| 16º 47.202' N | 23º 4.11' W | Antares | Hello hello from Sal, the island of Cape Verde archipelago. After 5 days and 21 hours we arrived in Port of Palmeira on Sal. Hello Africa! I think we have started our journey exactly 6 months ago today at 55 degrees North. Today we are at 16 degrees North. 41 degrees more south!
We crossed the Tropics of Cancer on the way from the Canaries Islands, how exciting it is not just a thing on a map you learned at school. And the weather is warmer here, although at this time of the year not hot hot ( thank god!).
The night skies were not dark navy colour like in France and Spain, but more brown like colour with all the sand from Western Sahara and Mauretania in the air. The sight of dolphins jumping around Antares at night is one of the best 'shows' to see with all the fluorescent alghi Looking after the 'lights'.
We had good wind most of the time, not more than 25 knots and not less then 8 knots and managed to sail all the time. I even mastered the use of hydrovane ( steering boat by wind not an autopilot which is thirsty for the batteries). Night watches went really well too, although I think Simon let me sleep a tiny bit longer then my 3 hours at night, and did more at night.
Also, ladies if you are looking for a detox - sailing is the answer!!!:))) no drinking alcohol, coffee, tea, eating less. That was obviously compensated today by sampling local beer and wine!!! Ha!
And Today we also celebrate 28 years since the Velvet Revolution in Czechoslovakia! Freedom. | over 6 years ago | Show
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| 27º 57.3' N | 17º 6.498' W | Antares | So today we said good bye to La Gomera, Canaries and Europe! We said good byes to great friends we have made in the last 6 weeks. We will miss them a lot, but our next rendezvous will be In carribean!
Next time we will see the land should be in about 6 days, 750nm more south in Cape Verde! | over 6 years ago | Show
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| 28º 5.202' N | 17º 6.3' W | Antares | Here we are in La Gomera Island, a green and windy island in the Canaries archipelago. Small marina, but it looks like allmour boaty friends are here! 12 children in total makes life fun! School in the mornings ( it has been not easy recently!) and the black volcanic beach in the afternoon. We had a great sail down here from Santa Cruz in Tenerife heading down the east coat with 25 knots of wind behind us! Till we got around the island when the wind shifted to west, on the nose for 20 miles and increasing as we got closer to La Gomera... 15knots, 20, 23, 27 knots just outside the marina. With No space to manoeuvre inside the marina and nasty gusts Simon did an excellent job getting the boat in its extremely tight space and we are moored right next to our friends from Holland! The plan is to leave here for Cape Verde ( Cabo Verde ) later this week, again with a bunch of boats! It feels like a mini rally! Who needs ARC:) | over 6 years ago | Show
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| 28º 44.202' N | 16º 21.3' W | Antares | Hello friends and family!
Finally, I am back on with some updates. Last resort was possibly from Portugal. Since then Simon and the crew sailed to Canaries islands ( Lanzarote) via Gibraltar while children and me spent 6 weeks in Slovakia. With mamka. We went back to Antares in Areciffe, Lanzarote and met a few families. Anchored off the Papagoya beach and stayed for two weeks in marina Rubicon, where Nina had her 9th birthday party with all her new friends by the pool! Dutch, Canadian, Australian and Norwegian - they all had a good time together. Some are already sailing across the ocean and some boats joined us sailing from Lanzarote to Tenerife! It was super to see their navigation lights during our overnight sail to Santa Cruz! | over 6 years ago | Show
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| 42º 45.888' N | 8º 56.724' W | Antares | 2 days we had a quick sail to Portosin and anchored just off a nice beach near the marina. We watched the fishermen fish in a traditional way off their small boats with nets in a group of 10 or so. Kind of a biblical moment look! This is a very active fishing port with boats going out every night sardine fishing too. Impressive and smelly:). Yesterday it has been 3 months since we left Scotland. The school is back on and Caspar started by getting back into a dingy sailing in the Optimist. Santiago de Compostella today. | over 6 years ago | Show
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| 42º 56.37' N | 9º 13.812' W | Antares | Rounded Cabo Finisterre - the final destination for the Santiago pilgrims! The scent of pine and eucalyptus trees filled the bay as we approached sunny little anchorage with a great beach and restaurant! 25nm in no wind. | over 6 years ago | Show
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| 43º 8.112' N | 9º 10.398' W | Antares | Sailing Costa da Morte - the coast of death... left La Corunna this morning, and after about 45nm arrived in Camarinas. It was like a Piccadilly Circus with boats and fishing boats, but everybody motored-no wind today! A great anchorage by the beach and very tasty dinner in the town with Liz And Tony who also looked after C&N all day! Thank you!! Cabo Finistere awaiting tmrw with wind gusting 2mph.... | over 6 years ago | Show
