Daily Logs

Timshel - Timshel ARC Portugal Day 3

Nice sunny day; we resumed our proper course once we were clear of the Naval exclusion zone which took until 15.00.Some great fast reaching overnight, and it was warmer - probably because of the cloud cover.Early morning it started to rain (the first for weeks) and the wind headed us and died away.Just when I was thinking we would need to start the engine wind came back and there was a dolphin swimming alongside - maybe its the same one that was there last night.Now sailing close hauled in variable wind with Hydra the Hydrovane steering.. read more...

Mistral of Portsmouth - Tuamotus & Society Islands - Video

https://youtu.be/N5X8d6eFo-8Chris & KarenMistral of Portsmouth. read more...

Timshel - Timshel ARC Portugal Day 2

Timshel ARC Portugal Day 2.Sailing on a broad reach all day, just about at dusk took out last of reefs, and crossed the Continental Shelf - depth goes from 100s of meters to 1000s.Last time we were here (well the only other time we crossed Biscay) there were hordes of dolphins at this point but not today (though forgot to mention the 2 groups that came to the boat yesterday).Seemed to be a very cold night, with a bright moon of course.Sunny morning though and warmer.We were pleased to see from the position reports that we have taken up our customary position at the back of the fleet - we really are not racers.We were just sorting out the weather info when we wre called on channel 16 by a French Naval aircraft telling us we were about to stray until a firing zone, we had to alter course. read more...

Northern Light II - Day 2

A good days sailing . Made progress through the first night cutting just inside the North Ushant TSS gaining a number of places in the fleet. Gennaker up for most of the day. Early evening we were joined by the largest pod of dolphins any of us have seen - video to follow when we reach landfall. 4 hour shift pattern working and Paul and I are looking forward to only doing 4 hours tonight. Miles continues entertaining us with his stories of averting disasters. Fish pie tonight!Michael Chris Paul & Miles. read more...

Timshel - Timshel ARC Portugal Day 1

Lovely weather for the start, we hung back out of the way, but still ended up in the middle of the pack all stealing each others wind so it was slow getting out of Plymouth.Once clear coloured sails started to appear - initially these didn't seem to confer much advantage, then suddenly those boats pulled away. Our cruising chute hasn't been out of the bag for 2 years or more and with the sloppy sea we decided not to wrestle with it and stuck to a reach with 3 white sails.We do suffer a disadvantage with the cutter rig the yankee and staysail combination are great to handle a blow but we are under powered compared to boats with a big genoa, and our rolling main is smaller too.We spent some time playing with the Hydrovane self steering which also had not been recently used.It was lovely. read more...

Northern Light II - Day 1

After the 9.00am racing start , that we approached with caution, we set off slowly gaining on a few boats. Decided to put up our down wind sail which did well until gusts of 18 knots meant it came down again! On white sails since and we are happy with our passage plan now having covered 157 miles in 23 hours.Thats the positive. We have also been plagued by more electrical problems. Radar not working, voltage on batteries going to less than 10v when using the electric winches which results in the chartplotters switching off. A job to sort in Bayona ! Hand steering / hydrovane all the way now.Michael , Chris , Miles & Paul. read more...

Northern Light II - Day Zero

A full day . Skippers briefing , food shopping and final run through of all safety equipment . After our final lunch in a calm marina and an afternoon of passage planning we are now set for the start tomorrow - we hope ! Off for a final beer for 4 days .MichaelI’m just doing the final blogger today for MailaSail, and I’m doing it for the ARC now rateimage0image1image2image3. read more...

Walkabout - La Ora Na from Tahiti

S17:32.4 W149:34.2 As the more astute amongst you will have realised - we are in Tahiti!!!We arrived 24 hours ago, and as usual, the first day after we arrive somewhere is a bit of a blur, as we try to get the boat and ourselves a bit straight.Yesterday was a big blur, and quite frustrating - but everything is fine now.Arriving here on this date has been a year in the planning - to ensure that we can fly back for Jamie’s wedding.Ever since we knew the dates we have been trying to find a secure berth for Walkabout whilst we are away.There are just 2 marinas in Tahiti and we have been in contact with them over many months trying to secure a berth.The response has always been - we are full and you can’t book, it is first come first served, and you must trust your lucky star!Long story. read more...

