Logs

Wolkenschlößchen - Day 12 - Fishing experiments

We started the day with a wonderful rainbow, going fully around to both ends. Perfect motivation to get creative in paperwork with Lonneke. We have a new favourite tool on board: the bucket. Perfect to collect salt water for dish washing, letter paper boats swim and to cool off in a shower! We also had to get creative (or truly desperate) in our fishing gear. We had a tiny bait left after the Blue Marlin bait theft. Apparently, that small thing worked and a large fish bit it today. Too large, the line broke immediately - again. So we are down now to an octopus imitation made of a tube of hand lotion and some metal left overs as weight. Let's see if we find a semi blind fish going for it. Until then, we have to live with a self-made fish by Lonneke (she asked Mama to make sushi from. read more...

Asante - REVISED Day 12 of never ending poem

Day 12s the day I changed my job.No more First Mate for me.I put on my medics hat.Cos that’s what I am at sea.One of the crew has hurt himself.No blood and guts and gore.Just every time he goes topside, the last step he does ignore.He’s had three days from the first aid kit.But that’s not been enough.So out I’ve got the big gun bags.For which nothing is too tough.He’ll be fine, there’s nothing more, that a hospital could do.Especially as the casualty, is a medical doctor too.Today the slight disaster.Was my sextant took a tumble.All the way down the companion steps.And landed in a bundle. The box had thrown the sextant out.It all looked to be in bits.But thankfully it was not as bad.Or I’d have lost my wits.So I had another day of searching, for a boat far out at sea.To calibrate it once. read more...

JaZoFi - JaZoFi day 12

Another great sailing day. Put another 200 nautical miles under the keel as we broke through the 1000 nautical miles left to sail.Sargasso sea grass was a talking point for some time after we sailed through a reasonably large carpet and needed to do a back down to relieve the keel and rudders. Seaway was a lot kinder today with the wave height dropping from 3m significant to 1.5m. Lasagna for dinner tonight was very tasty.  . read more...

Vitamin Sea - Tag 10: Wettrennen und Riesenfisch, Mittwoch, der 29. November 2023

Die Nacht vom 28. auf den 29. November 2023: Von Flauten und Verfolgern Die vergangene Nacht war wieder einmal ruhig und ereignisarm. Der Wind ließ uns nur mäßig vorankommen, mit Geschwindigkeiten zwischen 4,5 und 5,5 Knoten. Es fühlte sich fast wie eine Flaute an, aber es war noch nicht ruhig genug, um denWingaker einzufahren.Interessant war, dass das Boot, welches uns seit Tagen auf Parallelkurs begleitet hat, plötzlich aufgeholt hat. Ich muss gestehen, das hat mir gar nicht gefallen. Rennmodus vs. Abenteuerlust: Eine unerwartete Wendung Schon in der Nacht hatte ich ja bemerkt, dass uns das Boot, dass uns seit Tagen wir ein Schatten gefolgt ist, auf einmal deutlich an uns vorbeizog. Am Morgen waren sie uns schon mehr als 5 Meilen voraus.Das wunderte mich, da die Wetterbedingungen. read more...

Freedom - Blog 13 Friday 1st December 2023

Editor CJH.Good Morning/afternoon All,25 Days to Christmas, currently seems a million miles away as we bowl along with following wind and waves, seeking shade during the middle of the day and for those in the front bunks, frequently finding it too hot too sleep at night. The thought of snow back home seems surreal!Yesterday was a beautiful day with 10/13knt winds, puffy white clouds, light trade wind conditions, relaxing and enjoyable with a fair bit of reading being undertaken by most or the crew when not attending to various daily tasks, from rubbish compaction to cleaning. Simon stepped into the kitchen to prepare our evening meal, as he has now done on several occasions to relieve Masterchef Ian, and under the latter's guidance produced another superb offering of lamb with rosemary,. read more...

Bluejay - Bluejay Blog

For immediatereleaseNovember 30th,2023Rubicon 3 Marine InnovationspresentThe Yankee 4 SunShadeImagine a world where the sun'srelentless rays no longer dictate your comfort. A world where you can enjoy thevast oceans without squinting or sweating. That world is here, and it's broughtto you by the Yankee 4 Sun Shade. The product of extensive research andgruelling at sea testing during the ARC 2023, the Yankee 4 Sun Shade is craftedfrom a single fitted bedsheet consisting of the finest linen sourced from themost exclusive dollar store in Las Palmas, a pure testament to ingenious designand economical sourcing. This isn't just any bedsheet; it's a status symbol sureto stand out on the docks, a beacon of not only shade but in fact refined tasteset against the sun-drenched landscape. The Yankee. read more...