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| 43º 22.026' N | 8º 23.088' W | Antares | After 3 days at Sada Marina we quickly motored to A Corunna to meet Liz and Tony! Lots of excitement on Antares. As we were leaving Sada, about 7 huge dolphins were passing the boat jumping and having lots of fun!! A Corunna is a lovely city, with bands playing in the old town and on its beaches, dinghy world cup happening this weekend and of course Whiteheads are in town:)) A walk to the Hercules Lighthouse tmrw - the oldest functioning lighthouse built by Romans! Good night x | over 6 years ago | Show
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| 43º 39.27' N | 8º 3.756' W | Antares | A great sail to Cedeira, 18 knots of NE wind gave us 9 knot speed! And dolphins kept jumping around the boat too! After about 30 nm we are now anchored just off the beach of this picturesque town. Looks like there is a festival on - currently iistening to some nice Celtic music, sounds Scottish! | over 6 years ago | Show
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| 43º 40.524' N | 7º 36.096' W | Antares | The low clouds and drizzle descended on us today while we sailed from Ribadeo to Viveiro, 30nm W. A proper Scottish dreich weather, just much warmer:)). We are anchored now by a lovely long beach, real shame about the weather and this Town is not loooking too inspiring eitherso we are staying on the boat! Tomorrow we will sail to Cedeira which looks much more inspiring! Also, if you know good places to visit in the Atlantic Spain, let me know! Thank you | over 6 years ago | Show
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| 43º 32.94' N | 7º 1.548' W | Antares | The Bay of Biscay crossed! We arrived in Ribadeo this morning at 0500! Now anchored just outside the town, the night navigation into the bay worked great! Tomorrow we will pop into the town's marina for some treats - like a shower and beer:). Anyway, we had the most amazing crossing as the weather was calm and sunny, but that meant motoring most of the time! We left the Ile de Houat in France on Monday morning, the swell was still there as it was windy for a few days before, but no wind, the swell calmed down after a while and the wind never really arrived! Lots of dolphins, fish and a shark or two were spotted by C&N. The night sky is amazing to watch from the boat as it was so dark! 286 nm in 45 hours. | over 6 years ago | Show
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| 47º 23.916' N | 2º 58.68' W | Antares | Left lovely La Trinite today with its tiny streets and lovely old architecture And headed south to the Ile de Houat - it has some great beaches, although we can not anchor off the most beautiful ones due to the wind direction. However, where we are is lovely too! I am off to cook some food for our crossing of Biscay, while kids on the beach with some other British children- we are leaving tomorrow morning! Hola ?? ! | over 6 years ago | Show
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| 47º 35.226' N | 3º 1.536' W | Antares | A quick hop to La Trinite sur-mer Marina this morning, navigating the Morbihan inland sea and its tides without the chart plotter:)))) When we arrived, it was already looking full with not much room to manoeuvre our boat, but luckily we were taken to a great spot - right next to the massive racing french boats! And The boat behind us is the first french boat to race in the America's Cup! We are going to see Carnac ( biggest Neolithic standing stones area in the world), and enjoy the perks of marina for a day or two:) It is still rather windy, but weather looks like improving - it is getting hotter and less windy next week. Perfect timing! | over 6 years ago | Show
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| 47º 35.28' N | 2º 47.52' W | Antares | Just a quick sail down from Vannes today to the Morbihan inland sea to find an anchorage for today. Lots of teaching Optimists, small catamarans etc all over the place. Little windy and rainy, we might venture to the nearest island ( Ile D'Arz) this afternoon for an adventure. | over 6 years ago | Show
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| 47º 39.294' N | 2º 45.558' W | Antares | Rather early for us we left our mooring buoy in Locmiquel, Ile Aux Moines in the Morbihan this morning to catch the High water at Vannes to get through the gate into the marina. It was a quick 1/2hr sail, looked like everybody was still sleeping. All went fine and we are now rafted up in Vannes, next to a lovely swedish Halberg Rasay 48. Town is beautiful with lots of medieval architecture and there is a free jazz festival on( bonus:) so we will walk to the town gardens later on. Starting to plan for the Biscay crossing (Simon?). | over 6 years ago | Show
