Wind Horse - Seagoing Routine

After the social whirl, photographers, journalists, and music on the quay at Las Palmas, a long sojurn across the Atlantic is a wonderful tonic. Wind Horse and her crew are settling into a comfortable seagoing routine and we are catching up on our sleep.Crossing an ocean on a motor yacht like Wind Horse is similar to what we were used to under sail. The sail handling is missing, of course, but the rest of the routine remains the same. With just two of us aboard we stand three hour watches at night, with no formal system during the day.We love the feeling of a yacht moving across the sea and this remains much the same under power, except there is less motion and no heel. And when you have a full moon setting and spectacular sunrise the same morning it makes no difference what sort of boat. read more...

Wind Horse - Squalls

Squalls seemed to be on the mind of a lot of the cruisers with whom we chatted in Las Palmas. As we have had two sets of line squalls in the last 18 hours, we thought a few comments might be of interest.To begin with, in light airs, like we have had so far, the increased wind pressure that comes with a squall can provide a welcome boost in boat speed, as well as a cool rinse. The key is to play the squall so as not to be left bobbing in the vacuum which often follows. The strongest winds are downwind on the equator side. Conversely, weaker winds are on the pole side and upwind (there is a detailed chapter on this subject in our Mariner's Weather Handbook).Our experience over the years has been that squalls rarely exceed 1.5 to twice wind speed. Early this morning, with a large line. read more...

Wind Horse - FPB Ocean Passage Challenges

This morning brought a wonderful sunrise with the moon still well above the horizon. Those of you old enough to recall the days before Sat Nav and GPS will recognize the navigational benefits this used to confer. Not only good visibility during the evening, but you could get celestial lines of position during the night if it was clear, and sometimes a crossing LOP from a planet. A few days after the full moon, during the day offered crossing LOPs from sun and moon. Hence the cruising fleet tended to move on a full moon.We are often asked if after a lifetime of sailing we find crossing oceans on a motor yacht boring. Obviously there is not a lot of sail handling to do. But on a passage like the 2010 edition of the ARC we are spending significant amounts of time picking our way through the. read more...

Wind Horse - Paying Your Dues (Life Isn't Fair)

So here we are on a "downwind" passage with 25 knots+ blowing straight from St Lucia. There is a steep two to occasional three meter (six to ten foot) sea running, close coupled of course. Nothing like two waves per boat length to help with digestion (and diet). You might say we are just paying our dues since we have been able to avoid slogging to weather this entire cruising season.Of course this is what Wind Horse is designed to do, slice dead to windward at cruising speed. When she was new to us, five years and close to 50,000 miles ago, we marveled at the ease at which she got us to weather. Hard beating on our FPB oould always be compared to something a lot worse under sail, like Panama to Curacao in 30 to 40 knots aboard Beowulf.But our standards have changed, or you could say we. read more...

Wind Horse - Thanksgiving For Calm Seas and (Almost) Fair Winds

Thursday morning, 25th of November,the front is well behind us, seas are calm and the breeze almost fair. The Wind Horse executive committee has convened and after due consideration declared:(a)a bath and shower are the first order of business; (b) Thanksgiving holiday shall take place on it official date; (c) Pumpkin pie will be the first off the oven production line; (d) Steve shall engage the services of a barber (note that item (d) shall take place prior to (a). The maintenance staff aboard are directed to do a wash and dry cycle with the laundry facilities, and (should a rain squall not appear by 1600)rinse the salt of the windows.Progress is back to eleven knots towards St Lucia (last night in conjuntion with adverse weather we lost 3/4 of a knot to current which was more. read more...