They say its all in the preparation, so preparing we are for our second transatlantic odyssey!  The wind is howling, the waves are up, the beach is closed, but its warm enough for ice-cream sitting on the sea wall watching another beautiful sunset as the sun dips, children play in the square at Puerto Tazacorte, and the excellent musicians tune up for their Sunday soiree.

Having more or less regrouped from our 3am start on New Years Day its action stations for all.  The past few days has featured late mornings, shopping for the 5000, or so it feels, and cooking cooking cooking in order to make the victualing as simple as possible on passage. I confess, I’m happily reunited with my trusty travelling companion, my harp which apart from a couple of notes is still in tune after 6 weeks of neglect!

In 2019/2020 Anthony joined us when we sped across in just 18 days.  6 years on we’re delighted that Paul Straton, my sister’s venturesome son has joined us to experience something that most people never have the opportunity to do, not even once in their lifetimes.  He’s getting close up and personal with a lot of systems, equipment, filters, electronics, and has today put his precision firedoor skills to work helping Malcolm fix a temporary hatch whilst we wait for the custom built one to find its way to Antigua, all being well.

2019

So here’s the scene – what’s it to be?  Put our feet up on a relaxing staycation or pitch ourselves against the elements experiencing moments of sublime beauty and majesty matched in equal measure by challenges testing our stamina and endurance, mental and physical capabilities all spiced up with necessary creativity and ingenuity.  Choice.  What choice? Blackwells have a reputation to live up to!

January 2026

Malcolm, Sue and Paul, La Palma

Here we go again!  And seems we even got the timing right as this season even Winter Park in Colorado is compromised by lack of snow.

The call of the ocean.  Today’s the day we cast off!  Over the past few years I’ve gone from ‘I don’t have another Atlantic crossing in me’, to ‘maybe’, to ‘yes of course!’, but like most decisions over the past 44 years, Jen had a huge part to play.  The ‘yes’ came about because Dennis saw fit to invite her to be a speaker at his conference in Florida!  Which of course she was delighted to accept!  So with that our minds went into overdrive to the point where sailing the Atlantic became the obvious way to travel.  Malcolm has been hankering to do it for the past 6 years!  All I’d needed was sufficient incentive.  But great that Dennis gave us a years notice which allowed us to give Sukama a thorough overhaul, order a fancy new sail for tradewind sailing, and find and sell the idea to unsuspecting crew, namely Paul, Merie’s son who stood still long enough in the wrong place!

So here we are buoyed up and excited for our second Atlantic Odessey.  We think we have everything that we need on board though we know the unknown will always lie in wait when we least expect it.  But then that’s not only the challenge but the beauty of sailing.  You never know what’s around the corner but you do know that you’ll face it head on and work together to come up with solutions.  There never was a truer phrase than ‘teamwork makes the dream work’.

Other team members who are imperative to a safe and viable passage include George the autopilot, Charlie our weather router, Anthony and Pete our landbased contacts, T-J and Pete supporting the social media outlets, and of course Jen’s care team without whom none of this can happen.

See you on the other side Jen, at Tampa Bay airport when we team up for the next stage of this amazing adventure!