Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage.
Anais Nin (diaries, 1941)
Posted by Graham Cox
The 2025 MGR fleet are now homeward bound, back to where this event began on 23 February 2025. A few skippers are sad and want to sail on to who knows where, others just live from day to day, while some are looking forward to crossing the finish line and returning to loved ones. All of them will miss the excitement and camaraderie that has carried them across three oceans and to more than 17 ports of call.
Another noticeable quality that these MGR skippers share is the courage to commit to an unknown future, to grasp their dreams, to persevere in the face of doubts and fears, both their own and those of others. Most of them had never crossed an ocean before setting off, built a boat, or grasped a sextant, but here they are, salty veterans one and all. The MGR has been a life-altering event.
After a colourful and exhausting few weeks in hot and vibrant Recife, a city throbbing with the exuberance of Carnival, the fleet set sail at 1400 on 19 February 2026, crossing the start line between the Crystal Tower inside Recife Harbour and the start boat on the western shore in light airs. It was a long, slow sail out into open waters, but the skippers appeared to enjoy it. Keri manoeuvred perfectly to take ORIGAMI across the line first, followed closely by Renaud on CAPUCINETTE.
Once clear of surrounding reefs (and once several boats had cleared debris from keels and rudders), they set off around the NE tip of Brazil in light winds just forward of the beam, then fell off to the NW towards the Caribbean. Several skippers commented that going upwind, at least in these light conditions, made a pleasant change from rolling down the trades. They were soon broad-reaching again in variable winds, though the NE trade winds would give them reaching conditions, and maybe even a beat to windward, soon enough.
Jakub posted, “Nice starting day in Recife. Lots of fun and competition to get out. That was my favourite conditions so far. Sailing upwind is my game. Unfortunately, I got food poisoning on the first day – big headache and upset stomach. I’d be relieved faster if I could throw up, but pirates don’t do that (unless very drunk). I am now getting better and back to the action. Lots of small fishing boats and cargo ships but no drama.” BIBI quickly resumed position in the front pack, just behind Pilar, who led the fleet for a while on PETER PUNK, followed by Renaud on CAPUCINETTE and Dan on IMMORTAL GAME.
Eric mentioned that he had a good start but then could not get SUNBEAR moving initially. He suspected debris on the keel but it must have cleared as he had a good sail the first night and was moving well. Dan also had debris wrapped around the keel and IMMORTAL GAME’s outboard motor. He noted on the first morning after the start that it had been a warm and bumpy ride so far.
Christian and Keri decided to tack offshore, hoping for more breeze, though it did not eventuate, and they tacked back to the north. By 2000 UTC on 21 February, they trailed the fleet by some 50 nm. Keri later reported that he had cleared Recife in poor health and had not yet recovered.
“The heat, humidity and bustler of Recife took a toll on my health,” he posted. “As we left port, I succumbed to a fever and bronchitis. It hit really quickly and I needed to find quiet water to enable some rest; hence I headed straight for the edge of the continental shelf, away from the fishing fleets, etc. Still no signs of improvement.
“Last night, the sheet from my A3 parted in a small squall. I transferred halyard load to the last cleat and recovered the sail onto the foredeck. Even a simple task like that wiped me out. I hoisted the jib and returned to the cockpit, where I collapsed, doubled up with stomach cramps and shaking uncontrollably. Not the best example of a solo sailor! Today I started antibiotics, so hope to be back in the race soon.”
The Recife stopover also had a detrimental effect on Jasmine’s health, as she was ill with high fever (up to 39.5), nausea, and was very tired for the last few days, according to her mother, Susan. “She was treated in hospital yesterday with a drip, has basically slept most of the last 48 hours, and is so grateful to Recife Rotary who sponsored a hotel stay for her for a couple of nights. The MGR online medical support, MSOS, and the medical kit were great, and Jasmine’s travel health insurance company were just absolutely on it with assistance.
“She only decided she was fit enough to leave today, 1 1/2hours before the 2pm local start time, although she’s still very tired. Fortunately, she’d prepared everything already, and had even managed to arrange signing out the country via another MGR sailor.
“The Hydrovane flip flop frame is still impounded in Brazilian customs in Recife, despite having paid all the fees over a week ago, but she’s done a swap with an ARC boat in Recife Marina for theirs, and they will collect hers when it eventually arrives.
