What an awesome experience, and a first for Stardust! We were lucky enough to have a one day crossing, and despite the 3am wake up call I’ll take that over spending the night on Gatún Lake. Having an experienced and professional advisor makes all the difference; I did a practice run a few weeks ago and an overstepping and overcompensating advisor (who did nothing but yell at people because he wasn’t able to communicate what was needed) just about ruined the experience. Renaldo was all around awesome! A 5:30am crossing of the Gatún locks was beautiful, as the weather was cool with just enough light to comfortably see. Unfortunately, once across the lake, torrential rain made for an interesting time, having to be out line tending in the lightning and thunder as we descended the Pedro Miguel and Miraflores locks. The cherry on top: getting to cross the locks with a bona-fide floatilla! It’s more normal for one raft of 2-3 boats to go along with a ship, instead of 6 rafts all in the lock. And the best news of all? It’s the captain’s birthday, so chocolate cake to celebrate!

After a short two months in the Caribbean, the Pacific is calling to Stardust and her crew. This is by far the most pleasant passage we’ve had yet. We invited Léa and Ambre on board to help them on their journey toward Central America, and in return we got shorter watches, more rest, delicious food, and great company. Although most of the time we had too much wind for the spinnaker or code sails, we still made solid progress with the help of a spicy few days with wind around 28-32 knots - and I got my highest on-watch speed yet at 23.3 knots! The fishing report is both good and bad. A very slow first half with just one tuna translated to an insane wahoo bite for a few days as we rounded Colombia. Like clockwork, I’d get a strike on one of the rods almost every 30 minutes, although many were missed as their bony mouths make hooking them difficult. I also got a handful of unbelievable bites with blistering runs at insane speeds, but unfortunately got broken off every time. Given the size fish I’ve caught from experience I can only estimate that these were easily in the 80 pound range.

Glad to be back in Martinique after a few weeks up North. After a dry streak of not-notable fishing, I was sure glad to get this wahoo to the boat just as we were getting close to our anchorage for the next few nights. We’ll eventually end up in Le Marin next week to have Stardust hauled out, repainted, and some warranty work done!

Glad to be back in Dominica for a few days this time, after just one night while on the way to Guadeloupe at the beginning of this month

Sail up to Les Saintes for a few weeks with visitors

The journey north continues! Stopping in Dominica just for the night before continuing to Guadeloupe for a little family reunion later this month. Today was quite the day, starting off with a moderate breeze before hitting a strong acceleration between Martinique and Dominica that had the wind jump up to the high 20s and boat speeds over 10. Thankfully we started the day with a reef in the main given how unpredictable conditions seem to always be, but ended up still having to take a second along with heavily furling the jib. To make things even crazier, we had a 2.7 knot current straight on our beam, and absolute pouring rain with zero visibility for most of the day before getting into the lee of Dominica which slowed us right back down for a moderate but not disappointing average. Despite the conditions, I caught a skipjack right when the rain was at its worst and wind strongest, and although no yellowfin, I’m glad to have fresh fish after a week digging through the freezer reserves.

Pleasant little hop from Rodney Bay up to Martinique and it feels good to finally be back in ‘France’. Passing squalls and inter-island wind accelerations had us seeing 25 knot gusts and some moderate upwind bashing while reefed down. We had several boobies following us most of the way as we scared up schools of flying fish, which worked to their advantage to secure an easy meal.

WOW! What an absolute incredible hop from Barbados to St Lucia yesterday that miraculously included landing this 80lb sailfish - definitely a lifetime best for me! All else considered, a fast first half led to a puttering second half as the wind dwindled, but still had us anchor down before sundown.

My second big passage and the first for Stardust definitely exceeded expectations. A fair share of fast stormy days with winds gusting into the 40s made for fast progress and hitting new records, including reaching 23.6 knots even with a triple reef main and jib. On the flip side, we also had a fair share of wonderful reaching conditions where the ride was easy and comfortable. Best of all, the eating on board exceeded expectations with about a dozen mahi and a couple wahoo and yellowfin tunas to fill the fridge.

Finally, two days in Porto and we’re back on course for Tenerife.

At this point, weather really was playing a game against us. Another stop to wait out the storm.

What was supposed to be one big passage to the Canaries, but worse weather than we wanted to be in was forecast.

Onto France. Spent all of September, mostly between Lorient and Les Sables d’Olonne and everywhere in between.

First leg of the trip, Ireland where I flew in to England!

I had the chance to help a friend take his O45 ‘Rioleon’ on a leg from the Marquesas to Hawaii on his trip from France to Oregon. My first serious ocean passage as well as my first equator crossing, and not just that my first total solar eclipse at sea also! A fast passage that ended up taking 2 extra days than forecast as the wind completely died once we reached the big island and had to slowly tack all the way up to Honolulu.