Thursday 19th December

Time: 1550 UTC Position: 25° 12.840’N 017° 35.422’W Diary Entry We're under sail! I slept in this morning, after taking the 1100 to 0200 watch, to find us goose-winging the main and the code zero. The wind has been fickle with us, but we've been averaging around 4 knots almost all day. We lowered the …

Wednesday 18th December

Time: 1927 UTC Position: 26° 14.426'N 016° 35.26'W Diary Entry Very little wind today, which has meant a lot of motoring. With such calm conditions, Andrew and Neil took to the water maker again to try and improve its performance. It's been working excellently! It's enabled us to top up our water tanks and everything else …

Tuesday 17th December

Time: 1930 UTC Position: 27° 29.48'N 015° 37.062'W Diary Entry Day 1! It's finally here... I arrived in Gran Canaria on the 9th and, after a lot of prep to get the boat ready, we're finally at sea. LodeStar herself has been raring to go for a couple of days. Andrew (the skipper/owner) and I …

Sailing LodeStar

My last few hours in the Bajan sunshine are giving me some time to decompress from an extraordinary 56 days as crew on the Catamaran LodeStar; a 40 foot Lagoon. Her captain, Andrew, hails from South Africa and is on an epic adventure with his wife, Claudia, and two daughters, Erin and Bowdie. Having spent …

Taking a breath

Time to write is difficult to come by nowadays. This job has consumed me in a way that I've never experienced before. I live and breath it. The reason I have some time to write is that I'm currently sat in Athens airport in the dead of night waiting for my flight to Hamburg. I'm …

Here Goes Nothing!

I don’t think it fully hit me until I was in the taxi taking us from Igoumenitsa to Lefkas. Looking out to sea, then back inland to the hills, I felt almost dazed! I’m actually going to be living here for the next 6 months. I’m actually employed as a sailor. I’m actually doing this. …

A New Job

The countdown has begun, the contract is signed, the dates are in the calendar. I’m going to Greece! It’s crazy to think that, around about a year ago, I was sat in a bar in Hamburg with a friend answering the question: “What would you do if you weren’t an engineer?” With “I would go …

RYA Yachtmaster Coastal

What is a Yachtmaster? The RYA has various levels of sailing qualifications that can be achieved, from sailing small dinghies to driving big motor cruisers. The qualification I needed to attain was Yachtmaster Coastal. There are three levels of Yachtmaster: Coastal, Offshore, and Ocean. Due to my lack of skippering miles logged, I was only …

Back in England

So, here I am. Back in England's green and pleasant land. I've been here for just over a week and, if I'm honest, I've been pleasantly surprised with how well I've been dealing with it all! It got off to a bit of a rocky start - I was very emotional when I touched down …