We have arrived!
19:50UTC 25/11/08 23’32N 066’20W Well, OK, we haven’t arrived in the Virgin Islands (did I have you wondering?!) but we have arrived in true tropical sailing. There is a ten knot breeze, warm sunshine, almost cloudless blue skies and a gentle sea. This is what it is about. Shorts and t-shirt, lunch in the cockpit, […]
Wind easing, at last!
04:00UTC 25/11/08 25’04N 067’02W After nearly four days when the wind has been over twenty knots, we’re looking forward to slightly lighter conditions. Ty Dewi has been great, providing her famously smooth ride through all this rough weather but even so it will be nice not to have to hang on so much. Yesterday maintained […]
The night watch
05:30UTC 24/11/08 26’48N 068’05W Woken by Karla, who has finished her two hour watch and is hurrying for some sleep, I stagger around the boat groping for my waterproof jacket and trousers, then my boots and lifejacket. Slowly waking up, I reach out of the hatchway doors, find the harness line and clip it to […]
Fish 2 Ty Dewi 3
18:00UTC 23/11/08 27’45N 069’32W Well, score one more to Ty Dewi, although Yan argues that it was probably a draw. We let the fish go, but got our lure back. It was the biggest, meanest barracuda I have ever seen, with teeth like nails and an evil look on its face. Thankfully, by the time […]
After the gale
16:30UTC 22/11/08 29'57N 071'33W Well, the wind continued to blow hard until about midnight, and has gradually eased away since then so that now we have put away the mainsail, unrolled the twin jibs and are running very comfortable in 20-25kt of wind. We are pointed pretty much straight at the Virgin Islands, a mere […]
Live, as it happens from our intrepid reporters…
21:00UTC 21/11/08 32’00N 72’00W Here we are at what is probably the height of our little gale. Winds have been gale force, 35-40 knots for about five hours and we have had gusts to 50kt. The waves have built magnificently, to about 4m, or 12ft, with curling crests and spray blown from the tops in […]
Roaring East
17:00 UTC 21/11/08 32’08N 72’27W After a fairly quiet night the forecast cold front has arrived. The wind has been building from the south east and has now reached near gale force, about 35 miles an hour. We are beam reaching across this, with three reefs in mainsail and jib, and it is a wild […]
Fish 2 Ty Dewi 2
19:45UTC 20/11/08 33’19N 74’08W Och, darn it there goes another lure. We had a big mahi-mahi on the line and got him about two thirds of the way to the boat before he broke free. I think we’ll take it more gently next time and try to tire the fish a bit more before reeling […]
PS’s
PS1. Fishing. Fish 1 Ty Dewi 2. We caught another Tunny, a little bigger than the last. We’re eating fish tonight. The impending disaster, however, is the fact that we are running out of soy sauce to go with the wasabi. PS2. Grey Ships. A smudge on the horizon turns out to be a big […]
Revenge is sweet
Things sometimes happen at sea that make you want to go and give someone a good talking to. Usually it’s an obnoxious powerboat cutting too close or throwing a huge wake around. You want to track them down and give them a piece of your mind. Of course, around here those powerboat owners also have […]