Daily Logs

Walkabout - Panama Canal Transit

N8:54.8 W79:31.6 This is a bucket list item, as well as marking some pretty significant geographical significance. We have done the Atlantic just about as far as possible as you can go from East to West - quite a milestone.  And the obvious next milestone of getting to a new ocean - The Pacific! The Panama Canal does tend to act as a ‘Non return valve’ for sailors - most people only go through from East to West.  Once in the Pacific, us European sailors need to be prepared for an increasing sense of remoteness.  The provisioning and maintenance facilities reduce significantly, the milages get a lot bigger, and the prospect of jumping on a flight home are also much reduced.  That won’t be stopping us flying from Tahiti to get to Jamie and Lauralei’s. read more...

Mistral of Portsmouth - Mavi Mai (welcome) Hiva Oa!

OMG … we are actually here! Huge excitement as the sun rose on Wednesday morning (my watch) and the land emerged in the dawn. A sight for sore eyes. Janie on deck to share the joy; both of us snapping away - how many sun rise photos is too many??We dropped anchor at 0950 to much applause from fellow arc sailors already there and immediately popped the champagne … an epic journey … the longest passage we will ever do. Definitely worth celebrating! We were all tired but somehow it was like Christmas Day … so excited and lots to do in the middle of the Pacific Ocean on the beautiful remote island  of Hiva Oa. First things first though - we had to check in, customs and immigration. There is always a very long list of jobs that need doing fast - we will only have 2 or 3 days on this. read more...

Walkabout - San Blas - end of Leg 2

9.31.1N 78.38.9W1100 3rd March 2023A time to relax ...Not quite sure where time is going at the moment!!Everything seems to be happening in a bit of a rush and San Blas was a welcome relief with a little time to relax and enjoy these wonderful islands.The San Blas are a stunning multitude of small palm tree islands with white sand, surrounded by coral reefs and home to the Guna Indians. Our first stop was Coco Bandero island where we anchored alongside Casamara, Mary Doll, Into the Mystic and Berlinetta who are all in the ARC Pacific. As soon as we anchored up and swam on the anchor to ensure it was dug in as the islands are very exposed to weather, we met up on the beach with friends and set about organising a game of beach cricket the following day which was not competitive at all!!. read more...

Walkabout - Leg 3 - An early morning start to Shelter Bay, Panama

9.22.0N 79.57.0W15:50 9th March 2023An early morning start for our sail to Shelter Bay as we had to arrive before 1600 to gain entry to the marina and a berth. We lifted anchor at 0400 with what looked like a good wind angle and enough of it to sail which was looking unlikely the night before! In the end, we sailed until 1100 when the wind died and motored the rest of the way.As we entered the Panama Canal area which we had to cross for the marina is on the far side, we were surrounded by gigantic anchored ships waiting for their passage slot through the canal, or lying empty waiting to be filled up with containers or gas or whatever their special cargo was. It was like a graveyard of lonely ships, waiting to be called up!We arrived in Shelter Bay Marina at just before 1600 so onetime in. read more...

Jadamama - Jadamama blog Mar 23 from Gulf of Panama

Yesterday began with an exciting start off the island of Contadora in the Islas Perlas and finished with the slightly grimmer decision fourteen hours later to head back to Panama City.  We suffered some damage to our deck which is serious but not dangerous and we are already discussing the repairs needed when we arrive back in Panama City tomorrow. The Gulf of Panama is a really interesting place, even apart from the lovely Islas Perlas.  It has very strong currents that come up from South America on the southern part of the coast and fly around the Gulf back into the Pacific on the northern section.  Currents of four knots are not uncommon and we are experiencing both the positive and negative aspects of that as we were in the middle of a flooding current when we. read more...

