Getting Stuck In Rote
The long story of a failed engine part that delayed us long enough to fall under the spell of a special island. So just to re-cap: Bryan and I were at the end of a long sail south, two weeks…
Keep readingDUE SOUTH
Volcanoes Mount Ducono is an active volcano reaching high above the town of Tobelo, belching an impressive plume of smoke and ash which blows downwind, away from our chosen anchorage. Until the wind changes in the night. On the first…
Keep readingThe Halmahera Sea
We thought that last bay would be hard to beat. Paddling to empty waves straight from our anchored boat. Nobody wanted to leave, so we didn’t. For days. There’s an old saying in surfing: Never leave waves to find…
Keep readingTaking the rough with the smooth.
The Rough: We’re in Sorong. It’s hot. After those deserted anchorages, Sorong comes on strong. The dirty, bustling city. Capital of this part of West Papua. There’s a regional airport here with daily flights to Denpasar and Jakarta, so I’m…
Keep readingRaja Ampat
Back in October 2024, we sailed Escapade from Australia to Indonesia. We cleared customs at Tual and spent a few weeks exploring up to Waigeo before my crew flew home. We left the boat tied to a dock at a…
Keep readingUncharted Waters
I’ve been sailing west for so long that I’ve woken up in the Far East. I’m awake early on my first morning in Indonesia, looking forward to exploring the town of Tual and trying some local food. But first I…
Keep readingThe Arafura Sea
Thursday Island has long been an important Australian port, pearling station and customs post, the main border with Papua New Guinea across the straits to the north. Many round-the-world yachts have cleared through here, including the very first. This is…
Keep readingCairns to the Cape
Escapade has been resting on a swinging mooring on the Trinity Inlet, just upstream from Cairns. After our annual slice of Guernsey summer I was back on the boat preparing for the next voyage. There’s about 500 miles of sailing…
Keep readingShore Leave
We’ve been sailing past those green hills for hundreds of miles, now we’re keen to see a bit of the hinterland. Escapade is on a quiet river mooring upstream from Cairns and we have hit the open road in a…
Keep readingAbove and Beyond
Chasing waterfalls After a windy grey start at 6am we sailed in to Zoe Bay a bit overpowered, making our usual entrance at 15kts with spray flying up through the trampolines. Then in the lee of the headland all was…
Keep readingThe Land of Plenty
Good Queensland Casual We are enjoying an old copy of ‘100 Magic Miles’, the classic sailor’s guide to the Whitsundays, first published 1985. Ours is the fifth edition from 1997, found in a Mackay Op Shop by our new friends…
Keep readingAre we having fun yet?
So here we are, half way round the world, almost ten years since we set off from France. For me the joy of sailing and living on Escapade is as strong as ever. For my patient wife Dawn, not so…
Keep readingTravelling to the land down under.
Notes from the captain’s log, December 2023. Day 2 I’m lounging in the cockpit, it’s a warm afternoon and I’m slightly groggy from lack of sleep. We’re a couple of hundred miles west of New Caledonia, empty ocean, nothing out…
Keep readingNouvelle Calédonie
02.11.2023 Another new country already! Not really Escapade style to be moving so fast. But here are the red hills and pine clad shores of New Caledonia. Our passage planning worked out perfectly and we arrived at the entrance to…
Keep readingVanuatu Part 2: Lola
So with the threat from that tropical low we reluctantly left our favourite anchorage off the island of Pele and headed south toward Port Vila. We were joined by a pod of pilot whales who played around our bows like…
Keep readingThe Vanuatu Voyages
Landfall! Soon after sunrise the volcanic peaks of Tanna island rose above the horizon, our first glimpse of Vanuatu. The last few miles of a passage always seem to take forever. The destination slowly reveals itself, more details of the…
Keep readingFarewell to Fiji
Back on board. Dawn and I returned to the boat after our summer holiday in Guernsey. We were soon joined by good friends from home, Alex and Arabella. I’ve been hoping to get these guys on board for years, now…
Keep readingThe untold Fiji story.
This post got stuck in my drafts folder. Here’s the last part of our Fiji adventure in June. Better late than never! June 2023 We said farewell to Auriane at the tiny airstrip on Tavenui. She flew away on the…
Keep readingHaere rā Aotearoa. Bula vinaka Fiji
Sorry about the long silence there. This blog is an account of our sailing adventures and there really haven’t been any to report, until the last couple of weeks. In early January, Dawn and I finally escaped from that rainstorm.…
Keep readingNew Zealand. Summertime?
