Sailing North Star

The whole feel of Martinique was very similar to that of France, just in a different climate; this was fairly comforting in many ways. They use the euro and speak french, which for Olivier was great as this is his native language. However, for Sam and I it was a bit more of a struggle. … Continue reading Martinique

After arriving into St Lucia we spent the first week in Rodney Bay Marina so we could get ourselves sorted, our body clocks back to usual and a mound of washing done. We filled our bellies with full english breakfasts, pizza, hamburgers, beer and rum punch. After multiple showers and a few good nights sleep … Continue reading St Lucia

On 1st April 2019 Sam, Olivier and I left Mindelo to start our Atlantic crossing. We estimated the 2178 NM journey would take us 20 days. As we waved goodbye to land, the huge task we were taking on started to dawn on us. For the first four days we sailed on a broad reach, … Continue reading Atlantic Crossing

After long discussions we decided to go via the Cape Verde Islands instead of crossing the Atlantic straight from the Canary Islands. And what a mistake it would have been not to have visited these beautiful islands. We spent ten days in Mindelo, the main city on the island of Saint Vincente. Initially after spending … Continue reading Cape Verde Islands

890 NM – 8 days and 7 night at sea  The time had come for our next voyage, from Las Palmas in the Canary Islands to Mindelo, Cape Verde. We estimated the journey to take between 7 and 10 days. As we pulled out of Las Palmas we had nice wind, before hitting the infamous … Continue reading Canary Islands to the Cape Verde Islands

We spent 10 days in Marina Rubicon, Lanzarote. This was a lovely marina with a large number of berths and good facilities. However it was situated in what felt like a purpose built tourist area. There was a large english influence and the lack of culture was a real shame.  Inevitably we had a few … Continue reading The Canary Islands

Leg 3 of our journey – Gibraltar to Lanzarote – 650 NM As we pulled out of our berth in Gibraltar to sail to the Canary Islands we waved goodbye to a place that we had grown strangely fond of. We’d made friends and it was like home away from home, just with better weather. … Continue reading The first taste of the Atlantic

On January 24th 2019, Sam and I flew back out to the boat. We were greeted in Gibraltar by blue skies and 15 degrees, quite the change from temperatures in the UK. Within days of our return the engine arrived, cleared customs and was picked up by the mechanic. With the permission of the marina … Continue reading Out with the old, In with the new

We were keen to keep making progress despite not being able to sail anywhere. The wind generator was the next installation as we wanted to make North Star as self sufficient as possible; utilising the wind to charge our batteries instead of the engine. Over the next few days our wind generator came to life, … Continue reading Time spent in Gibraltar