In the video, marketing manager Ian Lockyer goes through some of the main features that have made this stylish radio popular with leisure sailors, paddleboarders, kayakers, and many other water users.

These include its lightweight design, easy-to-use layout, waterproofing, buoyancy and USB charging feature.

For a chance to win an IC-M25EURO in their latest online competition visit the official Icom UK website.

For more details on this product, visit the IC-M25EURO Buoyant Marine VHF Radio product page on their website.

Alternatively, you can contact our marine team on 01227 741741 or email: sales@icomuk.co.uk

The post Video: Overview of the IC-M25 Buoyant Marine VHF Handheld Radio appeared first on YBW.

This meant that after several days of freedom in the jungle, Esper‘s crew had the ‘graveyard shift’ from 01:00 till dawn. It was our job to be on full alert for strange activity.

We were expected to wake up the other yachts and inform the patrol boats should we see signs of unusual movement on the water.

This time, instead of staying up together, we divided the shift in half: Jamie from 01:00 till 03:00, then Liz taking over till dawn. These times work for us as Jamie is a night owl and Liz an early bird.

Rounding the worst part of the passage on Sabah’s eastern coast, we headed towards the relative safety of Lahad Datu accompanied by a storm.

But the inclement weather wasn’t our only company, we began seeing more plastic in the water. And as we made our way closer towards the town, rainforest morphed into palm oil plantations.

The post Followtheboat: Night anchor watch in a pirate zone appeared first on YBW.

But we had to move on and in this case it meant heading out into the Sulu Sea and the most dangerous waters in Sabah.

We made decent going and Liz caught a barracuda (her biggest fish ever) on the way, so we forgot about the danger.

At anchor in another stunning channel off the eastern most point of the state we were once again put on alert for piracy.

Our ESSCOM escort patrolled all night and it was anchor watch for most of us, with the sounds of the dripping mangroves to keep us company.

We were ready to leave early, but there’s a shifting sand bar beneath murky water to navigate first…

The post Followtheboat: Running aground and sailing defensively in pirate waters appeared first on YBW.

But first we had one more night in the tranquil jungle.

Before it was time to turn in, we took the dinghy though an overgrown tributary to an oxbow lake (or is it an abandoned meander?)

We tried to remember our geography lessons at school to work out exactly what we were seeing in this fertile flood plain, but didn’t stray too close to the river banks where crocodiles wait.

After the last night of silence, we made our way back to anchor in the pirate zone, where the night watches resumed as the ESSCOM military escort patrolled until dawn.

The post Jungle sailing: Followtheboat on hitting logs and running aground appeared first on YBW.

The Kinabatangan River has rainforest lining its banks, but just behind are vast swathes of palm oil plantations. This means the rarest animals are squeezed into a small area of what was once a vast rainforest.

On the plus side, it means the odds of seeing some wildlife might be in our favour.

The Borneo pygmy elephant, the smallest of its kind in the world, is officially endangered with an estimated 2000 individuals still alive.

Our chances of seeing them were deemed to be low by local experts who told us that they had headed hundreds of miles away. No guided tours were on offer.

Undaunted and with the fatalism of all seafarers, we headed off to look for them in the small tributaries of the river.

Although it is the smallest elephant species (30% smaller than Asian elephants) a full grown pygmy elephant can be around 8-10ft tall and weigh in between 6,500-11,000 pounds. If they were there, we’d see them.

The post Sailing up river: Followtheboat go in search of elephants and monkeys appeared first on YBW.

Sailing deep into the rainforest up the Kinabatangan River (Malaysia’s second longest at 342 miles) is like nothing we’ve done before in 15 years of cruising.

Jungle sailing was a little difficult, a little hazardous, but man it was worth it! The Kinabatangan River is bordered by mangroves, rain forest, limestone caves and swamps.

Sailing up river through the orange water and an occasional storm, we are on the lookout for crocodiles, proboscis monkeys, orangutans, pygmy elephants, hornbills, egrets and much, much more.

But first we had to get there. The entrance is shallow, so we kept a careful eye on the depth as we navigated slowly towards the river.

Once over the estuary shoal, we picked a meandering passage through the equally shallow corners of this amazing river.

The post Sailing up river: Followtheboat take their sailboat into the Malaysian jungle appeared first on YBW.

