Freebird Atlantic

Vessel Name: Freebird
Vessel Make/Model: X-Yachts - XC 50
Crew: William and Sarah Maltby, Henry Faire, James Axtell
09 March 2019 | Southern Grenada
05 March 2019 | Grenada
05 March 2019 | Antigua and Grenada
29 January 2019 | Barbuda
29 January 2019 | Barbuda
29 January 2019 | Nonsuch Bay, Antigua
29 January 2019 | Falmouth Harbour
29 January 2019 | English Harbour, Antigua
29 January 2019 | Antigua Yacht Club
29 January 2019 | Antigua
19 January 2019 | Catherine’s noisy bar, Pigeon Bay
18 January 2019
17 January 2019
16 January 2019
15 January 2019
14 January 2019
13 January 2019
12 January 2019
11 January 2019
10 January 2019
Recent Blog Posts
09 March 2019 | Southern Grenada

Gone native

Freebird is now safely out of the water and has been left in a yard where a steel frame will be built around her to protect from a hurricane (which we hope is unlikely).

05 March 2019 | Grenada

How to acquire a new burgee stick

Grenada is a stunning island, much of it a tropical rain forest with exotic flowers, lush foliage, colossal bamboos, and many of the spices growing in abundance (nutmeg, cinnamon, ...) hence it’s name The Spice Island.

05 March 2019 | Antigua and Grenada

Cricket mania

I will now confess to the real purpose of the Skipper plotting to cross the Atlantic, and imposing the high seas on his wife... test matches in the West Indies. Since last posting a blog, we have been following England cricket team on their tour of the West Indies, with mixed success but fun all the [...]

29 January 2019 | Barbuda

Barbuda

The contrast between the devastation from Hurricane Irma and the miles of pinky white deserted beaches is staggering

29 January 2019 | Barbuda

Barbuda

The wind continued but we decided to head north to Barbuda which is reputed to have the best beaches in the Caribbean. After quite a lumpy sail we arrived in paradise, having taken care to avoid all the reefs. The beaches are completely exquisite, just miles and miles of pinky white sand, with not [...]

29 January 2019 | Nonsuch Bay, Antigua

On our own in Nonsuch Bay

The butter has melted

05 January 2019
Sarah
As the old adage goes, when crossing the Atlantic, go south until the butter melts, and then turn right. That is exactly what we have done.  The butter finally ran a few hours ago and we took the executive decision to jibe and head west for Antigua. The spirits are high as the sun is shining, it is so much warmer, the days are longer and everyone had a good night's sleep. That was especially welcome after the very un-restful previous night.

I apologise that yesterday's blog never sent.  We thought it had but for some reason did not connect.  So you will hear two very different stories of consecutive days at the same time.

Yesterday was a first for Freebird.  Two fish in one day. Following the Mahi Mahi caught in the morning, we caught a large tuna just before sunset. So James spent much of the day filleting, skinning and cleaning up the general bloody mess on my precious decks.  All looking ship shape again, and the crew are drooling at the thought of tuna sashemi,  tuna steaks, fish stews etc.

Our days have settled into a good pattern.  After a hearty breakfast the crew are put to work mending anything necessary, charging batteries, making water, changing generator impellers etc.  This morning we had to mend the rope for opening the jaws on the goosewing pole.  The skipper was becoming anxious that we needed to jibe for our Rhum line to Antigua and were unable to do so until we could goosewing.  All now sorted.  The afternoons are given to quiet time, resting, sleeping and reading books before the cocktail hour and preparations for the night.

William has plotted a great circle route of the approximate 2,000 miles still to go towards Antigua.  He did this by drawing a Rhum line to Antigua and then taking all the coordinates at every 5 degreees of longitude.  Later today we should have covered 1,000 miles since leaving Lanzarote, leaving another 1,900 to go.  We are yet to calculate the difference between the Rhum line and the great circle line.
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Freebird's Photos - Main
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Created 29 December 2018
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