Daily Logs

Jayana - EN ROUTE Newsletter - Vol. 2

  EN ROUTE Newsletter2nd editionNovember 23, 2022 Welcome to the second edition of the EN ROUTE newsletter, where great sea men congregate when there's no land in sight! I volunteered to act as a email controller, so the poor souls without SSB can also have a social life. Please send me your stories as this will gets more interesting only with your involvement!  -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=WHERE ARE THE KIDS (AND A FEW FRIENDS)?-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= #    Name                DTF      Var5   Catasis              2152      ?8   Alchemy              2175     . read more...

Endeavour III - Endeavour III - Day 3

Day 3, murder at sea! Another glorious day, and a more restful night had by all it seems. Everyone being in good spirits this morning!We have been having some great south easterly winds pushing us in the right direction. To those following us on the tracker thinking, ‘but you are going to far south!?’, I say, check out the weather forecast, we want to keep these lovely winds. Alas starlink has ceased to work! No more internet, and no more YB tracking info! Today we covered 187 miles, and trust we are doing well keeping up with the fleet. The morning was spent trying out different sail plans, and eventually settling on a full code O, giving us an average 8.2kns throughout the day. Just before dinner we changed to a poledout gib, and full main, to goose wing for the night. Dinner was. read more...

Mairmade - Day#3

Highlight of the day: Cooking!Harry kicked us off with Greek style omelette on toast for breakfast, and Claudia rounded it out with beef tacos for dinner; guacamole and hot sauce included! Both delicious and much appreciated by all.Even though the weather has been excellent today, the rolling of the Atlantic ocean makes work in the galley a challenge, so props to Claudia and Harry 🙌Full sun and 15-20 knot winds from 60-90 degrees made for a great day of sailing Southwest. We covered 177nm in the past 24 hours for a 2 day total of 363nm; we are quite happy with our progress.Oh, and another highlight for today: Nothing broke! 🤣In to night watches now... L8R. HSent from Iridium Mail & Web.. read more...

Xenial - Day 16 - A (stereo)typical day at sea

We had a good day yesterday, and at midday we received confirmation that in the past 24h we had covered 184nm. Not bad!The day felt like a stereotype of most of our days onboard. Bobo came on deck at 8am to relieve the last nightshift, and made himself a nice cup of Earl Grey, with milk obviously. Ulrik cut his daily grapefruit and is bravely making his way through a large pot of boat made yogurt. He then started messing around with the plotter to create all kind of views with radar overlays, wind and rudder angles and so on. Gustaf enjoyed a breakfast of cornflakes, with a side of two slices of bread with butter and the famous orange jam (more of a main than a side of you ask me).The sun was out (but with the occasional cloud to give us some welcome shadow) and the sea was as calm as it. read more...

Bluewater Mooney - BLUEWATER MOONEY 22.11.2022

Wir liegen trotz einiger Platzverluste über alles sehr gut - werden wir aber vermutlich nicht halten können wenn alle die Passate erreichen - dann ist Wettertaktik weniger gefragt!Aktueller Stand:22. all Boats11. Cruising all1. Class C (das Boot mit dem Krönchen). read more...

Mairmade - Day#2

Today was a much more 'normal' day with winds 15-20, and no saltwater on the decks!We can feel that we're might be able to set into a routine, but we're not quite there yet!At the 24 hour mark we had sailed 186nm.We're hoping for 350nm at 48 hours...We flew the Code-0 for a while today (after having to wrestle it to the deck during last night's "events") which was good, but also tried out a crazy idea of flying it without a mainsail, and pole-ing it out using the boom.There's a lot of lines involved; we ended up abandoning the idea 🤔. Code-0 is back on the deck for the night, along with reefs in main and jib... For safety.In other news: lest we forget it's a boat, and there's always something broken on a boat, today's system failure was plumbing... Fortunately it was gray water, not. read more...

