Another rare update on here. We have launched a web design company now. If you are interested in that sort of thing please visit
http://www.gannetdesign.co.uk
Our primary business is to provide small and not so small bespoke web site design and hosting solutions. We specialise in the Drupal content management system. This provides for a highly scaleable but easy to manage web presence. Things that can be added as needed are forums and ecommerce amongst numerous others.
Wednesday 3 June 2015
Friday 13 March 2015
We've moved
Not house that is (or boat).
However, I have now put up a shiny new website and all future ramblings will be done there.
Click Here to see it.
I am undecided about migrating the old content across. Most likely I won't unless Google threaten to delete it. Storage has to be paid for on the new setup in the Amazon cloud which mitigates migrating it.
Do please visit rogers rants and any feedback will be very gratefully received.
As I say on the other site, it is very much a work in progress and one of the useful things I have high on the list to implement is automatic email updates by subscription.
As ever, comments and suggestions will be received with prolonged sulks and audible muttering about suppressed genius.
There is a contact form on the site of course but I can also be reached at roger@rogersrants.co.uk
However, I have now put up a shiny new website and all future ramblings will be done there.
Click Here to see it.
I am undecided about migrating the old content across. Most likely I won't unless Google threaten to delete it. Storage has to be paid for on the new setup in the Amazon cloud which mitigates migrating it.
Do please visit rogers rants and any feedback will be very gratefully received.
As I say on the other site, it is very much a work in progress and one of the useful things I have high on the list to implement is automatic email updates by subscription.
As ever, comments and suggestions will be received with prolonged sulks and audible muttering about suppressed genius.
There is a contact form on the site of course but I can also be reached at roger@rogersrants.co.uk
Sunday 1 March 2015
Things, and boats
It has been a while since I have really put anything on here. Mostly because there is not much to report.
Things have been happening though. Among other things, I submitted an article to the journal of the Ocean Cruising Club and this has, for some reason, meant that we have been awarded their Qualifiers Mug. This is awarded to "For the most ambitious or arduous qualifying voyage by a new member as submitted for publication in the OCC journal, “Flying Fish” or in the OCC Newsletter."
I am not sure our cruise was that ambitious or arduous when compared with other trips enumerated in the Flying Fish but it was a great honour to receive it. We are looking forward to the AGM and ceremony in late March.
However, a day or so after the OCC told us we would be getting this, the President of the Rival Owners Association, Jane Ashe emailed to tell me that I had won the ROA Peter Brett Trophy for that year. It never rains but pours! Once again, I really did not feel that our voyages merited such recognition compared to what other owners of Rivals have achieved. Sadly, we were not able to go to the ROA AGM where this is traditionally given out as we had already committed to an OCC event on the same evening.
The trick was to arrange a suitable hand over from the previous winner of this award. Thankfully, Terry Williams lives near to Southdown Quay where Sarah G is lying at the moment and we arranged a meet up this weekend.
As a rather boastful blogger I include a photo of a rather lovely sculpture here.
Other than that, we make it down to Plymouth occasionally and draw up lists of things that have to be done. We hope to be afloat sometime in May.
I'll put some boring pictures of work we are doing as and when it occurs.
I am also hoping that there will be a bit of a development with this blog soon. Watch this space!
Things have been happening though. Among other things, I submitted an article to the journal of the Ocean Cruising Club and this has, for some reason, meant that we have been awarded their Qualifiers Mug. This is awarded to "For the most ambitious or arduous qualifying voyage by a new member as submitted for publication in the OCC journal, “Flying Fish” or in the OCC Newsletter."
I am not sure our cruise was that ambitious or arduous when compared with other trips enumerated in the Flying Fish but it was a great honour to receive it. We are looking forward to the AGM and ceremony in late March.
However, a day or so after the OCC told us we would be getting this, the President of the Rival Owners Association, Jane Ashe emailed to tell me that I had won the ROA Peter Brett Trophy for that year. It never rains but pours! Once again, I really did not feel that our voyages merited such recognition compared to what other owners of Rivals have achieved. Sadly, we were not able to go to the ROA AGM where this is traditionally given out as we had already committed to an OCC event on the same evening.
The trick was to arrange a suitable hand over from the previous winner of this award. Thankfully, Terry Williams lives near to Southdown Quay where Sarah G is lying at the moment and we arranged a meet up this weekend.
As a rather boastful blogger I include a photo of a rather lovely sculpture here.
