The nautical adventures and misadventures of Hejira, her skipper, and all who sail in her…
After a short nightâs sleep, I have to confess to waking to a slight headache, probably due to a lack of sleepâŚâŚâŚâŚâŚ Exploring Mindelo on a Sunday morning probably doesnât 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 →
Light winds have persisted and this has not favoured heavy old Hejira. We did very well against the lightweight production yachts in the big winds and our sail plan is well suited to the point of sail but they are now âreeling us inâ so from a heady 6th in class, we expect to tumble... Continue Reading →
After the exhilarating speeds in the big winds we are back to reality with the wind down to single figures and our speed, overnight at least, down below 4 knots at times. We had a good day under the Parasailor yesterday but our policy is not to fly it at night so we have reverted... Continue Reading →
Dawn revealed the conditions experienced through the night with big breaking swells running. An unfortunate flying fish must have taken off out of a swell and concluded his flight and life on the deck of Hejira. Stephen was not allowed to claim it as a âcatchâ. The water maker saga has reached a hiatus having... Continue Reading →
What a night! We have maintained the twin poled out Yankee jibs through the night with the winds and seas quite high but it has been exhilarating absolutely creaming along with the auto not having to work too hard and the rig forgiving any swell induced âweaveâ - great stuff, this is the sailing I... Continue Reading →
I should never have said we were problem free !!! Since yesterdayâs missive, we have been punished for my (I wasnât, honest) gloating. Having used some water from the tanks, there was space for a âtop upâ from the water-maker. This has given us some problems in the past and it was brought back from... Continue Reading →
There were crowds lining the docks and breakwaters waving us off with a cacophony of hooters as the fleet left the marina for the start. We âplayed safeâ and crossed the start line a minute late, conscious that a false start would cost us 3 hours added to our time. The wind was a little... Continue Reading →
Itâs finally âstart dayâ and we are off at 1300 today! Bob and I attended the âskipperâs briefingâ yesterday for the final instructions and we spent the day in a fairly leisurely manner as we are pretty well âon topâ of things. This is more than can be said for some of our neighbours who... Continue Reading →
Our big shop required two large trolleys and we completely emptied the shelves of muesli. I was convinced we didnât have sufficient stowage for it all but, bit by bit, it all disappeared into the lockers and with only a few fresh items to be bought today, we are pretty well victualed. We decided between... Continue Reading →
Proudly powered by WordPress | Theme: Baskerville 2 by Anders Noren.