Mairmade - Day#1

From the cockpit:. It's 3am here, and finally getting a chance to check in; been a little intense 🤪We were expecting stronger winds as we rounded the island and intentionally stayed offshore to minimize the gusts.The promised "moderate to strong" trade winds delivered... (If sustained wind up to 39 knots, and gusts close to 50 knots counts as "moderate to strong" 😱)The boat and crew have handled it well, although the green bucket has been officially christened for the trip 😂. We sailed well with just our headsail, and recorded a maximum boat speed of 18 knots surfing down waves 🌊Still more fun to be had beforethe end of day#1: We lost our instruments and autopilot around 10.15pm; in the dark of night in 35+ knots of wind!!!Harry did a fantastic job manually helming the boat using the. read more...

Amokura - Log Day 5 - Fast fixes and flying fans

As I start to write, the cockpit floor is piled high with boxes, fuel cans, drums of cleaning product and various other boat paraphernalia. With the Skipper safely snoozing, Vicky is in the stern locker trying to locate the source of the leak. Goodness only knows how all that stuff fitted into that size locker, it must be like the Tardis! Popping her head out of the foetid depths she announces her diagnosis, water ingress is through the life raft storage space on the transom. With the huge following seas, the sugar scoop is constantly awash, and it is not a watertight seal to this compartment. It's a relief to know the source,  and a temporary fix of duct tape is deployed around the outside of the door. We can easily cut this if, god forbid, we do need to get to the liferaft. We had. read more...

Jadamama - Day 3 blog Jadamama

Crew settling into the daily routines with all together for lunch and dinner, testament to Maryrose's culinary skills.Engineer Paul maintains standards by fixing ice maker !We continuetrucking downwind, gybing occasionally as required and one inadvertent gybe late Tue evening !Picked up Ocrano, Ossiana, Ambra, First Lady on AIS.Champagne conditions continuing Wednesday setting the small genneker shortly after dawn which has given us + 2knts Marc no. 4. read more...

Skyelark 2 - At sea

Breaking radio silenceWhat a whirlwind... it has been a fantastic 4 days...Sunday – Race startWhilst the crew weremaking last minute preparations Alison and Yvonne were out on the ARC committee boat – a naval frigate – enjoying food, drink and the company of men in uniform.We headed out to the start line enjoying the atmosphere acoss the marina and a fabulous fanfare from the quay side. We made a good start in grey cloudy conditions – we headed south towards Cape Verdewith 35-43kts of wind. It was rough at times but just what we needed.Monday – D1We continued south, running about 100-130miles off the coast of Africa in the same weather.We enjoyed much conversationabout the weather ahead and our route strategy, Dan + Christian-R make a great team and are constantly debating our route plan. read more...

Lomvi - Day 6 - Blowing in the wind

Dear citizen of the internet, We are currently drinking coffee, eating oreo cookies with double cream and enjoying a slow sail towards the west. It is 5000 meter deep here. We don't have any scientists on board, but if water had a lower density, for example like air. We would be flying at the altitude of your everyday skydive run. Today we have gone treasure hunting, and found a gift left by pirates here over the night. That's at least the most plausible explanation according to 3 year old Hjalmar. The grown ups know better, as Line is the pirate, and we have bought ourselves some time of kindergarten service. 3 of 4 adults haven't slept great this night, as the boat is rocking like a Norwegian heavy metal concert. Lucky for us no-one had to go to work today either. We are right on. read more...

Skye Blue - Skye Blue under the stars

WednesdayWe gybed this morning! We are still rolling along at around 7 knots with headsail only. The seas are a bit calmer but still unsettled in the force 5 wind.There is no moon yet but we are being treated to the brilliance of the sky at night with the early and bright appearance of Jupiter followed by Venus, Mars and millions of stars. Orion rolled out of bed in the East early this morning and stood guard protecting us from giant waves and dangerous sea creatures through the rest of the night. The crew are all well and getting used to the rolling motion and eating much more fruit than normal! We are making good headway and are only 2350 miles from St Lucia, we are keeping South to avoid the light winds developing in the North and West and may put the main up tomorrow (we will let you. read more...

