Enya - All the Way to St Lucia

Well, we made it all the way to St Lucia, crossing the finish line at 2028 GMT/UT (1628 local time). We were surprised and touched to be welcomed over the finish line to the strains of Enya singing Caribbean Blue over the VHF radio - A brilliant and very thoughtful gesture from the WCC crew manning the boat forming part of the finish line - So, many thanks again to them. The only sad thing is that we motored quite a bit over the last couple of days, due a forecast predicting no wind until Monday, which turned out to be only partly accurate, as seems to be the case. However, the main thing is that we are here safe and sound, with no really significant problems along the way. I ended my last post by saying that the wind speed was less than forecast, but things changed quite significantly. read more...

Enya - (Almost) Three Quarters of the Way to St Lucia

Well, we are now almost three quarters of the way to St Lucia. Our rate of progress has been slowed quite significantly by two days of light winds and one night of almost no wind. We have had a couple of impressive catches, both of which were consumed with relish. Unfortunately, Andrew and James continue to suffer from frequent bouts of seasickness, no doubt induced by the continual rolling motion that we have been experiencing since Sunday, as we sail dead down wind. I have to start off by apologising to Brian and Ali for not thanking them last time for their kind “half way” gift (a miniature of Johnnie Walker Red Label). Their first gift (chocolate golf balls) was for my birthday, which fell when we in Lanzarote, on our way to Las Palmas. I look forward to seeing what their. read more...

Enya - Half Way to St Lucia

Well, we are now over half way to St Lucia (based upon our planned route, heading south, close to the Cape Verde Islands) and have continued to benefit from moderate to strong north easterly winds, although we have now encountered two significant issues which have combined to cause us to lose time due to sailing under mainsail alone for a day and a half.This week started around 6am last Sunday morning, when Fred heard a loud squeaking noise coming from the rudder mechanism, which is located directly underneath his berth. Complete dismantling of his and Andrew’s berths was required to allow further investigation. This showed that it was not a major problem and it was quickly solved with a liberal application of WD40. A suspected recurrence, later that day, caused the berths to be removed. read more...

Enya - The First Quarter of the Way to St Lucia

Well, we started two days later than planned but are now approximately one quarter of the way to St Lucia, having had fairly steady trade winds of 20 to 30 knots, occasionally gusting to more than 40 knots, from a generally north easterly direction.The Tuesday start was a very much more condensed and low key affair from the point of view of any spectators. Las Palmas is a very busy port and had been closed for two hours on the Sunday for the original start, the line for which was actually some way down from the port, off the old town, and was only taken by about 30 boats. However, on Tuesday, the port was only to be closed for half an hour, to allow two hundred boats to start from between the ends of the main breakwaters! This meant that all boats only had one hour to leave the marina. read more...

Enya - Lagos to Las Palmas in Detail

Here is an update of this trip so far. We flew to Lagos on Thursday 1 November & set sail for Porto Santo after watching the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on Sunday 4 November. We had quite strong winds and fairly rough seas but did 454 miles in under 65 hours, averaging 7 knots, mostly under Genoa alone. We had a potential problem when the engine room fire alarm sounded soon after starting the engine to enter the harbour. There was some smoke in the engine room but not obvious cause. Once in, we checked the engine & did find some oil that must have been spilled when the engine was serviced in Lagos. We assume that it moved around in the rough seas to a position where it was heated enough to give off smoke. As we got in early in the day, we managed to fix up a taxi tour of the island. read more...