We visited the Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre and, with hardly any tourists around, were able to get close to those extraordinary human-like creatures.

The Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre gave us a chance to go down to the woods to see the “smallest bear in the world”. And we also went back in time, to pre-war colonial living at Agnes Keith’s House.

But the experience which overwhelmed us was learning about the Borneo death marches at The Sandakan Memorial Park, a piece of modern history that had been omitted when we learned about WWII at school.

Approximately 2,400 Australian and British prisoners of war were killed in the march across Sabah, as well as untold numbers of local people who died fighting in the resistance alongside their western allies.

For more information, visit the Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre, Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre and Agnes Keith’s House websites.

The post Followtheboat visits Sandakan – famous for war and wildlife appeared first on YBW.

The static on our VHF radio made it difficult to hear properly and we couldn’t see him, so all we could do was hope he put his anchor down safely.

When a second squall followed close behind the first, all six rally boats turned 180 degrees and were pushed towards the reef. Boats began dragging in the soft sand and one of our number motored deeper to escape the danger.

Just your average day on a rally in northern Borneo!

Even though the conditions were lively, four of us made it onto Pulau Selingan. Part of a remote group of islands on the border of Malaysia and the Philippines, this is turtle paradise.

Between 20 and 80 turtles a day lay their eggs on the sandy beaches, where they are collected by rangers and protected until releasing them in the best possible conditions. There are hundreds of thousands of eggs left here every year.

Watching a turtle lay her eggs and helping to release a box full of babies was worth all the problems it took to get there.

To watch Sail Malaysia’s Sabah Rally from the start, check out the playlist below:

The post Engine fail and storms at Turtle Island: Followtheboat join Sail Malaysia’s Sabah Rally appeared first on YBW.

During lockdown at Sutera Harbour Marina, we took a spin in a superyacht with Captain Paul Stanton of Island Princess, a Princess 88 on its way to be hauled out. We were keen to compare the experience with sailing Esper, our Oyster 435, in similar conditions.

With a shallower draft than ours, the Princess can get in close to shore, but she still has to follow all the same navigational advice, in that respect there is no difference. When a squall approached while we waited at anchor outside the boat yard, Paul worried about it hampering the lift out just as much as we would.

He was keen to get moving before the squall hit, but then had the unenviable task of manoeuvring the boat round a massive dry dock that the yard had decided to moor up right by the entrance to the slipway. This created a tight dog-leg to spin the boat round, literally on a six-pence.

He just made it, with good communication from the crew (including us!) stationed at each quarter. With no bow thrusters and stodgy manoeuvrability under engine, Esper would not have been able to reach the slip without dinghy assistance.

Paul started at age 14 in the Sea Cadets, then followed a circuitous path taking in cross channel ferries, the merchant navy and becoming a sailing instructor with Sunsail until he ended up skippering superyachts. He loves living in South East Asia and also admits that deep down inside he’d rather be sailing!

If you’re a sailor, do you dislike power boats? Are you a mono sailor who hates cats? Perhaps if you’re a local fisherman you despise sailors. And if you feel like this, where do you stand on ferries, tankers, cruise ships, etc.? Regardless of what vessel we are on, we all share the same waters and should remember to respect each other’s presence.

The post Followtheboat: Going over to the dark side on a motorboat cruise appeared first on YBW.

Like many worldwide destinations, Sabah’s tourism industry has been hit hard by the pandemic. With borders closed and the Movement Control Order in place for months, most hotels and resorts are closed. This means no income for owners and their workers.

We are trying our best to spend money with local people wherever we can and taking part in the Sabah Rally over the next few weeks should give the island a good PR boost.

At this resort island the local fishermen fished for supper and at low tide whole families scoured the rocks for shellfish. It’s a tough life over in Borneo for many right now.

We took a breather here before the rally and lived like privileged holiday-makers for a few nights at anchor.

Then we headed back to Gaya, where we found some wind and managed a small sail. On the way Liz rediscovered her fishing mojo and landed a nice skipjack tuna for dinner. Jamie did his best Millie impression and jumped about with excitement.

This is what we’ve been missing for the past few months.

The post Followtheboat: Is this South East Asia’s answer to the Caribbean? appeared first on YBW.

