can we help
+44(0)1983 296060
+1 757-788-8872
tell me moreJoin a rally

Menu

Little Island - 240 hours



Over a decade behind the curve. Cat has discovered Greys Anatomy after copying 9 seasons over from the hard drive that Gitane lent us before departing. Fair to say she’s got quite into it, with sail choices on her watch hinged on whether the laptop will be securely positioned as to allow for an adequate viewing experience. As I write this, she is crouched in the bottom of the cockpit like some sort of boxset Gollum, leaning in and fixated over her precious. This is where I find her quite often now, with barely a glimpse of the old Smeagle left in her.

A big highlight of the day was the grand opening of a Christmas cake that mum made us before we left - thanks mum. It’s beautifully decorated with holly icing and tastes the business. I reckon if we suddenly lost all of our food, we could make it to St Lucia quite comfortably surviving on the calorific cake alone, it’s perfect.

A recent lowlight is the news that our spanking new auto-helm, electronic Mandy, has developed an infuriating squeak; a total contrast from the real world Mandy who, to my knowledge, rarely squeaks. We think that a splash of water loosens her up, the electronic Mandy this is, so we just do that and put up with it.

As for the sailing, we are currently cruising along in champagne conditions but still enduring a confused sea state. It makes the goosewing configuration tricky because the main constantly disturbs the airflow over the genoa with the rolling, resulting in a flog and then a piercing snap as the genoa reloads. It’s those shock loads that break things, so we’ve dropped the main and have hoisted the storm jib on the inner forestay sheeted on the opposite gybe to the genoa. It seems to be going nicely and is giving us a steady 6ish knots. Nothing fast, but it’s steady progress.

We’ve had to put a hold on fishing with the waves, only because trying to gut and fillet a fish on the roof of the aft cabin where our filleting table lives is quite hazardous. I’ve developed a bit of a track record for dropping stuff over the side and it would be a near certainty if I were to attempt it in these conditions.

Finally, we gave the bananas a bloody good go but, in an emotional sea burial, have had to say goodbye to the longest survivors this morning. It was a wonderful ceremony. Thoughts and prayers.

Martin


Previous | Next