The Adventures of Captain Ray Penson
Sailing Yacht Truce
I am in Saudi Arabia for a short job, inspecting a couple of ships. Its quite warm and everything is covered in sand, not really my type of place but I should be able to top up the boat fund and carry on preparing for next summer. Anyway, I went offshore yesterday and got marooned... Continue Reading →
Last night was cool, for the first time since Hawaii I had track pants on with a long-sleeved fleece shirt. We are certainly out of the tropics now and I can expect more cold weather when we hit the south westerly winds later this evening. I will dig out my thermals tomorrow – just in case. Its... Continue Reading →
As they say in football – today has been a day of two halves. From midday to midnight we romped along, reefed down, in twenty knot winds doing a comfortable six knots. At midnight, we had clocked seventy plus miles and all was good. After midnight we ran into a rain squall (probably a front) and after a brief flurry... Continue Reading →
Last night Jessica and I dined on salad, crackers and camembert cheese in the cockpit under the stars. An hour later I had stomach cramps, then Jessica got it. We were both violently sick. The Camembert was the culprit. It left us both feeling a bit under the weather for a while. No more camembert... Continue Reading →
Last night was the Waikiki Yacht Club party. Another great party and I am partied out and ready for sea. Richard departed early this morning, back to the mainland. Now its just Jessica and myself to undertake the final preparations for the voyage. First was the US Immigration and Boarder Protection at Pier 1. The... Continue Reading →
My wish for an uninterrupted sleep didn’t materialise. In the early hours of the morning the wind woke me and I found the yacht alongside was coming a bit close. I checked the moorings and all was OK and an hour later the wind had subsided. Later in the morning I finished the mast work... Continue Reading →
Last night I had a beautiful sleep. The sleep you get when you are tired and the job has been done. No interruptions, no wind shifts and secure in the knowledge that Truce was securely moored fore and aft. I got off to a late start this morning, I must have switched to Island time... Continue Reading →
Well I did jinx my good fortune. At daybreak this morning the wind went AWOL. We have been left floundering around, sails slating, constantly trimming trying to get some motion in the right direction. I should know better – when things are going well – keep quiet about it! The Meteorologist in Hawaii said this... Continue Reading →
I don’t want to jinx my good fortune but we are still running with Jib poled out to port directly down the track to Hilo. If the wind holds true we will be arriving early on Tuesday morning. This morning I turned again to bread making. I used a new method I thought up that’s... Continue Reading →
Looking at the log book for last night I see I was having a hard time. Sails up and down, in and out, tacking, gybing and engine on. Sometimes reducing sail as going too fast and others just no wind. I was surprised to find we had covered 109 miles noon to noon, a commendable... Continue Reading →
The Adventures of Captain Ray Penson 