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| 47º 36.108' N | 2º 51.252' W | Antares | For some reason in the last few weeks I was not able to get on the website to update our status! Which means most of our time in France. We are still in France, now without our visitors who left yesterday and we miss them already!! We have had a great time in Brittany and loved all the beaches and the old french towns, sailing museums and fresh baguettes! Today we sailed From Lorient to Morbihan 'inland sea' we had over 10 knots of speed with help of some amazing Tide. Arrived in marina Port du Crouesty to check if we can get some repairs done and found it absolutely terrible - crowded and not helpulf we actually had to leave as it was so depressing even to be there, one boat actually crashed to another one... Def do not recommend it at all! So instead we sailed in to the inland sea of morbihan with its massive tides and some 25 knots of wind too. It is extremely busy with mooring buoys and boats everywhere so not a chance of anchoring :( today I miss Scotland and its 'emptiness'. At least it is finally sunny!!! The old city of Vannes tomorrow! | over 6 years ago | Show
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| 48º 23.424' N | 4º 29.166' W | Antares | Last night at 10pm (6/7/17) we arrived in Brest after a lovely sail from L'aber Wr'ach. It took us 6 hours and we sailed through the tidal gate the Channel La Four, with tide in our favour we reached 10.7 knots:). Sunny and warm wind all day, which continues today! Can now wait for our visitors arriving tmrw! | almost 7 years ago | Show
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| 48º 36.0' N | 4º 33.6' W | Antares | Finally we have reached France. It is really sunny and nice.?. Caspar
This time, from the Isles of Scilly to L'aber wr'ach it took us about 19 hours in total. We left around 6pm and arrived the next day lunchtime in France! Wind was just right and no rain so it was a much easier night to sail, despite crossing a rather busy shipping lane! Boats big and small everywhere, which is nice to see, dolphins too! | almost 7 years ago | Show
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| 49º 55.302' N | 6º 17.55' W | Antares | We are back in the UK! In 22 hours we sailed to Porthcressa Bay in the Isles of Scilly from Cork, Ireland at 9 am. Lovely force 4 for the first half, then with the night rain and Gale ( force 8) arrived. I was loooking forward to my first proper night sail, looking at stars, but Simon sailed all night and got us here safely! He is the best! I only helped with taking the main sail down once the wind shifted and increased - in pitch dark!! Anyway, Glad to be here! We got the last mooring buoy as this bay is sheltered from the north so many other boats moved here from other anchorages, but it is so choppy we can not get out of the boat in the dinghy to the beach and the town. Maybe on Saturday:). Children all good - making own breakfast and lunch while mummy and daddy sleep! I am going back to bed. Good night! | almost 7 years ago | Show
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| 51º 48.702' N | 8º 22.044' W | Antares | A quick sail today (18 miles) from lovely Kinsale - there is a great sandy beach just 5 minutes walk from its Castlepark marina- and we arrived in Cork harbour ( Crosshaven marina) to prepare for crossing to Scilly isles and then France! | almost 7 years ago | Show
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| 51º 41.76' N | 8º 30.786' W | Antares | 5 weeks since left Scotland and we are in the lovely Kinsale -35 miles from Glandore. And we sailed through their regatta just as approaching an entrance to the harbour. Busy with boats and the beach is full too! Happy days x | almost 7 years ago | Show
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| 51º 33.912' N | 9º 7.086' W | Antares | Beautiful Glandore today! Lots of sailing and jumping off the pier( Caspar and Nina)! | almost 7 years ago | Show
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| 51º 32.946' N | 9º 16.122' W | Antares | We arrived in Baltimore, our destination in Ireland on Wednesday 14th of June 2017 exactly 4 weeks after we left our home in Scotland. It was just a short sail from the lovely Crookhaven which has the most southerly pub in Ireland! Happy 70th Birthday Grandad! | almost 7 years ago | Show
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| 51º 28.986' N | 9º 22.398' W | Antares | A nice sail from Darrynane Harbour with great beaches ( it was not sunny so not much sunbathing for us) to CrookHaven around Mizen head ( a great sail and the sun came out) - lovely harbour and it was soo sunny! Today only a 15 miles to Baltimore our destination in Ireland and a weekend of partying is here! Weather is not nice at the moment..??? But glad to be here and soon to meet up with the family!! A much needed rest for a few days as we need to recover ( well I do). | almost 7 years ago | Show
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| 51º 28.164' N | 9º 43.47' W | Antares | We are in Crookhaven, just around the Mizen Head in the south Ireland! Good place to stop! That was 37 miles today and 35 miles yesterday from Dingle to Darrynane harbour - it has perfect beaches! | almost 7 years ago | Show
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| 52º 16.854' N | 9º 51.228' W | Antares | The town of Dingle today - after 3 nights in Felin due to bad weather! A little touristy town, we are all looking forward to seeing some people...:) 42 miles today, massive Dolphins had a show time around our boat just off the Brandon bay! And we passed the most west part of Irish mainland - Dunmore head. X | almost 7 years ago | Show