Adina - One that got away.

Day 12 - St Andrew’s day - 14 degrees 01’N 34 degrees 35’WWe continue to head west and have just over 1500 miles to go. With trade winds of 15-20 kts behind us we are well set up, still wing-on-wing, and may not need to gybe again until 12th December. We are crossing the Gambia Abyssal Plain - a mere 5000m deep! Carole and Pete have finished their whodunnit audiobooks - SPOILER ALERT - it was Ashleigh!Our fresh water rationing regime is going well and we are yet to need the watermaker - sea water is being used to initially do the washing up and this has resulted in an additional bonus freshwater shower day for the crew yesterday.Mid Atlantic Marmalade - homemade at Laundry Cottage in Scotland - has been well received by the crew, especially on fresh bread made by the breadmaker. Power. read more...

Ipanema - Blog from the Ipanema

Dear all,   The Team from Ipanema is enjoying the rally to thefullest. Of course we have our hiccups and challenges. We had to do somesailrepairs because of not too successful manoeuvres. We saild through a squallthat rinsed the ship and made us go north for an hour or so. None of the issueshave seriously slowed us down. We lost some hours with speed because of atwisted gennaker that demanded that one of us had to climb the mast. As we writethis mini blog everything is up and running. Fingers crossed.   We heard there is snow in The Netherlands. What aperfect contrast with the sunny weather here on the ocean 1166 Nm from StLucia.   As 'Sinterklaas' is already in The Netherlands, we sentour partners the following message (it only makes sense in Dutch)  Ver van alles en. read more...

Hot Stuff - 14'48;5430N 39'97;4500W

Day 12 - Avast Ye Landlovers.It is the dastardly and fearsome crew of the Pirate Ship Hotsuff here and I have Good News!!!!!!!!!We the crew have obtained our level one pirate badge (yay I hear you cry). To achieve such dizzying heights, we had to pass the following modules:Sweaty - smashed it, Obnoxious - smashed it, Sweary (not me mum) - smashed it, and down right horrible. We can now call ourselves 'Puppy Pirates', but don't let this fool you.....we are proper scum!So level two includes 'raping and pillaging', now this does cause a moral dilemma (and the chance of imprisonment). So, we have decided upon 'peeping' and 'knock door run' (I've only got flip flops so undoubtedly I will get caught). We feel this will honour the pirate cause. read more...

Pure Fun - ARC 2023, Das SEIN auf der Pure Fun aus Sicht von Andreas

30.11.2023, 13:20 Uhr UTCDas SEIN auf der Pure Fun aus Sicht von AndreasNacht. Mal wieder.Die wievielte eigentlich?Vorher hatte der Künstler, nach dem mal wieder sensationellen kantenscharfen Sonnenuntergang, noch die komplette Farbpalette an den mit Dekowolken verzierten Abendhimmel geworfen, wo er sich tagsüber mit allen vorstellbaren Blauschattierungen begnügt hatte.Ich kann mich nicht sattsehen. Nachtwache. 3 bis 5.Endlich wieder. Diese zwei Stunden allein an Deck, ich genieße sie, es ist warm. T-Shirt, Shorts, barfuß. Meine Lieblingskleidung. Das Schiff zieht seinen Kurs, gesteuert wie von Geisterhand durch den Autopiloten, durch das scheinbar unendliche schwarzblau, erhellt vom Vollmond oder diesem sagenhaften Sternenhimmel. Ich kann mich nicht sattsehen. Der. read more...

Freedom - Blog 12 Freedom Thursday 30th November 2023

Editor: IRWWGood morning Vietnam …Thankfully we’re not there, but hopefully you’ll get my drift.Yesterday was a strange one as it was dominated by two words, Pina Colada. This came from the most unlikely member of the crew, Stuart Ashton. Stuart who is not known for his boozing kept repeating his desire for a bucket of his cocktail of choice. Maybe he can smell the Palm Trees of St Lucia, if so he has impressive nostrils as we are virtually mid Atlantic. Yes that’s the story (morning glory)10 days in and we’re virtually half way there. Poor Stuart, not only was he starved of liquor but he lost the nightly game of Spoof where the looser was the only person not to receive a chocolate biscuit; Stuart’s food of choice. Generously, Simon donated his, so bedtime tears were averted.Back to. read more...

