Well we bill the Azores to Plymouth as the roughest toughest passage we do and we were not to be disappointed!  We are now back in Plymouth and tidying up from one of the most extreme passages I have ever done.  Those of you who follow the weather forecasts will know that all of last week it continued to blow harder and harder in the North Atlantic.

Early on Monday morning, 23rd April, I wrote wild and bumpy in the comments passage of the log book as the wind strength increased from the forecast Force 8, to Force 9 and then Force 10.  Luckily the analogue wind meter in the cockpit stops at 50 so we could not watch as it reached 55 knots but Martin sitting down below saw the meter read 64 knots true.  This immediately reminded me of my days in the Challenge Business, and a clip on U tube called ‘I had a hurricane for breakfast’ well as it appears so did we.

Velvet Lady as usual was perfectly well behaved and relentlessly carried us up and over the ever growing sea state.  We deliberately slowed down to miss the worst!! of the weather system and stay in deeper water.  We were nearly home, only 250 miles SW of Lizard point, and really looking forward to getting in before the next blow started.  At 11 am a phenomenally big wave, finally got the better of us, and as well as getting a lot of water down below it  tore the mainsail, washed away the sprayhood and washed away the starboard liferaft.  Everyone on deck were safely tethered on and I gripped the wheel so much that it bent!

Needless to say, this has given us a bit of a long jobs list for our 2 weeks in Plymouth.  All the repair work is in hand and a new liferaft ordered.  Some of the cleaning is taking a bit longer.  Today we are sending all the saloon cushions away to be professionally cleaned and we have already used 6 machines washing oilskins. Next up is the bedding so I will keep this blog short.

We have 2 more weeks and we will be ready to set off for Denmark in time.  The books and charts are here and already I am studying them.  Whilst we cannot guarantee sun for the summer, we can promise cruising in sheltered waters and no night sailing.  The nights we will spend at anchor in peaceful anchorages or alongside in bustling towns.  it will be a bit of relief from the Wild and Bumpy Atlantic Ocean.  There is still time and space to join us!

In the middle of a night watch last week I was counting up on my fingers the number of long passages Velvet Lady had completed that were over 600 miles long and I was amazed to discover that in fact, this last one to the Azores was the 30th.

These trips are always popular to a wide range of audiences and this last week was no different.  A minimum of 600 miles by the log is one of the criteria that the RYA require for a trip to be counted as an ocean passage towards an exam.  We often have people who aspire to holding a Yachtmaster Ocean certificate and they are either new to passage making and coming to learn about ocean voyaging or already experienced and want to ‘act as mate’ for the passage to count towards an exam.

Many of our guests however do not want the pressure of learning and exams but want to experience the freedom of a ‘life on the ocean wave’.  Away from phones, radio and newspapers it is wonderful to enjoy the wind in your hair and the motion of the boat on the waves.  Time is spent looking out for other ships but also gazing at stars,  watching sunrises and sunsets and looking for wildlife.  Turtles, birds, dolphins, whales, jellyfish ….

Last week was no different.  We had 2 potential Yachtmaster Ocean candidates, Kit on his first trip with us and Martin on his second who is also staying for the real roughy toughy one to Plymouth coming up next.  Jim who recently completed his competent crew course and wanted something a bit different from day sailing, and Pippa to experience sailing in windier weather than she would usually go out in.

We always start the trip with briefing followed by a familiarisation day sail, and this week we had a fantastic reach to Porto Santo.  With the wind fluctuating during the day we had plenty of opportunity to practice reefing.

The weather forecast for the week was for NW winds at the start, light winds in the middle and NE winds at the end.  We started with plenty of tacking to keep north of Porto Santo and Madeira, and finished on a very fast broad reach in force seven winds and big seas.  We made such good time that after completing our 600 miles we still had 2 days to spend on the tiny island of Santa Maria before sailing to San Miguel.

