Daily Logs

Cheeki Rafiki - Day 12

This is Day-12 and this is Ilya in the blog.   Ship-to-ship: Sweet Heart Pipa - I miss you much, big hugs to Mihasya and Grenich. Say hi for me to Krevet. Ksushkin, keep thinking of you a lot - we'll catch up properly once I am back. Mamik, I love you.   Ship-to-all station Friends, buddies, comrades, people on shore, great thanks for your support and for waiting for us. Even if you don't visit this facebook every-day, I still have a great feeling that some one can read this message straight away. Sometimes it is especially important, that I know that you can read this now, days before we're reaching the shore.   We are having great days here, John has cooked an outstanding porridge, and he looks like being the most disciplined part of the crew. James is fixing the. read more...

Challenger 4 - Day 12

Day 12Sushi and I spent our first night together in the corner the other night and it was so nice to have some company watching the crew come in and out of the galley when the watches were getting up and going on deck then coming down again, they seem ever so busy. We seem to be getting along fine and she joined in the fun when I was put through some gymnastic moves on the table as usual, but this time it seemed to cause such amusement when we were doing the moves together and someone took pictures again. Once we were left alone to our own devices we went on our own trip of discovery , we were fairly hungry and after a lot of climbing around and searching we found a stash of crisps and sweets in one of the boxes at the back of the boat. We spent a whole day in there eating lots of. read more...

Emilija - 30 November & 1 December

.hmmessage P { PADDING-BOTTOM: 0px; MARGIN: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 0px; PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-TOP: 0px } BODY.hmmessage { FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma; FONT-SIZE: 10pt }No sooner had we decided to motor than the wind picked up and we are having the best sail so far covering 182 miles in 24 hrs all on the rhum line to St Lucia. This brings our total hours motoring so far to five, not bad having only 1111 miles to go. Master angler Martin caught another good sized fish and then had scrambled eggs for dinner (He said he wouldn't be a big fish eater or small either)The watermaker gave a bit of bother in auto mode but is fine in manual operation we hope. Otherwise we wont be good company when we arrive. We had our first three flying fish land on the boat last night, but nobody was hit yet.As. read more...

Watergaw - DAY 12 - 1/12/11 -

DAY 12 – Thursday 1/12/11 – Happy December! We are having another fair day, logging about 150 nm again, which seems to be near our new standard run rate. Hope it stays that way! The half way line beckons tomorrow morning (at least the one drawn before the “it depends” discussion).  We get a fleet position from ARC control every morning (not like the fleet viewer, but just position), and we have had a look at some of them. It seems that we are right amongst a throng of boats, including many of the ones in our own class. This seems remarkable since we have not seen a single ARC boat since leaving the Canaries, though we did spot the Johann Schmidt, a large sail training vessel and a biggish cat heading for the BVI’s. We also heard some VHF radio chatter. read more...

Chosen One - 1 December

We've been at sea 12 days and this is my first blog! I had good intentions of writing daily, so our friends and family could follow our adventures but with 2 teenage sons on board, running their social life and their relationships online, means the queue for the computer is 2 hours too long, hence the blog is left unwritten!There have been times, I wondered why we ever started this trip. As time goes on, the more Dolphins we see, the more flying fish that come calling, the better the suntan develops, we all realise what an amazing achievement this will be for all of us.One thing I do know is that when we go to the London Boat Show in January, the weekend we fly home, I will be very careful what Andrew and Nick talk us into next!!!With under 800 miles to go, we are all looking forward to. read more...

Brizo - WCC Log Day 12 – Thursday 1st Nov: Winds-Up - Wahooooo (Stuart)

At last we had a good 24 hours plus of winds more than 15 knots. So we had a day of records today. 1st to go was less than 1,000 miles to St Lucia at 11:50, then followed that we had sailed more than 2,000 miles on this trip, the last 24 hours saw us average 8.5 knots of Speed Over Ground (SOG) in winds between of 20 to over 30 knots (F7). Tonight during dinner on deck we had a wave surf of 12.6 Nautical Miles per hour. All in all take my word for it a good day, especially as we missed most of the squalls that are characteristic of this part of the sea this time of year that if not careful can quickly overpower your boat causing damage. Trade wind sailing across the Atlantic this time of year is downwind ie. directly behind you invariably. Forget modern aerodynamic sail plans its all. read more...

