Short report, keyboard & mouse won’t stay still. We prepped early for the blow that we knew was coming, complicated somewhat by sharp squalls and sudden lulls in the early hours. Top gust so far 45kts. The wind has now settled to a steadier 33kts ish, gusting high...
Plain Sailing So we remain on our course north (roughly speaking and helmsmen skills allowed for) in bright sunshine and 18 knots of wind, under reefed main, storm sail and yankee and have covered around 390 nm . After a lumpy sea state for the first day of the...
The first update from Challenger 2, as they sail across the pond, is in! Everyone seems to be settling in to the watch system. Here is a word from crew member Nick. Challenger 2 left Antigua on Tuesday, bound for Portsmouth via the Azores. So after leaving...
The Crew of Challenger 2 - go swimming Training Challenger 2 slipped lines shortly after 1100 yesterday for a training sail to complete MOB & emergency steering drills in slightly more clement conditions than they had back in the UK last month. They then picked up...
A Marina in Southampton is installing "seabins". It looks like quite a nifty contribution in helping to clear up the trash that is in our seas. How much? At last count there is an estimate 5.25 trillion pieces of plastic in the ocean. Let me just repeat that, 5.25...
Back on dry land You will no doubt be glad to hear our intrepid crew have safely made port in St Lucia after an epic trip across the Atlantic. Here at First Class Sailing it has been my honour to post the blog daily and most of the time I have merely posted the...
Only a day away With the crew of Challenger 2 around a day from the finish line today their thoughts are turning to being back on dry land, seeing loved ones and of course sampling some of the local rum! We wish them good luck for the final few miles of an epic trip...
Tuesday 10 December Becs and I are back on MF watch today, having taken over from the chuckle brothers Jim and Jason. Personally I don’t get why they have a problem with getting up at 5.30 having been sailing half the night to cook a bunch of smelly crewmates...