Logs

Walkabout - And then there were 2...

S18:25 E174:34There has been a lot of radio silence on our blog updates over the last few weeks.It has been a busy time on Walkabout, as we said goodbye to Tom and Bron in Tonga, and then 2 days later welcomed the Gammons x5.I think they probably felt that they had been mis-sold the South Pacific.The first 10 days of their venture was cool, cloudy and very wet at times.Not to mention - very windy.Our passage from Tonga to Lau (Fiji) was tough for everyone.Strong winds, big seas, rain and cold.It felt like the G’s regular summer trip to Cornwall, not the South Seas of the Pacific.On the bright side, everyone remained upbeat, no one was sea sick, which was pretty amazing given the conditions.During the second half of the G’s trip the weather improved, and we headed to Savusavu and then on. read more...

Walkabout - The Day That Never Was

S18:35 W173:52After crossing the equator a couple of months back, we have now crossed another of those invisible lines that straddle the earth - The International Date Line!!In theory, if the Greenwich Meridian (0 degrees of longitude) is the foundation of measuring time, then the international date line should be at 180 degrees West (or East - depends which way you are heading).But the IDL is not a straight line.It zig zags down through the Pacific, tip toeing its way through all sorts of national and political interests along the way.So after some research we discovered that between Niue and Tonga, the IDL is at 172 degrees 30 Minutes West.Celebrations were hastily organised, and at 19.51 last night we crossed the line. Advisedly, I say 'last night', as who knows what day it was!So. read more...

Walkabout - About to lose a day...

S19:19 W171:35We are back on passage on our way to Tonga after an incredible 3 days in Niue. We arrived in Niue in the evening on Friday 7th July in darkness and picked up a mooring buoy with all of the other arc boats who had arrived at various points throughout the day on Friday. After successfully mooring up with the help of Escapade and Northstar in their dingy, we enjoyed our arrival beer with some Pringles and then had the delight of a full nights sleep without any night shifts to get up for - what a novelty! From then on we had a completely jam packed time on Niue without a spare minute but we loved every part. We began by using the crane to lift the dingy onto the dock the next morning which was a new experience for us all but we soon found a routine for it… after checking in to. read more...

Jadamama - Jadamama Bora Bora to Niue

Heno and I said our goodbyes to Maureen and Scott in Tahiti and have been joined by Heno’s dad, also called Henry/Heno, and my cousin Mícheál rejoined us in Bora Bora having last seen him in the Galapagos. I flew home for about ten days from Tahiti to reconnect with family and especially my wife Mairéad who has filled many of the gaps that I have left by doing this trip and yet has been unable to join for any part of it.I owe her and indeed all my family and friends a huge debt of gratitude for their support over the last twelve months that I have spent on the oceans around the planet.Looking back at the Society islands as a whole, we heard Moorea was the jewel and indeed it is a very special place to visit and explore. We loved the hiking, the snorkelling and just the geography and. read more...

Walkabout - Day 7 - We have company!

S18:53 W163:38After four days of not seeing a sole, at 1300 yesterday, we have the best of company join us for our last few days at sea. Mary Doll just pinged up on AIS on the chart plotter and soon after they did, Letitia and Derek called up on the VHF and we all heard a loud HORAY when we answered! It was great and brought huge smiles from us all.Its now 0745 the following day, our arrival day in Nuie and Escapade of London have also just pinged up on AIS so now we are three. It is so good to have company on the water, it feels slightly more comforting knowing there are others nearby, you may not be able to visibly see them but you can call up them up and say hello, and keep an eye on the AIS, check out their speed, bearing and direction in comparison to you. Yesterday was a good. read more...

Walkabout - Another Day for Fishing

S18:37 W165:52The morning shift consists of two important things, getting the blog written but more importantly getting the fishing lines in. We haven’t has much success since the Mahi that we caught on the first day, we did have two bites yesterday at the same time so Andrew was woken up to try and pull them both in. No sooner had he made it up here and started to bring the Genoa in to slow us down both fish decided they didn’t want to be dinner that evening. Gratefully they left both of our lures behind and swam off. We haven’t yet managed to land a double catch at the same time, although it is a goal. It has been quite a slow night aboard Walkabout as the wind has gradually died over the night. We have had sails crashing and banging a little as the wind dropped below 9 knots.. read more...