Island Wanderer - Oh squally night! 16.45N 43.03W

The relatively calm weather took a turn for the worst as confused seas and squalls hit overnight. On the positive side the increased wind brought a much needed improvement to our speed. On the down side, a sudden squall in the night took us unawares and caused an accidental gybe, breaking the gybe preventer and several blocks in the process. Peter’s sense of humour was also knocked overboard, but we think has since been recovered. Many ARC boats on the radio net reported similar conditions and very little sleep was had in this area of the Atlantic.   We are trying to make the best of the wind as an area devoid of all wind appears on the weather charts from Sunday onwards. We are heading a little north in an attempt to avoid being stuck in this wind hole, which stays in place. read more...

Sookie - Day 12 (Ten)

We have had another good day's sail today with the wind behind.    Our fishing achievements are pitiful the fish are winning.  Lures lost five, fish caught two (very small ones), suicidal flying fish three.  That makes it five fish for five lures  (Fish 5- Humans 5) by our reckoning.  Any how we are travelling too fast to fish(we wish).  Heard some boats on the VHF today.  They are crossing but are not part of the arc.  Most of the arc boats are North and West of us .    The chute is working well and we have broken our old spinney halyard three times.  Once as a halyard and twice as a tackline for holding down the foot of the sail.  This actually works as a great safety release mechanism because when the. read more...

Diamonds Are Forever - blog - Day 11 - 1/12 - Half Way!

Subject: Diamonds blog - Day 11 - 1/12/11 - Half Way!!!Hi all, Our progress overnight has been super with nonstop surfing down the ocean seas, despite a deep reefed mainsail and headsail. Our daily run is set to notch up towards 170 miles so hope the little pink ship is steaming across the screen - it certainly feel like it here! Our distance to go is currently about to pass 1400 miles which is half the rhumb line distance from Las Palmas. It is also the point where we pass the centre crease on my chart and I can fold it over and see the half of the Atlantic with the Caribbean on - so it definitely now feels like half way! However winds and weather do change and light airs are suspected later in the trip, so we'll keep our breaths held on an eta in St Lucia! Now we have turned the. read more...

Coyote 2 - 28 November

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Coyote 2 - Wild Wednesday

We had an amazing 24 hour run to Tuesday lunch time, 210 miles with an average speed of 8.75knots – pretty much the boats hull speed so not too shabby for Coyote II.  It was amazing spinnaker sailing and the 6 of us under skipper Matts expert tuition and only 10 days of sailing together thought we had sussed it – and then wild Wednesday struck! I would love to say that there was a phantom 7th crew member who was here to sabotage our every move or that things broke but honestly we just got struck down by a serious dose of muppetry after getting over excited about how fast we were going and how quickly we would be tasting our first rum in St. Lucia. We hoisted the kite without attaching the clew to the sheet and guy – which provides some challenges in the trimming. read more...

Butterfly - Day 11

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Flying Fish - Endlich: 160 cm Thuna an Bord

Heute hat's geklappt. 5 mal Fisch an der ANgel, nie an Bord bekommen, immer kurz davor vom Haken gesprungen.   Heute 160 cm langen Thuna ins Cockpit gehievt und zerlegt. Blutig und trotzdem befriedigend.   Jetzt mal schauen, wann der erste den Verzehr von Thunfisch verweigert.. read more...