Time Out - Time Out - Day 13 Bermuda to Azores

Jour 13 : ca approche !Nous avons retrouve le vent hier en fin d’après midi. Un vent établi a 10/15 noeuds avec des vagues de cote qui rendent l’allure assez inconfortable. La mer est hachée, nous avons été secoue toute la nuit. De temps en temps, nous rajoutons le moteur pour garder notre allure de façon a arriver de jour au mouillage. L’arrivée est toujours prévue demain matin vendredi.Encore beaucoup de provisions a bord…Le chef nous a concocte un colombo de poulet hier soir, Time Out mérite une reconnaissance dans les guides gastronomiques !Par contre nous commençons a manquer de produits frais, nous pourrons bientôt faire un réapprovisionnement.Nous commençons maintenant la planification de notre séjour a terre avec quelques marches prévues sur l’île d’Horta.. read more...

Avventura - Bermuda - Azores : Day 14

38:31.937N 28:37.495W alle 03:34 (03:35UTC) del 01 giugno 2023. It seemed to last only a moment.From the first sight of blurred islands on the horizon to our entrance in the port of Horta. From the strong winds and waves of the start to the sunny days in the high pressure. From start to finish, from Bermuda to the Azores.Just and instant, a dream. And yet in this moment everything was lived. The joy of being in the middle of the blue, of feeling the wind pushing us forward. The intensity of every moment, good or bad but precious nonetheless because shared between the six of us.These fourteen days of sea gave us more than we could ask for. Every hard day was generously rewarded, Every rainfall had its rainbow. Every bad wave brought a whale. So often, we were left speechless from the. read more...

Time Out - Day 12 Bermuda to Azores

Day 12 in our Atlantic crossingAfter 4 days of bad weather the Northerly systems out of the US finally broke and moved North across the Atlantic, this meant some piece finally with calm winds, blue sky’s and a sea which started to calm. A very nice change even if it did mean motoring for a while. In the bad weather we had a few minor breakages, reef lines which got chafed and other minor things like that, but on the whole the boat and crew did well. We covered a lot of ground with the boat often topping 11kts and surfing the big waves. Thanks to the fly bridge and the autopilot everybody stayed warm and dry during the whole period. This leg of the crossing is now drawing to a close, we are 240nm out from Horta in the Azores, and anticipate an arrival in the morning of the 2nd. We will. read more...

Time Out - Day 12 Bermuda to Azores

Jour 12 : moteur !Nous sommes toujours au moteur... De temps en temps, nous mettons les voiles mais le vent ne tient pas et nous repartons au moteur. Les derniers miles semblent longs. Nous sommes passe par le sud pour chercher le vent que la météo nous prédisait mais au fur et a mesure que nous avançons le vent est absent.Un dauphin est passe à bâbord ce matin mais il était seul et toujours pas de poissons en vue.Le capitaine a réparé le ris 1 qui s’use prématurément au niveau de la bôme. L’équipage continue son maintien en condition physique. Les dos souffrent, les séances d’étirement sont tres bénéfiques !Nous avons parcouru 1800 miles, il nous reste encore 200 miles environ. Nous devrions arriver vendredi dans la matinee.. read more...

Avventura - Bermuda - Azores : Day 15

38:11.522N 30:34.195W alle 23:00 (23:00 UTC) del 30 maggio 2023. The feeling of near arrival is impossible to ignore now. The news emerged that we have a shot at arriving tomorrow night. Even if it takes a bit longer, we are now expecting an island on the horizon, and this invisible presence makes it impossible to look in another direction. Today the sea is formed, the wind is strong and Avventura cuts through the waves. At the helm, I try my best to steer as far east as the elements allow. I feel the wind and some sea droplets on my face. I feel the excitement of arriving and I feel alive. We changed the official time on board for the third and last time, to UTC-0. A quick adjustment on our clocks and this arbitrary decision took effect, putting us in line with Azores time. With the. read more...