Walkabout - Day 5: Variable, Mainly Good

S18:23 W163:37Back in the day, when people listened to the weather forecast on the BBC (whether though interest, boredom, inability to sleep or because it was before the news) there were (and still are) a variety of expressions that are used to describe the various facets of the weather.For example, ‘Variable” is used in relation to winds being ‘light and variable’.‘Mainly good’ is used in relation to the visibility.These days we all have access to the weather in all sorts of forms on line.Up until this passage we have relied on downloading Grib files whilst at sea and interpreting them to devise the best weather route.But Starlink has changed all that now.Now we can access all sorts of online weather information and multiple means of generating weather routing.But the general situation. read more...

Walkabout - We are Halfway to Niue!

S17:54 W160:47Morning everyone!And so another day at sea begins… this is day 5 at sea and we have settled into a nice routine at this point. We have just passed the halfway stage of the passage during our sail change this morning - 578.5 miles sailed with approx 520 miles to go! Whoop whoop! The last 24 hours have seen a significant drop in wind so during the afternoon yesterday, the decision was made to drop the sails that we had up at the time and motor through this wind hole. Before the engine was turned on we were hitting the strong speed of 2 knots despite having the blue water runner up to try and get the most out of the light winds but we were not making the progress we had hoped for. In the early hours of yesterday morning, we also hit the point of having sailed enough miles that. read more...

Walkabout - Cloudy days in the South Pacific

S 16:29.5 W 156:14.0Its a cloudy morning out here in the South Pacific, the sun has come up but hasn’t been any kind of sunrise. We had a full moon overnight so it has been something dusk like for the night shifts. The wind is coming onto our port quarter so the big bands of rain off our starboard side shouldn’t be a worry, in theory!! We will wait and see if we have any rain over the next few hours but hopefully it will brighten up. We have had our ARC friends Zissou on AIS for the last 24 hours and now we have another friends boat called Tamlin on AIS around 10 miles in front. The AIS can be strange as often we can’t see anyone but then you will hear someone on the radio or they will suddenly pop up and they won’t be that far away. Yesterday we had no one on AIS but we could hear half. read more...

Walkabout - Normal Service Is Resumed

S15:46 W153:56We are up and running, and getting back into the passage making routine again.After the first night at sea, many things are just the same as I remember them from previous passages.The first thing is that Tom has his fishing licence back (perhaps briefly) as we caught a nice Mahi Mahi yesterday afternoon, so soon into our passage - the Fishing Club is doing well.That led to a rapid reassessment of the meal plans by the Catering Club.Off the menu for last night went the bolognese, and straight on came baked Mahi Mahi - very nice indeed - great job by both Clubs.We went into the night with a plan - sail set up and heading.Discussed and agreed by the Governance and Strategy Sub-Committee.By midnight this was all looking a bit flakey.As ever, the wind gods hadn’t read the. read more...

Walkabout - Overnight motor sail to Huahine

S16:41 W150:58We set off from Mo’orea for my first crossing on Walkabout just after 4pm yesterday evening having enjoyed a lovely few days exploring the mountainous island. Tom and I had a two night stay in a hostel on Mo’orea while Traci and Andrew arrived back on Walkabout and had a day and a half back in Tahiti for boat jobs and provisioning. On the 17th, the two of them sailed from Tahiti to Mo’orea and picked us up from the beach in Opanohu bay where Tom watched Walkabout sail and anchor without him on it for the first time since he joined Walkabout in February! The last few days have included walking up Magic Mountain to an incredible viewpoint over the reefs and snorkelling over underwater Tikis in crystal clear water. We enjoyed three sociable evenings both onboard Walkabout and. read more...

Mistral of Portsmouth - Tuamotus & Society Islands - Video

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

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...

