Musketeer of Cowes - Musketeer Blog

13th DecemberVery quiet this morning! I came on watch about an hour before sunrise to calm seas and very little wind. Needless to say we are motoring. Last stretch… about 260nm to our waypoint, at the most northern tip of St Lucia. Currently we expect to arrive there in the early hours of Sunday morning! Although, if the wind picks up as predicted on Saturday, we may fly towards the finish!Another very different dawn with clouds stretched across the horizon. However, today, I think, will develop into cloudless skies and blazing sunshine!Just so you don’t think it’s blue skies and sunshine here all of the time, I thought I’d better tell you about the last couple of days! After our great kite runs we encountered a different weather pattern - tropical storms! Overnight the cloud built and I. read more...

Musketeer of Cowes - Musketeer blog

8th December & Making Progress!We’ve had a great couple of days flying the kite, Unfortunately, the big blue sail is a bit like Goldilocks and does not like too much wind, nor too little wind, or a sea state that’s too choppy, everything has to be just right! Finally we got a smile from Nigel when the conditions were perfect and the kite flew, pulling Musketeer at pace through the sea.There’s much to do to get the kite (sail) safely in the air; sheets (rope for the non sailors) to be run and check, halyard (another name for a rope) to attach and check, sheets put through blocks and on winches ready to ease and wind in. Then it’s action stations; everyone with their part to play! We’re getting better at problem solving before it goes wrong, and faster too!This morning we crossed our. read more...

Musketeer of Cowes - Musketeer blog

4th December Squall monitoring on night watch tonight… radar picks up cloud and the squally ones appear as darker and larger red blobs!! Reducing the amount of sail and being ready for the shifting winds makes for a more comfortable ride as the squall passes over. We were lucky and only had small ones; max 30kts of wind. Earlier this evening, the mince I’d browned, ahead of making my cottage pie, ended up all over the galley floor along with the shattered pieces of our only decent large dish.Note to self - there is a reason most boats don’t have glass casserole dishes!It’s amazing how red lentils can turn a frying pan of vegetables into a tasty dish. Cottage pie became Garden pie and everyone was happy. Mark had been trying out his fishing gear prior to the dinner incident, but nothing. read more...

Musketeer of Cowes - Musketeer Happy Advent

ARC Web 02.12.24Happy Advent to you all!Feels like we missed the start of the season yesterday, it was such a busy day… We’d sailed overnight entering the port of Mindelo, Cape Verde in the early hours of the morning. It lived up to the advice in the many chart & pilot books we had. There were numerous lights, most of which were not on the chart, as well as anchored vessels, several piers/pontoons and little in the way of obvious direction into the marina. With all of us, with eyes like hawks, spotting challenges and opportunities, we managed to locate the fuel dock only to find another, much larger boat, moored up there. We retreated to an area where several yachts were anchored and went about lowering ours. Close to the marina entrance, ferry pier and channel marks we decided to. read more...

Musketeer of Cowes - Musketeer Blog 2

Dear friends and familyWe’re all well here, albeit a little frustrated with the light winds!Whilst motor sailing, we’ve taken advantage of the fairly flat conditions and spent time in the galley preparing tasty meals. The menu has included a delicious chicken stir fry (see photo), melon with Iberian cured ham and tasty beef burgers accompanied by a freshly prepared coleslaw. We’ve also been getting to grips with our citizen science project (see photo); collecting open source data for marine scientists around the world.Sunsets have been stunning with beautiful cloud formations. Although the winds have been light, we managed a whole night sailing under our Code 0. It’s been very dark as the moon has been waning. Looking forward to brightly lit skies and more winds in the next week or so!A. read more...