Fog all night. Early in the evening, I could see a half moon to the NW, hazy, pale, cold, and a star here and there, but without context, they went unnamed. The reefs stayed in though the wind faded as the night matured; we still made our six knots. Enough till morning.
I woke to rain but just quick squalls. By ten o’clock the sky had dried without clearing, its shade of gray had brightened without becoming bright. And ...
We worked through a small depression overnight with NW winds to 25 and 30. Rain. When I came on deck in the morning, Mo was creaming through nearly flat, ice blue water at 9 and 10 knots. Clearly, we had a whopping current with us, but for how long I can’t say. By noon, we’d racked up 176 miles (7.3 knots, hour after hour) since the previous noon, a number we’ve approached but a handful ...
I certainly agree with DownEast magazine’s choice for a top 10 iconic Maine image. Heck, I still remember relishing this photo of Captain Lincoln Colcord grinning his way around the Cape of Good Hope at the turn of the 19th century when I first visited the Penobscot Marine Museum about 72 years later. And the underlying story is bigger than any state.
Beyond the obvious thrill of fast reaching toward an Asian cargo port helped by big winds and seas, Capt. Colcord was racing against the steam engines that were fast ending his way of life — this ...
Oops. We we were a bit late with posting the video of Randall’s breakfast on today’s post. So just in case here it is again. Don’t want you to miss it!
I woke to a W wind and doused the main in favor of the twin headsails before the second cup of coffee. There had been a persistent drizzle since first light, so the rest of the morning was dedicated to refining my water catchment system off the main sail cover. This entailed moving the drain on the cover all the way forward near the mast. By the time I finished, the drizzle had retracted back into the sky; a test of ...
#254: Simon Borjeson returns to the podcast as ISBJORN’s new skipper for the first few two-boat passages later this year. Simon & I became friends when we met during the ARC Europe rally a few years back, and bonded on our love of sailing, skiing and endurance sports. Back then he was sailing his dad’s X-42 EUPHORIA across the Atlantic, while simultaneously training for the 70km OtillO Swimrun World Championships. Simon came out to the farm in Sweden in December for a weekend of planning, and we sat down to discuss his love of sailing & adventure, the cutting-edge foiling ...
Up in the night, again. At about one o’clock, wind had finally found its way into the north. I gybed the poled-out jib and main by the light of a headlamp in soft and noticeably warmer winds. The sea felt relaxed. Above–briefly and between cloud–Orion marched his way across the sky, a rare sighting. I quickly reeled off the stars I knew: Betelgeuse, Bellatrix, Alnilam, Rigel. None more were visible. Then right back to bed.
It has been a case of standing by to stand by for the crew of Spindrift Racing as they wait for a perfect weather window to slingshot them to the equator and beyond that non-stop around the world on a quest to set a new world record for the fastest circumnavigation time. However, it looks like their wait may be over as the team has ...
With the introduction of the Axiom MFD line Raymarine moved away from their proprietary SeaTalk NG cable/connector system and joined most other manufacturers offering standard DeviceNet cabling for NMEA 2000 networking. Now they’ve introduced a helpful line of adapters to make that transition easier, and the little adapters above can solve a lot of installation headaches.
Strange weather day. We are riding the bottom of a small high. Winds have been due to veer from SW to W to NW and lighten significantly as the high moves over us and then on to the E. Accordingly, this morning I poled out the working jib, but left the main up, thinking I’d jibe around as the day developed. That combination, poled out headsail and main, can handle a wider wind range than both headsails poled.