Walkabout - Day 4 - 15 miles to Fakarava, Tuamotu

S15:54 W145:37Our final night at sea and the sun is about to rise above the horizon and we are all looking forward to anchoring off the town of Rotoava and having dinner ashore!Fakarava is the second largest of the atolls that are the Tuamotu archipelago and along with 6 other atolls, forms part of the Nature Biosphere Reserve by UNESCO. There are two main villages on Fakarava, Rotoava in the north and Tetamanu in the south where the first Catholic Church was built out of coral in 1874. The island is surrounded by a crown of reed stretching 60 km long and 25 wide.The island is known for its emerald waters, luxurious fauna and flora and incredible diving and snorkelling due to the coral, fish and strong concentration of grey sharks! Sort of puts me off snorkelling and swimming to be. read more...

Walkabout - Day 3 - Nuka Hiva to Fakarava - Slow days at Sea

S13:60 W144:02Hello,We are all trying to get back into the routine of life at sea, you would have thought it would be pretty easy after spending nearly 3 weeks at sea about 10 days ago. It feels like we set off on a day sail that’s just been lasting for the last 72 hours so far. Maybe that’s just all my mind could cope with thinking about after the passage we have done!We are gradually still on the mend with eating bigger and more substantial portions every time. There is still some food we think about cooking and go maybe not today, just a step too far. For breakfast we had eggy bread and bacon sandwiches which smelt and tasted unbelievably good. Lunch was bean salad, coleslaw and wraps and dinner was tomato bolognese pasta while we took part in our daily not so formal SSB call. We have. read more...

Jadamama - Jadamama blog phots

Mountain pass at Anaho and arrival in Fakarava 036F887A-94AA-40C3-B2E8-6E1D4ACB8FE5_1_105_c79657748-B7F8-4266-B3CB-33F74E04EB3D_1_105_c. read more...

Jadamama - Jadamama arrives in Fakarava, Tuamotus

From Ua Pou we made for Anaho which is a calm and well protected anchorage in the North East of mountainous Nuku Hiva. It is surrounded by a reef and beach with just a small village set among palm and fruit trees with the next village a boat ride or a trek over a mountain pass away so the atmosphere is very tranquil. You have to book lunch or dinner a day in advance at the only restaurant but the lobster was certainly worth the wait. We had lunch alongside the beach after a breath-taking morning climb up to the pass where we could see that visiting yachts outnumbered local houses by about three to one.We motor sailed around the island then to Taoia especially to see a famous waterfall that was rumoured to have dried out.The anchorage is an almost magical gap in a rough and rugged. read more...

Walkabout - The Marquesas

S9:51 W139:09Since our arrival in the Marquesas on 2nd May, we have visited 4 of these stunning islands and are loving it here! We arrived on Hiva Oa in a small anchorage and were met by Cheryl and Heikki from Zelda who we first met on the ARC+ in 2021. They were anchored in the north of the island and had a hire car for the day so were happy to pick us up and take us into town where we purchased sim cards, withdrew some local cash, picked up some supplies, visited the gendarmerie to finalise our check-in and then met up with fellow ARC mates for some lunch.The people of the marquesas are extremely generous and friendly, we were waved over by a chap on our walk back from town who asked where we were from and offered us a hand of his bananas from his plantation. We took as many. read more...

Walkabout - Day 1 - Nuku Hiva to Tuamotus

S10:39 W141:22The biggest tuna we did catch!Walkabout is once again on the move and are currently on passage to the Tuamotus. These are an archipelago of atolls rich in sea life, coral reefs and tidal ways that can be tricky to navigate. We are looking forward to exploring a few of the atolls before making our way to Tahiti and rendezvous with Bron on 3rd June! It wasn’t long before we left Haahopu Bay yesterday morning that the fishing line was out. We had our share of near misses with some BIG fish of late, namely a 10kg+ Tuna we weren’t able to land and then a Sailfish that we fought with for 20 minutes before it took our line and lure! And boy did it put up a fight, jumping and somersaulting out the water!!On this occasion, we happily landed a large 8kg black tuna, not 100% sure what. read more...