Well the weather is a bit changeable down here. The famous four seasons in one day. Our first couple of weeks here felt a very long way from Fiji. It was wet and windy and we were just glad…
Keep readingFiji to New Zealand. Eventually.
It’s been a while since we took Escapade for a proper sail out in the ocean swell. That was back in April when we left Polynesia on our way to Fiji. Long enough to forget just how much fun it…
Keep readingFiji to New Zealand. But when?
18th November 2022 This is a well trodden path.Yachts travel up and down this stretch of the South Pacific every season. We have met lots of Kiwi boats who sail up to the tropics each year to avoid the New…
Keep readingOn a forecast
Brice and I have been talking about windsurfing at Cloudbreak for years. Probably 20 years. Brice achieved his ambition in 2019, and is very hungry for another visit. When Escapade arrived in Fiji, Brice started scanning the swell forecasts. He…
Keep readingSega Na Leqa (No Worries)
Mud crabs We were just waking up this morning when two fishermen arrived in a longboat with some crabs in a sack. “Fresh mudcrab!” “Are they alive?” “Oh yes! Just boil them till they are red.” “Ok we’ll take two.”…
Keep readingFull boat in Fiji
Waves. Our anchor is hooked in to a narrow strip of sand just inside the outer reef. A four minute ride in the dinghy gets us to Namotu. Today we tied up to a mooring in the pass and paddled…
Keep readingNext stop Fiji
So finally we are on our way. We have been planning and preparing for this moment since 5th February. That was when we saw the email from Tahiti customs office giving us the deadline to leave by end March. Well…
Keep readingOn A Mission
The new crew arrived. I had told them to travel light, space on the boat is very limited. I tried to stay calm as the baggage was dragged out of the little Raiatea airport. Giant triple boardbags. Surf boards, windsurf…
Keep readingTwo Years later…
Mid February 2020 was a moment in history when everything was about to change forever, but we didn’t know it yet. Or at least I didn’t. I had been sailing with Bryan and Auriane, chasing swells and fish round the…
Keep readingBack to the atolls.
January 19th Crew change After a leisurely lap of the Tikehau lagoon, Dawn is leaving me for a few weeks. We’ve been away from home since October and Dawn needs to be in Guernsey and England to see family and…
Keep readingTahaa to Tikehau
Sorry the blog has not been updated due to lack of internet and lack of Dawn. (She’s back now.) So here’s the notes from January… Our friend Fi arrived from Auckland to help us celebrate the turning of the new…
Keep readingBora Bora
6th December 2019 Bora Bora. Is it real? I have read that Bora Bora is the most beautiful island in the world. Her spectacular twin peaks surrounded by a glorious blue lagoon. It’s truly gorgeous to look at as…
Keep readingThe South Seas Season
Roosters in the mango tree. 17th November 2019 Another house, another tropical garden. We have flown south from Hawaii to Tahiti, switched hemispheres, from Maui winter to Polynesian summer. Now we are back in Raiatea where Escapade has been well…
Keep readingIsland Hopping
8th October 2019 At this time of year, my favourite island is blessed with big ocean swells and non-stop windy days. Yes, it was hard to leave Guernsey in October. As summer turned to autumn we had enjoyed weeks of…
Keep readingThe Blind Pass
We sailed north from Fakarava to Toau again, but this time to the ‘Anse Amyot’ on the north side of the atoll. It’s looks like a wide open pass into the lagoon, but there’s no way through the shallow reef…
Keep readingCrew Change
22nd March 2019 A quick crew change. Escapade has never had so many visitors! We waved farewell to Rob and Ailar and went back to the airport to meet our last guest of the season, Fiona arriving from Auckland for…
Keep readingFive Go Fishing In Fakarava
The Surprise It’s been four years since our friend Monty last came sailing on Escapade, island hopping in the Caribbean. Now he’s flying in from France to Fakarava to join us for a few weeks in the atolls. The boat…
Keep readingSomewhere in the Tuamotus
Surfing Adrien showed me the set-up. I follow him out through the pass, swirling currents jostling the dinghies. Then out of the tide and round the back of the reef, beyond the surf, we anchor the dinghies in 3m of…
Keep readingCyril & Kirstin
Cyril and Kirstin are suffering from that old problem, lack of boat. Over the last few years they have been getting interested in sailing; flotilla holidays, charters, Day-Skipper courses, now they are in that happy phase of considering what sort…
