It’s a wrap. We sailed from South Africa into the Chesapeake into 25kts of breeze and sun. It took 38 days at sea and 3 stops along the way, This was the trip of a lifetime. Thanks to Ray, Ballie, Gareth, and Darren for joining and making it possible. Next season we will just putter around the Carib and hang out with friends. For now, a bit of land rest. See y’all on the water in Sept.
It’s a bit surreal, we’ve completed 6,700nm in the last month. It flew by. If anything, gave Ray and I the taste to keep going. Confidence in this boat, and respect but also courage to head deep to sea. Ray is getting off here, we’re both flying home on Friday for the weekend. I’m blessed that I’ll be able to attend my friends funeral. Then back June 2nd for last leg direct to the Chesapeake to complete her maiden journey. Bucket list ✅
We’re definitely near the equator now. Tons of squalls, hot 🥵, and water temp is 29.7C. We arrived into Fernando early morning, in the rain and with dolphins joining us into the anchorage. Nadine and Alizé are here, and our Brazilian SeaPeople dev @jonathanseibt and his wife. It’s a full house. A few days rest before next leg up to the Caribbean!
The inaugural first leg of our adventure. Arrived in St Helena just as the sun was setting and managed to get the drone out for some nice pics of the dramatic southern cliff. The wind filled in as we arrived and had some epic surfs above 22kts (video below). We had 2 days of lighter winds and wing-on-wing down wind sailing with the code and Genoa. It’s a great combo and stable. But not that sporty 😆 Crew is in good spirits, and thankful for a few nights without night watches and some exercise on land. There’s a lot to do in St Helena, Jacob’s ladder, hikes, diving, fishing, and all the Napoleon tourist stuff. I’d like to try my new wing foil gear, but the anchorage is behind large hills and likely not the best for wind and it’s swelly. Just north of St Helena is where the trade winds kick in, as my friend said, it’s where god put the “On” button for the wind. But it’s looking light until next Monday so we will likely stay here until then. Looking forward to leg 2 to Fernando, likely a day or so longer than this leg. But looking forward to wingfoiling with the dolphins once in Brazil.
Sail maker and rigger onboard to tune every last detail. We always learn a lot when they join and geek out with us. Departure planned for a week from now, water maker is not happy and we need a few more fixes. Then off we go! Can’t wait. Feels surreal.
Had a bit of everything wind wise, from sun to fog. Wind mostly behind us, until around Cape of Good Hope and then on the nose. Fantastic crew and good memories. Now for a few weeks in Cape Town to fix and buy things and off again on the crossing.
Spent the day checking and tuning the main boom locks and lower shrouds. Got the load sensors hooked up and calibrated. Then pulled out the code and pointed downwind and loaded her up. A nice easy 20kts boat speed was fun! Tomorrow we fix the hydrolic furler and setup Genoa and start instrument calibration.
We got extremely lucky, weather gods liked us as it was a full sun and 10kts. The south ocean is usually in a bad mood. We hoisted all the sail except for the code which we will do tomorrow. We got 10.5kts in 10kts of breeze. She’s a Ferrari 😆
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