“She has been making good progress since she set off from Recife on Thursday afternoon. She has now rounded the ‘corner’ of Brazil, past Natal. There’s lots of huge ships around, and plenty of unlit fishing vessels (most don’t carry AIS either). That, combined with the conditions, has meant very little sleep. She’s travelling on a current at the moment, which is just as well, as there’s very little wind, however the sea is relatively flat, and she’s getting used to sailing on the opposite tack to that used around the rest of the world.
“She has yet to have a proper meal, but feels ok. Not eating for the first few days is pretty standard when setting off on a new leg (anyway). She’s so happy to have set off with the fleet, it’s massive mentally to be in with the race, but also the mass start – sailing down the channel in Recife was epic.” How Jasmine is faring at the moment is unknown, as she did not make her scheduled phone call on 23 February, nor has Susan posted further updates.
On the third day out of Recife, LITTLE WREN had found the favourable current, and was comfortably reaching north across a smooth sea under mainsail and A5. With Adam’s typically British, delightfully dry, humour, he noted, “LITTLE WREN is enjoying the wonderful sailing conditions. She is settling into a starboard tack, although says port is her better side. Good progress for the first three days encourages thoughts of a quick passage.”
This is a significant boost for Adam, who admitted before leaving Recife that the last passage, from Saint Helena to Recife, had nearly brought him undone psychologically. He was sick of the heat, the endless rolling downwind, and the difficulty in getting LITTLE WREN to hold the course – sloppy seas and barely discernible apparent wind over the deck made self-steering an almost impossible challenge. To add to his frustration, his nearest rivals, Jakub and Christian, seemed to be sailing faster than him!
On this passage, he has at least stayed ahead of Christian and ARGO, though his old nemesis, Jakub, aboard BIBI, is managing to hold him off as the first week draws to a close. Christian was not due to call this week, but posted a reflective video on social media (www.argoworldwide.com), expressing gratitude for all the support he has received, and noting that he remains thrilled to be a part of this inaugural event, despite the challenges he has faced, from serious health issues to damaged sails, etc. At 0400 UTC on 24 February, ARGO was sailing in 4th place at 6.1 knots, with 1700 nm left to make landfall in Antigua.
When Renaud made his scheduled call to this scribe on the night of his 3rd day at sea, he said, “I am not far from Pilar. I can see her red light. There’s a red dot, which is nice to see something around me by night. PETER PUNK was a bit ahead of CAPUCINETTE for a while, but never far, just a couple of miles or so.”
Speaking of the weather, he said, “We have had nearly everything, rain, no wind, waves from everywhere, and now it’s very calm. I just start to be in the current, around 1.6 currents, offshore from Fortaleza. It is very hot. I think now we have the doldrum period starting. Today it was a bit miserable. I think now we have three or four days that are going to be quite difficult, but it’s still pleasant to sail.
“At the beginning, we had to tack to exit the harbor, and then it was upwind for a day with wind from the starboard side, and then it was back to following wind for a while, sailing butterfly. Now the wind is on the beam.
“I have a very small black bird on my solar panel – he’s just taking a rest. Now the sea is nearly flat. CAPUCINETTE is just sliding. We have about 5 knots of wind. I am carrying the A3 and full mainsail. We are making 6.4 knots, because we have 1.8 knots of current with us, which is fantastic.”
He mentioned that the unstable weather means you never know what will come next. “Each time you have a cloud, if you are north of it, then it will push you. But if you are on the other side of the cloud, then you just stop with nothing. It happened to me earlier today. The cloud went in front of me, and I waited for four hours, nothing at all. So, it is just a lottery. I am hoping I will have good clouds crossing me on the south!
“We are starting the erratic and unpredictable time with the Doldrums. I think conditions will be more difficult for Tuesday and Wednesday, with light winds and thunderstorm. I don’t like thunderstorms. I hope they won’t be too big. And then a few hours after that, it will turn very dry, and there is a band of trade winds coming which is predicted to go up to 30 knots. We will also have around 2.5m waves. I don’t know how CAPUCINETTE goes like this. We have never sailed like this before. For more than 20,000 miles, we have never had those conditions. We will see.
“You also have to take the ocean current into consideration. If you look at the current, it could be tempting to stay in it, but then if the wind turns a bit more north, I don’t know how we can reach Antigua without tacking, and that’s something I don’t want to do. I don’t want to end up too far west, in the lee of the islands.”
Asked about how he is settling in, eating, sleeping, etc, he said, “I always eat well and maybe too much. I don’t sleep so much – I don’t sleep enough I think, but for me it’s very important to be ready for each occasion to take a good option. If you sleep (too long) maybe you don’t feel the wind changing and you lose an occasion to go further, to go faster. In these conditions, I never sleep more than 45 minutes to one hour, and get maybe five hours total every 24 hours.”
