Lionessa Of Douglas - Day One. The Start.

Sunday 21st Nov 2010Woke up to murky skies and drizzle!Off the dock at 1030 accompanied by a brass band and DJ Don Pedro on the Mic wishing all the boats bon voyage as they pass his fuel dock. Top Chap.Motored out of the marina to start area and raised sails. Near disaster as Guardia Civil Launch nearly reversed into us as the sails were going up. Disaster averted through foghorn and a lot of shouting, followed by much relieved laughter!!!Went for a 'yot' to familiarise those new to Lionessa with tacking, gybing and reefing.The start was highly comical with yachts going in all directions and with so many boats in the start area, it was difficult to even see the start line. We opted to go with the Genoa until we cleared the line, but this lasted for only a full 30 seconds after the start. read more...

Lionessa Of Douglas - Day Two. Plain Sailing

Monday 22nd Nov 2010Good sailing all day with the gennaker flying and the Finnish Lion roaring along leading our way south on port.Winds held from the NW all morning and steadily clocked through the afternoon to ESE. Max speed 12.9 knots. Purrrrfect!Winds backed early evening and returned to the NW. Heading south on 195T.Going to have to gybe away from the African coast tomorrow if this continues but there is no wind to the west so hoping for another wind shift to the east so we can bear away a bit.The watch system has established itself and a little inter watch rivalry is forming and some watches have even been named:Watch 1: Mike, Robin, Victor: Mikey Mike & The Broachy Bunch (Self explanatory!)Watch 2: Rob, Robson, Alex: The A Team. (Self named. Its debatable what the 'A' stands. read more...

Lionessa Of Douglas - Day Three. The Gybe

Still heading south on 195T.3rd consecutive day with the Gennaker flying. It hasn´t been down since the start!Wind backed around 1700hrs so we threw in a gybe. The first with this team and it went like a dream.Now on starboard and heading straight for St Lucia on 230T. read more...

Lionessa Of Douglas - Day Four. The Fish

Caught our first fish today at 0200. A lovely Dorado which depending on who you ask weighed between 5kg and 25kg!!!Chef Ricardo worked some Brazilian magic and we had it for lunch. Beautiful!Unfortunately, our prediction of less wind offshore proved true and we were stuck in a hole most of the day.We are not sure whats more depressing: 0.0 knots boat speed on the B&G or the turtle that overtook us during the afternoon (I kid you not)Finally the wind kicked in again at 1900 and we hoisted the Code Zero.We´ve been hauling this sail around with us for 3 years waiting for the perfect winds to use it and today proves to be the day. True wind is 6.5 knots from the NW and boat speed is 7.5 knots heading straight for St Lucia again.................Result!The plan is to keep heading SW along. read more...

Lionessa Of Douglas - Day Five. The Chase

Since the winds kicked in yesterday, we have been on a great Code Zero run to the SW, averaging 9 knots SOG in winds between 8-13 knts.We spotted another sailing yacht on the radar late yesterday evening 12 miles ahead and we had an epic chase overnight slowly reeling her in at about 1 mile every hour, finally passing her this morning at a distance of 300 metres to port just before dawn.Turns out it was the swan 60 Fenix in the racing division.The rest of the day has been spent speeding WSW.We are expecting the winds to Veer this evening round to the NE-E and our plan is to keep heading WSW whilst we can.. read more...