Halfway to Barbados

Last night, 1st December 2017 at 2258 UTC, with 1011 miles to go, we reached the halfway point in our voyage from Cape Verde to Barbados. After showering and changing into our least-stained t-shirts and shorts for the occasion, it was time to get the party started. I...

Close encounters of the third kind

You don’t expect to see much 880 miles from land. There’s plenty of water of course, and a few flying fish around. But for the best part of a week we have seen no boats other than Anemone and Akouavi the other day. Then yesterday afternoon a large catamaran, More Joy,...

Daily Routine

Our days onboard Lady Jane revolve around food, sleep, and safety. And not necessarily in that order. Watches start at 2000 and run to 0800, split into two six-hour shifts. Maria can sleep at any time during the day or night, so she does the 0200 to 0800 watch. I take...

Bread

In complete contrast to yesterday’s trauma, today brings a treat to the motley crew. It is bread day. Maria is kneading the dough in the cockpit as I write this. And now that she has overcome seasickness, she has become the Mary Berry of Lady Jane. Baking bread at sea...

Toilets

To anyone reading this before, during or after food, I apologise for what follows. After 29 years of uncomplaining service, the outlet pipe for the sea toilet has suffered a fatal embolism. A post-mortem of the pipe shows that it looks like an artery of a...

It’s a grand drying day.

Hats off to the folks who create the ECMWF weather forecast – their wind prediction is spot on. We now have a steady F4 wind from the east and our boat speed has increased to a respectable average of 5.5 knots. The upside of this state of affairs, apart from the...