He has been following his usual four-hourly routine of checking his position and analysing the weather, ocean currents, etc, comparing personal observations with various computer models. Then he checks CAPUCINETTE’s position relative to the rest of the MGR fleet, etc. He constantly changes sails to maximise performance. He aims to maintain a high average speed and will hand steer when necessary. If there is any time left before the next four-hour slot, he sleeps!
Pilar did not send a message this week, but had earlier posted i=on the MGR Entrants Report, “PETER PUNK #98 Departure from Recife and final leg to Antigua of the MGR. Make sure nothing is caught on the keel or rudder blade before departure. Exit through the Recife port channel, maintain good control and give it your all, it’s the final leg! Enjoy!!!”
This reads more like a motivational message to herself, and if so, it has certainly worked. At the start of this passage, PETER PUNK stayed ahead of CAPUCINETTE for longer than any other skipper has managed to do since the boats left Antigua, though the maestro finally crept ahead by a few miles.
The bumpy seas Dan reported soon after leaving Recife had smoothed off by the time he reported in on the third night out. He noted, “I’m just taking it easy up in the doldrums I guess, not really doldrums, whatever you want to call it. It’s got that feel about it, the clouds and the little squalls and a lot of those really calm patches, things like that. But we’ve got a bit of current, and there’s generally a bit of breeze, so we’re still making relatively decent progress for the most part. Even when I’m only doing two or three knots, we’re sort of doing five knots over the ground.”
Asked about his tactics for working north, he commented, “I think we’ll stay in the current for about 700 to 800 miles. It depends on when we want to exit it and head further north. The current goes right up the coast, you can follow it for a thousand miles, but you have to figure out when you’re in the best spot to try and go north. If we keep following it and get too far west, we’re not going to lay the finish line, especially since there are some strong trade winds coming soon.
“Other than that, it’s very hot here. So, trying to stay cool. I haven’t had much rain as yet, but I’m expecting some thunderstorms tonight. So, trying to get a bit of rest before that. To be honest, I’m just having fun. We’ve been out here a long time. And I’ve got nothing to prove. So, I’m just out here really enjoying myself this week. That’s pretty much my goal. I don’t really care where I come. (On this last passage at least. His overall standing seems secure). I’m just out here to enjoy myself and get myself to the finish line, get the boat back safely.
“There are heaps of fishing boats, so it’s a bit hard to sleep and I’m pretty tired at the moment. Not because I’m pushing myself, but because there’s no AIS on the fishing boats, and some of them don’t even have navigation lights on. I’m probably up every 20 minutes or so, just to check that I haven’t got any boats coming.
“I’m pretty keen to get off the coastline soon, because this sleep deprivation is not really sustainable. During the day it’s not so bad, but I haven’t been able to sleep during the day because it’s been so hot. It’s just really difficult to try and get some sleep. So just working my way through here and looking forward to getting further offshore into some clear ocean down the track. It depends on what the wind’s doing next week, and how strong and how far north it is.
“I’m eating well. I’ve got my On-Track meals for dinners, and porridge for breakfast, just trying to eat healthily. I have some fresh fruit and eggs on board, so eating some of those, and other than that it’s just business as usual, nothing much to report to be honest.”
Jakub is slowly recovering from whatever ailment troubled him for the last few days in Recife. “It was very hot, and I couldn’t sleep during the night because of the temperature. I was waking up in the night and I had to have my electric fan on all the time to create a little bit of breeze.
“We had a beautiful start against the current and wind. I maneuvered quite well, and right after the start I passed most of the fleet. Then I saw Renaud going along closer to the shore because he was hunting for the breeze. And I went a little bit offshore to get a better height, and a better wind angle to pass the reefs. Then I saw Keri and Christian head more offshore. I think they went offshore to hunt for the current, but they lost the wind. I was happy with my tactic because it brought me to 3rd place, and for the next day, I was very close to Renaud and Pilar.
“But the when the night came, I fell asleep and lost the course a little bit, and they jumped away from me. But I’m still very happy even though I’m 4th at this moment. We are going nearly downwind, so I’m flying my A3 and I have a 1.5 knot current going my way. My average speed in the last four hours was 6.4 knots.