Walkabout - As Frankie Valli once said - Oh What a Night!

S17:11 W147:29Lightening, squalls, sloppy seas and 360’s trying to outrun the biggest weather front Walkabout has come across!We left Fakarava yesterday morning at 1130 to ensure we hit high water through the south pass and were met by quite a lumpy sea for the first time in a while! The engine was on so we motored out to get a good sailing angle for Tahiti and launched the BWR in about 11 knots of wind. It was your perfect day sailing, wind behind, sun out and sky blue, what could possibly go wrong!Well, it all began after sunset when we saw lightning flashes in the distance ahead of us, which in the overall scheme of things was fine as the wind was blowing from behind so any squalls and lightning should stay ahead of us. We then noticed more lightning to the left of us and keeping an. read more...

Time Out - Day 11 Bermuda to Azores

Jour 11 : enfin le soleil !La nuit fut plus clémente. Nous avons navigue sous grand voile et moteur vers le sud pour aller chercher le vent qui devrait nous emmener vers les Acores. Au petit matin, nous avons retrouve un grand ciel bleu que nous avions quitte depuis les Bermudes. Ca nous change du gris de l’Atlantique…Le moral de l’équipage est au beau fixe. Apéro a midi sur le devant du bateau !Petite seance de bricolage aujourd’hui en preparation de notre arrivée aux Acores : reparation de la nourrice de l’annexe et changement des trois premiers chainons trop oxydes de l’ancre.Pas plus de chance a la pêche malgré les essais de différents leurres…. read more...

Avventura - Bermuda - Azores : Day 13

38:59.050N 33:31.165W alle 21:00 (22:00 UTC) del 29maggio 2023.   Today was undoubtedly a slow day. In fact the mostexciting event was when we tacked, at around 3:45PM. We didn't do much beforethat, the manoeuvre  lasted maybe a minute, and then we didn't havemuch else to do for the rest of the day.   I decided to go around the boat asking everyone whatthey were up to. But not the humans -most of those were sleeping- but rather thepersonified objects that travel with us. I went near the bow and saw Marvin the tender, deflatedand contortionated inside his case. Like the galactic robot that inspired hisname, he still found a way to complain and let out a depressed sigh when I saton it to watch the waves.   At the back hard at work were Carola and Siuzy. Carolais. read more...

Time Out - Time Out - Day 10 Bermuda to Azores

Day 10 - It’s Funny how a little rain can make everybody so happy! The reason being that it comes with almost no wind and no waves, that is what greeted us after a particularly complicated night. I have come to the conclusions that weather forecasts in the Northern Atlantic are close approximations useful for about 6h, ie useless :-( What was supposed to be winds of 20/24kt, turned into a night of 30/35kt, and big seas. We spent the night with the maximum number of reefs we could setup in the all the sails, and let TimeOut do the rest. The good news is the boat and it’s Auto Pilot is exceptional, and it dealt with everything like a master while we kept watch from the flybridge throughout the night. The boat spent the night sailing very fast, often hitting 11/12kt, until morning when we. read more...

Time Out - Time Out - Day 10 Bermuda to Azores

Jour 10 : mer agitéeLa nuit fut agitée comme la mer. Un vent de 25 a 30 noeuds s’est établi vers 23 heures. Les vagues poussaient Timeout vers le sud et nous avons poursuivi dans cette direction en diminuant le génois, toujours avec notre ris 3 dans la grand voile. Difficile de dormir avec ces vagues qui secouaient le bateau. Dans la matinee, les vagues se sont essoufflées et nous avons finalement du mettre le moteur pour poursuivre face au manque de vent. Ca risque d’être le cas demain aussi.Nous avons constate cet après midi l’usure du bout du ris 2(pourtant tous les bouts de ris ont été changes avant le depart). La longueur étant suffisante le bout a été démonté, recoupe puis repasse dans la bôme. La reparation est maintenant terminée et le 2ème ris de nouveau opérationnel.On a. read more...

