Author Archives: George Backhus

We’re heading west on the trade wind express!  After a frustrating afternoon of light and shifty breezes clocking from south to north, a steady breeze from the north-northeast filled in just before happy hour.  We set a shy kite, our … Continue reading →

The trade winds stopped trading yesterday afternoon and we have been slowly but steadily working our way through (hopefully) the last patch of light and variable winds before we can get on the westbound train to Rodney Bay, St. Lucia.  … Continue reading →

The trade winds remain fickle.  In the last 24 hours, wind speeds have ranged from less than one knot to a peak of 30 knots and have come from almost every direction.  The MooCrew have been working very hard trimming, … Continue reading →

After ten days of clawing our way southward, we’ve finally found the trade winds. We’ve given up on trying to better Moonshadow’s last ARC Rally time of just under 14 days and now are just shooting to beat Christopher Columbus’ … Continue reading →

Every time we think about being nine days out from Las Palmas and yet to reach the half way point, we think about the poor buggers a few hundred miles north who are pounding into big seas and trying to … Continue reading →

We have been blessed/cursed with light winds on this passage-until yesterday afternoon. As we approached a slow moving front, the winds gradually increased to the 14-16 knot range from the south-southwest. Just the direction we wanted to be heading. We … Continue reading →

Beautiful sailing conditions continued through yesterday afternoon and last night. Since the winds were rather light, 4-8 knots from the SSW to SW, we tight reached with main, jib and staysail just south of west so we could put a … Continue reading →

Nothing can break a spell of boredom at sea like the arrival of new breeze. After motor sailing all morning, the wind finally picked up to the 5-6 knot range-just enough for us to sail. Everyone perked up as we … Continue reading →

We gave thanks yesterday for almost an entire day of breeze, albeit rather light and shifty. The engine logged only one hour to move us out of a wind hole. In the afternoon we spent a few hours close reaching … Continue reading →

After more than 16 hours of motor sailing in ghosterlies from .5 to 3 knots, the breeze finally filled in from the west just before sunset last evening. We unfurled the jib and were sailing at about 80% of wind … Continue reading →