I feel like BIBI is coming into the horse latitudes from this morning, because the wind is quite fluky sometimes. Sometimes it’s blowing nicely, 14 knots, gusting 17. But then we might have an hour with very light wind and the clouds build up. We had several rain squalls passing by, usually by my stern. Once I saw the rain coming right over me, so I sealed all the hatches, and pulled out my shampoo and towel. But I didn’t get enough to get wet, and only collected maybe half a cup of rainwater.
“I’m expecting to have enough rain in the next two or three days because I just came into the zone, and watching the weather forecast, there’s plenty of rain coming. But the temperature is quite high and the rain seems to be like a pleasureful cool down.
Speaking of the likelihood of fresh trade winds on the beam, or even forward of the beam, in coming days, he said, “I’m quite happy with my sails because for most of the world my mainsail was in the cover. So it’s in very good condition. If I didn’t use the jib, I always kept it in its sail-bag. So my sails are all good. And I’m hoping to have them in good condition until I come back to Ireland.
“At the moment, we are going downwind. I rarely use my A3, but now I feel like it is the right time to do so. For the last 24 hours, I’m going on my A3, sometimes getting a speed of 7 knots over the ground, obviously that’s with some help from the favorable current.”
When asked about his strategy for the passage north, he said, “I think when rubbish comes from the Amazon River, it will get into the center of the current, where the current is the strongest, or on the inner side. I have between 1.2 and 1.5 knots of current at the moment. I’m keeping my course straight, which at the moment is 300-305°, and that should bring me to the outer side of the current when the land goes a little bit more west-north-west, and the current follows the curve of the land.
Several of the skippers are sick, or have been sick since leaving Recife. Luckily, the gastro-intestinal problem that Jakub has been suffering from since before the start has eased off. “I think it was something to do with the food, so either it was the veggies or avocado or the porridge I had, because yesterday morning I tried to have a porridge again just to get some energy, and that porridge didn’t suit me at all, so I couldn’t even eat it. Usually when you get food poisoning, you can’t eat that food that brings you more poisons.
“Yesterday, I had a little breakfast, porridge with honey, and I also put 10 drops of minerals in my porridge. And then for dinner, I had two eggs with avocado and a bit of bread. I haven’t eaten anything else since. I am starting to feel hungry, so I’m hoping that tomorrow morning I might come back to the normal routine and have my most common dinner, sardines with veggies and some biscuits.
He did not enjoy Carnival much. “I was very interested to see how the carnival looks, and a few times I went to town just to have a walk around. We didn’t party much together. I went once with Jasmine to listen a bit of music and do some dancing. But, after a year and a half of the journey and visiting all the places, partying so much, I felt too tired. I was always back to my boat by about 10 or 11 pm. In the beginning (of the MGR), we were so excited that we didn’t feel any tiredness.
Like a number of the skippers, he is trying to process what comes after the MGR. “After so much time, so many places, we have become used to this life. When I spoke to Adam, he said, ‘I don’t know how my life is going to look after the race, because for the last year and a half we have done this, it’s like our work, and this is who we are.’ We can hardly picture what it’s going to be like when we come back.”
He added, “As far as I know, most of the MGR skippers used this race as a point of changing the life. Some people are retiring, some change, give up their work, and they are hoping for a different life now. I’m just going with the flow of life, hunting for adventure, and trying to spend less time working just for the money. I have decided not to work just for money anymore. If I go to work, it’s only to get the resources for the next adventure.
“But I miss my kids so much that I’m only thinking about getting back to them and spending time with them, getting the adventure with my son and daughter. My daughter studied marine biology and she is very interested in oceanography. I’m proud of her, and my goal is to help her to start her career, and maybe use my sailing experience to take her on some sailing adventures and show her the ocean, how it looks from our sailor’s perspective.”
At that point, Jakub went on deck to check for ships, squalls, etc, and let out an exclamation of delight. “I just came outside and it’s such a beautiful sky full of stars. The Southern Cross and the Big Dipper are pretty much the same height. All the clouds have cleared away. There’s a little bit down there on the western horizon, but nothing on the east or to the south.
“The wind has eased slightly, and it feels like dry air, which is such a pleasant feeling after all the humidity. You can be tired, or hot, struggling with a lack of sleep or food, but when the weather gets beautiful like this, you are just so happy. Yesterday, I saw a beautiful turtle, and on the first day, I saw the Portuguese Man o War, but in such a beautiful color and size. And I looked at the water, and shortly after, I saw the pretty turtle.
