Talulah Ruby II - being our own supermarket, hairdresser, launderette and doctors surgery!

One of the things that is intimidating about crossing oceans is the isolation, you are required to be your own supermarket, hairdresser, launderette and even sometimes, doctors surgery. It was with this in mind that I invested heavily in both my own medical training and the ships medical kit. Little did I realise that I would be my own first patient! On Sunday night I developed a slightly sore ear, by Monday morning it was considerably more painful and after consulting the Ship Captains Medical book I decided to start a course of antibiotic ear drops. By lunchtime Monday I was in a lot more pain and my ear was swollen and hot to touch with a lot of pressure, after consulting the Medical book again I decided that this was more than an outer ear infection and stronger antibiotics were. read more...

Talulah Ruby II - log day 4-5 - Clean Crew are Happy Crew

From the sublime to the ridiculous. Thursday brought a calm, beautiful morning. The sun shone down on the crew and it seemed appropriate to have non-alcoholic beers and bacon sandwiches for breakfast. It was then time to turn off the motor and go for a swim off the back of the boat (our first wash of the trip so far!). All clean we sunned ourselves on deck and thought that this was the life.Then came Friday. The swell from a passing storm caused us to have a very choppy ride and the wind picked up resulting in a tiring night but we got through it and spent today recovering. The wind is now dropping and the sun is setting on relatively calm seas and hopefully tomorrow we will find these elusive trade winds! Sophie Hindley, provisioning extraordinaire. read more...

Talulah Ruby II - Log day 2 - A bumpy start

Dear boat pals,Not exactly the kind of first night we were expecting. With gusts of up to 40 knots we had a rather bouncy Sunday night. As dawn broke on Monday morning, the winds dropped and first light revealed the handkerchiefs we had up in place of sails. Although the conditions were unexpected the decision to reef early stood us in good stead and Talulah held the weather well. There were no major dramas other than a couple of puke-cidents at dinner time. We have continued to head south for more favourable winds and hopefully calmer seas. Sunrise today brought triumph in the form of a beautiful Mahi Mahi, manfully battled by the strongest man Sophie has ever met, Alejandro. It's sacrifice now fills our fridge and our bellies. Sadly I write this log to the background noise of the. read more...