On 26 th  January, with much sadness, Saecwen took her departure of the Eastern Caribbean island of Grenada. For the last four weeks this beautiful, welcoming island had provided us with a safe haven in a multitude of ways. Saecwen being hauled out for New Year's refit First and foremost, after over 7,000 miles of constant sailing since we left Lymington in May last year, the boat was in urgent need of a refit to prepare her for the next phase of our adventures. The last few

Saecwen’s eight day passage from Natal Brazil to French Guiana was tropical trade wind sailing at it’s absolute best. Firstly, for most of the 1,300 mile voyage we were sailing before our old friends, the south east trade winds. With a consistent 15 knot wind dead behind us, we could set our twin foresails and under this beautiful rig, range up to 30 degrees each side of the wind, without the risk of having to jibe the boat.   Secondly, we had beneath us the formidable south

Unlike a traditional downwind passage direct to the Caribbean from the Cape Verde Islands, a voyage to Brazil is an altogether more challenging undertaking given it involves crossing several very different weather systems. The passage can essentially be divided into three discreet sections. Firstly, it starts whilst still in the NE trade wind belt, involving classic downwind sailing for the initial few hundred miles heading south from the Cape Verdes. Refuelling in Mindelo,

Saecwen has now officially left Europe. After a 6-day voyage south we have arrived in the Cape Verde Islands, an African nation made up of nine inhabited islands and it was on the most northeastern one, Ilha do Sal, that we made our landfall after a 780-mile passage from La Gomera in the Canary Isles. Twin foresails set for the Trade Winds After we finally managed to escape the extraordinary 80-mile wind shadow created by the huge mountains of the Canaries, we were blessed wi

Sailing between the Canary Islands Many people might assume that sailing around the Canary Islands entails balmy cruising in temperate sub-tropical latitudes. Saecwen’s experience of exploring the archipelago this August and September was far from the case. True: the Canaries at certain times of the year enjoy periods of settled balmy weather; but once the north east trade winds start to blow in earnest during the summer, it becomes a very different picture. Firstly, these p

On 16 th  July Saecwen took her departure of Continental Europe. With a fresh northerly wind forecast for several days, these seemed the ideal conditions to continue our voyage south. With Heloise’s brother Justin embarked aboard ship as third crew member we set sail from Cascais, just to the west of Lisbon, out into the Atlantic Ocean. The moment we cleared the shelter of Cabo da Roca, Europe’s most westerly point, we were hit by extremely strong gusts of wind coming down th

For most blue water sailors, trade winds form a critical part of planning your ocean voyaging.  The first trade winds to be encountered on leaving northern Europe are the Portuguese trades, which for most of the year blow from the north down the western side of the Iberian Peninsula. They vary considerably in strength – and sometimes don’t even blow at all and can reverse into the southern quadrant, often bringing fog and rainy weather to the Spanish and Portuguese coasts. Ho

After a month cruising the Galician Rias, these crystal-clear waters and sandy bottoms (for Saecwen´s anchor), were starting to feel like home.  The Rias Baixas are a series of four wide inlets that run in from the sea on the north west corner of Spain. Each Ria is peppered with sandy beaches on both northern and southern shores providing shelter from the Atlantic in pretty much any wind condition.  Whilst we did get caught out a couple of times with a quick shift in the wind

Guest blog by crewmate Angus   My time with Saecwen started with a ‘bat signal’ in the form of a Whatsapp message, informing me that a long awaited Atlantic low-pressure system had emerged. There was a short window of fair-weather for Saecwen to make her way across the Bay of Biscay and, to my delight, there was a berth with my name on it. With little but a broad idea of what was in store for me, I gathered my belongings and caught a flight to Brest where we set sail for A Co

Headlands often mark the great milestones when making a voyage under sail. Some of my earliest sailing memories as a small child were rounding notorious promontories – such as the Lizard, Start Point or Portland Bill on the southern coast of England, or Cap de la Hague, the Raz de La Seine or Pointe de Penmarch on the French coast. Those memories mostly comprise feeling seasick - as headlands always seem to bring on more extreme conditions as the wind accelerates around them

The huge high-pressure system that had been sitting over the UK since March might have been bad news for our farmers, who were now suffering one of the worse spring droughts on record. But for sailors heading southwest this was great news.  High pressure means easterly winds in the English Channel, the perfect wind for sailing over   to France and beyond – as opposed to the supposedly prevailing foul south westerlies. So from Newton Ferrers we had a fabulous fast fair wind ov