Falcon - Crossing Day 5

Distance run in last 24 hours = 171 nautical miles.Miles to Grenada =1327.Yesterday aboard Falcon was mostly a day spent ‘going with the flow’.We continue wing-on-wing happily plodding more or less along our rhum line - a tactic that seems to be working as we watch the racer boys and girls criss-crossing north-to-south and south-to-north all around us!I think in competitive terms, we’d be classed as the ‘steady Eddie the Eagle’ of the fleet… softly softly, catchy monkey is our game play and our latest position report, placing us in 45th position, seems to justify our somewhat lackadaisical approach to unnecessary expenditure of time, effort, and calories to gybe the pole..Although wind strength and wave height have remained relatively constant, the weather has become noticeably more. read more...

Falcon - Crew Shot

James the amazing blog writer and photographer… aka The Winch Monkey… :-)image1. read more...

Falcon - crew shot

Skipper Ade and the amazing Admiral Bevimage1. read more...

Betelgeuse - BETELGEUSE Tuesday 22/11/22 DAY 3 – Mahi Mahi !!

Normal 0 false false falseEN-GB X-NONE X-NONE /* Style Definitions */table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi; mso-fareast-language:EN-US;}A basket floated passed, a plastic bag, oh no we’ve caught the bag, hold on….it’s a fish.All hands on deck, gloves to be found, syringe and gin. In was hauled this. read more...

Oceano - Log Day 3 - Cooking

Cooking on board is an adventure. I fell in love with all things culinary when I was delegated to prepare a meal for the entire crew for the first time. It was also my very first time on sea and my very first Atlantic crossing ( not in ARC though, just following the rally’s tail). Before, for years, I have always dismissed cooking as an activity too banal and boring to learn. But then, suddenly, cooking was all about creating festive dishes out of limited ingredients while moving through a storm in a significantly tilted kitchen. You had to use your wits, your recipes had to be based on intuition and calculations of crew’s stomach capacities and their cravings of the moment and the weather forecast. It required gymnastic and sometimes even yoga skills, especially when you decided it is a. read more...

Bluewater Mooney - BLUEWATER MOONEY 22.11.2022

Es ist Mittwoch, 23.11.. 02:30 Uhr UTC morgens.Kleiner Excurs für unsere nicht segelnden Freunde: Alle offiziellen Zeitangaben auf See - wie auch in der Luftfahrt - erfolgen in UTC, so zum Beispiel die täglichen Reports der ARC. Daher bleibt unsere Borduhr bis Saint Lucia bei UTC (United Coordination Time, MEZ - 1 Stunde). Also ist es jetzt in Deutschland 03:30 Uhr.Parallel haben wir auf den Handysautomatische Anzeige der Zeitzone eingestellt, also die aktuelle Ortszeit, die von den Mobiltelefonenüber GPS berechnet und angezeigt wird. Mobilfunkempfang ist dafür nicht erforderlich - sehr praktisch!Der gestrige Tag ist nicht ganz so verlaufen wie geplant. Der Wind hat zwar abgenommen, er war jedoch mit wechselnden18 kn bis 23 knund einer immer noch recht starken Kreuzsee zu viel für das. read more...

Helia2 - Day 4+

At 4 in the morning our Code D reacher split from top to bottom.After a bit of a fire drill to get the pieces of the sail down, we coasted wing on wing with the Genoa until daylight.With first light we raised our asymmetrical spinnaker andI snapped this shot of a rainbow under the sail…image1. read more...

Lissy III - thank you

Before I forget: a big thank you to my ARC crew! They waited and waited with a lot of passion, did all shopping and made it possible that we could start. Gracias.. read more...

