Atlantic Passage (2016)

After several months of preparation with the invaluable help of our friends, today we finally set sails toward North of Sardinia, the first step to reach the Caribbeans in December. It is a Sunday morning; until yesterday night we had workers on t…

At 4:00am we are arriving in Golfo Aranci after 44 hours of challenging navigation crossing the Sardinia channel (see photo of the interiors…). We had the chance to test the new yankee which replaced the former genoa, the newly rollable staysail an…

It took us several days to get rid of all water that deposited in the most recessed places – letting us initially think of the worst possibilities. After we left Santa Teresa di Gallura on Ocotber 7th in the morning – with the plan to head to the Bal…

You might have wondered why we did not spend time sailing around the wonderful Maddalena archipelago. We missed to tell that we need to reach Gibraltar on October 20th, as we are expecting a brand new wind wane to be delivered there. There are about …

Today is Columbus Day, which sounds as a great wish for our trip. It is a very happy day, because yesterday we were able to fix the autopilot issue. We took the device apart and found out that a plastic gear was completely rounded by years of fricti…

Yesterday we left the anchor at the bay of Clot d’es Llamp on the north east coast of Ibiza to head toward Alicante on the Spanish coast where we arrived this morning at 7:00am after 24 hours of navigation with the wind constantly in front of us, rea…

We left Alicante quite late in the morning, with very little wind. We spent last night anchored in front of Santa Pola, in a bay called Puerto Espato. This morning we set sails toward Cartagena, where we arrived tonight. We had a very pleasant naviga…

We spent two days in Cartagena trying to find a spare part for the main sail, unsuccessfully. It is an industrial and military port, which leaves not a great first impression, but walking along the promenade you get a sense of a town with its own pec…

We are in the ocean! For many of you this is nothing special or particularly exciting, as your country is surrounded by it. For us it meant crossing the historical Hercules Pillars, getting out of our Mediterranean box! We left Gibraltar yesterday m…

This is the 3rd day at sea, we have 300 miles to go. The day was very calm, again no wind, so we are are motoring it through. We will see what happens with our diesel tank… we are keeping the engine at 2000 rpm wondering if we’ll need to use our li…

We are finally approaching Lanzarote where we expect to land tomorrow morning at around 5am. We have 70 miles to go, and we keep motoring slowly – we were able to make it with our diesel tank, coping for the total absence of wind. We have sailed app…

Today was sun shining and warm; we took a chance to visit the south part of the island by renting a car. The two highlights of the day were the vulcano and the wine areas, which in fact somehow overlap, as the grapes are cultivated in the lava soil, …

We spent about 10 days in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, where the Cornell rally was set to start. We attended 3 day workshops, covering several aspects of a transoceanic passage, including managing provisions, leaving for an extended time on board, etc. …

We left land and our first nights at sea have started. We set night watches of 3 hours each, starting with Sergio at 09:00pm, and then Gemma to follow from 12:00pm until 03:00am, and so on until 09:00am in the morning. At night we prepare a conforma…

This is our third day at sea. Yesterday we have been motoring all day due to the absence of wind. The only event deserving a note was meeting a small school of dolphins that played along the boat for more than half an hour. It is always exciting to w…

Since yesterday we have constantly been running at 6+ knots, with peaks of 9. Our slow start is rapidly turning destiny. Yesterday afternoon we finally got in sight contact with Lucy Alice, the boat of Ian and Glenda, a very nice British couple with…

It is now two days that we are experiencing flat sea and no wind. While the first leads to a comfortable state, the second one makes you thinking when the wind will pick up blowing again, and our trip continue. In reality, today we were able to log 2…

The complete lack of wind is lasting now since 5 days. Forecasts are contradictory and we are eagerly looking for a breeze without success so far. We decided to motor at a very low pace, following a course to south, where the Trade Winds should soone…

Yesterday we had for the first time in days a sprout of constant wind. During the day very fieble, then at night increasingly significant. The direction and the force let us think we finally met the distinguished Trade Winds, so we set the front sail…

Days now go by in a routinely manner, having the long waited Trade Wind stably blowing from ENE between 15 and 20 knots. This means little activity is required to adjust the sails, apart from the moments when the wind reinforces for a few hours, or t…