The high winds and big swells continued through the day and with the main and poled out jib, Hejira seemed to relish the conditions and continued to bowl along. The conditions cannot have been to the liking of our similarly handicapped fellow participants because we apparently gained ground on nearly all of them, albeit that... Continue Reading →

Standing on the bathing platform yesterday, changing the hydrogenerator propeller, my feet were regularly swamped as the breaking swells swept through and I was struck by how warm the water was, 25.2 degrees. We all receive Emails from home and it is hard to imagine the cold weather and the shops full of Christmas tat.... Continue Reading →

With seemingly no squalls in the vicinity we maintained the balanced full main and poled out jib sailplan. The auto performed brilliantly, grateful no doubt, for the extra grip afforded by the additional third rudder. Although the wind gusted to 30+ knots at times, she stayed relatively straight despite the building seas and the dyneema... Continue Reading →

After a rather downbeat missive yesterday, the new day brought a more positive outlook with sunshine, and no sign of squalls after some early scares. A full main (with preventer) and poled out Yankee proved to be an adequate sailplan and the auto steered to a steady wind angle with aplomb. A notable milestone was... Continue Reading →

The discovery today of bent brackets on the bow sprit has put a real dampener on the passage and our ability to make speed downwind. The assembly was definitely straight when replaced after the earlier repair, it must just have been excessive loads since then, probably with the second yankee in some squalls. The pictures... Continue Reading →

What a day! We became surrounded by black clouds and the radar confirmed that it was impossible to avoid a soaking at best so we dropped the twin Yankees in plenty of time and set a reefed main and waited. The deluge was of absolutely biblical proportions and we could only put the washboards in,... Continue Reading →

Today we mourn the departure of a trusty friend, taken in its prime, lost overboard after years of loyal service. No one saw the departure but a suicidal leap into the deep is the only explanation for the missing winch handle. It leaves behind a twin sister in the cockpit and a smaller brother at... Continue Reading →

We are now a Southerly yacht both by make and position. We have maintained our twin jib sailplan and tracked dead downwind which has taken us well south of the rhumb line to become one of the most southerly of all the yachts. The wind is gusting top end strength for the Parasailor and we... Continue Reading →