The nautical adventures and misadventures of Hejira, her skipper, and all who sail in her…
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 →
Although the rest of the crew enjoy the moon for their watches, it is long gone by my watch so I could not spot the problem until the first light of dawn. The first ‘giveaway’ was a slack luff on the starboard Yankee then I could see that the bow sprit was canted at an... Continue Reading →
Deciding (probably wrongly as the wind strength panned out) to stick with our sailplan and have a safe day tracking downwind, I was fearing that I would not have much to report but how wrong could I be. Mid-afternoon, Bob called to say that the Watt & Sea (hydrogenerator) downhaul had slipped and it had... 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 →
My first duty this morning is to say…………………….. Yes, it’s working !!!!!! The watermaker is working - the jointed pipe dropped with a weight on the end of it, down the keel box, past the keel and into the water is picking up bubble free water and the unit is producing water. As we already... Continue Reading →
Preparations became somewhat frenetic as the yachts connected to the water supply to fill their tanks prior to departure. This large demand reduced the water pressure to next to nothing so there was only a trickle coming out of the hose and with half an hour to go to the start, we still needed half... Continue Reading →
Proof !!!!! The organised excursion around the Island was interesting with the small coach struggling up to the summit along steep, narrow, paved switchback roads. The views would have been stunning had there been better visibility through the low cloud and mist. We visited deserted beaches and verdant smallholdings in valleys between barren mountains. Away... Continue Reading →
After early morning rain, the day continued to be overcast and clammy. Our mission for the day was to obtain the necessary pipework and fittings to effect a re-working of the watermaker connections. After some time spent in trawling the various shops trying to make ourselves understood (our Portuguese and Creole is not up to... Continue Reading →
After a short night’s sleep, I have to confess to waking to a slight headache, probably due to a lack of sleep…………… Exploring Mindelo on a Sunday morning probably doesn’t show it at its best being rather quiet apart from the children begging. The colonial architecture would probably once have been impressive but now everything... Continue Reading →
Quite an interesting arrival in the Cape Verde Islands with none of the charted navigational lights working and the island inside which we had to finish at 11.31pm showing as nothing more than a menacing presence. The stowing of the sails and preparation for berthing was surprisingly slick given that the wind chose to pipe... Continue Reading →
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