Stardust of Burnham - Preparations nearly Complete

Two years of planning coming to completion! Now nearly ready and just waiting for the final delivery of vegetables. Crew in good heart and looking forward with excitement and just the right amount of trepidation. Biggest challenge of the week was provisioning for a thanksgiving dinner on Thursday in honour our Bill-our American crew member; had to compromise with Turkey steaks but pumpkin has been sourced along with Michael bringing last minute cranberry sauce in his bag from England if he can get it through security!Just a huge thank you to Debbie at Oyster Marine; her help and support has been wonderful since the day we set out designing the boat and we would not be here in such good shape without her. Thank you Debbie - and Eddie andthe whole team at Oyster.. read more...

Stardust of Burnham - All Ready.

0700 UTC and we are all ready to go after a final scurry of activity to fix a sticky solenoid valve on the water maker system. Final drinks with Richard and Angela on their beautiful Sophisticate and then a team dinner in the old town. Yvonne and Stephanie leave us today and we cannot thank them enough for their fabulous help in the provisioning and final preparations; it has been a real thrill to have them here with us and we look forward to seeing them again in St Lucia and Barbados respectively. Weather options have been well discussed and -I suspect like most people - we shall be heading south on port gybe for the first 18 hrs or so and then routing close to the Cape Verde Islands before setting west. Weather forecast is good so let's hope all goes well. I have wanted to do this all. read more...

Stardust of Burnham - Log Monday 24th

11am UTC Well first chance to update the world! What an amazing start yesterday, the brass bands, the well wishers and the sight of over 200 boats heading south. Take her to sea skipper! A very pleasant afternoon with Stardust getting nicely in her stride. By the end of the afternoon we had poled out the Yankee on the port side and added a knot of pace - surfing downwind with the sun setting we managed to reach 10.5 knots. A beautiful sunset, we continued our almost due southerly heading into the early evening. As darkness (and the temperature) fell rumblings were heard fromstomachs and Jonathan and Graham were despatched to the galley. A hearty thanks was wished to Yvonne as the first bolognaise sauce was devoured with tatties and broccoli.Graham and Jonathan headed for their bunks and. read more...

Stardust of Burnham - STARDUSTED DOLPHIN

Skipper is a tyrant- enforced sunbathing order of the day.Lost the wind overnight and motor-sailed for the first time - shame, but a crystal clear night with a phosphorescence encrusted dolphin for company. Found the wind again in the early hours. Skip amazed how smartly the 'A' watch(J&G) got the rig back up and pulling.Pleased to hear that our beautiful supporters club back home safely- amazing considering their sterling performance at an impromptu, four hour al fresco lunch (yes, mainly liquid; they sent the food back!) around the Santa Catalina pool. Hate to think what the extras bill looks like.Team morale much improved by the first 'lifejacket fine'. Trusdale sentenced to one day's forward head cleaning for a first offence. Took it like a man, with only the slightest trembling. read more...

Stardust of Burnham - busted flush... again

Here we are on our fourth day out on the vessel Stardust of Burnham. We find ourselves sliding along very well with NE trade winds at 12 to 18 knots. Unlike some of our voyageurs, we have had wind most of the time and have had to motor only 10 hours thus far. Our very carefully planned route, thanks to our Skipper ,PB, has taken us to the East of many, keeps us 70 to 100 miles off the coast of the African coast. ............I just got caught again in the cockpit without my harness on-two more days cleaning the HEADS!! This was almost as humorous as our resident engineer ,GP, who forgot to turn the fuel supply back on after cleaning the racor filters. At 0300hrs. when the engine was started, it wasn't running very well. The Skipper was just about to send GP over the side to check the. read more...