Sabine - (118) ARC daily blog update - Tuesday 13 December 2022

Hello interweb friends, Captain Stape on sail boat Sabine right here in the Rodney Bay marina in St. Lucia! (///incidentally.dumping.tightness) spoiler alert: we’re here! We made it!! Last night as it became dark, we could easily see the glow of lights of Barbados as we passed the island around 35nm away.Richard was contemplating life whilst sitting outside he got up to get a drink. At that moment a small fish jumped into the boat and landed exactly where Richard had been sitting just a few seconds previously. Lucky escape Richard! The fish was picked up and returned to the waves. Kia made himself a cigarette - he has paper and he has the remains (butts) of smoked cigarettes in his ash tray. When he made the one cigarette he then smoked it. His comments: ‘Not very enjoyable. Tastes like. read more...

Sabine - Sabine (118) ARC saily blog update - Mon 12 Dec 2022

Hello interweb friends, Captain Stape on sail boat Sabine right here (///crevices.readers.mists)Day breaks, it’s Monday, it’s sunny, it’s getting hotter, the seas are calm(ish) and we’re barrelling along at 7+knots. Seems the wind picked up overnight. Is this, on what is probably our final full day, the almost mythical ‘champagne sailing’ we were promised 3000nm ago? Pete the spinnaker is hoisted and we maintain a comfortable 7knots. The nav computer is finally giving us an ETA now that we’re less than 24hrs away: breakfast time tomorrow.The microwave is still working, as the crew member whose not supposed to touch it warms up her lunch. Jezebel is pushed into action. Richard comments that he’s really glad that device (the water maker) has proven reliable, and that he’s sorry to. read more...

Sabine - (118) ATC daily blog update - Sun 11 Dec 2022

Hello interweb friends, Captain Stape on sail boat Sabine right here (///meatballs.misinformation.spice)Last night (Sat) I watched the moon rise across the ocean, like a glowing orange disc slowly appearing from the horizon, shy at first as it hides behind the clouds. Slowly it becomes bolder as it appears higher, abandoning the clouds that shrouded it. It shines brightly in the sky, its light reflected in the still ocean. As it rises higher and higher it changes from dark orange, to amber, getting lighter in colour until it turns into the familiar silver and grey disc we all know, lighting the ocean, and lighting Sabine. Right, and that’s enough of that. I don’t want my interweb friends thinking I’m getting all artsy fartsy on them. Back to the slapstick!It turns out to be a night of. read more...

Sabine - (118) ARC daily blog update - Sat 10 Dec 2022

Hello interweb friends, Captain Stape on sail boat Sabine right here (///stashing.sinkhole.mediocrity)It’s a gloriously hot and sunny morning here on Sabine as I awake to the sounds of the crew getting their breakfast. The wind has gone on holiday again and we’re just left with the scraps; the scrag ends of the wind no one else wants, but beggars can’t be choosers so we’ll take it, and raise the spinnaker to try and take full advantage. As John is figuring out where we are the old fashioned way, Kia holds out a container and asks ‘what’s fits in this box’, Polina immediately says ‘sex toy!’. That’s what the rest of us hear, but Polina insists she said ‘sextant’. But we know what we heard! We can see Escapade not too far away, also struggling with the lack of wind. As this long hot day. read more...

Sabine - Sabine (118) ARC blog update - 9 Dec 2022

Hello interweb friends, Captain Stape on sail boat Sabine right here (///monks.commiserating.collectivity)We’re in St. Lucia!!! Time zone that is. We passed through our final zone around mid-morning. This is the last time we’ll have to alter the clocks.It’s a sunny start to day, with wind and we’re still heading SW to avoid the dead zone that will appear north of us over the next 24hrs. We’re getting closer now with less than 500nm to go. We tack to avoid some rain - we’ve all had enough of that. Richard at the helm still gets a slight spraying of rain in his face though as we skirt around the cloud, but nothing like the drenching the crew have recently experienced.Kia is busy performing battery optimisation tasks so that our propulsion and house batteries are as efficient as they can. read more...