Spindrift Travels

Seems just a short time ago that we were heading across the Atlantic for the first time on Spindrift, now we have headed back, closer to home. With experience of one ocean crossing under our belts we were feeling pretty confident and prepared. This was supposed to be the easy way to go, downhill all the way (sailors jargon for sailing downwind, usually a pretty comfortable point of sail) with the trade winds and currents pushing us along our way. So after completing two legs of this journey, starting in Gran Canaria with a crew change in Cape Verde, we sit back, rum punch in hand and ask, how did it go? We are still learning many of life's lessons while at sea, here are just a few:

When you ask, "What could go wrong?" the answer can be "a lo...

Sometimes life is not sunshine and rainbows. Sometimes days are hard and you can't help but rethink about decisions you've made, is this where we should be? Is this what we should be doing? I don't really like to complain, and let's face it, who wants to hear it? But I also don't want to paint an unrealistic picture that we are always happy and the sun is always shining. So here is a sampling of the down side, with the ups included.

We had our share of ups and downs adjusting to life back on the boat after four months on land. Up side - I have a new appreciation of the freedom of walking to get our groceries with a wagon in tow. Sometimes people put an idea in your head that makes you adjust your point of view. My son mentioned the cost of t...

I spend a lot of time with guys when we are sailing on these long passages. Our crew are always male, and that's fairly typical of most the boats with us. Sometimes the wife is on board and sometimes she joins up when they reach port. Subconsciously I notice that I gravitate towards women when we're on land, and it always brings me such interesting stories.

In Horta I met a woman that captain's boats and has a business teaching sailing. She is trying to empower more women to sail, and it makes you think, why do guys have all the fun? She was putting together a video, interviewing different women on boats to get their perspective and hopefully to encourage more woman to venture off the dock.  I was pretty dubious when she wanted to interview...

What is there to say about the third and last leg of this epic trip across the ocean? It was a fun five days, the more time we spend on board the less time is spent stressing about things, small and large, and instead we have learned to roll with whatever comes our way.

Just an hour outside the Azores we were confronted again with a diesel leak, it seems we've been there, done that. Tony is always so confident he has fixed the problem, all the covers to the tank have been replaced and tightened and just to be safe we did not fill the diesel tank to the top before we left for Portugal. But as we sailed on a port tack with the boat heeling, we started to smell diesel down below, again. Determined to get to the cause of the problem once and fo...