We have sailed around the world and finished with the fleet in the grandest of styles with a spectacular finale. The enormity of what we have done is hard to comprehend; it might take a while. Marigot Bay in St Lucia was our final stop to assemble the fleet before crossing the finish line. We …
Author: Matilda
Its almost over
We have almost completed our trip around the globe on Matilda. In a few weeks we will cross the finish line in St Lucia with 19 of our fellow ARC boats and it will all be over. Almost 27,000 miles at sea, 15 months, 4 continents, 3 oceans, 2 seas, 19 countries, 3 capes, and …
The Final Stretch
Matilda is almost back in the Caribbean, we are in the final push to Grenada and rounding the top of South America. This has been a 2255 mile journey from Brazil. This passage has brought us from the southern hemisphere where we have been for over a year back to the northern hemisphere. We crossed …
Brazil
Our time in Brazil is coming to an end. We are in the Jacaré Marina Village located in the town of Cabedelo, on the river of Paraiba in the northeast part of Brazil. It has been raining constantly and the mud and disease-ridden mosquitoes are lurking everywhere. They have both dengue and zika here. Horses …
The Atlantic Ocean has been crossed!
It's all done now - we have crossed the Atlantic Ocean and made it to Brazil. We left Cape Town on January 6th and arrived in Cabedelo, Brazil on February 17th. 3800 miles, 3 islands and lots and lots of ocean behind us. We are very grateful to be here. Fernando de Noronha was our …
Going Rogue
To quote a fellow ARC boat - “we left Cape Town over a month ago- have sailed over 3500 miles and we are still not there yet!” This is a really big ocean. We decided to “go rogue” since leaving St Helena. Instead of going to Salvador, Brazil with the rest of the fleet, we …
Matilda Under Siege
Last night around midnight - two hours into my watch. Fiona was sleeping. Seas were calm and a steady breeze from the east effortlessly propelled Matilda comfortably along at about 7kts towards Brazil some 800 nautical miles to the west. The sky was clear. The Southern Cross sat low in the sky off our port beam. The …
St Helena
We arrived in St Helena, a little slice of England, in the southern Atlantic Ocean. It is bucolic and charming with some fabulous history. St Helena Our 76 hours there were jam-packed exploring Napoleon’s home and burial site, climbing Jacob’s ladder, swimming with whale sharks, visiting the oldest known living land animal, meeting a prince …
Royal Welcome for the World ARC
We have less than 400 miles to go to until we reach St Helena and less than 40 miles until we cross the Prime Meridian back into the western hemisphere. This journey has also seen our return to the tropics crossing north of the Tropic of Capricorn. Tropic of Capricorn As should be expected on …
The immense Atlantic crossing has begun.
Sailing from Cape Town up the Skeleton Coast to Namibia was basically due north and was far from a benign jaunt. We had miserable 30-35 knot winds gusting to 43! It was rolling so much on Matilda that we had to fit a lee cloth on the sofa in the saloon so that we didn’t …
Sailboat Matilda 