It is 4am and my final night-watch. There are all the usual creaks and groans of the boat, the same star-studded Southern Sky, but tonight a beautiful halo of light is crowning the horizon. It’s beautiful, because it is the lights of Africa. I can’t see land yet, but it’s there, and oh man – […]
Sailing The Indian Ocean
The Joy of Reaching Land – Sailing the Indian Ocean
We stopped at five islands as we sailed across the Indian Ocean – Ashmore Reef, Christmas Island, Cocos Keeling, Mauritius and Reunion – and after weeks of bobbing in the Indian Ocean, the excitement to be approaching land was always anticipated long before we arrived. Birds were always the first sign we were nearing land. […]
Paradise Found but Not Lost: Sailing into Cocos Keeling
I guess I had always been sceptical whether those tropical island paradises you see on the cover of postcards really existed. I have travelled enough to know that for every photo of the ‘perfect beach’, there are a dozen tacky resorts and hotels hidden just outside the frame. And if you visit, you’ll invariably find […]
Land Ahoy – Sailing into Christmas Island
After 15 days at sea I was desperate to see land, however the view as we sailed into ‘Flying Fish Cove’ on Christmas Island was stunningly disappointing. In the 400 years since Captain William Mynors, a fellow Brit, had first arrived on Christmas Day 1643, 2,000 people have moved to this isolated speck of land […]
“This is Going to Eat Us” – Storm in the Indian Ocean
There are three things a newbie sailor like me never wants to hear on their first trip sailing across an ocean, and I had just heard my Skipper, Wyn, say all three. First, as we watched the advancing wall of grey storm close in on us, he said ‘This is going to eat us.’ There was […]
I’m Sailing an Ocean and Everything Is New and Awesome!
Wyn rushed into my cabin on that first morning after leaving Australia and shook my leg violently. It was 6:30am and I had been awake half the night keeping watch for other ships and changes in the wind. I jumped up fully alert, concluding this urgent awakening must mean a big problem. Were we sinking? […]
Swapping Pedals for Sails – Sailing the Indian Ocean
I’m bobbing in the middle of the Indian Ocean on board Leia B, an 11-metre sailing catamaran. When we crest the top of a wave I can see all the way to the horizon, 6 miles away, where the Earth’s curvature drags it from view. There is no land on the horizon. Except for a […]