Cepa - "You never sail alone"

Jetzt habe ich leider einen dramatischen Bericht für euch: Medizinischer Notfall an Bord der CEPA, der leider so kritisch war, dass ich ein Mayday absetzen mussten.  Morgens am Frühstück klagte mein Freund und Segel Buddy Ebo über sehr starke Kopfschmerzen. Nachdem Kopschmerztabletten keine Besserung brachten und ich bemerkte, dass Ebo plötzlich Koordinationsprobleme hatte, insbesondere mit dem linken Arm und der linken Hand wurde ich nervös. Ebo wirkte plötzlich träge und antriebslos, ungewöhnlich, er ist immer voller Tatendrang. Ich machte mir sehr große Sorgen um seinen Gesundheitszustand und nahm deshalb Kontakt zu meinem rotarischen Freund, Prof. Dr. Matthias Leschke, Kardiologe und ehemaliger Chefarzt am Klinikum Esslingen, auf und schilderte. read more...

Mistral of Portsmouth - 400 miles to go …

We are still trucking along - between 5 and 8 knots depending on the winds - which, by the way, are totally fickle and very annoying. We are up and down frequently, trying to sail as well as we can and stop the sails flapping and flailing as the wind is directly behind us much of the time. Apart from the sails misbehaving, Mistral has been seriously rocking and rolling … wearing when we are trying to do anything at all although good for the core and building balance. Every cloud/silver linings??So what’s the news? There is always drama. Very sadly, one of the Arc boats had a medical emergency with one of the crew having a stroke. Everyone pulled together offering advice, support, fuel and help to get the best placed boat to transport the patient to land asap. A power cruising boat was. read more...

Jadamama - Jadamama Blog March 19th

The Canal transit proved to be enjoyable and memorable for the crew aboard Jadamama. As we exited the lock at Miraflores (to viewing gallery applause and canal line handler bemusement) with our raft buddies- Tam Lin of Gloucester and Manuia - we looked forward to the marina at La Playita and the Pacific!The marina offered WiFi, laundry, a berth, sociable racoons and a motherly sloth with baby in tow! The crew enjoyed several local cuisine experiences in the nearby restaurants in the shadow of Flamenco Island. Further afield Albrook Mall offered mega shopping, air conditioning and provisioning for the iminent Pacific long passages and opportunities to get lost! Plans for both a St Patrick's day shin-dig and the Six Nations Rugby were layed and an Irish bar was reconnoitered - Mccarthys,. read more...

Mistral of Portsmouth - A rescue mission

At 4pm, as the duty net controller for the day, Chris began the High Frequency (HF) radio roll call for the Arc Fleet. He immediately received an emergency message. Sailing Vessel (SV) Rain Dancer (not one of our fleet) had been hit by a whale and sunk. The crew of 4 people were in their life raft and we had their last known co-ordinates. The message came through SV Far - one of the Arc Fleet. They were closest to a boat called Southern Cross, who had received the May Day call. Chris spoke to every vessel in our fleet to share information and work through how the fleet could help. Chris’s years of handling emergencies through the radio on aeroplanes really showed - he was fab. Mistral was 60 miles away - the second or third nearest boat to the life raft co-ordinates. Along with 6 other. read more...

Jadamama - Jadamama blog - Gatun Lake update

A lot happened in the last couple of days as we prepared the hull for the Galapagos and did a few repairs and of course we had to watch the rugby !Shelter Bay marina has a fantastic yard where they make up for the absence of a large chandlery with some really diligent and experienced technicians. We were all involved in cleaning off any foreign bodies or dirt from the hull to make sure we don’t breach the biosphere rules and we will have another final clean in the Islas Perlas before we finally leave Panama. It was a great opportunity to really get our hands on the boat as we had all come together in a bit of a rush in Saint Lucia and were only addressing the obvious challenges as they arose. We left the marina around 5pm and motored to the lock area through all the large ships anchored. read more...