Lissy III - 1st day 22.11.222

The cruise from Camaret s/M to Las Palmas was not really top. The weather conditions were bad (but not so bad as for the SY Mola).1 Ocean Signal MOB AIS had a failure and the SAR France and Spain were helpful to solve the problem.Twice the great sail broke and we could sail also under engine toward Las Palmas. 1 crew was not comfortable with the whole situation and charged me that I am notcapable as skipper.. he missed daily briefings. Next time should i start like: 06:00am - breakfast, weather always same? Distance to cruise? Course same as every day?For me you can not discuss with people they go agressive... So it was very emotionell when we arrived LPA!Despite all the adversities: a ship a crew and I thank everyone for that too.We could do the safety check with Wilhelm Greiff, did the. read more...

Amandla Kulu - D2_ From Zero to Hero

Captain’s Log. Star Date 22 Nov. Day 2. Third day on the water.2121 GMT.2121 Local.23º 40 N019º 49 WWhat3Words///commandeered.represents.scuttleshttps://w3w.co/commandeered.represents.scuttles Up and trucking.  What a difference a day makes  In the last 36 hours, We’ve had our first ‘ALL HANDS ON DECK’ shout. Needed to drag the headsail down after one end of the self-tacking head sail failed.  The crew are simply awesome.  Sail came down (it was emotional) and we hoisted the Storm Stay as a measure to get some drive and balance from the front.  A relatively restful night followed. At first light we gybed and set to work to solve how to fly the headsail. It took most of the morning. The solution being fantastic and allowing us to. read more...

Jo - Tag 2 - wir segeln uns ein

Die ersten 24 Stunden auf See liegen hinter uns. Mit ihnen auch die erste Nacht(wache). Nach der Aufregung der vergangenen Tage und um erst mal wieder zur Ruhe zu kommen, haben Peter und ich entschieden, die Nacht noch unter Maschine (bzw. Maschinen, ein Katamaran hat ja zwei) statt Segel durchzufahren, ganz nach unserem Motto "save, save, fun!". Und für einen Teil der Crew war es zudem die erste Nachtfahrt überhaupt. Neue Begriffe, Navigationsinstrumente, Dinge auf die man plötzlich achten muss (von der Nachtfahrt erzählen wir bald noch ausführlicher), das alles bei Neumond und somit stockdunkler Nacht, dem Geschaukel der Wellen, auftauchenden Lichtern und Leuchtraketen (die von einem militärischen Sperrgebiet kamen, das wir dann natürlich großräumig umfahren haben)... eine ordentliche. read more...

Avventura - Log Day 03: Gennaker

On the third day, it is finally time for our heavy gennaker. Great sailing in beautiful wind, we all enjoyed our time at the helm.3 hours after sunset, the wind got stronger, so we switched back to the genoa and sail with 7-8kts through the night. We all are having a great time with the beautiful stars - no moon and no lights from cities, we probably have never seen so many stars before.(23:39.85N 19:07.41W). read more...

Bolero - Day 5

Day 5Day 5 ended as it had begun with a spectacular display from the sun.Night watches began at 19:00 Atlantic Adventure Eastern time.Stokey Woodall said at the ARC+ seminar that there are more stars in the skies than there are grains of sand, and early on in the night, you could see this to be true.The dark sky looked as it it had been spray painted with the finest of mists.The night passed uneventfully without any further excitement from squalls. The Genoa was unfurled to the first reef and we started romping along.Things perked up a bit at 08:00 as a squall came bearing 30 knot winds and big seas.We quickly furled most of the gib, leaving the pocket handkerchief of sail that we had carried over night.We were unable to relax when the squall had passed as the temperature dropped again. read more...

eXite - Exite 22/11 - top speed

Hit a new top speed and this time we don’t think it is going to get any higher for us with this boat.16.7 knots when crashing down a huge wave, with two reefs in the main and a small bit of jib out.We are starting to get a bit tired of having gale force winds about 12 out of 24 hours a day. The forecasts seem to have less wind in the end of the week, so that’s what we are longing for now.Other than that its all good on board, though we all think we are sitting still too much - but not much else to do while stuck on a small boat for two weeks..Now some pancakes and wait for the squalls to roll in, after all it is getting dark soon and they love to approach in the dark.. read more...