Avventura - Bermuda - Azores : Day 12

38:36.281N 35:35.355W alle 23:00 (00:00 UTC) del 28maggio 2023. Some things in the air changed today. There is the rainthat finally caught up to us, and the wind that came back stronger but unstable.There are clouds everywhere, and the see is much darker.   But there is also this sweet but dangerous feeling ofbeing ever closer to land, with the islands appearing ever more reachable on theGPS screen. Reachable but not reached yet, and we shouldn't foolourselves if we want to preserve the harmony that we found. Indeed, the days goby smoothly and time seems to be less important. The events of yesterdayand last week almost feel equally distant and fresh in  our minds. Inboth cases we felt far away in the middle of the ocean. The vicinity of land changes that. We are still. read more...

Bluewater Mooney - 29.05.2023 BLUEWATER MOONEY

Es ist jetzt 23:59 UTC (Berlin + 2). Wir brauchen noch 8:30 Stunden bzw müssen noch 61 sm zurück legen. Alles ist fahrplanmäßig. Der Wind hat wie vorhergesagt gedreht, und komt jetzt schräg von achtern bb. Ich erwate in ca 4 Stunden rapide abnehmenden Wind und dann die letzten 20 sm Flaute. Ab jetzt müssen wir nch wachsamer sein es ist nicht nur der zunehmende Verkehr, der sich durch ab- und anfahrende Schiffe konzentriert. Ich erwarte auch Schifferboote, die kein AIS haben. Dadurch werden sie nicht auf unserem Plotter angezeigt. Die größeren haben selber Radar, und wir haben ein Gerät, ein sogenanntes Seame, dass unter anderem ein Warnsignal abgibt, wennes ein Radarsignal aufnimt. Damit hat man noch keine Ortung, aber man weiß konkret, dass ein Schiff in der Nähe ist. Unangenehm sind. read more...

Time Out - Time Out - Day 9 Bermuda to Azores

Jour 9 : changement d’amureNous naviguions tribord amure depuis notre depart. Nous attendions une renverse pendant la nuit qui n’est pas venue. Le vent a tourne de 60 degré puis progressivement nous a contraint de changer d’amure seulement dans la matinee. Le matin était plutôt calme et l’équipage a pu faire sa premiere lessive a bord. Tout sèche dans le carre comme a la grande braderie…Nous avons remis les lignes a l’eau sans grand succès. Une troisième équipe de dauphins est passe a l’heure de la sieste. Certains ont pu les voir depuis leur hublot !Nous naviguons maintenant vers les acores en ligne directe. Nous avons parcouru 1200 miles et ils nous reste environ 600 miles a couvrir. Selon PredictWind une partie se fera au moteur avec un arrivée prévue entre vendredi et samedi.. read more...

Infinity of Yar - Let the journey begin!

18 months of planning and we were only 50 minutes late leaving Cowes!OK, so there are a few jobs still to be done before the start of ARC Portugal next weekend but confidence is rising.We found space for all the spares, tools and safety equipment Infinity might need during her year away.Then we had to find more space for 30kg of granola, 80 cans of tonic water, 800 teabags, 7kgs of coffee...I’m relieved to discover this is for the ARC+ too!The first leg of our long journey was a short motor to Lymington yesterday (Saturday 27th May) and then a lovely sail to Portland today in gorgeous sunshine and a 10kt following breeze most of the time.Jules came with us from Cowes but had to get back to London, so we dropped her and Arkwright the racing pigeon off in Weymouth before anchoring in. read more...