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| 52º 15.708' N | 9º 51.21' W | Antares | 65nm today from Galway bay ( Rossaveal) to Fenit, co Kerry! A great sail - we sailed most of the way, and just before we got to the marina ( as the weather is deteriorating in the next few days) the wind hit 40knots. Coming to the pontoon was rather interesting and thank goddess there were 3 strong men waiting to help with the lines! OMG! In the pub now.... | almost 7 years ago | Show
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| 53º 19.686' N | 9º 28.734' W | Antares | Rounding Slyne Head this morning was a proper High seas experience. We had to motor into the wind ( Force 4-5 so not too bad). For about 2 hours in the most horrendous swell - 3 meters. Boat performed well and children slept through some of it and were ab fab! However, I am not sailing into the wind on the west coast of Ireland again:)) It was rather scary! Massive seas with breakers everywhere. Anyway, once we rounded the Head with the wind on our quarter still in big swell and Force 4-5 the sail just with the headsail was absolutely great!!! And we saw a few sailing yachts today - it has been a while since the last ones! So after 43nm we arrived in Rossaveal, a marina about 29 miles from Galway!! Yupee | almost 7 years ago | Show
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| 53º 29.19' N | 10º 3.114' W | Antares | 2 weeks ago we left our beloved Scotland! Today we had another lovely day with force 4-5 lots of breaking rocks etc, after 31nm we arrived in Clifden bay in Ireland. Will stay here tonight and tmrw night as it is getting a bit windy even for us! Lovely sailing club here - chips being served already:)) | almost 7 years ago | Show
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| 53º 36.528' N | 9º 56.328' W | Antares | A sail from Frenchoprt to Clare Island today. 38nm - really tough coming out of the anchorage, massive waves and big seas. But it has been sunny all day. All is good now with beach time - snorkelling for Caspar! Not sure where to head next - somewhere sheltered as Thursday is looking windy so we need to stay put. Feels like anything over Force 4 creates big seas here! | almost 7 years ago | Show
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| 54º 14.544' N | 10º 4.98' W | Antares | 65 nautical miles today! Sunny and great weather, but no wind... Left Killybegs too late (11.30am) as need to refuel and re water. Arrived in Frenchport in county Mayo at 9pm! Early morning tmrw, heading for the Clare Island. | almost 7 years ago | Show
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| 54º 38.07' N | 8º 26.634' W | Antares | We saw a whale in Donegal Bay on the way to Killybegs!! Here now in a marina resting after a good day sailing. | almost 7 years ago | Show
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| 54º 50.802' N | 8º 26.802' W | Antares | Only a short sail to Church Pool ( Portnoo) today. However, we had some challenging pilotage to get out of Aranmore/Burton port. Windy, so although another great beach just outside, we are staying in the boat. | almost 7 years ago | Show
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| 54º 40.416' N | 8º 4.734' W | Antares | Today we sailed pass Tory Island and Bloody Foreland, some good sailing too. At The island of Aranmore, sitting on a sandy beach enjoying the sunshine. | almost 7 years ago | Show
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| 55º 12.492' N | 7º 37.17' W | Antares | Sailed round the Malin Head 'Cape Horn' of Ireland:). Max Force 4 but the swell was big, wonder what it is like in bad weather... On a mooring in PortSalon now, longest snad brag I have seen in a long time. | almost 7 years ago | Show
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| 55º 11.43' N | 6º 58.506' W | Antares | Greencastle, Lough Foyle. We are in the Republic of Ireland now! A proper fishing port with lots of nice colourful fishing boats! | almost 7 years ago | Show
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| 55º 0.366' N | 7º 19.17' W | Antares | Londonderry | almost 7 years ago | Show
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| 55º 17.508' N | 6º 11.64' W | Antares | Arrived in Londonderry, NI! | almost 7 years ago | Show
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| 55º 17.508' N | 6º 11.64' W | Antares | We left Rathlin Island first thing this morning - what a great island to visit with beaches, lighthouses and colonies of birds! Heading towards Londonderry | almost 7 years ago | Show
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| 55º 14.79' N | 6º 10.644' W | Antares | Woke up to a beautiful sunny morning on Sanda. Left by 7am to catch the tide around Mull of Kintyre. Last sighting of Scotland. Now nearly at Rathlin Island, Northen Ireland. Top speed 9.6knots (with tide). | almost 7 years ago | Show
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| 55º 34.998' N | 5º 22.152' W | Antares | Left Lochranza on the Isle of Arran this morning, heading for Sanda, an island just off the Mull of Kintyre. | almost 7 years ago | Show
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| 55º 54.624' N | 4º 53.502' W | Antares | Today we are leaving Inverkip for good and heading for Lochranza on The Isle of Arran. Lovely sunny day. | almost 7 years ago | Show
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| 55º 54.63' N | 4º 53.406' W | Antares | | almost 7 years ago | Show
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