Other than that, we make it down to Plymouth occasionally and draw up lists of things that have to be done. We hope to be afloat sometime in May.
I'll put some boring pictures of work we are doing as and when it occurs.
I am also hoping that there will be a bit of a development with this blog soon. Watch this space!
Friday 26 December 2014
Reflections On Being Back In Harness
Well, it is the Christmas period now and we can be said to be thoroughly re-established into “normal” life now. We moved off the boat in September and in the middle of October we moved back into our London house. By the end of November we were both in work and now we are staying with my Mother for Christmas. At one level, it has all happened with dizzying speed but it also now feels a bit of a world away when GRIB files dominated our life and we were marvelling at paying €8 for a five litre box of wine. Now, we are pleased to find a bottle of wine for £5 that is drinkable and fret about engineering works at London Bridge Station. For the record, I am working in the Information Services Division at University College London while Audrey is working at the Institute of Cultural and Creative Entrepreneurship at Goldsmiths College. Both jobs are OK and we are settling down but there is a definite feeling of changed perspective. To put it simply, we want to go off again!
Almost every day is taken up with memories of “this time last year we were in blah or doing something or other” I am writing this on Boxing day and this picture shows a visit to Beira do Mar on the other side of Sao Vincente from Mindelo.
We also swap these “on this day” memories with friends also back here and on Facebook. Perhaps the best Christmas present I was given was a copy of Jimmy Cornell’s World Cruising Routes – a dreadful fueller of pipe dreams as it has detailed information on all major passages between cruising destinations in the world. That said, the journal of the Ocean Cruising Club has cured us of any residual desire to sail in high latitudes given the descriptions of escapades to Antarctica and the North West Passage. The most memorable comment I read was by a couple who had cruised up from Tierra del Fuego to Isla Chiloe in Chile. They had enjoyed the majestic scenery but were now thoroughly looking forward to sailing where the butter melted!
We shall have to see how things pan out.
Almost every day is taken up with memories of “this time last year we were in blah or doing something or other” I am writing this on Boxing day and this picture shows a visit to Beira do Mar on the other side of Sao Vincente from Mindelo.
We shall have to see how things pan out.
Thursday 2 October 2014
Ideas And A Request
After gaining some experience of sailing long distance I have had the possibly arrogant idea of trying to pass on my incomparable wisdom to others. In short, I am looking at writing a how to book for an already crowded market. This is an introduction to a potential book.
The request is: Could anyone read through this and let me know if they think it is a goer. Bear in mind that this is an early version and any finished one would likely be very different.
All comments received with prolonged sulks and muttering about suppressing incipient genius!
Thank you in advance.
Yet Another Long Distance How-to
Almost everyone who tries long distance cruising sets out to write a book about how they did it with a view to helping others over the hurdles that they themselves had to overcome. This sort of writing has a long pedigree going back to Eric Hiscock Voyaging under Sail. Other illustrious writers such as Donald M. Street have also written detailed how to books. Some of these books are more useful than others of course though this is usually a function of style and the type of cruising you plan to undertake. This book is written from the perspective of the cruising we undertook. This consisted of starting with coastal cruising in UK waters. Subsequently, we completed a two month cruise to Gibraltar and then an Atlantic circuit.
The ideas and suggestions are not generally very original. Very little is new today and thousands of others have done it all before as well as overcome the same hurdles. There are some changes that are applicable now that are not covered in older books. These are usually technical developments such as new electronics or changes in the regulatory structure. The most striking example of this is Automatic Identification System or AIS. Other developments are more evolutionary in nature.
What I have tried to do in this book is to explore possible equipment and techniques with a view to what is tried and tested as well as delivering genuine benefit to a budget consious cruiser. If you read some websites and some sections of the yachting press you are flirting with imminent disaster if you don't load the boat up with enough electronics to make the cockpit of an airliner look a bit spartan. This is not usually conducive to increasing safety at sea or even comfort for that matter.
Although much has changed over the years, one thing has remained constant which is the sea itself. It is still around 2600 miles from Gran Canaria to Barbados and the trade winds should still be blowing for most of them. The cross seas from gales in the North Atlantic will still be an issue to contend with.
For example, someone who wishes to spend their whole time sailing on very long passages in high latitudes is not going to have much of use for the person who wishes to potter round the Greek Islands and is always tied up ashore at night. Between these two extremes there are probably as many different styles as there are cruisers. That fact notwithstanding, it is possible to group cruisers into broadly similar bands. These are my totally arbitrary descriptions.
