Aretha - Sailing past the Venezuela Coast - 09 56 North 056 57 West

It’s 0237. I’ve been sitting up on deck - the sky is incredibly clear and cloudless with a sliver of moon. The stars are so bright they come all the way down to the horizon and merge with the sea - its hard to tell where the sky ends and the sea begins - it all blurs into one making it nigh on impossible to distinguish ship lights from stars. For the past 3 nights its been like this and I’ve spent hours on deck with Bluebell and Columbus staring up at the stars and using the star gazing app, we have been identifying constellations, galaxies, messier objects, planets and stars. Favourites have been Jupiter which is very bright to our starboard side, the Leo constellation next to Jupiter, Sirius, Orion and the various Messier objects which Columbus is becoming expert at spotting. For an. read more...

Aretha - Sailing past French Guyana - 06 14 North 051 54 West

The hatches are all closed tonight as we are sailing close hauled on the wind. We had one wave through the saloon window earlier which was one wave too many. As a result its sweltering below decks tonight.The crew are all sleeping apart from one passenger we seem to have picked up. A small bird hitching a lift on top of our bimini (the cockpit sun cover) It’s been chatting away for the past few hours. We suspect it may have flown into the mainsail and injured itself. We’ll investigate more in day light tomorrow.We are passing lands which we know little of. First past the Amazon and now off the coast of French Guyana - a French colony apparently full of French expats in the same way Reunion and French Polynesia are. Then, we’ll pass Surinam, Guyana and Venezuela. From catching up on the. read more...

Aretha - Our Next Project/ Cause

We’re back in the Northern Hemisphere now. After more than a year in the Southern Hemisphere, we’ve crossed the equator heading North and are making good progress towards Grenada. By the time we finish this adventure we will have spent an incredible 2 years together as family, all of us having learnt from it in our own different ways. For Nichola and I spending this intense time as a family we have seen the effect this has had on us and our children, not always easy, but something we wouldn’t want to change. Well, we’ve been talking for quite some time about what we should plan to do next. In my last email I promised I’d update on the first part of our plans for after we complete our sailing adventure.We plan to launch a new business and have been talking through the ideas of what that. read more...

Aretha - 00 10 South 041 01 West - Heading back to the Northern Hemisphere

2044. In 10 miles time, we cross the equator for the second time on our passage. The last time was over a year ago as we sailed into Galapagos. It seems an age ago and it’s hard to believe we’ve spent a year in the Southern Hemisphere.This time round, we have no equator first timers - the salt encrusted crew of Team Aretha having all been tried in the Court of King Neptune over a year ago and naturally all found guilty.We had a roast dinner and the last of our Bundaberg Ginger Beer (no alcohol at sea) to celebrate this evening and will wake the children later as we cross the line back to the North.The weather is being kind to us - we have 12 knots of wind on the beam and flat seas = flat decks and happy crew.Next comm’s will be back in the Northern Hemisphere.Team Aretha, Out.. read more...

Aretha - 01 58 South 039 18 West - Sailing Brazil to Grenada

0110am,Calm seas tonight and the stars are out now. We have the wind on the beam and Aretha glides effortlessly through the flat seas carving a line of phosphorescence on either side of her. It’s magical sailing and the fact we are calm means we have a full strength crew.We’re aided by a couple of knots of current meaning the 1700 or so miles to Grenada is being rattled off at a good rate. We have an ETA calculator on the chart plotter which calculates our arrival time based on our speed. Currently its showing we are some 9 days away.Fortaleza was a much nicer and more relaxing stop than we were expecting. The marina was best described as an upgraded anchorage. Anchor and reverse sideways whilst your friends in dinghies take your lines and secure them to large metal piles with jagged. read more...