Peregrine - Starry night!

The sky last night was amazing. There was no moon and it was cloudless so we were able to see all the stars in there full glory, and so many shooting stars that we stopped bothering to count them. Hannah got to 10 in 30 seconds! It must have been some sort of meteor shower. Does anybody out there in real life know for sure? Real life! That certainly isn't what we have on board. We have seriously lost track of time. Well not Time, we know what the hour is (UTC) at any given moment, but what day is it? Um? I'll just check the logbook! The reason we have been able to concentrate on the stars so much is that we have lost the wind again and sadly we are motoring. Lots of mental calculations are going on. We only have enough fuel to motor for 48 hours (about 240 miles) we are currently 460. read more...

Peregrine - Oh what a night!

Tuesday night. We have just recovered from it! Out of nowhere we were hit by a squall. Well you expect that ... this is the Atlantic Ocean after all ... this 'squall' went on for 10 hours though. 10 hours wind winds around 30 knots, 6 hours with over 35 knots, with continuous driving rain. I'd call that a gale!Afterwards we were all a bit broken. All is now good though. We have all caught up on our sleep and are now just preparing for lunch, with a nice benign 16 to 20 knot wind and sunshine. All we need is dolphins for Hannah.We did see a whale though. A Sperm Whale we think. It we swam beside us for about 20 minutes before have a dolphin like play at the bow! Beautiful! She (He?) was about the same size as Peregrine, so a baby perhaps?Joy continues to attract the water, so much so that. read more...

Peregrine - Bit busy!!!

Been a bit busy here. We broke Martha. That's the windvane steering system, not a poor abused cabin wench. So now we have to hand steer to St Lucia. The crew needed help with their upper body strength anyway .... Not that that is unpleasant, it just leaves little time for leisure activities. WHAT! You thought this was supposed to be fun? The ARC brochure certainly give the wrong impression with it's photos of clear blue skies, spinnakers and calm oceans ;o)Well it is the Atlantic. It reminds us regularly when a huge random wave dumps itself on us. None of us want to be on deck when Joy is there. She seems to attract the worst of it. It doesn't look like she'll have a dry bum before we step off Peregrine in Rodney Bay! Rob was tempting fate earlier, out in his shorts, but has now taken. read more...

Peregrine - Day 6

We have a contender for the ARC award of "Most Embarrassing Injury" ... perhaps!During a particularly vigorous roll, Peregrine threw her first aid kit at the skipper's head, resulting in some blue language and a sticking plaster repair (to the skippers head!) Just another of Peregrine's little 'love bites' ;o)The offending first aid kit now resides in disgrace at the foot of the skippers bunk where it can do no further harm.The sailing is great. We're sailing very conservatively, with just a reefed main up, but that seems ideal for the conditions that we have at the moment and we are making good speed, for Peregrine anyway! We have spent the last 24 hour hand steering (just for the hell of it really) but now Martha (the wind vane) is back on, and time is available to blog.We are heading. read more...

Peregrine - Day 4

This what it's all about!Heading South, waiting for the butter to melt. Down wind with the sun shining.Only 2300 miles to go (ish). read more...