Yesterday we sailed E and even ENE at the end. Then in the morning the decision to turn S to the WPT I called “Honduras E”. Wind direction was not too bad but the windspeed was extremely poor. Decision to use the engines was made. This was the correct decision. The wrong one was not…

… the wind shifted to E and luckily even to ENE! So we are sailing now towards our WPT east of Honduras. Not yet fast but pretty steadily. After having gotten the right wind direction we now wait for the typical windspeed of the trade winds in this area; 4 – 5 Bft. Unfortunately the…

Wind got already tired during the night. Thus, in the light of the very early dawn, we changed the sail size. From reef 2 to reef 1. We could have done it even without a reef but this is against my safety margin. Swell went down as well and MaRe is not rocking anymore like…

I bought a pair of Gill sailing gloves in Gibraltar as spares. When we left St Thomas on 23-Mar-2022, I started using them. Upon arrival in the Marina Hemingway, Havana, Cuba on 11-Apr-2022 (20 days later) they became unusable. Holes all over and all the very special enforcement material (stated on the package when I…

Just before sunrise we changed from reef 2 back reef 1 to get more speed. In average we are running 6 – 7 kn with peaks of 8.7 kn. Swell been longer thus a less bumpy ride and MaRe can accelerate better. This was what in wrote the day before yesterday. Then I became busy…

Just before sunset we changed the main from reef 1 to reef 2 to increase the safety margin for the night. TWS is currently 16 – 18 on but we had peaks of 20 kn. MaRe sails an average SOG 5.3 kn but often with peaks just above 7 kn. Dinner was excellent Cuban made…

Already last night, when the wind came back, it hit us at 60 deg on PRT. Later at 30 deg. During dawn, when there was enough light, I set with my OBM the sails because we had enough leeway after we completely had passed the inshore traffic area, east of the traffic separation scheme at…

This song from Rod Stewart is what The Admiral would have played about 2 hour ago because we set the gennaker. The crew performed well! A compliment to both ladies! As we got a bigger wind shift, we needed to shift the gennaker from STB to PRT after it was up for about 15 min.…

Yesterday, with the sun going behind the horizon with another beautiful sunset, the wind also felt down behind the horizon. Earth is a disc! Things fall down behind the horizon. At a STW of 1.5 kn we started the engines. The wind got weaker and weaker. When it continues like that, we soon have a…

At about 1030 I went to the dock master of Marina Hemingway and got permission document to leave the marina. It was a very friendly, somehow even a bit emotional farewell. I really like the time in the Marina Hemingway and Cuba in general. I would like to live in Cuba for about 1/2 –…