Lomvi - Day 5 - Sea of love

Chére pamplemousse, Reporting from the latitudes and longitudes, we are still floating. Today marked our 1/4 of the trips, we believe. We passed 550nm and the trip is 2200nm. But our sloppy navigation and experimenting with courses here and there might make the trips a few nautical miles longer. Nevertheless, an opportunity to celebrate.Celebration contain one beer, pizza and as we write chocolate cake is baking in the oven. We have been dancing with the waves, where the enthusiasm of the youngest crewmember show evidence of a future central figure on the dance floor.Conditions of the ocean are improving. Sun is shining, and the waves are slightly smaller. Periods are still short, and forecasted to remain so in the foreseeable future. Better conditions have made it possible to. read more...

Amokura - Log Day 4 - Seaweed & Squalls

Unsurprisingly we are spending lots of time looking at the sea on this trip. That's when we're not napping, anticipating the next meal, or doing jobs around the boat, including pumping out the stern locker, still experiencing water ingress, and needing attention every few hours.We've become very attuned to subtle changes, the direction of the swell, the wave height, the sound it makes at night as it approaches us, we can often tell if a splash is going to come on board! One of the things I love about sailing is being close to nature and its rhythms, we become so disconnected during our normal lives at home and work. So we soon noticed the increase in seaweed in the water, clumps and clumps of the brown fronds streaming past us, I wonder if they will end up on a Cape Verdean beach in the. read more...

Sunbeat VI - Day 3 - launched Little Blue spinnaker

Wind force 4 to 5, crazy horses (large waves from an odd direction) reducing, so launched Little Blue - the small spinnaker. The crew were a bit rusty, but it went up without mishap. Achieved 214 nm in last 24 hours. Currently placed 11th measured by distance remaining to Saint Lucia, but the bigger boats are starting to pull through now, as expected.Sustainable fishing continuing - have still caught no fish.. read more...

Endeavour III - Endeavour III - Day 2 on the Ocean Ocean

It only took less than 24 hours for most of the boats to scatter, leaving us with uninterrupted views of the sea up to the horizon. It’s an awful lot of space! Above, below and all around. After a not so restful nights sleep, the team spent a pretty lazy second day at sea (well I’m speaking for myself…). Lunch of fresh salad and homemade humus, and dinner of veggie lasagna a la Hugh. There were a couple of Cluedo murder attempts, though with suspicions running high neither were successful. To note, Dave made a valiant effort to pass Tash a pair of underwear at the starboard helm, alas it was to no avail as she clocked on to her imminent murder v sharpish. Sailing downwind with our sails goose-winged, we steamed forward at an average of 8.5 knots. This didn’t let up overnight, and we. read more...

Skye Blue - First ARC blog from Skye Blue

Tuesday 22/11/22Third day at sea and all is well. Leaving the marina was full of excitement with the crowds cheering and waving us good bye then we were off in big seas and sunshine.We are 8: with skipper; Stephen, first mate; Malene, crew; Janet, Maja, Neil, Raymond, Ross and Ulrich (aka Baldrick). The crew are on a 2 man up rota of 3 hours on watch with 6 hours off.We are currently sailing South and are sitting at a steady 7 knots after surfing in a force 7 on the first night, with only the headsail. We are fixing things as we go along, including retying the foresail.Food so far has been excellent with tons of fresh fruit to be eaten before it goes off. To date everyone has managed to keep it down.370 miles done with around 2500 to go. LoveSkye Blue. read more...

