Winds and swell keeps easing and for the first time it felt like the conditions we experienced when we did the pacific crossing 11 years ago. That time we had a 38ft monohull with a monitor Windvane and no watermaker, so this time we are a bit spoilt but it is debatable if we have…
Watermaker kind of works again! The boys finally had their long overdue shower and everything smelled fresh as daisies again. For dinner we defrosted another one of Shanti’s (Chet’s dad) amazing curries, thanks Shanti! Without you we would be poor starving sailors. There was quite some action happening on my night watch when a sailboat…
Tense times with the water maker today. After an initial good run, we noticed that the water maker kept cutting out. This caused us to pause our lavish boat showers while everyone had use use the one salt water toilet…. The tension was high and the odour was thick, so much so, that Jessy mistakenly…
We always pick good weather windows to ensure we have a easy start to a long passage but with the ARC we had to leave with a forecast of 23-28 knots, 30 knots gusts and bad swell. We were very conservative with 3 reefs and the main which was lucky because we got 30-40 knots…
Since we will be downwind sailing for around 20 days with 15-25knot trades winds as we cross the Atlantic I wanted to upgrade my boom preventer to make it safer, easier and prevent any gear damage. Previously I just used a single 12mm polyester line which I attached to the mid cleat and would move…
In the middle of my pacific crossing in 2011 the fresh water pump failed. You can imagine the horror! Luckily I had a spare and in 10mins the end of world was averted 🙂 I wasn’t so lucky with the fridge evaporator which broke down in Bora Bora. The part cost $200 but the shipping…
We bought Navasana, a 3 cabin owners Nautitech 46 Open new from the factory but from the outset we knew that we would have to make a lot of changes to the boat to get it ready for ocean cruising based on my experience of refitting my previous boat Sudden Stops Necessary for the pacific…
Drone footage we took on Magic Carpet while sailing with the spinnaker last Sunday on our way back from the Wadden Islands. Then the wind died and the harken top down spinnaker furler I installed was put to good use 😉
A friend asked me what was the decision process involved in choosing my latest boat, a Beneteau First 30 JK which is not your typical/traditional sailboat to say the least. I tried to explain there was method to my madness, or maybe just madness 🙂 I will attempt to articulate the madness as best as…
I have put Secret Agent Man up for sale with Norm at Sailcal, the J/boats dealer for northern california. I bought the boat from Norm 5 years ago so he knows the boat well 🙂 I really enjoyed SAM over the years but having moved to Amsterdam, it didn’t make sense to keep her. Here…