Tara - Motor Motor Motor

Ok, serious boredom has set in.Definition: I just cleaned out the pencil box! Why does a boat of 800 square feet need 14 highlighters, 8 sharpies, and a fifty cent pen from damn near every hotel that Lisa and I have ever stayed in?Oh, and most importantly I found the missing chart-plotter chip that provides the detailed navigational information of reefs, harbors, marinas, etc. for The Azores and the Western Med.For those friends that have been involved in the search, it is FINALLY over! (Hey Diana!)This is no small thing!Well, the chip is tiny but its importance is huge.The little bastard was $400.00+ and I had to special order the thing from the UK because I guess there is not a big market of buyers crossing the Atlantic Ocean at the local West Marine.Anyway, we had this computer chip. read more...

Tara - Mid - Atlantic Blues

The last couple of days have been a little bi-polar.Light winds one hour and high winds just a bit later.Oh btw, we have this all figured out now.When the winds lighten and the weather forecast has called for long-term calm, we turn on the engine.With the engine running we have an abundance of power from the alternator to charge the batteries.One of the worst battery sucking hogs that we have aboard is the ice machine. So, when I remember to turn the ice machine on so that we have fresh ice for ‘Captain’s Hour’ (just a term to lean authority to what is actually a good excuse for a cocktail while underway). On three successive occasions, within thirty minutes of firing up the ice machine, the winds inexplicably picked up and the engine was doused. (Don’t worry about us losing ‘Captain’s. read more...

Tara -

Saturday was another beautiful day of sailing even though the winds lightened as the day progressed.Just before lunch I noticed a sail pretty far ahead in the distance.We all commented about how big the sails looked and wondered if we’d have any chance to catch her. Well, as it turned out, we were on a near parallel, but eventually, intersecting course that lead us together after about an hour.Our big yacht that we were chasing had metamorphosed into a tiny 30’ sailboat named ‘Django’ with a French husband and wife aboard as only crew.For comparison sake, the smallest boat in this rally is 39’ and that is about twice the size of a 30’ when you consider practical living conditions.It was a real reminder of how big this ocean is. When there is nothing to be seen in 360 degrees for three. read more...

Tara - Leg #2 Bermuda to The Azores

Wednesday morning the dreaded start of the longest, most dangerous leg of this three stage passage was upon us. Approximately 1800 miles of the North Atlantic.I know that 35 degrees north of the equator does not seem like very far north but you need to keep in mind that we are advised not to go north of 40 degrees because of ice bergs! WTF!It’s known as the ‘Roaring Forty’s’.The Azores are located at 39 degrees latitude and I’m hoping that the wind God’s allow us to enter the island chain from the west, or even south, without going on a Titanic-like iceberg ‘watch’ (well hopefully we would do it better than they did).The dilemma is that the winds south of the Azores are notoriously light (who wants to take a month to get there? Not me!) and hence the delicate balancing act that is. read more...

Tara - BERMUDA

BERMUDAApologies are due to those readers that have been waiting for more blogs. The explanation is short and simple.The absence was due to exhaustion in Bermuda that had turned into pure laziness and recovery while back on the water these two days.When I last wrote, we were on final approach to Bermuda and happy to be ending two frustrating days of fighting our way into port. As it turns out, that was the easy part.But I’ll explain that later.At 11pm, we entered the well protected harbor and it was bizarre to have no wind and waves at all in there.We ghosted silently to an anchorage just at the same time as great friends (marina mates for 5 months) that we met in Grenada.Charles and Gretchen own, ‘Agua Dulce’, an identical Hylas 54 like to ours.They had just sailed in from Virginia to. read more...