Babsea - Tag 12 - Halbzeitbericht

Seit dem Start der Rally in Las Palmas am 20.11. sind nun schon 12 Tage vergangen und wir haben die Hälfte der Strecke nach St. Lucia geschafft.Nachfolgend ein paar Details für Segler: Gesamtstrecke Las Palmas de Gran Canaria nach St. Lucia: ca. 2.800 SM Bisher zurückgelegte Strecke ca. 1.500 SM. Die Etmale lagen im Schnitt bei ca. 135 SM. Geringstes Etmal (Starttag) = 110 SM. Bestes ETMAL (gestern) 174 SM.Unser Kurs: Wir folgten einem etwas "nördlich" anglegten Kurs, der ab ca. 35 °W unter 20°N führte (gestern erreicht). Von da ab geht es nun direkt (Großkreis) Richtung St. Lucia. Wir hoffen, so einen Kurs zu haben, der nicht unnötig lang ist und uns möglichst gut im stetigen Passat hält. Ab 35° W wollten wir auf jeden Fall unter. read more...

Sibilation - Day 11

1st December – Advent calendar!! Thank you Barretts!   The distance covered during watch record was equalled by Nick last night, after achieving a 23knm watch. That along with each of us reaching 20knots plus, gave us our best noon to noon run so far of 172nm! It hasn’t been the most comfortable day though, due to strong winds and waves coming at us from all directions, but we’re thankful for the high mileage we’re managing.   Today was the turn of the cockpit speaker to have a wobbly and stop working. Despite emptying the cockpit locker and all 3 of us having a look (not at the same time!) we’ve not managed to solve the problem yet. As it’s not crucial though, this is a job that can wait for calmer conditions. With the locker empty, and. read more...

Halcyon of Hebe - Day 11

We had a blowy night with a F6 from behind. This meant a very rolly night for Halcyon and most of the other ARC yachts. On deck, everything seemed fairly tranquil as we swooshed down the big swell at up to 10knots. Down below, it was seemed less like 'swooshing' and more like 'tumbling'!Anyway, we're making good progress before these winds, clicking off 168NM yesterday and 164 the day before. We're yet to approach the 198 NM in 24 hours that Halcyon did across the Indian Ocean -maybe if the current was working as advertised we'rd get closer - so far there's been no discernible difference between the speed through water log and the SOG.Today, we've been sailing in company with Susanne - a Finnish boat. This morning they started about 4 NM away and have now closed to 1.5NM. Obviously,. read more...

Kealoha 8 - Communications

All is well on board and we continue to romp toward St Lucia at a steady 10 plus knots in 20 plus knots of breeze. At last we are in steady trade winds and long may these last.  As our trackers may not be working we are at 15 22 N 49 13W   Communications are also a problem. The boat’s Iridium and Thrane systems are not  functioning which is frustrating as we use these to obtain weather information, which is crucial to routing decisions. Apparently this is a general problem affecting many yachts but no less annoying, but at least we eat well.   Fortunately we also have a laptop and handheld satellite phone which is being used to  post this blog and to get the weather information.   We also have internal communications issues. Crew E advised crew F to. read more...

Ensemble - Day 12 - 1 December 2011: Only 1000 nautical miles to go!

Greetings from yacht Ensemble.Well - we have only 1000 nautical miles to go - so hope to be in St Lucia in about 1 week (if the favourable winds and sea state continue).The swell has picked up significantly - and at 2m we slide down the waves. It all helps with the boat speed - but makes for a rocky ride. Winds are sitting around the 20 knot mark - and higher when we go close to squalls. With all of this we are now doing over 8 knots on average - so may even get to St Lucia a bit early.So far we haven't had any issues (touch wood). On the radio watch today we heard that one boat had spotted a pod of hump back whales. So we're all on whale watch today.While the squalls give the boat a bit of a freshwater rinse - for the most part it's blue skies and warm weather. The sun bed is out, sun. read more...

Kantara - 16.53.28N42.32.20W

Hi All,   We have now all graduated from the school of 'Atlantic storms in the middle of the night'. Jason and I lost our storm virginity on Tuesday night when at 3 in the morning whilst enjoying a pleasant chat, the wind went from 17 knots to 35 knots in 5 minutes. This was combined with horizontal rain and no visibility and far too much sail up. Thrashing around on the foredeck with flip flops on your feet is not something I would recommend under these dire circumstances, but when you have to jibe and the preventer has to be moved....! Today we had some ferocious squalls which kept us all busy for most of the day.During a minor repair Jason and Andy were overheard discussing the merits of different power tools.'You know Jason, I've got a black and Decker battery drill from. read more...