Coastal cruisers who stay in their home waters.
European cruisers who stay in northern and western Europe.
Mediterranean cruisers
Medium term blue water cruisers
Long term blue water cruisers
Extreme cruisers
We list ourselves in the Medium term blue water category having planned and completed an Atlantic circuit but probably with no intention of transiting the Panama Canal. Thousands of others are planning or on similar or different cruises. A note on the final heading of extreme cruisers. These are the ones who enjoy visiting very remote areas with challenging weather patterns such as high latitudes or very long passage distances.
It should also be pointed out that what sort of cruise fits in to these categories can to an extent be quite subjective and is based on such things as the type of boat and experience of the crew. Crossing from Cowes to Le Harve would be quite an extreme cruise for a Wayfarer dinghy whereas crossing from Tenerife to St. Lucia in December would be quite a moderate passage for a 15 meter steel ketch. I personally know people who have done both of these voyages.
This book though is written from the standpoint of someone with a bit of money accumulated and a moderate size of boat who wishes to take a year or two out to explore further than their home waters in reasonable comfort.
Of course, there is a lot that can be learnt from all types of cruiser – and racers – for all. The experiences of people such as the Pardy's who have sailed in all the seas of the world can be invaluable for people who only want to have sufficient and interesting enough provisions to sustain them from Mindelo in the Cape Verde Islands to Barbados. Similarly, the skills acquired by repeated passages up and down the English Channel will also stand the person who is encountering the very strong tides in some of the Gulf Islands in British Columbia. Once again, size can play an important part and the twenty five foot coastal cruiser on a two week cruise can teach a lot about stowage to the forty footer embarking on a trip to the Mediterranean.
All types of cruising require that the skipper and crew should have and acquire a number of skills in a large number of areas. The further afield you go and the larger the boat, the wider the range of skills you will need until, the extreme cruiser will need to be almost entirely self sufficient in all aspects from boat handling to medical. Once again, point of view is very important for this. A smaller boat will not be able to carry as comprehensive a set of tools and spares as a larger boat. However, smaller and lighter boats are usually simpler and have fewer things that can go wrong so will need less spares. Provisions can be another matter and fitting sufficient water on a Hurley 22 for an ocean passage will be much more difficult than on a Rival 34. Hurleys, have of course crossed oceans but her skipper will have to be very careful in both planning and drinking water.
All types of cruising, but long distance cruising in particular, requires a lot of planning and preparation before departure. The more ambitious the plan, the more of this there will be. Some of this can be quite surprising. Not many people would give much thought to setting dates and locations for friends or family to join them for holidays but this can create a lot of headaches in your cruise plan once you are fully in the much slower routines of a year or more of living aboard. Once you have launched yourself, you will then find all the things that you thought you had planned for but hadn't. There will also be things that you assumed would be easy to manage while on the go that aren't. You will also find the things you worried about that with hindsight are not important.
Perhaps one of the biggest things in the planning process is the finances. This should really come before choosing a boat even as the budget will determine what sort of boat you can afford. Anne Hammick entitled her inspirational how to book Ocean Cruising on a Budget and she spends a lot of time in examining how the amount of money you have will affect all aspects of your voyage. Earlier writers did not give nearly as much attention to money or even how to manage it on the move. This may be a feature of the democratisation of sailing or it may just be a reflection of how society views these matters. There can of course be no doubt that the pioneers such as the Pye or Hiscocks devoted a considerable amount of their energies to managing their finances but did not document it in the detail we do now. Today, some aspects of managing your finances have become much easier – internet banking being an obvious example.
Many aspects of sailing have not changed for centuries. Weather patterns, currents and coastal features are essentially the same as they were for our ancestors even if climate change may be affecting them. Other aspects have changed out of all recognition of course. There will not be many cruisers who rely exclusively on a sextant and chronometer for fixing their position. The electronics revolution is too widely documented elsewhere to warrant much examination here except in the context of a cruiser needing to be as self sufficient at possible. Very few people (even electronic engineers) would be suitably equipped with skills and tools to fix a modern chart plotter should a rogue dollop of sea water get into it and stop it from behaving normally. On the other hand, a long distance crew might well feel that it would be wise to learn how to splice braided rope as this is now used almost everywhere on boats. On the other hand, familiarity with stockholm tar is now only a requirement of the minority of people who own traditionally built wooden boats.