Falcon - Crossing Day 4

Distance run last 24 hrs 175 nautical miles.Distance to Grenada 1491 nm.We start today’s blog report with an observation; for the fourth day in a row, skipper Ade has mirrored my chosen yachting attire for the day.Bev thinks this is cute, and has likened it to Arnie and Danny Devito in the film comedy ‘Twins’ (not sure who’s supposed to be who!).I, however, have a different perception and am more inclined to believe something more sinister, as per pschyo thriller ‘Single White Female’, is afoot… I’ve noted the way the skipper looks at me and have taken to sleeping with one eye open! I wonder if they’ll pick Brad Pitt or Tom Cruise to play me in sequel ‘Single Tanned Cruiser’? I’m pretty sure the guy who played Herman Munster has it in the bag to play Ade!We’ve been exploring more ways to. read more...

Jadamama - Jadamama Log day two 22nd Nov

We were skipping along in a fresh 32 knot wind when i went off watch at 2300. Stepped out of my life jacket and hung it carefully on the floor, ready for quick access, and happily passed out to the rocking and rolling, soothing sounds of 10m waves slapping the hull beside my ear. At 0130 I had a rude awakening when a rogue wave came crashing in through my roof hatch and saturated the foot of my bed and the floor of my cabin. Thought i had fully secured the hatch but the handles were not securely gripping the seal. My state-of-the-art life jacket swiftly blew up and the MOB alarm signal kicked up a might racket. Nearby yacht “Patience” very kindly radioed us immediately to ask if we needed help. Out with the mop and off with the duvet cover—we cleaned up in jig time and i fell straight. read more...

Betelgeuse - BETELGEUSE Monday 21/11/22 DAY 2 – Loving Life on the Ocean Waves

Monday’s dawn was beautiful, witnessed by the A watch who had done two night watches in pretty big seas.Claire was nervous to helm at night as she had not done so before. With rollers of 3-4m high and winds of 25-30 knots it was not the time to try night-time helming for the first time. Beautiful clear skies at night meant we saw the most amazing stars and waning moon. Breakfast at 8 was enjoyed by both teams together – muesli and fresh fruit salad.Quiet morning with A watch catching up on sleep. Richard made a delicious salad for lunch with some banging tunes blasting round the boat.No showers or booze yet which has not been a struggle at all, but I think both might get rolled out tomorrow – yippee! Sadly, not much wildlife to report,just a few little flying fish and the odd lonely sea. read more...

Blonde Moment - Blonde Moment leg 2 day 1

Afteralmost a week on Sao Vicente I think the crew of Blonde Moment had enjoyed themselves exploring the island and its neighbor Santo Antao as well as sampling the local cuisine. The skipper hada couple of SCUBA dives seeing , turtles, rays eels and nurse sharks along with the more usual smaller aquatic life and also spent a day windsurfing off a sand beach in a deserted bay with good wind and equipment ... what could be better!Start day arrived and Blonde Moment was one of the last boats off the dock as we had to wait for boats to leave but we eventually left the marina at 11:25 giving us plenty of time to join the crowd of ARC plus yachts waiting for the start.As we got to the 10 minute gunthe skipper decided it was time to put out the sails however it seemed that the hydraulics to. read more...

Xenial - Day 15 - At night

It's 5am XST (Xenial Standard Time) and I am sitting on deck for my shift with Captain Ulrik. The small sliver of moon that we should see tonight is covered by clouds, so everything is pitch dark around us. You can barely tell where the sea ends and the sky starts. Both are glittering. The sky is full of stars, one of the few upsides to not having the moon shining. The white sea foam created by our passage is shimmering with fluorescent plankton, it looks like fire flies on a summer night. The only other lights we see are those of another Swedish boat, with whom we have been catching up all day, and overtook while I was sleeping. We just got a light drizzle of rain, but it's already behind us. You may not know this, but I always write this blog in the middle of the night during my shift. read more...