Cochise - 1/12/11

day 12 A wild night out! Sundowners on Wednesday was the usual pleasant occassion with Sam providing some nice mood music, singing and playing harmonica to a Joan Baez number as the sun sunk to the horizon. There were a few dark clouds about and during the late evening watch one of these gave us a 30 kt gust but nothing horrible. As the watches changed and the midnight crew hit the deck, there were increasing signs of turmoil in the sky and the team set about adjusting the sails for the new strength and direction of the wind. Not long thereafter we were hit with a full 40 kt gust and torrential rain - not a lot of fun for those on deck although Isak did smash the surfing record achieving 15.7 kts down the front of one monster. This time it was Simon and Joel's turn to be tucked up in. read more...

Clearlake II - Day 12 - More Dorado

Current position "18:19.8N 42:51.9W”. Fabulous night’s sailing last night with lots of sailing between 7 and 10 knots through the night. Peak was a new record at 12.1 knots at about 5:15 am. We saw growing waves overnight – they’ve been about 5 metres this morning. Our ETA for St Lucia is somewhere between lunchtime Thursday 8th and same time the next day; target is to make it in time for closing time on Thursday evening! Between now and then of course lots to do and miles to travel. We’ll pass the 1000 nm to go point at some point early this coming morning. Meantime we’ve been fishing again and here you see the Dorado as it tries to get free of the lure, but we had Dorado and rice for lunch!  Otherwise we’re continuing with good. read more...

Great Escape of Southampton - The next day

Bright and sunny again, with the wind a little fresher than previous days and also a bit shifty too which meant it was difficult to lay a direct course to the ‘Rodney Bay Rum Punch Bar’. Most of the morning was punctuated with sail changes and gybing trying to get the right balance of boat speed and angle to our destination. Throughout this time we were teased mercilessly by numerous dorado and tuna who felt it was some kind of sport to grab our fishing lures and roar off with them causing much excitement, anxiety and sweating on GE . Once they knew they we were nearly beaten and exhausted just trying to reel them in they leapt out of the surf stuck up two fishy fins at us, spat out the hook and disappeared back to depths to mock us…Sport ? I call it cruelty! As the. read more...

Vivi - Log Day 10-11, Halfway to St Lucia

Day 10-11   We are now officially halfway to St Lucia. Yesterday we met both half way marks 1500 nautical miles marked the halfway mark for the course and then this morning we reached 1350 nautical miles left for the straight distance from Gran Canaria to St Lucia, which totalled at 2700 nm.  Wednesday night saw us contend with our first storm and we had to alter our course to head further south west. The storm reached winds of up to 26 knots, the high winds kept the majority of the crew awake most of the night either on watch in pairs or due to the rocking of the boat.  Woke up Thursday to a bit of overcast which was quickly replaced by blistering hot sun and some good north easterly winds to get us back on course to Rodney bay in St Lucia.  The fishing rod is still. read more...

Scarlet Oyster - One Fastnet to go! 1/12/11

Hi All,Just looked at out DTG it is now reading 615 miles, which is approximatly 1 Fastnet race, having the luxury to sail downwind in the tropics should in theory make this the worlds easiest every Fastnet, but I fear the inevitable park up so close to the end of such a long race may make it feel every bit as long as any normal Fastnet!We kept the big runner up all night with the wind nudging 30 knots in the gusts and a sea that would have worked far better on the other gybe, some new speed disciplines were created, including fastest surf with the mainsail inverted sailing by the lee (13.8knots). Surfing with the kite totally collapsed (14.2knots), and deathrolling into a surf - boom must make contact with the water as the surfed wave starts to have influence on the boat. read more...

Glass Slipper - Thursday, Dec 1, 2011

Confession is good for the soul: Last evening during our cocktail hour we got a more thorough explanation of Bruce’s visit to the Rotary Club of Las Palmas Gran Canaria. As it turns out Bruce shows up at the meeting to see how the meeting differs from meetings in the US. One of the things that immediately catches him off guard is the traditional greeting between men and women in Spain. As it turns out the women kiss the men on each cheek. Bruce has never experienced this before isn’t paying attention and is caught off guard and rather embarrassed when one of the young ladies comes up lightly touches his shoulders and reaches over and gives him a kiss on each cheek. According to Bruce – he turns bright red and for a moment is tongue tided. The club members go into a very. read more...

