Jalan Jalan - About time it was done!

22nd November  1.00 p.m. What an amazing day we had.  The razamataz send of was had us feeling a bit like Ellen MacArthur must have done.  Having survived the preceding party events we had a very quiet last night in Las Palmas.  The morning was filled with last minute packing away of crockery and provisions.  Half empty bottles of malt were dispatched to our neighbours as we had no room to carry them (John didn't weep to hard).  Kathy and Steve had told us they would be out on the water to wave us of and told us that the vent was big thing for the locals as well.  We found this out when at 11 o'clock Don Pedro's Texaco station began blaring out loud music and shouting over the sound system lots of farewells as boats began to leave in anticipation of the start of racing.   Our neighbours. read more...

Jalan Jalan - Update

A significant day today as we reach the halfway mark.  There are those lucky ones who will already have Carribean Islands in sight already and we congratulate them for that.  Also wish we were nearer to!   However life goes on at this petty pace and we are having fun. The sailing over the last week has been terrific.  Coasting down the rollers which surges the boat on is just the best.  Yesterday we had the cruising chute up for most of the daylight hours and managed 7 knots on average.  We decided to take it down as the wind hit over 25 knots for a spell.  Course you can never predict these things but then the wind dropped and we spent a very frustrating set of watches trying to fill the gib in less than 5 knots of wind which meant the days gain was lost. The ladies managed to tie even. read more...

Jalan Jalan - Less than 1000 to go!

Greeting from the high seas -  Under a 1000 miles and counting The last few days have been seriously bouncy and it has been quite challenging to do anything even just sitting in the cockpit! The weather has been very kind but the wind is picking up a bit and as a result so is the swell.  This makes the boat motion quite a challenge.  The swell makes the sailing quite a handful as you can see the waves building up behind the stern and then this huge swell lifts the stern up and surges the whole boat forward at a great rate.  Course sometimes the wave doesn't get it quite right angle wise and we end up being pitched about for a bit.  Makes trying to get to sleep quite interesting. Cooking can be tricky as well and the last few days things have been retrieved from fridge and cupboard and. read more...

Jalan Jalan - > 700 to go !!

Tuesday 10:00am (local time) 12:00 UTC Not a lot to report at this end.  The seas continue to bounce us around and strain of Beach Boys 'Surfing USA' keep popping into my head.  The aft cabin is very noisy as the swell lands on it but then so is the front as it cuts into the waves.  We keep having conversations along the lines of - 'why aren't boats sound proofed at time of construction?'  The Beanie teams are tied at 6 all at present with Robert and I lagging behind in the winning hands. The current continues to speed us on our way and we have had a couple of excellent days where we have managed 150 miles a day. This is nothing of course compared to some of the bigger boats who are turning in 190 each day.  We are very much at the back of the fleet but at least we are not on our. read more...