Life of Reilly III - Caught a big one!

As part of Life of Reilly III's contribution to the 2019 ocean cleanup campaign, we are bringing ashore an abandoned fishing net. Yesterday around 6 pm UTC Fred was looking astern and saw something strange underwater. We fished out the boat hook, and Dirk attached a safety line to it. Fred furled the jib and drove the boat into the wind to reduce speed to 2 knots.  Long armed Peter reached down into the water with the boat hook as deep as he could go, and with Dirk's assistance brought aboard one end of a fishing net, the other end being securely fastened to the underbody of our vessel. We secured our end of the net and resumed our original course and sail set. We are now competing in this Rally under multiple handicaps, having started a day late, lost our spinnaker, and lost the. read more...

Life of Reilly III - Happy Thanksgiving

Today we celebrated American Thanksgiving, in honour of our Texan crew member, Dirk. Chef Richard defrosted some rib eye steaks for the occasion and Skipper Peter selected a choice bottle of red wine from the wine cellar. But everything changed when we heard that whizzing sound from the transom. Fred, being the closest, grabbed the rod and cranked the drag as hard as he could, but still the big fish was taking line. We had hooked a monster! We were all afraid we would lose it, as had happened with another fish a couple of days ago, but Peter had rigged the rod with much heavier line this time. The fish gave up fairly quickly after a brief but intense fight for its life. The battle to land it continued for some time though because the sheer dead weight of the fish dragging behind the boat. read more...

Life of Reilly III - Frying Fish

Most days at dawn we are greeted by a fresh harvest of flying fish. They are quite plentiful, which is remarkable given that they are obviously also stupid. Usually 2 to 4 per night. One vigorous fellow brained himself on the dodger framework - a good 10 feet above sea level. Another adventurous soul found his/her way into the cabin landing at the base of the companionway steps. Yet another, whacked Fred in the head as he sat at the helm one night. Fred got revenge by cleaning, gutting and frying the former flying fish and eating him and one of his brethren for breakfast. Very tasty.. read more...

Life of Reilly III - blog

A day-long tour of Santa Antao started at 0615 with a 1 km hike to the ferry terminal. A 60 minute ferry ride took us from Mindelo to Porto Novo (pronounced Portneuf in the local Creole dialect). There we boarded a convoy of Toyota minivans that conveyed us around Santa Antao, the second largest island of the Cape Verde archipelago. Geologically, Santa Antao is a long-dead volcanic seamount - a place where the forces of nature evidence themselves in the folded ancient geological strata vividly displayed in vertical cliff faces. The prevailing northeasterly trade winds build a huge surf that continually pounds the windward side of the island. The high and steep mountains of the island wring the moisture from the winds creating a fertile rain forest on one side and leaving the leeward side. read more...

Life of Reilly III - Life of Reilly III

the Mystery of the ShearwaterAn ocean passage requires endless hours of standing watch in the cockpit. Nothing to do except watch. Watch the vessel's heading, watch the set of the sails, watch for other boats, watch the wind, watch the waves, and - occasionally - watch the wildlife. Sadly, in recent years the wildlife has been scarcer than in previous years. I try to put it off to the fact that my vision is failing with age, but I fear that the true explanation for the dearth in sea life is much more tragic.One of our frequent companions when 100s of miles at sea is the shearwater. This graceful acrobat of the waves follows us tirelessly. I wonder whether it is out of a need for companionship or out of curiousity. He swoops effortlessly in the troughs between waves, never flapping his. read more...