Mistral of Portsmouth - Losing count …

Yee ha! We passed the half way mark at 2am today. Finally, we are counting down rather than up. Bloody hell … this is a long passage and I am losing all sense of time. Today we will celebrate with a small glass of wine to go with our roast chicken dinner … I can not wait! Definitely feeling the need for that glass of cold Rioja. More excitement today as we change all the laundry - clean everything for the second half. I know … small things but there are standards on this boat!We are getting more adventurous with our sails. Today we managed to get the cruising chute up (our biggest, lightest and most colourful sail). It took 2 hours and 3 attempts before we finally had it. Patrick and I had a significant work out trying to haul the snuffer up the sail (the snuffer is like a long condom. read more...

Mistral of Portsmouth - Passage to Marquesas Day 7 … 2100 miles to go

Hooray!! We have the trade winds. We picked the wind up yesterday morning - 10 to 12 knots of consistent breeze. Thank the lord for that … we have been sailing on a beam reach ever since. Mistral is gliding through the water and the rock and roll is significantly reduced. We are on course for the Marquesas Islands and all feeling much happier with life. We had a second hairy night before we picked the wind up - massive thunderstorms, fork lightening, heavy rain and no light with black swirling cloud everywhere. Chris and I were up and down into the cockpit every hour or so - sails in and out, course corrections to try and avoid the worst of the weather. The radar was lighting up in orange and red everywhere - very unusual and somewhat scary. My watch from 4am to 7pm was positively. read more...

Mistral of Portsmouth - On passage - Day 5

Praying to the wind gods … we are still without wind and motoring. We have used half our fuel. We thought we had hit the trade winds last night and had the sails out for 2 hours with 10 to 12 knots of true wind but then the wind died. Back to motoring for an hour and then sailing again for a couple more hours. More motoring and another couple of hours blast until 4am when the wind disappeared. We have been on the motor since then. It’s been pouring with rain with heavy cloud so a bit of a miserable night without much sleep as we were up and down getting sails in and out. We have 2400 nm to go.Many of the fleet boats are in the trades now - they are east of us and further south. We are closer to the Marquesas but need to get further south. We should find those pesky trade winds later. read more...

Jadamama - Leg 2 blog

Jadamama; Santa Marta to San Blas12.00 the start at Santa Marta, wind totally contrary to the forecast saw us get a great start, but then beating, yes beating in a cat, along the coast hoping that the wind would back and we would get out into some breeze. As it turned out, later starters headed out to sea and were in a fine breeze. We eventually reached it and we’re off in a rising wind from the NE. Rising is right, by 16.00 we had 30 kts, and by 19.00 it was 34 kts. However with 2 reefs and a full Solent jib, we were cracking along catching up on those who had got the wind first. Great sailing through the night. Nice dinner of spag bol, then into our watch system of 3 on 5 off - don’t ask!I can proudly say that it was on Michael and my watch that Jadamama reached a new high 25.5 kts. read more...

Mistral of Portsmouth - On passage to the Marquesas Islands - Day 3

All is well on the good ship Mistral! We are starting to get into an ‘on passage’ routine - getting used to the watch rota, sleeping, eating, chatting, reading and fishing. After our belated start we had a good sail from 2pm through to 6am with our Code Zero (very big light wind sail) when the wind died and we started the engine. We have been motoring ever since. We expected 3 to 4 days of motoring as we hit the ITCZ - The Intertropical Convergence Zone, known by sailors as the doldrums because of its monotonous windless weather. It’s the area near the equator where the northeast and the southeast trade winds converge. We are hoping to get through it by Saturday and then sail all the way. There’s quite a swell so we are rocking and rolling a bit but the sea itself is glassy.We’ve sailed. read more...