With all the boxes ticked bar one, we were anxious on our last day to ‘find a whale’  We were not to be disappointed and the piece de resistance for the week was watching a spectacular sperm whale breaching a short distance off the bow on our last days sailing about 3 hours before we arrived in Ponta Delgada.  That memory will stay with all of us.

Next is the long one.  Our roughest, toughest passage of the year, 1200 miles between the Azores and Plymouth. Always booked well in advance and always full!  Theoretically you start in the centre of the Azores high and  end up motoring north for about 200 miles to find the strong westerly airflow which predominates the north Atlantic.  We really hope that this is the case this year, as the previous 2 years we were bogged down in easterlies.  Early weather forecasts are promising.

If you fancy an ocean passage – for an exam, to learn or for experience, you are welcome to join us.  They always book up soon and our next ones are already listed on our website

If however you fancy sailing with us in more sheltered waters, why not join us as we cruise the Danish Archipelago this summer.  Here the sailing will still be exhilarating but we will focus on day sailing and visiting harbours rather than overnight sailing and watchkeeping.

All our holidays are listed in our schedule and sailors of all levels beginners to experienced are always welcome.

‘I was wondering how it is in the big sea but somehow was also afraid of it.  This trip on Velvet Lady gave me what I was looking for, adventure and safety and a marvellous opportunity to experience how it is….’

Olga and Piotr

We have just completed the first of our milebuilding passages from Lanzarote to Madeira and are sitting enjoying the sunshine preparing for the next leg.  Passage making and night sailing are held in awe by a lot of people, and this leg is one of our shortest passages which we often describe as a gentle introduction to long distance sailing.

We were joined by Olga and Piotr, Arthur who has sailed many miles before and wanted to brush up on sextant work.  Our fourth guest, Paul, is one of our regulars who aims to build himself up bit by bit to a ‘proper roughy toughy long distance trip.’

We took 68 hours for the passage from Lanzarote to Funchal, arriving just at daylight at the end of our third night at sea.  The wind was mainly ‘on our nose’ and so we sailed 404 miles to cover the rhumb line distance of 280.  The weather maps before we left had given us to expect light winds, so we were pleased to have Velvet Lady tramping along at seven knots in a good Force 5.  There were sightings of dolphins, turtles and even a whale on our last day as well as fantastic sunrises and sunsets.

There was time to look around Funchal before we continued to our final destination in Madeira at Quinta do Lorde marina.  Only 10 minutes from the airport this is an ideal place for crew changing.  As it is an easy place to hire a car, all four guests disappeared to look around the island before heading off to the airport for afternoon flights.

Our next two legs back to UK are not only milebuilding passages but they are long enough to qualify as ‘ocean passages’ for those interested in gaining a RYA Yachtmaster Ocean certificate.  They are always popular and Madeira to the Azores and Azores to Plymouth have been fully booked for over 6 months.

Whilst we are in Madeira we use the opportunity of their good wifi signal to load our Autumn programme.  I finished it this afternoon and it is now all on line and ready to book.  If you were disappointed at missing out on our spring milebuilding and ocean passages, more are now available.  Sailing across the Bay of Biscay in October and Lisbon to Lanzarote in November are two more trips that qualify as ocean passages, and the trip from Vigo to Lisbon is our next shorter passage, ideal for those who only want a taster of nightsailing and watchkeeping.

Full details on our schedule

This was our last week in Lanzarote and it was definitely our hottest week. The main disadvantage of the really hot weather is that with blue skies and no clouds there is generally less wind. After the first 2 days of great wind to sail to Puerto Calero and then Arrecife, we ended up motoring to La Graciosa and then motoring most of the way back.

The advantage of the hot weather and motoring is that when you see a group of dolphins on the horizon it is easy to alter course and head towards them. We spent a fantastic half an hour with dolphins surrounding us as we motored off towards Africa!

We anchored in Graciosa in time for a perfect sunset and then as it became dark a fantastic view of the stars. We had a great view of Jupiter and Venus in the west as well as a huge full moon.