Misty of Mylor - Misty's blog: Mountain hopping in French Polynesia

It’s April. I am currently in Rangiora, 200 nautical miles from Tahiti. It’s 28 degrees (at 8am) but feels more if there is no breeze. During the day it’s sunny most of the time and at night we have showers and thunderstorms.French Polynesia is one of the most remote places on Earth anyone can travel to. So far We have visited the Marquesas (Hiva Oa, Nuku Hiva and Oa Pou) and Tuamotus (Kauehi, Fakarava and Rangiora). The Marquesas Islands have mountains, loads of green vegetation, jungles and waterfalls, while the Tuamotus Islands are atolls. They are flat, full of palm trees and the middle of these islands have a hole formed by the crater of an underwater volcano. It’s like a lake surrounded by a halfmile land ring with usually one or two gaps where boats can sail in and out.All these. read more...

Jadamama - Jadamama blog from Ua Pou, Marquesas

We arrived in Hiva Oa late on May 1/early May 2 after over 20 relatively peaceful days at sea punctuated by the odd excitement such as a fish, a boat or a weather event.The last few days were a bit more difficult as the weather deteriorated and we had lost our starboard steering due to a break in the cable.Heno and Polly rigged a back-up system with dyneema and some u-bolts which got us in but there was another cable also perilously close to failing. We had no hand steering and were completely reliant on the autopilot system, even in the anchorage, until Heno put a longer term fix in place. Hiva Oa is a forbidding island to arrive at as sheer rock rises up to a volcano crater that is shrouded in clouds.Jurassic Park is certainly an image that springs to mind !As it was dark when we. read more...

Walkabout - Quick Update - Land Ahoy!!!

S9:53 W138:49Through the pitch black of a moonless night, we are able to make out the outline of islands!We have 12 miles to run to get to our anchorage in Hiva Oa.Nearly there!We should arrive around sunrise, and then try and find somewhere to anchor - apparently it is rather busy in paradise.Further update to follow later, one we are secure.A,T&Tx. read more...

Walkabout - Day 18 - We found some wind

S9:15W133:48After days of on and off motoring we now have some steady wind, since the last update the wind has built gradually as was predicted. We were able to fly the BWR the whole of yesterday making great progress until around 5 in the evening. But at that stage the wind had reached 17-18 knots and we were storming towards Hiva Oa at 8-9 knots. It was great to make such good speed but with the forecast only set for the wind to build on what it was we had to bring it down. We reverted back to 2 reefs in the main and 1 in the Genoa both on the starboard side with the main on a gybe preventer. We were still making good speed, as the evening was drawing in we had a squall come past with some rain. We hadn’t seen a squall in a good 10 days, maybe as we are getting closer to land?? We put. read more...

Walkabout - Day 17 - Holy Hydrovane said Skipsy - It's a Blooming Miracle!

S8:42.4 W130:58.0The miles to go are gradually coming down - less than 500NM to go now.We have just clicked through 12000NM since leaving the UK.Interestingly, Tom has done 5000NM of these miles with us since joining Walkabout in February - that is some big miles for someone new to sailing!And earns Tom a new tattoo - a swallow - which is the traditional sailors tattoo to mark every 5000NM sailed.I think it would look nice on his neck - just above the collar line.Others may have a different view….!!Yesterday was a bit frustrating - all the weather indicated that the wind would be filling in and we would be making reasonable speed under sail.There were many false dawns to the arrival of the wind, and a bit of Hokey Cokey with the sails and engine as we tried to make reasonable. read more...

Walkabout - Day 16 - Motoring on a flat Pacific Ocean

S8:26 W128:33The last 24 hours has seen Walkabout change from a sailing boat to a motorboat! With flat calm seas comes very little or no wind at all. It was in the forecast and so expected and the prediction actually arrived when they said it would! As we move to single figures on the wind front, we can sail with lighter sails either our Blue Water Runner or G1 but when the true wind drops below 8 knots coming from dead behind on a regular basis, its time to start up the engine. We certainly wont be able to motor the remaining distance but we can motor through a low wind patch to where we can pick up more wind and sail the rest of the way to Hiva Oa. The forecast is telling us that the wind will pick up from later today (we hope) and will increase to 20+ knots for a few days driving us. read more...