Keep readingMakemo
19th January It was only 185 miles from Ahe to Makemo, but upwind for a day and night, dodging squalls and taking every lift we could find in the variable breeze. We were happy to reel in a fat yellowfin…
Keep readingAhe
Sorry this has taken so long. We have been out in the atolls. Fantastic nature around us, reefs, fish, birds, and a complete lack of internet. Now we’re back online for the first time in weeks so here’s the first…
Keep readingTahiti to Tikehau
Tahiti 2nd December 2018 Back to the boat. I always feel we have neglected the boat when we’re away, although she was well looked after, with Jemima boat-sitting part of the time we were gone. This is the first…
Keep readingThe Hawaii Diary
Sorry for the long gap between updates. It’s a combination of lack of internet and writer’s block. Mainly the latter, but I know what caused the blockage. A good friend of ours died in September. A friendship forged in…
Keep readingThe Society Islands
It’s funny how the clichéd images of Polynesia are actually still quite real. If I told you about the beautiful women with flowers behind their ears, musclebound men strumming ukuleles under coconut trees, an outrigger canoe outside every house and…
Keep readingThe Turquoise Bubble
This is it. Living in the turquoise bubble. Anchored in a huge shallow lagoon, no other boats in sight. Swimming, windsurfing, freediving, cooking our way through the supplies. Sharks and rays cruise by. Days slide by. After a few days…
Keep readingFrench Polynesia
7th June This last leg was to take us a mere 300 miles WNW of Pitcairn, but we were tested by one more gale before we found shelter in the Gambiers. We had been getting along very nicely, with the…
Keep readingPitcairn Island
So after ten long days and nights battling contrary winds and seas, we raise the green peak of Pitcairn on a Sunday morning. As we sail closer we can see swell surging around the dark cliffs and off-lying rocks, shrouded…
Keep readingEaster Island, between a rock and a hard place.
21st May: The Rock The Original Polynesian name for this island is Te Pito o te Henua, ‘The Navel of the World’. A sticky-out button in the huge round belly of the Pacific. Then a passing Dutch navigator caught sight…
Keep readingThe rock, the windlass and the Russians.
Sorry for the long silence. I have been offline for weeks. I sent the last update to Dawn by satellite phone when we arrived in Easter Island, but text only, Dawn improvised some images. So now Dawn is back on…
Keep readingGalapagos to Easter Island
8th May So we are sailing away from Galapagos after 3 islands and 3 weeks. Most cruising boats sail straight past the Galapagos these days, on their way to the Marquesas. The Galapagos are not particularly welcoming to yachts. The…
Keep readingGalápagos
Isla Santa Cruz Having dragged Jemima away from the sea lions of San Cristobal, we sailed to Santa Cruz. The doldrums continue to produce glassy calm seas for us, sailing weather best suited to diesel engines. I am so looking…
Keep readingIsla San Cristobal
The first thing I become aware of here in the Galapagos is that there are quite a lot of rules restricting my usual behaviour. We are used to exploring by yacht, dinghy, paddleboard and windsurfers. Finding deserted anchorages, freediving with…
Keep readingBound For Galapagos
Day 1 Farewell Panama. Thanks for everything! Our first full day at sea. I think I already mentioned that this sea seems to be teeming with life. Today started with a fin whale close by as we left the last…
Keep readingQuiero Viento
It is very hot and the wind is not really enough to motivate us to hoist a sail. We are waiting for some breeze to take us 850 miles across the Pacific to the Galapagos. Our GRIB file forecasts…
Keep readingA whole new ocean.
Getting out of Panama was starting to feel like one of those dreams where you just never quite get where you’re trying to go. The weeks went by, antifouling, waiting for a rigger, waiting for the Watt & Sea, installing…
Keep readingAcross the Great Divide
The two giant continents of North and South America were connected by a tiny thread of land, just 30 odd miles across, until 1914 when the Panama Canal opened for business. And what a business! An audacious civil engineering project…
Keep readingPanama Canal Transit
I am writing this afloat in the Pacific Ocean! Here is the video of our Canal transit. https://vimeo.com/262662174
Keep readingNow, where were we?
