Blue Pearl - St. Helena

Blue Pearl arrived in St. Helenajust before midnight on Sunday January 20th, our arrival was announced on St. Helena radio! The passage from Cape Town to St. Helena had taken us 11 days and 13.5 hours, a very respectable time given the relatively tranquil sailing conditions. We were the first Rally boat to cross the finish line but after taken our "rating" into account we took second place in our division. The "rating" is a handicap system based onvarious aspects of a boat's physical properties. We depart St. Helena tomorrow, January 26th, on the way to Salvador in Brazil.The time we spent here was interesting and comfortable. St. Helena is essentially one very large volcanic rock with only one area suitable to approach by boat, Jamestown Bay. It is not surprising that the Brits chose. read more...

Blue Pearl - South Atlantic Ocean

We are about 700nm southeast from the island of St. Helena, the one of Napoleon fame, and 1050 nm northwest from Cape Town where we left a week ago for the South Atlantic Ocean passage. We expect to arrive in St. Helena on Monday (1/21) , stay there for 5 days and then depart for Salvador in Brazil. A total journey from Cape Town to Salvador of 3700nm. In the process we will cross the 0 degree longitude to find ourselves back in the western hemisphere. The sail so far has been pleasant and uneventful. The best part is that we are well ahead of the fleet so we have done something right.On board are the Captain, long term crew member Brita and new crew member Jack. It is a real pleasure to have Jack back on board. He had been with us for the Pacific Ocean crossing about a year ago.. read more...

Blue Pearl - South Africa

Blue Pearl arrived in Cape Town, South Africa on Tuesday, November 27th after an exhilarating 900nm, 4.5 day sail from the town of Richards Bay. I should have written about this earlier..!Of course you can always check my face book page (Ruud Bosman) which will keep you much more current and you get to see some nice pictures too.In any case, we arrived in Richards Bay Australia from the French island of Reunion which I wrote about before. The sail from Reunion around Madagascar to Richards Bay and then to Cape Town is notorious for its challenging and variable weather and strong and somewhat unpredictable ocean currents.We found out about those currents...! Going around the south coast of Madagascar we werequite a bit ahead of the fleet but had decided to stay a good distance off-shore.. read more...

Blue Pearl - Overdue

We just departed Le Port de Plaisance on the French Island ofLa Reunion in the Indian Ocean. It has been much too long since I last updated you but here we go. La Reunion is an absolutely beautiful place. If you are still working on your retirement plans, take some French lessons and move to this little Island. I know you will like it.Hats off to the French, in contrast to some other countries I know,they treat their overseas territories in exactly the same way as the "departments" in mainland France and the results are there to prove the point. A very well functioning infra-structure, an economy that seems the work, excellent shopping and all the services that are typically available in first world countries. We spent just over a week here and enjoyed every minute of it.Of course we. read more...

Blue Pearl - Little Australia

Early tomorrow morning (Tuesday September 25th), we will arrive in Cocos Keeling after a wonderful 3 day passage from Christmas Island. Both are beautiful, small Australian Territories located in the Indian Ocean.During the short passage we enjoyed nice wind, nice blue skies and even a very welcome rain shower, the first in several months, that cleaned the salt and grime off Blue Pearl,. She sparkles again. We also had the opportunity to use our new Code Zero sail which was shipped from Annapolis to Darwin where we collected it. In simple terms it is a very large jib designed to sail in light wind conditions on a beam reach or closer to the wind. I am very pleased  with it! We now have Big Orange, Big Grey and our three standard white sails. We are a true around the world cruising. read more...