Cruinneag III - The Hula Caribbean Convergence

1st December 2011 16:21:88N 38:40:42W Half Way There. read more...

Matilda - Rock 'n Roll

It's been a few days of rock n roll aboard matilda. Our night time rig is a bit rolly, and we have had winds over night of up to 26 knots and a fair swell surfing through from astern. Last night was one of the best night sails I've had; we had a squall pass through us and clean the decks with a fair amount of rain and some nice strong winds. matilda performs far better than we had ever expected - she's certainly not the lumbering tub we had feared she might be. Even compared to our little racing boat in Dubai she is performing very well indeed.We've decided to head a little further South before making a bee line for St Lucia to see if we can pick up some more favourable winds and currents. Unlikely, but what the hell, it's a plan...Christian will be getting out the fishing line again. read more...

Lancelot II - Day 11 -

'Lancelot 2' at sea, 14.17N 46.44W 1st December 2011 1540 UTC Speed ? 8 - 10 knotsWind ? E14-20   Mick writes.... 'This will be a short one from me today as the temperature has increased considerably over the past few days & down below it is approaching 40 degrees & fairly humid.Another excellent day's run for us yesterday - over 200 miles in the past 24 hours. Last night the wind increased & we dropped the kite & reverted back to a poled out headsail, still maintaining good speeds which gave us our fasted night run yet, with the added bonus of going exactly in the right direction. We have about 830 miles to go. Then back to reality!   One aspect of long distance sailing that pleases me is the simpicity of life. Sailing the boat, the. read more...

Felicity J - there are 9 million flying fish in the atlantic

and that's a fact - well minus a couple that have landed on deck!  Although we have managed to get to a few in time and flick them out of the scuppers and back into the sea.  Pretty cool little fish and they seem to fly for ages skipping over the waves dipping their tails in for a little more propulsion.   With all of the washing up onboard being done 'a la bucket' with sea water the crew has become quite used to the slight taste of salt in the first few sips of tea from the edge of the mugs.  It is quite an acquired taste and I'm sure soon our mugs of tea will look more like salted marguerita glasses!   Right I'm off for a walk . read more...

Elisa - Dag 11: Cruisers go racing (light)..

Gelukkig maar dat we eind van de middag besloten hebben tot een zeilwissel en de Parasailor na bijna 240 uur continu dienst inruilden voor een ouderwets 'melkmeisje' (grootzeil vastgeketend aan cruciale bulletalie en uitgeboomde genua). Hadden we dat namelijk niet gedaan, dan was het verslag van deze dag vermoedelijk bijzonder kort geworden. Na 2 dagen van opeenvolgende successen heeft Oscar namelijk vandaag zijn vis-ambities aan de wilgen gehangen ("We hebben toch nog vis in de vriezer") en om het de schrijver dezes extra lastig te maken wilde er ook helemaal niets stuk vandaag. Kortom, weinig nieuws op de gebruikelijke fronten te melden. Als gevolg van dit gebrek aan afleiding moesten we noodgedwongen onze aandacht naar het zeilen verleggen, wat op zich best verfrissend was. Op dat. read more...

Lancelot - Day 11 - Executioner Strikes Again

Morning All   Day 11 here on Lancelot has been greeted with a freshening breeze and a few showers. This comes as good news in a number of ways, the wind as we have no more spinnakers and the rain to give some peoples sunburn to calm down. So yesterday we fixed the spinnaker pole and put Frankenstein back up and were again making good speeds in the right direction, then the executioner took to the wheel!! After a few minutes the the spinnaker blew from luff to leech (one side to the other) and there was nothing we could do but watch in anguish as it came fluttering down. This now puts us without a spinnaker for the rest of the trip which in the stronger winds is not too much of an issue as we are still making good speeds under main and headsail, however if the wind goes light which. read more...

