Adina - Adina is in!

Adina without a bit of drama on the finish line - not possible!To start, Skipper decides we must try and fish one last time as we approached land. What happens - we get a fish bite! Watch three men determined this trip will finish with a catch. Pulling it in by hand - it got to the stern and lot's of shouting to secure it - no way was it getting away - Barracuda landed! Tick that box.Duck-winging we wanted to attack the finish line and with our limited manual furler we came up with a new move for gybing. Did it work - don't be sillyof course it didn't! Off we sailed past St.Lucia and once all was recovered we were faced with tacking our way back to the finish line in lumpy seas. Nailing the finish line was hard and we tacked to clear the finishing committee boat who radioed us saying. read more...

Adina - Day 24 St.Lucia is sighted

Good morning from 16 nautical miles (18 land miles) off St.Lucia!Land has been sighted! Crew are all awake and currently trying on their Union Jack waist coats. Susie is making us some bacon sandwiches and fresh coffee is being brewed. Spirits are high. Skip has even deployed the fishing line one last time - perhaps one last drama?Overnight shortly after dinner we put in our final gybe after getting the spinnaker pole out to duck-wing. Gareth had to go forward to manually furl some of the genoa as the Mark V drive belt has now retired. On his last set of trousers, he chose not to take up Susie's suggestion of rolling them up to stay dry and chose instead to drop them. It has been a long trip.Our gybe worked a treat - we were right on line for St.Lucia and have sailed that line all night. read more...

Adina - Day 22 and 23 - the final approach

Day 22 Sunday, 48 odd hours to go, you want it to be 24 odd hours to go. You're in that time zone where you want time to fly. But here and now you must still deal with big lumpy seas, squalls with big winds and rain that has you sprinting for your jacket. Adina is still a perfectly dry boat but we're all wet from rain. Isn't the Caribbean meant to offer non-stop sunshine?What will life be without having to cling to the steps, holding on one step at a time to get on deck? Or propping yourself up in the kitchen in precarious positions to cook or clean? Never mind using the toilet!Minds are definitely in St.Lucia now. Each of us agrees to a crew member that we've eaten so well on this trip but all eyes are on lobster and chips be it breakfast, lunch or dinner. And a swig of rum.Lot's of. read more...

Adina - Day 21 Singing our way to St.Lucia

Day 21 and more Atlantic mountains and more wind. Minds are definitely swinging towards thoughts of the finish line - one moment thinking of the joy of making it, next moment the relief of making it!And more 40 knot squalls - one person tends to stay upstairs and steers the boat through high winds and lashing rain while the rest stay dry down below. We have had two reefs in the genoa and two in the main sail. Again for our non-sailing friends, this is just a measure of how much of the good old white handkerchief you leave out.Three weeks on and we started having no idea that we would be plagued by light winds to start and clobbered by heavy winds to finish. We live on our little Adina island oblivious to all. Indeed we had no idea of the sad passing of Nelson Mandela until it was posted. read more...

Adina - Day 20 and some big rollers in the fairground of the Atlantic

So Day 20 on Adina...golly it's starting to feel like groundhog day! Where is that finish line??Most used expression today had to be "Wow - look at that one!" in reference to yet another mountainous wave rising above the stern. Winds of 25 plus knots all day long and big Atlantic waves. On a cheerful note, we haven't seen dolphins in a few days now so they enlightened the mood and squealing ensued. Putting a gopro on a boat hook to capture them nearly resulted in the gopro being lost due to the force of the water. But they were magnificent - belly rolling and putting on a real show.Cooking right now requires real courage and with the heat is a guaranteed sauna session. Lindsay knocked up some duck pancakes - ok, it wasn't Harold and it was chicken. Harold did partake in a photo shoot.. read more...