When we arrived in Malaysia in 2013, Esper was in pretty bad shape. After three years without moving in the brackish waters of Kerala, a knockdown off the Maldives and a lively crossing of the Indian Ocean, her equipment needed replacing and she leaked like a sieve. We had three options:

1. Sell her, relocate to the Med and buy another boat
2. Refit her in Thailand
3. Give up cruising, cut our losses and put her up for sale (that was never a real option)

We went for Option 2 and literally re-built our boat from the inside out, ripping off the old teak deck and replacing it with snow white paint, re-modelling the interior, fitting new electronic systems (including radar, navigation and all cabling), treating the osmosis and much more.

We documented the entire process and you can still find the whole week-by-week playlist on our YouTube channel:

Had we stuck to our original budget and plan, the final cost would have been a good 30-40% lower. But since we had full access in the boatyard to workers capable of refitting every corner of Esper, we decided it would be sensible to do as much as possible while we were there. Of course, the project grew like topsy as we spent all the money we could muster and chose the best fittings we could afford.

SY Esper is now in better condition than when we bought her in 2005. We believe we could not have done the work to the same standard and price anywhere else. We also think the time and money we spent was worth it… But we realise it might not be everyone’s choice. What do you think?

The full costs are given in the video at the top of the page, or you can read the full cost breakdown on our blog.

The post Followtheboat: Total refit costs and what we would do differently next time appeared first on YBW.

Because one of us was on the job in the yard every day, we were able to watch and manage the entire project, which is probably why it’s still so familiar.

We cover everything that happened below decks in this episode, including the extensive carpentry and re-modelling.

There is also the installation of a new B&G navigation system, along with radar and autopilot. And we re-wired the whole boat.

It was satisfying to rip out all the defunct and old cables which SY Esper had gathered over the years from previous owners and to start again from scratch.

Topics covered in this episode:

• Chart table
• The ‘Boffice’
• Cabin
• Saloon table
• Galley
• Heads
• Saloon
• Sole boards
• Varnishing
• Companionway
• Ceiling
• Rewiring
• Navigation
• Deck fittings

For the full week by week video diary of the refit, start here:

The post Followtheboat: Refitting Esper’s interior, navigation gear and electronics appeared first on YBW.

In this celebration of the 200th episode, Liz and Jamie remember how it all started (Jamie had hair! Liz wore a bikini on camera!).

They share some unseen images and footage of the places they’ve sailed to during the past 14 years, from starting out in Turkey and the eastern Mediterranean, through the Red Sea and Pirate Alley in 2010.

They then spent three years in India before enjoying all the fantastic sailing that South East Asia has to offer in Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia.

But it hasn’t all been plain sailing; every now and again the comments they receive online have been odd, funny or less than complimentary and they are not afraid to read them out in this episode.

The post Followtheboat: Looking back after thousands of miles and hundreds of anchorages appeared first on YBW.

The post Followtheboat: Refitting Esper’s deck and topsides appeared first on YBW.

With over 2,000 video clips across 51 episodes over 13 months, our refit playlist is a big commitment to wade through, so in this series we separate out and talk about each job from beginning to end.

In part 1, we cover the following topics:

• Planning – from choosing the right yard, to the nitty-gritty of budgets and job lists
• Why we chose to do the work at PSS Boat Yard, Satun, Thailand
• Haul-out method
• Un-stepping masts – Esper has two and lots of rigging!
• Removing deck fittings – literally hundreds on Esper
• Stripping the interior – including taking down walls
• Erecting the tent – essential for the work we had planned
• Teak deck removal – glued and screwed meant a lot of hard work
• Osmosis treatment – it was bad, very bad
• Rudder – examining shaft, making repairs and more osmosis treatment
• Stainless steel – the work was so good in the yard we kept adding jobs!
• Swim platform – replacing the old one and using our Windpilot to support it

Where possible we break down costs for each job. In Part 3 we will go through the full budget and discuss the mistakes and successes five years on.

In case you missed it and boat maintenance is your thing, you can find the original Total Refit Playlist below:

The post Followtheboat: The inside story of Esper’s extensive refit appeared first on YBW.

In Sutera Harbour Marina the pontoon home-made “pubs” are still popular with the seven occupied boats here and Jamie’s in the kitchen making a mess.

But when the excitement has dipped on your sailboat project and you’re stuck in a rut, how do you motivate yourself?

We answer a few questions in this week’s episode and try to help one of our followers.