The classic works on cruising have no mention at all of an issue that is now very much at the forefront of our minds and that is our impact on the world. Sailing, has the potential to be a very “green” pastime and way of life. However, without getting stuck into the minutiae of debates on the environmental impact of sailing, it is clear that we need to leave as little behind us as we move around the world. In the past no one would have considered the need to fit a holding tank or been concerned about how their anchor affected the growth of eel grass. Now, all this and more is of critical importance and dominates our thoughts.
Finally, perhaps the most important consideration is that the whole enterprise should be fun. I have long recited a mantra: “Unless everyone is enjoying themselves it isn't fun and we won't do it.” Going cruising at any level takes a lot of effort and often sacrifice. Therefore, the reward should be that it is enjoyable for all who are involved in the project. Of course, not all times and activities can be a rip roaring laugh all the time but the bits that are not so nice should be so that a later time can definitely be fun. Time spent in a dirty smelly harbour with constant wash from passing fishboats disturbing your sleep should be because that harbour is a convenient stopover on the way to the Rio Guadiana between Spain and Portugal. At the other end of the scale. If one member of the crew is uncomfortable with being offshore; either the plans need to be changed or another compromise is reached.
If you can work through all the compromises and the preparation it is a wonderful way of travelling and seeing parts of the world.
© Roger Kynaston 2014
The request is: Could anyone read through this and let me know if they think it is a goer. Bear in mind that this is an early version and any finished one would likely be very different.
All comments received with prolonged sulks and muttering about suppressing incipient genius!
Thank you in advance.
Yet Another Long Distance How-to
Almost everyone who tries long distance cruising sets out to write a book about how they did it with a view to helping others over the hurdles that they themselves had to overcome. This sort of writing has a long pedigree going back to Eric Hiscock Voyaging under Sail. Other illustrious writers such as Donald M. Street have also written detailed how to books. Some of these books are more useful than others of course though this is usually a function of style and the type of cruising you plan to undertake. This book is written from the perspective of the cruising we undertook. This consisted of starting with coastal cruising in UK waters. Subsequently, we completed a two month cruise to Gibraltar and then an Atlantic circuit.
The ideas and suggestions are not generally very original. Very little is new today and thousands of others have done it all before as well as overcome the same hurdles. There are some changes that are applicable now that are not covered in older books. These are usually technical developments such as new electronics or changes in the regulatory structure. The most striking example of this is Automatic Identification System or AIS. Other developments are more evolutionary in nature.
What I have tried to do in this book is to explore possible equipment and techniques with a view to what is tried and tested as well as delivering genuine benefit to a budget consious cruiser. If you read some websites and some sections of the yachting press you are flirting with imminent disaster if you don't load the boat up with enough electronics to make the cockpit of an airliner look a bit spartan. This is not usually conducive to increasing safety at sea or even comfort for that matter.
Although much has changed over the years, one thing has remained constant which is the sea itself. It is still around 2600 miles from Gran Canaria to Barbados and the trade winds should still be blowing for most of them. The cross seas from gales in the North Atlantic will still be an issue to contend with.
For example, someone who wishes to spend their whole time sailing on very long passages in high latitudes is not going to have much of use for the person who wishes to potter round the Greek Islands and is always tied up ashore at night. Between these two extremes there are probably as many different styles as there are cruisers. That fact notwithstanding, it is possible to group cruisers into broadly similar bands. These are my totally arbitrary descriptions.
Coastal cruisers who stay in their home waters.
European cruisers who stay in northern and western Europe.
Mediterranean cruisers
Medium term blue water cruisers
Long term blue water cruisers
Extreme cruisers
We list ourselves in the Medium term blue water category having planned and completed an Atlantic circuit but probably with no intention of transiting the Panama Canal. Thousands of others are planning or on similar or different cruises. A note on the final heading of extreme cruisers. These are the ones who enjoy visiting very remote areas with challenging weather patterns such as high latitudes or very long passage distances.
It should also be pointed out that what sort of cruise fits in to these categories can to an extent be quite subjective and is based on such things as the type of boat and experience of the crew. Crossing from Cowes to Le Harve would be quite an extreme cruise for a Wayfarer dinghy whereas crossing from Tenerife to St. Lucia in December would be quite a moderate passage for a 15 meter steel ketch. I personally know people who have done both of these voyages.