Mistral of Portsmouth - Banana Bread Recipe

Banana and Walnut Loaf75 g soft margarine or very soft butter110 g caster sugar1 large egg, beaten225 g plain flour2 level teaspoons baking powder4 medium bananas, peeledgrated rind of 1 orangegrated rind of 1 lemon50 g walnuts, roughly choppedPre-heat the oven to 180°C (350°F)A loaf tin, base measuring 9 x 19 cm, greased, with the base lined with greaseproof paper, also greasedPlace the margarine, sugar and the beaten egg in a large mixing bowl, then sift in the flour and baking powderIn another bowl slice the bananas and mash them to a pulp with a forkUse an electric mixer to whisk the sugar, fat, egg and flour together until they are thoroughly combinedAdd the orange and lemon rinds, followed by the mashed bananas and chopped walnuts, and whisk again thoroughlyTransfer the mixture to. read more...

Walkabout - Leg 2 - Santa Marta to San Blas Islands - Day 1

N10:34.3 W76:53.8We are on our way again. We had a great time in Colombia - could have spent more time there for sure, only scratched the surface of this amazing place!We hired a car for 2 days and did a road trip to Cartagena - what a beautiful old city. Full of colour and history. We ate very well - each one better than the last and all very reasonable, particularly after the high prices of everything in the Caribbean islands. But our venture rolls onwards, and now we are heading for the San Blas Islands in Panama. This promises to be a real highlight of our passage. A huge archipelago of islands inhabited only by the Guna Indians. It will be great to be back on the hook again with a sea breeze, white sand between our toes and snorkelling too! Just the small matter of about 300NM to. read more...

Mistral of Portsmouth - Santa Cruz … the last few days

It’s been a while and there’s a lot to report! We’ve had a lovely time. Chris and I had our day out at North Seymour - a tiny uninhabited island north of Santa Cruz. It was a really special day. A bus ride to the north of Santa Cruz where we were ferried to a big catamaran for the 45 minute trip to North Seymour. En route, at least 50 dolphins jumping and playing with us - a spectacular sight. And onto the island itself - I felt like I was David Attenborough! We were greeted by blue footed boobies followed by Magnificent Frigates mating, Santa Cruz gulls guarding their eggs, Golden Iguanas, sea lions, turtles and dolphins in stunning surroundings. Next stop was a snorkelling tour … words can’t describe it... starfish, manta rays, parrot fish, sharks, so much sea life … it was as if. read more...

Jadamama - video of leg 1 from Henry/Mícheál

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Szel - St Lucia to Santa Marta - Video Blog by Steve Pickles

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Mary Doll - Day 2 - Soggy Breeks

Today started off in a very soggy fashion. It’s great sailing downwind (going in the same direction as the wind is blowing) as you have a nice breeze through the boat and the path across the water is generally smoother and more comfortable. The downside is that when we get a Caribbean style downpour (aka ‘totally pishing’ doon) we get the full cold water shower treatment. Standing at the wheel soaked to the skin… ah, this is the life!Shouldn’t complain as the downpours don’t last long and the warm breeze dries you out quite quickly. Normally fully dry just as the next shower comes through and the whole sequence starts once more. We are making good progress, cruising along at good average speeds. The sea is a bit ‘confused’, the waves don’t know which way to go, all crash into each other. read more...

Mistral of Portsmouth - Santa Cruz

Our last stop in the Galapagos. Time just flies by … it’s been lovely to have a few days on our own here. We’ve done some chilling, some exploring and a lot of preparation for the next passage - the longest we will do at 3000 nm to the Marquesas Islands half way across the South Pacific. Santa Cruz has a very different feel to the other 2 islands we have explored - more sophisticated and a bit more developed so a bit busier but still a great vibe. No flies and v few mosquitos - a big relief to Cap P!We were hugely proud of ourselves as we fixed a stanchion (involved drilling out a broken screw head amongst other things); changed engine oil filters, did a sweep of the biggest hardware store for oil, a hard hat (in case I need to go up the mast again!) and other booty; got more gas; sorted. read more...

