Sea Eagle - Mastering the Cube

Its been a great ride since our last blog, with everyone very happy, well fed and enjoying the trip. Still meat in the freezer and enough eggs and bacon for at least one more full English.Wayne took on the challenge of mastering the Rubiks Cube by the time we arrive in Portugal and with guidance from the Grand Master(David) he cracked it within a few days. Ben has now taken up the challenge and is not far behind. I think by the time we get in he'll have mastered it as well. Problem is Wayne and Ben share a watch and they were so distracted on Wednesday night as Wayne instructed Ben that we actually started heading back to the Azores as neither had noticed that the autohelm had cut out. Quite worrying really!!Although we have spotted whales we have not yet had one as close and for as long. read more...

Sea Eagle - Back at sea - the last leg

We're back at sea again. Everyone had a great time in the Azores and a much needed rest from sailing. We did manage to visit the islands of Faial, Terceria and Sao Miguel - more on that later. David joined us in Ponta Delgada on Monday morning and we set off for Lagos, Portugal straight away. We immediately launched the Parasailor (huge cruising chute) once we were clear of the island and had a great run of around 8 knots for the first hour until the wind started to build to 17+ knots. We decided to take it down and be on the safe side seeing as it's had 2 major repairs over the last 12 months. Sods law as soon as it came down and hit the deck the wind dropped so back up it went. However this time we hadn't realised we had put a twist in it. After hoisting and dropping, twisting one way. read more...

Sea Eagle - Cold Beer! 30/05/2014 16:00

We are now within sniffing distance of that ice cold beer, we have 214NM to go and are still holding on to the hope that we can get to the prize giving party. Our only slight concern is that the boys on Webster may have already drank the place dry.Been a good few days again and we are currently bounding along in bright sunshine at 8 knots.Ian reckons he spotted a whale on his watch yesterday. We've figured its an extremely rare specie, in fact it could be the only one so we've named it Spermus Hullucianus, as the whole crew rushed up on deck only to see a multitude of white horses.We have enjoyed lots of dolphins around us late most afternoons which is fabulous just need to see and photograph a whale or 2.Since the water maker gave up the ghost we are down to the last bit of water so. read more...

Sea Eagle - Sea Eagle - Thursday 29th 10am

Great sunrise this morning which makes a change from the past few days. The skies have cleared and not a squally cloud in sight. A little traffic around this morning. Mackie has been adjusting course to keep clear of an offshore fishing boat doing circles in our path and we have a 200m tanker heading to New York on our port side. The crew are getting more and more excited as the miles roll by. We're down to 453 as I type this blog. The navigation software on the Mac is continually trying to work out the number of hours to go which is averaging around 55. That puts us in Horta late Saturday night. It's looking increasingly unlikely we will make the ARC prize giving and gala dinner on Saturday which starts at 19:00 although the winds are due to build a little from the West which would put. read more...

Sea Eagle - Rain, rain go away

Yesterday we could quite easily have sat in the cockpit, added some bubble bath and had a good soak, we've had so much rain.At last we have had a clear night, watched a nice sunset and could once again see the stars. Today is a gloriously sunny day. Only problem is we have no wind and the boat is rocking and rolling all over the place. With any luck it will pick up soon and we can get the power sail up.Everybody on board still seems happy and these calmer conditions should help us catch up on sleep and let us dry our gearand air the boat. Mackey is knocking up a nice tuna salad for us and we'll eat this on the pristine freshly washed and dry deck.Rally control have stated that Persistant Lady is having some engine problems so we have set a course in her direction. We are 150 miles behind. read more...