Walkabout - Day 15 - Hot Hot Hot

S08:15 W126:19By around 8am yesterday we we already sweating up on deck. Due to the lower winds we don’t get any breeze on the boat at all. With no clouds in the sky the sun was beating down, we are all very grateful for the Bimini keeping the sun off of us. We managed to make some good progress with the BWR (Blue Water Runner, a sail for dead downwind) in the morning even with the light winds (around 7-9 knots). But at around midday we were bobbing around a bit to much for our liking. The engine went on and we had to get used to the low drone of 2000 revs again. Throughout the day we kept an eye on the wind, but as soon as the wind would pick up again and we would talk about sailing, sure enough the wind would drop back to the point it wouldn’t be worth it. Because of the low wind the. read more...

Jadamama - Jadamama blog- Back to life...back to reality

So I left the lads facing into the ‘big jump’ across to French Polynesia, and I can honestly say I never wanted more than to just go with them. I flew to Guayaquil, in Ecuador, on to Madrid and back to a (remarkably dry and warm) Dublin. But sadly I my adventure had to conclude in Galapagos. It’s funny coming back everyone asks ‘how was it?’, ‘it must have been the trip of a lifetime?’, and the only honest answer is – yes it absolutely was! It really was everything I could have imagined and more.Galapagos was spectacular. From about 150 miles out, it was a breath-taking blur of sea-life - sailing through pods of pilot whales, to enormous sperm/Brydes whales, to playful dolphins at the bow. Red-footed boobies hitching a ride on the boat, to swimming through shoal after shoal of fish,. read more...

Walkabout - Day 14 - It's WAHOO kind of day

S7:29 W121:31Not quite sure what happened but the rod and line went back in the water yesterday!Since leaving St Lucia on this epic journey, it has become a bit of a tradition that fish only bite when we have multiple things going on! No sooner had we made a sail change to the G1 to increase our boat speed for the last few hours of daylight, dinner was being prepped down in the galley, when we all heard the fishing reel whistle notifying us that we have something on the hook! We all quickly made our way to the cockpit, Andrew picks up the rod and begins to reel it in, Tom and I furl the G1 to slow the boat down and give Andrew the best possible chance of reeling our catch in, we also turned slightly to windward to de-power the mainsail and so at 4 knots boat speed Tom takes over the rod. read more...

Walkabout - Day 13 - The wind playing tricks

S 07:03 W118:57As I came up to take over from Andrew on my night shift Andrew told me that once again the wind had made a 40 degree wind shift and was now at 130 degrees, we were no longer on a heading to Hiva Oa, more like Hawaii!! This has happened the past 2 night as well. We have made our sail plan and gone into the night happily and it has lasted well, until the early hours where the wind decides that it is going to take us on its own course. In some cases this hasn’t been to bad but other times it has been a pain and only increases our overall miles sailed. Andrew decided at 5am that we needed to take the BWR down and put the main up (with 1 reef in) and pull the Genoa out. This was great for me and Andrew as we were already awake. Not so good for Traci who was fast asleep. We soon. read more...

Jadamama - Jadamama blog - Pacific Blues

Here we are, 11 days out of Puerto Ayora in the Galapagos, having passed the halfway point on Friday evening, and about 1,280 nm to go as I write this early on Sunday morning Ship’s time. The Tradewinds are proving fickle, with lots of blue areas, areas of light or no wind, spreading over our path westwards and our routing software seemingly unable to find a sensible route through, so we are trying to thread the needle to stay in the bands of wind.To do this the big blue butterfly is our sail of choice as it can pull us along at about 50% of the wind speed. Unfortunately the wind angles are such that it keeps dragging us North towards the blue areas on the map. Blue attracting blue???The strategy has therefore become run northwards under blue at night and in the morning change to the. read more...