First of all, apologies for the long silence on the blog. The last update was almost a year ago, at the end of our third winter in the Caribbean. Now, where were we? Oh yes, sailing round the world.…
Keep readingA little movie
The cutting room floor Tidying up the Escapade files we found a few scraps of film from last year plus some recent shots of San Blas. Dawn stitched it all together for this quick end-of-season roundup featuring Dawn, JP, Jemima and…
Keep readingCaribbean: ✓
The ‘Clearing-off Boat’ For many years while we were working in London and spending weekends on boats in Chichester Harbour, there was a long running discussion about the ‘Clearing-off Boat’ Many happy hours were spent discussing the possible attributes of…
Keep readingGoing Nowhere
This is turning into a very lazy, low mileage winter. We sailed in to the Guna Yala 4th January and we’re still here. Since then we’ve probably sailed about 300 miles in short hops between islands. Last winter we sailed…
Keep readingChicha
21st February 2017 Chicha Ceremony I’m staring into the bottom of the upturned calabash bowl again. This is my third or maybe fourth bowl of chicha. Each one contains about half a pint of opaque brown liquid, tasting earthy,…
Keep readingJanuary Blues
07.01.17 Over the hills.. Two years ago we crossed the Atlantic and dropped anchor in Falmouth Harbour, Antigua. Now we are 1,100 nautical miles further west, across the wide Caribbean. Behind me are the misty, jungly Darien mountains of Panama…
Keep readingColombia to Panama
This all seems a bit out of date now, we’ve been offline for a couple of weeks , but here’s the blog notes.. 29.12.16 Leaving Cartagena 30.12.16 Islas Rosario I wake to silence. No wind, the sun is just rising.…
Keep readingCity Life
The extraordinary customs process was still rumbling on but the port capitan gave us permission to sail the boat 50 miles or so round to Cartagena, so we left the brown waves of Puerto Velero and motored out in a…
Keep readingMe Gusta Colombia
13.12.16 Pablo’s hippos Eventually we had a signed document from the Port Capitan and were free to leave Santa Marta. The next passage was a quick 60 mile hop across the bay and in to Puerto Velero. Our route would…
Keep readingCuraçao to Colombia
02.12.16 So we left Willemstad and sailed up the West coast of Curacao, checking all systems were working ok. Great to be sailing again, having been away from the boat for a few months we tend to forget just how…
Keep readingBoat repairs in exotic places.
November 17 Some famous old salt once said that sailing around the world is just a lot of ‘boat repairs in exotic places’. This boatyard in Curacao isn’t very exotic, but it seems a reasonable price to pay, a week…
Keep readingMaui
Here Today, Gone to Maui It was a glorious summer, but now autumn has arrived in Guernsey, I’m in a thick wetsuit with the first numb hands of winter. Escapade is waiting for us in a Curacao boatyard, but it’s still…
Keep readingStorm Season
Friday 13th May: Across the border.. The sail from Ile a Vache to the Dominican Republic was rough and tough. 25kts on the nose and a short sharp sea. A punishing 36 hrs for boat and crew, and a great…
Keep readingHaiti
Our last port of call in the Bahamas was the remote southern outpost of Matthew Town on Great Inagua. In the harbour there, we tied our dinghy to an extraordinary sailing ship. About 70 feet long, built of rough-hewn hardwood…
Keep readingLet’s get lost
Beyond Provo 23rd April 2016 The boat has been in Providenciales for a month now while we did some maintenance, sailed with Tony and Wendy, then went to Canada and back. We feel quite at home here now, but we…
Keep readingMountain High
9th April 2016 So Escapade is tied up safe in Turtle Cove Marina, Providenciales, Turks and Caicos Islands. Now for the first time in months we have to deal with the traumas of: Long trousers Socks and shoes Airport security…
Keep readingThe Turks & Caicos Islands
When you casually glance at a chart, the TCI archipelago appears to be hundreds of square miles of interesting islands to explore. We’ve heard there is great diving and windsurfing, I reckoned we would need at least a month to…
Keep readingBahamian Rhapsody
10.03.16 Long Island Clarence Town was to be as far North as we went on this trip. Another front came through and the windsurfing was great. We explored ashore a bit, found that there is a famous ‘blue hole’ where…
Keep readingIslands In The Stream
Another Voyage So we sailed away from the Dominican Republic, past the Caicos Bank to arrive on the southern shore of Mayaguana, the easternmost outpost of the Bahamas. The trip was about 200 miles and Escapade just ate them up.…
Keep readingHispaniola
We made a quick detour to the Dutch island of Curacao, crashed into the biggest Mardi Gras carnival in the region, failed to find a blue cocktail , stocked up on fruit and veg, then sailed 400 miles North. …
Keep readingBonaire – The Movie
A short movie from our time in Bonaire. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9CroeIj_EnI
Keep readingBonaire
Our first impressions of Bonaire were not great. We arrived on a rare grey day and were reluctant to re-enter the developed world after all our off-grid island hopping. The south of Bonaire is low-lying so the trades blow out…
Keep readingLos Roques – The Movie!