Chilli Chilli - The meniscus of the G and T

 Day 85 at sea and still no sight of land. There has, however, been strange sightings on the good ship Chilli-Chilli. Six unattractive mermaids dressed in ladies evening attire gathered for a ladies night in mid Atlantic on Tuesday. With makeup straight from The Joker and hairstyles ranging from a purple beehive on a big bruiser called Tim R to a modern blond bob on petite and elderly Tim U the evening started quite normal (as normal as one could be expect from 6 middle aged transvestites in mid Atlantic) A few G and T’s and a ripped dress later the biggest challenge was to keep the meniscus of the G and Ts from reaching the rim of our glasses  and spilling in the large swell, and the hair from the wigs out of our faces. A very amusing night had by all.   With just. read more...

Aniara II - Dec. 1

1 December (15.00 local time) Unbelievable! We were a bit down after the genacker failure yesterday, but we are running with the wind since late yesterday, and managed to set a new record. AGAIN! 170 NM the last 24 hours and an average above 7 knots. When we started this trip, all of us had a strong belief that we should have plenty of time relaxing, contemplating and reading. So far every day has involved a lot of surprises and new problems that have to be solved. And so far we have fixed them all, and we have done it together and in good spirit. Yesterday we caught a record Spanish mackerel, it was almost one meter long and 10-12 kg. Guess what we will have for dinner tonight. We hope that the waves should be slightly lower so that we dare to use our gas burners in the kitchen.. read more...

Lone Star - 1 Dec - Day-12- Double Head sail

The skipper said I had to write something. So I shall. Lone Sar, an Amel 54 is flying a double head sail. The genoa is on one side and the other sail, called a ballooner, is on the other slot track. The ballooner sail is cut to almost match the genoa in size to give us a good balance of pulling power 0n both sides of the forstay. Both sails are set to poles mounted at the base of the mast. This for me is an unusual set up. The poles employ fore and aft guys, double down hauls and the traditional topping lifts. The poles can be set and left in place while the two head sails can be reefed together on the head stay. Looks like a shrimp boat when the sails are furled. I  have come to appreciate this sailplan for it has given us a great downwind ride with minimum roll. The skipper said. read more...

Foxy Lady - Log Day 11 - 1/12/11

Foxy Lady Log Day 11 - 1/12/11  We now have less than 1000 miles to go.  Winds are a strong F5 and we might log a 200 nautical mile day over the last 24 hours.  The night passed without incident but we saw the distant lights of a passing ship some 12 miles away.  A rarity.  Life on board is now a well rehearsed routine; on watch for 3 hours, off watch for six.  Sleep when we can, where we can.  Nobody gets too tired and the mood on board has always remained buoyant.  Just as well with 4 miles of ocean underneath us!  Last night we had a gourmet supper (again)!  We ate our giant 25 lb dorada (or half of it) which Jeremy and Brendan skilfully paper wrapped and braised in the oven served with couscous.  It was beautifully moist and. read more...

EH01 - LOG DAY 11 - OR IS IT DAY 12?

There is a little dispute between me and the crew over what day it is, or to be more precise how long we have been at sea. I would maintain this is day 11, or at least until midday it is then it becomes day 12 as per the 24 hour clock and given that we started at roughly midday on the Sunday 20th. The rest of the crew insist that it is infact day 12, tomorrow will be day 13 etc etc. Clearly I am right, I am skipper after all, however as I am somewhat in the minority you may notice some odd discrepancies in what day we post from time to time.Had a good days run yesterday with a pleasant if somewhat slow at times night sail as the wind dropped to below 15kts.Right I thought, lets break out the Whomper (big masthead spinnaker) at first light, throw caution to the wind, laugh in the face of. read more...

Porto Santo -

E continuo no Mindelo,ontem tentei sair após corrigir o desvio da agulha do pilito automatico,que consegui,mas o piloto tem dificuldade em manter o rumo,e a bomba do hiraulico está constatemente  trabalhar com pequenos movimentos do leme.Já ia bem no canal de S Vicente,mas resolvi voltar.Hoje veio cá o tecnico da raymarine,vai voltar para medições diz que será o fluxgate avariado.Veremos. read more...

