Logs

Papillon - Papillon getting ready for the Atlantic crossing

The crew of Papillon are now making all of the preparations needed for our Atlantic crossing. Our list of things to do is quite long and the tasks range from trivial nice-to-have items to kind-of-essential necessities. Since day one we have constantly been busy. Fixing, planning, cleaning…. Having a beer, socializing, etc (those things are important too!). Some of the tasks we have accomplished this far include; checking the rig (the mast and its parts) for damage, prepping said rig for an extra inner forestay, checking out of Europe (Yikes!) with customs, emptying, cleaning and sorting almost all cabinets in the boat, and starting to make a food provisioning plan. Other activities have including eating some food at the local sailors’ pub, attending sun-downer parties for arc-racers and. read more...

Ingrid - Välkommen till Ingrids blogg

Välkommen till bloggen som följer Ingrid och dess besättning från Las Palmas till St Lucia och sen vidare till Grenada.Den 17 november ankommer vi 13 som tillsammans ska ta Ingrid över Atlanten och den 24 november går startskottet för ARC-racet.  Under veckan som kommer ska vi förutom att bekanta oss med varandra och båten gå på spännande seminarier och framförallt proviantera.Provianteringen är ett enormt projekt och alla kommer bli involverade. Från att åka till marknaden och köpa frukt och grönsaker, åka till IKEA, åka till olika affärer, frakta mat, vatten, toalettpapper mm från kajen till båten till att individuellt tvätta och gå igenom varenda frukt och grönsak som kommer ombord (så vi inte får fripassagerare i form av kryp och mögel).  Vi ska även på en. read more...

Piropo Primero - Preparing for the Atlanting Cruise - Spiriit of Pula

In October, our international crew met for the first time and had an incredible introductory experience sailing a catamaran through the beautiful waters of the Mediterranean in Croatia. Our team is:Gabriel (RO)Grzegorz (PL)Piotr (PL)Richard (GB)Stan (USA/PL)Tomasz (PL)We sailed continuously for several days and nights, getting to know one another and fine-tuning our teamwork. During this time, we established all the essential details for the upcoming ARC regatta.Also we created a name for our crew - SPIRIT OF PULAWhy? because our destination point on this trip was PULA city! :-)Stay tuned for more updates soon!Tomasz. read more...

Tuvalu - SAILING FROM CÁDIZ LAS PALMAS

Hello to all, We have already brought our beloved Tuvalu to Las Palmas de Gran Canarias. A trip always complicated by the conditions of the Alisios Winds in summer. At the moment we are repairing some halyards and a failure in our second autopilot. Soon we will be in Las PalmasGreetings and see you soon. read more...

Adrienne - Willkommen St.Lucia

Blog vom 9.12.23Angekommen!Aufgezeichnet von Thorsten, Werner und BerndDie Nacht vom 8. auf den 9.12. war kurz und um 0203 Uhr UTC hieß es: Land in Sicht!Am Horizont erschienen die ersten schwachen Lichter von St. Lucia. Aufregung bei der diensthabenden und der Folgewache machte sich breit. Wir umrunden die Nordspitze St. Lucias, mussten noch einmal die Segel schiften, um dann in Rauschefahrt auf Am-Wind-Kurs mit bis zu 10 Knoten in Richtung Ziellinie zu fliegen.Die Ziellinie passierten wir exakt um 0806:29 Uhr UTC oder 04:06:29 Uhr Ortszeit.Trotz stockfinsterer Nacht erwartete uns ein verrückter Jachtfotograf, der die Adrienne mit einem Highspeed-Dinghi stehend einhändig umkreiste, in der anderen Hand die Kamera haltend, Fotos von uns machte.Nachdem die Segel in der Rodney Bay geborgen. read more...

Adina - Final Blog

We have arrived - what an adventure. Everyone is fit and well - a little tired and just getting introduced to some pink rum punch - what could possibly go wrong?Thank you all for getting involved and following us on our adventure.Seasons greetings from Adina and her crew……Adina, out!. read more...

