Yacht Cerulean Atlantic Adventure

Vessel Name: Cerulean of Penryn
Vessel Make/Model: Seastream43
Hailing Port: Gosport
Crew: Richard & Alison Rowley
About:
Richard has been sailing for over 40 years and has done over 12000nm of coastal sailing mainly from out of Portsmouth Harbour (UK) including many cross channel passages to the Channel Islands, and north coast of France and along the UK South coast, as well as yacht charters in Greece and Croatia. [...]
Extra: We have both taken a year off work to sail the Atlantic in our 43' (13m) sailing yacht Cerulean of Penryn which we purchased in 2015. We are signed up for the ARC+ 2018 rally from Las Palmas Gran Canaria to St Lucia via the Cape Verde Islands
Home Page: www.yachtcerulean.com
Social:
17 June 2019
14 June 2019 | 47:45N 009:10W
13 June 2019 | 46:38N 010:47W
13 June 2019 | 46:34N 010:51W
11 June 2019 | 44:05N 014:40W
10 June 2019 | 42:51N 018:48W
08 June 2019 | 40:56N 021:26W
07 June 2019 | 38:15N 024:41W
25 May 2019 | Horta, Faial, Azores
21 May 2019 | 38:25N 029:20W
19 May 2019 | 38:31N 034:16W
18 May 2019 | 38:31N 037:37W
17 May 2019 | 38:10N 040:49W
17 May 2019 | 37:55N 042:01W
15 May 2019 | 37:49N 042:58W
15 May 2019 | 36:26N 046:39W
15 May 2019 | 37:10N 044:57W
14 May 2019 | 35:39N 048:42W
14 May 2019 | 35:03N 050:29W
Recent Blog Posts
12 July 2019 | Gosport

A ship is safe in harbour...but that's not what they are for

The Cerulean Big Atlantic Adventure is now over. We are moored back at our home port of Gosport in the UK, and our adventure is rapidly turning into just a memory.

17 June 2019

Bishops Rock

Passage from the Azores to the Scilly Isles

14 June 2019 | 47:45N 009:10W

Ponta Delgado-Bishops Rock 07

Log:958 DTW 166; BTW 039deg 47deg 45'N 009deg 10'W COG: 060 SOG:4.6 Wind SW f3; baro 1016 Status: Sailing; dead run; Port tack; poled out genoa to Starboard

13 June 2019 | 46:38N 010:47W

Ponta Delgado-St Mary's 6

Log:863 DTW 259; BTW 040deg 46deg 38'N 010deg 47'W COG: 040 SOG:6.0 Wind NW f3; baro 1017 Status: motor sailing; main/genoa/staysail

13 June 2019 | 46:34N 010:51W

Ponta Delgado-St Mary's 05

Log:859 DTW 264; BTW 040deg 46deg 34'N 010deg 51'W COG: 040 SOG:6.0 Wind NW f3; baro 1017 Status: motor sailing; main/genoa/staysail

11 June 2019 | 44:05N 014:40W

Ponta Delgado-St mary's 04

Log:6908 DTW 511; BTW 044deg 44deg 05'N 015deg 40'W COG: 075 SOG:5.3 Wind NNE f4; baro 1029 Satus: Sailing 1 reefs main /100% staysail / 100% Genoa

Bishops Rock

17 June 2019
Richard Rowley
Passage from the Azores to the Scilly Isles

Our year-long 12,000 nautical mile Atlantic Odyssey is almost over. We have now crossed back over the Atlantic Ocean into the English Channel and are currently rolling on a mooring buoy at St Mary's Pool, which is the harbour at Hugh Town on the Island of St. Mary's in the Isles of Scilly, some 25 nautical miles south west of the UK mainland.

We have completed our last ocean passage which brought us the 1123 nautical miles from the Azores. The passage took 9 days 7 hours and 45 minutes at an average 5.02 knots.

It had been the most challenging passage of our entire voyage so far. We had a series lows passing over bringing a series of fronts and with them lots of inclement weather, strong winds and rain but fortunately nothing too horrendous. Between the weather systems we would have lulls for short periods where the wind would drop off and we resorted to motor sailing to keep the pace up. We had head winds for over two thirds of the passage with northerly winds, from north east round to north west predominately force 4 to 5 but up to force 7 at times. For much of the time we were under thick cloud with some rain and patches of poor visibility. The sea state being moderate for the most but occasionally rough.

We really only picked up the favourable northerly easterly North Atlantic current during the last few days, for much of the passage we were in the southerly Azores and Portuguese Currents with nearly a knot of tide against us.

We were pleased to have Alison's brother Richard join us for this passage. Having an extra experienced crew member made sailing life a lot easier for us, as were all able to get more sleep. With 3 hours on and 6 hours off over night and 4 hours on and 8 hours off during the day.

One thing that really struck us was how cold it got so quickly after spending five months in Caribbean temperatures. For our watches we donned full 'wets' over a couple of jumpers, two pairs of socks, beanie hat and gloves. Often the odd rouge wave would throw buckets of cold icy water over the boat usually hitting whomever was at the helm.

Fortunately we did not have to spend much time at the helm as 'Old Harry' the wind vane steering done a splendid job in skilfully steering the boat nearly all the way only resorting to the autopilot when motor-sailing.

We did not see flying fish on this passage, I think they prefer the warmer waters further south, nor did we have any squid washed on the deck. A few days into the passage we stopped seeing the armada of Portuguese Man o War floating by making their way purposefully to the west. We were accompanied for the first few days by the Petrels. These sea pelagic seabirds soaring around us and skimming along just above the waves sometimes with their wingtips touching the surface. Then the ocean seemed to be devoid of wildlife for a few days, but once we were approaching the continental shelf where the English Channel meets the Atlantic Ocean the seabirds came back we had a profusion of Gannets flying around us and dolphins swimming with us, along with a flotilla of fishing vessels, we were now back in fertile waters.
Our final day at sea was blue sky with patches of cloud. Bishops Rock Lighthouse was a welcome sight and marked the entrance to Broad Sound, the safe passage from the west through these notorious treacherous rocky archipelago to the safety of St. Mary's Pool, were we were relieved to have picked up a mooring buoy and we look forward to having a drink and good nights sleep.

Comments
Cerulean of Penryn's Photos - Main
Photos of rigging failure; Lower Aft stays; Bermuda to Horta; 22/05/2019
10 Photos
Created 25 May 2019
Passage along the south coast from Gosport to Plymouth
2 Photos
Created 1 November 2018
1 Photo
Created 27 October 2018