Swan Valhalla - Log 22 - Our last full day!

We have been having consistent weather for the past 24 hours with the wind coming from a North-easterly direction at about 18-20 knots. This is great news as we are hopefully going to make our target arrival in St Lucia at about 10am local time tomorrow morning (Saturday). Our bearing was not quite on target so we jibed this morning to head 260 degrees. Unfortunately when we jibed there was a tear in the leech so we had to put in a second reefing line to save the rip from getting worse. We have also hoisted the mizzen in order tokeep our speed up. By mid afternoon the sun was getting a little hot so Sam and Carl managed to rig the awning so there was some welcome shade in thecockpit. With 122 miles to go we are slowly counting down the hours to our imminent arrival. We will be having our. read more...

Swan Valhalla - Log 21 - Speedy Gonzales!

Back to a not so technical blog after Skipper Sam'ssailors entry yesterday. Some of the best night sailing last night with abright moon and surfing with the waves, reaching 12 knots of speed. It gota little rougher early in the morning so it was difficult to get much kip. Onboth Haig and Sam's shift they managed 25 miles in 3 hours (not that they gotcompetitive about it at all!) and news today that we did our best mileage todate reaching 189 miles in 24 hours, which under keel is about 200 if not alittle more.  The morning brought some cloud and the biggest squall wehave had in terms of wind - it gusted 44 knots! But Skipper Sam did a crackingjob to keep the boat under control with the one reefing line we had in the main.For the rest of today we have experienced wind. read more...

Swan Valhalla - Log 20 - Rolling in the deep

Guest blogger - SkipperSam          Miles are ticking down, 470 odd to go. Trades arefluctuating between 80 and 115 deg on the stern, keeping us going in a vaguelyright direction 285/290 heading. Reefed main, poled out genoa, mizzenstowed is quite conservative for winds gusting 30 plus, and a choppy swell,perhaps 10/11ft coming in from the NE quarter, helping us to rollquite merrily. Life down below is a challenge just now, and sleep is difficultfor some. Running 3 hourly watches, and hand steering continuously, thenights are longer in these Latitudes then are the days. The moon is now waxing,and so the very dark nights of earlier in the crossing are a thing of the past,and we can now even see the squalls coming. Barreling. read more...

Swan Valhalla - Log 19 - And now..the end is near!

Another night of winds gusting up to 20 knots - some ofthe crew could not handle this and unfortunately were seasick! However, moralewas back up today with the sun out and the wind shifted so it is now pretty muchbehind us, coming from the north east. We have goose-winged the genoa and havean average speed of about 8 knots and we are surfing the waves. The last coupleof days we have managed 180 miles in 24 hours which is pretty good going! We hada real Life of Pi moment when we found a flying fish had landed itself on board.Before it got thrown back into the sea, Skipper Sam had a photograph of it inhis mouth - much to the hilarity of the rest of thecrew.  Bets have been written down for anestimation of our arrival by all the crew - ranging from Friday to. read more...

Swan Valhalla - Log 16 - Nutty Nick

Nick as guest blogger..........this has been the pantsday of the trip, we always need pants days to show up the rest and give us thefull contrast. Today was scorchio, no swimming as we are trying to make bestspeed, had to make do with buckets over us instead. Also this was a mysteriousday of no fish even though we were going at a very suitable trawling speed fortuna. Absence of the ubiquitous flying fish was probably the reason. Feeling ourway through the light evening breeze with our ghoster up and clocking a healthy6 knots helped by the very flat sea state. Crew have been trying to bust through the lethargy bydoing several things..........Matt doing proper Japanese coulior ski prep withsome very impressive squats on the foredeck to get ready for his ski trip toJapan in. read more...