Category: Gear and Provisions
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I’ve Learnt Something Not Many People Know
Earlier in the trip I tried to take a picture of all the crew looking miserable. Everyone looked very sad indeed, apart from Dan. You see Dan is always happy. His catch phrase, no matter what absolute chaos is happening around him, seems to be, “It’ll be fine”. Well, I have discovered probably the only…
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Louise Bourgeois
Tim and I went to the Island National Gallery on Thursday. There was an exhibition by Louise Bourgeois and some of her pieces felt strangely familiar. There were disturbing nightmarish shapes. Many were ghastly un-namely things of no colour and some were puce. Frightening bulging shapes bursting out. Then I remembered Tim’s splendid duff that…
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It’s all change.
Stuart has now left for Ullapool. He really enjoyed the trip but commitments back in Scotland meant that he needed to fly back. We will miss him. Stuart’s industrial yellow Wellies were often the only way the Sumara crew knew where the Thembi crew were. They could be spotted from several miles trudging through the…
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Boring Bit about Ropes
There has always been a debate about mooring warps. Should they be nylon or polyester? I fall generally into the polyester camp, but only just. Nylon is a bit lighter, a bit stronger, and a bit more stretchy. It does absorb some water and becomes weaker when it is wet but even then it is…
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Beating into an Arctic Blast
Position N68,54.7 x W013,08.8. Now the wind has moderated and the genoa is up but it is tough making any progress to the west. The last two or three days have had us beating into icy cold winds and a lumpy sea with double reefs and yankee. The lee rail has been under and waves…
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It’s so beautiful!
Positon N70,58.189 x W008,41.469. Anchored in 8.2 mKvalrosbukta, Jan Mayen We have had a truly amazing day. Gentle winds with occasional calms wafted us north towards the east coast of Jan Mayen whilst being entertained by Northern Bottlenose Whales, Fulmars and Puffins. The Mighty Beerenberg Volcano has been very shy and hid all day behind…
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Two Good Things About an Oily Calm
It’s 05:45 and we are motoring through an oily calm. I’m taking the opportunity to charge everything up. While we were sailing downwind for the last three days or so, the Aerogen wind generator was not often generating any power as so little wind was passing over the boat. I use a bungee strap to…
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Not a Good Day for Sailing
We woke to creaking lines, howling rigging and a harbour full of white horses and decided to stay put but use the time to climb the Faroes highest hill – Slattaratindur at 882 m. As we didn’t have a map we decided to seek local advice. The girl in the supermarket said there are no…
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Will She Sink?
Sumara is now fully laden the waterline has just disappeared below the water. We are carrying 104 L of diesel, 134 L of water, climbing gear, food, anchor tackle etc. It should be enough to take us to Jan Mayen and then on to Greenland. We will be very restricted in the use of water,…
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It’s Good to Share
Easy Split The mast head of yachts is obviously a good place to site antennae but there is not much space. When I installed my Simrad AIS I faced the problem of where to site an extra aerial. Andy at Greenham Marine suggested using the, then new to the market, Easy Split to share the…