Whilst many 13-year-old boys are wasting hours with their noses buried in Minecraft, chasing girls in the school yard or grazing knees at soccer practise, our youngest crew member William was at sea; adding a three week, 3000 nautical mile Atlantic Ocean crossing to his life experience CV. William joined us with his Dad Douglas, bringing our team up to five. Not only was he a valuable crew ... Continue Reading
Before this trip it was hard to fathom the reality of three weeks at sea on a constantly moving boat and at mercy of the weather – would I be in awe, tired, sick, irritable, scared? What did the Atlantic Ocean have in store for us on our late and delayed February passage? Weather forecasts are generally only good a few days to a week out, what the second and third week would bring was anyone’s ... Continue Reading
One thousand nautical miles to go! I’m delighted to report we’re finally on the home stretch. On realising what could’ve been a 2,600 nm passage had we been able to sail the rhumb line, was depressingly turning into a trip closer to 3,000 nm; we decided to postpone a halfway party and instead celebrate when the remaining distance was down to three figures. So what if we took the scenic route ... Continue Reading
Ahoy from the 14th latitude of the mid-Northern Atlantic! We’re now more than one week in and finally headed in a westerly direction toward our destination. When I last left you we were on a SSW track towards Cape Verde (an independent archipelago off the coast of Senegal, Africa), in search of suitable trade winds that promised to carry us to Martinique. We’d been skirting the edge of an ... Continue Reading
Greetings from the sea – 350 nautical miles off the coast of Mauritania, Africa. Having torn our original Lagoon mainsail on departure day of the Atlantic Odyssey rally, it was a long and patient three weeks sitting in Tenerife awaiting a replacement. Though I’m pleased to report we’re finally on our way to the Caribbean! Earlier in January the rally fleet set out into a week of strong trade ... Continue Reading
The sail is here! Almost three weeks to the day since we tore our original, eight-year-old Lagoon mainsail, a new and robust sail is now rigged. Back on January 8th the disappointment was tangible as we motored back to La Palma Island and watched our fellow Atlantic Odyssey yachts sail away over the horizon. We should be in Martinique right now; skin bronzed from the passage; wearing shorts, ... Continue Reading
By now it’s obvious finally my darling is sadly out of the rally. In fact, we’ve tracked backwards and are further from our final destination! As previously reported, the head was torn out of our original Lagoon mainsail when gybing in strong winds off the bottom of La Palma (with two reefs in the main and no foresail). In the Canaries, areas to the south and between islands suffer from funnelling ... Continue Reading
If you’d asked me six months ago how I anticipated I’d be feeling the day before our Atlantic Ocean crossing; I expected I’d be secretly freaking the hell out. Surprisingly though, I’m not. I’m actually feeling (somewhat) calm. Sure the rest of the crew might say I’m acting a little stressed. The boat is a cluttered mess as we stow and re-organise, we’ve bought and sorted enough food to feed a ... Continue Reading
It was still dark when the alarm sounded early Saturday morning. Heavy rain was rapping on our cabin roof four feet above my head and the room periodically glowed with lightning. For the first leg of our transatlantic passage, it wasn’t feeling like an ideal send-off to me. Winter can bring turbulent weather to the region, so after one near-start followed by another patient week of waiting at ... Continue Reading
Our itinerary this year and last has been a constantly moving target. This summer in particular it has changed more times than I can count. Whilst the wind is the ultimate dictator, we have been fortunate to keep plans loose and research a few weeks ahead. Effectively we’ve crossed the Mediterranean from east to west – Turkey to Spain – signifying that our departure from this enclosed sea and ... Continue Reading
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