Saltwhistle III - Day 11

We had a very nice party in the cockpit celebrating halfway yesterday - champagne went down very well. Overnight was rather rough and not a lot of sleep was had as the winds and waves were up; we need to catch up a bit today.The overnight domestic drama was that the 25 litre white wine bladder (bought to enjoy in the Carribean) started to leak as evidenced by the boat smelling like an off-license, so this morning we had to toss some emergency reserve water and decant the wine into the bottles. I dont think we'll have a water supply problem as the watermaker is working well and we have 450 litres in the tanks.Progress still looks good - steady rather than spectacular. We did another 150 miler to breakfast time today. If we can keep this rate up we'll do a 19 day passage which would be. read more...

One Hull - Lorraine and Emma's Blog

1/12/11   Day 10, same boat, same watch system and the same vast seascape, many of  you reading this probably think this must be very monotonous- however this  couldn't be further from the truth. Although our crew list says the same  people are still on-board, I find this difficult to believe. Each day we  have overcome both personal and group challenges, putting our existing and  new learnt skills to the test. Big Brother could not have casted a more  diverse group of people- yet it is difficult to imagine the voyage with  anyone else.   Something fishy happened last night- the boat stunk of fish yet we couldn't  trace the slimy culprit. During the last few nights we have played Russian  roulette as Flying Fish frequently land on. read more...

Paraty - TAG 11 - 1711 Seemeilen...Top-Etmal

Advent Advent, doch bei uns ist von Weihnachtsstimmung bei 28 Grad undzumeist blauem Himmel nicht wirklich viel zu spueren.In den letzten 24 Stunden war es recht windig, so dass wir mit 8 bis 9Knoten hoffentlich einige Plaetze im Ranking haben gutmachen koennen ueber 185Seemeilen). Am fruehen Morgen war dann ploetzlich wieder Squallalarm. Von einer auf dieandere Minute nimmt der Wind auf 35 Knoten zu, die Wolken oeffnen ihre Schleusenund nach ein paar Minuten ist der ganze Spuk vorbei. Es war schon rechtanspruchsvoll das Schiff halbwegs auf Kurs zu halten und das Material dabeinicht zu ueberlasten.Von der Technikfront gibt es kaum etwas Neues zu berichten. Allesfunktioniert; man koennte es schon fast als perfekt bezeichnen....Heute morgen wurde unsere Paraty fuer eine knappe Stunde von. read more...

Porto Santo - 29/11

Chegamos há 2 dias ao Mindelo,á procura dos aliseosque estão mais a sul da rota mais directa para Sta Lucia.Marina grande,muitomovimento de barcos que chegam e partem,muita gente a circular pelospontões,marina poliglota.A cidade parece um bairro mais antigo de qualquercidade portuguesa  da beiramar,limpa,simpática.Reabastecemos deágua,gasoleo,o vento está de feição,amanhã seguimosviagem. read more...

Skyelark of London - Day 11, 1st December

Day 11, 1st DecemberIt's too hot to be inspired today, so I'll just give you the news...The wind is now ever increasing, and we are finally seeing the 25-30 knots of trade winds we expected along with a larger ocean swell and more frequent squalls : the true Atlantic experience! Skyelark has been rocketing along under a steadily reducing canvass and the miles on the log are nicely ticking away!Its only 3 hours until we get under a 1000's miles to go and because it's to early to pop a bottle we are celebrating with Will's famous 'egg in a basket'. The bottle will have to wait until the sun is over the yard arm, although the occasion is bitter sweet as the realisation dawns on us that this is our last glamour happy hour. All our targets accomplished we now just have one bottle of fizz. read more...