Debbie has been preparing to start her cruising dream for eight years, saving, working hard and making her beautiful Hans Christian 39 ready for world cruising.

But she’s lost the excitement and even wonders if she’ll ever be able to get out there.

The post Followtheboat: Things are looking up as Malaysian lockdown eases appeared first on YBW.

While there are many more cats (and cruisers?) on the water than we first saw 14 years ago, you might be surprised by the high number of ketches you’d stumble across anchored in the world’s most remote places.

Out here in the offshore cruising world, ketches are a popular alternative to other rigs because those smaller sails are easier to manage. This makes the ketch a great choice for couples, older sailors, liveaboards, families and solo sailors.

For short-handed sailing across long distances while facing rough waters and heavier winds, the small sails on a ketch are simple to handle. For overall balance, performance, handling and comfort, a ketch is difficult to beat.

To anyone serious about offshore sailing, the ketch rig has proven its worth time and time again, even by today’s standards.

So, is the best sailboat to sail around the world a ketch? We explain why we think it is in this week’s video.

The post Followtheboat: Why the best boat to sail around the world is a ketch appeared first on YBW.

Currently Totem is anchored off the coast of Mexico with their plans to sail across the Pacific scuppered by the pandemic.

We swapped notes on our respective situations and how being a cruiser may possibly be helping us cope with the isolation that lockdown can bring.

As we talked, it became obvious that any advantage we might have is mostly superficial. Gnarly old cruisers like Totem and us have developed a stoical mental attitude, but we know some who are having problems being stuck at anchor.

There are boats trapped in places where they can’t leave, where they are not allowed to go ashore or even, in some cases, get in the water. With borders to many countries closed, most of us have no option other than to remain where we are.

It seems that being on a boat during this strange time brings its own set of challenges.

You can read their blog at sailingtotem.com and their book Voyaging With Kids is available on Amazon.

The post Followtheboat: The challenges of living in isolation on a sailboat appeared first on YBW.

In the first of our real-time sailing updates from lockdown in Borneo we answer viewers’ questions and try to restrict our top tools to 10. As you’ll discover, it wasn’t that easy.

And we’re just talking basic toolbox here, not all the specialised equipment needed to repair and maintain the sails, rigging, deck, hull etc.

We also answer questions about the future. Yes, that’s right we really do have a crystal ball! But seriously, the short, medium and long-term scenarios for all cruisers is a big topic of discussion among the community.

Border closures, quarantine and restricted movement in most nations’ territorial waters make it difficult for any of us to go anywhere. At the moment, we’re OK in friendly Malaysia, but what will happen in six months time?

If you have a question you would like us to discuss on camera, comment on the YouTube video above and we will add it to the list.

The post Followtheboat: Top 10 sailing tools every cruising boat needs appeared first on YBW.

The rules keep changing, but we are safe, secure and remote from the worst of it, as this week’s episode shows.

Before anchoring up for the foreseeable future, we enjoyed one last night and day of freedom at anchor off the beautiful island of Pulau Tiga, a tiny man-made resort off the coast of Sabah, Borneo.

And we also had the little matter of an extremely ill Millie to deal with. She is now on her fourth vet who has taken a blood sample and given her an ultrasound scan to get to the root of her weight loss.

As for Sutera Harbour Marina, it’s the poshest marina we’ve ever moored in with three large hotels, five swimming pools, restaurants and even a rooftop bar – all of which are closed!

We can’t even exercise outside of the marina – the only reason we can leave is for shopping. But as places to be stuck go, it could be much worse…

The post Followtheboat: Living alongside superyachts under lockdown appeared first on YBW.

They range from one-man canoes to smoking ocean trawlers. There are different methods of fishing too, from a single line to vast nets carried between two boats.

Sometimes nets are just left to drift with a small float on either end. Sailing can become a real assault course in many stretches of water here.

We’ve been sailing between Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia for six years. Before that, back in 2010 when we sailed the Red Sea and Arabian Sea to India, we learned some tactics to keep clear of nets and lines.

But the many methods and local ‘rules of the sea’ change in each stretch of water. Most of the time, you just have to keep your wits about you.

Night time is particularly interesting when the lighting configurations we all know and learnt from the col-regs are seldom in play among local boats.

In this video, Jamie talks through some of the lessons we have learned.

