Summary of our Atlantic Circuit

Many people thought we were crazy. Perhaps we were! We sailed across the Atlantic to the Caribbean and back. We completed the circuit in ten months, from the taking delivery of the boat until dropping anchor back home in Lamlash Bay. Incredibly, we set sail to cross the fearsome Bay of Biscay in early October, only three weeks after picking up Octopus, our beloved Lagoon 420 Hybrid catamaran -our home for the next ten months. Even more incredibly, we completed our crossing of Biscay in a flat calm. Renowned for the ferocious equinoctial storms, Biscay should be crossed before the end of August, people say, and if you make the crossing later than the end of September your insurance will be void. We were very lucky!




Apart from our late start to our Atlantic circuit, everything went according to plan. Although the weather was generally less favourable than we might have reasonably hoped. Light winds dogged us all the way to the Canaries. We enjoyed the coastal hops down the Portuguese coast, but had to hurry to make up for our delayed start. We spent two weeks in Gibraltar, installing all the equipment we hadn't managed to fit before our hasty departure from England. At this point Katie and Justin, our crew since West Bay, had to leave us. We were sad to say goodbye, but happy to welcome Chris' brothers, Mike and Brian, as crew for the trip to the Canaries. The children really enjoyed getting to know their uncles as we motored down the West African coast. Yet again the winds deserted us for much of the passage.

Mike and Brian returned home to chilly England and we were joined, instead, by Rob and Ruth to crew for the Atlantic passage. Rob and Ruth instantly established a rapport with the children and proved to be ideal crew for the long Atlantic passage.


We set out from Lanzarote heading for Barbados, but a stomach bug forced us to abort our first crossing attempt after twenty four hours and head in to Santa Cruz, La Palma. The five day delay this incurred, allowed time for a fierce tropical storm to pass through. The Atlantic Rally for Cruisers (ARC), that had left The Canaries a week before, were not so lucky and had a very rough crossing. Our crossing was very relaxed and gentle by comparison.


The worst thing that happened to us on the crossing was when the inverter, that supplies 240AC electricity, burned out. This meant the freezer defrosted and we had to eat the contents before it went bad, so we had to have Christmas dinner three days early. Apart from that, everything went very smoothly. The winds were adequate, but not ideal, so our passage was comfortable, not fast.


Our arrival in Barbados was perhaps the highlight of our trip. After dropping anchor in Carlisle Bay, we all jumped off the boat and it began to dawn on us just what we had achieved.

Island hopping up the chain of islands in the Caribbean was paradise. We went from Barbados, to Tobago, to Grenada, to Carriacou, to Union Island, to Bequia, to Martinique, to Dominica, to Les Saintes, to Guadeloupe, to Antigua and finally completing our island tour at St Maarten. It was particularly good to welcome aboard Chris' mother, Margaret, in Martinique.


Our return trip to the UK was much tougher than the outward trip. We were joined in St Maarten by Phil, who was to be our crew for most of the return trip. Phil settled in quickly and soon proved his competence. This was good, because we soon had need of his experience. We encountered two gales with Phil aboard, the first on the passage to Bermuda and the second on the passage to The Azores.

Phil left us at Horta, to be replaced by friends, Alan and Gaynor with their grown up son Andrew. The final leg back to the UK also treated us to another gale. After dropping Alan and Andrew off at Fishguard in Wales, we headed up the Irish Sea to our home on the Isle of Arran. Unbelievably, we were treated to yet another gale. None of these gales troubled us, as we had great confidence in Octopus, but we were tired and keen to get home, so we a bit fed up with the weather Gods by the time we dropped anchor in Lamlash Bay at 1:30a.m on Sunday 6th July. The thing we found hardest to bear during the return trip, was the almost total lack of sunshine and the dropping temperature. What a contrast with the Caribbean!


We returned to the worst British summer on record. Within five days of getting home, Chris had to leave for the grim reality of work, whilst Beth had to restore order to a cold damp house, left in chaos a year earlier. The children, however, were happy to be home and excited at the prospect of returning to school and renewing friendships.


Beth and Chris both fulfilled a lifetime's ambition and the children had an amazing experience. What a great year!

Gale Force Winds

We encountered five Force 8 gales on our voyage back from the Caribbean. Octopus rode the waves well and we were never uncomfortable or frightened.
The camera doesn't do justice to the conditions and the children scarcely noticed, but the grown-ups certainly noticed when battling to put in a reef or two.

DON'T PANIC WE HAVE RETURNED

We arrived back on Arran two weeks ago and have been very busy unloading Octopus and moving home. BT have only just got their act together and put the phone back on! We are now off camping in Dorset for two weeks and will be in touch with friends on our return. I will write up on our Horta - Arran trip when we return and find time to look at all our photos and hopefully put some more on the blog.

Horta in the Azores

We arrived in Horta on the 18th of June after a two week passage from Bermuda. We had a grim first week, running into two gales and having strong winds in our teeth for several days. The first two days were spent motor-sailing North in calm winds to try to find the wind and then, when we found it, it drove us South, losing all the Northing we had gained. One day we had 40 knot winds and we ended up sailing with just a bit of the jib out and still managing to surf down the waves at 14 knots. We had huge waves, the rain was lashing down and the Seatalk network that controls the autopilot decided to fail just at that moment. Phil and I were left to take it in turns hand steering in the pouring rain while Chris tried to fix the problem. Luckily water had only got into the connections which were soon fixed by drying them out and spraying on some good old WD40.

After our second storm the wind started to head us for a couple of days, which was very frustrating. We had a night of thunder and lightening, this of course is not good at sea when your boat happens to be the tallest object for hundreds of miles. I spent my watch, looking out as it circled around us for two hours watching flashes of lighting zigzag down into the sea.

We had our most damage to date on this passage, the jib ripped again, lower down this time, just under the new repair we had done in St Martin. The third reefing point failed and the second reefing point ripped off the main sail. The spinnaker halyard snapped nearly dumping the Gennaker over the side and sprang off two of the lifelines as it went, the lazy bag ripped and two lazy jacks broke. We ran out of gas for the first time on passage (not that this really matters as we cook by electric as well).

Octopus performed well in the strong winds and big seas. The children, oblivious of the bad weather, sat watching DVDs and had to be persuaded to look out at the storm. Their response was “Oh, yes” and then went back to their film.

The second week we had good winds and fine weather, but still didn’t see much of the sun.

Horta is a great place for repairs and we are all set to go again. In fact, Horta is just a great place, everyone here is so friendly and the whole place is organised around the yachtsperson. We have been lucky enough to meet up again with lots of sailing friends here apart from Norn who very sadly left the morning we arrived. The whole of the marina, dock side and breakwater is covered in pictures painted by passing crews. It is considered unlucky to pass here without making your mark. I spent a couple of days painting our daub for Octopus, I ready enjoyed doing it, partly because I have been waiting and hoping to come here and paint my picture for nearly twenty years!

Alan, Gaynor and Andrew arrive here this morning as our new crew. We plan to do a few last minute jobs, a walk about Horta so they can look at all the paintings and then enjoy a meal at the ‘Peter’ this evening before making an early start tomorrow on our passage back home to Arran. The Peter, also known as Café Sport, is a very well known pub in the yachting world.