Walkabout - Blog Day 4 - 23rd February 2023

N11:14.8 W74.23.2It’s a yellow fin tuna kinda day!Tom caught his first big fish today and it was a whoppa!A 68cm long Yellow Fin tuna!! What a 24 hours it has been! We are nearing the end of our first leg from Rodney Bay, St Lucia to Santa Marta, Columbia with a shout of Land Ahoy about an hour ago when the majestic misty mountains of Columbia came in to view! Walkabout has done us proud yet again and seen the three of us safely through some rough weather cross the Caribbean Sea. A few stats to share:850 nautical miles5 days3 blue-water-runner sails changes7 night shifts each1 yellow fin tuna1 sashimi dinner (more to come plus many tuna steaks in the freezer!)The day started out relaxed and calm with winds peaking below 20 knots so we decided to fly our Blue Water Runner. The BWR is a. read more...

Mistral of Portsmouth - Isabela Island

This island has a very cool vibe … I love it. It’s relaxed, authentic, undeveloped and quite beautiful. No real roads - just sand tracks. The anchorage is shallow and surrounded by lava reef (the island was created by 5 different volcanoes). We are used to the turtles, iguanas and sealions all around us now. We also catch sight of the occasional ray along with shark fins circling. No swimming off the boat for us!Shirley, David and I had a lovely day exploring the town of V and its surrounds - we went in search of pink flamingoes and found them as we did a 2km hike along a board walk skirting the inland pools. A very relaxed couple of beers along with local corn snacks at Beto’s bar on the beach followed by a vigorous play in the surf on the stunning long white sandy beach. Cocktails at. read more...

Walkabout - And still no fish!

N12:42.2 W71:50.0Blog Day 4 - 22nd February 2023The sargasso weed hasn’t helped with two fishing lines trailing behind Walkabout, one hand reel and one rod, the sargasso snags the lure and no fish will bite with the weed dangling off the end so the lines are brought in, sargasso removed and let out again. Friends tell us there is little sargasso in the pacific so we’ll definitely be counting on a few fish dinners soon!We had a visit from a flying fish in the cockpit earlier this evening, I hadn’t realised how delicate and fragile looking flying fish are, at least this one was. We managed to pick her up and set her free back in to the sea. I’ll add a photograph on this blog once we are in port so you can see how vivid in colour and shape they are. This one has two sets of wings and was an. read more...

Walkabout - Day 3 to Santa Marta

N13:09.7 W68:45.2 Not sure where the time has gone recently! Things seem to have been quite busy on board. We haven’t been spot on with our sail set ups, or timings of changes. As a result, Day 3 wasn’t particularly quick. But a big part of that is our intention to sail conservatively. This is definitely a marathon, not a sprint. So if there is uncertainty about the weather, we are on the side of caution.   On our third night at sea, everyone found sleep a little easier. There comes a point when you are so tired, that you could sleep anywhere. So a comfy bed on a noisy, rolling yacht is quite appealing. Tom managed to sleep through quite a bit of excitement between 0200-0300. Gusty, squally weather caused Sheila (our 4th hand on board aka Hydrovane) to lose grip on. read more...

Arkyla - 11 Jun 22: Ready to go

The time is nearly upon us for the start.  Over the last few days skipper James has been eyeing up the weather, racer-boy Rich has been eyeing up the opposition, charmer Mark has been eying up the totty, and motorboater Mike has mostly been eyeing up the chocolate rations!  A quiet evening is planned for tonight after yesterday’s day sail around the Hoe and impromptu attempt to drink Jolly Jacks dry after the Rally welcome dinner; we will be as fresh for the Biscay leg as our combined 227 years of creaking bones will allow… James Kenning . read more...

Jadamama - blog 21st Feb

Tuesday 21st of FebruaryDay 3 of the St Lucia to Santa Marta leg.I woke with a knock on the cabin door at 6:05 am, already 5 minute's late for my morning watch. Annoyed at myself for sleeping in and missing my alarm for the first time on this trip.Another first on this once in a lifetime adventure for me, having never done a crossing this big before and having never sailed with any of the crew on board.Moss, Polly and Mike are all so knowledgeable and accommodating I feel more comfortable with the task at hand. Saying that, I know I need to watch what the guys are doing both with the actual sailing but also the navigation side of things. A hell of a lot to learn still, but I'm excited to see what this trip throws at me and how I can overcome it.Couldn't be more happier to be given the. read more...