Walkabout - Day 12 - Over Half Way Day

S7:08 W116:27By most methods of assessment we passed through halfway yesterday.We celebrated the crossing of the halfway line of longitude with a beer and at tube of Pringles at about 1100 (Walkabout Time).We all agreed that the beer was nice, tasted a bit strange after 12 days on the wagon.But resisted the urge to have another just to check whether the first was ok. Shortly after crossing this nebulous line we were joined by a big pod of dolphins around the boat and off the bow.They seemed to think this milestone was worth celebrating too.One dimension where we are probably not over halfway is time.It took us just under 10 days to get to the halfway line of longitude at an average speed of 6.8 knots.The last couple of days have seem much lighter winds, and the days ahead look lighter. read more...

Walkabout - Day 11 - Sunrises on Walkabout

S7:32 W114:13One of the best moments of each day is being up in the cockpit as the darkness gradually lifts with a fresh coffee in hand as the light in the sky slowly builds and eventually the sun appears casting its rays across the ocean and sets you up for a new day.Another 24 hours on Walkabout and the blue water runner has been pulling us along ever closer to Hiva Oa. We’ve had steady winds of 9-13 knots with the occasional minor squall and higher winds but overall its been a pretty relaxed day. The seas are calmer with half a meter of swell, we’ve seen a few birds flying around in the distance but not much in the way of sea life or fishing for that matter! The rod and line went back out yesterday after a few changes to lures and traces but nothing is biting at the moment and it. read more...

Walkabout - Relaxing days at sea

S7:46 W111:57Having now completed a full week at sea we are well and truly in full swing of life onboard. The last few days have been very slow and relaxed. Lots of catching up on sleep, reading, eating and playing music. We had one fishing line out yesterday but bringing it in the evening found that it had no lure on it. The metal clip to the wire trace had ripped in two. Something big must have had a go at it. We had a great days sailing with the blue water runner up from about 11 in the morning after our morning sail change. We ended up leaving the sail up overnight due to hours of low windspeed and no squalls in sight. We just had to be checking the radar regularly to ensure no squalls had built in the distance and would catch us out. The boat sits flat on the water and the sailing. read more...

Walkabout - Day 9 - Flying Fish and Flying Boobies

S8:02 W109:25The last 24 hours have been a bit of a mixed bag weather wise.Early yesterday was bright with stable winds 14-18 knots from the ESE.The solar was charging the batteries and the sailing was pretty straight forward - port tack, 1 reef in the main and full Genoa.The Hydrovane had all the steering under control.The cloud cover increased by lunchtime, and soon there were the signs of rain and squalls around us.A short while later we had a call on the VHF from Into The Mystic, who were about 4 miles away from us, to say that they had just been hit by a big one, with the wind jumping from 14 to 26 knots in an instant, accompanied by torrential rain - And it was heading our way.The radar told the same story - big squall and we were right in it’s track.We got ourselves sorted with. read more...

Walkabout - Day 8 - 1000 nautical miles DONE!

S7:31 W106:28A wonderful feeling on board Walkabout today as we passed the 1000nm milestone since leaving Galapagos and we are roughly a third of the way to Hiva Oa!We also clocked up our biggest 24 hour run of this trip so far - 181nm.Its been another cloudy day with little sun, a few sail changes but mainly goose-winging downwind or wing-on-wing sailing which means we have the Genoa poled out on our port side and the mainsail is on our starboard side and the wind is almost directly behind us.Its been a little rolly at times and therefore we move around the boat ‘one hand for us and one hand for the boat’ making simple things like making lunch or even going to the toilet challenging! But that hasn’t stopped us eating well and enjoying the Mahi Mahi we caught the previous day. We feasted. read more...

Walkabout - Day 7 - Fishing ban

S7:22 W103:34It was a sad day due to my fishing license having been revoked by Head chef.We have now made it out of the doldrums so are well in towards the trade winds now. The weather isn’t very settled and is still very squally and wet at times. We are hoping that this will come to an end soon and be more settled in a few days. Although the boats ahead have reported no improvement. But here's to hoping.Monday started off well with the sun finally coming out. We hadn’t seen the sun much in the last few days due to still being caught up in the cloud from the squalls. The wind was steady and we spent most of the day on the Hydrovane. There were a couple of sail changes to break the day up, we hoisted the blue water runner and flew that until the wind picked up and was overpowered. So that. read more...

