohelms were struggling so we hand-steered all of our watches. Cat had a real bum. read more...

Little Island - 384 hours

Beans mean Heinz. It’s strange how very small things take hold of your days in a big way on the boat. Now that our fresh food has practically all run out, I thought I would treat myself to a tin of baked beans, accompanied by a tortilla wrap to be rolled and dunked directly into the tin like a giant cartoon cigar. Deconstructed beans on toast is the dish, Mexican style. I’ve always loved baked beans. My mum loves to tell people how I fell asleep in them as a young child because I was so tired but determined to eat them. That love has stretched to adulthood. When I was working at OC Sport I’d have a tin of beans and four slices of toast for lunch every day, not only because it was delicious and nutritious but because it was tremendous value with very little admin on my part. After 18. read more...

Little Island - 336 hours

I’m taking a longer time each day to add another 24 in my ongoing times tables. Maybe it’s the slow, silent encroachment of exhaustion that’s causing me to check, doubt, re-check, re-doubt and finally check again that I have correctly added the hours of a spin of the Earth onto our running total. I don’t think we’re feeling terribly tired, but I’m sure we probably are. At home we used to be a ‘bed by 2130 and up at 0800’ couple, waking at 0630 if we wanted to do some exercise. That’s a worst case scenario of 9 hours of lovely slumber. We wouldn’t dare start a movie after 1930. Perish the thought of getting as little as eight hours sleep in a night. Now we’re realistically getting five hours per 24 hours, on a hot, sweaty, moving mattress. We’re both sleeping in the forepeak, but. read more...