I have never been so hard-hit by the outright absurdity and insanity of human cruelty when visiting the remains of one of France’s most cruel penal colonies on the remote and beautiful Isles Salut.   Up until the 1950s a total of 80,000 of prisoners were shipped across from France to suffer work camps, solitary confinement and other unspeakable acts of torture on these lush tropical islands off the northeast coast of South America. Tufted capuchin monkeys The islands are part

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

On arrival at the Brazilian island of Fernando da Norona, we finally had the chance to diagnose the cause of Saecwen’s mid-Atlantic engine failure. Working in close contact with the team at the Elephant Boatyard back home, the news was bad.  The raw water pump, which provides the principal means of cooling our engine, had systemically failed. Crew mate Jem, who through herculean effort had disassembled the pump, was able to identify that the critical stainless-steel shaft tha