Rally Crossing – Part 2 – Cape Verde to Grenada
Leaving Cape Verde The morning we left Cape Verde for the Atlantic crossing felt slightly surreal. We were up early for showers, final checks, and goodbyes before slipping the lines and heading out into the open ocean. It didn’t take long before the conditions reminded us this was the Atlantic. The wind was already blowing hard […]
Rally Crossing Part 1 – Gran Canaria to Cape Verde
Pre Passage Preparations We had allowed about 7 weeks in Las Palmas to have enough time to do any jobs, provision, take a trip back to the UK and take a breathe as well!! This was more than enough time and after four weeks we were probably ready to cross – one of the drawbacks […]
Madeira to The Canary Islands
Back to where we know This next leg was quite meaningful for Yanula Blue – as it was taking her back to where we had bought her in Lanzarote! The Canaries are also islands that we know quite well as we spent a lot of our holidays on various islands as well as learning to […]
Muxia to Madeira – Avoiding Orcas!!
After being in A Coruna (or La Coruna as it is sometimes called) and with very little wind – and importantly no reported orca interactions, we decided to make our way around the corner to Muxia. It was a long motor, with a constant orca watch, but we were happy to arrive in the cute […]
Au Revoir le France, Hola España
Time to cross the Bay Les Sable-d’Olonne had been good to us and it was now time to cross the Bay of Biscay. We had found that tales of the crossing ranged from really easy to awful and we were keen to ensure we got the right weather window. We employed the services of the […]
Atlantic France – Brest and beyond
After the motoring journey “around the corner” we finally arrived in Atlantic France and the Rade de Brest on 25th June! Rade De Brest First impressions were it was like Poole harbour … but a little bit bigger!! We found a great anchorage called Posterman and ended up staying there for 4 nights – because […]
Cherbourg – Poole (90 miles, 17 hours!!) A quick trip back in the UK
As Jenni was waiting for a medical appointment we decided we would rather be back in the UK in case it was short notice and she wouldn’t be able to make it, and also that we would rather ‘wait’ with family and friends. So having checked out of France in Cherbourg, we needed to sail […]
Sailing the Normandy Coast
After exploring Cherbourg for a couple of days and celebrating Jenni’s birthday there with a thermos flask of wine and a bike ride, the question loomed … where next?! We aimed to sail Yanula Blue along the Normandy coast. The timing of the tides and the restrictions in tidal marinas meant that it was difficult […]
Poole to Cherbourg
When winter was over and some extra work on Yanula Blue was completed at Portland, we were ready for 2025! Visa appllication One of our winter jobs had been to apply for 6 month Visitor Visa for France – called VLS-T. We had duly filled in lots of paperwork justifying our reason for wanting the […]
A Sail of Firsts
After an enjoyable stay in Lymington we needed to leave by 2pm before we were charged for another night’s stay! We were holding off for as long as possible as we knew the tide through the Hurst narrows would be flowing against us. We chose to motor for a while whilst we fought the tide, […]