Blighus Maximus

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 ‘reeling us in’ so from a heady 6th in class, we expect to tumble... Continue Reading →

Slow boat to Mindelo

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 →

El Dorado

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 ‘catch’. The water maker saga has reached a hiatus having... Continue Reading →

Oh what a night

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 ‘weave’ - great stuff, this is the sailing I... Continue Reading →

Water no maker

I should never have said we were problem free !!! Since yesterday’s missive, we have been punished for my (I wasn’t, honest) gloating. Having used some water from the tanks, there was space for a ‘top up’ from the water-maker. This has given us some problems in the past and it was brought back from... Continue Reading →

Up and away

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 ‘played safe’ 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 →

Ready for the off!

It’s finally ‘start day’ and we are off at 1300 today! Bob and I attended the ‘skipper’s briefing’ yesterday for the final instructions and we spent the day in a fairly leisurely manner as we are pretty well ‘on top’ of things. This is more than can be said for some of our neighbours who... Continue Reading →

Extremes

Our big shop required two large trolleys and we completely emptied the shelves of muesli. I was convinced we didn’t 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 →

Quorate

While waiting for a delayed Stephen to arrive, we made a preliminary sortie to the Hippo Dino supermarket. Although initially only intending to ‘check it out’ and buy a small quantity to carry back to the yacht, it turned into something of a ‘major’. Thankfully, the supermarket offers a delivery service so, once we had... Continue Reading →

Barry lets his hair (and us) down

Wednesday was the last day of formal seminars and they have all been well presented and useful. This final tranche covered weather and routing, first aid, Cape Verde and St. Lucia and the return options. They have mostly been well attended but interestingly, the seminar on the return options was the least supported confirming what... Continue Reading →

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