Bimble - Bimble log day 18 'ARC control this is Yacht 'Bimble'...'

‘ARC control this is Yacht 'Bimble'…...’WE CROSSED THE FINISHING LINE EARLY THIS MORNING AT 01.45 Hours local time…YIPPPEEEEE….WE have crossed an Ocean!!!!…….Wow what a final ‘ride’ through squalls as we approached St Lucia. Wind and rain lashed us, we donned our wet weather foulies for our last leg to the final destination. We went from a loom on the horizon, to seeing lights and clear shapes of land and then suddenly the island came into full view. The rain was biblical…..Stephen helmed for a while and the Rod helmed to round Pigeon Island into Rodney Bay. I couldn’t see a flipping thing with my glasses on all soaked and splattered with water….so I was the VHF contact with ARC control to give over our boat details and our ETA at the finishing. All eyes were peeled to try to find the. read more...

Bimble - Bimble log day 18

Well Rod will win the pre voyage ‘book’ for the days of our crossing, he was bang on the nose with his estimate with 18….Stephen voted for 19 and half days (I’m glad he’s wrong) and us girls were far too ambitious of the Trade wind strength and thought anything from15 to 16 days…..So here we are exactly 60 miles to go…no land in sight as promised but lots of fluffy clouds on the horizon which probably indicate land ahead. It is a strange feeling, we all had a bit of a mad moment as the mix of excited anticipation that it is going to finally end but sadness that it is going to be over becomes ever more real….how can it be that you can have such two powerful conflicting feelings at the same time.The final leg of the passage is slow with 13 knots of wind and about 5 knots of boat speed. We. read more...

Bimble - Day 17 'Bimble' log 'Nothing'

‘Nothing much to report…..here goes as nearly there’Highlight of the day so far (which probably horrified Stephen) was a Celine Dion concert……yes she blasted out over the ocean blue whilst we sang along….Rod loves her and is a bit of a diva fan generally, so whether Dolly, Bonny or Whitney it was his go to for singing in the car…not very high brow music but he’s right up there as their fans. Lucy  in her enthusiasm and love of drama to sing along to Celine and to full effect she used a wooden spoon as her mike and strutted her stuff around the saloon whilst cooking lunch. So back to the beginning of the day we awoke to frustrating wind speeds again and it is becoming a lesson in extreme patience as we are back to of 6 kts SOG…with just the Gennaker flying and trying to maintain. read more...

Bimble - Day 16 'Bimble' log

‘A wild, fast night'So what a fabulous wild night……Yesterday we made the most of our wind in the daytime and powered across the ocean and achieved 182nm in 24 hours. We knew ‘early doors’ as yesterday dawned that we were going to have to make the most of the forecasted 18-23 knots in the absence of any asymmetric or light wind sails. The only way to get any ‘umph’ and much longed for speed and to pile on miles was to put out our two head sails and totally ‘GO" for it. So that is what we did totally, absolutely, dedicatedly…..and that took us through the night. Our 23knots then became 28 knots wind speed…. A sailing lifetime personal helming speed was recorded for Freyja at 17 knots SOG, At the time I was in the saloon making my brekkie when my cereal bowl flew across the floor, I. read more...

Bimble - Day 15 Log

Day 15 Bimble LogWe are seriously on the move at last-with some real wind. When we were planning this adventure over the last few years Nina and I avidly watched various weather websites and read up to see how the Tradewinds operated taking in there direction and strength so we prepared the boat and ourselves for an expected continuous 15 to 25 knots. Well the wind finally arrived today after 2 weeks of not quite getting enough wind to help the boat to go at its true potential.In the last 12 hours we have done a 100 mile run hooray !! So by 3.00am we hope to have covered 200 miles in 24 hours -that's more like it….although no fishing at this speed.I will try and give you a snapshot of what is happening this moment on Bimble .We are all showing signs of being ready to reach land sooner. read more...