14 January 2026 at 06:36:53 GMT

Day 5

We were all wrapped up against the chilly night air last night but it was delightfully quiet in spite of a bobbly sea. Paul stood a good 1 hour watch on deck alone making adjustments to George when necessary.

The generator purred into action at 0630 followed by the most delicious breakfast prepared by Malcolm and Paul – scrambled eggs with smoked salmon and avocado followed by the remaining bircher and melon.

I’d dialled up housekeeping for today but hadn’t anticipated maintenance too!  The motivational soundtrack of Led Zepplin aided us as we all set to with a will so inside a couple of hours Sukama was pristine both inside and out.

A late lunch of goats cheese and beetroot salad was followed by respite for Malcolm and Paul, making and

Sue has made pizza! (2019 crossing)

baking for me with pizza and flapjack, aubergine dip and carrot salad.  With galley mayhem created as only I can, we all enjoyed the treat of pizza for dinner, after which I quickly disappeared to put my head down leaving poor Paul to restore order from my chaos.

A very quiet day, but it wasn’t to last.

Malcolm’s watch was seriously lively with much stronger winds threatening to roll me out of bed.  Happily we both agreed that there should be a second reef in the headsail when I came on watch at 2.30am but even that proved unsatisfactory so we furled it away and opted for just the main with 2 reefs instead.

We’re anticipating stronger winds and bigger seas as we turn to head south west.

15 January 2026 at 09:02:56 GMT

Day 6

It’s 7am Day 7 as I write, pitch black with the promise of sunrise on the eastern horizon, 3metre seas but all I can see is the breaking crests curling around us. The hull is humming – sustained 28knots wind, 7kts speed over ground heading southwest on a direct course to the next waypoint currently 332 miles away. Malcolm and Paul are attempting to catch up on well earnt sleep which can be hard when the sea is up. But all is well and we are all happy.

Day 6 first light saw us making a course change. The yacht is a work of art with lines running here and there and the pole still up though not working, so the first challenge was to decide what to run where in order to free up the lines and the winches that we needed to run the main on the starboard side. Then to decide who would do what, and put it into practice. A very wet very successful adventure entailing exceedingly wet work at the bow. Nothing like a bracing mid Atlantic doucing to start the day! Paul is loving the challenge of deckwork in testing conditions – living on the edge was never so much fun! But he’s also loving the learning along with that sense of awe and freedom.

Settled on main with preventer and 2 reefs, and storm jib but by lunchtime we’d centred the storm jib. This rig served us well all day and overnight with winds varying from 17 knots to over 30.

Paul with our beloved teapot before setting sail

And then calamity struck. My trusty teapot took a tumble from height – think it must have jumped with a wave so sadly it is no more. How will we survive? We do at least have the benefit of seriously big mugs supplied by kind friends over the years. Thank you Keith and Sue and Jane and Anthony!

Having stood his first couple of hours alone on deck overnight just 2 days ago, Paul has now become part of the watch team taking his turn alongside us. Last night we were physically on hand, tonight too probably, but after that he’ll have all the tickets he needs.

Inbetween times we dine like royalty! Porridge for breakfast – turns out Paul likes banana and peanut butter as trimmings! Sicilian salad (made by Paul), cured meat, fancy cheeses, aubergine dip (made by Sue) and avocado with doritos for lunch, moussaka alias and canarian potatoes for dinner. The way to go!

Day 7 The sunrise has more than delivered and the cloud cleared giving the waning sliver of a crescent moon a chance to shine centre stage on a beautiful backlit blue backdrop. What will the rest of the day bring I wonder?

Sue x

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Team members: Malcolm, Sue, Paul, George the autopilot, Charlie our weather router

Photos from previous crossing 2019/20 and before setting sail from Tazacorte 9th January 2026

Previous adventure updates

Day 1 – 4: https://blackwells.biz/atlantic-crossing-days-1-4/

Preparation and setting off on day 1: https://blackwells.biz/the-call-of-the-ocean/