Freebooter - Day 22 - 15th Dec

Now only 155nm to St Lucia, plus a few miles further to Rodney Bay which is on the west side of the island :)We are so looking forward to arriving, and escaping this rough sea! Last night was full of squalls and showers, not what we ordered. No matter, not far now.. read more...

Freebooter - Day 21 - Sat 14th Dec

Only 328nm to St Lucia! At current speed, that is another 2 days. The last 3-4 have been ones of rapid progress with strong Easterly trade winds. However the downside has been big seas, making for tiring sailing and limited sleep. The thought of landfall is now very welcome!Trying to capture the sea conditions on camera is frustrating. The photos do not do justice to waves and swell that are much higher than the cockpit!No matter, the lure of the Caribbean is upon us, especially some swimming and rum cocktails. Exercise on-board consists of bracing oneself against the movement of the boat, and every task is twice the effort from on land.Astonishingly, we are only now coming to the end of our fresh fruit and vegetables. Thanks to Annemarie's very careful preparations, and good advice from. read more...

Freebooter - A Visit from the Flying Squad

Sailing with two crew for long passages is about settling into routines, most notably at night. We tend to work on 3 hour watches, one person on deck and one asleep below. Last night about 0130, I was in the cockpit reading my Kindle when I got thumped on the leg, followed by a lot of flapping. By the noise, I assumed a bird had made a bad landing, and reached for the torch to assess the situation. No, it was a flying fish that had managed to clear about 4-5 feet of hull and coming just to assault me!Crossing the threshold of 1,000nm to go seemed a major milestone. Not sure why, but it made the destination much closer, and as we reduce that by each 100nm, the measure becomes the number of days before we reach land. As I write this, there are about 750nm to St Lucia, probably about 5 days. read more...

Freebooter - Day 12 - 5th Dec - Empty Sea

One question that is frequently asked is 'what is it like out there?' Now we like an enormous can make a few comments. In calm weather, it is a gigantic infinity pool, because there is no visible end to it. Clouds seemingly rise out of the water, the sun is reflected in crystaline waters, and glitters at night with the stars. You get to see the celestial sky in its full glory with zero light pollution from man. We have not seen another boat for about 4 days, although there was one light in the distance a couple of nights ago. As I write this, we are just clicking onto 1,500nm to St Lucia, having already sailed nearly that far since leaving the Canaries. However we are struggling to make good speed due to the very light winds. The forecast is for nearly no wind for the next few days...By. read more...

Freebooter - Day 8 - 2nd Dec

Just to deter any complacency, we encountered 2 days of stormy weather. Winds up to gale force, constant rain and heavy seas helped to us see the other side of the ocean, mainly from peering through the hatch.This was followed by headwinds, (hence the sudden change of direction for those looking at the location tracker), and another of very light wind. However we have crossed the line of the tropics, and it is hot!The bimini (cockpit shade) has gone up, and we are waiting for more north-easterly winds to use the big cruising chute. So probably another slow day before we get the tradewind proper.Life on board is not too tough at present, other than the banana-biased diet. These have ripened faster than expected, and there are many to eat. Oh well, only another 1824 nm, as the seagull. read more...