Blonde Moment - Sunday, May 28, 2023

Sunday, May 28, 2023It has been a bizarre couple of days with very low winds, and a weather forecast which made us wonder if it was a typo. (winds from 0 degrees to 270 degrees…? Seriously..) Dolphins were easily spotted in the glassy calm water, with the common dolphins jumping right out of the water. We were seeing small pods of them several times per watch. Then, on Friday evening as we were making dinner, a sperm whale surfaced on the port beam about 15 meters away and stayed with us for a few moments. Quite a sight. We continue to have warm and sunny weather with cool nights. Sunday morning it rained for ten minutes, which is more rain in total than we have seen since Antigua a month ago. We seem to have been motoring away from the wind that is approaching from the west, so on. read more...

Time Out - Time Out - Day 8 Bermuda to Azores

Day 8 in our Atlantic crossingThe last 48h have been dynamic with strong winds gusting high in the 30’s, and rain storms come through regularly. The front which was behind us for several days finally overtook us be it slowly, and everybody got a good soaking. The morning was spent drying cloths, as the passing of the front left us with a period of calm seas and slow winds. The reprieve was short lived as another front coming from the NE is catching up on us, and winds are increasing again. We are heading south to escape the winds but I suspect we will still get the rain :-( This will be a short lived front, and starting next week I expect us to be in very calm weather for a couple of days. Will we get to see some Sunshine, that is the question. Besides the boat movement things are. 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...

Bluewater Mooney - 27.05.2023 BLUEWATER MOONEY

Die Wettervorhersage bleibt zuverlässig. Das bedeutet für uns, dass wir mit dem Code Zero den Kurs nach Horta nicht anliegen konnten, sondern zum Teil deutlich nach Süden abfallen mussten. Alles um den Mast, der mit zwei Seilen (Falle zumSetzen der Leichtwindsegel) anstelle des Vorstags stabilisiert wird, möglichst gering zu belasten.Dann kam noch Welle auf, nicht besonders, aber ausreichend, um das Schiff wegen der niedrigen Geschwindigkeit immer mal wieder stampfen zu lassen. und solche Stampfbewegungen führen dazu, dass der Mast mit seinen 24 Meter Höhe ordentlichauf die Haltepunkte drückt. Alles semi optimal.Als noch etwas mehr Welle aufkam, haben wir den Code Zero eingeholt, und ein paar Stunden versucht, mit Groß- und Kuttersegel zu fahren. Das Kuttersegel ist ein kleines Segel. read more...

Avventura - Bermuda - Azores : Day 10

39:07.877N 39:03.463W alle 22:00 (23:00 UTC) del 27maggio 2023.   Coming next, a short synopsis of the day, from the dailyblog.   - An enormous 300 meters tanker was coming straight atus this morning. When questioned, a friendly voice assured us that his shipwould not, in fact, destroy us completely.   - More astronomical navigation made by future goldenglobe race contender Alessandro. His observations of the sun with the sextantgive a rather precise estimated position.   - A private spectacle of whale jumps, getting high intothe air and falling down with a splash on their backs.   - The gennaker halyard decided to not hold the gennakeranymore, letting it fall down in the water. The quick reaction from everyone wasneeded to pull it on board and haul it back up. read more...

Time Out - Time Out - Day 8 Bermuda to Azores

Jour 8 : temps bretonLe ciel reste gris et nous ne voyons toujours pas le soleil. Pendant la nuit, nous avons navigue avec un troisième ris dans le génois pour stabiliser le bateau dans les rafales de 25 noeuds et plus. Ca devrait encore être le cas cette nuit puis le temps devrait s’éclaircir peu a peu d’ici lundi.Aujourd’hui la grande animation était le passage d’un cargo en ligne de vue et nous avons pu sortir les appareils photos… une bande de dauphins est aussi passée sur bâbord et nous a gratifiée de quelques sauts mais ne s’estpas arrêtée pour nous saluer.Avec ce temps, nous restons dans le carre. Après le tarot, nous avons sorti le scrabble. Pas facile d’arbitrer les mots sans google et le seul dictionnaire a bord ne reconnaît pas les mots cake, apnée, koi etc…Laurie nous a. read more...