Walkabout - Day 6 - A Quarter of the way to Hiva Oa!

S6:55 W101:00We have made steady progress over the last 24 hours, heading in the right direction towards Hiva Oa.This morning we went through the one quarter distance milestone!! WHOOHOOThe wind is fairly stable from ESE at between 14-20 knots.There have been a couple of sail set ups over the last 24 hours as we try to optimise speed and direction.The Blue Water Runner went up yesterday lunchtime, which worked quite well, but the wind angle meant that it prevented us heading any further south.So we reverted to main and Genoa overnight.That started with 1 reef in the main, until 2300 when the wind built to 20knots and the desire for a more comfortable night meant we put the 3rd reef in.As I write, the decision needs to be made for our set up for the day - BWR could fit the bill.One. read more...

Walkabout - Walkabout has left The Galapagos xxx

Hi everyone and especially to mum who I know is avidly reading these mails and a quick hello to you to say that all is well and I love you xxAlso a special hello to Ingaborg our neighbour in Noss who has just had a hip operation today, we are thinking of you and wishing you a speedy recovery xxA quick update as we set off from Santa Cruz, Galapagos today at 1330, half an hour later than planned due immigration checks all boats have to go through. Thankfully they weren’t as rigorous as the arrival checks and we were boarded by 5 officials to ensure we weren’t smuggling any iguanas or penguins! ;)We have over 3000nm to our next destination of Hiva Oa in French Polynesia. This should take us between 20 and 24 days - depending on the wind…We are currently moving through the fleet of boats. read more...

Mistral of Portsmouth - Rangiroa

Wow … we have loved this Atoll. When we arrived we had a day of continuous rain and cloud but from there on, aside from passing tropical showers, the sun was shining, the sky was true blue and the sea a myriad of greens, aquamarine, turquoise and a deep blue. I joined up with Fiona from S/Y Matilda and we did 2 dives through the pass … drifting through the coral with the current we saw shoals of barracuda, a hammerhead, a massive Napoleon Wrasse, glorious reef fish and dolphins ‘holding hands’ - completely magical. We found Relais de Josephine … a small local bar and restaurant looking out over the pass where we could watch sharks and dolphins whilst having coffee or cocktails - my favourite place. We biked our way around the atoll and discovered ‘Pearly’ - a little hut owned by a. read more...

Walkabout - Motoring through the doldrums with 2.4 knots of wind

S2:02 W91:36Good morning on Day 1 of our passage to Hiva Oa - 0540 local timeWalkabout’s first night shift is almost over and so we begin life at sea once again only this time its a little longer than usual. Over 3000 nautical miles to a new destination and exploring. The early morning shift of 0500-0800 is a busy one! At first light the fishing lines go out to catch the early morning fishies which is apparently one of the best times to fish, not so lucky for us so far though. We have two lines, one rod and the other a hand-line with a small piece of bungie acting as a tell-tale if we have anything on the line. Both have been deployed and so we wait to see what today brings.No fish were caught last night so during our evening SSB radio call with the other boats we enjoyed spaghetti. read more...

Walkabout - Rain Rain Rain

S5:22 W95:53Friday 14th was our 3rd day at sea. The day was started by a rude awakening at 6:15 to reef the sails as the wind had picked up and a squall coming in. We assumed it would be a temporary measure. 12 hours later we were just about at the stage where we could come up and not get wet through from the rain pouring in. There was lots of thunder and lightening action throughout the day. It was a strange day where I could mostly relate it to summers in Cornwall which were wet and windy camping, hiding under canvas for shelter. The day was filled with too much wind then not enough so motoring was the only option. The sea state was sloppy and due to our angle that we were sailing across it was not very comfortable. At this stage we had managed to sail much more than we thought we were. read more...