JaZoFi - JaZoFi day 11

Ground Hog Day….Running out of new news with today being a dead ringer for yesterday.Only variation was dinner which we had a second edition of the Mushroom stew of day 3, once again it was to die for, all Chef needs to do is serve it under a more exotic name and he could serve it in any Michelin star restaurant.. read more...

Hot Stuff - 14:49.39N 38:46.69W

We eem to be making progress though the fleet at the moment and were up to 75 overall which isn't too bad at all.Flying at speed takes its toll though and even Nick (Beardy hat face) succumbed and slept through his watch yesterday morning.Now in a previous blog I might have mentioned that some of the instruments were not quite playing ball. We still have enough and were sailing at night with the kite and compass bearing when needed. Well last night the compass light grew brighter and then... Pop. No light. A temp fix was tried with an LED torch. This in principle was a great idea other than the large magnet on its back to stick it to a metal surface. So lights off again. The plus side to this is that when the moon comes up there is plenty of. read more...

Hot Stuff - 14:49.37 N 38:46.04 W

_Fun fact_*Volvo Penta MD23*In neutral running at 1000rpm while charging the batteries, the Volvo Penta MD 23 sings in the key of E... /Just saying/JH. read more...

Saltair - Plastic

Saw Solaris blog post on plastic… we are also trying to be conscious of recycling. We have 3 bins, a small one for any organic waste that can go back to the sea, one for the smelly trash and one for recycling. To keep odors down we use salt water (we have a salt water pump in the galley) to rinse everything out! Once in St Lucia we can sort through the mixed recycling bags! . read more...

Uno - Day 11: A great day sailing!

Another loaf of sourdough in the oven this morning, this time I tried making it with spelt flour. It did not rise at all! So in the last 30mins of cooking it became a rescue mission to turn it into a flat focaccia bread with a bit of olive oil, herbs and salt on too. Saved! :DMid-morning just as Rich & Jacques headed up front to relax on the trampolines, the fishing line went off and we reeled in a yellow fin tuna! I took a turn filleting & into the fridge it went to be sashimi later on. Lynnie baked a lovely banana choc chip loaf that was almost demolished in an hour.It’s been a better sailing day, finally! Cheese burgers & twice cooked potatoes for dinner.Uno out.. read more...

Saltair - Halfway celebration

On Wednesday, day 11 of our voyage we had about sailed half of our predicted total distance and celebrated with a nice meal - highlight was the sticky rice and mango dessert! Our St Lucia parrot Cinnamon joined the celebration!  It is a bit of a longer passage than we expected but now that we have good winds, we are really enjoying the sailing! . read more...

Wolkenschlößchen - Day 11 - Crew take a mid Atlantic dip!

We keep experiencing rather light winds on our northern course. While this means that we are not exactly racing towards Saint Lucia, it also means that we are having a relaxed time on board. And while our friends and family back home are experiencing first snow falls, the air and water here is getting warmer and warmer. Today, this meant: time for a swim!!! We took down all sails and one by one jumped into the Atlantic. What a thrill, knowing that we are as far from land as we could be and have 1000's of meters and wildlife below us! But it was soooo refreshing, bathing in 25°C warm water. We guess, this was not the last dip on this trip! To celebrate yesterday's half time milestone, we started the day with pancakes and the had our next round of steaks for dinner. Cooking. read more...

Pure Joy - Pure Joy - ARC Day10

Ooooooooh we’re half way there, Oh Oh, living on a prayer!Today felt busy. We had the sails up and down a fair bit as we needed to repair the Wingaker - one of the seams seemed to be giving way. PJ caught another fish - a beautiful tuna! Aaaaaaand, we crossed the half way mark! We celebrated with a dance party complete with glow sticks and screaming Bon Jovi at top volume.. read more...

Tahira - TAHIRA ARC BLOG D-Day 11 [30-Nov-23]

TAHIRA ARC BLOGD-Day 11 [30-Nov-23]Location: Mid-AtlanticLat: 13.57N Long: 35.34W Meet the crew: Tony (aka Tig) 'the Dispatcher' Meyer How would you describe yourself in one sentence?- Tony is someone who embraces life to the full, is always up for a laugh and a pint of Guinness with friends, and looks for new experiences.What is your first favourite piece of music and why? - 'Born to run' by Bruce Springsteen.Tony shared a flat in London in his 20's with his oldest friend Nick.Played at full volume it brings back memories of them getting ready on a Friday night to hit the streets of London, and living life to the excess. What is your greatest achievement in life to-date?- My three wonderful children and the love that they have for each other.What sailing experience have you had? -. read more...