This book though is written from the standpoint of someone with a bit of money accumulated and a moderate size of boat who wishes to take a year or two out to explore further than their home waters in reasonable comfort.
Of course, there is a lot that can be learnt from all types of cruiser – and racers – for all. The experiences of people such as the Pardy's who have sailed in all the seas of the world can be invaluable for people who only want to have sufficient and interesting enough provisions to sustain them from Mindelo in the Cape Verde Islands to Barbados. Similarly, the skills acquired by repeated passages up and down the English Channel will also stand the person who is encountering the very strong tides in some of the Gulf Islands in British Columbia. Once again, size can play an important part and the twenty five foot coastal cruiser on a two week cruise can teach a lot about stowage to the forty footer embarking on a trip to the Mediterranean.
All types of cruising require that the skipper and crew should have and acquire a number of skills in a large number of areas. The further afield you go and the larger the boat, the wider the range of skills you will need until, the extreme cruiser will need to be almost entirely self sufficient in all aspects from boat handling to medical. Once again, point of view is very important for this. A smaller boat will not be able to carry as comprehensive a set of tools and spares as a larger boat. However, smaller and lighter boats are usually simpler and have fewer things that can go wrong so will need less spares. Provisions can be another matter and fitting sufficient water on a Hurley 22 for an ocean passage will be much more difficult than on a Rival 34. Hurleys, have of course crossed oceans but her skipper will have to be very careful in both planning and drinking water.
All types of cruising, but long distance cruising in particular, requires a lot of planning and preparation before departure. The more ambitious the plan, the more of this there will be. Some of this can be quite surprising. Not many people would give much thought to setting dates and locations for friends or family to join them for holidays but this can create a lot of headaches in your cruise plan once you are fully in the much slower routines of a year or more of living aboard. Once you have launched yourself, you will then find all the things that you thought you had planned for but hadn't. There will also be things that you assumed would be easy to manage while on the go that aren't. You will also find the things you worried about that with hindsight are not important.
Perhaps one of the biggest things in the planning process is the finances. This should really come before choosing a boat even as the budget will determine what sort of boat you can afford. Anne Hammick entitled her inspirational how to book Ocean Cruising on a Budget and she spends a lot of time in examining how the amount of money you have will affect all aspects of your voyage. Earlier writers did not give nearly as much attention to money or even how to manage it on the move. This may be a feature of the democratisation of sailing or it may just be a reflection of how society views these matters. There can of course be no doubt that the pioneers such as the Pye or Hiscocks devoted a considerable amount of their energies to managing their finances but did not document it in the detail we do now. Today, some aspects of managing your finances have become much easier – internet banking being an obvious example.
Many aspects of sailing have not changed for centuries. Weather patterns, currents and coastal features are essentially the same as they were for our ancestors even if climate change may be affecting them. Other aspects have changed out of all recognition of course. There will not be many cruisers who rely exclusively on a sextant and chronometer for fixing their position. The electronics revolution is too widely documented elsewhere to warrant much examination here except in the context of a cruiser needing to be as self sufficient at possible. Very few people (even electronic engineers) would be suitably equipped with skills and tools to fix a modern chart plotter should a rogue dollop of sea water get into it and stop it from behaving normally. On the other hand, a long distance crew might well feel that it would be wise to learn how to splice braided rope as this is now used almost everywhere on boats. On the other hand, familiarity with stockholm tar is now only a requirement of the minority of people who own traditionally built wooden boats.
The classic works on cruising have no mention at all of an issue that is now very much at the forefront of our minds and that is our impact on the world. Sailing, has the potential to be a very “green” pastime and way of life. However, without getting stuck into the minutiae of debates on the environmental impact of sailing, it is clear that we need to leave as little behind us as we move around the world. In the past no one would have considered the need to fit a holding tank or been concerned about how their anchor affected the growth of eel grass. Now, all this and more is of critical importance and dominates our thoughts.
Finally, perhaps the most important consideration is that the whole enterprise should be fun. I have long recited a mantra: “Unless everyone is enjoying themselves it isn't fun and we won't do it.” Going cruising at any level takes a lot of effort and often sacrifice. Therefore, the reward should be that it is enjoyable for all who are involved in the project. Of course, not all times and activities can be a rip roaring laugh all the time but the bits that are not so nice should be so that a later time can definitely be fun. Time spent in a dirty smelly harbour with constant wash from passing fishboats disturbing your sleep should be because that harbour is a convenient stopover on the way to the Rio Guadiana between Spain and Portugal. At the other end of the scale. If one member of the crew is uncomfortable with being offshore; either the plans need to be changed or another compromise is reached.
