Our latest posts

Until a few days ago, the grinder of the celestial sphere had been consistently keeping the sun and the moon in sync above our heads. The sun would rise in the east, and set in the west at the same time as moonrise in the east. This cycle continued for many a happy...

Photographs can be deceptive. Maria might look as if she is just staring idly across the sea towards distant shores. But no. She is performing an important everyday function: holding the satellite phone aerial level to get a good signal so that we can download the...

Three hundred and thirty miles to Barbados and we are floating on a bed of seaweed. I assume it’s Sargasso weed and there’s sheets of it everywhere. It isn’t slowing us down though. At the speed we are doing, we should arrive at Bridgetown late Friday afternoon. That...

Yesterday’s clouds have disappeared, allowing the power of the blazing sun to shine on Lady Jane’s ever-grateful solar panels. These are currently pouring 16 amps of power into the batteries and it isn’t even midday. The hydrogenerator is adding another six amps to...

That’s an odd looking wave I thought after looking over to my left to see where the noise was coming from. About 30 metres away, there appeared to be a dip in the water with steeper than usual waves surrounding it. Thinking nothing more than a ‘that’s interesting’, I...

Provisioning is positioned as one of the most difficult things to do prior to setting off on a long voyage. You are told to grease your eggs, sprout your veg, and stock up on treats. As Maria recounts below, provisioning a boat for an ocean crossing is something of a...

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...

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,...

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...

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...

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...

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 fact...

At 0740 this morning, the sails went up and the engine went off. There isn’t much wind at the moment, but it is from the right direction, blowing us slowly but surely towards Barbados - and it should increase within the next 24 hours. We have just been visited by a...

Analogous to waiting for a bus, after trying to catch a fish for over 1000 miles of ocean sailing, two came along at once. Admittedly they aren’t the size of sea creature that will pull your boat backwards Jaws-style. But each is big enough for dinner for two, so I’m...

The Atlantic is as flat as a millpond. And with little to do other than eat, read, and listen to music - I am trying fishing. My efforts usually yield nothing more than a light workout, as the line always weighs the same after pulling it in as it did when it went out....

A feisty depression near Portugal is hampering progress down here. Rather than enjoying trade wind sailing with the wind behind us, we are currently motoring into five knots of wind ahead of us. Some of our fellow rally participants appear to be heading for Brazil to...