Saltair - 1100 Miles from Anywhere

Adam here.Tonight I’m on the midnight to three watch. It is a beautifully starry night with an almost full moon punctuated by scattered trade wind clouds. The wind is a bit shifty and gustythough, making for the occasional loud (and scary) “POP” from our huge, double-sided downwind sail. We are sailing at 7.5 - 8 knots in 15 -18 knots of wind 150 - 160 degrees off our starboard bow.It has been a difficult past few months for us. Our time in Las Palmas was largely spent waiting for various vendors to complete repair work and systems installations. The repair list included our starboard rudder bearing, two sails and the genoa halyard swivel. We also took the opportunity to add 810 watts of solar panels to Saltair, which required stainless and. read more...

Adrienne - Bergfest

November 30th, 2023 Blog authors Bernd, Werner, Peter The day ended with a hearty mountain festival and celebrated worthy... with Cola Zero and Seven Up. Bergfest has nothing to do with Kaiserschmarren and hut fun. What is meant is that the remaining route to the Caribbean is now shorter than the one already covered. To celebrate, the meal included tuna steaks, fried pumpkin and rice and beans. For dessert, Tanja and Thomas had conjured up a fruit pudding cake to celebrate the day. As soon as all the food was eaten, Peter raised his voice to a toast in which he dreamed out loud about a glass of really beautiful, cool, blonde... SEVEN UP (caffeinated lemonade). The laughs were with him and the crew's facial expressions reflected a certain bewilderment. Dreams are a beautiful thing. The. read more...

Skyelark 2 - Its really all about the food

A week in the Skyelark 2 KitchenThey say that an Army marches on its stomach – whilst aboard a trans Atlantic sailing journey there is less need for Bully Beef and more need for creative and enjoyable meals to look forward to .Each crew member takes it in turns to cook for a day and there is healthy competition in producing delicious meals.Not quite MasterChef , but there are certainly skills tests that need to be overcome. The challenge comes in all forms, a moving galley, an ever decreasing larder and a remit to use only the ingredients that at home would surely end up in the bin. Nearly 2 weeks at sea and we still have 'fresh' produce.The breakfaststaple is porridge – hearty and warming – and often served with a selection of nuts, raisins, honey and fresh fruit such as pineapple , paw. read more...

Champagne Hippy - Day 11- 19th November

Most of us awoke this morning feeling like we had completed a round of “abs, bums, and tums” run by the strictest of sarget major gym leaders (you know the type), due to a night of battling to stay in bed with the current sizeable heel. Being asleep or sort of asleep but concisions of your muscles tensing to keep you in your bed is a feeling that (even 11 days in) will take some more time to get used to. The crew has spent most of today together seeking shade and breeze in the cockpit between watches. We have been enjoying each other's company and at some point, a competitive game of Eye Spy was initiated with Josh and Matt mainly winning each round. Proceeding Eye Spy was the classic of “Who am I” and then naturally following this an eye-wateringly funny round of charades. Jonnie's. read more...

Blue Pepper - Blue Pepper Day 11 - 29/11

The good ship Blue Pepper is now lust below 14deg N latitude (about the same as St Lucia) and we are pointing properly westward and rolling along downwind in the now settled trade winds of around 15knts. Today we have come across sargasso weed for the first time, some of which is getting caught in the hydrogenerator although it seems to be shrugging it off.We are close approaching the mid point of the Atlantic and it certainly feels a big ocean with us just a small speck on it! The AIS plot is empty with no other boats anywhere near us. The provisions seems to be holding up well, we even have 8 unripe bananas left.. the supplies of tonic water however will go down to the wire!All good aboard Blue Pepper.. read more...

Adrienne - Noch 1492 Meilen

November 29th, 2023 A day in the vastness of the Atlantic Blog writers Peter and Werner We have now reached the 15th degree of latitude and are getting more and more into the trade winds, which the typical cloud formations show us clearly. This reduces the number of maneuvers to be carried out as the winds become more constant. A look at the Grib files shows us that we have to move further south to benefit from stronger winds. Considering that we are in the middle of the Atlantic somewhere in the middle of nowhere between the Canary Islands, Cape Verde and St. Lucia, off the usual shipping routes, we are currently encountering quite a few other ships. The Thor Heyerdahl, which was already reported in detail in the last blog, caught up with us again under engine this night and accompanied. read more...