The post Followtheboat: How to avoid snagging fishing nets while sailing appeared first on YBW.

In this video (which was filmed before the lockdown and Movement Restriction Order came into effect on Borneo) we explain why having bikes on board is proving to be pretty useful.

Folding bikes don’t take up much space and can be tucked away when you’re on passage. And when you’re in an anchorage or marina, you can take it ashore and have it ready to use any time you like.

You can get away, explore and do the shopping, while getting some all-important exercise! As two of our favourite travellers put it:

“One of the most important days of my life was when I learned to ride a bicycle,” – Michael Palin

“Meet the future; the future mode of transportation for this weary Western world. Now I’m not gonna make a lot of extravagant claims for this little machine. Sure, it’ll change your whole life for the better, but that’s all,” – Butch Cassidy

The post Followtheboat: Why every sailor should have a bicycle appeared first on YBW.

Then the South Koreans were prevented from coming, which meant almost no tourism. But it worked and we had no coronavirus in Sabah for weeks.

Then on 12th March, Sabah started on the upward curve of COVID-19 cases from zero to 158 by 22nd March (correct at time of writing).

Malaysia is bringing in stricter rules by the day in an attempt to keep people from passing on the virus. Yesterday we were told that if you disobey the rules you could face up to six months in prison and/or a fine.

The local population was already hit by job lay-offs after tourism collapsed, but with borders now closed and the self-isolation policy in place there is deep concern for their economic well-being.

We have been advised not to leave the marina unless it is to buy food or medical supplies. The police are on the edge and we don’t want to get in their way so are happy to keep to ourselves.

The few cruisers here are being careful: no pontoon parties and a good social distance when we pass each other. WhatsApp has become the favoured method of communication around the marina.

Although we are fine for all the basics, we are running low on fresh vegetables, so Jamie took a letter of authority and passport with him for a quick shopping trip on his bicycle.

Against all expectations the supermarket shelves are packed here and there has been no hoarding. He was unnerved by the silence and pretty relieved to come back to the marina.

The post Followtheboat: The challenges of shopping during coronavirus lockdown appeared first on YBW.

Little did we know we were in for the long haul and for many more visits over the coming months to a total of four different vets.

While we waited for Millie to improve, we got on with boat jobs and explored the area around the marina, and Jamie had a demonstration from Roy of SV Seven Thunders on how to make an ocean plait mat.

We used an old sheet from an even older foresail to do the job. It takes patience, strong hands and determination.

The new mat is a great place for Millie to sharpen her claws… and yes, the cat sat on the plait mat!

Update: Millie passed away on June 13, so Jamie and Liz have made the following tribute video:

The post Followtheboat: Millie the boat cat is very ill appeared first on YBW.

To renew a visa in Malaysia you have to do a ‘border run’, but what happens when the borders are closing? Sailing to the Philippines is no longer an option because the ports are now shut.

We know cruisers who are unable to leave and others who have left on their way to Malaysia. Brunei recently announced its borders are closing to some foreign nationals and those who are exempt will be automatically quarantined for 14 days.

As we made our way south by car to Brunei, Sarawak announced it would be closing its borders to all foreign nationals from 18th March. This would mean no more border runs from Sabah to Brunei and ports closed to sailing vessels.

How long before total lockdown in Sabah too? Our visas would run out on 26th March, so we had to do something…

The post Followtheboat: 24hrs before coronavirus lockdown, borders closing all around us appeared first on YBW.

We spent three days walking through the tropical rainforest of Sarawak in central Borneo at the UNESCO site of Gunung Mulu National Park. It was the perfect place for some R&R after days of heavy sailing and boat jobs in the marina.

We walked through the forest lower level and at its top level along a suspended canopy. We explored most of the world-renowned caves (until recently, the cave system was the biggest in the world) but for the real potholing (spelunking) enthusiast there are deep dives into the furthest recesses of the caves where you camp out under the guidance of a local expert caver.

In the evenings, rather than eating at the swanky Marriott (where we were staying because Liz got a stupidly cheap deal) we enjoyed local food from a nearby village restaurant where we tried wild fern cooked in wild garlic. It was delicious. Since then we have found it in markets on Borneo and have learned to cook it ourselves.

The three day break was packed with walking and stunning sights. The only thing which lets down the park is the single-use plastic wrist band you are issued with on arrival. Come on UNESCO stop doing this, surely you can find a more environmentally-friendly way of identifying guests?

