Author Archives: lillybolero

We’ve been watching weather forecasts for over a week now, seeing the current patterns of the high and low pressure systems. The ‘normal’ picture at the moment should be a big high pressure system centred over the Azores, appropriately named ‘The Azores high’ with winds circulating around the centre in a clockwise direction. The middleContinue reading “Homeward bound”

7th May to 14th June 2022 By Nick We were due to leave Cartagena today. We have been here too long. An outbreak of Covid on the boat and unfortunate timing waiting for a good weather window has meant we have again been anchored off the city for more than a month for the secondContinue reading “Passage Diary – Cartagena, Colombia to Horta, The Azores 3,300 miles”

It’s a week now since we set sail from Cartagena in Colombia; it feels like it’s taken that long to gather the thoughts and reflections of our 3 and a bit months there, to filter out the noise, the intense heat, the gorging extravagance we felt trapped in the middle of in Cartagena and rememberContinue reading “Colombian contrasts”

Lilly very happy to report their arrival, now in Horta, the Azores. The skipper’s birthday ‘ and the day they said they would arrive, all those thousands of miles ago … Congratulations and a warm welcome to all aboard!

1.6.22   31⁰37.5’N   61⁰17.7’W Lilly reported her position to a passing ship who passed on the message to Tamsin (many thanks to 2nd officer Jonas of the MV Ince Point). All well on board but progress slow (3 kts) due to light winds Still some 2,000 nm to go, but should be picking up some windsContinue reading “1st June 2022”

(from Steve again) Lilly puts out to sea again from Cartagena, Colombia. The plan (as ever subject to modification on the way!) is for a single long passage to the Azores (some 5,000 miles away).  The first 900 nm or so will be heading a bit E of N and aiming to pass between Jamaica,Continue reading “7th May”

By Nick Visiting the Guna Yala (San Blas) has been a profound experience. The Guna Yala is a largely autonomous province of Panama stretching for 230 miles of the Caribbean coast until the border with Colombia where we spent two and a half months. It was a privilege to be amongst these indigenous people (‘TheContinue reading “Guna Yala – A Sinking Paradise”

We were all pretty excited to come to Panama, a place where none of us had been before, a country we didn’t know much about apart from it having a ruddy big canal, and that the San Blas region covered most the Caribbean coast, east of the canal. We soon learnt that the San BlasContinue reading “Panama and the Guna Yala”

This is slightly old news now. It’s scribblings from our 1,050 mile 12 Day passage from St Vincent and the Grenadines to Puerto Lindon, Panama. We arrived in Panama 1st November 2021. by Nick Day 2 It’s 2pm scorching hot and we are cruising along at a steady 5 knots plus a knot or twoContinue reading “St Vincent to Panama: Diary of a passage”

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines is made up of the main island of St Vincent and a cluster of islands trailing off to the South – the Grenadines, including amongst others, Bequia, Mustique, Balicaux, Canouan, Union and the marine reserve of the Tobago Cays. These islands are a variety of lushly forested volcanic mountains, sandyContinue reading “Getting Greasy in the Grenadines”