Jadamama - Blog 20 Feb

I woke at 5.30 in the dark for the 6am shift. As dawn broke we saw the southern cross to our port, pointing the way for many sailors before. Just like the night sky previously, the sunrise was spectacular. The watch system is great because everyone gets to experience the night sky, sunrises and sunsets (as well as doing the 'dog watch'). There's always something new to learn on the boat. This morning we checked the forecast, and given the wind was easing we hoisted the "big blue butterfly" (as Polly calls it), Jadamama's symmetric trade wind sail. So we flew our kite for the first time on this leg (and yes, we sang the song from Mary Poppins 'lets go fly a kite'). From singing the great rock guitar riff 'Barracuda' (after Henry landed a barracuda fish yesterday) to Mary Poppins, our song. read more...

Walkabout - Blog Day 2 - 20th February 2023

N13:43.6 W66:30.4On the high seas, the Caribbean Sea in fact!It’s just gone lunchtime and we are feeling rested and relaxed after a very busy few weeks and enjoying life onboard Walkabout. We are currently sailing wing-on-wing in 13-17 knots of breeze from behind, full Genoa and reefed mainsail, the waves lulling us into a sense of peace and tranquillity. ‘Sheila’ our self steering Hydrovane has been given her course instructions and doing a grand job!The crew are showered (which would have been very challenge in the last 24 hrs) before tucking into rolls for lunch with hummus and carrots plus a little marble cake for afters. A load is washing is on the line drying in the breeze and the fishing rods are out. Walkabout is currently cruising at 6-7 knots and we are calling in the fishies!. read more...

Mary Doll - Day 1 - Rawhide and an International enquiry.

And we are off, to buy some lovely St Lucian rum and then we might just join a race, sorry a competitive but fun rally. Jostling for position at the start we managed to stay mid pack and hopefully got a couple of good photos of our fellow participants raring to go. We got our downwind sail plan deployed, poled out headsail, main on a preventer and staysail funnelling the wind onto our headsail. Reasonable speeds achieved, decent course,all was good.Well almost all, it rained and it was cold during our first night. Too many Caribbean days have been spent without jumpers or wet weather gear and Mary Doll was searched or rather ransacked for appropriate clothing. Our second challenge, sleep.The sea is confused and we are often presented with large random waves from multiple directions.It’s. read more...

Mistral of Portsmouth - More exploring …

I had the most fabulous day diving around Kicker Rock. The 7.30am start was worth it. I dived with 2 very charming couples travelling around South America. The rock has vertical walls that simply go down forever and there is so much life there. The most beautiful coral, a plethora of brilliantly coloured fish - different shapes and sizes - turtles galore. We were lucky enough to see a pack of hammerhead sharks, Galapagos sharks and black fin sharks (very menacing!). As the sharks approach, the fish gather together in a tight pack - fascinating to observe this amazing under water world. I was completely blown away. We had 2 dives and then spent time with a naturalist on another stunning beach learning about the birds, the iguanas, crabs, sealions, the habitat and the environment. I swam. read more...

Jadamama - ARC Pacific Day 1

We had a fun start and then everyone sailed through us !  Really great to get out with the crew for our first sail together so we used the time and conditions to put in and take out reefs. There was an alert called in the evening about a strong squall, so the practice really helped.  Covered 173 miles in our first 24 hours which was better than we had thought.  Two of the crew, Henry and Mícheál, are relatively new to sailing and are a bit of a challenge to the old farts brigade with their energy, perspective and skills.  Polly got off the mark with a lovely chicken curry last night and baked our first two loaves of bread so we are not going hungry, especially if we catch any of those fish he has been luring all day. Moss. read more...