Kindred Spirit - Kindred Spirit Amost there!

Hopefully our Final blog at seaSaturday 9th December. We are now entering our 3rd week at sea. The days as I have previously described are sail-eat-sleep repeat. These days and nights are punctuated by exciting events like spotting a yacht on AIS or even better a mast in the distance. We have also been visited by flying fish and each morning walk the decks to remove the fish that didn't make the leap over KS after dark. During one early morning watch an energetic flying fish jumped the rails and hit Matt square on the back before slithering into the cockpit subsequently losing an eye that was never found. Gavin has continued his success with another catch a large Wahoo, that we actually set free as it was too big for us to eat and I didn't fancy all the fridge contents smelling of. read more...

Kindred Spirit - 2 week at Sea with Kindred Spirit

Sunday 3rd Dec. It has been 2 weeks since we started the ARC and 1 week since our last blog. This week has seen team KS get into a routine of watches and meals. Meal and coffee breaks are important events that break up the day. We had our last fresh meat yesterday and i cannot praise enough the excellent meat that the recommended butcher in Las Palmas delivered to us vacuum packed and frozen. So from today we move to ham, cheese, tinned meats accompanied with tortilla de papas,rice, pasta etc. The good news is that we still have fresh onions and apple to stave off scurvy. We have moved 23 degrees west over the last week we have noticed the sun setting later and rising later so to fit in with this change we have moved our eating and watch times by 1 hour. This gradual shift will help us. read more...

Kindred Spirit - Kindred Spirit

It has been 1 week since we started and we have finally have a decent steady NE breeze blowing us towards the Caribbean at 6kts as of Sunday 26/11. The last few days have tried the captain and crew endurancewith many hours of light/no wind that required motor sailing, no fish caught and a temperamental generator all topped off with an estimated arrival time to St Lucia Jan 2018!! Then yesterday (Sat) our fortunes changed we managed to land 2 fish one on standard boat rod and the other on Joanna's crabbing line. Both fish were Boninto and tasted lovely. Then at 1700 the wind filled in from N/NE and has stayed with us ever since. The previous 3 evenings we have motor sailed, so to cruise along in near silence was heaven for those both on and off watch. We spend most of the days alone but. read more...

Kindred Spirit - Kindred Spirit.

3 days in and we have used our sails in most combination, even seeing the outing of our cruising chute today. We seem to have lots of wind in the middle of the night and almost none in the day. We waved goodbye to Las Palmas surrounded by yachts of different sizes, ages and from different nationalities but today we are alone with only a fleeting glance of another yacht on the horizon and a we also spotted strange looking fishing vessel with no AIS. We are a team that know each other well but at 12 noon we enjoy listening to and speaking with other ARC yacht crews. The ARC net is a great way of reminding us that we are not alone and discovering the weather encountered by others. We also share our success stories mainly about fishing, but sadly not on Kindred Spirit and any difficulties,. read more...

Kindred Spirit - Only one day to go

All the crew have arrived on Kindred spirit. We are feeling excited but also a little anxious. So much to do and only a day to do it in. Bernice. read more...