“There’s another thing I want to share, because today I passed Fortaleza. Some years ago, a friend of mine, Alexander Doba, from my hometown, kayaked over the Atlantic from Africa to Fortaleza. This is one of three ocean voyages he made in his kayak. Today I was crossing his path of his first journey, so I felt a little bit emotional. I recorded this, gave him the tribute, and sent the recording to my hometown fellas. He was so full of energy, and what I loved about him was that he was never getting angry. I aspire to be more like Alexander.”
Josh was another skipper who was sick in his last days in Recife. “The last two days I was there, I had a high fever. I had no bronchitis type symptoms. I just generally couldn’t do anything but lie in bed. I was barely able to make the final preparation that I needed to leave. I was on the fence about leaving on Thursday, but by that time I was starting to feel a little bit better.
“For the first two days, Thursday and Friday, I basically couldn’t do much. I just took it easy with a conservative sail plan, and let the boat do the driving. But then by Saturday morning I felt better, so I was able to start sailing again. We’ve been going pretty well ever since.
“It’s mostly been a broad reach. We were obviously upwind at the start, and then it kind of went around onto the beam for a half a day or so, and then it’s been mostly reaching ever since we turned the corner of Brazil. The wind is about 10 to 15 knots. The sky is clear, and I can see some stars. The waves have been perfect.”
Asked about his sail configuration, he replied, “Right now I have just the A5 hoisted because I got hit with a squall a little while ago. I’ve been on the A3 all day, and pretty much all day yesterday too. The wind angle is just past 135°. On Saturday I had to main up, but it was shadowing the spinnaker too much, so I took it down. I’ve been using the A3 regardless of wind speed and just hand-steering. I hand-steered for, I don’t know, 13 hours yesterday and then another 12 today.
“It’s a little bit too windy for the windvane if I fly the A3. SKOOKUM just ranges too much – the course will go from, you know, 300° all the way up to like 340°, and then the boat will luff up. So, for the advantage of maintaining speed, I’ve just been driving.”
Because he was ill in the days prior to the start, SKOOKUM’s galley is not as well-provisioned as usual. “I didn’t get any fresh food this time. In hindsight, I should have got some eggs and potatoes or something. I just have my standard fare, and had spaghetti for dinner tonight with a can of sardines. Today was the first meal that I ate since Thursday morning. I had a small breakfast Thursday morning because I needed something, but otherwise I had not eaten in two days. I was just not hungry.”
Asked about sleep cycles, he said, “I steered until about midnight last night, and then I was just too tired and had to go to bed. I left the A3 up just to see if SKOOKUM could handle it. We started rounding up, so I switched to the A5. When I woke up this morning, I switched back to the A3.
“Tonight I was driving and we got hit with a squall. It wasn’t really a squall – the wind just got funny and the boat had a hard time holding the course, kept wanting to swerve back and forth. I was like, ‘Maybe I’ll switch to the A5.’ And when I pulled the A3 down, it started to rain. I waited 10 minutes for the rain to stop, but it didn’t so I put the A5 up and went to sleep.”
Speaking of shipping and other boat traffic, he noted, “I’ve seen a few fishing boats, five of them during the day and five at night, but they were always lit. And one of them that went by last night actually had AIS – I was shocked by that!”
Looking ahead, he said, “I’m hoping to get into the stronger part of the current soon. It’s about 80 miles ahead of where I am right now. But so far, the current has been great. Right now, we’re doing six knots through the water.”
He has also been thinking about life post-MGR. “I hope that having done this will maybe open some doors to be able to do some more offshore sailing. I have a couple friends that work for adventure charter operations. Adventurous people will pay to go for ocean crossings, and I think I might be able to get in on that and work as a first mate or something.”
After reflecting on the tremendous support he has received from his partner, Cathy, and others, he added, “I think people find the uniqueness of the adventure appealing. It’s a world-first, we’re solo, and campaigning these tiny, home-built boats. I’m really happy that people find it interesting, and hope it inspires people to maybe try something that they have been thinking about, but haven’t been able to connect to, you know.”
One cool thing about Josh’s MGR campaign is that SKOOKUM will become the smallest American-flagged and skippered yacht to circumnavigate the world, solo or otherwise, when Josh arrives back in Antigua in a few weeks. The record is currently held by Webb Chiles and his Moore 24, GANNET.
On the evening of 23 February, Ertan was cruising along, taking it easy as usual, though TREKKA was holding onto 6th place and averaging 6.5 knots, one third of which, according to Ertan, could be attributed to the current. The smooth seas also made it easy to go fast without stressing man or boat. “When the seas are flat,” he said, “I like to put up as much sail as possible, but most of the time I don’t like sail more than 80 to 90%. I haven’t had a single thing break on my boat.
