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 →
Time flies when you’re having fun. I just realised its eight days since I left san Francisco. Days at sea run into each other, there is no demarcation or need for holidays or weekends. When I look at the daily progress on the chart it seems so small but its steady and relentless, day and... Continue Reading →
The weather forecast guys got it right, the cold front passed through last night with some good winds and rain behind. I stayed up until three when the wind started dying down. I wasn’t worried about Truce dragging anchor, it was the other boats around, some of them almost wrecks, that I wanted to watch... Continue Reading →
Ngozi and I have had a great time in San Francisco. We have done a few of the tourist things and as usual ate too much, drank too much and spent too much. We had 4 nights in the Marina Village in Alameda. This a good spot for access to local attractions and has easy... Continue Reading →
This morning we checked out of Brisbane Marina. We found Brisbane Marina to be a windy and remote place to be moored. But handy for the airport which was the reason for going there in the first place. Like The wind was blowing us onto the berth as we prepared to depart we had to... Continue Reading →
Brisbane Marina is quite close to the San Francisco Airport, planes can be clearly heard taking off and landing. During the night, I awoke a couple of times thinking the wind was whistling through the rigging, only to realise it was the noise of jet engines in the distance. I closed the deck hatch to... Continue Reading →
Last night I was having a lovely run down the coast being pushed by a fresh wind directly from astern. I just had the staysail up, sailing at between five and six knots without any fuss. At midnight the fog closed in, a cold wet fog. An hour later the wind had died and I... Continue Reading →
This morning I awoke feeling fresh and well rested after the travails of the previous 24 hours. Shelter Cove provided a good resting stop for the night. A bit of swell came into the anchorage and we rolled all night, nothing uncomfortable. I headed out at first light, the day turned out sunny and warm,... Continue Reading →
The same old story, two steps forward – one back. Last night the wind came on very strong. As we approached Cape Mendocino all hell let lose. The wind was howling – no shrieking from the North with great gusts thrown in. It felt stronger than the forty knots predicted. I was unable to carry... Continue Reading →
I finished writing and sending off last nights’ log, then settled in the cockpit with a beer and some music. All was well with my world and we were sailing along at five plus knots. Then, in the space of thirty minutes the wind died and we were left struggling along with just the Jib. ... Continue Reading →
The Adventures of Captain Ray Penson 