Uno - Day 22: Enjoying our last starry sky!

Sunday 10th December.Well if all goes according to plan (ha ha sailing, what plan?!) this is our last day on board Uno, crossing the Atlantic! By midday we were down to our last hundred miles and expecting to arrive in St Lucia tomorrow morning around 8 o’clock. We made it through last night without any autopilot issues just a few squalls to deal with. Such a relief! However, the trouble wasn’t over and as soon as the sun came up the autopilot and rudder sensors failed. This time they would not come back with a power reset, not even after 10 resets! We tried everything that worked in the past, for about an hour. We were stuck hand steering, and trying to figure out what was going on.. C’mon Uno, tell us your secrets! It seemed bizarre that it only happened exactly when the sun came up so. read more...

Adina - The final miles

Less than 100 miles to go and we are preparing the boat for arrival - warps and fenders are ready to go and our No 125 dodger displayed on our starboard side. The wind has dropped this morning and this will delay our arrival until dawn tomorrow - probably no bad thing as it will be easier to see where we are going in the morning light.Priorities ashore will be a proper shower, clean clothes, rum punch and breakfast - not necessarily in that order - but they will all take place ashore!Since our last blog we have continued to head west and have noted that our last major sail change was on 30th November - 1300 miles ago - and that was a gybe! Hopefully we won’t have forgotten how to do it tonight when we go round Pigeon Island, just before the finish.In contrast to this morning we have had. read more...

Freedom - The Epiblogue (21) Freedom Sunday 10th December 2023

Editor: CJGood Morning from the balcony of a beautiful waterside house adjacent to the Rodney Bay Marina St Lucia, kindly organised by my brother for our stay here.We crossed the finish line at 0450 UTC (UK time), 0050 local time on Saturday 9th December 2023. The final 48hours, from a sailing perspective, had probably been the most testing part of the trip. We were constantly hit by very heavy squalls and accompanying TORRENTIAL rain, which at one point was none stop for about 4 hours. Night was the most tricky, out of ‘nowhere’ (pitch black nights - you could see very little) dead running, goose winged, sailing by feel only and relying heavily on the instruments, we would be hit by squalls of up to 40knots (gale force 8/9)…..although lasting only 10 minutes before moderating to 20/30. read more...

Tahira - TAHIRA ARC BLOG D-Day 20 [10-Dec-23]

TAHIRA ARC BLOGD-Day 20 [10-Dec-23]Location: St Lucia - Rodney BayLat: 14.04N Long: 60.57WARRIVING IN ST LUCIAToday we arrive in St. Lucia - fantastic.A journey of 3 thirds culminating in a successful arrival in Rodney Bar, St. Lucia.Our blog will now formally close and we look forward to catching up with everyone face-to-face over the next week or so.You have been following....A team of 6 individuals coming together for one objective only - to successfully complete an Atlantic crossing, and to do so in a way where the full crew would enjoy sitting and having an ice cold beer together on arrival.Our thanks to...Our skippers:Chris and John are extraordinary sailors, leaders and coaches.They have given us huge confidence to take on anything the crossing may have thrown at us.Tahira owners:. read more...

Uno - Day 21: Are we there yet?

Saturday 9th DecemberHuge swell today, but it’s back to coming from a couple of directions so a bit of an uncomfortable ride. Surfing some really steep waves too! And suddenly we are in a pack of 7 boats only a few miles apart (charging forth towards rum punch & steel drums!) — Adina, Lady Eleanora, Jet Lagged, Nomad, Salamander & one non ARC boat Porrima.We are having major troubles with our auto pilot again today, it suddenly turns off & we lose the rudder sensors, it’s pretty tiring. It means Uno goes into an immediate spin so I have to jump into the helm and hand steer, while Rich & Kenny reset the instruments & unplug/re plug the autopilot down in the starboard aft cabin wardrobe. It’s quite the process & doesn’t always work first or second time. We’ve also. read more...