Edwin!
Full moon over Barbados. Edwins flight got in late. Edwin flew into Barbados Saturday night. Dunbar and I took the dinghy in to pick him up at Independence Square. Y’all don’t need pictures of...
Author: Irene Voskamp
Captain Ron and Rosalia
Phil Berman (president of Balance Catamarans) introduced us to his friend Captain Ron Williams and his lovely wife Rosalia, and they are most awesome people. Ron and Rosalia own a cat charter...
Arrival in Barbados
Land ho! Barbados from about ten miles out. Barbados is the easternmost of the Caribbean islands, in fact it’s technically not in the Caribbean at all but in the western Atlantic. Whatever. It’s...
Wind
In the South Atlantic, the trade winds blow pretty consistently from the South-east from the tip of Africa to the equator, southern edge of the Caribbean. So this whole trip has been running pretty...
Last night at sea
Tomorrow evening we will arrive in Barbados. From there I shall return to the real world of work and meetings and conference calls, and Edwin will take my place on the crew to take Vingilótë the...
This is me at the top of Vingilótë’s 78′ mast…
This is me at the top of Vingilótë's 78' mast, working on one of the lines. That's the island of Barbados behind me. This is what I could see when I looked down. That 52.5' boat doesn't look very...
78’ above the sea
This is me at the top of Vingilótë’s 78’ mast, working on one of the lines. That’s the island of Barbados behind me. This is what I could see when I looked down. That 52.5’ boat doesn’t...
Hard at work
Rory in his mobile office in the cockpit, working on his next book. Vingilótë is set up to let us work remotely- onboard satellite uplink and WiFi. The bandwidth is constrained relative to the...
Reefing and wind
Vingilótë’s helm. Almost all lines are brought back to the helm so it can be handled by one person, in a pinch. So a bit of sailing technobabble. If you’re already familiar with sailing jargon...
Sunrises
Whoever it was that said “It’s always darkest just before dawn” has clearly never done an overnight sail. Just before dawn it is spectacularly beautiful. Since I have the 6-8 am watch, I get...