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
Leg 2 of our journey – Cartagena to Gibraltar – 260 NM We left Cartagena full of optimism that we had a working engine and some nice sailing ahead… perhaps this was slightly misjudged. The first afternoon was great, the wind had shifted and was pushing us along nicely. We caught our second tuna of … Continue reading The long journey to Gibraltar
Leg 1 of our journey – Valencia to Cartagena – 160 NM We’d spent a couple of days pre cooking meals, cleaning, stowing everything and completing all the checks across the boat. Eddie, our third crew member for this leg of the journey had flown out to join us. The morning that we were to … Continue reading Gaining my sea legs
‘One step forward, two steps back’ — this is the best way I can describe whats it’s felt like over the three weeks we’ve spent in Valencia. There was a sizeable list of jobs that we needed to get done before we could even contemplate sailing. The boat was booked in to be taken out … Continue reading Improvements and new parts
On the 10th October we arrived in Valencia, and for me it was my first sighting of North Star. Before now I had seen a few pictures and been told about her, but nothing is quite the same as in real life. I was impressed, she was pretty; the blue hull gave her an edge … Continue reading Adapting to life on North Star