If you can work through all the compromises and the preparation it is a wonderful way of travelling and seeing parts of the world.
© Roger Kynaston 2014
Wednesday 17 September 2014
Photo Album Updated
It seems I can't stay away from this thing! I have completely redone the online photo album of this cruise. For the very brave/foolhardy there are 249 pictures in the link below. Some, if not most, are probably dotted around the various blog posts over the past eighteen months. I am not a sufficiently good photographer to be able to have 250 odd extra good photos exclusive of the ones I have put online already.
Cruise Album
Happy viewing I hope!
Cruise Album
Happy viewing I hope!
Wednesday 10 September 2014
The End of the Cruise
Well, we have closed the circle now and brought Sarah Giddings to her old mooring in Torpoint. This is where our crusie really started in August of 2011. I had managed to negotiate a two month sabbatical from work as a chance to dip out toes in the long distance thing. We loved it of course so set out to do the job properly. Now the job has been done properly and we are back where we started. Truly, the cruise can be said to be over. Sadly, the last bit was all motoring in flat calm from Fowey. Still, we will be laying her up in the Exeter Canal Basin so hope to get some last sailing in before the end of the season.
It has been a wonderful experience for us and we are planning the next one already. It is impossible to choose any one part as a real highlight unless it was our first ocean landfall at Porto Santo in the Madeira group. We can honestly say we loved nearly all of it. Even the frustrating bits like being becalmed in the western approaches are a good part of it in retrospect.
Arriving in Plymouth Sound and picking up the mooring here at Torpoint was a slightly odd experience though. All the very familiar landmarks came up along with our first proper experience of strong tides in nearly three years. The welcome here at the Harbour was very friendly as well and we were pleased to tell them that we will be taking a mooring here next year.
Next year we will be back to coastal cruising and we plan to explore Brittany as well, which will be a new cruising ground for us to visit. Of plans for further extended cruising, it will take a few years to top up the kitty. When we do go we hope to cover much the same ground but much more slowly. Time will tell.
For now, this will be the last blog post of this cruise and I will be updating things much less regularly – essentially when there is something cruise related to tell rather than of our day to day stuff in either work or coastal cruising.
Here are a few pictures of major stages in the cruise along with the parting shot of Plymouth I took in August 2011.
What it looked like when we left:
Arrival in 2014!
A few "highlights"
First view of Gibraltar at the start of the proper cruise
Cabo Trafalgar
Rabat - we leave Europe
A crooked landfall at Porto Santo
Landfall at Cabo Verde
Indian River - Dominica
Waterspout Mid-Atlantic
Landfall at Azores
First sight of Blighty after eighteen months
It has been a wonderful experience for us and we are planning the next one already. It is impossible to choose any one part as a real highlight unless it was our first ocean landfall at Porto Santo in the Madeira group. We can honestly say we loved nearly all of it. Even the frustrating bits like being becalmed in the western approaches are a good part of it in retrospect.
Arriving in Plymouth Sound and picking up the mooring here at Torpoint was a slightly odd experience though. All the very familiar landmarks came up along with our first proper experience of strong tides in nearly three years. The welcome here at the Harbour was very friendly as well and we were pleased to tell them that we will be taking a mooring here next year.
Next year we will be back to coastal cruising and we plan to explore Brittany as well, which will be a new cruising ground for us to visit. Of plans for further extended cruising, it will take a few years to top up the kitty. When we do go we hope to cover much the same ground but much more slowly. Time will tell.
For now, this will be the last blog post of this cruise and I will be updating things much less regularly – essentially when there is something cruise related to tell rather than of our day to day stuff in either work or coastal cruising.
Here are a few pictures of major stages in the cruise along with the parting shot of Plymouth I took in August 2011.
What it looked like when we left:
Arrival in 2014!
A few "highlights"
First view of Gibraltar at the start of the proper cruise
Cabo Trafalgar
Rabat - we leave Europe
A crooked landfall at Porto Santo
Landfall at Cabo Verde
Indian River - Dominica
Waterspout Mid-Atlantic
Landfall at Azores
First sight of Blighty after eighteen months
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