Blown Away - Arrival into Rodney Bay

As the mileage decreased we knew our expected arrival would be at night and after 3 thousand miles without seeing land for 3 weeks, we wanted to see the island in daylight.. So on Thursday morning just after dawn,as We watched another ARC boat , Escapado pass to our stern With their bright blue spinnaker flying, We took down our spinnaker and reefed our main in order to slow the boat down enough so we could arrive at sunrise the following morning. As we approached the Island the wind had increasedandwe were still going a little too well And so a bit of zig zagging ensued so we would arrive a couple of hours later. Eventually,as we rounded the headland to the north of St Lucia, dawn was breakingand we could see the stunning island to our port Side, with it’s steep peaks rising up into the. read more...

Blown Away - Two weeks at sea

It’sa beautiful Sunday morning onboard Blown Away today, we’ve been paddling our feet off the back and enjoying the tropical sun. the weather has been very calm the last couple of days in fact too calm, We’ve had very light winds and have been struggling to move at all in the fluctuating whisp of a breeze, but hopefully we will get a few more knots as the sun rises further. Though the wind has been light we have made good progress with our spiniker flying. We passed our 2000mile mark and we now only have 661 nautical miles left to go! Our ships time has altered by another hour back, so we are now 3 hours behind U.K. time.As Natasha went on the helm yesterday a whale breached behind her in the distance, an incredible sight, and we watched it for 20 minutes or more as it seemed to be. read more...

Blown Away - Midway

Yesterday we reached mid Atlantic!Had a perfect days sailing, spinnaker upand We are flying! Christmas decorations, advent calendars, large bar of chocolate and an amazing full moon , making night watch’s lovely.During the nightthe weather system of low pressure moving south, we had lines of squalls and wind shifts, down to 1 reef in main and just the jib and Broad reaching for the rest of the day....back to Quite bumpy day on the ocean, as it’s interesting going up and down the stairs for me .FullSizeRender. read more...

Blown Away - Settling in /sparkles & stars

All going wellAnd settling into routines . Loving the night sky and phosphorescence Saw our 1st pod of dolphins at dawn on Monday , another at dusk last night.Enjoyed talking to other ARC boats on the radio. Spotted the empty fishing boat yesterday thatlots of people had mentioned on the radio about 200 m to port. Lots of cheesy jokes,favourite meal so far - stir fry chicken, and apple crumble and custard. Wind had been variable and tried different sail configurations. Spinnaker and twinnpoled jibsHighest wind encountered so far 25 knots and top boat speed so far 12 knots. Expecting wind tostay quite fresh for next few days .Natasha has been helming from both sitting and standing, loving it all!!!. read more...

Blown Away - 1st day!

Well that was some day!Nerves and much excitement , setting off with all the boats on the start line,looking out for friends on their boats waving to the crowds that had gathered to see us off.Very very light winds and A slow start for us but windpicked up just after it got dark,and we were able to put up our downwind sail .image0. read more...