To warm up a January day. This is our first attempt at a video for the blog. We hope you like it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dyQSUOOFsfY
Keep readingLos Roques
Living on a sailing boat in the tropics is all pretty good, an endless trail of islands to visit, all different, and naturally we like some more than others. But even the ones we don’t like so much are still…
Keep readingSailing to Los Roques
Bit of a delayed post, again. We have been offline for weeks. So after all that provisioning and preparation, we did not in fact set sail on 13th December, well we did, but not far. As we left the bay…
Keep readingGrenada Shakedown
As you sail away from the Bocas Del Dragon,the Northern part of Trinidad causes a huge wind shadow. we motored until we found a few knots of breeze as the sun came up. Jib out, motors off and Escapade was…
Keep readingTrinidad Splashdown
Time for an Escapade update! By end of November the Atlantic hurricane season is over and a new Caribbean sailing season has begun. We left the cool wind and waves of Guernsey and travelled via London and New York to…
Keep readingSailing Spindrift 2
Last week I found myself at the helm of a multihull sailing yacht off the South coast of Brittany. The sun was shining and the instruments told me breeze was blowing at about 14kts. Our boat speed was 26kts across…
Keep readingMexican Wave
A quick update for our sailing friends. No we’re not off course. Escapade is still in Trinidad while Dawn and I have some time ashore. So far that has been in Miami, Ibiza, Guernsey, London, California, and this trip to…
Keep readingHigh & Dry
The last few days in Grenada were busy socialising with our new sailing neighbours from Switzerland and Guernsey, windsurfing at Adam Island and running with the local Hash House Harriers. This was our first HHH experience. They run at ankle-breaking…
Keep readingPrecious Time
The Grenadines This winter has been our first extended sailing trip. Our free time used to be measured in days, weekends and occasional holidays, but always with a fixed return date to get back to work. Nine months on board…
Keep readingSouthbound with Monty. Part 2
Barbuda: I managed to get completely lost on my early morning run around the wilds of Barbuda, few landmarks in the sandy tracks through the scrub. Nobody around to ask except the wild deer, donkeys and land crabs I met…
Keep readingSouthbound with Monty. Part 1
Monty arrived in St Martin fresh from another season in the Alps and ready for 3 weeks of tropical sailing. The forecast was for light and variable winds but with a long-period groundswell from a late winter storm in the…
Keep readingChange of Plan
Since Escapade was hatched we have learned to be a bit sceptical of our firm plans. They do seem to change pretty drastically within a few weeks, or days! One of our original plans was to sail up through the…
Keep readingTeam California!
Brice and Genevieve made the long trip from Santa Cruz to Tortola to join us for a few days relaxation and sailing in the sunshine. They arrived on the evening of the full moon, so naturally we had a drink…
Keep readingBVI Spring Regatta
Escapade is not really a racing boat and we are not really racers, but we happen to be here and there is a major annual regatta taking place, so why not? To make it interesting we are competing with another…
Keep reading16 ways to Sunday
Donald M Street Jr is a Caribbean sailing legend. He plied these waters for 40 years in his engine-free yawl and literally wrote the book, plus most of the charts. We still use his pilot notes on Escapade even though…
Keep readingCrew!
What a fun week. Our first guests on board in the Caribbean. Tony and Gill joined us from Guernsey for a whistle-stop tour of the Virgin Islands, They are now both experienced deck-hands. Tony is a natural helmsman, and very…
Keep readingSt. Martin to B.V.I. – finally!
So we only went to St Martin to get a couple of bits of work done on the boat. Our first impressions were not great and we didn’t plan to stay long. But it seems there is a bit of…
Keep readingEasy in the Islands
Islands keep appearing over the horizon and the weeks go by. Escapade has dropped her hook in some beautiful places. Sleepy Nevis with more monkeys than humans. Glamorous St Barts with a sort of Tropical/St Tropez/Ibiza feel and a well…
Keep readingAntigua & Barbuda
We took a few days to celebrate our crossing in Falmouth with friends old and new. Enjoying the luxury of bars, restaurants and a stationary bed to sleep on, with no night watches. It’s great to be back here and…
Keep readingTen Day Atlantic Crossing
We left Mindelo, Sao Vicente on the morning of 27th December and arrived Falmouth Antigua at noon 6th January 2015. Most of the trip was fast downwind sailing, surfing down the swells. We used the gennaker whenever the wind was…
Keep readingMindelo, Sao Vicente, Cabo Verde
We arrived in Mindelo, Sao Vicente at 2am on 19th December. 1000 miles sailed in 108 hours. A fast passage and our first taste of trade wind sailing. Downwind and down waves. The boat likes to surf. We celebrated Dawn’s…
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