Apart from that one blip, it was amazing and we want to go back! For more information, visit the Gunung Mulu National Park website or see their UNESCO listing.

The post Followtheboat: Going off-grid in a Malaysian national park appeared first on YBW.

Maybe the best thing for each of us to do is take our sailboat out to sea or to anchor off some remote, desert island? The disease is spreading across the world, countries are closing their ports, border control is getting tighter and more restricted, some of us are quarantined in the place we’re currently anchored or moored and some of us will have to re-think our sailing plans.

And then there is the usual problem of renewing visas… We need to keep a daily watch on developments around the world which will inevitably impact all of us. The virus (officially named COVID-19) spreads the disease known as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2).

It is not flu, although some symptoms are similar. At the time of writing, no children have died and most healthy mid-life adults have survived. Health workers are at greater risk because they are being exposed more than the rest of us.

Older people and those with pre-existing medical complaints are the ones taking the brunt of the disease. But it is early days yet and scientists are working hard to gather data from around the world to establish the parameters of the disease.

It is our duty to try to stop its spread and to ensure we do not pass it on (even unwittingly) to our older or infirm friends, workmates and family. Washing hands regularly and for longer than normal is essential to aid in slowing the reach of coronavirus.

The post Coronavirus: How will COVID-19 affect sailing and cruising? appeared first on YBW.

But first we must navigate for the next 22 hours through oil and gas rigs. And we need to time our arrival at Miri Marina just right because the sand bar in front of the entrance is a mile wide and treacherous in any kind of swell. That means sailing nice and gently to arrive at the precise time we have in mind.

With the transitional monsoon period now in full flow, it was essential that one of us remained on watch at all times to deal with any sudden changes in wind direction. But we had left the worst behind us and finished the 500-mile passage with a slow daytime sail and gentle motor-sail overnight.

At a mile and a half out from Miri Marina, the depth drops to 8m, shelving to 3m. Our plan to arrive on a rising tide worked out just fine, and as it was a spring there was enough depth. The water was like milky coffee as we approached slowly.

After arriving we began preparations for the hike to Japan and PNW next year. Of course, one of the main jobs is going to be installing a heating system. But of immediate importance was to seal the overhead hatch in our saloon which has been leaking on and off for ages.

The post Followtheboat: A new country and a new project appeared first on YBW.

Two old salts in the marina where we are currently berthed give us their opinion of marinas and why they sometimes find themselves berthed for longer than intended.

Shot on a Minolta MD Rokkor 50mm f/1.4 lens dating from 1974, this is Jamie’s first experiment with new filming and editing techniques.

We think the close crop, no music and use of black and white make the viewer concentrate on what is being said without any distractions. Does it work?

Are you a purist, would you never use a marina? Or do you think the reasons Mark and Tony give for why we sometimes find ourselves landlocked are valid?

The post Followtheboat Q&A: “Real sailors do not use marinas” So why do we? appeared first on YBW.

Miri Marina, our destination, is notoriously difficult to enter. There is a long, shallow sand bar on approach and a narrow channel into the marina only navigable at high tide. Any kind of swell makes it impossible.

We would be arriving on a Spring tide, so needed to catch it at the right height and current. We had three days to go and needed to arrive at around 9am.

When we left the shelter of Serasan a light breeze and sunny skies allowed us to shake out the sails in the blue waves. Dolphins played at the bow and we all enjoyed some peace.

But PredictWind was showing storms along the Borneo coastline. Through the binoculars, anvil-shaped clouds built in the east. Perhaps this would be the shape of things to come now the southwest monsoon had finished much earlier than expected. In the transitional period all bets are off. With binoculars at the ready, we kept a wary eye on the horizon.

Apart from the weather, this coastline has other hazards, in particular oil and gas rigs. Some are on the charts, but many don’t appear, have moved or been replaced in a slightly different position. Some have even been cut down with just their legs left behind at wave height.

The clouds gathered overnight and before dawn we were in the middle of it. The good news was that the wind picked up to more than 35 knots, so we made good speed.

The bad news was that we were now ahead of schedule and needed to reduce speed to ensure we wouldn’t turn up at the marina too early.

The post Followtheboat: What we learned from our worst storm in 13 years appeared first on YBW.