The hot weather and calm seas held for us in La Graciosa and so we ended the day with our first BBQ of the year. It goes dark here at about 19.30 and to ensure we finished our BBQ in the daylight dinner was a bit earlier than the usual 20.00. With the BBQ out and the dishes all done we had an evening of games.

First off was ‘pass the pigs’ which a few of us had never heard of, made even more interesting as the gently roll of the boat often made the pig topple over after it had landed.

We then played a game that Richard and I had learnt last year when skiing where you describe and mime famous people and hope your team can guess who they are. (The names have all been chosen and placed in the hat by all playing the game and it is interesting the characters – real or fictional, alive or dead that come out) After 3 rounds, first round where talking and miming are allowed, second round where you are allowed only 1 word along with the miming and the third round which is miming only, the girls were declared the winners.

Some of the names proved hard to describe, especially if you haven’t heard of them. I struggled with Al Capone and Lori did a sterling job with Caesar Manrique by having a ‘seizure’! As with all games, this one was accompanied by a lot of laughter (and a fair amount of wine). Where some of us struggled with our miming, others were particularly brilliant and I am not likely to forget Greg swaying his hips as Pippa Middleton or Dick on his knees as Tom Cruise!

Tuesday was Richards’ birthday, and so instead of spending the night at anchor in Papagayo we decided to spend a second night in Puerto Calero so that after dinner and birthday cake we could take him out to the pub to celebrate!

The wind came back for our last day and we sailed from Calero, around Los Lobos and back to Marina Rubicon.

All expectations were blown out of the water! The Velvet Lady was wonderful. The hosting superb, the company was simply the best and the sailing challenged all of us at times (which is a very good thing!) The only negative is that it had to end.  Many Many thanks and would love to see you for a return visit.

We always have mixed feelings when leaving Lanzarote, after being here since December it very much feels like home, but we are really looking forward to our summer in Denmark and seeing a lot of familiar faces there. We also enjoy the change now as we set off on our series of milebuilding passages and watch systems.

These trips are become increasingly popular and we are now sold out until the end of May when there are 2 spaces from Ijmuiden to Oslo. The next day sailing spaces are not until 20 June. If you are thinking of joining us for the summer why not look at our Schedule.

We have been lucky enough to see dolphins on every trip so far this year.  We have seen a variety of dolphins over the weeks, common dolphins, atlantic white sided dolphins, rissos dolphins and many more that we cannot immediately identify.
These dolphins often like playing with us, and often put on an act especially for us leaping and playing in our bow wave.
Whenever this happens there is always a great rush for the cameras, and then many futile minutes of taking shots of specks on the water as the dolphin dives before the digital camera focus works.  The trick is to take the photo before you see the dolphin rise and hope!

This week we had many dolphins playing on the bow, and Stuart managed to take this photo, which is definitely the best of the season of Flipper, a bottlenosed dolphin.  It looked good on the small screen of the camera, but even better when we loaded it on the laptop.  Needless to say , with permission, I quickly bagged a copy.

We had another great week of fantastic sailing as we made our way up the east coast of Lanzarote to La Graciosa and spent 2 nights there.  Every time we visit this tiny little island with very few inhabitants we realise what a fantastic isolated and unspoilt spot it is.  The day spent ashore is often one of the highlights of the week, and so we will continue with this in next years programme.

For the second week running we had the pleasure of introducing a newcomer to sailing to the joys of cruising and exploring.  This is what she had to say.

New to sailing I needed a holiday, a new interest, new friends and to be looked after.  I found everything and more aboard Velvet Lady.  It has been a truly memorable week in a beautiful location with fascinating company.  I will be back.  Thank you Lin, Richard and fellow passengers

Our trip south from La Graciosa this week took us a bit longer than expected due to an unfavourable wind shift, it has to happen sometimes, but we were still anchored in Papagayo in time for a spectacular sunset.