“To be honest with you, I have touched the helm since we left. TREKKA has been on autopilot, and the sea has been flat, so I was happy to go fast. The trip must be comfortable and fun, you know. Today, the sea was getting slightly rougher, so I took down the A3 and put the A5 up. I’m going half a knot slower, at least, but the boat is comfortable. Before I go to sleep, I always reduce sail anyway. I have a full night’s sleep, and then I put more sail up in the morning. That’s my ritual, really. I don’t get up middle of the night to do this.”
Ertan followed his usual procedure while ashore in Recife and repaired to a comfortable hotel, where he was joined by Arzu for 8 days. He likes the civilized life, and has managed to neatly sidestep most of the hardships other MGR skippers have encountered, both at sea and ashore.
When I suggested that it seemed like a lifetime ago, in many ways, since the fleet left Lagos, Portugal, for the Transatlantic Qualifier, he said, “It feels like yesterday to me. With all these stops, it doesn’t feel like we went around the world. It’s just been one big jolly since we left. I was even able to go home for Christmas, go to Alicante to my boat, and travel to Istanbul to see my mother. It hasn’t really felt like hardship. It was really easy all the way around for me. I never felt tired in any part of the journey. As soon as I arrive at a destination, I check into a hotel, anyway, so the relaxation continues.
“I sleep a bit every day, and all night. The only time I went to bed late was the first night out of Recife, because we left in the afternoon. It was almost midnight by the time we were in safe waters. That is the only time on this voyage that I went to sleep around one in the morning.
“It has been a very, very easy journey so far, I must say. It’s been a delightful journey, and I love the heat, as you know, I love it. I mean, it’s 30° Celsius outside now, and on some days, as much as 40° inside. But I’m okay with that. I take a couple of showers outside, but most of the time during the day I’m inside, out of the sunshine, and so life has really been nice. I hope it continues to be like that, but I think by tomorrow we’ll get more wind, and maybe a slightly different kind of sailing, but I’m already prepared for windier days. I already put my A3 down.”
He has not seen much shipping. “My radar alarm rang a few times, but they’re always quite far away, and every couple of days I ring the ships, and I ask them if they see me on the radar and the AIS. And they always very positively say, ‘We’ve seen you on the AIS, and you have a good radar reading’. But there hasn’t been much traffic, just a few fishing boats. Every time I go on the internet, I look at the marine traffic to see if there are any ships near me. It’s been pretty quiet on the shipping side.”
TREKKA is in magnificent shape, ready to go round again, which might happen if the new owner fulfills his plans. Besides the boat being built to the highest specs, including a Sparcraft mast, Ertan has carried out continuous maintenance during the MGR, including fitting new Dyform standing rigging in Fiji, and a major upgrade of the electrical system. He now has four solar panels, each with a separate MPPS regulator, and everything is hard-wired in. Along with lithium batteries, this has allowed Ertan to keep his Starlink unit switched on most of the time, and to enjoy as many programs via the internet as desired.
He is so confident in TREKKA’s seaworthiness that he thinks the boat deserves to be sailed non-stop around the world! “I have never had to stop this boat, even in the Bay of Biscay when I had 40-knot winds. I couldn’t make any headway, but the boat survived unscathed. Apart from being uncomfortable, she was okay. I think we may have gone backwards a little, but eventually the storm passed and then I was able to continue on my way.
“All the sails were down except for a scrap of jib rolled out. I set the windvane to the close-hauled position and we just sat there. It was a nice and dry inside. She’s a very dry boat – I don’t have any moisture problems. Besides the really good dodger, and a sideways-opening main hatch that I can often crack open, she has three air vents.
“In this weather at the moment, (enroute to Antigua) I just leave all the windows and deck hatches open, and it’s okay inside. I close the side windows at night time, just in case the wind picks up, but right now they are all open.
TREKKA was sailing downwind under A5 during this interview. “I have part of the jib out as well because it’s almost downwind. And at the moment, there’s not really much wind. The A3 needs to go up instead of the A5, but I can’t be bothered. I took the A3 down before dark. I should have left it up all night because it’s actually A3 weather, but when I took it down, there were a lot of black clouds. And now they’ve cleared, but it’s better to be safe than sorry.”
Asked what he would do for the rest of the evening, Ertan said, “Well, I’ll just have a cup of tea and then I’ll watch something (on Netflix, probably) for half an hour, then I’ll go back to sleep again, and won’t really wake up till tomorrow morning.”
