Yacht Delivery Blog

Yesterday was a fantastic day, a stark contrast to the first three quarters of the trip. The wind wasn't quite as strong as I would have liked during the night, but the sea was flat, the sky was completely clear, and Venus was shining brightly during the sunset. As the sunset progressed and evening set in, all the other stars appeared, with Orion behind us and the Milky Way, the galaxy we are in, sparkling across the sky. Late yesterday morning, we decided to pull up the gennaker, even though it seemed like we were tempting fate after such a successful day. The sock isn't long enough to contain the gennaker, which was already trying to escape. With everything set up and ready to go, Adam stood by on the sheet while I started to pull up the sock. (I am not sure what you call the fiberglass 'funnel' on the base of the sock but it has already been a problem and fell off a few times. I thought it had been fixed with several cable ties. It looks like a shoe horn so we will c...

We've been making great progress, which I suspect you can see on the tracker . I had hoped to smash the 180 nautical mile barrier in the last 24 hours. We managed 90 nautical miles in 12 hours, but the average dropped during the very early morning. Conditions are perfect, and we've picked up a solid southeast breeze hovering around 13 knots, giving us a great push in the right direction. The long-term weather forecast suggests we can expect to keep this breeze for at least the next ten days. It's completely overcast again this morning, but yesterday we started to see some blue skies and fluffy clouds, the kind of weather you'd expect with the trade winds . We're still seeing fishing boats from China and Korea, harvesting whatever they can from the rich waters of the Galapagos. And these aren't small boats – they're over 60 meters, so their appetite is huge.  We haven't had any splashes on deck, and there are only occasional whitecaps, so I had my hatch o...

With only 100 nautical miles to go until we arrive at Puerto Ayora, a town in central Galápagos, we’ve started to slow down to time our arrival for first light tomorrow morning. I’ve already been in touch with the agent to begin the formalities for clearing in and ordering fuel. Yet again, Starlink proves to be an absolute game-changer for this kind of thing.  Believe it or not, I finally had to put on a long-sleeve top last night! It seems to be getting colder the closer we get to the equator! It remains completely overcast and drizzling, so it's no surprise the seabirds have decided to hitch a ride.Their preferred place to relax seems to be the worst spot on the boat. They like being right at the front where the motion is strongest and then stand on the lifelines, which are 6mm stainless steel wire. It looks exhausting trying to hang on with webbed feet, getting covered in spray, and trying to balance while you’re asleep. They must know something I don’t. Perhaps they know if the...

The wind slowly eased off during the evening and decided to take a vacation last night around 4 am, with the apparent wind a mere 8 knots and well aft, we fired up the starboard engine and furled away the headsail. Up until then, we'd been cruising comfortably since leaving Cape Verde with a reefed main and full headsail, keeping the apparent wind at a steady 120 degrees. This sweet spot lets us make good progress (around 160 nautical miles a day – yesterday, a very respectable 159!) without putting undue stress on the autopilot, the boat, or the crew. The weather models predict light winds for the next couple of days. No problem – we'll keep chugging along, making easy miles with a combination of diesel and what little wind we can catch. Hopefully, the real wind will pick up again around the weekend. Our course for now is westward, staying north of the rhumb line to Trinidad for another 500 nautical miles. This area has a higher chance of wind, which is exactly what we need. T...

Let's be honest, the middle of the Atlantic isn't exactly a thrill-seeker's paradise. Sure, there's a certain mystique to sailing vast expanses of open ocean, but for a blog post, it can be a bit, well, monotonous. Believe me, I'd much rather be racking my brain for interesting content than living through hair-raising adventures! Calm seas and steady progress are exactly what I like during these passages, even if they don't make for the most exciting storytelling. The middle of the ocean isn't really the place for excitement anyway – better than the edges, at least, where all the rocks are! But hey, that's the beauty of this journey – sometimes, the uneventful stretches are the most valuable. Clocking over 160 nautical miles a day in the right direction with a favorable following wind – that's a success story in itself! It brings peace of mind, a sense of accomplishment, and the knowledge that we're steadily ticking off the miles on our journey. ...