Zingara - 01/12/11

Zingara auf reisen. Guten tag ihr lieben beobachter! Die tage rauschen nur so vorueber, unser bergfest liegt bereits 2 tg hinter uns- dazu gab es huehnchen mit thaicury in kokosmilch u ausnahmsweise ne weinschorle. Unser progress ist recht gut, gestern 180nm und letzte nacht bereits 90nm. Dafuer war der komfort nicht so doll. Boeen bis 30kts aber boatspeed 9,5 bis 10kts ue grund! Einige yachten haben bereits den spi zerlegt, spibaum gebrochen oder schoten gefetzt. Bei uns ist alles heil u funktionstuechtig.. Soviel fuer heute, herzlichste gruesse von bord der zingara bei jetzt bereitskaribischem wx .. Ernsti, ruediger u felix. read more...

Sapphire II - 30 Nov, I spy with my little eye.....

Our downwind course is taking us directly towards Saint Lucia – well some of the time anyway. We’re still sailing wing on wing, Main and Genoa with the jib out as well. Holding the Genoa out on the spinnaker pole has been problematical. Running the sheet through a block on the end of the pole was unsatisfactory because of impacts between the block and the pole. Leaving the block off altogether didn’t work either and resulted in chafing of the sheet. At the present time, we have the block attached to the end of the pole by a strop. This gives us a few centimetres to play with so we are using the Genoa lazy line as a downhaul to provide a downward pull which keeps the block from hitting the pole. So far, so good. If it survives John’s shift tonight through to. read more...

Zingara - 1/12/11

Zingara auf reisen. Guten tag ihr lieben beobachter! Die tage rauschen nur so vorueber, unser bergfest liegt bereits 2 tg hinter uns- dazu gab es huehnchen mit thaicury in kokosmilch u ausnahmsweise ne weinschorle. Unser progress ist recht gut, gestern 180nm und letzte nacht bereits 90nm. Dafuer war der komfort nicht so doll. Boeen bis 30kts aber boatspeed 9,5 bis 10kts ue grund! Einige yachten haben bereits den spi zerlegt, spibaum gebrochen oder schoten gefetzt. Bei uns ist alles heil u funktionstuechtig.. Soviel fuer heute, herzlichste gruesse von bord der zingara bei jetzt bereits karibischem wx .. Ernsti, ruediger u felix. read more...

Hassebas - Log 7 SINTERKLAAS EDITIE

   “Sinterklaasje kom maar binnen met je knecht”   Stukje professioneel toneel: Piet komt op en vraagt de kapitein hoe lang het nog duurt voordat de Hassebas in Eemnes arriveert. Er staan daar al sinds afgelopen zaterdag honderden kinderen in de haven op Sinterklaas te wachten. De kapitein verklaart dat de boot onderweg is naar St Lucia, en dat hij besloten heeft deel te nemen aan de ARC. De kapitein heeft immers ook recht op geluk. Piet maakt zich grote zorgen. De Sint gaat ongetwijfeld uit z’n dak als hij hoort dat hij wordt afgevoerd naar St Lucia. Piet stelt voor dat het publiek maar zo hard mogelijk probeert 2 Sinterklaas liedjes te zingen om in elk geval te proberen Sinterklaas goed te stemmen. Tijdens het zingen van het 2e liedje weet de Sint. read more...

Hassebas - Log 6 Een week op Zee

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Hassebas - Log 5

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Hassebas - Log 4 Spaanse Vissersboot

Vierde Verslag Hassebas"Verslag 4: de Hassebas zet een tandje bij"DankDank voor de vele aanmoedigende reactiesdie wij via Julia ontvingen.Op verzoek van de Nederlandse kinderen schrijven we vandaag eens in het Nederlands.De Boter begint te is smelten- 20ste breedte graadHet advies van de visser uit Las Palmasblijkt volledig correct te zijn. Zodra de boter begon smelten nam de speed van Hassebas toe ,tot nog niet eerder gerealiseerde snelheden. De boter smolt, de koers werd naar West ingezet, de blauwe genaker werd gehesen om er niet meer van af te komen.De crew was na 3 trainingsrondjes warmgedraaid, was het gezeur met roerbladen en kapotte zeilen te boven en besloot dat het hoog tijd was een tandje bij te zetten. Het is toch leuker om alvast een paar keer om Virgin Islands heen te varen. read more...

Hassebas - Log 3

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