This is “Skinny” Dave Sharpe here doing a post for all the followers of the Palarran Atlantic crossing.

The first thing I would like to say is a big thanks to David for allowing me to co-captain this voyage with him. It has been a great experience so far with lots of exciting moments. I have no doubt that there will be plenty more before the trip is through.

Well, let me tell you a little bit about myself. I am a Scottish boy, born and breed in Edinburgh. I have been working in the yachting industry for nearly 6 years now, working on everything from dingyies to super yachts. Sailing is my passion and what I love. This voyage is actually my seventh Atlantic crossing, so it’s not my first rodeo, but definitely one of the best.

David and Stosh have made the trip an absolute delight. They are a great crew and I am very surprised at how well we all work together, considering the short amount of time we have known each other. If we have a problem we all sit down to discuss it and workout best solution. Although the first solution we come up with is not always the best one. We have had a few problems with Palarran so far, In fact almost one per day, sometimes two. However every challenge that we have come up against we have overcome with flying colors….. so far.

Palarran is holding up very well, and I am a lot more confident now than when I first started the voyage. I guess it is the same when every skipper comes onto a new yacht. You have to learn all the new creaks and moans, kind of like having a new girlfriend. But I am very happy with the yacht and I am sure she will see us through any bad weather we may come across.

The weather last night was a little rougher than the previous few days. We had 25-30kt winds from west southwest. The se wave train was rather large also with 15-20ft rollers coming from behind. The surf was most definitely up last night. During my watch I was only running the jib and we still managed to get 10.1kts out of her. The wind began to calm around 4 this morning, which is when I left David to his watch. Gradually it moved more southwesterly until about 1200 noon. For all it calmed this morning, it is fairly picking up again now. As I am writing this we are currently on a broad reach with 18-25kt winds out of the west. Tonight we are expecting pretty much the same, possibly calming slightly. Hopefully it is not too bouncy for dinner.

Before the watches last night I treated the guys to some fish and chips “Skinny Style”. I guess it was a hit as there were clean plates all round. It is great cooking with such fresh fish, so well done to David for landing the Mahi. Stosh has been very persistent on the fishing front. I would love to see him get a few more before he has to leave so that his efforts are not in vein. What is on the cards for dinner tonight, I am not sure. Whatever it is I am positive it will be delicious.

Well that about does it for my post. I will leave you with something I am still a little confused about and that is this nickname “Skinny Dave”. How Alyssa came up with that name for me I do not know. For starters I have never been called skinny before in my life. However I guess this is relative to the bar I was measured against at the time.

Bye for now and thanks to all the followers of the blog. Keep reading our posts and checking our progress. Wish us luck that we get there in one piece.

“Skinny” out.


Added from David

Right now we have the first sailboat we have seen since leaving St. Maarten bearing down on us. He is absolutely flying and it will be neat to see him go past. We will try to raise him on the radio. We also saw a freighter this morning. And two birds – wow!!

"What's important in life is not how many breaths we get to take,
but those moments that take our breath away"
Jacques Cousteau