The days are getting noticeably longer now, with it not going dark until nearly 19.30.  This reminds us that it is nearly time to start heading north for the summer.  We only have one week left around Lanzarote but we will be back here for Christmas and New Year and another winter of sunny sailing.  Whether beginner or experienced sailor we look forward to you joining us in the future.  Spaces are still available for the summer months in Denmark and we expect to publish the autumn programme at the end of March.  See our schedule.

This week we were joined by Wolf and Lutz, father and son from Germany and two individual ladies, Pauline and Sue, one of whom had never sailed before.  We had a thoroughly enjoyable trip around the island with good winds and great sailing.  They had the following to say:

A lovely introduction into sailing in the extremely capable hands of Lin and Richard.  I felt really safe.  Some very funny stories told by Lin about her round the world trip – what a laugh!! A faultless week and some good food.  The mushroom dish was yummy thank you Richard
Best wishes to you both, Sue

If you want real fun join Lin and Rich for adventure sailing.  Big fun, great experience, nice holiday’s unbeatable hospitality just to name a few.  Thank you very much
Lutz and Wolf now ready for the last tack home to Germany!

What can I say to follow Sue and Wolf?  The best week of my life!
Amazing sailing – every day a new experience.  My confidence and learning has increased.  Fantastic food and Lin and Richard were perfect hosts and coaches – very patient!!  Looking forward to joining them later for a milebuilder! Pauline
PS Velvet Lady is beautiful to sail

One of the questions we regularly get asked is what will the other people be like and will we all get on.  The truth is that before we meet them we know very little specifically about individual guests except name, age, sex and sometimes a little bit about their sailing experience.  What we do know is that they will have an interest in sailing and have made a conscious decision to share their holiday with other people.  Those two common factors are enough for us, and we work to ensure that everyone on board enjoys their time aboard.

Our holidays are very social and our first evening is spent in ‘getting to know each other’ mode.  Within a very short space of time we have everyone chatting and laughing.  The conversation usually starts with sailing and sailing experience but quickly moves on to all sorts of other more interesting topics.  We regularly discover that our guests have more in common than sailing.

The trade winds blew at a steady force 4/5 this week and so we followed our regular route, Marina Rubicon – Puerto Calero – Arrecife – La Graciosa – Playa Papagayo – Isla Lobos and back to Marina Rubicon.  A total of 164 miles with lots of tacking.

Whether experienced or beginner sailor we encourage everyone to have a go at hauling the sails and helming the boat.  This week was no different and Sue, who had never sailed before, found helming Velvet Lady very exciting.

‘It’s just like riding a horse she said, you need to make subtle movements with the wheel and to be in tune with the boat and the environment.’  I couldn’t have put it better myself.

What we do in the evenings varies from week to week.  Dinner is served on board at 2000, but the time between arriving in port 1600ish and dinner is free time to enjoy at your leisure.

A few weeks ago I received an e mail from Wolf – I like a Gin Tonic in the evenings at 1800, will that be allowed.  Well of course it would.  Our policy is to not drink when sailing but once we have finished the day we are happy for guests to enjoy a sundowner on board.

Pre-warned meant we were pre-armed and the fridge was full of tonic and lemon (sadly no ice).  The gin was provided first by Wolf and then later in the week replenished.  This became our routine for the week.  Arrive in harbour, go for a walk, and return to the boat for 1800 for Gin Tonic and a few nibbles, Wolf was responsible for charging the glasses.  Sunset is around 1845 now and so this was perfect timing to enjoy the last rays of the sun.

As usual the week went too quickly and all too soon it was over and time to say goodbye to our new friends.

In preparation for the next trip, Lin has spent a few hours stitching our yankee which burst a seam last week but is all repaired now and back on the furler.

Joining us we have a mix of 3 old friends and 2 soon to be new friends and as usual we are really looking forward to another week on the water.

We have one last place now for a single male from 8th to 15th March and apart from 2 spaces on a milebuilder no more cruising places until the end of June.

Why not think of joining us this summer sailing Velvet Lady in the Danish Archipelago with a mix of sun, sailing and relaxation.