Adina - Final Blog

We have arrived - what an adventure. Everyone is fit and well - a little tired and just getting introduced to some pink rum punch - what could possibly go wrong?Thank you all for getting involved and following us on our adventure.Seasons greetings from Adina and her crew……Adina, out!. read more...

Adina - The final miles

Less than 100 miles to go and we are preparing the boat for arrival - warps and fenders are ready to go and our No 125 dodger displayed on our starboard side. The wind has dropped this morning and this will delay our arrival until dawn tomorrow - probably no bad thing as it will be easier to see where we are going in the morning light.Priorities ashore will be a proper shower, clean clothes, rum punch and breakfast - not necessarily in that order - but they will all take place ashore!Since our last blog we have continued to head west and have noted that our last major sail change was on 30th November - 1300 miles ago - and that was a gybe! Hopefully we won’t have forgotten how to do it tonight when we go round Pigeon Island, just before the finish.In contrast to this morning we have had. read more...

Adina - Day 20 - Fresh Friday Fish on Adina forces change to evening menu

It’s a sunny Friday evening in the North Atlantic with 21kts of following breeze, and we are counting down the days until we arrive in Rodney Bay. With 363 miles to go it’s looking like it will be Monday morning that we arrive.As supplies (including Tiffin) have started to run low, the fishing team were despatched to see if they could catch and land some fresh fish. Travelling at over 6kts creates an additional issue when it comes to landing fish and two large specimens have broken the line during previous encounters.This time the team were a little more focused with each member of the crew allocated actions to reduce sail at a moments notice. It was not long before the cry of ‘Fish On’ was heard and the plan was activated. The stay sail was rolled and the boat brought up into the wind. read more...

Adina - Day 19

It’s 4am in the morning, the moon has just risen and is shining across the sea. It’s blowing 20kts and we continue to sail downwind at 7.4kts with a poled out stay sail rather than the Genoa to reduce the risk of chafe. We now have less than 600 miles to go - thats less than a Fastnet Race! We achieved our target of over 150 miles in a day yesterday (154 miles) and have now adjusted the target to 160 miles.All the crew have received emails from home - they are much appreciated and well received - thank you.Since our last blog we have experienced heavy rain squalls, thunder and lightening. There is much debate about whether to count Elephants, Mississippis or 1000s after a lightening flash to calculate the distance to the storm.Andrew has highlighted that ‘the faster we sail the less we. read more...

Adina - Day 16 Seaweed, sunshine and success

Adina and her merry crew are now less than 1000 miles from St Lucia. In recognition of this special moment, the Week 3 snack tin was opened to rapturous applause.We continue to head west, in bright sunshine and with increasing wind which Adina appears to enjoy and justifies the skipper’s decision to head so far south. He is also the one who loves to roll.Yesterday we covered 146 miles and we hope today to be able to break the 150 mile mark. We had a neighbour appear on AIS- the first time for three days - and highlights the vastness of this place.Our deck inspections have identified nothing serious, except requiring the removal of deceased flying fish.For the fourth day we have had to plow through increasing lines of seaweed - olvreus seeweedicus (paininthearseus) and as a result had to. read more...